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4332. "French Suburbs" : A New Problem or a New Approach to Social Exclusion?
- Author:
- Sylvie Tissot
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- At the end of 1980s, the question of « quartiers sensibles » (at-risk neighborhoods) started to be very publicized in France. It was not only the subject of many front-page articles, but also the target of a new public policy aimed at promoting urban and social development in about 500 neighborhoods (Politique de la ville). I argue that such a focus on « quartiers sensibles » does not only result from increasing problems such as unemployment, poverty or juvenile delinquency ; it also represents a major change in public policy. Focusing on « quartiers sensibles » directly contributed to the restructuring of the French welfare state by centering its action on specific urban spaces rather than national territory, and on social links rather than economic reality, contrary to what the welfate state claimed to do during the Fordist period. The outbreak of riots in November 2005 is inextricably bound up with the way some problems (like lack of communication and weakening social links) have been associated with the question of « quartiers sensibles » whereas the French model of integration, based on equality among abstract citizens, left some others (like ethnic discrimination) unquestioned.
- Topic:
- Political Violence, Political Economy, and Poverty
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Durban
4333. Mobility of Labor and Services across the Baltic Sea after EU Enlargement: Trends and Consequences
- Author:
- Jon Erik Dølvik
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- The enlargement of the EU/EEA area on 1 May 2004 to comprise 28 countries – including eight Central and Eastern European countries, in 2007 followed by Bulgaria and Romania – was a milestone. The subsequent opening of the markets for labor and services between countries with gaps in wages and living conditions comparable to those along the U.S./Mexican border has no modern precedent, prompting new patterns of competition, migration and adjustment in national labor market regimes. This paper reviews developments in labor migration after enlargement and the implications for the labor markets in the Baltic States and Poland, which have accounted for a predominant share of the intra-EU/EEA migration flows since 2004. Besides the UK and Ireland, where almost one million EU8 citizens had registered in 2007, the booming Nordic economies have become important destinations, having granted more than 250,000 permits and seen sizeable additional flows of service providers and self-employed from the Baltic states and Poland. In the sending countries, rising demand for labor has, alongside strong outmigration – especially among young and well-educated groups – engendered falling unemployment, soaring wage growth, and made shortages of skills and labor an obstacle to further economic recovery. Yet, while better paid temporary work abroad may weaken the incentives for employment, mobility and training in the home country, aging will lead to shrinking working-age populations in the coming years. Unless the Baltic states and Poland can entice a larger share of the population to work in their home countries – and/or can attract substantial labor migration from third countries – the declining work force may easily entail economic stagnation and reinforce the outflow of human resources. These countries are thereby facing a critical juncture in their economic and social development. In the recipient Nordic countries, the growing labor and service mobility, low cost production, and competition for labor in Europe, as well as emerging lines of division in the labor markets, have, on the other hand, raised new questions as to how the principles of free movement and the egalitarian Nordic models can be made reconcilable in the open European markets.
- Topic:
- Demographics, Markets, and Migration
- Political Geography:
- Europe
4334. The Nordic Path of Spain's Mediterranean Welfare
- Author:
- Luis Moreno
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- Despite the fact that the Nordic welfare model has become less exceptional in recent times, it continues to offer numerous examples for “best practices” in social policy provision, together with a high degree of welfare political legitimacy. This paper explores Nordic “benchmarking” as reference to the case of welfare development in Spain. In the general process of convergence of the European welfare states towards the middle, the Spanish case stands out as the one Mediterranean EU country which has gone further in incorporating inputs and traits of the social-democratic Nordic world of welfare capitalism. While Spain's welfare state has become more liberal in macroeconomic policies, and social policymaking has followed a pattern of universalization of welfare entitlements and provision, there has been a detachment from the Bismarckian principle of income maintenance. This paper deals with Spain's evolution in two main areas, which have distinctively characterized Nordic welfare in contemporary times: fiscal resources, and female employment. The analytical purpose of the first section is to ponder the claim as to whether or not Spanish welfare has intensified a socioeconomic path in the direction of the Nordic model. Subsequently, Spain's societal changes and welfare reforms are reviewed with relation to the two areas identified as having the greatest impact in the future evolution of Spain's welfare: conciliation of work and family life, and the territorial politics of welfare provision. Concluding remarks speculate on the hypothesis that countries with fragmented political institutions and a decentralized state organization, such as Spain, may move faster and be more responsive in the development of new welfare Polices. Likewise, the emergence of gender and family issues into the political arena is also regarded as generating pressure for major changes in Spain's Mediterranean welfare, and possibly intensifying its Nordic path or component.
- Topic:
- Security, Economics, Markets, Migration, and Poverty
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Spain
4335. Markets, Rights and Power: The Rise (and Fall?) of the Anglo-American Vision of World Order, 1975-2005
- Author:
- James Cronin
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- The so-called “special relationship” has been a fixture of international relations since at least 1940, but it seemed of declining significance during the 1960s and 1970s. It has nevertheless been revived, even refounded, since then; and it has served as the strategic base on which a new Anglo-American vision of the world has been articulated. At the core of the new connection, and the vision to which it gave rise, is a strong preference for the market and a set of foreign and domestic policies that privilege markets and see their expansion as critical to peace, prosperity and the expansion of democracy. This essay examines the origins of this new paradigm as a response to a set of interrelated crises in the 1970s, its elaboration and application during the 1980s under Reagan and Thatcher, its curious history since the end of the Cold War, and the way it evolved into the failed policies of the post-9/11 era.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Cold War, and Political Theory
- Political Geography:
- America and Europe
4336. When Can a Weak Process Generate Strong Results ? Entrepreneurial Alliances in the Bologna Process to Create a European Higher Education Area
- Author:
- Barbara G. Haskel
- Publication Date:
- 02-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- This paper attempts to explain how an intergovernmental process among four countries to “harmonize” the “architecture” of their higher education systems in under ten years turned into an “OMC-type” process with a full role for the European Commission and a membership of forty-six countries, a system which appears to have had some substantial results. The paper argues that the speed of the process is accounted for by a “coordination imperative,” and that the sustainability (institutionalization) of the process has been a product of the initiatives for goals, instruments, support structures, and measurements generated by an “entrepreneurial alliance” composed of the Commission and the European Universities Association as “drivers” of the process and as solver of a collective action problem among social actors interested in university re-form, in the context of a permissive consensus of the member states.
- Topic:
- International Relations and Education
- Political Geography:
- Europe
4337. Foreign Trade Specialization and International Competitiveness Of Greece, Portugal, Spain, Turkey and the EU 12
- Author:
- Bahri Yilmaz
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- The main purpose of this paper is to examine the foreign trade patterns and/or specialization in foreign trade of three EU member countries – namely, Greece, Portugal, Spain, and candidate country Turkey – and to compare the foreign trade patterns with the EU/12 in the period 1995- 2005. The paper is divided into seven main sections. The first section summarizes the export and import developments of the countries in question between the years 1995 and 2005. The second section describes the methodology and data sets. Empirical analysis is found in the third section, where in five subsections we investigate international competitiveness and trade specialization using different indices. In the fourth part of the research we compare the dynamic products in world exports with dynamic products in the exports of the four countries. The final section gives brief conclusions drawn from the results and considers the future position of Turkey within the enlarged EU. In this research we do not intend to explain why the foreign trade patterns are different in the considered countries. We simply try to show whether and where there are any differences in foreign trade specialisation among the four countries and EU/12.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Emerging Markets, International Trade and Finance, Markets, Regional Cooperation, and Treaties and Agreements
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, and South Sudan
4338. Hawk and handsaws: What can France learn from the "Nordic Model"?
- Author:
- Éloi Laurent and Jean-Paul Fitoussi
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- In this paper, we try to point out some important weaknesses of the contemporary French social-economic model, focusing on relevant elements of comparison with Nordic countries. In doing so, we rely on the idea that large and small countries differ in terms of growth and governance strategies. Hence, while a look at the “Nordic model” can be a good way to reveal of some of France's major problems, it is also an ambiguous template for reform. The paper starts by examining the question of growth strategy (macroeconomic management and structural reforms), then goes on to investigate governance strategy (trust, confidence, governance quality) and finally explores the issues of diversity and integration policy.
- Topic:
- Economics, Markets, Political Economy, and Political Theory
- Political Geography:
- Europe
4339. Exploring Host Country Capacity for Increasing U.S. Study Abroad
- Author:
- Robert Gutierrez, Rajika Bhandari, and Daniel Obst
- Publication Date:
- 05-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute of International Education
- Abstract:
- According to the Institute of International Education's most recent data, over 223,000 U.S. students annually study abroad for academic credit, and there are widespread calls to double, triple or even quadruple that number in the coming decade, sending students to more diverse destinations around the globe. Where would another 300,000-700,000 Americans go to study abroad? Which university systems, especially in the non-traditional destinations, have the capacity to absorb large increases when countries like India, China, Egypt, Turkey and Brazil are struggling to accommodate the demand for higher education by their own citizens? To begin addressing these important questions, the Institute of International Education launched Meeting America's Global Education Challenge, a focused policy research initiative which explores from multiple perspectives the challenge of substantially expanding the numbers and destinations of U.S. students studying overseas. In May 2007, IIE published its first White Paper in this series, Current Trends in U.S. Study Abroad the Impact of Strategic Diversity Initiatives.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Education, and Globalization
- Political Geography:
- United States, China, Europe, Turkey, Brazil, and Egypt
4340. Sarkozy og Vichy-syndromet
- Author:
- Cecilie Felicia Stokholm Banke
- Publication Date:
- 12-2008
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- Den franske præsident gjorde sig i begyndelsen af 2008 bemærket med sit forslag om Holocaust-undervisning for alle børn i 10-års alderen. Men Frankrig har længe været foregangsland for bevarelsen af mindet om Holocaust. Sarkozy gør reelt, hvad andre regeringsledere har gjort før ham. Han inddrager Holocaust – Shoah – i sin egen politiske strategi. Og det siger mere om, hvilken betydning mindet om Holocaust har i den internationale politiske kultur, end det siger om Sarkozy.
- Topic:
- Education, Genocide, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Europe