Good Governance and Development. Edited by B.C. SMITH, (Basingstoke and New

York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, pp. xiii þ320, p/bk). $39.95. £22.99.

‘Good governance’ has been a central and controversial pillar of international donor discourse forover 15 years now so this book is both welcome and overdue. Equally, B.C. Smith has an establishedrecord of producing text books that synthesise complex subjects in the fields of political science andpublic administration and making them digestible for students and for specialists and non-specialistsalike, so the symmetry here is neat in many respects. Readers who liked Smith’sUnderstanding ThirdWorld Politics: Theories of Political Change and Development (also published by PalgraveMacmillan) will again appreciate the breadth of coverage here, in terms of both the issues and theliterature surveyed.

Smith’s new volume includes chapters on political accountability, human rights, the rule oflaw, decentralisation, political pluralism, participation, corruption, transparent & accountableadministration, efficient public management and economic reform & poverty alleviation. Eachprovides a succinct overview of the issues and the relevant literature that many readers will value. Theconclusion includes a discussion of ways to make conditionality work more effectively.

In essence, this book is a study of the political conditionality that underpins international (i.e.Western) development assistance, and of one specific ideological and policy vehicle (the ‘goodgovernance’ agenda) in which it has been transmitted for the last 15 years. Political conditionality andthe ‘good governance’ agenda, however, are not quite the same thing, just as the foreign policy ofwestern powers and international development policy as articulated by western multilateral andbilateral organisations are distinct in important respects. In a UK context, for instance, theInternational Development Act 2002 defines the objectives of British international developmentpolicy, decoupling it from British foreign policy. Thus, the Department for InternationalDevelopment and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office promote ‘good governance’ in wayswhich both complement, and compete with, each other.

The distinction, however, is blurred here. The book, for instance, includes a chapter on humanrights and development, a distinct and important aspect ofWestern liberal political conditionality, buta theme largely absent from debate on ‘good governance’ (despite the rise of a distinct discourse indevelopment policy on ‘rights-based approaches’). Vietnam, for instance, is widely lauded bybilateral and multilateral donors for its effective governance, and for the sustained economic growthand poverty reduction which has resulted from it, yet few Western human rights organisations (orforeign policy organs) celebrate the regime’s protection and promotion of civil or political rights.

Inevitably, given the broad coverage, some issues are covered very briefly. I felt for instance thatthe potted history of the ‘good governance’ agenda in Chapter 1 glossed over the record of structuraladjustment lending in the 1980s and theWorld Bank’s own analysis of its failings (there is no mentionof the World Bank’s 1992 report Governance and Development, which provided this analysis) in thechapter. Equally, there is no analysis of the changing architecture of international aid and of the newaid vehicles through which the ‘good governance’ agenda is transmitted, for instance, PovertyReduction Strategy Papers and subsidiary mechanisms such as Sector Wide Approaches and DirectBudget Support (PRSPs are mentioned briefly but the discussion is strangely divorced from that ofconditionality or the ‘good governance’ agenda).

As an overview of key themes in foreign and international development policy that can be capturedunder the rubric of ‘political conditionality’ the book works well and readers who approach it in thisspirit will enjoy it. However, the book is not a comprehensive account of ‘good governance’ policyand practice within the donor community nor does it offer a distinct argument based on originalresearch. Despite this useful volume, therefore, a substantial gap remains in the literature.

GERARD CLARKE

Centre for Development Studies,

Swansea University

Published online in Wiley InterScience

(www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/jid.1460

Copyright # 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J. Int. Dev. 20, 403–412 (2008)

DOI: 10.1002/jid

406 Book Reviews