Number of results to display per page
Search Results
55002. Economic Crisis and Corporate Reform in East Asia
- Author:
- Meredith Woo-Cumings
- Publication Date:
- 06-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Council on Foreign Relations
- Abstract:
- The Asian financial crisis of 1997–98 involved, among other things, a failure of regulation. Some believe this failure is endemic to global capitalism, and others believe it was profoundly local and idiosyncratic, emanating from regulatory flaws in the affected countries, stretching an arc from Thailand and Indonesia to Korea and Japan. There is also a debate about the nature of the regulation that failed. Some argue that the crisis emanated from a surfeit of nettlesome regulations and endemic industrial policy; others claim it happened for want of effective regulations and (even) industrial policy. Across the hypotenuse of these disagreements, however, stretches a universal recognition that regulatory infrastructure and institutions do matter and that they must play a major role in the way we think about economic development. After the miracle years in East Asia, “good governance” has become the Spirit of the Age.
- Topic:
- Economics and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- United States, Japan, Indonesia, Israel, East Asia, Asia, Korea, and Thailand
55003. The Paradox of Free Market Democracy: Indonesia and the Problems Facing Neoliberal Reform
- Author:
- Amy L. Chua
- Publication Date:
- 06-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Council on Foreign Relations
- Abstract:
- This paper will situate the recent problems in Indonesia in a more general framework that I will call the paradox of free-market democracy. The basic thesis I will advance is as follows. In Indonesia, as in many developing countries, class and ethnicity overlap in a distinctive and potentially explosive way: namely, in the form of a starkly economically dominant ethnic minority—here, the Sino-Indonesians. In such circumstances, contrary to conventional wisdom, markets and democracy may not be mutually reinforcing. On the contrary, the combined pursuit of marketization and democratization in Indonesia may catalyze ethnic tensions in highly determinate and predictable ways, with potentially very serious consequences, including the subversion of markets and democracy themselves. The principal challenge for neoliberal reform in Indonesia will be to find institutions capable of grappling with the problems of rapid democratization in the face of pervasive poverty, ethnic division, and an historically resented, market-dominant “outsider” minority.
- Topic:
- Economics and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- United States, Israel, and East Asia
55004. Sustainable Development and the Open-Door Policy in China
- Author:
- James K. Galbraith and Jaiging Lu
- Publication Date:
- 05-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Council on Foreign Relations
- Abstract:
- How can one best explain China's remarkable economic growth during twenty-one years and its rise from autarky to world economic power? The exercise requires chutzpah; it demands simplification; it cries out for the trained capacity to present a unifying theme with a weighty set of policy implications.
- Topic:
- Development
- Political Geography:
- China and Asia
55005. Cultural Contradictions of Post-Communism: Why Liberal Reforms Did Not Succeed in Russia
- Author:
- Nina Khrushcheva
- Publication Date:
- 05-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Council on Foreign Relations
- Abstract:
- One goal of Russia's economic reforms during the last ten years has been to establish a new class of businessmen and owners of private property—people who could form the foundation for a new model post-Soviet citizen. However, the experience of this post-communist economic “revolution” has turned out to be very different from the original expectations. For as people became disillusioned with communism due to its broken promises, the words “democracy” and “reform” quickly became equally as unbearable to large sectors of the Russian public after 1991. Such disillusion was achieved in less than ten years—a record revolutionary burnout that would be the envy of any anti-Bolshevik.
- Topic:
- Communism, Democratization, Development, Economics, and Government
- Political Geography:
- Russia, Europe, Asia, and Soviet Union
55006. China, Nuclear Weapons, and Arms Control: A Preliminary Assessment
- Author:
- Robert A. Manning, Ronald Montaperto, and Brad Roberts
- Publication Date:
- 04-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Council on Foreign Relations
- Abstract:
- Historically, U.S. nuclear strategists and arms control experts have paid little attention to the People's Republic of China (PRC). China has not been a major factor in the U.S. nuclear calculus, which has remained centered on U.S.-Russian nuclear arsenals as the principal framework for arms control and arms reductions. Yet today China is the only one of the five de jure nuclear weapons states qualitatively and quantitatively expanding its nuclear arsenal.
- Topic:
- Security, Foreign Policy, Defense Policy, Arms Control and Proliferation, and Nuclear Weapons
- Political Geography:
- Russia, United States, China, Europe, and Asia
55007. The United States, Japan, and China: Setting the Course
- Author:
- Neil E. Silver
- Publication Date:
- 04-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Council on Foreign Relations
- Abstract:
- The political dynamics of China-Japan relations have changed in reaction to three events: the demise of bipolar world politics, China's ''rise,'' and Japan's unexpected economic stall. These changed political dynamics have brought important challenges and consequences for the United States.
- Topic:
- International Relations and Security
- Political Geography:
- United States, Japan, China, Israel, East Asia, and Asia
55008. Humanitarian Intervention: Crafting a Workable Doctrine
- Author:
- Alton Frye
- Publication Date:
- 10-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Council on Foreign Relations
- Abstract:
- During the more than forty years of the Cold War when we faced direct military threats to our national security and other vital interests, U.S. forces were employed with great rarity and even greater caution. Ironically, in the decade following the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, we have threatened and used military force with increasing frequency in what has come to be called “armed humanitarian intervention.” Had we yielded to all of the calls for help, we would have committed our military forces even more often.
- Political Geography:
- United States
55009. Future Visions for U.S. Defense Policy : Four Alternatives Presented as Presidential Speeches
- Author:
- John Hillen and Lawrence Korb
- Publication Date:
- 09-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Council on Foreign Relations
- Abstract:
- Since the end of the Cold War, our defense policy has been formulated on an ad hoc basis without a clear underpinning. This piecemeal way of doing things has caused problems and frustrations both at home and abroad. Our Congress, military, allies, adversaries, and potential adversaries are confused about the lack of consistency. You and your opponents expressed similar concerns during the campaign.
- Topic:
- Cold War
- Political Geography:
- United States
55010. Toward Greater Peace and Security in Colombia: Forging a Constructive U.S. Policy
- Author:
- Michael Shifter, Bob Graham, and Brent Scowcroft
- Publication Date:
- 10-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Council on Foreign Relations
- Abstract:
- At the dawn of the 21st century, few countries in the world are as deeply troubled as Colombia. This Andean nation—the third most populous in Latin America—is experiencing crises on many fronts. But at the same time the country possesses hopeful elements— the product of a resourceful and resilient people—coupled with an opportunity to forge a more democratic, peaceful, just, and prosperous nation.
- Political Geography:
- Colombia and Latin America
55011. Institutions Structural Unemployment: Do Capital-Market Imperfections Matter?
- Author:
- Ansgar Belke and Rainer Fehn
- Publication Date:
- 11-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
- Abstract:
- This paper analyses whether differences in institutional structures on capital markets contribute to explaining why some OECD-countries, in particular the Anglo-Saxon countries, have been much more successful over the last two decades in producing employment growth and in reducing unemployment than most continental-European OECD-countries. It is argued that the often-blamed labour market rigidities alone, while important, do not provide a satisfactory explanation for these differences across countries and over time. Financial constraints are potentially important obstacles against creating new firms and jobs and thus against coping well with structural change and against moving successfully toward the “new economy”. Highly developed venture capital markets should help to alleviate such financial constraints. This view that labour-market institutions should be supplemented by capital market imperfections for explaining differences in employment performances is supported by our panel data analysis, in which venture capital turns out to be a significant institutional variable.
- Topic:
- Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- Europe
55012. The Changing Nature and Determinants of EU Trade Policies
- Author:
- Paul Brenton
- Publication Date:
- 10-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
- Abstract:
- EU trade policies and the environment in which they are determined are now considerably different from when the EU came into being in the 1950s. With the exceptions of agriculture and textiles and clothing, tariffs and quantitative restrictions on trade in goods have been reduced to historically very low levels. But trade policy is now about much more than border restrictions upon trade in goods. Trade in services and the impact of national differences in regulatory regimes are now firmly on the trade policy agenda. This paper describes the current multilateral and preferential trade policies of the EU. It highlights the increasing importance of regulatory issues and the fact that some of these are being addressed outside of both multilateral and standard bilateral free trade agreements. This reflects the mixed motives behind EU trade policies and that for trade with certain regions the typical political economy factors framing trade policy are no longer relevant. For example, liberalisation of transatlantic trade, in the limited form at present of mutual recognition of conformity assessment, is being strongly driven by large corporate business. This trend suggests that the pyramid of preferences usually used to depict EU trade policies is becoming very distorted.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, Human Rights, International Trade and Finance, Migration, and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- Europe
55013. The 'Cyprus Question': Reshaping Community Identities and Elite Interests within a Wider European Framework
- Author:
- Nathalie Tocci
- Publication Date:
- 09-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
- Abstract:
- Since 1963 the 'Cyprus question' has proved one of the most intractable inter-communal conflicts within the international system. Despite the assiduous involvement of the United Nations, the long list of negotiations and inter-communal talks have failed to yield any concrete agreement. What are the roots and causes of the 'Cyprus question' and what explains the international community's repeated failures to resolve it? This paper argues that the causes of the 'Cyprus question' comprise two crucial dimensions. First, the conflict is caused by the underlying inter-communal dispute between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, which is in turn triggered both by real and by imaginary conditions of division and disparity. Second, the 'Cyprus question' is the product of a delicate balance of elite interests. Clearly, a solution to the problem must reflect both dimensions. An initial settlement that represents preferable payoffs than the current status quo to both community elites, must be brokered. Thereafter it is possible to tackle the real conditions of division and disparity, which cause the underlying inter-communal conflict. The overarching framework of prosperity and stability provided by the European Union could contribute in both respects by facilitating the formulation and implementation of an initial inter-elite settlement and accelerating the ultimate eradication of the underlying conflict between peoples.
- Topic:
- Security, Defense Policy, NATO, and Terrorism
- Political Geography:
- Europe
55014. The Future of the Caucasus after the Second Chechen War
- Author:
- Michael Emerson, Nathalie Tocci, Bruno Coppieters, Alexandru Liono, Sergiu Celac, Brenda Shaffer, Thomas Waelde, Sergei Vinogradov, Armando Zamora, and Terry Adams
- Publication Date:
- 07-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
- Abstract:
- The problems surrounding the Chechen conflict are indeed many and difficult to tackle. This paper aims at unveiling some of the mysteries covering the issue of so-called “Islamic fundamentalism” in Chechnya. A comparison of the native Sufi branch of Islam and the imported Wahhaby ideology is made, in order to discover the contradictions and the conflicts that the spreading of the latter inflicted in the Chechen society. Furthermore, the paper investigates the main challenges President Aslan Maskhadov was facing at the beginning of his mandate, and the way he managed to cope with them. The paper does not attempt to cover all the aspects of the Chechen problem; nevertheless, a quick enumeration of other factors influencing the developments in Chechnya in the past three years is made.
- Topic:
- Security, Defense Policy, NATO, and Terrorism
- Political Geography:
- Europe
55015. One Size Must Fit All: National Divergences in a Monetary Union
- Author:
- Daniel Gros and Carsten Hefeker
- Publication Date:
- 07-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
- Abstract:
- What policy objective should a common central bank in a heterogeneous monetary union pursue? Should it base its decisions on the EU-wide average of inflation and growth or should it instead focus on (appropriately weighted) national welfare losses based on national rates of inflation and growth? We find that a central bank that minimises the sum of national welfare losses reacts less to common shocks and that this can lead to higher average union-wide expected welfare, if the variability of common shocks is large relative to the inflation bias. But for countries with a transmission mechanism close to the average, welfare can actually be lower in this case. The inflationary bias depends on the interaction between the transmission mechanism and distortions in labour markets.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, Human Rights, International Trade and Finance, Migration, and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- Europe
55016. The International Trade of Multinational Firms: The Empirical Behaviour of Intrafirm Trade in a Gravity Equation Model
- Author:
- Kimberly A. Clausing
- Publication Date:
- 06-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
- Abstract:
- Multinational firms are an increasingly important part of international economic integration. In recent years, foreign direct investment has been increasing at a rate that exceeds both the rate of growth of international trade and that of income. For many countries, the sales of affiliates of multinational firms have long dwarfed the value of trade. For example, in 1997, European Union country firms exported $283 billion in products to the United States. In the same year, affiliates of E.U.-based multinational firms sold $816 billion worth of products in the United States, almost three times the value of exports.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, Human Rights, International Trade and Finance, Migration, and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- United States and Europe
55017. Technical Barriers to Trade in the European Union: Importance for Accession Countries
- Author:
- Paul Brenton, John Sheehy, and Marc Vancauteren
- Publication Date:
- 04-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
- Abstract:
- With trade in industrial products between the EU and the CEECs now essentially free of tariff and non-tariff restrictions, the principal impact of accession to the EU on trade flows will be through access to the Single Market of the EU. A key element of this will be the removal of technical barriers to trade. In this paper we try and highlight the importance of technical barriers to trade between the EU and the various CEECs, distinguishing sectors according to the different approaches to the removal of these barriers in the EU: mutual recognition, detailed harmonisation (old approach) and minimum requirements (new approach). We utilise two sources of information on technical regulations: a sectoral classification from a previous study of the impact of the Single Market and our own detailed translation of EU product related directives into the relevant tariff codes. The analysis suggests that the importance of technical barriers varies considerably across the CEECs. The adjustment implications of access to the Single Market are likely to be greatest for those most advanced in their accession negotiations.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, Human Rights, International Trade and Finance, Migration, and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- Europe
55018. Goodbye, Agenda 2000, Hello Agenda 2003: Effects of the Berlin Summit on Own Resources, Expenditures, and EU Net Balances
- Author:
- Michael Emerson and Jorge Núñez Ferrer
- Publication Date:
- 02-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
- Abstract:
- This paper describes the development of the negotiations from the birth of the Agenda 2000 proposals to the end of the Berlin European Council Summit and discusses the consequences of the outcome. The study shows to what extent net contributions to the EU budget and narrow national interests dominated the negotiations, at the expense of the original aims of the reforms (to prepare the Union for enlargement and for the next round of WTO negotiations), which were practically forgotten. This type of behaviour is by no means unique. On the contrary, it has been recurrent in the history of the EU. Estimates of future expenditures and own resources show that the Berlin European Council conclusions will prove to be far from satisfactory.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, Human Rights, International Trade and Finance, Migration, and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Berlin
55019. Consumer Credit in the European Union
- Author:
- Nuria Diez Guardia
- Publication Date:
- 02-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
- Abstract:
- This report analyses the European consumer credit markets and their regulation at European level. Its findings are as follows: European consumer credit markets are characterised by deep national differences and strong market segmentation. The report finds no generalised model of consumer credit from the analysis of statistical data. An Anglo-Saxon consumer credit model cannot be identified. The weight of consumer credit is far higher in the US economy than in the EU countries, including the UK. In the US, the share of consumer loans made by banks is much lower, securitisation of consumer credit assets is very developed and the share of revolving credit is much greater than in the EU countries. Nor is it possible, on account of the large differences in the use of consumer credit observed across EU countries, to identify a European model of consumer credit. Consumer credit is very widely used in Sweden, whereas it is underdeveloped in Greece and Italy. The use of consumer credit reaches comparatively high levels in Germany and the UK and an intermediate level in France and Spain. Lending to consumers is carried out through bank intermediation, crossborder provision is non-existent.
- Topic:
- Economics and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- United States, United Kingdom, Europe, Greece, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy
55020. Information Management in the Field of Security Policy in SEE -- 1st Workshop of the Study Group: "Crisis Management in South East Europe"
- Author:
- Tufik Burnazovic, Athanasios E. Drougos, Gustav E. Gustenau, Wolf Oschlies, Dragan Simic, Avgustina Tzvetkova, Biljana Vankovska, and Vladimir Šaponja
- Publication Date:
- 05-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Austrian National Defence Academy
- Abstract:
- Secessionist conflicts have become a major feature of the European political landscape in the 1990s. International response to them has varied from full-scale military intervention to half-hearted mediation, generally providing for freezing of most active hostilities and for addressing most urgent humanitarian needs. Europe in the 1990s saw more “peace” operations on its soil than any other region in the world, but still was not able to find satisfactory answers. Kosovo is a tragic illustration of that and the deployment of NATO troops after a massive use of airpower still lacks the framework of a political plan and appears very tentative and opportunistic. Several specifically European factors define the perspective of a possible new wave of secessionist conflicts in the region.
- Topic:
- Security, NATO, International Cooperation, and Regional Cooperation
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Balkans
55021. What kind of Democracy, Whose Integration? Construction of democracy and integration into the EU of Estonia
- Author:
- Kristi Raik
- Publication Date:
- 01-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA)
- Abstract:
- Integration into the European Union has for many years been one of the top priorities of the Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs), playing a central role in both their foreign and domestic policies. Preparing for membership in the EU is in many ways connected to the development of democracy in these countries. The Union has declared support to democracy in the applicant countries to be one of the main priorities of eastern enlargement. In addition to concrete support, however, I argue that the relevance of the EU for democracy in the CEECs is even more due to indirect influence – integration is a dominant issue in the domestic politics of these countries and therefore an important part of continuous (re)production of democracy. This paper studies what kind of democracy has been constructed in one of the eastern applicant countries, Estonia, in the course of integration into the EU It analyses firstly the different conceptions of democracy that have been presented and put into practice as part of that process. Secondly, it places integration into the EU in the context of democratic politics of Estonia, asking whether preparations for EU membership have left room for more than a formal democracy to function.
- Topic:
- Democratization
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Eastern Europe, and Estonia
55022. The Evolution of Russian Grand Strategy -- Implications for Europe's North
- Author:
- Henrikki Heikka
- Publication Date:
- 01-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA)
- Abstract:
- A study about Russian grand strategy is certain to raise more than a few eyebrows among observers of Russian foreign policy. How can one possibly assume that in a country with constantly changing prime ministers and an economy on the verge of bankruptcy there could be a commonly accepted Grand Plan about anything? Moreover, the record of post-cold war Russian foreign policy is so full of reckless moves and unpredictable u-turns, that it seems rather far-fetched to suggest that there could be, even in theory, a common logic behind it. Judging by the steady flow of publications on the role of self-interested politicians, parties, business elites, and organizational and bureaucratic actors in the formation of Russian foreign policy, it does indeed seem that most scholars see Russia's external policy driven by the day-to-day power struggles of various groups within the Russian political elite rather than by a common national strategy.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy and International Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- Russia, Europe, and Asia
55023. A friend in need or a friend indeed: Finnish perceptions of Germany's role in the EU and Europe
- Author:
- Tuomas Forsberg
- Publication Date:
- 01-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA)
- Abstract:
- Finland is often seen as a country whose view of Germany has traditionally been more positive than that of the average of the European countries. According to an opinion poll that was conducted in 1996, 42 % of the Finns have a positive view, 47 % a neutral and only 6 % a negative view of Germany and Germans. This positive attitude is not only a result of the large amount of cultural and trade contacts or societal similarities, shared Lutheran religion and German roots of Finnish political thinking but derives also from the historical experience that Germany has been willing to help Finland in bad times. Although this view is not necessarily correct when judged against the historical record and although it is not unanimously shared by all Finns, it provides the necessary starting point when assessing Finland's view of Germany in today's Europe.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy and Regional Cooperation
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Finland, and Germany
55024. A Security and Stability in Northern Europe – A Threat Assesment
- Author:
- Jochen Prantl
- Publication Date:
- 04-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA)
- Abstract:
- The accession of Finland and Sweden as well as the ongoing enlargement process, which offers the perspective of EU membership to the Baltic States, has put the question of security and stability in Northern Europe on the Agenda of the European Union.
- Topic:
- Security and Development
- Political Geography:
- Russia, Europe, Finland, Asia, and Sweden
55025. POST-NEUTRAL OR PRE-ALLIED? Finnish and Swedish Policies on the EU and NATO as Security Organisations
- Author:
- Tuomas Forsberg and Tapani Vaahtoranta
- Publication Date:
- 01-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA)
- Abstract:
- At the beginning of the 21st century – a decade after the end of the Cold War – two major developments characterise the transformation of the European security landscape. The first development is the NATO enlargement and its evolving strategic concept that was applied in the Kosovo conflict. The second is the EU enlargement and the construction of the European security and defence policy (ESDP) for the European Union in close contact with NATO. Each and every country in Europe is forced to outline their interests and stance towards these developments.
- Topic:
- Defense Policy and NATO
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Kosovo
55026. Histoire Vs Mémoire En France Aujourd'hui
- Author:
- Jacques Revel
- Publication Date:
- 03-2000
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- École des hautes études en sciences sociales Jusqu'à une époque très récente, l'expérience historique de la France et la mémoire dont elle était porteuse étaient pensées dans les termes d'une histoire; et cette histoire ne s'énonçait pas, elle ne se pensait pas n'importe comment: elle pouvait être diverse et contradictoire, mais elle avait ses formes et elle obéissait à des règles. Les choses ont bien changé. En grossissant et en simplifiant les choses, on pourrait dire que la France est devenue depuis une vingtaine d'années le lieu d'une entreprise mémorielle proliférante et multiforme. Une bonne part de notre traditionnelle activité narcissique-mais aussi de notre investissement sensible-a trouvé à se reconnaître dans la production de mémoire, sous toutes ses formes. J'en retiens trois, pour aller au plus simple.
- Political Geography:
- France
55027. Women In The French Resistance: Revisiting the Historical Record
- Author:
- Claire Andrieu
- Publication Date:
- 03-2000
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- If the Resistance as a whole is part of French identity, the different types of resistance, among them that of women, do not benefit from the same status. On the contrary, official commemorations of the Resistance are based upon two implicit statements: that the Resistance and the nation are somewhat equivalent - the Resistance being viewed as the uprising of the whole nation - and that to differentiate among the resisters would go against the very principles of the Resistance, its universalism, its refusal to make any distinction in race or origin. The assimilationism that is part of the ideology of the French Republic hinders the recognition of particularisms, whether regional, cultural or gendered. The Resistance has two national heroes, General de Gaulle since 1940, and Jean Moulin since 1964, both male and French. But no group has yet demanded the implementation of an affirmative action policy for the process of heroization. The French fear of multiculturalism -or any recognition of particularisms - could be sufficient to explain the slow development of women's studies in France, and indeed, the history of women resisters has not yet been studied as much as that of the Resistance as a whole. There were other factors that prevented it from developing. After reviewing the available bibliography, I propose some new directions of research which - as elementary and unsophisticated as they are - may break down some stereotypes and allow us to glimpse some aspects of the Resistance that traditional history has neglected.
- Topic:
- History
- Political Geography:
- France
55028. Abdelmalek Sayad And The Double Absence: Toward a Total Sociology of Immigration
- Author:
- Emmanuelle Saada
- Publication Date:
- 03-2000
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- At the time of his death, the sociologist of immigration Abdelmalek Sayad (1933-1998) was putting the final touches on a collection of his principal articles-since published under the title La Double Absence. The publication of this collection provides, I think, a good occasion for introducing Sayad to the anglophone public, which to date has had almost no exposure to his work. In France, Sayad's sociology has been essential not only to the study of Algerian immigration, but to the understanding of migration as a "fait social total," a total social fact, which reveals the anthropological and political foundations of contemporary societies. The introduction of this exceptional work to American specialists of French studies is timely, moreover, because immigration and more recently, colonization have been among the most dynamic areas of research in the field in the past few years.
- Political Geography:
- America and France
55029. Dossier: Charting the Future of French Farming: Introduction
- Publication Date:
- 03-2000
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- Farmers still count for a lot in France, despite their shrinking numbers. Scarcely four per cent of the workforce now earns a living in agriculture. Yet, every politician knows that the country has a huge stake in farming-France is second only to the United States as an agricultural exporter-and that farmer unions wield clout. Farmers have cultural leverage as well. Rolling fields and rural hamlets still figure prominently in most people's mental image of what makes France French and its social fabric whole. Even so, the future for many farmers is anything but secure. Global competition, EU enlargement, and scientific advances will continue to reshape the conditions of agricultural production and marketing. Farm subsidies could well diminish under pressure from trade negotiators or from voters at home who wish to put tax revenues to other purposes. Many a small family farm could go under for lack of young men and women willing to wager their futures on a farming career. Meanwhile, big growers will no doubt find ways to raise more food on less land with fewer hands. Ineluctable though these trends may be, however, French farmers have an impressive record of fighting back in the face of adversity. Their militance, combined with a strong tradition of state protection and public pride in the land and its products, make it certain that agriculture will remain one of the more important, and contentious, arenas of debate in the new century.
- Topic:
- Agriculture
- Political Geography:
- United States and France
55030. Farming Visions : Agriculture in French Culture
- Author:
- Susan Carol Rogers
- Publication Date:
- 03-2000
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- Peasant Fever That Goes Beyond Corporatism," "Peasants: Old-Style and Modern." Such headlines led stories in the French press about the August 1999 attack on a MacDonald's deep in the French hinterlands by a group affiliated with the farmers union Confédération Paysanne. The incident, noted in the American press as a colorful example of Gallic excess, drew weeks of substantial and sympathetic attention from the French press and general public, inspired vocal support from politicians across the political spectrum, and catapulted the group's leader, José Bové, to the status of national hero. Part of the significance attributed in France to the event, as suggested by the headlines above, lay in claims that this action represented a radical new departure for farm organizations: unlike previous farmer protests-habitually no less symbolically-charged, well-orchestrated, or widely supported-this one, it was frequently said, spoke to issues of concern to society as a whole, not simply to the corporate interests of farmers.
- Topic:
- Agriculture
- Political Geography:
- America and France
55031. Craintes Et Espoirs Des Agriculteurs Français
- Author:
- François Clerc
- Publication Date:
- 03-2000
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- Le bilan que les agriculteurs français peuvent présenter de leurs efforts au cours du dernier demi-siècle devrait les remplir de confiance en eux-mêmes. Ils sont parvenus à produire en abondance. Entre 1951 et 1997, la quantité de blé livrée a été multipliée par quatre et par cinq dans un secteur moins stratégique, celui des haricots verts. Entre 1980 et 1997, le volume de la production agricole française a augmenté de 30 pour cent. L'agriculture française nourrit des consommateurs dont le nombre a augmenté de plus de 40 pour cent en cinquante ans et le déséquilibre des échanges commerciaux a changé de sens. L'agriculture et les industries alimentaires qui lui font suite ont porté la France au rang de second exportateur agro-alimentaire mondial.
55032. La Loi D\'orientation Agricole Comme Enjeu De Société
- Author:
- Bertrand Hervieu
- Publication Date:
- 03-2000
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- Pour le Gouvernement français, l\'ambition du projet de loi d\'orientation agricole, voté le 26 mai 1999, était de redéfinir la place de l\'agriculture dans la société du début du XXIe siècle et d\'assurer son ancrage dans le territoire. Face à l\'ouverture des marchés et à l\'évolution des comportements des consommateurs et des citoyens, l\'enjeu est de renforcer les liens entre l\'agriculture et la nation au plus près du terrain et d\'inscrire les projets agricoles dans des projets de société. La présentation de ce projet de loi a fait l\'objet de nombreuses interventions des ministres de l\'Agriculture et de la Pêche, Louis Le Pensec et Jean Glavany. Nous présentons ici une synthèse de ces discours qui a fait l\'objet de diverses notes internes au ministère de l\'Agriculture et de la Pêche et d\'une publication sous forme d\'un supplément du Bulletin d\'information du ministère de l\'Agriculture. La loi a été publiée au Journal Officiel de la République française le 10 juillet 1999.
- Topic:
- Agriculture
55033. Tragédiens Et Comédiens: Les Corses et l'État français
- Author:
- Jean-Louis Fabiani
- Publication Date:
- 06-2000
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- Le philosophe d'origine corse Jean Toussaint Desanti faisait un jour remarquer lors d'une soutenance de thèse que la Corse avait été "oubliée par la science". Il entendait probablement rappeler le fait que l'anthropologie et les sciences sociales avaient implicitement considéré que l'île dite "de Beauté" ne méritait pas véritablement d'investissement savant. Il y a plus : dans un univers social régi par des règles contraignantes de correction à l'égard des catégorisations ethniques, les plaisanteries publiques sur les Corses présentent encore aujourd'hui en France un caractère tout à fait licite. La stigmatisation de la paresse insulaire et les allusions aux penchants délinquants de la population en fournissent une illustration quotidienne. On peut considérer que le fait de se moquer, pas toujours gentiment, des Corses, constitue un espace résiduel pour la liberté de propos dans un régime d'autocontrôle généralisé à propos des qualifications à caractère ethnique. Il faut dire aussi que les Corses n'ont jamais été considérés positivement par l'intelligentsia de gauche.
55034. Of Linguistic Jacobinism And Cultural Balkanization: Contemporary French Linguistic Politics in Historical Context
- Author:
- Paul Cohen
- Publication Date:
- 06-2000
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- In few countries has language played a greater role in constituting national identity than in modern France. French is first and foremost a political idiom, enshrined by the leaders of the Revolution and the Third Republic as the language of the Republic and the Nation. The French state promotes the use of French at home and throughout the world through an array of government institutions, including the Académie française, the Ministry of Culture and the agencies responsible for France's francophonie policies. The French language also represents a highly charged common cultural ground marking the boundaries of French society.3 Whether in informal conversation and public debate, in annual rituals like Bernard Pivot's televised "concours de dictées," or on the editorial pages of national newspapers, the French betray an intense awareness of linguistic issues. The defense and illustration of French has long been for French intellectuals and leaders a passionate vocation.
- Topic:
- Government
- Political Geography:
- France
55035. Domestic Constraints On French Nato Policy
- Author:
- Anand Menon
- Publication Date:
- 06-2000
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- Since 1966 and even before, the policies pursued by France toward NATO have been both the object of a certain amount of Gallic pride and the source of considerable confusion, not to say irritation, among France's partners. Why have these policies been pursued? The aim of this article is to address this question by means of an examination of the domestic pressures and constraints that have helped to shape France's policies toward NATO. It reveals a striking paradox: the decision-making arrangements that developed around and emerged out of de Gaulle's single-minded quest to achieve international independence for France were specifically designed to provide him with the freedom to pursue policies of his own choosing. They increasingly came, however, to hamstring the efforts of French political leaders to do likewise, particularly when, in the aftermath of the Cold War, they came to realize that traditional Gaullist policies were no longer serving France as well as they once had.
- Topic:
- NATO, Cold War, and Development
- Political Geography:
- France
55036. Protestations Collectives D'une Minorité Socio-Économique En France
- Author:
- Frédéric Royall
- Publication Date:
- 06-2000
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- Le 7 janvier 1998 plus de 50 villes françaises sont touchées par des manifestations nationales de sans-emploi et de leurs sympathisants pour réclamer une amélioration du sort des chômeurs. Le 13 janvier 1998 une deuxième journée nationale de protestation regroupe plus de 50 000 manifestants et touche 76 départements. Le gouvernement ayant commis l'erreur de ne pas avoir pris très au sérieux ces manifestations se trouve rapidement obligé, au grand dam de sa politique budgétaire, de débloquer un milliard de francs en aides financières d'urgence. Près d'un an plus tard à Marseille, le 3 décembre 1998, de 10,000 à 15,000 personnes proclament haut et fort leur hostilité à la politique gouvernementale. La semaine suivante, le 10 décembre 1998, 2000 personnes défilent à Paris et près de 3000 autres manifestent à Marseille. Si ces journées nationales d'actions de décembre 1998 ont témoigné des capacités encore réelles de mobilisation des collectifs de chômeurs (sous forme de manifestations), les organisations de défense des chômeurs peinent à susciter ensuite l'enthousiasme de leurs militants et sympathisants et à dépasser le stade des agitations ponctuelles et localisées en se basant sur un répertoire d'actions collectives classiques.
- Political Geography:
- France
55037. Debates Events -- Profession : "Messager culturel": Entretien avec Laure Adler, Directrice de France-Culture
- Author:
- Martha Zuber
- Publication Date:
- 06-2000
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- Une histoire? Un patrimoine? Une institution? France-Culture est tout cela. Petite chaîne prestigieuse, sans publicité, avec 80 millions de francs de budget annuel inchangé. C'est l'exception culturelle de la radio française. La chaîne rassemble une centaine de producteurs permanents (les réalisateurs des programmes), 450 000 auditeurs ou moins d'un pour cent de l'audience radiophonique en France. Certains de ses auditeurs se sont regroupés en une association présidée par un haut fonctionnaire au Ministère de l'emploi. Un personnel fortement attaché à l'identité de France-Culture, 116 avenue du Président Kennedy où sont installés studios et bureaux. Une radio unique au monde qui émet vingtquatre heures sur vingt-quatre de "la culture" tout au long de l'année. Elle se distingue par ses émissions exemplaires, souvent longues, traitant de sujets pointus : des reportages sérieux précédés par des enquêtes en profondeur et des radio-fictions de qualité, avec des pièces de théâtre spécialement écrites pour la radio.
- Political Geography:
- France
55038. In Memoriam: Gordon Wright (1912-2000)
- Author:
- Richard Kuisel
- Publication Date:
- 06-2000
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- The new millennium brought the loss of the most eminent American historian of modern France. Gordon Wright, emeritus professor of history at Stanford University, died on the 11 th of January in his California home. Gordon Wright was a member of a generation that matured during the war who managed to combine academic life with public service. Born in Washington State into a family of farmers, teachers and preachers, he attended Whitman College. His first encounter with France came in 1937 as an American Field Service fellow. Although he originally wanted a career in the diplomatic corps, he took his Ph.D. in history at Stanford in 1939, published his thesis on the presidency of Raymond Poincaré,1 and began his academic life at the University of Oregon. The war interrupted the peace of academia. While serving as a liaison with the State Department in 1944 he was assigned the job of leading a convoy of vehicles and personnel from Lisbon to Paris to help set up the embassy.
- Political Geography:
- America, Washington, France, and Lisbon
55039. Gérard Noiriel's Third Republic
- Author:
- Robert O. Paxton
- Publication Date:
- 06-2000
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- Gérard Noiriel, Les Origines républicaines de Vichy (Paris: Hachette Littératures, 1999). This book has raised hackles in France, and one can see why. It is by turns illuminating, tendentious, and pugnacious. At its best it accomplishes first-rate historical work. Its central four chapters make an enduring contribution to understanding the exclusionary project of Vichy France. Polemical first and last chapters detract somewhat from this achievement. Noiriel's powerful central chapters address a key conundrum about Vichy: How did the odious discriminatory and exclusionary measures taken by Pétain's governments, so manifestly contrary to French republican values, find such broad acquiescence among the mainstream republican elite?
- Topic:
- Government
- Political Geography:
- France
55040. Ordinary Antisemitism and Vichy: Anti-Jewish Policy The Role of the Legal Profession
- Author:
- Vicki Caron
- Publication Date:
- 06-2000
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- Robert Badinter, Un Antisémitisme ordinaire: Vichy et les avocats juifs (1940-1944) (Paris: Fayard, 1997). Richard H. Weisberg, Vichy Law and the Holocaust in France (New York: NYU Press, 1996). Among the hundreds of scholarly books and articles on Vichy France and the Jews that have appeared in recent years, the focal point of attention has increasingly shifted away from the state and toward the less scrutinized and more nebulous field of public opinion. Several works on this topic, such as John F. Sweet's Choices in Vichy France: The French Under Nazi Occupation (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), Pierre Laborie's L'Opinion française sous Vichy (Paris: Seuil, 1990), and Philippe Burrin's, France under the Germans: Collaboration and Compromise (New York: New Press, 1996) have provided synthetic overviews of public responses to the anti-Jewish laws and policies of the Vichy regime as part of a broader analysis of public opinion toward Vichy. Others have focused more narrowly on the reactions of specific interest groups-the Catholic and Protestant churches, the civil service, university administrators and professors, and various liberal professions, especially lawyers and doctors - in an attempt to understand the precise mechanisms by which the exclusionary regime functioned, as well as to explore the impact of the segregation of Jews on the day-to-day lives of Jews and non-Jews alike.
- Political Geography:
- France
55041. Introduction
- Author:
- Laura Frader
- Publication Date:
- 09-2000
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- An American scholar is often struck by the absence of race in France as a category of analysis or the absence of discussions of race in its historical or sociological dimensions. After all, "race" on this side of the Atlantic, for reasons having to do with the peculiar history of the United States, has long been a focus of discussion. The notion of race has shaped scholarly analysis for decades, in history, sociology, and political science. Race also constitutes a category regularly employed by the state, in the census, in electoral districting, and in affirmative action. In France, on the contrary, race hardly seems acknowledged, in spite of both scholarly and governmental preoccupation with racism and immigration.
- Topic:
- Immigration
- Political Geography:
- America and France
55042. Republican Antiracism And Racism: A Caribbean Genealogy
- Author:
- Laurent Dubois
- Publication Date:
- 09-2000
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- In the Département d'Outre-Mer of Guadeloupe, a schoolteacher named Hugues Delannay presents me with a conundrum that has preoccupied him for a long time. He has been teaching in a lycée for over twenty years in Basse-Terre, the island's capital, and has had many brilliant students who, when they take their baccalaureat examinations, get mixed results. Normally, they excel on the written portions of the examination. Consistently, however, they do worse on their oral examinations, which drags down their grades. Why? It is not that their speaking skills are not up to par-far from it, he tells me, these students are articulate and speak impeccable French. There is, according to Delannay, a simpler, and ultimately more disturbing explanation. The examiners who give these students low grades in their oral examinations almost always come from metropolitan France. When they are face-to-face with the students, they of course notice their race (usually they are black, of African and/or Indian descent, as are most people in Guadeloupe) and this informs the grades they give. The students are, he believes, quite simply the victims of well-ensconced structural racism.
- Political Geography:
- Africa, India, France, and Caribbean
55043. Culture-As-Race Or Culture-As-Culture: Caribbean Ethnicity and the Ambiguity of Cultural Identity in French Society
- Author:
- David Beriss
- Publication Date:
- 09-2000
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- "Notre père, un nègre de la Guadeloupe, a coutume de rétorquer à ceux qui, en France, l'importunent au sujet de sa couleur ou de son origine: "Je suis Français depuis 1635, bien avant les Niçois, les Savoyards, les Corses ou même les Strasbourgeois." Yes, but aren't these people black?" This is perhaps the most common question Americans ask about my research among West Indian activists in Paris and Martinique. It is asked in a tone that suggests that the answer itself is obvious and, more than that, that the questions I ask about West Indian claims to identity would be almost moot if I were to just get that answer through my head. This question has always confused me. "It's not that simple," is my usual response, but the truth is that I have always suspected that these people know something about the significance of blackness that I have failed to grasp. Most of these commentators on my research, I should point out, are not social scientists. But there is a social science variant to this question. Among colleagues, it takes the form of a directive: "You really have to deal with race more directly." This suggestion that I examine race generally raises another question. Are French people white?
- Political Geography:
- America, India, and Caribbean
55044. Antiracism Without Races: Politics and Policy in a "Color-Blind" State
- Author:
- Erik Bleich
- Publication Date:
- 09-2000
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- Since the end of the Second World War, millions of immigrants have arrived on French shores. Although such an influx of foreigners has not been unusual in French history, the origin of the postwar migrants was of a different character than that of previous eras. Prior to World War II, the vast majority of immigrants to France came from within Europe. Since 1945, however, an important percentage of migrants have come from non- European sources. Whether from former colonies in North Africa, Southeast Asia, or sub- Saharan Africa, from overseas departments and territories, or from countries such as Turkey or Sri Lanka, recent immigration has created a new ethnic and cultural pluralism in France. At the end of the 1990s, the visibly nonwhite population of France totals approximately five percent of all French residents. With millions of ethnic-minority citizens and denizens, the new France wears a substantially different face from that of the prewar era.
- Topic:
- Politics and History
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Europe, Turkey, France, Sri Lanka, North Africa, and Southeast Asia
55045. Les Politiques Françaises De Lutte Contre Le Racisme, Des Politiques En Mutation
- Author:
- Gwénaële Calvès
- Publication Date:
- 09-2000
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- Il pouvait sembler évident, jusqu'à une période très récente, que la formule célèbre du juge Blackmun selon laquelle, "pour en finir avec le racisme, nous devons d'abord prendre la race en compte" n'avait aucune chance de s'acclimater en France. La culture politique républicaine, exprimée et confortée par des principes constitutionnels fermement énoncés, s'opposait à la prise en compte d'un critère de catégorisation tenu pour intrinsèquement infamant et dénué de tout contenu positif: le droit français contemporain ne mentionne la "race" que pour en proscrire la prise en compte; la seule "race" qu'il connaisse est la race du raciste.
- Political Geography:
- France
55046. Half-Measures: Antidiscrimination Policy in France
- Author:
- Alec G. Hargreaves
- Publication Date:
- 09-2000
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- Since the Left returned to power in 1997, there have been remarkable changes in the debate over the "integration" of immigrant minorities in France. After a long period in which political elites emphasized the challenges associated with minority ethnic cultures and social disadvantage, the spotlight has shifted to the blockages arising from racial discrimination by members of the majority ethnic population. No less remarkably, there has been a significant abatement in the demonization of so-called Anglo-Saxon approaches to the management of ethnic relations, habitually branded by politicians and civil servants as the antithesis of France's "républicain" model of integration. Whereas British and American policies have encouraged "race" awareness in combating both direct and indirect forms of discrimination and have established powerful agencies to assist minorities suffering from unfair treatment, until recently there was a wide consensus in France that "integration" policy could best be served by erasing as far as possible any reference to ethnicity.
- Topic:
- Politics
- Political Geography:
- Britain, America, and France
55047. Forum -- Capitalism And Its Spirits?
- Author:
- George Ross
- Publication Date:
- 09-2000
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- Le Nouvel Esprit du capitalism:Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello (Paris: Gallimard, 1999). Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello's Le Nouvel Esprit du capitalisme is 843 pages long. Its considerable heft, however, has not prevented it from being widely read and commented upon. Herein lies a mystery. Why has such a dense and difficult book struck such a chord? Perhaps the first reason has to do with its general approach. "Spirits of capitalism"-borrowing from Max Weber is intentional - refers to the ways by which capitalism, at heart profoundly amoral, is "moralized." French readers worry, and they should, that contemporary capitalism makes less and less moral sense. Le Nouvel Esprit promises new understanding, if not new morality. To Boltanski and Chiapello, individuals and groups need to acquire sufficient personal commitment, in terms of a sense of justice in operation, to allow the system to function successfully. They see three successive ideal-typical "esprits du capitalisme," each with its own particular mixture of methods of moralization. The contemporary moment, they claim, is a major change from the previous spirit to something quite new. The "justifications" that key actors use to create morally acceptable social environments - and which, in turn, help make structures happen - have been shifting.
- Topic:
- Environment
55048. Forum -- Deconstructing The Reconstruction Of Capitalism
- Author:
- Michael J. Piore
- Publication Date:
- 09-2000
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- This is a big, ambitious book with an intricate, engaging, and important argument. I picked it up in Paris in January and read it on the flight home. It made me happy to be an intellectual and a scholar; happy to be able to read French; happy, for the first time I can remember, to have seven and a half hours of uninterrupted time on a transatlantic flight. The book poses the question of why an active critique of capitalism has virtually disappeared in our times. The answer it provides is that capitalism itself has changed in ways that evade the criticisms that had been directed against it in the past. But it argues that these changes themselves are giving rise to a new moral framework from which a new critical perspective is emerging, and attempts to identify what that perspective is.
- Political Geography:
- Paris
55049. Forum -- Not Your Father's Capitalism
- Author:
- Donald Reid
- Publication Date:
- 09-2000
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- Le Nouvel Esprit du capitalisme is a socio-cultural response to the neoliberal explanation of the successes and failures of capitalism in France during the last three decades in terms of individual rational actors and markets. Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello draw their inspiration from critical readings of sociologists who interpreted earlier incarnations of capitalism, including Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Max Weber, and Emile Durkheim. The sesquicentennial of The Communist Manifesto elicited many commentaries praising Marx and Engels for their insightful evocation of the revolutionary nature of capitalism. Starting here, Boltanski and Chiapello point to the contradictory nature of capitalism, which thrives on destruction and expansion, yet requires checking mechanisms to avoid self-destruction through the alienation of precisely those who have driven the processentrepreneurial bourgeoisie, directors, and managers. To the obvious capitalist project of continually creating consumers must be added that of selling capitalism to those producers whose allegiance to capitalism Marx and Engels took for granted.
- Political Geography:
- France
55050. Forum : A Reply
- Author:
- Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello
- Publication Date:
- 09-2000
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- Le plaisir principal que l'on peut tirer du fait d'avoir écrit un livre (qui est différent du plaisir que l'on peut avoir pris à l'écrire) est de pouvoir confronter sa propre vision de ce que l'on a fait avec les représentations qu'en donnent différents lecteurs. L'ouvrage ne trouve finalement son achèvement que dans cette confrontation entre un projet d'écriture et les critiques des lecteurs qui, par leurs interprétations, se l'approprient. Ce plaisir est particulièrement grand lorsque, comme c'est le cas du dossier constitué à l'initiative de la rédaction de French Politics, Culture Society, ces lectures, par leur acuité, leur perspicacité et leur diversité, jettent des éclairages nouveaux sur le travail accompli. Nous pouvons dire que chacune des lectures rassemblées ici nous a appris quelque chose sur notre ouvrage, ce dont nous sommes grandement reconnaissants aux quatre éminents spécialistes qui ont pris de leur temps pour décortiquer Le Nouvel Esprit du capitalisme ainsi qu'à l'équipe de la revue qui a suscité cet ensemble de textes.
- Topic:
- Politics and Culture
55051. Forum -- Making Networks Accountable
- Author:
- Bruce Kogut
- Publication Date:
- 09-2000
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- The book by Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello on the new spirit of capitalism returns to the question that puzzled the social thinkers of an earlier time: How does capitalism manufacture the ideological foundations of social peace, despite its hollow spiritual core and its creation of inequities? Their argument, reminiscent of Gramsci's, is that capitalism is richly inventive in appropriating cultural systems to justify itself. To address the ills of contemporary society, one must deconstruct the ideologies that make excessive levels of stress, unemployment, and inequality appear unavoidable. Boltanski and Chiapello cite Durkheim's thesis that capitalism is marred by the insatiable pursuit of self-interest, a view that resonates with the Chinese parable of the mask with no lower jaw. The mask is the face of a god or spirit that in its greed consumed its body and eventually its lower jaw, until it was unable to consume more. Capitalism needs an ideological restraint to this logic, but is unable to generate it by its own tenets. It must borrow elsewhere to justify itself and to preserve its own survival.
55052. Review Essay: Histories of Race in France
- Author:
- Tyler Stovall
- Publication Date:
- 09-2000
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- Tzvetan Todorov, On Human Diversity: Nationalism, Racism, and Exoticism in French Thought (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993). Sue Peabody, "There Are No Slaves in France": The Political Culture of Race and Slavery in the Ancien Régime (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996). Patricia M. E. Lorcin, Imperial Identities: Stereotyping, Prejudice and Race in Colonial Algeria (London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 1995). Maxim Silverman, Deconstructing the Nation: Immigration, Racism and Citizenship in Modern France (London and New York: Routledge, 1992). In the final decade of the twentieth century, few issues have seemed more central, and disturbing, to French society than considerations of race. Questions of racial tolerance and difference have led France to reconsider the cherished right of all those born on the nation's soil to French nationality, have (until its recent split) prompted the rise of the biggest new political party in France since the Parti communiste français, and suffused debates about nationality and citizenship. Such has been the importance of this phenomenon that French intellectuals recently found themselves praising, of all things, the Disney animated version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, because of its topical relevance to the plight of African immigrants seeking asylum in a Parisian church. In contrast to the traditional rosy view of France as a land without color prejudice, race and racism now seem unavoidable aspects of life in the Hexagon.
- Political Geography:
- Africa and France
55053. Review Essay: French Culture(s) After Empire
- Author:
- Alice L. Conklin
- Publication Date:
- 09-2000
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- Post-Colonial Cultures in France, Alec G. Hargreaves and Mark McKinney, eds. (London: Routledge, 1997). Jean-Loup Amselle, Vers un multiculturalisme français, l'empire de la coutume (Paris: Aubier, 1996). In 1974 France officially closed its doors to immigrants from its former colonies and began debating how best to respect "difference" while preserving a meaningful French identity. The tepid response of the Left to the meteoric rise of Le Pen's National Front soon galvanized France's new "others" into action. A series of now well-known confrontations ensued - the Marche des Beurs, the emergence of SOS-Racisme, l'affaire du foulard, and the sit-in of les sans-papiers. In each of these cases, disadvantaged minorities and their supporters contested the legally exclusive and monocultural definition of the nation that appeared to be taking shape across the political spectrum.
- Political Geography:
- France
55054. Security Risks and Instabilities in Southeastern Europe: Recommended Strategies to the EU in the Process of Differentiated Integration of the Region by the Union
- Author:
- Plamen Pantev
- Publication Date:
- 11-2000
- Content Type:
- Case Study
- Institution:
- Institute for Security and International Studies (ISIS)
- Abstract:
- The chain of events and developments in Southeastern Europe during the 1990s provoked increasingly sophisticated political reactions, political approaches and longer-term strategies towards the region on the part of the EU. The firm requirement for ethnic tolerance and respect of human rights constitutes one end of the range of EU positions concerning Southeastern Europe. The gradual beginning of the process of integration of some countries from the region in the Union constitutes the other end. At the end of the 1990s, these positions gravitated towards two principles – regionality and conditionality. These principles are partly overlapping and mutually reinforcing, but to some extent also contradictory. The institutional arrangements of these two principles by the EU are identified with the Stability Pact (July 1999) for the principle of regionality, on the one hand, and with the accession negotiations and the Stabilisation and Association Process for the principle of conditionality, on the other hand.
- Topic:
- Security, European Union, Regional Integration, and Risk
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Southeast Europe
55055. The Emergence of a New Geopolitical Region in Eurasia: The Volga-Urals Region and its Implications for Bulgarian Foreign and Security Policy
- Author:
- Nicolay Pavlov and Plamen Pantev
- Publication Date:
- 12-2000
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Institute for Security and International Studies (ISIS)
- Abstract:
- The application of geopolitical methodological instruments to the study of Bulgarian foreign and security policy issues has two fundamental causes: first, for many decades this has been a neglected intellectual instrument of international political research – for political and ideological reasons – and, second, the end of the Cold War necessitated an improvement of the conceptual and the analytical tools of security studies in Europe and the world. The traditional approach of ISIS to search ways of improving the security situation by conceptualizing events and processes in a novel way has focused the efforts of its researchers on security problems that cover a broad strategic zone: the Balkans – the Black Sea – the Transcaucasus – the Caspian Sea. Continued cooling – for more than ten years –of bilateral Bulgarian-Russian relations is conceived as one of the problems of this broader strategic and systemically linked zone. The geopolitical and geostrategic model – imposed on Bulgaria by the Cold War divide, the country’s membership in the Warsaw Pact and the thorough domination by the USSR – ended and was replaced by a different reality. The geopolitical projection of the ideological and socio-economic divide was no longer an applicable paradigm. At the same time the balance of power and the geostrategic approaches of understanding the evolving international environment proved to be inadequate after the end of the 1980s of the 20th Century. Russian, and to a lesser extent Bulgarian, politicians lost the orientation and the perspective of the bilateral links. This led to a dramatic diminishing of the meaning of bilateral relations in the general foreign-political engagements of the two countries. Bulgaria had undertaken a clear orientation to market economy, democracy and rule of law – a philosophic course, which logically prioritized the attraction of the European Union as the efficient integration nucleus of Europe, and of NATO – the symbol of stability and guaranteed prosperity in the broader Euro-Atlantic space. Though NATO was no longer perceived in the Cold War antagonistic pattern by Russia, and the very substance of the Alliance intensively adapted to the post-Cold War realities, Bulgaria’s political and security choice of joining the Euro-Atlantic community of developed democratic nations was negatively assessed by the Russian elite.
- Topic:
- Security, Foreign Policy, Regional Cooperation, and Geopolitics
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Eurasia, Eastern Europe, and Bulgaria
55056. Making the Grade 2000: Second Annual Review of Fissile Material Control Efforts
- Author:
- Kevin O'Neill
- Publication Date:
- 04-2000
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Institute for Science and International Security
- Abstract:
- A little over a year ago, ISIS initiated an annual review of fissile material controls covering a broad spectrum of initiatives. To do so, 19 separate initiatives were identified and assessed. Based on this assessment, grades were awarded on a scale of A, B, C, D, and F, where an “A” is excellent and an “F” is failing. Numerically, an “A” corresponds to a numerical grade of four, and an “F” to zero. The results of the first review were disappointing. Only 12 of the 19 initiatives received a passing grade of “C” or higher. The average grade of the initiatives was a “C”-showing an unfortunate level of mediocrity across the fissile material control agenda. In ISIS’s 2000 review, we found that the outlook is worse today than it was a year ago. Rather than make progress during the past 12 months, the overall fissile material control agenda fared poorly. The average grade of the identified initiatives fell from a “C” to a “C-minus.” This overall finding is borne out if one looks at the individual grades assigned to each of the 19 identified initiatives. ISIS judged that five initiatives remained essentially static, nine received lower grades, and five initiatives received higher grades.
- Topic:
- Arms Control and Proliferation, Nuclear Weapons, Weapons, and Fissile Material
- Political Geography:
- Russia and United States of America
55057. Bosnia's November Elections: Dayton Stumbles
- Publication Date:
- 12-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- Despite five years and five billion US dollars of international community investment in Bosnia, the 11 November Bosnian elections demonstrated once again that international engagement has failed to provide a sustainable basis for a functioning state, capable of surviving an international withdrawal.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Politics, and Treaties and Agreements
- Political Geography:
- United States, Bosnia, and Eastern Europe
55058. Montenegro: Which Way Next?
- Publication Date:
- 11-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- The removal of Slobodan Milošević's regime, with its poisonous influence on the entire Balkan region, raises hopes that a host of inter-connected problems may now stand a significantly better chance of being resolved, including the future status of Kosovo and of Montenegro, both notionally still a part of the Yugoslav federation.
- Topic:
- Security, Government, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Eastern Europe, Kosovo, Yugoslavia, Balkans, and Montenegro
55059. War Criminals in Bosnia's Republika Srpska: Who are the People in Your Neighbourhood?
- Publication Date:
- 11-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- Five years after the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords, which brought an end to almost four years of bloody war in Bosnia, many of those believed to have carried out some of the war's worst atrocities remain at large. The continued presence in the municipalities of Republika Srpska (RS) of individuals suspected of war crimes—some indicated either publicly or secretly by the International War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)—represents a significant obstacle to the return of ethnic minority refugees. It also undermines seriously Bosnia's chances for building central institutions, generating self-sustainable economic growth, and achieving the political transformation necessary to begin the process of integration with the rest of Europe. Moreover, the continued commitment of most war crimes suspects to the goal of a Greater Serbia, and their willingness to use violence to achieve it, could—in the long term—provoke renewed conflict in Bosnia and continued instability in the Balkans.
- Topic:
- Security, Ethnic Conflict, Human Rights, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Bosnia, Eastern Europe, Yugoslavia, Serbia, and Balkans
55060. Reaction in Kosovo to Kostunica's Victory
- Publication Date:
- 10-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- While the world watched in fascination as mass demonstrations in Belgrade toppled Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic from power, Kosovo—where Milosevic had committed some of his worst crimes—had an almost eerie air of normalcy. On the night Milosevic fell, cafés were full and the usual crowd of young people strolled along Pristina's central artery, Mother Theresa Street. But Pristina's surface in difference masked serious unease about events in Serbia and especially about the swelling international welcome for newly elected President Vojislav Kostunica. Kosovo Albania's political circles, opinion leaders, and public, which for long had a head-in-the-sand approach toward the rise of the democratic opposition in Belgrade, are only beginning to come to grips with the changed political landscape in the Balkans caused by Milosevic's fall.
- Topic:
- Security, Human Rights, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Eastern Europe, Kosovo, Yugoslavia, Serbia, Balkans, and Albania
55061. Sanctions Against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
- Publication Date:
- 10-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- As governments embark on the process of lifting sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), following the victory of opposition candidate Vojislav Kostunica in Presidential elections held on 24 September 2000, this briefing paper sets forth a comprehensive list of sanctions currently in place against the FRY and the current status of FRY participation and/or membership in international organisations.
- Topic:
- Human Rights, International Trade and Finance, Politics, and United Nations
- Political Geography:
- Eastern Europe and Yugoslavia
55062. Yugoslavia's Presidential Elections: The Serbian People's Moment of Truth
- Publication Date:
- 09-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- Since the International Crisis Group's (ICG's) last paper addressing the Serbian political scene, the situation on the ground inside Serbia has changed dramatically. Once Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic announced, on 27 July 2000, the 24 September date for simultaneous presidential and parliamentary elections in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) and municipal elections in Serbia, the previously fractious opposition rapidly and unexpectedly united behind the nomination of Vojislav Kostunica, a constitutional lawyer and self-styled democratic nationalist with no ties to the regime or the West.
- Topic:
- Government, Nationalism, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Eastern Europe, Yugoslavia, and Serbia
55063. Current Legal Status of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) and of Serbia and Montenegro
- Publication Date:
- 09-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- The deteriorating relationship between Montenegro and Belgrade has raised the question of whether the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, with its two constituent republics of Serbia and Montenegro, in fact continues to exist. The answer to this question has immediate relevance to the forthcoming federal elections scheduled for 24 September 2000, and in particular the issues of: whether the government of Montenegro can legitimately boycott those elections, in the sense of refusing to co-operate in their physical conduct and encouraging Montenegrins not to vote; and whether the federal government is entitled to take any, and if so what, action in response to the Montenegrin government so deciding. This legal briefing paper seeks, in this context, to address the following questions: What precedents were set by the decisions of the European Community (EC) Arbitration Commission concerning the status of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) and its Republics that might be relevant to an assessment of the current legal status of the FRY? What actions have been taken by the FRY federal government, the Republic of Montenegro, the Republic of Serbia, or the international community that may affect the status of the FRY and the legitimacy of its government and federal institutions? What is the current status of the FRY, its government and federal institutions, and how does this affect Montenegro's obligation to participate in the 24 September 2000 federal elections?
- Topic:
- Government, Nationalism, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Eastern Europe, Yugoslavia, Serbia, and Montenegro
55064. Macedonian Government Expects Setback in Local Elections
- Publication Date:
- 09-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- The Macedonian electorate will drag itself wearily to the polls on 10 September 2000. This year's local elections follow the 1999 presidential election, 1998 parliamentary elections, and 1996 local elections. The chronic campaign cycle, seemingly endless political sloganeering, and constant criticism from international observers have created fatigue among the electorate. As in 1996, the local elections will have hardly anything to do with running municipal governments, and everything to do with validating the current national government. Early polls indicate most voters will use the opportunity to voice their frustration against the ruling coalition.
- Topic:
- Government, Nationalism, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Eastern Europe and Macedonia
55065. Kosovo Report Card
- Publication Date:
- 08-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- Over its first 15 months the international mission in Kosovo has a number of accomplishments to its credit. These include negotiating an agreement with the Kosovo Liberation army (KLA) to disband and to publicly commit to hand over its weapons - although few believe the KLA's disarmament has been complete; heading off, in the early months after the war, an incipient conflict between backers of the KLA and the other major political force in Kosovo, Ibrahim Rugova's Democratic League of Kosovo(LDK); creating the framework of an administrative structure for Kosovo, and mobilising humanitarian assistance that helped feed and get more than one million Kosovo refugees into homes or temporary shelters before the first post-war winter.
- Topic:
- Government, Politics, and United Nations
- Political Geography:
- Eastern Europe and Kosovo
55066. Albania's Local Elections: A Test of Stability and Democracy
- Publication Date:
- 08-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- Local elections in Albania on 1 October 2000 will mark the first test of popular support for the ruling Socialist-led coalition since it came to power following the violent uprising in 1997. The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), whose Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) will be leading the monitoring effort, deems these elections to be of critical importance. Albania's electoral process has traditionally been bedevilled by the same handicaps encountered in most other institutional areas: namely, inadequate legislation, capacity deficiencies, politicisation of the process, and lack of all round political support. It is vitally important for Albania's democracy and international reputation that this year's elections do not repeat the mistakes of the recent past.
- Topic:
- Security, Government, Human Rights, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Eastern Europe and Albania
55067. Serbia: The Milosevic Regime on the Eve of September Elections
- Publication Date:
- 08-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- The regime in Serbia has recovered its footing after the 1999 war with NATO and remains as hard-line as ever. Learning and gaining experience over the years has enabled the regime to “improve” its performance and become more efficient. Most analysts in Serbia agree that Milosevic will be able to stay in power indefinitely.
- Topic:
- Security, Foreign Policy, Economics, Government, Human Rights, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Eastern Europe and Serbia
55068. Macedonia's Ethnic Albanians: Bridging the Gulf
- Publication Date:
- 08-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- Ten Years after independence, Macedonia's two largest ethnic groups continue to lead very separate and distinct lives. The uneasy co-existence between ethnic Macedonians and ethnic Albanians has only just withstood the violent breakup of Yugoslavia and the continuing instability in Kosovo. Valid concerns about Macedonia's security are too often being used to justify postponing hard decisions about internal problems. Political leaders on both sides of the ethnic divide, while negotiating privately for piecemeal improvements, publicly cater to the more extreme nationalists in their respective parties, and positions are hardening. There is a continued reluctance to squarely confront the compromises that would legally safeguard Macedonia's multi-ethnic composition: if that reluctance is not soon overcome, Macedonia and the region face renewed instability.
- Topic:
- Conflict Prevention, Security, Ethnic Conflict, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Eastern Europe, Kosovo, Yugoslavia, Macedonia, and Albania
55069. Elections in Kosovo: Moving Towards Democracy?
- Publication Date:
- 07-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- In the fall of 2000, for the first time of their history, the people of Kosovo are being promised the opportunity to participate in democratic, internationally supervised local elections. The elections offer the people of Kosovo the opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to democracy. They also present the international mission in Kosovo with a test of its resolve to overcome the political and practical problems associated with holding elections in a territory still suffering from the physical and the political scars of war.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Human Rights, International Cooperation, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Eastern Europe and Kosovo
55070. Reality Demands: Documenting Violations of International Humanitarian Law in Kosovo 1999
- Publication Date:
- 06-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- This report is the product of seven months of field research conducted by teams of local and international personnel in Kosovo and Albania in 1999, as part of the International Crisis Group's Humanitarian Law Documentation Project. The Project was conceived in the spring of 1999, as violence and destruction in Kosovo forced hundreds of thousands of men, women and children from their homes, many seeking shelter in neighbouring Albania and The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (hereafter referred to as Macedonia).The purpose of the Project was to support the efforts of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (“the Tribunal”or “the ICTY”) to investigate serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in Kosovo and bring to justice persons responsible for such crimes.
- Topic:
- Human Rights, International Law, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Eastern Europe, Kosovo, Yugoslavia, Macedonia, and Albania
55071. Serbia's Grain Trade: Milosevic's Hidden Cash Crop
- Publication Date:
- 06-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- Nearly a year after NATO defeated Serbia in the war over Kosovo, the international community appears uncertain about how to remove Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic from power.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Politics, and United Nations
- Political Geography:
- Eastern Europe, Kosovo, Yugoslavia, and Serbia
55072. Kosovo's Linchpin: Overcoming Division In Mitrovica
- Publication Date:
- 05-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- Mitrovica has become the linchpin of Kosovo's future united status. The stakes are high. If the international community cannot re-establish Mitrovica as a single city, efforts to preserve a united Kosovo will also fail.
- Topic:
- Defense Policy, Economics, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Eastern Europe, Kosovo, and Mitrovica
55073. Bosnia's refugee logjam breaks: is the international community ready?
- Publication Date:
- 05-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- After four and a half year of concerted efforts by the international community, significant numbers of minority refugees are returning spontaneously to areas of Bosnia controlled by heretofore hostile ethnic majorities. This provides an opportunity to reverse wartime ethnic cleansing and make substantial progress toward achieving a core goal of the international community and the Dayton Peace Agreement. The requirement for modestly increased reconstruction and security assistance to facilitate this process, however, poses a challenge for governments and international aid and security organisations, many of which are seeking to wind down their Bosnia commitments. Absent such international community support and increased Bosnian government co-operation, the ceiling for returns may be low, and could jeopardise the success of current and future return efforts.
- Topic:
- Migration and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Bosnia and Eastern Europe
55074. Serbia's Embattled Opposition
- Publication Date:
- 05-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- The recent crackdown by the Belgrade regime on Serbia's independent media and political activists suggests that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic is more vulnerable than it would appear. Since the Kosovo war ended, Milosevic has proven unable to expand his support base and must struggle with diminishing resources to keep restive constituencies intact. Despite its recognised weakness, the Serbian opposition is capable under certain conditions of removing Milosevic from power and offering better governance. The message of numerous public opinion polls over the past eight moths is that there is an anti-Milosvic majority in Serbia, but that the opposition must work together in coalitions to exploit it.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Non-Governmental Organization, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Eastern Europe, Kosovo, Yugoslavia, and Serbia
55075. Montenegro's Local Elections: Testing the National Temperature (Background Briefing)
- Publication Date:
- 05-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- Local elections are to be held in Podgorica and Herceg-Novi, two of Montenegro's 21 municipalities, on 11 June 2000. Their significance is wider than the simple question of who governs the two local authorities, for these will be the first elections in Montenegro since the victory of the "For a Better Life" coalition (DZB) under president Milo Djukanovic in general elections in May 1998. For this reason the results will be widely interpreted as a comment on the performance of Djukanovic so far, and a barometer of the political mood in the republic as a whole.
- Topic:
- Government and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Eastern Europe, and Montenegro
55076. Montenegro's Socialist People's Party: A Loyal Opposition?
- Publication Date:
- 04-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- The assertion of the primacy of Serbian rights over all other peoples by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has driven nearly every nationality of the former Yugoslavia toward the Republic's exits. Even Montenegro, once Serbia's closest political and military ally, has not been immune from the turmoil that Slobodan Milosevic has created and has opted to distance itself from Belgrade's controlling influence.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Non-Governmental Organization, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Eastern Europe, Yugoslavia, Serbia, and Montenegro
55077. Bosnia's Municipal Elections 2000: Winners and Losers
- Publication Date:
- 04-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- The international community can draw a degree of comfort from the results of Bosnia's 8 April 2000 municipal elections. Overall, the voting was free of violence and more freeand fair than any previous election held in Bosnia. Nationalism may not be on the run yet—witness the strength of indicted Bosnian Serb war criminal Radovan Karadzic's Serbian Democratic Party (SDS)—but moderate leaders are making inroads and increasing numbers of voters seem to be paying attention to their messages.
- Topic:
- Government, Nationalism, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Bosnia, Eastern Europe, and Serbia
55078. Reunifying Mostar: Opportunities for Progress
- Publication Date:
- 04-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- Reunification of Mostar is key to the reintegration of separatist Herzegovinian Bosnian Croats into Bosnia. After years of fruitless post-Dayton efforts to wean the Bosnian Croats from Zagreb and reorient them toward a constructive role in Bosnia, the international community at long last has the capability to achieve this goal. The success of the democratic forces in Croatia in the January-February elections there has brought reliable partners to power with whom the international community can work in Bosnia. Policy initiatives in Herzegovina will not require new resources and, if achieved, can lead to a reduction in the international profile in Bosnia. Failure to act on these opportunities will cripple the Bosnian peace effort and weaken the new government in Croatia. These issues present serious policy challenges.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Ethnic Conflict, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Bosnia, Herzegovina, Eastern Europe, and Croatia
55079. Montenegro: In the Shadow of the Volcano
- Publication Date:
- 03-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- Montenegro has been a crisis-in-waiting for two years now, with Belgrade opposing efforts by a reform-minded government under President Milo Djukanovic to distance itself ever further from its federal partner Serbia. Federal President Slobodan Milosevic has steadily escalated the pressure against Djukanovic, probing the extent of NATO support for Montenegro and pushing the Montenegrins toward a misstep that might undermine their international backing. Each of the three possible policy-paths facing the Montenegro government, however, is unappealing in its own way:Going ahead with a referendum on independence for Montenegro would risk radicalising a population still peacefully divided over the issue, and would offer maximum provocation to Belgrade, which retains a powerful military presence in Montenegro. Maintaining the status quo may offer a better chance of avoiding open confrontation with Belgrade, but it leaves Montenegro in a limbo. Its friends are not offering all the help they could, on the grounds that it is not a sovereign state; but prospects for selfgenerated income through inward investment or revival of the tourist industry are still hostage to international risk perceptions. Achieving rapprochement with the Serbian government would be possible if Milosevic went. But Montenegro cannot afford to leave its future in the unsure hands of the present Serbian opposition. And as the atmosphere in Serbia steadily worsens, political and public opinion in Montenegro appears to grow ever less willing to compromise.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, NATO, Economics, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Eastern Europe, Serbia, and Montenegro
55080. What Happened to the KLA?
- Publication Date:
- 03-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- The end of the war over Kosovo brought the transformation of the guerrilla army that started it. The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA - or UÇK in the Albanian acronym) has been formally demilitarised, but in various manifestations it remains a powerful and active element in almost every area of Kosovo life. Some welcome its continued influence; others fear it; many are concerned about it.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Government, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Eastern Europe, Kosovo, and Albania
55081. Albania: State of the Nation
- Publication Date:
- 03-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- During the spring of 1999, more than 450,000 Kosovo Albanian refugees flooded into Albania, many of them forcibly deported by Serb forces in Kosovo. Despite Albania's acute poverty, many Albanians opened their homes to provide shelter to the incoming refugees and the government spared no effort, organising humanitarian relief and putting the entire country at the disposal of NATO. As a result, in the eyes of its people, Albania has secured its position as the spiritual motherland of all ethnic Albanians, and as such expects to play a prominent role in future pan-Albanian aspirations.
- Topic:
- Ethnic Conflict, Politics, and Poverty
- Political Geography:
- Eastern Europe, Kosovo, and Albania
55082. Denied Justice: Individuals Lost in a Legal Maze
- Publication Date:
- 02-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- Thousands of people try to find their way daily through an immensely complicated labyrinth established by the three separate and very often conflicting legal systems in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Evidence presented in this report, the third in the ICG legal project series, proves that unexplained time delays, dubious application of law and blatant ethnic discrimination contribute greatly to the ad hoc nature of Bosnian justice.
- Topic:
- Ethnic Conflict, Human Rights, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Eastern Europe
55083. Albanians in Serbian Prisons: Kosovo's Unfinished Business
- Publication Date:
- 01-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- With the immense challenges facing the international community in its effort to secure and rebuild Kosovo, one critical outstanding matter that has received very little attention is the ongoing detention in Serbian prisons of several thousand Kosovar Albanians. Arrested by Serbian forces in the course of the Kosovo conflict, these prisoners were hastily transferred to Serbian jails and penitentiaries in the wake of the Kumanovo military-technical agreement, which ended the NATO air campaign and established a timetable for the withdrawal from Kosovo of all Serb forces.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Ethnic Conflict, Human Rights, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Eastern Europe, Kosovo, Serbia, and Albania
55084. On Currency Crises and Contagion
- Author:
- Morris Marcel Fratzscher
- Publication Date:
- 12-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE)
- Abstract:
- Many economists have started to concede in recent years that contagion and self-fulfilling beliefs of investors have played a crucial role in the emerging market financial crises of the 1990s. Despite the progress on the theoretical side, however, empirical models of currency crises have been shown to perform poorly (Berg and Pattillo 1998) and many economists and policy institutions have been struggling to develop adequate models to predict future financial crises (Kaminsky et al. 1997, Goldstein et al. 2000).
- Topic:
- Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
55085. Strengthening the International Financial Architecture: Where Do We Stand?
- Author:
- Morris Goldstein
- Publication Date:
- 10-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE)
- Abstract:
- It's not easy to get senior economic officials worked up about the functioning of the international monetary system. Usually, they are preoccupied with the more immediate issues surrounding the national and global economic outlook. But the Mexican peso crisis of 1994-95 and, even more so, the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98 made crisis management important for the economic outlook and pushed many of the otherwise arcane issues in the so-called “international financial architecture” (hereafter, IFA) to the front burner of economic policy.
- Topic:
- Economics, International Organization, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- Asia and Mexico
55086. Transatlantic Issues in Electronic Commerce
- Author:
- Catherine L. Mann
- Publication Date:
- 10-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE)
- Abstract:
- The global and dynamic e-commerce marketplace will increasingly impact the nature of national and international economic and government relations. This paper highlights three areas where the United States and European Union (EU) governments differ in their approaches as to how best to serve their domestic constituencies: treatment of trade flows, approach to tax regimes, manner of protecting personal data. Because the Internet marketplace is global but policy jurisdictions remain local, policy conflicts can develop. Policymakers on both sides need to harness technology and promote incentives for the private sector to help solve problems caused by the jurisdictional overlap. In addition to cross-border jurisdictional overlap, problems within a country can develop from issue convergence and policy overlap. That is, because the e-commerce marketplace is so integrated, the policy toward handling one issue, even within the national context, has implications for the policy set that is available to policymakers on other issues. Therefore, policies within a country must be more carefully meshed with each other with an eye toward consistency in the face of the forces of electronic commerce..
- Topic:
- Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- United States and Europe
55087. Inflation, Monetary Transparency, and G3 Exchange Rate Volatility
- Author:
- Adam S. Posen and Kenneth N. Kuttner
- Publication Date:
- 07-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE)
- Abstract:
- Short-term volatility in G3 bilateral exchange rates has been a fact of life since the beginning of the post-Bretton Woods float. It has been established, surprisingly, that this volatility is not only disproportionately large relative to the variation in relative macroeconomic fundamentals of Germany, Japan, and the United States, but is in fact largely unrelated to them. The apparent disconnect between fundamentals and dollar-yen and dollar-euro exchange rate fluctuations has led to perennial complaints about persistent exchange rate “misalignments,” and their real effects on the G3 (and other) economies, giving rise in turn to recurring proposals for government policies to limit this volatility. The idea that volatility reflects nothing more than the (perhaps rational, certainly profit-seeking) behavior of foreign exchange traders seems to give justification for a policy response. Yet, the disjunction between macroeconomic expectations and the volatility seems to indicate as well that some deviation from domestic monetary policy goals would be necessary to intervene against exchange rate swings.
- Topic:
- Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- United States, Japan, and Germany
55088. The New Asian Challenge
- Author:
- C. Fred Bergsten
- Publication Date:
- 03-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE)
- Abstract:
- The initial postwar challenge from East Asia was economic. Japan crashed back into global markets in the 1960s, became the largest surplus and creditor country in the 1980s, and was viewed by many as the world's dominant economy by 1990. The newly industrialized countries (Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore) followed suit on a smaller but still substantial scale shortly thereafter. China only re-entered world commerce in the 1980s but has now become the second largest economy (in purchasing power terms), the second largest recipient of foreign direct investment inflows, and the second largest holder of monetary reserves. Indonesia and most of Southeast Asia grew at 7 percent for two or more decades. The oil crises of the 1970s and the financial crises of the late 1990s injected temporary setbacks but East Asia has clearly become a third major pole of the world economy, along with North America and Western Europe.
- Topic:
- Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- Japan, China, Europe, Israel, Taiwan, East Asia, Asia, North America, Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong
55089. Electronic Commerce in Developing Countries: Issues for Domestic Policy and WTO Negotiations
- Author:
- Catherine L. Mann
- Publication Date:
- 03-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE)
- Abstract:
- Electronic commerce and its related activities over the internet can be the engines that improve domestic economic well-being through liberalization of domestic services, more rapid integration into globalization of production, and leap-frogging of available technology. Since electronic commerce integrates the domestic and global markets from its very inception, negotiating on trade issues related to electronic commerce will, even more than trade negotiations have in the past, demand self-inspection of key domestic policies, particularly in telecommunications, financial services, and distribution and delivery. Because these sectors are fundamental to the workings of a modern economy, liberalization here will rebound to greater economic well-being than comparable liberalization in more narrowly focussed sectors. Thus, the desire to be part of the e-commerce wave can be a powerful force to erode domestic vested interests that have slowed the liberalization of these sectors.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Government, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
55090. International Economic Agreements and the Constitution
- Author:
- Richard M. Goodman and John M. Frost
- Publication Date:
- 02-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE)
- Abstract:
- International agreements, such as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), generally aim to facilitate the free flow of goods and services among nations. The U.S. Supreme Court has developed a jurisprudence similarly aiming to facilitate the free flow of goods and services among the several states. That jurisprudence has developed from litigation challenging the constitutionality of state actions on the basis of the Commerce and Supremacy Clauses of the Constitution (art. I, § 8, cl. 3, and art. VI, cl. 2). In some subject areas, Commerce Clause decisions closely align with international agreements. In other areas, either or both fall short of achieving economic integration.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- United States and North America
55091. U.S. - Japan Energy Cooperation to Help Achieve Sustainable Energy Development in Asia
- Author:
- Richard L. Lawson, Donald L. Guertin, Shinji Fukukawa, and Kazuo Shimoda
- Publication Date:
- 11-2000
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Atlantic Council
- Abstract:
- Given the dramatic increases in economic growth, energy use and attendant environmental problems in Asia, it is timely for Japan and the United States to increase their bilateral cooperation and cooperation with other Asian countries in the energy field as an integral part of their efforts to help Asia achieve sustainable development. The magnitude of growth in Asia in energy use is well illustrated, for example, by a projected doubling in China from 1990 to 2020. Projections indicate energy demand in China could triple by 2050, relative to 1990. These increases are not only of great significance to individual Asian economies, but also globally, as projections indicate that most of the growth in energy demand in the next century will occur in Asia (and principally in China and India). Achievement of such growth in energy demand, to improve the living standards of the 3.3 billion Asians that now represent about half of the world's population, is essential from the viewpoint of equity, social development and the economic well-being of people throughout Asia.
- Topic:
- Energy Policy and International Cooperation
- Political Geography:
- United States, China, Israel, East Asia, and Asia
55092. European Views of National Missile Defense
- Author:
- Stephen Cambone, Christopher J. Makins, Ivo Daalder, and Stephen J. Hadley
- Publication Date:
- 09-2000
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Atlantic Council
- Abstract:
- A delegation under the auspices of the Atlantic Council of the United States visited Berlin, Brussels, London and Paris from 10 to 14 July 2000 for discussions with government officials and nongovernmental experts about the proposed deployment of missile defenses of U.S. national territory. The purpose of the trip was to engage a range of European leaders in in-depth discussions of a broad range of issues associated with missile defense. This report reflects the visitors' assessment of what they heard and the conclusions they drew in terms of U.S. policy and relations with the European allies.
- Topic:
- Security and NATO
- Political Geography:
- United States and Europe
55093. International Cooperation and the Logic of Networks: Europe and the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM)
- Author:
- David Bach
- Publication Date:
- 06-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy
- Abstract:
- Contrary to the United States, the European Union (EU) has established a single technical standard for second generation wireless telecommunications. The successful creation of the pan-European digital standard GSM is of utmost industrial significance. It has provided Europe's equipment manufacturing industry with a market large enough to exploit economies of scale and has thus enabled European manufacturers to become world leaders in the mobile communications industry. Given the centrality and crucial importance of wireless technology for the emerging information society and digital economy, the story of the establishment of GSM is of interest to anybody studying the growth and trajectory of digital technology and its commercial applications. After all, the nature of digital economies implies that control over network evolution translates into control over the architecture of the digital marketplace, as François Bar has argued. Hence, control of and influence over network evolution has global economic ramifications. In addition, however, the political process that enabled GSM featured pivotal supranational leadership in the form of European Commission initiatives in a domain that has traditionally been dominated by national players. Grasping standard setting in the case of GSM thus also contributes to an understanding of the changing governance patterns of the European economy and consequently is of interest to anybody concerned with issues of European integration as a whole.
- Topic:
- Industrial Policy, International Cooperation, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- United States and Europe
55094. The Political Economy of Open Source Software
- Author:
- Steven Weber
- Publication Date:
- 06-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy
- Abstract:
- Coca-Cola sells bottles of soda to consumers. Consumers drink the soda (or use it in any other way they like). Some consumers, out of morbid curiosity, may read the list of ingredients on the bottle. But that list of ingredients is generic. Coca-Cola has a proprietary 'formula' that it does not and will not release. The formula is the knowledge that makes it possible for Coke to combine sugar, water, and a few other readily available ingredients in particular proportions and produce something of great value. The bubbly stuff in your glass cannot be reverse-engineered into its constituent parts. You can buy it and you can drink it, but you can't understand it in a way that would empower you to reproduce it or improve upon it and distribute your improved cola drink to the rest of the world.
- Topic:
- International Law, Political Economy, and Science and Technology
55095. Tools for Thought: What Is New and Important About the "E-conomy"?
- Author:
- John Zysman, Stephen S. Cohen, and J. Bradford DeLong
- Publication Date:
- 06-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy
- Abstract:
- There are eras when advancing technology and changing business organizations transform economies and societies. Such episodes do not just amplify productivity in one leading sector. Instead, they give all economic sectors powerful new "tools." Today we are living through such a transformation in our economic landscape, a transformation that warrants a new name: the "E-conomy." Information technologies, data communication and data processing technologies, are tools to manipulate, organize, transmit, and store information in digital form. They are tools for thought that amplify brainpower in the way the technologies of the Industrial Revolution amplified muscle power.
- Topic:
- Economics, Industrial Policy, and Science and Technology
55096. Creating Stability: National Preferences and the Origins of European Monetary System
- Author:
- Mark Aspinwall
- Publication Date:
- 12-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- This essay compares the preferences of France, Italy, and Britain on the creation of the European Monetary System in 1978-1979, especially the Exchange Rate Mechanism, which stabilised nominal exchange rates. My claim is that the different conclusions reached by the governments (France and Italy in, Britain out) cannot be explained by economic circumstances or by interests, and I elaborate an intervening institutional variable which helps explain preferences. Deducing from spatial theory that where decisionmakers 'sit' on the left-right spectrum matters to their position on the EMS, I argue that domestic constitutional power-sharing mechanisms privilege certain actors over others in a predictable and consistent way. Where centrists were in power, the government's decision was to join. Where left or right extremists were privileged, the government's decision was negative. The article measures the centrism of the governments in place at the time, and also reviews the positions taken by the national political parties in and out of government. It is intended to contribute to the growing comparativist literature on the European Union, and to the burgeoning literature on EU-member-state relations.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, and International Cooperation
- Political Geography:
- Britain, Iraq, Europe, and France
55097. East-West Integration and the Changing German Production Regime: A Firm-Centered Approach
- Author:
- Katharina Bluhm
- Publication Date:
- 12-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- With the opening of Central Eastern Europe German firms have gained access to low labor costs in close geographical proximity. Intense debate about the impact this has had on the “German model” of capitalism has ensued. This paper argues that, in fact, production shifts are taking place in which cost-cutting motives are an important guideline. German firms, however, hesitate to aggressively utilize this new option in their internal domestic labor policy. Rather, firms tend to avoid confrontations with their employees on “job exports”. The necessity of collaboration on both sides of the border, the relative strength of workers in the domestic high-quality production system, and the constraints of industrial relations provide explanations for the moderate behavior. So far, the outcome of the bargained reorganization is that firms gain more labor flexibility, performance-related differentiation, and labor-cost rationalization without challenging the institutionalized long-term employment commitments for their core workforce.
- Topic:
- Economics and Government
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Eastern Europe, and Germany
55098. “Social Democracy, Globalization and Governance: Why is there no European Left Program in the EU?”
- Author:
- Christopher S. Allen
- Publication Date:
- 09-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- This paper addresses globalization and governance in the EU by attempting to generate some plausible hypotheses that might explain the policy choices of the 12 out of 15 European democratic left governments. With all of the discussion in recent years of a democratic deficit, and then need to maintain a “social Europe,” why have these governments not produced more explicit left-wing policies?
- Topic:
- Democratization, Economics, and Government
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Germany
55099. The Legal Construction of Membership: Nationality Law in Germany and the United States
- Author:
- Mathias Bös
- Publication Date:
- 01-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- The argument of this paper is that several empirical puzzles in the citizenship literature are rooted in the failure to distinguish between the mainly legal concept of nationality and the broader, political concept of citizenship. Using this distinction, the paper analysis the evolution of German and American nationality laws over the last 200 years. The historical development of both legal structures shows strong communalities. With the emergence of the modern system of nation states, the attribution of nationality to newborn children is ascribed either via the principle of descent or place of birth. With regard to the naturalization of adults, there is an increasing ethnization of law, which means that the increasing complexities of naturalization criteria are more and more structured along ethnic ideas. Although every nation building process shows some elements of ethnic self-description, it is difficult to use the legal principles of ius sanguinis and ius soli as indicators of ethnic or non-ethnic modes of community building.
- Topic:
- Government and Nationalism
- Political Geography:
- United States, Europe, and Germany
55100. When Labour and Capital Collude: The Varieties of Welfare Capitalism and Early Retirement in Europe, Japan and the USA
- Author:
- Bernhard Ebbinghaus
- Publication Date:
- 01-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- The institutionalisation of early retirement has become a universal feature of postwar industrial economies, though there are significant cross-national variations. This paper studies the impact of different types of welfare regimes, production systems and labour relations on early exit from work. After an analysis of the main trends, the paper discusses the costs and benefits of early retirement for the various actors — labour, capital and the state — at different levels. The paper outlines both the “pull” and “push” factors of early exit. It first compares the distinct welfare state regimes and private occupational pensions in their impact on early retirement. Then it looks at the labour-shedding strategies inherent to particular employment regimes, production systems and financial governance structures. Finally, the impact of particular industrial relations systems, and especially the role of unions is discussed. The paper finds intricate “institutional complementarities” between particular welfare states, production regimes and industrial relations systems, and these structure the incentives under which actors make decisions on work and retirement. The paper argues that the “collusion” between capital, labour and the state in pursuing early retirement is not merely following a labour-shedding strategy to ease mass unemployment, but also caused by the need for economic restructuration, the downsizing pressures from financial markets, the maintenance of peaceful labour relations, and the consequences of a seniority employment system.
- Topic:
- Economics
- Political Geography:
- United States, Japan, Europe, and East Asia