Taking on the World: The International Activities of American State Legislatures

State legislatures in the United States engage in a substantialamount of international activity. In the 2001-2002 legislativesessions, some 886 bills and resolutions with significant internationalimplications were introduced. Approximately 306 of these wereadopted. This level of international activity has increasedsubstantially since 1991, and the substantive focus has changedover time. In addition, about half of all state legislaturesreceived at least one foreign delegation and sent at least onedelegation of members abroad in the last session. As in mostareas of state policy, there is considerable interstate variationin legislatures' international activities. Some states had virtuallyno international legislative activity, whereas others were veryactive. The principal factors explaining this variation werethe degree of state involvement in the international economy,as measured by the level of state exports, and party controlof the legislature.     

The Transfer of Manufacturing Processes and Standards in U.S. Plants Operating in the U.K.

This paper finds that U.S. firms tend to utilize their manufacturing processes when operating in the U.K. but that they adopt the production standards of the host country. Three process technology variables are examined: MRP I (materials requirements planning), JIT (just in time), and TQM (total quality management). While significant differences are found between indigenous plants in each of the two countries, the adoption of these manufacturing technologies is similar for American firms operating in either country. In contrast, U.S. transplants are found to be enthusiastic adopters of ISO 9000, suggesting that host country effects are large when it comes to conforming to regional standards.     

Promise or pitfall? The limited gains from agricultural trade liberalisation for developing countries

It has become an article of faith in international trade negotiations that farmers in developing countries have much to gain from agricultural trade liberalisation. This paper assesses the evidence for such claims, relying on World Bank data and analyses, United Nations trade data, and other economic modelling carried out to inform the current round of World Trade Organisation negotiations. It concludes that the promise of agricultural trade liberalisation is overstated, while the costs to small-scale farmers in developing countries are often very high.     

Who gains from contract farming? Dependencies,power relations,and institutional change

ABSTRACT

The paper highlights the mechanisms through which outgrower contract farming creates dependencies at the local level. Using sugarcane case study in Malawi, we show that dependencies are created through redefinition of use rights to customary land and through the redefinition of cash flows into outgrower communities. Through this two-dimensional process, corporations can secure access to land, exert control over local communities and transform the local social relations of reciprocity serving as the pillars of resistance. Our results indicate that contract farming changes rural agrarian relations, transforms local family institutions by carefully selecting a few household members with influence into the scheme and selectively dispossessing the poor community members.     

How Scandalous <Emphasis Type="Italic">Is</Emphasis> Knowledge of Evolutionary Psychology?

Biological science is deepening our understanding of life at a brisk rate, but interdisciplinary discourse is not keeping pace. This essay offers an account of themes from evolutionary biology that can enrich appreciation of the complexities of human behavior. Because this topic touches fields with different and more traditional perspectives, frictions and misunderstandings exist, and I have employed examples from a single source in order to clarify the science. In her critique of evolutionary psychology published in her book Scandalous Knowledge, the social theorist Barbara Herrnstein Smith has set forth views that are not in harmony with either evolutionary biology or cognitive neuroscience. She asserts that specialized features of mental processing postulated by evolutionary psychologists are without empirical justification; further, she dismisses the concept as embracing “non-physical mental organs.” There exist, however, numerous examples of how brains process information in specific, functional ways, frequently characteristic of the species. Furthermore, the charge of “non-physical mental organs” is not only wrong; it reveals a failure to recognize that biology has two complementary modes of explanation. One is historical and addresses cause in terms of the historical course of evolution and the process of natural selection. The other is proximate and includes many levels of analysis from molecular to social. Because brains have evolutionary histories, the ‘function’ of a particular aspect of mental processing can have a hypothetical explanation in terms of adaptive advantage that is independent of any knowledge of the underlying neural circuitry. A computational model of the brain and representational processing of sensory information, however, are both compatible with observed properties of neurons in the retina and visual cortex as well as with evolutionary processes. Finally, study of the mental processes of non-human primates provides insight into the evolution of our own minds.