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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.

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

Although many scholars and practitioners recognize that development and conflict are intertwined, there is much less understanding of the mechanisms behind these linkages. This book takes a new approach by critically examining how various development strategies provoke or help prevent intrastate violence, based on cases from all developing regions

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

"The Economic Roots of Conflict and Cooperation in Africa" explores how the development strategies of African nations shape the nature and dynamics of inter-group violence. The overview chapter assesses development doctrines, patterns of development, and levels and nature of violence in both North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. Focusing on eleven countries, the case-study contributions explore the immediate and long-term impacts of development initiatives on reducing or increasing inter-group conflict and violence. They demonstrate the importance of evolving identities as economic roles and conditions change. These insights can guide policymakers, development professionals, and activists committed to conflict-sensitive development

This book addresses the key challenges of balancing economic growth, poverty alleviation, and environmental protection in the development of major physical infrastructure, ranging from transport to energy.

The Caspian Sea region is profoundly important to global and regional environmental security. New geopolitical and economic conditions have created a mix of competition, reluctant collaboration, and legal, political, economic and ideological wrangling. There is intense debate on how the Caspian Sea and its resources should be divided between the littoral states and how the resources are to be developed. Development of the area's immense hydrocarbon potential poses a risk to the unique and fragile ecosystem. The issue is extremely complex, and vital economic, political and environmental interests are involved. The present book provides the most recent scientific assessments of the environmental threats in the region, articulates the standpoints of the various stakeholders from the littoral states, and presents the diverse approaches of interest groups from other nations currently involved in Caspian developments. Key to the work is the way it addresses the almost untouched questions of how to foster cooperation in resource sharing and environmental security issues and how to structure international cooperation to ensure its effectiveness

Chapter 1.Introduction -- Chapter 2. Understanding Internal Migration -- Part I Stakeholders: The State, Migrants, and Hosts. Chapter 3. The Primacy of the State -- Chapter 4. The Many Levels of the State -- Chapter 5. Sympathy for the State: Coping with Internal Migration -- Chapter 6. Migrants in Train: State-Initiated and Managed Migrations -- Chapter 7. Unsponsored Migrants: The Enterprising -- Chapter 8. Unsponsored Migrants: The Expelled -- Chapter 9. Room to Let? Host Community Perspectives.-Part II. What Can Go Wrong. Chapter 10. Migratory Deprivations -- Chapter 11.Migratory Conflicts: Sons of the Soil.-Chapter 12. State Failures -- Part III. What to Do About It. Chapter 13. State Accountability: Theory, Evasion, and Potential Remedies -- Chapter 14. State Responses and Best Practices -- Chapter 15. Societal Responses -- Chapter 16. The International Community -- Chapter 17. Lessons in Governing Internal Migration.

Internal Migration: Challenges in Governance and Integration focuses on the challenges associated with internal migration across the developing world. While international migration captures significant attention, less attention has been paid to those migrating within recognized national borders. The sources of internal migration are not fundamentally different from international migration, as migrants may be pushed by violence, disasters, state policies, or various opportunities. Although they do not cross international borders, they may still cross significant internal borders, with cultural differences and perceived state favoritism generating a potential for "sons of the soil" conflicts. As citizens, internal migrants are in theory to be provided legal protection by host states, however this is not always the case, and sometimes their own states represent the cause of their displacement. The chapters in this book explain how international organizations, host states, and host communities may navigate the many challenges associated with internal migration

Development Strategies, Identities, and Conflict in Asia explores the links between Asian governments' development strategies and the nature and dynamics of inter-group violence, analyzing variations in strategies and their impacts through broad comparative analyses, as well as case studies focused on eight countries. Development Strategies, Identities, and Conflict in Asia explores the links between Asian governments' development strategies and the nature and dynamics of inter-group violence. The overview chapters comprehensively assess the development doctrines, patterns of development, and levels and nature of violence in all Asian subregions, while case-study contributions focusing on eight countries explore the often surprising impacts of development initiatives on reducing or increasing inter-group conflict and violence ranging from West Asia to Southeast Asia. The variations in strategies and their impacts on multiple risks of violence can guide policymakers, development professionals, and activists committed to conflict-sensitive development.

Economic Development Strategies and the Evolution of Violence in Latin America explores the links between Latin American governments' economic policies and the nature and dynamics of inter-group violence. The contributions, based on the patterns of ten countries, trace the remarkable transformation from open ideological conflict to the explosion of social (seemingly apolitical) violence, the upsurge of urban crime, and the confrontations over natural resources and drugs across the region, spanning from Mexico to Argentina. The variations in economic success and in addressing the risks of violence can guide policymakers, development professionals, and activists committed to conflict-sensitive development.

The dominance of cognitive theories applied to political psychology has diminished the roles of affect, psychological needs, and the psychodynamic mechanisms that are crucial for understanding political behavior. The goal here is to recapture these dimensions.