Making Politics Work for Development : Harnessing Transparency and Citizen Engagement

Stuti Khemani

ISBN 10: 146480771X / ISBN 13: 9781464807718

Published by World Bank Publications Jul 2016, 2016

About this Item

Neuware - Too often, even reform leaders in countries fail to adopt and implement policies that they know are necessary for sustained economic development. They are encumbered by adverse political incentives, running the risk of losing office should they try to do the right thing. When technically sound policies are selected on paper, implementation through the public system can run into perverse norms of behaviour among public officials and citizens to extract private benefits from the public sector at the expense of the greater public interest.Making Politics Work for Development is about how to make politics work for economic development rather than against it. It focuses on research about two forces - citizens political engagement and transparency - that explain and hold the potential to improve political incentives and norms of behaviour in the public sector. The research shows that the confluence of transparency and political engagement can be a driving force for countries to transition toward better functioning public sector institutions, starting with their own initial and contextual conditions. To harness the potential of these forces, policy actors should target transparency to nourish the quality of political engagement so that citizens can hold leaders accountable for the public goods needed for development.

Seller Inventory # 9781464807718

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Making Politics Work for Development : Harnessing Transparency and Citizen Engagement
• Publisher: World Bank Publications Jul 2016
• Publication Date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 146480771X
• ISBN 13: 9781464807718
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 231W x 191H x 15D millimeters 231 millimeters width by 191 millimeters height by 15 millimeters depth
• Weight: 499 grams

About this title

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 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.