After stagnating for much of its postcolonial history, economic performance in Sub?Saharan Africa has markedly improved. Since 1995, average economic growth has been close to 5 percent per year. Has Africa finally turned the corner? This paper analyzes growth accelerations and decelerations-that is, country level deviations from long?run trend growth. Seen from this perspective, Africa's record of slow and volatile growth reflects a pattern of offsetting accelerations and declines, and much of the improvement in economic performance in Africa post 1995 turns out to be due to a substantial reduction in the frequency and severity of growth decelerations. The fall in economic declines since 1995 is largely due to better macroeconomic policies, but changes in such 'growth determinants' as investment, export diversification, and productivity have not accompanied the growth boom. Lack of change in these variables and the significant role played by natural resources in sparking growth accelerations suggest that Africa's growth recovery was fragile, even before the recent global economic crisis. The paper concludes by setting out four elements of a strategy that can help move Africa from fewer mistakes to sustained growth: managing natural resources better, pushing nontraditional exports, building the African private sector, and creating new skills.
After stagnating for much of its postcolonial history, economic performance in Sub?Saharan Africa has markedly improved. Since 1995, average economic growth has been close to 5 percent per year. Has Africa finally turned the corner? This paper analyzes growth accelerations and decelerations-that is, country level deviations from long?run trend growth. Seen from this perspective, Africa's record of slow and volatile growth reflects a pattern of offsetting accelerations and declines, and much of the improvement in economic performance in Africa post 1995 turns out to be due to a substantial reduction in the frequency and severity of growth decelerations. The fall in economic declines since 1995 is largely due to better macroeconomic policies, but changes in such 'growth determinants' as investment, export diversification, and productivity have not accompanied the growth boom. Lack of change in these variables and the significant role played by natural resources in sparking growth accelerations suggest that Africa's growth recovery was fragile, even before the recent global economic crisis. The paper concludes by setting out four elements of a strategy that can help move Africa from fewer mistakes to sustained growth: managing natural resources better, pushing nontraditional exports, building the African private sector, and creating new skills.
Beginning in the late 1980s many developing countries turned to the private sector to provide basic infrastructure and utility services, such as highways, railroads, water, wastewater, electricity, gas, and telecommunications. Recent studies suggest that private involvement often benefited customers and reduced government fiscal problems without harming employees or enriching private providers excessively. There were enough high-profile failures, however, to discredit this reform in many quarters. Private involvement is likely to be more successful if it generates real efficiency gains rather than simply transferring costs among parties, if the systems of regulating the private companies are politically sensitive as well as technically competent, if the costs and constraints of private capital are not excessive, and if we are willing to adopt more modest and gradual schemes in difficult circumstances.
This article reviews trends in poverty, economic policies, and growth in a sample of African countries during the 1990s, drawing on the better household data now available. Experiences have varied. Some countries have seen sharp drops in income poverty, whereas others have witnessed marked increases. In some countries overall economic growth has been pro-poor and in others not. But the aggregate numbers hide systematic distributional effects. Taking both macro and micro perspectives of growth and poverty in Africa, the article draws four key conclusions. First, economic policy reforms (improving macroeconomic balances and liberalizing markets) appear conducive to reducing poverty. Second, market connectedness is crucial to enable participation in the gains from economic growth. Some regions and households by virtue of their remoteness were left behind when growth picked up. Third, education and access to land emerge as key private endowments to help households benefit from new economic opportunities. Finally, rainfall variations and ill health have profound effects on poverty outcomes, underscoring the significance of social risk management in poverty reduction strategies in Africa.
This article sets flight capital in the context of portfolio choice, focusing on the proportion of private wealth that is held abroad. There are large regional differences in this proportion, ranging from 5 percent in South Asia to 40 percent in Africa. The authors explain cross-country differences in portfolio choice using variables that proxy differences in the risk-adjusted rate of return on capital. They apply the results to three policy issues: how the East Asian crisis affected domestic capital outflows; the effect of the International Monetary Fund-World Bank debt relief initiative for heavily indebted poor countries on capital repatriation; and why so much of Africa's private wealth is held outside the continent.
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John M. Hobson on Eurocentrism, Historical Sociology and the Curious Case of Postcolonialism
International Relations, it is widely recognized, is a Western discipline, albeit one that claims to speak for global conditions. What does that mean are these regional origins in and by themselves a stake in power politics? This Eurocentrism is often taken as a point of departure for denouncing mainstream approaches by self-proclaimed critical and postcolonialist approaches to IR. John Hobson stages a more radical attack on Eurocentrism, in which western critical theories, too, are complicit in the perpetuation of a dominantly western outlook. In this extensive Talk, Hobson, among others, expounds his understanding of Eurocentrism, discusses the imperative to historicize IR, and sketches the outline of possible venues of emancipation from our provincial predicament.
Print version of this Talk (pdf)
What is, according to you, the biggest challenge / principal debate in current International Relations? What is your position or answer to this challenge / in this debate?
In my view, there are two principal inter-related challenges that face IR. The first is the need to deal with the critique that the discipline is constructed on Eurocentric foundations. This matters both for critical and conventional IR. The latter insists that it works according to value-free positivistic/scientifistic principles. But if it is skewed by an underlying Western-centric bias, as I have contended in my work, then the positivist mantra turns out to constitute a smokescreen or veil behind which lies the dark Eurocentric face of conventional IR. And of course, if Eurocentrism in various forms infects much of critical IR, then it jeopardizes its critical credentials and risks falling back into problem-solving theory. For these reasons, then, I feel that the critique of Eurocentric IR and international political economy (IPE) poses nothing short of an intellectually existential challenge to these disciplines.
The second inter-related challenge is that if we accept that the discipline is essentially Eurocentric then we need to reconstruct IR's foundations on a non-Eurocentric basis and then advance an alternative non-Eurocentric research agenda and empirical analysis of the international system and the global political economy. This is a straightforward challenge vis-à-vis conventional IR/IPE theory but it is more problematic so far as critical IR/IPE is concerned (which is why my answer is somewhat extended). The more postmodern wing of the discipline would view with inherent skepticism any attempt to reconstruct some kind of (albeit alternative) grand narrative. And the postmodern postcolonialists would likely concur. It is at this point that the thorniest issue emerges in the context of postcolonial IR theory. For however hard this is to say, I feel that simply proclaiming the Eurocentric foundations of the discipline does not hole its constituent theories deep beneath the waterline; a claim that abrades with the view of most postcolonialists who view Eurocentrism as inherently illegitimate either because it renders it imperialist (which I view as problematic since there are significant strands of anti-imperialist Eurocentrism and scientific racism) or because they conflate Eurocentrism with the unacceptable politics of (scientific) racism (which I also find problematic notwithstanding the point that there are all manner of overlaps and synergies between these two generic Western-centric discourses, all of which is explained in my 2012 book, The Eurocentric Conception of World Politics). The key point—one which will undoubtedly get me into a lot of trouble with postcolonialists—is that I feel we need to recognize that in the end Eurocentric IR (and IPE) theory constitutes a stand-point approach, just like any other, and its merits or de-merits can ultimately only be evaluated against the empirical record, past and present (notwithstanding the points that I find Eurocentrism to be deeply biased and that what I find so deeply galling about it is its dismissive 'put-down' modus operandi of all things non-Western, wherein all non-Western achievements are dismissed outright, alongside the simultaneous (re)presentation of everything that the West does as progressive and/or pioneering).
So the second principal challenge facing the discipline—one which will no less get me into trouble with many postmodern/poststructuralist thinkers—is the need to reconstruct an alternative non-Eurocentric set of disciplinary foundations, which can then generate fresh empirical narratives of the international system and the global political economy. For my view is that only by offering an alternative research agenda and empirical analysis of the world economy can IR and IPE be set free from their extant Eurocentric straitjackets and the Sisyphean prison within which they remain confined, wherein IR and IPE scholars simply re-present or recycle tired old Eurocentric mantras and tropes in new clothing ad infinitum. For if nothing else, the absence of an alternative reconstruction and empirical analysis means that IR and IPE scholars are most likely simply to default to, or retreat back into, their Eurocentric comfort zone. Accordingly, then, the battle between Eurocentrism and non-Eurocentrism needs to be taken to the empirical field and away from the high and rarified intellectually mountainous terrain of metanarratival sparring contests.
How did you arrive at where you currently are in your thinking about International Relations?
Another way of asking this question would be: what influenced you to become a non-Eurocentric thinker? I get asked this question a lot, especially by non-white people. A good deal of this is related to my life-experience, much of which is sub-conscious of course and both too personal and too detailed to openly reflect upon here (sorry!) More objectively, the initial impetus came around 1999 when I came across a book on Max Weber by the well-respected Weberian scholar, Bryan Turner, in which he argued inter alia that Weber's sociology had Orientalist properties; none of which had occurred to me before. Following this up further I became convinced that Weber was indeed Eurocentric, as was Marx. More importantly, I came to see this as a huge problem that infected not just Marx and Weber but pretty much all of historical sociology (which was reinforced in my mind when I came to read James Blaut's books, The Colonizer's Model of the World (find it here), and Eight Eurocentric Historians). So I set out to develop an alternative non-Eurocentric approach to world history and historical sociology as a counter (which resulted in my 2004 book, The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation).
Two further key IR texts that I became aware of were L.H.M. Ling's seminal 2002 book, Postcolonial International Relations and Naeem Inayatullah and David Blaney's equally brilliant 2004 book International Relations and the Problem of Difference, both of which led me to explore further the Eurocentric nature of IR and later IPE. But it would be remiss of me not to mention the influence of Albert Paolini; a wonderful colleague whom I had the pleasure to know at La Trobe University in Melbourne back in the early 1990s before his exceedingly unfortunate and premature death (and who, I must say, was way ahead of the game compared to me in terms of developing the critique of Eurocentrism in IR (see his book, Navigating Modernity (1997)). However, it would be unfair to the many others who have influenced me in countless ways to single out only these books and writers, though I hope you'll forgive me for not mentioning them so as to avoid providing yet another overly extended answer!
What would a student need to become a specialist in IR or understand the world in a global way?
This is an excellent but very challenging question and I want to try and make a succinct answer (though I shall build on it in some of the answers I will provide later on). The essential argument I make about 'thinking inter-culturally' is that while the more liberal side of the discipline thinks that its cosmopolitanism does just this, its Eurocentrism actually prevents it from fulfilling this. Because ultimately, cosmopolitanism wants to impose a Western standard of civilization upon the world, thereby advancing cultural monism rather than cultural pluralism. And this is merely the loudest expression of a spectre that haunts much of the discipline. But I guess that in the end, to achieve genuine cultural pluralism and to think inter-culturally requires us to take seriously how other non-Western peoples think of what their cultures comprise and what it means to them, and how their societies and states work along such lines. Dismissing them, as Eurocentrism always does, as inferior, backward and regressive denies this requirement outright. Interestingly, my great grandfather, J.A. Hobson flirted with this idea in his book, Imperialism: A Study (though this has largely escaped the notice of most people since few have read the more important second part of that book where all this is considered). But this is merely a first step, for as I will explain later on in the interview, ultimately thinking inter-culturally requires an analysis of the dialogical inter-connections and mutual co-constitutive relations between West and non-West which, in turn, presupposes not merely the presence of Western agency but also that of non-Western agency in the making of world politics and the global political economy.
All of which is clearly a massive challenge and I am certainly not advocating that the discipline of IR engage in deep ethnographical study and that it should morph into anthropology. And in any case I think that there are things we can do more generally to transcend Eurocentrism while learning more about the other side of the Eurocentric frontier without going to this extreme. I shall talk about such conceptual moves later on in this interview. One such theoretical move that I talk about later is the need to engage historical sociology (albeit from a non-Eurocentric perspective) or, more precisely global historical sociology. Again, though, I'm not advocating that the discipline should morph into historical sociology. And I'm aware that one of the biggest obstacles to IR making inroads into historical sociology is the sheer size of the task that this requires. It has always come naturally to me because that is where I came from before I joined the IR academic community. But there is quite a bit of historical sociology of IR out there now so I do think it possible for new PhD students to enter this fold. All of this said, though, I'm unsure if I have answered your question adequately.
The west is often seen as the source of globalization and innovation, which have historically radiated outwards in a process without seeming endpoint. What is wrong with this picture, and, perhaps more interestingly, why does it remain so pervasive?
In essence I believe this familiar picture—one which is embraced by conventional and many critical IR/IPE and globalization theorists—is wrong because this linear Western narrative brackets out all the many inputs that the non-West has made (which returns me to the point made a moment ago concerning the dialogical relations that have long existed between West and non-West). In my aforementioned 2004 book I argued that the West did not rise to modernity as a result of its own exceptional rational institutions and culture but was significantly enabled by many non-Western achievements and inventions which were borrowed and sometimes appropriated by the West. In short, without the Rest there might be no modern West. Moreover, while the West has been the principal actor in globalization since 1945, the globalization that preceded it (i.e., between 1492 and c.1830) was non-Western-led (as was the process of Afro-Eurasian regionalization that occurred between c.600 and 1492 out of which post-1492 globalization emerged). And even after 1945 I believe that non-Western actors have played various roles in shaping both globalization and the West, all of which are elided in the standard Eurocentric linear Western narrative of globalization.
But why has this image remained so persistent? This is potentially a massive question though it is a very important one for sure. Conventional theorists are most likely to disagree outright with my alternative picture in part because they are entirely comfortable with the notion that the 'West is best' and that the West single-handedly created capitalism, the sovereign inter-state system and the global economy. Critical theorists are rather more problematic to summarize here. But one that springs to mind is the type of argument that Immanuel Wallerstein (Theory Talk #13) made in a1997 article, in which he insisted that it be an imperative to hold the West accountable for everything that goes on in the world economy so that we can prosecute its crimes against the world. Arguments that bring non-Western agency in, as I seek to do, he dismisses as deflecting focus away from the West and thereby diluting the nature of the crimes that the West has imparted and therefore serves merely to weaken the case for the critical prosecution. I fundamentally disagree with him for reasons that I shan't go into here (but will touch upon below). But in my view it is (or should be) a key debate-in-the-making not least because I suspect that many other critical theorists might agree with him and, more importantly, because it brings fundamentally into question of what Eurocentrism is and of what the antidote to it comprises. Either way, though, critical theorists, at least in my view, often buy into the Western linear narrative, albeit not by celebrating the West but by critiquing it. All of which means that both conventional and many critical IR scholars effectively maintain the hegemony of Eurocentrism in the discipline though for diametrically opposed reasons; and which, at the risk of sounding paranoid, suggests a deeply subliminal conspiracy against the introduction of non-Eurocentrism.
Nevertheless one final but rather obvious point remains. For the biggest reason why Eurocentrism persists is because it makes Westerners feel good about themselves. And at the risk of sounding like sour grapes (notwithstanding very decent sales for my non-Eurocentric books), I have been struck by the fact that there seems to be an insatiable appetite—particularly among the Western public readership—for high profile Eurocentric books that celebrate and glorify Western civilization; though, to be brutally frank, many of these rarely add anything new to that which has been said countless times in the last 50 years, if not 200—notwithstanding Ricardo Duchesne's recent avowedly Eurocentric book The Uniqueness of Western Civilization as constituting a rare exception in this regard. All of which means that writing non-Eurocentric books is unlikely to get your name onto the bestseller list (though granted, the same is true for many of the Eurocentric books that have been written!)
International theory and political theory originates mainly from Europe, but makes universal claims about the nature of politics. How does international theory betray its situated roots and how do these roots matter for how we should think about theory?
I'm not sure that I can answer this question in the space allowed but I'll try and get to the broad-brush take-home point. I guess that when thinking about modern IR theory we can find those theorists who in effect advocate a normative Western imperialist posture even if they claim to be doing otherwise. Robert Gilpin's work on hegemonic stability theory is perhaps the clearest example in this respect. Anglo-Saxon hegemony, he claims, is non-imperialist because it always seeks to help the rest of the world, not exploit it. But the exercise of hegemony, it turns out, returns us to the old 19th century trope of the civilizing mission where Western practices and principles are transferred and imposed on non-Western societies in order to culturally convert them along Western lines. And this in turn issues from the assumption that the British and American interests are not selfish but are universal. This mantra is there too in Robert Keohane's (Theory Talk #9) book, After Hegemony, where cultural conversion of non-Western societies to a neoliberal standard of civilization by the international financial institutions through structural adjustment is approved of; an argument that is developed much more expansively in his later work on humanitarian intervention. And this trope forms the basis of cosmopolitan humanitarian interventionist theory more generally, where state reconstruction, which is imposed once military intervention has finished, is all about re-creating Western political and economic institutions across the world. I don't doubt for a moment the sincerity of the arguments that these authors make. But they can make them only because they believe that the Western interest is truly the universal. In such ways, then, IR betrays its roots.
Ultimately, Western IR theory constructs a hierarchical conception of the world with the West standing atop and from there we receive an image of a procession or sliding scale of gradated sovereignties in the non-Western world. For much of IR theory that has neo-imperialist normative underpinnings, it is this construction which legitimizes Western intervention in the non-Western world, thereby reproducing the legal conception of the (imperialist) standard of civilization that underpinned late 19th century positive law. Nevertheless, there has been a significant strand of anti-imperialist Eurocentrism within international theory (and before it a strand of anti-imperialist scientific racism, as in the likes of Charles HenryPearson and LothropStoddard). But once again, as we find in Samuel Huntington's famous 1996 book, The Clash of Civilizations—which comprises a modern equivalent of Lothrop Stoddard's Eugenicist texts, The Rising Tideof Color (1920) and Clashing Tides of Color (1935)—the West is held up as the highest expression of civilization, with non-Western societies viewed as socially inferior such that the West's mandate is not to imperially intervene across the world but to renew its uniquely Western civilized culture in the face of regressive and rampant non-Western regions and countries (particularly Middle Eastern Islam and Confucian China). Hedley Bull's anti-imperialist English School argument provides a complementary variant here because, he argues, it is the refusal of non-Western states to become Western wherein the source of the (unacceptable) instability of the global international society ultimately stems. All of which, as you allude to in your question, rests on the conflation of the Western interest with the universal. It is for this reason, then, that the cardinal principle of critical non-Eurocentrism comprises the need to undertake deep (self) reflexivity and to remain constantly vigilant to Eurocentric slippages.
In turn, this returns me to the point I made before: that IR theory does not think inter-culturally because it denies the validity of non-Western cultures. Because it does so, then it ultimately denies the full sovereignty of non-Western states. For one of the trappings of sovereignty is what Gerry Simpson usefully refers to as 'existential equality', or 'cultural self-determination'. It seems clear to me that the majority of IR theory effectively denies the sovereignty of non-Western states because it rejects cultural pluralism and hence cultural self-determination as a function of its intolerant Eurocentric monism. The biggest ironies that emerge here, however, are two-fold; or what I call the twin self-delusions of IR. First, while conventional IR theory proclaims its positivist, value free credentials that sit comfortably with cultural pluralist tolerance, nevertheless as I argued in my answer to your first question, this positivist mantra turns out to constitute a smokescreen or veil behind which lies the face of intolerant Eurocentric cultural monism. And second, it means that while IR proclaims that its subject matter comprises the objective analysis of the international system which focuses on anarchy and the sovereign state, nevertheless it turns out that what it is really all about is narrating an analysis of Western hierarchy and the 'hyper-sovereignty' of Western states versus the 'conditional sovereignty/gradated sovereignty' of non-Western states.
Linking your work to Lizée's as a critique of extrapolating 'universals' on the basis of narrow (Western) experiences, Patrick Jackson (Theory Talk #44) wrote as follows: 'Perhaps the cure for the disease that Hobson and Lizée diagnose is a rethinking of what "theory" means beyond empirical generalizations, so that future international theorists can avoid the sins of the past.' What is your conception of what theory is or should be?
As noted already, I am all in favor of developing non-Eurocentric theory. To sketch this out in the most generic terms I begin with the proposition that Eurocentric IR/IPE theory is monological, producing a reductive narrative in which only the West talks and acts. It is essentially a 'winner/loser' paradigm that proclaims the non-West as the loser or is always on the receiving end of that which the West does, thereby ensuring that central analytical focus is accorded to the hyper-agency of the Western winner. And its conception of agency is based on having predominant power. We find this problem particularly within much of critical IR theory, where because the West is dominant so it qualifies as having (hyper) agency while the subordinate position of the non-West means that it has little or no agency. In turn, particularly within conventional IR and IPE we encounter a substantialist ontology, where the West is thought to occupy a distinct and autonomous domain. From there everything else follows. And even in parts of critical IR and IPE where relationalism holds greater sway we often find that the West still occupies the center of intellectual gravity in the world.
My preference is for a fully relationalist approach which replaces the monologism of Eurocentrism and its reification of the West with the aforementioned conception of dialogism that brings the non-West into the discussion while simultaneously focusing on the mutually constitutive relations between Western and non-Western actors. It also allows for the agency of the non-West alongside the West's agency (even though clearly after c.1830 the West has been the dominant actor). This in effect replaces Eurocentrism's either/or problematique with a both/and logic, enabling us to reveal a space in which non-Western agency plays important roles without losing focus of Western agency, even when it takes a dominant form as it did after c.1830. In this way then, to reply to Wallerstein's argument discussed earlier, one does not have to dilute the critique of the West when bringing non-Western agency in for both can be situated alongside each other. While I could of course say much more here, these conceptual moves are paramount to me and inform the basis of my empirical work on the international system and the global political economy.
All in all, IR theory needs to take a fully global conception of agency much more seriously; structuralist theory in its many guises is necessary but is ultimately insufficient since it diminishes or dismisses outright the prospect or existence of non-Western agency. Moreover, I seek to blend materialism and non-materialism, which means that neither constructivism nor poststructuralism can quite get us over the line. Even so, blending materialism and non-materialism is not an especially hard task to achieve though IR's preferred ontologically reductionist stance certainly makes this a counter-intuitive proposition.
You combine historical sociology with international relations. What promises does this interdisciplinary approach hold? Why do we need historical sociologies of IR?
Following on from my previous answer I argue that a relationalist non-Eurocentric historical sociology of IR is able to problematize the entities that IR takes for granted—states, anarchy (as well as societies and civilizations)—in order to reveal them, to quote from the marvelous introduction that Julian Go and George Lawson have written for their forthcoming edited volume Global Historical Sociology, as 'entities in motion'. Indeed such entities are never quite complete but change through time. Here it is worth quoting Go and Lawson further, where they argue that
'social forms are "entities-in-motion": they are produced, reproduced, and breakdown through the agency of historically situated actors. Such entities-in-motion, whether they are states, empires, or civilizations often appear to be static entities with certain pre-determined identities and interests. But the relational premise, and perhaps promise, of GHS is its attempt to denaturalize such entities by holding them up to historical scrutiny'.
It is precisely this global historical sociological problematique that underpins the approach that I develop in a forthcoming book, provisionally entitled Reorient International Political Economy where inter alia, I show how many of the major processes of the global economy are never complete but are constantly mutating as they are shaped by the multiple interactions of Western and non-Western actors. To take the origins of capitalism or globalization as an example, I show how these have taken not a Western linear trajectory but a highly discontinuous path as West and non-West have interacted in complex ways.
A good number of IR historical sociologists have focused specifically on particular historical issues—especially that of the rise of the sovereign state in Europe. Such analyses have in my view proven to be extremely valuable because they allow us to puncture some of the myths that surround 'Westphalia' that populate standard or conventional IR reportage (particularly that found in undergraduate text-books). But ultimately I feel that the greatest worth of the historical sociology of IR project lies in using history (understood in historical-sociological terms rather than according to traditional historians' precepts) as a means of problematizing our understanding of the present international system and global political economy. Thus, for me, historical sociology is ultimately important because it can disrupt our understanding and explanations of the present. And I believe that this kind of inter-disciplinarity can bear considerable fruit (notwithstanding the difficulty that this task poses for IR scholars).
You famously criticized IR's Eurocentrism and argued for the need for inter-cultural thinking. What is inter-cultural thinking and how can it benefit IR?
As I already discussed what inter-cultural thinking is a bit before, I shall consider how it might benefit IR and indeed the world in various ways. First, if the rise of the West into modernity owes much of this achievement to the help provided by non-Western ideas, institutions and technologies, then acknowledging this debt could go a long way to healing the wounds that the West has inflicted upon the non-West's sense of self-esteem. Moreover, the hubristic claim ushered in by Eurocentrism, that the West made it to the top all by itself and that the very societies which helped it get there are then immediately denounced as inferior and uncivilized, significantly furnishes the West with the imperialist mandate to intervene and remake non-Western societies in the image of the West. So in essence, the help that the once-more advanced non-Western societies that the West benefited from is rewarded by 150 years of imperial punishment! Of course, IR scholars do not really study the rise of the West, but it is implicit in so much of what they write about. So acknowledging this debt could challenge the West's self-appointed mandate to remake the world in its own image as well as problematize many of the historical assumptions that lie either explicitly or implicitly within IR.
Second, and flowing on from the previous point, thinking inter-culturally means recognizing the manifold roles that the non-West has played in shaping the rise of Western capitalism and the sovereign state system as well as the global economy, as I have just argued, but also appreciating their societies and cultures on their own terms rather than simply dismissing them as unfit for purpose in the modern world. Less Western Messianism and Western hubris, more global understanding and empathy, is ultimately what I'm calling for. But none of this is possible while Eurocentrism remains the go-to modus operandi of IR and IPE. And this is important for IR not least because significant parts of it have informed Western policy, most especially US foreign policy.
Third, a key benefit that inter-cultural thinking could bring to IR is that while the discipline presumes that it furnishes objective analyses of the international system, the upshot of my claim that the discipline is founded on Eurocentrism is that all the discipline is really doing is finding ways to reaffirm the importance of Western civilization in world politics, defending it and often celebrating it, rather than learning or discovering new things about the world and world politics. I believe that only a non-Eurocentric approach can deliver that which IR thinks it's doing already but isn't.
You've said that 'what makes an argument [institutionally] Eurocentric…lies with the nature of the categories that are deployed to understand development. And these ultimately comprise the perceived degree of 'rationality' that is embodied within the political, economic, ideological, and social institutions of a given society.' In order to think inter-culturally, does IR needs new conceptions of rationality, or standards other than rationality altogether?
What an extremely interesting and perceptive question which has really got me thinking! Again, it's something that I've been aware of in the recesses of my mind but have never really thought through. Certainly the essence of Eurocentrism lies in the reification of Western rationality (or what Max Weber called Zweckrationalität) and its simultaneous denial to non-Western societies. But what with all the revelations that have happened in Britain in the last decade, where a seemingly never ending series of fraudulent practices have been uncovered within British public life—whether it be MPs' expenses scandals, banking scandals, newspaper scandals and the like—then one really wonders about the extent to which the West operates according to the properties of Zweck-rationality that Weber proclaimed it to have. Corruption and fraud happen in the West but clearly they are much more hidden than in those instances where it occurs in non-Western countries (notwithstanding the revelations mentioned a moment ago). But if one were to open the lid of many large Western companies, for example, and delve inside one might well find all sorts of 'rationality-compromising' or 'rationality-denial' practices going on. To mention just two obvious examples: first, promotions are often tainted by personal linkages rather than always founded on merit; and second, managers often mark out and protect their own personal position/territory even when it (frequently) goes against the 'rational' interests of the said organization.
To return to your question, then, one could conclude that many Western institutions are far less rational than Eurocentrism proclaims, which in turn would challenge the foundations of Eurocentrism. Of course, corruption and fraud are not unique to the West, but it is the West that proclaims its unique 'rational standard of civilization'. Whether, therefore, we need to abandon the term (Zweck) rationality on the grounds that it is an impossibly conceived ideal type remains the question. Right now I don't have an answer though I'll be happy to mull over this in the coming years.
You've written that engaging with the East 'creates a genuinely global history' and articulate a 'dream wherein the peoples of the Earth can finally sit down at the table of global humanity and communicate as equal partners'. Do you consciously operate with an 'ontology' of 'peoples' and 'civilizations' as opposed to 'individuals'? How do you conceive of the relationship between global humanity and plural peoplehood? Is there an underlying philosophical or anthropological view that you are drawing on in these and similar passages?
Certainly I prefer to think of peoples and even of civilizations rather than individuals and states, though I'll confess right now that dealing theoretically with civilizations and articulating them as units of analysis is extraordinarily challenging. At the moment I leave this side of things to better people than me, such as Peter Katzenstein (Theory Talk #15) and his recentpioneering work on civilizations. The term 'global humanity' concerns me insofar as it is often a politically-loaded term, particularly within cosmopolitanism, where its underbelly comprises the desire to define a single civilizational identity (i.e., a Western one) for 'global humanity'. In essence, cosmopolitanism effectively advances the conception of a 'provincial (i.e., Western) humanity' that masquerades as the global. So I prefer the notion of plural peoplehood, so as to allow for difference. I wouldn't say that I am operating according to a particular philosophical view although it strikes me that such a notion is embodied in Johann Gottfried Herder's work which, on that dimension at least, I am attracted to. But to be honest, this is generally something that I have not explored though it is something that I've thought that I'd like to research for a future book (notwithstanding the point that I'll need to finish the book that I have started first!).
In your reply toErik Ringmar, you draw on psychoanalytic metaphors to discuss the benefits of overcoming Eurocentrism, writing that, 'Eurocentrism leads to the repression and sublimation of the Other in the Self. Thus, doing away with Eurocentrism can end the socio-psychological angst and alienation that necessarily occurs through such sublimation.' How do you envision what we now call the West (or Europe) after its socio-psychological transformation? What does a world after angst and alienation look like? Is it possible, and is that the goal you think IR theory should aim at?
Another massively challenging and fascinating question, let me have a go. Since you raised the issue of socio-psychological/psycho-analytical theory (though it is something that I am no expert on), it has always struck me that Eurocentrism itself is not simply a construct designed to advance Western power and Western capitalist interests in the world. This seems too mechanistic. For recall that it was a series of largely independent sojourners, travel-writers, novelists, journalists and others rather than capitalists who played such an important role in constructing Eurocentrism. Something more seems to be at play. One can think of the battles between 'Mods and Rockers' or Skinheads and heavy metal fans in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s, who detested each other simply because they held different identities and prized different cultural values. Most importantly, I feel, the constant need to denounce, put down and dismiss the Other as inferior seems reminiscent of those kinds of people we sometimes meet who, in constantly putting down others to falsely elevate themselves to a position of superiority, ultimately reveals merely their own insecurities. The same issues, of course, underpin racism and Eurocentrism. The West rose to prominence in my view as a late-developer and having got to the top it very quickly came to view its duty as one of punishing all others for being different – all done, of course, in the name of helping or civilizing the very 'global humanity' that had done so much to help the West rise to the top in the first place! And to want to culturally convert everyone in the world according to the Western standard of civilization seems to be symptomatic of a deeply insecure mindset. A secure person or society for that matter does not feel threatened by, but openly embraces, difference.
Can we move beyond this stand-off given that such a mentality has been hard-wired within Western culture for at least three centuries? And ten if you count the sometimes terse relations between Europe and Middle Eastern Islam that emerged after 1095! We need to move beyond an identity that is based only on putting others down. It's 'bad karma' and, like all bad karma, damages the Western self, not just the non-Western other. But to transcend this identity-formation process requires us to do away with logocentrism; clearly a very big task. Nevertheless, that is exactly what my writings are all about. And it is something that I think IR theory needs to strive to achieve. Because IR theory is to an extent performative then I live in the hope, at least, that such a mentality might, just might somehow seep into international public life, though if it were to happen I strongly suspect that I would not be around to see it. Still, your question—what would a world beyond Eurocentrism look like?—though very important is nevertheless perhaps too difficult to answer without seeming like a hopeless idealist… other than to say that it could be rather better than the current one.
You write that 'IPE should aim to be an über-discipline, drawing on a wide range of disciplines in order to craft a knowledge base that refuses to become lost in disciplinary over-specialization and the depressing academic narcissism of disciplinary methodological differentiation and exclusion.' Why do you prefer that IPE should be the überdiscipline, instead of IR (or something else altogether), with IPE as a subset?
My degree was in Political Economy, my Masters in Political Sociology and my PhD in Historical Sociology and (International) Political Economy. Despite the fact that the majority of my academic career to date has been in IR research, I have always returned at various points to my old haunting ground, IPE (as I have most recently). I have always found IR a little alienating for its reification of politics, divorced from political economy. I'm not a Marxist, but I share in the view that political economy, if not always directly underpinning developments and events in the international system is, however, never far away.
The quote that you took for this question came from the end of my 2-part article that came out in the 20th anniversary edition of Review of International Political Economy. This was partly responding to Benjamin Cohen's (Theory Talk #17) 2008 seminal book, International Political Economy: A Intellectual History. One of the challenges that I issued to my IPE readership, echoing Cohen, is the need for IPE to return to 'thinking big' (in large part as a reaction to the massive contraction of the discipline's boundaries that has been effected by third wave American IPE, which labors under the intellectual hegemony of Open Economy Politics). In that context, then, I argued that IPE needs to expand its boundaries outwards not only to allow big or macro-scale issues to return to the discipline's research agenda but also to incorporate insight from other disciplines. For in my view IPE has the potential to blend the insights of many other disciplines that can in turn transcend the sometimes myopic or tunnel-vision-based nature of their particular constituent specialisms.
One of the implications of 'thinking big' is that IPE should be able to cover much of that which IR does… and more. Like Susan Strange, who expressed her exasperation with IR for its exclusion of politico-economic matters, so I feel that the solution lies not with IR colonizing IPE (which is not likely for the foreseeable future!) but with IPE expanding its currently narrow remit. If it could achieve this it could become the 'über-discipline', or the 'master discipline', of the Social Sciences, notwithstanding the point that my postcolonial and feminist friends will no doubt upbraid me for using such terrible terms!
Final question. Beyond the East outside the West, Greece is now being remade as the 'East' within the West, with a range of measures applied to it that had hitherto been the preserve for the 'East' or Global South. How can your work help to make sense of the stakes?
Your question reminds me of a similar one that I was asked in an interview for Cumhurieyet Strateji Magazine concerning Turkey's ongoing efforts to join the EU, the essence of my answer comprising: 'be careful what you wish for'. One of the things that I have felt uneasy about is the way, as I see it (and I might not be quite right in saying this), that European Studies (as a sub-discipline) sometimes appears as rather self-affirming, thereby reflecting the core self-congratulatory modus operandi of the EU. I am not anti-European or in any way ashamed to be Western (as some of my critics might think). But I'm deeply uneasy about the EU project, specifically in terms of its desire to expand outwards, not to mention inwards as we are seeing in the case of Greece today. For this has the whiff of the old civilizing mission that had supposedly been put to rest back at the time of the origins of the European Economic Community. Although Greece is a member of the EU (notwithstanding its non-European roots), it seems clear that what is going on today is a process of intensified internal colonization under the hegemony of Germany, wherein Greece is subjected to the German standard of civilization. All of which brings into question the self-glorification of the self-proclaimed 'socially progressive' EU project. And to return to my discussion of Turkey I recognize that candidate countries have their reasons for wanting to join the EU. But I guess that what my work is ultimately about is restoring a sense of dignity to non-Western peoples, in the absence of which they will continue to self-deprecate and live in angst in the long cold shadow of the West. All of which brings me back to the answers I made to quite a few of the earlier questions. So I would like to close by saying how much I have enjoyed answering your extremely well-informed questions and to thank you most sincerely for inviting me to address them.
Professor Hobson gained his PhD from the LSE (1991), joined the University of Sheffield as Reader and is currently Professor of Politics and International Relations. Previously he taught at La Trobe University, Melbourne (1991–97) and the University of Sydney (1997–2004). His main research interest concerns the area of inter-civilizational relations and everyday political economy in the context of globalization, past and present. His work is principally involved in carrying forward the critique of Eurocentrism in World History/Historical Sociology, and International Relations.
Related links
Faculty Profile at the University of Sheffield Read Hobson's The Postcolonial Paradox of Eastern Agency (Perceptions 2014) here (pdf) Read Hobson's Is critical theory always for the white West and for Western imperialism? (Review of International Studies 2007) here (pdf)
0 0 1 6773 38610 Danish Institute for International Studies 321 90 45293 14.0
In this dissertation, we are mainly interested in the interactions between poverty and one of its greatest dimensions1, namely health. More specifically, we will focus on their inequalities: does poverty inequality have more effect on poverty than health level? Does health inequality matter to poverty? Poverty and health are two related concepts that both express human deprivation. Health is said to be one of the most important dimensions of poverty and vice-versa. That is, poverty implies poor health because of a low investment in health, a bad environment and sanitation and other living conditions due to poverty, a poor nutrition (thus a greater risk of illness), a limited access to, and use of, health care, a lower health education and investment in health, etc2. Conversely, poor health leads inevitably to poverty due to high opportunity costs occasioned by ill-health such as unemployment or limited employability (thus a loss of income and revenues), a lower productivity (due to loss of strength, skills and ability), a loss of motivation and energy (which lengthen the duration of job search), high health care expenditures (or catastrophic expenditures), etc3. But what are the degree of correlation and the direction of the causality between these two phenomena? Which causes which? This is a classic problem of simultaneity that has become a great challenge for economists. Worst, each of these phenomena (health and poverty) has many dimensions4. How to reconcile two multidimensional and simultaneous events? 1 Aside the income-related material deprivation. 2 Tenants of the ?Absolute Income? hypothesis for instance show that absolute income level of individual has positive impact on their health status (Preston, 1975; Deaton, 2003). Conversely, lack of income (and the poverty state it implies) leads unambiguously to poor health. For other authors, it is not the absolute level per se, but the relative level (i.e. comparably to others in the society) that impacts most health outcomes. This is the ?Relative Income? hypothesis (see van Doorslaer and Wagstaff, 2000, for a summary). 3 See Sen (1999) and more recently Marmot (2001) for more information. 4 Poverty could be seen as monetary poverty, human poverty, social poverty, etc. Identically, one talks of mental health, physical health, ?positive? and ?negative? health, etc. So a one-on-one causality could not possibly exits between the two, or will be hard to establish. We?ve chosen the first way of causality: that is, poverty (and inequality) causes poor health. As justification, we consider a life-cycle theory approach (Becker, 1962). An individual is born with a given stock of health. This stock is supposed to be adequate enough. During his life, this stock is submitted to depreciation due to health shocks and aging (Becker?s theory, 1962). We could think that the poorer you are, the more difficult is your capacity to invest in your health5. Empirically, many surveys (too numerous to be enumerated here) show that poor people6 do have worse health status (that is, high mortality and morbidity rates, poor access to health services, etc.). It has been established that poor children are less healthy worldwide, independently of the region or country considered. It is generally agreed that the best way to improve the health of the poor is through pro-poor growth policies and redistribution. Empirically, one of the major achievements of these last two decades in developing countries is the improvement in health status of populations (notably the drop in mortality rates and higher life expectations) following periods of (sustained) economic growth. However, is this relation always true? In some countries as we will see later in this thesis, while observing an improvement in the population?s welfare, the converse is observed in its health status, or vice versa. If health and poverty are so closely related, they should theoretically move in the same direction. But the fact that in some countries we observe opposite trends suggests that some dimensions of health and poverty are not or may not be indeed so closely related, as postulated, and that they may depend of other factors. 1. The Purpose of the Study. 5 Another justification is that many authors have studied the problem the other way. Schultz and Tansel (1992, 1997) for instance showed that ill-health causes a loss of revenues in rural Cote d?Ivoire. Audibert, Mathonnat et al. (2003) also showed that malaria caused a loss of earnings of rural cotton producers in Cote d?Ivoire. 6 Usually defined from some income or expenditure-related metric or some assets-based metric. The ultimate goal of our dissertation in its essence is to measure inequality in health7 in developing countries using mainly Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS, henceforth)8. It deals with interactions between poverty and one of its greatest dimensions, putting aside the income-related material deprivation, namely health. It therefore measures inequality in health status and access to health and discusses which policies should be implemented to correct these inequalities. That is, it aims to see how much rich people are better off and benefit from health interventions, as compared to the poor, and how to reduce such an inequality. The present dissertation contains four papers that are related to these questions. Our main hypothesis (that will be tested) is that poverty impacts health through inequality effects9. Graphically, we can lay these simple relationships as: The dashed line in the figure above suggests that income inequality could impact health directly. But we consider that this direct effect is rather small or negligible, as compared to the indirect effect through inequality in health. Therefore, inequality in health is central to our discussion. To measure inequalities in health, we face three challenges: 7 And corollary health sanitation (access to safe water, toilet and electricity). Though electricity is more a measure of economic development that health measure per se, we add it here as a control for sanitation and nutrition: for example women could read more carefully the drugs? notices, or warm more quickly foods; more generally, electricity often improves the mental and material wellbeing of households. It also conditions health facility?s performance. 8 And potentially other surveys. In this case, we mention explicitly the survey(s). 9 The other important factor that could impact health is the performance of the health system. This is discussed in the Chapter 3. Health Assets Inequality Health Inequality Poverty (Assets Index) - measuring welfare (income metric) and subsequently inequality in welfare, - measuring health, - and measuring inequality in health. The measurements can be conducted using two approaches (Sahn, 2003): - Directly by ranking the households or individuals vis-à-vis their performance in the health indicator; we thus have a direct measure of inequality in health. This is suitable when the health indicator is continuous (such as weight, height or body mass index). According to Prof. David E. Sahn, that approach ?which has been referred to as the univariate approach to measuring pure health inequality, involves making comparisons of cardinal or scalar indicators of health inequality and distributions of health, regardless of whether health is correlated with welfare measured along other dimensions?. - Indirectly by finding a scaling measure such as consumption or income or another indicator (assets index for instance)10 that would help ranking the households or individuals (from the poorest to the richest), and see what are their performance in the health variable of interest. We are therefore measuring an indirect health inequality. The indirect method is mostly suitable when the health indicator is dichotomous (for example whether the individual has got diarrhoea last 2 weeks, or ?have the child been vaccinated?, or ?place of delivery?) or is a rate (such as child mortality). Again, quoting Prof. Sahn, ?making comparisons of health across populations with different social and economic characteristics is often referred to in the literature as following the so-called `gradient? or `socioeconomic? approach to health inequality. Much of the motivation for this work on the gradient approach to health inequality arises out of fundamental concerns over social and economic justice. The roots of the gradient will often arise from various types of discrimination, prejudice, and other legal, social, and economic norms that may contribute to stratification and fragmentation, and subsequently inequality in access to material resources and various correlated welfare outcomes?. While the first method would appear quickly limited for dummy or limited categorical health variables because of the small variability in the population, the second approach could also be 10 Or more generally any other socioeconomic gradient such as education, gender or location. impossible when no information is available to scale the units of observation in terms of welfare. We?ll be mostly focusing on the second approach, as did many health economists, and also due to the nature of the DHS datasets in hand and the indicators that we are investigating. 2. Strategy, Methods and Structure. Measuring wealth-related inequality in health implies in the first stage defining and characterizing the poor. Who are indeed the poor? Traditionally, monetary measures (income or consumption) have been used to distinguish households or people into ?rich? and ?poor? classes. Indeed, it is agreed that the ?incomemetric? approach is one of the best ways to measure welfare11. However, it sometimes, if not often, happens that we lack this essential information in household survey datasets. Especially in our case, the DHS datasets do not have income nor consumption information. Then, how to characterize the poor in this situation? For a long time, economists have eluded the question. But soon, it became evident that an alternative measure is needed to strengthen the ?poverty debate?. In the first part of our dissertation, we start by providing a theoretical framework to find a proxy for wellbeing, in the case where consumption or income-related data are missing, namely by discussing the use of assets as such a proxy. The first part of this thesis is relatively long, as compared to the second. However, this is justified, due to its purpose. The goal of the first part of the dissertation is to participate to the research agenda on poverty. It attempts to measure it in a ?non traditional?12 way. 11 There is a consensus in the economic literature that income is more suitable to measure wealth or welfare in developed countries while consumption is more adequate for developing ones due to various reasons such as irregularity of incomes for informal sector, seasonality, prices, recall periods, trustworthy, etc. (see Deaton 1998 for detail). 12 i.e. a non monetary way. The main rationale for this first part therefore is thus to find a new, non monetary measure to characterize in best, life conditions, welfare and then the poor. This measure is referred to as the ?assets index?. Indeed, as the majority of developing countries are engaged more and more in fighting poverty, inequality and deprivation, more and more information on the state of poverty13 is needed. If in almost all these countries, many household surveys have been implemented to collect information on socioeconomic indicators, the major indicator that is needed to analyze poverty (namely income or consumption data) is unfortunately not often collected due to various reasons (time, cost, periodicity, etc.). Even, if they were collected, the quality of the data is often poor. Therefore, economists tend to rely more on other indicators to compensate for the absence of monetary measures. One of the indicators often used are the assets owned by households. The question arose then how to use these assets to characterize the poor in this context? How to weight each of them? In a first attempt, many economists built a simple linear index by assigning arbitrary weights to the assets14. In a seminal paper, Filmer and Pritchett (2001) propose to construct the so-called ?assets index? which could be used as a proxy for consumption or income. It is commonly agreed that their methodology follows a ?scientific? approach, thus is more credible. In their case, they use a Principal Component Analysis (PCA, henceforth) to build their assets index. Since, many other economists have followed in their footsteps which we label in our dissertation, the ?material? poverty approach (as opposed to the monetary one) since it is based on materials (goods and assets) owned by the households or individuals. Because of the importance of the subject (poverty) and because the method is pretty new and original, this first part of our thesis is as said quite long as compared to the second one and has two papers which focus mainly on poverty and inequality issues and their connections with economic growth. In this part, we start by presenting a methodology of measuring non monetary (material) poverty, when a consumption or income data is not available. We show how one can obtain robust results using assets or wealth variables. Once the method is clearly 13 And more generally welfare. 14 For example a television is given a weight of 100, a radio 50, and so on. But this is clearly not a `scientific? way to proceed, as there is no rational ground in giving such weights. tested and validated, it is then confronted to real data. We show that the index shares basically the same properties with monetary metrics and roughly scales households in the same way as does the consumption or income variables. We discuss the advantages and also the limitations of using the assets index. The important thing to bear in mind is that, once it is obtained, it could be used to rank the observational units by wealth or welfare level. - The first chapter defines in a first section poverty and how it is usually measured (by the income metric approach). We discuss the limitations of the use of income/expenditure and what could be alternative measures. We then propose in section 2 the assets metric as a proxy for poverty measurement and test the material poverty approach on international datasets collected by the DHS program. We explore the material poverty and inequality nexus in the world and how Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)15 compares with other regions. We show, using that index and DHS data, that poverty, at least from an assets point of view, was also decreasing in SSA as well as in other regions of the world. This result contrasts with other findings such as Ravallion and Chen (2001) or Sala-i-Martin (2002) that show that, while other regions of the world are experiencing a decline in their (monetary) poverty rates, SSA is lagging behind, with rates starting to rise over the last decade. Therefore, two different measures of welfare could yield opposite results and messages in terms of policies to implement to combat poverty. Moreover, the method we use not only allows observing changes over time for each country, but also provides a natural ranking among countries (from the poorest to the richest). In this chapter, aside the measure of welfare and poverty, we also discuss in a final section the impact of demographic transition on economic growth and therefore on poverty. Indeed, demographic transition is a new phenomenon that is occurring in developing countries, especially African ones. Its negligence could lead to underestimating poverty measures (both material and monetary) by underestimating real economic growth rates. We show that changes in the composition and the size of households put an extra-pressure on the development process. While traditional authors have not considered the impact of these 15 SSA countries are Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Republic of Congo, Côte d?Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The ?rest of the world? is represented by Armenia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Morocco, Nepal, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Yemen. changes, we show that taking this into account implies higher economic growth rates than those actually observed or forecasted. - Once the assets index approach is established and tested on international data, the question arose how it performs as compared to the monetary metric. Indeed, if monetary measures remain the reference, then our assets index should share some common properties with them. The second chapter assesses the trends in material poverty in Ghana from the assets perspective using the Core Welfare Indicators Questionnaires Surveys (CWIQ). It then compared these trends with the monetary poverty over roughly the same period. We show that the assets index could be used and yields the same consistent results as using other welfare variable (such as income, consumption or expenditure). Therefore, using two consecutive CWIQ surveys, we find that material poverty in Ghana has decreased roughly by the same magnitude as monetary one, as found in other studies by other authors such as Coulombe and McKay (2007) using Ghanaian GLSS16 consumption data. Thus, this chapter could thus be viewed as providing the proof that the material and the monetary approaches could be equivalent. The second part of our dissertation seeks how to define and measure health and inequality in health. While the definition of health is not obvious, we propose to measure it with child mortality rates. Our main rationale in doing so is that low child mortality generates, ceteris paribus, higher life expectancy17, thus is an adequate measure of a population?s health. This may not be true in areas devastated by wars, famines, and HIV and other pandemics where child mortality could be high (in this case, the best measure should be life expectancy by age groups). Also, the reader should bear in mind that in fact, child mortality could be itself is a good indicator for measuring the (success of the) economic development level of a society as a whole (Sen, 1995), mainly because in developing countries, child mortality is highly correlated to factors linked to the level of development such as access to safe water, sanitation, vaccination coverage, access to health care, etc. - In the third chapter, we focus on measuring overall population?s health. For this, we estimate child mortality in SSA and compare it to the rest of the world. We explore the 16 Ghana Living Standard Surveys. 17 By construction, life expectancy at birth is highly correlated and sensitive to child mortality (it is based on child mortality rates for various cohorts). Lower child mortality rates lead to higher life expectancy and vice versa. determinants of child mortality using mainly a Weibull model and DHS data with socioeconomic variables18 as one of our major covariates. The use of the assets index information is to see how these quintiles behave in a multivariate regression framework of child mortality (i.e. how they affect child mortality). We find, among others, that mother?s education and access to health care and sanitation are one of the strongest predictors for child survival. Controlling for education and other factors, family?s wealth and the area of residency do not really matter for child survival in SSA, contrasting with results found elsewhere. - The fourth and last chapter answers the ultimate goal of this dissertation, that is, the scope of health inequalities in the developing world, particularly in SSA. It uses the factor analysis (FA) method of Chapter 1 to rank household according to their economic gradient status19 and then studies inequalities in various health indicators in relation with these groups. The intention is to analyze inequality rates between rich and poor for various health variables. In this chapter, we concentrate solely on inequality issues in health and health-related infrastructures and services. Mainly, we analyze inequality in access to sanitation infrastructures (water and electricity20) and various health status and access to health indicators (such as child death, child anthropometry, medically assisted delivery and vaccination coverage) using a Gini and Marginal Gini Income Elasticity approach (GIE and MGIE, henceforth) on one hand, and the Concentration Index (CI) approach on the other. Results show that, while almost all countries have made great efforts in improving coverage in, and access to, these indicators, almost all the gains have been captured by the better-offs of the society, especially in SSA. We extend the analysis to compare GIE estimates to those of CI and find consistent results yielding quite similar messages. 18 Quintiles groups derived from an assets index. 19 By grouping usually households in 5 quintiles from poorer to richer ones. 20 On the rationale of using electricity, see footnote 7 above. 3. Results and Policy Implications. As said above, the major goal in conducting this thesis research is to analyze inequality in health status, health care and health-related services using DHS data. To reach our objective, we follow two intermediate steps: - For assets poverty, results show that assets poverty and inequality are decreasing in every region of the world, including Sub-Saharan Africa. This tends to support our hypothesis that, contrary to common beliefs, African households use assets and building ownerships as saving tools and buffer to economic shocks. The first paper also shows however that the demographic transition actually occurring in developing countries could impede on economic growth and trigger a bullet on policies aiming at combating poverty. - Our third paper shows that child mortality is decreasing in all parts the world. However, the 1990s and early 2000s have been a lost decade for the African continent where many countries have witnessed an increase in rates that is mostly attributable among other factors to the economic and financial turmoils of the 1990s and early 2000s and the HIV epidemic. Our hypothesis is that these phenomena have destabilized the organization of the health care system, cut its funding and hampered its performance. High levels of health inequality can also be part of the puzzle. Coming back to the particular case of HIV/AIDS, the reader should observe that it affects more and more the less poor so that it can also lead to a decline in assets inequality (richer people are dying) along with an increase in child mortality and thus explain in great part our paradox. This setback (the rise in mortality over recent periods despite poverty reduction) will make impossible for these countries to reach the millennium development goals, at least for child mortality. The conclusion to this is that African population?s health has been stagnant over the period 1990-2005. Regression analysis reveals no strong correlation between our measure of welfare (assets index) and child mortality. More important are mothers? education and access to health care and sanitation services. - Finally, our inequality estimates show that they are quite high for all indicators considered. For ill-health indicators (child malnutrition and death), rates are excessively concentrated in poor and rural groups. Concerning access to health care services, rich and urban groups tend to be more favoured than poor and urban ones. But the high level of inequality tends to be reducing at the margin over time, as the poor have increasing access. Finally for access to sanitation services, results show that while the majority of countries have made substantial efforts to increase coverage on the first two periods, the rich and urban classes have benefited more and inequality (which is at high levels) tends to rise at the margin over time, especially for the poor. More preoccupying is the fact that rates are falling between 1995-2000 and 2000-2005, probably because of the privatization of these services and the new costs they impose on households. Overall, inequality in all variables considered is more pronounced in SSA than the rest of the world (expect for death and malnutrition). The sub-continent is still disadvantaged in terms of access to services or ill-health. Where to go from here? In the African sub-continent, we have the following picture: a decreasing (material) poverty and inequality but coupled with a stagnant child mortality situation, a stagnant or increasing malnutrition. This is mostly due to high levels of, and an increasing inequality at the margin in access to sanitation and electricity services coupled with a decreasing access to these services. Thus, despite the fact that we observe a decreasing inequality at the margin in access to health care (even though the average level of inequality is still high) the missing link in health-related services coupled with an overall high inequality in these two types of services hugely impact child health and survival. Therefore, as access to health care services and health-related sanitation services is essential to child survival, our findings call for vigorous policies to promote access of the poor groups and rural areas to these services. African Governments should continue to favour access of the poor to health care and reverse the inequality trends in access to water, sanitation and electricity. This is vital for the health of the population and for the development of Africa. Funding can come from various sources: the Government Budget, International Assistance but also from households themselves (since the first part of our thesis has demonstrated that they are getting richer (and various surveys show that they are willing to pay for quality health care), an adequate fees policy could benefit to the health care system). Measures should be put in place to strengthen the performance of the health system and to mitigate the negative effects of macroeconomic imbalances, economic crises and HIV/AIDS. Only on these conditions the Sub-Continent could hope to eradicate poverty and promote health for all. 4. Contribution of this Thesis. This thesis seeks to analyze empirically the inequality in health and access to health in SSA and how this region compared to the rest of the world. To do so, it develops a new method to characterize poor households and to analyze assets-based poverty, when the monetary measure is unavailable. Such a method is indeed necessary as almost all developing countries have collected many surveys that lack the consumption or income information. Once a poverty measure and a correct measure of health have been found, and their core determinants clearly established, we then proceed to the health inequality analysis, along with its determinants, using two methodologies: the traditional CI and the more recent GIE approaches. These approaches have been the mostly used to explore the inequality in health and access to health these last years. Though already studied in the literature, and sometimes applied on DHS or some groups of DHS datasets, our dissertation differs in its purpose and scope and its large scale. No paper to our knowledge used the totally to-date freely available DHS datasets to study poverty and inequality topics and provide basic statistics. Our main contribution is to shed a new light on the welfare-inequality-health nexus in Africa, how it evolves over time and how it compares to other regions around the world, using all available information. It also put numbers on various important socioeconomic indicators such as poverty, inequality, child health and mortality, access to health-related infrastructures, etc., for developing countries, especially African ones. As we sometimes lack these important information, this thesis proves finally to be a very useful exercise. ; Cette thèse part d'un postulat simple : « l'amélioration du niveau de vie s'accompagne de l'amélioration de l'état de santé générale d'une population » et teste sa validité dans le contexte de l'Afrique au Sud du Sahara (ASS). Si cette hypothèse se vérifie en général dans le contexte de l'ASS en ce qui concerne le niveau (plus le pays est riche, plus sa population est en bonne santé), il l'est moins en ce qui concerne les dynamiques, du moins à court et moyen terme. Notamment, les pays qui connaissent une amélioration tendancielle de bien-être matériel ne connaissent pas forcément une amélioration de la santé de leurs populations. Ceci constitue un paradoxe qui viendrait invalider notre postulat. En écartant tout effet de retard ou de rattrapage qui pourrait l'expliquer car nous travaillons sur une période de 15 ans réparties en 3 sous-périodes (1990-1995, 1995-2000 et 2000-2005), nous expliquons ce paradoxe, toutes choses égales par ailleurs, par deux canaux principaux qui peuvent interagir : - la performance du système de santé et - l'inégalité en santé. Si le premier est plus évident mais aussi plus difficile à prouver empiriquement du fait du manque de données sur des séries longues, ou du fait que ces données sont trop agrégées et éparses, le second canal est testable avec des bases de données adéquates qui, elles, sont disponibles au niveau microéconomique (ménages). Les bases de données que nous avons privilégiées sont les Enquêtes Démographiques et de Santé (EDS) du fait de leur comparabilité dans l'espace et le temps (mêmes noms de variables standardisées, même méthodologie d'enquête, mêmes modules, etc.). Ces atouts sont d'autant plus importants que les comparaisons de pauvreté et de bien-être basées sur les enquêtes de revenus ou de consommation butent sur de sérieux problèmes à savoir la comparabilité de ces enquêtes (méthodologies différentes, périodes de rappel différents, prix souvent non collectés de la même manière, etc.). Pour montrer ces effets de l'inégalité de santé sur les niveaux et les tendances de la santé des populations et la pauvreté et le bien-être, nous avons axé notre recherche autour de 3 axes principaux : 1- Comment mesurer le niveau de richesse et donc le bien-être des ménages en l'absence d'information sur la consommation et le revenu ? Les chapitres 1 et 2 de notre thèse se penchent sur cette question. Nous avons privilégié, à l'instar de plus en plus d'économistes, l'utilisation des biens des ménages et les méthodes de l'analyse factorielle et d'analyse en composantes principales pour construire un indice de richesse. Cet indice de richesse est pris comme un substitut du revenu ou de la consommation et sert donc de proxy pour la mesure du bien-être. Bien qu'il comporte quelques lacunes (notamment le fait qu'il ne concerne que les biens matériels et durables du ménage alors que la consommation ou le revenu sont des concepts plus globaux de bien-être, il ne prend pas en compte les préférences des ménages, il ne comporte aucune notion de valeur car le prix n'est pas pris en compte, de telle façon qu'une petite télévision en noir blanc vieille de vingt ans est mise au même niveau qu'un grand écran plasma flambant neuf, etc.), il n'en demeure pas moins que d'un côté, avec les EDS, il n'y a pas moyen de faire autrement en l'état actuel des choses, mais aussi et surtout parce que ces données permettent d'éviter les problèmes évoqués plus haut, notamment celui de la comparabilité des données pour faire de la comparaison spatiale et inter-temporelle des données en matière de pauvreté. Dans le premier chapitre, en nous basant sur cet indice et une ligne de pauvreté définie a priori à 60% pour la première observation dans notre échantillon (Benin, 1996), et en utilisant les données EDS et une analyse en composantes principales (ACP), nous avons pu mesurer la tendance de la pauvreté dite « matérielle » (en opposition à la pauvreté monétaire, basée sur la métrique monétaire). Cette méthode qui est privilégiée par des auteurs comme Sahn et Stifel est d'autant plus intéressante qu'elle donne non seulement les tendances de la pauvreté dans chaque pays, mais elle permet aussi une classification naturelle de ces pays par ordre de grandeur de pauvreté. Cependant, dans la mesure où les biens des ménages et la dépenses de consommation sont disponibles, l'analyste devrait estimer les deux types de pauvreté (matérielle via l'indice de richesse et monétaire via le revenu ou la consommation) car les études montrent souvent que les biens matériels et la consommation ou le revenu ne sont pas très bien corrélés, et donc le choix de l'indicateur de bien-être est crucial en termes de politiques économique et de santé. En effet, si l'indicateur sous-estime le vrai niveau de pauvreté ou d'inégalité (ou les surestime), les dépenses publiques qui en résultent peuvent être plus ou moins surévaluées, de même que les réponses apportées se révéler inadéquates. Donc dans la mesure du possible, il conviendrait de se pencher sur la question du choix de l'indicateur. Les résultats de notre méthodologie montrent que l'ASS reste la région la plus pauvre du monde en termes de possession d'actifs. La région orientale de l'ASS est la plus pauvre au monde (75%) suivie de l'Asie du Sud (64%), le Sud de l'ASS (61%), l'Afrique Centrale (57%), l'Afrique de l'Ouest (55%), l'Asie de l'Ouest (40%), l'Asie du Sud-Est (19%), l'Amérique Latine (18%), les Caraïbes (17%), l'Afrique du Nord (6%), l'Asie Centrale (2%) et l'Europe de l'Est (1%). Notre analyse nous montre que la pauvreté baisse dans l'ensemble des pays Africains au Sud du Sahara (sauf la Zambie), à l'instar des autres pays du monde dans l'échantillon. En effet, en considérant les trends, nous voyons que la moyenne de l'ASS passe de 63% de pauvreté matérielle entre 1990-1995 à 62% en 1995-2000 et 58% entre 2000 et 2005. La baisse est modeste et lente mais non négligeable et surtout, elle est en accélération sur les 2 dernières périodes. Mais elle demeure toutefois beaucoup plus marquée dans le reste du monde. Concomitamment à la baisse de la pauvreté, nous observons aussi une baisse de l'inégalité. Nous terminons ce chapitre par une réflexion sur l'effet de la transition démographique sur la croissance économique et la pauvreté en ASS et dans les autres pays en développement. En effet, la chute de la fertilité et de la mortalité couplées à un exode rural font que le nombre de famille se démultiplie du fait de la transition vers des tailles plus réduites. Ceci impose plus de contraintes (et donc peut avoir un impact négatif) sur la croissance économique et risque de sous-estimer le niveau réel de pauvreté. Il convient, une fois que la pauvreté matérielle et ses tendances ont été bien calculées avec les biens durables (et la transition économique prise si possible en compte), de tester la validité de cette méthode en la confrontant avec les résultats issus de l'analyse monétaire de la pauvreté. Les EDS ne comportant pas données d'information sur la consommation, nous nous sommes tournés vers une autre source de données. Dans le chapitre 2, nous avons testé la robustesse de notre méthode dans le cas particulier du Ghana, en utilisant les enquêtes du Questionnaire Unifié sur les Indicateurs de Base de Bienêtre (QUIBB), et en confrontant les résultats issus de la méthode ACP avec ceux issus de la méthode traditionnelle monétaire et trouvons grosso modo les mêmes résultats (10% de baisse avec la méthode monétaire traditionnelle et 7% avec notre méthode sur la période 1997- 2003). Ceci valide donc le fait que la méthode que nous proposons (à savoir, mesurer le bienêtre et la pauvreté par les biens durables des ménages) est tout aussi valide que la méthode plus traditionnelle utilisant des métriques monétaires. Une analyse fine dans le cas du Ghana montre que la baisse de la pauvreté est due à une croissance économique particulièrement pro-pauvre mais aussi à des dynamiques intra et intersectorielles (réallocation des gens des secteurs moins productifs vers ceux plus productifs) et aussi une forte migration des campagnes vers les villes. Nos simulations montrent que les migrants ruraux ont aussi bénéficié de cette croissance dans les villes où ils trouvent plus d'opportunités. 2- Une fois établie que la pauvreté est en recul en ASS, nous avons voulu mesurer la tendance de la santé de sa population (approximée par les taux de mortalité infantile et infanto-juvénile). Nous discutons dans le chapitre 3 de trois méthodes pour estimer et comparer les taux de mortalité des enfants : - la méthode des cohortes fictives (sur laquelle l'équipe de l'EDS se base pour estimer les taux « officiels » de mortalité), - la méthode non paramétrique (Kaplan et Meier) que privilégient un certain nombre d'économistes et - la méthode paramétrique (Weibull) de plus en plus utilisée pour sa souplesse et sa robustesse. Les deux premières méthodes ont tendance à sous-estimer le vrai niveau de mortalité et de ce fait nous avons privilégié le Weibull. De plus, avec cette dernière, nous pouvons évaluer l'effet de chaque variable spécifique (comme l'éducation ou l'accès à l'eau) sur le niveau de mortalité. Une étude des déterminants de cette mortalité montre qu'outre l'effet attendu de l'éducation des mères, l'accès aux infrastructures de santé (soins médicaux et surtout prénataux durant et lors de l'accouchement) et sanitaires (accès aux toilettes et dans une moindre mesure à l'eau potable) en sont les principaux facteurs. L'effet de richesse joue peu en ASS (mais pas dans le reste du monde), une fois que nous contrôlons pour le lieu de résidence (urbain) et le niveau d'éducation. Ce résultat nous surprend quelque peu, même s'il a été trouvé dans d'autres études. Ensuite, nous avons calculé la mortalité prédite des enfants. De toutes les régions du monde, l'ASS a le niveau de mortalité le plus élevé (par exemple en moyenne 107 décès pour la mortalité infantile contre 51 pour le reste du monde, soit plus du double). Ce résultat était toutefois attendu. Par contre nous avons été quelque peu surpris en ce qui concerne les tendances. Le constat est que sur les 15 ans, la mortalité des enfants a très peu ou pas du tout baissé dans le sous-continent africain (et est même en augmentation dans certains pays, alors qu'ils enregistrent une baisse de la pauvreté matérielle sur la même période). En moyenne, considérant les enfants de moins d'un an, les taux sont passés de 95%o à 89.5%o pour remonter à 91.5%o pour les 3 périodes 1990-1195, 1995-2000 et 2000-2005. Ainsi sur 15 ans, la mortalité infantile n'a baissé que de 3 points et demie en moyenne et surtout, elle remonte sur la période 1995-2005. Un examen des taux de malnutrition des enfants confirme ces tendances. On pourrait dire que ces résultats sont plutôt encourageants et normaux si on fait une analyse d'ensemble du sous-continent. En effet pour l'ensemble de l'ASS, cette légère baisse semble en conformité avec la baisse de 5 points des taux de pauvreté matérielle (63% en 1990-1995 à 58% en 2000-2005). Mais l'ordre de grandeur est faible en termes de magnitude, et surtout si compare au reste du monde où on observe une baisse de la mortalité beaucoup plus conséquente. Mais c'est l'arbre qui cache la forêt. Une analyse plus fine par pays montre en effet une situation plus contrastée. Notre postulat de départ nous dit que sur une période suffisamment longue, une amélioration de bien-être s'accompagne d'une amélioration de la santé. Or on constate que certains pays qui connaissent une baisse de la pauvreté matérielle connaissent également une recrudescence de la mortalité des enfants. Pour une même année, ce résultat peut être normal, traduisant un simple décalage pour que l'amélioration de bien-être se traduise par un meilleur état de santé de la population. Mais à moyen terme (période de 5 ans), nous observons la même absence d'effet. Nous sommes donc face à un paradoxe qu'il nous faut comprendre et tenter d'expliquer. Une des pistes pour comprendre ces résultats est d'analyser la performance des systèmes de santé en Afrique. Les facteurs qui expliquent notamment cette performance sont : des facteurs « classiques » comme la performance économique des périodes passées, les montants et l'allocation des dépenses de santé, l'organisation des systèmes de santé, la baisse de la fourniture de services de soins de santé (vaccination, assistance à la naissance, soins prénataux, soins curatifs, .), la malnutrition, le SIDA, les guerres, la fuite des cerveaux notamment du personnel médical, etc., à côté de facteurs plus « subtils » ou ténus car moins saisissables comme les crises financières des années 1990s qui ont plombé certaines des économies de la sous-région, la qualité des soins, la corruption et les dessous-de-table, l'instabilité de la croissance économique (même si elle est positive), etc. La seconde voie que nous examinons pour expliquer le manque de résultat en santé dans certains pays concerne l'inégalité en santé et ceci fait l'objet de notre dernier chapitre. 3- Expliquer l'absence de lien entre santé et pauvreté dans certains pays de l'ASS : l'effet de l'inégalité en santé. Dans le chapitre 4, nous émettons l'hypothèse que le fort niveau d'inégalité dans l'accès aux services de santé et d'assainissement couplé à la faible performance du système de santé (avec en toile de fond l'impact du Sida) peuvent servir à expliquer en partie notre paradoxe. Nous considérons deux types de services : - soins de santé (vaccination, assistance médicale à la naissance et traitement médical de la diarrhée) et - hygiène et assainissement (accès à l'eau potable et à l'électricité, accès aux toilettes propres). Le choix de ces services est motivé par le fait que le modèle Weibull dans le chapitre 3 nous montre que toutes choses égales par ailleurs, ils sont cruciaux pour la survie des enfants, en particulier en Afrique. Les niveaux d'accès montrent une baisse tendancielle des taux pour les services de santé (surtout pour la vaccination) et une légère augmentation de l'accès à l'électricité et dans une moindre mesure à l'eau potable. L'accès aux toilettes propres demeure un luxe réservé à une petite fraction de la population. Pour les calculs d'inégalité, nous considérons deux indicateurs: - l'indice de concentration (pour mesurer le niveau moyen d'inégalité) - et l'élasticité-revenu du Gini (inégalité « à la marge » quand le revenu d'un individu ou d'un groupe augmente d'un point de pourcentage). Globalement, les pays d'ASS ont un niveau d'inégalité beaucoup plus élevé comme on s'y attendait par rapport au reste du monde. Pour les tendances, nous remarquons que l'inégalité marginale s'accroît pour les services d'assainissement (eau, toilette et électricité), mais qu'elle diminue pour les soins de santé. En ce qui concerne l'inégalité moyenne, elle indique une disproportion dans l'accès des classes riches par rapport à celles pauvres. Même si les groupes pauvres « rattrapent » ceux riches dans la provision de certains services, cela se fait de façon trop lente. De fait, le haut niveau d'inégalité couplé à une recrudescence de cette inégalité à la marge pour certains services tendent à annihiler les effets positifs de la croissance économique et de la réduction de la pauvreté et maintiendraient la mortalité, la malnutrition et la morbidité des enfants en Afrique à des niveaux relativement élevés et plus particulièrement concentrées dans les groupes les plus pauvres. Tout ceci appelle à des politiques économiques, sociales et sanitaires pour renverser fortement les tendances de la mortalité des enfants. En particulier, nos résultats suggèrent qu'il faudrait que les pays Africains puissent entre autres : - accroître les services de soins de santé, notamment les soins préventifs comme les services essentiels à la santé de l'enfant dès sa naissance (vaccination, services prénataux et assistance à la naissance), les soins curatifs et les campagnes de sensibilisation. - renverser la tendance baissière dans la provision des services sanitaires (eau, électricité, environnement et assainissement, prise en charge des déchets, etc.). - améliorer la nutrition et l'environnement immédiat de ces enfants et les comportements des ménages (espacement des naissances, éducation des mères en matière de santé, etc.). - plus généralement comme le montrent d'autres études, il faudrait aussi améliorer la performance globale de leur système de santé en empêchant la fuite des cerveaux, en allouant un budget suffisant à la santé, en organisant mieux les différents organes, de même que les ciblages des politiques de santé, en empêchant la corruption, en améliorant la qualité (accueil, propreté des centres de soins, etc.), en équipant les centres en médicaments, vaccins, moyens de transport et de communication, etc. Intégrer si possible les systèmes plus traditionnels de soins (comme les matrones et les guérisseurs) et le secteur privé, de même qu'une meilleure organisation du système pharmaceutique. Ces politiques constituent un tout et doivent être mise en oeuvre rapidement, ou renforcées le cas échéant. A cette seule condition les pays Africains pourraient espérer rattraper leur retard dans les Objectifs du Millénaire.
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Solt, 2nd Floor Spangler Building, dfhe fashionable dfailc: Satisfaction Suaranteed. Prices to Suit (h? Tine:. I Webster's Send a Postal for Specimen Pages, etc. International Successor of the " Unabridged." Dictionary; c THE BEST FOR TEACHERS AND SCHOOLS BECAUSE IN THIS DICTIONARY It is easy to find the word wanted. It is easy to ascertain the pronunciation. It is easy to learn what a word means. It is easy to trace the growth of a word. o _ Sic:—elarrcl of the TJ. S. Supremo Court, of all the State Supreme Courts, of the (■) u. U. Government Printing Ofiice, and of nearly all tho Schoolbooks. Warmly com- I "otl by Stato Superintendents of Schools and other Educators almost without number. 'The Pennsylvania School Journal says:—The Internationa] Webster is a tTCCCuro Itouse of universal knowledge to which all the world, in all its ages, has made ccatri) , and any ono of us may nave it at his elbow. Of itj half hundred bpeoial-cf value and importance, the most attractive to uo i.i itj otymolopy, an un-failin :. i iiirce of interest and enjoyment, ofteu of surpriseand wonder.—OCTOM'EI:, 18%. G. & C. HEKRIA9I CO., Publishers. Springfield, Mass. The College Metcufy. fOL. V. GETTYSBURG, PA., JULY, 1897. No. THE COLLEGE MEfiCUfiY', blished each month during the college year by the Students of Pennsylvania (Gettysburg) College. ■ SMITH, 'g8. : E. FLECK '98. : W. WOODS, '9! STAFF. Editor: E. L. ,KOLLER, '98. Associate Editors : J. H. MEYER, '99. J. H. BEERITS, '99. H, C'. ROEHNER, '99. R. D. CLARE, 1900. Alumni Association Editor: REV. D. FRANK GARLAND, A. M., Taneytown, Md. Business Manager: J. W. WEETER, '99. Assistant Business Manager: j. A. MCALLISTER, '98. T f One volume (tell months), . . . $1.00 1 ERMS ■ j Single copies, . . ' . . 15 Payable in advance .11 students are requested to hand us matter for publication, he Alumni and ex-members of the College will favor us by sending information concerning their whereabouts or any items they may think would be interesting for publication. All subscriptions and business matters should be addressed to the Business Manager. Matter intended for publication should be addressed to the Editor. Address, THE COLLEGE MERCURY, Gettysburg, Pa CONTENTS. COMMENCEMENT WEEK, - 79 BACCALAUREATE SERMON, - - 79 ADDRESS TO Y. M. C. A , 80 CONCERT BY THE MUSICAL CLUBS, 80 JUNIOR ORATORICAL CONTEST, 81 CLASS DAY EXERCISES, 8r CLASS AND FRATERNITY BANQUETS, - - - - 82 COMMENCEMENT ORATIONS, 84 GRADUATES AND HOME ADDRESSES, - - 85 DEGREES CONFERRED, 8? CLASS POEM, '97, --■-• --- .*.* g- UGHTH ANNUAL TENNIS TOURNAMENT, - - - - gg A RESUME OF ATHLETIC MATTERS, - - . 86 COLLEGE LOCALS, . 87 MOVEMENTS OF OUR ALUMNI IN THE PAST FEW WEEKS, - SS AMERICA'S NOBLE SON, - " STATE POLITICS IN PENNSYLVANIA. - - - - - 9o COWIWIENCEIVIENT WEEK. SUNDAY, MAY 30 TO FRIDAY, JUNE 4. Commencement is over. The class of '97 have been graduated and have gone. The ex-ercises of the past week have been of the most enjoyable nature, and everything has been done without a flaw—truly a grand success. For the greater part of the week we were fort-unate in having the most perfect days for our Commencement, especially Wednesday, and. this added in no small degree to the magnifi-cent success of the whole occasion. The Senior class who have just been gradu-ated, will indeed be missed from the ranks of old Gettysburg. Their successes in literary matters and in athletics have raised them to such a position in the estimation of all the un-dergraduates that we feel as if the vacancies occasioned in all departments of college ac-tivity by their departure will indeed be hard to fill. While we do not believe in all this talk about "fighting the battle of life," etc., yet the MERCURY hopes that each and every member of the class of '97 will attain the best of success in whatever they undertake. The order of exercises during the week will be followed in the recounting, just as they oc-curred, and the most important events will be given. BACCALAUREATE SERMON. COLLEGE CHURCH, SUNDAY, IO.30 A. M. The Commencement exercises of the Col-lege and Seminary opened in Christ Lutheran church, Sunday morning. The Baccalaureate sermon was delivered by Rev. M. Valentine, D. D. LL,. D., President of the Theological Seminary, to the graduating classes of both institutions. He based his remarks upon the 18th verse of the 4th chapter of the Second 8o THE COLLEGE MERCURY. Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen ; for the things which are seen are temporal ; but the things which are not seen are eternal." The theme of the discourse was based on the right relation of the things of life to per-manent good. Life has its rightful setting in the perspective of eternity. Every life is a failure which is not directed toward the invisi-ble things which endure. The discourse was a masterful one and no partial report could do it justice. Dr. Valentine, in all his many scholarly sermons from the College church pulpit seldom, if ever, surpassed the effort of Sunday, May 30th. ADDRESS"TOT. M. C. A. COLLEGE CHURCH, SUNDAY, 7.3O P. M. In the evening an earnest and forcible ad-dress was delivered to the Young Men's Chris-tian Association of the College, by Hon. W. N. Ashman, of Philadelphia. His discourse was founded on answers to certain objections to religion as raised by men of business and men of science. The speaker argued that the principles and truths of the Christian religion could be fully established when tried by the same tests as are applied in the determination of ordinary busi-ness propositions. The element of the supernatural in religion prevented the application of the rules and methods of scientific investigation where ma-terial facts and substances alone are dealt with. The scientific man is therefore unfair when he applies his methods to the examination of re-ligious questions. The large audience was highly edified with the Judge's clear, forcible, earnest and ex-haustive presentation of the subject. The music at the morning and evening serv-ices was an attractive feature of the session. It was furnished by the highly efficient choir of the church, assisted by Miss Leopold, in-structor of vocal music at Wilson College, who sang several beautiful solos with fine effect, Mr. Segrist, of Lebanon, playing the organ accompaniments. 1 » » CONCERT BT THE MUSICAL CLUBS. BRUA CHAPEL, TUESDAY, EIGHT P. M. The concert this year was a grand success in every way. The audience was without doubt the largest that has ever attended a concert by our musical clubs, and their ability to appre-ciate the selections of the clubs was shown by their judicious applauding, enthusiastic for the humorous songs, and appreciative for the more classic selections. The best selections render-ed were the opening ones of each part, "Schu-bert's Serenade," arranged by C. Kuntze, and "Lead Kindly Light," by Dudley Buck, al-though the humorous encores seemed to elicit the heartiest applause from the boys. Our glee club is to be congratulated upon its excel-lent taste in the selection and rendition of music that is undoubtedly far above that sung by the average glee club; and the college may well feel proud in having had a glee club of such pronounced ability during this year. Four of the eight have been graduated this commencement, Messrs. Ott, White, Arm-strong and Manges, and they will be greatly missed. Our hope is that the next year's class may have excellent material to fill the breach, The stage on Tuesday evening was very taste-fully decorated with potted plants, palms, with the class flower of '97, the daisy. The whole affair was one of beauty, both to the eye and ear. PROGRAMME. PART I. i. Schubert's Serenade, - - arr. C. Kuntze GLEE CLUB. 2. The Serenade, VIOLIN CLUB. 3. Recitation—The Swan Song, Miss GERTRUDE SIEBER, 4. Solo—The Old Grave Digger, • A. G. Henderson MR. MANGES. 5. The Phantom Band, - ' - - A. W. Thayer GLEE CLUB. 6. Violin Solo-Obertass, - - - H. Wieniawski MR. ERDMAN. THK COLLKGK MERCURY. ,r- Lead Kindly Light, Dudley Buck Selected Franz Abt GLEE CLUB. 2. Quartette—(Instrumental) VIOLIN CLUB. 3. Solo—Because I Love You Dear, Mr. NICHOLAS. 4. The Wandering Minstrel's Patrol, - Willis Clark GLEE CLUB. 5. Quartette—(vocal) Selected. Messrs. NICHOLAS, WHITE, KOLLEB and MANGES. . 6. Good Night, - Frank Thayer GLEE CLUB. ORGANIZATIONS. GLEE CLUB. 1st Tenors, C. M. Nicholas, '98 17. W. Ott, '97 1st Bass, E L. Roller, '98 C. T. Lark, '98 2nd Tenors. C. G. White, '97 E. A. Armstrong, 2nd Bass, Lewis C. Manges, '98 Harry Musselman. VIOLIN CLUB. H. B. Erdman, '96 C. T. Lark, '98 John M. Gates, '01 A. T. Smith, '00 ELOCUTIONIST, Miss Gertrude Sieber, '97 PIANIST, Geo. A. Englar, '97 JUNIOR ORATORICAL CONTEST. BRUA CHAPEL,, WEDNESDAY, IO A. M. The contest this year, by the six members f the class of '98, for the Recklig prize iu ora-tory, has been pronounced, by those who are competent judges of such matters, better than any for the past few years. There were but Ex contestants, three from each of the Liter-ary societies, but the number was large enough |o make the exercises interesting and not tire-me. The music for the intermissions was famished by the Harrisburg orchestra. The attendance was very large, and, with the ex-ception of the stir and bustle made by those coming and going, excellent order was ob-served throughout. It might be well to say, a word, to the coming Junior class, that they fcould do well to start early to make their preparations for next year's Junior Oratorical, and not only get their best men to compete, put also see that these men do their best. PROGRAM. MUSIC—' Gay Coney Island March"—M. Levi. PRAYER. MUSIC—"Anita" (Mexican Waltzes)—Barnard. The New Slavery, CHARLES E. FLECK* New Kingston Tragedies of the Present. CHARLES M. NICHOLAS,! Beerett, Md. MUSIC—A Kansas Two Step—Pryor. The Emancipation of Cuba, CHARLES B. KEPHART,* Taneytown, Md. True Nobility, ALBERTUS G. Fuss,t Williamsport, Md. MUSIC—Intermezzo (Cavalleria Rusticana)—Mascagni. America's Noble Son, IRA G. BRINER,* New Bloomfield The Present Social Discontent RALPH L. SMITH,! Pittsburg MUSIC—March, "The Girl of '99"—Zickel. BENEDICTION. *Phrenakosmian. fPhilomathsean. The judges, Dr. Weigle, of Mechanicsburg, Pa.; Rev. A. R. Steck, pastor of St. James Lutheran church, Gettysburg, and Rev. D. W. Woods, pastor of the Presbyterian church, Gettysburg, made their decision as follows : REDDIG PRIZE IN ORATORY. IBA G. BEINEB, New Bloomfield, Pa. WITH HONOEABLE MENTION OF CHAELES E. FLECK New Kingston, Pa. CHAELES M. NICHOLAS Beerett, Md. Mr. Briner's oration, "America's Noble Son," is published in the Literary Department of this issue. CLASS DAY EXERCISES. COLLEGE CAMPUS, WEDNESDAY, 2 P. M. To some, these exercises by the graduating class constitute the most enjoyable feature of the whole Commencement. And they really are a diversion from the somewhat heavy na-ture of the matter of Commencement week. It lias been the custom to hold the exercises on Tuesday evening of Commencement week, but the change to Wednesday afternoon, has certainly been to make it more convenient for everyone concerned. On the occasion of this year's Class Day exercises, everything seemed to join to make them successful in every way. The afternoon was the most pleasant that could have been desired—not too warm and a slight breeze through the branches above the speakers' platform and the audience made these out-door exercises a delightful affair. 82 THE COLLEGE MERCURY. The platform was decorated with the '97 class colors, nile green and pink, and with potted plants, and the class flower—the daisy. Benches and chairs were provided for the large crowd that was present and all were comfort-ably fixed. The music was furnished by the Commencement Orchestra. The Seniors, in cap and gown, were all seated on the speakers' platform, and certainly made an imposing spectacle. In spite of the general strain of humor and roasting notice-able in all the speeches, there was nevertheless an under-current of sadness at parting, deep down beneath this gay exterior of mirth. Many of the parts were excellent, and we are sorry that space will not permit our pub-lishing several of the papers, for a very meagre idea of the character of them can be gotten from the program. PROGRAM. Muster 01' Ceremonies,.:.: :.: :::: BIKLK MUSIC. Class Roll ^!V.K-.::-.:::::y.v.w.v.-.-.v.-:.v.v. WHITE Ivy OMitIo&i:::'.v.»»i:»u:s'.u.'.u»usisn ENGLAR Ivy Poem,.; :.OTT MUSIC. . Ciass History,. '■■'■ • KAIN Class Poem FRIDAY-Our Absent Ones, BUTTON ■ MUSIC. The Loving Cup ERB Conferring of Degrees , MILLER Miintlc Qrationv, .'. LEISENKING Junior Response LABK MUSIC. Presentation of Gifts,. WOLF Prophecy WHEELER MUSIC. At "the close of the exercises, after the mo-tion for adjournment had been put and passed, the class yell was given. (LASS AND FRATERNITY BANQUETS. TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY NIGHTS. This Commencement was made especially interesting by the several reunions of classes and fraternities, thus bringing back to the old walls those who have been away for many years. Three of the classes, '82, '87 and '93 held reunions, and two of the fraternities, the Alpha Tau Omega, and the Phi Delta Theta. The seniors, also, held their banquet, Thursday night. THE FIRST REUNION OP '93. TUESDAY NIGHT. [Written for the MERCURY by Rev. Diffenderfer, '93.] In reply to the call of the Secretary of the class, Rev. A. J. Rudisill, of New Bloomfield. twenty of the survivors of the class assembled at the Eagle Hotel, on Tuesday evening, June 1st. At 8 p. m., they attended the concerto: the musical clubs in Brua Chapel, in a body. There was a strong temptation to renew old-time customs and habits when some familiar faces entered. An occasional "guy" and out-burst of friendly joking, and a hearty applause for the clubs were the only features of interest. Immediately after the concert was over, the class gathered at the tower door of the chapel and gave their good old yell with a vim and ring, that made the dead spirits of former days arise and hover about them in eager expecta-tion for some old-time trick, or class-rush. At 10.00 p. m., all went to the dining hall of the Eagle Hotel to partake of the splendid "banquet" which "Mine host" Eberhart had prepared. The dining hall was beautifully decorated with plants and palms, and bloom-ing flowers. In the centre of the room, at tie head of the table, was placed a beautiful dis-play of colored electric lights, on a background of Class colors. The bill of fare was elabor-ately prepared, and served in the best style. Mr. Eberhart and his efficient corps of waiter-did all they could to make the banquet a grand success. Well, did we have any fun? There U Niels L. J. Gron, our Danish brother, with his sedate and dignified bearing; dreaming of some fair and beautiful form which had presented to his sight in some far off across the sea. "Niels" looks as genteel refined as ever, ready at a moment's noticett| say "maecanos el evis," etc. Then "Bisl Grimes' calm, sedate, peaceful countenance wondering why Prof. Himes didn't call 011M to recite, as it was his "turn up," and Frank' THE COLLEGE MERCURY. 83 Melanchton Bortner with his favorite ■Penn'a Dutch" brogue, saying to Dr. Martin, "I am sitting on the front row, and never of-fered any criticism, but made that noise.'' And I'Judge" Alleman, with his serious counte-lance and dignified demeanor, wondering 'What the deuce we can get up to start a racket." And "Bill" Vastine, the Catawissa iase ball magnate, singing his beautiful ('falsetto," to "The Old Oaken Bucket," and leclaring that either he or Prof. Nixon must |ake more physical exercise, or travel with a Dime Museum. Then think of "Sail" Tur-ber "kicking" about the bill of fare not pro-biding the extras, "Mumm's Dry," etc., rais-ing a row about everything in general, then laughing at the excitement he had caused. Ime old "Ajax," boisterous and demonstra-te Andrew Jackson Rudisill, who always vas the "noisiest" man about the Dormitory. Then all the others, Geesy, Kline, Hilton, 3aum, "Neudy," "Whiskers" Ehrhart, oh, they were all boys back to college again, and "Diff," the Proctor, as lenient as ever. A beautiful menu card had been engraved by E. A. Wright, the class cut on first page, ind menu in class colors next, toast and offi-cers following: Toast master, Hilton. "Our First Reunion,'' E. Gettier; "Our Alma Mater," G. M. Mffenderfer; "The Future Prospects of a Col-lege Widow," E. E. Parsons; "Daw: What it is, and What it Does," F. M. Bortner; "The Traveller in all Eands," N. L. J. Gron; "Gos-pel: What it is, and what it Does," M. J. nine; "Eife in a University," E. E. Seyfert; "The Blessings of a Bachelor," E. E. Neude-vitz; "High Eife at Washington," J. C. Bow-rs; "Fun we had in College," W. M. Vastine; "Pleasures of a Doctor's Eife," M. S. Boyer; "What '93 Did for Athletics," G. E- Hipsleyj 'Our Honored Dead," W. H. Ehrhart; "Our lost," A. J. Rudisill. In the "wee small" hours of the morning ye adjourned, after having passed a Resolu-tion to meet again in 1900, the same commit-tee to be continued. What a pleasure it was to meet again amid these old familiar scenes; even the town "kids" recognized us and shouted "there goes '93." Let us all endeavor to be present in 1900, if we live, and make it the occasion of our life, and aii epoch in the history of the College. REUNION OP '82. [Written for the MERCURY.] The reunion of '82 was held at the Eagle Hotel, on Wednesdaj' evening of Commence-ment week. The menu was excellent—such as the Eagle knows how to arrange—and all the old fellows who were back enjoyed this part immensely. The banquet was not marked by its lengthy addresses or "toasts," but there was a general good social time had, and the whole affair was very informal. Of course we all had to tell what happened since we met last, and this really constituted a greater pleasure than "toasts" would have af-forded. The proposal of a reunion at Phila-delphia in the near future was met with ap-plause. Of the twenty-three living members of the class, there were thirteen present at the banquet. . REUNION OF '87. [Written for the MERCURY by Rev. H. C. Allemau, '87.] The announced reunion of the class was abandoned because so few of the boys could be present at Commencement this year. Charles E. Stahle, Esq., invited the six faithful who made the pilgrimage to his home Wednesday evening, where an impromptu reunion was en-joyed. Those present were Parr, Crouse, Sny-der, Snively, Wolf and Alleman. After re-freshments the silver class-cup was presented to Harold F. Snyder, the first son of'87, born May 19, 1891. Regrets were read from Hol-zapfel, Coover, Croll, Brame, Fishburn, Fisher, McDermod, Dreibelbis and Bateman. "Non vi sed saepo cadendo" was again ex-tolled, and pledges made for social meetings every year and a reunion every decade. ALPHA TAU OMEtJA BANQUET. WEDNESDAY NIGHT. The Banquet was held at the Eagle Hotel at 11.30. Many of the Alumni of the Chapter ,84 THK COU,EGK MKRCURY. were present, making an attendance of twenty-three in all. The toasts were as follows : Franklin Menges, Ph. D., '86, Toast Mas-ter; Geo. M. Hosack, Esq., "TheFraternity;" L. DeWitt Gerhardt, Esq., '84, "Our Early Days;" Morris T. Brown, '92, "A. T. O. in Business;" F. M. Bortner, Esq., '93, "A. T. O. in the Professions;" Win. O. Nieklas, Esq., '94, "College Reminiscences of an A. T. O.;" W. H. Menges, '96, "The Spirit of Our Alumni;" C. B. Erb, '97, "Our Ladies;" J. A. McAllister, '98, "The Goat." PHI DELTA THETA BANQUET. WEDNESDAY NIGHT. The Hotel Gettysburg was the place of the banquet. The Ahunni of the Chapter helped to add to the spirit of the occasion by their presence. The toasts were as follows : Rev. H. H. Weber, Toast Master. "Why We are Here," Rev. L. S. Black, '88; "Our Position in the Fraternity World," J. S. Eng-lish, '94; Our Alumni Phi's," G. H. Eckels, '95; Our College Phi's," J. H. Beerits, '99; "A Phi's Start in Life," J. W. Ott, '97; "Our Bumper Billy," B. F. Carver, '00; "My New Guardians," Rev. M. J. Killian, Va. Alpha; "Phi Recollections," B. R. Lantz, '94; "Next Year's Chapter," J. C. Markle, '00. SENIOB CLASS BANQUET. THURSDAY NIGHT. A very fitting close to the existence of '97 at Gettysburg, was the Banquet held at the Hotel Gettysburg, on Thursday night. The intention was to have a final reunion of the class and its ex-members before the class leaves. Ten ex-members were invited to be present, some of whom responded. The Ban-quet was a purely informal affair, its object being, as expressed by one of the Seniors, to have "a good time;" and from all accounts they had it. There were twenty present, and little informal addresses were made by R. N. Stable, H. Sheely, and C. G. Smith, M. D., ex-members of'97, and by C. B. Erb, White Hutton and P. J. Shriver, of the graduating class. The menu was an excellent one, and from many sources and for many reasons, we know that everybody had "a good time." (OHMENCEM ENT ORATIONS. BY THE TEN MEMBERS OF THE GRADUATING! CLASS, BRUA CHAPEL, THURSDAY, 9 A. M. Up to Thursday, the weather during Com-I mencement week was of the finest, but on the■ morning of Commencement day, it rainedl quite heavily for some time. However, the I audience that assembled in the Chapel to hear the orations, did not seem to be at all fright-ened by the unfavorable condition of the elej rnents and the Chapel was well filled. ORDER OF EXERCISES. MUSIC—March "Corps do Sards"—Oodfrej. PRAYER. MUSIC-Melody in F-Eu.binstein. Latin Salutatory GEORGE F ABEL, Philadelptil Chri-tian Socialism, ELKANAH M, DUCK, Spring Mill The Extiniof the Laborer'sGrievance, ARTHUR B. COBLE, Lyki«| MUSIC— "Pilgrim Chorus" (Tannhaonser)—Wagner. The Unification of Science GEORGE HAY KAIN, Vat| State Politics in Pennsylvania,.HORACE E. CLUTE, Harriskil The Chief Religious Problem of the Age, HENRY R. SMITH, Chamberslui|| MUSIC—March, "The American Girl"—Herbert, Physical Training for the Twentieth Century, CLIFTON G. WHITE, Manhtii| Greece and the European Concert, ROBBIN B. WOLF, Gettysbnil MUSIC—"Bolero" (Spanish Dance)—Moszkowsky. Sixty Years of Queen Victoria, A. GERTRUDE SIEBER, Gettysbin| The Curtitls for To day, with Valedictory, HENRY WOLF BIKLE, Gettysteq| MUSIC -"Im Tiefen Keller" Fantasie—Lovenberg. CONFERRING OF DEGREES BY THE PRESIDENT. MUSIC-March, "Old Club "—Schremser. BENEDICTION. HONORS AND PRIZES. FIRST HONOR. HENRY WOLF BIKLE Gettysburg. GEORGE F. ABEL Philadelphia. ELKANAH M. DUCK Spring Mills. SECOND HONOR. HORACE E. CLUTE, Harrisburg. G. HAY KAIN York. ANNA G. SIEBER, (two years) Gettysburg GR/EFF PRIZE, FOR BEST E9SAV ON 7HE RELIGIOUS FAITH OF ROBERT BURNS. AS SHOWN IN HIS PO*' GEORGE F. ABEL Philadelphia. | WITH HONORABLE MENTION OP HENRY WOLF BIKLE Gettysburg. THE COEEEGE MERCURY. 85 HASSLER GOLD MEDAL, JUNIOR LATIN PRIZE. B>MUND W. MEISENHELDER York. WITH HONORABLE MENTION OF b. L. KOLLER, Hanover. BtALPH L. SMITH Pittsburg BAUM SOPHOMORE MATHEMATICAL PRIZE. feRTHUR S. BRUMBAUGH Roaring Spring. BOS. N. K. HICKMAN Steelton. WITH HONORABLE MENTION OF &ACOB D. SNYDER McKnightstown. J(HIX F. STALEY, Middletown. [WHEN 0. DIEHL Bedminster. MUHLENBERG FRESHMAN PRIZE. FOR BEST GENERAL SCHOLARSHIP. OTHER A. WEIGLE Mechanicsburg. WITH HONORABLE MENTION OF [WILLIAM W. FREY York. BEDDIC PRIZE IN ORATORY. [iKA G. BRINER ; New Blcomfield. WITH HONORABLE MENTION OF EA.RLES E. FLECK, New Kingston. 3ARLES M. NICHOLAS, Berrett, Md. ♦—♦—♦ I GRADUATES AND HOME ADDRESSES. BACHELOR OF ARTS. George Ferdinand Able, Philadelphia, Pa. [Ernest Adelbert Armstrong, Hellam, Pa. [Henry Wolf Bikle, Gettysburg, Pa. :harles Roy Coble, Eykens, Pa. jthur Byron Coble, Lykens, Pa. Elkanah Maximillian Duck, Spring Mills, Pa. [George William Englar, Linwood, Md. Frederick Whipp Friday, Jefferson, Md. White Hutton, Chambersburg, Pa. Bamuel Jacob Miller, Edgemont, Md. John William Ott, Rocky Ridge, Md. Pearl Johnston Shriver, Gettysburg, Pa. Anna Gertrude Sieber, Gettysburg, Pa. Henry Rouzer Smith, Chambersburg, Pa. William Rufus Stahl, Hay's Mills, Pa. Philip Thos.Em'y Stockslager,Funkstown,Md. William Edward Wheeler, Baltimore, Md. [Clifton Glemm White, Manheim, Pa. [obbin Bayard Wolf, Gettysburg, Pa. BACHELOR OF SCIENCE. Horace Edwin Clute, Harrisburg, Pa. Charles Eeroy Boyer Erb, Boyertown, Pa. George Hay Kain, York, Pa. Fran'l'n Schoch Eeisenring,Chambersburg,Pa. r^wis Clarence Manges, Felton, Pa. John Elmer Meisenhelder, Hanover, Pa. Class Motto—Pertinax Animo. Class Colors—Pink and Nile Green. Class Flower—Daisy. Class Yell— Pertinax Animo, Rah ! Rah !.! Rah ! ! ! Ninety-Seven, Ninety-Seven, Gettysburgia. ~*-~^ ♦- DEGREES CONFERRED. COMMENCEMENT DAY JUNE 3. A. M. Prof. H. A. Allison, '94, Rev. R. W. Mottern, '94 " c- p- Bastian, 94, • koehuer, c f. Burns, p Herman, 1. f. Brown, r f. Spealman, r. f Wolf, 1. f. Loudon, r. f. Lawyer, r. t Gettysburg College, Opponents, 273 ::s 63 269 19 12 S". .11 .125 .875 .292 .171 .340 .233 .304 .222 .000 .200 .000 .143 .231 .15fi Pastor of the Quincy charge, in Franklin ounty, Pa. '94- Rev. Matthew S. Kemp, of Hazleton, Pa., has received a call from Smithsburg, Pa. Mr. Kemp graduated last week from Gettys-burg Seminary. '94. Fred. Bloomhardt, of the University of Pennsylvania, spent a short time at his home Tiring the latter part of May. >" AMERICA'S NOBLE SON. JNIOR PRIZE ORATION BY I. G. BRINER. We are to-day standing upon sacred ground. Q the war of '63 these hills and mountains echoed and re-echoed with the cannon's awful roar. For three days the mighty columns of the Southern Confederacy surged against our hues. Sometimes our phalanx faltered. Some-times it broke. But in the final and awful charge, made by Pickett's men, victory was forever emblazoned upon our immaculate ban-ner. To-day, behold ! how changed. The gory and tattered flag has been cleansed by more than three decades of sweet peace and wel-comed prosperity. In our National Cemetery those, who loved their country and their homes better than their lives, now repose in silent sleep. Their tombs are covered with earth's richest mantle. By their side stand stately trees with waving boughs and wide spreading branches. Over them the happy children scatter fragrant flowers, while the sun looks down, from the vaulted sky, and smiles. The relatives and friends of the heroes come close to those mounds and shed a loving and parting tear. But even weeping will not make sacred this ground. In his dedicatory speech Abraham Lincoln said, "We cannot hallow this ground, the brave men living and dead who fought here, have hallowed it far above our powers to add or detract." Not only do we revere and honor the meni-of those who sleep here, but we would hold in grateful remembrance every man who has p'-oven a friend and defender of our national faith and honor. Many there are to whom we can point with pride. Men, who, on the bat-tlefield, exhibited the greatest skill, bravery and courage. Those, when duty called, pressed forward into the thickest of the con-flict, that our freedom might be won and our beloved Union preserved. Those, when en-trusted with national honor, had dignity and manhood enough to keep it pure and unsullied. Among the host of such Americans shines, in undimmed splendor and glory, the name of* Ulysses S. Grant. His deeds of courage and bravery, his genuine high statesmanship and Christian character will ever be remembered and held in high esteem by all men who love the land of the free and the home of the brave. In our sister state, only four weeks ago was dedicated to his memory a beautiful and mas-sive memorial. By this act a premium was placed upon the actions of great and good men. This silent witness, as its beauty is reflected in the peaceful waters of the Hudson, is but a slight token of the Nation's gratitude for him. Historians tell us, as a soldier General Grant stood without a peer. To him was entrusted the closing scenes of an awful conflict. In him the nation saw a leader fearless and un-daunted as well as tender and kind. When his forces stormed Fort Donelson with heavy charges, the commander asked for terms. THE COLLEGE MERCURY General Grant replied : "No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I purpose to move immediately upon your works." On the other hand, when Lee was over-powered and the Southern army shattered, it was General Grant who proposed that the soldiers who had horses should retain them. He said, "The men will need them in plowing their fields, when they return to their homes." During the four years of this civil strife he had the confidence and esteem of soldiers and officers. With a unanimity that was never disturbed by an audible voice of dissent, the two million veterans gave to him supremacy over all the other officers under whom they served. The battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor and Five Forks have immortalized his name among the greatest generals of the earth. How beautiful thus to see blended in one man true humanity, mingled with pure patriotism and undaunted courage. When our beloved country was yet tremb-ling and groaning from the shock received by the Civil war, news came to General Grant that he had been nominated for President of the United States. In his letter of acceptance he penned the words which are sweetest to those who have seen the horrors and ravages of war: ' 'Let us have peace.'' But this man was opposed to even having peace until he was sure it would be universal and abiding. Later in his official capacity he affirms that he would have "no policy to enforce against the will of the people." His entire adminis-tration is a living testimony that these words came forth from a heart radiant with truth. The character of this great man stands out clear and strong. Those that know him best saw in him a man in the truest sense of the term. Other men might be swerved from the path of duty by the temptations so numerous and strong in public life, by disappointed and coveting office seekers, by streams of immor-ality and waves of infidelity, but General Grant turned these discouragements and sins into stepping stones by which he arose to where his character to-day shines with tin-dimmed luster. When he assumed the functions of the Presi-dential office his highest ambition was to prove a worthy and trusted leader. He had learned through the great and far-reaching lessons taught by Jesus of Nazareth, "he that is greatest among you shall be your servant." He possessed abiding confidence! the honesty and intelligence of his coiuitr men, and always retained his deep holdup their affections. With Washington and Li: coin, Grant has an exalted place in our com try's history. When his monument was dedicated tha were present representatives from all brands of our Government, the resident officials < foreign nations, the Governors of the state and the sovereign people from every sectio of our common country. What a glowii tribute thus to pa}' to one who has reachedti; highest pinnacle of human distinction. Tt story of this man's life is worthy the conten plation of the ages. Now that beautiful memorial, honor of this General, Statesman, and Christian Gentleman, risees majesty before us. May it thus point us a individuals, and as a nation, to a higher splie of living, and clearer and more sublime fellow-ship with the God who rules the destiny rf Nations. erected i: President in siletl STATE POLITICS IN PENNSYLYANIl SENIOR ORATION, BY HORACE E. CLUTE, ') In examining the political situation in Pen sylvania we must feel, first of all, the needo! liberal point of view. If our position be thati patriots, we must consider all sides. It is nea less to say that this is, in its very nature, « a party question but one appealing to the leji imate interest of every loyal citizen of ti "laud of Penn." At a time when so much:: terest is being taken in the political affairs! our own Commonwealth, a broad basis for criticism must seem important. A certain gree of conservatism on the one hand, anda the other, an insistence on a full and da light on every part of our political svstea should characterize our consideration. In a question of this kind, the compart view will be found helpful to the broader bas we have referred to. What conditions at problems are met and settled in other state Nor need our range be confined to this con-try. European systems will be found uioreo less rich in political suggestion, when co: pared with our own. And we can readilyni derstand how a foreigner should be able! take this comparative view better perhaps tb any of us. The question touches us • closely. Professor Bryce, an Englishman eminence, furnishes, in his "American Cd THE COLLEGE MERCURY. 9i The! IS legit- I lb stec rafc bas ; as .ate :oE mi co: yd ile: tkjl ■an |Cc: I mwealth," an excellent illustration of this, onsiders the working and conditions of j"r political institutions in relation both to Hose of his own country and to each other in |e different sections and Commonwealths in ,is country. He says: "The spirit and force fcarty has, in America, been as essential to lie action of the machinery of government as team is to the locomotive engine. His view i briefly this: "in Europe the parties stand for jiiciples, in America they do not;" in the one 1'issues have never been lacking which Sought their respective principles into opera- En:" in the other "the chief practical issues which once divided the parties have been set-fled." In spite of the heated discussion and the definiteness in issue of the last-presidential campaign, we Americans cannot deny that fhere is much truth in his view and particu-larly as applied to State politics. What great principle does the Republican or the Demo-cratic party stand for in State elections? Does the citizen vote on some State issue or because R: wants his party to get the spoil? Bryce aptly says: "Bringing men up to the polls is like passing a stone roller over stones newly laid on a road." As the angularities in the stones are pressed out so individuality is merged into party. We fear this is what has happened very largely in Pennsylvania. Yet if asked to analyze the present political condition, we should say that it is perhaps nearer a transition, a revolution, from the existing order of things, than a solid-fying in them; recent indications seem to point in that direction. Prominent among these we might mention the withdrawal from power of a. U. S. Senator whose sway has extended for a number of years; though a candidate put forward by a boss took his place it was not without comparatively formidable opposition and the absence of the impliciteness with which many former behests were obeyed; and it is believed by some that if brought up now this candidate could not be elected. It is prob-ably true, as some one suggests, that the pres-ent legislature —the House at least—is more its own than in some former sessions. Citizens Reform Leagues and Associations, though aim-g more especially at municipal reform, show a marked tendency, not always appearing on e surface, to wipe out political corruption. The recent formation of Business Men's Leagues throughout the State, whatever news-papers may say about the aims of the leaders Jf the movement, shows a rebellion on the part 'fa very substantial proportion of our citizen-ship against the existing order of things. The recent exposure, on the part of contractors and others in possession of the facts, the waste of the people's money in "padded" bills, appro-priations, &c, may also be added to the gen-eral indications. We may think that a great hue and cry is raised about the corruption and degradation of Pennsylvania politics, and that the real con-dition is exaggerated. Perhaps the way to get anything like an accurate idea, is to investigate along the line of just what a real reform would mean, how many points it must touch, and how fundamental it must be, to cope with the enormousness of the task. It is not an overstatement to say that the system of bossism has in this State received flattering encouragement. (It is a continuation of the medieval "sale of indulgences" and we need a Luther to expose it!) It is the people we ought to censure, to censure the boss is a waste of breath. Yet we would not say this without two words, one as to the boss, the other from the side of the people. To one who says to us : "We need men of executive ability, bosses if you please," it is sufficient to reply simply by distinguishing the term "leader and boss;" by the former is suggested the idea of one who by natural selection or otherwise leads a new movement, by the latter the foreman of a gang of foreign laborers out in some Western railway cut; the arguments of the one are listened to; the orders of the other are mechanically obeyed. Why do the people endure it? Well, first of all, they have arrayed against them a machine, and to resist its clock-like movement is 110 easy matter. You will perhaps meet one class of persons who speak of "necessary evils." We deny their existence ! There is no reason under the sun, save the weakness of men, why our Commonwealth should not be a perfect Utopia! Eltwood Pomeroy, in the April Arena, char-acterizes another class." "I know of men," he says, "honest, honorable, capable, who have refused to vote for over a quarter of a century. They say it is no use." As cit-izens, however, we must remember that the use of that silent weapon, the ballot, is not only a privilege but a duty. Let us be sure that there are thousands in Pennsylvania who have not in their heart of hearts bowed the knee to the Baal of bossism. Perhaps no bet-ter counsel can be given to the true citizen than the words of the poet: "Be noble and the nobleness that lies In others, sleeping but never dead, Will rise in majesty to greet thine own." ADVERTISEMENTS. Classical Course for the Degree of A. B. II. Scientific Course for the Degree of B. S. III. Post-Graduate Course fcr the Degree of Ph. D. IV. Special Course in all Departments. V. Elective Studies in Junior and Senior Years. VI. New Testament Greek and Hebrew in English Bible Departinj Observatory, Laboratories and new Gymnasium. Four large buildings. All b heated with steam from central plant. Libraries, 25,000 volumes. Fine Museum. Expi low. Department of Hygiene and Physical Culture in charge of an experienced physid Accessible by frequent railroad trains. Location, on BATTLEFIELD of Gettysburg;" pleasant and healthy. PREPARATORY DEPARTMENT, in separate buildings, for I and young men preparing for business or college, under special care of the principal andtl assistants, residing with students in the building. For full particulars, apply for catalog^ HARVEY w. MCKNIGHT, D. D., LL. D., ?m\ F@ras]?(]w*iiiiia (MUtege, Gettysburg
20 años las naciones ricas pensando el Desarrollo; 20 años las naciones pobres defendiendo los recursos; 20 años, sin recursos y sin Desarrollo. 4. Movimientos sociales se resisten a la minería a gran escala en América LatinaAsí como se evidencia la relación entre conflictos mineros y violaciones a los derechos de las personas que cohabitan en zonas con recursos, podemos afirmar que existe una capacidad de organización social, que denuncia y defiende derechos con base en la universalidad (para todos), la inviolabilidad, en la no negociabilidad, en la imprescriptibilidad, en la indivisibilidad y en la irreversibilidad. Sin embargo esta protesta y resistencia por parte de los ciudadanos que están directamente involucrados en conflictos mineros en América Latina, presentan problemas de todo tipo que van desde la criminalización de la protesta hasta la expulsión de sus territorios (1) (Gráfico 6). El cuadro 3 demuestra los casos de criminalización, siendo esta la práctica más reiterada en los países con mayores recursos y también en donde sus poblaciones en buen porcentaje son comunidades étnicas (indígenas). Cuadro 3.PaísCasos de criminalizaciónMéxico1Nicaragua1Colombia1Brasil1El Salvador2Guatemala3Perú7Ecuador10Es importante resaltar que no se trata de una serie de protestas sociales de tipo reaccionario al sistema económico, como fueron los discursos anti-imperialistas de los años 70. Se trata de justas reclamaciones por la defensa de la Vida y la exigencia a las multinacionales a la extracción responsable; no solo con la naturaleza sino con las comunidades que conviven en ambientes llenos de recursos. En este sentido la organización social latinoamericana, se ha ido cuantificando y cualificado especialmente en aquellas regiones / países en donde se presentan más conflictos y a su vez mayor inversión externa al sector minero. (Cuadro 4) Cuadro 4. Matriz de organizaciones involucradas asuntos mineros según el Observatorio de conflictos Mineros de América Latina y el I Encuentro Nacional Minero, Colombia, 2012 (2) PaísOrganizacionesColombia (3)Censat Agua Viva / AICO Pueblo de los Pastos, AIDA, Asentamiento indígena wayuú de Tamaquito II, Asociaciones de Zonas de Reserva Campesina, ASOCOMUNAL (Caldono), Asociación Minga, ASAPAZ, ASOCAMPO, BIOSIGNO, FEDERACIÓN DE MINEROS DEL CHOCO (AFROS), Colectivo de Abogados José Alvear Restrepo, CAMAWARI Pueblo (Awá de Ricaurte Nariño), CEAT (UN) UNIVALLE, Cimarrón, CIMA, Cinep, CODHES, Colectivo C.A.M.P.O, Colectivo S.E.A.T., Comisión de Seguimiento a sentencia 072, CSJ, Consejos Comunitarios del Chocó, Corporación Arco iris, Corporación Compromiso – Bucaramanga, CRIHU (Huila), CRIR (Risaralda), Espacio Regional de Paz del Cauca, Fundación Natura, Gidca, Instituto de Estudios para el Desarrollo y la Paz – INDEPAZ, Informe de desarrollo humano PNUD, International Alert, Mesa joven minería, Mesa de Unidad Agraria – MUA, OIA (Antioquia), ONIC, PCN, Pensamiento y Acción Social, PAS, Planeta Paz, Pueblo PASTOS (Nariño), Pueblo Wayuú (GUAJIRA), Pueblo Piaroa de Vichada, Pueblo Nasa de Caquetá, Suippcol, Red de justicia ambiental, Resguardo indígena Wayuú de Provincial.EcuadorAcción Ecológica, Pastoral Shuar, Pueblo Shuar Arutam, FICSH, Coordinadora de mujeres Intag, CDNV, Fundación Vientos de VidaPerúGrufides, Cooperación, Vima, ConacamiBoliviaCEPA, CEDIB, Centro Vicente Cañas, SOPE, EcomujeresArgentinaAsamblea Patagónica por la vida y el territorio contra el saqueo y la contaminaciónChileOlca, Conferre, Justicia paz e integralidad de la creación de St Columbano, Defensa del Valle Chalinga, Pastoral Salvaguarda de la creación, OCAS, Consejo Ciudadano Salamanca, Grupo Atacama LimpiaFuente: Elaboración propia con base en información del Observatorio de Conflictos mineros de América Latina, disponible en http://www.conflictosmineros.net/quienessomos, mayo 2012 El trabajo que adelanta el Observatorio de Conflicto mineros es importante. Sin embargo existe otro cúmulo de organizaciones que realizan un trabajo similar y no hacen parte de él como por ejemplo la Asamblea Popular por el Agua en Argentina y en Colombia, el Consejo Nacional Indígena del Cauca, CRIC.En Argentina, La Asamblea Popular por el Agua es una iniciativa ciudadana que surgió en el año 2006 como una expresión de rechazo a los proyectos de la mega minería y por la defensa del agua. La Asamblea que reúne diferentes sectores sociales de la provincia de Mendoza, logro en junio de 2007 que se sancionara la ley 7722 la cual prohíbe la minería contaminante. Desde entonces, esta asamblea conformada por un cúmulo de organizaciones sociales y comunitarias de la provincia, trabaja por defender el ambiente libre de minería contaminante por medio de la movilización social, la pedagogía ciudadana entre otras (4). En Colombia existen muchos más colectivos y asambleas populares y sociales que de a poco se han ido organizando para debatir y hacer propuestas sobre el impacto y los costos de la mega minería. El ejemplo más reciente, fue el Primer Encuentro Nacional Territorio, productividad, ambiente y minería, La María- Piendamó, Cauca- Colombia, 27 de abril de 2012, convocado principalmente por el Consejo Regional Indígena del Cauca- CRIC. Este primer encuentro denotó la necesidad apremiante de las comunidades que se resisten a salir de sus territorios o permitir el uso indiscriminado de los recursos, dando paso a la contaminación del ambiente, la desigualdad económica, la ausencia de transparencia institucional entre otras.Conclusiones del Primer Encuentro Nacional Territorio, productividad, ambiente y mineríaa) que la política se orienta en beneficio de favorecer la privatización de empresas públicas mineras y el manejo exclusivo de las transnacionales; siendo declarada como actividad de utilidad pública e interés social lo que habilita un proceso de reforma y transformación del Estado por medio de una locomotora legislativa que facilita la expropiación de tierra e irrespeta el derecho fundamental a la consulta previa. Informando que se han protocolizado 156 procesos de consulta previa en el 2012 referidos a proyectos de inversión donde ha sido característico que su realización se hace desconociendo la participación de las organizaciones regionales.b) que hay especulación por parte de las compañías en las fases previas a la explotación, y que los recursos que pagan las compañías por concepto de regalías e impuestos sobre la renta, les son devueltos luego en exenciones fiscales y subsidios; facilitados por la corrupción de las instituciones locales, departamentales y nacionales.c) que se han ejecutado desalojos de comunidades, desplazamientos masivos y pérdida de territorios ancestralesd) que hay contaminación del aire por las explosiones para extraer el carbón, derrame de sustancias tóxicas, muerte de peces, contaminación de fuentes hídricas, deforestación y erosión de suelos, destrucción de las redes de acueductos comunitarios Se presentan fenómenos de transformación de las culturas, ruptura del tejido social, pérdida de usos y costumbres, afectación a las economías locales (trueques), invasión de tecnología que afecta a la población joven de los resguardos, llegada de programas asistenciales gubernamentales que afectan la cohesión de los pueblos indígenas, pérdida de medicina tradicional y de sabios indígenas cuidadores del territorio.f) que la amenaza minera se extiende en la mayoría de los territorios, utilizando nueva tecnología para adelantar las actividades de prospección y exploración en especial sobre territorios ocupados ancestralmente por comunidades indígenas, campesinas y afro descendientes; lo cual produce alteración de usos del suelo y de la productividad de la tierra, y que las empresas transnacionales, por medio de actos de corrupción estatal diseñan planes de ordenamiento territorial de los municipios. También que las zonas entregadas en concesión en territorios indígenas coinciden con sitios sagrados o con sus áreas circundantes. Se denuncia que muchos proyectos de infraestructura vial están al servicio de megaproyectos mineros.g) Que los conflictos mineros acrecientan la presencia de actores armados, fuerza pública, guerrilla, paramilitares, en particular la creación de unidades militares minero-energéticas especializadas en la custodia y protección de los proyectos y batallones de alta montaña en territorios indígenas; se intensifican los enfrentamientos entre grupos armados que afectan a la población civil con situaciones generadas por explosivos abandonados o minas anti persona.Fuente: apartes de las conclusiones Generales del Encuentro Nacional de Territorio, Productividad, Ambiente y Minería La María, Piendamó, Cauca, abril 27 de 20125. Desarrollo y sustentabilidadLa creciente complejidad de los distintos sistemas sociales y políticos contemporáneos, nos hacen reflexionar nuevamente sobre aquello que parecía claro y resuelto hace 20 años. Estuvimos en Rio 1992, debatimos ideas rectoras e imaginamos las recetas para conseguir el desarrollo sostenible. En el papel todo parecía quedar claro y de fácil consecución (4). 20 años después nos encontramos de nuevo en Rio (junio, 2012), con algunos deberes inconclusos y en muchos casos con problemas de desarrollo y sostenibilidad agravados. Entonces, la primera pregunta que se formula, es ¿qué paso en estos 20 años para no haber logrado los objetivos planteados en 1992? En estos 20 años, se ratifica que la especie humana no es una especie que actúa exclusivamente por intereses económicos; comprobamos lo anterior, porque algunas sociedades humanas conservan su componente espiritual y luchan por ello, lo cual las hace trascender para valorar otra realidad, que se desconoce al momento de trazar políticas de alcance social y político para el desarrollo sostenible. Todos los pueblos quieren alcanzar este desarrollo sostenible: el problema que sugiere esta premisa, es qué significa estos dos conceptos para ellos y como se realiza una construcción colectiva para lograrlo. Un ejemplo claro de lo anterior, es la explotación minera en América Latina. Sin entender esta relación, jamás podrá existir un proyecto minero sin conflictos sociales o políticos. O se realizará dicho proyecto sin que impliquen violaciones a derechos, si esa comunidad tiene antecedentes mineros, es decir, si históricamente tiene vínculos de ese tipo con su tierra. Al respecto, es importante trabajar y demostrar que los recursos son necesarios para el crecimiento económico de las naciones, pero que deben existir consensos sociales para el uso de estos y su relación con quienes auténticamente han cuidado de ellos. Presentamos algunas ideas que sirven para abrir un debate, que seguramente se dará y seguirá después de Rio +20. Primer asunto relevante: Confianza en el Estado. Una de las mayores razones por las cuales las comunidades locales se resisten a convivir con proyectos de mega minería, es por ausencia de confianza que existe hacia las instituciones del Estado; este es el caso de países como Bolivia o Argentina. Los indicadores de Percepción de Corrupción (Transparency International, 2011) señalan que la mayoría de países de América Latina registran una percepción media-alta de corrupción en sus instituciones (5). El país en donde los ciudadanos confían y tienen la mejor percepción es Nueva Zelanda que ocupa el primer lugar; el último lugar a nivel mundial lo tiene Somalia. Gráfico 8. Fuente: Corruption Perceptions, Index 2011. Disponible en:http://cpi.transparency.org/cpi2011/results/ Existen vacios jurídicos y políticos para confiar en que las instituciones pueden controlar acciones de la mega minería y obrar con transparencia. Los Estados están en la obligación, dado sus mandatos constitucionales, de generar confianza a las comunidades y bienestar a las naciones. Esta situación se complejiza aún más, cuando en países como Colombia o Perú, sus gobiernos son llamados de manera informal por las empresas trasnacionales y el sector privado como 'gobiernos pro-mineros'. El discurso del presidente Santos en el primer congreso de Minería a Gran escala, que se realizó en Cartagena en febrero de 2012, así lo refleja: " Aquí hay todavía espacio –de sobra– para recibir a las grandes casas mineras –y a las junior, por supuesto– que estén dispuestas a trabajar en armonía con el desarrollo de Colombia". Segundo asunto relevante: la Generación y distribución de la riqueza, no de la pobreza. Los informes de la Consejo Económico para América Latina- CEPAL- 2011, señalan que los índices de pobreza en América Latina han disminuido, como lo presenta el gráfico 9. Sin embargo estos porcentajes no logran estar por debajo del diez por mil (10%), cifra que no es comparable con las obtenidas por economías de los países del báltico, la cual está por debajo del 5%. Con lo anterior, se mantiene premisa, que América Latina es el segundo subcontinente más pobre del planeta, con mayor diversidad y más conflictos sociales. Gráfico 9. Fuente: CEPAL, 2010. Recurso Disponible en:http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/37/60/48157176.pdf La actividad minera requiere de grandes inversiones; a pesar de la generación de empleo informal (mano de obra no calificada en su mayoría) y la actividad económica que esta deja, es cortoplacista: se produce riqueza en forma rápida y fugaz; sin embargo, se plantea como problema, de un lado el retiro o la falta de garantías para la reinversión en países en dónde se han generado los beneficios para las empresas mineras; y de otro, la percepción social que el boom de la minería no va más allá del mediano plazo, acentúa la inestabilidad económica de las comunidades en dónde se desarrolla la industria extractiva a gran escala. Los complejos contenidos sobre la maximización de las rentas y la consolidación de las inversiones, es un asunto de la política macroeconómica de las naciones, que excede a la minería y en algunos casos no se plantea. Sería un error tener la visión que la minería es tan solo un negocio ilimitado en el tiempo, pues se estaría desconociendo la matriz productiva de muchos pueblos tradicionalmente agrícolas, ganaderos o industriales. Si el asunto de la mega minería no se percibe como una política de estado, la confianza y la estabilidad nunca hará parte de las bondades de las naciones. Tercer asunto: Viabilidad Social y Ambiental. En la división de Desarrollo Sustentable, del Departamento de Asuntos Económicos y Sociales de Naciones Unidas, 6 países -Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Guatemala, México y Costa Rica- presentan informe 'especifico' sobre las regulaciones jurídicas y socio ambientales de la minería. Mientras que países con altos índices de inversión minera como Perú, El Salvador, Bolivia y Brasil la actividad minera 'hace parte de los informes anuales' por país que archiva la organización (6). Podría inducir lo anterior, que la necesidad de socializar a nivel regional la legislación y regulación para esta industria es apenas incipiente y que se hace necesario compartir estudios y experiencias para trabajar de manera conjunta sobre este asunto específico. Es posible afirmar que los proyectos mineros en América Latina carecen de viabilidad social y ambiental; viabilidad que no se consigue por diversos intereses de tipo económico, sociales, políticos, pero principalmente porque la minería, altera las relaciones del hombre con la tierra. Recordemos que las poblaciones rurales la valoran mucho más allá de lo meramente económico. Al respeto surge uno de los debates cruciales y controvertidos como el uso de la energía o el uso del Agua. El agua es tal vez es la cuestión más conflictiva cuando se proponen o imponen proyectos mineros de gran envergadura. Creemos que es imposible que cuando se demanda un recurso vital como este y se pone el peligro el derecho adquirido, no surjan (7) conflictos. Entonces se replantean cuestiones como, el valor en el mercado del agua, sus usos, su propiedad, etc. Pero volvemos al punto de partida, la relación del hombre con su tierra, en gran parte depende del agua, de su calidad, cantidad y de su disponibilidad en el tiempo. En este sentido, nadie está dispuesto a poner en juego esta relación sin tener claro y garantizado que sus derechos, no serán vulnerados. Los estados que pretendan tener proyectos mineros en sus territorios, deben sin lugar a duda tener claridad social, política y jurídica sobre este balance: abastecimiento hídrico pertinente y garantía al derecho fundamental a este. ¿Qué esperamos de Rio +20? Una reconocida periodista Colombiana Marta Ruiz- afirmó en una columna de opinión lo siguiente: "Como si fuera poco, la "buena" noticia que trajo Santos de Asia es que los chinos están interesados en nuestro oro. Y uno no sabe si reír, llorar o salir a incendiar las dragas (…) Anuncio y premonición de los conflictos que va a desatar la minería" (8). Y no es insolencia. Como sugerimos en este escrito, es indudable que las sociedades contemporáneas necesitan los recursos naturales para mantener la forma de vida que desde la modernidad se ha encausado; sin embargo se hace urgente, necesario y justificable, en el marco de la exigibilidad de los derechos universales de las comunidades que han sostenido relaciones naturales, espirituales y económicas con la tierra llena de recursos, que el uso sea racional y sostenible. Son muchas las organizaciones sociales que trabajan por la defensa a la vida y el medio ambiente según lo reporta el Observatorio de Conflictos Mineros de América Latina; en ese sentido es posible hacer algunas sugerencias, de cara a la reunión de Rio+20 durante el mes de junio de 2012 y con el ánimo de visibilizar el debate, eliminar las tasas de violaciones a derechos fundamentales por causas relacionadas a la mega minería y de cara a disminuir las tasas de pobreza e inequidad que manifiestan las comunidades afectadas. Una cumbre que reafirme y reconozca los derechos individuales y los derechos de las naciones a hacer uso de sus recursos, buscando un desarrollo sostenible en el marco de las realidades culturales, sociales, políticas y económicas propias. Un espacio en donde se reflexione y se tomen decisiones sobre la promoción de políticas que prioricen la solución de problemas locales o micro regionales, en donde cada comunidad local pueda decidir qué tipo de desarrollo sostenible quiere y le conviene, en el marco del respeto a la soberanía y los derechos fundamentales. Un lugar de apoyo y financiamiento a los acuerdos transversales entre países en vía de desarrollo. Especialmente en lo concerniente a políticas públicas que atiendan problemáticas comunes como debería ser, el impacto de proyectos de mega minería en territorios étnicos y campesinos. Un espacio que abogue por la consulta previa, libre y transparente a los pueblos que tradicionalmente han cultivado y cosechado en estas tierras. Otra cumbre para la tierra y para quienes habitan en ella.Referencias: Conclusiones al Primer Encuentro Nacional Territorio, Producción, Ambiente y Minería, La María, Cauca, Colombia, 27 de abril de 2012. Disponible En: http://www.indepaz.org.co/?p=2028Corruption Perceptions, Index 2011. Disponible En: http://cpi.transparency.org/cpi2011/results/Cumbre para la tierra, programa 21, 14 de junio de 1992, Rio de Janeiro. Disponible En: http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=52&ArticleID=49&l=en Dayton-Johnson, Jeff (2011). Perspectivas económicas para América Latina, 2011. Banco Central de la Reserva del Perú, Organización para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Económicos –OCDE-, México D.C. Declaración de Rió sobre el Medio Ambiente y el Desarrollo, del 14 de junio de 1992. Disponible En:http://www.pnuma.org/docamb/dr1992.php Escobar, Arturo (1996). La invención de tercer mundo. Construcción y deconstrucción del desarrollo, Ed. Norma, Bogotá González Posso, Camilo (2011). Renta minera, petróleo y comunidades. Ed. Indepaz, Bogotá Memorias al I Congreso de Minería a Gran escala, Cartagena de Indias, febrero de 2012. Disponible En: http://www.mineriaagranescala.org/smge/ Mingin Intelligence Series (2012). Business News Americas, En: http://www.bnamericas.com/news/mining Observatorio Latinoamericana de Conflictos Ambientales (2012). Observatorio de conflictos mineros de América Latina, En http://www.olca.cl/oca/index.htm Division for Sustainable Development, UN department of economic and social affair, En:http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/dsd_aofw_ni/ni_natiinfo_costarica.shtml (1) Todos los casos que registra el Observatorio sobre desplazamiento forzado están en Colombia.(2) Las organizaciones políticas, sociales, ambientales y comunitarias que hacen parte de este Observatorio, no representan la totalidad de acciones colectivas que existen y que realizan un seguimiento y denuncia a las actividades mineras en América Latina.(3) Censat Agua Viva es la única organización colombiana que hace parte del Observatorio; sin embargo existen otras muchas organizaciones que participan en este proceso, las cuales se hicieron presentes en el Primer Encuentro Nacional Territorio, productividad, ambiente y minería, La María- Piendamó, Cauca- Colombia, 27 de abril de 2012(4) Más información disponible en: http://quienessomosasamblea.blogspot.com/ (5) La Declaración de Rio/92 fue una declaración de principios a los cuales los estados firmantes se comprometían a mejorar las condiciones de vida de todos los habitantes del planeta. Por ejemplo el principio 11 "Los Estados deberán promulgar leyes eficaces sobre el medio ambiente. Las normas, los objetivos de ordenación y las prioridades ambientales deberían reflejar el contexto ambiental y de desarrollo al que se aplican. Las normas aplicadas por algunos países pueden resultar inadecuadas y representar un costo social y económico injustificado para otros países, en particular los países en desarrollo". Según varios estudios, se ha demostrado que los países latinoamericanos con gran cantidad de recuros naturales como Colombia o Perú, la legislación es inoportuna.(6) Percepciones de Corrupción de 182 países de todos los continentes, Index 2011 de Transparencia Internacional(7) Los reportes nacionales que cada país entrega a división de Desarrollo Sustentable, del departamento de asuntos económicos y sociales de Naciones Unidas (búsqueda en Internet, junio 2012) solo los 6 países mencionados presentan un informe. No son informes estandarizados pero tienen características comunes como información sobre las políticas y regulaciones internas, situación actual de la minería en cada país, mecanismos de seguimiento y monitoreo, buenas prácticas en el sector. Fuente: http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/dsd_aofw_ni/ni_natiinfo_costarica.shtml(8) Romeo el Agresivo, En: Revista Arcadia, 25 de mayo de 2012. *Tathiana Montaña es Colombiana, asesora académica del Instituto de Estudios para el Desarrollo y la paz (Colombia); profesora universitaria licenciada en Relaciones Internacionales, con estudios de perfeccionamiento en Desarrollo; Magister en Ciencia Política. Actualmente es candidata a Doctor en Política y Gobierno, mención en Relaciones Internacionales. Ha publicado libros y artículos en medios nacionales y latinoamericanos sobre asuntos de paz y postconflicto. José Carlos Pozzoli es Argentino, politólogo, especialista en Políticas Públicas; ha sido consultor para el BID y trabajó como asesor de la Comisión de Ambiente de la Honorable Cámara de Diputados de Mendoza; Coordinador General Tercera Conferencia ICID +19 Clima, Sostenibilidad y Desarrollo en Regiones Semi Aridas; Asesor de Gabinete, Secretaría de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sustentable de la Provincia de Mendoza.
This overview summarizes the key findings of the eight chapters and one policy note. It is organized as follows. The first section provides a background of Guangdong, while the second describes the current situation of inequality in the province. Next is a discussion of the potential impacts of the transfer of industrial activities ('industrial transfer') in mitigating regional disparity, followed by the recommendation of a three pillar strategy for Guangdong. The fifth section focuses on the elimination of absolute poverty through the minimum living allowance (Dibao) system, and the sixth turns to policy actions needed to increase opportunities for the rural population by moving them to jobs, increasing their access to finance, and ensuring that their land rights are better protected. The seventh section further assesses Guangdong's options for investing in people through more equitable service delivery in compulsory education, skill development, and health care, with the aim of enhancing the capacity of the poor to seize and utilize opportunities. The last section concludes this overview.
The global financial crisis severely affected economies in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECA). Currencies depreciated across the region. Government tax revenues declined sharply leading to high budget deficits and rising levels of public debt. Tightening credit supply and deteriorating financial conditions have limited the ability to borrow in the public and private sector. The financial crisis slowed demand enough to delay an imminent energy shortage by a few years. In this sense, the financial crisis bought ECA countries some time. This report analyzes the impacts of the global financial crisis on power sectors in five countries in the ECA region: Armenia, Kyrgyz Republic, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine. It estimates the investment gap and proposes a prioritization of critical investments in each country. The report also proposes actions needed to mobilize financing for the sector, including a continued commitment to legal, regulatory and policy reform in the sector. The global financial crisis has created a window of opportunity to meet investment needs and avert a potential power shortage, but Governments need to recognize and act on this opportunity. This report serves as a starting point to facilitate further World Bank engagement in the region that can help Governments make timely, critical investments and foster sustainable investment in the sector over the long-term.
Il lavoro è volto a mettere in luce le problematiche connesse all'attività delle imprese multinazionali e alla sussistenza in capo alle stesse di una responsabilità sociale internazionale (RSI). Nell'attuale panorama economico e politico mondiale, caratterizzato dalla globalizzazione e dalla stretta interdipendenza dei mercati, dalla sempre più frequente internazionalizzazione dei processi produttivi e aziendali e dalla contestuale operatività delle società in più Paesi, dalla accresciuta consapevolezza del consumatore circa il rispetto, nei processi produttivi, di istanze ritenuti fondamentali dalla società civile, come i diritti fondamentali dell'uomo e dei lavoratori o la protezione dell'ambiente, l'impresa multinazionale assume un ruolo fondamentale sia nell'indirizzare i trends economici globali (si pensi al fatto che alcune società hanno profitti superiori al PIL di buona parte degli Stati della comunità internazionale); la configurazione di una responsabilità sociale in capo a tali società vuol dire mescolare la libertà di impresa e il libero mercato con l'etica. La necessità di inserire la questione dell'etica negli affari nasce, dunque, dalla convinzione - sempre più diffusa in ambito internazionale e nazionale - che l'attenzione dell'impresa verso le istanze sociali, ambientali ed etiche delle comunità umane costituisca una condizione imprescindibile per uno sviluppo durevole e sostenibile. In tale prospettiva, dunque, il concetto di responsabilità sociale d'impresa richiama le imprese a considerare attentamente - nella definizione della propria strategia, nell'articolazione delle politiche e nelle procedure gestionali quotidiane - gli interessi diffusi della collettività, nonché l'impatto delle proprie attività, non solo in termini economici, ma anche sociali, ambientali ed etici. La responsabilità sociale rappresenta, quindi, per l'impresa uno strumento utile ed efficace per rispondere alle istanze e alle esigenze della società civile. Con la RSI nasce quindi una teoria di impresa che vede la produzione di beni non solo come strumento di profitto ma anche come occasione di realizzazione del benessere sociale; lo stesso operato dell'impresa inizia ad essere valutato globalmente non solo in rapporto ai risultati economici della stessa ma anche in base alla qualità del prodotto, alla qualità dell'ambiente lavorativo e alle istanze ambientali, seconda i dettami di quella scuola di pensiero del cd. business ethics per cui le imprese sono chiamate a compiere azioni che contribuiscano ad eliminare e prevenire le iniquità sociali e a promuovere lo sviluppo della collettività. Tale necessità è stata anche consequenziale a comportamenti ed abusi messi in atto dalle società transnazionali che hanno arrecato gravi danni alle comunità umane degli Stati ospiti delle attività produttive. Gli abusi commessi dalle imprese, non sempre riconducibili a precise violazioni degli ordinamenti nazionali, sono stati progressivamente interpretati e costruiti come violazioni o mancanze nei confronti di un complesso di principi definiti come appartenenti ad una ampia sfera di responsabilità sociale internazionale dell'impresa, che implica la perdita di reputazione e, quindi, la possibile riduzione delle sue quote sul mercato qualora gli stakeholders più interessati riescano a mobilitare l'opinione pubblica su larga scala. Fin dagli anni '70, diverse organizzazioni internazionali hanno iniziato ad occuparsi della regolamentazione dell'attività delle imprese transnazionali, evidenziando il ruolo che le imprese multinazionali sono chiamate a rivestire nei processi di tutela dei diritti umani e dell'ambiente che emergono nello svolgimento delle loro attività economiche; appare evidente come sia basilare, nel piano dell'opera, definire l'impresa multinazionale, analizzando i diversi strumenti adottati dalle organizzazioni internazionali e i contributi dottrinali in materia, alla luce dei quali sembra potersi dire che il carattere di "multinazionalità" o "transnazionalità" è dato dalla presenza di diverse unità operative, dislocate in più Paesi, che si trovano sotto il controllo (azionario o di gestione) di un'unica società holding; tale distinzione tra unità operative si estende fino al profilo giuridico, in quanto le singole consociate sono autonomi soggetti di diritto sottoposti, relativamente ai profili della regolamentazione e della costituzione, all'ordinamento giuridico dello Stato di nazionalità. Ciò spesso comporta che le società scelgano come sede un Paese sulla base della convenienza che ciascuno di essi offre in relazione al trattamento fiscale, al costo della manodopera e delle materie prime, alla regolamentazione in materia di protezione dell'ambiente. Sembra quindi necessario un tentativo di regolamentazione da parte di organismi sovranazionali, a fronte del numero sempre maggiore di imprese operanti in più mercati (più di 80.000 società con circa 900.000 società sussidiarie), al loro peso economico e occupazionale (si stimano circa 80.000.000 di posti di lavoro) e a seguito di numerosi episodi che hanno coinvolto tali imprese dagli anni '70 ad oggi, come nei casi della Drummond o della Del Monte, accusate di gravi repressioni dei diritti sindacali e sociali dei lavoratori, o della Chevron/Texaco e della Union Carbride, responsabili di disastri ambientali tra cui quello di Bophal, in India, fino al caso, recentissimo, del disastro ambientale causato dalla piattaforma Deepwater Horizon al largo delle coste della Florida e della Louisiana tra il 2010 e il 2011, o i casi di violazioni dei diritti umani e commissione di crimini internazionali (arresti arbitrari, torture, violenze sessuali, trattamenti inumani e degradanti), commesse da società transnazionali operanti nel settore estrattivo e minerario in Africa e nel Sud Est Asiatico, commessi direttamente o a mezzo di milizie assoldate per la protezione degli impianti. L'attività delle Organizzazioni internazionali, a partire dagli anni '70, si è focalizzata sul tema; l'OCSE, l'Organizzazione internazionale del lavoro, la Camera di Commercio internazionale hanno adottato in quegli anni raccomandazioni e dichiarazioni rivolte agli Stati membri e alle imprese per l'adesione a certi principi e diritti già sanciti da altri strumenti convenzionali; le Nazioni Unite, prima attraverso l'attività della Commissione sulle imprese multinazionali e poi della Sottocommissione per la protezione e promozione dei diritti umani, si sono occupate della materia, giungendo alla elaborazione di un Codice di condotta per le imprese multinazionali (mai adottato) e di Norme sulla responsabilità delle imprese multinazionali e altre imprese in relazione ai diritti umani, che si affiancano alla partnership pubblico-privata del Global Compact. Ancora, anche altre organizzazioni internazionali, come l'Organizzazione mondiale della sanità, l'OMC, la Banca mondiale, l'International Standard Organisation, hanno adottato atti che invitano le imprese a svolgere la propria attività produttiva nel pieno rispetto dei diritti fondamentali della persona, delle comunità locali e dell'ambiente, e quindi prendendo in considerazione non solo interessi e diritti dei soci ma di tutti i soggetti a vario titolo coinvolti o toccati dall'attività aziendale. In ultimo, è il lavoro del Rappresentante Speciale del Segretario Generale ONU John Ruggie ad elaborare un quadro normativo (denominato Protect, Respect, Remedy) generale relativo al rapporto tra business e diritti umani. La caratteristica degli strumenti analizzati è la loro natura non vincolante, quindi meramente esortativa e ad applicazione volontaria. Tale situazione si ricollega sostanzialmente a due ragioni: la discussa soggettività internazionale delle imprese multinazionali e le opposte visioni dei Governi in materia (con evidenti difformità di vedute tra Paesi in via di sviluppo e Paesi industrializzati). Riguardo alla soggettività delle imprese multinazionali, ovvero lo status di essere titolari di diritti e obblighi nascenti dal diritto internazionale, la dottrina internazionalistica è fortemente divisa. Secondo un primo orientamento, le IMN non sarebbero soggetti di diritto internazionali in quanto sono solo destinatarie di norme, e quindi "oggetto" del diritto internazionale; sarebbero soggette solo alla giurisdizione dello Stato, e vincolate dal diritto internazionale solamente in virtù del richiamo da parte dell'ordinamento giuridico interno. Dagli anni '60, inizia a farsi largo un diverso filone dottrinale che, partendo dal noto parere della Corte internazionale di giustizia Reparations for Injuries, considera l'impresa quale soggetto di diritto internazionale, in virtù di una serie di diritti e obblighi che le vengono attribuiti dal diritto internazionale, soprattutto in materia di investimenti e di contratti internazionali (tra tutti, il diritto di adire un'istanza arbitrale o giurisdizionale a carattere arbitrale). Inoltre, la costante attenzione per l'attività delle IMN da parte delle Organizzazioni internazionali, potrebbe testimoniare la nascente opinio juris di conferire una, seppur limitata, soggettività internazionale alle imprese. Dall'analisi della prassi internazionale si sono tratte conclusioni provvisorie, in particolare che l'impresa, soprattutto nel settore del diritto economico e degli investimenti, possegga una personalità giuridica internazionale limitata e soprattutto derivata dalla volontà degli Stati, ma soprattutto funzionale, poiché contenuta nei limiti stabiliti dal trattato internazionale (BITs) o del contratto internazionale che stabilisce diritti e obblighi per la stessa. Negli ultimi anni anche l'Unione Europea ha iniziato a promuovere una adesione delle imprese ai valori fondamentali dei diritti dell'uomo, dei lavoratori e dello sviluppo sostenibile. A partire dal Libro Verde del 2001, l'UE ha elaborato progressivamente una strategia europea per la responsabilità sociale di impresa, qualificata come adozione spontanea di prassi volte a contribuire al miglioramento della società e alla qualità dell'ambiente. La strategia dell'UE si caratterizza per avere una dimensione sia interna all'impresa, stabilendo una serie di programmi d'azione e l'adozione di sistemi di gestione dei processi produttivi, sia esterna alla stessa, prevedendo il coinvolgimento di comunità locali, partner commerciali, clienti, fornitori, ONG, autorità statali. A tali fini, l'UE lanciò una serie di iniziative, quali i sistemi EMAS e ECOLABEL di certificazione ecologica e di audit ambientale, il Multistakeholders' forum, per formare un quadro giuridico regolamentare in materia di appalti pubblici e sostenibilità ambientale, di tutela del consumatore, di pubblicità ingannevole, nonché l'adozione di codici di condotta settoriali, ispirato ai principi della RSI. L'attività di regolamentazione della RSI ha ricevuto un contributo dalle stesse imprese multinazionali, nel senso di una autoregolamentazione delle proprie attività, attraverso dei codici di condotta autonomamente adottati dalla singola impresa in funzione delle proprie strategie e valori. Tali codici si distinguono nettamente dalle linee guida adottate dalle Organizzazioni internazionali perché in essi l'impresa si fa creatrice e destinataria di norme, create non perché la necessità provenga dal diritto, ma dall'interesse dell'impresa (che, in molti casi, si caratterizza per essere meramente reputazionale). Tali codici, di chiara natura volontaristica, garantiscono il rispetto degli standard di tutela e di promozione dei principi in esso contenuti, stabilendo il più delle volte un meccanismo di monitoraggio e controllo del rispetto delle norme in esso contenute, meccanismo che può essere a carattere interno (gestito quindi da un ufficio interno all'impresa) o a carattere esterno (gestito, il più delle volte, da una ONG o da un sindacato). Infine, la ricerca si conclude con l'analisi dei principali temi che riguardano la RSI negli ultimi anni, ovvero quelli relativi ai profili di responsabilità delle imprese per violazione dei diritti fondamentali e per danni ambientali (con particolare riguardo alla disciplina statunitense contenuta nell'Alien Torts Statute), con particolare riferimento agli obblighi internazionali che incombono sugli Stati attraverso la ricostruzione della prassi internazionale. Inoltre, ulteriore profilo di studio è quello che si concentra sulla possibile estensione della giurisdizione dei tribunali internazionali per crimini internazionali alle persone giuridiche, con particolare riguardo ai lavori preparatori della Conferenza di Roma che ha portato all'istituzione della Corte Penale Internazionale. In conclusione, oggetto della ricerca è stato la ricostruzione del concetto di RSI, il quale è un prodotto degli ordinamenti nazionali ed in particolare degli ordinamenti giuridici degli Stati industrializzati, identificando un framework giuridico che include strumenti normativi di varia natura e in svariati settori, come quelli che disciplinano le società commerciali; le normative nazionali di prevenzione e repressione della corruzione; le normative del settore finanziario ed in particolare quelle sulle borse valori; le discipline a tutela del lavoro, dell'ambiente e del consumatore. Negli Stati più avanzati dal punto di vista economico e istituzionale la RSI, dunque, non è codificata in uno specifico settore regolamentare ma rappresenta un sistema complesso di normative che regolano i diversi aspetti di quelle attività di impresa; nei PVS, invece, tali normative sono spesso frammentarie o addirittura assenti: questa situazione ha permesso alle IMN di avvantaggiarsi dei vuoti legislativi o delle regole stringenti presenti in questi Paesi. Appare evidente come la comunità internazionale abbia constatato la necessità di regolare l'attività delle imprese multinazionali, per la promozione e la protezione dei propri valori fondamentali e di uno sviluppo in un'ottica di sostenibilità ambientale, nell'intenzione di creare un quadro giuridico internazionale che permetta alle imprese di perseguire le proprie finalità aziendali senza perdere di vista le esigenze collettive (in particolare dei Paesi in cui operano). Per raggiungere tale obiettivo, appare inevitabile un'evoluzione del diritto internazionale vigente, i cui processi di formazione, gestiti sostanzialmente dai Governi, non possono non tenere conto dell'accresciuto ruolo e peso delle IMN e della società civile. ; In today's economic and political world characterized by globalization and interdependence of markets, by an increasingly internationalization of production processes and by business operations of the company conducted simultaneously in several countries, by an increased consumer awareness regarding compliance of production processes to values that are considered essential by civil society, as fundamental human rights and labour and environmental protection, MNEs have a fundamental role in addressing the global economic trends. In this perspective, then, the concept of corporate social responsibility attracts companies to consider carefully - in the definition of its strategy and in the articulation of policies and procedures daily management - the various interests of the community, as well as the impact of its activities, not only in economic terms but also in social, environmental and ethical issues. Social responsibility is, therefore, a useful tool for the enterprise and effective way to respond to the needs and demands of civil society.With the CSR arises, therefore, a theory of business that sees the production of goods not only as a means of profit, but also as an opportunity for the realization of social welfare, as dictated bythe school of thought of thebusiness ethics, which invite companies to take action in orderto eliminate and prevent social inequities and promote community development. This need was also consequential to the abusescommitted by transnational corporations that have caused serious damage to human communities of their host countries. Abuses committed by companies, not always related to specific violations of national laws, have been gradually interpreted and constructed as a violation or misconduct against a set of principles defined as belonging to a broad spectrum of social responsibility international, which implies loss of reputation and, therefore, the possible reduction of its share on the market where the key stakeholders concerned can mobilize public opinion on a large scale. Since the 70s, several international organizations have begun to deal with the regulation of transnational corporations, highlighting the role that multinational corporations are called to play in the process of protection of human rights and of the environment that emerge in the course of their economic activity. Is fundamental for the work plan, define the multinational enterprise, by analysing the various instruments adopted by international organizations and doctrinal contributions on the subject, the light of which it seems possible to say that the character of "multinationality" or "transnationality" is the presence of various operating units, located in different countries, which are under the control (equity or management) of a single holding company; the distinction between operational units extends to the legal point of view, as the individual subsidiaries are independent legal entities subject, relatively to the profiles of the regulation and constitution, subjected to the legal system of the State of nationality. It often means that companies choose the host country on the basis of convenience that this country provides in relation to the tax treatment, labour costs and raw materials, to the rules on environmental protection. It therefore seems necessary to attempt to regulate multinational enterprises by supranational bodies, in relation to the increasing number of companies operating in multiple markets (more than 80,000 companies with about 900,000 subsidiaries), to their economic and employment (an estimated 80 million job opportunities) and following several incidents involving such companies from the '70s to today, as in the case of Drummond or Del Monte, accused of severe repression of trade union rights and social rights of workers, or Chevron/ Texaco and Union Carbide, responsible for environmental disasters including that of Bhopal, India, to the case of the environmental disaster caused by the Deepwater Horizon rig off the coast of Florida and Louisiana between 2010 and 2011, or cases of human rights violations and commission of international crimes (arbitrary detention, torture, rape, inhumane and degrading treatment) by transnational corporations operating in the mining industry in Africa and South East Asia, made directly or through the militias hired to the protection of plants. The activities of international organizations, from the 70s, focused on the theme, the OECD, the International Labour Organization, the International Chamber of Commerce adopted in those years, recommendations and declarations addressed to the Member States and the companies for adherence to certain principles and rights already provided by other conventional instruments; also the United Nations, first through the work of the Committee on Multinational Enterprises and then through the subcommittee for the protection and promotion of human rights, have dealt with the matter, coming to the elaboration of a Code of Conduct for Multinational Enterprises (never adopted) and rules on the responsibilities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises with regard to human rights, alongside to the public-private partnership of the Global Compact. Still, other international organizations such as the World Health Organization, the WTO, the World Bank, the International Standards Organization (which as a private nature), have taken actions that invite businesses to carry out its production activities in full respect of fundamental human rights, of local communities needs and of the environment, and then taking into account not only the interests and rights of the shareholders but to all those involved in various ways affected the activity or business. Finally, it is the work of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General John Ruggie to develop a framework (called Protect, Respect, Remedy) concerning the relationship between business and human rights. The characteristic of the analysed tools is their non-binding nature, then merely hortatory and voluntary application. This situation is linked mainly to two reasons: the disputed international subjectivity of multinational enterprises and the opposing views of Governments on the subject (with obvious differences of views between developing countries and industrialized countries). Regard to the subjectivity of transnational corporations, or the status of being holders of rights and obligations arising from international law, international legal theory is strongly divided. According to one view, MNEs would not be subject to international law as they are only recipients of rules, and then the "object" of international law would be subject only to the jurisdiction of the state, and bound by international law only by virtue of the reference made by the domestic legal system. Since the '60s, a different doctrinal trend began to make his way starting from the known opinion Reparations for Injuries of the International Court of Justice, and then considering the company as a subject of international law, by virtue of a series of rights and duties which are assigned to it by international law, especially in the field of investment and international contracts (among them, the right to appeal an arbitration tribunal or judicial character arbitration). In addition, the constant attention to the activities of MNEs by international organizations, could witness the nascent opiniojuris to give ainternational subjectivity to businesses, albeit limited. An analysis of international practice have taken provisional findings, in particular that the company, especially in the field of economic law and investment, possesses an international limitedlegal personality and mainly derived from the will of the States, but above all functional, as contained in limits established by international treaty (BITs) or international agreement that establishes rights and obligations for the same. In recent years the European Union has begun to promote adhesion of the companies core values of human rights, labour standards and sustainable development. From the Green Paper of 2001, the EU has developed progressively a European strategy for corporate social responsibility, described as spontaneous adoption of practices to contribute to the improvement of society and the quality of the environment. The EU strategy is characterized by having an internal dimension to the company, establishing a series of action programs and the adoption of management systems, processes, and external to it, calling for the involvement of local communities, commercial partners, customers, suppliers, NGOs, state authorities. To this end, the EU launched a series of initiatives, such as EMAS and Ecolabel certification ecological and environmental audit, the multi-stakeholder forum, to form a legal framework to regulate public procurement and environmental sustainability, protection of consumer, misleading advertising, and the adoption of sectorial codes of conduct based on the principles of CSR. The regulatory activities of CSR has received a grant from the multinational enterprises themselves, in the sense of a self-regulation of their activities, through codes of conduct adopted by each company independently according to their own strategies and values. These codes can be clearly distinguished from the guidelines adopted by international organizations because in them the company is the creator and recipient of rules, created not because the need comes from the law, but by the company (which, in many cases, characterized by being merely reputational). These codes, clearly voluntary, ensure compliance with standards for the protection and promotion of the principles contained therein, setting most of the time a mechanism for monitoring and enforcement of the rules it contains, a mechanism that may be internal character (then managed by an office inside the company) or external character (managed, in most cases, an NGO, or a trade union). Finally, the research concludes with an analysis of the main issues concerning CSR in recent years, namely those related to the profiles of corporate responsibility for violation of fundamental rights and environmental damage (especially with regard to U.S. regulations contained in the Alien Tort Statute), with particular reference to international obligations on states through the reconstruction of the international practice. In addition, further study is to profile that focuses on the possible extension of the jurisdiction of international tribunals for crimes under international law to legal persons, with particular reference to the drafting history of the Rome Conference that led to the establishment of the International Criminal Court. In conclusion, the object of the research was the reconstruction of the concept of CSR, which is a product of national law and in particular the legal systems of the industrialized countries, identifying a legal framework that includes legal instruments of various types and in various sectors, such as those governing commercial companies, national regulations for the prevention and combating of corruption; regulations of the financial sector and in particular those on stock exchanges; disciplines to protect labour, the environment and the consumer. In the most advanced in terms of economic and institutional CSR, therefore, is not encoded in a specific sector regulation but it is a complex system of regulations governing various aspects of the business activities, in developing countries, however, these rules are often fragmentary or even absent: this situation has allowed MNCs to take advantage of loopholes in the law or stringent rules present in these countries. It is evident that the international community has identified the need to regulate the activities of multinational enterprises, for the promotion and protection of its fundamental values and development in a sustainable environment, with the intention to create an international legal framework that allows companies to pursue their own business purposes without losing sight of the collective needs (in particular in the countries in which they operate). To achieve this goal, it is inevitable evolution of international law, whose formation processes, managed largely by governments, cannot fail to take into account the increased role and weight of MNEs and civil society. ; Dottorato di ricerca in Persona, impresa e lavoro: dal diritto interno a quello internazionale (XXV ciclo)
In: Spajić-Vrkaš, Vedrana and Ilišin, Vlasta (2005) Youth in Croatia. Faculty of Humanites and Social Sciences University of Zagreb, Research and Training Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Citizenship, Zagreb. ISBN 953-175-242-7
The results of the research described above were obtained on a representative sample of Croatian youth from 15-24 years of age in the second half of 2002. The research was carried on in the context of a regional research project on youth under the auspices of the PRONI institute from Sweden. The main objective of the project was to provide empirical data on life, needs, attitudes and aspirations of young people as a means of assisting the process of youth policy review. The process was initiated by the Council of Europe with a view to strengthen youth participation in democratic changes of the countries in the region. This report is the most recent one in a long and well-established tradition of studying youth issues in Croatia. Therefore, it often includes comments and references to earlier research findings for the purpose of determining the changes in youth trends, as well as for the purpose of validity testing of our data. On the other side, the data presented in this report may, together with earlier studies, be used as a reference point in the process of reviewing the National Programme of Action for Youth, as well as in developing a comprehensive, efficient and youth-centred national youth policy. The core of the findings is probably that the criteria for determining the upper age-level of youth period should be reviewed and extended to include those who are 30 years of age. The fact that more and more young people remain longer in education, that they decide to marry and have children later in their life, that they consider changing their job and probably, if possible, enroll in re-training programmes for that purpose, as well as that they desire to reach full independence by relying on their own abilities and endeavour, speaks in favour of the need to redesign our traditional approaches to youth upper age-limits. Other findings that help us understand some important dimensions and trends of contemporary life of Croatian youth are summarised below. The most basic socio-demographic data demonstrate that very few young people from our research who are 24 and below are married and few think of having children before the age of 25. About half of them live in a two-child nuclear family in a house/apartment of their own that, averagely, comprises more than two rooms. Very few have an opportunity to live in an apartment of their own, although four fifths express desire to live separately. The aspiration towards such independence is mainly motivated by socio-economic and maturity factors: it is a prominent feature of young people who are university students, whose fathers have more education, and who are over 20. Since the chances of having their own apartment in a reasonable period of time are rather minimal, not only due to the difficulties in finding a job but due to extremely high prices in the housing sector, such prolonged co-habitation and dependency on parents and/or relatives is a frequent cause of young people' s frustrations and is probably related to, together with other factors such as poverty and limited capacity of pre-school child-care institutions, a constant decrease in the average number of children per family. On average, young people are satisfied with their present life and expect no change in the future. Despite a high unemployment rate especially among them, approximately three quarters assess their own present and future life, the life of their closest friends and their peers in Western Europe as good or excellent. Their optimism is somewhat even higher than it was found in the end of 1990s. When asked to imagine their life in 10 years ahead majority see it as a success, either in general terms or in specific terms of their professional advancement or family happiness. Dissatisfaction with present life grows with age and with opportunities to enter the world of work and become fully independent, since the young between 20-24 years of age, both employed and unemployed are more inclined to perceive their present life as unsatisfactory. Interestingly enough, the age does not have influence on the assessment of future, which means, in the context of this research, that young people in general, irrespective of age, equally believe that future brings better opportunities. In reference to their professional and educational aspirations, almost two thirds of the young want to continue education, while one fourth of them think of finding a job. The differences are mainly determined by residential, social, and age factors. Thus, a primary aspiration of pupils and university students, as well as of those who live in Zagreb or in families of higher socio-economic status, is to continue their education. Contrary to them, rural young people, those who live in low-income families, as well as those who are over 20 are more inclined to seek for a job or to continuing the job they currently hold. Over two fifths of young people plan to leave their present place of residence so as to be able to meet their professional and educational aspirations. Almost half of this group prefer to move somewhere inside the country, most often to a bigger city which is perceived as the place that offers better opportunities for career and social positioning, while other half think of going abroad. The percentage of the young planning to leave the country for good rose from 11% in 1986 and 18% in 1999 to 19% in 2002. Their migratory plans are connected to their residential status, i.e. to the conditions in the place or region where the young actually live. Young people from Zagreb are less willing to go somewhere else; rural youth and youth from Eastern Croatia wish to migrate to another place inside Croatia more than any other group, while all groups (except youth from Middle and Northern Croatia who want that somewhat more than others) equally (do not) want to settle abroad. Data on a desired place for living are quite similar to those on migratory plans. The number of youth preferring to remain in their present place of residence and the number of those having no migratory plans are almost identical. When compared to earlier studies, we see an increase in the number of young people preferring to live in large cities. In addition, almost one quarter express their preference for living abroad, majority of which opt for a Western European country. The fact that almost one fifth of all has plans and almost one fourth prefer to live abroad indicate the existence of two closely related but, nevertheless, separate dimensions of youth migratory thinking. While the preference for other counties may mean only an inclination, having plans on migrating abroad most certainly includes active search for such a possibility. In light of our findings it means that at least one fifth of Croatian youth not only dream of leaving the country but actually make plans how to make it a reality. Employed youth is far from being satisfied with their jobs. Every second confirms his or her disappointment. Approximately one fifth of both them and those that are still in the process of education desire jobs in the service or business sector; little less in number think of entering more creative and/or dynamic professions or professions related to education, health care and social services. This means that their professional aspirations are somehow higher that those of their parents, majority of whom have secondary school completed and are mainly employed as industrial, service and shop workers or clerks. Nevertheless, if their choices are compared to the structure of the employed force in Croatia and if we add to it a rapidly changing labour market in all transitional countries, their professional preferences seem rather realistic. This is probably why almost half of the young hold that their chances for getting a preferred job are high or very high. The data also confirm that their estimations are related to age and socio-professional status since pessimism increases with age (except for the university students) and is tightly linked to unemployment status. In any case, optimism prevails among the young and it, as well, may be linked to their strong motivation to succeed in life by relying on their own abilities despite unfavourable social and economic context in which they live. It is also possible, at least partly, that self-assurance of young people comes from positive educational experience. Over half of the young state they feel happy and satisfied when thinking of their schools or universities. However, it is not clear whether their satisfaction should be understood in terms of acquiring subject-matter knowledge and skills or in terms of developing certain personal qualities through participating in school life. Earlier studies on youth have proven that the young have complex relations towards education which are the outcomes of both institutional tasks and personal expectations. Moreover, our results document that feelings about school are correlated with sex and socio-professional status.Girls and university students, in general, are more satisfied with their education, while the unemployed are among the least satisfied. It is also possible that positive feelings about education also relate to school grades. Earlier studies have shown that female pupils receive somewhat better average scores than their male schoolmates, which may explain why girls have more positive feelings about school than boys. • On the other hand, it is clear that school is by no means a source of information about the events in the country and the world for young people since a great majority of them actually receive news through ordinary media (TV, radio, newspapers and magazines). Moreover, Internet has become an important source of information about the country and the world for approximately one fifth and over one fourth of them, respectively. This shift has to do with the fact that over two thirds of the young from our study are computer users and that more than half of them already have computer at home. It is, therefore, obvious that new information and communication technologies are becoming part and parcel of young people' s daily life what needs to be taken into account when policies and programmes of action for promoting their wellbeing are designed, especially in reference to underprivileged youth. Namely, our research confirms that the use of computer correlates with residence (urban environment), family background (parents with higher education and higher socio-economic status), age, and education factors (younger population and students). Nevertheless, young people are not enslaved by new information communication technologies. Most of them spend their free time associating with friends, engaging in sport activities, going to disco-clubs, watching TV or performing outdoor activities, while far less enjoy music, reading books or art exhibitions. In addition, many young people have no daily obligations, except in relation to school and spend their free time idling or sleeping. This means that the majority of youth either do nothing or engage almost solely in the so called passive and/or receptive activities for self-entertainment. Despite that fact, almost three fourths of them claim they are more or less satisfied with how they spend their free time what brings us to the conclusion that the main problem is not the quality of their free time activities but their lack of awareness that the quality itself is being at stake. However, it should be pointed out that their opinions are related to age and socio-professional status. Young people who belong to an upper age-cohort and who are unemployed exhibit far more dissatisfaction with their free time than the youngest. Overpronounced dissatisfaction among the unemployed seems to be an indicator of an overall discontent with one' s own life. For the unemployed, free time becomes a burden not only because they cannot perceive it in terms of an offduty activity but because they can not afford it financially. In reference to the use of psychoactive substances, it seems that tobacco smoking and alcohol consumption are the most widespread types of risk behaviour among the youth. Approximately one third of them smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol daily or weekly ; three fifths are non-smokers and one fifth never drink alcohol. Smoking increases with age and employment. Alcohol, on the other hand, is solely related to gender in a way that young women drink less than their male peers. Such trend may be the sign of a subtle male initiation rite de passage that has outlived its traditional context. Since the data on smoking are more favourable than those from earlier research it may be presumed that an anti-smoking media campaign, which has been going on rather aggressively throughout the country, has brought positive effect, whereas non-existence of similar anti-alcohol campaign may be the sign of a relatively high level of a social tolerance for alcohol consumption. As far as drug are concerned, Croatian youth is more inclined to the so-called 'soft' drugs. Over one third of the young have tried or used twice or more only marijuana ; hashish and ecstasy is mentioned by less than one tenth of them, whereas other 'hard' drugs have been only tried or are consumed by 1-3% of them. The consumption of marijuana is associated with a recognizable youth group, what confirms earlier studies. A group of highest risk is made of young people between 20 and 24, male, university students, the residents of Zagreb, Istria, Croatian Littoral and Dalmatia, and whose fathers have higher education level. A great majority of young people tend to see themselves in rather positive terms: they are self-assured, think they have a good number of personal qualities; believe in their capabilities when compared to other people and have no doubts that most people they know like them. This may be related to feeling of security they experience in the context of their immediate environment since a great majority of the young claim that they can almost always get warmth, care and support from their parents and support from their friends. On the other hand, only every second of them feel the same about their teachers. It seems that most Croatian families are characterised by an exercise of indirect and flexible control over their children in the course of their growing up. In over half of the cases parents or relatives hardly ever determine rules for their children' s behaviour although they do control the choice of their friends, as well as their evening outdoor activities. Moreover, young people claim that their parents are especially keen of their school progress since they almost regularly keep records on their children school situation. • When asked about the most serious problems of their generation, the majority of young people in Croatia mention socially unacceptable behaviour, such as drug abuse, alcohol consumption and violence, unemployment, low standard of living, the lack of life chances and mass migration of young experts abroad. Since unemployment was repeatedly displayed as the major problem of young generation in earlier studies, their present preoccupation with socially unacceptable behaviour may be related either to the sample structure (majority of them are students) or to a general social climate which is, due to predominance of media campaigns mainly geared against smoking and drug abuse (but not against alcohol consumption, except for safe driving), inducing an over-sensitisation to behavioural issues causing, on the other side, the lack of awareness of existentially important issues of young people that are of an utmost importance for their independence and self-satisfaction. Young people are inclined to attribute responsibility for solving these problems primarily to themselves, their parents and public authorities, i.e. firstly to those actors that function at the private level (personal and parents' responsibility), than to public sector (government, education system) and, finally, to the civil society (nongovernmental organizations, youth associations and religious institutions). This means that youth principally count on their personal strength and family support, as well as that they have explicit expectations of state institutions, whereas they think of receiving the assistance from the civil sector only exceptionally. Notwithstanding, since half of the young studied have failed to mention personal responsibility, it clearly demonstrates that both strong sense of self-responsibility and its avoidance stand side by side as two features of Croatian youth. Among the measures that Croatian youth see as the most efficient for solving their problems two are underlined: equal education and career opportunities, on the one hand, and strict punishment of drug dealers and restrictions on alcohol selling, on the other hand. Since the majority of youth consider socially unacceptable behaviour, including drug-addiction, to be the gravest problem of their generation, it is understandable that they see the way out in strict punishing of drug dealers, (rather than consumers), what is still inadequately determined by Croatian law. Other most frequently mentioned measure has to do with the youth quest for developing society of equal chances which is in line with their perception of unemployment as the second most frequently mentioned youth problem in Croatia. Although lesser in number, the young refer to their under-representation and require their participation in decision-making to be ensured at all levels. They also require better adapting of secondary and higher education to the needs of contemporary life, as well as better quality of education, in general; some speak in favour of establishing a ministry for youth affairs, developing national strategy for promoting youth well-being, setting up of funds for youth initiatives, better legal regulations of the places of youth entertainment, i.e., the issues majority of which have already been integrated into the recently adopted National Programme of Action for Youth that is seen as an initial step in developing a national youth policy. The values that the majority of young people hold personally important or very important are healthy environment, peace in the world, gender equality, and rights and freedoms of the individual. Second group of the most personally preferable values encompasses solidarity among people, social justice, economic security, respect for differences, rule of law, inalienability of property, civil society, free market, freedom of the media, protection of minorities, religion and democratic system. The bottom of the scale is occupied by social power, national sentiment, European integration, and high economic standard. The review of their preferences demonstrates a relatively respectable level of democratic potential of young people in Croatia. They are more oriented towards comfortable life based on key principles of democracy and civil society, which is in correspondence with earlier research that have documented the shift to a more individualistic value system, including youth' s preference for independence and their focus on self-realisation and material security. However, their relative devaluation of the importance of European integration may be, on the one hand, the sign of either their dissatisfaction with, or their criticism of the way new European order has been established, partly due to the fact that Croatia has been somehow unjustly left behind. On the other hand it may be the consequence of their perceiving the integration merely in terms of a political objective of which very little they experience in everyday life. This is not to say that they devaluate the importance of European integration for Croatia as such. It would be more accurate to say that Croatian young people are becoming more and more pragmatic in their social positioning of which many think not only in the context of Croatia but in the context of Europe and the world. Having in mind a long tradition of Croatian youth emigration to Europe and the fact that almost 20% of contemporary youth plan to leave the country for good (mostly for a European country), their relation toward European integration may mean that they see it only as an added value to an already established youth migratory pattern in Croatia. of young people about the determinants of upward social mobility in Croatia reflect their accurate perception of social anomalies that, if left unquestioned, threaten to deepen social inequalities and diminish democratic potential of the society. Namely, a great majority of the young see as important or highly important for social promotion in Croatia a combination of the following variables: adaptive behaviour, personal endeavour, knowledge and skills, and connections and acquaintances. University degree, money and wealth, and the obedience and submissiveness to the 'boss', are identified less but, nevertheless, reflect a combination of appropriate and inappropriate means of social promotion. Somehow more troublesome is the finding that one third to one half of the young consider belonging to certain nation or political party, as well as bribing and corruption as important determinants of one' s success in Croatia. These data present an index of youth's perception of Croatian society as the society of unequal chances since it, by allowing nondemocratic practice to play an important role in social promotion, actually discriminates against those who in this matter believe in, and rely on their own abilities and efforts. When compared to earlier studies, it is highly troublesome that almost the same factors of social promotion are estimated as important by both socialist and ' transitional' young people in Croatia. Overall examination of the above results may be seen as an indicator of a process of relative homogenisation of young people in today' s Croatia – certainly, within the issues here examined and at the present level of analysis. There is no doubt that young people here described have many characteristic in common, especially in reference to their marital status, family pattern, housing conditions, parent' s educational background, attitudes towards present and future life, professional and educational aspirations, desired accommodation, sources of information, satisfaction with free time, positive feelings about themselves, feeling of security in relation to their parents and friends, as well as in reference to their abuse of psychoactive substances. They also share their desire for autonomy and independence, and for the recognition by the society at large, as well as their dreams of a more just society in which life opportunities would match individual abilities and endeavour. When they differ, it is mostly due to their varied socio-professional status and age. Residential status, father' s educational background, gender, and regional background are less important. The tendencies that have been documented suggest that youth are divided primarily by their actual social status and stage of attained maturity, and only secondarily by socialization factors, such as social origin in a narrow and broad sense of the term, and a gender socialization patterns. However, further analysis of data should disclose youth dominating trends with more accuracy.
