Professional Organizations As Drivers of Social Changes in Developing Countries

Abstract

The present paper reviews the activity of professional organizations of advocates as a factor of transfer from limited access order to open access order, in terms of the theory of North, Wallis and Weingast. Using the analysis of the experience of advocates' collective action in developing countries, the paper proposes a model explaining the process of mobilization of the legal community for countering the violations of the law by the ruling elite. It shows that collective action of advocates plays a significant role in implementing the principles of rule of law. However, the efficiency of such collective action in a particular country depends on the institutional capacity of its legal association (in terms of Doner & Schneider (2000)) and on the position of the professional elite that is heading it. The elite of the advocates' community in developing countries is confronted by a difficult choice between identifying itself with the national political elite and the need to respond to the demand of grass-roots members of the profession regularly encountering violations of the law by representatives of the authorities. On the example of various countries, we show, how the choice of professional elite leads to different scenarios, and make conclusions for the situation in Russia.