Building administrative capacity for development: limits and prospects

There is an established cross-disciplinary intellectual tradition of studying state capacity, especially in political science and political sociology (Cingolani, 2013, 2018). The concept has recently shifted more toward the administrative dimension of state capacity, that is, administrative capacity, which is being widely used in public administration and policy studies (El-Taliawi and Van der Wal, 2019). The practical significance of this capacity is highlighted in terms of its necessity for economic performance, industrial growth, policy implementation, and overall national development (Cingolani, 2013; El-Taliawi and Van der Wal, 2019). In this age of globalization, administrative capacity needs to be expanded to deal with the worldwide context of intensive competition, complexity, and uncertainty (Farazmand, 2009), and to effectively address financial crises, security threats,