Timing and targeting of state repression in authoritarian elections

Autocrats face a fundamental tension: how to make elections appear credible (maintaining legitimacy) without losing control over outcomes (losing power). In this context, we claim that incumbents choose the timing and targets of state repression strategically. We expect that before elections, regimes will moderate their use of violence against ordinary citizens, while simultaneously directing state-sponsored repression towards opposition elites. Ordinary citizens are likely to experience greater repression after the election. We test these expectations using unique events-based repression data, conducting cross-national analysis of all presidential elections in authoritarian regimes from 1990 to 2008 to understand the timing and targeting of repression around elections under authoritarian regimes. In keeping with our expectations, we find that in the months prior and during the election, opposition leaders experience greater rates of repression than voters. We suspect that incumbents find it more effective to repress electoral challengers, since these pose a direct threat to their victory. Conversely, incumbents resist repressing voters whose support they need at the polls to win and to legitimize the election itself.     

'The birth of bio-politics': Michel Foucault's lecture at the Collège de France on neo-liberal governmentality

This paper focuses on Foucault's analysis of two forms of neo-liberalism in his lecture of 1979 at the Collège de France: German post-War liberalism and the liberalism of the Chicago School. Since the course is available only on audio-tapes at the Foucault archive in Paris, the larger part of the text presents a comprehensive reconstruction of the main line of argumentation, citing previously unpublished source material. The final section offers a short discussion of the methodological and theoretical principles underlying the concept of governmentality and the critical political angle it provides for an analysis of contemporary neo-liberalism.     

Can State Review of Local Planning Increase Housing Production?

Abstract

To increase housing production and make the distribution of affordable housing more equitable, several states subject local land use planning to review by state agencies or courts. Focusing an empirical analysis on California, this article considers the potential efficacy of these reviews in contributing to the overall supply of housing. Past studies of other intergovernmental mandates suggest that their institutional design helps determine their success.

A comparison of four states indicates that approaches differ considerably in how they determine local housing needs, evaluate local efforts prospectively or retrospectively, and penalize noncompliance. California's housing element law, which mandates prospective local planning for quantifiable housing goals, gives state staff the power to review local plans for compliance with statutory requirements. However, multivariate analysis indicates that the compliance status of California municipalities in 1994 did not predict the number of single‐family or multifamily housing permits issued from 1994 to 2000.     

The Public Sphere and the Rise of South Korean Civil Society

This article examines how civil society in South Korea emerged as a social force and developed a distinctive relationship with the state. It is argued that political, institutional and cultural factors are no less important than economic relations in accounting for the distinctive nature of South Korean civil society. The article explores the dialectical relationship between the state and Korean civil society and its political and social consequences. For example, the dynamic interplay between the formal and informal structures of political power and the role of various civic organisations in political and other processes of social transformation are discussed. It is argued that the complex relationship between the state and civil society should be theorised in terms of mutual empowerment and synergy in the sense that civic organisations and groups have contended for, or negotiated, power. Hence, observers should bear in mind an alternative hypothesis that different historical conditions may well determine structural changes that have diverse outcomes in the political and cultural arenas, especially in an era of globalisation.     

The contribution of Archie Mafeje to the debate on land reform in Africa

ABSTRACT

This article situates the election of Barack Hussein Obama as President of the United States of America within the current global political economy. It examines the major tenets of neo-liberalism, the founding ideology of this economy, and the policies by which neo-liberal ideology targeted and achieved a diminution of global state authority concomitant with a rise of market sovereignty. The consequences have been disastrous for the evolution of constitutional democracy and are at the root of the current economic crisis. As a critical factor that propelled Barack Obama's election, this article argues that Obama's presidency may offer a turning point away from a neo-liberal ideology and towards a strengthened commitment to constitutional democracy.     

比例原则的中国宪法依据新释

比例原则已被全球法治实践反复证明属于人权保障的利剑,必将成为中国合宪性审查的基本标准。为了更好地推进合宪性审查,并消除对比例原则适用范围与功能的误解,有必要探寻比例原则在中国的宪法依据。通过解释我国《宪法》中“权利义务一致性”“基本权利”“人格尊严”“法治国”“征收征用”等条款的尝试,均不能很好或完全地推导出比例原则。比例原则的本质在于调整权力与权利、权利与权利之间的关系,其功能在于合理确定国家权力与公民权利的界限。比例原则内置于权利和权力之中。通过解释我国《宪法》第51条的“权利的限度”条款和第33条第3款的“国家尊重和保障人权”条款,可以得出比例原则在中国具有宪法依据,属于宪法基本原则。     

The Malaysian “Islamic” State versus the Islamic State (IS): evolving definitions of “terror” in an “Islamising” nation-state

ABSTRACT

This article provides a study of how the Malaysian state defines and redefines “terror” as the nature of militancy changes from the Communist insurgency to present day’s Islamist jihadism. Tracing such definitional changes, the article demonstrates how the portrait of a terrorist not only is inherently political (and at certain junctures, politicised), but also reflects the changing nature of the state. While able to ethnicise and externalise the Communist Terrorists (CTs), the rise of Islamist militancy forced the Malaysian state to shelve the term “terrorist” in favour of religious “deviancy” until the advent of the “war on terror”. Advancing along a state-driven Islamisation project, the discursive ideal that is the “Islamic state”, was securitised (1980–2001), normalised (2001–2013), and resecuritised (2014–2016) as a balancing act not only to neutralise the security threat but also to augment the state’s “Islamic” credentials for domestic political gains. Following the emergence of the Islamic State (IS), I argue that the Malaysian state is now embroiled in an “Islamic state versus Islamic State” dilemma, where in the face of a far enemy it cannot decisively eliminate, the state has no choice but to defend itself as a sovereign nation-state as well as an “Islamic” one, further problematising Islam in discourses of security and violence.     

论我国紧急状态法制的实现条件与路径选择——从反思应急法律体系切入

紧急状态法制对于解决宪法上紧急状态制度的虚置问题,推动应急基本法的结构性调整,填补应急法律体系中的制度断层,提升其体系内部各个层次、各个相关条款之间的融贯性,有着十分紧迫的现实意义。经过理论条件和现实障碍的细致论证,可以推导出我国紧急状态法制的实现条件极为特殊,寄希望于短期内制定一部统一的《紧急状态法》似乎不具备可行性。从完善应急法律体系的整体考量,可以将紧急状态法制的任务一分为二,按照实体分散和程序统一的思路分别展开实质性构建,同时发挥“情境化”规范进路的聚合效应,打破分散的形式结构体系,在超常规应急治理(紧急状态)情境中实现规范内容的实质统一。