Decentralization,local governance and centre–periphery conflict in Sierra Leone

Issues of centralization–decentralization and centre–periphery resource distribution are frequent administrative and political concerns which can have, upon occasion, very profound consequences for the stability of a society. An analysis of recent events in Sierra Leone demonstrates their significance. On 25 May, 1997 the country's first democratically elected government in almost 30 years was overthrown after little more than a year in office by a group of rebellious military officers. Most commentators have attributed this turn of events simply to military disgruntlement. In fact, a careful analysis demonstrates that the central government's commitment to decentralization and the strengthening of local governance exacerbated the centre–periphery conflict issues that have plagued the country since its independence and thus were the real underlying causal factors. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Institutional law and economics

Behavioral economics provides one of the foundation for institutional law and economics (ILE). Improvement in predicting the performance of alternative laws will be built on ILE insights into how distribution affects productivity of labor and realization of joint gains. Our understanding of obedience to law as well as other categories of failure to be opportunistic (such as in high exclusion-cost situations) will be better understood from an ILE perspective that investigates learning to supplement specific sanctions.The boundaries of ILE inquiry encompass private property rights, regulation, and public spending and taxation since these are complements and substitutes. Public spending is not a good measure of the size of government, and regulation is not the opposite of freedom in the aggregate. This framework of ILE can usefully be seen as distinctive, even if all of its practitioners do not use the label and several of its propositions are shared with other paradigms. A better label might simply be institutional economics or political economy.     

The Descent of Power: Possession,Mysticism, and Initiation in the Śaiva Theology of Abhinavagupta

This paper surveys the key terms śaktipāta and samāveśa (both of which refer to religious experience) in the primary sources of Tantric Śaivism over several centuries of textual development, building up a theory as to their range of meanings. It specifically focuses on their usage by Abhinavagupta (Kāshmīr, 10th century) by presenting a complete translation of chapter 11 of his Tantrasāra. The paper thus serves to (a) illuminate the nature of spiritual experience and the qualifcations for religious praxis in Śaivism, (b) give insight into the worldview of the Tantric Śaivas, and (c) help in pinpointing a specific and significant issue in the phenomenological study of religion generally. An earlier version of this paper has been published in a somewhat different form in Evam: Forum on Indian Representations vol. 4, published by Samvad India, New Delhi, India. This paper could not have been written without two years of intensive study with Professor Alexis Sanderson of All Souls College, Oxford, whose scholarship has proved essential in advancing my understanding of Śaivism. Also very helpful was Dr. Somadeva Vasudeva, now of Columbia University, whose database and encyclopedic knowledge have been invaluable. The germ of the idea for this article was suggested to me when Professor Paul Muller-Ortega (University of Rochester) first pointed out to me the passage beginning at MVT 2.14.