bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Political Institutions, Veto Points, and the Process of Welfare State Adaptation
Authors: Bonoli Giuliano
Published: October 2003

This is the second of three chapters on the implications of electoral politics and the design of political institutions for welfare state adjustment. Bonoli explores the relationship between political institutions and patterns of welfare retrenchment, both on a theoretical level and on the basis of the observation of welfare reforms adopted in countries characterized by different levels of institutional power concentration. The main empirical focus is on Britain, an exemplar of strong power concentration, Switzerland, which has a political system characterized by high levels of power fragmentation, and France, an intermediate case. For each of the three countries, narrative accounts are provided of how selected welfare reforms (pension reform in all three countries and unemployment insurance reform in Switzerland) have been adopted. The comparison suggests that the relationship between constitutional structures and welfare adaptation is not a linear one, whereby power concentration is directly linked to a higher or lower rate of success in achieving restructuring, or to the amount of restructuring that can be obtained. Power concentration does, however, appear to be related to the form that welfare state adaptation takes: in contexts of strong power concentration, reform tends to be unilateral and geared towards retrenchment; in contrast, in institutional contexts characterized by veto points, reform tends to combine measures of retrenchment with expansion and improvements of existing programmes.
Partisan Competition and Welfare State Retrenchment
Authors: Kitschelt Herbert
Published: October 2003

This is the third of three chapters on the implications of electoral politics and the design of political institutions for welfare state adjustment. Kitschelt's main proposition is that the strategic configuration of party systems, net of public opinion on social policy reforms, is a critical force that shapes social policy reform programmes and their implementation. He lays out mechanisms that may induce politicians to pursue often unpopular reforms based on internal opportunities offered by the dynamic of competitive party democracy that have received only scant attention in the comparative political economy and social policy literature. The central guiding proposition of the chapter requires two important qualifications: first, that the dynamic of party competition is only one of several mechanisms that affect social policy retrenchment; and second, that a comparative study of social policy change in the 1980s and 1990s would ideally rely on equivalent measures across a wide range of countries, but cross‐nationally comparable measures are not available. These data limitations currently make it impossible to determine the explanatory power of internal political conditions relative to external demographic and economic changes in accounts of social policy retrenchment, so Kitschelt uses case studies from Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, and Japan to illustrate how mechanisms of party competition impinge on social policy change, and beyond that, attempts to generalize his argument based on a reading of much looser expert judgements about social policy retrenchment in a broader set of countries.
The Comparative Political Economy of Pension Reform
Authors: Myles John , Pierson Paul
Published: October 2003

This is the first of three chapters on the distinctive policy dynamics of particular areas of social provision. In their chapter on the dynamics of pension reform, Myles and Pierson stress a key feature of public pension systems: the fact that the implications of policy choices only play out over a very long period of time. Almost all pension systems are undergoing major reforms, yet choices made twenty‐five or fifty years ago profoundly shape the nature of the reform options available now. Most countries are severely constrained in their options by the accumulated commitments from decades of experience with social insurance; only where countries failed to develop large pay‐as‐you‐go pension systems at these earlier junctures has the much‐heralded alternative of introducing extensive funded arrangements proven to be a viable option. Myles and Pierson also emphasize the need to legitimate often politically painful revisions to this key element of the post‐war social contract — while there has been major change everywhere, in almost all countries this has required broad negotiations, including left‐of‐centre parties and/or labour unions.
Labour Market Regimes Under Threat? Sources of Continuity in Germany, Britain, and Sweden
Authors: Wood Stewart
Published: October 2003

In this third of three chapters on the distinctive policy dynamics of particular areas of social provision, Wood looks at labour market regimes in Germany, Britain, and Sweden. The theoretical starting point of the chapter is an examination of path dependence, perhaps the most popular contemporary approach to explaining the persistence of institutions and policies over time. In principle, this offers an enticing explanation of the resilience of national policy trajectories, although the outcomes it explains have a tendency to be overdetermined, and not all mechanisms generating a bias towards the status quo are path‐dependent ones. The theoretical work of this chapter, therefore, lies in deriving alternative (though not mutually exclusive) micro‐level sources of policy continuity over time, and evaluating their relative contributions to the evolution of labour market policy in Germany, Britain, and Sweden. Divided into four substantive sections: Section 1 discusses the theory of path‐dependent institutional and policy trajectories in politics; Sect. 2 presents three distinct sources of policy continuity (employer‐centred, constitutional, and electoral) that are often bundled together as ‘lock‐in mechanisms’ in path‐dependent accounts; Sect. 3 sketches the changing context of labour market policy in Western Europe by looking at national responses to unemployment from 1980 onwards in each of the three country case studies, and providing accounts of labour market policies, employers’ preferences in relation to labour market policies, and constitutional factors and electoral constraints in relation to labour market reform; Sect. 4 is a conclusion and discusses the thesis offered by the chapter — that the trajectory of labour market policy can be accounted for by an employer‐centred theory of preferences.
Introduction: Contextual Political Theory, Comparative Perspectives, and Justice as Evenhandedness
Authors: Carens Joseph H.
Published: October 2003

Describes the methodological approach of the book and provides a summary overview of the other chapters. The methodological section explains what contextual political theory means and why it is useful; it advocates a comparative approach that helps us to see the range of the morally permissible by paying attention to a wide variety of cases in different states; and it introduces, explains, and defends the concept of justice as evenhandedness. The chapter also provides a brief account of the presuppositions about culture and identity that underlie the analysis.
Complex Justice, Cultural Difference, and Political Community
Authors: Carens Joseph H.
Published: October 2003

Uses Michael Walzer's Spheres of Justice as a vehicle for reflecting on the problem of universalism and relativism, with particular attention to the question of the moral relevance of cultural differences between political communities. It celebrates Walzer's contextual approach to theory and defends some of his key insights, using the Override Clause in Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms as a way of illustrating the moral importance of differences in political culture. But it also argues that Walzer's assertion that there is a tight link between moral community and political community conflicts with claims that he makes about justice in other societies. The chapter explores the question of whether and how we should judge history. It then uses gender equality and democracy as test cases for exploring how far our moral minimalism should extend and how open we should be to moral and cultural relativism.
Liberalism and Culture
Authors: Carens Joseph H.
Published: October 2003

Focuses on Will Kymlicka's Multicultural Citizenship. Applauds the work's path‐breaking attention to actual practices of group recognition in liberal democratic societies but criticizes its reliance on the concept of ‘societal culture’ to articulate a theoretical justification for these practices. It argues that this concept undermines the moral claims of immigrants and of small, vulnerable national minorities and generates a monocultural understanding of citizenship rather than a multicultural one. It contends that the concept of justice as evenhandedness provides a better guide for multiculturalism than the concept of societal culture and uses an extended discussion of language policy to illustrate the claim.
Distinguishing Between Difference and Domination: Reflections on the Relation Between Pluralism and Equality
Authors: Carens Joseph H.
Published: October 2003

Focuses on the relationship between cultural difference and equal opportunity. Because cultural heritages can affect the motivation and the capacity to take advantage of conventionally valued opportunities, some argue that respect for cultural differences requires us to accept social and economic inequalities between groups. The chapter uses the cases of Asian Americans, the Amish, African Americans and women to qualify and challenge this claim. It concludes that the relationship between pluralism and equality is generally complementary, and that this complementariness is enhanced when social institutions minimize inequalities.
Cultural Adaptation and the Integration of Immigrants: The Case of Quebec
Authors: Carens Joseph H.
Published: October 2003

Considers what sorts of cultural adaptations may be expected of immigrants to a liberal democratic state by looking at the case of Quebec. Quebec is an interesting test case for this issue because it has an explicit political project of protecting and promoting a culturally distinct society. Nevertheless, Quebec's announced expectations of immigrants are remarkably modest: learn French and accept pluralism and democracy as the norms of public life. The chapter contends that Quebec's language policies and its official expectations of immigrants are morally defensible from the perspective of justice as evenhandedness because these are the sorts of demands that go hand in hand with a commitment to providing immigrants and their children with equal opportunities in Quebec and with the other rights and freedoms that a liberal democratic political community should provide to its members.
Muslim Minorities in Contemporary Democracies: The Limitations of Liberal Toleration
Authors: Carens Joseph H.
Published: October 2003

Asks how liberal democratic states should respond to immigrants whose cultural commitments are (or are alleged to be) at odds with liberal democratic norms and practices. The chapter takes Muslim immigrants as its focus because in both Europe and North America, this is the group that has most often been portrayed as a cultural threat to liberal democracy. In particular, the chapter addresses the claim that Islamic beliefs and practices are incompatible with the liberal democratic commitment to gender equality. It considers the assertion that Islam requires or warrants female genital mutilation, wife‐beating, polygamy, and a form of dress (hijab) that subordinates women. It argues that the critics of Islam misconstrue the normative issues or misrepresent Islamic norms and practices or criticize Islam for practices and beliefs that liberal democracies (rightly) tolerate in other religious traditions.
Citizenship and the Challenge of Aboriginal Self‐Government: Is Deep Diversity Desirable?
Authors: Carens Joseph H.
Published: October 2003

Explores the possibilities of reconciling the demands of aboriginal peoples in Canada for forms of self‐government that will reflect and protect their distinct cultural traditions with the idea of a shared Canadian citizenship based on equality and political unity. It outlines the long history of the use of Canadian citizenship as a tool of coercive assimilation of First Nations people in Canada and argues that this history justifies considerable wariness on their part toward any project of civic integration. It also considers the question of whether the cultural differences between aboriginal people and other Canadians would warrant some limitations on the application of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Canada's Bill of Rights) to aboriginal people. Finally, the chapter argues that a unitary model of citizenship is bound to fail to achieve the civic integration of aboriginal people. It contends that a version of differentiated citizenship that makes dialogue over justice and cultural difference central is the best hope for achieving civic integration, though it is an approach that carries its own risks.
Democracy and Respect for Difference: The Case of Fiji
Authors: Carens Joseph H.
Published: October 2003

Discusses the case of Fiji where efforts to protect the cultural traditions of Fijians (the descendants of the indigenous population) have led to conflicts with Indo‐Fijians (the descendants of indentured workers from India), who constitute the largest other group of inhabitants of Fiji. The chapter defends the claims of Indo‐Fijians to equal citizenship in the name of democracy and criticizes efforts at political domination and exclusion that some have attempted to justify in the name of culture and history. At the same time, it defends some of the efforts to protect Fijian culture against the pressures of modern liberal institutions and values. In particular, it argues that the creation of a system of collective, inalienable land rights and the institutional reinforcement of deference to Fijian chiefs were methods of preserving Fijian culture that were compatible with a conception of justice as evenhandedness. The chapter takes up a number of questions about cultural authenticity and about the moral relevance of history.
Conclusion
Authors: Carens Joseph H.
Published: October 2003

Briefly summarizes some key findings of the book with regard to culture, liberalism, equal opportunity, democracy, citizenship, and justice.
Introduction Plotinus' Life and Works
Authors: O'Meara Dominic J.
Published: October 2003

Sketches Plotinus’ life (his education in Egypt and teaching in Rome) on the basis of a critical discussion of the biography written by his pupil Porphyry. Porphyry's method in editing Plotinus’ works (an edition known as the Enneads) is explained and conclusions drawn concerning how Plotinus wrote his works and how we might approach them.
Soul and Body
Authors: O'Meara Dominic J.
Published: October 2003

Discusses, in the context of the Platonic theory of two worlds, Plotinus’ argument that soul is not body, does not depend on body, and is of a different nature from that of body, a distinction compared to the distinction in Descartes between mind and body.
The Relation Between Sensible and Intelligible Reality
Authors: O'Meara Dominic J.
Published: October 2003

The relation of presence or participation between sensible and intelligible reality is discussed in terms of Plotinus’ explanation of how soul is present in body (as distinct from the presence of body in body) and present to itself, the presence of soul in body signifying body's dependence on soul. How soul acts on body is also discussed.
Soul, Intellect, and the Forms
Authors: O'Meara Dominic J.
Published: October 2003

Discusses the relation between soul and Intellect, and between Intellect and the (Platonic) Forms. Plotinus’ thesis of the identity of Intellect and its object of thought (the Forms) is the conclusion also of his discussion of the problems of truth and of self‐knowledge.
Intellect and the One
Authors: O'Meara Dominic J.
Published: October 2003

Plotinus’ position that an (Aristotelian‐type) transcendent Intellect cannot be a first principle is presented in this chapter by means of a discussion of Plotinus’ theory of the priority of what is simple (non‐composed) as constitutive cause, and of his argument that transcendent Intellect is composite, presupposing therefore a prior cause that is absolutely non‐composite, the ‘One’.
Speaking of the One
Authors: O'Meara Dominic J.
Published: October 2003

The One, as first constitutive cause of all things, is prior to (‘beyond’) the highest form of thought and determinate being (Intellect). As such, it is not a possible object of thought and discourse. Plotinus establishes this transcendence and ineffability of the One very clearly, but also deals, as shown in this chapter, with the question as to how it is still possible to think and speak ‘about’ the One.
The Derivation of All Things from the One (I)
Authors: O'Meara Dominic J.
Published: October 2003

Discusses Plotinus’ ways of dealing with the question as to how reality derives (‘emanation’), by stages, from its first constitutive cause, the One, with regard to the derivation of the first stages, those of Intellect and of soul. The question as to whether the One necessarily produces is also discussed.
Evil
Authors: O'Meara Dominic J.
Published: October 2003

Plotinus identifies matter as absolute evil and as the principle of (secondary) evil – i.e. natural evil and moral evil (vice). This much‐disputed theory of evil is presented in its main lines, as are some of the difficulties it involves and some possible solutions. The world, as containing matter, contains evil, but this evil is integrated in a whole that is good.
Beauty
Authors: O'Meara Dominic J.
Published: October 2003

Concerns Plotinus’ interpretation of Plato's understanding of beauty, as a subjective experience (love) and as a real feature of things. Plotinus identifies beauty with form, which means that intelligible reality as a whole is beauty. The relation between beauty and the One (identified as the absolute Good) is also discussed: beauty is the light, the ‘grace’ of the Good.
The Return of Soul: Philosophy and Mysticism
Authors: O'Meara Dominic J.
Published: October 2003

Discusses ethical themes in Plotinus: the human good (happiness) and the means for attaining it. As the return of the soul to the One (the absolute Good), this involves the practice of virtue and of philosophical argument, soul thus becoming Intellect, a state that must be transcended in a union with the One. Plotinus’ ‘mysticism’ is discussed, as is an ethics of giving, in which soul, united to the Good, gives of its goodness to others.
The Minimal Theory
Authors: Horwich Paul
Published: October 2003

The book begins by noting that the sense of mystery surrounding truth stems from the fact that we insist on an answer to the question ‘What is truth?’, and are perplexed when no decent one can be found. But once the mundane generalizing function of this concept is appreciated, we can see that a reductive analysis of truth should never have been expected. The chapter continues with brief discussions of such theories (correspondence, coherence, pragmatist, and primitivist). It ends with a summary of the objections to minimalism that are addressed in subsequent chapters.
The Proper Formulation
Authors: Horwich Paul
Published: October 2003

The purpose of this chapter is to specify the adequacy conditions for a complete account of truth, to suggest that these desiderata are satisfied by the deflationary conception known as ‘minimalism’, and to make sure that this proposal is not confused with various superficially similar views, such as Tarski's and the redundancy/performative account. The axioms of the minimal theory are all the propositions of the form, ‘
 is true ↔ p’—at least, those that do not fall foul of the ‘liar’ paradoxes. It is argued that this theory—weak as it is—is nevertheless strong enough to account for the conceptual utility of truth, and to explain the facts in which truth is a constituent. Moreover, the single unattractive feature of the theory—its infinite list‐like character—is not mitigated by accounts of truth in terms of reference or substitutional quantification. Thus, the chapter goes some way towards justifying the minimalist conception—the view that the minimal theory is the theory of truth, to which nothing more should be added.
The Explanatory Role of the Concept of Truth
Authors: Horwich Paul
Published: October 2003

It is argued here that the existence of various explanatory principles, couched in terms of truth, does not call for an analysis of truth—a theory of its underlying nature. In particular, minimalist accounts are given of three such principles: (1) that true beliefs tend to facilitate the achievement of practical goals; (2) that beliefs obtained as a result of certain methods of inquiry tend to be true; and (3) that the truth of a scientific theory accounts for its empirical success.
Methodology and Scientific Realism
Authors: Horwich Paul
Published: October 2003

Insofar as the notion of truth is legitimately deployed in metaphysics and the philosophy of science, it can play no more than its minimalistic function. This idea is illustrated here via discussion of (1) the contrast between deflationism and relativism; (2) the thesis that science progresses towards the truth; (3) various debates between realism and anti‐realism (which are shown not to concern the concept of truth—rather, a single notion, fully captured by minimalism, is deployed on each side to help articulate its position).
Meaning and Logic
Authors: Horwich Paul
Published: October 2003

The idea that truth serves merely as a device of generalization, and that this must constrain its role in philosophical theorizing, is further illustrated in discussions of a range of semantic issues: (1) the nature of understanding (including the viability of Davidson's truth‐conditional approach); (2) definitions of falsity and negation; (3) foundations of logic; (4) the existence of truth‐value gaps; (5) the import of empty names; (6) the proper treatment of vagueness and sorites paradoxes; and (7) the status of ethical assertions.
The ‘Correspondence’ Intuition
Authors: Horwich Paul
Published: October 2003

The correspondence conception of truth involves two claims: (1) that truths correspond to reality; and (2) that such correspondence is what truth essentially is. And the minimalist response, urged in this chapter, is to concede the first of these theses (properly understood) but to deny the second. The rationale for this response is that the minimalistic equivalence biconditionals can easily be supplemented with characterizations of correspondence and fact to show that, indeed, for any true proposition or sentence, there is a corresponding fact. However, it is shown that there are no advantages—and substantial disadvantages—in supposing that this entire construction constitutes the basic theory of truth. One merely imaginary benefit is that a correspondence account, by reducing truth to reference and reference to causation, would leave us with a finite, naturalistic model—and thereby make the concept of truth scientifically respectable. It is argued, however, that reference, satisfaction, correspondence, and fact are just as non‐naturalistic, and in need of infinite, deflationary theories, as truth is.
Postscript
Authors: Horwich Paul
Published: October 2003

This addresses criticisms of minimalism that have been raised by Anil Gupta, Mark Richard, Donald Davidson, Crispin Wright, Scott Soames, Michael Dummett, Paul Boghossian, and Michael Devitt.
Development Microeconomics
Authors: Bardhan Pranab , Udry Christopher
Published: October 2003

Development Microeconomics looks at a broad spectrum of topics in development economics, combining the strength of conventional developmental thought with the insights of contemporary mainstream economics. This book intends to provide illustrations of microeconomic analyses of economic development by utilizing simple, theoretical, micro models of some of the key economic issues in poor countries. In particular, it draws upon the breakthrough in economic theory that has taken the form of an explicit treatment of information, including information in the sense of human capital and technical knowledge. Much of the analysis in this book applies the theory of asymmetric information and in the process helps explain why perfect competition models are inadequate when dealing with developing economies. Several of the chapters thus explore issues of information‐based market failures and fragmentation, incomplete and imperfect markets, dynamic externalities, multiple equilibria, and self‐reinforcing mechanisms that cause dysfunctional institutions to persist. The authors stress the necessity of balance when looking at some of the classic developmental questions—the importance of both the individual as economic agent and of cultural norms in socio‐economic interactions, the dual relationship between equity and efficiency, the importance of market rivalry, and the potential for information‐based market breakdown and coordination failure. There is also a focus on the rural and the agrarian, with chapters on rural land and labour markets, and on rural credit and insurance institutions. There are also chapters on household economics, demography, and on migration in which behavioral assumptions play a central role. Other issues studied include the environment, trade, the dual economy, intersectoral complementarities, and institutional economics.
Introduction
Authors: Bardhan Pranab , Udry Christopher
Published: October 2003

Lists some of the issues explored through micro models in subsequent chapters of the book. Also discusses the general economic methodology followed throughout the book. In particular, the assumption of maximization in household behaviour and its place in the micro analysis of farm households is examined. While there is substantial evidence of peasant rationality, there is no denying the fact that individual decision‐making is influenced by social norms and the evidence that it is prone to errors and biases. The assumption of rationality is best seen as a not untenable working hypothesis or benchmark.
Population
Authors: Bardhan Pranab , Udry Christopher
Published: October 2003

The conventional household model of family planning focuses on the trade‐offs that households face between the number of children, investment in the children, and consumption. While the model provides insights into the fertility behaviour of families, it is incomplete because it ignores the fact that preferences of men and women regarding the number and treatment of children may differ, and because it does not consider the social context. If preferences are socially influenced, then an externality involving strategic complementarities comes into play, and this may lead to multiple fertility equilibria. Another possibility of multiple equilibria, of special relevance to economic development, arises in models where fertility decisions, the demographic structure of the society, and relative prices are linked through child labour. Poor countries may thus remain in sub‐optimal equilibria, owing to coordination failure.
Fragmented Markets: Labour
Authors: Bardhan Pranab , Udry Christopher
Published: October 2003

Outlines models that tackle the puzzle of wage rigidity existing under conditions of severe unemployment or underemployment in developing countries. It begins with efficiency wage models of agricultural labour markets in which employers pay wages above market‐clearing levels for reasons of nutrition, morale, or the prevention of shirking and absenteeism. Next, a repeated game‐based formalization of implicit cooperation among workers that prevents wage undercutting is presented. A discussion of other, mainly social reasons for segmented labour markets follows. The last section considers rationales for labour‐tying, such as seasonality and heterogeneity in tasks.
Migration
Authors: Bardhan Pranab , Udry Christopher
Published: October 2003

Begins with a discussion of why industrialization is usually accompanied by the concentration of industries in urban areas. It then introduces the Harris–Todaro model, which has been the dominant model of migration in the subject of economic development. In this model, a relatively high, exogenously fixed manufacturing wage pulls rural workers to the urban formal sector, migration ceasing only when the urban informal sector is large enough to equalize the rural wage with the expected urban wage. A subsequent model uses the fact of asymmetric information between employers and employees that leads to adverse selection to make the high manufacturing wage endogenous. The concluding model incorporates forward‐looking behaviour, selection, job search in the city, and the role of immigrant worker network in this search.
The Rural Land Market
Authors: Bardhan Pranab , Udry Christopher
Published: October 2003

Commences with some comments on the evolution of property rights in land and on reasons for rural land markets being relatively ‘thin’; the rest of the chapter then analyzes the more active land‐lease market. First, a principal‐agent model of tenancy under uncertainty and private information is presented. It is shown how sharecropping may be used to deal with the trade‐off between risk‐sharing and incentive that arises in the presence of moral hazard. An extension of the model that allows the tenant to decide on a non‐labour input as well throws light on the ‘equal share’ rule in input costs. In the last section, a principal‐agent model with a limited liability constraint is used to study the inefficiency associated with tenancy when credit markets are imperfect and also to point to the possibility of a ‘tenancy ladder’ emerging for tenants with differing wealth constraints.
Fragmented Credit Markets
Authors: Bardhan Pranab , Udry Christopher
Published: October 2003

One aspect of financial markets that is of great relevance to economic development is the study of credit mechanism design by lenders facing private information. This chapter first develops a model of moral hazard in a rural credit market, beginning with the benchmark case of perfect competition under complete information. It then compares the loan contract offered by non‐local lenders who cannot monitor payoff‐relevant actions of borrowers with that offered by an informed local monopolistic moneylender and examines what happens in a fragmented market where villagers can choose between either contract. The next section develops, along similar lines, a model of adverse selection. The inefficiencies arising in these contracts, the potential mitigating role of collateral, and the possibility of local moneylenders earning informational rent are lessons that emerge from these models.
Risk and Insurance in an Agricultural Economy
Authors: Bardhan Pranab , Udry Christopher
Published: October 2003

This chapter first characterizes Pareto‐efficient allocation of risk within a community. A discussion of the documented existence of ex post insurance mechanisms within communities in less developed countries, and of quantitative studies of community‐level risk‐sharing follows. Next, the theory, including the permanent income hypothesis, and the empirics of consumption‐smoothing over time through savings and credit are studied. The two complementary mechanisms of consumption‐smoothing over time and full cross‐sectional insurance are then compared, followed by the result that if either mechanism exists and is efficient, household production is separable from preferences. In the absence of an ex post insurance mechanism, households may employ ex ante strategies of reducing income fluctuation such as choosing conservative production activities.
Interlinkage of Transactions and Rural Development
Authors: Bardhan Pranab , Udry Christopher
Published: October 2003

Studies the economics behind the agrarian institutional arrangement of interlinked transactions. First, a model of credit‐labour interlinkage in which a landlord‐employer provides a loan to a peasant in the slack season as part of a contract that entails the latter working for him at a discount in the peak season is presented. This contract enables the landlord to extract the entire consumer surplus even though the effective interest rate charged is the landlord's opportunity cost of credit. Next, a model in which a lender‐trader obtains a farmer‐borrower's crop at a pre‐agreed price discount in exchange for providing the latter with capital, with the interlinkage in this case providing a way out of the credit market imperfection faced by the farmer, is studied. The last section of the chapter furthers this discussion on efficiency and surplus extraction by looking at some other studies of interlinked transactions, including a model of sharecropping‐cum‐credit under production uncertainty.
Human Capital and Income Distribution
Authors: Bardhan Pranab , Udry Christopher
Published: October 2003

Explores the idea that there is joint causation between income and human capital and that this may generate a poverty trap. It first looks at empirical results on this two‐way causality, namely, at estimates of the income elasticity of demand for calories and of the effect of education on productivity. It then presents a model of income distribution in an economy with a feedback between income and human capital. The model illustrates how this joint causation, when accompanied by increasing returns in human capital investment and capital market imperfections, may result in persistent income inequality.
Technological Progress and Learning
Authors: Bardhan Pranab , Udry Christopher
Published: October 2003

This chapter first presents a model of learning‐by‐doing and learning from others in which farmers learn about the optimal target input for a new technology by observing the input choice and yield on their own and on neighbouring farms. Because of this ‘social learning’, dynamic considerations become relevant to the technology adoption decision. It is shown how, in the presence of information spillovers, adoption by a farmer is part of a dynamic game in which the expected level of experimentation by neighbours matters. The next section presents a model of technological change where training is complementary to the new technique. The model illustrates how imperfections in the labour market result in an under‐investment in training, and how an economy may get trapped in a poor equilibrium in which insufficient training and insufficient adoption reinforce each other.
Environment and Development
Authors: Bardhan Pranab , Udry Christopher
Published: October 2003

Begins with a note on the two‐way relationship between poverty and the environment and on the U‐shaped curve relating economic development and environmental quality. The next section elucidates the problem of overexploitation of natural resources that arises from an institutional failure to cope with the externalities involved. The conventional prescription is the establishment of well‐defined property rights, and so next the problems involved in its implementation through privatization or nationalization are discussed. Then, the scope for community‐level environmental management through cooperation based on incentives and penalties is analyzed, with the focus on game theoretic models of repeated Prisoners’ Dilemma and assurance games. The last section studies the relationship between trade and pollution in a model with endogenous environmental taxes.
Trade and Development
Authors: Bardhan Pranab , Udry Christopher
Published: October 2003

Starts with an illustration of the effect of growth on the terms of trade between a rich and a poor country, using a simple comparative‐static framework. Next, we study the pro‐competitive effects of trade liberalization in inputs with a model in which an import‐substituting upstream industry supplies an intermediate good to the producers of the final good. With imperfect competition and scale economies among upstream firms, the model has multiple equilibria, and trade liberalization may trigger an expansion to the higher output equilibrium. The next section is about the effects of trade on economic development as analyzed in endogenous growth theory, with its focus on learning‐by‐doing, dynamic learning spillovers, and trade‐induced technological patterns in growth. This section includes a model of North–South trade that endogenizes comparative advantage and the direction of technological specialization.
The Dual Economy
Authors: Bardhan Pranab , Udry Christopher
Published: October 2003

Begins with a dual economy model focusing on the relation between labour transfer from agriculture to industry and the resultant pressure on food prices and on what this implies for the industrial wage rate. Contrary to the horizontal labour supply curve of the Lewis model, it is shown that the elasticity of both the industrial wage and food prices with respect to intersectoral labour transfer is likely to be large. The next section uses a model with productivity growth in the industrial sector determined by learning‐by‐doing to demonstrate how productivity improvements in the agricultural sector may speed up industrialization. Finally, we consider a two‐sector model with a hierarchy of income between peasants, workers, and capitalists. By looking at shifts of the Lorenz curve, we are able to trace the effect of capital accumulation on income distribution and to illustrate why this is likely to be ambiguous.
Intersectoral Complementarities and Coordination Failures
Authors: Bardhan Pranab , Udry Christopher
Published: October 2003

This chapter is about models that show how intersectoral complementarities in the economy generate multiple equilibria, highlighting the policy problem of moving away from a ‘low‐level equilibrium trap’ by coordinating expectations. In the first model, we present a situation in which firms that invest in a modern technology with increasing returns need to share in the cost of essential infrastructure. There may, then, be an equilibrium with coordination failure in which the infrastructure is not built for fear of not enough firms choosing to industrialize, and the fact that infrastructure is not built ensures that there is no industrialization. In another model, the efficiency of the manufacturing sector can be enhanced by specialized inputs. This model illustrates how the economy may get stuck in an equilibrium in which a low degree of input specialization makes for an inefficient modern sector and the economy specializes in goods with low‐productivity techniques that do not require a wide variety of inputs.
Institutional Economics and the State in Economic Development
Authors: Bardhan Pranab , Udry Christopher
Published: October 2003

This chapter looks at the institutions that are pertinent to economic development and at the institutional impediments to growth, drawing on several strands of the literature on organizational behaviour, including the New Institutional Economics. It begins with a discussion on informal mercantile institutions of trust, commitment, and enforcement, and then examines the strategic distributive conflicts behind institutional change. Next, it discusses the role of the state in building institutions, acknowledging the facts that there are states both strong and ‘soft’, and that the ‘soft budget constraint’ of the state gives rise to a credibility problem. An analysis of desirable state intervention—that which deals with market failures such as externalities and with coordination failures—and of distortional intervention involving rent‐seeking and corruption follows. This positive analysis of policy making includes a principal‐agent model in which the state acts like a Stackleberg leader.
The Environment Between Theory and Practice
Authors: de-Shalit Avner
Published: October 2003

When constructing environmental policies in democratic regimes, there is a need for a theory that can be used not only by academics but also by politicians and activists. So why has the major part of environmental ethics failed to penetrate environmental policy and serve as its rationale? Obviously, there is a gap between the questions that environmental philosophers discuss and the issues that motivate environmental activists. Avner de‐Shalit attempts to bridge this gap by combining tools of political philosophy with questions of environmental ethics and environmental politics. He defends a radical position in relation to both environmental protection and social policies, in order to put forward a political theory, which is not only philosophically sound, but also relevant to the practice of environmental activism. The author argues that several directions in environmental ethics can be at odds with the contemporary political debates surrounding environmental politics. He then goes on to examine the environmental scope of liberalism, communitarianism, participatory democracy, and socialism, and concludes that while elements of liberalism and communitarianism may support environmental protection, it is participatory democracy and a modified version of socialism that are crucial for protecting the environment.
The Social Role of the Philosopher and the Philosophical Role of Society
Authors: de‐Shalit Avner
Published: October 2003

Environmental ethics has been very innovative and has progressed rapidly; however, the price we paid was that it has lost touch with the public and its philosophical needs. de‐Shalit claims that while all moral reasoning involves a process of reflective equilibrium between intuitions and theory, a distinction should be drawn between ‘private’, ‘contextual’, and ‘public’ modes of reflective equilibrium. Environmental philosophers have used either the first or second mode of reasoning, whereas philosophy that discusses political institutions must adopt a public mode of reflective equilibrium. The latter differs from the other two models in that it weighs both the intuitions and the theories put forward by activists and the general public. This will make environmental philosophy more democratic and political and less engaged in meta‐ethics.
Where Philosophy Meets Politics: The Concept of the Environment
Authors: de‐Shalit Avner
Published: October 2003

Through the examination of Eco‐feminism and Deep Ecology, it is demonstrated how many in these two schools have misused the concept of ‘environment’ and caused a confusion that has been detrimental to the social and political status of environmental philosophy. It is argued that when putting forward political goals that are legitimate and justified, but not ‘environmental’ at all, they have ‘conceptually exploited’ the ‘environment’. The reasons for environmental philosophy's lack of popularity among politicians and activists are (1) that it fails to distinguish between meta‐ethics and political theory, (2) that it identifies goals that do not necessarily appeal to environmentalists, and (3) that it overextended the use of its main concepts and caused confusion and vagueness.
Is Liberalism Environment‐Friendly?
Authors: de‐Shalit Avner
Published: October 2003

What kind of theory should and can we use to persuade others of the importance of environment‐friendly policies? More precisely, in what sense is liberalism environment friendly and in what sense is it not? de‐Shalit suggests that liberalism has been exceptionally effective in eliminating environmental literacy and raising environmental awareness. Nevertheless, it is inadequate when it comes to fostering environmental political consciousness.
The Community of Nature and the Nature of Community
Authors: de‐Shalit Avner
Published: October 2003

If community oriented thought is needed to support and justify environmental policies, what kind of community do we have in mind? The notion of a multi‐species community, suggested by many environmental philosophers, is rejected as inconsistent. The idea of localism—local human communities—also popular among environmentalists, is rejected on moral and environmental grounds. The idea of ‘collective rational reflection’ as a moral and political community is put forward.
Socialism and the Environment
Authors: de‐Shalit Avner
Published: October 2003

Many theorists are happy with democracy as a means to protect the environment; however, there is empirical evidence that democracy is not enough to guarantee environment friendly policies. This chapter examines the economic arrangements (private vs. public ownership, decentralized and free market, centralized and planned production) that are more likely to protect the environment. It is argued that despite current scepticism, democratic socialism is best for the environment, although the case with public ownership of property is more complicated: it is more likely to protect the environment when the relevant ownership is of means of production, but not necessarily when the question is of the object that is being polluted.
Peace, Liberty, and Democracy: Realists and Liberals Contest a Legacy
Authors: Doyle Michael
Published: October 2003

Examines the liberal peace thesis from the perspective of both the liberal and realist traditions in international relations. It compares the way both schools of thought envisage the connection between peace, liberty, and democracy. It differentiates among three distinct theoretical traditions of liberalism—Lockean, Kantian, and Schumpeterian—and explains their somewhat different conceptions of world politics.
US Democracy Promotion: Critical Questions
Authors: Smith Steve
Published: October 2003

Questions the assumptions underlying US democracy promotion policies, namely, that democracy is a self‐evident and uncontentious concept and that the US‐style democracy is applicable across different cultures and societies. It argues that the US promotes a formal electoral model of democracy that dissociates politics from its socio–economic setting and is designed to advance American economic interests in the global system.
America's Identity, Democracy Promotion and National Interests: Beyond Realism, Beyond Idealism
Authors: Nau Henry R.
Published: October 2003

What is the real influence of democracy on US foreign policy? This chapter argues that in order to assess this influence it is necessary to overcome the sharp dichotomy posed by realism and idealism. It proposes a new approach that takes into account a nation's domestic agenda and national identity as well as its external national interests. It examines under what kind of external circumstances a country's internal characteristics are likely to play a role in that country's foreign policy.
‘High Stakes’ and ‘Low‐Intensity Democracy’: Understanding America's Policy of Promoting Democracy
Authors: Ralph Jason G.
Published: October 2003

Explores the gap between rhetoric and practice in the American policy of promoting democracy. It attributes it to the US, promoting two inconsistent goals at the same time: democratization and free market capitalism. This is not because the US responds only to corporate interests. Instead, this policy mix stems from America's image of its own success: at the time of its foundation, democratic development was compatible with economic individualism due to extraordinary socio–economic circumstances. However, given the contemporary socio–economic circumstances of new democracies, it would be more appropriate to promote social democracy rather than liberal democracy.
Wilsonianism Resurgent? The Clinton Administration and the Promotion of Democracy
Authors: Cox Michael
Published: October 2003

Explores the many facets of democracy promotion as a grand foreign policy strategy during the Clinton administration. It argues that far from being a Wilsonian idealist, Clinton viewed democracy promotion as a pragmatic strategy to enhance US influence worldwide. In his integrated worldview, there was no necessary conflict between global order, market economics, and democracy promotion. All three were intimately connected and could reinforce each other.