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een a far greater number of authoritarian regimesthat did little or nothing to improve the health andwell-being of ordinary citizens. We need to look beyondpolitical labels when designing implementationstrategies for Legal Empowerment of the Poor.It is important to think of political systems asshades of grey when it comes to empowering thepoor. At the far end of the pallet are systems ofarbitrary personal rule, which are typically quiteclosed regarding grassroots participation in policymaking,but which may be open to pro-poor policiesif the regime is a populist one that depends onmass support. Dictatorships blend into more openand competitive systems where the poor may haveprogressively greater scope to sway public policy,but where the rich may still exercise hegemony onkey political economy issues. Happily, there arefewer political systems today where poor peoplecannot organise at all to have some countervailinginfluence on government decisions; but in anumber of countries, freedom of association isstill being denied (ILO 2004: 1-2). And even inthe most receptive political systems the influenceof the poor is difficult to transform into extensivepower. Development practitioners should be carefulnot let preconceptions about regimes blind them tothese possibilities.Administrative stateThe supply side of political systems also needs tobe considered to understand implementation probabilities.How capable is the public administration?Does the state have the capacity to provide physicalsafety, to secure personal belongings, to settledisputes fairly, and to provide other public goodsto society? Does it possess the personnel, skills,systems, and infrastructure to carry out these corefunctions? Even political will cannot drive reformin the face of binding constraints on the capacityof institutions charged with delivering the mandateof empowerment. High-capacity states are onesthat implement policies efficiently, predictably, andin the manner intended. High-capacity states mayor may not be democratic, but they can carry outthe Legal Empowerment of the Poor agenda if thatis what the leadership wants. In very low-capacitystates, on the other hand, supportive leadership isstill beneficial except the follow-through capabilityis missing. Residents must therefore improvise andfigure out how to protect assets and resolve disputesthrough pragmatic means, such as aligningwith a political patron (see discussion of informalgovernance below).Administrative weakness is usually rooted in lackof human and financial resources, but a viciouscycle reinforces the problem. A World Bank reportargues: Burdensome or extraneous business andlabour market official regulations drive people intothe shadow economy, while a collective perceptionof ineffectiveness of the state’s actions gives riseto a social norm of non-compliance with taxes andregulations, which further undermines the state’scapacity to enforce the law and to provide publicservices (Perry et al. 2007). However, the methodologyunderlying such studies has come under serioustechnical criticism (Berg and Cazes, 2007).Bureaucratic corruption can also be a major weakeningfactor, especially for the poor who lack thewherewithal to pay bribes to make things happenwithin the bureaucracy. For people with means, onthe other hand, the civil service may seem capableenough because, unlike the poor, they can pay forindividualised special treatment. Thus bureaucraticcorruption will tend to reinforce the existingconfiguration of wealth and power. In cases wherepublic sector wages are low and virtually everythingthe civil service does is for sale, it may be almostimpossible for the poor to get public administrationto work in their favour. Legal Empowerment of thePoor reformers would have to address corruption300