Why Good Policies Aren't Implemented Flashcards
Definition of Good governance
Good governance is ensuring respect for human rights and the rule of law; strengthening democracy; promoting transparency and capacity in public administration
What do development agencies use to try and promote good governance?
- Participation
- Rule of law
- Consensus
- Equity and inclusiveness
- Effectiveness and efficiency
- Accountability
- Transparency
- Responsiveness
What was Nigeria’s Vision 2020?
A development strategy from 2009 to 2020
What was included in Nigeria’s vision 2020?
- Increased investment in critical infrastructure
- Establishment of at least on general hospital in each of the 774 local governments
- Enforce mandatory nine-year Universal Basic Education programme
- Entrenchment of merit as a fundamental principle
- Strengthening the anti-corruption institutions, especially in autonomy
How did Nigeria’s Vision 2020 try to address the constraints of history and geography?
- Diversification away from oil
- Upgrading the capability of the internal security apparatus of government
- Promote unity in diversity, national pride
- Enforcement of a code of values and ethics for public servants
Organizations involved in Nigeria’s Vision 2020
- National Council
- National steering committee
- National technical working group
- Stakeholder development committee
- Economic management team
- Business support group
What has gone wrong in implementing development policies? (Nigeria’s Vision 2020?)
- Lack of knowledge about “best practice” policies is not the problem
– Even when countries adopt “good governance” policies, implementation is poor - IT equipment sits unused in a Ministry headquarters
- 48% teacher absences in India in 2008
- Mozambique has a “best practice” budget process, but 2 billion usd of off-the-books debt in 2013-2014
- Brazil has an array of anti-corruption agencies, yet billions of dollars were still being stolen in 2014 from the national oil company, Petrobras
Why are development initiatives still failing?
- The rules are being ignored (by politicians)
- The rules are being imported (by international donors)
- The rules are being broken (by corruption and clientelism)
- The rules are being resisted (by vested interests and identities)
The rules are being ignored (why are development initiatives still failing?)
- “Good governance” is too demanding
- Form is prioritized over function (“isomorphic mimicry”)
- Not enforcing wins votes (“forbearance”)
Why are good governance policies considered overwhelming?
- An “agenda” defined by the WB, IMF, and western donors
- 116 items by 2002
Why is improving governance hard?
- Limited time, attention, and political capital
- Premature load bearing
- These governance institutions are the result, not the cause of development
Premature load bearing (why is improving governance is hard?)
- Capacity by definition limited in developing countries
- Doing everything means doing nothing - organizations are “stressed”
- “Govern like you were Sweden”
These governance institutions are the result, not the cause of development (why is improving governance is hard?)
- Now-developed countries did not have all these institutions and capabilities when they grew
- “Good governance” followed development, once it could be afforded
What should replace good governance?
Good enough governance (Grindle)
What is considered in “good enough governance”
- Prioritize crucial reforms
- Understand the optimal sequencing
- Prioritize poverty reduction
What are the issues with good enough governance?
- Is this compatible with Sen’s argument that all freedoms are important and complementary?
- Is short-term poverty reduction historically how countries developed?
- Shouldn’t countries be allowed to prioritize themselves?
Definition of isomorphic mimicry
Copying institutional rules that are perceived to have promoted development elsewhere
Modernization theory in respect to isomorphic mimicry
Copying “modern” organizational forms creates development
- Assumes that institutions work the same in any context
- Ignores differences in history, culture, state capacity
- Ignore how the institution came to be
- Ignores the local legitimacy of the institution
- Ignores whether these institutions really mattered for development
Why does more “monitoring and evaluation” fail to get teachers to turn up at school?
- Qualified teachers only live in urban areas
- They are employed at distant rural schools
- Public transport is unreliable
- Urban childcare and schools are often closed
- Teachers jobs are protected by politically powerful unions
How did Nigeria’s Vision 2020 seek to mimic singapore?
- Defined accountability relationships
- “Scorecard”
- “Key performance indicators”
- “National performance report”
Why does isomorphic mimicry continue?
- Importing “Western” institutions provides domestic legitimacy to bureaucrats and politicians
- Western donors have a bias to export modern, technical solutions
Importing “Western” institutions provides domestic legitimacy to bureaucrats and politicians (why does isomorphic mimicry continue?)
- It “must” work because the West is already rich
- An alternative to “performance” legitimacy
- A “window dressing” institutions
Western donors have a bias exports “modern”, technical solutions (why does isomorphic mimicry continue?)
- “Technical assistance” missions are less controversial than “political” missions
- Local experimentation is risky and hard to evaluate
- Copying British laws suggest Britain is influential
- A development “industry”, not development
What are NOT the reasons that police do not arrest law breakers?
- Not about the rules
– The actions being taken are unambigiously illegal - Not about capacity
– Enforcement happens sometimes but not at other times (Colombia)
– Strong states sometimes don’t enforce (Chile) - Not about corruption
– These street sellers do not need to pay police to look the other way
Definition of forbearance
Intentionally choosing not to enforce the rules/laws
Positives and negatives of forbearance
- Institutional rules provide incentives for investments
- But they also redistribute wealth and opportunities
– eg. banning street sellers redistributes wealth from informal sellers to formal shops
– Providing property rights protection for shop owners and “order” - Ignoring those rules can redistribute large benefits to the poor
– More than the value of direct government benefit
What is the cost of forbearance?
Undermining property rights
- Reducing incentives to invest
- For shopowners
- For informal sellers
How is politics split in developing countries since its not left vs right?
Enforcement vs Forbearance
- Enforcement is a signal of being “anti-poor”
– A candidate of “law and order”
- Forbearance is a signal of being pro-poor
When do governments choose forbearance?
- Where governing politicians depend on poor voters
- Where alternative, formal, social welfare programs are weak
- eg. Bogota, Colombia after 2003
- eg. poorer neighborhoods of Lima, Peru
When do government choose enforcement?
- Where politicians depend on middle class voters and shopkeepers
- And can claim credit for solving social problems like congestion and crime
- eg. Oshodi Market, Lagos, Nigeria
