The modern mental health system in Nepal: Organizational persistence in the absence of legitimating myths

doi:10.1016/S0277-9536(96)00364-4

Social Science & Medicine

Volume 45, Issue 3, August 1997, Pages 441-447

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-9536(96)00364-4 Get rights and content

Abstract

This paper advances an organizational explanation for the slow pace of modernization of mental health care systems in developing societies. In complement to cultural and political economic explanations of this condition, we suggest that the value of establishing modern systems in developing societies lies in the legitimation such structures provide for indigenous modernizing efforts vis-á-vis both indigenous and external audiences. The system need not meet actual levels of service demand. Its importance is in its symbolic value as an indicator of modernity. The result is a system in “permanent failure”. Implications for institutional theory and the growth of modern mental health systems in developing societies are discussed.

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The modern mental health system in Nepal: Organizational persistence in the absence of legitimating myths

Abstract

Social Science & Medicine

Social Science & Medicine

Primary Health Care in the Hills of Nepal

Fools rush in? The institutional context of industry creation

Academy of Management Review

Implementing health for all in Nigeria: problems and constraints

Non-governmental organizations at the interface between municipalities and communities

World Mental Health: Problems and Priorities in Low-Income Countries

Medical modernization in Mexico: paradigms, labor markets and the state

Modernization and medical care

Urban health—an emerging priority for the World Bank

Patients and Healers in the Context of Culture: An Exploration of the Borderland Between Anthropology, Medicine and Psychiatry

Institutionalized organizations: formal structure as myth and ceremony

American Journal of Sociology