Governments play a major role in the development process, and constantly introduce reforms and policies to achieve developmental objectives. Many of these interventions have limited impact, however; schools get built but children don't learn, IT systems are introduced but not used, plans are written but not implemented. These achievement deficiencies reveal gaps in capabilities, and weaknesses in the process of building state capability. This book addresses these weaknesses and gaps. It starts by providing evidence of the capability shortfalls that currently exist in many countries, showing that many governments lack basic capacities even after decades of reforms and capacity building efforts. The book then analyses this evidence, identifying capability traps that hold many governments back - particularly related to isomorphic mimicry (where governments copy best practice solutions from other countries that make them look more capable even if they are not more capable) and premature load bearing (where governments adopt new mechanisms that they cannot actually make work, given weak extant capacities). The book then describes a process that governments can use to escape these capability traps. Called PDIA (problem driven iterative adaptation), this process empowers people working in governments to find and fit solutions to the problems they face. The discussion about this process is structured in a practical manner so that readers can actually apply tools and ideas to the capability challenges they face in their own contexts. These applications will help readers devise policies and reforms that have more impact than those of the past.

Devised to meet the ongoing challenge of identifying the skills and knowledge necessary for expanding the governing capacity of state and local authorities, this book discusses the fiscal consequences of get tough approaches to crime and presents more effective and less expensive policy options. Surveying the range of administrative and management practices employed by state governments, the editor and contributors explore the results of the governmental reform tradition, the impact of federalism and intergovernmental relations, and the effects of political culture on state government by focusing on economic development, welfare, corrections, and environmental programs and policies.

New York remains the Empire State. Its trillion dollar economy makes the state a national-and often world-leader in banking, finance, publishing, soft services (law, accounting, insurance, consulting), higher education, culture, and the arts. With more than one in five of its residents having immigrated from elsewhere, New York State is an ethnic and social harbinger for an increasingly diverse nation. Recent years have found it, like many other big states, challenged to achieve effective governance. How is, can, or should such a state be governed? What is its history? What is its future? The Oxford Handbook of New York State Government and Politics offers an unusually comprehensive, detailed, and systematic study of this unique and influential state. The thirty-one chapters in The Oxford Handbook of New York State Government and Politics assemble new scholarship in key areas of governance in New York, document the state's record in comparison to other US states, and identify directions for future research. Following editor Gerald Benjamin's introduction, the handbook chapters are organized in five sections that look at the state constitution, state political processes, state governmental institutions, intergovernmental relations, and management and policy areas. Chapters address a wide array of topics including political parties, campaign finance policy, public opinion polling, elections and election management, lobbying and interest group systems, the state legislature, the governorship, the judiciary, the state's "foreign policy," education, health care policy, public safety, economic development, transportation policy, energy policy, and more. A final chapter, compiled by the state archivist, consists of a most extensive annotated bibliography of resources on state history, state political history, the state constitution, and state political processes. Chapter authors include both scholars of New York State and current and former state officials.