What Kenyan Ministers are Driving Now

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With public pressure on to cut down on generous car allowances, Ministers in Kenya have been debating strategies to cut back… without compromising luxury. The 2009 budget sets aside 70 million shillings (US$ 914,434) for vehicle spending based on a long-standing practice of providing a Mercedes-Benz to go along with the title of minister. Anticipating…

Governance Metrics: Why “Fictitious” Numbers Can Be Useful

Archive - Pre 20153 Comments

What do Stalinist-era accounting practices in Hungary, financial reports, and post-WWII U.S. property tax assessments have in common with measuring governance/corruption? More than we think, if we take the argument advanced by a former professor of mine Martha Lampland seriously. In a working paper (PDF) published recently, Lampland (a historical anthropologist) suggests that numbers are…