Fragile States: A Donor-serving Concept? Issues with Interpretations of Fragile Statehood in Afghanistan

Abstract

The paradox of attempting to (re)construct state institutions without considering the socio-political cohesion of societies recurs throughout the world, most notably today in the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. This essay tries to shed some light on the debate around the concepts of state and nation-building. Drawing on a sociological understanding of the modern nation-state, it contends that it is impossible to conceive of statebuilding as a process separate from nation-building. This essay identifies two different schools of thought in the discussion concerning the statebuilding process, each of which reflects different sociological understandings of the state. The first one, an ‘institutional approach’ closely related to the Weberian conception of the state, focuses on the importance of institutional reconstruction and postulates that statebuilding activities do not necessarily require a concomitant nation-building effort. The second, a ‘legitimacy approach’ influenced by Durkheimian sociology, recognizes the need to consolidate central state institutions, but puts more emphasis on the importance of socio-political cohesion in the process. Building on this second approach and demonstrating its relevance in contemporary statebuilding, this article concludes with a discussion of recent statebuilding attempts and the ways external actors can effectively contribute to statebuilding processes.     

The problem of Irish Unionism

The paper is a critique of a recent article by Luke Martell which attempted to set out a new, non-statist and non-coercive socialist agenda. The critique suggests that coercion and repression are probably inherent to the socialist project and that Martell's proposals fail to address this. It also takes issue with Martell's proposals for limiting the role of markets and for developing local forms of corporatist agencies. The assumption that market capitalism is in some way antithetical to communal morality is also challenged on the grounds that genuine communalism is likely to arise out of voluntary co-operation rather than state-sponsored initiatives and programmes.     

Thai social movements and the anti-ADB campaign

This article examines the desacralisation of royal charisma in contemporary Thailand. Over the past few years an underground discourse has emerged among critics of royal ideology and supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra that directly confronts the power of the monarchy. The images, metaphors and linguistic devices used in the process are difficult to study because they rarely appear in public. This article focuses on an unprecedented demonstration of rage against the monarchy on September 19, 2010, when red-shirted demonstrators painted anti-royal graffiti on a construction hoarding at Ratchaprasong intersection in downtown Bangkok. In analysing the Thai political crisis as a battle of different charismatic groups, the article will present the September 19 event as the first open strike against the sacred charisma of the Thai monarchy. This charisma has hitherto been protected by royalists from all walks of life who were “working towards the monarchy.” With their attacks on the monarchy the red-shirts were challenging a legitimacy-conferring system which had benefited wide sections of the Bangkok populace in the past. At the same time, a competing charismatic movement has emerged around Thaksin, who himself has to take into account the charisma he conferred upon his followers.     

Theorizing strategies: Households and markets in 15th-century Tuscany

This article uses empirical evidence from rural Tuscany in the 15th century to compare three frameworks for conceptualizing household strategies: Chayanov's analysis of the domestic economy, Bourdieu's treatment of social reproduction, and Weber's distinction between budgetary units and profit-making enterprises. Although Bourdieu's framework did not work well in this context because there was little evidence that peasants employed strategies to prevent the division of land, there was considerable evidence to support Chayanov and Weber. As Chayanov predicted, many households allocated labor according to a tradeoff between providing for family members and avoiding drudgery. The Weberian perspective also worked well because it explained why these smallholders often divided their holdings and used money in their household strategies.     

The end of emancipation? CTS and normativity

ABSTRACT

Although CTS can be described as a broad church, scholars working within this approach want to produce knowledge which can help shape, improve, change, or replace contemporary counterterrorism. Guided by Marx’s mantra that the point of theory is not only to interpret the world but to change it, CTS has since its inception challenged the status quo of contemporary counterterrorism on the basis that it is possible to conduct counterterrorism differently, more humanly, and, put plainly, better. The concept of emancipation was identified early on as the foundation and basis for knowledge. However, a deeper debate on emancipation has largely been absent since 2010. Could it be that CTS exhausted the debate on one of its core commitments only five years into its existence? Have we reached the end of emancipation? Or could it be that emancipation is not that attractive at all for CTS and its normative projects? This article begins with a review and a state-of-the-art discussion of emancipation within CTS. While it might be the end of emancipation in its traditional conceptualisation, the article argues that emancipation can be retained as the basis for normative theorising and action within CTS when reconceptualised as a Weberian value-axiom. The article concludes by exploring a transfiguration of the concept of emancipation itself.     

苏联解体与文明进程——马克斯·韦伯“俄国革命论”的视点

自苏联在1991年末解体以来,学者们对这一历史事件的肇因进行了多种分析。这些分析中,意识形态层面的分析占据了显要的位置。然而,这些分析陷入了同义反复的逻辑错误。与此相对,各种基于事实的分析,往往停留在一种事后的描述上,未能提供有效的说明。那么,从社会科学的角度来看,苏联解体意味着什么?马克斯·韦伯在其俄国革命论中提供了一个卓越的视角。     

马克斯·韦伯卡理斯玛支配模型及其法治化改造

马克斯·韦伯提出了政治正当性支配的三种模型,其中最引人注目的是卡理斯玛支配模型。通过阐释卡理斯玛支配模型的内涵,分析在此种支配模式可能存在的弊端和缺憾,从而试图提出卡理斯玛支配模式在我国的法治化改造路径。     

The Problem of Soviet Colonialism in the Baltics

This essay works through some of the necessary preliminary questions in thinking about Soviet colonialism in the Baltics. It opens by tracing the prehistory of critical thinking about Soviet colonialism in the 1960s and considers why the topic of Soviet colonialism has not (or not yet) become a dominant way to understand Soviet history. The central question posed by the article is whether one can speak about the Soviet invasions of the Baltic States as ‘colonization’. It proposes that, initially, communist Russia did not in fact seek to colonize the Baltic States and instead ‘occupied’ them; however, this initial period of occupation later developed into a period of a colonial rule.     

从阶级到阶层—-一种公共语境转换的解说

当代中国在公共语境领域发生了从阶级到阶层的话语转换,这种转换可以从社会分层理论的两个重要理论源头--马克思的阶级理论和马克斯@韦伯的社会分层理论各自所蕴涵的语境逻辑和当代中国整体性社会诉求中得到解释.马克思的阶级理论是一种关涉政治革命的宏观历史理论,与试图保持价值中立的关涉合法性论证的马克斯@韦伯的社会分层理论具有极为相殊的语境逻辑.新中国成立后,由于对革命时代阶级斗争理论的"路径依赖"以及对马克思阶级理论的语境误读,导致阶级和阶级斗争话语泛化.改革开放后公共话语发生的从阶级到阶层的转换是对中国社会整体性诉求的恰当回应,但这种转换并不表明马克思的阶级理论应当退出公共语境.     

Understanding Democracy as a Prerequisite for Spreading Democracy

The cultural underpinnings of American democracy are discussed with emphasis on ideas made famous in Max Weber’s, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. In particular there is emphasis on the way America built upon the British cultural tradition so that the American working class would not be dependent upon bread and circuses offered by a political elite, a tradition in Europe dating back to the Roman Empire. Instead cultural emphasis on moral integrity and the self-respect of the American working class, the underpinnings of moralistic individualism as a key component of democratic culture in America but not necessarily in many other parts of the world, is emphasized. These ideas are elaborated with discussion of a certain decay of these values in present-day America, and the problems the American government has had in conveying the importance of these values to other nations seeking to democratize partly under our influence.