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14249 results in Political economy

Page 234 of 713

Pragmatism and the Origins of the Policy Sciences

Pragmatism and the Origins of the Policy Sciences
  • Rediscovering Lasswell and the Chicago School
  • William N. Dunn
  • Published online:
    08 March 2019
    Print publication:
    14 March 2019
  • This Element presents an examination of the origins of the policy sciences in the School of Pragmatism at the University of Chicago in the period 1915–38. Harold D. Lasswell, the principal creator of the policy sciences, based much of his work on the perspectives of public policy of John Dewey and other pragmatists at Chicago. Characteristics of the policy sciences include orientations that are normative, policy-relevant, contextual, and multi-disciplinary. These orientations originate in pragmatist principles of the unity of knowledge and action and functionalist explanations of action by reference to values. These principles are central to the future development of the policy sciences.

  • Military Capitalism in Myanmar: Examining the Origins, Continuities and Evolution of “Khaki Capital”

  • Gerard McCarthy
  • Book:
    Military Capitalism in Myanmar
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    24 January 2020
    Print publication:
    06 March 2019, pp 1-39

  • Summary

    INTRODUCTION

    Military conglomerates owned by or linked to state armies are a feature of economic and political systems across Southeast Asia. Often justified by military leaders on the basis of “alleviating” the burden of defence spending on government budgets, these companies can provide sources of funding entirely independent of civilian oversight. Military conglomerates thus commonly serve to entrench the power and autonomy of the armed forces from civilian control despite political transitions to more democratic modes of rule. Extensive scholarly work focused on Southeast Asia and regional contexts including the People's Republic of China and Pakistan has examined and theorized how military commercial interests — or “Khaki Capital” — shapes civilian control over the armed forces. However, the origins, evolution and contemporary implications of military capitalism in Myanmar remain little examined and under-researched.

    Myanmar is one of the most highly militarized societies in Southeast Asia and, indeed, the world. If soldiers, veterans and their families alone are considered, the lives of over 3 million people are currently or could in the future be directly shaped by military institutions and conglomerates which dominate major sectors of Myanmar's economy. This report examines the origins and evolution of military capitalism in Myanmar and its contemporary implications for reform of civil–military relations, veteran welfare and the peace process. It draws on interviews with thirty-eight veterans, civil servants, business people, policymakers, researchers and others with experience of military affairs and conglomerates. These interviews were conducted between September and November 2018.

    The report is structured in four sections. The first section situates military companies in the context of the political and economic legacies of colonial rule, while the second section examines the re-emergence of military conglomerates after 1988. The third assesses the politics of military companies in contemporary Myanmar, including where they sit in the larger context of shifting civil–military relations. It notes that government pensions appear to be more important in the welfare of the average veterans than the minimal benefit received from military capitalism. The fourth section outlines the role of military capitalism in attempts by the Myanmar government to end conflict since the 1990s, and then examines whether “Business for Peace” initiatives in ceasefire areas are likely to deliver welfare outcomes for average ethnic armed group soldiers, officers and conflict affected communities.

  • Military Capitalism in Myanmar: Examining the Origins, Continuities and Evolution of “Khaki Capital”

  • Gerard McCarthy
  • Book:
    Military Capitalism in Myanmar
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    24 January 2020
    Print publication:
    06 March 2019, pp vii-viii

  • Summary

    EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

  • • Military enterprises, ostensibly set up to feed and supply soldiers, were some of the earliest and largest Burmese commercial conglomerates, established in the 1950s. Union Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (UMEHL) and Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC) are two profit-seeking military enterprises established by the military after the dissolution of the Burma Socialist Programme Party in 1988, which remain central players in Myanmar's post-2011 economy.

  • • Military conglomerates are a major source of off-budget revenue for the military and a main employer of retired soldiers. Yet few veterans receive more than a small piece of the profits from UMEHL. The vast bulk of formal dividends instead disproportionately benefit higher ranking officers and institutions within the Tatmadaw.

  • • Military capitalism entrenches the autonomy of the Tatmadaw from civilian oversight. Despite this, obligatory or semi-coerced contributions from active-duty soldiers are a source of cash flow for UMEHL, effectively constituting a transfer from the government budget to the military's off-budget entities. The most significant source of livelihoods support for most veterans is the service pension dispersed by the Ministry of Finance and Planning (MoPF).

  • • Despite delivering suboptimal welfare outcomes for most soldiers and veterans while eroding the legitimacy of ceasefires, successive governments since 1988, including Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) administration, have entrenched military capitalism by encouraging commercial activities of armed groups that enter into ceasefire agreements.

  • • Extending military pensions already paid by the Ministry of Planning and Finance to retired members of armed groups could deliver a far more consistent and tangible “peace dividend” than the commercial extraction of resources from ceasefire areas.

  • • More balanced civil–military relations, and fairer social outcomes for military personnel, will rely on civilian-led state institutions delivering effective and substantive welfare support beyond the commercially oriented welfare arrangements of military conglomerates.

  • Foreword

  • Gerard McCarthy
  • Book:
    Military Capitalism in Myanmar
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    24 January 2020
    Print publication:
    06 March 2019, pp v-vi

  • Summary

    The economic, political, strategic and cultural dynamism in Southeast Asia has gained added relevance in recent years with the spectacular rise of giant economies in East and South Asia. This has drawn greater attention to the region and to the enhanced role it now plays in international relations and global economics.

    The sustained effort made by Southeast Asian nations since 1967 towards a peaceful and gradual integration of their economies has had indubitable success, and perhaps as a consequence of this, most of these countries are undergoing deep political and social changes domestically and are constructing innovative solutions to meet new international challenges. Big Power tensions continue to be played out in the neighbourhood despite the tradition of neutrality exercised by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

    The Trends in Southeast Asia series acts as a platform for serious analyses by selected authors who are experts in their fields. It is aimed at encouraging policymakers and scholars to contemplate the diversity and dynamism of this exciting region.

    THE EDITORS

    Series Chairman:

    Choi Shing Kwok

    Series Editor:

    Ooi Kee Beng

    Editorial Committee:

    Su-Ann Oh

    Daljit Singh

    Francis E. Hutchinson

    Benjamin Loh

Revolutionary Legacy, Power Structure, and Grassroots Capitalism under the Red Flag in China
  • Qi Zhang, Mingxing Liu
  • Published online:
    04 March 2019
    Print publication:
    21 March 2019
  • Why do political elites in authoritarian regimes, even within the same country, engage in different levels of predatory behavior, whereby some foster vibrant capitalism and others suffocate the innovative private sector? This book proposes a theory of localized property-rights protection under authoritarianism. By combining in-depth fieldwork with archival research and quantitative data analysis, Qi Zhang and Mingxing Liu discuss the post-1949 conflicts between dominant and marginalized factions in the Chinese province of Zhejiang. These conflicts resulted in systemic vulnerabilities among the marginalized local cadres, thus motivating them to form alliances with their grassroots constituents. They therefore provided their constituents with quasi-public goods, such as property-rights protection, to increase their odds of political survival. Zhang and Liu argue that this framework can apply both to the Mao era and to the current reform era, and it also can be extended beyond China to a wider context.

  • 2 - The Social Underpinnings of Decentralized Governance

  • Edited by Jonathan A. Rodden, Stanford University, California, Erik Wibbels, Duke University, North Carolina
  • Book:
    Decentralized Governance and Accountability
    Published online:
    18 February 2019
    Print publication:
    28 February 2019, pp 14-39

  • Summary

    Most of the academic research on how decentralization might promote accountability has focused on institutions: how formal rules governing elections, fiscal federalism, etc. impact political accountability. Donor programming and accompanying evaluations, on the other hand, have focused less on institutions and more on mobilizing civil society and “social accountability”. These programming efforts have progressed with considerable enthusiasm but without, for the most part, reference to recent academic breakthroughs on the social conditions for cooperative behavior and collective action. The goal of this chapter is to consider how recent innovations in the study of information flows and cooperation in social networks might inform donor programming on social accountability. Research on social networks provides insights into the relational characteristics of communities that are certain to impact the prospects for accountability, the potential for technology to promote accountability, and gives a rigorous underpinning to the frequent, if ambiguous, claim that “context matters.”

Page 234 of 713