Marriage and the crisis of peasant society in Gujarat,India

ABSTRACT

This contribution takes marriage as the example of a crisis of production and reproduction in rural India. Through the juxtaposition of ethnography separated by six decades, we detail a shift away from land and agriculture as the primary markers of status among the Patidars of central Gujarat, western India, in favour of a hierarchical understanding of international migration. The paper discusses the disconnect between a cultural revolution in favour of migration, and the failure of many to live up to their own cultural standards. More broadly, we reflect on the forces that simultaneously strengthen and dissolve caste inequality in the context of India's uneven growth.     

The World Bank on ‘agriculture for development’: a failure of imagination or the power of ideology?

The paper provides a critique of the World Bank's 2008 World Development Report on the role of agriculture in the development process, specifically its conception of capitalist farming as a pathway out of rural poverty. It is argued that the Report is unable to overcome a fundamental deficit in development thinking based on modernisation theory and an ideological predisposition towards (and belief in) the agency and working of the market. The paper also argues that the failure of the Report to propose radical land redistributive measures for tackling rural poverty derives from its failure to grasp the fundamental cause and dynamics of rural poverty.     

Financial crises as catalysts for regional cooperation? Chances and obstacles for financial integration in ASEAN+3, MERCOSUR and the eurozone

This article compares and analyses the different answers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations+3 (ASEAN+3), Mercado Común del Dur (MERCOSUR) and the eurozone on financial crises in their respective regions. All three regions were hit by economic turmoil between 1997 and 2012, but whereas ASEAN+3 and the eurozone answered with establishing regional liquidity arrangements (RLAs) in order to fight future crises, financial cooperation did not take off in MERCOSUR. Thus, the paper asks why some regions establish RLAs in cases of crisis and others do not. It argues that the variance of regional financial integration in different world regions is due to different interests of regional powers in their respective regions. The regional powers of ASEAN+3 and the eurozone are institutionally and/or economically highly embedded within their respective regions, but this is not the case for Brazil in MERCOSUR. China and Japan suffered from negative externalities of the Asian crisis, and, consequently, have had an interest to stabilize their neighbours’ economies after the crisis. In contrast, Brazil was able to follow a beggar-thy-neighbour strategy at the turn of the millennium, which externalized some of the costs of Brazil's own economic crisis towards Argentina. As a result, Brazil has had no interest in providing liquidity for its regional neighbours after the crisis. France and Germany are not only economically but also institutionally highly embedded in the eurozone because they share a common currency with their regional neighbours. Thus, the stability of the eurozone is a vital interest for Europe's regional powers, and they devote significant resources to stabilize the economies of the eurozone's periphery.     

Varieties of regional monetary cooperation: a tool for reducing volatility in developing economies?

Can regional monetary cooperation shield developing regions from global volatility? The article argues that the main contribution of regional monetary cooperation to enhancing the shock-buffering ability of its member countries is to provide short-term liquidity and to increase regional trade and financial links. In contrast, traditional optimum currency area (OCA) theories formulate the advantages of regional monetary cooperation in terms of allocative efficiency gains and aim at a full currency union as final stage. As such, traditional theory widely ignores the shock-buffering capacity of regional monetary cooperation as well as their varieties. In contrast, the article argues that intermediate stages of regional monetary cooperation have their own rationales related to such shock-buffering capacity. This paper systematically examines the variety of regional cooperation arrangements in the developing world that range from regional payments systems over the pooling of reserves to exchange rate coordination. We propose that the potential for shock buffering is dependent on the chosen form of cooperation. Furthermore, in contrast to full monetary integration, which is highly demanding in terms of policy coordination, the requirements for regional policy coordination are significantly lower, depending on the form and aim of the arrangement.     

Bureaucratic socialism in reform mode: the changing politics of Cuba’s post-Fidel era

Standard wisdom explains Cuba’s current transformation as one of economic change but political immobility. However, Cuban politics have also undergone a major change since the handing over of power from Fidel to Raúl Castro – even if the rhetoric used has been one of continuity. This article traces this process by looking at four areas: the depersonalisation and re-institutionalisation of the political structures; the diversification of the public sphere, particularly through the use of digital media; the liberalisation of travel and migration, with its transformative impact on state–citizen relations; and the turn to a moderate foreign policy, as highlighted by the rapprochement with the USA, with its implications for legitimising the underpinnings of Cuban socialism. Although the shift has been well below the threshold of a transition to multiparty democracy, Cuba has evolved from the charismatic model of the past to what can be understood as bureaucratic socialism in reform mode.     

Cuba: heading for a new development and political model – an introduction

Cuba, this iconic revolutionary island which has brought so much hope to the Third World and, at one point, worry for a nuclear World War III, is going through a process of change never seen since Fidel Castro led his revolutionary forces to triumph around New Year’s of 1959. Yet, 10 years into the change process, led by the younger Castro Raúl (now 85), nobody can really forecast where the country will end up in socio-economic and political terms. In this TWQ subsection, two economists and three political scientists – two Cubans and three European Cuba watchers – analyse the reforms and their possible outcome.     

The EU and Multidimensional Forms of Power: Critical Moments and Change in Actorness and Power

This article introduces a framework for studying the European Union (EU) as power by focusing on what EU does rather than what EU is. Conceptualizing EU as a regional international society, EU is constituted along multidimensional lines. While a code of conduct limits internal and external practices, critical moments are important junctures for practitioners to reinterpret norms and rules, leading to the reproduction of EU as power. The practice of minority rights illustrates how a lack of intersubjectivity limits the EU’s power. It is first through practitioners’ engagement with norms and rules that new practices are established.     

体系转换理论视角下的朝鲜半岛安全问题

体系结构主要包括权力分配和"交往力度"两个变量。在东北亚区域权力结构失衡的条件下,实现整个地区由消极的权力结构向积极的权力结构的转换,是由两个相互叠加的进程共同构建的。一个是东北亚地区各国交往力度加深并逐渐建立积极的体系结构的过程;另一个就是在区域各国自制的条件下朝韩两国的合作过程。     

论完善和发展民族区域自治制度(上)

民族区域自治制度具有博大精深的理论和制度体系 ,其巨大的政策和制度涵容量 ,本身就是一个永无穷尽的知识和制度宝库。本文从我国五大少数民族自治区均在西部 (含广西也已列入 )的国情族情入手 ,扭住完善和发展民族区域自治制度与西部大开发战略整体推进之间的正比关系这一重大主题进行全面而深刻的论述。作者认为 :无论是从民族区域自治制度本身还是以外的诸因素看 ,完善和发展民族区域自治制度都直接导源于国家稳定、民族团结、社会进步和经济发展等政治层面的根本利益所必须 ,直接导源于西部大开发重要战略决策顺利实现的总体需要。文章最后就如何完善和发展民族区域自治制度提出了具体设想。     

全面推进长三角区域合作发展

作者分析了促进长三角区域发展的战略意义及其所面临的挑战,就全面推进新一轮的长三角区域合作发展提出了对策：尽快出台长三角地区区域发展规划,促进区域合作的制度化;推动亚洲美元离岸市场发展,加快“上海国际金融中心”的建设;大力扶持中小企业健康发展;推进长三角区域科技创新合作制度建设;充分利用国际资源,加快长三角科技创新建设步伐,优先发展低碳产业;以区域环境政策一体化为目标,建立区域环境保护协调机制;支持安徽参与泛长三角区域合作。