Network on Politics in Developing Country Contexts (PDC)

The basic aim and rationale of the Network continue to be the co-ordination and promotion of (academically) critical research on: - The localisation of political dynamics in developing countries within the framework of neo-liberal globalisation and stat e responses, and - The associated policies of decentralisation and local democratisation, originating in circles as different as the World Bank, polycentric NGOs and social movements as well as renewal oriented leftists inspired by, for instance, the Pe oples Planning Campaign in Kerala and the Participatory Budgeting in Porto Alegre. Further, with the increasingly important localisation of policies, contextual studies have also become a pressing need within a wider array of problems of politics in de veloping countries, irrespective of geographical level. This knowledge may also be a precondition for enlightened support of human rights based democratisation in developing countries. During the coming period, as already indicated, the Network will there fore strive to: - Promote and co-ordinate studies of how politically oriented universal themes like human rights, democratisation, governance and conflicts are conditioned by contextual dynamics, both formal and informal, contemporary and historical.