The mainstream public economics literature makes the case that government intervention ought to be considered in two instances, i) when market failures occur because of externalities, public good properties, incomplete information, and lack of competition, or ii) when market activities worsen...

Inspired by a private sector practice of conducting client satisfaction surveys, a small group of people in Bangalore2, concerned about the city' deteriorating standards of public services3, initiated an exercise in 1993 to collect feedback from users. User perceptions on the quality,...

Run by dictators for over 20 years (1964-1985), Brazil only had a democratic constitution promulgated in 1998 that allowed an already active civil society to function more freely. A country of 156 million, Brazil has been dubbed one of the most unequal, with one of the largest numbers of poor...

The state of Gujarat hosts almost a tenth of India's 80 million tribal people. Despite official rhetoric of significant investment in tribal development projects, results on the ground were questionable. This prompted DISHA (Development Initiatives for Social and Human Action) to get into the...

Following a dramatic drop in per capita GNP from US$ 1200 in early 1997 to US$ 680 in 1998, the Indonesian government began implementing social safety net (SSN) programs targeting the adversely affected - those who became poor after the crisis and everyone already living in poverty. These were...

Budget allocation alone can be a poor indicator of the quality and quantity of public service delivered on the frontline in countries with weak institutions. While shifting of budgetary resources to priority sectors is a good first step, it is crucial to ascertain where and how the allocated sum...

Since 1987, Ireland has developed five "social partnership" agreements, with the latest launched in February 2000 called the "Program for Prosperity and Fairness"1. This program outlines a comprehensive set of economic and social objectives finalized over extensive consultations among the...

For the past six years, the State of Andhra Pradesh in India has been at the vanguard of efforts to modernize the economy and the state while pursuing policies to improve the lives of the poorest. The Chief Minister and head of the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Mr. Chandra Babu Naidu, is...

1992 was both a year of bitterness and hope. A decade of civil war had devastated the country but left no clear winner or loser; it was time to try peace. The governing ARENA party and the FMLN rebels signed peace accords requiring the demobilization of the FMLN and its incorporation into the...

In January 1999, Poland launched a new pension system that was the result of 5-6 years of broad outreach campaigns and complex negotiations within the government and between the government and key stakeholder groups. A number of compromises were made to broaden support for the reform; these...