ABSTRACT
Development has implications for social well-being, and includes political and regulatory structures and policies – the infrastructures, organizations and the institutions set up to implement national policies. As a study of the problems of non-industrialized countries, development studies are a product of the 1950s. In the 1950s and 1960s, the development process was viewed as a matter of time, 'given appropriate measures'. The crisis in development conceptualization is caused by a mismatch between social and economic structures and institutions and changing realities. It reflects the failure of physical and conceptual institutions and structures to adapt effectively to constant changes in the immediate and international environment. A central role of institutions as environment enablers is to reduce uncertainty and unpredictability in the economic landscape or terrain; in other words, to reduce opacity. Transparency permits informed interaction with the environment by economic agents and the wider society.
