Japan,Russia, and the Northern Territories: Continuities,changes, obstacles,opportunities

The so-called collapse of communism has reinforced powerful North American- and Western-European-centred visions which continue to see 'Western' models of development as the key to modernization world-wide. The end of the Cold War has also drawn renewed attention to the rise of an increasingly dynamic capitalist East Asia, which has brought with it triumphant East Asian-centred discourses which celebrate East Asianstyle development models distinct from and superior to 'Western' models of development. At the same time, challenges to the dominant discourses and the emergent post-Cold War capitalist order continue to emerge from numerous angles and at multiple sites. Two recent books represent important efforts at critically examining global inequality and articulating alternative perspectives to the dominant international narratives on development and social change. In After the Revolution , Arif Dirlik attempts to recast and recuperate Marxism so that it can play a role in progressive politics at the end of the twentieth century. Meanwhile, Arturo Escobar's new work seeks to engage critically with the dominant Western discourse on 'development' and sketch out alternative post-development trajectories from a position that synthesises post-structural analysis with the insights and concerns of grassroots activists-writers and the new social movements. Beginning with Escobar's book, I will examine some of the key themes and draw out what I see as some of the main analytical strengths and weaknesses of these two contributions to the post-Cold War development debate.     

Government,Effectiveness, Performance,and Local Property Values

Abstract

We offer a practical measure of local government effectiveness in the provision of public services relating service expenditures to aggregate property value. Building on the work of Brueckner (1979 Brueckner, J. K. 1979. Property values, local public expenditure, and economic efficiency. Journal of Public Economics, 11: 223–246.  [Google Scholar], 1982 Brueckner, J. K. 1982. A test for allocative efficiency in the local public sector. Journal of Public Economics, 19: 311–331. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 1983 Brueckner, J. K. 1983. Property value maximization and public sector efficiency. Journal of Urban Economics., 14: 1–16.  [Google Scholar]) and Henderson (1990, 1995) we present an aggregate property value maximization model where levels of local public services are capitalized into aggregate property values. Using data for Wisconsin municipalities we demonstrate that service expenditure levels, and simultaneously corresponding taxation levels, are suboptimal and should be increased. The aggregate property value maximization test suggests that local public services in Wisconsin are consistently under-provided. By monitoring local property values officials can objectively measure if public services are being provided in an optimal manner.     

Money,exports, government spending,and income in Peru, 1951–66

Most studies of open developing economies, such as Peru, have found the foreign sector's impact on the domestic economy is very great. This is usually true whether the vehicle for changes in income is monetary or real.¹ This study, following the basic models developed by Polak, Prais and Schotta, will attempt to explain short run changes in income in Peru using two different approaches: a monetary approach and an income approach.     

THE CHALLENGES TO TEACHERS,TEACHING, AND POST-SECONDARY TEACHING INSTITUTIONS: ASSUMPTIONS,PREDILECTIONS, PROCESSES,AND PROJECTIONS

ABSTRACT

The contemporary forces impacting teachers and teaching are capable of becoming an overwhelming, uncontrollable wave of disaster or an opportunity for proactively redesigning teaching at a higher level of commitment, performance, and relevance to make and shape critically important intellectual and societal contributions for the future. This symposium aims to galvanize the teachers in post-secondary education to reject the deadly viruses of reactive fear, credentialed complacency, and intellectual rigidity in their current stages and replace them with proactive options, alternatives, and designs.

More specifically, this Introduction clarifies why the respective articles were commissioned to appear in this symposium based on the reasons, concerns, and observations that stimulated the Editor to pursue and design a symposium on teaching in the social sciences.

The concluding contention of this Introduction is that all teachers can, and must, influence the events in both their personal and professional lives by actively immersing themselves in the values, visions, and cultural anchors of their profession, discipline, craft, society, and belief systems. There is no doubt in the Editor's mind that the symposium presentations will add much substance that will help make all of us great teachers.

“What in context beguiles, out of context mortifies.”

David Wayne     

“Neoliberalism,Class, Gender and Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual,Transgender and Queer Politics in Poland”

While the growth of visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) political struggles in Poland, and illiberal neo-populist reactions to the queer presence in public space and the public sphere since 2004 has spawned much academic debate, there has been less critical discussion of LGBTQ politics in relation to class and neoliberalism. This article seeks to make two key contributions to understandings of the relationships between gender, sexuality and political economy. The first is recognition of the tensions and contradictions inherent within practices of neoliberalisation. It is suggested that neoliberalism can be both generative and hostile towards LGBTQ politics. Processes of neoliberalisation produce queer winners and losers, and it is suggested that if sexually progressive alternatives to neoliberalism are to be developed, they need to recognise the tensions and contradictions inherent within processes of neoliberalism. In so doing, the class dimensions of neoliberal sexualities need to be made visible and examined critically. Secondly, it is argued that discussions of classed sexualities are often framed within specific national contexts, and thereby fail to recognise the transnational dimensions of classed sexualities. Discussions of the sexual politics of neoliberalism are often grounded in Anglo-American contexts and sometimes fail to recognise how neoliberal sexualities are framed outside of the West. These two key objectives are addressed by an examination of the economic and class dimensions of contemporary LGBTQ political struggles in Poland—specifically the organisation of marches for equality and tolerance within Polish cities since 2001.     

Politics,presidents, and DCIs

Sukarno's Apologists Write Again

Audrey R. Kahin and George McT. Kahin: Subversion as Foreign Policy: The Secret Eisenhower and Dulles Debacle in Indonesia, The New Press, New York, NY, 1995, 318 pp., $25.00.

The Ames Case: Various Versions

James Adams: Sellout: Aldrich Ames and the Corruption of the CIA, Viking, New York, 1995, 322 p., $23.95.

Peter Maas: Killer Spy: The Inside Story of the FBI's Pursuit and Capture of Aldrich Ames, America's Deadliest Spy, Warner Books, New York, 1996,264 p., $6.50 (paperback; first published in hardback by Warner Books in 1995).

Tim Weiner, David Johnston, and Neil A. Lewis: Betrayal: The Story of Aldrich Ames, An American Spy, Random House, New York, 1995,308 p., $25.00.

David Wise: Nightmover: How Aldrich Ames Sold the CIA to the KGB for $4.6 Million, HarperCollins, New York, 1995,356 p., $25.00.

The Brutal March Backward

Dmitri Volkogonov: Lenin: A New Biography (Translated and edited by Harold Shukman), The Free Press, New York, 1994, 529 p., $30.00.

The Big Stretch

John Newman: Oswald and the CIA, Carroll &; Graf, New York, 1995,627 p., $28.00.

More About the Past

Oleg Gordievsky: Next Stop Execution, Macmillan, London, 1995, 396 pp., £16.99.