Book Review: Matt Andrews, The Limits of Institutional Reform in Development: Changing Rules for Realistic Solutions
| Date | 01 June 2015 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0973598415608520 |
| Published date | 01 June 2015 |
| Author | Piyali Dutta |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Book Reviews 77
Arab uprising, the digital networks, including media like Al-Jazeera,
have played a causal role. On the other hand, the movement in Spain did
not receive the help of the media; rather they have utilized the digital
social networks like Facebook to check the dominant clutch of the
media backed by the state. In the Occupy Wall Street, the protestors
themselves tried to resort to noncommercial social networks. Generally,
movements are born out of socio-political system, but in the digital era,
the varied roles played by media and social networks add up more
colors in the discourse of social movement. This book elegantly captured
this angle.
Suhita Saha
Research Scholar
Jadavpur University
Matt Andrews, The Limits of Institutional Reform in Development: Changing
Rules for Realistic Solutions. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press,
2013, 254 pp., Rs. 3704.
DOI: 10.1177/0973598415608520
Reform and development can very well be regarded as the two sides of
the same coin. Though reform is directly related to development, the
same cannot be held true for its inverse. Under the sway of neoliberal
economic thinking, development has been perceived to be closely asso-
ciated with globalization process that swept the world since the 1980s.
Development under this dispensation had two dimensions: liberalization
of international trade together with expansion of economic activities
beyond national boundaries, and reforming the domestic economic
structures of countries that were lagging behind on the economic front.
The opening up of the market on the global scale, however, threw up
daunting challenges for the developing states of the Sub-Saharan Africa,
the Latin America, Caribbean states, and South Asian regions.
The book by Matt Andrews titled The Limits of Institutional Reform
in Development: Changing Rules for Realistic Solutions argues that
reforms often fail to improve governance because short-term gains are
often found to overshadow long-term interests. The support system
required to implement reforms has also been described by the author as
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