The GOVERNANCE blog

In the new issue of Governance (July 2010), Larry Schroeder of Syracuse University reviews Fiscal Federalism: Principles and Practice of Multi-Order Governance by Robin Boadway and Anwar Shah.  Schroeder says that the book “fills an important void in the literature . . . a very complete and balanced review” of the principles of fiscal federalism.  Read the review.

Grace Skogstad‘s Internationalization and Canadian Agriculture: Policy and Governing Paradigms provides “an invaluable guide” to the ways in which Canadian agricultural policy has responded — or not — to international pressures, according to Tim Josling of Stanford University.  Read the review.

International aid programs aimed at improving the performance of governmental institutions frequently fail to achieve their objectives.  In the current issue of Governance (23.3, July 2010), Peter Solomon of the University of Toronto describes a success story: programs funded by Canadian and US aid agencies to promote the efficiency and fairness of Russian courts.  Solomon says that success was rooted in a “tactical approach” to reform, “grounded in flexible and recipient centered experimentation.”  This is an effective way of building trust and a sense of ownership among key stakeholders.  “The process,” Solomon concludes, “requires a patience, flexibility, and humility that may not be possible when a transfer of experience is fully planned.”  Read the article.

The 2010 Levine Book Prize has been awarded to Bringing in the Future: Strategies for Farsightedness and Sustainability in Developing Countries (University of Chicago Press, 2009), by William Ascher.  Ascher is the Donald C. McKenna Professor of Government and Economics at Claremont McKenna College.  Special recognition is also given to books by Allison Stanger of Middlebury College, and Walter Mattli and Ngaire Woods of the University of Oxford.  More details about the 2010 Levine Book Prize are available here.  The 2010 Levine Prize Committee was comprised of Mirko Noordegraaf, Utrecht School of Governance (Chair);  Susan Phillips, Carleton University; and Anthony B.L. Cheung, Hong Kong Institute of Education.

SOG members David Coen (University College London) and Graham Wilson (Boston University) are co-editors, with Wyn Grant (University of Warwick), of the Oxford Handbook of Business and Government, just published by Oxford University Press.  The book “provides an authoritative overview with chapters by leading authorities on the current state of knowledge of business-government relations.”  OUP is offering a twenty percent discount on orders.

Individuals who take a subscription to Governance in the month of July will receive a complimentary copy of Pratap Bhanu Mehta‘s book The Burden of Democracy, published by Penguin.  The Financial Express called the book a “brilliantly and provocatively written essay” on governance in India. Details on how to subscribe are available here.  Subscribers receive print and electronic access to all content in the journal and also become members of the IPSA Structure and Organization of Government Group, the academic sponsor of Governance.

The relationship between democracy and good governance is “more tenuous than we like to admit,” says Pratap Bhanu Mehta, President of India’s Centre for Policy Research, in the lead commentary for the new issue of Governance (23.3, July 2010).  But Mehta examines one neglected factor that might improve the prospects for good governance: an increase in the scale of government spending.

In India, Mehta argues, increased state expenditure has improved voters’ attention to governmental performance; changed the structure of corruption in beneficial ways; and allowed government to invest in stronger accountability instruments.  “A growth in state capacity,” Mehta concludes, “can, to a certain extent, mitigate the ill effects of unaccountable government.”  Download Mehta’s commentary for free.