The first volume of IDS Companions to Development Studies focuses on pivotal writing emerging from the IDS fellowship during the last 50 years. It includes five topics: perspectives and paradigms, debunking myths, development policy, gender and international perspectives, and policy, as well as...

Understanding underdevelopment -- The surge and partial retreat of democracy -- Religion and politics -- The politics of cultural pluralism and ethnic conflict -- Women and development -- The politics of the rural and urban poor -- Revolutionary change -- Soldiers and politics -- The political...

"An introduction to the contemporary challenges states in the developing world face, and to the ways in which they can build capacity to handle them. It examines the key institutions of the state, the challenges of institutional reform, and the importance of institutional reform in achieving...