Table Of ContentPoliticising Democracy
The New Local Politics of Democratisation
John Harriss, Kristian Stokke
and Olle Törnquist
International Political Economy Series
General Editor: Timothy M. Shaw, Professor of Commonwealth Governance
and Development, and Director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies,
School of Advanced Study, University of London.
Titles include:
Francis Adams, Satya Gupta and Kidane Mengisteab (editors)
GLOBALIZATION AND THE DILEMMAS OF THE STATE IN THE SOUTH
Susan Dicklitch
THE ELUSIVE PROMISE OF NGOs IN AFRICA
Lessons from Uganda
John Harriss, Kristian Stokke and Olle Törnquist (editors)
POLITICISING DEMOCRACY
The New Local Politics of Democratisation
David Hulme and Michael Edwards (editors)
NGOs, STATES AND DONORS
Too Close for Comfort?
Gordon Laxer and Sandra Halperin (editors)
GLOBAL CIVIL SOCIETY AND ITS LIMITS
Staffan Lindberg and Árni Sverrisson (editors)
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN DEVELOPMENT
The Challenge of Globalization and Democratization
Laura Macdonald
SUPPORTING CIVIL SOCIETY
The Political Role of Non-Governmental Organizations in Central America
Kurt Mills
HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE EMERGING GLOBAL ORDER
A New Sovereignty
Michael G. Schechter (editor)
THE REVIVAL OF CIVIL SOCIETY
Global and Comparative Perspectives
J. W. Wright, Jr. (editor)
STRUCTURAL FLAWS IN THE MIDDLE EAST PEACE PROCESS
Historical Contexts
International Political Economy Series
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Politicising Democracy
The New Local Politics of Democratisation
Edited by
John Harriss
Development Studies Institute
London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
Kristian Stokke
Department of Sociology & Human Geography
University of Oslo, Norway
and
Olle Törnquist
Department of Political Science
University of Oslo, Norway
Editorial matter & selection © John Harriss, Kristian Stokke &
Olle Törnquist 2005
Chapters © Palgrave Macmillan Ltd 2005
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2005 978-1-4039-3481-9
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Politicising democracy:the new local politics and democratisation/edited by
John Harriss and Kristian Stokke and Olle Törnquist.
p. cm. — (International political economy series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Local government—Developing countries. 2. Democratization—
Developing countries. 3. Developing countries—Politics
and government. I. Harriss, John. II. Stokke, Kristian, 1961–
III. Törnquist, Olle. IV. International political economy series
(Palgrave Macmillan (Firm))
JS8500.P65 2004
320.8′09172′4—dc22
2004048580
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05
Contents
List of Tables viii
Preface ix
Notes on the Contributors xi
List of Abbreviations xiv
1 Introduction: The New Local Politics of Democratisation 1
John Harriss, Kristian Stokke and Olle Törnquist
Localisation of politics in the context of globalisation 2
Democratic transitions in the context of globalisation 3
Approaching local democratic participation 6
Analysing local politics and democratisation 16
The contributions 21
2 Decentralisation in Indonesia: Less State, More Democracy? 29
Henk Schulte Nordholt
The miracle of the Titanic 29
Rethinking analytical categories 31
Bringing the regions back in 34
The agony of decentralisation: 1999 and after 36
Professional optimism versus realistic pessimism 38
Regional elites, adat and ethnicity 42
Patrimonial patterns, democracy and state capacity 47
3 Bossism and Democracy in the Philippines, Thailand
and Indonesia: Towards an Alternative Framework
for the Study of ‘Local Strongmen’ 51
John T. Sidel
Introduction 51
The Philippines: clientelism, oligarchy and a ‘weak’ state? 54
Bossism in comparative perspective: Thailand 57
v
vi Contents
Indonesia: local mafias, networks and clans 60
Conclusion: ‘local strongmen’ in Southeast Asia revisited 71
4 Can Public Deliberation Democratise State Action?:
Municipal Health Councils and Local Democracy in Brazil 75
Günther Schönleitner
Deliberative public spaces: the missing link for
democratic consolidation? 77
Deliberative inequality and institutional design 82
Public space between hegemony and deliberation 86
The politics of participatory governance 91
The public sphere: source of democratic renewal? 95
Institutional interaction and transformation 102
Conclusions 104
5 Historical Hurdles in the Course of the People’s
Planning Campaign in Kerala, India 107
P. K. Michael Tharakan
The institutional framework 108
The character of the reforms in comparative
perspective 109
The historical roots of popular mobilisation 111
The basic assumptions about civil society and
marginalised people 113
From political to party-political civic movements 114
The People’s Planning Campaign and the
party-politicised civil society 116
Mobilisation of the marginalised? 119
Conclusion 121
6 Social Movements, Socio-economic Rights and
Substantial Democratisation in South Africa 127
Kristian Stokke and Sophie Oldfield
Substantial democratisation and social movements 128
Sources of political capacity for social movements 129
Liberal democracy and economic liberalisation
in South Africa 131
Social movements and anti-privatisation politics 134
Political capacity and the Western Cape
Anti-Eviction Campaign 137
Contents vii
Opposition through engagement in Valhalla Park 138
Resistance through public protest in Mandela Park 140
Scaling up to city and national politics 142
7 More than Difficult, Short of Impossible: Party Building
and Local Governance in the Philippines 148
Joel Rocamora
Akbayan (Citizens Action Party) 149
Political crisis and the struggle for political reform 152
More than difficult, short of impossible 157
Local governance and party building 160
Elections to parties 164
The Left and the ‘radical democratic option’ 166
8 Trade Unions, Institutional Reform and Democracy:
Nigerian Experiences with South African and
Ugandan Comparisons 171
Björn Beckman
Introduction 171
The case against the unions 171
A pro-union case 173
The formation of a union-based labour regime 176
The resilience of unions 177
The African experience 180
The Nigerian Textile Workers’ Union 190
Comparisons, implications and conclusions 195
9 The Political Deficit of Substantial Democratisation 201
Olle Törnquist
Elitist vs popular democratisation 202
The political deficit 206
The political foundations 208
The politics of mixed results 211
Broader alternative assessment 220
Conclusions and the way ahead 222
References 226
Index 246
List of Tables
4.1 CMS by pattern of political inclusion and tendency
on the hegemony-deliberation continuum 90
4.2 Councillors’ perception of CMS autonomy 90
4.3 Councillors’ perception of CMS influence on
municipal health policy 91
4.4 Councillors’ satisfaction with health services under
local management 95
4.5 Beneficiaries from the municipalisation of health
according to councillors/users 96
viii
Preface
This collection of essays is one outcome of the work of an international
network of scholars with common interests in democratisation and
local politics in developing countries. This network on Local Politics in
Developing Countries (LPD) has two main components. On the one hand
are the network coordinators in Oslo, located at the Norwegian Insti-
tute for Urban and Regional Research (NIBR) and at the University of
Oslo; especially at the Centre for Development and the Environment
(SUM), the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights (NCHR) and the
Department of Political Science, the Department of Sociology and
Human Geography and the Department of History. On the other hand
are close international partners, including Professor John Harriss with
colleagues in the Crisis States Programme and the Development Studies
Institute of the London School of Economics and Political Science, and
our various collaborators in developing countries.
The LPD network maintains an internet-based network node1 and
organises annual conferences, a biweekly research seminar and occasional
workshops on different aspects of local politics in developing countries.
These meeting places are used to discuss research projects and to dis-
seminate information about research, publications and conferences.
A number of scholars have contributed to the network seminars
and conferences, in the capacities of keynote speakers, paper presenters,
discussants and participants. Early versions of the chapters in this book
were originally presented at network seminars and the first network
conference, on ‘Actors and Approaches in Local Politics’ at University of
Oslo on 17–19 October 2002. In addition to the contributors to this
volume and their local partners and collaborators, we wish to acknow-
ledge the critical inputs to the 2002 conference and the network
seminars from: Guro Aandahl, Berit Aasen, Gunilla Andræ, Bjørn Enge
Bertelsen, Peng Bo, David Beetham, Einar Braathen, Inga Brandell, Paul
R. Brass, Cathrine Brun, Nils Butenschön, Harald Bøckman, Daniel Chavez,
Stener Ekern, Arild Engelsen Ruud, Margareta Espling, Jonas Ewald,
Jemima Garcia-Godos, Adam Habib, Ketil Fred Hansen, Øyvind E. Hansen,
Turid Hagene, Siri Bjerkreim Hellevik, Kjell E. Kjellman, Bertil Lintner,
Desmond McNeill, John McNeish, Joel S. Migdal, Marianne Millstein,
James Mittelman, Giles Mohan, Liv Marte Nordhaug, Knut G. Nustad,
Aslak Orre, Pamela Price, Lars Rudebeck, Arild Schou, James C. Scott,
ix
