bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
TREES AS TOOLS, TREES AS TEXT: STRUGGLES OVER RESOURCES IN ZAMBRANA‐CHACUEY, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Authors: Rocheleau Dianne , Ross Laurie
Published: May 2006

ABSTRACTS

The people of the Rural Federation of Zambrana‐Chacuey, in the Dominican Republic, are engaged in complex and multivalent struggles over resources in a forest and farm landscape subject to rapid land use change. Acacia mangium, a fast growing tree recently introduced as a timber cash crop, has become an object, a site and a tool of struggle in conflicts between local and state interests, and between women and men. Until recently, tree cutting has been illegal, so the government‐approved acacia has reversed the role of trees from liabilities to assets in land tenure. The acacia has also begun to alter the pattern of land use, land cover, and the species composition of the region's forests, gardens, and fields, and could replace women's diverse gardens with single species blocks of timber.
THE NEW PRIMITIVES: IDENTITY, LANDSCAPE AND CULTURAL APPROPRIATION IN THE MYTHOPOETIC MEN'S MOVEMENT
Authors: Bonnett Alastair
Published: May 2006

This paper explores the beliefs and practices of the mythopoetic men's movement. More specifically, it focuses on the movement's adherents' representations of “racial” identity and wilderness. After introducing the movement, I argue that, a) the mythopoetic men's movement creatively reworks colonialist fantasies of non‐Western societies and landscapes, and b) that this process acts to naturalize the movement's adherents' contradictory experiences of power. The paper concludes with some observations on primitivist cultural appropriation.
WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE?*
Authors: Goldman Benjamin A.
Published: May 2006

This article examines the potential future of the U.S. environmental justice movement in a time of economic uncertainty, increasing inequality, and an ascendant white right. It traces the origins of “whiteness” as a historically contingent concept within American history and its relationship to current politics in general and the politics of the environment in particular. It reviews the emergence of research, public concern, and action over the linkage between environmental pollution, race, and class. After offering a critique of the contrary empirical findings of academic researchers, the article identifies two roads for future work in the field, and their potential pitfalls.
HISTORICAL PRESERVATION AND IDENTITY: THE ALAMO AND THE PRODUCTION OF A CONSUMER LANDSCAPE
Authors: De Oliver Miguel
Published: May 2006

Historical preservation often reveals more about contemporary culture than about history. The Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, is just such a case. No other large US city is so dominated by a single historical event, and the Alamo plays a central role as a cultural icon for regional Anglo identity, a symbol of the Anglo‐dominated social hierarchy. Its preservation and restoration have coincided with modern identity formation contextualized by commodities. Thus, a critical part of this project is the development of a consumer landscape as an economic extension of the Alamo that promotes consumption by harmonizing with prevailing Anglo conceptions of ethnic identities; not simply a strategically located commercial zone, but an integral part of the pilgrimage to the monument, providing a mechanism for socialization, including “racialization”, contextualized by commodities.
Merit and Difference
Authors: Baez Benjamin
Published: May 2006

Using the arguments over college admissions as a point of departure, this article analyzes the idea of merit in education. Situating the concept of merit historically and philosophically, it advances the argument that merit should be considered not as an individual construct but as an institutional one. The debates over merit focus on which individual abilities should be privileged in college admissions. But the author argues the merit does not—indeed, cannot—exist outside the institutions that use it. The article suggests that it may be counterproductive for educators to insist upon an individual basis for merit, even when it is linked to furthering emancipatory goals. In other words, the predominant definitions of merit privilege an idea of the individual that itself should be questioned for how it justifies the institutional practices that create difference, practices that ensure that such an idea never materializes in fact.
Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A Framework for Teacher Knowledge
Authors: Mishra Punya , Koehler Matthew J.
Published: May 2006

Research in the area of educational technology has often been critiqued for a lack of theoretical grounding. In this article we propose a conceptual framework for educational technology by building on Shulrnan's formulation of “pedagogical content knowledge” and extend it to the phenomenon of teachers integrating technology into their pedagogy. This framework is the result of 5 years of work on a program of research focused on teacher professional development and faculty development in higher education. It attempts to capture some of the essential qualities of teacher knowledge required for technology integration in teaching, while addressing the complex, multifaceted, and situated nature of this knowledge. We argue, briefly, that thoughtful pedagogical uses of technology require the development of a complex, situated form of knowledge that we call Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK). In doing so, we posit the complex roles of, and interplay among, three main components of learning environments: content, pedagogy, and technology. We argue that this model has much to offer to discussions of technology integration at multiple levels: theoretical, pedagogical, and methodological. In this article, we describe the theory behind our framework, provide examples of our teaching approach based upon the framework, and illustrate the methodological contributions that have resulted from this work.
Motivations to Teach: Psychometric Perspectives across the First Semester of Teacher Education
Authors: Sinclair Catherine , Dowson Martin , Mcinerney Dennis M.
Published: May 2006

Many studies have investigated preservice teachers’ motivations to teach. However, few studies have (a) used robust measurement methodologies to test the psychometric properties of instruments measuring motivations to teach, (b) attempted to measure changes over time in preservice teachers’ motivations to teach, or (c) attempted to assess the effects that relevant variables such as age or gender may have on temporal changes in motivations to teach. This study sought to address these perceived deficits in the literature. Results indicate that the instrument developed in this study was reliable and valid across two waves of data collection, that preservice teachers’ motivations to teach changed across the course of their first semester of teacher education, and that, in some cases, these changes were related to the age of preservice teachers.
Divination and experience: explorations of a Chagga epistemology
Authors: Myhre Knut Christian
Published: May 2006

This article argues that anthropological approaches to African divination are characterized by a certain epistemology, which creates specific problems with regard to vernacular truth‐claims. Using ethnographic material from the Chagga‐speaking people of Kilimanjaro, the article traces the multiple overlapping ramifications that interrelate vernacular concepts, physical objects, and local subjectivities. By thus avoiding reductionist arguments, the article endeavours to demonstrate that careful attention to these complex lateral relationships reveals how local diviners are able ‘to see’, or ‘be shown’, the ‘truth’ pertaining to their clients.
Healing with spirits and the formation of Muslim selfhood in post‐Soviet Uzbekistan
Authors: Rasanayagam Johan
Published: May 2006

Since Uzbekistan gained its independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Islam has re‐entered the public sphere and people there have joined the rest of the Muslim world in contemplating reflexively what it means to be Muslim. This article explores this process in the context of healing practices involving spirit agency. It argues that this form of healing, as an imaginal encounter with spirit agents, constitutes a particular mode of access to divine knowledge and power through which people validate their own particular concepts of Muslim selfhood. It explores how the content of these encounters and the cosmology invoked by healers are changing in response to the increasing influence of scripturalist interpretations of Islam, and how healing practice is interpreted through social interaction within the healers’ communities.
Sorcery, corruption, and the dangers of democracy in Indonesia
Authors: Bubandt Nils
Published: May 2006

Magic is the continuation of politics by other means. This, at least, has been the case in North Maluku since the political reshuffle that followed the fall of Suharto and the implementation of decentralization in Indonesia. The strategies pursued by the regional elite to obtain lucrative positions in the new landscape opened up by regional autonomy are thus seen to be thwarted by sorcery from political rivals. Following the life and death of Muhammad, a North Malukan political entrepreneur, I show how sorcery plays an integral part in the new politics of democratization in Indonesia. Political sorcery thrives, I argue, in a complex moral economy that mixes local ideas of sociality, political practices of patrimonialism, and global discourses of democracy. Sorcery and corruption are part of the same political imagination, because both speak ambivalently to the problems of power in times of change. Rather than being anathema to democracy, as the new global discourse on transparency would have it, the occult politics of corruption and sorcery are among the means through which a contested form of democracy is conceptualized and implemented in Indonesia.
Efficiency and Equity in Education
Authors: ARONSON J. RICHARD , HILLEY JOHN L.
Published: May 2006

In education as elsewhere state dominance represses intellectual enquiry. In Britain the new secretary of state for education is the first politician to stimulate discussion of parental choice through the voucher system. American Professors Aronson and Hilley show how it could work in the USA.
Labour Must Re‐cycle Itself
Authors: JUMP NIGEL
Published: May 2006

Government obstructions to the mobility of labour risk stagnation of skills and reduction of investment in human capital. The Government must encourage investment through tax allowances, de‐regulation of the housing market, relaxation of restrictive work practices.
How Not to Cut Education Expenditure
Authors: MAYNARD ALAN
Published: May 2006

Cuts in education expenditure would be more effective if designed to increase efficiency from teaching staff. Competition between teachers to attract fees at full market rates would do more to save money than any simple budget cut.
Bus Competition: Fowler Must Try Harder
Authors: ALSOP D. F.
Published: May 2006

Denationalisation of bus routes following the 1980 Transport Act is being hampered by Political opposition. Derrick Alsop runs a private bus service in Nottingham, he details some of the practical difficulties put in his way and shows the inadequacies of the Act.
What Next for the Falklands?
Authors: FERNS H. S.
Published: May 2006

After the fighting, are the Falkland Islands to remain a massive burden on the taxpayer? Professor Ferns, an outstanding authority on South American economic history, proposes a radical solution to the falklands problem which would bring lasting stability and prosperity to all of southern South America.
Education Vouchers—Evolution or Revolution?
Authors: WEST E. G.
Published: May 2006

The Prime Minister, the Secretary of State for Education, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and other Ministers have spoken of the school voucher. The Secretary of State invited two organisations to comment on ‘difficulties’ raised by his officials. One, FEVER (Friends of the Education Voucher Experiment in Representative Regions), invited 15 of its advisers round the world to respond. This article is based on the reply from Professor E.G. West.
Let the G.L.C. Charge or Wind Up
Authors: LORD RODNEY
Published: May 2006

How do we know if local government is efficient if it does not compete or sell its services? Rodney Lord draws on American experience to show the advantages of competition between local governments and between local government and private services.
Incomes Policies: King Canute at the NIESR
Authors: SUMNER MICHAEL
Published: May 2006

Despite its evident failure over 15 years, income policy is still being urged by economists who ignore the evidence and hope against hope that somehow it may succeed. Professor summer dismisses this wishful thinking, not least at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
The Unobserved Economy and the UK Laffer Curve
Authors: McGEE ROBERT T. , FEIGE EDGAR L.
Published: May 2006

It has been argued that higher tax rates would yield larger tax revenue. From a model of the British Laffer Curve Professors Feige and McGee argue that higher revenue could be derived only at the cost of lower productivity and increased tax rejection.
Scarp the C.A.P.
Authors: HOWARTH RICHARD
Published: May 2006

The abuses of the Common Agricultural Policy are familiar. Richard Howarth argues that they cannot be patched up but can be removed by abolition of the system that supports inefficient French and German small farmers.
Labour Relations Deteriorate in Nationalised Industry
Authors: McENERY J. H.
Published: May 2006

It has long been argued that the relations between employees and employers would improve once industry was nationalised. John McEnery, until recently a senior civil setvant, argues that it is the nature of nationalisation to make labour relations worse than in private industry.
Industrial Relations in Local Government
Authors: Green David
Published: May 2006

David Green, for six years a Labour Councillor in the North East and a university economist, analyses the self‐interested obstruction to reform that some Labour and other councillors urged in the interest of the local public. If his analysis applies elsewhere in local government, the urgency of reform by Patricklenkin becomes apparent and insistent.
The Chicago School Lessons from the Thirties for the Eighties
Authors: Tame Chris R
Published: May 2006

The influential Chicago School of Professors Milton Friedman, George Stigler, Ronald Coase, Gary Becker and others largely grew out of the work of Henry Simons in the 1930s. Chris Tame, Secretary of the Libertarian Alliance and a graduate in American Studies, examines the origins of Chicago economics and shows their importance for the 1980s.
Organising the Organisers
Authors: North Maurice
Published: May 2006

Reaction against over‐government can be seen in the hope for revival in voluntary action. Professor Maurice North shows Norman Fowler the dangers for the public welfare of continuing state control by financing ‘voluntary’ activity.
Unemployment: Is Government Macro‐ Economic Policy Impotent?
Authors: ROWLEY CHARLES K.
Published: May 2006

Persistent calls from the CBI, TUC and other corporatists for government ‘action’ to relieve unemployment are based on the Keynesian belief that government can trade off unemployment against inflation. Professor Rowley analyses the fallacy and argues for the dismantling of institutional barriers in the labour market.
Political Bargaining: Bricks, Bluff and Blackmail
Authors: LEVAČIĆ ROSALIND
Published: May 2006

The market does not always work well but, argues Rosalind Levačić of the Open University, neither does its alternative – jostling for advantage by interest groups. She draws on a case study to demonstrate that the bluff and blackmail of political bargaining leads to results that should be examined as closely as market failure.
Why Do British Unions Oppose Privatisation?
Authors: WATSON GEORGE
Published: May 2006

British trade unions have always been opposed to the removal of state monopolies from the public sector. George Watson examines the inconsistency of union attitudes, since monopoly tends to favour the powerful and rich at the expense of the weak and poor. British trade unionists, he says, should re‐assess their unreasoned opposition to privatisation if they claim to serve the interests of their members.
Servicing De‐industrialisation
Authors: LEWIS RUSSELL
Published: May 2006

Government figures have recently revealed that, while investment in manufacturing industry has fallen by 25% since 1979, the service sector now accounts for 70% of all investment in the UK. Russell Lewis finds that attitudes in Whitehall lag behind this startling change in economic activity.
Is Government Spending out of Control?
Authors: GOULD FRANK
Published: May 2006

Successive governments in most western countries have used budget deficits to buy their way out of political difficulties. Has this fiscal incontinence been indulged to the point that it cannot now be stopped, let alone reversed?
National Income and the Black Economy
Authors: MATTHEWS KENT
Published: May 2006

Unemployment turned out to be far less influential in deciding voting patterns in the election than Labour and Alliance leaders had predicted. This may have been because the real volume of unemployment is far less than the official figure. Kent Matthews presents evidence, based on the Liverpool University economic model, that true unemployment may be as little as 1.8 million, with the other 1.4 of registered unemployed hard at work in the black economy. In the world of knowledge, the last thing to be perceived and only with great difficulty is the essetial form.
The Euthanasia of the Renter
Authors: HALLETT GRAHAM
Published: May 2006

Since housing, distorted by council provision and rent regulation, is very difficult to find, unemployed workers stay at home rather than move to areas where they might find jobs. Rent restriction thus increases unemployment as well as homelessness, but there was little in the Conservative manifesto to show that the new Thatcher administration will do anything more than acknowledge the problem.
A Market for Safety?
Authors: MELNYK ANDREW
Published: May 2006

Calls for more stringent safety legislation ignore the fact that safety has a cost, like any other good. To impose standards of safety beyond those consumers indicate they desire through purchase in the market increased inefficiency. Excessive caution in drug protection may kill more people than it saves.
The Case for Bailing Out the Debtors
Authors: COOLICAN ANGELA
Published: May 2006

In the last issue of the JEA Professor Karl Brunner and five American colleagues agreed that debtor nations that refuse to adopt policies to encourage domestic growth should be allowed to go bankrupt. Angela Coolican suggests that, so severe would be the effects on world trade and financial markets, a policy of default should be considered only in the most desperate of circumstances.
Can Socialist Spaniards Ride Market Forces?
Authors: VERGÉS JOSEF , LINGLE CHRISTOPHER
Published: May 2006

Spain's Socialist government looks set to inflict the kind of damage on its economy in its first few months of office that has taken President Mitterrand two years in France. Increasing liberalism following the removal of the Franco regime has been swept away by a welter of controls and state diktats, and the economic gains of the last few years look like vanishing.
Dutch Courage the Morning After
Authors: Wassell Martin
Published: May 2006

For years the Netherlands has been lauded as the examplar of the compassionate welfare state. But now government spending is being reined back in a desperate attempt to stop the economy from collapsing under the weight of fiscal incontinence, initially disguised by North Sea gas revenue. Martin Wassell shows how the Dutch government, through necessity, may be setting the lead in rolling back the state.
Speed Up Council House Sales
Authors: Stafford David
Published: May 2006

One of the few successes of the Government in mastering tax expenditure on welfare services is its sale of Council houses. At its rate of sale so far it will take 40 to 50 years to dispose of the original near seven million. David Stafford, Exeter University economist and Exeter City Councillor with knowledge of the Council housing embrogho, shows how the rate of sale could be accelerated.
Sweden's Crumbling Welfare State
Authors: Häggman Bertil
Published: May 2006

The ‘Social Democracy’ of Sweden is commonly offered as a model for Europe and the West. Four Swedish authors combine to demonstrate the accelerating failure of the Swedish welfare state and the disillusion revealed by former adherents and advocates in Swedish industry and academia.
Technology versus Government: Decentralisation will Depoliticise Life
Authors: Seldon Arthur
Published: May 2006

A self‐described ‘Mad, Christian, libertarian economist’, Norman Macrae, veteran Deputy Editor of The Economist, foresees eight‐fold rise in living standards in a generation, a shrivelling of government, impotence of politicians, a burgeoning of entrepreneurship, emancipation from bureaucracy by personal computer‐communication (‘tele‐commuting’), the accelerating eclipse of old by undreamt‐of new industries. Arthur Seldon assesses Macrae's economic vision.
Governments do Compete for Citizens ‐ in Australia
Authors: Ray John J
Published: May 2006

Michael van Notten suggested in these pages that consumers of national laws should use supranational legislatures to allow themselves to choose between competing suppliers of law. His proposal was greeted as outlandish, if intriguing. But, Australian economist John Ray reveals, it is already happening.
Mitterrand: from Socialism to Realism
Authors: Green Diana
Published: May 2006

The French elected a government of nationalist Bourbons who thought they could plan the economy in a world of international trade. They soon discovered their error but are reluctant to act upon the lessons. Dr Green reveals that the main results have been economic stagnation and a division in the Government between pragmatists and ideologues.
Make Markets Work
Authors: Fox Roger
Published: May 2006

In previous issues leading public figures have indicated the desirable con tent of British economic policy. Roger Fox, an economist, and Kenneth Judge, a sociologist, who advise the SDP, argue, first, that more me should be made of the market, even where it disturbs established interests, and, secondly, that private financing should be used for social services.
Bottom Marx
Authors: Tame Chris R.
Published: May 2006

Much of the economic analysis published in recent years has been Marxist in flavour. The publication of a dictionary of Marxist thought offers a guide to its various schools. Chris Tame dissects the contrasting interpretations of its numerous contributors.
The Sacred Cows of Government Spending
Authors: Shackleton J R
Published: May 2006

In attempts to reduce state expenditure the Government has exempted defence and the police. J R Shackleton questions the capacity of government to reflect public preferences even in public goods.
The U.S. deficit: Whose Fault?
Authors: Roberts Paul Craig
Published: May 2006

The US budget deficit, and the higher interest rates it is said to cause, is blamed for depressing the economies of Europe. A former Assistant Secretary to the Treasury, now Professor of Economics at Georgetown University, challenges the view that it is the result of President Reagan's tax cuts and defence build‐up. In a broadly ‘supply‐side’ analysis, he criticises Paul Volcker, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, David Stockman, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Professor Martin Feldstein, Chairman (until June) of Council of Economic Advisors.
Still Popular, Warts and All
Authors: Day Alan J
Published: May 2006

A recent book, Socialism Explained by Arthur Seldon and Brian Crozier, 1 contesting the claims of socialism is assessed by two writers of divergent approaches. Alan Day, an active member of the Labour party, is a former Editor of Socialist Affairs; and Alexander Shand, Senior Lecturer in Economics at Manchester Polytechnic, is author of Suhjectivist Economics and The Capitalist Alternative.
Investor Protection – Why Gower is Wrong
Authors: Ross Len
Published: May 2006

Professor ‘Jim’ Gower's report, commissioned by Norman Tebbit's Department of Trade and Industry, calling for regulation of the ‘investment industry’, brings the Government's commitment to trade liberalisation seriously into doubt. Professor Gower has ignored a vast literature on regulation which reveals how it is ‘captured’ by interest groups to establish protected cartels. Furthermore, his proposals restrict competition that would benefit the consumer without outlawing restrictive practices. Norman Tebbit should reject Professor Gower's misguided advice decisively.
Poland's Economic Reform: Myth or Reality?
Authors: Rostowski Jacek
Published: May 2006

Repeated attempts to salvage Poland's wrecked economy by introducing market‐based reforms and more autonomy for enterprises have been constantly thwarted by the bureaucracy with a vested interest in the status quo. Party officials are unwilling to relinquish their control over supposedly autonomous managers. Poland seems doomed to continued poverty unless it rejects centralised control.
Regional Policy: Only Half‐way Towards Sanity
Authors: McEnery J H
Published: May 2006

In October 1981 an IEA Research Monograph1 by John McEnery attacked British regional policy as counter‐productive in its emphasis on capital‐intensive manufacturing and perverse in its bias against service industry. It had resulted in two nations: the service‐based south‐east, and the rest over‐dependent on manufacturing. In December 1983 a White Paper2 invited written observations; we asked John McEnery for his views.
Markets? Yes, but…
Authors: Nove Alec
Published: May 2006

Liberal market economics is assailed in a spirited appraisal of its methodology and policy conclusions as seen by a noted critic. Professor Alec Nove, author of The Economics of Feasible Socialism, It shows how he regards market economists as moving from disregarded outcasts in the Keynesian heyday to the centre of the stage of economic thinking and teaching. Prominent offenders respond.
Job Protection: Is the End in Sight?
Authors: Dnes' Anthony W.
Published: May 2006

The Government's proposals to reduce the privileges of job protection in the hope of encouraging increased employment may prove to be the thin end of the wedge. Antony Dne, of the Department of Business Studies at the University of Edinburgh, argues that workers and employers alike should move away from restrictive legislation towards contractual arrangements they find mutually satisfactory.
Propagandists Price out Youth Labour
Authors: Dennison S. R.
Published: May 2006

The Auld Committee on the Shops Act stepped outside its terms of reference to consider the fallacious economic reasoning of the unions and the Low Pay Unit by arguing in favour of retaining minimum wages and Wages Councils. Professor Stanley Dennison, formerly Vice‐Chancellor of the University of Hull and author of IEA Hobart Paper 101, Low Pay or No Pay?, exposes the flaws in the Auld Report.
Disarming the Interest Groups
Authors: Brittan Samuel
Published: May 2006

Vested interests continue to present the Government with political obstacles to economic reform. Samuel Brittan suggests that a Grand Trade‐Off is the only means by which liberalisation can be forced through. Three British commentators react to his proposition. The Editorial on pp.2 and 3 proposes a complementary policy.
A Turning‐point for the Communist Economies?
Authors: Rostowski Jacek
Published: May 2006

The ascent of Mikhail Gorbachev as leader of the USSR was hailed as the end of hardline policies from the Politburo Polish economist Jacek Rostowski questions Gorbachev's relative ‘liberalism’ and examines communist disagreement on the admission of market forces to economic policy
Capitalism in China
Authors: Seldon Arthur
Published: May 2006

Communist China, in contrast to Russia and other East European states, has a long tradition of markets. Arthur Seldon welcomes the increasing honesty with which the Chinese Government, under Deng Xaio‐Ping (right), is rejecting centralised control.
Earn Votes by Cutting the CAP
Authors: Whetstone Linda
Published: May 2006

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) survives despite unprecedented popular opposition in all countries, Linda Whetstone (above), of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, suggests drastic liberalization would bring political reward.
Market ‘Chaos’ Defies Intellectuals
Authors: Davies Stephen
Published: May 2006

The age‐old human desire to impose order on the diversity af human activity lies at the root of intellectual antipathy towards capitalism. Dr Stephen Davies (right), of Manchester Polytechnic, argues that, until, the training of intellectuals allows them to appreciate the ‘chaos’ of the market, their understanding of the world and of people will remain imperfect.
How Much State?
Authors: Nove Alec
Published: May 2006

Professor Alec Nove (right), of the University of Glasgow, takes issue with the three ‘capitalist’ critics of his articles in Economic Affairs, January‐March 1985: Israel Kirzner, Tim Congdon and Patrick Minford.
Buckingham's Fight for Independence
Authors: Peacock Alan
Published: May 2006

Professor Alan Peacock examines the barriers to entry erected against innovators in the university market by lecturer trade unions,‘disinterested’ government officials and other groups The University of Buckingham reveals how, despite hostile political conditions, exposure to the market‐place improves academic standards and administrative efficiency
No Public Choice in State Education
Authors: Tullock Gordon
Published: May 2006

Gordon Tullock, Professor at the Center for Study of Public Choice, George Mason University, USA, and one of the founding fathers of ‘public choice’ economics, applies it to the state provision of education to reveal how the public is denied choice. He exposes the logicai weaknesses of the arguments agoinst education vouchers from the Department of Education and Science.
Still No Economic Liberalism
Authors: Grimond Lord
Published: May 2006

The Conservative Government has long contended its allegionce to open markets and a liberal society. Lord (Jo) Grimond, a former leader of the Liberal Party, and an MP for 33 years, orgues that there is little sign of the emergence of such an attitude in economic and political thought since 1979. He calls for a more wholehearted adoption of the market by Conservotives and Alliance alike.
The Impossibility of Financial Autarky
Authors: Cappie Forrest
Published: May 2006

Mr Roy Hattersley has called for the establishment of a national investment bank to secure funds for economic growth in Britain. Forrest Capie, of the City University Business School, and G.R. Steele, Lecfurer in Economics of the University of Lancaster, examine, in two complementary articles, the practical obstacles, logical inconsistencies and objectionable morality of Mr Hattersley's proposal.
Do High Benefits Cause Unemployment?
Authors: Eaton Jack
Published: May 2006

Kent Matthews, Lecturer in Monetary Economics at the Universtiy of Liverpool, presented historical data (Economic Affairs April—June 1985) to support his argument that excessive real wages combined with growing social security payments to increase inter‐war unemployment, Jack Eaton, Lecturer in Industrial Relations at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, invokes several academic economists to refute his argument. Kent Matthews retorts that the objection is based on a mis‐reading of the evidence and its analysts.
Contracting‐Out: A Step Towards Competition
Authors: Hartley Keith
Published: May 2006

The Government has advocated contracting‐out to improve services currently supplied by the state. Dr. Keith Hartly, Director of the Institute of Research at the University of York, argues that for the benefits of contracting‐out to be fully realised it most avoid collusion between state and contractor and should be extended to all forms of state supply and their workforces. Contracting‐out is nevertheless, merely a halfway‐house on the path towards genuine competition.
The ‘Standerd’ Has Already Happened
Authors: Tideman Nicolaus
Published: May 2006

Evidence from United States refutes allegations of the impracticability of commodity‐based units of account. Nicolaus Tidemon, Professor of economies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, supports Professor Hayek's praposal with a ‘real‐life’ example of its implementation.
Transport Regulation: An Ugly Head Raised Again
Authors: Hibbs John
Published: May 2006

The Government was widely applauded by advocates of the free market for the enactment of the Transport Acts of 1980 and 1985, But the apparent success in deregulation still hides potentiol disfortians of the market. Dr John Hibbs, Director of the institute of Transport Studies at Birmingham Polytechnic, exmimnes the residual scope for state interference.
The Growing Irrelevance of State Pensions
Authors: Warburton Peter
Published: May 2006

Economic argument has never been able to justify convincingly the state provision of pensions, and now the increase in wealth throughout the population has made government provision increasingly redundant. PeterWar‐burton, of the stockbrokers L Messel & Company, presents the arguments for fundamental reform into the market of a paternalist and outmoded institution.
Political Taxes: Abolition, not Reform
Authors: Bracewell‐Milnes Barry
Published: May 2006

Much of the burden of taxation could be removed with long‐term benefit to the economy and yet with little short‐term difficulty. Dr Barry Bracewell‐Milnes, a consultant on tax and business issues, outlines the scope for reduced taxation, beginning with taxes imposed for political satisfaction rather than economic necessity.
South Africa's Victory Against Capitalism
Authors: Williams Walter E.
Published: May 2006

The South African economy is widely misrepresented, not least by the Western media, as being an oppressive capitalist regime. Walter Williams, Professor of Economics at George Mason University, Virginia, demonstrates how South Africa's economy has been socialist for many decades. What South Africa requires is less socialism, not more.
What Trade‐Off between Efficiency and Equality?
Authors: Rees David J.
Published: May 2006

David Rees, former Associate Professor at the University of Cape Town and now Consultant Economist to a firm of Johannesburg stockbrokers, amplifies Professor Kantor's proposal to suggest the widespread sale of state assets to promote the establishment of a property‐owning democracy in South Africa.
The Swiss Solution for South Africa
Authors: Kendall Frances
Published: May 2006

The example of Switzerland in devolving decision‐making away from a central state towards community bodies with reduced powers offers a readily adaptable solution to the political turmoil in South Africa. FrancesKendall, co‐author with Leon Louw of the best‐selling South Africa: The Solution, presents her proposals forreform.
The Dongers of Regulating Financial Services
Authors: Ross Len
Published: May 2006

The latest legislation regulating financial services is the equivalent of putting the foxes in charge of the chickens, argues Leonard Ross, Lecturer in Economics at the Polytechnic of Central London. It gives City institutions carte blanche for the fixing of prices and the suppression of competition.
Central Banks Can Avert Disaster
Authors: Capie Forrest , Wood Geoffrey
Published: May 2006

The history of difficulties in international banking refutes the argument that the Financial system is in crisis, it is claimed by Dr Forrest Capie and Geoffrey Wood, both at the Centre for Banking and International Finance, City University Business School, London. They contend that, despite obvious imperfections, the reliability of central banks as lenders of last resort is an ultimate safeguard against collapse.
As Free as the Air We Breath?
Authors: Anderson Martin J.
Published: May 2006

The maintenance of a stable global atmosphere would seem to present a clear mandate for government activity. Martin Anderson, Executive Editor of Economic Affairs, argues that the privatisation of the Amazon Basin will stimulate entrepreneurs to overcome the obvious barriers to a market in air.
Employee Profit‐Sharing: Weitzmania and Wild‐Goose hases
Authors: Hanson Charles
Published: May 2006

Professor Martin Weitzman's proposals for sharing profit among company employees are being adopted uncritically by the Government and advisers to other Parties, Dr Charles Hanson, of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, casts a sceptical eye over these and similar proposals.
The Hidden Tax of Government Regulation
Authors: Weidenbaum Murray L.
Published: May 2006

The increasing burden of government regulation on economic activity in both the United Kingdom and the United States is examined critically by Murray Weidenbaum, Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor at the Center for the Study of American Business at Washington University, St Louis, and formerly chairman of the US Council of Economic Advisers. He calls for the removal of government‐imposed barriers to markets in fuel, pharmacy, transport, finance and other goods and services.
Centralisation is no Solution
Authors: Levaćić Rosalind
Published: May 2006

Although the US structure of government encourages the activity of presure groups more than in the UK, argues Rosalind Levaćić of the Open University, orchestrated campaigns to put pressure on government have spread in Britain, especially in education and health, where they will now prevent direct central government control of resources from being as effective as decentralising control to individual consumers/voters.
Will Big Government Always Resist Cuts?
Authors: Chrystal K. Alec
Published: May 2006

Alec Chrystal, Professor of Economics at the University of Sheffield, compares the failures of Mrs Thatcher and President Reagon to cut back the state and traces their common lack of success in an attempt to institute reform without de‐centralising the allacation of resources.
A Free‐market Prescription for Third World Debt
Authors: Middendorf J. William
Published: May 2006

The fostering of growth in Third‐World countries also requires the re‐establishment of the micro‐economic framework that directs investment, stimulates incentives and rewards effort. J. William Middendorf II, US Ambassador to the European Community, presents a programme for reform to replace centralised stagnation with market‐based growth.
Can the Market Supply Justice?
Authors: Lynn Matthew
Published: May 2006

Although laissez‐faire economies may not create injustice, argues Matthew Lynn, a financial journalist and adherent of the SDP, the inequity embodied in existing arrangements may require intervention to correct it. David Butler, of the University of York, finds the proposed solution even less likely to be just.
Radical Reform to Depoliticise Schools
Authors: Cox Caroline
Published: May 2006

The current politicisation of education by interventionist local authorities would be removed by the introduction of per capita funding direct to the schools, argues Baroness Cox. This reform would allow the voices of parents and children currently ‘trapped’ in bad schools to be heard.
Per Capita Funding: The Next Step to Better Schools
Authors: Marks John
Published: May 2006

Changes to the state funding of education through Local Education Authorities must be gradual but are urgently required to improve standards. Dr John Marks, a member of the Hillgate Group which produced Whose Schools?, presents the argument for per capita grants to schools as a halfway‐house between local authority funding and vouchers.
Hungary Shares in Capitalism
Authors: Falush Peter
Published: May 2006

Hungary has long been to the fore in East European attempts to introduce elements of the market into communist economies. Peter Falush, a Hungarian economist now working in London, discusses the latest step towards capitalism, the guarded encouragement of a capital market.
Safety Regulation Imperils Consumers
Authors: Elliott Nick
Published: May 2006

Is the state required to ensure minimum standards in safety, hygiene and the provision of other goods and services? Nick Elliott, Editor of The Moderate, considers the sanctions faced by comrnercial companies in competitive markets more effective guarantors of high standards at prices consumers will pay than state regulation.
Organ Transplants: Markets v. Morality?
Authors: McNair‐Wilson Michael
Published: May 2006

In Economic Affairs, Vol. 7 No. 1, Marvin Brams suggested that individuals should be free to sell body parts for profit. Michael McNair‐Wilson, Conservative MP for Newbury, and currently awaiting the donation of a kidney for transplant, presents his ethical objections to a market in organs. Professor Brams maintains that the suffering caused by suppression of the market should force a reconsideration of the ethics.
Commodity Standard or Monetary Rule?
Authors: Tavlas George S.
Published: May 2006

Professor F.A. Hayek's proposal for privately‐issued monies based on baskets of commodities (Economic Affairs, Volume 6, Number 4, April/May 1986) is the most recent version of a policy proposed, and criticised, in various forms over the last two centuries. Do suggestions for market monies neglect considerations of practicability and equity? George S. Tavlas. economist at the international Monetary Fund, examines two centuries of economic theory to present objections the advocates of private money have yet to overcome.
What Emancipation for Choice?
Authors: Barry Norman
Published: May 2006

The new socialists' apparent emphasis on consumer choice is vitiated by their enduring emphasis on the collectivist functions of the state. Norman Barry; Professor of Politics at the University of Buckingham, contends that the new socialists fail to recognise the importance of consumer choice in social services and the indispensable role of the entrepreneur.
From Unjust Markets to Just Distribution
Authors: Estrin Saul
Published: May 2006

The tendency of the market to concentrate wealth on small groups of individuals and to over‐react to shocks to the economy requires the invigilation of the state to protect the disadvantaged. Saul Estrin, Lecturer in Economics at the London School of Economics, contends that socialist acceptance of market efficiency should not be extended to its inequitable distribution of resources and power.
Would Cows Vote Carnivore?
Authors: Shughart William F. , Tollison Robert D.
Published: May 2006

Vegetarians and ‘animal rights’ activists argue that the human ‘exploitation’ of other species should be prevented in the interest of the animals and plants involved. But the human consumption of animal and vegetable products results in a larger population of these species than they could otherwise expect, William Shughart and Robert Tollison of the Center for Study of Public Choice at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, ask whether cows, rabbits, rah and trees might prefer to be bred for human consumption.
Producer Cartels in English League Football
Authors: Arnold Anthony J. , Benveniste Ivor
Published: May 2006

The institutional arrangements of sport, like other forms of human activity, are increasingly susceptible to the analytical attentions of economists. Anthony Arnold, of the University of Essex, and Ivor Benveniste, Training Manager at Levy Gee Training, examine English League football to discover inefficient patterns of cross‐subsidisation, restrictive practices, a producer cartel and the exploitation of smaller clubs by larger.
Funding Research: State Carrot for Private Investment
Authors: Horrobin David F.
Published: May 2006

The funding of scientific research through the state is subject to the unpredictability of political whim and the inevitable caution of government advisers. Dr David Horrobin, Chief Executive of Efamol Ltd, proposes a method of financing scientific enquiry neglected since the early 18th century, and predicts a massive increase in the amount of funding from a substantial reduction of the role of the state.
Suppressing Insider Trading
Authors: Palamountain Edgar
Published: May 2006

Writing in Economic Affairs, Vol. 7, No. 5, Hugh High, Professor of Accounting and Finance at Massey University, New Zealand, argued that attempts to suppress insider trading would both impede the workings of the market and trample basic individual liberties. Edgar Palamountain, Director of the Esmee Fairbairn Charitable Trust, takes issue with Hugh High: insider trading, he claims, is not victimless and should be outlawed by statutory sanction. Hugh High defends his corner.
Are Economists Amoral?
Authors: Machan Tibor R.
Published: May 2006

Economists have long based their analysis of the behaviour of the economic‘actor’as homo economicus, an individual maximising his or her own interest or‘utility’. Tibor Machan, Professor of Philosophy at Auburn University, Alabama, argues that this approach neglects important elements that condition economic activity — not least, the role of moral considerations.
The Crash and Ricardo: Does the US Budget Deficit Matter?
Authors: Wood Geoffrey E. , Pradham Mahmoud
Published: May 2006

How important was the American budget deficit as a cause of the crash? Geoffrey Wood and Mahmoud Pradham of the City University Business School argue that the deficit was not even a contributory cause. A modern version of the‘Ricardian Equivalence Theorem’suggests that the effect of government borrowing on the economy can be greatly exaggerated.
The Money Transmission System, Competition and the Banks
Authors: Duggan Sean , Karpinski Jan
Published: May 2006

Sean Duggan and Jan Karpinski of the Bristol and West Building Society argue that the market in money clearing services is ripe for liberalisation.
Housing: Conditions for Success in Government Policy
Authors: Coleman David
Published: May 2006

Dr David Coleman of Oxford University analyses the recent housing legislation and claims that the Government has further to go in reforming the housing market
Housing: Anyone for Rent Control?
Authors: Stafford David C. , Albon Robert
Published: May 2006

Dr David Stafford and Robert Albon of Exeter University argue that the government's legislation to deregulate the market for rented accommodation is insufficient to achieve its end.
The Costs of the CAP
Authors: Thomson Kenneth
Published: May 2006

What are the effects of the CAP? Professor Thompson of Aberdeen University analyses the costs of the Common Agricultural Policy.
The CAP and the Economics of Regulation
Authors: Blight Catherine
Published: May 2006

Are the effects of regulation always bad? Catherine Blight of the University of Edinburgh argues that in certain circumstances regulation can offer a ‘second‐best’ solution.
Unwillingly to Lessons: Curriculum, Truancy and Nationalised Education
Authors: Stoll Patricia , O'Keeffe Dennis
Published: May 2006

Why is there so much truancy? Patricia Stoll and Dennis O'Keeffe claim that truancy is the result of a‘nationalised’curriculum.
Interpreting the Great Crash of 1987
Authors: Barry Norman
Published: May 2006

Professor Norman Barry of the University of Buckingham presents a view of the Crash from the perspective of Austrian economics.
Defence: Markets and Bureaucracy
Authors: Kennedy Gavin
Published: May 2006

How can defence fit into the market economy? Gavin Kennedy, of Heriot Watt University, outlines the tension between markets and bureaucracy in national defence.
Reforming the NHS
Authors: Green David
Published: May 2006

How should the National Health Service be reformed? David Green, director of the IEA Health Unit, analyses the Government's proposals.
Distorted Signals The Taxation of Interest
Authors: Hardie Alexandra
Published: May 2006

Should interest be taxed? Alexandra Hardie, of Exeter University, argues that the taxation of interest acts as a major distortion of the economy.