Making Politics Work for Development: Harnessing Transparency and Citizen Engagement (Policy Research Reports) - Softcover

World Bank

Softcover

ISBN 10: 146480771X ISBN 13: 9781464807718

Publisher: World Bank Publications, 2016

Synopsis

Governments fail to provide the public goods needed for development when its leaders knowingly and deliberately ignore sound technical advice or are unable to follow it, despite the best of intentions, because of political constraints. This report focuses on two forces―citizen engagement and transparency―that hold the key to solving government failures by shaping how political markets function. Citizens are not only queueing at voting booths, but are also taking to the streets and using diverse media to pressure, sanction and select the leaders who wield power within government, including by entering as contenders for leadership. This political engagement can function in highly nuanced ways within the same formal institutional context and across the political spectrum, from autocracies to democracies. Unhealthy political engagement, when leaders are selected and sanctioned on the basis of their provision of private benefits rather than public goods, gives rise to government failures. The solutions to these failures lie in fostering healthy political engagement within any institutional context, and not in circumventing or suppressing it. Transparency, which is citizen access to publicly available information about the actions of those in government, and the consequences of these actions, can play a crucial role by nourishing political engagement.

About this title

About the Author

Founded in 1944, the World Bank Group is one of the world's largest sources of development assistance. The Bank is now working in more than 100 developing economies, bringing a mix of finance and ideas to improve living standards and eliminate the worst forms of poverty. For each of its clients, the
Bank works with government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector to formulate assistance strategies. Its country offices worldwide deliver the Bank's program in countries, liaise with government and civil society, and work to increase understanding of development issues.

Review

The World Bank has long drawn a line in the sand: no politics. But what if politics is key to economic development? The body of careful research documenting the pernicious effects of corruption, repression, coercion, exclusion, and fear on economic development has now become enormous. This bold new report is a first step to erase the Bank s line in the sand and understand not only the roles of citizen engagement, transparency, civil rights, free speech, and inclusive politics, but also how the Bank can harness them. Bravo! --Daron Acemoglu, Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; coauthor of Why Nations Fail

This valuable report deals with some of the central challenges faced in making government work better. It pulls together a range of evidence and provides an authoritative overview of what we have learned. --Timothy Besley, Professor of Economics and Political Science and W. Arthur Lewis Professor of Development Economics, London School of Economics

This brilliant report offers a clear-headed and insightful analysis of the problem of politics which impedes governments from playing an appropriate role in the delivery of social services such as health and education. It does so by bringing together the vanguard of economics research on the functioning of political markets, and showing how this research both explains perverse behaviors and describes a path to improve outcomes using the current forces of citizen participation in politics. Non-political technocrats interested in improving the delivery of social services would do well to heed the lessons in this report so that any steps that they take do not lead them down political blind alleys or precipitous cliffs. --Nachiket Mor, India Country Director, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Board Member, Reserve Bank of India

Edition details

• Publisher: World Bank Publications
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 146480771X
• ISBN 13: 9781464807718
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 278