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3702. Living on a Life Support Machine: The Challenge of Rebuilding Afghanistan
- Author:
- Peter J. Middlebrook and Sharon M. Miller
- Publication Date:
- 01-2006
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Foreign Policy In Focus
- Abstract:
- The forthcoming “London Conference” on Afghanistan (January 31-February 1, 2006), to be attended by President Hamid Karzai, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, and Paul Wolfowitz, head of the World Bank, brings together high ranking dignitaries from the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the international development community to endorse a new multilateral agreement to be known as the “Afghanistan Compact,” the successor of the Bonn Agreement.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Development, and Government
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan, Middle East, and London
3703. Radical Democracy in the Andes: Indigenous Parties and the Quality of Democracy in Latin America
- Author:
- Donna Lee Van Cott
- Publication Date:
- 12-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- I explore whether recently formed indigenous political parties in Ecuador and Bolivia are fulfilling their promise to improve the quality of local government by establishing institutions that promote intercultural cooperation and the participation of individuals and civil society groups. To the extent that such improvements have occurred, I seek to identify the conditions under which they succeed. I argue that under certain conditions even "least-likely cases" for the establishment of radical democratic models can produce positive changes in relations among hostile ethnic groups, shift resources toward underserved populations, and create spaces for citizens and civil society groups to deliberate public spending priorities. Such models are most likely to work when indigenous parties and their social movement sponsors are able to (1) maintain internal unity and solidarity; (2) develop distinct, complementary roles; (3) attract charismatic, talented mayors who are willing and able to work across ethnic lines; (4) reelect successful mayors; and (5) attract resources and technical support from external donors.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Democratization, and Development
- Political Geography:
- South America, Latin America, Ecuador, and Bolivia
3704. Latin American Catholicism in an Age of Religious and Political Pluralism: A Framework for Analysis
- Author:
- Frances Hagopian
- Publication Date:
- 12-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- This article identifies and proposes a framework to explain the responses of Latin America's Roman Catholic churches to a new strategic dilemma posed by religious and political pluralism. Because the church's goals of defending institutional interests, evangelizing, promoting public morality, and grounding public policy in Catholic social teaching cut across existing political cleavages, Church leaders must make strategic choices about which to emphasize in their messages to the faithful, investment of pastoral resources, and alliances. I develop a typology of Episcopal responses based on the cases of Argentina, Chile, Brazil, and Mexico, and explain strategic choices by the church's capacity to mobilize civil society, its degree of religious hegemony, and the ideological orientations of Catholics. The analysis draws from 620 Episcopal documents issued since 2000.
- Topic:
- Development, Government, and Religion
- Political Geography:
- Brazil, Argentina, South America, Latin America, Mexico, and Chile
3705. Escaping the Cultural Context of Human Rights
- Author:
- Andrew Fagan
- Publication Date:
- 11-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Human Rights Human Welfare (University of Denver)
- Abstract:
- The contemporary age appears beset and driven by moral and political disputes, disagreements, fundamental misunderstandings, and mutual incomprehension. Secularists and religious believers systematically argue past one another. Doctrinal differences across and within religious communities persist despite, in many cases, centuries of dialogue and debate. Many of these disputes are neither trivial nor banal, but go to the heart of some of the most enduring and fundamental political questions and concerns. Foremost among them is the question: how can we co-exist in a peaceful and harmonious manner that does not entail a wholesale renunciation of those constitutive beliefs and practices that make us who we are? How can we be and let be? The search for a sufficiently robust common ground is increasingly urgent and appears increasingly difficult to achieve at regional, national, and international levels. Some readers might balk at this particular characterization of the world “out there,†for some, a solution may appear readily at hand, requiring only sufficient political will and courage to be realized. On this view, the moral and legal doctrine of human rights provides the normative cement capable of overcoming conflict and holding the world together. For many advocates of human rights the doctrine and its core principles are neither partial nor contingent. Human rights, it is argued, address a global community of morally equal individuals. The right to life and the right to be free from torture are absolute and immutable. Simplifying a very complicated series of philosophical arguments, no rational individual, however powerful, is considered rationally capable of rejecting the universal application of such core principles. The doctrine of human rights is a necessary and sufficient means for resolving the phenomenon of moral and political conflict and offers a sustainable answer to the question of how we might live together despite our deep differences.
- Topic:
- Development, Human Rights, Human Welfare, and Politics
3706. Beyond Power Politics: International Law and Human Rights Discourse in the Post-9/11 World
- Author:
- J. Peter Pham
- Publication Date:
- 11-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Human Rights Human Welfare (University of Denver)
- Abstract:
- In the early 1970s, legal scholars began reexamining the dominant legal paradigms within Western polities with a skeptical view of their underlying doctrines and arguments. While the critique was radical in the context of its time, the critical legal movement itself, both inside and outside academia, has largely become somewhat passé as its valid insights have either been absorbed into mainstream juridical scholarship or largely superseded by newer fields of legal inquiry that it had nurtured, including feminist jurisprudence, critical race theory, and postmodern scholarship.
- Topic:
- Development, Human Rights, Non-Governmental Organization, and Politics
3707. The Promise and Peril of Public Anthropology
- Author:
- Ben Feinberg
- Publication Date:
- 08-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Human Rights Human Welfare (University of Denver)
- Abstract:
- In recent years, as we accelerate our planetary experiment into increasing violence and social inequality, cultural anthropologists have increasingly expressed their befuddlement about why, amid all the clamor and reckless talk about the state of the world that characterizes public discourse, our voice has been notably absent. We have moved from the introspection of the 80s, when the big debates within the discipline involved tearing at our own flesh and flaunting the sackcloth of self-doubt: how do know what we know about other people? Are we not projecting our colonialist narratives onto the weak? Who the Hell do we think we are to talk so pompously and authoritatively about them? Emerging from this doubt, we remembered that, at the same time that we sparred with each other and devoured our elders in the hidden corners and footnotes of obscure journals, our discipline has actually reached a near-unanimous consensus—as strong as the consensus for evolution among physical anthropologists or for global warming among climate scientists—on a number of vitally important issues that are relevant to the masses outside our club, and could, if applied by the right people, actually benefit society and serve in defense of human rights.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Development, and Human Rights
- Political Geography:
- United States
3708. Taxing Development: The Law and Economics of Traffic Impact Fees
- Author:
- Edward P. Stringham, Benjamin Powell, and Jack Estill
- Publication Date:
- 12-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Independent Institute
- Abstract:
- Should developers be charged fees for negatively impacting residents? New development often uses existing (or requires new) infrastructure including roads, sewers, refuse collection, parks, fire, police, and schools. When developers provide this infrastructure to users for “free,” who should pay? Over the past fifty years governments have increasingly charged new development impact fees for imposing costs on communities. California is one of the leaders in the development of impact fees. The modern Pigovian idea is that government can set a fee at the value of the impact to internalize externalities and encourage the economically efficient amount of development. While developers can often provide the necessary infrastructure within their own developments as part of the construction process, additional impacts from new development may spill over into existing communities that necessitate additional capital improvements. Local government can hypothetically charge the development a fee that is equal to this impact, thereby internalizing this externality. If the exact value of the external impact is known and implemented as a fee, this process can encourage the economically efficient amount of development. Despite the increasing popularity of development impact fees, several issues make the government's “economically efficient” solution easier said than done.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Development, Economics, and Education
- Political Geography:
- California
3709. Somalia After State Collapse: Chaos or Improvement?
- Author:
- Benjamin Powell, Alex Nowrasteh, and Ryan Ford
- Publication Date:
- 11-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Independent Institute
- Abstract:
- Many people believe that Somalia's economy has been in chaos since the collapse of its national government in 1991. We take a comparative institutional approach to examine Somalia's performance relative to other African countries both when Somalia had a government and during its extended period of anarchy. We find that although Somalia is poor, its relative economic performance has improved during its period of statelessness. We also describe how Somalia has provided basic law and order and a currency, which have enabled the country to achieve the coordination that has led to improvements in its standard of living.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and Government
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Somalia
3710. China's Economic Growth, 1978-2005: Structural Change and Institutional Attributes
- Author:
- Dic Lo and LI Guicai
- Publication Date:
- 11-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
- Abstract:
- China's sustained rapid economic growth over the era of its systemic reform is of general importance for late development under globalization. This paper seeks to construct an explanation of the experience, which centers around the notion of an evolving "regime of accumulation", or development path, that emboddies an uneasy mix of the attributes of allocative and productive efficiency. In this light, the analytical findings of the paper give rise to two main propositions. First, in contrast to the general direction of market reform in the institutional dimension, China's actual path of industrialization and economic growth has rather tended to contradict the principle of comparative advantage - it has been in the direction of capital deepening, especially since the early 1990s. Second, China's reformed economic institutions have encompassed both market-conforming and market-supplanting elements, represented by non-state-owned enterprises and state-owned enterprises, respectively, with the former accounting for the improvement in allocative efficiency while the latter accounting for the improvement in productive efficiency. The paper concludes with a discussion on the social implications of the findings and propositions.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Development, Economics, and International Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- China