Challenging The State

The 1980s and 1990s posed great challenges to governments in Latin America and Africa. Deep economic crises and significantly heightened pressure for political reform severely taxed their capacity to manage economic and political tasks. These crises pointed to an intense need to reform the state and redefine its relationship to the market and civic society. This book examines the paradox of states that have been weakened by crisis just as their capacity to encourage economic development and provide for effective governance most needs to be strengthened. Case studies of Mexico and Kenya allow the author to analyse the opportunities available for political leadership in moments of crisis, and the constraints on action provided by leadership goals and existing political and economic structures. She argues that while leaders and political structures are often part of the problem, they can also be part of the solution in building more efficient, effective, and responsive states.

Globalization and New Public Management pose major challenges to the policy capacity of the state. Challenges to State Policy Capacity offers the most timely and comprehensive coverage of contemporary state policy capacity. Drawing on the work by international leading scholars in political science and public administration, the book is indispensable to anyone interested in policy capacity, administrative reform and the state.

This thesis examines the 'Igbo Question' and emergent forms of Igbo 'self-determination' in contemporary Nigeria. It does this within the context of contested citizenship, ethnic identity politics and the unresolved crisis of state ownership and legitimacy, which all feeds into the 'National Question' in the Nigerian public space. The thesis proceeds from a theoretical standpoint that places the 'Igbo Question' within the framework of the 'tri-polar' power struggle and competition among the three major ethnic groups in Nigeria. Based on a prior idea of statehood which is rooted in the aborted secessionist attempts of the Igbo ethnic group from the Nigerian state between 1967 and 1970, and drawing on the case of an Igbo ethno-nationalist separatist movement in Nigeria, known as the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), this thesis focuses on the use of 'territory' and 'space' as components of the 'repertoires of contention' in the quest for political change, sovereignty and self-determination. This provides the context in which 'claims' and 'counter-claims' of security, territoriality and sovereignty are enacted. While the thesis draws substantially on various forms of group and sub-national rights which have been identified and studied in international law, political philosophy and social science literature generally, it transcends these debates, but focuses more on the actual processes of appropriating, interpreting and applying these rights and laws against the state in specific contexts. The analysis of the 'Igbo Question' draws on issues and perspectives surrounding the salience, construction, mobilization and politicization of ethnic identity, and the dynamics of its deployment and use in national politics, coupled with the diverse struggles, contentions and conflicts inherent in it. The research provides an innovative and empirically grounded insight into the processes of 'juridification' of self-determination rights for groups within the nationstate in Africa; the dynamics, constraints and possibilities inherent in the mobilization of these rights and laws; the emancipatory potentials or transformative ends of these rights and laws; and the role of violence in nation-building processes in Africa.

This book examines what value, if any, the state has for the pursuit of progressive politics; and how it might need to be reimagined and remade to deliver transformative change. Is it possible to reimagine the state in ways that open up projects of political transformation? This interdisciplinary collection provides alternative perspectives to the ‘antistatism’ of much critical writing and contemporary political movement activism. Contributors explore ways of reimagining the state that attend critically to the capitalist, neoliberal, gendered and racist conditions of contemporary polities, yet seek to hold onto the state in the process. Drawing on postcolonial, poststructuralist, feminist, queer, Marxist and anarchist thinking, they consider how states might be reread and reclaimed for radical politics. At the heart of this book is state plasticity – the capacity of the state conceptually and materially to take different forms. This plasticity is central to transformational thinking and practice, and to the conditions and labour that allow it to take place. But what can reimagining do; and what difficulties does it confront? This book will appeal to academics and research students concerned with critical and transformative approaches to state theory, particularly in governance studies, politics and political theory, socio-legal studies, international relations, geography, gender/sexuality, cultural studies and anthropology.

Challenging the Secular State examines Muslim efforts to incorporate shari’a (religious law) into modern Indonesia’s legal system from the time of independence in 1945 to the present. The author argues that attempts to formally implement shari’a in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim state, have always been marked by tensions between the political aspirations of proponents and opponents of shari’a and by resistance from the national government. As a result, although pro-shari’a movements have made significant progress in recent years, shari’a remains tightly confined within Indonesia’s secular legal system. The author first places developments in Indonesia within a broad historical and geographic context, offering a provocative analysis of the Ottoman empire’s millet system and thoughtful comparisons of different approaches to pro-shari’a movements in other Muslim countries (Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan). He then describes early aspirations for the formal implementation of shari’a in Indonesia in the context of modern understandings of religious law as conflicting with the idea of the nation-state. Later chapters explore the efforts of Islamic parties in Indonesia to include shari’a in national law. Salim offers a detailed analysis of debates over the constitution and possible amendments to it concerning the obligation of Indonesian Muslims to follow Islamic law. A study of the Zakat Law illustrates the complicated relationship between the religious duties of Muslim citizens and the nonreligious character of the modern nation-state. Chapters look at how Islamization has deepened with the enactment of the Zakat Law and demonstrate the incongruities that have emerged from its implementation. The efforts of local Muslims to apply shari’a in particular regions are also discussed. Attempts at the Islamization of laws in Aceh are especially significant because it is the only province in Indonesia that has been allowed to move toward a shari’a-based system. The book concludes with a review of the profound conflicts and tensions found in the motivations behind Islamization.

Why do national governments implement devolution given the high risk that it will encourage peripheral parties to demand ever more devolved powers? The aim of Challenging the State is to answer this question through a comparative analysis of devolution in four European countries: Belgium, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

This edited volume addresses how the state system, the organizing political institution in world politics, copes with challenges of rapid change, unanticipated crises, and general turmoil in the twenty-first century. These disruptions are occurring against the background of declining US influence and the rising power of countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Traditional inter-state security concerns coexist with new security preoccupations, such as rivalries likely to erupt over the resources of the global commons, the threat of cyber warfare, the ever-present threat of terrorism, and the economic and social repercussions of globalization. The contributors explore these key themes and the challenges posed by rapid change.

Contributed articles.