In 1987, Thomas Callaghy, writing on the patrimonial administration of African states, argued that they could best be characterized as lame leviathans. Erin Metz McDonnell challenges this characterization of African public administration as universally patrimonial and “lame.” By investigating highly effective public organizations and offices in countries where “rational, predictable, effective, and depersonalized administration” is rare (p. 202), she illustrates the patchwork nature of developing states. To explain why some organizations and offices—“pockets”—thrive in otherwise challenging environments, McDonnell weaves together insights from cognitive and cultural sociology with work on bureaucratic effectiveness from political science, sociology, and organizational theory, creating a rich interdisciplinary study of bureaucratic effectiveness in developing states. This interdisciplinarity distinguishes her book from earlier studies of effective pockets and makes it a fascinating read for a wide range of scholars and organizational leaders.

McDonnell uses a qualitative comparison of four Ghanaian pockets, four less effective Ghanaian control cases, and four previously studied effective organizations in Brazil, Nigeria, China, and Kenya to build her socio-cognitive argument. Her central message, overlooked in much