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501. Natural Resources and Economic Growth: A Nordic Perspective on the Dutch Disease

Author:
Thorvaldur Gylfason
Publication Date:
10-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
The paper begins by offering a quick glance of the Nordic economies and of some aspects of their economic growth performance and natural resource dependence since 1970. Thereafter, it reviews some of the main symptoms of the Dutch disease, and then considers whether these symptoms are observable in some of the Nordic countries in view of their abundant natural resources. The experience of Iceland and its fish seems an obvious point of departure. The paper then discusses the less obvious case of Norway and its oil (and fish!) and, at last, also reviews some possible linkages between forest resources and economic growth in Finland.
Topic:
Economics, Environment, and Government
Political Geography:
Europe, Finland, Norway, and Dutch

502. Can Public Service Survive The Market? Issues For Liberalized Electricity

Author:
Walt Patterson
Publication Date:
08-1999
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
As governments around the world liberalize their electricity systems, they are overturning the guiding principles that have shaped electricity for the past century. Yet they continue to regard electricity as a public service. The consequent inconsistencies and contradictions are already evident, and intensifying. This Briefing Paper outlines the implications. It is based on a research project now under way in the Energy and Environmental Programme, entitled Keeping the Lights On: Public Service in Liberalized Electricity. For details please see the back page.
Topic:
Energy Policy and Government
Political Geography:
Europe

503. State And Region: The Spanish Experience

Author:
David Bright
Publication Date:
06-1999
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
One of the most interesting consequences of the development of the European Union has been the stimulus it has given in recent years to the rediscovery of region within European states. As the supra-state functions of the European institutions in Brussels have burgeoned and the intrinsic sovereignty of the state in Europe has declined, so regions have acquired an ever greater social and political significance. Of course, in some cases, the state was traditionally federal in nature—as with Germany\'s Länder system—and, politically at least, regional aspirations have been satisfied. In the past two decades, however, regional aspirations have expanded into social and cultural spheres that require a new, defined political context. Even in such long-established states as the United Kingdom, such pressures now have to be acknowledged as sub-state factors enter into the complex array of political elements that go to make up the contemporary Union. In this context the Spanish experience is illuminating, both in the way it demonstrates how such tendencies should be accommodated and in the way in which regional populations respond. It is, in fact, a paradigm for a development that will become inevitable and universal as the power of the state declines within the wider structures of contemporary \'Euroland\'.
Topic:
Government and Religion
Political Geography:
Europe and Germany

504. CIAO: The Imposition of Governance: Transforming Foreign Policy through EU Enlargement

Author:
Thomas Diez
Publication Date:
08-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Driving me through Ankara only a couple of hours after I disembarked the plane, my Turkish colleague points to the latest apartment buildings and a hypermodern shopping mall further down the road. These places, he points out, would be ready for the EU. If only all of Turkey would already look like them - but eventually, it will. Only give us some time. And indeed, the economic change over the past decade seems remarkable. Then Prime Minister Turgut Özal's final abandonment of statism, one of the six pillars of Kemalism, in favour of a widespread, although still restricted, liberalisation strategy, looks like bearing visible fruits. Despite the Turkish economy nonetheless still experiencing a great deal of difficulties (inflation in 1999 was still above 60%, and that already was a huge improvement on previous years), my conversations in the following week centre on a different issue - Turkey's foreign policy. With its 40,000 soldiers in northern Cyprus, its continually problematic relationship with Greece, its ventures into northern Iraq and threatenings towards Syria, Turkey's foreign policy is, together with human rights issues, one of the central stumbling blocs for starting membership negotiations after the acknowledgement of candidate status in Helsinki. In Cyprus's southern part, the economic problem of the day is its overheated stockmarket. My friend multiplied his assets within half a year. More and more villas are mushrooming in beautiful settings, and the younger generation in particular is very well off. Accordingly, Cyprus is the forerunner in the enlargement negotiations, with a GNP per capita above some of the current EU member states (Pace 2000: 122). No wonder then that my conversation again focus on what most Cypriot politicians regard a domestic issue, but which at least has a strong foreign policy aspect to it: its policy towards the northern part of the island, 'under Turkish occupation' as the official labelling goes, and thereby also to Turkey. Despite Cyprus's status in the negotiations, its probable future membership is thus overshadowed by the conflict on the island.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Government, and International Organization
Political Geography:
Europe, Turkey, Middle East, and Ankara

505. Rule Over Law: Obstacles to the Development of an Independent Judiciary in BIH

Publication Date:
07-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
ICG, with the support of the European Commission, has established a project to promote justice in Bosnia and Herzegovina. With the assistance of 8 partner organisations based all over BiH, ICG will monitor individual cases and general trends to highlight and promote the development of a judicial system in BiH up to the standards of a modern, European judiciary. This first, introductory report examines the factors preventing the development of an independent judiciary, and outlines steps necessary to promote judicial independence.
Topic:
Ethnic Conflict, Government, and Human Rights
Political Geography:
Europe, Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Eastern Europe

506. Sidelining Slobodan: Getting rid of Europe's last dictator

Publication Date:
03-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
With just over two years to run before the end of his term as Yugoslav President, Slobodan Milosevic remains entrenched in power in Belgrade. The Yugoslav constitution currently prevents the President from running for re-election in 2001, but while Milosevic may leave the presidency he shows no sign of forfeiting control and is in the process of purging both the army and secret police of all opposition. He also retains some residual influence over such cultural institutions as the Orthodox Church. Individuals who oppose his views and who are potential political opponents are invariably intimidated, often through brute force. Political party rivals are both attacked in the state and pro-regime press and also courted with the prospect of sharing power. The latest to succumb to that temptation has been Vuk Draskovic's Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO).
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Ethnic Conflict, Government, Human Rights, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe, Eastern Europe, and Yugoslavia

507. Coming to Terms with Globalisation: Non State Actors and Agenda for Justice and Governance in the Next Century

Author:
Richard Higgott
Publication Date:
02-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
Abstract:
Globalisation is now a near ubiquitous phenomenon. Indeed, it is the most over used and under specified term in the international policy sciences since the passing of the Cold War. However, as most actors in the international policy domain recognise, it is a term that is not going to go away. Policy responses--of state and non state actors alike--are increasingly coming to terms with globalisation, however defined.
Topic:
Democratization, Globalization, Government, Non-Governmental Organization, and Political Theory
Political Geography:
Europe

508. The Emerging EU Tax Policy

Author:
Karel Lannoo
Publication Date:
05-1998
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
The agreement reached in the Council of EU Finance Ministers (Ecofin) on 1 December 1997 on taxation policy can be considered as a landmark in EU direct tax harmonisation. The Council agreed on a package of measures to combat harmful tax competition in the EU, including a code of conduct on corporate taxation and elements which should enable the Commission to draft a new proposal for a directive on the taxation of income from savings. The Council invited the Taxation Policy Group to continue its work and instituted a Review Group to assess harmful tax competition. The first and, until now, last EU measures in the area of direct taxation date back to 1990. These abolished double taxation between enterprises of the same group.
Topic:
Government and Political Economy
Political Geography:
Europe

509. Utility Restructuring in Central and Eastern Europe

Author:
Aspen Institute and Klaus Brendow
Publication Date:
01-1998
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
The paper reviews market–oriented reforms of the electric power industries in central and eastern Europe (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), related utility cooperation and business strategies, and conditions of integrating CEE/CIS electricity systems into the emerging European electricity markets.
Topic:
Economics, Government, and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:
Europe and Eastern Europe

510. The 1998 Per Jacobsson Lecture: Managing the International Economy in an Age of Globalisation

Author:
Peter D. Sutherland
Publication Date:
10-1998
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Overseas Development Council
Abstract:
Good afternoon. Thank you, Sir Jeremy, for that kind introduction. I am honored, not merely to have been selected to deliver this year's Per Jacobsson lecture, but by the presence of so many distinguished guests. I am also delighted that two previous Per Jacobsson lecturers could be here this afternoon, and I would like to recognize them: Jacques de Larosiere, the former Managing Director of the IMF and more recently the President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and Joseph Yam, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.
Topic:
Economics, Globalization, Government, International Trade and Finance, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe