China's Post-Listian Rise: Beyond Radical Globalisation Theory and the Political Economy of Neoliberal Hegemony

While China's rise has been much discussed, its meaning continues to be contested. This is true in radical international political economy, where, for example, it was the subject of (often polarised) debates between Giovanni Arrighi and David Harvey prior to Arrighi's death in 2009. This reflected a broader debate in IPE between development theory and radical globalisation analysis. The key point of contention is whether China's rise represents a challenge to or further consolidation of neoliberal hegemony on a global scale. This article critically scrutinises some of the key assumptions of the radical globalisation approach, specifically, that China represents another form of the ‘competition state’ whose development aspirations have been radically constrained by global ‘new constitutionalism’ and American monetary power so as to conform to neoliberalism. Deploying a structurationist approach to global governance and an eclectic/regulatory analysis of the Chinese state, I argue that China has challenged neoliberalism by projecting its growing power through constitutionalised global governance. In the face of (declining) American power, global constitutionalism has provided an opportunity structure that may help China consolidate its long-term strategy of consensual development. Far from anchoring ‘neoliberal hegemony’, global economic governance is increasingly central to its unravelling.     

健康的生态经济要求计算核电的全部成本

健康的生态及其经济运作,是人类健康生存和可持续发展的基础。核电的各种间接成本和风险成本,迄今都没有计入核电企业的生产成本,而是由国家、社会乃至全球人类分担了,致使电力行业感到发展核电站比较合算。日本福岛核电站泄漏事故,再一次警告全世界必须全面计算核电的各种成本,进行生态经济比较,决定取舍或合理布局。     

Market Power and Marketisation: Japan and China's Impact on the Iron Ore Market, 50 Years Apart

ABSTRACT

How can we explain the marketisation of the iron ore market following the emergence of China, whereas the same market had seen change in the opposite direction following the emergence of Japan, 50 years earlier? I argue that relative coordination capacity – or relative market power – between domestic and international stakeholders explains market change at the global level. Via the study of Japan and China's impact on the iron ore pricing and shipping regimes, I show that China's rise led to the marketisation (liberalisation and financialisation) of the iron ore market pricing regime, and the demarketisation of the shipping regime, whereas Japan's rise led to demarketisation in both cases. This article's argument illustrates that China's impact is not equal across markets, contrary to characterisations of China as either a revisionist or status quo power. Second, it argues that China has caused the marketisation of the iron ore pricing regime, which is contrary to expectations on both sides of the debate on China's rise: China was unable to dictate outcomes via a strong state, nor did it seamlessly integrate the global economy. Third, it illustrates the importance of resonance dynamics at the interface of domestic and global market institutions.     

The Transnational State and the Infrastructure Push

In 2010, the G20, in cooperation with major international organisations, launched a comprehensive effort – here labelled the infrastructure push – to promote infrastructure investments around the world. Using selected transnationalised elements from historical materialism, this is explained as a transnational state initiative to secure general material conditions for capitalist growth in a manner that is profoundly shaped by power relations. The infrastructure problem was allowed to grow during neoliberalism because of the hegemony of finance; the push is a result of and reflects a weakening of finance and strengthening of industrial interests in the transnational power bloc, as well as a strengthening of the emerging economies. This potential hegemonic project has gained the support of the global labour movement, while also has been subject to serious criticism from civil society organisations, speaking for the most vulnerable subaltern social forces. The empirical analysis also shows that the transnational state in this policy area works as a flexible, networked cooperation of G20 states and leading international organisations in ongoing dialogue with non-state actors, especially transnational business. In this cooperation, the international organisations have a relatively autonomous role in line with a historical materialist understanding of state apparatuses.     

Japan's Post‐Fukushima Energy Policy Challenges

The Great East Japan Earthquake and the successive accidents at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station are stark reminders of the importance of energy, which is the basis of economic activity and national governance. Urgent responses have been conducted since March 11, 2011, including controlling the consequences of the nuclear accident, dealing with the short‐term power shortages, and a comprehensive review of Japan's long‐term national energy policy. Nationwide discussions and reviews of these issues are still continuing. Even today, more than 2 years after March 11, many problems remain unsolved and Japanese society has to face uncertainty and challenges about its energy future. In the current difficult situation, Japan needs to achieve “3Es (e nergy security, environmental protection, and economic efficiency)” plus “S” (safety) and “M” (macro economy protection) simultaneously, taking account of the new realities following the Fukushima accident. This paper tries to identify the energy‐related challenges that Japan has to face and tries to recommend the concept of the “energy best mix policy” for Japan, by describing the present status of energy issues in Japan and the national debate on energy policy.     

E-commerce critical success factors: East vs. West

The three main purposes of this paper are to (1) identify critical success factors (CSFs) for electronic commerce (EC), (2) investigate the explanatory power of these CSFs on firm performance, and (3) compare differences in evaluating CSFs and explaining impact of CSFs on performance among in Korea, Japan, and USA. Through a literature review and interviews with managers in EC firms, a list of 16 CSFs consisting of 111 items was compiled. Questionnaires were administered to managers of EC companies in Seoul, Korea, Tokyo, Japan, and Texas, USA. Survey results show that CSFs have very significant explanatory power for firm performance in all three countries. While security, privacy, and technical expertise are the most explanatory CSFs in Korea, evaluation of EC operations, technical expertise, and ease of use show most explanatory power in USA.     

QUANTITY OR QUALITY: THE IMPACT OF LABOUR SAVING INNOVATION ON US AND JAPANESE GROWTH RATES, 1960–2004*

This article deals with both theoretical and empirical analyses of the post‐war (1960–2004) growth for the USA and Japan. We investigated three factors contributing to growth: the growth rates of capital, labour and labour saving innovation. In Japan, the growth rate of the labour force has been much less important than its quality improvement—i.e. labour saving technical change—while in the USA, the growth rates of labour and population have contributed more than their quality improvement. The policy implication is that Japan's declining population can be compensated for by additional quality improvement of the existing labour force.     

多重制度逻辑交互关系如何影响持续性变革过程？—基于云南农垦集团20年政企分离转型纵向案例分析

在更加动态和复杂的背景下,持续性变革取向的价值更加凸显.本文采用案例研究方法,以一家国有组织20年政企分离转型的过程为分析对象,尝试探究持续性变革的动力来源及过程机制.结合多重制度逻辑理论,研究发现小社会逻辑和市场逻辑是组织政企分离过程中最突出的两种制度逻辑.多重制度逻辑交互关系与持续性变革状态转换之间的具体关系如下:①受到外部环境影响,市场逻辑迅速提升对内部小社会逻辑产生挤压,两种制度逻辑之间的冲突显性化促使组织从"解冻"状态进入"冻结"状态,随后转向"再平衡"的变革状态;②组织内部小社会逻辑的回顾使得制度逻辑之间的冲突性逐渐减弱,兼容性逐渐凸显,推动组织由"再平衡"状态转向"解冻"状态;③多重制度逻辑交互关系的不断转换为组织持续性变革提供情景动力.研究结合组织内外部因素对持续性变革的驱动情景进行了有益探索,丰富了组织变革理论研究,同时为当前背景下企业变革和创新实践提供启示.     

Technology and the firm

The globalization of the economy is a process driven by the enterprise. As enterprises form networks of alliances they tend to create huge oligopolistic structures on a global scale. Although these global enterprises are not subject to national norms, it is evident that a new alliance is growing up between the enterprise and the state. In the context of fierce international competition, enterprises need the support of the state, which is able to ensure that its 'national champions' enjoy optimum conditions for development; in return, successful enterprises are the state's best guarantee of national independence. But through this alliance the enterprise has acquired a totally new legitimacy, approaching that formerly reserved for the state, while the state finds itself engaged in global economic competition, which lacks adequate regulatory procedures. There is also a growing disassociation between globalized economic power on one hand, and political power conjned within national borders, on the other. There is a need to formulate a new regulatory framework, in order to overcome a situation where actors representing particular interests impose their own rules on actors representing the public interest. Such a framework would encourage the emergence of a transnational civilian society able to mobilize itself in the face of global economic, technological and environmental problems.     

US and East Asian Security under the Obama Presidency: A Japanese Perspective

The most important factor determining the structure of East Asia will continue to be the strategic relationship between the USA and China. It is the key component of the six party talks on the North Korean problem as well as nuclear nonproliferation. Japan is obviously a lesser strategic player, which is in a position to encourage middle-power security cooperation among the East Asian countries breathing between the USA and China. There is a conceptual, if not geopolitical, competition between Japan and China over an ideal future of East Asian regionalism, which the East Asian countries and the USA should join in a constructive manner.     

Thinking Like a Trader: The Impact of Neoliberal Doctrine on Habits of Thought

Neoliberalism has come out of the financial crisis unscathed. Moreover, it has further asserted its dominance over geopolitical discourse and ideology worldwide. I contend that neoliberal supremacy in the policy arena and upon domestic and international institutions has been largely uncontested because it has penetrated all aspects of life to the extent that it now represents what Thorstein Veblen referred to as “the modern point of view.” Understanding the global power of neoliberalism requires examining not only its well-established hegemony over institutions as social constructs, but also its impact on habits of thought as mental constructs. From a Veblenian perspective, I argue that the neoliberal doctrine generates habits of thought which legitimize the transformation of a marketoriented economy into a full-fledged market society. The impact of the normalization of the neoliberal mode of behavior may, in the end, worsen the fracture between nation and state and unravel the fabric of society by justifying fully detached, emotion-free, and self-centered actions that crowd-out pro-social behaviors and challenge any social conception of the common good.     

刍议小森阳一后现代后殖民主义理论

在小森阳一看来,“后殖民主义”话语中带有浓厚的西方“口音”,因此,他所主张的“后殖民主义”并非以美国为代表的“后殖民批评”。他指出,现在世界上所出现的所有事态,都只不过是欧美日原帝国主义列强国家所建构的、殖民主义世界的产物,因此,真正的后殖民主义批评应该将责任与斗争的方向性并提。正因为所有的政治的、经济的、军事的、文化的现象都在一种地缘政治学的力的关系和霸权斗争的关系中展开,所以,对之必须采取批判态度。认识到这一点并且负上实践的责任,才是“后殖民批评”的前提性立场。     

Institutional changes and breakpoints in Israeli trade

This paper examines the structural changes in Israeli trade trends since the 1970s. Structural change tests do not reject the null of no breaks in Israeli trade trends after Israel signed FTA agreements with the EEC and the USA, or after Israel's 1991 new trade policy. The tests, however, show significant evidence for breakpoints in 1993 in Israel's trade shares with three countries who had adhered strongly to the Arab boycott. This result suggests that the Middle East peace process, which began in 1991, considerably weakened the boycott and brought about positive changes in Israeli long-term trade patterns.     

Exchange rate volatility and exports from East Asian countries to Japan and the USA

The purpose of this article is to investigate the impact of exchange rate volatility on exports in four East Asian countries (Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, and Thailand). Specifically, this article aims at determining whether the bilateral real exchange rate volatility between an East Asian country and its trading partner negatively affects the exports of the East Asian country. Considering the dominant roles of the USA and Japan as trading partners of those East Asian countries, this article focuses on the quarterly export volumes of East Asian countries to the US and Japan for the period from 1981 to 2004. Except for the case of Hong Kong's exports to Japan, cointegration tests and estimations of error correction models indicate exchange rate volatility has negative impacts on exports either in the short-run or in the long-run, or both. On the other hand, the real GDP of importing countries and depreciation of real bilateral exchange rates turn out, in general, to have positive effects. Of special interest is the finding that the impact of the exchange rate volatility does not show any stylized differences depending on whether the importing country is Japan or the USA, even though dollar invoicing dominates in East Asia.     

核电站事故对国家食品安全的影响——以日本福岛核电站事故为例

以2011年3月日本福岛第一核电站事故为例,从影响内容与影响途径两方面探讨了核电站事故对国家及地区食品安全的巨大冲击,指出核电站的安全运转对国家或地区的食品安全及食品贸易意义重大,唯有通过国际交流合作、全面的风险评估、完善预警应对机制,方能确保核能的安全使用并避免其安全事故对食品安全造成的负面影响;同时,在描述中国核电站现状的基础上,提出了保障食品供应链的高效运作与加强核电站安全管理的措施建议,以期寻求核能立国与食品安全的和谐发展路径。     

The Innovative Performance Of The World'S Largest Firms: Some New Evidence ‡

Data on R & D expenditures and US patenting in the world's 660 largest, technologically active firms both show a linear relation between firm size and the volume of innovative activities, despite some inconsistencies between the two measures. Technological diversity increases with firm size, but relatively weakly, especially in R & D-intensive sectors. Sectoral variations in the comparative technological advantage of large firms based in Japan, the USA and W. Europe are better explained by variations in rivalry in their home market than by variations in their size.     

What Happened to the Japanese Model?

Japan's steep postwar growth was nested in a political economy built around producer‐oriented policies: by fostering the growth of large firms using the tools of industrial policy, the government could jumpstart development. Many large firms, and their employees, benefited indirectly from this growth program, and very small firms and industries not included in the growth model were compensated through preferential policies or subsidies. Japan's social contract evolved around this system, having as its centerpiece lifetime employment. The government spent more resources on supporting exporting industries and compensating domestic ones than on building a forward‐looking welfare system. Japan's decade‐long economic downturn marks a structural transition towards a postindustrial society. While excelling in producing tangibles, Japan has fallen behind in fostering modern industries, including services; the country also lacks a welfare system to handle increasing structural unemployment that this transition brings about. Without a commitment towards a welfare system and a welfare society, and a reorientation of the social contract towards citizens, Japan is unlikely to transition successfully.     

A new rationale for industrial policy: developing the capabilities of the learning firm

Is government intervention justified in order to raise national competitiveness? Proponents of industrial policy have not, according to many economists, provided a convincing rationale for such efforts. The new rationale developed here builds on the insight that firms are capable of both organizational learning and behaving economically responsibly to society. Further, it draws on Japanese and USA experience with industrial policy, in particular the USA's success in the case of Harley Davidson, as well as the infant industry argument. The key questions are: can government interventions successfully influence the organizational learning of a nation's firms? And if so, under what circumstances?     

对二战后英国国际形象的思考

英国在二战后建构了自己衰落、渐变、动摇和务实的国际形象。在世界霸权和平的转移中,在平缓而不是大起大落的变化中,英国没有落伍,它仍然在前进。当我们以国际形象的视角回顾英国从二战结束到现在这段历史的时候,我们更多关注的是它的衰落、渐变、动摇和务实。它在这个过程中塑造的国际形象,为国际社会提供了有益的启示。英国的实例告诉我们,作为国际形象基础的国家实力的各个组成部分中,人口、国土和资源等自然因素是基础的基础。     

Hayek,Friedman, and Buchanan: On Public Life,Chile, and the Relationship between Liberty and Democracy

This article places recent evidence of Hayek's public defense of the Pinochet regime in the context of the work of the other great twentieth-century classical liberal economists, Milton Friedman and James M. Buchanan. Hayek's view that liberty was only instrumentally valuable is contrasted with Buchanan's account of liberty situated in the notion of the inviolable individual. It is argued that Hayek's theory left him with no basis on which to demarcate the legitimate actions of the state, so that conceivably any government action could be justified on consequentialist grounds. Furthermore, Friedman's account of freedom and discretionary power undermines Hayek's proposal that a transitional dictatorship could pave the way for a genuinely free society. It is contended that Hayek's defense of Pinochet follows from pathologies of his theories of liberty and democracy.