Suchergebnisse

The long-standing understanding of the British 1832 Reform Act as an elite response to a revolutionary threat has been given renewed prominence in recent work on the political economy of democratization. But earlier episodes of popular revolt in Britain led to elite unity rather than elite concessions. This article argues that the absence of effective elite closure against parliamentary reform in the early 1830s was the result of an extended process of state reform that had the effect of gradually reducing the capacity of the monarchy. This deprived the crown of patronage required for the construction of an antireform coalition, while also mollifying the reformers' fears that mass mobilization would invite repression and with it the recalibration of the constitution in favor of the monarchy. Therefore, while pressure from below was indeed critical to the passage of parliamentary reform, its contribution was mediated by institutional changes that, over time, weakened the sources of resistance to change and rendered reformist elites more amenable to the necessary reliance on the threat of force. This case study thus establishes that change at critical junctures can be subject to the influence of incremental institutional change occurring in relatively settled periods.

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Acknowledgments -- Foreword -- Introduction -- PART I DEBT CRISIS IN THE THIRD WORLD -- Chapter 1 The Outlook for Development -- Chapter 2 External Shocks, Adjustment, and Income Distribution -- Chapter 3 Losers Pay Reparations, Or How the Third World Lost the Lending War -- PART II THE DEBT CRISIS AND COMMERCIAL BANKS -- Chapter 4 Background to the Debt Crisis: Structural Adjustment in the Financial Markets -- Chapter 5 Safe Passage Through Dire Straits: Managing an Orderly Exit from the Debt Crisis -- PART III STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT: SOLUTION OR PART OF THE PROBLEM -- Chapter 6 World Bank-Supported Adjustment Programs -- Chapter 7 Assessing Structural Adjustment Programs: A Summary of Country Experience -- Chapter 8 Undervaluation, Adjustment, and Growth -- Chapter 9 Old Wine in New Bottles: Policy-Based Lending in the 1980s -- PART IV STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT: IMPACT IN THE THIRD WORLD -- Chapter 10 Social Costs of Adjustment in Latin America -- Chapter 11 Political Change and Economic Policy in Latin America and the Caribbean in 1988 -- Chapter 12 The Demise of the Labor Aristocracy in Africa: Structural Adjustment in Tanzania -- PART V SEEKING A SOLUTION -- Chapter 13 Facing the Realities of the Debt Crisis -- Chapter 14 From Adjustment with Recession to Adjustment with Growth -- Chapter 15 From Adjustment and Restructuring to Development -- Chapter 16 Is to Forgive the Debt Divine? -- Chapter 17 Foreign Lending at the Brink -- Bibliography -- Index -- About the Contributors -- About the Editor