“Within seemingly weak states, exceptionally effective subunits lie hidden,” writes Faculty Fellow Erin Metz McDonnell in a new article in the American Sociological Review.
Generalizing from organizational comparisons within the Ghanaian state and brief historical comparison cases from 19th-century United States, early 20th-century China, mid 20th-century Kenya, and early 21st-century Nigeria, she explores how high-performing niches in bureaucracies in the developing world are distinct from poor-performing peer organizations, but also from high-functioning organizations in the West.
McDonnell, Erin Metz, “Patchwork Leviathan: How Pockets of Bureaucratic Governance Flourish within Institutionally Diverse Developing States,” American Sociological Review 82, 3 (2017)