Hirschmanian Themes of Social Learning and Change
Many development strategies assume (or desperately hope) that a country already has the capacity to plan and implement institutional reform or that such institutional reform can be pushed through with the external pressures of aid and conditionalit...
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/04/1089581/hirschmanian-themes-social-learning-change http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19668 |
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okr-10986-196682021-04-23T14:03:43Z Hirschmanian Themes of Social Learning and Change Ellerman, David ACHIEVEMENT ACTIVE LEARNING ADAPTATION ADJUSTMENT ATTENTION BELIEFS BENCHMARK BENCHMARKING BOUNDED RATIONALITY BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTRAL PLANNING COGNITION COMPREHENSIVE DEVELOPMENT CONDITIONALITY CONFORMITY DECISION MAKERS DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES DONOR AGENCIES ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ECONOMISTS EDUCATION ENGINEERS EXPECTED VALUE FISH GROWTH MODELS GROWTH THEORY HABITS HEALTH INEFFICIENCY INNOVATION INNOVATIONS INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE INVENTORIES LEARNING LEARNING PROCESS LEARNING PROCESSES MACROECONOMIC MODELS MANAGERS MOTIVATION ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE PEDAGOGY PLAYING POLICY ENVIRONMENT POLICY MAKERS PROBLEM SOLVING PROGRAMMING PROGRAMS PROPERTY RIGHTS PUBLIC HEALTH STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT THINKING Many development strategies assume (or desperately hope) that a country already has the capacity to plan and implement institutional reform or that such institutional reform can be pushed through with the external pressures of aid and conditionalities. In a decentralized reform strategy, developmental change is induced not by government fiat but by releasing and channeling local energies in smaller projects that will in due course spread through links, learning, imitation, and benchmarking. A "Christmas tree" of conditionalities hung on an adjustment loan is generally ineffective in getting a country to develop "ownership" of reform or in generating sustainable change. Development agencies need to work toward client governments genuine commitment to policy reform rather than believe that they can "buy" such commitment with aid money. But how does a country get from here to there? Here is where the Hirschmanian notion of unbalanced growth can be "rediscovered." A country that has already developed a "good policy environment" is like a country that can implement the "balanced growth plans" of the earlier debate. Such a country would be well on its way to development. When the central government lacks such a capability, the Hirschmanian approach is to look for "hidden rationalities" in small areas or on the periphery and then help the small beginnings to spread--using, where possible, the natural pressures of linkages. Rather than try to put all the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle together at once to make it look like the picture on the box, one starts in the small areas where the pieces are starting to fit together and builds outward, using the links between the pieces. the author shows several authors arriving at a similar strategy from different starting points. Similar ideas underlie the Japanese system of just-in-time production based on inventory, local problemsolving, benchmarking, and continuous improvement: Charles Lindblom's theory of incrementalism and muddling through; Donald Schon and Everett Rogers's treatment of decentralized social learning; and Charles Sabel's theory of learning by monitoring. 2014-08-26T15:14:01Z 2014-08-26T15:14:01Z 2001-04-30 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/04/1089581/hirschmanian-themes-social-learning-change http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19668 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 2591 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English en_US |
| topic |
ACHIEVEMENT ACTIVE LEARNING ADAPTATION ADJUSTMENT ATTENTION BELIEFS BENCHMARK BENCHMARKING BOUNDED RATIONALITY BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTRAL PLANNING COGNITION COMPREHENSIVE DEVELOPMENT CONDITIONALITY CONFORMITY DECISION MAKERS DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES DONOR AGENCIES ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ECONOMISTS EDUCATION ENGINEERS EXPECTED VALUE FISH GROWTH MODELS GROWTH THEORY HABITS HEALTH INEFFICIENCY INNOVATION INNOVATIONS INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE INVENTORIES LEARNING LEARNING PROCESS LEARNING PROCESSES MACROECONOMIC MODELS MANAGERS MOTIVATION ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE PEDAGOGY PLAYING POLICY ENVIRONMENT POLICY MAKERS PROBLEM SOLVING PROGRAMMING PROGRAMS PROPERTY RIGHTS PUBLIC HEALTH STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT THINKING |
| spellingShingle |
ACHIEVEMENT ACTIVE LEARNING ADAPTATION ADJUSTMENT ATTENTION BELIEFS BENCHMARK BENCHMARKING BOUNDED RATIONALITY BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTRAL PLANNING COGNITION COMPREHENSIVE DEVELOPMENT CONDITIONALITY CONFORMITY DECISION MAKERS DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES DONOR AGENCIES ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ECONOMISTS EDUCATION ENGINEERS EXPECTED VALUE FISH GROWTH MODELS GROWTH THEORY HABITS HEALTH INEFFICIENCY INNOVATION INNOVATIONS INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE INVENTORIES LEARNING LEARNING PROCESS LEARNING PROCESSES MACROECONOMIC MODELS MANAGERS MOTIVATION ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE PEDAGOGY PLAYING POLICY ENVIRONMENT POLICY MAKERS PROBLEM SOLVING PROGRAMMING PROGRAMS PROPERTY RIGHTS PUBLIC HEALTH STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT THINKING Ellerman, David Hirschmanian Themes of Social Learning and Change |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Paper;No. 2591 |
| description |
Many development strategies assume (or
desperately hope) that a country already has the capacity to
plan and implement institutional reform or that such
institutional reform can be pushed through with the external
pressures of aid and conditionalities. In a decentralized
reform strategy, developmental change is induced not by
government fiat but by releasing and channeling local
energies in smaller projects that will in due course spread
through links, learning, imitation, and benchmarking. A
"Christmas tree" of conditionalities hung on an
adjustment loan is generally ineffective in getting a
country to develop "ownership" of reform or in
generating sustainable change. Development agencies need to
work toward client governments genuine commitment to policy
reform rather than believe that they can "buy"
such commitment with aid money. But how does a country get
from here to there? Here is where the Hirschmanian notion of
unbalanced growth can be "rediscovered." A country
that has already developed a "good policy
environment" is like a country that can implement the
"balanced growth plans" of the earlier debate.
Such a country would be well on its way to development. When
the central government lacks such a capability, the
Hirschmanian approach is to look for "hidden
rationalities" in small areas or on the periphery and
then help the small beginnings to spread--using, where
possible, the natural pressures of linkages. Rather than try
to put all the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle together at once to
make it look like the picture on the box, one starts in the
small areas where the pieces are starting to fit together
and builds outward, using the links between the pieces. the
author shows several authors arriving at a similar strategy
from different starting points. Similar ideas underlie the
Japanese system of just-in-time production based on
inventory, local problemsolving, benchmarking, and
continuous improvement: Charles Lindblom's theory of
incrementalism and muddling through; Donald Schon and
Everett Rogers's treatment of decentralized social
learning; and Charles Sabel's theory of learning by monitoring. |
| format |
Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper |
| author |
Ellerman, David |
| author_facet |
Ellerman, David |
| author_sort |
Ellerman, David |
| title |
Hirschmanian Themes of Social Learning and Change |
| title_short |
Hirschmanian Themes of Social Learning and Change |
| title_full |
Hirschmanian Themes of Social Learning and Change |
| title_fullStr |
Hirschmanian Themes of Social Learning and Change |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Hirschmanian Themes of Social Learning and Change |
| title_sort |
hirschmanian themes of social learning and change |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2014 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/04/1089581/hirschmanian-themes-social-learning-change http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19668 |
| _version_ |
1764440277368438784 |