Suchergebnisse

AbstractA growing literature has examined the changing nature of urban political leadership in an era of economic globalization and increased pressures for fiscal austerity on governments. Based mostly on the experiences of the United States and Europe, this literature has emphasized the imperative of urban leaders to become increasingly entrepreneurial — to foster collaboration with private sector actors, to mobilize new sources of financing for urban development, and to develop innovative strategies for economic growth. This article examines this question in the very different context of the Extended Bangkok Metropolitan Region (EBMR) in Thailand. It argues that, in the context of rapidly urbanizing regions in Southeast Asia, these changes have in many contexts led to the emergence of businessmen‐cum‐politicians who exert both economic and political dominance in localities. Such figures have emerged as intermediaries in the process of industrialization and urbanization between national governments and people in localities, and play an important role in mobilizing land, labor and capital at the local level, and in fostering a political base for national economic development policy. The article illustrates this phenomenon with a case study from Chonburi, a rapidly industrializing province on the fringe of the EBMR.L'évolution de l'autorité politique urbaine, dans un cadre de mondialisation économique et de gouvernements en butte à des pressions d'austérité fiscale accrues, fait de plus en plus souvent l'objet d'études. Essentiellement basées sur les expériences américaines et européennes, celles‐ci soulignent l'impératif, pour les leaders urbains, de devenir des chefs d'entreprise encourageant la collaboration avec les acteurs du secteur privé, mobilisant de nouvelles sources de financement de l'expansion urbaine et élaborant des stratégies novatrices de croissance économique. L'article examine cette question dans le contexte très différent de la Métropole étendue de Bangkok en Thaïlande. Dans un environnement sud‐asiatique en urbanisation rapide, ce changement a fréquemment fait émerger des hommes politiques‐hommes d'affaires qui exercent une domination tant économique que politique dans les régions. Apparus en tant qu'intermédiaires dans le processus d'industrialisation et d'urbanisation (entre les gouvernement nationaux et les populations régionales), ces personnages jouent un rôle important dans la mobilisation du terrain, de la main‐d'œuvre et du capital en plan local, tout en favorisant un appui politique pour les stratégies de développement économique nationales. L'article illustre ce phénomène avec le cas de Chonburi, province en cours d'industrialisation rapide située aux confins de la Métropole étendue de Bangkok.

This Article examines several legal and political issues raised by reparations for slavery and offers a skeptical appraisal of both the wisdom of reparations and their potential for success. There are a number of legal obstacles to courtroom-based reparations, including the difficulty of proving duty, causation, and damages; technical barriers such as limitations statutes and laches; and constitutional problems such as standing and courts' strict scrutiny of racial classifications. In the political realm, the difficulty of identifying those who should pay and those who should receive reparations, and the impact of a successful reparations scheme on race relations in America, should counsel against the wisdom of reparations for slavery.

This article examines the political dimensions of Uganda's progress in bringing a generalised HIV/AIDS epidemic under control. The article documents the history of the political processes involved in Uganda's battle against HIV/AIDS and analyses the complexities of presidential action and the relation between action at the level of the state and that taken within societal organisations. (InWent/DÜI)

AbstractThis article examines the political dimensions of Uganda's progress in bringing a generalised HIV/AIDS epidemic under control. The article documents the history of the political processes involved in Uganda's battle against HIV/AIDS and analyses the complexities of presidential action and the relation between action at the level of the state and that taken within societal organisations. By the mid‐1980s, Uganda was experiencing a full‐blown epidemic, the virulence of which was connected with social dislocation and insecurity related to economic crisis and war. Political authorities faced the same challenge as other regimes experiencing the onslaught of AIDS in Africa. The epidemiological characteristics of HIV and AIDS—transmission through heterosexual activities, with a long gestation period, affecting people in the prime of their productive life—meant that action required wide‐reaching changes in sexual behaviour, and the educational activities to achieve this, as well as relatively complex systems to monitor the virus and control medical practices (blood supplies, injection practices, mitigating drug delivery). The centralist character of the Museveni regime was crucial not only to mobilising state organisations and foreign aid resources, but also to ensuring significant involvement from non‐state associations and religious authorities. The Ugandan experience demonstrates that there is a tension between the requirements for systematic action that a strong public authority can deliver and the need to disseminate information requiring a degree of democratic openness. The President was able to forge a coalition behind an HIV/AIDS campaign in part because the virus largely ignored the privileges of wealth and political power. With the development of antiretroviral therapy and the access that the wealthy can gain to these drugs, this basis for the broadest possible coalition to fight HIV/AIDS may be weakened in the future. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.