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The last quarter of a century has seen an unprecedented wave of democratization around the globe. In these transitions from authoritarian rule to a more democratic order, the media have played a key role both by facilitating, but frequently also inhibiting, democratic practices to take root. This book provides an accessible and systematic introduction to the media in transitional democracies. It analyses the problems that occur when transforming the media into independent institutions that are able to inform citizens and hold governments to account. The book covers the following topics: normative conceptions of media and democracy; the role of the past in the transition process; the internet as a new space for democratic change; the persistence of political interference in emerging democracies; the interlocking power of media markets and political ownership; the challenges to journalistic professionalism in post authoritarian contexts; the role of the media in divided societies; The book takes a global view by exploring the interplay of political and media transitions in different pathways of democratization that have taken place in Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia. It will be of interest to advanced students and scholars who want a better understanding of the media outside established Western democracies. The book will also be of great value to policymakers and activists who are involved in strengthening the media in transitional democracies

This book, prepared under the auspices of the IPSA Research Committee on Political Elites, focuses on the interpenetration between various types of elites: politicians, owners of capital, corporate managers, higher state administrators, directors of public enterprises, controllers of media, military officers and the civic-cultural establishment. The contributions to this book reveal contrasting patterns of recruitment and selection in terms of career paths, visibility, influence, and power of different elite circles. This diversity of national elite configurations challenges the C. Wright Mills' theory of an integrated "power elite", which appears from a comparative perspective to be peculiar to the United States during the early post-war period. Key concepts are discussed and empirically tested: ruling class, political class, elite circulation versus elite reproduction, elite interpenetration, elite interlocks, elite cohesion, elite osmosis, functional elite roles, formal and informal networks, elite cousinhood, separation versus overlapping between wealth and power, and between power and social capital. The book covers a great variety of countries: post-industrial democracies (France, Britain, Germany, Canada), new democracies (East-Central Europe, Mexico) and modernizing regimes (Southeast Asia, Tropical Africa), presented by an international selection of distinguished contributors: Andras Bozoki, Roderic Camp, William Case, Jean-Pascal Daloz, Mattei Dogan, Dennis Kavanagh, Michael Ornstein, David Richards, Erwin Scheuch and John Scott

This exceptional collection of essays breaks new ground by examining the global impact of infertility as a major reproductive health issue, one that has profoundly affected the lives of countless women and men. Based on original research by seventeen internationally acclaimed social scientists, it is the first book to investigate the use of reproductive technologies in non-Western countries. Provocative and incisive, it is the most substantial work to date on the subject of infertility.With infertility as the lens through which a wide range of social issues is explored, the contributors address a far-reaching array of topics: why infertility has been neglected in population studies, how the deeply gendered nature of infertility sets the blame squarely on women's shoulders, how infertility and its treatment transform family dynamics and relationships, and the distribution of medical and marital power. The chapters present informed and sophisticated investigations into cultural perceptions of infertility in numerous countries, including China, India, the nations of sub-Saharan Africa, Vietnam, Costa Rica, Egypt, Israel, the United States, and the nations of Europe. Poised to become the quintessential reference on infertility from an international social science perspective, Infertility around the Globe makes a powerful argument that involuntary childlessness is a complex phenomenon that has far-reaching significance worldwide

Spurred by wars and a drive to urbanize, Africans are crossing borders and overwhelming cities in unprecedented numbers. At the center of this development are young refugee men who migrate to urban areas. This volume, the first full-length study of urban refugees in hiding, tells the story of Burundi refugee youth who escaped from remote camps in central Tanzania to work in one of Africa's fastest-growing cities, Dar es Salaam. This steamy, rundown capital would seem uninviting to many, particularly for second generation survivors of genocide whose lives are ridden with fear. But these young men nonetheless join migrants in "Bongoland" (meaning "Brainland") where, as the nickname suggests, only the shrewdest and most cunning can survive. Mixing lyrics from church hymns and street vernacular, descriptions of city living in cartoons and popular novels and original photographs, this book creates an ethnographic portrait of urban refugee life, where survival strategies spring from street smarts and pastors' warnings of urban sin, and mastery of popular youth culture is highly valued. Pentecostalism and a secret rift within the seemingly impenetrable Hutu ethnic group are part of the rich texture of this contemporary African story. Written in accessible prose, this book offers an intimate picture of how Africa is changing and how refugee youth are helping to drive that change

Concerns have been expressed very often as to why the intergovernmental relations in the federal system of many developing countries, especially in the Sub-Sahara Africa are predictably chequered. Lack of devolution of power to LGAs in Nigeria is usually at the expense of grassroots development especially with regards to infrastructure/social amenities. Besides, the confusion surrounding progressive decline in provision of rural infrastructure to the local government areas of the state despite humongous monthly fiscal allocations to the LGAs by Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) equally creates existential problems to the rural dwellers. It is on this note that the study seeks to investigate the apparently disturbing paradox in Imo State. Data were sourced from both secondary and primary sources. Secondary data was sourced from government gazette and related literature while primary data was elicited from respondents through structured questionnaire. Multiple regression and graphical/pictorial analytical techniques were used for secondary and primary data respectively. The findings indicated that lack of transformative leadership exhibited in embezzlement of funds and indifference in leadership on the part of the State agents were the significant causes of poor development in the rural areas of Imo State. The study recommended inter alia; the enforcement of attitudinal change and punitive sanctions on the political and administrative classes in the state through legal measures to protect public funds for service delivery.

Purpose
This study aims to examine how the starting of business by females can be promoted by assessing critical levels of microfinance institutions (MFIs) penetration that policymakers must endeavor to maintain and/or attain in order for female unemployment not to represent a constraint in the doing of business. A constraint in doing business is understood in terms of the procedure that a woman has to go through to start a business.


Design/methodology/approach
The focus of the study is on 44 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa for the period 2004–2018, while the empirical evidence is based on interactive quantile regressions.


Findings
The following findings are established. The validity of tested hypotheses is exclusively apparent in the lowest and highest quantiles of the conditional distribution of the procedure women have to go through to start a business. MFI penetration levels needed to reverse the unfavorable incidence of female unemployment in doing business are provided. These are minimum MFIs penetration thresholds that are required in order for female unemployment not to negatively affect the procedure that a woman should go through to start a business.


Originality/value
The study complements the extant literature by assessing critical microfinance penetration levels that are needed to promote female doing of business, contingent on existing levels of female doing of business.

This study explores how health policies and systems can affect voluntary uptake of community-based health insurance (CBHI) schemes in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). A narrative review was conducted involving searches of 10 databases (Medline, Global Index Medicus, Cumulative Index to Nursing, and Allied Health Literature, Health Systems Evidence, Worldwide Political Science Abstracts, PsycINFO, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, EconLit, Bibliography of Asian Studies, and Africa Wide Information) across the social sciences, economics, and medical sciences. A total of 8107 articles were identified through the database searches, 12 of which were retained for analysis and narrative synthesis after 2 stages of screening. Our findings suggest that in the absence of directly subsidizing CBHI schemes by governments in LMICs, government policies can nonetheless promote voluntary uptake of CBHIs through intentional actions in 3 key areas: (a) improving quality of care, (b) providing a regulatory framework that integrates CBHIs into the national health system and its goals, and (c) leveraging administrative and managerial capacity to facilitate enrollment. The findings of this study highlight several considerations for CBHI planners and governments in LMICs to promote voluntary enrollment in CBHIs. Governments can effectively extend their outreach toward marginalized and vulnerable populations that are excluded from social protection by formulating supportive regulatory, policy, and administrative provisions that enhance voluntary uptake of CBHI schemes.

Freedom, civil society legalism, pluralism, useful, constructive and healthy competition in society, political participation, elections, a comprehensive constitution, and the growth of non-governmental organizations, fundamental freedoms and the provision of civil and political rights are the most important components of political development are. People in society and the establishment of a parliamentary system. New movements are also mainly social and cultural in nature and emerged with the aim of reviving identity, deepening and developing political participation in Islamic and Arab societies. Some affiliated Arab regimes, such as the government of Al-Saud and the military regime of al-Sisi in Egypt, consider democracy to be a great and serious threat to the survival of their regime. Findings show that political culture, diplomatic support and guarantees, economic aid and foreign intervention are important obstacles to political development in the Arab world, and Arab regimes deliberately and sometimes inadvertently engineer polarization methods in society to prevent this. By the way, their authoritarian methods seem to be the last obstacle to the total collapse of their countries. Such conditions are certainly crucial to the survival of the Arab world governments and the Arab coup military regimes in the Middle East and North Africa. The method used in this research is qualitative (descriptive-analytical) and the method of collecting information is the use of library resources.

Freedom, civil society legalism, pluralism, useful, constructive and healthy competition in society, political participation, elections, a comprehensive constitution, and the growth of non-governmental organizations, fundamental freedoms and the provision of civil and political rights are the most important components of political development are. People in society and the establishment of a parliamentary system. New movements are also mainly social and cultural in nature and emerged with the aim of reviving identity, deepening and developing political participation in Islamic and Arab societies. Some affiliated Arab regimes, such as the government of Al-Saud and the military regime of al-Sisi in Egypt, consider democracy to be a great and serious threat to the survival of their regime. Findings show that political culture, diplomatic support and guarantees, economic aid and foreign intervention are important obstacles to political development in the Arab world, and Arab regimes deliberately and sometimes inadvertently engineer polarization methods in society to prevent this. By the way, their authoritarian methods seem to be the last obstacle to the total collapse of their countries. Such conditions are certainly crucial to the survival of the Arab world governments and the Arab coup military regimes in the Middle East and North Africa. The method used in this research is qualitative (descriptive-analytical) and the method of collecting information is the use of library resources.

AbstractAnalyzing civil society resistance to elite‐led democratic backsliding in Africa, the article argues that the non‐militant, civil society‐based transitions experienced in the 1990s left a legacy of a pro‐democracy cleavage that is mobilized when central constitutional rights are threatened. Building on insights from social movement theory, the paper argues that the conduct of multiparty elections at regular intervals provides an opportunity for contestation over constitutional rules, and the historical legacy of pro‐democracy movements provides a mobilizing structure for civil society to organize for the protection of constitutional rights. The theoretical argument is illustrated by a comparison of the democratic trajectories in Zambia and Malawi. In both countries, incumbent elites' have attempted to remain in power through constitutional revisions. However, processes of executive aggrandizement have been stalled by civil society mobilization that again have resulted in incumbent defeat and electoral turn‐overs. Recent waves of democratic backsliding suggest that the autonomy of civil society from political parties may be a key factor for the ability of civil society to challenge autocratization. Malawi's civil society has maintained a high degree of autonomy but in Zambia, the close cooperation between civil society and the Patriotic Front (PF) and the resulting cooptation of key civil society actors have resulted in a process of autocratization.

From 1919, the International Labour Organization sought to improve protections for workers globally. Concurrently, the organization was dominated by colonial powers whose economies relied on the exploitation of colonized workers. This article explores how the International Labour Organization navigated this contradictory situation during the interwar period, focussing on its approach to child labour in British Africa. The introduction of a universal minimum employment age and the abolition of child labour were founding goals of the International Labour Organization. However, colonial powers wanted to maintain the extensive employment of children and the use of child labour in their colonies. Britain used its influence within the International Labour Organization to promote racialized constructions of childhood and to pluralize working children's rights in International Labour Organization instruments. While the International Labour Organization's tripartite structure did also provide a forum through which colonial labour practices could be challenged, Britain and its supporters ultimately succeeded in constructing a two-tier system of international labour law which rendered colonized children less protected than children in the industrialized West. In creating colonial exceptions, the International Labour Organization pursued and promoted a hierarchical and exclusionary form of internationalism. Overall, the article provides new insights into the development of the International Labour Organization and its legislation, as well as broader histories of childhood and of internationalism.

Prioritizing waste prevention, reuse, recycling and recovery of materials and energy over disposal through landfilling, offers the waste hierarchy approach (WHA) a sustainable pathway to the management of municipal solid wastes (MSW) and realization of a circular economy. The concept is now part of the legal framework in some developing countries and its implementation has been credited for addressing waste problems linked to high rates of economic growth and urbanization. Even though Africa Vision 2063 prioritizes improvements in urban waste recycling in the continent, much of the MSW generated on the continent is disposed through landfilling evidencing weak adoption of the WHA. This article contends that because WHA is not adequately incorporated in the current legal framework at national and sub-national levels of government, Kenya is unlikely to achieve a circular economy approach necessary for realizing sustainable waste management. Operationalization of the WHA is impeded by inadequate financing, weak institutional coordination, gaps in private sector and informal actors' engagement and risks associated with investments in large-scale waste recovery initiatives. It is therefore necessary for Kenya to elaborate the WHA in its legal framework at both national and county level, while ensuring adequate financing, involvement of informal actors, incentivization of private sector and adoption of waste planning procedures.

This book outlines challenges to the effective operation of regional economic communities (RECs) with regards to peacebuilding in Africa. Critically examining these issues from an interdisciplinary perspective, with a focus on comparative analysis of the status, role, and performances of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), it examines particular constraints to their effective participation in regional initiatives. Focussing on inadequate technical capabilities, the complicity of state and non-state actors in conflicts within a region, the domestic politics of member states, it additionally addresses related theories and practices of peacekeeping, security, development, and the peacebuilding nexus. It also engages provisioning, regionalism, and regional peacekeeping interventions, the legal and institutional framework of RECs, and civil society and peacebuilding. Fundamentally, the book asks how effective the alliances and partnerships are in promoting regional peace and security and how much they are compromised by the intervention of external powers and actors, exploring new ideas and actions that may strengthen capacities to address the peacebuilding challenges on the continent effectively. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of African politics and studies, peace and security studies, regionalism studies, policy practitioners in the field of African peacebuilding, and more broadly to international relations.

Innovation, in all its forms, has become a central activity in companies. Moreover, innovation is considered as the engine of growth in several countries. The main objective of this paper is to study the determinants of innovation (product and process) in firms in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region via concentrating on the impact of financial and non-financial obstacles. The empirical study refers to row data collected by the World Bank's Survey of Enterprises (WBES) between 2013 and 2020 in 10 MENA countries. The empirical results of the probit model estimation show that international quality certification, women's participation in ownership, and investment in research and development (R&D) have a positive impact on all types of innovation. Nevertheless, small firms, sole proprietorships, and firms managed by women are found to be less innovative. The problem of endogeneity between innovation and financial obstacles is controlled thanks to the use of the instrumental regression method (IV-probit). The results confirm that the variable measuring the financial obstacles is endogenous, and it impacts all types of innovation negatively. The results of the IV-probit regression show that the non-financial obstacles related to the business environment which negatively affect innovation are: business licensing and permits, corruption, access to electricity, labor regulations, political instability, and the practices of competitors in the informal sector.

While much of the existing critical work on Ernest Hemingway has represented him as the epitome of macho bravado, and whereas his numerous depictions of animal hunting have been often described as theatrical performances of masculinity, this article aims to question such traditional (mis)conceptions by contrasting his early work Green Hills of Africa ([1935] 2003) to two of his posthumously published texts—namely, An African Story (1986) and Under Kilimanjaro (2005). While the former text may certainly be said to conform to the traditional Hemingwayesque image of hunting as a heavily masculine performance, the two latter texts may be seen to provide radical counterpoints to this, as they not only question the traditional image of animal hunting as a trope of masculinity but also provide a more critical indictment against animal killings. Hemingway's late texts, both fictional and nonfictional, would thus seem to point to the writer's often unacknowledged personal and literary evolution, which goes hand in hand with his changed gender and racialized attitudes towards both women and African nonwhites, respectively. Ultimately, Hemingway's late writings are set within a predatory context of hunting in which the type of relation to any form of otherness (be it gender, race, or animal) shifts into new discursive terrains that allow the author to reconceptualize his own white masculinity.