ABSTRACT
Previous chapters showed central state decision making to be relatively autonomous. But it took the central state three reform attempts until resistance by bureaucratic and economic actors, such as local governments and SMCs, was finally overcome by introducing external pressures via world-market opening. The above analysis intentionally focused on explaining policy making at the macro-level. Problems of policy implementation entered the discussion only as external factors taken into account by decision makers. These implementation problems will be explored at greater length in the following chapters. It will be argued that regional and local governments as well as social forces such as the business community are crucial players in the process of policy implementation. They significantly contribute to the shaping of actual policy outcomes. In particular, it can be argued that the orientations on the part of local states toward the economy in general and the private sector in particular go a long way to explaining differences in implementation outcomes of cotton policy and therefore in state capacity.
