How to Spot a Reformer?

I had a presentation in The Hague on May 14. Someone in the audience asked: how do you recognize committed reformers? I didn't have a good answer.

After working on regulatory reform for the last six plus years, I have met many people interested in reform. And many who were not.

I can list a number of people who instantly struck me as committed reformers: Ivan Miklos (Slovakia), Gerrit Zalm (The Netherlands), Kakha Bendukidze, Zurab Nogaideli and Mikhail Saakashvili (all Georgia), Paul Kagame (Rwanda), Mahmoud Mohieldin (Egypt), the whole government of Macedonia (which is facing elections in 2 weeks), Alvaro Uribe (Colombia), Antoinette Sayeh (Liberia - see picture). And I have met some successful past reformers who were instantly recognizable for their reform zeal: Leszek Balcerowicz (Poland) and Vaclav Klaus (The Czech Republic).

So what makes them reformers? Most importantly: the circumstances. In each case, there is a crisis, of sorts, and someone steps up.

This answer is not very satisfying: why hasn't a committed reformer appeared in, say, Jordan? Or Germany? Or Armenia? Or Burundi?

I don't know the answer, but intend to find out.