Journal of Developing Societies recent issues

Privatization, Governance and Economic Development in Developing Countries

Adams, S., Mengistu, B. — 2009-09-11

The study examined the impact of privatization on economic growth and income inequality in 82 developing countries between 1991 and 2002. Using the least squares dummy variable (LSDV) approach, we found that privatization did not have a significant impact on both economic growth and income inequality. However, good governance had a positive impact on economic growth and a negative impact on income inequality, while foreign direct investment (FDI) had a negligible impact on economic growth but a positive effect on income inequality. The findings of the study suggest that country-specific characteristics may be more important in promoting growth and reducing income inequality than any economic policy per se.

Russia Turns East: Putinism and the Making of a New Second World

Thornton, W. H., Thornton, S. H. — 2009-09-11

As the crucial Eurasian swing state, Russia is fast emerging as the twenty-first century ‘decider’. Early globalists took it as a foregone conclusion that Russia would swing toward the West. But increasingly it has ‘turned East’, striking a fate-ful alliance with China and other authoritarian regimes by way of a resuscitated ‘Second World’. By buttressing Putinism, globalization is helping to perform what amounts to a democratic abortion. Yet these policies are not set in stone. This study holds that another globalization is possible, and another Russia as well. To prevent the consolidation of a new Second World, every effort must be made to convince Russian leaders that democracy, far from being Russia's nemesis, could be its best geopolitical ally.

Palestinian Politics after Arafat: The Predicament of the 'Palestinian National Movement'

Ghanem, A. — 2009-09-11

This article attempts to understand the internal situation of the Palestinians and their national movement at the start of the twenty-first century. I hereby attempt to trace and analyze concrete aspects of the state of the Palestinian national movement in the post-Oslo era. What happened during the past decade to the Palestinians in general, and to their national movement in particular, led to the internal and external failure. Externally, this failure was manifested in the disintegration of the regional and international status of the Palestinian national movement. Concomitantly, the efforts to establish a Palestinian state and resolve the conflict reached a dead end because of the deep internal schism which had developed, and which is incompatible with national unity.

What has Globalization to do with Wildlife Use in the Remote Amazon? Exploring the Links between Macroeconomic Changes, Markets and Community Entitlements

Espinosa, M. C. — 2009-09-11

This article explores to what extent poverty, markets and entitlements act as incentives or deterrents for more intensive use of wildlife. Taking into consideration neoliberal ‘Fuji-shock’ of 1990 that eliminated subsidies and support for small-scale agriculture in Peru, I use data on wildlife use in two communities in Loreto that have different entitlements to natural resources and different access to markets and landforms. Results show the community with better entitlements and access to markets makes more intensive use of wildlife and forest products, which challenges the easy association between poverty and resource degradation, and the need to consider access to markets. In a context of low and volatile prices for agriculture and vulnerable livelihoods, extraction of wildlife and forest resources has become more intensive and includes protected wildlife species. Analysis suggests the strong environmental implications of neoliberal globalization at the micro level and the need to frame wildlife use in the context of adaptive livelihoods and macroeconomic changes.

The Evolution of Political Power in Political Development

Werlin, H. H. — 2009-02-23

To understand political science, we must understand political power. Our misunder-standing of political power is especially problematic for those concerned with comparative politics.Political Elasticity (PE) theory, including the concepts of ‘quality of power’ and ‘political software’, is used to examine and clarify such dichotomies as: (i) transitive and intransitive power; (ii) hard and soft forms of power; and (iii) power as a resource and power as a relationship. What PE theory attempts to prove (by presenting many examples and using comparative case studies) is that political power tends to be more elastic (with rubber band and balloon characteristics) in more developed countries than in less developed countries.As the conclusion, the relationship of democracy to the evolution of political power is examined, including questions having to do with corruption, authoritarian rule and bureaucratization.The PE theory is also defended against criticisms that it is ‘untestable’ and ‘tautological’.

The Limits of Popular Participation in Salvador, Brazil

Reiter, B. — 2009-02-23

This article focuses on the changing nature of state-society interactions in the state of Bahia, Brazil and on the factors that condition democratic participation. During several research trips, conducted between 2001 and 2006, I collected data on participatory budgeting and on participatory urban planning in the city of Salvador. I was therefore able to compare two thematic sites where local states interacted with society in general, and with civil society speci?cally. In both cases, I found a very wide gap between the de jure mandate of citizen participation and the de facto state of affairs. The examined empirical cases point to some of the conditionalities of democratic participation at the local level. The existence of this gap between law and reality can, in part, be explained by the continued importance of ‘Carlismo’ as a way of doing local politics in Bahia and therefore, to the persistence of local political regimes persisting despite changes in political leadership.

Contextualizing Social Capital, Citizen Participation and Poverty through an Examination of the Ward Committee Systemin Bonteheuwel in the Western Cape, South Africa

Esau, M. V. — 2009-02-23

The discourse on social capital brings to the fore its valuable attributes in facilitating trust, generalized reciprocity and collective action. Moreover, it creates an awareness of the influence of these attributes on the extent to which citizens participate in matters of policy and decision-making. It was with these benefits in mind that the South African government introduced ward committees in 2004, as intermediaries structured to encourage meaningful participation between local communities and the state.

It is in this context that the article examines the extent to which the ward committee, in a low socio-economic residential area called Bonteheuwel, was effective in realizing the stated purpose. The main findings suggest that while the ward committee may have been effective in certain aspects, the extent of its effectiveness was limited by the poor attendance at public meetings; the general impact of poverty on collective action; the exclusionary nature of organization through sectors; and the lack of substantive influence in the decision-making process.

The Sustainable City Development Plan for Aqaba, Jordan

Abu-Ghazalah, S. — 2009-02-23

Sustainability is a relatively new theme in Jordanian architecture and planning, but the city of Aqaba&apos;s new development plan has been elaborated on the basis of sustaining the city&apos;s social and economic development as well as its physical environment. No other city in Jordan has been planned on the basis of sustainability. Between 2000 and 2004, a special planning unit produced the current plan for achieving a sustainable city in Aqaba. The plan envisages investments of over US&dollar;6 billion and the creation of some 70,000 jobs by the year 2020. This article examines the work undertaken by the planners of sustainable Aqaba and appraises the outcome. A number of conclusions are presented about the need to encourage sustainability in the future planning of other areas as well as in the solution of many of Aqaba&apos;s problems.

Latin America: The End of the Washington Consensus, the State of Democracy and the Two Lefts

Ferna.ndez Jilberto, A. E. — 2009-02-23

Introduction to 'The Ethiopian Millennium': A New Millennium: A Renaissance or a New Beginning for Ethiopia?

Zegeye, A., Tegegn, M., Toggia, P. S. — 2008-07-07

The State of Emergency: Police and Carceral Regimes in Modern Ethiopia

Toggia, P. S. — 2008-07-07

This article examines how Ethiopian governments have periodically declared a state of emergency in the country; these effectively turned out to be police and carceral regimes during periods of political crisis. Each of the three Ethiopian governments claimed legitimacy for their respective body politic as a derivation of the ‘consent’ or the ‘general will’ of the Ethiopian people in the last hundred years; Haile-Selassie as the rightful successor tracing the legendary Solomonic Dynasty for his modern Christian autocracy; Mengistu as the head of a socialist state with the will of the working people; and Meles as the head of the federal democratic state with the will of nations/nationalities. Nonetheless, the mode in which they exercised their powers or the mechanism of power they applied in order to normalize their respective body politic is indistinguishable. Furthermore, this contrived idea of the ‘general will’ and its empirical derivative, that is ‘public order’ has become the ‘norm’ in modern Ethiopian politics. These governments have also utilized similar institutional and legal mechanisms that remained intact, such as the police, the criminal law, the prison and the army, as variegated power of normalization despite radical regime changes in September 1974 and May 1991.

Problems of Feminist Leadership among Educated Women in Ethiopia: Taking Stock in the Third Millennium

Biseswar, I. — 2008-07-07

Feminist leadership is a matter of grave concern in Ethiopia where educated women appear to be obliged to fight individual battles to sustain their own agendas on the emancipation of women. Being manipulated by the government-led ‘woman question’ rhetoric, many fail to come to terms with charting such an independent discourse. What is holding them back? Could it be their ideological make-up that is influenced by state and religious indoctrination? Or perhaps their own shortcomings where many fail to comprehend what feminist leadership is all about? Educated women need to have a renewed vision on women's emancipation and to take meaningful decisions on what form of leadership would best advance such concerns. In this twenty-first century it is indeed high time to shed the apolitical and deradicalized stance on the emancipation of women; they should take an independent lead and call for comprehensive and transformative forms of gender equality.

The Civilian Left and the Radicalization of the Dergue

Kebede, M. — 2008-07-07

This article attempts to explain the radicalization of the military committee in Ethiopia known as the Dergue. The committee brought down the monarchy and initiated far-reaching socialist transformations of the country. Yet the Dergue had not initially shown any propensity to radicalism. To explain this conversion to Marxist–Leninist ideology, scholars have thus far provided three prevailing views: (i) the Dergue radicalized to steal the revolution from the civilian left; (ii) objective conditions caused its radicalization; and (iii) radical officers initiated the radicalization. The article critically evaluates these views and shows their serious short-comings. It suggests a new explanation involving the quest for legitimacy and the need for political survival.

The Red Terror in Ethiopia: A Historical Aberration

Tareke, G. — 2008-07-07

This article was inspired by Arno Mayer's magisterial work on the French and Russian revolutions. It is Mayer's thesis that two social forces with irreconcilable political views and objectives fought to the finish in both revolutions. Violence and terror were inevitable. In Ethiopia, the deadly conflict that metamorphosed into the Red Terror was not between conservative and radical forces, but between two modern political organizations which shared the same ideology and strategic goals – but used different tactics. Terror, the article argues, was avoidable. The intent is not to test the validity of Mayer's theory, but to show the peculiarity of the Ethiopian experience.

The Politics of Contemporary Language Policy in Ethiopia

Smith, L. — 2008-07-07

Language is political in Ethiopia because it has both structured and symbolized the nation-building project, and because, in the context of limited resources, any language policy change would require a significant realignment of resources. In modern Ethiopia, the historical distribution of the political goods of communication, recognition and autonomy has been highly skewed, benefiting native Amharic-speakers disproportionately. Since the early 1990s, the decentralization of language choice under the federal constitution has led to the use of other languages by members of select ethno-linguistic communities. This study considers the politics of language choice, drawing from the rich literature in political theory which addresses the role of language in the identity politics of multiethnic and multilingual societies. The historical trajectory of language politics in Ethiopia is presented, but the focus is on evidence gathered in parts of Ethiopia in 2001 and 2003. These findings indicate the relationship between language identities, citizenship formation and identification in the country. They are based on structured interviews and participant observation in select regions of the country.

The Post-war Border Dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea: On the Brink of Another War?

Zegeye, A., Tegegn, M. — 2008-07-07

The claims and counter-claims over the troubled border between Ethiopia and Eritrea, at the root of the crisis between the two governments, were by no means resolved by the war of 1998–2000. Indeed, when the jointly-formed post-war commission delivered its ruling on the boundaries, its terms were rejected out of hand by Ethiopia. Eritrean border claims rest largely upon the maps drawn up by Italy in 1934, while Ethiopia's claims largely rests on the treaty that Emperor Menelik entered with the Italians in 1908. And this is only to touch upon the ramifications of the tangled dispute. This article provides a critical observation of the claims made by the two governments; it assesses the validity of these claims, explores their strengths and points out their weaknesses. It also shows why the impasse continues to fester, pushing the crisis dangerously close to renewed war, and offers some tentative suggestions on how a lasting solution to the Ethio-Eritrean crisis might be found.

Power Politics: Kinijit in the 2005 Elections

Tegegn, M. — 2008-07-07

This article looks at the role of the main opposition party in Ethiopia, Kinijit, during the parliamentary elections of 2005. It shows that the election was unique in that it galvanized the people of Ethiopia to come out and vote en masse. Kinijit was mainly instrumental in mobilizing the people and provided hope for a political change towards democracy. They saw in Kinijit the capacity to lead the country as opposed to the ruling party, trusted it fully and were determined to follow its leadership. The voter turn-out was the highest in the history of the country. Kinijit won the elections but the ruling party rigged the results and declared itself the winner. Controversy arose and dragged on for months. Kinijit then resorted to a protest movement in the form of civil disobedience. The government took this as ‘unconstitutional and as preparation for armed rebellion’ and began a clamp-down. The entire leadership of Kinijit was imprisoned, and some 400 people were massacred as they demonstrated. Close to 17,000 others were thrown in jail and labor camps. This article examines the flaws in Kinijit's decision to resort to civil disobedience, looks at the consequences of the election for the process of democratization and at what that means in the fight against poverty and under-development. It singles out Kinijit's structural problems, such as insufficient institutional preparedness and lack of organizational structure in 2005, and suggests the strategic political course it should have taken.

Introduction: In the Light of Andre Gunder Frank

Lauderdale, P., Harris, R. — 2008-03-13

On Being 'Frank' about Terrorism

Oliverio, A. — 2008-03-13

Andre Gunder Frank's work on the global economy, social movements and his own experiences reflect critical issues related to the state and terror. He understood all too well the insidious, yet symbiotic relationship between the state and terror. Frank views politics and terror as a manipulation, a corrupt act of states, powerful elites, groups and organizations that have the resources to enforce their version of political and social reality. Similar to former US President Eisenhower, Frank bemoaned the power of the military post-industrial complex for its organized and systematic capability to legitimize and institutionalize terrorism. Frank was sensitive to how certain acts by states, typically referred to as counter-terrorism, enable them to shape the political agenda not only within countries but also in international affairs. Perhaps a more fruitful path of action, as implied by Frank's research and by the ‘blowback’ consequences of the state of terror, is to work on changing the social, economic and political conditions that give rise to the use of terror as a strategy by states or challenge groups.

Historical Social Movements, Ecological Crisis and 'Other' World Views

Chew, S. C. — 2008-03-13

Andre Gunder Frank and Marta Fuentes have suggested that social movements of protest tend to cluster during periods of economic downturns. With this in mind, can we examine world history over the long-term to enable us to provide a more insightful understanding of the transformative potential of social movements during times of socioeconomic, ecological and political disruptions as Frank and Fuentes suggested over a decade ago? This article examines the rise of two social movements that have emerged during different periods of world history when the world system was/is in crisis: Christian monasticism and Bioregionalism. Besides viewing Christian monasticism as a religious movement that arose in reaction to the turbulent conditions towards the end of the Roman Empire, I want to argue that Christian monasticism can also be conceived as a social institution formed in reaction to the excessive consumption, economic exploitation and ecological crisis that occurred prior to and during the Dark Ages of Antiquity. Almost 1,700 years later, our current era of socioeconomic, political and ecological crises has also sparked movements expounding alternative world-views and lifestyle options. One such anti-systemic movement is Bioregionalism which is a direct contrast to our contemporary world-view that underscores the themes of globalization, technologization of life and hyper consumption. Therefore, along a similar vein to early Christian monasticism's reaction to institutionalized religion then, Bioregionalism as a life-practice also plays a similar role in the contemporary crisis era. Both of these social movements can be considered as part of the family of social movements that have occurred in world history that Frank and Fuentes (1989, 1990) have written about in the late 20th century.

World System History, The Papacy, and the Transition from Transitions

Denemark, R. A. — 2008-03-13

In a very controversial argument, Andre Gunder Frank suggested that scholars abandon ideas like ‘transitions’ and ‘modes of production’ in favor of more accurate, less Eurocentric concepts. This work reviews three relevant debates on the use of these concepts. The class backgrounds of 64 popes from 1300 to 1900 are then analyzed to see if leaders of a powerful, non-hereditary office altered over that time. The analysis offers no support regarding the role of transitions or modes of production in helping to understand elite recruitment. This finding supports Frank's suggestion that we consider alternative conceptual foundations for understanding development.

Homo Sapiens and the Longue Duree

Nader, L. — 2008-03-13

This essay connects anthropology with the spirit and substance of André Gunder Frank's world history project, emphasizing the need to integrate efforts to understand global colonization by homo sapiens with the expansion of powerful complex societies, sometimes called empires. It also pursues Frank's ‘hegemonic truncation in the world system’ by comparing structural similarities of the Mongols and the Europeans. Backwards history, as Frank and others call it, moves from the present to the past as a method for understanding continuing Euro-American expansions.