Formal Bureaucracy and the Emergent Forms of the Informal Economy

Keith Hart

No RP2005-11, WIDER Working Paper Series from World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER)

Abstract: The following essay has three parts. The first is a story about fluctuations in the balance of the relationship between impersonal and personal principles of social organization. This draws heavily on Max Weber's interpretation of western history. The second part reviews the concept of an 'informal economy/sector' from its origin in discussions of the Third World urban poor to its present status as a universal feature of economy. The third part asks how we might conceive of combining the formal/informal pair with a view to promoting development.

Keywords: Bureaucracy; Democracy; Informal sector; Right of property (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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