Beyond Institutions: Rethinking the Role of Leaders, Elites and Coalitions in the Institutional Formation of Developmental States and Strategies

Leftwich, Adrian

doi:10.1080/08039410903558327

Cited by 68 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…In neither context have the 'rules-based' institutional arrangements cherished by the good governance agenda displaced personalised 'deals-making' as the norm within the public bureaucracy (Levy 2014). However, although the type of political settlement sets certain structural conditions within which governance takes place, the power relations that underpin these settlements are dynamic rather than static, and in both kinds of settlements the role played by specific actors, both leaders and coalitions, can be critical in determining which paths are taken (Leftwich, 2010).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…For example, the ways in which deal-making occurs is likely to differ according to each type of settlement, both in line with the structural balance of power (Khan, 2010) and the more dynamic manoeuvres of elite coalitions (Leftwich, 2010). So, dominant party settlements may enable political elites to develop the longer-term time horizons required for them to see that investing in institution-building is in their self-interest, although much here depends on the vision of the political leadership and their capacity to control the rent-seeking activities of other elites within the ruling coalition (Kelsall, 2013).…”

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The Politics of Governing Oil Effectively: A Comparative Study of Two New Oil-Rich States in Africa

Hickey

Abdulai

Izama³

et al. 2015

SSRN Journal

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The challenges facing developing countries with new-found natural resource wealth are generally understood in terms of whether they have the institutions of 'good governance' required to avoid the resource curse. New insights from a political settlements perspective show how deeper forms of politics and power relations play a more significant role than such institutions, and help explain some counter-intuitive findings regarding how 'semi-authoritarian' Uganda seems to be governing oil somewhat more in line with its national interest as compared to 'democratic' Ghana. We find that bureaucratic 'pockets of effectiveness' play a critical role, with outcomes shaped by the nature of their embedded autonomy vis-à-vis different kinds of ruling coalition. Efforts to promote 'best-practice' governance reforms in such contexts might be misplaced, and could be replaced with a stronger focus on building specific forms of state capacity and a greater acceptance that 'developmental collusion' between political and bureaucratic actors may offer more appropriate or 'best-fit' solutions.

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confidence: 99%

The Politics of Governing Oil Effectively: A Comparative Study of Two New Oil-Rich States in Africa

Hickey

Abdulai

Izama³

et al. 2015

SSRN Journal

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“…While there are good reasons to be cautious about labelling cases as 'successful', there is nevertheless a general openness to the idea that stories of success or progress at least, can be useful learning tools (ODI, 2011 8 ). It is notable that recent research into the politics of service provision has turned its attention to explaining variation and exception in the face of overwhelming poor performance (Booth, 2011b), identifying institutional arrangements that are comparably better at dealing with some of the problems that arise in public service provision (Besley and Ghatak, 2007), and explaining why some cases run against the general patterns of institutional failure or corruption (Leftwich, 2010). Like these studies, the purpose here is not to provide a blueprint for success elsewhere, but rather, to begin to advance a research agenda that aims to understand better what accounts for variations in outcomes in the face of widespread under-provision.…”

Section: The Debate About Politics and Service Deliverymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As Unsworth (2010:38) puts it, 'it is the way networks of relationships between public and private actors are configured that shapes their ability to influence reforms, not the characteristics of individual actors'. Accordingly, research by the Developmental Leadership Programme is examining leadership not in the personalised sense, but as a political process involving the skills of mobilising people and resources in pursuit of a set of shared and negotiated goals (Leftwich, 2010).…”

Section: Effective States and Inclusive Development Research Centre (mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Politics of What Works in Service Delivery: An Evidence-Based Review

Mcloughlin

Batley

2012

SSRN Journal

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This paper examines the evidence on the forms of politics likely to promote inclusive social provisioning and enable, as opposed to constrain, improvements in service outcomes. It focuses on eight relatively successful cases of delivery in a range of country contexts and sectors (roads, agriculture, health, education) where independent evaluations demonstrate improved outcomes. The paper traces the main characteristics of the political environment for these cases, from the national political context, to the politics of sector policymaking, to the micro politics of implementation. The findings indicate that it is possible to identify connections between good performance and better outcomes at the point of delivery and the main forms of politics operating at local, sector and national levels.A number of common factors underpinning successful delivery emerge strongly but need to be tested through further research. In particular, the paper highlights the relationship between inclusive delivery and: periods of crisis and transition;  the nature of the political settlement;  the types of calculations of political returns being made by political actors at all levels, and;  the extent to which the state derives or seeks to enhance its legitimacy through the provision of a particular service.

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“…How will this legitimacy attract other authorizers to the initiative? Who might you be looking to include in a coalition, and what strategies do you have to create 12 Haggard and Webb (1993), Krueger (2002), Leftwich (2010), and Lewis (1996). 13 There are various interesting strands of such thought, as reflected in recent work.…”

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Building State Capability

Andrews¹,

Pritchett²,

Woolcock

2017

267

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. The moral rights of the authors have been asserted Some rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, for commercial purposes, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor mayThis is an open access publication, available online and distributed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution -Non Commercial -No Derivatives 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), a copy of which is available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of this licence should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. This book is dedicated to those who do-those who wake up every day and try to make the world a better place, strive to make the systems that are supposed to work actually work, and who overcome to do their jobs. Our modest contribution, we hope, is to help the people who do by providing a language and a framework that articulates what the more successful already know intuitively, explaining why doing is often so very hard, and helping them build a larger community of doers able to take tangible steps forward. AcknowledgmentsImplementing a book on implementation has required the collective capabilities of an extraordinarily diverse group of individuals and organizations. We especially thank the World Institute for Development Economics Research, part of the United Nations University, who provided the funding for the foundation on which we have built. Finn Tarp and Tony Addison showed a willingness to support our ideas long before they came to the broader attention of the development community (and beyond).We have PDIA-ed our way to PDIA and hence wish to thank the thousands of participants who have attended the dozens of seminars, lectures, and workshops to which we have contributed in countries all around the world; they, and especially our students at Harvard Kennedy School, have provided us with all manner of feedback, careful critique, and helpful suggestions.Particular thanks go to Salimah Samji, the intrepid manager of the Building State Capability program at Harvard University's Center for International Development. Salimah somehow deftly channels our collective quirks and musings ...

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Beyond Institutions: Rethinking the Role of Leaders, Elites and Coalitions in the Institutional Formation of Developmental States and Strategies

Cited by 68 publications

References 21 publications

The Politics of Governing Oil Effectively: A Comparative Study of Two New Oil-Rich States in Africa

The Politics of Governing Oil Effectively: A Comparative Study of Two New Oil-Rich States in Africa

The Politics of What Works in Service Delivery: An Evidence-Based Review

Building State Capability

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