Development Strategies : Integrating Governance And Growth
Open accessAbstract
A frontier challenge for development strategy is to move beyond prescribing optimal economic policies, and instead – taking a broad view of the interactions between economic, political and social constraints and dynamics -- to identify entry points capable of breaking a low-growth logjam, and initiating a virtuous spiral of cumulative change. The paper lays out four distinctive sequences via which the different dimensions might interact and evolve over time, and provides country-specific illustrations of each. Each sequence is defined by the principal focus of its initial step: 1) State capacity building provides a platform for accelerated growth via improved public sector performance and enhanced credibility for investors; strengthened political institutions and civil society come onto the agenda only over the longer term; 2) Transformational governance has as its entry point the reshaping of a country’s political institutions. Accelerated growth could follow, insofar as institutional changes enhance accountability, and reduce the potential for arbitrary discretionary action -- and thereby shift expectations in a positive direction; 3) For'just enough governance', the initial focus is on growth itself, with the aim of addressing specific capacity and institutional constraints as and when they become binding -- not seeking to anticipate and address in advance all possible institutional constraints; 4) Bottom-up development engages civil society as an entry point for seeking stronger state capacity, lower corruption, better public services, improvements in political institutions more broadly -- and a subsequent unlocking of constraints on growth. The sequences should not be viewed as a technocratic toolkit from which a putative reformer is free to choose. Recognizing that choice is constrained by history, the paper concludes by suggesting an approach for exploring what might the scope for identifying practical ways forward in specific country settings.
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Democracy provides an environment conducive to cultivating institutions that serve the common good and mitigate the detrimental effects of fragmentation on financial development.
“While democracy may not ensure perfection, it provides an environment conducive to cultivating institutions that serve the common good and mitigate the detrimental effects of fragmentation on financial development (Levy and Fukuyama 2010).”
From Diversity Matters in the World of Finance: Does Ethnic and Religious Diversity Hinder Financial Development in Developing Countries? (2025) · cites this paper as Levy and Fukuyama 2010
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Taylor, E. (2014) · Journal of Public Economics · doi:10.1016/j.jpubeco.2014.06.002 · Cited by 74 · see citing works
Amin, S., & Murshed, S. M. (2025) · The Developing Economies · doi:10.1111/deve.12434 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
- Authors
- Levy, B., & Fukuyama, F.
- Affiliations
- World Bank (US)
- Stanford University (US)
- ORCID
- Levy, Brian
- Venue
- World Bank, Washington, DC eBooks
- Publisher
- World Bank, Washington, DC
- Published
- 2010-01
- OpenAlex
- W1800618858
- Cited by
- 88
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 21 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 13
- Type
- report
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- World Bank, Washington, DC eBooks (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- The World Bank Open Knowledge Repository (World Bank) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Corruption and Economic Development
- Social Sciences › Demography › Culture, Economy, and Development Studies
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Economic Growth and Productivity
- Keywords
- development strategy, governance, economic growth, government capacity building, political institutions, civil society, corruption, accountability, public sector performance, institutional change, cumulative change, bottom-up development, political economy
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