Thinking About the Politics of Inclusive Development: Towards a Relational Approach

Abstract

Moving beyond the mantra that 'politics matters', a range of conceptual approaches have recently emerged within international development thinking that seek to capture the specific ways in which politics shapes development. This paper critically assesses whether these approaches, including work on 'limited access orders' and 'political settlements', can underpin research into how developmental forms of state capacity and elite commitment emerge and can be sustained. It suggests that these new approaches offer powerful insights into certain elements of this puzzle, particularly through a focus on the relational basis of elite behaviour and institutional performance. However, these approaches are also subject to serious limitations, and insights from broader and (in particular) more critical forms of political theory are also required in order to investigate how the politics of development is shaped by ideas as well as incentives, popular as well as elite forms of agency, transnational as well as national factors, and in dynamic as well as more structural ways. The paper proposes an initial conceptual framework that can be operationalized and tested within a programme of primary research to be established by the Effective States and Inclusive Development Research Centre.

Investigating the Political Economy of Social Protection Expansion in Africa: At the Intersection of Transnational Ideas and Domestic Politics

“…It is only during periods of institutional instability or 'Knightian uncertainty' -when agents are not just unsure of how to achieve their interests, but also unsure of what their interests arethat actors re-evaluate the core paradigms that guide their decision making and seek new approaches (Blyth 2002). Consequently, a focus on ideas reinforces previous calls to examine political settlements in historical and dynamic perspective (Di John and Putzel 2009, Khan 2010, Hickey 2013, given that the paradigmatic ideas underpinning settlements are likely to change relatively infrequently at moments of instability in ruling coalitions.…”

“…As such, political settlements analysis tends to treat the role of ideas as a subordinate outcome of the incentives that flow from the political settlement and its resultant institutional arrangements. However, this approach both offers a reductive reading of political behaviour (Hickey 2013) and is unable to predict which policies (economic or social) will actually be selected by a particular coalition (Sen 2012). Any political settlement is actually likely to be compatible with several different policy approaches.…”

Investigating the Links between Political Settlements and Inclusive Development in Uganda: Towards a Research Agenda.

“…It starts from the premise that the 'political settlement' forged among the most powerful groups in society (Khan, 2010;North et al, 2009) shapes the capacity and commitment of governments to deliver development (Hickey, 2012a). Building on recent investigations into the politics of development in Uganda (e.g.…”

“…However, drawing on earlier work within ESID (Hickey, 2012a), the approach adopted here goes further than this standard approach to political settlements analysis in at least three ways. First, we emphasise the extent to which political settlements are located within and closely shaped by the globalised context that involves national actors interacting with transnational actors, institutions, processes and also ideas (Hickey 2012a).…”

“…First, we emphasise the extent to which political settlements are located within and closely shaped by the globalised context that involves national actors interacting with transnational actors, institutions, processes and also ideas (Hickey 2012a). This includes but goes beyond a focus on aid.…”