Women in politics in democratic transition: The case of Bhutan

This thesis is a study about women's participation in Bhutan's new democracy and exposes the patriarchy embedded in Bhutanese society which is reinforced through cultural practices and the legal framework. It reveals the public/private dichotomy, the low educational attainment of girls and the gendered division of labour which derails women's public life. It discloses a masculine driven party politics and the challenges of being a woman in the world of men. Nonetheless, the first trailblazing women parliamentarians demonstrated a principled, feminine, political leadership in a masculine environment. Semi-structured interviews, document review and participant observation methods were used to collect data.

The Quality of Democracy in Belarus and Ukraine

Korosteleva-Polglase, Elena, 'The Quality of Democracy in Belarus and Ukraine', The Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, (2004) 20 (1), pp. 122-142(21) Special Issue: The Quality of Democracy in Post-Communist Europe RAE2008

'Democratic Transition, Judicial Accountability and Judicialisation of Politics in Africa: The Nigerian Experience'

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the growing incidence of judicialisation of politics in Nigeria’s democratisation experience against the backdrop of questionable judicial accountability. Design/methodology/approach – The article draws on legal and political theory as well as comparative law perspectives. Findings – The judiciary faces a daunting task in deepening democracy and (re) instituting the rule of law. The formidable challenges derive in part from structural problems within the judiciary, deficient accountability credentials and the complexities of a troubled transition. Practical implications – Effective judicial mediation of political transition requires a transformed and accountable judiciary. Originality/value – The article calls attention to the need for judicial accountability as a cardinal and integral part of political transitions. Keywords Democracy, Politics, Law, Nigeria, Africa Paper type Viewpoint

Cross‐national mentoring NGOs in transition societies: Field research and developments in Bulgaria

Non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) in societies undergoing socio‐economic transition are widely regarded as central to building a civil society that encourages democracy. At the moment, the Bulgarian civil society depends greatly on foreign funding whilst NGOs are unable to empower their beneficiaries in decision‐making. Given this reality, are cross‐national NGO partnerships able to strengthen organisations? What kinds of support are on offer, what kinds of (inter) dependency relations occur and to what extent do NGOs model their management practices on their mentor and with what results?
This paper sets out to situate these questions in the context of a proposed theoretical construct, organizational mentoring, which occurs where national or local organisations have access to and support of well‐established NGOs abroad. The model is constructed on the findings of a qualitative case study conducted in Bulgaria on the development of a Bulgarian NGO and its relationship with a UK NGO. This is preceded by a discussion on selected literature reflecting the meaning of transition, change in societal values and organizational practices in Eastern Europe, and the development of voluntary sector organizations in transforming countries. The theoretical model proposed here is relevant in providing a systematic discussion on organizational change towards a more enlightened engagement between civil society organizations in cross‐national partnerships. Such discussion has implications for the development of hybrid forms of coexistence between Eastern and Western European partners reflected in their interdependent organizational practices.

Transitional Justice: Conceptualising 'Transition'

Scholars and practitioners working in ‘transitional justice’ are concerned with remedies of accountability and redress in the aftermath of conflict and state repression. Transitional justice, it is argued, provides recognition of the rights of victims, promotes civic trust, and strengthens the democratic rule of law. As serious scholarship flourishes around this critical concept as never before, this new collection from Routledge meets the need for an authoritative reference work to map a vibrant site of research and reflection. In four volumes, Transitional Justice brings together foundational and the best and most influential cutting-edge materials, including key works produced before the term ‘transitional justice’ gained wide currency but which anticipate approaches now included under that rubric.

The collection covers themes such as: truth and history; acknowledgement, reconciliation, and forgiveness; retribution, restorative justice and reparations; and democracy, state-building, identity, and civil society

God is everywhere, but serves in Buenos Aires. Notes on the relationship between democracy and federalism in Argentina

This article presents the continuities from the past -structural asymmetries and hyper-presidentialism- as well as the innovations of the new democratic Argentina. This mixture of continuity and innovation has contributed to the development of particular forms of intergovernmental relations which we call cross control mechanisms  and interference between the federal and provincial levels. This mixture also  contributes to the shining of subnational actors in national arenas and of the provincial party identities. These elements are what primarily determine the way  the democratic political game in Argentina has been structured, since the transition.

Extreme bounds of democracy

What determines the emergence and survival of democracy? The authors apply extreme bounds analysis to test the robustness of fifty-nine factors proposed in the literature, evaluating over three million regressions with data from 165 countries from 1976 to 2002. The most robust determinants of the transition to democracy are gross domestic product (GDP) growth (a negative effect), past transitions (a positive effect), and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development membership (a positive effect). There is some evidence that fuel exporters and Muslim countries are less likely to see democracy emerge, although the latter finding is driven entirely by oil-producing Muslim countries. Regarding the survival of democracy, the most robust determinants are GDP per capita (a positive effect) and past transitions (a negative effect). There is some evidence that having a former military leader as the chief executive has a negative effect, while having other democracies as neighbors has a reinforcing effect.

Intra-party democracy: a revisionist perspective from below

Contrary to the expectations of many people, China's recent economic growth has not led to the collapse of the Chinese Communist Party. In fact, the party has recently carried out a peaceful and orderly transition to the so-called fourth generation of leadership, has revitalised itself, and created a new, younger and better trained cadre corps. Despite this successful transformation, there continue to be many problems that the party will need to overcome if it is to remain in power, including pressures for democratisation in both urban and rural areas, widespread corruption, the emergence of new social groups, and increasing dissatisfaction among workers who seem to be losing out in the present transition processs. This book explores the current state of the Chinese Communist Party and the many challenges which it faces.

E-democracy: media-liminal space in the era of age compression

In this chapter, the authors will look at the ideas of e-government and e-governance and practical examples of how new media are being used to enhance decision-making in democratic societies. The authors argue that the learning environments that have emerged from interactive entertainment and other contexts signal a change in the nature and role of liminality-the transition to citizen and civic engagement-in modern society.

Letting go without a fight : decolonization, democracy and war, 1900-94

Does the type of regime really make no difference to the likelihood of violent conflict over basic issues of stateness such as separatism and decolonization? Can democratic peace theory be successfully applied when dealing with the national identity or stateness question? This article extends the application of the democratic peace to the process of decolonization. It examines conflict between imperial states and their colonies during the process of decolonization and investigates the question of whether democracy affects the likelihood of conflict. The central finding is that, contrary to the implications of some prominent theories of state formation and democracy, democratic imperial states are significantly less likely to go to war with their colonial possessions in the process of achieving independence. Further, the authors find only a monadic, not dyadic, democratic peace effect. The regime type of the colony does not have a significant effect on the likelihood of war. It is the nature of the regime of imperial states, rather than that of colonies, that is a significant factor. In addition, the predominant source of this effect appears to be the institutional constraints placed on executive action within democracies, rather than the influence of mass politics or the effects of political competition. Regarding power-related factors, power parity between sovereign and colony makes conflict more likely (a colonial power-transition effect), but imperial decline actually makes war with colonies less likely. Sensitivity analysis reveals that a number of other hypothesized effects cannot find robust support. Simulations are used to assess the magnitude of the effect of regime type pre- and post-independence. Overall, the article contributes to theory development by investigating different institutional aspects of democracy and by distinguishing monadic and dyadic effects.

Democracy building in post-Saddam Iraq : 'historical memory' and 'primitive democracy'

Iraq’s long and complex past has played a particularly poignant role in establishing and legitimating the various political movements that have ascended to power since the nation state was first created by the British in the early 1920s (Davis, 2005b). For example, the installed Hashemite monarchy that ruled Iraq until the 1958 revolution utilised their ancestral connection to the Prophet Muhammad to legitimate their claim of being the rightful legatees of the Arab lands, while later Saddam Hussein invoked the power of Iraq’s Mesopotamian past to build nationalism and unite the people against ancient enemies such as during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s.What is problematic about these examples of ‘historical memory’ in Iraq is that they have also been used to justify a series of autocratic and despotic regimes that have attempted to quash Iraq’s civil society and curtail any semblance of democratic reform. However, this paper argues that such ‘historical memories’ may well be useful in reinvigorating the Iraqi public sphere and enabling the transition from despotism to democracy. To do this, this paper focuses on the ancient Mesopotamian practise of ‘Primitive Democracy’ and argues that reinvigorating such histories may serve to legitimate and promote democratic governance within Iraq.

Transitioning communities : community, participation and the transition town movement

The Transition Town (TT) movement has grown to become a global phenomenon aimed at assisting towns and communities to envision sustainable and self-reliant futures post peak oil. Arguably, this movement offers an exciting alternative to traditional notions of growth and development. This paper explores the rise of the TT movement focusing particularly on the processes involved in establishing a ‘TT’ raising questions pertaining to governance and to notions of participatory democracy within the movement.