The Viability of the United Nations Approach to Economic and SocialHuman Rights in a Globalized Economy

The United Nations approaches economic and social human rights through a framework of legal positivism. States are called on to respect, protect and fulfil their legal obligations contained in international human rights law. The state remains ultimately responsible for guaranteeing these economic and social human rights. This article explores the viability of this statist approach in this era of economic globalization. The less developed countries often face economic deprivation caused not by state action/inaction but by the global economic system itself. In many key respects states appear to be losing their capacity to regulate their economies and labour markets effectively. Yet despite the shrinking nature of our global community, the state is still central in the creation of the proper environment for the fulfilment of these rights. This article analyses the national strategies that governments can pursue to respect, protect and fulfil the economic and social rights of their citizens, and thus meet their international legal obligations.     

JFK, Democracy, and U.S. Security Policy in the Americas

Book reviewed in this article:
Stephen G. Rabe, The Most Dangerous Area in the World: John F. Kennedy Confronts Communist Revolution in Latin America     

The Fractal Theory of Central Place Geometry: A Diophantine Analysis of Fractal Generators for Arbitrary Löschian Numbers

We develop material to determine whether or not an arbitrary number is Löschian; the procedure embodied in the theorems achieves the desired result more swiftly than do previous solutions to this problem. The correspondence between a partition of the central place lattice and a quadratic form permits the rapid determination of the lattice coordinates of an arbitrary Löschian number and of the exact shape of a single fractal generator used to form an entire central place hierarchy associated with an arbitrary Löschian number. Central place hierarchies may be generated geometrically using a single shape applied initially to a hexagon and subsequently, scaled appropriately, to resultant polygons. Fractional dimensions of arbitrary central place hierarchies, measuring their “space-filling” characteristics, follow naturally from this general procedure.     

ECONOMIC RIGHTS AND THE WELFARE STATE: THE QUEST FOR POLICY INTEGRITY

Leslie Dunbar. 1988. The Common Interest: How Our Social Welfare Policies Don't Work and What We Can Do About Them
Charles Lockhart. 1989. Gaining Ground: Tailoring Social Programs to American Values     

PRODUCTION FUNCTIONS AND THE DISAGGREGATION OF LABOR INPUTS IN MANUFACTURING PLANTS*

ABSTRACT. This paper investigates the assumption of homogeneous labor inputs underlying the production functions in many regional models. The results indicate that nonproduction and production labor within manufacturing plants are not strongly separable, and the homogeneous labor assumption is not therefore appropriate. Hence, regional models need to take this into account in order to give reliable results. Differences between industries provide useful additional insights into their labor and capital relationships.