Showing papers on "Politics published in 1999"

Development as Freedom

Abstract: In Development as Freedom Amartya Sen quotes the eighteenth century poet William Cowper on freedom: Freedom has a thousand charms to show, That slaves howe'er contented, never know. Sen explains how in a world of unprecedented increase in overall opulence, millions of people living in rich and poor countries are still unfree. Even if they are not technically slaves, they are denied elementary freedom and remain imprisoned in one way or another by economic poverty, social deprivation, political tyranny or cultural authoritarianism. The main purpose of development is to spread freedom and its 'thousand charms' to the unfree citizens. Freedom, Sen persuasively argues, is at once the ultimate goal of social and economic arrangements and the most efficient means of realizing general welfare. Social institutions like markets, political parties, legislatures, the judiciary, and the media contribute to development by enhancing individual freedom and are in turn sustained by social values. Values, institutions, development, and freedom are all closely interrelated, and Sen links them together in an elegant analytical framework. By asking "What is the relation between our collective economic wealth and our individual ability to live as we would like?" and by incorporating individual freedom as a social commitment into his analysis, Sen allows economics once again, as it did in the time of Adam Smith, to address the social basis of individual well-being and freedom.

Powers of Freedom: Reframing Political Thought

Abstract: Powers of Freedom, first published in 1999, offers a compelling approach to the analysis of political power which extends Foucault's hypotheses on governmentality in challenging ways. Nikolas Rose sets out the key characteristics of this approach to political power and analyses the government of conduct. He analyses the role of expertise, the politics of numbers, technologies of economic management and the political uses of space. He illuminates the relation of this approach to contemporary theories of 'risk society' and 'the sociology of governance'. He argues that freedom is not the opposite of government but one of its key inventions and most significant resources. He also seeks some rapprochement between analyses of government and the concerns of critical sociology, cultural studies and Marxism, to establish a basis for the critique of power and its exercise. The book will be of interest to students and scholars in political theory, sociology, social policy and cultural studies.

The quality of government

Abstract: We investigate empirically the determinants of the quality of governments in a large cross-section of countries. We assess government performance using measures of government intervention, public sector efficiency, public good provision, size of government, and political freedom. We find that countries that are poor, close to the equator, ethnolinguistically heterogeneous, use French or socialist laws, or have high proportions of Catholics or Muslims exhibit inferior government performance. We also find that the larger governments tend to be the better performing ones. The importance of (reasonably) exogenous historical factors in explaining the variation in government performance across countries sheds light on the economic, political, and cultural theories of institutions.

Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences

Abstract: What do a seventeenth-century mortality table (whose causes of death include "fainted in a bath," "frighted," and "itch"); the identification of South Africans during apartheid as European, Asian, colored, or black; and the separation of machine- from hand-washables have in common? All are examples of classification -- the scaffolding of information infrastructures. In Sorting Things Out, Geoffrey C. Bowker and Susan Leigh Star explore the role of categories and standards in shaping the modern world. In a clear and lively style, they investigate a variety of classification systems, including the International Classification of Diseases, the Nursing Interventions Classification, race classification under apartheid in South Africa, and the classification of viruses and of tuberculosis. The authors emphasize the role of invisibility in the process by which classification orders human interaction. They examine how categories are made and kept invisible, and how people can change this invisibility when necessary. They also explore systems of classification as part of the built information environment. Much as an urban historian would review highway permits and zoning decisions to tell a city's story, the authors review archives of classification design to understand how decisions have been made. Sorting Things Out has a moral agenda, for each standard and category valorizes some point of view and silences another. Standards and classifications produce advantage or suffering. Jobs are made and lost; some regions benefit at the expense of others. How these choices are made and how we think about that process are at the moral and political core of this work. The book is an important empirical source for understanding the building of information infrastructures.

Greed and grievance in civil war

Abstract: This study investigates the causes of civil war, using a new data set of wars during 1960-99. Rebellion may be explained by atypically severe grievances, such as high inequality, a lack of political rights, or ethnic and religious divisions in society. Alternatively, it might be explained by atypical opportunities for building a rebel organization. Opportunity may be determined by access to finance, such as the scope for extortion of natural resources, and for donations from a Diaspora population. Opportunity may also depend upon factors such as geography: mountains and forests may be needed to incubate rebellion. These explanations are tested and find that opportunity provides considerably more explanatory power than grievance. Economic viability appears to be the predominant systematic explanation of rebellion. The results are robust to correction for outliers, alternative variable definition, and variations in estimation method

The Third Way: The Renewal of Social Democracy

Abstract: Preface. 1. Socialism and After. The death of socialism. Old--style social democracy. The neoliberal outlook. The doctrines compared. The recent debates. Structures of political support. The fate of social democracy. 2. Five Dilemmas. . Globalisation. Individualism. Left and right. Political agency. Ecological issues. Third way politics. 3. State and Civil Society. Democratising democracy. The question of civil society. Crime and community. The democratic family. 4. The Social Investment State. . The meaning of equality. Inclusion and exclusion. A society of positive welfare. Social investment strategies. 5. Into the Global Age. The cosmopolitan nation. Cultural pluralism. Cosmopolitan democracy. The European Union. Market fundamentalism on a world scale. Conclusion. . Notes. Index.

Global Transformations: Politics, Economics, and Culture

Abstract: Undoubtedly one of the highlights of the 1999 Conference was the plenary session in which Professors David Held and Mahdi Elmandjra came together to discuss the theme of ‘“Globalization”: Democracy and Diversity’. The Conference also witnessed the launch of Global Transformations (Polity Press, 1999), at which David Held was joined by two of his three coauthors, Professor Anthony McGrew and Dr Jonathan Perraton. Global Transformations is the product of almost a decade’s work by a research team (based at the Open University and supported by the ESRC) who have produced what James. N. Rosenau has called ‘the definitive work on globalization’. It is a study which not only synthesises an extraordinary amount of information from research on globalization in a range of social science disciplines, but also makes its own distinctive contribution to our understanding of the complex range of forces which are reshaping the world order. We are delighted to be able to reproduce here an ‘executive summary’ of Global Transformations that summarises the major findings of this 500-page survey in just six thousand words.

The power of human rights : international norms and domestic change

Abstract: List of contributors Preface 1. The socialization of international human rights norms into domestic practices: introduction Thomas Risse and Kathryn Sikkink 2. Transnational activism and political change in Kenya and Uganda Hans Peter Schmitz 3. The long and winding road: international norms and domestic political change in South Africa David Black 4. Changing discourse: transnational advocacy networks in Tunisia and Morocco Sieglinde Granzer 5. Linking the unlinkable? International norms and nationalism in Indonesia and the Philippines Anja Jetschke 6. International norms and domestic politics in Chile and Guatemala Stephen C. Ropp and Kathryn Sikkink 7. The Helsinki accords and political change in Eastern Europe Daniel C. Thomas 8. International human rights norms and domestic change: conclusions Thomas Risse and Stephen C. Ropp List of references Index.

The Law of Peoples

Abstract: One aim of this essay is to sketch in a short space-I can do no more than that-how the law of peoples may be developed out of liberal ideas of justice similar to but more general than the idea I called justice as fairness and presented in my book A Theory of Justice.' By the law of peoples I mean a political conception of right and justice that applies to the principles and norms of international law and practice.2 In section 58 of the

World Risk Society

Abstract: 1. Introduction: The Cosmopolitan Manifesto. 2. World Risk Society as Cosmopolitan Society? Ecological Questions in a Framework of Manufactured Uncertainties. 3. From Industrial Society to the Risk Society: Questions of Survival, Social Structure and Ecological Enlightenment. 4. Risk Society and the Welfare State. 5. Subpolitics: Ecology and the Disintegration of Institutional Power. 6. Knowledge or Unawareness: Two Perspectives on a Reflexive Modernizationa . 7. Risk Society Revisited: Theory, Politics, Critiques and Research Programmes. Notes. References. Index.

Developing Democracy: Toward Consolidation

Abstract: In this book noted political sociologist Larry Diamond sets forth a distinctive theoretical perspective on democratic evolution and consolidation in the late twentieth century. Rejecting theories that posit preconditions for democracy-and thus dismiss its prospects in poor countries-Diamond argues instead for a "developmental" theory of democracy. This, he explains, is one which views democracy everywhere as a work in progress that emerges piecemeal, at different rates, in different ways and forms, in different countries. Diamond begins by assessing the "third wave" of global democratization that began in 1974. With a wealth of quantitative data and case illustrations, he shows that the third wave has come to an end, leaving a growing gap between the electoral form and the liberal substance of democracy. This underscores the hollow, fragile state of many democracies and the imperative of concolidation. He then defines the concept of democratic consolidation and identifies the conditions that foster it. These include strong political institutions, appropriate institutional designs, decentralization of power, a vibrant civil society, and improved economic and political performance. If new and troubled democracies are to be consolidated, Diamond argues, they must become more deeply democratic-more liberal, accountable, and responsive to their citizens. Drawing on extensive public opinion research in developing and postcommunist states, he demonstrates the importance of freedom, transparency, and the rule of law for generating the broad legitimacy that is the essence of democratic consolidation. The book concludes with a hopeful view of the prospects for a fourth wave of global democratization.

The study of transnationalism: pitfalls and promise of an emergent research field

Abstract: This introductory article defines the concept of transnationalism, provides a typology of this heterogeneous set of activities, and reviews some of the pitfalls in establishing and validating the topic as a novel research field. A set of guidelines to orient research in this field is presented and justified. Instances of immigrant political and economic transnationalism have existed in the past. We review some of the most prominent examples, but point to the distinct features that make the contemporary emergence of these activities across multiple national borders worthy of attention. The contents of this Special Issue and their bearing on the present understanding of this phenomenon and its practical implications are summarized.

Critical citizens : global support for democratic government

Abstract: Foreword by Joseph Nye, Jr. 1. Introduction: The Growth of Critical Citizens SECTION ONE: CROSS-NATIONAL TRENDS IN CONFIDENCE IN GOVERNANCE 2. Mapping Political Support in the 1990s: A Global Analysis 3. Political Support in Advanced Industrial Democracies 4. Five Years after the Fall: Trajectories of Support for Democracy in Post-Communist Europe SECTION TWO: TESTING THEORIES WITH CASE-STUDIES 5. Down and Down We Go: Political Trust in Sweden 6. The Democratic Culture of Unified Germany 7. Tensions Between the Democratic Ideal and Reality: South Korea SECTION THREE: EXPLANATIONS OF TRENDS 8. Social and Political Trust in Establishes Democracies 9. The Economic Performance of Governments 10. Political performance and Institutional Trust 11. Institutional Explanations of Political Support 12. Postmodernization, Authority, and Democracy 13. Conclusions: The Growth of Critical Citizens and its Consequences Bibliography

The Political Economy of the Resource Curse

Abstract: How does a state's natural resource wealth influence its economic development? For the past fifty years, versions of this question have been explored by both economists and political scientists. New research suggests that resource wealth tends to harm economic growth, yet there is little agreement on why this occurs. This article reviews a wide range of recent attempts in both economics and political science to explain the “resource curse.” It suggests that much has been learned about the economic problems of resource exporters but less is known about their political problems. The disparity between strong findings on economic matters and weak findings on political ones partly reflects the failure of political scientists to carefully test their own theories.

The Politics, Power, and Pathologies of International Organizations

Abstract: International Relations scholars have vigorous theories to explain why international organizations (IOs) are created, but they have paid little attention to IO behavior and whether IOs actually do what their creators intend. This blind spot flows logically from the economic theories of organization that have dominated the study of international institutions and regimes. To recover the agency and autonomy of IOs, we offer a constructivist approach. Building on Max Weber's well-known analysis of bureaucracy, we argue that IOs are much more powerful than even neoliberals have argued, and that the same characteristics of bureaucracy that make IOs powerful can also make them prone to dysfunctional behavior. IOs are powerful because, like all bureaucracies, they make rules, and, in so doing, they create social knowledge. IOs deploy this knowledge in ways that define shared international tasks, create new categories of actors, form new interests for actors, and transfer new models of political organization around the world. However, the same normative valuation on impersonal rules that defines bureaucracies and makes them powerful in modern life can also make them unresponsive to their environments, obsessed with their own rules at the expense of primary missions, and ultimately produce inefficient and self-defeating behavior. Sociological and constructivist approaches thus allow us to expand the research agenda beyond IO creation and to ask important questions about the consequences of global bureaucratization and the effects of IOs in world politics.

Developing focus group research : politics, theory and practice

Abstract: Introduction - Jenny Kitzinger and Rosaline S Barbour The Challenge and Promise of Focus Groups The Impact of Context on Data - Judith Green and Laura Hart Combining Focus Groups and Interviews - Lynn Michell Telling How it Is Telling How it Feels Are Focus Groups Suitable for 'Sensitive' Topics? - Clare Farquhar with Rita Das How Useful Are Focus Groups in Feminist Research? - Sue Wilkinson Do Focus Groups Facilitate Meaningful Participation in Social Research? - Rachel Baker and Rachel Hinton How Useful Are Focus Groups for Obtaining the Views of Minority Groups? - Lai-Fong Chui and Deborah Knight Are Focus Groups an Appropriate Tool for Studying Organizational Change? - Rosaline S Barbour Can Focus Groups Access Community Views? - Claire Waterton and Brian Wynne Some Issues Arising in the Systematic Analysis of Focus Group Materials - Jane Frankland and Michael Bloor The Analytical Potential of 'Sensitive Moments' in Focus Group Discussions - Jenny Kitzinger and Clare Farquhar Can Focus Groups Be Analyzed as Talk? - Greg Myers and Phil Macnaghten Theorizing Subjects and Subject Matter in Focus Group Research - Sarah Cunningham-Burley, Anne Kerr and Stephen Pavis Afterword - Rosaline S Barbour and Jenny Kitzinger

Trust the People! Populism and the Two Faces of Democracy

Abstract: Populism, understood as an appeal to ‘the people’ against both the established structure of power and the dominant ideas and values, should not be dismissed as a pathological form of politics of no interest to the political theorist, for its democratic pretensions raise important issues. Adapting Michael Oakeshott's distinction between ‘the politics of faith’ and ‘the politics of scepticism’, the paper offers an analysis of democracy in terms of two opposing faces, one ‘pragmatic’ and the other ‘redemptive’, and argues that it is the inescapable tension between them that makes populism a perennial possibility.

Philosophy and Social Hope

Abstract: Part 1 Autobiographical: Trotsky and the wild orchids. Part 2 Hope in place of knowledge - a version of pragmatism: truth without correspondence to reality a world without substances or essences ethics without principles. Part 3 Some applications of pragmatism: the banality of pragmatism and the poetry of justice pragmatism and law - a response to David Luban education as socialization and as individualization the humanistic intellectual - eleven theses the pragmatist's progress - Umberto Eco on interpretation religious faith, intellectual responsibility and romance religion as conversation-stopper Thomas Kuhn, rocks and the laws of physics on Hiedegger's Nazism. Part 4 Politics: failed prophecies, glorious hopes a spectre is haunting the intellectuals - Derrida on Marx love and money globalization, the politics and identity and social hope. Part 5 Contemporary America: looking backwards from the year 2096 the unpatriotic academy back to class politics.

Consensus Building and Complex Adaptive Systems

Abstract: Consensus building and other forms of collaborative planning are increasingly used for dealing with social and political fragmentation, shared power, and conflicting values. The authors contend that to evaluate this emergent set of practices, a new framework is required modeled on a view of self-organizing, complex adaptive systems rather than on a mechanical Newtonian world. Consensus building processes are not only about producing agreements and plans but also about experimentation, learning, change, and building shared meaning. This article, based on our empirical research and practice in a wide range of consensus building cases, proposes that consensus building processes be evaluated in the light of principles of complexity science and communicative rationality, which are both congruent with professional practice. It offers principles for evaluation and a set of process and outcome criteria.

Africa Works: Disorder as Political Instrument

Abstract: Introduction - transitions and continuities - the question of analysis. Part 1 The informalization of politics: whither the state? the illusions of civil society recycled elites. Part 2 The re-traditionalization of society: of masks and men - the question of identity the use and abuse of the irrational - witchcraft and religion warlords bosses and thugs - the profits of violence. Part 3 The productivity of economic "failure": the moral economy of corruption the bounties of dependence what if Africa refused to develop?. Conclusion - a new paradigm - the political instrumentalization of disorder.

The Grabbing Hand: Government Pathologies and Their Cures

Abstract: In many countries, public sector institutions impose heavy burdens on economic life: heavy and arbitrary taxes retard investment, regulations enrich corrupt bureaucrats, state firms consume national wealth, and the most talented people turn to rent-seeking rather than productive activities. As a consequence of such predatory policies--described in this book as the grabbing hand of the state--entrepreneurship lingers and economies stagnate. The authors of this collection of essays describe many of these pathologies of a grabbing hand government, and examine their consequences for growth. The essays share a common viewpoint that political control of economic life is central to the many government failures that we observe. Fortunately, a correct diagnosis suggests the cures, including the best strategies of fighting corruption, privatization of state firms, and institutional building in the former socialist economies. Depoliticization of economic life emerges as the crucial theme of the appropriate reforms. The book describes the experiences with the grabbing hand government and its reform in medieval Europe, developing countries, transition economies, as well as today's United States.

The Law of Group Polarization

Abstract: In a striking empirical regularity, deliberation tends to move groups, and the individuals who compose them, toward a more extreme point in the direction indicated by their own predeliberation judgments. For example, people who are opposed to the minimum wage are likely, after talking to each other, to be still more opposed; people who tend to support gun control are likely, after discussion, to support gun control with considerable enthusiasm; people who believe that global warming is a serious problem are likely, after discussion, to insist on severe measures to prevent global warming. This general phenomenon -- group polarization -- has many implications for economic, political, and legal institutions. It helps to explain extremism, "radicalization," cultural shifts, and the behavior of political parties and religious organizations; it is closely connected to current concerns about the consequences of the Internet; it also helps account for feuds, ethnic antagonism, and tribalism. Group polarization bears on the conduct of government institutions, including juries, legislatures, courts, and regulatory commissions. There are interesting relationships between group polarization and social cascades, both informational and reputational. Normative implications are discussed, with special attention to political and legal institutions.

The Deliberative Practitioner: Encouraging Participatory Planning Processes

Abstract: Citizen participation in such complex issues as the quality of the environment, neighborhood housing, urban design, and economic development often brings with it suspicion of government, anger between stakeholders, and power plays by many—as well as appeals to rational argument. Deliberative planning practice in these contexts takes political vision and pragmatic skill. Working from the accounts of practitioners in urban and rural settings, North and South, John Forester shows how skillful deliberative practices can facilitate practical and timely participatory planning processes. In so doing, he provides a window onto the wider world of democratic governance, participation, and practical decisionmaking. Integrating interpretation and theoretical insight with diverse accounts of practice, Forester draws on political science, law, philosophy, literature, and planning to explore the challenges and possibilities of deliberative practice.

A Theory of Political Transitions

Abstract: We develop a theory of political transitions inspired in part by the experiences of Western Europe and Latin America. Nondemocratic societies are controlled by a rich elite. The initially disenfranchised poor can contest power by threatening social unrest or revolution and this may force the elite to democratize. Democracy may not consolidate because it is more redistributive than a nondemocratic regime, and this gives the elite an incentive to mount a coup. Because inequality makes democracy more costly for the elite, highly unequal societies are less likely to consolidate democracy and may end up oscillating between regimes or in a nondemocratic repressive regime. An unequal society is likely to experience fiscal volatility, but the relationship between inequality and redistribution is nonmonotonic; societies with intermediate levels of inequality consolidate democracy and redistribute more than both very equal and very unequal countries. We also show that asset redistribution, such as educational and land reform, may be used to consolidate both democratic and nondemocratic regimes.

Writing the social : critique, theory, and investigations

Abstract: This collection of essays, written by Dorothy Smith over the past eight years, is a long-awaited treasure by one of the world's foremost social thinkers. In it, Smith turns her wit and common sense on the prevailing discourses of sociology, political economy, philosophy, and popular culture, at the same time developing her own sociological and feminist practice in unexpected and remarkable directions. Shedding the idiom of the sociologist, Smith inquires directly into the actualities of peoples' lives. Her critical investigations of postmodernism, political correctness, university politics, and SNAF (the Standard North American Family) draw on metaphors and examples from a stimulating range of autobiographical, theoretical, historical, political, and humorous resources. Out of an abstract encounter with Bakhtin, for example, comes an analysis of a child learning to name a bird, and a new way of seeing the story of Helen Keller. In introducing a radically innovative approach to the sociology of discourse, even the most difficult points are addressed through ordinary scenes of mothers, cats, and birds, as well as scientists, pulsars, and cell microscopes. Smith's engaged, rebel sociology throws light on a remarkable range of issues and authors, forever changing the way the reader experiences the world. This, her signature work, will delight a wide and varied audience, and enliven university courses for years to come.

Democracy, accountability, and representation

Abstract: This book examines whether the mechanisms of accountability characteristic of democratic systems are sufficient to induce the representatives to act in the best interest of the represented. The first part of the volume focuses on the role of elections, distinguishing different ways in which they may cause representation. The second part is devoted to the role of checks and balances, between the government and the parliament as well as between the government and the bureaucracy. The contributors of this volume, all leading scholars in the fields of American and comparative politics and political theory, address questions such as, whether elections induce governments to act in the interest of citizens. Are politicians in democracies accountable to voters in future elections? If so, does accountability induce politicians to represent citizens? Does accountability limit or enhance the scope of action of governments? Are governments that violate campaign mandates representative? Overall, the essays combine theoretical discussions, game-theoretic models, case studies, and statistical analyses, within a shared analytical approach and a standardized terminology. The empirical material is drawn from the well established democracies as well as from new democracies. Is economic development conducive to political democracy? Does democracy foster or hinder material welfare? These two questions are examined by looking at the experiences of 135 countries between 1950 and 1990. Descriptive information, statistical analyses, and historical narratives are interwoven to gain an understanding of the dynamic of political regimes and their impact on economic development. The often surprising findings dispel any notion of a tradeoff between democracy and development. Economic development does not generate democracies, but democracies are much more likely to survive in wealthy societies.

"Mediatization" of Politics: A Challenge for Democracy?

Abstract: The growing intrusion of media into the political domain in many countries has led critics to worry about the approach of the "media-driven republic," in which mass media will usurp the functions of political institutions in the liberal state. However, close inspection of the evidence reveals that political institutions in many nations have retained their functions in the face of expanded media power. The best description of the current situation is "mediatization," where political institutions increasingly are dependent on and shaped by mass media but nevertheless remain in control of political processes and functions.

The Will to Empower: Democratic Citizens and Other Subjects

Abstract: How do liberal democracies produce citizens who are capable of governing themselves? In considering this question, Barbara Cruikshank rethinks central topics in political theory, including the relationship between welfare and citizenship, democracy and despotism, and subjectivity and subjection. Drawing on theories of power and the creation of subjects, Cruikshank argues that individuals in a democracy are made into self-governing citizens through the small-scale and everyday practices of voluntary associations, reform movements, and social service programs. She argues that our empowerment is a measure of our subjection rather than of our autonomy from power. Through a close examination of several contemporary American "technologies of citizenship"-from welfare rights struggles to philanthropic self-help schemes to the organized promotion of self-esteem awareness-she demonstrates how social mobilization reshapes the political in ways largely unrecognized in democratic theory. Although the impact of a given reform movement may be minor, the techniques it develops for creating citizens far extend the reach of govermental authority. Combining a detailed knowledge of social policy and practice with insights from poststructural and feminist theory, The Will to Empower shows how democratic citizens and the political are continually recreated.