Lessons from Mexico's economic and social transition

During the past three decades, Mexico has undergone major political, economic, and social changes sparked by regional developments and, particularly, globalisation. Its experiences provide valuable lessons for other countries.     

A study in social change

Taiwan has dramatically improved its response to domestic violence within the last fifteen years, becoming the first East Asian country to pass major legislation criminalizing domestic violence. Ethnographic research on the origins, development, and operations of the domestic violence prevention movement shows how individuals from diverse backgrounds acted collectively to achieve this social reversal. Activists have profited from feminist social networks, the growing economic and political power of women, domestic violence models from other countries, a unified vision of creating new legislation, and an atmosphere open to change. Their efforts were catalyzed by three widely publicized cases regarding violence against women and culminated in the passage of the Domestic Violence Prevention and Treatment Act in 1998. The domestic violence prevention movement in Taiwan provides a valuable case study of social change and a model for other East Asian countries interested in passing similar legislation.     

Conflict between social structure and legal framework: political corruption in Pakistan

There is a growing body of literature on the conflict between social environment and legal system. This article seeks to unravel the contradiction between Pakistan's anti-corruption laws and its social world. The study of this uncharted territory becomes even more urgent when the consequences of corruption are taken into account in the broader context of Pakistan's internal cohesion, democratic development and sustainable growth. Despite the fact that Pakistan inherited a British legal framework based on the division between public and private spheres, the article argues that a greater part of Pakistani society does not recognise such division. The split between public and private realms which provides a conceptual framework for any definition of political corruption seems culturally deficient. In particular, the paper attempts to demonstrate that ethnic loyalties by taking precedence over the public interest give rise to the ‘moral view of corruption', which explains why many people do not view the use of public office for ethnic gain to be an act of corruption. In these particular circumstances, the paper finds an underlying conflict in the treatment of corruption between the social and legal systems. The disparity between the legal system and social world has given rise to grave concern on the part of civil society.     

China,Pakistan, Bangladesh

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to explain the policy of China during the Bangla Desh crisis of 1971. To explain, however, is not to explain away. The goal is to define not to defend.     

Agrarian and social change in a Javanese village

This article examines rural economic changes in a Javanese village since the introduction of the Green Revolution. Special focus is placed on rural labour market and on the structure of land tenure. It will be shown that cropping intensification, expanding work opportunities in the non-agricultural sector, the longer periods of education and the formation of a more rigid boundary between agricultural and non-agricultural work have helped to decrease pressure on the rural labor market. It will be argued in the latter part of this article that a pessimistic view of profitability in rice cultivation, coupled with rising land prices, has provided a condition in which capital investment in the agricultural sector is not thought of as the best option and consequently, the structure of land tenure has not experienced a substantial change after the Green Revolution.     

Drones over Pakistan: Secrecy,Ethics, and Counterinsurgency

Abstract

The US government appears to be using drones to launch air strikes inside Pakistan. This article details uncertainties regarding the ethical soundness of these strikes and highlights the consequent need for greater official transparency. Available evidence is assessed in the light of traditional ethical requirements that the use of force is beneficial to a legitimate military objective, that it discriminates between combatants and noncombatants, and that it generates harm that is proportional to the expected military benefit. The murky picture that emerges is an inadequate foundation for determining whether US drone strikes in Pakistan constitute a just or an unjust use of force. Arguably, however, the very persistence of doubt on this point undermines international norms on the use of force and the reputation of the United States as a champion thereof. The US government should therefore either refrain from drone strikes or explain publicly how they are beneficial, discriminate, and proportionate.     

Japan-Asia economic relations: Trade, investment, and the economic crisis

Japan has been and will continue to be an important economic player in the Asian region through its internationalization policy involving trade, foreign investments, aid, technical and other forms of economic cooperation. More recently, despite its own domestic problems, Japan has extended financial and other forms of assistance and support to the Asian economies which have been hit by the economic crisis. As it is in its interests that the Asian region survives and recover, Japan will indeed continue to lend a helping hand to Asia, either through unilateral or multilateral forms of assistance or both. Due to growing interdependence, Asia needs Japan and Japan needs Asia. This article analyzes Japan's economic relations with Asia. In particular, it hopes to present an overview of Japan’s involvement in Asia through trade and investments prior to the Asian economic crisis which began in July 1997. Moreover, this article provides an assessment of the crisis and identifies Japan’s responses and involvement towards the economic recovery of the crisis-hit economies in the region. The article draws from earlier versions of various papers presented at conferences and seminars in Washington, D.C. (1997), Japan and Mexico (1998), and Singapore and Thailand (1999).     

(Over)determining social disorder: Tajikistan and the economic collapse of perestroika

This article analyses the rise of social unrest in the Tajik SSR in 1990–1991 from the perspective of the republic’s place within the broader Soviet economy and the collapse of that economy over the course of perestroika (1985–1991). Countering standard narratives of glasnost, democratization and nationalism in Tajikistan, it demonstrates that a close reading of the historical record points to sharp economic downturn as the most plausible immediate cause of the social disorder that came to engulf the Tajik SSR in the final years of the USSR and led to the Tajik Civil War of the 1990s.