Multiple Dimensions of Social Assistance: The Case of Peru's ‘Glass of Milk' Programme

Social assistance has attracted renewed interest in countries where economic growth is doing too little on its own to address high levels of income inequality and poverty. Research into the material effects of such programmes is important but can be misleading if it fails to capture their full meaning to intended beneficiaries and other stakeholders. This is illustrated by a case study of Peru's ‘glass of milk’ programme, drawing on mostly qualitative evidence of its material, social and cultural dimensions. The programme is found to be well adapted to diverse contexts, but in a way that enhances its efficacy as a gendered instrument of mass patronage rather than as a means of addressing Peru's structural inequalities. The paper also suggests that a switch to conditional cash transfers is unlikely, on its own, to change this.     

Internal organizational problems and the sources of tensions of terrorist movements as catalysts of violence∗

The internal organizational problems of terrorist groups are analyzed. The purpose is to investigate how violent action by members of such organizations can be triggered by internal organizational problems rather than by external factors exclusively. Two kinds of problems are studied: command problems and political problems. Command problems include the following: reconciliation of security with efficient communication, the clustering of ethnic groups under stress, the role of women, and the quality of the membership. The political problems include the following: the self‐destructive potential in each terrorist organization (especially in case of its victory), the problem of inflated membership, and the role of terrorist leaders as the givers of moral dispensation.     

Conditions of non‐development: The case of Lesotho

A peculiar combination of social and economic factors entailed by the proximity of South Africa creates, for Lesotho, a syndrome of non‐development that may usefully be visualised as a vicious circle in three parts—Poverty, Migration, Ideology—and is so described here. It is the purpose of this paper to demonstrate that the economic facts of village life in Lesotho (and in countries with certain characteristics in common with Lesotho) are perpetuated by their effect on the individual villager. The analysis enters a caveat to the theory of ‘aspiration effect’ [Firth and Yamey, 1963], extends the concept of frustration gap’ [McLoughlin, 1970] and adds a dimension to the cognitive map of migrant ideology [Philpott 1968].     

How Is a History of the Sociology of Religion Possible?: Reflections on Roberto Cipriani's Sociology of Religion

The effort to write a history of the sociology of religion requires a delineation of the field. In turn, this requires a discrimination among the key ideas determining that field, including the notions of religion, sociology, the sacred, and a host of others. This is a prerequisite for sorting the various contributors and contributions to this field as well as determining the value of any such history to the future advance of the study of human consciousness and conduct, including religion. Cipriani's book is reviewed, and its strengths and weaknesses assayed, in light of these concerns. Several lacunae in the book are identified, such as the absence of any treatment of non-Western writers and its failure to substantially engage the work of women, including Jane Ellen Harrison's pioneering sociology of religion.     

Public–private efficiency in the delivery of services of general economic interest: The case of urban transport

This paper studies urban transport, a public service with extensive initiatives towards deregulation and privatisation throughout the European Union and in other developed and developing countries. The relative merits of deregulation, public or private provision and the implications of different policies for the performance of public services have become important issues. A crucial question is what type of operating and regulatory environment is best suited to stimulate efficiency in public service delivery. This paper analyses specifically the effect of privatisation and deregulation on the technical efficiency of bus services in 73 cities, in order to compare performance in cities with bus services provided by public operators, private operators, both types simultaneously or in which the service is deregulated. The behaviour of the different types of operators analysed in this paper shows that competition – total or partial – is effective in controlling costs.     

The Globalization of Nationalism and the Future of the Nation?CState

The state is a specific form of government, distinguished from others by its impersonal character and the recognition on the part of the office holders that they represent the will of the people. This form of government is an implication of nationalism. Thus, every state is a nation?Cstate. Since nationalism is the cultural framework of modernity in all its expressions, every state is also a modern state. The future of the nation?Cstate depends on the future of nationalism. The recent globalization of nationalism into the formidable civilizations of South-East Asia has opened a new era for the latter. Therefore, the future of the nation?Cstate at present looks brighter than ever.     

The tying of aid and the problem of “local costs”

Son preference has persisted in the face of sweeping economic and social changes in the countries studied here. We attribute this persistence to their similar family systems, which generate strong disincentives to raise daughters – whether or not their marriages require dowries – while valuing adult women's contributions to the household. Urbanisation, female education and employment can only slowly change these incentives without more direct efforts by the state and civil society to increase the flexibility of the kinship system such that daughters and sons can be perceived as being more equally valuable. Much can be done to accelerate this process through social movements, legislation and the mass media.     

A method of estimating the distribution of farm incomes in Turkey∗

The ‘naive’ idea current among many of the older nationalists of the Third World regarding the de‐industrializing effect of western capitalism on their countries is confirmed by the analysis of occupational data relating to the State of Bihar in India. Similar evidence is also available for Egypt and China. If we shift from models of what can ideally happen under capitalism in its international aspects and look at what actually happened until, say, 1914, we find that it often had opposite effects on the advanced capitalist countries and their overseas offshoots, and on the colonial or semi‐colonial economies of the Third World in respect of industrial employment, investment in productive assets and distribution of income. Technological change even today often carries highly disruptive and inegalitarian consequences for Third World countries. In the light of such experience with market‐orientated growth, an alternative model is suggested in which development proceeds by localized economic activities, distributing incomes and opportunities equally and keeping out ‘backwash’ effects on other regions. One major task of the economist in the future will be to explore the inner logic of such a ‘paradigm’, suggest the means of implementing the model, and ferret out possible contradictions. The Chinese (and perhaps Vietnamese) experience may serve as an example or laboratory for such explorations.     

Questioning the Hegemony of the Nation State in Belarus: Production of Intellectual Discourses as Production of Resources∗

The bulk of scholarly literature views nationalism as harmful to democratic transition. Yet Juan Linz and Alfred Stepan indirectly suggest that nationalism may benefit democratization. This study shows that under the right conditions nationalism can benefit democratic transition. Building on the typology of Linz and Stepan and the liberal nationalism tradition of Yael Tamir and David Miller, this study examines the transitions in Estonia and Ukraine. It introduces an important layer, the multinational federal state, into the typologies developed by Linz and Stepan to show that nationalism can prove a useful political tool of mobilization in a multiethnic setting.     

The empire of capital and the remaking of centre–periphery relations

Through most of the second half of the 20th century the idea of ‘development’ served as a key conceptual marker for understanding global hierarchies of wealth and power. The development initiative acquired epochal significance at the intersection of three world-historical processes: the transition in the regulation of economic activity from laissez-faire to nationally managed economies; the dismantling of colonial empires and the emergence of a Third World; and the shift in the locus of hegemony from Britain to the USA, and the parallel cold war bifurcation of the world order. The promise and optimism generated by development was unevenly sustained during the long postwar boom, although the subsequent downturn altered many of the co-ordinates within which development was conceived, but outside which it could not survive. In this context, neoliberal globalisation has emerged as a new, albeit tenuous, framework for articulating global hierarchies. By historicising the development framework, and its links to the making and unmaking of the Third World, this article provides one plausible vantage point from which to survey the current dynamics between power and plenty.     

The Evolution of the Market of the Hungarian Printing Industry after 1989: The End of a Success Story?

This article examines a case study of one industry in order to explore the factors influencing changing performance levels in the industries of post-socialist economies. It explores the influence on industrial performance of a number of once-only non-repetitive factors of market development that were typical of the transition period and compares them with longer term aspects of the market economy. The case that we discuss here is the development of the market for products of the Hungarian printing industry since the late 1980s. During the transition phase, privatisation, deregulation, the abolition of administrative distribution, and radical cuts in subsidies were all among the factors affecting this industry. Its supply chains also changed radically. However, these lost their importance after the transition had been completed and the long term processes of technical development and consumer behaviour became the main determinants of the behaviour of the printing companies.     

Reversal of migration in the labor reserves of Zimbabwe? Prospects for change

Changing patterns of migration in Zimbabwe over time are reviewed, with particular reference to rural-urban migration and the government's efforts to slow out-migration from rural areas. The author notes that the recently established resettlement schemes are achieving a level of success in lowering rates of out-migration. However, he also observes that adequate credit for the purchase of equipment and cattle is necessary if out-migration is to be reduced.     

A Survey of Terrorism of the Left in Italy: 1970–78

Abstract

The terrorists who have ravaged Italy over the past several years are not totally faceless. The names and backgrounds of many are well known, as are their habitual modes of operations and the ideologies by which they are moved. After a brief catalog of the terrorists’ actions, the article outlines the physiognomy of Italy's major terrorist groups. A substantial part of this consists of a list of each group's victims, since any assessment of the terrorist groups’ effects must begin with an awareness of which sectors of Italian society have been struck. The backgrounds of the terrorists, the political language they speak, and the list of their victims point unambiguously to the conclusion that terrorism in Italy is overwhelmingly a phenomenon of the Left and that it conceives of itself as a means of bringing about a Communist regime. The terrorists regard themselves as the competitors and reformers of the Italian Communist party. But at the same time they have made good their claim as the mortal enemies of the enemies of the Communist party. The question regarding the Italian terrorists’ international connections cannot be answered definitively. Such evidence as exists, however, suggests that today's self‐declared Communist terrorists may be acting in ways similar to their predecessors of the 1940s and early 1950s, who found safe haven in the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe.     

The role of architecture in the Republic of Georgia’s European aspirations

Alignment with Europe has been a popular foreign policy objective among post-socialist nations. In the Republic of Georgia, discourse surrounding the country’s Euro-Atlantic orientation surged in the decade after the 2003 Rose Revolution. While such discourse has been examined in the context of political reforms and national security goals, this article foregrounds how it was incorporated into alterations of the built environment. Focusing on the urban transformations of the city of Batumi after the rise to power of the United National Movement government, it demonstrates how architecture served as a tool for selectively rewriting Georgia’s contemporary European identity. This article concentrates on two parallel initiatives to transform Batumi into a contemporary European city: the reconstruction of portions of the Old City and the new development along the seaside boulevard. Using evidence collected through qualitative methods, it further highlights the contradictions that emerged during this process of redevelopment and rebranding, as the state balanced initiatives for new development with other post-revolutionary state-building objectives, such as political reform and tourism-market production. Accordingly, it unpacks the various national and international politico-economic forces at play in the process of developing Batumi into the image of a contemporary European city.     

A mark of true design

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