Communist Legacies, Postcommunist Transformations, and the Fate of Organized Labor in Russia and China

This study aims to generate fresh hypotheses concerning emergent variations in labor politics across postcomunist settings. Although labor may be weak throughout the postcommunist world, a historical comparison of labor politics in Russia and China reveals consequential differences in the extent and sources of union weakness. Taking these differences seriously, the study asks why organized labor in Russia—in spite of a steeper decline in union membership, greater fragmentation, and a conspicuously low level of militancy—wasrelatively more effective in advancing working-class interests during economic liberalization than the growing, organizationally unified trade union apparatus in China. The comparisons suggest that some constraints on organized labor are more malleable than others, allowing for openins where labor can affect outcomes in ways that surprise, if not scare, state and business. Specifically, key differences in historical legacies and in the pace and ynamics of institutional transformation have conferred upon Russian unions key organizational, material, and symbolic resources that Chinese unions do not possess to the same degree. These differences reflect mechanisms capable of generating increasingly divergent prospects for organized labor mobilization over long-time horizons. Calvin Chen is Luce Assistant Professor of Politics at Mount Holyoke College. His research interests include the industrialization of the Chinese countryside, the political economy of East Asia, and labor politics in postsocialist countries. He is presently working on a book on the role of social ties and networks of trust in China’s township and village enterprises. Rudra Sil is associate professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania. His research interests include the political economy of development, comparative labor relations, postcommunist transitions, Russian and Asian studies, and the history and philosophy of social science. He is author ofManaging “Modernity”: Work, Community, and Authority in Late-Industrializing Japan and Russia (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002) and coeditor ofThe Politics of Labor in a Global Age (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001). He is presently working on a book comparing the evolution of labor politics across postcommunist countries. We gratefully acknowledge helpful comments and suggestions offered by Hilary Appel, Harley Balzer, Ruth Collier, Eileen Doherty, Todor Enev, Tulia Falleti, David Ost, Lü Xiaobo, and three anonymous reviewers on drafts of this article.     

Work participation,gender and economic development: A quantitative anatomy of the Indian scenario

This article analyses forces which influence the degree of participation of population in economic activity in a developing economy. In the first stage the relationship between economic development and work participation is examined. The core of the analysis is based on a cross‐sectional study of 306 districts of India, using a composite index of development. The entire analysis is conducted separately for males and females on the one hand, and the rural and urban segments on the other. The oft‐referred‐to inverse relationship between female work participation and economic development emerges to be true in initial stages of development in the rural segment, but not so in the case of the urban segment. In the second stage the role of key socioeconomic and demographic factors, in addition to that of development, has been investigated using a recursive multi‐equation regression model. Finally, keeping in mind the crucial role of education in this context, work participation is analysed in terms of ten disaggregated educational categories.     

The Impact of Cooking with Firewood on Respiratory Health: Evidence from Indonesia

The vast majority of households in low-income countries cook with firewood, which is known to produce various airborne toxins. We examine whether cooking with firewood results in poorer respiratory health by using a unique Indonesian household survey that collected direct measures of lung capacity. We find that individuals living in households that cook with firewood have 9.4 per cent lower lung capacity than those that cook with cleaner fuels. This impact is larger for women and children than for men. The results strongly support the international policy focus on facilitating households to switch to cooking with cleaner fuels.     

Pre‐capitalist modes of production in non‐European societies

This article is an intervention in the debate on feudalism in non‐European societies. The scholarly isolation of those working in the field is deplored; the difficulties associated with the concepts of mode of production and social formation are discussed; strong exception is taken to the position that the feudal mode of production is a universal category applicable to all societies; and it is further argued that universal laws of feudalism, comparable to those of capitalism, have never been identified. The author suggests that Marxist historians should abandon the concept of mode of production. Rather, history should be studied in terms of a succession of dominant relations of production.     

Sadot mbandha and abhisadot mbandha

The few abbreviations employed in the body of the article are explained in the bibliography.The main point of this article was briefly stated at the Sanskrit syntax session of the South Asia Language Analysis conference held at Ithaca and Syracuse in June 1987.     

What Will Improve Governance?

Misgovernance in India ranks among its toughest problems to solve. Despite decades of seemingly progressive legislation, there is a simmering dissatisfaction even among those for whose benefits the legislation is designed. The electoral debacle of the UPA government in the parliamentary election of 2014 can be partly attributed to the disenchantment that a vast majority of people felt toward the governance issues. We argue that dynastic politics is the hallmark of many political parties in India and it prevents the emergence of meritorious leadership. Just as we need the process of creative destruction in the economic arena for sustained growth, we need a similar process in the political arena so that local leaders are chosen on the basis of their performance. The success of the new government at the center will depend on whether they succeed in jettisoning centralized decision making and moving the political process in this direction.