Who Is Inclined to Hide the Truth: Evidence from Public Procurement

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a survey-based methodological approach to detect potential opportunism by counterparts who are linked with agents through contractual relations. The methodology proposes asking counterparts about attitudes toward some behaviors of agents, which are undesirable from the principal and benevolent counterpart perspective. The approach identifies the potential opportunism of counterparts based on the intensity with which they justify such behavior and provide unrealistic assessments of commonly known problems. The approach is especially important in a situation where the rules are inconsistent with reality and the principal can no longer disentangle the benevolent and opportunistic behavior of the agent. The authors test this approach by conducting a survey of procurers and suppliers of public procurement contracts in Russia.     

The Rise of the Rest Warms the Planet

tokyo —America's post‐World War II commitment to universal rules of openness has spread economic gains far and wide, enabling new prosperity on a global scale. It is this American‐forged stable world order that has led to what Fareed Zakaria refers to as “the third great powershift” in the last 500 years: the “rise of the rest,” which follows on the rise of the West and the rise of the United States as the dominant Western power. It is indeed a remarkable legacy of American hegemony that China, India and others are rising, or arising anew, without the pillage, plunder and war associated with the emergent great power experiences of the past.     

China Must Convince the World Its Rise Is Peaceful

Globalization has indeed flattened the earth, paving the way for new beginnings and the resurgence of old cultures alike by levelling the playing field for all comers. While this new era of post‐globalization certainly heralds de‐Westernization by century's end, is it more likely to mean a revival of the old ways of the East or the new hybrid ways of the first global civilization? Some of Asia's most provocative voices, as well as the world's most renowned cellist and cross‐pollinating musician, offer their views.     

The Truth about Trade: The Real Impact of Liberalisation

The usual perspective on technology spillovers from FDI sees the MNC subsidiary as a passive actor. It presumes that the technological superiority that spreads from subsidiaries to other firms in the host economy is initially created outside it by MNC parent companies, and is delivered to subsidiaries via international technology transfer. The role of subsidiaries is little more than to act as a ‘leaky container’ lying between the technology transfer pipeline and the absorption of spillovers by domestic firms. This paper suggests a different model in which a substantial part of the potential for spillover is created within local subsidiaries as a result of their own knowledge-creating and accumulating activities in the host economy. We explore empirically the effects of these activities on technology spillovers from FDI using data for industrial firms in Argentina over the period 1992–96. The analysis suggests that significant results can be obtained incorporating subsidiaries' own technological activities as an explanatory variable of the spillover process.     

The Image of the Loyal African During World War II and its Postwar Use by the French Communist Party

In 1926, the United States (US) company Firestone Rubber in Akron, Ohio initiated a second practice of segregation in Liberia. The first practice began with the minority regime of the Afro-American settlers over 17 ethnic groups in the Republic of Liberia in 1847. Civil rights were unheard of in Liberia during either of these two periods. This changed when Liberian students travelled to the US on government scholarships, primarily to study in historical black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the 1940s and 1950s. When the Liberian students were exposed to the Civil Rights Movement, they fully understood the injustice of the situation in Liberia. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr and others travelled to the Gold Coast for its transition into becoming the nation of Ghana on 6 March 1957. Meetings between King and Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah led to collaborative efforts towards ending colonial racism in Africa and segregation in the US. During the Cold War, segregation in the US and Liberia was a source of shame for both nations. Liberian students returning from the US began “sit-ins” in protest against segregated Firestone facilities. The Liberian government responded by enacting its first Civil Rights Act against Firestone in 1958 and ending discrimination, except in segregated schools. This article shows, however, that it took more than another 30 years for the first decolonisation process to end the minority regime after the Civil Rights Acts of 1958, and to end the original form of ethnic segregation, which began in 1847 and ended as a result of the violent civil wars of the 1980s and 1990s.     

Growing Up in Times of War: Unaccompanied Refugee Minors’ Assumptions About the World and Themselves

Abstract

The idea that assumptions about the world and the self can be damaged through traumatic experiences has proven to be useful in understanding posttraumatic reactions. This study investigated the World Assumptions of middle-eastern unaccompanied refugee minors (URMs) to contribute to a culturally sensitive theoretical perspective. Semistructured interviews were conducted and analyzed using inductive category development. All assumed aspects of World Assumptions—benevolence, meaningfulness, and self-worth—were found in the participants’ statements. Regarding meaningfulness, we detected a new subcategory, the principle of a metaphysical plan, which has implications for the mechanism by which religiosity protects World Assumptions in war-torn regions.     

Is the Muslim World a Credible Partner for Obama's Outreach?

President Barack Obama pledged in his first TV interview—with the Arab satellite channel Al Arabiya—that America under his watch would "listen with respect and not dictate" to the world. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has further announced that this country will no longer just throw around its military might but will pursue a "smart power" approach by tempering the use of hard weaponry with the "soft power" of persuasion and cultural attraction. Or, as Madame Secretary's husband Bill has put it, America will now lead through the power of example instead of the example of power.
The first exceedingly complex test of Obama's smart power strategy will be how to end George W. Bush's misguided "war on terror" in Afghanistan and Pakistan, keeping al-Qaida at bay without being swallowed by the quagmire of tribal politics. An array of experts from New Delhi to Paris offers their views in this section.     

Democracy and Development in a Globalized World: Thinking About Latin America from Within

The choice among paths that countries should follow has been a staple of political debates in Latin America and, over the past 40 years, Fernando Cardoso has brought his analysis to bear on these debates. This article summarizes and then assesses Cardoso’s argument about the choice of paths faced by Latin American countries, the consequences for democracy and development of following different paths, and the political position that is supported by this analysis of choices and their consequences. Though Cardoso explicitly supports the path of globalized social democracy over an anti-globalization option in the current period, I suggest that the current state of knowledge does not offer unequivocal support for the argument that choosing to follow the path of globalized social democracy—or that of anti-globalization—is the best political option for all countries in Latin America. Different countries might very well be doing what is best for them, given their circumstances, by following different paths.     

Descent of the Dollar and Rise of the Rest

Though another Great Depression seems to have been averted for the moment, great geo-economic shifts are in the works as a result of the global meltdown emanating from Wall Street. Four Nobel laureates in economics take a look at where we are headed.     

Book reviews: The Islamic World

The Palestine Problem in International Law and World Order. W Thomas Mallison and Sally V Mallison London: Longman. 1986. 564pp. £36.00hb

Prisoners of God: The Modern‐Day Conflict of Arab and Jew. David Smith. London: Quartet. 1987. 243pp. £12.95hb

Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land. David K Shipler. London: Bloomsbury. 1987. 562pp. £17.95hb

Tunisia: Crossroads of the Islamic and European Worlds. Kenneth J Perkins. Boulder, Colorado: Westview/London: Croom Helm. 1986. 192pp. n/p.

Habib Bourguiba, Islam and the Creation of Tunisia. Norma Salem. London: Croom Helm. 1986. 270pp. £19.95hb

Iraqi Politics 1921–41: The Interaction between Domestic Politics and Foreign Policy. Ahmad Abdul Razzaq Shikara London: LAAM. 1987. 227pp. £11.95pb

Iraq since 1958: From Revolution to Dictatorship. Marion Farouk‐Sluglett and Peter Sluglett. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. 1987. 332pp. £29.95hb

Iraq, the Gulf States and the War: A Changing Relationship 1980–1986 and Beyond. Gerd Nonneman. London: Ithaca Press. 1986. 224pp. £17.00hb/£9.00pb

Western Strategic Interests in Saudi Arabia. Anthony H Cordesman. London: Croom Helm. 1987. 308pp. n/p

Saudi Arabia, the West and the Security of the Gulf. Mazher A Hameed. London: Croom Helm. 1986. 189pp. £19.95hb

The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran. Roy Mottahedeh. London: Chatto and Windus. 1986. 416pp. £12.95hb

Egypt: The Stalled Society. Hamied Ansari. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. 1986. 308pp. S44.50hb/$16.95pb

Islam and the Third Universal Theory. Mahmoud Mustafa Ayoub. London: Kegan Paul International. 1987. 175pp. n/p

Qaddafi's World Design: Libyan Foreign Policy, 1969–1987. Ronald Bruce St John. London: Al Saqi. 1987. 184pp. £14.95hb

Class and Client in Beirut: The Sunni Muslim Community and the Lebanese State 1840–1985. Michael Johnson. London: Ithaca Press. 1986. 243pp. £18.00hb

Israel into Palestine. Gwyn Rowley. London: Mansell. 1983. 208pp. £18.50hb

Classand Power in the Sudan: The Dynamics of Sudanese Politics, 1898–1985. Tim Niblock. London: Macmillan. 1987. 370pp. £35.00hb

Sudan: State, Capital and Transformation. Edited by Tony Barnett and Abbas Abdelkarim London: Croom Helm. 1987. 224pp. £25.00hb

The Sudan: Unity and Diversity in a Multicultural State John Obert Voll and Sarah Potts Voll London: Croom Helm. 1985. 178pp. £18.95hb

The Sudan: Ethnicity and National Cohesion. Mohamed Omer Beshir, Mohamed A R Mohammed‐Salih and Musa Adam Abdul‐Jalil Bayreuth, West Germany: Bayreuth University (African Studies Season). 1984. 85pp. n/p

The Return to Democracy in Sudan. Adib Halasa, John D Cooke and Ustinia Dolgopol. Geneva: International Commission of Jurists. 1986. 103pp. n/p

Sudan Since Independence. Edited by Muddathir Abd al‐Rahim, Raphael Badal, Adlan Hardallo and Peter. Woodward. Aldershot, England: Gower. 1987. 181pp. £19.50hb

Fueling the Fire: US Policy and The Western Sahara. Leo Kamil. Trenton, New Jersey: Red Sea Press. 1987. 104pp. $12.95hb/$4.95pb

The Arab Radicals. Edited by Adeed Dawisha. New York: Council on Foreign Relations. 1986. 171pp. $17.50hb/$8.95pb

Social Legislation in the Contemporary Middle East. Edited by Jeswald W Salacuse and Laurence O Michalak. Berkeley, California: Institute of International Studies, University of California. 1986. 376pp. $14.95hb

The Dilemma of Development in the Arabian Peninsula. Abdul Rahman Osama. London: Croom Helm. 1987. 203pp. £25.00hb

The Economic Development of the Yemen Arab Republic. Ragaei el Mallakh. London: Croom Helm. 1986. 196pp. £22.50hb

Arabia and the Gulf: From Traditional Society to Modern States. Edited by Ian Richard Netton. London: Croom Helm. 1986. 259pp. £29.95hb

Islamic Technology: An Illustrated History.. Ahmad Y al‐Hassan and Donald R Hill. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press/Paris: Unesco. 1986. 304pp. £25.00hb     

关于所谓"跨越资本主义卡夫丁峡谷设想"的真相

"跨越卡夫丁峡谷设想"是马克思恩格斯的共同思想,其实质是俄国革命和西欧革命"互相补充"."设想"的真实逻辑是:通过俄国革命引发西欧革命,走共同胜利之路.所以,它仍属于世界革命的范畴,而不是什么"东方社会主义"新理论.20世纪历史的实际发展产生了东方社会主义,对这一道路和今天的改革开放应以历史唯物主义的态度予以总结,而不应该靠曲解晚年马克思思想去打造新的"历史哲学的万能钥匙".