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Many developing countries have, in recent years, adopted structural transformation strategies and strengthened state economic activism. While prima facie reminiscent of the post-war era's developmentalist strategies, contemporary industrial policies have resurfaced in a different environment: they are often designed and implemented in (newly) democratic, rather than authoritarian, political regimes. This paper argues that when democratic developing countries seek to (re)deploy industrial policies, governments must navigate the specific demands arising in an institutional setting in which political power is constrained and contestable. Therefore, the focus of the classical industrial policy literature on instrumental-rational, top-down, technocratic -policy-making, with centralised state–business relations, needs to adapt to this environment. This paper discusses how challenges to secure fiscal space, reach parliamentary consensus, and address diverse societal demands in a formal democratic institutional setting influence industrial policies in developing countries. We exemplify this using Indonesia as a case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the issue of migration control in Malaysia. Despite the fact that the majority of the world's migratory movements are between countries in the Global South, the dominant focus of research on migration control has tended to be liberal democracies of the Global North. Here, focussing on a country which is a major destination for migrants in Southeast Asia, this paper examines the varied policies enacted by the Malaysian government in an effort to decrease the number of undocumented foreign workers. As Malaysia is known for its frequent migration policy shifts, this paper traces the many twists and turns in Malaysian policy in the period from 2011 to 2019. In doing so, the paper seeks to help build a better understanding of the complex and sometimes contradictory tools states use in attempting to manage migration. Here I find that some patterns emerge from Malaysia's use of a wide variety of policy instruments to reduce its population of undocumented foreign workers, but that ultimately these must be placed in the context of the overall economic reliance of Malaysia on foreign labour and its turbulent policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While political stability is one of the core concepts in political science, its precise meaning remains ambiguous. 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. Based on fieldwork mainly consisting of interviews with ni-Vanuatu political elites, the analysis shows that political fragmentation and instability have likely contributed to regime stability in Vanuatu, as they have prevented the concentration of power in the hands of a single group. By highlighting the discrepancy between political and regime stability, this paper provides crucial insights for debates about democracy and stability in countries across the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Nigerian elections are sufficiently observed by domestic and international observer groups, the frequent pronouncements of religious leaders claiming to have supernatural insights into election outcomes have never captured the attention of these observers. This is despite the fact that election prophecy may have adverse effects on the electoral process and the survival of Nigeria's nascent democracy. This paper critiques the failure of election observers to capture this unfolding trend in their reports bearing in mind that pre-emptive electoral prophecies violate Section 95 (3) (b) of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended). The tendency to question the integrity and neutrality of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and the judiciary (in cases of post-election litigations), has worsened because of unguarded electoral prophetism. It is therefore recommended that election prophecy should be captured in official election reports so as to – at least – show its enormity. This may trigger a concerted effort among election stakeholders to control it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In what way can societal actors in transitional polities play a role in influencing bilateral economic agreements? Societal actors are often ignored in the state-centric international relations literature. We, however, contend that social resistance to a foreign development project can reshape the international outcome, even under an asymmetric bargaining structure, if two conditions are met: the host country's policy options are conditioned by citizens' resistance; and the home country is eager to continue cooperation. To make this argument, this paper examines the social resistance to the China-backed Letpadaung copper mine in Myanmar amid the host country's democratisation. Employing a process-tracing technique and drawing upon extensive interviews from 2015–2019, official documents and secondary data, we argue that a popular anti-mining movement transformed a previous state-to-state bargaining process into a two-level game negotiation. As a result, the rise of societal actors was able to disrupt project implementation and extract concessions from China in exchange for project resumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is the Zeitgeist of resistance in the present moment—the age of empire? This paper examines key contemporary interventions that invoke international norms to temper and rein in intervention and occupation. Even as they signal dissent, the paper concludes that these interventions turn away from the historical, deny ideological conflict and fail a counter-hegemonic politics. They return to an ahistorical domain of international law and humanist ethics that stands outside time and is blind to that privilege. This is a stance that may contribute to the production of legitimacy for empire, even as it seeks to curb its excesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last two decades, significant advances have characterised the study of hybrid political regimes. Yet, when distinguishing democratic from non-democratic varieties, this field has apparently been affected by the tendency to largely focus on the role of incumbents and the state. Drawing on the Colombian, El Salvadorean and Guatemalan examples, I argue that, because of this bias, a category of countries sharing distinctively non-democratic features has been incorrectly considered democratic, thus affecting the recognition of forms of democracy and non-democracy. In these countries, actors other than the state and the government have blatantly violated the fairness of elections through well-known practices generally considered problems of low democratic quality, such as vote-buying, political violence, and illegal campaign financing. I maintain that, when associated with certain conditions, such problems are in fact symptoms of a non-democratic regime. To describe these unrecognised non-democracies, I propose the concept of non-state electoral autocracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social relations, institutional arrangements and cultures bequeathed by South Africa's system of apartheid continue be felt in the present despite the country's formal transition to democracy 25 years ago. Race, class and gender inequities continue to structure South African society in ways that have proven intransigent to change, leading to growing frustration and widespread public dissatisfaction expressed in multiple arenas including worker strikes, service delivery and university student protests. While it is clear that social structures inherited from the past are difficult to change, it is also the case that change does happen. In this paper, we discuss the findings of a hermeneutic phenomenological study with 10 academics at one historically White university in South Africa, who have been agents of change within their particular context. We show how participants engaged in struggles to counter resistance to their efforts. In doing so they demonstrate what we call 'strategic competence' - the ability to act in ways that not only draw on personal resources but recognise the resources, contradictions and opportunities offered within the existing limitations of the social structure. Strategic competence thus emerges as a central feature of agency, enabling individuals to stretch the boundaries of what is possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guillermo O’Donnell’s influential work ‘Delegative Democracy’ set the discourse on a peculiar type of democracy. Lying between representative democracy and authoritarianism, the uniqueness of delegative democracy lies in its features, including an absence of horizontal accountability, strong centralised rule, individual leadership with unchecked powers, a cult figure embodying the nation and clientelist practices. While delegative democracies seem to arise out of presidential systems, Turkey, though a parliamentary system, has also displayed the distinctive features of delegative democracies. This paper identifies three characteristics of delegative democracy, which are responsible for the lack of democratic consolidation, if not the erosion of democracy itself: anti-institutionalism, an anti-political agenda and clientelism. Arguing that delegative democracy is the best concept with which to examine contemporary Turkey, the paper lays out how, post-2011, Turkey has demonstrated the three elements of delegative democracy. The final section discusses the implications of the Turkish case for scrutinising the very possibility of delegative democracy in parliamentary regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Starting from the empirical distinction between ‘discontented’ and ‘dispossessed’ created by processes of accumulation by dispossession necessary for neoliberalism to succeed, this paper suggests how the broader historical–geographical framework developed by David Harvey helps us make sense of the 2011 Egyptian revolution. The paper focuses on the underlying tension between the ever more frequent encroachments of ‘the molecular processes of capital accumulation in space and time’ within the political sphere and the persisting relevance of forms of territorial government and governance for the success of capital accumulation itself. This seeming contradiction allows us to account both for the penetration of neoliberalism in Egypt and for the different forms of hybridisation and domestication that accompanied it. It suggests that, by looking at the social consequences of neoliberalism, one can see a sharp class polarisation, with the emergence of both a private capitalist oligarchy and embryonic forms of alliance between the dispossessed and the discontented, which had a central role in the 2011 revolution. This perspective also permits us to go beyond the dominant liberal narrative of the Arab Spring focusing on demands for freedom(horreya)and democracy(dimuqratya),recovering the neglected yet vital dimension of social justice(‘adala igtimaya). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While US government agencies endorse and support the democratic potential of the internet and social media overseas, the criticisms of the WikiLeaks disclosures of US diplomatic cables reveal the bias in relation to transparency and democracy. This poses a wider problem of connectivity combined with hegemony. This paper discusses what the criticisms of the WikiLeaks disclosures reveal. After discussing the enthusiasm about ‘hyper-connectivity’, the paper turns to the WikiLeaks disclosures, and next spells out global ramifications of the leaked cables, the problems of transparency and hegemony, frictions between democracy and democratisation, and the role of banks blocking donations to WikiLeaks. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper argues for an approach to researching citizenship and democracy that begins not from normative convictions but from everyday experiences in particular social, cultural and historical contexts. The paper starts with a consideration of the ways in which the terms 'democracy' and 'citizenship' have been used in the discourses and approaches taken within mainstream studies of citizenship and democracy, drawing attention to some of the conceptual blind spots that arise. We call for more attention to be paid to contextual understandings of the politics of everyday life, and to locating state, ngo and donor rhetorics and programmes promoting 'active citizenship' and 'participatory governance' within that politics. It is this kind of understanding, we suggest, that, by revealing the limits of the normativities embedded in these discourses, can provide a more substantive basis for rethinking citizenship from the perspectives of citizens themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an analysis of the development of democracy in Korea since the transition from authoritarianism in 1987, and its implications for critical analyses of Third World democratisation. Accounts of 'low intensity democracy' or 'polyarchy' have noted Third World democratisation for its constrained and elite-centred nature, and as an outcome of US foreign policy, which has sought to demobilise restive popular movements and extend the reach of global capital. However, the Korean general elections of 2004 saw the historic entry of the explicitly socialist Korean Democratic Labour Party (kdlp) into the National Assembly. A re-examination of post-authoritarian politics in fact shows a process of continuous contestation that belies the claims made by the polyarchy literature. Formal democratisation has by its very nature allowed for a counter-movement to be mobilised. The paper also examines the relationship between the kdlp and the mass labour union movement and argues that, while democracy has provided opportunities for participation by previously marginalised social forces, concomitant neoliberal restructuring has limited the development of the mass movements from which such political projects draw their strength. Thus, inquiry into the implications of democratisation for a progressive challenge to neoliberal capitalism must also extend beyond 'politics' to mass movements in the socioeconomic sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In parts of the developing world the fundamental requisite of democracy - stateness - is in recession. This paper engages the literature on failed states with regard to the implications for global democratic diffusion. The heart of the paper summarises and analyses the four main frameworks for assessing and responding to failed states. The status quo framework regards failed states as sick patients that can be revived. This state revival framework has a mixed track record, however, and many critics. The 'shared sovereignty' framework advocates quasi-permanent intervention in the most difficult cases of state failure. A third approach argues for the recognition of de facto sovereignty and the restructuring of de jure international boundaries when necessary. A fourth framework insists on a historically grounded analysis of modern statehood as a failed global project. The article's final section surveys the stateness - democracy nexus in sub-Saharan Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analytical nucleus of this paper is formed through a consideration of some primary aspects of the interconnections between a resurgent imperialism and a contested terrain of democratic politics. There are three sections: in the first part an exploratory examination of significant elements of the contemporary literature on imperialism is developed. This includes a discussion of the relationality of imperial power, the differentiation of imperiality from imperialism and the neglected importance of the agents of imperialist power. The second section attempts to tease out some of the specificities of the USA as an imperial democracy set within a broad context of North – South relations. This leads into a final discussion of the geopolitics of democratisation. The paper is an exploratory treatment of certain features of an extensive conceptual and political terrain formed by the intersections between imperialism and democratic politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the public role of mainline churches in post-apartheid South Africa and their interaction with the political discourse. The action of churches in the public sphere in the 1990s has been commonly defined as ‘critical solidarity’ and their voice was of support and alignment with the African National Congress ( anc ) position in the process of nation building. Through an analysis of political and religious discourse this paper aims to demonstrate that it is possible to identify a shift in the churches' action in the past five years, passing from a position of alignment and non-confrontation with the government to a situation of disengagement and critical opposition. This reshaped relationship highlights the internal and external difficulties of the anc in shifting from liberation to democracy. This is underscored by the generation of rhetoric and myth that preclude critical spaces, asserting the inalienable right of the anc to produce all political discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses disaster resilience in the context of disaster risk reduction. It focuses on how the Nepali state, through disaster risk reduction and resilience strategies, is reinventing the ‘diversity’ question in Nepal. Disaster risk management and disaster risk reduction are being used to create a specific form of national identity that paradoxically both segregates and excludes ethnic and traditional communities through a variety of strategies of paternalism and inclusivity. The emerging state-led use of exploiting and capturing ethnic and indigenous ‘traditional knowledge’ is part of the government’s disaster risk strategy. This is sanctioned by multilateral bodies, which further legitimates subtle practices of exclusion through state-led monitoring. This has wider implications for contested narratives on Nepali democracy and federalism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the repercussions of the apparent failure of Islamist experimentations with democracy during the Arab Spring in terms of the moderation hypotheses with a specific focus on the Egyptian case. I build on the existing arguments that repression may paradoxically moderate mainstream Islamist movements with certain caveats: when Islamists eventually come to power, their ideological vision also matters within the nexus of their strategic commitments and the on-going power struggles with other Islamist contenders. The prospects of democratisation, then, may also depend on the theoretical and political success of an Islamist political theology that accords better with rights and freedoms than a simplistic procedural democracy. Repression may indeed lead to moderation of the well-entrenched mainstream Islamist groups. However, such analyses focus only on those who remain within the fold of the mother organisation, rather than the splinter groups that break away with their more radicalised views. Under the post-Arab Spring conditions and given the Salafi factor, current views on the repression–moderation cycle must also account for the defection among certain Islamist constituencies towards jihadi or vigilante Salafism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper provides a critique of sustainable development and Agenda 21 from a variety of standpoints. Agenda 21-forged in the Rio de Janiero 'Earth Summit' in 1992-was shaped largely by Northern elites (governments in close association with large transnational corporations). Much of the environmental movement was co-opted into this process and remains profoundly weakened by its continued involvement. Agenda 21 sells a vision of global ecology which defines the major problems of the Earth in Northern elite and scientific terms (global warming, population growth, species extinction) while largely ignoring the key environmental issues as defined by the majority of the people, both in the North and the South .1 Agenda 21 has also been successful in selling a concept of sustainable development which continues to promote the Enlightenment goals of progress through economic growth and industrialisation at all costs. But it is worse than this: it also advances the globalisation of radical libertarian market systems, along with US style 'apolitical' pluralist systems of democracy. The paper concludes with the point that both sustainable development and Agenda 21 need to be rejected out of hand by environmentalists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses governance, democracy and economic adjustment in India. The first part of the paper will focus on the evolution of the role of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from an international lending institution to a supervisor and facilitator of good governance. The second part of the paper explores the relationship between democracy and economic development in India and illustrates how the World Bank and the IMF have performed a consultative and supervisory role in overseeing the implementation of structural adjustment and stabilization in India during the 1990s. It will also show that a more overtly disciplinary role has been exercised by the World Bank in environmental and resettlement policy, and in trade and intellectual property by the U.S. government and the World Trade Organization

It has become a platitude in the academic marketplace that the world has recently become more democratic. Yet the world is also increasingly divided between rich and poor. Of the more than 30 countries that have seen some sort of transition away from authoritarianism since 1974, 29 had a 1976 per capita GNP under $3,000 (p 62). That is, what has been called a global democratic revolution has taken place primarily in developing countries still badly afflicted by poverty and inequality. The purpose of this paper is to explore some recent attempts to theorise about the relationship between economic underdevelopment and democracy, and how democracy can be consolidated, in the developing world. The paper divides recent writings into three types and discusses each in turn: neo-modernisation theory, economistic approaches, and analyses of civil society. It then briefly discusses the problems of consolidating democracy in north-east Brazil, the largest region of poverty in the western hemisphere, in light of the previous theoretical discussion. The conclusion offers an overall assessment of the theoretical approaches and a summary of the problem underdevelopment poses for democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years a debate has emerged about the conditions under which justiciable legal frameworks facilitate the fulfilment of socioeconomic rights. This debate has pitted institutionalist perspectives that emphasise the progressive potential of democratisation against structuralist perspectives that emphasise the constraints imposed by relationships of power and interest. This paper considers the debate in light of Indonesia’s recent experience. It suggests that we need to examine how institutional and structural factors interac twithin particular contexts to shape socioeconomic rights fulfilment, not examine these factors in isolation. It also considers the strategic implications of this argument for rights proponents. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since the Cold War the USA has articulated and implemented explicit strategies of democracy promotion. One interesting target of such efforts is Latin America, in part because of the region’s geographic proximity to the USA and of the mixed record of US support for democracy there. This paper examines the impact of the end of the Cold War and the 9/11 episode on the nature, purposes, targets and consequences of US democracy assistance to Latin America. Examining democracy aid allocations, social and political factors and other variables, it traces changes in aid strategies, purposes and recipients generated by these paradigm shifts, and assesses the impact of such assistance on the politics of the region. It concludes with implications of these findings for US democracy promotion policies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The 21st century has witnessed increasing dissatisfaction with existing democratic institutions and processes and the growth of alternatives to representative democracy. At the same time arguments are emerging that conventional standards for evaluating democracy are ‘out of touch’ with current realities; in particular, with popular understandings, experiences and aspirations of what democracy should look like. This paper draws on empirical research in Caracas, Venezuela into how Venezuelan people understand democracy, in order to build a case that current evaluatory benchmarks are inadequate for understanding complex processes of social change based on more direct and participatory forms of democratic engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The trajectory of the liberal peacebuilding project has encountered a fundamental critique of its failure to deliver the expected sustainable peace. This paper questions the approach with which it has been, and largely still is, pursued. We reflect on a more communicative, nuanced, contextual and time-bound approach. In particular, we identify the failure of the liberal peace to localise peace and to make it a part of everyday life in Cambodia. Nevertheless, we claim that liberal peace has unintentionally created space for progress, while a ‘local turn’ has proved significant. We demonstrate empirically that certain forms of local and everyday peace have emerged for the ‘wrong’ reason, and may evolve further. Hence, a local peace has gradually sunk in, although its liberal foundations remain virtual. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the developmental causes and consequences of the shift from a parliamentary to a semi-presidential system in Sri Lanka in 1978, examining its provenance, rationale and unfolding trajectory. Drawing on a wide range of sources, it sets out an argument that the executive presidency was born out of an elite impulse to create a more stable, centralised political structure to resist the welfarist electoral pressures that had taken hold in the post-independence period, and to pursue a market-driven model of economic growth. This strategy succeeded in its early years, 1978–93, when presidents retained legislative control, maintained a strong personal commitment to market reforms and cultivated alternative sources of legitimacy. In the absence of these factors, the presidency slipped into crisis from 1994–2004 as resistance to elite-led projects of state reform mounted and as the president lost control of the legislature. Between 2005–14, the presidency regained its power, but at the cost of abandoning its original rationale and function as a means to recalibrate the elite–mass power relationship to facilitate elite-led reform agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a postcolonial critique of state sovereignty as it is understood in ir. It is argued that the colonial relation between Orient and Occident has informed the development and practice of sovereignty. The Orient has been on the losing end of this relationship, as its experiences, trajectories and sociocultural and political life have been reduced to a set of homogeneous deficiencies. The result has been to consign it to a zone of ‘Otherness’, wherein sovereignty has become synonymous with inferiority and differencevis-à-visthe Occident. In demonstrating that ir has been dominated by a Western intellectual tradition that privileges the concept of sovereignty, I will critically question the epistemological privileging of the West, and in particular of Europe, as a source of knowledge regarding state sovereignty and interrogatehowthe East–West dichotomies—eg civilised–uncivilised, modern–traditional, democratic–undemocratic—that underpin ir studies make the practice of sovereignty a ‘conditional’ virtue for non-Western states, in both theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The rise of brics presents a major challenge to the existing global order. A second category of emerging powers, which may be labelled near-brics, have also displayed increasing pro-activism in recent years in terms of influencing the regional balance of power politics, in addition to their growing presence in international organisations and global affairs. It is in this context that we aim to examine Turkey as a striking example of a ‘near-bric’ power, a country that has adopted an increasingly assertive and independent style of foreign policy with aspirations to establish itself as a major regional actor. Using the Turkish experience as a reference point, this paper aims to understand the extent to which near-bric countries possess the economic capacity, sustainable growth performance and soft-power capabilities needed to establish themselves as significant regional and global actors. The recent Turkish experience clearly highlights both the potential and the limits of regional power activism on the part of emerging powers from the ‘global South’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article aims to critically examine Rwanda's security sector reform and disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (ssr–ddr) process through a theoretical framework outlining four different models of peace processes in order to identify the sort of peace that can emerge from Rwanda's ssr–ddr approach. The author analyses how the Rwandan government has managed to keep the process ‘locally’ owned, while largely financed by external actors, despite strong criticism of its apparent lack of democratisation. The ‘genocide credit’, the Rwandan government's preference for national, rather than international solutions and its recent troop contribution to peacebuilding operations in the region are identified as the main reasons for this development. The paper argues that the peace emanating from the ssr–ddr process may be considered a hybrid form of state formation and state building, because of the local agency's preference for security and stability while simultaneously enjoying financial and technocratic support for its ‘liberal’ peacebuilding actions in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the past three decades, citizen participation has been heralded as the hallmark of democracy and economic transparency. Yet citizen participation has not been limited to political and economic processes. In this paper I consider the incorporation of participatory measures in an arena frequently overlooked: security provision. I trace the origins, evolution and effects of efforts to increase citizen participation in security provision in Colombia. Despite notorious images of paramilitary forces, guerrilla insurgents and vigilante groups, citizen participation in security provision tends to be banal, boring and not particularly effective, as average people attend local meetings, work through state bureaucracy, and comply with new policy initiatives. I argue that insecurity in Colombia is neither a product of apathetic citizens nor of violent, uncontrollable mobs, but rather part and parcel of an emerging form of governance in which citizens are made responsible for their own security provision. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With Nicaragua's Sandinista People's Revolution (1979–90) as an ideological reference point, this paper adopts an historical approach to a theorisation of the contemporary (re)construction of popular power in Latin America and the Caribbean through the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America–Peoples' Trade Agreement (alba–tcp). At the core of the analysis is the Venezuelan government's concept of ‘protagonistic revolutionary democracy’ which, by drawing on Marxist direct democracy and CB Macpherson's participatory democracy, can be understood as the definitional foundation of the envisioned ‘21st century socialism’. Mechanisms for the exercise of direct democracy and of participatory democracy promotion are identified at the national and regional scales, through which the alba–tcp emerges as a counter-hegemonic governance regime composed of two dialectically interrelated forces: the ‘state-in-revolution’ and the ‘organised society’. They drive the regionalisation of ‘revolutionary democracy’, thus (re)constructing popular power in the production of the alba–tcp space. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Citizenship is the cornerstone of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's democratic security policy. In this paper I ask what kind of citizen is formed under this policy. I examine the premises of citizenship when implemented under the double logic of democracy and security, drawing upon the thoughts of Hannah Arendt and Michel Foucault. My conclusion is that in Colombia the tensions between security and democracy are resolved with a bias towards the security rather than the democracy side of the equation. The consequence is the formation of a citizen less inclined to claim his or her rights politically and more prone to 'voluntary obedience' in return for protection; rather than a lasting peace this engenders a continuation of the barbarisms, this time in the name of securing citizens. I point out that the answers to these contradictions are found in the resistance movements of indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities, peasants, peace communities and the movement of victims of all armed actors. I suggest a framework for analysis inspired by decolonial thinkers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africanists must increasingly account for disparities in the success of the continent's democratic experiments. This paper addresses why three countries—Benin, Ghana and Mali—have become surprisingly successful democracies. The argument begins with the leftist (African socialist) regimes in each case, which set the countries on a path with unintended consequences that supported democratisation over the long run. Several key steps emerge. The leftist regimes were led by minority presidents who attempted ideological incorporation in ways that attenuated the political salience of ethnic identity. Results differed from other African regimes in the ways that neo-patrimonialism interacted with ethnicity. At Africa's critical juncture (1989-92), the lack of a dominant ethno-patrimonial coalition opened political space for more programmatic contestation. Opposition became likelier to coalesce and cohere on non-ethnic bases, and combined with constitutional militaries to make these cases among the likeliest to consolidate democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the mechanisms of democratisation leading to the formation of pseudo-democratic political systems in the contemporary Muslim world. It is argued that pseudo-democracies in the Muslim world are created and strengthened by the structural opposition between three types of democratic doctrines, social practices and institutional mechanisms inspired by liberalism, republicanism and Islamism. Departing from the usual instrumentalist analyses that dominate the democratisation literature, this account emphasises that pseudo-democratic regimes are not simply an expedient fallback position from liberal democratic systems but dynamic political orders based on alternative notions of democracy. It is argued that what is specific to the Muslim world as a socio-historical construct is that pseudo-democracies are produced by the evolving stalemate between the three abovementioned political currents. In these polities liberal democratic discourses and practices are undermined by non-liberal yet demotic forms of social mobilisation and political learning that are more effective than laissez-faire models of liberal political mobilisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Select responses to the January 2001 uprising against the government of President Josef 'Erap' Estrada in the Philippines demonstrate a great deal about certain contradictions and paradoxes implicit in neoliberal conceptions of democratic governance. This paper presents a critique of these conceptions, based on a radical democratic outlook. Dubbed EDSA II -- given its location at the same place as the 1986 Epifanio de los Santos uprising against President Ferdinand Marcos -- the uprising resulted in Estrada's replacement by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and a different faction of the Philippine political elite. Despite never seriously threatening the hold and influence of traditional political elites in the Philippines, the uprising was criticised by some Western commentators. Their criticisms were founded on mistaken interpretations of events and are a reflection of these commentators' increasing reluctance to endorse any forms of popular political mobilisation and resistance. Their reluctance is a reflection of their neoliberal conception of democratic governance, which privileges the building of institutions to promote market efficiency over issues of power and social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent discussions in development have moved away from holistic theorisation towards more localised, empirical and inductive approaches. In development practice there has been a parallel move towards local 'participation' and 'empowerment', which has produced, albeit with very different agendas, a high level of agreement between actors and institutions of the 'new' Left and the 'new' Right. This paper examines the manifestations of this move in four key political arenas: decentralised service delivery, participatory development, social capital formation and local development, and collective actions for 'radical democracy'. We argue that, by focusing so heavily on 'the local', the see manifestations tend to underplay both local inequalities and power relations as well as national and transnational economic and political forces. Following from this, we advocate a stronger emphasis on the politics of the local, ie on the political use of 'the local' by hegemonic and counter-hegemonic interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkey's fast-paced democratic backsliding has attracted unprecedented scholarly interest from observers both inside and outside the country. Among various labels proposed to define Turkey's new regime type, 'competitive authoritarianism' (CA) has by far outdistanced its rivals. As plenty of time has passed since its coinage, it is timely to commence a scholarly discussion on the appropriateness of the term. Our analysis reveals that the CA argument comes with three major shortcomings when applied to the case of Turkey. First, although its proponents discuss the concept adequately and seem to find abundant evidence to convince most of their audience, they undertake little, if any, theoretical discussion to show why CA is more plausible than its alternatives. Second, although the party system is generally regarded as the main indicator of a certain regime type, the link between the two remains un(der)-explored. Third, the mechanism leading to the transition to CA is not fully identified. We conclude that experts have jumped on the CA bandwagon, dubbing Turkey's authoritarian regime competitive authoritarian without sufficient conceptual sophistication; this has proved deleterious rather than beneficial to the relevant literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the 'unipolar moment' of the 1990s, the emerging multipolar world order has brought a new environment for regional organisations, which they are adjusting to. Mercosur and Visegrad Group, with semi-peripheral member states, are both categorised as intermediate regions with close institutionalised and cultural links to the Western world, while structural political and economic features distinguish them from the core regions. Carrying out a comparative analysis, the article's research question is: How have leadership, objectives and actorness changed in the case of Mercosur and Visegrad Group since 2000 as a response to the changing world order? A case study analysis explains the similarities and differences between Mercosur's and Visegrad Group's responses to and performance in the changing world order. Criticisms towards the traditional partners, shifting agendas, a search for alternatives beyond the Western model of market democracy and building links with emerging partners are the most essential similarities of Mercosur's and Visegrad Group's responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The complex relationship between democracy and development has been extensively discussed in academic literature. However, we do not have much knowledge of how this translates into donor practices. How does the European Commission (ec) deal with tensions arising from promoting democracy and development? To answer this question, this article operationalises the distinction between ‘democracy promoters’ and ‘developmental donors’, focusing specifically on budget support and governance incentive tranches. Empirically we examine the implementation of the ec’s budget support and Governance Incentive Tranche in Ethiopia (2005–10), a case where the dilemma between democracy promotion and development cooperation is particularly strong. Investigating the position of the ec along the democracy promoter versus developmental donor continuum, we conclude that the ec’s position lies between these extremes. However, in the case of budget support, a shift has been made away from the Commission being a democracy promoter and towards the role of developmental donor. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

What type of democracy is multi-ethnic India, and how has it maintained territorial unity since Independence? I argue that India is best coded as a 'crypto-ethnic democracy', in contrast to traditional 'consensual' and 'consociational' interpretations, specifically in relation to its peripheral religious/ethnic minority groups. This argument is demonstrated through three interrelated themes: (1) nation/state-building, legitimating ideology and nationality construction; (2) ethnofederalism, regional political parties and ethnic peace accords; and (3) national security legislation, human rights and state-sponsored pogroms. The new conceptual formulation of 'crypto-ethnic democracy' integrates 'control' with both 'consensus' and 'consociationalism' within democracy. 'Crypto-ethnic democracy' also adds to existing typologies of multi-ethnic democracies, including differentiating the de facto dynamics of 'control' from the de jure institutions identified in traditional models of 'ethnic democracy'. It is argued that the concept of 'crypto-ethnic democracy' has significant conceptual and comparative value for scholars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the phenomenon of democracy assistance by examining Organization of American States (OAS ) efforts to restore and promote democracy in Haiti between 1990 and 2000. The case study reveals that marked contradictions emerged as the organisation tried to promote a democratic outcome while both supporting and facilitating the workings of a profoundly undemocratic economic and trading system. Because the OAS has proclaimed its commitment to advancing democracy as well as its support for economic and trade liberalisation, privatisation of national industries, and a deeper insertion of the region's economies into global markets, it provides an excellent vantage point from which to explore this form of political intervention. The article concludes by reflecting on the recent fall of the country's ill-fated president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide and, in keeping with the theme of this piece, it examines the role of the OAS and other international actors in shaping events leading up to the collapse of his government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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, organised 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. From the survey data it was found that citizens of sub-Saharan African countries understand democracy in its liberal form – ensuring civil liberties and personal freedoms. Furthermore, it was noted that those who are religious are more likely to be civically engaged than those who are unaffiliated, and in time, this can contribute to addressing the liberal deficit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What shapes political parties' direction of change on the political spectrum? Under what conditions do Islamist movements moderate or shift towards a more radical stance? Drawing on the case of the Ennahda Party in Tunisia, I argue that transformation of the Islamist parties should be analysed on par with that of the secular parties, by focussing on the parties' popular base and the target electorate rather than through a moderation–radicalisation framework. I find that Ennahda's shift to Muslim democracy, self-defined as specialisation, is owed to their need to be backed by the new urban middle class in order to rule while maintaining the support of the rural and urban poor to come to power. Through field interviews conducted with the members of Tunisian political parties as well as union leaders and activists, I show that the secular parties are going through a similar process under the pressure of the spatial and class-related dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Around the world, legislatures are dominated by politicians who are wealthier and more educated than their constituents. This is particularly so in developing democracies, where clientelist politics and wealth inequalities make it difficult for lower-class citizens to run for office. We contribute to scholarly debates about the substantive consequences of descriptive inequality by analysing a new and important case – Indonesia, the world's third most populous democracy. Indonesian politicians have much higher levels of education and income than citizens, and they are more likely to have professional backgrounds. To explore the implications of these inequalities, we survey and compare politicians' and voters' positions on a range of economic policy issues. We find the views of Indonesian politicians are generally more congruent with those of upper-class voters. However, we also find variation across policy areas. There is much cross-class agreement on statist interventions like price controls – in part reflecting politicians' dependence upon the state; however, the gap between voters and politicians widens substantially on the issue of economic redistribution. Upper-class biases within Indonesian legislatures thus obscure a large lower-class constituency in favour of a more redistributive economic regime, a consituency largely unrepresented by Indonesia's parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 utilise primary source material from the University of Ghana National Reconciliation Commission collection to 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 while simultaneously being a vehicle for illegitimacy by providing constrained opportunities for individual nepotism, grassroots empowerment and claim-making against the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]