Suchergebnisse

0.113 SJR (2013) Q4, 744/909 Sociology and political science ; UEM

Table of Contents; Foreword; Preface; Acknowledgements; Chapter 1. Crisis Concepts; Chapter 2. 'Chinese Learning for Essential Principles'; Chapter 3. 'Western Learning for Practical Application'; Chapter 4. Phase Specific Crisis Intervention; Chapter 5. The Hong Kong Crisis Case Study; Chapter 6. Crisis Cases; Chapter 7. Grief Work in Situations of Loss; Chapter 8. Worry Work in Threat Situations; Chapter 9. Challenge Work; Chapter 10. Interventions and Implications; Appendix 1. Schedule for Measuring Correlation between Dangers and Opportunities

Earlier attempts to explain the East Asian crisis of 1997 have overemphasised the importance of contagion, missing the central role of vulnerability. According to conventional accounts, Thailand experienced a financial panic due to such factors as corrupt government and corporate practices, inadequately supervised banks and venal currency speculators. Confidence in the Thai currency and banking system collapsed, provoking capital flight, a float of the Thai currency and a drastic decline in its value. This undermined confidence in the prospects of other East Asian countries, also provoking crises there. This article clarifies the concept of vulnerability and demonstrates its relevance by showing the long-term development of vulnerability in each of the three 'IMF bail-out' countries: Thailand, Indonesia and Korea. By 1996 all three were vulnerable to a currency crisis. Contagion provided the short-term trigger for the crisis but was not its underlying cause. The policy lesson is to avoid vulnerability, not to attempt to avoid contagion.

Earlier attempts to explain the East Asian crisis of 1997 have overemphasised the importance of contagion, missing the central role of vulnerability. According to conventional accounts, Thailand experienced a financial panic due to such factors as corrupt government and corporate practices, inadequately supervised banks and venal currency speculators. Confidence in the Thai currency and banking system collapsed, provoking capital flight, a float of the Thai currency and a drastic decline in its value. This undermined confidence in the prospects of other East Asian countries, also provoking crises there. This article clarifies the concept of vulnerability and demonstrates its relevance by showing the long-term development of vulnerability in each of the three 'IMF bail-out' countries: Thailand, Indonesia and Korea. By 1996 all three were vulnerable to a currency crisis. Contagion provided the short-term trigger for the crisis but was not its underlying cause. The policy lesson is to avoid vulnerability, not to attempt to avoid contagion.

In this article I submit that the pandemic politics of the Covid-19 crisis have unmasked the inadequacies of existing representative democracies. Mixing the experiences and responses of various democracies and thinkers to this crisis, particularly from India and South Africa, I argue that a minimally functioning democracy must do two things at least: ensure the health and well- being of citizens and the equal means competitively to select prudent, empathetic and courageous leaders. For this, I suggest, we need a politics that allows us to express and assess our needs, and determine who is best placed to represent us in responding to these needs, all in non-dominating conditions. To this end, the article also proposes and defends four institutional reforms that would enable a dynamic, anti-oligarchic form of democracy to consistently empower the least powerful and keep elites properly in check.

Cover -- Copyright -- Title -- CONTENTS -- INTRODUCTION -- POLLUTION EVERYWHERE -- POLLUTION BY SUBSTANCES -- POLLUTION BY SUBSTANCES -- THE WORLD GLOWS BRIGHTER -- ENERGY POLLUTION -- PLUNDERING EARTH -- STARTING MATERIALS -- MASS PRODUCTION -- AIR SCARE -- PARTICULATE POLLUTION -- FAR AND WIDE -- CATS TO THE RESCUE -- RAIN AND HOLES -- RAINING ACIDS -- BATHED IN ACID -- CULPRIT CFCS -- POLLUTED SOIL -- THE "-ICIDES" -- LASTING PROBLEMS -- DIRTY WATER -- THE PROBLEM IS THE SOLUTION -- SOURCES OF WATER POLLUTION -- ACCIDENTALLY ON PURPOSE -- UNSEEN MENACE -- SOURCES OF RADIOACTIVITY -- TYPES OF RADIATION -- DANGERS OF RADIATION -- EVERYONE'S PROBLEM -- HOUSEHOLD CHEMICALS -- HOW HOMES HELP -- OUT AND ABOUT -- INDUSTRY CAN HELP -- THE MAIN AIM -- "POLLUTER PAYS" -- PEOPLE PROBLEM -- POPULATION PRESSURE -- CROWDED CITIES Pollution problems -- RICH AND POOR -- WILDLIFE IN TROUBLE -- UNSEEN DANGER -- POLLUTANTS IN THE FOOD CHAIN -- PROBLEM CHEMICALS -- MANY EFFECTS -- HEALTH AND ILLNESS -- TICKING TIME BOMB -- NATURE LENDS A HAND -- POLLUTION AND THE BODY -- GET CLEAN, GO GREEN -- STEPS TO TAKE -- FOR MORE INFORMATION -- For further reading -- Web Sites -- GLOSSARY -- INDEX.