What did the Soviet Rulers Maximise?

The predominant view in the literature holds that the main objective of the Soviet rulers was growth of the official measure of aggregate output, irrespective of its use structure, that is, growth for its own sake. We show that the pursuit of this objective would have been irrational, and argue instead that the main objective was the pursuit of military might. This formulation returns the Soviet rulers to the company of rational economic actors, helps explain the main characteristics of the Soviet economic development better than the majority view, and provides a different perspective on the system's final decades.     

Proxy agents,auxiliary forces,and sovereign defection: assessing the outcomes of using non-state actors in civil conflicts

Abstract

This article interrogates the role of non-state armed actors in the Ukrainian civil conflict. The aim of this article is twofold. First, it seeks to identify the differences between the patterns of military intervention in Crimea (direct, covert intervention), and those in the South-East (mixed direct and indirect – proxy – intervention). It does so by assessing the extent of Russian troop involvement and that of external sponsorship to non-state actors. Second, it puts forward a tentative theoretical framework that allows distinguishing between the different outcomes the two patterns of intervention generate. Here, the focus is on the role of non-state actors in the two interventionist scenarios. The core argument is that the use of non-state actors is aimed at sovereign defection. The article introduces the concept of sovereign defection and defines it as a break-away from an existing state. To capture the differences between the outcomes of the interventions in Crimea and South-East, sovereign defection is classified into two categories: inward and outward. Outward sovereign defection is equated to the territorial seizure of the Crimean Peninsula by Russian Special Forces, aided by existing criminal gangs acting in an auxiliary capacity. Inward sovereign defection refers to the external sponsorship of the secessionist rebels in South-East Ukraine and their use as proxy forces with the purpose of creating a political buffer-zone in the shape of a frozen conflict. To demonstrate these claims, the article analyses the configuration of the dynamics of violence in both regions. It effectively argues that, in pursuing sovereign defection, the auxiliary and proxy forces operate under two competing dynamics of violence, delegative and non-delegative, with distinct implications to the course and future of the conflict.     

Multicultural Pedagogy Development in Modern Education

Although there is a growing interest in the influence of multicultural issues in education, there is still a lack of theoretically well-grounded comparative analyses of educational systems. Topics such as problems and prospects involved in the development of multicultural pedagogy are broadly discussed, but often suffer from an insufficient number of empirical and comparative studies. The lack of systemic or unified research in the field of multicultural education has reduced multicultural pedagogy within education to the simple implementation of individual training courses. As a result, multicultural pedagogy is generally oriented only toward the needs of a single country, rather than toward a system of multicultural interests that takes into account the interests of multiple countries. As a result, we must develop methods that will enable the realization of true multicultural pedagogy. The leading objective should be, firstly, the consideration of the individual as a subject of culture in a multicultural environment with a goal to determine the significance of the formation of an individual＇s multicultural qualities; secondly, the development of an integrative approach. Comparative studies are taking the lead in addressing this goal and recommending specific steps to incorporate multicultural pedagogy more systematically into an existing education system in every country. This paper addresses these problems by discussing theoretical questions behind the development of the ideological basis of multicultural pedagogy.