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Political Settlement
An elite pact, settlement or political settlement is an agreement or understanding between political elites which moderates the violence and winner takes all nature of unrestrained conflict. Such settlements are often understood to transform government from an autocratic mode into more pluralistic, democratic form. However, others view the political settlement as normatively neutral. This concept in political theory is part of elite theory and state-building. Joel Migdal has suggested that the concept of political settlements has a pedigree going back to the work of Barrington Moore. Political settlements are the frameworks for governing a state established by elites, either through formal processes or informally over time. There are numerous definitions of political settlements and elite pacts, often including an emphasis on understandings between elites that bring about the conditions to end conflict, or maintain peace. In 2011 the World Bank's World Development Report sugge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elite Theory
In political science and sociology, elite theory is a theory of the State that seeks to describe and explain power relationships in contemporary society. The theory posits that a small minority, consisting of members of the economic elite and policy-planning networks, holds the most power—and that this power is independent of democratic elections. Through positions in corporations or on corporate boards, and influence over policy-planning networks through the financial support of foundations or positions with think tanks or policy-discussion groups, members of the "elite" exert significant power over corporate and government decisions. The basic characteristics of this theory are that power is concentrated, the elites are unified, the non-elites are diverse and powerless, elites' interests are unified due to common backgrounds and positions and the defining characteristic of power is institutional position. Elite theory opposes pluralism (more than one system of power), a trad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
State-building
State-building as a specific term in social sciences and humanities, refers to political and historical processes of creation, institutional consolidation, stabilization and sustainable development of states, from the earliest emergence of statehood up to the modern times. Within historical and political sciences, there are several theoretical approaches to complex questions related to role of various contributing factors (geopolitical, economic, social, cultural, ethnic, religious, internal, external) in state-building processes. Since the end of the 20th century, ''state-building'' has developed into becoming an integral part and even a specific approach to peacebuilding by the international community. Observers across the political and academic spectra have come to see the state-building approach as the preferred strategy to peacebuilding in a number of high-profile conflicts, including the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and war-related conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barrington Moore
Barrington Moore Jr. (12 May 1913 – 16 October 2005) was an American political sociologist, and the son of forester Barrington Moore. He is well-known for his ''Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy'' (1966), a comparative study of modernization in Britain, France, the United States, China, Japan, Russia, Germany, and India. The book puts forth a neo-Marxist argument that class structures and class alliances at particular points in time can account for the kinds of social revolutions that occurred and did not occur in those countries, putting some countries on a path to democracy, whereas others were put on a path to authoritarianism or communism. He famously argued, "no bourgeois, no democracy," which emphasized the important role played by a large middle-class in accomplishing democratization and ensuring democratic stability. Early life, education and career Moore was born in Washington D.C. in 1913. He studied Latin, Greek, and history at Williams College in Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Carothers
Thomas Carothers (born June 28, 1956) is an American lawyer and an expert on international democracy support, democratization, and U.S. foreign policy. He is senior vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he founded and currently directs the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance. He has also taught at several universities in the United States and Europe, including Central European University, the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and Nuffield College, Oxford, where he is a senior research fellow. Carothers served as the interim president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Early life Carothers received a J.D. from Harvard Law School, a M.Sc. from the London School of Economics where he was a Marshall Scholar and an A.B. from Harvard College. He speaks English, French, and Spanish. Career Carothers worked at the law firm of Arnold & Porter in Washington, DC. Before that, he was an attorney-adviser at t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carnegie Endowment For International Peace
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) is a nonpartisan international affairs think tank headquartered in Washington D.C. with operations in Europe, South and East Asia, and the Middle East as well as the United States. Founded in 1910 by Andrew Carnegie, the organization describes itself as being dedicated to advancing cooperation between countries, reducing global conflict, and promoting active international engagement by the United States and countries around the world. In the University of Pennsylvania's "2019 Global Go To Think Tanks Report", Carnegie was ranked the number 1 top think tank in the world. In the ''2015 Global Go To Think Tanks Report'', Carnegie was ranked the third most influential think tank in the world, after the Brookings Institution and Chatham House. It was ranked as the top Independent Think Tank in 2018. Its headquarters building, prominently located on the Embassy Row section of Massachusetts Avenue, was completed in 1989 on a design b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seeing Like A State
''Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed'' is a book by James C. Scott critical of a system of beliefs he calls high modernism, that centers on governments' overconfidence in the ability to design and operate society in accordance with purported scientific laws. The book makes an influential argument that states seek to force "legibility" on their subjects by homogenizing them and creating standards that simplify pre-existing, natural, diverse social arrangements. Examples include the introduction of last names, censuses, uniform languages, and standard units of measurement. While intended to facilitate state control and economies of scale, Scott argues that the eradication of local differences and silencing of local expertise can have adverse effects. The book was first published in March 1998, with a paperback version in February 1999. Summary Scott shows how central governments attempt to force ''legibility'' on their subject ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christine Bell
Christine Bell, FBA, FRSE, is a legal scholar, specialising in human rights law. As of 2018, she is Professor of Constitutional Law and Assistant Principal (Global Justice) at the University of Edinburgh. Bell graduated from Selwyn College, Cambridge, with her undergraduate law degree in 1988, before completing a master of laws degree at Harvard University in 1990. She qualified as a Barrister in that year and, after passing the New York bar examination, she worked at Debevoise & Plimpton. She was then Director of the Centre for International and Comparative Human Rights Law at Queen's University Belfast from 1997 to 1999, and then Professor of Public International Law at the University of Ulster from 2000 to 2011."Professor Christine Bell" ''University of Edinburgh''. Retrieved 12 April 2018. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patrick Chabal
Patrick Chabal (29 April 1951 – 16 January 2014) was a leading Africanist of the late 20th and early 21st century. He had a long career in academics. Patrick Chabal's latest position was Chair in African History & Politics at King's College London. He published numerous books, book chapters and articles about Africa. He was one of the founders of AEGIS (Africa-Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies) and was a board member for many years. Major publications *''Amílcar Cabral Amílcar Lopes da Costa Cabral (; – ) was a Bissau-Guinean and Cape Verdean agricultural engineer, pan-Africanist, intellectual, poet, theoretician, revolutionary, political organizer, nationalist and diplomat. He was one of Africa's foremo .... Revolutionary leadership and people's war'' (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1983) *with Jean-Pascal Daloz: ''Africa Works: disorder as political instrument'' (Oxford, Currey, 1999) **with Jean-Pascal Daloz: ''Culture Troubles: politics and the interpretation o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
