http://www.gsdrc.org Academic and policy-relevant publications on governance and international development. en-uk Copyright © 2010 Governance and Social Development Resource Centre Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:00:08 GMT Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:00:08 GMT http://www.gsdrc.org/rss/open george@gsdrc.org george@gsdrc.org http://www.gsdrc.org/images/logos/logo_gsdrc.gif http://www.gsdrc.org 205 90 GSDRC logo Ashraf Ghani, Clare Lockhart 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. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3546&source=rss http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3546&source=rss Statebuilding Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT Ashraf Ghani and Clare Lockhart 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. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3537&source=rss http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3537&source=rss Statebuilding Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT Odd-Helge Fjeldstad, Mick Moore 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. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3464&source=rss http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3464&source=rss Statebuilding Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT Jack Eldon, Derek Gunby 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. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3377&source=rss http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3377&source=rss Statebuilding Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT Katia Papagianni 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. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3365&source=rss http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3365&source=rss Statebuilding Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT OECD Development Assistance Committee 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. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3354&source=rss http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3354&source=rss Statebuilding Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT Henriette von Kaltenborn-Stachau 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. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3351&source=rss http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3351&source=rss Statebuilding Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT Ken Menkhaus 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. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3341&source=rss http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3341&source=rss Statebuilding Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT M McGovern 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. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3332&source=rss http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3332&source=rss Statebuilding Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT V Boege et. al. 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. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3330&source=rss http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3330&source=rss Statebuilding Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT Shahar Hameiri 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. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3328&source=rss http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3328&source=rss Statebuilding Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT Louise Anten 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. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3290&source=rss http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3290&source=rss Statebuilding Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT Timothy Sisk 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. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3279&source=rss http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3279&source=rss Statebuilding Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT David Sogge 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. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3266&source=rss http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3266&source=rss Statebuilding Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT Alan Whaites 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. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3264&source=rss http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3264&source=rss Statebuilding Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT Roland Paris, Tim Sisk 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. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3261&source=rss http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3261&source=rss Statebuilding Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT Michael Bratton, Eric Chang 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. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3260&source=rss http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3260&source=rss Statebuilding Sun, 01 Jan 2006 00:00:00 GMT Robert Zoellick How can security, governance and economics be synthesised so as to secure the development of fragile states? This journal article by the President of the World Bank Group argues that in order to address fragile situations effectively, a new framework is required that goes beyond the development model. This new framework involves building security, legitimacy, governance and economy. It is about securing development – bringing security and development together to smooth the transition from conflict to peace and to embed stability so that development can take hold. Of course, no 'one size' solution fits all situations. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3211&source=rss http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3211&source=rss Statebuilding Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT DFID How can support for state-building and peace-building be integrated? This Emerging Policy Paper from the UK Department for International Development (DFID) outlines a strategic framework for DFID's engagement in situations of conflict and fragility, plus operational implications. DFID's integrated approach to state-building and peace-building aims primarily to promote inclusive political settlements. This facilitates the further goals of: (i) addressing causes of conflict and building resolution mechanisms; (ii) developing state survival functions; and (iii) responding to public expectations. Support across all four of these interrelated areas is necessary to help create a positive peace- and state-building dynamic. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3210&source=rss http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3210&source=rss Statebuilding Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT Finn Stepputat, Lars Engberg-Pedersen How far is it possible to define and measure fragile states, and to distinguish between different types and processes of state fragility? This paper forms part of a report by the Danish Institute for International Studies, and argues that the debate on fragility suffers from three interlinked, mistaken assumptions. These are that: i) different fragile situations share sufficient characteristics to allow for similar types of support; ii) social change can be engineered through careful planning; and iii) that a Weberian conceptualisation of the state is a relevant goal in all fragile situations. In order to work effectively with fragile states, however, there can be no shortcut to detailed analysis of the historical evolution and specific characteristics of individual situations. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3203&source=rss http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3203&source=rss Statebuilding Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT