Brian Levy

Few concepts have captured the imagination of the conflict and development community in recent years as powerfully as the idea of a 'political settlement'. At its most ambitious, 'political settlements analysis' (PSA) promises to explain why conflicts occur and states collapse, the conditions for their successful rehabilitation, different developmental pathways from peace, and how to better fit development policy to country context. Yet not all is well in the world of PSA. Rival definitions of the term abound, there are disagreements about its scope and the way it should be used, a growing schism between conflict specialists and economists, basic concepts are ambiguous and little progress has been made on measurement. Political Settlements and Development consequently has three main aims: to argue for a revised definition of a political settlement, capable of unifying its diverse strands, and opening new opportunities for the analysis of conflict and development; to put the concept on a more solid theoretical and scientific footing, providing a method for measuring and categorising political settlements, while using new data to analyse the relationship between political settlements and development; and finally, to examine the implications for policymakers. This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.

In Chasin' the Sound: Learning Jazz Improvisation through Historical Models, authors Brian Levy and Keith Waters use solos by famous jazz musicians to outline a melodic and rhythmic vocabulary of jazz improvisation. In contrast to mainstream approaches based on rote memorization and generic chord/scale pedagogies, Chasin' the Sound encourages hands-on learning with activities that highlight the intangible yet key aesthetics of sound, groove, and feel. By studying jazz fundamentals alongside well-known examples of those fundamentals in practice, students and instructors will gain a broader and more meaningful understanding of the art of improvisation. In addition to exploring the mechanics of what to play, Levy and Waters offer ideas on how to play the essential roles of timekeeping, comping, and soloing, and how to develop routines within these roles. Supported by classroom-tested exercises and hundreds of original annotated music examples, students will learn the core rhythmic and melodic tenets of jazz while studying and playing along with the improvised solos and accompaniments of Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong, Lester Young, Sarah Vaughan, Bud Powell, Clifford Brown, Wes Montgomery, Miles Davis, Red Garland, Max Roach, Philly Joe Jones, Paul Chambers, John Coltrane, and Sonny Rollins, among many others. Throughout, Levy and Waters show that great soloists and accompanists do not in fact have an unlimited vocabulary but rather use limited melodic and rhythmic resources as modules for infinite recombination. Written for all experience levels, Chasin' the Sound is a substantial workout for students and instructors to build chops and knowledge along the way.

Groundbreaking recipes for real desserts--sweetened entirely by fruit and other natural, unexpectedly sweet ingredients--from a pastry cook who's worked at acclaimed restaurants in New York and France. Brian Levy spent years making pastries the traditional way, with loads of refined sugar and white flour, at distinguished restaurants, inns, and private homes in the United States and Europe. But he discovered another world of desserts--one that few bakers have explored--where there's no need for cane sugar or coconut sugar, for maple syrup or honey, or for anything like stevia. When Levy succeeded in making a perfect mango custard, harnessing only the natural sweetness of fruit with no added sugar, it was a breakthrough that inspired years of experimentation converting other desserts into nutritious indulgences. In Good & Sweet, Levy stretches this experiment across 100 recipes that ingeniously deploy fruit (dried, juiced, and fresh), nuts, grains, dairy, and fermented products to create sweet treats whose flavor is enriched by whole-food, feel-good ingredients. Every recipe offers substitutions for dietary restrictions and includes a flavorful sweetener that exceeds cane sugar, from freeze-dried sweet corn to coconut cream and apple cider. A Pistachio-Studded Peach Galette gets its wings from fresh fruit, dried apricots, and orange juice; chestnuts, golden raisins, and dried apples perform a pas de trois in Chestnut Ricotta Ice Cream; and dates, milk powder, and a touch of miso paste make for a dense, caramely Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake. With sweets like these--ones that nudge you toward mindful eating but don't compromise flavor--you'll never have to give up dessert.

This book builds on cutting-edge scholarship and the author's quarter century of hands-on experience at the World Bank to lay out an innovative with-the-grain approach to integrating governance and growth---as a constructive, hopeful way of engaging the challenging governance ambiguities of our early 21st century world. A 'with the grain' perspective directs attention away from a 'good governance' pre-occupation with off-the-shelf blueprints and optimal policies, and towards the challenges of initiating and sustaining forward development momentum. This altered angle of vision has powerful implications for how we understand and address the challenges of governance reform and development policymaking---both across countries and over time. The book distinguishes among four broad groups of countries- according to whether their policies are dominant or competitive, and whether their institutions are personalized or impersonal. It also distinguishes among alternative options for governance reform---'top down' options which aim to strengthen formal institutions, and options which aim to support the emergence of 'islands of effectiveness'. And it explores the 'goodness of fit' between alternative reform options and divergent country contexts---including how narrowly-focused initiatives can achieve results even in a broader sea of institutional dysfunction. The book examines how, over time, virtuous circles can link inclusive growth, positive expectations and ongoing institutional improvement. Taking the decade-or-so time horizon of practitioners, the aim is to nudge things along---seeking gains that initially may seem quite modest but can, sometimes, give rise to a cascading sequence of change for the better. Sometimes the binding constraint to forward movement can be institutional, making governance reform the priority; at other times, the priority can better be on inclusive growth. Over the longer-run, stability depends also on a broad-based commitment among citizens to the institutional order, as one which offers the hope of a better life for all.

This book builds on cutting-edge scholarship and the author's quarter century of hands-on experience at the World Bank to lay out an innovative with-the-grain approach to integrating governance and growth---as a constructive, hopeful way of engaging the challenging governance ambiguities of our early 21st century world. A 'with the grain' perspective directs attention away from a 'good governance' pre-occupation with off-the-shelf blueprints and optimal policies, and towards the challenges of initiating and sustaining forward development momentum. This altered angle of vision has powerful implications for how we understand and address the challenges of governance reform and development policymaking---both across countries and over time. The book distinguishes among four broad groups of countries- according to whether their policies are dominant or competitive, and whether their institutions are personalized or impersonal. It also distinguishes among alternative options for governance reform---'top down' options which aim to strengthen formal institutions, and options which aim to support the emergence of 'islands of effectiveness'. And it explores the 'goodness of fit' between alternative reform options and divergent country contexts---including how narrowly-focused initiatives can achieve results even in a broader sea of institutional dysfunction. The book examines how, over time, virtuous circles can link inclusive growth, positive expectations and ongoing institutional improvement. Taking the decade-or-so time horizon of practitioners, the aim is to nudge things along---seeking gains that initially may seem quite modest but can, sometimes, give rise to a cascading sequence of change for the better. Sometimes the binding constraint to forward movement can be institutional, making governance reform the priority; at other times, the priority can better be on inclusive growth. Over the longer-run, stability depends also on a broad-based commitment among citizens to the institutional order, as one which offers the hope of a better life for all.

Fulfilling the Export Potential of Small and Medium Firms addresses the question, `How can economic policy contribute to a strong export performance by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries?' In today's increasingly integrated world economy, such a performance can make a significant difference to the growth, employment creation and income distribution of many developing countries. The study uses information from specifically designed surveys of SME exporters in Japan, Indonesia, Korea and Colombia, together with a range of evidence from other sources, to ascertain what types of support within the areas of technology, marketing and finance are most useful to SME exporters and how such support can best be provided to them. The quality of the support systems is found to vary widely among the four countries. Finally, a number of policy conclusions are put forward.

Developing-country governance and its monitoring have risen to the top of the development agenda. This mounting interest is in response to compelling evidence that links governance to development performance-policy quality, public service provision, the investment climate, and the extent of corruption. ""Governance Reform: Bridging, Monitoring, and Action"" lays out a broad framework for analyzing and monitoring governance in developing countries. It identifies fourteen core indicators for governance monitoring - both broad measures of overall patterns and specific ""actionable"" measures that can be used to guide reforms and track progress. The book also summarizes good practices for reforming public bureaucracies and checks and balances institutions (including parliaments, the justice system, media and information, and local governance); highlights improvements in transparency as a relatively low-cost and low-key way of deepening government accountability to civil society; and suggests ways to complement top-down reforms with approaches that focus directly on improving service provision and the investment climate (such as strengthening the bottom-up accountabilities of service providers to communities, firms, and citizens). ""Governance Reform"" has no universally applicable trajectory of change. Rather, the aims are: to find country-specific entry points for reform which have development impact in the short-term; to address binding public management constraints, and to help build momentum for further change.

Fulfilling the Export Potential of Small and Medium Firms addresses the question, `How can economic policy contribute to a strong export performance by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries?' In today's increasingly integrated world economy, such a performance can make a significant difference to the growth, employment creation and income distribution of many developing countries. The study uses information from specifically designed surveys of SME exporters in Japan, Indonesia, Korea and Colombia, together with a range of evidence from other sources, to ascertain what types of support within the areas of technology, marketing and finance are most useful to SME exporters and how such support can best be provided to them. The quality of the support systems is found to vary widely among the four countries. Finally, a number of policy conclusions are put forward.