how change happens lecture ii: active citizens, effective states and change
DESCRIPTION
Brandeis University Proseminar presentation by Oxfam's Duncan Green from March 2012. (2/6)TRANSCRIPT
Day 2: First let’s recap. In pairs, discuss:
Where we got too yesterday Any questions/comments/suggestions What topic you have chosen for your case
study– Then let’s go round the room
Active Citizens, Effective States and Change
Duncan GreenBrandeis Proseminar
March 2012Lecture 2
Main messages
Rights and dignity are a crucial part of development and well-being
Achieving these requires involvement in power and politics
Ability to exercise rights requires access to essential services, information and knowledge
Active citizenship, including civil society organization, is essential to development
Effective states play a central role in development The interaction between Active Citizens and Effective
States is crucial, complicated and doesn’t always follow the script!
And rights are about power - Picture
Development is about rightsDevelopment is about rights
Development is about rights
Rights are long-term guarantees that allow right- holders to put demands on duty bearers
Capabilities = rights + ability to exercise them
Involves crucial shift from treating poor people as ‘beneficiaries’ to seeing them as active agents
Rights = lawyers and scholars; development = economists and engineers
And rights are about power
Power over: the power of the strong over the weak
Power to: the capability to decide actions and carry them out
Power with: collective power, through organisation, solidarity, and joint action
Power within: personal self-confidence
First build the people…
Education, healthcare, water, sanitation and housing are basic building blocks of a decent life
Education: need improvements in both quality and quantity (esp. for girls)
Health: maternal mortality as example of gender and wealth-based inequalities
Control over fertility is both a rights and health issue
The state must be central to provision
Then ensure access to knowledge and information
Steady improvements in access to knowledge, e.g. radio, mobiles, internet
Technology holds enormous potential
But current incentives bias R&D against the needs of the poor
And intellectual property rules act as a barrier to technology transfer (pharmaceuticals, biopiracy)
And the right to organise Increasing range and complexity of civil society
organizations
Role of CSOs as catalysts and watchdogs
Intrinsic and instrumental benefits of CSO involvement
Civil society activism waxes and wanes
Civil society is very involved in decentralization processes
States are at the heart of development (and growing in importance)
Nation states play a core role in providing essential services, rule of law, economic stability and upgrading
Successful ‘developmental states’ (Chalmers Johnson):– Govern for the future– Promote growth – Start with equity – Integrate with the global economy, but discriminate – Guarantee health and education for all
But the politics of developmental states are tricky– Embedded autonomy (Peter Evans)– Strong ‘national bourgeoisie’ and elite alignment
Globalization and orthodoxy make building effective states harder
And Ineffective States are one of the biggest problems in development
Fragile and Conflict Afflicted States (FRACAS)
Clientilism and patronage are the opposite of ‘embedded autonomy’
What leads to a new ‘political settlement’?– Leadership (Botswana)– Shocks (Rwanda)– Strong civil society (Ghana)– Can be gradual, led by progressive elite
fractions (Taiwan)
How do Active Citizens and Effective States fit into our model of change?
Looking back/from the outside:Four Components of Change
Context– Technology, environment, demographics, globalization
Institutions– Culture, ethnicity, religion, attitudes and beliefs– Civil service, judiciary, electoral democracy, essential
services, Agents
– Social movements, elites, leaders, private sector, media
Events– Wars, disasters, confrontations
Dynamics and Pathways
Cumulative and SequentialChaotic
Events, tipping points and lightbulb moments
Demonstration Effects
Accumulation of forces
Path Dependence
How change happens: How change happens: the Chiquitanosthe Chiquitanos
How change happens: the Chiquitanos
3 July 2007: Chiquitanos win title to 1m hectares of traditional lands in Eastern Bolivia
Lived in near-feudal conditions up to 1980s Activism began on margins of football league Marches to La Paz forged links with highland
Indians and built ethnic identity Chiquitanos elected as mayors and senators Evo Morales’ 2006 election, the turning point
How change happens: How change happens: winning ‘pond rights’ in Indiawinning ‘pond rights’ in India
How change happens: winning ‘pond rights’ in India
Fishing ponds crucial to 45,000 families in Bundelkhand
Technology change (new fish varieties and stocking) prompted a new wave of seizures by landlords
Protests got support from state government for fishing cooperatives – basis for mobilisation
Dirty tricks and some violence were a turning point NGOs brokered relations with police and politicians 100 ponds now under fishers’ control
Dilemma: are Effective States compatible with Active Citizens?
Or is it more often like this?
How do Active Citizens interact with States?
Democracies:– Produce more predictable long run growth rates– Produce greater short term stability– Handle shocks much better– Deliver more equality
But legitimacy is an issue even in non-democratic states And change is seldom completely peaceful - cycles of
conflict and cooperation are the norm (Fox, Gaventa)
And how do Effective States interact with citizens?
Nation builders are often undemocratic, but autocrats often fail and societies may be becoming less tolerant of ‘benevolent dictators’
Taxation is key to the state-citizen compact Are ‘democratic developmental states’ feasible in
early stages of development (‘inclusive embeddedness’ Edigheji)
Or is it only in later stages – Brazil? South Korea? Botswana?
My (tentative and uncomfortable) conclusion
There are probably trade-offs in early stage development between achieving the kind of developmental state best suited to achieving fast economic take-off and the ‘democratic developmental state’ that can achieve wider development – freedoms ‘to do and to be’
But those trade-offs are likely to change over time, hopefully in a positive direction – growth and freedom will become more aligned
HOW DO YOU GET ALL THAT INTO A 3 MINUTE VIDEO?.........
Buzz in Pairs
Any questions, comments on what you’ve just heard?
Anything you disagreed with or felt worried about?
Groupwork
In pairs, take it in turns to present your case study
Apply HCH analysis to it (context, institutions, agents, events + pathways)
Identify any gaps in your understanding of the case study/questions for further research
Be prepared to report back on – the ideas and questions that emerged– What HCH added to your thinking about your
case study