Francis Fukuyama

Social capital, civil society and development

Social capital is an instantiated informal norm that promotes co-operation between individuals. In the economic sphere it reduces transaction costs and in the political sphere it promotes the kind of associational life which is necessary for the success of limited government and modern democracy. While it often arises from iterated Prisoners Dilemma games, it also is a byproduct of religion, tradition, shared historical experience and other types of cultural norms. Thus, while awareness of social capital is often critical for understanding development, it is difficult to generate through public policy.

Social Capital and Civil Society

Social capital is an instantiated informal norm that promotes cooperation between individuals. In the economic sphere it reduces transaction costs, and in the political sphere it promotes the kind of associational life that is necessary for the success of limited government and modern democracy. Although social capital often arises from iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma games, it also is a byproduct of religion, tradition, shared historical experience, and other types of cultural norms. Thus whereas awareness of social capital is often critical for understanding development, it is difficult to generate through public policy.

Social Capital and the Global Economy

Conventional maps of the global economy divide the major players into three groups: the United States and its partners in the North American Free Trade Agreement, the European Union (eu), and East Asia, led by Japan but with the four dragons (South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore) and the Peoples Republic of China catching up rapidly. This three-pronged geography is said to correspond to major divisions in the approach to political economy: at one pole lie Japan and the newly industrialized Asian economies, which have relied heavily on state-centered industrial policies to guide their development, while at the other extreme lies the United States, with its commitment to free-market liberalism. Europe, with its extensive social welfare policies, lies somewhere in between. This familiar map, while not wrong, is today not the most useful way of understanding global economic geography. The most striking difference among capitalist countries is their industrial structure. Ger many, Japan, and the United States were quick to adopt the corporate form of organization as they industrialized in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and today their economies are hosts to giant, professionally managed corporations like Siemens, Toyota, Ford, and Motorola. By contrast, the private sectors of France, Italy, and capi

Power sharing and international mediation in ethnic conflicts

Can power sharing prevent violent ethnic conflict? And if so, how can the international community best promote that outcome?In this concise volume, Timothy Sisk defines power sharing as practices and institutions that result in broad-based governing coalitions generally inclusive of all major ethnic groups. He identifies the principal approaches to power sharing, including autonomy, federations, and proportional electoral systems.In addition, Sisk highlights the problems with various power-sharing approaches and practices that have been raised by scholars and practitioners alike, and the instances where power-sharing experiments have succeeded and where they have failed. Finally, he offers some guidance to policymakers as they ponder power-sharing arrangements.

Social Capital and Development: The Coming Agenda

T article addresses the concept of social capital: in particular, where social capital stands today, how it interacts with other factors in international development, and how it will contribute to economic growth and poverty alleviation in the future. The term “social capital” reentered the social science lexicon in the 1980s. According to sociologist James Coleman, social capital refers to people’s ability to work together in groups. I prefer to define the concept more broadly to include any instance in which people cooperate for common ends on the basis of shared informal norms and values. Furthermore, many now regard social capital as a key ingredient in both economic development and stable liberal democracy. Over the past decade, most research on social capital and its relationship with economic development has been conceptual, focusing on its definition, where it comes from, and how it functions. Future research, however, should move away from historical cases to a more pragmatic agenda, examining issues such as where social capital has successfully been created; the legal and institutional conditions that underpin its growth; its correlation to political corruption; and the impact of cultural changes (such as religious conversions) on social capital. First, we need to understand how social capital fits into the broader development agenda.

What is Governance

This paper points to the poor state of empirical measures of the quality of states, that is, executive branches and their bureaucracies. Much of the problem is conceptual, since there is very little agreement on what constitutes high-quality government. The paper suggests four approaches: (1) procedural measures, such as the Weberian criteria of bureaucratic modernity; (2) capacity measures, which include both resources and degree of professionalization; (3) output measures; and (4) measures of bureaucratic autonomy. The paper rejects output measures, and suggests a two-dimensional framework of using capacity and autonomy as a measure of executive branch quality. This framework explains the conundrum of why low-income countries are advised to reduce bureaucratic autonomy while high-income ones seek to increase it.

The Imperative of State-Building

State-building—the creation of new governmental institutions and the strengthening of existing ones—is a crucial global issue. Weak or failed states are at the root of many of the worlds most serious problems, from poverty and AIDS, to drug trafficking and terrorism, to the failure of democracies. While we know much about state-building, there is much that we do not know, particularly about transferring strong institutions to developing countries. We know how to transfer resources, people, and technology, but well-functioning public institutions require habits of mind and operate in complex ways that resist being moved. This is an area on which much more thought, attention, and research must be focused.

Elusive Peace: Negotiating an End to Civil Wars

As the threat of superpower confrontation diminishes in the post-cold war era, civil wars and their regional ramifications are emerging as the primary challenge to international peace and security. Notoriously difficult to resolve, these internal conflicts seem condemned to escalate with no end in sight. This book recognizes that internal dissidence is the legitimate result of the breakdown of normal politics and focuses on resolving conflict through negotiation rather than combat. Elusive Peace provides a revealing look at the nature of internal conflicts and explains why appropriate conditions for negotiation and useful solutions are so difficult to find. The authors offer a series of case studies of ongoing conflict in Angola, Mozambique, Eritrea, South Africa, Southern Sudan, Lebanon, Spain, Colombia, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines. They examine the characteristics of each confrontation, including past failed negotiations, and make suggestions for changes in negotiating strategies that could lead to a more successful outcome. The contributors, in addition to the editor, are Imtiaz Bokhari, Bilkent University, Ankara; Robert Clark, George Mason University; Marius Deeb and Marina Ottaway, Georgetown University; Mary Jane Deeb, American University; Francis Deng, Brookings; Daniel Druckman, National Academy of Sciences; Todd Eisenstadt, University of California, San Diego; Daniel Garcia, University of the Andes, Bogota; Justin Green, Villanova University; Carolyn Hartzell and Donald Rothchild, University of California, Davis; Ibrahim Msabaha, Center for Foreign Relations, Dar es-Salaam; and Howard Wriggins, Columbia University.

Ethnic conflict and international security

During the Cold War, most international relations theorists and strategic studies analysts paid little attention to ethnic and other forms of communal conflict. Disregard for the importance of ethnic and nationality issues in world affairs, always misguided so far as the developing world was concerned, has been overtaken, in stunning fashion, by recent events from Abkhazia to Zaire. The essays in this volume advance our understanding of the causes of ethnic and communal conflict, the regional and international implications of such conflicts, and what the international community can do to minimize the potential for instability and violence. Drawn from recent issues of Survival, they are organized along thematic rather than regional lines, and will be required reading for scholars, students, and policymakers alike.The contributors to the volume include Michael Brown on the causes and implications of ethnic conflict, Anthony Smith on the ethnic sources of nationalism, David Welsh on domestic politics and ethnic conflict, Ren

The International Dimensions of Internal Conflict

Deadly internal conflicts threaten dozens of countries and major regions around the world. One of the most critical issues in contemporary international security, it is examined in this book by twenty experts of the Project on Internal Conflict at Harvard Universitys Center for Science and International Affairs.The first part of the book examines the sources of internal conflicts and the ways these may spill over or draw in neighboring states and the international community. Region by region, the book discusses the former Yugoslavia and the Balkans, East-central Europe, Russia and the former Soviet Union, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Central and South America.The second part examines specific problems, policy instruments, and key actors including: the control of aggressive nationalism, the prevention of secessionist violence, and the resolution of civil wars; the roles of the media and nongovernmental organizations; arms limitations and economic sanctions; military challenges; the policies of the United States and the United Nations; and the prospects for collective action. The book recommends specific approaches to help prevent and moderate internal conflict and to limit its spread when it arises.Contributors : Rachel Bronson. Mark Chernick. Ivo Daalder. Matthew Evangelista. Richard Falkenrath. Trevor Findlay. Sumit Ganguly. Alicia Levine. Dan Lindley. John Matthews. Chantal de Jonge Oudraat. Elizabeth Rogers. Colin Scott. Joanna Spear. Stephen Stedman. Katherine Tucker. Milada Vachudova. Barbara Walter. Thomas Weiss.