Bureaucratic Effects: 'Weberian' State Agencies and Poverty Reduction

Evans and Rauch (1999) have demonstrated that thene is a strong relationship between the'Weberianness' of a national state's bureaucratic capacities and its record on economic growth. Using their data set and the best available data sets on the incidence of income poverty; this article investigates whether there is a relationship between a Weberian notion of effective bureaucratic capacities and the state's ability to reduce poverty Using the same time frame as Evans and Rauch (I970-90) and analysing data for 29 developing and middle income countries, the article concludes that in general, there does indeed seem to be a relationship between states with effective 'Weberian' public institutions and their ability to reduce poverty.