Colonization and Different Types of Institutional Change: Findings from an ex-British Colony

This article analyses institutional change during the British colonial period (1878-1960) in Cyprus and discusses different types of institutional transformations and the features of resulting institutions. The institutions considered include the legal system, education and industrial relations. Findings suggest that incremental processes of change led to both evolutionary and radical changes in institutions and that the type of institutional transformations included replacement, displacement and layering. The resulting institutions vary in terms of diversity within them. Similar shifts in respective institutions are expected in other ex-colonies, and these institutional features are likely to differentiate, it is argued, ex-colonies from socioeconomically similar countries that did not go through colonial rule.