Paradoxically, regulation may be necessary to ensure individual rights. One can make a pretty convincing argument that the “Nanny State” isn’t the result of over-zealous regulation, but over-zealous litigation.

Freedom House has recently released its analysis of the Obama Administration’s FY 2011 budget request for D&G programs (which the US Government calls Governing Justly and Democratically). Overall, it is a pretty good picture, although there are some troubling signs. Read the rest of this entry…

Elster posits that “norms do not need external sanctions to be effective,” because when “norms are internalized, they are followed even when violation would be unobserved and not exposed to sanctions.” Further, he cites that “shame” or “anticipation of it” are sufficient internal sanctions. The way in which social scientists understand norms has direct bearing on the functioning of institutions. The way in which societies utilize institutions and their “rules” either by law or custom, is largely dependent on the norms of the players who play or do not play by the “rules.”

Oxford Analytica reports that since 2004 the “protection of constitutional rights have subsided in China.” More specifically, since 2008, a new political doctrine “requires all judges to uphold ‘the Party’s cause, the people’s interests, and the constitution and the law’ as ‘supreme.’ By contrast, an independent rule of law would require supremacy of the constitution only. Courts have also been instructed to follow earlier models of adjudication practised under Mao Zedong (pre-1976), when the party-state saw courts as instruments of ‘people’s dictatorship’ and used legal processes to fight ‘the people’s enemies.’”

The progression of an independent rule of law in China through changes in judicial practice will be enhanced through international instruments in the broader multilnational community. As China assumes broader responsibilities as a stakeholder in the international system, an independent rule of law will be fostered.

I hope that the Washington Post’s Alec MacGillis just googled “experts Haiti” for his recent story on rebuilding the country. The article appears to be a set of random and somewhat contradictory ideas from a haphazard survey of people who know something about Haiti. If it reflects the actual policy discussions taking place, they country will only improve by luck.

Read the rest of this entry…

A friend here in Kampala recently commented to me that in Uganda you find freedom without the rule of law, and in Rwanda you find the opposite.

Today I may have a chance to explore that. The police are deployed throughout the city in anticipation of political protests sparked by the decision to keep the CBS radio station closed. The government shut down the station last year – along with several other media outlets – as part of its response to the riots that shook the capital and left 27 dead. The coalition of opposition parties, which is organizing the attempted political actions today, will also be protesting the continuation of the leadership of the highly controversial Electoral Commission.

Since I have been in Uganda I have seen cartoons in the press that have characterized the police as out of control and inclined towards violence. One of them depicted a voter about to grab a helmet to participate in the 2011 elections. Certainly Uganda has many challenges with regard to the rule of law, police discipline being one to which Ugandans are frequently exposed. The police also have a reputation among them of being highly corrupt. Moreover, the police are often irrelevant: mob justice is common here, and foreigners are even advised not to stop if they cause an accident on the road…for their own safety. Up in the region where my team works, Karamoja, crimes as serious as murder are often still dealt with through local elders and traditions (usually involving reimbursement of a certain number of cows) rather than through the Ugandan criminal justice system.

The rule of law is flouted at higher levels too: official corruption, tales of exorbitant spending, and stories of “ghost” soldiers, workers, and even clinics (with “ghost” budgets) routinely make the headlines here in the non-government sponsored papers. The fact that these stories and cartoons are a regular facet of life here is certainly indicative of a level of press freedom and independence. But the decision to keep CBS closed and other tales of media harassment demonstrate that this freedom has limits.

For example: I cannot speak intelligently about Uganda’s experience with freedom, rule of law, etc. in comparison to Rwanda, but Ugandan journalist Andrew Mwenda can, and did in an article in his Independent magazine.  It is one of the most scathing and interesting articles I have read since I have been here. He writes in response to a letter from a Ugandan politician that criticizes him for taking a positive stance on the “authoritarian” regime in Rwanda. “Colin,” he answers, “democracies do not rob their own citizens the way we are witnessing in Uganda.”

After reading his opinion piece I instinctively googled, “Andrew Mwenda death threat.” This lead me to an article in which I learned that Mwenda has been held at gunpoint by government agents, charged with 20 criminal violations including sedition, and has purportedly already survived several plots against him. Still, Mwenda says in the article, “If Museveni were like Idi Amin (the infamous Ugandan dictator), I’d already be dead.”

Now there’s the power of positive thinking. I’m off to see what the papers and the police are up to on the streets of Kampala.