Abstract
72.2607 AEBY, Michael —
Signatories, guarantors and stakeholders of peace treaties and global political agreements (GPA) need reliable information on the agreement’s implementation to track progress, ensure compliance and prevent renewed conflict. Implementation monitoring mechanisms (IMMs) are, therefore, an important component of peace and transitional governance processes. Whereas monitoring can be entrusted to an independent third party, the signatories of Zimbabwe’s GPA set up a Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC). This article outlines the implementation of the GPA and discusses the hybrid design and workings of JOMIC, which sought to build peace among monitors from power-sharing parties, who jointly observed the agreement’s implementation. It argues that JOMIC was not a viable substitution for an independent IMM despite having some merit in observing political violence and gathering information for the power-sharing parties. [R, abr.]
72.2608 AGOSTINIS, Giovanni ; PARTHENAY, Kevin —
What explains the variation in how states collectively deal with public health challenges across different regions? We tackle this puzzle by comparing the regional health governance efforts pursued within the Central American Integration System (SICA) and the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR). We show that Central America’s health governance has been driven by external actors, whereas South America’s was driven by states within the region, and remained insulated from external actors’ influence. We argue that the explanation for such variation lies in the interplay of state capacity and regional leadership. In Central America, weak state capacity combined with the absence of a regional leader willing to provide governance resources. This opened up space for external actors to contribute actively to regional health governance, complementing the governance of Central American governments. [R, abr.]
72.2609 AHMED, Zahid Shahab ; SHAHZAD, Rizwana —
This article is located in the wider discourse on the nexus of policy, research and practice of peace education for countering violent extremism (CVE) with a focus on learnings and insights from non-governmental initiatives in Pakistan. It presents an analysis of how the diverse and complex school education system in Pakistan ‘does’ and/or ‘does not’ respond to the challenges of an increasing scale and manifestations of violence, conflict and extremism in society. Moving beyond the discussion on the historical emergence, drivers, actors and characteristics of violent extremism in Pakistan, this paper engages with the erstwhile literature on the research-policy-practice nexus to examine nine peace education projects — mostly foreign-funded — in Pakistan. [R, abr.]
72.2610 AHSAN, Syed Badrul —
This article provides an overview of the developments in the politics of Bangladesh since its independence from Pakistan 50 years ago in 1971. It focuses particularly on the struggle for independence led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, seen as the founder of the nation, the development of parties, extremism, the coups and counter-coups suffered by the country and the long-term impact these have had on the democratic process and civil society, and also the country’s prospects for the future. [R]
72.2611 ALBERT, Isaac Olawale —
Decapitation strategies have often been linked to counterterrorism. The existing literature suggests the results of these strategies are mixed. Previous studies suggest that the death of a prominent leader may not necessarily end the crisis; it all depends on the group’s infrastructure, ideology, leadership traditions, and extent of its penetration in society. This article takes a critical look at the impact of a recent leadership decapitation in Nigeria. Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the Boko Haram movement in the Lake Chad Basin countries, was killed on 19 May 2021 by a faction of the movement known as the Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP). This article argues that Shekau’s case has paradoxically helped to strengthen ISWAP’s position, giving it new recruits and other resources and perhaps most importantly reinforced its position with local communities. [R, abr.]
72.2612 ANCESCHI, Luca —
What happens to elites when the personalistic leader they supported for so long suddenly dies? This article tackles comparatively transitions out of first presidencies in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, presenting an analytical framework that seeks to explain why these transitions unfolded in relatively smooth fashion. The overall stability defining power transfer processes instigated by the non-violent death of personalistic rulers in both contexts is explained here through the intersection of three key factors: the regimes’ resort to succession practices consolidated in the Soviet era, the emergence of temporary forms of collective decision-making in both transitional contexts, and the implementation of de-personalisation strategies pursuing the obliteration of specific pockets of cadres but stopping short of wider regime re-organisation. [R, abr.]
72.2613 ANDREWS, Leighton —
The philosophy underlying the creation of the devolved institutions in Wales and Scotland was expansive, leading to a growth in powers over twenty years. That approach is now under challenge following recent Brexit legislation, which marks a sharp contrast with the unionist approaches of the past. The Covid-19 pandemic provided a visibility boost for devolution, while exposing existing tensions in intergovernmental relations. This article identifies four forms of unionism in operation over the last twenty years — passive, activist, progressive and muscular — and questions whether muscular unionism can now be considered a form of statecraft. Those ‘progressive unionists’ who advocate further devolution should avoid ‘constitutional determinism’ — the assumption that muscular unionism will inevitably lead to a breakup of the UK unless further constitutional reform takes place. [R]
72.2614 ANGELIS, Gabriele De ; OLIVEIRA, Emellin de —
How can we assess the institutional resilience of consolidated democracies in emergency situations? How can we know which regulations of the state of emergency best immunize democratic systems from intra- or interregime shifts? With the COVID-19 pandemic, these questions have become urgent. Although worries that intra- or inter-regime shifts may increase due to the proclamation of the state of emergency mainly target countries that were already prone to autocratization, specific complaints have been addressed at undue impingements on fundamental rights in consolidated democracies, too. In most of the current indexes, the presence or absence of certain institutional features is usually considered as per se sufficient to determine the degree of a system’s resilience. Instead, our analysis suggests that these criteria ought to be used as heuristics in the context of an in-depth analysis of institutional mechanisms. [R, abr.]
72.2615 ARNEMANN, Laura ; KONRAD, Kai A. ; POTRAFKE, Niklas —
We examine whether collective memories on the aid and reform programs chosen to handle the 2010 European debt crisis differ between citizens from borrower and lender countries. We use new international survey data for non-experts and experts in member countries of the euro area. The results show that non-experts from borrower and lender countries remember aspects of the programs in different manners; indicating biases for assessments of how the crisis outcomes are perceived in borrower and lender countries. Nation-serving biases may well explain that the 2010 European debt crisis has reduced the sense of belonging rather than bringing European citizens closer together. [R]
72.2616 AUGSBURGER, Aaron —
This paper examines how the concept of plurinationality relates to the notion of Bolivia as a formación abigarrada (motley, disjointed social formation), and how that social form corresponds with the political form of the state. René Zavaleta Mercado is best known for his conceptualisation of the country as a formación abigarrada, which underscores the coexistence of multiple modes of production and historical temporalities in the same geographic space. Zavaleta used this concept to examine Bolivian society as a set of historical structural articulations that develop over time in relation to different state forms. I argue that whereas the disjointedness of Bolivia’s social formation was always seen as a negative condition for Zavaleta, plurinationality has been enunciated as a positive possibility, a horizon beyond the socio-political formation of the liberal nation-state. [R, abr.]
72.2617 BAE, YoungJa —
This study examines the nuclear safety governance in East Asia from the perspective of ‘Emerging Security’ and ‘ANT (Actor Network Theory),’ emphasizing on the necessity of complex and interacting domestic, regional, and global nuclear safety governance and taking technology factor seriously in reforming the current nuclear safety governance. After investigating the role of IAEA at the global level, ANSA (Asian Nuclear Safety Network) and TRM (Top Regulator’s Meeting) for nuclear safety in the region, and the organizational characteristics of domestic nuclear safety regulation in Korea, China and Japan, the paper argues that a complex nuclear safety governance should be designed to decrease the risk against potential nuclear accidents in the region. [R, abr.]
72.2618 BARAKAT, Sultan ; MILTON, Sansom ; ELKAHLOUT, Ghassan —
This paper examines the siege of the Gaza Strip, a self-governing Palestinian territory, since 2007. Research on sieges tends to concentrate on the coping strategies of besieged communities, humanitarian issues associated with the impacts, humanitarian access, and the prioritisation of needs, with little or no attention paid to reconstruction. However, Gaza is unusual as a siege environment within which reconstruction has become a high priority in the aftermath of its three destructive wars with Israel. Following an overview of research on sieges in contemporary warfare and a brief contextualisation of Gaza, this paper examines why reconstruction outcomes have varied over time through the application of a theoretical framework that stipulates the importance of four key factors: time; needs; scarcity; and political context. [R, abr.]
72.2619 BASTA, Karlo ; HENDERSON, Ailsa —
This article explores how the asymmetric institutionalization of the UK’s multinationality interacted with the COVID-19 pandemic. The UK’s political elite has traditionally accepted the country’s multinational character, but democratic institutionalization of it occurred relatively recently and in a remarkably asymmetric manner. Only the UK’s minority nations possess devolved governments, while the largest nation, England, is governed directly from the center. This framework has consequences for the pandemic response. It has clarified the relevance of devolved legislatures, but also highlights continued resistance of the UK’s governing elite to acknowledge the multi-level character of the state. [R] [See Abstr. 72.2153]
72.2620 BATORY, Agnes —
Under the EU’s cohesion policy, post-communist member states in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) are amongst the largest recipients of European Structural and Investment (ESI) Funds. This article focuses on popular narratives of corruption and abuse in the allocation of the funds in the ‘new’ member states. Specifically, it aims to investigate how citizens perceive and evaluate the origins and motivations of the EU for providing the funds, the abuse affecting these resources, and who they blame for the misuse, relying on focus group discussions in Hungary, Romania and Slovenia. Popular narratives indicate that citizens perceive cohesion policy implementation as intertwined with grand corruption. While national political elites are considered as the main culprit, EU institutions are also seen as failing in their duties. These findings are significant because perceived EU inaction against grand corruption undermines notions of European solidarity and damages the EU’s credibility and legitimacy. [R]
72.2621 BENNOUNA, Cyril, et al. —
Why do COVID-19 social distancing policies vary so widely across states in federal countries? This mixed-methods study of Brazil, Mexico, and the US finds that state-level variation in the stringency of social distancing policies is driven not by the epidemiological, demographic, or socio-economic factors commonly emphasized in previous research, but largely by political factors. Introducing a novel framework for explaining pandemic policymaking, the study shows the central importance of political parties, presidential power, and governors’ coalitions in determining state-level policy stringency. In the US and Mexico, statistical and qualitative evidence indicates that interstate collaboration among governors, combined with top-down pressures from national party elites and presidents, led to greater policy alignment among coordinated states. In Brazil, in contrast, where there is little evidence of either policy coordination or alignment, state-level policies resulted instead from intrastate factors and diffusion. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 72.2695]
72.2622 BERLIN, David Pion ; IVEY, Andrew —
The civil-military relations of the Trump Presidency became increasingly troubled. The President attempted not only to involve the military in partisan politics, but also in counter-protest operations in the face of nationwide demonstrations. Such operations increase the likelihood of human rights abuses by the military, which prides itself on professionalism and public approval. How can officers resist a commander-in-chief pulling them into partisan politics, particularly when this endangers military professionalism and quite possibly democracy itself? This article finds that US military commanders might turn to their counterparts across Latin America for examples and lessons. Commanders in Chile, Ecuador, Colombia and Brazil have found innovative waves to resist unwise Presidential orders and potentially save lives in the process. Critically, we find that these instances of justifiable dissent did not result in an erosion of civilian control. [R]
72.2623 BIRKLAND, Thomas A., et al. —
How does the state of American federalism explain responses to COVID-19? State-by-state variations to the COVID-19 pandemic illustrate the political dynamics of “kaleidoscopic federalism,” under which there is no single prevailing principle of federalism. In the COVID-19 pandemic, features of kaleidoscopic federalism combined with shortcomings in the public health system under the Trump administration, leading to fragmented responses to the pandemic among the states. Federalism alone does not explain the shortcomings of the US response to the pandemic. Rather, the fragmented response was driven by state partisanship, which shaped state public health interventions and resulted in differences in public health outcomes. This has sobering implications for American federalism because state-level partisan differences yield different and unequal responses to the pandemic. [R] [See Abstr. 72.2695]
72.2624 BITSCHNAU, Marco, et al. —
This article investigates the politicisation of immigration in Switzerland during two major socioeconomic crises: the oil crisis of the 1970s and the financial crisis of the late 2000s. Based on 2,853 newspaper claims from 1970 to 1976 and 1995 to 2018, we measure and compare differences in salience, polarisation, actor diversity and frame use between crisis and noncrisis periods. We find that while claims-making on immigration was indeed more salient, polarised, and diversified during the oil crisis, the empirical data for the financial crisis are inconclusive or show a slight decrease. Nonetheless, we still find a noteworthy increase in the use of identity frames during both periods. We conclude that while crises may influence claims-making about immigration and thus affect the politicisation of the matter, their contextual links to particular immigrant groups appear to be of importance as well. Crises do not increase politicisation automatically but may provide important opportunity structures that foster it. [R]
72.2625 BLOCH, Jens Hundevad, et al. —
This research sheds light on the societal underpinnings of the makings of hub airports. From an airport governance perspective, a case study of four European hub airports, representing both expanding and struggling hubs, was conducted. Based on interviews with 31 airport stakeholders from four different countries (i.e., Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands and Switzerland) as well as a review of strategic and policy documents, the authors argue that the development of hub airports and their corresponding governance models is a non-linear process, informed to a great degree by societal and discursive factors. The authors conclude that developing and sustaining a well-functioning hub airport that supports regional development necessitates an active stance from local, regional and national authorities. [R, abr.]
72.2626 BORDENKIRCHER, Eric —
Lebanon is often considered the exception in the Middle East. This is no longer true. Deep societal cleavages and external interference are becoming reoccurring phenomena throughout the region. Policy makers have the opportunity with a framework derived from Lebanon’s history to better manage the realities of Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen. A US policy that approaches these places at the state level with a priority on minimizing Iranian influence and amending divisions with allies is the only viable way forward for an increasingly Lebanonized Middle East. [R]
72.2627 BORTHAKUR, Anchita ; KOTOKEY, Angana —
The ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic on international politics are still being studied. Two parallel processes are going on in the international system at the moment. On one hand, there is a growing interdependence among states with the emergence of globalization and economic liberalization; on the other hand, with rising protectionism, countries are becoming isolationist focusing more on domestic issues through their ‘nation first’ policies. But the transnational nature of the plague will continue to drive nations to come together and push for collective leadership both at the present times and also in a post-COVID world. In the context of South Asia, greater multilateral cooperation among countries is required to deal with the challenges posed by the pandemic as the region is already prone to several natural as well as man-made calamities. [R, abr.]
72.2628 BOSWELL, John, et al. —
The orthodoxy in the crisis-management literature holds that the response to events like COVID-19 is primarily shaped by a decentralized group of actors on the ground. We argue that a top-down explanation, focused on the actions and intentions of the core executive, is an essential complement to this bottom-up emphasis on a distributed network. Specifically, we advance a ‘court politics’ understanding of how governing elites have taken advice and made decisions, and sketch out the impact this has had in framing and constraining crisis response efforts. The argument uses an interpretive framework centred on the dilemmas that governing elites face in managing crisis. We illustrate the underlying ‘court politics’ which has driven responses to COVID-19 in England and Denmark. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 72.1677]
72.2629 BOYLE, Michael J. —
The US will not be able to manage a long-term ideological struggle unless it addresses illiberalism in its own political institutions. [R] [See Abstr. 72.2742]
72.2630 BULMAN, David J. ; JAROS, Kyle A. —
Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption drive, personnel reshuffles, and institutional overhauls seem to mark a turning point in Beijing’s long-running fight against ‘localism’ (difangzhuyi). Yet, key questions remain about the scope and effectiveness of efforts to rein in China’s subnational officials. Has the Xi administration effectively combated localism by appointing more outsiders to provincial leadership teams? This article distinguishes between different types of localism in contemporary China and the varying personnel ‘risk factors’ underlying them. Comparing the makeup of provincial party standing committees under Xi Jinping’s 18th CPC Central Committee (2012-2017) with those from the 15-17th CPC Central Committees under Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao (1997-2012), the analysis finds that Xi has accelerated personnel changes to address multiple forms of localism. [R, abr.]
72.2631 CANELLI, Rosa, et al. —
In response to the economic crisis unleashed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the EU authorities have launched extraordinary fiscal and monetary measures in support of member states. The impact of these measures is of great significance for Italy, the EU third-largest economy, which as a result of the pandemic has suffered a dramatic decline in GDP, and a further rise in the government debt to GDP ratio. Building on a stock-flow consistent, structural macro-econometric model, this paper shows that the currently planned EU measures are insufficient to boost the recovery of the Italian economy, and to ensure the sustainability of its government debt. The paper also assesses two potential alternative policies. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 72.2752]
72.2632 CHAO Chung Chieh ; SUN Lingxue ; WANG Jianbo —
Long-term care (LTC) policies are urgently needed for required services, including workforce support and insurance planning. China has a large population and just recently entered an aging stage, whereas Taiwan is about to become a super-aged society. China and Taiwan have similar cultural context, sharing the same value of Chinese filial piety and living habits although they have distinct political systems. Results shows that there is no silver bullet that would solve the current shortage of an LTC workforce that would fill the gap between care recipients and licensed professionals or informal caregivers. It is clear that action is required in all the aspects of LTC reform. The Taiwan system is comparatively solid while China’s system is struggling despite well-planned policy-making. [R]
72.2633 CHI Zhang —
This paper contributes to the debate on terrorism designation and proscription by providing information and analysis on the “double-track” system of terrorism designation and proscription in China. It calls for greater attention to China’s terrorism proscription system as China has increased its engagement in international affairs and became more willing and capable of international cooperation in counterterrorism. The case of China provides important insights from a non-Western perspective into how states function in dealing with the challenge terrorism poses. In particular, it examines China’s efforts in balancing effective counterterrorism and the accountability of the government. Adopting an interpretivist approach based on primarily Chinese-language documents, it traces the development of China’s proscription regime since 2003 to illustrate its evolution from adhoc list-making to a more complicated system. [R, abr.]
72.2634 CHO Sungmin —
Between the mid-1990s and the mid-2010s, the Chinese government was distinctly open to the Western offer of democracy-assistance programs. It cooperated with a number of Western organizations to improve the rule of law, village elections, administrative capacity, and civil society in China. Why did the Chinese government engage with democracy promoters who tried to develop these democratic attributes within China? The author argues that the government intended to use Western aid to its advantage. The Chinese Communist Party had launched governance reforms to strengthen its regime legitimacy, and Chinese officials found that Western democracy assistance could be used to facilitate their own governancereform programs. The article traces the process of how the government’s strategic intention translated into policies of selective openness, and includes evidence from firsthand interviews, propaganda materials, and research by Chinese experts. [R, abr.]
72.2635 CHRISTENSEN, Darin ; GARFIAS, Francisco —
Property titling enables tax collection and encourages private investment. Yet, governments across the developing world often fail to invest in land registration systems, such as cadastral maps, that record land ownership and values. In this paper, we describe and estimate the fiscal benefits and political costs that elected officials face when deciding whether to invest in this critical fiscal infrastructure. Focusing on Brazilian municipalities, we find that property tax revenue increases by over 10% following cadastre updates. Officials covet this revenue, but they simultaneously seek to secure their reelection, and investing in the cadastre can generate political costs by angering tax-averse voters or undermining clientelism. When these political costs are large, officials who do not face reelection pressures have greater incentives to invest in the cadastre. [R, abr.]
72.2636 CHRISTIANSEN, Drew —
On January 6 [2021], the day on which Congress was to confirm the election of Joe Biden as 46th president of the US, hundreds of Trump supporters, protesting against the election, stormed Capitol Hill. Two forces contributed to the insurrection: the campaign of lies unleashed by Trump and the growth of the far right and its armed militias. On January 20, inauguration day, after being sworn in, Biden sought to bring the country together, to lower the feverish temperature that had pervaded the American body politic during the Trump years. With his 36 years in the Senate and 8 years as Vice-President, he seems to have a solid preparation to face his presidency. [R, trad.]
72.2637 CHRISTIANSEN, Drew —
American society and the worsening tensions in the structures of democratic government. The political crisis seems to have dried up the historical sources of respect, compromise, and civic cohesion in the American public system. Undermining the cornerstones on which the American republic stands have been forces deeply rooted in post-World War II culture: (1) the decline of civic consciousness; (2) the decay of the media; (3) the degradation of political processes; and (4) the dysfunctions present in the 18th-c. constitution, which no longer fits today’s demographic realities. [R, trad.]
72.2638 CHU, May —
This article empirically analyses enforcement strategies that characterize food safety regulations in China. It demonstrates that the Chinese government has deployed a dichotomous approach, resulting in very different regulations in its domestic and export food markets. The export food sector exhibits strong deterrent measures whereas regulation of domestic food markets is reactive and relies on persuasive approaches to enforcement. These variations between the two sectors result from a combination of the internationalization of regulatory practice in the case of exports and resource constraints, a lack of institutional capacity and resistance to regulation from intertwined business and government interests when it comes to domestic food markets. This article addresses a gap in existing theories of regulation by showing how an industrializing economy with an authoritarian regime employs an accommodative and pragmatic approach to regulation. [R, abr.]
72.2639 CHUNG, C. K. Martin —
In 2018, that is 20 years after the conclusion of the Belfast Agreement ending the 30-year conflict in Northern Ireland known as the ‘Troubles’, the UK Government started a consultation on dealing with its legacy. The House of Commons Defence Committee proposes the enactment of a statute of limitations to shield veterans from further investigations into Troubles-related crimes. It would represent a ‘balanced’ approach to justice, as some paramilitary combatants had also received de facto amnesty through various schemes. This article argues that given the involvement of the British state in the historical conflict, a ‘balanced’ approach to dealing with the past is inadequate. Drawing on parallel parliamentary debates in Germany that began around 1965, that is also 20 years after the end of conflict, the article makes the case that an asymmetric approach is both promising and necessary for the reconciliation process to move forward. [R]
72.2640 CIARÁN BROWNE, Brendan ; BRADLEY, Elaine —
We argue that the transposition of a Northern Irish peace model to Palestine/Israel serves to reinforce and embed the ‘conflict’ by promoting its own discourse of ‘peacebuilding’, one that is silent on the language of colonization, which in turn marginalizes the legitimacy of Palestinian anti-colonial resistance and prioritizes westernized notions of ‘peace’ over international obligations to promote ‘justice’. Our argument is premised upon what is, in the main, a marginalized critique, namely that viewing the Northern Irish Peace Accord as ‘successful’ — an exemplary model suitable for application in other conflict/transitional spaces — depends on how one understands the agreement itself. [R, abr.]
72.2641 CIGLER, Beverly A. —
The COVID-19 pandemic challenges a workable American federalism. The Tenth Amendment to the US Constitution reserves plenary responsibilities to states for promoting health and well-being; but states and their local governments suffer from a significant lack of resources and interjurisdictional competition during major emergencies. I argue that a president has significant constitutional and statutory authority for pandemic preparedness and, by law, is responsible for leading a coordinated national response necessary to a pandemic. The article outlines the constitutional and statutory authorities available to President Trump and assesses how he used those powers to address the pandemic. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 72.2695]
72.2642 COCO, Antonella ; RUSSO, Antonio —
The article analyzes the political personalization and disintermediation in two regional contexts of Southern Italy, Calabria and Sicily. These contexts are also characterized by the pervasiveness of the catch-all party and patronage. The essay assumes as hypothesis the diffusion of political personalization and disintermediation also at the regional level. Investigating these transformations in the political systems, the analysis underlines the influence of path dependence dynamics on current changes, stressing also similarities and differences between Calabria and Sicily. The qualitative research focuses on the political paths of the councillors elected in the regional assemblies. The areas investigated concern the political socialization, the access to political representation, the construction of consensus, the political communication and the electoral campaigns. [R, abr.]
72.2643 CONNAH, Leoni —
The introduction of The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) by Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has sparked a collective resistance that has not been witnessed since the fight for Indian Independence. Although Modi is living up to the promises he made in his manifesto(s), and some BJP supporters believe the act ‘fulfils the aspiration of Mahatma Gandhi’, this article considers how his government are using the CAA and NRC as weapons to rid India of its Muslim ‘foreigners’ and this has caused significant communal tensions and rising levels of violence, particularly in the capital (New Delhi). This article seeks to explore some of the consequences of this decision, and what the future holds for the Indian Northeast. [R, abr.]
72.2644 CORDOVA, Abby ; HISKEY, Jonathan —
Remittances have become a chief source of family income in developing countries. As such, these revenue streams have the potential to impact recipients’ political behavior. Empirical studies investigating this proposition, however, have yielded seemingly contradictory findings. We develop a theoretical framework that highlights the importance of national development context in understanding the distinct cross-national political behavior patterns between remittance recipients and non-recipients. Leveraging the variations in development levels across 24 Latin American countries, we evaluate propositions derived from this contention that the political implications of remittances depend in part on the development context into which they flow. We find evidence for a posited inverse relationship between development levels and the extent to which receipt of remittances induces political participation. [R, abr.]
72.2645 CUDA, Emilce —
The common good is a traditional principle of Catholic social doctrine and moral theology. it expresses the set of social conditions that allow all human beings to lead a life in conformity with their inalienable dignity. this is the basis for the denunciation of the culture of waste and of an economy that kills. what does the commitment to give concreteness to the notion of the common good entail? Why does it arouse so much resistance and accusations against those who try to do so? What new perspectives does the social teaching of Pope Francis open up? [R, trad.]
72.2646 DANIEL, Jan ; EBERLE, Jakub —
What do we speak of when we speak of ‘hybrid warfare’, a notion that has become prominent in discussions of European security? The article shows that this question is difficult to answer, as the hybrid warfare discourse is not only vague, but also consists of multiple, and at times contradictory, narratives. While talking and writing about supposedly the same thing, participants in the hybrid warfare debate often suggest markedly different ideas about the precise nature and target of the threat, offer different responses and draw upon different expertise. Grounding our argument in critical scholarship on narratives, security knowledge and hybrid warfare, we build a framework for studying security narratives around the four elements of threat, threatened value, response and underlying knowledge. This framework is utilised in a case study of Czechia, a country that has played a pioneering and outsized role in European hybrid warfare debates. We identify three narratives of hybrid warfare – defence, counterinfluence and education – which present markedly different understandings of ‘hybrid warfare’, and ways to defend against it. Our intervention hopes to contribute to disentangling the contradictions of the hybrid warfare discourse, itself a necessary precondition for both sound state policy and an informed public debate. [R]
72.2647 DAYIOĞLU, Ali ; ÇIRAKLI, Mustafa ; KOLDAŞ, Umut —
This article examines the change and continuity in the Turkish policy toward Cyprus since the de facto partition of the island in 1974. The language of Turkish nationalism regarding the Cyprus question has been far from monotonous. The period coinciding with the coming of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2002 in particular was a critical juncture which opened up the discursive space for the re-articulation of the ‘Cyprus problem’, legitimizing efforts in relation to reunification. Yet the partial nature of the discursive shift and the absence of a complete paradigmatic change — explained here with reference to structural and historical features of the Cyprus problem as well as the contingent nature of the EU membership prospects — has meant the return of the well-entrenched narratives on the conflict and national identity. [R, abr.]
72.2648 DE JAGER, Nicola —
In the context of the global recession of democracy, this article engages with sub-Saharan Africa’s so-called ‘democratic’ deficit. Three arguments are presented. First, sub-Saharan Africa’s challenge is less a democratic deficit than it is a liberal deficit. The political elite are content to use the electoral mechanism to gain access to power but are thereafter resistant to restraints on that power. Second, organized civil society can contribute to addressing this deficit by contending for civil liberties and holding political authority accountable. Third, sub-Saharan Africa’s deeply religious society can contribute towards the development of such a civil society. The study engages with secondary data-analysis using survey data from Afrobarometer to determine sub-Saharan Africa’s ‘deficit’ and whether religion can contribute to the development of civil society in the region. [R, abr.]
72.2649 DEBOS, Marielle —
In a large number of countries in Africa, biometric identification technologies have become a key element of voter registration procedures. Based on an in-depth study of biometric voter registration in Chad, a country marked by a long history of political violence, the article explains how the technology has been construed as a “solution” to address a situation labelled as a political crisis. To make sense of the unlikely introduction of biometrics in Chad, two main elements are considered: the socially constituted belief in the potential of biometrics and — paradoxically — the unfulfilled promises and fallibility of that same technology. Combining the literature on biometrics, election technologies, and liberal democracy promotion, the analysis concludes that biometric voter registration is a disciplining technology. In addition to capturing the personal data of individuals, it fosters the framing of democracy in narrow technological and procedural terms. [R]
72.2650 DEGLOW, Annekatrin ; SUNDBERG, Ralph —
What are the effects of internal armed conflict on public perceptions of the police? We explore this research question in the context of Afghanistan and argue that local conflict intensity will have a negative impact on how individuals evaluate the police as a key state institution, as it affects both how effective and how just police conduct is at the local level. We evaluate this proposition by employing a multilevel modeling approach that analyzes the effect of local conflict intensity on perceptions of the police among 31,720 Afghans across a sample of 360 districts (2007-2012). Results indicate that the higher the local conflict intensity, the less likely individuals are to perceive the police as being effective in fighting crime, procedurally just, and trustworthy. [R, abr.]
72.2651 DITTMER, Jason —
Gibraltar has long been understood as a strategic location. In this paper I examine the historical emergence of this seemingly common-sense fact, turning to the rise of relational geography and assemblage thinking to retheorize the idea of ‘strategic locations.’ I argue that the ‘unchanging truth’ of geography as asserted by (neo)classical geopolitical authors is always in fact becoming-otherwise, as shifts in the compositional assemblages (e.g., military-technological systems, logistical networks, domestic politics) can ripple through the place in question, very quickly making strategic places un-strategic again, or vice-versa. People and ideas are central to this emergence, as are place-based materialities such as terrain, technologies, and even micro-climates. [R, abr.]
72.2652 ELDER, Claire —
Somaliland’s endurance as Africa’s longest de facto state has for decades preoccupied scholarship on state formation and democratization. The prevailing democratic success narrative has, however, downplayed the complex internal political dynamics and crises that have characterized Somaliland’s independence since 1991. Relying on a number of robust resources, including 110 interviews and archival work conducted in Somaliland from 2015 until 2021, this article examines at close range Somaliland’s political economy and provides a more cautious assessment of Somaliland’s democratization trajectory. It argues that the political authority of cross-border oligarchic-corporate structures and the securitization of aid created an ‘oligopolistic state’ and ‘peaceocracy’ rather than a national, democratic government. This analysis highlights how de facto states struggle to balance political control and financial hardship generating creative and uneven governance structures. [R, abr.]
72.2653 EMILJANOWICZ, Paul ; IBHAWOH, Bonny —
This article examines how the Jerry Rawlings military government, the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) in Ghana, framed its political agenda using liberal tropes about participatory democracy as a strategy to manufacture legitimacy and mediate political-economic crisis. The People’s Defence Committees (PDCs) and Workers’ Defence Committees (WDCs), created in 1981 and dissolved in 1984, were presented by the PNDC as innovative programmes aimed at nurturing citizen participation representative of the highest form of democracy. However, the introduction of these reforms came at a time when the ruling PNDC faced critical problems of legitimacy, administrative incapability and popular opposition to austerity measures associated with structural adjustment programs (SAPs). We argue that the discourses and practice of the PDCs/WDCs functioned simultaneously to violently consolidate state power, depoliticise alternatives, and manufacture legitimacy to mediate political-economic crisis. [R, abr.]
72.2654 FACAL, Gabriel —
Après avoir présenté les transformations structurelles des groupes terroristes en lien aux caractéristiques socio politiques régionales, l’auteur décrit les évolutions récentes des modes opératoires, puis analyse les réponses gouvernementales à l’oeuvre, les programmes pilotés par les états aux entreprises multilatérales. [R]
72.2655 FAUVEAUD, Gabriel —
L’auteur se demande comment le développement du marché résidentiel à Phnom Penh s’inscrit dans l’évolution plus globale de la géopolitique de l’immobilier en Asie du sud-est et de sa financiarisation. Il étudie d’abord comment ont évolué les pratiques et production immobilière en Asie du sud-est et comment cela s’est traduit dans la capitale cambodgienne. dans une 2nde partie il insiste sur l’importance de l’immobilier dans le développement de la financiarisation, et sur l’importance de l’internationalisation des marchés immobiliers à Phnom Penh dans ces processus. Enfin, il détaille les stratégies d’investissement et partenariales mise en oeuvre par les promoteurs étrangers dans la capitale cambodgienne, en montrant comment ces pratiques redéfinissent certains fondements de la souveraineté étatique. [R]
72.2656 FOSU, Richard —
This article contends that Ghana’s ‘success’ with state-building is because purposive actors have harnessed citizens’ expectations beyond initial ethnonational imaginings into higher civic expectations. It argues that political agency, conceptualized as intentional acts of (elite) political agents in overcoming the problems of living together in a multi-ethnic society, should go ahead of the institutionalist accounts of Ghana’s state-building success. The analysis demonstrates Ghana’s political agency in two ways. First, it is argued, at independence, political leaders focused on the need to build an (objective) Ghanaian state as a superordinate goal. Second, various actors worked to create a political discourse framing the Ghanaian as ‘peace-loving’. [R, abr.]
72.2657 GARCÍA-PONCE, Omar ; ZEITZOFF, Thomas ; WANTCHEKON, Leonard —
Are individuals in violent contexts reluctant to tackle corruption for fear of future violence? Or does violence mobilize them to fight corruption? We investigate these questions looking at the effects of fear and violence stemming from the Mexican Drug War on attitudes toward corruption. We conducted two surveys before the 2012 Mexican presidential election. We find that individuals within this context are not easily scared. Those who received a common fear-inducing manipulation do not report higher levels of fear and are less willing to tolerate corruption. Conversely, we find strong evidence that individuals who have been victims of crime are more likely to report both higher levels of fear and willingness to accept corruption if it lowers violence. [R, abr.]
72.2658 GEL’MAN, Vladimir —
This essay is focused on the analysis of several success stories of statedirected developmental projects and programmes in Russia, which are designed and implemented amid conditions of bad governance. I argue that these success stories do not serve as exceptions to the general rules of bad governance but rather confirm its overall tendencies. The prioritisation of state support for successful projects and programmes is related to conspicuous consumption of material and symbolic benefits by the political leadership against the background of mediocre policy outcomes beyond the ‘pockets of efficiency’ intentionally designed by authorities. The analysis of several success stories related to technological development and the advancement of higher education addresses the questions of why they were short-lived and resulted in diminished returns and/or weak multiplicative effects. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 72.1906]
72.2659 GÓMEZ, Eduardo J. ; KUCHERYAVENKO, Oleg —
One of Russia’s ongoing public health challenges is the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Using qualitative methods focused on elite interviews and document analysis, the article argues that despite widespread recognition of this problem, there is still no strong political commitment to eradicating AIDS. Theoretically, John Kingdon’s “multiple streams” agenda-setting framework is applied and critiqued. It was found that in the absence of a convergence of Kingdon’s multiple streams and an effective policy entrepreneur, state autonomy in policy-making will increase and will not take civil society’s interests into account. [R]
72.2660 GOODHAND, Jonathan, et al. —
In post-war transitions, how do centre-periphery relations change, and what is the role of actors at the margins of the state in negotiating these changes? This article explores these questions by examining Nepal’s post-war transition following the 2006 Comprehensive Peace Agreement focusing on three borderland districts (Saptari, Bardiya and Dolpa). The article analyzes contrasting dynamics in these districts to highlight changes in centre-periphery relations across several areas including state reform, the economy, and transitional justice. The analysis shows how post-war transitions often generate new forms of contentious politics, and how groups at the margins can push back against emerging political settlements to reshape politics at the centre. The ambiguities and contradictions inherent to these processes are explored. [R, abr.]
72.2661 GÖTZ, Roland —
In Russia, stricter measures were taken during the first half of 2020 to stem the spread of the coronavirus than in many other countries. However, in the second half of 2020 and in the spring of 2021, they were largely rescinded. Even so, the pandemic policy appeared to have been a success: the state budget was not badly affected, and domestic production declined to a lesser extent than n other countries, since business activity was not significantly restricted. The country boasts of its favorable position in the global ranking list of infections and deaths reported to the WHO. However, this official data does not reflect reality. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 72.2781]
72.2662 GOUTTEFARDE, Fabien —
La politique publique de renseignements s’appuie sur la loi. Votée par le Parlement, celle-ci doit permettre de répondre aux défis de demain tout en garantissant les libertés individuelles. L’arsenal juridique français combine aussi performance et éthique, avec la volonté d’être efficace est conforme aux exigences démocratiques. [R] [Cf. Abstr. 72.2713]
72.2663 GÖZTEPE, Ece —
Establishing criteria for functioning democracies that are based on the rule of law seems to be becoming more and more difficult in times of autocratization. Still, it is urgently necessary, since their decline does not take place through open abolition of their basic principles, but rather through small steps, through undermining their substance while maintaining the form, or through lethargy of the institutions in exercising their responsibilities. Using Turkey as an example, the article shows how inventive authoritarian governments can be in exploiting and undermining existing democratic structures and in dismantling democratic pluralism. It also becomes apparent how the so-called “will of the people” can be manipulated and used against democracy itself. [R]
72.2664 GUAN Tianru ; HU Tingting —
This study examines the cultural representations of Chinese military-action films which re-interpret China’s non-intervention policy and give China’s foreign engagements rationality and legitimation. It involves two narrative strategies: (1) framing the protection of nationals abroad as the key incentive behind China’s military actions; and (2) emphasizing an unquestioning commitment to sovereignty, to UN authorization, and to the consent of host countries during the intervening process. Then, it points out the propagandistic features of China’s military-action films: framing the outside world as a threatening place in which individuals’ survival depends on the protection of a powerful nation; cultivating collective narcissism and nationalism; and reframing China’s global economic expansion through a “friendship narrative”. [R]
72.2665 GUHA, Ayan —
The electoral decline of the organized Left in West Bengal politics has given rise to intellectual speculation about the increasing possibility of caste politics. This article investigates whether there is any merit in the claim that the electoral decline of the Left Front has paved the way for the rise of caste at the center stage of mainstream electoral politics in West Bengal. It asks whether lower castes have started to mobilize politically in West Bengal in the same way as in many other states. The article argues against the claim of ‘a new politics of caste’ in West Bengal by showing that the electoral decline of the Left Front has not been accompanied by any rise in lower caste representation. The article also [examines] the reasons for the continuing non-politicization of caste in West Bengal. [R, abr.]
72.2666 HABERKORN, Tyrell —
Since the end of the absolute monarchy in Thailand on June 24, 1932, the rulers and the ruled have been locked into struggle, often violent, over what form the polity and the people’s participation in it should take. This essay examines this struggle, the imagination of justice, and the inability to consolidate democracy, or even a stable government, through the lens of the monarchy, which has remained beyond accountability. Violence committed to preserve the monarchy forecloses democracy and fosters a form of what can be called modern absolutist monarchy, when some lives are visibly placed beyond the law’s protection from violence and others are made dispensable by being made subject to repressive enforcement of the law. The emergence in 2020 of a daring challenge to the position of the monarchy beyond the law refracts both the dangers it poses to democracy and the urgency of imagining a new Thai polity. [R] [See Abstr. 72.2155]
72.2667 HABERMAS, Jürgen —
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, German and European unification took place like communicating pipes — and both were plunged into a fundamental crisis by the rise of right-wing populism. But EU policy in the wake of the Corona crisis, says philosopher and the author, has given both processes a second and perhaps last chance, which it is imperative to seize. Only if we combine our national forces for the decisive integration step in Europe will the EU have a future as a global player. [R, trad.]
72.2668 HALLOCK, Jeffrey T. ; CALL, Charles T. —
States have adopted a range of policies to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Some, mainly democracies like New Zealand and South Korea, took quick health measures without curbing citizen rights. Others, especially those led by populists like Bolsonaro and Erdogan, denied the seriousness of the health crisis even as they curbed political and civil rights. El Salvador is virtually unique in its COVID-19 response, combining a strong rhetorical commitment to health measures with clear efforts to undermine democratic controls and rights. President Nayib Bukele adopted an early travel ban and publicly vilified those who broke curfew by sending them and all who tested positive to quarantine centers for 30 days. He derided and defied Constitutional Chamber decisions against such practices, ordered militarized actions, and crowded gang-affiliated prisoners together in humiliating ways that risked exposure to COVID-19. We examine how Bukele’s policies conform to, and seemingly exemplify, Michel Foucault’s theoretical concepts of biopolitics and disciplinary power. However, the Salvadoran case also challenges key features of Foucault’s theory, suggesting the need to modify his Western assumptions about highly institutionalized states. Our analysis suggests that strong leaders can undercut citizen rights and agency, visible at the intersection of biopolitical social theory and democratic backsliding. [R]
72.2669 HAVICE, Elizabeth —
That ocean spaces and resources defy a territorial conception of the nation-state means that the environmental geopolitics that emerge are shaped by the nature of oceans and oceans resources. In this context, allocation is among the most pressing and contentious tasks that interstate bodies managing transboundary resources face as they carve up and distribute access to valuable, shared resources. This paper examines the allocation of highly migratory, and highly valuable, Eastern Atlantic bluefin tuna to contribute to understanding of state power and institutional stability in transboundary resource management. Drawing on observation of an allocation negotiation and historical allocation patterns, the analysis animates and extends critical property scholarship to develop an environmental geopolitics of allocation. [R, abr.]
72.2670 HE Alex Jingwei ; RATIGAN, Kerry ; QIAN Jiwei —
Policy feedback theory posits that pre-existing policies shape citizens’ policy preferences and attitudes. This attitudinal feedback effect may, in turn, either reinforce or undermine current policies. This study seeks to examine whether attitudinal feedback explains why urban Chinese are motivated to contribute to social health insurance, a highly tangible issue for ordinary Chinese. Empirical data were collected in an original survey of urban inhabitants in three provinces between late 2017 and early 2018. Quantitative results reveal clear attitudinal feedback. Resource effects, interpretive effects, and individual learning effects all appear to shape motivations for contributing to social health insurance. [R]
72.2671 HE Qing ; LIU Junyi ; ZHANG Ce —
This study analyzes how exchange-rate risk-exposure and foreign industry competition affect Chinese industries. Using the data from 2005 to 2018, the authors find that industry competition from the US has a statistically significant influence on 33.3 percent of Chinese industries. Unsurprisingly, tradable goods benefit more from depreciation of the Renminbi against the US dollar. Counterintuitively, only 20 percent of the industries supported by the ‘Made in China 2025’ initiative is sensitive to US industrial competition. In addition, on average Chinese industries face international competition from few developed countries, such as the Netherlands; and depreciation of RMB against the Japanese yen is hurting Chinese industries on average. Developing countries, however, exert marginal competition effects on their Chinese counterparts in the sample period. [R]
72.2672 HEDSTRÖM, Jenny ; OLIVIUS, Elisabeth —
Conflict-related sexual violence has been the focus of significant international activism and policy attention. International legal norms and frameworks have evolved to recognize it as a war crime, and a representation of sexual violence as a “weapon of war” is now widely endorsed. This article examines how international norms about conflict-related sexual violence are adopted and utilized in multiple ways in the armed conflict in Kachin state in northern Myanmar. Throughout decades of civil war, international norms on sexual violence have constituted key resources for international advocacy and awareness-raising by local women’s rights activists. Further, activists have drawn on international norms to effect changes in gendered relations of power within their own communities. [R, abr.]
72.2673 HENRY, Nick ; SMITH, Adrian, eds. —
Introduction by the editors. Articles by Costis HADJIMICHALIS, “An uncertain future for the post-Brexit, post-COVID-19 European Union”, pp. 8-13; Ray HUDSON, “Life post-Brexit in the divided realm”, pp. 14-19; George PETRAKOS and Alexandra SOTIRIOU, “Grexit and Brexit: incidents, accidents and wake-up calls on the bumpy road of European (dis)integration”, pp. 20-25; Benito GIORDANO, “Post-Brexit regional economic development policy in the UK? Some enduring lessons from European Union cohesion policy”, pp. 26-33; Giada LAGANA, “Has the European Union empowered the regions? A pre- and post-Brexit preliminary investigation of the United Kingdom”, pp. 34-39; Martin HENEGHAN and Sarah HALL, “The emerging geography of European financial centres: fragmentation in the European Union and concentration in the UK?”, pp. 40-46; Valentina MONALTO, Francesco PANELLA and Pier Luigi SACCO, “What does Brexit mean for UK cultural and creative cities?”, pp. 47-57; Eugenia MARKOVA and Russell KING, “Leave or remain? The post-Brexit (im)mobility intentions of Bulgarians in the United Kingdom”, pp. 58-65; Andrzej CIESLIK and Michael RYAN, “Brexit and the location of Japanese direct investment in European regions”, pp. 66-73; Jordi GINER-MONFORT and Raquel HUETE, “Uncertain sunset lives: British migrants facing Brexit in Spain”, pp. 74-79.
72.2674 HOBBS, William R. ; HOPKINS, Daniel J. —
The US welfare state provides key benefits indirectly. The Affordable Care Act (ACA), for example, uses a package including exchanges, subsidies, and penalties to increase health insurance enrollment. Prior research indicates that indirect policies do not produce feedback effects on public opinion, but the ACA was unusually salient and complex. Can such indirect policies produce feedback effects, and are any such effects heterogeneous? Here, we use several data-sets and inferential strategies to show that groups especially affected by the exchanges and the associated insurance mandate did shift their ACA attitudes, albeit in opposing directions and with more limited effects than descriptive analyses suggest. Those who experienced rising local prices became more opposed to the ACA, while those who stood to benefit from some changes to the individual markets became more favorable. [R]
72.2675 HOFFMANN, Clemens ; MATIN, Kamran —
Introduction by the authors. Articles by Damian GERBER and Shannon BRINCAT, “When Öcalan met Bookchin: the Kurdish Freedom Movement and the political theory of democratic confederalism”, pp. 973-997; Arianne SHAHVISI, “Beyond orientalism: exploring the distinctive feminism of Democratic Confederalism in Rojava”, pp. 998-1022; Bahar ŞIMŞEK and Joost JONGERDEN, “Gender revolution in Rojava: the voices beyond tabloid geopolitics”, pp. 1023-1045; Can CEMGIL, “The geopolitics of Democratic Confederalism in Syria: geopolitics as the interplay of multiple strategies of spatialisation”, pp. 1046-1074; Kamran MATIN, “Democratic Confederalism and societal multiplicity: a sympathetic critique of Abdullah Öcalan’s state theory”, pp. 1075-1094; Cemil BOYRAZ, “Alternative political projects of territoriality and governance during the Syrian war: the Caliphate vs Democratic Confederalism”, pp. 1095-1120.
72.2676 HUBER, Daniela ; WOERTZ, Eckart —
In a context of areas of limited statehood and contested order, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria have been affected by similar diffuse global and more specific regional and local risks over the past two decades. Yet they differ in outcomes. Lebanon has not descended into civil war despite fears that the one raging in Syria might spill over to its territory and Iraq has coped better over the past decade than Syria has — despite having been subject to various forms of conflict since 1980. We analyse this variance by asking to what extent resilience might buffer against violent conflict and governance breakdown. Through a comparative discussion of sources of resilience — social trust, legitimacy and institutional design — we find that limited input and threatened output legitimacy are harmful to resilience, while collective memory and reconciliation, as well as flexibility of institutions are crucial factors of resilience. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 72.2585]
72.2677 ICHIRO, Fujisaki —
In this essay, the author remembers his first visit to Myanmar more than 25 years ago and discusses factors that influence the appointment or election of leaders. In Asia there are many incidences of female relatives who take over leadership positions following the removal or decline of their husband, father, or brother. Next, focusing on the opposition to the military regime in Myanmar, the author analyzes conditions for public protest movements to be successful. One condition is that the cause is worthy and the leader inspires the people. The other condition is that the pressure of international public opinion becomes so great that the regime is forced to give in. The essay concludes with suggested action by the international community for the situation in Myanmar to return to normal. [R] [First article of a thematic issue on “Japan-US relations: review and outlook”. See also Abstr. 72.1852, 1857, 1858, 2507, 2539, 2551, 2588]
72.2678 IGLESIA BIGUIRISTI, Fernando de la —
Donald Trump’s economic legacy, prior to Covid-19, was in some ways excellent: he left the country with a 3.5% unemployment rate, equities at all-time highs, and labor force participation at 63%. However, when other factors are considered — budget deficit, trade deficit, national debt, and the state of the manufacturing sector — the economy has worsened. Trump’s America First has expressed an uncooperative ideology, whereby the US has pursued its own self-interest with respect to trade, military policy, climate change, and nuclear policy. Joe Biden’s agenda represents an alternative, one that is closer to the goals of sustainability and inclusive development. It is time to give Biden his first 100 days in office, and then evaluate the results. [R, trad.]
72.2679 ISSAEV, Leonid ; ZAKHAROV, Andrey —
It is appropriate to emphasize that the absence in Libya of any ideological component potentially facilitates the task of federal construction. In Libya, unlike some other Arab countries affected by the Arab Spring, the antagonism of ideological or religious attitudes does not appear at all in the bargaining process that usually precedes the formation of a federation. This will reduce the distribution of competencies and powers to technicalities. [R]
72.2680 ISTREFI, Remzije ; HAJRULLAHU, Arben —
This article explores public administration reform in Kosovo. Given that the main political discourse in the country after the 2008 Declaration of Independence has involved European integration, reform is directed at achieving EU benchmarks and its governance values. The aim of this paper is threefold: to analyze how the atypical transition in Kosovo affects administrative and governance reforms, to examine the Europeanization process and efforts to harmonize legislation with the EU’s acquis communautaire as the main driving force towards a successful transition, and to reiterate the relevance and function of the education system in the Europeanization process. The article asks and debates: can the Europeanization process be accomplished successfully when the educational system, which is limited in scale, does not manage to generate a sufficient number of agents of Europeanization? [R]
72.2681 JACOBS, Nicholas —
This article considers the ways in which partisanship structured public attitudes about the US’s multiple governments as each tried to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 during the spring and summer of 2020. The evidence shows that Democrats and Republicans both made distinctions among their local, state, and federal governments, assigning them different functional responsibilities. Yet, members of the two parties did not agree on that division of intergovernmental responsibility. Rather, across a variety of issues, polarized partisan identities structured beliefs about the operation and efficacy of the American federal system’s ability to contend with the spread of coronavirus. Party leaders proved especially capable of shifting public attitudes on questions of federal versus state authority through their shifting rhetoric and strategic framing. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 72.2695]
72.2682 JARAMILLO RUIZ, Felipe ; MONROY, María Catalina —
This study examines the “two-level games” — that is, the interaction between domestic politics and foreign policy — in the gendering of the peace agreement between the Colombian government and the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC). It analyzes the domestic pressures that drove the formulation and incorporation of a gender perspective in the negotiations with the FARC, and how this gender dimension was incorporated in the Colombian government’s foreign policy strategy. The goal is to understand the entanglement of domestic and international preferences in the gendering of the peace agreement. By doing so, this article contributes to feminist literature on foreign policy and peacebuilding. [R, abr.]
72.2683 JAYARAM, Dhanasree —
Climate change is increasingly shaping security narratives, including military strategy. While considering climate change a security issue, the military’s role in this discourse and praxis becomes critical as a security actor. However, the interrelationships between climate change, security and the military are conceived and approached by different states diversely. Within different states, this triangular relationship is guided by processes with varied practical/policy implications. While ‘securitization’ has generally been used to explain climate security, other processes such as ‘climatization’ have assumed significance, wherein security practices are climatized. The Indian military too has been engaging with security implications of climate change, but by using approaches distinct from Western states, which have been the usual focus in such analyses. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 72.2451]
72.2684 JUAN, Alexander de ; HAASS, Felix ; PIERSKALLA, Jan —
Dictators depend on a committed bureaucracy to implement their policy preferences. But how do they induce loyalty and effort within their civil service? The authors study indoctrination through forced military service as a cost-effective strategy for achieving this goal. Conscription allows the regime to expose recruits, including future civil servants, to intense “political training” in a controlled environment, which should improve system engagement. To test this hypothesis, the authors analyze archival data on over 370,000 cadres from the former German Democratic Republic. Exploiting the introduction of mandatory service in the GDR in 1962 for causal identification, they find a positive effect of conscription on bureaucrats’ system engagement. Additional analyses indicate that this effect likely did not result from deep norm internalization. [R, abr.]
72.2685 KAARIYE, Barkhad M. —
Though scholars have different perspectives on the nexus between stateformation and democracy, this article uses Somaliland as a case. Somaliland, a former British Protectorate and now de facto state in the Horn of Africa, has adopted a hybrid system of governance — traditional, religious, and modern democratic systems of governance. The democratization process in Somaliland started decades back. As per the literature reviewed, most of the researchers have studied the peace-building process and the state-formation processes separately. They did not specifically investigate the nexus between democracy and state formation in Somaliland. To fill that gap, this article examines the experiences of Somaliland’s democratization process and its impact on state formation. It clarifies how a clanbased system of governance turned into a democratic multiparty system. [R, abr.]
72.2686 KAURA, Vinay —
India and China are two powers in Asia, having common borders but different sense of entitlements and vulnerabilities. China’s global profile has become much stronger than India’s. How India and China deal with each other will determine peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. The challenge for New Delhi is to factor its national self-interest and security into dealings with a rising China. India is threatened by Chinese assertiveness, given its outstanding boundary disputes with China, Belt and Road Initiative, uncritical Chinese support for Pakistan and China’s increasing penetration into the Indian Ocean region. However, current Indian stance toward China is characterized by hedging, which has severe limitations dues to many structural constraints. The article argues that India should unhesitatingly increase its strategic engagement with America, Japan and Australia to strengthen the Quadrilateral. [R, abr.]
72.2687 KOKKONEN, Andrej, et al. —
Are large families a liability or an asset for an autocratic ruler? We show that in medieval and early modern Europe, relatives protected monarchs from challenges from their elite groups, thus reducing their risk of being deposed. Women reduced the risk of both depositions from outside and from within the family, whereas men primarily reduced the risk of outside depositions (as well as the risk of civil wars breaking out). This is demonstrated in a statistical analysis of 27 European monarchies spanning the time period 1000-1799, which enlists new data on royal offspring, siblings, and paternal uncles and aunts. These findings not only elucidate power dynamics in the medieval and early modern world of dynastic politics but also have implications for present-day authoritarian states where institutions are weak and personal relationships retain their importance. [R]
72.2688 KONISKY, David M. ; NOLETTE, Paul —
We review notable developments in US politics and policy during the last year, with an emphasis on their intersections with and consequences for federalism. We focus in particular on the 2020 elections and the COVID pandemic, along with policy developments in the areas of criminal justice and police reform, health care, environment, immigration, and equality and religious liberty. The events of the past year, especially those related to the pandemic and the fallout of the presidential election, led to a resurgence of public interest in federalism and a focus on the importance of government decision-making of state and local governments. Events during the last year have not only reinforced partisan polarization but have also deepened the existing divide of Americans along partisan lines and perhaps in new ways. [R, abr.] [Introduction to a thematic issue on “The state of America, federalism, 2020-2021”. See Abstr. 72.1708, 1903, 2080, 2701, 2785]
72.2689 KUMAR, Rajiv —
South Korea had the largest number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 after China by February 2020. This situation changed dramatically in less than two months as it effectively managed the pandemic without imposing a nationwide lockdown. Furthermore, Korean pharmaceutical companies quickly manufactured sufficient test-kits and other COVID-19 essential medical devices to meet domestic demand and exported them to more than one hundred countries, including developed countries, amid global shortages. What explains South Korea’s success story? Drawing on the developmental state concept, I argue that South Korea’s success story can be attributed to (1) the early creation of a health official-led pilot agency; (2) the government’s intervention for rapid production and export of medical equipment; (3) the distinct state-society relations. Contrary to the declinist literature, this study reveals that the Korean state’s institutional capacity has not declined. [R, abr.]
72.2690 KURUNMÄKI, Jussi ; MARJANEN, Jani —
The creation of Finland as a grand duchy within the Russian Empire in 1809 opened up the question of what Finland was, in fact. Comparing Finland synchronously with other countries and diachronically with itself before and after its elevation into a grand duchy gained temporal features in which its level of development was assessed. Such temporal comparisons during the first half of the 19th century were used to shape Finland as a political unit, as they facilitated assessment of which parts of society needed to improve in order to make the country comparable with imagined or real others. Given that the Diet (the Estate Assembly) was not convened between 1809 and 1863, these comparative notions largely dealt with questions of political constitution and state institutions. The comparative mindset of the Finnish actors also developed in the process of conducting temporal comparisons. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 72.2763]
72.2691 KWARKYE, Thompson Gyedu —
The plural legal system where government structures exist side by side with customary structures in many countries south of the Sahara provides an opportunity to explore relationships, partnerships, and interactions among them. With ethnographic evidence from Kpandai District in Northern Ghana, this article explores customary structures not only as cultural and religious leaders with authority embedded in tradition but also as major stakeholders in local governance. The article argues that historical factors, coupled with limited government presence at the local levels, have positioned customary structures as an accessible channel to the people in the district. Customary structures have forged informal relationships and partnerships with government structures to bring the government closer to the people and to access basic services. [R, abr.]
72.2692 LÄHTEENMÄKI, Liisa ; ALVESALO, Anne —
Since the 1980s, debates on security have expanded and security has become a catchphrase in virtually every area of life. In Finland, the government elected in 2003 began its four-year period in power by launching a special Internal Security Program (ISP) that stressed the threat of social exclusion. Altogether four ISPs have been launched in Finland since 2004. They all repeat the menace of social exclusion. We examine how these speech acts materialized on the level of legislation. Our study suggests that in Finland, the securitization of exclusion was only accepted in the media. Overall it ‘failed’, as on the level of law, internal security and exclusion were not, in the main, connected when security measures were justified. [R, abr.]
72.2693 LARSSON, Oscar L. —
Efforts to strategically implement governance reforms have become a common way in which to deal with complex social and political issues. The analysis presented addresses recent governance reforms in Malmö, Sweden, that are intended to help resolve complex problems of urban segregation and social inequality. The article identifies important difficulties that have been encountered in promoting increased participation in spite of the great awareness on the part of local actors of the problems facing the community. The study brings forth evidence that there are good reasons for reassessing the inclusive ethos of network governance and for a critical investigation of precisely who gains access to political processes when network governance arrangements are implemented from above. [R]
72.2694 LAWRENCE, Benjamin —
Although control over Cambodia’s legal system has long been central to the perpetuation of the political hegemony of the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), the weaponization of law in Cambodia has intensified in recent years. A feature of this development has been an increased tendency to borrow directly from other illiberal or autocratic jurisdictions. For example, Thailand was explicitly cited as the inspiration for the 2017 amendments to the Law on Political Parties, which precipitated the dissolution of the opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party that same year. By analyzing legal change and institutional innovation in Cambodia from a comparative perspective, this article demonstrates how Cambodia’s hegemonic turn has been reflected in the character of legal changes the CPP has pursued, as well as in the jurisdictions from which it appears to have drawn inspiration. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 72.2169]
72.2695 LECOURS, André, et al. —
The Covid-19 pandemic produced more significant immediate intergovernmental conflict in the US than in Australia and Canada. This article considers three variables for this cross-national divergence: presidentialism versus parliamentarism; vertical party integration; and strength of intergovernmental arrangements. The US presidential system provided an opportunity for a populist outsider skeptical of experts to win the presidency and pursue a personalized style that favored intergovernmental conflict in times of crisis. Then, the intergovernmental conflict-inducing effect of the Trump presidency during the pandemic was compounded by the vertical integration of political parties, which provided incentives for the President to criticize Democratic governors and vice-versa. Third, the virtual absence of any structure for intergovernmental relations in the US meant that, American states struggled to get the federal government’s attention and publicly deplored its lack of leadership. [R, abr.] [First article of a thematic issue on “Federalism and the coronavirus pandemic”. See also Abstr. 72.2621, 2623, 2641, 2681, 2718, 2753, 2771]
72.2696 LEIB, Julia ; RUPPEL, Samantha —
This article investigates local perceptions of international peacebuilding in Sierra Leone and Liberia and explains the need for an inclusive framework addressing peace and justice at the same time. These neighbouring countries in West Africa not only share the burden of an intertwined conflict history but have also been described as prototypes for successful peacebuilding. However, both cases show striking differences with regard to the relative importance given to security and justice during the peace process and within the selected peacebuilding approaches. In Liberia, the peacebuilding framework was clearly sequenced, favouring security over justice. In Sierra Leone, it included a comprehensive TJ component, which was implemented alongside security-centred initiatives. In order to compare these two cases and to elaborate on the challenges of establishing both peace and justice in post-conflict settings with a more people-centred focus, we conducted expert interviews with (inter)national peacebuilding actors and opinion surveys, asking how the civilian populations themselves perceive the peace process and the effectiveness of international peacebuilding. [R, abr.]
72.2697 LEIB, Julia ; RUPPEL, Samantha —
This article investigates local perceptions of international peacebuilding in Sierra Leone and Liberia and explains the need for an inclusive framework addressing peace and justice at the same time. These neighbouring countries in West Africa not only share the burden of an intertwined conflict history but have also been described as prototypes for successful peacebuilding. However, both cases show striking differences with regard to the relative importance given to security and justice during the peace process and within the selected peacebuilding approaches. In order to compare these two cases and to elaborate on the challenges of establishing both peace and justice in post-conflict settings with a more people-centred focus, we conducted expert interviews with (inter)national peacebuilding actors and opinion surveys, asking how the civilian populations themselves perceive the peace process and the effectiveness of international peacebuilding. [R, abr.]
72.2698 LELE, Gabriel —
This research extends the centralization-decentralization dichotomy in the crisis decision-making literature by offering an alternative lens of concurrency. It argues that centralization and decentralization can be concurrently employed to respond effectively to a crisis that overlaps administrative jurisdiction and requires strong coordination. However, the merits of concurrency must not be overstated as it can also lead to institutional complexity during a crisis if not carefully crafted. Examining qualitatively the case of Indonesia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, this research finds that concurrency has raised national-subnational tension which compromised effective response in the initial period of the crisis. The tension was due to the long delay on the part of the national government in the initial period of the crisis, leading subnational governments to respond conflictingly. [R, abr.]
72.2699 LEWIS, Jacob S. —
Does corruption increase general and anti-government protest? Scholarship has produced seemingly incompatible results, with some research demonstrating a strong connection between corruption and the onset of contentious politics and other research finding that heightened perceptions of corruption decrease activism. This article addresses this puzzle by examining how different types of corruption condition diverging contentious outcomes. Focusing on two highly salient forms of corruption in the African context — elite corruption and police corruption — this article argues that the different consequences, salience, and costs associated with these two forms help to condition whether citizens rise up or stay home. This argument is tested via two methods. First, it draws from a survey experiment conducted in five Nigerian states in 2017. The survey experiment tests whether exposure to different types of corruption affects willingness to join in protests. Second, it draws from statistical analysis of geo-located perceptions of corruption and protest across Africa, incorporating checks for both collinearity and endogeneity into the model. [R, abr.]
72.2700 LLUCH, Jaime —
The US is both a multinational and a multiethnic state. Puerto Rico has been a peripheral part of the US since 1898, and its inclusion in the outward edges of the US state apparatus turns the US into a multinational democracy, exhibiting a form of peripheral multinationalism. In recent years, the rise of Trumpism and the transformation of the Republican Party have energized those who envision an ethnonationalist view of US national identity: a political momentum is strengthening, sustaining a nativist, white majority nation reaction that would revive ancestral racial and ethnic concepts of US national identity. This of course is not a favorable development for the accommodation and the fair treatment of Puerto Rico within the US federation and has multiple ramifications. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 72.2153]
72.2701 LÓPEZ-SANTANA, Mariely ; ROCCO, Philip —
This article reviews the pandemic’s fiscal effects on subnational governments, as well as the federal government’s response. By comparing the response to the COVID-19 crisis during the Trump administration with the response to the Great Recession during the Obama administration, we show that while the speed and magnitude of federal aid was unprecedented in 2020, it was nevertheless conditional in nature and beset by familiar political and institutional obstacles. Despite major fiscal pressures, state revenues rebounded earlier than expected, in part due to the relaxation of public health measures and the collection of taxes from online transactions; yet, state resources remained strained throughout the year. Thus, despite unprecedented levels of federal support for state and local governments, the legacies of “fend for yourself” federalism live on. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 72.2688]
72.2702 LUCHTERHANDT, Otto —
At the end of April 2021, the Moscow state prosecution petitioned for Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation and its regional offices to be officially declared “extremist organizations” and for them to be prohibited. The petition is based on the anti-extremism law of 2002. The vague concept of extremism makes it easier to abuse the law. It serves as a basis for preventing citizens from exerting their human and civic rights. The measures taken against Navalny’s organizations are part of the intensified suppression of the opposition. At the end of May, a new law was passed. Now, anyone can have their passive right to vote withdrawn if they have been declared an “extremist” in the past. The ultimate aim here is the suppression of society. Putin’s presidential regime is on the threshold of becoming a dictatorship. [R] [See Abstr. 72.2781]
72.2703 MANN, Yossi —
Oil plays an important role in shaping the political system in the Middle East. The Black Gold’s important role in stabilizing the government, the economy and the social system in the MENA region and especially in significant oil exporting countries such as the Arab Gulf States. In recent years there have been changes in the global oil market that enforced a rediscussion regarding the ability of the oil market to continue to be an important factor in creating stability in the oil countries. The following article examines the extent to which oil has affected the stability of the oil countries mainly in the Arab Gulf and most of all to try and assess the significance of oil’s decline in status as a major component that drives the economy in countries across the region. [R]
72.2704 MARTUS, Ellie —
This article examines Russian environmental politics under Putin. It explores the extent to which Putin participates in the environmental policymaking process, concentrating on his role in agenda-setting and policy development. It also investigates the way that environmental issues are framed, and their function within the political system. The findings indicate that Putin plays a key role in shaping the policy agenda but is not involved in the day-to-day policymaking. In contemporary Russia, the environment has become a tool, and on occasions, a weapon, used by Putin to serve a broader agenda. The environment represents a source of regime stability and legitimacy, important for projecting state power to a domestic and international audience, managing demands from the population, and as a way of controlling civil society. [R, abr.]
72.2705 MASON, Olivia —
The past 10-15 years has seen the growth of walking groups taking walkers from Amman to rural parts of Jordan at weekends and the development of the Jordan Trail. Through the narration and analysis of everyday accounts of walking, this paper explores political geographies of identity, movement, and territory in Jordan. Drawing on 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork, I suggest that at the heart of a growth of walking for leisure in Jordan are important political questions. How is walking conditioned by situated cultural politics? How can walking unearth intimate and embodied accounts of territory in Jordan? This paper concludes that walking is political because it shapes and is shaped by situated political geographies and because it enables embodied and intimate accounts of territory to emerge. [R, abr.]
72.2706 MASSEY, Rachel —
Conflict-related sexual violence has become an increasingly visible issue for feminists as well as various international actors. One of the ways in which global policymakers have tried to tackle this violence is through addressing the violent masculinity of security sector forces. While such efforts have their roots in feminist analyses of militarized masculinity, this article seeks to contribute to the critical discourse on gender-sensitive security sector reform (GSSR). I ask what gendered and racialized power relations are reproduced through effort to educate male security agents about the wrongs of sexual violence. Second, I offer a critique of how GSSR normalizes military solutions to addressing sexual violence and strengthens the global standing of military actors. Finally, I bring these themes together in an analysis of the US-led military training mission Operation Olympic Chase in the Democratic Republic of Congo. [R, abr.]
72.2707 MATEJCEK, Astrid ; VERNE, Julia —
In line with global restoration efforts, the African Wildlife Foundation has been given the task of implementing the Restoration Opportunity Assessment Methodology (ROAM), recently developed by IUCN and the World Resources Institute to foster the restoration of wildlife corridors in the area. By focusing on specific situations and encounters, especially regarding the participatory aspects of the project, we illustrate how global policy aspirations are appropriated, partly contested and partly played along with, before finally turning into something of an illusion. This article not only questions the more optimistic claims made for ‘conservation-as-development’, it also argues that a better understanding of the plurality of local aspirations and the ways in which they interact with the project’s goals is needed if global policy aspirations are to be realized more successfully. [R, abr.]
72.2708 MAULIDA, Anisha ; PRIMANDARI, Fadhilah F. —
The recent Indonesia’s re-election in the UNHRC begs the question of Indonesia’s commitment to the protection of human rights, as a critique of the country’s handling of human rights issues has not ceased since the country’s departure from authoritarianism. The article takes a look at Indonesia’s trajectory in the protection and advancement of human rights. The author s of the article begin by reviewing Indonesia’s international achievements and progress that advanced the country’s campaigns for its seat in the UNHRC and proceed to highlight the country’s weak protection of human rights at home. The article is a critique of Indonesia’s seemingly bleak commitment to human rights and urges the Indonesian government to make its handling of human rights issues at home congruent wit the vision the country presents to the international community. [R]
72.2709 McKEOWN, Joshua S. —
China’s post-1978 modernization plans include an internationally competitive higher education system. Central to this effort are researchers and professors capable of advancing China’s technological capabilities and educating its ambitious, globally-minded youth. National funding for scholars going abroad was designed to infuse the nation with sophisticated knowledge and to improve university quality. Research on 131 Chinese scholars who spent significant time abroad, mostly in the US, shows little evidence that these funded experiences abroad were used deliberately to improve Chinese universities. Results show that policies supporting scholarly exchange have not produced successful internationalization efforts on Chinese campuses. Scholars in STEM fields and those receiving national funding indicated significantly higher research focus and productivity, however did not indicate putting it to use at their home institutions. [R]
72.2710 MEERNIK, James ; GAVIRIA HENAO, Juan ; BARON-MENDOZA, Laura —
In this paper, we focus on the completion of a government reintegration program in Colombia for former non-state armed actors, such as rebel forces and militias, in the post-conflict period. As the members of these groups lay down their arms and return to a peaceful existence, the effectiveness of their transition to ‘normal’ lives can be critical in preventing the re-emergence of conflict and violence. Former combatants face numerous challenges and hardships such as criminal violence, political violence, economic hardship that, if not properly addressed, may increase the likelihood that some of them become involved in criminal work, political violence, or other activities that undermine peace. We develop a theory of the impact of violence and insecurity challenges facing former, non-state armed actors (henceforth, ANSAs). We suggest that the numerous challenges involved in leading a normal life under conditions of abnormal security will likely make successful completion of government reintegration programs more difficult for ANSAs. [R, abr.]
72.2711 MESSENGER, David A. —
The bombardment of civilians from the air was a regular feature of the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939. It is estimated some 15,000 Spaniards died as a result of air bombings during the Civil War, most civilians, and 11,000 were victims of bombing from the Francoist side that rebelled against the Republican government, supported by German and Italian aviation that joined the rebellion against the Republic. In Catalonia alone, some 1062 municipalities experienced aerial bombardments by the Francoist side of the civil war. In cities across Spain, municipal and regional authorities developed detailed plans for civilian defense in response to these air campaigns. In Barcelona, the municipality created the Junta Local de Defensa Passiva de Barcelona, to build bomb shelters, warn the public of bombings, and educate them on how to protect themselves against aerial bombardment. [R, abr.]
72.2712 MILLETT, Peter —
This article provides an overview of the internal and external political and economic problems facing the Middle-Eastern Kingdom of Jordan in the light of the so-called ‘attempted coup’ of Prince Hamzeh which took place at the beginning of April 2021. It then discusses a number of key factors which may affect Jordan’s future prospects. [R]
72.2713 MOINET, Nicolas —
La souveraineté nationale passe par le champ économique, d’où l’importance croissante du renseignement dans ce domaine trop longtemps négligé en France. Il est urgent de renforcer le dispositif dans une approche privée-publique plus efficace pour rester compétitif. [R] [Partie d’une série d’articles intitulée “Renseigner au XXIe siècle: hier ne meurt jamais?”. Cf. Abstr. 72.2392, 2662, 2773]
72.2714 MOSTOFA, Shafi ; SUBEDI, D. B. —
We examine the changing nature of an authoritarian regime, which is emerging from the social and political conditions shaped by the unconsolidated democracy in Bangladesh. Drawing on desk-based research combined with interviews from the field, we argue that the current form of the authoritarian regime in Bangladesh represents the characteristics of competitive authoritarianism. We find that authoritarianism in Bangladesh combines “election manipulation” with three additional social and political mechanisms: “marginalization of political oppositions” leading to the oppositional void, “institutionalization of authoritarian policies,” and “co-option of religious leaders.” By adding these new mechanisms of authoritarian politics and tracing the links between politics and religion, we aim to expand the theory of competitive authoritarianism and unpack the puzzle of democratic consolidation in Bangladesh. [R]
72.2715 MUKOSO, Camille —
The article shows how war in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo is inseparable from the functioning of Congolese sociopolitical structures, linking the nefarious consequences of regional wars with the 1994 Rwandan genocide. While pointing the finger at internal actors and external forces in a contest that is likely to last a long time, the value of humanitarian aid and the UN mission for the Stability of the Congo (MONUSCO) is examined. In order to get Congo out of the impasse, an inclusive dialogue for peace, like that of the sovereign national conference in 1990-92, is proposed. [R, trad.]
72.2716 MÜLLER-MAHN, Detlef ; MKUTU, Kennedy ; KIOKO, Eric —
Taking recent examples from Kenya, the paper considers the symbolic role infrastructure megaprojects play in future-oriented development politics as objects of imagination, vision, and hope. We explain the outcomes of megaprojects by focusing on the ‘politics of aspiration’, which unfold at the intersection between different actors and scales. The paper gives an overview of large infrastructure projects in Kenya and places them in the context of the country´s national development agenda ‘Vision 2030′. It identifies the relevant actors and investigates how controversial aspirations, interests and foreign influences play out on the ground. The paper concludes by describing megaproject development as future-making, driven by the mobilizing power of the ‘politics of aspiration’. [R, abr.]
72.2717 MURDAY, Linganaden ; REDDI, Sadasivam Jaganada ; SOOKRAJOWA, Sheetal Sheena —
Mauritius is usually portrayed as one of the most democratic countries in the world and a symbol of good governance. In the COVID-19 context, it is also cited as one of the very few countries that has successfully halted local transmission of the virus. [However], there are very real governance issues and undemocratic tendencies that are experienced by its people but rarely captured by outsiders. Using documentary analysis, this article draws from the COVID-19 context to provide a different view of governance in Mauritius. It shows that Mauritius has long-standing governance issues and points out that the government that came to power in 2014 has had a pronounced autocratic tendency that has exacerbated these governance issues. However, no major protest occurred because it was able to balance public outcry with populist measures. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 72.2181]
72.2718 MURPHY, Julian R. ; ARBAN, Erika —
This article provides a comprehensive evaluation of the federalism-implicated aspects of Australia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The article’s research question is: to what extent was Australia’s federal structure responsible for the relative successes and failures of the national pandemic response? The method chosen to answer this question is largely theoretical, supplemented by aspects of institutional and policy analysis. That is to say, the inquiry identifies what were widely considered to be important policies, and considers the extent to which the formulation and implementation of those policies was furthered or hindered by the institutions and relations forming Australia’s federal structure. Five policy areas are considered, namely: the National Cabinet; social distancing and related policies; international travel and quarantine; interstate travel; and cities and local government. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 72.2695]
72.2719 NAKANO, Ryoko —
This study focuses on the policy response of the Abe government (2012-present) to UNESCO’s inscription of the ‘Documents of Nanjing Massacre’ to argue that the historical revisionists’ perspective is central to the thinking of Japan’s UNESCO diplomacy. The UNESCO’s inscription heightened a sense of shame from the viewpoint of Japanese historical revisionists, leading the Japanese government to the unprecedented step of using its economic power to reform UNESCO’s Memory of the World programmed and to prevent further inscription of historical documents that go against the view of the government. Because UNESCO constitutes the existing biographical narrative of Japan as a peace-loving, law-abiding country, the Japanese government remains careful to maintain a good-will posture to UNESCO. This article highlights the case of Japan to illustrate the importance of memory and identity change. [R, abr.]
72.2720 NARLIKAR, Amrita ; SOTTILOTTA, Cecilia Emma —
Governments across Western Europe have adopted significantly different policy responses to the existential challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. We propose that a key to understanding the differences in policy responses may lie in narratives. Focusing on fifteen countries in western Europe, as well as two contrasting case studies on Sweden and Greece, we investigate the relationship between the narratives that governments developed on the threats generated by COVID-19, and the (early) stringency of their respective policy responses that followed. Our analysis suggests that there is an inverse relationship between the emphasis on the economic cost of the pandemic and on framing the disease as affecting ‘only’ certain sub-groups severely in government narratives, and the tendency to introduce early and stringent restrictions. [R] [See Abstr. 72.1677]
72.2721 NAUTA, Wiebe ; HAN Jaekwang ; KIM Taekyoon —
Korea is particularly recognized for being an inspiring global actor, as the first country to evolve from recipient to donor, with a predominant emphasis on its admirable economic trajectory. Yet, as an official development assistance (ODA) actor, the long and arduous struggles for democracy rarely feature in its development policies, programs and practices. These struggles, exemplified by the role of civil society to free Korea of its authoritarian rule and also more recent examples, such as the candlelight protests resisting the corruption of the Park Geun-hye administration, deserve more consideration in its ODA interventions. When president Moon Jae-in — with [his] roots in progressive society – was elected in 2017, a period of closer collaboration between the government and progressive civil society commenced again. [R, abr.]
72.2722 NAYLOR, Francis ; O’LOUGHLIN, John —
Respondents often answer ‘don’t know’ to sensitive survey questions to avoid revealing their true opinions, especially in post-conflict societies, thus requiring difficult decisions for analyzing affected survey data. Using the same five sensitive questions in ten surveys from conflict-affected societies in the former Soviet Union in the period 2005-2014, methods for coping with missing data resulting from ‘don’t know’ responses are presented. Many commonly applied missing data treatments are shown to be incompatible with the missing data mechanism for politically sensitive questions, while also significantly affecting statistical results and conclusions. Ultimately, knowledge of local context is paramount for choosing proper missing data treatments. [R]
72.2723 NEEP, Daniel —
Scholars of Middle East politics have been reluctant to explore how the long nineteenth century has shaped the region’s political development. The reason for this neglect, I argue, is a common understanding of Ottoman decline and failed modernization, which suggests that the story of modern politics in the Middle East commences with colonial partition after the First World War. But what if political scientists are getting the story wrong? In this article, I argue that our background assumptions about the political development of the Middle East reflect outdated understandings that historians themselves have long left behind. Drawing on this revisionist Ottoman historiography, I show that key dynamics in Middle East politics today — such as state-building and sectarian identities — originate not in the era ushered in by the Sykes-Picot Accord, but in the transformations of the long nineteenth century. [R, abr.]
72.2724 NIAZ, Ilhan —
This article examines Pakistan’s search for a model of political economy capable of meeting the national objectives of industrialization and accumulation of sufficient military power to deter India. It contends that the period of promise (1950s and 1960s) was made possible through heavy subsidies drawn from East Pakistan and the West. The resultant hubris blinded Pakistan’s rulers to growing discontent in the eastern wing of the country while encouraging them to take serious strategic risks against India. The unravelling of this strategy plunged Pakistan into a permanent crisis of its national political economy characterized by underdevelopment, internal and external fiscal imbalances, and a failure to mobilize national resources on a scale commensurate with its national goals. [R, abr.]
72.2725 NIETO, Adriana P. ; MAKLEY, Matthew S. —
Over 40 million people in the US Southwest depend on water from the Colorado River. Seven States, Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming, have rights to the river. For millions of years, it has carved its way from high in the western Rocky Mountains south and west, skirting the borders of California, Nevada, and Arizona before giving its water to a delta in Mexico. It rarely makes it to the Gulf of California, its original terminus. The authors recommend that we turn to the past and include the perspectives of diverse communities, who have ties to the region and its waters going back centuries to avoid a water shortage in the future. [R, abr.]
72.2726 NJOKU, Emeka Thaddues ; DERY, Isaac —
While there is a growing interest in conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) against men, conceptual understanding and empirical knowledge are still inadequate. The notion of spiritual security is introduced in this article as an explanatory variable in CRSV, using survivors’ discursive views of sexual violence victimizations in Nigeria’s north-eastern region. The CRSV of males, it is argued, may also be understood as a ritual or spiritual activity carried out for bodily protection, financial prosperity, or socio-political ascendency. The survivors’ impressions of CRSV’s spiritual undertones are not unrelated to the heteronormative and collectively homophobic culture in their society, in which violent same-sex relations are considered so perverse and meaningful only if they are conceived as ‘evil or devilish practices’. [R, abr.]
72.2727 NORÉN-NILSSON, Astrid —
In parallel with the crackdown on independent civil society, Cambodia’s shift to hegemonic authoritarianism has been accompanied by the increased prominence of youth-focused mass organizations. These organizations are formally NGOs but have close links with the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP). Engaging with recent literature on how expanding political participation may serve to constrain contestation, this article analyzes how these youth initiatives contribute to authoritarian resilience and innovation in Cambodia. The article examines the different opportunities that these organizations offer different segments of the Cambodian population, and the benefits that the governing elite accrue from their participation. Processes of elite formation, including to what extent these organizations enable elite reproduction versus the injection of new blood into the elite, are evaluated. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 72.2169]
72.2728 OKOLIE-OSEMENE, James —
This paper examined Nigeria’s security governance dilemmas during the lockdown enforcement aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19 and highlighted the key lessons from the government’s approach to security governance during the period. Data are gathered through in-depth interviews, media reports and secondary sources. The qualitative paper combined non-killing theory and social contract theory. There were looting of shops, robbery, and killing by security forces, in Lagos, Warri, Aba, Umuahia and other cities during the lockdown owing to the problem of footprint/access. The findings revealed that, despite surveillance efforts, security governance was undermined by the activities of idle youths, nonstate armed groups, and unprofessionalism of security forces. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 72.2181]
72.2729 OLIINYK, Anna ; KUZIO, Taras —
This article provides a comprehensive analysis of Ukraine’s adoption of four decommunisation laws in April 2015, their implementation and the controversy they generated. The first section analyses changes in Ukrainian memory politics prior to 2014. In 2006, the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance was established but given meagre resources by President Viktor Yushchenko; pro-Russian political forces were opposed to both the Holodomor recognised as a genocide and official recognition of the Ukrainian resistance movement. The second section provides an analysis of Ukraine’s decommunisation process which was made possible by: the Euromaidan Revolution; collapse of pro-Russian political forces; election of a large pro-European parliamentary coalition; and the impact of Russian military aggression on Ukrainian attitudes to Russia and Ukrainian national identity. [R, abr.]
72.2730 ONANUGA, Abayomi T. ; ODUSANYA, Ibrahim A. ; ADEKUNLE, Ibrahim A. —
African countries amidst low credit security, low-income level and sub-optimal growth outcomes are facing many challenges on the incidence of terrorism and how to combat it. The increased terrorist incident in Africa has structural implications for a continent that has relied heavily on foreign inflow to jump-start and augment her developmental process. This paper leaned empirical credence to the terrorism-financial flow literature by estimating cross-country data on indices of terrorism and financial flows. We employed the Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimation procedure and found the long-run negative relationship among the increase in the number of terror incidents foreign direct investment, remittances inflow and portfolio investment. Short-run estimates show that military expenditure is positive and statistically significant for all indices of financial flow (foreign direct investment, remittances, official development assistance and portfolio investment) in Africa. [R, abr.]
72.2731 ÖNEY, Berna —
The popular movements in 2011 led to many regime changes that resulted in amended or new constitutions in the Middle East and North Africa region. The constitutional debates concentrated mainly on the functions of the constitutions in authoritarian regimes, constitution-making processes, and the role of Islam during and after the uprisings. However, no research has analyzed the ideological dimensionality of the Middle Eastern and North African constitutions. By analyzing 19 newly enacted, drafted, and amended constitutions before and after the popular movements in the region, this article shows that the single ideological dimension in the constitutions can be defined by the openness of a state for liberal and modern values. This ideological dimension encompasses all the regional political debates on the political regime dynamics, the inclusion of rights and liberties, and the role of Islam. [R, abr.]
72.2732 ÖNIŞ, Ziya ; KUTLAY, Mustafa —
Powerful shifts in the international order provide new policy space for emerging powers to manage their economic problems in a heterodox fashion. Key Western-led institutions no longer enjoy a monopoly in dictating the terms of financial assistance for countries in economic difficulty, as non-Western powers increasingly challenge the orthodox Washington Consensus paradigm. The present paper locates Turkey’s ongoing economic crisis in a comparative-historical context. Its central argument posits that the current crisis is the reflection of a fragile and unconsolidated presidential system and its associated mode of economic governance with state capitalist features. Turkey’s heterodox crisis allows us to draw attention to the complex interplay of global power transitions in a post-liberal international order and domestic political constellations during an era of growing authoritarian populism, generating a new equilibrium with rather unique features. [R, abr.]
72.2733 OPALO, Ken Ochieng’ ; SMITH, Lahra —
Recent scholarship on the institutionalization of politics in Africa has highlighted the consolidation of constitutional leadership turnover in electoral democracies. However, leadership turnover is not limited to democracies, and is increasingly also regularized in a subset of non-democratic regimes ruled by dominant parties. Why have some dominant ruling parties in Africa been able to facilitate leadership turnover while others have not? With evidence from a detailed case study of Ethiopia’s leadership transitions, we argue that the historical persistence of ideology and its institutional expressions are important drivers of dominant parties’ ability to manage leadership turnover. In Ethiopia, the ideology of ethno-national self-determination (forged in the 1960s) influenced political development for decades, culminating in the adoption of constitutional ethnic federalism and the creation of a ruling party alliance comprised of ethno-national parties. [R, abr.]
72.2734 OUDENAMPSEN, Merijn ; MELLINK, Bram —
As a result of the economic fallout of the corona-epidemic, European politics is again in turmoil. Old controversies and tensions between northern and southern member states have resurfaced. The Netherlands has positioned itself as a controversial leader of northern opposition to European debt-financing, while blaming southern member states for their lack of reserves. Ever since the European debt crisis, scholars have been puzzled by the moralistic tone and strict, rule-based nature of austerity policies enforced by the Eurogroup. There has been ample discussion of German ordoliberalism as a crucial influence on the European austerity policies. The case of the Netherlands points in a different direction. Dutch fiscal conservatism can be traced back to the market-oriented shift in the 1980s, and the Dutch uptake of Anglo-American public choice theory, which dates all the way back to the post-war period. [R, abr.]
72.2735 OZCURUMEZ, Saime —
Under what conditions does the EU contribute to the prevention of governance breakdown and violent conflict in areas of limited statehood and contested orders by fostering societal resilience? This study seeks answers to this question by examining the EU’s effectiveness in fostering societal resilience in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey while they have coped with risks emerging from cross-border mobility, mass influx, and prolonged stays of the forcibly displaced due to the Syrian crisis since 2011. The study argues that the EU has been constrained in building societal resilience. The findings suggest that the EU’s effectiveness is limited by context-specific social, political, and economic risks in host countries; divergence among policy actors’ often contradictory preferences; and the impact of the EU’s policies in outsourcing management of forced displacement. The study concludes that the EU needs to link the implementation of its short-term pragmatic programmes that primarily enable state resilience in crisis contexts with its long-term liberal vision for fostering high level societal resilience with democratic principles and institutions. [R] [See Abstr. 72.2585]
72.2736 PACHKOV, Vladimir —
Turkmenistan is a country on the border between the Turkish and Iranian worlds that gained independence only at the end of the 20th c. It is considered the only totalitarian state in the Soviet zone and is incredibly rich in natural resources, especially gas, so it is compared to the Gulf States. [Despite the] personality cult of its two first presidents, their policy was able to create from a union of clans and tribes a real nation. However, the most interesting thing is their religious policy where the teaching of the first President Niyazov is presented as an alternative to Islam and his book Ruhbama as an alternative to the Koran. [R]
72.2737 PAIN, Emil A. ; FEDIUNIN, Sergei Yu. —
The article analyzes the advantages of a new paradigm of diversity management known as “interculturalism”, and provides an overview of intercultural policies and practices through the example of the province of Québec and the Council of Europe’s Intercultural cities program. The article focuses primarily on the possibility of implementing the latter model in Russia in order to regulate ethnopolitical relations. It is argued that the conception of the Russian “nationalities policy” could benefit from the including elements of the concepts and methodologies of intercultural policies and practices. Although the article highlights the existing limits in regard to the application of interculturalism in the Russian context, it also points to the substantial convergence of ethnopolitical trends in Russia and other Global North countries. [R, abr.]
72.2738 PAVROZ, Alexander —
In the 21st c., positions of Russia in the world have essentially strengthened. It seems that this country has finally overcome all cataclysms of the end of the 20st century and became a great power again. However, the revival of Russia as a great power is an illusion rather than a reality. Contemporary Russia is characterized by numerous geopolitical contradictions. These contradictions are caused by both historical factors and Putin’s revanchist, imperialist policy. There are many parallels between contemporary Russia and the late USSR. The author concludes that Russia is close to imperial overstretch and will soon collapse. [R]
72.2739 PEERTHUM, Sheilendra ; LUCKHO, Takesh —
This research examines, analyses, and explains — from a citizen’s perspective — public-sector corruption in order to determine whether public opinion and belief concerning it in the case of Mauritius matters in assessing political trust. The findings confirm the existence of a strong and significant inverse relationship between citizens’ perception of corruption and political trust, suggesting that corruption viewed through the citizens’ lens erodes trust in government. Mediation tests further confirm that improvement of service delivery is a better strategy to mitigate citizens’ perceived extent of public-sector corruption and ultimately repair the deficit of political trust than placing reliance on anti-corruption agencies. [R]
72.2740 PERFEITO DA SILVA, Pedro ; VIEIRA MANCIO BANDEIRA, Julia Veiga —
This article relies on a Polanyian-inspired theoretical framework to compare political economy strategies adopted by Brazilian governments after democratisation. Responding to competing interests from the financial sector, the manufacturing industry, and the working class, these governments have chosen between disembedded neoliberal, embedded neoliberal and neocorporatist strategies, facing different challenges and crises. After the short-lived adoption of disembedded neoliberalism in the early 1990s, embedded neoliberal governments were able to conciliate economic liberalisation and orthodox macroeconomic policies with political stability and social cohesion, while compensating the manufacturing industry and the working class for some of their losses. In the late 2000s, however, discontentment within these social groups with regard to insufficient economic growth opened the way for the emergence of neocorporatism, which eased the commitment to liberalisation and macroeconomic orthodoxy. [R, abr.]
72.2741 POPP, Thies R. —
This study analyzes policy convergence in agricultural policies and shows that the predominant policy paradigm of a country can be a major barrier that impedes policy convergence. To provide empirical evidence for the link, this research studies risk management support in agricultural policies in the framework of historical institutionalism by using a mixed methods approach. The comparative policy analysis of agricultural risk governance in OECD countries suggests a high path dependency of established institutions and instruments of the underlying policy paradigm that frequently prevent major support for risk management tools and do not lead to a clear policy convergence. [R]
72.2742 POSEN, Barry R. —
Europe is better placed to look after itself than many — including the IISS — have portrayed it to be. [R] [First of a series of articles on “A world after Trump”. See also Abstr. 72.2265, 2442, 2629]
72.2743 PRITAM, Manasi —
The idea of American exceptionalism in guiding US national security concerns has often come under scrutiny in the past from security analysts and policy-makers alike. The US is not alone in projecting its exceptional values in its foreign policy articulations. Indian foreign policy assertions also stress India’s unique civilizational qualities that make it capable of pursuing a “peaceful” modernity as opposed to the “violent” modernity of the West. This paper analyzes how the idea of exceptionalism impacts the national security cultures of the two biggest democracies of the world. What are US and Indian exceptionalism in the context of international relations? How do they translate into the national security cultures of a superpower and a rising power? Is their national security culture driven by fear or hope, trust or mistrust, flexible or rigid strategies? [R, abr.]
72.2744 RAMESH, M., et al. —
Introduction by M. Shamsul HAQUE, et al.. Articles by M. Shamsul HAQUE and Jose A. PUPPIM DE OLIVEIRA, “Building administrative capacity under developmental states in Chile and Singapore: a comparative perspective”, pp. 220-237; Kilkon KO, et al., “The change of administrative capacity in Korea: contemporary trends and lessons”, pp. 238-255; YEE Wai-Hang and PENG Liu, “Governance capacity and regulatory enforcement: street-level organizations in Beijing’s food safety reform”, pp. 256-274; Azad Singh BALI and M. RAMESH, “Governing healthcare in India: a policy capacity perspective”, pp. 275-293; YAN Yifei and Kidjie SAGUIN, “Policy capacity matters for capacity development: comparing teacher inservice training and career advancement in basic education systems of India and China”, pp. 294-310.
72.2745 RAUDLA, Ringa ; DOUGLAS, James W. ; WINDETT, Jason H. —
The broader goal of the paper is to explore one of the core questions in comparative research on public policy and administration: what is more important in influencing public officials’ attitudes towards policymaking — the distinctive administrative style of the country or the specific features of a policy sector? This article is particularly concerned with the attitudes of the public officials working in the field of finance regarding their policymaking roles. Overall, the results indicate that the national administrative traditions play a stronger role in influencing the policymaking attitudes of officials than their specific sector. [R]
72.2746 RIGGIO, Giuseppe —
Last November, with the swearing in of newly elected president Luis Arce Catacora of the Movement to Socialism party, the bourgeoisie officially put a compressed political crisis behind it, made all the more serious by the socio-economic consequences of the pandemic. the fact that democratic institutions are holding up well is positive news for the Latin American country. However, the triggers — which are rooted in the personalization of power carried out by Evo Morales, the former president and historical leader of the MAS, and in the growing tensions between the various Bolivian regions — are certainly not over. what legacy remains from the recent crisis? how will it affect Arce’s political agenda? And, more generally, what indications can be drawn from these events for the future of democracy in Bolivia and beyond? [R, trad.]
72.2747 RODRÍGUEZ GUSTÁ, Ana Laura —
This article examines the institutional evolution of women’s policy agencies (WPAs) in Argentina and Brazil over a 15-year period. By using a classification of WPA institutional types proposed by scholarly literature on state feminism, I identify contrasting trajectories of how WPAs developed under left- and then right-wing governments: in Argentina the WPA moved from overt irrelevance to a marginal position, whereas in Brazil a robust WPA embedded in feminist movements became an anti-feminist agency. What factors explain these divergent institutional outcomes? More broadly, what processes mediate the link between WPA attributes and government ideology? My longitudinal case comparison shows that political authorities do not make decisions about the formal structure and policy orientation of WPAs based on ideology alone. [R, abr.]
72.2748 ROY, Graeme ; SPOWAGE, Mairi —
Government Expenditure Revenue Scotland (GERS) remains a controversial statistical publication on Scotland’s public finances. We trace the evolution of GERS over time, and track how it has been used in political debate since it was first published in 1992. Now in its 27thedition, we review its ongoing role in informing constitutional and fiscal debate in Scotland. We dispel some of the myths about the publication, but also highlight legitimate criticisms, and explore how it is used by both sides in the independence debate. Our main contribution is to summarise what GERS tells us — and crucially what it does not tell us — about the state of Scotland’s economy and public finances. We conclude with an assessment of what GERS might tell us about the prospects for any future debate on Scottish independence. [R]
72.2749 RUIBAL, Alba —
Over the past two decades, the abortion rights controversy has become the most prominent field of dispute between feminists and religious conservatives across Latin America. Since the mid-2000s, Latin American feminists have turned to the courts in search of long-pursued reforms in this field. Through an analysis of the role of constitutional courts in the liberalization of abortion laws in Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico, this study points out the diverse ways in which courts have contributed to the advancement of abortion rights, becoming alternative venues for feminist advocacy in Latin America. It highlights how courts have been used to liberalize abortion laws, ensure the implementation of existing abortion laws, and deter backlash processes. Furthermore, it details how courts have offered a platform for public debate on abortion. [R, abr.]
72.2750 SALE, Giovanni —
Israel’s new government, dubbed a “national emergency,” was voted in by the Knesset on May 17, 2020. Its political program includes the annexation of part of the occupied territories of the West Bank and the Jordan Valley. This solution, supported by Trump, would compromise the possibility of creating a Palestinian state with its own territorial continuity. Before making the choice to annex the occupied Palestinian territories, the Israeli government should seriously consider the risks that such a choice would pose to the stabilization of the entire region. [R, trad.]
72.2751 SANJAUME-CALVET, Marc ; GRAU CREUS, Mireia —
This paper analyzes the relationship between the COVID-19 crisis and multinationalism in Spain from two complementary angles. First, it provides an overview on how the multinational and decentralized character of Spanish territorial politics shapes the response to the crisis. We find that the management of the crisis reflects and exacerbates the main features of the Spanish territorial model as a case of incomplete federalism with severe intergovernmental deficits. Second, we analyze the effects of the pandemic on Catalan self-determination demands through a brief description of parties, public opinion and governmental reactions. We argue that Catalan secessionism faces several new impediments as a result of the pandemic, but we also find that the COVID-19 crisis provides a window of opportunity for this movement regarding grievance-building and regional governmental performance and salience. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 72.2153]
72.2752 SAWYER, Malcolm —
The focus of this article is the economic policies pursued in the UK in response to the coronavirus pandemic in the first twelve months of that crisis (February 2020 to January 2021). The measures of lockdown, quarantine, limitations on travel and so on are discussed as relevant to economic policies. The timeline of the policy responses to coronavirus, the evolution of the infections, and of economic activity is briefly outlined. The main fiscal policy responses in terms of development of policy programmes and the evolving budget deficit are considered, as are the policies of the Bank of England. There is a brief discussion of the financing and funding of public expenditure, and of post-pandemic budgetary policies. The failures of public procurement policies during the pandemic are reviewed. [R, abr.] [Part of a thematic issue on “ What have we yet to learn from the COVID-19 crisis?”. See also Abstr. 72.2631]
72.2753 SCHNABEL, Johanna ; HEGELE, Yvonne —
The COVID-19 pandemic required prompt action from governments all over the world. In federal systems, it can be important or beneficial to coordinate crisis-management between the various governments. The extent to which intergovernmental coordination occurred and the form it took (vertical or horizontal) varied across countries and regarding the measures taken. By examining the introduction and the subsequent easing of containment measures and the procurement of medical supplies in Australia, Canada, Germany, and Switzerland, this article identifies the circumstances under which intergovernmental coordination occurs. Surprisingly, the existence of strong intergovernmental councils did not lead to closer intergovernmental coordination. Governments coordinated more intensively when jurisdiction was shared, problem pressure was high, and measures were(re-)distributive in nature. Vertical coordination was more likely when vertical intergovernmental councils existed and powers were shared. [R] [See Abstr. 72.2695]
72.2754 SCHNELLENBACH, Jan —
Caused by the Covid crisis, the German federal government will accumulate new debt up to €452.2 billion for the years 2020 to 2022 according to current budget plans. Under the current fiscal rules (the German debt brake), this will lead to repayment obligations of [nearly] €20 billion annually, starting on 2026. This leads to calls for an abolition of the debt brake, for the revitalization of the currently defunct net wealth tax, or the introduction of a one-off wealth duty. These proposals are discussed. I argue that the debt brake should be kept intact, and that the introduction of new levies on wealth would cause more harm than good. The budgetary aftermath of the Covid crisis can be coped with by using the standard policy instruments. [R, abr.]
72.2755 SCHOMAKER, Rahel M. ; HACK, Marko ; MANDRY, Ann-Katrin —
The Covid-19 pandemic challenges not only the health systems and other policy sub-systems in the Member States, but also the EU’s ability to provide policy responses that address the transnational nature of pandemic control as a union-wide ‘public good’. Thus, the pandemic constitutes a veritable capacity test for the EU integration project. This article takes stock of the EU’s early reaction to the first wave of the Covid-19 outbreak. After an introduction and a short note on the scope and methodology of the analysis a theoretical framework is developed. Scrutinising the pertinent literature on crisis-management, we reflect the traditional hypothesis that in times of crisis the centre becomes more relevant against the background of the EU crisis-management system, and discuss the role of informality in particular during the time of crisis. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 72.1677]
72.2756 SCHUBIGER, Livia Isabella —
How civilians respond to political violence profoundly shapes conflict processes and the legacies of civil war. Yet influential patterns of wartime civilian agency remain strikingly unexplored. This study investigates how exposure to state violence influences the organization of ordinary citizens into civil defense forces, a common and consequential type of mobilization that is still poorly understood. I argue that state violence marked by direct and collective targeting promotes community-based armed mobilization through the mechanisms of signaling and the militarization of local governance in irregular civil war. The analysis focuses on the Peruvian armed conflict during the 1980s. Based on an instrumental variable and a difference-in-differences approach, the results suggest that communities victimized by state forces were more likely to rise up against the insurgents at later stages. [R, abr.]
72.2757 SCHWAK, Juliette —
This article retraces the domestication, in Korea, of nation-branding into an unquestioned policy imperative and of a competitive common sense. It shows how, in Korea, nation-branding emerged as a policy solution to four national urgencies in the post-democratization political economic context. It was adopted in conjunction by the state and the chaebol to resolve obstacles to capital accumulation. Korean policy-makers hired promotional consultants to participate in agenda-making processes. However, these consultants were not hired by the Korean government to design Korea’s branding policies. Their power was essentially cultural. Their discourses provided policy justification and functioned as a governing device to exhort citizens to accept global competition as an unquestionable social reality and the pro-capital reforms that are (supposedly) needed to cope with competition. [R, abr.]
72.2758 SERHAN, Waleed —
The article examines the further consolidation of Qatari national identity during the blockade imposed on Qatar in 2017 by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt. It employs Rogers Brubaker’s conceptualization of ‘ethnopolitical entrepreneurs’ to analyze how Qatari state and state-aligned actors evoked values defining the Qatari character and myths defining the Qatari nation-state. The article argues that while these values mostly resonated among citizens and residents, there were also limits to the reach of Qatari ethnopolitical entrepreneurs. It thereby offers insights into the dynamics of ethnopolitical entrepreneurship within the context of a monarchical, non-democratic state. [R, abr.]
72.2759 SEVELSTED, Anders —
The article challenges the theoretical “sectoral model” of civil society through a historical case study and offers an alternative actor-centered approach inspired by American pragmatism. First, three separate strands of research are identified that each conceptualize civil society as a sector with institutional independence, a single normative logic, and fixed roles. Building on archival material on the Danish temperance organization the Blue Cross, the article then compares the theory to the empirical case. It is argued that the CSO exposes three types of “awkwardness” in the sector model, as the Blue Cross (1) de-differentiated and became part of the public system of treatment for alcoholism, (2) applied multiple logics depending on the audience it addressed, and (3) acted in the role of “interpreter” rather than “antenna” — and specifically interpreted the needs of alcoholics in mutual understanding with state authorities. [R, abr.]
72.2760 SHI Chunyu ; FRENKIEL, Emilie —
Relying on three comparative case studies, we use the structure-, institution- and agent-based analytical framework to investigate the complex and dynamic interactions between contexts and actors in the process of policy change initiated by state actors in authoritarian China. We propose a conceptual framework, ‘policy entrepreneurship under hierarchy’, which highlights the influence of power domination during the policy change process. It allows us to offer a renewed definition of policy entrepreneur and to identify a pattern of successful policy entrepreneurship in contrast to the ‘four central elements’ suggested by Mintrom and Nomann. We conclude that hierarchical policy entrepreneurship in China is displayed through two kinds of relationship: the proposal-approval between policy entrepreneurs and their superiors; and the instruction-execution between policy entrepreneurs and their subordinates. [R, abr.]
72.2761 SIMANGAN, Dahlia ; BOSE, Srinjoy —
Timor-Leste’s extractive industry became economically and politically important during the post-conflict transition period. The government established the Petroleum Fund in 2005 to protect the economy from a “resource curse.” However, the management of the Fund has since become a source of controversy as it created opportunities for corruption and unsustainable spending practices. We argue that political dynamics, in addition to if not more than weak institutions, engendered corruption, clientelist rule, and economic disenfranchisement in post-conflict Timor-Leste. Using the Political Settlements approach as an analytical framework, we demonstrate that patronage, rivalry, and rent-seeking in the management of petroleum revenues are associated with economic and political challenges in Timor-Leste’s state-building process. [R] [See Abstr. 72.2777]
72.2762 SINARDET, Dave ; PIETERS, Jade —
Belgium is considered as a very divided multinational and federal state, with conflicts between representatives of its two main language communities regularly threatening its sheer existence. Moreover, at the outbreak of the COVID 19-crisis, Belgium was in the middle of a political crisis: ten months of failed attempts to form a new federal government left a minority caretaker government to deal with the crisis. All this means that a very fragmented, divisive and conflictual COVID-response could be expected. Therefore, it is surprising that the response was largely uniform and national response. There was a political consensus that measures should be the same over the entire territory. This article details the institutions, policies and communication that created this national response and also explains the reasons for it. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 72.2153]
72.2763 STEINMETZ, Willibald —
Comparisons across historical times can appear in various shapes. Apart from simple then/now contrasts, three basic modalities may be distinguished: (1) Comparisons that stress similarity and repeatability (“once again”), (2) comparisons that claim absolute novelty, if not incommensurability between present and past (“never before”), and (3) comparisons that suggest a time lag between two entities which, although synchronous in calendar time, appear nonsynchronous in other respects (“too late”/“not yet”/“far ahead”). Relying on a broad range of comparison-performing utterances by leading politicians and observers, this article will assess the conjunctures of those three modalities of temporal comparison in 19th- and 20th-century German politics. Prima facie, one might expect an increase in the use of novelty claims (“never before”) and comparisons of the “too late”-type in that period of frequent upheavals. By contrast, the “once again”-variant should be declining because it builds on the historia magistra vitae topos which, according to Reinhart Koselleck, was dissolved in the post-1789 age of revolution. However, there is abundant evidence to show that historical examples and analogies continued to play a significant role all through the 19th and 20th centuries. [R, abr.] [Part of a thematic issue on “Temporal comparisons”, edited by Kirill POSTOUTENKO, Zoltán B. SIMON and Willibald STEINMETZ. See also Abstr. 72.1845, 2690]
72.2764 STOLLENWERK, Eric —
To what extent does societal resilience help to prevent governance breakdown? The EU’s southern neighbourhood has been troubled by multiple security risks in recent years. The security situation of many citizens is uncertain and local populations frequently feel insecure, an indication of governance breakdown. Resilience has become a new focus in preventing a breakdown of governance. Yet, the extent to which resilience can help prevent governance breakdown remains unclear. Building on original survey data from Libya and Tunisia this study contributes empirical evidence to the debate. The article shows that limited statehood and order contestation do not necessarily lead to a breakdown of governance. Although both risks affect Tunisia and Libya to different degrees none of them are strongly correlated with the security perceptions of local populations. Additionally, resilience is key in preventing governance breakdown. Social trust and the legitimacy of governance actors are two main sources of resilience helping to prevent a breakdown of governance. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 72.2585]
72.2765 TANAKA-SAKABE, Yukako —
This study discusses social accountability in Timor-Leste by scrutinizing the patterns of state-society interactions and the role of NGOs. Analyzing five case studies in peacebuilding and development, it highlights NGOs’ multiple positions — from oversight and advocacy, to their role in facilitating state-society relations in service delivery, suggesting alternative forms of public services, and conveying citizens’ views on government performance to the state. It elaborates how NGOs are closely associated with suco (village) and community authorities and bridge the gap between the state and society. In a fledging state, these dynamics emerge from the state’s attempts to formalize this relationship into law and society’s accommodation of its citizens within the local context. The study also addresses international actors who strive to support NGOs. [R] [See Abstr. 72.2777]
72.2766 TÓTH, Gábor Attila —
I put two rival conceptions of democracy into the main focus to better understand the nature of the Hungarian constitutional system and the competing scholarly positions. First, I briefly introduce the contrast between the majoritarian and what I call the complex conception of democracy. My aim is to demonstrate that even if one subscribes to a majoritarian conception of democracy, certain legal and constitutional preconditions must be fulfilled. [Then], I examine the case of Hungary within this theoretical framework. The Hungarian constitutional system presents itself as a winner-takes-all majoritarian democracy. Nevertheless, an analysis of the legal preconditions of democracy — constitutional text, electoral system, legal institutions, fundamental rights, and the rule of law — can demonstrate that in this system, legal mechanisms do not serve to govern the formation of a legitimate majority rule. [R, abr.]
72.2767 TREISTMAN, Jeffrey ; GOMEZ, Charles J. —
The security debate concerning the recent wave of migrants into Europe has been contentious. This article examines the impact of recent migration flows into Europe and assesses the veracity of political rhetoric that migrants from Muslim states were reputedly responsible for the uptick in terrorist attacks. After conducting a series of quantitative tests that control for a variety of factors, we find little evidence that the increase in the number of migrants corresponded to an increase in terrorism during the European crisis. Our findings, therefore, contain important implications in terms of migration policy and counterterrorism tactics. [R]
72.2768 TRIGILIA, Carlo —
It is now almost taken for granted that proportional representation would bring those ills long pointed out in the experience of the first Republic. Yet, proportional representation is not among the main culprits of the ills. The controversy over “partitocracy” has ended up obscuring the just criticism of the degeneration of political subjects. It is essential to carefully evaluate the role of the personalization of leadership and the weakening of parties. In Italy, the push towards a symbolic politics that is increasingly shouted in the media limelight has been very strong. but leaders born in this way are consumed even if they endure on the scene because they are more exposed on a personal level once again. [R, abr.]
72.2769 TUDOR, Maya ; SLATER, Dan —
Some countries in South and Southeast Asia have managed to overcome ethnic and religious rifts and establish lasting democracy, as in India, while other countries in these regions have seen such deep divisions underpin durable authoritarianism, as in Malaysia. We trace these differences to divergent definitions of the nation that prevailed in struggles for independence and that continue to provide a political resource in ongoing political struggles. Where the national community was defined as inclusive in both ethnoreligious and popular terms, democracy has proven stronger. Alternatively, where the foundational national bargain was more exclusive with respect to salient identity cleavages and popular classes, authoritarianism has been reinforced. Founding types of nationalism not only help explain regime types in India and Malaysia but in countries across southern Asia. [R, abr.]
72.2770 VALADBAYGI, Kayhan —
This article contends that Iranian neoliberalisation problematises the dominant methodological tendencies that either emphasise factors operating within national borders or privilege the global institutionalisation of marketdriven reforms without leaving sufficient room for the agency of domestic forces. In contrast, informed by a relational method of analysis, it argues that Iran’s neoliberal restructuring was part of a response to the global crisis of over-accumulation that hit the Global South in the 1980s. Aiming to revive capital accumulation, some members of the ruling class viewed integration into the new global economy, characterised by the internationalisation of capital, as an alternative developmental strategy that would generate economic growth. The upshot of this has been a particular form of hybrid neoliberalism. [R, abr.]
72.2771 VAMPA, Davide —
This article assesses and explains territorial policy dynamics in five European countries — Italy, Spain, Germany, France and the UK — from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic up to early 2021. The crisis has clearly highlighted well-known differences between centralized and decentralized systems. Yet focusing on this dichotomy is not sufficient. It is suggested that, while the distribution of authority between central and regional governments matters, policy dynamics — that is, how different territorial levels interact in policy-making processes — are even more important in driving multi-level responses to the emergency. Whether these dynamics are hierarchical (France), competitive (Italy and Spain), cooperative (Germany) or mixed (the UK) depends on how pre-crisis institutional, sectoral and political “causal forces” moderate the impact of an exogenous shock. [R] [See Abstr. 72.2695]
72.2772 VAN LOON, Aukje —
Prompted by the Euro-crisis, the EU introduced multiple reform packages and proposals in order to overhaul the EMU governance framework. This study recalls the proposal of strengthening financial regulation surrounding the financial transaction tax (FTT) debate, or the so-called Robin Hood tax, and its most extreme governments’ policy responses stemming from Germany and the UK. Particular attention is paid to the impact of actor plurality and issue-salience in these countries’ domestic preference-formation processes. Principal aim is to ascertain who determined these governments’ responses during the FTT debate and why financial and nonfinancial societal actors were either paid attention to or rejected in the process of decision making. By applying the societal approach to governmental preference formation, three explanatory variables, material interests, value-based ideas and domestic institutions, dominant in the countries’ domestic politics, are investigated. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 72.1713]
72.2773 VAN PUYVELDE, Damien —
Le renseignement n’est plus l’apanage des agences étatiques. D’autres acteurs y contribuent désormais et il est important d’établir des passerelles permettant plus de souplesse et d’efficacité. La France doit investir dans cette direction pour être en mesure de répondre aux menaces de demain. [R] [Cf. Abstr. 72.2713]
72.2774 VANCLUYSEN, Sarah ; INGELAERE, Bert —
Looking through the lens of disputes and their resolution, this article examines the efforts undertaken by refugees to guarantee peaceful coexistence within and around settlements in northern Uganda. Based on extensive fieldwork, we examine which disputes occur within and around the settlements and which actors intervene to mediate and solve them. We identify a hierarchy among the different formal and informal actors involved in the resolution of disputes and show how refugee leaders operate as brokers between Ugandan law and South-Sudanese customs, between here and there, a recent past and imagined future in the home country. This finding comes to clarify the process of local integration, by foregrounding the link between law and culture. [R, abr.]
72.2775 VEENENDAAL, Wouter —
This paper draws a distinction between regime stability, signifying the endurance of regime types, and political stability, which refers to the life span of governments. Both of these concepts are positively associated with democratic rule, but this connection can be questioned as democracy can survive in the face of profound political instability. The paper develops these arguments on the basis of a case study of Vanuatu, a Melanesian small island state that is one of the most unlikely democracies in the world. In the face of tremendous socio-cultural fragmentation and political instability, Vanuatu’s democracy has remained intact, meaning that this country represents a perplexing combination of extreme political instability coupled with high regime stability. The analysis shows that political fragmentation and instability have likely contributed to regime stability in Vanuatu. [R, abr.]
72.2776 VEGA, Daniel —
The 2018 Central American migrant crisis, in which thousands of people traveled through Mexico in caravans toward the United States border, was a milestone in Mexican immigration policies. The humanitarian crisis evidenced the poverty and vulnerability to which migrants are exposed in their places of origin. At the same time, immigration policies in Mexico became more restrictive due to both internal and external political pressure and, as a result, the securitization measures have become more pervasive than all other migration control policies. This article suggests that this new approach to migration could be ineffective over the long-term, whilst becoming increasingly dangerous for migrants. [R]
72.2777 WALLIS, Joanne ; NEVES, Guteriano —
With the benefit of almost 20 years of hindsight, we evaluate the legacy of state-building in Timor-Leste. We find that much of the academic critique of the state-building mission has proven to be largely accurate: political and economic development has indeed been challenged by the legacy of key decisions made during the early state-building process. First, the focus on centralized state institutions has led to the underdevelopment of administrative, political, and economic decentralization. Second, the partisan nature of the constitution-making process has facilitated the continued concentration of political and economic power in the hands of certain elites. Third, the ambiguous — and at times conflictual — division of powers between state institutions has facilitated the emergence of political clientelism and undermined broad-based economic diversification and development. [R] [Part of a thematic issue on “Trajectories of twenty years of state-building in Timor-Leste”. See also Abstr. 72.2761, 2765]
72.2778 WANG Dong ; STEVENS, Friso M. S. —
Exploring the ‘organization gap’ that exists in Northeast Asia, this article explains why there is no such minimal, Deutschian security community and discerns four impediments: played up islands disputes as a symptom of deep resentment shaped by histories of war and animosity; the rise of a fervent form of nationalism related to collective memories and projected at ‘the other;’ the American alliance system and China-US strategic distrust and rivalry; and the nuclear weapons pursuit of North Korea. Contrasting the fatalist logic of the dominant neorealist paradigm, the article goes into the deeper underlying and interconnected obstacles that sustain opposing blocs in Northeast Asia in a spiral of mistrust and arming. [R, abr.]
72.2779 WARD, Joseph W. —
Despite the outpouring of scholarship on the motivations behind the 2016 EU referendum result and the preliminary impact of Brexit on British politics, comparatively little time has been spent analysing the government(s) entrusted with implementation. This article aims to address this gap in the literature, examining government management of the Brexit process as a case study through which to illustrate the continued relevance of the British Political Tradition in British politics. It argues that through Brexit implementation, the May government initiated a process of centralisation of both policy-making influence and administrative resources within Whitehall. This process was shielded externally by appeals to the referendum result as an imperative mandate parliament was obliged to implement. [R, abr.]
72.2780 WEI Wenchi —
Despite abundant evidence regarding the influence of US state-imposed tax and expenditure limitations on local governments, the causes and consequences of local overrides remain largely unexplored. This article comprehensively examines the fiscal effects of local overrides of Massachusetts’s state-enforced property tax limit. Existing evidence has shown that pressure from powerful local interest groups, such as public schoolteachers and public employees, is crucial for determining agenda-setting and the successes or failures of measures overriding the statewide property tax limit. In that sense, fiscal constraints are able to curb bureaucrats’ budget-maximizing behaviors. Empirically, a regression discontinuity design estimation shows that local property tax limit overrides increase local property taxes and total revenues, decentralize the state–local fiscal relationship, and improve local budgetary balance. However, overrides do not affect local government spending. [R]
72.2781 WEISCHSEL, Volker —
The forced landing of a passenger plane in Belarus at the end of May 2021, served the arrest of a journalist who was critical of the regime. This step was in line with the repressive measures that have been imposed by the government in Belarus for months. The apparatus of violence is disseminating fear and horror, with people being sentenced in political trials on a daily basis. Moscow holds a protective hand over the regime, which has driven Belarus to complete dependence on Russia. Western policymakers face a dilemma. [R] [First article of a thematic issue on “Fossilized power: state violence in Russia, Belarus and Poland”. See also Abstr. 72.2339, 2341, 2661, 2702]
72.2782 WICHOWSKY, Amber ; WEISS, Jessica Chen —
Is tough-on-China campaign rhetoric cheap talk or a signal of policy attention? Analyzing China-related campaign advertisements during the 2010 midterm elections and subsequent cosponsorship of China-related bills, we find that campaign ads are a noisy predictor of legislative attention. Challengers who attacked on China were more likely to co-sponsor Chinarelated legislation, while incumbents who were attacked for being soft on China took tougher positions on China after reelection. By demonstrating the correspondence between anti-China campaign appeals and subsequent legislative attention, our findings add to a growing body of evidence linking campaign rhetoric to members’ legislative agendas. This research note provides the first evidence demonstrating the connection between campaign appeals and legislative attention on a foreign policy issue like China. [R]
72.2783 WYATT, Austin —
The emergence of increasingly autonomous uninhabited systems has sparked understandable concern among policymakers, defence personnel, and academics, as well as civil-society. Quite reasonably, the body of literature that is arising in response to this concern has largely remained focused on the ethical, legal and practical consequences of “killer robots” being deployed by great power militaries. This article provides an analysis of how the diffusion of uninhabited systems will influence the exercise of sub-national power, using Southeast Asia as its focal point. In other words, this paper asks how autonomous weapon systems will influence the regimes of power and considers how the blurring of the lines between the law enforcement and military use of force paradigms affects law enforcement, border security, and internal surveillance and repression in this region. [R, abr.]
72.2784 YAO, Lili ; BOLEN, J. Brandon ; WILLIAMSON, Claudia R. —
A new case for immigration restrictions argues that migrants may transmit low productivity to their destination countries by importing low-quality economic institutions. Using the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) as a natural experiment, we test whether the legalization of undocumented immigrants affects the quality of state-level economic institutions in the USA. Using synthetic control models, we find that, in the short run, legalization may increase the burden of government spending. However, in the long run, we find statistically insignificant effects of legalization on economic institutions. [R]
72.2785 YOZWIAK, Madeline ; ABELL, Hannah ; CARLEY, Sanya —
The Trump administration pursued eighty-four energy reversal actions between 2017 and 2020, the majority of which through executive action. We evaluate the effectiveness of such an administrative presidency in its ability to withstand political and legal challenges. We first set the context of US energy policy predating the Trump administration, and then synthesize the administration’s reversal actions according to the mechanisms, the beneficiaries, and the legal process through which each evolved. We then analyze four reversal case studies that highlight how stakeholders responded to such actions, and the resulting variation in outcomes: the rollback of coal ash standards; the proposed coastal oil and gas auctions; the revocation of California’s vehicle emissions waiver; and the replacement of the Clean Power Plan with the Affordable Clean Energy rule. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 72.2688]
72.2786 YU Hong —
The Chinese authority intends to develop the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA) as a new engine to sustain Chinese development. By applying the theories of state rescaling and city-cluster formation, this paper conducts a case study of the GBA to examine the stateinitiated plan for city-cluster formation in China, to analyze the Chinese central and local governments’ efforts to put this plan into action and the hurdles they face in formatting this city-cluster. The formulation of the GBA development plan for integrated development reflects a dynamic process of upscaling and downscaling of various levels of state power. The state’s plan for the GBA is to create a world-class city-cluster, and to eliminate barriers that hinder the free flow of goods and resources. [R, abr.]
72.2787 YU Xudong, et al. —
Affective polarization is a key concern in America and other democracies. Although past evidence suggests some ways to minimize it, there are no easily applicable interventions that have been found to work in the increasingly polarized climate. This project examines whether irrelevant factors, or incidental happiness more specifically, have the power to reduce affective polarization (i.e., misattribution of affect or “carryover effect”). On the flip side, happiness can minimize systematic processing, thus enhancing beliefs in conspiracy theories and impeding individual ability to recognize deep fakes. Three preregistered survey experiments in the US, Poland, and the Netherlands (total N = 3611) induced happiness in three distinct ways. Happiness had no effects on affective polarization toward political outgroups and hostility toward various divisive social groups, and also on endorsement of conspiracy theories and beliefs that a deep fake was real. [R, abr.]
72.2788 YUEH, Linda —
An enduring paradox of China’s remarkable economic growth is the lack of a well-established legal system. By drawing on the credibility thesis, this paper proposes that legal and economic reforms give rise to, and reinforce, the other and the market is underpinned by evolving institutions that are shaped by the expectations of the actors in the economy. It is thus not the form of institutions but their function that is more important in assessing institutional performance. A comparative examination of the USA at a similar stage of legal-institutional development to China provides support for an evolutionary, endogenous process. This institutional analysis will focus on key issues of economic legislation, such as corporate law, patent law and securities. [R, abr.]
72.2789 ZONDI, Siphamandla —
As African countries battled the Covid-19 crisis in 2020, one of the questions was whether the state was taking a central stage in the affairs of society, especially solutions to major problems. Yet it seems that the responses to Covid-19, following the WHO guidelines, have placed the state at the center, without dislocating other stakeholders like the private sector and the civil society. This paper uses the evidence from a select number of African countries of different sizes in various regions of the continent to provide an empirical perspective on the role of the state in Covid-19 responses in 2020 to answer the question of whether Covid-19 has occasioned a return of the state, thus reversing the neoliberal designs in favor of a lean and mean state in Africa. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 72.2181]
72.2790
Introduction by Jeffrey REEVES and Joanne WALLIS. Articles by Joanne WALLIS, “Is it time for Australia to adopt a ”free and open“ middle-power foreign policy?”, pp. 7-20; Sujan R. CHINOY, “India and the changing dynamics of the Indo-Pacific”, pp. 21-36; Natalie SAMBHI, “Indonesia’s Indo-Pacific vision: staying the course in a Covid-19 world”, pp. 37-50; Jeffrey REEVES, “Canada and the free and open Indo-Pacific: a strategic assessment”, pp. 51-64.
72.2791
Introduction by ‘Funmi OLONISAKIN, Alagaw Ababu KIFLE and Alfred MUTERU, “Reframing narratives of peace-building and state-building in Africa”, pp. 401-407. Articles by ‘Funmi OLONISAKIN, Alagaw Ababu KIFLE and Alfred MUTERU, “Shifting ideas of sustainable peace towards conversation in state-building”, pp. 409-430; Eka IKPE, Abiodun ALAO and Kamau NYOKABI, “Beyond liberal institution (re)building: conversations on peacebuilding and statebuilding in Sierra Leone”, pp. 431-453; Medhane TADESSE, Alagaw Ababu KIFLE and Dade DESTA, “Evolving state building conversations and political settlement in Ethiopia”, pp. 455-474; David MWAMBARI, Barney WALSH and ‘Funmi OLONISAKIN, “Women’s overlooked contribution to Rwanda’s state-building conversations”, pp. 475-499; Awino OKECH, “Gender and state-building conversations: the discursive production of gender identity in Kenya and Rwanda”, pp. 501-515.
72.2792
Introduction, pp. 127-143, by Sven BOTHA and Suzanne E. GRAHAM. Articles by Kayla ARNOLD, “The epidemic-terrorism nexus and how to safeguard Africa against bioterrorism: Lessons from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative?”, pp. 145-165; Vesna MARKOVIC, “Fighting a losing battle? Countering terrorism financing in Nigeria and Somalia”, pp. 167-186; Stephen BUCHANAN-CLARKE, “Strengthening South Africa’s response to the threat of international terrorism”, pp. 187-202; Juliet Wambui KAMAU, “Is counter-terrorism counterproductive? A case study of Kenya’s response to terrorism, 1998-2020”, pp. 203-231; Daisy MUIBU, “Police empowerment and police militarisation in times of protracted conflict: Examining public perceptions in southern Somalia”, pp. 233-261; Sven BOTHA, “The women and girls associated with Boko Haram: How has the Nigerian government responded?”, pp. 263-284; Emeka Thaddues NJOKU and Joshua AKINTAYO, “Sex for survival: terrorism, poverty and sexual violence in north-eastern Nigeria”, pp. 285-303; Monday Zitta HASSAN, “Explaining the resilience of Boko Haram’s insurgency in the Lake Chad Basin”, pp. 305-322.
72.2793
Introduction by Maria Mut BOSQUE and Jennifer Ballantine PERERA, “Facing challenges: a multidisciplinary overview of Gibraltar through its past, present and post-Brexit future”, pp. 317-319. Articles by Robert HOLLAND, “Gibraltar and the ‘British Mediterranean’: an overview”, pp. 320-332; Jennifer Ballantine PERERA, “An overseas territory in Europe: Gibraltar as a test case for discussing the non-colonial”, pp. 333-346; Jamie TRINIDAD, “Self-determination and contested peoplehood in Gibraltar: separating the law from the rhetoric”, pp. 347-356; Jesús VERDÚ BAEZA, “Gibraltar in Spanish foreign policy: Brexit as an opportunity for a new approach”, pp. 357-367; Maria Mut BOSQUE, “The Commonwealth as a new sunrise for Gibraltar’s future: overcoming weaknesses in the post-Brexit era”, pp. 368-383; Joseph GARCIA, “Gibraltar and the European Union: in and out”, pp. 384-394.
72.2794
Articles by Helon HABILA; Aderemi Suleiman AJALA and Nina MÜLLER; Wolfgang DRECHSLER; Heinreich BERGSTRESSER; Lasse HEERTEN; Isabel EISER; Françoise UGOCHUKWU.
72.2795
Introduction by Mikhail S. GORBACHEV. Articles by Archie BRWN, “Mikhail S. Gorbachev: a transformational leader”, pp. 239-248; George BRESLAUER, “Mikhail S. Gorbachev: an exceptional leader”, pp. 249-254; Mark KRAMER, “Mikhail S. Gorbachev and the origins of Perestroika: a retrospective”, pp. 255-258; Svetlana SAVRANSKAYA, “Perestroika as a humanist project”, pp. 259-264; Andrei ILLARIONOV, “Gorbachev’s nonviolence revolution”, pp. 265-274; Jack F. MATLOCK, Jr., “Perestroika and the end of the Cold War”, pp. 275-277.
72.2796
Introduction by pp. 175-187, by Imren BORSUK and Paul T. LEVIN. Articles by Defne Kadioðlu POLAT, “‘No one is larger than the state.’ Consent, dissent, and vigilant violence during Turkey’s neoliberal urban transition”, pp. 189-211; Erol SAGLAM, “Taking the matter into your own hands: ethnographic insights into societal violence and the reconfigurations of the state in contemporary Turkey”, pp. 213-230; Ayhan IªIK, “Pro-state paramilitary violence in Turkey since the 1990s”, pp. 231-249; Emre TOROS and Sarah BIRCH, “How citizens attribute blame for electoral violence: regional differences and party identification in Turkey”, pp. 251-271; Ayºegül BOZAN, “The Alevi issue and democratic rights in Turkey as seen by young AKP activists: social conflict, identity boundaries and some perspectives on recognition”, pp. 273-292; Esra DILEK, “Rethinking the role of Track Two diplomacy in conflict resolution: the Democratic Progress Institute’s Turkey programme”, pp. 293-311; Ayºe Betül ÇELIK, “Inclusive Citizenship and Societal Reconciliation within Turkey’s Kurdish Issue”, pp. 313-332.
72.2797
Introduction by AMIT PRAKASH, “Reflections on politics and policy for a post-Covid-19 Era: analysing continuities and fractures through the first wave of 2020”, pp. 97-103. Articles by Amit PRAKASH, “Shadow of the pandemic and the beleaguered liberal-democratic script in India”, pp. 104-120; Sohini SENGUPTA and Manish K. JHA, “Risks and resilience: COVID-19 response and disaster management policies in India”, pp 121-141; Sukanya BHARDWAJ, “Policing the Liberal democratic state in a pandemic: Public safety, state overreach, and the creation of order”, pp. 142-157; Aasim KHAN, “Beyond consent: surveillance capitalism and politics in the data state”, pp. 158-175; Cihnnita BARUAH and Pratisha BORBORAH, “A re-imagined community: pandemic, media, and state”, pp. 176-193; Aayesha SAXENA, “(Re)visiting the legitimacy of the state: COVID-19 and the migrant labor in India”, pp. 194-212; Pallabi BARAH, “Recasting governance in the times of pandemic: a case study of Assam”, pp. 213-228; Priyanka NUPUR, “Cities in crisis: examining the pandemic through urban planning and state capacity”, pp. 229-245. [R]