The Politics Of Economic Adjustment

"Economic reform by Third World governments is usually portrayed as the product of outside pressure, especially from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. This welcome collection provides an important counter-perspective by putting domestic politics at center stage. Miles Kahler demonstrates that international institutions only rarely play an important role."--Orbis' "Joan Nelson and her collaborators have performed a valuable service for those concerned about the politics of reform by bringing together a series of informed and insightful essays that address clearly and concisely the difficult political dilemmas of economic adjustment."--Merilee S. Grindle,Economic Development and Cultural Change

This study considers both the determinants of a government's choice between adjustment strategies for the transformation of mature industrial economies and how that choice affects the nature of liberal democracy.

This is a collection of essays offering comparative analysis of the divergent experiences of developing countries responding to economic crises by adopting macroeconomic stabilization and structural adjustment policies.

This book addresses the question of how political capacity of the government of a developing country affects its ability to implement structural adjustments in its economy in response to external pressures. It builds on the inductive foundation of comparative case studies and speculative insights.

This study considers both the determinants of a government's choice between adjustment strategies for the transformation of mature industrial economies and how that choice affects the nature of liberal democracy.

Research report, comparison of industrial policy approaches to specific industry restructuring and adjustment assistance in Australia, France, Germany, Federal Republic, Japan, UK and USA, reviewing implications for Canada - examines employment policies, training policies, trade policies, regional development, role of trade unions and employers organizations, concentrating on the textile industry shipbuilding, coal mining, motor vehicle industry, etc. References, statistical tables.

The acute economic pressures of the 1980s have forced virtually all of Latin America and Africa and some countries in Asia into painful austerity programs and difficult economic reforms. Scholars have intensively analyzed the economics of this situation, but they have given much less attention to the political forces involved. In this volume a number of eminent contributors analyze the politics of adjustment in thirteen countries and nineteen governments, drawing comparisons not only across the full set of cases but also within clusters selected to clarify specific issues. Why do some governments respond promptly to signs of economic trouble, while others muddle indecisively for years? Why do some confine their response to temporary macroeconomic measures, while others adopt broader, even sweeping, programs of reform? What leads some countries to experiment with heterodox approaches, while most, however reluctantly, pursue orthodox courses? Why, confronted with intense political protest, have some governments persisted while others have altered or abandoned course? The answers to these questions are political, not economic, and they are examined here by Thomas M. Callaghy, Stephan Haggard, Miles Kahler, Robert R. Kauman, Joan M. Nelson, and Barbara Stallings.