Instruments Of Political Control Research Articles

Institutions as Images of Political Authority and Power Hierarchies: Understanding Land Tenure Dynamics of State-making in Zimbabwe and Uganda

The intricate link between political power and land rights is a historical axiom and Zimbabwe and Uganda present two conflicting yet analogous situations of what happens in agrarian societies, where socio-economic life is organised around access to and use of land. In such communities, institutions of land tenure are powerful mediums that shape political relations, electoral choices and the whole landscape of political interactions that happen in rural communities. This article seeks to examine how the post-colonial state in Zimbabwe and Uganda deliberately and systematically manipulated ‘insecure’ land tenure regimes by deploying institutions as instruments of political control and relevance. We argue that while the British coloniser framed the two counties differently, that is Zimbabwe as a settler colony and Uganda as a native colony, post-colonial land tenure regimes in the two countries were framed as institutional configurations purposefully designed and redesigned by national leaders as instruments of building state authority, organising the rural masses politically and shaping state-citizen allegiances. In this context, we argue that the land reforms in both countries perpetuated economic and regional disparities, inherited from colonial economic policies, and the ethnic and racial divisions, as foundations of state-making. In that regard, the connection between land and political authority may appear delinked and far-fetched, yet, as the Ugandan and Zimbabwean cases illustrate, there is compelling evidence to confirm this contention.

Democracy, Economy, Progress and the Rule of Law. Special Reference to the Tax Regime for Religious Denominations

The purpose of this article is twofold: on the one hand, to relate the fiscal and financial model to the Social and Democratic Rule of Law, on the other one, to transfer Spanish experiences that may be of interest to Poland, as both countries began their democratic experience and integration into the European Union a few decades ago. From a multidisciplinary perspective, the contributions that law could make to the field of political economy can be of capital importance for the consolidation of our democratic systems, public order, and social peace, analyzing the role of religious confessions. Methodology. To achieve this purpose, the analytical-comparative-interdisciplinary method was chosen as it was considered the most appropriate one in view of the close connections between economics, law, progress and social peace. The result of the research. The work shows that democracies, although they are the most effective models for achieving the highest standards of progress, and even though in the Polish and Spanish cases, they have the advantage of having served to bring dictatorial periods to an end, there is a need for effective control mechanisms. Democracies absolutely cannot degenerate into corrupt and ineffective systems under the control of large political and partisan oligarchies. The independence of the judiciary is, in this sense, an essential and inalienable element in guaranteeing the correct functioning of other state institutions. It is necessary to insist on the importance of the legal norm as an instrument of political control and its impact on macroeconomics, and the consolidation of democratic regimes, even more in the context initiated with the respective integration processes in the European Union. On the other hand, the aim is to show how beneficial tax treatment for religious denominations has a powerful effect on the achievement of the common good and social peace. In addition, it is about relating importance that has the budgetary balance and mechanisms for controlling public expenditure for the maintenance of progress and social justice in a sustainable model.

Predators or Protectors? Military Corruption as a Pillar of Regime Survival in Uganda

ABSTRACT When he came to power in 1986, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni promised to establish a professional, disciplined and all-inclusive national army. More than three decades later, the Ugandan army under his leadership has constantly been entangled in record corruption scandals. Based on extensive field research, this article explores the nature of corruption in Uganda’s defence sector and shows how corruption is tolerated and sometimes encouraged by the regime leader because it serves as an instrument of political control. The article highlights pervasive corruption in the Ugandan army, the political use of corruption by the regime and the impact it has had more generally.

<i>Shingikai</i> (Advisory Councils in Japan) as Instruments of Political Control

<i>Shingikai</i> (Advisory Councils in Japan) as Instruments of Political Control

Escenificaciones de poder en el ceremonial de las aperturas de Cortes españolas del siglo XIX

Este texto tiene la voluntad de analizar los ceremoniales de las aperturas de Cortes españolas de los primeros tres cuartos del siglo XIX (1810- 1874), como actos simbólicos de representación del poder. En estas páginas, se examinan las principales características del ritual, así como el papel de los sujetos participantes. Fundamentado en una metodología multidisciplinar, el estudio combina la influencia de la comunicación simbólica y el análisis de los conceptos utilizados en los discursos de apertura. El resultado pone de relieve la voluntad de la monarquía para presentarse como nexo de unión entre las instituciones parlamentarias y la población, conservando la Corona una posición autónoma. A pesar de que el ceremonial consolidó el papel central de la Corona, hay que destacar que también sirvió a los gobiernos como instrumento de control político y, en última instancia, ayudó a asentar el parlamentarismo.

Inequality and welfare state clientelism in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Inequality in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is rampant, manifested not only through one of the highest Gini coefficients in Europe but also in unequal access to social benefits and services. We find this to be an outcome of BiH?s entitygovernment social policy, which has been created to serve ethnic clientelistic politics. As the country?s former social protection system adjusted in the immediate post-civil war period to a new asymmetric government structure made of two entities, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska, it helped the main ethnic political parties preserve their power and ethnic divisions. This was achieved through a comprehensive system of status-based social benefits, most notably war-related social benefits granted on the basis of ethnic and military service affiliation. As such, in both BiH?s entities the system of social protection is an instrument of political control that generates inequality by treating certain social groups differently in terms of access to and level of benefits, while excluding much of the population. The process is found to be endogenous; in other words, maintaining inequality in access to social benefits is essential for preserving clientelistic policy, and vice versa.

Yaratıcı Uzamlar ya da “Psikocoğrafya” Kavramı Odağında Mekânın Yeniden Üretimi

Physical space designs have been the instruments of political control throughout history. This means of control has a significant function not only from the cognitive aspect but also on behavioral scale. Moreover, there is an isomorphic relationship between the physical space and individual consciousness whereas the space design, in itself, comes to mean the controlling of consciousness. Such relationship brings along a phenotypic surveillance in the geometric regulation of urban architecture as well as having the functionality of stimulating the mind and behavior considering shopping centers, movie theaters, hotels, fast food restaurants, supermarkets etc, which are the most popular spaces of global capitalism. The popular dynamic spaces of global capitalist system are, so to speak, spaces of stimulation above all things and allow for neither independence nor a creative performance. Rather, their influence in standardizing different opinions and behaviors can be spoken of. In the face of the controlling and surveilling/stimulating effect of physical space design, whether the concept of psycho-geography, which focuses specifically on the determining influence of physical space on psychology, could set the basis of an alternative space setup is worth discussing. Consequently, in this study, a theoretical analysis of the libertarian and creative reproduction of space on the axis of psycho-geography will be attempted.

Las comisiones de investigación del Parlamento Europeo. Un instrumento de control necesitado de reforma

It should be recognized the existence of too many limits in the European regulation on the parliamentary committees of inquiry. It should be appealed to the European Parliament, now empowered by art. 226.3 TFEU, to exercise its own initiative to promote, with the assistance of the Commission and the Council, a new regulation to that effect. Thereby it is urgent to correct the most important shortcomings observed in the current legislation in order to improve the functioning and efficiency of the committees activities. The main goal to achieve should be to broaden and strengthen the powers of the European Parliament, which is, after all, the most democratic institution in the Union, but which, nevertheless, still has restricted instruments of political control. In that sense it should be desirable to promote the full equivalence of those instruments with those already enjoyed by their counterparts in the Member States.

Instruments of Political Control

Global petroleum subsidies peaked at US$520 billion in the summer of 2008 and reached US$212 billion in 2011, carrying high fiscal and environmental costs. Why do some countries spend so much money to subsidize petroleum consumption? Previous studies suggest that oil-rich autocracies lacking institutional capacity are the main culprits. However, they cannot explain why oil importers with capable bureaucracies, such as Argentina, Brazil, and Malaysia, subsidized petroleum products. We argue that governments in countries with national oil companies (NOCs) use petroleum subsidies to cushion the effects of increasing oil prices. Empirically, we examine the relationship between oil prices and domestic gasoline prices in 175 countries, 2002-2009. An NOC halves the effect of oil price increases on the domestic gasoline price. This effect is strongly associated with the institutional design of NOCs, as increased autonomy shields them from political interference by the government.

Congressional modification of benefit-cost analysis as a vehicle for particularized benefits and a limitation on agency discretion: the case of the federal contract tower program

The literature on Congressional control of the bureaucracy has examined how members of Congress pursue strategies such as oversight, the limitation of discretion in legislation [Moe, T. (1989). The politics of bureaucratic structure. In J. E. Chubb & P. E. Peterson (Eds.), Can the Government Govern? Washington, DC: Brookings Institution); Huber, J. D., & Shipan, C. R. (2002). Deliberate discretion: The institutional foundations of bureaucratic autonomy. New York: Cambridge University Press], and the use of tools such as administrative procedures [McCubbins, M., & Schwartz, T. (1984). Congressional oversight overlooked: police patrols vs. fire alarms. American Journal of Political Science, 21(1), 165–179; McCubbins, M., Noll, R., & Weingast, B. (1987). Administrative procedures as instruments of political control. Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, 3, 243–277] and limitation riders [MacDonald, J. A. (2010). Limitation riders and congressional influence over bureaucratic policy decisions. American Political Science Review, 104 (November), 766–782] to exert influence over executive agency decision making. One area where Congress has attempted to exert control over agency decision-making is through the legislative modification of one of the most common bureaucratic decision-making tools: benefit-cost analysis (BCA). While scholars have examined political influence in agency regulatory impact analysis BCAs for proposed rules [Shapiro, S., & Morrall III, J. F. (2012). The triumph of regulatory politics. Benefit-cost analysis and political salience. Regulation and Governance, 6(2), 189–206], there has been a lack of examination of Congressional modification of agency BCA processes to justify and protect particularized [Mayhew, D. (1974). Congress: The electoral connection. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press] infrastructure projects in their districts. This paper will examine the effect of Congressional control over agency BCA processes to secure particularized benefits by developing an in-depth case study of the Federal Contact Tower Program (FCTP) operated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that examines the political and public management implications of Congress’s limitation of the FAA’s autonomy to operate the FCTP under current benefit-cost guidance. Building upon the literature on particularized benefits and Congressional delegation, the results of this study indicate that members of Congress use BCA processes to insulate infrastructure projects in their districts by restricting the ability of agencies to optimize program effectiveness.

Political Correctness – Maintaining a Balanced View

The paper deals with the concept of the so-called 'political correctness', primarily with regard to how it affects the language, particularly that of the non-native speakers of English, who may sometimes not be sufficiently aware of the sensitivity of the issue in the target language, frequently not nearly as pronounced in their own society and cultural setting. Not surprisingly, 'political correctness' has over the years caused a lot of heated argument and has divided people, not only linguists, into its ardent supporters and detractors. While the former defend it on the grounds that it can effectively combat intolerance, prejudice and injustice, the latter object to it as merely an instrument of political control and manipulation and an impediment to the freedom of speech. They base their argument on the fact that things are sometimes taken too far, many expressions already accepted or suggested as 'politically correct' sounding exaggerated, unnatural, and ridiculous. Furthermore, they argue that political correctness frequently obscures the meaning and is directed against clarity, thereby deteriorating the language. The authors therefore deem it necessary to highlight and explore the arguments of both sides, trying to propose the best ways of dealing with the issue, making all those concerned fully aware of the problem and its implications, at the same time striving to establish and maintain a balance.

Putting the Folk in Their Place

The folk, who have been exorcised from contemporary academic concern, are now replaced with the populace. Simultaneously, places as ecological loci of meaning and social relations have been discarded in favour of globalised spaces. Arguably, the contemporary obsession with proving the inauthenticity of tradition is itself an essentialising discourse. This obsession has helped destroy places and their ecological relationships. European ethnology originated in the Enlightenment pursuit of good governance and social improvement, which rendered it an instrument of political control - putting the folk in their place. By critically reconstructing the public role of ethnology, we can redirect the ethnological searchlight. Should not the responsible ethnologist, rather than colluding in evictions of the folk from their place, cultivate a respectfully critical understanding of social, economic, political and ecological contexts, working with the folk reflexively, to help reclaim their place.

The Pursuit of Peace and the Crisis of Israeli Identity: Defending/Defining the Nation

The Pursuit of Peace and the Crisis of Israeli Identity: Defending/Defining the Nation. By Dov Waxman. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. 264p. $69.95. Studies of Israel's foreign policy have been dominated by realist perspectives, emphasizing a hostile and anarchic international environment as the key determinant of its policies. Even perceptual and psychological interpretations of its policies—relying principally on the perceptions of decision makers—emphasized how these factors shaped their worldviews and affected policy choices. A growing number of studies, however, offer new interpretations of the factors and processes that shaped Israeli security and foreign policy over time, focusing on the social structure of its society or on the use of a foreign and security siege mentality as an instrument of political control and socialization.

Judicial Procedures as Instruments of Political Control: Congress's Strategic Use of Citizen Suits

Citizen suit provisions, which give proregulatory interests access to the federal courts, can be used by Congress to increase the courts' role in regulatory policy. I analyze 284 environmental regulation bills reported favorably out of committee and show that committee support for citizen suits is a function of the committee's policy goals and the political context in which the bills are generated. These findings indicate that Congress deliberately uses judicial procedures as instruments of political control and that scholars examining judicial policymaking must include legislative goals in the list of explanatory factors.

The market as an instrument of political control and exploitation: some insights from Kenya

The vast majority of developing countries, especially on the African continent, have leapt into the new millennium trapped in enormous economic decline. The popular diagnosis blames the self-defeating tendencies of the Third World states as the main source of the dismal economic performance. It is against this background that the paper seeks to present an alternative account for the rampant economic stagnation experienced by developing countries on the African continent. It has been motivated by the dramatic ascendancy of Afro-pessimism, which seems to conclude that the African condition is largely of its own making and, therefore, there is little or no hope for improvement. The argument of this paper is that the colonial legacy has, to a very large extent, shaped, influenced and impacted on the range of post-colonial policy options for most countries within the policy framework of the market. The pervasive market distortions that currently characterize the majority of the economies on the continent are an enduring heritage of the colonial schemes and mechanizations. (The Journal of Cultural Studies: 2001 3(1): 246-258)

Legal Doctrine and Political Control

We model legal doctrine as an instrument of political control by higher courts over lower courts and the case outcomes they produce. We focus on the choice between determinate and indeterminate doctrines within a hierarchy of courts where political-ideological alignment between lower and higher courts varies. We show that the choice over doctrinal determinacy depends on the distribution of cases, the distribution of litigants, judicial types, and the level of policy alignment between higher and lower court judges. The model suggests the optimal doctrinal choice for a high court, given the political-ideological alignment between the high court and the lower court, the control characteristics of doctrines themselves, and the matching of doctrines to litigant pools. This has implications regarding preference divergence within the judicial hierarchy, the interaction of different doctrines, and interplay between doctrinal specificity and doctrinal reach.

Legal Doctrine and Political Control

Much of American legal discourse is driven by concern over how judges should follow or create legal doctrines - decision-making rules established or endorsed by higher courts that stipulate, with varying degrees of specificity, outcomes that should follow from underlying fact patterns. In this Article, we model legal doctrine as an instrument of political control by higher courts over lower courts and the case outcomes they produce. Working out of a Law and Positive Political Theory framework, we focus on the amount of judicial political control exercised in the choice between creating determinate (highly specified) and indeterminate (weakly specified) doctrines within a hierarchy of courts. The model assumes that the creators of legal doctrine - higher courts - are policy seeking actors who, within the limitations of professionalism and public legitimacy, manipulate the structure of legal doctrine to maximize political-ideological policy objectives. The key determinants of doctrinal choice in our model are (1) the amount of political-ideological alignment between lower and higher courts, (2) the inherent control characteristics of doctrines themselves, and (3) how the choice of doctrines maps on to preferred litigant successes.

From casa militar to an instrument of political control: A functional analysis of the defense ministries in Argentina and Chile

(2005). From casa militar to an instrument of political control: A functional analysis of the defense ministries in Argentina and Chile. Defense & Security Analysis: Vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 179-199.

The Market as an Instrument of Political Control and Exploitation: Some Insights from Kenya

The vast majority of developing countries, especially on the African continent, have leapt into the new millennium trapped in enormous economic decline. The popular diagnosis blames the self-defeating tendencies of the Third World states as the main source of the dismal economic performance. It is against this background that the paper seeks to present an alternative account for the rampant economic stagnation experienced by developing countries on the African continent. It has been motivated by the dramatic ascendancy of Afro-pessimism, which seems to conclude that the African condition is largely of its own making and, therefore, there is little or no hope for improvement. The argument of this paper is that the colonial legacy has, to a very large extent, shaped, influenced and impacted on the range of post-colonial policy options for most countries within the policy framework of the market. The pervasive market distortions that currently characterize the majority of the economies on the continent are an enduring heritage of the colonial schemes and mechanizations. (The Journal of Cultural Studies: 2001 3(1): 246-258)

Legislative organization and congressional review of agency regulations

Although researchers have demonstrated that legislators possess a variety of instruments with which to limit bureaucratic discretion, it is not clear to what extent these instruments are used by legislators whose preferences are representative of chamber majorities. This article examines the role that committee membership, preferences, and other factors play in legislators' use of congressional review, a new instrument through which agency regulations can be nullified by joint resolutions of disapproval. It uses logistic regression to demonstrate that in the 105th House of Representatives, legislators were more likely to seek to disapprove agency regulations the greater the divergence of their preferences from the median member of the committee of jurisdiction. Committee membership, however, did not affect the use of congressional review. These results, which diverge from previous research in several respects, underscore that it is not yet possible to draw definitive conclusions about the connection between the organization of Congress and legislative-executive relations that hold across policy areas and instruments of political control. Copyright 2000 by Oxford University Press.