The New Ghana

Mr. Dennis Austin, of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies,London University, gave the address that follows at a jointmeeting of the Royal African Society and the Royal Common-wealthSociety on November 5, 1959. Mr. David Williams, editor of "WestAfrica‘, ’, took the chair.     

The New Swiss Employment Puzzle

Switzerland has traditionally had a better employment performance than most other European countries. In the past, this could be explained with a specific foreign workers policy and to the buffer role women played in the labor market. In the late 1990s, however, foreigners and women occupy a considerably more stable position in the labor force than in the 1970s. Therefore, other factors must explain this good employment performance. International comparisons show that advanced economies tend to perform well in employment creation if, a) there are big wage inequalities (USA), or b) if there is a large public sector (Sweden). We show that Switzerland has none of these features, and that on the basis of prevailing theories of post‐industrial employment creation, it is difficult to account for the Swiss labor market performance in the late 1990s. We put forward and assess a number of possible explanations for this “new puzzle”, and conclude that a successful research strategy in this area should combine elements of welfare regime analysis with a focus on labor market institutions.     

也谈美国新黑人文化运动

20世纪初发生的新黑人文化运动是美国黑人史上一次重大的文化事件.第一次世界大战后,新黑人知识分子以复兴黑人文化和自尊为手段,争取黑白融合和黑人融入美国社会的一次思想启蒙运动.它为后来的美国黑人民权运动和国际上的"认同黑人文化传统"运动奠定了的思想基础.     

The Mafiya and the New Russia

The rise of the Russian mafiya , a distinctive form of organised crime, reflects more than just the temporary dislocations and uncertainties of the country's transition from a Soviet state to a free market democracy. Rooted in Russian tradition and Soviet practice, it is also a formidable obstacle to this evolution. This has serious implications for the new Russian polity: weakening central authority, diluting the state's monopoly of coercion, discrediting the market economy and ultimately usurping and distorting the very functions of the state. Any solution will have to come not from tougher policing (which itself would threaten a return to authoritarianism) but from a wider political and cultural response.     

Political Aspects of The New Africa

In the following article Professor Da Silva Cunha, Under-Secretaryof State for the Overseas Territories in the Portuguese Government,one of the most brilliant jurists of the younger generationin his country, makes an analysis of Portugal's policy of integrationin her African Provinces in relation to black nationalism, Pan-Africanism,Communism and the other forces that today are asserting themselveson the African continent     

The New Model of Economic Management

One of General Secretary Gorbachev's key economic advisors outlines the basic components of a new “model” of economic management in the USSR (e.g., new forms of private and cooperative activity, increased flexibility in production, relationships in state enterprises, election of directors), to be in place by the early 1990s. Also presented is the rationale for the current timetable of the reform. American participants in the first joint Soviet Economy roundtable then discuss with the Academician the role of collectives and local Party officials in the new system of management. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 027, 052, 124.     

The New German party finance law

In 1992 the Federal Constitutional Court decided for the sixth time since 1949 that the German legislation concerning political finance was unconstitutional. While the first five cases were important milestones in the development of German law on the public funding of parties and campaigns, this decision was notable for its rejection of key provisions of two laws that were passed in the 1980s and for overturning the Court's previous ban on direct aid to the parties. A commission of experts was formed to study and recommend changes, and a new law was passed by the Bundestag and Bundesrat in November and December 1993. Instead of focusing on reimbursements of parties for their campaign expenditures, the new law provides for direct financing of parties based on one DM for each vote in EU, national, and Land elections and DM .50 for each D‐Mark received in party dues and donations up to DM 6,000 per person (12,000 per couple). For the first five million votes, the parties receive DM 1.30 per vote. To encourage citizen involvement, parties are not to receive more than the sum of all of their own source revenues, and the total support for all parties is not to exceed the DM 230 million (adjusted for inflation) that was given to the parties as reimbursements for campaign expenditures in the period 1989–1992. To those who have followed the controversies over German political financing since the 1950s, it will be no surprise to learn that the new legislation has provoked criticism and sparked plans to bring the new law before the Federal Constitutional Court.     

A New Nationalism for a New Era: The Political Ideology of Mexican Neoliberalism

The structural economic reforms justified by neoliberal ideas that transformed Mexico's statist political economy in the 1980s posed a direct challenge to the nationalism inherited from the revolutionary era that had long served to legitimise the interventions of the social state. This article examines the strategy adopted by the administration of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988–1994) to reconcile the rival ambitions of neoliberalism and nationalism and its reasons for doing so. It does so by examining ideas concerning the state, society and the individual found in writing and speeches published in political organs and the press during this period.