ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on particular phenomenon that has been largely ignored in passing precisely because it contradicts such general categorizations and labels: it is about public organizations that deliver public goods and services relatively effectively in contexts of largely ineffective government. After a short period of optimism that all countries would now converge towards liberal democracy after the collapse of communism, both academics and policy makers realized that this was not happening. Many researchers have been trying to improve our understanding of what is going on in terms of governance in developing countries in general to the degree that this can be generalized and in specific countries in particular. Coinciding with the rediscovery of the state and the emergence of 'governance' and the Good Governance paradigm, it became increasingly accepted that instead of a 'minimal state' a 'capable state' was needed for development.
