Govern Like Us: U.S. Expectations of Poor Countries - Hardcover

Thomas, M. A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 023117120X ISBN 13: 9780231171205

Publisher: Columbia University Press, 2015

Synopsis

In the poorest countries, such as Afghanistan, Haiti, and Mali, the United States has struggled to work with governments whose corruption and lack of capacity are increasingly seen to be the cause of instability and poverty. The development and security communities call for "good governance" to improve the rule of law, democratic accountability, and the delivery of public goods and services. The United States and other rich liberal democracies insist that this is the only legitimate model of governance. Yet poor governments cannot afford to govern according to these ideals and instead are compelled to rely more heavily on older, cheaper strategies of holding power, such as patronage and repression.

The unwillingness to admit that poor governments do and must govern differently has cost the United States and others inestimable blood and coin. Informed by years of fieldwork and drawing on practitioner work and academic scholarship in politics, economics, law, and history, this book explains the origins of poor governments in the formation of the modern state system and describes the way they govern. It argues that, surprisingly, the effort to stigmatize and criminalize the governance of the poor is both fruitless and destabilizing. The United States must pursue a more effective foreign policy to engage poor governments and acknowledge how they govern.

About this title

About the Author

M. A. Thomas is a lawyer and political economist who has worked as a governance specialist for foreign aid donors in some of the world's poorest countries. From 2005 until 2014, she was associate professor of international development at The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at The Johns Hopkins University. Her articles have appeared in Foreign Affairs, the American Interest, Policy Review, International Affairs, the Journal of Modern African Studies, the European Journal of Development Research, Development and Change, and the Defense Acquisition Research Journal.

Review

M. A. Thomas is critical of our policy―rightly so―but refrains from relativism and bombast. She provides a useful contrarian perspective that is difficult to ignore. (Michael Johnston, Colgate University)

In recent years, there has been a broad recognition in rich countries that poor government is a leading cause of poverty, and they have undertaken vast programs to stem corruption and dysfunctional politics. In Govern Like Us, M. A. Thomas exposes the illusions that have undergirded this effort and shows why the vast sums invested in places like Afghanistan and Iraq have yielded such meager results. This book should be required reading for anyone in the development field. (Francis Fukuyama, Stanford University)

Wow. A hard-hitting analysis from a scholar/practitioner of the deep intellectual roots of the failures to create 'good governance' everywhere―and why that failure is ignored or blamed on others. A useful corrective to the conventional development wisdom. (Lant Pritchett, Harvard University)

Govern Like Us delivers a thought-provoking and valuable reminder that sanctimonious insistence on moral perfection can be as self-defeating as moral indifference. (Mark Moyar The Wall Street Journal)

Highly recommended. (Choice)

Govern Like Us is a valuable guide to outsiders looking to familiarize themselves with some of the challenges of development. It also should be of great value to students, as it provides an excellent outline of the origins and operations of the neopatrimonial state and the challenges to escaping the poverty trap. (Christopher Mitchell Political Science Quarterly)

Edition details

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 023117120X
• ISBN 13: 9780231171205
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 264