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5131. Racing to the Bottom in the Post-Communist World: Domestic Politics, International Trade and Environmental Governance

Author:
Edward Mansfield, Helen V. Milner, and Liliana B. Andonova
Publication Date:
02-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for International Studies, University of Southern California
Abstract:
In this paper, we analyze whether trade liberalization and increasing commercial openness has affected environmental governance in the post-Communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States. During the Cold War, these countries had closed economies and autarkic trade policies combined with little environmental regulation and poor environmental quality. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the breakup of the Soviet Union began a process of marked change in the region. Many post-Communist countries have engaged in extensive trade liberalization. Others, however, have been slower to open their markets; and some have maintained highly protectionist trade policies. Have countries that opened up to global markets improved their environmental policies or has increasing exposure to the international trading system led to a “race to the bottom”? Controlling for a wide variety of economic and political factors, our results indicate that heightened trade openness has weakened environmental governance in the post-Communist world, suggesting that an environmental race to the bottom has been occurring among the transition economies.
Topic:
International Relations, Environment, International Trade and Finance, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe and Berlin

5132. CERI: Solving Europe's Binary Human Rights Puzzle. The Interaction between Supranational Courts as a Parameter of European Governance

Author:
Laurent Scheeck
Publication Date:
10-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales
Abstract:
As the European Union has become ever more powerful in terms of political output, it has also turned out to be a potential source of human rights violations. While national governments have disagreed on setting up consequential control mechanisms for several decades, the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights pre-empted intergovernmental choice. The European courts' paths unexpectedly crossed when they were both impelled to work out a way to deal with a twofold human rights conundrum situated at the EU level. Turbulent interaction between Europe's two supranational courts has not only led to a relative improvement of the protection of human rights, but has also deeply transformed the course of European integration. The courts' increasingly nested linkage has given rise to new forms of supranational judicial diplomacy between European judges. As a result of their evolving relationship, which is simultaneously underpinned by competitive and cooperative logics, the traditional opposition between an "economic Europe" and a "human rights Europe" has been overcome and the EU's accession to the European Convention on Human Rights is high on the political agenda. Yet, this process of integration through human rights remains a fragile and incomplete endeavour. Just as in co-operative binary puzzles where two players must solve the game together and where both lose as one of them tries to win over the other, solving Europe's binary human rights puzzle has required of European judges a new way of thinking in which it's not the institutions, but their linkage that matters.
Topic:
Government, Human Rights, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

5133. CERI: Reconciling Enlargement and Security on the EU New Eastern Border. The Romanian-Moldovan Chapter

Author:
Odette Tomescu-Hatto
Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales
Abstract:
The enlargement of the EU to the Central and Eastern European countries raises interrogations concerning the new borders traced by Brussels between the Member States and their future neighbors. What is the impact of the EU enlargement on the Romanian-Moldovan relations and how might the cooperation between the two countries affect the security of the Eastern border of the EU? The analysis on the one hand of the impact of Romania's preparations for EU membership on its relations with Moldova and the evaluation on the other hand of the limits and success of the European Neighborhood Policy towards Moldova, show that one of the main challenges for the EU will be to reconcile at the same time security and integration.
Topic:
International Relations and Development
Political Geography:
Europe, Eastern Europe, and Romania

5134. CERI: Les analyses de l'engagement associatif en Russie

Author:
François Dauceé
Publication Date:
06-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales
Abstract:
Collective mobilizations in post-Soviet Russia constitute an enigma for Western political sociology due to their numerical weakness and their incapacity to strengthen democratic practices in the country. This perplexity can be explained by the unsuitability of the research tools used for their study. Academic research on social mobilization has long been based primarily on postulates concerning the modernization of social movements in a economically and politically liberal context. Western and Russian leaders involved in the transition process demonstrated a will to foster the constitution of organizations independent from the State and the creation of a civil society as an opposition force. In the early 90s, the practices of voluntary organizations in Russia became closer to Western ones. Notions such as "associative entrepreneurship", "professionalization" or "frustration" were shared by Russian movements. However, later evolutions showed the unsuitability of these concepts to understanding the full complexity of these movements. That is why this issue of "Research in question" aims to suggest new theoretical perspectives for studying associations in Russia. These are at the crossroads of various grammars, where civic and liberal principles are combined with domestic and patriotic preoccupations. This complexity, which resists a purely liberal vision of social organizations, draws convergent criticisms against their action. In order to investigate this complexity of practices as well as criticisms, the tools produced by a pragmatic and multiculturalist sociology are useful to show the diversity of social and political bonds that link militants in contemporary Russia.
Topic:
Diplomacy, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, and Asia

5135. The U.S. National Security Strategy and the Global War on Terror “Force Multiplier”

Author:
Charles W. Parker III
Publication Date:
04-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:
In September 2002, President George W. Bush published a new National Security Strategy (NSS) in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 (9/11) terrorist attacks in the United States homeland. The publication of the new NSS represented a codification of a series of policy ideas that had been brewing since the end of the first Bush Administration and throughout the Clinton Administration, which were sharpened as a result of the newly perceived threats to the United States' security posture. Some prominent academics have argued that the NSS and Bush's actions represent a “neoimperialist” or “unilateralist” approach to the conduct of U.S. foreign relations, and are a radical and fundamental shift in the trajectory of U.S. power projection and assertiveness. They also lament a rift in relations with European allies in part due to this new policy trajectory, to the point of declaring that the Europe and the United States will be future rivals on the world stage.
Topic:
Security, Foreign Policy, and Government
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

5136. ¿Integración por la puerta trasera? La incursión del Tribunal de Justicia de las Comunidades Europeas en materia tributaria

Author:
Antonio Cubero and Loreno Ruano
Publication Date:
11-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:
To what extent do member states control the process of European integration? This question has traditionally confronted Intergovernmentalists with Neo-functionalists and Institutionalists of various sorts. This paper provides evidence that supports the second school of thought and refines its theoretical claims with a case study: the European Court of Justice's jurisprudence on direct taxation. This is a 'hard case', because in this sector, the member states' resistance to the expansion of Community competence has been particularly virulent. It will be shown how, inspite of this, the Court's jurisprudence has ventured in the field of taxation to the point of undermining the principle upon which rest all national fiscal systems (the distinction between residents and non-residents), putting under severe strain the coherence of national tributary systems. The Court's jurisprudence have also had effects on issues pertaining exclusively to national taxation, through the principle of 'inverted non-discrimination'.
Topic:
International Relations, Economics, and Government
Political Geography:
Europe

5137. Securing Europe and Its Neighbours

Author:
John Edwin Mroz
Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
EastWest Institute
Abstract:
Europe's policy makers currently face two key challenges: finding new methods for governments to work better together, and identifying new ways for businesses and civil society to protect the continent's citizens, infrastructure and economies from the threat of terrorism. The terrorist attacks in Madrid on 11 March 2004 and London on 7 July 2005 were vivid reminders that not enough has been done.
Topic:
Civil Society, Government, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
Europe and London

5138. Local Government Gender Mechanisms in the GPKT Micro-region

Author:
Kristina Hadzi-Vasileva
Publication Date:
07-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
EastWest Institute
Abstract:
The areas constituting the GPKT micro-region (fYR Macedonia,1 Serbia and Kosovo) belong to some of the least developed countries in Europe. Transition to market economies has been delayed because of armed conflicts, exclusion from the international community during periods of conflict, as well as the slow process of privatization (in the case of fYR Macedonia and Serbia). Despite the fact they once used to be a part of a single country, the current connection between these areas is unfortunately their characterization of political instability and weak institutions, problems compounded by the common struggle to transform their respective economies.
Topic:
Economics, Gender Issues, and Government
Political Geography:
Europe, Kosovo, Serbia, and Macedonia

5139. A Spectre Haunting Europe: The European Constitution, the Budget Crisis, and the Limits of Neoliberal Integration

Author:
Eddie J. Girdner
Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
The rejection of the European Draft Constitution by voters in France and Holland created a crisis in Europe. The dilemma, however is rooted in the deeper issues concerning democracy, neoliberalism, and the division of wealth among classes in European society. The draft constitution would have locked in the principles of neoliberalism and guaranteed rights for capital over those of citizens. Beyond the question of the lack of grass roots democracy European social welfare guarantees are threatened. Capitalist accumulation is rendered as a technical question to be determined by technocrats and business enterprises, rather than a political question at the heart of democracy. The vote against the constitution was not a vote against a united and social Europe, but against a Europe united on the basis of the American model of enshrining capitalist accumulation as the be all and end all of human endeavor. The crisis in Europe has revealed the limits to neoliberal integration in Europe.
Political Geography:
America, Europe, and France

5140. Strategic Importance of Eurasia for Turkey's Export-Oriented Economy Policies

Author:
Mert Bilgin
Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
It is almost impossible for Turkey to find a room in Eurasia based on its political meaning. However the more Eurasia is assigned an economic meaning, the more Turkey can benefit from its advantages. The necessity to ameliorate the terms of the energy agreements signed with Eurasian energy exporters and to increase exportations to these countries through strong brands fortified by the concept of TURQUALITY® are the two preconditions of this. By this positioning Turkey will better respond to the forthcoming pressures from; 1- High costs of energy and raw materials imported from Eurasian countries. 2- Full EU membership of East European countries, 3- Eurasian Customs Union, 4- Global price competition especially in the textile sector. Eurasia, which should be considered within this structure, does not indicate an alternative against Europe, but rather offers opportunities along which Turkey has the potency to position itself as a "Eurasian Tiger" if it manages to overcome these pressures.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
Europe, Eurasia, and Turkey