China-India-Russia Moving Out of Backwardness, or, ‘Cunning Passages of History’
TL;DR: In this article, a recognition of their common destinies as homes of human beings with complicated histories and of the need for cooperation to protect themselves against the forces of evil, in the shape of market fundamentalism, religious fanaticism and super-hegemonic imperialism can help them to guard...
Abstract: At different stages of their history, leaders of China, India and Russia, the most prominent constituents of the Eurasian landmass and home to one-third of the human population of the world, have formulated the aim of breaking out of the ‘backward’ state of their respective countries as a major goal of their movements, their strategies and their policies. Almost in all cases, such a state of backwardness has been perceived in relation to the ‘advanced’ Western countries, and more specifically to the industrialised countries of Europe and North America. All three countries have been caught several times in recent centuries in the cunning passages of history. All of them now see light at the end of the labyrinthine tunnel. A recognition of their common destinies as homes of human beings with complicated histories and of the need for cooperation to protect themselves against the forces of evil, in the shape of market fundamentalism, religious fanaticism and super-hegemonic imperialism can help them to guard ...
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors reflect on the experience of India's engagement with China in two multilateral forums: the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) Forum for Regional Economic Cooperation, formerly known as the ‘Kunming Initiative’, and the China- India-Russia Academic Trilateral Conference.
Abstract: This article reflects on the experience of India's engagement with China in two multilateral forums: the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) Forum for Regional Economic Cooperation, formerly known as the ‘Kunming Initiative’, and the China-India-Russia Academic Trilateral Conference. Though both forums are so-called ‘Track Two’ ventures, the dynamics of the two exercises are rather different. As of now, the ‘Trilateral’ is rated relatively successful in so far as it has shown more substantial progress from ‘Track Two’ to ‘Track One’. Tracing these brief histories, this article argues that academic cooperation should be seen to have value in and of itself, and not merely as the mechanism that propels a speculative, academic exercise into state-to-state policy.In social science terms, the two exercises afford very different challenges, which are still to be realised in effective academic collaboration and a substantive agenda of research. In particular, the BCIM framework commends a perspective on transna...
8 citations
Cites background from "China-India-Russia Moving Out of Ba..."
...Seen in the longue durée, the Trilateral invites the reclaiming of the idea of Eurasia around the fulcrum of Central Asia and the great routes of civilisation, knowledge and commerce that linked the East and West before the rise of the mercantilist, sea-borne empires (cf. Bagchi 2007; Sen 2005)....
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7 citations
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Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this article, the authors give an overview of the problems of underdevelopment confronting third-world countries, making use of both Marxist and neo-Keynesian methods of analysis.
Abstract: The division of the world into rich and poor nations, and the division within poor nations between a minority of rich people and a majority of poor people living at a minimum subsistence level, has been obvious to careful observers for a long time. This book gives an overview of the problems of underdevelopment confronting third-world countries, making use of both Marxist and neo-Keynesian methods of analysis. It makes clear the historical origins of these contemporary problems, particularly with reference to the major countries of Asia and Latin America, and discusses the ways in which inequalities, both within and between countries, are propaged and perpetuated. Other problems analysed are the typical patterns of fluctuating growth faced by third-world countries; the social structures in both rural and urban areas and their influence on the behaviour of governments and private investors in these countries; and environmental control and population planning issues faced by these countries. Finally, an introduction is provided to the planning methods adopted by most third-world countries and the hurdles such planning has encountered. The illustrations are drawn widely from among third-world countries.
112 citations
"China-India-Russia Moving Out of Ba..." refers background in this paper
...The triangular trade between China, India and Britain also served as a mechanism for transferring the profits of the empire by the servants of the English East India Company to their home country (for a summary of the mechanisms involved, see Bagchi 1982, chapter 4, section 4.6)....
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...When a big business community emerges in such a society, it on the one hand remains allied to dominant foreign capital, and on the other hand uses the patronage network of the landlord lineages (Bagchi 1982)....
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...As I have argued elsewhere, the British rulers, instead of strengthening such rights weakened them considerably in the interest of collecting and remitting abroad a large part of the income produced by India’s peasantry (Bagchi 1982: chapter 4, 1992)....
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...All ex-colonial developing countries had been adversely affected by this pressure for a long time (Bagchi 1982: chapters 3–4)....
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TL;DR: The authors make a convincing case for very deep roots of current Eastern European backwardness, reaching back centuries, and make a clear connection between politics and economics, showing that while economics may limit the freedom of action of political players, it does not determine political outcomes.
Abstract: Reaching back centuries, this study makes a convincing case for very deep roots of current Eastern European backwardness. Its conclusions are suggestive for comparativists studying other parts of the world, and useful to those who want to understand contemporary Eastern Europe's past. Like the rest of the world except for that unique part of the West which has given us a false model of what was "normal", Eastern Europe developed slowly. The weight of established class relations, geography, lack of technological innovation, and wars kept the area from growing richer. In the nineteenth century the West exerted a powerful influence, but it was political more than economic. Nationalism and the creation of newly independent aspiring nation-states then began to shape national economies, often in unfavorable ways. One of this book's most important lessons is that while economics may limit the freedom of action of political players, it does not determine political outcomes. The authors offer no simple explanations but rather a theoretically complex synthesis that demonstrates the interaction of politics and economics.
97 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the USSR was one of the most successful developing economies of the twentieth century by recalculating national consumption and using economic, demographic, and computer simulation models to address the "what if" questions central to Soviet history.
Abstract: To say that history's greatest economic experiment--Soviet communism--was also its greatest economic failure is to say what many consider obvious. Here, in a startling reinterpretation, Robert Allen argues that the USSR was one of the most successful developing economies of the twentieth century. He reaches this provocative conclusion by recalculating national consumption and using economic, demographic, and computer simulation models to address the "what if" questions central to Soviet history. Moreover, by comparing Soviet performance not only with advanced but with less developed countries, he provides a meaningful context for its evaluation. Although the Russian economy began to develop in the late nineteenth century based on wheat exports, modern economic growth proved elusive. But growth was rapid from 1928 to the 1970s--due to successful Five Year Plans. Notwithstanding the horrors of Stalinism, the building of heavy industry accelerated growth during the 1930s and raised living standards, especially for the many peasants who moved to cities. A sudden drop in fertility due to the education of women and their employment outside the home also facilitated growth. While highlighting the previously underemphasized achievements of Soviet planning, Farm to Factory also shows, through methodical analysis set in fluid prose, that Stalin's worst excesses--such as the bloody collectivization of agriculture--did little to spur growth. Economic development stagnated after 1970, as vital resources were diverted to the military and as a Soviet leadership lacking in original thought pursued wasteful investments.
92 citations
"China-India-Russia Moving Out of Ba..." refers background in this paper
...…as a decline in birth and death rates (including infant mortality rates), literacy rates and rates of enrolment in secondary and tertiary education (Allen 2003: chapters 6 and 7; Lewin 2005: chapter 22; Mitchell 1998).5 I will not here try to analyse why the Soviet system, despite its enormous…...
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Book•
22 Sep 2009
TL;DR: The 2008 ABCDE was devoted to the theme "the private sector and development" and highlighted such issues as financial inclusion, key factors in the business climate, and the provision of public services by non-state actors.
Abstract: The Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics (ABCDE) is a leading forum for advanced, forward-looking research on important development issues. Each year, the ABCDE brings policy makers and politicians together with researchers from academe, international organizations, and think tanks. The diverse perspectives of the international development community mingle and coalesce through in-depth debates on important themes on the development agenda. The 2008 ABCDE was devoted to the theme 'the private sector and development' and highlighted such issues as financial inclusion, key factors in the business climate, and the provision of public services by non-state actors.
83 citations
TL;DR: This article argued that the U.S. current-account deficit is mainly a saving deficiency in the United States or a saving glut in the rest of the world, either way, the central position of United States under the world dollar standard gives it alone an unlimited international line of credit in its own currency.
Abstract: Today’s American mercantile pressure on China to appreciate the renminbi against the dollar is eerily similar to the American pressure on Japan to appreciate the yen that began over 30 years ago. Indeed, the yen went all the way from 360 to the dollar in August 1971, at the end of the Bretton Woods period of fixed exchange rate parities, to touch 80 to the dollar in April 1995. Then the American government relented and announced a strong dollar policy that signaled the end of “Japan bashing”. But the overvalued yen, and the expectation of appreciation, destabilized the Japanese financial system; the bubble economy of the late 1980s was followed by a deflationary slump and a zero-interest liquidity trap in the 1990s [McKinnon and Ohno 1997]. At least some of today’s critics of East Asian countries’ pegging to the dollar would agree that international saving imbalances rather than misaligned exchange rates are the root cause of the U.S. current-account deficit. One can argue whether it is mainly a saving deficiency in the United States or a saving glut in the rest of the world [Bernanke 2005]. Either way, the central position of the United States under the world dollar standard gives it alone an unlimited international line of credit in its own currency. However, suppose that the U.S. trade deficit is misdiagnosed to result from a misaligned exchange rate, so that a surplus country on the dollar’s periphery is forced to appreciate against the world’s dominant money. It will suffer a slowdown in economic
77 citations