This book builds on cutting-edge scholarship and the author’s quarter-century of practical experience to lay out an innovative “with-the-grain” approach to governance reform and development policymaking. A with-the-grain perspective directs attention away from “best practice” off-the-shelf blueprints toward the challenges of finding a good fit, and initiating and sustaining forward development momentum. The book distinguishes among four broad groups of countries—according to whether their polities are dominant or competitive and whether their institutions are personalized or impersonal. It als ... More

This book builds on cutting-edge scholarship and the author’s quarter-century of practical experience to lay out an innovative “with-the-grain” approach to governance reform and development policymaking. A with-the-grain perspective directs attention away from “best practice” off-the-shelf blueprints toward the challenges of finding a good fit, and initiating and sustaining forward development momentum. The book distinguishes among four broad groups of countries—according to whether their polities are dominant or competitive and whether their institutions are personalized or impersonal. It also distinguishes among alternative options for governance reform—“top-down” options that aim to strengthen formal institutions and options that aim to support the emergence of “islands of effectiveness.” And it explores the “goodness of fit” between alternative reform options and divergent country contexts—including how narrowly focused initiatives can achieve results even in a broader sea of institutional dysfunction. The book investigates how, over time, virtuous circles can link inclusive growth, positive expectations, and ongoing institutional improvement. Taking the decade or so time horizon of practitioners, the aim is to move the process along—seeking gains that initially may seem quite modest but can, sometimes, give rise to a cascading sequence of change. Sometimes the binding constraint to forward movement can be institutional, making governance reform the priority; at other times, the priority can better be on inclusive growth. Over the longer run, stability depends also on a broad-based commitment among citizens to the institutional order, as one that offers the hope of a better life for all.