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41. The Political Economy of Heterogeneous Development: Quantile Effects of Income and Education

Author:
Marcus Alexander, Matthew Harding, and Carlos Lamarche
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:
Does development lead to the establishment of more democratic institutions? The key to the puzzle, we argue, is the previously unrecognized fact that based on quantitative regime scores, countries over the past 50 years have clustered into two separate, very distinct, yet equally-common stages of political development—authoritarian states with low levels of freedom on one side an d democracies with liberal institutions on the other side of a bimodal distribution of political regimes. We develop a new empirical strategy—exploiting exogenous world economic factors and introducing new panel data estimators—that allows for the first time to estimate the effects of development as well as unobserved country effects in driving democracy at these different stages of political development. We find that income and education have the least effect on democracy when authoritarian regimes are consolidated and that only country effects, possibly accounting for institutional legacies, can lead to political development. Ironically, it is in highly democratic and wealthiest of nations that income and education start to play a role; however greater wealth and better educated citizenry can both help and hurt democracy depending again on what the country's institutional legacies are. Far from accepting the notion that much of the developing world is cursed by unchanging and poor long-run institutions, policy-makers should take note that with democratization we also see country-specific factors that in turn condition the difference income and education make for democracy.
Topic:
Democratization, Development, Economics, Political Economy, and Third World
Political Geography:
Africa, United States, China, Asia, and Germany

42. Governing Khat Drugs and Democracy in Somaliland

Author:
Peter Hansen
Publication Date:
10-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
This paper examines the role of the mild stimulant khat in the economic and political transformation of the independent, yet internationally unrecognized Republic of Somaliland. Rather than seeing khat as a hindrance for nation-state formation and as a developmental problem, the paper argues that khat has been important to the economic viability of Somaliland and to the formation of political practices and identities. In this sense, khat should be seen not only as a drug contributing to violence, state failure and inadequate development, but also as underpinning economic processes, political identities and societal structures that have been crucial to the formation and political success of Somaliland. The paper adds to our understanding of the links between emerging political and economic orders in a post-conflict society.
Topic:
Economics, Peace Studies, Political Economy, Narcotics Trafficking, and Fragile/Failed State
Political Geography:
Africa and Somalia

43. Walk with Us and Listen: Political Reconciliation in Africa

Author:
Charles Villa-Vicencio
Publication Date:
09-2009
Content Type:
Book
Institution:
Georgetown University Press
Abstract:
No abstract is available.
Topic:
Political Economy, Politics, and Post Colonialism
Political Geography:
Africa

44. Africa: The United States and China Court the Continent

Author:
David H. Shinn
Publication Date:
06-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of International Affairs
Institution:
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
Abstract:
The United States and China are the two most important bilateral, external actors in Africa today. While the United States wields more influence in most of Africa's fifty-three countries, China has surpassed it in a number of states and is challenging it in others. Both countries look to Africa as an increasingly significant source of raw materials, especially oil. China, more than the United States, views Africa from a long-term strategic perspective. Both countries seek political and economic support in international forums from African countries, which constitute more than a quarter of the membership of the United Nations. The interests of the United States and China in Africa are more similar than dissimilar. There will inevitably be some competition over access to African natural resources and political support, but there are even greater opportunities for cooperation that can benefit African nations.
Topic:
Oil and Political Economy
Political Geography:
Africa, United States, and China

45. Resources and the Political Economy of State Fragility in Conflict States: Iraq and Somalia

Author:
Ghassan Dibeh
Publication Date:
04-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
This paper studies state failure and governance in two conflict-states in the Middle East: Iraq and Somalia. Iraq is currently undergoing a social experiment under which a new form of government is being constructed after the passage of autocratic rule. The government envisaged is a consociational democratic state designed a priori as a political mechanism for the redistribution of resources, mainly oil. Somalia represents a stateless society or anarchy. The paper argues that in resource-rich countries such as Iraq, the consociational project leads to an Olson-type rent-seeking confessional behaviour that hampers economic growth and development. The rent-seeking behaviour in Iraq is fuelling the insurgency that perceives the consociational system as a grabbing attempt of the country's resources by other ethnic groups. However, state construction is possible since there is a positive economic effect of combining government and resources. In Somalia, on the other hand, the developments and the evolution of anarchy since state collapse in 1991 exemplify the result of prolonged conflict in a resource-poor state. The lack of resources, direct access of producers to resources and low productivity and weak redistributional potential of combining resources and government offer no material incentives to the various groups for resurrecting central authority.
Topic:
Oil and Political Economy
Political Geography:
Africa, Iraq, Middle East, and Somalia

46. Burundi: Restarting Political Dialogue

Publication Date:
08-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
En dépit des progrès enregistrés dans la mise en œuvre de l'accord de paix avec le Parti pour la libération du peuple hutu – Forces nationa les de libération (Palipe-hutu-FNL), dernier mouvement rebelle en activité dans le pays, le Burundi traverse une crise politique dange-reuse qui risque de compromettre la tenue d'élections libres et démocratiques en 2010 et d'affecter la stabi-lité du pays. Le retour du chef rebelle Agathon Rwasa à Bujumbura, et la signature de l'accord politique de Magaliesburg le 11 juin 2008 sont des pas importants pour le processus de paix burundais. Toutefois, le processus de désarmement commence à peine, et la question de l'intégration du mouvement rebelle dans les institutions politiques et les corps de défense et de sécurité n'est toujours pa s réglée. Dans ce contexte, l'absence de dialogue avec les partis politiques d'opposition est dommageable à la bonne gestion du pays. Il est urgent que les acteurs politiques locaux et les partenaires extérieurs du Burundi prennent la mesure de ces risques et s'efforcent de les conjurer par un renouveau du dialogue national.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, Government, and Political Economy
Political Geography:
Africa and Burundi

47. Business Constraints and Growth Potential of Micro and Small Manufacturing Enterprises in Uganda

Author:
Esther K. Ishengoma and Robert Kappel
Publication Date:
05-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
Ugandan micro- and small enterprises (MSEs) still perform poorly. The paper utilizes data collected in Uganda in March and April 2003 to analyze the business constraints faced by these MSEs. Using a stratified random sampling, a sample of 265 MSEs were interviewed. The study focuses on the 105 manufacturing firms that responded to all questions. It examines the extent to which the growth of MSEs is associated with business constraints, while also controlling for owners' attributes and firms' characteristics. The results reveal that MSEs' growth potential is negatively affected by limited access to productive resources (finance and business services), by high taxes, and by lack of market access.
Topic:
Economics, Emerging Markets, and Political Economy
Political Geography:
Uganda and Africa

48. Kenya and Zimbabwe: Democratic Challenges and Opportunities

Author:
Briggs Bomba
Publication Date:
01-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Africa Policy Information Center
Abstract:
The world's attention has been riveted in 2008, by election crises in Africa, first Kenya, and now Zimbabwe. In both cases, challenges remain in converting electoral victory to political power. Can a victorious opposition come to power in the face of an obstinate incumbent? This question is particularly relevant when the incumbent regime controls the coercive apparatus of the state and the opposition only has the ballot in its corner. In the battle of the ballot vs. the bullet, can there ever be a fair match?
Topic:
Civil Society, Democratization, Political Economy, and Post Colonialism
Political Geography:
Kenya, Africa, and Zimbabwe

49. The Diversification Challenge in Africa's Resource-Rich Economies

Author:
John Page
Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
For a growing number of countries in Africa the current commodity boom is a huge opportunity. But if the economic history of resource-rich, poor countries-especially in Africa-is any guide, rather than bringing prosperity, the resource boom may drive them into what Paul Collier (2007) in his influential book The Bottom Billion terms the "Natural Resources Trap." In Africa, countries dependent on oil, gas, and mining have tended to have weaker long-run growth, higher rates of poverty, and higher inequality than Non mineral-dependent economies at similar levels of income.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Political Economy, and Poverty
Political Geography:
Africa

50. Energy Interests and Alliances: China, America and Africa

Author:
Danila Bochkarev, Angelica Austin, and Willem van der Geest
Publication Date:
08-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
EastWest Institute
Abstract:
In the strategic policy communities of both the United States and China, there has been a knee-jerk blurring between competition in commerce between U.S. and Chinese energy firms and the potential for strategic competition by one country to deny resources to the other. A senior State Department official has described this sort of reaction as “exaggerated”. But the suspicion is there and it is ill-founded. It serves the interests of neither country. On the contrary, as this EWI Policy Paper suggests, energy security can become a rallying point in an otherwise difficult relationship. The two countries are now intensifying their interest and activities not just in each other's domestic energy sector but also in each other's role in a system of global energy security.
Topic:
Emerging Markets, Energy Policy, Political Economy, and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:
Africa, United States, and China