An Assessment of Institutional Governance Restructuring: Examining the Case of SADC

Abstract

Democratic governance was seen is an instrument that would strengthen political institutions, governance effectiveness, rule of law and this would in turn ensure a conducive environment that would enable corporate governance practice to thrive. This research uses data from World Bank Governance indicators for all SADC countries, and examines how institutional quality has changed from 1996 to 2015. The research methodology used in investigating this research is a cross country research analysis. The findings of this research reveals that countries with entrenched democratic culture appeared to have better political and regulatory institutional quality, more stable governments, and better corporate governance practices. In such countries, coercive isomorphism tends to be strong. On the contrary, the opposite also holds true, countries with poor democratic structures tend to have weak political and regulatory institutions; these countries experienced political turmoil, increasing levels of political violence, electoral violence and have poor corporate governance practices. Countries with weak democratic institutions tend to have ceremonial conformism and coercive isomorphism in these states tend to be weak and fragile. Also, confining of press freedom and pervasive culture of corruption in the region have counteractive influence on corporate governance practices.