What is the effect of state capacity on economic development? I argue that strong and centralised states are capable of mobilising the resources required to establish an efficient administration and provide public goods, which are preconditions for modern economic growth. To test this...

Zheng Yongnian's article "Discovering the Power of State: Chinese Thinking on State Power and Economic Management" offers an analysis of the role of the Chinese state in economic development. The article argues that the Chinese state has been a key factor in China's economic success, using a...

During the first wave of COVID-19 infections, Kerala, a state in southern India, successfully managed to contain the pandemic. As a result, the Kerala model of managing the COVID-19 pandemic was celebrated as a success across the globe. However, at the time of writing, it looks like the...

This chapter evaluates state capacity from a long-run historical perspective. We discuss how to define and measure state capacity. We explain how the establishment of a high-capacity state can enhance domestic peace, improve material prosperity, and promote more pluralistic norms. We describe...

Based on internal data, this paper finds that the capacity development program of the IMF's Statistics Department has prioritized technical assistance and training to fragile and conflict-affected states. These interventions have yielded only slightly weaker results in fragile states than in...

In order to enforce a collective choice to allocate resource to guarding against predators producers must subject themselves to the state's sovereign power to tax and to spend. But these sovereign powers in hand the state can exploit the producers by taxing and spending for its" own purposes....

A key idea in political economy is that policy is often tailored to voters who are not ideologically attached - swing voters. We show, however, that in political environments where political parties can use repression and violence to exclude voters from elections, they may optimally target the...

Does clientelism perpetuate the weak state capacity that characterizes many young democracies? Prior work explains that clientelist parties skew public spending to private goods and under-supply public goods. Building on these insights, this article argues that clientelism creates a bureaucratic...

This paper examines the politics of implementing the PSNP in Ethiopia. The PSNP isa targeted food and cash-for-work programme that places a strong emphasis on its‘productive’ contribution through public works, a livelihoods component and the aim ofmass ‘graduation’ from support. The...

This paper examines the politics of distributing the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) in Ethiopia’s Oromiya region. Drawing on detailed case studies in Arssi and North Shewa, the paper highlights the importance of state infrastructural power in shaping programme distribution. Over 30...

The paper is describing the introduction to the institutional theory of the State. The famous works of Maurice Hauriou, Douglass North, John Commons, Gianfranco Poggi and others were used as the basis of institution theory of the State. The sight to the State as institutionalized power give us a...

Powerful, centralized states controlling a large share of national income only begin to appear in Europe after 1500. We build a model that explains their emergence in response to the increasing importance of money for military success. When fiscal resources are not crucial for winning wars, the...

"This book provides a comprehensive investigation of the messy and crisis-ridden relationship between the operations of capitalist finance, global capital flows, and state power in emerging markets. The politics, drivers of emergence, and diversity of these myriad forms of state power are...

« Despite its oil wealth, the Middle East and North Africa is economically stagnating. Growth rates are comparatively unfavorable and insufficient to substantially improve citizens’ lives. Whether this economic inertia can be overcome or will continue into the indefinite future is a vital...

"At the time of writing, the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes the disease known as COVID-19,1 has infected people in 212 countries and on every continent except Antarctica. As of May 17, 2020, 5,780 people have died in Canada, and worldwide, there are over 313,000 reported deaths. The...

How should a state which lacks the monopoly of violence go about acquiring it? We investigate the use of high-powered incentives for members of the Colombian army as part of a strategy to combat left-wing guerillas and build the state's monopoly of violence. We show that this top-down...

This paper explores racial differences in police use of force. On non-lethal uses of force, blacks and Hispanics are more than fifty percent more likely to experience some form of force in interactions with police. Adding controls that account for important context and civilian behavior reduces,...

Based on a systematic review of the impacts of aid on both state capacity for, and elite commitment to, sustainable development, we conclude that a better understanding of the impact of aid has the potential to directly inform practices of international development. This requires better...

This paper explores racial differences in police use of force. On non-lethal uses of force, blacks and Hispanics are more than fifty percent more likely to experience some form of force in interactions with police. Adding controls that account for important context and civilian behavior reduces,...

Governments play a major role in the development process, and constantly introduce reforms and policies to achieve developmental objectives. Many of these interventions have limited impact, however; schools get built but children don't learn, IT systems are introduced but not used, plans are...

"Miguel A. Centeno, Agustin E. Ferraro, Vivekananda Nemana More than 3 decades ago, Albert Hirschman wondered why not enough attention had been paid to Latin America's post-war economic boom, certainly not while it happened. Only in retrospect, from the "lost decade" of the 1980s, did the...

Reform leaders who want to pursue technically sound policies are confronted with the problem of getting myriad government agencies, staffed by thousands of bureaucrats and state personnel, to deliver. This paper provides a framework for thinking about the problem as a series of interdependent...