			Home About us Contact

Global Economic System (global + economic_system)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	50%

Selected Abstracts

Financialization and the Role of Real Estate in Hong Kong's Regime of Accumulation

ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, Issue 2 2003
Alan Smart
Abstract: The greater dominance of finance in the global economic system is widely considered to have increased instability and created difficulties in constructing modes of regulation that could stabilize post-Fordist regimes of accumulation. Heightened competition and the discipline of global finance restrict the use of Fordist strategies that expand social wages to balance production and consumption. Robert Boyer suggested a model for a possible stable finance-led growth regime. His hypothesis is that once there are sufficient stocks of property in a nation, expenditures that are based on capital gains, dividends, interest, and pensions can compensate for diminished wage-based demand. We contend that the neglect of real estate is a serious limitation, since housing wealth is more significant than other forms of equity for most citizens, and thus that it fails to capture the impact of the perceptions and choices of ordinary citizens. We then argue that features of a finance-led regime of accumulation and a property-based mode of regulation appeared in Hong Kong relatively early. A case study of Hong Kong is used to extend Boyer's discussion, as well as to diagnose Hong Kong's experience for its lessons on the impact of such developments. [source]

The Influence of the Global Order on the Prospects for Genuine Democracy in the Developing Countries

RATIO JURIS, Issue 3 2001
Thomas W. Pogge
There is much rhetorical and even some tangible support by the developed states for democratisation processes in the poorer countries. Most people there nevertheless enjoy little genuine democratic participation or even government responsiveness to their needs. This fact is commonly explained by indigenous factors, often related to the history and culture of particular societies. My essay outlines a competing explanation by reference to global institutional factors, involving fixed features of our global economic system. It also explores possible global institutional reforms that, insofar as the offered explanation is correct, should greatly improve the prospects for democracy and responsive government in the developing world. [source]

Collective representations and social praxis: local politics in the Norwegian welfare state

THE JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, Issue 4 2002
David B. Kronenfeld
We consider an attempt , within an economy under pressure to stay competitive in an increasingly integrated global economic system , to reconcile the contradictory pressures of democratic values versus managerial efficiency, and of the desire for an effective social welfare safety net versus the need for budgetary responsibility. We focus on a local welfare committee's experimental attempt to improve morale and productivity through a combination of added resources and greater autonomy. The better but more expensive service produced by the experiment triggered the paradoxical conclusion that what was needed was tighter administrative oversight. The experiment and its evaluation became a kind of self,fulfilling prophecy. We explore the conceptual, ideological, and economic factors that shape the government's reaction, and then offer a theory of word meaning, usage, and power in public discourse that accounts for the discussion and the actions that flow from it. [source]

Policy on global warming: fiddling while the globe burns?

AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 4 2009
Del Weston
Abstract Objective: To assess the extent that the health consequences of global warming and the responses to it take due account of its impact on poverty and inequality. Method: Reviewing the relevant literature on global warming, proposed solutions and the impact. Results: To date, too little attention has been paid to the health consequences arising from the increased poverty and inequality that global warming will bring. When these are combined with issues arising from the economic melt-down, food shortages, peak oil, etc. we are heading for a global public health crisis of immeasurable magnitude. Conclusion: Solutions lie in rethinking the global economic system that we have relied upon over the past several decades and the global institutions that have led and fed off that global system , the IMF, the World Bank and so on. Implications: Public health practitioners need to look and act globally more often. They need to better recognise the links between global warming and the global financial crisis. How the latter is dealt with will determine whether the former can be resolved. It is in this global political economy arena that future action in public health lies. [source]