"The approach outlined here benefits scholars and practitioners alike. For scholars, it provides new insights into studies of both the state and social forces. Studies that focus solely on the impact of political institutions on outcomes are likely to attribute far more import to the political institutions than is warranted. So too, efforts to understand the role of identity or to link identities and social conditions – such as economic inequalities or rural–urban divides – are incomplete unless they consider the relationship between such identities and overlapping arenas of authority."

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"This approach has methodological implications as well. It raises new measurement challenges. Given the value of social institutions and the subnational variation across them, it implies a move away from selective, single-realm judgements of quality of governance (e.g., fragile state indices). These, and even more extensive multi-sectoral measures, can permit us only a measure of governance and development. If governance takes place outside the state, to greater and lesser extents, then the study and practice of development requires metrics that take into account state and social arenas, tap into the relative importance and designs of these different arenas, and facilitate a mapping from arenas to outcomes."

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"This perspective also raises a number of questions that require future research. Some questions are familiar, although they generally have been reserved for the state: how do the familiar dimensions of states – the strength or design of institutions – affect when and how individuals respond, to what effect? How does codification (i.e., moving from informal to formal, or parchment, rules) of non-state institutions affect behavior and development? How does the nature of leadership – the level of hierarchy, exclusivity, or turnover – affect outcomes? How do changes in technology, ideology, and material resources affect the power of alternative arenas over individuals, promote contestation over and changes in social institutions within them, or lead to the emergence of new arenas of authority altogether?"

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"The answer to the question of which arenas of authority are relevant to the issue at hand is less obvious than it may appear. Actions often have multiple meanings: voting for a candidate is an act of choosing a policy, but also a demonstration of allegiance to an ethnic group or adherence to a religious doctrine; deciding whether or not to doctor an injured rebel is a choice of allegiance to the state, but also of support for a local community or commitment to a professional oath. Not all arenas are relevant to all decisions, and they are not always in conflict. But to know when they are relevant, one needs to recognize the multiple meanings of actions and how they fit within individuals’ memberships in different arenas."

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"A framework that takes arenas of authority and social institutions into account prompts analysts and practitioners to ask a number of questions: which arenas of authority matter for the issue at hand? How do the social institutions within the different arenas shape behaviour and development outcomes? (See Figure 2.) Moving forward requires fully interrogating expectations derived from the extant literature, answering new questions that emerge from the framework, and addressing methodological challenges."

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"Taking the competing arenas of authority and social institutions that affect individuals’ decisions into account requires that they be well defined. These are not merely the residuals, defined by what is left over after one has taken the state and its institutions into account. Nor should they be understood only as disruption to the state – corruption, clientelism, or capture. Finally, they are not simply identity groups. Arenas may be based on ethnicity, religion, or other identities; however, it is not the nature of the identity but rather the characteristics of arenas and institutions that shape action. The goal is not just to recognize that ethnicity, religion, or other identities affect the choices made by voters and politicians, citizens, and service providers. It is to understand how differences in the nature of these arenas and institutions outside the state shape their engagement – regardless of the identity on which they are based."

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"The dominant perspective on governance and development has privileged the state. Definitionally, scholars and practitioners often ascribe the state dominance over all other social organizations. Intellectually, scholars under-theorize non-state authorities and institutions. Practically, they devise programmes that seek to improve human welfare by shaping primarily state political and administrative institutions."

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"Electoral rules, administrative boundaries, and political parties are often viewed as state-based institutions; yet, as the aforementioned examples illustrate, they often are both shaped by and act as institutions in arenas outside the state. Electoral rules, for instance, can affect the extent to which individuals have incentives to demonstrate their allegiance to their tribe, locality, or other social group. Gender quotas can alter the rewards associated with following obligations for women to stay removed from the public sphere. So, too, actors and organizations associated with non-state arenas can act as substitutes for institutions associated with the state. The ability of tribal, religious, or other organizations to coordinate candidates and mobilize support undermines party development, but it also means that one finds the relevant institutions that shape electoral mobilization in tribes or other arenas, not in the state. Institutions associated with the state are often institutions of non-state arenas as well, and institutions in non-state arenas often shape engagement in the state. That is, institutions are not always either state or non-state institutions but may act in multiple arenas of authority at the same time."

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"Arenas of authority and social institutions also affect the development of political parties and party systems. As with electoral rules, scholars and practitioners primarily view political parties and party systems in terms of the state as organizations and systems that structure competition over political office. These scholars recognize that social context influences the development of parties and party systems (Boix, 1997; Lipset and Rokkan, 1967), but do not explicitly consider arenas of authority and the social institutions within them. These authorities not only influence the development of parties and party systems, but also give them meaning that extends beyond their roles in the state."

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"Arenas of authority outside the state, and social institutions within them, affect the development of administrative boundaries as well. Administrative boundaries are often drawn along tribal or sectarian lines, as a response to demands from social groups. When this fails to be the case, they are often the subject of contestation.

Reference Granovetter Grossman and Lewis (2014) find this in Uganda. They argue that ethnic groups in outlying areas of their district seek territorial secession when they are of a different group than the majority of those in the district centre. This is because these groups perceive themselves to be disadvantaged by the district centre and thus demand a district to gain greater spoils. Importantly, however, the disadvantage comes not from the logic of the state system but rather because resources are demanded and believed to flow along ethnic lines. That is, the ethnic arenas, and social institutions regarding responsiveness to in-group members, drive resource distribution and, hence, the demand for new districts."

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© Lust, E. (2022). Everyday Choices: The Role of Competing Authorities and Social Institutions in Politics and Development (Elements in the Politics of Development). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781009306164 

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"Electoral rules are conventionally viewed as political institutions that influence engagement and representation. They are the outcomes of negotiations in which political actors are centre stage. Taking this approach, for instance, Boix (1999) argues that the relative size of political parties determines whether elites establish PR or majoritarian rules. Scholars and practitioners increasingly recognize that other forces play a role. Some note that electoral rules may not work as expected because context (e.g., social divisions and norms, weak rule of law and media systems, and electoral fraud and intimidation) mediates outcomes (Reference Ferree, Powell and Scheiner Ferree et al., 2013; Reference Ferree, Powell and Scheiner 2014; Reference Krook and Moser Krook and Moser, 2013), while others consider how electoral institutions activate fault lines, determining which identities are salient (Reference Chandra Chandra, 2007; Reference Michael Albertus and Slater Posner, 2005). These approaches are insightful but not fully sufficient. They explore how elites’ negotiation of electoral rules shape elections but fall short of comprehending how the same considerations impact other arenas of authority. A more complete understanding is essential as academic perspectives influence praxis; political scientists not only study electoral rules, they also engineer them (Reference Carey, Hix, Htun, Mozaffar, Powell and Reynolds Carey et al., 2013; Reference Htun and Powell Htun and Powell, 2013)."

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"A perspective that overlooks competing arenas of authority and associated social institutions not only fails to understand how these forces affect politics and development, but also to make sense of state institutions. Electoral engagement, contributions to community development projects, and public service provision have multiple meanings. They are not only opportunities to choose lawmakers, fill coffers, or provide services, but also to uphold obligations as members of ethnic, religious, geographic, or other arenas of authority. In negotiating over institutions associated with the state, elites are often also negotiating over institutions that will shape individuals’ incentives and actions pertaining to social institutions in arenas of authority outside of the state. These insitutions affect the the extent to which social obligations are upheld and may strengthen, maintain, or undermine elites’ authority within those arenas. Consequently, arenas of authority and social institutions not only influence how individuals navigate established institutions, but also shape preferences over, and therefore the designs of, state institutions."

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"To illustrate the insights from bringing arenas of authority and social institutions into analyses of politics and development, I return to the issue of state land titling. Recall from Section 3 that less than one-third of the global population had state-backed property titles in 2017, despite strong efforts to institute state land titles. Considering how assumptions underlying land titling do, or do not, comport with the lived experiences of land users thus sheds light on the barriers to titling and encourages thinking about alternative ways to enhance land security."

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"The final set of rules regard the roles individuals hold. In this section, I focus on rules governing leadership selection and tenure. These influence the extent to which leaders have influence over other community members, and the ability of community members to hold leaders accountable. Leadership selection rules determine who is eligible to rule and who has a voice in choosing the leader, what Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and his colleagues called the ‘selectorate’ (Reference Bueno de Mesquita, Smith, Siverson and Morrow Bueno de Mesquita et al., 2003). These determine the level of competition, ranging from highly competitive contexts, where many are eligible for leadership and the selectorate is large, to less competetive environments, in which the number of contenders is small and the selectorate limited"

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© Lust, E. (2022). Everyday Choices: The Role of Competing Authorities and Social Institutions in Politics and Development (Elements in the Politics of Development). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781009306164 

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"A second set of rules revolve around engagement: who is expected to act, how, and with regard to what? Here, I focus on the distinction between rules of engagement based in individualism and those centred on collectivism, a distinction that Reference Michael Albertus and Slater Harry Triandis (2001, p. 907) has called the single-most important cultural distinction. This distinction has significant implications for the likelihood that individuals contribute to public goods or participate in political action, and, consequently, welfare and development outcomes."

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"As discussed in Section 3, arenas may have more or less porous borders, making it easier or more difficult for individuals to enter or exit the community. Boundary maintenance rules also establish how an individual should act in order to demonstrate allegiance to the community. This can be over appearance – the side curls of Hasidic Jewish men, the distinctive blue dresses and white bonnets of Amish women – or over actions, such a prohibitions against publicly airing views that oppose the group’s tenets. Rules governing group membership and boundary maintenance not only help to establish and signify membership in the group, but also influence a wide range of engagement and outcomes, from electoral competition and representation to citizenship and policymaking."

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© Lust, E. (2022). Everyday Choices: The Role of Competing Authorities and Social Institutions in Politics and Development (Elements in the Politics of Development). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781009306164 

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"In this section, I turn to social institutions. As seen in Section 4, individuals’ choices are influenced not only by the strength of competing arenas but also the nature of their institutions. The details of these institutions vary. Some prohibit engagement in ‘earthly elections’, denounce vaccinations, breastfeeding, or other practices often promoted by public health agencies, or require members to attend gender-segregated schools; others demand just the opposite. These have important implications for behaviour and outcomes, and scholars and practitioners should take them into account in research and development programming. Yet, such disparate rules also require an analytical structure for scholars and practitioners to make sense of them. Consequently, I build the framework around how different types of rules affect individuals’ behaviour. I argue that rules governing group membership and boundaries, engagement, and roles are the basis for a tri-fold framework for constructing hypotheses and guiding future research, and I propose hypotheses for future consideration."

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"Before turning to social institutions in greater detail, I want to illustrate the points set forth thus far by examining electoral participation in Jordan. The case demonstrates variation in the strength of arenas of authority based on kinship, religion, and state, and shows how differences in these arenas and individuals’ reliance shape the influence of different arenas over their electoral behavior. Moreover, the case illustrates how subnational variation in the strength of these arenas affects electoral participation – in particular, why Jordanians living in rural areas have been much more likely to vote than those living in the capitol city, Amman."

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© Lust, E. (2022). Everyday Choices: The Role of Competing Authorities and Social Institutions in Politics and Development (Elements in the Politics of Development). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781009306164 

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"The discussion so far has focused on the factors that strengthen arenas, at times leading one to dominate another. In reality, however, people are members of numerous arenas, some of which may dictate the same action when choices are set before them. Where this is the case, individuals may behave in accordance with social institutions of multiple arenas, none of which is – by itself – the strongest. Thus, what matters in determining how arenas come together to shape an individual’s choice is how social institutions within these arenas overlap, not how membership does."

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"The influence of different arenas of authority over individuals depends on the strength of arenas. This is determined, in part, by the nature of the arena: the level of solidarity among its members, the range of aspects within individuals’ lives that the arena touches, and the extent to which the community and its leadership can monitor and sanction members. Other factors are specific to individual members: the extent to which they are beholden to the community and the exit options they enjoy."

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"The first challenge is to determine which arenas of authority are associated with the issues in question. Two factors come into play. First is the extent to which the issue is salient to fundamental tenants of the community and thus salient to the community’s imperative to maintain itself. Second is the extent to which elites within an arena use the issue to extend their power vis-à-vis competing elites from other arenas."

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"To move away from a perspective that either routinely privileges the state or presumes ex-ante that an ethnic, religious, or other arena drives individuals’ decisions, analysts and practitioners need criteria by which to determine which arenas guide actions. When a working-class Catholic chooses between a pro-union, abortion rights candidate and a pro-business, anti-abortion one, how do they respond to the expectations of and pressures within their religious community and union? So, too, as a parliamentarian decides whether to place a new clinic in their home village or a more populated town where votes are more plentiful, how do they weigh obligations to their local community, which expects priority from ‘their’ MP, and their political party, which seeks future votes? In this section, I argue that we gain traction on these questions by considering the salience of the issue at hand for the community within each arena, the strength of the relevant arenas over the individual, and their shape – or, whether or not the social institutions in salient arenas of authority are congruent."

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"Arenas of authority and social institutions within them need to be relatively stable and not simply reflect other underlying factors if they are to form the basis of a useful approach to understanding political behaviour and development outcomes. Communities develop social institutions as they seek to govern themselves, and they do so in response to specific challenges their context raises. Consequently, one of the thorniest issues in the study of authority and institutions is separating their effects from the factors that give rise to them. If social institutions simply reflect existing conditions, then one cannot assess their impact independently from these conditions (e.g., address endogeneity issues). However, there is good reason to believe that although arenas and social institutions are neither exogenously determined nor static, they are relatively stable and, over time, may become divorced from their initial purpose. They thus provide useful leverage for research and programming."

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© Lust, E. (2022). Everyday Choices: The Role of Competing Authorities and Social Institutions in Politics and Development (Elements in the Politics of Development). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781009306164 

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"Social institutions structure engagement within arenas of authority. Sociologists debate the definition of social institutions perhaps as much as political scientists tangle over how to conceptualize the state (Reference Miller Miller, 2019). Some scholars define social institutions narrowly, such that they refer to the rules that govern actions and the rewards or punishments associated with compliance – a view of institutions in accordance with that of the Nobel Prize-winning economist Reference North Douglas North (1990), among others. Yet, rules invoked are often role-dependent, varying according to the position that one holds in the community. Moreover, even when enforced, the impact of various rules depends on the magnitude of costs or benefits associated with compliance. To highlight this, I define social institutions as the roles, rules, and rewards that structure activities within a community as it attempts to govern and ensure its survival. Social institutions determine individuals’ positions within a community, the actions available to them and others, and the consequences thereof. In doing so, they affect the distribution of power in the community, members’ expectations of the others’ responses, and consequently, individuals’ decisions."

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"An arena of authority is a sphere of activity with clear membership, goals, and institutions. Visualize an arena of authority as a physical arena. It has boundaries, which distinguish members of the community (inside the arena) from outsiders. Membership in the community may be based on such foundations as ethnicity, tribe, or religion, but regardless of the foundation, the community seeks to propagate itself beyond the current generation. This common goal does not imply equality or a lack of conflict. The community may be highly differentiated, with leaders and followers, masters and slaves. Indeed, members need not necessarily have joined the community by volition. Members may also contest the rules or compete with each other over resources. Ultimately, however, those within the arena of authority are engaged, more or less consciously, in a grand project of sustaining the group. They are thus mutually interdependent, with each member’s welfare tied to that of others within the arena."

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© Lust, E. (2022). Everyday Choices: The Role of Competing Authorities and Social Institutions in Politics and Development (Elements in the Politics of Development). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781009306164

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"Understanding political behaviour and development requires that arenas of authorities and social institutions are defined in positive terms rather than as residual categories. Thus, in Sections 3.1 and 3.2, I define these concepts and describe their attributes. I begin by defining arenas of authority and then turn to social institutions and their constituent parts: roles, rules, and rewards. In Section 3.3, I examine the relative stability of social institutions. Social institutions evolve, and they do so at least partly in response to socio-economic conditions. Yet, they are sticky. They do not simply reflect social and economic factors, nor do they change too quickly for actors to take them into account when making decisions. Thus, they can be analytically useful in crafting theories of behaviour and development and should be taken into account in policymaking and programming."

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"The perspective that I present in this Element – that politics and development outcomes are the result of individuals’ everyday choices, shaped by multiple, competing arenas of authority and the institutions within them – draws upon and extends decades of scholarship on politics and development. However, I make three conceptual moves that, taken together, distinguish this from previous frameworks. First, I argue that the seemingly political decisions that individuals make often have multiple meanings (Reference Falleti and Cunial Wedeen, 2002) and that individuals associate their choices with arenas of authority and attendant communities. Second, I set arenas of authority associated with different communities and the state on equal theoretical footing. Third, I emphasize the importance of institutional variation in both the state and various non-state arenas of authority. By doing so, I develop a framework that brings disparate literature into conversation, fosters knowledge accumulation, and facilitates a new approach to the study of, and programming around, politics and development."

Full Chapter via Cambridge Core: https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/everyday-choices/41C482AE689FE13A4A4A4EFA480032D3

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© Lust, E. (2022). Everyday Choices: The Role of Competing Authorities and Social Institutions in Politics and Development (Elements in the Politics of Development). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781009306164 

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"A fourth approach steps away from the state-centric, single-arena approach that underpins most work on governance and development. Both scholars working on hybridity of governance and those studying intersectionality recognize that individuals act within various, competing arenas of authority, and they pay great attention to how these arenas affect the distribution of power across actors. These scholars thus provide an important critique of the dominant approaches and a basis for advocacy. However, they do not offer guidance on how competing arenas of authority or the institutions within them affect the choices individuals make and the outcomes that ensue."

Full Chapter via Cambridge Core: https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/everyday-choices/41C482AE689FE13A4A4A4EFA480032D3

This audiobook is produced by Mediateknik at the University of Gothenburg.

© Lust, E. (2022). Everyday Choices: The Role of Competing Authorities and Social Institutions in Politics and Development (Elements in the Politics of Development). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781009306164 

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"A third strand of literature highlights the importance of social institutions and increasingly recognizes variations across them. Scholars taking this approach have uncovered a number of important findings that I build on in the pages that follow. Yet, a review of this literature finds that these scholars, too, generally privilege the state and fail to consider competing, non-state arenas of authority. Moreover, they lack an overarching schema that allows them to be fully in conversation with each other and to make sense of the increasingly vast literature."

Full Chapter via Cambridge Core: https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/everyday-choices/41C482AE689FE13A4A4A4EFA480032D3

This audiobook is produced by Mediateknik at the University of Gothenburg.

© Lust, E. (2022). Everyday Choices: The Role of Competing Authorities and Social Institutions in Politics and Development (Elements in the Politics of Development). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781009306164 

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"The conventional society-oriented approach focuses on the roles of identity and social capital on political behaviour and outcomes. Scholars working in this tradition ask such questions as how such social factors shape voting, representation, and even democratization (Reference Chandra Chandra, 2007; Reference MichaelAlbertus and Slater Posner, 2005; Reference Putnam, Leonardi and Nanetti Putnam et al., 1994; Reference Hunter Szwarcberg, 2012). In answering these questions, they often point to the importance of competing authorities and social institutions. However, they privilege the state and do not fully theorize competing arenas of authority or the social institutions within them."

Full Chapter via Cambridge Core: https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/everyday-choices/41C482AE689FE13A4A4A4EFA480032D3

This audiobook is produced by Mediateknik at the University of Gothenburg.

© Lust, E. (2022). Everyday Choices: The Role of Competing Authorities and Social Institutions in Politics and Development (Elements in the Politics of Development). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781009306164 

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"Most political scientists and development practitioners privilege the state. Early modernization theorists (e.g., Reference LernerLerner, 1958; Reference LipsetLipset, 1959; Reference Smith and WaldnerRustow, 1970) presumed the state seeks, and ultimately will achieve and maintain, the monopoly over the legitimate use of force in a given territory, providing security and welfare to people therein. The state is the locus of participation and representation, the engine of economic growth and development (Reference Gerschenkron and HoselitzGerschenkron, 1952). In general, these scholars argued that individuals in ‘traditional’ societies held values that constrained their demands on authorities and the state (Reference Almond and VerbaAlmond and Verba, 1963; Reference LernerLerner, 1958). Economic development – including the spread of roads, radios, and other aspects of modernization – would lead to greater mobility, expectations, and demands for democracy, which in turn would foster development. There would be hurdles. Reference HuntingtonHuntington (1968) famously argued that the strength of state institutions must keep pace with the level of social mobilization in order to avoid political decay and disorder. Yet, in general, development and democracy went hand in hand, and the state and its institutions were key. The state had the inherent ability to be more organized, technologically savvy, and capable of extending its power than social counterparts, putting them on the defensive. Where the state was not yet dominant, it would – or at least should – be so in the future."

Full Chapter via Cambridge Core: https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/everyday-choices/41C482AE689FE13A4A4A4EFA480032D3

This audiobook is produced by Mediateknik at the University of Gothenburg.

© Lust, E. (2022). Everyday Choices: The Role of Competing Authorities and Social Institutions in Politics and Development (Elements in the Politics of Development). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781009306164

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"This section examines how the existing literature on politics and development addresses arenas of authority outside the state and the social institutions within them. Broadly speaking, there are four approaches. I call the first two ‘conventional approaches’. Both place the state and its institutions centre stage and presume a duality between state and society. The first approach focuses directly on the state, while the second emphasizes society. A third focuses on institutions within non-state arenas but does not fully consider the existence of competing arenas of authority. Finally, the fourth explores how membership in multiple communities shapes individuals’ lived experiences but pays little attention to institutional arrangements. All of the existing studies of politics and development thus point, more or less, to the importance of competing arenas of authority and the social institutions within them. However, they do not provide a unified language and overarching perspective required for knowledge accumulation and development programming."

Full Chapter via Cambridge Core: https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/everyday-choices/41C482AE689FE13A4A4A4EFA480032D3

This audiobook is produced by Mediateknik at the University of Gothenburg.

© Lust, E. (2022). Everyday Choices: The Role of Competing Authorities and Social Institutions in Politics and Development (Elements in the Politics of Development). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781009306164

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"In this Element, I aim to overcome problems of the dominant state-centric perspective by setting state and non-state authorities and institutions on equal intellectual footing, providing a structure for accumulating knowledge about how these competing arenas and social institutions influence politics and development, and reconsidering the state. To do so, I take a ‘bottom-up’ approach that focuses on the perspective of individuals – voters, public service providers, bureaucrats, politicians, and others – and considers how their simultaneous membership in various arenas of authority shapes their choices and, ultimately, governance and development. I focus on how the everyday choices before individuals may take multiple meanings, provide guidance on how to understand the extent to which different arenas of authority influence actions, and illustrate how differences in social institutions affect individual choices and outcomes."

Full Chapter via Cambridge Core: https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/everyday-choices/41C482AE689FE13A4A4A4EFA480032D3

This audiobook is produced by Mediateknik at the University of Gothenburg.

© Lust, E. (2022). Everyday Choices: The Role of Competing Authorities and Social Institutions in Politics and Development (Elements in the Politics of Development). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781009306164

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"The perspective I present here is not simply that non-state arenas of authority and associated social institutions shape individuals’ choices but that multiple communities often vie for control over their actions. The Ghanaian bureaucrat, Yemeni policeman, Jordanian voter, and American citizen presented earlier do not respond only to their kin, tribe, or religious arenas of authority any more than they respond solely to the state. The strengths of arenas vary across space and time, as well as for different individuals, depending on their position within the community (e.g., leader versus follower, elder versus youth). Often, the inelasticity of social demands becomes all too evident; particularly within development settings, institutions outside the state that shape actions lead to outcomes contra state and programming objectives. At other times, the state may wrest control from even powerful non-state authorities, either by acting alone or in conjunction with other arenas."

Full Chapter via Cambridge Core: https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/everyday-choices/41C482AE689FE13A4A4A4EFA480032D3

This audiobook is produced by Mediateknik at the University of Gothenburg.

© Lust, E. (2022). Everyday Choices: The Role of Competing Authorities and Social Institutions in Politics and Development (Elements in the Politics of Development). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781009306164

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"That conventional approaches to politics and development privilege the state is perhaps not surprising. The scholars, practitioners, and policymakers aiming to shape the distribution of power and resources in a manner that enhances human welfare – that is, to engage in the essence of politics and development – are closely linked to the state. They often sit in or hail from departments of government, politics, or economics, where – at least since Reference Gerschenkron and Hoselitz

Gerschenkron (1952) – the state is considered to be the driving force behind development. They work with or in the World Bank, the United Nations Development Program, and other multilateral organizations, for whom states are both the major funders and primary interlocutors. They use available official (i.e., state-based) statistics, gathered by the state’s machinery in the interest of legibility, to implement research, pinpoint citizens’ needs, and assess policy impacts."

Full Chapter via Cambridge Core: https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/everyday-choices/41C482AE689FE13A4A4A4EFA480032D3

This audiobook is produced by Mediateknik at the University of Gothenburg.

© Lust, E. (2022). Everyday Choices: The Role of Competing Authorities and Social Institutions in Politics and Development (Elements in the Politics of Development). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781009306164

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Full Chapter via Cambridge Core: https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/everyday-choices/41C482AE689FE13A4A4A4EFA480032D3

This audiobook is produced by Mediateknik at the University of Gothenburg.

© Lust, E. (2022). Everyday Choices: The Role of Competing Authorities and Social Institutions in Politics and Development (Elements in the Politics of Development). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781009306164

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.