The role of the Sandinista revolution in the process of democratization in Nicaragua

This article explores the question of the development of democracy in Nicaragua with emphasis on the period from 1979 to the present. The primary focus is on the role of democracy within the framework of the Sandinista revolution including the 11 years of FSLN state power and the last four years during which the Sandinistas have been the primary opposition party. It is the primary contention of the article that a profound democratization of Nicaragua began with the rise of the FSLN to power in 1979. It also asserts that while democratization has not been definitely reversed during the conservative rule of Chamorro it has been weakened. The paper's primary conclusions run directly against those who argue that Nicaraguan process of democratization began only with the assumption of power of the UNO coalition in April 1990.     

Measuring the impact of fair trade on development

This study of the impact of fair trade relies on new field data from coffee and banana co-operatives in Peru and Costa Rica, including a detailed assessment of its welfare effects by comparing FT farmers with non-FT farmers as a benchmark. Attention is focused on three major effects: (a) direct tangible impact of FT arrangements on the income, welfare, and livelihoods of rural households; (b) indirect effects of fair trade for improving credit access, capital stocks, investments, and attitudes to risk; and (c) institutional implications of fair trade for farmers' organisations and externalities for local and regional employment, bargaining, and trading conditions. Although direct effects in terms of net income remain fairly modest, important benefits are found to include capitalising farmers and strengthening their organisations.     

Does fair trade make a difference? The case of small coffee producers in Nicaragua

Fair trade represents an innovative approach to make the rules of global trade work for disadvantaged producers in the South and for sustainable development. But who are the real beneficiaries of fair trade? Has fair trade resulted in any discernible improvements in the lives of small coffee producers and their communities? This paper examines the effectiveness of fair trade as a development tool and the extent of its contribution to the alleviation of poverty in coffee-producing regions of Nicaragua. The paper argues that it is crucial to analyse the experiences and problems of small coffee producers and producer organisations involved in the fair trade market to ensure that the objectives and claims of fair trade are achieved in practice. The study concludes that there are limits to the extent to which fair trade can significantly raise the standard of living of small coffee producers because of factors such as the debt problems faced by cooperatives, lack of government support, and volatile international coffee prices.     

The socio-economic impact of the involuntary mass return to Yemen in 1990

800,000 Yemen nationals were forced to leave Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and other countries in the region during the Gulf War. Their mass return to Yemen followed immediately after reunification of North and South Yemen. Analysis reveals that the term "migrant worker" is a misnomer and obscures the variations in wealth, residence, and status. Returnees had variable lengths of stay abroad, number of dependents or family members abroad or at home, types of occupation, ownership of assets, frequency of visits to the community of origin, and remittances. The range of long-term migrants included wealthy merchants and bankers, middle level service and retail workers, and poor workers in the informal sector. The common thread is that all suffered some decline in standard of living. The return was less disruptive for short-term migrants. Some long-term residents no longer had social and economic ties to Yemen, and some had no experience living in Yemen. About 33% were estimated to be without ties to home communities. The decline in remittances from abroad affected foreign exchange receipts. The country shifted from labor scarcity to unemployment conditions. The infrastructure in housing, education, and social services was strained. The one-time influx of capital was short-lived. Returnees comprised about 7% of the total population. The feared upheaval politically and economically did not occur. Suggested improvements for future mass resettlement include offering shanty dwellers a supplemental feeding program, a means of obtaining secure housing, and increased infrastructure. The long-term benefits of encouraging a return to agriculture should have been more widely promoted.     

美印核合作及其影响

今年3月,美国总统布什在访问印度期间与印度总理辛格就两国民用核能合作的落实问题达成协议.这对美印关系发展具有战略意义,但严重冲击国际核不扩散机制,对世界和平与安全有一定的负面影响.     

The day development dies

There is a certain kind of thinking prevailing among Western thinkers which sacrifices rich narratives for theory. Theory becomes a prison, limiting knowledge production to references to (largely Western) scholarship. However, theory is not inaccessible: theory is coherent, theory is liberating, theory is narrative, it is everyday. This post-colonist auto-ethnographic orality uses personal experiences as a theoretical tool for explaining that in development thinking the ‘experts’ are morally and ideologically distant from local people, knowledge, and places, and hence they are illegitimate representatives who should never be consulted in the first place.     

Children and development assistance: The need to re-orient priorities and programmes

This article argues that if children were the focus of more deliberate attention on the part of donors, it could result in more effective use of the resources available for poverty reduction. Instead, development assistance neglects some of children's most pressing needs, and fails to take advantage of the long-term benefits to be gained by ensuring their physical and psychosocial welfare. The article focuses especially on the living environments of children in poverty, an area which receives little attention, but which is integral to poverty reduction.     

From development by effects to development by contexts via communication

The vision shared by most development scholars and practitioners today is for beneficiary driven development, the impediment and the means to which both lie with communication. The debate concerns the communication approach that would best realise this vision. This paper examines and critically comments on two major approaches, Development Communication and Development Support Communication, though it argues for neither of these. Rather, it draws on the 'Another Development-Another Communication' paradigm and proposes a Participatory Communication approach, which both resonates in people's own moral values, conforms to the reality of many communities in Africa, and offers better prospects of achieving beneficiary-driven development.     

The impact of human rights INGO activities on economic sanctions

What impact do human rights international non-governmental organizations (hereafter HROs) have on the initiation of economic sanctions? The extant literatures on sanctions and transnational non-state groups have largely overlooked the role, if any, the activities of these transnational non-state actors have on the use of economic coercion as a popular policy tool. In this study, we argue that HROs could affect sanction decisions through two distinct mechanisms: information production (“shaming and blaming”) and local empowerment (local presence). By bringing poor human rights performers into the international spotlight, we argue that this effect should hold even after accounting for human rights practices in the targeted countries. Using dyadic data on HROs and economic sanctions, we find robust support for our basic argument that HRO activities increase the likelihood of sanction events against repressive regimes. Additionally, much of the empirical support highlights the role of information production, as opposed to local empowerment, in leading to sanction onset. Overall, our findings indicate that HROs are powerful actors in influencing foreign policy decisions between states.     

The impact of private security companies on Somalia's governance networks

The article discusses the use of private security contractors to support coastguard forces in the Somali substate entities of Puntland and Somaliland. Neither of these entities is sufficiently robust to raise and maintain an effective maritime security force without external assistance, hence they have had recourse to the private sector for training, logistical and operational support and high-level consultancy with respect to their coastguards. The article makes some general observations about the international private security industry and Somali politics in order to provide a context for the three case studies. The case studies, each of which covers the engagement of one security contractor in support of a coastguard, assess the roles played by the contractors, making particular reference to sustainability and influence on governance networks. The analysis establishes a matrix of security company typologies and potential roles and then uses this matrix to suggest which types of company might be best employed for which functions. The article has current pertinence, as two of the three case studies concern efforts by substate entities to hire private security to enhance anti-piracy capability.