Regional prosperities compared: Massachusetts and Baden-Württemberg in the 1980s

This article compares the relationship between economic development and public policy in two of the most prosperous regions of the 1980s: Massachusetts in the United States and Baden-Württemberg in West Germany. Beginning with a critique of the theory of the product life-cycle, the article examines the rise and fall of traditional industries in Massachusetts and their survival in Baden-Württemberg. It then goes on to consider the rise–but also the vulnerability–of the high-tech and financial firms in Massachusetts, as well as the more robust, though almost invisible growth of these sectors in Baden-Württemberg. The burden of the argument is that there are, strictly speaking, no ‘mature’ industries and public policies aimed at stimulating innovation are most successful when the latter is integrated into the local industrial structure as a whole rather than isolated into a distinct high-tech sector.     

Accounting for ideas: Bringing a knowledge economy into the picture

Abstract

Over the past 15–20 years, the margins of industrial classifications, corporate balance sheets and GDP have been altered to capture knowledge as a new category of value. This has resulted in the institutionalization of categories such as an information economy (1997), intangible assets (2001) and, most recently, a knowledge-adjusted GDP (2013) in these calculating technologies. By harnessing knowledge as a manageable and valuable object, these shifts are responding but also contributing to the concept of a knowledge economy. This paper investigates the conditions necessary to anchor these new categories of value. The analysis attends not only to the changing rules and regulations, but also to the rhetorics of visibility/invisibility, materiality/immateriality, and measurability/immeasurability used to make a case for these transformations.     

The formation of an ‘Islamic sphere’ in French Colonial West Africa

One of the most unintended consequences of colonial rule in French West Africa was the Islamization of large parts of it. Islamic movements have often been interpreted in specifically plitical terms, as instances of ‘collaboration’ with or ‘resistance’ to colonial domination. They can better be understood in terms of the emergence of a qualitatively new ‘Islamic sphere7rsquo; conceptually separate from ‘particular’ affiliations such as ethnicity, kin group membership or salve origins, as well as from the colonial state. This paper considers two cases in detail: the Hamawiyya, a branch of the Tijani Sufi order whose leader was exiled by the French and which was brutally repressed in the 1940s; and the ‘Wahhabiyya’, an anti-Sufi movement which emerged after World war II.     

Structuring parliamentary politics: Party organization in eighteenth‐century Sweden

SUMMARY

The English universities were enfranchised as parliamentary constituencies in letters patent issued by James I in 1604. The various approaches made to the Tudor regime by some of the senior members of Oxford and Cambridge to have ‘burgesses in parliament’ to protect and promote the rights of the respective universities and their colleges were largely responses to the problems caused by the persistent contentions and conflict of interests between ‘town and gown’ in both places. These abortive attempts to add new constituencies to the expanding parliamentary system in the sixteenth century are seen against the background of medieval precedents for the summoning by the Crown of university lawyers to parliament. On three separate occasions after the Reformation, the petitions for the privilege of representation addressed to the monarch and privy councillors were associated with requests that the lower clergy in the Church of England be represented in the House of Commons as well as in the Convocations of the Church. Parliament itself does not seem to have played a part in initiating these overtures or in sanctioning the final grant of representation, which, like the enfranchisement of incorporated boroughs, was an exercise of the royal prerogative. Both universities responded positively to the advice tendered in 1604 by the attorney-general, Sir Edward Coke, that they return as their representatives civil lawyers rather than clerical members of their governing bodies. The possible constitutional significance of this recommendation and its implementation is considered in the context of some contemporary ideas of representation and the failure at this time of the ‘inferior clergy’ generally to gain a presence in the House of Commons to complement that of the spiritual lords in the upper chamber. In the later modern period the separate university franchise was extended in turn to all modern academic institutions on attaining full university status, but was abolished by the post-war Labour Government in 1948.     

The leadership deficit in Europe

The emerging global order is challenging multilateralism in the sense that power is becoming situational: centres of gravity are overlapping and transient, and the transnational interdependence that characterises this ‘polypolar’ world challenges small and great powers alike. Emerging powers are forming a ‘new middle', straddling the North-South divide with dynamic new multilateral formations, and prioritising economic self-interest. South Africa is at risk of being relegated to a new global periphery if it gives priority to political solidarity with the global South rather than economic pragmatism in its multilateral strategies. Its comparative advantage in the diplomatic arena is its middle power credentials. If it rationalizes its multilateralism to focus on diplomatic niche areas it can enhance its political influence in global governance institutions, despite its small economic stature.     

US Middle East policy after 9/11: Implications for transatlantic relations

The EU's agenda in promoting multilateralism faces a few challenges in the eastward direction. The Caspian Sea basin, which has been acquiring increasing importance for the EU in the context of energy, above all gas, supplies from the Caucasus and Central Asia, represents a complex mix of states with different histories, identities, regimes, centres of gravity and regional ambitions. Unlike the Black Sea basin, where the EU has developed the Black Sea Synergy policy, none of the Caspian littoral states is an EU member and this has led to a lack of EU interest in and commitment to the promotion of multilateralism in the area. Thus, in spite of significant energy security interests, the EU lacks the will, the capacity or the consistency to address regional security issues or promote reform. Indeed, economic interests are inevitably likely to clash with the reform promotion objective.     

Current challenges of the mexican state and of mexican public administration

This article deals with the problems that the Mexican government will need to face in order to go on with the reform of the state. The cycle of such a reform (privatization, liberalization and democratization) is already closing down. While ending this process, however, Mexico also started to see an increasing number of demands calling for administrative reform and, above all, the federalization of government and public administration. This is what the author calls the strategic agenda of the Mexican government.

In order to implement the administrative reform, the author favors enhancing the accountability of the Mexican government, by increasing public participation in the policy and decision making processes. With regard to the federalization of government and public administration, Aguilar proposes the implementation of policy tools never used in Mexico, such as fiscal federalism (categorical and block grants, for instance), together with new constitutional, political and administrative arrangements.