Full Answer
What are political settlements?
However, other definitions of political settlements have emerged and are also widely used. In particular, political settlements have sometimes also been defined as common understandings or agreements amongst elites, about how resources are distributed and power is exercised.
Is it possible for a political settlement to change?
Ongoing incremental changes driven by organizations are very possible and describe the normal evolution of a political settlement. However, occasionally, there may be disruptive changes if some organizations are seriously unhappy with what they are getting.
How can the political settlement framework be used in education?
The political settlement framework can be used to evaluate whether alternative rules for allocating resources for education, for instance through NGOs or other organizations, could work relatively better in that context.
What is the most useful application of political settlements analysis?
The most useful application of the political settlements analysis is to look at these dynamic rent management issues to identify the effectiveness of existing institutions and to identify alternative ways of managing particular rents so that better development outcomes can be achieved in that political settlement.
What different political settlements are there?
Taken together these dimensions create a 2×2 matrix, with four different ‘types’ of political settlement: ‘broad-dispersed’, ‘broad-concentrated’, ‘narrow-dispersed’ and ‘narrow-concentrated’. The typology complements previous typologies that focused mainly on the question of state capability, supplementing them with insights into elite commitment.
What is political settlements analysis?
ESID experts Tim Kelsall and Sam Hickey provide a clear and essential guide to political settlements analysis. What is it and why should you be interested?
What is a group that is repressed or marginalised?
Groups that are repressed or marginalised are ‘outsiders’, forced to acquiesce or not strong enough to overturn the settlement. In ESID terminology, the larger the share of the powerful population that is co-opted, the broader the social foundation.
How do elites respond to groups?
Governing elites can respond to these groups in two basic ways: co-optation, or repression. Groups who are co-opted receive benefits and are settlement ‘insiders’. Groups that are repressed or marginalised are ‘outsiders’, forced to acquiesce or not strong enough to overturn the settlement.
Do countries at war have worse development?
Countries that are at war do much worse developmentally than countries at peace; and all countries at peace have at least some kind of a political settlement.
Is a dispersed power a democracy?
Dispersed power configurations are often democracies and concentrated configurations autocracies, but this is not always so, and it’s crucial to remember that. The question is not whether the regime is an autocracy or a democracy, military or civilian, but instead whether there are broad social groups in society the top leadership must be responsive to, whether it can make decisions that are binding on the rest of society and, if so, how.
What is a political settlement?
The Political Settlements (PolSett) Dataset is a new expert-survey-based dataset constructed by Nicolai Schulz and Tim Kelsall that covers over 200 political economy variables coded for 42 countries in the Global South from 1946 or independence to 2018 (totalling 2,718 country-years). As described in more detail in the codebook and dataset introduction paper, it allows studying central questions of power, coalitions, threats, economic policy-making, and development more directly than previously possible. PolSett’s greatest strength are its detailed mappings of countries’ configurations of power (or ‘political settlements’), by capturing information on the relative size, strength and social composition of contending political blocs in society, their internal cohesion, accountability relations and benefit distribution.
What is the greatest strength of PolSett?
PolSett’s greatest strength are its detailed mappings of countries’ configurations of power (or ‘political settlements’), by capturing information on the relative size, strength and social composition of contending political blocs in society, their internal cohesion, accountability relations and benefit distribution.
Is political context varied?
Political contexts are not infinitely varied. Whether power in a country is concentrated (to a small group of elites) or dispersed (across a wide number of groups) can help grapple with what it’s possible to do in terms of development and who benefits as a result.
Is building state capacity a long term challenge?
Building state capacity is a long-term challenge. In rich as well as poor countries this process has often been undermined by the pressures of political survival and political competition. Leaders in concentrated political settlements can sometimes take longer-term decisions to invest in state-building than those in dispersed settlements, as we found in our work on governance.
Current challenges to statebuilding
Despite sustained international support, liberal peacebuilding and development models have struggled to achieve their intended statebuilding and peacebuilding goals in fragile and conflict-affected states.
What are political settlements?
The term ‘political settlements’ is subject to much debate. From its roots in the academic field, practitioners and policymakers are increasingly using it to describe and inform their development and peacebuilding approaches.
Project research questions
Three key questions will guide the consortium’s research over the four-year project:
What is political settlement?
A political settlement (in our definition) is a description of the distribution of power across organizations that are relevant for analyzing a specific institutional or policy problem. 8 The distribution of power describes the likelihood of particular organizations ‘holding out’ in contests seeking to influence institutional outcomes. 9 Powerful organizations with greater holding power can outlast competitors in contests, because they can either deploy more resources to influence governments or other organizations, or inflict greater costs on them, or hold out for longer because they can absorb more pain till others give in. Powerful organizations are therefore more likely to win, and other organizations are more likely to exit or compromise. Thus, the holding power of organizations is not just based on economic capabilities, or on whether they include ‘elites’ (something that we discuss later) but primarily on their organizational capabilities, the capacity of their leadership to mobilize and enthuse, and their skill in identifying and rewarding the right people through formal or informal networks. The only way to start understanding the distribution of organizational power in a society is to look at its history and see how organizations have mobilized, won and lost in the past. This assessment is an art, and it requires a deep understanding of the history, sociology and ideological and identity cleavages in a country, and how they have overlapped with and been used to mobilize around resource issues.
Why is the political settlement framework important?
The political settlements framework argues that the distribution of organizational power is important for understanding the economic and political effects of institutions and policies. Institutions and policies describe rules that in turn determine resource allocation, and these can affect different types of organizations in very different ways. Organizations can be expected to support, resist or distort particular institutions or policies depending on their interests and capabilities. The distribution of organizational power can therefore determine the institutions and policies that are likely to persist as well as the ones most likely to be developmental in that context. This directs our attention to the importance of accurately identifying the relative power and capabilities of relevant organizations that describe a particular political settlement and how these may be changing over time. The articles in African Affairs that have used the political settlements framework demonstrate its usefulness. In this overview we examine the motivations behind the development of the framework and some of the challenges of applying it in the context of dynamic interactions between institutions and organizations. We also discuss the most appropriate definition of a political settlement, the questions the framework is most suited to answer and the challenges ahead for developing the framework and its applications.
How are political settlements maintained?
How political settlements are maintained: Ruling coalitions typically establish , consolidate, or strengthen a political settlement through 1) coercion; 2) co-optation of potential threats from powerful excluded elites; 3) building and maintaining the legitimacy of state institutions established and shaped through the political settlement; or 4) using state-directed external assistance to allocate benefits to allies and to withhold benefits from groups resistant to central control. In addition, international actors can exert a stabilising influence through a wide range of mechanisms.
What is the historical evolution of political settlements?
In most cases, countries that have reached stable, inclusive, developmental settlements have been through periods of extreme instability, or highly exclusionary settlements. Settlements may involve trade-offs between stability, development and inclusiveness in the short-to-medium term, in order to achieve ideal conditions in the long term.
What is the primary factor in determining the success or failure of statebuilding and peacebuilding efforts?
Political settlements can often be the primary factor in determining the success or failure of statebuilding and peacebuilding efforts. Political settlements in conflict-affected and fragile areas are almost always exclusionary, and are often unstable. The proposed political settlements framework also involves consideration of:
What is political settlements framework?
This paper presents a ‘political settlements framework’ that involves consideration of political settlements in conflict-affected and fragile areas; of how settlements are maintained; of how they change; of their historical evolution; and of settlements at subnational levels. It suggests that development organisations need to use such analysis to adapt their strategies. These should promote the best-case scenario in the short term, while investing in long-term programmes that will promote inclusiveness, development, and stability. Practical approaches to influencing political settlements are also outlined.
What are the challenges of political settlements?
A key challenge for donors in influencing political settlements is prioritising among four interrelated and sometimes contradictory goals (stability, conduciveness to development, inclusiveness, and reducing the level of elite predation). In addition, clear definitions and limits are needed regarding legitimate roles for donors, so as to avoid sovereignty infringement.
How does development assistance help in political transition?
Maximising transition moments: During a period of political transition, development assistance can be particularly influential in helping to shape the emerging political settlement. Assistance can a) support local actors seeking to make the settlement more inclusive; b) strengthen the emerging settlement by supporting the implementation of a peace agreement or new government; and c) encourage a more pro-development settlement by creating appropriate incentives for the new elite coalition .
How to stabilize a volatile environment?
Strengthening fragile political settlements: One approach to stabilising a volatile environment is to bolster the capacity and legitimacy of the political settlement to help improve the ability of elites to manage that environment. However, there is a risk that international support may be used to strengthen an illegitimate regime.