GV251 week 24

1
GV-251 week 24

• Soviet State weak or not?

2
Modern state as an institution

• State as political institution
• Differences between state and other forms of
  polity
• State as a Western creation
• Legitimacy
• Sovereignty and domestic hegemony
• Formal monopoly of violence
• Impartial bureaucracy

3
State and effective governance

• Governance "the act or process of governing,
  specifically authoritative direction and
  control". Thus, the effectiveness of the
  executive branch
• World Bank
• Good governance predictable and open
  policy-making
• Bureaucracy that delivers public goods
• Rule of law and transparency
• Strong civil society
• Interaction of formal institutions with those of
  the civil society
• Bbehavior of formal state institutions determines
  of the degree of success or failure of
  developmental (and/or democratic) process.

4
Measuring Governance

• Voice and Accountability
• Political Stability and Absence of Violence
• Government Effectiveness
• Regulatory Quality
• Rule of Law
• Control of Corruption
• Or state capacity

5
Define capacity

• Aggregate performance of governments or ability
  to carry out tasks and policies chosen given
  domestic and internal constraints and competing
  interests.
• Relative political extraction ability of
  government to extract material resources to
  implement desired policies
• Mobilizing resources available in the society
  (difference between developed and developing
  countries)
• Relative political reach Scope and breadth of
  government influence on population (e.g.
  population policies, health policiesRussia vs.
  US or Ireland)
• Measurements of state capacity taxation, size of
  bureaucrats, access to water or other health
  measurements

6
State Capacity and State Building

• Link between state capacity and good governance
• Strong correlation between states with guaranteed
  property rights and economic growth (e.g. French
  Revolution, case of Peru)
• Social development correlates with institutional
  capacity and efficiency (e.g. protection of
  rights)
• Economic development correlates with state
  capacity and governance
• World Bank
• Institutions that underpin systems of
  accountability are country specific
• Any efforts to strengthen administrative and
  accountability systems will have to fit
  country-specific structures and patterns of
  political, social, and economic interests.
• Building states that are both effective and
  accountable to their citizens is a centuries-long
  process.

7
World Bank recommendations

• If the country does not have bureaucratic and
  institutional capabilities comprehensive reforms
  may not be the answer.
• modest, viable initiatives, especially those for
  which results are observable.
• underlying drivers of political and institutional
  change.
• Instead of earlier and narrower technocratic view
  that problems are due to poor management and can
  be fixed by reorganizations, providing technical
  training, and installing hardware.
• Lessons from the last six years also show that
  the roots of corruption too lie in dysfunctional
  state institutions.
• Anticorruption campaigns can play a valuable role
  but only when used in tandem with institutional
  interventions.
• It is now generally agreed that poor governance
  and corruption are major factors that undermine a
  countrys economic and social progress.