Synopsis
Building and operating successful public institutions is a perennial and long-term challenge for governments, which is compounded by the volatile conditions found in fragile settings. Yet some government agencies do manage to take root and achieve success in delivering results earning legitimacy and forging resilience in otherwise challenging contexts. Drawing on mixed-method empirical research carried out on nine public agencies in Lao PDR, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, and Timor Leste, this volume identifies the shared causal mechanisms underpinning institutional success in fragile states by examining the inner workings of these institutions, along with the external operational environment and sociopolitical context in which they exist. Successful institutions share and deploy a common repertoire of internal and external operational strategies. In addition they connect this micro-institutional repertoire to the macro-sociopolitical context along three discernible pathways to institutional success. Institutional development is a heavily contextual, dynamic, and non-linear process but certain actionable lessons emerge for policy-makiers and development partners.
Review
Institutions Taking Root shows how pockets of effectiveness can emerge in government, even in some of the world's most challenging settings. The authors trace several pathways to high performance. Each stresses the interaction between deft management, constituency building, and political support. The ability to deliver results creates space for additional improvement and builds a virtuous cycle. The book dismisses the quest for a unifi ed theory and appropriately emphasizes the idea that 'good fi t is best practice'. Aspiring reform leaders will draw ideas and inspiration from this thought-provoking compendium. --Jennifer Widner, Professor of Politics and International Affairs Director of Innovations for Successful Societies, Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs
Institutions Taking Root is a major step forward in helping us understand the factors that can lead to success in at least some public agencies in fragile and confl ict-affected states-what are often referre to as 'pockets of effectiveness'. The book confi rms that the internal management factors held to be important to organizational success in industrial democracies apply as well to the highly stressed context of fragility. But, the feasibility of those management practices depends on the strategies employed to secure local and international support. The authors outline three very different paths through which national managers can achieve the latter end. Thus the book shows the interaction of (more universalistic) internal management practices and the highly contingent and path dependent political economy strategies that are needed to enact them.. --David K. Leonard, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, former Dean of International and Area Studies University of California, Berkeley
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