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5181. Did Historians Make History?

Author:
Arthur Goldhammer
Publication Date:
06-2006
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
Belief in the possibility of a revolutionary transformation of French society sustained much of the political and cultural ferment in France in the quarter century following the end of World War II. Perry Anderson, in two articles published in the London Review of Books, argues that the decline of this faith has cast a pall over France, and he traces this decline in large part to the work of historians François Furet and Pierre Nora. It is argued here that Anderson neglects broader economic, societal, and cultural forces that combined to undermine belief in the transformative power of revolution and is therefore led to an unduly pessimistic interpretation of the cultural turn of the 1970s.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
France and London

5182. Real Income Stagnation of Countries, 1960-2001

Author:
Sanjay Reddy and Camelia Minoiu
Publication Date:
04-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University
Abstract:
This paper examines the phenomenon of real-income stagnation (in which real-income growth is uninterruptedly negligible or negative for a sizable sequence of years). The authors analyze data for four decades from a large cross-section of countries. Real income stagnation is a conceptually distinct phenomenon from low average growth and other features of the growth sequence that have been previously considered. The authors find that real income stagnation has affected a significant number of countries (103 out of 168), and resulted in substantial income loss. Countries that suffered spells of real income stagnation were more likely to be poor, in Latin America or sub-Saharan Africa, conflict ridden and dependent on primary commodity exports. Stagnation is also very likely to persist over time. Countries that were afflicted with stagnation in the 1960s had a likelihood of seventy-five percent of also being afflicted with stagnation in the 1990s.
Topic:
Economics, International Political Economy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Africa and Latin America

5183. Why do some countries produce so much more output per worker than others?

Author:
Camelia Minoiu and Emmanuel Pikoulakis
Publication Date:
10-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University
Abstract:
To explain differences in output per worker across countries, we test for the workings of a learning-by-doing hypothesis and the hypo thesis that the effectiveness of human capital depends on the laws and institutions that promote workplace practices that allow skills to develop. The quality of laws and institutions in the workplace is measured by an index of economic security (ESI). We find that ESI is a good proxy for human capital whilst educational attainment is not. We also find that countries with high ESI use more effectively the skills of the workforce and are better at exploiting profitable opportunities in capital markets.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Industrial Policy, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Political Economy

5184. China and the Depreciating U.S. Dollar

Author:
Richard C. K. Burdekin
Publication Date:
01-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
Over the past five years, U.S. exports to China have been dwarfed by imports from that country, with the resulting trade deficit igniting a bout of China bashing reminiscent of the Japan bashing of the 1980s. A major culprit in the trade imbalance, according to many U.S. analysts and policymakers, is China's currency: the renminbi, they say, is too cheap relative to the dollar. Some are calling for high tariffs on Chinese goods or for further exchange-rate adjustment that would revalue the renminbi significantly upward, making Chinese goods less competitive. But with just 10.4 percent of total U.S. trade attributed to China in the first half of 2005, it is unrealistic that any renminbi exchange-rate adjustment could rein in the burgeoning U.S. trade deficit. And if the adjustment were drastic the United States could be the big loser: driving China out of the market for U.S. treasuries would most likely have calamitous consequences, not only for the dollar but for U.S. credit markets and for the U.S. economy in general.
Topic:
Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States, Asia, and North America

5185. The Relation between Democracy and Religion: Towards a European Discursive "Model";?

Author:
Camil Ungureanu
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
In this paper we advance the argument that, under certain socio-political and cognitive conditions, the manifestation of religion in the opinion-oriented public spheres can have an inherent value for democratic life. However, it is only after processes of selective interpretation and transformation through inclusive discursive practices that religious semantic contents may legitimately influence decisional interpretations of constitutional principles and rights. This “model” draws on republicanism and deliberative democracy: given that these two conceptions do not start out from an abstract principle of liberty as non-interference but from a multidimensional conception of freedom embedded in various historical contexts of mutual recognition, they are more predisposed to provide conceptual resources for envisaging a discursive relation between democracy and religion.
Topic:
Democratization, Economics, Politics, and Religion
Political Geography:
Europe

5186. Self-regulation in European Contract Law

Author:
Fabrizio Cafaggi
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
This paper addresses self-regulation as a complementary means to harmonize and regulate European Contract Law. In the context of the paper SR is conceived as a complementary device to legislation and as a monitoring device to verify ECL implementation.
Topic:
Economics, Markets, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

5187. State Sovereignty, Popular Sovereignty and Individual Sovereignty: from Constitutional Nationalism to Multilevel Constitutionalism in International Economic Law?

Author:
Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
This paper discusses the basic constitutional problem of modern international law since the UN Charter: How can the power-oriented international legal system based on “sovereign equality of states” be reconciled with the universal recognition of “inalienable” human rights deriving from respect for human dignity and popular sovereignty? State representatives, intergovernmental organizations, international judges and non-governmental organizations often express different views on how far the universal recognition of human rights has changed the subjects, structures, general principles, interpretative methods and “object and purpose” of international law (e.g. by the emergence of erga omnes obligations and jus cogens limiting state sovereignty to renounce human rights treaties, to refuse diplomatic protection of individuals abroad, or domestic implementation of international obligations for the benefit of domestic citizens). The paper explains why effective protection of human rights at home and abroad requires multilevel constitutional protection of individual rights as well as multilevel constitutional restraints of national, regional and worldwide governance powers and procedures. While all European states have accepted that the European Convention on Human Rights and EC law have evolved into international constitutional law, the prevailing paradigm for most states outside Europe remains “constitutional nationalism” rather than “multilevel constitutional pluralism.” Consequently, European proposals for reforms of international economic law often aim at “constitutional reforms” (e.g. of worldwide governance institutions) rather than only “administrative reforms”, as they are frequently favoured by non-European governments defending state sovereignty and popular sovereignty within a more power-oriented “international law among states.”
Topic:
Economics, Nationalism, Politics, and Sovereignty
Political Geography:
Europe and United Nations

5188. Justice in International Economic Law? From the 'International Law among States' to 'International Integration law' and 'Constitutional Law'

Author:
Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
The UN Charter and the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties require interpreting treaties and settling international disputes “in conformity with the principles of justice and international law.” This contribution discusses procedural and substantive principles of justice which the international judge may take into account in interpreting international economic agreements. The “sovereign equality of states” underlying the “international law of coexistence” as well as the “international law of intergovernmental cooperation” must be interpreted in conformity with the universal recognition of human dignity as a source of inalienable human rights. The universal recognition of economic and social human rights further requires taking into account solidarity principles, as proposed also by the sociological approach to international law. The constitutional structures and citizen-oriented functions of the law of international economic organizations liberalizing and regulating mutually beneficial market transactions among citizens require judges to engage in a careful balancing of state-centered and citizen-oriented principles of international law, including respect for the emerging human right to democratic decision-making. This modern “international integration law” and the increasing number of “international constitutional rules” promote the reconciliation of the various state-centered approaches, human rights approaches, sociological approaches and policy-approaches to international law as a system not only of international rules and “legal pluralism” but also of constitutionally limited decision-making processes and struggles for human rights.
Topic:
Economics, Human Rights, International Law, Treaties and Agreements, and United Nations
Political Geography:
Vienna

5189. Consumer Citizenship in Postnational Constellations?

Author:
Christian Joerges and Michelle Everson
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
It is perhaps a truism to note that 'the consumer' is but a role that is played by human subjects. This insight leaves us, as lawyers, with one vital question: how can or does the legal system meaningfully rationalise its encounters with the consumer? Can it, and if so to what way, shape the act of consumption? Can it even ensure that the 'fact' of consumption translates into 'good' normative institutions.
Topic:
Economics, Globalization, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

5190. Codecision and Institutional Change

Author:
Henry Farrell and Adrienne Héritier
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
We examine the sources and processes of institutional change in one important aspect of EU politics—the legislative procedure of codecision and show how interstitial change of institutions emerges between formal Treaty revisions and under specific conditions may be formalized in subsequent formal Treaty reforms. We develop two related models of Treaty change. First, in a'simple' model, we argue that informal rules will be formalized in the Treaty text where all member states are in agreement, and will be rolled back when all member states oppose them; otherwise they will continue in existence at the informal level. Second, in a more complex framework, we argue that actors who have effective veto powers in a related arena may make credible threats that allow them to press member states into formalizing informal rules, provided that member states are not unanimously opposed to this formalization. We empirically assess our claims in the light of several instances of informal rules applied in the codecision procedure.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe