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The Challenge of Building (Real) State Capability

Author

Listed:
  • Matt Andrews

    (Center for International Development at Harvard University)

  • Lant Pritchett

    (Center for International Development at Harvard University)

  • Michael Woolcock

    (Center for International Development at Harvard University)

Abstract

Efforts to build state capability often take the form of commonly used, highly designed and engineered best practice solutions that have worked in many other places and that we suspect (and hope) will work again in many contexts. Such interventions do sometimes work, especially when the treatment actually addresses problems that fester in the context. Where the contextual problems are different, however, the treatment is just isomorphic mimicry—it looks good but will not be a solution to problems that actually matter. Development organizations often cannot see this, however, and offer the same solution again and again—hoping for a different outcome but imposing a capability trap on the policy context, where a new diagnosis and prescription is actually needed. In some countries the treatment has an even worse impact, fostering premature load bearing—where the context cannot actually handle what is prescribed. How can development experts identify in advance where they will have such negative impacts, and how can they identify in advance where they need to do development differently? This paper addresses such questions, and introduces an approach to building state capability in the latter contexts (called 1804 contexts), called problem driven iterative adaptation.

Suggested Citation

  • Matt Andrews & Lant Pritchett & Michael Woolcock, 2015. "The Challenge of Building (Real) State Capability," CID Working Papers 306, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
  • Handle: RePEc:cid:wpfacu:306
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrews, Matt & Pritchett, Lant & Woolcock, Michael, 2013. "Escaping Capability Traps Through Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA)," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 234-244.
    2. Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Ministry of Economy & World Bank, 2010. "Poverty Status in Afghanistan," World Bank Publications - Reports 27827, The World Bank Group.
    3. Andrews,Matt, 2013. "The Limits of Institutional Reform in Development," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107016330, October.
    4. William Easterly, 2002. "The cartel of good intentions: The problem of bureaucracy in foreign aid," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(4), pages 223-250.
    5. Pritchett, Lant & Woolcock, Michael, 2004. "Solutions When the Solution is the Problem: Arraying the Disarray in Development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 191-212, February.
    6. Dani Rodrik, 2007. "Introductiion to One Economics, Many Recipes: Globalization, Institutions, and Economic Growth," Introductory Chapters, in: One Economics, Many Recipes: Globalization, Institutions, and Economic Growth, Princeton University Press.
    7. repec:unu:wpaper:wp2012-64 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Ha-Joon Chang, 2003. "Kicking Away the Ladder: Infant Industry Promotion in Historical Perspective 1," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(1), pages 21-32.
    9. Andrews, Matt, 2015. "Explaining Positive Deviance in Public Sector Reforms in Development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 197-208.
    10. Andrews, Matthew R. & McConnell, Jesse & Wescott, Alison, 2010. "Development as Leadership-led Change," Scholarly Articles 4449099, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    11. Matt Andrews & Jesse McConnell & Alison Wescott, 2010. "Development as Leadership-led Change," CID Working Papers 206, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    12. Andrews, Matt & Pritchett, Lant & Woolcock, Michael, 2013. "Escaping Capability Traps Through Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA)," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 234-244.
    13. Sean Snyder, 2013. "The Simple, the Complicated, and the Complex: Educational Reform Through the Lens of Complexity Theory," OECD Education Working Papers 96, OECD Publishing.
    14. Verena Fritz & Kai Kaiser & Brian Levy, 2009. "Problem-Driven Governance and Political Economy Analysis : Good Practice Framework," World Bank Publications - Reports 16777, The World Bank Group.
    15. Lant Pritchett, Michael Woolcock, Matt Andrews, 2010. "Capability Traps? The Mechanisms of Persistent Implementation Failure - Working Paper 234," Working Papers 234, Center for Global Development.
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    Cited by:

    1. Andrews, Matt & Pritchett, Lant & Woolcock, Michael, 2017. "Building State Capability: Evidence, Analysis, Action," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198747482.
    2. Ramirez Chaparro, Maria Nathalia & Chacón Mejía, Catalina, 2024. "Mission: Impossible - Learning to learn, innovating instead of copying and escaping the trap - A perspective from “the rest”," MPRA Paper 120240, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Matt Andrews & Lant Pritchett & Michael Woolcock, 2015. "Doing Problem Driven Work," CID Working Papers 307, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    4. Matt Andrews & Lant Pritchett & Michael Woolcock, 2016. "Scaling PDIA through Broad Agency, and Your Role," CID Working Papers 315, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    5. Origa Otieno, James, 2019. "Practice insights – Experimentation and design thinking in Public policy-making processes," EconStor Preprints 193463, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.

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    Keywords

    Governance; State Capability;

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