Turning Governance Thinking Upside-down? Insights from ‘the politics of what works’

Sam Hickey

Third World Quarterly, 2012, vol. 33, issue 7, 1231-1247

Abstract: Mainstream thinking within international development around what constitutes ‘pro-poor’ forms of politics is increasingly at odds with the growing evidence-base on the politics of development. Ideological bias towards Weberian modes of governance and rational actor models of political behaviour, and a growing belief in the power of ‘evidence-based policy making’ fail to reflect the extent to which informal and patronage-based forms can sometimes play a positive role in enabling poverty reduction, as well as the fact that political elites respond to a wider range of incentives than commonly assumed, including a role for political ideology and discourse rather than evidence per se. These findings offer further support for a fundamental rethinking around the role of politics in shaping development.

Date: 2012
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DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2012.695516

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