Public Finance, Conflict, and International Interventions

How Good Governance Reforms Can Weaken State-building
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-032-96934-3
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 244 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 534 g

Reihe: Routledge Studies in Conflict, Security and Development

This book provides a critical analysis of the political and conflict impacts of “good governance” public finance reforms, showing how unintended distributional outcomes can undermine broader state-building goals.

The international community expends enormous resources trying to build “good governance” institutions in countries emerging from war. By ensuring efficiency, increasing transparency, and enhancing public accountability in the use of public resources, the adoption of “good governance” institutions is assumed to support stability, peace, and sustainable economic growth. Such assumptions, however, have a limited empirical basis and obscure a more complex reality. Drawing from political science and institutional economics, and evidence from major state-building interventions in Afghanistan, Timor-Leste, and Solomon Islands, this book explores the impacts of technocratic “good governance” reforms in fragile environments. Through the lens of public finance reform, it illustrates how efforts to achieve efficiency and accountability, while often bringing important benefits, can also undercut the patronage channels that draw together powerful elites, thereby increasing conflict pressures and eroding prospects for sustainable peace. This book makes the case for a reconsideration of the “good governance” agenda and the appropriateness of its application in developing countries experiencing or at risk of war.

This book will be of interest to students of state-building, global governance, political economy, development studies, and International Relations.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate, Professional Reference, and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Haque, Tobias Akhtar

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Internationale Beziehungen Internationale Organisationen und Institutionen
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Wirtschaftspolitik, politische Ökonomie
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Friedens- und Konfliktforschung
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Internationale Wirtschaft Entwicklungsökonomie & Emerging Markets
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Volkswirtschaftslehre Allgemein
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Militärwesen Nationale und Internationale Sicherheits- und Verteidigungspolitik
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Demokratie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Staatsbürgerkunde, Staatsbürgerschaft, Zivilgesellschaft
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Entwicklungsstudien
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik Wirtschafts- und Finanzpolitik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction  Part I: State-building and Political Settlements  1 Good Governance in Context 2 Good Governance and Social Order 3 Analytical Approach  Part II: When Good Governance Confronts Conflict  4 Conflict and Intervention in Solomon Islands 5 Public Finance and State-building in Solomon Islands 6 Conflict and Intervention in Timor-Leste 7 Public Finance and State-building in Timor-Leste 8 Conflict and Intervention in Afghanistan 9 Public Finance and State-building in Afghanistan  Part III: Conclusions and Implications 10 Conclusions 11 Beyond Good Governance

Über Autor(innen)

Tobias Akhtar Haque is a development professional and economist with extensive practical experience leading governance and economic reforms in fragile state contexts. He holds a PhD in Public Finance from the Australian National University, Canberra.