Search

Revenues from migration are often seen as a new development mantra. Instead, I will argue that the inflow of remittances does not automatically lead to economic development whereas however, development might be possible only in certain situations, depending on the compound of macroeconomic policies and the socioeconomic structure presupposing and emerging out of these policies. In this perspective, the sending behavior of remittances depends on a moral economy between the migrant and his resident family in the country of origin. These remittances could be described as an appropriated form of surplus distinguishing from capitalistic profit, hence as a form of rent which does not necessarily have to be reinvested. Employing this definition, development theories regarding the interdependence of politico-economic factors and social structures could be used to clarify the role remittances could play in the development process. The case of El Salvador shows that the permanent and increasing inflow of remittances leads to the "Dutch Disease" phenomenon blocking further strengthening of the subaltern's bargaining power, and thus creates political options for élites to safeguard themselves against the modification of the social structure. The crucial increase of the bargaining power of the poor in the development process could be blocked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electricity consumption in German households is continuously increasing. At the same time, studies have shown a large electricity savings potential in private households. Are more efficient household appliances too expensive or is electricity too cheap, thus providing no incentive to save? This article presents an experiment seeking to answer this question. The experiment tested the price sensitivity of consumers with respect to the price of electricity as well as the prices of energy efficient appliances. In addition, a survey integrated in the experiment gathered socio-economic data on the test persons, thereby allowing us to analyze determinants of differences in the observed price sensitivity of the test persons. Findings suggest that an increase in the price of electricity by itself would have little success in motivating buyers to realise their savings potentials. On the other hand, results indicate that specific political instruments like subsidies and better information can be promising complementary political interventions, when it comes to reducing private electricity consumption. In sum, the experiment allowed us to deduct insights on the impact and functioning of specific political instruments, i.e. gain a better understanding on strategies for the promotion of sustainable consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post-conflict reconstruction is a complex process involving multiple actors, agendas and mandates. Its wide range of objectives includes reform, rebuilding and revitalisation, which take place not in a vacuum, but in a dynamic context with its own socio-economic and political characteristics creating challenges that impact on reconstruction. At a programmatic level, it may be possible to consider the viability of an exit strategy, however, in contemporary statebuilding interventions with a liberal peace agenda, post-conflict reconstruction has become highly politicized, shaped by significant external expectations and pressures making an exit strategy problematic. There are three main reasons for this argument. First, an exit strategy might be an appropriate concept for traditional humanitarian assistance responses designed to alleviate a specific situation, but in contemporary reconstruction environments there is no such clear 'entry' point because the intervening parties are already militarily engaged. Second, reconstruction, rather than being tailored to each specific context, is driven by external political ideologies, so what passes for reconstruction, is actually manufactured 'construction' by intervening powers. Finally, to enable an exit strategy legitimate national authorities with the capacity to maintain reconstruction processes are essential. However, unless national authorities have been actively involved in the planning and implementation of all aspects of post-conflict reconstruction, they will lack the capacity to assume responsibility for reconstruction processes. Therefore, the prospect of planning and executing a meaningful exit strategy in post-conflict contexts is a myth. With reference to Afghanistan, this paper argues that contemporary post-conflict reconstruction interventions are in fact 'exitless'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kyrgyzstan's recent violent revolution and presidential turnover foreground the subtle ways natural resources and poverty spark political disturbance. Of the socioeconomic problems and corruption for which President Bakiev was faulted, water resource mismanagement and the electricity crisis were central; they are also at the core of regional disputes and mirrored in neighboring Tajikistan's and Afghanistan's socioeconomic instability. Kyrgyzstan's April 2010 events help us explain under what conditions environmental issues lead to collective violence. By analyzing environmental security concerns, this study provides insight about future regional conflict potential and whether the weakness of the Kyrgyz state or geographical and resource limitations best explain these revolutionary events. This paper evaluates environmentally-related collective violence by identifying public and elite opinion and mobilization trends, reporting the findings of research conducted in Kyrgyzstan one year prior to (Jan-July 2009) and three months after (June-July 2010) the revolution. The following propositions in the collective action and social capital literatures are tested: the consistency and specificity in attributing blame for environmental problems, derived from blame attribution theory (Wilson 1961; Lichbach 1995; Javeline 2003); the visibility, complexity and salience of environmental problems and the grievance actor hypothesis; and the role of community organizers and entrepreneurs (Olson 1965). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, the fair trade movement has tried to reverse the negative socioeconomic effects of economic globalization on commodity producers in developing countries. This is done by reconnecting socially aware consumers in industrialized countries with producers in developing countries through stable and transparent longdistance trade networks. This paper argues that fair trade modifies the traditional governance structures and interaction patterns of global trade. The primary analytical focus shifts away from states, IGOs and Multinational Corporations (MNCs) to individuals. By applying a postinternational polities approach, the paper investigates how concerned individuals and NGO-networks, which form the backbone of the fair trade movement, actually manage diverse issues such as information campaigns, productcertification, training of farmers, community building as well as the transportation and distribution of fair trade products. From a (global) governance point of view, the fair trade movement represents an interesting case of a polity, which generates authority and legitimacy by challenging the current trade system and its underlying norms, ideologies and structures. Moreover, by analysing the fair trade movement from a postinternational perspective, the paper develops an alternative approach for IPE scholarship to bring the individual back into the study of international political economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is the signature global issue of our time. This is not just because of climatic impacts, but also because of the socio-economic and physical impacts that will result from rising temperatures globally. But fundamentally for scholars of international relations, climate change confronts the policy limitations of sovereignty and its implications in more direct ways than perhaps any other global policy issue. While climate change is truly global, existing global decision-making structures have been severely limited by the impacts of sovereignty in decision-making forums. Hence, policy initiatives to confront climate change must focus on levels below the global, even though economic models suggest that global policy provision is the most efficient way to target the implications of climate change. Thus, this study focuses on the complexity of climate change policy-making as we seek to understand the efficiency of policy provision and the degree of coordination that exists across policy levels from the local to the global. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does engagement with civil society generate more inclusive global governance? This paper examines this question in the context of relations between the International Monetary Fund and civil society organizations in six countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. IMF exchanges with CSOs in this region have indeed brought some new voices into global governance. However, the overall scale and depth of these connections has remained modest. Moreover, such engagement as has developed has generally favored geographically, socioeconomically and culturally privileged constituencies. These limitations to, and hierarchies of, access and influence in IMF-CSO relations have resulted from a combination of: personal qualities of the individuals involved; institutional attributes of both the IMF and CSOs; and deeper structures of contemporary global politics. Attention to these various circumstances could yield greater inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing debate in the literature posits that there is no direct relationship between poverty, education, and support for terrorism. Krueger and Maleckova (2002) assert that most terrorist operatives have a higher level of education and better socio-e ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has paid little attention to economic and social rights. Instead, the majority of scholarly work has concentrated on the impact of globalization on physical integrity rights; interestingly, liberal and critical scholars often claim this ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 20th century the social sciences have been heavily influenced by a philosophy of science that has led social scientists to separate scientific/explanatory and moral/normative inquiry from each other. The discipline of economics has been at the forefront of arguing for the separation of scientific and value-based inquiry. However, economics has not always been, nor is it necessarily, an a-normative science. Indeed, some of the founding fathers, as well as many leading figures, of modern economics were explicitly driven by normative questions and principles regarding the 'good life'. This paper seeks to explore whether and how normative assumptions might be embedded within supposedly a-normative economic science. It does so specifically with the aim of elucidating how economic theorists and their discourses may support, encourage, or delimit assumptions made about the meaning of 'democracy'. Taking as its focus a selection of leading economic scientists, classical and neoclassical, the paper asks, first, how is the role of normative assumptions conceived in their work and, second, what kinds of normative visions of democracy do their frameworks support, even if implicitly? The interest in these questions here is not abstractly theoretical: it is informed by a set of puzzles about the ways in which economic science discourses are treated in current debates on global financial governance and also on democracy promotion. Indeed, the paper is ultimately interested in examining the consequences that hidden democratic discourses within economic science may have in constraining and enabling the roles of global financial organisations and in shaping the practices of democracy promotion. This paper, which seeks to both speak to themes of the present ISA panel on the normative-explanatory theory relationship and a wider project by the author on 'political economies of democratisation', argues that despite the value-neutral image that is widely held about economic science, it embraces a whole series of normative assumptions, as well as a variety of different theories or visions of democracy. This finding contradicts the theoretical basis for the perception that global financial governance organisations and their economic discourses are 'value-neutral' and 'a-political', and exposes them as surreptitiously involved in 'democracy promotion'. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the 'mainstreaming' of constructivism in IR, the 'social turn' overlooks a crucial component of social life - the ordinary interactions that form the frequent and most common opportunity for dialogue among international actors. In this paper, I argue that ordinary interactions, like the creation of an Economic Partnership Commission to enhance and deepen US-Turkish partnership shortly after 9/11, are at the core of social processes. These interactions matter because they demonstrate how actors make their relations meaningful through a common language; one that relies on a re-engagement with the relevant past events familiar to participants. The 'trade talk' between the US and Turkey in 2002 relied on re-telling the past in order to make the economic negotiations meaningful. Events are not static 'things' in need of explanation or prediction, but rather elements of meaning-making and common knowledge. Ironically, then, events are extremely significant elements of the ordinary. By emphasizing how events are used as elements of story, I demonstrate the socially productive possibilities of the everyday. This requires close attention to narratives and I develop a methodology loosely based on David Campbell's work to examine how the articulated past events that appear in the narratives told to me in my personal interviews with US and Turkish elites in 2003 are formative of common knowledge and sense-making in international relations. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contrary to conventional wisdom, force can be divested from the state not only towards the market but also towards society. It is useful to imagine three ideal types where force is concentrated in the hands of political, economic, or societal actors. The ideal types are, in addition to Max Weber's monopoly of force, the commodification of force and community self-help. Constellations and transformations in the real world can then be understood in relation to these ideal types. My paper shows that the privatization of force, whether to the market or to society, drastically transforms the fabric of political, social, and economic relations. This includes some deeply ironic effects. States allowing the privatization of force unwittingly erode their most fundamental /raison d'être/, which is the public task of providing security. Firms producing and consuming security as a commodity undermine the institutional foundations of the markets on which they ultimately rest. And communal groups relying for their security on self-help contribute to an anarchic situation where the quest for existential security is bound to remain elusive. The paper contains a number of thumbnail sketches of concrete cases: private military contracting, private policing, prison privatization, gated communities, urban gangs, and Sharia enforcement. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turchin and Modelski have both developed extremely long-term models of processes thought to lead to major alternations in political-economic and social structures and behavior. Turchin’s model applies to the pre-industrial world and is focused on population growth exceeding carrying capacity that, in turn, leads to intermittent periods of imperial disintegration. Modelski’s model is focused more on concentrated innovation and urbanization giving way to resistance from the hinterland, deconcentration, and expanding trading activity. While the processes highlighted by the two models need not covary, some of the overlap in observed periodicities are intriguing for the possibility of integrating the two models to some extent. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To what extent, the widening gaps between and within the countries in incomes, wealth,education,health, sciences, participation opportunities etc.are influencing the future of the global political and economic system? Is this trend inevitable or can the gaps be bridged? Are the present trends in economic and social development moderating inequalities? Will the presumed fulfillment of the MDG goals conducive in this field.What are the experiences of the "emerging markets", particularly the former socialist countries and China? ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that principles proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations in its 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights are the best political, social and economic framework for U.S. foreign policy. Since the end of World War II, international organizations accept human rights as the minimum standards for conduct for individuals and societies within states, and between countries. The U.S., however, having abstained in the UN vote, only endorses civic liberties through its foundational documentsâ€"the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights--does not recognize the authority of foreign institutions and legal experts to define appropriate conduct at home and abroad. From self-interest, the American establishment does not abide by the demands for justice, equality and empowerment of the needy enshrined in social, economic and cultural rights respected by the rest of the world. The agenda of human rights defenders in the U.S. should be to familiarize Americans with these concerns through legitimizing international conventions on issues such as labor rights, protection of children and the treatment of immigrants, in view to a foreign policy that espouses such goals. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the impact of social capital on economic performance in the context of post-communist transition. Social capital is a concept that has been introduced to examine the potential benefits of norms, networks, and trust as the “missing link” that, together with physical and human capital, could explain the inequality in economic growth. The concept was widely adopted by transition scholars who wished to understand the relationship between markets and states and to explain why the accepted set of economic and political reforms achieved extremely diverse results across Eastern Europe. While the concept has been gaining wide popularity in transition and development scholarship, empirical studies of social capital have been missing. Also, the scholarship has not examined the relationship between social capital and performance despite suggestions of a symbiotic relationship. This study attempts to fill this void through an investigation of the impact of social capital on the security of property rights and capital reinvestment in transition economies. Original evidence collected through surveys of managers and owners of SMEs in Serbia and Montenegro is employed in a rare quantitative analysis of the role of social capital in the provision of informal means of contract enforcement. This alternative strategy for enhancing the security of one’s property rights is important in environments where formal property rights are not enforced because institutions lack legitimacy or where institutions are inefficient in implementing formal rules and regulations. This paper examines the impact of such strategies on the overall prospects for economic growth. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on African regimes suggests that states displaying Zimbabwe’s incendiary combination of economic decline, social dislocation, and, most importantly, a politicized military, have experienced coups d’état. Indeed, Zimbabwe is ripe for a coup, but one has not occurred. This paper argues that the explanation lies in the country’s “militarized politics,” wherein political, economic, and state realms have been thoroughly penetrated by both military actors and a militarist logic. Thus, whereas politicization makes the military aware of its corporate interests, militarized politics placates those interests thereby insulating the state from a military takeover and diminishing the prospects for a coup. Zimbabwe, therefore, represents a “partial regime” in reverse: a substantial military takeover of institutions by active and retired military officers and youth militias; a pervasive military ethos; and a corresponding process of de-civilianization. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-governmental organizations and social networks influence international politics, but rational-choice theories of international organization and political economy cannot account for their power. How can actors with negligible economic resources and inability to use force shape the outcomes of negotiations among states and powerful multinational corporations, and why do these powerful actors tolerate NGO pressure? A game-theoretic model suggests an informational explanation for the power of grassroot social activism without access to significant economic resources, and shows that powerful states often benefit from this activism. An extension of the model derives the conditions under which the activists choose to join the network of powerful international NGOs. I conclude the paper by applying the model to the impact of the expansion of the blogosphere on human rights violations and environmental oppression. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a sub-region synonymous with political crises and violent regional conflicts, the Casamance war has managed to fly under the international radar despite being one of the longest running civil wars in the region of West Africa. In comparison with the vast war economies generated in countries of the Mano River Union during the 1990s, the rebel forces of the Mouvement des Forces Démocratiques de Casamance (MFDC) have been able to sustain their efforts on a subsistence war economy of cashews, timber, cannabis, war 'tax' and banditry. Indeed, it is curious how the conflict, which has lasted more than 20 years, managed to continue for so long. Attempts by the government of Senegal to bring the conflict to an end have been constantly thwarted by deadlocks in negotiations, mistrust, and resurgence in violence. This paper examines the ongoing peacebuilding process in the Casamance, in particular the practice of using demobilization and reintegration programs and other development assistance as key inducements to reign in spoilers during the peace process. While much of the war termination literature extols the use of disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration programs to kick-start the establishment of a political economy of peace, it is questionable whether sequencing demobilization and reintegration prior to disarmament can foster an environment of greater security. This paper illustrates this point with a case study of the Casamance conflict. Although the government of Senegal was successful in using donor-sponsored development assistance to foster factionalism within the MFDC in 1992, the strategy barely contributed to addressing the main socio-economic grievances of the rebels. Instead, it created a system of de-legitimization, which has negated the prospects of a genuine disarmament, demobilization and reintegration program as part of the peacebuilding process. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization has had significant effects on various aspects of health around the world. In response, there has been a surge of analytical interest in global health, not only in the health sector, but also in fields such as International Relations that, until recently, paid little attention to health issues. The heightened attention in global health within IR is welcome and appropriate, given evidence that health outcomes are being affected significantly by economic and political changes associated with globalization. Yet, although new initiatives such as the United Nations Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) are responding to the need “to address the social factors leading to ill health and inequities”, global health problems, in IR as well as in the health field, tend still to be framed primarily in biological, empiricist terms, which relate good health to technological solution. Better health statistics will result in the South, it is assumed, if better infrastructure is provided to improve access to health care, or if the appropriate medicine, such as antiretrovirals for treating HIV-AIDS, is made available. Meanwhile, in the North, an inordinate amount of funding for health research is now directed towards the technological, such as genomics, to the detriment of research spending on social determinants of health. This paper addresses the gap between the excessive attention paid to technological solution and the logic and need of addressing the social determinants of health, especially with respect to reducing global health inequities. It seeks to identify the centres of power that create a discourse of health that perpetuates this gap. It explores, in particular, why many IR scholars who have recently developed an interest in global health, and who are well-situated to address social determinants, have instead adopted the biomedical model in their analyses of global health. Finally, it examines possibilities such as the CSDH, for presenting an alternative discourse and redirection toward a social determinants model of global health. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article notes that civilizing world trade is at the core of what the alter-globalization movement of the late 20th and early 21st century is trying to achieve. It cites the relation between civilization and barbarism. It explains the important role played by Great Britain in the transformation in the relationship between markets and human social relations. It discusses the socioeconomic impact of the rise of the self-regulating market.

The article presents a report on the social construction of the European economy. The report aims to reveal the essential discurvity of the economy to be able to reinvent and politicize political economy away from its mainstream complacency. It discusses how a constructivist approach to the economy can be developed. It concludes that the European economy is soft since claims about its existence do not cause the rational narration of a singular policy pathway or neoliberalism.

As a peripheral scheme seeking greater international insertion, the Common Market of the South (Mercosur), currently engaged in multilateral negotiations with a number of countries and regional integration blocs, represents not only another complementary phenomenon of a globalized world, but a unique Southern opportunity for bargaining on trade and providing resistance against the Washington Consensus and the neo-liberal prescriptions imposed by powerful Northern governments and institutions. This paper attempts to investigate the bloc’s orientation towards a development path based primarily on the resolution of common socioeconomic problems. The subject will be analyzed in light of the future creation of a free trade area in the Western Hemisphere, which is currently perceived by social movements as another U.S. project of hegemonic continuity and as an attempt to consolidate its economic dominance in Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relatively high levels of intranational equity in health care, and in health status, among socioeconomic and cultural groups has been a signal achievement of most EU member nations. This has been accomplished through the use of models of health care financing and delivery which incorporate high levels of public sector involvement. With the entry of the former communist-party states of East-Central and Eastern Europe (ECEE) into the EU, a dramatic new element of inter- and intranational inequality will be introduced. Most of the new member states exhibit rapidly increasing intranational inequalities in health status, due in part to their move away from precisely the kinds of structural arrangements for health care financing and delivery that have served most current EU member states so well. It is likely that intergroup and interlocational inequalities within countries in health statuses will represent the most significant element of societal inequity in the EU by 2010. Yet the formal conditions for EU accession give little attention to this issue. This paper contrasts trends in population health, and in the financing and delivery of health care, in existing EU member states as compared with the ECEE countries next in accession. These themes then are elaborated through a closer look at the Hungarian case, using a comprehensive set of health and policy measures for the 20 principal subnational units for the period 1989-2000. The concluding section of the paper considers the implications of this neglect of health-related issues in relation to EU membership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The late Mahbub ul Haq, the chief architect of the UNDP’s annual Human Development Report was among the first to propose the formation of an Economic Security Council (ESC) within the UN. Haq envisioned an expansive ESC that would implement a program based on security in its fullest sense: security for people, from food security to ecological security. The UNDP expanded on Haq vision and argued for an early warning system as part of the ESC to plan assistance in internal conflicts. The UNDP mentioned five quantitative indicators for an early warning system for human security: income and job security, food security, human rights violations, ethnic and other conflicts, and the ratio of military to social spending. In my new book, The Global New Deal: Economic and Social Human Rights in World Politics (Rowman and Littlefield, 2003), I propose building on the Haq/UNDP proposal for a new ESC. Strengthening international monitoring and regulation of state and non-state economic actors seems central to any strategy for respecting, protecting and fulfilling economic and social human rights. Yet, the Haq/UNDP proposal seems overly ambitions. What I propose in the Global New Deal is a new streamlined ESC to invigorate the moribund Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). My paper for ISA will develop these ideas for an effective ESC in detail. ECOSOC has clearly had little success in establishing mechanisms to prevent economic destitution and suffering. A new design needs to be proposed for an effective ESC centered on economic and social rights fulfillment. The new ESC, for example, could focus like a laser on the implementation of the UNICEF/UNDP 20:20 proposal for human development. My paper will thoroughly develop these ideas and, hopefully, demonstrate the viability of this approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the impact of international assistance on Cambodia’s human rights sector after the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in 1991. It explains to what extent the Cambodian human rights situation has improved over the past two decades. In so doing, the paper addresses some of the crucial structural socio-economic and political factors that have hindered the development of effective human rights institutions in Cambodia. In addition, it relates some of the developments in the Cambodian human rights field to the broad range of human rights initiatives and NGOs that have been supported by the internatinal community over the past decade. Finally, the paper assesses the level of institutionalization of crucial human rights organizations and the impact this has had on the process of democratization in Cambodia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health policy invariably is a major concern of the populace. A primary measure of society’s effectiveness in this area is the infant mortality rate. Several epidemiological models focus on health delivery, education and socioeconomic causes for low infant mortality, neglecting political factors. Democracies, due to their structure, could create the demand on the part of health consumers for improving infant mortality rates which must be listened to by policymakers. In fact, after controlling for education, economics, and other health and demographic variables, I show through multiple regression analysis that democracies have a beneficial impact on infant mortality in the short term. However, the long-term impact is more marginal. I discuss the policy ramifications with an eye toward the multivariate results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Popular opinion about international political economic phenomena has tended to vary according to traditional factors such as national identity, socioeconomic location or dominant political ideology. Yet, in the space of less than a decade, anti-globalization sentiment has spread throughout the world and been adopted by individuals without a history of shared national, socioeconomic or political identity. In seeking to explain the unique characteristics of this normative movement against globalization, this paper draws upon and develops the insights of sociological institutionalism to explain the widespread diffusion of new international norms. Further, using theories of cognitive evolution and complex social learning, it explains the causal role of ideational factors in uniting otherwise disparate groups around common political goals?goals that, when operationalized through institutions, actively shape new political realities. Importantly, this mutually constitutive relationship between transnational social movements and institutions remains functionally intact regardless of whether the ideas involved correspond to material reality or not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most studies agree that the EU behaves mainly as a realist actor in democracy promotion, following security and economic interests rather than consistently promoting democratic norms. However, in developing countries, EU interests are relatively small and poverty reduction is the overarching goal. EU policies towards Sub-Saharan Africa depart from the presumption that development, democracy and security are interlinked and mutually enforcing. This paper however argues that the development-democracy-security triangle is problematic, as it is based on uncertain causalities. Ethiopia is a clear example where the EU's objectives are inherently conflictive: while progressing in the socio-economic area and maintaining relative stability in a conflict-prone region, recent years have seen a downfall in the democratisation process. Faced with this dilemma, the EU has downgraded its ambitions in the democratic realm, and given priority to development cooperation and security policies. Although security interests partly explain this pragmatic approach, especially in the development sphere there are also more altruistic reasons to keep engaged with Ethiopia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid economic changes of the past 25 or 30 years have been accompanied by the broad dissemination of social, cultural, and political information to all corners of the globe. This phenomena has contributed to a number of important socio-political dev ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to present proposals for the development of an internationally comparable dataset on socio-economic horizontal inequalities (HIs), based on the best practice we can identify. First, it explains why it is important to have data with ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigating the origins and motivations of separatist movements in Southeast Asia necessitates more than examining political oppression and socio-economic grievances; it requires investigating identity creation and mobilization. Yet, for Southeast Asian ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the vast literature on the economic and social affects of micro-financing in poor countries, little attention has been given to its political implications. This paper traces the existing microcredit â€" and more broadly the microfinance â€" literature ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the attention that IPE scholars have recently begun to pay to hawala networks of informal money transfers, less attention has been paid to the rapid emergence of formal Islamic financial services over the past three decades. This paper, part of a broader study on how states build 'intercultural financial orders', is a first cut at providing a corrective. The paper aims to achieve two primary goals. First, it seeks to enhance our understanding of how Islamic financial systems have emerged in an era of globalization that is commonly assumed to produce financial convergence. Second, it aims to improve our understanding of the social mechanisms that link financial legitimacy and institutional change. As Max Weber and Karl Polanyi have argued, economic activity is rooted in social relations and collective understandings. Building on recent work in cultural political economy, this paper applies this insight to the case of Islamic finance to show that IPE scholars must study the importance of actors' cultural beliefs - and the financial actions they take based on such beliefs - in order to improve our understanding of the legitimation of domestic financial systems and to increase our analytical purchase on how financial systems change. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whatever our opinions about the legitimacy of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, we cannot deny that the war has produced profound new realities for the people of the country and the region. This becomes especially clear when one looks at the situation from the perspective of the Iraqi Kurds. Victims of genocide in Saddam's Iraq, the Kurds now enjoy an extraordinary amount of autonomous rule. Even David McDowall, perhaps the world's preeminent Kurdish historian, and a staunch opponent of the war, has acknowledged its importance for the Kurds. “Let us look at where the Kurds are now and where they once were” he writes. “In the wake of the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, the Kurds appear to stand at a crucial turning point in their history. For the Iraqi Kurds, this juncture must without question be the most significant opportunity since 1919 to shape their future." Yet, despite these changes, numerous problems persist. These range from serious violations of human rights and general social inequality to corruption and a lack of democratic accountability among Kurdish political representatives. This paper assesses the post-war situation in Iraqi Kurdistan through the lens of various theories of democratization with the aim of understanding how Iraq Kurdistan's political, economic and social problems are being confronted by various state and non-state actors in Iraqi Kurdistan and the prospects for their management and resolution. In so doing, it also contributes to the broader discussions and debates over the problems of democratization in the Middle East. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing literature on abuses of human rights seldom considers what specific socioeconomic or cultural conditions best explains severity in the abuse of human rights by governments. Do particular cultural factors such as growth in ethnic and religious polarization ‘cause’ governments on average to respond with greater repressive intensity compared to say changes in other social and/or political conditions such as population density or onsets of international war? If so, what are the precise comparative risk factorsâ€" from low to high intensity repressionâ€" that governments are likely to impose based on the well-known six-point ordinal Political Terror Scales? Likewise, if other structural factors such economic success and being democratic mitigates propensities of governments to repress as has been found in the literature, what are the comparative risk factors that they decrease severity of repression? Using replication data from Fearon and Laitin (APSR 2003), I examine these questions using an order logit approach across 180 countries, across the years 1976 to 1999. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Macroeconomic crises have devastating impacts on developing countries’ ability to fight poverty and promote social justice. This paper examines the poorly understood impact of macroeconomic crises on civil society, whose roles during such crises is critical. Bridging the fields of international political economy, international development and civil society, it examines the impact of the ‘Tequila crisis’ on several Mexican nonprofits and other civic initiatives. The crisis revealed a procyclical tendency in Mexican civil society, that is, civil society expands its activities during times of economic growth and dramatically cuts them during crises. Indeed, civil society capacity is severely eroded by crises. These findings have important theoretical and policy implications such as suggesting a major limitation to civil society’s social impact and raising important questions about the validity of “demand theories” of the nonprofit sector. It also questions the often accepted wisdom that local funding should constitute the main form of funding of local NGOs. Counter to much of the literature, international donors can be a critical source of funding stability for local NGOs in poor countries, helping to sustain hard-won development work and capacity. The long lasting erosion of civil society capacity resulting from the ‘Tequila crisis’ provides a new explanation for the painfully slow reduction in poverty levels after economic crises. Though typically temporary, macroeconomic crises can have a lasting impact on the organizational infrastructure of civil society and consequently on the fight for social justice. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigration to other countries, particularly to Europe, from Turkey has been going on since the beginning of 1960’s.Surplus of young population and continuous unemployment problems in the country has been encouraging the tendency of immigration. As a result of this, legal and illegal immigration to other countries is still lasting.The aim of this study to analyze immigration to other countries from Turkey and find out the economic reasons of it. For this reason, especially, the immigration in Turkey will be shown through statistical data according to the years. Secondly, the reasons for socio-economic conditions which cause the immigration. Third and last section, the economical and social renovation in the source country (Turkey) will be investigated and the impacts on the host countries will also be analyzed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization is a controversial term encompassing diverse shifting concepts and theories. Escobar (2004) investigates material and conceptual concerns surrounding globalization through grounding it within two major processes. The first is the ‘rise of a new U.S.-based form of imperial globality, an economic-military-ideological order that subordinates regions, peoples and economies world wide’, and the second is the ‘emergence of self-organizing social movement networks, which operate under a new logic, fostering forms of counter-hegemonic globalization’(Escobar, 2004, p.207). Appreciating the cohabitation of these processes, the often assumed unidirectional, encroaching forces of globalizing images, ideas, money, products, and people can be seen as processes creating new spaces of engagement and sites of resistance to contest the notions and materiality of globalization itself. This paper specifically harnesses the framework of ‘mediascapes’ as offered by Appadurai to ground this discussion and contextualize one contemporary global change occurring in indigenous groups. This is followed by a discussion of the emergence of a collective “indigenous” identity, the presence of this identity in technological virtual spaces, and how these spaces are being used to mobilize a social justice agenda. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization and Inequality in CIS countriesCenter for Economic and Social Development (CESD)Shirin Mirzeyev 76 "a"/ 33,Baku Az1002,AzerbaijanPhone: (99412) 4 971161Fax (99412) 5984431Email; cesd@aztelekom.net Web; http://www.cesd.az AbstractKey words: poverty reduction, globalization, economic growthThe processes of opening up and globalization followed by the developing world over the past two decades and more have represented a major paradigm shift in terms of economic policy for most developing countries. This shift has been based on the belief that it will bring about economic growth and development, a substantial reduction in poverty and a broad based improvement in welfare. The ultimate goal was the reduction in income differences between the developed and the developing countries, helping the latter to catch up. In the CIS countries, this process has been more complicated, since globalization including trade and financial liberalization, have been part of a more complex process of transition from a planned to a market economy. Both the process of globalization and the move to a market economy were undertaken for achieving higher growth and a better life for all under a free economic regime. However, in the period following these reforms, the effect had been quite to the contrary. The reforms were accompanied not only by a pronounced output decline, but an increase in poverty rates and inequality indices. Experts have argued that half of the CIS and CEE countries are expected to miss at least one of the MDGs. Many economies in transition have high unemployment rate, and/or depend on aid. Comparison of inequality indices across CIS countries produces a picture similar to that of growth rates with a broad based rise in inequality. In the Soviet Union the level of inequality was initially quite low, comparable to that in most of developed countries. At the beginning of transition however, the level of inequality rose in all transition economies but in different proportions. In CEE countries the increase in inequality was smaller than in the CIS countries. In some CIS countries, for example, in Russia, inequality increased sharply to the level observed in the most unequal countries in the world, such as Brazil. Most of the inequality increase occurred at the beginning of transition. Since then GDP growth has risen significantly in several of the transition economies. Average GDP growth in CIS countries was 7% in 2006, and was much higher particularly in Azerbaijan at 34%, in Kazakhstan at 10.5 %. In spite of a higher growth rate, high inequality remains one of the main problems in these economies. The growth experience has also shown that economic growth is not enough for reducing poverty in the region - steps need to be taken to develop pro-poor growth policies and reduce inequality. As the recent debate on inequality shows, unless increasing inequality is constrained, it has an adverse impact on the rate of poverty reduction as well. These contradictions between growth on the one hand and poverty and inequality on the other, have indicated a need to include a wider vision of development which can effectively provide a solution to these complex and underlying problems of pro-poor growth with equity. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization, a term first coined in the 1960s, emerged as a theory out of sociology and economics in the late 1980s and became the central buzzword in political discourse over the past decade. Although some scholarship has noted that waves of globalization existed before in world history, it is usually limited in two ways: (i) by trying to read history backwards from the present, whereby we start with globalization thought as we know it today and try to find similar patterns in the past; and, mostly as a result, (ii) by limiting the history of globalization to the modern period, at the exclusion of ancient, medieval and often early modern times. This paper argues that not only did the ancient Greek and Roman world show empirical signs of globalization, but perhaps more importantly that central elements of globalization thought were already present in ancient Greek and Roman thought, especially in cosmology, philosophy and historiography. The aim of the paper is not only to demonstrate that a history of globalization (thought) existed already in ancient Greek and Roman times, but also that looking back at these early precursors might open up possibilities to conceptualize globalization differently from the prevailing story embedded in the discourse of modernity. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important topic for research in recent decades has been member state compliance with international agreements. Explanations for signatory compliance have included state capacity, ideology of governments, ambiguity of treaties, exogenous social and economic shocks as well as the existence of credible enforcement mechanisms. We look to test existing theories on European member state compliance with the Stability and Growth Pact. Our dataset consists of the original EU-15 countries over a period of nine years. We examine member state compliance in two areas: 1) with regard to avoiding excessive deficits; and 2) compliance with explicit recommendations for action contained within annual EU Commission Assessments of member state stability/convergence programs. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All the development policies must consider diverse actors in the making, application, financing and evaluation of the programs in order to look for the detriment of the economic and social imbalances. In spite of being a known premise, in several empirical concerning the co responsibility above mentioned it does not exist. Is it or not an indispensable factor to achieve the success? ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that reconceptualising production within the relations of global development is an important step in overcoming what the editors of this volume term 'anachronistic approaches' in contemporary development theory. Notwithstanding the centrality of production within global capitalism, its status within critical development studies is at low ebb. This is partly a consequence of the mainstream ascendancy of neoclassical economics and its methodological autism, but also because the alternative approaches that development theory currently draws upon - institutional economics and global commodity chains - offer too narrow a perspective to fill the void. One of the weaknesses of these perspectives is the way in which labour - both as a social practice and as a productive potential embodied in human bodies - is ignored. This neglect is problematic because it is impossible to adequately conceptualise questions of identity, power, (re)distribution and socio-economic change without placing labour and the process of production - in both its material and social elements - at the forefront of critical development theory. To overcome this labour blindness, the paper argues that we should focus upon the interplay between locally embedded production relations and the abstraction of these economic activities in the form of market price and inter-firm competition. The dynamic relationship between these two processes - embedding and abstraction - provides a unifying conceptual basis on which we can examine how workers and their communities both produce and contest social reproduction across different geographic locales and social contexts. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

President Obasanjo?s second civilian administration, launched an ambitious program of ?homegrown? economic reforms that have drawn the praise from the international lending institutions. Nigeria, recently paid off its multi-billion dollar Paris Club debt, thus becoming the first African nation to settle with its official lenders. The debt repayment, a key part of the economic reform plan also include a program of privatization, tax reform, greater transparency and anti-corruption measures designed to boost the economy and attract foreign investors. This paper will provide an opportunity to critically assess the Nigeria?s national economic empowerment and development strategy (NEEDS) in order to analyze the strengths as well as the deficiencies of the current economic reform programs. While optimists of the reform agenda assert that the economic reforms are delivering freedom and prosperity and thereby structurally transforming the socioeconomic conditions of the country, pessimists have taken a far more cautious view about the popularity of the market reforms or are even skeptical about the suitability and depth of the reforms. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A long intellectual tradition suggests that economic interdependence prevents militarized conflict between states by increasing the benefits of trade, resolving disputes, and promoting like-minded security communities. By the logic of this tradition, international trade institutions should also prevent economic sanctions. The authors argue otherwise: wisdom about the pacifying effects of trade institutions is too optimistic and one-dimensional, since these institutions can create power imbalances as well as plenty. Rather, preferential trade agreements (PTAs) are vehicles for power politics that can exacerbate conflict in two ways: (1) market power, increased by gains from trade, can create competition and capacity for conflict and (2) social power, increased by institutional membership patterns in the population of PTAs, can create animosity. We offer the first systematic test of the proposition that mutual membership in PTAs significantly decreases the propensity of member states to sanction each other. We test our hypotheses on sanctions onset using a dataset of sanctions episodes from 1947 through 2000; we find that mutual membership in PTAs has no clear effect on the propensity of states to sanction each other. Increases in trade dependence independent of PTAs does decrease sanctioning behavior, while relative differences in social power structures (created by PTA membership) or economic power (GDP) make sanctioning more likely. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]