Innovations for Successful Societies

Innovations for Successful Societies (ISS) is a research program at Princeton University. ISS investigates government efforts to overcome strategic problems and development traps in emerging democracies. ISS is a joint program of Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School and Mamdouha S. Bobst Center for Peace and Justice.

Innovations for
Successful Societies

Abbreviation	ISS
Formation	2008
Purpose	Public Sector Reforms
Location	Princeton, NJ
Parent organization	Princeton University
Affiliations	Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs Mamdouha S. Bobst Center for Peace and Justice
Website	Official Site
Formerly called	Institutions for Fragile States

History

The Bobst Center and Woodrow Wilson School first created the program to support educational policy workshops and symposia on fragile states in 2006-7. The program took its current form and the name "Innovations for Successful Societies" in January 2008.

Research

ISS publishes case studies and oral histories about public sector reforms. To date, ISS has published more than 100 case studies of reform efforts^[1] and conducted more than 2,000 in-country interviews with local government officials, journalists, activists, and experts.^[2] About one fifth of these interviews are recorded, transcribed and published as part of the group's Oral History Project.^[3] ISS case studies have been featured by Chris Blattman,^[4] Slate,^[5] Foreign Policy's "Democracy Lab,"^[6] and the Tony Blair African Governance Initiative,^[7] among others.

The program's research focuses on efforts in civil service, accountable policing, elections, city management, corruption control, centers of government, and decentralization.

References

1. "Case Studies". Retrieved 30 July 2013.
2. "Interviews". Retrieved 30 July 2013.
3. Ibid
4. Blattman, Chris (18 September 2011). "By studying the particular, we learn something about the general". Retrieved 30 July 2013.
5. Holmes, Jamie (14 December 2011). "I've Got My Eye on You: How biometric IDs like iris scans will help developing countries fight corruption and bust fake workers". Retrieved 30 July 2013.
6. Kuris, Gabriel (6 May 2013). "Outfoxing the Oligarchs in Latvia". Retrieved 30 July 2013.
7. Ratcliffe, Andy (25 March 2012). "Governing in prose: Princeton case studies highlight the day-to-day challenges of reform". Archived from the original on 3 June 2013. Retrieved 30 July 2013.