Kamran Ali Afzal - Democratic Accountability and International Human Development: Regimes, institutions and resources

Democratic Accountability and International Human Development

Scholars and policymakers have long known that there is a strong link between human development and spending on key areas such as education and health. However, many states still neglect these considerations in favour of competing priorities, such as expanding their armies. This book examines how states arrive at these decisions, analysing how democratic accountability influences public spending and affects human development.

The book shows how the broader paradigm of democratic accountability extending beyond political democracy to also include bureaucratic and judicial institutions as well as taxation and other modes of resource mobilisation can best explain how states allocate public resources for human development. Combining cross-country regression analysis with exemplar case studies from Pakistan, India, Botswana and Argentina, the book demonstrates that enhancing human capabilities requires not only effective party competition and fair elections, but also a particular nesting of public organisational structures that are tied to taxpaying citizens in an undisturbed chain of accountability. It draws out vital lessons for institutional design and our approach to the question of human development, particularly in the less developed states.

This book will be of great interest to postgraduate students and researchers in the fields of political economy, public policy, governance and development. It also provides valuable insights for those working in the international relations field, including inside major aid and investment organisations.

Kamran Ali Afzal is a career civil servant in Pakistan and has served in a range of administrative and policymaking positions over the past 20 years. He earned his PhD in political economy from the University of Melbourne, Australia, and his areas of interest include public policy, governance, public finance and social development.

Mark Considine is Professor of Political Science and Dean of Arts, University of Melbourne, Australia. His research interests include public governance studies, comparative social policy, reform of higher education and public service reform.

Routledge Explorations in Development Studies

This Development Studies series features innovative and original research at the regional and global scale.

It promotes interdisciplinary scholarly works drawing on a wide spectrum of subject areas, in particular politics, health, economics, rural and urban studies, sociology, environment, anthropology and conflict studies.

Topics of particular interest are globalisation; emerging powers; children and youth; cities; education; media and communication; technology development; and climate change.

In terms of theory and method, rather than basing itself on any orthodoxy, the series draws broadly on the toolkit of the social sciences in general, emphasising comparison, the analysis of the structure and processes, and the application of qualitative and quantitative methods.

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Democratic Accountability and Human Development

Regimes, institutions and resources

Kamran Ali Afzal and Mark Considine

Democratic Accountability and International Human Development

Regimes, institutions and resources

Kamran Ali Afzal and Mark Considine

First published 2015

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2015 Kamran Ali Afzal and Mark Considine

The right of Kamran Ali Afzal and Mark Considine to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Afzal, Kamran Ali.

Democratic accountability and international human development : regimes, institutions and resources / Kamran Ali Afzal and Mark Considine.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

1. Economic development--Social aspects. 2. Human capital. 3. Public welfare. 4. Finance, Public. 5. Welfare economics. I. Considine, Mark, 1953- II. Title.

HD75.A338 2015

338.91--dc23

2014026120

ISBN: 978-1-138-78722-3 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-76673-7 (ebk)

Typeset in Goudy

by GreenGate Publishing Services, Tonbridge, Kent

To my parents,
Muhammad Afzal and Mahmooda Afzal
Kamran Ali Afzal

To my children,
Kate, Tom and Pat Considine
Mark Considine

Contents