Governance Reform Under Real-World Conditions
Governance Reform Under Real-World Conditions

Author: Sina Odugbemi

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2008-06-13

Total Pages: 551

ISBN-13: 0821374575

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Although necessary and often first rate, technocratic solutions alone have been ineffective in delivering real change or lasting results in governance reforms. This is primarily because reform programs are delivered no in controlled environments, but under complex, diverse, sociopolitical and economic conditions. Real-world conditions. In political societies, ownership of reform programs by the entire country cannot be assumed, public opinion will not necessarily be benign, and coalitions of support may be scare or nonexistent, even when intended reforms really will benefit those who need them most. While the development community has the technical tools to address governance challenges, experience shows that technical solutions are often insufficient. Difficulties arise when attempts are made to apply what are often excellent technical solutions. Human beings--either acting alone or in groups small and large--are not as amenable as are pure numbers, and they cannot be ignored. In the real world, reforms will not succeed, and they will certainly not be sustained, without the correct alignment of citizens, stakeholders, and voice. 'Governance Reform under Real-World Conditions: Citizens, Stakeholders, and Voice' is a contribution to efforts to improve governance systems around the world, particularly in developing countries. The contributors, who are academics and development practitioners, provide a range of theoretical frameworks and innovative approaches and techniques for dealing with the most important nontechnical or adaptive challenges that impede the success and sustainability of reform efforts. The editors and contributors hope that this book will be a useful guider for governments, think tanks, civil society organizations, and development agencies working to improve the ways in which governance reforms are implemented around the world.

Public Sentinel
Public Sentinel

Author: Pippa Norris

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2009-11-19

Total Pages: 446

ISBN-13: 0821382012

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What are the ideal roles the mass media should play as an institution to strengthen democratic governance and thus bolster human development? Under what conditions do media systems succeed or fail to meet these objectives? And what strategic reforms would close the gap between the democratic promise and performance of media systems? Working within the notion of the democratic public sphere, 'Public Sentinel: News Media and Governance Reform' emphasizes the institutional or collective roles of the news media as watchdogs over the powerful, as agenda setters calling attention to social needs in natural and human-caused disasters and humanitarian crises, and as gatekeepers incorporating a diverse and balanced range of political perspectives and social actors. Each is vital to making democratic governance work in an effective, transparent, inclusive, and accountable manner. The capacity of media systems and thus individual reporters embedded within those institutions to fulfill these roles is constrained by the broader context of the journalistic profession, the market, and ultimately the state. Successive chapters apply these arguments to countries and regions worldwide. This study brought together a wide range of international experts under the auspices of the Communication for Governance and Accountability Program (CommGAP) at the World Bank and the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University. The book is designed for policy makers and media professionals working within the international development community, national governments, and grassroots organizations, and for journalists, democratic activists, and scholars engaged in understanding mass communications, democratic governance, and development.

World Development Report 2017
World Development Report 2017

Author: World Bank Group

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2017-01-23

Total Pages: 605

ISBN-13: 1464809518

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Why are carefully designed, sensible policies too often not adopted or implemented? When they are, why do they often fail to generate development outcomes such as security, growth, and equity? And why do some bad policies endure? World Development Report 2017: Governance and the Law addresses these fundamental questions, which are at the heart of development. Policy making and policy implementation do not occur in a vacuum. Rather, they take place in complex political and social settings, in which individuals and groups with unequal power interact within changing rules as they pursue conflicting interests. The process of these interactions is what this Report calls governance, and the space in which these interactions take place, the policy arena. The capacity of actors to commit and their willingness to cooperate and coordinate to achieve socially desirable goals are what matter for effectiveness. However, who bargains, who is excluded, and what barriers block entry to the policy arena determine the selection and implementation of policies and, consequently, their impact on development outcomes. Exclusion, capture, and clientelism are manifestations of power asymmetries that lead to failures to achieve security, growth, and equity. The distribution of power in society is partly determined by history. Yet, there is room for positive change. This Report reveals that governance can mitigate, even overcome, power asymmetries to bring about more effective policy interventions that achieve sustainable improvements in security, growth, and equity. This happens by shifting the incentives of those with power, reshaping their preferences in favor of good outcomes, and taking into account the interests of previously excluded participants. These changes can come about through bargains among elites and greater citizen engagement, as well as by international actors supporting rules that strengthen coalitions for reform.

Building Trust in Government
Building Trust in Government

Author: G. Shabbir Cheema

Publisher: UN

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13:

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The ability of governments and the global community to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, ensure security, and promote adherence to basic standards of human rights depends on people's trust in their government. However, public trust in government and political institutions has been declining in both developing and developed countries in the new millennium. One of the challenges in promoting trust in government is to engage citizens, especially the marginalized groups and the poor, into the policy process to ensure that governance is truly representative, participatory, and benefits all.

Governance
Governance

Author:

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 1994-01-01

Total Pages: 90

ISBN-13: 9780821328040

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Policy dialogue on governance.

Governance Reform
Governance Reform

Author: Brian Levy

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2007-01-01

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 0821370324

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Developing-country governance and its monitoring have risen to the top of the development agenda. This mounting interest is in response to compelling evidence that links governance to development performance-policy quality, public service provision, the investment climate, and the extent of corruption. 'Governance Reform: Bridging, Monitoring, and Action' lays out a broad framework for analyzing and monitoring governance in developing countries. It identifies fourteen core indicators for governance monitoring both broad measures of overall patterns and specific 'actionable' measures that can be used to guide reforms and track progress. The book also summarizes good practices for reforming public bureaucracies and checks and balances institutions (including parliaments, the justice system, media and information, and local governance); highlights improvements in transparency as a relatively low-cost and low-key way of deepening government accountability to civil society; and suggests ways to complement top-down reforms with approaches that focus directly on improving service provision and the investment climate (such as strengthening the bottom-up accountabilities of service providers to communities, firms, and citizens). 'Governance Reform' has no universally applicable trajectory of change. Rather, the aims are: to find country-specific entry points for reform which have development impact in the short-term; to address binding public management constraints, and to help build momentum for further change.

The Limits of Institutional Reform in Development
The Limits of Institutional Reform in Development

Author: Matt Andrews

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2013-02-11

Total Pages: 267

ISBN-13: 1139619640

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Developing countries commonly adopt reforms to improve their governments yet they usually fail to produce more functional and effective governments. Andrews argues that reforms often fail to make governments better because they are introduced as signals to gain short-term support. These signals introduce unrealistic best practices that do not fit developing country contexts and are not considered relevant by implementing agents. The result is a set of new forms that do not function. However, there are realistic solutions emerging from institutional reforms in some developing countries. Lessons from these experiences suggest that reform limits, although challenging to adopt, can be overcome by focusing change on problem solving through an incremental process that involves multiple agents.

Public Management Reform
Public Management Reform

Author: Christopher Pollitt

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2000-01-01

Total Pages: 314

ISBN-13: 9781280815027

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In this major new contribution to a rapidly expanding field, the authors offer an integrated analysis of the wave of management reforms which have swept through so many countries in the last twenty years. The reform trajectories of ten countries are compared, and key differences of approach discussed. Unlike some previous works, this volume affords balanced coverage to the 'New Public Management' (NPM) and the 'non-NPM' or 'reluctant NPM' countries, since it covers Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, the UK and the USA. Unusually, it also includes a preliminary analysis of attempts to improve management within the European Commission.

Water, Democracy and Neoliberalism in India
Water, Democracy and Neoliberalism in India

Author: Vicky Walters

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-05-29

Total Pages: 222

ISBN-13: 1135040923

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Since the early 1990s, the achievement of ‘good governance’ has been a dominant discourse in the pursuit of social and economic development. This book presents a critical challenge to the contemporary development paradigm of good governance. Based on original ethnographic fieldwork on urban water governance reforms in south India (Karnataka), the book examines the two propositions that underlie the current good governance debate. The first refers to a claim that good governance is both democratic and pro-market. The second to the claim that commercially-oriented water services, whether private or public, are good for poor and marginalised citizens. The book analyses these propositions as they intersect on three levels: policy, practice (process) and outcome. It argues that a number of tensions and contradictions exist within and between what the discourse promises, the everyday practises of how good governance policies are implemented and in the outcomes of such. It reveals the networks of power and the complexity of local reforms and their relation to global discourses as well as the motivations and every day practises of those who currently possess the power to reform. The book is of interest to academics in the fields of Development Studies, Asian Studies and Comparative Politics.

Building Democratic Institutions
Building Democratic Institutions

Author: G. Shabbir Cheema

Publisher: Kumarian Press

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 1565491971

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Annotation Bridges the gap between theoretical literature and the tools and practices needed to strengthen or rebuild democratic institutions and reform governance systems. Through case studies and examples of good practices of governance, Cheema assesses the conditions that make democracy work.