Profitable inefficiency: the politics of port infrastructure in Mombasa, Kenya

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-109
Author(s):  
Hugh Lamarque
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Interaction ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
Physical Infrastructure ◽  
Key Sites ◽  
Distribution Of Power ◽  
The One ◽  
Port Infrastructure ◽  
Dry Ports ◽  
Political Settlement

AbstractThis article examines the distribution of power among public, private and criminal interests invested in Mombasa port. It approaches Kenya as a gatekeeper state, in which national elites compete to control the country's points of interaction with the rest of the world. Mombasa's controversial private dry ports are used to highlight (1) how the opportunity to profit from inefficiencies in container storage has been distributed among the political elite, and (2) how the development of the country's principal seaport not only reflects Kenya's underlying political settlements, but is one of the key sites in which those settlements are tested and reshaped. The case exposes a dynamic interaction between Kenya's shifting political settlement on the one hand, and the gate itself – Mombasa port's physical infrastructure and regulations – on the other.

Three Decades of Bangladeshi Politics (1990-2019): The Emergence and Collapse of the Political Settlements

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Ali Riaz
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Distribution Of Power ◽  
Dominant Coalition ◽  
Democratic Transformation ◽  
Political Settlement

This paper explores the tumultuous political history of Bangladesh since it embarked on democratization process in 1991 after two decades of civilian and military authoritarianism, using the political settlement framework. Political settlement, in this paper is understood as, an agreement among elites and other social forces regarding ‘distribution of benefits supported by its institutions consistent with the distribution of power in the society’ (Khan, 2010). At the political level the arrangement is expected to ensure that the system would not unravel by conflict and violence. In the past decades, the country not only experienced repeated episodes of violence but also hopes of a democratic transformation have faded. Bangladesh has moved towards a non-inclusive political system. The paper argues that the period in question is marked by the emergence and collapse of a political settlement among political elites. It explores the nature and scope of the political settlement that emerged in the 1980s and collapsed by 2010, and demonstrates that by 2014, an exclusionary authoritarian settlement has emerged characterized by a lack of inclusivity and coercive apparatuses’ heightened role. The breakdown of political settlement was predicated by the nature of the settlement, its implications for the elites in the challenger coalition, and the degree of inclusivity of the dominant coalition. The exclusionary political settlement provides a semblance of ‘stability’ for a limited period but fails to contain the tension in the long term even when it delivers economic growth.

Political Settlements and Immiserizing Growth Episodes

2019 ◽  
pp. 85-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kunal Sen
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
High Growth ◽  
The Political ◽  
Poor Growth ◽  
Distribution Of Power ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Growth Deceleration ◽  
Political Settlement

Economic growth in developing countries is an ‘episodic’ phenomenon, with countries undertaking discrete shifts from periods of low to periods of high growth and vice versa. Not all growth acceleration episodes lead to reductions in poverty, and there is wide variation in the relationship between growth and poverty across episodes of growth of the same magnitude or duration. This chapter shows that several cases of growth acceleration episodes may be defined as episodes of immiserizing growth, in that poverty either increases or remains roughly the same across the duration of these episodes. Similarly, the chapter shows that not all growth deceleration episodes lead to increases in poverty. A political economy explanation is presented for episodes of immiserizing growth, focusing on the nature of the political settlement, and in particular on the distribution of power. We find that settlements with dispersed vertical power can lessen the likelihood of immiserizing growth episodes. We also find that dispersed horizontal power is not necessarily conducive to pro-poor growth episodes.

Eighteenth-Century English Politics: Recent Work

2000 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 248-272
Author(s):  
Jeremy Black
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
The Political ◽  
Dust Jacket ◽  
The Subject ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
English Politics

This article is intended as a sequel to the one published in Albion 28, 4 ([Winter 1996]: 607–33). As with the earlier article, it reflects the wealth of recent scholarship and adopts a wide definition of politics, and there is a powerful element of choice and subjectivity. The last arises in part from the breadth of the subject. A definition of the political culture and process of the period that directs attention to cultural, religious, social and gender issues is not one that can be readily summarized by restricting attention to the world of Court, Parliament, and the political elite.Last time I began with cultural politics, and it is worth renewing this approach because the role of discourses as both forms of political expression and the subject of historical study remain important. The most prominent book in this field was a disappointment. John Brewer's The Pleasures of the Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century (1997) is a work about and of consumerism. The forcing house of eighteenth-century public demand provides the essential pressure for cultural modernization and for the definition of taste in this account. Consumerism has also structured Brewer's book as a cultural and intellectual artefact. As he acknowledges, he wanted to ensure that the book “would be a beautiful object,” and HarperCollins has amply fulfilled this requirement. The publisher was also responsible for fighting what Brewer terms the “alien abstractions” of the original prose, and presumably for the decision to dispense with footnotes. The book as consumer product contributes to the sumptuous cover illustration, a painting of “Sir Rowland and Lady Winn in the Library at Nostell Priory,” to the photograph of the relaxed author on the dust-jacket, and to the laudatory quotes from two big names, Simon Schama and Lisa Jardine, not noted for their work on the subject but then most potential purchasers would not know that.

scholarly journals Transformation of the Political Discourse of the Ukrainian Elite in the Context of Competition between the Russian Federation and the West: 2004–2014

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-103
Author(s):  
D. I. Yefremov
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Hybrid Regimes ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
The One

The article establishes the relationship between the interests of the Ukrainian establishment and the foreign policy vector of Kyiv. The author identified the main actors who determined the specifics of the transformation of the strategic course of Ukraine. On the one hand, the author revealed the critical problems of European integration and on the other hand, the improvement/ degradation of relations with the Russian Federation. The author evaluated the strategic doctrines used by the Ukrainian elite and analysed main changes in the approaches of the Ukrainian establishment. This article considers the reaction of Russian and Ukrainian political elites to the correction of the foreign policy imperatives of the Russian Federation and Ukraine, respectively. Also, the author, using the theory of the “heavy” and “light” fractions of Ukrainian political elites as an example, identifies specific features of the correlation between the replacement/renewal of key elite groups and the adaptation of the strategic vector, including a qualitative rethinking of the approaches inherent in the replaced establishment. On the other hand, the author compared between the declared positions/slogans and specific doctrines/concepts, initiated, for example, by individual actors of the political elite. The author analyses the main reasons for the soft dismantling of the so-called multi-vector diplomacy in favour of the Euro-Atlantic course. Also, in the article, concerning the realities of Ukraine, the influence of the political model of “shapeless pluralism” of hybrid regimes on the transformation of the foreign policy’ agenda.

scholarly journals The Attempts of the Mazepian Emigration to involve the Crimean Question into the International Policy of French Kingdom in the First Half of the Eighteenth Century

2021 ◽  
pp. 26-44
Author(s):  
Heorhii Potulnytskyi ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
International Policy ◽  
Political Cooperation ◽  
King Of France ◽  
The One ◽  
The Military ◽  
Louis Xv

Being at the political and diplomatic service of King of France Louis XV for more than three decades (from 1729 to 1759) Hryhor Orlyk, the son of the Ukrainian Hetman Pylyp Orlyk, was committed to furthering the cause of his father. Traditionally, in the context of the political tasks of the French kingdom, he addressed, on the one hand, the incorporation of the Cossack factor into the foreign policy of the Versailles Cabinet, and, on the other hand, the Crimean question. At every stage of his diplomatic service, which we have distinguished (the 1730s, 1740s, and 1750s respectively), the Hetman’s son set different tasks to resolve the Crimean issue and, accordingly, tried to implement them. Through his consistent, permanent, and persistent actions, Hryhor Orlyk contributed to the traditional matter of Hetman’s Ukraine integration into the international policy of the Versailles Cabinet, along with the Cossack and Crimean factors. In the 1750s, one of the last representatives of the Mazepian emigration Fedir Myrovych and Fedir Nakhymovskyi joined the corps of Orlyk’s son Hryhor. They became his effective assistants in the matter of political and legal recognition of the Cossack factor as one of the dominant foreign policy activities of the Versailles Cabinet by the French political elite. Being in Crimea in the 1750s, Myrovych and Nakhymovskyi acted as special emissaries of the Versailles Cabinet maintaining contacts with it directly through Hryhor Orlyk. They contributed in every way to the policy of the kingdom in Crimea in connection with the activation of the Cossack factor there. Old Mazepa’s supporters assisted the Hetman’s son in the implementation of the military and political cooperation between France and Crimea and the Ottoman Empire, but they also attempted to explain the essence of Russian policy aimed at terminating the independence of the Kosh both to the Khan and to Zaporozhian Cossacks in Crimea. The author concludes that as the envoy of the French Crown in Crimea, Hryhor Orlyk made the last attempt to involve the Crimean Khanate to the problems related to the restoration of the Cossack statehood solving the Crimean-Cossack problem, which had been consistent since the sixteenth century. All Mazepa supporters by conducting their activities in Crimea not only contributed to raising the issue of integrating the Cossack factor as an integral part into the international policy of the Versailles Cabinet, but also helped to legitimize and substantiate the latter in the concept of involving Turkey and the Crimean Khanate into the struggle for Ukraine’s liberation from Russian domination

The Argentine Presidential Election of 1868

1979 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 303-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. J. McLynn
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Election ◽  
Political System ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
Change Of Direction ◽  
The One ◽  
Paraguayan War ◽  
Entre Rios ◽  
Separatist Movement ◽  
First Time

The 1868 presidential election in Argentina repays attention on a number of counts. It was the first time that the efficacy of the formal constitutional machinery evolved in 1860 had been put to the test. It was unusual in that the result was not, on the one hand, a foregone conclusion, a mere legitimation of a choice that had already been made, nor, on the other, disputed by force of arms. It also marked a change of direction for the political elite, although the consequences of this would not work themselves through the political system until the 1870s. It is unnecessary to labour the manifold changes in Argentina in the early 1870s: massive immigration, the full impact of the railways, the beginning of the “golden age’ of British investment, the integration of Argentina into a world economy were complemented in the political sphere by the end of the Paraguayan war, the death of Urquiza, the last great caudillo, the failure of the last important separatist movement (the rebellion of López Jordán in Entre Ríos during 1870–3) outside the capital and of the porteño separatist revolt under ex—President Bartolomé Mitre in 1874.

scholarly journals Bulgaria’s geopolitical and geoeconomic reorientation (1989–2019)

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 12-23
Author(s):  
Valentin Mihaylov
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Eastern Bloc ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Distribution Of Power ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Near Future

Until the late 1980s and the dawn of the end of the Eastern Bloc, communist Bulgaria was considered to be the closest ally of the Soviet Union. Now, 30 years later, the Bulgarian state has been integrated into the main Euro-Atlantic organisations. Taking these radical changes as its starting point, this article outlines the process and consequences of post-1989 geopolitical and geoeconomic reorientation of Bulgaria. The aim was also to present the main geopolitical challenges in Bulgaria’s relations with Russia and Turkey. These states have been influencing the political, economic and cultural development of Bulgaria for centuries. The effects of their influence have remained problematic to this day. As Bulgaria remains a country with a complex geopolitical position, it continues its twentieth-century strategy and tries to maintain balance between its own national interest and the influence of the main centres of power. The author draws particular attention to the fact that the model based on the variability of geopolitical priorities was once again confirmed in the analysed period. This model is not only based on pragmatism in relations with the outside world, which is traditional for the Bulgarian political elite, but is also dependant on the temporary distribution of power within the Balkan geopolitical knot. It seems that the model will continue to be valid, at least in the near future.

scholarly journals The political crisis of power in modern Venezuela: Reasons, dynamics, prospects of resolution

2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 493-507
Author(s):  
Andrei G. Bolshakov ◽  
◽  
Timur Z. Mansurov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Negotiation Process ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
The Political ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Constructive Dialogue ◽  
The One

The article examines the features and contradictions of resolving the political crisis in Venezuela. The authors analyze the activities of the direct parties to the conflict (the ruling regime led by current President Nicolas Maduro and the political opposition supported by the country’s Parliament) to resolve it and get the country out of the impasse. The work emphasizes the importance of socio-economic reasons that led to the emergence of the political crisis and the emergence of political forces, on the one hand, defending the ideas of socialist development, and, on the other, the values of the liberal — democratic structure of the state. The authors focus on the mechanisms and ways of resolving the political crisis implemented by Latin American countries, non-regional states and international organizations. However, their activities, as the study shows, are not effective enough since the national interests of states have a superior influence over the needs of stabilizing the political situation in the country and resolving the crisis. The authors examine the contradictions that prevent the beginning of a constructive dialogue between the parties of the conflict, supported by various segments of the population. The effectiveness of various international platforms and negotiation formats aimed at finding and developing solutions to the current crisis, compromises, and areas of joint activity is analyzed. As a result of the research, the authors come to the conclusion that at present it is necessary to cooperate more closely with both the ruling political elite and the opposition, despite the polar views of their representatives, as well as to expand the number of states in order to form a more objective negotiation process and achieve mutually acceptable solutions.

scholarly journals Break-up of the Yugoslav political elite, 1962-1972

Sociologija ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 500-525
Author(s):  
Sergej Flere ◽  
Tibor Rutar
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Great Majority ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Unity ◽  
National Question ◽  
Ethnic Entrepreneurs ◽  
Direct Dissolution ◽  
Break Up ◽  
The One

The break-up of the Yugoslav communist elite, which came about in the period 1962-1972, is considered. The break-up came about under the elite?s disappointment due to the failure to achieve economic objectives it set for itself, bringing about internal dubiety and mutual suspicion, the political system moving towards consociation also contributed to fracturing. However, this is not sufficient as explanation. Cultural elites also contributed in the same direction. Economic growth was significant, considering the entire period 1945-1991, but it was always clouded by imbalances. Certain issues and discussions were indicative of the break-up. Political unity and communism was gradually replaced as objective by ?resolving the national question?, also a legitimate Marxist concern. It can be considered that by the break-up, a normalization of elite pattern came about, comparable to elites in the greatest number of European states, although the elites kept on being ?ideocratic?. Whereas elites may have become ?normal?, the functioning of the political system became ever more difficult. The ascending national communist elites never undertook steps at the direct dissolution of the Yugoslav state, although they entered into ceaseless disputes and finally paved the way to ethnic entrepreneurs and counter-elites to implement the dissolution. By the elite break-up a relation between elite and nation similar to the one existing in the great majority of European countries was achieved.

The Successes and Failures of Economic Reform in Nigeria’s Post-Military Political Settlement

2019 ◽  
Vol 119 (474) ◽  
pp. 1-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zainab Usman
Keyword(s):  
Economic Transition ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Resource Curse ◽  
Developmental State ◽  
Horizontal Distribution ◽  
The Political ◽  
Economic Implications ◽  
Oil Sector ◽  
Distribution Of Power ◽  
Political Settlement

ABSTRACT There are limitations in the explanatory power of prevailing theories on the political economy of Africa’s growth without industrialization that emphasize the resource-curse, ethnicity, neopatrimonialism, and the developmental state. This article uses a political settlements approach to explain the institutional underpinnings of Nigeria’s economic transition. It shows how external constraints on ruling elites interact with the distribution of power and institutions to stimulate episodic reforms in an ‘intermediate’ Nigerian state. Rather than a ‘developmental’ state presiding over industrial upgrading or a ‘predatory’ state operating solely on neopatrimonial basis, this intermediate state presides over selective reforms and bursts of economic growth and diversification. Thus, specific constraints in Nigeria’s post-military political settlement from 1999 generated the initial impetus for successful telecoms liberalization, while inhibiting growth in the oil sector. This article contributes to advancing the political settlements framework in applying it to resource-rich countries, by outlining the four dimensions of the distribution of power and the constraints for institutional persistence or change, and their varying economic implications. It also reclaims the concept of ‘elite bargains’ as a defining feature of the horizontal distribution of power and demonstrates its centrality to the durability or fragility of institutions, especially at critical junctures of resource booms and busts.

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