Doctoral Dissertation Research: Cultivating Democracy: Agricultural Intensification and Local-level Politics in Gabero, Northern Mali

研究生Aurelien Mauxion将在Robert Launay博士的指导下，对西非马里北部的社会经济发展与民主实践之间的关系进行论文研究。20世纪90年代，马里政府将行政权力下放，并将大部分国家权力下放给地方选举产生的市政委员会。与此形成对比的是，长期以来，地方政府都是由预先存在的国家权力结构塑造的。与此同时，国家管理的灌溉和农业集约化项目在反复干旱之后变得越来越重要。莫西恩将调查这些矛盾的发展，在一个领域削弱国家权力，而在另一个领域增加国家权力，如何在当地经济和政治中发挥作用。Mauxion将采用混合方法，将参与性观察、结构化和半结构化访谈与制图和空间分析相结合。他的研究有三个目标：(1)探索基于土地权制管理和农业发展项目参与的社会经济依赖网络的谈判；(2)分析这些网络对城市政党成员、投票行为和政治领导的影响；(3)澄清这些做法如何塑造马里国家的权威和地方现实。这项研究将通过提供对这些宏观过程如何在地方一级展开的新见解，扩大对第三世界国家民主化和发展的社会科学理解。这项研究也将有助于社会科学家的教育。

Graduate student Aurelien Mauxion, supervised by Dr. Robert Launay, will undertake dissertation research on the relationship between socio-economic development and democratic practice in northern Mali, West Africa. In the 1990s, the Malian government decentralized administration and delegated much of state power to locally-elected municipal councils. This contrasted with a long history of local government being shaped by pre-existing state power structures. At the same time, state-managed irrigation and agricultural intensification projects became of increasing importance in the wake of repeated droughts. Mauxion will investigate how these contradictory developments, lessening state power in one arena while increasing it in another, work out in the local economy and politics. Mauxion will use a mixed methods approach, combining participant observation and structured and semi-structured interviews with cartography and spatial analysis His research has three objectives: (1) to explore the negotiation of networks of socio-economic dependence based on land-tenure management and participation in agricultural development projects; (2) to analyze the impact of these networks on membership in political parties, voting behavior, and political leadership in a municipality; and (3) to clarify how these practices shape repertoires of authority and the local reality of the Malian state. This research will extend social science understanding of democratization and development in Third World countries by providing fresh insight into how these macro-processes unfold at the local level. The research also will contribute to the education of a social scientist.