Institutional Pathways to Equity: Addressing Inequality Traps

by Anthony J. Bebbington (Editor)

Questions of equity and inequality have moved to the center of debates on development and poverty reduction. This reflects growing awareness that even countries with high rates of growth can experience stagnating or increasing inequality, and that inequality can itself limit the poverty-reducing effects of growth. Indeed, recent work by a range of United Nations and other development agencies indicates that, in addition to its intrinsic value, equity should be valued for its positive impacts on growth and the poverty-reducing effects of such growth. These concerns for equity are coupled with questions of governance. This is because institutional arrangements not only influence overall rates of growth they also affect the distributional effects of growth and are themselves more or less equitable in their structure and functioning. How given institutional arrangements emerge over time, with their particular implications for growth and equity, remains less understood. Institutional Pathways to Addressing Inequality Traps tackles the relationship between equity and development, the place of institutions in determining these relationships, and the conditions under which particular institutional arrangements can either block or promote transitions toward more equitable forms of development. The chapters, originally commissioned as background documents for the preparation of the World Development Report 2006, were prepared by leading scholars from the fields of economics, political science, sociology, geography, and development studies. The book as a whole speaks directly to current discussions on inequality, poverty, and growth and will contribute to the construction of a historically informed political economy of development. The book specifically highlights the importance of inequality, institutional change through social mobilization, and institutional change through state policies. The authors show that, under certain conditions, state institutions can and have taken a leading role in promoting policies to redress inequitable social relations and so weaken the social foundations of inequality traps.

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Anthony Bebbington is Professor of Nature, Society and Development in the Institute of Development Policy and Management at the University of Manchester, an ESRC Professorial Fellow, and also a member and research affiliate of the Centro Peruano de Estudios Sociales, Lima, Peru. He has previously held positions at the University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of Cambridge, the International Institute for Environment and Development, the Overseas Development Institute and the World Bank. His work addresses the relationships among civil society, livelihoods and development, with a particular focus on social movements and NGOs in Latin America and more recently development conflicts and extractive industries.