Domestic Autonomy Research Articles

Work Security in a Global Economy

Work security is a fundamental right of all working people. After World War II, the welfare state became an intrinsic part of the "Golden Age" of capitalism, in which universal prosperity seemed attainable. Workers' organizations frequently played a crucial role in policy decisions that promoted full employment, income stability, and equitable treatment of workers. Today's world order is quite different. Globalization in its present form is a major obstacle to work security. Globalization is not simply a market-driven phenomenon. It is a political and ideological movement that grants authority to capital over governments and labor. This transfer of authority hinders national efforts to promote work security and may impact the well-being of communities worldwide. In the absence of domestic autonomy, international labor standards are needed to protect social welfare. They should be geared toward curbing unemployment, poverty, and social exclusion in the global economy. The article looks at three initiatives to promote global work security.

Explaining Latin American economic integration: the case of Mercosur

This paper develops and tests explanations of the motivations that drove the process of economic integration known as Mercosur (Southern Cone Common Market). The hypotheses tested are those that focus on elite considerations of geo-political, political economic and domestic politics factors when deciding to participate in international economic integration. We find that policy elite in Mercosur member states have been primarily driven by domestic political considerations when they have furthered the integration process. This leads to the conclusion that Mercosur is not likely to develop the kinds of supranational governance institutions present in the European Union, as policy elites in Mercosur member states desire to maintain a great deal of domestic policy autonomy.

Trade, harmonization, and domestic autonomy in environmental policy

This article evaluates the environmental criticisms of free trade that have been such an important part of the critique of globalization. The first section briefly surveys the range of criticisms environmentalists have brought against the new economic order. The second section examines the available literature on the “race to the bottom,” one of the key concerns. The third section analyzes the World Trade Organization trade rules and how they have been interpreted by dispute resolution panels involving environmental issues. The fourth section turns to the specific rules of the North American Free Trade Agreement and examines several case studies of environmental issues in that region. The final section provides a summary evaluation of the environmental criticisms. The article argues that the environmental criticisms are exaggerated. Trade agreements leave far more room for domestic environmental measures than is frequently argued. The political globalization of the environmental movement has helped counter the threat to environmental policy created by the economic and trade aspects of globalization. Environmentalists do need to be careful about how they advance this critique of globalization, however, because their arguments risk becoming a self‐fulfilling prophecy.

Trade, Harmonization, and Domestic Autonomy in Environmental Policy

This article evaluates the environmental criticisms of free trade that have been such an important part of the critique of globalization. The first section briefly surveys the range of criticisms environmentalists have brought against the new economic order. The second section examines the available literature on the “race to the bottom,” one of the key concerns. The third section analyzes the World Trade Organization trade rules and how they have been interpreted by dispute resolution panels involving environmental issues. The fourth section turns to the specific rules of the North American Free Trade Agreement and examines several case studies of environmental issues in that region. The final section provides a summary evaluation of the environmental criticisms. The article argues that the environmental criticisms are exaggerated. Trade agreements leave far more room for domestic environmental measures than is frequently argued. The political globalization of the environmental movement has helped counter the threat to environmental policy created by the economic and trade aspects of globalization. Environmentalists do need to be careful about how they advance this critique of globalization, however, because their arguments risk becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Capital mobility, perspectives and central bank independence: Exchange rate policy since 1945

Hegemonic stability theory has been the traditional explanation in International Political Economy for the trend from fixed to floating exchange rates which was brought about by the collapse of Bretton Woods. This approach is found to be problematic. A more powerful explanation is the postwar rise in capital mobility, which produces a trade-off between exchange rate stability and policy autonomy. Preferences for these two policies have been a function of perspectives on economic policy and the degree of central bank independence. Independent central banks prefer domestic policy autonomy to exchange rate management, as they have no socio-political incentives to produce competitive, stable exchange rates. Their interests are predominantly in achieving low domestic inflation. In addition, current perspectives hold that the best way of securing international exchange rate stability is to pursue stable macroeconomic policies at home, resulting in the predominance of floating exchange rate policies. This trend will continue into the near future despite opportunities for international cooperation presented by the rationalization of world monetary politics into a G3 following the introduction of the euro. This may have adverse effects on the global economy for three reasons. First, there is a long-term danger that triad regionalization will result in a revival of neo-mercantilist policies, in which the exchange rate could play a part. Second, a high proportion of world trade and finance will be denominated in dollars and euros, rendering the stability of the dollar/euro exchange rate a global public good. Third, dollar/euro exchange rate misalignments which harm either the U.S. or EMU will be harmful to the global economy because of the high percentage of world GDP accounted for by these two areas.

Household Production in Chaco Canyon Society

The household is the most basic and flexible component of human social organization. It is through the household that we can understand the Chaco phenomenon from the point of view of agriculture and craft production. Households strive for autonomy and self-sufficiency and they spread themselves thin to meet basic subsistence requirements. As a result, scheduling of agricultural and craft activities is critical to the success of the household. Craft technologies must be complementary with agricultural activities; for example, pottery may be made during the heat of the day when agricultural tasks are at a lull. The concept of intersecting technologies suggests that technical knowledge, resources, and labor may be shared among crafts and other activities. Chacoan households probably specialized in the production of different crafts including pottery, jewelry, basketry, and other woven goods. Within the context of the Chaco regional system the mobilization of labor would have been through obligatory work assignments that complemented domestic autonomy in agricultural production and, as a result, would have been organized seasonally.

Assessing the Economic Preconditions for a Yen Bloc

Stabilising Asia-Pacific exchange rates by establishing a system of pegs, bands or target zones around the Japanese yen requires the compromise of domestic policy autonomy. The cost of doing so is least when members reaction to economic shocks are symmetric. This study considers which currencies meet this necessary precondition. To assess regional disturbance symmetry the Blanchard and Quah (1989) procedure is employed to distinguish temporary from permanent shocks for paired aggregate output and price time-series. Disturbance correlations between Japan and other Asia-Pacific nations are calculated. Supply-side disturbance correlations are relatively weak and suggest the economic preconditions for a yen bloc are not in place.

The Global Gamble on Financial Liberalization: Reflections on Capital Mobility, National Autonomy, and Social Justice

This essay provides an overview of the connections between financial globalization, domestic autonomy, and social justice. It starts by identifying reasons why capital mobility and social justice may be at odds. It then distinguishes four arguments: that capital mobility is incompatible with the maintenance of distinctive national social systems and, specifically, social safety nets; that capital mobility undermines the ability of governments to use Keynesian monetary and fiscal policies to stabilize their economies; that capital mobility is in fact a hindrance to economic growth and development; and that the negative effects of capital mobility are felt disproportionately by developing countries. Review of the evidence shows that these arguments must in fact be more strongly qualified than at least some critics of capital mobility suggest. The essay then turns to the Asian crisis, which has encouraged a more skeptical view of the benefits of international financial liberalization, and asks what lessons the crisis contains for this debate. The Asian crisis, while confirming that high capital mobility creates pressure for institutional convergence, does not suggest that convergence must be instantaneous and complete. In addition, the crisis raises pressing questions about the advice given developing countries by the IMF and the advanced-industrial countries about the management of international capital flows, which are considered as well. Finally, the essay examines reforms designed to better reconcile the globalization of finance with social justice, distinguishing reform at the national level from reform of the IMF and reform of the broader international system.

The Infanta and the English Benedictine Nuns: Mary Percy's Memories In 1634

In 1598 Philip II, King of Spain since 1559 and ruler of many other dominions, granted the ‘Burgundian’ segment of his inheritance (the Low Countries and the County of Burgundy) to his daughter Isabella as a dowry, and gave her in marriage to her cousin Albert, Archduke of Austria. The couple governed that part of the territory effectively under their control — the northern provinces having formed the Dutch Republic — as ‘sovereign princes’, essentially enjoying domestic autonomy under the protection of the Spanish army. They were responsible for the ‘northern’ policy of the Spanish monarchy, including day-to-day relations with England and the protection of the British Catholics. As sovereign princes they rebuilt the Church in the Southern Netherlands, patronised the reformed religious orders, and did much to establish the particular South Netherlandish identity which was eventually to lead to an independent Belgian state. In 1621 Albert died, and his childless widow's dowry reverted to her nephew Philip IV. Isabella remained in Brussels as Governess-General, enjoying greater independence than the title might suggest, both from her long career as co-sovereign and from the trust and admiration of her nephew the king. She died in 1633, the governship passing to another of her nephews, the Cardinal-Infant Don Ferdinand (1635–1641).

The anatomy of autonomy: interdependence, domestic balances of power, and European integration

The boat was leaky, the sea heavy, and the shore a long way off. It took all the efforts of the one man to row, and of the other to bail. If either had ceased both would have drowned. At one point the rower threatened the bailer that if he did not bail with more energy he would throw him overboard; to which the bailer made the obvious reply that, if he did, he (the rower) would certainly drown also.Sir Norman Angell (1914)IntroductionWhile most European Union (EU)I use the term EU when referring to events after November 1993 and when discussing the general history of the Union, but I reserve the usage 'European Community' (EC) for specific occurrences before the enactment of the Treaty on European Union in November 1993. scholars agree that international economic interdependence is a key variable in understanding politics between states, only a small number of studies have recognized the impact of interdependence on politics within states. Traditionally, scholars have been concerned with the effects of interdependence on states' external autonomy and have focused on the limitations that increased levels of interdependence impose on states' foreign policies.The classic piece being Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye, Jr, Power and Interdependence (Boston, MA, 1977). More recent scholarship, however, has suggested that the effects of rising interdependence also manifest themselves domestically.See, e.g., Peter Gourevitch, Politics in Hard Times: Comparative Responses to International Economic Crisis (Ithaca, NY, 1986); and Helen V. Milner, Resisting Protectionism: Global Industries and the Politics of International Trade (Princeton, 1988). In scholarship on international organizations, for example, it has been argued that international organizations increasingly shape the domestic policy choices of states and have lasting implications for executives' autonomy.Andrew P. Cortell and James W. Davis, Jr, 'International Institutions and Domestic Politics: Structure, Interest and Agency', unpublished ms., University of Pittsburgh and Columbia University, 1995; and Vivien A. Schmidt, 'Upscaling Business and Downsizing Government: France in the New European Community', paper presented at American Political Science Association, Washington, DC, 2-5 September 1993. More specifically, it has been suggested in the context of the EU that membership has 'strengthened' the domestic autonomy of governments.Andrew Moravcsik, 'Why the European Community Strengthens the State: Domestic Politics and International Cooperation', Center for European Studies, Harvard University, Working Paper Series No. 52 (1994).

Canada and the Global Economy: The Geography of Structural and Technological Change

This impressive volume comprises contributions from twenty-three economic geographers examining the economic and spatial development of the Canadian economy. The stated task of the volume is 'to capture Canada's deeper and abiding economic characteristics, to assess the extent to which Canada is responsive to world-wide forces of change, and to identify problems inhibiting spatial and structural evolution of the economy' (p 6). The contributors explore four main themes, which provide coherence for the volume's five parts. Some themes are of more interest then others to students of international relations because they address the influence that such powerful global forces as advances in information technology and changes in the legal regulation of trade have on industrial organization and development in Canada. The papers provide a rich source of information about the domestic impact of globalization and privatization in a variety of industries and sectors. In some cases, they offer rather sobering evidence about the regional implications of deregulatory policies and about the loss of rational autonomy attending the internationalization of production and finance. Part One, 'The Open Economy,' discusses the impact that the openness of the Canadian economy has on patterns of trade and investment and on domestic, sectoral, and spacial development. There is much of interest here for students of international relations, particularly those interested in links between the local and global political economies. Glen Norcliffe analyses patterns of foreign trade in goods and services. He notes a 'technology gap' in Canadian trade, which he attributes to a lack of concern over the foreign acquisition of technological innovation and the consequent 'policy vacuum' (p 38) in Canadian government, and he makes a case for greater diversification of trading partners. Trevor Barnes examines the regional impact of openness, modifying Harold Innis's staples model of development with reference to Fordist and post-Fordist theories. In connecting trading patterns with production relations in the context of the economy of British Columbia, he convincingly illustrates 'a direct relationship between the type of trade in which Canada engages and its historic inability to become a fully industrialized nation' (p 50). Alan MacPherson focusses on shifts in Canadian direct investment abroad and foreign direct investment in Canada. Of note is the observation that the increasing popularity of 'investment by acquisition reflects an accelerating international trend toward industrial concentration, corporate integration, and oligopolist competition' and is accompanied by a 'progressive blurring of international political boundaries (p 81). Geoffrey Dobillas places the Canadian financial system in the global context of technological innovations in the instruments and methods of finance and the deregulation and integration of financial markets and concludes that the 'most obvious consequence for Canada of the internationalization of finance is a loss of domestic autonomy in choosing the direction for the finance and banking sector' (p 93). The next three parts develop the themes concerning the impact of regional variation in resource endowments and urbanization on the Canadian economy and the influence of technological change on Canadian development. 'The New Staple Economy' includes analyses of forest, mineral, energy, and agricultural resources. Roger Hayter addresses the technological challenge for the forest products industry, while Ian Wallace focusses on the restructuring of the mining and mineral-processing industries in response to global influences. …

Informalisation of Women's Work: Consequence for Fertility and Child Schooling in Urban Pakistan

Female employment is considered an important means of lowering fertility through ways such as raising the age at marriage, through influencing desired family size and also through better knowledge and use of contraceptives. Increasing female labour force participation is frequently recommended as a critical policy measure for reducing the birth rate. However the significant inverse relationship between employment and fertility found for developed countries is weak or absent in the case of developing countries [Rodriguez and Cleland (1980)]. More recent evidence indicates that it is not so much employment per se but type of employment which is a critical determinant of reproductive behaviour [United Nations (1985)]. It has been shown that while high status professional jobs are associated with greater influence on women's domestic autonomy and fertility, low paying jobs lead to an increasing burden of work with entirely different implications for fertility and other household related behaviour. In the context of Pakistan, despite two decades of industrial growth and development, official data sources show stagnant and low levels of female labour force participation rates (LFPR) in urban Pakistan. The LFPR for urban women ranged between 3 and 5 percent for the period between 1971 and 1988. Data collection methods of government agencies are known to greatly underestimate female labour force participation (FLFP) particularly in rural areas and in the urban informal sector where the distinction between productive and domestic activities tends to be ambivalent. Evidence from micro surveys indicates, on the contrary, an increasing influx of women in the urban labour market, particularly in the informal sector [Sathar and Kazi (1988); Shaheed and Mumtaz (1981); Bilquees and Hamid (1989)]. A large number are shown to be working in home-based piece-rate employment while domestic service mainly as sweepers, washerwomen, maids, etc.................................

Productive and Reproductive Decisions in Turkey: The Role of Domestic Bargaining

This study analyzes domestic conflict caused by gainful employment of Turkish wives: whether it lowers fertility and what aspects of domestic power relationships affect fertility. The data were taken from the 1968 Survey of Family Structure and Population Issues done by Hacettepe University including 4500 households. The open birth interval was used as an inverse measure of recent fertility. Measures of relative power for the reproductive social and economic spheres and a scale for degree of domestic autonomy or the extent to which women were allowed to depart from Islamic norms in public were constructed. The hypotheses were: 1) the wifes domestic power should have a positive effect on the strength of the employment-fertility relationship; 2) high female autonomy should improve the responsiveness of fertility to employment i.e. working women with high autonomy should have lower recent fertility than nonworking women and those with low autonomy; 3) autonomy should have a larger effect on fertility than power. Using ordinary least squares regression model 1 verified that all demographic control variables were significant in the expected direction except husband present which effectively selected for more fertile migrant-worker couples. Model 2 showed that women employed outside the home had significantly longer open birth intervals by 5.39 months. With Models 3 4 and 5 the interaction of 2 of the 3 measures of wifes decision power reproductive and economic interacted significantly in the expected direction with employment status. Social power however had no significant effect on fertility. Model 6 showed that the interaction between autonomy and current employment was significant and stronger than the 3 power measures. Model 7 tested interactive effects of all relevant variables and found all pwere measures insignificant while autonomy remained significant. Possibly this implies that women who have power in the economic and reproductive spheres also have autonomy. Turkish spouses resolve conflicts by establishing gender-specific spheres of influence thus increasing autonomy rather than confronting each other on issues. Thus in Turkey role strain for women caused by combining outside work with motherhood lowers fertility if they have a degree of autonomy. If employment of women increases and traditional attitudes forbidding male participation in child care persist conflict may increase.

Autonomy, necessity, and the small state: ruling Kuwait in the twentieth century

To reduce its strategic vulnerability, a small state may enter into a cliency relationship with a more powerful state. Among the consequences of cliency for the small state are the acquisition of resources, which can be used against threatening neighbors as well as against domestic populations, and the reduction of autonomy. In 1899, Mubarak, Kuwait's ruler, entered a cliency relationship with Britain. As a result, Kuwait was able to avoid incorporation into the Ottoman Empire. Although Mubarak and subsequent Kuwaiti rulers lost their foreign policy autonomy, they acquired resources enabling them to enhance their domestic autonomy by suppressing elite groups that were formerly integral participants in governing Kuwait. In 1961, oil revenues enabled Kuwait's rulers to end the cliency relationship and to provide their own resources for repressing or pacifying domestic groups. But the fact that oil revenues proved less effective than cliency in maintaining Kuwait's strategic security illustrates the fundamental security dilemma faced by all small states, even rich ones.

SOCIOLOGIC EFFECTS OF TECHNICAL INNOVATION

The [inventions that led to] provision of light from central sources changed the nature of the home and the individual's relation to society. . .The erosion of domestic autonomy over light began with the introduction of the gaslight early in the 19th century. That replaced the domestic oil lamp. . .and bound each household to the "gas works." The introduction of gaslight virtually coincided with the beginning of impersonal mass transportation in the form of railroads. Instead of traveling as groups of individuals in horse-drawn carriages, rail passengers were carried like pneumatic parcels through a landscape they never touched.

Cultural Idioms and Political Ideologies in the Revolutionary Reconstruction of State Power: A Rejoinder to Sewell

It is a rare pleasure in intellectual life to have one's work confronted in a simultaneously appreciative and challenging fashion. I am indebted to William Sewell for offering an analytically sophisticated and historically grounded critique of the way States and Social Revolutions addresses the problem of ideology.' He rightly points out that I treated the issues too cursorily and relied upon a notion of ideologies as deliberate blueprints for change that leaves untouched many of the ways in which ideas may affect the course of revolutions. Sewell offers instead "a much more robust conception of ideology . . . that treats ideology as anonymous, collective, and constitutive of social order."2 According to Sewell, this way of understanding ideology is consonant with the overall structural analysis of States and Social Revolutions, and it can guide us toward wise questions and answers about the role of ideological transformations in the French Revolution and beyond. If States and Social Revolutions "provoked" Sewell to write the preceding article, his able discussion has in turn encouraged me to think through more carefully how the analysis of ideologies should-and should not-be incorporated into future historical and comparative work on revolutions. Perhaps surprisingly, given my reputation for "structural determinism," I shall suggest that we need a less "anonymous" approach than Sewell advocates. I certainly agree with Sewell that culture is "transpersonal," but I want to register profound reservations about the use of anthropological conceptions of cultural systems in analyzing the contributions made by cultural idioms and ideological activities to revolutionary transformations.

Hungary in the Era of the Kádár Compromise

Modern history has dealt harshly with the small nations of EastCentral Europe, imposing on them the hegemony or influence of their more powerful Germanic, Russian, and Turkish neighbours. After its final liberation in 1697 from a century and a half of Ottoman rule, an impoverished and weakened Hungary fell under the dominion of the Habsburgs. There followed unsuccessful rebellions, a national cultural and economic revival around the turn of the nineteenth century, and a full-scale revolution in 1848-9 which was suppressed only thanks to the fraternal aid lent by the Russian czar to his beleaguered Austrian ally. With military defeat came Vienna's harsh direct rule, superseded in 1867 by a compromise that granted Hungary domestic autonomy within the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy. That accommodation, forged by Ferenc Dedk over the opposition of the advocates of unqualified national sovereignty, allowed Hungary to flourish and endured until the dissolution of the Habsburg empire at the end of the Great War.

Some Economic Problems in the Baltic Republics: A Review of Recent Literature

O NE of the important consequences of the Great War was the sloughing off from Russia's western periphery of four new republics: Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. As separate political entities they found themselves confronted with serious problems: only Finland, which had possessed a qualified domestic autonomy, had experience to build on. To quote from a recent survey: It is impossible to compare pre-war and post-war Latvia from an economic point of view, as before the war Latvia was nothing more than a factor in the Russian industrial system, pursuing entirely different aims from her present-day objects.1 That these patient groups of the north have succeeded well in spite of their disabilities is revealed in the rather meager literature describing their recent activities. In all four states the agrarian problem repeatedly comes to the fore. The industrial phases of the struggle receive nearly as much attention, since a goodly portion of the political development not only has brought the agrarian and industrial views into sharp contrast but oftentimes almost to the point of destructive conflict. The clash of ideas has arisen largely out of the paucity in variety of natural resources, the preponderance of those whose greatest value is attained through industrial manipulation, and the geographic conditions peculiar to the respective countries. Although the problems confronting each of the new republics are fundamentally similar, their variations are sufficiently diverse to warrant consideration by individual countries. Finland

Surgery of Cleft Palate and Cleft Lip

Theories of the development of complex societies often equate the production of surpluses with centralized political economies. Most descriptions of economic intensification within Mississippian societies of Eastern North America have placed analytical explanation upon a shift from domestic autonomy to elite oversight early in the Mississippian period. This study examines storage locations, through examination of a newly recognized type of oversized ceramic storage technology, within the Moundville region. Data from this research are used to show that surplus production is not best explained using models of economic centralization. Rather, surplus production at early Moundville was organized by various distinct social groups storing and utilizing agricultural resources. Through time, some groups may have enjoyed greater success than others at producing surpluses. Evidence for storage is widely distributed, yet some differences in storage capacities are present. These spatial differences broadly mirror general patterns in the amount of labor invested in mound construction and the diachronic use of mounds across the site. These results allow us to consider the relationship between storage and relative surplus production, as well as the dynamic political-economic relations between distinct social groups through time in early complex agricultural societies.