Why have efforts to strengthen the quality of governance in some of the world’s most troubled states so often failed? Greg Powers tells us that it is because they almost always ignore the human side of politics. Drawing on the experience of working with hundreds of politicians in more than sixty countries, Greg explores how social norms, public expectations and the personal interests of MPs themselves shape the path of political development. Ultimately, political institutions only get stronger when politicians want to make them stronger. But in many places, there are few incentives for politicians to strengthen them, because that’s not how you get elected. Instead, politicians tend to spend most of their time going around the system, rather than through it. As a result, weak states tend to stay weak. This is the conundrum that sits at the heart of Greg Power’s book, Inside the Political Mind, and in this event talks about how we might address that challenge, the tensions that every aid agency has to manage, and why driving in a different country provides a useful analogy for understanding how politics really works.
Greg Power has been involved in political and parliamentary development since the mid-1990s. He established Global Partners Governance in 2005 to deliver projects in these fields, and has since worked extensively across the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America. He provides direct support to politicians and ministers in such countries, developing strategies and helping to implement reform. He has provided advice to a variety of government ministries, international organizations and donor agencies on these themes. He is an expert in political economy analysis and writes widely on behavioral approaches to politics and managing the process of change. Greg was previously a special adviser to British ministers Rt Hon Robin Cook MP and Rt Hon Peter Hain MP, working on strategies for parliamentary reform, constitutional change and the wider democratic agenda in conjunction with the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit and Downing Street policy staff. In 2023, he was awarded an OBE for services to parliamentary democracy and political reform. His book Inside the Political Mind: The Human Side of Politics, and How its Shapes Development, was published in 2024.
