“A minimum of urbanism and a maximum of ruralism”: The Cuban experience

The case of Cuba provides social scientists with reasonably good information on urbanization policies and their implementation in 1 developing country committed to socialism. The demographic context is considered, and Cuban efforts to eliminate the rural-urban contradiction and to redefine the role of Havana are described. The impact of these policies is analyzed in terms of available data on urbanization patterns since January 1959 when the revolutionaries marched into Havana. Prerevolutionary urbanization trends are considered. Fertility in Cuba has declined simultaneously with mortality and even more rapidly. Projections assume a 1.85% annual growth rate, resulting in a population of nearly 15 million by the year 2000. Any estimate regarding the future trend in population growth must depend on prognosis of general living conditions and of specific government policies regarding contraception, abortion, female labor force participation, and child care facilities. If population growth in Cuba has been substantial, but less dramatic than that of many other developing countries, urban growth presents a similar picture. Cuba's highest rate of growth of the population living in urban centers with a population over 20,000, in any intercensal period during the 20th century, was 4.1%/year for 1943-1953. It dropped to 3.0% in the 1953-1970 period. Government policies achieved a measure of success in stemming the tide of rural-urban migration, but the aims of the revolutionary leadership went further. The objective was for urban dwellers to be involved in agriculture, and the living standards of the rural population were to be raised to approximate those of city dwellers. The goal of "urbanizing" the countryside found expression in a program designed to construct new small towns which could more easily be provided with services. A slowdown in the growth of Havana, and the concomitant weakening of its dominant position, was intended by the revolutionary leadership. Offical policies have been enunciated that connect the reduction in the dominance of Havana with the slowdown in urban growth and the urbanization of the countryside. Evidence is presented which suggests achievements along all of these dimensions, but by 1970 they were, as yet, quite limited.     

Dependency today—finance,firms, mafias and the state: A review of Susan Strange's work from a developing country perspective

The movements of political protest, competitive elections and the installation of new regimes are widely regarded as the most significant political upheaval to shake Africa since political independence. The impression is often given that this transformation has also seen the sweeping away of the old guard of autocratic leaders. The image of renewed leadership does not however correspond with reality. Taking the leaders that were in office in 1990 at the beginning of the democratisation movement, the article traces their subsequent history. It finds that half still hold the highest office, having for the most part successfully transformed themselves into 'democratic' leaders. This remarkable success story is examined, for the purpose of this article, from a voluntarist perspective, that is, the tactics that the incumbents pursued so as to remain in office are the focus. Continuing in the tradition of Sandbrook, and Jackson and Rosberg's work on 'personal rule',1 it constitutes a primer on how to hang on to power against the odds.     

Cops,spies and private eyes—changing patterns of Russian policing: A review article

Yevgenia Albats, KGB: State within a State. London: IB Tauris, 1995, 401 pp., £10.95.

Mikhail Boltunov, “Al'fa”—sverkhsektretnyi otryad KGB. Moscow: Kedr, 1992, 208 pp.

Martin Ebon, KGB: Death and Rebirth. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1994, xii + 229 pp., $24.95.

Amy Knight, Spies Without Cloaks. The KGB's Successors. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1996, xx+ 318 pp., £16.95.

Hsi‐Huey Liang, The Rise of the Modern Police and the European State System from Metternich to the Second World War, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, xiii + 345 pp., £30.00.

Joan Neuberger, Hooliganism. Crime, Culture and Power in St Petersburg, 1900–1914. Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1993, 324 pp., £33.50.

Louise Shelley, Policing Soviet Society. The Evolution of State Control. London: Routledge, 1996, 269 pp., £14.99 p/b, £40.00 h/b.

Leonid Tokar, Sovetskaya militsiya 1918–1991. St Petersburg: Eksklyusiv, 1995, 232 pp.

J. Michael Waller, Secret Empire. The KGB in Russia Today. Boulder, CO and Oxford: Westview, 1994, 390 pp., £13.50 p/b, £42.50 h/b.

Fredric Zuckerman, The Tsarist Secret Police in Russian Society, 1880–1917. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1996, xiii + 345 pp., £45.00.     

Epistemology and ‘evidence’ in development studies: a review of Dollar and Kraay

This paper examines the constraints on state policy autonomy engendered by globalisation. It evaluates the three major competing hypotheses on the decline in the state's inability to bargain with multinational corporations for the purpose of promoting economic development in light of two case studies of state – firm bargaining. The case studies are drawn from the mining sectors in Argentina and Chile in the late 1990s.     

Revolution,power and the Third World: a review of Michael Mann’s The Sources of Social Power,Volume 4

The fourth volume of Michael Mann’s The Sources of Social Power is the last in his historical sociological series, which has centred on an analysis of ideological, economic, military and political power in human societies from the start of civilisation. Mann’s final volume provides an important overview of the period of American hegemony and its worldwide effects, the rise and crisis of neoliberalism, the contrasting fates of the USSR and Maoist China, the vagaries of American empire, and modern revolutions. The implications of his study, particularly regarding the history and theory of revolutions, are of the utmost value to anyone on the Revolutionary Left today, especially in the Third World. While Mann’s study is primarily focused on the West, it provides important lessons to be drawn for the Third World.     

A Review of: “Jonathan Fox,Religion, Civilization,and Civil War: 1945 Through the New Millennium”

According to some terrorist fighters and academicians the constituencies of Muslim extremists are vital to the persistence of the jihad. Interviews and public information were used to examine the accuracy of this claim. The analysis demonstrates that sympathizers are indispensable to some preparative terrorist activities, yet not to others. Extremists depend less on sympathizers for making foreign journeys, generating revenues, and communication than they do for recruiting and sponsoring. So, sympathizers may be important for the persistence of the jihad, yet their role is not self-evident. This implies that receding of sympathy for the jihad will not automatically reduce it.     

The New World Order: A Deconstruction of the Nation-State and a Disaggregation of the “Mixed Political Economy”

The structure of the New World Order and its corresponding functions are becoming apparent. First, there will be a deconstruction of the nation-state. It will be bisected as power shifts to higher “macro-regional” levels on the one hand and lower “micro-regional” levels on the other. Second, there will be a disaggregation of the mixed political economy. It will be bifurcated as socialism is used at upper levels of human aggregation to alleviate pollution and as capitalism is used at lower levels to alleviate poverty.     

Wages,Wage Inequality,and Education: The Case of a Microstate with a “Free Education for All” Policy

Like many developing states, Barbados has historically used education as a means of economic development. Specifically, for over three decades, the Barbados Government has provided free education from the primary to the tertiary level. This article investigates the benefits associated with higher education. Based on a sample of 400 Barbadians, the authors find that education has a positive impact on income and contributes to lower within-group wage inequality.     

“Purity of Arms,” “Preemptive War,” and “Selective Targeting” in the Context of Terrorism: General,Conceptual, and Legal Analyses

Selective targeting (or targeted killing) of terrorist leaders is a legitimate mode of operation and part of a state's counterterrorism, anticipatory, self-defense activities that are designed to prevent the continuation of terrorism. Paradoxically, this counterterrorism measure is the best way of preserving the military ethical conventions of “purity of arms.” The concept refers to moral rules advocating the exercise of restraint and compassion in the course of a confrontation with the enemy. The “purity of arms” concept is debated extensively in democracies. Selective targeting of terrorist activists is a measure designed to hurt the real enemy while minimizing civilian casualties. Terrorist leaders and planners are targeted and an attempt is made, trying to avoid so far as possible, “collateral damage” that often accompanies any general military offensive. Customary international law permits targeting the enemy, provided that the criteria of necessity and proportionality of the attack are maintained. The relationship between the threat of terrorist attacks and the actual attacks carried out is shown in this study. The results contribute to reinforcing the legality of selective targeting as a preemptive mode of operation because they show that one should relate to a threat of an attack as to an imminent danger.     

A Social-Psychological Process of “Fear of Crime” for Men and Women: Revisiting Gender Differences from a New Perspective

Prior research has identified gender as a significant predictor of crime fear. Specifically, women are typically more fearful of crime than men, despite being relatively less likely to be victimized. The current study examines different ways men and women may think about crime and victimization within their neighborhoods, using contemporary social-psychological models of victimization worry. Data were collected from a sample of community residents (N = 713) living on the Gold Coast of Queensland, Australia. Results suggest that men’s and women’s fear of crime and perceptions of victimization threat are dependent on crime type and can be represented by a number of relationships among different social-psychological dimensions of victimization worry. The study concludes with practical implications for researchers seeking to examine the complex associations between gender and fear of crime.     

A Failure of Imagination (Intelligence,WMDs, and “Virtual Jihad”)

Intelligence estimates based on models keyed to frequency and recency of past occurrences make people less secure even if they predict most harmful events. The U.S. presidential commission on WMDs, the 9/11 commission, and Spain's comisión 11-M have condemned the status quo mentality of the intelligence community, which they see as being preoccupied with today's “current operations” and tactical requirements, and inattentive to tomorrow's far-ranging problems and strategic solutions. But the overriding emphasis in these commissions' recommendations is on further vertically integrating intelligence collection, analysis, and operations. Such proposals to further centralize intelligence and unify command and control are not promising given recent transformations in Jihadist networks to a somewhat “leaderless resistance” in the wake of Al Qaeda's operational demise. To defeat terrorist networks requires grasping novel relations between an englobing messianic moral framework, the rootless intellectual and physical mobility of immigrant and diaspora communities, and the overarching conceptual, emotional, and logistical affordances of the Internet. Britain's WWII experience provides salutary lessons for thinking creatively with decentralized expertise and partially autonomous approaches.