Recent gis_rw items

“THE GREAT RECESSION” OF 2008 AND THE CONTINUING CRISIS: A Global Capitalism Perspective

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This 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...

Global Capitalism Theory and the Emergence of Transnational Elites

Mon, 9 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Global Capitalism Theory and the Emergence of Transnational Elites

Global capitalism and twenty-first century fascism: a UC case study

Mon, 9 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

This 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...

Capitalist Globalization as World-Historic Context: A Response

Mon, 9 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Capitalist Globalization as World-Historic Context: A Response

Globalization and the sociology of Immanuel Wallerstein: A critical appraisal

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

By 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...

The global capital leviathan

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The 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.

Giovanni Arrighi: Systemic Cycles of Accumulation, Hegemonic Transitions, and the Rise of China

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

This 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.

Rising College Premiums in Mexico: How Important Is Trade?

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The 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...

Subsidized Food Distribution with Endogenous Quality: A Case Study from the Philippines

Thu, 9 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0000

We 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...

Overeducation in Developing Economies: How can we test for it, and what does it mean?

Sat, 21 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

In 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.

The Crisis of Global Capitalism: Cyclical, Structural, or Systemic?

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The Crisis of Global Capitalism: Cyclical, Structural, or Systemic?

Missing Rice in the Philippines: Measurement and Meaning

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

This 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.

Global Capitalism Theory and the Emergence of Transnational Elites

Thu, 4 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The 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...

Geopolitics, History, and International Relations

Thu, 4 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Geopolitics, History, and International Relations

The 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"

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Th 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....

Saskia Sassen and the Sociology of Globalization: A Critical Appraisal

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000

A 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...

The Global Economy and the Latino Populations in the United States: A World Systems Approach

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000

There 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.

Where Have All The Educated Workers Gone? Education and Structural Transformation in Three Asian Economies

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000

We 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...

A ONE-AND-A-HALF CURRENCY SYSTEM

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Even 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...

SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUNDS AND NATIONAL SECURITY: THE GREAT TRADEOFF

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0000

One 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...

DOLLAR DOMINANCE, EURO ASPIRATIONS: RECIPE FOR DISCORD?

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0000

After 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...

American Torture: The Price Paid, the Lessons Learned

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0000

(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.

The International Monetary System: Diffusion and Ambiguity

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

This 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...

The Euro in a Global Context: Challenges and Capacities

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

The 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...

Toward a Leaderless Currency System

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Toward a Leaderless Currency System

Understanding Global Capitalism

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Understanding Global Capitalism

Transformative Possibilities in Latin America

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Transformative Possibilities in Latin America

Aqui estamos y no nos vamos! Global capital and immigrant rights

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

The 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.

Undocumented in America

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Undocumented in America

Latin America, State Power, and the Challenge to Global Capital

Fri, 2 Feb 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Latin America, State Power, and the Challenge to Global Capital

After the Fall: East Asian Exchange Rates Since the Crisis

Fri, 2 Feb 2007 00:00:00 +0000

After the Fall: East Asian Exchange Rates Since the Crisis

The Transatlantic Divide: Why are American and British IPE So Different?

Fri, 2 Feb 2007 00:00:00 +0000

The Transatlantic Divide: Why are American and British IPE So Different?

Beyond the Theory of Imperialism: Global Capitalism and the Transnational State

Fri, 2 Feb 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Beyond the Theory of Imperialism: Global Capitalism and the Transnational State

Enlargement and the International Role of the Euro

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 00:00:00 +0000

How 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...

Gender Equality from a Constitutional Perspective - The Case of Turkey

Thu, 16 Mar 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Turkey, 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.

TNCs and the Removal of Textiles and Clothing Quotas

Wed, 29 Jun 2005 00:00:00 +0000

For 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...

Explaining Consensual Domination: Moving Beyond the Concept of Hegemony

Tue, 7 Jun 2005 00:00:00 +0000

This 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.

Assessing the Impact of the Phasing-out of the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing on Apparel Exports on the Least Developed and Developing Countries

Fri, 15 Apr 2005 00:00:00 +0000

On 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...

Commodity Chains and Economic Development: One and a Half Proposals for Spatially-Oriented Research

Fri, 15 Apr 2005 00:00:00 +0000

The 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...

Fighting Sweatshops: Problems of Enforcing Global Labor Standards

Fri, 15 Apr 2005 00:00:00 +0000

In 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.

The End of Apparel Quotas: A Faster Race to the Bottom?

Fri, 15 Apr 2005 00:00:00 +0000

The 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...

On Edward Said

Mon, 11 Apr 2005 00:00:00 +0000

On Edward Said

Goddess across the Taiwan Strait: Matrifocal Ritual Space, Nation-State, and Satellite Television Footprints

Thu, 7 Apr 2005 00:00:00 +0000

This 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...

Spatial Struggles: Postcolonial Complex, State Disenchantment, and Popular Reappropriation of Space in Rural Southeast China

Tue, 5 Apr 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Spatial Struggles: Postcolonial Complex, State Disenchantment, and Popular Reappropriation of Space in Rural Southeast China

North American Monetary Union: A United States Perspective

Tue, 15 Mar 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Few 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...

Super Debt: Managing America's Balance of Payments

Tue, 15 Mar 2005 00:00:00 +0000

The 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?

The Macrofoundation of Monetary Power

Thu, 10 Mar 2005 00:00:00 +0000

What 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 Euro and Transatlantic Relations

Thu, 10 Mar 2005 00:00:00 +0000

How 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?

The Ethnography of Health Inequality: Global Risk Society and Local Suffering

Mon, 7 Mar 2005 00:00:00 +0000

The 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.

Corporate Interests: How the News Media Portray the Economy

Fri, 4 Mar 2005 00:00:00 +0000

This 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....

Imperial Vibrations, 9/11, and the Ordeal of The Middle East

Fri, 4 Mar 2005 00:00:00 +0000

It 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.

From Bhindranwale to Bin Laden: The Rise of Religious Violence

Mon, 29 Nov 2004 00:00:00 +0000

My 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?

Religious Terror and the Secular State

Mon, 29 Nov 2004 00:00:00 +0000

No 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."

Is Religion the Problem?

Mon, 29 Nov 2004 00:00:00 +0000

In 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?

Globalization, Class Compromise, and American Exceptionalism: Political Change in 16 Advanced Capitalist Countries

Mon, 8 Nov 2004 00:00:00 +0000

The 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...

Measuring Class Compromise: A Structural Equation Model of 15 Advanced Capitalist Democracies

Mon, 8 Nov 2004 00:00:00 +0000

Using 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...

Review Article: Holy Terrors: Thinking about Religion after September 11

Fri, 29 Oct 2004 00:00:00 +0000

The 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.

Dollarization Rest in Peace

Wed, 27 Oct 2004 00:00:00 +0000

What 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.

Global Crisis and Latin America