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Political Transition and Inclusive Development in Malawi
Malawi is among the few countries in sub-Saharan Africa that has witnessed significant improvements in relation to meeting the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets. It exhibits some of the main challenges facing African democracies while they attempt to consolidate the benefits of democratisation. Political Transition and Inclusive Development in Malawi critically analyses opportunities and constraints related to the impact of democracy on development in one of the world’s poorest countries. The book explores how, and to what extent, processes related to democratic and economic governance can be strengthened in order to make political and administrative authorities more responsive to ...
Poverty, Inequality, and Democracy
The rise of populism in new democracies, especially in Latin America, has brought renewed urgency to the question of how liberal democracy deals with issues of poverty and inequality. Citizens who feel that democracy failed to improve their economic condition are often vulnerable to the appeal of political leaders with authoritarian tendencies. To counteract this trend, liberal democracies must establish policies that will reduce socioeconomic disparities without violating liberal principles, interfering with economic growth, or ignoring the consensus of the people. Poverty, Inequality, and Democracy addresses the complicated philosophical and moral issues surrounding the distribution of eco...
Democracy and Famine
Famine is the most extreme manifestation of the existence of poverty, inequality and political apathy. Whereas poverty, hunger and diseases are not easily eradicated in the world today, famines are often perceived to be relatively simple to avert. However, the political incentives to prevent famines are not always present. Inspired by the work of Amartya Sen, whose influential hypothesis that democratic institutions together with a free press provide effective protection from famine, Democracy and Famine is a study combining qualitative and quantitative evidence, analysing the effect of democracy on famine prevention. The book’s overall framework moves from placing political systems at the heart of famine protection to look at the political processes involved. Using a case study based approach drawing on famines from India, Malawi and Niger; Democracy and Famine will be of interest to scholars and students of democracy, comparative politics and international relations.
Who Owns Africa?
The independence of African countries from their European colonizers in the late 1950s and 1960s marked a shift in the continent's political leadership. Nevertheless, the economies of African nations remained tied to those of their former colonies, raising questions of resource control and the sovereignty of these nation-states. Who Owns Africa? addresses the role of foreign actors in Africa and their competing interests in exploiting the resources of Africa and its people. An interdisciplinary team of scholars examines the concept of colonialism from a historical and socio-political perspective. They show how the language of investment, development aid, mutual interest, or philanthropy is used to cloak the virulent forms of exploitation on the continent, thereby perpetuating a state of neocolonialism that has left many African people poor and in the margins.
Starvation and India's Democracy
Building on Amartya Sen's famous claim that no famine has ever occurred in a democratic country, this volume examines the relationship between democracy, public action and famine prevention in India.
The Legal Empowerment Agenda
Despite providing society with a set of crucial services, large groups of workers in the informal economy are subject to exclusion and discrimination, and their lives are characterised by various types of vulnerabilities and deprivations that result from the denial of social, economic, political and legal protection. Although not new to the development vocabulary, the informal economy has received renewed attention in recent years largely due to the ILO's 'decent work' agenda and various efforts to promote 'legal empowerment of the poor'. With an explicit focus on labour rights, the book focuses on a nuanced understanding of the regulatory and operational challenges and dilemmas related to implementing the two approaches in selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to analyzing structures and relations of power between the formal and the informal economies, the book critically discusses the work of governments, civil society organizations and the poor themselves to address the daily challenges of living in the informal economy.
Land Dispossession and Everyday Politics in Rural Eastern India
Over the past decade India has witnessed a number of land wars that have centred crucially on the often forcible transfer of land from small farmers or indigenous groups to private companies. Among these, the land war that erupted in Singur, West Bengal, in 2006, went on to make national headlines and become paradigmatic of many of the challenges and social conflicts that arise when a state-led policy of swiftly transferring land to private sector companies encounters resistance on the ground. Land Dispossession and Everyday Politics in Rural Eastern India analyses the movement by Singur’s so-called unwilling farmers to retain and reclaim their farmland. By foregrounding the everyday politics of popular mobilization, the book sheds new light on the movement’s internal politics as well as on contentious issues rooted in everyday caste, class and gender relations.
The New Famines
The recent occurrences of famine in Ethiopia and Southern Africa have propelled this key issue back into the public arena for the first time since 1984, as once again it becomes a priority - not only for lesser developed countries but also for the international community. Exploring the paradox that is the persistence of famine in the contemporary world, this book looks at the way the nature of famine is changing in the face of globalization and shifting geo-political forces. The book challenges perceived wisdom about the causes of famine and analyzes the worst cases of recent years – including close analysis of food scarcity in North Korea, Ethiopia, Sudan and Malawi and less well known ca...
Ethics of Global Development
Poverty, inequality, violence, environmental degradation, and tyranny continue to afflict the world. Ethics of Global Development offers a moral reflection on the ends and means of local, national, and global efforts to overcome these five scourges. After emphasizing the role of ethics in development studies, policy-making, and practice, David A. Crocker analyzes and evaluates Amartya Sen's philosophy of development in relation to alternative ethical outlooks. He argues that Sen's turn to robust ideals of human agency and democracy improves on both Sen's earlier emphasis on 'capabilities and functionings' and Martha Nussbaum's version of the capability orientation. This agency-focused capability approach is then extended and strengthened by applying it to the challenges of consumerism and hunger, the development responsibilities of affluent individuals and nations, and the dilemmas of globalization. Throughout the book the author argues for the importance of more inclusive and deliberative democratic institutions.
