Suchergebnisse

In dem Beitrag wird der Wechsel vom "Sozialstaat zur "Sozialpolitik" untersucht, der konzeptionell als der Wechsel von einem gesamtgesellschaftlichen, ordnungspolitischen, aktiven Gestaltungswillen zu einer an einzelnen Interessen und einzelnen Problembereichen im wesentlichen reaktiv intervenierenden Politik konkreter Maßnahmen der Bewältigung oder Kompensation von Problemlagen gesehen wird. In der Wende vom "Sozialstaats"-Diskurs zu dem der "Sozialpolitik" liegt die Gefahr einer konzeptionellen Fragmentierung einzelner policy-areas begründet, die sich am Ende lediglich noch in Einzelüberprüfungen auf ihre Angemessenheit und interessenmäßige Formierung hin untersuchen lassen. Am Beispiel der zukünftigen Alterssicherung werden einige Argumente dafür vorgebracht, warum eine solche fragmentierte Sozialpolitik zukünftig kaum in der Lage sein wird, die ordnungspolitischen Veränderungen auf gesamtgesellschaftlicher Ebene bewußt politisch aktiv zu gestalten und durchzusetzen, die notwendig wären, um aus der derzeit sichtbaren, bloß reaktiven und das Problem der Alterssicherung in konzeptioneller Isolierung betrachtenden "Rentenpolitik" herauszugelangen, von der sich alle Experten einig sind, daß die mittelfristig in einer politischen Katastrophe wird enden müssen. Es wird gezeigt, daß der Wechsel des Diskurses vom "Sozialstaat" zur "Sozialpolitik" nicht nur die Aspekte der Verteilung von ökonomischem Besitz und gesellschaftlichen Privilegien weitgehend aus dem Blick geraten sind, sondern vor allem die Vorstellung einer staatlichen Verantwortlichkeit für die gesellschaftlichen und wirtschaftlichen Prozesse, insbesondere auch der weiteren Zukunft. Vor diesem Hintergrund wird abschließend die Frage diskutiert, ob es eine Möglichkeit der Wiederanknüpfung an das Sozialstaatspostulat als einem Mittel der auf Synthese gerichteten Reintegration der auseinanderstrebenden und sich in spezialistische Einzeldiskurse ausdifferenzierten international vergleichenden Policy-Forschung gibt. (KW)

Eurocentric bias in three social science disciplines -- economics, psychology & social anthropology -- is compared. It is argued that in economics & psychology, metaphysical assumptions embedded in the European philosophical traditions of abstract individualism & universalism have been applied uncritically in the study of non-European societies; social anthropology is responsible for the opposite type of bias -- the maintenance of superiority through a reluctance to universalize, ie, maintaining excessive particularism. Analyzed is how the biases are manifested in each discipline & how "discipline-centrism" can exacerbate the biases. Consequences of Eurocentrism are discussed, eg: (1) it has damaged non-European societies through the "colonization" of their intellectuals; (2) it has impoverished the academic disciplines themselves, which remain unaware of alternative sources of knowledge outside mainstream development; & (3) it functions, regardless of intention, to legitimate international inequality. 34 References. Modified AA

L'auteur prend acte de certaines «bizarreries » non expliquées de la macroéconomie : dans certains pays, un taux élevé de chômage se maintient malgré une haute conjoncture économique et des caractéristiques proches de l'état de plein-emploi.
Dans le cadre d'une approche comparative internationale, il montre que sur le marché du travail, d'autres considérations que la logique de la concurrence entrent en jeu, et notamment la logique du statut ou la nécessité, dans certaines sociétés comme la France, de «ne pas déchoir ». Cette logique du statut impose de n'accepter que des postes et des salaires «légitimes », bien supérieurs pour certains à ceux auxquels aboutirait la logique de la concurrence, et conduit ainsi à un taux élevé de chômage.
Avec ce schéma, l'auteur analyse les évolutions contrastées du chômage dans divers pays, et insiste plus particulièrement sur le cas français.

This paper provides new tests of the recently developed theory of rational partisan business cycles. According to the theory, resolution of uncertainty about electoral consequences and partisan differences in economic behavior produce downturns following victories of conservative parties and booms following victories of liberal parties. The first tests utilize the behavior of financial markets to reassess the evidence for the United States. We provide evidence that the stock market does have predictive power for output and estimate an econometric relationship which is then used to gauge the extent to which the recessions are anticipated after elections. The second test uses an international sample of democracies in the postwar era to examine the theory outside the United States using time series models and political variables. The results of the tests provide little support for a strict interpretation of the theory.

When Zambia introduced weekly foreign-exchange auctions in October 1985 in order to determine the value of the kwacha vis-à-vis the dollar, together with other measures aiming at liberalising external and internal trade and at restructuring the pattern of production, they were widely acclaimed as a model for reforms elsewhere in the continent. The Economist praised Zambia for 'taking one of the bravest economic gambles that any African country has taken',1 implying that even in the view of liberal commentators the Government ran a considerable risk in trying to implement this reform programme. The new measures enabled Zambia to reach a fresh stand-by agreement with the International Monetary Fund in early 1986, the previous one having broken down in 1985 because the authorities failed to meet the I.M.F.'s economic targets.

Students of peace studies and Soviet studies should provide complementary tools or mirrors for interpreting contemporary international politics, and yet, clearly, they are not responding to this call. The seriousness of the intellectual lacunae created by Soviet studies and peace studies scholars working in isolation from each other is addressed in this article in several ways. First, claims about existing differences in the two approaches are established. Second, the constructive, nonoverlapping contributions each approach can make in understanding contemporary Soviet politics are illustrated through a dual annotation of a speech by Gorbachev. Following comments on this particular text made from a peace studies perspective and a Soviet studies perspective, the article addresses particular issues that may be understood more deeply by incorporating the two approaches. In conclusion, an assessment is made of the promise of collaborative work in Soviet studies and peace studies.

The predominantly new middle-class social composition of the green movement has become a matter of increasing interest in the wake of the success of green parties and the growth of an international green movement. This paper considers the concept of the 'new class' in relation to two explanations for the social composition of the green movement. The class-interest argument seeks to show that green politics is a means of furthering either middle-class or new-class interests while the 'new childhood' argument claims that the development of the green movement is the result of the spread of post-material values, the main bearers of which are the new class. Against these arguments a more comprehensive explanation is presented, which focuses on the education of the new class and its relative structural autonomy from the production process.

After years of constant struggle, the Pan-African News Agency (Pana) appears barely closer to commanding respect and economic stability today than when it issued its first bulletin in 1983. The yearning for noble repute might seem more to do with vanity than necessity, because Pana was created to perform a specific function: to counter what African leaders decried as the negative, distorted coverage of the continent by western news organisations being beamed back to Africa and out to the rest of the world. However, since arriving on the scene six years ago as purveyors of African liberation, content to implement their own ideas of what journalism should be, the Agency's administrators are increasingly making it known that they realise credibility is not superfluous: that in the business of international news, respect goes hand in hand with survival.

The article describes the organization of monitoring and evaluation (M/E) of public sector programs in South Asia and discusses how the information from the studies is actually used. While considerable resources are invested in monitoring the efficiency of project implementa tion, very little attention has been given to evaluating the performance and sustainability of public sector programs. The article considers why governments and international donor agencies appear to have so little concern in knowing whether their investments have produced sustainable programs which are generating the desired impacts. The information for this article is largely taken from a monitoring and evaluation seminar organized by the Economic Devel opment Institute (EDI) of the World Bank and the Pakistan Administrative Staff College (PASCOL) for evaluation researchers and senior government officials from South Asia in April 1987 in Lahore, Pakistan.

AbstractIn this article indices of exchange rate uncertainty are measured from the perspective of potential impacts on trade flows. Empirical evidence based on movements in the Australian dollar spot rates and forward rates indicates that there has been an increase in currency risk between 1969 and 1987, which is not surprising given the progressive relaxation of the exchange rate regime during this period. More surprising is the finding that exchange rate uncertainty indices have risen relative to domestic financial price uncertainty indices. This would not have been expected to occur if increased currency risk had been solely due to growing instability of the underlying economic environment. However, since there is evidence that currency risk has been offset by domestic risk, the risk burden of diversified international traders may not have been adversely affected.

This article discusses the problem of the directive capacity of the socialist state, defined as the ability to identify opportunities available within both the domestic and international political economy and to develop and implement policies. The focus is not on how the directive capacity of the socialist state is actually used by the elites but on the identification of basic mechanisms shaping it. The following questions are addressed: What is the relationship between politics and economics in state socialism, and how does it determine directive capacity? What are the underlying structures that shape the socialist state/economy interaction? What mechanisms have developed within the framework of state socialism that compensate for lack of pressures toward higher efficiency? What are the system's limitations and what strategies are available to increase the directive capacity?

The present essay is the second in a series of four papers in which examine the political economy of armaments in recent decades. In this paper we focus on the 'armament core' of large military producers which recently emerged as a powerful bloc within the big economy of the United States. The rise of this core was heightened by a gradual shift of large civilian companies toward the armament business. We argue that the decline of large U.S.-based corporations in civilian world markets since the late 1960s was both a stimulus to and a partial consequence of the increasing involvement with better investment opportunities in government-related activity, especially military production. The increasing significance of international developments inhibits the earlier effectiveness of the U.S. government in assisting corporations based in the United States with its own military spending.

The "war on drugs" and the effort to contain international terrorism have raised questions of when the Constitution restricts the actions of the United States government abroad. This Note analyzes United States v. Verdugo-Urquidez, a case in which the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that aliens have fourth amendment rights against United States government searches of their residences abroad. The Note agrees that the court's holding was correct, but suggests the court's "natural rights" theory was too broad to comport with prior Supreme Court limitations of aliens' constitutional rights. Instead, the Note suggests that the relationship between an alien and the United States must be examined before constitutional rights are extended to aliens. The Note concludes that the relationship between alien criminal defendants and the United States government justifies the extension of fourth amendment rights.

An examination of New Class (eg, middle class, professional, technical, administrative, intelligentsia) involvement in Green politics on the basis of two major explanations: the class interest argument & the "new childhood" argument. The first maintains that the New Class involves itself in the environmental movement as a means to advance its own interests. The second explains New Class participation as related to the emergence of postmaterialist or aesthetic values. An overall explanation of why the New Class involves itself in such politics is that, due to the nature of its awareness of environmentmental problems, it is more likely to play a role in their resolution. 66 References. A. Cole

RECENTLY, ATTENTION HAS BEEN DRAWN TO THE CLOSE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANIZATION (PLO) AND THE RULING SANDINISTA REGIME IN NICARAGUA. THE SUPPORT, TRAINING, AND ARMS FURNISHED BY THE PLO TO THE SANDINISTAS AND LIKE-MINDED REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS IN SURROUNDING CENTRAL AMERICAN COUNTRIES HAVE OFTEN BEEN CITED AS PROOF THAT NICARAGUA HAS BEEN TRANSFORMED INTO A BASE FOR INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE. THIS ARTICLE ASSESSES THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE PLO AND THE SANDINISTAS. IN PARTICULAR, IT EXAMINES THE GEOPOLITICAL DIMENSION OF THIS RELATIONSHIP, THAT IS, THE EXTENSION OR TRANSPOSITION OF THE CONFLICT BETWEEN THE PLO AND ISRAEL IN THE MIDDLE EAST TO CENTRAL AMERICA. IN THIS RESPECT, PLO SUPPORT AND ASSISTANCE TO THE SANDINISTAS AND OTHER REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS IN SURROUNDING COUNTRIES HAS SERVED AS A COUNTERBALANCE TO ISRAELI SUPPORT AND ARMS SALES TO NICARAGUA'S NEIGHBORS IN CENTRAL AMERICA.