State-centered Model Research Articles

Shock and Awe in the UNFSS.

The unholy alliance between the UN and the World Economic Forum in staging a Food Systems Summit is the culmination of deepening public partnerships with the corporate food sector on an international scale. This article examines how the WEF has exploited this relationship to position its private constituency to oversee global food market governance at the expense of multilateral principles, and against China’s expanding state-centered model of international self-reliance.

Entre o cosmopolitismo e o realismo político: Habermas, Honneth e a Escola Inglesa das Relações Internacionais

Este artigo reformula a discussão do cosmopolitismo na teoria crítica de Habermas e Honneth, a partir da noção de “patriotismo constitucional” elaborada pelo primeiro e de uma problemática teoria do reconhecimento entre Estados no segundo, recorrendo a algumas premissas da Escola Inglesa das Relações Internacionais, com ênfase na interlocução entre pluralismo e solidariedade, a fim de se avançar no debate cosmopolita para além de uma proposta normativamente eurocêntrica e como alternativa a modelos utópicos e estatais. Partindo de uma constatação conjuntural de uma realidade política que se dirige ao cosmopolitismo, Habermas utiliza-se da questão identitária e da respectiva consciência da sociedade enquanto capaz de se autorregular como elemento sine qua non da legitimidade de uma prática política supranacional. Contudo, ao apresentar seu panorama, o filósofo de Sternberg pode ser acusado de cair em um ocidentalismo normativo. Honneth mostra-se cético quanto à ideia de estender sua teoria do reconhecimento às relações interestatais ou como algo a ser intuitivamente inferido de uma filosofia robusta do direito, como a que ele mesmo buscou reatualizar pela reconstrução normativa da teoria hegeliana do direito. Acreditamos que a Escola Inglesa pode viabilizar novos encaminhamentos em relação a uma realidade pós-nacional em que seja possível vigorar princípios como justiça global e direitos humanos, ao mesmo tempo em que são respeitadas as clivagens normativas entre povos em vias de não suprimir valorações morais e culturais distintas.

Social power, offshore financial intermediaries and a network regulatory imaginary

While studies have paid attention to the activities of firms and their financial flows in offshore tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions, there is scant work on role of advanced business services (ABS) intermediary providers in shaping the geography of these jurisdictions. Yet such a study is needed in light of the recent release of the Panama Papers and the fallout of major political figures, celebrities and corporations as a result of the leaks. This paper examines the role of relational ties in mediating and linking high net worth individuals, political elites, corporations, intermediary providers, and, secrecy jurisdictions. By examining the major organizational hubs of social power embedded in network structures, it suggests that regulatory responses to tax avoidance and evasion associated with secrecy jurisdictions may need to move beyond a state-centered model of governance. Transnational governance involves a broader set of auspices and governors that include ABS actors and their social practices which constitute both a source of learning and normative regulation.

An analysis of industrial districts and Triple Helix of innovation – a regional development experience in the south of the state of Rio de Janeiro

This work consolidates a research effort to analyze 70 years of economic development in the region of the Paraíba do Sul River, in the south of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The paper follows the trajectory of the leader company, steelmaker Companhia Siderúrgica National, and its relations with other local actors, such as government and universities. The research question investigates if the steel market is still the company's core business and its evolution in the competitive global production network. This work introduces a different exploratory approach, analyzing productive networks using an industrial district typology and the linkages based on the Triple Helix of university–industry–government. The literature review and case study show the first transition, after the privatization process in the nineties, transforming a state-owned company with a focus in the national market into a transnational corporation with business on four continents. The second transition, from the steel market to a globally integrated production chain of mining and steel is underway. The region's configuration migrated from a company town in a state-centered model to a central-radial arrangement. The second migration to a satellite platform is in progress. Regarding technology development, the company's strategy changed from in-house research and development to buying technology. There is a recent effort to recreate interaction space with universities.

Neither government nor community alone: A test of state-centered models of generalized trust

A classic controversy within the institutionalist literature has yet to be resolved. Does the state either render or erode generalized trust? The crowding out perspective contends that trust decays as a result of the state. The political-institutional perspective maintains that the state molds an environment where trust can grow. Using hierarchical generalized linear models with data from the World Values Survey and other sources, this article directly tests these competing arguments and demonstrates strong support for the political-institutional perspective. Although apparatuses of the state — specifically the public allocation of resources and legal property rights institutions — directly and positively influence generalized trust, these effects are not mediated by voluntary associations or income inequality. Instead, this article reveals that property rights institutions moderate and amplify the positive effect of voluntary associations on generalized trust. I discuss the theoretical implications of the results while exploring limitations and avenues for future research.

An analytical framework for the cross-country comparison of higher education governance

In this article we provide an integrated framework for the analysis of higher education governance which allows us to more systematically trace the changes that European higher education systems are currently undergoing. We argue that, despite highly insightful previous analyses, there is a need for more specific empirically observable indicators of policy change and inertia. We therefore propose a systematic classification of empirical indicators of higher education governance. To do so, we look at three historically entrenched and still highly relevant European models of higher education—academic self-governance, the state-centered model and the market-oriented model. Based on these broader overarching models which reflect the tensions between the state, market and academia, we develop three ideal-types that take internal university governance as well as the role of the state and external stakeholders into account. Against this background, we derive empirical indicators with regard to the institutional balance of power, financial governance, personnel autonomy and substantive matters. Our analytical contribution shall enable scholars, and in particular political and social scientists, to trace ongoing patterns of change and convergence as well as persistence and inertia in higher education governance arrangements.

Como a diferença passa do centro à margem nos currículos: o exemplo dos PCN

O texto parte do pressuposto de que os estudos de política curricular centrados no Estado empobrecem a análise por não darem conta da relação entre estrutura e agência. Apoia-se na teoria discursiva de E. Laclau e C. Mouffe para analisar as políticas curriculares como articulações hegemônicas em torno do preenchimento do significante qualidade da educação. Centra-se na análise dos Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais, especialmente os de Ciência e os Temas Transversais, tendo como foco articulações universalistas que buscam minar as demandas da diferença. Considerando que essas articulações podem ser percebidas pela análise dos textos curriculares tais como enunciados, a autora destaca duas estratégias utilizadas nos PCN: a criação de dois componentes curriculares, com a localização das demandas da diferença no menos institucionalizado deles; e as lutas por hegemonia no interior desse componente.

Community Policing in Comparison

If community policing in Western democracies is often a unilateral action of the police promoting community self-rule, in most of the rest of the world, informal policing in communities is ubiquitous, popular, and sometimes excessive. Bracketing the Western ideology of community policing as state-initiated and -controlled (top-down) allows to discover a rich field of informal policing widely practiced by communities in Asia, Latin America, or Africa (bottom-up). Using secondary data as material, the article suggests accounting for these patterns of community policing with a state-centered model. Key variables identified by the authors are the service delivery capacity of the state, the dominant ideology, indirect or dual rule, political alliances as well as the framing of opportunites by civil society enterpreneurs or police managers, and available cultural repertoires of policing.

Deinstitutionalization and Institutional Replacement: State-Centered and Neo-liberal Models in the Global Electricity Supply Industry

We investigate the replacement of the traditional state-centered model of electricity industry organization with a market-oriented neo-liberal model in 83 countries. We argue and find that social actors' ascription of legitimacy to an institutional replacement is central to the replacement's survival during the period following its adoption. We provide empirical evidence on the role of multiple influences that affect the legitimacy of an institutional replacement, including the influence of foreign organizations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and the behavior of peer countries.

Transnational Feminisms in a New Global Matrix

Utilizing an ethnographic case-study approach, this article examines the experiences of women of color encountering globalization, and the shifting political and economic landscape through forms of transnational organizing. Central to this analysis is an examination of the increased pressures born by women of color and the emergence of new strategies of resistance that move outside nationalist and state-centered models. The article highlights such alliances between a group of US Chicanas and Latinas from Colorado, and indigenous women in Chiapas, Mexico, paying particular attention to the transformative relationships as well as the points of tension and disruption. Overall, the article brings into conversation theories of oppositional consciousness among US ‘Third World Feminists’ and postcolonial feminist critiques of globalization to map the boundaries of a transnational feminism useful for women encountering hierarchies of race, class and gender in the new millennium.

La redefinición del espacio público: el caso de las escuelas autogestionadas en Argentina

El Proyecto de las Escuelas Experimentales o Autogestionadas de la Provincia de San Luis adquiere sentido en el marco de la denominada Transformación Educativa y de las políticas desarrolladas en las últimas décadas en Argentina, que, al igual que en gran parte de los países latinoamericanos, han estado orientadas por discursos y prácticas tendientes a legitimar un nuevo modelo económico, social, político, cultural y educativo. La reforma educativa argentina de la década del '90 puede analizarse como una respuesta frente a la crisis de la matriz estado-céntrica que caracterizó la institucionalización y expansión del sistema educativo. El Proyecto de las Escuelas Experimentales en la Provincia de San Luis, inspirado en el modelo de las charter schools de Estados Unidos, es presentado por el Gobierno de la Provincia como un caso precursor en nivel regional en el marco de lo que caracterizan como la "necesaria e imperante reforma de los sistemas educativos". En este sentido, el objetivo de este trabajo es analizar la lógica que orienta el modelo de estas escuelas así como presentar algunas problemáticas centrales vinculadas con el proceso de implementación de la propuesta.

Nation-State and Pluralistic Decision Making in Trade Policy: The Case of the International Trade Administration

In this article we examine two perspectives, a domestic interest group perspective and a nation-state centered perspective, of decision making in public policy by examining the behavior of the International Trade Administration (ITA) in granting administered protection to domestic industries. The ITA carries out antidumping and countervailing duty investigations upon the request of domestic industries, and, in conjunction with the International Trade Commission (ITC), decides whether or not to grant protection to those industries. In explaining the factors affecting the decisions of the ITA, an interest group model is used to emphasize the influence of domestic political factors, such as industry lobbying and power, while a state-centered model relies on policy makers' pursuit of national goals such as economic strength and sound foreign policy. In addition to the more common finding that interest groups influence policy outcomes, our results suggest that national concerns are also useful in explaining trade policy in the area of administered protection.

The Rawlsian Theory of International Law

Tesón critiques a recent article by John Rawls in which Rawls extends his acclaimed political theory to include international relations. Tesón first summarizes Rawls' theory and then presents a critique. With this essay, Rawls joins an already vigorous scholarly reaction against traditional state-centered models of international law and relations. When measured against such models, Rawls' theory of international law moves in the right direction in assigning a role, albeit a modest one, to human rights and political legitimacy. However, to the extent that Rawls' effort purports to be a rational reconstruction of international law for our new era (as he certainly intends it to be), it fails to capture central moral features of the international order. His proposal is still too forgiving of serious forms of oppression in the name of liberal tolerance. The theory thus falls short of matching the considered moral judgments prevailing in today's international community. Moreover, it fails Rawls' own test of epistemic adequacy.

Resources Rather than Needs: A State-Centered Model of Welfare Policymaking

This study examines the states' policymaking for the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program. It develops a public good model of welfare policymaking focused on changes in the maximum benefit level that determines how much assistance poor families receive. A pooled time-series analysis is used to test the model's expectations. This examination confirms some expectations of the public good theory while challenging others. Changes in state revenues strongly influence states' decisions about AFDC benefit levels. However, neither changes in citizens' income nor changes in the cost of living have a significant effect on states' decisions. These findings question the public good theory's focus on transfers from private income and its characterization of concern for the living conditions of poor families as the central motive for welfare transfers. They indicate that the explanation of AFDC policymaking should be focused on the role of state policymaking processes, particularly the budgetary process.

Organized Labor, State Structures, and Social Policy Development: A Case Study of Old Age Assistance in Ohio, 1916-1940

In attempting to explain the relative underdevelopment of the American welfare state, one theory, based on a class conflict model, attributes the lack of comprehensive social benefits to the weakness of the labor movement. The state-centered approach, by contrast, locates social program development in aspects of state structures: party competition, autonomous activity of party officials and state bureaucrats, and state organizational structure. This historical case study of the initiation and implementation of old age assistance in Ohio demonstrates that neither a class conflict nor a state-centered model can adequately explain the development of American welfare programs. Old age assistance was shaped through the complex intersection of class and political factors involving different factions of the labor movement, party politics, and an expanding federal bureaucracy.

French Education and the Limits of State Autonomy

IN another of those pendulum swings so familiar to observers and practitioners of political science, the popularity of society-centered models of the democratic policy process recently has provoked a series of counterattacks by proponents of models (Nordlinger 1981; Krasner 1978, 1984; Skocpol 1985; and, on neomarxist theories, Carnoy 1984, and Carnoy and Levin 1985). Neither the pluralist nor the orthodox Marxist school, it is argued, gives adequate consideration to the ability of the state to act autonomously. The only means of ascertaining the extent of state autonomy, and the utility of state-centered models, is through case studies of the policy process in different countries and policy areas. The purpose of the following analysis will be twofold: first, to demonstrate the limits of state autonomy in a policy arena which would seem to favor it, and, second, to suggest some general problems with state-centered models in the study of the democratic policy process. The case studies of French education to be presented are not intended to offer a definitive test. Limited as they are in number and scope, they do, however, offer important evidence, for they deal with a policy arena which has a number of characteristics commonly associated with state autonomy. Among Western nations, France often is perceived to be the most perfect democratic embodiment of the strong and centralized state (Krasner 1978: 58-61; Nordlinger 1981: 103, 105; Skocpol 1985: 34, N. 29). 1 In a survey of the development of uses of the concept of the state, J. P. Nettl concludes that . .. it is the French state and the idea of the state that provide the basic European model (Nettl 1968: 567). From the time of Louis XIV and his energetic minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to postwar economic planners, high political authorities have taken a broad view of the state's responsibility for guiding social and economic development. Within French Government, the Ministry of Education is one of the most highly centralized, with extensive formal control over curriculum, personnel and funding allocations. And yet, as will be shown, state autonomy in French education is limited by intrastate conflict and rivalry between public-private coalitions.