Building democracy and international governance, George M. Guess Eds., Routledge, New York, 2019, 248 pp. Paperback: USD 51.95. Hardcover: ISBN 978‐1‐138‐57473‐1, US$ 155.00, eBook 24.98
| Published date | 01 May 2020 |
| Author | William Allan |
| Date | 01 May 2020 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.1879 |
BOOK REVIEW
Building democracy and international governance
Edited by George M. Guess Eds.,
Routledge, New York, 2019, 248 pp. Paperback: USD 51.95. Hardcover: ISBN 978-1-138-57473-1, US$ 155.00, eBook 24.98
George Guess' recent book (Routledge, 2019) tackles the formidable
problems besetting public governance in a range of countries. He
draws on case-studies covering advanced and developing countries,
democratic and autocratic regimes. He particularly emphasizes the sig-
nificance of differences between unitary and federal governance
structures. All regimes, he argues, face four major threats to effective
governance; some have been able to respond effectively while others
have been unable to do so. Unsurprisingly poorer developing coun-
tries, often subject to internal ethnic conflict, have been least able to
strengthen their governance structures to meet these threats. He pro-
poses that the examples considered provide a range of country expe-
rience on which to build a stronger global effort to strengthen
national and international governance—and ultimately democracy.
Guess raises important questions, but his book by no means gives
complete answers to all of these. He provides a great deal of informa-
tion on individual country issues drawn from a variety of sources;
many, however, remain open to more detailed examination, particu-
larly of the factors affecting developing countries. Further detailed
research should follow from this wide-ranging study.
Let us start from the fourkey challenges that Guess identifies as
critical to continuing efforts to builddemocracy and governance, partic-
ularly in poorer developing countries. The first challenge for many
countries is the continuing existence of ethnic or “ethno-nationalist”
(presumably, though not raised explicitly, including theocratic conflict).
Typically, these issues affect poor and less-developed countries most
deeply—and theocratic disputes are obviously a central issue in the
Middle East. The second challenge he identifies however is that some
advanced countrieswith growing immigrant populations also face near-
diametrically opposed pressures from workers facing job insecurity in
industries prepared to hire immigrants at low wage rates. Populist
responses to this challenge are increasingly evident in United States
and other advancedeconomy politics and policies.These challenges are
certainly complex and raise many new issuesregarding global gover-
nance and moderncapitalist ethics. The topicscommand much space in
modern politicaland economic writing and politicaldebate; it's not clear
that their discussion here contributesto the main themes of the book.
The third challenge, affecting all countries from time to time—and
sometimes chronically, is that of macro-economic instability. This
threat poses most difficulties to poorer developing countries because
they lack institutional capacity to generate and implement appropriate
countermeasures. While advanced economy issues in this regard have
by no means been resolved subsequent to the Global Financial Crisis
of 2008, Guess' focus is mainly on the problems that need to be
addressed by poorer developing economies. His fourth challenge, he
labels as “overseas aid,”referring not to aid per se but the ineffective-
ness of international aid in addressing the governance issues that
developing countries face. The issues arise, however, substantially
because of their colonial past and subsequent dependence on external
financial assistance to build a more adequate governance structure
than that established under colonial rule. Guess's fundamental pro-
posal is that a federal government structure provides the best founda-
tion to meet these challenges and establish effective and democratic
governance. He does provide worthwhile experience to support his
view, but more detailed evidence is required to endorse such a thesis
compellingly.
Taking first the dual ethno-nationalist challenge, his Table 2.1
(pp. 19–22) summarizes case-study evidence regarding factors affect-
ing response to ethno-nationalism and populist nationalism. Particu-
larly in this case, however, the question of the critical importance of
political structures requires a wider and deeper study. The political
structure described for Ethiopia, Liberia, and Nigeria are quite com-
plex, and each has an extended history and still unresolved future.
Recent developments in Ethiopia and its relationship with Eritrea, do
look hopeful, but much more remains to be achieved in Nigeria and
Liberia.
On his central thesis of the fundamental importance of federal
political structures, however, more substantial evidence from a
broader country is required. I draw somewhat from experience in two
of the countries that Guess cites. The first is that of Papua New
Guinea (PNG), where I served for almost 7 years, from1972 to 1979,
as a member of an Australian Staff Assistance Group (ASAG) that
aimed to help PNG establish strong institutions and processes for
Self-Government and Independence (the latter achieved in 1975).
Drawing from an Economist overview in 2017, Guess describes the
PNG situation in recent times, as hopelessly riven by ethnic diversity
and pork-barrel politics. Much is accurate, but how it came about
requires a deeper analysis. Prior to independence, Australia provided
direct budget support and technical assistance via ASAG to build up
PNG's administrative and planning capacity. This phase particularly
emphasized building capacity in both planning processes and political
Received: 5 March 2020Accepted: 5 March 2020
DOI: 10.1002/pad.1879
Public Admin Dev. 2020;40:141–143.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pad© 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd141
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