The 'New Bandung' framework presumes a stable North/South order and opposition to it. This article examines how reigning orthodoxies on the acquisition of land and agricultural investments in Africa by Asian states and corporations do not fit this model. This holds even for core-centric models such as 'accumulation by dispossession', which fail to capture the collapse of accumulation strategies in the global North as they relate to new powers, policies and movements in the South. Rather than a crisis of accumulation, Asian investment represents an attempt to cater to higher food demands of rising elites in the 'emerging economies' and a class collaboration between them and African elites. This represents the end of a process of expansion of the global North that had begun circa 1750. It follows that the future can no longer rely upon North/South polar models and theories.
The right to 'freedom from all forms of violence from public or private sources', enshrined in Zimbabwe's new Constitution, could have a significant impact on efforts to end violence against women (VAW) in the country. The right is particularly relevant in the Zimbabwean context where VAW occurs in a range of settings, from the most intimate of relationships in the home to the state's use of rape as a political weapon. One way in which the state can fulfil its duty to address VAW is through the reform of the country's rape law. With comparative reference to the impact of the right to freedom from violence in South African law, this article discusses three areas of Zimbabwean law that present potential obstacles to achieving justice for rape survivors: the definition of the crime of rape, the abolished but tenacious cautionary rule, and the sentencing of sexual offenders.
Communal conflicts, civil wars, and state collapse have led many to portray the notion of African nation-states as an oxymoron. Some scholars of African politics—often referred to as second-generation modernization theorists—have argued that strong ethnic attachments across the continent resulted from rapid economic and political modernization, the very forces credited with reducing parochial ties and consolidating European nations in classic modernization theory. Others have argued that national consolidation in Africa is particularly unlikely due to high degrees of ethnic diversity, colonial rule that exacerbated that diversity, and the partition of cultural groups. Despite the ubiquity of these arguments, there has been very little comparative empirical research on territorial nationalism in Africa. Using individual-level data from sixteen countries, combined with a novel compilation of ethnic group and state characteristics, the author evaluates the observable implications of these long-respected theoretical traditions within a multilevel framework. She finds that attachment to the nation, relative to one's ethnic group, increases with education, urbanization, and formal employment at the individual level, and with economic development at the state level—patterns more consistent with classic modernization theory than with second-generation modernization theory. Thus, if modernization in Africa does indeed intensify ethnic attachment, the impact is overwhelmed by the concurrent increase in panethnic territorial nationalism. Similarly, the results show that ethnic diversity and the partition of ethnic groups by "artificial" state borders increase, rather than decrease, the degree to which individuals identify nationally. Taken together, these results reject pessimistic expectations of African exceptionalism and instead suggest that the emergence of widespread national identification within African states is not only possible but even increasingly likely with greater economic development.
The right to 'freedom from all forms of violence from public or private sources', enshrined in Zimbabwe's new Constitution, could have a significant impact on efforts to end violence against women (VAW) in the country. The right is particularly relevant in the Zimbabwean context where VAW occurs in a range of settings, from the most intimate of relationships in the home to the state's use of rape as a political weapon. One way in which the state can fulfil its duty to address VAW is through the reform of the country's rape law. With comparative reference to the impact of the right to freedom from violence in South African law, this article discusses three areas of Zimbabwean law that present potential obstacles to achieving justice for rape survivors: the definition of the rime of rape, the abolished but tenacious cautionary rule, and the sentencing of sexual offenders.
We have been constantly reminded that, we are not going to succeed in achieving any kind of social change unless we build astrong civil society. Consequently, lots of NGOs in Georgia are founded with the intention to realize this dream. However, we havegot a long way ahead of us.After the election of Obama, when discussing the history of the United States of America, particularly while talking about the1950-1960s, Georgian people knowingly nod their heads, expressing their understanding that it was an era of intense struggle forfighting for the basic rights by Civil Rights Movement activists, - African Americans.In order to get full and concise perspective of the significance of the Civil Rights movement, we must provide some informationon the impact of the decision on other social movements. Undoubtedly, social movements play an influential role in culture, publicpolicy and mainstream politics: they respond to it and influence it.
Race is one of the most contested topics. With the political victory of Barack Obama as the first African American president, discussions about racial issues in the United States have surfaced to the forefront of political debates. Yet, critics have argued that there is not much discussion about race given its significance in the history of this country. Informed by critical race theory, this paper examines the underlying reasons explaining the silence of many people about race. It goes on to examine race through a mosaic lens, pointing out various factors directly connected to it, such as racial identity politics, racism, multiracialism, and White hegemony. Finally, this paper analyzes the manner in which socially constructed racial stereotypes have contributed to and have been used to justify the poor socioeconomic situation and marginalization of People of Color, including linguistically and culturally diverse students.
This article explains why the Guinean state remained resilient to armed conflicts following military intervention in politics. The military establishment has been heavily involved in Guinean politics for nearly three decades during which time it has exhibited varied political behavior. This protracted military involvement in Guinean political affairs presented a threat to Guinea's stability in a region where large-scale armed conflicts are often associated with military intervention in politics. This article explores the linkages between military behavior in politics and political stability by using a model derived from ethnic and identity literature. It concludes that by adopting an ethnic group-like behavior, the Guinean military played a vital role in maintaining political stability during the period between 1984 and 2010. This is in contrast to findings in recent studies where military intervention in West African politics is strongly linked with the onset of large-scale civil conflicts.
The debate by Okada & Samreth (2012, EL) and Asongu (2012, EB; 2013, EEL) on 'the effect of foreign aid on corruption' in its current state has the shortcoming of modeling corruption as a direct effect of development assistance. This note extends the debate by assessing the channels of foreign aid to corruption in 53 African countries for the period 1996-2010. Two main findings are established to unite the two streams of the debate. (1) Foreign aid channeled through government's consumption expenditure increases corruption. (2) Development assistance channeled via private investment and tax effort decreases corruption. It follows that foreign aid that is targeted towards reducing corruption should be channeled via private investment and tax effort, not through government expenditure. Our results integrate an indirect component and reconcile the debate by showing that, the effect could either be positive or negative depending on the transmission channel.
It has been suggested that African rangelands would be utilized and managed on a more sustainable and profitable basis if they were governed by co-management arrangements, with state governments defining group rights and governing inter-group interactions and local organizations governing interactions among members within particular groups. In this paper we develop a discrete-time dynamic model of a rangeland to investigate the possibilities for internal management of resource use interactions within a common property regime. We find that there can be effective internal management without any formal institutional structure within the regime if: (1) group members are confident that the boundaries of the regime will be effectively protected; (2) the group of resources users is kept relatively small; (3) future pasture potential is not overly sensitive to changes in the current stocking rate; and (4) individuals do not discount future payoffs too heavily.
As the United States Congress began its 113th session, 72 freshman members arrived on Capitol Hill to represent their congressional districts for the first time. It would be universally heralded as the most diverse freshman class in history, containing four new African Americans, 10 new Latinos, five new Asian Americans, 24 new women, the first two Hindus, the first Buddhist, the first non-theist to openly acknowledge her belief prior to getting elected, and four new LGBT members, including the first openly bisexual congresswomen and the first openly gay congressman of color. But for all their diversity, each of them had at least one thing in common: none of them had ever been a member of Congress before. How do freshman policy-makers legislate? What unique challenges do they face? What accounts for variations in their legislative activity?
On 18 November 2011, students at the University of California, Davis staged a protest as part of the Occupy movement. The reaction of the on-site police force was heavy-handed, and images of an officer pepper-spraying the faces of peacefully protesting college students provoked widespread criticism of the police's repression of non-violent dissent. However, this reaction, the author argues, betrays a deeper racism in the consciousness of the US Left; while this particular scene of policing has provoked liberal anger, it has been isolated from the historical conditions that enabled it. The very similar policing of African Americans is excluded from the narrative of state violence, taking for granted the fundamentally racist structure of US policing. Is it possible, asks the author, that the critical response to events at UC Davis is actually condoning this racist structure rather than challenging it?
The drawing of congressional district lines can significantly reduce political participation in U.S. House elections, according to recent work. But such studies have failed to explain which citizens' voting rates are most susceptible to the dislocating effects of redistricting and whether the findings are generalizable to a variety of political contexts. Building on this nascent literature and work on black political participation, we show that redistricting's negative effects on participation-measured by voter roll-off in U.S. House elections-are generally strongest among African Americans, but that black voters can be mobilized when they are redrawn into a black representative's congressional district. Our findings, based on data from 11 postredistricting elections in five states from 1992 through 2006, both expand the empirical scope of previous work and suggest that redistricting plays a previously hidden role in affecting black participation in congressional contests. Adapted from the source document.
China's trade patterns with African countries have made Beijing the focal point of new anti-Chinese resistance narratives in Africa. Unlike the Maoist era, when China's trade policies served its leaders' political goals, now they aim to access markets as part of China's larger domestic development strategy. China's state-run firms can channel China-Africa trade through extra-market decisions that influence flows, yet, ultimately, Beijing's ability to direct trade with Africa is constrained by market forces. Despite suggestions that shared illiberalism drives China-Africa trade the author concludes that five interrelated causal factors overwhelmingly determine China-Africa trade: China's comparative advantage in labor-intensive and capital-intensive production; Africa's abundant natural resource endowments; China's rapid economic growth; China's emphasis on infrastructure building at home and in Africa; and the emergence of economies of scale in China's shipping and light manufacturing sectors. (J Contemp China/GIGA)
There is an overwhelming focus on the state and the private sector in the language and practice of privatisation, even though it calls for a tripartite arrangement that includes the people. A major consequence is the failure to comprehend and assess fully the important role of the people. While the people have a major part in supporting privatisation through payment of user charges, they are not often seen as key partners by city governments in Africa. Public participation has important implications for finance and cost recovery. Thus a people-centred approach to privatisation in which the users of services are consulted and involved in decision-making processes is crucial to the emergence of sustainable solid waste management systems in African cities. This study provides useful insights into the complexity of public participation in the context of privatisation of solid waste services and offers policy guidelines relevant to the major stakeholders.
