Kristian Stokke

Participatory development and empowerment: the dangers of localism

Recent discussions in development have moved away from holistic theorisation towards more localised, empirical and inductive approaches. In development practice there has been a parallel move towards local ‘participation’ and ‘empowerment’, which has produced, albeit with very different agendas, a high level of agreement between actors and institutions of the ‘new’ Left and the ‘new’ Right. This paper examines the manifestations of this move in four key political arenas: decentralised service delivery, participatory development, social capital formation and local development, and collective actions for ‘radical democracy’. We argue that, by focusing so heavily on ‘the local’, the see manifestations tend to underplay both local inequalities and power relations as well as national and transnational economic and political forces. Following from this, we advocate a stronger emphasis on the politics of the local, ie on the political use of ‘the local’ by hegemonic and counter-hegemonic interests.

Building the Tamil Eelam State: emerging state institutions and forms of governance in LTTE-controlled areas in Sri Lanka

Abstract Sri Lankas civil war has created a political – territorial division between the government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (ltte), where ltte is engaged in a process of state building within the areas they control. The article examines this state formation with an emphasis on the functions and forms of governance that are embedded in the new state institutions. It is observed that the emerging state formation has a strong focus on external and internal security, with an additional emphasis on social welfare and economic development. In terms of governance, the ltte state apparatus is marked by authoritarian centralisation with few formal mechanisms for democratic representation, but there are also partnership arrangements and institutional experiments that may foster more democratic forms of representation and governance. Hence, resolving the security problem in tandem with political transformations towards democratic governance remain prime challenges for peace building in northeast Sri Lanka.

Rethinking popular representation

PART I: INTRODUCTION The Problem is Representation! Towards an Analytical Framework O.Tornquist PART II: DEEPENING THE PERSPECTIVE What is the Relationship Between Participation and Representation? N.Chandohoke The Paradox of Civil Society Representation: Constructing New Forms of Democratic Legitimacy in Brazil P.P.Houtzager & A.Gurza Lavalle Practices of Symbolic Representation K.Stokke & E.Selboe PART III: REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNANCE? Representative Governance or the Co-Option of Citizens? The Status of Service Users in Local Politics in West Bengal N.Webster The Politics of Gradualismo: Popular Particpation and Decentralized Governance in Mozambique L.Buur Representation by Design? Variations on Participatory Governance in Brazilian Municipios G.Baiocchi & P.Heller PART IV: CHALLENGES OF POPULAR REPRESENTATION Patronage Democracy in Provincial Indonesia G.V.Klinken Compromised Democracy: Observations on Popular Democratic Representation from Urban India J.Harriss Trade Unions and Popular Representation: Alliances and Institution Building African Experiences B.Beckman Popular Politics of Representation: Dilemmas and Experiments in Indonesia, the Indian State of Kerala, and the Philippines O.Tornquist , N.Quimpo & M.Tharakan PART V: CONCLUSIONS Implications for Policy and Practice N.Webster , O.Tornquist & K.Stokke

Sinhalese and Tamil nationalism as post-colonial political projects from ‘above’, 1948–1983

Abstract This article examines Sinhalese and Tamil nationalism in Sri Lanka in the period from independence in 1948 to the rise of militant Tamil separatist nationalism in the early 1980s. Inspired by recent developments in political geography, the core of the argument is that Sinhalese and Tamil nationalism represent post-colonial political projects where nationalist material and discursive practices have been initiated by segments of the dominant class for the purpose of mobilization within political alliances. More specifically, it is argued that Sri Lankan post-colonial politics has been characterized by three kinds of political alliances; ethnic class alliances, political patron-client networks and strategic government alliances. The emergence and radicalization of Sinhalese and Tamil nationalist politics should be understood as a matter of continuities and changes in the material and discursive practices within these alliances. In the early post-colonial period, this politics of alliances ensured a degree of political participation and social redistribution, and as such served to defuse ethnic and class tensions. In the late post-colonial period, the neglect of the material and discursive practices of the ethnic class alliances and particularly the strategic government alliances undermined the legitimacy of the political system and led to a radicalization of Tamil nationalist demands in the 1970s and the emergence of militant Tamil nationalism from below in the 1980s.

uTshani BuyaKhuluma––The Grass Speaks: the political space and capacity of the South African Homeless People’s Federation

The point of departure for this article is the contemporary tendency towards localisation of politics in the context of neo-liberal globalisation. Mediated through institutional reforms, political discourses and localised struggles, this localisation of politics produce new and transformed local political spaces. The purpose of the article is to examine the capacity of popular movements to use and transform such political spaces within the South African housing sector. This analysis is done through a combination of conceptual examination of political space and actor capacity and a concrete case study of the political strategies and capacities of The South African Homeless Peoples Federation. The article argues that the Federation has utilised political relations at different scales to mobilise resources such as land and subsidies for housing for its members. It has also influenced the formulation of housing policies through its discourses and practical experiences with people-driven housing processes. In consequence the Federations ability to function as a civil/political movement has granted them a certain capacity to participate in the complicated process of turning de jure rights to adequate shelter into de facto rights for the urban poor as citizens of a democratic South Africa. 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Struggle for Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka

Regionalism has commonly been expected to dissolve as a consequence of the administrative regional penetration of the centralized modern state and the homogenizing forces associated with modernization. This mode of reasoning has reappeared recently among authors who see globalization as a universal force that will eradicate regional economic inequalities, local identities and regional political mobilization. Contrary to these expectations, regional autonomy movements continue to play a central political role within many states. Consequently, it remains an important analytical challenge to understand the construction and politicization of regional interests. Copyright 2000 Gatton College of Business and Economics, University of Kentucky.

Introduction: The New Local Politics of Democratisation

Contemporary discourses about the politics of developing countries have brought together an unlikely set of bedfellows. Intellectuals and policy actors whose ideas are rooted in very different values and theoretical assumptions nonetheless converge around the view that there is a ‘new politics’ grounded in local political spaces and practices. The circumstances are those of globalisation, a diverse set of phenomena which include — or so it is argued — a hollowing out of nation states, in the sense that certain regulatory capacities have been reduced and transferred to institutions operating primarily at global or local scales (Jessop 2002). Simultaneously, local identities and identity politics are constructed anew in a context of global transformations (Appadurai 1996). Thus what some have labelled ‘glocalisation’ — simultaneous globalisation and localisation processes — is reconfiguring politics (Cox 1997). These transformations are also reflected in development theories and practices, which have increasingly turned to the ‘local’ as a prime site of development in the context of globalisation.

The Convergence Around Local Civil Society and the Dangers of Localism

Development studies and practice have recently undergone a transition that has yielded an unprecedented emphasis on local civil society (Mohan & Stokke, 2000). There is now a high level of agreement regarding the importance of popular participation for social change and empowerment. Behind the apparent consensus on the importance of local civil society in development, there are quite divergent views on the characteristics and functions of civil society. Two main strands of development thinking and intervention can be identified as particularly relevant in this regard. These can be described as revisionist neo-liberalism and post-Marxism. Revisionist neoliberalism sees institutions and actors in civil society as partners for enabling state institutions. Popular participation is seen as a means for making development interventions more cost-effective and efficient and also as a step towards privatisation of state services. PostMarxism, which may be seen as the. main counter-hegemonic position in contemporary development debates, sees civil society as a challenge to the hegemony of global economic liberalism and its associated political institutions. Social movements in civil society hold the potential for bringing about autocentric and socially relevant development in opposition to both the state and the market. Both agree that civil society has a crucial role to play as an alternative to exploitative, parasitic and inefficient states. This article seeks to address two main questions regarding the role of civil society: (1) What are the theoretical roots and main characteristics of these different views on civil society, and (2) What are the shortcomings of these perspectives? It will be argued that development theory has moved away from a polarised debate over

Fisheries under fire: Impacts of war and challenges of reconstruction and development in Jaffna fisheries, Sri Lanka

Sri Lankas armed conflict highlights the relations between war/peace and development, both in terms of impacts of war on livelihoods and in terms of reconstruction and development as means for peace-building. It should be recognised that the grievances behind a conflict may not be identical with post-conflict needs. Such transformation of development needs is demonstrated by the case of Jaffna fisheries. Whereas the fishery sector was peripheral to pre-war Tamil nationalism, the impact of war has made it central to post-war reconstruction and development. The most obvious obstacle to fishery reconstruction is the massive destruction of fishing equipment. While post-tsunami emergency relief has replaced significant proportions of the damaged boats and fishing gear, little has been done to build local institutional capacity for development and peace. Thus, the strategic links from emergency relief to development and peace seem relatively weak. Another pressing concern is the dismantling of army-imposed security restrictions to create normal preconditions for fishing. As these security regulations are closely linked to the balance of power between the protagonists, development of Jaffna fisheries is highly contingent on progress in the peace process. Thus, the potential for conflict transformation through local fishery development seems quite limited without substantive conflict resolution.

AUTHORITARIANISM IN THE AGE OF MARKET LIBERALISM IN SRI LANKA

HORITARIANISM AND LIBERALISM IN SRI LANKA The study of post-colonial politics appears to be in a post-paradigm state (Manor, 1991; Migdal, Kohli and Shue, 1994). The two schools that have dominated the study of politics in the periphery of the capitalist world economy, the “political development” and “dependency” paradigms, have encountered forceful criticisms due to their tendencies towards structural determinism, teleology and monopolistic claims of truth. These criticisms run parallel to a more general contemporary critique of grand political theories and a pragmatic move toward theory-informed concrete research on the historical-geographical specificities of politics and state formations. This rejection of totalizing political theories does not mean that the days of grand political theories are gone. One recent attempt at constructing a general model for political change in post-colonial societies is the agenda for “good governance” that has been put forward by Western governments and the Bretton Woods institutions. This agenda addresses the familiar question regarding the links between economic and political liberalism and has provided the theoretical justification for political conditionalities for Western aid. Against this background, the present article seeks to make sense of what appears to be a contradictory coexistence of authoritarianism (or poor governance) and economic liberalization in Sri Lanka from the mid-1970s to the Parliamentary and Presidential elections in 1994. The major point in the article is that the relationship between