Chronic Political Instability Research Articles

Smuggling as the “key to a combined market”: British American Tobacco in Lebanon

Objectives:To understand the strategy of British American Tobacco (BAT) and other transnational tobacco companies (TTCs) to gain access to the Lebanese market, which has remained relatively closed under monopoly ownership...

La cohesion social y la teoria de la congruencia: Latinoamérica una región dividida

The lack of social cohesion in Latin America is the subject of this paper. Several indicators of this phenomenon are presented here, such as the chronic political instability, the wave of criminality and the emigration to more developed regions. It is argued that the principal cause of the phenomenon is the systemic incongruence between the cultural sub-system in one hand and the political and economic subsystems in the other. At the beginning of the XXI century this incongruence entered in a critical point. Many countries of the planet are in the process of solving this incongruence, being Russia the most emblematic country of this process. In Latin America the process has also began, being Cuba and Venezuela the leaders of this new revolutionary movement.

Assessment of Business Information Access Problems in Uganda

Uganda's economy has great potential. Endowed with significant natural resources, including ample fertile land, regular rainfall, and mineral deposits, it appeared poised for rapid economic growth and development at independence. However, chronic political instability and erratic economic management produced a record of persistent economic decline that left Uganda among the world's poorest and least-developed countries (United States, Bureau of African Affairs 2007). This situation can be averted by effectively promoting the involvement of the engine of economic growth, the SMEs in national and international businesses. The international involvement of SMEs requires accurate and adequate access to relevant business information. Based on that, a study was conducted to assess the problems SMEs face in accessing business information in Uganda. The study using a descriptive design with survey research techniques among others examined the problems SMEs in northern Uganda face in accessing business information; identified problems information providers face in providing business information to the SMEs in northern Uganda and established whether SMEs in northern Uganda use public libraries in accessing business information. The paper reports on among others the proposed strategic interventions for business information to be accessed by the SMEs . The paper concludes that there is a need for Uganda and, in particular, northern Uganda to develop a strategy for business information access by the SMEs.

The 'Political Poverty Trap': Bolivia 1999-2007

We analyse the recent wave of political instability in Bolivia in the context of a 'poverty trap' model which suggests that elements in a country's political system, as well as its economic structure, may be instrumental in perpetuating a state of poverty. In Bolivia the costs of adjustment in the recent phase have been very severe, with well over a hundred killed between 1999 and 2007 as a direct consequence of demonstrations against aspects of the globalisation and adjustment process, and an appearance of a return to a state of chronic political instability; other countries affected by the global crisis have suffered less severely. Is this because they used the available instruments of adjustment more effectively, or for other reasons? In particular, how does poverty impact fit into the story: would a 'more effective' pattern of adjustment have been more pro-poor?

The Interpretation of the 1929 Treaty and its Legal Relevance and Implications for the Stability of the Region

Abstract

Civilian supremacy in democracies with ‘fault lines’: The role of the parliamentary standing committee on defence in Bangladesh

This article sets out to identify the conditions that promote civilian supremacy over the military in the post-military democracies. The article addresses the case of Bangladesh, where a decade-old post-military democratic political process is riddled with problems, such as the absence of opposition parties in the parliament, chronic political instability and violence and inefficient governance. However, the powerful military has not yet shown any inclination towards intervention in domestic politics. Rather, various civilian institutions, such as the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence (PSCD), have been successful in raising the level of the military's accountability to the civilian government and society. The article seeks to explain the role of PSCD during 1998–2001 in promoting civilian supremacy in Bangladesh. It argues that three sets of factors can explain the PSCD's role. First, there is intense competition for political power between the two major parties, which resists the military's involvement in politics in favour of any one political party. Second, there is the important role of civil society in favour of civilian supremacy. Third, there are external factors such as the donor countries' and international agencies' stance in favour of democracy and the Bangladesh military's participation in United Nations peacekeeping missions, which are discouraging military intervention in politics at home.

Rural Development and the ‘New Architecture of Aid’: Convergence and Constraints

In this article donor practice is examined in relation to a number of major issues — current and emerging — in rural development. The article focuses first on areas in which there appears to be growing convergence and then on those characterised by differences of approach. Practical problems likely to limit the effectiveness of donor strategy include those of managing sector‐wide approaches and of linking rural and urban policy. Constraints on the implementation of pro‐poor initiatives are pervasive, but have received little attention in poverty‐focused initiatives such as Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers. Finally, chronic political instability continues to limit development support (as distinct from relief) in many of the areas in which concentrations of the poor are greatest.

Central European Health Reform: the Case of Slovakia, 1990-97

The focus of this article is changes in Slovak health-care policy 1990-7. To place these changes in a comparative perspective we also examine recent Czech, Polish and Hungarian experiences. In the Slovak case we show that although there has been official support for privatization, decentralization, mixed sources of provision, accountability and individual choice, in practice progress towards these goals has been very slow. This relative immo bility has been caused by public preferences; chronic political instability; the legacy of plan ning; a policy-making process dominated by a small number of politicians and a politicized bureaucracy. In addition we argue that the variety of health-care policies we observe in Central Europe reflects the general lack of a clear vision of social policy during transition. The article has six main sections. In the first we use public choice theory to explain why the results have occurred. In the second we sketch the health-care system under communism. There follows a description of policy changes since 1989. This topic is split into three parts. First the political background to change is de scribed, then the finance of health care is discussed, and finally issues of organization, control and delivery are raised. A concluding section has a summary and discussion of the arguments.

The Transposition of Slovak Health Care System and its Influence on Primary Care Services

The main visible changes in Slovak health care policy between 1990 and 1996 have been described with the emphasis on primary care reform. The key fact is that although there has been official support for privatisation, decentralisation, mixed sources of provision, accountability and individual choice, in practice progress towards these goals has been very slow. The reasons for some differences between the first enthusiastic, ambitious plans and the recent status can mainly be found in chronic political instability. Having six different Ministers of Health in a period of six years formed a real barrier to the endeavour to fulfil some long-term strategic plans in the health care model transposition in the country. Recently, differences are being seen between the new health financing system in Slovakia and the previous one, but central control and regulation is still dominant. Primary care doctors are increasingly being switched to the private sector, but most of them are not prepared to become practice managers in addition to further fulfilling of their medical professional duties. More objective education is needed in health management at both central and peripheral levels.

Fledgling regimes: Is the case of inter‐war Germany generalizable?

This paper formulates a three‐phase model of regime change, domestic conflict, and interstate conflict inspired by the case of Germany between the First and Second World Wars. In the first phase of the German case, democratization during the Weimar regime was followed by chronic political instability and conflict. During the second phase, a weak Weimar regime set the stage for the emergence of the National Socialists and the erosion, and subsequent elimination, of democracy under the dictatorship of Adolph Hitler. In the third phase, automatization of the German state was followed by an increasingly aggressive foreign policy during the late 1930s ‐ the prelude to the Second World War. I examine whether this familiar, if spectacular, example of democratization, instability, democratic erosion, and aggressive foreign policy is generalizable across a larger spatial and temporal domain. Testing hypotheses derived from the model's three phases, I draw the following primary conclusions. First, new democracies are subject to significant levels of mild and severe forms of domestic conflict, although the findings suggest that new autocratic states are also subject to more severe domestic conflict for a longer duration than conflict experienced by new democracies. The empirical results for the second phase of the model indicate that polities afflicted with high levels of domestic conflict are more likely to become more autocratic. Lastly, I find support for the model's third hypothesis that new autocracies are more likely to originate conflict with other states, and this relationship is fairly strong across pre‐and post‐WWII samples. Interestingly, new democracies are found to be more likely to initiate disputes in the pre‐WWII sample, but not in the post‐WWII sample.

Nigeria: a federation gone wrong

Due to its size, large population, oil-based economy and geographical location in West Africa. Nigeria is regarded as an important state in Africa. The country is also one of the longest surviving federal states on the continent and therefore represents an ongoing experiment in federalism in the Third World. Since its independence in 1960, however, Nigeria has been devastated by chronic political instability. This article tries to address the issue why this is the case and to identify ethnic-religious diversity and successive military regimes as the most important sources for the mentioned political unrest. The course and nature of political instability in Nigeria is pul in historical context - a context which also include the secession attempt by Riafra as one of the tragic highlights in the past of Nigeria. In conclusion, the author speculates on ways and options as to how secession attempts can be prevented and a larger amount of national political stability be achieved.

Moldova: A Country in Turmoil

Recently there have been numerous violations of political freedom and ethnic minority rights in the former Soviet republic of Moldova. These human rights abuses have resulted from two significant political processes: the rise of Romanian nationalism; and separatist movements in the Transdniester and the Gagauz regions. Political opponents and mqmbers of ethnic minorities are ruthlessly persecuted in all regions; Moldova proper, Gagauzia, and Transdniestria. As Anatol Tsaranu, Chairman of the Parliamentary Commission on State Security and Military Affairs, observed: In a country with no established democratic traditions, a country which has experienced chronic political instability in recent years, a country going through a severe economic crisis, extraordinary phenomena can be expected. The impetus could be provided by the most ordinary event (Prikhodko 1993,3).

France and the memory of revolution: 1789–1989

Historical anniversaries offer useful insights into the way in which societies view their past and in recent years the oppo~unities for such insights have been plentiful, ranging from the extrovert American and Australian bicentennials to the more muted and embarrassed tricentenary of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 in Britain and Ireland. In all three cases commemoration has involved evaluation, and evaluation has raised the problem of national identity and national values. The bicentenary of the French Revolution encountered these very same problems, but there is little new in this for historical interpretation of the Revolution has created division since the early years of the nineteenth century. There has been general agreement on its importance as a major turning point in French history, but disagreement over what that turning point led to. For some it marks the end of a defunct social and political order and the beginning of republican democracy; for others it saw the premature end of a reforming monarchy and the beginning of chronic political instability. The memory of revolution is a divided one. For much of the nineteenth century the effect of the Revolution was to polarise political culture in France into left and right, and this polarisation, with all its intricate subdivisions, resurfaced at moments of political crisis in 1830,1848 and 1870-l. The issues of monarchy against representative government, of Catholicism against secular liberalism, of order against social revolution-all of which had been central to the conflict that erupted in the decade after 1789-recurred for over a hundred years. As a result French political culture was intensely historical and the history of the Revolution intensely political.’ The establishment of the Third Republic in the 1870s led to the institutionalisation of the liberal republican view of the Revolution, which saw the roots of its own democracy and secular political culture in the events of 1789-1794. Politicians, such as Gambetta, Simon and Jules Ferry set out to accomplish the work begun in 1789, and the Revolution became a symbol around which to unify the various strands of the republican tradition. In the words of Eric Hobsbawm, ‘By deliberately annexing the revolutionary tradition, the Third Republic either domesticated social revolutionaries (like most socialists) or isolated them (like the anarcho-syndicalists). In turn, it was now able to mobilise even a majority of its potential adversaries on the left in defence of a republic and a past revolution, in a common front of classes which reduced the right to a permanent minority in the nation’.2 The importance of the Revolution was stressed in a variety of ways: not least through the revival of the ~a~~e~~Za~~e as the national anthem and the making of Bastille day into a national public holiday in 1880. Historical commemoration

Students, Professors, and the State in Tsarist Russia.

Between 1899 and 1911, student strikes and demonstrations disrupted Russia's higher educational institutions. The universities marched to their own peculiar tempo, however, and it was not until the strike of 1905 that student unrest coincided with mass movements outside the academic world. Students, Professors, and the State in Tsarist Russia, the first comprehensive study of the student movement during the waning decades of tsarist rule, centers on the interplay among student protest, faculty politics, and government policy toward the universities. The author examines the changing responses of students, faculty, and government officials to the crisis of the university and the old regime, throwing new light on the chronic political and social instability of the tsarist system. Kassow's familiarity with source material and his use of narratives from participants and observers alike provide both a trenchant analysis and a lively portrait of the times. Original and incisive, this book will be welcomed not only by specialists in the Russian field, but also by anyone interested in the dynamics of student protest and the role of the intellectual in popular movements.

THE POLITICS OF SQUALOR AND DEPENDENCY: CHRONIC POLITICAL INSTABILITY AND ECONOMIC COLLAPSE IN THE COMORO ISLANDS

CHRONIC POLITICAL INSTABILITY and general overpoliticization may have constituted some of the most enduring conditioning features of African independence, but very few African states have experienced the specific 'mix' of abject poverty and seemingly permanent political crisis that has been the hallmark of Comorian existence since the achievement of independence in 1975. The country has never had a viable economy, with the result that occasionally the Comorian state has had to 'auction' itself to the rival interests of several bidders, such as France, South Africa, the Gulf States, Mexico, Morocco and even the tiny enclave state of Gabon. This need to establish materially rewarding clientelist ties with external partners has given rise to a bizarre brand of politics, in the context of which it has proved to be virtually impossible to identify and distinguish sovereign Comorian 'national interests' from those of the patronizing states. Day to day governance has been so severely compromised that it is virtually synonymous with the individual private pursuits of the politically powerful. There exists no identifiable 'state form' with predictable institutions functioning in pursuit of the logic and goals that they have been originally intended to serve at independence. But, above all, the Comoros is unique in the sense that it is the only known state in contemporary Africa in which a 'sovereign' government has been installed and maintained by a group of mercenary freebooters who struck a formal relationship with the government and became an integral part of the supposedly legitimate state institutions. In this way, the Comorian state was probably one of the most telling examples of the privatization of the state through a joint functional alliance between local elites and their free-floating international partners.

State “Resilience” and Chronic Political Instability in Madagascar

ResumeCes tiente dernieres annees, la deterioration des conditions economiques s'ajoutant a l'instabilite politique a eu en general pour resultat l'effrondrement de nombreux regimes africains. Pourtant, le sort du regime malgache actuel a ete quelque peu different. Le regime de Ratsiraka s'est arrange pour mettre au point des strategies pour se proteger contre l'impact potentiellement negatif d'une economie extremement fragile et de troubles politiques periodiques. Un ensemble de manipulations constitutionnelles, divers reseaux de protection pour neutraliser les puissants opposants politiques et le controle de la population volatile des bidonvilles, ont permis au regime de Ratsiraka de survivre une quinzaine d'annees.

State "Resilience" and Chronic Political Instability in Madagascar

State "Resilience" and Chronic Political Instability in Madagascar

Italy's Elections and Crisis: 14–15 June

ITALIAN NATIONAL ELECTIONS WERE HELD ON 14-15 JUNE 1987. They were unexpected as was the resignation of the Prime Minister. It is not easy to explain why Bettino Craxi had to resign as Prime Minister of Italy in March 1987. This is why it will be helpful to review the achievements, crises and unrealised goals of the final years of his government.Craxi's electoral platform in June 1983 was essentially one of institutional reform and economic recovery. He believed that only in this way would it be possible to create the conditions for the ‘governability’ of Italy and overcome the chronic political instability.

Producer Associations, the Political Regime, and Policy Processes in Contemporary Colombia

Unlike many developing countries, Colombia has managed since 1958 to avoid both military rule and chronic political instability while being governed by a civilian political regime, a consociational regime. The purpose of this article is to help explain the Colombian political regime's relative longevity by focusing on the behavior of producer groups in Colombia and the associations that represent them. The article asks how important the support of these groups has been to the political regime established in 1958. It also seeks to identify the major patterns of interaction between the groups and different governments and to determine what implications these patterns have had for continued regime support. The article will find significant support for the regime by producer groups, support that is linked to considerable, but not unlimited, capacity for influence. Such regime support has been conditional, rather than consolidated, and derives from favorable access to the state, the regime's overall policy orientation, and its ability to maintain order.

Lessons from the Third World for Understanding American Criminal Justice

This paper argues for and attempts to demonstrate the case for including materials related to the operation of Third World criminal justice in courses dealing with American criminal justice system. The author argues that an examination of the contexts and processes of criminal justice in Third World nations increases one's ability to understand and critique the history and operations of our criminal justice enterprises. The Third World context offers laboratories for testing assumptions about American criminal justice without the implicitly pervasive ideological overtones we come to accept unquestionably in our own system simply because it is the one in which we operate. Within the context of poverty, “dual societies,” chronic political instability, the struggle for economic development, and colonialism, the Third World offers an opportunity to study the interaction and impact of law, politics, economics, social control, and social change on the development and operations of criminal justice. Using exampl...