Paper Tigers and Minotaurs

Book excerpt: Political and economic reform is at the top of national agendas around the world. This book based on Moises Naim's participation in the Venezuelan reform experience and as executive director at the World Bank raises questions and explores problems crucial to achieving national reform strategies. Naim's lucid analysis grapples with the problems of dealing with entrenched interests bent on derailing reform; allaying the corrosive effects of corruption and public outcry over inequitable burdens; coping with the political instability brought on by decimated public institutions; managing the impact of reforms on the military establishment; and mobilizing public support for measures as essential as they are painful. The heady days of revolution are gone and these and other dilemmas now confront besieged reform governments everywhere. The problem of managing these in the real world is the subject this book tackles.