Far more than an intellectual puzzle for pundits, economists, and
policymakers, economic growth—its makings and workings—is a subject
that affects the well-being of billions of people around the globe. In The Mystery of Economic Growth,
Elhanan Helpman discusses the vast research that has revolutionized
understanding of this subject in recent years, and summarizes and
explains its critical messages in clear, concise, and accessible terms.
The tale of growth economics, as Helpman tells it, is
organized around a number of themes: the importance of the accumulation
of physical and human capital; the effect of technological factors on
the rate of this accumulation; the process of knowledge creation and its
influence on productivity; the interdependence of the growth rates of
different countries; and, finally, the role of economic and political
institutions in encouraging accumulation, innovation, and change.
One of the leading researchers of economic growth, Helpman succinctly
reviews, critiques, and integrates current research—on capital
accumulation, education, productivity, trade, inequality, geography, and
institutions—and clarifies its relevance for global economic
inequities. In particular, he points to institutions—including property
rights protection, legal systems, customs, and political systems—as
the key to the mystery of economic growth. Solving this mystery could
lead to policies capable of setting the poorest countries on the path
toward sustained growth of per capita income and all that that
implies—and Helpman's work is a welcome and necessary step in this
direction.
A founding dean of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government,
Allison applies a long, distinguished career in government and academia
to this sobering—indeed frightening—presentation of U.S. vulnerability
to a terrorist nuclear attack. While he begins by asserting such an
attack is preventable, the balance of his text is anything but
reassuring. Allison begins by describing the broad spectrum of groups
who could intend a nuclear strike against the U.S. They range from an
al-Qaeda with its own Manhattan Project to small and determined doomsday
cults. Their tools can include a broad spectrum of weapons, either
stolen or homemade from raw materials increasingly available worldwide.
Once terrorists acquire a nuclear bomb, Allison argues, its delivery to
an American target may be almost impossible to stop under current
security measures. The Bush administration, correct in waging war
against nuclear terrorism, has not, he says, yet developed a
comprehensive counter strategy. Arguing that the only way to eliminate
nuclear terrorism's threat is to lock down the weapons at the source,
Allison recommends nothing less than a new international order based on
no insecure nuclear material, no new facilities for processing uranium
or enriching plutonium and no new nuclear states. Those policies,
Allison believes, do not stretch beyond the achievable, if pursued by a
combination of quid pro quos and intimidation in an international
context of negotiation and a U.S. foreign policy he describes as "humble." A humble policy in turn will facilitate building a world
alliance against nuclear terrorism and acquiring the intelligence
necessary for success against prospective nuclear terrorists. It will
also require time, money and effort. Like the Cold War, the war on
nuclear terrorism will probably be a long struggle in the twilight. But
no student of the fact, Allison asserts, doubts that another major
terrorist attack is in the offing. "We do not have the luxury," he
declares, "of hoping the beast will simply go away."
In this surprising and highly unconventional work, Harvard law
professor Mark Tushnet poses a seemingly simple question that yields a
thoroughly unexpected answer. The Constitution matters, he argues, not
because it structures our government but because it structures our
politics. He maintains that politicians and political parties—not
Supreme Court decisions—are the true engines of constitutional change in
our system. This message will empower all citizens who use direct
political action to define and protect our rights and liberties as
Americans.
Unlike legal scholars who consider the
Constitution only as a blueprint for American democracy, Tushnet focuses
on the ways it serves as a framework for political debate. Each branch
of government draws substantive inspiration and procedural structure
from the Constitution but can effect change only when there is the
political will to carry it out. Tushnet’s political understanding of the
Constitution therefore does not demand that citizens pore over the
specifics of each Supreme Court decision in order to improve our nation.
Instead, by providing key facts about Congress, the president, and the
nature of the current constitutional regime, his book reveals not only why the Constitution matters to each of us but also, and perhaps more important, how it matters.
Drawing on the research and experience of fifteen internationally recognized Latin America scholars, this insightful text presents an overview of inter-American relations during the first decade of the twenty-first century. This unique collection identifies broad changes in the international system that have had significant affects in the Western Hemisphere, including issues of politics and economics, the securitization of U.S. foreign policy, balancing U.S. primacy, the wider impact of the world beyond the Americas, especially the rise of China, and the complexities of relationships between neighbors.
Contemporary U.S.-Latin American Relations focuses on the near-neighbors of the United States—Mexico, Cuba, the Caribbean and Central America—as well as the larger countries of South America—including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela. Each chapter addresses a country’s relations with the United States, and each considers themes that are unique to that country’s bilateral relations as well as those themes that are more general to the relations of Latin America as a whole. This cohesive and accessible volume is required reading for Latin American politics students and scholars alike.
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The relationship between the processes of economic development and
international human rights standards has been one of parallel and rarely
intersecting tracks of international action. In the last decade of the 20th
century, development thinking shifted from a growth-oriented model to the
concept of human development as a process of enhancing human capabilities, and
the intrinsic links between development and human rights began to be more
readily acknowledged. Specifically, it has been proposed that if strategies of
development and policies to implement human rights are united, they reinforce
one another in processes of synergy and improvement of the human condition.
Such is the premise of the Declaration on the Right to Development, adopted by
the UN General Assembly in 1986.
This book explores the meaning and practical implications of the right to
development and the related term of human rights-based approaches to
development and questions what these conceptions may add to our understanding
and thinking about human and global development. Opening with an essay by Nobel
Laureate in Economic Science Amartya Sen on human rights and development, the
book contains a score of chapters on the conceptual underpinnings of
development as a human right, the national dimensions of this right, and the
role of international institutions. The authors reflect the disciplines of
philosophy, economics, international law, and international relations.
Is popular anger about rising inequality propelling China toward a "social volcano" of protest activity and instability that could challenge Chinese Communist Party rule? Many inside and outside of China have speculated, without evidence, that the answer is yes. In 2004, Harvard sociologist Martin King Whyte has undertaken the first systematic, nationwide survey of ordinary Chinese citizens to ask them directly how they feel about inequalities that have resulted since China's market opening in 1978. His findings are the subject of this book.
This timely and important collection of original essays analyzes China’s foremost social cleavage: the rural-urban gap. It is now clear that the Chinese communist revolution, though professing dedication to an egalitarian society, in practice created a rural order akin to serfdom, in which 80 percent of the population was effectively bound to the land. China is still struggling with that legacy. The reforms of 1978 changed basic aspects of economic and social life in China’s villages and cities and altered the nature of the rural-urban relationship. But some important institutions and practices have changed only marginally or not at all, and China is still sharply divided into rural and urban castes with different rights and opportunities in life, resulting in growing social tensions.
Competitive authoritarian regimes—in which autocrats submit to meaningful multiparty elections but engage in serious democratic abuse—proliferated in the post–Cold War era. Based on a detailed study of 35 cases in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and post-communist Eurasia, this book explores the fate of competitive authoritarian regimes between 1990 and 2008. It finds that where social, economic, and technocratic ties to the West were extensive, as in Eastern Europe and the Americas, the external cost of abuse led incumbents to cede power rather than crack down, which led to democratization. Where ties to the West were limited, external democratizing pressure was weaker and countries rarely democratized. In these cases, regime outcomes hinged on the character of state and ruling party organizations. Where incumbents possessed developed and cohesive coercive party structures, they could thwart opposition challenges, and competitive authoritarian regimes survived; where incumbents lacked such organizational tools, regimes were unstable but rarely democratized.
The politics of food is changing fast. In rich countries, obesity is now a more serious problem than hunger. Consumers once satisfied with cheap and convenient food now want food that is also safe, nutritious, fresh, and grown by local farmers using fewer chemicals. Heavily subsidized and under-regulated commercial farmers are facing stronger push-back from environmentalists and consumer activists, and food companies are under the microscope. Meanwhile in developing countries, agricultural success in Asia has spurred income growth and dietary enrichment, but agricultural failure in Africa has left one third of all citizens undernourished. The international markets that link these diverse regions together are subject to sudden disruption, as noted when an unexpected spike in international food prices in 2008 caused street riots in a dozen or more countries.
In an easy-to-navigate, question-and-answer format, Food Politics carefully examines and explains the most important issues on today's global food landscape, including the food crisis of 2008, famines, the politics of chronic hunger, the Malthusian race between food production and population growth, international food aid, controversies surrounding "green revolution" farming, the politics of obesity, farm subsidies and trade, agriculture and the environment, agribusiness, supermarkets, food safety, fast food, slow food, organic food, local food, and genetically engineered food.
Politics in each of these areas has become polarized over the past decade by conflicting claims and accusations from advocates on all sides. Paarlberg's book maps this contested terrain through the eyes of an independent scholar not afraid to unmask myths and name names. More than a few of today's fashionable beliefs about farming and food are brought down a notch under this critical scrutiny. For those ready to have their thinking about food politics informed and also challenged, this is the book to read.
Features
- Concise, straightforward introduction to the range of phenomena the media has dubbed nullfood politicsnull.
- Will act as a counterpoint to the overwhelmingly alarmist literature on the food crisis.
- Paarlberg is an expert on food policy, a viewpoint underrepresented in the current popular literature.
- Lively writing, highly readable Q&A format; part of the popular What Everyone Needs to Know series.
Israel and Palestine, is written by the Boston Study Group on Middle East Peace: Alan Berger, Harvey Cox, Herbert C. Kelman, Lenore G. Martin, Everett Mendelsohn, Augustus Richard Norton, Henry Steiner, and Stephen M. Walt.
The Boston Study Group on Middle East Peace is comprised of professional and academic members with strong interest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Some have been intensely engaged with this subject for decades. Others have closely followed the conflict within the context of their professional work in conflict resolution, international law and international relations, religion, and U.S. foreign policy.
The Group's principal contribution is the jointly written Policy Statement entitled "Israel and Palestine - Two States for Two Peoples: If not Now, When?" The Statement stands as a collegial, collective enterprise that represents a consensus view of the group.
Prior to drafting the policy statement each member undertook to research and write a background paper on one of the topics important to the statement.
From the vantage point of the United States or Western Europe, the
1970s was a time of troubles: economic “stagflation,” political
scandal, and global turmoil. Yet from an international perspective it
was a seminal decade, one that brought the reintegration of the world
after the great divisions of the mid-twentieth century. It was the
1970s that introduced the world to the phenomenon of “globalization,”
as networks of interdependence bound peoples and societies in new and
original ways
The 1970s saw the breakdown of the postwar economic order and
the advent of floating currencies and free capital movements. Non-state
actors rose to prominence while the authority of the superpowers
diminished. Transnational issues such as environmental protection,
population control, and human rights attracted unprecedented attention.
The decade transformed international politics, ending the era of
bipolarity and launching two great revolutions that would have
repercussions in the twenty-first century: the Iranian theocratic
revolution and the Chinese market revolution.
The Shock of the Global examines the large-scale structural
upheaval of the 1970s by transcending the standard frameworks of
national borders and superpower relations. It reveals for the first
time an international system in the throes of enduring transformations.
Imagine you could eavesdrop on a dinner party with three of the
most fascinating historical figures of all time. In this landmark book,
a gifted Harvard historian puts you in the room with Churchill, Stalin,
and Roosevelt as they meet at a climactic turning point in the war to
hash out the terms of the peace.
The ink wasn't dry when the
recriminations began. The conservatives who hated Roosevelt's New Deal
accused him of selling out. Was he too sick? Did he give too much in
exchange for Stalin's promise to join the war against Japan? Could he
have done better in Eastern Europe? Both Left and Right would blame
Yalta for beginning the Cold War.
Plokhy's conclusions, based
on unprecedented archival research, are surprising. He goes against
conventional wisdom—cemented during the Cold War—and argues that an
ailing Roosevelt did better than we think. Much has been made of FDR's
handling of the Depression; here we see him as wartime chief. Yalta
is authoritative, original, vividly–written narrative history.
Some central questions in the natural and social sciences can't be
answered by controlled laboratory experiments, often considered to be
the hallmark of the scientific method. This impossibility holds for any
science concerned with the past. In addition, many manipulative
experiments, while possible, would be considered immoral or illegal.
One has to devise other methods of observing, describing, and
explaining the world.
In the historical disciplines, a fruitful approach has been to
use natural experiments or the comparative method. This book consists
of eight comparative studies drawn from history, archeology, economics,
economic history, geography, and political science. The studies cover a
spectrum of approaches, ranging from a non-quantitative narrative style
in the early chapters to quantitative statistical analyses in the later
chapters. The studies range from a simple two-way comparison of Haiti
and the Dominican Republic, which share the island of Hispaniola, to
comparisons of 81 Pacific islands and 233 areas of India. The societies
discussed are contemporary ones, literate societies of recent
centuries, and non-literate past societies. Geographically, they
include the United States, Mexico, Brazil, western Europe, tropical
Africa, India, Siberia, Australia, New Zealand, and other Pacific
islands.
In an Afterword, the editors discuss how to cope with
methodological problems common to these and other natural experiments
of history.
Focusing empirically on how political and economic forces are always mediated and interpreted by agents, both in individual countries and in the international sphere, Constructing the International Economy sets out what such constructions and what various forms of constructivism mean, both as ways of understanding the world and as sets of varying methods for achieving that understanding. It rejects the assumption that material interests either linearly or simply determine economic outcomes and demands that analysts consider, as a plausible hypothesis, that economies might vary substantially for nonmaterial reasons that affect both institutions and agents' interests.
Constructing the International Economy portrays the diversity of models and approaches that exist among constructivists writing on the international political economy. The authors outline and relate several different arguments for why scholars might attend to social construction, inviting the widest possible array of scholars to engage with such approaches. They examine points of terminological or theoretical confusion that create unnecessary barriers to engagement between constructivists and nonconstructivist work and among different types of constructivism.
This book provides a tool kit that both constructivists and their critics can use to debate how much and when social construction matters in this deeply important realm
The Boston Study Group on Middle East Peace is comprised of professional and academic members with strong interest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Some have been intensely engaged with this subject for decades. Others have closely followed the conflict within the context of their professional work in conflict resolution, international law and international relations, religion, and U.S. foreign policy.
The Group's principal contribution is the jointly written Policy Statement entitled "Israel and Palestine—Two States for Two Peoples: If not Now, When?" The Statement stands as a collegial, collective enterprise that represents a consensus view of the group.
Prior to drafting the policy statement each member undertook to research and write a background paper on one of the topics important to the statement.
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