Derick W. Brinkerhoff

Assessing political will for anti-corruption efforts: an analytic framework

This article focuses on analyzing political will as it relates to the design, initiation, and pursuit of anti-corruption activities. The article elaborates an analytic framework for political will that partitions the concept into a set of characteristics/indicators, and elaborates the external factors that influence the expression and intensity of political will in a particular situation. The conceptual model identifies the links among the characteristics of political will and these external factors, and traces their resulting influence on the support for, design of, and outcomes of anti-corruption reforms. The conceptual framework for political will draws upon analysis and field experience with implementing policy change in a variety of sectors, including anti-corruption. The article closes with recommendations on the practical applications of the framework. Copyright

Institutional Dualism and International Development A Revisionist Interpretation of Good Governance

This article examines the tensions, trade-offs, and complementarities between so-called good governance and bad governance in international development and draws on U.S. history to comment on current change efforts. Aid donors have ambitious plans to encourage countries to replace corrupt or closed public institutions with more accountable systems. Yet democratic or rational-legal governance does not necessarily represent an improvement over ostensibly improper governance. It is important to bear in mind that certain clientelistic practices have hidden positive functions, such as giving poor people access to resources. Governance institutions are neither bad nor good in themselves; outcomes are what matter.

Partnerships Between International Donors and Non-Governmental Development Organizations: Opportunities and Constraints:

This article examines partnerships between international donors and non-governmental development organizations (NGDOs). Following a discussion of partnership’s rationale and presumed benefits, the article provides a general overview of selected donors’ partnership experience and describes four illustrations of donor– NGDO partnership. Opportunities and constraints are identified, illustrating gaps in oratory and practice. Identified challenges include constraints related to donorinitiated partnerships, addressing the legacy of past relationships, the insufficiency of relying on personal relationships, and the limits of good intentions. The article stresses the importance of recognizing the political and economic realities that frame donor–NGDO relationships and condition incentives on both sides of the partnership.

Governance Reforms and Failed States: Challenges and Implications

This article investigates the multifaceted nature of governance reforms in failed states, and the complex interplay of technical and political factors. It examines three questions: (1) What do the theory and practice of international assistance in public administration tell us about building and/or repairing governance systems? (2) What are the challenges to applying these lessons and models to failed/failing states? and (3) What are the corresponding implications for promoting sustainable governance strategies? The discussion shows how the synoptic efforts to grapple with the ‘big picture’ are often undermined by the operational nitty-gritty of donor agency procedures and aid delivery mechanisms on the ground. Attention to the complexity of shifting foreign assistance agendas, the application and refinement of analytic and process tools, appropriate incorporation of sometimes conflicting values and agendas and democratic processes to maximize effectiveness can contribute to bringing the conceptual and the practical aspects of promoting governance reforms in failed states closer together.

International Development Management in a Globalized World

Tracking global trends has evolved into an analytic and prognostic industry in and of itself, and we do not pretend to offer a comprehensive overview of global trends and globalization. We offer a selective catalog of what we see as the major global trends that impact upon public managers in developing and transitional nations.5

How Citizens Participate in Macroeconomic Policy: International Experience and Implications for Poverty Reduction

Summary. — Many developing and transitioning countries have difficulty sticking to sound macroeconomic policy.International donors are pushing recipient countries to forge a public consensus on macroeconomic policy as a means to enhance sustainability and impacts on the poor. Finance and budget officials, central bank staff, and economic policymakers, however, often assume that citizens cannot understand or contribute to macroeconomic policy.Yet the poor often do not trust the government to make the right decisions for them.How can citizen participation help bridge this gap? Based on a review of international experience, the paper explores this question, and identifies how development administrators can employ civic participation in macroeconomic policy.The discussion highlights where citizens have the greatest options for participation, and notes the impacts participation can have on fostering policies and outcomes that target poverty reduction. 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd.All rights reserved.

Decentralized Local Governance In Fragile States: Learning From Iraq

This article examines the role that local governance plays in creating an effective state and in building constructive state—society relations. Reconstruction efforts in fragile, post-conflict states have focused largely on central government, yet decentralized local authorities offer a number of positive features. Looking at the governance reconstruction experience in Iraq, the analysis explores the extent to which these positive features have characterized Iraqi sub-national government. The article draws lessons for governance reconstruction more generally, addressing decentralization choices, capacity-building, and political factors. Points for practitioners In fragile, post-conflict states, good governance reconstruction agendas often aim too high. Targeting good enough governance solutions is more realistic. Decentralized local governance can be integral to such solutions, and offers several advantages to counter problems that central governments face: weak roots beyond the center, poor distribution of services, and weak national integration. Experience shows that local governments can increase speed of service delivery, address ethnic/regional inequities, build democratic and conflict management capacities, mitigate political conflict, experiment to find creative solutions, and enhance legitimacy. We examine governance reconstruction in Iraq in terms of how efforts to build local governance have resulted in these positive outcomes. The Iraq case offers some support for our argument that in fragile, post-conflict states, decentralized local governance is an important feature of good enough governance.

Service Delivery and Legitimacy in Fragile and Conflict-Affected States

Abstract In fragile and conflict-affected states (FCS), governments must rebuild three core governance functions: provision of security, service delivery and political participation. We unpack the connection between service delivery and legitimacy, using a staged model of legitimation, in which progress on the governance functions forms the basis for value-based legitimacy; behavioural legitimacy may, but does not necessarily, follow. With data from Iraq, we explore the role of water services in laying the groundwork for legitimacy. The analysis underscores the complex, non-linear relationship between service delivery and increases in trust and legitimacy, and the processs sensitivity to starting points. Nascent governments can build legitimacy by improving service delivery; however, gains are contingent and often fragile.

Performance-based public management reforms: experience and emerging lessons from service delivery improvement in Indonesia:

From both a practical and a theoretical perspective, improved public sector performance has preoccupied policymakers, managers, and analysts around the world. There is broad enthusiasm for performance-based initiatives to remedy service delivery failures, but conceptual boundaries are often vague, and empirical evidence for their effectiveness is mixed. This article reviews current thinking regarding service delivery improvement, and assesses several pathways to improved performance. We examine the pathways pursued in Indonesia’s rich experience with service delivery improvement, which shed particular light on the political economic factors shaping performance-based initiatives, and draw implications for reforms in other settings. Points for practitioners Our review of pathways for performance-enhancing reforms in Indonesia suggests that decentralization strongly influences the prospects of other pathways, but service improvements often depend on the center utilizing its leverage to monitor performance and strengthen incentives for implementing reforms. In the long term, unless accountabilities between districts and both providers and communities are strengthened, it is unlikely that existing performance incentives will operate as intended. Indonesia’s experience suggests that addressing political economic factors implies recognizing the multi-actor nature of governance and service delivery systems, and in pursuing both central and local levers for changed incentives.

State fragility and failure as wicked problems: beyond naming and taming

Conceptualising state fragility and failure as a wicked problem set reveals the complex, ill-defined and interdependent nature of the reality behind these labels. This essay builds on the contributions to this special issue by examining why the fragile/failed state concept remains in good currency despite its analytic weaknesses. The discussion reveals that the parsing of state fragility into its component parts and the development of related indicators reflect efforts to tame the wickedness of the problem set; this has led to peace-building and state-building interventions whose plans and actions do not effectively take account of what is necessary to achieve their intended aims. A better problem-solving match would look beyond naming and taming, incorporating lessons from the implementation literature and international development practice. However, achieving this would depend upon the political will of both labellers and the labelled.