Showing papers on "Underdevelopment published in 2008"

Inequality, Institutions and Economic Growth in Latin America

Abstract: This essay examines three recent historical approaches to the political economy of Latin America's relative economic backwardness. All three locate the origins of contemporary underdevelopment in defective colonial institutions linked to inequality. The contrasting view offered here affirms the significance of institutional constraints, but argues that they did not arise from colonial inequalities, but from the adaptation of Iberian practices to the American colonies under conditions of imperial weakness. Colonial inequality varied across the Americas; while it was not correlated with colonial economic performance, it mattered because it determined the extent of elite resistance to institutional modernisation after independence. The onset of economic growth in the mid to late nineteenth century brought economic elites to political power, but excluding majorities as inequality increased restrained the region's twentieth-century growth rates and prevented convergence.

The Middle East and North Africa

Abstract: The growth and development performance of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region presents one of the major anomalies that current economics literature seeks to resolve, which is how to reconcile the existence of massive natural resources with the high unemployment, low growth and the general underdevelopment of the region. In this debate, much attention is focused on the problems arising from: a) state oriented inward looking economic policies, b) lack of ‘integration’ with the world economy, c) underdeveloped financial sectors and chilling investment climate, and d) low levels of human capital development. In this paper, we attempt to present a summarized yet more balanced and hopefully more insightful analysis of the growth and development experience of the countries in the region with a special attention given to the existing bottlenecks hindering future development prospects. While discussing the MENA region as a whole we will divide the countries into five subgroups: 1) oil rich labor importing states (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Libya, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia) 2) oil rich labor abundant states (Algeria, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq, Syria), 3) oil poor labor abundant NICs (Egypt, Morocco, Turkey), 4) oilpoor limited natural resource states (Israel, Tunisia, West Bank and Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon), and 5) natural resource poor states (Sudan, Yemen). (Richards and Waterbury, 1996). Although the inclusion of Turkey, Israel, and Iran is controversial as the trajectory of the Arab and other Middle Eastern countries constitute a more appropriate whole, they share many commonalities as well. However, unless stated otherwise, the general statements will exclude Turkey and Israel. The economic history of MENA region is characterized by several cycles of growth and accumulation. In retrospect, the region formerly enjoyed higher levels of economic development and prosperity compared to its counterparts in Europe. While Istanbul with its 700,000 inhabitants in 16 century was the largest city in the world, North Africa overall was much more urbanized than Europe (Paris with 125,000 inhabitants vs. Cairo with 450,000 around 1500) (Bairoch, 1997:517-537). However, in the last of these cycles, the region experienced a decline in its growth and development indicators starting from early 18 century with the factors that precipitated this decline remaining a source of continuing debate. The current essay will focus

Global Civil War: The Non-Insured, International Containment and Post-Interventionary Society

Abstract: The focus of this paper is a global civil war being fought not between armies but at the level of existence itself. In order to explore such a war, development and underdevelopment are reinterpreted as a distinction between insured and non-insured life. That is, between populations supported by regimes of social protection as opposed to those expected to be self-reliant. While the complementarity of development and security is commonly asserted, from this perspective the nexus is incomplete without the additional term ‘containment’. The connection then becomes: you cannot have either development or security without containing the circulation of underdeveloped or non-insured life. Since decolonization, containment has been at the heart of an expansive international security architecture that both separates and reproduces the life-chance divide between the developed and underdeveloped worlds. The paper explores the origins, contours and implications of this global civil war, including the place of development and humanitarian assistance within it.

Development and Underdevelopment: The Political Economy of Global Inequality

Abstract: The fifth edition of this classic reader retains many of the articles that have made the book a must-assign for classes on development and political economy, but has been updated with 14 new chapters that look even more deeply at long-term factors that help to explain the origins and current trends in the gap between rich and poor. An entirely new section focuses on natural resource and environmental issues, and the appendix of wealth and inequality indicators has been fully revised. The editors' short introduction to each selection, highlighting its significance, remains a key feature of the book.

Party Patronage in Contemporary Europe

Abstract: Party patronage is generally associated with social, economic and political underdevelopment, and is hence seen as largely irrelevant in the context of contemporary European politics. In this article, we argue to the contrary, proposing that patronage reappears on the stage of European politics as a critical organizational and governmental resource employed by political parties to enhance their standing as semi-state agencies of government. In order to illustrate our main contention, we first define party patronage, disentangling it from other notions of political particularism that are often used synonymously in the literature. Second, we provide a brief overview of the literature on the past and present of patronage practices in Europe, arguing that rather than declining, patronage is still likely to be a relevant feature of contemporary party politics in Europe. Finally, we analyse the role of party patronage in the light of recent developments in several European countries, identifying three distinct patterns of patronage practices in the region.

Developing country participation in the GATT: A reassessment

Abstract: Two broad interpretations currently prevail in the literature on developing country participation in the GATT. The first suggests that developing countries spent most of their time in the GATT negotiating to be relieved of various commitments, focusing on the pursuit of industrialization through import substitution and/or free-riding on the commitments made by their industrial counterparts. The second interpretation suggests that developing countries spent the majority of their time in the GATT either as quiet bystanders lacking the expertise or political representation to participate fully, or else attempting to redress biases in the institution's design. The problem with both of these interpretations is that while each has merit neither offers a sufficiently rounded account of developing country participation. Our purpose in this paper is to offer an alternative account of developing country participation that shows more accurately the extent and variation of that participation. We argue that throughout the development of the GATT developing countries were active participants that consistently sought to have an impact on the nature and direction of the multilateral trading system. We also argue that while the energy of developing countries was often directed towards negotiating more favourable treatment for themselves, this was a result more of the asymmetrical manner in which the GATT was deployed and a consequence of their relative underdevelopment than of a desire to free-ride on the favourable trading conditions created by the concession exchanging activities of others. © Rorden Wilkinson and James Scott.

Gender Equality, Development and Transitional Justice: The Case of Nepal

Abstract: The strong links between transitional justice, development and gender equality have been overlooked and underdeveloped in both theory and practice. Transitions are rare periods of rupture that offer opportunities to reconceive the social meaning of past conflicts in an attempt to reconstruct their present and future effects. The peace-building initiatives unfolding in Nepal encourage a timely examination of the application of the right to development to transitional justice mechanisms. This right embodies much more than economic growth; it is a human rights-based process that aims to empower marginalized groups. In Nepal, this must include women, who not only bore the brunt of the conflict but also continue to suffer systematic discrimination. Many of Nepali women's preexisting problems stem directly from inequality and underdevelopment. This article suggests that transitional justice should go beyond retributive and restorative approaches to consider the economic, social and cultural inequalities that fuel conflicts while setting the foundation for a permanent rights-based development programme that ensures the viability of women's rights in the future. A redistributive approach to transitional justice based on the legal and political process of the right to development is crucial to achieving gender equality in Nepal and avoiding renewed cycles of violence.

Social Movements and Corporate Social Responsibility in South Africa

Abstract: If Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is often reduced to ‘greenwashing’ for naive middle-class consumers, is there a more durable force to address excessive profit taking and consequent underdevelopment? While the post-apartheid era in South Africa has been celebrated, with little foresight, for an ‘economic boom’ that restored relative corporate profitability to levels last witnessed during apartheid's heyday, the same period saw world-class social opposition to corporate power. Three areas are illustrative: the Treatment Action Campaign's street pressure and legal strategy to acquire anti-retroviral drugs for HIV-positive people; Sowetans whose street protests helped drive Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux out of Johannesburg and whose constitutional case over the right to water attacked its commercialization policies; and climate activists who oppose carbon trading. Meanwhile, activists also demanded reparations from apartheid-tainted transnational corporations in the US courts through the Alien Tort Claims Act, while a ‘Corpse Awards' was launched by activists in part to mitigate against CSR efforts. The critiques of corporations — and CSR — and the motivation for social activism are informed by strategic principles of ‘decommodification’ and ‘deglobalization of capital’; the first cannot work without the second.

Regional underdevelopment and terrorism: The case of south eastern Turkey

Abstract: This article investigates the possible role of the regional underdevelopment of South Eastern Turkey in the ensuing terrorism in the country. The article also aims at making a contribution towards a better understanding of some economic conditions that are related to terrorism. For this purpose, a novel approach to the examination of the roots of terrorism has been followed. First, we run Principal Components Analysis on total GDP and its components in South Eastern Turkey in order to reduce the number of potential explanatory variables. Second, we use the first three components in a logit regression where the dependent variable consists of an index of terrorist attacks. The results of the analysis have revealed that total GDP is helpful in explaining terrorism in Turkey. Furthermore, we find evidence that agriculture and government services are more important components of GDP in explaining terrorism than factors such as trade, construction, manufacturing and transportation.

Regional underdevelopment and terrorism: The case of south eastern Turkey

Abstract: This article investigates the possible role of the regional underdevelopment of South Eastern Turkey in the ensuing terrorism in the country. The article also aims at making a contribution towards a better understanding of some economic conditions that are related to terrorism. For this purpose, a novel approach to the examination of the roots of terrorism has been followed. First, we run Principal Components Analysis on total GDP and its components in South Eastern Turkey in order to reduce the number of potential explanatory variables. Second, we use the first three components in a logit regression where the dependent variable consists of an index of terrorist attacks. The results of the analysis have revealed that total GDP is helpful in explaining terrorism in Turkey. Furthermore, we find evidence that agriculture and government services are more important components of GDP in explaining terrorism than factors such as trade, construction, manufacturing and transportation.

Khat special edition introduction.

Abstract: Although khat (Catha edulis) is not widely known outside its countries of production in East Africa and Yemen, it evokes strong views among consumers, development workers, and government officials who often behave as self-styled experts on the drug. Yet, the evidence of harm to health is scant. As khat consumption has spread to five continents it is perceived as being "exotic" and "alien" and to be a major cause of poverty and underdevelopment. However, it is argued here that khat is being used as a scapegoat for a wide range of social and economic ills across the world.

Explaining the underdevelopment of `Social Europe': a critical realization

Abstract: Summary This article argues that existing accounts of the underdevelopment of ‘Social Europe’ have failed to adequately integrate the contending obstacles that explain the absence they rightly identify It argues that by employing a critical realist methodology, including the concepts of generation, emergence, and stratification, it is possible to more adequately integrate knowledge of the obstacles to ‘Social Europe’ Concretely, the article argues that obstacles to ‘Social Europe’ exist at three strata, constituted by institutional relations, political relations, and Europe-wide social relations, respectively The underdevelopment of ‘Social Europe’ emerged from the institutional stratum, which in turn was generated (but not determined) by the underlying political relations, which were themselves in turn generated by EU-wide social relations From this perspective, the oft-lamented absence of ‘Social Europe’ is an emergent property of underlying institutional, political and EU-wide social relations; its occurrence, therefore, is far less contingent than existing, less integrated, accounts suggest

Cars, corporations, and commodities: Consequences for the social determinants of health

Abstract: Social epidemiologists have drawn attention to health inequalities as avoidable and inequitable, encouraging thinking beyond proximal risk factors to the causes of the causes. However, key debates remain unresolved including the contribution of material and psychosocial pathways to health inequalities. Tools to operationalise social factors have not developed in tandem with conceptual frameworks, and research has often remained focused on the disadvantaged rather than on forces shaping population health across the distribution. Using the example of transport, we argue that closer attention to social processes (capital accumulation and motorisation) and social forms (commodity, corporation, and car) offers a way forward. Corporations tied to the car, primarily oil and vehicle manufacturers, are central to the world economy. Key drivers in establishing this hegemony are the threat of violence from motor vehicles and the creation of distance through the restructuring of place. Transport matters for epidemiology because the growth of mass car ownership is environmentally unsustainable and affects population health through a myriad of pathways. Starting from social forms and processes, rather than their embodiment as individual health outcomes and inequalities, makes visible connections between road traffic injuries, obesity, climate change, underdevelopment of oil producing countries, and the huge opportunity cost of the car economy. Methodological implications include a movement-based understanding of how place affects health and a process-orientated integration of material and psychosocial explanations that, while materially based, contests assumptions of automatic benefits from economic growth. Finally, we identify car and oil corporations as anti-health forces and suggest collaboration with them creates conflicts of interest.

Scrambling to the Bottom? Mining, Resources & Underdevelopment

Abstract: The 21st century race for resources and territory has simultaneously induced cries of optimism from donors and the international agencies, but there is despair from critics and many on the continen...

Community Unions in Japan: Similarities and Differences of Region-based Labour Movements between Japan and Other Industrialized Countries

Abstract: This article examines organizational characteristics of Japanese community unions and analyses similarities and differences in the organizational forms and activities of community unionism between Japan and other industrialized countries. The article first outlines the conceptual framework of community unionism based on the literature review of studies on cases in the US, Canada, Australia and the UK, and then examines to what extent the framework is applicable to the Japanese case. Although there are some common features, one of the important differences of community unionism between Japan and other industrialized countries is the weakness of coalition-building between community unions and community-based organizations in Japan compared to other countries. The article argues that the forms of community unionism are mediated by civil societal and institutional contexts of labour movements, and that the relative underdevelopment of civil society and industrial relations institutions (liberal union recognit...

‘You'd never starve here’: return migration to rural Newfoundland

Abstract: Return migration to Newfoundland Canada is analyzed using data from a 1979 survey of 420 returning migrants and from a more detailed survey of 66 individuals in two communities undertaken in 1981-1982. The relationship between migration and underdevelopment in the rural areas is examined. (summary in FRE) (ANNOTATION)

An Inquiry into the Roots of the Modern Concept of Development

Abstract: Development policy rests on the conceptual division of the world between developed and underdeveloped countries. Th e article argues that this dichotomous way of splitting the world into one collective self, on one side, and a collective other, on the other, pertains to the category of what Koselleck has termed “asymmetrical counterconcepts.” Moreover, many of the characteristics of our modern concept of development directly derive from older counterconcepts or dichotomizations e.g. the idea that the underdeveloped can, in principle, “develop” and that developed countries should assist others in developing themselves. In this essay some historical examples of such dichotomies are examined, with a special emphasis on the civilized-uncivilized conceptual pair and on the idea of civilizing the “Barbarian.” Th e recapitulation of past dichotomies not only unearths the historical infl uences on the idea of development. Above all, it contributes to a better understanding of its present-day complexities.

Future Options for North Australia

Abstract: Anticipating the future is uniquely human. We strive constantly to anticipate trends and great events to seek opportunity and avoid disaster. So what will drive the future of tropical Australia? The four authors of this book, all of whom have a close association with the Cooperative Research Centre for Tropical Savanna Management, identify ten major drivers that will shape the north: population, social function, property rights, Commonwealth policy, the global economy, resource use, oil futures, climate change, invasive organisms and technological innovation. For each they identify the risks, uncertainties and the extent to which they can be controlled by the people of the north. Then they describe seven possible futures: chronic underdevelopment, degeneration, a northern ricebowl, an industrial powerhouse, environment first, an Indigenous community Utopia and dynamic urbanization. These are not predictions. They are scenarios to make readers think and realize that the decisions being made today will have a profound influence in the future. Whereas for the rest of the world, the future has largely been set by unplanned development and the irrevocable contingencies of history, northern Australia can be moulded by deliberate and considered choices. Our generation has the opportunity and frightening responsibility to make those choices. Stephen Garnett has had experience in many different sectors - Indigenous, pastoral, government and academic - in his 30 years in tropical Australia. John Woinarski is the doyen of environmental scientists in the north with a deep understanding of the evolutionary processes that have shaped and will shape our region. Rolf Gerritsen is an economist with an in dependent view of trends in tropical economies and Gordon Duff, who once headed the Tropical Savannas CRC, has had decades of experience bringing diverse groups together in a common purpose to take the north forward towards are more harmonious future.

Reparations to Africa

Abstract: What is the just measure of Western obligations to Africa? As Africans and their supporters mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in the United States and Great Britain, the question becomes increasingly salient. Calls for reparations for the evils of slavery, as well as for past colonial and current economic and political abuses, can be heard across Africa and the African diaspora. Human rights scholar Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann examines these calls for redress in Reparations to Africa. Her study analyzes the reparations movement from the perspectives of law, philosophy, political science, and sociology. While acknowledging the brutal background of the slave trade and colonialism, and the mistreatment of the peoples of Africa, Howard-Hassmann finds that the complexity of this history, along with facts of the contemporary situation, weakens the case for financial compensation, although she does recommend acknowledgment of, and apologies for, some actions. The book not only provides a bold reckoning of the root causes, both internal and external, of African underdevelopment and unrest but also suggests alternative means for restorative justice and examines the role that institutions such as the International Criminal Court can play. By including the voices of 74 African academics, diplomats, and activists interviewed by Howard-Hassmann and Anthony P. Lombardo, Reparations to Africa makes a valuable contribution to the reparations debate. In an emotionally and politically charged postcolonial environment, this book serves as a judicious guide to the search for economic justice for Africans today and into the future.

Globalização e inconversibilidade monetária

Abstract: The central hypothesis of this article is that in the context of globalization, monetary inconvertibility is a crucial problem of peripheral countries. It begins with a brief review of the debate from a historical point of view and then stresses the contemporary opposite's views on the fragility of financial system of emerging countries: the original sin and the debt intolerance hypothesis. Despite of supporting the first one, the article goes further and explores the domestic implication of inconvertibility. It criticizes the jurisdicional uncertainty proposition showing that an inherent flaw in the store of value of emerging market currencies, derived from original sin is the main reason for de facto inconvertibility and underdevelopment of domestic financial system of these countries.

Landed Interests and Financial Underdevelopment in the United States

Abstract: Landed elites in the United States in the early decades of the twentieth century played a significant role in restricting the development of finance. States that had higher land concentration passed more restrictive banking legislation. At the county level, counties with very concentrated land holdings tended to have disproportionately fewer banks per capita.Banks were especially scarce both when landed elites' incentive to suppress finance, as well as their ability to exercise local influence, was higher. Finally, the resulting financial underdevelopment was negatively correlated with subsequent manufacturing growth. We draw lessons from this episode for understanding economic development.

A Cultural Approach to Establishing Equity and Closing the Educational Achievement Gap.

Abstract: Addressing the underdevelopment awaiting most children belonging to historically disparaged groups in the uneven playing field of public education remains the top problem in advancing equity and excellence in education. Clearly, excellence in our educational system requires equity in opportunities to learn regardless of children’s background or status. The achievement gap remains as wide today as when it was first documented by norm-referenced, learning and teaching outcomes (e.g., National Assessment of Educational Progress NAEP scores by ethnicity) among mounting evidence that in effect reveal an average differential of four grade levels. While differences at the individual level are understandable, gross disparities in both educational and economic outcomes among ethnic populations represent a problem with both scientific and ethical dimensions (Portes, 2005). The social science community is still at a loss after decades of reforms that fail to reduce this enduring achievement gap in education. Well funded comprehensive school reform models have created the illusion that the gap is closing when this is not true. For example current NCLB policies and related programs, such as Success for All (Slavin, 2002) do not, in spite of claims to the contrary (see Pogrow, 1999; 2002), close the gap nor offer a viable alternative direction. Such an example raises ethical questions not only about how scarce resources are being misallocated but also of how pretense and self-serving entrepreneurship becomes part of the political economy of education. This problem may be defined in terms of how social injustice prevails alongside group-based poverty that in effect cause and sustain the educational system’s under-education by design. The latter in part defines the “achievement gap”. The gap is dialogical, a semiotic category that remains largely misunderstood by those who associated it with a cultural deficit that thrives in the thinking of influential policy writers (see Rothstein, 2004; Thernstrom & Thernstrom, 2003). These scholars frame the problem of the achievement gap in terms of faulty parenting practices that should be modified to parallel of those of middle class dominant group families and successful Asian groups. Zero tolerance practices championed by charter schools are considered a solution to the longstanding pattern of group based poverty and social disadvantages that include tracking and severe inequalities (Kozol, 1992; 2000).

Development Discourse of the Globalists and Dependency Theorists: do the globalisation theorists rephrase and reword the central concepts of the dependency school?

Abstract: This paper discusses the discourses of the globalisation theorists and dependency scholars in respect of their views on development and underdevelopment. The paper argues that there are underlying similarities between the central concepts of the dependency approach and globalisation theories. Some of the globalisation theorists come remarkably close to the central concepts of the dependency theories by rewording and rephrasing the same concepts but colouring them with different ideological hues. Neither classic development theory nor dependency theories have full explanatory power with respect to the current order of global economic relations. The branch of globalisation theories which has historical roots in classical development theory has shown resilience, while dependency theories have not totally lost their significance.

Marx on nineteenth-century colonial ireland: analysing colonialism as a dynamic social process

Abstract: Discussion of the relationship between Ireland and colonialism has often revolved around similarities and differences between the Irish situation and other, more iconic, examples of colonised societies. This tendency has been partially encouraged by the prominence within Marxian scholarship of dependency theory, which contends that the underdevelopment of colonial societies is due primarily to their integration into the capitalist world economic system. In this analysis, all colonised societies can be characterised by this integration into world capitalism, and consequently share a common source of exploitation and disadvantage. This perspective has often located its source in Marx’s writings on India and, crucially for our current concern, Ireland. This article explores a different perspective on colonialism which the authors believe can be found in Marx’s consideration of the Irish situation.

Development and underdevelopment: A preliminary sociological perspective

Abstract: The PDF of this file is 8,078 kbytes in size and therefore will take a long time to download if you click on the PDF link below. If you would like the file to be sent to you by email, please send a request to info@nepjol.info. Please include the citation below in your request. DOI: 10.3126/opsa.v1i0.1060 Occasional Papers in Sociology and Anthropology Vol.1 1987 p.105-135

The institutional framework of the united nations development programme--ministry of science and technology (undp--most) telecenter project in rural china

Abstract: Construction of rural telecenters has been recently promoted by Chinese government officials as an innovative way to solve the problem of underdevelopment in rural areas. To address questions on the project's effectiveness and manageability, this article attempts to do a case study on the United Nations Development Programme--Ministry of Science and Technology (UNDP--MoST) telecenter project by analyzing the deliberative nature of its institutional framework. Such an analysis seems to indicate the coexistence of a collaborative network-building effort and a continuity of traditional institutional hierarchy, division, and lack of public deliberation. Although policy innovations should be celebrated, further efforts should be taken to promote the complexity of the framework and enable further participatory deliberation in the project policy-making process.