Description
Why is it so hard for international development organizations—even ones as well-resourced and influential as the World Bank—to generate and sustain change in the way things are done in those countries where they work? Despite what, in many cases, is decades of investment and effort, why do partner governments continue to engage in those traditional patterns and styles of public service management that international development organizations have sought to supplant with methods that are supposedly more accountable, efficient, and effective? This book provides an answer to these questions. However, rather than pathologizing partner governments as the source of the problem—that is, rather than maintaining the distinction between doctor (international development organizations) and patient (partner governments), wherein the patient is seen as unwilling to take their medicine (enacting "good governance" practices)—this book instead reframes the relationship.
The central argument is, first, that the programs and projects of international organizations are introduced into and are constrained by multiple layers of ritual governance, that is, performative acts and cultural logics that intersect with and reinforce the political, economic, and social structures in and through which they operate. As is shown, the contextual factors that guide governance practices are largely beyond the reach of the international development organizations; the relevant logics have their roots in state ideology but also extend back to the colonial logics that continue to operate at the heart of the state apparatus.
The second the central argument is that international aid organizations and the governments with which they work are engaged in a "ritual aid dance" where each actor plays a part but does not (and cannot) acknowledge the ways that it depends on the other for its own gain. This relationship can be considered a dance because each participant responds to and needs the other, and because both sides do so in ways that are carefully choreographed, with the overall trajectory or contours of the dance being more or less known to the participants.
These arguments are based on research on the World Bank’s efforts over the course of several decades to encourage, through its financing, projects, and technical assistance, the implementation of social sector reform in Indonesia related to decentralization, community participation, and school-based management.
Table of Contents
PART 1: APPROACHES TO UNDERSTANDING THE WORLD BANK
Chapter 1. The World Bank and Social Sector Reform: An Introduction to Ritual Governance and the Ritual Aid Dance
D. Brent Edwards Jr.
Introduction
The Contributions of this Book
Common Approaches to Conceptualizing and Researching the World Bank Decentralization, Governance, and International Development
Governance Reforms and World Bank Influence in Indonesia
Methods
Structure of the Book
Chapter 2. Explaining Global-Local Policy Change and Implementation: The Political Economy of Reform in Realist, Systems, and Anthropological Perspective
D. Brent Edwards Jr.
Introduction
Political Economy Approaches
A Realist Perspective
A Systems Perspective
An Anthropological Perspective
Summary of Considerations
Conclusion
Chapter 3. Participation in Development and Education Governance: World Bank Thinking, Frameworks, and Results
D. Brent Edwards Jr.
Introduction
Methodology
The World Bank’s Approach to Development and the Trajectory of Participation
The Framework for Service Provision
Participation and Education Governance: The Origins and Feature of Community-Based Management
Shifts in Participation in Education Governance
Results of World Bank-Supported Participation Reforms in Education
Conclusion
PART 2: THE EVOLUTION OF GOVERNANCE REFORMS
Chapter 4. Context and Origins of Community-Driven Development in Indonesia
D. Brent Edwards Jr. & Inga Storen
The Context of Indonesia: Key Features in the Post-WWII Period
The Origins of Indonesia’s Governance Reforms
Rural Community-Driven Development: The IDT, VIP and KDP Programs
Conclusion
Chapter 5. The Asian Financial Crisis: Entrenching and Scaling-up Community-Driven Development Reforms
D. Brent Edwards Jr. & Inga Storen
Introduction
Social Safety Nets in Education
International Donor Influence and the Asian Financial Crisis
The Changing role of the World Bank Relationship amidst the Push for Decentralization
and Increasing Government Budgets
Post-Asian Financial Crisis Decentralization Legal Reforms
Post-Crisis Community-Driven Development
PNPM Funding
Conclusion
Chapter 6. The World Bank and Education Governance in Indonesia: Influence around and beyond School-Based Management
D. Brent Edwards Jr. & Inga Storen
Introduction
Junior Secondary Education Projects (1996-2004)
Basic Education Projects (1998-2006)
Scholarships and Grant Program (1998-2003)
The Government’s SBM Approach: BOS Program (2005-Present)
Basic Education Capacity Project-Recipient Executed (2007-2012)
BOS Knowledge Improvement for Transparency and Accountability (2008-2012)
Concluding Remarks: Recapping the Trajectory of Education Governance Reforms
PART 3: EDUCATION GOVERNANCE REFORMS IN PRACTICE
Chapter 7. Educational Decentralization: Dominant Rationales, Key Characteristics, and Early Examples
D. Brent Edwards Jr., Marilyn Hillarious, Mark McCormick, & Dewi Setiani
Introduction
Educational Decentralization in Indonesia: Motivations and Logics
Key Characteristics of the "Big Bang" Decentralization Reforms
The Local Curriculum Content Initiative
The Social Safety Net Program
Chapter 8. School-Based Management through Block Grants: Policy and Practice
D. Brent Edwards Jr., Dewi Setiani, Mark McCormick, & Marilyn Hillarious
Introduction
The Combination of School-based Management and School Operational Block Grants: Key Characteristics
The Experience of SBM via BOS in Practice
Outcomes of SBM under BOS
Explaining the Challenges to SBM and BOS in Practice
Conclusion
Chapter 9. Educational Decentralization from the Central to the Village Level
D. Brent Edwards Jr. & Marilyn Hillarious
Introduction
Administrative Levels in Indonesia: A Recap
Decentralization Plans from the Central to the Provincial (Regency) and District levels
The Politics of Letting Go—Or Not
Provincial and District Dynamics in Practice
Decentralization and System Financing
Conclusion
PART 4: (RE)CONSIDERATIONS: RITUAL GOVERNANCE & THE RITUAL AID DANCE
Chapter 10. Reconsidering Decentralization: A Systems Perspective
D. Brent Edwards Jr., Marilyn Hillarious, & Inga Storen
Introduction
Institutional Framework and Political Motivations: Initial Considerations
Management and Coordination of Institutional Resources across Levels of Government
The Cultural Politics of Service Standards
District- and Village-level Institutional Capacity and Institutional Frameworks
The Political Dimension of Institutional Capacity and Institutional Resources at the Provincial and District Levels
Factors Affecting Community Participation and Local-level Accountability
Cultures of Corruption and Elite Control
Chapter 11. Reconsidering Social Sector Reform: Ritual Governance
D. Brent Edwards Jr
Introduction
Political Reflections
Institutional Reflections
The Salience and Question of Cultural Norms
State Ideology
Ritual Governance
The Ethos of Privatization
Colonial Legacies
Ritual Governance, Mechanisms, and the (Im)Possibilities of Technical Solutions
Chapter 12. Reconsidering World Bank Influence: The Ritual Aid Dance
D. Brent Edwards Jr
World Bank Influence in Broad and Long-Term Perspective
Sector and Subtle Influence
Reconsidering Influence: Constraining Factors and Co-dependence
Theorizing the Ritual Aid Dance
Examples of the Ritual Aid Dance
The Ritual Aid Dance with Indonesia
The Mechanism of the Ritual Aid Dance
The World Bank, the Ritual Aid Dance, and Global Capitalism
Contributions and Conclusions
Appendix 1: World-Bank Approved Education Projects during 1990-2014 for Indonesia
