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Burnell & Randall: Politics in the Developing World 2e

Chapter 12

  1. Approximately how many examples of successful state-building are there in the developing world, and why have there not been even more?

  2. Should new states concentrate on establishing the institutions of effective governance before they attempt to institutionalise democracy?

  3. Should international efforts to promote 'good governance' in developing countries be encouraged and are they likely to be successful?

  4. Why is corruption so prevalent in the developing world and are international aid donors correct in viewing it as a major threat to the developmental capacity of states?

  5. What administrative reforms would contribute most to increasing the capacity of developing country governments to implement pro-poor policies for welfare and development?

  6. Would greater decentralisation improve policy-making and policy- delivery in developing countries and what are the main obstacles to achieving meaningful decentralisation?

  7. In what sense and in what respects do states in developing countries need to be autonomous from society?

  8. Are mechanisms of democratic accountability needed to ensure effective government? Discuss with reference to experience in developing countries.

  9. Why might instituting an effective system of taxation be an important step in the process of state-building, and why might this prove difficult in developing countries?

  10. In what circumstances can the military be seen as agents of state-building in the developing world?

  11. If corruption is endemic in much of the developing world, why is its impact on government so much more damaging in some countries than in others?

  12. Is the challenge of state-building after state collapse significantly different from state-building in other situations?

  13. Economists argue that good policy is essential to development, but what aspects of state-building hold the key to good development policy?

  14. Are institutional strength and quality of governance the same thing, and how do you measure them?

  15. Do examples from the developing world enable us to compare the developmental effects of strong institutions and bad policies on the one hand with weak institutions and good policies on the other?

  16. Do examples from the developing world enable us to compare explanations of the combination of strong institutions and bad policies on the one side with weak institutions and good policies on the other?

  17. Draw on developing country experience to show how informal political institutions can strongly influence the way that formal state institutions actually function.

  18. Can informal political institutions be beneficial to state-building?

  19. Can informal political institutions be beneficial to nation-building?

  20. How can we determine which matters most in politics, the political institutions or the conditions that influence the generation and operation of those institutions?

  21. Do state-building, state-reshaping, and state downsizing present contradictory approaches to theorising the requisites of development in the contemporary era, or are there areas of compatibility between these three approaches?

  22. Within state institutions, in developing countries, are the main causes of corruption cultural, or economic, or is it due to some other factor?