Divided Polity Research Articles

The Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga: military reform and nation-building in a divided polity

ABSTRACT During the war against Islamic State from 2014 to 2017 the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga became important local allies of the United States and its international partners, playing a significant role in the eventual defeat of Islamic State. In 2017, backed by the US and its Western allies, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) agreed plans to reform and modernize the Peshmerga. This article provides an analysis of this reform process. Reform is severely constrained by two problems. First, the continuing soft civil war between Iraqi Kurdistan’s two main political parties, the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), within which both parties view their maintenance of independent Peshmerga forces as central to their power and political survival. Second, the heroic-mythic status of the Peshmerga within Iraqi Kurdish society, which makes it difficult to convert the Peshmerga into a “normal” military force. Reform efforts to date have not addressed these issues. Until such time as the deep political divide between the KDP and the PUK is addressed, Peshmerga reform is unlikely to make significant progress – the military cart cannot be put before the political horse.

Virtual Poverty? What Happens when Criminal Trials Go Online?

The challenge posed by the editors of this collection is for authors to reflect on what good can come out of the pandemic. This is far from easy to address in the context of ever more evidence of a divided polity, but this chapter will look at the rapid rise in the use of video hearings caused by the pandemic and their potential to improve the lot of the poor. Academics, including myself, have been sceptical about the extent to which the needs of lay users and open justice are served when technology is used to circumvent the need for everyone to come to a physical court. What is different about developments during the pandemic is that they have prompted experiments in which everyone including elite legal actors have been forced online and made to reflect on the experience. In the sections which follow I outline developments to date before going on to consider the extent to which totally online trials have the potential to create a more level playing field in the criminal justice system. In doing so I argue that there is a danger that critics of the use of technology are in danger of romanticising physical courthouses as places which are better at dignifying lay users of the justice system or encouraging their participation.

Health Inequalities

Health inequalities are embedded in a complex array of social, political, and economic inequalities. Responding to health inequalities will require systematic action targeting all the underlying (“upstream”) social determinants that powerfully affect health and well‐being. Systemic inequalities are a major reason for the rise of modern populism that has deeply divided polities and infected politics, perhaps nowhere more so than in the United States. Concerted action to mitigate shocking levels of inequality could be a powerful antidote to nationalist populism. A basic yet critical start to addressing health inequalities is to recognize them, which demands improving data collection and analysis. Certainly, global indicators show vast progress in reducing poverty and extending life. Yet aggregate health data mask a deeper reality: health gains have disproportionately benefited the well‐off, leaving the poor and middle‐class behind.

Post-conflict justice in divided democracies: the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in India

Official figures claim that almost 3000 people were killed, and many more injured or displaced, in four days of rioting aimed at the Sikh population of Delhi in late October and early November 1984 following the assassination of Indira Gandhi. This article analyses the efforts made to address the human rights violations that occurred. It argues that as a divided democracy, India has struggled to do justice to the victims, despite multiple commissions of inquiry, compensation schemes and a prime ministerial apology. It argues that this has occurred not simply because of challenges commonly faced by democracies dealing with similar incidents, but also because of the particular problems faced in a context in which we see continuity of rule by a political elite allegedly implicated in the abuse and in which there is acute concern for the survival of a fragile divided polity.

Four arenas: Malaysia’s 2018 election, reform, and democratization

ABSTRACT Malaysia’s 2018 election ended more than six decades of dominant party rule by the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). Three questions are paramount. How did the opposition finally achieve victory? What did voters who rejected UMNO actually vote for? Finally, what do the answers imply for reform and democratization? We argue that Malaysia is comprised of four distinct identity-based polities, each with a unique electoral dynamic and vision for the country’s political future. Using this framework provides valuable insights into UMNO’s defeat, which was achieved by making inroads, largely through elite splits, into two arenas that were previously impenetrable for the opposition. One arena remains electorally pivotal and thus exerts a disproportionately large influence on the new government’s reform agenda, entrenching the primacy of identity politics and ensuring the continuity of many policies that address ethnic relations. The case illustrates the extensive impact of divided polities and regionalism on democratization.

Polities and relative authorities

Some of the most important challenges to connections between law and polity arise from pluralist phenomena of overlapping and interacting polities. This article argues that institutionalist theories of plurality and pluralism run out when their jurisdictional and doctrinal solutions lead one legal system to wield unjustifiable de facto control over the interaction of laws—and/or the domain in which the interaction occurs. In contexts where law’s normativity itself is at stake in divided polities, institutional solutions, even pluralist ones, do not determine how law can be normative at all. Instead, an account of “relative” authority, and the conditions of its legitimacy, requires authorities themselves to relate with one another in ways that might realize their procedural and substantive values for their subjects. This requires, however, that attention be placed not only on the role of authority (and not simply the abstract notion of authority as a legitimate power) but also upon the precise requirements upon those officials who claim authority over subjects in these divided, overlapping, or interacting polities.

The Strasbourg Court and Challenges to the Constitutional Architecture of Post-Conflict Federalism in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Beyond

In Pilav, the Strasbourg Court ruled that constitutional provisions relating to Bosnia’s presidency violate the European Convention on Human Rights, because they combine a territorial mode of election with an ethnic component. On a broader level, the case concerns “the minimum requirements of a democratic system of political law-making at the level of domestic government and the scope and content of fundamental rights”. Pilav maps into the relationship between national political accommodations in divided polities and non-discrimination and democratic principles at the core of the Convention system and beyond. The article discusses the implications of the ruling within the consociational context and offers guidance about its implementation. The key argument to be made is, rather than referring to the universality of human rights and applying those rights to consociations, courts should ground their legal arguments on a broader political theory about national democracy, while taking into consideration local conditions and problems.

Power-sharing in a re-united Cyprus: Centripetal coalitions vs. proportional sequential coalitions

Power-sharing coalitions in severely divided places can take centripetal or consociational forms. Respectively, these aim to foster moderation by restricting coalitions to moderate parties from different ethnic communities or inclusivity by ensuring that coalitions are broadly and proportionately representative of the main political forces. This article draws on the experience of Cyprus to show the limits of negotiating centripetal coalitions even under “most likely to succeed” conditions. It investigates a major centripetalist initiative on the island between 2008 and 2010, and explains why this failed to catalyze a negotiated settlement. Likewise, the article points to the limits of classic consociational approaches in mediating power-sharing arrangements, particularly approaches that rely on corporate ethnic quotas. Contrary to conventional wisdom and much international practice, the article shows that consociational coalitions can take a liberal form that bypass such quotas. Specifically, the article presents and defends an important innovation in consociational theory and practice: the proportional sequential (PS) coalition. PS coalitions are automatically determined by election results, and allocate portfolios on a proportionate and liberal basis amongst a divided polity’s main political parties. We argue that PS coalitions can provide a broadly inclusive and negotiable settlement in the context of a re-united Cyprus as well as in other divided polities.

Sri Lanka – a divided Church in a divided polity: the brokerage of a struggling institution

In different fields of academia today there is renewed interest in the relationship between religion and politics. However, this literature often focuses on beliefs such as extremism and nationalism at the expense of historically contextualized discussion about the organization and practices associated with religion. As analysts observe the ‘retreat’ of the promise of secular modernity, it is easy to be left with little or no grounded understanding of how religious organizations are engaging in spaces of contested politics or how this engagement can help us to understand more appropriately what ‘religion’ or ‘politics’ mean to individuals and communities on personal and organizational levels. Within this broader debate, this paper introduces a research project that explores one form of religious practice: the ability of religious leaders to cross violent or politicized borders in times of contestation and conflict. The empirical focus on the Sri Lankan Catholic Church, in Tamil areas in the north, presents the activity of priests in such circumstances as a form of ‘brokerage’, facilitated and constrained by their religious, institutional setting.

Changing Patterns of Euroscepticism in Cyprus: European Discourse in a Divided Polity and Society

This article aims to map the extent and the causality of party and popular Cypriot euroscepticism. It traces the latter's changing patterns at both the elite and popular levels and analyses contextual factors and idiosyncratic features in a divided polity and society. It concludes that key turning points are definitely linked to the country's political problem. Party-based euroscepticism displays both strategic and ideological characteristics. Parallel to soft euroscepticism, an economic and policy-based euroscepticism has emerged, displaying a shift from nested to mainstream euroscepticism.

Political Parties and the Quest for Political Stability in Nigeria

Reputed as the ”makers” of democracy, political parties are by all standards one of the most outstanding and distinguishing elements of modern government. Indeed, democracy is unthinkable in the absence of viable political parties. Parties are expected to participate in the political socialization of electorates, contribute to the accumulation of political power, facilitate recruitment of political leadership, and serve as a unifying force in a divided polity. Parties can cope with these pivotal roles only provided that they are viable: well institutionalized, internally democratic, coherent, disciplined, and autonomous. Can Nigerian parties stand the test of time when assessed against these currencies? This essay engages this crucial question in relation to Nigeria's quest for political stability. After a review of current trends in party activities under the Fourth Republic, the essay concludes that Nigerian parties have tended to become more of a democratic liability than an asset in the country's quest for political stability. It identifies the limiting dimensions of effective party polities and offers useful recommendations.

A Divided Nation: Malay Political Dominance, Bumiputera Material Advancement and National Identity in Malaysia

National identity in Malaysia is defined by Malay culture and politically associated with ethno-nationalism whose goal is material advancement of bumiputera in general and Malay-bumiputera in particular. The process entailed a restructuring strategy to transform the ethnically defined occupational structure and increase bumiputera ownership of the country's corporate wealth to 30 per cent by 1990. To be sure, Malaysia had by turn of the century entered the services stage and expanded the ranks of the middle class. The continued popularity of UMNO (United Malays National Organization) indicates that Malay ethno-nationalist aspirations and its definition of national identity is still relevant. Malaysia thus remains a nation with a divided polity.

Internal Political Dynamics and Bangladesh's Foreign Policy Towards India

Bangladesh's relations with India are multi-dimensional - ideological, political and also economic. An extreme sense of distrust, insecurity and perceived domination by India has shaped Bangladesh's foreign policy in recent years. It at the same time, hesitant and finds it uncomfortable to function within a bilateral parameter. Whether it is trade, export of gas, provision of transit or the water issue, Bangladesh has argued for multilateral arrangements. Though India played an important role in the creation of Bangladesh, it is primarily seen by the political class in Dhaka as a concern due to its overwhelming size and presence but more importantly because of the nature of domestic politics of the country. A divided polity polarised on ideological lines and an extremely sensitive political atmosphere has made Bangladesh's relations with India subject to domestic dynamics.

A tale of two Japans: reform in a divided polity

The Japanese economy has been in crisis for more than a decade and, during this time, fiscal and other measures have failed substantially to restore the bases for sustainable growth. There have been many suggestions that the relevant authorities in Japan resort to inflationary strategies to overcome deflationary pressures or undertake large-scale regulatory reform to remove some of the supply-side obstacles to growth. In 2001, Koizumi Jun'ichir l became Japan's Prime Minister and immediately promised extensive structural and regulatory reforms. Despite the known adverse social consequences of reforms, the Prime Minister enjoyed high popular support and this permitted some optimism that the reform agenda would be implemented. A year later, however, very little progress has been made and this article looks at the political obstacles to reform, in particular the electoral support base of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). We analyse the LDP's representative base and suggest that, as a party with strong rural representation, it is unlikely to assume the mantle of a reformist political party, despite strong popular support for Koizumi's promised 'reform revolution'.

Contrasting Unitary and Federal Systems

The modern age of statism at most divided polities into unitary or federal states. In doing so it obscured the three models of the origin and development of the polity: hierarchic, organic, and covenantal, with the first two leading to unitary states and the third to federal polities. All three models produce institutions, are informed by political cultures, and lead to political behavior characteristic, and at times even singular, to each. This article explores some of the institutional, cultural, and behavioral consequences of each of the three models and compares them.

Qazaq Khanate: From a united to a divided polity

Qazaq Khanate: From a united to a divided polity

Place narratives and the origins of inner Sydney's Aboriginal settlement, 1972-73

The district of Aboriginal residence in inner Sydney is familiar to Australians throughout the country, but its formative processes are much less widely known and certainly less rigorously understood. Using primary sources from three levels of government that have never before been released, this paper charts the story of the founding of the Aboriginal settlement in Sydney's Redfern in 1972-73. Its approach is to frame the quest for territory around the competing narratives articulated to it. It will be shown how the utopian concept of a "Black cooperative" became pitted against the defensive concept of a "Black ghetto" in struggle for dominance that revealed the fracturing ideological regimes of the day and the contradictory practices of a divided polity. European control over the allocation of urban space was on this occasion intercepted by a social movement for a stake in White Australia that for two hundred years had been disempowering its indigenous peoples. It is a struggle that endures in Aboriginal Redfern to this day.