Showing papers on "International political economy published in 1980"

Political science: an import-export analysis of journals and footnotes*

Abstract: W H E T H E R we plot the geographical or the social distribution of knowledge, sainthood, or bankholdings, we should expect verification of the main tenet of Christaller’s central place theory: the plotting will order hierarchically centres of influence and the peripheries to which they are related.’ This brief survey describes such a relation by means of an importexport analysis applied to selected political science and other social science journals. To simplify the task let us assume that a discipline can be described adequately by a few of its leading journals and that analysis of the scholarly articles quoted in these leading publications (‘articles’ excludes books and other sources of information such as newspapers and government documents) will give us a picture at best accurate though incomplete, at worse distorted but not grostesquely SO.^ Let us thus define ‘political science’ by the official journals of the five oldest political science associations: the American, the Canadian, the Indian, the French and the British, and define the other social science disciplines by some of their better known journal^.^ A few problems raised by our limiting our data to journals and footnotes should be mentioned at the outset since the uses and types of footnotes as well as the dependence on journals vary markedly across disciplines, cultures and

The Problem of Language in Hobbes's Political Science

Abstract: PROBLEMS OF LANGUAGE have been preeminent among the concerns of philosophers for most of the twentieth century, and in some universities today philosophy-at least the active side of the discipline *is virtually synonymous with linguistic or analytic philosophy. This change in the focus of philosophers has increased the separation between the respective concerns of political scientists and philosophers, so that once close and deep ties have been all but dissolved. As far as most political scientists are concerned, we can hope for little from philosophy beyond its well known but silly promise to "clear away the underbrush" of verbal confusion so that we may get on with our task. It is not widely noticed, but one of the earliest philosophers to pay particular attention to language was actually a political scientist, and in fact by his own claim the first political scientist: Thomas Hobbes. The fundamental importance of this fact lies in the connection between the two facts about Hobbes just noted, namely, his claim to be the founder of political science and his striking and unusual attention to language. The latter, we may say, is the ground of the former. Hobbes's understanding of how we go about securing knowledge about political phenomena-his understanding of political science, which is father to our own-depends on his picture of language. No matter for the moment that his picture of language is open to serious objections: we must see why it matters at all, because by seeing why, we can discover a great deal about our own presuppositions about what political science is and does.

Political Economy as a Paradigm for the Study of Islamic History

Abstract: Two frameworks of interpretation of history and society have long struggled with each other in the West and in the Islamic world: one is the modernization theory of the American type, aligned at times with the older orientalism, the other is some form of political economy. In the 1970s, the theory of political economy made a belated arrival in American intellectual life and still has scarcely the prestige it has in France, Germany, Italy, or the Islamic countries.

Selection Theory for a Political World

Abstract: LEE J. CRONBACH • ersonnel selection was once a quiet backroom specialty, but those days are gone, perhaps forever. Every opinion-molder and decision-maker from the Supreme Court to the San Francisco Examiner has recently had its eye on testing and selection, and every long-standing practice is coming in for criticism from someone who dislikes its consequences. The criticism has stimulated changes long overdue. It has also stimulated changes that work against the interests of the economy and those tested. Criticism has stimulated both sound and questionable defenses of traditional practices. More important, it has stimulated fresh thinking. All of us have entered a new world. The lawyers are busy studying test theory and statistics. Testers are pondering the inconsistent decisions and split opinions of the courts', and asking themselves what equity means. Psychometric specialists are being, scolded from the bench' for overstating their conflicting theories. Regulatory agencies accustomed to going their own willful ways have, under pressure, produced uniform guidelines' stating what justification for a selection program they will accept in civil rights cases. Although no cases has yet been argued under these guidelines, they are already in question, as they rely on a test theory the profession now sees as inadequate. If you thrive on uncertainty, you live in the right times. Selection must advance on at least two fronts. To meet heavy pressures over the short term, social institutions have to muddle through with the aid of traditional concepts. Second, professionals psychometric and legal have to rethink concepts developed in other times to meet a different set of needs. We have two ways of working. One is theoretical, clarifying an over-arching structure of possible conclusions within which to orient any test interpretation or statistical finding. The other is empirical, the compilation of brute facts that document the effects of practice. The two check on each other. Data can show that a theoretical concern has little practical consequence; theory can show that data do not mean what on their face they seem to say. I am unabashedly dealing with theory and not data. I hope to suggest rationales for improving and defending selection and facts you might find useful to collect. The

Political Economy and the Response to Socialism in Britain, 1870–1914

Abstract: Political economy suffered a sharp decline in prestige and influence in Britain after 1870. The methods, doctrines and policies of the classical school were called into question by a younger generation of economists, eager to respond positively to the sudden appearance of the ‘ social problem’ in politics. The most dramatic break with the old school took place in the sphere of policy, where the link between laissez-faire and political economy was severed. Economists such as Jevons, Cairnes, Sidgwick, Toynbee and Marshall led the assault on the orthodox school.1 Unfortunately, the very success of their attack has conditioned historians to assume that they spoke for all their generation. Such was not the case. Below the level of the leading academic economists and liberal social reformers a strong current of opinion ran in the opposite direction; it feared the growth of socialism and looked to a re-juvenated ‘science’ of political economy as the only counterpoise to it.

Nigeria in the World System: Alternative Approaches, Explanations and Projections

Abstract: Nigeria is at an historic conjuncture, one that poses problems as well as offering opportunities for both political analysts and activists. The country is now two decades old and just another two decades away from the twenty-first century. In its first twenty years of de jure independence, the territory and political economy of Nigeria were administered by several elements within the reconstituted ruling class; initially by combined political-entrepreneurial fractions but for the most part by three distinct military administrations.

European Government-Controlled Enterprises: An Organizational Political View

Abstract: This article complements a previous article on government-controlled enterprises. It examines the struggles, bargains, compromises and foul-ups between those influential players who determine these companies' decisions and actions. The strategy of such firms is seen as a political resultant: to understand corporate behavior one must explain key individuals' motivations, their stakes and stands and one must analyze their relative power and the pulling and hauling that occurs between them.

Africa and the new international economic order

Abstract: (1980). Africa and the new international economic order. Third World Quarterly: Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 295-304.