Undermining Western democracy promotion in Central Asia: China’s countervailing influences,powers and impact

This article examines whether and to what extent China’s involvement in Central Asian countries undermines the democracy promotion efforts of the European Union and the United States. Findings confirm that China does indeed challenge Western efforts, but in an indirect way. First, Chinese provision of substantial and unconditional financial assistance makes Western politically conditioned aid appear both ungenerous and an infringement of sovereignty. Second, the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, inclusive of China’s leadership role, creates an institutional means through which the (semi-)authoritarianism of member states is legitimized and challenges Western emphasis on democracy and human rights. Finally, by the power of its own example, China demonstrates that democracy is not a prerequisite for prosperity, the rule of law and social well-being.     

The demographic and agricultural development of the Kokand oasis during the Russian Imperial era: nomad immigration and cotton monoculture

ABSTRACT

This study investigates oasis expansion in the precolonial period and agricultural evolution in the colonial period using village-level statistics from the early twentieth century. This survey illustrates that the Kokand oasis in the Ferghana Valley initially appeared in the central part, where the Sart population settled by the seventeenth century. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Uzbek and Karakalpak tribes migrated to the valley peripheries, while the Kyrgyz semi-nomads settled in the alluvial fan. It is not surprising that such a migratory process created a mosaic-like ethnic distribution. Furthermore, this study suggests that the pattern coincided with a variety of agricultural practices, and presents two contrasting models of cotton monoculture under the Russian Empire. The main area occupied by the Sarts presents a general model of canal-irrigated cotton planting in Central Asia, while the Karakalpaks’ cotton planting using groundwater in the periphery suggests multiple courses of nomad sedentarization.     

Great powers,civil society and authoritarian diffusion in Central Asia

ABSTRACT

This article draws on the authoritarian promotion literature to assess contending pressures for democratization and authoritarianism in Central Asia. Domestic actors ultimately determine receptivity to democracy promotion, but external pressures for democratic transformation or authoritarian persistence exist in Central Asia. A brief overview of authoritarian trends in Central Asia is followed by the theoretical arguments for authoritarian persistence, with special attention to the civil society dimension in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Western programmes supporting liberal democracy and civil society have encountered resistance from authoritarian leaders in Central Asia, though the evidence for direct influence from authoritarian external actors is limited. A process of indirect authoritarian diffusion, in combination with the region’s illiberal societies and Western democracy promotion fatigue, undermines the development of civil society and makes authoritarian persistence in Central Asia likely.     

‘Only by learning how to live together differently can we live together at all’: readability and legibility of Central Asian migrants’ presence in urban Russia

ABSTRACT

This paper questions the effectiveness and usefulness of the Russian government's policies of migrant integration. Using a unique combination of ethnographic research methods (observations, interviews and survey) with methods from psychology (cognitive mapping) and urban studies (GIS mapping), I depict the presence of Central Asian migrants and their interaction with local long-term residents in two cities of the Russian Federation: Kazan and Saint Petersburg. On the basis of my findings, I argue that the readability (defined as the ease with which the city can be ‘read’ and understood) and legibility (defined as the degree to which individual components of an urban environment are recognizable by their appearance) of urban space in Kazan have positive effects on the relationship between these two communities, while the ambiguity and uncertainty of urban identity in Saint Petersburg make the life of migrants very vulnerable and unpredictable, and result in the growth of xenophobic views among the local residents. This allows me to argue that the policy of migrant integration will be more successful if it is built on learning to live with differences, instead of trying to ‘Russify’ migrants or create various forms of supra-ethnic identity.     

Insight on the evolution and distinction of inclusive growth

This article develops a new pragmatic approach in delineating inclusive growth, covering two issues. First, it records the chronological evolution of inclusive growth; second, it details the distinction between broad-based growth and pro-poor growth, and inclusive growth. The article aims to highlight the objectivity of inclusiveness, which is distinctly different than broad-based growth and pro-poor growth. The research concentrates on salient issues like growth, poverty, and inequality, identifies a distinct variation between broad-based growth/pro-poor growth and inclusive growth, and establishes the exclusivity of inclusive growth.     

Knowledge creation in Bangladesh: institutional challenges and personal opportunities within civil society

This article offers an institutional and sociological analysis of knowledge generation and dissemination for policy in Bangladesh. Because institutions participating in knowledge generation remain largely understudied, the article focuses on analysing the means and challenges to knowledge creation, and the complex agency and power relations among and within think tanks and universities. The article concludes that the scarcity of domestic financial resources and the political co-option of think tanks and universities weaken academic freedom, fragment the knowledge creation process, and contribute to depoliticising research. Research-to-policy linkages are engineered through the personalised networks of a few strategic individuals.     

The paradoxes of empowerment: gendering NREGA in the rural landscape of India

The growing importance of public works programmes (PWPs) as a social protection tool has attracted significant scholarly attention. However, despite the fact that the empowerment of marginalised communities is one of the key objectives of most PWPs, scant attention has been dedicated to this crucial issue. We contextualise these concerns in relation to India's Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). In particular, we propose two areas which are relatively unexplored. First, the methodologies currently used to research NREGA and PWP, more generally, need to be broadened. Second, the processes that lead to empowerment need to be researched empirically.     

The terminologies associated with development and marginalisation for Orang Asli in Malaysia

Previously, any failure of Orang Asli development activity in Malaysia, was characterised by using a single term in all situations ? “marginalisation”. This generalisation was unfair to everyone involved in the Orang Asli development process, made it difficult to resolve problems, and resulted in tendencies to blame certain people. Based on ethnographic research in Kuala Gandah, Pahang, Malaysia, this article allocates three terms in the Orang Asli development marginalisation discourse: “secluded”, “isolated”, and “marginalised”. “Secluded” refers to development activity that accidentally marginalises. “Isolated” refers to development activity that directly and deliberately marginalises. “Marginalised” refers to the Che Wong that were eliminating or avoiding development. These terms were exposed by weaknesses in the implementation of development, namely the role of a single dominant approach in development activities – the top-down approach – and a tendency to generalise the marginalisation of the Orang Asli. This article recommends that more care be taken to apply a development approach that deals with situations on a case-by-case basis and that utilises the partnership approach to development, involving all parties in all phases.     

Conflicts of decision-making processes between Clean Development Mechanism and project financing

Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects are believed to be financially unviable without additional revenues from CDM in the form of saleable certified emission credits; this is an important premise to be verified in the CDM approval process. However, in financing a CDM project, it is crucial for financiers and investors to ensure that the project is viable without CDM revenues. Thus, there are clear conflicts in the processes and priorities between the CDM approval in theory, and financing and investment decisions in practice. Considering the post-CDM frameworks, this article uses a case study of Bhutan’s Dagachhu hydropower project, the world’s first cross-border CDM project, to suggest practical lessons learnt.     

Varieties of hierarchical capitalism: family and state market economies in East Asia

Through an examination of East Asian economies, this paper proposes two new capitalist ideal types: family market economies and state market economies. In contrast to coordinated and liberal market economy types, the new capitalist ideal types proposed here display alternative forms of hierarchical coordination. These ideal types are also genuinely novel models of capitalism because they exhibit distinct and stable institutional structures and comparative advantages.