AbstractThe editor assesses the World Bank'sWorld Development Report 1983in which the World Bank reviews how to improve administration and management. In particular he questions the assumptions underlying the case made in the report for the market as a versatile instrument of administration.
AbstractMicrostates can easily be dismissed as of peripheral interest and importance yet their number gives them a growing significance. One symptom of their marginal situation is that in the literature of public and development administration the circumstances of microstates have been largely overlooked, and the assumption made that administrative prescriptions can be applied in states irrespective of their size. In practice in microstates there has been improvization and experiment designed to develop administration appropriate to small states, and though judged in conventional terms much of this innovation may be criticized, it is argued in this article that attention should be given to it as a constructive attempt at coping with the problems of small scale.