Readings Term 2 Pol 101

8/3/2019 Readings Term 2 Pol 101

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January 10th, 2011

Us and them: The enduring power of ethnic nationalism

Americans generally belittle the role of ethnic nationalism in politics Americans also find ethnonationalism discomfiting both intellectually and morally Immigrants to the US usually arrive with a willingness t fit into their new country andreshape their identities accordingly Creation of a peaceful regional order of nation-states has usually been the product of a

violent process of ethnic separation

History argues that nationalism twice led to war, in 1914 and then again in 1939 In Europe the separatist project has not so much vanished as triumped Ethnonationalism has played a more profound and lasting role in modern history than is

commonly understoof, and the process es that led to the dominance of the ethnonationalstate and the separation of ethnic groups in Europe are likely to reoccur elsewhere

Two major ways of thinking about national identityo People who live within a countrys borders are part of the nation, regardless of

their ethnic, racial, or religious origins

o Hat nations are defined by a shared heritage, which usually includes a commonlanguage, a common faith, and a common ethnic ancestry

Ethnonationalism draws much of its emotive power from the notion that the members ofa nation are part of an extended family

When modern states began to form political boundaries and ethnolinguistic boundarieslargely coincided in the areas along Europes Atlantic coast

Most people at most times have lived in empires, with the nation-state the exceptionrather than the rule

Rise of ethnonationalism was propelled by some of the deepest currents of modernity:o Military competitiono Economic growth

Speakers of the same language came to share a sense that they belonged together and todefine themselves in contrast to other communities

By creating a new and direct relationship between individuals and the government, therise of the modern state weakend individuals traditional bonds to intermediate socialunits, such as the family, the clan, the guild, and the church

Much of the history of the twentieth century Europe has been a drawn-out process ofethnic cleansing and disaggregation

WWI was the demise of the three great turn-of-the-century empires, unleashing anexplosion of ethnonationalism in the process

Nationalist governments openly discriminated in favour of the dominant community Nazi regime tried to reorder the ethnic map of the continent by force Millions of people were expelled from their homes and countries after WW2, with at

least the tacit support of the victorious Allies

Five million ethnic Germans from the eastern parts of the German Reich fled westward toescape the conquering Red Armypostliberation regimes in Czechoslovakia, Hungary,Poland, and Yugoslavia expelled another seven million Germansthese measuresconstituted the largest forced population movement in European history

Ethnonationalist ideal was largely realized: for the most part, each nation in Europe hadits own state, and each state was made up almost exclusively of a single ethnic nationality

For much of the developing world, decolonization has meant ethnic disaggregationthrough the exchange or expulsion of local minorities


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As societies in the former colonial world modernizethe force that gave rise toethnonationalism and ethnic disaggregation in Europe are apt to drive events there, too

Important benefits have come about because of ethnic separation Efficiencies of competitive markets tend to increase with the markets size Most of subsequent European history has involved attempts to overcome this and other

economic fragmentation, culminating in the EU

Triumph of ethnonational politics has meant the victory of traditionally rural groups overmore urbanized ones, which possess just those skills desirable in an advanced industrialeconomy

Proved to be a source of cohesion and stability Liberal democracy and ethnic homogeneity are not only compatible; they can be

complementary

Most dramatic transformation of European ethnic balances in recent decades has comefrom the immigration of people of Asian, African, and Middle Eastern origin, and herethe results have been mixed

Ethnonationalism is a direct consequence of key elements of modernization, it is likely togain ground in societies undergoing such a processit remains one of the most vital butdisruptive forces in many parts of the contemporary world

More or less subtle forms of ethnonationalism are ubiquitous in immigration policyaround the globe

Insistence on universalist criteria seems provincial Wealthier and higher achieving regions might try to separate themselves from poorer and

lower achieving ones, and distinctive homogenous areas might try to acquire sovereignty courses of action that might provoke violent responses from defenders of the status quo

Partion may thus be the most humane lasting solution to such intense communal conflicts Ethnonationalism corresponds to some eduring propensities of the human spirit that are

heightened by the process of modern state creation, it is a crucial source of both solidarityand enmity, it will remain for generations

Prisoners of the Caucus

North Caucus in Russia prone to attack; experienced largest carnage known to RussiaThe turbulence between central Russia and these attackers have the potential to ruin thegovernments legitimacyThese attackers were nationalists and targeted Muslims living in RussiaBeslan siege: Russias worst episode of carnageMany recent terrorist attacks/bombings in Russia from 2004-present; situation is getting worseregardless of rehabilitation acts by the government such as the Chechen wars, intelligenceagents sent in from Moscow etcNorth Caucus in Russia experiences many acts of violence due to internal political problemsFear that the North Caucus will disrupt the legitimacy of the government; believe that ifKremlin cannot contain the attacks of these Russian nationalist groups, they will eventually takeover the governmentAttack against Muslims living in RussiaUpsurge in violence disrupting Russias move into democratic politics due to avenging victims,punishing terrorists etcHindering military enforcement/making cooperation with North Korea and Iran difficult:

Increased nationalismIncreased authoritarianism

Russia is ultimately experiencing major problems with accepting multiculturalism


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Russia wanted to build political structures over looking the Caucus to restore order but therewere geographical problems hindering this plan as well as the absence of true governmentalpowers due to the monarchy in placeIn the 1920s there was turmoil in the Caucus as well leading into the Communist Revolution ofRussia and WWII; always rebelling against the government in this areaCaucus experienced many cases of oppression by Russia authorities causing the political unrest

and therefore rebellions against government that commenced in this part of RussiaRussian authorities tried to pay the rebels in the North Caucus into not rebelling against thegovernment because they were a legitimate threat, but it was a fragile deal because there was notrue rehabilitation so once the next generation came in, they wanted to break the deal and rebelagain

The people of the North Caucus are unreliable due to their religious beliefs, and theirdeference in culture in comparison to the rest of Russia

The North Caucus is not the responsibility of Russia until it affects RussiansUnemployment and corruption as the main sources of instability according to Medvedev

only works if Moscow gives power use in ways that it would increase public confidenceWhen the leaders turn out corrupt and do things incorrectly, this allows for even more instabilityof government than before the attempt at rehabilitation

Local leaders in politics try to keep themselves in government for as long as possible and dothis by any means possible allowing for corruptionThe local leaders are from peripheries so they prioritize their own needs which not always tieinto the centerCorruption, unemployment and poverty as the main sources of corruption and unrestRise of radical Islam is seen as the single root cause for the upheaval and violence in the NorthCaucasusNew president brought in through assassinations showing the illegitimacy of the North Caucusgovernmental structure; governmental leaders that are not liked are vitally threatenedNorth Caucus stopped Moscow from sending in help because it angered the nationalistic peoplewithin this state even moreCorruption within Russia wants to oppress the people within the North Caucus by targeting

them if they travel abroad and are successful because they are somewhat jealous; many of theattacks made on the Caucus is to avenge deaths or bullying on people dear to them by Russiasecurity forces

Nationalism as negativeNorth Caucus is somewhat detached from Russia due to their security problems and the fact thatit is so out of control, there is no rulingWill the North Caucus ever truly become part of Russia in the sense of culture and ruling?

January 17th, 2011

January 24th, 2011

Weber: Religious Affiliation and Social Stratification

Business leaders and owners of capital, as well as the higher grades of skilled labour,and even more the higher technically and commercially trained personnel of modernenterprises, are overwhelmingly Protestant. (1)


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Wherever capitalism, at the time of its great expansion, has had a free hand to alter thesocial distribution of the population in accordance with its needs, and to determine itsoccupational structure. (1)

Participation in the above economic functions usually involves some previous ownershipof capital, and generally an expensive education; often both. (1)

Majority of the wealthy towns went over to Protestantism in the sixteenth century theresults of that circumstance favour the Protestants even today in their struggle foreconomic existence. (1)

Emancipation from economic traditionalism appear, no doubt, to be a factor whichwould greatly strengthen the tendency to doubt the sanctity of the religious tradition, asof all traditional authorities. (1)

Reformation meantsubstitution of a new form of control for the previous one. (1) Rule of Calvinismmost absolutely unbearable form of ecclesiastical control. (2) Reformers complained of in those areas of high economic development was not too

much supervision of life on the part of the Church, but too little. (2)

Greater participation of Protestants in the positions of ownership andmanagementresult of the greater material wealth they have inherited. (2)

Differencein the type of higher education which Catholic parents, as opposed toProtestant, give their children. (2)

Catholic prefer the sort of training which humanistic Gymnasium affords. (2) Among journeymenthe Catholics show a stronger propensity to remain in their crafts,

that is they more often become master craftsmen, whereas the Protestants are attracted toa larger extent into the factories in order to fill the upper ranks skilled labour andadministrative positions. (3)

national or religious minorities which are in a position of subordination to a group ofrulers are likelyto be driven with peculiar force into economic activity. (3)

True of the Poles in Russia and Eastern Prussiatrue of the Huguenots in France underLouis XIVthe Jew for two thousand years. (3)

The Protestantsboth as a ruling classes and as ruled, both as majority and as minority,have shown a special tendency to develop economic rationalism which cannot beobserved to the same extent among Catholics either in the one situation or in the other.(3)

One might be tempted to express the difference by saying that the greater other-worldliness of Catholicism, the ascetic character of its highest ideals, must have broughtup its adherent to a greater indifference toward the good things of this world (3)

Catholic is quieter, having less of the acquisitive impulse; he prefers a life of the greatestpossible security, even with a smaller income, to a life of risk and excitement, eventhough it may bring the chance of gaining honour and riches. The proverb says jokingly,either eat well or sleep well. In the pre sent case the Protestant prefers to eat well, theCatholic to sleep undisturbed. (4)

Catholics of France are, in their lower ranks, greatly interested in the enjoyment of life,in the upper directly hostile to religion. Similarly, the Protestants of Germany are todayabsorbed in worldly economic life, and their upper ranks are most indifferent to religion.(4)

Connection of a religious way of life with the most intensive development of businessacumen among those sects whose otherworldliness is proverbial as their wealth,especially the Quakers and the Mennonites. (5)

In East Prussia Fredrick William I tolerated the Mennonites as indispensable to industry,in spite of their absolute refusal to perform military service. (6)


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Spirit of hard work, of progressthe awakening of which is inclined to ascribe toProtestantism, must not be understood, as there is tendency to do, as joy of living nor inany other sense as connected with the Enlightenment. (6)

Chapter 2

Money is of the prolific, generating nature. Money can beget money (2) Nothing contributes more to the raising of a young man in the world than punctualityand justice in all his dealings

Philosophy of avarice appears to be the ideal of the honest man of recognized credit, andabove all the idea of a duty of the individual toward the increase of his capital, which isassumed as an end in itself. (3)

Wanted to make money as long as he could (3) Spirit of modern capitalism (3) Honesty is useful, because it assures credit; so are punctuality, industry, frugality, and

that is the reason they are virtues (4)

According to Franklin, those virtues, like all others, are only in so far virtues as they areactually useful to the individual, and the surrogate of mere appearance always sufficient

when it accomplishes the end view. It is a conclusion which is inevitable for strictutilitarianism (4)

Summumbonum of his ethic, the earnin more and more money, combined with the strictavoidance of all spontaneous enjoyment of life, is above all completely devoid of anyeudaemonistic, not to say hedonistic, admixture (4)

Man is dominated by the making of money, by acquisition as the ultimate purpose of hislife. Economic acquisition is no longer subordinated to man as the means for thesatisfaction of his material needs. This reversal of what we should cal the naturalrelationship, so irrational from a nave point of view is evidently as definetly a leadingprinciple of capitalism as it is foreign to all peoples not under capitalistic influence. (4)

Earning of money within the modern economic order is, so long as it is done legally, theresult and the expression of virtue and proficiency in a calling. (4)

Social ethic of capitalistic culturefundamental basis of it. (5) Forces the individual, in so far as he is involved in the system of market relationships, to

conform to capitalistic rules of action (5)

Educated and selects the conomic subjects which it needs through a process of economicsurvival of the fittest (5)

Peculiarly calculating sort of profit seeking in New England, as distinguished from otherparts of America, as early as 1632.(5)

New England colonies were founded by preachers and seminary graduates with the helpof small bourgeois, craftsmen and yeomen, for religious reasons. In this case the casualrelation is certainly the reverse of that suggested by the materialistic standpoint (6)

Spirit of capitalismhad to fight its way to supremacy against a world of hostile forces(6)

The greed of the Chinese Mandarin, the old Roman aristocrat, or the modern peasant,can stand up to any comparison. (6)

Universal reign of absolute unscrupulousness in the pursiuit of selfish interests by themaking of money has been a specific characterisitic of precisely those countries whosebourgeois-capitalistic development, measured according to Occidental standards, hasremained backward. (6)

At all periods of history, wherever it was possible, there has been ruthless acquisition,bound to, no ethical norms whatever. (7)


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capitalistic acquisition as an adventure has been at home in all types of economic societywhich have known trade with the use of money and which have offered it opportunities,through commenda,, farming of taxes, State loans, financing of wars, ducal courts andoffice holders (7)

Now just this attitude was one of the strongest inner obstacles which the adaption ofmen to the conditions of an ordered bourgeois-capitalistic economy has encountered

everywhere (7) Opponent with which the spirit of capitalismattitude and reaction to new situations

which we may designate as traditionalism (7)

Oppurtunity of earning more was less attractive than that of working less (8) efficiency of labour decreases with a wage which is physiologically insufficient, which

may in the long run even mean a survival of the unfit. (9)

Low wages fail even from a purely business point of view wherever it is a question ofproducing goods which require any sort of skilled labour, or the use of expensivemachinery which is easily damaged, or in general wherever any great amount of sharpattention or of initiative is required. (9)

Labour mustbe performed as if it were an absolute end in itself, a calling (9) Backward traditional form of labour is today very often exemplified by women

workersthey are almost entirely unable and unwilling to give u methods of workinherited or once learned in favour of more efficient ones, to adapt themselves to newmethods, to learn and to concentrate their intelligence, or even to use it at all. (9)

it was by no means the capitalistic entrepreneurs of the commercial aristocracy, whowere either the sole of the predominant bearers of the attitude we have here called thespirit of capitalism. It was much more the rising strata of the lower industrial middleclasses. (11)

Leisureliness was suddenly destroyed, and often entirely without any essential change inthe form of organization, such as the transition to a unified factory, to mechanicalweaving, etc. (12)

Turned them from peasants into labourers (12)

Ability to free oneself from the common tradition, a sort of liberal enlightenment, seemslikely to be the most suitable basis for such a business mans successany relationshipbetween religious beliefs and conduct is generally absent, and where any exists, at least inGermany, it tends to be of the negative sort. (13)

business with its continuous work has become a necessary part of their lives (13) He gets nothing out of his wealth for himself, except the irrational sense of having done

his job well. (14)

Whoever does not adapt his manner of life to the conditions of capitalistic success mustgo under (15)

Development of the spirit of capitalism is best understood as part of the development ofrationalism as a whole, and could be deduced from the fundamental position ofrationalism on the basic problems of life. (16)

Chapter 5

Wealth as such is a great danger; its temptations never end and its pursuit is not onlysenseless as compared with the dominating importance of the Kingdom of God, but it ismorally suspect. (2)

Hence he permitted them to employ their means profitably (2)


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Real moral objection is to relaxation in the security of possession, the enjoyment ofwealth with the consequence of idelness and the temptations of the flesh, above all ofdistraction from the putusit of a righteous life. (2)

Saints everlasting rest is in the next world; on earth man must, to be certain of his stateof grace, do the works of hum who sent him, as long as it is yet dayactivity serves toincrease the glory of God (2)

Waste of time is thus the first and in principle the dealiest of sins (2) Inactive contemplation is also valueless, or even directly reprehensible if it is at the

expense of ones daily work (2)

Baxters principal work is dominated by the continually repeated, often almostpassionate preaching of hard, continuous bodily or mental labour. (2)

He who will not work shall not eatUnwillingness to work is symptomatic of the lackof grace. (3)

Wealth does not exempt anyone from the unconditional command. Even the wealthyshall not cat without working, for even though they do not need to labour to support theirown needs, there is Gods commandment which they, like the poor, must obey. (3)

Gods commandment to the individual to work for the divine glory. This seeminglysubtle difference had far-reaching psychological consequences, and became connectedwith a further development of the providential interpretation of the economic order whichhad begun in scholasticism (3)

Differentiation of men into the classes and occupation established through historicaldevelopment became for Luther, as we have seen, a direct result of the divine will. Theperseverance of the individual in the place and within the limits which God had assignedto him was a religious duty (4)

The specialization of occupations leads, since it makes the development of skillpossible, to a quantitative and qualitative improvement in production, and thus serves thecommon good, which is identical with the good of the greatest possible number. (4)

A man without a calling thus lacks the systematic, methodical character which is, as wehave seen, demanded by worldly asceticism (4)

What God demands is not labour in itself, but rational labour in a calling. (4) If that God, whose hand the Puritan sees in all the occurrences of life, shows one of Hiselect a chance of profit, he must do it with a purposetaking advantage of opportunity.(5)

Wealth is thus bad ethically only in so far as it is a temptation to idleness and sinfulenjoyment of life, and its acquisition is bad only when it is with the purpose of laterliving merrily and without care. But as performance of duty in a calling is not onlymorally permissible, but actually enjoined. (5)

To wish to be poor wasthe same as wishing to be unhealthy (5) The Oriental quietism, which appears in several of the finest verses of the Psalms and in

the Proverbs, was interpreted away, just as Baxter did with the traditionalistic tinge of thepassage in the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians, so important for the idea of the calling. (6)

Jews stood on the side of the politically and speculatively oriented adventurouscapitalism; their ethos waspariah-capitalism. But Puritanism carried the ethos of therational organization of capital and labour. It took over from the Jewish ethic only whatwas adapted to this purpose (7)

asceticism turned with all its force against one thing: the spontaneous enjoyment of lifeand all it had to offer (7)

It attitude was thus suspicious and often hostile to the aspects of culture without anyimmediate religious value. (8)


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Great men of the Puritan movement were thoroughly steeped in the culture of theRenaissance. (8)

Puritanism included a world of contradictions, and that the instinctive sense of eternalgreatness in art was certainly stronger among its leaders than in the atmosphere of theCavaliers. (9)

Worldly Protestant asceticism, as we may recapitulate up to this point, acted powerfullyagainst the spontaneous enjoyment of possessions; it restricted consumption, especiallyof luxuries. (9)

Asceticism was the power which ever seeks the good but ever creates evil what wasevil in its sense was possession and its temptations (10)

Asceticism looked upon the pursuit of wealth as an end in itself as highly reprehensible;but the attainment of it as a fruit of labour in a calling was a sign of Gods blessing. Andeven more important: the religious valuation of restless, continuous, systematic work in aworldly calling, as the highest means to asceticism, and at the same time the surest andmost evident proof of rebirth and genuine faith, must have been the most powerfulconceivable lever for the expansion of that attitude toward life which we have here calledthe spirit of capitalism. (10)

When the limitation of consumption is combined with this release of acquisitive activity,the inevitable practical result is obvious: accumulation of capital through asceticcompulsion to save. (10)

Puritan outlookonly consistent influence in the development of that life. It stood asthe cradle of the modern economic man. (11)

religion must necessarily produce both industry and frugality, and these cannot butproduce riches. (12)

Intensity of the search for the Kingdom of God commenced gradually to pass over intosober economic virtue; the religious roots died out slowly, giving way to utilitarianworldliness (12)

Bourgeois business man, as long as he remained within the bounds of formalcorrectness, as long as his moral conduct was spotless and the use to which he put hiswealth was not objectionable, could follow his pecuniary interests as he would and feelthat he was fulfilling a duty in doing so. (13)

Ascetic literature of almost all denominations is saturated with the idea that faithfullabour, even at low wages, on the part of those whom, like offers no other opportunities,is highly pleasing to God. (14)

Treatment of labour as a calling became as characteristic of the modern worker as thecorresponding attitude toward acquisition of the business man (14)

This attitude played a large and decisive part in the development of the industries whichgrew up in spite of and against the authority of the State. (14)

The modern man is in general, even with the best will, unable to give religious ideas asignificance for culture and national character which they deserve. (16)

January 31st, 2011

Friedrich List: Political and Cosmopolitical Economy

Quesnay (from whom the idea of universal free trade originated) was the first whoextended his investigations to the whole human race, without taking into considerationthe idea of the nation (48)


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Cosmopolitical Economy: science which teaches how the entire human race may attainprosperity; in opposition to political economy, or that science which limits its teaching tothe inquiry how a given nation can obtain (under the existing conditions of the world)prosperity, civilisation, and power, by means of agriculture, industry, and commerce. (48)

Advocates of free trade ignored the concept of nations We areof the opinion that political economyshould also be developed scientifically,

and that it is always better to cal lthings by their proper names than to give themsignifications which stand opposed to the true import of words (50)

[Free market economic theories] assumes the existence of a universal union and a stateof perpetual peace, and deduces therefrom the great benefits of free trade. (51)

All examples which history can show are those in which the political union has led theway, and the commercial union has followed. Not a single instance can be adduced inwhich the latter has taken the lead, and the former has grown up from it. (51)

It is not true that population increases in a larger proportion than production of themeans of subsistence (52)

Nature will not allow industry, civilization, wealth, and power to fall exclusively to thelot of a single nation, or that a large portion of the globe suitable for cultivation should bemerely inhabited by wild animals, and that the largest portion of the human race shouldsunk in savagery, ignorance, and poverty. (53)

All England woud thus be developed into one immense manufacturing cityIn time aworld of English states would be formed, under the presidency of the mother state, inwhich the European Continental nations would be lost as unimportant, unproductiveraces (53)

In order to allow freedom of trade to operate naturally, the less advanced nations mustfirst be raised by artificial measures to that stage of cultivation to which the Englishnation has been artificially elevated. (54)

Alexander Hamilton: Classical Mercantilism

Early Mercantilist political economy boldly asserts the centrality of politics. (35) Hamilton is most concerned with national economic development. (35) Although he recognizes the importance of agriculture, he sees industry as providing

additional dynamism to the American economy. (35)

Diversificationwill lessen the nations vulnerability to external economic forces (35) The state, Hamilton argues, must take an active role in developing a manufacturing

economy. (35)

The state must promote and protect emerging U.S. industries, because this is commonpractice in the competitive international system (36)

Hamilton thus draws on key mercantilist concepts (i.e., national security and self-reliance) but modifies other (the significance of a trade surplus). (36)

Report on Manufactures

The utility of Artificers of Manufacturers, towards promoting an increase of productiveindustry, is apparent. (39)

Manufacturing pursuits are susceptible in a great degree of the application of machinery,than those of Agriculture. (39)

TO maintain between the recent establishments of one country and the long maturedestablishments of another country, a competition upon equal terms, both as to quality andprice, is in most cases impracticable. The disparity, in the one or in the other, or in both,


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must necessarily be so considerable as to forbid a successful rivalship, without theextraordinary aid and protection of government. (42)

The undertakers of a new manufacture have to contend not only with naturaldisadvantages of a new undertaking, but with the gratuities and remunerations whichother governments bestow. To be enabled to contend with success, it is evident that theinterference and aid of their own government are indispensible. (42)

In a national view, a temporary enhancement of price must always be well compensatedby permanent reduction of it (43)

Not only the wealth, but the independence and security of a country, appear to bematerially connected with the prosperity of manufactures (44)

Every nation, with a view to those great objects, ought to endeavour to possess withinitself all the essentials of national supply. These comprise the means ofSubsistence,habitation, clothing, and defence. (44)

Possible government acts:o Protecting dutieso Prohibitions of Rival Articles, or dutieso Prohibitions of the exportation of the materials of manufactureso Pecuniary Bountieso Premiumso Exemption of the material of manufactures from Dutyo Drawbacks of the duties which are imposed on the materials of manufactureso The encouragement of new inventions and discoveries, at home, and the

introduction into the US of such as may have been made in other countries;particularly those which relate to machinery

o Judicious regulations for the inspection of manufactured commoditieso The facilitating of pecuniary remittances from place to placeo The facilitating of the transportation of commodities

G. John Ikenberry: Creating Yesterdays New World Order: Keynesian New Thinking and theAnglo-American Postwar Settlement

- Agreements reached by the United States and Britain during the war and ratified at BrettonWoods in 1944 marked a decisive move toward openness a bit astonishing given and ravagesand dislocation of war and competing postwar interests (57)

This group of British and American experts intervened at a particularly fluid moment inhistory to help the British and American political establishments identify their interests,therby creating the bases of postwar economic cooperation. (58)

this argument involves several claims:o (1)American officials at the State Department, who wanted to reconstruct an

open trading system, and British officials in the wartime cabinet, who wanted toensure full employment and economic stability, and who, as a consequence,

contemplated the continuation of the imperial preference system and bilateraltrading (58)

o (2) new thinking of these experts transformed the way people thought of orframed the issue of postwar economic order and, as a consequence, changed theoutcome (59)

o (3) What ultimately mattered in the ratification of the Bretton Woods agreementwas not that it was based on policy ideas advanced by an expert community butthat the policy ideas resonated with the larger political environment. Theseideas ultimately carried the day because they created the conditions for larger


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political coalitions within and between governments coalitions that themselvesreflected a more general postwar reworking of socio-political order in Westerncapitalist democracies (59)

Shared view that past economic failures could be avoided by innovative postwareconomic arrangements, led their respective governments toward agreement byidentifying a set of common Anglo-American interests that were not clearly seen by

others. This episode reveals that particular historical moments can provide expert groupswielding new policy approaches and philosophy with opportunities to decisively shape agovernments conception of the national interest. (59)

Uncertainty of war and its aftermath provided opportunities for policy specialists toshape the resolution of debates, particularly those that involved complex issues ofmonetary policy. (59)

The postwar economic order reflected the efforts of the United States, as an ascendinghegemonic power, to build a system congenial with its interests. (60)

Why did an American government with a State Department that championed laissez-faire and free trade end up backing a system more concerned with safeguarding theemerging welfare state? (62)

The underlying structure of interests set the broad parameters around which anagreement could be built, but they were not imperatives that inevitably produced theagreement (63)

A hemispheric bloc would not be sufficient to protect American economic andgeopolitical interests. (63)

Attack on Pearl harbour only strengthened this evolving view: that the United Stateswould need to work with Great Britain to reintegrate as much of the world economy aspossible. (63)

Keynsian economists within the National Resources Planning Board, were interested inan expanded role for government in the management of the economy in the service of fullemployment and social welfare. (66)

In both Britain and the United States, most of the ideas that made their way into BrettonWoods agreement were widely shared among what could be called liberal-mindedinternational economists, many of whom were Keynesians, and whose views reflected,more than anything else, lessons learned from recent historical experience as well as theongoing evolution in professional economic thought. (69)

Common belief in the desirability of currency stability and the convertibility ofcurrencies. (69)

American and British experts agreed that some form of international reserves wouldneed to be available as short-term assistance so as to allow expansionary solutions tobalance-of-payments deficits (70)

New techniques of international economic management should be devised that couldreconcile the movement of capital and trade with policies that promoted stable and full-employment economiesneed for new levels of international management andsupervision of national monetary and trade policies (70)

International investment, capital movements, exchange rate parities, and commodityprices were all potentially legitimate means for solving economic problems. (71)

Innovations in economic and social policy allowed politicians to promise more to theelectorate, but they also would need to deliver the socioeconomic goods. (71)

economic health of every country is a proper matter of concern to all its neighbours,near and distant (72)


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Overriding view of British economists in government during the war was that socialwelfare and economic management must dictate postwar international economic plans,rather than the other way around. (74-75)

Keynes argued that to maintain economies in balance without great excesses of importsor exports, countries in the postwar period would need exchange controls, precisely thetypes of measures that seemed to be prohibited by Article VII (76)

Clearing Union would have the authority to create and manage an international currencythat would be used to manage intercountry balances (77)

The embedded liberal ideas of the Anglo-American monetary experts paved the wayfor agreement between the two governments (78)

British were looking for a middle ground between bilateralism (and the imperialpreference system) and laissez-faire (79)

In both Britain and the United States, the onset of war stimulated and widened politicaldebate on the future of world economic order. (79)

In Britain and the United States the Bretton Woods proposals represented a middle waythat generated support from both the conservative free-traders and the new prophets ofeconomic planning. (80)

British and American officials differed over the desirable level of trade openness andnational autonomy. (80)

United States wanted to move immediately to lower tariff barriers and re-establish amultilateral trading system. Britain, concerned with its fragile economy and tradeimbalances and not wanting to lose national control over economic management, resistedsuch moves. (80-81)

New thinking of British and American treasury officials served to break this stalemateby transformed the choices for postwar economic, and consequently debate over it. (81)

Agreement on postwar monetary order was fostered by the efforts of a group ofmonetary experts who, despite the many differences between them, shared a set ofevolving ideas about the desirable organization of monetary relations and the worldeconomic order. (82)

Free-trade-oriented State Department (83) It was the British (Keynes in particular) who were most intent on finding a middleground (84)

Policy ideas matter because they provide opportunities for elites to pursue their interestsin more effective ways. This may be the most profound way in which ideas matter. (84)

Full employment, economic stabilization, and social welfare these were words thatrepeatedly found their way into discussions of postwar economic order during the 1940s(85)

February 7th, 2011

Lenin: Imperialism as a Special Stage of Capitalism

Imperialism emerged as the development and direct continuation of the fundamentalattributes of capitalism in general (101)

Monopoly is the exact opposite of free competition; but we have seen the latter beingtransformed into monopoly before our very eyes (101)

Imperialism is the monopoly stage of capitalism (101) Imperialism is capitalism in that stage of development in which the dominance of

monopolies and fianc apital has established itself; in which the export of capital has


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acquired pronounced importance; in which the division of the world among theinternational trusts has begun; in which the division of all territories of the globe amongthe great capitalist powers has been completed (102)

Imperialism is, in general, a striving towards violence and reaction. (103) The characteristic feature of imperialism isfinance capital (103) The characteristic feature of imperialism is precisely that it strives to annex not only

agricultural regions, but even highly industrialized regionsbecause an essential featureof imperialism is the rivalry between a number of great powers in the striving forhegemony (103)

Evolution is proceeding towards monopoly (104) [R. Calwer] divides the world into five main economic areas as follows: 1) Central

Europe (the whole of Europe eith the exception of Russia and Great Britain); 2) GreatBritain; 3) Russia; 4) Eastern Asia; 5) America (105)

Three states which dominate the world: Germany, Great Britain, the United States(105)

[T]he development of railways has been more rapid in the colonies and in theindependent (and semi-dependent) states of Asia and America (106)

Capitalism is growing with the greatest rapidity in the colonies and in overseascountries (106)

Peter B. Evans: Predatory, Developmental, and Other Apparatuses: A Comparative PoliticalEconomy Perspective on the Third World State

The state bureaucrat, strangling the golden age of entrepreneurship and lining hispockets with unproductive rents, has again become the central villain (562)

That incumbents sometimes use the state apparatus to extract and distributeunproductive rents is undeniable. That all states perform certain functions indispensableto economic transformation is equally so. That both characterisitics are randomlydistributed across states is very unlikely, yet we have only a hazy sense of the range ofvariation, to say nothing of its causes. (562)

Some states may extract such large amounts of otherwise investable surplus and provideso little in the way of collective goods in return that they do indeed impede economictransformation. It seems reasonable to call these states predatory (562)

Other states, however, are able to foster long-term entrepreneurial perspectives amongprivate elites by increasing incentives to engage in transformative investments andlowering the risks involved in such investments. They may not be immune to rentseeking or to using some of the social surplus for the ends of incumbents and theirfriends rather that those of the citizenry as a whole, but on balance, the consequences oftheir actions promote rather than imeding transformation. They are legitimatelyconsidered developmental states (563)

Balance between predatory and developmental activities is not clear-cut but varies overtime, and depends on what kind of activities are attempted (563)

Neoclassical econonmics always admitted that the existence of the state is essential foreconomic growth, but the essential state was a minimal state, restricted largely, if notentirely, to protecting individual rights, persons and property, and enforcing voluntarilynegotiated private contract (563)

Public choice version of the state makes no prejorative assumptions about stupidity,traditional attitudes, or lack of expertise within the state apparatus. To the contrary, itassumes only that incumbents in public office (564)


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It is hypothesized that competition for entry into government service is, in part, acompetition for rents (564)

Symbiotic relationship for entry into government service is, in part, a competition forrents (564)

As states expand their size, their range of functions, and the amount of resources theycontrol, the proportion of economic activity that becomes incorporated into rental havens

will increase correspondingly and economic efficiency and dynamism will decline.(564)

Sphere of state action should be reduced to the minimum, and bureaucratic controlshould be replaced by market mechanisms wherever possible. (564)

Neoutilitarian vision captures a significant aspect of the functioning of most statesrentseeking conceptualized more primitively as corruption has always been a well-knownfacet of the operation of Third World states. (564)

The neoutilitarian assumption that state policies reflect vested interests in societypartially recaptures some of Marxs original insights into biases likely to characterizestate policy. (565)

Even the minimal state requires that incumbents redefine individual aims in ways thatmotivate them to pursue corporate goals (565)

Falling back on ideology and legitimacy may not suffice to solve the problem, but itdoes acknowledge that a vision of the state built only on a model of individualmaximizers joined by exchange relations is not adequate (565)

Neoutilitarians see any kind of state intervention on behalf of economic transformationas likely to have the perverse effect of impeding the very transformations desired.(566)

If less is good and least is best, than anything that diminishes the ability of the state toact may be a good thing. (566)

neoutilitarian view seems to come closest to that of the structural Marxists (566) Scholarship, which goes back at least to List incluce some ardent defenders of the

proposition that a determined and effective state apparatus is an essential ingredient in

successful industrialization. White and Wade argue, for example, that the phenomenonof successful late development should be understoodas a process in which stateshave played a strategic role in taming domestic and international market forces andharnessing them to a national economic interest. (566)

Polanyi reminded us that Smiths natural propensity to truck and barter had notsufficied to produce the rise of the market in England, Polanyi argued The road to thefree market was opened and kept open by an enormous increase in continuous, centrallyorganizaed and controlled interventionism. (567)

Weberargued that the operation of large-scale capitalist enterprise depended on theavailability of the kind of order that only a modern bureaucratic state could provide.(567)

Webers bureaucrats were concerned only with carrying out their assignments andcontributing to the fulfilment of the goals of the apparatus as a whole (567)

The states ability to support markets and capitalist accumulation depended on thebureaucracy being a corporately coherent entity in which individuals see furtherance ofcorporate goals as the best means of maximizing their individual self-interest. (567)

Weber saw construction of a solid authoritative framework as a necessary prerequisite tothe operation of markets (567)

Late industrializers confronting production technologies with capital requirements inexcess of what private markets were capable of amassing, were forced to rely on the


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power of the state to mobilize the necessary resources. (568) (Gerscenkrons model,state plays active role)

The crux of the problem faced by late developers is that institutions allowing large risksto be spread across a wide network of capital holders do not exist, and individualcapitalists are neither able nor interested in taking them on. Under these circumstancesthe state must serve as surrogate entrepreneur. (568)

If maximizing induced decision-making is the key as Hirschman argues it is, then thestates role involves a high level of responsiveness to private capital. (568)

For the insulated state to be effective, the nature of a project of accumulation and themeans of implementing it must be readily apparent. (569)

Zaire is, in short, a textbook case of the sort of predatory state we should expect to bepervasive if neoutilitarian logic held (570)

Most descriptions of the Zairian state seem to vindicate Weber. Callaghy emphasizes itspatrimonial qualities the mixture of traditionalism and arbitrariness that Weber arguedretards capitalist development (570)

One of the most striking aspects of the Zairian state is the extent to which the invisiblehand of the market dominates administrative behaviour, again almost as a caricature ofthe neoutilitarian image of how state apparatuses are likely to work. (570)

Personalism and plundering at the top destroys any possibility of rule-governedbehaviour in the lower levels of the bureaucracy, giving individual maximization freerein. (570)

Mobutu provides only a weak test of the limits to which individual maximization can beallowed to rule without undermining even the repressive apparatus necessary for regimesurvival (571)

Zaire confirms our initial suspicion that it is not bureaucracy that impedes developmentso much as the lack of capacity to behave like a bureaucracy, but it poses some problemsfor conventional definitions of state autonomy. (571)

Autonomy is a necessary prerequisite for effective state action. (571) Combination of weak internal organiztion and individualized external ties produces an

incoherent absolutist domination that in no way enhances the states transformativecapacity. (571)

By the end of the 1970s, the economic success of the major East Asian NICs Taiwanand Korea was increasingly interpreted as depending in important ways on the activeinvolvement of the state. (571)

Central role of the state in Koreas rapid industrialization. (572) None of these states are paragons in virtue. In certain periods their regimes have

appeared more predatory than developmental. (572)

In the capital-scarce years following World War II, the Japanese state acted as asurrogate for a missing capital market while at the same time helped to inducetransformative investment decisions. (572)

The willingness of state financial institutions to back industrial debt/equity ratios atlevels unheard of in the West was a critical ingredient in the expansion of newindustries. (572)

The states centrality to the provision of new capital also allowed it to implementindustrial rationalization and industrial structure policy (572)

MITI, given its role in the approval of investment laons from the Japan DevelopmentBank, its authority over foreign currency allocation for industrial purposes and licenses toimport foreign technology, its ability to provide tax breaks, and its capacity to articulateadministrative guidance cartels that would regulate competition in an industry, was in aperfect position to maximize induced decision-making (572)


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Japans startling postwar economic growth occurred in the presence of a powerful,talented and prestige-laden economic bureaucracy. (572)

There is clearly a Weberian aspect to the Japanese developmental state (573) Individual maximization must take place via conformity to bureaucratic rules rather than

via exploitation of individual opportunities presented by the invisible hand (573)

All descriptions of the Japanese state emphasize the dispensability of informal networks,both internal and external, to the states functioning. (573)

Overall result is a kind of reinforced Weberianism, in which the non-bureaucraticelements of bureaucracy reinforce the formal organizational structure in the same waythat Durkheims non-contractual elements of contract reinforce the market (573)

Centrality of external ties has led some to argue that the states effectiveness emergesnot from its own inherent capacity but from the complexity and stability of its interactionwith market player (574)

MITIs relative autonomy is what allows it to address the collective action problems ofprivate capital, helping capital as a whole to reach solutions that would be hard to attainotherwise, even within the highly organizaed Japanese industrial system. Theembedded, which is precisely the mirror image of the incoherent absolutistdomination of the predatory state, is the key to the developmental states effectiveness.(574)

WWII and its aftermath provided all of them with highly unusual societal environments.Traditional agrarian elites were decimated, industrial groups were disorganized andundercapitalized, and foreign capital was channelled through the state apparatus. Thus,what were, in terms of domestic dynamics, largely exogenous events qualitativelyenhanced the autonomy of the state. The combination of historically accumulatedbureaucratic capacity and conjuncturally generated autonomy put these state apparatusesin a very exceptional position. (575)

Commitment to industrialization motivated attempts to promote the growth of localindustrial capital. Their exceptional autonomy allowed the state to dominate theformation of the ties that bound capital and the state together (575)

Private capital has become less dependent on the resources provided by the state and therelative dominance of the state diminished. (575)

For nonelite social actors making new demands on the state, both existing forms ofembeddedness and the existing insulation of the bureaucracy are likely to be seen asdisadvantages rather than advantages (576)

Most developing states offer combination of Zairian kleptopatrimonialism and EastAsian embedded autonomy.(576)

Difficulty that Brazil has experienced in instituting meritocratic recruitment proceduresthat approximate the Japanese or Korean ones, even in the temporary period. (576-577)

Brazilian state is known as a massive [source of jobs], populated on the basis ofconnection rather than competence and correspondingly inept in its developmentalefforts (577)

The BNDE (National Development Bank), favoured especially by Kubitschek as aninstrument of his developmentalism in the 1950s, was, at least until recently, a goodexample of a pocket efficieny. Unlike most of Brazils bureaucracy, the BNDE offereda clear career path, developmental duties and an ethic of public service (577)

Because the BNDE was a major source of long-term investment loans, itsprofessionalism was a stimulus to improving performance in other sectors. (577)

As long as these pockets [of efficieny] are surrounded by a sea of traditional clientelisticnorms, they are dependent on the personal protection of individual presidents. (577-578)


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It is a structure that not only makes policy coordination difficult, but encourages resortto personalistic solutions. As Schneider puts it, personalism is now madeindispensible by bureaucratic fragmentation (578)

just as the internal structure of the Brazilian state apparatus limits its capacity toreplicate the performance of the East Asian developmental states, the character of itsembeddedness makes it harder to construct a project of industrial elites. (578)

rather than being able to focus on its relationship with industrial capital, the state hasalways had to simultaneously contend with traditional elites threatened by the conflictualtransformation of rural class relations. (578-9)

Lack of a stable bureaucratic structure makes it harder to establish regularized ties withthe private sector of the administrative guidance sort, and pushes public-privateinteraction into individualized channels. (579)

The structure and operation of the Brazilian state should prevent it from fulfilling evenminimal government functions (579)

The Brazilian state has in fact been entrepreneurially effective in a variety of industrialareas, ranging from creation of infrastructure to the installation of the automotiveindustry (579)

Brazils state-owned steel companies have no only increased local capacity sevenfoldover the course of the last 20 years, but produced steel at internationally competitivecosts and enabled the country to become a net exporter (580)

These successes are, as we would expect, found in areas where the immediatelyinvolved state organizations had exceptional coherence and capacity. In areas of success,more coherent state organization also enabled a more institutionally effective set oflinkages with the private sector, with results akin to the embedded autonomy of thedevelopmental state. (580)

Difference between the Brazilian state and the archetypal developmental state is thatembedded autonomy is a partial rather than a global attribute in the Brazilian case. (580)

most effective states are characterized by embedded autonomy, which joins well-developed, bureaucratic internal organization with dense public-private ties. In the leasteffective states, the mirror image incoherent absolutist domination combinesundisciplined internal structures with external ties ruled by the invisible hand.Intermediate states occasionally approximate embedded autonomy, but not sufficiently togive them the transformative capacity of developmental states. (581)

East Asian developmental states have followed Geschenkronian/Hirschmanian paths intheir strategies to a striking degree. (581)

Neoutilitarian claims that a state run by a predatory monster are plausible, but it ispatently false that some natural law of human behavior dictates that states are invariablyconstructed on this basis. (582)

A differentiated view of states suggests that policy should be two pronged, aimed atincreasing the selectivity of taks undertaken by the state apparatus but devoting equalattention to reforms that will help reconstruct state apparatuses themselves. (583)

The idea of embedded autonomy provides a good illustration. It grew out of previouswork on the concepts of autonomy and capacity and by several excellent studies of thesocial context of the developmental state in Japan. It seems to help summarize differencebetween developmental states and intermediate cases like Brazil. (583)

February 14th, 2011


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February 28th, 2011

Life is unfair: Inequality in the World

Average family in the USA is 60 times richer than average family in Ethiopia; this rate has risendramatically from the 1970s to what it is today

The wealth gap between the poor and the rich is very wideThe loss of communism has made this gap ever widening in Eastern Europe and LatinAmerica

Democracy as a vicious circle of inequality and injustice due to the fact that it gives capitalistsan upper hand over the laborers creating a widening wage gap that allows a low standard ofliving for laborers

Democracy as the cause of poor distribution of wealth: communism better?Technology as a contributor to inequality due to the fact that it is bought, created andused by the wealthy and the educated; makes income gaps wider

The poor are at a disadvantage because to get a good job, you need a good education whichcosts a lot of money to attainConvergence: poor countries will catch up to the rich

Although poor countries like China and India are getting richer, it will be long beforethey catch up to the USA due to the lack of equality concerning the distribution ofwealth

Causes of inequality within countries:History: politics and the history of the country in question outlines the values andtherefore practices; history is an inspiration of how economics workThe poors rational decisions: Poor people marry other poor people and tend to have alot of children meaning there is less money for each child and they do not tend toreceive adequate educational training hence a cycle of the children of the poor alsobeing poor; fertility change can break this cycleProsperity: This can produce inequality due to the uneven distribution of wealth, but thefact that the exchange rates are stabilized allows for countries to have a chance in the

world market when selling their goods because they would make fair amounts of profitBad economic policy: Poor economic policies allows inflation and it devastating for thepoor, failure to invest in education and skills of the poor is a fundamental cause ofinequality, therefore creating an ever widening gap between wages of the rich and thepoor

Self-defeating policies:Protectionism: Protection from global competition is bad because wwithout foreigninvestment and foreign trade, developing countries would not have a chance to makemoney and would therefore remain poor and inactive in the global market; perpetuateshigh inequality

March 7th, 2011

The New Cocaine Cowboys

How to Defeat Mexicos Drug Cartels

Mexico is in a battle against powerful drug cartels


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Government is intertwined in criminal organizations, hindering Mexicos ability tobecome a first world country

This happened in Columbia too, but with the help of the American government, the drugcartels were defeated

In Mexico, if the cartels win, criminal enterprises will continue to operate, underminingthe states democratic stature

The US is affected as well if the cartels win considering a drug state with drug rulerswould be within a short distance

The Mexican Connection

Rise of Mexican Drug Cartels:o Pre-existing Corruptiono Inability of weak law enforcement institutions to counter themo Demand for illegal drugs in the US

Columbians were stopped by US officials from smuggling drugs into the US, so theyjoined with Mexico and had them smuggle in their drugs for a portion of their profits

Mexico began to make a lot of money off of this and exported vast amounts of cocaineinto the US; in doing this, the drug lords gained power

Mexico extended their networks throughout the US and in Europe, replacing Columbianinfluence

Trafficking of drugs led to other criminal activities including human trafficking,kidnapping and extortion

Mexicans killed a US Drug Enforcement Administration Agent to scare the US whichdemonstrated the height that the drug problem was at in Mexico

o The entire political structure was corrupted as the majority of governmentalofficials participated in trafficking of cocaine

The political party in power allowed for drug trafficking therefore reaping enormousprofits from cocaine; governments were controlled by the cartels and were too weak to goagainst them

Drug lords had money and bribed everyone; money was an especially influential tool in athird world country like Mexico, in doing this they expanding their influence and livedbeyond the laws

This vast drug trafficking lasted from the 1980s-2000The Pain in Juarez

Turning point, 2000: PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) lost power and the PAN(National Action Party) came into power; the end of a one party rule allowed fordemocracy, where federal government could not be taken for granted

Ciudad Juarez: the site of one of the most violent confrontations between rival cartels;many deaths of drug dealers have occurred since Calderon took office, cracking down on

drug cartels Many drug dealers have been caught and killed in Mexico, lowering the trafficking

problem although a lot of corruption still remains; the way in which Calderon is goingabout taking care of the drug problem is very violent, classifying Mexico as out ofcontrol

Most of the drug-related homicides have occurred in six of Mexicos 32 states therefore itis not a failed state; Chihuahua had the most murders

o Although unfortunate, the number of killings of drug cartels is a sign of progress


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o Cartels are killing each other and police, police are killing cartels; once thesecartels are broken, public security and safety will follow

From Medellin to Michoacan

In Columbia, the most powerful drug cartels were Cali and Michoacan; dominated worldcocaine trade

o Made of 3-4 large drug trafficking organizations Rebel groups such as FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia), got much of

their funding from drug cartelso Cartels worked by bribing the police, politicians and judges; those who could not

be bribed were intimidated

Today, both cartels are gone in Columbia showing that it is possible to rid these druglords

o Mexicos cartels cannot be eliminated unless they are attacked from both withinand outside the country

o In Columbia the goal to dismantle and destroy these cartels was clear; althoughthere are still cartels in Colombia, they are far less harmful

o Divide and conquer strategy: defeated one cartel at a timeo US and Mexico must rely on proven strategy such as the kingpin strategy:

identifying, locating and capturing the kingpins and key lieutenants of theorganizations; weaken criminal organizations to the point that their leaders canbe removed

o Law enforcement and judicial institutions must be reformed; before thesereforms, judges lived in fear; Columbian government began paying their officersmore money so that they would not succumb to bribery

o Limits on the usefulness of the military must be understood; military wasimportant in attacking and destroying cocaine labs and battling corruptparliamentary groups

In Mexico, military is leading in taking action against drug cartels; it will take more timeuntil the Mexican Federal Police are strong enough to take over

Washington is sending money as part of theMerida Initiative; most of their funding isbeing spent on military equipment; it is more important in the long run for the US toconcentrate its assistance on making a Mexican FBI

Trial and imprisonment in the US is the only thing drug cartels fearedEndgame

Columbia had advantages that Mexico did not; Columbia was a democracy whileMexicos democracy is still evolving

Mexico will soon have a federal police authority parallel to the US Border Patrol,permitting rapid exchanges of information between the US and Mexico; spreadinginformation technology infrastructure

US should use more of its merida spending to build the Mexican federal and state police US should attempt to lower the demand for drugs through education and treatment

programs

There are only three years left in Calderons term, will the next president keep up hiswork?

Tactic deal: governments deal with drug cartels that would allow them to operate illegalbusiness in exchange for no public violence


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o This is detrimental; the public will never believe in the rule of law if thegovernment continues to permit itself to these groups

o Government should enforce peace and public safety, not organized crimeenterprises

Victory can be achieved; if Mexico follows Columbias example, they will continue toshow leadership and political will, and with the help of the US, will be able to defeat drug

cartels

In the Beginning, There Was Somalia

Somalia was historys first failed state; US troops attempted to address this failure Somalia: raging Islamist insurgency, government without control and African Union

peacekeepers with no peace to keep

The fact that countries like Somalia cannot protect their people, creates a moral dilemmaand a security challenge to the West; Obama wants to help failed states establish goodgovernment and rule of law and influence Islamic worlds to become Americanized

Obama believes that addressing poverty in remote places is a US national interest, helegitimizes this claim by stating that weak states are usually those who inflict terrorismattacks on other states (such as 9/11 on the US), therefore if we help them create ademocratic liberalistic government, it will save us in the long run

Afghanistan: US is attempting to inflict a national-building plan that puts development ina place equal to security; development must be understood less in terms of aid, and morein terms of building governmental capacity

o New template for the US policy towards failing states: US has poured a lot ofmoney into this state, while nation building is almost impossible to do in thisstate, they are trying to tell Afghans that their government is worth saving

Diplomacy needed when attempting to restore failed and fragile stateso Fixing failed states requires large commitments of money, people and timeo State Department or the US Agency for International Development (USAID):hired people willing to work to jumpstart the economy

Civilian Response Corps: an active force, ready to be dispatched within 48 hours, and astandby force, employed by the federal government

o Utilized as a civilian response to natural disaster or political crisis Failed states matter; US interests can no longer be extricated from those of faraway

countries

Failed states index: reproach to Americas faith in progress and its own capacity to solvethe worlds problems

Somalia and Afghanistan are both failed states that need attention which is in the bestinterest of the US, because they will not attack them based on their Islamic ideals;however, this mission in changing their viewpoint, will be a hard one that has never

before been attemptedo Instead of using a fully militaristic method, they are using intervention

Where Autocrats Dont Fear to Tread

Zimbabwe elected to chair the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development Leader of Zimbabwe commission destroyed his country, but was supported by

Zimbabweans, therefore the UN could not do anything to stop him

Autocracy: one person with absolute control


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UN has openly-supported democracy after the Cold War, although they still offerlegitimacy that dictators cannot find elsewhere

UN Charter: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want and freedomfrom fear

o Democracy was never on the list because the goal of the UN was to resolveconflicts, not to meddle in countries internal affairs

Countries that decolonized were considered to be sovereign and invited to join the UN;this worked very well

New member states of the UN did not have many rules to follow and their members werenot condemned if they violated human rights

When the UN tried to abolish the African Apartheid system, they failed and were kickedout by African countries

o This failure represents the change in the nature of conflict; internal conflict andpoor governance are a much greater risk to the developing worlds people-TheUN was built to stop such disputes

o Getting rulers to be good to one another requires institutional skill The UN cannot be at fault for persistence of dictators because they do not have the means

to create the end; dictators come to power on their own as a result of internal affairs oftheir state

The UN could potentially do more, but that would require the consent of the great powersand they do not want to get involved

Why Bad Guys Matter

Sani Abacha, Nigerian dictator: stole $4 billion from Nigeria; they had an oil boom afterhe died making a lot of money that, had he been alive, he would have laundered

Bottom Billion: a number of which crowd the Failed States Index Bad leaders actively avoid building the economy

o One leader wanted to build no roads so that it would be harder for the citizens tomobilize and rebel

Bad guys matter, they make weak states weaker In democracies, changing the leader does not change growth, but in autocracies, the

growth rates are as unpredictably varied as the leaders personalities

At the extreme of greed are kleptocrats At the extreme of preference for getting their own way are the tyrants At the extreme of insensitivity to the pain of others are psychopaths Among the many varieties of badness, political tyranny is surely the most destructive Politically ambitious crooks do not just fritter away the money they make from

corruption; they invest it in future power

March 14th

, 2011

The Poverty of Reform

Reformers of the World Bank adopted contradictory goals The reform program was strongly shaped by its bureaucratic and cultural environment,

which propelled change in a path-dependent direction that was not always congruent withthe interests of external actors or even the intentions of internal reformers


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Shift in preferences of major donor states regarding their financial support for, anddemands on, the Bank

Donor states; demands on the bank multiplied Welfare-oriented and state-led industrial policies of these latter states clashed with the US

promotion of neoliberal, laissez-faire policies considered critical to opening up emergingmarkets to US trade exports and foreign investment

United States and its European and Japanese counterparts split over the purpose oflending

Potential borrowers were unhappy with strict loan conditions and poor evaluations of,and social opposition to, prior structural adjustment lending

Increasing competition from other international development organizations and trends inprivate capital flows

Tremendous increase in capital flows to developing regions of the world Failure of the past structural adjustment policies to ender equitable and sustainable

growth, particularly in Africa, converged with attempts to find viable theories foraddressing the former Soviet Unions economic transitions

Concern also grew surrounding aid fungibility and the prevalence of corruption Cumulative effect of the rapidly changing normative environment was a number of

substantially different development issues that challenged the economic, apolitical, andtechnical rationality underlying the Banks traditional approaches

Most critical source of outside pressure for reform in the early 1990s came fromwatchdog and advocacy groups

NGO and CSO mocement has effectively pushed for reforms to make the Bank moreopen, transparent, and accountable for its practices

Number of unsatisfactory projects jumped Wapenhans Report specifically attributed declining performance to the Banks

organizational culture, particularly the preoccupation with blueprint models, theclientitis of staff, approval culture, and disbursement imperative

The Strategic Compact promised a renewal of development ideas and practices toimprove the effectiveness of aid, to make the Bank more responsive to borrowinggovernments, and to enhance its transparency and accountability

o Core element was a dramatic decentralization of management and staff awayfrom the Washington headquarters to the mission offices in the field

o Reinvigorate demand for Bank Country directors would be set to have more control of the administrative budget Second aim of the Compact Retooling the Development Agenda was designed to

reallocate resources away from traditional lending areas toward neglected sectors nowgiven priority, such as social, environmental and governance-related projects

Third component of the Compact envisioned a shift in the persona of the Bank from alending institution to a knowledge Bank

Last objective of the Compact redrew the basic lines of administrative authority withinthe Bank in a complex matrix management system designed by a team of consultants

o Included decentralization of staff Compacts official assessment pointed to a more client-focused organizational culture Decentralization enabled staff to improve coordination with other aid agencies and focus

more on local capacity-building exercises, both of which were connected to the improvedpotential of countries to sustain development objectives past completion of the project

Compact led to extensive layoffs and budget constraints Reform goals themselves contained inherent contradictions, sending conflicting signals to

staff and management


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o To streamline the bureaucracy and become more attuned to borrowinggovernments interests by decreasing the cost (in time and money) of projectdesign, appraisal, and oversight

o To be more responsive to the critical demands of vigilant NGOs, civil societyorganizations, and their attendant national parliaments in donor states

One such example is the rapid decentralization of the Bank, which increased the totalnumber of individuals in field offices to one-third of total staff

Example of the difficulty in realizing the goals of the matrix system concerned theinternal market system of work program agreements

Matrix system backfired and created stress, job insecurity, and poor morale as staffcompeted with each other for work

Culture grew where the staff understands that environmental impact assessments andother safeguard policies are boxes to be checked off not worthy of significant resourcesand time

Efforts to increase accountability standards and compliance associated with safeguardpolicies have worked against incentives to appear more client focused

One of the primary complaints of watchdog NGOs during the years since the Compact isthat the meticulous tracking of NGO and CSO involvement amounts to a rhetorical move,in which the increase quantity of participation masks the rather minimal quality ofparticipation

Gap between desired and actual results of the Compact Tension in the Compact reform process resulted from the juxtaposition of Wolfensohns

desire to project an image of the Bank as an open, self-critical organization eager toengage in debate with the pervasive intolerance of dissent under his administration

A hypocritical gap between a punitive environment and the espoused ideal of ideologicaldebate and open dissent is a problem endemic to the entire organization, particularbetween levels of management and staff

While it is not difficult to reach agreement on the need for reform writ large, it is highlyimprobable that the Banks many political masters are going to reach a clear consensuson what exactly future reform should look like

The challenge of catalytic leadership for long-term change

The Copenhagen Accord is a three-page political document that affirms a goal of limitingwarming to 2 degrees above preindustrial levels

The accord appears to overcome the North-South stalemate that blocked US ratificationof the Kyoto Protocol, because it opens the door to commitments from all majoreconomies

Dont underestimate the importance of legitimacy in multilateral climate negotiationo Ultimate agreement requires the legitimacy of the wider UN processes

Dont let the politics of multilateral climate negotiations undermine progress elsewhereo Even when UN negotiations have floundered, the parallel growth of carbon

markets and other experiments in climate policy development demonstrateenormous potential to capitalize on and scale up policy innovation

Success on both fronts is inexorably linkedo While emissions trading is poised to become the central piece of the global

response to climate change, cap-and-trade initiatives need a policy commitmentto create demand for carbon as a commodity and they must have enforcement

o Enforcement ensures the integrity of carbon marketsCopenhagens accomplishments


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Much credit goes to developing countries who set up plans Goes to show value of international cooperation

March 21st

, 2011

March 28th, 2011

Case Studies of Infectious Disease Outbreaks in Cities: Emerging Factors and Policy IssuesSapir

IntroductionCities are growing rapidly due to economic opportunities, thus people are migrating from rural

communities in hopes of economic gainIn the move to the cities, there is increased competition

Heterogeneity in relation to the health status of urban populations has influenced healthpolicies:

Concentration of people: Health facilities are more available to those who are betteroff; health systems are created to serve the upper socio-economic classes thus,health service for minorities is shifted to the rural areas which is hard forminorities in the urban centers to get to

Better health in urban areas: This is misleading because there is a lot of money inhealth care due to the large quantities of the economically advantagedcontributing to health care, because the wealthy are contributing to it, they are theones that it is available to; poor people in urban centers usually do not havedoctors at all therefore they are not included in surveys of health care so thesurveys are biased by the rich saying that health care is great

Housing and habitation influence the susceptibility of disease: Poverty by postal codeThe poor usually live in areas that are cheaper because they are dirtier, inflicting health

problems on those who breathe in the air etc.Background

The urban centers in the developing worlds are witnessing an increase in their urban poorThe high number of poor is a result of the growth of natural increase (the number of

people born in relation to those who die)The conditions of life for the urban poor due to high populations, is a breeding ground for

disease and epidemics; between open sewers etc. and pollution etc.Urban life allows for crowding and promiscuity which makes even more diseasesIn third world countries, the families in urban centers are as big as those in rural centers, yet the

traditional support structures fail to support these large family sizes

Working hours of the parents change from rural to urban centers so there is less supervision ofthe children, this leads to fast food and lack of changing diapers, no breastfeeding etc.

Lack of maternal care can lead to lack of childcare therefore leading to more childdeaths

Lack of health care to those who work in the informal sectors (no benefits) further promotedisease

Urban patterns of infectious disease: an overview from mortality dataCities have different diseases that cause the most deaths


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Third world country cities have the youngest death rateThe lack of equal distribution of medical services is detrimentalDiarrhea diseases usually break out due to lack of sanitation and is very prevalent in the urban

centers of third world countries; this shows the living conditions of the poorLack of sanitary water is often a cause

Intra-urban differences are said to be greater than rural-urban differences, showing the

differences of health care determined by where you liveDeath rates are lower in rural areas

Lack of data form the slum populations and their marginalization from social, legislative andwelfare systems bias this information making it worse than what it appears to be

Cholera epidemics in urban agglomerations: the case of Dhaka, BangladeshGeography of Bangladesh: many people are below sea level (floods are frequent occurrences),

the area is prone to cyclones, droughts etc.When floods occur, they are often followed by diarrhea diseasesPopulation is continuing to boom although conditions are terrible; parents fear that they will

lose children, so they have manyCholera epidemics arise after monsoons and floodsWar of Independence: severe food crisis and heavy floods on top of warfare led the homeless

to flock to the government for support that they were in no economic position to give;water was not available, so rivers were used for communal bathing and drinking whichled to more epidemics

If one person in the family got Cholera, it would commonly be passed on to members of theirfamily

People who ate at charitable feeding centers were more at risk for Cholera in the epidemic of1974 than those who ate at home; risks of urbanization and urban centers

In urban areas, young males were most susceptible to disease, however it is very possible thatthis statistic is the result of many young males being hospitalized; Adult females are atspecial risk due to their domestic duties they can catch it very easily, yet avoid hospitalsbecause they have to tend to the home

Sanitary conditions and lack of water are principal risk factors

Jerusalem: people from the urban centers went back to the rural centers, bringing Cholera withthem; as they cultivated food the vegetables were contaminated and selling them createdan epidemic

Low economic status and inadequate diet were noted as principal characteristics of cholerapatients in Manila

Cholera: unhygienic and unsanitary conditions related to fecal habits and waste disposalCrowding results in thisContamination of water sourcesMass food distribution/commercial feeding centers (unsanitary handling of food)Migration into cities and settlement into poor areas carries infection and can infect the

areaIn caring for the sick, women are at a particularly high risk

Breastfeeding decreases the chances of getting cholera, yet urban lifestyles disallow for womento have the time and health to be able to breastfeed

Meningitis epidemic of 1988 and 1989 in sub-Saharan Africa: the cases of Addis Ababa,Khartoum and NDjamena

Meningococcal Meningitis: infection is an epidemic which creates emergency situations notonly in the country where the epidemic occurs, but in the neighboring countries andbeyond

Sub-Saharan Africa is known as the meningitis beltbecause epidemics break out so oftenMajor problems that result to the outbreak of meningitis


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No prediction of the outbreakNo early warning indicators

Meningitis is most likely to break out in urban centersSudan: Khartoum

Meningitis is prominent in Sudan, there is even a Central Epidemiology Unit for diseasesurveillance

During one of the epidemics, there were 50 000 reported casesAfter the first epidemic of meningitis, the rapidity of its spread throughout the country was

seen therefore awareness was brought to the community through the media, thegovernment provided vaccination to vast amounts of its population

However, the urban poor who migrated to urban centers for employment opportunitiesand food, were not supplied with vaccinations as the centers for them were not intheir vicinity; since there were no centers near them and there was no way ofgetting to them, there were many more poor casualties than rich

The detection of the epidemic was rapid but response was slowGovernment was not prepared for such an epidemic, therefore no data was collected and there

was a limited about of instruments for curing itThe inadequate assessment of the first epidemic resulted in another full-blown epidemic

Ethiopia: Addis AbabaActive case detection began in small administrative units within the city, but the government

became more aggressive with it and immunized all high risk groups (less than 20 and inschool, prison and military camps, health workers)

Chad: NDjamenaTook a while to declare the epidemic because there was one hospital treating patients and they

were too busyGovernment attempted to contain the epidemic and opened up other health care facilities to

accommodate for the infected, although resources were only at the Central Hospital andthe other facilities opened up did not have doctors, so they were useless

Instead of vaccinating the rich, the government gave vaccination to high risk groups whichcaused violent upheaval

This targeting was not well-directed and there was another outbreakLeptospirosis outbreak following floods in Sao Paulo

Risk of an outbreak increases with floods, population density, rats, cats, dogs and animalleptospirosis

Uncontrolled urban sprawl and population continues to grow exponentiallyDue to growth, fertile lands have been covered by concrete so there is no where for the

rain to go (it would usually absorb into the land)The pollution and geophysical conditions linked to the vast populations altered microclimate

and meteorological pattern in the region (these are two of the biggest threats in modernsociety)

Most of the infected were males showing the distribution of workFloods are the most common trigger and they are very common

The hospital treated everyone who came to t

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