This paper offers an interpretation of India’s recent political economy in relation to the longer-term history since independence. It argues that an understanding of both ideas and interests is required for this interpretation. While politics and policy are often portrayed in terms of a tussle...

The paper examines the growth of antipoverty transfers in Brazil and their role in securing inclusive growth. Since the turn of the century, Brazil has managed to combine improvement in its growth performance, by the standards of recent decades, with substantial, and arguably unprecedented,...

This paper examines the reforms and institutions that have, anecdotally and empirically, demonstrated progress in combating corruption in Brazil. Focusing specifically on the institutions charged with investigating suspected corrupt activities, we contend that institutional multiplicity – the...

Brazilian agriculture has grown enormously during the past three decades. An interesting aspect of this growth is the respective roles of family and non-family farming, and the seeming importance of this distinction to Brazilian agricultural policy, reflected in the existence of separate...

Infrastructural issues have moved to the very heart of the policy agenda in Brazil, having been brought into focus by the build up to the FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Rio Olympics. This paper opens with a brief historical review of infrastructure in Brazil, beginning with the 19th Century and the...

Debates over whether democratic or neopatrimonial forms of politics are driving the politics of development in Africa have increasingly given way to more nuanced readings which seek to capture the dynamic interplay of these forms of politics. However, most current analyses fail to identify the...

This paper provides an overview of the evolution of Brazilian agriculture analyzing its transition from low productivity and backwardness to its current status as major player in international markets and role model for other developing countries. Yet, rather than simply looking back and trying...

The paper investigates to what extent the Brazilian SENAI system of vocational training could be a role model for easing the substantial challenges African countries face to tackle rising urbanization, high youth unemployment, and a skills gap. We first discuss relevant features of the SENAI and...

Through an analysis of Ghana's HIPC Fund, which was established as part of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) process, this paper shows how aid-financed efforts to reduce regional inequality in Ghana have failed. Dominant political elites agreed to policies of regional inequality...

New theories of how democratic development is likely to emerge within developing countries obscure the effects of popular agency, and of ideas, offering an incomplete view of such historical processes and exaggerating the extent to which a particular sequencing of change is required. Insights...