International transactions in innovative machinery∗

The paper explores the economic implications of two different types of transactions to bring new technology into Third World industries — ’machine‐maker’ and ‘machine‐user’ transfers. Its main conclusion is agnostic. It suggests that there is no presumption in favour of ‘arms length’ transaction as opposed to the more complex transfers of the machine‐user type—not at least in terms of comparative static analysis. The comparative merits of the two types of transfer depend in the end on their international distributional effect and the relative case with which these can be controlled by government policy.     

Group influence in American county politics∗

Judgement has a special place in management in the public domain, since a role of management is to enable effective political judgement. The article stresses Vickers's analysis of appreciative judgement. It goes on to discuss how the process of political judgement can be strengthened showing the implications for management, for political processes and for democratic practice.     

Planning in the passenger transport executives∗

Abstract This article examines the use of Management Buy‐outs (MBOs) as a strategy for the reorganization of service provision by some local authorities in response to compulsory competitive tendering (CCT) under the 1988 Local Government Act. It looks at:

1. How MBOs fit in with the other patterns of change associated with CCT.

   The reasons why particular local authorities have sold service organizations to MBOs.
   The immediate and short term implications of MBOs.
   The longer term prospects for MBO companies in CCT service areas.
   The prospects for further MBOs being established.

     

Creating capacities for peacebuilding citizenship: history and social studies curricula in Bangladesh,Canada, Colombia,and México

Public education is one influence on how young people learn to navigate social conflicts and to contribute to building democratic peace, including their sense of hope or powerlessness. Social studies curricula, in particular, introduce core concerns, geographies, governance and civil society, and participation skills and norms. History education narratives frame identity, (dis)trust or peaceful coexistence, and provide exemplars of how social conflicts and injustice have been handled in the past. To shed light on these peacebuilding and peace-blocking choices, this paper examines government-sanctioned social studies and history curricula in contrasting contexts of violent conflict and peace: Bangladesh, Colombia, México, and (Ontario) Canada. Our comparative analysis shows how these official curricula (de)normalize violence and militarism, present national identities as hegemonic/exclusive or plural/inclusive, and create opportunities for teaching/learning peacebuilding citizenship competencies such as conflict dialog, human rights awareness, and engagement in collective processes of civil society and governance.     

The Ukrainian–Russian Linguistic Dyad and its Impact on National Identity in Ukraine

Abstract

This essay asks what place language holds in the composition of Ukrainian national identity and whether the use of Ukrainian and Russian across Ukraine indicates a split in identity. Despite acknowledging the potential of these two languages to generate political cleavages, the essay shows that language controversies have not necessarily impeded the population’s attachment and loyalty to the Ukrainian state. Moreover, the increasingly civic nature of Ukrainian national identity—particularly since Euromaidan—appears to be an important factor that allows people to speak Russian and still identify strongly with the Ukrainian nation.     

Economic inducements to private foreign investment in Africa∗

The removal of high levels of protection combined with substantial real devaluations have changed the environment in which Ghanaian manufacturing firms have operated in the 1990s. The changes in output, composition and productivity, which have occurred over this period, are examined in this article. Survey evidence for the growth of the sector is shown to be consistent with data from sales tax returns. Analysis of the panel survey shows that, in a comparative context, the rate of job creation in Ghana's manufacturing sector is high. This rate is highest in medium‐sized firms; small firms have not grown more rapidly than larger firms. There has been no underlying growth in technical efficiency and output growth has been matched by a commensurate growth in labour and capital inputs. Labour productivity differs substantially by firm size due primarily to differences in physical, not human, capital endowments.     

A class analysis of the bureaucratic process in Mali∗

The impact of colonization had different results according to the native social structures which it met and according to the degree of economic transformation which it brought about. In this process, the African countries were an appendage of the Western capitalist economies, and the social forces which were stirred up in Africa were thus the dependent and terminal part of European society. Such an incomplete and dependent process of social development was bound to give aberrant results in terms of class analysis. Mali is a case in point.

A native aristocratic and slave society was developing when this process was halted by the French conquest. The lack of industrial development which followed did not permit the emergence of capitalist classes, while administrative growth gave rise to a comparatively large bureaucracy. African trade remained in the hands of a Moslem and illiterate native bourgeoisie. The colonial crisis abruptly brought these forces into a competition for power in which the outcome was a victory for the bureaucracy. The question raised here is whether this success is indicative of the development of a new ruling class in Mali or, if not, to what extent the process remains susceptible of class analysis. The occurrence was not the result of a domestic class struggle, but depended on external factors which initiated a rapid movement towards independence. This combination of circumstances acted upon a society where class development was still limited both in the traditional and the colonial context. Hence it gave to an otherwise dependent body the opportunity to assume dominant political functions. The concept of social class is a valid instrument of analysis, given, firstly, that the social evolution of dependent countries is considered as part of the broader social system constituted by the economic and political sphere of influence of the dominant foreign power, and, secondly, that a distinction is made between classes proper and other dependent social elements which are the outgrowths of classes.