Una teoría económico-política de partidos competitivos

RESUMEN:Los partidos políticos se dirigen a ciertos grupos sociales y distritos electorales a los que pretenden representar y de los cuales esperan obtener apoyo electoral en su búsqueda de votos y cargos electorales. ¿Por qué y cómo desarrollan preferencias en su política los partidos? En general, ¿cómo podemos explicar la racionalidad del partido en condiciones de incertidumbre y complejidad? El artículo desarrolla una teoría económico-política de comportamiento de partidos que sostiene que el análisis debería basarse solamente en los «actores» individuales. A partir del postulado de Demsetz que sostiene que la mejor forma de estudiar los partidos es considerarlos como proveedores de unos «beneficios colaterales», este estudio sostiene que las opciones electorales y de programa de un partido son el resultado de una coalición dominante intrapartido formada por individuos que consiguen imponer sus preferencias en el partido. «La racionalidad del partido» no se basa en factores sistémicos u opciones racionales generados por la organización misma sino por grupos de actores dentro del partido que compiten no sólo con otros rivales dentro del mismo partido sino también con otros partidos. ABSTRACT:Political parties target certain social groups and constituencies which they claim to represent and from whom they hope to obtain electoral support in their quest for votes and electoral office. Why and how do parties develop policy preferences? More generally, how can we account for party rationality under conditions of uncertainty and complexity? The article develops a «political economy» theory of party behavior which maintains that individual actors ought to be the only focus of analysis. Building upon Demsetz's argument that parties are best studied as providers of «amenity potential», the study contends that a party's electoral and policy choices are the product of a dominant intra-party coalition of individuals who are able to impose their preferences on the party. «Party rationality» is not shaped by systemic factors or rational choices by the organization itself but by groups of intra-party actors who are in competition not only with other intra-party rivals but other parties

Globalization and governmentality in the post-colony: South Africa under Jacob Zuma

This paper addresses two twin questions - what accounts for the deep political and economic crisis in South Africa? The answer this paper develops is that both desired outcomes - a thriving capitalist economy and a solid democracy - were based on Western models and assumptions about the South African developmental trajectory that did not take into account the fact that few of the prerequisites for either outcome existed. By critically applying the work of Partha Chatterjee, I make the argument that around 60 per cent of South Africa's population is marginalized from both the capitalist economy and its democratic processes. As a result, this large population views both democracy and capitalism with disdain and mistrust. The "politics of the governed", as Chatterjee refers to it, is about access to scarce government-controlled resources and based on rules of exception where those who protest in the most effective (often violent) manner obtain access whereas those who occupy less strategic positions are ignored and forgotten. The politics of the governed takes place in a global setting in which the state is no longer economically sovereign and less able to distribute resources to achieve public goods. The combination of a large political society governed in a more or less democratic system and an open, capitalist economy produces a distinctive style of populist politics, corruption and violence

Ecology, Economy and Empowerment: Eco-Tourism and the Game Lodge Industry in South Africa

An extensive game lodge industry operates across Southern Africa. Many of these lodges market themselves as 'eco-tourism destinations' where wildlife protection, community development and the maintenance of bio-diversity are supposed to be central values of the business model. This article deals with the tensions that arise for the management of such enterprises between a multiplicity of local and global interests around land use pertaining to conflicting motivations of profitability and capital-intensive development, protection of bio-diversity and enabling community empowerment. The article illustrates the interplay between these competing interests, preferences and claims surrounding the use to which the land these lodges occupy is used. It examines a set of cases in South Africa with special reference to the Sabi Sand Private Game Reserve.

Economic policy diffusion and the international financial system: The case for an international Keynesian coalition

This article illustrates how the international financial markets influence socio-economic policy decisions taken by emerging market economies. These markets determine the value of an emerging market economy's currency and have brought about increasing currency volatility. In order to bring some form of regulation to these markets to reduce volatility, an international coalition is essential as these are global markets operating on a global scale. This article suggests that a coalition of emerging market economies may not be sufficient to bring about such regulation as some of these economies (particularly India and China) are beneficiaries of the new financial regime. If countries such as Brazil and South Africa are seeking an international coalition for regulation, then the social democratic movements of Western Europe may be more appropriate coalition partners than the regimes of India and China

Deliberative democracy and the politics of traditional leadership in South Africa: A case of despotic domination or democratic deliberation?

A heated debate developed in South Africa as to the meaning of 'deliberative democracy'. This debate is fanned by the claims of 'traditional leaders' that their ways of village-level deliberation and consensus-oriented decision-making are not only a superior process for the African continent as it evolves from pre-colonial tradition, but that it represents a form of democracy that is more authentic than the Western version. Proponents suggest that traditional ways of deliberation are making a come-back because imported Western models of democracy that focus on the state and state institutions miss the fact that in African societies state institutions are often seen as illegitimate or simply absent from people's daily lives. In other words, traditional leadership structures are more appropriate to African contexts than their Western rivals. Critics suggest that traditional leaders, far from being authentic democrats, are power-hungry patriarchs and authoritarians attempting to both re-invent their political, social and economic power (frequently acquired under colonial and apartheid rule) and re-assert their control over local-level resources at the expense of the larger community. In this view, the concept of deliberative democracy is being misused as a legitimating device for a politics of patriarchy and hierarchy, which is the opposite of the meaning of the term in the European and US sense. This article attempts to contextualise this debate and show how the efforts by traditional leaders to capture an intermediary position between rural populations and the state is fraught with conflicts and contradictions when it comes to forming a democratic state and society in post-apartheid South Africa

The effects of circulatory capitalism on democratization: Observations from South Africa and Brazil

This article argues that the democratization processes taking place in South Africa and elsewhere in emerging market economies cannot be separated from the global economic context within which these processes are taking place. The article illustrates that the mainstream political economy literature has not paid sufficient attention to the issue of the limits and constraints placed upon these newly emerging democracies by the new financial architecture, particularly the derivatives market, which now determines the value and price of emerging market currencies. The article concludes that the workings of this market not only heavily favour the interests of developed countries but that they deeply question the accountability of politicians in those emerging markets and thereby endanger the legitimacy of the democratic project in large parts of the post-colonial world. The article is divided into three sections: first, a critique of some of the leading political economy analyses and their position on the relationship between open-economy policies and democracy; second, an account of the development of the derivatives market since 1973 and a theorization of its implications for currency movements, particularly monetary volatility, of emerging market currencies; third, an illustration by way of the South African and Brazilian cases of the policy implications of currency volatility for creating improved social and economic conditions

Currency devaluations and consolidating democracy: the example of the South African rand

In 2001 the South African rand depreciated suddenly and steeply against the dollar and euro. This triggered inflation as the prices of imported products gapped upward. To offset the imminent inflationary effects and attract foreign exchange, the Reserve Bank raised interest rates, resulting in slower domestic growth. The critical question was the cause of the currency depreciation. We argue here that the rand's decline was the result of a concatenation of internal and external factors, specifically the way the operations of the global financial markets magnified and exacerbated the effects of internal financial policy decisions. The article illustrates the heightening connectivity between domestic policy decisions aimed at regulating the national economy and the globalizing financial markets that operate on an altogether different logic. The Reserve Bank's attempt to regulate the local foreign exchange regime in concert with the corporate use of financial instruments to circumvent these exchange controls led to a relatively illiquid currency market that was easily susceptible to attack by speculative capital. The end result was a crippling devaluation that especially hurt the impoverished black South African majority in the process of getting on its feet economically, thereby adding a further constraint on the consolidation of post-apartheid democracy

Democratizing Democracy: A Postcolonial Critique of Conventional Approaches to the 'Measurement of Democracy'

In most approaches to measuring democracy, the underlying assumptions are highly a-historical and a-cultural. This article is a critique of such approaches and provides the outline for an alternative interpretation. It argues that different histories and cultures produce different democracies. Conventional measuring paradigms are insufficient to adequately measure progress towards democracy in postcolonial settings. The article offers four arguments as to why democracy in the postcolony will not, and cannot, develop in a similar fashion to those in the North American and Western European settings. It focuses on the different historical trajectories of state construction; the limits of the postcolonial state in terms of its domestic capacities; the positioning of emerging market economies and democracies in the global financial system; and, finally, the variety of cultural conceptions of the proper relationship between community and individual. These four factors ensure that postcolonial democracies will differ in their trajectories from those of their Western counterparts. The article concludes that it is high time to 'democratize democracy', so that postcolonial attempts at creating democratic systems are given equal weight in the debates concerning progress towards democratic regimes and that different trajectories and conceptions of the meaning of democracy are take into account in Western democratic discourse

Institutional obstacles to service delivery in South Africa

This paper argues that the service-delivery crisis facing two-thirds of the municipalities across South Africa is caused by a series of institutional shortcomings ranging from incoherence in national policy towards rural and urban development, a lack of enforcement when it comes to financial controls and competencies, and a lack of skills affecting local officials ranging from customer service and relations, to financial controls, to technical competencies in the core areas of electrification, basic water and sanitation, and refuse collection. Government needs to address the skills shortage at the local level and enforce the rules and regulations concerning the role of public and elected officials to ensure not only service delivery but accountability and transparent decision-making. Attending to the skills shortage and enforcing relevant rules would ensure better service delivery and, in turn, encourage bringing 'democracy to the people', which is at the heart of the post apartheid government's decentralisation project