Identification and analysis of smallholder producers’ constraints: applications to Tanzania and Uganda

This article puts forward a method for the analysis of constraints faced by developing countries’ smallholder producers. It is consistent with theories of constraints, efficient in terms of cost and researchers’ time, and accessible to a non-technical audience. A hybrid of workshop discussion and individual data collection, it also draws on data and analyses available in most developing countries. The article presents an application to smallholder livestock systems in Tanzania and Uganda, reporting results and analysis relating constraints to households’ characteristics and conditions, and their stated goals. While limitations are identified, it is proposed for application in other development fields.     

STATE-SPONSORED SEED VENTURE CAPITAL PROGRAMS: THE PENNSYLVANIA EXPERIENCE

The venture capital industry represents the high growth end of the enterprise development spectrum. To promote this high value activity, states have ventured into new development finance realms. This article reviews various state approaches and concentrates on a diversified strategy adopted by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.     

(Neo-)evolutionäre Wahlverwandtschaften

Max Webers ambivalente Haltung gegenüber der Anwendung der Konzepte Selektion und Adaption auf die Untersuchung der kulturellen und sozialen Evolution ist leicht verständlich angesichts seiner Skepsis hinsichtlich der Reduzierbarkeit der Soziologie auf die Biologie und in Anbetracht seines Argwohns, dass sich die selektionstheoretischen Erklärungen bei genauem Hinsehen als wertegeladen oder zirkulär erweisen würden. Seine Bedenken lassen sich unter Zuhilfenahme von Entwicklungen in der Evolutionstheorie zerstreuen, die für ihn zu Lebzeiten nicht vorhersehbar waren, es jedoch möglich machen, die grundlegenden Vorstellungen seiner Religionssoziologie auf überzeugende Weise zu reformulieren. Dies macht es allerdings notwendig, seine Metapher der ?Wahlverwandtschaft“ zwischen religiösen Vorstellungen und dem Verhalten idealtypischer Akteure durch empirisch überprüfbare Hypothesen zu ersetzen, die die Anpassungsfähigkeit bestimmter religiöser Meme mit der Anpassungsfähigkeit bestimmter ökonomischer Praktiken in Verbindung bringen.     

The Enjoyment of Rights and Freedoms: A New Conception of the 'Ambit' under Article 14 ECHR

Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, as applied by the UK judiciary under the Human Rights Act 1998, is in danger of becoming as 'parasitic' as it is often described. Judges have inappropriately narrowed the scope of the 'ambit' of other Convention articles, and thus limited the number of claims to which Article 14 can apply, by defining it according to considerations more properly weighed in a justification analysis incorporating proportionality. The emerging approach departs from Strasbourg jurisprudence, and fails to give full effect to the language and intent of Article 14. This trend need not continue. This article begins the process of fashioning a new conception of the ambit of Convention articles: one that could change the fortunes of Article 14 cases in the UK, but that flows naturally from the precedents of the European Court of Human Rights, and gives effect to the spirit of the HRA.     

Whose Safety Net? Home Insurance and Inequality

Drawing on prior theoretical and empirical work that has begun to constitute the insurance field as a distinct sociolegal research project, this study uses quantitative and qualitative data collected following Hurricane Andrew in 1992 to explore distributional questions within that field. Survey results show that higher income, age, and education were associated with having home insurance and that Hispanics and blacks were less likely than non-Hispanic whites to have insurance. The study provides the first quantitative evidence of bias in the insurance claims process by documenting a statistically significant and substantial ethnic difference in the timing of insurance payments. The qualitative research helps to explain the difference in the timing of insurance payments as the product of unconscious bias by insurance adjusters. The study concludes by proposing market-structuring regulation to reduce the inequality encountered.