Showing papers on "Underdevelopment published in 2001"

Beyond Settler and Native as Political Identities: Overcoming the Political Legacy of Colonialism

Abstract: My starting point is the generation that inherited Africa's colonial legacy. Our generation followed on the heels of nationalists. We went to school in the colonial period and to university after independence. We were Africa's first generation of postcolonial intellectuals. Our political consciousness was shaped by a central assumption: we were convinced that the impact of colonialism on our societies was mainly economic. In the decade that followed African political independence, militant nationalist intellectuals focused on the expropriation of the native as the great crime of colonialism. Walter Rodney wrote How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.1 But no one wrote of how Europe ruled Africa. We were convinced that political economy was the most appropriate tool to come to analytical grips with the colonial legacy. The great contribution of underdevelopment theorists was to historicize the construction of colonial markets and thereby of market-based identities. The popularity of political economy spread like a forest fire in the post-independence African academy precisely because it historicized colonial realities, even if in a narrowly economic way. Political economy provided a way of countering two kinds of colonial presumptions, embedded in various theories of modernization.2 The first was that colonial cultures were not grounded in historical processes. The second was that colonial contact marked the beginning of a history for these societies, since colonialism was presumed to have animated them culturally, economically, and politically. The limits of political economy as a framework for political analysis began to surface in the face of postcolonial political violence, for political economy could only explain violence when it resulted from a clash between marketbased identities-either class or division of labor. From this point of view, political violence had to be either revolutionary or counterrevolutionary. In the face of political violence that cut across social classes rather than between them-violence that was neither revolutionary nor counterrevolutionary but simply nonrevolutionary, violence animated mainly by distinctions crafted in colonial law rather than sprouting from the soil of a commodity economy-ex

Against Global Apartheid: South Africa Meets the World Bank, IMF and International Finance

Abstract: Part One: Powers and Vulnerabilities - Chapter One: Global Crisis, African Oppression - Chapter Two: Southern African Socio-Economic Conflict - Chapter Three: Bretton Woods Bankruptcies in Southern Africa - Chapter Four: Foreign Aid, Development and Underdevelopment - Part Two: Elite Contestation of Global Governance - Chapter Five: The Global Balance of Forces - Chapter Six: Ideology and Global Governance - Chapter Seven: Pretoria's Global Governance Strategy - Part Three: Economic Power and the case of HIV/AIDS Treatment - Chapter Eight: Pharmaceutical Corporations and US Imperialism - Chapter Nine: Civil Society Conquest, State Failure - Part Four: Globalisation or Internationalism plus the Nation State? - Chapter Ten: The 'Fix-it-or-nix-it' Debate - Chapter Eleven: The Third World in the Movement for Global Justice - Chapter Twelve: The Case for Locking Capital Down

Political Underdevelopment: What causes ‘bad governance’

Abstract: The states of the ‘South’, although diverse, tend to be underdeveloped in the political sense: neither authoritative and effective nor legitimate and accountable to citizens The conventional response of aid donors is institutional transfer : trying to align the institutional configurations of Southern states even more closely with those of Northern polities This may not be the best approach The political underdevelopment of much of the South largely results from the ways in which Southern states have been created and political authority shaped through economic and political interactions with the wealthier countries of the North Political underdevelopment is an outcome of uneven (economic) development A better appreciation of the nature of these processes could lead to more appropriate policy History cannot be reversed But more attention could be paid to the ways in which Northern states currently help sustain political underdevelopment in the South, notably by perpetuating the conditions under whic

Tiger Technology: The Creation of A Semiconductor Industry in East Asia

Abstract: Tiger Technology: The Creation of A Semiconductor Industry in East Asia. By John A. Mathews And Dong-Sung Cho. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Pp. 389. This is an important book looking in detail at an important aspect of the East Asian economies -- the semiconductor industry. The development of this sector, together with the wider electronics industry of which it is a crucial part, has been at the leading edge of the region's rapid industrialization along with the car, steel, textiles, and petrochemical industries. The book takes the semiconductor sector as a prime example for understanding the dynamics behind this rapid industrialization and describes why parts of East Asia (Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and, to some extent, Malaysia) have managed to come close to the world cutting edge in such complex technologies. The book follows in the tradition of Hobday (1995) and Borrus et al. (2000) with a detailed discussion of country experiences and applies a thorough review of the literature regarding technology diffusion and organizational theory to the specifics of the East Asian semiconductor industry. In this way the authors examine the wider implications including prospects of replication in both other developing economies and also in the United States and European Union (EU). This book is an important contribution to our understanding of why the region developed so fast and will be useful for a variety of readers from macroeconomists to industry specific specialists and policy-makers around the world. The key dynamic stressed is the creation of institutional capabilities to leverage existing technology from more advanced countries as opposed to traditional product invention and discovery. They rigorously explain that this was not a spontaneous development. Rather, it was the result of a concerted effort by the development-- orientated state to build the required institutional frameworks. In the context of technological underdevelopment, and with the disadvantages of being latecomers, the governments were instrumental in creating the mechanisms by which technology could be first introduced, then adapted to local requirements and finally mastered. Japan was the first and was perhaps sui generis with its strategy of full infant industry protection and a heavily mercantilist view. In the contemporary globalizing world with WTO (World Trade Organization)/IMF (International Monetary Fund) type policy agendas, the potential for broad replication focuses more on examining the strategies of Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore. Broadly similar approaches to technology diffusion were taken albeit with differing focuses reflecting differing characteriztics and initial endowments. In Korea, the focus was on the top with vertically integrated chaebols as the lead with easy credit supplied by government-controlled banks. Alternatively, in Taiwan, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) were dominant, supported by the public sector which took on an enabling role. Crucially, it established agencies such as ITRI acting as technology providers and "incubators". ITRI then spun off successes such as UMC and TSMC (a joint venture with Philips) into the private sector. These became some of the most successful firms of their type in the world. The Singapore strategy was more open to foreign direct investments (FDI) with the crucial role of state agencies such as the Economic Development Board (EDB) in creating backward and forward linkages around the multinational corporations (MNCs) in clusters centred on industrial estates. The conclusion is rightly that variants of the Singapore model are the most replicable for most developing countries with a focus on MNCs as the production core alongside institutional structures to ensure adequate technology transfer and the creation of backward linkages into the wider economy. Of great contemporary interest is that China has now embraced the successful leverage strategy. As the authors correctly point out, China is big and diverse enough to follow simultaneously all three versions of the leverage strategy. …

The Correlation between Economic Underdevelopment and Sport

Abstract: This paper demonstrates the strong relationship that exists between the level of economic development in a country and the level of its sporting development. In particular, developing countries are plagued with a shortage of physical education and sport for all programmes, a lack of financing for sport, few sport facilities and little equipment, a “muscle drain” to developed counties, and no capacity to host major sporting events. An ordered‐logit model estimation shows that the probability for a country to win medals at the Olympics increases with GDP per capita and population. On the other hand, sport in the Third World cannot escape to professionalism, multinational sponsors, media and corruption, nor to the relocation of the sporting goods industry in low cost labour areas. Economic development is the only basic recipe against sporting underdevelopment. However, other solutions such as: the UNESCO effort in favour of physical education, sport for all and traditional sports in developing countries; for...

Circles of Disadvantage: Aboriginal Poverty and Underdevelopment in Canada

Abstract: (2001). Circles of Disadvantage: Aboriginal Poverty and Underdevelopment in Canada. American Review of Canadian Studies: Vol. 31, No. 1-2, pp. 43-59.

Rebuilding Bridges: A Critical Geopolitics of Iberian Transfrontier Cooperation in a European Context

Abstract: In the context of approaches to understanding the European Union (EU) and ‘critical geopolitics’ which traces the construction of geopolitical narratives, the author writes about the imaginations of European society and space as harmonised and networked which are associated with visions of governance for ‘an ever closer union’. This is done through a critical examination of the European Commission's project of sponsoring cross-border cooperation. Drawing on a case study from the Portuguese — Spanish frontier, he examines contradictions that have arisen and are mediated through an unresolved dispute concerning the demarcation of a short section of what is the longest, poorest (in terms of material underdevelopment), and oldest (in terms of relative stability) border between two EU member states. Focusing on the EU-funded (re)construction of a ruined bridge across the border, he examines the way in which the boundary dispute (and attendant Portuguese irredentism) has become enfolded within and disrupts the ...

Readings in the theory of economic development

Abstract: Acknowledgments.Inroduction.Part I: Underdevelopment As Market Incompleteness: Economy-Wide Implications. A: Coordination Failures and Underdevelopment. 1. Industrialization and the Big Push. (Kevin M. Murphy, Andrei Shleifer and Robert W. Vishny) 2. Increasing Returns and Long-Run Growth. (Paul M. Romer) 3. History and Coordination Failure. (Alicia Adsera and Debraj Ray) B: Inequality and Underdevelopment.4. Income Distribution and Macroeconomics. (Oded Galor and Joseph Zeira) 5. Occupational Choice and the Process of Development. (Abhijit V. Banerjee and Andrew F. Newman)6. Economic Underdevelopment: The Case of a Missing Market for Human Capital. (Lars Ljungqvist) C: Slow Convergence7. Was Prometheus Unbound by Chance?: Risk, Diversification and Growth. (Daron Acemoglu and Fabrizio Zilibotti) Part II: Market Incompleteness And Informal Institutions: Microeconomic Analysis. Agrarian Organization. A: Agarian organization.8. Access to Capital and Agrarian Production Organization. (Mukesh Eswaran and Ashok Kotwal)B: Labor. 9. Part 1: Inequality as a Determinant of Malnutrition and Unemployment: Theory Part 2 Inequality as a Determinant of Malnutrition and Unemployment: Policy (Partha Dasgupta and Debraj Ray) 10. A Theory of Two-Tier Labor Markets in Agrarian Economies. (Mukesh Eswaran and Ashok Kotwal.C: Credit and Land 11. Credit Rationing in Developing Countries: An Overview of the Theory. (Parikshit Ghosh, Dilip Mookherjee and Debraj Ray)12. Sharecropping and the Interlinking of Agrarian Markets. (Avishay Braverman and Joseph E. Stiglitz) 13. Informational Rents and Property Rights in Land. (Dilip Mookherjee)D: Cooperatives and the Informal Economy. 14. Reciprocity without Commitment: Characterization and Performance of Informal Insurance Arrangements. (Stephen Coate and Martin Ravallion) 15. The Economics of Rotating Savings and Credit Associations. (Timothy Besley, Stephen Coate and Glenn Loury) 16. The Economics of Lending with Joint Liability: Theory and Practice. (Maitreesh Ghatak and Timothy W. Guinnane)17. Learning by Doing and Learning from Others: Human Capital and Technical Change in Agriculture. (Andrew D. Foster and Mark R. Rosenzweig) Index.

Narcotrafficking, migration, and modernity in rural Mexico.

Abstract: Here therefore I try to address this issue to provide a deeper understanding of the cultural and economic processes that are at play. The aim is to complicate the prevailing version of narcotrafficking that so frequently associates it with rural underdevelopment marginalization and "peasants." Below I examine the local history and the cultural processes that contribute to the proliferation of a narcotics industry in the Tierra Caliente region of Michoacan. This ethnographic approach highlights the local identities and changing social relations that emerge alongside these structural changes (Appadurai 1996; Pred and Watts 1992). I show that narcotrafficking has risen alongside a long history of capital investment and modernization an argue that it is because of the previous state interventions in this region encouraging agroindustrial production and entrepreneurial behavior that narcotrafficking could emerge so forcefully. I then describe some of the cultural practices of traffickers and their followers to illustrate how they have come to be seen as a group within the local space. (excerpt)

Dependency Theory Revisited

Abstract: Part 1 The ontology of dependency: what is dependency? the historicity macrocosmic and microcosmic systems distinctions between microcosmic system and macrocosmic system the nature of dependency and exploitation mechanism and surplus extraction the convergence in the dependency models the epistemic basis of dependency theory dependency studies in a developing country towards an appraisal. Part 2 Karl Marx on development and underdevelopment: on the nature of development on the nature of underdevelopment structuralist approach surplus extraction approach comparative elements in development and underdevelopment the process of growth towards a critical appraisal. Part 3 Paul Baran's analysis of economic backwardness and economic growth: essential features of Baran's analysis typology of surplus critical appraisal. Part 4 Andre Gunder Frank's analysis of development of underdevelopment: major tenets of Frank's thesis micro-macro structures of underdevelopment and development critical appraisal. Part 5 Samir Amin on unequal development: exposition of Samir Amin's basic thesis distinction between central capitalism and peripheral capitalism critical appraisal. Part 6 The structuralist models: generalised structuralist model (GSM) Dos Santos's structuralist model (DSM) distinction between GSM and DSM critical appraisal. Part 7 The theories of unequal exchange: Presbisch-Singer thesis, distinction between centre and periphery, critical appraisal Arghiri Emmanuel on unequal exchange, narrow interpretation of unequal exchange, broad interpretation of unequal exchange, critical appraisal. Part 8 The peripheral writers on dependency: Celso Furtado on underdevelopment and dualism Geoffrey Kay's views on development and underdevelopment F.H. Cardoso on dependency and development in Latin America Bill Warren's views on dependency Osvaldo Sunkel on external dependence and national development policy Immanuel Vallerstein's modern world system R.M. Marini's dependencia dialectica Gunnar Myrdal's theory of circular causation Anthony Gidden's evolutionary theory of development and change. Part 9 Contemporary issues in the dependency debate: dependency and development - intertemporal paradigm shifts human development and human rights technological imperialism brain drain and reverse transfer of technology world monetary system and new international economic disorder globalisation as unequal competition the West and the rest - between the end of history and the clash of civilisation.

Building the New World: Studies in the Modern Architecture of Latin America 1930-1960

Abstract: The period between 1930 and 1960 in particular saw a dramatic upsurge in Latin American modern architecture as the various governments strove to make public their modernising intentions. After 1960, however, the year in which Brasilia was inaugurated, economic growth in the region slowed and the modernist project faltered. The English-speaking world, which had previously admired Latin American buildings, began to write them out of the history of twentieth-century architecture. "Building the New World" attempts to redress the balance. It surveys the most important examples of state-funded modernism in Latin America during a period of almost unimaginable optimism, when politicians and architects such as Pani, Costa, Reidy and Niemeyer sought ways, literally, to build their societies out of underdevelopment.

Neo-Patrimonialism as an Impediment to Economic Development: The Case of Ukraine

Abstract: Since the abolition of communism anti-modern tendencies have come to the fore in Ukrainian society. The vicious circle of underdevelopment in which Ukraine finds itself nowadays can be seen in the ...

For Another Europe: A Class Analysis of European Economic Integration

Abstract: Arguing against neo-classical or Keynesian theories for understanding the economics of the European Union, this book is both an introduction to and a critique of the Union. Through a class analysis the current view on competition and social policy is challenged, and topics like underdevelopment and the role of interest groups in decision-making, usually ignored, are presented. The result is an exploration of the economics of the Union and an argument that another Europe is possible.

The Caspian Pipeline Dilemma: Political Games and Economic Losses

Abstract: Introduction The Significance of the Caspian Energy Resources Reason for the Underdevelopment of the Caspian Energy Resources Routes with Indirect Access to International Waters: Their Merits and Limits Conclusion Bibliography Index

Culture and economic development: modernisation to globalisation

Abstract: Despite constant post-war efforts to decipher the development process, it appears that little practical progress has been made. Many theories have been proposed (some leading directly to policy), but very few developing countries have succeeded in breaking the bonds of underdevelopment. Social theorists from Karl Marx to Daniel Bell have argued that economic development brings pervasive cultural change. Others, from Max Weber to Samuel Huntington, have claimed that cultural values are an enduring and autonomous influence on society. Empirically we find evidence of both massive cultural change and the persistence of distinctive cultural traditions. The relationship of “culture” and “economic development” during the past fifty years can be, and has been, viewed variably as causal, correlative or relatively autonomous.

The digital divide in developing countries: towards an information society in Africa

Abstract: The editors of this book have brought together a fine selection of scientific articles centred around the changing communications landscape in Africa. Indeed, the technological and political convergence of formerly separate communication areas (audio-visual media, telecommunications, informatics) is offering African countries new opportunities. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are increasingly filtering through into the African continent. However Africa has only taken its first steps on the path towards an information society and is far lagging behind when it is compared to the western countries. A new, invisible border, that seperates those who can afford ICTs and those who can not, is arising. This so-called digital divide could have far-reaching consequences. For ICTs give access to information. This information can lead to knowledge. And knowledge is a prerequisite for development. Therefore ICTs are considered to be promising technologies that can be one of the tools to stop the ongoing underdevelopment of Africa. Nevertheless it is also argued in this book that the way to go is long, difficult and problematic. Several authors have formulated recommendations which could be helpful to walk this complicated path towards an information society in Africa.

Bolivia is a megadiversity country and a developing country

Abstract: Bolivia has access to the most important ecological regions of tropical South America It is one of the few countries in the world to have a major portion of global biodiversity concentrated within its national boundaries Bolivia is also a centre of crop-genetic resources of global importance Biodiversity is a main factor in great ethnocultural diversity which implies a broad indigenous knowledge of its utilization for human development Although Bolivia may be called a ‘rich’ megadiversity country, it is also one of the world’s poorest nations in economic and human development terms Ironically, poverty has been a key factor in the conservation of Bolivia’s biodiversity Today, Bolivia still has some of the most extensive forests in the world This is due to a very low human population density, especially in the lowlands, and to a lack of means for accessing and rapidly exploiting the country’s natural resources However, recent years have been marked by dynamic economic development A surge of economic and development activities such as agro-industry, oil exploitation, timber extraction and road construction is leading to biodiversity degradation not only in Bolivia, but throughout the entire world On the other hand, poverty —especially in traditionally settled and cultivated regions of the Andes —has set up a vicious circle of famine, migration, agricultural frontier encroachment and deforestation In Bolivia, this complex mixture of underdevelopment and development is causing biodiversity loss

Unraveling Child Labor and Labor Legislation

Abstract: "The reality that forces poor families to defy child labor laws raises doubts about whether legislation can be enforced successfully." In 1993, social workers and human rights activists were stunned when approximately 70,000 youngsters were unceremoniously thrown out of the Bangladeshi garment industry, prompted by the threat of a US bill to ban imports of goods made by children. (1) Deprived of a regular income, many of the children were driven to the informal sector, which, though unregulated and poorly paid, protected them from the scrutiny of the international media. (2) Although ostensibly aimed at eliminating the exploitation of children worldwide, the potential passing of the US Child Labor Deterrence Act of 1992 (better known as the Harkin Bill after its sponsor, Senator Tom Harkin) caused thousands of already impoverished Bangladeshi children to be pushed further into poverty. In this case, an assertion of human rights legislation resulted in an even greater violation of the rights of the children involved. A comprehensive study conducted by UNICEF found that many of the children had been forced into dangerous jobs and that the girls had become more vulnerable to sexual abuse. (3) The surprising consequences of such well-intentioned legislation calls into question the effectiveness of legislative bans as a weapon against child labor. The reality that forces poor families to defy child labor laws raises doubts about whether legislation can be enforced successfully. In fact, could it be counter-productive by leading to a worsening of poor children's welfare? Proponents of banning child labor often equate child labor with slavery and claim that the employers of children are only interested in profits. Banning child labor, activists argue, is the most effective way to ensure that it is eliminated. Most case studies, however, show that the motivation for sending children to work in the first place is economic and cultural; if such pressures did not drive families, they would generally prefer not to place their children in exploitative situations. Child labor is linked (no matter how complex and intricate the linkage may be) to poverty and underdevelopment. The notion that simply banning child labor will force children to go to school is simplistic and dangerous. The fate of the child workers banned from Bangladesh's garment industry in 1993 is a case in point. While this paper argues that legislative bans alone may be harmful to the child laborers, it does not argue for the dismantling of labor laws and minimum age legislation. On the contrary, what is necessary is an increase in the level of government intervention to solve the problem, using a set of policies that target the complex roots of child labor. In the first section, this paper attempts to define child labor and set out a typology to underscore the importance of understanding its various sources. The second section sets out the theory behind the demand and supply of child labor--factors which should be studied in detail before intervention is designed. The third section describes current child labor legislation and argues that it inadequately addresses many of the determinants of child labor. The final section assesses public and international policy implications of the analysis. LIFE IS LABOR--DEFINITIONS AND A TYPOLOGY Given the scale and nature of the problem, it is surprising how little critical analysis of child labor has been conducted. In fact, this is a field of study where prescription has far outstripped analysis. This is partly due to the fact that data is hard to come by (most governments do not want to record high levels of an officially illegal activity), and what is available is often inaccurate and scanty. (4) Since child labor is an extremely complex phenomenon rooted in various economic, social and cultural characteristics of the society in which it exists, it is imperative to study these roots before policies are designed to eliminate child labor. …

Convergence: Informatization, World System, and Developing Countries

Abstract: This essay reviews the arguments of the utopians and the dystopians on the ongoing Third Communication Revolution—the convergence of telecommunication, computers, and digitization—and makes the point that the state of capitalism stimulated by this revolution has left nations—small or big—with little option but to informatize so they could effectively compete in the world material economy. Because dependency theory offers no solution for these nations to escape from the quagmire of underdevelopment, a persuasive argument has surfaced to view the longitudinal “capitalist” dynamics of the world economy in nonideological terms. Global competition and interdependence reflect to some extent the end of the nation in the orthodox sense. One can reconfigure structural theory—the dependency-world system theory formulation—to reflect the emerging state of globalization. This essay uses an informatization model founded on the basic variables of the old paradigm of modernization— urbanization, literacy, education, and...

The Correlation between Economic Underdevelopment and Sport

Abstract: This paper demonstrates the strong relationship that exists between the level of economic development in a country and the level of its sporting development. In particular, developing countries are plagued with a shortage of physical education and sport for all programmes, a lack of financing for sport, few sport facilities and little equipment, a “muscle drain” to developed counties, and no capacity to host major sporting events. An ordered‐logit model estimation shows that the probability for a country to win medals at the Olympics increases with GDP per capita and population. On the other hand, sport in the Third World cannot escape to professionalism, multinational sponsors, media and corruption, nor to the relocation of the sporting goods industry in low cost labour areas. Economic development is the only basic recipe against sporting underdevelopment. However, other solutions such as: the UNESCO effort in favour of physical education, sport for all and traditional sports in developing countries; for...

Small business in korea, japan, and taiwan

Abstract: Why did Korea, Japan, and Taiwan follow distinct modernization trajectories, despite their similar histories, cultures, and positions in the international system? All three had credit-based, price-administered financial systems; yet these similarly structured systems were wielded differently to help produce widely divergent industrial structures. While small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in both Japan and Taiwan flourished as the major employers and exporters, the underdevelopment of SMEs in Korea remained unmistakable. Despite the strong growth of Korean SMEs in the 1980s, the nation still had far fewer such establishments than either Japan or Taiwan (see Table 1). This article has two aims: (1) to explain differences in financial policy toward small business among the three countries and (2) to account for similarities in the process of policy change over time. The evidence suggests that economic policymaking in East Asia is best explained not by the technocratic preferences of an elite bureaucracy, nor by the bottom-up pressures of organized interests, but by political exigencies and the choices of the regime coalition. Each ruling group had to win a competition for power with other elite policy factions and then had to build paternalistic, or patrimonial, authority in the eyes of society. These political tasks were central in shaping financial policy.

Science, Technology, and Public Policy in Africa: A Framework for Action

Abstract: Underdevelopment in Africa continues to be one of the most perplexing issues of this century. Conventional development policies have failed throughout the continent, and lack of scientific and technological capabilities is considered among the primary causes of the prevailing crisis. Attempts to address underdevelopment have been conducted in terms of what is scientifically and technically feasible in industrialized countries instead of what is socioeconomically and culturally desirable in Africa. Undue reliance on foreign scientific and technological expertise hinders local innovation and creativity, which are crucial to self-sustained development. Redefinition of science and technology policies is urgently needed. Africa should not circumvent the use of science and technology in the quest for development, but it is crucial that African policy makers determine in whose interests science and technology will be developed.

Underdevelopment: A Strategy for Reform

Abstract: The process of globalization, evidenced by environmental change, migration, industrial relation and the extraordinary acceleration of industrial economic relations, has not led to increased convergence in the global economy. Rather, in some cases it has been accompanied by greater divergence between the fortunes of the world's richest and poorest nations. Professor Sylos Labini argues that mainstream economics provide limited help in considering these phenomena and instead adopts the perspectives of Adam Smith, David Riccardo and Malthus, who put economic growth at the centre of their analyses. In this short book he offers a fresh approach to the theory of economic growth and reminds us of the great variety of economic trajectories in developing countries. He further proposes a strategy of institutional reform to respond to the problem of underdevelopment. For Africa he recommends a strategy of organizational reforms, including a programme to eradicate illiteracy and to promote rural and industrial districts.

NGOs and Democratization in Transitional Societies: Lessons from Uganda

Abstract: The failure of the state and the prominence of neo-liberalism as defined by economic and political liberalization have led to the euphoric embrace of non-governmental organization as the panacea for underdevelopment and authoritarianism in the 1990s. But, is this embrace of NGOs just another perpetuation of the “fadism” that has tended to dominant development studies? Can NGOs live up to the theoretical expectations? This article based on case study evidence from Uganda, attempts to bridge the gap between theory and reality by offering a realistic assessment of NGOs' capabilities in the context of democratization in transitional societies.

Globalisation and Insecurity The Direct and Indirect Effects of Small Arms Availability

Abstract: Summaries There is a growing awareness across many sectors that small arms represent a serious risk to human and global security. Partly as a result of the growing awareness of the problem, the analytical appraisal of their effects has diversified. But the field is undergoing a process of self-definition. This article attempts to trace the broadening contours of the debate and highlight the need for a multidisciplinary and integrated approach to disarmament. It recognises that small arms constitute a challenge, both in terms of demand and supply. The article demonstrates that small arms diffusion takes place at the interface of the global and local arenas, in situations of underdevelopment and insecurity, posing intricate challenges to national, regional and international actors. Relief and development actors, including donors and governments, have only now started to acknowledge that armed violence, perpetrated with small arms and light weapons, are a serious impediment to population health and criminality, as well as social and economic development.

Pillars of the Republics: Early Monuments and the Politics of Memory in the Post-Colonial Americas

Abstract: When trying to explain the success of democracy in the United States in 1831 Tocqueville used the comparative method in singling out the most important explanatory factors. He concluded that it were not the natural circumstances like absence of envious neighbors or the availability of natural resources which decided about success or failure of democratic institutions. According to Tocqueville, Latin America boasted the same favorable preconditions and yet he noted: “There are no nations upon the face of the earth ... more miserable than those of South America”. If we translate “customs” into the modern term of political culture we can see that Tocqueville’s explanation is still very much in currency in the social sciences. Indeed, historians of Latin America have frequently argued that the problem of the comparative underdevelopment of the region in part has to be explained by the resistance of traditional socio-cultural structures to modernization. According to this point of view, traditional attitudes and mentalities helped to perpetuate a political culture that proved an obstacle to democracy from the very start.