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731. Le référendum français de ratification du Traité constitutionnel européen du 29 mai 2005

Author:
Gérard Grunberg
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
The 29 May 2005 referendum on the ratification of the European Constitution marks an important date for French political history since the beginning of the Fifth Republic. The widespread victory of the "no" vote requires an interpretation that takes into account the different dimensions of this event. One such dimension is the political context, which played a large role insofar as the referendum took place in a period when the government was particularly unpopular and when, more generally, the political class was suffering from the public's growing distrust. A second and key element was the deep division of the Socialist party, whose leadership was unable to wage a campaign offensive in favor of a "yes" vote. In general, the proponents of the "yes" vote--the major parties of the Right and the Socialist party, as well as the Greens--were incapable of offering voters a truly positive and convincing argument in favor of the Constitution. On the other hand, the proponents of the "no" vote, especially on the Left, succeeded in convincing voters that the social and economic crisis in France (particularly unemployment) was due to "liberal globablization" and that the European Union, far from combatting globalization's effects, was in reality an implicated actor. The campaign played a large role in a context where public opinion wavered right up until the end. The results underscored the massive "no" vote of the working classes, which poses a formidable problem for the principal pro- European parties. The "French no," which will have major repercussions on French political life, brought to an end the process of European political integration as it had developed over the last twenty years.
Topic:
Globalization
Political Geography:
Europe and France

732. The Politics and Economics of Offshore Outsourcing

Author:
Phillip Swagel and N Gregory Mankiw
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
During the presidential campaign of 2004, no economic issue generated more heat or shed less light than the debate over offshore outsourcing. This fact was probably apparent at the time to any economist who followed politics, but it was felt especially acutely by the authors of this paper. We were then working at the Council of Economic Advisers as, respectively, chairman and chief of staff. While the job of the CEA is to focus on the economics of current policy debates, the environment in which that job is performed is highly political, especially in an election year. To some extent, therefore, this paper is a report from inside the eye of a storm.
Topic:
International Relations, Economics, Globalization, and Political Economy

733. Democracy, History, and Migrant Labor in South Korea

Author:
Hyun Park
Publication Date:
01-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Abstract:
This paper concerns the paradox of democratization in South Korea, whose progression has been entwined with neoliberal capitalism beginning in the 1990s. There have been critical moments of democratization since the military rulers gave in to popular pressure for democratization. These moments range from the recommencement of the popular electoral system in the Presidential election in 1987 to the transfer of the state power to civilian leaders, and the participation of former dissidents in the parliament and the administration. A particular form of democratization addressed in this paper is not electoral state politics but the broad-reaching initiatives to transform the relationship between the state and society. Specifically, I examine the initiative to rewrite colonial and cold-war history. This particular initiative is part of an effort to correct a longstanding tendency of previous military regimes that suppressed the resolution of colonial legacies and framed Korean national history within an ideological confrontation of capitalist South Korea and communist North Korea.
Topic:
International Relations and Globalization
Political Geography:
United States, Asia, South Korea, and North Korea

734. Information Technology and the New Global Economy: Tensions, Opportunities, and the Role of Public Policy

Author:
David Bollier
Publication Date:
03-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
Changes in technology have been transforming commerce, politics, and culture for centuries. Yet it is now becoming clear that the explosion of the Internet and assorted digital technologies is provoking epochal changes in the global economy. Finance capital now roams the world with unprecedented speed. Transportation and logistics have become radically more efficient. Work readily moves to wherever it can be most skillfully and cheaply performed. Innovation and productivity are forging ahead, sometimes at blinding speeds.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Globalization, Government, and Science and Technology

735. Opening the Realm: The Role of Communications in Negotiating the Tension of Values in Globalization

Author:
Michael Suman
Publication Date:
04-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
We live in an era in which security concerns have become paramount, the forces of capitalism have dealt a death blow to socialist command economies, and the United States is aggressively promoting democracy in the Middle East. In this context, what does the future hold for the values of security, capitalism, and democracy? Historians tell us we also are in the Digital Age—increasingly so with the advent of new communications technologies such as the Internet. What role can the media play in fostering the values of security, capitalism, and democracy?
Topic:
International Relations, Civil Society, Democratization, and Globalization
Political Geography:
United States and Middle East

736. Towards a New Profile? Development, Humanitarian and Conflict-Resolution NGOs in the Age of Globalization

Author:
Tobias Debiel and Monika Sticht
Publication Date:
01-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:
Both the significance and the profile of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have undergone a fundamental transformation in the past twenty years. In development cooperation new fields such as ecological sustainability and the promotion of democracy have emerged besides 'traditional' issues like poverty reduction. Furthermore, confronted with the realities of war and state decline, developmental NGOs pay increasing attention to crisis prevention and the resolution of conflicts; even a new type of nongovernmental organization has appeared, conflict-resolution NGOs. The change has been particularly dramatic in the area of humanitarian aid: even before the end of the Cold War some NGOs – Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) at the head of all of them – freed themselves from the “straitjacket” of only conducting humanitarian operations with the permission of the (often illegitimate) local government; meanwhile the concept of sovereignty has been substantially redefined. NGOs, however, also con- formed to the imperatives of globalization and commercialization, and formed oligopolies on the market for humanitarian aid. At the same time, they are also confronted with their own “powerlessness” in conflict zones: actors of violence and power-holders successfully attempt to instrumentalize humanitarian aid for their own purposes, and western military forces threaten the independence of humanitarian work by demanding subordination to political and strategic goals.
Topic:
Globalization, Government, Humanitarian Aid, Non-Governmental Organization, Privatization, and Sovereignty

737. Policy Space for Development in the WTO and Beyond: The Case of Intellectual Property Rights

Author:
Ken Shadlen
Publication Date:
11-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University
Abstract:
Global governance in intellectual property (IP) has changed dramatically in the last two decades, and these changes have profound - and worrying - implications for late development. What was once principally an instrument of national policy is now increasingly subject to international disciplines, as the world moves ever-closer to harmonization in the area of IP management. But moving toward harmonization and achieving harmonization are different matters, and it is essential to keep in mind that the former and not the latter describes contemporary arrangements: the trend is toward a reduction in policy space, a feature that many scholars and activists point to with great concern (Gallagher, 2005), but the outcome remains one where countries retain space for autonomous IP management.
Topic:
Economics, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, and Treaties and Agreements

738. The Shrinking Gains from Trade: A Critical Assessment of Doha Round Projections

Author:
Ken Shadlen
Publication Date:
10-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University
Abstract:
Computable general equilibrium (CGE) models of world trade, often presented as demonstrating the benefits of trade liberalization, now make much more modest forecasts than they did just a few years ago. The estimated benefits are not only small in the aggregate, but also skewed toward developed countries; the expected contribution of trade liberalization to economic development and poverty alleviation is extremely limited. Related calculations, for the expected benefits of services liberalization, trade facilitation measures, and long-term productivity gains from trade liberalization, remain problematical and/or speculative. The empirical limitations of CGE forecasts rest on broader theoretical weaknesses: the models are largely locked within a static framework, and remarkably assume that trade policy causes no changes in total employment, up or down. Models built on more adequate theories, which have only begun to appear, would paint a very different picture of the effects of trade liberalization.
Topic:
Economics, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, and Treaties and Agreements

739. Helping workers to navigate in globalised labour markets

Publication Date:
06-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:
Fears that "globalisation" implies increasing job losses and lower wages are an important source of popular ambivalence towards the increasingly open character of OECD economies. Although such concerns are not new, recent developments appear to have heightened workers' apprehensions that rising trade competition threatens their jobs, wages and employment conditions, particularly in the higher-wage OECD countries. Increased international sourcing of production activities — including the "offshoring" of some white-collar jobs in information technology (IT) and business services — has led some commentators to conclude that a large share of high-wage OECD workers will soon be in direct competition with workers in countries where wages are far lower. EU enlargement and the increasing integration of large, labour-surplus economies such as India and China into the world trading system also reinforce anxieties about "delocalisation" and "a race to the bottom".
Topic:
Economics, Emerging Markets, Globalization, and Human Welfare

740. Leaders and Laggards: When and Why do Countries Sign the NPT?

Author:
Christopher Way and Karthika Sasikumar
Publication Date:
02-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Peace and Security Studies
Abstract:
The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) was concluded at the end of the 1960s, a decade which saw the drama of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the height of the nuclear arms race between the superpowers, and the entry of France and China into the club of countries that had tested nuclear weapons. The basic bargain underlying the NPT allows countries to surrender their right to develop nuclear weapons in return for access to international assistance in civilian nuclear technology. Five countries (the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, France, and China) that had tested nuclear devices before 1 January 1967, were conferred the status of Nuclear Weapon State (NWS) by Article IX. All other signatories (Non Nuclear Weapon States or NNWSs) pledged to abjure the development and diffusion of nuclear weapons technology.
Topic:
International Relations, Globalization, Nuclear Weapons, and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:
United States, China, United Kingdom, France, Soviet Union, and Cuba