Post-liberation Democratic Authoritarianism: The Case of Namibia

Melber, Henning

doi:10.1080/02589346.2015.1005790

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Studies in Comparative International Development (2024) 59:27-55 junctures in determining the success of a country's democratic development in rentier, post-conflict contexts. In addition, this article provides further evidence of how the political composition of liberation movements impacts post-independence governance by their successor parties (Dorman 2006;Melber 2015Melber , 2019Müller 2012). From a policy perspective, our research suggests that external actors can support the democratization process in adverse contexts of resource wealth and post-conflict reconstruction but should avoid "picking winners" or otherwise undermining democratic competition.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 82%

Avoiding the Political Resource Curse: Evidence from a Most-Likely Case

Schmoll¹,

Swenson

2023

St Comp Int Dev

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Why do some countries escape the political resource curse while others do not? Most scholars argue that avoiding the claimed anti-democratic effects of natural resources, especially oil, largely depends on the quality of pre-existing political institutions and/or the effectiveness of contemporary resource management institutions. Drawing on the most-likely case of Timor-Leste, one of the world’s most oil-dependent countries that nevertheless successfully consolidated democracy, we challenge these dominant theories and highlight new important factors to consider. We show that Timor-Leste did not avoid the curse because of good pre-existing political institutions, good natural resource governance institutions, or an otherwise favorable environment for democracy. Instead, we find that the ideological beliefs of major political actors, their strong popular legitimacy, the absence of a hegemonic actor among them, as well as the approaches of external actors, have produced a consolidated democracy despite strong incentives for the development of authoritarianism. These findings highlight the importance of ideology and agency, of the composition of independence movements, and of constructive international engagement, in particular at critical historical junctures. In short, even countries facing serious political and economic challenges can avoid the political resource curse, and both scholars and policymakers should consider a broader approach to the phenomenon.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 82%

Avoiding the Political Resource Curse: Evidence from a Most-Likely Case

Schmoll¹,

Swenson

2023

St Comp Int Dev

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“…The SWAPO (South-West Africa People's Organisation) party, agitating for independence since the 1960s, held a two-third majority in parliament from 1994 to 2019. SWAPO governs Namibia by 'democratic authoritarianism', a form of administration and political culture combining elements of democracy and authoritarian rule (Melber, 2015). State-managed modernisation and a de-ethnicised, uniform national identity are key official projects designed to intensify the politics of belonging in independent Namibia (Forrest, 1994).…”

Section: Windhoek In Independent Namibiamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Uncanny Capital: Mapping the Historical Spatial Evolution of Windhoek

2023

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This paper has traced the historic spatial development of Windhoek through five distinct socio-political epochs. These different periods’ spatial, aesthetic, and representational effects on the city’s urban landscape are presented in original maps, allowing a spatial-to-scale comparison and analysis of the city’s development. Rather than the discrete chapters in Windhoek’s urban development, successive occupations’ spatial compositions are shown to have been assembled from and grounded in the geomorphological, spatial, social, and administrative conditions preceding them. The paper expands the concept of the uncanny, the colonial drive to recreate home in foreign lands and local resistance to this, from the architectural to the urban. It describes how infrastructure, residential typologies and neighbourhood morphologies, memorials, places of memory, and public space were designed to segregate and subjugate Windhoek’s population and how this spatial legacy continues to inform city-making in Windhoek today. In doing so, the paper challenges the notion that the city’s spatial structure, layout, and urban planning are neutral quantitative entities.

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“…The Namibian state's actions have yet to reflect SWAPO's rhetoric that resources will be utilised for the benefit of "all Namibians", not least given that post-independence development has enabled the growth of a "parasitic class" that has come to appropriate public resources (Melber 2015). Despite being viewed internationally as a bastion for transparency in the extractive industry in Africa, Namibia's management of its mineral resources has been referred to as "opaque and vague" (Polus et al 2015: 44).…”

Section: One Namibia One Nation? 21mentioning

confidence: 99%

Resource sovereignty and accumulation in the blue economy: the case of seabed mining in Namibia

Carver

2019

Journal of Political Ecology

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Following its global emergence, the blue economy agenda is now touted as a mechanism through which the Republic of Namibia can achieve long-term sustainable and equitable growth. In (re)defining the ocean, seabed mining has been central to these discussions. Drawing on fieldwork and semi-structured interviews undertaken with key actors in Namibia and South Africa, between 2016 and 2017, as well as recent policy debates and discourse surrounding the potential extraction of marine phosphate in Namibia this article critically examines the framing of the marine environment as an extractive space. The blue economy presents opportunities for new forms of capitalist accumulation and this has resulted in struggles over who can accumulate in the marine sphere. This article therefore analyses the emerging and competing claims to sovereignty over this "new" resource frontier, including by state and non-state actors, and identifies which actors have been included or excluded from the blue economy agenda. In discussing sovereignty over this frontier and resources therein, it undertakes a rigorous analysis of the complications created by the ocean as a three-dimensional, voluminous, "borderless" space.Key Words: Namibia, seabed mining, sovereignty, frontier, blue economy, EEZ

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Post-liberation Democratic Authoritarianism: The Case of Namibia

Cited by 8 publications

References 32 publications

Avoiding the Political Resource Curse: Evidence from a Most-Likely Case

Avoiding the Political Resource Curse: Evidence from a Most-Likely Case

The Uncanny Capital: Mapping the Historical Spatial Evolution of Windhoek

Resource sovereignty and accumulation in the blue economy: the case of seabed mining in Namibia

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