Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
country, and the type of political state is one of the most important factors influencing
the decision-making processes, including those that concern water management.
We distinguish between four types of political states:
Autocratic states (Wittfogel 1959) - centred on (often personalized) leadership -
either balancing different interest groups or maintaining control through secu-
rity and force. There can be many types of autocratic states. Linz, for instance,
identifies six different types (Tromp 2007: 333).
•
Democratic states - where a broad range of public interests in the country is
articulated and balanced.
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•
Exclusive states - where there is an officially defined distinction between different
groups, e.g. on the basis of race, religion or ethnicity and power is in the hands
of one group only (in case of exclusive democracies) or where leadership has its
powerbase in and favours one group (exclusive autocratic states).
•
•
Fragile states - where the basic balance in power and representation is lost and
power shifts are the order of the day.
This is a broad generalisation, one that is meant to see and predict patterns. At
this point it is also important not to equate democracy with elections as elections
occur in many forms and in many polities. Similarly, it is important to analyse and
understand rather than judge; democratic or autocratic forms for instance may be the
reflection of the structure of society or the stage of development it is in. Palestine and
Yemen can best be characterised as fragile states, while Ethiopia is a democratic state
in development with elements of an autocratic state.
The way these different states deal with political interests, political will and the
management of conflicts, voids and cooperation is given in table 5.1.
5.7 FACTORS OF CHANGE
The question how do things change - in particular how do they change for the better -
is vital to our research. Equally important is the question of whether political actions
can improve management over resources like groundwater. These questions, in turn,
lead to others: should we use terminologies that inevitably include normative or ethi-
cal aspects or restrict ourselves to more or less quantifiable parameters such as fewer
confrontations, more cooperative actions, higher organizational order, and increased
sharing of information? Will understanding the mechanisms of change also imply the
ability to steer changes? These questions are deeply rooted in the social sciences and
touch on fundamental philosophical issues concerning our views of evolution, history,
information, reality and the function of time. By zooming in and out of different scale
events, between normal and more extreme occurrences in a qualitative and descriptive
approach, one may gain understanding of the coherence of facts, even without the
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Including 'the developmental state' - i.e. Ethiopia, but also Vietnam, China - autocratic or
democratic (Mollinga and other papers fromWater Alternatives theme number onWater, Politics
and Development, 2008).
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