Fragile States

Project aims and objectives:

This project will map variations in state function and weakness in Australia’s region, with a particular view to undertake a review of Australia’s efforts at state building in the so-called “arc of instability” in such countries as the Solomon Islands and East Timor since 1999. The goal of the project is to create new knowledge and a deeper understanding of the effectiveness of Australia’s attempts to strengthen weak governance as part of its larger strategy to implement greater stability throughout this turbulent area.

Corruption is regarded as one of the major obstacles to promoting growth and reducing poverty. The work of Dani Kaufmann and his collaborators, for example, has shown that regardless of how development is measured (e.g. GDP per capita, infant mortality, life expectancy, literacy, and so on), the level of corruption in more developed countries is generally lower than the level of corruption in less developed countries.

Scholars, practitioners and international organisations have developed the belief that corruption is a symptom of institutional weakness. Hence, they regard strengthening institutional capacity as a way to fight
corruption, promote development and reduce poverty and inequality.

Key 2011 project activities and outcomes:

In 2011, a workshop on “Judicialization of Politics” was held. The intent of this workshop was to explore the judiciary’s growing engagement in the political realm in Asia in recent years: what is driving it, its extent, and its effects. Intended as a seminal contribution to the study of law and politics in Asia, the project looks at the judiciary in well-established
democracies (Japan, India and Korea), recent post-authoritarian transitional settings (Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand), and other Southeast Asian states (Cambodia and Malaysia). The cases of China and Pakistan were also considered. Combined with the workshop, the project produces a comprehensive picture of the role of the judiciary in
a variety of regime types in the Asia-Pacific region, and thus generates new insights of empirical and theoretical importance.

Selected publications in 2011:

• Dressel, B. (2011). The struggle for political legitimacy in Thailand. In J. Kane, H.C. Loy & H. Patapan (Eds.), Political Legitimacy in Asia:New Leadership Challenges. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Dressel, B. (2011). Philippines: How much real democracy? International Political Science Review, 31(5), 1-21.
• Dressel, B., Morlino, L. & Pelizzo, R. (2011). Quality of Democracy in Asia: Issues and Trends. International Political Science Review, 31(5): 491-511.
• McCarthy, S. (2011). From coup d’etat to ‘disciplined democracy’ in Burma: the Tatmadaw’s claims to legitimacy. In J. Kane, H.C. Loy & H. Patapan (Eds.), Political Legitimacy in Asia: New leadership challenges. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
• McCarthy, S. (2011). Soldiers, chiefs and church: Unstable democracy in Fiji. International Political Science Review, 31(5), 563-578.