Structural Adjustment and Structural Change in Sub-Saharan Africa: Some Provisional Conclusions

This article reviews discussions concerning some of the main methodological difficulties surrounding the evaluation of structural adjustment policies, before suggesting a procedure to ‘save’ empirical discussion about new patterns of economic and social relations. In this light it proceeds to examine evidence gathered by the structural adjustment research programme of Nordiska Afrikainstitutet (Scandinavian Institute of African Studies) on the changing character of the ‘private sector’ and of the voluntary development sphere in contemporary Africa. The main conclusions are that, in what can be called ‘adjustment situations’, the main tendencies in these spheres are for a rise of trading capitals enjoying illicit relations to the state and for a privatization of local development. The article concludes with an argument that, had adjustment been implemented in a fuller and more consistent way, these tendencies would probably have been still more pronounced.     

Ethnic Tensions in the Successor Republics in 1993 and Early 1994

A distinguished specialist on the human geography of the former USSR examines the process whereby the Russian Federation increased its influence over most of the successor states during 1993 and early 1994. Particular attention is devoted to the interplay between (a) the status of Russian minorities, political instability, and ethnic conflict in the successor states and (b) military, economic, and political pressures exerted by the Russian Federation. In addition, the paper surveys the status of interethnic relations among Russians and eponymous populations in Russia's republics and other ethnic-territorial formations. 1 map, 44 references.     

Democratization and State Feminism: Gender Politics in Africa and Latin America

This article addresses the link between state feminism and democratization in the global South. The authors use the contrasting cases of Chile and Nigeria to show some of the factors that encourage women to exploit the opportunities presented by transitions to democracy, and link the outcome of state feminism to the strategies and discourses available to women during democratization. Based on evidence from the cases analysed, the authors propose that the strategic options available to women are shaped by at least three factors: (1) the existence of a unified women’s movement capable of making political demands; (2) existing patterns of gender relations, which influence women’s access to arenas of political influence and power; and (3) the content of existing gender ideologies, and whether women can creatively deploy them to further their own interests. State feminism emerged in Chile out of the demands of a broad–based women’s movement in a context of democratic transition that provided feminists with access to political institutions. In Nigeria, attempts at creating state feminism have consistently failed due to a political transition from military to civilian rule that has not provided feminists with access to political arenas of influence, and the absence of a powerful women’s movement.     

Structural Adjustment and Diversification in Zambia

Structural adjustment should go hand in hand with measures to diversify the economy to make it less vulnerable to future changes in the external environment. However, adjustment programmes tend to concentrate on expenditure reduction policies, thereby hampering the necessary diversification. This proposition is elaborated for the economy of Zambia, which is still as dependent on mineral exports as it was twenty-five years ago at independence. During and after the minerals boom the country suffered from Dutch disease. The subsequent adjustment efforts, reinforced through IMF involvement, did not sufficiently change the bias against tradables production. The latter is taken as a yardstick for diversification. A balanced implementation of expenditure switching policies in a later stage became increasingly difficult when the country also had to adjust to debt repayments.     

The Democratization Process and Popular Participation in Africa: Emerging Realities and the Challenges Ahead

Many observers have judged the recent wave of democratization in Africa as an unstoppable process and have overemphasized the role of external factors in inducing this change. This article argues that the quality of change has been fragile and defective in many respects, and draws attention to the susceptibility of the process of democratic transition to reversals. It goes on to underscore the importance of internal forces in bringing about change and in ensuring the sustainability of democracy in Africa. The tasks that lie ahead for civil society in Africa and the role of the international community and political conditionality of aid in this context are then debated.     

Foreign Aid,Structural Adjustment,and Public Management: The Mozambican Experience

In looking at the case of Mozambique under structural adjustment, this article argues that the particular combination of fiscal restraints imposed by financial programming, and the proliferation of decentralized project-based management, together proved to be a potent mixture which failed to reconstruct a coherent pattern of state action. The problem lies in the increasing dominance of foreign aid and in the uneasy interplay between programme aid on the one hand and project aid on the other, as competition from projects wins resources away from regular state programmes, with very little prospect of such projects becoming self-sustainable in the absence of the continued infusion of foreign aid.     

Democratization, Legitimacy and Political Change in Central Asia

This article examines the concepts of democracy and legitimacy in the context of post-Soviet Central Asia. Its first argument is that democratization projects have lived through hard times in five Central Asian countries despite the failure of the institutional expression of democracy to incorporate the values and structures of these societies. The Soviet legacy of cynicism combined with local conservative political culture obstructs the emergence of democratic values and processes crucial for successful institutional development. If democracy does not provide a basis for political legitimacy, should the conclusion be that the ruling regimes are illegitimate? The article’s second argument is that the current sources of legitimacy stem from the fact that the regimes managed to cope with the initial challenges of post-communist transition with relative success and laid the foundation of the new states. Moreover, the populations do not see viable alternatives to the present order. However, there are new problems, such as mounting social tensions, regionalization and criminalization of politics. These challenges are largely a by-product of developments in the post-independence era. The continuing legitimacy of the regimes will depend on their ability to cope with these new, highly problematic issues.     

Structural Adjustment and Performance in Living Standards in Developing Countries

Over the years, the World Bank's structural adjustment programmes have been criticized on the grounds that they have adverse effects on the living standards of the people in developing countries. The main objective of this article is to test the hypothesis that the adjustment lending countries have had a superior (or inferior) performance to the non-adjustment lending countries during the 1980s. A new dummy variable regression model is used to test this hypothesis. The model controls for initial conditions, external shocks and other exogenous variables which affect different countries differently. The standard of living is measured by several socioeconomic variables including per capita income, lifeexpectancy at birth, infant mortality rate, and literacy rate.     

工业化、民主化、民族化与中国现代化——评虞和平主编的《中国现代化历程》

虞和平先生主编的《中国现代化历程》是目前用“现代化范式”研究近代以来中国社会变迁规模最大、内容最新、分量最重的研究成果。该书以“工业化、民主化和民族化”为核心概念,以“两大模式三条道路四个阶段转换”为线索,纲举目张,清晰地勾勒出中国现代化的历程。在理论架构方面,该书对马克思的现代化思想;现代化启动的动力;革命与现代化的关系;外资引用问题等,都有深刻剖析,发人深思。与此相对的是,学术史回顾、某些史料的真伪甄别、选题狭隘等方面存在缺陷,需要进一步改进。     

Corporatism as Ethnic Compromise: Labour Relations in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Abstract. Conventional wisdom associates corporatism with undemocratic elite collusion, or worse, with the fascist order of Mussolini, Franco or Perq?n. However, another form of corporatism involves institutionalised bargaining between representatives of organised interest groups. This democratic corporatism engages in trade-offs between labour unions, business and state bureaucrats. Where these groups largely coincide with different ethnic constituencies, as in South Africa, the outcome of their bargaining also amounts to an ethnic compromise. This analysis explores the scope, potential and limitations of corporatist labour relations in the new South Africa. Embraced by the African National Congress (ANC) government, legalised codetermination none the less encounters strong reservation from both socialist union leaders as well as the white business establishment. Alienated workers feel shortchanged by elite deals which are also resented by fragmented business sectors. How far state representatives can mediate between different ethno-racial/class interests and realise the promise of less adversarial relations for mutually beneficial growth and stability is being probed with an analysis of the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac). Liberal South African analysts fear a one-party dominant state, because of likely future ANC hegemony and ethnic voting habits. This legitimate anxiety, however, needs to be balanced by the important checks placed on the ANC by corporatism. Even a poorly implemented corporatism of consensus seeking, it is argued, proves better than an ethno-racial adversarialism of an alternative to the non-racial ANC.     

Structural Adjustment and Poverty Alleviation: An Interpretative Survey

There are few simple generalizations about the effects of adjustment programmes on poverty. There remain many data and methodological problems, and outcomes are complex and varied. Poverty groups often are harmed by adjustment programmes, especially the urban working poor, but there has been a tendency to over-emphasize negative outcomes. There are many other influences on poverty. In the long term, adjustment is essential to the eradication of poverty. The principal responsibility for achieving anti-poverty objectives must lie with national governments but they do not always display much concern with the poor. However, the international financial institutions must share the responsibility and could do more to design structural adjustment programmes within a cost-minimizing framework. The principal policy tasks are to formulate a long-term anti-poverty strategy and ensure that adjustment policies are consistent with that, without detracting from the imperative of adapting the economy to changing circumstances.     

Structural Adjustment and Subsistence Industry: Artisanal Gold Mining in Ghana

Since the implementation of Ghana's national Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), policies associated with the programme have been criticized for perpetuating poverty within the country's subsistence economy. This article brings new evidence to bear on the contention that the SAP has both fuelled the uncontrolled growth of informal, poverty‐driven artisanal gold mining and further marginalized its impoverished participants. Throughout the adjustment period, it has been a central goal of the government to promote the expansion of large‐scale gold mining through foreign investment. Confronted with the challenge of resuscitating a deteriorating gold mining industry, the government introduced a number of tax breaks and policies in an effort to create an attractive investment climate for foreign multinational mining companies. The rapid rise in exploration and excavation activities that has since taken place has displaced thousands of previously‐undisturbed subsistence artisanal gold miners. This, along with a laissez faire land concession allocation procedure, has exacerbated conflicts between mining parties. Despite legalizing small‐scale mining in 1989, the Ghanaian government continues to implement procedurally complex and bureaucratically unwieldy regulations and policies for artisanal operators which have the effect of favouring the interests of established large‐scale miners.     

Economic Tensions and Conflict in the Commonwealth, 1945-c.1951

In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, economicrelations between Britain and the Commonwealth were very close,and the Empire was of greater economic importance to Britainthan at any previous time. International economic conditionswere dominated by the dollar shortage, and especially afterthe sterling crisis of 1947 most of the sterling area membersof the Commonwealth were drawn into even closer interdependence.But, in contrast to the expectations of many policy makers,the world economy after the war was characterized by buoyantdemand and limited supply. In particular, the demands placedon British production and finance highlighted the limitationsof capacity. Development in both the independent and ColonialCommonwealth was frustrated. The inadequacies of the closedsystem revealed in the late 1940s encouraged Commonwealth countriesto push for the restoration of currency convertibility and ofmultilateralism in the 1950s.     

Democratization and museum policy in South Korea

ABSTRACT

This article examines the two distinct historical policy paths taken by the South Korean government in the late twentieth century towards the democratization of museums. One was based on the creation of a museological public sphere as an extension of the political democratization movement of the 1980s. This demonstrated the potential to become a valuable component of the wider incipient national public sphere within which civic subjects could discuss their individual and collective historical memories. However, despite this potential, a museological public sphere failed to influence the general trajectory of national policy regarding the democratization of museums that had been in development since the early 1980s. This other policy path towards cultural democratization was triggered by the award of the Seoul Olympics in 1981. It was based on public participation and entitled the ‘cultural Olympics’. An important strategy of the cultural Olympics was the construction of a new institutional infrastructure to expand the public right to enjoy culture. This path facilitated an increasing entanglement with neoliberalism in 1990s. Finally, the 1997 IMF crisis furthered the association between a superficial idea of democratization through institutional expansion and the practices of neoliberalism, a trend which continues within South Korean museum policy today.     

Structural Reform of the Veterinary Profession in Africa and the New Institutional Economics

This article reviews a number of critical issues in the structural reform of animal health services in Africa. Using the New Institutional Economics, it highlights several problems that others concerned with the privatization of this service area have tended to neglect. Most notably it calls attention to: (1) the need to retain a central role for paraprofessionals in the new delivery system; (2) the desirability of competition between the veterinary and para-veterinary professions; (3) the importance of developing state contracting procedures for assisting the private delivery of animal health that will avoid the problems of local monopoly; and (4) the central role that new and strengthened professional associations will have to play in this area if collective goods and the public interest are to be served. The article's larger purpose is to demonstrate that the New Institutional Economics has a great deal to contribute to the older precepts of neo-classical economics in anticipating and thinking through the fundamental changes that privatization of professional services in Africa are posing. In this sense it is a first step in a larger programme of empirical and theoretical research.     

民族政策科学化、民主化、法制化探讨

本文从民族政策机构、民族政策过程和民族政策系统探讨分析民族政策科学化、民主化和法制化。