The Determinants of Economic System Legitimacy in Kazakhstan

Despite robust, and much touted, growth, Kazakhstan's economic system enjoys only tepid support among large swathes of the population and is viewed by many as neither fair nor legitimate. Extreme juxtapositions of new wealth and new poverty against a historic background of economic and social egalitarianism combine to make this a potent and combustible issue. Women, ethnic Slavs, the poor, people in urban areas most afflicted by post-Soviet de-industrialisation, those who feel they have lost out in the transition to a market economy, and those who are pessimistic about their financial prospects are more likely to question the legitimacy of the current economic system. Because scepticism about the distributive system contributes to political and social strife, these findings provide grounds for concern about Kazakhstan's long-term stability.     

A Tale of Two Kazakhstans: Sources of Political Cleavage and Conflict in the Post-Soviet Period

Departing from some prominent scholarship on Kazakhstani politics, the author argues that competition between financial–industrial groups over scarce economic and political resources—rather than inter-clan or centre–periphery rivalries—largely determines who gets what, when and how. While clan politics and regional grievances may still influence struggles over the distribution of power and wealth, their importance has diminished in recent years. Instead, observable political conflict has centred around competing financial–industrial groups, which represent the diverse, and at times clashing, interests of Kazakhstan's business and political elites.     

Ethnic politics and Third World development: Some lessons from Sri Lanka’s experience

Sri Lanka has been in the forefront among LDCs, always implementing development strategies that are fashionable for a given period of time. Beginning with a capitalist structure in the 1950s, it embraced features of a planned economy in the 1960s. By the mid-1970s it had taken up market-orientated growth policies. Yet its record of achievement is a disappointing one. The primary reasons for this are to be found in the ethnic politics Sri Lanka has been engaged in ever since the end of colonial rule. The political economy of ethnicity is traced through four stages where the common element has been a lack of compatibility between economic policies and political strategy.     

Capitalist Philanthropy and Hegemonic Partnerships

Over the past 10 years individual capitalists have become increasingly involved in philanthropy, setting up charitable foundations targeted at helping to reduce social problems such as poverty, disease and food security. This form of neoliberal capitalist philanthropy is both politically and ideologically committed to market-based social investment through partnerships, to make the market work or work better for capital. The new structures of philanthropy have received much praise in the media for imbuing capitalist business principles into the non-profit sector and for their potential for social transformation. While philanthropic activities may be considered worthy in themselves, this article examines the relationship between giving and business interest and the agency associated with neoliberal capitalist philanthropy. It questions partnerships between philanthropists and private corporations and their motivations for engaging in poverty-related philanthropy. The discussion focuses on capitalist philanthropic foundations' involvement in the process of agricultural commodification in sub-Saharan Africa through the New Green Revolution and genetically modified (gm) technologies.     

Global capitalism,Haiti, and the flexibilisation of paramilitarism

This paper looks at the shifting manner in which paramilitarism has been reproduced in Haiti, examining how it has evolved from the Cold War into the era of capitalist globalisation. The central argument of this article is that paramilitarism has not disappeared but has been altered, and that this has occurred in part due to the changing strategies of elites in the global era. Rather than a permanent and widespread force, paramilitary groups are utilised in smaller numbers and only in certain ‘emergency periods’, serving a purpose of containment: targeting political threats and beating down those large populations whose social reproduction is not required by transnational capital. This has been a difficult situation for elites to manage, as they often have only limited control over such ruthless, corrupt and violent elements, which they sometimes require. Following the 1991 and 2004 coup d’états in Haiti, a military–paramilitary–bourgeoisie grouping has repeatedly worked to recover its impunity and revamp its coercive apparatus. Under these conditions, and even more increasingly in the wake of the 2010 earthquake, a variety of elites and technocrats (most importantly, US policymakers) have sought to politically remake the country alongside processes of economic restructuring promoted by transnational capital.     

The changing role of multinational corporations

The multinational corporations’ (MNCs) environment and their international eminence have recently been threatened because of the turbulent international arena, the unlimited scope of information which they have to consider in their decision-making , and the accusations that they are a jeopardy to the political and economic independence of their host countries. Thus, they have to adopt a new strategy which is in contrast to the past where they were identified as the primary operators in their host environment and that they controlled to a great extent the political, economic and social environment in which they functioned.     

Is it possible to achieve a good life for all within planetary boundaries?

The safe and just space framework devised by Raworth calls for the world’s nations to achieve key minimum thresholds in social welfare while remaining within planetary boundaries. Using data on social and biophysical indicators provided by O’Neill et al., this paper argues that it is theoretically possible to achieve a good life for all within planetary boundaries in poor nations by building on existing exemplary models and by adopting fairer distributive policies. However, the additional biophysical pressure that this entails at a global level requires that rich nations dramatically reduce their biophysical footprints by 40–50%. Extant empirical studies suggest that this degree of reduction is unlikely to be achieved solely through efforts to decouple GDP growth from environmental impact, even under highly optimistic conditions. Therefore, for rich nations to fit within the boundaries of the safe and just space will require that they abandon growth as a policy objective and shift to post-capitalist economic models.     

Human Development in Pakistan and Bureaucratic Predicaments

Pakistan’s persistent ailing condition in the realm of human development raises major concerns about its governance mechanism. The problem seems to exist in the formulation of decentralization policies combined with delays and failures in implementation caused by political interests and inefficiency of the administrative machinery. This article attempts to highlight the current situation of human development in Pakistan using three basic indicators—education, health, and poverty levels—using evidence from data. It further develops a theoretical framework of bureaucratic involvement in public service provisions and problems faced by implementing agencies by identifying lacunas in the legislation of devolution plan.     

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.     

The world population situation

Population experts appear to be reaching a consensus that there has been a perceptible decline over the last decade in the growth of the world's population. The decline is accounted for by the "new demographic transition" in the less developed countries (LDCs). The decline in fertility rates began in the 1950s in some LDCs and became more widespread during the 1970s. The process has not yet begun in many of the LDCs. During the 1960s it was observed that the declines in birth rates (to levels of 30 of less per 1000) were occurring mostly in small countries. Many of these countries were islands with levels of social and economic development above the developing country average. The key question is whether the recent downward trend in fertility in LDCs will continue, stabilize at the current level, or rise again. A primary concern about the future is that the poorer and less developed countries will end up with an increasing share of the world's population, with the share of the developed countries declining from 34% to 22% over the 1950-2000 period. Considerable differential exists in demographic growth patterns among various regions. The 12 largest LDCs (China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, Mexico, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand, Turkey) contain 55% of the current world population, and the fertility decline of these nations is expected to have the maximum impact. 7 of these countries have had fertility declines of 14-35%. The force of the "population momentum" must also be considered. Most developing country populations have a young age distribution with considerable potential for population growth even after the fertility level reaches a replacement level and the net reproduction rate equals 1.     

Historical aspirations and the domestic politics of Russia's pursuit of international status

What determined Russia's national interests and grand strategy in the first decade after the Cold War? This article uses aspirational constructivism, which combines social psychology with constructivism, to answer this question. Central to aspirational constructivism are the roles that the past self and in-groups, and their perceived effectiveness play in the selection of a national identity and the definition of national interests. This article explains why Russian political elites settled on a statist national identity that focused on retaining Russia's historical status as a Western great power and hegemon in the former Soviet Union and in engaging the country in bounded status competition with the United States.     

Risk, Gender, and Development in the 21st Century

Globalization creates wealth but also financial crises. Although these systemic risks are generated by all participants in the world economy, their costs are disproportionately borne by the poor, especially women, who live in developing nations, with irrevocable damage to their capabilities. Since current reform proposals do not address inequities in the distribution of the costs of financial crises, we suggest changes in the design, implementation, content, and funding of policies that could provide security to women during crises. We argue that our suggestions will not succeed without women's participation in the debate on the reform of international financial architecture.     

The geopolitical economy of social policy in the Philippines: securitisation,emerging powers and multilateral policies

Recent geopolitical and economic changes have altered global social policy formation. The Bretton Woods multilateral development agencies (MDAs) have selectively incorporated ideas emerging from developing country states and decision makers, with a recent increased acceptance of social transfers as part of renewed efforts at poverty alleviation based on social risk management. There has been an instance in the use and promotion of conditional cash transfer (CCT) policies by MDAs. CCTs were a product of the emergence of a neo-structuralist welfare regime (understood as an ideal type) in Latin America – an attempt to reconcile neoliberal strategies of development with aspirations for guaranteed minimum incomes. The Bretton Woods and regional development bank MDAs have facilitated the adoption of CCTs in other developing countries, including the Phillipines. Here, a combination of actions by national political actors and MDAs has resulted in the implementation of a securitised and compliance-focused version of CCTs derived from the Colombian security state. Although poor Philippine households welcome income assistance, CCTs have acted to enforce further state monitoring without altering the national-based political and economic processes that replicate poverty.     

Budgetary chaos and evasion: the case of somalia

In 1990 and 1991, several Sub-Saharan African nations (Liberia, Somalia, and Ethiopia) experienced violent disintegration of existing governments. Other nations (Mozambique, South Africa, Kenya, and Zaire) continued to show signs of being on the brink of violent upheaval, while Zambia experienced a major democratic shift in its government. The forces of change in Africa seem to be mirroring political change that has and continues to take place in eastern Europe and in the territories of the former Soviet Union. This paper is a case study of national budgetary and financial management during a period of national disintegration. The information comes from observations formed during the final days of the political regime of one of these Sub-Saharan African nations - the Republic of Somalia.

The twenty-one year political regime of Mohamed Siad Barre in Somalia came to an end in January 1991 when rebel forces captured the capital city of Mogadishu, forcing Barre and his remaining followers to flee the capital. In the weeks and months leading up to the end of the regime, the normal functioning of the government had effectively ceased, collapsing under the weight of corrupt practices and substantial inefficiencies resulting from the government policies.

This paper describes some of these practices as they related to the national budgetary and financial management processes. In particular, the existence of chaos and evasion in national budgeting was evident with the existence of repetitive budgeting, lump sum budgeting, escapist budgeting, underfunding, externally driven policy, and information gaps. The analysis conducted suggests the importance of sound budget practices for the stability of a government. The conclusions derived focus on the issue of the role of political instability, attempts to modernize, and general systems organization as they relate to Somalia.     

Soft Power: A Comparison of Discourse and Practice in Russia and China

This article compares soft power as a normative and operational construct in the Russian and Chinese political context. I examine Russian and Chinese discourse on soft power as well as the efforts of the Kremlin and Beijing to devise programmes for its implementation. I then compare and evaluate the similarities and differences in Russian and Chinese soft power strategy. The similarities between the two states indicate their joint status as authoritarian regimes with a Marxist–Leninist heritage. The differences can be attributed to their vastly disparate economic circumstances, but also to historical, social, and political factors that influence soft power policies.     

Neo-extractivism and the new Latin American developmentalism: the missing piece of rural transformation

What, if anything, is actually new about political and economic transformation in twenty-first century Latin America? Here we explore how ostensibly ‘new’ policies are being built on two ‘old’ foundations that may be mutually exclusive. These are ‘extractivism’ and ‘developmentalism’, concepts that have been used rather loosely to describe current economic policies. The new developmentalism, however, may not only be contradicted by extractivism; it may be more constrained than its predecessor by fortified capitalist class interests and new global conditions. Moreover, it pays little attention to the employment-generating potential of rural areas or to the agricultural sector.     

Political structures and financial liberalization in pre-crisis East Asia

East Asian economies differed dramatically in their vulnerability to the financial shocks of 1997–98. In the current literature on the Asian crisis, one key factor commonly adduced to explain the uneven crises is different national approaches to liberalizing the financial market. While extant analyses have yielded important insights into the correlation between divergent liberalization patterns and uneven crises, they have failed to deal with the crucial question of why East Asian economies diverged in their respective paths to financial market liberalization. To account for differences in liberalization approaches, this article develops an institutional explanation of financial policy choices. It posits that variations in liberalization patterns stem from fundamental differences in the organizational structures of the private sector, the bureaucracy, and the party system that shape the economic interests and political behavior of social groups and state agencies in the policy-making process. In making this argument, the article focuses on Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand, the four major East Asian economies that pursued different liberalization strategies during the 1980s and 1990s and had contrasting performance in the recent financial crisis. It argues that cross-national differences in the above-mentioned domestic political structures within the four economies are the primary sources of their divergent liberalization approaches and outcomes, which, in turn, impacted financial stability to differing degrees and generated varying abilities to withstand external shocks. The author thanks Benjamin Cohen, Stephan Haggard, Otto Holman, Geoffrey Underhill, and anonymous SCID reviewers for their helpul comments on earlier drafts. Generous financial support from the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research and the Netherlands Fellowship Program is gratefully acknowledged. The usual disclaimers apply. Xiaoke Zhang is research fellow in the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research and the Department of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam. He is the author ofThe Changing Politics of Finance in Korea and Thailand (Routledge, 2002) and the co-editor ofInternational Financial Governance under Stress (Cambridge University Press 2003).     

Transformation of political elite as regime changes in Pakistan

Burton and Higely [(2001). ‘The study of political elite transformations’, International review of sociology/Revue internationale de sociologie, 11(2): 181–199] argue that when elites of a society are not united this will lead to an unstable political regime. Consensual elite cohesion is only created through distinctive elite transformation. This essay attempts to elaborate their argument in Pakistan, by developing a link among a continuous regime shift from authoritarian to democratic governments and the political elites who keep transforming their structure accordingly. The technique followed for it is analysing the epochal events over time from pre-partition till date which became reason for regime transformations. The discussion focuses on the collusions and contestations of multiple power elites within given social context which are embedded under the international context. It concludes that political elites in Pakistan were always embraced by multiple other power elites who accordingly hold dual elite identity to control the command post in the political arena. Such complex elite structure makes it paradoxical to distinguish political elite of Pakistan from other power elites of Pakistan.     

Grounding the State: Devolution and Development in India's Panchayats

Decentralisation is commonly defended on the grounds that it will bring government closer to people, thereby creating political structures that are more transparent and accountable to poor and marginal groups in society. However, a problem that is well recognised in the decentralisation literature is that the devolution of power will not necessarily improve the performance and accountability of local government. Indeed, in many cases, decentralisation simply empowers local elites to capture a larger share of public resources, often at the expense of the poor. Reflecting on these relatively long-standing problems, an important strand of scholarship has argued that central government can play a central role in counterbalancing the forces that tend to disfavour the poor. In this article, we aim to inform this scholarship by reflecting on the interface between local government and local people in two Indian States: Andhra Pradesh (AP) and Madhya Pradesh (MP). Drawing upon 12 months of primary research, we argue that although the government of AP did not devolve power to the extent that proponents of decentralisation would have liked, its populist approach to certain forms of poverty reduction empowered the poor in ways that the more ambitious decentralisation agenda in MP did not. This, we argue, was due in part to the fact that MP's decentralisation process failed to challenge the well-entrenched power of the village chiefs, the sarpanches. But the discrepancy can also be explained in terms of the historical evolution of ‘development populism’ in AP. In particular, we argue that the strong performance of programmes aimed at subsidising rice for low income households and providing credit to women's ‘self-help groups’ (SHGs) was part of the State government's wider political strategy of enhancing and maintaining electoral support among women, scheduled castes and the poor.