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56952. Bulgaria and the European Union in the Process of Buliding a Common European Defence
- Author:
- Plamen Pantev, Valeri Ratchev, and Tilcho K. Ivanov
- Publication Date:
- 09-1996
- Content Type:
- Case Study
- Institution:
- Institute for Security and International Studies (ISIS)
- Abstract:
- During the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) of the European Union (EU) for reviewing the provisions of the Maastricht Treaty once again public and experts around the world realize the dramatic improvement of the security situation of the old continent that European integration led to. Few would doubt about the impact IGC will have on the security of the broader area of the Northern Hemisphere and the world in general. This is even more true considering the coincidental interaction of the EU with the evolutionary developments of the Western European Union (WEU), the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and of the internal national adaptations in the once divided into East and West parts of the Euroatlantic social, economic, political and defence space. Important outlines of a new design for the Euroatlantic security architecture with stronger European security and defence identity are already drawn. One should soberly admit that whatever political decisions are taken in the next two years, some more time would be needed to give a better shape and clarity of the new security design and its defence component. Bulgaria's structured dialogue with and pre-accession strategy to the EU as well as her formal submission of an application for full membership of the Union and the intensified dialogue that stemmed from it logically bring the country to the need of taking decisions for practical adaptation to the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the future Common European Defence (CED) of the EU. These evolutionary developments importantly coincide in a non contradictory manner with the deepening involvement of the country in the activities of the WEU, NATO's instruments - the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (NACC) and the Partnership for Peace (PFP) programme, with the efforts of the governments of the Balkan and the Black Sea regions to improve their stability and strengthen regional peace and with the procedures of formulating a concept for the European security in the 21 century by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
- Topic:
- Security, Defense Policy, Treaties and Agreements, and European Union
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Bulgaria
56953. The Bulgarian Military Education at a Crossroads
- Author:
- Todor Tagarev
- Publication Date:
- 10-1996
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Institute for Security and International Studies (ISIS)
- Abstract:
- The Bulgarian system of military education is the most important source of officers for the Armed Forces. More than ninety percents of the Bulgarian officers are graduates of one of the three service academies. Furthermore, the graduation of the "G.S. Rakovski" Military College of the General Staff is a prerequisite for an appointment at commanding positions above battalion level, and the completion of the newly established strategic course at the "Rakovski" college - a requirement for command positions above brigade level. Therefore, we examine the quality of military education as a factor determining the future of the Armed Forces. Since the 1960s, the service academies provide higher education to their graduates. Shaped after the Soviet style, the five-year long education at the academies is highly specialized with a strong emphasis on engineering sciences. This specialization reflects the compartmentalization of the Armed Forces, and continues during the officer education at the "Rakovski" military college. Although such education might have been rationalized in the years of the Cold War, in the author's opinion, it does not meet security, technological, and organizational demands of the post-Cold War era. The current requirements to military education are shaped by the new world political order, economic, technological, and legal factors, and the development of Bulgarian democratic institutions. Some of these are general for military educators worldwide, while others are specific for the present situation in Bulgaria. Of a particular importance is the role of the military education for the development of democratic civil-military relations in Bulgaria. The most important single factor demanding change, however, is the Information Revolution and the corresponding Revolution in Military Affairs. More than ever, military must be educated to anticipate change, cope with ambiguity, question traditional boundaries, and lead organizational transformation. To be effective, Bulgarian military needs a rapid transformation. The Bulgarian system of military education and the people responsible for it have the unique opportunity to lead in this transformation. They will either lead it or military colleges and academies will become anachronisms.
- Topic:
- Education, Military Affairs, Democracy, and Information Technology
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Bulgaria
56954. An International Methodology for Evaluation of Combat Capabilities of Military Systems: The Bulgarian Perspective of Greater Transparency and Confidence
- Author:
- Volodya Kotsev
- Publication Date:
- 10-1996
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Institute for Security and International Studies (ISIS)
- Abstract:
- The problems of peace and security in Europe occupy an important place in the public conscience. New ways of improvement of the security situation are constantly being examined. The lessons learned from the terrible events in former Yugoslavia show us there is a lot to be done. Europe needs new and better instruments for strengthening of stability and security, applicable to all countries. This Research Report offers some ideas in that direction. The dissolution of the Warsaw Pact increased the number of countries in Europe whose national security interests are being defended mainly by themselves. The usefulness of all the international efforts, like the Helsinki Final Act, the Declaration of Madrid Meeting and the CFE Treaty is indisputable. They treat the problems of the then existing two opposing military alliances. The efforts of the people who gave birth to these processes deserve the highest estimation and respect. Now new steps towards a further development of the confidence and the security of our continent are needed. Our special interest is directed to a higher transparency in the military area.
- Topic:
- Security, Military Affairs, Weapons, Transparency, and Political System
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Bulgaria
56955. Confidence and Security in the Balkans: The Role of Transparency in Defence Budgeting
- Author:
- Tilcho K. Ivanov
- Publication Date:
- 11-1996
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Institute for Security and International Studies (ISIS)
- Abstract:
- The Balkan security is a measure and a means for guaranteeing an acceptable level of economic welfare, human freedoms and stable peace for the states in the subregion and for the whole of Europe. The traditional views of a military concept about the building of state's security systems (by means of defending their integrity, sovereignty and independence) are focused on the usage of power in the international relations. If we take a deeper look into the Balkan security problem we will see that these views are getting more and more irrelevant to the new strategic environment. Though the military fundamental does not disappear, it gives way to other determinants. It is getting more and more obvious that the erosion of the economic and the social public tissue eats away the traditional institutions of the law, of the power and of the statehood. It also aggravates the building of modern civil society. The economic and social destabilization leads to the escalation of crises and conflicts, that pass over the reasonable political and legal limits. The acute clash of interests takes the uncivilized guise of genocide, ethnic cleansing, terrorism and other crimes against humanity. In the new strategic conditions security means more than territory and sovereignty. Economic security and welfare and the protection of civil rights begin to dominate subregional security. More and more often we also add to the latter the problems of national and transnational security. These three factors form the foundations of the stable regional development concept. When we combine them with the opportunities for technological transfer they give us the real measure of social development, there by contributing to keep crises under control, to prevent conflicts and to build peace.
- Topic:
- Security, Defense Policy, and Budget
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Eastern Europe, and Balkans
56956. The Development of America’s post-Cold War Military Posture: A Critical Appraisal
- Author:
- Carl Conetta
- Publication Date:
- 11-1996
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Project on Defense Alternatives
- Abstract:
- This article outlines the factors influencing and distorting military planning (with special attention to the 1992-1996 period.) In the early years of the post-Cold War era, the US defense establishment set out to formulate a new military posture. This was supposed to reflect the new strategic environment and pursue the opportunities afforded by advances in information technology. The result, however, was a “new” posture closely resembling the old, writ somewhat smaller. It was to be progressively bolstered by cutting-edge technology inputs. However, while remarkably expensive, these inputs would only partially fulfill their promise, while exhibiting varying degrees of reliability and sustainability. Soon the USA would be spending as much and more inflation-adjusted dollars on its armed forces as during the Cold War. Also driving requirements and budgets upward would be the adoption of new strategic goals, roles, and missions exceeding those of the Cold War period. Over subsequent decades, the tension between purported military requirements and resources constraints would grow acute, while the armed forces found themselves over-extended worldwide and mired in seemingly endless wars, despite their presumed (and costly) advantages. How did US defense policy come to this point? The Development of America’s post-Cold War Military Posture shows how dysfunctional planning assumptions and processes can easily lead to dysfunctional policy.
- Topic:
- Defense Policy, Cold War, Science and Technology, and Military Affairs
- Political Geography:
- North America and United States of America
56957. Network Capital in Capitalist, Communist, and Post-Communist Societies
- Author:
- Endre Sik
- Publication Date:
- 02-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- The term 'network capital' comprises the use of a wide variety of personal networks: for example, altruistic, long-lasting, multipurpose relations; balanced, short-term patron-client relations; instrumental barter; and exploitative unequal exchanges such as bribery and corruption. Every society can be characterized by a particular level and form of network capital, based on its culture and on its historically and structurally determined organizational framework. The scope and role of network capital is a simultaneous function of already existing network capital and the changing economic situation. This paper's first hypothesis is that the size of network capital is greater under communism than capitalism because of the differences in cultural, historical developments and because there are greater socioeconomic pressures in communist societies that give network capital more opportunities to operate. The second contention is that in the course of transition from communism to capitalism-i.e., in the postcommunist period-networking actually becomes more widespread, although the previous hypothesis might seem to suggest that it would diminish.
- Topic:
- Communism, Development, Governance, Capitalism, Networks, and Post-Communism
- Political Geography:
- Europe
56958. Under- and Overinstitutionalization: Some Ideal Typical Propositions Concerning New and Old Party Systems
- Author:
- Andreas Schedler
- Publication Date:
- 03-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- The weakness of democratic institutions represents the core problem faced by processes of democratic consolidation. The present paper, which confines its attention exclusively to party systems, starts by diagnosing a double deficit. First, the concept of institutional 'under-development' appears to be somewhat underdeveloped itself. It requires further clarification and elaboration. Second, the debate on democratic consolidation takes the 'old' consolidated democracies as its normative model and assumes that the strength of institutions and the quality of democracy are positively related. This normative horizon might be distorted. We argue instead that institutions may be too weak-but also too strong (section 1). The paper therefore contrasts two ideal types of party systems: 'underinstitutionalized' versus 'overinstitutionalized'. After sketching some defining elements of institutions (section 2), the essay portrays differences and commonalties between these two party system extremes. It discusses the following dimensions: aggregate electoral volatility (section 3), the translation of electoral uncertainty into policy styles and popular expectations (section 4), the barriers of access to the political market (section 5), degrees of interparty competition (section 6), horizontal accountability (section 7), the scope of horizontal linkages (section 8), and the credibility of party politicians (section 9). We conclude with some hints at the dynamics of change within both systems (section 10).
- Topic:
- Democratization, Development, and Institutions
- Political Geography:
- Europe and South America
56959. Catholicism, Anticlericalism, and the Quest for Women's Suffrage in Chile
- Author:
- Erika Maza Valenzuela
- Publication Date:
- 12-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- Catholic countries typically enfranchised women later than Protestant ones, and analysts have long argued that this delay was due to the influence of Catholic political and Church leaders as well as to the effects of a Catholic culture. By examining the history of the extension of suffrage to women and women's political participation in Chile since the mid-nineteenth century, this paper challenges that widely held notion. It shows that Catholic and Conservative leaders were the earliest voices in favor of extending suffrage to women. It also shows that Catholic women were involved in political and social affairs from an early date in the country's history as an independent nation, and that they developed feminist views. The paper concludes that the delay in enacting a women's suffrage bill for national elections in Chile (1949) was caused by the wariness of the anticlerical parties regarding the effects of such a measure on the balance of electoral forces, especially since the elections were very competitive and the electorate was small. Given the long-standing and visible association of socially prominent and politically influential women with the Catholic Church and Catholic beneficence institutions, there was a widespread expectation-which proved to be correct as seen in the municipal elections in which women first voted beginning in 1935-that women voters would tend to favor the Conservative Party.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Religion, Women, History, Catholic Church, Suffrage, and Gender
- Political Geography:
- South America and Chile
56960. The Origins and Transformations of the Chilean Party System
- Author:
- J. Samuel Valenzuela
- Publication Date:
- 12-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- This paper analyzes the Chilean party system from its inception to the present. It presents three polarities as basic to the constitution of the Chilean parties: in addition to the state/church conflicts and the divisions over socioeconomic programs, it shows that for long periods of its history the party system contained parties devoted to supporting specific political leaders or their legacies. The coalitional behavior of the Chilean parties during many decades cannot be explained without taking this polarizing (or unifying) factor into account. It was in evidence between 1856 and 1874 given the impact of the montt-varistas, between 1894 and 1925 due to the balmacedistas, between 1936 and the mid-1950s given ibañismo, and since 1985 as a result of the military government and its effects on the formation of a new party of the Right. The argument also reveals the extent to which the Chilean party system has nineteenth-century origins and emphasizes the importance of electoral rules in molding its transformations. The paper concludes by pointing to the fact that the Chilean electorate has considerable loyalty to party tendencies but less loyalty to specific party labels.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Government, History, Authoritarianism, Political Parties, and Political Behavior
- Political Geography:
- South America and Chile
56961. Social Rights Under State Socialism? Pensions & Housing in Hungarian Welfare State Development
- Author:
- Phineas Baxandall
- Publication Date:
- 01-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- Social rights are different in Eastern Europe than in the West. Their legacy reflects the very different relationship between state and citizen, and the more instrumental use of law under state socialism. This paper develops a model for distinguishing between different forms of social rights, not only in the West, but also as the concept might be applied to different periods of state socialism. A typology of different social rights is offered, and the lasting legacies of such rights are examined in Hungarian pension and housing policy since 1949. The paper is organized in four parts: 1) There is discussion of previous approaches to interpreting social rights in Eastern Europe. 2) A rough model is suggested to distinguish between varying conceptions of social rights along two dimensions: their relative emphasis on substantive or procedural justice, and on the negative or positive definition of the state's obligation to fulfill these rights. The result is four classifications of rights. The reigning Anglo-Saxon conception of social rights is thereby distinguished not only from the view employed by western welfare state advocates, but also from the Classical Communist logic and a Late Socialist form that is most relevant to contemporary Hungary. 3) It is argued that the informality of rights that was so central to the Late Socialist welfare state has in many ways been reinforced by the process of transformation from state socialism. 4) Housing and pension policy are used to illustrate the Hungarian rights legacy and how it continues to influence social policy.
- Topic:
- Welfare, Housing, Pension, Social Rights, and State Socialism
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Eastern Europe, and Hungary
56962. Restructuring in the Czech Republic- Beyond Ownership & Bankruptcy
- Author:
- Gerald A. McDermott and Aydin Hayri
- Publication Date:
- 01-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- Restructuring of large industrial holdings in the Czech Republic (S-farms) depends on probes into new markets. The development and financing of probes generates internal holdups and stalemates among the government, banks, and S firms. The government tries to preserve the value of just-privatized S-firms while avoiding subsidies; banks, facing their delinquency, cannot force bankruptcy since keeping them as clients is as important as maintaining capital ade quacy. A compromise arises, 1MBR (intricate monitoring based restructuring), where the outside parties condition their involvement on a peculiar reorganization of the farm. We provide the empirical and theoretical underpinnings of IMBR, the emergence of which is neither deliberate nor accidental. (Keywords; Restructuring, privatization, incom plete contracts, monitoring) ·We use aliases for the names of their companies and their managers to protect their privacy. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Ford Foundation Conference on CR transition at CERGE-EI. Prague CR. May 1994. '!The research was conducted at CERGE-EI. Prague CR. where Hayri was a visiting professor and McDermott is a visiting re searcher. McDermott's dissertation research was supported by generous grants from the US-CR Fulbright Commission and the Center for European Studies. Harvard University. The authors would like to thank CERGE-EI for its gracious administra tive support and hospitality and the following people for insightful comments and help: Suzanne Berger. Ales Capek. Zhiyuan Cui. Jeremy Edwards. John Griffin, Miroslav Hrncir. Mike Jetton. Tony Levitas, Richard Locke. Ivana MazaIkova, Gerard Roland. Charles Sabel, David Stark. Frantisek Turnovec, and participants in a seminar at the University of Warwick.
- Topic:
- Privatization, Industry, Farming, Ownership, Debt Restructuring, and Bankruptcy
- Political Geography:
- Eastern Europe and Czech Republic
56963. Governing Enterprises in Transition Economies: The Problem of Mixed Ownership in the Czech Republic
- Author:
- Raj M. Desai
- Publication Date:
- 01-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- This paper examines how formerly state-owned enterprises are governed in a post-Communist economy. Privatization was intended to clarify ownership rights by making private property the basis for productive relations. Inreality, gov ernments still own substantial percentages of share capital in "privatized" enterprises. and the question of who controls the company often remains unclear. Two dimensions of emerging corporate-governance structures are examined for enterprises under joint public-private ownership: contract enforcement and the influence of the state-as shareholder. The main argument is that these structures are determined according to government-investor negotiations over how to relinquish control of firms and privatize their cash flows, and proceeds in two steps. First, state authori ties and prospective investors commit to the terms of privatization. Second, instruments of contract enforcement and state influence emerge from these commitments through bargaining. Evidence from two industry cases in the Czech Republic-steel and petrochemicals-shows that contract-enforcement is delegated to a third party when a govern ment cannot credibly commit to all the privatization terms desired ex ante by investors who prefer long-term, Jarge bloc equities; additionally, the state's fiduciary influence will be limited if ministries and property agencies are politically unified. Delegating contractual responsibility while limiting state discretion will make progress in estab lishing property rights. • An earlier version of this paper was delivered at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chi cago. September 1995 .. The author is grateful for comments from Peter Hall. Joel Hellman. Grzegorz Ekiert, and the par ticipants of the Seminar on Post-Communist Institutions (Russian Research Center). and the Workshop on East European Politics (Center for European Studies). Harvard University.
- Topic:
- Governance, Industry, Ownership, Post-Communism, and Democratic Transitions
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Eastern Europe, and Czech Republic
56964. International Conferences: The Postwar Transformation of Germany Democracy, Prosperity and Nationhood
- Author:
- Gregg O. Kvistad, Andrei S. Markovits, Thomas Banchoff, Wolfgang Krieger, Patricia Davis, Jost Halfmann, Peter H. Merkl, Donald P. KOmmers, Ernst B. Haas, Peter Kruger, Ludger Lindlar, Christhard Hoffman, Charles Maier, and Michaela Richter
- Publication Date:
- 11-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute of European Studies (IES), UC Berkeley
- Abstract:
- The founding of the Federal Republic of Germany as a democracy had two primary negative referents: the institutional weakness of the Weimar Republic that made it susceptible to the Nazi seizure of power and the authoritarian statist tradition of the nineteenth century. This essay argues that the institutionalization of the professional civil service in the early Federal Republic drew selectively on these negative examples, somewhat ambiguously exchanging the location of political parties and the professional civil service, but retaining substantial elements of subsequent redefinition of the role of the German citizen. Throughout the 1970s and the 1980s, German statism was rendered "inappropriate" not only for German society, but also for the institutional identity of Germany's venerated professional civil service.
- Topic:
- Cold War and Nationalism
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Germany
56965. Co-Sponsored Projects: Global Security and Ethnic Conflict
- Author:
- John Leslie, Paul M. Lubeck, Georgi Derlugian, Elaine Thomas, Maria Todorova, Philip G. Roeder, Andrew Bell-Flailkoff, Nirvikar Singh, Daniel Chirot, Beverly Crawford, and Ronnie Lipschutz
- Publication Date:
- 03-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute of European Studies (IES), UC Berkeley
- Abstract:
- This paper looks at the relationship between the rise of Islamic radicalism and changes in the global political and economic order. The author suggests that the major independent variable explaining whether Islamic radicalism can take power in a given state is the degree to which the state is able to articulate and then successfully pursue a national agenda. The success of such an agenda is in turn dependent upon the position of the state in the context of the global order. Thus, the author makes the claim that the creation of an integrated, global market exacerbates rather than suppresses Islamic radicalism because it interferes with the ability of any given state to pursue its own agenda. Economic liberalization weakens state authority, exposes its citizens to global competition and creates social and economic dislocation, providing an opportunity for Islamic radicals to position themselves as an alternative to further global integration.
- Topic:
- Security, Ethnic Conflict, Islam, Nationalism, and Sovereignty
56966. Report on a Property Issues Conference
- Author:
- Jimmy Carter, Jennifer McCoy, George Price, and Robert Pastor
- Publication Date:
- 07-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Carter Center
- Abstract:
- The Carter Center and UNDP co-sponsored a Conference in Nicaragua on July 4-5, 1995 to accelerate resolution of the property problem that has entangled the country's politics and impeded its economic development and democratic consolidation. The culmination of more than one year of intensive analysis and numerous expert missions to Nicaragua by the Carter Center, in collaboration with the UNDP Property Project, the Conference brought together for the first time a group of Nicaraguan leaders representing the entire spectrum of affected interests. With Sandinista leaders sitting next to persons whose property was confiscated in the revolution, the meeting was a visible reminder of the remarkable transformation of Nicaragua from a society torn by war in the 1980s to one committed to the search for solutions to national problems through peaceful, legal means. Hosted by the UNDP and chaired by Jimmy Carter and George Price, the meeting provided an important boost to the Nicaraguan leaders to formulate a definitive solution to the property issue. The conference identified the elements of a package solution and the next steps needed to resolve the complex property problem. During the course of the day and a half meeting, significant consensus emerged on a number of general principles: including that small beneficiaries of urban and agrarian reforms should be protected, that former owners should be compensated with improved bonds, and that recipients of larger properties should either pay for or return those properties (see Appendices 1 and 2). In conversations on the issue of U.S. property claims, Nicaraguan officials explained the progress that has been made on resolving the claims of U.S. citizens, of which one-third to one-half were Nicaraguans who were alleged to have been associates of the former Somoza government and are now U.S. citizens. Former president Carter proposed a Follow-up Commission of representatives of the groups at the Conference to meet immediately to translate the consensus and the general proposals into specific decisions and laws. The 18-person Commission was selected and met on July 14 under the auspices of the UNDP. All parties attended, and the Commission moved expeditiously to develop concrete proposals in two subcommittees: (a) to provide security for small property holders and (b) to increase the value of the bonds. The entire group also discussed large property issues, expanding the privatization program, and ways to address abuses. The Commission set a deadline to complete all their work in three months.
- Topic:
- International Cooperation and United Nations
- Political Geography:
- United States, Latin America, Central America, North America, and Nagasaki
56967. Mission to Haiti #3
- Author:
- Robert A. Pastor
- Publication Date:
- 03-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Carter Center
- Abstract:
- Independent candidates and representatives from 27 political parties contested more than 2,000 municipal and Parliamentary postions in elections in Haiti on June 25, 1995. In the pre-election period, the Provisional Election Council (CEP) judged the qualifications of nearly 12,000 candidates, and disqualified about one thousand without explanations. The process was so prolonged and contentious that the ballots had to be changed up to the last days, and there were numerous mistakes. The CEP's erratic performance led three parties to boycott the election, and virtually all to question the CEP's judgment and independence. The unresponsiveness of the CEP to legitimate complaints raised by the political parties sowed seeds of distrust in the electoral process.
- Topic:
- Government and Politics
- Political Geography:
- United Nations, Latin America, and Caribbean
56968. Nicaraguan Property Disputes
- Publication Date:
- 04-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Carter Center
- Abstract:
- With the first peaceful transfer of power from one political party to another in Nicaraguan history in 1990, Nicaraguans ended a decade-long civil war and began a process of reconciliation. Within the space of a year, the army was shrunk from 96,000 to less than 15,000 troops, the Nicaraguan Resistance was demobilized, and new forms of dialogue between previously hostile groups emerged. Nevertheless, economic recovery remained elusive in the face of hyperinflation, high expectations and competing demands among organized groups, and a lack of confidence among investors and producers. Disputes over property have played a significant role in Nicaragua's recent political and economic experience, and are a fundamental factor in its future economic recovery and political reconciliation.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Economics, International Law, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Latin America and Central America
56969. Numbering British Contention, 1758-1834
- Author:
- Thomas Chronopoulos
- Publication Date:
- 12-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Studies of Social Change
- Abstract:
- In the period between 1758 and 1834 repertoires of contention in Britain changed from parochial, particular, and bifurcated to cosmopolitan, modular, and autonomous. In other words, eighteenth century actions "that included a good deal of ceremonial, street theater, deployment of strong visual symbols, and destruction of symbolically charged objects" through the course of time lost their relative predominance and instead "demonstrations, strikes, rallies, public meetings, and similar forms of public interaction came to prevail during the nineteenth century." These new routines for the eighteenth century contentious events are the ones that ordinary people in the United States and Western Europe still to this date principally employ to make claims. This conclusion merges from a systematic study of more than 8,000 contentious gatherings, in Southern England (1758-1820) and Great Britain as a whole (1828-1834).
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Security, Economics, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Britain, United States, United Kingdom, Europe, and England
56970. Symbols, Positions, Objects: Toward a New Theory of Revolutions and Collective Action
- Author:
- Mustafa Emirbayer and Jeff Goodwin
- Publication Date:
- 10-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Studies of Social Change
- Abstract:
- In 1980, Jack Goldstone wrote an influential review essay entitled "Theories of Revolution: The Third Generation." Goldstone noted that a "third generation" of theorists had emerged during the 1970s, one that placed special emphasis on the causal role of political and economic "structures" in social revolutions, especially states, transnational forces, and peasant communities. (By contrast, "second generation" theorists emphasized the role of diffuse "social strains" and their social-psychological consequences) Today, it seems increasingly apparent that this third generation, despite its impressive theoretical contributions, has largely run its course. In fact, as John Foran has recently noted, "the first signs of a new school may be appearing on the intellectual horizon." This new perspective, Foran and many other scholars agree, ought to focus much more attention on culture and ideology (as well as on agency) than did the third generation, but without losing sight of the important role played by political and economic structures.
- Topic:
- Government, Politics, and Science and Technology
56971. Peace Among States Is Also Peace Among Domestic Interests: Israel's Turn To De-escalation
- Author:
- Yagil Levy
- Publication Date:
- 06-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Studies of Social Change
- Abstract:
- Demilitarization and de-escalation of violent conflicts have seemed to prevail during the last decade. The most significant event -- the collapse of the Soviet Union with the end of the Cold War--has stimulated scholars of international relations (IR) to retest the power of major theories to both explain and forecast the shift in the Soviet Union' 5 foreign policy from competition to cooperation with the U.S. (similar to shifts undergone by other states). Scholars generally agree that the economic crisis in the Soviet Union in a world system dominated by the U.S. played a key role in the former superpower's failure to extract the domestic resources needed to maintain its position of rivalry vis-à-vis the U.S., thus propelling it to embark on a new road. Still, scholars have debated with respect to the shift's timing and the origins of the trajectory opted for by the Soviet Union toward cooperation relative to other options, such as further competition as a means of ongoing internal-state extraction and control. This debate also highlights the analytical weaknesses of the realism/neorealism school of thought when taken against the background of the collapse of the bipolar, competitive world system on which this school has staked so much.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Defense Policy, Diplomacy, and Ethnic Conflict
- Political Geography:
- United States, Middle East, Israel, and Soviet Union
56972. How Militarization Drives Political Control of the Military: The Case of Israel
- Author:
- Yagil Levy
- Publication Date:
- 12-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Studies of Social Change
- Abstract:
- Observation of state-military relations in Israel reveals an apparent paradox: Within a period of about seventy years, the more the militarization of Israeli society and politics gradually increased, the more politicians were successful in institutionalizing effective control over the Israel Defence Forces (IDF, and the pre-state organizations). Militarization passed through three main stages: (1) accepting the use of force as a legitimate political instrument during the pre-state period (1920-1948), subsequent to confrontation between pacifism and activism; (2) giving this instrument priority over political-diplomatic means in the state's first years up to the point in which (3) military discursive patterns gradually dominated political discourse after the 1967 War. At the same time, political control over the IDF was tightened, going from the inculcation of the principle of the armed forces' subordination to the political level during the pre-state period to the construction of arrangements working to restrain the military leverage for autonomous action.
- Topic:
- Security, Defense Policy, and Government
- Political Geography:
- Middle East and Israel
56973. Political Identities
- Author:
- Charles Tilly
- Publication Date:
- 05-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Studies of Social Change
- Abstract:
- Observation of state-military relations in Israel reveals an apparent paradox: Within a period of about seventy years, the more the militarization of Israeli society and politics gradually increased, the more politicians were successful in institutionalizing effective control over the Israel Defence Forces (IDF, and the pre-state organizations). Militarization passed through three main stages: (1) accepting the use of force as a legitimate political instrument during the pre-state period (1920-1948), subsequent to confrontation between pacifism and activism; (2) giving this instrument priority over political-diplomatic means in the state's first years up to the point in which (3) military discursive patterns gradually dominated political discourse after the 1967 War. At the same time, political control over the IDF was tightened, going from the inculcation of the principle of the armed forces' subordination to the political level during the pre-state period to the construction of arrangements working to restrain the military leverage for autonomous action.
- Topic:
- Education, Industrial Policy, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- United Kingdom, Europe, and Israel
56974. What is Agency?
- Author:
- Mustafa Emirbayer and Ann Miscbe
- Publication Date:
- 01-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Studies of Social Change
- Abstract:
- The concept of agency has become a source of increasing strain and confusion in social thought. Variants of action theory, normative theory, and political-institutional analysis have defended, attacked, buried, and resuscitated the concept in often contradictory and overlapping ways. At the center of the debate, the term "agency" itself has maintained an elusive, albeit resonant, vagueness; it has given rise to a long list of associated (and often equally vague) terms, such as selthood, motivation, will, purposiveness, intentionality, choice, initiative, freedom, and creativity. Yet despite the growing numbers of recent theorists -- ranging from Jeffrey Alexander, Anthony Giddens, and Pierre Bourdieu to Jurgen Habermas and James Coleman -- who have addressed the so-called "structure and agency problem," the concept of agency itself has been surprisingly neglected. In the struggle to demonstrate the interpenetration of agency and structure, most theorists have failed to distinguish agency as an analytical category in its own right -- with distinctive theoretical dimensions and temporally variable social manifestations. The result has been a flat and impoverished conception that, when it escapes the abstract voluntarism of rational choice theory, tends to remain so tightly bound to structure that one loses sight of the different ways in which agency actually shapes social action.
- Topic:
- Government, Politics, and Science and Technology
56975. National Laws, NAFTA Panels and Multilateral Provisions: Sovereignty or Supranational Rules at Bay
- Author:
- Imtiaz Hussain
- Publication Date:
- 03-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
- Abstract:
- Extending a previous investigation of farm dispute settlement under the Canadian-U.S. Free Trade Agreement of 1989 to include the North American Free Trade Agreement of 1994, this study inquires if regionalism in this part of the world threatens the sovereignty of national trade laws and multilateral provisions. The adjudication process, spelled out by Chapter 19 of the two free trade agreements, is singled out and disaggregated into four stages for analysis. This, in turn, allows for (a) a reassessment of the sovereignty-supranational theoretical debate; and (b) undertaking a comparative study of the national trade relief laws in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Whereas extant works, almost exclusively of disputes under G.A.T.T., find that supranational rules influence outcomes more than the pursuit of sovereign interests by states, the preliminary findings of this study suggest that both forces are equally strong in North America. By and large, they suggest that reciprocal relations between states, regional entities, and multilateral organizations are necessary for the viable operation of each; yet this necessity may, in the long-term, constrain the multilateral organization more than the regional. This interpenetrating relationship is unique, and the source of institutional innovations of relevance to the pursuit of both state sovereignty and supranationalism.
- Topic:
- International Trade and Finance and Sovereignty
- Political Geography:
- United States, Canada, South America, North America, and Mexico
56976. Disintegration and Consolidation: National Separatism and the Evolution of Center-Periphery Relations in the Russian Federation
- Author:
- John W. Slocum
- Publication Date:
- 07-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Judith Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies
- Abstract:
- Practitioners of the late lamented science of Sovietology have been roundly criticized for failing to predict one of the most momentous events of the twentieth century—the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Anxious to avoid a repetition of past mistakes, post-Sovietologists have in turn devoted a good deal of attention to the question of whether the USSR's largest successor state, the Russian Federation, is itself in danger of breaking apart. Like the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation is a multinational state with ethnically-defined territorial subunits; political elites in these subunits, faced with massive political, economic and social uncertainty, may be attracted by the idea of political independence. During the first half of the 1990s, post-Soviet Russia has indeed experienced more than one crisis of center-periphery relations. The present study, however, suggests that the likelihood of a general disintegration of the Russian Federation peaked in the early 1990s and is now decreasing. In view of this analysis, the war in Chechnya is an exception to an overall trend toward consolidation, rather than an indicator of a general breakdown in center-periphery relations.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Government, and Nationalism
- Political Geography:
- Russia, Soviet Union, and Chechnya
56977. The Historical Roots of Environmental Conflict in Estonia
- Author:
- Matthew Auer
- Publication Date:
- 01-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Security Studies at Yale University
- Abstract:
- "Estonia's environment and nature are special," the Estonian scholar observed, as we sipped coffee in a dingy cafe in Tallinn. "But to them," he said, lowering his voice, and nodding slightly toward a table of Russian-speakers, "it means nothing. To a Russian, the environment is a 100-meter square area around him and his home. He does not care...no, it's more simple—he is not aware of my country's environment."
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution and Environment
- Political Geography:
- Russia and Eastern Europe
56978. Is Pandora's Box Half-Empty or Half-Full? The Limited Virulence of Secessionism and the Domestic Sources of Disintegration
- Author:
- Stephen M. Saideman
- Publication Date:
- 11-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC)
- Abstract:
- Is secession contagious? If so, can it be contained or quarantined to limit its spread? These two questions must be addressed to understand the challenges posed by ethnic divisions within and between states today. The end of ideological competition between the United States and the Soviet Union has not ushered in an era of global peace, but instead a period characterized by ethnic conflicts within many states. The coincidence of the disintegrations of the Soviet, Yugoslav, and Czechoslovak federations suggests that secession does spread with potentially nasty consequences.
- Topic:
- Security, Ethnic Conflict, Nationalism, Politics, and Sovereignty
- Political Geography:
- United States and Eastern Europe
56979. Maritime Jurisdiction in the Three China Seas
- Author:
- Ju Guoxing
- Publication Date:
- 10-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC)
- Abstract:
- The three China Seas (the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea, and the South China Sea) are all enclosed or semi-enclosed and studded with so many offshore and mid-ocean islands that nowhere does the distance from one headland or island to another approach 400 nautical miles. With the extension of national jurisdiction over maritime resources, no seabed in the area is left unclaimed.
- Topic:
- International Law and Sovereignty
- Political Geography:
- China, Israel, and Southeast Asia
56980. Humanitarian Action and Security in Liberia, 1989-1994
- Author:
- Larry Minear, Thomas G. Weiss, and Colin Scott
- Publication Date:
- 01-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University
- Abstract:
- The Liberian civil war has severely tested the ability of the international community to maintain humanitarian operations while promoting peace and security. Against the backdrop of fluctuating international interest, Liberia's multifactional conflict, based as much on material gain as on political objectives, has thwarted peace efforts and frustrated the best efforts of humanitarian agencies.
- Topic:
- Humanitarian Aid
- Political Geography:
- Liberia
56981. Mexico: The Artist Is A Woman
- Author:
- Lucreita Giese, Carmen Boullosa, Marjorie Agosín, Sandra Berler, Elena Gascón-Vera, Laura Riesco, and Margo Glantz
- Publication Date:
- 01-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University
- Abstract:
- The present volume includes essays presented March 4, 1994 at the symposium “Mexico: The Artist Is a Woman” at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. The event commemorated the work of Latin American women in film, photography, and literature. The contributions of these artists in their respective fields reveal the originality and diversity of contemporary Mexican art. Each of the participants has an outstanding artistic career.
- Political Geography:
- Latin America and Mexico
56982. Global Cooperation in Science, Engineering, and Medicine
- Author:
- Kenneth Prewitt, Susan Raymond, Young Gul Kim, Rodney Nichols, Jorge Allende, Arima Akito, Jesse Ausubel, Edward Ayensu, D. Allan Bromley, Praveen Chaudhari, Umberto Colombo, Yuri Gleba, Mark Horn, Coe Ishimoto, Geraldine Kenney-Wallace, Jan Nilsson, Geoffrey Oldham, R. K. Pachauri, Heinz Riesenhuber, Zehev Tadmor, Greg Tegart, Raimundo Villegas, Guillermo Cardoza, Diana Wolff-Albers, and William Padolina
- Publication Date:
- 11-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- New York Academy of Sciences
- Abstract:
- In the fall of 1995, with assistance from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the New York Academy of Sciences organized a meeting on international collaboration in science, engineering, and medicine. The meeting was held at the Rockefeller Foundation's conference center in Bellagio, Italy from October 30 through November 2, 1995. The Academy gathered together a group of experienced international leaders to examine changes in the context and con– tent of global research cooperation and the efficacy of existing institutional mechanisms to facilitate future scientific activities. The meeting resulted in a summary report presenting the consensual views of the participants, and the New York Academy of Sciences is currently exploring a range of follow–up options with its institutional partners. Copies of the report can be obtained by contacting the Academy at the address listed below. The critical question under review at Bellagio was to assess current disparities among research opportunities, needs, and institutions and to determine the need for a more extensive international review. Discussions were based in part on extensive preparation. Prior to the meeting, all participants prepared personal statements summarizing their views of future directions for scientific collaboration, key lessons from past experience, and fundamental characteristics of successful collaborative mechanisms. These statements together with a summary issues paper produced by the New York Academy of Sciences, the meeting agenda, and biographical information on participants are collected here. The statements appear as originally distributed; none have been revised in light of the meeting's discussion. With 25 different perspectives it is to be expected that a diversity of views are represented here. However, the commentaries fall broadly along four lines of inquiry.
- Topic:
- Government, International Cooperation, International Political Economy, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- New York
56983. Checklist for the Future of Intelligence
- Author:
- John Hollister Hedley
- Publication Date:
- 01-1995
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
- Abstract:
- A changing world fraught with new uncertainties and complexities challenges America to understand the issues and dangers U.S. foreign and defense policy must confront. Economically and politically, however, it is a fact of life that the United States must engage the post-Cold War world with a smaller, more cost-efficient intelligence capability than the 13-organization, $28-billion-dollar intelligence apparatus of today. This might be achieved by a meat-cleaver approach—such as across-the-board cuts based on the erroneous assumption that every part of the apparatus is equally dispensable or indispensable. Preferably, it can—and will—be accomplished by prudently eliminating redundancy and by abandoning missions no longer deemed essential or affordable.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Defense Policy, Cold War, Intelligence, and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- United States and America
56984. Strengthening of the Balkan Civil Society: The Role of the NGOs in International Negotiations
- Author:
- Plamen Pantev
- Publication Date:
- 01-1995
- Content Type:
- Case Study
- Institution:
- Institute for Security and International Studies (ISIS)
- Abstract:
- Civil society building-up in Bulgaria as well as in the other countries of the Balkans is a process of adapting their social life and organisation to the changed economic, political and cultural environment at the beginning of the 90s of this century in Eastern and Central Europe and in the world in general. The construction and stabilization of the Bulgarian civil society cannot be separated from the broader and encompassing process of extending the European and Euroatlantic Civic Space eastwards. This holds true also for the other Balkan countries. These developments can hardly be treated out of the context of a changing security environment. Global, regional, sub-regional, national and societal security is influenced and strongly influences the processes of civil society building-up and of the eastward extension of the Civic Space in Europe. Existing security communities in Europe and the Euroatlantic area create strong incentives of converging an expected stability zone as Central and Southeastern Europe is going to be and the local civil societies. The very progress of the civil societies in the region, including the Balkans, will strongly shape the security environment of Europe at the end of the present and the beginning of the next centuries. If civil societies are not developed and the Civil Space – not widened in Central/Eastern Europe, a complex and volatile security situation may develop and unpredictability eventually get the upper hand with more and greater risks and threats endangering the area.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Political stability, Negotiation, and NGOs
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Bulgaria, and Balkans
56985. Vital Force: A Proposal for the Overhaul of the UN Peace Operations System and for the Creation of a UN Legion
- Author:
- Carl Conetta and Charles Knight
- Publication Date:
- 10-1995
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Project on Defense Alternatives
- Abstract:
- Reviews the problems of contemporary peace operations, recent reform proposals, and the requirements for successful operations. Includes a detailed proposal for enhancing and reorganizing the capacities of the UN to support and direct peace operations and for establishing a UN legion of three brigades.
- Topic:
- Defense Policy, United Nations, Peacekeeping, Reform, and Peace
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
56986. Bulgaria and the Balkans in the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union
- Author:
- Plamen Pantev, Valeri Ratchev, and Venelin Tsachevski
- Publication Date:
- 07-1995
- Content Type:
- Case Study
- Institution:
- Institute for Security and International Studies (ISIS)
- Abstract:
- Bulgaria's integration in the European Union (EU) became an undoubted strategic objective of the country, forming the basis of a national consensus among the political forces and society in general. The association stage of the integration process implies the beginning of an active, purposeful adaptation of the different branches of national policy to the main directions of EU's common undertakings. This means that the country's foreign relations and national security policy need to adapt to the Common foreign and security policy (CFSP), Common defence policy (CDP) and Common Defence (CD) of EU. A short study cannot cover all essential details about the character, history, formation and implementation of CFSP of EU, as well as specific issues touching certain Bulgarian interests. The Institute for Security and International Studies, recognising the special meaning of the forthcoming Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) in 1996 of EU member states, will carry out three other shorter studies, in addition to the present one. This should help develop a better picture of the following issues: the political dialogue of EU with the associated countries in Central and Eastern Europe (ACCEE); the economic factors of stability on the Balkan peninsula; and Russia's relations with EU and the repercussions for Southeast Europe.
- Topic:
- Security, Foreign Policy, Politics, European Union, and Dialogue
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Eastern Europe, Bulgaria, and Balkans
56987. Capitalists and Revolution
- Author:
- Rose J. Spalding
- Publication Date:
- 03-1994
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- This paper explores the relationship between the state and the economic elite during four cases of structural reform. Analyzing state-capital relations in Chile under the Allende government, El Salvador following the 1979 reforms, Mexico during the Cárdenas era, and Peru under the Velasco regime, the author finds substantial variation in the ways in which the business elite responded to state-led reform efforts. In the first two cases, the bourgeoisie tended to unite in opposition to the regime; in the second two, it was relatively fragmented and notable sectors sought an accommodation with the regime. To explain this variation, the paper focuses on the role of five factors: the degree to which class hegemony is exercised by a traditional oligarchy; the level of organizational autonomy attained by business elites; the perception of a class-based threat; the degree to which the regime consolidates politically; and the viability of the economic model introduced by the reform regime.
- Topic:
- Reform, Capitalism, Business, Economic Development, and Elites
- Political Geography:
- South America, Chile, and El Salvador
56988. Renovation in the Revolution? Dictatorship, Democracy, and Political Change in the Chilean Left
- Author:
- Kenneth Roberts
- Publication Date:
- 03-1994
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- This paper provides an analysis of political learning and change in the Chilean Socialist and Communist parties since the overthrow of Salvador Allende in 1973. It argues that 'prodemocratic' patterns of political learning identified by other researchers are not an inevitable outcome of authoritarian experiences. Instead, they are contingent upon the interaction of several organizational and strategic factors. A 'most similar systems' comparison suggests that the flexible organizational structure and relative autonomy of the Socialist Party facilitated ideological and strategic 'renovation' under authoritarian rule, whereas the organizational rigidity and dependence of the Communist Party combined with its environmental constraints to produce a process of radicalization. These divergent patterns of change caused the two parties to reverse their respective positions within the Chilean party system, with important implications for Chile's democratic transition.
- Topic:
- Democracy, Dictatorship, Leftist Politics, Political Change, Political Behavior, and Salvador Allende
- Political Geography:
- South America and Chile
56989. Asian Economic Success and Latin American Failure in the 1980s: New Analyses and Future Policy Implications
- Author:
- Ajit Singh
- Publication Date:
- 03-1994
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- A striking feature of the world economy during the last decade has been the collapse of economic growth in Latin America whilst industrialization and development have proceeded apace in the Asian countries. This paper first assesses alternative explanations of the Asian economic success and the Latin American failure during the 1980s. Secondly, it examines the related question of the long-term development strategies followed by the outstandingly successful East Asian economies. The paper arrives at rather different analyses and policy conclusions on these issues from those of the international financial institutions and the mainstream economists.
- Topic:
- Economic Growth, Economic Development, and Financial Institutions
- Political Geography:
- Asia and Latin America
56990. Religious Change and Women's Status in Latin America: A Comparison of Catholic Base Communities and Pentecostal Churches
- Author:
- Carol Ann Drogus
- Publication Date:
- 03-1994
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- The last 20 years have seen the emergence in Latin America of two religious trends that challenge the traditional Catholic culture. These are the Catholic comunidades eclesiales de base (base communities or CEBs) and Protestant pentecostal religious groups. The author examines the ways in which women's experiences in CEBs and pentecostal groups may change their gender attitudes and roles and describes the new forms of symbolic and participatory opportunities for women within each group. Do women respond to these opportunities by demanding greater access to traditionally male roles in the religious and public spheres? On the other hand, do women tend to gain greater stature and authority in their more traditional roles within the family as a result of their participation in religious groups? The author finds that while both CEB and pentecostal women reconceptualize gender roles, the two religious settings produce different outcomes. Due to the heterogeneity of available sources and methods, the analysis offers necessarily tentative conclusions. It does yield interesting and suggestive contrasts between the two religious groups, however, which can inform both theory and future empirical research.
- Topic:
- Religion, Women, Catholic Church, Society, and Gender
- Political Geography:
- Latin America
56991. The Politics of Economic Liberalization: Argentina and Brazil in Comparative Perspective
- Author:
- Robert A. Packenham
- Publication Date:
- 04-1994
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- The recent trends toward economic liberalization in Latin America provide an unusual opportunity to analyze a number of important questions in the political economy of development and underdevelopment. Why has virtually every Latin American country suddenly reversed the direction of the economic policies that had been in place for a full half-century or more? Why is the pace of such change rapid in some countries and slow in others? What are the already discernible and likely future consequences of such changes for development? What are their implications for theories of development and underdevelopment? What conceptual, theoretical, and methodological tools are available and fruitful for analyzing these topics? This paper examines these questions with particular reference to the difference in the pace of change toward economic liberalization between Argentina under Menem and Brazil under Collor.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Political Economy, Economic Growth, and Liberalization
- Political Geography:
- Brazil, Argentina, and Latin America
56992. Economic Integration in the Western Hemisphere: A Rapporteurs' Report
- Author:
- Caren Addis and Matthew A. Verghis
- Publication Date:
- 04-1994
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- This paper summarizes the discussion at an academic workshop titled "Economic Integration in the Western Hemisphere," held at the Kellogg Institute on 17 and 18 April 1993. Debate centered around an overview paper and papers on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the South American Common Market (Mercosur), the Andean Pact, the Chilean experience, the Central American countries, and the Caribbean group.
- Topic:
- NAFTA, Trade, Economic Integration, and Mercosur
- Political Geography:
- South America, Caribbean, North America, and Chile
56993. Entrepreneurial Response to Economic Liberalization and Integration: An Inquiry about Recent Events in Uruguay Aimed at Developing Better Hypotheses about Economic Behavior
- Author:
- Hugh Schwartz
- Publication Date:
- 04-1994
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- This study outlines behavioral hypotheses drawn from actual decision-making processes. It is based on in-depth interviews with decision-makers in manufacturing enterprises in a small, relatively conservative and stable Latin American country (Uruguay) and on detailed questionnaires given to members of those firms as well as to economic agents in government, the service sector, and labor unions whose activities may have influenced the enterprises' decision-making. The paper considers the responses to major new incentives that have accompanied an ongoing process of economic liberalization and integration. It offers the tentative conclusion that while serious perception and judgment problems do not characterize all areas, where they are present they are more important than generally recognized and distort decision-making. Some important problems are difficult to ascertain ex post, and there may be serious limits to the ability to verify a number of hypotheses except by direct involvement in the decision-making process.
- Topic:
- Development, Entrepreneurship, Economic Integration, and Liberalization
- Political Geography:
- South America and Uruguay
56994. Guidelines for Industrial Reconversion and Restructuring (with Application to Uruguay)
- Author:
- Hugh Schwartz
- Publication Date:
- 04-1994
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- This paper seeks to contribute to a more informed public discussion of the issues involved in industrial reconversion and industrial restructuring in developing countries, and makes special reference to recent efforts along those lines in Uruguay. It lists ten questions that might be raised and, after consideration of them, offers a series of recommendations and a conclusion that maintains that restructuring is a process involving social interaction, and thus that it can benefit by incorporating into the economic analysis elements from other behavioral social sciences. The discussion emphasizes the importance of often overlooked microeconomic policies in achieving reconversion/restructuring, reviews alternative concepts of restructuring, outlines the current debate on the determinants of dynamic competitive advantage and the techniques of gauging international competitiveness, and considers policies beyond trade liberalization to promote increased industrial productivity and industrial competitiveness.
- Topic:
- Labor Issues, Trade Liberalization, Trade, Economic Development, Industry, and Competition
- Political Geography:
- South America and Uruguay
56995. Economic Integration in the Asian Pacific: Issues and Prospects
- Author:
- Kwan S. Kim
- Publication Date:
- 05-1994
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- This paper examines the scope, broad principles, and characteristics of Pacific Asia's economic relationships and cooperation at the regional level. The author addresses the broad issue of whether Asian efforts for regional cooperation and integration have been compatible with similar arrangements elsewhere or with an open multilateral trading system at the global level. The paper also assesses the changing dynamics of regional integration and its future prospects and explores the possibilities and implications of Asian integration for the United States and the rest of the world.
- Topic:
- Development, Regional Cooperation, Regional Integration, and Economic Integration
- Political Geography:
- Asia-Pacific and United States of America
56996. The Political Underpinnings of Economic Liberalization in Chile
- Author:
- Timothy R. Scully
- Publication Date:
- 07-1994
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- The contemporary consensus over economic policy-making in Chile and the democratic government's capacity to effectively implement these policies are powerfully shaped by a combination of institutional legacies from Chile's democratic past and certain institutional holdovers from the Pinochet regime. This paper reviews briefly the performance of the Chilean economy under the Concertation government headed by Patricio Aylwin. It then argues that Chile's democratic government has been uniquely endowed with a capacity to successfully sustain economic liberalization, in part because of the reappearance of a well-institutionalized party system, in part because of certain nondemocratic limits built into the democratic game during the Pinochet regime. Over the medium term, however, these limits may pose a threat to the consensual style of politics that has come to characterize the post-Pinochet political arena in Chile, and ultimately may threaten democratic political stability if left unaddressed.
- Topic:
- Economics, Governance, Democracy, and Liberalization
- Political Geography:
- South America and Chile
56997. Recombinant Property in East European Capitalism
- Author:
- David Stark
- Publication Date:
- 01-1994
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- In contrast to the problematic of transition, this paper sees social change not as the passage from one order to another but as rearrangement in the patterns of how a multiplicity of social orders are interwoven. From that perspective we see organizational innovation not as replacement but as recombination. The findings of field research in Hungarian firms. data on ownership of the largest Hungarian enterprises, and interviews with key policy makers in government. banking. and industry indicate the emergence of new property forms that are neither statist nor private, in which the properties of private and public are dissolved. interwoven. and recombined. Recombinant property is a form of organizational hedging, or portfolio management. in which actors are responding to extraordinary uncertainty in the organizational environment. For enterprise actors the question is not simply, "Will I survive the market test?" but also, under what conditions is proof of worth on market principles neither sufficient nor necessary to survive. Recombinant property is an attempt to have resources in more than one organizational form-or similarly-to produce hybrid organizational forms that can be justified or assessed by more than one standard of measure. The clash of competing organizational principles that characterizes post-socialist societies produces new organizational forms; and this organizational diversity can form a basis for greater adaptability. At the same time, however, this multiplicity of ordering principles creates problems of accountability. Accompanying the decentralized reorganization oj assets is a centralization of liabilities. Both processes blur the boundaries between public and private. On the one hand, privatization produces the criss-crossing lines of recombinant property; on the other, debt consolidation transforms private debt into public liabilities. Whereas in the state socialist economy paternalism was based on the state's attempts at the centralized management of assets, in the first years of the post-socialist economy paternalism is based on the state's attempts at the centralized management of liabilities.
- Topic:
- Capitalism, Property, Social Change, and Post-Communism
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Eastern Europe, and Hungary
56998. Not Even One
- Publication Date:
- 02-1994
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Carter Center
- Abstract:
- We gathered at The Carter Center, 26 people from various fields and disciplines, all concerned with protecting and lengthening the lives of children, to seek a path forward amid the carnage of our children caused by firearms. What could be done to stem the hemorrhage in the streets?
- Topic:
- Government
- Political Geography:
- United States
56999. Report of the Commission on Radio and Television Policy: Volume 6, Number 2
- Publication Date:
- 09-1994
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Carter Center
- Abstract:
- In September 1994, the Commission on Radio and Television Policy, bringing together the New Independent States, Poland, the Czech Republic, and the United States, met in St. Petersburg, Russia, to discuss the most important policy issue of the electronic media: how to strengthen the independence of radio and television. The members of the Commission represented several different approaches and types of government, but, in the end, there was unanimous agreement on a communiqué urging all parties to defend and extend autonomy of the media.
- Topic:
- Democratization and International Cooperation
- Political Geography:
- Russia, United States, Europe, and Asia
57000. Elections in Mexico: Third Report
- Publication Date:
- 08-1994
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Carter Center
- Abstract:
- The national elections on August 21, 1994 will be an important milestone in Mexico's political opening. During the last four years, the Mexican Congress approved a number of important reforms to the electoral process. Yet the Mexican population remains highly skeptical about the integrity of the elections. Opinion polls show that nearly one-half of respondents expect fraud, and more than one half expect post-electoral violence.
- Topic:
- Democratization and Government
- Political Geography:
- Latin America, North America, and Mexico