Bigmen and Wantoks: Social Capital and Group Behaviour in Papua New Guinea

The concept of social capital has received a lot of attention in the social sciences in the last few years. It has come to be seen as an important factor in promoting socio-economic development. Despite the diversity of definitions available and the lack of clarity surrounding the concept, it is claimed that the level of trust, and the presence of the norms and networks that constitute social capital play an important role in enhancing economic efficiency and promoting government effectiveness. These claims, however, need to be properly qualified, as the nature and scope of social capital is much more ambiguous than is often suggested. High stocks of social capital can stifle development efforts in close-knit communities, and can be used to achieve objectives that may have negative effects on the wider community. More generally, the attempt to subsume a theory of institutions and a theory of group behaviour under the unifying label of social capital may not be very enlightening. Nevertheless, the social capital approach can provide useful insights for the study of group behaviour, related to the importance of looking at the characteristics of cooperation within groups and to state-society relations as important factors in determining the outcome of group functioning. Some characteristics of social organisation in Papua New Guinea demonstrate these points quite clearly. The existence in Papua New Guinea of a complex web of reciprocity obligations based mostly on ethnic identity (the wantok system) shows how existing social capital based on trust and cooperation within groups can have both positive and negative overall effects on group functioning. Moreover, the nature and structure of state-society relations, based on the country's colonial history and its institutional framework, influence group behaviour in a way that seems to promote vertical linkages of patronage and reinforce the negative effects of the wantok system.

Open Budgets. Transform Lives. The Open Budget Survey 2008

Provides a comparative measure of government budget transparency in eighty-five countries. Discusses contributing factors and makes recommendations for improving transparency, increasing public participation, and strengthening accountability oversight

The impacts of fiscal openness

Fiscal transparency and participation in government budgeting are widely promoted, yet claims about their benefits are rarely based on convincing evidence. We provide the first systematic review covering 38 empirical studies published between 1991 and early 2015. Increased budgetary disclosure and participation – which we call “fiscal openness” – are consistently associated with improvements in the quality of the budget, as well as governance and development outcomes. Only a handful of studies, however, are able to convincingly identify causal effects, in the form of reduced corruption, enhanced electoral accountability, and improved allocation of resources. We highlight gaps and set out a research agenda that consists of: (a) disaggregating broad measures of budget transparency to uncover which specific disclosures are related to outcomes; (b) tracing causal mechanisms to connect fiscal openness interventions with ultimate impacts on human development; (c) investigating the relative effectiveness of alternative interventions; (d) examining the relationship between transparency and participation; and (e) clarifying the contextual conditions that support particular interventions

Regionalism and African agency : negotiating an Economic Partnership Agreement between the European Union and SADC-Minus

This article investigates the regional dynamics of African agency in the case of negotiations for an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the EU and a group of Southern African countries, known as SADC-Minus. I argue that these negotiations were shaped by a pattern of differentiated responses to the choice set on offer under the EPAs by SADC-Minus policymakers and by a series of strategic interactions and power plays between them. I offer two contributions to an emerging literature on the role of African agency in international politics. First, I argue for a clear separation between ontological claims about the structure-agency relationship and empirical questions about the preferences, strategies and influence of African actors. Second, I suggest that in order to understand the regional dynamics of African agency it is important to pay close attention to the diversity and contingency of African preferences and to the role of both power politics and rhetorical contestation in regional political processes

Mozambique: Contested Sovereignty? The Dilemmas of Aid Dependence

Mozambique is highly aid dependent and both sovereignty and ownership are highly contested. Donors imposed policies and do not trust government, while allowing corruption in exchange for government following neo-liberal economic policies. It may be an unstable 'pathological equilibrium'

Justiça como vantagem mútua em perspectiva internacional

Discutem-se a pertinência e as implicações do contratualismo proposto pelo filósofo canadense David Gauthier à análise das relações internacionais. Argumenta-se que substanciais alterações na teoria de Gauthier da "moralidade por acordo" seriam necessárias para que se levem em conta os interesses daqueles que pouco ou nada têm a oferecer no mercado em termos de contribuição à geração de um excedente produzido por cooperação

Briefing: Paved with good intentions? The role of aid in reaching the Millennium Development Goals

This article is the final instalment in a series of briefings addressing issues raised in The Commission for Africa Report and the G-8 summit in Gleneagles in 2005