People's Revolutionary Research Articles

Mongolia in 1996: Fighting Fire and Ice

It was a year of suffering and of hope for Mongolia. Buffeted by natural disasters and a cholera epidemic, Mongolia nevertheless turned an important political corner in 1996 with the electoral loss of the Monglian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP), which had held power since the country's inception in 1921. The new coalition accelerated economic reform, creating hopes for better performance in the years ahead. Spurred by an almost snowless winter and fierce winds, a series of fires devastated much of the country from February through June. The government declared a state of emergency and requested international assistance. The fires killed 26 people and thousands of head of livestock, left 1,600 persons homeless, and caused significant, if still undetermined, economic and ecological damage as 102,000 sq. km of grasslands were burned. Unfortunately, artificial snowstorms created to put out the fires killed several more people,1 and dozens more died as the first rains caused unusual summer flooding. At least 10 people died of a cholera outbreak in August, causing the government to delay the start of the school year and place a quarantine around the two major cities of Darhan and Erdenet. This series of disasters challenged the country's resources, already stretched to the limit by a difficult transition from a communist economy.

Conceptualizing Democracy: Elections in the Ethiopian Countryside

Conceptualizing Democracy: Elections in the Ethiopian Countryside Eva Poluha Stockholm University Introduction In the spring of 1995, elections to die Ediiopian regional or state, as well as federal, assemblies were die last important act carried outby the country 's interim government. The Transitional Government ofEthiopia, die TGE, had been established in 1991, after the downfall of the Derg. Although headed and dominated by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), other ethno-political groupings were, atleast initially, part ofthe government according to an agreed charter. Even diough there has been little competition in the elections, the constitutional aspects contained in die charter have been implemented with few delays. In 1992, elections to regional assemblies were conducted and in 1994, there were elections to a constitutional assembly. The latter met in December 1994 and adopted a new constitution for An initial version of this paper was presented as a report to SIDA (Swedish International Development Authority) for whom the study was conducted. A draft version was presented at the 1995 ASA annual meeting. I want to thank the Scandinavian Institute for African Studies for having me as a guest researcher in 1995. The time there made it possible for me to ponder and analyze the election data more carefully. I also want to thank the anonymous reviewer of Northeast African Studies, Elehu Feleke, Eva Evers Rosander, and Michael Stähl for critical and incisive comments on various versions of the paper. ^Northeast African Studies (ISSN 0740-9133) Vol. 4, No. 1 (New Series) 1997, pp. 39-70 39 40 EvaPoluha which die May 1995 elections were die next logical step. The transitional process has, in other words, closely adhered to die timetable in the charter. The elections have been strongly supported by most Western governments . The Western ideal of equal representation and of a government of and by the people has, in many dealings between Western donor institutions and African governments, been interpreted as an agenda for multiparty elections. Consequendy, die Etiiiopian elections during the transitionalperiod havebeen seen as a step in the right direction and have been given bodi moral and economic assistance by die West. The present study attempts to use the May elections as a methodological means to gain more intimate knowledge about die present relationship between peasants and die state in Ethiopia. It is hoped fliat a focus on the elections, the rhetoric surrounding diem, the acts and comments of members of the state in implementing them, and of die peasantry participating in them, will promote a broader understanding of die perceptions that state officials and peasants have ofeach other. In a wider sense, this should also tell us sometiiing about their respective ideas of democracy , since the descriptions they give of each other also inform us of the roles fliat each, often implicidy, attributes to itself as well as to the other party in die governing of the country. To talk of peasants and state officials as two distinct categories means homogenizing entities that, in fact, in themselves are very heterogeneous. StUl, in a context where democracy is discussed it is necessary to take a closer look at die division of power between the people, tiieir representatives , and the state and its different organs. Furthermore, in the eyes of the Ethiopian peasant, all state officials are equal to "the government." From their perspective it is difficult to distinguish between different categories of officials that, somehow, rather appear to merge together, as rulers. Thus, despite tiieir obvious internal differences, I have here taken the liberty ofpresenting and analyzing peasants and state officials as two distinct categories of actors. The study was initiated in February 1995 and covered three visits to Ethiopia, each of two to three weeks' duration, including die election day. One Peasant Association (PA) in Region tiiree, the Amhara Region, one PA in Region four, the Oromo Region and one PA in Region seven, the SouthernRegionwere selected as study areas. Each represented a different Conceptualizing Democracy 41 language group. I myselfhad more tiian 15 years of contact with one of die PAs while each of my research assistants had even longer experience in the respective PAs. The long-term contact was necessary for the...

The Tigray and Eritrean Peoples Liberation Fronts: a History of Tensions and Pragmatism

The Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF), and by extension the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), the multi-ethnic coalition that it established and still dominates, is frequently considered to be a creation of, and beholden to, the Eritrean Peoples Liberation Front (EPLF). From this perspective the foreign loyalties of the TPLF made it an unsuitable, if not illegitimate, movement to lead the Transitional Government of Ethiopia (TGE) in 1991, and since 1995, the newly created Federal Democratic Republic. By way of contrast, this article attempts to demonstrate that the developing relationship between the TPLF and the EPLF during the course of their respective revolutionary struggles has been far more problematic and beset with tensions than critics are either aware of, or acknowledge, and that an understanding of their nature casts light on present and possible future differences between the respective regimes of Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Closing the Transition: the May 1995 Elections in Ethiopia

TheEthiopian transition, that began with the overthrow of military dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in May 1991, formally ended with the swearing in of the newly elected Government of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia in August 1995. The intervening four years were a contentious time of clashes among rival political forces to determine the rules under which the transition would be conducted and hence which forces would be favoured. The first act of the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) after deposing Mengistu was to convene a National Conference and establish a Council of Representatives that initially included a wide array of political groups. The EPRDF led throughout this transitional period and capitalised on its commanding position to consolidate its power. The party dominated the political landscape by virtue of its military power, effective organisation and leadership, and control of the agenda and rules of competition. It structured the transition around new ethnically defined regions, a constitution that emphasised self-determination, and a series of largely uncontested elections.

An Analysis of the New Constitution of Ethiopia and the Process of Its Adoption

An Analysis of the New Constitution ofEthiopia and the Process of Its Adoption Theodore M. Vestal Oklahoma State University And ere a man hath power to say "Behold!"/ The jaws of darkness do devour it up:/ So quick bright things come to confusion. A Midsummer Night's Dream, I, i, 143 The kitab or magic scroll of the Transitional Government of Ethiopia (TGE) is a long narrow band of parchment on which a calligraphic narrative is illustrated with the images of saints and angels alternating with astral shapes, diabolic masks, and interlaced patterns. As prepared by debieras of the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), the top of the TGE kitab is crowned by a painting of St. Meles Zenawi on a white horse spearing the evil dragon Mengistu Haile Marram, while the wide-eyed angel of the U.S. looks on approvingly from above. In the upper left corner of the icon is the figure of Issaias Afwerki, the President of Eritrea, slipping away with the spoils of war, the sacred soil of Ethiopia, under his arm. The narrative of the scroll tells the history of the TGE from the time of its founding in 1991 until its termination with the election of the new government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in 1995. The scroll is a talisman or amulet to protect the wearer (the TGE) from the evil eye (i.e. from the discerning eyes of critics who recognized the faults of the government in its efforts at "democratization") or to be used in magic rites for exorcising those possessed by evil spirits (those who opposed TGE policies). The entire length of the scroll equals the height of©Northeast African Studies (ISSN 0740-9133) Vol. 3, No. 2 (New Series) 1996, pp. 21-3821 22 Theodore M. Vestal the beneficiary (short in many respects). The unordained priests-artisans of the EPRDF had intended the kitab literally to protect the TGE from head to foot. Their design was foiled, however, by art and literary critics at home and abroad who understood the meaning of the paintings and who could read between the lines of the narrative and were thus able to sear the conscience of the public and to call attention to deficits of democracy in the TGE. Governance under the Transitional Charter The main features of the TGE's kitab have been well rehearsed.1 From a wartime insurgent group, the EPRDF was transformed into the transitional government by the magic wand of the U.S. State Department. Anointed with donor-nation dollars on the collateral of promised good "democratic" behavior, the EPRDF got to choose the players and make up the rules for a TGE. While most of the world breathed sighs of relief that Mengistu and the DERG were gone, few attended to the mischief of the TPLF-dominated EPRDF. Indeed, many friends of Ethiopia cheered the democratic shibboleths and the winds of freedom that seemed to blow across the country. Soon the true symbiotic nature of the Marxist-Leninist EPRDF/TGE surfaced. The anti-Mengistu alliance entered a new phase during which the weaker members were purged and a new authoritarian system was established. Ethnicity became the basis of rule, opposition was snuffed out, and basic human rights were denied by the arbitrary rule of unreachable authorities. One glaring public relations error marred the TGE's beguilement: the invitation to international observers to sprinkle holy water on the carefully orchestrated pinchbeck elections of 1992. Instead, the observers declared the proceedings to be all wet. Nevertheless, the TGE got away with continually manipulating the rules of the governance game. The U.S. and other donors were quite content to rock along with cosmetic changes for the TGE but with nothing fundamentally different being done. As the transition period came to a dejure if not defacto end, the wiles of the TGE became more blatant. The nuanced soft killing of opposition changed to the brazen thuggery unleashed at peaceful demonstrators at the An Analysis of the New Constitution ofEthiopia 23 Central High Court in Addis Ababa in September 1994. This Walpurgisnacht frenzy showed that the EPRDFXTGE now felt immunized against the "rule of anticipated reaction...

The 1994 Election and Democracy in Ethiopia by Siegfried Pausewang Oslo, Norwegian Institute of Human Rights, 1994. Pp. vi+82. NOK 25.00 paperback. - The Generation: the history of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party. Part I, From the Early Beginings to 1975 by Kiflu Tadesse Silver Spring, MD, Independent Publishers, 1993, distributed by The Red Sea Press, Trenton, NJ. Pp. ix+266.

The 1994 Election and Democracy in Ethiopia by Siegfried Pausewang Oslo, Norwegian Institute of Human Rights, 1994. Pp. vi+82. NOK 25.00 paperback. - The Generation: the history of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party. Part I, From the Early Beginings to 1975 by Kiflu Tadesse Silver Spring, MD, Independent Publishers, 1993, distributed by The Red Sea Press, Trenton, NJ. Pp. ix+266. $15.85 paperback. - Volume 33 Issue 4

Politics and Economics of Mongolia's Privatization Program

While decisions on the scope and speed of privatization remain central to the politics of most of the ex-Soviet bloc, in Mongolia such decisions are now largely moot. Despite difficulties in implementing many aspects of the reforms introduced after the elections of 1990, Mongolia proceeded with remarkable swiftness to privatize state assets. In private shares of capital, Mongolia resembles Japan or Western Europe more than its erstwhile socialist comrades. This paper examines the remarkable story of Mongolian privatization, placing it in the context of the sweeping program of political and economic reforms implemented since 1990. Looking back to 1990, one would hardly have predicted fast progress on the divisive issue of privatization. The Mongolian Constitution had state ownership as its fulcrum until 1992. The lurking influence of the USSR suggested restraint on reforms, and the ruling Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) had won the first democratic elections with a program embodying scientific socialism and dialectical materialism. The notion of privatization was just entering the political vocabulary; private ownership of even the smallest assets had only just become a reality. However, in a move interpreted variously as reflecting its disarray or its statesmanship, the MPRP invited members of the new parties into a coalition government. The most influential of these, the National Progress Party (NPP), was formed around a group of young economists whose leader, Ganbold, became first deputy prime minister in charge of economics. A month after the new government's

Political Reform in Mongolia: Between Russia and China

Transforming socialist regimes can be broadly characterized in two ways. The Chinese model in which economic liberalization is adopted without political competition has been replicated to varying degrees by other Asian socialist regimes in the Lao People's Democratic Republic and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. In contrast, the Eastern European model is one of political change proceeding apace with economic reform. An interesting case combining elements of these two models of socialist transformation is that of Mongolia, formerly the Mongolian People's Republic. For 70 years a client state of the Soviet Union, Mongolia was sometimes known as the unofficial sixteenth republic of the USSR. Following the radical changes in Eastern Europe in 1990, Mongolia's Communist Party introduced political pluralism but unlike its counterparts in those countries, the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) has retained power since 1990 despite allowing electoral competition and political freedom. It has introduced significant economic reforms, which may soon begin to produce positive growth. Among former Soviet bloc nations, Mongolia's economy was the most dependent on outside assistance measured as a percentage of GDP. When the Soviet bloc disintegrated and cut off its aid to poorer socialist countries, Mongolia experienced the most serious peacetime economic collapse any nation has faced during this century.' Yet Mongolia's political road has proved remarkably smooth compared to most of the former Soviet republics. There have been no violent attempts to overthrow the government, and although the opposition has been active and vocal, political conflict has by and large been

"Ethnic Federalism" in Ethiopia

"Ethnic Federalism" in Ethiopia John M. Cohen Harvard Institute for International Development The problems of "nations within states," the "coming anarchy," and the "restoration of collapsed states" have been widely discussed of late.1 Currently, a number of political leaders, aid agency professionals, and academics are examining the utility of administrative decentralization reforms as a strategy for responding to ethnic, religious, and regional separatists in countries as diverse as Sri Lanka, Somalia, and Mexico. Their discussion of federal, confederal, and devolved unitary models of administrative decentralization is informed by few case studies explicitly focused on the administrative and financial issues faced by war-torn states seeking to use decentralization as a strategy for reconstruction.2 The purpose of this article is provide such an example by documenting the complex implementation issues faced by the initial Transitional Government of Ethiopia (TGE: 1991-1994) and the recently established Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE: 1995-) as they sought to reconstruct a post-imperial state based on what is increasingly labeled as "ethnic federalism." Terminology Four terminological issues complicate a review of Ethiopia's recent experience . First, the Western term "ethnic" is used here even though in Amharic Ethiopian, officials use the term "nation" or "nationality."3 Second, the term "federal" is used even though some knowledgeable observers argue, as demonstrated shortly, that even if the 1994 Constitu-© Northeast African Studies (ISSN 0740-9133) Vol. 2, No. 2 (New Series) 1995, pp. 157-188 257 25ß John M. Cohen tion labels the new country as a federal state it is in fact based on a constitutional system more akin to "confederation," an innovative form that looks like federalism but appears closer to an international treaty among ethnic groups having the power to secede.4 Third, the term "state" is used to describe the component parts of the new federation because this is the term used in the English translation of the new Constitution . But this is done with the recognition that the Amharic version of the Constitution, as well as both Amharic and English translations of proclamations issued between 1991 and 1993, use the terms "national regional administrations."5 Fourth, the forms and types of "decentralization" are carelessly used by some analysts of the Ethiopian case. To avoid this, the article uses the dominant public administration conceptual definitions of "administrative decentralization" and its three types: déconcentration, devolution, and delegation.6 Early Adoption of Ethnic Federal Strategy The TGE was established by a Charter adopted by a July 1991 National Conference of political groups.7 From the beginning the Government has been dominated by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a coalition controlled by the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which seized power from the military government of Mengistu Haile Mariam.8 Its leader, Meles Zenawi, was named president in 1991. Shortly thereafter, despite the persistence of fundamental problems related to the politics of ethnicity and administrative and fiscal capacity, the TGE began to take steps aimed at effectively reaching a large and formidable number of transition objectives. These were to draft a constitution, hold regional elections, rebuild physical infrastructure , implement macroeconomic and land tenure reforms aimed at stimulating the economy, rehabilitate public service infrastructures, reform the judiciary, promote human rights, support the emergence of an independent media, decentralize power to regions and districts, and encourage the emergence of a free press and democratically oriented civic organizations.9 One of the first of these objectives addressed by the TGE was the decentralization of administrative and fiscal authority to regions and the local-level units. Leaders of the TGE pushed this initiative because they "Ethnie Federalism" in Ethiopia 159 were convinced it was essential to: (1) reducing the inter-ethnic conflict that has divided Ethiopian society for centuries; (2) promoting equitable material conditions in all areas of the country; and (3) improving the efficiency and effectiveness of public sector performance at the field level. They argued they could use political and administrative devolution to promote these objectives without threatening other important objectives, such as economic growth and political stability. Between August 1991 and November 1993 several Proclamations were issued that began the process of devolving public sector powers and tasks to...

Reconsidering the Grenada revolution

[First paragraph]Caribbean Revolutions and Revolutionary Theory: An Assessment of Cuba, Nicaragua and Grenada. BRIAN MEEKS. London: Macmillan Caribbean, 1993. ix + 210 pp. (Paper n.p.)The Grenada Invasion: Politics, Law, and Foreign Policy Decisionmaking. ROBERT J. BECK. Boulder: Westview, 1993. xiv + 263 pp. (Cloth US$ 49.95)The Gorrión Tree: Cuba and the Grenada Revolution. JOHN WALTON COTMAN. New York: Peter Lang, 1993. xvi + 272 pp. (Cloth US$ 48.95)These three books might be thought of as a second generation of studies concerned with the rise, rule, and destruction of the People's Revolutionary Government (PRG) in Grenada. The circumstances surrounding the accession to power in 1979 of the government led by Maurice Bishop, the nature of its rule, and its violent demise in 1983 resulted in the appearance during the mid-1980s of an extensive literature on the Grenada Revolution. Some of these works were scholarly, others polemical. But what they all had in common was the desire to examine, either critically or otherwise, something which was unique in the historical experience of the English-speaking Caribbean. Never, before the rule of the New JEWEL Movement (NJM) in Grenada, had a Leninist party come to power; never had a violent coup initiated a new political regime; never had a Caribbean government so explicitly rejected U.S. hegemony in the area; and never, before October 1983, had a government experienced quite so dramatic a crisis as that in Grenada, one which resulted in the killing of the Prime Minister and numerous others of his supporters.

The National Conference Phenomenon in Francophone Africa

On February 19, 1990 a national conference opened in Benin at the Hotel PLM-Aledjo in Cotonou. Participants included representatives of the ruling People's Revolutionary Party, trade unionists, civil servants, students, religious leaders, a few agricultural producers, elements of the military, former heads of state, as well as Beninese living and working abroad. Members of the diplomatic corps and officials from the international financial institutions (IFIs) were also in attendance. The conferees claimed to represent the nation in its entirey—toutes les forces vives de la nation, quoi quoi que soient leurs affinitées. In reality, they were drawn from the political class and the educated elites of civil society. President Mathieu Kérékou opened the conference with a call for political renewal and a pledge to implement the IMF's structural adjustment program. He focused on the country's severe economic crisis and called on the delegates to draw up a list of the problems to be addressed.

Mongolia in 1993: A Fragile Democracy

Mongolia held its first presidential election in June 1993, completing the institution-building process of a parliamentary democracy. The Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP), which overwhelmingly won the 1992 parliamentary election, suffered its first defeat since the 1990 changes. Despite a tight monetary and fiscal policy, the economy has not yet been stabilized. Mongolia improved its relations with Russia by concluding a new bilateral agreement, and at the same time regained the confidence of developed countries by demonstrating a strong commitment toward democracy and a market-oriented economy.

The Pre-1927 Shanghai Labor Movement

Note: In the spring of 1958, a group of Japanese friends paid a visit to the Shanghai Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU). They had been soldiers of the Japanese invading army during the War of Resistance and had been captured by our Eighth Route Army. After an interval of indoctrination, they changed their positions and joined the Japanese People's Anti-War League. They had been to Yanan, and had stayed at various locations in Northeast China until 1958. Before returning to their own country, they went on a tour to take a final look at the new face of the People's Republic of China. They had made a request to the SFTU for an introduction to the Shanghai labor movement, as part of their study of the Chinese people's revolutionary experience. It was under these circumstances that I was asked to give them a survey of the Shanghai labor movement. They left for Japan before my scheduled lectures were over. The following chapter is based on a transcript of one of my lectures.

Mongolia in 1992: Back to One-Party Rule

Mongolia adopted a new Constitution in January 1992 and held its second free election the following June, remarkable accomplishments in the time since the nation began its reform in 1990. The Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP), whose almost 70-year rule was interrupted by two years of power-sharing with its opposition, was voted into office again. Mongolia expanded its relations with the developed countries by seeking new partners in Europe, and at the same time, made strong advances toward the Third World by participating in the activities of the Nonaligned Movement.

Background to the Founding of the South Viet-Nam National Front for Liberation

It has been acknowledged the South Viet-Nam National Front for Liberation was a organ of the Vietnam Workers' Party during the war against United States in the 1960's. What this paper points out is how the NFL was founded and how the southerner supported this mass organization through out the 60's and 70's.First, the Vietnam Workers' Party Central Committee at its Fifteenth Enlarged Plenum in January 1959 decided to launch a political struggle combined with a armed struggle to liberate the South. It was the first attemptby the Party to open the way to liberate the South with violence since the signing of the Geneva Agreement in 1954. The draft of the Fifteenth Resolution was written by General Vo Nguyen Giap consulting with Le Duan.Ho Chi Minh in his directive stated that the immediate task was to overthrow the Ngo Dinh Diem regime, to form a coalition democratic government in the South for the purpose of securing national independence and achieving national unification.The Party re-opened its second Fifteenth Plenum in May 1959 and directed the implementation of the Fifteenth Resolution. On May 18, Bo Tu Lenh 5-59 was set up to open logistic lines to the South, which would become popularly known as Ho Chi Minh Trails.The Party set up the Central Office of South Vietnam and the Vietnam People's Revolutionary Party before the formation of the NFL. This party was actually indentical to the Central office organization. Then the Party Politbureau decided to found a mass organization in the South.The NFL held its first ordinary Congress in February of 1962 with participation by mass organizations in the South. However, the the Front was led by Party members including Nguyen Huu Tho, chairman of the Front.Second, there were the anti-colonialism resistance movements, clandestine communist activities in particular, in the Deep South during the French colonial regime through 1930's to 40's. Tran Van Giao and Nguyen Thanh Son, both eminent Party leaders in control of almost all southern revolutionaries including Cambodian communists, led the protracted resistance movements against both the French and Americans. Tran Van Giao, leader of the Hau Giang Committee, had been operating during the 30's to 40's, in the Deep South as far as Phnompenh, the capital of Cambodia.Just after the August Revolution, when they failed to topple the Saigon regime, they fled to Cambodia and organized resistance movements urging the people in the South to join patriotic movements to unite Vietnam under a national democratic revolution.Meanwhile, Nguyen Thanh Son led Vietnamese and Cambodian communists in launching a war of resistance against the French in Cambodia. These two cores worked together to achieve national democratic revolutions in Vietnam and Cambodia.These clandestine movements in the South reappeared with the participation by many patriotic people in the NFL founded in 1960. The NFL itself was an oragan of the Workers' Party, yet many southerners still joined the Front and played an important role in fighting the United States.Soon after the fall of Saigon in 1975, the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam and the Viet-Nam Alliance of National, Democratic and Peace Forces were united to the Government of North Vietnam, and to the National Fatherland of Vietnam respectively. The NFL, which was the core of those two organs, was dissolved in 1977. However, among the Party members in the South, there are some leaders who still claim that the Front was not an absolute organ of the Party and remain at odds with the North over the dissolution of PRG.

The Evolution of Modern Land Warfare: Theory and Practice.

1. Vietnam: The Background to War 2. The First Indochina Conflict and the United States' Drift to War 3. Lyndon B. Johnson and the Tragedy of Vietnam 4. Negotiations 1964-73 5. The War at Home 6. Politics, Economics and Religion: A Revolution in Vietnamese Society 7. People's Revolutionary War 8. America's War: The Strategy and Tactics of the United States' Military in Vietnam 9. Pacification and the Attempt to Build a Viable South Vietnamese State 10. The War in Five Capitals - The International Context of the Vietnam War 11. The End of the War and Its Aftermath

Laos in 1991: Year of the Constitution

The Lao People's Democratic Republic in 1991 was buffeted by the shock waves resulting from the great crisis in the international communist movement. Nevertheless, its basic strategy of the last six years remained unaltered: embrace liberal market economics but preserve the Lao People's Revolutionary Party's (LPRP) monopoly of political power. Laos made it plain in pursuing this course that although it still made obeisance to Marxism-Leninism, building socialism had become only a remote and theoretical goal. The LPRP, which held its Fifth Congress in March, also moved to renovate its own and the Laos state structures to make both more efficient and reduce their drag on economic growth. Laos expanded its relations with the countries of the world, but its poverty, remoteness, and the increasing anomalousness of its regime make it difficult to attract the level of foreign assistance and investment necessary for sustained economic growth.

Mongolia in 1991: The Uneasy Transition

As it marked its seventieth anniversary, the Mongolian People's Republic in 1991 continued to undergo the political, economic, and social upheaval that began in 1990. The ruling Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP), thoroughly discredited by its past failures, lost authority; the nation sought to adopt a new constitution, a new name (Republic of Mongolia), and a new political, economic, and social system; and economic reform was accompanied by serious, though perhaps temporary economic decline that required massive infusions of foreign aid to forestall collapse.

A study of land redistribution and the demise of Grenada's estate farming system 1940–1988

Throughout this century the demise of the West Indian estate agricultural system has been occurring unrelentlessly. At different times and to varying degrees, the reasons for this have included: local labour problems; absentee landownership; major fluctuations in commodity prices on the world market; and inadequate supportive government policies in many of the region's newly independent nations. The decline of this farming system is most evident in Grenada, where the political events of the past 20 years have hastened the process. Initially, it was the confiscation of some estates through a programme of ‘land for the landless’. Then, between 1979 and 1983 it was People's Revolutionary Government promoting state farms at the expense of individual estates. More recently, the government has been divesting parcels of acquired land to ‘potentially suitable’ small farmers, via a model farm scheme. This paper traces developments on 112 estates since 1940.

Laos 1991: On the Defensive

In 1991, two political events of particular significance took place in the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR): 15 years after the formation of the LPDR a new constitution was finally promulgated; and the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) held its Fifth Party Congress. The first laid the legal foundation, the second the political basis for defence of the one party state in Laos, a defence for which the LPRP has sought support through a significant shift in international patronage. In response to the crumbling of Communism in the Soviet Union, the Party ten aciously maintained its monopoly of power, while continuing to adopt a flexible approach to the economy. Contacts with capitalist states, particularly with Thailand, continued to be cultivated, but for political support the LPDR turned increasingly to China. By these means an appearance of decisive forward-looking government was maintained, even though uncertainties remained ? most notably in areas of leadership, where the succession and role of the army remained crucial, and minority and regional affairs, where the Party's attempts to re-centralize political decision making seem likely to run into opposition.