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56851. The Ecuadorean participation in the Andean pact: Macroeconomic and Sectoral Impact

Author:
Germán G. Creamer
Publication Date:
06-1996
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Protection of Ecuadorean industry, even after the tariff reform of 1990, has continued to be important for the nonbasic needs industries, which have a very low level participation in the Andean group (GRAN), but little protection has been provided for the basic needs industries, which have extensive participation in the Andean group. In light of these facts, this paper uses a macro neostructuralist model to evaluate whether the opening of the Ecuadorean economy to the Andean group will generate development of the basic needs consumer sector, at least in the initial stage, with positive effects on growth, income distribution, and external adjustment of the Ecuadorean economy. However, it is important to recognize that Ecuador may need special trade conditions with respect to the rest of the Andean countries or else go through a significant technological change (substitution of imported inputs for domestic inputs) and/or institutional change to ensure the success of this process.
Topic:
Development, Labor Issues, and Economic Growth
Political Geography:
South America and Ecuador

56852. Changes in the International Distribution of Income

Author:
Herbert Stocker
Publication Date:
07-1996
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
This paper attempts to assess the extent of income inequality among nations and the development of international inequality over the last three decades. After a brief introductory discussion of changes in the economic policies of industrialized countries towards poor countries and corresponding changes in the attitudes of economists, the author goes on to give an impression of the actual state of the international income distribution and mention some general problems of such comparisons. In the third section he computes an inequality index to describe the development of the international income distribution over time and presents some decompositions. The fourth section investigates the robustness of the results, and the fifth section presents an extension to world-wide inequality and reflects briefly on the significance of the results.
Topic:
Development, Poverty, Labor Issues, Inequality, Economic Growth, and Income
Political Geography:
Global Focus

56853. Disaggregating Political Regime: Conceptual Issues in the Study of Democratization

Author:
Gerardo L. Munck
Publication Date:
08-1996
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
The increasingly global scope of democratization has challenged comparativists to engage in crossregional research as part of a collective enterprise. The response to such a challenge, however, hinges upon their ability to both base their research on a set of clear concepts, a prerequisite for theory-building, and clarify their method of case selection, a prerequisite for theory-testing. While these conceptual issues have yet to be fully resolved, I show how the work of a group of 'regime analysts' provides the best starting point for scholars interested in this enterprise. For this purpose, I show how the disaggregation of the concept of political regime provides the basis for a distinction among three analytically separable problems--the process of transition, the outcome of this process of transition, and the process of consolidation--and for more nuanced distinctions in terms of modes of transition, regime types and subtypes, and degrees of consolidation. I also show how the problem of conceptual stretching is avoided by regime analysts in the course of case selection through the vertical organization of their concepts along a ladder of generality and the application of a simple rule. Finally, I show how the study of political regimes on the basis of quantitative indices of democracy fails to avoid the problems of conceptual conflation and conceptual stretching.
Topic:
Democratization, Politics, and Democracy
Political Geography:
Europe and South America

56854. Church-State Reciprocity in Contemporary Brazil: The Convening of the International Eucharistic Congress of 1955 in Rio de Janeiro

Author:
Kenneth P. Serbin
Publication Date:
08-1996
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Focusing on government support for the 36th International Eucharistic Congress of 1955 in Rio de Janeiro, this paper explores the reciprocities between church and state in contemporary Brazil. It argues that economic considerations were central to the link between religion and politics. Under the crucial church-state pact fostered under President Getúlio Vargas and nurtured throughout the democratic-populist era (1930-64) public subsidies helped the church expand its social and religious works and created dependence on the state. The International Eucharistic Congress highlighted how finances and faith mingled in Brazil's complex mosaic of religion, politics, and society. The paper discusses the history of the Eucharistic congresses, analyzes the church-state pact in Brazil, and gives an account of the 1955 Congress and its economic ramifications.
Topic:
Development, Religion, History, Governance, Economic Growth, and Society
Political Geography:
South Asia and Brazil

56855. Democracy 'with Adjectives': Conceptual Innovations in Comparative Research

Author:
David Collier and Steven Levitsky
Publication Date:
08-1996
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
The recent trend toward democratization in countries throughout the globe has challenged scholars to pursue two potentially contradictory goals: to develop a differentiated conceptualization of democracy that captures the diverse experiences of these countries; and to extend the analysis to this broad range of cases without 'stretching' the concept. This paper argues that this dual challenge has led to a proliferation of conceptual innovations, including hundreds of subtypes of democracy-i.e., democracy 'with adjectives.' The paper explores the strengths and weaknesses of three important strategies of innovation that have emerged: 'precising' the definition of democracy; shifting the overarching concept with which democracy is associated; and generating various forms of subtypes. Given the complex structure of meaning produced by these strategies for refining the concept of democracy, we conclude by offering an old piece of advice with renewed urgency: It is imperative that scholars situate themselves in relation to this structure of meaning by clearly defining and explicating the conception of democracy they are employing.
Topic:
Globalization, Politics, and Democracy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

56856. A New Discipline: Development Ethics

Author:
Denis Goulet
Publication Date:
08-1996
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
'Development' has long been equated with modernization and Westernization and studied as a straightforward economic issue. The discipline of economics has been the main source of policy prescription for development decisionmakers. This view is now widely criticized as ethnocentric and as economically reductionist. Change is occurring: economics itself is reintegrating ethics into its conceptualization, methodology, and analysis; a new paradigm of development is in gestation; and a new discipline, development ethics, has come into being. Development ethics centers its study of development on the value questions posed: What is the relation between having goods and being good in the pursuit of the good life; what are the foundations of a just society; and what stance should societies adopt toward nature? The new discipline emerges from two sources, which are now converging: from engagement in development action to the formulation of ethical theory, and from a critique of mainstream ethical theory to the crafting of normative strategies to guide development practice. Development ethics has a dual mission: to render the economy more human and to keep hope alive in the face of the seeming impossibility of achieving human development for all.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Ethics, Economic Growth, and Modernization
Political Geography:
Global Focus

56857. Mexico's Auto Industry after NAFTA: A Successful Experience in Restructuring?

Author:
Juan Carlos Moreno Brid
Publication Date:
08-1996
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Mexico's motor vehicle sector is viewed as a most successful case in industrial restructuring. In the mid-70s it was an industry characterized by outdated machinery and incapable of competing in the international market. Today its manufacturing plants are competing worldwide in automotive production, exporting more than a million engines and 400,000 vehicles a year. This transformation is explained by changes in Mexico's positioning within the automobile global market as well as by the policies applied by the Mexican government to regulate vehicle production, imports, and sale in the country. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is changing the institutional framework of the Mexican economy and radically liberalizing its highly protected domestic automotive market. In this study we examine the evolution of Mexico's automotive sector in the last fifteen years and the various factors contributing to its transformation. The first section reviews Mexico's overall economic strategy and trade policy. The second focuses on the regulation of vehicle and auto parts production in Mexico. Clearly, trade restrictions have been very important for the development of Mexico's automotive sector. The third section deals with the performance of the Mexican automotive industry up to 1993, before NAFTA was put into effect. It is followed by some comments on the changes that NAFTA is already bringing about. In the final section, we present our view on the industry's outlook.
Topic:
Development, Labor Issues, Economic Growth, NAFTA, and Automotive Industry
Political Geography:
Central America, North America, and Mexico

56858. Accountability for Past Abuses

Author:
Juan E. Méndez
Publication Date:
09-1996
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
The transitions to democracy in the 1980s have yielded a wealth of experience regarding the way societies reckon with a recent past of massive human rights violations. This paper looks at the most influential literature produced contemporaneously with those experiences and analyzes its current validity in the light of new contexts in which the issue arises. The author places emphasis first and foremost on the duties that the State owes to the victims of human rights violations and to society and then looks at the objective limitations that most transitions place on governments' ability to satisfy demands for truth and justice. These duties are part of an emerging rule of international law that demands that certain crimes should not go unpunished. But the obligations of the State to the victims and to society are varied and not dependent on each other; even if prosecution and punishment are rendered legally or politically impossible, the duties to disclose all that can be established about each violation, to offer reparations, and to dismiss the culprits from the armed and security forces remain fully in force.
Topic:
Democratization, Human Rights, Social Movement, Democracy, and Public Policy
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, South America, Central America, and Caribbean

56859. Ethnicity and Identity in the Caribbean: Decentering a Myth

Author:
Ralph R. Premdas
Publication Date:
12-1996
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
This discussion of a Caribbean identity begins by embarking on a discourse about where and what is the Caribbean, followed by some brief remarks about the need for identity. The author presents an analytic scheme for understanding the construction of Caribbean identities. In the larger body of the paper that follows next, he examines individually the constituent elements that have featured in the formation of claims to a Caribbean identity at all levels of its expression and shows how difficult it is to maintain the arguments that are made for them. Finally, the paper offers a topology of identities that best describe the Caribbean situation.
Topic:
Democratization, Social Movement, Ethnicity, and Identity
Political Geography:
Central America and Caribbean

56860. International Conferences: Considerations on the Evolution of the French and American Industrial Societies

Author:
Monique Borrel, Stephen Bornstein, Pierre-Eric Tixier, Chris Benner, Julia E. Kopich, and W. Norton Grubb
Publication Date:
02-1996
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute of European Studies (IES), UC Berkeley
Abstract:
From the beginning of the industrial era to the present time, French social history has been characterized by recurrent strikes of great magnitude. Contrary to most postwar industrialized countries where large strikes ceased to play a key role in sociopolitical changes, the French case presents an important anomaly. This research demonstrates that strikes have been instrumental in reshaping French society since the early 1950s. First, strike waves and generalized disputes supported the rapid expansion of the Welfare State throughout the postwar period. They also prompted leftist parties and unions to achieve coordination in their strategies and to orchestrate national demonstration strikes, which resulted in the emergence of a leftist electoral majority. Besides, the 1968 strike waves and the leftist strategy to achieve political power supported the upward trend in unionization in the 1970s. Beginning in the early 1980s, this French pattern of strikes has resulted in a number of perverse effects that account for the crisis of the mid1990s. In that respect, the French experience supports the idea that advanced industrial societies cannot afford recurrent general strikes without damaging the very fabric of democracy and without jeopardizing their economic future.
Topic:
Education and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:
America, Europe, and France