Applying hegemony and power theory to transboundary water analysis

Water Policy ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 10 (S2) ◽  
pp. 3-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Zeitoun ◽  
J. A. Allan
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Water Relations ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Transboundary Water ◽  
Nation States ◽  
International Water

This paper introduces the basic concepts of hydro-hegemony which are employed in the analysis of the contributors of this special issue. It emphasises the roles of hegemony, power and political–economy processes in shaping international transboundary water relations. Central to the analysis is Lukes’ concept of the three dimensions of power and Gramscian notions of hegemony (see S. Lukes, Power: A Radical View, 2005). Hegemony depends on the skilful use of hard and soft forms of power, between formally equal parties such as nation states. Hydro-hegemony is hegemony active in international transboundary water settings, the analytical framework for which is laid out in detail by Zeitoun and Warner in Water Policy vol 8 (2006, 435–460). The challenges of conceptualising the complex nexus of international water relations are also addressed. A recurring theme is that both power and political economy processes are especially effective when they operate invisibly. The approach furthermore sets the frame for exploration of improvement of the options of hegemon riparians and non-hegemon riparians alike for more principled transboundary water governance.

To the last drop: the political economy of Philippine water policy

Water Policy ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 946-962 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosalie Hall ◽  
Joy Lizada ◽  
Maria Helen Dayo ◽  
Corazon Abansi ◽  
Myra David ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Water Rights ◽  
The Political ◽  
National Legislation ◽  
Institutional Stakeholders ◽  
Policy Shifts

This paper examines the conflicts arising from the layered legal treatment, fragmentation and multiplicity of institutions involved in Philippine water governance. Using a thematic analysis of national legislation, a survey of 299 water managers in 10 provinces, and five cases illustrating local contestations, the paper tracks the diversification of formal institutional stakeholders which have been found to lack coherence and inter-agency connectivity. Water managers are not grounded in policy shifts, have little understanding of formal water rights and settle local conflicts with little reliance on formal mechanisms. The select cases reveal that water rights provide weak currency in local contestations.

Hydrosolidarity and International Water Governance

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Varady ◽  
Andrea Gerlak ◽  
Arin Haverland
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Conflict Management ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Environmental Research ◽  
Institution Building ◽  
Related Research ◽  
Intellectual Origins ◽  
International Water

AbstractIn the first decade of the 21st century, 'hydrosolidarity,' the notion that water management should include considerations of ethics and equity, has influenced international approaches to conducting environmental research and formulating water policy. Since its inception in the 1990s, the term appears frequently across a spectrum of water-related research. It has accordingly permeated discourses and publications on water management. Such rapid proliferation of the concept has helped usher in a wave of transition from conflict management to cooperative efforts between upstream and downstream basin users, as well as a complex paradigm that links both human and environmental welfare. In this paper, we trace the intellectual origins and changing conceptions of hydrosolidarity. We outline some of its applications as well as various reactions to the concept. We close by discussing how the concept can help frame negotiations between riparian states and influence treaty-making and institution-building in river basin settings.

Analysis of water governance in Malawi: towards a favourable enabling environment?

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 313-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quinex W. Chiluwe ◽  
Bimo Nkhata
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Water Distribution ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Water Shortages ◽  
Resources Management ◽  
Enabling Environment ◽  
International Water ◽  
Effective Water ◽  
National Water

This paper examines the enabling environment for effective water governance in Malawi by specifically determining the extent to which the water acts and policies of Malawi reflect international water governance principles of participation, accountability and transparency. It is argued that governance issues determine the extent to which sound and equitable water sharing is achieved among competing uses. Despite the fact that Malawi has vast freshwater resources, the country experiences chronic water shortages in some parts; this is due to disparities in water distribution to the extent that the country has been classified to be going towards water stress by 2025. In this study, it was found that the Water Resources Act of 1969, which is currently being used by the country has not clearly set the scene for good water governance. This is despite a number of treaties on water resources management that the country has ratified. However, despite the failure to update the archaic Act of 1969, the country has taken some important strides such as the development of the National Water Policy of 2005. This policy attempts to espouse key governance prerequisites required to improve the country's capacity to deal with the impeding water crisis situation.

Transboundary water governance in the European Union: the (unresolved) allocation question

Water Policy ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 496-513
Author(s):  
Gábor Baranyai
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
River Basins ◽  
Institutional Factors ◽  
Water Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Transboundary Water ◽  
European Governance ◽  
The Eu

Abstract While the European Union (EU) has one of the most extensive and sophisticated supranational water policy worldwide, its transboundary governance framework has certain structural deficiencies that may eventually give rise to significant cooperation gridlocks over shared river basins. Most prominently, EU water law as well as the numerous European basin treaties almost comprehensively ignore transboundary water quantity management and allocation questions. This lacuna is due to a series of hydro-geographical, political and institutional factors prevailing at the time when the foundations of today's European framework of transboundary water governance were laid down in the 1980s and 1990s. Yet, changing hydrological conditions points to increasing fluctuations in water quantities in European river basins. Due to their one-sided ecological focus, however, the existing European governance mechanisms may prove unable to handle a growing competition for water among riparian states in case of flow variations beyond historical ranges. This article investigates the roots and the possible future implications of the unresolved transboundary allocation question within the EU.

Water Governance and Management in Indus Basin - Challenges & Threats

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marium Sara Minhas Bandeali
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Water Security ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
The State ◽  
Indus Basin

Water governance and management are important challenges for the River Indus Basin in Pakistan. Water governance refers to social, political and economic factors that influence water management. The water scarcity and water security are a major concern for the state to control its water resources. The study aims to give Sindh water policy by exploring the challenges to Indus Basin in managing water resources and to identify opportunities Indus Basin can look to improve water management. Interviews were conducted from water experts and analysts having 5 years’ experience or more in the water sector of Pakistan through a semi-structured self-developed questionnaire using purposive sampling technique and transcripts were analyzed using thematic content analysis. The findings show that increasing population, climatic change and rising demand of water are major challenges Indus is facing and Indus with time is getting water-scarce therefore need strong institutions, civil society and legislatures to ensure equitable distribution of water and maintain the ecosystem. The study emphasizes that water governance and management are necessary for sustainable use of water. Pakistan, the water stress country needs to address ‘governance’ at a wider scale to solve problems in the Indus Basin for the livelihood of people. The research will benefit the state, water experts, institutions as well as civil society to promote efficient use of water in Indus Basin.

The Contributions of the political economy approach: An analysis of Socio-economic development in Indonesia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Falih Suaedi ◽  
Muhmmad Saud
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
The Political ◽  
Developmental Studies ◽  
Socio Economic Development ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Political Economy Approach

This article explores in what ways political economy as an analytical framework for developmental studies has contributed to scholarships on Indonesian’s contemporary discourse of development. In doing so, it reviews important scholarly works on Indonesian political and economic development since the 1980s. The argument is that given sharp critiques directed at its conceptual and empirical utility for understanding changes taking place in modern Indonesian polity and society, the political economy approach continues to be a significant tool of research specifically in broader context of comparative politics applied to Indonesia and other countries in Southeast Asia. The focus of this exploration, however, has shifted from the formation of Indonesian bourgeoisie to the reconstitution of bourgeois oligarchy consisting of the alliance between the politico-bureaucratic elite and business families. With this in mind, the parallel relationship of capitalist establishment and the development of the state power in Indonesia is explainable.<br>

Twilights and rebirths of National Development Banks in Latin America: Understanding factors that could have affected different trajectories in Argentina and Brazil

2016 ◽  
pp. 101-139
Author(s):  
María Luz Martínez Sola
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Industrial Policy ◽  
National Development ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
World War ◽  
Political Coalitions ◽  
Development Banks ◽  
Second World

National Development Banks (NDB) could be pictured as engines pushing backward economies through the developmental ladder's rungs. After being key protagonists of industrial policy after Second World War, most NDBs were dismantled during the 1980s and 90 s. Notable exceptions to this trend exist, however. The goal of this study is thus to understand the political economy issues; Institutional Capacity International Bargaining Power and Domestic Political Coalitions; that explain those trajectories, by taking the cases of Argentina (BANADE) and Brazil (BNDES). When analyzing these three dimensions of political economy the paper concludes that the main difference between BANADE and BNDES' trajectories seems to stem from the diverse Domestic Political Coalitions crafted by Argentina and Brazil, in each historical period. Understanding the underlying conditions to create a cohesive and solid NDB is fundamental to reassess their roles in the XXI century industrial policy.

The Political Economy of Post-Independence India—A Review Article

1989 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 787-797 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akhil Gupta
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Newly Industrialized Countries ◽  
The Past ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Balance Of Forces ◽  
The Third World

Economists and political scientists have become increasingly interested in the political economy of India during the past decade and particularly during the past three or four years. The titles under review will be valuable not only to India specialists but also to comparative scholars because of the intriguing mix of conditions found in India. More like a continent than a country in its diversity, India is in some ways very similar to densely populated, predominantly rural and agricultural China, differing most perhaps in the obstinacy and depth of its poverty. In the predominant role played by the state within an essentially capitalist economy, it is closer to the model of Western social democracies than it is to either prominently ideological capitalist or socialist nation-states; like other countries in the “third world,” the state in India plays a highly interventionist developmental role. Finally, since Independence it has pursued, more successfully than most nation-states in Latin America and Asia, policies of importsubstituting industrialization and relative autarchy. In terms of its political structures, India differs from most newly industrialized countries (NICs) in that it generally continues to function as a parliamentary democracy. The federal political system creates an intriguing balance of forces between central and the regional state governments, which are often ruled by opposition parties with agendas, ideologies, and organizational structures quite different from those of the central government.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document