I met with Dr. Selway today about my project. We discussed some of the dynamics of Malagasy politics and narrowed down what I really want to examine. He showed me some interesting resources and brainstormed with me for about an hour. In 2008, the people of Madagascar passed a referendum put forth by the president that dissolved the six provinces which had previously been semi-autonomous and created 22 smaller regions thus concentrating more power in the executive branch of the government. My tentative goal in my research will center around this key institutional change. I will start by getting a grasp on the ethnic dynamics in the country. Through surveys, focus groups, and interviews I will ask questions that evaluate how divided the country is across ethnic and geographical lines. With these descriptions as a background I can then evaluate the institutional changes that happened during Marc Ravalomanana’s regime, specifically the 2008 referendum. As an extension of that, I will then examine military institutions. How are they structured? What is the chain of command? Where are the loyalties? What are the people’s perceptions of military institutions? How is recruitment accomplished? What roles do the various military institutions fulfill?
2-8 February
•9 February 2011 • Leave a Comment30 Min — Scanned “The process of state formation in Madagascar”
90 Min — Read “Proposition de sortie de crise par une « petite modification » du paradigme politique Malgache”
45 Min — Bernard, “Field Notes: How to Take Them, Code Them, Manage Them”
45 Min — Spradley, “Doing Participant Research”
50 Min — Class on Wednesday 2 February
50 Min — Class on Friday 4 February
50 Min — Class on Monday 7 February
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9 February
•9 February 2011 • Leave a CommentPolitical parties tend to center around and derive from specific political actors in Madagascar. The party is the person, no more, no less.
How could the institutions be redesigned to incentivize broad base parties based on ideology rather than character based parties based on getting a particular name into office?
How did the parties in the USA develop? Were they centered around particular personalities? If so how did they develop into the broad base that they are today?
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Doing Participant Observation
•7 February 2011 • Leave a CommentI really like the idea of noticing details about your environment that normally go unnoticed. I think secretly I just want to be a Jason Borne who notices every little thing that may or may not impact his survival. That would be cool. But seriously, I think in a general sense, we tend to be over anxious to respond to our environment or circumstances or the person we are talking to and forget to just listen/observe. We can learn a lot if we just refrain from responding. If we jump to respond, even if we contain that response in our head, it creates a certain bias in everything else you experience from that point on. So observing is important, but it’s difficult. But I think we can practice this by multi-tasking and mentally backing out of our environment for a period. My experience as an interpreter has helped me on the multi-tasking side a great deal. To do a live interpretation you have to listen to a phrase, then remember, translate and speak all while listening to the next phrase. Something like this will likely help me to engage in my environment while at the same time noticing the details that don’t directly demand my attention.
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2 February
•2 February 2011 • Leave a Comment50 Min — Class
30 Min — Finding and reading Household article for class
60 Min — Reading “Political Parties in Madagascar: Neopatrimonial Tools or Democratic Instruments?”
Abraham Contos 