Regenerating the City: People,Politics, Power and the Public Sphere

Abstract

The transformative potential that has come to be associated with networking in all areas of social, economic and political life, not least initiatives designed to tackle urban deprivation, is premised upon the idea that better outcomes prevail when state, market and civil society actors work together in partnership to agree and implement change. Such a perspective is informed by two underlying and related assumptions; first, an understanding of democracy as being essentially deliberative in nature; second, an understanding of social and political change as being essentially consensus based. An agonistic model and alternative explanation questioning these assumptions and the ‘transformative’ claims made on behalf of partnership is presented in this article. In contrast to what is termed a ‘neo-liberal orthodox’ approach an alternative interpretation of regeneration located within a radical conceptualisation of civil society is proposed. Regeneration, it is argued, is better conceptualised in terms of contestation between state, market and third-sector interests with better outcomes for communities prevailing when third-sector actors develop the legitimacy and power to engage politically within the context of a contested public sphere.     

Critiquing Liberal Cosmopolitanism? The Limits of the Biopolitical Approach

Today there is a widespread recognition of the erosion of political community on the territorial basis of the nation-state. Instead, alternative framings of "being" political or of engaging in politics have argued for a more radical post-territorial space of political possibilities, of what it means to be political, and of how we envision political community. Through focusing on the two dominant articulations of post-territorial political community, liberal cosmopolitan and radical poststructuralist approaches, this article seeks to analyze the possibilities and limitations inherent in the search for political community beyond the boundaries of the nation-state. The aspiration to engage in, construct, or recognize the existence of a post-territorial political community, a community of broader humanity, has been articulated in liberal terms as cosmopolitanism, driven by global civil society, and in poststructuralist terms as "political cosmopolitanism,""cosmopolitanism-to-come" or the "solidarity of the governed," given its force by the creativity of the resistance to liberal universalism of the "multitude." This article seeks to draw out the similarities between these two contrasting approaches, ostensibly based upon either the extension of or the critique of liberal political ontologies.     

Canada's views on North‐South negotiations

This article assesses the recent embrace of the concept 'civil society' within development discourses, both conceptually and in the context of the construction of civil society in El Salvador. It challenges the tendency to generalise about civil society, warning against its glorification as a panacea. In a critique of the liberal approach to civil society, commonly used among international agencies, the discussion highlights how civil society organisations in El Salvador are fragmented politically, socially, but also geographically. Furthermore, civil society is not a unified entity with its constituent organisations working towards common goals. Nor may it be created or imposed from above by governments or donors. Instead it comprises a diverse range of competing groups grounded in different historical, political and geographical circumstances. While it is suggested that fostering civil society is a useful aspiration, it is essential that the concept also be recognised as contested.     

What kind of capitalism for Russia?: A comparative analysis

Post-communist governing elites had a vision of a transition to a type of society characterised by wealth, markets, private ownership, democracy and civil society. The transformation in Russia is analyzed in terms of company structure, economic outcomes and patterns of social integration, elite and class fragmentation. On the basis of a comparative political economy, different models of capitalism are defined (competitive or market-led and cooperative or negotiated). The Russian economy is defined as a perverse chaotic social formation. It is contended that policy should move towards a state-led “negotiated” type of capitalist system.     

Getting Armed Groups to the Table: peace processes,the political economy of conflict and the mediated state

Abstract

This article connects the literature on the political economy of conflict with the mediation of peace processes and elaborates the conceptual and practical value offered by this perspective. It shows that armed conflicts and groups have economic dimensions that should be recognised and managed in peace processes. An economic perspective helps to understand the multiple disputes within an armed conflict, the disposition of armed groups to engage, and the economic interests of the parties. Focusing on mediated states opens new avenues of engagement through perceiving alternative sub-state authorities and economic networks as an opportunity for dispute resolution. Overall the political economy of conflict and the mediated state offer new vantage points to shape the planning and management of peace processes.     

When States Implode: The Correlates of Africa’s civil wars, 1950–92

This article provides a systematic analysis of the extent to which political, economic, and cultural factors are associated with civil wars in sub-Saharan African states. Drawing on a theoretical argument that associates the likelihood of civil war with the tumult that arises from the simultaneous challenges of state building and nation building, several testable propositions are derived on the correlates of African civil wars. Results of logistic regression analyses indicate that previous colonial experience is a significant predictor to the likelihood of civil wars. It is also found that economic development reduces the probability of civil war while militarization increases it. Regime type played no significant role in African civil wars. Similarly, no support was found for the thesis that cultural factors are significantly associated with African civil war, which belies the notion that African civil wars are simply “ethnic conflicts.” It appears that politico-economic factors—instead of cultural ones—give rise to civil wars in Africa. Errol A. Henderson, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Political Science, Wayne State University. He has published articles on international war, foreign policy, domestic conflict, and international political economy inInternational Studies Quarterly, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Peace Research, Journal of Politics, Peace & Change, andWorld Affairs.     

Between development and the state: Recasting South Korean dirigisme

This article offers an alternative understanding and a critique of how South Korea's development has been interpreted by various scholars. The proponents of developmental state overlook the fact that South Korean dirigisme harmed equity, democracy, social cohesion, and thus the people's ability to take the initiative and form a viable civil society. By considering how the state meddled with the economy as a deliberately selected course, an analysis can be made of the dysfunction of developmental statism or “diseased” dirigisme. The inequity between the deprivations suffered by small firm operators and other citizens and the gains reaped by a few business conglomerates (or chaebol), remains symptomatic of South Korea's dirigiste disease. The dominant themes in the current economic discourses are privatisation, marketisation, deregulation and the rolling‐back of the welfare state. However, liberalising the economy without state reform may aggravate the dirigiste disease in South Korea. By linking the state‐led and people‐centred arguments, this article provides a fresh discourse on principles of policy‐making and state‐action to broaden the valuation of development beyond economic efficiency or competitiveness.     

Disaffection and Revolts in Nigeria During the First World War, 1914–1918

In 2012, roughly 23 million people in sub-Saharan Africa were infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Religious responses to the disease have ranged from condemnation of people with HIV to the development of innovative AIDS-related services. This article utilises insights from the social movement literature about collective identity, framing, resources, and opportunity structures to interrogate religious mobilisation against HIV/AIDS. It demonstrates that mobilisation cannot be divorced from factors such as state–civil society relations, Africa's dependence on foreign aid, or the continent's poverty. Religious HIV/AIDS activities must be analysed in a conceptual space between a civil society/politics approach and a service-provider/anti-politics framework. That is, religious mobilisation may at times seek to engage the public realm to shape policies, while at other times it may shun politics in its provision of services. Case studies that illustrate these themes and demonstrate the multi-faceted interactions between religion and HIV/AIDS are included.     

Embedded Activism 2.0: Re-shaping the Space for Civil Society in Russia and China

Abstract

NGOs have been seen as an integral part of civil society and a necessary feature of democratic transition. It has been argued that depoliticised NGOs in China ‘embedded’ in existing political structures would eventually bring about democratic changes through incremental actions, as they did in post-Soviet Russia. Both countries, however, recently witnessed the shrinking of political and legal space for public participation, especially for foreign-funded civil society organisations. This article analyses the impact of the NGO laws on civil society in Russia and China to update the embedded activism hypothesis. It draws on empirical data to describe the strategies that the NGOs use to adapt and how the future of the sector is perceived by young people in both countries.     

The Changing Facets of Public Administration in the United Arab Emirates

ABSTRACT

This article is an in-depth profile of the public administration system in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It specifically focuses on the relationship between the state, the market and civil society, the structure of the government and the civil service system and its functional areas. Reform initiatives undertaken in all these areas over the last decade have also been discussed. The findings reveal that the public administration system in the UAE has demonstrated considerable developments in facilitating the market forces, opening space for civil society and modernizing the civil service system.     

Democracy Through the Lens of 1989: Liberal Triumph or Radical Turn?

In a political reading, 1989 has been predominantly interpreted from a liberal point of view, and its impact has primarily been taken as strengthening the liberal-democratic idea of a political community. The year 1989 is, however, not reducible to a mere confirmation of a universal status of liberal democracy, rather, a reverse reading—i.e., the recognition of the emergence of innovative, radical democratic ideas and practices from the East—is equally important to do full justice to the complex events of 1989. As a set of ideas (more specifically, dissident thought) as well as a set of practices (negotiation, self-limitation, and constitution-making), 1989 has provided important inspiration for innovation in the normative political theory of democracy, even if on the margins. The essay starts with a brief enquiry into the widespread triumphalist thesis of liberal democracy and continues by arguing that a more radical reading of 1989—in particular in the form of the radical notions of civil society and dissidence—is equally possible. The notion of “self-democratizing civil society” offers important ways of preserving the radical legacy of East-Central European dissidence. The idea of self-democratizing civil society should, however, be read together with the ideas of radical self-limitation, an anti-revolutionary understanding of revolution, pluralistic sovereignty, and an ethic of dissent in order for one to fully appreciate its innovative potential for the radical reinvigoration of modern democracies.     

The dilemmas of market socialism: Capital market reform in China ‐ part II: Shares

This two‐part article analyses the attempts to reform the socialist financial system in China by diversifying financial assets and introducing capital markets. The approach used is that of political economy, in the sense of elucidating the interplay between political and economic interests, actors and issues in the reform process.

Part I discusses the issue of bonds by governments and enterprises. Although the reform era has seen gradual progress towards something resembling a bond ‘market’ in terms of a diversification of bond types and growing competition between bond issues, there is no evidence that this has improved allocative efficiency in the economy. Rather, bonds have functioned as one instrument in a complex struggle for resources between political, institutional and economic actors in the context of a continuing ‘shortage economy’. This competitive system falls far short of a true ‘market'; rather it embodies powerful systemic factors reflecting the basic structural and institutional features of a semi‐reformed socialist economy.

One of these systemic factors is the institution of social ownership of the means of production which has been called into question by the emergence of shares and share markets, a process we discuss in Part II. Share issues have in the event been economically unimportant but politically important since they challenge the ideological and institutional underpinnings of a ‘socialist’ economy. The key to the future of this form of financial liberalisation depends not merely on further progress in complementary areas of economic reform policy, but also on a resolution of these fundamental political issues.     

Remapping development in light of globalisation: From a territorial to a social cartography

This article assesses the state of development studies in the wake of the 'impasse' that the field reached in the 1980s and suggests that the way forward is to 'deterritorialise' the concept of development. The first part critically assesses recent new perspectives and middle-range theories and focuses in particular on neoliberal and institutional approaches as hegemonic discourses. The myriad of new approaches offers limited and competing explanations for social change in the current epoch. The second part argues that globalisation, by modifying the reference points of macrosocial analysis, is responsible for development studies' paradigmatic quagmire. A sociology of national development is no longer tenable. The way out of the 'impasse' is to break with nation-state centred analysis by reconsidering the relationship between space and development and by reconceiving development based not on territory but on transnational social groups. Drawing on critical geographies and recent political economy theories of flexible accumulation and globalisation, it suggests that transnationalised labour markets exhibit an increasing heterogeneity across borders and that differentiated participation in these transnational labour markets in each locale comes to determine social development. The article emphasises the political nature of development theory and calls for a critical globalisation studies.     

Rebellion in Gojam Province,Ethiopia

This article explores how and why the church in South Africa became an important civil society space and actor at the height of the anti-apartheid struggle and yet its civil society role declined following the unbanning of the African National Congress (ANC) and the release of political prisoners such as Nelson Mandela. It does this by engaging in a discussion of the nature of the South African church as civil society, followed by a consideration of the church's role at various points during the democratic transition. Specifically, it explores the church as a “site of struggle” during the late stages of the anti-apartheid struggle, as engaging in mediation and negotiation during the democratic transition, and as returning to a predominantly religious organisation in the post-apartheid era. It concludes with a discussion of the reasons for and implications of the church's decreased role in public and political life following the transition from apartheid to non-racial democracy.     

Civil Society,the Economy,and Educational Assistance in Former Soviet Republics

Abstract

Liberal democracies throughout the world are committed to civil society in support of market economics and democratic politics. Through educational assistance programs, the U.S. government demonstrates this commitment by attempting to reinvigorate civil society in former Soviet republics and Eastern European countries in support of their economic and political reform efforts. Of particular interest are the Community Connections and Partners in Education programs conducted by the U.S. Department of State for interns from the former Soviet republics or now Eurasia, who participate in business and other professional internships in various locations in the U.S., including Northern Alabama.     

The Contingencies of Societal Accountability: Examining the Link Between Civil Society and Good Government

Corruption interferes with and distorts the processes of political decision making and implementation, often to the disadvantage of the already disadvantaged. Yet our understanding of the factors that might propel a political system from lower to higher levels of probity remains speculative. This article examines the role of one category of actors often touted as an important countervailing force to political power: civil society. Existing case study research provides evidence that civil society can play a decisive role in holding public officials accountable, but that the success of such societal accountability is contingent upon a number of favorable contextual and institutional conditions. The analyses presented here use panel country data to examine whether the strength of civil society affects corruption. The results corroborate the findings of existing case studies; a vibrant civil society mitigates corruption but only provided that conditions such as political competition, press freedom, and government transparency exist in the country.     

Intolerant Policies and Discourses in Northern Italian Cities

In 2008, several local authorities in Italy implemented policies that aimed at limiting the socioeconomic and civil rights of migrants, especially in those regions administered by the North League party. This article analyzes these local policies and the discourses to support or oppose them. It shows that three main intolerant arguments are used by their supporters, which refer to security, welfare provisions, and national identity. In contrast with these dominant discourses, civil society actors construct a counterdiscourse based on respect for human rights.     

Conflicting Patterns of Thought in the Russian Debate on Transition: 2003–2007

This article is a continuation of two essays by the same author on Soviet and Russian economic debates between 1987 and 2002 published in Europe-Asia Studies in 2006 and 2007. In the most recent phase of these debates, between 2003 and 2007, as in previous phases, the questions raised went far beyond the usual realm of economics. The questions raised included whether Russia should attempt to become a ‘Western’ country marked by democracy and a market economy serving the individual interests of its citizens or whether it was more important to become a great power again; whether Western patterns of political and economic life are suitable for Russia or whether the attempt to import foreign institutional structures is doomed to failure, making it necessary for Russia to find her own way. The discussion here is based on a qualitative content analysis of the most important economic journals and selected monographs.     

Civil society and spaces for natural resource governance in Kenya

Abstract

In the Kenyan context of new resource discoveries and an ambitious devolution programme, and what is argued to be a shrinking of civic space globally, the role of civil society organisations (CSOs) working on natural resource governance is critical. The resilience, space and capacity of civil society to engage in the policy process, from community-based organisations to national non-governmental organisations, all shape outcomes in terms of legislation, policy and management of scarce resources. Drawing on interviews with CSOs from across Kenya, following the new 2010 constitution and devolution programme, this article explores how new negotiated spaces of participation around resource governance have emerged in Kenya. Using multidimensional frameworks to analyse power relations, it explores how Kenyan CSOs are cautiously redefining roles, offering expertise when devolved governments struggle, and standing up to powerful interests of corporate lobbies with varying degrees of success.