Making Institutions Work in South Africa places the structures and processes of institutionalization at the center of debates about democracy, state, and society in South Africa. As they explore the factors that facilitate, and those that impede, strong, well-functioning institutions, the contributors share three core assumptions: institutions are the pillars of a constitutional democracy; they evolve through the actions of people (agency); and they form structures of dynamic, shared social patterns of behavior through the implementation of the rule of law.