Month: December 2007

Transparency International Corruption Index

Here’s another excellent source of information from an NGO, Transparency International, that investigates, writes about, and collects data dealing with corruption. This NGO puts out an annual Transparency Index, listing countries around the world with respect to the level of corruption in each.

What is Transparency International?

Transparency International, the global civil society organisation leading the fight against corruption, brings people together in a powerful worldwide coalition to end the devastating impact of corruption on men, women and children around the world.
TI’s mission is to create change towards a world free of corruption.

Transparency International challenges the inevitability of corruption, and offers hope to its victims. Since its founding in 1993, TI has played a lead role in improving the lives of millions around the world by building momentum for the anti-corruption movement. TI raises awareness and diminishes apathy and tolerance of corruption, and devises and implements practical actions to address it.

Here is a link to the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), and Bribe Payers Index (BPI), among others. There is a wealth of information on this site related to corruption.

Afrobarometer–Key Findings

The very first Afrobarometer Briefing Paper–here’s the link to a PDF version–(April 2002) presents some key findings regarding the views of African residents in about a dozen African countries on phenomena such as democracy, freedom, governance, etc. Here are a few I found interesting:

  • Corruption is seen as pervasive

Whereas about one-half of survey respondents think that corruption among public officials is common (52 percent), about one-third think it is rare (35 percent). Perceived corruption is highest in Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe, and lowest in Botswana, Lesotho and Namibia. Generally, however, people perceive more corruption than they themselves have personally experienced. Such perceptions, and the social inequalities they reflect, tend to corrode satisfaction with economic reform policies and with democracy.

In class, I use the module on economic and political development as an opportunity to ask students if they have ever tried to bribe an official for any reason whatsoever. The answer amongst my mostly suburban-bred American students is a unanimous “no.” Generally only I (and sometimes a foreign student) raise our hands to answer in the affirmative. I try to impress upon the students that bribery and corruption is a normal part of life in most non-Western countries. In most citizens’ dealings with official (read: governmental and quasi-governmental) institutions, bribing at least one official is absolutely necessary to get anything done.

Continue reading “Afrobarometer–Key Findings”

Afrobarometer Public Opinion Surveys

The Afrobarometer survey allows public access to its data, with a two-year time lag. From a description found on its home page, the Afrobarometer is “a comparative series of public attitude surveys on democracy, markets, and civil society in Africe.” The site is full of resources, in addition to the data, such as publications (including downloadable working papers), results, news and events.

afrobarometer1.jpg

Here are the countries surveyed and the years for each:

Country
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Other
Benin
—
—
2005
—
Botswana
1999
2003
2005
—
Cape Verde
—
2002
2005
—
Ghana
1999
2002
2005
1997
Kenya
—
2003
2005
—
Lesotho
2000
2003
2005
—
Madagascar
—
—
2005
—
Malawi
1999
2003
2005
—
Mali
2001
2002
2005
—
Mozambique
—
2002
2005
—
Namibia
1999
2003
2006
2002
Nigeria
2000
2003
2005
2001, 2007
Senegal
—
2002
2005
—
South Africa
2000
2002
2006
1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2004
Tanzania
2001
2003
2005
—
Uganda
2000
2002
2005
—
Zambia
1999
2003
2005
1993, 1996
Zimbabwe
1999
2004
2005
—

Winter 2008 issue of Orbis dedicated to “Assessing Democratic Transitions”

Just a note to remind me that the Winter 2008 issue of Orbis has a symposium on entitled “Assessing Democratic Transitions Today.” Here is the partial table of contents:

Introduction Adrian A. Basora
Must Democracy Continue to Retreat in Postcommunist Europe and Eurasia? Adrian A. Basora
The Tasks of Democratic Transition and Transferability Valerie Bunce
Ukraine: Lessons Learned from Other Post-Communist Transitions Mykola Riabchuk
Central Asia: U.S. Bases and Democratization Alexander Cooley
East and South East Asia: Lessons from Democratic Transitions Tom Ginsburg
Can Outsiders Bring Democracy to Post-Conflict States? John R. Schmidt

Croatia has a new Government?

After inter-party negotiations, which have lasted since election night–November 25th–it looks as though Ivo Sanader, head of the center-right Croatian Democratic Community (HDZ), will finally embark on his second governing mandate, this time as the head of a potentially unwieldy coalition government. The big news, however, is that the elections themselves, and the aftermath, proceeded in a fair and just manner, signaling Croatia’s ever deepening democratization. The Financial Times reports from Zagreb:

“He [Sanader] assured me he has the support of 77 elected parliamentary deputies,” [President] Mr Mesic said. The HDZ holds 66 seats – 10 more than the SDP, yet still 11 short of a majority. Mr Sanader appears close to forming a cabinet with the third-place Liberal-Peasant list and could also, as he did before, bring aboard parties for ethnic minorities, including Serbs.

But he could find himself politically weaker than in the past four years, when he ruled through a minority coalition in which the HDZ retained all cabinet ministries.

Hope for a united Iraq?

Apropos of one of the paper topics I assigned my class this past semester, here is an article that addresses the potential for a shared sense of community and destiny in Iraq. Based on this article, however, it seems that the basis for unity in Iraq is, in fact, the presence of the US military in that country. If this is true, then it leaves the Bush administration–and any future US president–caught between a rock and a hard place. Here are some snippets:

“raqis of all sectarian and ethnic groups believe that the U.S. military invasion is the primary root of the violent differences among them, and see the departure of “occupying forces” as the key to national reconciliation, according to focus groups conducted for the U.S. military last month.

That is good news, according to a military analysis of the results. At the very least, analysts optimistically concluded, the findings indicate that Iraqis hold some “shared beliefs” that may eventually allow them to surmount the divisions that have led to a civil war.”

Toward Muslim Democracies–Reading Questions

Professor Saad Eddin Ibrahim, a leading advocate for human rights and democracy in Egypt (and the broader Arab world), and professor of political sociology at the American University of Cairo, delivered the annual Lipset “Lecture on Democracy in the World” in 2006. He makes a couple of interesting points regarding the link between Islam and democracy. Here are some questions related to the reading:

  1. What proportion of the world’s Muslims currently lives in states with democratic regimes? Are these states full liberal democracies?
  2. What does he term the “lagging third”, and where can it be found?
  3. What is ironic about some of the countries in the “lagging third?”
  4. What two historical events, according to Ibrahim, are responsible for putting a halt to democratization in the Middle East?
  5. What, according to Ibrahim, is the link between the creation of Israel and the presence of authoritarian regimes in the Arab world?
  6. Are Arab-Islamic regimes authoritarian due to Arab-Muslim cultural and religious exceptionalism?
  7. How does he characterize the Arab dictators’ “cynical appeal.”
  8. In the battle between “autocrats” and “theocrats” with whom should liberal liberal democrats (such as he) side? Why?
  9. How can the role of the Catholic in Poland during Communism inform the potential role of the mosque in the Arab world?
  10. What does the Arabic shura mean?
  11. How does Ibrahim view the the electoral victories of Hamas (in the Palestinian territory) and radical Shia groups in Iraq? Is the detrimental or beneficial to democracy in these places?
  12. What is the “one person, one vote, one time” phenomenon, and should we be worried about its potential appearance in the Arab world?

Ibrahim, Saad Eddin. 2007. “Toward Muslim Democracies,” Journal of Democracy, Vol. 18, No.2, 5-13.

Ethnic Cleansing and Violence in Baghdad

The Washington Post carries a story on the front page of its Sunday edition, which describes the changing nature of residential segregation in Baghdad, from the perspective of returning refugees and displaced persons. Included is a compelling map [click the link on the left for a larger view] of Baghdad showing the dynamics of the process of ethnic cleansing (and ethnic consolidation) of Baghdad’s map_ethnic_cleansing_baghdad.gifneighborhoods between April 2006 and November 2007.

This could have something to do with the decreasing levels of violence in Baghdad over the last six months or so. (Of course, the increased US troop presence helps, but a more compelling argument comes out of work by many political scientists on the rational, or strategic, nature of inter-ethnic violence. The violence that is perpetrated by the respective sides during episodes of inter-ethnic conflict is rarely random.

In my own work in Croatia, there was a compelling strategic logic to the violence perpetrated by both sides. Territory–towns, regions, cities, etc.,–that was deemed strategically important was targeted, while territory that was not strategically important was left alone. A similar dynamic may be occurring in Baghdad. With the task of segregation of Baghdad’s neighborhoods a fait accompli, the need and desire, on the part of the sectarian militias, to use violence has diminished considerably.

Informal Institutions and Democracy in Africa

Using results from the Afrobarometer surveys, Michael Bratton has written an article in a recent issue of Journal of Democracy (you must have access to JoD articles to read this) on the relationship between formal and informal institutions and democracy in a sample of African countries.

This is a blurb from the article about Afrobarometer: “[Bratton] is also founder and director of the Afrobarometer, a collaborative international survey-research project that measures public opinion regarding democracy, markets, and civil society in eighteen African countries.”

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