ABSTRACT
The chapters collected in this study have reviewed comparatively aspects of democratisation, governance and regionalism. This fi nal chapter summarises the overall fi ndings and identifi es specifi c issues that merit further analysis. Its focus is the general concept of state capacity. This refers to the ability of governments to mobilise the political, technical and administrative capabilities to ‘penetrate’ their societies, to extract the necessary resources and, in some accounts, to lead adaptation and transformation (e.g. Painter and Pierre, 2005; Weiss, 2003). In keeping with the dynamic forces that are reshaping state capacity, most attention has been devoted to governance as the short-term register of democratisation, political socialisation as its longer-term register, and regionalism as its primary potential external buttress.
