The Iron Triangle of Urban Entrepreneurialism: The Political Economy of Urban Corruption in Spain

Despite a cascade of corruption scandals over the last decade, the role of political corruption has yet to be accounted for in the scholarship on Spanish urban entrepreneurialism. This is an omission that extends to the broader literature on the topic as well. This paper looks at the theoretical causes of this neglect and explores ways of integrating corruption into the study of urban entrepreneurialism. To do so, it offers a systematic analysis of the role of clientelism in the political economy of Spanish inter-urban competition. Contrary to the existing literature, which at best explains away corruption as a logical outgrowth of intensified competition for real estate capital, this paper argues that corruption is rooted in a political structure that precedes the emergence of urban entrepreneurialism. This structure is identified as an “iron triangle”, a complex of colluding interests formed by the state, the real estate industry, and political parties.     

Scandal: Olivia Pope,Pope Francis,and Catholic Social Thought

Millions of viewers tune in to watch ABC's Scandal where political corruption, sexual infidelity, secret lives, and hidden crimes abound. What is it that makes something scandalous? In popular culture, scandal involves something morally or legally wrong coupled with public outrage. In contrast, as a theological category scandal is that which impedes the community's relationship with God. Pope Francis identifies poverty as just such a scandal damaging our relationship with God and each other. Examining scandal in popular culture and the media along with Catholic social thought, this article identifies three types of scandal: hypocrisy, impurity, and dehumanization. Ultimately, the theology of scandal can direct us away from the salacious towards addressing scandals of dehumanization.     

Can civic nationalism reduce corruption? Transnational and translocal insights from Solomon Islands

Some scholars and practitioners argue that the key to addressing corruption in poor countries lies in citizens eschewing patronage ties and embracing civic nationalism. This view has led some to suggest that a corruption-busting nationalist sentiment can be encouraged by exposing elites from poor countries to the liberal values of relatively well-governed rich ones. However, thus far few scholars have attempted to understand the complex ways that different types of mobility shape perceptions about nationalism and corruption. This article examines the role mobilities play in shaping attitudes towards nationalism and corruption amongst stakeholders connected to anti-corruption reforms in the Pacific Island nation of Solomon Islands. It finds that highly mobile elites framed corruption and nationalism through two distinct concepts: transnationalism (conceiving the world as comprising territorially divided states) and translocalism (which focuses on local connections developed through [im]mobilities). Transnational framings, shaped by international travel and international indices, stressed the importance of promoting civic nationalism to fight corruption. Translocal framings, reinforced by everyday experiences, were more sceptical of both anti-corruption and nation- and state-building efforts. Findings provide insights into why anti-corruption reforms in post-colonial contexts are so challenging, and the potential for reimagining the relationship between nationalism and anti-corruption.     

The Identity of Capitalists and the Legitimacy of Capitalism: Sri Lanka since Independence

In many Asian countries, the early decades of independence after World War II were marked by tension between ‘indigenous’ political elites and business elites that were in large part alien, or from minority ethnic groups. This tension was one reason for the preference that most governments showed for statist and nationalist economic policies. It has abated in most cases; political and business elites now tend to pursue more co-operative strategies. Much of the explanation for this lies in changes in the international political economy that made market-oriented economic policies more attractive to political elites. There are in addition internal political reasons for this rapprochement. These vary from case to case, and have been explored in most detail by scholars in relation to the Southeast Asian countries where Overseas Chinese have dominated larger scale business. This article extends this literature by examining the causes of the gradual rapprochement between ‘majority’ politics and ‘minority’ business in Sri Lanka.     

Returned Diplomats,French Engineers,and the Qingxi Ironworks: Self-Strengthening and Self-Representation in the Late Qing

This article explores the history of the Qingxi Ironworks in late Qing Guizhou. Instead of focusing on state-centered industrialization or technology transfer and scientific knowledge in Qing mining and coal enterprises, this study focuses on the individual ambitions and identity construction of two returned diplomats—Chen Jitong and Chen Mingyuan—who sought to claim authority over a mining interest in China’s southwest interior. By leveraging their knowledge of the West to serve as intermediaries between state and foreign commercial interests, these cosmopolitan yet marginalized elites sought to convert their foreign expertise and avowed commitment to “self-strengthening” into new forms of social and political capital. An examination of the personal networks and written accounts surrounding their entrepreneurial ventures sheds light on the opportunities and challenges experienced by a generation of “foreign affairs” experts in repositioning themselves within the transforming Qing polity through participation in industrialization projects.     

加强反腐倡廉的法制建设

加强反腐倡廉建设应当注重法制,发挥法律和制度对公共权力的规范和制约功能,形成权力相互协调、相互制约、相互监督的运行机制,逐步铲除腐败现象产生的土壤和条件,实现用制度办事、靠制度管人、按制度行使权力。这就要求建立和完善反腐倡廉的法制体系,以保证人民赋予的权力用来为人民谋利益。     

Corporations,Government and Development: The Case of Institutional Corruption in Tasmania

The proliferation of studies into corruption over the past decade has highlighted its widely differing manifestations and causes. This article applies the notion of institutional corruption to the case study of the Lennon government's approval of the Gunns pulp mill in Tasmania. A multidisciplinary framework is developed to explain why the approval process became embroiled in widespread allegations of commercial favouritism. It is argued that the institutional corruption involved in this process was an outcome of the interaction of the political economy of Tasmania, its political culture and the political psychology of Paul Lennon as leader. The implications of such a multidisciplinary approach for a study of corruption are discussed.     

‘It is Not Easy What to Say of our Condition,Much Less to Write It’: The Continued Importance of Scribal News in the Early 18th Century

This article engages with recent work on the nature of the press in the late 17th and early 18th centuries that has emphasized that print, and more specifically printed news, came to dominate religious and political affairs. Recent scholarship has suggested that political elites embraced the new opportunities that the lapse of licensing (1695) offered by reading and buying newspapers and periodicals in ever greater numbers. Inherent in this portrayal of news culture is a sense that censorship had little effect on news‐writers. Journalists, so it is claimed, were left alone to pursue their trade free from any consistent interference. This article, by contrast, argues that scribal news – handwritten newspapers – continued to be important in the 18th century. The reason for the survival of scribal news‐writers such as John Dyer can be found, I argue, in understanding the complex relationship between press and parliament. Far from embracing the press, most members of parliament were, in fact, reluctant to allow unhindered publication of their discussions. While recognizing the importance of news to political debate, this article insists that the continued production of scribal news is indispensable for understanding both the nature of censorship and the power of the press in post‐licensing England.     

九一八事变后日本决策层侵华国策的趋同

九一八事变后,日本内阁虽然确立不扩大方针,但自日本经营南满以来,维护满蒙权益成为历届政府、军部海外扩张及处理国际事务的压倒性决策要素,驱动决策层势必迎合军部和关东军的军事侵略行径,推动日本走向扩大战争。同时,以九一八事变为契机,日本国内军权膨胀,军权蔑视政权、军权凌驾政权的军国体制日臻完备,自下而上的国家改造运动,又从下层社会煽起军国热和排外热,加之财阀转向,主动投向军国主义怀抱,形成军财一体,终使日本完成举国一致、趋同侵华国策的异变过程。     

北魏至隋唐时期女性参政的地域分布及其特征

在以男子为中心的中国传统社会,参政被视为女性的一大“禁区”。然而,北魏 至隋唐,不少女性却置男性封建专制主义对女性的这种清规戒律于不顾,勇敢地活跃在当时的 政治舞台上。本文从历史地理学与女性文化相结合的角度,通过对这一时期女性参政的地域分 布及其特征的分析和探讨,借以客观地认识和理解中国古代女性参政问题。     

The limits to China's non-interference foreign policy: pro-state interventionism and the rescaling of economic governance

China's foreign policy has been long committed to a principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign countries. While one could easily point out past and present-day inconsistencies in its implementation, this article argues that defenders and critics of the principle both rely on a limited interpretation of ‘interference’ or ‘intervention’ based on an ideology of Westphalian sovereignty. Particularly problematic is the conceptual distinction between the ‘political’ or ‘diplomatic’, on the one hand, and the ‘economic’, on the other. As Polanyi's concept of embeddedness reminds us, markets, society and politics occur simultaneously, and can only act as discrete realms in epistemological abstractions. It is thus argued that non-interference is a semi-formal institution that governs China's diplomatic engagements and affects its economic activities. While the totality of China's interactions with the world has diverse and sometimes contradictory impacts on global governance, non-interference itself has apparent consequences for the rescaling of regional economic governance. Specifically, this article contends that Chinese non-interference results in the empowerment of political elites at national levels, and thus in the (re-)emergence of the nation state as a gatekeeper and facilitator of the advancement of capitalist enterprises. As a result, through non-intervention, China's foreign policy undermines supranational regulatory approaches and fosters state-based regional architectures.     

AUTHORITY, POLITY, AND TENUOUS ELITES IN IRON AGE EDOM (JORDAN)

Summary.   The strategies political elites implement to garner political authority and legitimacy in emergent polities are scrutinized in a case study from Iron Age Edom, located in modern southern Jordan and the south-east corner of the State of Israel. Edom provides a productive context in which to conduct this investigation as local elites managed a fractious polity consisting of unstable segmentary identities, while at the same time, remaining loyal to the successive Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian empires that dominated them. This tenuous position required elites to maintain a flexible elite identity while promoting broader metaphors of attachment (e.g. Edomite) among their disparate constituents. This case study ultimately moves toward an understanding of political polities, not as disembodied entities (e.g. States), but as embedded phenomena within the societies they comprise.     

Of Vines and Policy Vignettes: Sectoral Evolution and Institutional Thickness in the Languedoc

We argue that the search for rural regimes in particular localities can be usefully advanced through the deployment of a sensitive and suitably nuanced conceptualization of institutional thickness. Empirical validation of this theoretical framework with reference to Languedoc viticulture offers substantial evidence of the interdependency between regime building maintenance and stability, and local institutional integrity. The theoretical framework developed here, based on the notions of consensus and concrete institutions , also provides an analytically rigorous approach for understanding the complex rescaling of the political economy of rural governance, not least by offering some indication of the scalar rationale for consensus compatibility and partnership building between elites situated at different politico-geographic scales. We contend that an understanding of this shared logic of action among local and extra-local administrative and political elites is crucial to the restructuring process unfolding in European rural regions.     

Deserving to Whom? Investigating Heterogeneity in the Impact of Social Constructions of Target Populations on Support for Affirmative Action

The social construction of target populations has emerged as an influential framework for understanding the public policy process. In particular, target populations have been shown to shape the allocation of benefits and burdens by political elites. However, existing studies focus on the elite level, which overlooks whether public preferences are aligned with the allocation of policy benefits and burdens by political elites. Moreover, many studies treat social constructions as homogenous, which this paper calls into question. Using a nation‐wide survey experiment, I investigate variation in public support for affirmative action policies with randomly assigned target populations. The findings indicate that the public formulates policy preferences on the basis of perceived deservingness of target groups similar to political elites. In addition, the findings uncover heterogeneity in the effect of targeting on public opinion based on ideology and racial/ethnic group identity.     

The particular kindness of friends: ex-Fascists,clientage and the transition to democracy in Italy, 1945–1960

This article examines some of the social implications of Italy’s limited purge of the bureaucracy and Fascist political class following the Second World War. Using the postwar personal correspondence of former Fascist government ministers Giuseppe Bottai (1895–1959) and Dino Alfieri (1886–1966), the article analyses the informal networks that promoted the continued influence of these ex-Fascists with high-ranking bureaucrats and other prominent individuals (such as Pope Paul VI and Aldo Moro). Thanks to the long-standing social practice of the raccomandazione, Bottai and Alfieri maintained their Fascist-era connections well into the postwar period, often serving as intermediaries between ‘ordinary Italians’ and governmental, political and cultural elites. Although they no longer held political power, these ex-Fascists represented a class of ‘alternative elites’ unassociated with the democratic values of the new Republic.     

Articulating corruption of infrastructural upgrading projects in Rio de Janeiro

Residents of Brazilian low-income communities have long called actions of the state “corrupt,” rhetoric that has arguably intensified in the wake of large-scale infrastructural upgrading decisions. Inspired by a new wave of critical corruption studies, in this paper I ask: how is infrastructural upgrading a key site of politics and political understandings of the state for residents in Complexo do Alemão, Rio de Janeiro? How do discourses about corrupt decision-making mechanisms and money appropriation produce common sense notions of how the political system operates? And what work do these narratives do for demonstrating agency of the people living in Complexo? In answering these questions I contribute to an emerging conjunctural research agenda in global urban and corruption studies. I draw on the dual notion of articulation as central to the conjuncture: how the conjoining of political forces alongside discursive enunciations are crucial to crafting hegemonies of corruption and understandings of political and civil society. I add to this Gramscian understanding of the conjuncture a focus on how residents constitute themselves as agential subjects through discourses of corruption. By focusing on the brewing frustrations of Complexo residents, the paper argues that articulations of corruption materialized an articulated political bloc against which community members could express frustration but also, importantly, constituted a civil society demonstrating a constrained agency.     

The Challenges of Financial Responsibility in the Tribal Administration of Bechuanaland Protectorate, 1919–1966

Abstract

This account of tribal finances in Bechuanaland Protectorate under British colonial rule argues that while the treasury dispensation made the tribes responsible for their finances, it also brought about a new dynamic and challenge in tribal communities as a result of a new monetary and financial system. Little or inadequate remuneration led to low morale, theft, and the employment of incompetent personnel in some instances. The colonial authority needed the chiefs to run tribal affairs and for political stability. As a result, chiefs often escaped unpunished whenever they were involved in peculation of funds. On the other hand, when tribal revenue workers did the same they were harshly dealt with. Efficiency and corruption in the treasury system differed from one area to another and was dependent on the character of the chief in the area.     

Biopolitics meets Terrapolitics: Political Ontologies and Governance in Settler-Colonial Australia

Crises persist in Australian Indigenous affairs because current policy approaches do not address the intersection of Indigenous and European political worlds. This paper responds to this challenge by providing a heuristic device for delineating Settler and Indigenous Australian political ontologies and considering their interaction. It first evokes Settler and Aboriginal ontologies as, respectively, biopolitical (focused through life) and terrapolitical (focused through land). These ideal types help to identify important differences that inform current governance challenges. The paper discusses the entwinement of these traditions as a story of biopolitical dominance wherein Aboriginal people are governed as an ‘included-exclusion’ within the Australian political community. Despite the overall pattern of dominance, this same entwinement offers possibilities for exchange between biopolitics and terrapolitics and, hence, for breaking the recurrent crises of Indigenous affairs.     

Political hierarchies and landscapes of conflict across Africa

Almost all African states experience substantial and widespread political insecurity in a variety of forms. This analysis explains how relationships between groups and governments create incentives and disincentives for distinct forms of political violence to emerge. It argues that ethno-regional communities across Africa are situated within a power hierarchy that determines their relative importance to, and inclusion in, regimes. A dynamic power landscape emerges from relative group positions. Various positions within a hierarchy are associated with particular dominant forms of organized political violence as groups challenge political elites, but are bounded by their goals and characteristics. A failure to consider the political hierarchies and landscapes operating within African states has led to an under specification of the causal mechanisms driving different forms of violence, and an overstatement of benefits from declining civil war rates and inclusive governing coalitions.     

Ruinismo: the Catholic Church in Italy from ‘mediation culture’ to the Cultural Project

It is only seven years since Monsignor Camillo Ruini resigned from his role as President of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI), yet it feels much longer. The tempestuous events that marked Silvio Berlusconi's decline, on one hand, and the election of Pope Francis to the Holy See, on the other, have made such an impression on recent Italian history that seems to leave no time for reflection on what has happened over the last twenty years. This article explores how, during this time, Cardinal Ruini has re-fashioned the relations between the Catholic Church and Italian politics, following a pattern that has come to be known as ‘ruinismo’. The essay follows the development of the theological-political line of the Conference, from the “mediation” of the “Catholic Party”, the Christian Democrats (DC), to the “policy of presence” of politically committed Catholics, defined in these terms by the ecclesiastical congress in Loreto in 1985 and fully carried out under Ruini's management, with the backing of Berlusconi's governments. The aim is to establish whether and to what extent the “Ruinian” rule may be regarded as the consequence of mainstream Catholic politics of the 1980s and, equally, as a response to the cultural and political transformation brought about by the upheavals of the corruption scandals of 1989–91. Only from this long-term perspective is it possible to determine whether Ruini's exit has brought an end to ruinismo.