VII National and Area Studies / Études Nationales et Régionales
| Published date | 01 October 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00208345231209563 |
| Date | 01 October 2023 |
802
VII
NATIONAL AND AREA STUDIES
ÉTUDES NATIONALES ET RÉGIONALES
73.6858 AERTS, Elise ; MARX, Ive ; PAROLIN, Zachary — Income
support policies for single parents in Europe and the
United States: what works best? Annals of the American
Academy of Political and Social Science 702, July 2022 : 55-
76.
Poverty rates among single parents vary considerably across countries, in
part reflecting differences in the generosity and design of minimum income
protections. We ask what the optimal ways are to target income support
to single parents, if the prime objective of policy is to shelter those house-
holds from poverty. We map minimum income provisions for working and
nonworking single-parent households across Europe and the United
States, showing that three things matter for adequate minimum income
protection. First, minimum wage levels matter, obviously for working single
parents, but also for jobless ones since they effectively set the ‘glass ceil-
ing’ for out-of-work benefits. Second, the overall generosity of the child
benefit package is crucial to shelter both working and jobless single par-
ents from poverty. Third, countries that employ a strategy of “targeting
within universalism” (that is directing extra support to vulnerable groups
such as single parents within the context of a universal benefit program)
tend to do best. [R] [See Abstr. 73.6178]
73.6859 ALBERS, Thilo N. H. ; JERVEN, Morten ; SUESSE, Marvin —
The fiscal state in Africa: evidence from a century of
growth. International Organization 77(1), Winter 2023 : 65-
101.
What is the level of state capacity in developing countries today, and what
have been its drivers over the past century? We construct a comprehen-
sive new data set of tax and revenue collection for forty-six African polities
from 1900 to 2015. Our data show that polities in Africa have been char-
acterized by strong growth in fiscal capacity on average, but that substan-
tial heterogeneity exists. The empirical analysis reveals that canonical
state-building factors such as democratic institutions and interstate war-
fare have limited power to explain these divergent growth paths. On the
other hand, accounting for the relationship between African polities and
the international environment — through the availability of external finance
and the legacy of colonialism — is key to understanding their differing in-
vestments in fiscal capacity. These insights add important nuances to es-
tablished theories of state building. Not only can the availability of external
finance deter investment in fiscal capacity, but it also moderates the effi-
cacy of canonical state-building factors. [R]
73.6860 ALDALOOI, Luay Hussien — Hydrohegemony in the con-
text of Shatt al-Arab River: from coercion to consent. In-
ternational Politics 60(2), Apr. 2023 : 310-329.
The Shatt al-Arab River (SAR) is a transboundary river between Iraq and
Iran. The bulk of it has traditionally be en under Iraqi jurisdiction, yet Iran
has always held significant influence. This paper applies the framework of
hydro-hegemony to distinguish between two different hegemonic configu-
rations operated over SAR. In the first period, Iran exercised coercive tac-
tics, prompting Iraq to sign the Algeria Accord in 1975. However, after four
years, the eight-year war between the two states revoked this institutional
order, paving the way for a new era. During this period, which began dom-
inantly after 2003, Iran exerted soft power. The Iranian Islamic regime ma-
nipulated ties with Iraqi elites to influence the course of Iraqi policy. None-
theless, by helping Iraqis defeat ISIS and curbing the Kurdish issues fol-
lowing their referendum to separate from Iraq in 2017, Iran ensured the
majority of Iraqis' willing acquiescence. Consequently, it contained SAR
on its own terms. [R]
73.6861 ALDRICH, Daniel P. — How social infrastructure saves
lives: a quantitative analysis of Japan's 3/11 disasters.
Japanese Journal of Political Science 24(1), Marrch 2023 : 30-
40.
Observers have long debated how societies should invest resources to
safeguard citizens and property, especially in the face of increasing
shocks and crises. This article explores how social infrastructure — the
spaces and places that help build and maintain social ties and trust, allow-
ing societies to coordinate behavior — plays an important role in our com-
munities, especially in mitigating and recovering from shocks. An analysis
of quantitative data on more than 550 neighborhoods across the three
Japanese prefectures most affected by the tsunami of 11 March 2011
shows that, controlling for relevant factors, community centers, libraries,
parks, and other social infrastructure measurably and cheaply reduced
mortality rates among the most vulnerable population. Investing in social
infrastructure projects would, based on this data, save more lives during a
natural hazard than putting the same money into standard, gray infrastruc-
ture such as seawalls. Decision makers at national, regional, and local
levels should expand spending on facilities such as libraries, community
centers, social businesses, and public parks to increase resilience to mul-
tiple types of shocks and to further enhance the quality of life for residents.
[R]
73.6862 ALEMAYEHU, Dereje — Challenges to the assumption that
economic success could enhance state legitimacy in Af-
rica, ten years later. Development 65(2-4), 2022 : 161-177.
“My Lord, you can do anything you like with bayonets, except sit on
them....” (Talleyrand, Bonaparte’s Foreign Minister). North Africa is about
allowing inequalities to grow, allowing joblessness to grow. It is about a
state that hasn’t actually performed, about a minority that accumulates
things for itself. If you want to follow that path for the next 20 years, we’ll
end up like North Africa. (Pravin Gordhan, Finance Minister of South Africa
in his Budget Speech, 2011). [R]
73.6863 ALI, Ali — Disaggregating Jordan’s Syrian refugee re-
sponse: the “Many Hands” of the Jordanian state. Mediter-
ranean Politics 28(2), 2023 : 178-201.
This is a disaggregated study of different factors which shaped Jordan’s
Syrian refugee response. It considers the response’s internal workings
and how hosting a large displaced population from the Mediterranean
state of Syria is distributed across different public institutions with the in-
volvement of international actors. The argument is that an agenda intent
on securing the status quo influences the response, but that it is not always
coherently implemented by the many hands of the Jordanian state. The
main aims are to resist the permanence of Syrians so as not to undermine
the demographic balance that favours Trans-Jordanians; to secure in-
come for hosting Syrians; and to limit the possibilities for formal Syrian
economic competition with Jordanians. At the same time, and related to
these aims, there are initiatives to render Syrians legible, and these legi-
bility initiatives serve different goals depending on which hand of the state
is enacting them. [R, abr.]
73.6864 ALI, Hager ; HAMMOU, Salah Ben ; POWELL, Jonathan M. —
Between coups and election: constitutional engineering
and military entrenchment in Sudan. Africa Spectrum 57(3),
Dec. 2022 : 327-339.
This article investigates how armies re -entrench their power after thwart-
ing democratic transitions. After the Sudanese military staged a coup in
October 2021 and altered the transitional constitution, coup leader Ab-
delfattah al-Burhan announced the military's withdrawal in July 2022 after.
We argue that these constitutional changes leveraged existing institutions
in the military's favour to retain its influence over Sudanese governance.
Using empirical evidence from Sudan's previous military takeovers to eval-
uate the post-coup constitutional engineering, the analysis finds that mili-
tary control over the electoral commission as well as decentralisation will
be determining factors moving forward. The timeframe between an anti-
democratic coup and subsequent elections should be examined more
carefully. Entrenching military power through elections requires a policy
set up in advance, usually undertaken in this period. Thus, we provide key
insights into how armies incrementally consolidate their power without rad-
ically overhauling existing institutions. [R]
73.6865 ALSAADI, Salam — International competitive involvement
during democratic transitions and state repression. Com-
parative Politics 55(4), July 2023 : 617-638.
Research on the international dimension of authoritarianism and democ-
ratization has focused on patron-client interaction. This article identifies a
specific type of international involvement that is characterized by geopolit-
ical competition. In "international competitive involvement," multiple rival
countries intervene simultaneously and oppositely to support opposing
sides during a political transition, namely the military and a faction from
the civilian actors. Drawing on evidence from Egypt, Sudan, and Myanmar,
I develop a theoretical framework for this type of international involvement
and argue that it significantly enhances the military's repressive capacity
and hardens its negotiation position. While the military in cases of non-
Études nationales et régionales
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competitive support perceives of bargaining as a potential option, compet-
itive involvement forecloses the bargaining option as repression becomes
the most viable course of action for the military. [R]
73.6866 ANDERSON, Christopher J. — Citizens and the state during
crisis: public authority, private behaviour and the Covid-
19 pandemic in France. European Journal of Political Re-
search 62(2), May 2023 : 571-593.
How do democratic states induce citizens to comply with government di-
rectives during times of acute crisis? Focusing on the onset of the Covid -
19 pandemic in France, I argue that the tools states use to activate adher-
ence to public health advice have predictable and variable effects on citi-
zens’ willingness to change their routine private behaviours, both because
of variation in their levels of restrictiveness but also because of differences
in people's political motivations to comply with them. Using data collected
in March 2020, I show that people's reports of changes in their behavioural
routines are affected by the signals governments send, how they send
them and the level of enforcement. I find that a nationally televised speech
by President Macron calling for cooperative behaviour and announcing
new restrictions elevated people's willingness to comply. [R, abr.]
73.6867 ANISIN, Alexei ; MUSIL, Pelin Ayan — Resistance and mili-
tary defection in Turkey. Mediterranean Politics 28(2), 2023 :
202-226.
Turkey has experienced a heterogeneous collection of social movements
and protests. While scholars have given substantial attention to coups in
this context, it remains unclear if the Turkish Armed Forces have ever de-
fected in favour of civilian mobilization during periods of political instability.
In large-N databases on defection, cases in Turkey are either dispropor-
tionately skewed towards coups or are fully absent of observations on de-
fection during resistance campaigns. In this study, we analyse cases span-
ning 1959-2017 to trace patterns of defection. Through triangulating qual-
itative evidence from memoirs of former military officers, media reports,
and interviews carried out with multi-generational political actors, our anal-
ysis reveals that three instances of defection occurred in times of mass
mobilization, two of which were vertical and one horizontal. Alongside
three other instances of defection that occurred during coup attempts,
these results illustrate the highly dynamic nature of defection in the Turkish
context through interrelated processes of mobilization, defection, and
coups. [R]
73.6868 ARNDT, Christoph ; HALIKIOPOULOU, Daphne ;
VRAKOPOULOS, Christos — The centre-periphery divide
and attitudes towards climate change measures among
Western Europeans. Environmental Politics 32(3), 2023 :
381-406.
This article focuses on the spatial dimension of environmental protection-
ism. Merging regional level and European Social Survey (ESS) data, we
examine attitudes towards climate change policies in 186 Western Euro-
pean regions comparatively. Findings from multilevel models confirm that
climate policies, which concentrate costs spatially, generate resistance
from individuals who incur the costs of these policies. Specifically, individ-
uals in rural and suburban areas who fear income losses and reduced
purchasing power are less supportive of climate change policies. Living in
poorer regions also drives resistance to such policies. Further, the regional
context conditions the effects of egalitarian attitudes. People supporting
redistribution oppose climate change measures if they live in poor regions
with high unemployment. Overall, we provide empirical evidence of a cen-
tre-periphery cleavage dividing Western European attitudes on environ-
ment protectionism. [R]
73.6869 ARRUDA, Gisele M. ; FILIJOVIĆ, Marko — The geopolitical
challenges to engage stakeholders into Arctic climate
change adaptation — Military action and the challenges
for an Arctic citizenship. Medunarodni Problemi (Interna-
tional Problems) 74(4), 2022 : 557-582.
Climate change adaptation in the Arctic is a powerful notion based on a
challenging and impermanent reality of continuous complex interactions
between the natural and social structures. The geophysical and geopoliti-
cal aspects of the Arctic system and the global context are naturally inter-
linked, and the human aspects of societal existence are even more inte-
grated resulting in a range of collective opportunities, risks, and responsi-
bilities as a civilization, as Arctic citizens, and as global citizens. Our anal-
ysis indicated that there are at least three key factors that stand in the way
of the implementation of the Arctic climate agenda: (1) unresolved territo-
rial and other disputes among Arctic coastal states, (2) the intensive
(re)militarisation of the region (with Russia as a central player), and (3)
noticeable economic dynamism, accompanied by strategic competition
between key stakeholders — including non-Arctic states, such as China.
[R, abr.]
73.6870 ARSIL, Fitra ; MAULENY, Ariesy Tri ; WASTI, Ryan Muthiara
— Law making activities during lame duck sessions in In-
donesia (1997-2020). Parliamentary Affairs 76(2), Apr. 2023 :
421-442.
This study described that phenomenon in the law-making process in Indo-
nesia by displaying the data on the behaviours or issuance of laws during
lame duck sessions from 1997 to 2020. Compared with that of regular ses-
sions, laws issued during the lame duck sessions significantly looked more
productive but they did not comply with the mandate of laws desiring that
each bill was supposed to be discussed in three sessions at the longest.
In terms of the materials regulated in Laws, many lawmakers took ad-
vantage of a lame duck session to pass any laws in favour of the state
officials that often generated public rejection and had shifted its participa-
tory role through a judicial review at the Constitutional Court. [R, abr.]
73.6871 ASHEIKH, Hoda Abdulhafizh ; DIREKLI, Mehmet — The tran-
sitional justice impasse in post-revolution Libya: a call for
a transformative approach. International Politics 60(1), Feb.
2023 : 45-61.
The effectiveness of transitional justice (TJ) is measured by the achieve-
ment of its goals of justice, reconciliation, healing, and peace in countries
transitioning to non-authoritarian rule. This article evaluates the TJ expe-
rience in Libya the aftermath of the Qadhafi regime, revealing contextual
challenges to TJ in Libya from 2011. The findings indicate a close relation-
ship between contextual factors (political context, type of conflict, institu-
tional context) and the trajectory of TJ. Libya’s fragile statehood, the nature
and the scale of ongoing conflicts, and interference of various regional and
external actors have undermined Libya’s political transition and compli-
cated prospects for peace and reconciliation. Within the context of political
and territorial division and continued human rights violations, the study
concludes that Libya’s TJ model has been inappropriate and has failed to
achieve its ambitious goals. [R, abr.]
73.6873 ASOMAH, Joseph Yaw — Does democracy fuel corruption
in developing countries? Understanding Ghanaians’ per-
spectives. Democratization 30(4), 2023 : 654-672.
Whether democratic governance breeds corruption, especially in develop-
ing countries that practice democracy, is highly debatable. Using primary
data from interviews and relevant secondary data from media reports and
scholarly work, this article aims to address a fundamental question: Does
democracy fuel corruption in Ghana’s Fourth Republic? Although 20% of
participants believed that democracy breeds corruption, about 80% disa-
greed. The study indicates that democracy does not necessarily bring
about corruption; rather, what fuels corruption is how democracy is prac-
ticed. Based on the stage/age of democracy thesis, this study does not
suggest less corruption in a dictatorship compared to democracy. Instead,
the study indicates that despite its democracy being over 29 years old,
corruption is still prevalent because Ghana has a flawed democracy that
has failed to establish and implement robust accountability mechanisms
to control corruption effectively. [R, abr.]
73.6874 AYDIN, Umut — Embracing policy innovations from
abroad: the role of learning in Chile’s anti-cartel reforms.
Policy and Politics 51(2), Apr. 2023 : 250-270.
Why and how do policymakers initially sceptical of policy innovations from
abroad eventually transfer them to their own countries? Focusing on
Chile’s reforms to combat business cartels in 2009 and 2016, this article
answers that question. Policy diffusion and transfer literatures maintain
that coercion, competition, learning or emulation could account for foreign
inspirations in policymaking. However, these literatures overplay the role
of coercion and emulation in policy transfer to countries in the global south,
and have difficulty distinguishing between different mechanisms in empir-
ical studies. To address these limitations, I suggest analysing three inter-
mediate causal steps in policy transfer: first, policymakers’ motivations in
initiating policy reforms, second, their reflections on how the foreign-in-
spired model responds to the policy problem at hand, and third, their re-
flections on the fit between the foreign model and domestic conditions. [R,
abr.]
73.6875 BARRIENTOS, Armando — Social assistance expansion
and political inclusion in Latin America Journal of Politics
in Latin America 15(1), Apr. 2023 : 25-46.
Has social assistance expansion contributed to political inclusion in Latin
America? The current literature favours a “policy exchange” approach, hy-
pothesising that social assistance is an electoral asset exploited by gov-
erning coalitions. The findings from this literature are mixed. The article
proposes an alternative approach emphasising political inclusion. In une-
qual societies where economic cooperation is regulated by institutions
generating inequality and disadvantage, social assistance contributes to
the political inclusion of disadvantaged groups. Analysis of Latin American
Public Opinion Project data for 2010 to 2019 data finds support for this
hypothesis. [R]
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