The power of jurisdiction in promoting social policies in smaller states

Draft working document prepared for the joint Commonwealth Secretariat/UNRISD Project on Social Policies in Small StatesOn the basis of a global review of empirical material, this paper argues that a stronger appreciation of strategic issues, institutional practices, legal features, regulatory capacities and behavioural response mechanisms would help in understanding why some small states succeed while others do not. To do so, this paper departs from a critical presentation of the two sets of “received wisdom” about small states and which, in spite of their determinist, reductionist, structuralist and myth-driven bent, continue to dominate much of the pertinent literature: the “small is beautiful” cluster which considers smallness as an inherent asset; and the “small is vulnerable” camp which treats small size as a chronic liability. In the case of the latter argument, there could be a valid case to be made for the economic consequences of environmental vulnerability (which includes the implications of rising sea levels); yet there is no well-established and compelling empirical basis for claiming the economic vulnerability of small states per se. Paradoxically, vulnerability has a significantly positive impact upon the long-term growth performance of small states. Many small states have been successful because they have transcended their size: their citizens are disproportionately avid travellers, well represented overseas, confident users of international languages, keen transnational brokers and mercantilists, active in regional and international circles, and have high propensities toward migration. Even at the macro political and economic level, small states are potentially well endowed with the ability to influence events that take place beyond their shores, and from which they can reap benefits. Such strategic economic planning often results when small jurisdictions assume the full economic challenges that accompany political independence, or else when they are so driven by the non-viability of a traditional (typically cash crop– or extractive resource–led) economy. Thus, this paper presents a more nuanced yet cautiously optimistic assessment of the predicament of small states, and how their jurisdictional status and powers can be conceived and converted into economic resources.peer-reviewe

100 key research questions for the post-2015 development agenda

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) herald a new phase for international development. This article presents the results of a consultative exercise to collaboratively identify 100 research questions of critical importance for the post-2015 international development agenda. The final shortlist is grouped into nine thematic areas and was selected by 21 representatives of international and non-governmental organisations and consultancies, and 14 academics with diverse disciplinary expertise from an initial pool of 704 questions submitted by 110 organisations based in 34 countries. The shortlist includes questions addressing long-standing problems, new challenges and broader issues related to development policies, practices and institutions. Collectively, these questions are relevant for future development-related research priorities of governmental and non- governmental organisations worldwide and could act as focal points for transdisciplinary research collaboration

Neoliberalism and the revival of agricultural cooperatives: The case of the coffee sector in Uganda

Agricultural cooperatives have seen a comeback in sub‐Saharan Africa. After the collapse of many weakly performing monopolist organizations during the 1980s and 1990s, strengthened cooperatives have emerged since the 2000s. Scholarly knowledge about the state–cooperative relations in which this “revival” takes place remains poor. Based on new evidence from Uganda's coffee sector, this paper discusses the political economy of Africa's cooperative revival. The authors argue that donors' and African governments' renewed support is framed in largely apolitical terms, which obscures the contested political and economic nature of the revival. In the context of neoliberal restructuring processes, state and non‐state institutional support to democratic economic organizations with substantial redistributional agendas remains insufficient. The political–economic context in Uganda—and potentially elsewhere in Africa—contributes to poor terms of trade for agricultural cooperatives while maintaining significant state control over some cooperative activities to protect the status quo interests of big capital and state elites. These conditions are unlikely to produce a conflict‐free, substantial, and sustained revival of cooperatives, which the new promoters of cooperatives suggest is under way

Modernising government: The way forward - An analysis

10.1177/0020852306068007International Review of Administrative Sciences723319-32