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Abstract

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 12 no. 4/5/6/7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 13 March 2024

Keanu Telles

The paper provides a detailed historical account of Douglass C. North's early intellectual contributions and analytical developments in pursuing a Grand Theory for why some…

Abstract

Purpose

The paper provides a detailed historical account of Douglass C. North's early intellectual contributions and analytical developments in pursuing a Grand Theory for why some countries are rich and others poor.

Design/methodology/approach

The author approaches the discussion using a theoretical and historical reconstruction based on published and unpublished materials.

Findings

The systematic, continuous and profound attempt to answer the Smithian social coordination problem shaped North's journey from being a young serious Marxist to becoming one of the founders of New Institutional Economics. In the process, he was converted in the early 1950s into a rigid neoclassical economist, being one of the leaders in promoting New Economic History. The success of the cliometric revolution exposed the frailties of the movement itself, namely, the limitations of neoclassical economic theory to explain economic growth and social change. Incorporating transaction costs, the institutional framework in which property rights and contracts are measured, defined and enforced assumes a prominent role in explaining economic performance.

Originality/value

In the early 1970s, North adopted a naive theory of institutions and property rights still grounded in neoclassical assumptions. Institutional and organizational analysis is modeled as a social maximizing efficient equilibrium outcome. However, the increasing tension between the neoclassical theoretical apparatus and its failure to account for contrasting political and institutional structures, diverging economic paths and social change propelled the modification of its assumptions and progressive conceptual innovation. In the later 1970s and early 1980s, North abandoned the efficiency view and gradually became more critical of the objective rationality postulate. In this intellectual movement, North's avant-garde research program contributed significantly to the creation of New Institutional Economics.

Details

EconomiA, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1517-7580

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 May 2023

Asanga Abeyagoonasekera

This paper aims to examine the present Sri Lankan political-economic crisis and its connection to corruption. The paper will discuss the autocratic rule, elite domination of state…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the present Sri Lankan political-economic crisis and its connection to corruption. The paper will discuss the autocratic rule, elite domination of state extractive systems, which have been moulded and configured by Sri Lanka’s political environment over decades. Elite capture has become a significant factor. Sri Lanka’s authoritarian model exercised by Gotabaya Rajapaksa reduced competitive mode and shifted towards a monopolistic corruption structure, centralising on the first family and military rule where powerful elites supported the model. The paper attempts to find the connection between dysfunctional political model and economic crimes committed through several case studies.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper discusses five case studies using qualitative analysis using secondary data. The insider trading case study is discussed with quantitative data. Several political and social analyses were carried out with primary data captured from field research by the author.

Findings

Sri Lankan economic crisis was triggered because of high-level corruption. The autocratic model introduced by the political authority failed to fight corruption. Transnational mechanisms will fail if there is no credibility and commitment in their own respective nations such as in the USA. External factors such as China in Sri Lanka did have an impact for elite capture.

Research limitations/implications

This study is limited only to five case studies. Transnational mechanism and recommendations require a lengthy study. Only one external factor was assessed because of its significance; there could be other external factors for elite capture.

Practical implications

This study has limited access to capture primary data because of sensitivity during a heavy autocratic regime. Because of state and self-censorship, secondary data had to be tested.

Social implications

Economic crisis in Sri Lanka is an example to many developing nations fighting corruption. The autocratic family rule supported by external forces crippled the state anti-corruption processes. Economic crime is a key driver for poverty and economic crisis.

Originality/value

This is a unique paper that examines Sri Lanka’s present economic crisis and its political model and economic crime. The paper will discuss transnational mechanisms for anti-corruption and attempt to apply to the Sri Lankan crisis.

Article
Publication date: 1 May 1991

Abu F. Dowlah and John E. Elliott

Gorbachev′s vision of democratic, decentralised and market‐orientedsocialism has generated diverse and controversial perceptions in theSoviet Union. Gorbachev′s claim that the…

Abstract

Gorbachev′s vision of democratic, decentralised and market‐oriented socialism has generated diverse and controversial perceptions in the Soviet Union. Gorbachev′s claim that the USSR is not retreating from socialism but advancing towards it, having dismantled the Stalinist Command model, is assessed.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 18 no. 5/6/7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 September 1994

Paul Teague

EU social policy is perhaps the most controversial aspect of Europeanintegration yet, despite all the political clashes on the matter,concepts like “social Europe” or “social…

2563

Abstract

EU social policy is perhaps the most controversial aspect of European integration yet, despite all the political clashes on the matter, concepts like “social Europe” or “social dimension” remain ill‐defined and imprecise terms. Intends to outline and clarify in detail the debate about whether or not the European Union should have competence with regard to labour market affairs. A key message is that social policy has been controversial because it has become embroiled in the debate about the future political direction of the EU. In particular, three contrasting political models –symbiotic integration, integrative federalism and neo‐liberalism – have been put forward as organizing principles for the EU and each has a coherent view of what form social policy should take at the European level. It is the clash between these three models that has caused EU social policy to be so contestable and intractable.

Book part
Publication date: 24 November 2017

Alexander Bulatov, Alexey Kuznetsov, Yuri Kvashnin, Alice Maltseva and Ninel Seniuk

Russia is one of the leaders in outward FDI from emerging market economies and at the same time Russian MNCs have their specific features. The purpose of this chapter is to…

Abstract

Purpose

Russia is one of the leaders in outward FDI from emerging market economies and at the same time Russian MNCs have their specific features. The purpose of this chapter is to analyze characteristics of Russian MNCs by researching relationship between specificities of Russian economic and political model, on the one hand, and specific features of Russian MNCs, on the other hand.

Methodology/approach

For these researches, traditional instruments of neoclassical theory are basically used.

Findings

The principal finding is that specific characteristics of Russian MNCs reflect specificities of Russia’s economic and political model. To some extent, they correlate with characteristics of MNCs of other two leading emerging economies – China and India.

Research limitations/implications

Russian MNCs operate in line with principal theories of FDI, that is, on the basis of their country and firms’ comparative advantages. However, they possess specific features: many of them are state-controlled MNCs; private MNCs are controlled by oligarchs; all of them have tight relations with offshores and offshore conduit countries. The comparison with China and India shows that some of these specific features are typical of Chinese and Indian MNCs to more or less extent.

Practical implications

The empirical part of the chapter analyzes scope, industrial and geographical profiles of Russian MNCs, their motivation and management, impact on Russian economy and regional integration.

Social implications

National MNCs with their offshore affiliates are the leading tax evasion economic agents in Russia. Moreover, stable FDI outflow reduces gross capital formation in Russia which is insufficient (19–25% of GDP) for substantial economic growth by standards of emerging economies in this decade (from 4.3 to −3.8 in Russia, from 6.8 to 9.5 in China, from 5.1 to 7.3 in India).

Originality/value

The principal value (originality) of the chapter is its comparatively detailed review of main aspects of Russian MNCs’ worldwide activity made from the point of view of its connection to Russia’s economic and political model.

Details

The Challenge of Bric Multinationals
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78635-350-4

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 May 1993

Abu F. Dowlah

The Soviet experiment on socialism provides several distinguishablepolitico‐economic models. Employing dialectical methodology, examinesthe political economy of War Communism…

Abstract

The Soviet experiment on socialism provides several distinguishable politico‐economic models. Employing dialectical methodology, examines the political economy of War Communism (1917‐21) as an exemplar of the “Socialist Command Model”. Explores the economic, political and social forces that were responsible for the emergence of the model, its policies, programmes and consequences, and finally, the forces that made it obsolete for the subsequent stages of Soviet development.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 20 no. 5/6/7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 18 November 2020

Manuel Iturralde

Some of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly are related to violence, crime and crime control issues. In what seems to be…

Abstract

Some of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly are related to violence, crime and crime control issues. In what seems to be an innovative approach, the so-called ‘international community’ has seemed to reach the commonsensical agreement that, in order to enjoy sustainable development and strengthen the capabilities, well-being and freedom of the citizens of the global south, their governments must reduce violence and crime (SDG 16.1). The SDGs also seem to provide the response to tackle crime and violence in the global south. SDG 16.3 aims at ‘promoting the rule of Law at the national and international level and ensuring equal access to justice for all’. Thus, the promotion of the rule of law has commonly been understood as the strengthening of the criminal justice system and State security forces to reduce crime and impunity in the global south. Focussing on Latin America, this article will critically discuss the problematic presuppositions and implications of such a paradigm, which tends to impose, reproduce and legitimise the particular worldviews of global north countries and institutions. This approach is counterproductive, for it does not acknowledge the particularities and historical trajectories of Latin American countries, while naturalising specific global north political, economic and truth regimes.

Details

The Emerald Handbook of Crime, Justice and Sustainable Development
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78769-355-5

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 18 October 2011

Juhana Vartiainen

The chapter presents a historical and economic analysis of Nordic wage formation, with a special focus on how collective agreements really work. A stereotypical interpretation of…

Abstract

The chapter presents a historical and economic analysis of Nordic wage formation, with a special focus on how collective agreements really work. A stereotypical interpretation of the evolution of Nordic wage bargaining systems is that a centralised setting of wages has gradually been substituted with more decentralised pay bargaining. This overlooks the fact that central organisations could never really control wage levels, even in the golden age of centralised bargaining. Instead, central pay bargains defined minimum wage changes that ensured that local conflicts would be ruled out. Moreover, the central stipulations could often be overruled or adjusted at the local level. Following insights of Teulings and Hartog, we argue that the main function of Nordic collective agreements has always been to rule out local conflicts that would otherwise be initiated to seek local rents. Thus, collective agreements combine macroeconomic flexibility with adequate investment incentives at the local level. In this crucial sense, Nordic collective agreements are a completely stable institution. The most important transformation that has taken place is that formal peak bargaining on mean pay increases has been substituted with pattern bargaining where the manufacturing industry acts as a wage leader. Economic theory suggests that this almost amounts to centralised pay setting.

Details

The Nordic Varieties of Capitalism
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-85724-778-0

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1980

Pauline A. Oswitch

The megadimensional nature of the complex social systems of the twentieth century, and the increasing levels of interrelatedness, present the individual with a bewildering array…

Abstract

The megadimensional nature of the complex social systems of the twentieth century, and the increasing levels of interrelatedness, present the individual with a bewildering array of information sources and services.

Details

Library Management, vol. 1 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-5124

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