Local-level Politics Research Articles

Belonging and domesticated ethnicity in Veľký Šariš, Slovakia

Generalizations abound in Romani studies, and this is reflected in assessments of the relationship between Roma and members of the surrounding society. In this article I examine that relationship in a Slovak town where Roma have managed to gain recognition as autochthons with corresponding residential rights. I argue that this basic acknowledgement of Roma as locals is linked to a specific type of integration where ethnicity is de-politicized and domesticated. The ethnohistorical account covers most of the twentieth century, and it provides insight into local-level politics through archival data and oral accounts.

Welfare Mix as a Contested Terrain: Political Positions on Government–Non-profit Relations at National and Local Levels in a Social Democratic Welfare State

As welfare states are increasingly challenged and replaced by welfare mix models, new ideas about the functions of non-profit and voluntary organisations (NPVOs) provoke political conflicts that should be reflected in research. This paper explores the significance of political and ideological dimensions to present changes in the Swedish welfare state regarding NPVOs as welfare services providers. Investigating both national and local level, the study addresses political as well as practical implications of the reframing of NPVOs as service providers rather than being associated with a voice function. The article shows extensive differences between national and local levels as contentious ideological cleavages at national level are dormant in local level politics. Variations in the way relations to NPVOs are structured in practice at local level appear related to factors other than political dimensions. The findings support the development of an analytical framework that reflects political dimensions and allow for empirical focus that includes national and local level politics and practices.

Paradigmatic pragmatism and the politics of diversity

How migration and mobilizations of difference are accommodated at the local level is a burning question. Concepts adopted by local governments and the capacities of cities to formulate and implement these have received increasing attention, but often without examining the ideas and norms that underlie local concepts and practices. This article assesses the hypothesis of local-level pragmatism, which it rejects, and develops the notion of ‘paradigmatic pragmatism’ to characterize how local-level politics address mobilizations of difference. Based on empirical findings from Amsterdam, Antwerp and Leeds, and comparing the content and the implementation of ‘diversity policies’, I argue against a dichotomy of pragmatic vs ideational politics. Instead, these cities draw on a variety of ideas and pragmatically combine them under the header of diversity. This paradigmatic pragmatism invites further research on the effects of potential incompatibilities of immigrant policy ideas.

‘What is wrong with a woman being chief?’ Women Chiefs and Symbolic and Substantive Representation in Botswana

Across the globe women are accessing national legislatures and executives in unprecedented numbers. Over the last 25 years several African countries have led the way in women’s representation in parliaments and, more recently, in cabinets. At the same time, governments and foreign donors are increasingly focusing on the role of traditional leaders in local-level politics as states democratize and decentralize across the continent. Once considered hopelessly undemocratic and patriarchal, traditional leaders are more recently viewed in many African countries as one half of a viable and effective hybrid system at the local level. In addition, whereas the role of chief has been largely the preserve of African men, African women are increasingly asserting a right to become chief. This article, using Botswana as a case study, suggests that the increased presence of women in national legislatures and executives may be having a symbolic representation effect on African women who are insisting that they too may access political power, even in positions formerly unavailable to them, such as chief. This article further suggests that, like their women counterparts in African parliaments, once they gain access to political office, women chiefs may substantively represent women’s interests, in venues such as a House of Chiefs and in their communities.

A local approach to the UDMA: local-level politics during the decade of political parties, 1946–56

This essay considers the local political and historical anthropology of a political party – the UDMA (Union Démocratique du Manifeste algérien). It describes how the experience of ‘doing politics’ in a single city nuances, or contradicts, conventional narratives of the party's place in the history of Algerian nationalism. In particular, it shows that the reputation of the party (among former activists, in collective memory, in historiography) is rooted in one local experience (that of Constantine) rather than others (for example, Oran). Furthermore, examining local experiences illuminates power relations within the party as well as Algeria's broader political development during the decade of political parties (1946–56). It allows analysis of what appears at the national level to be progressive disaffection for the party system, often described as a passive phenomenon, by instead identifying the locally active agency exercised in party politics' apparent ‘running out of steam’. Rather than being a moribund era, this was a period of intense activity, discussion and action. The essay thus reappraises both this decade in the Algerian political experience and the place of politics in Algerian history.

Women and Participation in Civil Society: Do Women Get Empowered? The Case of Women in Goromonzi District in Zimbabwe

Using a case study of the Goromonzi District in Zimbabwe, this article explores whether women's participation in informal politics leads to the collective empowerment of women at the community level. Furthermore, the article seeks to investigate opportunities and constraints that exist for improving the position of women. Results show that due to unequal access to and control over resources, discriminatory attitudes and perceptions against women, and entrenched systems of political patronage, participating in informal local-level politics may empower individuals, but it does not empower women as a group. To be empowering, informal political organizations should pursue a transformatory political agenda that seeks to challenge social relations which perpetuate inequality between men and women.

A Theoretical Study on Local Politics and Resident Participation

It has been more than 20 years since local autonomy reintroduced. Overall implementation of local autonomy means the restoration of local-level politics, but there is still a question mark over whether the local politics has balanced against the central government by drawing participation of its residents, and whether local governments" authoritarian decision-making process have been democratized.BR Because the local autonomy inherently means realization of politics ‘of the resident, by the resident, for the resident", it should be done through local election which is respectful of residents’ right, participation, and lead. Local election is so important politically in that it is a official way for the people to participate in the political process, in other words, it is a very extensive and formal choice of politics.BR But so far local governments and assemblies neglected in the indifference of the people have repeatedly undermined the significance of local autonomy, and this is the fundamental cause hindering municipalities from developing. Thus, the opinion like ‘in korea, local autonomy does not exist’ is dominant among many scholars.BR Therefore, in local politics, national authority should be balanced and the local powers should be monitored by local politics through resident participation. This will help ensure people become free from subordination to the central authority.BR The importance of substantial involvement of people cannot be overemphasized. The existing hierarchical dominant-subordinate relationship between local and central government has to be converted into mutual surveillance, checks, and communication through decentralization of power. Furthermore, in the political process at least, even ordinary people should be on an equal playing field with the local powers and worthies. To sum up, politics is about residents" communication and participation.

The Horn of Africa in the shadow of the cold war: understanding the partition of Sudan from a regional perspective

On 9 July 2011, following over four decades of intermittent civil conflict, Southern Sudan officially declared independence from the North. The historic secession of the Southern provinces was a culmination of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed by the ruling National Congress Party and the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement in 2005. While conventional analysis has depicted the roots of the Sudanese conflict as a result of enduring conflicts over its national identity, and power and resource sharing, this article argues that the seemingly inevitable march towards the emergence of two new nation-states has been a result of a complex dynamic of external as well as local political developments in the greater Horn of Africa. More specifically, I argue that domestic-level factors having to do with regional conflicts in the Horn have greatly influenced the region's external relations in ways that are often obscured by international relations theories that privilege geo-strategic interests over the role of domestic politics. The article highlights the role of the cold war in influencing political developments in Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia in ways that shaped the relationship of the Middle East and the Horn region, and the trajectory of the civil conflict in Sudan in particular. I maintain that while security and strategic interests have provided the context for the relationship of the Horn and external actors, the role of domestic politics has played a crucial role in the shifting alliances between Middle Eastern states and the regimes and insurgent groups in the region. I conclude by highlighting the continuing importance of the role of local-level politics in these external relations following the end of the cold war by examining the advent of Islamism in the region in Sudan, arguing that the dynamic relationship between regional and domestic factors has played an important, albeit often neglected, role in the historic partition of the country.

Democratic Decentralisation and Pro-poor Policy Reform in Indonesia: The Politics of Health Insurance for the Poor in Jembrana and Tabanan

Abstract This paper explores the conditions under which democratic decentralisation has contributed to pro-poor policy reform in Indonesia by examining the politics of health insurance for the poor in two Indonesian districts, Jembrana and Tabanan, both located in Bali. Governments in these districts have responded quite differently to the issue of health insurance for the poor since they gained primary responsibility for health policy as a result of Indonesia’s implementation of decentralisation in 2001. We argue that this variation has reflected differences in the nature of district heads’ political strategies — particularly the extent to which they have sought to develop a popular base among the poor — and that these in turn have reflected differences in their personal networks, alliances and constituencies. Comparative research suggests that pro-poor outcomes have only occurred in developing countries following democratic decentralisation when social-democratic political parties have secured power at the local level. In the Indonesian case, we suggest, political parties are not well defined in ideological and programmatic terms and tend to act as electoral vehicles for hire and mechanisms for the distribution of patronage, while local-level politics is increasingly dominated by the executive arm of government. Hence the pathway to pro-poor policy reform has been different — namely, via the emergence of local executives who pursue their interests and those of allies and backers via populist strategies with or without the support of parties.

2010 Local Elections- A Serious Warning to Parliamentary Political Parties

The fundamental principle of the modern local self-government system is the transfer of decision-making on public matters to the lowest possible level, enabling citizens to identify themselves with the local political environment as much as possible. Local government is considered democratic if its performance is decisively and directly or indirectly influenced (through elected representatives that are entrusted with local-level tasks) by the citizens themselves. Local elections are frequently compared to national elections, even though data show that local elections have their own peculiarities that cannot be applied to the national level. This is especially true regarding the dominant role of non-partisan candidates, and the ever decreasing support for political parties. Without the latter, one cannot even imagine the national level of government because they represent the key actors in national democratic political systems. Regarding the degree of trust in political parties at the local level, one can identify a trend indicating that citizens have gained a greater awareness that local-level politics is not related to party adherence, and that individuals’ personalities and their alleged apolitical character is coming increasingly to the fore, which is reflected by a high number of eligible non-partisan candidates. Therefore, one can see in Slovenia that people have become frustrated over the politicisation of local-level politics by expressing an ever-greater desire to support non-partisan candidates for the leaders of their local communities. Thus, they seek the candidates whose performance is not politically marked so that they can more easily identify themselves with them.
 
 Keywords: • local democracy • local elections • parliamentary elections • political parties • non-partisan candidates • Slovenia

Voluntary Associations and Local Level Politics: Voluntary Associations as Sources of Political Capital?

The paper investigates whether the local political context has an impact on the frequency of contacts between voluntary associations and local politicians. The study contains data from two differen ...

Negotiating Autonomy at the Margins of the State

Recent processes of decentralization have dramatically changed local political configurations and access to resources throughout Indonesia. In particular, the resource-rich regions at the margins of the state have, in the name of regional autonomy, experienced new spaces for manoeuvre in their claims for a larger share of forest resources. By stressing the unfolding relationship between local ethnic elites and the state, and their different strategies in negotiating and claiming authority over forests within Indonesia's changing forest regimes, the paper examines how local-level politics has taken on its special configuration in the remote border region of West Kalimantan, Indonesia. The author demonstrates this by focusing on the ongoing struggle over forest resources and by tracking the fate of a political movement for a new district in this resource-rich region. The paper further examines how current local elite strategies and networks can be related back to the period of border militarization in the 1960s and, once again, how these seem to challenge the exclusivity of the Indonesian–Malaysian border. The main argument is that central authority in the borderland has never been absolute, but waxes and wanes, and thus that state rules and laws are always up for local interpretation and negotiation, although the degree of such negotiation changes depending on the strength of the central state.

Empowerment, Deliberative Development, and Local-Level Politics in Indonesia: Participatory Projects as a Source of Countervailing Power

The salience of the concept of “empowerment” has been more often deductively claimed than carefully defined or inductively assessed, by development scholars and practitioners alike. Using evidence from an in-depth, mixed methods examination of the Kecamatan Development Project (KDP) in rural Indonesia, we define it here as deliberative development interventions that build marginalised groups’ capacity to engage local level governing elites using routines of deliberative contestation. Our data show that while KDP induced local level development conflicts, it also provided tools for peacefully resolving them, including associational spaces, incentives for marginalised group participation, and resources for argumentation such as facilitators. Ultimately, marginalised groups used these spaces, incentives, and resources to modestly but consistently shift local level power relations, regardless of the pre-existing institutional context. By contrast, marginalised groups in non-KDP development conflicts from otherwise similar contexts used “mobilisational contestation” to generate comparatively erratic and inconsistent shifts in power relations that depended greatly on the pre-existing context.

Empowerment, Deliberative Development, and Local-Level Politics in Indonesia: Participatory Projects as a Source of Countervailing Power

The salience of the concept of “empowerment” has been deductively claimed more often than carefully defined or inductively assessed by development scholars and practitioners alike. We use evidence from a mixed methods examination of the Kecamatan (subdistrict) Development Project (KDP) in rural Indonesia, which we define here as development interventions that build marginalized groups’ capacity to engage local-level governing elites using routines of deliberative contestation. “Deliberative contestation” refers to marginalized groups’ practice of exercising associational autonomy in public forums using fairness-based arguments that challenge governing elites’ monopoly over public resource allocation decisions. Deliberative development interventions such as KDP possess a comparative advantage in building the capacity to engage because they actively provide open decision-making spaces, resources for argumentation (such as facilitators), and incentives to participate. They also promote peaceful resolutions to the conflicts they inevitably spark. In the KDP conflicts we analyze, marginalized groups used deliberative contestation to moderately but consistently shift local-level power relations in contexts with both low and high preexisting capacities for managing conflict. By contrast, marginalized groups in non-KDP development conflicts from comparable villages used “mobilizational contestation” to generate comparatively erratic shifts in power relations, shifts that depended greatly on the preexisting capacity for managing conflict.

Municipal Reform in the Russian Federation and Putin's "Electoral Vertical"

Since President Putin came to in 2000 we have witnessed radical assault on principles and practices of federalism. More recently, Putin has turned his attention to politics at subregional level. October 2003 new federal law, On Principles of Local Self Government in Russian (hereafter, 2003 Law), adopted that seriously compromises local government autonomy.1 After discussing major features of 2003 Law and problems of its implementation, this article examines most recent round of municipal elections, which took place in 2004 and 2005. Municipal elections in many federal subjects have been far from free and fair. State control over local electoral commissions and courts have dealt serious blow to development of grassroots democracy in Russia. consolidation of democracy has also been undermined by series of laws on elections and parties that Putin adopted in wake of Beslan hostage crisis in September 2004. These new laws, ostensibly designed to strengthen Russia's party system, have, in practice, allowed United Russia to consolidate its hold over regional and local assemblies.Federalism and Local Government in Russian FederationIn theory, local governments in Russia operate outside formal state hierarchy. Article 12 of Russian Constitution states that, In Russian Federation local self-government is recognized and guaranteed. Within limits of its powers local self-government is independent. Bodies of local self-government do not form part of system of bodies of state power. However, municipalities have, in practice, been treated as third tier of state power, subordinate to regional and federal administrations.2Municipal government in Russia also operates within quasi-federal system epitomized by high levels of constitutional and political asymmetry. Thus, to fully understand local level politics, peculiarities of Russian federal system, and in particular massive powers that were ceded to federal subjects in 1990s need to be taken into account. Between 1994 and 1998 Yeltsin signed forty-six bilateral treaties with federal subjects that granted signatories number of extraconstitutional powers, including right to develop their own forms of local government. By end of Yeltsin era, highly politicized form of contract federalism had replaced constitutional federalism. The result, Campbell stresses, was not decentralisation but 'autonomisation' . . . whereby state held together by loose parade of treaties bargained between centre and individual regions.3Daniel Elazar argues that local governments in federal systems are often able to gain a substantial measure of entrenched political power by capitalizing on the spirit of noncentralisation-the spirit of federalism.4 However, in Russia's quasi-federal system, regional elites have been able to subjugate local level bodies with impunity. many of ethnic republics (e.g., Adygeya, Bashkortostan, Dagestan, Kalmykiya, Komi, North Ossetiya, Sakha, and Tatarstan), chief executives were able to carve out personal fiefdoms and to instigate highly authoritarian regimes. Local governments were subordinated to republican administrations, and republican presidents directly appointed heads of municipalities.5 Moreover, 1995 law, On Principles of Local Self-Government in Russian (hereafter, 1995 Law), not implemented in eighteen regions, and only partially in forty-three.6Thus, on eve of Putin's accession to presidency, there were major variations, across federation, in structures, functions, and powers of local governments. Indeed, degree of political and economic asymmetry at local level even higher than in regions. Regional elites often had final say over which powers would be delegated to municipalities. …

Empowerment, Deliberative Development and Local Level Politics in Indonesia: Participatory Projects as a Source of Countervailing Power

The salience of the concept of empowerment has been more often deductively claimed than carefully defined or inductively assessed, by development scholars and practitioners alike. Using evidence from an in-depth, mixed methods examination of the Kecamatan Development Project (KDP) in rural Indonesia, we define it here as deliberative development interventions that build marginalised groups' capacity to engage local level governing elites using routines of deliberative contestation. Our data show that while KDP induced local level development conflicts, it also provided tools for peacefully resolving them, including associational spaces, incentives for marginalised group participation, and resources for argumentation such as facilitators. Ultimately, marginalised groups used these spaces, incentives, and resources to modestly but consistently shift local level power relations, regardless of the pre-existing institutional context. By contrast, marginalised groups in non-KDP development conflicts from otherwise similar contexts used mobilisational contestation to generate comparatively erratic and inconsistent shifts in power relations that depended greatly on the pre-existing context.

Trouble en Route: Drug Trafficking and Clientelism in Rio de Janeiro Shantytowns

This article examines the ways that endemic drug trafficking has affected local level politics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Drawing on ethnographic analysis of political exchanges in the 1998 national elections in three favelas (shantytowns), I argue that drug trafficking has changed the practice of clientelism. Evidence and analysis in this paper will show that the persistence of drug trafficking in the city has led to the emergence of a two-tiered clientelist system in which politicians make exchanges with traffickers who then, in turn, provide some benefits to favela residents in return for their votes. This results in an arrangement that provides votes to politicians and limited assistance to the poor but does little to build the legitimacy of the political system.

Village on the Border, Anthropology at the Crossroads: The Significance of a Classic British Ethnography

Village on the Border was the seminal anthropological study of a mainland British rural community. It was written and published during a period of unsurpassed scholarship and creativity in British social science. To explain the impact it had on social anthropology, British studies and public discourse at the time, I look at the influences on Ronnie Frankenberg and his work of the then state of social anthropology; of the particular academic environment in which he was trained and worked; and of his personal background and political convictions. This analysis shows that although the book clearly bears particular historical and intellectual influences, it was explicitly set within comparative ethnographic frameworks, and in due course greatly influenced work elsewhere. Both methodologically and substantively, it should be seen as a significant contribution to the comparative study of local-level politics, gender relations and the role of the ‘stranger’, as well as the authentic origin of modern anthropological studies of rural Britain.

Four principles of South African political culture at the local level

Standard models of political thought derived from Liberal, Democratic and Classical models of political theory do not appear to fully comprehend the structure and processes of political action and culture at the local-level in South Africa. I present a concise model that is based on set of four inter-linked ‘principles’ or concepts that structure political action and sentiment: (1) the equivalence of persons, (2) respect, (3) jealousy, and (4) suffering. These principles form a resilient and powerful structure that govern political action, and are significantly different from the bureaucratic/democratic concepts of (political and jural) equality, (hierarchical) distinction, organisational discipline, and personal achievement that ideally structure action in the ‘modern’ bureaucratic/democratic organisations of national government and global corporate business. In addition, the principles of ‘exit’ and ‘exile’ are advanced as ways to understand the relationship between the local-level politics and national or global-level political process.

Local-level Politics and Identity in Local Festival: The Case Study of ‘Punghyangje’ in Youngbo, Young-am County

This study examines the nature and cultural meaning of the interrelationships between local politics and local identities in the case of local festival, so-called ‘punghyangje’ (the name of local festival in Youngbo, Youngamgun, Jellanamdo, Korea. It means literally the religious ritual for prosperity of village). It deals with the cultural features and implications of local identities, and with the characteristics of formation and transformation of local identities by the local people in terms of production and distribution and consumption of the cultural resources in local festival like ‘punghyangje’.BR In this paper, it is described and analyzed that the local festival can be utilized as an effective political means by the intentions and interests of the elders in kinship relations in local society, and can be manipulated by the local authorities or institutions through the politicization of the festival. From local politics’ perspective, this study describes and analyzes the process of the politicization of local festival in the socio-cultural context, and thereafter pays attention to understand the dynamics of the local festival by focusing on the cultural implication of the interrelationships between the politicization of local festival and the making of local identity in Youngbo region.BR I investigate that ‘punghyangie’ contributes to construct the cultural characteristics and meanings of local identity in this study. It also forms and transforms the nature of local politics or local political processes through the expression and representation of the kinship conflicts among the various kin groups and its solution processes through the symbolic construction of ‘the making of local identity’. In this sense, local identity is not a fixed or given entity, but a flexible construct. In other words, I insist that the local identity should be a cultural product which has been constructed constantly by the formation and transformation of specific socio-cultural situations and indigenous historical experiences, which have been produced and reproduced operatively according to the intention and planning of cultural agents who have responsibilities on the making of local politics that is expressed and represented by the local festivals, for example ‘punghyangje’ in Youngbo.