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242. Democratisation from the Outside in: NGO and International Efforts to Promote Open Elections
- Author:
- Vikram K. Chand
- Publication Date:
- 02-1997
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Carter Center
- Abstract:
- Until recently, the monitoring of elections in a sovereign country by outside actors was extremely rare. The United Nations (UN) had significant experience in conducting plebiscites and elections in dependent territories but did not monitor an election in a formally independent country until 1989, when it reluctantly became involved in the Nicaraguan electoral process. At the regional level, the Organization of American States (OAS) occasionally sent small delegations to witness elections in member states, but these missions were too brief to permit any real observation of the processes, and failed to criticise fraud. Since the 1980s election-monitoring has become increasingly common in transitional elections from authoritarian to democratic rule. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs), domestic and international, were the first to become involved in election-monitoring in the 1980s followed by international and regional organisations like the UN, the OAS, and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in the 1990s. Election-monitors played a crucial role in transitional elections held in the Philippines (1986), Chile (1989), Panama (1989), Nicaragua (1990) and Haiti (1990). In addition, elections began to form a crucial element of UN 'peace-building' strategies in countries torn apart by civil strife such as Namibia (1989), Cambodia (1993) and El Salvador (1994). By the middle of the 1990s, international election-monitoring had thus become widely accepted, and fairly universal standards established for defining the term 'free and fair' elections.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Democratization, Non-Governmental Organization, Sovereignty, and United Nations
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Philippines, Cambodia, Nicaragua, Chile, and Namibia
243. European Integration and the Question of National Sovereignty
- Author:
- Lars Tragardh
- Publication Date:
- 01-1997
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute of European Studies
- Abstract:
- According to Ole Wæver, a leading student of the travails of the "New Europe," Western Europe is probably the part of the world that currently exhibits "the most advanced case of border fluidity and transgression of sovereignty." So dramatic are the processes underway that they have led otherwise prudent political scientists to turn to the trendy idiom of "postmodernity," meaning in the context of IR theory first and foremost "post-sovereignty." Thus John Ruggie has argued that what he sees as "the unbundling of territoriality" - i.e. the incipient decoupling of sovereignty and (nation)state - constitutes "nothing less than the emergence of the first truly postmodern international form." Similarly, Saskia Sassen notes that in the process of globalization the notion of a "national economy" has come to be replaced with that of a "global economy." As a consequence, she argues that while sovereignty and territory very much "remain key features of the international system," they have been "reconstituted and partly displaced onto other institutional areas outside the state." Thus, she concludes, "sovereignty has been decentered and territory partly de-nationalized."
- Topic:
- International Cooperation and Sovereignty
- Political Geography:
- Europe
244. The Path to European Integration
- Author:
- Paul Pierson
- Publication Date:
- 11-1996
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute of European Studies
- Abstract:
- Many European and American observers of the EC have criticized "intergovernmentalist" accounts for exaggerating the extent of member state control over the process of European integration. This essay seeks to ground these criticisms in a historical institutionalist" account that stresses the need to study European integration as a political process which unfolds over time. Such a perspective highlights the limits of member state control over long-term institutional development. Losses of control result from member state preoccupation with short-term concerns, the ubiquity of unintended consequences, and processes that "lock in" past decisions and make reassertions of member state authority difficult. Brief examination of the evolution of EC social policy suggests the limitations of treating the EC as an institutional "instrument" facilitating collective action among sovereign states. It is more useful to view integration as a path-dependent process that has produced a fragmented but still discernible multi-tiered European polity.
- Topic:
- International Organization, Politics, and Sovereignty
- Political Geography:
- America and Europe
245. Legitimate Rule in the European Union
- Author:
- Frank Schimmelfennig
- Publication Date:
- 08-1996
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute of European Studies
- Abstract:
- Two seemingly contradictory trends dominate the European debate over legitimate rule. On the one hand, there appears to be no ideologically viable alternative to liberal democracy following the collapse of the Eastern Bloc. On the other, the rapid progress of European integration has triggered an intense public debate over the European Union's "legitimacy deficit" and active popular opposition in many Western European countries. This paper asks whether these two seemingly contradictory developments can be reconciled. It argues that they can once it is recognized that the modern inter-state system is undergoing profound change. State sovereignty is being undermined by the trans-nationalization of foreign policy and the inter-nationalization of governance. In particular, the European Union has crossed the border from horizontal (or anarchical) interstate cooperation to vertical (or hierarchical) policy making in a multi-level political system in which states are but one level of the policy.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Economics, Government, International Organization, and Sovereignty
- Political Geography:
- Europe
246. Is Pandora's Box Half-Empty or Half-Full? The Limited Virulence of Secessionism and the Domestic Sources of Disintegration
- Author:
- Stephen M. Saideman
- Publication Date:
- 11-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC)
- Abstract:
- Is secession contagious? If so, can it be contained or quarantined to limit its spread? These two questions must be addressed to understand the challenges posed by ethnic divisions within and between states today. The end of ideological competition between the United States and the Soviet Union has not ushered in an era of global peace, but instead a period characterized by ethnic conflicts within many states. The coincidence of the disintegrations of the Soviet, Yugoslav, and Czechoslovak federations suggests that secession does spread with potentially nasty consequences.
- Topic:
- Security, Ethnic Conflict, Nationalism, Politics, and Sovereignty
- Political Geography:
- United States and Eastern Europe
247. Maritime Jurisdiction in the Three China Seas
- Author:
- Ju Guoxing
- Publication Date:
- 10-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC)
- Abstract:
- The three China Seas (the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea, and the South China Sea) are all enclosed or semi-enclosed and studded with so many offshore and mid-ocean islands that nowhere does the distance from one headland or island to another approach 400 nautical miles. With the extension of national jurisdiction over maritime resources, no seabed in the area is left unclaimed.
- Topic:
- International Law and Sovereignty
- Political Geography:
- China, Israel, and Southeast Asia
248. National Laws, NAFTA Panels and Multilateral Provisions: Sovereignty or Supranational Rules at Bay
- Author:
- Imtiaz Hussain
- Publication Date:
- 03-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
- Abstract:
- Extending a previous investigation of farm dispute settlement under the Canadian-U.S. Free Trade Agreement of 1989 to include the North American Free Trade Agreement of 1994, this study inquires if regionalism in this part of the world threatens the sovereignty of national trade laws and multilateral provisions. The adjudication process, spelled out by Chapter 19 of the two free trade agreements, is singled out and disaggregated into four stages for analysis. This, in turn, allows for (a) a reassessment of the sovereignty-supranational theoretical debate; and (b) undertaking a comparative study of the national trade relief laws in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Whereas extant works, almost exclusively of disputes under G.A.T.T., find that supranational rules influence outcomes more than the pursuit of sovereign interests by states, the preliminary findings of this study suggest that both forces are equally strong in North America. By and large, they suggest that reciprocal relations between states, regional entities, and multilateral organizations are necessary for the viable operation of each; yet this necessity may, in the long-term, constrain the multilateral organization more than the regional. This interpenetrating relationship is unique, and the source of institutional innovations of relevance to the pursuit of both state sovereignty and supranationalism.
- Topic:
- International Trade and Finance and Sovereignty
- Political Geography:
- United States, Canada, South America, North America, and Mexico
249. Co-Sponsored Projects: Global Security and Ethnic Conflict
- Author:
- John Leslie, Paul M. Lubeck, Georgi Derlugian, Elaine Thomas, Maria Todorova, Philip G. Roeder, Andrew Bell-Flailkoff, Nirvikar Singh, Daniel Chirot, Beverly Crawford, and Ronnie Lipschutz
- Publication Date:
- 03-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute of European Studies
- Abstract:
- This paper looks at the relationship between the rise of Islamic radicalism and changes in the global political and economic order. The author suggests that the major independent variable explaining whether Islamic radicalism can take power in a given state is the degree to which the state is able to articulate and then successfully pursue a national agenda. The success of such an agenda is in turn dependent upon the position of the state in the context of the global order. Thus, the author makes the claim that the creation of an integrated, global market exacerbates rather than suppresses Islamic radicalism because it interferes with the ability of any given state to pursue its own agenda. Economic liberalization weakens state authority, exposes its citizens to global competition and creates social and economic dislocation, providing an opportunity for Islamic radicals to position themselves as an alternative to further global integration.
- Topic:
- Security, Ethnic Conflict, Islam, Nationalism, and Sovereignty
250. Resolving Intra-National Conflicts: A Strengthened Role for Non-Governmental Actors
- Publication Date:
- 01-1992
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Carter Center
- Abstract:
- This report is a summary of the inaugural consultation of the International Negotiation Network (INN), held at The Carter Center of Emory University CCEU), in Atlanta, Georgia, January 14-17, 1992. The consultation brought together over 200 invited guests from 40 countries and more than 150 organizations or governments. It was made possible through the generous support of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and shaped in part by that foundation's president, David Hamburg, who has served as one of the INN's advisors.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Human Rights, and Sovereignty
- Political Geography:
- Africa, New York, Europe, Asia, and Georgia