2024-03-28T16:04:51Zhttps://escholarship.org/oaioai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt85k9q6vz2013-05-15T18:46:49Z am 3u INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF MODERN SOCIOLOGYVol. 38, no. 2 (Dec. 2012) 170-198eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/85k9q6vzRobinson, William I.author2012-12-01This article analyzes the global crisis from the perspective of global capitalismtheory, in particular, with regard to the rise of a globally integrated productionand financial system, a transnational capitalist class, and transnational stateapparatuses. It situates the causal origins of the global crisis in a combination of over-accumulation and in contradictions of state power. This 21st century crisis is unprecedented in terms of its magnitude, its global reach, the extent of ecological degradation and social deterioration, and the scale of the means of violence. The global economy experienced a period of hyper-accumulation in the 1980s and 1990s as a result of capitalist globalization but stagnated by the turn of the century. Transnational capitalists and elites turned to two major mechanisms for unloading surplus and sustaining accumulation in the face of chronic stagnation: financial speculation and militarized accumulation. Reformist-oriented elites have responded to the crisis by calling for a neo-Keynesianism from above and mechanisms for transnational regulation while popular and working classes have resisted attempts to transfer to them through austerity, wage cuts, and unemployment the burden of the crisis.publicglobal studiesglobal crisiseconomy2008financialtransnationalcapitalismneo- Keynesianism“THE GREAT RECESSION” OF 2008 AND THE CONTINUING CRISIS: A Global Capitalism Perspectivearticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt9g85730f2012-07-09T22:13:16Z am 3u Critical SociologyVol. 28, no. 3 (May. 2012) 349-363eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/9g85730fRobinson, William Iauthor2012-05-29publicGlobal Capitalism Theory and the Emergence of Transnational Elitesarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt4hn092nm2012-07-09T22:07:31Z am 3u Critical SociologyVol. 38, no. 3 (May. 2012) 404-415eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/4hn092nmRobinson, William Iauthor2012-05-29publicCapitalist Globalization as World-Historic Context: A Responsearticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt7153p2v02012-07-09T21:31:10Z am 3u Race & ClassVol. 53, no. 3 (Mar. 2012) 4-29eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/7153p2v0Robinson, William IauthorBarrera, Marioauthor2012-03-02This seminal article analyses the current structural crisis and instability in an ever more polarised world in relation to earlier systemic crises that were resolved through fascism or through Fordist-Keynesian ‘class compromise’ (the 1930s) and the emergence of capitalist globalisation (the 1970s). The authors identify three basic responses to the crisis: popular insurgency from below; reformist stabilisation from above; and, a twenty-first century neo-fascism. Looking specifically at the US, they analyse political and economic developments that demonstrate fascistic characteristics. While no simple replication of the past, the emergence of a Christian Right since the mid-1980s, the growth of certain currents within the Tea Party movement, the sharp increase in violent hate groups, the spread of a vicious anti-immigrant movement, the psychopathology of white decline, sharp militarisation and pervasive policing give some indications of the rise of fascist tendencies. But what is crucial today is the sophistication of such a project, made possible by the ideological domination of media together with new surveillance and social control technologies that allow it to rely more on selective than generalised repression. In calling for a co-ordinated fightback, both in the US and beyond, the authors see the only viable solution to the crisis of global capitalism as a massive redistribution of wealth and power downward towards the poor majority of humanity, along the lines of a twenty-first century democratic socialism.publicanti-immigrant movementcapitalist crisisChristian Rightglobalisationmilitarisationneo-fascismOath KeepersPatriot movementSB1070Tea Partytransnational capitalGlobal capitalism and twenty-first century fascism: a UC case studyarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt9c21h2pv2011-07-04T02:27:06Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/9c21h2pvRobinson, William I.author2011-02-11By the turn of the 21st century the concept of globalization had earned its place in the social sciences and debate turned more squarely to the theoretical significance of globalization. Yet not all scholars were happy with the notion of globalization. Some claim that is merely a new name for earlier theories and concepts. Among those who reject new paradigmatic thinking on the current age is Immanuel Wallerstein, the world-renowned sociologist and ‘father’ of the worldsystem paradigm. This article is intended as an appraisal of Wallerstein’s oeuvre in the context of the debate on global transformations in the late 20th and early 21st centuries and from the vantage point of the present author’s own critical globalization perspective. The first three parts summarize and assess Wallerstein’s theoretical system and his many contributions to macro, historical and comparative sociology, to development studies and international political economy. The fourth discusses Wallerstein’s assessment of the evolution of the world capitalist system in recent decades, including his views on the concept of globalization, and the fifth focuses on earlier and more recent critical appraisals of his work, including the present author’s own, in light of the recent transformations in world capitalism identified with globalization.publicdevelopmentglobalizationhistory of sociologysocial changesociological theoryGlobalization and the sociology of Immanuel Wallerstein: A critical appraisalarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt65z6j0022011-07-04T01:25:22Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/65z6j002Robinson, William I.author2011-01-24The money mandarins of global capitalism and their political agents are utilizing the global crisis to impose brutal austerity and attempting to dismantle what is left of welfare systems and social states in Europe, North America and elsewhere. The budgetary and fiscal crises that supposedly justify spending cuts and austerity are contrived. They are a consequence of the unwillingness or inability of states to challenge capital and their disposition to transfer the burden of the crisis to working and popular classes. Global mobility has given capital enhanced class power over nationally based working classes and extraordinary structural influence over state managers who seek economic reactivation and macroeconomic stability. To understand the current conjuncture we need to go back to the 1970s.publiccapitalismglobalThe global capital leviathanarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt34b5s46w2011-07-04T01:23:50Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/34b5s46wRobinson, William I.author2011-01-14This article surveys and critically assesses the life work of Giovanni Arrighi, a renowned historical sociologist and world-systems scholar who passed away in 2009. In a trilogy of books published between 1994 and 2007 Arrighi develops the master concept of his theoretical legacy, systemic cycles of accumulation, and advances an original reading of the history and dynamics of world capitalism as a succession of hegemonic episodes, each one more expansive than the previous and culminating in crises and chaotic transitions. He anticipated the rise of a Chinese-led East Asia as the emergent twenty-first century centre of a reorganised world economy and society. Arrighi is faulted for failing to develop any theory of politics, the state and collective agency in his construct, for his lack of attention to social forces from below, and for his dismissal of recent theorising on globalization.publicArrighiworld-systemscycles of accumulationhegemonyglobalisationChinaGiovanni Arrighi: Systemic Cycles of Accumulation, Hegemonic Transitions, and the Rise of Chinaarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt7md4x0542011-07-03T23:17:40Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/7md4x054Mehta, AashishauthorAcuna, Belindaauthor2010-09-14The literature on wage inequality in liberalizing developing economies has largely attributed rising skill premiums to trade-induced increases in the demand for skilled labor within "sectors" (industries, occupations, or industry-occupation pairs). Although there is strong evidence from many countries of trade-induced increases in skill demand within manufacturing, we show that in Mexico, the most studied country in this literature, economy-wide increases in college premium can be explained without reference to these demand shifts. Evidence that skill premiums have increased because of within-sector increases in skill demand mostly comes from decompositions that suppress di¤erences in wages across occupations. We show that this is unduly restrictive, for example if incomes change and Engel curves for services are non-linear. Mexico’s college premiums were lifted by increased demand for professional services, many of which are not directly tradeable. This explanation also reconciles gender di¤erences in the changes in skill premium with changes in employment composition. Job opportunities in non-traded sectors may matter more for wage inequality than trade policy. [JEL: F16, O15, J21]publicSkill premiumemployment compositiontrade liberalizationRising College Premiums in Mexico: How Important Is Trade?articlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt9ng4c3xf2011-07-03T23:16:30Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/9ng4c3xfMehta, AashishauthorJha, Shikhaauthor2010-09-09We argue that parastatal food-distribution organizations are less effective when their agents vary the quality of subsidized food and retail service (henceforth "quality") in response to local market conditions. These actions make assessing need from market signals difficult, hindering the effective allocation of subsidized food. In theory, policies and market conditions can affect outcomes (quality, demand, rationing and pilferage) differently, depending upon how markets for subsidized rice clear. We provide tests to reveal which market clearing mechanism is relevant. Using administrative and household survey data, we …nd evidence of quality variations, pilferage and market clearing through ad-hoc rationing of subsidized rice in the Philippines. Poorer markets and those facing higher rice prices do not receive more subsidized rice, but do appear to receive lower quality service and smaller rations. This may explain why the nationwide incidence of hunger rose with rice prices in poorer areas during 2003-2007 despite costly subsidies. We recommend explicit rationing rules, increased transparency regarding rice allotments and measured reductions in the amount of subsidized rice distributed.publicFood subsidyservice qualityagency problemSubsidized Food Distribution with Endogenous Quality: A Case Study from the Philippinesarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt0w42h3342011-07-03T23:05:33Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/0w42h334Mehta, AashishauthorJha, Shikhaauthor2010-08-09This paper provides an empirical and theoretical analysis of theft from opaque food subsidy schemes in developing economies. Some 48% of the subsidized rice distributed in the Philippines in 2006 does not show up in household surveys. Pilferage is suspected, and we introduce several new robustness tests that rule out alternative interpretations of this …nding. We argue that …finding pilferage in an opaque system does not simply imply that redistribution is costly, as the literature has recognized. It also implies that reducing the amount of product pushed into the distribution system should reduce pilferage one-for-one, and that such reductions and transparency improvements should unambiguously improve consumer and taxpayer welfare. In contrast, reductions in the price subsidy may not be welfare enhancing.publicCorruptionConsumer subsidyMissing Rice in the Philippines: Measurement and Meaningarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt0w59m6vj2011-07-03T23:05:27Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/0w59m6vjRobinson, William I.author2010-08-16publiccapitalismglobalThe Crisis of Global Capitalism: Cyclical, Structural, or Systemic?articlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt29z457nf2011-07-03T21:54:20Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/29z457nfRobinson, William I.author2009-01-01publicGeopolitics, History, and International Relationsarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt44d402xv2011-07-03T21:54:15Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/44d402xvRobinson, William I.author2010-01-01The class and social structure of developing nations has undergone profound transformation in recent decades as each nation has incorporated into an increasingly integrated global production and financial system. National elites have experienced a new fractionation. Emergent transnationally-oriented elites grounded in globalized circuits of accumulation compete with older nationally-oriented elites grounded in more protected and often state-guided national and regional circuits. This essay focuses on structural analysis of the distinction between these two fractions of the elite and the implications for development. I suggest that nationally-oriented elites are often dependent on the social reproduction of at least a portion of the popular and working classes for the reproduction of their own status, and therefore on local development processes however so defined whereas transnationally-oriented elites are less dependent on such local social reproduction. The shift in dominant power relations from nationally- to transnationally-oriented elites is reflected in a concomitant shift to a discourse from one that defines development as national industrialization and expanded consumption to one that defines it in terms of global market integration.publicElitesdevelopmentglobalizationtransnationalcapitalismcrisisGlobal Capitalism Theory and the Emergence of Transnational Elitesarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt1z28q6bs2011-07-03T21:39:44Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/1z28q6bsRobinson, William I.author2003-01-01There are broad, historical-structural linkages among the distinct Latino groups in the United States, on the basis of which a Latino national minority is forming. In analyzing the disproportional effects on Latinos of the global economy, this essay argues that there is a common Latino historic experience vis-a-vis the world system incorporation into the US political economy, with its characteristic pattern of racialized social relations, from the immediate US periphery, the Greater Caribbean Basin, and through colonial conquest. This constitutes the structural underpinning for a Latino national minority. This analysis also provides new components of a theoretical framework for understanding minority group formation.publicglobalizationglobalisationlatinoThe Global Economy and the Latino Populations in the United States: A World Systems Approacharticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt44j854qc2011-07-03T21:39:39Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/44j854qcRobinson, William I.author2009-03-01A sociology of globalization has come into existence in recent years as both an umbrella for a number of traditional sub-fields and also as a theoretical enterprise. Social scientists have attempted to theorize worldwide social transformations in recent decades and to conceive of a global system with its own emergent properties. Among the most widely-cited scholars in this emerging field is Saskia Sassen, a Dutch-born sociologist and economist. This article charts and critically assesses Sassen’s particular sociology of globalization. The main focus is on two interrelated topics for which she is best known: global cities and transnational migration. Ongoing and novel reconfigurations of time and space are central to many globalization theories as globalization redefines the relationship between production and territoriality, economic organization, institutions and social processes. Sassen is most concerned with the spatial, or scalar, realities of globalization as a process that restructures space and place, as evinced in her global cities thesis and her work on transnational migration, as well as in her more recent research on the state, global digital networks and emergent global formations.publicSasensoiciologyglobalizationSaskia Sassen and the Sociology of Globalization: A Critical Appraisalarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt8wg1h3ck2011-07-03T21:39:33Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/8wg1h3ckRobinson, William I.author2007-01-01Th e dynamics of the emerging transnational stage in world capitalism cannot be understood through the blinkers of nation-state-centric thinking. In her study Empire of Capital, Ellen Meiksins Wood exhibits the reification and outdated nation-state-centric thinking that plagues much recent work on world capitalism and US intervention, expressed in the confusing notion of a ‘new imperialism’. Th e overarching problems in Wood’s study – and, by extension, in much of the ‘new-imperialism’ literature – is a reified notion of imperialism, a refusal to draw out the analytical, theoretical, methodological, and epistemological implications of capitalist globalisation, and an incessant reification of the state. Instead of a ‘new US empire’, the current epoch is best understood as a new transnational phase in the ongoing evolution of world capitalism, characterised in particular by the rise of truly transnational capital, globalised circuits of accumulation, and transnational state apparatuses. ‘US imperialism’ refers to the use by tansnational élites of the US state apparatus to continue to attempt to expand, defend an stabilise the global capitalist system. US militarisation and intervention are best understood as a response to the intractable contradictions of global capitalism.publicOther International and Area StudiesglobalcapitalismtransnationalimperialismhegemonyinterventionrealismThe Pitfalls of Realist Analysis of Global Capitalism: A Critique of Ellen Meiksins Wood’s Empire of Capitalism: A Critique of Ellen Meiksins Wood's "Empire of Capital"articlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt9n06h70f2011-07-03T20:38:22Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/9n06h70fMehta, AashishauthorFelipe, JesusauthorQuising, PilipinasauthorCamingue, Shielaauthor2009-09-01We study why the relationship between education and log-wages has become more convex in India, the Philippines and Thailand. To do so, we develop decompositions connecting returns to education, and shifts in those returns, to the evolving structure of employment. Returns to college depend mostly upon high-skill service jobs. While relative demand for college graduates in that sector generally rose, its employment share grew slowly, pushing workers with secondary education into less skill intensive services. Services employment, which grew fast, therefore became more menial on average. These polarizing trends in services account for the growing convexity of the Mincerian wage profile. The effects of industrialization on the returns to secondary education depend upon the composition of manufacturing employment. Slow structural transformation when educational attainment increases rapidly causes education inflation, and drives down the returns to secondary education. This constrains governments' seeking to use educational expansion to alter the wage distribution.publicOther International and Area StudiesemploymenteducationreturnschangetransformationeconomiesWhere Have All The Educated Workers Gone? Education and Structural Transformation in Three Asian Economiesarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt6b07h5p52011-07-03T20:38:18Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/6b07h5p5Mehta, AashishauthorFelipe, JesusauthorQuising, PilipinasauthorCamingue, Shielaauthor2010-08-21In the absence of data measuring the number of years of schooling required to perform particular jobs, we propose a new approach to testing for overeducation. Overeducation is confirmed by rising education levels in menial jobs that offer very low returns to education. Overeducation is deemed a systemic problem if these jobs absorb a growing share of the educated labor force. Normatively, overeducation should sometimes be seen as a shortage of skilled jobs, not as a surplus of educated workers. We use a decomposition of the returns to education to clarify the distinction between equity and efficiency rationales for expanding access to education when returns to education are low. We find substantial evidence of overeducation in the Philippines, mild evidence of it in India, and none in Thailand.publicOther International and Area StudieseducationcapitaleconomicdevelopmentOvereducation in Developing Economies: How can we test for it, and what does it mean?articlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt69f0h2t92011-07-03T18:31:54Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/69f0h2t9Yang, Mayfair Mei-Huiauthor2004-08-01publicChinaPostcolonialRuralSoutheast ChinaSpatial Struggles: Postcolonial Complex, State Disenchantment, and Popular Reappropriation of Space in Rural Southeast Chinaarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt3h33v4v32011-07-03T17:57:25Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/3h33v4v3Cohen, Benjamin J.author2003-01-01The aim of this essay is to provide the first building blocks for a positive theory of currency regionalization. In the spirit of the actor-oriented framework outlined by Kahler and Lake (Chapter 1), the analytical focus here is the state–specifically, central decisionmakers responsible for currency policy. The working assumption is that economic globalization is driving policymakers to reconsider their historical preference for strictly national money. The question is: What delegation of authority is most likely to emerge in individual countries? What conditions are most likely to influence the choice among available options?The essay is organized as follows. I begin in the first section with a brief look back at the dramatic transformation of global monetary relations that has occurred in recent decades–a period during which many governments, finding it increasingly difficult to sustain the market position of uncompetitive national currencies, have begun to reflect instead on the possibility of a regional currency of some kind. Section II then highlights the considerable leeway available in designing alternative forms of either currency unification or dollarization, while Section III identifies key factors that can be expected to dominate the calculations of rational policymakers in thinking about the choices before them. Taking all factors into account, it is clear that for many states traditional sovereignty will remain the preferred option. But taking account of possible variations in the degree of regionalization, it is also clear that for many other countries some form of monetary alliance or subordination could turn out to be rather more appealing.publicMonetaryGovernanceCurrenciesMonetary Governance in a World of Regional Currenciesarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt5hk6n7542011-07-03T17:35:24Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/5hk6n754Appelbaum, Richard P.author2004-02-07The purpose of this paper is propose two vastly different approaches to studying the role of commodity chains in the global economy. Both use the commodity chains framework to analyze the possibilities for industrial upgrading. The first proposes to develop an index of industrial upgrading in individual countries, and then use the index as the dependent variable in causal models incorporating various predictors of industrial upgrading. The second, somewhat more adventurous strategy, proposes a commodity chains-based decision approach that would attempt to model the complex interactions between the commodity chain and its regional environment. The first approach is developed considerably more extensively than the second (which is barely developed at all), both because it builds on former work I have done with others (including David Smith, who is part of this workshop), and because it seems reasonably possible to accomplish empirically. The second approach is developed more briefly and speculatively; suggestions would be appreciated.publicCommodity chainsEconomic developmentGlobalizationWorld SystemLaborGlobal EconomyCommodity Chains and Economic Development: One and a Half Proposals for Spatially-Oriented Researcharticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt2t1332vt2011-07-03T12:25:52Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/2t1332vtYang, Mayfair Mei-huiauthor2004-04-01This essay examines complex interactions among the nation-state, popular religion, media capitalism, and gendered territorialization as these are inflected across the Taiwan Strait. Relations across the strait have been fraught with political tension and military preparations over the question of whether taiwan is part of China or an independent state. Since the 1999 presidential elections in Taiwan, the new government there has been more vociferous about Taiwan independence, and mainland China's Communist Party has responded with more vigorous claims on Taiwan, including the launching of a warning missile over the island. Under these conditions, it is all the more remarkable that in recent years there has been an increasing number of religious pilgrimages and exchanges across the strait, and that, in 2000, one such pilgrimage by Taiwanese worshippers of the maritime goddess Mazu to her natal home in Fujian Province was broadcast live from China back to Taiwan via satellite television.publicTaiwanStraitRitualSpaceNation-StateSatelliteTelevisionFootprintsGoddessGoddess across the Taiwan Strait: Matrifocal Ritual Space, Nation-State, and Satellite Television Footprintsarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt32t6n5jj2011-07-03T09:20:33Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/32t6n5jjCohen, Benjamin J.author2004-07-01What is America's interest in dollarization? Formal adoption of the dollar by other governments creates both opportunities and risks for the United States, political as well as economic. But few benefits or costs can be estimated in advance, leaving much room for debate and disagreement. The argument of this paper is that no presumption can be established either way, whether for or against dollarization, from a strictly U.S. point of view. Unless directly challenged by efforts elsewhere to establish formal currency blocs, the United States has no interest in promoting a wider role for the greenback.publicDollarizationRestPeaceDollarization Rest in Peacearticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt5n0799wz2011-07-03T09:20:19Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/5n0799wzCohen, Benjamin J.author2002-01-01Accelerating cross-border competition among currencies is creating increasing turbulence in the international monetary environment. Are national currencies becoming obsolete? Currency competition compels governments to choose from among a limited number of strategies, only one of which involves preservation of a traditional territorial money. Many national currencies will disappear, leading to an increasing number of regional currencies of one kind or another – a distinctly new geography of money. But there is no sure way to predict what that new geography of money will ultimately look like. We have a fairly good idea of the principal factors that are likely to influence state preferences, but many configurations are possible and even probable.publicMonetaryInstabilityNationalCurrenciesObsoleteMonetary Instability: Are National Currencies Becoming Obsolete?articlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt68c2k2392011-07-03T09:20:07Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/68c2k239Cohen, Benjamin J.author2002-03-04Is dollarization in the U.S. interest? As more Latin American countries contemplate following the examples of Ecuador and El Salvador, which have dollarized unilaterally, it is natural to ask whether the United States can expect to gain or lose in the process. In my opinion, the answer is clear. Considering political as well as economic implications, there is little doubt that risks and prospective costs far outweigh possible benefits. Unless directly challenged by efforts elsewhere to promote international currency use at the dollar’s expense, the United States has no interest in encouraging formal adoption of the greenback by neighboring governments.The reason is straightforward. Much of Latin America is already extensively dollarized on a de facto basis, as a result of currency substitution – a spontaneous, market-driven process now customarily distinguished as informal or unofficial dollarization. Informal dollarization, it may be argued, realizes significant advantages for the United States. As compared with these gains, little would be added by formal (official) dollarization and much, conceivably, could be lost.publicDollarizedHemisphereInterestIs A Dollarized Hemisphere in the U.S. Interest?articlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt5zn7d6rd2011-07-03T09:20:02Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/5zn7d6rdCohen, Benjamin J.author2004-01-01What is America’s interest in dollarization? Formal adoption of the dollar by other governments creates both opportunities and risks for the United States, political as well as economic. But few benefits or costs can be estimated in advance, leaving much room for debate and disagreement. The argument of this paper is that no presumption can be established either way, whether for or against dollarization, from a strictly U.S. point of view. Unless directly challenged by efforts elsewhere to establish formal currency blocs, the United States has no interest in promoting a wider role for the greenback.publicDollarizationAmerica's Interest in Dollarizationarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt040470tr2011-07-03T09:19:54Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/040470trForan, Johnauthor2004-08-01This essay advances an original sociological perspective for understanding U.S. foreign policy, historically and in the present, as a product of economic, political, cultural, and social psychological factors, shaped by race and gender as well as class. It offers an interpretation of the real reasons for both the first U.S.-Iraq war in 1991 and the recent conflict in 2003, assessing the first in terms of a project of international hegemony through roll-back of the negative impact of the Iranian Revolution of 1979, and arguing that the 2002-3 Gulf War followed the same lines in a more extreme direction: a project of imperial hegemony through unilateral pre-emptive war abroad and manipulation of public opinion coupled with a climate designed to demonize dissent at home. It closes with suggestions for what roles progressive sociologists might play in the global justice movement and Green Party in light of the analysis offered in the essay.publicEmpireGlobalJusticeMovementWorldCrisisConfronting an Empire: An Analysis for the Global Justice Movement of the U.S.-made World Crisisarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt82r5k1nh2011-07-02T20:02:34Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/82r5k1nhRobinson, William I.author2004-01-01This essay examines Latin America’s experience in the crisis and restructuring of world capitalism from the 1970s into the twenty first century, with particular emphasis on the neo-liberal model, social conflicts and institutional quagmires that have engulfed the region, and the rise of a new resistance politics. The empirical and analytical sections look at: Latin America’s changing profile in the global division of labour; the domination of speculative finance capital; the continued debt crisis, its social effects and political implications; capital–labour restructuring, the spread of informalisation and the new inequality; the passage from social explosions to institutional crises; the new popular electoral politics and the fragility of the neo-liberal state. These issues are approached through the lens of global capitalism theory. This theory sees the turn-of-century global system as a new epoch in the history of world capitalism, emphasising new patterns of power and social polarisation worldwide and such concepts as a transnational accumulation, transnational capitalists and a transnational state. Finally, the essay argues that global capitalism faces a twin crisis in the early twenty first century, of overaccumulation and of legitimacy, and explores the prospects for social change in Latin America and worldwide.publicGlobalCrisisLatinAmericaCapitalismSocialConflictGlobal Crisis and Latin Americaarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt9175s3012011-07-02T20:02:23Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/9175s301Juergensmeyer, Markauthor2002-05-21publicglobalreligionThinking Globally About Religionarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt97r5n8jx2011-07-02T20:02:05Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/97r5n8jxCOHEN, BENJAMIN Jauthor2008-02-01This essay looks at the dynamics of power and rule setting in the international monetary system. I begin with a brief discussion of the meaning of power in international monetary relations, distinguishing between two critical dimensions of monetary power, autonomy and influence. Major developments have led to a greater diffusion of power in monetary affairs, both among states and between states and societal actors. But the diffusion of power has been mainly in the dimension of autonomy, rather than influence, meaning that leadership in the system has been dispersed rather than relocated – a pattern of change in the geopolitics of finance that might be called leaderless diffusion. The pattern of leaderless diffusion, in turn, is generating greater ambiguity in prevailing governance structures. Rule setting in monetary relations increasingly relies not on negotiations among a few powerful states but, rather, on the evolution of custom and usage among growing numbers of autonomous agents. Impacts on governance structures can be seen at two levels: the individual state and the global system. At the state level, the dispersion of power compels governments to rethink their commitment to national monetary sovereignty. At the systemic level, it compounds the difficulties of bargaining on monetary issues. More and more, formal rules are being superceded by informal norms that emerge, like common law, not from legislation or statutes but from everyday conduct and social convention.publicmonetaryinternationaleconomyeconomicschathamThe International Monetary System: Diffusion and Ambiguityarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt6h4841jn2011-07-02T20:00:02Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/6h4841jnHajjar, Lisaauthor2009-07-01(Lisa Hajjar is chair of the Law and Society Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara and an editor of *Middle East Report*.) Starting with the publication of the Abu Ghraib photos in April 2004,[1]there has been a steady cascade of revelations about the Bush administration's brutal and dehumanizing interrogation and detention policies. These days, the last refuge for die-hard deniers is the euphemization that "enhanced interrogation" is not "torture." The current fault line in the public debate is not whether America tortured but whether it "worked." Although some important details and documents remain classified, and the first official efforts to systematically study the relationship among the motivations, methods and fruits of interrogation have just begun, there is enough information available to draw some lessons from the US torture policy.publictortureAmerican Torture: The Price Paid, the Lessons Learnedarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt6tp8s0bv2011-07-02T14:57:24Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/6tp8s0bvRobinson, William I.author2008-01-25publicglobal capitalismUnderstanding Global Capitalismarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt7nm2j5jg2011-07-02T14:56:33Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/7nm2j5jgCohen, Benjamin Jauthor2007-01-25publicEast Asian economyexchange rateseconomyinternational economicsAfter the Fall: East Asian Exchange Rates Since the Crisisarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt6sj5q7nq2011-07-02T14:56:29Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/6sj5q7nqGunn, Gilesauthor2004-04-01publicEdward SaidOn Edward Saidarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt34b2k62b2011-07-02T14:56:23Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/34b2k62bCOHEN, BENJAMIN Jauthor2005-03-15The second Bush Administration will face many demanding challenges in foreign economic policy – the Doha Round of multilateral trade talks, regional and bilateral trade negotiations, poor-country debt problems, rising energy prices, the competitive threat of China, and more. But most demanding of all will be the critical issue of America's balance of payments. Persistent external deficits have led to an unprecedented growth of foreign debt for the United States, now in excess of $3 trillion ($3,000,000,000) on a net basis. For the first time in history, the world’s greatest superpower is also the world's greatest debtor. If not managed effectively, America's Super Debt could become a grave source of strain on financial markets and possibly even trigger a global economic crisis. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that the fate of the world economy hangs in the balance. Is the Bush Administration up to the challenge?publicSuperDebtAmericaBalancePaymentsSuper Debt: Managing America's Balance of Paymentsarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt0nh2g5rj2011-07-02T14:56:19Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/0nh2g5rjCOHEN, BENJAMIN Jauthor2005-01-01How will the euro affect transatlantic relations? Even while partners in a political and military alliance, Europe and the United States have long been rivals in monetary affairs. Until recently, however, it was a rather one-sided contest, since Europe had no currency – not even the fabled Deutsche mark (DM) - that could effectively match the U.S. dollar as international money. Now Europe has the euro, which many have predicted will quickly emerge as a potent competitor to America’s greenback. Could growing rivalry between the dollar and the euro endanger the historic European-American partnership?publicEuroTransatlanticRelationsThe Euro and Transatlantic Relationsarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt8xb2p5rx2011-07-02T14:56:14Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/8xb2p5rxCOHEN, BENJAMIN Jauthor2005-03-01What are the foundations of monetary power? David Andrews, in his introduction to this volume, distinguishes between two "pathways" for the exercise of monetary power – the macro level, linked to the problem of balance-of-payments disequilibrium; and the micro-level, working through the capacity of money to alter actor interests and identities. The purpose of this chapter is to promote a clearer understanding of the macro-level pathway – what we may call the macrofoundation of monetary power. Building in good part on earlier contributions of my own, I argue that the central issue at the macro-level is the distribution of the burden of adjustment to external imbalance. The macrofoundation of monetary power lies, first and foremost, in a capacity to avoid payments adjustment costs, either by delaying adjustment or by deflecting the burden of adjustment onto others. Ceteris paribus, the greater is a state's capacity to avoid adjustment costs, relative to that of other states, the greater is its power at the macro-level.publicMacrofoundationMonetaryPowerThe Macrofoundation of Monetary Powerarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt4n92c45q2011-07-02T14:56:09Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/4n92c45qJuergensmeyer, Markauthor2004-03-01In the rubble following the collapse of the World Trade Center towers in the violent assault of September 11 lies the tawdry remnants of religion’s innocence. In those brief horrifying moments our images of religion came of age. Religion was found in bed with terrorism. Whatever bucolic and tranquil notions we may have had were rudely replaced by those that were tough, political, and sometimes violent.Is this the fault of religion? Has its mask been ripped off and its murky side exposed—or has its innocence been abused? Is religion the problem or the victim?publicReligionWorld Trade CenterTerrorismIs Religion the Problem?articlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt7322q2p52011-07-02T14:56:05Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/7322q2p5Juergensmeyer, Markauthor2004-10-14My involvement in the study of religious terrorism began with the Sikhs. I had lived in the Punjab for several years, and in the early part of my academic career I had focused on the relationship between religion and politics in India in general and the Punjab in particular. During the 1980s, therefore, I watched with mounting horror as a spiral of violence developed between Sikh militants and the government. How could such affable, intelligent people be swept up in an encounter that was so vicious, so unforgiving?publicBhindranwaleBin LadenReligious ViolenceReligious TerrorismSikhsPunjabFrom Bhindranwale to Bin Laden: The Rise of Religious Violencearticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt5pc0p3rc2011-07-02T14:55:51Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/5pc0p3rcCohen, Benjamin J.author2003-11-07Geopolitics, the dictionary tells us, is about international great-power rivalries – the struggle for dominance among territorially defined states. Conflict is at the heart of geopolitics. Geopolitical relations are dynamic, strategic, and hierarchical. In geopolitics, the meek definitely do not inherit the earth.Today, much the same can be said about currencies, which in recent years have become increasingly competitive on a global scale. Monetary relations, too, have become conflictual and hierarchical; and the meek are similarly disadvantaged. At issue is a breakdown of the neat territorial monopolies that national governments have historically claimed in the management of money, a market-driven process that elsewhere I have described as the deterritorialization of money (Cohen 1998, 2003a). In lieu of monopoly, what we have now is more like oligopoly – a finite number of autonomous suppliers, national governments, all vying ceaselessly to shape and manage demand for their respective currencies. Since state are no longer able to exercise supreme control over the circulation and use of money within their own frontiers, they must instead do what they can to preserve or promote market share. As a result, the population of the monetary universe is becoming ever more stratified, assuming the appearance of a vast Currency Pyramid -- narrow at the top, where the strongest monies dominate; and increasingly broad below, reflecting varying degrees of competitive inferiority.publicGeopoliticsCurrenciesInternationalSystemThe Geopolitics of Currencies and the Future of the International Systemarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt4w99n8tk2011-07-02T14:20:54Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/4w99n8tkJuergensmeyer, Markauthor2004-11-01No one who watched in horror as the twin towers of the World Trade Center crumbled into dust on September 11, 2001 could doubt that the real target of such terrorist assaults was the global power of the United States. Those involved have said as much. Mahmood Abouhalima, one of the al Qaeda-related activists who was convicted of his role in the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center told me in a prison interview that buildings such as these were chosen in order to dramatically demonstrate that "the government is the enemy."publicReligious TerrorSecular StateWorld Trade CenterTerrorismReligious Terror and the Secular Statearticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt5k99k5mq2011-07-02T14:20:49Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/5k99k5mqJuergensmeyer, Markauthor2002-04-05publicreligionterrorismglobalwarReligious Terror and Global Wararticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt2693m5pn2011-07-02T14:20:02Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/2693m5pnAppelbaum, Richard P.author2000-08-16In this paper we address the question of how sweatshop production can be opposed, given the globalization of the apparel industry and the dominance of retailers in its commodity chain. After briefly reviewing conditions in the industry, we discuss the role that consumer pressure might play. We discuss three different, but potentially complementary, approaches: agreements between nations, codes of conduct and monitoring, and worker empowerment. We conclude with an analysis of the Workers' Rights Consortium, a newly-created organization comprised of universities, students, and non-governmental organizations. We conclude that despite its limitations, a vibrant consumer-based movement is emerging which – when united with efforts to organize workers at the point of production – has the potential of reducing sweatshop production in this most globalized of industries.publicSweatshopsglobal labor standardsFighting Sweatshops: Problems of Enforcing Global Labor Standardsarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt2fj6c7ns2011-07-02T12:48:11Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/2fj6c7nsRobinson, William I.author2006-08-21The recent mass demonstrations by millions of Latino immigrant workers in the US, against planned legislation that could lead to the criminalisation and deportation of, literally, millions of workers shook the Bush administration and took commentators by surprise. The upsurge has been dubbed the new civil rights movement. It marks a new stage in globalisation and the phenomenon of mass, transnational migration that such globalisation has engendered. Unprecedented in size and scope, the movement challenges the structural changes bound up with capitalist globalisation and points to the necessity of transnational popular and democratic struggles against it.publicGreat America BoycottHR4437labourlaborLatinoMay Dayimmigrationnew civil rights movementtransnationalworking classAqui estamos y no nos vamos! Global capital and immigrant rightsarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt0pt8p8g42011-07-02T12:48:06Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/0pt8p8g4Benjamin J. Cohenauthor2006-05-31How will enlargement of the European Union (EU) affect prospects for the euro as an international currency? Previously, I have argued that Europe’s joint currency is fated to remain a distant second to America’s greenback long into the foreseeable future because of three structural factors – relatively high transactions costs, due to inefficiencies in Europe’s financial markets; a serious anti-growth bias built into the institutions of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU); and, most importantly, ambiguities at the heart of the monetary union’s governance structure. In this paper I extend my earlier analysis, focusing in particular on the impact of enlargement on the governance structure of EMU. From the start, internationalization of the euro has been retarded by a lack of clarity about the delegation of monetary authority among governments and EU institutions. The addition of a diverse collection of new members, with significantly different interests and priorities, can only make the challenge of governance worse, exacerbating ambiguity at the expense of transparency and accountability. Enlargement will diminish, not expand, the euro’s attractiveness as a rival to the greenback.publicEurocurrencyinternationalmonetaryeconomicgreenbackEnlargement and the International Role of the Euroarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt8ws6j7z62011-07-02T12:47:59Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/8ws6j7z6Elver, Hilalauthor2006-03-10Turkey, a bridge connecting Asia and Europe, occupies the geographic border zone between two vastly different regions of the world: the East and the West. This gives Turkey a unique position, as it has cultural, social, and legal characteristics of both regions and tries to achieve the values of both in its current search for identity. This makes it difficult and puzzling to evaluate the status of women in Turkey.publicgenderequalityTurkeyjurisprudenceconstitutionalconstitutionwomenTurkishmodernizationGender Equality from a Constitutional Perspective - The Case of Turkeyarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt907386x62011-07-02T12:47:52Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/907386x6Appelbaum, Richard P.author2005-06-29For developing countries, the textiles and clothing industries have traditionally been an important gateway to industrialization and increased exports. With the expiration of the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing, the quota system originally set up through the Multifibre Arrangement was phased out. This has important implications for the allocation of export-oriented production and is likely to affect in various ways a large number of developing countries that rely heavily on such exports.Drawing on a wide range of studies as well as on original research, this volume shows that transnational corporations (TNCs) are likely to play a critical role in determining the future global production structure in these industries. First, the sourcing strategies of a small number of very large retailing companies (based in the United States, Europe and Japan) place stringent requirements on the locations in which textiles and clothes will be produced. Second, the investment strategies of large transnational producers (mostly based in East Asia) will also affect the final outcome. Foreign affiliates of such developing-country TNCs already account for the bulk of exports from many developing economies. The growing role of TNC producers is still not well understood, and more research is needed on their strategies and the impact of their international investments. As TNCs become more important at the production stage, their bargaining power increases vis-à-vis retailers in developed economies.With the removal of quotas, sourcing and investment decisions are affected more by economic fundamentals. But low labour costs alone will not be sufficient to attract investment. There is likely to be more consolidation of production into larger factories in a smaller number of locations. China and India are likely to be in a particularly strong position in this new geography of production, but various factors may also work against too much consolidation. Proximity to markets continues to play an important role for some product categories, and some producers have signalled that they will retain several production bases in order not to become too dependent on a single source country. Moreover, various trade policy measures also influence sourcing and investment decisions. Data on foreign direct investment (FDI) projects in textiles and clothing manufacturing show that China, Bulgaria, the United States, Hungary, Brazil and India attracted the largest number of such projects in 2002–2004.The removal of quotas generally means intensified competition for FDI in textiles and clothing. To become or stay competitive as host locations, countries will need to develop their ability to move away from simple assembly to "full-package" production and eventually original brand manufacture. But replicating the success of East Asia will be difficult. Key policy areas in this regard include identification of specialized niches; skills training and technological upgrading; investment in information technology; improvement of infrastructure such as ports and export processing zones; and leveraging of existing tariff preferences in the global trading system. Moreover, investment promotion agencies may identify some of the major transnational producers as key addresses for future marketing activities.publicTNCUNCTADTextilesClothingQuotasTNCs and the Removal of Textiles and Clothing Quotasarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt0rj9f4dm2011-07-02T12:47:46Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/0rj9f4dmKollmeyer, Christopher J.author2005-06-07This essay addresses the growing trend among working class voters in the United States to support political causes that seemingly undermine their class interests. In particular, it offers a theoretical critique of "hegemony," the standard Marxist explanation for this phenomenon, by showing that other social dynamics, such as "mass ignorance" and "collective misunderstanding," must also be taken into consideration. The resulting explanation demonstrates that, under certain circumstances, average people may employ rational means to achieve irrational political ends.publicConsensual DominationHegemonyMass IgnorancePolitical CausesClassSocial DynamicsExplaining Consensual Domination: Moving Beyond the Concept of Hegemonyarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt28k8z2t42011-07-02T12:47:34Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/28k8z2t4COHEN, BENJAMIN Jauthor2007-01-25publicIPEtransatlanticglobalinternational political economyThe Transatlantic Divide: Why are American and British IPE So Different?articlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt9rn603132011-07-02T12:47:27Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/9rn60313Robinson, William I.author2006-11-09publicglobalcapitalismlatin americastate powerLatin America, State Power, and the Challenge to Global Capitalarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt13m0m32q2011-07-02T12:47:22Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/13m0m32qRobinson, William I.author2006-06-17publicglobalcapitalismimperialismtransnational stateBeyond the Theory of Imperialism: Global Capitalism and the Transnational Statearticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt3zh1n6v62011-07-02T12:47:16Z am 3u Orfalea Center for Global & International StudiesVol. 58, no. 6 (May. 2003) 719-7260003-7028eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/3zh1n6v6Herr Harthorn, Barbaraauthor2003-05-01The delocalization aspects of globalization are often cited as the most socially and economically destructive of its forces. In this paper, I want to discuss the possibilities for ethnography to relocalize the global. In particular, I argue that the assessment of risks attached to numerous aspects of global enterprises pleads for the kind of recontextualization that ethnography can provide through tracing the contours of local and translocal suffering and illness on the one hand and mobilization of agency and resistance on the other. My discussion will touch down on the SARS epidemic and the health of transnational immigrant workers in the California agricultural industry. They provide two different windows on the value of risk as a lens for examining the role of transnational forces in the social production of health inequality.publicEthnographyHealthInequalityGlobalRiskSocietyLocalSufferingThe Ethnography of Health Inequality: Global Risk Society and Local Sufferingarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt98h492bq2011-07-02T12:47:11Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/98h492bqKollmeyer, Christopher J.author2004-01-01This study examines contradictory claims about the news media's coverage of the economy. After discussing various sociological perspectives on news media, I compare the objective performance of California's economy, as measured by statistical indicators, to accounts of the economy found in the state's largest newspaper—the Los Angeles Times. The data reveal that, despite growth patterns that overwhelmingly favored economic elites, the negative news about the economy disproportionately depicted events and problems affecting corporations and investors instead of the general workforce. When the Times did discuss problems affecting workers, the articles were relatively short, most often placed in the back sections of the newspaper, and rarely discussed policy alternatives to the status quo. Moreover, unlike the viewpoints of business leaders and government officials, the viewpoints of workers or their spokespersons were rarely used as sources of information. These findings provide qualified support for existing scholarship purporting that the news media, when reporting on the economy, privilege the interests of corporations and investors over the interests of the general workforce.publicCorporateMediaEconomyCorporate Interests: How the News Media Portray the Economyarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt0dx7r40s2011-07-02T12:47:06Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/0dx7r40sHajjar, Lisa L.author2004-10-01There is a popular belief that Western history constitutes a progressive move from more to less torture. Iron maidens and racks are now museum exhibits, crucifixions are sectarian iconography and scientific experimentation on twins is History Channel infotainment. This narrative of progress deftly blends ideas about "time," "place" and "culture." In the popular imagination, "civilized societies" (a.k.a. "us") do not rely on torture, whereas those societies where torture is still common remain "uncivilized," torture being both a proof and a problem of their enduring "backwardness."publicTortureFutureTorture and the Futurearticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt3kx5g1v82011-07-02T12:46:46Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/3kx5g1v8Campo, Juan E.author1995-05-01This essay is an inquiry into the concept "fundamentalism" as employed in the description and explanation of developments in contemporary Muslim societies, particularly Egypt. It contends that rather than referring to an objective set of phenomena, this concept has been created to serve as a key element in European and American hegemonic discourses about these societies in order to subordinate and control them.publicIslamicFundamentalismEgyptThe Ends of Islamic Fundamentalism: Hegemonic Discourse and the Islamic Question in Egyptarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt6173q4ng2011-07-02T12:46:41Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/6173q4ngCohen, Benjamin Jauthor2007-07-01The purpose of this chapter is to evaluate the experience of the Euro Area to date in a broad global context. The central question is: How has the creation of the euro affected the power of participating states to cope with external challenges? Three broad issues are explored. First, how well equipped is the Euro Area to deal with any threat of financial instability? Second, can the euro compete effectively with America’s dollar in global markets? And third, does membership in the Euro Area enable European Union governments to play a more influential role in international financial forums? Overall, the chapter concludes, the project has failed to live up to expectations. Though exposure to exchange-rate disturbances has been reduced by the merger of currencies, the Euro Area remains largely a passive participant in global payments developments and, if anything, has become even more vulnerable to threats of financial instability. Likewise, the euro has failed to mount a significant challenge to the dollar and the bloc continues to punch below its weight in monetary diplomacy.publiceuroglobaleconomicsThe Euro in a Global Context: Challenges and Capacitiesarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt04k9p9v52011-07-02T10:03:14Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/04k9p9v5COHEN, BENJAMIN Jauthor2009-03-05After nearly a century of dominance of the international monetary system, has the U.S. dollar finally met its match in the euro? When Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) came into existence in 1999, many observers predicted that the euro would soon join America’s greenback at the peak of global finance. Achievements, however, have fallen short of aspiration. After an initial spurt of enthusiasm, international use of the euro actually appears now to be leveling off, even stalling, and so far seems confined largely to a limited range of market sectors and regions. The euro has successfully attained a place second only to the greenback – but it remains, and is likely to remain, a quite distant second without a determined effort by EMU authorities to promote their money’s global role. The temptation will surely be great. In practical terms, it is difficult to imagine that EMU authorities will refrain entirely from trying to promote a greater role for the euro. But that, in turn, could turn out to be a recipe for discord with the United States, which has never made any secret of its commitment to preserving the greenback’s worldwide dominance. A struggle for monetary leadership could become a source of sustained tensions in U.S.-European relations. Fortunately, however, there seems relatively little risk of a destabilizing escalation into outright geopolitical conflict.publicdollareurocohenDOLLAR DOMINANCE, EURO ASPIRATIONS: RECIPE FOR DISCORD?articlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt1k04g87d2011-07-02T10:03:07Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/1k04g87dCOHEN, BENJAMIN Jauthor2009-08-19One of the most striking financial developments in recent years was the emergence of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) – large publicly owned investment portfolios, which until recently were growing rapidly in both number and size. In a global environment already roiled by a prolonged credit crisis, SWFs raise tricky and potentially controversial new questions for international financial regulation. One issue of concern to many in host countries is the possibility that some SWFs might be used for overt or tacit political purposes, posing a challenge for global monetary governance: a Great Tradeoff between, on the one hand, the world community’s collective interest in sustaining the openness of capital markets; and on the other hand, the legitimate national security concerns of individual host countries. Can some balance between the two be found that will be both stable and acceptable to all concerned? Individually as well as collectively, recipient countries have begun to address the regulatory challenge directly. To date, however, accomplishments have been slight and have failed to stem a noticeable drift toward financial protectionism. A review of some recent proposals suggests that there is no foolproof solution to the Great Tradeoff. But the potential for controversy could be significantly reduced by a negotiated agreement among host governments addressing three key issues: (1) definitions; (2) risk assessment; and (3) dispute resolution. The most logical venue for such an exercise would be the OECD, building on its already extensive experience with international investment issues.publicfinancecohenSOVEREIGN WEALTH FUNDS AND NATIONAL SECURITY: THE GREAT TRADEOFFarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt2dd5364j2011-07-02T10:03:03Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/2dd5364jCOHEN, BENJAMIN Jauthor2008-01-01publiccurrency globalToward a Leaderless Currency Systemarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt64s0f9j02011-07-02T10:02:58Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/64s0f9j0Robinson, William I.author2007-07-01publicTransformative Possibilities in Latin Americaarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt93r7d6gf2011-07-02T09:32:06Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/93r7d6gfCOHEN, BENJAMIN JauthorPaola Subacchiauthor2008-07-01Even before Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) came into existence nearly a decade ago, a brilliant future was predicted for the euro as an international currency. Leadership in monetary affairs would no longer be the privilege of the United States alone. The global currency system would now rest on two pillars, not one. Reality, however, has turned out to be quite different. Though the euro has firmly established itself as an international currency, the degree of change has been considerably less than expected. Europe’s joint money remains at a distinct disadvantage in relation to America’s greenback, limiting the role it can play in monetary governance. The euro is not yet ready for prime time. This can be described as a one-and-a-half currency system – certainly not a two-pillar world. The paper addresses two critical questions. First, just how has the global currency system been changed by the arrival of the euro? Here we elaborate on what we mean by a one-and-a-half currency system and spell out the reasons why we believe the euro is still not ready for prime time. Second, what can Europe do to overcome the euro’s disadvantages and thus enhance its role as the second pillar of the system? The main imperative, we argue, is to improve EMU’s ability to project power effectively. Dual leadership at the global level is not out of reach but will require determined reform of EMU’s governance institutions.publiccurrencycohenA ONE-AND-A-HALF CURRENCY SYSTEMarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt6z33940z2011-07-02T09:23:19Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/6z33940zAppelbaum, Richard P.author2004-05-10On January 1, 2005, the Multifiber Arrangement (MFA), which establishes quotas on different categories of apparel and textile imports to the US and the EU, will be fully phased out. The quota system, which has been in force for nearly thirty years, has resulted in the global dispersion of textile and apparel production, by restricting imports from countries that – based on market conditions – would have a larger volume of exports were they not constrained by their quota allocations. There is concern among many developing countries that the elimination of quotas will result in a loss of apparel and textile exports to a relative handful of countries that will have a competitive advantage. This research addresses these questions, in an effort to better understand the dynamics of global sourcing in the textile and apparel industries. It is based primarily on a review of existing research, both macro-level research that simulates world trade patterns, and case studies of individual countries. It also examines World Bank data on textile and apparel exports. The study shows that large retailers play an increasingly important role in determining the nature apparel production, including a preference for "lean retailing" that favors Hong Kong, Taiwanese, Korean, and Chinese suppliers. The changing nature of production is discussed, including the importance of well-established relationships between Asian suppliers and U.S. and EU buyers – relationships that enable the Asian suppliers to operate effectively across many different countries. The impact of MFA phase-out is discussed, with special emphasis on several sub-Sahara African countries, for which some information is available concerning the role of foreign suppliers. The paper concludes with a number of policies that might mitigate the anticipated effects of MFA phase-out.publicMFAMultifiber ArrangementMultifibre AgreementAgreement on Textiles and ClothingatcFDITextile and Apparel QuotasTextile and Apparel ExportsAssessing the Impact of the Phasing-out of the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing on Apparel Exports on the Least Developed and Developing Countriesarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt1pt1d0wx2011-07-02T08:45:54Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/1pt1d0wxRobinson, William I.author2007-09-01publicundocumented workersUndocumented in Americaarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt8v34n4n82011-07-02T08:45:32Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/8v34n4n8COHEN, BENJAMIN Jauthor2004-06-01Few issues of public policy roil Canadians more than the idea of a North American Monetary Union (NAMU), establishing one currency for Canada and the United States. As other contributions to this special issue testify, opinions among Canadians differ sharply and divisions run deep. From the maritimes to the Pacific, Canadians are far from consensus regarding the future of their national money, the much belittled "loonie."But what about opinion south of the longest unguarded border in the world? Largely lost in the din of debate among Canadians is the perspective of the United States, Canada's putative partner. America's interest in NAMU is rarely addressed in any systematic manner. This is surely a critical omission. Even if Canadians could unite in favor of currency union as a policy goal, a vital imperative would remain – namely, the need to gain support from Washington. How would Americans view a monetary initiative from Ottawa? Would the prospect of NAMU be greeted with open arms or with hostility? As a practical matter, a common currency would be impossible without the concurrence, or at least the compliance, of the United States.This essay explores the NAMU issue specifically from a U.S. point of view, addressing both economic and political aspects. The big question is: What does the United States have to gain? The short answer, which will disappoint many Canadians, is: Not much. The U.S. greenback, as the world's leading international currency, already generates considerable benefits for Americans. That is the starting point from which analysis must proceed. As compared with the status quo of America's de facto market dominance, a formal monetary union with Canada, though not without advantages, would threaten more risks and losses for the United States than gains. Moreover, this negative assessment holds true no matter what form NAMU might take – whether modeled on Europe’s euro, substituting an entirely new North American money for the continent’s two existing dollars; or if instead it were simply to replace the Canada’s loonie with the greenback, a "dollarization" model. Either way, under present circumstances, the idea can be expected to elicit little interest among Americans and even less encouragement.publicNorth AmericaMonetaryUnionUSPerspectiveNorth American Monetary Union: A United States Perspectivearticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt2394v0b62011-07-02T08:44:39Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/2394v0b6Falk, Richardauthor2005-03-01It was Nietzsche, habitually prophetic, who proclaimed in Beyond Good and Evil [date?][1886] that "[t]he time for petty politics is over; the very next century will bring the fight for the domination of the earth—the compulsion to large-scale politics." Perhaps, as suggestive as the arresting prophesy,[unclear] was Nietzsche's error in thinking that the geopolitical shift would come in the 20th century. True, there were two momentous wars in that century, called `world wars' by historians and statesmen, but these are better understood as intra-regional struggles for the control of Europe (though admittedly with wider global implications, especially for the colonial dimension of international relations). The labeling of these struggles as 'world' wars was mainly expressive of the reigning Eurocentric worldview.publicImperial9/11Middle EastImperial Vibrations, 9/11, and the Ordeal of The Middle Eastarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt93w597c92011-07-02T08:38:57Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/93w597c9Campo, Juan E.author2003-11-01The following is a review article by Juan E. Campo, Religious Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, on Bruce Lincoln's Holy Terrors: Thinking about Religion after September 11. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003, Pp. 142.publicHolyTerrorsReligionSeptember 11Review Article: Holy Terrors: Thinking about Religion after September 11articlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt4kn101232011-07-02T08:36:19Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/4kn10123Robinson, William I.author2004-09-01The US plan for "promoting democracy" in Iraq is an integral component of its overall interventionist project in the Middle East. US rulers are deeply divided over the invasion and occupation of Iraq and they face an expanding foreign policy crisis. Nonetheless, there is consensus among them, and among transnational elites more generally, on political intervention under the rubric of "democracy promotion." Such political intervention is not just a Republican, much less a Bush regime, policy. As such, it plays a key legitimating function and can be expected to become a central component of overall US strategy in Iraq in the coming months and years.publicUSDemocracyPromotionIraqCOMMENTARY: What to Expect from US "Democracy Promotion" in Iraqarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt7h4086tc2011-07-02T08:36:04Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/7h4086tcCohen, Benjamin J.author2003-05-01I am indebted to David Andrews, Iain Begg, Randall Henning, and Thomas Willett for helpful comments.Can the euro ever truly challenge the dollar? The purpose of this lecture is to explore prospects for the euro as an international currency. My assessment, which will disappoint many, is deeply skeptical. The euro will of course dominate monetary relations within the European region and may even extend its influence to some neighboring areas, such as the Mediterranean littoral or sub-Saharan Africa – what the European Central Bank, the ECB (2001), calls the "Euro-time zone." As Wyplosz remarks: "This is the euro’s turf" (1999: 89). But elsewhere, for the foreseeable future, Europe’s new money is fated to remain a distant second to the greenback, however much many Europeans would prefer otherwise.publicGlobalCurrencyEuroDollarGlobal Currency Rivalry: Can the Euro Ever Challenge the Dollar?articlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt0q40t6812011-07-02T07:35:47Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/0q40t681Appelbaum, Richard P.author2005-02-05The right to organize is the worker's most effective weapon against exploitative conditions. Yet the global "race to the bottom" has turned the weapon of unionizing – and the anti-sweatshop struggle overall – into a double-edged sword. If workers organize they are likely to lose their jobs, as corporations pursue factories where unions are forbidden and cheap labor is therefore guaranteed. But if workers do not organize, their rights will continue to be violated. These conditions pose a significant challenge for the anti-sweatshop movement – a challenge that will increase with the end of apparel quotas. This paper begins by reviewing the impact of the Multifiber Arrangement (MFA) and the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC) – two regulatory frameworks that have governed global trade in these commodities for 30 years. This regulatory framework came to an end on January 1, 2005 with the WTO-mandated end of textile and apparel import quotas. A large body of research on the probable result of the end of the quota system concludes that a small number of countries (and primarily China) are likely to be the chief beneficiaries of the end of quotas, while a large number of countries are likely to suffer significant declines in their apparel and textile export industries. The paper discusses two trends which are transforming the nature of global trade in textiles and apparel (indeed, in all consumer goods): The rise of giant retailers as the key actors in the global supply chain, and the rise of giant transnational contractors – based mainly in East Asia – that are emerging as its chief suppliers. The paper concludes with a discussion of what countries can do to mitigate the impact of the end of quotas on their textile and apparel industries, as well as some suggestions for the anti-sweatshop movement.publicappareltextileMultifiber ArrangementMFAAgreement on Textiles and ClothingATCquota phase-outsweatshopWorker Rights ConsortiumWRCUnited Students Against SweatshopsUSASChinaThe End of Apparel Quotas: A Faster Race to the Bottom?articlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt5566691m2011-07-02T07:35:42Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/5566691mKollmeyer, Christopher J.author2003-01-01The social science literature contains competing theories on the relationship between economic globalization and class compromise. According to supporters of the "strong globalization thesis," over the last few decades many important nationallevel economic processes have been subsumed into a worldwide "borderless" economy in which global market forces, rather than electorates, now dictate national economic policy. This argument implies that globalization has signicantly eroded the ability of democratic governance to create a genuine class compromise. Conversely, supporters of the "weak globalization thesis" maintain that the strong version of globalization is largely a "myth," and that as a result national economic policy geared towards egalitarianism is still possible. After analyzing changes in four social and political indicators associated with class compromise – for 16 advanced capitalist countries over the period of 1960 to 1999 – I find qualified support for the weak globalization thesis. In particular, the data reveal that countries with substantially mixed economies and high levels of market regulation have participated in the global economy without substantially eroding their preexisting levels of class compromise. Conversely, for countries with low levels of state involvement in the economy, globalization has seemingly undermined class compromise. This is especially true in the United States. The paper concludes by suggesting that the unique structure of the American political economy explains the exceptionally low levels of class compromise found in the United States.publicGlobalizationClass CompromiseAmerican ExceptionalismPolitical ChangeCapitalist CountriesGlobalization, Class Compromise, and American Exceptionalism: Political Change in 16 Advanced Capitalist Countriesarticlelocaloai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt3cz1z1zv2011-07-02T07:35:36Z am 3u eScholarship, University of Californiahttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/3cz1z1zvKollmeyer, Christopher J.author2004-01-01Using a structural equation model, this article demonstrates a novel approach to studying the distribution of class-based political power in advanced capitalist democracies. Situated within a theoretical discussion of pluralism and class dominant theories of political power, the article begins with a critique of the literature’s existing measurements of political democracy. After showing the limitations of these indices, particularly their inability to measure the distribution of class-based political power over time, the article then presents an alternative measurement of democratic governance, one that is consistent with the general thrust of class dominant perspectives in sociology. The results of a structural equations model shows that, within the advanced capitalist democracies, class compromise manifests in a country’s prevailing rates of union density, voter participation, incarceration, and income inequality. Finally, applying this model to individual countries, the article ends by creating an index of class compromise for 15 advanced capitalist democracies from 1980 to 1999.publicClass CompromiseCapitalistDemocraciesMeasuring Class Compromise: A Structural Equation Model of 15 Advanced Capitalist Democraciesarticlelocal