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3472. A New Phase of European Integration:Organized Capitalisms in Post-Ricardian Europe
- Author:
- Armin Schäfer and Martin Höpner
- Publication Date:
- 03-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Research Papers Archive
- Abstract:
- In the past, economic integration in Europe was largely compatible with the persistence of different national varieties of capitalism. While product market integration intensified competition, member states could build on and foster their respective comparative advantage. To date, this no longer unequivocally holds true. We contend that a new, 'Post-Ricardian' phase of European integration has emerged in which the Commission's and the ECJ's attempts to further economic integration systematically challenge the institutions of organized capitalism. This quest for liberalization has reached a point at which its output legitimacy is increasingly uncertain. As a result, the de-politicization of EU decisions proves increasingly unsuccessful. In addition, liberalization measures rely on a very generous interpretations of the 'four freedoms' that exceeds the amount of liberalization the member states agreed upon in the European treaties and, therefore, lacks input legitimacy. We show this by discussing recent struggles over the Services Directive, the Takeover Directive, and company law. In the current phase of European integration, the Commission's and the ECJ's liberalization attempts either transform the institutional foundations on which some of the member states' economic systems rely or they create political resistance to an extent that calls into question the European project. The case studies reveal evidence for both of these possibilities.
- Topic:
- Development and Economics
- Political Geography:
- Europe
3473. The European Commission as Network Broker
- Author:
- Susana Borrás
- Publication Date:
- 03-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Research Papers Archive
- Abstract:
- Recent transformations in the European Union have been putting significant pressure on the management function of the European Commission. Examining its brokerage position in policy networks, this article asks what kind of role does the Commission have in the political interactions in Brussels after the year 2000. Developing a conceptual framework about brokerage roles in EU policy, the article uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative data in an empirical analysis of two very different cases where the Commission has been embattled the past years. The article argues that previous reports of the Commission's demise are much exaggerated, because it continues playing a leading role in managing interaction between multiple actors at different levels of governance. The empirical results show that the Commission is a resilient central network broker.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and Government
- Political Geography:
- Europe
3474. Corporate Values in Local Contexts Work Systems and Workers' Welfare in Western and Eastern Europe
- Author:
- Marta Kahancová
- Publication Date:
- 03-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Research Papers Archive
- Abstract:
- Increased international competition poses challenges to companies' organizational practices, including human resource management. For multinational companies operating simultaneously in diverse local conditions this challenge implies a decision between either opting for universal best practices or adapting their employment strategy to differing local standards in host countries. What influences whether work practices are similar or differ when deployed in differing conditions? Why are some companies committed to their workers' welfare while others are not? This paper attempts to answer these questions by studying work practices, namely work systems and fringe benefits, in a Dutch multinational company (MNC) and its manufacturing subsidiaries in Western and Eastern Europe. Evidence suggests that the observed patterns are best explained by the interplay of three factors. Rational economic interest, company values, and local institutions yield subsidiary work practices that are embedded in, but not adapted to, local standards. The MNC's value system accounts for the fact that generous benefits are offered without a direct relation to the company's profit maximization and without external societal and institutional pressures to provide such benefits.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and Human Welfare
- Political Geography:
- Europe
3475. Taxation and Democracy in the EU
- Author:
- Steffen Ganghof and Philipp Genschel
- Publication Date:
- 02-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Research Papers Archive
- Abstract:
- Is corporate tax competition a threat to democracy in the EU? The answer depends crucially on a positive analysis of the effects of tax competition on national policy autonomy. Most analyses focus on direct effects on corporate tax rates and revenues. We contend that this focus is too narrow. It overlooks the fact that corporate tax competition also has important indirect effects on the progressivity and revenue-raising potential of personal income taxation. We elaborate on these indirect effects theoretically and empirically, and explore the implications for the normative debate on the EU's democratic deficit. Our findings show that European integration can constrain national redistribution in a major way: the democratic deficit is real. Greater political contestation over the EU's policy agenda is desirable in order to mitigate this deficit.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Development, and Economics
- Political Geography:
- Europe
3476. Reconstructing Iraq
- Author:
- Jason Yossef Ben-Meir
- Publication Date:
- 01-2007
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Foreign Policy In Focus
- Abstract:
- The new strategy of the United States in Iraq does not include an extensive overhaul of reconstruction efforts at this critical time. Very little money is now being appropriated for reconstruction. As the Iraq Study Group Report explains, of the $21 billion to date that has been appropriated for the “Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund” (IRRF), $16 billion has been spent and the remaining funds have been committed. The administration requested $750 million for 2007, and President Bush's new proposal is to add $1.2 billion to that.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Development, and Economics
- Political Geography:
- United States, Iraq, and Middle East
3477. Crony Capitalism and Democracy: Paradoxes of Electoracompetition in Russia's Regions
- Author:
- Gulnaz Sharafutdinova
- Publication Date:
- 02-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- The phenomenon of crony capitalism has been explored primarily with reference to its impact on economic growth. This study investigates the political implications of crony capitalism and, specifically, the interaction between political competition and crony capitalism. Based on a case study of political trajectories in two regions of the Russian Federation, I argue that under crony capitalism political competition can undermine the legitimacy of state authorities and such democratic institutions as the electoral mechanism. Played out in public during electoral campaigns, unrestricted political competition uncovers the predatory nature of crony elites engaged in struggle for power and wealth. Paradoxically, the electoral process itself gets discredited as an essential part of the overall institutional order in the process. Noncompetitive political systems avoid such negative tendencies, at least in the short run.
- Topic:
- Democratization and Economics
- Political Geography:
- Russia and Europe
3478. Mere Economic Science: C. S. Lewis and the Poverty of Naturalism
- Author:
- David J. Theroux
- Publication Date:
- 03-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Independent Institute
- Abstract:
- For many years, much of the sciences, both natural and social (including economics), has been dominated by a naturalist (or modernist or structuralist) worldview that generally assumes that the universe and life are purposeless and that mankind is simply a more complex, material version of all else in the natural world. In other words, an individual human is viewed as no more and no less than a system of molecular processes determined by natural physical laws. In this system, all human endeavor and ideas are determined solely as the product of a mechanistic, causal process of physical events.
- Topic:
- Economics, Nationalism, Poverty, and Science and Technology
3479. Unequal Development in the 1990s: Growing Gaps in Human Capabilities
- Author:
- Sakiko Fukuda-Parr and David Stewart
- Publication Date:
- 05-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs
- Abstract:
- This paper assesses poverty trends by using human development outcomes rather than by using income measures alone. It shows that the decade of the 1990s was a decade of prosperity and progress for the world but also of development disaster for many of the world's poorest countries where key indicators of human development not only failed to progress but began to register reversals based on both income and capability indicators. The paper goes on to identify the poorest performing countries and examines their characteristics. These characteristics suggest common constraints that they face, constraints that merit attention in the fight against global poverty.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Political Economy, and Poverty
3480. Africa: Confronting Complex Threats
- Author:
- Kwesi Aning
- Publication Date:
- 02-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Peace Institute
- Abstract:
- Africa is grappling with several difficult security challenges. These difficulties result not only from the magnitude of these challenges, but also from the lack of capacity of African states and organizations to respond quickly and effectively to them. While wide swathes of Africa are compelled to deal with problems in an ad hoc manner, there are indications that some states, Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and the African Union (AU) are undertaking promising steps to respond. Some of Africa's core security challenges are (a) the legacy of historic notions of state sovereignty; (b) the rise of regionalism in the absence of common regional values; (c) the difficulty of managing hegemonic regionalism; (d) elitism in the form of regional integration occurring only at the level of leaders without permeating the consciousness of the people; (e) the creation of institutions with little or no capacity to manage them, resulting in a merely formal regionalism; and finally (f) the perception of regionalism as an externally driven project.
- Topic:
- Conflict Prevention, Development, and Economics
- Political Geography:
- Africa