Book Review: Governance through Development. Poverty Reduction Strategies, International Law and the Disciplining of Third World States
| Author | Koen De Feyter |
| Published date | 01 June 2014 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0964663914523201c |
| Date | 01 June 2014 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
CELINE TAN, Governance through Development. Poverty Reduction Strategies, International Law and
the Disciplining of Third World States. Abingdon: Routledge, 2012, pp. 263, ISBN 9780415628723,
£24.99 (pbk).
Celine Tan is an associate professor at the Warwick School of Law. Her research centres
on international economic law and on the intersection between law and development,
gender, human rights and the environment. Governance through Development is a
revised version of the PhD she obtained from the University of Warwick. The book is
divided into seven chapters that locate the poverty reduction strategies papers (PRSP)
within international law, conditionality and structural adjustment policies, and debates
on governance models.
The goal of the book is ‘to locate the PRSP framework within the broader framework
of international law by exploring its impact on third world state engagement with the glo-
bal political economy and the international regulatory norms and institutions which sup-
port it’ (pp. 5–6).
The attainment of this goal requires an ambitious methodological approach. The
author’s scope of inquiry includes elements of international relations, international law,
development studies and institutional analysis, combined with some socio-legal research
including qualitative interviews, informal conversations and observations of meetings.
The result is a creative, interdisciplinary and surprisingly coherent scholarly exercise.
A disadvantage o f the innovative meth odology is that i t is difficult to t est the validity
of the conclusions of the study. Disciplines use different criteria to establish truth. In
an interdisciplinary approach, the criteria are more tentative. It is for example not
self-evident to assess the weight attributed within the study to the socio-legal research
undertaken, or theimpact of that part of the research on the conclusions she reaches. Nev-
ertheless,the study willlast, not so much becauseof its content (even withinthe International
FinancialInstitution (IFI) bureaucracythe PRSP approach is already under modification or
even challenge by counter-narratives), but because of its methodological innovations.
In a short piece on terminology (p. xv), the author expresses a preference for the term
‘third world’. The preference is evidenced by her subtitle. The unity of the third world,
she argues, emanates from the common history of otherwise diverse countries in Africa,
Asia and Latin America. Subjection to colonialism has now been replaced by subjection
to hegemonic policies of which the poverty reduction strategies are a prime example.
The use of the term thus reflects the author’s opinion that there is, at least to some extent,
a continuum in how the international community has ‘governed’ developing countries in
the colonial and postcolonial periods. On the other hand, it could be argued that today the
use of the term third world obscures significant contemporary dissensus within the group
on the issues addressed in the book, and the growing practice of powerful group members
to discipline vulnerable members.
The findings on the role of non-state actors are intriguing. The author argues that the
campaigns contesting debt and structural adjustment policies reflect a professionaliza-
tion of traditional advocacy and lobbying roles and an increasing sophistication in global
policy analysis. She notes a shift from nongovernmental organization’s (NGO) working
against governments to working with and in support of governments of low-income
countries, even if the relationship with these governments was often ‘uneasy and wary’
Book Reviews 283
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