Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Governance Reform Under Real-World Conditions : Citizens, Stakeholders, and VoiceThis book is a contribution to efforts to improve governance systems around the world, particularly in developing countries. It offers a range of innovative approaches and techniques for dealing with the most important nontechnical challenges that prevent many of those efforts from being successful or sustainable. By so doing, the book sets out the groundwork for governance reform initiatives. Its overarching argument is that the development community is not lacking the tools needed for technical solutions to governance challenges. The toolbox is overflowing; best practice manuals in various areas of interest tumble out of seminars and workshops. However, difficulties arise when attempts are made to apply what are often excellent technical solutions under real-world conditions. Human beings, acting either alone or in groups small and large, are not as amenable as are pure numbers. And they cannot be put aside. In other words, in the real world, reforms will not succeed, and they will certainly not be sustained, without the correct alignment of citizens, stakeholders, and voice.
-
Making Public Sector Reforms Work : Political and Economic Contexts, Incentives, and StrategiesSupporting effective public sector reform is a major challenge that the World Bank and other agencies and stakeholders have been grappling with. It is increasingly recognized that political economy factors play a crucial role. However, beyond this broad proposition, specific questions arise: What country contexts are more/less propitious for public sector reforms and what reforms are likely to succeed where? And can more explicitly taking political economy challenges into account help to pursue public sector reforms even in less propitious contexts? This paper addresses these issues in two ways: first, it draws on the existing literature to identify key propositions about factors that can trigger or facilitate public sector reforms, and those that tend to work against (successful) reforms. Second, it investigates the experience of World Bank public sector operations over the decade 2000-2010. It finds that governments in many developing countries face incentives to initiate public sector reforms, but that at the implementation stage, political costs frequently outweigh potential gains; and hence reforms are abandoned or left to wither. Real breakthroughs have been achieved in countries experiencing major structural shifts and those having political leadership committed to higher-level goals. The review of operations shows that successful projects are significantly more widespread than the literature would lead to assume. Furthermore, it provides tentative evidence that investing in understanding political economy drivers has been associated with better project performance. Key implications are the need to differentiate between country contexts more clearly ex ante, concentrate more on reform implementation during windows of opportunity that are typically of limited duration, and design reforms with a clear plan of engagement with stakeholder incentives.
-
Bolivia - Del padrinazgo al Estado profesional - analisis de la situacion institucional y de gobernalidad en BoliviaThe study, an institutional, and governance review of Bolivia, describes the transformation of the country's political economy as of the 1980s, the aim for consistent macroeconomic stability, and, the consolidation of the democratic political regime. However, despite a number of bold reforms to develop market-oriented systems, and in contrast with government efforts, the quality of public services remained low. Namely, because public sector reforms were not implemented, and because of symptomatic institutional weaknesses; for although assistance was provided to modernize the civil service, and improve public administration, the lack of government commitment to a changing program focus, precluded noticeable results. The current reform agenda has identified the need for state modernization, governance and accountability, and judicial reform, addressed within the National Integrity Plan, to combat corruption, and other symptoms of public sector dysfunction. The study presents a blunt vision of Bolivian public administration, through the absence of a functioning bureaucracy, reviewing the legal framework and organizational structure, with an emphasis on the "informality" of public administration, - a challenge for institutional development. But the deeper causes of poor public sector performance, lie on the patrimonial dynamics of party politics. Recommendations include parallel advances between public, and market sector reforms, reliable external controls, and strengthened capacity of the public sector.