Benin is a small, slow-growing economy whose development relies on two sources of rent that are controlled by self-centred elites: cotton export and illegal cross-border trade with Nigeria. Patrimonialism governs Beninese society as a forceful struggle for political power takes place between the...

1. Path creation? Processes and networks : how the Chinese rural tax reform began -- 2. Differentiated actors : central-local politics in reform evolution -- 3. Embedded institutionalization : sustaining reform effects -- 4. State and market in public service provision : opportunities and traps...