From analysis to implementation: the practice of political economy approaches to economic reform

This paper sketches out the operational features of emerging political economy-based approaches to sectoral economic policy reform.

Section 1 traces some of the literature on the political economy analysis of reforms. Section 2 outlines the international development community’s increasing recognition of the political economy aspects of economic governance, and their efforts to undertake sharper political economy analysis of reform challenges. Finally, Section 3 identifies elements of operational reform approaches that move beyond disengaged political economy analysis towards on-the-ground implementation of political strategies in policy reform processes.