Has institutionalism won the development debate?

Institutionalism has again become central to development thinking, accompanied by an appreciation of the variety and complexity of institutional evolution. The result is not the 'old institutionalism' of Thorstein Veblen and Clarence Ayres or the 'new institutionalism' of the early Douglass North. Rather it is a pragmatic combination of the constructs and approaches of the former with the epistemological and methodological advances of the latter, all brought to bear on the many issues of development. The challenges of the development process, and its resistance to reductionism, are the roots of modern institutionalism's contribution to understanding both development and the policies and processes that can guide development initiatives. I will term the current combination the modern institutionalism of development.