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58142. Modelling a Multi-Ethnic Society
- Author:
- Dr. Renata Dwan
- Publication Date:
- 06-1998
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- EastWest Institute
- Abstract:
- Since 1992-93, the Institute for EastWest Studies (IEWS) has been organizing meetings of a 'Strategy Group for Strengthening Cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe'. The Strategy Group brings together representatives of the Central and Eastern European Associates of the European Union and Ukraine (and Western states and neighbouring countries where appropriate) to discuss the security challenges facing the region. The Strategy Group aims to foster the development of cooperative solutions to the problems facing Central and Eastern Europe. Participants in Strategy Group conferences and workshops come from diverse backgrounds, including governmental representatives, politicians, business people, academics and non- governmental representatives.
- Topic:
- Development and Regional Cooperation
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Ukraine, Eastern Europe, and Maryland
58143. Subregional Relations in the Southern Tier: Prospects for Development
- Publication Date:
- 05-1998
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- EastWest Institute
- Abstract:
- Doubts were expressed as to the extent one could define the Caucasus and Central Asia as a single region, particularly for the purposes of exploring the potential for subregional cooperation to develop among its constituent states. External considerations (complex relationship between Russia and the states involved; presence of other outside actors; energy transit perspectives; influence of external conflict, i.e. Afghanistan) may point towards consideration of the Southern Tier as one region. However, internal perspectives, geographical, historical, political and cultural, suggest that treating subregionalism separately in the Caucasus and Central Asia might be a more realistic and potentially fruitful approach.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and Regional Cooperation
- Political Geography:
- New York, Europe, Eurasia, Eastern Europe, and Maryland
58144. Deposit Insurance Funds: An Instrument of Banking Stability and Issues of Authority, Information and Effectiveness
- Author:
- Eugene Spiro
- Publication Date:
- 03-1998
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- EastWest Institute
- Abstract:
- The EastWest Institute is interested in the issue of banking supervision as one of the primary goals of our Economics Program since 1990 has been to support the establishment of a reformed, market-based banking system in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Former Soviet Union (FSU). As an integral component of our broader work in providing expert support to commercial bank managers and economic policymakers on the concrete aspects of implementing reform-oriented practices and strategies, we see the underlying stability and transparency of the banking system to be of critical importance. In Hungary as elsewhere, banks are indispensable to the smooth functioning of the economy, and the EWI has long subscribed to the view that the banking sector (e.g. in the context of privatisation) is a 'special' sector and requires special treatment.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and Regional Cooperation
- Political Geography:
- Eastern Europe, Soviet Union, and Maryland
58145. Subregional Cooperation and the European Union
- Author:
- Dr. Renata Dwan
- Publication Date:
- 04-1998
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- EastWest Institute
- Abstract:
- Since 1992-93, the Institute for EastWest Studies (IEWS) has been organizing meetings of a 'Strategy Group for Strengthening Cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe'. The Strategy Group brings together representatives of the Central and Eastern European Associates of the European Union and Ukraine (and Western states and neighbouring countries where appropriate) to discuss the security challenges facing the region. The Strategy Group aims to foster the development of cooperative solutions to the problems facing Central and Eastern Europe. Participants in Strategy Group conferences and workshops come from diverse backgrounds, including governmental representatives, politicians, business people, academics and non- governmental representatives.
- Topic:
- International Organization and Regional Cooperation
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Ukraine
58146. Globalisation: Challenges and Opportunities
- Author:
- G.B. Madison
- Publication Date:
- 01-1998
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
- Abstract:
- Globalization is a multifaceted phenomenon. In this paper I seek to discern some of the challenges it poses, as well as some of the opportunities it offers. To this end, attention is focused on three major aspects of globalization: the economic, the cultural, and the political. Particular consideration is given to the political-economic lessons to be learned from the recent East Asian financial (and economic) crisis; the homogenizing and civilizing ramifications of globalization in the realm of culture; and the relation between economic globalization, the threat it poses to the traditional notion of national sovereignty, and the prospects for the development of civil society, the rule of law, and democratic governance. The paper concludes by arguing that, as a result of the emerging global economy, we are witnessing the emergence of a new form of capitalism, qualitatively different from both 19th-century laissez-faire capitalism and 20th-century “managed” capitalism.
- Topic:
- Economics, Globalization, and Markets
- Political Geography:
- East Asia and Asia
58147. Rival Views Of Postcommunist Market Society
- Author:
- Béla Greskovits
- Publication Date:
- 10-1998
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute for European Studies at Cornell University
- Abstract:
- While reviewing various interpretations of the postcommunist transformation it is demonstrated that the manner social scientists think about postcommunism has much in common with the ideas of their predecessors who faced the emergence of capitalism over the past centuries. What explains the continuity of the major views? Why did the debate on the perspectives of capitalism and on the nature of its strengths and weaknesses reappear in the new historical case of postcommunist market society? This author argues that neither the specific historical nor the systemic context of capitalist expansion can account for the prevalence of competing interpretations. Rather the latter is the standard way social scientists think about systems and systemic change in general. But the trench-war between rival views of postcommunist market society also reflects the impact of new psychological, political, and institutional factors specific to the mass-production of social science ideas towards the end of the XXth century.
- Topic:
- Communism and Economics
- Political Geography:
- Europe
58148. Building a Composite Polity: Popular Contention in the European Union
- Author:
- Sidney Tarrow
- Publication Date:
- 03-1998
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute for European Studies at Cornell University
- Abstract:
- While much research has focussed on the interest group process growing up around the institutions of European union, far less attention has been given to the contentious forms of politics appearing at the base of the process of European integration. Part of the problem lies in models of integration that either focus on single levels of the European Union — states or supranational entities — or on vertical policy networks and domains. But another important part results from the difficulty of systematically analyzing the reactions of ordinary people to EU directives. This paper both reports on a new, computer-assisted method of studying European contentious politics and draws on a case study of recent industrial conflict to demonstrate how supranational actors, national political elites, domestic social actors and the press are beginning to interact to produce a composite — and contentious — European polity.
- Topic:
- Government
- Political Geography:
- Europe
58149. Efficiency of the Welfare State
- Author:
- Pierre Pestieau and Claudine Gouyette
- Publication Date:
- 01-1998
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute for European Studies at Cornell University
- Abstract:
- In general, when the concepts of efficiency and of welfare state are coupled, one first thinks of the effects of the welfare state, notably including the taxes it implies and the benefits it generates, on the efficiency of the economy. This topic has been widely discussed in recent works. One of the main charges addressed to modern welfare states is, indeed, that they would hurt economic performance and international competitiveness. Another charge just as widespread is that they would be inefficient in the provision of social services, and be responsible for the proliferation of transfer programs that are costly and miss their target populations. This charge is thus different from the first one, though not totally unrelated. It concerns the economic efficiency of the welfare state per se, and this is the topic of this paper.
- Topic:
- Government and Political Economy
58150. Conflict in Kosovo: Failure of Prevention? An Analytical Documentation, 1992-1998.
- Author:
- Stefan Troebst
- Publication Date:
- 05-1998
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI)
- Abstract:
- Not too much of inside knowledge of the Balkans was needed to realise that the winter of 1997/98 turned the formerly autonomous Yugoslav province of Kosovo inhabited predominantly by Albanians into one of the most violent-prone crisis zones in Europe. In September 1997, a massive protest movement of Albanian students gained momentum; from November 1997 on, an underground "Liberation Army of Kosovo" (UÇK)) with an estimated strength of several hundred fighters increased the number of attacks on and assassinations of Serbian officials and police officers; and the regime retaliated first by police violence, show trials, long-term sentences, and nationalist tirades, then by bringing more and more security forces into the central part of Kosovo. In January 1998, The Economist depicted Kosovo as "Europe's roughest neighbourhood”.
- Topic:
- Conflict Prevention, Ethnic Conflict, and International Organization
- Political Geography:
- Eastern Europe, Kosovo, Serbia, Balkans, and Albania