The process of data collection for this article revealed very
clearly that so far it has been individuals – acting alone or
as a network – who have been pushing for PEA. We are
tempted to call these proponents an “emerging epistemic community”:
a transnational coalition of policy-makers and
experts (both academics and consultants) seeking to advance
a new set of policy ideas through the combination of research
findings and principled frames (Haas, 1992). However, the
ultimate impact of PEA depends on the ability of this epistemic
community to transform aid bureaucracies, for whom
change on the scale demanded by governance analysis may
be a great challenge – perhaps too great to handle. The fundamental
question of political analysis – at this stage at least – is
not so much whether its application can lead to better aid and
thus improved development outcomes, but whether it can be
institutionalized within aid organizations subject to institutional
constraints and cultural inertia. And this requires “unpacking”
the administrative constraints inherent to aid
bureaucracies.