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1. Banking Reform and Development in the Middle East and Africa

Author:
Catherine Boone and Henry Clement
Publication Date:
03-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:
This study underscores the strategic role —both political and economic— of banking sector reform in the overall pursuit of economic development and democratization. It compares trajectories of banking sector reform in Middle Eastern and African countries that have remained on the margins of the new global economy. A close look shows that there governments' willingness to embrace reform has differed across contexts, as has the extent and pace of reform. Meanwhile, the effects of reform have also been very uneven. We model this variation in reform trajectories and its outcomes, propose a theoretical explanation for it, and use a set of case studies to illustrate the contrasts and causal dynamics that we have identified. Our main claim is that structural features of national political economies go far in defining actual trajectories of banking sector reform and liberalization. Structural features of national political economies that we define as key are the strength of indigenous private sector, and how it is linked to the state and foreign capital. We propose a typology of banking structure and reform trajectories and use case studies from the Middle East and Africa to illustrate variation in the politics of banking sector reform.
Topic:
Development and Political Economy
Political Geography:
Africa, United States, Middle East, Canada, North America, and Mexico

2. Policy Reform in the Mexican Telecommunications Sector

Author:
Miguel Ángel Valverde
Publication Date:
02-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:
In June 1990, Presidents George Bush and Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari announced their intention to begin negotiating a free trade agreement. Canada joined the negotiations the following August. The proposed North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) provoked an intense lobbying campaign in the U.S. Congress, in what became a major political battle for its congressional approval.
Topic:
Economics, Government, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Africa, Canada, Central America, and Mexico

3. Take the State Back Out? Comparing French Responses to Globalization in Agriculture and Shipping

Author:
Mark Aspinwall and Imtiaz Hussain
Publication Date:
02-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:
How autonomous is a state in today's highly interdependent international economy to pursue policies that diverge widely from the international norm? Does the degree of autonomy vary for different domestic sectors? We adapt and apply Benjamin Cohen's unholy trinity model (1993), to a comparative assessment of how France responded to globalization over agriculture and shipping, focusing on three dimensions—investment, transaction costs, and government policy responses. Although France is reputed to possess a strong state machinery (Katzenstein, 1987; Wilson, 1987; Skocpol, 1985), our analysis raises qualifications. On the one hand, regardless of government policy intentions, we find irreversible forms of disinvestment in both sectors, though different in nature—geographic for shipping, and functional for agriculture; on the other, we also find continued dependence upon the state—for aid in shipping and resisting free trade in agriculture. We further find that, although internal and endogenous, as well as external and exogenous, factors influence policy-making, the nature of these factors are different for the two sectors. We conclude by drawing implications of our findings for state-society relations and European integration.
Topic:
Agriculture, Economics, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, and France

4. The Institutional Setting of the NAFTA Debate in the United States

Author:
Miguel Ángel Valverde
Publication Date:
02-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:
The objective of this paper is to analyze the institutional setting of the NAFTA debate in the United States, focusing on the interaction between the Presidency and Congress, in the formulation of foreign commercial policy. A series of arrangements have tamed confrontation between the Executive and Legislative powers, reconciling their institutional biases. THese arrangements channel and contain domestic demands for protectionism, favoring international trade liberalization negotiations.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:
Africa, United States, Asia, and North America

5. Gender and Genocide in Ruanda

Author:
Adam Jones
Publication Date:
02-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:
The gender dimension of the holocaust in Rwanda is perhaps more intricate and multifaceted than any genocide in history. This article explored the relevance of the gender variable to an understanding of the 1994 events. It argues the gender is vital to understanding the social crisis in Rwanda prior to the genocide; the appeals of the genocide's perpetrators to the Hutu population and their mobilization of that population for mass killing; the prominence of women as planners and perpetrators of the genocide; the evolution of the genocide itself between April and July 1994; the massive demographic disproportion between men and women after the holocaust; and the actions and strategies of the Rwandan Patriotic Front rebels who eventually succeeded in ending the genocide. The final section of the article seeks to place the Rwanda experience in comparative perspective, suggests some lessons for the future, and argues that the study of ender and genocide must be gender-inclusive (addressing the experiences of both women and men) in order to more fully explore the workings of this important variable.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Genocide, and Peace Studies
Political Geography:
Africa

6. Liberalizaci ó n Commercial y Reforma Burocr á tica en El Área de Tratados Comerciales Internacionales en México.

Author:
Jorge A. Schiavon and Antonio Ortiz Mena
Publication Date:
02-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:
The central trade policy priority of the last two administrations (Carlos Salinas de Gortari, 1988-1994, and Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León, 1994-2000) was the negotiation and the implementation of one very important and ambitious free trade agreement each, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Mexico-European Union Free Trade Agreement respectively. This working paper explains how and why both administrations were able to successfully deal with the delegation problems that chief-executive principals face with their bureaucratic agents, through a series of institutional reforms. The main argument is that both Salinas and Zedillo had to deal with three specific agency problems: adverse selection, moral hazard, and incomplete enforcement, and that given the characteristics of the Mexican political system prevailing at that time, they were able to successfully solve these problems. These institutional reforms in the foreign economic policy should be understood as a response to agency problems, and not as a reflection of the personal governing style of Salinas and Zedillo.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Development, and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:
Africa and North America

7. ¿ Hacia Dónde va la Pol ìtica Exterior Japonesa? El Rearme y el Sistema de Partidos

Author:
Isami Romero
Publication Date:
02-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:
The central purpose of this article is to analyze the impact of the Japanese party system on the rearmament rhetoric in the 90's. based on a theoretical model which incorporates regional factors as well as domestic variables, the author argues that the rise of the rearmament rhetoric in Japan is a result of changes in the regional context of the country and the prominence of Conservatoriums in the domestic political arena. The author also presents a brief recount of Japanese political history since the Second World War. This article provides a general framework for the study of the impact of the party system on foreign policy making, and contributes to the present debate on the need to incorporate domestic variables to the study of international events.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:
Africa, Japan, Israel, East Asia, and Mexico

8. The Death of Barricade: Politics and Professionalism in the Post Sandinista Press

Author:
Adam Jones
Publication Date:
02-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:
This article examines two decades in the life of Barricada, established as the "official organ" of the revolutionary Sandinista Front (FSLN) in Nicaragua, from its founding in 1979 through to its demise as a daily in 1998. it is argued that as distinct from the overriding "mobilizing imperative" of support for its Sandinista sponsor, and institutionally-generated "professional imperative" was also evident in Barricada's functioning from the early days of the paper's operations. After the FSLN's election defeat in 1990, this professional imperative-along with the political preference of most senior staff for "renovation" within the FSLN-resulted in the paper's establishing a significant degree of day-to-day autonomy fro its sponsor, and important transformations in its journalistic project. This semi-autonomy was foreclosed when the dominant ortodoxo faction of the Front engineered the dismissal of Barricada director Carlos Fernando Chamorro in 1994. Barricada then returned to its more highly-mobilized role as FSLN propagandist, but lost readers and advertising revenue as a result, finally closing in February 1998. The final section of the paper situates the experience of Barricada in the comparative context of mass media and political transitions worldwide.
Topic:
Civil Society, Politics, and War
Political Geography:
Africa and Central America

9. Towards a Comparative Model of Press Functioning

Author:
Adam Jones
Publication Date:
02-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:
While the role of the press and other media has been central to a wide variety of ideological frameworks and political prescriptions, from classical liberalism to state socialism, there has been little attempt to generate a "macro-theory" of press functioning that claims to be valid for press systems worldwide. This paper attempts to construct such an analytical framework, by isolating two key variables (a "mobilizing imperative" and a "professional imperative") that act to shape the orientation and behavior of press institutions, their sponsors, and their editorial staff. "Meta-environmental" variables, such as pre-existing press culture and level of economic development, are also considered. The paper draws on a wide variety of case-studies, mostly from the less-developed world, to depict the diverse strategies by which press workers seek to reconcile the mobilizing and professional imperatives, and to open up space for the latter. The paper concludes with a presentation of three models, each applicable to a given "type" of media system ("hard" authoritarian, "soft" authoritarian, and market-oriented liberal-democratic). It is claimed that these three models, despite certain conceptual difficulties, account for the great majority of media systems worldwide, and help to explain the institutional behaviors and professional orientations that they exhibit.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, Economics, and Politics
Political Geography:
Africa

10. The World in their Minds. Geopolitical Thought and Inter-State Conflict in South America's Southern Cone

Author:
Farid Kahhat
Publication Date:
02-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:
The overall topic of this paper is the relationship between regime type (e g, democratic or authoritarian) and foreign policy orientation (i.e., relative proneness towards conflict and cooperation) for South America's Southern Cone from the 1970s into the 1990s. its specific purpose is to offer an explanation of the relationship between regime type and foreign policy orientation in the 1970s. I will argue that, unlike what we would expect from a balance of power perspective, political regime is indeed crucial to understanding foreign policy orientation in the case under scrutiny. But I will suggest that changes in foreign policy orientation within the region in the last decade or so might owe more to the vanishing of authoritarian regimes than to the return of democratically elected leaders. However, I will not make universal claims about authoritarian regimes. I suggest, rather, that the pervasive influence that a geopolitically driven discourse of international politics had over the military establishments within the region is crucial to understand the relative conflict proneness of the authoritarian regimes that prevailed during the 1970's.
Topic:
International Relations, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:
Africa and South America