The State in the Global South
Between consolidated statehood / global constitutionalism and local autonomy / state failure
Workshop of the research group "state and statehood of the Global South",
Department for Development Studies
In the countries of the Global South, the state often appears in forms which are difficult to capture in categories that are commonly used for the OECD world. In some countries we encounter a highly active bureaucracy which controls and regulates large sectors of the economy, labour relations and social reproduction - a kind of state which has been labeled developmental state. In other regions, the state apparatus seems to be largely dysfunctional or even non-existent in the sense that it can not impose a monopoly on the legitimate use of force, nor can it provide for most basic public services.
These differences are also visible in a global perspective: On the one hand we can observe elements of a transnational state formation integrating countries and regions of the South into a global regulatory and system of governance by increasing constitutionalisation and juridification. On the other hand, this integration coincides with processes by which more and more regions fall out of global structures and become 'ungovernable areas'.
Concerning the question of how to analyse these differences, the literature on state theory differs widely: Some authors distinguish between different types of states in the OECD world and in the Global South. Within this perspective, one strand of explanation analyses the state at the global periphery as a product of structural dependencies or of different trajectories of development which are influenced by these dependencies. Other explanations focus on regionally and culturally specific settings and explain differences along these lines.
These views can be contrasted with analyses which see the state in the South and in the North not as different in quality but as a gradually different articulations of universal state forms. Some approaches focus on the world-wide diffusion of institutions during colonialism and recent globalization processes. Others see globalisation processes as a transformation of statehood which leads to a harmonization of state forms in both, North and South.
During the conference on International Development Studies, the research group "state and state theory in the Global South" will facilitate a workshop on statehood in the Global South. The papers will focus on studies of different phenomena of state fragility or fragmentation of the state and explore how these phenomena can be conceptualized.
Workshop Programme
Saturday, 29 October 2011
11.30-13.00
State fragility and state fragmentation
Stefan Khittel, MMag.
Austrian Institute for International Politics (OIIP), Department of Development Studies
"From dominance to hegemony - and back again? Paramilitary strategies in Colombia."
Tomáš Petrů, Ph.D.
(Head of the) Department of Asian Studies Metropolitan University Prague
"Indonesia´s democracy under threat? Gansters and vigilantes and their impact on the crisis of governance."
Wolfram Schaffar, Univ-Prof. Dr.
Department of Development Studies, Vienna
"Theory of the state in Southeast Asia: The global logic of fragility in Burma/Myanmar"