GSDRC newsfeed on Statebuilding

The Failure of State Building and the Promise of State Failure: Reinterpreting the Security-Development Nexus in Haiti

Kamil Shah — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

How can a relational perspective inform state building in fragile states? This Third World Quarterly article argues that mainstream approaches to resolving concerns of security and development through state building fail to consider the influence of historical and external factors such as transnational power relations. The case of Haiti illustrates how attempts to consolidate the modern (liberal) state have in fact contributed to insecurities. A focus on social and political struggle, domination and subordination provides a useful framework for analysis of the historical trajectory of development in � and of � fragile states.

Society in State-building: Lessons in Improving Democratic Governance - Synthesis Report

Edward Bell — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

What is the best way to promote democratic governance in fragile and conflict-affected countries? By directing attention to interactions between state and society, this Initiative for Peacebuilding report aims to help external agencies and conflict-affected societies generate a culture of democratic politics. Drawing on analyses of Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Georgia and Pakistan, the paper recommends using the potential that is inherent in all development assistance to improve governance. This includes using the processes for defining development strategies to widen and deepen ownership by society as a whole.

Do No Harm: International Support for Statebuilding

OECD DAC — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

How can donor interventions hinder or assist statebuilding processes? This report from the OECD's Development Assistance Committee draws on country case-studies to examine five key areas of statebuilding. Donors operating in fragile states need to analyse where their own countries� strategic objectives contradict statebuilding objectives and where statebuilding objectives are themselves at odds. Donors can assist statebuilding by promoting: (1) inclusive political processes; (2) state legitimacy; (3) constructive state-society relations; (4) social expectations that are realistic but push states to do more; and (5) the development of sustainable capacities to carry out state functions.

International Compacts: Sovereignty Strategies

Ashraf Ghani, Clare Lockhart — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

This chapter from the book 'Fixing Failed States' argues that a stable world requires functioning states in order to overcome challenges to the political and economic system. Domestic and global leadership must find a new approach to transform states so that they provide security and prosperity for their citizens and also act as responsible members of the international community. The study terms this a sovereignty strategy. A long-term state-building strategy tailored to specific contexts should be an organising principle for the international community. Collective energies and capital need to be harnessed.

National Programs: The Challenge of Implementation

Ashraf Ghani and Clare Lockhart — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

How do national programmes aid the statebuilding process? This chapter from the book 'Fixing Failed States' assesses the success of national programmes in Europe, the United States and Afghanistan. Currently, statebuilding strategies falter because they fail to link intentions to realistic and innovative delivery mechanisms. The real work lies in implementation, and national programmes can provide the implementation vehicles that align vision, rules, resources and participants to achieve a common goal.

Taxation and State-Building: Poor Countries in a Globalised World

Odd-Helge Fjeldstad, Mick Moore — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT

How far has the recent global wave of tax reform contributed to state-building in poorer countries? The conclusion of this paper from the Chr. Michelsen Institute mirrors other general globalisation arguments: there are good things to report, but worrying problems in the poorest and most dependent countries. The reform agenda is least appropriate to those countries most in need of the state-building to which the taxation process has contributed in other places and times. Governments in poorer countries have little choice but to go along with a reform agenda reflecting the priorities and needs of the more powerful actors in the international system. The contemporary tax reform agenda does not address the more urgent problems that the poorest countries face.

States in Development: State-building and Service Delivery

Jack Eldon, Derek Gunby — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

How, when and why do basic services matter for responsive state building? This paper from HLSP uses cases studies from Cambodia, Nigeria, South Sudan and Zimbabwe to explore these questions. It is part of wider research on fragile states and Whaites� model of 'responsive' and 'unresponsive' states. The relationship between state responsiveness and service delivery is not straightforward. Fragility, violence, patronage, ethnicity and economic growth all play a part. To maximise the state building impacts of service delivery, donors should seek to develop the state�s ability to: (i) provide strategic oversight; (ii) manage and, where appropriate, deliver basic services.

Participation and State Legitimation

Katia Papagianni — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

How do postwar countries gain legitimacy in the eyes of political elites and the public? This chapter from Building States to Build Peace argues that statebuilding should be approached as a process (not an event) to legitimate new state institutions. A statebuilding process is most likely to generate legitimacy for the state when it is inclusive of all major political forces, open to public participation, and prioritises maintaining public order and delivering services. Although inclusive and participatory political processes do not necessarily lead to legitimate outcomes, when managed well they have a significant chance of bolstering the legitimacy of postwar states.

State Building in Situations of Fragility: Initial Findings

OECD Development Assistance Committee — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

What is the nature of statebuilding in the context of fragile states and situations? This fact sheet from the OECD summarises the findings of a research programme initiated to deepen the international community�s knowledge and understanding of the concept of statebuilding. Statebuilding in fragile contexts is an endogenous process driven by state-society relations. In spite of its links with other kinds of economic and political development, it is a distinct and necessary process for long-term state legitimacy and effectiveness.

Fostering Positive Citizen-State Relations in Support of State-building

Henriette von Kaltenborn-Stachau — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

How can the international community help to rebuild state-society relations in post-conflict situations? This study from the World Bank argues that current donor approaches to statebuilding are too narrowly focused and too fragmented to fully address the 'invisible' yet critical processes of state-society relations. It recommends the adoption of a governance framework based on the concept of the public sphere in order to foster positive collaboration and engagement within post-conflict societies.

Governance without Government in Somalia: Spoilers, State Building, and the Politics of Coping

Ken Menkhaus — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Why has statebuilding in Somalia failed so often? This journal article from International Security suggests that the problem lies in the type of state that both external and local actors have so far sought to construct. Somalia needs to develop a mediated state in which a central government with limited power and capacity relies on a range of local authorities to execute core functions of government and mediate between local communities and the state.

Liberia: The Risks of Re-building a Shadow State

M McGovern — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

What lessons can the international community draw from statebuilding efforts in Liberia? This chapter from the book 'Building States to Build Peace' reviews the international community's experience in Liberia during its post-conflict transitional period and finds that deeply intrusive forms of intervention often risk long-term sustainability for medium-term success. It argues that unless reforms and reconstruction are rooted in consultation and a sense of local ownership they are likely to collapse as soon as donor interest and resources shift elsewhere.

On Hybrid Political Orders and Emerging States: State Formation in the Context of 'Fragility'

V Boege et. al. — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Is �state fragility� the appropriate term for analysing the capabilities of emerging states? This paper from the Berghof Research Centre for Constructive Conflict Management argues that current approaches to state-building rest on a narrow understanding of the sources of political order. Such approaches focus too heavily on the technical and bureaucratic functions of the state. Emerging states should instead be viewed, not as fragile entities lacking capabilities, but as hybrid political orders whose sources of legitimacy are often more socially and culturally rooted.

Failed States or a Failed Paradigm? State Capacity and the Limits of Institutionalism

Shahar Hameiri — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT

How useful are current conceptions of state failure for dealing with problems of state fragility? This article from the Journal of International Relations and Development argues that the international community has adopted an overly technocratic notion of the state, which does not view power and conflict as intrinsic to the phenomenon of the state, conflates politics with governance and masks the political nature of state-building. It concludes that a new framework is needed, one based on system-level analyses of social cleavages and their impact on the state and state institutions.

Fragile States: State Building is Not Enough

Louise Anten — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

What are the likely future trends for fragile states? What policy implications do these trends have for international actors? This paper from The Netherlands Institute of International Relations (Clingendael) examines the reasons for international interest in fragile states and past and future trends in state fragility. It argues that state fragility will probably increase in the coming decades and that focusing on statebuilding is not sufficient to address this problem. Instead, the industrialised states will also have to effectively address external factors leading to state fragility that they themselves are largely responsible for.

Pathways of the Political

Timothy Sisk — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

How do election processes contribute to stability after civil war? This book chapter from 'The Dilemmas of Statebuilding' compares statebuilding in Cambodia, South Africa, Afghanistan and Liberia. It argues that electoral processes are necessary in moving beyond violence. However, the way elections are carried out is critical. Sequencing, design and the extent of international oversight are the key variables that determine the extent to which electoral processes contribute to capable, responsive states or to captured, fragmented and weak states.

Angola: 'Failed' yet 'Successful'

David Sogge — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

What are the causes of state weakness? How best can the international community help weak states move forward? This research from the Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior (FRIDE) argues that the ranking of states in terms of weakness has little value. Furthermore, the political problems that come with natural resources are more complicated than it might appear. In the case of Angola, developmental change is unlikely as long as powerful and poorly-regulated offshore incentives continue to shape elite motivations.

States in Development: Understanding State-building

Alan Whaites — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Why do some states manage state-building better than others? How can development actors support positive state-building? This paper from the UK Department for International Development's Governance and Social Development Group examines factors leading to positive or negative state development. International actors should consider underlying realities, and put social, economic and political analysis into a historical context. Sequencing within each of the three areas of state-building (political settlements, survival functions and expected functions) is important.

Managing Contradictions: The Inherent Dilemmas of Postwar Statebuilding

Roland Paris, Tim Sisk — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT

How can legitimate, effective institutions best be built to help create peaceful states? This paper from the Research Partnership on Postwar Statebuilding suggests that statebuilding has become a central focus of multidimensional peace operations in war-torn societies. Efforts to construct legitimate, effective state institutions are full of tensions and contradictions. Understanding these tensions and contradictions is essential for anticipating many of the practical problems that international agencies face and for devising more nuanced and effective statebuilding strategies.

State Building and Democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa: Forwards, Backwards, or Together?

Michael Bratton, Eric Chang — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Is democracy feasible in sub-Saharan Africa? Which aspects of state-building are most important? This article from Comparative Political Studies shows that new democracies emerge only in the context of effective states. The scope of state infrastructure and the delivery of welfare services have little impact on democratisation. The establishment of a rule of law, however, is critical to building democracy. As state legitimacy is itself a reciprocal product of democratisation, African states and regimes should be understood together.