New Modes of Governance

Projects

Garry Rodan and Caroline Hughes

The Politics of Accountability Reform in Southeast Asia, a $153,000 ARC Discovery Project award for 2009-11.

Australian foreign policymakers and businesses operating in Southeast Asia derive security and commercial advantages from understanding the direction and drivers of politics in the region. New accountability reforms are integral to this politics and, consequently, Australian aid money is being directed towards support for such institutions. However, depending on their nature and support bases, accountability reforms can enhance or suppress citizens' and investors' powers in relation to public and private authorities. Analysing accountability institutions in this way can thus help refine aid strategies and foreign policy meant to increase scrutiny of how authorities in political and economic governance exercise power.

Janet Borland

Sites of Learning, Spaces of State: Reconstructed Primary Schools and Small Parks in Tokyo, 1923-1945, Australian Research Council Discovery Grant, Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2009-2011, $276,414

Australia places a high priority on its relationship with Japan as it is a country that remains of fundamental importance for political and economic reasons. Indeed, one of the reasons why we enjoy such a strong relationship today is due to our growing familiarity with each other's language, culture and society. Japan is likely to remain Australia's largest export market for some time hence it is important that we also maintain our engagement in scholarship of Japan's history, culture and society. This project will deepen our understanding of Japanese state and society in a critical period of the twentieth century, and in doing so contribute to Australia's long-term goal of strengthening this important bilateral relationship.

Carol Warren

Approved Social Capital, Natural Resources and Local Governance in Indonesia, a $497,529 ARC Discovery Project award for 2008-10 which included ARC funding of two PhD students starting in 2009 under Carol Warren's supervision. (with Australian and international collaborators)

Australia's relationship with Indonesia is critical to our political and environmental security. This proposed research addresses the need for more effective development assistance policy, and will broaden public understanding of Indonesia's urgent social and environmental issues. International collaboration among an experienced team of field researchers, working with government agencies and NGOs, will enhance the capacity of Indonesian communities to achieve more sustainable and equitable outcomes, contributing to regional security. Social capital questions concerning local capacity building and public engagement in decision-making also have comparative importance for the role of civil society and NGOs in Australian public policy.

Richard Robison, Jane Hutchison, Ian Wilson, Caroline Hughes

Achieving Sustainable Demand for Governance: Addressing political dimensions of change, a $298,400 Australian Development Research Award for 2009-10.(with overseas collaborators)

There is no doubt that development policy is in the process of substantial change as it confronts the deeper political aspects of governance reform. Attempts to address ongoing problems in economic and social reform by institutional means or by constructing ˜good governance through administrative and political reforms and training programs have confronted serious difficulties. Reformers have often lacked the means and mandate to address what are seen as problems of political will. They also confront indifference or even hostility to governance agendas from less powerful elements of society who might be expected to embrace reforms that are aimed at eliminating corruption, political repression and economic waste. This study aims to provide insights into the reasons for these difficulties and how more effective strategies can be developed.

Ian Wilson, Luky Djani

Governing Favours: An investigation of accountability mechanisms in local government budget allocation, a $61,545 Australian Indonesia Governance Research Partnership (AusAID) award for 2009-10. (with Teten Masduki, Head, Indonesia Corruption Watch)

One significant governance issue that has emerged in Indonesia since the implementation of decentralisation in 2001 has been problems related to a lack of transparency and citizen participation in local government budgetary processes. Even though the initial plan of decentralisation was to empower civil society and create a more responsive local government, in practice the way in which local government has managed budgets has continued to reproduce clientelism and predatory practices institutionalised during the New Order. This project examines and seeks to address problems arising from current low levels of transparency, public involvement and accountability in the budget allocation process of government at the district (Kabupaten/Kota) level. To do this, it focuses upon a particular manifestation of fiscal mismanagement; the distribution of budget funds to social and civil organizations supportive of local politicians. The project seeks to highlight the formal and informal mechanisms through which budget allocation has been conducted, the interests benefiting from particular informal processes and the correlation between political support and dispensing of favours.

Richard Robison, Ian Wilson

Evaluating models for the effective governance of the informal security sector in Indonesia in the context of broader state building processes, a $64,250 Australian Indonesia Governance Research Partnership (AusAID) award for 2008-09. (with Adrianus Meliala, University of Indonesia)

David Brown

An examination of the impact of negative ethnic stereotyping on the prospects for ethnic federalism in Southeast Asia

To examine the argument that ‘separatist’ ethnic conflicts can best be resolved by conceding to the autonomy demands of the ethnonationalist activists. Activists on both sides seem to be imbued with a deep mutual distrust arising from ethnic ‘ideologies of hatred’. Ethnic federalism is thus potentially undermined by distrust of it as either fraudulent, or an unwarrented sell out to enemies.
The project examines the rich material on the Aceh and Patani cases, in order to study the character of these mutual reactive nationalist ideologies and to critique the ethnic federalist option.

Rajat Ganguly

Maoist Insurgency in India: Causes. Dynamics and Prospects for Resolution

The Maoist Naxalite insurgency in India is the most widespread and intense insurgency in contemporary India. In this paper I address the following areas of analytical concern: what are the causes of (background to) the conflict; why did the conflict emerge at the particular time at which it did; how have the internal political dynamics within the movement and its overall relationship with the central state affected the recent trajectory of the conflict; what is the current state and dynamics of the conflict; and why or why not has it moved toward any forn of resolution. I argue that the Naxalite insurgency is the result of grinding poverty, exploitation and inequality in rural and tribal areas, which the post-independent Indian States public policies have failed to mitigate. On the contrary. the Indian State has viewed the Naxalite insurgency as a 'law and order’ problem to be resolved mainly through force. This has, ironically, increased the popularity and strength of the Naxalites among rural and tribal populations. This in turn has resulted in the ‘retreat’ of the State and the creation of 'new modes ofgovernance' under the Naxalites in insurgency-infested areas.

Jane Hutchison

Social Housing, Private Governance and Public Goods in the Philippines

As in many developing countries, the social housing problem in the Philippines is a squatter problem that requires land tenure reform. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is now proposing new hybrid public and private partnerships to advance such reform, to address urban poverty and develop the urban property market. In addition to the ADB, these partnerships involve bilateral donors; government agencies; private developers; business foundations; and NGOs. I will examine the form of these partnerships (in their initial phase) as new modes of private governance.

Kanishka Jayasuriya

Regulatory Regionalism in the Asia Pacific

In recent years new modes of regional governance such as peer review, policy networks, and multi-level governance, have emerged not only in the European Union but in other regions such as the Asia Pacific. This project examines the rise of these new modes of regional governance in the Asia Pacific in terms of the framework of regulatory regionalism. In the Asia Pacific there have emerged various forms of multi-level governance that has led to the entanglement with international organizations such as the IMF, regional entities such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and various national agencies, and even sub-national or local entities. These new regional governance mechanisms are now located within the national policy process. We ask several questions of these new modes of regional governance: What is the nature of the institutional arrangements within these new forms of governance? What interests drive these new modes of governance ? What is the relationship between these new modes of governance and the restructuring of the regional political economy?

Carolin Liss

New Modes of Security Governance in Southeast Asia

In the past 15 years, Private Security Companies (PSCs) have emerged that offer maritime security services in Southeast Asia. While many of the larger PSCs are based in the US and Great Britain, smaller ones have been established in Southeast Asia and Australia. Overall little is known about the work conducted by these PSCs in the region and about the forces which drive this privatisation process. This study seeks to fill some of these research gaps to enhance our understanding of the structural and political factors that led to the privatisation of security and its possible consequences.

Sam Makinda

Peer Review Mechanisms as a Mode of Regional Governance: Africa and Asia

Peer review mechanisms have become a political instrument through which regional governance initiatives are imposed on countries. This project identifies the key features of these mechanisms and the interests driving them, and evaluates the sustainability of these mechanisms in Africa and Asia. What are the differences in the respective mechanisms in Africa and Asia and how might these be explained? What is the relationship between these peer review mechanisms and established modes of regional governance? Are they replacing, combining with or supplementing established modes?