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2. The curbing of the collective voices of workers in Ethiopia’s state-led industrialisation: The case of the garment sector
- Author:
- Mohammed Seid Ali
- Publication Date:
- 06-2021
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- African Journal on Conflict Resolution
- Institution:
- The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD)
- Abstract:
- A state-led industrialisation drive inspired by the East Asian ‘developmental state’ ideology is at the core of Ethiopia’s industrial policymaking. Yet, scholarship on the implications of Ethiopia’s state-led industrialisation on the collective voices of local industrial workers is rare. Hence, this article argues that Ethiopia’s state-led industrialisation has firmly stood for strong business-state alliances, thereby curbing the collective voices of local industrial workers. Using qualitative empirical data, the article attempts to address the research gap and contribute to the existing debate by examining why and how the country’s state-led industrialisation has been operating in this context since 2005. Analysis of the findings indicates that facilitating industrial catch-up is at the centre of the country’s industrial development policymaking. Also that, the voice of the workers has been considered as a threat to foreign direct investment (FDI). As a result of the policy, the Ethiopian government employs diverse de facto or de jure labour control mechanisms, exceptionally against the associational rights of workers in the garment exporting industries across the country’s industrial parks (IPs). Moreover, employing industries have enforced various forms of administrative and punitive measures to subdue the collective voices of their workers. Hence, Ethiopia’s activist industrial policy must navigate a reasonable balance between facilitating industrial catch-up and ensuring labour standards for inclusive, peaceful, and sustainable industrial labour relations.
- Topic:
- Government, Labor Issues, Industrialization, and Garment Industry
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Ethiopia
3. Rethinking South Sudan’s Path to Democracy
- Author:
- Andrew E. Yaw Tchie
- Publication Date:
- 08-2021
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Conflict Trends
- Institution:
- The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD)
- Abstract:
- One of the world’s youngest nations, South Sudan, broke out into civil war in December 2013. The civil war was marked by persistent disregard for the sanctity of civilians, especially women and children. At the time of the conflict, both the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in Government (SPLM-iG) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in Opposition (SPLM-iO) carried out massacres, which spread like wildfire across the country. Troops from both sides raped and slaughtered civilians, while government troops in Juba went door-to-door, seeking out opposition ethnic groups. After several failed regional mediation attempts, neighbouring states and international partners pressured President Salva Kiir, SPLM-iO leader, Riek Machar, and former detainees to sign the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (ARCSS)[1] in August 2015 in Addis Ababa. The Agreement aimed to end the violent civil war and support comprehensive political reform during a three-year inclusive Transitional Government of National Unity (TGoNU). Additionally, the ARCSS provided a pathway to demilitarise many well-equipped militias and mechanisms for transitional justice and reparation, immediate measures to facilitate humanitarian access, and a programme to redress the economy. Nevertheless, just after the ARCSS was signed, Kiir, by presidential decree, ordered an increase in the number of states from 10 to 28.[2]
- Topic:
- Civil War, Government, Democracy, and Conflict
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Sudan, and South Sudan
4. Elections and Democratic Deficits in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic: A Commentary
- Author:
- Al-Chukwuma Okoli, Chigozie Joseph Nebeife, and Markus Arum Izang
- Publication Date:
- 06-2020
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Brazilian Journal of African Studies
- Institution:
- Brazilian Journal of African Studies
- Abstract:
- This study examines elections and democratic deficit in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic. The essence is to interrogate the seemingly ironic reversals of democratic tenets in the processes of politics and governance, even as the country democratizes. The paper contends that Nigeria’s experience with democracy has largely amounted to nominal civilianizing, in view of the fact that what is on course has not fulfilled minimal requirements of the democratic order
- Topic:
- Government, Elections, Democracy, and Political Science
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Nigeria
5. Trust in Political Power and Government Institutions in Mozambique: 2014-2018
- Author:
- Kátia Sara Henriques Xavier Zeca
- Publication Date:
- 06-2020
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Brazilian Journal of African Studies
- Institution:
- Brazilian Journal of African Studies
- Abstract:
- The purpose of this article is to understand voters’ confidence in the institutions of political power in Mozambique. The question that arises is what is the level of voter confidence in the institutions of political power? For the purposes of this research, the following political institutions were considered: Assembly of the Republic, National Election Commission (CNE, in Portuguese), Police, Army and Judicial Courts. Throughout the text, the CNE is emphasized because it is the institution responsible for managing the entire electoral process. And because the article is based around the issues of trust and democratization, some concepts will be discussed here that will support the conclusions presented: institutions, democratization, consolidated democracy.
- Topic:
- Government, Elections, Democracy, and Political Science
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Mozambique
6. Service Delivery with Wanton Protests in Megalopolises, South Africa
- Author:
- Chuks Ede and Nokukhanya Noqiniselo Jili
- Publication Date:
- 07-2020
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Rest: Journal of Politics and Development
- Institution:
- Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis (CESRAN)
- Abstract:
- One of the bequests of the current democratic dispensation in South Africa is the choice by the citizenry to express their feelings without let or hindrance. Since 1994, the people of South Africa have recouped much power as to expressing their grievances towards their government in some of the worst viciously known manners ever recorded among black Africans within the continent-. Since recent times, South Africans have aggravated their protest revolts over what they perceive as government’s failure in the delivery of vital (basic) services, such as electricity, water and sanitation, with some other protests flanking on the provision of quality higher education at affordable cost or possibly no cost at all. With incidents of violent protests almost becoming frequent occurrences, the main aim of this article is to explore the main question that is still remaining “Do South African mega cities really stand to lose much more for not doing enough for their constituencies”? Attempts at providing answers to this question have resulted in an in-depth reviewing of literature into the antecedents of service delivery protests in South Africa. The article reveals that the cost of unaccountability by the failure of megalopolises’ authorities to render adequate municipal services to their people, outweighs by far the very cost of remedying the situational consequences accruing therefrom. Therefore, South African cosmopolitan authorities must be able to deliver based on the expectations of their masses who elect them into power; they also need to put adequate security measures in forceful place to clampdown on civilian protestors in their megalopolises.
- Topic:
- Government, Social Movement, Democracy, and Protests
- Political Geography:
- Africa and South Africa
7. Erratic Behaviour of the United Nations and Global Governance in. Africa: The State as a Smokescreen for World Security
- Author:
- Agbo Uchechukwu Johnson, Nsemba Edward Lenshie, and Ndukwe Onyinyechi Kelechi
- Publication Date:
- 12-2020
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Brazilian Journal of African Studies
- Institution:
- Brazilian Journal of African Studies
- Abstract:
- State’s choice for human beings emerged when they realized that wild freedom in the “state of nature” where power is right, failed to achieve life and property independence and protection. Human beings were forced to capitulate for the common good to the abstract government. In what Hobbes (1588-1678) called the “social contract”, the state acknowledged this obligation to be governed by a leader of an all-powerful society. In his Second Treatise of Government (1689), John Locke (1632-1704) also agreed with Hobbes’ notion of a social contract, based on the premise that human beings are born free. Individuals enjoy a natural right to life, freedom and the freedom to own or possess estates.
- Topic:
- Government, Political Theory, Philosophy, State, and Nation-State
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Brazil, and Global Focus
8. An analysis of optimal devolved government size for growth: Armey curve in Kenya
- Author:
- Naftaly Mose
- Publication Date:
- 12-2020
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Brazilian Journal of African Studies
- Institution:
- Brazilian Journal of African Studies
- Abstract:
- The recent global initiative towards federalized spending has been gradually justified on the basis that decentralization of resources to sub-national governments level are likely to deliver greater efficiency in the delivery of public goods and services and consequently stimulate economic activities at devolved units (Martinez-Vasquez and McNab 2006). The devolution trend in unindustrialized nations is reinforced by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB), which considers expenditure decentralization as a key pillar of its economic growth and poverty eradication strategy (World Bank 2016). But, attention to expenditure transfer has been mainly inspired by local political reasons (Mwiathi 2017). Like the case of Kenya in 2007/2008. The 2007/2008 post-election violence saw the introduction of the new governance system, which entrenched devolved systems (GoK 2010). In a number of nations including Kenya, a devolved system of governance refers to devolution. Essentially devolution is one form of fiscal decentralization. However, devolution is more extensive and includes transfer of both economic and political powers from central government to devolved units (Ezcurra and Rodríguez-Pose 2010).
- Topic:
- Government, International Political Economy, Poverty, World Bank, Economic Growth, Economic Development, and IMF
- Political Geography:
- Kenya and Africa