...Write a 5-6 page paper in which you: 1. Identify at least two (2) major historical turning points in the period under discussion. 2. Analyze the impact of the two (2) or more major historical turning points selected on America’s current society, economy, politics, and culture. 3. Give at least two (2) reasons that Americans in the late 1930s wanted to stay out of the European conflict that became World War II. 4. Explain the role that women played to help win World War II. 5. Describe at least two civil rights breakthroughs after World War II that moved the cause of African-Americans forward. 6. Describe at least two (2) ways in which the Vietnam War brought political awareness to a new generation of young Americans. 7. Describe at least two (2) programs of President Johnson’s “Great Society” agenda that are still with us today. 8. Include at least two (2) references other than the textbook. At least one (1) of your sources must be obtained from the collection of databases accessible from the Learning Resources Center Web page. Generic encyclopedic Internet resources such as Wikipedia or Answers.com will not be considered acceptable. Your assignment must: Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions. Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name...
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...What the World Bank Means by Poverty Reduction Paul Cammack ABSTRACT Critics of the World Bank have variously attributed its proclaimed commitment to poverty reduction to empty rhetoric, hypocrisy, incompetence, confusion, or overload in the absence of a coherent agenda. This article argues that the commitment is genuine, but that it is not a first order goal: poverty reduction is an intended consequence of its principal objective, the transformation of social and governmental relations and institutions in the developing world in order to generalize and facilitate capitalist accumulation on a global scale, and build capitalist hegemony through the promotion of tightly controlled forms of 'participation' and 'ownership'. This objective has been pursued consistently since the mid -1990s, with Wolfensohn as Director and Stiglitz while Chief Economist playing leading roles. It has been reflected in particular in the HIPC (Heavily Indebted Poor Countries) Initiative, the Comprehensive Development Framework, and PRSPs (Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers) as means of governing low-income countries. Once the character of the project is understood, its limitations and contradictions become apparent, but at the same time many of the criticisms advanced are seen to underestimate its logic and coherence, and proposals for reform arising from them are shown to be naïve. INTRODUCTION In 1996 the IMF and the World Bank introduced the HIPC (Heavily Indebted...
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...Lawrance, Alan. China Under Communism. London: Routledge, 1998. Internet resource. This text examines how Marxism took root, flourished and developed within the context of an ancient Chinese civilization. Through analysis of China's history and traditional culture, the author explores the nature of Chinese Communism and how it has diverged from the Soviet model. This book also provides insight into the changing perceptions Westerners have of the Chinese, and vice versa. Features include: assessment of controversial issues - The Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution and Mao's record; coverage of gender and family, ethnicity, nationalism, and popular culture; and the long historical context. This evaluation details how China's political and economic policies have been inextricably linked, and assesses past failures and successes, as well as major problems for the future. White, Stephen. Communism and Its Collapse. London: Routledge, 2001. Internet resource. Ranging from the Russian revolution of 1917 to the collapse of Eastern Europe in the 1980s this study examines Communist rule. By focusing primarily on the USSR and Eastern Europe Stephen White covers the major topics and issues affecting these countries, including: * communism as a doctrine * the evolution of Communist rule * the challenges to Soviet authority in Hungary and Yugoslavia * the emerging economic fragility of the 1960s * the complex process of collapse in the 1980s. Huibing, Zhao, and Zhu Jiangnan. "Social...
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...of China's leaders that Economic reform was necessary. By 1978 " Chinese leaders were searching for a solution to serious economic problems produced by Hua Guofeng, the man who had succeeded Mao Zedong as CCP leader after Mao's death" (Shirk 35). As Susan L. Shirk describes the situation in The Political Logic of Economic Reform in China, restoring the CCP's prestige required improving economic performance and raising living standards. After the communist take over the country, Mao contained his emphasis on moral force by demanding that Chinese citizens demonstrate what he referred as "correct consciousness". It is noteworthy that shirk feels that the Chinese communist party leaders saw economic reform as a way to regain their and their party moral virtue even after Mao's death thus, paradoxically, by demonstrating their expertise in a moral political area of competence, the leaders of CCP felt they could demonstrate how they were serving the people. To a great extent, the issue of economic reform became politicized as the issue was used as a means by Deng Xiaoping to attain the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. "Reform policies became Deng's platform against Hua for post-Mao leadership" (Shirk 36). Given this history of economic reform, it is evident that "under the present system economic questions are necessarily political questions" (Dorn 43). China was "still a state in which the central government retain[ed] the dominant power in economic resource allocation and...
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...Simon Reich holds appointments as a Professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and in the Department of Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh. In fall 1997 he was a Visiting Fellow at the Kellogg Institute. His publications include The Fruits of Fascism: Postwar Prosperity in Historical Perspective and The German Predicament: Memory and Power in the New Europe (with Andrei S. Markovits) both published by Cornell University Press. His most recent coauthored book is The Myth of the Global Corporation (Princeton University Press, 1998). Reich has also published many book chapters and articles in journals such as International Organization, International Interactions, The Review of International Political Economy, and German Politics and Society. He has received fellowships from the Sloan Foundation and the Kellogg Institute and was awarded an International Affairs Fellowship from the Council on Foreign Relations. His current work is on the issue of the definitions and central propositions of globalization. This paper was written during my stay at the Kellogg Institute. I wish to express my appreciation to the fellows and staff of the Institute for all their help on this project, notably to Scott Mainwaring who is now director of the Institute. Introduction The end of the Cold War provided a major shock for scholars of politics and policy in at least two respects. First, it provided a classic example of the limitations of both social and policy...
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...Country Planning Moratuwa University Introduction to Political Economy Semester 3 Level 200 Handout 2: Theories of underdevelopment Background to -Marxist theories of underdevelopment 1) Countries are not independent; economically related through trade 2) Colonialism introduced capitalist system; 3) Therefore, all the less developed countries are integrated into the world capitalist system. 4) Developed world is responsible for the underdevelopment of third world 5) It is the integration with the world capitalist economy that makes these countries poor. 6) Marxist theory can help us to understand this process of underdevelopment Here, three theories are introduced under theories of underdevelopment. Dependency theory (Gunder Frank) 1966 The most interesting aspect of this theory is that it is a view from the periphery. Major argument of dependency theory Underdevelopment is a historical process; not a condition intrinsic to LDCs The dominant and the dependent countries form into a world capitalist system. Underdevelopment is caused by the functioning of this world capitalist system Development somewhere requires underdevelopment somewhere else (deve. and under development is two sides of the same coin “Development of underdevelopment” thesis. Condition of LDCs is not an issue of lacking internal dynamics (inertia, climate, misfortune etc,) but it is a reflection of the way they are incorporated into the world capitalist system Prepared by Dr. Nalani Hennayake, Department...
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...The essence of neoliberalism | As the dominant discourse would have it, the economic world is a pure and perfect order, implacably unrolling the logic of its predictable consequences, and prompt to repress all violations by the sanctions that it inflicts, either automatically or - more unusually - through the intermediary of its armed extensions, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the policies they impose: reducing labour costs, reducing public expenditures and making work more flexible. Is the dominant discourse right? What if, in reality, this economic order were no more than the implementation of a utopia - the utopia of neoliberalism - thus converted into a political problem? One that, with the aid of the economic theory that it proclaims, succeeds in conceiving of itself as the scientific description of reality?This tutelary theory is a pure mathematical fiction. From the start it has been founded on a formidable abstraction. For, in the name of a narrow and strict conception of rationality as individual rationality, it brackets the economic and social conditions of rational orientations and the economic and social structures that are the condition of their application.To give the measure of this omission, it is enough to think just of the educational system. Education is never taken account of as such at a time when it plays a determining role in the production of goods and services as in the production...
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...The University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China Division of International Business China and the World Trade Organization P13608 Module Outline Module Convenor: Dr Chieh Huang AB Room 379 chieh.huang@nottingham.edu.cn Office hours: Monday 10:30-12:30 10 credits TB329 Tuesday 2-4 PM 10 weekly two-hour lecture/seminars The course is taught by way of lecture/seminars which are two hours in length. The form of the lecture/seminars will be flexible, depending on the topic under consideration. Students are expected to participate fully in discussions in lecture/seminars and to have read all the set Essential Reading before class. Credits: Lecture Venue and Times Method of Delivery & Frequency on Class: Method and Criteria of Assessment: 100% Coursework (5000 words) Essay Submission Deadline is 4pm, Wednesday 27 November 2013 Topics: Please choose one area listed below and discuss its recent development in the context of China. You will need to narrow down your focus and set your own essay topic. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Non-market Economies in the WTO Energy Industry and the WTO Environment and the WTO Commentary on one WTO case involving China Self-selected topic upon approval (You are most welcome to decide a topic yourself. Once you decide to do so, however, you need to submit your topic and an one-paragraph abstract before 4pm 31 October. ) Module Aims: To give the students a broad knowledge of the multilateral trading system and China’s interaction with that system through...
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...Meiskins Wood, it is the ‘empire of capital’ that is shaping our world. For her, the empire of capital is the new form of imperialism across the globe. Capitalism, she argues, has become ‘universal’ and it spans the globe with pervasive and intrusive control over human life and nature. It is operating with its systemic logic of ‘accumulation, commodification, profit maximization, and competition’. The empire of capital has achieved its global and penetrating grip by setting free and directing the destructive forces of the capitalist market and ‘totalizing itself’ intensively and extensively to permeate all spheres wherever it establishes itself. It is alive and there's no sign of its demise in the near future. Wood argues that capitalist imperialism, driven by market imperatives, and unlike other imperialisms before it, ‘seeks to impose its economic hegemony without political domination wherever it can.’ Empire of Capital provides perceptive insights into the fundamental nature of capitalist imperialism and what drives it. ‘The Detachment of Economic Power’ she provides an explanation of and dissects capital imperialism. She shows how under ‘empire of capital’ (the new imperialism) the economic power of capital is detached from political and military power (extra-economic force) and discusses the relation between them, as well as the implication of the detachment on the relation between the economy and the state. The economy is linked to the state in the sense that it influences the...
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...corporations and organizations, and economic and ecological interdependencies, than national and political ideologies and issues. Fueled by global communication, technological networking, expanding transportation systems, economic exchange and competition, and the growth and spread of a global culture, globalization is seen both as a positive and as a negative trend. What are the main features of globalization, what are the future possibilities, and how will globalization have an effect upon your individual life? Outline “Nothing will be done anymore without the whole world meddling in it.” Paul Valéry The History of Globalization Positive Images of Globalization Imbalance, Diversity, and Conflict: The Problems of Globalization Global Tensions, Challenges, and Evolution for the Future Howard Bloom – The Deep History of Globalization – Reciprocity and Conquest Global Communication and Networking of Life Global Expansion of Humanity Emergence of Cities and Trade Routes Reciprocity and Conquest Robert Wright The Evolution of Win-Win Reciprocities in Human History The Expansion of Economic Interdependencies and Exchange The Expansion of Communication Networks Cumulative Evolution of Civilizations John Naisbitt Globalization and Individualism Increasing International Trade and Commerce Free Enterprise International Corporations Overturning National Economies Global Marketplace Global Tele-Communication World Wide Monitoring Global Citizens...
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...with the conceptual structure of the discourses that have attempted to shed light on the changes in modern societies since the information revolution. Here we have constructed an operational definition of the knowledge society in the Arab world, based on the ideas put forward in the Report’s various chapters. The third axis constructs the systems of reference that have guided, and continue to guide, knowledge discourse in the contemporary world and allows us to become acquainted with the dimensions and options underlying earlier reports on the same topic. The fourth axis examines some of the problematic issues posed today by information and knowledge development in contemporary society, believing that reflection on these issues will influence efforts to close knowledge gaps in the Arab world and achieve comprehensive human development. While subsequent chapters of the Report examine the quantitative and qualitative dimensions of the most significant foundations of knowledge, this chapter deals with the theoretical structure of Arab knowledge performance and constructs the intellectual frame of reference that underlies it. It seeks to provide insights that will help us acquire keys to the knowledge society, develop the field of knowledge in the Arab world, and support active intercommunication with the...
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...MSc Development Studies Perspectives of Development Presentation Assignment: The Free-market Theory/The Free Enterprise Theory/Economic Liberalism Key Words: Laissez faire, Adam Smith’s ‘invisible hand’, liberalism, supply and demand, nationalization, privatization, deregulation, rational choice liberalism, neo-liberalism Between 1970 and the last decade before the millennium, there took place a remarkable and dramatic change in the attitude towards the role of the state in economic activities. According to Shutt (1998), during the late 1950 and 60’s, there developed a near consensus among economists especially those linked to the Chicago School of Thought that laissez-faire capitalism was the dominant economic system and that deviation from it was untenable and unsustainable. The argument was that in order to achieve a modicum of development all countries must dedicate themselves to establishing fully liberalized economic, political and cultural systems in which the state plays a minimal role or simply put that of an adjudicator. The rise in what came to be popularly known as the free market economy owed/s much to the failure of the economic models based on extensive state intervention (this was particularly so after the Second World War) to deliver adequate levels of prosperity or security as was signified following the fall of the Soviet Union. As will be argued in this paper using theories from Peter Berger (1985) and Hernando De Soto this apparent logic, especially...
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...Ramírez Gallegos1 When discussing the development of a political project from the Left there are two opposing positions or aspects: those which promote the idea of better managing and regulating capitalism – that is, striving for “good capitalism” – and those who hold anticapitalist positions. The author of this article argues that a Left that does not give up on the generation of alternatives to capitalism but at the same time is responsible for governing, should think about a “great transition” without losing sight of the horizon of a “great transformation”. This article analyzes the Yasuní-ITT Initiative and presents it as an example of how to merge concrete and innovative proposals (transition) and utopias which go beyond capitalist development (transformation). Key words: Left, Capitalism, Good Living/Sumak Kawsay, Yasuní-ITT The world does not need alternatives for development, but alternatives to development. The world does not need to “better” use capitalism, but to transform it. That is the great historical challenge that the Left should take on, both intellectually and politically. The concept of “development” has been recycled and reborn again and again for all its critics and detractors. However, in a strict sense it has never been questioned as a concept, nor how to best achieve it. Whereas “human” development, “sustainable” development, development “with a gender perspective”, etc. are important advances to create world that is more humane, environmentally friendly...
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...COURSES 1& 2 The Intangible Economy: an Overview. Understanding Economic Change Generally speaking and according to our perception at present, we could say that production and products pertain to the material universe: production, which is based on natural resources and energy, is fundamentally tangible. We got so used to this idea that we do not attempt to analyze it any more. Our economic and legal constructions are based on production, ownership and exchange of tangible goods. Economy, as it appeared after the industrial revolution, comprised activities related to the transformation of natural resources and was mainly an economy of goods. Under the mass production system with homogenous goods, the knowledge content of goods was low and the most important phase of the production process was manufacturing, since firms relied on economies of scale for market performance. Hence, the tangible aspects of factors of production were the most important (productivity thereby explained by the amount of physical capital and quantity of labor employed). Nevertheless, with the development of the economy and society as a whole, the importance of knowledge increased, leading to information and ideas playing a crucial role in determining economic performance. Nowadays, the knowledge content of goods is higher, and the pre- and post- manufacturing phases are crucial for value creation. The new type of economy that is emerging is more about a shift of mindset relating to building and...
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...------------------------------------------------- ‘Despite having their roots in a mixture of internal and external factors, the most appropriate response to current problems of economic performance in countries of the Middle East is to pursue stabilization and structural adjustment policies, supported by IMF/World Bank lending packages.’ Critically appraise this statement with reference to the recent experience of one MENA country of your choice. Many MENA countries have been facing significant economic hardships. This has forced the international community for economic intervention - serious interventions - to protect their interests in the form of economic reforms. Economic Reform and Structural Adjustment Programs had its failures, reflecting the failures of the post- Washington Consensus neo-liberal interventions in developing countries (Mitchelle, 1999). These failures have to reflect on choices of MENA countries as they are facing a cross-road. Forms of intervention varied in many ways after WWI, when political imperialism was done with its role in fostering mercantilist and conventional capitalism gains (Dillard, 1988). But these powers had to be maintained, so the economic intervention was more appealing than political, during the second half of the twentieth century. This paper argues that developing countries were victims of political and economic powers struggle for dominance during the cold war, and when the west capitalist prevailed after the collapse of communism in late 1980s, the ERSAPs...
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