Beyond this counterexample, we can say there is plenty of administrative capacity, though much expertise and power is now practically devolved, delegated, or otherwise distanced from public control. Plenty of fiscal capacity, though much of it remains untapped. 2/3
And so, just as any number of other rhetorical devices have in the past, “weak state capacity” has become another surrogate problem that allows think tankers and columnists and others to avoid a confrontation with politics, with power, with the preferences of those who rule. 3/3