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In order to design, enact, and protect poverty alleviation policies in developing countries, we must first understand the psychology of how the poor react to their plight, and not just the psychology of the privileged called upon for sacrifice. This book integrates social and psycho-dynamic psychology, economics, policy design, and policy-process theory to explore ways to follow through on successful poverty-alleviation initiatives, while averting destructive conflict. Using eight case studies across Latin America, Southeast Asia, and South Asia, William Ascher examines successes and failures in helping the poor through affirmative action, cash transfers, social-spending targeting, subsidies, and regional development. In doing so, he demonstrates how social identities, attributions of deservingness, and perceptions of the policy process shape both the willingness to support pro-poor policies and the conflict that emerges over distributional issues.

The challenges of conflict sensitive poverty alleviation -- Political economy considerations -- Identity, attributions, deservingness judgments, and hostility -- Conditional cash transfers -- Social-sector spending targeting the poor -- Pro-poor subsidies and the problem of leakage -- Affirmative action -- Regional development targeting the poorest areas -- How the wealthy react to pro-poor-labeled initiatives -- Lessons and conclusions.

"Understanding the Policymaking Process in Developing Countries provides a uniquely comprehensive and practical framework for development practitioners, policymakers, activists, and students to diagnose and improve policy processes in developing countries across a wide range of issues. Based on the classic policy sciences approach, the book offers over 100 diagnostic indicators keyed to identify problems of policy processes, policy content, bureaucratic behavior, stakeholder behavior, and national-subnational interactions. This multi-disciplinary framework is applied to a host of policy problems that particularly plague countries experiencing the 'under-development syndrome', including aborted programs and projects, policy impasses, distorted implementation, unnecessary harm and conflict, and shortsighted initiatives. These points are illustrated through cases from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Based on the developing countries' distinctive challenges, the book also offers recommendations on improving policy content and institutions to address the typical limitations"--

Humans are plagued by shortsighted thinking, preferring to put off work on complex, deep-seated, or difficult problems in favor of quick-fix solutions to immediate needs. When short-term thinking is applied to economic development, especially in fragile nations, the results-corruption, waste, and faulty planning-are often disastrous. In Bringing in the Future, William Ascher draws on the latest research from psychology, economics, institutional design, and legal theory to suggest strategies to overcome powerful obstacles to long-term planning in developing countries. Drawing on cases from Africa, Asia, and Latin America, Ascher applies strategies such as the creation and scheduling of tangible and intangible rewards, cognitive exercises to increase the understanding of longer-term consequences, self-restraint mechanisms to protect long-term commitments and enhance credibility, and restructuring policy-making processes to permit greater influence of long-term considerations. Featuring theoretically informed research findings and sound policy examples, this volume will assist policy makers, activists, and scholars seeking to understand how the vagaries of human behavior affect international development.