В кратком выступлении сопоставляются два важнейших документа ХХ в., сохраняющих определяющее значение для судеб сотрудничества и безопасности в Европе и развития международных отношений в мире в целом. ; In my brief speech, I comment on and compare the two most important documents of the 20th century that still have a truly great significance for the future of co-operation and security in Europe, moreover, for the development of international relations in the world. 21 Nov. 1990, representatives of the supreme power of all European states, as well as the United States and Canada signed in Paris a fundamental international instrument for establishment of new European peaceful order after the end of 'cold war'. It entered the history as The Charter of Paris for a New Europe. There was no more significant and important international instrument in the twentieth century than the Charter of Paris. For the first time in the entire history of Europe pan-European consensus on ways to achieve the principles and mechanisms of European security and co-operation was reached. In The Charter, the most important principles of security and collaboration among the European nations have been formulated: "… we renew our pledge to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State, or from acting in any other manner inconsistent with the principles or purposes of those documents. We recall that non-compliance with obligations under the Charter of the United Nations constitutes a violation of international law" "With the ending of the division of Europe, we will strive for a new quality in our security relations while fully respecting each other's freedom of choice in that respect. Security is indivisible and the security of every participating State is inseparably linked to that of all the others. We therefore pledge to co-operate in strengthening confidence and security among us and in promoting arms control and disarmamen" "We reaffirm the equal rights of peoples and their right to self-determination in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations and with the relevant norms of international law, including those relating to territorial integrity of States" "… our growing interdependence will help to overcome the mistrust of decades, to increase stability and to build a united Europe" "We want Europe to be a source of peace, open to dialogue and to co-operation with other countries, welcoming exchanges and involved in the search for common responses to the challenges of the future". This was a new philosophy of peace and cooperation among peoples for the future of the 21st century, outlined in the Charter of Paris. Seven years have passed. And so, as an antithesis to The Charter, The Project for the New American Century, which the US administration set before the American and world public opinion, comes into being June 3, 1997. Present US presidential Jeb Bush, the representative of the Bush dynasty, took part in its elaboration. Here are much talking passages from this project: "We aim to make the case and rally support for American global leadership. … Does the United States have the resolve to shape a new century favorable to American principles and interests?" "We seem to have forgotten the essential elements of the Reagan Administration's success: a military that is strong and ready to meet both present and future challenges; a foreign policy that boldly and purposefully promotes American principles abroad; and national leadership that accepts the United States' global responsibilities" "… we cannot safely avoid the responsibilities of global leadership or the costs that are associated with its exercise. … If we shirk our responsibilities, we invite challenges to our fundamental interests. The history of the 20th century should have taught us that it is important to shape circumstances before crises emerge, and to meet threats before they become dire. The history of this century should have taught us to embrace the cause of American leadership" "… we need to increase defense spending significantly if we are to carry out our global responsibilities today and modernize our armed forces for the future" "… we need to strengthen our ties to democratic allies and to challenge regimes hostile to our interests and values" "… we need to promote the cause of political and economic freedom abroad" "… we need to accept responsibility for America's unique role in preserving and extending an international order friendly to our security, our prosperity, and our principles" "Such a Reaganite policy of military strength and moral clarity may not be fashionable today. But it is necessary if the United States is to build on the successes of this past century and to ensure our security and our greatness in the next". So what happened? Why the United States does transformed the Charter of Paris, the greatest achievement of political thought and practice of the 20th century, into meaningless and worthless piece of paper, and tried to bury it in oblivion? Why Europe, devoid of unity, security and cooperation, has found itself on the verge of a new pre-war political crisis that could at any moment turn into a real war? The fact is that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States received an unprecedented opportunity to establish its global hegemony. They purposefully pursue this goal, not disdaining any means and methods up to provoke war in Europe. Indeed, thanks to wars in the European continent in 20th century, the United States removed enormous geopolitical and economic benefits and become a superpower, which has imposed its domination to Western-European ruling elites, especially during the 'cold war', acting as their defender against Stalin's messianic expansion. About how all this happened, I wrote in my article " Europe Has Lost Out the 20th Century to the United States ". US tried to transfer this experience in the twenty-first century and to extend their domination in Eastern Europe. In this, I must say, they have succeeded. All the countries of Eastern and Central Europe were drawn into NATO, and the troops of this block were put forward right up to Russia's borders. In order to achieve this, United States deployed an unprecedented propagandistic war against Russia, presenting it as a dangerous aggressive power, which is alien to the 'European civilization' and its values, and threatens the existence of the European countries. In doing so they did not shun unconscionable lies and distortion of historical facts. How can we incriminate Russian intentions of the military invasion into Europe and encourage Europeans to unite under the leadership of the United States to counter this threat? Firstly, NATO's military might is greater than Russian one by 4 times or more. Secondly, Russia has never had intentions to invade Europe, while grandiose military invasion from Europe into Russia took place twice. In the 19th century the Napoleon's troops had invaded into it and reached Moscow itself, and in the 20th century Nazi Germany troops broke through as far as Stalingrad. And both times, Russian army was able to repel the aggression and was forced to invade deep into Europe while pursuing enemy troops, to achieve complete victory. That is the truth of history. American leaders of the information war against Russia prefer to remain silent about it. Or maybe it is simply because of their ignorance, lack of knowledge history that the US senior policymakers have repeatedly demonstrated? Whatever it was, Washington was able to put the EU ruling elites in service of itself and to achieve the implementation of one of the most important tasks of the US foreign policy doctrine 'to keep Russia out of Europe'. Fear of increasingly being adopted of the idea of the Eurasian Union, i.e. integration space from Lisbon to Vladivostok, was also the reason for this course of action. The implementation of this idea promises to European countries and Russia the big economic, political, scientific, technological and other benefits, including relief from the US dictate the political and economic sphere, which increasingly concerned about a nationally minded circles of the European countries. While for the US, the most important task is to implement the idea of Euro-Atlantic alliance, i.e. US-Europe association, which is regarded as the main geopolitical bridgehead of US policy of domination. Sake of this, many subversive activities aimed against Russia, are held: the creation of 'enemy image' in its face; policies aimed at its isolation and locking by unfriendly states; sanctions against Russia; a coup in Ukraine and its transformation into a state hostile to Russia, a hotbed for the unleashing the war in Europe; deployment of US troops and military equipment, as well as anti-missile systems in Eastern Europe and so on. As a result of these actions, the United States deliberately brought Europe to the threshold of pre-war political crisis. Thus, today's imperative is to not let rabid members of American expansionism to turn this crisis into a war. This scares even the reasonable and responsible representatives of the political and scientific communities in the United States (for example, the famous American historian and political scientist, Prof. Stephen Cohen, about what he was saying at the annual US-Russian Forum in Washington, June 16, 2014). In the current situation alarming and dangerous intensification of policies aimed at a return to the life of the Paris Charter and its principles, and their widespread publicity among the general public in Russia and the Western countries, is of paramount importance. Their official inclusion in the agenda of foreign policy of Russia and other European countries is the saving against threats hanging over Europe. It would be essential that the Federation Council and the State Duma addressed to the parliaments of European countries with appeal to put again The Charter of Paris and its principles in the service of peace and pan-European cooperation, taking into account the characteristics of contemporary European situation.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth accelerated to an unprecedented 17.3 percent in 2011 from 6.4 percent in 2010 and the unemployment rate fell from 13 percent in 2010 to 9 percent in 2011. However, real wages for unskilled workers in the urban informal sector are starting to fall as the inflation rate reached 11.1 percent year-on-year in December. Sharply rising government spending is the root cause of overheating: government spending rose by 56 percent in 2011 and is budgeted to rise by a further 32 percent this year, fueled by sharply rising resource revenues. This pro-cyclical fiscal policy could result in another 'boom-and-bust' cycle Mongolia experienced before, particularly as the global economy could face a substantial slowdown in growth due to the continuing European sovereign debt crisis, and which could result in a sharp drop in mineral prices and subsequently government revenues There have been major legislative developments in 2011 and early 2012 aimed at strengthening policy institutions and frameworks. The Integrated Budget Law (IBL) was passed in December 2011: this organic budget law contains measures to support fiscal sustainability and the successful implementation of the Fiscal Stability Law. It also strengthens the public investment framework by requiring feasibility studies and alignment with national priorities for projects to be included in the Public Investment Program and the budget. The Social Welfare Law was passed in early January. This mandates the provision of a targeted poverty benefit replacing the existing system of universal cash transfers. To ensure macroeconomic stability and to prevent a hard landing for the economy in case of an adverse external shock, Mongolia needs to adhere strictly to prudent fiscal policies as set out in the FSL and IBL and tightening both fiscal and monetary policy to reduce inflation, take macro-prudential action to reduce systemic risks in the banking sector and maintain a flexible exchange rate that will act as the first buffer in any external shock materializes. These are uncertain times for Mongolia. The economy faces growing headwinds from the global economic environment, while the looming elections increase domestic uncertainty. Until a substantial amount of savings has accumulated in the stabilization fund, Mongolia remains strongly exposed to volatility in commodity prices.
This article presents estimates of the impact of China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). China is estimated to be the biggest beneficiary (US$31 billion a year from trade reforms in preparation for accession and additional gains of $10 billion a year from reforms after accession), followed by its major trading partners that also undertake liberalization, including the economies in North America, Western Europe, and Taiwan (China). Accession will boost manufacturing sectors in China, especially textiles and apparel, which will benefit directly from the removal of export quotas. Developing economies competing with China in third markets may suffer small losses. Accession will have important distributional consequences for China, with the wages of skilled and unskilled nonfarm workers rising in real terms and relative to those of farm workers. Possible policy changes, including reductions in barriers to labor mobility and improvements in rural education, could more than offset these negative impacts and facilitate the development of China's economy.
In climate change mitigation policy, carbon taxation is seen as an effective and efficient policy instrument. However, some caveats like carbon leakage may hamper its performance. This thesis presents an assessment of various alternative market-based climate policy instruments: A residence-based tax on capital income, a source-based tax on capital input in production, and cap-and-trade policy. For the latter, two regimes are analyzed: local and global permit markets. An essential aspect, which connects all chapters, is that the assumption that countries do not cooperate but set their policies in a strategic, non-cooperative manner. The resulting inefficiencies are identified for all the above listed instruments. In Chapter 2, we analyze a multi-country, 2-period, Nash tax competition game to evaluate Sinn's proposal to use interest income taxation as a means to decelerate fossil fuel extraction (Sinn, 2008, p. 384). The interest rate is determined on a perfectly competitive consumer loan market on which the resource extractor acts as the loan supplier. Households, which constitute the demand side, pay a local capital income tax on their loan. We find that this tax is effective in back loading extraction to the future, which limits damage from climate change. Yet, equilibrium tax rates are inefficiently low, given countries are symmetric. Inefficiency is due to presence of two externalities - the intertemporal fiscal distortion and the environmental externality. The second result is that, in an asymmetric setting with resource-exporting and -importing countries, cooperation among the latter leads to welfare gains for these compared to the Nash equilibrium. Furthermore, we find that given the cooperation among resource-importing countries, there are cases where the resource-exporting country has an incentive to join the policy cooperation so that full cooperation is self-enforcing. Chapter 3 assesses the 2-period, non-cooperative equilibrium of an n country policy game where countries chose either (i) carbon taxes, (ii) cap-and-trade policy with local permit markets or (iii) cap-and-trade policy with internationally linked permit markets and potential central redistribution of permit revenues. Policy makers maximizes welfare, which depends on household consumption over time and environmental damage from period-1 resource use. We assume costless and complete extraction of this non-renewable resource, so damage only depends on speed of extraction. Tax policy is the least efficient option due to carbon leakage, which introduces a second externality adding to the environmental externality. Cap-and-trade policy does not show any leakage since all symmetric countries will employ caps. Its equilibrium thus only suffers from the environmental externality and welfare is higher than under carbon taxation. The policy scenario with linked permit markets and central redistribution yields an efficient outcome. The redistribution of revenues creates a negative externality which offsets the positive environmental externality. Chapter 4 analyses and compares the performance of carbon taxes and capital taxes in financing public goods while considering positive effects of public expenditure on firm productivity. It is motivated by Franks et al. (2017), who ask whether using carbon taxes could be motivated on fiscal rather than by environmental grounds, arguing that the advantage of the carbon tax consists in its potential to reap foreign resource rents. I employ an analytical general equilibrium framework of n identical countries, where local firms use internationally mobile capital and imported fossil fuel in production as well as local public infrastructure. The latter is financed solely by either taxing the input of fossil fuels or capital. The choice of the policy instrument is exogenous to policy makers and symmetric across countries. I find that the effect of policy on the fossil fuel price (terms-of-trade effect) leads to higher public good provision under carbon taxation. However, tax-competition could cause either policy instrument to yield higher provision depending on how strongly either tax base reacts to changes in the tax rate. Therefore, the ranking of the two policy scenarios is ambiguous when considering tax competition and the terms-of-trade effect simultaneously. A numerical exercise shows cases for higher provision of either policy. In Kapitel 2 analysieren wir ein 2-Perioden-Nash-Steuerwettbewerbsspiel mit mehreren Ländern, um Sinns Vorschlag zu bewerten, die Zinsbesteuerung als Mittel zur Verlangsamung der Extraktion fossiler Brennstoffe einzusetzen (Sinn, 2008, S. 384). Der Zinssatz wird auf einem Konsumentenkreditmarkt mit perfektem Wettbewerb ermittelt, auf dem der Rohstoffextrakteur als Kreditgeber fungiert. Haushalte, die die Nachfrageseite bilden, zahlen eine lokale Kapitaleinkommenssteuer auf ihren Kredit. Wir stellen fest, dass diese Steuer, wie anvisiert, die Verschiebung der Ressourcenextraktion in die Zukunft bewirkt, wodurch Schäden durch den Klimawandel begrenzt werden. Unter der Annahme symmertischer Länder sind Gleichgewichtssteuersätze jedoch ineffizient niedrig. Die Ineffizienz ist auf das Vorhandensein von zwei Externalitäten zurückzuführen: eine intertemporale fiskalische Externalität und eine Umweltexternalität. Das zweite Ergebnis ist, dass in einem asymmetrischen Umfeld mit ressourcenexportierenden und -importierenden Ländern die Zusammenarbeit zwischen diesen Ländern zu Wohlfahrtsgewinnen im Vergleich zum Nash-Gleichgewicht führt. Im Falle dass ressourcenimportierende Länder ihre Kapitaleinkommenssteuern kooperativ setzen gibt es Fälle, in denen das ressourcenexportierende Land auch einen Anreiz hat, sich der kooperativ zu verhalten, sodass sich die vollständige Kooperation sich von selbst durchsetzt. In Kapitel 3 wird das Politik-Gleichgewicht in einem nichtkooperativen 2-Perioden-Modell mit n Ländern untersucht, wobei jedes Land entweder (i) CO2-Steuern, (ii) die Menge der Emissionszertifikate (Cap) im Kontext eines lokalen Zertifikatehandels (Cap-and-Trade Politik) oder (iii) einen Cap im Kontext eines glablen Zertifikatehandels mit der Option zentraler Umverteilung der Zertifikatserlöse bestimmt. Die politischen Entscheidungsträger maximieren die Wohlfahrt, welche vom Konsum der privaten Haushalte über die Zeit und vom Umweltschaden durch den Ressourcenverbrauch der ersten Periode abhängt. Wir gehen davon aus, dass die hier modellierte nicht erneuerbare Ressource kostenlos und vollständig abgebaut wird, sodass der Schaden nur von der Abbaugeschwindigkeit abhängt. Die Steuerpolitik ist aufgrund der Verlagerung von CO2-Emissionen die am wenigsten effiziente Option, da der Verlagerungseffekt eine zweite Externalität neben der Umweltexternalität erzeugt. Die Cap-and-Trade-Politik weist keine Verlagerungseffekte auf, da wir annehmen, dass alle (symmetrischen) Länder die Cap Politik nutzen. Die Politikwahl im Gleichgewicht leidet also nur unter der Umweltexternalität und die Wohlfahrt ist höher als bei der CO2-Besteuerung. Das Politik-Szenario mit globalem Zertifikatehandel und zentraler Umverteilung führt zu einem effizienten Ergebnis. Durch die Umverteilung der Einnahmen entsteht eine negative Externalität, die die positive Umweltexternalität ausgleicht. Kapitel 4 analysiert und vergleicht wie CO2-Steuern und Kapitalsteuern bei der Finanzierung öffentlicher Güter unter Berücksichtigung der positiven Auswirkungen öffentlicher Ausgaben auf die Produktivität von Unternehmen abschneiden. Es ist motiviert von Franks et al. (2017), die die Frage aufwerfen, ob die Verwendung von Kohlenstoffsteuern nicht aus Umweltgründen, sondern aus fiskalpolitischen Gründen motiviert werden könnte. Sie argumentieren, dass der Vorteil der CO2-Ssteuer darin besteht, dass ausländische Rohstoffpreise erzielt werden können. Ich setze einen analytischen allgemeinen Gleichgewichtsrahmen von n identischen Ländern ein, in denen lokale Firmen international mobiles Kapital und importierte fossile Brennstoffe in der Produktion sowie die lokale öffentliche Infrastruktur nutzen. Letztere wird ausschließlich durch die Besteuerung des Einsatzes fossiler Brennstoffe oder des Kapitals finanziert. Die Wahl des politischen Instruments ist für die politischen Entscheidungsträger exogen und länderübergreifend symmetrisch. Ich stelle fest, dass die Auswirkung der Politik auf den Preis für fossile Brennstoffe (Terms-of-Trade-Effekt) zu einer höheren Versorgung mit öffentlichen Gütern im Rahmen der Kohlenstoffbesteuerung führt. Der Steuerwettbewerb könnte jedoch dazu führen, dass eines der beiden politischen Instrumente eine höhere Rückstellung abwirft, je nachdem, wie stark eine Steuerbemessungsgrundlage auf Änderungen des Steuersatzes reagiert. Daher ist die Rangfolge der beiden politischen Szenarien bei gleichzeitiger Berücksichtigung des Steuerwettbewerbs und des Terms-of-Trade-Effekts nicht eindeutig. Eine numerische Übung zeigt Fälle für eine höhere Bereitstellung einer der beiden Richtlinien. ; In der Klimaschutzpolitik wird die C02-Besteuerung als wirksames und effizientes politisches Instrument angesehen. Einige Aspekte, wie z. B. internationale Verlagerungseffekte, können jedoch die Leistung beeinträchtigen. Diese Dissertation präsentiert eine Bewertung verschiedener alternativer marktbasierter klimapolitischer Instrumente: eine auf dem Wohnsitz beruhende Steuer auf Kapitaleinkommen, eine Quellensteuer auf den Kapitaleinsatz in der Produktion und die Emissionszertifikate-Politik. Für Letztere werden zwei Regime analysiert: lokale und globale Zertifikatsmärkte. Ein wesentlicher Aspekt, der alle Kapitel miteinander verbindet, ist die Annahme, dass Länder nicht kooperieren, sondern ihre Politik strategisch und nicht kooperativ gestalten. Die daraus resultierenden Ineffizienzen werden für alle oben aufgeführten Instrumente ermittelt. Kapitel 1 und 5 dienen der Einführung in Thematik und Literatur sowie der Zusammenfassung. In Kapitel 2 analysieren wir ein 2-Perioden-Nash-Steuerwettbewerbsspiel mit mehreren Ländern, um Sinns Vorschlag zu bewerten, die Zinsbesteuerung als Mittel zur Verlangsamung der Extraktion fossiler Brennstoffe einzusetzen (Sinn, 2008, S. 384). Der Zinssatz wird auf einem Konsumentenkreditmarkt mit perfektem Wettbewerb ermittelt, auf dem der Rohstoffextrakteur als Kreditgeber fungiert. Haushalte, die die Nachfrageseite bilden, zahlen eine lokale Kapitaleinkommenssteuer auf ihren Kredit. Wir stellen fest, dass diese Steuer, wie postuliert, die Verschiebung der Ressourcenextraktion in die Zukunft bewirkt, wodurch Schäden durch den Klimawandel begrenzt werden. Unter der Annahme symmetrischer Länder sind Gleichgewichtssteuersätze jedoch ineffizient niedrig. Die Ineffizienz ist auf das Vorhandensein von zwei Externalitäten zurückzuführen: eine intertemporale fiskalische Externalität und eine Umweltexternalität. Das zweite Ergebnis ist, dass in einem asymmetrischen Umfeld mit ressourcenexportierenden und -importierenden Ländern die Zusammenarbeit zwischen diesen Ländern zu Wohlfahrtsgewinnen im Vergleich zum Nash-Gleichgewicht führt. Gegeben dass ressourcenimportierende Länder ihre Kapitaleinkommenssteuern kooperativ setzen, gibt es Fälle, in denen das ressourcenexportierende Land auch einen Anreiz hat, sich der kooperativ zu verhalten, sodass sich die vollständige Kooperation sich von selbst durchsetzt. In Kapitel 3 wird das Gleichgewicht in eines nicht-kooperativen 2-Perioden-Politikspiels zwischen n Ländern bewertet, in dem die Länder entweder über (i) CO2-Steuern, (ii) die Menge der Emissionszertifikate bei lokalem Zertifikatehandel – (lokale) Cap-and-Trade-Politk - oder (iii) über die Menge der Emissionszertifikate bei globalem Zertifikatehandel und möglicher internationaler Umverteilung der Zertifikatserlöse entscheiden. Die politischen Entscheidungsträger maximieren die heimische Wohlfahrt, welche vom Konsum in beiden Perioden und von den Umweltschäden durch den Ressourcenverbrauch der ersten Periode abhängt. Wir treffen die Annahme, dass diese nicht-erneuerbare Ressource kostenlos und vollständig abgebaut wird, sodass der Schaden nur von der Abbaugeschwindigkeit abhängt. Die Steuerpolitik ist aufgrund der Verlagerung von CO2-Emissionen die am wenigsten effiziente Option, da der Verlagerungseffekt neben der Umweltexternalität eine weitere Externalität entstehen lässt. Die Cap-and-Trade-Politik weist keine Verlagerungseffekte auf, gegeben dass symmetrischen Länder Caps einsetzen. Die gleichgewichtige Politikwahl wird also nur durch die Umweltexternalität beeinträchtigt und die Wohlfahrt ist höher im Gleichgewicht der CO2-Besteuerung. Das Politikszenario mit globalem Zertifikatehandel und zentraler Umverteilung von Zertifikatseinnahmen führt zu einem effizienten Ergebnis. Durch die Umverteilung der Einnahmen entsteht eine negative Externalität, die die positive Umweltexternalität ausgleicht. Kapitel 4 analysiert und vergleicht Abschneiden von CO2-Steuern und Kapitalsteuern bei der Finanzierung öffentlicher Güter unter Berücksichtigung positiver Effekte öffentlicher Ausgaben auf die Produktivität von Unternehmen. Es ist motiviert durch Franks et al. (2017), welche der Frage nachgehen, ob die Verwendung von CO2-Steuern nicht aus Umweltgründen, sondern aus steuerlichen Gründen motiviert werden könnte. Sie argumentieren, dass der Vorteil der CO2-Steuer darin besteht, dass Importländer damit ausländische Ressourcenrenten appropriieren können. Zu diesem Zweck nutze ich ein analytisches allgemeines Gleichgewichtsmodell mit n identischen Ländern, in welchem lokale Firmen international mobiles Kapital und importierte fossile Brennstoffe sowie die lokale öffentliche Infrastruktur als Produktionsfaktoren einsetzen. Die öffentliche Infrastruktur wird ausschließlich durch die Besteuerung fossiler Brennstoffe oder des Kapitals finanziert. Die Wahl des politischen Instruments ist für die politischen Entscheidungsträger exogen und länderübergreifend symmetrisch. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Auswirkung der Politik auf den Preis für fossile Brennstoffe (Terms-of-Trade-Effekt) zu einer höheren Bereitstellung der öffentlichen Infrastruktur im Rahmen der CO2-Besteuerung führt. Der Steuerwettbewerb könnte jedoch dazu führen, dass eines der beiden politischen Instrumente eine höhere Rückstellung abwirft, je nachdem, wie stark eine Steuerbemessungsgrundlage auf Änderungen des Steuersatzes reagiert. Daher ist die Wohlfahrts-Rangfolge der beiden politischen Szenarien bei gleichzeitiger Berücksichtigung des Steuerwettbewerbs und des Terms-of-Trade-Effekts nicht eindeutig. Ein numerisches Beispiel zeigt Fälle für höhere Bereitstellung sowohl unter CO2-Besteuerung als auch unter Kapitalbesteuerung.
Intensive animal production systems are compromising current animal welfare standards. Societies' growing concerns regarding how animals are raised have resulted in continuous policy reforms and regulations that have banned certain intensive farming methods. However, these concerns toward animal welfare can vary across different countries and cultures. In many developed countries, EU policymakers are continuously identifying and implementing more restrictive regulations driven by social changes that go beyond the current minimum animal welfare requirements. However, animal welfare is also an emerging concern in developing countries. In this context, the main objectives of this thesis are threefold: Firstly, to analyze the EU consumers' and citizens' attitudes towards more restrictive animal welfare (AW) regulations. The Logit Model (LM) regression was used in eight European countries (Spain, the United Kingdom, Poland, Greece, Lithuania, Romania, Italy, and Sweden) on a sample of 3860 respondents. The results showed that consumers are more reluctant to adopt more restrictive regulations than respondents in their role of citizens. Respondents from northern European countries (Poland and Sweden) are more likely to support more restrictive animal welfare regulations than respondents from southern countries (Spain and Italy). Women were found to be more concerned with the welfare of pigs and laying hens, giving credibility to the Internet as an information source and more likely to support more restrictive animal welfare legislation. Secondly, the students' opinions towards the inclusion of the AW subjects in their educational program were analyzed. The Logit Model (LM) from eight European Union (EU) countries with 1,952 secondary students and 1,929 graduate students was also used. The results showed that female university students with a high level of subjective and objective knowledge on AW and who required more restrictive AW regulations gave support to include the concept in their educational programs. However, students who support medical experiments that use animals to improve human health were less likely to accept the inclusion of the AW in their educational curricula. Furthermore, students in Italy compared to those in Sweden were prone to support AW educational programs. Thirdly, in order to have a comparative view of a developing country compared to results in EU, Iranian citizens' and consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for animal welfare (AW) milk products were analyzed using the choice experiment. The results indicate that citizens are willing to pay the highest price for traditional AW milk but not for industrial and traditional milk without AW certification. Moreover, individuals in their role as consumers exhibit a higher WTP for all types of milk but with a marked preference for industrial AW than traditional. Citizen's women and those who rely on the Internet were more concerned with dairy cattle farms and were more likely to choose AW milk. Citizens below 55 years of age were more reluctant to pay a premium to choose industrial and traditional milk without AW certification. Furthermore, consumer women and those who do not have children show a higher preference for industrial AW milk with lower animal welfare standards. However, consumers who support using animals for sport and those who assign high credibility to the television as an information source were less likely to pay a premium for AW products. Our results highlighted that both consumers and citizens are demanding higher standards regarding animal welfare. Consumers by purchasing animal welfare-friendly products and citizens by adopting a holistic approach to society legislation to achieve a minimum standard of welfare conditions. Finally, our results highlight the importance of policymakers adopting reforms that are in accordance with societal preferences and concerns to create more effective and acceptable animal welfare policies. ; Los sistemas de producción animal intensiva están comprometiendo los estándares actuales de bienestar animal. La creciente preocupación de las sociedades con respecto a cómo se crían los animales ha dado lugar a continuas reformas políticas y regulaciones que han prohibido ciertos métodos de cultivo intensivo. Sin embargo, estas preocupaciones sobre el bienestar animal pueden variar entre diferentes países y culturas. En muchos países desarrollados, los formuladores de políticas de la UE están identificando e implementando continuamente regulaciones más restrictivas impulsadas por cambios sociales que van más allá de los requisitos mínimos actuales de bienestar animal. Sin embargo, el bienestar animal también es una preocupación emergente en los países en desarrollo. En este contexto, los principales objetivos de esta tesis son tres: En primer lugar, analizar las actitudes de los consumidores y ciudadanos de la UE hacia normas más restrictivas sobre el bienestar de los animales (AW). La regresión del Modelo Logit (LM) se utilizó en ocho países europeos (España, Reino Unido, Polonia, Grecia, Lituania, Rumania, Italia y Suecia) en una muestra con una muestra de 3860 encuestados. Los resultados mostraron que los consumidores son más reacios a adoptar regulaciones más restrictivas que los encuestados en su papel de ciudadanos. Los encuestados de los países del norte de Europa (Polonia y Suecia) son más propensos a apoyar regulaciones de bienestar animal más restrictivas que los encuestados de los países del sur (España e Italia). Se descubrió que las mujeres estaban más preocupadas por el bienestar de los cerdos y las gallinas ponedoras, lo que da credibilidad a Internet como fuente de información y es más probable que apoye una legislación de bienestar animal más restrictiva. En segundo lugar, se analizaron las opiniones de los estudiantes hacia la inclusión de las asignaturas AW en su programa educativo. También se utilizó el modelo Logit (LM) de ocho países de la Unión Europea (UE). Los resultados mostraron que estudiantes universitarios con un alto nivel de conocimiento subjetivo y objetivo sobre AW y que requerían regulaciones de AW más restrictivas dieron apoyo para incluir el concepto en sus programas educativos. Sin embargo, los estudiantes que apoyan los experimentos médicos que utilizan animales para mejorar la salud humana tenían menos probabilidades de aceptar la inclusión del AW en sus planes de estudios educativos. Además, los estudiantes de Italia, en comparación con los de Suecia, eran propensos a apoyar los programas educativos de AW. En tercer lugar, para tener una visión comparativa de un país en desarrollo en comparación con los resultados de la UE, se analizó la disposición a pagar (DAP) de los ciudadanos y consumidores iraníes por productos lácteos de bienestar animal (AW) utilizando el experimento de elección. Los resultados indican que los ciudadanos están dispuestos a pagar el precio más alto por la leche AW tradicional, pero no por la leche industrial y tradicional sin certificación AW. Además, los individuos en su rol de consumidores exhiben una DAP más alta para todos los tipos de leche, pero con una marcada preferencia por la AW industrial que la tradicional. Las mujeres ciudadanas y las que dependen de Internet estaban más preocupadas por las granjas de ganado lechero y eran más propensas a elegir la leche AW. Además, las mujeres consumidoras y las que no tienen hijos muestran una mayor preferencia por la leche industrial AW con un estándar de bienestar animal más bajo. Sin embargo, los consumidores que apoyan el uso de animales para el deporte y aquellos que asignan una alta credibilidad a la televisión como fuente de información tenían menos probabilidades de pagar una prima por los productos AW. Nuestros resultados destacaron que tanto los consumidores como los ciudadanos exigen estándares más altos en materia de bienestar animal. Los consumidores compran productos respetuosos con el bienestar animal y los ciudadanos adoptan un enfoque holístico de la legislación de la sociedad para lograr un estándar mínimo de condiciones de bienestar. Finalmente, los resultados muestran que la enseñanza del concepto de AW en las universidades y programas escolares, principalmente en los países mediterráneos en las escuelas secundarias, es necesaria. ; Postprint (published version)
Mit der Einführung des "Green Deal" hat die Europäische Union das Ziel der Klimaneutralität bis zum Jahr 2050 formuliert. Die notwendigen Maßnahmen werden auch in Luxemburg zu einem massiven Ausbau der fluktuierenden erneuerbaren Energien, vor allem von Windkraft und Photovoltaik führen, aus dem sich ein zunehmender Bedarf für Flexibilität im Energiesystem ableiten lässt. Die Ausgestaltung des EU-Binnenmarktes für Strom sieht eine aktive Beteiligung des Verbrauchers vor, der auf Basis flexibler Strompreise seinen Verbrauch steuert und somit, unter Reduktion seiner Energiekosten, zum Flexibilitätsbereitstellung beiträgt. In Privathaushalten zielen solche Demand-Side-Management Maßnahmen vor allem auf Wärmepumpen ab. Diese Arbeit untersucht das Flexibilitätspotenzial von Wärmepumpen in Wohngebäuden stellvertretend für den luxemburgischen Kontext und analysiert Herausforderungen, die sich in diesem Zusammenhang ergeben. Als Zeithorizont der Untersuchung gilt das Jahr 2030. Die hier vorgestellte Methodik ist dabei auf vergleichbare Regionen in Europa übertragbar. Die Aufgabenstellung wird anhand thermischer Simulationen in TRNSYS, die das Wohngebäude sowie das Heizungssystem darstellen, analysiert. Eine für diese Arbeit in MATLAB entwickelte Model-Predictive-Control steuert die Wärmepumpe auf Basis variabler Strompreise mit dem Ziel, die Energiekosten zu minimieren. Ein neuronales Netz bestimmt dabei die Wärmeentnahme aus dem Heizwärmespeicher, so dass die Model-Predictive-Control letztlich ohne integriertes Gebäudemodell funktioniert. Die Eignung dieses Ansatzes wird über die Simulationsergebnisse validiert. Aus den nationalen Entwicklungen im Gebäudebestand leitet sich ein theoretisches Wärmepumpenpotenzial von 236-353 MWel ab, das zur Flexibilitätsbereitstellungerschlossen werden kann. Die große Bandbreite entsteht aus unterschiedlichen Annahmen zur jährlichen Gebäudesanierungsrate. Das technisch erschließbare Potenzial ist bedeutend geringer und ergibt sich aus der Entwicklung des Wärmepumpenmarktes. Da die Datenlage zu Wärmepumpen in Luxemburg unzureichend ist, entstand im Rahmen dieser Arbeit eine Wärmemarktstudie, die Verkaufszahlen von 2014-2018 analysiert und Entwicklungen des Wärmepumpenmarktes ableitet. Das technische Potenzial für 2030 beträgt demnach 30-73 MWel. Die Erkenntnisse aus dem nationalen Kontext fließen in die Simulationsmodelle ein. Das Konzept des Demand-Side-Management wird anhand zahlreicher Simulationsfälle getestet und im Hinblick auf Energieeffizienz, Wirtschaftlichkeit und Lastverschiebung evaluiert. Es werden drei Referenzgebäuden, je ein Einfamilienhaus und ein Mehrfamilienhaus gemäß Neubaustandard sowie ein Einfamilienhaus gemäß Mindeststandard für energetische Sanierungen in Luxemburg, erstellt. Die Unterscheidung von Luft/Wasser und Sole/Wasser Wärmepumpen in den Simulationsmodellen, demonstriert den Einfluss der Wärmequelle. Zusätzlich werden Heizwärmespeicher mit sechs unterschiedlichen Volumina berücksichtigt. Der Vergleich mit Referenzfällen demonstriert den Einfluss der prädiktiven Regelung. Als flexible Strompreise werden reale Marktdaten der EPEX-Spot Day-Ahead Auktion verwendet und mit Netzentgelten und steuerlichen Abgaben aus Luxemburg ergänzt. Die Ergebnisse bestätigen die Eignung des gewählten Model-Predictive-Control Ansatzes ohne integriertes Gebäudemodell. Luft/Wasser Wärmepumpen erzielen bessere Effizienz und Kosteneinspareffekte als Sole/Wasser Wärmepumpen, da die Kostenreduktion neben der Reaktion auf Preissignale auch über eine Verbrauchsoptimierung erreicht werden kann. Bei Anwendung eines Preisprofils mit überwiegend statischen Komponenten ist letzterer Aspekt bedeutend. Gebäude mit höherem Dämmstandard zeigen eine trennschärfere Reaktion auf Preissignale als Gebäude mit niedrigerem Dämmstandard. Letztere haben aufgrund des höheren Energieverbrauchs allerdings absolut betrachtet höhere Kostenreduktionspotenziale. Bei niedrigen Kapazitäten des Heizwärmespeichers sind Effizienz und Kostenreduktion eingeschränkt, da die Reaktion auf Preissignale zu einem sofortigen Temperaturanstieg im Speicher führt, der den Verbrauch der Wärmepumpe erhöht und somit einen gegenläufigen Effekt darstellt. Mit zunehmender Kapazität verbessern sich daher der Stromverbrauch und das Einsparpotenzial. Bei sehr großen Speichern wird dieser positive Einfluss von steigenden Wärmespeicherverlusten kompensiert. Ein größerer Heizwärmespeicher bedeutet eine zusätzliche finanzielle Investition in das Heizungssystem, die über Kostenreduktionseffekte kompensiert werden muss. Diese Wirtschaftlichkeit ergibt sich für das Mehrfamilienhaus und das schwach gedämmte Einfamilienhaus, jeweils mit Luft/Wasser Wärmepumpe und kleinen bis mittelgroßen Heizwärmespeichern. Um den Einfluss des Preisprofils zu demonstrieren werden zwei Alternativen getestet. Im ersten Fall wird eine stärkere Preisschwankung, verursacht durch einen höheren Marktanteil der erneuerbaren Energien, angewendet. Im zweiten Fall sorgen variable Netzentgelte für eine zusätzliche Verstärkung der Preissignale. In allen Simulationen verbessert sich die Kostenreduktion, so dass auch stark gedämmte Gebäude mit Luft/Wasser Wärmepumpe und mittelgroßen Heizwärmespeichern wirtschaftlich sind. Dabei verändert sich das Verhalten des Reglers, da die Preissignale zunehmend attraktiver sind als die Verbrauchsoptimierung. Dementsprechend steigt der Stromverbrauch im Vergleich zum vorigen Strompreisprofil. Sole/Wasser Wärmepumpen erreichen lediglich im schwach gedämmten Einfamilienhaus die Wirtschaftlichkeit. Aus den Simulationen ergibt sich folglich ein nationales wirtschaftliches Potenzial von 22-53 MWel. Die zahlreichen Randbedingungen des Wärmepumpenbetriebs führen zu einer impliziten Lastverschiebung die schwierig zu bewerten ist. Ein systemischer Nutzen des Demand-Side-Management lässt sich dennoch vor allem aus der Verbrauchsreduktion der Luft/Wasser Wärmepumpen und der sehr wahrscheinlichen Reaktion auf extreme Preissignale ableiten. Für Stromnetzbetreiber erscheint das Erschließen von Wärmepumpen im Wohnbereich als Netzbetriebsmittel fraglich. Die wesentlichen Gegenargumente sind die eingeschränkte Zuverlässigkeit bei Beachtung der Randbedingungen und die geringe elektrische Leistung im Vergleich zu E-Fahrzeugen, die das Niederspannungsnetz in naher Zukunft vor größere Herausforderungen stellen werden. Interessanter sind Konzepte, bei denen Energieversorger oder Direktvermarkter die Flexibilität einer Vielzahl an Wärmepumpen erschließen und zur Optimierung der Strombeschaffung verwenden. In diesem Kontext stellen sich vor allem Fragen der Wirtschaftlichkeit, die auf Basis der hier gefundenen Potenziale insgesamt fraglich bleibt, es sein denn im Konzept finden Wertschöpfungen aus Synergieeffekten statt, die im Rahmen dieser Arbeit nicht berücksichtigt werden konnten. In Bezug auf die nationale Spitzenlast im Stromsystem wurde ein relevantes Wärmepumpenpotenzial für Demand-Side-Management festgestellt, so dass die Thematik unter der Berücksichtigung der hier aufgeführten Sensitivitäten weiterverfolgt werden sollte. ; In 2020 the European Union introduced the "Green Deal" and declared the target of climate neutrality until 2050. The necessary measures will lead to a massive roll-out of fluctuating renewable energies such as wind power and photovoltaic. This in turn will lead to an increasing need for flexibility in the energy system. The design of the future European internal market for electricity intends to let end-consumers actively participate by managing their consumption based on variable electricity prices and in that way contributing to the flexibility demand. For private households, these Demand-Side-Management measures target heat pumps in particular. This work analyzes the flexibility potential of heat pumps in residential buildings and addresses challenges in the Luxembourgish context. The time horizon for the evaluation is defined as 2030. The methodology presented in this work is applicable to similar regions in Europe. The research questions are investigated by the means of thermal simulation. The software TRNSYS is used for the building models and heating systems. A Model-Predictive-Control, developed in MATLAB, is sending control signals to the heat pump that are based on variable electricity tariffs. The heat extraction of the thermal energy storage tank is determined by a neural network, so that the Model-Predictive-Control in itself works without an integrated building model. The suitability of the approach is validated by the simulation results. Based on the national developments in the building stock, there is a theoretical heat pump potential of 236-353 MWel that can offer flexibility. The band with arises because of different suppositions for the yearly refurbishment rate. The technical potential is significantly lower and is determined by the developments of the national heat pump market. As the data availability for Luxemburg was insufficient, a heat market study was initiated that investigated sales numbers for the period of 2014-2018 and derived scenarios until 2030. The technical potential in conclusion amounts to 30-73 MWel. The insights of the national context are used for the design of the simulation models. The concept of Demand-Side-Management is tested with numerous simulation cases and is then evaluated on aspects of energy efficiency, profitability and load shifting. In total there are three reference buildings, one single-family and one multi-family house, each according to the energetic standard of a new construction, and one single-family house that meets the legal requirements for energetic refurbishment in Luxembourg. In order to demonstrate the influence of the heat source there are simulations with air-to-water as well as geothermal heat pumps. The analysis furthermore considers six different thermal energy storage capacities. The influence of the predictive control strategy is demonstrated by a comparison with reference cases that work with a common control. The flexible electricity tariffs are based on real market data of the EPEX-Spot Day-Ahead auction and is completed with grid fees and taxes in Luxembourg. The simulation results confirm the suitability of the Model-Predictive-Control approach without integrated building model. Air-to-water heat pumps achieve better efficiency and cost reduction than geothermal heat pumps, as they have two ways to reduce the costs: via the variable electricity tariffs and via a performance optimization of the heat pump itself. The performance optimization is the preferred choice of the control strategy if the price profile consists of mainly static components. Buildings with high insulation level show a sharper reaction to price signals than buildings with lower insulation standard. For the latter in return the absolute cost reduction potential is better as the overall energy demand is higher. With low capacity thermal energy storage, the energy efficiency and cost reduction potential are limited since the reaction to price signals immediately leads to a temperature rise in the tank counteracting the overall objective by increasing the heat pump consumption. With increasing tank capacity, this aspect improves. Nevertheless, there is a limit where the increasing heat losses of the tank compensate the positive aspects of bigger tanks. As the heating systems are usually not equipped with larger thermal energy storage tanks, there is an extra investment for the end-consumer that needs to be compensated by the cost reduction of the Demand-Side-Management. This profitability is only given for the multi-family house and the less insulated single-family house, equipped with an air-to-water heat pump and small to medium sized storage tanks. Two alternative price profiles are tested in order to demonstrate the influence of the price signals. In the first case, a higher volatility of the prices is presumed, to reflect a higher market share of renewable energies. In the second case variable grid fees are added to the volatile prices to further increase the incentive of Demand-Side-Management. In all simulation cases the cost reduction increases so that that buildings with high thermal insulation and air-to-water heat pump are profitable with medium sized thermal energy storage. At the same time a change of behavior of the predictive controller can be observed as the price signals become more attractive than the aspect of performance optimization, leading to an increased electricity consumption in comparison to the previous price profile. An overall economic potential of 22-53 MWel can be concluded. The numerous constraints for the heat pump operation lead to an implicit load management effect that is difficult to interpret. Nevertheless, there is a clear systemic benefit of Demand-Side-Management that result from the better performance of air-to-water heat pumps and the highly probable reaction to extreme price signals. The assessment of a high number of heat pumps by the grid operator in order to stabilize the electricity grid is questionable. The main counter arguments are the limited reliability considering the constraints and the low electric power compared to the e-mobility that will be the major challenge of the low voltage grids in the nearer future. Concepts, where energy providers or direct marketers assess the flexibility to optimize procurement strategies seems more interesting. In this context the profitability is the main question that cannot be verified based on the findings, except if there is added value stemming from synergy effects that were not considered in this work. In relation to the peak demand of the Luxembourgish energy system there is a relevant heat pump potential for Demand-Side-Management. In the nearer future the subject should be further investigated, keeping in mind the findings and sensitivities presented in this work.
This interdisciplinary thesis in economics and political science analyzes the multidimensional aspects of the governance doctrine in the agendas of multilateral and International Organizations (IOs). How do politically neutral IOs succeed in promoting a political approach of "good" governance? To what extent is the scope of IOs' agendas likely to explain the relative underperformance of governance reforms undertaken during the three last decades in developing countries? These questionings have motivated the choice of the topic of this thesis dissertation as well as a use of an interdisciplinary framework, namely the International Political Economy (IPE). Indeed, the tools of IPE are the most suitable to grasp the interactions between economic and political factors beyond states boundaries. In such a situation, IOs are one of the various actors playing a significant role in the international political economy arena. In the same perspective, the promotion of the good governance concept can be positioned within the general debate about the relativism and universalism of norms and rules. Thus, this dissertation assumed that a fair knowledge of the political economy underpinning international development as well the political sociology of IOs are needed to clarify the scope and score of good governance reforms undertaken in developing countries. The first part of this dissertation uses two chapters to analyze the concept of governance in its genesis, conceptualization, diffusion and appropriation in the international development community. Chapter 1 found that current approaches of governance could be derived from Antiquity, Renaissance and Enlightenment philosopher's conceptions of power, authority exercise, legitimacy and, to a lesser extent, the efficient allocation of economic resources. However, modern conceptions break with these traditional approaches by considering the hybridity, heterogeneity and multiplicity of stakeholders in decision-making. This chapter also proposes a conceptualization of governance through a characterization of its main common interdisciplinary dimensions rather than adopting universal definition approaches. This led to a review of key criticisms addressed to the governance doctrine with respect to their consequences for developing countries. Chapter 2 brings its contribution to the debate on ideas and norms diffusion in development community by taking the example of the World Bank and its agenda on governance norms. We show that the World Bank has developed different behaviors vis-à-vis the governance doctrine, moving from economic to political and social approaches through a neoliberal framework. This chapter also proposes an analysis of the World Bank's soft power with respect to the governance norms spread worldwide through a bibliometric approach. To this regard, the chapter shows that the World Bank has become a leading global knowledge's Bank through its research activities and governance data production and dissemination. In addition, the World Bank's smart power, based on its governance indicators, has been found to exert some notable influences on its foreign development assistance policies as well as those of the other key aid actors. Through two chapters, the second part of the dissertation investigates about social and environmental dimensions of governance in a perspective of sustainable development in developing countries. Accordingly, chapter 3, which studies the behaviors of multilateral institutions in terms of social governance, shows that the trade-off between equity and efficiency in foreign aid allocation led to the emergence of good governance approach. This advent of governance approach constitutes a way to overcome the Samaritan dilemma through aid delegation to IOs. The empirical investigations, on the effects of multilateral aid on inequalities and social protection in developing countries, have produced mixed results that show aid beneficial effects only in recipient countries presenting good governance policies. Ultimately, chapter 4 proposes a principal-agent model highlighting some political economy interactions between supply and demand sides for good governance in the case of environmental compliance, corruption and deforestation in developing countries. This chapter suggests the need to consider the demand side of governance by promoting stakeholders' compliance and government's accountability. Indeed, environmental compliance is found to be likely to serve as a substitute for low judicial efficiency and a complement of high judicial efficiency in combating deforestation. Besides, the empirical investigations of the final chapter found that multilateral aid to the forestry sector is more effective in reducing deforestation in countries presenting both a better environmental compliance and rule of law. ; Cette thèse transdisciplinaire en économie et science politique étudie les divers aspects de la doctrine de la gouvernance dans les agendas des institutions et organisations internationales (OIs). Comment des OIs censées être politiquement neutres parviennentelles à promouvoir une approche politique de la " bonne " gouvernance ? Dans quelle mesure la structure des agendas de ces OIs permet- elle d'expliquer la relative sous-performance des reformes de gouvernance entreprises au cours de ces trois dernières décennies dans les pays en développement ? Ces interrogations ont motivé le choix du thème de cette thèse ainsi que l'utilisation d'un cadre transdisciplinaire, notamment celui de l'Economie Politique Internationale qui permet de mieux comprendre les interactions entre les facteurs économiques et politiques au delà des frontières étatiques. Dans un tel cadre, d'une part les OIs comptent parmi les multiples acteurs importants de la scène internationale et d'autre part leurs agendas sur la promotion de la doctrine de bonne gouvernance peuvent être examinés à travers le prisme du débat sur la relativité ou l'universalisme des règles et normes. Ainsi, cette thèse défend l'idée selon laquelle une bonne connaissance de l'économie politique sous-jacente au développement international ainsi que la sociologie politique de ces OIs est nécessaire pour expliquer l'étendue et les performances des reformes de bonnes gouvernance dans les pays en développement. La première partie de cette thèse mobilise deux chapitres pour analyser la doctrine de la gouvernance dans sa genèse, conceptualisation, diffusion et appropriation dans la communauté du développement international. Le chapitre 1 montre que les approches contemporaines de la gouvernance peuvent être dérivées des conceptions des philosophes de l'Antiquité, de la Renaissance et des Lumières à propos du pouvoir, de la légitimité, de l'exercice de l'autorité et, dans une moindre mesure, de l'allocation efficiente des ressources économiques. Néanmoins, les approches modernes de la gouvernance rompent avec ces traditions en prenant en compte l'hybridité, l'hétérogénéité et la multiplicité des acteurs et des centres de décisions. Ce chapitre 2 propose également une conceptualisation de la gouvernance à travers une caractérisation de ses dimensions transdisciplinaires plutôt que d'opter pour une approche visant à trouver une définition universelle à la notion de gouvernance. Cela conduit aussi à discuter des principales critiques adressées à la doctrine de la gouvernance en ce qui concerne leurs conséquences pour les pays en développement. Le chapitre 2 apporte sa contribution au débat sur la diffusion des idées et normes dans la sphère des politiques de développement en prenant l'exemple de la Banque Mondiale à travers son agenda sur les normes de gouvernance. Ce chapitre montre que la Banque Mondiale a eu différents comportements vis-à-vis de la doctrine de la gouvernance, en évoluant d'une approche économique vers une approche sociopolitique dans une optique néolibérale. Ce chapitre offre aussi, à travers une approche bibliométrique, une évaluation du pouvoir d'influence de la Banque Mondiale dans le domaine de la diffusion internationale des normes de gouvernance. A ce propos, la Banque Mondiale est devenue une véritable banque du savoir grâce à ces activités de recherche, de production et diffusion des données sur la gouvernance. En outre, le chapitre montre que la combinaison du pouvoir d'influence et d'injonction de la Banque Mondiale lui a permis d'utiliser ses indicateurs de gouvernance comme un moyen d'influence de sa politique d'aide au développement de même que celles des autres principaux donneurs. A travers deux chapitres, la seconde partie de cette thèse effectue une investigation dans les dimensions sociales et environnementales de la gouvernance dans une perspective de développement durable dans les pays en développement. Ainsi, le chapitre 3, qui examine les politiques de gouvernance sociale des institutions multilatérales, montre que l'arbitrage entre l'équité et l'efficacité de l'aide a conduit à l'émergence de l'approche de " bonne " gouvernance. Cette bonne gouvernance s'inscrit donc dans la délégation de l'aide aux OIs comme un moyen de résoudre le dilemme du Samaritain. Par ailleurs, nos estimations économétriques, visant à saisir les effets de l'aide multilatérale sur les inégalités de revenu et la protection sociale dans les pays en développement, aboutissent à des résultats mitigés qui montrent des effets bénéfiques uniquement dans les pays ayant une bonne qualité institutionnelle. Enfin le chapitre 4 propose un modèle de principal-agent illustrant des interactions d'économie politique entre l'offre et la demande de bonne gouvernance dans le cas du civisme environnemental, de la corruption et de la déforestation dans les pays en développement. Ce chapitre suggère aux OIs une meilleure prise en compte de la demande de bonne gouvernance par l'entremise d'une promotion du civisme des parties prenantes et d'une redevabilité des gouvernements. En effet, il ressort que le civisme environnemental pourrait être un substitut d'une faible efficacité judiciaire et un complément d'une forte efficacité judiciaire en matière de lutte contre la déforestation. Enfin, les estimations économétriques de ce dernier chapitre montrent que l'aide multilatérale, destinée au secteur forestier, est plus efficace dans la réduction de la déforestation dans les pays ayant à la fois un meilleur civisme environnemental et un état de droit.
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Sometime awhile ago I came up with the idea of doing a trilogy of posts on conspiracy theory, or modern conspiracy thought, read through Spinoza, Hegel, and Marx. I am not exactly sure why the idea appealed to me, in part because I increasingly consider Spinoza, Hegel, and Marx to be the cornerstones of my philosophical thought, even if these cornerstones come through the mediations of Tosel, Jameson, and Althusser (to name a few), but in this case, more specifically it seemed worth asking what would three critics of the mystifications of their day make of our modern mystifications.After writing the pieces on Spinoza and Hegel it took me a long time to even consider writing a piece on Marx. The intersection of Marx and conspiracy theory just seems too big to take on in a blogpost. This is in part because for many in the US, Marxism is both the name of an actual conspiracy and a conspiracy theory. It has become increasingly so in terms of the former, the right has dealt with decline of the Soviet Union not by giving up on red scares, but by making the object of such ghost stories more and more diffuse and conspiratorial. Marxism, or communism, are not to just to be found in open appeals to revolution, or organizing workers instead everything from Critical Race Theory to the casting of a Disney film can now be seen to be the work of Marxism in its more diffuse cultural form, a plot that becomes more insidious the more indirect its connection discernible political goals become. At the same time that Marxism is seen as conspiracy it is argued that its understanding of history and politics which sees the interest of the ruling class behind everything is fundamentally a conspiracy theory, if not the fundamental conspiracy theory. As is often the case, I would argue that this idea that Marxism is a conspiracy theory gets things wrong and upside down. To gesture to a much larger argument, I would argue that Marx's fundamental theoretical innovation is to present an understanding of economic, social, and political relations that breaks with every conspiracy theory in that its primary mode of explanation is not individual intentions, or collective strategies, but the economic and social conditions that exceed any intention or conspiracy. The actions of capitalist with respect to wages and working conditions are, to use the parlance of our times, dictated by the demands of the market, by the demand to be competitive, etc., what Marx would perhaps more simply call the extraction of surplus value. Marx stresses that this structure is absolutely indifferent to the conscious intentions of not only the workers, who must conform to it in selling their labor or risk losing their jobs, but to the capitalist as well. As Marx puts it, in the mouth of the worker addressing the capitalist, "You may be a model citizen, perhaps a member of the R.S.P.C.A. [Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals], and you may be in the odour of sanctity as well; but the thing you represent when you come face to face with me has no heart in its breast." As I argued with respect to Spinoza (see the link above), if the defining characteristic of most conspiracy theories is understanding the world in terms of ends, of deducing the conspiracy from effects, (if talking about race makes white people feel bad that must be the reason behind such teaching, and so on, Marx's fundamental argument is how little ends and intentions mean in understanding social and political life. Marx's criticism is not one of "capitalist greed" as a moral failing, but of the structural conditions that cause capitalists to seek cheaper workers, to demand more of workers, and so on regardless of their moral character. This is the real meaning of Marx's invocation of vampires and werewolves, not to call the capitalist a monster, but to claim that there is something monstrous in capital that exceeds intentions and is found not in the hearts of human beings but in the social relations that produce and reproduce them. As something of an aside, I will suggest that part of Marx's legacy on critical theory, for lack of a better term, is this demand to think in terms of structures that exceed and situate consciousness, this, as I have argued awhile ago, is partly what is at stake in the concept of the mode of production. This legacy goes beyond those who are explicitly Marxist. What Foucault called a dispositif, or apparatus, what Deleuze and Guattari referred to as assemblages or machines, were also an attempt to think the structural over and above the intentional. They are in some sense an attempt to articulate a concept that could displace the mode of production understood as the articulation of material practices and ideas, what Marx called base and superstructure. In Foucault this becomes the relation of power and knowledge, while in Deleuze and Guattari it becomes that of machinic assemblages of bodies and collective assemblages of enunciation. Both of which could be understood as an attempt to expand the explanatory framework beyond the putatively economic to encompass the production of knowledge and desire. Closer to home, the insistence on the term "structural" in "structural racism," as well as similar attempts to think patriarchy as a social and political structure, are all attempts to theorize racism, sexism, or misogyny without reducing it to individual prejudices, biases, or attitudes. I would then say, summing this up all too quickly, not only is Marx's thought not a conspiracy theory, Marx's fundamental move of thinking relations, structures, and institution in excess of intentions and understandings is the antechamber or all theories that want to be more than conspiracy theories that want to understand the structural conditions and not the individual attitudes as the basis for exploitation and domination. Such a point is beyond the focus of a blogpost, and, moreover, it was not what I intend to get at here. My question is what does Marx offer for thinking the conspiratorial turn in contemporary politics. The first point, which I have already more or less uttered, is that a great deal of what we call conspiracy theories are really just anti-communism, and that these theories have become more baroque and oblique as communism as a political force retreats into historical memory. They are in some sense a kind of anti-communism without communism, as Seymour argues. It is the decline of Marxism as a political force that leads to the demand to find it everywhere; everything that challenges the existing order, not just the economic order but its racial and gender aspects as well, from teaching about the history of slavery to non-binary gender identity can be labelled "Marxist." (The irony of this is that actually existing Marxism, especially in its more official state varieties, has had a spotty at best record when it comes to understanding race and gender as sites of domination and exploitation. Many Marxists of an old school variety are perhaps surprised to learn that anti-racist education is secretly Marxist and that Marxists are behind the demand to respect individual's choice of pronouns). Second, Marxism is integral to understanding the real conditions of social and political life which are in some sense experienced as a vast conspiracy. As I have alluded to above, Marx explains, better than any conspiracy theory the way in which prevailing economic and political relations produce the feeling of helplessness and lack of control that is, as Marcus Gilroy-Ware argues, the raw material for most conspiracy theories. Of course the fundamental question is if it is in some sense the relations of capitalism that create the conditions of alienation and powerlessness which in turn create the condition for conspiracy theorizing, why do such theories name everything but capital, or the ruling class, as the agent of this conspiracy. This is part because the demands of capital are too open, too disclosed to be the object of a conspiracy theory. There is no riddle to solve in saying that capital is driven by the extraction of surplus value, or, as they say, the pursuit of profit. It is openly declared in every newspaper, website, and news broadcast. Without a secret, without the ability to be in the know, there is no affective appeal to a conspiracy theory. We are stuck in a kind of perpetual purloined letter situation in which it is because the existing goals of the ruling class are so out in the open that there is a need to create a kind of bizarro world inversion of this world in order to believe in the conspiracy that must exist. While it is fairly clear to anyone paying attention that the established position on COVID for example is to declare it over again and again in order to be able to get people back to work and to end any state spending on aid, testing, or vaccines, such a goal is too open to muster any theorizing, too public to generate any critique, so we get a bizarro inversion where the powers want to keep the pandemic going, want lockdowns, mask mandates, and vaccines for some vague reason of control. At the same time, it could be argued that the fact that conspiracy theories generally leave capitalism untouched, approaching it only obliquely through the antisemitic fear of global elites, demonstrates to what extent the demands of capitalism have become, as Marx writes, self-evident natural laws, wage labor as a mode of existence and commodification as the realization of pleasures remain unexamined by conspiracy theories. Thus to butcher a phrase, is easier to imagine the world controlled by lizard people than it is to question the existence of wage labor and the commodity form.
Two things tend to be claimed about the modernist novel, as exemplified at its height by Virginia Woolf's The Waves (1931) — first, that it abandons the stability owed to conventional characterization, and second, that the narrow narration of intelligence alone survives the sacrifice. For The Waves, the most common way of putting this is to say that the novel contains "not characters, but characteristics," "not characters[,] but voices," but that the voices that remain capture "highly conscious intelligence" at work. Character fractures, but intelligence is enshrined."Artless: Ignorance in the Novel and the Making of Modern Character" argues that both of these presumptions are misplaced, and that the early moments of British modernism instead consolidated characterization around a form of ignorance, or what I call "artlessness" — a condition through which characters come to unlearn the educations that have constituted them, and so are able to escape the modes of knowledge imposed by the prevailing educational establishment. Whether for Aristotle or Hegel, Freud or Foucault, education has long been understood as the means by which subjects are formed; with social circumstances put in place before us, any idea of independent character is only a polite fiction. In fiction itself, this process is built into the form of the Bildungsroman, where the narrative ends only when socialization is secured, with fit elements absorbed into the social structure, and unfit elements expunged. With the passage of the Elementary Education Act of 1870, the British government was for the first time able to assert this influence explicitly, establishing secular state control of education and creating an enormous class of newly literate readers. Modernism's signature style — its baroque locutions, its obscure references — has most often been read as the attempt of educated elites to alienate these inexperienced readers by making literature intelligible only to the eminently intelligent. But when facing the state's newly acknowledged role in socializing subjects, novelists as otherwise antagonistic to one another's work as Henry James, Thomas Hardy, D. H. Lawrence, and the aesthetes of the Bloomsbury group, from Lytton Strachey and John Maynard Keynes to Virginia Woolf, all commonly responded, I contend, by resisting education's role in forming character in the first place. The figures who would go on to shape the modernist movement used their narratives to escape this pedagogical construct, imagining an alternative to the Bildungsroman model capable of chronicling an incremental divestment from social authority.This reversal of modernism's priorities offers to reorganize not only our understanding of the period, but of the function of character in structuring a reader's experience. Critics seldom imagine "modernist character" as a category deserving further definition. Gerard Genette famously suggested that there are no characters in Proust, because all are subject to the author's totalizing style. Recent inquiries, like Philip Weinstein's, Gregory Castle's, or Jed Esty's, entertain the very notion of modernist character only to suggest that it was sacrificed in favor of form. As this project uncovers, however, many of modernism's signature formal gestures — from stream of consciousness narration in James to minimalist depictions of the Great War in Lawrence — were first tested and contested as strategies for abetting artlessness in characterization. At root, "Artless" makes a case for the almost perfect convergence between a work's unraveling and its reader's reception; the works it considers aspire towards complete readerly accessibility, ultimately effacing any interference from intermediate authorities, even their authors.My first chapter, "The Educations of Isabel Archer," makes character's precedence over form explicit through comparison of a single scene in the two versions of Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady, the original 1881 edition alongside the New York Edition of 1906. Isabel, James's heroine, has long been read as the prototypical Bildungsroman protagonist, one whose intelligence is so penetrating that her education is achieved instantaneously when a mere glance arrests the history of her husband's onetime affair with her close friend. In the original 1881 edition, Isabel observes that "Madame Merle sat there in her bonnet," and when mere sentences later we find her "standing on the rug," the reader's shock can only be commensurate to Isabel's own. With the original sequence, James had in fact produced stream of consciousness narration, well before its recognized first appearance in Edouard Dujardin's 1887 Les Lauriers sont coupés. Yet with a single change to the New York Edition, James cancels a formal effect that had captured Isabel's intelligence at its most potent and immediate. What readers witness in the New York Edition is not Isabel's awakening knowledge, but her sudden ability to exorcise all that she has thus far been taught. When forced to choose between his character's independence from social constraint and the formal innovation of "sat," James chooses character. Isabel's passage from intelligence to ignorance between 1881 and 1906 thus signifies a reevaluation of the role of education in fiction across the period itself.Subsequent chapters track the role of formal and narrative structures in allowing readers to recognize — and ultimately embrace — artlessness. In the case of Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure (1895), as described in my second chapter, "Educational Epidemiology," the story of the "Fawley curse" provides a model for narrative's pedagogical potential: to have learned the story is to share in its misfortune. This model multiplies relentlessly, almost epidemiologically, so that the party at greatest risk becomes Hardy's own reader. By extending the pedagogical production of narrative beyond its own pages, Jude the Obscure frames the ease with which education entangles individuals in a social fabric, even against their will. We ourselves face a choice: between sympathy to Sue and Jude's characters, or obedience to the narrative form that has infected us. As the following chapter, "Knowing War in Women in Love," suggests, the curiously repetitive characterizations and tautological phrases that riddle D. H. Lawrence's 1920 novel capture how thoroughgoing artless representations must be to escape the pedagogical system entirely. In response to then contemporaneous changes to libel law and to philosophical disputes over the definition of personhood, Lawrence essentially removed the entire field of referential definition from the novel between drafts, excising the very connection between words and reference that allows a set of phrases to single out a person in particular. Lawrence's characters remain uncompromised by convention because their circumstances can never be named. Women in Love carries artlessness to a new extreme, marking the moment when the stakes of character became compelling enough to organize all else around it. Lawrence's characters operate in a world so thoroughly desocialized that they — with Lawrence's original readers — are able to overlook that even the most mobilizing social event of their lifetimes, the First World War, is unfolding on the novel's every page without ever being referenced.Artlessness's elaboration thus gives us a different way of accounting for the interests that informed the modernist moment: character in fact predominated over form, ignorance over intelligence. But in the high style of the Bloomsbury group, by which modernism is best known, these values appear obviously inverted. My final chapter, "Time Passes: How Bloomsbury Civilized Ignorance," concludes by alternating between early and late moments in Bloomsbury's collective career to uncover what became of modernist character. Early expressions of artlessness, such as Strachey's portrait of the headmaster of Rugby, Dr. Thomas Arnold, in the briefest, most withering, and most personal sketch of Eminent Victorians (1918), have simply grown to exaggerated proportions by the time of Queen Victoria (1921). So total there is Strachey's tone that all of Queen Victoria becomes an encounter with ignorance, refusing to allow intelligence to penetrate for even a moment. Alternatively, the assertions of old age cast prior achievements in a new light. Through John Maynard Keynes's 1938 essay "My Early Beliefs," where he regrets his Cambridge contemporaries' blithe indifference towards time, Keynes's efforts in The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919) can be freshly read not as a send-up of the stupidity that had marred the Paris Peace Conference, but as an attempt instead to force an alternative treatment of time. The graying heads of state have read Europe's recent past with the complacent quiescence owed to a completed Bildungsroman, and by animating the temporality of what he repeatedly calls "the character of the Peace," Keynes endeavors to unlearn that assumption. This chapter concludes by considering Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse (1927), a novel that in its pivotal section, "Time Passes," seems to fragment character in favor of style just as much as contemporary critical accounts of modernism have alleged. Yet I argue that the central figure of "Time Passes" is not Lily Briscoe or Mrs. Ramsay, but Mrs. Bast, the unschooled and ostensibly unimportant housekeeper, whose sole attestation is that she "never knew the family." Mrs. Bast, I suggest, is in fact Jacky Bast, the wife of E.M. Forster's Leonard in Howards End, the clerk whose fatal flirtation with education forms the basis of many charges of modernism's intellectual elitism. Yet by amending Forster's story, a coherent concept of character, rooted in ignorance, survives even "Time Passes," and better still, is responsible for putting it into order.If modernism maintains no interest in alienating the masses, this dissertation ultimately allows us to consider who is meant to read modernist texts, and for what purpose. As critics, I contend, we have potentially long been engaged in overreading modernism. The widespread puzzlement of Women in Love's every critic is proof alone that it is not intended to reward the intellectual efforts of professional scholars. "Artless" then not only names a particular historical phenomenon, a teleology by which modernism was made, but also supplies a theory of reading practice. For all the intelligence ascribed to Henry James or to the Bloomsbury set, what we witness in James's revision of "sat," or in Keynes's willingness to undermine the certainty of even his own economic forecasts, is an essential effacement of authorial authority. Artlessness finally amounts to a conviction that characters are capable of spelling their own terms, free from even the interference of their authors. The process is obvious, even automatic. Any reader then is capable of seeing artlessness unfold, and of watching the hold of any prior determinant, be it the missteps of one's own education, or officially sanctioned history, or the novel as a genre, gradually lose its influence. By encountering artless texts, it is the reader of the early modernist novel, irrespective of class or background, who comes to unlearn.
La presente tesis tiene como propósito contribuir al conocimiento sobre la tecnología metalúrgica en tiempos del Tawantinsuyu. Para ello se planteó como objetivo conocer las maneras de producción metalúrgica en la provincia de Catamarca a través de un abordaje arqueológico. Por un lado, se estudiaron las evidencias de producción registradas en el sitio Quillay (valle de Hualfín, dpto. Belén, Catamarca) que presenta un importante conjunto de hornos. Por otro lado, se recurrió al análisis de piezas de metal disponibles en colecciones de museos (Museo de La Plata, Museo Cóndor Huasi y Museo de sitio de El Shincal). Los antecedentes de estudios sobre metalurgia en la República Argentina se remontan a los primeros estadios de la disciplina arqueológica, principalmente de la mano del análisis de objetos de metal, incorporando desde las últimas décadas del siglo XX estudios de sitios arqueológicos con contextos productivos. No obstante, aún resultan escasas las evidencias sobre hornos metalúrgicos. Es por ello que, se realizó una revisión sobre estructuras pirotécnicas empleadas en las distintas etapas del proceso metalúrgico en la región Andina, con el fin de contrastar y evaluar las estructuras de Quillay. Esta investigación siguió una perspectiva antropológica sobre la tecnología, entendiendo a la metalurgia como un fenómeno holístico que vincula todas las dimensiones de la vida social, al ser un sistema integrado por lo político, lo social y lo sagrado. Por lo tanto, se indagó sobre distintos aspectos: recursos materiales, implementos y herramientas, funcionalidad, procedimientos técnicos de fabricación, secuencias de comportamiento, elecciones tecnológicas, identidad y rol de los artesanos, gestión de recursos y organización social del trabajo, todos ellos contextualizados en el sistema socio-cultural que les otorga sentido. Durante los trabajos de campo se realizaron prospecciones en el sitio que resultaron en la detección de más de una treintena de hornos asociados a desechos metalúrgicos, instrumentos de molienda, materiales cerámicos y refractarios, entre otros. Se efectuó un ordenamiento zonal dividiendo al sitio en un sector productivo con varios conjuntos de hornos y se realizó un mapeo más preciso del espacio de recintos. Se analizó el material cerámico, refractario y lítico obtenido en las recolecciones superficiales de ambos sectores. Con posterioridad, se realizaron excavaciones en hornos y recintos. A partir de los primeros, fue posible determinar la morfología completa de las estructuras pirometalúrgicas, que no se conocían hasta el momento y entender su funcionamiento. Por otra parte, las evidencias registradas en el sector de recintos permitieron considerarlo como un espacio de habitación y de producción de comida, donde fueron procesados elementos vegetales y animales a juzgar por los restos óseos y botánicos. Desde una aproximación arqueometalúrgica, se procedió a la caracterización macro y microscópica de las principales evidencias de producción. Entre los indicadores de producción metalúrgica se reconocieron hornos y escorias metalúrgicas, resto de leños carbonizados, materiales refractarios con inclusiones metálicas, fragmentos de mineral y metal e instrumentos de molienda. Mediante estudios especializados de laboratorio sobre estos materiales, se buscó dar respuesta a inquietudes vinculadas a las etapas de transformación de las materias primas, las modalidades de producción y de organización. Esta información fue complementada con estudios técnicos sobre piezas de metal inkaicas para indagar la forma en que los objetos fueron fabricados. Entre las principales conclusiones, se propone a Quillay como un taller metalúrgico a gran escala, donde se llevaron a cabo las primeras etapas del proceso productivo, es decir la metalurgia extractiva de metal de cobre. Los metalurgistas eran de la zona a juzgar por los materiales recuperados y algunas soluciones tecnológicas, que no difieren de las identificadas en otros sitios cercanos. La presencia Inka está materializada a través de elementos sutiles pero presentes, como la parafernalia cerámica estatal, la magnitud en la escala productiva, la utilización de hornos para la fundición y la salida externa del producto metálico obtenido, entre otros. Por otro lado, los hornos de Quillay presentan un diseño único dentro de las estructuras pirometalúrgicas conocidas hasta el momento para la región Andina. Por consiguiente, se propone que la práctica de fundición en este taller adquirió una modalidad tecnológica distintiva producto de innovaciones realizadas en el marco de las nuevas relaciones socio-políticas imperantes con la llegada de los Inkas a la región. Se considera a este taller como un espacio especializado inserto en una logística macroregional de producción de metales, dónde no produjeron objetos, sino que se llevaban el metal de cobre obtenido para su trabajo posterior en otras regiones. Por último, las piezas de metal participarían dentro de estrategias políticas vinculadas a prácticas sagradas, que permitieron legitimar la estructura social y afianzar el tejido social del Tawantinsuyu. ; The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the knowledge about metallurgical technology in the times of Tawantinsuyu. For this, the objective was to know the ways of metallurgical production in the province of Catamarca through an archaeological approach. On the one hand, the production evidences registered at the Quillay site (Hualfín valley, Belén department, Catamarca) that presents an important set of furnaces were studied. On the other hand, metal pieces available in museum collections were analyzed (La Plata Museum, Condor Huasi Museum and El Shincal museum site). The history of studies on metallurgy in Argentina goes back to the first stages of the archaeological discipline, mainly from the analysis of metal objects, incorporating since the last decades of the 20th century, studies of archaeological sites with production contexts. However, there are still little evidences of metallurgical furnaces. That is why, it was made a review of the pyrotechnic structures used in the different stages of the metallurgical process in the Andean region, in order to contrast and evaluate the Quillay structures. This research followed an anthropological perspective on technology, considering metallurgy as a holistic phenomenon that links all dimensions of social life, being a system composed of the political, the social and the sacred. Therefore, we inquired about different aspects such as: material resources, tools and implements, functionality, technical manufacturing procedures, behavioral sequences, technological choices, identity and role of craftsmen, resource management and social organization of work, all of them contextualized in a socio-cultural system that gives them meaning. During the field works, site surveys were conducted that resulted in the detection of more than thirty furnaces associated with metallurgical waste, grinding instruments, ceramic and refractory materials, among others. Besides, a zonal ordering separating the site into a productive sector with several sets of furnaces and a more precise mapping of the space of enclosures were made. The ceramic, refractory and lithic material obtained in the superficial collections of both sectors was analyzed. After that, excavations in furnaces and enclosures were carried out. On one hand, from the furnaces, it was possible to determine the complete morphology of this pyrometallurgical structures, which were not known until the moment and to understand in detail their operation. On the other hand, the evidences registered in the enclosures sector (e.g. skeletal and botanical remains) allowed to consider it as a housing and food production space, where vegetable and animal elements were processed. From an archeometallurgical approach, we proceeded to the macro and microscopic characterization of the main evidence of production. Metallurgical production indicators included metallurgical furnaces and slags, charcoal, refractory materials with metallic inclusions, mineral and metal fragments and grinding instruments. Through specialized laboratory studies conducted on these materials, we sought to respond to concerns related to the stages of transformation of raw materials, production methods and organization. This information was complemented with technical studies on Inka metal pieces to investigate the way in which the objects were manufactured. Among the main conclusions, we propose Quillay as a large-scale metallurgical workshop, where the first stages of the production process were carried out, i.e. the extractive metallurgy of copper metal. The metallurgists were from the area judging by the recovered materials and some technological solutions, that do not differ from those identified in other nearby sites. The Inka presence is materialized through subtle but present elements, such as: the state ceramic paraphernalia, the magnitude in the productive scale, the use of furnaces for the smelting and the external output of the obtained metallic product, among others. The furnances of Quillay present a unique design within the pyrometallurgical structures known so far for the Andean region. Therefore, it is proposed that the smelting practice in this workshop acquired a distinctive technological modality as a result of innovations carried out within the framework of the new socio-political relations prevailing with the arrival of the Inkas to the region. This workshop is considered as a specialized space inserted in a macroregional logistics of metal production, where no objects were produced, but rather the copper obtained for their subsequent work was taken to other regions. Finally, the pieces of metal would participate in political strategies linked to sacred practices, which allowed to legitimize the social structure and strengthen the social system of Tawantinsuyu. ; Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo (FCNM)
Utemeljen na polazištima kritički orijentiranih sigurnosnih studija i studija terorizma, rad propituje metodološke, epistemološke pa i ontološke aspekte fenomena državnog terorizma. Tvrdi se kako je državni terorizam sustavno zanemareno područje znanja o terorizmu, iako je empirijski vrlo evidentan fenomen. U prvom dijelu rada propituje se klasična i suvremena politološka, sociološka, pravna i filozofska misao važna za razumijevanje države, sigurnosti, terorizma i državnog terorizma. Počevši od Weberove definicije države kao nositeljice monopola na nasilje i njegova koncepta razlikovanja vladavine (Herrschaft) i sile (Macht) tvrdi se da monopol na silu ne podrazumijeva korištenje svakog oblika sile i da država ne može biti ekskulpirana u situacijama kada koristi silu koja ima sva obilježja terorizma. Upravo za ključnim obilježjima terorizma traga se u drugom dijelu rada gdje se analizira postojeće znanje o terorizmu i državnom terorizmu. Na temelju postojećih definicija koje čine bazu od ukupno 373 definicije, sadržajnom i frekvencijskom analizom, dolazi se do operacionalne definicije terorizma i državnog terorizma. Izlučenih šest konstitutivnih elemenata terorizma ukazali su da je državni terorizam organizirana upotreba sile i nasilja ili prijetnja upotrebom nasilja kojom se posredstvom intencionalnog širenja straha odnosno terora, a na temelju anticipiranih reakcija širih psiholoških učinaka, nastoje ostvariti politički ciljevi, a kojega provodi i/ili sponzorira država. U fokusiranoj studiji s mnogo slučajeva u trećem dijelu analizira se državni terorizam na empirijskim primjerima dvadeset i jedne države (N=21). Slučajevi su selektirani na stogodišnjem dijakronijskom kontinuumu, počevši od 1914. godine i sarajevskog atentata na austro-ugarskog prijestolonasljednika Franju Ferdinanda pa do recentnih primjera protuterorističkih politika. Kroz povijesnu perspektivu, komparativnom metodom uz primjenu dizajna najrazličitijih slučajeva, potvrđena je polazna pretpostavka: terorizam jest ciljno racionalno sredstvo za postizanje političkih ciljeva država i njegova je pojavnost neovisna o tipu političkog režima. Kvalitativna i kvantitativna obilježja državnog terorizma nerijetko se razlikuju kako između tako i unutar triju poduzoraka (režima), no usprkos kontekstualnim razlikama, može se utvrditi da je u totalitarnim režimima državni terorizmu ekstremnih razmjera i predstavlja važnu polugu vladavine, dok je u autoritarnima, a napose u demokratskima riječ o fokusiranijem državnom nasilju, najčešće sa specifičnim oblicima djelovanja. ; The basis of this doctoral work rests on the fact that the state terrorism is ignored in the context of mainstream security and terrorism knowledge. Security studies as well as rapidly growing terrorism studies are predominantly focused on non-state terrorism. Critical voices which indicating the importance of the state terrorism phenomenon have emerged in the mid-1990s. Based on the starting points of critically oriented security studies and terrorism studies, this work analyzes the methodological, epistemological and even ontological aspects of the phenomenon of state terrorism. It is argued that the state terrorism is systematically neglected area of knowledge, although it is very evident phenomenon. In the first part of this doctoral work the classical and the contemporary political, social, philosophical thought and jurisprudence important for the understanding of the state security, terrorism and state terrorism have been examined. Max Weber's concept of the state and difference between legitimate domination (Herrschaft) and coercive power (Macht) in the exercise of sovereign state functions is at the center of theoretical discussions. We claim that this distinction remained outside of much Western scholarship. Their concepts are based on logic of what the state and its relations to society should be not what it is. In contrast to this mainstream normative oriented model we examine the empirical reality which is laden of state terrorism examples. Therefore, the second part of this work is dedicated to analysis of existing knowledge about terrorism and state terrorism. The emphasis is on the definitions of terrorism, so for this purpose the database of 373 terrorism definitions was constructed. Definitions collected from the scientific and academic sources, the expert sources, the available official sources of various institutions and organizations, news, etc. were subjected to content and frequency analysis. Those analyses indicated six key elements used for defining state terrorism, which is relevant to the selection of empirical cases. It is found that the state terrorism is the use of organized force and violence or threat to use violence as a means of intentional spreading fear and terror based on the anticipated reactions of broader psychological effects which seeks to achieve political objectives and which is conducted and/or sponsored by the state. It is not an ideology, but the strategy and tactic that can be used by all, including the states. Despite the fact that the most of the definitios are actor-neutral and that their contents coincide, there is no unified definition. According to such understanding, the third part is a focused study with a lot of cases (N=21) where the unit of analysis was state terrorism and analytical sub-units were states (cases) selected from the one century time span (1914th-2014th) complemented with the most recent cases (until the end of 2016th). Thus, it is a diachronic analysis (cross-historical analysis). Since the selected cases differ in several relevant independent variables (social, economic, geographic, cultural) the comparative analysis is based on the most different systems research designs. The basic criterion of comparison was the regime (totalitarian, authoritarian and democratic) in accordance with the tipology of Juan Linz. The main aim of such typology and case selection was to test the general thesis: terrorism is an integral instrument of state action that occurs in all types of political regimes and which states used/use as a form of rational choice to achieve their goals. The third part includes political and sociological analysis of primary and secondary sources for each case (state). The analysis of state terrorism included Italy during Mussolini, Nazi Germany, Lenin and Stalin Russia/Soviet Union, communist Poland, Mao Zednog's China, North Korea regime and Idi Amin's Uganda as a totalitarian regimes. The second group of states are, according to Linz proposal, authoritarian regimes. Here is a Serbian example of state sponsored terrorism in Sarajevo 1914 and assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Another example is Yugoslavia from the mid of 1960 even if it is not purely clear is it predominantly totalitarian or authoritarian regime. Other examples are the rule of Francisco Franco in Spain, death squad in Argentina, Gaddafi's Libya, the rule of Shah Reza Pahlavi in Iran and Suadi Arabia sponsoring of terrorism. Within a democratic cluster the United States of America, Israel, United Kingdom, France, Russian Federation, modern Turkey and Macedonia were analysed. The main findings in turn suggest that the state terrorism was/is practiced in totalitarian, authoritarian and democratic systems, was/is used in war or peace, was/is used by the rich and the poor countries of different cultural, political, economic, geographic and other features. In other words, terrorism is an universal form of state action, but the specific context of each of the analyzed cases does not provide the right to generalize or compare countries according to the basic independent variables - the type of regime. Divided societies and various social cleavages like political (ideological), ethnic, cultural, language, religious, economic and other are evident in the most of the internal state terrorism cases. Although the contexts of countries are quite heterogeneous, in each case analyzed rationality is a common feature of state terrorism. Statet are trying to achieve political goals in the most effective way, what is decisively for using a specific form of violence or threats of violence that we call terrorism. Although it is one of the most frequently used terms in the social sciences, it is evident that terrorism is not conceptually cleared. It is deeply socially constructed concept which depends on a variety of interests. This also affects the contemporary counterterrorism policy. Within the science and policy, terrorism is predominantly viewed as a war and/or criminal. Terrorism is not treated as a phenomenon that is generated from the political area and counterterrorism policies do not target the real causes of terrorism. The perspective of terrorism as a war and crime which is imposed by politics that cooperates with science, leads to a spiral of violence. Illegal and immoral state counterterrorism actions lead to the even more brutal reactions of non-state groups. This trend is especially noticeable from September 9/11 when the "war on terror" started. From this moment it is especially evident that in the name of national security, the degradation of democratic values and endangering human rights and civil liberties have begun. This is best reflected in the new security policies, counterterrorism laws and the state of emergency institute. Also, the democratic deficits are obvious in the examples of interventions in other countries. Illegal character of the war in Iraq shows that international law is not a guarantee nor law nor justice. Those are some contemporary examples of state illegal actions which could be classified as state terrorism in democratic states, but the history is full of state terrorism evidence. Totalitarian and authoritarian regimes in the 20th century, as well as some actual examples, suggesting that the scientific community is biased and ignores the important historical facts as well as contemporary trends. By securitization of terrorism concept, the state harnessed science to its own interest – first of all creating counterterrorism policies. Instrumented science can act only within the limits defined by the state. The main characteristic of the joint state and scientific activity is hypocrisy where identical phenomena do not have identical names. State and science are taking a morally superior position, so state terrorist actions are called "necessary security measures", and terrorism as a pejorative term is reserved only for non-state actors. Further scientific and political ignoring of state terrorism topic, denying a unique definition of terrorism, refusing the recognition of state crimes that fall into the category of terrorism and insistence on counterterrorism as war strategy only feeds the modern evil of non-state terrorism. As long as there is not a change of paradigm in which the force will be firmly under the auspices of the law and policy of double standards will not exist, it is not realistic to expect that the state will eliminate the problem of contemporary non-state terrorism.
During the years, neuroprosthetic applications have obtained a great deal of attention by the international research, especially in the bioengineering field, thanks to the huge investments on several proposed projects funded by the political institutions which consider the treatment of this particular disease of fundamental importance for the global community. The aim of these projects is to find a possible solution to restore the functionalities lost by a patient subjected to an upper limb amputation trying to develop, according to physiological considerations, a communication link between the brain in which the significant signals are generated and a motor prosthesis device able to perform the desired action. Moreover, the designed system must be able to give back to the brain a sensory feedback about the surrounding world in terms of pressure or temperature acquired by tactile biosensors placed at the surface of the cybernetic hand. It in fact allows to execute involuntarymovements when for example the armcomes in contact with hot objects. The development of such a closed-loop architecture involves the need to address some critical issues which depend on the chosen approach. Several solutions have been proposed by the researches of the field, each one differing with respect to where the neural signals are acquired, either at the central nervous systemor at the peripheral one,most of themfollowing the former even that the latter is always considered by the amputees amore natural way to handle the artificial limb. This research work is based on the use of intrafascicular electrodes directly implanted in the residual peripheral nerves of the stump which represents a good compromise choice in terms of invasiveness and selectivity extracting electroneurographic (ENG) signals from which it is possible to identify the significant activity of a quite limited number of neuronal cells. In the perspective of the hardware implementation of the resulting solution which can work autonomously without any intervention by the amputee in an adaptive way according to the current characteristics of the processed signal and by using batteries as power source allowing portability, it is necessary to fulfill the tight constraints imposed by the application under consideration involved in each of the various phases which compose the considered closed-loop system. Regarding to the recording phase, the implementation must be able to remove the unwanted interferences mainly due to the electro-stimulations of themuscles placed near the electrodes featured by an order of magnitude much greater in comparison to that of the signals of interest amplifying the frequency components belonging to the significant bandwidth, and to convert them with a high resolution in order to obtain good performance at the next processing phases. To this aim, a recording module for peripheral neural signals will be presented, based on the use of a sigma-delta architecture which is composed by two main parts: an analog front-end stage for neural signal acquisition, pre-filtering and sigma-delta modulation and a digital unit for sigma-delta decimation and system configuration. Hardware/software cosimulations exploiting the Xilinx System Generator tool in Matlab Simulink environment and then transistor-level simulations confirmed that the system is capable of recording neural signals in the order of magnitude of tens of μV rejecting the huge low-frequency noise due to electromyographic interferences. The same architecture has been then exploited to implement a prototype of an 8-channel implantable electronic bi-directional interface between the peripheral nervous system and the neuro-controlled hand prosthesis. The solution includes a custom designed Integrated Circuit (0.35μm CMOS technology), responsible of the signal pre-filtering and sigma-delta modulation for each channel and the neural stimuli generation (in the opposite path) based on the directives sent by a digital control systemmapped on a low-cost Xilinx FPGA Spartan-3E 1600 development board which also involves the multi-channel sigma-delta decimation with a high-order band-pass filter as first stage in order to totally remove the unwanted interferences. In this way, the analog chip can be implanted near the electrodes thanks to its limited size avoiding to add a huge noise to theweak neural signals due to longwires connections and to cause heat-related infections, shifting the complexity to the digital part which can be hosted on a separated device in the stump of the amputeewithout using complex laboratory instrumentations. The system has been successfully tested from the electrical point of view and with in-vivo experiments exposing good results in terms of output resolution and noise rejection even in case of critical conditions. The various output channels at the Nyquist sampling frequency coming from the acquisition system must be processed in order to decode the intentions of movements of the amputee, applying the correspondent electro-mechanical stimulation in input to the cybernetic hand in order to perform the desired motor action. Different decoding approaches have been presented in the past, the majority of them were conceived starting from the relative implementation and performance evaluation of their off-line version. At the end of the research, it is necessary to develop these solutions on embedded systems performing an online processing of the peripheral neural signals. However, it is often possible only by using complex hardware platforms clocked at very high operating frequencies which are not be compliant with the low-power requirements needed to allow portability for the prosthetic device. At present, in fact, the important aspect of the real-time implementation of sophisticated signal processing algorithms on embedded systems has been often overlooked, notwithstanding the impact that limited resources of the former may have on the efficiency/effectiveness of any given algorithm. In this research work it has been addressed the optimization of a state-of-the-art algorithmfor PNS signals decoding that is a step forward for its real-time, full implementation onto a floating-point Digital Signal Processor (DSP). Beyond low-level optimizations, different solutions have been proposed at an high level in order to find the best trade-off in terms of effectiveness/efficiency. A latency model, obtained through cycle accurate profiling of the different code sections, has been drawn in order to perform a fair performance assessment. The proposed optimized real-time algorithmachieves up to 96% of correct classification on real PNS signals acquired through tf-LIFE electrodes on animals, and performs as the best off-line algorithmfor spike clustering on a synthetic cortical dataset characterized by a reasonable dissimilarity between the spikemorphologies of different neurons. When the real-time requirements are joined to the fulfilment of area and power minimization for implantable/portable applications, such as for the target neuroprosthetic devices, only custom VLSI implementations can be adopted. In this case, every part of the algorithmshould be carefully tuned. To this aim, the first preprocessing stage of the decoding algorithmbased on the use of aWavelet Denoising solution able to remove also the in-band noise sources has been deeply analysed in order to obtain an optimal hardware implementation. In particular, the usually overlooked part related to threshold estimation has been evaluated in terms of required hardware resources and functionality, exploiting the commercial Xilinx System Generator tool for the design of the architecture and the co-simulation. The analysis has revealed how the widely used Median Absolute Deviation (MAD) could lead o hardware implementations highly inefficient compared to other dispersion estimators demonstrating better scalability, relatively to the specific application. Finally, two different hardware implementations of the reference decoding algorithm have been presented highlighting pros and cons of each one of them. Firstly, a novel approach based on high-level dataflow description and automatic hardware generation is presented and evaluated on the on-line template-matching spike sorting algorithmwhich represents the most complex processing stage. It starts from the identification of the single kernels with the greater computational complexity and using their dataflow description to generate the HDL implementation of a coarse-grained reconfigurable global kernel characterized by theminimumresources in order to reduce the area and the energy dissipation for the fulfilment of the low-power requirements imposed by the application. Results in the best case have revealed a 71%of area saving compared tomore traditional solutions,without any accuracy penalty. With respect to single kernels execution, better latency performance are achievable stillminimizing the number of adopted resources. The performance in terms of latency can also be improved by tuning the implemented parallelismin the light of a defined number of channels and real-time constraints, by using more than one reconfigurable global kernel in order that they can be exploited to perform the same or different kernels at the same time in a parallel way, due to the fact that each one can execute the relative processing only in a sequential way. For this reason, a second FPGA-based prototype has been proposed based on the use of aMulti-Processor System-on-Chip (MPSoC) embedded architecture. This prototype is capable of respecting the real-time constraints posed by the application when clocked at less than 50 MHz, in comparison to 300 MHz of the previous DSP implementation. Considering that the application workload is extremely data dependent and unpredictable due to the sparsity of the neural signals, the architecture has to be dimensioned taking into account critical worst-case operating conditions in order to always ensure the correct functionality. To compensate the resulting overprovisioning of the system architecture, a software-controllable power management based on the use of clock gating techniques has been integrated in order tominimize the dynamic power consumption of the resulting solution. Summarizing, this research work can be considered a sort of proof-of-concept for the proposed techniques considering all the design issues which characterize each stage of the closed-loop system in the perspective of a portable low-power real-time hardware implementation of the neuro-controlled prosthetic device.
Aus der Zusammenfassung: Until the 1990s, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) had a long, however unsuccessful tradition of promoting regional economic development through inter-governmental cooperation. This changed in 1992 with the foundation of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), which is regarded as ASEAN's first serious step towards regional economic integration. AFTA's aim is to abolish trade barriers among the participating countries, be it tariffs or non-tariff barriers. The member countries are therefore required to liberalize their economies through adjustments of their domestic tariff systems and through the elimination of non-tariff barriers (NTBs). The formerly high degrees of economic protection have to be gradually reduced and ultimately abolished completely – measures, that the ASEAN member states were long unwilling to implement. Hence, ASEAN's decision to found AFTA in 1992 was very sceptically perceived by the international community. Indeed, the development of AFTA displays two contrary characteristics. On the one hand, the ASEAN members decided to accelerate the implementation of AFTA by five years and complemented it with two additional programmes, the ASEAN Investment Area (AIA) and the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Services (AFAS). On the other hand, the institutional design of AFTA provides the member countries with a high degree of flexibility to prolong or delay the process of implementation and re-negotiate commitments already made. Two conclusions can be drawn from the above stated developments: On the hand, the signing of the AFTA framework in 1992 clearly indicates a major shift in the member states' attitude towards regional economic integration. Moreover, the initially quick implementation of the original agreement, as well as its acceleration by five years and the inclusion of those potentially contentious issue areas – namely trade in unprocessed agricultural products and in services – which the member countries had excluded from the original AFTA framework, underline this shifting attitude towards regional economic integration. On the other hand, some member states delayed the implementation of tariff reductions and the negotiation of sensitive products, indicating that they were not equally committed to the process of implementation. These conclusions lead to the two research questions that this thesis answers: Firstly, why did the Southeast Asian states change their preferences towards regional economic integration and founded AFTA? Secondly, why was AFTA institutionalized in a way, that allowed frequent delays and re-negotiations of its implementation? To answer these questions, the argumentation of this thesis is grounded on a basic assumption: The foundation and implementation of AFTA was, to a large extent, determined by the economic interests of politically dominant domestic actors. This is not to say, that political decision-making is solely dictated by the demands of powerful domestic constituencies. Nevertheless, important is, that the degree of domestic support, which politicians enjoy and on which their domestic political legitimacy is grounded, depends on the extent to which they are able to satisfy the domestic demands. To understand the assumption, which underlies the analytical part of this thesis, it is crucial to consider, that, for reasons outlined in Chapter 2.1, regional economic integration through trade liberalization diametrically affects the business interests of different domestic actors. This is even more true for the Southeast Asian countries, which had long been adopting a distributive and protective approach towards economic development. This approach can no longer hold under conditions of trade liberalization. Tensions between economic growth and domestic distribution, that policymakers are confronted with, are likely to shape their preferences towards regional economic integration. Simply put, trade liberalization will create 'winners and losers'. Domestic power struggles for, or against, regional economic integration are likely to occur. The method applied to answer the research questions is based on a qualitative research, surveying secondary literature. Given a Southeast Asian business context, which is characterized by patronage relationships (compare Chapters 2.2.2.1. and 3.1.), the identification of politico-business connections is most important for determining political influence, which in this study is assumed to play a crucial role for the foundation and implementation of AFTA. Therefore, the analysis, provided in the fourth chapter, relies on a wide range of secondary literature, which uncovers the relationships between the major business groups of the respective countries and high ranking politicians. The most important works are enlisted as follows: The analysis of Indonesian politico-business connections and economic interests is based on books written and/or published by Basri and Hill, Emmerson, Case, MacIntyre, Soesastro and Basri, and Winters. In the case of Malaysia, the analysis is based on various works written by Case, Gomez, and Jomo. Most of the valuable information on Thailand derives from a range of books written by Laothamatas, Pasuk, and Baker. These literary works have been scanned in order to find any hints about business-politico connections. As 'politically connected' can be regarded any business actors, who entertain close – be it friendship or business-dominated – relationships to government officials and high-ranking bureaucrats. These are those business actors, who are able to exert high degrees of political influence on governments. Moreover, as a direct influence of economic actors on the AFTA process cannot be proven, domestic economic policies will be compared with the foundation and implementation of AFTA. Based on the observations, that in Southeast Asia economic actors can influence domestic legislation, but cannot directly affect regional economic integration, this comparison serves as a substitute for direct influence on the regional level. Depending on the data available, the Appendixes two to four list the biggest 33-90 business conglomerates of the respective countries, their political connectedness, the sectors in which they have their main businesses, their degree of competitiveness and export-import-orientation – whenever available –, government-induced protectionist measures – if applicable –, and their treatment under AFTA. Using the analyses of the authors enumerated above, to identify political connections and the influence of businesses on policy-making in a way that either promotes or opposes economic liberalization, has two limitations: Firstly, the authors do not claim to include every business-political connection, that might be relevant. Consequently, these lists cannot claim to include all relevant business-political connections. This weakness, however is not too problematic, because these authors focus on those companies with the strongest political linkages. This focus is consistent with the approach of this thesis, namely to identify the economic interests of politically relevant actors. Secondly, throughout the observed time-span, ownership changes occurred quite regularly and the companies shifted their focus of operation to different sectors. These complex shifts cannot be entirely reflected by the Appendixes. Again, this limitation is not truly troublesome, because ownership changes were likely to remain within the politico-business elites, and if shifts in economic activity of the respective companies occurred, these displayed a common pattern, that is from manufacturing to services. Consequently, the lists can be regarded as representative for the most important business-political connections and for business influence on political decision-making with regard to shaping AFTA. In any case, it cannot be claimed, that this thesis has taken a random sample of companies, of their official relations, and of economic policy choices, as every effort has been made to select important state-owned, and private – both foreign- and domestic-owned – companies, key policies and main patterns of foreign investment to make the analysis as solid and convincing as possible. Chapter two will provide a theoretical basis for this analysis. After briefly explaining the theoretical effects, which trade liberalization has on formerly protected markets, it will introduce the most important concepts, 'economic interests', 'coalitions', 'political institutions', 'political influence' and 'state capacity', which determine the independent, intervening, and dependent variables. Chapter three has a twofold focus, which serves to offer the reader first insights into the early economic development of the ASEAN Three countries on the one hand, and then switch to the promotion of economic cooperation and integration, which culminated in the foundation of AFTA on the other hand. Throughout the first part of this chapter, patronage will be introduced as the predominant socio-political institution, which underlies all social relationships of the studied countries and which is crucial for determining political influence. Further, the relevant politico-economic elites, whose interests shape the economic development of the respective countries will be introduced on a country-to-country basis. This introduction is necessary for two reasons: first, to understand the importance of AFTA as a turning point in regional economic integration, second, to understand coalitional power struggles observable during the founding and implementation phase of AFTA. Chapter four, finally, comprises the analytical part of this thesis. The analysis is focused on identifying the economic interests of the relevant actors. It combines the coalitional approach, which will significantly reduce the complexity of a variety of diverging economic interests, that are expressed by different state and business actors, with the institutional approach, which serves to determine the degrees of relative political influence of the various actors and, consequently, that of each coalition. Power struggles over political predominance will become apparent. In this regard, Chapter 4.1. will elaborate on the crucial importance of foreign direct investment (FDI) and the changing economic interests of foreign investors. It will highlight the role, which foreign investors played, for the foundation of AFTA. Chapter 4.2. will proceed to examine country-specific factors of the three countries respectively. Here, detailed information about the business and bureaucratic interests and their respective degrees of political influence on shaping economic decision-making with regard to trade liberalization will be provided in a country-to-country study. Correlations between domestic policies and the foundation and institutionalization of AFTA will become apparent. Chapter five, finally, summarizes the arguments of the previous chapters and demonstrates, that the foundation of AFTA was preceded by political pressures of the internationalist coalitions of the three countries, and that its institutional design served as a compromise between nationalist and internationalist coalitions. In addition, Chapter five will assess the usefulness of the applied theoretical framework.