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In this book, Sten Widmalm adopts comparative and empirical approaches to examine how decentralization is connected to social capital and corruption. Using evidence from in-depth field studies in Madhya Pradesh and Kerala, and analyzing it against historical cases from around the world, he presents theoretical perspectives and policy suggestions. Widmalm’s journey takes him to ancient Rome, Greece and India, as well as to the West, China, Latin America, and Russia of more recent times.
From Bullets to Ballots considers non-state Muslim organizations at different stages of abandoning violence and pursuing their goals through a political process. Some have successfully made the transition. Others are in mid-stream. Some have tried but backtracked, splintered, or simply abandoned such efforts, reverting to pathological violence. Many groups could be case studies, but Phillips has selected the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Kurdistan Workers Party, the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, and the Free Aceh Movement, because they cover the spectrum. This book deals with political strategies for moderating violent Muslim movements by engaging them in the polit...
This book investigates the factors that led to the breakdown of democracy and the rise of violent separatism in Jammu and Kashmir in the 1980s, and how the risk of a large-scale war has grown in South Asia in the 1990s. Solutions to this conflict need to be based on knowledge about what caused it as well as perspectives on why this conflict is so particularly dangerous. Widmalm offers answers in this book, with systematic comparisons over time to establish the causes of the conflict. He refutes the contention that ethnic factors are the main cause, while acknowledging that ethnic dividing lines are salient features of the conflict today. Interviews with representatives of the Indian government, the ISI in Pakistan and separatist leaders in Jammu and Kashmir are also incorporated.
This is a collection of 20 essays, dedicated to Dr George Mathew, by eminent scholars and academics on decentralised governance and its importance in a globalising world. Based on emperical studies and paradigms of developed and developing countries, it has an overarching focus on India s panchayati raj institutions. The Seventy third constitution Amendment Act of 1992, by making PRIs mandatory, was a historic move towards deepening democracy and advancing development through decentralisation. Decentralisation programmes in other countries (e.g S.Africa and Pakistan ) are also reviewed. The book offers a comprehensive account of development and governance at the grassroots through a broad canvas of multiperspective and interdisciplinary presentations.
This book addresses the challenges presented to the EU by an increasingly complex security environment. Through the interdisciplinary approach taken, researchers in economics, law and political science identify a range of problems relating to the multiple security threats that the EU faces, and present new means to address them within their respective fields of expertise. The contributions provide accessible and policy-relevant analyses of crucial challenges to the EU’s ability to function as a political union in the years ahead.
Countries emerging from civil war or protracted violence often face the daunting challenge of rebuilding their economy while simultaneously creating the political and social conditions for a stable peace. The implicit assumption in the international community that rapid political democratisation along with economic liberalisation holds the key to sustainable peace is belied by the experiences of countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan. Often, the challenges of post-conflict reconstruction revolve around the timing and sequencing of different reform that may have contradictory implications. Drawing on a range of thematic studies and empirical cases, this book examines how post-conflict reconstruction policies can be better sequenced in order to promote sustainable peace. The book provides evidence that many reforms that are often thought to be imperative in post-conflict societies may be better considered as long-term objectives, and that the immediate imperative for such societies should be 'people-centred' policies.
Compiled in anticipation of the U.S. attack on Iraq in 2003, this work brings together European and American policy makers, policy analysts, and academics to explore the global political-military ramifications of the "War on Terror," particularly concentrating on US and NATO policy and the responses of the European Union and Russia. Gardner (international affairs, American U. of Paris, France) has organized the 16 chapters into sections exploring the broad strategic impact of September 11th, the future of NATO, NATO and transatlantic relationships, and "War on Terror" ramifications in Central Asian and Middle Eastern regional settings
Bridging international relations, comparative politics, and cognitive psychology, this book explores how elites shape the popular legitimacy of international organizations.
Shaping Nations and Markets employs a mixed methods approach to contend that economic ideas, organization of domestic interests and their economic power, asymmetries of information, and political institutions do not sufficiently explain the formation of national interests in processes of trade liberalization. The author proposes that something is missing—identity capital—which also empowers economic sectors that share either liberalizing or protectionist interests. Identity capital is an economic sector’s contribution to the stability of a national identity narrative; it correlates with the degree to which the workforce of any sector represents the dominant conception of national ident...