POLITICS OF DEVELOPMENT

Nadia Molenaers
ASSIGNMENT FOR NEXT WEEK
1. Read (on BB required reading)
- Fukuyama, What is Governance
- Governance is governance as a governments ability to
make and enforce rules, and to deliver services, regardless of
whether that government is democratic or not. Governance
is about the performance of agents in carrying out the
wishes of principals, and not about the goals that principals
set.
- Governance analytics, the next steps

2. Watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w06x8Q_hdMU
- And write down your aha- moments

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2014
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Starting with concepts
For back-up: see BB Required reading
-Leftwich A (2010) Beyond Institutions
-Institutions and Development: A Critical Review
-Fukuyama, What is Governance
-Governance is
-Governance analytics

THE WOOLLY CONCEPTS
DEVELOPMENT DEMOCRACY - GOVERNANCE
What is development?
Narrow definitions
Economic growth (income, GDP, economics indicators):
simple, can measure it everywhere and compare countries
to each other. But lots of criticisim because it is not about
only income, and growth; e.g. Poverty reduction (lots of
growth but not everyone experience the same; inequality;
happiness; democracy
Open definitions: multidimensionality
Poverty reduction
Decreasing inequality
Equality
Equity
Well being
Happiness
The good society including democratic politics
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What is democracy? (e.g. election; freedom; human rights; accountability; seperation of
power; rule of law; jacksonville act for USA president) . No agreement on the definition of
democrart but its dimensions -> narrow definition: election, you can catalogue countries by
this definition, free and fair election; peaceful alternation power, seperation of 3 powers)
Narrow definitions
Procedural (Schumpeter)
Substantive qualifications
Alternation in power (more more alternation and peaceful power it becomes,
the more country democratic)
Open definitions (adding substantive qualifications)
Free and fair elections
Open, inclusive, transparent, accountable institutions
Participation, voice
Human rights (democracy can rely on the culture of tolerance)
Culture of tolerance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNX31t7Cees
Consensus: political competition political participation (Dahl Polyarchy)
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Dahl - Polyarchy
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Models of Democracy (is an umbrela concept)
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Source: Smit & Oosthuizen 2011
Source: Smit & Oosthuizen 2011
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Substantive concerns ideology
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Important: democracy can be looked at/assessed or idealized
from different perspectives (cfr Easton Political System)
-Input: How to get into power (elections, electoral systems, voting rights, turnout,
but also role of money in campaigning, role of media in electoral campaigns) are
different (link between political elite and business elite/mixure between economics
and politics). Here you can qualify democracy i.e. more or less democratic.
-Throughput: How power is exercised and decisions are taken (majority rules, veto-
rights, transparency, accountability, participation, responsiveness, access to justice,
how policies are enacted, implemented) - The functioning of state institutions
(meritocracy, effectiveness, efficiency)
-Outputs: fairness of decisions and implementation (that is the nature of policy and
act)
-Outcomes: impact on economy, on civil society, (how democracy has impact)

Problem: D brings the whole sets of question of what does it mean/what should it be? ) WHAT IS VERSUS WHAT
SHOULD BE
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What is governance?
Read
-Fukuyama, What is Governance
-Governance is
-Governance analytics, the next steps


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What is governance?
Leftwich 1996 distinguishes

1. Narrow, technocratic definition:
sound development management: set of rules and institutions and a system of public
administration which is open, transparent, efficient and accountable
Needed because provides clarity, stability and predictability for the private sector
(engine of economic development)
(World Bank position eschews political judgements)

2. Broad, political definition:
Narrow +
Democratic politics (system of competitive party politics, regular and fair elections,
independent judiciary, free press and protection of human rights)
(Western governments position, UNDP)

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ANALYTICAL CONCEPTS
INSTITUTIONS INSTITUTIONAL ARENAS - POLITICS
What are institutions?
Narrow: rules and norms that constrain human behaviour (Douglas North 1990)
More open: rules/norms and organisations that constrain and enable human behaviour
This course: institutions are the rules of the game organisations are the players of the game
(Leftwich 2010)



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What are institutional arenas?
State
Market
Civil society (organize themselves in a voluntary basis. You
join an organization based on similarity, identity that is more
value norm references)


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What are political institutions?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLWsvWIttjE
State (Power, rule of law and institutional accountability) vs
mordern state
Accountability:
Democratic Accountability: (to THE PEOPLE )
No-procedural acountability:
Moral accoutability: (more closely related to ideal type of CSO)
Being accountable is a behavior what kind of incentive that
generates this behavior? (competitive appears here as an
influence to behavior as well).
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Fukuyama: (based a lots on Weber)
Political institutions: 3 groups
State power
Rule of law
Accountability
Definition of a modern state (Weber )
Monopoly on force has the right and ability to use violence, in legally defined
instances, against members of society, or against other states (state has monopoly
on violence and force e.g. arm forces. some countries in the reality doesnt have this
monopoly of force. This is the problem of Weber: at that time he doesnt have the
example of interest state: groups or region challenging the state)
Legitimacy its power is recognized by members of society and by other states as
based on law and some form of justice. (this is related a little bit accountability. A
helps to construct legitimacy
Territoriality and the population the state exists in a defined territory (which
includes land, water and air) and exercises authority over the population of that
territory

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What is politics ?
Narrow definition

Open definition

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What is politics?
all the many activities of cooperation, conflict and negotiation
involved in decisions about the use, production and distribution
of resources
Formal, informal, public, private, national local activities
All collective human activity: families, farms, companies,
churches, sectors, issues.

Politics may be messy, stable, get in the way, but it is
unavoidable, necessary and pervasive unique to the human
species

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Levels of politics
1) Rules of the game
Formal institutional arrangements
Informal arrangements
Agreement on the basic rules of the games, and agreement on how to
change the rules lead to stable polities
Lengthy and conflict ridden process
Interaction between formal and informal institutional arrangements
Complementarity
Undermining formal arrangements (patron-client)
Replacing dysfunctional formal arrangements
The critical level of politics because it establishes the regime, the
fundamental settlement
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Levels of politics
2) Games within the rules (how you play with the rule) this is the
second level of politics (e.g. country as an institution (the rule of
the game) and then looks at individual cell within that country
e.g. hospital has its own rule and regulation)
The daily debates and contestations over policy and practice: = normal politics
Within the established rules of the game
Stability of rules gradual change => predictable environment
Rules of the game vs games within rules
Example: Olympic games

Rules of the game:
Rules are set per sport, formal and informal - No discussion, only interpretation
(arbiters, juries) - No respect for the rules: sanctions
Changing of the rules linked to specific procedures

Games within rules
Competition strategies (defensive play, aggressive play)

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The politics of development
Is about changing:
How resources are being produced, used and distributed
How decisions are taken about such changes and about the
politics which sustain, implement and extend them

States/governments which deploy such politics AND are able to
produce developmental results are DEVELOPMENTAL STATES (as
a concept are actually those state deliver development results
within a certain timeframe; state has sustain growth rate
overtime but they are not democratic e.g. Ethiophia, Ruanda,
guranda..)
Are developmental states democratic? (
Development democracy combined
Developmental Non-developmental
Democratic

Non-democratic

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WHY OUR FOCUS ON POLITICS AND
INSTITUTIONS ?
Politics is the art of making your selfish desires seem like the national interest. Thomas Sowell
The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship
you dont have to waste your time voting. Charles Bukowski
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies. Groucho
Marx
It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favour of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This
makes me forever ineligible for public office. H. L. Mencken
A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar. H.L. Mencken
Politics is the entertainment division of the military industrial complex. Frank Zappa



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Politics: a necessary evil?
Associated with
Corruption and dirty business
Inefficiency
Ineffectiveness
Trust in politicians has decreased everywhere
In Africa: political institutions are the least trusted (african
trust business more than politic)
Fantasies of statelessness anti-politics atmosphere
A curious blindness to the importance of political institutions
L and R: Marx - Anti-globalists - Global economy replacing sovereign states
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Nonetheless

Political institutions are vital
and politics are unescapable

WHY ?
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Political institutions are vital because
A market economy rests on:
Institutional arrangements regarding property rights
Rule of law
A basic political order
Democracy rests on:
Vigorous civil society
Free market
But most importantly: a strong hierarchical gvt that is
Legitimate
Rule bound
Accountable
Poor countries are not poor because they lack resources, but because they lack
effective political institutions

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And politics are unescapable because
most dimensions in our lives are affected by the actions of
others
human interaction is fully rule-based
establishment (and enforcement) of rules is what politics is
about


If politics are th problem, then it is exactly there where
solutions must be found.


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Why dont we appreciate politics and political
institutions?
A complex story of principles, expectations and reality
Worldwide an increased preference for democratic
principles
Transition to democratic governance raises the
expectations of population
Performance of democratically elected governments
remains problematic
Critical citizens
Underperforming governments

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Where do institutions come from? How do you
get to Denmark?
Mythical Denmark
How do you get Somalia, Haiti, Nigeria, DRC, Afghanistan
to Denmark?
international community imports Denmarks institutions


Problems:
- Time horizon
- Cultural values
- History

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrl8yX10BBg&feature=relatedHistory

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