Political Economy Factors Research Articles

The political economic factors of migration to Bangkok

Political and economic factors affecting migration to Bangkok from the rest of Thailand are examined. The focus is on migration to the capital from the northeastern region. (ANNOTATION)

The Internationalization of Production, Intra-Core Relations and the State: A Case Study of IBM and the British Computer Industry

Theories of dependency and development contain several deficiencies which limit their effectiveness for the study of core/core relations. Similarly, frameworks allowing for a study of intra-core relations have not adequately specified the relationship between international and national factors, or their combined effects, in generating inequities between core countries. This case study offers some preliminary observations about the relationship between internationalization of production and national economic planning efforts. The study highlights several points concerning the matrix of international and national political-economic factors, and focuses on particular patterns resulting from the configuration of these factors in the case of the British computer industry and International Business Machines (IBM).

The Political Economy of Job Loss in the United States, 1970-1980

Many analysts have asserted that recent interregional shifts in investment and jobs in manufacturing are the product of variations in the socioeconomic characteristics of geographic regions. Conventional industrial location theorists tend to point to the market potential, physical characteristics, and human capital endowments of geographic regions. In contrast, neoMarxist and business climate theorists typically cite political-economic explanations related to the strength and cost of labor, the level of taxation, and the extent of social welfare provisions. Using state level data, I evaluate the relative empirical utility of these various explanations in predicting changes in employment in manufacturing between 1970 and 1980. The results provide partial support for the political-economic explanation and no support for conventional industrial location theories. In particular, the empirical evidence points to the importance of labor organization in promoting the relocation of manufacturing employment. Few transformations in the American economy over the past 15 years have received greater attention than the interregional migration of industries and jobs from the traditional industrial belt to new locations within the United States. Though many analysts assert that this rapid movement of capital and jobs is the product of variations in the socioeconomic characteristics of geographic regions (Bluestone and Harrison, 1982; Weinstein and Firestine, 1978), there is little agreement over which characteristics are the most important for investment or disinvestment decisions. Conventional industrial location theorists tend to point to the human capital, physical, and market-size endowments of geographic areas as the leading determinants of plant location (Miller, 1977). Neo-Marxist and business climate theorists tend to emphasize political-economic factors associated with the presence of labor unions and wage costs (Peet, 1983; Storper and Walker, 1983), the level of state taxation (Kieschnick, 1981), and the extent of social welfare benefits (Bluestone and Harrison, 1982; Piven and Cloward, 1982). In this paper I use state-level data to evaluate the relative utility of these explanations as they relate to

Qualification Based Production — The Superior Choice to the "Unmanned Factory"

Governed by political-economic factors rather than technical necessities, the past development of small batch production has led to advanced horizontal and vertical division of labor, job shop manufacturing, and the use of NC machines. This caused serious difficulties such as long and variant throughput times, an unfavourable ratio of unproductive to productive workers, and low quality of work. Additionally confronted with deeply changed market conditions, the management is split in tow lines struggling for the right answer to this challenge. Most managers and production planners try to replace human work still further by enforced use of computers on the shop floor and in the technical office in an integrated manner (CIM). Since this strategy is in danger to create new severe problems, the minority seeks to avoid them by reorganizing production and rearranging the division of functions between man and machine profoundly (skill based production). This position is outlined in some detail including examples of realized subsystems as first steps on this development path. Finally, reasons for superiority and forces of inertia are discussed

Sheep, Coffee Prices, and Ceremonial Exchange in Papua New Guinea

hesitance of villagers to adopt commercial activities. Explanations for this behavior vary. Adherents of the modernization school believe that cultural constraints like religious beliefs, limited aspirations, fear of envy, and conservatism are the dominant obstacles to diffusion of cash-earning endeavors among rural cultivators.1 Another set of explanations emphasizes the rationality of villagers and external political-economic forces. According to this interpretation, rural cultivators hesitate to adopt commercial ventures because of constraints like economic risk, seasonal labor shortages, limited availability of land, exploitative governmental policies, low commodity prices, minimal incomes, and insecure tenure.2 This interpretation is correct both in its assessment of the fundamental importance of economic and politicaleconomic factors and in the assertion that the cultural factors stressed by the modernization school have not been the significant constraint to the diffusion of commercial activities. An unfortunate result of this critique is the tendency of persons who emphasize political-economic factors to relegate cultural ones to a minor explanatory role. The deemphasis of cultural variables is partly a reaction against their portrayal as persistent, static, and powerful barriers independent of macrolevel political-economic forces by the modernization school.

Changing Locations of Ports in Sendai Bay

The first systematic treatment of the location of ports was made in 1934 by Erich A. Kautz in his Das Standortsproblem der Seehafen. Kautz stated that the location of ports was originally decided mainly by proximity to steamer lanes, but that, after the development of capitalism, the factors determining the location of ports changed and that steamer lanes were established by the ports which, in turn, were built to meet the demands of the hinterlands. In Japan, the hinterland so affected the location of ports as to spur the construction of artificial harbor in order to overcome the natural, geographical drawbacks of the locations.This paper examines the factors influencing the changing location of ports in Sendai Bay. During the area of sailing boats, ports were located according to geographical suitability and proximity to sea routes but gradually the influence of hinterland conditions predominated. With the development of steam-powered steel vessels, and the correlative workings of natural, industrial, and political-economic factors, the birth of modern ports took place. Three key elements were prticularly important in the changing location of ports in Sendai Bay: changes in the means of transportation: changes in the functional requirements of seaports; and changes in the natural conditions.Nine ports are studied in this paper, following the general outline indicated by Kautz. Kautz' ideas are fairly satisfactory corroborated by the conditions and development of ports in Sendai Bay.

Citizens or Spectators? Civic Engagement and Informality of Citizenship in Ghana

In his inauguration speech on 7th January 2017, President Nana Akufo-Addo challenged Ghanaians to be ‘ citizens not spectators.’ This call resonates with conceptions of citizenship that prioritise the state as the most salient arena of engagement. But social and political-economy factors shape how and where social belonging and civic participation get enacted. This paper offers some reflections on patterns of social belonging and civic engagement using data from the nationally representative Afrobarometer survey, which I supplement with qualitative materials from newspaper sources and in-depth interviews. The findings indicate that Ghanaians have a strong sense of social belonging and national attachment, but also shy away from formal engagement with the state. This phenomenon of attached-detachment is manifested in enthusiastic participation in highly circumscribed aspects of national political life, like voting, while recoiling from more institutionally structured aspects of civic life. Proximity – physically or socially defined – is important for this enactment of citizenship. There is high engagement with state officials that are nearby, but rarely with those at arm’s-length. The paper elaborates on the underlying informality of this approach to citizenship.