Book Review: Public management reform: comparative experiences from East and West, Edited by David Coombes and Tony Verheijen. European Commission, Brussels, 1997.
✍ Scribed by Paul Collins
- Book ID
- 101290663
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1997
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 62 KB
- Volume
- 17
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0271-2075
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
The study demonstrates very effectively the meaning of relationships between poverty, violence and social institutions at the level of individuals and communities. Ideally speaking, this research should be complemented with analysis at an urban level, which could study the overall negative impacts of violence on economic performance and the sustainability of the proposed solutions in an overall urban framework.
This kind of work also acts as a response to critiques of the kind found in, for example, The Economist. The Economist (1997) suggested that the World Bank's core business does not lie in trying to maximize its amount of lending (the volume of private sector ®nance has overtaken international donors with a 5 to 1 ratio, and The Economist wonders why the World Bank should lend to countries who don't bother enough to collect taxes for public expenses), but in promoting institutions and frameworks that advance market functioning. I take institutions in a broad way, and tackling violence, which is economically speaking just a rather unproductive cost item, is a way of improving the productive capabilities of individuals and communities. In that sense, I see this report as a project for setting up social institutions to reduce poverty issues and improve economic development.