01827pab a2200169 454500008004000000100002800040245009100068260000900159300001300168362000800181520130500189650003001494650003601524650004201560650002801602773002701630180718b1999   xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d  aMontinola, Gabriella R.  aPoliticians, parties, and the persistence of weak states: lessons from the Philippines  c1999  ap.739-74  aOct  aUnder what conditions will politicians strengthen state capabilities through bureaucratic reform?  This article presents a principal agent model of state capacity that shows that unless competition to influence policy is largely confined to a single dimension, politicians have no incentive or `political will' to adopt bureaucratic reform.  The validity of this model is tested using the experience of the Philippines in the period 1946-72.  It is found that politically relevant groups in the Philippines were competing to influence policy over issues of social welfare, economic nationalism and control over public spending, and that groups' demands over these issues failed to align along a single dominant dimension.  Consistent with expectations derived from the principal-agent model, there were numerous calls for and attempts to improve bureaucratic performance, but the calls went unheeded and the attempts failed miserably.  The study highlights a lesson of potential use to countries currently undergoing democratization.  It argues that state capacity is not a function of insulating the state from societal forces, but rather of clarifying lines of authority and accountability in the hierarchy of principal-agent relationships between society, politicians and bureaucrats. - Reproduced  aPoliticians - Philippines  aPolitical parties - Philippines  aPhilippines - Politics and government  aPolitics and government  aDevelopment and Change