URBANIZATION, GLOBALIZATION AND INSTITUTIONAL LAGS IN PAKISTAN

Abstract

Pakistan is an urbanized society, spatially and materially. Urban modes of living have spread. Globalization is further accelerating the urbanization of the society. While the society is being strung into the urban modes of living, its beliefs, norms and values remain anchored in the agrarian social order. This disparity has spawned wide ranging institutional lags. First; the non-material norms are lagging behind material culture. Second, private interests overshadow the public space. Third, the lived culture is not in sync with the imagined culture. These lags are impeding Pakistan’s good governance and development. Urbanization precipitates four sets of functional imperatives. It necessitates the provision of collective goods and services. It requires redefining property rights. It calls for a moral order based on impersonal mores and formal rules rather than customs. It lays the ground for communities of interest and modernization of values and norms. These imperatives remain unfulfilled. Institutional lags are structural manifestation of these unfulfilled imperatives. A strategy of deliberate urbanism is recommended to overcome this condition.