Elites and institutions : literature review

Exploring elites and their relations to institutions can assist understanding the day-to-day realities of politics in Africa (Chabal and Daloz 1999, Amundsen 2001, Lindberg 2003). This review is a scoping exercise in what has been written on the subject in recent years. The main task of the review is to summarise current understandings of how elites work with and through political institutions in Africa. There is a huge literature in this subject area. We have tried to pick out a) that which is most pertinent and non-repetitive, and b) that which raises as many questions as it provides answers. On the whole we have focused on literature published in the last five to ten years and we have inclined towards the literature on Anglophone Africa. The review is presented as follows: Section 1 is an introduction to Africa’s recent political landscape and it introduces some of the major issues that appear in the literature. Section 2 provides some working definitions of elites, institutions and democratisation as three of the recurring themes in the review. Section 3 reviews literature broadly on democratisation in Africa and specifically on elections and elites. Section 4 examines how political parties have evolved over the last 15 years. Section 5 reviews the three branches of government and Section 6 briefly examines decentralisation and its relation to elites and politics. The remaining sections of the review move outside the more formal political structures to examine the media (Section 7), civil society (Section 8), women’s movements (Section 9), Trades unions (Section 10) and business associations (Section 11). The final Section 12 pulls out a number of gaps in the research that we have identified in the course of the review. Section 13 contains a complete bibliography of citations used in the review. It is crucial to remember that Africa’s experiences of democratisation are no more than 15 years old, and many scholars have cautioned that it is still very early to draw any definite conclusions (Amundsen 2001; Randall and Svasand 2002). Inhaltsverzeichnis: 1. Africa’s political landscape 3 * Diversity of ‘Africa’ 4 * Elections do not mean democracy 4 * Presidentialism 4 * Ethnicity 5 * Personal rule and patronage 5 2. Definitions 6 * Elites 6 * Political institutions 7 * Democratisation 8 3. Democratisation and elites 8 * Elections 9 * Elites and elections 13 4. Political parties 16 5. Branches of government 17 * The executive 17 * The legislature 18 * The Judiciary 20 6. Decentralisation 20 7. Media 21 * Radio 25 * Television 25 * Newspapers 25 * Internet 26 8. Civil society 26 9. Women’s movements 29 10. Trade unions 32 11. Business associations 34 12. Gaps in the research 36 13. Bibliography 3

Options for Managing a Sudden Rise in Public Debt

Debate has raged over whether and when debt reduction is appropriate, particularly in advanced economies. Arguments for lowering public debt are based on the costs and risks generated by high public debt; debt reduction is generally deemed appropriate when the risks associated with it are greater than those associated with debt-reducing policies (Best et al 2018: 2). The literature on public debt reduction can be grouped into three broad strands (i) studies that describe episodes of debt accumulation and its sources; (ii) studies that assess the economic implications of high debt (on economic growth and interest rates); and (iii) studies that focus on debt reduction episodes, fiscal adjustment and its impact on the economy (Baldacci et al 2012: 370). This review draws mainly from the third strand. Options for managing high public debt generally fall into three categories: Conventional options, Unconventional options and Radical options. This report focuses on the first two categories. The more radical approaches to dealing with high public debt are considered out-of-scope for this particular research question

Interventions to Promote Wellbeing of Refugees in High- and Middle Income Countries

This review synthesises evidence on the evidence to support specific interventions promoting refugee wellbeing, including the role of social capital and networking in high- and middle-income countries. Although there is a growing literature about refugee wellbeing, and the links with social capital and networking, the evidence around interventions is more nascent. Despite the interest in refugee wellbeing, there is no commonly agreed definition of wellbeing in the literature on this. Most definitions used include some combination of psychological, affective, social, cultural, and even practical, dimensions. Similarly, the term social capital is contested, although most definitions draw on the seminal work on social capital by Putnam (1995) or Bourdieu (1986), to include aspects of networks, reciprocity, trust, shared norms and social agency. Where evidence on interventions has been identified, it is often limited in scope (for example, studies of smaller-scale, or one-off, interventions or with a limited sample size of participants). Existing evidence is overwhelmingly available from interventions in high-income countries. Interventions in middle-income countries were more elusive. This review highlights evidence around supporting refugee wellbeing across five main areas: (1) community-based interventions; (2) peer-based support and cultural brokering; (3) sponsorship schemes; (4) digital and social media; and (5) non-traditional mental health and wellbeing interventions