Suchergebnisse

Alain Cottereau
Theories of Action and the Notion of Work : Difficulties and Prospects
The many meanings of the term «work» in current usage and in theory are clarified. Similarities between contemporary notions of work and theories of action are pointed out. Work can be reconceptualized around three complementary axes of current research : descriptive interactionist inquiries, the revival in studies of forms of coordination, and new approaches to the investigation of norms.

In order to shed light on the advantages and disadvantages of three comparative approaches (functionalist, culturalist and societal), a typology is established on the basis of two questions : a) to what extent does each approach examine the linkage between the micro and macrolevels ? and b) is a hypothesis formulated about the continuity, or discontinuity, of the phenomena between various lands ? The characteristics and prospects of societal analysis are indicated. By using a vast range of examples of "national coherence", the ambition of this type of analysis is to stake out the way toward a more general theory.

The slow pace of privatization in Romania : An analysis of the behavior of public actors.
Privatization has not had very pronounced results in Romania as compared with other central and eastern European countries. In 1995, less than 8 % of the nominal capital of government-owned businesses was privatized. By analyzing institutional structures and the behavior of public actors (political authorities, bureaucrats or managers in state -run firms), the theory of public choice uses endogenous reasons to account for the slow pace of the privatization process in Romania. After a description of the legal framework of privatization in Romania and of statistics illustrating the difficulties encountered, the public choice theory is then used to treat public authorities' behavior as an endogenous factor and see it - through the institutional choices that are made - as a brake on privatization. Given the many institutional impediments still in place in Romania despite a recent law for speeding up privatization, questions crop up about the prospects of transferring public assets.

Whereas the « crisis » of 1974-1975 was thought to be a temporary problem, the present recession has caused much more concern. Indeed, neither the theory of long cycles nor that of the stationary state can account satisfactorily for the current situation. Inflation is related to the behaviour of both wages and money and is not constrained by the external balance because floating exchange rates allow it to continue by the operation of a ratchet effect. Persistent unemployment has a number of causes, among them rapid technical > change, the squeezing of retained profits, unfair international competition, and the reduction in the rate of investment. The increase in oil prices being only an accidental event which aggravated these more fundamental factors. In many ways the economic environment has become more incertain. Restrictive policies, the likelihood of accelerating inflation, the paralysis of private initiative, the international financial crisis and the rapid deterioration in international trading relationships : all are to be feared. Yet this is also a time of great possibilities : in prospect there is tremendous technical progress, the end of illusions about collectivism, a deeper understanding of national problems and of the need for international cooperation.

Why the American recovery of the years 1983 and 1984 did not produce recovery in Europe ? Why unemployment on this side of the Ocean has continued rising to reach in 1985 levels that have not been seen since the Great Depression ? Why finally the prospect of recovery which follows the fall of the dollar and the price of oil is so mediocre ?
Conventional macroeconomic theory does not allow to answer those questions. The reasons could be that the variations of exchange rates and real rates of interest were in the eighties so important that they had no equivalent since world war two. The article provides a reconstruction of open macroeconomics to cope with the unusual features of recent developments. It is then possible to explain how and why the shifts in the beginning of the eighties in the US monetary-fiscal stance have operated to contract employment in Europe. This result comes from the consideration of the many supply side transmission mechanisms, heretofore unnoticed, that must have been actuated by the american policy mix mainly through the channel of the real interest rates but also through the unprecedent real depreciation of European currencies. The remaining part of the rise of unemployment in Europe is explained by a reexamination of Europe's own policies.

Towards an interpretation of the new post-communist nationalism : the case of Yugoslavia.
The Yugoslav case is one of post-communist nationalism, among all the other communist countries which have been unable to resolve the nationalist question, driven by a power-hungry political class. The post-communist nationalism being encountered is a new phenomenon, though still having links with the preceding political system which, through different policies, made it possible. Tito's men prepared the ground for the growth of nationalist ideology. In a confused situation, the active elements in society, in the absence of a State, set about creating a new Nation-State, on new foundations, in an effort to make a clean break with the past. However, finding a definition for the nation remains a thorny problem, leaving the options open to every possible theory. Various common criteria are applied (language, religion, history, territory, etc.), none of them proving entirely satisfactory. The criteria involved are primarily political, the aim being to create an organic entity. Post-communist nationalism is built in opposition to the Other, along regressive lines. The ideology of post-communist nationalism is inherent within all nationalist groups, with fundamentally different power relationships (particularly military) among the various groups in question. There are few grounds for optimism, since extended analysis of this manifestation holds out little hope of any favourable short-term development in the situation in this part of Europe. The absence of special affinities with democracy offers a fair prospect of nationalist hostilities still to come.

Why the American recovery of the years 1983 and 1984 did not produce recovery in Europe ? Why unemployment on this side of the Ocean has continued rising to reach in 1985 levels that have not been seen since the Great Depression ? Why finally the prospect of recovery which follows the fall of the dollar and the price of oil is so mediocre ? Conventional macroeconomic theory does not allow to answer those questions. The reasons could be that the variations of exchange rates and real rates of interest were in the eighties so important that they had no equivalent since world war two. The article provides a reconstruction of open macroeconomics to cope with the unusual features of recent developments. It is then possible to explain how and why the shifts in the beginning of the eighties in the US monetary-fiscal stance have operated to contract employment in Europe. This result comes from the consideration of the many supply side transmission mechanisms, heretofore unnoticed, that must have been actuated by the american policy mix mainly through the channel of the real interest rates but also through the unprecedent real depreciation of European currencies. The remaining part of the rise of unemployment in Europe is explained by a reexamination of Europe's own policies. ; Pourquoi la reprise américaine des années 1983 et 1984 n'a t-elle pas entraîné celle de l'Europe ? Pourquoi le chômage de ce côté-ci de l'Atlantique a-t-il continué de croître pour atteindre en 1985 son niveau le plus élevé depuis la « grande depression » ? Pourquoi enfin les perspectives de la reprise qui s'annonce à la suite du « contre-choc » pétrolier sont-elles si médiocres ? La théorie économique dominante ne permet pas vraiment de répondre à ces questions. La raison en est que les amples mouvements de change et de taux d'intérêt qui sont survenus au cours des années quatre-vingt, qui n'ont jamais eu d'équivalents, n'ont pas été suffisamment pris en compte. Une reconstruction de l'analyse macroéconomique des économies ouvertes permet ...

Why the American recovery of the years 1983 and 1984 did not produce recovery in Europe ? Why unemployment on this side of the Ocean has continued rising to reach in 1985 levels that have not been seen since the Great Depression ? Why finally the prospect of recovery which follows the fall of the dollar and the price of oil is so mediocre ? Conventional macroeconomic theory does not allow to answer those questions. The reasons could be that the variations of exchange rates and real rates of interest were in the eighties so important that they had no equivalent since world war two. The article provides a reconstruction of open macroeconomics to cope with the unusual features of recent developments. It is then possible to explain how and why the shifts in the beginning of the eighties in the US monetary-fiscal stance have operated to contract employment in Europe. This result comes from the consideration of the many supply side transmission mechanisms, heretofore unnoticed, that must have been actuated by the american policy mix mainly through the channel of the real interest rates but also through the unprecedent real depreciation of European currencies. The remaining part of the rise of unemployment in Europe is explained by a reexamination of Europe's own policies. ; Pourquoi la reprise américaine des années 1983 et 1984 n'a t-elle pas entraîné celle de l'Europe ? Pourquoi le chômage de ce côté-ci de l'Atlantique a-t-il continué de croître pour atteindre en 1985 son niveau le plus élevé depuis la « grande depression » ? Pourquoi enfin les perspectives de la reprise qui s'annonce à la suite du « contre-choc » pétrolier sont-elles si médiocres ? La théorie économique dominante ne permet pas vraiment de répondre à ces questions. La raison en est que les amples mouvements de change et de taux d'intérêt qui sont survenus au cours des années quatre-vingt, qui n'ont jamais eu d'équivalents, n'ont pas été suffisamment pris en compte. Une reconstruction de l'analyse macroéconomique des économies ouvertes permet d'apprécier le caractère singulier des évolutions récentes. On peut alors comprendre pourquoi et comment le changement de politique économique aux Etats-Unis intervenu au début de la présente décennie a affecté défavorablement l'emploi en Europe et ailleurs. L'explication résulte des effets d'offre, qui, au-delà des effets de demande, ont été suscités par la dépréciation réelle des monnaies européennes et la hausse sans précédent des taux d'intérêt réels. Trois éléments sont essentiels à l'explication : le jeu des marges des entreprises sur des marchés imparfaits ; le comportement des salaires, et les effets sur les coûts et sur les prix relatifs du taux d'intérêt. C'est ainsi que l'on peut effectivement constater que les comportements de détermination des marges des entreprises dépendent des évolutions du taux de change et du taux d'intérêt réel, que l'indexation des salaires accroît le caractère récessif des chocs d'offre et que la hausse des taux d'intérêt affecte défavorablement la demande de facteurs de production et le prix relatif des biens d'investissement. Les perturbations dues au changement de politique économique aux Etats-Unis conduisent alors en Europe à une augmentation du prix d'offre de la production et modifient ainsi profondément les termes de l'arbitrage politique entre inflation et chômage. A ces effets récessifs s'est ajouté celui de l'inversion de la hiérarchie des objectifs de la politique économique en Europe.