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9621. A CABALISED REGIME: NEOPATRIMONIALISM, PRESIDENT YAR'ADUA'S HEALTH CRISIS AND NIGERIA'S DEMOCRACY

Author:
J. Shola Omotola
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
This article analyses President Yar'Adua's health crisis, defined not only in medical terms, but also the “cabalic” politicisation of his unconstitutional absence from duty, and the attendant unconstitutional efforts to sustain an absentee presidency. These efforts were sustained through lies, propaganda, threats and constant violations of the constitution, which refreshed the centrifugal tendencies of the country to a dizzying height. The article also evaluates the role of various actors in the management and mismanagement of the crisis. The case illuminates the complexity of democratic transitions, showing simultaneously the reality and limits of neopatrimonialism under a hybrid regime. The important lesson is that in the face of regimethreatening development as the case illustrated here, a vibrant and united civil society can make a significant difference.

9622. ACCESS DENIED? EXAMINING THE LOANS BOARD FACILITY FOR HIGHER LEARNING STUDENTS IN TANZANIA

Author:
Victoria Makulilo
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
In 2004 the government of Tanzania introduced the Loans Board in order to manage funding for students in higher education. The main goal of this board is to identify poor and needy students so as to assist them in accessing higher education. This article examines the key instruments in providing loans to students, that is, the Higher Education Student's Loans Board Act No. 9 of 2004 and its related regulations and how they impact the access to education. Based on interviews, documents, and newspapers it is argued that the Loans Board has failed to meet its grand objective. Instead, it has turned to be a mechanism for limiting poor and needy students' access to higher education.
Political Geography:
United Nations and Tanzania

9623. Mabel Berezin, Illiberal Politics in Neoliberal Times. Culture, Security and Populism in the New Europe (New York, Cambridge University Press, 2009).

Author:
Adriana Marinescu
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
In the aftermath of the Second World War, right-wing movements were a synonym for genocide and racism and a dark stain on the history of Europe. Scholars such as George Mosse, Roger Griffin or Eugene Weber have tried to explain the roots and causes of this phenomenon in order to prevent its reoccurrence. Nevertheless, a few decades later, extremist groups have begun to take over European politics, in spite of the supposedly learnt lessons of the past. What are the legacies, if any, of the former fascist movements and what are the new features of these parties? To what needs do they respond, who is their public and by what means is their message conveyed? Illiberal Politics in Liberal Times tries to provide an answer to these questions, as it focuses on the rightwing movements through the lens of Europeanization and political culture. They have so far been analyzed from various perspectives, but mainly as arising from expected events and relying only on their inner constituencies to act upon domestic and foreign policies.
Political Geography:
Europe

9624. Fred I. Greenstein, Inventing the Job of President: Leadership Style from George Washington to Andrew Jackson (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2009).

Author:
Mihail Chiru
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Fred Greenstein is one of the most influential presidential scholars in the United States. In his most recent work, he takes on the role of 'archeologist' of the oldest trademarks left on the presidential institution, by the first seven chief executives: George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson.
Political Geography:
United States

9625. Richard Stahler-Sholk, Harry E. Vanden, and Kuecker, Glen David, (eds), Latin American Social Movements in the Twenty-First Century: Resistance, Power, Democracy (New York: Rowman Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 2008).

Author:
Alexander B. Makulilo
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
After the end of the Cold War imperialism in the form of neoliberalism exerts its hegemony over the entire world. Under what came to be known as the “Washington Consensus”, which emphasizes liberal democracy, market economy and foreign capital investments, the U.S sought to enhance and consolidate its access to cheap natural resources and raw materials from Latin America, thereby capitalizing its domination over the region. Challenging the neoliberal paradigm, the masses in Latin America developed a series of social movements to protest this form of foreign domination. In line with this move, contemporary scholarship in the region is preoccupied with theorizing and understanding the nature, development and impact of these social movements in emancipating the region. Merging theory and practices, Latin American Social Movements provides an in-depth and comprehensive analysis of social movements in the region. It traces the historical origins, evolution, strategies and implications of social movements and their resistance to neoliberal and global capitalism. And therefore, the book challenges the mainstream literature that focuses on “transition to democracy” and that views social movements as merely temporary resistance to authoritarianism and electoral politics that unseat repressive regimes.
Topic:
Cold War
Political Geography:
Europe, Washington, and Latin America

9626. Loic Wacquant, Punishing the Poor: The Neoliberal Government of Social Insecurity (London: Duke University Press, 2009).

Author:
Christopher Herring
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
At the beginning of 2010, the State of California in the throes of fiscal crisis decided that it will open its prison doors to some 6,500 prisoners from its bloated penal system, the largest in America. Yet the savings from this endeavor will only put a small dent in the ballooning budget that is forecasted to continually swell over its current $8 billion price tag and will devour an even greater proportion of its state budget on top of the 11 percent it already consumes next year. As for next steps, the governor proposes handing prisons over to private contractors and opening up a US prison in Mexico for illegal immigrants. None of the plans include reducing judicial sentencing or increasing funds for rehabilitation and counseling for the growing prison population. At the same time, the state legislature continues to slash welfare and education expenditures as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposes to completely eliminate the state's welfare program for families, medical insurance for low-income children and Cal Grants cash assistance to college and university students. The proposals would completely reshape the state's social service network, transforming California from one of the country's most generous states to one of the most tightfisted, while the release of a few prisoners does nothing to curb the sentencing structures that continue to overcrowd the state's penitentiaries.
Political Geography:
United States, America, and London

9627. Bonnie Honig, Emergency Politics: Paradox, Law, Democracy (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2009).

Author:
Karina Shyrokykh
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
The state of emergency is a situation when an ordinary life and ordinary laws are not valid any more, and thus, the situation demands emergency decisions. The question is how we deal with such situations and what principles and laws we follow. Discussion of emergency politics has always been a complicated and essential issue for every country, especially so for democratic countries nowadays. It contains many controversial dimensions and inevitably involves us in a discussion of democratic principles, sovereignty, law and human rights. Bonnie Honig enters the discussion with a clear emphasis on democratic values and human rights.
Topic:
Human Rights

9628. Kevin E. Davis (ed.), Institutions and Economic Performance (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2010).

Author:
Martino Bianchi
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
The relevance of institutions for the economic analysis is a theoretical core issue within contemporary debate. Mainstream neoclassical economics, in fact, has traditionally considered institutions as a peripheral element: they are constraints, which can interfere with market outcomes, but that nevertheless are mainly irrelevant in understanding the inner mechanisms of markets. On the contrary, within the Institutional Economics, and later the New Institutional Economics (NIE) many scholars has tried to support the idea that institutions are the crucial element which explains economic performances: moulding actors preferences and behaviour, institutions directly affect each element of economics theory. In their analyses NIE scholars draws from various scientific disciplines, like political science, cognitive theories, social psychology and sociology: they make an attempt to abandon the thrifty descriptions produced by mainstream economists, giving a much broader insight in economic dynamics. At the same time, they try to outline an empirical description of market's configuration. In the last two decades NIE has gained considerable relevance and scientific recognition: first Ronald Coase, in 1991, then Douglass C. North in 1993, and finally Oliver E. Williamson and Elinor Ostrom who, in 2009, won the Nobel Prize for Economics. Despite this, NIE is still usually referred as a heterodox scholarship.
Topic:
Economics

9629. Malik Mufti, Daring and Caution in Turkish Strategic Culture. Republic at Sea (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).

Author:
Ömer Aslan
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
The post-Cold War endeavor not to take for granted the fundamental concepts in security studies that realism and its kinds had simply presumed, found its resonance in the study of Turkey's foreign and security policy. The scholarly engagements on that subject embracing a constructivist approach to security studies, or inspired from critical security studies, have recently proliferated. Malik Mufti's Daring and Caution in Turkish Strategic Culture, Republic at Sea, adds to that suite by introducing the concept of strategic culture, a concept that has hitherto been poorly explored in previous studies on Turkey. In it, Mufti aims to explain the peculiar way in which Turkish security policymaking actors throughout the Turkish Republic perceive their external environment and conceive of what constitutes the most proper way to respond to the threats they subjectively perceive. In doing so, he also hopes to offer insights into some of the ongoing debates in the strategic culture literature.
Topic:
Climate Change and Cold War
Political Geography:
Turkey

9630. Adam Dinham, Faiths, Public Policy and Civil Society: Problems, Policies, Controversies (Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2009).

Author:
Stephen Pimpare
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
There may be no simple answer to why governments increasingly promote the participation of faiths in the design and implementation of public policies. For Adam Dinham, the “imperatives driving an interest in faith” are threefold: governments see faiths as a repository of resources (“buildings, staff, volunteers and relationships”), as a potential means of fostering “community cohesion,” and as part of a broader “extension of new forms of participative governance” (p. 5-6). The focus in Faith, Public Policy and Civil Society is on such matters in the UK over the past decade or so, and the attention he periodically pays to the US and Canadian cases is usually not much more than passing reference. They are useful and generally insightful references, typically helping to elucidate one aspect or another of the issue under consideration, but readers needing a thorough-going and systematic comparative study will need to turn elsewhere. But that's not to suggest that those with interests outside the UK will not find much to value in this volume, and it should surely be required reading for those invested in “faithbased” service provision and political participation in the UK.
Political Geography:
United States

9631. Bryan Mabee, The Globalization of Security: State Power, Security Provision and Legitimacy (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).

Author:
Yuliya Zabyelina
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
In his recent book The Globalization of Security: State Power, Security Provision and Legitimacy Mabee rethinks the impact of globalization on the traditional ability of states to provide security. Representing a new generation of scholars who argue in favor of the expanded interpretation of security, the author acknowledges that threats to the state in the era of transnationalism are critical. Security in this new age is more than just an object of national strategy but a matter of global vulnerability and interdependence. The central question of his book then is to explore the ways and the means states employ to react to globalizing threats. Do states hold the capacity to resist or adapt to transnational threats? Is the state legitimacy infringed when states lack the mechanisms to provide security and exercise a sovereign hold on matters of global concern?
Topic:
Security

9632. Daniel Heller-Roazen, The Enemy of All: Piracy and The Law of Nations (New York: Zone Books, 2009).

Author:
Zoltán Glück
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Perhaps the most misleading platitude that one hears all too often in discussions of the contemporary rise of piracy off the Horn of Africa is that piracy has been around since the beginning of recorded history. On the surface, the statement is of course true. But this truth comes at the tremendous price of conceptually flattening differences between diverse social and historical situations into a one dimensional legal category, thereby obfuscating the genealogy of a concept and a figure that has been formative to the history of nations. It is precisely this complex genealogy that Professor Heller-Roazen assails and reconstructs with tremendous acumen and subtlety in his latest work The Enemy of All: Piracy and the Law of Nations.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
Germany and North Africa

9633. Bin Ladin's Killing and its Effect on Al-Qa'ida: What Comes Next?

Author:
Bruce Hoffman
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
CTC Sentinel
Institution:
The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point
Abstract:
Confronted with the sudden death of a leader, terrorist groups become cornered animals. When wounded, they lash out. Not only in hopes of surviving, but also to demonstrate their remaining power and continued relevance. Al-Qa`ida is no different. As its statement issued on May 6, 2011 confirming Usama bin Ladin's death declared, “The soldiers of Islam, groups and individuals, will continue planning without tiredness or boredom, and without despair or surrender, and without weakness or stagnancy, until they cause the disaster that makes children look like the elderly!”
Topic:
Islam
Political Geography:
Pakistan and America

9634. The Death of Usama bin Ladin: Threat Implications for the U.S. Homeland

Author:
Philip Mudd
Publication Date:
06-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
CTC Sentinel
Institution:
The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point
Abstract:
With the death of Usama bin Ladin in May 2011, Americans will be safer in the long-term. Without Bin Ladin's magnetic appeal, al-Qa`ida's revolutionary movement will likely wither and its message, combined with the peaceful revolutions in the Arab world, will lose credibility. In the short-term, however, the U.S. homeland remains at risk. In many ways, U.S. security services today face more challenges than ever before because the threat profile has become so diverse, with multiple terrorist groups and individuals—many with no connection to established terrorist organizations—intent on striking the United States.
Topic:
Security
Political Geography:
United States and Arabia

9635. The European Union: A Schumpeterian Model of Democracy?

Author:
Markus Pausch
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Alternatives: Turkish Journal of International Relations
Institution:
Center for International Conflict Resolution at Yalova University
Abstract:
One of the most discussed aspects of the so called democratic deficit of the EU is the lack of a European public sphere. The Union's democracy is perceived by its citizens as Schumpeterian in nature and this perception corresponds to a large extent to reality. Schumpeter described democracy as the rule of the politician, who gains decision making power in the free competition over votes. The parliament's role is of minor importance; it decides more by acceptance than by initiative. Citizens can neither bring up the issues nor decide them. The European Union is indeed an ideal platform for such a model, be - cause it is elitist, technocratic and rather complicated for the ordinary citizens. European integration was and still is an elite-dominated project, where citizens do not have many possibilities to intervene during legislation-periods. Over many years, the consensual behaviour of the political elites hindered the emergence of broad debate and of conflict in a European public sphere. As a consequence, scepticism towards the integration process became stronger in the Member States. At the beginning of the new millennium, politicians tried to turn the table by stressing the importance of the involvement of the citizens. A convention was installed to work out a Constitutional Treaty. But once again, the debate remained elite-dominated. The heads of governments finally signed another elitist compromise without the broad involvement of the citizens. The rejection of the Constitutional Treaty in France and the Netherlands in 2005 can thus be considered as the result of an elitist and Schumpeterian model of democracy which is perpetuated by the new reform treaty of Lisbon. Thus, the claim for a European public sphere remains relevant, although scholars differently define such a sphere. The argument of this paper is that besides the often claimed Europeanization and transnationalisation of European debate, the notion of broad conflict is of high importance for the emergence of a European public sphere.
Political Geography:
Europe, France, and Netherlands

9636. Compromize and Controversy Over Global Intercountry Adoption: A Comparative Analysis of Adoption in Haiti, Chad, Southeast Asian Countries, and Cambodia

Author:
Dr. Kieran E. Uchehara
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Alternatives: Turkish Journal of International Relations
Institution:
Center for International Conflict Resolution at Yalova University
Abstract:
Authorities in belligerent countries are now faced with a new problem: modern warfare and natural disasters. Between 2001 and 2010, four relatively publicized adoption related cases have caused some Third World countries to revitalize their concerns over the rights of children in such cases of adoption, mainly the New Life Children's Refuge (NLCR) in Haiti, the Zoe's Ark in Chad, the Katherine Hart case in Southeast Asian countries, and the twelve United States adoptive parents' case in Cambodia. The thesis of this paper is that there are systemic vulnerabilities and gaps in the current global adoption systems across the Third World Countries, thus creating irregularities and scandals that are predictable to an extent, such as the ones in the four cases under consideration. An investigation will be made as to some of the lessons that can be drawn there from. In the end, this paper concludes by highlighting that, although the four do not hint at the full picture of complications that may arise as a result of global adoption in their corresponding regions, they do, indeed, bear important ramifications, ones that are ignored at the cost of the well-being of children involved.
Political Geography:
United States, Asia, and Cambodia

9637. Regional Innovation Policy: An Analysis of Turkey's Aegean, Marmara, East Anatolia and Southeast Anatolia Regions

Author:
Yavuz Selman Duman
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Alternatives: Turkish Journal of International Relations
Institution:
Center for International Conflict Resolution at Yalova University
Abstract:
This paper analyzes the main intuition behind the concept of Regional Innovation System (RIS) and the corresponding policy implications in a literal notion. The aspects that are the reasons of regional disparities in terms of innovation such as clusters, agglomerations, research and development (R) will be investigated via observing whether development agencies, clusters, industrial zones and universities which overall are contributing factors in regional development exist or not. Aligned with these aspects, this paper analyzes the reasons for the disparities between regions. Consequently, policy approaches and innovation strategies towards the regions that are distinguished due to disparities (as peripheral, metropolitan and industrial regions) will be presented. The following will constitute of the analysis of Turkey's Aegean, Marmara, East Anatolia and Southeast Anatolia regions with respect to the results reached in the prior analysis. The objective is to investigate the characteristics of the corresponding regions and determine the aspects for the developmental gap between them. The policy applications regarding regional innovation systems, the effects of universities in the mentioned regions and the adopted policies within the process of EU membership are presented. The literal analysis indicates that although in the recent years there have been improvements regarding regional development, previously it has been the western regions that received the most attention. These findings could be verified in a further research with a thorough statistical analysis using regional data on labour productivity, capital investment, expenditure on R, registered patents and economic growth.
Political Geography:
Turkey

9638. Turkish Political Culture and Civil Society: An Unsettling Coupling?

Author:
Begüm Burak
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Alternatives: Turkish Journal of International Relations
Institution:
Center for International Conflict Resolution at Yalova University
Abstract:
This paper attempts to analyze Turkish politics in the post-1980 period with a special reference to the relationship among the state elites, political elites and societal actors, and its impact on the constitution of civil society in Turkey. After the 1980 military intervention, the political and economic realms of Turkey witnessed a relative degree of liberalization through Özal's neo-liberal policies. The January 24 economic decisions paved the way for economic liberalization as well as letting new economic and societal actors emerge. These new economic actors were different from the prevailing economic actors which used to enjoy a considerable amount of opportunity spaces in the economic sphere. Together with the Özal governments, Islamic segments started to become powerful in both political and economic realms. This paper analyses the chief traits of Turkish politics and economics and their impact upon civil society aftermath the 1980 coup in general, and the relationship and/or interaction among the state elites, political elites and societal actors in particular. The engagements of newly-emerging societal and economic actors into Turkish political scene and the challenge of these actors against the so-called “Kemalist-Republican” elites are also illustrated in the paper. Moreover, state-Islam interaction, politics-Islam interaction as well as Kemalism-newly-emerging societal and economic actors interaction will be studied with a special emphasis to the post-1980 period. The major argument of the paper is that, in Turkey, both civil society issues and political issues reveal outcomes which are primarily shaped by the nature of the relationship between state elites and political elites in general and by Turkish political culture in particular.
Topic:
Civil Society
Political Geography:
Turkey

9639. Transitioning Afghanistan in the Post-Withdrawal Era: Setting the stage for a stable political order

Author:
Reza Sanati
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Alternatives: Turkish Journal of International Relations
Institution:
Center for International Conflict Resolution at Yalova University
Abstract:
Within the coming year, the American led-NATO mission will begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan. Though the decrease in troop levels in the short-term has been expected, the final date wherein all American and NATO troops leave the country is still a matter of heated debate, primarily for two reasons: the inconclusive steadiness of the present Afghan regime and the uncertainty of what a post-withdrawal Afghanistan would like. With this in mind, this article intends to explore both the logic of NATO intervention and the subsequent occupation of that war-torn country. It examines the primary reasons why stability and progress within Afghanistan have been elusive, the current debate amongst policy makers regarding the steps ahead, and finally proposing an alternative model that proposes a new US and NATO regional strategy that places the burden on Afghanistan stability and reconstruction on neighbors who share the larger NATO goal of a self-sufficient and stable Afghan government. Accordingly, the most potentially successful NATO approach towards Afghan stability would adopt the proven economic, social, political, infrastructural, and local governance models of regional states, and honing and adopting those models into the broader Afghan domestic theatre. For this to happen, a new plan of cooperation from both NATO and American policy makers with regional states and their respective civil societies needs to be constructed and implemented.
Topic:
NATO and War
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and Middle East

9640. Defence Policy: After Pakistan

Author:
Gareth Price
Publication Date:
06-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
The death of Osama bin Laden, and the manner in which it was carried out, will have major repercussions for Afghanistan and Pakistan. The coming weeks will reveal whether these will take the form of threats or opportunities.
Political Geography:
Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Taliban