Showing papers on "Underdevelopment published in 1992"

LIMITS OF STATE STRENGTH Toward an Institutionalist View of Economic Development

Abstract: nomic development attempted to explain why growth did not occur, occurred slowly, or occurred in a distorted, dependent form. The impressive economic performances of the East Asian newly industrialized countries (NIcs) have changed this. Many noneconomists (as well as some economists) are now focusing on the political bases of development rather than underdevelopment. There are differences among these analysts. Some distance themselves from neoclassical economics by emphasizing the importance of "getting the prices wrong"; others acknowledge the utility of market-conforming policies.' But common to recent studies of NICS is the belief that growthpromoting economic policies require certain types of domestic political institutions. Analysts have emphasized the utility of strong states in this regard.2 Through an analysis of efforts to promote local auto manufacturing in Southeast as well as East Asia, this article argues for an institutionalist approach to development that goes beyond statism. The resolution of collective action problems is central to statist writings. Development requires that private returns to individual activities be brought in line with the broader needs of national development.3 Two factors are presumed to obstruct such harmonization in developing

Capitalism and Underdevelopment

Abstract: The analysis considered in Part II focused upon the functioning and transformation of advanced capitalism. Each theory sought to provide an explanation of the ‘long boom’, understand the contradictions which would ultimately undermine it, and thereby account for the passivity of the working classes in the West, as well as locating the basis for any future radicalisation. In all cases the economic structures of backward areas and their relationship to those of developed countries figured hardly at all. Only Baran and Sweezy thought them to be significant, and even in Monopoly Capital they were of secondary importance. The forces of stability and change in the heartlands of capitalism were seen to operate primarily through the reproduction and growth of the major capitalist economies.

Power in Africa: An Essay in Political Interpretation

Abstract: Preface - PART 1: THE MEANINGS OF POLITICAL INTERPRETATION - Introduction - Paradigms Lost: Development Theory - Class Theory - Underdevelopment Theory - Revolutionary Theory - Democratic Theory - PART 2: CONCEPTS FOR THE ANALYSIS OF POWER IN AFRICA - Introduction - The Political Community - Political Accountability - The State - Civil Society - Production - PART 3: THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE AFRICAN POST-COLONIAL POLITICAL ORDER - Introduction - The Crisis of Nationality and Sovereignty - The Crisis of Legitimacy and Representation - The Crisis of Accumulation and Inequality - The Crisis of Good Government and Political Morality - The Crisis of Violence and Survival - PART 4: POLITICAL CHANGE AND CONTINUITY IN CONTEMPORARY AFRICA - Introduction - The Dynamics of Political Africanisation - The Dialectics of the Hegemonic Drive - The Politics of Dependence - The Reproduction of Power - Notes - Index

Brazilian Party Underdevelopment in Comparative Perspective

Abstract: Until the 1980s, most analyses emphasized the similarities of political parties throughout Latin America. More recent scholarship has argued that this perspective is misleading. ' Parties have been central political actors in some countries (Chile, Uruguay, Venezuela) and less important in many others. Even where parties have been less important, their nature can differ in significant regards, as can the reasons for the relative subordination of parties. This point is important, because many of my arguments about Brazilian party development resemble, on first appearance, conventional and often mistaken wisdom about the nature of parties in Latin America. Many analysts portray parties throughout all of Latin America as weak, but this characterization is somewhat misleading in its own right and draws attention away from the singular nature of party fragility in Brazil. The first half of this article argues that the underdevelopment of political parties in Brazil is exceptional in Latin America and on a world scale. Endowed with the eighth largest capitalist economy in the world, Brazil still lacks enduring parties that effectively represent civil society.

Globalization, knowledge and society : readings from International sociology

Abstract: Foreword - Margaret S Archer Introduction - Martin Albrow TOWARDS A UNIVERSAL SOCIAL SCIENCE Resisting the Revival of Relativism - Margaret S Archer Sociology as the Defetishisation of Modernity - Agnes Heller Conceptual Frameworks in Comparative Inquiry - Divergent or Convergent? - Piotr Sztompka INTERNATIONALISING SOCIOLOGY Sociology's Great Leap Forward - Edward A Tiryakian The Challenge of Internationalisation The Application of Participatory-Action Research in Latin America - Orlando Fals Borda CREATING INDIGENOUS SOCIOLOGIES Contributions to the Sociology of Knowledge from an African Oral Poetry - Akinsola A Akiwowo Asuwada Principle - M Akin Makinde An Analysis of Akiwowo's Contributions to the Sociology of Knowledge from an African Perspective Towards an African Sociological Tradition - O B Lawuyi and Olufemi Taiwo A Rejoinder to Akiwowo and Makinde ONE WORLD SOCIETY Societal Development, or Development of the World-System? - Immanuel Wallerstein Rent-Seeking or Dependency as Explanations of Why Poor People Stay Poor - Erich Weede An Operational Analysis of the Phenomenon of the Other Underdevelopment in the Arab World and in the Third World - Mahmoud Dhaouadi Occidental Reason, Orientalism, Islamic Fundamentalism - Mona Abaza and Georg Stauth A Critique RLD MOVEMENTS The Green Movement - Johan Galtung A Socio-Historical Exploraton The Peace Movement - Artur Meier Some Questions Concerning its Social Nature and Structure Social Movements and Social Change in Self-Creative Socety - Zsuzsa Hegedus New Civil Initiatives in the International Arena

The Many Faces of National Security in the Arab World

Abstract: List of Tables, Figures and Maps - List of Abbreviations - Notes on the Contributors - INTRODUCTION - The Analysis of National Security in the Arab Context: Restating the State of the Art B.Korany, R.Brynen & P.Noble - PART 1: SECURITY CONCERNS OLD AND NEW: INTRODUCTION - Unravelling the Concept: 'National Security' in the Third World M.Ayoob - The Security Dilemma in the Middle East: A Prognosis for the Decade Ahead J.G.Stein - Dilemmas of Security and Development in the Arab World: Aspects of the Linkage A.E.Hillal Dessouki - PART 2: UNDERDEVELOPMENT AS INSECURITY: - Neglected Aspects of the Security Dilemma F.H.Lawson - Does Food Security Make a Difference? Algeria, Egypt and Turkey in Comparative Perspective K.Pfeifer - From the Mirage of Rent to the Burden of Debt: Adjustment and Insecurity in Arab Economies M.Chatelus - National Integration and National Security: The Case of Yemen M.Wenner - Resources, Wealth and Security: The Case of Kuwait M.Nakhjavani - PART 3: SECURITY AS DEVELOPMENT? STATE-BUILDING, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND THE MILITARY - Arab Military Industrialization: Security Incentives and Economic Impact Y.Sayigh - State-Building and the Military in Arab Africa I.W.Zartman - State and Society in the Arab World: Towards a New Role for the Security Services? E.Picard - CONCLUSION - The Changing Regional Security Environment P.Noble, R.Brynen & B.Korany - Appendix: Basic Data - Index

From Wooden Ploughs to Welfare: Why Indian Policy Failed in the Prairie Provinces

Abstract: From Wooden Ploughs to Welfare examines the reserve system imposed by the Canadian government in the 1870s - a system, rooted in theories of racial difference, that stifled initiative, opportunity, and self-esteem. The 1960s saw the collapse of the reserve economy, until then sustained by casual wage work or trapping. The government's answer was a welfare program which marked a new era of deeper dependency. Helen Buckley argues that later government programs have proven equally discouraging: schooling has improved but drop-out rates remain high, economic development remains a low priority, and large sums are spent on manpower courses that seldom lead to jobs. The many who sought a better life by moving to the city received no government assistance at all. Buckley argues that self-government is the only solution to the economic isolation and underdevelopment of native Canadians. She focuses on Status Indians in the Prairie provinces, but her analysis and conclusions are applicable to Status Indians in other regions.

Overcoming Underdevelopment: What Has Been Learned from the East Asian and Latin American Experiences?

Abstract: It is a long way in both time and tenor from the first wave of thought about development found in the works of Gunnar Myrdal, Albert Hirschman, Rautl Prebisch, and Dudley Seers to the post1970s brand of neoliberal development economics offered by Gillis et al., Deepak Lal, Anne Krueger, and Jeffrey Sachs, for example. The early work on development was grounded in experience that resulted in cautious theorizing and generalization. Neoliberal development economics is significantly more sweeping in scope, more theoretical, and less burdened by historical or empirical specificity. It is a generic monoeconomics. The formula for development is devastatingly simple: Unleash the power of market forces and reduce the state's role in the economic sphere, or, where that is not possible, at a minimum ensure that state policy is applied equally to all actors. Neoliberal development thought rules not only in the academy, but is the major force behind the shift in economic policymaking in the Commonwealth of Independent States and in Eastern Europe. In Latin America, the neoliberal agenda has been applied to individual countries since the mid-1980s and is now driving the rush toward hemispheric economic integration with the United

The Political Economy of Health in Africa

Abstract: This book examines the major phases in the history of health services in Africa and treats health as an integral aspect of the deepening crisis in Africa's underdevelopment. One important thesis is that Western delivery systems have made health care less accessible for most people. Contributors direct attention to problems engendered by food shortages, acute cases of infection, the market in fake drugs as well as the inequality of access to facilities, the violation of human rights, and the recent danger of the dumping of toxic wastes in several African countries. One major implication of this volume is that there can be no solution to the health crisis in Africa until the linkage between health and poverty is recognized. The authors consider questions that add to the contemporary discussion of the place that traditional African medicine and philosophy should take alongside modern Western medicine in Africa today.

The economic consequences of economists

Abstract: During 1991, disquiet with the policy recommendations and ultimate economic effects of economists began to feature in debates over economic policy in Australia. One example was the emergence of a conservative critique of economic liberalism; another was the publication of Michael Pusey's research showing that ‘econocrats’, notably those in the federal bureaucracy, have distinctive, politically significant attitudes to the role of government. This paper considers the influence of economic orthodoxy as part of a broader phenomenon—the peculiarity and underdevelopment of our public institutional framework. In Australia, forms of intervention required for full employment simply do not exist. This partially explains both our comparatively poor macroeconomic performance since the 1970s and the propensity of government to embrace policies that abrogate social democratic commitments while economic conditions worsen.

Modernization and Postmodernization: Whither India?

Abstract: We hear much talk these days about the emergence of a new "world order," an order (presumably) ushering in an era of global peace and prosperity, terminating the arms race among superpowers and the nuclear balance of terror. Seen as an antidote to global anarchy, this vision of order surely has an appealing ring: feuds among states are to give way to a unified structure of humankind, narrow national self-interest to shared concern for our "global village."1 Unfortunately, on closer inspection, the brightness of the vision quickly begins to dim especially when attention is drawn to the motivating forces behind global unity. In large measure, global unification seems to be propelled by the dictates of the global market or world economy, a market that is governed, in turn, by the interests of leading industrial or postindustrial nations. On a more general (and more theoretical) plane, one may ask in which language or idiom the global vision tends to be articulated. Unsurprisingly, this language is typically of Western origin, reflecting specifically the aspirations of Western modernity with its bent toward rational universalism.2 From its inception, modern Western thought carried a teleological imprint marked by a dialectical twist: the opposition between advancement and regression, between development and nonor underdevelopment. Confronted with the Western model, non-Western countries or cultures were expected to catch up sooner or later with the postulated telos or else to suffer defeat and obsolescence. In this developmental schema, material and "ideal" factors were inextricably linked: disparities of material or economic progress were matched with asymmetries of culture, language, and human worth. In this essay, I shall explore the issue of development and modernization in a particular context although, I believe, broader

The culture of planning: transmigration area development in east kalimantan, indonesia

Abstract: Development planning presupposes that target areas are defined as underdeveloped. In planning an area development project, experts have therefore to conceptually create 'underdevelopment' to legitimise their intervention in the social and economic processes of their target area. On the basis of field research in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, it is shown that a lack of information hides existing structures and institutions which in tum leads to the assumption that an area is underdeveloped. Furthermore, the planning process itself is defined as modern, while existing local procedures are seen as traditional. It is part of the culture of planning that an artificial contrast between planners and target populations is constructed. On the basis of interviews it is shown that the target population has its own culture of planning which is often long-term spanning several generations in contrast to the usual three- to five-year planning intervals of development projects. This culture gap between experts and target group is not a result of the personal inaptitude of experts or the unwillingness to help and assist but rather a systemic difference. Data from Indonesian as well as German development planning procedures are used to substantiate these points.

The archaeology of underdevelopment and the military frontier of Northern New Spain

Abstract: Relatively little effort has been devoted to understanding the economic development of the Hispanic military frontier. Archaeologists, historians, and historical sociologists writing on the topic have accepted a model which stresses the dependence created by the Spanish mercantile system. By contrast, the analysis of archaeological data described herein indicates that before 1856 the military colonies (presidios) enjoyed comparative self-sufficiency. During late colonial times (1750–1821) nearly all of the limited amounts of goods imported to the frontier were manufactured in central New Spain. After 1830 this pattern changed, and increasing amounts of European products replaced those made in Mexico. Eventually, the expansion of the industrialized world economy culminated in the creation of recognizable bonds of dependency that linked the presidios to European-dominated capitalism.

Nicholas Kaldor: The Economics and Politics of Capitalism as a Dynamic System

Abstract: Introduction: The Life of Nicholas Kaldor 1. Equilibrium, Competition, and Capital Theory 2. Wages, Speculation, and Interest 3. The Trade Cycle 4. War Economy, Welfare State, and Full Employment 5. Cambridge and the Theories of Growth and the Distribution of Income 6. The Debate on Kaldor's Theory of Distribution 7. Growth at Different Rates and Kaldor's 'Laws' 8. The 'Agriculture-Industry' Model and the Instability of the World Economy 9. Underdevelopment, Industrialization, and Policies for Development 10. Public-Finance Policy 11. The Interest Rate, Monetry Policy, and the Supply of Money 12. Inflation and Anti-Inflationary Policies 13. The International Monetary System, Managing an Economy in an Open Market, and the De-Industrialization of Britain 14. The Criticism of Equilibrium Theory and New Theoretical Hypotheses on Growth and the Distribution of Income 15. Method and Vision of the World Appendix Bibliography Index.

Brave New Third World: Strategies for Survival in the Global Economy

Abstract: A decade of reversal the assault on sovereignity attempted escapes from underdevelopment in East Asia North-South negotiations - the failure of reform the brave new world economic order ovecoming marginalization - a southern strategy.

Twentieth-Century Neoliberals: Inheritors of the Exploits of Columbus

Abstract: From Mexico to Argentina, government officials, joumalists, academics, and, of course, bankers and corporate executives have hailed the advent of unregulated capitalism as the panacea for the region's development crisis. Neoliberalism or, as its propagandists dub it, "free-market economics" makes claims to being a new, realistic, practical approach to Latin America's problems. Its ideologues consider it superior to all previous efforts, whether nationalist, populist, Keynesian, or socialist. They claim to have discovered the formula: opening markets to the free flow of capital and goods will bring growth, prosperity, and freedom. This messianic vision, however, reflects a profound historical amnesia, a suspension of the intellect. In the first place, Latin America has a long history of free trade linked to underdevelopment and dictatorship. From the late 18th century and throughout most of the 19th, a major development strategy linked Latin America to the world market or to an imperial-preferred market through high-growth export enclaves or sectors. Many of the arguments, formulas,

Moral Philosophy and Development: The Human Condition in Africa

Abstract: Although development issues generally have been considered in a framework of economic theory and politics, in this volume Tedros Kiros looks to European ideas of moral philosophy to explain the underdevelopment of Africa and the persistent African food crisis. He draws upon the works of Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Karl Marx and the concepts of hegemony and counter-hegemony. Kiros points out that Africans and Europeans held opposing worldviews upon their initial contact and agrees with those who explain the present condition in Africa partly as the result of European colonialism. In his concluding chapter he develops principles of moral philosophy to guide Africans and others in the future economic development of the African continent.

Surveying the territory: re-examining MacBride and theories of development

Abstract: In 1980, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) published Many Voices, One World, more commonly known as the MacBride Report. The 16-member committee that shaped the report created a comprehensive document about the state of world communications. The report concluded with recommendations for balancing the international inequities the committee saw in communication structures and media flows.Now, more than ten years after the MacBride Report, it is time to ask just how concretely the world has moved toward those substantive reforms. It is important, though, to view communications disparities as a part of the bigger question of global inequality and underdevelopment which affects all aspects of a nation's being. The question is not merely how many radios people own, but what does that tell us about their lives? Where does mass communication fit into the processes of nation-building and wealth generation?If change has occurred, has it affected the applicability of prior...

Merchant fleet development by legislation: lessons from West and Central Africa

Abstract: In the late 1960s and early 1970s, several developing maritime nations began to invoke their ‘legitimate right’ to carry, in their own vessels, cargo generated by their own import and export trades as one way to reverse their underdevelopment and dependency on traditional maritime nations. Consequently, they embarked on the establishment and development of national merchant fleets by means of cargo reservation legislation and flag discrimination practices. West and Central African states have pursued a vigorous policy of merchant fleet development for over two decades. This study examines some of the cargo reservation policies and flag discrimination practices in West and Central Africa and concludes that these two measures alone are insufficient to build up a significant merchant marine. Merchant fleet development depends equally on the resolution of problems such as shortage of ship finance or capital, disruptive bureaucratic politics among the state agencies concerned with shipping, low volume of trade...

Social Structure and Rural Development in the Third World

Abstract: Rural development is linked crucially with rural structure, though the latter is often difficult to analyse. This book analyses rural classes and the diverse relations between producers in order to understand the relationship between Third World farmers and the international economy, and the significance of this for development and underdevelopment. The author introduces a number of theoretical distinctions and devises a systematic framework which is applied to the analysis of a range of rural producers. The book assesses a number of strategies employed in planned development in the light of their implications for rural social structure, and thus for development in the Third World. This book provides an intensive and original conceptual and practical discussion of the possibilities for development under capitalism, and will be of interest to economists, political scientists and sociologists, as well as those working in development studies.

Peasant initiative for soil conservation : case studies of recent technical and social innovations from Maissade, Haiti

Abstract: Theories of Haitian underdevelopment, and of the causes and solutions to that underdevelopment are many, complex and often competing. At a very basic level though, Haitian development involves the mastery of ever changing conditions and requires continual innovation, adaption and the ability to create and exploit resources both internal and external to the farm, to the community and to the nation. The capacity to innovate and adapt is thus essential and is a foundation of sustained economic and social development. The purpose of this paper is to consider the phenomenon of innovation in rural Haiti by examining two case studies of technical and social innovations for soil conservation The studies are prefaced with a historical review of indigenous and donor responses to soil erosion, and a synopsis of theories concerning how innovations emerge and the factors influencing that emergence. Special attention is paid to the role of history and culture, political economy, and social organization in innovation. The studies suggest that the soil conservation innovations examined can be understood as thrifty and incremental cultural evolution; that small groups were loci for innovation; and that knowledge shared between scientists and peasants in a conversational approach positively affects the generation of innovations.

Let us look at the population issue unflinchingly.

Abstract: This abridged statement of Senator Leticia Ramos Shahani argues for a coherent and comprehensive policy on population that does not aim to control numbers but intends to provide people with choices. Over the past three decades the population of the Philippines has tripled to 60.7 million. Distribution is unequal. The nations capital region which is 0.2% of the countrys land area contains 13% of the total population: there 12498 people occupy a square kilometer. The primary sewage network in Metro Manila was built in 1904 to accommodate 500000 people. Even the planned expansion will accommodate only 20% of Metro Manilas present population. There are regions of the Philippines where children have no access to schools despite a law providing free and compulsory elementary education. Some 912000 people in rural areas are without employment. Their response is often to move to the cities or ecologically sensitive areas. The Philippines has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world. Infant mortality has remained at about 61 deaths per 1000 live births for the past decade. Family planning can be an effective weapon against these statistics; studies done in the Philippines indicate that infant and child mortality rates would drop by 25% each if pregnancy were avoided by women younger than 20 or older than 35 or with 4 or more children or who are less than 15 months postpartum. A majority of respondents in a 1991 nationwide survey stated that they did not feel strongly restricted from using family planning whether by their religion education or doctors. Any population policy must have an ethical and moral dimension in keeping with freedom human dignity personal values and culture. Couples have the right to choose any means natural or artificial they find appropriate to plan their families. Legislative efforts of the 1980s have not fulfilled their tasks. The population policy of the Philippines should: 1) deal with with underlying economic and social conditions of underdevelopment 2) strengthen family planning programs that provide both education and methods and 3) receive assistance from developed nations that recognize their own responsibilities to curtail excessive depletion of non-renewable world resources and to assist genuine development.

Governance, democracy and development in uganda today: a socio-legal examination

Abstract: Uganda has experienced almost two decades of social, political and economic turmoil and turbulence since independence in 1962. In January 1986. the National Resistance l\lovement/ Army (NRl\1/ A)- a guerrilla grouping that had been at war for five years- assumed powers of government. on a ~adical platform of "fundamental change ... Since that time, several developments have occurred in the mode of governance. public ac­ countability, human rights observance and popular people's participation in self govern­ ment. At the same time, the philosophy of the NRM/ A continues to be permeated with militarism that has manifested itself in continuing internal conflict in parts of the country, a suspension of political party activity and increasing socioeconomic strife. This paper ad­ dresses the nature of the contradictory forces in existence in Uganda today and examines whether the post-1986 innovations are sustainable against the onslaught of the traditional forces of underdevelopment and militarism. Of particular importance is the role and posi­ tion of those members of civil society (namely women, the intelligentsia, workers and NGOs) in relation to the state in Uganda today and how effectively they can operate as a bulwark against government excess.

Latin America: Socialist Perspectives in Times of Cholera (Preliminary Notes for a Necessary Debate)

Abstract: I would like to develop this article by picking up on some ideas I formulated several years ago regarding certain characteristics, achievements, and contents of the processes of popular political and social transformations in the underdeveloped world. These processes refer basically to three principal questions or dimensions: national independence, development, and democratization. The ways in which these dimensions meet and articulate reciprocally are ultimately a result of the social groups that lead each process in particular and of the insertion of each process in the international system.(1) I think that focussing on the topic from this perspective will help give us an idea of the conditions that must be taken into account by any socialist project in Latin America today. 1. National Independence Any reflection on socialism and its prospects in Latin America must obviously consider the impact of the disappearance of the "East" as even a hypothetical alternative to the international capitalist system. Independent of one's opinions about the former regimes of the East, it is undeniable that this variation of socialism -- or that of the Chinese experience -- was an explicit referent for the socialist projects of most political forces in the Latin American Left. Closely linked to the above, these regimes, particularly the economically most advanced such as the former USSR and the now-defunct German Democratic Republic, constituted an important source of economic and military aid for some Latin American countries -- such as Cuba -- which opted for socialism, or others -- such as Nicaragua during the decade of the 1980s -- which at least attempted profound, popular socioeconomic transformations. This aid helped these regimes to negotiate some of the rougher passages of underdevelopment and, above all, to defend their national sovereignty. Whatever the particularities of each case, there is no question that Latin American resistance to imperialist aggression received often-decisive support from the Eastern bloc. To establish counterpoints between how much national independence is due to the cooperation of the East and how much to the efforts of the peoples themselves is to pose the issue badly, or in bad faith. Popular efforts to maintain and consolidate national independence in the various Latin American and Third World countries that were engaged in processes of profound social transformations obtained decidedly significant support from the East before its collapse. Economic and technical cooperation assumed subsidy-like characteristics, given the proverbial limitations of the countries receiving the assistance. The effectiveness of such cooperation in helping the receiving countries down the road of development has been limited, to put it mildly. However, the availability of economic aid is only one of the aspects to be considered in this regard; equally important is the capacity of the receiving countries to convert the aid into development, and this is a question that depends above all on the strategies, policies, and actions, that is to say, the decisions, adopted by the respective governments. In the international arena, the possibilities for a socialist option were tied to the competition between the capitalist system and the socialist bloc and to the capacities of the popular and national regimes to receive aid from the latter so as to check the pressures of the former. Today, the socialist bloc no longer exists, and there is little sense in crying over spilled milk. The international order that is being formed in the aftermath of the debacle in the East and, above all, in the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War, is a politically unipolar and economically multipolar order, but in any case it is an indubitably capitalist order. The Soviet Union [until its recent demise -- Eds.] and China still hold socialism high on the official scale of values, but their relegation to secondary positions in international politics is beyond doubt. …

Policing the last frontier: Visions of social order and the development of the village public safety officer program in Alaska

Abstract: The description of the origins and development of the Village Public Safety Officer (VPSO) Program, which serves the Native Communities of Alaska, is used to judge the validity of the dominant explanations (culture contact/social dislocation and underdevelopment/dependency) for the state of Native affairs in Alaska. Both explanations are found wanting as they do not explain the specific dynamics of change. An alternative theory ‐ an interested action model ‐ is advocated.

Economy, Health and the Environment: The African Experience

Abstract: Seeks to introduce a comparative international perspective into existing research and scholarship on the environmental degradation facing the world community. Focuses on the legacy of colonialism and continued economic crisis in the African continent and shows the environmental problems of Africa to be a recurrent feature of dependency and underdevelopment. Concludes by calling for a global rethinking of the environmental degradation in Africa by challenging the Western world to assume greater responsibility. Also admonishes Africans to re‐examine their value systems which, for centuries, have provided them with the tools for protecting the environment.