The Capacity Paradox: Building Problem-Solving Democracies in the Global South
Why do the world's largest democracies in the Global South—such as India, Indonesia, and Brazil—excel at executing colossal elections peacefully, yet consistently falter when delivering basic services to their citizens?
This book dissects the Democratic Capacity Paradox: the stark gap between robust electoral procedures and weak state effectiveness. While universal suffrage and electoral legitimacy thrive, the public remains burdened by bureaucratic delays, skyrocketing campaign costs, and institutional fragmentation across dozens of ministries that fuels rent-seeking and policy paralysis.
Through a rigorous comparative analysis of three democratic giants (India, Indonesia, and Brazil), this book presents a groundbreaking institutional framework: Problem-Solving Democracy. It offers a blueprint for aligning political incentives with policy effectiveness by combining digital participation platforms, functional governance architecture, and hybrid democratic systems—transforming formal electoral accountability into tangible public outcomes.
