Rule of Law and Informal Institutions in New Democracies.

The proposed paper investigates the relationship between informal institutions and rule of law in new democracies of the so-called "third wave". The analysis builds on a broad concept of institutions. It combines a neo-institutionalist perspective with the notion of institutions of older traditions in Political Science, in order to examine in how far factual behaviour such as corruption and clientelism - defined as informal institutions - are compatible with or opposed to the norm expectations related to the formal institution of a state under rule of law. The main question is, which governance options are suitable to reduce the power of opposed informal institutions and to foster stability and quality of rule of law and therewith of democracy.The paper presents the hypotheses and the analytical framework of a new project that is going to compare six countries of Latin America and Central-Eastern Europe according to the emergence, development and impact of informal institutional structures. The compared cases have high (Chile, Slovenia), middle (Mexico, Poland), and low quality of rule of law (Argentina, Romania). The aim of the comparison is to explain why informal institutions play an important role for rule of law in some countries and to a lesser extent in others. The evolving central question is, in how far the extent of interfering informal institutions can be influenced by political action and which factors are necessary for effective constitutional reforms. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]