Publications in 2014

Elinor Ostrom's Legacy: Governing the Commons and the Rational Choice Controversy|

Forsyth, Tim,
LSE International Development Blog (2014).

Elinor Ostrom had a profound impact on development studies through her work on public choice, institutionalism and the commons. In 2009, she became the first - and so far, only - woman to win a Nobel Prize for Economics (a prize shared with Oliver Williamson). The purpose of this article is to identify and discuss Elinor Ostrom's legacy in international development. Read the full article here >>|

The military physician and contested medical humanitarianism: A duelling identity?|

Gordon, Stuart
Social Science & Medicine, 120 (2014).

A critical issue in the study of humanitarianism is who counts as a medical humanitarian. Military physicians are often characterized as caught between the potentially incompatible roles of physician and military professional. Medical NGOs, such as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), have also vociferously rejected military medical humanitarianism. Yet, many military doctors contest this. Consequently, this study examines the ways in which primarily British military physicians identify and manage their identities as both medical humanitarians and soldiers.

Improving Basic Services for the Bottom Forty Percent|

Khan, Qaiser, Jean-Paul Faguet, Christopher Gaukler, and Wendmsyamregne Mekasha,
World Bank Group (2014).

This World Bank study examines why "Ethiopia’s model for delivering basic services appears to be succeeding and [confirms] that services improve when service providers are more accountable to citizens." Read the study on Issuu >>|

Historical Origins of Uneven Service Supply in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Role of Non-State Providers|

Wietzke, Frank-Borge,
The Journal of Development Studies, 50.12 (2014).

Variations in non-state service provision are a relatively understudied dimension of wellbeing inequality in sub-Saharan Africa. This study from Madagascar documents long-term associations between nineteenth-century missionary education and the availability of private schools today. The article exploits an original data set with unusually detailed information on missionary education and contemporary local private school supply. The results indicate high levels of persistence in non-state schooling at the geographic level. The long tradition of faith-based education appears to contribute to religious differences that overlap only imperfectly with more widely studied ethnic divides.

The Handbook of Global Security Policy|

Kaldor, Mary, and Iavor Rangelov (eds),
Wiley-Blackwell (2014).

Security policy has changed dramatically since the end of the Cold War.  It can no longer be thought of in terms of securing one country against the military attack of another. Security is now a global concept that crosses traditional state boundaries and faces risks of many shapes and sizes. In her book, Mary Kaldor brings together 28 state-of-the-art essays covering the essential aspects of global security research and practice for the 21st century. Edited by two of the field’s leading scholars, this volume embraces a broad new definition of security, and examines the risks and challenges posed by new forms of violence and insecurity.

'Information Tools for Improving Accountability in Primary Health Care', by Sharin Madon, in Closing the Feedback Loop: Can Technology Bridge the Accountability Gap?|

Gigler, Björn-Sören, and Savita Bailur (eds),
World Bank Group (2014).

The rapid spread of new technologies is transforming the daily lives of millions of poor people around the world and has the potential to be a real game changer for development. The new World Bank report, 'Closing the Feedback Loop: Can Technology Bridge the Accountability Gap?' presents a theoretical framework about the linkages between new technologies, participation, empowerment, and the improvement of poor people's human well-being based on Amartya Sen's capability approach.

The book provides rich case studies about the different factors that influence whether or not information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled citizen engagement programs can improve the delivery and quality of public services to poor communities, including Dr Shirin Madon's case study on the factors and process of using new technologies to enhance the delivery of primary health services to pregnant women in Karnataka, India. Read the report >>|

The securitisation of NGOs post-9/11|

Howell, Jude,
Conflict, Security & Development, 14.2 (2014).

In this article, Jude Howell argues that the securitisation of an issue can involve not only negative, exclusionary and repressive extraordinary measures, but also more positive, inclusionary and productive strategies of engagement. It also argues that such bifurcated strategies of security can evoke a spectrum of responses that sets limits on the process of securitisation. It examines these two arguments through the lens of the securitisation of development NGOs post-9/11.

Disempowerment from Below: Informal Enterprise Networks and the Limits of Political Voice in Nigeria|

Meagher, Kate,
Oxford Development Studies, 42.3 (2014).

Decentralized governance has enjoyed limited success in promoting popular livelihoods and political voice among informal actors. Explanations have tended to focus on sources of disempowerment from above, where informal collective action is overwhelmed or side-lined by more powerful government or private-sector interests. This article will focus on the ways in which prolonged crisis and informality can also generate processes of disempowerment from below by disrupting and warping informal organizational dynamics. Through a micro-politics of organizational networks in three informal enterprise associations in Nigeria, this article explores the ways in which prolonged economic and social stress combines with political marginalization to turn even economically dynamic and highly organized informal activities from a terrain of collective agency to an uneven playing field of volatile strategies, social fragmentation and pervasive exclusion.

Asian firms and the restructuring of global value chains|

Azmeh, Shamel,
International Business Review, 23.4 (2014).

Asian trans-national garment manufacturers are transforming the structure of global value chains in the apparel industry. In this paper for International Business Review, Shamel Azmeh| argues that such transnational Asian firms can play a pivotal and strategic role in shaping the geography and organisational restructuring of the global value chain. Drawing on secondary sources and primary research, the report illustrates how such firms manage complex international production linkages and ensure the incorporation of Jordan into the global garment industry.

Property and Political Order in Africa: Land Rights and the Structure of Politics|

Boone, Catherine,
Cambridge University Press (2014).

In sub-Saharan Africa, property relationships around land and access to natural resources vary across localities, districts, and farming regions. These differences produce patterned variations in relationships between individuals, communities, and the state. In this book, Catherine Boone| captures these patterns in an analysis of structure and variation in rural land tenure regimes and analyses how property institutions shape dynamics of great interest to scholars of politics.

'The camp' and 'the lesser evil': humanitarianism in Sri Lanka|

Keen, David,
Conflict, Security & Development, 14.1 (2014).

This article examines the 2009 humanitarian disaster in Sri Lanka through fieldwork conducted at the time and through theoretical lenses supplied by Arendt, Foucault and Agamben. The catastrophe represents a salutary example of the consequences of promoting a ‘lesser evil’ in the context of a government-fuelled human rights disaster.

The Tertiary Tilt: Education and Inequality in the Developing World|

Gruber, Lloyd, and Stephen Kosack,
World Development, 54 (2014).

Education is widely perceived to be a tonic for the rising inequality that often accompanies development. But most developing-country governments tilt their education spending toward higher education, which disproportionately benefits elites. We find that in countries with high “tertiary tilts,” rising primary enrollment is associated a decade later with far higher inequality. Since most developing countries tilt their spending toward higher education, this analysis suggests that efforts that concentrate only on expanding mass education could end up raising inequality in much of the developing world.

Public concerns about transboundary haze: A comparison of Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia|

Forsyth, Tim,
Global Environmental Change, 25 (2014).

Public concerns about environmental problems create narrative structures that influence policy by allocating roles of blame, responsibility, and appropriate behavior. In this paper, Tim Forsyth presents an analysis of public concerns about transboundary haze resulting from forest fires in Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia for crises experienced in 1997, 2005 and 2013.

Political Trade Dependence and North–South Trade Agreements|

Shadlen, Ken, and Mark S. Manger,
International Studies Quarterly, 58 (2014).

Why do developing countries negotiate North–South trade agreements when they already enjoy preferential market access to developed-country markets? Most developing countries benefit from the generalised system of preferences (GSP) and related schemes when they export to the United States, the EU, and other developed economies. And yet, many pursue fully reciprocal agreements that require major concessions to the developed partner. In this article, Ken Shadlen argues that this is due to the nature of the GSP as a unilateral concession that can be (and often is) taken away, and high dependence on unilateral, removable preferences generates “political trade dependence”.

Why do people drop out of community-based health insurance? Findings from an exploratory household survey in Senegal|

Mladovsky, Philipa,
Social Science & Medicine, 107 (2014).

Although a high level of drop-out from community-based health insurance (CBHI) is frequently reported, it has rarely been analysed in depth. This study explores whether never having actively participated in CBHI is a determinant of drop-out. A conceptual framework of passive and active community participation in CBHI is developed to inform quantitative data analysis. Fieldwork comprising a household survey was conducted in Senegal in 2009. Levels of active participation among 382 members and ex-members of CBHI across three case study schemes are compared using logistic regression. Results suggest that, controlling for a range of socioeconomic variables, the more active the mode of participation in the CBHI scheme, the stronger the statistically significant positive correlation with remaining enrolled.

Decentralisation and Governance|
Faguet, Jean-Paul,

Decentralization and Veiled Corruption under China's "Rule of Mandates"|
Birney, Mayling,

World Development, 53 (2014).

In this special issue of World Development, Jean-Paul Faguet examines how decentralization might increase political competition, improve public accountability, reduce political instability, and impose incentive-compatible limits on government power, but also threaten fiscal sustainability. Such improvements in governance can help spur the broad historical transitions that define development.

Mayling Birney shows why corruption is especially difficult to detect under China’s system of decentralized authoritarian “rule of mandates”. As local officials must exercise immense discretion over which laws to implement, a relative standard for corruption consequently arises. With evidence from original survey and case research on the implementation of the village elections law, Mayling discusses implications for anticorruption efforts, development patterns, and future research.

The Spread of Economic Doctrines and Policymaking in Postcolonial Africa|

Mkandawire, Thandika,
African Studies Review, 57.1 (2014)

This article looks at the relationship between economic ideas and policymaking in Africa over the last half century. It discusses the ways in which the focus of economists working on Africa has moved from the structuralist-developmentalist and neo-Marxist perspectives of the 1960s and 1970s, through a neoliberal phase of the 1980s and 1990s, to a more eclectic combination of neo-institutionalism, growth orientation, and welfarist interests in poverty and redistribution issues.