Good Inflation, Bad Inflation: The Housing Boom, Economic Growth and the Disaggregation of Inflationary Preferences in the UK and Ireland

This article presents a comparative analysis of the determinants, sustenance and broader macroeconomic consequences of the ultimately unsustainable housing boom in Ireland and the UK in recent years. It examines, in particular, the role played by ostensibly depoliticised monetary policy in both contexts in the development of a house price bubble that has served to fuel consumer-led growth. It assesses the viability, sustainability and reproducibility of the private debt-financed consumer boom that house price inflation has generated. In the process it draws attention to the increasingly differentiated character of both government inflationary preferences and counter-inflationary performance—with the shift to official measures of inflation that exclude mortgage interest repayments and, in the UK at least, to the covert re-politicisation of monetary policy. It concludes by suggesting that governments may well not have time-inconsistent inflationary preferences so much as sectorally specific inflationary preferences. This might be summarised in terms of the aphorism: 'retail price inflation bad, house price inflation good'.     

“It is not my intention to be a killjoy…”: Objecting to a Licence Application—The Complainers

This paper explores the constructed nature of legal complaints through the adoption of a socio-linguistic model with an emphasis upon pragmatics and elements of conversation analysis. When making a legal complaint, we posit that there is a conflict between effective communication and the uptake of politeness strategies. Furthermore, how complaints are ??worked up?? in situ is a product of the arena in which such complaints are made. Through a textual analysis of the methods of complaining adopted by those who make representations to the licensing authority, for the purposes of objecting to a licence application, we show the tension between making oneself clear and being polite, and how complaints in different settings take different forms. We conclude by exploring the implications of our findings for legal processes??is it reasonable, for instance, to talk of ??consistency?? in testimony if each complaint is worked up in situ??and for pragmatic theory more generally, i.e the applicability of Brown and Levinson??s politeness model for legal processes.     

Industrialisation as a structural determinant of inflation performance in IMF stabilisation programmes in less developed countries

This article considers the impact of IMF stabilisation programmes on inflation performance in LDCs. It is argued that the success of a programme in effecting a change in the inflationary process will be influenced by the structural characteristics of the economy and in particular by the stage of industrialisation reached. The empirical analysis is based on a sample of LDCs which undertook adjustment programmes supported by Fund resources during the 1970s, and the results obtained are consistent with the hypothesis of an association between economic structure and inflation performance.     

A cross‐section analysis of food insecurity in developing countries: Its magnitude and sources

Short‐term instability in food supplies continues to be a severe problem for many developing countries. From the viewpoint of an individual country, this problem arises primarily from fluctuations in domestic food production and in foreign exchange availability. The present paper aims to establish the magnitude and seriousness of the problem in a sample of 50 food deficit countries. It also aims to broaden the scope of discussion of the food security problem by taking into account the possibility that food insecurity may manifest itself in a country in a variety of ways which depend in part on the manner in which the domestic authorities respond to periodic shortfalls in food supplies.     

The Politics of Local Government Reform in Northern Ireland

A major review of public administration in Northern Ireland has resulted in proposals for radical reforms in health, education and local government services. Although originating from the devolved government of 1999, intermittent suspensions resulted in Direct Rule Ministers taking over responsibility for the review. This article traces the influence of a sizeable body of research evidence on the outcomes of the review, specifically controversial reforms to local government, and the significant influence attached to macro political factors in reaching key public policy decisions. It also highlights the asymmetry in power relations between Stormont and local government and how devolution has simply compounded regional centralism in Northern Ireland.     

Feudalism in the Service of the Revolution

This article discusses the way the past is being reexamined in modern-day Vietnam, particularly through the medium of heritage. Hue, the old royal capital of Vietnam, provides the case study, as this city reflects the great themes and events of Vietnamese history over the last two hundred years, from the establishment of a unified nation under the Nguyen, through the imposition of colonial control, the devastation of war, reunification, and the establishment of communism, to the consolidation of an independent postcolonial nation. The importance of Hue's heritage is recognized in its status as a “world heritage” site. The author argues that Hue's heritage is, nevertheless, problematic for Vietnam's ruling communists, because to them it largely represents a regime—the Nguyen Dynasty—that was “reactionary” and that had sold out the country to the French. The apparent contradiction between the standard communist view of the Nguyen past and the value accorded to Nguyen heritage in Hue is resolved, the author contends, by recourse to the depoliticized practices of heritage preservation and tourist promotion.     

Electing Mayors: A Comparison of Different Electoral Procedures

In 2000 and 2002 the first direct elections for mayors were held in England. They were elected using the supplementary vote method. This article summarises the discussion which led to the adoption of this electoral system, analyses some of the main arguments used, states some general criteria by which electoral systems can be judged, and evaluates some other possible methods for conducting such elections. It concludes that in the light of at least some general conditions, supplementary vote (SV) is a less desirable way of choosing a mayor than alternative vote (AV) and some other systems. However, it seems as if a simple amendment of the original SV procedure will avoid some of its most apparent problems.