Cultural Recognition and Effective Democratic Transition

文化认可和有效的民主转型

• 批准号: 1728882
• 负责人: Mike McGovern
• 金额: $ 18.19万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-08-01 至 2023-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1728882&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Cultural; Recognition; Effective; Democratic; Transition

Governance is frequently defined by a delicate balance between citizens' desires to be provided services by a central government and their demands for autonomy, to be left alone by that same government. Functioning democracies depend on the effective management of this balance. This proves even more challenging in multiethnic nation-states, where cultural, ethnic, or religious difference can come to play central roles in the state's willingness or unwillingness to provide protection and assistance. Such difference can also become the basis for cultural minorities claiming the right to self-determination. In multiethnic democracies, there often results a tension between demands for recognition, the right to be counted, to vote, to be treated as an equal; and demands to exit the polity, to take on the risks and potential rewards that accompany independence. This project investigates whether strategies that invoke cultural rather than territorial claims are effective for obtaining state services and recognition in the context of democratic transition. Project findings will also be presented to organizations involved in development pathways for effective governance, conflict resolution standards, and sustainable transition to democracy.Dr. Michael McGovern of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor will explore the strategic deployment of culture as a peaceful means of making claims on the central governing apparatus. The research takes place in a context undergoing democratic transition, among the Danu people in southern Shan State, Myanmar, which is selected as a site for investigating this question because it contrasts with claims-making practices of most other ethnic minority groups in Myanmar, defined by territorial claims and a history of armed resistance to the state. Research will take place in three adjacent townships in Shan State, located 1. in a semi-autonomous self-administered zone (SAZ) of the Danu, a hybrid Shan-Burmese population, 2. in an SAZ governed by the Pa-O National Organization, a former separatist group that fought the ethnic Burman-dominated central government (as well as the locally dominant Shan) until 1994, and 3. in an ethnic Shan township that is not part of an SAZ, but that sits between the two SAZs. Village-based participant observation, semi-structured interviews with local elites and representatives of the central state, and life histories with both villagers and local elites will allow the researcher to investigate the ways in which instrumental use of culture and alternation between armed resistance and cultural struggle do or do not lead to different forms of everyday governance, cultural practice, and political sentiment among ordinary civilian villagers and the local elites who speak on their behalf. The research will contribute to understanding the ways both states and minority groups utilize cultural claims, and to understanding the relations among culture-making, territorial claims and violence.

在公民对中央政府提供服务的愿望与他们对自治的要求之间的愿望之间的微妙平衡通常是由同一政府独自留下的。运作的民主国家取决于对这种平衡的有效管理。在多种族民族国家中，这更具挑战性，在该民族国家中，文化，种族或宗教差异可以在该州的意愿或不愿提供保护和援助的意愿中发挥核心作用。这种差异也可能成为声称自决权的文化少数群体的基础。在多民族民主国家中，经常会导致认可的要求，算，投票，被视为平等的权利。并要求退出政体，承担独立伴随的风险和潜在奖励。该项目调查了引用文化而非领土主张的策略是否有效地在民主过渡的背景下获得州服务和认可。项目发现也将介绍给参与发展途径的组织，以进行有效治理，解决冲突标准以及向民主的可持续过渡。密歇根大学安阿伯分校的迈克尔·麦戈文（Michael McGovern）将探索文化的战略部署，以此作为对中央理事机构提出主张的和平手段。这项研究是在经历民主过渡的情况下进行的，在缅甸南部的Danu人民中，该研究被选为调查该问题的网站，因为它与缅甸其他大多数其他少数族裔的索赔做法形成了鲜明的对比，这是由领土上的主张和对国家的武装抵制的历史所定义的。 Research will take place in three adjacent townships in Shan State, located 1. in a semi-autonomous self-administered zone (SAZ) of the Danu, a hybrid Shan-Burmese population, 2. in an SAZ governed by the Pa-O National Organization, a former separatist group that fought the ethnic Burman-dominated central government (as well as the locally dominant Shan) until 1994, and 3. in an ethnic Shan township这不是SAZ的一部分，而是两个SAZ之间。基于村庄的参与者观察，与当地精英的半结构化访谈以及中央状态的代表以及与村民和当地精英的生活历史，将使研究人员能够调查对文化的工具使用和武装抵抗和文化斗争之间的工具使用方式，或者在日常的治理，文化实践，文化实践，文化习俗，和不同意的现象中，他们对他们的表现不同意。这项研究将有助于理解各州和少数群体利用文化主张的方式，并了解文化建设，领土主张和暴力之间的关系。