And why do some bad policies endure? World Development Report 2017: Governance and the Law addresses these fundamental questions, which are at the heart of development.Policy making and policy implementation do not occur in a vacuum.

The fundamental premise of this book is that regulatory systems can be successfully reformed only if there are independent, objective and public evaluations of their performance.

This is important in a complex and ever-changing situation involving a dynamic interplay between local, regional and global factors.