Showing papers on "State (polity) published in 2000"

The Third Way and Its Critics

Abstract: Preface. 1. The Third Way and its Critics. 2. Social Democracy and the Third Way. 3. Government, the State and Economic Strategy. 4. The Question of Inequality. 5. Taking Globalisation Seriously.

The cosmopolitan perspective: sociology of the second age of modernity*

Abstract: ‘Second age of modernity’ is a magical password that is meant to open the doors to new conceptual landscapes. The whole world of nation sovereignty is fading away – including the ‘container theory of society’ on which most of the sociology of the first age of modernity is based upon. In this article I propose a distinction between ‘simple globalization’ and ‘reflexive cosmopolitization’. In the paradigm of the first age of modernity, simple globalization is interpreted within the territorial compass of state and politics, society and culture. This involves an additive, not substitutive, conception of globalization as indicated for example by ‘interconnectedness’. In the paradigm of the second age of modernity globalization changes not only the relations between and beyond national states and societies, but also the inner quality of the social and political itself which is indicated by more or less reflexive cosmopolitization as an institutionalized learning process – and its enemies.

Articulating Indigenous Identity in Indonesia: Resource Politics and the Tribal Slot

Abstract: It was the official line of Suharto’s regime that Indonesia is a nation which has no indigenous people, or that all Indonesians are equally indigenous.1 The internationally recognized category “indigenous and tribal peoples” (as defined in International Labour Organization convention 169) has no direct equivalent in Indonesia’s national legal system, nor are there reservations or officially recognized tribal territories. Under Suharto the national motto “unity in diversity” and the displays of Jakarta’s theme park, Taman Mini, presented the acceptable limits of Indonesia’s cultural difference, while development efforts were directed at improving the lot of “vulnerable population groups,” including those deemed remote or especially backwards. Expressions of the desire for development made through bottom up planning processes and supplications to visiting officials were the approved format through which rural citizens communicated with the state. National activists and international donors who argued for the rights of indigenous people were dismissed as romantics imposing their primitivist fantasies upon poor folk who want, or should want, to progress like “ordinary” Indonesians. Nevertheless, a discourse on indigenous people took hold in activist circles in the final years of Suharto’s rule, and it has increasing currency in the Indonesian countryside. With the new political possibilities opened up in the post-Suharto era, it seems an appropriate time to reflect on how Indonesia’s indigenous or tribal slot is being envisioned, who might occupy it, and with what effects.

A Nation of Organizers: The Institutional Origins of Civic Voluntarism in the United States

Abstract: We challenge the widely held view that classic American voluntary groups were tiny, local, and disconnected from government. Using newly collected data to develop a theoretically framed account, we show that membership associations emerged early in U.S. history and converged toward the institutional form of the representatively governed federation. This form enabled leaders and members to spread interconnected groups across an expanding nation. At the height of local proliferation, most voluntary groups were part of regional or national federations that mirrored the structure of U.S. government. Institutionalist theories suggest reasons for this parallelism, which belies the rigid dichotomy between state and civil society that informs much current discussion of civic engagement in the United States and elsewhere.

The coming anarchy shattering the dreams of the post Cold War

Abstract: Our pro forma geopolitical worldview that served for fifty years of the Cold War was thoroughly shattered with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990 While there is political and ideological discourse about its nature and purpose, it is arguable that the bipolar Cold War world has been replaced by a “new world order” This term is used here descriptively, not prescriptively as some foreign policy gurus might in advocating a particular configuration of power with the United States, or some other power, at its center To describe is not to advocate, and my use of the “new world order,” as is Kaplan’s use of the term “coming anarchy,” is purely descriptive Following my presentation on “the new world order” for faculty at an East African university in the mid-1990s, a faculty member from the university responded He began by stating, “I will have to argue that the current world situation is neither ‘new’ nor ‘worldly’ nor ‘orderly’ Otherwise, I agree with you completely” He went on to suggest that from his East African perspective domination of the international political system by major powers persisted as it had throughout the previous world order, the post-World War II era Change was not “worldly,” ie global, because his part of the world had not seen the profound changes that had transformed first world-second world relationships Finally, with the current disorder in Africa, he concluded that the situation was hardly “orderly” Into this implicit discussion of the nature of the postCold War international system have come several bold descriptions of the nature of the evolving system Three explicit examples were first put forward in journal or magazine articles followed by books that expanded upon the theme (and capitalized upon the substantial intellectual excitement generated by the original publication) First came Francis Fukuyama, formerly of the Reagan State Department and now at James Mason University, with his reassuring

The Invention of Capitalism: Classical Political Economy and the Secret History of Primitive Accumulation

Abstract: The originators of classical political economy - Adam Smith, David Ricardo, James Steuart, and others - created a discourse that explained the logic, the origin, and, in many respects, the essential rightness of capitalism. But, in the great texts of that discourse, these writers downplayed a crucial requirement for capitalism's creation: for it to succeed, peasants would have to abandon their self-sufficient lifestyle and go to work for wages in a factory. Why would they willingly do this? Clearly, they did not go willingly. As Michael Perelman shows, they were forced into the factories with the active support of the same economists who were making theoretical claims for capitalism as a self-correcting mechanism that thrived without needing government intervention.Directly contradicting the laissez-faire principles they claimed to espouse, these men advocated government policies that deprived the peasantry of the means for self-provision in order to coerce these small farmers into wage labour. To show how Adam Smith and the other classical economists appear to have deliberately obscured the nature of the control of labour and how policies attacking the economic independence of the rural peasantry were essentially conceived to foster primitive accumulation, Perelman examines diaries, letters, and the more practical writings of the classical economists.He argues that these private and practical writings reveal the real intentions and goals of classical political economy - to separate a rural peasantry from their access to land. This rereading of the history of classical political economy sheds important light on the rise of capitalism to its present state of world dominance. Historians of political economy and Marxist thought will find that this book broadens their understanding of how capitalism took hold in the industrial age.

Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation

Abstract: EWe commonly think of marriage as a private matter between two people, a personal expression of love and commitment. In this pioneering history, Nancy F. Cott demonstrates that marriage is and always has been a public institution. From the founding of the United States to the present day, imperatives about the necessity of marriage and its proper form have been deeply embedded in national policy, law and political rhetoric. Legislators and judges have envisioned and enforced their preferred model of consensual, lifelong monogamy - a model derived from Christian tenets and the English common law that posits the husband as provider and the wife as dependent. In early confrontations with Native Americans, emancipated slaves, Mormon polygamists and immigrant spouses, through the invention of the New Deal, federal income tax, and welfare programmes, the federal government consistently influenced the shape of marriages. And even the immense social and legal changes of the last third of the 20th century have not unravelled official reliance on marriage as a "pillar of state". By excluding some kinds of marriages and encouraging others, marital policies have helped to sculpt the nation's citizenry, as well as its moral and social standards, and have directly affected national understandings of gender roles and racial difference. "Public Vows" is a panoramic view of marriage's political history, revealing the national government's profound role in our most private of choices. No one who reads this book will think of marriage in the same way again.

Reinventing India: Liberalization, Hindu Nationalism and Popular Democracy

Abstract: When India was invented as a "modern" country in the years after Independence in 1947 it styled itself as a secular, federal, democratic Republic committed to an ideology of development. Nehru's India never quite fulfilled this promise, but more recently his vision of India has been challenged by two "revolts of the elites": those of economic liberalization and Hindu nationalism. These revolts have been challenged, in turn, by various movements, including those of India's "Backward Classes". These movements have exploited the democratic spaces of India both to challenge for power and to contest prevailing accounts of politics, the state and modernity.Reinventing India offers an analytical account of the history of modern India and of its contemporary reinvention. Part One traces India's transformation under colonial rule, and the ideas and social forces which underlay the deliberations of the Constituent Assembly in 1946 to consider the shaping of the post-colonial state. Part Two then narrates the story of the making and unmaking of this modern India in the period from 1950 to the present day. It pays attention to both economic and political developments, and engages with the interpretations of India's recent history through key writers such as Francine Frankel, Sudipta Kaviraj and Partha Chatterjee. Part Three consists of chapters on the dialectics of economic reform, religion, the politics of Hindu nationalism, and on popular democracy. These chapters articulate a distinct position on the state and society in India at the end of the century, and they allow the authors to engage with the key debates which concern public intellectuals in contemporary India.Reinventing India is a lucid and eminently readable account of the transformations which are shaking India more than fifty years after Independence. It will be welcomed by all students of South Asia, and will be of interest to students of comparative politics and development studies.

A Reappraisal of the State Sovereignty Debate The Case of Migration Control

Abstract: The ability of European nation-states to control migration has been at the forefront of the immigration debate. Some scholars have argued that international human rights and the freedom of circulation required by a global economy and regional markets are the two sides of a liberal regime that undermine the sovereignty of nation-states. Others have gone even further and declared the double closure of territorial sovereignty and national citizenship to be outmoded concepts. This article inscribes itself in that debate by answering the following questions: (a) To what extent do international legal instruments constrain the actions of national policy makers? and (b) How have nation-states reacted to international constraints and problems of policy implementation? Focusing on Council of Europe's jurisprudence, the authors assess the extent to which national courts have incorporated European norms and governments take them into account. The article examines ways that national policy makers have responded by shi...

Without a Map: Political Tactics and Economic Reform in Russia

Abstract: Recent commentators on Russia's economic reforms have almost uniformly declared them a disappointing and avoidable—failure. In this book, two American scholars take a new and more balanced look at the country's attempts to build capitalism on the ruins of Soviet central planning. They show how and why the Russian reforms achieved remarkable breakthroughs in some areas but came undone in others. Unlike Eastern European countries such as Poland or the Czech Republic, to which it is often compared, Russia is a federal, ethnically diverse, industrial giant with an economy heavily oriented toward raw materials extraction. The political obstacles it faced in designing reforms were incomparably greater. Shleifer and Treisman tell how Russia's leaders, navigating in uncharted economic terrain, managed to find a path around some of these obstacles. In successful episodes, central reformers devised a strategy to win over some key opponents, while dividing and marginalizing others. Such political tactics made possible the rapid privatization of 14,000 state enterprises in 1992-1994 and the defeat of inflation in 1995. But failure to outmaneuver the new oligarchs and regional governors after 1996 undermined reformers' attempts to collect taxes and clean up the bureaucracy that has stifled business growth. Renewing a strain of analysis that runs from Machiavelli to Hirschman, the authors reach conclusions about political strategies that have important implications for other reformers. They draw on their extensive knowledge of the country and recent experience as advisors to Russian policymakers. Written in an accessible style, the book should appeal to economists, political scientists, policymakers, businesspeople, and all those interested in Russian politics or economics.

Freedom and Growth: The Rise of States and Markets in Europe, 1300-1750

Abstract: In discussions on European pre-modern economic growth, the role of individual freedom and of the state has loomed large. This book examines whether different kinds of 'freedoms' (absolutist, parliamentary and republican) caused different economic outcomes, and shows the effect of different political regimes on long term development. It thus offers

The Blood of Guatemala: A History of Race and Nation

Abstract: Over the latter half of the twentieth century, the Guatemalan state slaughtered more than two hundred thousand of its citizens. In the wake of this violence, a vibrant pan-Mayan movement has emerged, one that is challenging Ladino (non-indigenous) notions of citizenship and national identity. In The Blood of Guatemala Greg Grandin locates the origins of this ethnic resurgence within the social processes of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century state formation rather than in the ruins of the national project of recent decades. Focusing on Mayan elites in the community of Quetzaltenango, Grandin shows how their efforts to maintain authority over the indigenous population and secure political power in relation to non-Indians played a crucial role in the formation of the Guatemalan nation. To explore the close connection between nationalism, state power, ethnic identity, and political violence, Grandin draws on sources as diverse as photographs, public rituals, oral testimony, literature, and a collection of previously untapped documents written during the nineteenth century. He explains how the cultural anxiety brought about by Guatemala’s transition to coffee capitalism during this period led Mayan patriarchs to develop understandings of race and nation that were contrary to Ladino notions of assimilation and progress. This alternative national vision, however, could not take hold in a country plagued by class and ethnic divisions. In the years prior to the 1954 coup, class conflict became impossible to contain as the elites violently opposed land claims made by indigenous peasants. This “history of power” reconsiders the way scholars understand the history of Guatemala and will be relevant to those studying nation building and indigenous communities across Latin America.

Social Democracy and Welfare Capitalism: A Century of Income Security Politics

Abstract: What has brought about the widespread public provision of welfare and income security within free-market liberalism? Some social scientists have regarded welfare as a preindustrial atavism; others, as a functional requirement of industrial society. Most recently, scholars have stressed the reformist actions of center-left parties during the decades following World War II, the workings of "new" post-industrial politics lately, and a multifaceted role of politics and state institutions overall. Alexander Hicks thoroughly revises these views, stressing the enduring significance of class organizations, however politically embedded, from the era of Bismark until the present. Social Democracy and Welfare Capitalism describes and explains income security programs in affluent and democratic capitalist nations, from the proto-democratic innovators of the 1880s to the globally buffeted democracies of the 1990s. Hicks's account stresses the reformist role of employee political and economic organization and derivative institutions, in particular, social democratic parties, labor unions, and neo-corporatist arrangements. These forces, arrayed as the elements of a transnational and century-long social democratic movement, give direction and continuity to the emergence, development, and contestation of income security policies.

Democracy in Europe

Abstract: Democratic liberty on continental scale? where are our Madisons? the dilemma of modern democracy how Britain has lost its voice why consitutions are important three forms of the state creating an open political class Europe and the global market Europe and the United States Europe, Christianity and Islam political moderation and social diversity in Europe - the future.

An Introduction to African Politics

Abstract: The third edition of An Introduction to African Politics continues to be the ideal textbook for those new to the study of this fascinating continent. It gets to the heart of the politics of this part of the world, tackling questions such as: How is modern Africa still influenced by its colonial past? How do strong ethnic identities on the continent affect government? Why has the military been so influential? Why do African states have such difficulty managing their economies? How does African democracy differ from democracy in the West? The result is a textbook that identifies the essential features of African politics, allowing students to grasp the recurring political patterns that have dominated this continent since independence. Features and benefits of the third edition: Thematically organised, with individual chapters exploring issues such as colonialism, ethnicity, nationalism, religion, social class, ideology, legitimacy, authority, sovereignty and democracy. Identifies key recurrent themes such as the competitive relationships between the African state, its civil society and external interests. Contains useful boxed case studies at the end of each chapter, including: Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, Botswana, Cote d’Ivoire, Uganda, Somalia, Ghana, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zimbabwe. Each chapter concludes with key terms and definitions, as well as questions and advice on further reading. Illustrated throughout with images of important political figures, and key moments in African history. Important terms and concepts are explained in a clear and accessible manner and supported by contemporary examples. This expanded, fully revised and updated edition remains the ideal gateway for students seeking to make sense of the dynamic and diverse political systems that are a feature of this fascinating part of the world.

Graduated Sovereignty in South-East Asia:

Abstract: What fundamental changes in the state, and in the analysis of the state, have been stimulated by economic globalization? In the course of interactions with global markets and regulatory agencies, so-called Asian tiger countries like Malaysia and Indonesia have created new economic possibilities, social spaces and political constellations, which in turn condition their further actions. The shifting relations between market, state, and society have resulted in the state's flexible experimentations with sovereignty. Graduated sovereignty refers to a) the different modes of governing segments of the population who relate or do not relate to global markets; and b) the different mixes of legal compromises and controls tailored to the requirements of special production zones. The Asian financial crisis further demonstrates the concept of graduation in that the market-oriented agenda can mean different things, strengthening state power and protections in certain areas, but not in others.

The Economic Role of Political Institutions

Abstract: Thriving markets require not only an appropriately designed economic system, but a secure political foundation that limits the ability of the state to confiscate wealth. This requires a form of limited government, that is, political institutions that credibly commit the state to honor economic and political rights. This paper studies how limited government arose in the developed west, focusing on the critical role of federalism for protecting markets in both England and the United States. Federalism proved fundamental to the impressive economic rise of England in the 18th century and the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The paper also shows that federalism underpins the spectacular economic growth in China over the past fifteen years.

Power and its Disguises: Anthropological Perspectives on Politics

Abstract: Locating the political : a political anthropology of today the origins and limits of coercive power: the anthropology of stateless societies from hierarchy to surveillance: the politics of agrarian civilisation and the rise of Western nation state the political anthropology of colonialism: a study of domination and resistance third world states: legacies of history and pressures of modernity from macro to micro processes: anthropolitical practice political process and global disorder: perspectives on contemporary conflict and violence society against the modern state: social movements, cultural politics, gender politics anthropology and politics: commitment responsibility and the academy.

Citizens Plus: Aboriginal Peoples and the Canadian State

Abstract: Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Empire The Complex Problem of "Voice" History and Humility Empire at Home and Abroad The Cultural Terrain over which the Battle Is Fought How Did We Get to Where We Are? Conclusion 2. Assimilation Basic Assimilation Policy The 1969 White Paper Academic and Political Support Aboriginal Support Paternalism and the Culture of Leadership Significance of White Paper Defeat Preliminary Remarks Cross-currents Conclusion 3. Choice A Time of Transition The Influence of the Past The Requirements of Good Aboriginal Constitutional Policy Assimilation versus Parallelism: Warring Paradigms How We See Ourselves: The Discourse of Contrast An Alternative Vision: A Modernizing Aboriginality A Basis for Living Apart and Together Self-Government as an Exit Option Conclusion 4. The Constitutional Vision of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples A Many-Splendoured but Problematic Report The Constitutional Vision of RCAp Relative Neglect of the Urban Dimension Ancestry versus Identity Cultural Survival versus Economic Opportunity The Centrality of Nation The Nation-to-Nation Approach A Third Order of Aboriginal Government Law, Not Politics Representation at the Centre Conclusion 5. The Choice Revisited An Early Vision: Citizens Plus Aboriginal Rights and Aboriginal Nations The Opening Up of the Debate Academic Activism and Legal Scholarship Land Claims, Treaty Negotiations, Self-Government, and Citizenship Political Science and "What Will Hold Us Together?" Interdependence and Other Realities An Outward-Looking Aboriginality Empathy and Citizenship Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

Naturing the Nation: Aliens, Apocalypse, and the Postcolonial State

Abstract: This paper examines the predicament of the postcolonial nation-state through the prism of environmental catastrophe. When are plant 'invaders' likely to become an urgent political issue? And, when they do, what might they reveal of the shifting relations among citizenship, community, and national sovereignty under neo-liberal conditions? Pursuing these questions in the 'new' South Africa, we posit three key features of postcolonial polities in the era of global capitalism: the reconfiguration of the subject-citizen, the crisis of sovereign borders, and the depoliticisation of politics. Under such conditions, we argue, aliens ‐ both plants and people ‐ come to embody core contradictions of boundedness and belonging. And alien-nature provides a language for voicing new forms of discrimination within a culture of 'post-racism' and civil rights.

Colonial Citizens: Republican Rights, Paternal Privilege, and Gender in French Syria and Lebanon

Abstract: I. War and the Advent of French Rule: A Crisis of Paternity1. World War I: Famine, Memory, and a Shattered Social Order2. Soldiers and Patriarchs: Pillars of Colonial Paternalism3. Bureaucrats: Mother France's Civilizing MissionII. Paternal Republicanism and the Construction of Subaltern Citizens4. State Social Policy: Constructing a Hierarchy of Citizens5. Revolt: The Rise of Subaltern MovementsIII. Gender and the Legal Boundaries of the Colonial Civic Order6. Political Rights: Women's Suffrage as a Revolutionary Threat7. The Veil and the Dual Legal System8. Civil Rights: Patriotic Motherhood and Religious Law Reform9. Social Rights: Emergence of a Colonial Welfare StateIV. Gendering The Public: Spatial Boundaries Of The Colonial Civic Order10. Remapping the Urban Landscape11. Street Violence: Regendering an Old Urban Space12. Cinemas: Gendering a New Urban Space13. The Press: Gendering the Virtual PublicV. World War II and the Transformation of the Colonial Civic Order14. Climax of the Colonial Welfare State15. Claiming Paternity of Independent Republics16. The Making of Postcolonial Citizens

Citizenship and Immigration in Post-War Britain: The Institutional Origins of a Multicultural Nation

Abstract: In this ground-breaking book, the author draws extensively on archival material and theortical advances in the social sciences literature on citizenship and migration. Citizenship and Immigration in Postwar Britain examines the transformation since 1945 of the UK from a homogeneous into a multicultural society. Rejecting a dominant strain of sociological and historical inquiry emphasising state racism, Hansen argues that politicians and civil servants were overall liberal relative to a public, to which it owed its office, and pursued policies that were rational for any liberal democratic politician. He explains the trajectory of British migration and nationality policy - its exceptional liberality until the 1950s, its exceptional restrictiveness after then, and its tortured and seemingly racist definition of citizenship. The combined effect of a 1948 imperial definition of citizenship (adopted independently of immigration) and a primary commitment to migration from the Old Dominions, locked British politicians into a series of policy choices resulting in a migration and nationality regime that was not racist in intention, but was racist in effect. In the context of a liberal elite and an illiberal public, Britain's current restrictive migration policies result not from the faling of its policy-makers but those of its institutions.

Hidden histories of gender and the state in Latin America

Abstract: DIVCollection of essays which compares the gendered aspects of state formation in Latin Ameri can nations and includes new material arising out of recent feminist work in history, political science and sociology./div "This collection ...

Political Theory and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Abstract: List of contributors Acknowledgements 1. Introduction Duncan Ivison, Paul Patton and Will Sanders Part I. Sovereignty: 2. Waitangi as mystery of state: consequences of the ascription of federative capacity to the Maori J. G. A. Pocock 3. The struggles of indigenous peoples for and of freedom James Tully 4. Beyond regret: Mabo's implications for Australian constitutionalism Jeremy Webber 5. Engaging with indigeneity: Tino Rangatiratanga in Aotearoa Roger Maaka and Augie Fleras Part II. Identity: 6. Paths towards a Mohawk nation: narratives of citizenship and nationhood in Kahnawake Audra Simpson 7. (De)Constructing the politics of indigeneity Manuhuia Barcham 8. On display for its aesthetic beauty: how western institutions fabricate knowledge about aboriginal cultural heritage Sonia Smallacombe 9. On the plurality of interests: aboriginal self-government and land rights John Bern and Susan Dodds Part III. Democracy: 10. The liberal image of the nation William E. Connolly 11. Minority claims under two conceptions of democracy Philip Pettit 12. American multiculturalism and the 'nations within' Will Kymlicka 13. Hybrid democracy: Iroquois federalism and the postcolonial project Iris Marion Young Notes Bibliography Index.

Disaggregating Turkish citizenship and immigration practices

Abstract: There is a growing literature and academic interest increasingly questioning established notions of Turkish national identity and the boundaries of Turkish citizenship. The official formulation of Turkish national identity denies the existence of ethnic and cultural diversity in the country, the only exception being the religious minorities that were recognized in the Lausanne Treaty of 1923. The founders of the Turkish republic had embarked upon a modernist project that aimed to homogenize a society within the geographical area determined by the National Pact. A society that traditionally had been known as a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural one would be transformed into a uniform and homogeneous Turkish nation-state. A civic and territorially based formulation of Turkish nationalism became the ideological tool with which this was to be achieved. In 1924 following a fascinating debate concerning the definition of the term 'Turk', the parliament adopted Article 88 of the Constitution.' Accordingly, 'the people of Turkey regardless of their religion and race were, in terms of citizenship, to be Turkish' and as such would enjoy equal rights. This formulation has persisted across the 1961 and 1982 constitutions, and government officials frequently make references to it. The Turkish President, Siileyman Demirel, for example, in his end-of-the-year press conference in late December 1994 stated that the constitutions of the Turkish Republic did not specify origin, belief or language as the basis for citizenship or 'national belonging'. Membership to the Turkish nation merely entailed that one must be a Turkish citizen.2 Against such a formal definition of citizenship and national identity that emphasizes territoriality rather than ethnicity, actual state practice has been very different.3 The first signals of the gap that would evolve between the formal and substantive definitions of citizenship came as early as the mid1 920s. As the modernist project confronted growing challenges, the government increasingly resorted to policies that emphasized a preference for Turkish ethnicity and language. The initial civic or territorial conceptualization of Turkish national identity and citizenship became

Cinema and Nation

Abstract: Introduction 1. The Sociology of Nationalism 2. The Concept of National Cinema 3. Film Policy, Nationalism, and the State 4. The Production of National Images 5. The Reception of National Images

Audacious Reforms: Institutional Invention and Democracy in Latin America

Abstract: Audacious Reforms examines the creation of new political institutions in three Latin American countries: direct elections for governors and mayors in Venezuela, radical municipalization in Bolivia, and direct election of the mayor of Buenos Aires in Argentina. Diverging from the usual incremental processes of political change, these cases marked a significant departure from traditional centralized governments. Such "audacious reforms," explains Merilee S. Grindle, reinvent the ways in which public problems are manifested and resolved, the ways in which political actors calculate the costs and benefits of their activities, and the ways in which social groups relate to the political process. Grindle considers three central questions: Why would rational politicians choose to give up power? What accounts for the selection of some institutions rather than others? And how does the introduction of new institutions alter the nature of political actions? The case studies of Venezuela, Bolivia, and Argentina demonstrate that institutional invention must be understood from theoretical perspectives that stretch beyond immediate concerns about electoral gains and political support building. Broader theoretical perspectives on the definition of nation and state, the nature of political contests, the legitimacy of political systems, and the role of elites all must be considered. While past conflicts are not erased by reforms, in the new order there is often greater potential for more responsible, accountable, and democratic government.

Order, Disorder and Economic Change: Latin America vs. North America

Abstract: Successful societies require a means for securing political order. That we often take order for granted in developed societies does not imply that it is unimportant. Although most economists ignore problems of disorder, creating order is a central task for establishing the foundations of long term economic growth. As the turmoil in post-independence Spanish America — or today in the former Yugoslavia and the Great Lakes region of Central Africa — demonstrates, political order is not automatic. Political order is a public good that must be carefully constructed. Because political order is a necessary condition for economic and political development, we must enquire about the conditions that provide for it. Citizens behave very differently under political disorder; that is, when they fear for their lives, their families, and their sources of livelihood. Focusing solely on market reform or the instruments of democracy is insufficient to help a developing state or one in transition move onto the path of development. We argue that the sources of political order involves state capacity concerning the creation of credible commitments.

Rogue States and U.S. Foreign Policy: Containment after the Cold War

Abstract: President Clinton and other US officials have warned that "rogue states" pose a major threat to international peace in the post-Cold War era, but what is a rogue state? Does the concept foster a sound approach to foreign policy, or is it, in the end, no more than a counterproductive epithet? Robert Litwak traces the origins and development of rogue state policy and then assesses its efficacy through detailed case studies of Iraq, Iran and North Korea. He shows that the policy is politically selective, inhibits the ability of US policymakers to adapt to changed conditions, and has been rejected by the United States' major allies. Litwak concludes that by lumping together and demonizing a disparate group of countries, the rogue state approach obscures understanding and distorts policymaking. In place of a generic and constricting strategy, he argues for the development of "differentiated" strategies of containment, tailored to the particular circumstances within individual states.