bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Crossroads in the Black Aegean
Authors: Goff Barbara , Simpson Michael
Published: January 2008

This book seeks to explain the prominence of Sophocles' Theban plays among those Greek tragedies adapted by dramatists across the African diaspora. It argues that the Theban plays reflect on three themes which have become crucial in the postcolonial context: identity, the grounding of civilization on barbarism, and transmission of culture over time and space. To adapt the Theban dramas is thus a massively theoretical as well as an audaciously practical act, because they have been installed as the script that both legislates and explains how they, and indeed all other cultural artefacts, are conveyed. African, Afro-Caribbean and African-American adaptations engage with the cultural politics of the so-called Western canon, and use their self-consciously literary status variously to assert, ironize, and challenge their own place, and the place of the Greek ‘originals’, in relation to that tradition. Beyond these oedipal reflexes, the adaptations offer alternative African models of cultural transmission. The book is informed by and contributes to postcolonial theory and theories of classical reception. In particular, it develops a new analytic concept, the ‘Black Aegean’, with which to theorize the ways in which colonialist and postcolonialist discourses have staged various encounters between ancient Greece and contemporary Africa. This construct mediates through the plays the later debates about the Black Atlantic and Black Athena.
3 Oedipus Rebound: Rita Dove's The Darker Face of the Earth
Authors: Goff Barbara , Simpson Michael
Published: January 2008

Rita Dove's The Darker Face of the Earth examines the process of building ‘America’ out of partly African materials. Incest becomes a sign for the forced amalgamation of cultures that characterized plantation slavery, and the oedipal tropes of knowledge, parentage, desire, and narrative are made newly relevant by the particular racialized history of the United States. The politics of the Greek drama, whereby the hero is pitted against the community, are also interrogated by the various choices made by figures such as Augustus, the chorus and the conspirators. The issue of oedipally competing traditions is scrutinised via African-American tropes such as Esu, the talking book, and the tragic mulatto/a. Also examined is the cultural position of the dramatist herself, as a black woman writer and a member of the generation immediately after the Black Arts Movement.
The Dilemma of Empiricist Belief
Authors: Mohler Chad
Published: January 2008

This chapter evaluates van Fraassen's rejection of naïve empiricism. For example a naïve empiricist holds that to be an empiricist is to believe some thesis E. Van Fraassen argues that the naïve empiricist faces a dilemma. Suppose the naïve empiricist holds that E is not open to debate: this violates the empiricist idea that disagreement with any admissible factual hypothesis is admissible. Suppose instead that the naïve empiricist holds that E is open to debate: this prevents the empiricist from using E to challenge metaphysical claims. It is argued that that van Fraassen's stance empiricism also faces this same dilemma. The empiricist can consistently maintain that the beliefs necessary to empiricism are subject to empirical confirmation/disconfirmation, while also using those beliefs as the basis of a critique of metaphysics.
Materialism, Stances, and Open‐Mindedness
Authors: Bitbol Michel
Published: January 2008

In his book The Empirical Stance, Bas van Fraassen develops a strong and subtle attack on materialism. This chapter amplifies this criticism from a mainly neo-Kantian standpoint, and identifies by contrast some reasons why van Fraassen tends to baulk at the ultimate consequences of his contest. It first reviews van Fraassen's construal of materialism as a stance, and examines some motives many thinkers have to resist this idea. It goes on to describe the drifting conceptions of ‘matter’ according to materialists, and states two motives to be less indulgent than van Fraassen for the particulate conception of matter. The chapter then documents the first motive: loss of the basic cognitive conditions that would enable the particulate conception of matter to provide us with a coherent and unified representation. It also examines a general criterion of materiality, beyond the circular statement that matter is composed of material particles: matter must be both objective and able to manifest itself in space-time. The chapter then applies this criterion and finds difficulties on both sides of the Cartesian divide. It then states a meta-value (progressiveness, open-mindedness) that is shared by materialists to a certain extent, but shows that both empiricism and neo-Kantianism fare better with respect to this meta-value. Finally some limitations in van Fraassen's position that prevent him from offering a far enough reaching critique of materialism are presented.
Must Empiricism Be a Stance, and Could it Be One? How to Be an Empiricist and a Philosopher at the Same Time
Authors: Jauernig Anja
Published: January 2008

This chapter begins by examining van Fraassen's claims that being an empiricist cannot amount to believing a central empiricist dogma (‘naïve empiricism’), but should be understood as consisting in taking the empiricist/empirical stance (‘stance empiricism’). It argues that not all versions of naïve empiricism run into the problems identified by van Fraassen, and that the stance empiricist is in at least as bad a position as the naïve or dogmatic empiricist with respect to the task of providing a ‘ radical critique of metaphysics’, which, according to van Fraassen, is one of the central desiderata for any empiricist position. That is, contrary to what van Fraassen claims, one is not forced to renounce naïve empiricism as a conception of what empiricism is, or could be, and replacing naïve empiricism by stance empiricism does not promise any advantage with respect to the required radical critique of metaphysics. But even if van Fraassen's more specific arguments fail, his proposal that empiricism in particular, and philosophical positions in general, should be understood as stances rather than dogmata merits attention and close scrutiny. Finally, the chapter takes a closer look at the question of whether a philosophical position can possibly consist in a stance, that is, of whether a stance can satisfy the conditions and serve the functions that we expect a philosophical position to satisfy and serve. The answer appears to be that stances cannot fulfill these expectations.
Introduction
Authors: Clark Ian
Published: January 2008

This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of the objectives of this book, which is to develop an understanding of legitimacy against the background of international relations. It is shown that international society is a political framework: its commitment is to a consensually mediated application of these norms, and that makes a qualitative difference to our understanding of it. Legitimacy draws substance from such norms, but is distinct from them. These norms operate as evaluative denominators for international acts and performances, understood as objects. In contrast, legitimacy refers to international society as the subject: it denotes the condition of international society, not the condition of its individual actors and actions.
Revolutionary and Legitimate Orders: Revolution, War, and the Vienna Settlement
Authors: Clark Ian
Published: January 2008

This chapter focuses on the Vienna Settlement. The American and French revolutions were succeeded by the protracted phase of revolutionary and Napoleonic warfare that engulfed Europe and other parts of the world from the early 1790s until 1815. Vienna had to pacify a system that had been exposed to these twin challenges of revolutionary upheaval and violent international conflict. The settlement had to calibrate carefully both the internal and the international requirements for future international order, which entailed the devotion of much energy to questions of rightful membership — the internal aspect of legitimacy. Vienna stands out for its contributions on four principal issues: the format of the negotiations themselves; its construction of a putative legitimate order; its development of thinking about consensus, as expressed through a concert; and its attempted transcription of ideas about a balance of power into a more specific formulation called a ‘just equilibrium’.
Legitimacy and Consensus
Authors: Clark Ian
Published: January 2008

This chapter explores the issue of consensus, and what this means for contemporary society. Topics discussed include the nature of consensus, the kind of consensus important in international society, the 1991 Gulf War, Kosovo in 1999, and the 2003 Iraq War. It is argued that consensus is clearly important for legitimacy, but its decisiveness depends on whether consensus is valuable in its own right, or, more fundamentally, because it is thought to indicate a correspondence with the other norms of international society.
Chapter 3 The Importance of Default Options for Retirement Saving Outcomes: Evidence from the USA
Authors: Beshears John , Choi James J. , Laibson David , Madrian Brigitte C.
Published: January 2008

If transaction costs are small, standard economic theory would suggest that defaults have little impact on economic outcomes. Agents with well-defined preferences will opt out of any default that does not maximize their utility, regardless of the nature of the default. In practice, however, defaults can have sizable effects on economic outcomes. This chapter summarizes the empirical evidence on defaults in savings outcomes, which strongly suggests that defaults affect savings outcomes at every step along the way. The different types of US retirement income institutions and some of their salient characteristics are described. Empirical evidence from the USA and other countries, including Chile, Mexico, and Sweden is presented on how defaults influence retirement savings outcomes at all stages of the savings life cycle, including savings plan participation, savings rates, asset allocation, and post-retirement savings distributions. The chapter then examines why defaults have such a tremendous impact on savings outcomes. Finally, it considers the role of public policy toward retirement saving when defaults matter.
Chapter 5 Pension Reform and Gender Inequality
Authors: Dion Michelle
Published: January 2008

This chapter examines an effect of pension reform that was largely unanticipated, or at least seldom explicitly considered, when many pension reforms were being adopted throughout Latin America: the effects of privatization on women's welfare. First, it provides a brief overview of the sources of gender inequalities and discusses elements of pension policy affecting gendered welfare. Second, it explains and critiques the insurance-based criteria for evaluating the gender effects of pension reform. Third, it offers an alternative set of criteria for evaluating gender outcomes based on three dimensions: women's ability to claim social citizenship rights, gender stratification, and the distribution of welfare responsibility among the market, state, and family. Finally, it compares interpretations of the gendered effects of pension reform in Latin America based on insurance and distributive assumptions to illustrate why disagreements in the literature persist.
Chapter 13 The Peruvian Pension Reform: Ailing or Failing?
Authors: Carranza Eliana , Morón Eduardo
Published: January 2008

This chapter analyzes pension reform in Peru. Peru's reform introduced private savings accounts while maintaining a fiscally unsustainable public pillar that must eventually be fixed. A number of factors led to the slow acceptance of the new system, including the fact that workers had more incentive to remain in the old PAYGO system, which offered a lower contribution rate, a lower retirement age, and a minimum pension guarantee. However, eventual adjustments allowed the new system to compete more effectively for workers. The performance of the Peruvian system with respect to investment, fees, competition, and coverage is analyzed, and it is argued that reducing political interference is crucial to its future success.
6 The Last Years of the Republic
Authors: Clark Anna J.
Published: January 2008

This chapter looks again at the range of resources introduced in previous chapters and introduces some new ones, all in the context of the late Republic. It focuses in particular on the competition between Cicero and Clodius over libertas, and especially that of Caesar and Pompey, explored through passwords, oratory, drama, colonies, building‐work, horti, speeches, and commentaries. The chapter argues that in the last decades of the Republic, as famous commanders gained ever‐increasing power to mobilize and control resources, their competition over divine qualities, especially fortuna, felicitas, and virtus, was played out in a number of fields which are most fruitfully considered together. Alternative meanings and associations could still be found by others, viewing Pompey's theatre complex for example, but this required a greater effort on the part of a viewer.
7 Conclusions
Authors: Clark Anna J.
Published: January 2008

This chapter first draws together conclusions about the range of claims and counter‐claims made about divine qualities during the Republican period by individuals and groups from a range of social strata. It highlights the importance both of physical resources and of oral culture in the ways the cognitive vocabulary of divine qualities was used in Republican society. It then explores engagements with such qualities in the early empire. The capacity to restrict meanings and associations increased with the existence of an imperial family, but divine qualities also continued to be important in this period because alternative readings and associations could still be made, and such qualities were useful to senators and other people as well as to emperors. Imperial case studies include episodes found in Suetonius, Tacitus, and Dio, acclamations, Pompeian graffiti, ships, slave names, and the tomb of Claudia Semne.
Preliminary Studies: The Supernatural and Causation in Herodotus
Authors: Sewell‐Rutter N. J.
Published: January 2008

This chapter considers some aspects of Herodotus. It examines instances in this contemporary author of supernatural causation, moral inheritance within the family, and decision making. It argues that Herodotus exhibits fruitful points of comparison and contrast with the tragedians.
Skills and Wages in European Labour Markets: Structure and Change
Authors: Tåhlin Michael
Published: January 2008

This chapter presents an empirical analysis of structure and change in skills and wages in five European countries: Germany, Spain, France, Great Britain, and Sweden. The discussion begins with an overview of previous research in three interrelated fields of relevance for the empirical analyses: (a) the structure and change of skill demand in Western Europe and the United States; (b) the connections between social class and skills; and (c) international variations in educational systems and school-to-work linkages. It then looks at a number of outstanding issues in need of further empirical analysis. Among the main findings are that firm-based skill formation seems to be more widespread and more important in Britain than in several other European countries considered here, including Germany and Sweden; also that in line with the production regime perspective, women are disadvantaged in firm-based skill formation; and finally that there is no strong indication of an interaction effect between class and gender, such that women's disadvantage relative to men is larger in the service class than in the working class.
6 Job Insecurity
Authors: Paugam Serge , Zhou Ying
Published: January 2008

This chapter examines country differences and trends in job insecurity. It is shown that the countries where job security is strongest are also those whose class differentials are the lowest. This supports the view that an ‘inclusive’ employment regime allows for a higher level of integration in the labour market than either a ‘dualist’ or ‘market’ regime does with respect to this particular type of employee division. Although there is a correlation in every country between job insecurity and poor quality of work, the statistical relationship between these two dimensions of employment is notably weaker in Denmark and in Sweden than in the other countries.
Perspectival Thought
Authors: Recanati François
Published: January 2008

Our thought and talk are situated: they do not take place in a vacuum but always in a context, and they always concern an external situation relative to which they are to be evaluated. Since that is so, this book argues, our linguistic and mental representations alike must be assigned two layers of content: the explicit content, or lekton, is relative and perspectival, while the complete content, which is absolute, involves contextual factors in addition to what is explicitly represented. Far from reducing to the context-independent meaning of the sentence-type or, in the psychological realm, to the ‘narrow’ content of mental representations, the lekton is a level intermediate between context-invariant meaning and full propositional content. Recognition of that intermediate level is the key to a proper understanding of context-dependence in language and thought. Going beyond the usual discussions of indexicality and unarticulated constituents in the philosophy of language, this book turns to the philosophy of mind for decisive arguments in favour of this approach. The book shows, first, that the lekton is the notion of content we need if we are to understand properly the relations between perception, memory, and the imagination, and second, that the psychological ‘mode’ is what determines the situation the lekton is relative to. In this framework the book provides a detailed account of de se thought and the first person point of view. The last part of the book discusses the special freedom we have, in discourse and thought, to shift the situation of evaluation. It traces that freedom to a special mode — the anaphoric mode — which enables us to go beyond the egocentric stage of pre-human thought.
Language Turned on Itself
Authors: Cappelen Herman , Lepore Ernest
Published: January 2008

This book examines what happens when language becomes self-reflexive; when language is used to talk about language. Those who think, talk, and write about language are habitual users of various meta-linguistic devices, but reliance on these devices begins early — kids are told, “That's called a rabbit”. It's not implausible that a primitive capacity for the meta-linguistic kicks in at the beginning stages of language acquisition. But no matter when or how frequently these devices are invoked, one thing is clear: they present theorists of language with a complex data pattern. This book shows that the study of these devices and patterns not only represents an interesting and neglected project in the philosophy of language, but also carries important consequences for other parts of philosophy. Part I is devoted to presenting data about various aspects of our meta-linguistic practices. In Part II, the book examines and rejects the four leading meta-linguistic theories, and offers a new account of our use of quotation in a variety of different contexts. But the primary goal of this book is not to promote one theory over another. Rather, it is to present a deeply puzzling set of problems and explain their significance.
Overview
Authors: Cappelen Herman , Lepore Ernie
Published: January 2008

This chapter presents the central data, (D1)-(D12), on the theory of quotation. It argues that an adequate theory of quotation should say something about how to accommodate the data surrounding (D1)-(D12). The following are discussed: D1 - opacity; D2 - quantifying in; D3 - infinitude; D4 - extant lexicon; D5 - the proximity constraint and the disquotational scheme; D6 - syntactic chameleonism; D7 - simultaneous use and mention in mixed quotation; D8 - indexicals inside mixed quotation; D9 - context sensitivity in mixed quotation; D10 - iterability in quotation; D11 - quotation without quotation marks; ad D12 - “impure” direct quotes.
Mixed Quotation—Semantically Redundant?
Authors: Cappelen Herman , Lepore Ernie
Published: January 2008

This chapter examines one small aspect of mixed quotation, namely, whether it is a genuinely semantic phenomenon. It argues that the Redundancy View (RV) of mixed quotation and its corollary CRV are both false. According to RV the quotation marks in mixed quotations are semantically superfluous; and to CRV the semantic content of a mixed report is identical to the semantic content of the corresponding direct report (i.e., one in which its complement clause has no quotation marks).
Quotation and Context Sensitivity
Authors: Cappelen Herman , Lepore Ernie
Published: January 2008

The thesis of Quotation Context Sensitivity (QCS) states that: let S be a sentence with a quotation Q. Two utterances, u and u', of S can express different propositions because Q in u and in u' quotes different items. This chapter refutes any semantic interpretation of QCS and shows that even a pragmatic construal of the data encounters problems. The first section presents four arguments against a semantic construal of QCS. These arguments are not intended to deny data that support QCS, but only to deny that they should be explained by a semantic theory. The next section presents some pragmatic options for explaining these data in support of QCS, and then argues that some of these variability data resist even pragmatic explanation. That result leaves an explanatory gap that is addressed in Chapter 12.
Use Theories
Authors: Cappelen Herman , Lepore Ernie
Published: January 2008

This chapter begins with a discussion of the two most serious versions of the Use Theory, namely Saka's and Recanati's Use Theories respectively. It then covers the history of Use Theories and the evaluation of Use Theories. It argues that the practice of quotation incorporates a wide array of exceedingly confusing and complex data. It is doubtful that any theory will be able to account for all of this in anything remotely like an elegant and simple manner.
Ugly and Wasted
Authors: Brown David
Published: January 2008

This chapter explores the aspects of Christian attitudes toward the body that non-believers usually find most difficult — the exaltation of the body as ‘ugly and wasted’. Most of the chapter is concerned with a selective historical survey that seeks to interpret sympathetically some of the stranger aspects of Christian history, beginning with an examination of the types of changes that were made to the telling of the crucifixion story in order to make affective appropriation easier. A comparison is then made between one of the Gospels and the response of the 15th-century English mystic Margery Kempe in her own distinctive gift of tears. Thereafter, two more extreme types of reaction are explored: the asceticism of those, such as Catherine of Siena, who sought to live on virtually nothing; and the way in which the classical legend of the flaying of Marsyas was adapted to Christian ideals in normally quite restrained artists such as Michelangelo and Titian. In pursuing this more sympathetic analysis, the intention is not to declare right and proper such extremes. Rather, it is to call into question blanket condemnations and to raise the question of whether the modern world is really necessarily any better in its approach.
1 A Search for Objective Knowledge
Authors: Echevarria II Antulio J.
Published: January 2008

This chapter discusses Clausewitz's purpose in writing On War. He attempted to construct a body of objective (verifiable) knowledge, a theory, of war. He hoped others might use this theory as a basis for constructing their own (subjective) theories of war.
2 Validating Concepts and Principles
Authors: Echevarria II Antulio J.
Published: January 2008

This chapter discusses the method Clausewitz used in writing On War. Scholars have paid too little attention to his method in the past, and this oversight has contributed to the many misunderstandings of his work. Clausewitz first tested a concept from a purely logical standpoint, then from a material or practical perspective, and then evaluated or assessed the concept, placing it within an accepted hierarchy of other known concepts if it passed the first two tests.
8 Center of Gravity
Authors: Echevarria II Antulio J.
Published: January 2008

This chapter discusses Clausewitz's concept of centre of gravity, one of his most misunderstood ideas. The concept, as Clausewitz introduced it, is closer to the idea of a focal point, rather than a center or source of strength.
1 Freedom
Authors: Foley Michael
Published: January 2008

This chapter discusses the concept and social meaning of freedom in the US. Topics covered include freedom and American identity, freedom as a contested category, the roots of American liberty, and freedom as a mediating device.
13 Conservatism
Authors: Foley Michael
Published: January 2008

This chapter examines conservatism in American society. It argues that conservatives have become the most conspicuous feature of American politics in terms of intellectual engagement and ideological conviction. In effect, they have set out to redefine the moral and historical basis of the liberal mainstream. Organic conservatism, individualist conservatism, the conservative matrix, the religious right, neoconservatism are discussed.
14 Populism
Authors: Foley Michael
Published: January 2008

This chapter examines populism in the United States. It argues that despite some of the historical and social ambiguities that surround American populism, the contribution of populism remains a valuable component of America's democratic culture. The populist impulse can act as a potent corrective to the self-absorption of political elites and a necessary antidote to the habitual co-option of the people's name by office-holders and decision-makers. At its worst, populism can become embroiled in existential speculations over the identity of the people, which can lead not so much to the moralization of politics but to the moral rejection of politics in favour of a simplified and more ominous alternative. At its best, populism offers a critical awareness of the anomalies and imbalances within a mass democracy, as well as a reformist impulse that finds expression either through a renovation of established institutions or through the provision of alternative public spheres. Soft populism, hard populism, and populist paradoxes are discussed.
15 Nationalism
Authors: Foley Michael
Published: January 2008

This chapter examines American nationalism. American nationalism is widely reputed not only to be based upon values but to be primarily understood and expressed in terms of these characterizing principles. The ideas in questions are those core values associated with the United States — liberty, democracy, rule of law, individual rights, progress, equality, and property. In one respect, America's tradition of ‘open nationalism’ provides a satisfactory account of the country's social cohesion and ideological unity. Under these ecumenical auspices, nationalism can offer a plausible explanation of how America's disparate values have been reconciled into an amalgam capable of providing both the focal point and the unifying medium for a vast immigrant culture.
Dealing with Ideas
Authors: Foley Michael
Published: January 2008

This chapter presents an overview of the ecology of ideas in American politics. It discusses the various means by which political participants engage with a multiple constituency of core values in the competitive struggle for advantage and legitimacy. It also reviews how analysts have sought to come to terms with the dual existence of a fixed set of central principles within society, and the fluid and innovative style by which these core values are articulated and aggregated for political effect.
On Global Order
Authors: Hurrell Andrew
Published: January 2008

This book provides an introduction to the analysis of global political order — how patterns of governance and institutionalization in world politics have already changed; what the most important challenges are; and what the way forward might look like. The first section develops three analytical frameworks: a world of sovereign states capable of only limited cooperation; a world of ever-denser international institutions embodying the idea of an international community; and a world in which global governance moves beyond the state and into the realms of markets, civil society, and networks. Part II examines five of the most important issues facing contemporary international society: nationalism and the politics of identity; human rights and democracy; war, violence, and collective security; the ecological challenge; and the management of economic globalization in a highly unequal world. Part III considers the idea of an emerging multi-regional system; and the picture of global order built around US empire. The conclusion looks at the normative implications. If international society has indeed been changing in the ways discussed in this book, what ought we to do? And, still more crucially, who is the ‘we’ that is to be at the centre of this drive to create a morally better world? This book is concerned with the fate of international society in an era of globalization and the ability of the inherited society of sovereign states to provide a practically viable and normatively acceptable framework for global political order. It lays particular emphasis on the different forms of global inequality and the problems of legitimacy that these create, and on the challenges posed by cultural diversity and value conflict.
One world? Many worlds?
Authors: Hurrell Andrew
Published: January 2008

This chapter considers the place of regions within our understanding of global international society. It focuses on the relationship between the one world and the many worlds — on the one side, the one world of globalizing capitalism, of global security dynamics, of a global political system that, for many, revolves around a single hegemonic power, of global institutions and global governance, and of the drive to develop and embed a global cosmopolitan ethic; and, on the other side, the extent to which regions and the regional level of practice and of analysis have become more firmly established as important elements of the architecture of global political order; and the extent to which we are witnessing an emerging multi-regional system of international relations.
The state of international society and the pursuit of justice
Authors: Hurrell Andrew
Published: January 2008

This chapter draws together the picture of international society that has been painted and then looks more directly at the normative implications. It argues that far greater attention must be given to the links between political and moral cosmopolitanism and to the possible principles of global political justice that might inform those links. A revalidation of processes of legitimacy and procedural justice is crucial for the development of a stable, effective, and legitimate international society and for the nurturing of meaningfully shared foundations for the discussion of global justice. The ethical claims of international society rest on the contention that such a society continues to be the most stable set of globally institutionalized political processes by which norms and rules can be negotiated on the basis of dialogue and consent, rather than simply being imposed by the most powerful.
Preventive War and US Foreign Policy
Authors: Trachtenberg Marc
Published: January 2008

This chapter discusses US policy on preventive war. Following September 11, 2001, the Bush Administration established a new national security policy that was no longer based on the principle of deterrence, but based on pre-emption. It is shown that the Bush strategy is anomalous and has really broken with American tradition. This is done by considering the policies pursued by other American governments, and in particular by looking at how the Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and even Clinton administrations dealt with this sort of problem in earlier phases of the atomic age, but also by looking with some care at the policy the Roosevelt administration pursued in the period before Pearl Harbor.
6 The Problem with Prevention
Authors: Rodin David
Published: January 2008

This chapter argues that there are profound moral problems with the doctrine of preventive war. The consequentialist approaches to preventive war are first examined. The chapter then examines whether preventive action can be viewed as a legitimate component of the right of self-defence, and argues that it cannot. The right of self-defence has historically been grounded in a number of different theoretical justifications, including those that invoke a conception of psychological necessity and those that invoke human rights. On neither of these theories, however, can preventive self-defence be justified.
1 Introduction: Can Latin American Firms Compete?
Authors: Grosse Robert
Published: January 2008

Latin American companies have not fared well in international competition in recent years, compared with North American, European, and Japanese firms. A greater concern is that competitors from India, Eastern Europe, and China are gaining more rapid entrance into the ‘grandes ligas’ of global business. This introductory chapter compares Latin American companies with their rivals from elsewhere in terms of size, global reach, innovation, and other issues, identifying the weaknesses that exist in the Latin American context. It argues that Latin American firms do have a number of international competitive strengths, many based on the institutional structure of the region's economies, which must be further developed to produce a broad level of competitiveness. The remainder of the chapter briefly summarizes the findings of each of the empirical studies that make up the book, focusing on individual countries, specific companies, industry sectors, and sources of competitiveness.
8 Can Argentinian Companies Survive? A Study of the Determinants of Organizational Flexibility
Authors: Hatum Andrés , Pettigrew Andrew
Published: January 2008

Conventional economic and management theories explain that business groups facing market-liberalization policy reforms (i.e., competitive shocks) would have incentives to reduce corporate portfolios and increase internationalization. This chapter empirically examines the strategic responses of Argentine Business Groups and, through an inductive theory building process, proposes refinements to this theory. It argues that such strategy process is moderated by not only differences in market forces set out by policy reforms across different economic segments, but also by the path dependency of resources and capabilities as well as management decision making style of individual business groups. The implications for theory and practice are discussed.
10 Brazilian Firms and the Challenge of Competitiveness
Authors: Wood Jr Thomaz , Caldas Miguel P.
Published: January 2008

Since the late 1980s, Mexican firms have faced a variety of environmental changes including the privatization of state-owned firms, opening of markets to foreign trade and investment, increased domestic and foreign competition, political change, and economic crises. Mexican firms have increasingly undertaken new strategies: many have expanded into foreign markets while others have ‘restructured’ their portfolios of diversified subsidiaries. This chapter examines the degree to which increasing international and sector diversification is related to improved firm performance. Interviews were conducted with executives from over a dozen of the largest firms in Mexico to obtain answers to the research question. The results indicate that, in general, expanding businesses across sectors and outside of Mexico led to more stable and sustainable performance.
12 ‘Multilatinas’ Go to China: Two Case Studies
Authors: Goldstein Andrea , Toulan Omar
Published: January 2008

This chapter explores the globalization challenges faced by multinationals from Latin America (multilatinas), focusing on Embraer and Techint — the two South American firms that best epitomize world-class manufacturing based not only on the intensive use of natural resources, but also on technology and human capital. Specifically, the chapter looks at their experiences in China, and whether or not they have any advantages coming from emerging markets themselves. Among the commonalities the chapter finds between these two firms are excellence at managing institutional relations, supply chains, and the boundaries of the firm. Also important is the clear and articulated global vision of the firms' top management. These firms decided to look internationally while still enjoying domestic protection. By being proactive, they were able to reach quality standards earlier and under a less pressured environment than firms that were forced to adapt quickly to increased local competition following market liberalization in their home countries. When entering other emerging markets like China, their familiarity with institutional voids can serve as an advantage compared to firms from more developed economies. But they will still face the same challenges as other firms regarding technology and governance issues.
14 National Financial Systems in Latin America: Attributes, Credit Allocation Practices, and Their Impact on Enterprise Development
Authors: Edmunds John C.
Published: January 2008

Most firms headquartered in Latin America are not large enough to rank highly among the top firms in the world, and do not operate in industry sectors that are classified as rapidly growing. Most explanations for this do not assign a causative role. It is argued that those financial systems have played a role in determining the kinds of firms that obtained financing, and thus share the responsibility for the small number of world class, high growth, high valued-added firms in the region. This chapter argues that the national financial systems suffered from attributes that diminished their capability. Six attributes are identified, which would hinder the growth of these sorts of firms. Some of the attributes are well known (i.e., that Latin American national financial systems are small relative to the economies in which they operate, and suffer frequent collapses), while other attributes are less well known (i.e., that those financial systems tended to channel loans to plantations, mines, and firms that produce commodities). Evidence is presented indicating that four of the attributes do describe Latin American financial systems accurately. There are also arguments why the attributes would lead to the mix of firms observed today. The evidence is not complete enough to prove decisively that Latin America's national financial systems were the main determinants of the size and sophistication of the firms that have risen in the region.
15 Beating the Paradoxes of Emerging Markets: Strategies for Reaching the Consumers at the Bottom of the Pyramid
Authors: D'Andrea Guillermo
Published: January 2008

This chapter reviews the strategies of Latin American companies that have attained leading positions in the region, facing and beating major global companies in their product categories. The companies studied include Cemex, Corona Beer, Arcor, Jabon La Corona, Nazca Cosmetics, Bodegas Lopez, and others. The chapter examines the complex context drawn by scarcity in the region, and several ‘myths’ about the poor that blur managers' perspective when assessing the real market potential. Consumer research conducted in six major markets proves them wrong. The paradoxes that prevent managers from developing innovative strategies that have given the examined companies access to broad mass markets in the region are considered.
Financial Services and International Trade Agreements: The Development Dimension
Authors: Dobson Wendy
Published: January 2008

This chapter notes the special role of financial services in an economy and distinguishes policy reform from domestic deregulation and capital account deregulation. The impacts of policy reform and the benefits and risks of broader financial sector development, growth, income distribution, and poverty are discussed. The impacts of reform include: increased domestic competition; causing further reform and greater regulatory transparency; increased resiliency of the domestic financial system to shocks; encouragement of the diffusion of new skills, products and technologies; and facilitation of access to international capital. The elements of successful trade-policy reform are noted, based on the experiences of China, Thailand, and Latin America. Issues in need of additional research are identified, including the impact on domestic financial performance of foreign equity participation, improvement of available data on and transparency of barriers to cross-border transactions and foreign entry, measures used to moderate unanticipated impacts of liberalization, and further elucidation of the rationales for the WTO Financial Services Agreement (FSA) commitments. The role of international negotiations is addressed in terms of how they can help individual countries, what can be learned from international rules and commitments undertaken, whether there is scope for improvement, whether existing commitments promote desirable policies, possible reasons for refraining from commitments, and issues in need of further research. An addendum reviews the liberalization of financial services in the Western Hemisphere and in China.
Transport Services
Authors: Findlay Christopher
Published: January 2008

Lower transport costs are associated with integration of markets within an economy and of those domestic markets with the rest of the world. These linkages support economic development. Determinants of transport costs include policy choices by government. A wide set of policies affects the performance of the transport sector, but the focus in this chapter is the contribution of trade policy and its reform. GATS provides a structure in which policy makers can commit to policy changes in the transport sector. Foreign participation in the transportation sector offers gains from specialization and trade, from competition, and from making available a wider variety of services. Reform in the transport services sector can lead foreign suppliers to establish local operations. There are some special features of the transport sector that complicate the application of trade-policy reform that indicate that successful trade-policy reform in this sector will demand a high level of capacity in government to design a trade-policy reform strategy. Support in this is an item for economic cooperation between developed and developing countries. A further concern linked to policy reform in the transport sector will be its impact on poor areas. International negotiations and the related commitments made through the GATS has added credibility to domestic policy, which is important because of the nature of the investment necessary in the transport sector, to suggest the direction of changes in regulatory reform, and perhaps to offer additional market-access opportunities that ease the adjustment costs in domestic markets that are becoming more open. The addendum to the chapter discusses issues and trade-offs for competition and reliability in trade in transport services.
Trade in Health Services and the GATS
Authors: Smith Richard , Blouin Chantal , Drager Nick , Fidler David P.
Published: January 2008

Services of many kinds play important roles in the protection of public health and the delivery of health care to individuals. The GATS affects health-related services in many ways for health policymakers. In addition, the GATS establishes a process designed to liberalize progressively trade in services, and health policymakers must be prepared to participate in this process to ensure that such liberalization unfolds in a way sensitive to the needs of national governments. Any liberalization should aim to produce better quality, affordable, and effective health-related services. It should also ensure the necessary policy and regulatory space that governments require to promote and protect health needs. The GATS creates health opportunities and challenges, especially for developing countries. Countries are encouraged to embed the following health-policy principles: liberalized trade in health-related services should lead to an optimal balance between preventive and curative services; involvement of both private industry and civil society is important to promote participatory health policy towards achieving national goals; it is necessary to improve access and affordability of health-related services; developing countries, especially least-developed countries, deserve special consideration in liberalizing trade in health-related services. Health status as a human right should inform proposals to liberalize trade in health-related services. In an addendum to this chapter, it is noted that the GATS is unlikely to have a direct effect on the health of poor people because the health services they receive are not the ones being liberalized. But the GATS could have an indirect, beneficial effect if it helps countries break out of the trap of capture of the health budget by the rich and the health-service providers, releasing resources for improving the health of the poor.
Retracing the Past: Memory and Passage
Authors: Le Poidevin Robin
Published: January 2008

This chapter explores the nature of episodic memory, in other words, the kind of memory that links us with our past experiences. The two theories of time introduced in the previous chapter — namely the A-theory and the B-theory — are shown to provide quite different models of memory. It is argued that of these two, it is the B-theory that provides the correct view of the epistemological connection between a memory of a past experience and the original experience, in terms of content and well-groundedness.
Projecting the Present: The Shock of the Now
Authors: Le Poidevin Robin
Published: January 2008

One of the key arguments for the A-theory of time is the argument from experience, which states that there are certain features of our experience (the fact that it is limited to the present, a present that we all share, and that it presents us with a constantly changing world). All these features, according to the argument, point to the objective passage of time. This chapter critically discusses this argument and shows how the characteristic temporal features of experience can be accommodated within the B-theory. En route, the doctrine of the specious present and the puzzle of motion perception are discussed.
The Wider View: Precedence and Duration
Authors: Le Poidevin Robin
Published: January 2008

This chapter examines the Causal Truth-Maker Principle introduced in Chapter 2. This says that to count as perceptual knowledge, beliefs must be caused by whatever in the world makes them true. That works well for events or states of affairs that can be located at particular times, for they can be causes. But facts of temporal order and duration — that A is earlier than B, or that C lasted for such-and-such an amount of time — are not locatable in this way, and so cannot be fitted into the causal picture. We have then a serious problem of time perception, and this chapter sets out to solve it.
The Fictional Future
Authors: Le Poidevin Robin
Published: January 2008

Some fictions, such as H. G. Wells's The Time Machine and J. B. Priestley's Time and the Conways, represent the future as fixed, i.e., as completely determinate. Yet standard accounts of truth in fiction (in terms of possible worlds, or fictional narrators) have difficulty in accommodating this phenomenon. The problem arises in part from the difficulty of making sense of an event's being fictionally past, present or future. This chapter calls upon the resources of the B-theory of time to provide an understanding of the fictional representation of time.