Exploring the Linkage between Western Education and Governance Reforms

• In Event: Governing Autocracies in Russia and Eastern Europe

Abstract

Under what conditions do non-Western trainees educated in Western countries spur governance reforms in their countries of origin? Many studies find a positive correlation between leaders’ Western training and their home-country impact, while others disagree. But the potential causal mechanisms driving these relationships and potential endogeneities involved remain underexplored. Examining these problems is urgent given increasing internationalization of education, lack of progress on Sustainable Development Goals, persistent lack of good governance in the developing world, and the rise of criticism of Western models of education and governance.

This study investigates whether and under which conditions Western-trained political leaders (presidents, prime ministers) and senior officials (ministers, deputy ministers, department heads) succeed in modernizing governance institutions in their developing countries. It explores the moderating effects of conditioning variables, such as leaders’/officials' backgrounds and country's socio-economic and political characteristics on this relationship. 

The research is based on a small-N comparative case study of Azerbaijan and Georgia, two former Soviet republics with many initial similarities yet very different experiences of Western-educated leaders’ role in governance reforms. I use comparative historical analysis that spans late Soviet period up until 2010s. The data was collected through in-depth interviews, focus groups and secondary statistical and qualitative evidence. I interrogate this rich body of evidence to examine alternative hypotheses on the role of Western-educated elites in governance reforms through a combination of deductive, thematic, and discourse analysis within a general process-tracing framework. 

Author

• Elvin Yusifli, Leiden University