RC37 - Rethinking Political Development

International Political Science Association (IPSA)’s Grant of USD1000.00 for a Joint IPSA Workshop by RC 37 and RC 2, IPSAWorkshop Organizers: Zillur R. Khan, Chair, RC 37/IPSA: Rethinking Political Development; Rosebush Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin and Adjunct Professor, Rollins College, USA, and Distinguished Fellow, Policy Research Institute, Bangladesh. Co-organizer is RC 2/IPSA: Political Elites represented by its Executive Board Member, Professor Oxana Gaman-Golutvina, Head of Comparative Politics Department, MGIMO-University, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, President of Russian Political Science Association, and Chairman of RPSA National Committee on Political Elites.

Workshop Title: Rethinking Political Development: Cultures, Civilizations and Identity. Proposed Date: February 1-2, 214. Rationale for the Workshop: The workshop will bring together international scholars in an effort to explore the different facets of nationalism secular and non-secular, and sovereignty absolute and cooperative, in the context of the evolving perceptions of human identity immersed in different cultures and civilizations in the changing global power relations. Given the fact that Political Science has varied dimensions the discrepancy between model and local empirical conditions are often within the margin of accommodation where cultural weight rests, impacting the effectiveness of outcomes. The recent history across the world comprising political upheavals in the Middle East and rising politico-economic-social tensions in Asia has presented many cases in which societies have not displayed a political behavior in conformity with the expectations of either the normative or empirical facets of political theory. This departure may be due to the unaccounted for importance of the cultural elements that the different political models seem either to exclude, or treat lightly. Is it therefore useful and/or necessary to revise political development models to put greater emphasis on these cultural variables? Nation-states from the Middle East to South and South East Asia to Far East present sometime a dysfunctional competition for control of resources, both known and yet-to-be found. Could the unresolved legacies of such behavior and a weak political culture serve as catalysts to transform the state-society relations to a new model of a positive national sovereignty--the sovereignty of the citizen and the service-provider character of state institutions? Could this development create one world and fundamentally change the traditional definition of national sovereignty, outmoding national boundaries and negative (jingoistic) aspects of nationalism? Against the backdrop of geopolitical and ideological rivalries could Muslim majority countries meet their development needs by “progressive openness’? Could Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Libya, Malaysia, Pakistan, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey, among others, engage in fruitful cooperation with the West in productive co-existence, leading to close cooperation to manage, if not resolve the conflict between Western civilization and Non-Western cultures in the changing global power relations?

Focus and Re-focus of Workshop Panels The panels will focus on the spirit as well as the process of democratization in nations with a long history of non-democratic rule and conservative cultures. Despite the natural human hopes and aspirations for freedom, rulers have applied different strategies, political, economic and cultural to maintain their authoritarian and/or totalitarian rule using various justifications. They range from economic exploitation and politico-cultural (civilizing the Barbarians, as Hobbes put it, as the justification for colonizing the non-Western World) domination to superiority of ideologies claimed by rulers over the previous political systems (Theocracy over Tribalism: Holy Roman Empire; Ottoman Caliphate system; Communism over Monarchical authoritarianism; Democratic and Social-Democratic Capitalism over Nazism and Fascism). There are myriad other conflicts among various variants of ideologies invoking the challenge to rethink political development for stability, peace and prosperity. As the Arab uprisings have shown, a mixture of Theocracy and a specific non-Western, cultural version of Democracy seems to be challenging the people who have succeeded in overthrowing some “civilianized” military dictators through mass movements for freedom. A special focus will be on the multifaceted change brought about by such mass movements and what needs to be done to continue its beneficial effects. And, more importantly, what type of political-economic strategy must be employed to prevent retrogression. A re-focus of at least two panels will be on “Rethinking Political Development (charge of RC 37) spearheaded by Elites (charge of RC 2) in different countries, particularly the emerging BRICS and beyond, evaluating multiple policy making and implementing options to resolve conflicts before they spiral out of control and end in the highest form of terrorism: interstate wars. In this context conflict resolution efforts in different cultural environments and their outcome could be used as a reliable indicator of the degree of effectiveness of peaceful negotiations in settling culturally charged issues at national, regional, both intra- and inter-, and international levels. Also, due weight would be placed on panel proposals that deal with global warming and its impact on political decision making affecting the most vulnerable regions, e.g., Americas (southernmost parts of North and South America), Australia, South Asia (particularly Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri Lanka) and South East Asia (particularly southern parts of Burma, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand). And what kinds of policies and methods of implementation need to be initiated through innovative cooperation by the more and less developed nations to prevent, or at least contain and minimize the devastating effects of global warming on vulnerable nations and regions.

Format, Content, and Output: The workshop is expected to be inaugurated by either Professor Dr. Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi Banking innovator who was awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, or Professor Rehman Sobhan, Founder Chairman of the Center for Policy Dialogue, who served as chief economic advisor to the founder of Bangladesh: Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and in 1991 was the Finance Advisor of the Interim Government of Bangladesh. Ambassador Farouk Sobhan, Former Foreign Secretary of the Government of Bangladesh and Chairman, Bangladesh Enterprise Initiative (BEI) will preside over the inaugural sessions of the two-day IPSA workshop. The expected format is a two-day workshop to be hosted jointly by Bangladesh Enterprise Initiative (BEI) and the Policy Research Institute (PRI), Bangladesh. The workshop will consist of six panels (6 x 3 paper-givers); with one discussant and one chair per panel, and two inaugural sessions with a moderator for each where four keynote papers will be presented. Each paper-giver will make a 15-20 minute presentation. Once the panellists have concluded their presentations, the discussant(s) will provide a brief set of oral comments (5-7 minutes). The panel chair will then open the floor to questions and discussion (15-20 minutes) from the audience. Professor Zillur R. Khan, Chair of RC 37, IPSA will serve as Keynote Speaker at the first inaugural session, presenting his address on the need of rethinking the whole issue of development from the perspective of Culture and Civilization in the context of identity based values affecting varied democratizing processes and power relations in an increasing global competition for resources. The title is likely to be “Rethinking Political Development with a Special Focus on the Impact of Culture based Identity on Democratization”. Dr. Ahsan Mansur, Former Division Chief of IMF and Executive Director, Policy Research Institute, Bangladesh, will deliver the second Keynote address focusing on “Cultural Dimensions of International Support for Development Plans and their Implementation”. The final Keynote address of the inaugural session will be delivered by Professor Dr. Oxana Gaman-Golutvina, Head of Comparative Politics Department, MGIMO-University, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, President of Russian Political Science Association, member of IPSA RC 2 Political Elites Executive Board, Chairman of RPSA National Committee Political Elites, on "Political Elites of Post-Soviet Russia and the Challenges of Political Development."

On the second day’s inaugural session, Dr. Zaidi Sattar, Chairman, Policy Research Institute (PRI), Bangladesh, Adviser to the Financial Express, the leading financial daily of Bangladesh, and Member of Board of Directors of Southeast Bank Ltd., Industrial and Infrastructure Finance Development Co. (IIFDC), Venture Investment Partners (VIPB) Ltd., Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), and Asia Insurance Ltd., will deliver the concluding Keynote Address on "The Critical Role of Political Institutions in the process of Economic Development of Bangladesh". In the Q & A session an additional focus will be on how effectively International Development Institutions provided strategic support to Politico-Economic development of Bangladesh in the context of South Asia and beyond. The results of the workshop will be communicated within the International Political Science Association (IPSA) and wider academic communities (as well as practitioners and policy-makers) via the subsequent publication of an edited volume of selected papers. Following the workshop, a book prospectus will be sent to leading academic publishers that have published books either focusing on a similar topic or employing a compatible theoretical approach, such as Cambridge University Press, Cornell University Press, Duke University Press, Harvard University Press and McGill-Queen’s University Press, among others. Commercial peer-reviewed presses, such as Oxford, Routledge, Lynne Rienner, Palgrave Macmillan, The University Press Limited (formerly Oxford University Press in Bangladesh), will also be considered.

Budgeting and Funding Applications: The amount budgeted for the workshop is US$ 6000.00. Local costs of the meeting will be covered by the local hosts, namely PRI and Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI). I've received communication from a number of participants of XXII World Congress and previous Workshops showing interest in participating in different capacity at the proposed workshop. Their travel would be largely funded by their respective institutions with some support from IPSA Workshop funding. In addition to local participants there will be paper presenters from Canada, England, France, Germany, India, Lebanon, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Turkey and USA. As Chair of IPSA RC 37 (and workshop organizer), Dr. Zillur R. Khan has been awarded a grant of USD 1,000 from the IPSA Committee on Research and Training (CRT). It is understood that in accordance with established IPSA rules, IPSA funds may only be used for contributing to the travel expenses of paper-givers on a “fair” basis taking into account special needs, not for paying honoraria.