Can the state deliver?

The upsurge of interest in governance is inextricably bound up with the growing concern with the negative consequences of political corruption. The emphasis on New Public Management upon greater flexibility and discretion, its pronounced tendency to fragment institutions seems quite inappropriate for states which already have an abundance of flexibility and discretion. In this light it seems that what less developed states need is a stronger dose of bureaucratic public administration with its high levels of standardisation and stability. It must be concluded that, without a fair number of fairly fundamental changes in the international economic system, most obviously in the global distribution of resources, the state is unlikely to deliver the designated outputs required to contain corruption. What seems clear, however, is that future policy initiatives must address the specific political and economic realities of the states they target.