The resilient state: new regulatory modes in international approaches to state building?

‘Resilience’ has quickly risen to prominence in international security and development circles. In recent years it has found its way into political discourse on state building and state fragility, triggering a vast but often conceptually indistinct examination of the subject. Given its meaning in policy publications and guidelines, ‘resilience’ tends to eschew a static conceptualisation of statehood, turning instead to a more dynamic, complex and process-oriented rendering of state–society relations. This illustrates a conceptual shift from ‘failed states’ to ‘fragile states and situations’. It also transforms the concept of ‘failed state’ as a mere threat perception – with ‘stability’ as its logical other – into ‘fragility’ as a particular form of social and political risk. This paper analyses the concepts in 43 policy papers, focusing on the nexus of ‘resilience’ and ‘fragility’ in international state building, and assesses potential consequences. What does ‘resilience’ – as the opposite vision to ‘fragility’ – in fact mean? What is the practice derived from this chimerical state of states?     

Rwanda: an agrarian developmental state?

This article investigates Rwanda’s agricultural policies and institutions as a historically contextualised response to exceptionally adverse developmental circumstances. Using the agrarian question as an analytical point of reference, the article argues that it is extremely difficult to identify how increases in productivity and income in smallholder agriculture can be achieved without forceful state action and a sustained injection of resources. In light of this, entirely right-congruent governance is caught in a dilemma about the extent to which the government overrides peasants’ own agency and the extent to which the agrarian strategy produces a sustained and stable transformation in agriculture. Rather than making a defence or condemnation of the government’s strategy, the article argues against pre-emptive judgements of an agrarian strategy that can only discernibly attain success over a long period. What the article does do is insist that there is development potential in the current strategy, not simply a disaster in the making.     

Mutual dependence or state dominance? Large private suppliers and the British state 2010–15

As public outsourcing has grown, the need to understand government's relations with supply side actors has become more important for public administration scholars. The article analyses the role of a small group of large contractors in the British outsourcing system during Britain's Coalition government. These ‘public service conglomerates’ have thus far received little attention in the public administration literature. The article compares two approaches for understanding the role of these corporations and analyses why the corporations faced sometimes severe disruption during the Coalition period in the form of multiple contract problems, conflict with ministers and financial problems. Over the period, the corporations became the objects of policy debate, and what had appeared to be a stable set of arrangements started to fracture. The case shows the value of analysing the political and organizational foundations of contracting arrangements.     

Russian Orthodox concordat? Church and state under Medvedev

The literature on church-state relations in post-Soviet Russia has been slowly but steadily expanding over the past two decades. The period since 2008, however, remains underdeveloped, as existing analysis has focused on specific issues rather than attempting an overview of the larger trends since the above-mentioned changes in the leadership of both institutions. Seeking to address this gap, this article explores the implications of the nearly coincidental changeovers in leadership in the Moscow Patriarchate and the secular state for church-state relations in Russia, both near and long-term. The first part of the article sets up the context for understanding the new church-state dynamic, by discussing in some detail the state of the relationship under Patriarch Aleksii II. The conclusions are that, under Aleksii tenure, the church could be considered a relatively weak institution, as it was unable for the most part to strengthen its position in Russia through legislative means. The second part focuses on the process whereby the new patriarch came to be elected in 2009, intending thereby to shed some light on Kirill I's leadership style and political agenda. The third part discusses concrete changes in the church-state relationship that have occurred on the federal level since 2008. The final section proposes some conclusions regarding the importance of the Russian Orthodox Church as a political actor in the contemporary Russian Federation, suggesting that despite the recent gains in the church's political fortunes, the ROC's position in society and particularly vis-à-vis the government remains vulnerable in key respects.     

Financial transitions in the PRC: banking on the state?

The reappearance of substantial debt in China after 2008 has refocused attention on the sustainability of the existing financial ‘model’. It’s not just that ‘traditional’ forms of bank-centred debt have re-emerged, but that the informal ‘shadow banking’ sector also seems increasingly fragile, generating debts that do not seem easy to repay. Explanations for the current situation focus on the way in which China responded to the global financial crisis, and on the incentives that exist to go outside the formal and more regulated banking system into often riskier activities. But there are more fundamental structural issues. The current financial system contains within it some of the dna of its predecessor, while the spatial distribution of power and authority is inextricably linked to the way the financial system functions. While it might be possible to tinker with some elements of current financial problems, the relationship between local government financing, land, the banking system and key economic sectors makes it difficult to resolve more structural issues without taking a holistic approach; one that would have fundamental consequences for the nature of the Chinese state, and the distribution of power within it.     

The War on Drugs in Mexico: a failed state?

This article focuses on the continued attractiveness of ‘failed state’ strategic thinking that stretches across policy-making and academic circles and links it to the issue of the War on Drugs in Mexico. It does so in order to challenge, if not reject, caricatured representations of ‘failed states’. Moreover, it offers an alternative understanding of the War on Drugs and issues of state crisis in Mexico. Rather than assume that state power is rooted within clear and immobile boundaries, it is more fruitful to rethink transformations in state space that cannot be isolated from underlying historical patterns of development and political economy. A political economy approach to state space is therefore better able to draw attention to the twin geopolitical processes shaping the War on Drugs in Mexico: (1) the geographic restructuring of the trade in cocaine and (2) the coeval onset and consolidation of neoliberalism.     

Mission impossible in Cyprus? Legitimate return to the partnership state revisited

Cyprus has been divided for far longer than it has been united. There have been many attempts to reconcile conflicting parties but without remarkable success. The two communities – Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots – see the solution to the “Cyprus problem” in opposite terms. Although recent public opinion surveys have concluded that the most preferred option for the Turkish Cypriots would be “independence of the TRNC” and “reunification of the country”, for the Greek Cypriots, there is much less information about the legitimacy of these competing regimes and their respective claims. This paper seeks to fill this gap by identifying different legitimacy sources and their effect on the course of conflict settlement. Somewhat paradoxically it appears that those most strongly identifying themselves with the Republic of Cyprus, and approving the regime legitimacy of the Greek Cypriot government, are actually for status quo and not for the reunification of the country which makes the return to the partnership state mission impossible.     

Whither the state? Mining codes and mineral resource governance in Africa

In contrast to the early post-independence era in which African states predominantly controlled the mining sector, the 1980s saw African countries update their mining codes to attract foreign capital. These reform measures largely diminished the power of the state, either resulting in its “selective silence” or its retraction. However, after three waves of these reforms, the disparity between natural resources and sustainable development has continued to widen. Two theories offer a nuanced approach to understanding the state of flux of mining codes and mineral governance in Africa: governance theory and the developmental state theory. This article argues that the activist, interventionist state is making a comeback in mineral resource governance throughout Africa. Moreover, regional initiatives such as the African Mining Vision represent a fundamental departure in mineral governance. However, such initiatives will only bring development to the extent that they are owned by African governments and backed by local communities.     

The European Union’s ambiguous concept of ‘state fragility’

Although scholars and practitioners alike perceive ‘state fragility’ to be a key challenge for security and development, there are significant variations in the definition of this phenomenon. This article analyses the European Union’s notion of ‘state fragility’. Based on a document analysis covering the years 2001–12 and expert interviews conducted in November 2012, the article reveals that the EU has not (yet) decided on a clear-cut definition of ‘state fragility’. Three factors explain this lack of decisiveness: the EU’s complex institutional framework, which impedes policy coherence; developments at the international level that require the EU’s compliance; and the organisation’s diplomatic efforts to maintain cooperative relationships with aid-recipient countries that have been labelled ‘fragile’. The result is conceptual ambiguity that potentially reduces the EU’s capacity to respond to fragile situations.     

Conceptualising Third World politics: The state‐society see‐saw

This article presents and juxtaposes critical genealogies of development studies and postcolonial studies, two bodies of literature on the 'Third World' that ignore each other's missions and writings. I demonstrate that the two fields have some areas of convergence, such as groundings in knowledge of and concern about the West, and other areas of divergence: development studies does not tend to listen to subalterns and postcolonial studies does not tend to concern itself with whether the subaltern is eating. I argue that, of the two fields, postcolonial studies has the greatest potential to be a new and different location of human development thinking if it can overcome a tendency to lock into intellectual rather than practical projects of postcolonialism.     

The emergence of the Kosovo “parallel state,” 1988–19921

David Saunders: Russia in the Age of Reaction and Reform 1801–1881, London‐New York: Longman 1992, xii, 386 S., £14.99. Longman History of Russia.

John D. Klier and Shlomo Lambroza, Pogroms: Anti‐Jewish Violence in Modern Russian History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993, xx, 393 pp. + ill., maps.

Kubiak, Hieronim, et al. (eds.) Mniejszosci Polskie i Polonia w ZSSR. Wroclaw‐Warszawa‐Krakow, Uniwersytet Jagielonski, Instytut Badan Polonistycznych: Osso‐lineum, 1992; 492 pp. + map.

Wzresinski,’ Wojciech (ed.) Polska‐Polacy‐Mniejszosci Narodowe. Wroclaw‐Warszawa‐Krakow: Ossolineum, 1992; 424 pp.

Jachymka, Jan (ed.) Mniejszosci Narodowe w Polskiej Mysli Politycznej XX Wieku. Lublin: Czas, 1992; 256 pp.

Marek Waldenberg. Kwestje Narodowe w Europie Srodkowo‐Wschodniej. Dzieje. Idee. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, 1992; 419 pp.

David Hundert, The Jews in a Polish Private Town: The Case of Opatow in the Eighteenth Century. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992, xvi, 242 pp. + ill.

Seppo Zetterberg: Finland After 1917, Helsinki: Otava Printing Works 1991. Translated from Finnish by Malcolm Hicks. 176 pp., FIM 135.

Derzhanii Tsentr Ukrains'koi Narodn'oi Respubliki v Ekzili: Stati i Materiiali (Kiiv, 1993), 476 pp., Index, n.p.

Jörgen Hedman/Lars Ahlander. Gammalsvenskby. Historien om Svenskarna i Ukraina [Gamsalsvenskby. The History of the Swedes in the Ukraine], Stockholm: Norstedts Forlag 1993, 351 S.

Dan V. Pleshoyano, Colonel Nicolae Plesoianu and the National Regeneration Movement in Walachia. Boulder CO: East European Monographs, 1991. x + 176 pp.

John F. N. Bradley, The Czechoslovak Legion in Russia, 1914–1920. Boulder, CO: East European Monographs (No. CCXXI); distributed by Columbia University Press, 1992, 156 pp.

Robert Aspeslagh, Hans Renner, Hans van der Meulen (Hrsg.), Mit einem Vorwort von Max van der Stoel, Im historischen Wurgegriff. Die Beziehungen zwischen Ungarn und der Slowakei in der Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft, Baden‐Baden 1994, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, 180 Seiten.

Georg Brunner/Hans Lemberg (ed.), Volksgruppen in Ostmittel‐ und Sudosteuropa, Baden‐Baden/Munchen 1994, (Südosteuropa‐Studien, Vol. 52), 58 DM.     

Productivity performance and priorities for the reform of China's state‐owned enterprises

This study reports on the results of a survey of 300 state‐owned, collective and foreign‐funded industrial enterprises conducted in three of China's coastal provinces; Guangdong, Fujian and Shanghai‐shi in 1993.’ Its major focus and policy relevance is to identify which of China's recent enterprise, market and ownership reforms have been most effective in improving the productivity performance of China's state owned enterprises. The study concludes that productivity growth (measured by total factor productivity) has been significantly higher for non‐state‐owned than for state‐owned enterprises and for firms located in the special economic zones of Shenzhen and Xiamen and the open city of Guangzhou than for firms in the more centrally planned Shanghai. Export‐orientated enterprises also had higher total factor productivity growth than non‐export‐orientated ones. At a lower level of significance, enterprises that controlled their own decision‐making produced a lower proportion of output for the plan, procured a higher proportion of their investment finance from loans (rather than budgetary allocations) and achieved higher total factor productivity growth. Finally, labour‐intensive industries in general had higher total factor productivity growth than did capital‐intensive ones. A number of policy conclusions may be drawn from these results.     

Policing neoliberalism in Egypt: the continuing rise of the ‘securocratic’ state

This article examines the increasing power of the police, their centrality to the reproduction of the neoliberal global order and their dynamic relationship with various elements of the ruling elite. It focuses on the case of the post-2011 uprising in Egypt to examine how the police institution has taken advantage of the uprising to increase its power and relative autonomy. The article demonstrates the centrality of the police to the Sisi regime’s efforts at reducing political discourse to an inflated and simplistic concept of ‘security’ in an attempt to establish its long-term legitimacy.     

Divergence in India: Income differentials at the state level, 1970–97

Abstract

We examine India's regional disparities in economic performance between 1970–97. Our preliminary analysis shows that, in absolute terms, initially poorer states grew at slower rates than initially wealthier ones and that there is also evidence of increasing dispersion of income levels across the states. Our econometric analysis investigates the possibility of club convergence and conditional convergence. Although we do not find evidence of the former, we can suggest some of the factors associated in the latter. Our research also indicates that the onset of economic policy reform in 1991 significantly intensified growth differentials between the states.     

Religious Institutions and Authoritarian States: church–state relations in the Middle East

The churches in the Middle East are generally perceived to be supportive of the authoritarian states in the region. The motivations for this strategy and its successes and limitations in the context of the authoritarian environment and the religious heritage of the region are explored. The article argues that the approaches pursued are determined by the structure of the community in relation to the majority and other Christian communities as well as by state policies towards the community. The overriding aim of church leaders of protecting their communities has led to a modern variation of the historical millet system, which provides them public status in exchange for their acquiescence in regime policies. This security guarantee, combined with wariness towards other potential political actors and the desire to protect their privileged position from communal challengers, has resulted in the hierarchies' preference for the authoritarian status quo rather than encouraging democracy promotion.     

Divisive ‘Commonality’: state and insecurity in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Northern donor policies relating to building a common future and building peaceful states and societies go to the heart of national and international security agendas. This article critiques the concept of commonality between donors and recipients and within recipient countries. It argues that the policies are problematic from the perspective of security theorising, both in their mooted ‘commonality’ and in terms of the political intervention that they imply. Historically security has been competitive and founded on compromise rather than commonality, and the internal legitimacy of states has been contested domestically, rather than ‘built’ from outside. Using the example of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the article argues that the ahistorical assumptions of these policies and the activities they license have entrenched specific forms of insecurity. There have been some returns to the donors and implementing partners but also some costs, which had not been calculated, as lessons have not been drawn from past experiences.