State (polity)

About: State (polity) is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 36954 publications have been published within this topic receiving 719822 citations. The topic is also known as: state (polity).

Electoral Institutions, Cabinet Negotiations, and Budget Deficits in the European Union

Abstract: A rough consensus has emerged that states with proportional representation systems are" likely to run larger deficits than plurality states. We argue that electoral institutions matter because" they restrict the type of budgetary institution at the governmental phase which a state has at its" disposal. Cabinet members may willingly delegate authority to a finance minister who can monitor" spending ministers and punish those who defect' in a process we label delegation procedure is feasible in states where one-party governments are the norm. Such states usually have" plurality electoral systems. In multi-party governments, which are common in states with" proportional representation, the coalition members are not willing to delegate to one actor the ability" to monitor and punish the others. Negotiated targets in the form of fiscal contracts provide an" alternative in multi-party governments. Pooled time series regression results for the current" European Union states in the period 1981-94 support our contention that it is the presence or absence" of one of these budgetary institutions, rather than the plurality/proportional representation" dichotomy, which has the greatest impact on debt levels.

Civil Society and Political Change in Asia: Expanding and Contracting Democratic Space

Abstract: Contents Acronyms and Abbreviations Preface Contributors Introduction Muthiah Alagappa Part I. Conceptual Perspective 1. Civil Society and Political Change: An Analytical Framework Muthiah Alagappa Part II. Legitimate Civil Society: Negotiating Democratic Space 2. Indonesia: Transformation of Civil Society and Democratic Breakthrough Edward Aspinall 3. The Philippines: Fractious Civil Society and Competing Visions of Democracy Jennifer C. Franco 4. South Korea: Confrontational Legacy and Democratic Contributions Sunhyuk Kim 5. Taiwan: No Civil Society, No Democracy Yun Fan 6. India: Expanding and Contracting Democratic Space Amitabh Behar and Aseem Prakash 7. Japan: Social Capital Without Advocacy Robert Pekkanen Part III. Controlled and Communalized Civil Society: Challenging and Reinforcing the State 8. Malaysia: Construction of Counterhegemonic Narratives and Agendas Meredith L. Weiss 9. Sri Lanka: Ethnic Domination, Violence, and Illiberal Democracy Neil DeVotta 10. Singapore: Engagement and Autonomy Within the Political Status Quo Suzaina Kadir Part IV. Repressed Civil Society: Penetrated, Co-opted, and Avoiding the State 11. Pakistan: Civil Society in the Service of an Authoritarian State Aqil Shah 12. Burma: Civil Society Skirting Regime Rules Kyaw Yin Hlaing 13. China: The Limits of Civil Society in a Late Leninist State Mary E. Gallagher Part V. Conclusion 14. The Nonstate Public Sphere in Asia: Dynamic Growth, Institutionalization Lag Muthiah Alagappa 15. Civil Society and Democratic Change: Indeterminate Connection, Transforming Relations Muthiah Alagappa Tables and Figures Tables 1.1 Functions and Roles of Civil Society 000 5.1 Social Protests Reported in Taiwan by Number, 1983-87 000 5.2 Social Protests Reported in Taiwan by Issue, 1983-87 000 5.3 Social Movement Activists' Class Background 000 5.4 Social Movement Activists' Generational Background 000 5.5 Growth of Civil Society Groups in Taiwan, 1980-2001 000 6.1 The Sangh Family 000 7.1 Civil Society Groups in Japan 000 7.2 Relationship Between the Bureaucracy and Permitted Groups in Japan 000 7.3 What Japanese Neighborhood Associations Do 000 7.4 Press Coverage of Interest Groups as a Proportion of All Interest Groups Mentioned in U.S. Print Media in 1991 000 8.1 Four Paths for Civil Society's Influence 000 Figures 000 5.1 Number of National and Local Associations Registered in Taiwan, 1977-2001 000 7.1 Civil Society Employment as a Percentage of Total Employment 000 7.2 PIPs by Number of Employees 000 7.3 Revenue Sources for Civil and Advocacy Groups 000 7.4. Large Japanese and U.S. Civil Society Groups by Founding Date and Percentage 7.5 Research in Newspapers in Japan and the United States by Source 000

Tilly Tally: War-Making and State-Making in the Contemporary Third World

Abstract: Does the war-making/state-making thesis, most associated with Charles Tilly, apply in the developing world If so, how? This essay reviews the bellicist literature and offers an explanation for variation in state capacity among the most war-prone states in the developing world. We investigate the influence of war on state strength in two countries, Afghanistan and Vietnam. We examine three hypothesized causal mechanisms about how war contributes to state formation: raising money, building armies, and making nations. We find that war in Vietnam contributed to state-building, while war in Afghanistan has been state-destroying. There appear to be two main factors that contributed to state-making in Vietnam that were absent in Afghanistan: the existence of a core ethnic group that had served as the basis for a relatively long-standing political community in the past, and the combination of war and revolution, which inspired state officials and facilitated the promulgation of a unifying national ideology. Of these two factors, comparative data suggest relative ethnic homogeneity is the most important. Absent these specific conditions, war is more likely to break than make states in the contemporary Third World.

The European Community and the state: assumptions, theories and propositions

Abstract: Students of the European Community in the early 1990s cannot but be struck by an apparent paradox. On the one hand, pressures towards an increasing centralization of arrangements under the heading of political and monetary union seem to have increased, and are frequently linked in public discussion with the concept of federalism. On the other hand, a number of members, most obviously Spain, Portugal and Greece, even the new Germany, are obviously using the Community to develop a sense of their own identity as separate states, and, although the British have been most prominent in opposing federalism, no member government has shown any inclination in speciic terms to abandon its sovereignty. This paradox is hard to understand and is perhaps too easily dismissed with the retort that the Community is sui generis, or that the supporters of further integration have simply not understood its constitutional implications, as the Bruges Group has argued.

The Politics of Landscapes in Singapore: Constructions of "Nation"

Abstract: This book shows how power relations that define and challenge the concept of "nation" are played out in and through landscapes. Has the era of globalization neutralized the institution of "nation?" This thought-provoking book focuses on attempts to build "nation" through landscape. Specifically, it explores strategies employed by Singapore, a multiracial society, to create a Singapore "nation" with an emphasis on the role of landscapes. As such, the authors cast a keen eye on religious buildings, public housing, heritage landscapes, and street name changes as tangible methods of nation-building in a postcolonial society. The authors point out that notions of "identity" and "nation" are social constructs rooted in history. They then illustrate how "nation" and "national identity" are concepts that are negotiated and disputed by varied social, economic, and political groups - some of which may actively resist powerful state-centrist attitudes. Throughout this work, the role of the landscape prevails both as a way to naturalize state ideologies and as a means of providing possibilities for reinterpretation in everyday life. Insightful and informative, this is a crucial reference for geographers as well as scholars of international political economy, postcolonial and cultural studies, and Asian history.