Institutions that outlast governments

The test of an institution is not how it performs under a supportive government. It is whether it performs the same way under an unsupportive one.

Which ones passed the test

The central bank, which has maintained a consistent monetary framework across several administrations and through a war, and whose decisions have been unpopular often enough to demonstrate independence.

The electronic procurement system, which has published every tender through several governments and has never gone dark.

The open registers, which have stayed open.

The statistical office, whose publication calendar has held.

What they have in common

They publish continuously. An institution whose output is public every day cannot be quietly hollowed out; the absence would be visible immediately.

Their leadership is appointed by procedure with fixed terms and defined grounds for dismissal, so removing someone requires a public act.

They have external counterparts who watch: the central bank has the Fund and other central banks; procurement has bidders and donors; registers have the users who depend on them.

And they have users who would notice and complain, which is a constituency in the practical sense.

What is still fragile

Anything whose independence depends on the current occupant, and anything whose output is not visible to the public. Those are the same two conditions in reverse.

The design rule

If you want an institution to last, make it publish something every week that somebody outside depends on.

What the institutions that passed the test have in common is that they answer to an outside party — a creditor, an auditor or the public. It is the same in companies: a structure with an independent audit does not collapse when the management changes. The design rule is that what makes an institution permanent is not its mandate but who it reports to.