Search results

The Islamic Welfare State explains the relationship between government legitimacy, everyday security, and lived Islam in Pakistan-a major Muslim-majority country. Its humanitarian spirit makes Islam a compelling, community-strengthening faith that motivates people to provide essential services to the needy, to foster moral sentiments that build social solidarity, and to thereby challenge the legitimacy of government with its focus on 'protecting Islam' and 'national security' rather than enhancing the lives of ordinary people. The book surveys four kinds of Islamic charities-traditional, professional, partisan, and state. The focus is on ground realities, on the activities of welfare workers and beneficiaries, mostly patients and students from low-income families. The attention to the different political sentiments that different kinds of charity foster allows us to better understand politics and political change in Pakistan and across the Muslim world.

In this first comparative study of organized labor in India and Pakistan, the author analyses the impact and role of organized labor in democratization and development. The study provides a unique comparative history of Indian and Pakistani labor politics. It begins in the early twentieth century, when permanent unions first formed in the South Asian Subcontinent. Additionally, it offers an analysis of changes in conditions of work andterms of service in India and Pakistan and of organized labor's response. The conclusions shed new light on the influence of organized labor in nat.

Resumen.Fuera de la Organización Internacional del Trabajo, los Estados Unidos se valen sobre todo de dos medios para promover el cumplimiento internacional de las normas del trabajo: los tratados comerciales, sean bilaterales o regionales, y la «diplomacia laboral». En un análisis de lo ocurrido en este ámbito entre 2001 y 2008, el autor sostiene que la Administración de G. W. Bush ha debilitado la capacidad de los Estados Unidos para fomentar las normas fundamentales del trabajo. Aunque el país suscribió en ese período más tratados de libre comercio que nunca, las cláusulas laborales de los mismos carecen de mecanismos de seguimiento y fiscalización verdaderamente eficaces; elloparece indicar que responden más a los objetivos generales de la política exterior que a la defensa de los derechos de los trabajadores. Además, la labor del Consejo Consultivo en Diplomacia Laboral acabó siendo suspendida.

Abstract.Outside of the International Labour Organization, the United States uses two main channels to promote labour standards internationally: bilateral or regional trade agreements and "labour diplomacy". Examining developments in these areas between 2001 and 2008, the author argues that the Bush Administration weakened the United States' capacity to uphold internationally recognized core labour standards. Although it concluded an unprecedented number of free trade agreements, their labour clauses are largely devoid of meaningful enforcement mechanisms – suggesting a closer connection with general foreign policy objectives than with concern for workers' rights. Furthermore, the work of the Federal Advisory Committee on Labor Diplomacy was eventually suspended.

Résumé.En dehors de l'Organisation internationale du Travail, les Etats‐Unis utilisent deux moyens de promouvoir les normes du travail à l'échelle internationale: les accords de libre‐échange et «les relations internationales en matière de travail». Examinant la période 2001–2008, l'auteur avance que l'administration Bush a affaibli la capacité des Etats‐Unis de défendre les normes fondamentales du travail internationalement reconnues. Les clauses sur le travail des accords de libre‐échange, sans mécanismes d'application efficaces, relèveraient de visées de politique étrangère plus que du souci des droits des travailleurs. En outre, l'activité du Comité consultatif fédéral sur les relations internationales en matière de travail a été suspendue.

Why have Pakistani workers failed to transform their evident street power into sustained influence in formal politics? Throughout South Asia, worker' organizations formed alliances with political parties, political parties formed workers' organizations, and governments incorporated worker' organizations into state consultation machinery. With the exception of Pakistan, in each of the countries of South Asia, representatives at these workers organizations have become members of parliament and cabinet ministers. In India, a workers' representatives even became president. Why have workers' representatives been almost completely absent in Pakistani governments? This essay argues that Pakistan's traumatic creation - one of the twentieth century's greatest humanitarian disasters - unleashed ruling class insecurities that were unfavorable to workers' organizations. The managers of the new state demanded centralized power. Authoritarian colonial institutions were ready at hand. Pakistan's international alliance with U.S.-anticommunist alliances led to the suppression of workers' organizations and precluded their influence in formal politics. The ruling classes targeted workers' organizations. Pakistani governments ensured that workers' organizations were excluded from formal politics. Before concluding, the essay considers whether military governments are necessarily inimical to workers' organizations. (Crit Asian Stud/GIGA)

Four religious associations are analyzed, focusing on how, as NGOs, their religious activities contribute to the creation of social capital. Two are Muslim groups in Indonesia & Pakistan and the other two are Buddhist movements in Thailand. All demonstrate different uses of social capital. The first Muslim group, the Nahdlatul Ulama (Revival of Islamic Scholars), tries to promote traditional Islam values based on human dignity. The other, the Jamaat-i-Islami (Gathering of Muslims), encourages obedience to an essentialized Islam. The first Buddhist group, Santi Asok (Peace without Suffering), seeks to build self-reliance, & the other, the Lanka Jathika Sarvodaya Shramadana Sangamaya (Sri Lankan Movement for the Awakening of All through Donation of Labor), seeks enlightenment through recognition of a society's interconnectedness. Each religion demonstrates how faith becomes a form of social capital & potentially, an effective force for social reform. 56 References. R. Larsen