The Commercialization of Microfinance: Balancing Business and Development. Edited by Deborah Drake, Elisabeth Rhyne. Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press, 2002. 336 pp., $65.00 cloth (ISBN: 1-56549-154-8), $29.95 paperback (ISBN: 1-56549-153-X). The Commercialization of Microfinance , edited by Deborah Drake and Elisabeth Rhyne, is primarily aimed at practitioners and researchers who focus narrowly on the topic of microfinance. As a result, even Drake and Rhyne may not fully appreciate the theoretical insights and implications that this book holds for students of international and comparative politics. The key issue addressed by the volume is the commercialization of the microfinance industry in developing countries. Indeed, the book reverberates with the ongoing debates over the value of market-based approaches for encouraging private sector involvement in social development and over the adoption of market-based development strategies by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) (Fowler 1997). Despite this seemingly narrow focus, however, the book's rich empirical evidence details a very significant institutional change in financial infrastructures that is presently sweeping the countries that are experimenting with microfinance. Moreover, the volume explores several theoretically important themes: the malleability of the institutional forms taken by nongovernmental organizations; the rise of public–private partnerships as institutional governance arrangements in the developing world; the nature of statehood and the developmental role of the state in emerging democracies; transnational influences on domestic politics; and the global diffusion of public policy preferences and norms. The volume was written against the backdrop of persisting debates over the necessity, desirability, and feasibility of introducing and strengthening the profit motive within the microfinance industry. This issue has been so contentious because microfinance was originally conceived as a development tool for eradicating poverty that would be unavoidably dependent on ongoing subsidies. The proponents of commercialization, including the contributors to this volume, highlight several benefits that commercialization accrues. Particularly in light of the fluctuating commitments of short-term donors, these benefits include an increase in the financial sustainability of microcredit organizations, a more dependable supply of credit for the poor, and a …