Showing papers in "International Journal of Comparative Sociology in 2012"

Disentangling the 'New Liberal Dilemma': on the relation between general welfare redistribution preferences and welfare chauvinism

Abstract: In the present ‘Age of Migration’, public policy as well as social scientists are puzzled by the ‘New Liberal Dilemma’ (Newton, 2007) of finding popular support for welfare programs that have been installed in times of cultural homogeneity. In this article, we are interested in the question of whether opinions about immigrants’ access to welfare provisions originate from general preferences towards welfare redistribution, and whether this association is moderated by the national context. Using the 2008 wave of the European Social Survey, we show that particularly those who favor that welfare benefits should in the first place target the neediest, place the highest restrictions on welfare provisions for immigrants. In addition, the relationship between preferences for welfare redistribution and opinions about immigrants’ access to social welfare is moderated by a national context of cultural heterogeneity. We conclude the article by drawing implications for public policy.

Polity scale shifts in world-systems since the Bronze Age: A comparative inventory of upsweeps and collapses

Abstract: In this article we report an inventory of cycles, upward sweeps and collapses of polity sizes in five separate interpolity systems: Mesopotamia, Egypt, South Asia, East Asia and the expanding Central System that eventually became the contemporary global system. Upward sweeps are defined as instances in which the largest sovereign polity in a network of fighting and allying polities significantly increases in size. Collapses are instances in which the size of the largest polity greatly decreases and stays down for a significant period of time (centuries). We use regional interpolity systems rather than single polities as the unit of analysis, following the comparative world-systems framework. We are limited to those regions and time periods for which quantitative estimates of largest polity sizes are available. We compare the frequencies of cycles and sweeps across five interpolity networks, and find more similarities than differences across the five systems. This is somewhat surprising because most studie...

In search of a transnational capitalist class: Alternative methods for comparing director interlocks within and between nations and regions

Abstract: Theorists of globalization have hypothesized the emergence of a transnational capitalist class that is becoming increasingly integrated across national borders. One method of evaluating this hypothesis has been to apply network analysis to study the frequency and pattern of transnational ties within global interlocking directorates. The results of such studies are mixed, both as regards the extent of transnational interlocking and its regional distribution. In an effort to resolve this ambiguity and advance the state of research in this area we undertake two main tasks. First, we submit the prevailing methodology used in such studies to a critical evaluation in which we identify and address some of its theoretical and methodological limitations. Second, we introduce and illustrate three alternative methods for assessing the extent and pattern of global interlocking directorates. Each method conceptualizes transnational interlocking in a slightly different manner and brings different aspects of the process into focus. Despite these differences, all four methods point to the conclusion that a transnational capitalist class is very far from being realized on a global scale. On the other hand, the combined evidence is much stronger and relatively consistent for the emergence of a more circumscribed transnational capitalist class, centered in the North Atlantic region, which has made significant strides in transcending national divisions within and between Europe and North America.

Coffee exports as ecological, social, and physical unequal exchange: A cross-national investigation of the java trade

Abstract: This study employs an unequal exchange perspective to assess if dependency on coffee exports in less-developed nations significantly impacts rates of deforestation, secondary schooling, and malnutrition, capturing specific dimensions of environmental, social, and physical well-being. OLS regression analyses reveal that dependency on coffee exports is positively associated with deforestation, malnutrition, and low participation in secondary level education in coffee-producing nations, net of other relevant factors. The findings thus demonstrate that specialization in coffee cultivation is likely to produce limited developmental benefits in poor nations.

The dimensions and degree of second-generation incorporation in US and European cities: A comparative study of inclusion and exclusion

Abstract: This research compares cities between and within the United States and Europe with respect to their dimensionality and degree of immigrant incorporation. Based on theoretical perspectives about immigrant incorporation, structural differentiation and national incorporation regimes, we hypothesize that more inclusionary (MI) cities will show more dimensions of incorporation and more favorable incorporation outcomes than less inclusionary (LI) places, especially in regard to labor market and spatial variables. We use data from recent major surveys of young adult second-generation groups carried out in Los Angeles, New York, and 11 European cities to assess these ideas. The findings indicate that second-generation immigrants in New York (MI) and in European MI places (i.e. cities in the Netherlands, Sweden and France) show greater dimensionality of incorporation (and thus by implication more pathways of advancement) respectively than is the case in Los Angeles (LI) or in European LI places (i.e. cities in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland). We discuss the significance of these results for understanding how the structures of opportunity confronting immigrants and their children in various places make a difference for the nature and extent of their integration.

Civilizing vs destructive globalization? A multi-level analysis of anti-immigrant prejudice:

Abstract: This study investigates the impact of the latest wave of globalization on anti-immigrant prejudice. We discern and test two contradictory accounts of the impact of globalization on anti-immigrant p...

Varieties of corporate networks: Network analysis and fsQCA

Abstract: The present research analyzes national corporate interlock networks and their causal conditions. The objective is two-fold: 1) to specify types of corporate networks, and 2) to pinpoint the causal configurations that give rise to each type of corporate network. First, corporate networks on basis of interlocking directorates are analyzed and compared using social network analysis to empirically derive a typology. The results show two types of corporate networks: cohesive corporate networks which are based on unification, centralization and strength ties; and dispersed corporate networks which are characterized by fragmentation, decentralization and single ties. Second, combinations of causal conditions that explain the emergence of each type of corporate networks are identified using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Finally, avenues of research on corporate interlock networks are suggested.

Legal opportunity structure and social movement strategy in Northern Ireland and southern United States

Abstract: The Civil Rights Movements in the southern United States and Northern Ireland were able to mobilize African Americans and Irish Catholics respectively against minority discrimination. These movements initially displayed very similar goals and tactics, looking at courts to counter institutional discrimination, but in successive stages of contention their trajectories fundamentally diverged. While legal mobilization in the United States constituted one of the pillars of the civil rights strategy of contention, in Northern Ireland legal tactics were supplanted by a transgressive (and at times violent) repertoire of contention. To explain this discrepancy, this article relies on the concept of legal opportunity structure (LOS) as an analytical tool to investigate how a state’s legal structure affects social movement legal mobilization. Accessibility to courts, availability of justiciable rights and judiciary receptivity are identified as the three core dimensions of the LOS shaping its degree of openness/clos...

Oil elite networks in a transforming global oil market

Abstract: This article analyses oil elite formation in light of the wider transformation that is taking place in the global oil order due to the rise of powers from the Global South, including Russia: in particular, the expansion and integration of the state-owned oil companies into the global oil market. This is done by analysing the networks that the directors of the world’s largest oil companies create through their affiliations with a) other corporations, b) policy planning bodies and c) with the state. The most important finding is that the increased cooperation between the Western private oil companies and the non-Western state-owned oil companies has not yet translated into increased integration between their respective elite networks. It is argued that this indicates we are witnessing a transition towards a more multi-polar global oil order that increasingly needs to take into account the rising powers of the Global South.

Regimes and cultures of social security: Comparing institutional models through nonlinear PCA

Abstract: This article reassesses the link between the structural and cultural aspects of social security. Do Esping-Andersen’s ‘Three Worlds’ exist empirically if one considers a comprehensive set of formal...

Institutional Reforms and Age-Graded Labour Market Inequalities in Europe

Abstract: This article examines how institutional change affects age-based labour market inequalities in Europe. We focus on the impact of labour regulation and of wage-setting institutions on the male population aged 25–54. Age-graded labour market inequalities within this group of prime-age individuals are hitherto under-researched. We estimate country panel regressions using data from the European Union Labour Force Survey and time-series data on institutional change for the years 1992–2007. The results present evidence that employment protection and the regulation of temporary work affect age-based inequality dynamics, while union strength has positive employment effects on all age-groups.

Economic crises, population aging and the electoral cycle: Explaining pension policy retrenchments in 19 OECD countries, 1981–2004:

Abstract: After decades of recurrent improvements in the generosity of public pension programs, since the early 1980s many pension reforms aimed to decelerate pension spending growth and strengthen the finances of these programs by retrenching the duration and/or value of pension entitlements. To understand this historical reversal in public pension provision, this article examines the forces affecting the enactment of contemporary pension retrenchments in 19 OECD countries. Based on a synthetic review of the pension policy literature, it identifies 90 pension retrenchments passed in these countries between 1981 and 2004. A growing literature on pension policy reform suggests that these policy events occur only when policy-makers can devise mechanisms to reduce their political blame. Building on this research, this article argues that the strategic consideration of economic and electoral cycles constitute two blame-avoidance strategies. First, by passing a pension retrenchment early in the electoral cycle, policy-m...

The fading of the state: Corporate–government networks in the Netherlands:

Abstract: This article contributes to an understanding of how business-state relations have evolved over past decades by analyzing elite interlocks between the corporate sector and the state over the period 1969-2006 in the Netherlands. These interlocks create links between the top decision centers of the largest corporations and public administration. A comparative analysis over time of the network of corporate-state interlocks for the years 1969, 1996 and 2006 reveals that ties that were very frequent in 1969 are in decline, reflecting and confirming a rapid disentanglement of the corporate sector from what was until the 1980s an example of neo-corporatist socio-economic arrangement. The disappearance of industrial policy, privatization of state-owned corporations, the emergence of autonomous administrative units, and the ‘hollowing out’ of the state, all contribute to the fading of the state. The network structure that remains in place - albeit thin - is not dominated by either the state or business but rather a partnership between separate forces. At the same time many of the previous state-business relations are now established outside the span of control of the state. The state is left out. Our study suggests that by the time the financial crisis hit in 2007, the social fabric making for fruitful state-business cooperation was gone.

Thinking globally about inequality and stratification: Wages across the world, 1982–2009

Abstract: There are many contending paradigms in the study of inequality and stratification, with little dialogue across empirical, methodological and theoretical divides To bridge some of these gaps, this article presents and analyzes a new dataset on urban wages across the world The data provide compelling evidence that national residence has been a significant and stable force shaping wage distribution But the data also indicate that some occupations (eg tradable-good producers in low-wage regions) have experienced significant upward mobility These processes highlight the need to critically reassess how the categories of ‘skilled’ and ‘unskilled’ are mobilized to justify global inequality

The legacies of partial possession: From agrarian struggle to neoliberal restructuring in Mexico and Colombia

Abstract: How have communities in Latin America responded to neoliberal agrarian reforms? We address this question via an incorporated comparison of two regions affected by rural restructuring: La Laguna, Mexico and Viejo Caldas, Colombia. Prior to the introduction of market-led reforms, agricultural producers in both regions were heavily dependent on state support, yet in neither did they mobilize to resist neoliberal policies that were incompatible with the prevailing system of state-managed commercial agriculture. What explains this outcome? We argue that acquiescence to neoliberalism was, paradoxically, a legacy of agrarian unrest: In response to major mobilizations, historic land reforms were carried out in La Laguna and Viejo Caldas during the 1930s that created regional political economies organized around cotton and coffee, respectively. Over time, these economies evolved into regimes of ‘partial possession’ wherein the social reproduction of rural livelihoods came to depend on specific state institutions: the Ejido Bank in Mexico and Fedecafe in Colombia. We attribute the absence of organized opposition to neoliberal reforms in La Laguna and Viejo Caldas to the conservatizing political transformation that partial possession engendered. In so doing, we highlight the importance of regional histories in shaping popular responses to neoliberal restructuring across the variegated landscape of Latin America’s countryside.

World-system position and democracy, 1972–2008:

Abstract: Global levels of democracy are higher than ever before, and democratic principles are now institutionalized as a world cultural norm. Nevertheless, a number of countries continue to feature governi...

Globalization: Civilizing or destructive? An empirical test of the international determinants of generalized trust:

Abstract: Does globalization encourage and facilitate the development of generalized trust, or does it, on the contrary, foster mutual suspicion and distrust? This question preoccupied intellectual elites du...

Consumer markets and national income inequality: A study of 18 advanced capitalist countries

Abstract: Sociologists have paid scant attention to the possibility that the structure of the macro-economy is an important determinant of income inequality. Although prior research finds negative links betw...

Interlocking corporate directorates in comparative perspective: An introduction to the special issue:

Abstract: This special issue of the International Journal of Comparative Sociology represents the inaugural, and long awaited, publication by members affiliated with the Politics and Interlocking Directorates Research Community. Over the half dozen years in which this international group of scholars has grown in numbers and geographical breadth, the members of this research community made several substantive contributions to research on interlocking corporate directors. First, as emphasized by the contributions within this special issue and chronicled in the narrative describing its formation, this group of researchers creates a rich international dialogue on interlocking directorate research. Additionally, through their shared research interests and expertise from around the world, the members of this community are purposefully establishing and sustaining a common focus on the relationships between interlocking directorates, the state and politics. As seen in a number of the contributions in this special issue, researchers within the Politics and Interlocking Directorates Research Community explore the political determinants of interlocking directors or articulate the political consequences of interlocking corporate directors. In addition to advancing comparative research on interlocking corporate directors, members of this community of scholars are also generating a strong research agenda that includes the analysis of transnational interlocking directorates. And finally, as the concluding article in this special issue underscores, the research community serves as a means to explore, debate and share new methods of conducting research on interlocking directorates. As the community continues to grow, the discussions concerning quantitative, qualitative and methods for visualizing networks of interlocking corporate directors will only become richer and more innovative. In this introduction to the contributions made by the Politics and Interlocking Directorates Research Community, I will limit my remaining comments to the origins of this group of scholars – a collection of individuals that includes far more researchers than are represented in this special issue. As the Guest Editor of this special issue, I also wish to highlight the momentum that this research community continues to generate, document its future growth, and use this introduction as an opportunity to invite all interested scholars to join our community. Finally, as fitting for an introductory essay, I will provide brief introductions to the four contributions.

Book Review: Questioning collapse: Human resilience, ecological vulnerability, and the aftermath of empire:

Abstract: Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (2010) POEA Annual Report 2009. Available at: http:// www.poea.gov.ph/ar/ar2009.pdf (accessed 8 January 2010). Piper N (2005) A problem by a different name? A review of research on trafficking in Southeast Asia and Oceania. International Migration 43(1–2): 203–233. Tyner JA (2009) The Philippines: Mobilities, Identities, Globalization. New York: Routledge.

Book review: Heredity, family, and inequality: A critique of social sciences

Abstract: political elite) of contemporary elite factions. A notable post-Soviet entity is the political elite replenished from the intelligence and security services, while the position of intellectual elite, which had a prestigious status in the Soviet system, is the most problematic one. In general, the elites are not united and their interests are diverse. Taking into account the amount of corruption, it is difficult to assume that these diverse groups, struggling for the interpretation of Russian modernization, understand their responsibility. The volume covers major social issues (with the notable exception of gender), with Nur Kirbaev focusing on education and Oleg Atkov and Guzel Ulumbekova on health. But at least the fact that the difference between life expectancy of men and women in Russia is the highest in the world, with women living 12 years longer, presented by Atkov and Ulumbekova, suggests that the gender dimension is there as well, and calls for an interpretation. The articles exploring Russia’s international relations look both to the West and to the East. Alexander Rahr, investigating what went wrong in relations between Russia and the West in the last two decades, argues that Russia must understand how to use the historical chance, while the West must stop to teach Russia about democracy. This task would entail a lot of self-discipline on both parts, as, according to Andrew Kuchins, after a shift in the global balance of power, Russia does not matter nearly as much to the US as the US does to Russia. At the same time, the West has a huge stake in Russia’s effective engagement in its Eastern dimension and especially Central Asia, the region of primary geopolitical importance being between Russia and China and the ‘old’ Islamic world. In his chapter, Rustem Zhangoza points out that the Soviet collapse, as a transformational event for the region, gave rise to questions about the definitions of borders and the overall status of what can be seen as either ‘the periphery’ or ‘the heartland’. For Central Asia, relations with Russia are in many ways definitive; unfortunately, Zhangozha concludes, a significant section of the Russian society and its political elites are not ready to see these relations in other ways than a civilizational divide. At the same time, Vladimir Yakunin argues in the afterword, Russia has its own identity issues, being neither a banal authoritarian state nor a soft incarnation of the Soviet Union and facing a devastating series of problems. In the 19th century, Russian intellectuals formulated what was called the ‘damn’ Russian question: what is to be done? The question, as the volume aptly demonstrates, still persists today. In Bobo Lo’s words, Russia faces ‘the gargantuan task of modernization’, and the situation remains open-ended. The volume presents the main issues currently faced by the nation, in their overwhelming complexity; introducing new critical perspectives for their treatment, it is a major contribution to a comprehensive understanding of Russia and the post-Soviet world both ‘domestically’ and in a global order of things.

Book review: The uniqueness of western civilization:

Abstract: became a key strategy beginning in the 1980s. The book thoughtfully handles the controversies between Stiglitz and Summers and the World Bank and the IMF in the late 1990s. She also traces the recent rise of concerns with equity, poverty, governance and institutions at the World Bank. Among her contributions to the literature on international institutions, this reader found her account of the reciprocal relationship between academic and MDB research to be novel and previously underappreciated. Though this is an excellent book, there is room for some friendly critique. First, this reader felt that the book was a bit too cautious in making general theoretical arguments that could be extended beyond the case of the MDBs. Babb provides a clear example of resource dependency, and other organizational and political theories. But, the book does not go terribly far in offering revisions or challenges towards building such theories. Most of the text keeps the theory somewhat in the background as it devotes more attention to the case-specific historical narrative. Second, given her argument of resource dependency, this reader felt her account could have given a more thorough consideration to the political power of business. Babb appears reluctant to incorporate Marxian critiques of international institutions (or even some realist explanations). At the same time, her evidence does not seem to contradict such critiques. After all, it seems reasonable to suggest that the policy programs pushed by advocacy organizations like the Heritage Foundation have roots in the interests and ideologies of economic elites, corporations, and capitalists. Given how important these policy programs were in her account of congressional influence on the MDBs, it seems reasonable to ask why and how business power plays such a role. Perhaps it is also reasonable to discuss how the rise of neoliberal policy programs at the MDBs coincided with the rise of business power in advocacy organizations and other spheres of politics. While her emphasis on the organizational processes driving the MDBs is certainly reasonable, it also seems clear that business has a lot more power than labor, civil society, and developing countries. This reader wondered if the book would have been even stronger if it had engaged and even responded to such alternative accounts. These criticisms should be taken in the context of what is otherwise an outstanding contribution. The book is readable and interesting and would work well in both upper-level undergraduate and graduate classes. The book would be a good fit for classes on globalization, political sociology, political economy, organizations and institutions. In addition, the book would be valuable for academics, political actors, journalists, and bureaucrats populating the transnational sphere of policy and intellectual debate around the MDBs. The book would also be a good starting point for graduate students interested in learning about global/transnational institutions. Finally, the book is certainly worthy of the attention of a variety of scholars working in related areas of sociology, political science, economics, and public policy. Moreover, general sociological audiences can learn much from this book and can see an example of excellent historical and political sociology.452056COS ok reviewsInternational Journal of Comparative Sociology 2012

Book review: Making the transition: Education and labor market entry in central and eastern Europe:

Abstract: Of course, contrarian work can be of great value, and much of what Beenstock develops has the potential to provoke and engage readers. But even here, he is less effective in this writing approach than Pinker (2002) and Gould (1996). Whereas these authors write for a large audience, with work that is generally assessable and written for critics, Beenstock’s writing is directed to an audience that is too narrow – written for specialists in some areas, undergraduates in others, and students of economics and statistics throughout. Far from the author’s goal, Heredity, Family, and Inequality fails to persuade that economic theory is a unifying approach that will clarify the inequality debate. This book has great potential that perhaps will be reached in another edition, but in its current form, Beenstock’s work seems best suited for an economics graduate course, which unfortunately only undermines his hope of a more interdisciplinary dialogue on inequality.