Development as a process of eliminating rents and predation: the conceptual framework of Douglass North, John Wallis, and Barry Weingast tested in Nigeria.

Summary If development is conceived as a process of rent elimination, does the Douglass North, John Wallis, Barry Weingast (NWW) conceptual framework developed in 2009, which defines it as a process of institutional transition from a limited access social order (developing countries) where violence is permanent and disseminated, to an open access social order (developed countries) where economic and political access is open to all through free competition, really eliminate rents? Through an internal theoretical critique and an empirical critique illustrated by the history of Nigeria and in particular the activity of the multinational oil companies, we argue that NWW's conceptual framework is flawed i) in its conception of the role of elites and non-elites in the process of opening up access within the limited-access social order ii) and in its epistemological construction of the open-access social order model based on free political and economic competition. NWW's open access order maintains rents, and legitimizes predation, which we define as the exploitation of rents of domination. Predators thus impose social costs on their victims that sustainable development (SD) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) approaches struggle to eliminate. SD and CSR will only succeed in eliminating predation by developing institutions and frames of reference that force actors to take into account the asymmetry of power and the risk of domination in negotiations between stakeholders, with a view to respecting human dignity in transactions.