Introduction: The New Local Politics of Democratisation (original) (raw)

LOCAL POLITICS AND DEMOCRATISATION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

In addition to papers, articles and monographs on the individual cases, the research results will be published as two edited anthologies on (1) theoretical issues in studies of local politics and democratisation; and (2) thematic case studies and comparisons. The research will also be developed and disseminated through international workshops, masters and doctoral courses and a proposed network on "Local Politics in Developing Countries" (see separate proposal to NFR's Program on Globalisation and Marginalisation, June 2001).

Development, good governance, and local democracy

This article analyses the concept of "good governance" as promoted by the international development community, above all by the World Bank, within the predominant neoliberal development approach, emphasising the implications for local governance and management in developing countries. Highlighting the extent to which it is embedded in the neoliberal development approach, the good governance concept is analysed with regard to its peculiar understanding of participation and democracy. The article discusses the subordination of the World Bank's consensusoriented approach of good governance to economic imperatives, fading out the centrality of its political dimension. In the context of unequal societies, such an apolitical governance concept only contributes to the strengthening of existing power relations. In its conclusions, the article stresses the need to rethink the good governance approach to development and local politics according to Chantal Mouffe's agonistic view of democracy, which considers political protest, social mobilization and politicization as essential conditions for social transformation and democratic vitality.

Participatory development and empowerment: the dangers of localism

Third world quarterly, 2000

Recent discussions in development have moved away from holistic theorisation towards more localised, empirical and inductive approaches. In development practice there has been a parallel move towards local 'participation' and 'empowerment', which has produced, albeit with very different agendas, a high level of agreement between actors and institutions of the 'new' Left and the 'new' Right. This paper examines the manifestations of this move in four key political arenas: decentralised service delivery, participatory development, social capital formation and local development, and collective actions for 'radical democracy'. We argue that, by focusing so heavily on 'the local', the see manifestations tend to underplay both local inequalities and power relations as well as national and transnational economic and political forces. Following from this, we advocate a stronger emphasis on the politics of the local, ie on the political use of 'the local' by hegemonic and counter-hegemonic interests.

POLITICS AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE GLOBAL WORLD

After the building of a new global consensus designed to tackle backwardness in underdeveloped countries, the post-Washington consensus, the role of good governance and democracy was considered to be important in an unprecedent way. As a result of this, International Financial Organizations and their development programmes started to consider the strengthening of social capital and an increased political participation the key to achieve social and economic development in these distressed States. This paper will focus on how, although this approach is surely worthy of credit, in chronically poor communities it has not always turned out to be a winning one; indeed, the Tanzanian case will be used to support the argument that sometimes this criterion has also been the cause of even more serious social and economic hardship for disadvantaged people.

POLS 3010-01 - THE PROBLEMATIC OF STATE BUILDING IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD (Fall 2010)

The main objective of this course is to understand the way in which modern states operate, with emphasis on the developing world. In other words, discuss how political and economic policy decisions affect society as a whole (the development process). The role of the state, mostly from the 1970s onwards, will be assessed in a critical way, using examples from around the world related to specific state reforms and processes of political and social change, some of them successful and some not. This course will allow mature students to build their own critical conceptions of what a 'modern state', and its set of institutions, should represent.

Analytical Approaches to the Study of Politics in the Developing World

Two contrasting broad approaches long dominated political analysis of developing countries. One was a politics of modernization that gave rise to political development theory, then to revised versions of that approach that stressed the continuing if changing role of tradition, and the need for strong government, respectively. Second was a Marxistinspired approach that gave rise to dependency theory and subsequently to neo-Marxist analysis that focused on the relative autonomy of the state. By the 1980s both approaches were running out of steam but were partially subsumed in globalization theory, which emphasized the ongoing process, accelerated by developments in communications and the end of the cold war, of global economic integration and its cultural and political ramifications. Nowadays, the very concept of a developing world is increasingly hard to sustain and with it the possibility of identifying one distinct analytic approach as opposed to middle-range theories and a particular focus on the role of institutions more widely evident in contemporary political studies. In the absence of such an approach, certain key themes and agendas provide some degree of coherence. Similarly there is no distinctive set of methodological approaches but rather the application of approaches more generally available in the social sciences. Finally, whilst it is not possible to point to a systematic critique of prevailing or mainstream approaches, elements of a potential critique can be garnered from the literatures on orientalism and post-coloniality, and on post-development, and more generally from a post-structural perspective.

The Politics of Global Change: A Philosopher's Elucidation of the Challenges of a Developing Nation

This essay takes a looks at global change as a product of politics. It exposes the power relationship and interrelationships in the globe in so far as they involve influence or conflict as to decision making for developing nations, a dilemma of the third world rated countries. The work looks at the problems of right political will, favorable economic policy and the dexterity of developing nations to choose from the paradigms of the developed or stand the peril of relegation which is essentially viewed as a product of politics. Hence, the essay argues that the challenges of developing nations is the right decision that requires a holistic examination of the socio-cultural milieu that takes into cognizance the internal factors that makes development policies thrive and the environment within which such decisions are to be implemented. Hence, an alternative policy is needed to cope favorably with the politics of global change and that is a self-reliant approach or 'self-reliancism', the ability of developing nations amidst globalization to localize. The focus of this paper shall be on Nigeria as a developing nation as it seeks to transform itself from a developing nation to a developed nation.

International Development Policy | Revue internationale de politique de développement

International Development Policy | Revue internationale de politique de développement , 2023

English Français Español The platinum mining regions of South Africa's North West province attract numerous individuals from far and wide in search of mining jobs and other opportunities directly or indirectly related to the mines. Since the late 1990s many newcomers to the region have established informal settlements close to mining operations and nearby urban areas. Significant numbers of IsiXhosaspeaking migrants, primarily from the southeast of the country, reside in these settlements. This chapter examines particular social and cultural practices to argue that such mine-periphery settlements are significant sites for consequential social and political organisation and action. The chapter proposes that such politics, which can be termed the 'politics of presence', permits visible and audible claim-making and demands by the residents vis-à-vis the state and mining capital. Ordinary strategies for constructing and organising life entrench and expand their political presence, actions, and solidarity in a region that is, generally speaking, hostile to their presence. Instead of confronting, pathologising and marginalising the sociopolitical organisation and practices of informal settlement residence, policymakers would do well to view the political space and structures created in informal settlements as potentially fruitful for progressive political communication and deliberations aimed at improving the lives of poor people over the long term.