When Nature Strikes: Which Regimes Exploit Natural Disasters for Fiscal Expansion?

Hybrid regimes are characterised by a balancing act between democracy and authoritarianism, with neither political regime type being dominant. The balancing of the state between democratic and non-democratic modes of functioning can take the form of a state transforming from authoritarianism to democracy and a form of regression from democracy to authoritarianism, when the democratic system is upset by non-democratic mechanisms. The functioning of the political system in Ukraine during the years 1996–2004 was such that the authoritarian aspects of Ukraine’s hybrid regime overshadowed its democratic elements. Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way (2002; 2013) refer to this phenomenon as “competitive authoritarianism”. This term denotes regimes where authoritarian features are more prevalent than democratic ones, according to the concept. Since 2004, the Ukrainian political system has transitioned towards a hybrid regime that places more emphasis on democratic characteristics. In the following twenty years, the Ukrainian hybrid regime was transformed between democratic-authoritarian hybrid regime (as a result of the events of the “Orange Revolution”, and the “Revolution of Dignity”) and authoritarian-democratic hybrid regime (during presidency L. Kuchma and V. Yanukovych). The hybridity of the political regime also translated into the functioning of the chief state bodies. The aim of this study was to find an answer to the question whether and to what extent did the hybridity of Ukraine’s political regime imply on the specificity of the functioning of the institutions of the prime minister and government in the state. The research hypothesis is that the hybridity of the Ukrainian political regime, as a stage of transition from authoritarianism to democracy, partly contributed to changing the traditional order of functioning of the institutions of prime minister and government in the state just formally losing the head of state’s dominant role in the process of government functioning.

Over the last decade, Australia has experienced several severe natural disasters which have caused significant disruptions to its agri-food supply chains. Global climate change is driving an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events that can lead to natural disasters. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that climate change - and extreme weather events, in particular - pose significant threats to food security. While much food security research focusses on developing nations, contemporary, supermarket-based food systems have a number of characteristics that make them highly vulnerable to disruptions from extreme weather events. The experience of recent disasters and projections of on-going climate change suggest that Australia’s food systems are facing escalating climate risks to which they must adapt. This thesis considers how the agri-food supply chains that underpin Australia’s food system are enabled or constrained to cope with emerging climate risks and, in particular, to a more rapid recurrence of damaging weather events. In this thesis, supply chains are conceptualized as social institutions and identified as a key location in the food system for decision-making regarding the management of climate risks. The empirical focus of the research is national-scale fresh produce supply chains based on vegetables produced in south-east Queensland’s Lockyer and Fassifern Valleys. These supply chains have been affected by a series of severe weather events and natural disasters since 2011. The study applies qualitative methods to draw insights from supply chain actors regarding: the impacts of recent severe weather events; perceptions of these events and future climate risks; the ways in which climate risks are governed in the supply chain; and what responses have occurred following recent events. The analysis is informed by theoretical perspectives from the social sciences, in particular the social construction of risk, risk governance and resilience. The thesis aims to advance recent conceptualisations of food system resilience and proposes a set of attributes that would enable a capacity for resilience to climate risks and natural disasters within agri-food supply chains. The results of the study demonstrate that the impacts of recent natural disasters were unevenly distributed within the supply chain. Upstream segments of the chain (that is, business involved in vegetable production, packing and transport) experienced more significant impacts and longer recovery periods than downstream segments (such as wholesalers and retailers). The study finds that this is strongly linked to an uneven distribution of vulnerability to risks in the chain which, combined with the rapid recurrence of disaster events, has weakened the fresh produce supply system. The study provides important insights into perceptions, and social constructions, of recent weather events and climate risks amongst actors within fresh produce supply chains – addressing a significant gap in the literature. The results suggest that a shared narrative about Australia’s highly variable climate strongly influences a collective construction amongst supply chain actors which normalises and attenuates climate risk. The study finds, however, that recent extreme weather events have unsettled this dominant construct. Perceptions of future climate risks amongst supply chain actors were varied. Those strongly influenced by the climate variability narrative did not expect future risks to be much different from those experienced in the past. A smaller number of research participants, however, were concerned that climate risks may be escalating and that this may require changes to how those risks were managed. The study found two strongly contrasting approaches to the governance of climate risk in fresh produce supply chains. The findings demonstrate that, typically, climate risks are governed in highly individualised ways but that the emergence of new supply chain intermediaries is facilitating a more collective approach to climate risk governance in some chains. The research also shows that recent recurrent floods have catalysed a number of supply chain actors to pursue changes that improve their capacity to more effectively manage climate risks. Those most motivated to make adaptations were found to be involved in supply chains characterised by individualised governance of climate risks. The thesis concludes by considering what the findings suggest about the prospects for cultivating resilience to escalating climate risks in supply chains and the implications for food security in Australia. The study finds that while a collaborative approach to risk governance is emerging in some cases, there are significant constraints to cultivating climate change resilience in fresh produce supply chains in Australia – and that this adds to known threats to our national food security. The research suggests, however, that adopting a risk governance perspective could help to engage a wider set of social actors, particularly governments and consumers, in the process of improving supply chain and food system resilience in the face of climate change.

Introduction. This is not the first time a scientific attempt to position a hybrid political regime in the article has made, again unsuccessful due to the contradictory nature of this regime, pronounced national specifics of combining democratic and authoritarian components, decades of delays in transforming hybrid regimes towards democracies. The methodological basis on which the study is based is a systematic analysis combined with an interdisciplinary approach. The application of this interdisciplinary approach shows that the mixed political regime was called a “hybrid” not by chance - it also has a heterosis effect. Autocratic leaders and parties were well aware that military regimes and personal dictatorships looked too authoritarian and could face sanctions from the international community, so they sought ways to legitimize their autocratic advantages in order to remain in power for a long time. The most effective approach for essentially authoritarian governments has been to fill the hybrid regime with the appearance of democracy, avoiding or distorting, depleting the very essence of democracy. By gaining an externally presentable democratic configuration, an authoritarian regime can pretend to respect rights and freedoms by actually cutting or obstructing their enjoyment. Hybrid regimes can be stable, long-lasting and competitive – while meeting the demands of elites and the needs of society, setting an example of social compromise. The concept of a hybrid regime still has no theoretical basis, which would make it possible to distinguish its identity and clearly distinguish it from other types of political regimes. Conclusions. The study of types of political regimes, the development of the theory of hybrid political regime and the application of interdisciplinary approach gives grounds to define hybrid regime as a separate type of political regime, more stable and durable than pure democratic and undemocratic forms due to its hybrid nature (heterotic effect) and unique national combination of democratic and authoritarian elements. Key words: political regime, democracy, authoritarianism, hybrid political regime

Economic Autonomy and Democracy: Hybrid Regimes in Russia and Kyrgyzstan. By Kelly M. McMann. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. 259p. $75.00. Kelly M. McMann's work is a welcome addition to the burgeoning literature on democracy and democratization with the discussion of a new form of government, namely the hybrid regime. McMann uses a multidimensional approach to understand a complex and conceptually messy issue: democratic participation. Like other scholars, she uses this hybrid regime framework, which has been described as containing both democratic and authoritarian elements (e.g., see Larry J. Diamond, “Thinking about Hybrid Regimes,” Journal of Democracy 13 [April 2002]: 21–35). Her work is a significant contribution to the understanding of how formerly transitional governments currently operate in relation to citizens and citizen political participation. Utilizing the hybrid regime concept illustrates the true nature of such regimes to the same degree that the terms “electoral,” “minimal,” “illiberal” democracies and “transitional” regimes obfuscate it. Perhaps regimes such as those in Russia and Kyrgyzstan have completed their transitions—to some combination of democratic and authoritarian elements, rather than to liberal democracy.

Recently, not only has dictatorship resurfaced, but a new form of government has appeared that is neither democratic nor dictatorial. There are various names for this new form: “competitive—authoritarian”, “illiberal democracy”, or simply “hybrid”. Some obvious examples are Hungary, Poland and Turkey. Some connect the origin of hybrids in modern times to the rise of populism. Populism is connected to the illiberal or hybrid idea in that populists tend to repress minorities as a way of appealing to the majority. Authoritarian populists typically divide the population into “us” versus “them”. This paper develops a model of how a hybrid can arise from democracy. I introduce a “strongman or strongwoman” as a leader who can implement repression and gain power. I develop a simple model of a “hybrid” regime in which repression is less than that under dictatorship but greater than that under liberal democracy. The hybrid regime is a special case of Wintrobe’s general theory of dictatorship, but it goes further than that by endogenizing equilibrium extremism of the regime as well as repression. I show how the hybrid regime reacts to exogenous shocks, and develop optimal policy for other countries and institutions interested in reducing repression (the UN, US or EU) towards hybrids.

Purpose: Ghana has suffered some disasters both natural and manmade. Several natural disasters have occurred from the days of biblical Noah until now. These natural disasters have taken various forms; floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruption tsunamis, tornadoes, landslides, hurricane, and among others. Within the past decades, natural disaster has become a global pandemic which hampers economic and social development. This global phenomenon has affected over 6 million people and cause economic damage of approximately $870,700,000 in Ghana .it is necessary or advisable to ascertain the causes of the natural disasters(floods) in Ghana and the propose an approach that disaster(floods) impacts and save lives and properties. My case study will be in Accra, the capital town of Ghana, which have been employed in my study since it recorded the highest natural disaster like (floods) and how best it can be managed using the statistical approach.
 Methodology: The study used Desktop literature approach.
 Findings: The study reveals that natural disasters are a great threat to humanity. Although they occurred long before the first human populated the planet, we likely contribute to an increase in natural disasters through our behavior. The number of natural disasters seems to be positively correlated to an increase in the earth’s temperature.
 Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: The study recommended that countries should improve their emergency measures in order to save as many people as possible. They should also work together in order to mitigate the problem of natural disasters and ensure a livable future for future generations

Reviewed by: Museveni’s Uganda: Paradoxes of Power in a Hybrid Regime Eric Mokube Tripp, Aili M. 2010. Museveni’s Uganda: Paradoxes of Power in a Hybrid Regime. Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc. 223 pp. In Museveni’s Uganda: Paradoxes of Power in a Hybrid Regime, Dr. Aili Tripp opens by discussing the political economy of development in Africa in the context of liberalization, democratization, and economic development. From the beginning to the end, she has done a superb job of flushing out the juxtaposition of politics and economics as well as their impact on overall development. Since the end of colonial rule in Africa, political development has been dominated by authoritarian and military regimes, which have provided few or no liberties and internal progress to the citizenry. When military regimes emerged out of coups d’état to exercise political power, they came with the promise of eradicating varied ills, including corruption, but the new leaders had plans to forge a pathway to progress. Rather than solving the continent’s contemporary political and socioeconomic problems, most of the emerging [End Page 108] military regimes tended to drive the continent into worse suffering, despair, and turmoil. In the 1990s, however, significant changes took place on the continent, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, beginning with a critical shift away from authoritarian and military regimes to less dramatic regime systems, called semiauthoritarian or hybrid regimes. The emergence of these new regime types led to a reevaluation of democratization, which has received mixed reviews in Africa. Some pundits have observed that it has been “a crushing disappointment . . . and although in many ways, it opened up African politics and brought people liberty, it also produced a degree of chaos and instability that actually made corruption and lawlessness worse in many countries” (Fareed Zakaria, 2003, The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad, p. 98). Others have argued that political liberalization stalled in Africa since the democratization process surged on the continent, leading to civilian-led regimes. Richard Joseph, a distinguished scholar of African politics, is quoted as arguing that democratization was not supposed to happen in Africa because it had too little of what seemed necessary for constitutional democratic politics. Furthermore, the argument is that African countries were too poor, too culturally fragmented, and insufficiently capitalist. Additionally, the contention is that they were not fully penetrated by Western Christianity and lacked the prerequisite civic culture, while the middle classes were usually deemed to be weak and more bureaucratic than entrepreneurial, often coopted into authoritarian political structures. Therefore, African countries constituted infertile terrain for democracy. It is against this backdrop and the context of this shift that Tripp analyzes and articulates the paradox of power in Uganda under the leadership of President Yoweri Museveni, who made the transition and shift from a military-led to a civilian-led regime. The book documents how the dominant political phenomenon of the past forty years has been democratization, the transition from nondemocratic to democratic regimes in various parts of the world—in Latin America, Eastern Europe, and many areas of Asia and Africa. In more recent times, the growth and shift from military to hybrid or “transitional” regimes, especially in Africa, has sparked considerable interest; hence it is no surprise that various labels have been coined for these democracies, including hybrid regimes, semiconsolidated authoritarian democracies, partial democracies, defective democracies, competitive authoritarianism, and electoral authoritarianism, just to mention a few. The end of the cold war posed a fundamental challenge to authoritarian regimes. Single-party and military dictatorships collapsed throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America in the late 1980s and 1990s. The type of political system that emerged was not democratic because elections were often manipulated: there was unfair media access and constant abuse of state resources. As a yardstick for measurement, regimes are considered democratic if they hold free, fair, and open elections for all the principal positions of political power. [End Page 109] A query ensues: with many countries shifting away from authoritarian to hybrid regimes, how do we distinguish hybrid regimes from democracies? Three clear distinctions have been suggested: first, elections are biased toward the ruling government (that is, state resources are used to promote the...

ABSTRACTThis article develops an argument that in hybrid regimes, different levels of party competition incentivize incumbents to subvert the police in distinct ways, resulting in more corrupt or more repressive policing practices. In competing‐pyramid hybrid regimes, such as Ukraine (2013–2019), elites have stronger incentives to preserve police corruption as a tool for immediate resource extraction amid pervasive uncertainty about political survival. Conversely, in dominant‐pyramid systems, like Georgia (2003–2012), ruling elites have stronger incentives to curtail police corruption in pursuit of a more disciplined and repressive police force. This theory is illustrated through a structured focused comparison and more than 60 interviews collected during several rounds of fieldwork in Kyiv and Tbilisi.

The “movement-voting nexus” thesis highlights the impact of transformative social movements on shifting voting behaviour and electoral outcomes. However, existing studies have overwhelmingly focused on the context of democracies. This study goes beyond the existing literature by testing the applicability of “movement-voting nexus’ in the context of hybrid regimes, using the voter mobilization in the Hong Kong’s Anti-Extradition Bill Movement as a case study. The findings of this study are two-fold: The quantitative findings from a territory-wide telephone survey validated the thesis of “movement-voting nexus’ in Hong Kong’s hybrid regime, statistically establishing the significance of “movement support” as a novel predictor of voting behaviour (vis-à-vis other predictors such as political partisanship) in times of transformative social movement, as in the case of democracies; the qualitative findings from extended interviews of survey respondents revealed that the “movement-voting nexus” was operating in the shadows of authoritarian electoral influence in the territory, reflecting the nuanced features of Hong Kong’s hybrid regime. This study contributes to extant literature by advancing the discussion from democracies to hybrid regimes, paving the way for future research across diverse political regimes.

The study's urgency is stipulated by the need to clarify the features of administrative discretion in states with different democracy indices (different political regimes) and to describe the verification of compliance with the limits of discretion. The article's purpose is to clarify the correlation between the understanding and administrative discretion boundaries and the type of state according to the level of democratic development. The research is based on the democracy index, determined annually by the Economist Intelligence Unit, according to which states are divided into four types: full democracies, flawed democracies, hybrid regimes, and authoritarian regimes. A comparative method, which was used to compare the perception of administrative discretion in Germany and Ukraine as typical states of full democracies and hybrid regimes, is the basis of the research. The article clarifies that administrative discretion should be understood as a way of exercising the powers of administrative authorities, which involves choosing one of several possible options for behavior in a specific case and is carried out in compliance with the rule of law, human rights, principles of administrative procedures, and the purpose of powers; it is substantiated that in the states of hybrid regimes, the institution of administrative discretion is poorly developed, there are no clear criteria for the discretion boundaries, the issue of judicial control over decisions made by uncertain discretion, and there is excessive bureaucracy. The main provisions of the article can become guidelines for hybrid regime states to improve legislation in the area of discretion implementation.

Most political regimes in the world today display some form of mixture of democratic and autocratic institutional features—they are hybrid regimes. This chapter distils from the literature the defining characteristics, commonly discussed types, and causes of transformations of hybrid regimes. It demonstrates how all hybrid regime concepts can be sorted into either one of the two categories of defective democracy and electoral authoritarianism; how all hybrid regime concepts are constructed along the two institutional dimensions of electoralism and constitutionalism; and how explanations of hybrid regime persistence and change fall into four categories: electoralist, nested game approaches, neo-institutional, and non-electoral explanations.

The earthquake that struck the Japanese port city of Kobe on January 17, 1995, was the most severe quake ever to strike a modern urban area. It has become the most studied, analyzed, and discussed natural disaster in history. What I propose to add to this dialogue is an economist's overview of what he saw in Kobe 19 months after the event and what he learned during the ensuing 6 months.

Scholars have ignored regime type as a crucial element affecting social movement mobilization due to political opportunity structures. Even little is known about hybrid regimes and disputes. Understanding social movement's hidden or unintentional repercussions is another gap. This study uses the Pashtun Tahafuz (protection) Movement (PTM) of Pakistan to address this academic gap by studying social movements under hybrid regimes like Pakistan. The research finds that dual (emanating from both the military and political organs of the state) and haphazard repression by a hybrid regime, characterized by military dominance and limited political opportunity structure, can temporarily slow social movement mobilization but not stop it. In the long term, the movement becomes stronger and mobilizes against the state. As a result of its mobilization and advancement, a social movement under such a regime may also affect other social movements.

This paper examines the relationship between regime types and violent state repression, focusing on hybrid regimes that combine democratic and autocratic features. It reassesses the dominant perspectives in the literature that suggest either an inverted U-shaped or threshold relationship. Previous studies are characterized by several shortcomings, including conceptual unclarity, one-sided theoretical accounts, and limited data coverage. A novel empirical analysis revisits the relationship by employing new datasets that cover most countries over more than two centuries and offer relevant both continuous and categorical regime distinctions. The results do not lend support to any of the predominant perspectives saying that hybrid regimes are characterized by more state violence or that the full package of democratic rights needs to be fulfilled to have effect. Both when using relatively new continuous measures and capturing hybrid regimes based on ordered categorical distinctions, hybrid regimes exhibit intermediate levels of repression compared to full democracies and full autocracies. More generally, the level of violence tends to be lower, the more democratic the type of regime is. These results are relevant for the debate about endangered democracies as they offer nuance to debates about the consequences of different regime types for violent state repression.

42 Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Vol. XXXV, No.1, Fall 2011 Environmental Security in Bangladesh: A Study on Climate Change Mohamed Shariful Islam1 Introduction Although Bangladesh’s contribution to the global climate change is negligible it is the worst sufferer. And Bangladesh is recognized worldwide as one of the most vulnerable countries to the impacts of global warming and climate change. This is due to its unique geographic location, dominance of flood plains, and low elevation from the sea, high population density (1100/sq.km), high levels of poverty and overwhelming dependence on nature, its resources and services.2 In Bangladesh, the effects of climate change are not merely projections of what might happen in the future but a reality, the impact is well evident and real, mostly through changes in variability. For instance, the rising frequency and severity of natural disasters are clearly visible in Bangladesh. To provide some background since 1991, the 1991 Cyclone (April 29), the 1997 Cyclone (November 29-30), the Cyclone Sidr in 2007 (November 15), Cyclone Bijli in 2009(April 14), and also Cyclone Aila in 2009 (May 25) can be stated. Climate change is now regarded as major human security challenge which affects many aspects of life – politics, economics, migration, development, trade, food security as well as health. It can trigger conflicts, instability and humanitarian crises in Bangladesh. As the country’s environment declines, it will adversely affect economic development, erode social cohesion and lead to the destruction of political institutions.3 Besides, environmentally induced- migration will give rise 1 Muhamed Shariful Islam is an advanced graduate student in the department of the international Relations of the University of Dhaka, Bengladesh. 2 Department of Environment, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Climate Change and Bangladesh, September 2007, 1. 3 Choudhury Shamim, “Alternative views of environmental security in a less developed country: The case of Bangladesh” in Journal of Third World Studies, Vol. XXV, No.1, 259. 43 4 Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh: Damage, Loss, and Needs Assessment for Disaster Recovery and Reconstruction, 2008, 1. 5 Ibid, 3. 6 Human Impact Report of Global Humanitarian Forum, Geneva, Climate Change: The Anatomy of A Silent Crisis, Human Impact Report of Global Humanitarian Forum, Geneva, 2009, 17. 7 The Daily Star, December 9, 2009. regional tensions and bilateral conflicts between India and Bangladesh. Therefore, Bangladesh presents a test case of environmental insecurity. This paper looks into environmental security in Bangladesh from the case of climate change. Increasing Natural Disasters One of the major negative effects of climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of natural disasters. Bangladesh is a disaster prone country which is affected by some form of natural disaster almost in every year. It may be floods, droughts, cyclones or tidal surges. According to a report, “of the 508 cyclones that have originated in the Bay of Bengal in the last 100 years, 17 percent have hit Bangladesh, amounting to a severe cyclone almost once every three years. Of these, nearly fifty three percent have claimed more than five thousand lives.”4 One may be surprised to learn about the frequency, intensity as well as severity of natural disasters in Bangladesh. For instance, between 1991 and 2000, 93 major disasters were recorded in Bangladesh, resulting in nearly 200,000 deaths and causing US $ 5.9 billion in damages with high losses in agriculture and infrastructure.5 According to Human Impact Report of Global Humanitarian Forum, since 2000 Bangladesh has experienced more than 70 major disasters. Tropical cyclones, local storms, floods and droughts have killed 9,000 people and caused damage of more than US $ 5 billion.6 According to Global Climate Risk Index 2010 (Covering 1990-2008) Bangladesh ranks at the top level in terms of vulnerability to natural disasters.7 Natural disasters have caused the greatest loss of life in Bangladesh over the last decade than in any other country of the world, according to this Index which was published in December 8, 2009, in the Copenhagen Conference. An average of 8, 241 people died each year in 244 instances of extreme weather conditions in Bangladesh with cost...