Suchergebnisse

Emphasis on events since 1987. Regime of Prime Minister Walter Lini; court decisions involving former President George Sokomanu.

Vanuatu is caught increasingly in the deadly game of East-West rivalry. If its non-aligned foreign policy remains substantially symbolic, Vanuatu may be able to avoid undue external pressure. Event though it has given support to anti-colonial movements in the region, it has not allowed itself to become a conduit for arms or any other major source of material support. Co-existing in its foreign policy is the contradiction between the reliance on the West for its material survival and independence in the use of defiant symbols against Western hegemony in the Pacific. (Internat. Polit. Science Assoc.)

AbstractLocal government came late to Vanuatu (formerly the New Hebrides) and even then was more a response to external events than a reflection of community interests. The first local council experiment, from 1957 to 1958, failed because of rivalry between the colonial powers, Britain and France. Subsequently national political developments set up additional obstacles to the successful functioning of local government. Political conflicts at the national level, reflecting the divisions created by the Anglo‐French condominium, delayed implementation and undermined the administrative viability and democratic quality of local councils. Popular support for and trust in local government has not developed. A system created in haste and altered to serve the interests of competing national elites has not been able to adapt to the needs of local communities. A viable system of decentralization requires a degree of national consensus to be combined with local involvement in planning and implementation.