What I found interesting about this article is the way Fukuyama defines the relationship between bureaucratic autonomy and capacity. Instead of following Weberian ideals which many believe would increase bureaucratic effectiveness, Fukuyama asserts that states with high institutionalization and capacity should have bureaucrats with high autonomy and flexibility. While he centers the article around measuring autonomy, I wonder how this could be researched given the lack of consensus on how to study capacity. Perhaps the size of bureaucracies and their education levels could indicate the capacity of a state? How could we give a country recommendations on their bureaucratic autonomy if we can’t measure their capacity in the first place?
Nathan Jordan
What’s up I’m Nathan