A shift in Western development agency thinking? The case for second best

Abstract

This review essay illustrates a turn in Western development agency thinking in two recent publications intended for development agencies and African "reformers," by authors with long careers in Western development institutions. Both publications explicitly reject - at least for the short to medium term - a comprehensive "good governance" approach to development. Subsequently, a publication entitled Violence and Social Orders, authored by three American scholars with an interest in the role of institutions in historical change, is reviewed since it is a crucial influence in the consolidation of this turn in thinking. This new Western approach is more restrained in its ambition to introduce new governance institutions in the developing world. This implies that it is prepared to tolerate what it considers to be imperfections in both the state and the market, viewing these as a second best result (in the short to medium term) in exchange for greater chances of realising positive...