ABSTRACT
The objective of this introductory chapter is to present to the reader the essentials of the book. To that end, I shall describe in subsequent sections the motives for writing the book; the coverage of subjects (delimiting the notions of governance and socio-economic policies); the main focus (consistency and effectiveness); the structure (including the standard sequence of presentation of subjects); and, finally, the format, which has been chosen with the needs of the target readership (mainly students and professionals) in mind.
