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Copyright of Realidad Economica is the property of Realidad Economica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study challenges traditional rentier state theory and contributes to a new generation of scholarship focused on state-business relations by evaluating the relationship between different degrees of state policymaking autonomy and business elite influences in political and economic institutions. The findings of this study address central policy questions about economic reform in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. Using primary data from my case studies of Qatar and Kuwait, I posit two arguments. First, states with lesser business elite influence over political institutions have more autonomy to realise their economic reform goals; a less dominant and influential business elite circle will more likely submit to state-led economic reform initiatives. Greater business elite dominance, meanwhile, tends to create a powerful bloc undercutting economic change, such as labour reform or new regulatory frameworks, that would benefit the long-term stability of the state. Second, rentier states with higher degrees of state-led capitalism have more autonomy to conduct economic reforms; state-led capitalism produces more coherent and cohesive state apparatuses that can incentivize business elite cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to conduct a preliminary re-evaluation of the claim made by the Government of Sarawak regarding its jurisdiction over oil and gas on the continental shelf. The basis of Sarawak's claim is rooted in the pre-Malaysia status quo of state territory, which was established through the Alteration of Boundaries of 1954. This proclamation extended the borders of the state to include the continental shelf adjacent to its coast, ensuring the state's rights to natural resources, including oil and natural gas. However, this research questions the legality of the 1954 law based on the context of legal history. It appears to be incompatible with the 1958 Geneva Convention on the High Seas and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. These conventions provide the statutory basis for incorporating sea territorial waters beyond three nautical miles and designating Exclusive Economic Zones for specific nations. As such, obtaining jurisdiction over sea territorial waters was the responsibility of the federal government of Malaysia, which acted as the deemed signatory. The research will employ content analysis of relevant secondary sources, as well as selected historical and legal documents. By doing so, it hopes to bring clarity to the legal complexities in the historical context surrounding Sarawak's claim. The ultimate goal is to redefine the current dimension of the issue and seek an amicable solution to address the jurisdictional matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkey's per capita income was nearly three times South Korea's in 1962. Dramatic change has been observed since then. South Korea has transformed into an innovative economy approaching the global technology frontier in only a few decades. Turkey, on the other hand, has attained limited success with missed opportunities and has fallen behind. This article asks why this spectacular success was observed in South Korea, but not in Turkey. It seeks an answer by concentrating on certain variables that may explain this outcome. Assuming that primarily different types and capacities of societies and states explain the variations in economic performance, the article examines in particular, the institutional foundations of Turkish and Korean societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing studies of state-led industrial development argue that state autonomy is essential for formulating consistent and coherent industrial policies. This article shows that autonomous bureaucracy, while useful for fending off the politics of interest groups, is not free of politics in itself. Using Chinese industrial policy-making as a strategic case study, this article uncovers the competitive dimension of bureaucratic decision-making and the extent to which it serves as a driving force for industrial policy paradigm change in China. Equipped with a theory of policy articulation, this article details the strategies used by multiple superagencies and groups of career bureaucrats to vie for industrial policy authority within the Chinese state. In sum, this article seeks to expose the role of intrabureaucracy competition in mediating international political economic environment and national policy outcomes. Looking forward, this article proposes that the renewed focus on industrial policy by many national governments compels an analytical re-engagement with the role of large bureaucracies in economic decision-making and the kind of organizational and cognitive frameworks by which bureaucrats mobilize to chart our industrial landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the labor-controlling orientation of the Japanese developmental state and its consequences today. Developmental state studies has given us a robust epistemological grid whereby we can make non-Western state formation intelligible. Yet, mainstream authors have tended to treat the working class as a mere appendage to state– business relations, relegating labor politics at the analysis of state– society relations. By using democratic Japan—a prime example of this sort of obfuscation—in combination with Marxian state theory, this paper outlines the difficulties, addresses them, and extends the scope of developmental state studies to labor. After identifying main tenets of the literature, the author constructs a theory of labor control as a stabilizer of relative state autonomy. The author applies this to Japanese labor movements since 1945 and interprets events and processes of labor oppression/regulation through which Japanese capitalism subsumed the working class under the aegis of the developmental state. Labor control, emerging out of an "exceptional state" (Poulantzas, 1974), evolved into a refined socio-relational system that insulated developmental goals from labor movements. This Japanese trajectory keenly mobilized big business and elite labor, which transformed labor control into a bilateral and then a tripartite league in defense of industrial policy and its deskilling/reskilling intervention. By the 1970s, this achieved the famous docility of Japanese labor. The historically constructed character of docile labor force was exploited once again when Japan made a neoliberal turn in its post-development phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rule of law is a moral ideal that protects distinctive legal values such as generality, equality before the law, the independence of courts, and due process rights. I argue that one of the main goals of an international rule of the law is the protection of individual and state autonomy from the arbitrary interference of international institutions, and that the best way to codify this protection is through constitutional rules restraining the reach of international law into the internal affairs of a state. State autonomy does not have any intrinsic value or moral status of its own. Its value is derivative, resulting from the role it plays as the most efficient means of protecting autonomy for individuals and groups. Therefore, the goal of protecting state autonomy form the encroachment of international law will have to be constrained by, and balanced against the more fundamental goal of an international rule of law, the protection of the autonomy of individual persons, best realized through the entrenchment of basic human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study discusses the dispute between state and capitalist class. State consists of local government elite and central government elite. Local elite consists of 10 regents/mayors in Lake Toba region and Asahan River basin, while the central elite are President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Coordinating Minister for the Economy Hatta Rajasa, Minister of State-Owned Enterprises Dahlan Iskan, Minister of Industry MS Hidayat as well as Leaders and Members of Commissions VI & IX of the House of Representatives Republic of Indonesia. Meanwhile the capitalist class is represented by Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan and Association for Mineral Entrepreneur Indonesia (APEMINDO). This research aims to clarify underlying factors of dispute between state and capitalist class in the nationalization of PT. Indonesian Asahan Aluminum (Inalum) which implies to conflict among elites. This study uses qualitative method by analyzing research findings with the Theory of State Autonomy proposed by Ralp Miliband and Nicos Poulantzas as the main perspective. While the theory of conflict and consensus by Maswadi Rauf, authority of elite theory by C. Wright Mills, theory of decentralization by Vedi R. Hadiz, theory of oligarch's power by Jeffrey A. Winters, theory of patron-client by James C. Scott, and theory of rent seeking by Anne G. Krueger are applied as supporting perspectives. This research finds that conflict between central and local elites occurs due to struggle over economic resources, especially share ownership of PT. Inalum. Dispute over economic resources in governmental system has resulted in the country's autonomy dysfunction, in this case North Sumatra Provincial Government. It is characterized by the government being instrument that cause rent seeking to grow. Conflict which arise among local elite interfere local governance consolidation. This occurs because the capitalist class is capable to influence policies run by North Sumatra Provincial Government. The dispute is impacted on the provincial government incapable of taking political decisions reasonably. While Central Government with the approval of Commission VI of the House of Representatives conducts political process to reduce capitalist class influence in the nationalization of PT. Inalum by unilaterally give North Sumatra Provincial Government 30% share only. Theoretical implication of this research supports and strengthens Miliband Ralp's theory on state as an instrument of capitalist class and Nicos Poulantzas's theory of relative autonomy state. It especially regards to the state autonomy that is distorted by capitalist class interests i.e. Luhut Pandjaitan. Based on Miliband Ralp's theory on state as an instrument of capitalist class in the context of local elite power in North Sumatra, then the Governor of North Sumatra, 10 regents/mayors in Lake Toba region and Asahan River basin, as well as several other political elites, represent the tool or instrument of the capitalist class, in this case Luhut Pandjaitan, to realize their ambition of enriching economic resources. While President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, along with related ministers and parliament, weaken the capitalist class influence in political decision making in order to create a relatively autonomous political decision-making, as it is explained in the theory of Nicos Poulantzas. One thing that has not been addressed by Nicos Poulantzas in state relative autonomy theory is how to cope with global capitalist class distortion or pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When do states forge technological change in mature industries? This article challenges the emphasis on bureaucratic autonomy in explaining the ability of governments to promote technological change. We show that structural features of the bureaucracy alone are insufficient to account for variation in policy intervention, and argue that sectoral patterns of interest intermediation shape state capacity. Political coordination leads industry and government to broker technological transformations in consensus-driven negotiations. This prioritizes the interests of incumbent firms, likely resulting in regulatory capture and weak policy intervention. Political competition among interest groups and state agencies, by contrast, allows policy-makers to organize coalitions of technology challengers, likely leading to strong policy intervention. We examine this argument in the case of electric vehicle policy in Germany and the United States. Germany failed to disrupt its auto sector to transition to electric vehicles, while the United States adopted comprehensive policies for the manufacturing and commercialization of electric cars against incumbent opposition. Counter to conventional wisdom, our findings suggest that states can effectively engage in sectoral intervention to drive technological change in the absence of autonomous bureaucracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Dvacáté Století - The Twentieth Century is the property of Charles University Prague, Faculty of Arts and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study explores collaboration between state actors and non-state specialists in the market for coercion. We focus on the case of forced evictions in South Korea, where violence carried out by private companies has occurred with the implicit, and at times explicit, sanctioning of the state. This level of government–private security cooperation has traditionally been explained by various hypotheses, including arguments about the weak capacity of a state to enforce compliance, trends in the neo-liberal marketization of state power, or as the outcome of a state being captured by the capitalist classes. Documenting the history of urban redevelopment projects and changes in government responses to major protest incidents in Korea, we instead argue that this niche market for private force is an observable implication of a shift in state–society relations in the wake of democratization. This phenomenon is, in effect, a very undemocratic response to democratization, by state elites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The creation of a buffer state aimed at providing a political and security zone is normally the initiative of powerful states within the region it is being established. Globalization has, however, placed buffer states at the centre of the new security dilemma creating national and transnational security risks that adversely impact on the capacity of neighbouring states to effectively perform their basic functions. The establishment of Somalia’s newest semi-autonomous region Jubaland, perceived as Kenya’s buffer zone, has created a new security dilemma for Somalia. This article examines the relationship between the creation of Jubaland and the national and transnational security risks it poses for Somalia’s state capacity building efforts. The mutually related national and transnational security risks examined emanate from the adverse effects of Somali clan/militia conflicts and Kenya Defence Forces operations in Jubaland as part of the African Union Mission in Somalia. These security risks have adversely impacted on state capacity and state autonomy hence hindering the ability of the collapsed Somali state to re-build itself and effectively provide political-military security. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Along with other progressive experiments in the region, the government of the Citizens’ Revolution has restored the state to a central position with regard to social coordination and the promotion of economic development. The open conflict created by the return of the state between 2007 and 2012 transformed power relationships, allowing civil government to expand the state’s relative autonomy and orient it toward constructing a public policy agenda associated with transcending neoliberalism. The challenge of this transition has been to modify the pattern of commodity specialization away from the primacy of primary exports. While reappropriating the surplus that comes from the income from strategic resources increases national sovereignty, it may also contribute to preserving the nation’s position in the international division of labor. The National Plan for Living Well aims at overcoming the centrality of the primary sector and of oil exports in the national economy.En convergencia con otros gobiernos progresistas de la region, el gobierno del la Revolución Ciudadana relanza el Estado al primer plano de la coordinación social y la promoción del desarrollo. El conflictivo proceso político abierto en relación a dicho retorno estatal entre 2007 y 2012 trastrocó de los factores de poder y permitió al gobierno civil ampliar la autonomía relativa del Estado y orientarlo hacia la construcción de una agenda de políticas públicas asociada con la superación del neoliberalismo. El desafio de dicha transición reside en la posibilidad de modificar el patrón de especialización productiva más allá de la centralidad de las exportaciones primarias. Aunque la estrategia estatal de reapropriación del excedente que proviene de las rentas de recursos estratégicos eleva los márgenes de soberanía nacional respecto a la determinación global, también puede contribuir a la continuidad del lugar del país en la vigente división internacional del trabajo. El Plan Nacional del Buen Vivir apunta a superar en el mediano plazo la centralidad del sector primario y de las exportaciones petroleras en la economía nacional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intergovernmental forums facilitate negotiation, non-hierarchical exchange of information and cooperation between the institutions of the two levels of government. This article explores the experience of the House of Federation, the Ministry of Federal Affairs and sector by sector harmonization in two federal Ministries and their respective regional bureaus. There is lack of an independent institution in charge of consolidating inter-governmental relation (IGR) and this in turn has led to gaps in the regularity, continuity and effectiveness of the interactions. Save for some provisions of the Constitution dictating non-hierarchal relationship between the federal and regional states, the Ethiopian federation is generally characterized by a top-down relationship which can erode the spirit of partnership. Establishing an appropriate legal framework is thus essential to optimize the role of IGR in the Ethiopian federal system. The House of Federation seems the appropriate institution to organize IGR, and if the current dependence on the executive line remains unchanged, the focal point for IGR should be the Prime Minister's Office owing to its enhanced opportunity to give binding decisions and its ability to control the execution of decisions. Excessive reliance on political party lines evokes the question as to what will happen if opposing parties manage to win elections at federal and regional levels, and whether under such settings the collapse of the Soviet Union could be a prophesy to the Ethiopian federalism as well. Such risks call for stable and formal legal and institutional frameworks of IGR toward harnessing centrifugal forces and nurturing unity within diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary Chinese artists have long been marginalized in China as their ideas conflict with the mainstream political ideology. In Beijing, artists often live on the fringe of society in “artist villages,” where they almost always face the threat of being displaced owing to political decisions or urban renewal. However, in the past decade, the Chinese government began to foster the growth of contemporary Chinese arts and designated underground artist villages as art districts. This article explores the profound change in the political decisions about the art community. It argues that, despite the pluralization of Chinese society and the inroads of globalization, the government maintains control over the art community through a series of innovative mechanisms. These mechanisms create a globalization firewall, which facilitates the Chinese state in global image-building and simultaneously mitigates the impact of global forces on domestic governance. The article illuminates how the authoritarian state has adopted more sophisticated methods of governance in response to the challenges of a more sophisticated society. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Teoria y Realidad Constitucional is the property of Editorial UNED and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Política & Sociedade: Revista de Sociologia Política is the property of Revista Politica & Sociedade and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Colombia Internacional is the property of Universidad de los Andes and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Although globalization has stimulated the rise in cross-border crime, it does not really undermine the autonomy of the mainland Chinese state, the Taiwan state, and the city-states of Hong Kong and Macao. Instead, through cooperation with law-enforcement agencies in other countries, the law-enforcement agencies of these four places, notably the police and customs, have ensured the persistence of state autonomy vis-a-vis cross-border criminal groups and individuals. In the case of Greater China (mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao), interstate cooperation involving the police and customs can maintain state autonomy vis-a-vis criminal groups and individuals. The mechanisms of such interstate and intergovernmental cooperation embrace the sharing of criminal intelligence, the occurrence of anti-crime joint operations, the holding of seminars and conferences, and the administrative arrangements of extraditions. In a nutshell, intergovernmental cooperation in the combat against cross-border crime can maintain state autonomy in the midst of globalization, as the case of Greater China shows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the outbreak of the al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000 and in contrast to past wars, the Israeli state impressively regained its relative autonomous capacity in managing a prolonged military operation without significant internal opposition. Arguably, the state's autonomy increased in light of the alteration of the social composition of the army, from relying on the Ashkenazi middle class to drawing on peripheral and religious social groups. Specifically, this change was reflected in the composition of casualties that reshaped the bereavement ethos from protest to an acceptance of the sacrifice. Concurrently, the field forces exhibited much greater enthusiasm than they had for aggressive missions through which the religious and peripheral groups hoped to prove themselves worthy of status both inside and outside the army. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits the concept of state autonomy in the context of globalization. Earlier literature either considered state autonomy from the social forces in broad institutional and cultural terms or from the dominant classes in a restrictive sense. However, in either case the focus remained on domestic/national society, not the global society. The discussion of relative autonomy of the state began among the Marxists in the 1970s and then graduated into the mainstream social sciences in the 1980s and 1990s. In the upshot, the notions of developmental state and the embedded autonomy have significantly added to our knowledge of the role of the state. This paper broadens the idea of embedded autonomy by locating the sources of embeddedness in both local as well global institutions and norms. The paper uses the Singapore case to illustrate some of the possibilities and limitations of the reconfigured role of the state in the face of globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

France's resistance to CAP reform has widely been attributed to the weakness of the state vis-à-vis organized farm interests. This paper argues that weak state theories overstate the role of administrative centralization and the organizational capabilities of farm groups and underestimate the role of ideas and of European politics in determining the transformative capacity of the French state. This argument is based on the observation that farm conservatism has persisted in the last two decades in spite of the growing autonomy of the French state vis-à-vis farm client groups. This article argues that we must pay more attention to the way European policy-making impinges upon the resources of the state and the organizational cohesion of farm groups and how the ideas held by domestic reform entrepreneurs determine their ability to win EU support for their blueprint and harness much-needed resources for carrying them out in the face of vested interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Antípoda is the property of Universidad de los Andes and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A large body of historical evidence shows that welfare states originate in fear—class fear, and this is no less true of the United States than Western Europe. Drawing on the history of the American labor movement, populism, and progressivism, this paper questions the theory of American “exceptionalism” as well as Theda Skocpol's argument that the autonomy of capitalist states relegates Marxist theories of the state to secondary importance. The expansion and contraction of welfare states are best understood in terms of class conflict, which moves Marxism from the sidelines to the center of efforts to explain capitalist states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using secondary data from 21 post-communist countries, a map of urban–rural cleavages is produced. The findings are that while persistent cleavages exist with respect to attitudes toward the state, the market and traditional institutions, these cleavages have yet to be institutionalized within the political system. Deviations from the generalized pattern can typically be explained by the intrusion of the state-building process into the urban–rural cleavage structure. Furthermore, it is argued that the lack of institutionalization has led to a situation in which state and political elites have gained increased autonomy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article seeks to compare Taiwan and Indonesia with respect to their starkly different economic consequences and state policy choices pertaining to the Asian financial crisis until 1999. Specifically, explanations are provided for why the two countries differed in terms of absorbing foreign capital and the relative pace between liberalization and internationalization during the stage of financial internationalization prior to the crisis. Likewise, this article explains why the two national governments diverged widely in their ability to cope with the crisis. The argument is that the deciding factor lies in how state-capital relations in the two countries, instead of the alternative factors of path dependence and central bank independence, shape state preferences and state autonomy in order to bring about the cross-national variations in both stages. Theoretical implications are then derived from the empirical findings to reflect upon the theses of embedded autonomy and governed interdependence--two major analytic developments in the 1990s--to account for state-led economic growth in East Asia. In doing so, this' article spells out two qualifications regarding these theoretical arguments. First is whether the state is in pursuit of public goods delivery that stands distinct from the priorities of the private sector. Second is the potential reversal of the state's dependence on the private sector for expertise in sectoral policies. In addition, a fundamental reconceptualization of state capacity central to both theses is proposed as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a conceptual distinction of political organizations from state and society, providing an enhanced theoretical framework in the analysis of state autonomy. This theoretical argument is based on an analysis of Israel's transition to statehood, and the development of the relations between the Israeli Labor Institutional Complex (LIC) and the state. Jewish labor organizations were established amidst the historical conditions of a weak (colonial) state and a split labor market, which served to enhance the strength of the LIC vis-a-vis the state and workers. The large political and economic changes that followed statehood and industrialization failed to change the LIC's organizational features. The institutionalization of the occupation and the state's weakness after 1967 can be explained by the compatibility of the new structural characteristics to the institutional needs of the LIC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The crisis of global Fordism, the internationalization of capital, and the demise of national and international political regulation necessitates a thorough revision of conventional political concepts. These developments call in question the historical link between nation-state, democracy and human rights. While the nation-state is not disappearing, its significance is changing. It is becoming more and more difficult to secure democracy in a nation-state framework despite the lack of an alternative institutional terrain. This political dilemma can be overcome only if democratic political processes can be contextually and procedurally de-linked from the state system on both the national and international level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Responding to claims that there is a crisis in the sociology of development rooted in inadequate explanations of the connections between economic change and political institutions, Zhao and Hall propose a state-centred approach in understanding successful late development in the Third World. Here it is argued that there are some difficulties associated with their use of the concept of 'bounded autonomy'. Further, some alternative insights are suggested about conceptualising the 'politics' of economic transformation in the Third World. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]