bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Review of Deep Inelastic Charged Lepton Scattering
Authors: Nowak W.‐D.
Published: July 2007

The present situation in deep inelastic lepton‐nucleon scattering is reviewed from an experimenter's point of view. After describing, in some detail, the quark‐parton model (QPM) predictions the basic ideas of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) are illustrated. The perturbative QCD predictions for deep inelastic scattering are summarised discussing also their theoretical uncertainties of today. Past and present experiments on deep inelastic electron and muon scattering are compared regarding their ability to test these predictions. It is shown that all data is in very good agreement with the QPM and fully consistent with perturbative QCD. New results on lepton scattering off nuclei are discussed and confronted to recently invented phenomenological models.
On the Correlation Inequalities in Some Models Involving Fermions
Authors: Gielerak Roman
Published: July 2007

Using the Coleman (‐Fröhlich‐Seiler) theorem we have mapped chargeless sectors of some (generalized) Yukawa‐Thirring‐(Schwinger) two‐dimensional models onto pure Bose theories. Discussion of certain correlation inequalities in this framework is made. In particular, we proved that the first and second Griffiths‐Kelly‐Shermann correlation inequalities hold.

Correlation inequalities suggest that there is on phase transition of the first order in scalar versions of these models. Some results on the D‐L‐R equations for these models are established, confirming previous suggestion.
Relativistic Two‐Fermion Problem with the Most General Electric and Magnetic Potentials
Authors: Yilmazer A. Ulvi
Published: July 2007

The energy equation of two spin‐1/2 particles interacting with their charges and anomalous magnetic moments is examined. Starting with the most general Hamiltonian already obtained by other authors, the relevant wave equation has been written in terms of the generators of the de Sitter group. The radial equations for four different two‐fermion systems are derived and the positronium case is studied in detail. Their bound state solutions are discussed and the similarity to the sixteen radial equations arrived at by other authors in completely different manner is pointed out.
Spontaneous Compactification of Extra Dimensions in Eleven‐Dimensional Quantum Gravity
Authors: van Hieu Nguyen
Published: July 2007

The reduction of the eleven‐dimensional pure gravity theory to a field theory to a field theory in the four‐dimensional Minkowski space‐time by means of the spontaneous compactification of the extra dimensions is investigated. The contribution of the quantum fluctuations of the eleven‐dimensional second rank symmetric tensor field to the curvatures of the space‐time and the compactified space of the extra dimensions are calculated in the one‐loop approximations. It is shown that there exist the values of the cosmological constant such that the resulting four‐dimensional theory is self‐consistent.
Renormalization of Quantum Field Theory in Curved Space‐Time and Renormalization Group Equations
Authors: Buchbinder I. L.
Published: July 2007

The structure of quantum field theory renormalization in curved space‐time is investigated. The equations allowing us to investigate the behaviour of vacuum energy and vertex functions in the limit of small distances in the external gravitational field are established. The behaviour of effective charges corresponding to the parameters of nonminimal coupling of the matter with the gravitational field is studied and the conditions under which asymptotically free theories become asymptotically conformally invariant are found. The examples of asymptotically conformally invariant theories are given. On the basis of a direct solution of renormalization group equations the effective potential in the external gravitational field and the effective action in the gravity with the high derivatives are obtained. The expression for the cosmological constant in terms of R2‐gravity Lagrangian parameters is given which does not contradict the observable data. Renormalization and renormalization group equations for the theory in curved space‐time with torsion are investigated.
Communication protocols with untraceability of sender and receiver
Authors: Mambo Masahiro , Kinoshita Hirotsugu , Tsujii Shigeo
Published: July 2007

Previous research on information security has focused on the protection of the contents of messages. But in many cases it is equally important to protect the identities of the sender and receiver and also the time of message transmission.

This paper proposes communication protocols which make it impossible both for the entities other than the right receiver to decipher the message and for any third party to identify the communicating entities. Since it is impossible in these protocols for any third party to identify the communicators, the protocols are classified into four groups according to whether or not the communicating pair can identify each other. In addition, the security, the implementability, and the mutual relationship of these four kinds of communication protocols are studied.
Automatic extraction of eyeblink for psychological experiment
Authors: Tanabe Kiichi , Sugiyama Makoto
Published: July 2007

Eyeblink analysis using video tape recorders (VTR) is becoming prevalent in psychological research investigating the relationship between eyeblinks and the cognitive process. One issue faced in this methodology has been the automation of eyeblink detection. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a method for automatically extracting eyeblinks from dynamic images recorded by VTRs using image processing techniques. This method is based on the principle of monitoring temporal changes in color information on the surface of the eye that accompany blinking and extracting regions where the color information changes as the eyeblink regions. The feature of this method is to introduce color judgement tables to accelerate the processing speed of the color data comparison computations. Then, the extracted eyeblink regions are used to illustrate the effect of basic data that was extracted in relation to eyeblinks. A detection experiment was performed by first using the area of the eyeblink region (number of extracted pixels) extracted in each frame, determining whether a blink occurred in each frame, and specifying the eyeblink occurrence time. The result was 28 out of 30 eyeblinks were successfully detected. In addition, the blink waveforms measured to illustrate the individual characteristics of eyeblinks were detected for six subjects. We verified the representation of the progression of eyeblinks was, for the most part, favorable for the blink waveforms we obtained.
Impact of written information on women's use of postpartum services: a randomised controlled trial
Authors: KABAKIAN‐KHASHOLIAN TAMAR , CAMPBELL OONA M.R.
Published: July 2007

Background. This study evaluates the impact of providing women with written educational material on their satisfaction with care, and use of health services postpartum. Methods. All women having a live birth at 4 private hospitals in Lebanon were eligible. The sample consisted of 187 women in the intervention and 191 in the control arms. An intervention booklet was developed following a qualitative study of women's information needs; placebo material was 2 leaflets about childproofing the house. Field workers administered a baseline questionnaire to recruit all eligible women, and conducted follow‐up interviews 6–20 weeks postpartum at the women's residences. The written material was handed out to women just before discharge from hospital. At the baseline interview, interviewers and women were blinded to the nature of the written material. Outcome measures were a postpartum visit to a health professional after discharge and before the follow‐up interview, and satisfaction with maternity care received during pregnancy, delivery and postpartum. Results. Satisfaction with care during the postpartum period was 57.2% in the intervention and 38.9% in the control arm (p<0.001). Some 85% of women in the intervention arm had a postpartum visit compared to 55% in the control arm (p<0.001). Conclusion. In the context of high female literacy, the intervention is effective and requires few resources.
Paying for Quietness: The Impact of Noise on Geneva Rents
Authors: Baranzini Andrea , Ramirez José V.
Published: July 2007

Using the hedonic approach, this paper analyses housing market data to infer the impact of noise on rents in Geneva, Switzerland. Using three different databases, including a geographical information system (GIS), structural, accessibility and environmental variables were obtained for a large proportion of apartments rented in Geneva. The paper is thus in line with the new generation hedonic models, which exploit the vast potential of GIS to obtain large databases including detailed characteristics of the apartments. In addition, different and original measures of noise were used in order to assess possible differences of the noise impact on rents, while existing studies typically refer to a single noise index. This paper assesses the impacts of noise related to all sources, but also to airport noise only, while existing studies usually refer to road or aircraft noise. The results can be summarised as follows. First, it is shown that the impact of all sources of noise on rents at the level of the whole canton is about 0.7 per cent per dB(A) and about 1 per cent when considering exclusively airplane noise, in the airport area. Secondly, this impact does not change fundamentally depending on the different measures of noise used in the estimations. Thirdly, the impact of noise does not depend on the institutional structure of the market-i.e. it is relatively similar in the private rental sector and in apartments directly under government control, although in the former the dynamic of noise has a greater impact. Fourthly, the results show that noise also has a higher economic impact, when the background noise level is lower. And fifthly, air pollution has a distinct impact on rents, in addition to noise.
Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging of experimentally injured porcine intervertebral disc
Authors: Niinimäki J. , Ruohonen J. , Silfverhuth M. , Lappalainen A. , Kääpä E. , Tervonen O.
Published: July 2007

Background: Changes in T2 relaxation time (T2-TR) and apparent diffusion coefficients (ADC) have been suggested to appear in the intervertebral disc before morphological changes. Such sensitive imaging methods could be beneficial in the targeting and follow-up of intradiscal gene therapy.

Purpose: To investigate the sensitivity of quantitative magnetic resonance (MR) imaging methods (T2-TR and ADC) in early disc degeneration, using an experimental porcine intervertebral disc injury model, and to investigate their sensitivity in depicting biochemically controlled degenerative changes in the disc.

Material and Methods: Six juvenile pigs underwent experimental annular stab incisions, one superficial and one reaching the nucleus pulposus. The animals underwent repeated 1.5T MR imaging and were sacrificed 4 or 8 weeks after operation. Presence of degenerative changes was controlled with biochemical analysis.

Results: Discs with full-thickness annular incisions lost 30% of their sagittal mid-slice nucleus pulposus area in 2 weeks ( P<0.05). T2-TRs of the respective discs were on average 73% of the control discs ( P<0.05). Discs with full-thickness annular lesions showed increased ADC values 4 weeks and reduced ADC values 8 weeks after the operation, compared to control discs ( P<0.05). Biochemical analysis showed changes consistent with early degeneration.

Conclusion: Early traumatic or degenerative changes are detectable with both T2-TR and ADC. The ADC in the early phase after experimental trauma seems to initially increase before decreasing.
Evaluating privatisation in Zambia: a tale of two processes
Authors: Craig John
Published: July 2007

The programme of state enterprise privatisation pursued by the Zambian government since 1992 has been subject to a number of conflicting evaluations. For some it is a model programme, ‘the most successful in Africa’ (Campbell White and Bhatia, 1998), which stands as an example to other developing countries. For others, it is a deeply flawed experience which allowed for the corrupt acquisition of assets by those linked to the ruling party. This paper argues that these conflicting evaluations are the result of two underlying processes which reflected the political and economic environment in which the policy was implemented. This required the Zambian government to balance, on the one hand, the demands of northern donors and the Bretton Woods institutions that international capital should be provided with an attractive and secure environment for investment and, on the other hand, those in the ruling party's domestic constituency who regarded privatisation as an opportunity for personal accumulation.
Towards a cold peace? the outcome of the ethiopia ‐Eritrea war of 1988 ‐ 2000
Authors: Plant Martin
Published: July 2007

The conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, that broke out on 6 May 1998 was formally ended on 12 December 2000, when both countries signed a framework peace agreement in the Algerian capital, Algiers. The agreement came as a huge relief to the people of both countries, who had paid such a high price for the war, which claimed some 100,000 lives and displaced more than 600,000 civilians (Ethiopia Humanitarian Update, 22 December 2000, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Ethiopia). The cost in financial terms has run into hundreds of millions of dollars, as both governments vied for military supremacy, buying the arms they needed from international dealers at vast expense. As both rank among the poorest countries in the world, it was a price that neither could afford.
The Ethiopian coffee filiere& its institutions: cui bono?
Authors: Love Roy
Published: July 2007

From the middle of the last century coffee has been the major source of foreign exchange for the Ethiopian economy and its governments. The bulk of production comes from small‐scale peasant producers located in parts of the south, southwest and east of the country, from where it is channelled through a largely privately owned marketing system to auction in Addis Ababa or Dire Dawa. It is then purchased by exporters for further processing and onward shipment. This marketing structure has evolved in a highly regulated way, comprising a set of institutional relationships which are not the product of chance and which in a number of respects predate both the current government and the Derg. As such the coffee filiereoffers an interesting case study of the relative merits of an analysis built upon the principles of ‘new institutional economies’, where efficiency is the benchmark, and one which adopts a more historically based political economy approach in which power and control are the markers. The distinction is not always transparent.
Development or exploitation: is the Sahel famine good business?
Authors: Meillassoux Claude
Published: July 2007

If the drought can be seen as an act of nature, the same cannot be said for the famine, which is largely the result of a policy of agricultural exploitation carried out for the benefit of the great powers in the Sahel. This famine crudely reveals that what is called development or aid is nothing other than a policy of exploitation. Furthermore, this famine offers the opportunity for a radical transformation of the traditional modes of agricultural production, promoting the establishment of a highly productive system of capitalist agriculture that is not only oriented towards the satisfaction of industrial needs, but also capable of supplying food to capitalist countries.
Capitalism or feudalism? the famine in Ethiopia
Authors: Cliffe Lionel
Published: July 2007

The famine in Ethiopia, as in the Sahel, is not simply a ‘natural’ disaster but has social and economic origins. Moreover, the suffering is not simply the compounding of the effects of food shortage by the harsh burdens borne by tenant formers. While southern Ethiopia, where famine is now beginning to strike, had a feudal land system imposed in the 19th Century, the northern provinces where the famine first hit has a system where there were lords of the land but no landlords and peasants had the security of access to land even though they paid ‘tithes’. The commercialisation and mechanisation of agriculture in the last generation has eroded those rights. Landlords are becoming capitalist farmers and a landless class is growing. The famine is accelerating these processes, just as it is exacerbated by them.
The situation of agricultural workers in Kenya
Authors: Leitner Kerstin
Published: July 2007

The most numerous and most degraded workers in Kenya are the agricultural workers. Their wages are below subsistence. The position of women workers is especially bad. An examination of the Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers’ Union reveals its failure to improve its members’ conditions in any way. In the absence of support for workers in the higher echelons of government, the only hope is for strengthened organisation among the workers themselves.
How the mining companies undermine liberation
Authors: Mezger Dorothea
Published: July 2007

The strategic importance of the whole region and the Cape sea routes, and of key minerals like gold and, increasingly, uranium make it unlikely that South Africa can be ‘abandoned’, especially given the new trends in the western economies. However, the mining industry is leaving nothing to chance and is taking measures to guard against this, and against a future transition to socialism. It is mechanising mining operations — thus making the industry more technologically dependent, and also able to make some concessions to a black labour force that will be skilled and non‐migrant. It is also developing new forms of integration with foreign governments and companies.
Political consciousness among African peasants in the Belgian Congo
Authors: Jewsiewicki B.
Published: July 2007

Peasant political consciousness in the Belgian Congo took a variety of forms ranging from millenial religious movements to disobeying instructions, to flight into the forest, various forms of ‘the refusal to recognize the authority of the colonizer’. They responded to the appropriation of their land and labour‐time by Bula Matari, the colonial administration. The African petite bourgeoisiemobilized both ethnic support and nationalist sentiment in order to gain access to the power of the state. Post‐colonial peasant rebellions, like their predecessors, rejected state authority but lacked a coherent social project of their own.
Contract farming and the peasantry: cases from Western Kenya
Authors: Buch‐Hansen Mogens , Marcussen Henrik
                      Secher
Published: July 2007

‘Contract Farming’, organised by the peripheral state and multinational agribusiness and financed by the World Bank and international lending institutions, is spreading swiftly in the Third World. Peasant household production is being transformed by this process. This transformation and its trajectory require appropriate theoretical analysis and close empirical examination. Such analysis is obscured rather than illuminated by those radical critics from the dependency school who insist that capitalist development in agriculture can only immiserate the rural poor, who regard the state as a tool of international capital and its dependent (comprador) bourgeoisie and who harbour romantic visions of the self‐sufficient peasantry. This article seeks to re‐examine the position of the dependency school, with specific reference to the peasantry and agri‐business, to develop a mode of analysis in order to comprehend the development of contract‐farming in terms of recent theoretical work on the internationalisation of capital, and to present some findings on the development of contract farming in sugar and tea production in Western Kenya.
Gränges and the undermining of Liberia: a critique of a joint venture arrangement
Authors: Carlsson Jerker
Published: July 2007

This is a case study of one ‘joint venture’ between a transnational corporation, in this case the Swedish mining giant. Gränges, and an African government. It offers a thorough explanation and demystification of the intricate corporate structures set up with the Liberian Government to run and control iron ore mining, and of the balance sheets of these corporations. Careful analysis documents the facts that despite the legal fiction of 50–50 partnership, the government gets only 25 per cent of the proceeds and yields up 100 per cent of the control of the operation to its multinational partner.
The formation of the agricultural labour force in Sudan
Authors: O'Brien Jay
Published: July 2007

Seasonal recruitment was a primary means of obtaining agricultural labour in Sudan during the colonial and much of the post‐colonial period. And as in many other African nations, agricultural labour was predominantly migrant labour. The supply of labour increased as government policies and increased penetration of capitalism expanded cash needs. But as O'Brien relates, responses to such needs varied among different groups and in different parts of the country. Hence the agricultural labour force displayed a variety of patterns of migration and a diversity of forms of integration into the capitalist economy depending — among other factors — on the nature of the crop harvested and the internal characteristics and local conditions of the communities from which labour was drawn. In recent years, however, the segmented nature of the agricultural labour force has begun to give way to the development of a national labour market. O'Brien reviews the background to and implications of this change.
The state of analysis of the Southern African region: issues raised by South African strategy
Authors: Davies Robert H. , O'Meara Dan
Published: July 2007

The southern African region today is a battleground. In two broad interrelated struggles the mass of the population of the region are ranged against the South African ruling class and its apartheid regime. The first of these is the advancing national liberation struggles inside South Africa and Namibia, led by the ANC and SWAPO. These struggles are assisted in the region by attempts to co‐ordinate the policies of the six African states grouped together as the frontline states.
Foreign powers and militarism in the horn of Africa: part II
Authors: Luckham Robin , Bekele Dawit
Published: July 2007

The first part of this article, which appeared in ROAPE30, set an explanation of the new militarisation of the Horn in two, interacting contexts: the long history of struggles between states in the Horn for hegemony, and the struggle for world hegemony that constitutes the New Cold War. This part offers a systematic review of the record of involvement of the USA and USSR in the Horn over the last 20 years and seeks to uncover the (different) motivations and compulsions that explain their behaviour.
Disinvestment & black workers attitudes in South Africa: A critical comment
Authors: Sutcliffe Michael , Wellings Paul
Published: July 2007

Michael Sutcliffe and Paul Wellings criticise Lawrence Schlemmer's widely‐cited survey which purports to show that a majority of black male production workers in South Africa are against ‘disinvestment’ and, by implication, would prefer US business to pursue a strategy of ‘constructive engagement’. Their critique was cited by the United Democratic Front on 12 June 1985 and debates at a widely‐publicised seminar in Durban on 25 June. Their paper goes beyond a critique of Schlemmer's methodology to question conventional assumptions about the significance of disinvestment in South Africa fr employment. Their critique raises central methodological questions about the inferences which can be drawn from opinion surveys and the political use to which their results can be put.
Swaziland: political crisis, regional Dilemma
Authors: Daniel John , Vilane Johnson
Published: July 2007

Daniel and Vilane portray squabbles following the death of King Sobhuza as competition for control of the state apparatus by factions of the same class. The outcome will in no way displace the broader influence of this class over state policy. Indeed the relationship of Swaziland to South Africa, argue the authors, is not due to geopolitical factors or structural features, but precisely to the compradorial nature of Swaziland's ruling class.
The politics of population control in Namibia
Authors: Lindsay Jennie
Published: July 2007

The following report is from a member of SWAPO's Women's Solidarity Campaign (SWSC) who carried out interviews on the situation of women in Namibia during 1984 and 1985. For information and publications contact the Namibia Support Committee, P.O. Box 16, London NW5 2LW, UK.
Political power & social class in the neo‐colonial African state
Authors: Charney Craig
Published: July 2007

Using Poulantzas' mode of analysis Charney provides a framework for understanding and periodising the state, and the phenomenon of ‘neocolonialism’ — often referred to, seldom defined. It shows that the neo‐colonial state has a different basis for ‘hegemony‘—clientelism—than in the centre states, and that it is particularist not ‘national’. It also explores the circumstances under which there could be a break up of the dominant class basis of and of factional popular support for the neo‐colonial state.
Funding the Ethiopian state: who pays
Authors: Love Roy
Published: July 2007

Two topics have dominated discussion of Ethiopia in recent years. One is the military position in the north and to a lesser extent the east of the country, and the other is the agricultural situation, frequently, but not solely, concerned with famine in Wollo and Tigre. Although these topics are undoubtedly important in any analysis of the current situation, their predominance in discussion has tended to create an imbalance in the overall picture. By 1985 agricultural production contributed only 44% of Gross Domestic Product and yet we hear little of the nature and significance of the remaining 56% consisting principally of industrial production (16%) and services (39%). Among more general economic indicators, occasionally price inflation or the balance of payments is mentioned, but rarely in a context of overall economic performance and usually in connection with the agricultural situation. Of key importance in all such discussions is the role of the state whose influence pervades every aspect of economic and political decision making. Yet it is evident that the Ethiopian state depends in large measure upon the economy as a whole for its support not only in funding the military but also in maintaining the state machinery and in subsidising a number of developmental projects. This article addresses itself to the problem of state financing drawing on these other partly neglected aspects of the economy.
Perestroika, the Soviet Union and the third world
Authors: Belikov Igor
Published: July 2007

The process of dramatic and contradictory change in the Soviet Union, ‘Perestroika’, has been accompanied by unprecedented and vehement debates on a broad range of political ideological and economic issues. These debates have involved not only fundamental domestic issues but to no less extent the interpretation of world developments and relations between the Soviet Union and other countries. Among the many issues that have come under critical scrutiny and revision are previous views and policy outlooks on the Third World.
The US and the war in Angola
Authors: Minter William
Published: July 2007

Since South Africa's withdrawal from Namibia in 1989, the US has become the primary patron of Angola's UNITA contras. US resentment about the defeat of their Joint intervention into Angola with South Africa in 1975–76 fed into right‐wing cold war calculations in the Reagan period. Covert aid increased greatly from 1986 despite liberal pressures to be realistic and recognise Luanda partly as a result of influential lobbying in Washington on behalf of UNITA, with which the Angolan government found it hard to compete. But ‘global managers’ who were more pragmatic than ideological manage to promote the 1988 accords with the Soviet Union, Cuba, Angola and South Africa which lead to the two former withdrawing from Angola and Namibian independence, although Washington failed to follow through with an internal peace plan for Angola and stepped up arms supplies to UNITA which lead to renewed fighting. However, there are some signs that the UNITA lobby may be on the wane.
The rise of Islam and women of the national Islamic front in Sudan
Authors: Hale Sondra
Published: July 2007

In 1988, when most of the research for this article was conducted, Sudanese were still permitted by the state to debate strategies for democratic change. An air of intellectual and political excitement generated by the 1985 intifada (the overthrow by civilians of the oppressive Nimieri military dictatorship) still prevailed and debate over the advantages and disadvantages of an Islamic state and accompanying sharia was intense. Dozens of newspapers were active, as were both radio and television; unions, professional associations, political parties and interest groups assembled frequently. Two women were elected to the People's Assembly, and the long‐dormant Sudanese Women's Union was once again active. These were heady times, not dissimilar to the immediate post‐independence atmosphere or of the 1964 democratic era following the overthrow of the Abboud military regime. But the atmosphere changed abruptly with the demise of democratic processes in 1989 and the establishment of a right‐wing Islamic military government. Though the brief democratic era from 1985 to 1989 may have ended, the nature of debate within it remains of considerable significance, not just for Sudan, but for other settings where Islam is or may become a factor in the political process, figuring in discussions about both democracy and gender relations. The concern here is to focus on one group active in Sudan during the democratic era — the National Islamic Front (NIF) — in order to explore the gender dynamics that both brought it to power and are sustaining it. It is argued that the NIF was an integral part of the political forces set in motion during that period, the consummation of which is an Islamist regime that trained women for the ‘revolution’ and is now betraying them.
Women and democracy in Algeria
Authors: Djerbal Dalila , Hamou Louisa
                      Ait
Published: July 2007

Algeria introduced a multi‐party system after widespread uprisings in 1988 and preceeded to hold elections, first at the local and then at the national level. The explosion of accumulated tensions in 1988 was generated by the shortcomings of the nation's industrialisation project nad the lack of sufficient opportunities for the post‐revolution generation. Seventy five per cent of the population was less than 20 years of age; forty per cent were unemployed. The model of economic development used in Algeria, focussing on heavy industrialisation, had led to a vast rural exodus. Although some new jobs were created, productivity was slowed by bureacratic management and discontent swelled. The underprivileged classes ultimately gave vent to their frustration, some turning to Islam as a final resort against what they perceived to be the corruption and inhumanity of the system.

One of the major actors in the multi‐party arena was the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) which, ironically, was committed to abolishing the democratic constitution. The FIS gained the largest number of seats in the local elections and came into control in a number of municipalities. But when it became evident after the first stage of the national elections in late 1991 that the FIS would win at that level as well, the military intervened to prevent the second round of voting.

Algeria's experience has important implications for the current debates about democracy. But of significance also within this larger debate are the implications for women of a political victory by Islamic fundamentalists. The authors explore the growth of the women's movement in Algeria (in which they have been personally involved) in the context of the intertwined processes of democratisation and the rise of fundamentalism. They acknowledge that women are themselves divided along ‘traditionalist’ and ‘modernist’ lines, but argue that it is only through increased democratisation that fuller participation by women in society can be achieved.
Distant obligations: speculations on NGO funding and the global market
Authors: Fowler Alan
Published: July 2007

This article offers speculative answers to two inter‐related questions of strategic importance for non‐governmental development organisations (NGOs). First, what is the long‐term scenario for their funding, particularly for NGOs in the poorer countries of the South and especially in Africa? Second, what, if any, is the likely relationship between NGO financing and the rapid growth of a global capitalist market? Answers to these questions are arrived at using a simple model of the various sources of NGO finance and information on their trends. Two conclusions are that, for the foreseeable future, Southern NGOs will remain dependent on surpluses derived from Northern economies in which official aid will become dominant; and that NGOs will increasingly function as a component of an international system of social welfare because this role serves the international reproduction of capital.

An ancillary conclusion is that poorer states, although nominally sovereign, will act as local governments in a new international order because their ability to function is essentially determined by foreign aid. These findings suggest that NGOs will have to (a) revise current notions that they operate as agents of popular transformation and facilitators of countervailing power, (b) review their position within the future political‐economy of poor Southern states and (c) recognise that the self‐financing of Southern NGOs will remain an illusion unless Northern donors significantly change their funding practices. Overall, NGOs need to make a radical reappraisal of their development strategies and roles, as well as taking strategic decisions on how to secure the autonomy of their funding base.
The women's lobby and gender relations in Zambia
Authors: Liatto‐Katundu Beatrice
Published: July 2007

The Women's Lobby is one of a number of initiatives which have emerged from within Zambia's civil society in recent years as part of the pluralist momentum toward democratisation and the advance of human rights. Its voice alongside that of the churches, the Law Society and the independent press has advanced pressure for a return to a multi‐party system. It has used the space created to open up a dialogue toward fuller consideration of gender issues.

It has also been characteristic of the Zambian experience that the flurry of public debate has primarily involved the more articulate and more privileged members of society. There is obvious intent to mobilise the entire population but the dialogue has beenfostered by the relatively affluent, a pattern no less true of the Women's Lobby than other bodies involved in the public debate. The process has revealed tensions and conflicts at various levels, following in some cases from a reluctance to submit liberal demands to comprehensive analysis and to extend critiques of former practice to their logical conclusions.

An examination Of the Women's Lobby reveals some of these dynamics. It has raised gender issues as items for inclusion on the political agenda, and for this alone it represents a significant development.

But that positive contribution is no reason it should not be subjected to critical appraisal. The exercise highlights its achievements but also notes contradictions flowing from the unwillingness of its members to acknowledge fully the ‘politics’ implicit in its very existence.
Farmers' strategies and land reform in the Orange Free State
Authors: Beinart William
Published: July 2007

It is possible to conjure a wide variety of future agricultural scenarios in South Africa. But new policies should be developed only with close attention to what exists and what is feasible. Analysis of the potential for land reform should remain sensitive to local ecological and economic conditions and to the current strategies of both farmers and dispossessed. Rural life for many people remains insecure. Farm workers are particularly vulnerable at present and might become more so in a phase of rapid reform and uncertainty. Although the most carefully planned strategy of reform might be undermined by the sheer demand for land or informal reoccupations, the aims of restitution, justice and redistribution should be tempered by the equally difficult demands of production.

Drawing on material from a local research project in the Orange Free State (OFS), done jointly with Colin Murray, this article concentrates on three issues: patterns of land ownership; farming strategies; and land availability. The position of farm workers and those who have recently moved off farms, as well as the potential for new patterns of occupation will be addressed in subsequent project papers (Murray 1993).
Structural adjustment in Niger: implementations, effects & determining political factors
Authors: Gervais Myriam
Published: July 2007

This study of adjustment in Niger covers the period from 1983–1994 and addresses the following questions: what account can we give of adjustment and what impacts have adjustment policies had on the country's economic structures? This research is based on the examination of the measures enshrined in the SAP and the ways in which they have been implemented. Particular attention has been paid to the measures' effects on income distribution because, within the context of this analysis, this is considered to be an indicator of the impact of structural adjustment policies on economic structures. On the basis of the data gathered, it seems that the same income structure as before the SAP still exists in Niger, that distortions within the economy have got worse and that the State has resisted any budgetary measures which implied changing spending habits. The example of Niger leads us to conclude that geopolitical factors strongly condition adjustment policies and the results they obtain.
Reconstructing the Ugandan state and economy: the challenge of an international Bantustan
Authors: Himbara David , Sultan Dawood
Published: July 2007

Attempts at reconstructing the Uganda state and economy have been underway since Yoweri Museveni came to power in 1986. By necessity, the country turned to the international donor community for aid funds as well as technical and managerial personnel to administer it. Foreign aid, in effect, became the cornerstone of the reconstruction process, while donor expatriates increasingly constituted the principal actors in the realm of public policy. While initially signaling a temporary reprieve, as in most other reconstruction processes, this arrangement became an almost permanent condition. An aid‐driven economy and an administrative apparatus highly dependent on donor personnel, is a novelty, for not even a direct colony was as acutely reliant on external forces. A historical parallel is, perhaps, the Bantustan regimes whose entire budgetary needs were derived from outside their territories, in this case from the South African state. The Ugandan phenomenon has some astounding implications in light of the decline and disintegration of a number of nation states in sub‐Saharan Africa.
Making sense of structural adjustment
Authors: Bromley Simon
Published: July 2007

This article looks at the liberal justification for structural adjustment and suggests that it is based on an inadequate understanding of the role of the state in the development process. The liberal focus on ‘policy’ mistakes is questioned by looking to deeper processes of state formation as the key to different development trajectories. In the light of these general considerations, the article looks at the findings of some recent assessments of adjustment in sub‐Saharan Africa and the Middle East and concludes that the prospects are not encouraging.
Book notes
Authors: Bush Ray , Love Roy , Szeftel Morris
Published: July 2007

Academic Freedom in Africa
by Mamadou Diouf & Mahmood Mamdani, Codesria, 1994.

Senegal: Essays in Statecraft
by Momar Coumba Diop (ed), Codesria, 1993.

Social Construction of the Past: Representation as Power
by George C Bond and Angela Gilliam (eds), Routledge, 1994.

Conflict Transformation
by Kumar Rupesinghe (ed), St. Martin's Press, 1995.

Trade and Industrial Policies in the New South Africa
by Lena Moritz, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Research Report No. 97, 1994.

The Press in Nigeria
by Adewale Maja‐Pearce with Dulue Mbachu; Who Rules the Airwaves? Broadcasting in Africa.

Inducing Food Insecurity: Perspectives on Food Policies in Eastern and Southern Africa
by M A Mohamed Salih (ed), Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 1994.

The Migration Experience in Africa
by Jonathan Baker, and Tade Akin Aida (eds), Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 1995.

Structural Adjustment and the Working Poor in Zimbabwe
by Peter Gibbon (ed), Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 1995.

World Trade Reform: Do Developing Countries Gain or Lose?
by Sheila Page and Michael Davenport, ODI Special Report, London, 1994.

An Economic History of Ethiopia: The Imperial Era 1941–74
by Bekele Shiferaw (ed), Codesria Book Series, 1995. Distributed by African Books Collective, Oxford.

Kenyan Capitalists, the State, and Development
by David Himbara, East African Educational Publishers, Nairobi, 1994. ISBN 9966 46 751 3.

Social Transformation: The Swaziland Caseby
Simelane Nomtheto (ed), Codesria Book Series, Dakar, 1995, (146pp). ISBN 1 870784–0X‐X. Distributed by the African Books Collective, Oxford.

Labour in the Explanation of an African Crisis
by Jimi Adesina, Codesria Book Series, 1994. Distributed by African Books Collective, Oxford.
Aid under threat
Authors: Watkins Kevin
Published: July 2007

Debates over international aid have long been marked by unlikely marriages of convenience. Critics on the right have condemned development assistance as a perversion of market forces, a waste of resources and a source of corruption. Those on the left have broadly shared this view, albeit within a framework which sees aid as one element in a broader neo‐colonial project aimed at integrating southern states into a capitalist world economy. In the past, the international consensus in favour of development assistance has survived this critique. But today dissent stands on the verge of becoming orthodoxy. For the first time in a generation, the role of aid as a form of development cooperation is under threat. Unprecedented cuts in development assistance budgets are now in prospect, especially for sub‐Saharan Africa. All of which raises the question as to whether the left should sit back and celebrate, or join new alliances to redefine the purpose and practices of aid around an agenda for poverty reduction.
Building democracy in the new South Africa: civil society, citizenship and political ideology
Authors: Orkin Mark
Published: July 2007

This consideration of the task of building a ‘non‐racial, non‐sexist democracy’ in South Africa combines historical experience, political theory and survey results to which an organisational participation, democratic commitment, party allegiance and a sense of citizenship exist together in forms able to support a process of democratisation. In consequence, the author suggests that there are serious hazards inherent in either the liberal or Gramscian models of democratic development. On the one hand, Gramsci's idea of a ‘regulated society’ in which the state progressively recedes in favour of an increasingly complex and articulated civil society makes too little provision for those elements of civil society that remain neutral or even hostile towards the prevailing political order. On the other hand, liberal democracy, in its various forms, is inherently elitist, depoiiticised and fundamentally alienated. The survey findings confirm that both these problems are fundamental to South Africa's new political society. As an alternative, the article proposes a strategy drawn from recent work on Latin America ‐ a ‘politicised civil society’ which will link the concerns of individual citizens more closely to the more formal processes of state and party politics. ROAPE considers this argument to be important beyond South Africa's borders and hopes that this article will initiate a discussion on the problems of extending democracy in Africa far beyond the parliamentary circulation of elites where it is presently confined.
The political economy of Mauritania: an introduction
Authors: Seddon David
Published: July 2007

The Reviewhas not published anything of significance on Mauritania for nearly two decades — since Mahfoud Bennoune's analysis of ‘the political economy of Mauritania: imperialism and class struggle’ (1978). The Review is not alone in failing to provide readers with an analysis of the recent evolution of Mauritanian politics and its political economy. Despite Mauritania's membership of the Arab Maghreb Union (created in 1989), it is generally considered so marginal that it is rarely included in works on the Maghreb. In most studies and surveys of the Maghreb, from Samir Amin's classic study, The Maghreb in the Modern World(first published in English in 1970), through to more recent books, like Lawless & Findlay's North Africa: Contemporary Politics and Economic Development(1984), Mauritania fails to get even a mention. At least in Nevill Barbour's Survey of North West Africa(the Maghreb), originally published in 1959, with a second edition in 1962, and Wilfrid Knapp's third edition in 1977 (entitled North West Africa: a Political and Economic Survey),there is a brief — but all too brief section on Mauritania and the Sahara. Those wishing to know more about the broader context of Mauritanian political economy and politics should turn to studies of the long struggle in the Western Sahara, like Thompson and Adloff's The Western Saharan's: Background to Conflict(1980) and Hodges’ excellent Western Sahara: the Roots of a DesertWar (1983). These volumes discuss Mauritania's political economy with regard to the war in the desert.
France's African aid policy: the end of an Era?
Authors: Conte Bernard
Published: July 2007

Unlike the other OECD countries, France has increased its overseas development aid in recent years. This is explained by the importance it accords its overseas commitments, particularly in Africa, which has remained a priority arena for French foreign policy. Most French aid is bilateral (and highly conditional), although France's contribution to the multilateral agencies is disproportional to its GDP share in the OECD. But increasingly, pressures re mounting for a re‐assessment of aid policy, with cost‐effectiveness as a central concern.