Prof. Subrata K. Mitra Department of Political Science South Asia Institute Ph.D. Dissertation Institutional Dynamics of Governance and Corruption in Developing World: The Case of Pakistan Muhammad Tahir Noor Doctoral Candidate Faculty of Economics and Social Studies Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg March 2009 Tel: 017629025238 Email:
[email protected] “… it is the successful experiment which is decisive and not the thousand-and-one failures which preceded it. More is learned from the single success than from the multiple failures. A single success proves it can be done. Thereafter, it is necessary only to learn what made it work. This, at least, is what I take to be the sociological sense of those revealing words of Thomas Love Peacock: “ Whatever is, is possible.” Robert Merton (1961) Acknowledgements Only worth mentioning solo creation, to the best of my knowledge and belief, is the creation of this universe. Otherwise any work of creation is very much unlikely, if not impossible, with one person’s solo efforts. Similarly, the creation of this work owes heavily to several people whose guidance, support, encouragement, and cooperation proved instrumental in making this work possible. First and foremost, I am deeply indebted (and this is literal too) to the people of Pakistan and Higher Education Commission, Government of Pakistan, who with their generous four years funding made it possible for me to pursue my interests in the prestigious university of Heidelberg; where I was lucky to find a mentor like Prof. Subrata K. Mitra, who not only supervised my academic work, but also knew how to make me work in the right direction.