Beyond The Miracle Of The Market

As capitalism defeated socialism in Eastern Europe, the market displaced the state in the developing world. In Beyond the Miracle of the Market, first published in 2005, Bates focuses on Kenya, a country that continued to grow while others declined in Africa, and mounts a prescient critique of the neo-classical turn in development economics. Attributing Kenya's exceptionalism to its economic institutions, this book pioneers the use of 'new institutionalism' in the field of development. In doing so, however, the author accuses the approach of being apolitical. Institutions introduce power into economic life. To account for their impact, economic analysis must therefore be complemented by political analysis; micro-economics must be imbedded in political science. In making this argument, Bates relates Kenya's subsequent economic decline to the change from the Kenyatta to the Moi regime and the subsequent use of the power of economic institutions to redistribute rather than to create wealth.

Written as a tribute to the remarkable intellectual career of Colin Leys, the debates in this book deal with some of the most pressing problems confronting the majority of citizens in both first world and third world contexts. Their contributions provide the confidence to pursue new possibilities that permit a more optimistic, if critical, outlook. Topics covered include contemporary debates about globalization and the nation state, African development, prospects for British socialism after Blair, social movements, and current issues in political and social theory. Contributors include Laurie Adkin (University of Alberta), Abigail Bakan, Bruce Berman (Queen's University), Manfred Bienefeld (Carleton University), Alex Callinicos (University of York, UK), Bonnie Campbell (University of Quebec at Montreal), Michael Chege (University of Florida), Radhika Desai (University of Victoria), Lauren Dobell (PhD candidate, Oxford University), Phil Goldman (Queen's University), Banu Helvacioglu (Bilkent University, Turkey), Robert Jessop (University of Lancaster, UK), Colin Leys (emeritus, Queen's University), Eleanor MacDonald, Marguerite Mendell (Concordia University), Leo Panitch (York University), Anne Phillips (London School of Economics and Political Science), and John Saul (Atkinson College, York University).

In Sparks' third book on South Africa, he writes about the outcomes and continuing struggles of a post-Mandela elected government. The democracy faces a widening gap between rich and poor, continued racial and ethnic tensions, and conflicts with other countries such the Congo and Zimbabwe. He describes it as a land where the First and Third World meet, with examples that are important to other countries facing the same challenges.

To most people, the word "economics" sounds like homework. In Visible Hand, Wall Street Journal op-ed editor Matthew Hennessey brings basic economic principles vividly to life in plain English, without resort to numbers, graphs, or jargon. This isn't Fed policy or the stock market. This is the essential stuff: supply and demand, incentives and tradeoffs, scarcity and innovation, work and leisure. A teenager should be able to discuss these things intelligently. Sadly, too few of us can explain them even in adulthood. Visible Hand equips readers with the essential vocabulary necessary to understand and explain how we make the choices we do. In Hennessey's hands, economics is far from the dismal science. It's the sparkling art of decision making. No homework necessary.

This book highlights current business practices in the emerging markets of China, Ghana, India, Kenya, Nigeria and UAE, and explains how global competition has created a culture of competitiveness and an era of consumerism. The region-specific issues, tested theories, and empirical evidence make the book of value to both researchers and managers.

Reassessing the developing world through the lens of Europe's past Today’s developing nations emerged from the rubble of the Second World War. Only a handful of these countries have subsequently attained a level of prosperity and security comparable to that of the advanced industrial world. The implication is clear: those who study the developing world in order to learn how development can be achieved lack the data to do so. In The Development Dilemma, Robert Bates responds to this challenge by turning to history, focusing on England and France. By the end of the eighteenth century, England stood poised to enter “the great transformation.” France by contrast verged on state failure, and life and property were insecure. Probing the histories of these countries, Bates uncovers a powerful tension between prosperity and security: both may be necessary for development, he argues, but efforts to achieve the one threaten the achievement of the other. A fundamental tension pervades the political economy of development. Bates also argues that while the creation of a central hierarchy—a state—may be necessary to the achievement of development, it is not sufficient. What matters is how the power of the state is used. France and England teach us that in some settings the seizure and redistribution of wealth—not its safeguarding and fostering—is a winning political strategy. These countries also suggest the features that mark those settings—features that appear in nations throughout the developing world. Returning to the present, Bates applies these insights to the world today. Drawing on fieldwork in Zambia and Kenya, and data from around the globe, he demonstrates how the past can help us to understand the performance of nations in today’s developing world.

Advocates of rational choice theory in political science have been perceived by their critics as attempting to establish an intellectual hegemony in contemporary social science, to the detriment of alternative methods of research. The debate has gained a nonacademic audience, hitting the pages of the New York Times and the New Republic. In the academy, the antagonists have expressed their views in books, journal articles, and at professional conferences. Mark I. Lichbach addresses the question of the place of rational choice theory in the social sciences in general and in political science in particular. He presents a typology of the antagonists as either rationalist, culturalist, or structuralist and offers an insightful examination of the debate. He reveals that the rationalist bid for hegemony and synthesis is rooted in the weaknesses, not the strengths, of rationalist thought. He concludes that the various theoretical camps are unlikely to accept the claimed superiority of the rationalist approach but that this opposition is of value in itself to the social sciences, which requires multiple perspectives to remain healthy. With its penetrating examination of the assumptions and basic arguments of each of the sides to this debate, this book cuts through the partisan rhetoric and provides an essential roadmap for the future of the discipline. Mark I. Lichbach is Professor of Government and Politics, University of Maryland.

This volume arises from a major conference on issues of importance to the future of Taiwan and the region. With contributions by scholars from Taiwan and the West, the book is divided into sections on: political reform and development on Taiwan, Taiwan's changing political economy, social and environmental issues on Taiwan, Taiwan external relations and the future of Taiwan-PRC relations. Among the many issues addressed within this framework are the evolution of democracy, local politics, Taiwan and the international division of labour, the labour movement, environmentalism, international commercial links and the role of the United States in Taiwan-PRC relations.