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441. CERI: For a theory of nationalism

Author:
Christophe Jaffrelot
Publication Date:
06-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales (CERI)
Abstract:
Nation is state-oriented, whereas nationalism is an ideology which may simply promote one's own identity against others. Therefore, theories of nation-building do not explain nationalism. Other theories adopting a materialist approach do, like Gellner's model in which nationalism appears as resulting from socio-ethnic conflicts, but they ignore the inner mechanism of this ideology. Theories looking at nationalism as an export product from the West also miss this point too. In contrast, a convincing body of theories anchor nationalism in socio-cultural reform. The intelligentsia which undertakes it in order to resist the threat posed by some dominant Other – often from the West, that fascinates them-eventually develops a nationalist attitude, because it is not willing to imitate the West but strive to restore its culture by incorporating into it prestigious features of the West through the invention of a convenient Golden Age, the cornerstone of nationalism. This approach finds a parallel in the theories of ethnicity which do not apply the primordialist paradigm but focus on the making of group boundaries. Barth highlights the decisive role of the relationship to the Other and the little importance of cultural contents – compared to the maintenance of group boundaries – in the making of ethnic identities, in such a way that there are more affinities between his theory of ethnicity and theories of nationalism than between the latter and theories of the nation.However, one can construct an integrated model of nationalism by organising different theories in a sequence. While the ideology-based approach comes first, the creation of a nationalist movement implies the rise of socio-economic conflicts and the massification of nationalism, a process of nation-building.
Topic:
International Relations, Demographics, Development, and Nationalism
Political Geography:
Global Focus

442. Reducing Global Poverty: The Role of Women in Development

Author:
Research and Policy Committee of the Committee for Economic Development
Publication Date:
07-2003
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Conference Board
Abstract:
In the developing world, women generally face greater difficulty than men in securing necessary resources and basic services—education, health, and nutritional services, physical and financial capital, and land—that would make them more productive and allow them to earn higher incomes. In this report, CED calls attention to the role women play in developing countries. This update expands on that recommendation and goes further to suggest specifically that U.S.-based businesses should support the equal status of women in all of their practices and programs in developing countries. They also should support U.S. ratification of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
Topic:
Development, Poverty, United Nations, Women, and Economic Development
Political Geography:
Global Focus

443. CERI: Politics Behind The Mask: Studying Contemporary Carnivals in Political Perspective, Theoretical and Methodological Suggestions

Author:
Denis-Constant Martin
Publication Date:
11-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales (CERI)
Abstract:
Carnivals are a type of rite of renewal where mask and laughter spur the invention of highly symbolic modes of expression. They offer opportunities for the study of social representations and, since they are both recurring and changing, they constitute a ground where not only social change can be assessed, but where the meanings of social change can be best understood. The first part of this paper reviews and discusses theories of carnival, in particular those related to its relationship to power and social hierarchies. The second part proposes a few methodological suggestions for the study of carnival from a political perspective, emphasizing semiotic analysis and surveys using non-directive methods.
Topic:
Civil Society, Development, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:
Global Focus

444. "Injustes" sanctions: les constructions internationales de la dénonciation des embargos et l'escalade de la vertu abolitionniste

Author:
Ariel Colonomos
Publication Date:
11-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales (CERI)
Abstract:
At a time when the use of sanctions has intensified considerably, criticism directed at embargos is gaining ground. In interpreting this significant rise in opposition, this article shows how and why mobilization against sanctions has developed, what sort of actors are involved and what forms it takes. This research brings to light the formation of networks and coalitions against both unilateral and multilateral measures. It underlines the role, status and scope of those whose business it is to fashion norms, by questioning the main analytical categories their strategies are usually based on. An expertise in embargo assessment, destined to levy judgment on a type of very specific violence, is developing in both national and transnational public spaces. This research, analyzing the emergence of this expertise, sheds light on the development of a conception of unjust sanctions and identifies the mechanisms of its construction on an international scale. This text in particular underlines the importance of traditions of just war, especially their reinterpretation by actors on the international scene and its moral norm-makers. Considering the development of these standards allows us to grasp one of the most decisive aspects of the use of force in the post-cold war world, as well as the establishment of certain international reforms.
Topic:
Development, Economics, International Cooperation, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Global Focus

445. New Perspektives of International and German Development Policy

Author:
Dirk Messner
Publication Date:
12-1998
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:
Remarks on shaping globalization: Perspectives of development cooperation and elements of global governance (Dirk Messner); Old Wine in New Skins: Some critical comments on the UNDP Reports (Franz Nuscheler); The position of development policy: a functional definition (Adolf Kloke-Lesch).
Topic:
Development, Globalization, Governance, and United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
Political Geography:
Global Focus

446. The Political Economy of Distributional Equity in Comparative Perspective

Author:
Kwan S. Kim
Publication Date:
03-1996
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Growing income inequality within a country is caused by socioeconomic factors and inadequate government policies and ultimately leads to social and political instabilities. The ideology of supply-side economics in the United States and the United Kingdom during the 1980s, for instance, induced policies of inequality which were then perceived as a way to stimulate economic growth. The demise of East European socialism since the late 1980s also led many developing countries to pursue market reforms as a way to resuscitate their moribund economies. There is evidence, however, to indicate that the distribution of income in these countries is becoming more unequal with attendant and frequently grave social and political consequences.
Topic:
Development, Political Economy, Poverty, Inequality, and Economic Growth
Political Geography:
United Kingdom, Global Focus, and United States of America

447. Changes in the International Distribution of Income

Author:
Herbert Stocker
Publication Date:
07-1996
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
This paper attempts to assess the extent of income inequality among nations and the development of international inequality over the last three decades. After a brief introductory discussion of changes in the economic policies of industrialized countries towards poor countries and corresponding changes in the attitudes of economists, the author goes on to give an impression of the actual state of the international income distribution and mention some general problems of such comparisons. In the third section he computes an inequality index to describe the development of the international income distribution over time and presents some decompositions. The fourth section investigates the robustness of the results, and the fifth section presents an extension to world-wide inequality and reflects briefly on the significance of the results.
Topic:
Development, Poverty, Labor Issues, Inequality, Economic Growth, and Income
Political Geography:
Global Focus

448. A New Discipline: Development Ethics

Author:
Denis Goulet
Publication Date:
08-1996
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
'Development' has long been equated with modernization and Westernization and studied as a straightforward economic issue. The discipline of economics has been the main source of policy prescription for development decisionmakers. This view is now widely criticized as ethnocentric and as economically reductionist. Change is occurring: economics itself is reintegrating ethics into its conceptualization, methodology, and analysis; a new paradigm of development is in gestation; and a new discipline, development ethics, has come into being. Development ethics centers its study of development on the value questions posed: What is the relation between having goods and being good in the pursuit of the good life; what are the foundations of a just society; and what stance should societies adopt toward nature? The new discipline emerges from two sources, which are now converging: from engagement in development action to the formulation of ethical theory, and from a critique of mainstream ethical theory to the crafting of normative strategies to guide development practice. Development ethics has a dual mission: to render the economy more human and to keep hope alive in the face of the seeming impossibility of achieving human development for all.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Ethics, Economic Growth, and Modernization
Political Geography:
Global Focus

449. Gross Human Rights Violations in 1994

Author:
Brigitte Hamm
Publication Date:
12-1996
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:
Leaving theoretical questions aside, the measurement of human rights is often considered to be appropriate in evaluating a country's human rights situation. Such data are used as an auxiliary tool of exogenous pressure, which is known as political conditionality whereby aid is related to specific political practices. Often human rights organizations of the South ask for the instrument of political conditionality against repressive regimes. However, exogenous pressure directed mainly towards elections and the respect for political human rights may be criticized as a kind of imperialistic attitude, trying to implement Western values in Non-Western societies.
Topic:
Development, Human Rights, Politics, Terrorism, and Conditionality
Political Geography:
Global Focus

450. The "Market-Friendly Approach to Development" vs. an "Industrial Policy"

Author:
Ajit Singh
Publication Date:
02-1993
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:
As Mr. Barber Conable observes in his Foreword, the World Development Report 1991 "synthesises and interprets the lessons of forty years of development experience" (p. iii). In view of the World Bank's leading role in development financing for poor countries around the globe over much of this period, this is clearly an important document. The Report is necessarily being taken very seriously in policy making circles throughout the developing world. It is therefore essential that there should be a full analysis of its intellectual approach and the evidence underlying its conclusions.
Topic:
Development, Industrial Policy, Markets, and World Bank
Political Geography:
Global Focus