Introduction: Challenges of Governing Development

The literature on social sciences in general, and public policy and administration in particular, is replete with long lists of unattained objectives and failures of government policies and programs. Efforts aimed at correcting faults in the system, redressing grievances, and improving conditions often fail to make the desired impact. Several factors can be attributed to such outcomes. The state may not have the capacity to identify problems accurately and adopt the best method for dealing with them: the selected solutions may not be suitable for particular social and political systems: the priorities may be misleading; policies may be inappropriate; or the governmental framework in which the system operates may not be consistent with the adopted strategies. Many of these cases of failure can be related to countries which have been going through the process of 'development.'