http://aidthoughts.org/?p=636

I also can’t wait to get internet quick enough to download this! Perhaps Owen could recruit a Development Drums intern to transcribe the podcasts?

I also agree there are significant areas of corruption that we need to target (access to justice for the poorest, the direct fiduciary risk to donor funds and so on), but we should be very careful we’re not simultaneously and radically undermining processes that might lead to more growth and income, including for the poorest, over the long run.

It does also seem to me that strong and visionary leadership is important, but how you get this when the incentives and structures point towards political success for those good at exploiting the kind of informal and messy patron-client links Mushtaq describes and which in the 3rd world one sees everywhere, I do not know.

Like Ranil, I’ll have to wait for the transcript and for when you have more free time!

I can’t agree with you more about getting convergence between the two view on corruption.

I’m willing to tolerate a certain level of corruption if it delivers the goods . It’s what I call ‘functional’ corruption. When I moved to Indoneisa from India , I decided I liked Indonesian corruption comapred to India’s ‘dysfunctional corruption’! For e.g. In Indonesia, infrastructure contracts may be overestimated, but the road is built and to decent quality. In India, contracts are overestiametd, the road or bridge is not built, or built to terrible quality. At least the Indonesian has a road to get to the maternity centre or school!

I’ve recently moved to Nigeria where, as you note, corruption is a major barrier to growth and poverty reduction. A Ghanian driver once told me that what sets his country apart from Nigeria is the level of acceptability that corruption enjoys in Nija. He told me about the ‘mother reaction test’. In Nigeria if he brought home a flash new car, his mom would be super thrilled and ask how soon they could go for a ride. In Ghana, his mother would first want to know where he got the money from to buy the car.

I’ve no views on this myself as yet. Have only moved to Africa three weeks back, but the story stuck in my head!

Regards,

Shalini

I studied under Mushtaq Khan when I did my MSc. His course on Political Economy of Development was widely held (by myself and most other students in it) to be the best development module any of us had studied. I would have gone further: across all my education, I don’t think I’ve ever come across anyone with such radical, but ultimately reasonable and interesting views. They can be a bit bleak, and he doesn’t have as many solutions as one might wish, but when the problems are difficult it’s far more valuable to acknowledge that than change to the conception of the problem until it’s something you can solve to limited ultimate effect.

Owen replies: Hi Ranil – thanks for your email. Yes, I have a huge backlog of transcripts that I need to edit for the past episodes of Development Drums. They will come (including, eventually, for this episode). Development Drums is purely a hobby for me: nobody pays for my time, and I don’t have a producer or assistant to organise the speakers, edit the episodes or to arrange transcripts. So I will publish the transcripts eventually, but I’m afraid this often falls behind more urgent work (especially the sort that pays the bills). I’m glad that you found Mushtaq’s course interesting; I certainly thought this was an interesting debate.