Governance, Administration and Development: Making the State Work.

• Jurisdiction: Australia
• Date: 01 January 1998
• Author: Davis, Tom
• Published date: 01 January 1998
• Author: Davis, Tom

Mark Turner and David Hulme, Governance, Administration and Development: Making the State Work, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Macmillan Press Ltd, 1997, 272 pp., ISBN 0-333-56753-6, Aus$34.95.

There is a long and, only occasionally, honourable tradition of northern-based academics telling southern governments how best to promote development and alleviate poverty. The tenor of the recommendations depends entirely on who is proferring them. A northern economist locates impediments to the effective operation of markets, defines possible areas of comparative advantage and advocates the government get out of the business of "rowing" and concentrate on "steering". A northern political scientist identifies the absence of strong democratic institutions, expresses concern at the lack of civil society and advocates government reforms along broad liberal-democratic lines. A political anthropologist/sociologist spends ten years "on the ground" in a developing country, makes meticulous observations on the interaction between leaders and people, notes the breakdown of order accompanying change and argues for a better appreciation of indigenous state-society relations in northern aid policy: Meanwhile, the residents of the developing...