Globalisation, history and development: a tale of two centuries

This paper situates globalisation in historical perspectiveto analyse its implications for development. It sketches a pictureof globalisation during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.A comparison of these two epochs reveals striking parallels,unexpected similarities and important differences. It showsthat globalisation did not lead to rapid growth and economicconvergence in the world, either then or now. Indeed, growthslowed down, and income levels diverged, while the gap betweenthe industrialised and developing countries widened, in bothepochs. The story of globalisation, it turns out, does not conformto the fairy tale about convergence and development.     

OECD organisational discourse, peer reviews and sustainable development: An ecological-institutionalist perspective

As part of the recent ‘ideational turn’ in research on international organisations, the study of organisational discourse has gained popularity. Yet ecological economics has thus far paid little attention to the role of organisations as sites for the discursive battles over the meaning of sustainable development. For an international organisation without regulatory powers, such as the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), discourse is the main vehicle for policy influence, but it also plays a key role in (re)defining the organisation's identity and authority. The OECD's organisational discourse has been strongly dominated by ‘modern mainstream economics’, and has given little room for marginalised discourses. This paper compares, from the perspective of institutionally oriented ecological economics (IOEE), and borrowing from critical discourse analysis, the experience from attempts to integrate the concept of sustainable development within two OECD peer review mechanisms - the Economic Surveys and the Environmental Performance Reviews. The extent to which the respective conceptions of sustainable development in the two reviews are in line with the principles of IOEE and the reasons for the apparent failure of sustainable development discourse to gain foothold within the organisation are analysed.     

Schumpeter and the `Schmollerprogramm': integrating theory and history in the analysis of economic development

This essay addresses the historical and institutional aspects of Schumpeter's thought. It suggests that Schumpeter prepared a pluralist research agenda, formulated in accordance with the conceptual perspective of the German Historical School, as presented by major scholars such as Schmoller, Sombart, Spiethoff and Max Weber. Schumpeter's notion of development, with its emphasis on the correspondence of economic and socio-cultural evolution, is therefore to be viewed in the context of the comprehensive Schmollerian approach. Moreover the ethical-evolutionary components of Schmoller's ideas point at the vital role of the German Historical School in the elaboration of a modern evolutionary economics in Schumpeterian terms. The essay concludes that the Schmollerprogramm is going to inspire further developments in Schumpeterian economics, as the integration of theory and history continuously marks the research agenda of evolutionary approaches to economic development.     

State history and economic development: evidence from six millennia

The presence of a state is one of the most reliable historical predictors of social and economic development. In this article, we complete the coding of an extant indicator of state presence from 3500 BCE forward for almost all but the smallest countries of the world today. We outline a theoretical framework where accumulated state experience increases aggregate productivity in individual countries but where newer or relatively inexperienced states can reach a higher productivity maximum by learning from the experience of older states. The predicted pattern of comparative development is tested in an empirical analysis where we introduce our extended state history variable. Our key finding is that the current level of economic development across countries has a hump-shaped relationship with accumulated state history.     

Bridges over contested terrain: Exploring the radical account of the employment relationship

Richard Edwards' account of the transformation of the employment relationship in the twentieth century is used as a vehicle for integrating the radical analysis into the more conventional treatment. Most non-radical analyses rely on idiosyncratic skills to explain the existence of job security and other features of the modern employment relationship. Here an alternative explanation is proposed and some of its implications are explored.     

Dictators and oligarchs: A dynamic theory of contested property rights

In an economy with weak economic and political institutions, the major institutional choices are made strategically by oligarchs and dictators. The conventional wisdom presumes that as rent-seeking is harmful for oligarchs themselves, institutions such as property rights will emerge spontaneously. We explicitly model a dynamic game between the oligarchs and a dictator who can contain rent-seeking. The oligarchs choose either a weak dictator (who can be overthrown by an individual oligarch) or a strong dictator (who can only be replaced via a consensus of oligarchs). In equilibrium, no dictator can commit to both: (i) protecting the oligarchs' property rights from the other oligarchs and (ii) not expropriating oligarchs himself. We show that a weak dictator does not limit rent-seeking. A strong dictator does reduce rent-seeking but also expropriates individual oligarchs. We show that even though eliminating rent-seeking is Pareto optimal, weak dictators do get appointed in equilibrium and rent-seeking continues. This outcome is especially likely when economic environment is highly volatile.     

Negotiating contested visions and place-specific expectations of the hydrogen economy

This paper explores the role of the 'hydrogen economy' as a guiding vision encompassing multiple contested technological futures, value judgements and problem framings. Hydrogen visions draw upon six overarching and competing narrative themes: power and independence; community empowerment and democratisation; ecotopia; hydrogen as technical fix; inevitability and technical progress; and 'staying in the race'. In other words the hydrogen economy possesses great interpretive flexibility. This, it is argued, is the key to hydrogen's rhetorical power, allowing it to become a space in which divergent interests and agendas are promoted. Turning to issues of scale and place, the case of London is used to document the dynamics of expectations: how the open flexible guiding vision of a hydrogen economy must inevitably be re-invented and grounded in local agendas and contexts if its promise is to become realised.     

Adam Smith's theory of economic history and economic development

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to show that Smith has a theory of economic history grounded in a politico-economic modeling (as well as a sort of economic theoretical modeling). In terms of the politico-economic approach, in the Wealth of Nations (Book III.ii–iv) Smith tried to offer a systematic account of economic development from feudalism to capitalism in Europe. These lead to suggest that the seeming internal inconsistency between the natural and the actual courses of progress in Book III may be resolved, and that Smith may be treated as a precursor of Douglass North, who stressed an inextricable link between the polity and the economy in economic history.     

Differentiation and restructuring – new space for development of urban center area： a case study of Shizhong District of Ji＇nan City

Taking the development tendency of current world industrial development as the background, this paper restructures the internal space of urban center area by illustrating reasons for internal space differentiation of urban center area, that is to say, according to the tertiary industry interior＇s high-end of value chain after convergence among the primary, the secondary and the tertiary industries, the space structure of urban center area will form the space development mode with characteristic modern service industry cluster districts through vertical segmentation, horizontal derivatization and block aggregation and realize perfect space renewal of urban center area in the end.     

The struggle for space: Past and future of the space race

This article is geared toward shedding some more light on what may be the next space race and its contours.Space flight is undoubtedly a human achievement of the second half of the 20th century, and probably the most audacious one of the past century. The space race started suddenly in the 1950s and has grown explosively during the following two decades, but decreased steadily after the 1970s. After the 1990s, however, we have seen a shy rebirth of space-related activities, when many other actors (states) entered the stage, adding up to the agonizing role of the two-actor piece that we have witnessed during the so-called Cold War.The opening years of the 21st century provided a more complex narrative for space exploration. At the start of the new millennium a new technosphere [1] emerged, dominated by what is used to be called as the Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), with the Internet playing the leading role among the bandwagon of technological novelties that appeared during the twilight of space activities. In despite of the fact that artificial satellites represent the very backbone of the global communications system, space activities seem to play a secondary role amidst the apparently accelerated rate of change concerning the technological systems of the present technosphere. But, as it is demonstrated in this paper, things are changing, and very probably a renewed space race will unfold in the coming decades.A question may be placed: what happened? Why the Earth stood still with regard to the race toward the cosmos? Answer: futurists, even prestigious ones like Herman Kahn and Arthur Clarke, did not consider the existence of socioeconomic long waves (Kondratieff waves, or K-waves for short) with their two decades long economic downturn, which has contributed to the deceleration of space-related activities.Analyzing the worldwide evolving scenario of space-related activities during the last eighty years under the framework of the succeeding K-waves and applying some technological forecasting tools, namely the logistic analysis, technological surveillance and intensive data mining, scrutinizing more than 7500 events occurred in the period 1930–2010 related with space activities, it is demonstrated that the space race like the one that we have witnessed until now is a natural growth process that has saturated at the dawn of this century. The same analysis demonstrates that a new growth process in this field might be nowadays under way with contours very different from that imagined by futurists and science fiction writers sixty years ago. Also the main trends in the usage of launching vehicles and satellites are framed and discussed in this paper.     

Mitigating the tyranny of public opinion: Anonymous discourse and the ethic of sincerity

Public opinion breeds tyranny by forcing individuals to refrain from voicing their genuine thoughts and feelings. The means used to mitigate such tyranny include the separation of governmental powers, the ethic of tolerance, and the secret ballot. Yet neither individually nor collectively do these devices prevent the emergence and persistence of social taboos. This paper proposes two additional corrective devices. One is an electronic instrument that would enable public officials to deliberate on socially sensitive matters behind a veil of anonymity. The other is an ethic that would enhance the utility citizens derive from truthfulness on political matters. A draft of this paper was discussed at a Liberty Fund Conference on the “Ethical Foundations of Constitutional Order,” held in Arlington, VA, on July 9–12, 1992. Many of the conference participants offered frank criticisms that resulted in improvements. Jerry Harvey read the paper with exemplary care, making no effort to hide his reservations; I benefited greatly from his wise comments. I profited also from two reports commissioned by this journal, both anonymous.     

烧掉的财富--农作物秸秆综合利用发展空间巨大

我国是农业大国，具有可观的农作物秸秆资源，做好我国农作物秸秆的合理开发与综合利用工作，对解决“三农问题”。改善农村生态环境。提高资源利用率。实现能源多元化。保障国家能源安全。减少因使用化石燃料造成的环境污染具有积极的意义。     

Changing China,Changing Africa: Future Contours of an Emerging Relationship

Current China–Africa relations have been statically framed: China invests in the continent and exports resources extracted by its state‐owned enterprises and fuelled by aid flows, while simultaneously undercutting African industry through cheap exports. We frame this debate, then explore how the framework could adjust in response to changing economic realities in China, centered on the “rebalancing” of the growth model toward domestic consumption. We argue that a new wave of private sector‐led, low‐cost manufacturers may find its way to selected African shores, in the process transforming those economies and the way in which China interacts with them, both for the better.     

Sources and Contours of Adam Smith's Conceptualized Reality in the Wealth of Nations

The collection of legislative actions proposed and negotiated by Johnson included many different programs. The goals, objectives and implementation strategies were not clearly defined. Over the past thirty years, the success and/or failure of these programs has been discussed with no consensus emerging. The historical record of expenditures both as a percentage of GDP and as a percentage of federal outlays, however, reveals a lasting impact of the “Great Society” legislation.     

人类经济发展的昨天、今天和明天：读《世界经济千年史》

《世界经济千年史》是安格斯-麦迪森教授2001年出版的著作,书中详细介绍了千年来世界经济发展之轮廓和西方经济发展对世界其他地区的影响,以及20世纪后半叶的世界经济.麦迪森教授在书中强调个别经济事件之间在当时历史和国际背景下的因果关系和它们的微观经济学基础,以系统地揭示长期经济增长的内在逻辑.麦迪森教授科学和严密的论证使得本书成为一本研究世界经济必备的参考工具书,其影响力也将经久不衰.     

与时俱进——科学社会主义发展的历史特征

科学社会主义的发展史就是与时俱进、不断创新的伟大实践。只有把马克思主义普遍原理与各国实际结合起来,才能将科学社会主义事业推向一个新的历史阶段。中国特色的社会主义就是当代中国化的马克思主义。     

中原城市群空间发展模式研究

运用主成分分析法对18个目标城市的＂城市质量＂进行综合评价。依据空间相互作用理论,利用城市引力模型,以优势城市郑州为中心计算城市间相互作用力,通过确定郑州的有效吸引区界定中原城市群的空间范围,进而确定中原城市群的空间发展模式。     

Employment in the U.S.: Public discourse and longterm trends

Revised version of a talk delivered at a “Presidential Roundtable on President Clinton’s First Year” at the annual meetings of the Association for Social Economics on January 3, 1994 in Boston.