Suchergebnisse

The provinces of Yala, Pattani, and Narathiwat in Southern Thailand have witnessed a sharp spike in violence in the past few years. The unrest is threatening to tarnish Prime Minister Thaksins period in office. The contemporary literature as well as the media tend to portray the strife as one between Buddhists and Muslims. This is markedly different from earlier studies which place less importance on religion and treat the discord as one between Thais and Malays. In this regard, this article aims to explain the transformation from a primarily ethnic strife to a predominantly religious conflict. It argues that despite the rise of the religious factor in the discord, it is flawed to treat the violence in Southern Thailand as entirely between Buddhists and Muslims. It further contends that the ethnic Thai-Malay divide is still deeply entrenched in the insurgency. (Contemp Southeast Asia/GIGA)

The provinces of Yala, Pattani, and Narathiwat in Southern Thailand have witnessed a sharp spike in violence in the past few years. The unrest is threatening to tarnish Prime Minister Thaksin's period in office. The contemporary literature as well as the media tend to portray the strife as one between Buddhists and Muslims. This is markedly different from earlier studies which place less importance on religion and treat the discord as one between Thais and Malays. In this regard, this article aims to explain the transformation from a primarily "ethnic" strife to a predominantly "religious" conflict. It argues that despite the rise of the religious factor in the discord, it is flawed to treat the violence in Southern Thailand as entirely between Buddhists and Muslims. It further contends that the ethnic Thai-Malay divide is still deeply entrenched in the insurgency.

Elections are often violent affairs, casting doubt on the canonical claim that democracy makes societies more peaceful by creating nonviolent means to contest for power. We develop a formal argument to demonstrate that this conclusion is incorrect. Holding elections has a direct effect of increasing levels of violence close to the voting, as this is when electoral violence can influence political outcomes. Precisely for this reason, elections also have an indirect effect of decreasing levels of violence at all other times, as parties can wait for the election when their efforts are more likely to succeed. The direct and indirect effects generate a "political violence cycle" that peaks at the election. However, when the indirect effect is larger, politics would be more violent without elections. When elections also provide an effective nonviolent means to contest for power, they unambiguously make society more peaceful while still generating a political violence cycle.

Introduction -- Understanding energy poverty in the world -- The political economy of energy poverty -- Persistent energy poverty in India -- Country case studies : determinants of success -- Country case studies : when success eludes -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Unreliable electricity supply is a major obstacle to economic development in countries such as India. While electricity problems in the rural areas are widely recognized, scholars have yet to analyze the situation in urban slums. Drawing on 2004-2005 survey data from the India Human Development Survey, we document the electricity situation in slums. We find that while households located in slums are less likely to have access to the electricity grid than other urban households, the situation is significantly better than in rural areas. Based on simulations, we find that a median household in a slum has 70% chance of having electricity. This number decreases to 50% for a household in a rural area and increases to 80% for households in urban areas. As to daily hours of electricity available for connected households, urban slums also fall between other urban and rural areas. Finally, we show that these conditions vary considerably by state. Slums located in states with low corruption and leftist governments have better electricity access on average than those in states suffering from corruption or that are ruled by rightist parties.

In India, where energy access is limited, how does the public react to the government's inability to provide citizens with basic energy services, such as electricity and clean cooking fuel? We answer this question using a survey conducted in two rural villages of Uttar Pradesh. First, we examine the association between a respondent's opinion on state intervention and policy failure. Specifically, we focus on whether people who believe in state intervention are likely to have lower levels of satisfaction with the government's energy access policies. Second, we examine the link between policy failure and the likelihood that people consider a political candidate's energy views in voting. We find that people's preference for government intervention has a negative effect on satisfaction levels with government policies, and that people who blame the government for policy failures are less likely to take a political candidate's energy policies into account when voting.

Air pollution is a pressing problem of public health for developing countries, but governments have few incentives to abate air pollution without public awareness of the issue. Focusing on the case of Vietnam, we examine the determinants of public awareness of air pollution. Using representative survey data for the entire country from 2017, we find that local exposure to air pollution increases public awareness and reduces satisfaction with governments but does not provoke opposition to coal-fired power generation. In contrast, education leads people to oppose coal-fired power plants. These results suggest that while local air pollution contributes to awareness and dissatisfaction with the government, support for effective policy measures depends on education levels.