Kategoria BISAC: Political Science >> Political Economy

Recent years have seen a range of theoretical challenges to traditional notions of state sovereignty and a burgeoning debate about the power of the state in the face of globalization and new forms of governance. In this important new text, Georg Sorensen provides a systematic assessment of the contemporary state, steering a middle course between those who argue the state is in retreat and their critics. In so doing he sheds new light on just what is actually changing in the nature of sovereign statehood, on changes in the relative power of different states and on the changing relationship...

Recent years have seen a range of theoretical challenges to traditional notions of state sovereignty and a burgeoning debate about the power of the state in the face of globalization and new forms of governance. In this important new text, Georg Sorensen provides a systematic assessment of the contemporary state, steering a middle course between those who argue the state is in retreat and their critics. In so doing he sheds new light on just what is actually changing in the nature of sovereign statehood, on changes in the relative power of different states and on the changing relationship...

How the Japanese money accumulated, the system that created it, and American fumbling that led to crippling debt service, a loss of much of our manufacturing base, and our economy's diminishing good jobs.The Weight of the Yen explains it all, in an intriguing, jargon-free analysis of the past fifteen years and the problems between America and Japan that are yet to come.

In Dark Ages America, the pundit Morris Berman argues that the nation has entered a dangerous phase in its historical development from which there is no return. As the corporate-consumerist juggernaut that now defines the nation rolls on, the very factors that once propelled America to greatness extreme individualism, territorial and economic expansion, and the pursuit of material wealth are, paradoxically, the nails in our collective coffin. Within a few decades, Berman argues, the United States will be marginalized on the world stage, its hegemony replaced by China or the European Union....

This book aims to link the Communist experience to the theoretical debates on modernity. The most influential theories of modernity have taken surprisingly little interest in the problematic of Soviet-type societies, and recent events have highlighted the lack of conceptual framework for the interpretation of their history.

This outstanding book deals with the Soviet model as a distinctive pattern of modernity. Its historical background and its institutional structure are thoroughly examined as are its implications for understanding Modernity. The book challenges many of the simple assumptions and judgements made about the Soviet road. It is essential reading for students of Political Science, Sociology and Soviet History

Livelihoods in rural Africa are changing in response to disappearing job prospects, falling agricultural output and collapsing infrastructure. This book explains why the responses to these challenges are so different in different parts of Africa. Making a Living uses case studies from commercial farming regions in Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe and from much poorer areas within eastern and southern Africa.to give a broad comparative study of rural livelihoods. These case studies reveal how household relations, poverty and gender all play a part in the changing political economy of...

Livelihoods in rural Africa are changing in response to disappearing job prospects, falling agricultural output and collapsing infrastructure. This book explains why the responses to these challenges are so different in different parts of Africa. Making a Living uses case studies from commercial farming regions in Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe and from much poorer areas within eastern and southern Africa.to give a broad comparative study of rural livelihoods. These case studies reveal how household relations, poverty and gender all play a part in the changing political economy of...

China's basic work units, collectively known as the danwei system, have undergone significant reform, particularly since 1984. The author examines how this system operates and how reform is generating change in the party at grassroots level.
The author demonstrates how China's post-Mao reforms have produced a quiet revolution from below as the process of political and economic liberalization has accelerated. This book presents new research findings that will be invaluable to those wishing to understand the nature of change in China.

Is Japan totally exceptional or is it a typical market economy? Is the poor macroeconomic performance of the 1990s down to archaic institutions or short term monetary and budgetary policies? Is the Japanese manufacturing system based on solid ground or does the bursting of the bubble highlight fundamental structural weaknesses? Should the Japanese authorities preserve the main tenets of their post-World War II economic institutions or should they do more to embrace market led capitalism? The contributions to Japanese Capitalism in Crisis show that there can be a middle ground between these...

The Emergence of the Global Political Economy challenges the assumption that the international political economy is a recent phenomenon. Instead this volume asserts that the current global political economy began to take shape around 1500 and that some of today's key processes were already perceivable several hundred years ago.
The book explains the interdependence between long-term economic growth, global political leadership and global war and how this interdependence has evolved over the last 500 years, and includes discussion of:
*the ascendence of Western Europe and the...

The Emergence of the Global Political Economy challenges the assumption that the international political economy is a recent phenomenon. Instead this volume asserts that the current global political economy began to take shape around 1500 and that some of today's key processes were already perceivable several hundred years ago.
The book explains the interdependence between long-term economic growth, global political leadership and global war and how this interdependence has evolved over the last 500 years, and includes discussion of:
*the ascendence of Western Europe and the...

This book examines the experience of democracy in developing countries such as Mexico, Zambia, India and Indonesia. It considers the patchy democratic record of such countries, as well as investigating the relationship between external and domestic factors to democratisation. The contributors assess the importance to democratic progress of a number of key variables, including:
*the institutionalisation of political parties and electoral systems
* the role of civil society
*the influence of external actors, such as the European Union

Whose interests does the new Europe serve, and what kind of model of capitalism is being constructed in the European Union? This book presents an analysis of the transnational social forces in the making of a new European socio-economic order that emerged out of the European integration process during the 1980s and 1990s. Arguing that the political economy of European integration must be put within the context of a changing global capitalism, Van Apeldoorn examines how European change is linked to global change and how transnational actors mediate these changes. Van Apeldoorn contends that we...

Hannes Lacher presents a new critical social theory of international relations that integrates sociology, history and political geography to understand the formation and development of modern international relations.

Far from implying a return to state-centrist Realism, this essential new volume leads us towards a critical social theory of international relations that questions the prevailing conceptions of the modern international political economy as a collection of nationally bounded spaces more fundamentally than ever before. It also shows us that capitalist...

Using a critical theory approach to analyze the globalization of the world economy, this provocative and topical new book presents economic globalization not as a recent development, but rather as a familiar process that has occurred throughout history. Michael McKinley argues that it is ultimately a self-serving, arbitrary and destructive imperial project that should be viewed as a religious war.

Chinas stunning record of economic development since the 1970s has been marred by an increasingly obvious gap between the countrys haves and its have-nots. While people living in some parts of the country have enjoyed dramatically improved conditions of life, those in other districts and regions have slipped ever further behind in terms of access to health, wealth, education, security and opportunity.

Paying for Progress in China is a collection of essays which trace the causes of this growing inequality, using new data including surveys, interviews, newly available official statistics and...

With Mongolia fast becoming a significant exporter of minerals and raw materials, this book provides a full account of political and economic events in this important country. It focuses on the period since the establishment of the Soviet-backed Mongolian People's Republic in 1924 and the transition towards a democratic free market system since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Covering key topics in Mongolia's recent development, the book looks at:

• economic and political reform process
• the role of the private sector
• foreign aid
• trade and...

With global concerns over rising oil prices, this book examines the major issues facing the economies of the Arab Gulf today, covering all six of the Arab Gulf Cooperation Council (AGCC) states: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Providing a detailed account of the central features of the economies of the Arab Gulf, this book draws out the critical trends that will shape the region in future years. It includes an in-depth analysis of topical issues such as the AGCC monetary union, intra-AGCC national labour movement, Islamic banking and...

For more than a century and a half, the most powerful national governments have created institutions of multilateral governance that promise to make a more inclusive world, a world serving women, working people, the colonized, the 'backward', the destitute, and the despised.

This groundbreaking book is a study of that promise, and of the real impact of this world government. It discusses what systems global institutions have, and have not done to keep their promise, and examines whether the system will serve the world's least-advantaged, or marginalize them further.

This...