Australia's Foreign Economic Policy: a 'State-Society Coalition' Approach and a Historical Overview

This paper aims to explain the historical development of Australia's foreign economic policy by using an analytical framework called a 'state-society coalition' approach. This approach focuses on virtual coalitions of state and society actors that share 'belief systems' and hold similar policy ideas, goals and preferences, as basic units (policy subsystems) of policy making. Major policy changes occur when a dominant coalition is replaced by another. The paper argues that, in Australia, there have been three major state-society coalitions in the foreign economic policy issue area: 'protectionists', 'trade liberalisers' and 'optional bilateralists'. The rise and fall of these coalitions resulted in distinctive shifts of Australia's foreign economic policy in the 1980s towards unilateral and multilateral liberalisation and in the late 1990s towards bilateral trade and investment arrangements.

Annual report of the New-York State Society for the Promotion of Temperance.

Mode of access: Internet.

An oration, delivered in the Independent, or Congregational Church, Charleston, before the State Rights & Free Trade Party, the State Society of Cincinnati, the Revolution Society, the '76 Association, and the State Volunteers, on the 4th of July, 1833, being the 57th anniversary of American Independence.

Mode of access: Internet.

State–society cycles and political pacts in a national–dependent society: Brazil

The history of independent Brazil may be divided into three major state–society cycles, and, after 1930, five political pacts or class coalitions can be identified. These pacts were nationalist; only in the 1990s did the Brazilian elites surrender to the neoliberal hegemony. Yet, since the mid-2000s they have been rediscovering the idea of the nation. The main claim of the essay is that Brazilian elites and Brazilian society are “national–dependent”, that is, they are ambivalent and contradictory, requiring an oxymoron to define them. They are dependent because they often see themselves as “European” and the mass of the people as inferior. But Brazil is big enough, and there are enough common interests around its domestic market, to make the Brazilian nation less ambivalent. Today Brazil is seeking a synthesis between the last two political cycles – between social justice and economic development in the framework of democracy.

Political economy of state-building: power after peace

The purpose of this volume is to examine and evaluate the impact of international state-building interventions on the political economy of post-conflict countries over the last 20 years. It analyses how international interventions have shaped political and economic dynamics and structures – both formal and informal – and what kind of state, and what kind of state-society relations have been created as a result, through three different lenses: first, through the approaches taken by different international actors like the UN, the International Financial Institutions, or the European Union, to state-building; second, through detailed analysis of key state-building policies; and third, through a wide range of country case studies. Amongst the recurring themes that are highlighted by the book’s focus on the political economy of state-building, and that help to explain why international state-building interventions have tended to fall short of the visions of interveners and local populations alike are evidence of important continuities between war-time and “post-conflict” economies and authority structures, which are often consolidated as a consequence of international involvement; tensions arising from what are often the competing interests and values held by different interveners and local actors; and, finally, the continuing salience of economic and political violence in state-building processes and war-to-peace transitions. The book aims to offer a more nuanced understanding of the complex impact of state-building practices on post-conflict societies, and of the political economy of post-conflict state-building.

The Emerging Civil Society in China and Its Impact on Democratization

Recent years have seen an emerging civil society in an authoritarian China. The authoritarian embrace of civil society challenges the conventional wisdom that civil society is closely linked to democracy. In Beijing, the rhetoric of civil society linked less to democracy than to modernization. However, does civil society development have any impact on democratization in authoritarian regimes? The thesis tries to provide a tentative answer by studying civil society and democratization in post-Mao China. As a result of economic development and political reforms, gradual political liberalization has marked a shift of state-society relations that gives rise to a certain degree of democratization and a growing civil society. The thesis uses a statistical correlation study to examine the relations between grassroots democratization and civil society development. The study concludes that civil society development may have contributed to democratization at the grassroots level but not on the national level. The impact of civil society on democratization depends on the political structure of the state and will remain limited unless the government allows for further state-led democratic openings.

MODEL COUNTRIES IN POLITICAL ANALYSIS. Is Turkey a Model for State-Building in the Arab World? Jean Monnet Occasional Paper No. 10/2014

This study analyzes the Turkish case as a model country for the state-building processes in the Arab world in the aftermath of the Arab revolts that took place in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. To this end, it deals with the Turkish case in three phases: the founding of the Turkish Republic, political developments until 2002, and the post-2002 Justice and Development Party period. The study focuses on state-society relations manifested in the form of a secular-religious cleavage intertwined with problematic civil-military relations. Each phase of Turkey’s history is compared to cleavages and civil-military relations in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. After analyzing the constitution-making processes in the latter three countries following the Arab revolts, the study concludes by discussing the viability of the Turkish model in the light of Turkey’s search for a new constitution.

Morocco’s illiberal regime and fragmented political society. Arab Citizenship Review No. 10, October 2015

The post-Arab Spring period in Morocco has undergone different stages of changing state-society relations with regard to democracy, citizenship and human rights. The first stage, between February 2011 and the summer of 2013, was characterised by popular protests demanding democracy and freedom. People criticised public policies related to civil, political and social rights (employment, health, education, the status of women, and the issue of Amazigh). This outburst put the state in an awkward, defensive position. If we compare Morocco with the other Arab Spring countries, the Moroccan state’s reaction was moderate in its use of violence and repression, and it was positive, in that it resulted in the implicit, yet official acceptance of the demands for democracy, citizenship and battling corruption. In his speech on 9 March 2011, the king pledged to modify the Constitution and democratise the institutions.

Eulogy on Gen. Chs. Cotesworth Pinckney, President-General of the Society of the Cincinnati : delivered, by appointment of the Society of the Cincinnati of South=Carolina, on Tuesday, the 1st of November, 1825, at St. Philip's Church /

Mode of access: Internet.

Natural Disasters and Comparative State-Formation and Nation-Building: Earthquakes in Argentina and Chile (1822-1939)

Natural disasters in Argentina and Chile played a significant role in the state-formation and nation-building process (1822-1939). This dissertation explores state and society responses to earthquakes by studying public and private relief efforts reconstruction plans, crime and disorder, religious interpretations of catastrophes, national and transnational cultures of disaster, science and technology, and popular politics. Although Argentina and Chile share a political border and geological boundary, the two countries provide contrasting examples of state formation. Most disaster relief and reconstruction efforts emanated from the centralized Chilean state in Santiago. In Argentina, provincial officials made the majority of decisions in a catastrophe’s aftermath. Patriotic citizens raised money and collected clothing for survivors that helped to weave divergent regions together into a nation. The shared experience of earthquakes in all regions of Chile created a national disaster culture. Similarly, common disaster experiences, reciprocal relief efforts, and aid commissions linked Chileans with Western Argentine societies and generated a transnational disaster culture. Political leaders viewed reconstruction as opportunities to implement their visions for the nation on the urban landscape. These rebuilding projects threatened existing social hierarchies and often failed to come to fruition. Rebuilding brought new technologies from Europe to the Southern Cone. New building materials and systems, however, had to be adapted to the South American economic and natural environment. In a catastrophe’s aftermath, newspapers projected images of disorder and the authorities feared lawlessness and social unrest. Judicial and criminal records, however, show that crime often decreased after a disaster. Finally, nineteenth-century earthquakes heightened antagonism and conflict between the Catholic Church and the state. Conservative clergy asserted that disasters were divine punishments for the state’s anti-clerical measures and later railed against scientific explanations of earthquakes.

Práticas sociais de efetivação e reivindicação do direito à saúde : uma análise do Brasil e Portugal

Com as transformações do Estado-Providência e das sociedades contemporâneas no que concerne ao exercício de direitos, observam-se alterações substantivas na estrutura, dimensões de ação e estratégias próprias dos mecanismos de reivindicação. No caso do direito à saúde, a análise dos casos de Brasil e Portugal permite discutir a interface entre Estado, sociedade e instituições jurídicas a partir da dimensão da cultura de participação dos cidadãos, das redes de solidariedade que constituem no espaço local e na utilização de mecanismos estatais e não-estatais. A respeito do arcabouço jurídico-institucional similar, a diversidade de repertórios de ação coletiva para reivindicar a efetivar este direito em ambos os países foi a tônica desta pesquisa, que se desenvolveu em 2011 em ambas as localidades. O objetivo do trabalho consiste em discutir as estratégias e formas de efetivação da saúde como direito, de modo a refletir sobre as oportunidades políticas e a cultura política de cada experiência. Para tal, foi realizada uma pesquisa qualitativa e quantitativa, com o objetivo de discutir os desafios de efetivação do direito à saúde com foco no acesso à justiça e nos repertórios de ação coletiva. As hipóteses foram: a) há diferenças no que concerne aos itinerários do cuidado em saúde, ora enfatizando a centralidade do Estado no cuidado (Brasil), ora responsabilidade o indivíduo pela sua própria saúde (Portugal), o que enseja impactos na própria cultura de participação dos indivíduos em ambos os países; b) há diferenças no que concerne à relação ente Judiciário e sociedade, ora estabelecendo políticas de proximidade com o cidadão (Brasil), ora estabelecendo políticas de desjudicialização (Portugal), o que enseja repercussões na própria forma como os indivíduos concebem o sistema judicial e o ativam em seu cotidiano; c) os sistemas de saúde de ambos os países foram construídos por influência predominantemente internacional (Portugal) ou dos movimentos sociais (Brasil), de modo que isto permitiu constituir em cada um destes países formas distintas de lidar com o direito à saúde pelos cidadãos. Os resultados videnciam que a complexidade da eleição do mecanismo estatal ou não-estatal está fortemente relacionada à cultura política dos cidadãos, além de fatores políticos e econômicos oriundos das oportunidades políticas de cada um dos países

Entendiendo un programa de reparación: reconstrucción del proceso de creación e implementación de familias en su tierra – FEST– El caso del municipio de La Palma, Cundinamarca

A partir de la reconstrucción del proceso de creación e implementación del programa presidencial para la reparación a población desplazada Familias En Su Tierra, se exploran las dificultades y retos que enfrenta la Ley de Víctimas y Restitución de Tierras.