Fair Trade and justice: a comment on Walton and Deneulin

In this article we first point out that the different conceptualisations of Fair Trade, which are sometimes analytically contradictory, actually form a coordinated set. Understanding the Fair Trade project is impossible without taking these interlinked conceptualisations into consideration. Second, this set basically forms a mechanism of structural, institutional and moral reforms that guide actions. In this way Fair Trade sets out to produce less injustice than is usually the case with the structures and institutions that govern conventional trade. Nevertheless, it does not try to define what a just society is or even to perfectly define ‘fair trade’. This implies the adoption of a comparative justice angle. It is precisely by linking comparative individual situations with the structures that produce these situations that relative justice can find its strength and purpose.     

Engel Curves for Fair Trade Consumption and Development Perspectives for Producers: Evidence from Data on Real Fairtrade Purchases

While Fairtrade sales have exhibited two-digit growth rates over recent decades, their capacity to become large enough to generate substantial gains for producers is still uncertain. Estimating Fairtrade Engel curves based on real purchases, this article describes how Fairtrade consumption varies with consumer characteristics and total income. Results show high expenditure elasticities for Fairtrade demand, and suggest that market expansion lies in the growth of income per capita in import countries and in an increase in the diversity, availability, and quality of products. Implications for producers are drawn from the results.     

New Paths: Globalization in Historical Perspective

This essay argues that the historical–structural framework of analysis is still useful to describe the transformations generated by globalization in the underdeveloped countries, provided that it is employed with the subtlety needed to avoid reductionism. Globalization, in the same way as dependency, is nothing more than an unfolding of the capitalist system in today's historical conditions. The structural starting point conditions—but does not determine—the shape taken by economic and political processes. Political strategies for integrating into the global economy have a certain margin of autonomy. Still, the range of feasible strategies depends on factors that differ from country to country, such as the local capacity of income accumulation, the presence of foreign direct investment, the mix between nationally controlled production and production controlled by multinationals, the participation of the public sector in production, the capacity of the leadership, the prevailing ideologies, and so forth. In other words, there are alternative paths.     

全球化视野下的“中国模式”

改革开放30年来，中华民族以波澜壮阔的改革实践，谱写了快速发展的壮丽史诗，这个古老大国的迅速崛起引起了世界性的反响。近几年来，关于“中国奇迹”或“中国模式”的话题备受国内外舆论和学术界的关注。当前，在华尔街发生金融海啸、全世界出现严重的经济危机的背景下，重新审视“中国模式”，     

越南的农业革新

自1986年实行革新后,越南农业生产呈现出不断上升的良好发展势头,粮食自给有余,出口逐年增长.通过实行家庭承包制、建立庄园经济、重建新型合作社、科技兴农、搞多种经营等措施,越南的农业革新取得令人欣喜的成就.前进道路仍有困难,但只要政策符合客观实际,越南农业还有巨大的发展潜力.     

Globalization, Culture, and Identities in Crisis

Culture in its various forms now serves as a primary carrier of globalization and modern values, and constitutes an important arena of contestation for national, religious, and ethnic identity. Although reactions in Europe, Japan, and other societies where modern values prevail, tend to be symbolic, in areas of the developing world, especially in Muslim countries where traditional values and radically different notions of identity and society predominate, reactions tend to be very intense and redirected at external targets through forms of transference and scapegoating. Ultimately, this is not so much a clash between civilizations as a clash within civilizations.     

全球化进程中的非洲经济

当今的全球化不仅涉及经济,而且涉及政治、军事和文化等方面,本文重点仅就全球化过程中的非洲经济发展的若干问题进行初探。 经济全球化无论对发达国家还是对发展中国家均具有两重性。它是一炳双刃剑,对二者都既有利也有弊,给二者均带来了风险和威胁。其不同之处在于,发达国家的垄断财团和跨国公同在这一过程中长期处于绝对优势,它们获得的利远远大于弊,并且几乎控制或影响着全球化的整个过程,捞取了数以百亿千亿美元的巨额利润。它们面临的风险和威     

全球化视域的资本主义与社会主义

本文试图在资本主义社会和社会主义社会的产生、发展,以及两制关系演变的历史过程中观察全球化问题.社会主义在资本主义背景下的崛起是人类历史发展的必然;中国特色社会主义实践是全球化的重要组成部分和推动全球化发展的重要力量;在资本主义全球化的困境中,社会主义是唯一可能的选择.     

中东欧经济转轨与全球化

苏东剧变后,中东欧国家毫无例外地摒弃了计划经济,实行市场经济。从1989年开始,这个转轨进程已经历时14年,并与全球化进程有着密切的关系。     

Agriculture in and beyond the Haitian catastrophe

Although the devastation from Haiti’s 2010 earthquake was concentrated in Port-au-Prince, it had deep agrarian roots. This paper situates Haiti’s urban poverty in the chronic exploitation of the country’s peasant classes as a basis for assessing the competing contemporary visions for agricultural development. We argue that the post-earthquake reconstruction has fortified a neoliberal development that is incompatible with the aspirations of the Haitian peasantry. Given the interrelated power of domestic elites and international donors, and the proliferation of disconnected development projects, we conclude that any prospect for pro-poor development hinges on the growth and collaboration of peasant movements.     

Supply Response and Risk in Chinese Agriculture

The main objective of this paper is to model the production and supply response in Chinese agriculture, which includes not only the standard arguments like expected prices but also risk. We extend Lin's work [1991, 1992] by modelling supply response as a three-equation model. We fit our model to data for 28 Chinese provinces from 1970 to 1997 to determine whether national Chinese agricultural supply is price and price risk responsive. Further, we fit our model to data for North, Northeast, South and Southeast regions. Results from the three systems equations are compared to single equation estimations. At the national level, Chinese agriculture is found to be price and price risk responsive. The regional analyses suggest that significant regional differences exist. Unlike Lin, we do not find the household responsibility system (HRS) to be the dominant factor in increased yields in different regions of China.     

Land Accumulation Dynamics in Developing Country Agriculture

Abstract

Understanding land accumulation dynamics is relevant for policy-makers interested in the economic effects of land inequality in developing country agriculture. We thus explore and simultaneously test the leading theories of micro-level land accumulation dynamics using unique panel data from Paraguay. The results suggest that farm growth varies systematically with farm size – a formal rejection of stochastic growth theories (that is, Gibrat’s Law) – and that titled land area may have considerable influence on land accumulation. Furthermore, our estimates indicate that a dualistic agrarian structure is the likely product of the unfettered operation of land markets.     

Criminalisation of Free Speech in Russia

Abstract

The essay addresses the current trends in the criminalisation of free speech in Russia. It critically discusses the amendments to the Russian Criminal Code, criminalising various forms of public expression of opinions, adopted in the years following the presidential elections in March 2012, and questions their compliance with international human rights law. Seeking to identify the motives behind the new provisions, the article argues that the amendments are intended to cause a ‘chilling effect’, to control public dissent by selective or random criminal prosecution. Two of the new criminal law provisions—‘Public Calls for Separatism’ and ‘Rehabilitation of Nazism’—are considered in detail to illustrate the author’s conclusions.     

新起点、新机遇与新考验——中国-东盟自由贸易区建立与运行的理性思考

2010年1月1日,中国-东盟自由贸易区正式建立,为中国与东盟更加广泛和深入的合作搭建了一个重要平台,中国与东盟的合作已站在了一个新的历史起点之上,必将面临着新的更大的机遇。作为一个“新生事物”,中国-东盟自由贸易区今后的正常运行,还将面临着新的考验,还需要我们共同的呵护,还需要我们对一些问题进行冷静的、理性思考。     

全球化境遇下的社会主义和马克思主义若干问题研究——专访著名左翼学者阿里夫·德里克教授

苏东剧变后,世界范围内的共产主义运动处于低潮,社会主义的历史发展进程遭受极大的挫折。许多西方学者据此宣告,社会主义已经死亡,资本主义取得了最终胜利。右翼学者在高奏资本主义凯歌的同时,着力于从理论上论证为什么资本主义是人类历史的"自然状态"和"终极状态"。左翼学者则以前苏联东欧社会主义制度的崩溃为契机,结合当代资本主义的特点和新科学技术革命对人类社会的影响,对社会主义进行了彻底的反思,通过对现实社会主义的检讨、对新的时代特征和科技发展的分析,对不少约定俗成的观念和范式提出了挑战,在诸多西方左翼学者中,阿里夫.德里克教授是比较突出的一位。最近,本刊特约记者庄俊举就中国的马克思主义史学研究、后殖民问题、后革命、后社会主义、现代化和全球化问题,特别就全球化境遇下社会主义的前途和马克思主义的历史命运问题专访了美国俄勒冈大学"耐特社会科学讲座教授"、批判性理论和跨国研究中心主任阿里夫.德里克教授。