The ‘Arab Uprising’, Islamists and Democratization

This article surveys political activities of selected Islamists in three Arab countries in the Mediterranean region: Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco. Each is notable for recent growth in Islamist political activity in the context of democratization (Tunisia, Egypt) and political liberalization (Morocco). Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco are undergoing political changes consequent to the recent ‘Arab uprising’. The ‘Arab uprising’ involved country-specific yet variable outbursts of popular political anger, although not necessarily with a clear and consistent democratizing focus. Generally, protests focused on interrelated political and socio-economic demands, including: greater ‘freedoms’, improved human rights, better social justice and economic progress, especially more jobs for millions of unemployed youths. The aim of the article is to explain recent developments in relation to the ‘Arab uprising’ in three Mediterranean Arab countries – Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco. The purpose is to complement the individual foci on these countries in subsequent papers in this special issue by providing a thematic overview and to locate the activities of Islamist entities in Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco in comparative context.     

Neoliberalism and Academia in Morocco

This article analyses the impact of international aid flows and the process of global market integration in Morocco on the role of academia—meaning research, teaching and intellectual debate conducted largely, but not solely, through publications and conferences—in social and political change. Drawing upon interviews and analysis of secondary sources, the article suggests that international development agencies working in Morocco and national policy strategies to further globalisation have had consequences for academic research and outputs as well as on intellectual debate in general. The first effect is to support the cultivation of an academic elite in the social sciences and humanities whose research agenda is often connected to national and international policy agendas and, likewise, to limit the evolution of a broader-based national or regional academic debate based on independent research. The second is to raise the importance of private higher education, which is focused for the most part on teaching and not on independent research. The impact of both has been to undermine the status of the academic profession and the role of higher education in pushing forward public debate on critical issues beyond programmatic concerns, for instance illiteracy or migration; and to address more fundamental questions, such as adherence to neoliberal policies or the pervasiveness of political and social alienation in Morocco. More importantly, the decline of public higher education has symbolic significance in that it reflects disassociation of the state from supporting a connection between craft, identity and citizenship. Taking into account the consequences of the impoverishment of higher education for training, research and critical analysis, the article ends by calling on aid agencies to regard academic research and public universities as means to reinvigorate public debate and new thinking around national and local development issues.     

Shifting Priorities or Business as Usual? Continuity and Change in the post-2011 IMF and World Bank Engagement with Tunisia,Morocco and Egypt

Following the popular uprisings that erupted across North Africa in 2010 and 2011, international financial institutions have embarked on a significant re-engagement with governments in Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt. New lending arrangements and project initiatives by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, in particular, have emphasised a supposed turn towards pro-poor policies, social inclusion and public engagement with economic decision-making. This article analyses the content and logic of IMF and World Bank lending to these three countries, examining whether this re-engagement represents a substantive shift away from the neoliberal policies that characterised pre-2011 IFI relationships with the region.     

Change and Continuity after the Arab Uprising: The Consequences of State Formation in Arab North African States

This article provides a comparative macro-level overview of political development in Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt. It examines their evolution from the colonial period through several distinct phases, showing how differences in their origins were followed over time by a certain convergence towards a common post-populist form of authoritarianism, albeit still distinguished according to monarchic and republican legitimacy principles. On this basis, it assesses how past state formation trajectories made the republics more vulnerable to the Arab uprising but also what differences they make for the prospects of post-uprising democratisation. While in Morocco the monarch's legitimacy allows it to continue divide-and-rule politics, in Egypt the army's historic central role in politics has been restored, while in Tunisia the trade union movement has facilitated a greater democratic transition.     

Grassroots Bureaucracy: Intergovernmental Relations and Popular Mobilization in Brazil's AIDS Policy Sector

How does the state ensure the implementation of national policies in a context of decentralized political authority? This article identifies a new strategy utilized by national bureaucrats to regulate the behavior of subnational politicians: mobilizing civil society as government watchdog and political advocate. In the context of decentralized governance, in which local politicians administer most social sector programs, reform‐minded bureaucrats often find that they have little control over the implementation of their progressive policies. In Brazil's AIDS policy sector, however, bureaucrats have ensured the successful implementation of their policies by developing allies outside government. These state actors—here called activist bureaucrats—have been largely overlooked in the English‐language literature, yet they form a new layer of politics in Latin America.     

Democracy,Civil Liberties and the Role of Religion after the Arab Awakening: Constitutional Reforms in Tunisia and Morocco

The electoral results following the Arab Awakening have rewarded Islamist parties in Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco. Their arrival in power sparked once more intense scholarly and policy debates related to the relationship between Islamism, democracy and individual rights. This article examines that relationship in the context of the constitutional debates in Morocco and Tunisia, which have seen the prominent role of Islamist parties in attempting to shape the new constitutional charters. What emerges from this analysis is that, in the parties examined, pragmatism plays a greater role than fixed ideological positions.     

Exemptions from Compulsory Income Management: A Short “History of the Present”

The historical study of exemptions has focused on escape from protectionist policies designed to control and monitor Aboriginal people in Australia — restricting their freedom of movement, intruding into their family life, and reducing their ability to participate on equal terms in the labour force. In this paper, we consider a contemporary policy — income management — which primarily restricts the freedom to dispose of personal income and has targeted Aboriginal people and communities, both directly and indirectly. Provisions for individual exemptions have been incorporated inconsistently within the many iterations of income management, and Aboriginal people are significantly less likely than others to be granted an exit from this form of financial control. The study reported here is an example of mixed-methods social research, rather than an historiography. We use techniques of historical comparison to illuminate contemporary practices and identify the ongoing influence of settler-colonial governance in the lives of Aboriginal people.     

"We Came to Tell the Truth": Reflections On The Tokyo Women's Tribunal

This article analyzes the development agenda Western donors have been operating on over the past decade, particularly the agenda's focus on good governance. After analyzing the academic background of this agenda, which is most evident in so-called new institutional economics, the article discusses the change in the discourse on development assistance toward selectivity, and its implementation in the policies of the International Development Association, the United States, and the Netherlands. The analysis of the policies of these three donors, and of recent empirical studies demonstrates that the donors are biased in favor of rewarding certain policies—in particular, pro-market and trade-oriented policies—on the part of aid-receiving countries. The donors have, thus, introduced clearly ideological and political elements about the socioeconomic order into a seemingly technocratic discussion about the prerequisites of governance. Because of the emphasis on market orientation and trade openness as central criteria for the judging of “good governance,” the current development assistance agenda is located explicitly in the domain of the post-Washington consensus, which links the promotion of pro-market policies to the implementation of an agenda of political reform. The article concludes by pointing out several ambiguities in the current focus on good governance. In particular, the author argues that donors tend to emphasize the instrumental value of governance and overlook the underlying structural causes of bad governance in developing countries.     

Nationalist in a Liberal Order: Why Populism Missed Japan

In the past few years, many wealthy democracies have exhibited significant backlash against the liberal international order. Why has Japan—also a leader of this order—remained comparatively calm? I argue that though Japan was a prominent member of the liberal international order, in many ways it pursued policies far less liberal than those of its partners. Japanese trade policies (lingering trade barriers in in agriculture and non-tariff barriers in industrial sector) protected different sectors of the Japanese economy. Where Japan did liberalize, the government upheld the social compact of extending benefits to dislocated workers. Furthermore, Japan’s strict immigration policy contrasts with far more welcoming immigration policies in Europe and the United States. Tokyo deferred to public skepticism about immigration (rather than disregarding it, as did American and European leaders). The more nationalist agenda of a leading liberal state is critical for understanding both the roots of the current crisis in the liberal international order—and how it might be saved.     

CITIZEN PARTICIPATION IN SAUDI ARABIA: A STUDY OF THE MINISTRY OF LABOUR

The effects of Arab Spring led to widespread dissent among Saudi citizens, culminating in governmental fear of civil revolt. Thus, the Ministry of Labour introduced many developmental policies such as localisation, women employment that aimed to develop the country and satisfy the needs of citizens to offset rising inflation. These policies were said to be in the best interests of Saudi citizens. This study has therefore intended to investigate the extent to which the Ministry of Labour engaged and consulted with its citizens prior to the introduction of those policies. This study found that Saudi citizens participated via social dialogues, together, social media and digital communication in democratic governance. However, there is a gap in the perceptions of the Saudi elite and citizens regarding the significance of citizen participation in Saudi governance. It was discussed that complete democratic governance cannot be adopted due to autocratic nature of Saudi Arabia.     

APEC,globalization, and 9/11

The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) has, in the main, been based on attempts to advance neoliberal ideas about economic governance, although this has stimulated a great deal of controversy and resistance. Having failed—despite much effort—to entrench neoliberalism within APEC the United States and other “Western” members of APEC are now “securitizing” economic policy in an effort to reconfigure the Asia Pacific along lines favored by major capitalist players in the region. Critics argue that this securitization of economics is simply a tactical effort to bring in through the back door policies that APEC members have resisted in the past. Faced with the prospect of not getting its own way through straight trade negotiations within APEC, Washington appears to be promoting measures — “urgently needed in the name of security”—that might never have been accepted otherwise. At the same time, a twin strategy of pursuing bilateral trade negotiations with key APEC states is threatening the multilateral nature of the body, further emasculating APEC's position as a serious trade body.     

Neoliberalism,the State and Economic Policy Outcomes in the Post-Arab Uprisings: The Case of Egypt

Despite the radical upheavals during the revolution of 2011 whereby the Egyptian public rejected neoliberalism and authoritarianism, Egypt has reverted back to the neoliberal model of economic development. This paper discusses the reasons behind the resilience of neoliberalism focusing on the role of dominant economic ideas, the influence of international financial institutions in policy making and the challenging domestic political environment, which has so far precluded a break from the neoliberal model. The paper ends with a critical assessment of current policies and their broader social implications for different classes and groups in Egypt.     

Europeanization as a Democratization Tool? The Case of Morocco

This paper applies the Europeanization ‘toolkit’ to EU democratization policies in Morocco within the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) framework. To this aim, the bottom-up and top-down dimensions of EU?Morocco relations are analysed diachronically both before and after the Arab Spring. The analysis shows that the Moroccan ruling elite has used the anchor to the EU as a survival strategy and that the EU has merely responded to Moroccan political liberalization rather than having influenced it. Therefore, the paper debates the extent to which the very notion of Europeanization might be used with respect to democratization policies in Morocco, and it shows an overturning of the sender?receiver relationship proving that Europeanization has been used instrumentally rather than having any autonomous supportive effect on democratization.     

The Project of Advanced Regionalisation in Morocco: Analysis of a Lampedusian Reform

This article examines the project of advanced regionalisation in Morocco, in which the King Mohammed VI plays a key role. Through a comparative analysis of the adjustments and resiliencies of the project, contrasted with previous regionalisation reforms, the article contends that contention dynamics in Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt have had a relevant impact on the way in which the project made its way in the Moroccan institutional sphere. The article finds that the eruption of the Arab Uprisings in North Africa and protests in Morocco has been a key factor in paradoxically fostering the king's power, allowing him to consolidate himself as the unique driving force behind the reform of regional administration.     

Party competition in the Middle East: spatial competition in the post-Arab Spring era

This paper charts the nature of political cleavage between major parties in post-Arab Spring elections in five Mediterranean region countries, with data from online opt-in surveys. We compare the Moroccan elections, held under a consolidated authoritarian regime, with the transitional cases of Tunisia and Egypt as well as the more mature democracies of Turkey and Israel. Voter opinions are obtained on 30 salient issues, and parties and voters are aligned along two dimensions. We trace country-specific cleavage patterns and reflections of party system maturity in these five countries. The cases of Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco reveal that in less settled cleavage structures there is little congruence between vote propensities for parties and agreement levels with policy positions compared to the more institutionalized democracies of Israel and Turkey where voters exhibit a higher likelihood to vote for a party as the distance between the voter and the party in the policy space gets smaller.     

Egypt’s 2011–2012 parliamentary elections: Voting for religious vs. secular democracy?

This study investigates whether individuals’ attitudes towards democracy and secular politics have any influence on voting behaviour in Egypt. Based on data from survey conducted immediately after the Egyptian parliamentary elections in January 2012, this study finds that Egyptians’ attitudes towards democratic governance were quite negative around the parliamentary elections, yet Egyptians still endorsed democracy as the ideal political system for their country. However, empirical findings suggest that support for democracy has a limited impact on electoral results. On the other hand, the main division in Egyptian society around the first free and fair parliamentary elections was the religious–secular cleavage. As people support secular politics more, they become significantly less likely to vote for Islamist parties. These results illustrate that preferences in regard to the type of the democracy – either a liberal and secular or a religious democracy – were the main determinant of the historic 2012 elections in Egypt.     

Cooperatives for “fair globalization”? Indigenous people, cooperatives, and corporate social responsibility in the Brazilian Amazon

Cooperatives and socially responsible corporations are being hailed as possible correctives to the socioeconomic and ecological exploitation of transnational capitalism. AmazonCoop—a cooperative linking indigenous Brazil nut harvesters and the multinational firm The Body Shop through trade and development projects—capitalized on indigenous symbolism to generate significant material benefits for both parties. At the same time, however, it made indigenous people more vulnerable and dependent, failed to promote participatory development, masked the effects of unfavorable state policies, and perpetuated discriminatory distinctions among indigenous people. Furthermore, the cooperative did not provide an organizational framework to ameliorate the vulnerabilities of indigenous identity politics or transform symbolic capital into enduring political-economic change. This case strongly supports arguments that cooperatives must be rooted in participation, democratic member control, and autonomy if they are to promote “fair globalization” or social transformation rather than institutionalize existing patterns of exploitation.     

Economic Governance on Trial: High Courts and Elected Leaders in Argentina and Brazil

Beginning in the 1980s, social and political actors across Latin America turned to courts in unprecedented numbers to contest economic policies. Very different patterns of high court–elected branch interaction over economic governance emerged across the region, with crucial implications for economic development, democratic governance, and the rule of law. Building on both institutional and strategic accounts of judicial politics, this article argues that high court “character,” a relatively stable congeries of informal institutional features, channels interbranch struggles into persistent patterns. Two case studies illustrate the argument. In Argentina, the high court's political character encouraged a pattern of court submission to elected leaders marked by periodic bouts of interbranch confrontation over economic governance. In Brazil, the high court's statesmanlike character induced interbranch accommodation. This study demonstrates that even in politically unstable settings, institutional features can shape law and politics.     

Facsimile edition of CCAS newsletter,no. 1 (May 1968)

Abstract

We have heard a great deal about the greening of the World Bank. The Bank now has an Environmental Department, its projects go through an environmental impact assessment, and it even finances “green” projects through the Global Environment Facility. However, the financing of nature's destruction and people's destitution and disempowerment continues unabated. It is not enough to look at projects directly funded by the World Bank to see the social and ecological disruption that it has caused over the past half a century and still continues to create. The impact of the World Bank is increasingly being felt through structural and sector adjustment loans that influence the macropolicies of entire countries. These loans have much wider influence because they make the World Bank's destructive policies more diffused and more invisible than its projects. The third and deeper level of the World Bank's responsibility in rupturing the social and environmental fabric of survival emerges from the paradigms it diffuses throughout the world through its research, publications, and advice. The social and ecological impact of the World Bank therefore needs to be assessed on the basis of its interventions at all three levels—projects, policies, and paradigms.     

Cross-circulations and Transnational Solidarity: Historicizing the US Anti-apartheid Movement Through Song

In encounters with African-American expressive culture, black South Africans at the dawn of the twentieth century recognized possibilities for their own lives—educational institutions free from white intervention, professional advancement, and independent nationalist governance. African-Americans seeking to reconnect with the continent worked for South Africa’s independence from apartheid. Music was a critical component of these engagements, creating lasting connections across national boundaries.

This paper situates the anti-apartheid activism of Sweet Honey in the Rock and In Process…, both African-American women’s a capella ensembles, within a larger historical trajectory. Through cross-circulations between the U.S. and South Africa, music constituted shared interpretive space linking African-American and black South African activist communities in combating systems of racial injustice in both countries. Building on scholarship on the role of performance in social movements, I explore the creation of shared community across national boundaries through the profound circulation of song.