Cluster description

In some instances, most major democratic institutions are either weak or severely deficient to fulfil their mandated functions. In other instances, the institutionalisation of the ethos and values of democratic governance are in their infancy, hence raising the question who governs the governance when they become part of problem inciting. In yet other instances, formal democratic institutions operate under the shadow of entrenched informal and traditional time-tested and locally more trusted than state-sponsored political institutions. Intuitional duality or outright incongruence prevails.

Political Parties, and Governance Interfaces focuses on the debate and concerns with the interplay between, trade-offs and deficits of political institutions, particularly political parties deficits whether self-imposed or externally inflicted, in areas where such institutions are perceived to have become part of the problem and not the solution. Political parties as instruments of governance are predicated on their interfaces with major social forces also straddling the position between citizens and parliament and between parliament and government. These interfaces magnify the polycentric nature of polity in democratic societies. They also lament how political party deficits such political corruption, sleaze, lack of accountability or the use of violence seeps through other democratic institutions, namely, the political executive and the legislature and beyond.

The research cluster is also informed by issues of governance and politics, starting from local realities where interactions between key stakeholders, including bureaucrats, private sector, elected councillors and politicians, organised and non-organised citizens and the poor, local leaders/patrons/mediators, civil society organisations and the private sector. The key concern is with the interfaces and interactions between communities and citizens, local government – both executives and elected politicians- and higher levels of governance at state (even possibly global) levels. An obvious area where governance deficits and interfaces occure is financining of political parties and election campaigins. The objectives of the sub-theme on this subject is capacity development by improving skills and knowledge-base, skills and capabilities of political party functionaries on issues pertaining to political party funding reforms, laws and administrative and regulatory frameworks, as well as creating greater public awareness of the significance of political parties in democratic governance. Political party deficits could also be nurtured by externally imposed policies that prevent for example, political parties or parliaments, from implementing national policies and programmes or respond to the electorate preferences. Increasingly, political party agendas and parliamentary sovereignties, indeed most public policy concerns from water prices to education fees have been made subservient to global policy agenda mandated by International Financial Institutions (IFIs) such as the IMF and the World Bank. With democratic institutions left with meagre, if any, room for manoeuvre to regulate public affairs the question who governs IFIs (the governance) looms large. This question has become increasingly problematic, particularly when political institutions neither govern according to the social constitution of society and its needs nor respond to the legitimate demands of the governed.

CLUSTER OUTLINE

(Karim Knio, Mohamed Salih and Joop de Wit) The Research Cluster explores the nature of political party institutionalisation process in two domains: (a) competitive politics in theory and practice; and (b) whether internal and external political regulations are desirable as has been suggested by some political commentators. The overall objective is to examine the quality of democratic consolidation with reference to the quality of the institutionalisation of competitive politics, party politics and electoral systems. These two domains will be researched within the internal and broader external contexts of political development. Political institutions (parties, parliaments, etc.) are important instruments for institutionalising competitive democratic politics. They ensure “stable” political succession to the same or different government through competitive periodic and regular elections. As representative institutions, political parties and parliaments form government and opposition and together they are expected to ensure that government serves the public interests of the many and not private interests of the few. In the developing countries, political parties and parliaments play a pivotal role in shaping the direction of polity and society. Despite the myriad of problems confronting them they remain the only political institutions capable of holding government accountable to the governed’ representatives in democratic or democratising countries. Three activities (research workshops, seminars, research networks and publications) are conceived within this sub-theme:

a. Islamic political parties, Conflict and democracy

(Mohamed Salih) From Hizbul Tahrir in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and KazakhstanUzbekistan (in Central Asia) and the Islamic Party of Malaysia to Hamas in Palestine, Hizbullah in Lebanon and the National Islamic Front in the Sudan, Islamic political parties seem to have begun to reconcile their political objectives with competitive party politics. However, in view of many commentators, the Islamic social movement origin of Islamic political parties cast doubt on their capacity to live up to the requirements of competitive democratic politics, while their religious narrative is based on shura (i.e. consultation) spearheaded by a Consultative Council or (maglis a-shura) which often overrides secular political institutions (parliament and the political executive, such as in the best-known cases of type maglis al shura hegemony in Iran and Sudan).

The main objective of this research sub-theme is to explore whether the current resurgent of electoral Islamic political parties would eventually lead to their relinquishing the tenets of shura (which is populist in respect to liberal democracy), maintain duality (i.e. shura will be conserved for internal party organizational matters, with an externally open democratic outlook) and do away with sharia, hence repeal its direct infringement into human and civil rights. An allied question is whether the long-term consequences of Islamic political parties’ engagement in competitive electoral politics is a prelude to their secularisation? (Annex 1)

b. Financing Political Parties and Electoral Campaigns

In 2006, the ISS and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) signed a MoU pertaining to joint cooperation in co-hosting, maintaining, revising and updating

IDEA’s database on financing political parties and elections campaigns. We held a number of meetings with IDEA to discuss how to proceed. We proposed that working on the database alone is not attractive for research funding agencies. The ISS (Salih) developed the draft proposal currently with IDEA so that it contributes to the writing of some sections relevant to its role. The objectives of the project as concerns its effects among intended beneficiaries, including improved skills and knowledge on political party and political party funding reforms, laws and administrative and regulatory frameworks, greater public awareness of the significance of political parties in democratic governance, are as follows: The immediate objectives are drawn from Phase one of the activity. These have already been mentioned in the Part I, but we repeat them for immediate access: Provide up-to-date field-based information and statistical data on countries and across-countries and regions. Collect and disseminate statistical data and materials not readily available for a wider range of users, including policy makers, political parties, NGOs and civil society and democracy and national integrity activist and academics, among other users; Avail a learning tool useful for comparing and adopting Best Practices in the field of the legal and administrative frameworks governing the practice of political party funding; Offer knowledge and information in an easily accessible narrative pertaining to political parties’ role in enhancing the current debate on democracy consolidation, governance, national integrity and anti-corruption initiatives. Organize workshops and public fora dealing with the contentious issue of money in politics and its ramification on the democratic process.

c. Competitive Politics and Economic Policy Reforms

(Mohamed Salih) The study of competitive politics in the developing countries has received meagre if any serious attention. And even when studied, developing countries political institutions are hastily dubbed as state controlled, elite-dominated or patrimonial thus relegated to the convenience of political science classification of dominant or single-party systems. While these claims are not without substance, some political institutions are not wholly devout of internal democracy and competitive and oppositional politics. These include competition for leadership positions and party support to contest elections under the party ticket. Instantaneous rebuke of political institutions in the developing countries draw our attention away from understanding internal political processes and organization and the potential of transforming these elements into competitive politics. In particular, this research sub-theme will investigate 1) internal and external political regulations; 2) forms, alignments and competition among dominant interest (pressure) groups within political parties, civil society and 3) whether Middle Eastern political parties and political organizations, even those in dominant or single party systems, exhibit the presence of a few democratic traits, which could develop over time into quasi-polyarchical tendencies. To be sure, the research sub-theme aims to explore the role of political institutions and their capacity to augment or impede the transitions/reform processes currently underway in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Yemen, and for comparative purposes we use Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan.

d. Local Democracy and Governance: Political Parties and State-Community Interfaces (Joop de Wit)

After a period where the study of governance and democracy was focused predominantly at the national or state level, there is increasing interest for the dynamics of governance and democracy at the local level - the administrative offices and elected councils in municipalities, districts and towns of developing countries. One reason is of course the long term and continuing interest in decentralisation – more precisely democratic decentralisation where tasks, powers and funds are transferred from central to lower levels of administration and locally elected bodies. Local governance is also seen to be critical as the arena where ultimately policies – even if conceived at higher state or even global/donor levels are implemented, and where the masses of people meet the state. Finally, in these days of neo-liberalism, the local government is also seen as the focus of what may be called new public management or ‘enabling’ policies where it needs to facilitate the efforts of non-state actors like the private sector and NGOs. This sub-research theme focuses on issues of governance and politics, starting from actual realities and the interactions between key local stakeholders including bureaucrats, elected councillors and politicians, organised and non-organised citizens and the poor, local leaders/patrons/mediators, civil society organisations and the private sector. The key concern is with the interfaces and interactions between communities and citizens, local government – both executives and elected politicians- and higher levels of governance at state (even possibly global) levels. One research theme is the nature of local governance and shifts in local governance over time, as a result of decentralisation, increased trends of privatisation and public-private partnerships and the impacts of this both on local governance and the public. Issues leading from this theme of multi-stakeholder governance include a changing role of politicians, capacity, accountability, corruption and intergovernmental relations. Another theme concerns local democracy and the dynamics and realities of local elections, the performance of (male and female) politicians, including possibilities of electoral clientelism and corruption and machine politics and the key question as to actual representation of (the majority of, the poor amongst) the public and politicians. A final theme entails the importance of ‘informal institutions’, as in patronage, electoral clientelism and vote banks, informal caste and tribal leaders and groups- possibly in a neo-patrimonial context. The research build on previous research carried out in India into decentralised governance and local democracy in rural but especially urban local contexts, and excellent contacts and prospects exist for follow-up research, now much more focused on the issues listed. Besides, earlier work has been done on the topic of accountability in both formal and informal institutions. Finally, comparative research is envisioned in Vietnam, as part of a capacity building program ISS is implementing with local governments there -- and here one focus is on the implications of decentralisation – in a former strongly centralised state.

EXPECTED PUBLICATIONS AND ACTIVITIES

1. Research conducted by the Cluster researchers and PhD student; 2. Publications: In addition to knowledge generation and accumulation, the ultimate result of the research cluster is publication, using various avenues from edited volumes to journal articles and occasional/working papers. 2. Desk and field research: The implementation of the research sub-themes varies according to the interests of the individual researchers and whether they have already accumulated sufficient material and require time to conduct filed research. 3. Workshops: These will provide avenues for exchanging ideas, knowledge and sharing research findings. The workshops are expected to be held as required i.e. after sufficient progress has been made to warrant holding such an activity. 4. Public lectures. Not only at the ISS, but also in various continents and countries where the research has been conducted, have targeted academics and policy makers, political leadership, institutions and functionaries.

Work methods

Each sub-theme will commence with a workshop intended to :

a) identify the grey areas where the research can have an added value,

b) create a network around which the collaborating institutions can draw from each others capabilities

c) to plan the research, including the development of joint research proposals. The experience we have had with the Islamic Political Parties Conference should be emilorated and upscaled to benefit the other three sub-themes.