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The Politics of Conflict Management and Democratic Reform
Download Crisis States Programme Overview paper
The research of the Crisis States Programme devotes a great deal of attention to the impact of democratic reforms
on the capacity of political systems to manage conflict and avoid violence. In particular, our work
has been centred on problems related to patterns of conflict in democratic systems in the context of shrinking states.
Our work is providing considerable insight into the, often unexpected, ways in which states and political processes
are experiencing transformation and mutation.
There are five areas in which our research is making important contributions to
understanding problems of democratic consolidation and prospects for peace:
Anti-politics and populism
One of the more interesting insights emerging from our work is the
identification, in very different contexts, of a decided rise in a new type of
populist politics, and what we have begun to label as 'anti-politics'. This has
seen an increased role, increased legitimacy and increased support within the
public arena for political outsiders (from actors to businessmen),
or 'insiders' who are discarding long-established political organisations. This
arises in a context of a reduced state and the promotion of 'participation' (by
NGOs, CBOs and others) outside the political system. It is facilitated by
powerful media and communications technologies and organisations both foreign
and domestic, as well as the anti-corruption campaigns they have championed. We
have seen populists applying the neoliberal reform agenda in some cases while in
others they are applying new forms of old clientelism (Bihar and Madhya Pradesh
in India, Philippines, Venezuela). Understanding the conditions that give rise
to this phenomenon and the divergent outcomes is an important goal for the
future development of the Crisis States Programme.
Related working papers
Institutional multiplicity
We have obsevered, in radically divergent case studies, that political actors face multiple sets
of incentives derived from modernising/liberal economic reforms, liberal
democracy and indigenous traditions. This allows them to legitimise action by
appealing to 'alternate rules and norms'. We suggest that this phenomenon,
observed by asking institutional questions, can be explored to understand democratic
advance and relative peace in KwaZulu Natal compared to democratic
decline and increasing violence in Meghalaya. It may help us to explain
apparent contradictory behaviour of the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh (or
political leaders in the Andean countries) in action legitimised vis a vis
prevailing norms of the central state and vis a vis local constituencies.
Related working papers
State capacity to manage conflict
The research has shed considerable light on our central problematic of the state (or public authority)
and its capacity to manage conflict. We have demonstrated the value of examining
the state's capacity to manage conflict across a spectrum, rather than through
dichotomised categories (with South Africa at one extreme and Afghanistan at the
other, with a country like the Philippines somewhere in between). Our work has
provided evidence of the importance of state authority in consolidating the
conditions for the growth of the associational sector. For example, in Southern
Africa the emergent forms of association in the context of the informalisation
of employment and the destruction of old associations, will depend on the
protection of the state (what we have called the 'new constitutionalism') if
they are to develop. The positive contributions emerging from the associational
sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo, may come to naught without
consolidation of new state authority. Successful mobilisation of the
associational and non-governmental sectors to combat the AIDS crisis in Uganda
and Senegal depended on leadership within the central state. We expect that our
new work on the role of law in dealing with the impact of AIDS on children in
Uganda and in the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict will contribute to our understanding of the role of
the state in conflict management.
Related working papers
Ethnicity, ethnic conflict, identity politics
While our work documents various ways in which ethnicities have been 'invented'
for political mobilisation, it nevertheless demonstrates a major role of ethnic
politics in settings as diverse as Meghalaya, Ghana, Mozambique, Afghanistan and
the Andes. In Ecuador and Bolivia
ethnic parties have become major actors and unlike in Meghalaya, they appear to
be preserving, rather than weakening, democracy by organising on programmatic
lines to contest elections. Our new comparative work in India
examines the extent to which, often interpreted as originating in ethnicity, is
emergent from weak political institutions and organisations, which open the
terrain for appeals to ethnicity, caste and other identities. Hugh Roberts, in
his early work for the programme, documented just such a process in Kabilya in
Algeria.
Related working papers
The relationship between democracy and violence
We are examining both the impact of violence on democracy and the impact of
democratic reforms (especially decentralisation) on patterns of violence. Our
research in Colombia has shown a significant impact of violence (of all types)
on electoral participation, but suggested a resilience of democratic
organisations. Our research is providing considerable insights into the role of
decentralisation in securing peace. In South Africa, like in India, the
existence of a fairly well endowed central state forms a framework in which
sub-national state organisations can contain certain kinds of pressures and
better manage conflict. Delivering development resources from the centre (in
India and South Africa), or failing to do so (in Afghanistan and the
Philippines) has redrawn interests and the manner in which groups combine and
organise at sub-national levels.
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