TWP CoP September - October 2024 Newsletter [Updated]
Bringing you the latest news and updates on all things TWP!
Dear Friends and fellow travellers on all things TWP,
Welcome to the September-October 2024 (Back to School) edition of our Newsletter! Here is a summary of what we have in store:
Inspired by the reflections that Duncan Green wrote for the last edition of our Newsletter on thinking and working politically after retiring from Oxfam GB, in the featured interview in this issue, we ask Judith Kent and Kate Whyte, who were both at FCDO until very recently, to share their insights and wisdom as fellow travellers in the TWP journey, drawing on their 5+ decades of collective experience working on foreign affairs, conflict and international development.
In terms of “What we are working on”, we are delighted to publish, in collaboration with The Policy Practice, a paper that Beverley Jones and Daniel Oosthuizen have written with Dr Abdelgalil Elmekki and Esraa Ahmed telling the story of how a group of young people in Sudan used participatory political economy analysis in what became a form of political empowerment.
In that same section, you can also find out about a conference that the Serious Organised Crime & Anti-Corruption Evidence (SOC-ACE) Research Programme organised at the University of Birmingham in September 2024.
If you are curious about “What we are reading”, take a look at the literature review that Sharon Boadu, who is a Mo Ibrahim Scholar at the University of Birmingham, has written on the political economy of air quality management, with a focus on Ghana.
And if you are eager to hear about what others are doing in the TWP space and/or would like to share your own work, please check out our Bulletin and register for the next TWP “What’s up?” session, which is scheduled for November 2024.
In the same section, check out how you can get in touch to be a part of conversations on the potential of TWP for effective Humanitarian Response.
Last but not least, as always, we bring you the latest publications, events, and resources of interest from a TWP perspective.
If there is anything you would like to share with us, including items for future newsletters, please get in touch by email at: info@twpcommunity.org. And share with your network, and subscribe if you haven’t already!
Oh and please remember: If you are able to, it is better to open the newsletter directly on your browser (click on the ‘TWP CoP (September-October) 2024 Newsletter’ header, at the top of this page) so that you can get full access to all our content.
With best wishes,
Alina & Graham
Highlight feature
A Conversation with Judith Kent and Kate Whyte
Drawing on their extensive experience working at the FCO, DFID, Joint FCO-DFID Units, and FCDO since the early 2000s until very recently, Judith and Kate share their thoughts on why thinking about politics and working differently on the ground has been important at both a personal and an organisational level, and what difference it has made.
Most recently, Judith was Senior Governance Adviser in the newly established Centre of Expertise on Democratic Governance at FCDO, while Kate was Head of Profession for Governance.
Click below to watch the interview.
Or you can tune into the podcast version here.
What we are working on
New TWP CoP Publication
Coming in early October 2024! A paper by Beverley Jones and Daniel Oosthuizen with Dr Abdelgalil Elmekki and Esraa Ahmeadd on “Political Economy Analysis in Sudan: Handy Tools for Everyone?”, published by the TWP CoP in collaboration with TPP.
*Update: The paper has now been published and is available in full on our website*
The paper tells a story of a group of Sudanese people who have been doing political economy analysis in Sudan, from the last year of the three-decade regime of Omar al-Bashir (1989–2019) up to the Sudanese revolution (2018 –2019) and the present civil war (April 2023–). This group comprises the architects and participants of a ‘Contextual Analysis’ course conducted in 2017/18 under the auspices of a UK-funded programme implemented by the British Council.
In this paper, the authors argue that the skills and mind-set of broad and localised PEA capacity can make a tangible difference to people living in fragile and conflict-affected places, where navigating dangerous complexity is their daily reality. They also suggest that there is under-utilised potential for PEA capacity to support not only ordinary people across a range of different occupations and education levels, but also prominent actors who may end up playing key roles in intricate political processes, and whose choices can affect the longer term prospects for stability and peace. And they conclude that there are compelling reasons why undertaking PEA training does not require a stable context as a pre-condition, and should in fact be considered also during periods of hiatus, fast-moving transitions and even active conflict, as a form of essential capability building and empowerment.
SOC ACE Research Conference
On 18-19 September 2024, the Serious Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Evidence (SOC ACE) Research Programme held its first all SOC ACE Research Conference at the University of Birmingham. The conference brought together SOC ACE researchers, policymakers, and practitioners from different countries and regions to address the global challenges that inspired the SOC ACE programme and to explore the future of the fight against organised crime and corruption.
The SOC ACE research programme generates rigorous research that seeks to engage directly with policy and practice. By putting political analysis at the heart of research approaches, SOC ACE helps to demonstrate the role that research can play in helping to identify more politically feasible approaches to tackle serious organised crime, illicit finance, kleptocracy and corruption.
Organised around a series of thematic sessions, the conference saw attendees engage with cutting edge research showcasing the work of all current SOC ACE projects in settings spanning geographies from Asia to Latin America and beyond. Highlights included:
Discussions on research methods and how the challenges and sensitivities of conducting research in challenging settings can be navigated;
An in depth look at the Policy Lab’s work on paramilitaries and illicit economies;
Ideas on new collaborative research initiatives aimed at developing more integrated responses to organised crime, illicit finance and corruption; and
Strategic conversations about enhancing engagement between researchers, policymakers and practitioners for maximum impact.
Information on all projects and related publications and other outputs is available on the SOC ACE webpage, so do take a look in case of interest.
What we are reading
The political economy of air quality: A Review of the literature with reflections from Ghana
By Sharon Boadu
This review analyses key readings on the political economy of air quality management that have influenced the development of my master’s thesis on “The Political Economy of Air Pollution in Ghana”. Literature on this topic is currently limited, while efforts to develop air quality management strategies in many contexts fail to take politics into account. A common – and well known – critique of existing approaches is that they often transplant strategies developed in the Global North into countries in the Global South with scant regard to context.
Air pollution has been dubbed a “wicked problem”: a complex challenge with multiple causes that lacks clear solutions or boundaries, particularly in countries with limited economic and political resources, political instability, patronage, corruption, and clientelism (Andres et al. 2022). In this review, I argue that researchers and policy makers must think and work politically when developing air quality interventions that are intended to address collective action problems.
Air quality management encompasses all the activities undertaken by a regulatory authority to help protect human health and the environment from the harmful effects of air pollution (US Environmental Protection Agency 2015). Air quality management is a cyclical process that involves setting targets, identifying emission reductions, conducting ongoing reviews, implementing programmes, and designing control techniques. The achievement of reduction goals requires enacting and implementing policy initiatives and projects as well as ongoing evaluation to ensure continuity and efficiency in the implementation process. One of the challenges with air quality management policy initiatives and policies is that they are usually not tailored to fit the local context or to push back against stakeholders who may be negatively affected by these policies.
Discussions of the causes and consequences of air pollution, as well as recommendations for local, national, and global policy interventions, are common in low and middle-income countries. However, there is a scarcity of literature that investigates the barriers to air pollution policy development and implementation, particularly in Asia and Africa, where more than 90% of air pollution-related deaths occur. In emerging economy contexts, air pollution as a policy concern competes with what are perceived to be other, more immediate and concrete problems, such as housing, poverty reduction, and access to water. While international organisations have been working on air quality improvement since the 1990s, effective cross-cutting interventions remain elusive, and levels of ambient (or outdoor) air pollution have increased over the last five decades.
My research has identified three articles that explore the political challenges of developing air quality initiatives in the Global South:
Andres et al. (2022) argue that conflicting interests and incentives play an important but overlooked role in air quality management. In their view, it is essential to explore how different institutions, organisations, and groups, each with their own institutional logics, perceive and prioritise a “wicked problem” like air pollution. The authors identify four stages of policy formulation (influence, formation, implementation, and outcomes) that can become blocked as a result of factors including limited visibility, lack of a clear constituency of support, fragmented decision making, and/or policy de-prioritisation, among others. They conclude that there is a need to build a framework that unpacks how institutions, individuals, and groups in both state and society interact with one another in the policy process and how this shapes prospects for air quality reform in policy cycles to identify more realistic pathways of change.
Clean Air One Atmosphere (2023) emphasise that social scientists need to tackle air pollution from a social welfare lens that can raise awareness of sustainable transportation and clean energy in a manner that empowers vulnerable communities. They argue that the concept of social welfare and the process of implementing these initiatives must be specific to the political structures and the incentives of domestic stakeholders.
Hodoli, Abubakari and Adzaho (2018)’s journal on open data on air quality monitoring highlights an important question on the correlation between citizens’ awareness of the effects of poor air quality and their engagement in activities that serve as sources of air pollution, including for example biomass burning and use of firewood and charcoal. The authors also emphasise the need to sensitise citizens about the harmful effects of air pollution by making air quality data open and easily accessible. They suggest that this can encourage positive behavioural change and increase pressure on policy makers to act on poor air quality.
In my master’s degree thesis, I drew on these papers to explore air quality management challenges in Ghana through a political economy approach. My research highlights that, despite evidence showing the significant health and economic effects of air pollution in Ghana, there has been a consistent failure to design and implement effective air quality management policy. This failure relates not only to technical problems and limited funding, but also to more political ones, including for instance low levels of popular support for measures to increase air quality (in light of other priorities that seem more pressing), politicisation of government policies, corruption, and clientelism. In my thesis, I argue that, to get traction on this issue, beyond education and data investment, researchers and policy makers must work in ways that are politically informed. Part of this entails harnessing stakeholder engagement and potential coalitions for change that can help overcome political constraints to action.
List of references included in this review:
Andres, L., Bryson, J. R., Bakare, H., and Pope, F. (2023) “Institutional logics and regional policy failure: Air pollution as a wicked problem in East African cities.” Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space 41(2), 313-332.
Clean Air One Atmosphere (2023) “The importance of clean air for well-being: from the lens of social welfare.” Medium (27 July).
Hodoli, C. G., Abubakari, A., and Adzaho, G. (2018) “The need for open data on air quality monitoring in logistically difficult environments.” Clean Air Journal 28(2).
US Environmental Protection Agency (2015) Air Quality Management Process Cycle. [online] www.epa.gov.
Bulletin Board
1) Have you ever wondered whether Thinking and Working Politically holds potential for more effective Humanitarian Response? If so, please get in touch!
The benefits of thinking and working politically are becoming increasingly accepted across the development sector, in governance and sectoral response efforts. But in humanitarian and emergency settings where the primary focus is getting assistance out as quickly as possible to those most in need, thinking about how to navigate complexity can often go neglected, sometimes arguably, leading to unintended negative consequences and diminished humanitarian outcomes.
Whilst the humanitarian architecture calls on actors to understand some aspects of contextual complexity, including through conflict analysis, taking account of protection issues, gender and social inclusion dynamics, and humanitarian access, factors such as short funding cycles, even shorter delivery timeframes and the operational nature of humanitarian response efforts can arguably undermine and even disincentivise thinking through how to best navigate the complexities when delivering assistance.
So, could TWP offer something to the humanitarian sector in helping to think through how to navigate the complexities more effectively to deliver better outcomes for those most in need? Are there existing approaches being used in humanitarian response that are akin to, or that touch on aspects of TWP? And are there tensions between TWP and the Humanitarian Principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence?
If you’re a humanitarian professional or just interested in the issue and would like to be part of a conversation on the potential of TWP for humanitarian response, please get in touch by email at: L.C.Hand@bham.ac.uk where we’ll follow up with you directly!
2) TWP ‘What’s up?’ informal session
What’s up sessions are informal gatherings over Zoom offering an opportunity for members of our community to meet up with fellow TWPers and find out what people are up to.
We had a very engaging TWP What’s up session earlier in September, with people joining us from Kosovo, Nigeria, the Philippines, the UK, and the US!
We are looking to schedule another What’s up? session on Tuesday 26 November 2024. We are suggesting two different times (09:30am GMT and 3:00pm GMT) so that we can accommodate as many people as possible. Please do sign up for your preferred time if you are interested.
3) Courses and training opportunities
ACDI/VOCA, a global development implementing organisation specialising in market systems, offers a series of training modules with complementary checklists and worksheets to support U.S.-based staff and project teams in understanding and implementing an integrated TWP approach during the project cycle. Read more.
The Policy Practice is running an online course on Political Economy Analysis of Climate Action. This course explains how political economy analysis can be used to understand the challenge of action on climate change and to design more effective interventions. The course consists of 8 online sessions running from from 14 October to 12 November 2024. Visit this link for more information.
4) Calls for papers
The Political Studies Association Annual Conference - “What Next?", convened by the University of Birmingham and Aston University, will take place from 14 – 16 April 2025 to discuss and address what comes next in a global context of ongoing economic, environmental, health and (geo)political crises over the past two decades. Submit your paper by 18 October 2024.
The Innovations for Poverty Action Peace & Recovery Initiative (P&R) invites proposals for impact evaluations and related research from partnerships and implementers of peace, conflict, violence and recovery. Proposals are due 22 November 2024.
The Memory Studies Association invites proposals for its ninth annual conference on “Beyond Crises: Resilience and (In)stability”, which will be held from 14 to 18 July 2025 at Charles University and the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague.
Recent Publications
1) Books, Journals and Articles
Adams, R,. (2024) The New Empire of AI. The Future of Global Inequality. Polity Press
As AI takes hold across the planet and wealthy nations seek to position themselves as global leaders of this new technology, the gap is widening between those who benefit from it and those who are subjugated by it. This book argues that growing inequality is the single biggest threat to the transformative potential of AI. The author states that not only is AI built on an unequal global system of power, it stands poised to entrench existing inequities, further consolidating a new age of empire.
Begealawuh, N. C. (2024) Missed or misused opportunity? Social Cohesion, National Dialogue and Peacebuilding in Cameroon. African Security Review.
This article uses multidimensional aspects of social cohesion, including different elements of trust, equality, inclusion, and participation, to show how political actors can undermine efforts to foster social cohesion in conflict affected societies. The paper identifies opportunities that were missed or misused during the national dialogue process intended to resolve Cameroon's Anglophone crisis.
Bornschier, S. (2024) “Polarization, Political Cleavages, and Elites in Old and New Democracies". In Shim, J. (ed.) Mass-Elite Representation Gap in Old and New Democracies. Critical Junctures and Elite Agency. Michigan: University of Michigan Press.
This book chapter discusses the concept of political cleavage and its capacity to link individual political behaviour to large scale divisions in society across a variety of contexts. The author argues that there is a need for a shift from macro-historical sociology and a concern with similarities and differences between societies and their political systems to a more actor-centred perspective that acknowledges that critical junctures may afford elites considerable leeway to shape political cleavages.
Carothers, T., and Hartnett, B. (2024) “Misunderstanding Democratic Backsliding”. Journal of Democracy 35 (3).
One of the most common explanations of the ongoing wave of global democratic backsliding is that democracies are failing to deliver adequate socioeconomic goods to their citizens, leading voters to forsake democracy and embrace antidemocratic politicians who undermine democracy once elected. This article challenges this thesis by analysing twelve important cases of recent backsliding. The authors find that backsliding is less a result of democracies failing to deliver than of democracies failing to constrain the predatory political ambitions and methods of certain elected leaders.
Chambru, C., Henry, E., and Marx, B. (2024) “The Dynamic Consequences of State-Building: Evidence from the French Revolution”. American Economic Review (forthcoming).
This review studies how changes in administrative presence affect state capacity and development in the ensuing decades. In the short run, proximity to the state increases taxation and law enforcement. In the long run, capitals obtain more public goods and grow faster. Results from the study highlight the dynamic impacts of state-building in the context of the French Revolution.
Chandra, R., (2024) Reflections on the Future of Capitalism: From Karl Marx to Amartya Sen. London: Palgrave McMillan.
This book presents the development of economic thinking on capitalism in historical perspective. It contrasts and analyses the work of nine renowned economists in the history of economic thought and argues for periodical reform of capitalism in conjunction with a democratic system.
Collord, M. (2024) Wealth, Power, and Authoritarian Institutions: Comparing Dominant Dominant Parties and Parliaments in Tanzania and Uganda. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Through an analysis of the recent political history of Tanzania and Uganda, this book explores why authoritarian parties and legislatures vary in strength, and why this variation matters. Centring on material power, the author elaborates a view of authoritarian political institutions as both reflecting and magnifying elite power dynamics. The book outlines how diverse trajectories of state-led capitalist development engender differing patterns of wealth accumulation and elite contestation across regimes, and how these differences, in turn, influence institutional landscapes, including in terms of political parties and legislatures.
Corrales, J. (2024) Why Populism is the Sugar, Salt, and Fat of Our Politics…with Variations: A Reflection. American Behavioural Scientist.
Using a metaphor from research on unprocessed foods, the author argues that authoritarian-populist leaders take natural tenets of democracy—for example, policies to help the voiceless (sugar), competition against opponents (salt), and reform agenda saturation (fat)—and supply them in combinations and quantities that end up distorting democracy.
Corrals, J. (2024). Authoritarian Survival: Why Maduro Hasn’t Fallen. Journal of Democracy.
This article examines how Nicolás Maduro's regime in Venezuela has remained in power despite severe economic crises and political challenges. Corrales argues that the regime's survival relies on a mix of traditional authoritarian tactics and a novel approach he calls "function fusion."
David-Barrett, E. and D’Emidio, R. (2024) “Curbing corruption in aid”. In Desai, R.M. et al. (eds.) Handbook of aid and development, Political Science and Public Policy. Edward Elgar Publishing.
The COVID crisis exacerbated tensions in efforts to curb corruption in aid spending, by hindering oversight, increasing the space for discretionary power, and making conventional benchmarks against which to judge conduct less meaningful. However, the scale and urgency of the problem has also prompted some donors to think more carefully about how to manage these tensions, and to develop methods for mitigating corruption risk while ensuring that aid meets beneficiary needs. This chapter aims to assess how the balance between national ownership and use of country systems on the one hand and corruption control measures on the other has played out during the pandemic.
Guzman, M., and Stiglitz, E, J. (2024) Post-Neoliberal Globalization: International Trade Rules for Global Prosperity. Oxford Review of Economic Policy 40 (2).
This article analyses frameworks for the design of the rules for international trading, assuming that it is possible to have some rule of law. In the Arrow–Debreu benchmark, where there is no economic power and political power is seemingly irrelevant, there is no need for trade agreements—free trade is the optimal policy for each country. But under even minimal deviations from that benchmark, trade agreements matter. The paper focuses on environments in which there are market failures, technology is endogenous, and there is political power. The authors develop a normative framework which may be useful in the design and implementation of trade rules.
Hassan, I. (2024). Guide on External Risk Factors to Electoral Processes in West Africa (2022-2023). Cases form Ghana, Liberia, Mali and Togo. International IDEA
This guide delves into the multifaceted external risk factors (ERFs) that loom over the electoral horizon in nations like Ghana, Liberia, Mali and Togo. Through meticulous analysis, it illuminates the potent mix of socio-economic conditions, political and social exclusions, and the spectre of election-related violence, among other critical elements, that could influence the outcomes and integrity of the imminent elections.
Hickel, J. and Sullivan, D. (2024) How much growth is required to achieve good lives for all? Insights from needs-based analysis. World Development Perspectives 35.
Some narratives in international development hold that ending poverty and achieving good lives for all will require every country to reach the levels of GDP per capita that currently characterise high-income countries. However, this would require increasing total global output and resource use several times over, dramatically exacerbating ecological breakdown. This article argues that this dilemma can be resolved with a different approach, rooted in recent needs-based analyses of poverty and development.
Huber, E., and Stephens, J. D. (2024). Challenging Inequality: Variation across Post-industrial Societies. The University of Chicago Press
This book analyses different patterns of increasing income inequality in post-industrial societies since the 1980s, assessing the policies and social structures best able to mitigate against the worst effects of market inequality. Combining statistical data analysis from twenty-two countries with a comparative historical analysis of Germany, Spain, Sweden, and the United States, Huber and Stephens identify the factors that drive increases in inequality and shape persistent, marked differences between countries.
International Peace Institute (2024). Emerging Lessons from MINUSMA’s Experience in Mali. IPI.
The International Peace Institute (IPI), the Stimson Centre, and Security Council Report, with support from the German Federal Foreign Office and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, organized a workshop to discuss takeaways learned from MINUSMA’s ten-year presence in Mali. This report discusses the key takeaways from the discussion and highlights that lessons learned from MINUSMA point to the importance of political consensus, multi-stakeholder partnerships, and realistic alignment between mandates and resources for the success of future peacekeeping missions.
Karim, S. and Hill, D. W. Jr. (2024) Positioning Women in Conflict Studies. How Women’s Status Affects Political Violence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
This book develops an original framework to study the condition of women in peace and conflict that avoids conflating gender equality with other concepts. Using cross national data on women’s status and gender inequality from several countries, the book highlights the differences between gender equality and women’s status, and between different aspects of women’s status.
Kirk, T., and Pinnington, R. (2024). Development Practice, Power and Public Authority. Special issue. Global Policy 15(S4).
Drawing upon research across multiple countries, the papers in this special issue explore how public authority dynamics affect development and humanitarian practices and processes. Some focus on crisis settings; while others examine how public authority dynamics affect the everyday governance of development in outwardly more stable contexts. The seven empirical papers are complimented by a conceptual framework for analysing how power permeates the foundations of public authority dynamics. Viewed together, they illuminate why exclusions, coercion and violence are often used by those claiming the legitimacy to govern, and how grasping what this may mean for well-intended interventions or reform efforts remains a challenge for practitioners. However, they also point towards a pressing need for outsiders to recognise their own roles in constructing and legitimising, sometimes harmful, forms of public authority in the places they work. And they suggest the first step is to confront a reluctance to acknowledge public authority dynamics in their official depictions of programmes' progress, learnings and impacts.
Mac Ginty, R., ed. (2024) Routledge Handbook of Peacebuilding. Routledge.
This updated and revised second edition of the Routledge Handbook of Peacebuilding contains an analysis of contemporary attempts to reach and sustain peace. The book covers the main actors and dynamics of peacebuilding, as well as the challenges that it faces. Bringing together leading thinkers and practitioners on peacebuilding, many from the Global South, this handbook offers a hands-on perspective on how peace can be secured and sustained.
O’Flaherty, S., Martin, L., and Steffel, M. (2024) How Academics and Policymakers can Collaborate Effectively: Lessons from Using Behavioural Science to Improve U.S. Federal Government Policies. Behavioural Science and Policy.
Drawing on the collective experience of the authors’ work in the U.S. Office of Evaluation Sciences, this article outlines some of the core issues that make research collaborations between academics and government agents challenging. The paper offer tips for making these partnerships productive and mutually beneficial.
Pedley, D. (2024). Understanding Change as Politics not Political Will. London: Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
This note provides a framework of analysis to help practitioners explore the motivation and agency of individuals or organisations that might drive change. It also considers aspects of collective action problems that may stifle efforts for reform.
Schneider, B. R. (2024) Routes to Reform. Education Politics in Latin America. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
This book offers a comprehensive analysis of the challenges and opportunities in improving education systems across Latin America. It explores the complexities of educational reform and offers practical recommendations for policymakers and educators aiming to enhance educational outcomes and equity. The book underscores the importance of context-specific solutions and the need for sustained commitment to addressing educational disparities.
Scoones, I. (2024) Navigating Uncertainty: Radical Rethinking for a Turbulent World. Polity Books.
Drawing on experiences from across the world, this book explores how to navigate uncertainties in finance and banking, technology regulation, critical infrastructures, pandemics, natural disasters and climate change. Contrasting an approach centred on risk and control with one that is more flexible, it argues that we need to adjust our modernist, controlling view and develop new approaches through the radical rethinking of policies, institutions and practices to successfully navigate uncertainty.
Ian Scoones will talk about this book in a webinar on 3 October 2024. Register here.
Vatter, A., and Freiburghaus, R. (2024). Handbook of Comparative Political Institutions. Edward Elgar Publishing.
This comprehensive handbook presents a broad range of theoretical, methodological and empirical perspectives on the comparative study of political institutions. Exploring cutting-edge developments in the field, it provides new insight into the significant diversity and impact of political institutions across space and time.
Velasco-Herrejón, P., and Bauwens, T. (2024) Are energy transitions reproducing inequalities? Power, social stigma and distributive (in)justice in Mexico. Journal of Environmental Change 87.
Activists, scholars, and policymakers worldwide have increasingly recognised the intrinsic linkages between energy transitions and justice issues. However, little research exists on how groups affected by renewable energy siting interpret and mobilise justice narratives to legitimise their actions and question development plans. Building on the notion of 'framing' in social movement theory, this study addresses this gap by examining the discourses adopted by people resisting wind energy developments in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico.
Velasco, K., Baral, S., and Tang, Y, N. (2024) Is Democracy Bad for LGBT+ Rights? Journal of Democracy 35(3).
This article contends that, as recent empirical developments challenge the longstanding connection between democracy and LGBT+ rights, they also call for a conceptual reassessment. Rather than viewing LGBT+ rights as an outcome of democracy, this essay proposes treating them as constitutive of democracy, particularly in its liberal form. It further offers normative as well as pragmatic justifications for this conceptual shift.
Weyland, K. (2024) Why Populist Authoritarians Rarely Turn into Repressive Dictators. Comparative Politics.
Why don’t most authoritarian regimes installed by populist chief executives become full-scale, repressive dictatorships? This article addresses this question by highlighting a crucial complementary factor: populist chief executives find it difficult to marshal large-scale political repression. Their insistence on personalistic autonomy and unconstrained predominance creates tension with military institution, the mainstay of organized coercion. The author argues that due to this inherent distance, most populist rulers lack military support to sustain the imposition of harsh autocracy.
2) Policy Papers, Reports, Briefs and Working Papers
Acemoglu, D., and Robinson, J. A. (2023). Culture, Institutions and Social Equilibria: A Framework. NBER Working Paper.
This paper proposes a new framework for studying the interplay between culture and institutions. It proposes a “systems approach” to culture: the meaning and function of attributes are determined within the whole configuration and political equilibrium and emphasizes discontinuous or “saltational” changes in culture—rather than gradual, evolutionary changes—as attributes are reconnected and acquire new meanings in response to evolving circumstances and as outcomes in ongoing “cultural struggles”.
Daron Acemoglu discusses this paper in the Rocking Our Priors Podcast.
Chitalkar, P. (2024) How legal empowerment efforts are fighting repression and deepening democracy. Grassroots Justice Network.
Grassroots justice workers around the world face conditions of rising authoritarianism and closing civic spaces. In response to human rights abusers using strikingly similar tactics (the “playbook of repression”), this report outlines a “playbook of justice,” compiling effective strategies that grassroots justice workers are using to respond. Drawing on roundtable discussions with Network members and insights from across the field, this report demonstrates that the work of grassroots justice workers is essential, not only to counter repression, but to advance a deeper version of democracy, where communities have the power to shape the decisions that affect their lives.
Croissant, A., and Lott, L. (2024) Democratic Resilience in the Twenty-First Century. Search for an analytical framework and explorative analysis. V-Dem Institute Working Paper. Gothenburg: V-Dem Institute.
This study presents a conceptualisation of democratic resilience as regime performance and regime capacity. It introduces the Resilience Capacity (ResCap)-Index and combines different approaches of measuring autocratisation to capture varieties of resilience performance in democratic regimes. The preliminary evidence from this explorative analysis suggests that resilience capacity has a significant and substantial effect on a country’s ability to prevent democratic backsliding or breakdown, but not to recover from such democratic erosion or breakdown.
Makokha, R. (2024) Navigating Electoral Transitions in Ghana: Experience from the DAP project. Accra: African Centre for Parliamentary Affairs.
This case study series reflects how the Data for Accountability Project (DAP) has engaged with and responded to critical elements of Ghana’s governance and political economy context during the project’s implementation period. The primary objective of the series is to provide a nuanced understanding of the project's adaptive strategies and interactions within the complex and evolving landscape of Ghana’s political and economic environment through storytelling, showcasing practical reflections on project implementation.
Marcathy, J. M. et al. (2024) Freetown: City Report. Working Paper 16. Manchester: African Cities Research Consortium.
This study considers how power and the political settlement are configured at the national and city levels in Freetown, Sierra Leone. It finds that Freetown’s political economy is influenced by both local and national-level politics, and that this is firmly linked with the country's weak systems of governance and decentralisation.
Mac Ginty, R. (2024) What works? Effectiveness in Mediation and Peace-making. A Policy brief. Durham: Durham University.
This research draws on interviews with 30 highly experienced mediators and peacemakers to identify the most effective peace-making strategies. The most regularly mentioned effective strategy was sustained networks that enable communication between conflict parties.
Marković, V. C. (2024) The Struggle Against Authoritarian Influence in the Western Balkans. Montenegro as a Test Case. Washington, DC: National Endowment for Democracy and International Forum for Democratic Studies.
Authoritarians have employed evolving strategies to subvert democratic norms and practice across the Balkan Peninsula, and Montenegro has served as an important testing ground for authoritarian influence. Due to the country’s small size, external powers can exert disproportionate influence with relatively modest “investments”. As a result, powerful authoritarian players globally can draw upon lessons from such influence experiments in Montenegro. Given these challenges, this report delves into the mechanisms of malign authoritarian influence, with a specific focus on Montenegro, and highlights civil society approaches to address foreign authoritarian influence on democratic institutions.
Olson, L., and Chigas, D. (2024) How Anti-Corruption Efforts can Inadvertently Fuel Conflict. Working Paper. Corruption, Justice and Legitimacy Program. Calgary: Besa Global.
This working paper gathers evidence and practitioner experience about how anticorruption (AC) efforts can unintentionally exacerbate conflict in societies experiencing intergroup tensions, political and social violence, or war.
Pedley, D. (2024) Understanding Change as Politics not Political Will, London: Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office.
This guide summarises some of the challenges facing development programmes, as well as the suggested approaches for addressing them. The guide focuses primarily on governance issues but it is also relevant to other sectors. The guide is intended to be used alongside other analytical tools, including country-level institutional analysis and political economy analysis. The evidence outlined in the guide challenges traditional development thinking that ‘lack of political will’ can explain many of the barriers to progress. It instead illustrates the collective action problems that may lie behind these issues, with mini case-study examples drawn from wider research.
Peiffer, C. and Cheeseman, N. (2024) A How-to Guide to Anti-Corruption Messaging. Washington, DC: Center for International Private Enterprise.
Corruption constitutes one of the biggest threats to both development and democracy around the world. This helps to explain why anti-corruption campaigns have been a constant feature of both foreign aid programming and civil society activity over the past 30 years. These anti-corruption campaigns often have an awareness-raising component that involves producing messages about the harm that corruption can do for a mass audience. The authors argue that, to avoid wasting money or distributing messages that may have unwanted effects, it is essential to follow the ‘three ts’: tailor, target and test. Messages must be carefully tailored to reflect what we know of social psychology. At the same time, messages should be carefully targeted at a distinct audience because they can have different effects on different people. Finally, messages should always be tested before they are shared with the public to make sure that they don’t backfire.
This paper was discussed in the Centre for International Private Enterprise Podcast.
Pinnington, R., Kasaija, P., King, M., Mbabazi. N and Gulrajani, N. (2024). Why aren’t we there yet? Understanding and addressing donor barriers to localisation in climate adaptation. ODI Working Paper.
This paper examines the barriers bilateral donors face in their efforts to promote locally led practices in climate adaptation, where specific commitments have been made to the Principles for Locally Led Adaptation. It examines initiatives in Uganda, drawing on interviews with three bilateral donors (the US, UK and Sweden) and Ugandan stakeholders (government, civil society, academia).
Sheriff, A. and Sumner, A. (2024). Budding buddies? The rocky road to boosting UK-EU development cooperation after Labour’s landslide victory. ECDPM.
The authors here argue that the UK election may have ushered in a new, friendlier era for UK-EU relations, and that development policy could play an important role in rebuilding this connection. However, due to a potential shift in UK public opinion, changed EU priorities, challenges in repairing the strained UK-EU relationship and the current geopolitical landscape, the road ahead will not be straightforward.
Shipley, T. (2024) Evaluating anti-corruption interventions: The state of practice. Bergen: CMI U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre
Organisations implementing anti-corruption interventions regularly evaluate their work. However, to date the quality of the research produced has not been subject to rigorous review. This report aims to provide clear evidence on evaluation quality to prompt renewed debate around the role of M&E in the anti-corruption field.
Stacy, B. W., Kitzmüller,L., Wang,X., Mahler,D. G., and Serajuddin, U. (2024) Missing Evidence : Tracking Academic Data Use around the World (English). Policy Research Working Paper Series. Washington, DC: World Bank.
Data-driven research on a country is key to producing evidence-based public policies. Yet little is known about where data-driven research is lacking and how it could be expanded. This paper proposes a method for tracking academic data use by country or subject, applying natural language processing to open-access research papers. The paper identifies data sources that are strongly associated with data-driven research and finds that availability of subnational data appears to be particularly important.
UNDP, UNODC, and OHCHR (2024) At the Crossroads: Breakdown or Breakthrough for Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions. Global Progress Report on Sustainable Development Goal 16 Indicators.
This report represents a unique and pivotal inter-agency effort toward realising the global 2030 Agenda, raising awareness of Goal 16’s significance. Released in 2023, the first Global Progress Report on Goal 16 served as a wake-up call for collective action: the report revealed that progress toward the 2030 Agenda was alarmingly off track, with advancements on Goal 16 worryingly slow, and in some areas, even regressing. This second report dedicated to Goal 16 presents the most comprehensive national, regional and global data that the UN system can offer across all targets and indicators. It uncovers critical trends that threaten the collective aspirations of the international community.
Van Veen, E. (2024) Drivers and Strategic Puzzles of Saudi Modernisation. Clingendael and CARPO Report. The Hague: Clingendael.
Saudi Arabia’s ‘Vision 2030’ set in motion a large-scale, mainly state-led and top-down modernisation agenda to diversify the Saudi economy beyond oil, develop a new national development ethos, reshape Saudi identity and introduce greater lifestyle options while maintaining consolidated rule in the hands of the Al Saud. This report explores the drivers and strategic puzzles of Saudi modernisation.
Zulueta-Fülscher, K. (2023) How Constitution-Making fails and what we can learn from it. Discussion Paper 2/2023. Stockholm: International IDEA.
Constitution-making is often integral to achieving a new political settlement after conflict and in fragile settings. However, the process fails with relative frequency, in that actors cannot agree on a new text or the finalised text is not approved or ratified. While failure may be temporary, it can also be costly. Key reforms may depend on the adoption of a new or revised constitution, and in its absence negotiations may stall and conflict recur. This paper starts a conversation about the potential grounds for, and strategies to prevent or build on, failure.
3) Blogs and opinion pieces
Acemoglu, D. (2024) “The AI Safety Debate Is All Wrong”. Project Syndicate.
Acemoglu argues that today’s anxiety about the risks posed by artificial intelligence reflects a tendency to anthropomorphise AI and causes us to focus on the wrong issues. He suggests that, since technology can be used for good or bad, what ultimately matters is who controls it, what their objectives are, and what kinds of regulations they are subjected to.
Bojan, S. J. (2024). UK Election: What will a Labour government mean for Africa?. The Africa Report.
In this opinion piece, Bojan discusses how the political shift in the UK can reshape its relationship with Africa.
Denny, L. (2024) “Making clear bets for change: Australia’s International Development Policy”. Development Policy Blog.
In this blog, Lisa Denny reflects on the usefulness of thinking more explicitly about different approaches to change in order to uncover the implicit biases we operate with to understand how change occurs. She argues for thinking of a framework that can capture which strategies are effective in which contexts, identifies who benefits from these strategies, and uses research to understand the outcomes.
Hossain, N. (2024). A Revolution in Bangladesh- but what next?. Context.
As Prime Minister of fifteen years Sheikh Hasina resigns, Hossain states that the immediate task for Bangladesh is to learn from the mistakes that allowed Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League to dominate for 15 years, and to rebuild a country reeling from a horrifically bloody July.
Khoury, R. B. and Scott, E. K. M. (2024) Localisation doesn’t shift power, it deepens international dominance. The New Humanitarian.
For years, the international aid sector has tried to shift power and make aid more locally driven. In this piece, the authors question whether the processes meant to localise aid are part of the problem, including among other things underfunding, systemic power imbalances and frustration from local humanitarians.
Milanovic, B. (2024) Why Inequality Matters. LSE Blogs.
In this post, Branko Milanovic, Senior Scholar at the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality at CUNY and Visiting Professor at the LSE’s International Inequalities Institute, addresses these fundamental questions: why should we care about the level of inequality in society? Why does inequality matter when it comes to the outlook for economic growth, for reasons of fairness, and for the functioning of the political system?
Mushakavanhu, T. (2024) Podcasts bring Southern Africa’s liberation struggle to life- thanks to innovative new audio archive. The Conversation.
Using examples of different podcast series, this piece shows how podcasting is contributing in creative ways to the decolonisation of research materials and archives that have been historically subjugated, subordinated, silenced or submerged- particularly in Africa.
National Endowment for Democracy (2024). Their Control Cannot be Flawless: Reflections form a Chines Dissident. Journal of Democracy.
Hu Ping- a leading overseas Chinese dissident, who first rose to prominence when he posted his essay “On Freedom of Speech” at Democracy Wall in Beijing in 1978 speaks to Rui Zhaohuai, the editor of the China Journal of Democracy, on the proper lessons people should draw from the suppression of the prodemocracy movements in Tiananmen Square and Hong Kong.
Power, G. (2024). For Decades, a Behavioural Blind Spot Has Plagued Political Development. Behavioural Scientist.
Greg Power argues that attempts to improve governance in some of the world’s most troubled states have been based more on the rational design of formal institutions than on the behavioural logic of the individuals that work inside of them. He highlights the need to understand that political development is rarely, if ever, the neat product of rational planning, but rather the results of a far more messy and complex process of human beings finding ways to fix the things that matter to them.
4. Podcasts
Acemoglu, D. September 2024. V4.0: Rebooting Culture and Economics, Rocking Our Priors Podcast.
Walker, D. September 2024. 'We are in the business of hope': How Darren Walker revolutionized philanthropy, Amanpour Interviews- CNN.
Grunitzky, C. August 2024. Could Africa become the world’s manufacturing hub?, Limitless Africa Podcast.
Gardner, T. August 2024. The war the world ignores, The Intelligence Podcast.
Honig, D. July 2024. Empowering Bureaucrats for Better Government Performance, In Pursuit of Development Podcast.
Events
Upcoming Events
8 October: Harvard Kennedy School - A conversation with Greg Power
1-10 October: USAID’s Local Capacity Strengthening and Feedback Virtual Forum.
21-22 October: OECD Global Forum on Building Trust and Reinforcing Democracy. Breaking New Ground for the Future of Democracy.
17-27 November: Institute for Peace and Dialogue 4th Winter Academy.
Recent Events:
25 September: Women, Peace, and Leadership Symposium on Connecting
the International and the Local: WPS on the Ground.
19-20 September: International Democracy Day Brussels.
10 September: Agency and Possibility: What we can learn from everyday micro-dynamics in conflict0affected societies.
5-6 September: Climate and SDG Synergy 5th Global Conference.
19 April: Empowering youth voices: Building a democratic future in North Macedonia, Westminster Foundation for Democracy.
Resources
The Centre for Elections, Democracy, Accountability and Representation (CEDAR) at the University of Birmingham has announced a new collaboration between its People, Power, Politics podcast and the Journal of Democracy. This new collaboration will take the form of a new stream of podcast episodes based on recent Journal of Democracy articles.
The Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester has developed a new Digital Transformation for Development Checklist to help researchers improve the fit of their research with the particular nature of digital transformation for development.
The World Bank Group (WBG) has launched a new World Bank Group Academy to transform the Bank’s knowledge agenda. The Academy aims to equip future leaders with development expertise that can help realise their countries’ full potential.
Michael Thrower Chowdhury shares a thread on 10 books on growth and Development.
The Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) has a new series called ‘Economics for People’ where Ha-Joon (University of Cambridge economist and best selling author) explains key concepts in economics, with the aim of empowering people to hold their government, society and economy accountable.
In Pursuit of Development Podcast: Hosted by Professor Dan Banik, this podcast has the objective of creating conversations for a deeper understanding of democracy, poverty eradication, and the urgent battle against climate change.
The International Political Science Association (IPSA) has released the latest issue of Participation on the IPSA2025 World Congress of Political Science in Seoul. This new issue provides information on the Congress theme, plenary speakers, venue and practical information on travelling to Seoul.
The Westminster Foundation for Democracy has a new video series which features partners supported by WFD in Kenya, Nigeria, Malaysia and Nepal. They tell the story of positive change that has resulted from strengthening democracy.
Tell us what you think…we want to hear from you!
Please do not hesitate to get in touch with us for your suggestions and ideas for sections of our newsletter. You can do this via:
- Email: info@twpcommunity.org
- Twitter/X: @TWP_Community
- Or by leaving a comment down below