Critique internationale - Content
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[From Transfers to Learning: Reflections on the Basis of New Modes for Local Economic Development in Bulgaria]
What relations exist between processes for transferring public action solutions – between countries, between territories within the same national space and between different sectors and levels of government – and the learning to which these transfers give rise in the context of reception? At the theoretical level, the discussion here draws upon a comparison between the literature devoted to policy transfer studies and work on policy learning and organizational learning. It is also supported by a field study concerning the manner in which, over the course of the 1990’s and the first decade of this century, local actors in Bulgaria did or did not appropriate exogenous solutions imported by means of various types of transfer in the domain of local economic development policies (DEL). As it happens, the classic forms of international cooperation (top-down, bureaucratic, programmatic) have had less impact in terms of learning than have horizontal modes for diffusing administrative innovations: lessons drawn from the experiences of common neighbors, the creation of regional and national forums dedicated to DEL policies, electoral alliances between traditional political elites and activist movements with links to international expert and professional networks and professionalization dynamics among municipal personnel working in this domain.
[Asymmetric Legitimacies and Organizational Hybridizations Faced with the Importation of Foreign Practices: The Water Sector in Germany]
In reunified Germany, municipalities and professional associations have reacted differently to the arrival of foreign private operators in the water sector, the management of which has traditionally been public and local. This fact leads us to reconsider the analysis of organizational changes offered by the new sociological institutionalism and public policy transfer. Indeed, these do not sufficiently take account of policy dynamics that call into question or hamper the adoption of exogenous models. The conflicts over legitimacy and organizational compromises to which partial privatization of the water sector in Germany has given rise demonstrate both the degree to which ways of importing (or not) a foreign-origin system depend on local issues and interests and the fact that, far from going without saying, the institutionalization of an organizational change by means of transfer varies according to the configurations of the actors concerned.
[The Discreet Bearers of Financial Surveillance]
International anti-money laundering standards have been spreading across the planet for over two decades. This development obviously reflects the involvement of Western governments in the domain as well as the interest shown in the issue by private financial establishments. But it is worth examining the role played in spreading these standards by the transnational private firms that have developed services in connection with the diffusion of anti-money laundering practices: certification, advice and the provision of specialized computing tools. Research carried out in France in anti-money laundering circles reveals the extent to which, apart from the commercial aspect of their activities, these new “norm entrepreneurs” have imposed themselves by creating learning affects among professionals that ultimately reinforce the legitimacy and effectiveness of intergovernmental standards.
[International Developmentalist Configurations in Morocco and Tunisia: Limited Impact Policy Transfers]
International development aid is accompanied by injunctions to implement specific public policies. The conditionality required by investors is not reflected in a symmetrical manner in the public policies of aid receiving countries. In Morocco and Tunisia, policy transfer entails the formation of a “community of language, knowledge and know how” which brings together international development actors (in virtue of their mastery of transnational knowledge) and their local “partners”. Here, the mechanisms of transfer thus very much occur by means of circumscribed processes of “learning”, encounters and socialization. This does not for all that imply that public action or “real” political hierarchies – much less the foundations of political regimes – have dramatically changed. In both countries, an examination of the use of the “participating commissions” that are promoted and the translation of norms of “democratic decentralization” into action show that the transfer is above all the fruit of power relations and adjustments tied to the trajectory of national public policies.
[Policy Transfer or Innovation? The Remote Jurisdictional Activity in France]
In French law, foreign examples and the mechanisms of policy transfer have played a significant role in the genesis and development of the use of videoconferencing to remotely carry out judicial activities such as judging, pleading and sentencing. In the case studied here, references to the international dimension are more than a simple source of borrowing; they constitute strategically mobilized resources. These are part of a more global process of innovation deployed by promoters of videoconferencing according to a particular and incremental logic. The approach developed to grasp the multiple dynamics at work as well as the consistently singular character of this process of innovation is inspired by the sociology of science and techniques. In a more general way, this borrowing demonstrates that the notion of policy transfer is not always the most heuristic for describing and understanding changes in public action and that the sociology of innovation can, in certain conditions, be particularly useful.
[The Sa’dah War: From Yemenite Peculiarities to the International Agenda]
Yemen today finds itself confronted with multiple fronts, the significance of which is often misunderstood. Although the terrorist threat linked to al-Qaida has monopolized attention, the Sa’dah war which has shaken the country’s north since 2004 undeniably deserves to be better understood. Its duration and violence as well as the growing involvement of international actors make this conflict a significant source of instability at the local and regional levels. The complexity of the conflict has significantly increased over the course of six phases of combat, multiplying the potential levels of understanding. As a result, the interpretation that sees the conflict as a “classic” confrontation between the government of President Ali Abdallah Saleh and a Shiite rebellion led by the al-Houthi clan appears to be inadequate. Given the degree to which Yemen sometimes seems to be marked by the specificities of its history, society and political system, the Sa’dah conflict is no doubt for many incomprehensible. The roots and issues at stake in this war should thus be put into context by taking its singularities into consideration as well as by underscoring the extent to which this eruption of violence is itself symptomatic of transformations in the international system and the operation of political regimes at the level of the Arab world.
[Flexible Nationalism in Post-Apartheid South Africa]
Like all political parties in post-apartheid South Africa, the ANC, the anti-apartheid national liberation movement today in power, deploys strategies for presenting racial collective identities. The ANC is a nationalist movement that takes a multifarious and ambiguous stance: it presents itself as a liberation movement, not only for the indigenous population of South Africa, but also for all populations that were in the past oppressed by apartheid, which it brings together under the category “blacks”. Lastly, it presents itself as a non-racial movement for all South Africans. At the time of elections, in particular, the Party manipulates this threefold stance on the racial question in order to form coalitions. In this respect, it constructs and symbolically maintains collective identities and groups, seeking to arrogate to itself a monopoly over their representation in the political space. Opposition political parties challenge these strategies, leading to a battle over classification in which the ANC and other parties confront one another in an effort to impose legitimate categories for interpreting the social world.
[Professional Organizations and Mobilization in Coercive Context: The Jordanian Case]
The Jordanian regime’s enforcement of extensive supervision of political parties has transformed professional associations into an alternative – and nearly unique – site of politicization and mobilization. On the strength of their professional identity and the crucial economic role they play, the latter succeeded in freeing up a space for action and opposition vis-à-vis the regime. This space nevertheless remains very limited and is more a matter of publicly expressing political opinion than genuinely challenging the powers that be. Moreover, the very nature of these organizations – which are like orders, with membership obligatory for those who wish to exercise professions in which diplomas are required – tends to reduce the possibilities for social conflictualization. The activist careers studied here show that, while professional associations are the only place where it is possible to pursue political engagement after leaving the university, a social selection takes place that limits mobilization. While such associations do avoid corporatization and manipulation by the powers that be, they also lead to a limited and elitist form of activism. This is in keeping with a more general tendency in contemporary activism to assume an “expert” stance in favor of reforming agendas rather than launching frontal assaults with the support of a strong social movement.
Contribution à une histoire sociale de la conception lagroyenne de la politisation
Sabine Saurugger, Théories et concepts de l’intégration européenne, Paris, Presses de Sciences Po, 2010, 483 pages.
Thomas Graham JR et Keith A. Hansen, Preventing Catastrophe : The Use and Misuse of Intelligence in Efforts to Halt the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2009, 320 pages.
Andrei P. Tsygankov, Russophobia : Anti-Russian Lobby and American Foreign Policy, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, 240 pages.
