Description: "The book analyzes the transnationalization of politics in several societies concerned by programs of democracy promotion. Its main objective is to understand how these new global norms and programs create forms of appropriation and resistance at the local level. Democracy is not only a political norm glorified at the global level. The movement of human rights and democratic values equally generates also an industry of Aid. Democracy programs become symbolic and material resources, which enter into the local political game. Through the circulation and use of these kind of resources provided by transnational networks generated by the aid, there is a transfiguration of the political game. The present collective work draws upon both anthropology and political science and relies on field research carried out in Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Cuba, Romania, Indonesia, Bolivia, Nigeria, Senegal, Bulgaria and Azerbaijan. The book proposes an original reflection about the emergence of a new form of governementality, which analyses both local and global actors in specific national spaces"--
Review Quotes:
"Petric and his colleagues trace the imbrications of 'transnational civil society' with local power structures and traditions, showing how NGOs' very denial of political involvement and their claims to purely technical legitimacy have strong political consequences. A milestone in the social scientific study of democracy."
John R. Bowen, Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis
"This book is a welcome addition to scholarship on democracy in regions across Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Caribbean that are negotiating political futures beyond authoritarian government. It presents a vital dialogue between anthropology and politics grounded in vibrant case studies that examine democracy in the very process of its production in countries as diverse as Afghanistan, Bolivia, Romania, and Senegal."
K. Sivaramakrishnan, Department of Anthropology, Yale University