The political economy of state reform - political to the core

Abstract

The reform of governmental institutions is presently quite salient as many countries struggle with transitions to democracy. It is a constant preoccupation of developing countries as well as of highly developed democracies like Great Britain. International organizations like the World Bank are especially interested in the prospects of political reform for jump-starting national economies currently languishing in poverty and slow growth. For many commentators on these issues, at the Bank and elsewhere, politics is the source of problems. Politics (and politicians) are held in disdain and reformers are encouraged to design schemes insulating economic policies from politics. This is wrong-headed. The present paper provides a political-economy framework in which political ambition figures prominently and yet a constructive attitude toward politics is accommodated.