'Good enough' is sometimes as good as it gets

ONE of the most pervasive and apparently self-evident assumptions of development economics is that sustainable investment and growth require the rule of law. Without impersonal, general norms and their enforcement by independent judicial authorities, according to this view, little development, if any, is possible, because the risks facing both labour and capital - including corruption, arbitrariness and rigid traditions - will be too high. But is this conventional wisdom always right?

Consider an admittedly limited counter-example: South Africa's booming mini-bus taxi industry. The mini-bus taxis developed in response to severe shortcomings in the country's public transport system, but they operate entirely outside of formal laws ...