CALL FOR PAPERS
Panel "Anti-Democratic Development"
Annual Conference of the Development Studies Association (DSA), "Development' s Invisible Hands", Church House, Westminster, London, 8 November 2008
http://www.devstud. org.uk/conferenc e.htm
Anti-democratic thinking is one of the most important factors impinging on the success or failure of social and economic development efforts in developing countries. Terms like "good governance" and "political development" are often used, in the development discourse, synonymously with "democracy" and "democratization. " At the same time, modes of anti-democratic thought are seldom studied seriously in
either development studies or related disciplines such as political science and international relations. This is all the more surprising as in an historical and cross-cultural perspective the fact cannot be denied that most democracies failed. Many formerly democratic countries do not have a democratic government now. Many countries have never known democracy. Only western democracies for a short while € ¦
maybe to be dated from the fall of Soviet communism to the rise of radical Islam € ¦ believed themselves invincible. It is therefore expedient to think about political alternatives once more and to study threats to democracy from within and without as well as common modes of failure of democracy and democratization.
This panel will assess the ways in which anti-democratic thought shapes social and economic development. It will study cases of successfully developing countries, such as China, that are openly hostile to democratic values. Is the social and economic development discourse about to be delinked from the democracy agenda? Can we
understand cases like Zimbabwe without understanding the inherent opposition between ethnic- and clan-based politics in Africa and liberal parliamentarism? And what role do fundamentalist interpretations of religion play in the formation of anti-liberal (and thus anti-parliamentaria n, anti-capitalist and anti-democratic) thought in the Middle East and elsewhere? Can a model of "development" be found that takes anti-democratic thought (and the public support for it in many developing countries) seriously? What is the role of countries with an arguably less than democratic approach to politics (such as Russia and China) in Africa's, Asia's and Latin America's development? The panel welcomes theoretical as well as empirical
contributions.
The process of deciding on the panels for this conference was highly competitive. Conference organisers are particularly keen on participation by scholars and experts from outside development studies with important messages for the development studies community. The process of selection of papers for the panel will also be competitive
and peer reviewed both at the stages of abstracts and full papers.
Please send paper proposals (abstracts of 750-1000 words) to: e.kofmel@sussex. ac.uk or erich.kofmel@ sciences- po.org by 6 June 2008.
If your abstract is successful, you will need to submit a full paper by 15 September.
Individual papers will be eligible for publication in Special Editions of the Journal of International Development and European Journal of Development Research. There may also be the option to publish joint thematic review papers on panels or groups of papers as "policy fora" in either of these special issues or other journals. The organising committee will arrange a post-conference editorial system prior to any publication and may make resources available to achieve high quality
publication in one of these ways.
Erich Kofmel
Managing Director
Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society (SCIS)
www.scis-calibrate. org
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