Stuti Khemani
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198737506
- eISBN:
- 9780191800894
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198737506.003.0009
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental, Public and Welfare
A recent trend in decentralization in several large and diverse countries is the creation of local jurisdictions below the regional level—municipalities, towns, and villages—whose spending is almost ...
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A recent trend in decentralization in several large and diverse countries is the creation of local jurisdictions below the regional level—municipalities, towns, and villages—whose spending is almost exclusively financed by grants from both regional and national governments. This chapter argues that such grants-financed decentralization enables politicians to target benefits to pivotal voters and organized interest groups in exchange for political support. Decentralization, in this model, is subject to political capture, facilitating vote buying, patronage, or pork-barrel projects at the expense of effective provision of broad public goods. There is anecdotal evidence on local politics in several large countries that is consistent with this theory. The chapter explores its implications for international development programs in support of decentralization.Less
A recent trend in decentralization in several large and diverse countries is the creation of local jurisdictions below the regional level—municipalities, towns, and villages—whose spending is almost exclusively financed by grants from both regional and national governments. This chapter argues that such grants-financed decentralization enables politicians to target benefits to pivotal voters and organized interest groups in exchange for political support. Decentralization, in this model, is subject to political capture, facilitating vote buying, patronage, or pork-barrel projects at the expense of effective provision of broad public goods. There is anecdotal evidence on local politics in several large countries that is consistent with this theory. The chapter explores its implications for international development programs in support of decentralization.
Garry Rodan and Caroline Hughes
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780198703532
- eISBN:
- 9780191772641
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198703532.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization
International development actors such as the World Bank have enthusiastically endorsed decentralization as a way of boosting accountability and responsiveness, by unleashing local initiative and ...
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International development actors such as the World Bank have enthusiastically endorsed decentralization as a way of boosting accountability and responsiveness, by unleashing local initiative and energy for service delivery at local level, while reigning in the potential for corruption, inefficiency, and abuse of power. As such, decentralization reforms potentially constitute an important aspect of the new accountability agenda. However, since the 1990s, authoritarian regimes in Cambodia and Vietnam have faced new tensions arising from the embrace of market relationships and the decline in the appeal of socialist ideology. In both countries the ruling parties have used administrative and political decentralization as a means to promote moral ideologies of accountability that serve as a prop to their continued rule. The imposition of moral ideologies in which greed is decried as the source of corruption and conflict has been effective in a context where the political regime precludes more assertive positions on the part of villagers.Less
International development actors such as the World Bank have enthusiastically endorsed decentralization as a way of boosting accountability and responsiveness, by unleashing local initiative and energy for service delivery at local level, while reigning in the potential for corruption, inefficiency, and abuse of power. As such, decentralization reforms potentially constitute an important aspect of the new accountability agenda. However, since the 1990s, authoritarian regimes in Cambodia and Vietnam have faced new tensions arising from the embrace of market relationships and the decline in the appeal of socialist ideology. In both countries the ruling parties have used administrative and political decentralization as a means to promote moral ideologies of accountability that serve as a prop to their continued rule. The imposition of moral ideologies in which greed is decried as the source of corruption and conflict has been effective in a context where the political regime precludes more assertive positions on the part of villagers.
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520217201
- eISBN:
- 9780520922389
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520217201.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter examines the personal and family relationships in rural China during the period from 1954 to 1966. It evaluates the impacts on these relationships of two key political events during this ...
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This chapter examines the personal and family relationships in rural China during the period from 1954 to 1966. It evaluates the impacts on these relationships of two key political events during this period: the political decentralization between 1954 and 1958 and the political and economic liberalization of 1961–1963. It investigates the role of peasants' materials and other resources on divorces and the impact of changing land tenure relations on the power relations in the family.Less
This chapter examines the personal and family relationships in rural China during the period from 1954 to 1966. It evaluates the impacts on these relationships of two key political events during this period: the political decentralization between 1954 and 1958 and the political and economic liberalization of 1961–1963. It investigates the role of peasants' materials and other resources on divorces and the impact of changing land tenure relations on the power relations in the family.
Aaron James
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199846153
- eISBN:
- 9780199933389
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199846153.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This chapter presents the main argument of the book. It explains why both nationalist and cosmopolitan views do not account for a distinctive and politically important class of socioeconomic fairness ...
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This chapter presents the main argument of the book. It explains why both nationalist and cosmopolitan views do not account for a distinctive and politically important class of socioeconomic fairness concerns in international political morality. It sets out basic assumptions about the global economy, the book’s proposed principles and their policy applications, and its practice-based constructive methodology.Less
This chapter presents the main argument of the book. It explains why both nationalist and cosmopolitan views do not account for a distinctive and politically important class of socioeconomic fairness concerns in international political morality. It sets out basic assumptions about the global economy, the book’s proposed principles and their policy applications, and its practice-based constructive methodology.
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804755962
- eISBN:
- 9780804768290
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804755962.003.0008
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter is concerned with the process of claiming various territories in Buenos Aires. It is argued that this claiming process also sets into motion the cementing of political decentralization ...
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This chapter is concerned with the process of claiming various territories in Buenos Aires. It is argued that this claiming process also sets into motion the cementing of political decentralization and giving the locals a better understanding of their rights. It shows how the process of claiming helped create fresh ways of thinking about politics and the municipality and led to a new imagining of the state. Next, it explains how this process establishes new institutions at the national, community, and local government levels and how claims to citizenship can be maintained. The politics of equal citizens is discussed in the latter part of the chapter.Less
This chapter is concerned with the process of claiming various territories in Buenos Aires. It is argued that this claiming process also sets into motion the cementing of political decentralization and giving the locals a better understanding of their rights. It shows how the process of claiming helped create fresh ways of thinking about politics and the municipality and led to a new imagining of the state. Next, it explains how this process establishes new institutions at the national, community, and local government levels and how claims to citizenship can be maintained. The politics of equal citizens is discussed in the latter part of the chapter.
Scott Mainwaring, Ana María Bejarano, and Eduardo Pizarro Leongómez
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804752787
- eISBN:
- 9780804767910
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804752787.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this volume which is about the crisis of democratic representation in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. It explains the concept of the ...
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This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this volume which is about the crisis of democratic representation in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. It explains the concept of the crisis of democratic representation and its manifestations and highlights the intellectual and political importance of studying the crisis of democratic representation in the Andes. This volume explores the factors that affect democratization including party systems, political outsiders, political decentralization and legislatures.Less
This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this volume which is about the crisis of democratic representation in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. It explains the concept of the crisis of democratic representation and its manifestations and highlights the intellectual and political importance of studying the crisis of democratic representation in the Andes. This volume explores the factors that affect democratization including party systems, political outsiders, political decentralization and legislatures.
Garry Rodan and Caroline Hughes
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780198703532
- eISBN:
- 9780191772641
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198703532.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization
Calls by political leaders, social activists, and international policy and aid actors for accountability reforms to improve governance have never been more widespread. For some analysts, the ...
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Calls by political leaders, social activists, and international policy and aid actors for accountability reforms to improve governance have never been more widespread. For some analysts, the unprecedented scale of these pressures reflects functional imperatives accompanying economic globalization and related appeal of liberal and democratic ideas on institutions. This book offers a different perspective, investigating the crucial role of contrasting ideologies informing accountability movements and mediating reform directions in Southeast Asia. It argues that the most influential ideologies are not those promoting the political authority of democratic sovereign people or of liberalism’s freely contracting individuals. Instead, in both post-authoritarian and authoritarian regimes, the most influential ideologies are those that award political authority over public officials to moral guardians. Elites exploit these moral ideologies to deflect and contain pressures for democratic and liberal reforms to governance institutions. The book’s case studies include human rights, political decentralization, anticorruption, and social accountability reform movements in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. These studies highlight how effective propagation of moral ideologies is boosted by the presence of powerful organizations, notably religious bodies, political parties, and broadcast media. Meanwhile, civil society organizations of comparable clout advancing liberalism or democracy are lacking. The theoretical framework of the book has wide applicability. In other regions, with contrasting histories and political economies, the nature and extent of organizations and social actors shaping accountability politics will differ, but the importance of these factors to which ideologies prevail to shape reform directions will not.Less
Calls by political leaders, social activists, and international policy and aid actors for accountability reforms to improve governance have never been more widespread. For some analysts, the unprecedented scale of these pressures reflects functional imperatives accompanying economic globalization and related appeal of liberal and democratic ideas on institutions. This book offers a different perspective, investigating the crucial role of contrasting ideologies informing accountability movements and mediating reform directions in Southeast Asia. It argues that the most influential ideologies are not those promoting the political authority of democratic sovereign people or of liberalism’s freely contracting individuals. Instead, in both post-authoritarian and authoritarian regimes, the most influential ideologies are those that award political authority over public officials to moral guardians. Elites exploit these moral ideologies to deflect and contain pressures for democratic and liberal reforms to governance institutions. The book’s case studies include human rights, political decentralization, anticorruption, and social accountability reform movements in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. These studies highlight how effective propagation of moral ideologies is boosted by the presence of powerful organizations, notably religious bodies, political parties, and broadcast media. Meanwhile, civil society organizations of comparable clout advancing liberalism or democracy are lacking. The theoretical framework of the book has wide applicability. In other regions, with contrasting histories and political economies, the nature and extent of organizations and social actors shaping accountability politics will differ, but the importance of these factors to which ideologies prevail to shape reform directions will not.
