Governing Failure: Provisional Expertise and the Transformation of Global Development Finance

Jacqueline Best argues that the 1990s changes in IMF, World Bank and donor policies, towards what some have called the 'Post-Washington Consensus,' were driven by an erosion of expert authority and an increasing preoccupation with policy failure. Failures such as the Asian financial crisis and the decades of despair in sub-Saharan Africa led these institutions to develop governance strategies designed to avoid failure: fostering country ownership, developing global standards, managing risk and vulnerability and measuring results. In contrast to the structural adjustment era when policymakers were confident in their solutions, this is an era of provisional governance, in which key actors are aware of the possibility of failure even as they seek to inoculate themselves against it. Best considers the implications of this shift, asking if it is a positive change and whether it is sustainable. This title is available as Open Access on Cambridge Books Online and via Knowledge Unlatched. Cover 1 Half title 3 Title 5 Copyright 6 Contents 7 Figures 8 Acknowledgements 9 Abbreviations 11 Part I Understanding how global governance works 13 1 Introduction 15 How and why the shift occurred 18 How the new practices work 20 Implications 22 Empirical contributions 23 Methodological innovations 24 Theoretical insights 25 The importance of practice: between materiality and ideas 25 Understanding change 27 Expertise and failure 27 Provisional governance beyond risk 28 The plan of the book 29 2 A meso-level analysis 32 Understanding governance as practice 34 Focusing on governance strategies 37 Examining factors of governance 39 Actors 40 Techniques 41 Knowledge and ideas 42 Authority 44 Power 46 Recognizing governance styles 48 Understanding change 51 Part II History 55 3 What came before 57 What came before 59 Before standardization 60 Before ownership 62 Before risk and vulnerability 64 Before results-based measurement 68 A confident style of governing 71 Tensions emerge 76 4 Transformations 78 Some traditional accounts 80 An alternative account 82 The fragility of expert authority 83 The politics of failure 85 The problematization of structural adjustment practices 88 The problems (and possibilities) of politics 88 The limits of technical universals 90 Debating success and failure 92 The problem of contingency 95 Conclusions 97 Part III New governance strategies 101 5 Fostering ownership 103 The evolution of ownership 104 Redesigning conditionality 107 Streamlining at the IMF 107 A more gradual change at the World Bank 109 More radical shifts in some donor states 110 Analysing conditionality reform 112 Small "i" ideas 113 Symbolic and informal techniques 114 Informalizing power 115 Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) 118 The push for the PRSP 118 Analysing the PRSP 121 Engaging new actors 121 New techniques 122 New forms of authority and power 123 A more provisional style of governance 125 6 Developing global standards 127 Good governance 130 The evolution of a governance agenda 130 The World Bank 130 International Monetary Fund 133 Analysing good governance 134 A new kind of universal 134 New actors and sites of authority 137 New techniques: governing through universals 138 New forms of power and authority 140 Standards and codes 142 Developing the initiative 142 An analysis of standards and codes 144 A new kind of universal 144 More performative techniques 146 New actors and sites of authority 147 More indirect power 148 A more provisional kind of governance 149 7 Managing risk and vulnerability 151 Assessing poor countries' vulnerability to shocks 154 Understanding the shift 154 Three new policies 156 Changing governance factors 157 Small "i" ideas 158 Actors 159 Techniques 159 Power and authority 160 Redefining poverty as social risk and vulnerability 162 Understanding the shift 162 The social risk and vulnerability framework 166 Changing governance factors 167 Small "i" ideas 168 Techniques 169 Actors 170 Power and authority 171 A more provisional kind of governance 172 8 Measuring results 176 Where it came from 178 The "failure" of government and new public management 179 Results in development agencies 181 Analysing early results-oriented approaches 184 Recent developments 186 Donors get more quantitative 188 The World Bank's recent initiatives 190 Analysing governance factors 192 A more provisional style of governance 196 Part IV Conclusion 199 9 The politics of failure and the future of provisional governance 201 New failures 203 Fostering ownership 204 Developing global standards 206 Managing risk and vulnerability 207 Measuring results 209 Do these failures matter? 211 The future of provisional governance 214 Two possible directions 214 Political implications 216 Where are we heading? 218 Endnotes 221 1 Introduction 221 2 A meso-level analysis 225 3 What came before 231 4 Transformations 237 5 Fostering ownership 242 6 Developing global standards 249 7 Managing risk and vulnerability 257 8 Measuring results 264 9 The politics of failure and the future of provisional governance 269 People interviewed 275 Index 278

Jacqueline Best argues that the changes in International Monetary Fund, World Bank and donor policies in the 1990s, towards what some have called the 'Post-Washington Consensus, ' were driven by an erosion of expert authority and an increasing preoccupation with policy failure. Failures such as the Asian financial crisis and the decades of despair in sub-Saharan Africa led these institutions to develop governance strategies designed to avoid failure: fostering country ownership, developing global standards, managing risk and vulnerability and measuring results. In contrast to the structural adjustment era when policymakers were confident that they had all the answers, the author argues that we are now in an era of provisional governance, in which key actors are aware of the possibility of failure even as they seek to inoculate themselves against it. This book considers the implications of this shift, asking if it is a positive change and whether it is sustainable.This title was made Open Access by libraries from around the world through Knowledge Unlatched.

Jacqueline Best argues that the changes in International Monetary Fund, World Bank and donor policies in the 1990s, towards what some have called the 'Post-Washington Consensus,' were driven by an erosion of expert authority and an increasing preoccupation with policy failure. Failures such as the Asian financial crisis and the decades of despair in sub-Saharan Africa led these institutions to develop governance strategies designed to avoid failure: fostering country ownership, developing global standards, managing risk and vulnerability and measuring results. In contrast to the structural adjustment era when policymakers were confident that they had all the answers, the author argues that we are now in an era of provisional governance, in which key actors are aware of the possibility of failure even as they seek to inoculate themselves against it. This book considers the implications of this shift, asking if it is a positive change and whether it is sustainable. This title was made Open Access by libraries from around the world through Knowledge Unlatched