scholarly journals Twenty Years of de facto State Studies: Progress, Problems, and Prospects

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Pegg
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
International System ◽  
Original Data ◽  
State Building ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Parent State ◽  
External Relations ◽  
De Facto States ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Initial Focus

It has been almost 20 years since the publication of International Society and the De Facto State by Scott Pegg in 1998, the first book-length substantive theoretical attempt to investigate the phenomenon of de facto states—secessionist entities that control territory, provide governance, receive popular support, persist over time, and seek widespread recognition of their proclaimed sovereignty and yet fail to receive it. Even though most de facto states are relatively small and fragile actors, in the intervening years the study of de facto or contested or unrecognized statehood has expanded dramatically. The de facto state literature has contributed significantly to the growing recognition that the international system is far more variegated than is commonly perceived. An initial focus on the external relations of de facto states has increasingly given way to a newer focus on their internal dynamics and domestic state-building processes and on how a lack of sovereign recognition conditions but does not prohibit their democratic, institutional, and political development. Perhaps most notably, there has been an explosion in detailed empirical research based on original data, which has greatly enriched our understanding of these entities. Alas, the subfield of de facto state studies is also characterized by recurrent problems. There has been an extensive proliferation of different terms used to describe these entities, and much fighting has erupted over precise definitions, resulting in limited scholarly progress. Fundamentally, there remains a continued failure to reach agreement on the number of these entities that exist or have existed since 1945. The nuanced and empirically rich academic literature has also largely failed to advance journalists or policymakers’ understanding of de facto states. Yet, the prospects for de facto state studies remain bright. More diverse comparative work, renewed attention to how engagement without recognition might facilitate the participation of unrecognized entities in international politics, a renewed focus on parent state strategies, and increased attention to de facto states and conflict resolution are areas deserving of greater scholarly attention.

Incomplete state building – incomplete democracy? How to interpret internal political development in the post-Soviet de facto states. Conclusion.

2012 ◽  
Vol 45 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 201-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia von Steinsdorff
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Political Development ◽  
State Building ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Theoretical Assumption ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
De Facto States ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Empirical Case Studies

The empirical case studies of this special issue not only provide an illuminating insight into the dynamic of political processes within the post-Soviet de facto states, they also contribute to the discussion of possible links between different strategies of state-building and the success or failure of democratization. Summing up the main findings of the issue, this article carves out the similarities and the differences in the internal political trajectories of the non-recognized but quite stable entities under analysis. Despite sometimes contradicting empirical evidence, one central outcome is clear: the established theoretical assumption that uncontested external sovereignty is a necessary precondition for internal democratization needs to be reconsidered.

Leadership Change and Chinese Political Development

2003 ◽  
Vol 176 ◽  
pp. 903-925 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lowell Dittmer
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Political System ◽  
International System ◽  
State Building ◽  
Leadership Change ◽  
Unsuccessful Attempt ◽  
The Third ◽  
Immanent Critique ◽  
Party Congress

This article has three goals. The first is to characterize the nature of the current Chinese political system, culminating at the 16th Party Congress, as a combination of economic, domestic political and foreign policy reform. Economically, it represents a continuation of marketization, privatization and globalization under more centrally controlled auspices. Politically, it represents a continuation of Dengist emphases on elite civility and administrative institutionalization. And in foreign policy, it brings China to the threshold of great power status, as the old ambivalence between overthrowing the international system and assuming an important role within it nears resolution. The second purpose, viewing “Jiangism” in comparative developmental terms, conceives political development in terms of both state-building and nation-building: the greatest emphasis has been on the former. The third goal is to subject Jiangism to immanent critique by pointing out the most conspicuous emergent contradictions. These seem to include gaps between rich and poor and between east and west, a largely unsuccessful attempt to reform the nation's industrial core and its attendant financial system, and a paradoxical inability to police the state even while increasing state capacity.

State-building and the European Union: Markets, War, and Europe's Uneven Political Development

2021 ◽  
pp. 001041402110473
Author(s):  
R. Daniel Kelemen ◽  
Kathleen R. McNamara
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Institutional Development ◽  
State Building ◽  
Legal Authority ◽  
Market Forces ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Eu Governance ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Eu

The European Union’s institutional development is highly imbalanced. It has established robust legal authority and institutions, but it remains weak or impotent in terms of its centralization of fiscal, administrative, and coercive capacity. We argue that situating the EU in terms of the history of state-building allows us to better understand the outcomes of EU governance. Historically, political projects centralizing power have been most complete when both market and security pressures are present to generate state formation. With the EU, market forces have had a far greater influence than immediate military threats. We offer a preliminary demonstration of the promise of this approach by applying it to two empirical examples, the euro and the Schengen area. Our analysis suggests that the EU does not need to be a Weberian state, nor be destined to become one, for the state-building perspective to shed new light on its processes of political development.

Center and Peripheries

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Regina Grafe
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Analysis ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Path Dependence ◽  
State Building ◽  
Local Autonomy ◽  
European State ◽  
Complex Combination ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
The Empirical Analysis

This chapter illustrates how the empirical analysis of market and state has gone a long way to explain where the stumbling blocks in Spanish economic and political development were and why they stifled growth so significantly. There was path dependence in fragmented authority in Spain as elsewhere in Europe, but this was only part of the problem. Between roughly the late Middle Ages and the nineteenth century, overcoming divided authority was the essence of the process of European state-building. However, in Spain, the complex combination of institutional heritage and ideological underpinnings of rule made the process of eliminating at least some degree of divided authority especially slow and cumbersome, and a strong tradition of local autonomy remained part of what the compact between rulers and ruled was understood to be.

Separatist Threat, Militarization and Voter Turnout: Exploring the Dynamics of the 2017 Governorship Election in Anambra State, Nigeria

2020 ◽  
Vol 55 (8) ◽  
pp. 1093-1107
Author(s):  
Peter O. Mbah ◽  
Thaddeus C. Nzeadibe ◽  
Chikodiri Nwangwu ◽  
Ambrose O. Iheanacho ◽  
Christopher Okonkwo Eze ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Political Development ◽  
State Building ◽  
The State ◽  
Mixed Methods Approach ◽  
Anambra State ◽  
Political Exclusion ◽  
The Impact

Using the qual-dominant mixed methods approach, this study analysed the impact of the separatist threat and the militarization of elections on voter turnout during the 2017 governorship election in Anambra State, Nigeria. Findings indicate that perceived and real marginalization of the Igbo in Nigeria’s state-building is largely driving the neo-Biafra separatist threat to boycott elections in Anambra State. This does not only account for the state militarization of elections in order to guarantee security; it also inadvertently engendered fear among citizens, undermined voter turnout and exacerbated political exclusion. This study concludes that inclusive political development presents an opportunity for de-escalation of separatist threats, demilitarization of elections and enhancement of voter turnout in Nigeria.

American Political Development from Citizens' Perspective: Tracking Federal Government's Presence in Individual Lives over Time

2007 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 110-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne Mettler ◽  
Andrew Milstein
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
American Political Development ◽  
State Building ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
Political Roles ◽  
Analytical Tools ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Over Time

Although scholars of American political development (APD) have helped transform many aspects of the study of U.S. politics over the last quarter-century, they have barely begun to use the powerful analytical tools of this approach to elucidate the relationship between government and citizens. APD research has probed deeply into the processes of state-building and the creation and implementation of specific policies, yet has given little attention to how such development affects the lives of individuals and the ways in which they relate to government. Studies routinely illuminate how policies influence the political roles of elites and organized groups, but barely touch on how the state shapes the experiences and responses of ordinary individuals. As a result, we know little about how governance has influenced citizenship over time or how those changes have, in turn, affected politics.

Russia and Foreign Policy

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert H. Donaldson
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Political Development ◽  
International System ◽  
General Rule ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Regime Type ◽  
Russian Foreign Policy ◽  
Global Issues ◽  
Vladimir Putin

Russian foreign policy has both been similar and unique to that of other great powers. As a general rule of statecraft, Russia has pursued balance-of-power policies, which essentially involves the mobilization of power to countervail the power of an enemy or a potential adversary. The enduring goals pursued by Russian foreign policy have placed primary emphasis on ensuring national security, promoting the economic wellbeing of the country, and enhancing national prestige. The dominant theme in the Russian foreign policy under the tsars is that of expansionism. No single motive force can be found to explain tsarist Russian expansionism; rather, the influences of geography, regime type, the international system, and ideology all weigh in, though in different proportions at different times. The ideology known as Marxism–Leninism has also had a significant effect on Soviet and post-Soviet policy. Meanwhile, Russian Federation president Boris Yeltsin’s primary aim in foreign policy, like Mikhail Gorbachev’s before him, was to create a nonthreatening external environment that would be most conducive to his country’s internal economic and political development. On the other hand, Vladimir Putin pursued a pragmatic, cautious, and nuanced policy. The most visible change that Putin brought to Russia’s foreign policy was a heightened level of presidential activism. In his second presidential term, Putin further changed the direction of Russian foreign policy, increasingly demanding that Russia be recognized as a great power and be given commensurate weight in the resolution of global issues.

Constitutional Revolutions and State Formations in Comparison

2019 ◽  
pp. 67-89
Author(s):  
Nader Sohrabi
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Political Development ◽  
State Building ◽  
The Political ◽  
Building Projects ◽  
History Of ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Modern Turkey ◽  
Constitutional Revolution

The history of both modern Turkey and modern Iran have often been told through their founding figures, Atatürk and Reza Shah, whose state-building projects are often assumed to have been similar. This chapter compares the Young Turk Revolution in the Ottoman Empire of 1908 with the Constitutional Revolution in Iran in 1906 to point to both similarities and differences in the trajectories of these two countries in the early twentieth century. Both revolutions, it is argued, were foundational moments for the political development and processes of each country and are key to understanding the context in which Atatürk and Reza Shah emerged.

Law and American Political Development

2008 ◽  
Vol 33 (03) ◽  
pp. 779-803 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Frymer
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Development ◽  
American Politics ◽  
Political Change ◽  
American Political Development ◽  
State Building ◽  
Institutional Autonomy ◽  
Judicial Decision ◽  
Judicial Decision Making ◽  
The Supreme Court

This essay reviews the recent volume edited by Ronald Kahn and Ken I. Kersch, The Supreme Court and American Political Development(2006), as well as the broader literature by law scholars interested in American Political Development (APD). The Law and APD literature has advanced our knowledge about courts by placing attention on the importance of executive and legislative actors, and by providing political context to our understanding of judicial decision making. But this knowledge would be more powerful if it would embrace the broader APD field's orientation toward the importance of state and institutional autonomy for understanding politics and political change. Law and APD scholars could go further in examining the ways in which courts and judges act institutionally, and how the legal branch as an institution impacts American politics and state-building. In doing so, Law and APD scholars would contribute not only to our understanding of judicial decision making but also to our understanding of the place and importance of courts in American politics.

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