Policy Relations and Policy Subsystems: Financial Policy in Hong Kong and Singapore

Existing studies of Hong Kong’s and Singapore’s success as leading Asian international financial centers (IFCs) have largely focused on economic structural factors at the neglect of political economic contextual variables. Taking a policy subsystems approach and based on extensive field research, this article attempts to address this shortcoming by conceptualizing the “policy relations” that exist between state, industry, and other non-state actors in the two IFCs and delineating the “division of policy roles” among these actors. In the process, this article contributes toward the existing IFC literature and conceptualizes the sociopolitical relations that exist among financial sector actors.     

Political Field Dynamics and the Elite’s Interest in Democracy: Insights from the Political Elite’s Role in Consolidating Indian Democracy

In this article, I argue that democracy scholars cannot explain the political elite’s interest in democracy consolidation processes because they have yet to conceptualize the relation between the political elite and structure. This shortcoming can be rectified by using Bourdieu’s field theory insight that subjectivity and structure are constructed, reproduced, or altered due to contests among field actors over the symbolic capital of their field. I illustrate the significance of this solution by using it to explain the stability of Indian democracy during the early postcolonial period. Using data on the Indian political elite’s trajectories in institutional politics and observations on their everyday politics, I show that their differing interest in democracy during the early transition period was shaped by their unique political habitus, which was structured by their conflicts since the late colonial period to establish their respective political capital as the symbolic capital of the Indian political field. The general lesson to be learned from this study is that in order to comprehend democracy consolidation processes, it is important to shift attention from static, disjointed models of the political elite’s subjectivity and structure to the history of contests among the political elite over the symbolic capital of the political field, which couples the political elite’s subjectivity and structure.     

Against the concept of ethnic conflict

Despite a boom in studies of ethnic conflict, the empirical and conceptual justification for this field remains weak. Not only are claims of surging ethnic conflict unsubstantiated, but the concept itself is problematic. The concept tends to homogenise quite distinct political phenomena. Making valid causal inferences about ‘ethnic conflict’ is nearly impossible as a result, a shortcoming reflected in the un‐robust nature of the literature on the subject. For both practical and normative reasons there is a good argument for abandoning the field of ethnic conflict studies.     

State Project Europe: The Transformation of the European Border Regime and the Production of Bare Life

Giorgio Agamben refers to a basic problem in the constitution of the modern nation state: the state as a nation implies that "bare life" becomes the foundation of sovereignty. With the loss of their citizenship, refugees lose not only all their rights, but more fundamentally the "right to have rights" (Arendt). This dilemma of modern statehood does not vanish under conditions of European integration; it is rather re-scaled. Applying a state-theoretical approach to the European border regime, we will concentrate on the two main techniques by which the EU produces "bare life": the "camp" and the invisible "police state." It will become apparent that the institutionalization of "the right of every human being to belong to mankind" is still lacking. Yet, in contrast to Agamben, we do not trace this constellation back to the collapse of the concept of human rights, but to hegemonies and power relations.     

Governing Terror: The State of Emergency of Biopolitical Emergence

This paper argues that western security practices are as biopolitical as they are geopolitical. Explaining that biopolitical security practices revolve around "life" as species existence, the paper explores how biopoliticized security practices secure by instantiating a general economy of the contingent throughout all the processes of reproductive circulation that impinge upon species existence. For this reason, "Governing Terror" does not merely reference the massive global security effort that is now devoted to governing terror. It observes how western security practices are themselves now also governed by a widespread fear of terror. It locates that fear in the way that western biopolitics has long adopted "the contingent" as its principle of formation. Here, "the real" is understood and experienced differently, as a general economy of emergence: "life" understood as constant nonlinear adaptation and change. The paper concludes that the state of emergency, which governs western politics of security at the beginning of the twenty-first century is not that of Carl Schmitt or Giorgio Agamben. The state of emergency which governs western security politics is the emergency of emergent life itself.     

Social Policy in Hard Times: Crisis-Coping Strategies in Europe from 1976 to 2013

ABSTRACT

Scholarly contributions linking welfare state and crisis management literature still lack a consistent conceptualization of the central matter of interest. To remedy this shortcoming, this article provides a classification of four potential crisis-coping strategies and analyzes the policy outputs of 11 European countries from 1976 to 2013 on the basis of an innovative dataset. The analysis shows that strong deviations from the status quo ante are the rule rather than the exception in times of economic hardship. Furthermore, it reveals a clear shift from the crisis-coping strategy of “Social Protectionism” over “Muddling Through” and “Welfare State Restructuring” to “Austerity” over time.     

The Postcolonial World and the Recourse to Myth: a critique of Albert Memmi’s Decolonization and the Decolonized

The seminal postcolonial thinker Albert Memmi’s reactionary turn with the publishing of Decolonization and the Decolonized provides an excellent opportunity to properly contextualise the conditions of the Third World. In this article, emphasis is laid on the necessity of linking the postcolonial world’s dire condition to the role of Western powers and economic processes of globalisation. Memmi’s primary shortcoming is his failure to examine these connections with any nuance, and instead choosing to blame the Third World’s condition on corrupt leaders and governments. Consequently, a focused critique of his work can serve as a valuable foundation for a broader critique of the general patterns of capitalism and its global effects. By examining the inconsistencies and obfuscations of this work in detail, both Memmi and the ideas he professes can be appropriately confronted.     

Price control in underdeveloped countries

In addition to the classical criteria of logic and relevance, development studies can also be judged in terms of their interdisciplinary consistency. Slavish adherence to behavioural findings in the other social sciences which tend to corroborate the conventional assumptions of micro‐economic theory, however, should be discounted where their own logic and relevance remain controversial.

Micro‐economic studies of ‘industrial organization’ in Thailand have widely adopted the social anthropological thesis that Thai society is ‘loosely structured’, implying that the Thai behave as typical economic entrepreneurs. Analyses of Thai economic history subscribe to this view for the peasantry but not for the elite. An alternative model of Thai ‘industrial organization’ which dispenses with the purported market orientation of Thai peasants provides greater explanatory value than the conventional interpretation.

The entourage model of ‘industrial organization’ views the Thai economy as a hierarchy of relationships within which each participant is patron to associates of lower rank, and client to one of higher rank. Each entourage, composed of a patron and a coterie of clients, is integrated by a web of functionally and temporally diffuse economic‐social‐political reciprocities. Furthermore, mobility within the system follows rank enhancement opportunities rather than pecuniary incentives.

Thai economic development over the past century can be satisfactorily explained in terms of the entourage model, which deals directly with problems (such as the role of the Chinese and the decline of human bondage) not readily explained in the conventional context. Application of the entourage model, in conclusion, suggests that Thailand's development prospects under guidelines geared to the market model may be seriously misleading.     

Alcohol-related Rape Among University Students

Background: Alcohol-related rape among university students is clearly a major concern. However, there have been no large-scale surveys of the prevalence of this offence among university students in the UK. The aim of the current paper is to investigate the prevalence and characteristics of alcohol-related rape among university students in seven universities in Wales.

Methods: All universities in Wales were approached to take part in the research. Eight of the nine universities agreed to take part and seven universities emailed their students as planned. On the launch date, emails were sent by the universities to all students requesting that they take part in the survey. The email contained a link to a questionnaire covering a range of topics including: demographics, lifestyle factors, and substance misuse.

Results: In total, 7,846 students submitted a questionnaire. Overall, just under six per cent of females reported being the victim of alcohol-related rape while at university compared with one per cent of males. Sexual orientation was significantly correlated with alcohol-related rape, with three per cent of heterosexuals reported being the victim of alcohol-related rape, compared with eight per cent of lesbians or gays. Students who drank alcohol frequently and those involved in binge drinking were also significantly more likely to report the offence.

Conclusions: The government and universities should play a more direct role to ensure that actions are taken to deter, prevent, and treat the consequences of these largely unreported offences.     

Chester I. Barnard's reflections on his nine weeks in the United States treasury department

This essay seeks to identify relevant issues regarding the relationship between organizational change strategies aimed at improving the delivery of public services to low income clientale in human service agencies. ^{* *}A human service is defined as a form of assistance given to a client by a public agency; such assistance i s ameliorative in nature and is intended to provide for a social welfare need that cannot otherwise be met. ^*A human service is defined as a form of assistance given to a client by a public agency; such assistance i s ameliorative in nature and is intended to provide for a social welfare need that cannot otherwise be met.$ef: The strategies discussed in this

essay are: organizational development (OD), transorganizational development, reorganization and decentralization. The discussion is mainly theoretical, derived only in part from the literature and from actual experiences. The focus i s on detemining (logically, not empirically) the consequences of applying different types of organization change strategies as means for improving the delivery of human services. A major assumption i s that each of the strategies would incur somewhat different costs and produce different benefits with varying operational constraints.     

Economic growth and import requirements

This article points out that our knowledge of the specific form and analytical reasons underlying the interrelationship known to exist between international trade and economic growth is limited and that this situation is largely due to the lack of an adequate theoretical framework. Comparative cost theory is not very helpful in this respect be cause the explanation of the rise of trade it provides does not lead to useful and unambiguous inferences about the role of trade in economic growth nor about the characteristics of trade flows during growth.

The difficulty may in part be attributed to the circumstance that comparative cost doctrine provides theoretical support for an ideal system of trading which nations have consistently refused to follow. The article suggests that this situation of fact results because the primary objective that nations pursue in trading is not to exploit (at a given level of employment and capacity use) whatever comparative cost differences may exist, but to ‘develop’ their national economies; and to this end the policy objectives that are given highest priority in all countries are those that induce a maximum level of domestic manpower employment and as intensive a utilization as possible of the national resource base. The trade implications of adhering to this ‘national development’ objective are easy to visualize: nations will tend to import only those commodities needed to supplement their own output so that total supply (domestic plus imported goods) fits the prevailing requirements; and they will import such commodities because an important condition for growth is a reasonable long‐run coincidence between the commodity composition of total supply and total demand. Since no country can have an all‐encompassing resource base nor attain full productive diversification, it follows that all countries must have certain minimum import requirements.

The core of the article is devoted to a discussion of an exponential‐type formula (M = ay^b P^e A^d) which defines aggregate import requirements in terms of the level of per‐capita income, the population and the geographical area of the respective countries. The discussion shows that the formula implicitly takes into account characteristics of the resource base such as its magnitude, quality and degree of exploitation. This formula, in its linear logarithmic form, is then used for a regression analysis of the imports of a uniform sample of 53 countries in three years, viz. 1953, 1958 and 1963. Data of 20 countries in 1913 and U.S. data for the period 1889–1953 are similarly analysed. The results show that the formula permits excellent fits of the data and that all the variables selected—including area—are statistically significant even at the 99 per cent confidence level. These results are interpreted as supporting evidence of the validity of the views advanced earlier regarding the economic motivation for trading and the factors that determine levels of import requirements.

The last part of the article deals with some of the implications of the empirical findings (regarding the function of trade and the role of natural resources in economic growth, the possibilities of successful import substitution and the relation between geographical size and trade requirements—relation of practical importance in connection with customs unions and similar economic integration arrangements). A few broad policy implications of the views advanced in the article are also presented.     

Labour supplies in historical perspective: A study of the proletarianization of the African peasantry in Rhodesia

The article attempts to show that W. A. Lewis's model of economic development with ‘unlimited’ supplies of labour has a far more limited application to the Rhodesian experience of capitalist development than W. J. Barber has assumed. ‘Unlimited’ supplies of labour were to a large extent the result of a process of ‘primary accumulation’ in which political rather than market mechanisms predominated and through which the gap between labour productivities in the peasant and capitalist sectors was progressively widened.

Thereafter, supplies of labour did become ‘unlimited’ and, for a period of about two decades, the Rhodesian economy displayed the main features of the Lewis model. However, owing to structural changes initiated by World War II (growing dominance of the economy by foreign oligopolies, development of a manufacturing industry, growing ‘superiority’ of capital intensive techniques, etc.), Lewis's assumption that investible surpluses are reinvested in loco so as to ‘widen’ capital ceased to be valid in the post‐war period.

Barber's failure to understand the real nature of capitalist development in Rhodesia is attributed to the general antihistorical bias of modern economics.     

Surplus labour and economic efficiency in the traditional sector of a dual economy: The Guatemalan case

In this paper we present empirical evidence on two closely related and widely discussed theoretical issues in development economics:

(A) the sign and the magnitude of the marginal productivity of labour—as they relate to the existence of surplus labour in the traditional sector of dual economies, and

(B) the economic efficiency of farmers in traditional agriculture. With regard to (A) we found the marginal productivity of labour in the traditional sector of Guatemalan agriculture to be positive, but considerably lower than the average wage rate that prevails in the area. Regarding (B) our estimated indexes of efficiency indicate that farmers in the traditional sector of Guatemalan agriculture make inefficient use of their economic resources.     

Analysis of food expenditure patterns of industrial workers and their families in a developing country

This paper employs data from a single socio‐economic group within the Indian population to throw some light on three related topics—the impact of urbanization on the demand for food, the nature of the income‐elasticity of expenditure on food for this group, and the importance of particular socio‐economic variables as determinants of the demand for food.

The income‐elasticity of demand for food has become liable to maltreatment in the process of development planning; all too often an estimate of this parameter is employed unquestioningly to evaluate the food requirements of developing countries, although it is well known that as incomes rise the income‐elasticity of demand for food falls. The following pages show that, like other characteristics of a developing system, the income‐elasticity of the demand for food is far from being a ‘fixed’ parameter. Firstly, as development proceeds, it is subject to change in a particular manner and direction. Secondly, the particular value of the income‐elasticity is subject to considerable variation within the country at a point in time. Thirdly, other variables than income exert significant pressure on behaviour, as evidenced by food expenditure patterns.     

The measurement of development effort—A suggestion

A notable shortcoming of development economics has been a failure to design an objective indicator allowing for an evaluation of the effort made in particular developing countries. Own‐country effort has been noted in the literature to be an important ingredient in the illusive recipe of development‐success; and so the above problem is of considerable interest, both theoretical and practical. This paper analyses the interrelationships between three groups of commonly used ‘effort‐indicators’ ; and in addition studies the relationships between each and growth of per capita income of a sample of developing countries. The findings suggest that at the present time, effective development efforts tend to lie less in the area of belt‐tightening and mobilisation of domestic savings, and more in the area of explicit export promotion.     

Toward an understanding of suicide in First-Nation Canadians

Despite having a suicide rate that is consistently higher than the national Canadian average, our understanding of suicide within First-Nation Canadians is limited. Furthermore, our historical research endeavors in this area have tended to focus on clarifying characteristic symptoms, symptom clusters, and risk factors; establishing causal links; and identifying clinical phenomena associated with the presence of increased risk and have tended to use quantitative methods. The "voice" of the suicidal First-Nation person is largely "silent" within this literature and, as a result, any understanding we have of this issue is unbalanced and incomplete. Accordingly, this paper makes the case for adding a complementary (or shifting the existing) research emphasis for studying suicide within First-Nation Canadian communities. It suggests a complimentary strategic research activity that is more concerned with qualitative methods: A model that augments the current understanding of the "developmental-existential" model of suicide by accessing and articulating the "voices" of the First-Nation people themselves.     

Banking on Social Change: Grameen Bank Lending to Women

The Grameen Bank in Bangladesh has become an international model for microcredit as a poverty alleviation strategy. The purpose of this paper is twofold: to evaluate the Grameen Bank as a strategy for empowering and improving the socioeconomic status of women in Bangladesh, and to identify lessons from the Grameen Bank experience that can inform development policy more generally. Arguments for and against Grameen Bank are evaluated in the light of evidence from studies of the Bank and knowledge of women and development. The conclusions that are drawn from this evaluation are that Grameen Bank is not a panacea for poverty alleviation and improving women's lives, that it has increased the income of borrowers, has led to improvements in specific aspects of their lives, and that it has potential if used in conjunction with other progressive social and economic policies to contribute to long-term, sustainable, progressive social change.     

Book Reviews

Abstract

Since the Grabiner Report in 2000 Grabiner, Lord. 2000. The Informal Economy: A Report by Lord Grabiner QC, London: HM Treasury/The Stationery Office Ltd..  [Google Scholar] there has been growing concern on the part of government over the scale of the informal economy. Most of the proposals to address this growth have focused on ways to deter such activity. But there have also been efforts to assist those who wish to legitimise their activities. This paper argues that a social enterprise approach to formalisation would be of benefit to tackling joblessness and social exclusion as well as generating further social economic activity in deprived neighbourhoods. The paper draws upon review research and original research work currently being conducted into formalisation strategies.     

Cultural Trauma as a Potential Symbolic Boundary

Using the case of the Holocaust as a cultural trauma in the Jewish-Israeli context, some insights are suggested as to the ways younger members of collectives view cultural trauma as a symbolic boundary. The findings obtained from three groups of students, each expressing their views on a different facet of the Holocaust as a symbolic boundary, suggest that the major contributing factor that turns cultural trauma into a symbolic boundary is the way in which members of the collective categorize the modes through which others, within and outside the collective, relate to that cultural trauma.

Implementing IFRS in Local Government: Institutional Isomorphism as NPM Goes Mad?

Abstract

The impact the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) has on business has been considered by various authors, such as Jones and Higgins (2006 Jones, S. H. and Higgins, A. D. 2006. Australia's switch to international financial reporting standards: a perspective from account preparers'. Accounting and Finance, 46: 629–652. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). However, there has not been the same research conducted with respect to local government. As Australia and New Zealand are leading the world by being the first to introduce IFRS into local government financial reporting, this study is timely in order todetermine the impact of compliance on local government. With the New Public Management (NPM) introduced in the late 1970s, accrual accounting and the desire to enhance transparency became embedded in financial reporting across the world. The paper adds to the growing literature on institutional theory with results of the study suggesting that a form of coercive isomorphism is present in regards to local government compliance with IFRS. It also suggests that the philosophy behind NPM – especially that espousing the benefits of public sector reporting in a private sector vein–may not be as relevant to Australian local government as the policy makers would have us believe. The thrust to implement IFRS may have finally pushed local government into a world they struggle to cope with. For example, findings indicate that there is now, more than ever, a perception in the community that the bottom line is an important indicator of a council's performance. Results reported here determined that the implementation process was time-consuming and costly with, in general, very little perceived benefit. Councils are conforming to the coercive pressure from legislative bodies, but they are not converging as part of the ‘transaction-neutral’ reporting regime.