Legal tradition and quality of institutions: is colonization by french law countries distinctive?

Recent literature argues that legal traditions of nations, i.e. their belonging tothe world of common law or civil law, are not neutral in terms of economicor institutional performance, especially with regard to key opportunities indeveloping countries out of poverty.We present the results of an exploratory exploitation of the institutionalprofiles database" provided by DGTPE (French Ministry of Economy andFinance) and French Development Agency (survey 2009) supplemented bydata on legal origin and other variables from La Porta et al. We highlightspecificities of developing countries having inherited the French law (relativeto those of English law). A reflection on political power and the state findsa strong contrast between the ideal-typical model of French law and theempirical findings. This contrast is consistent with the notion rather than realstate in the former French colonies."