Introduction: The Futility of Failed States. 1. Human Rights and the "State." 2. The Making of a Hollow State. 3. Beyond State-Centered Governance. 4. Human Rights From the Outside In: The Violence Against Women and their Children Act. 5. Human Rights From the Inside Out: Palawan and Non-State Environmental Governance. 6. Conclusion: Hollow States and Human Rights.
Biography
Helen J. Delfeld is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the College of Charleston.
"Helen Delfeld makes theoretical debates about failed states come alive by digging into the gritty political realities and complex perceptions of Filipinos coping with what she calls (accurately) the ‘hollow state.’ This book makes us all smarter about popular movements, NGOs, elite corruption and how to actually study the state."
—Cynthia Enloe, Clark University"Grounded in richly observed case studies from the Philippines, this book offers a lively and penetrating critique of the stubborn insistence that the state is people’s best available protection, or the natural and fundamental frame for governance, justice, development and peace. Delfeld provides a highly readable investigation of what people in the communities studied actually rely on to provide social order or to pursue basic needs or social change. Her account has significant implications for questions of human rights, development, state-building and peace-building and brings into stark relief the misguided nature of efforts to promote human rights that fail to take local approaches to governance and efforts to work against violence seriously."
—M. Anne Brown, The University of Queensland
