Working with the grain: integrating governance and growth in development strategies

The search for a useful development paradigm -- Constructing a typology -- The edge of chaos -- The dominant trajectory in action -- Personalized competition in action -- Virtuous circles in action -- Patterns of governance and growth -- Function versus form in public sector reform -- Transparency and participation : getting the fit right -- Multi-stakeholder governance and the private sector -- Governance and development? deconstructing the discourse -- Navigating the development knife-edge.

This book directs attention away from unattainable 'good governance', and towards 'with-the-grain' institutional reforms that can initiate and sustain development momentum. It shows how to find a 'good fit' between country context and governance reform - with virtuous circles of change sometimes transforming seemingly modest reforms into a cascading sequence of gains.