Political institutions and income (re-)distribution: evidence from developed economies

We discuss the effect of formal political institutions (electoral systems, fiscal decentralization, presidential and parliamentary regimes) on the extent and direction of income (re-)distribution. Empirical evidence is presented for a large sample of 70 economies and a panel of 13 OECD countries between 1981 and 1998. The evidence indicates that presidential regimes are associated with a less equal distribution of disposable incomes, while electoral systems have no significant effects. Fiscal competition is associated with less income redistribution and a less equal distribution of disposable incomes, but also with a more equal primary income distribution. Our evidence also is in line with earlier empirical contributions that find a positive relationship between trade openness and equality in primary and disposable incomes, as well as the overall redistributive effort.     

Offshore energy terrorism: Perspectives on a problem

Abstract

This essay examines prevailing perspectives on the prospect of terrorist sabotage against the offshore oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Mexico. It contrasts the dominant “wait‐and‐see” attitude in the United States with counterterrorist preparations by the North Sea countries, and suggests some of the reasons for this difference in attitudes.     

Media,globalisation and culture: issues and trends

Abstract

This article addresses some of the trends and issues as they relate to media and cultural globalisation. Grounded in a fundamental cultural perspective, the problematic of international communication is framed in different views of ‘local culture’, ‘cultural identity’ and ‘processes of cultural mixing’. In the end, a research framework for the study of cultural globalisation/localisation is outlined. The framework captures the issue of hybridised cultural products from a people centred perspective.     

How Europe Shapes the Nature of the Belgian Federation: Differentiated EU Impact Triggers Both Co-operation and Decentralization

This paper disentangles the impact of various dimensions of European integration on different aspects of the Belgian federal polity. We discern two opposite trends. While the institutional embeddedness of Belgium as an EU member state results in domestic centralizing tendencies and co-operative political practices, economic integration stimulates political pressures for regional autonomy, contributing to further divergence and hollowing out of the federal level. We conclude by arguing that the EU clearly affects territorial politics in Belgium, but, as the European causes are multidimensional, that also the effects, albeit substantial, will be diverse.     

After post-development

Along with ‘anti-development’ and ‘beyond development’, post-development is a radical reaction to the dilemmas of development. Post-development focuses on the underlying premises and motives of development; what sets it apart from other critical approaches is that it rejects development. The question is whether this is a tenable and fruitful position. Taken up first in this article are major overt positions of post-development—the problematisation of poverty, the portrayal of development as Westernisation, and the critique of modernism and science. The argument then turns to discourse analysis of development; it is argued that, in post-development, discourse analysis from a methodology turns into an ideology. Next the difference between alternative development and ‘alternatives to development’ is examined. The reasons why this difference is made out to be so large are, in my interpretation, anti-managerialism and dichotomic thinking. The article closes with a discussion of the politics of post-development and a critical assessment.     

Down and Out: Laboring under Global Capitalism

The text and photographs in this photo essay are excerpted with permission from Down and Out: Labouring under Global Capitalism (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), by Jan Breman and Arvind N. Das (text) and Ravi Agarwal (photographs).     

Leaking Superpower: WikiLeaks and the contradictions of democracy

While US government agencies endorse and support the democratic potential of the internet and social media overseas, the criticisms of the WikiLeaks disclosures of US diplomatic cables reveal the bias in relation to transparency and democracy. This poses a wider problem of connectivity combined with hegemony. This paper discusses what the criticisms of the WikiLeaks disclosures reveal. After discussing the enthusiasm about ‘hyper-connectivity’, the paper turns to the WikiLeaks disclosures, and next spells out global ramifications of the leaked cables, the problems of transparency and hegemony, frictions between democracy and democratisation, and the role of banks blocking donations to WikiLeaks.     

Roman Law in Roman Britain: An Introductory Survey

This article is the first attempt to analyse the condition of Roman law in Roman Britain for more than thirty years. It is intended as an introduction to the subject and a point from which further research can be done. The article briefly describes current knowledge of the effectiveness of Roman law in Roman Britain, relying upon not only traditional Roman law sources but also a large number of epigraphic sources. Based upon an analysis of these, it may be said that Roman law played an important role in the daily life of Roman Britain. It was not only associated with the Roman conquerors, but it was also used by Romanized native inhabitants of the island. It is even possible that the foundations laid down by the Romans influenced the later development of medieval Welsh law.