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

研究生奥雷连·莫克斯翁将在罗伯特·劳奈博士的指导下，就西非马里北部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，马里政府下放了行政权力，并将大部分国家权力下放给当地选举产生的市政委员会。这与地方政府由既有的国家权力结构塑造的悠久历史形成了鲜明对比。与此同时，在反复干旱之后，国家管理的灌溉和农业集约化项目变得越来越重要。莫克西翁将调查这些矛盾的事态发展是如何在当地经济和政治中发挥作用的，即在一个领域削弱国家权力，在另一个领域增加国家权力。Maxion将使用混合方法，将参与者观察、结构化和半结构化访谈与地图绘制和空间分析相结合。他的研究有三个目标：(1)探索基于土地保有权管理和参与农业发展项目的社会经济依赖网络的谈判；(2)分析这些网络对政党成员资格、投票行为和市政当局政治领导的影响；以及(3)澄清这些做法如何形成权力体系和马里国家的地方现实。这项研究将扩展社会科学对第三世界国家民主化和发展的理解，为这些宏观进程如何在地方一级展开提供新的见解。这项研究还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.