Land Trade Research Articles

Modeling for regional ecosystem sustainable development under uncertainty — A case study of Dongying, China

In this study, a superiority–inferiority two-stage stochastic programming (STSP) method is developed for planning regional ecosystem sustainable development. STSP can tackle uncertainties expressed as fuzzy sets and probability distributions; it can be used to analyze various policy scenarios that are associated with different levels of economic penalties when the promised targets are violated. STSP is applied to a real case of planning regional ecosystem sustainable development in the City of Dongying, where ecosystem services valuation approaches are incorporated within the optimization process. Regional ecosystem can provide direct and indirect services and intangible benefits to local economy. Land trading mechanism is introduced for planning the regional ecosystem's sustainable development, where wetlands are buyers who would protect regional ecosystem components and self-organization and maintain its integrity. Results of regional ecosystem activities, land use patterns, and land trading schemes have been obtained. Results reveal that, although large-scale reclamation projects can bring benefits to the local economy development, they can also bring with negative effects to the coastal ecosystem; among all industry activities oil field is the major contributor with a large number of pollutant discharges into local ecosystem. Results also show that uncertainty has an important role in successfully launching such a land trading program and trading scheme can provide more effective manner to sustain the regional ecosystem. The findings can help decision makers to realize the sustainable development of ecological resources in the process of rapid industrialization, as well as the integration of economic and ecological benefits.

Transportation in North East of the Iranian Plateau in Bronze Age

Northeast of Iran has been of crucial importance compared to other areas due to important routes crossing it. From the perspective of archaeologists, the expansion of regional and trans-regional trade exchanges is an evidence of Bronze Age in Iran. Resistive animals in land trade are of crucial importance. Chariots and wheeled vehicles were important transportation means in Bronze Age. Wheeled chariots became prevalent in the north east of Iran and four-wheeled chariots replaced two-wheeled ones over time. At first, they were drawn by cow power, but then animals like camels and equids replaced cows. Considering the importance of adequate and appropriate means of transporting goods and trade materials in one hand, and the strategic and special role of the northeast of the Iranian Plateau, on the other hand, this paper attempts to study and recognize transportation means used in this area in Bronze Age, using archaeological documents and data.

Shah Abbas (I) and the policy of hinterlands The role of Illkhan Mamasani and Kohgiluyeh in economic, political, and military reforms of southern Iran

Abstract. Illkhan Mamasani and Kohgiluyeh were two tribal structures in Kohgiluyeh County in Safavid era. Mamasani Illkhanate dwelt in Poshtkuh, Kohgiluyeh, the east o the present province; and Kohgiluyeh Illkhanate resided in the mountains of Kohgiluyeh, west of the present province. The Safavid more concentrated on east of Iran, Uzbeks and west, which was under the rule of Ottoman Empire. Then, Shah Abbas (I) recognized the significance of the south and Persian Gulf canal following its economic, political, and military reforms. He replaced land trade, crossing Ottoman to the west, by marine. Successive riots of Zolghadr immigrant Illkhanate in Fars and Afshar immigrant Illkhanate in Kohgiluyeh with native Illkhanate, in addition to authority insider tribal chaos made Shah Abbas (I) send Allahverdi Khan, as Fars governor, to south. He brought the peace back to Fars, and southern islands and ports; and conquered Bahrain. The son, Imam-Quli Khan, was his proper successor continued father policy of undermining the Portuguese positions in Hormuz; considering the state military aided by Fars guerrillas, especially the Mamasani Illkhanate and Kohgiluyeh, he captured the strategic Portuguese fort on the islands and returned the economic prosperity to the Persian Gulf.

Architecture of the global land acquisition system: applying the tools of network science to identify key vulnerabilities

Global land acquisitions, often dubbed ‘land grabbing’ are increasingly becoming drivers of land change. We use the tools of network science to describe the connectivity of the global acquisition system. We find that 126 countries participate in this form of global land trade. Importers are concentrated in the Global North, the emerging economies of Asia, and the Middle East, while exporters are confined to the Global South and Eastern Europe. A small handful of countries account for the majority of land acquisitions (particularly China, the UK, and the US), the cumulative distribution of which is best described by a power law. We also find that countries with many land trading partners play a disproportionately central role in providing connectivity across the network with the shortest trading path between any two countries traversing either China, the US, or the UK over a third of the time. The land acquisition network is characterized by very few trading cliques and therefore characterized by a low degree of preferential trading or regionalization. We also show that countries with many export partners trade land with countries with few import partners, and vice versa, meaning that less developed countries have a large array of export partnerships with developed countries, but very few import partnerships (dissassortative relationship). Finally, we find that the structure of the network is potentially prone to propagating crises (e.g., if importing countries become dependent on crops exported from their land trading partners). This network analysis approach can be used to quantitatively analyze and understand telecoupled systems as well as to anticipate and diagnose the potential effects of telecoupling.

Islam, Inequality and Pre-Industrial Comparative Development

This study explores the interaction between trade and geography in shaping the Islamic economic doctrine and in turn the comparative development of the Muslim world. We build a model where an unequal distribution of land quality in presence of trade opportunities conferred differential gains from trade across regions, fostering predatory behavior from the poorly endowed ones. We show that in such an environment it was mutually beneficial to institute an economic system of income redistribution featuring direct income transfers in return for safe passage to conduct trade. A commitment problem, however, rendered a merely static redistribution system unsustainable. Islam added a set of dynamic redistributive rules that were self-enforcing under large gains from trade and high proportions of arid land. While such principles fostered the expansion of trade within the Muslim world they limited the accumulation of wealth by the commercial elite, shaping the economic trajectory of Islamic lands in the preindustrial era.

The socio-economic factors affecting the development of agricultural land market in Poland

The study is aimed at the analysis of the situation in the agricultural land market in Poland, including the identification and description of factors affecting the turnover and rules governing trade in agricultural land and the influence of the Agricultural Property Agency on the supply and demand relationships in trade in agricultural land. The main and critical factors affecting the demand-supply relations in the market are identified.

The dynamics of latifundia formation.

Land tenure inequity is a major social problem in developing nations worldwide. In societies, where land is a commodity, inequities in land tenure are associated with gaps in income distribution, poverty and biodiversity loss. A common pattern of land tenure inequities through the history of civilization has been the formation of latifundia [Zhuāngyuán in chinese], i.e., a pattern where land ownership is concentrated by a small fraction of the whole population. Here, we use simple Markov chain models to study the dynamics of latifundia formation in a heterogeneous landscape where land can transition between forest, agriculture and recovering land. We systematically study the likelihood of latifundia formation under the assumption of pre-capitalist trade, where trade is based on the average utility of land parcels belonging to each individual landowner during a discrete time step. By restricting land trade to that under recovery, we found the likelihood of latifundia formation to increase with the size of the system, i.e., the amount of land and individuals in the society. We found that an increase of the transition rate for land use changes, i.e., how quickly land use changes, promotes more equitable patterns of land ownership. Disease introduction in the system, which reduced land profitability for infected individual landowners, promoted the formation of latifundia, with an increased likelihood for latifundia formation when there were heterogeneities in the susceptibility to infection. Finally, our model suggests that land ownership reforms need to guarantee an equitative distribution of land among individuals in a society to avoid the formation of latifundia.

Agricultural trade and virtual land use: The case of China's crop trade

Trade liberalization has greatly accelerated the volume of traded agricultural products in past decades. As land resources become more limited in some countries, international trade plays an important role in compensating for land scarcity in these countries. This paper aims to measure and locate the virtual land use hidden in China's imports and exports, for both primary crops and processed products, from 1986 to 2009. The results show that as China's crop imports had grown greatly during the last decade, the net virtual land trade hidden in international trade had increased from −4.42Mha in 1986 to 28.90Mha in 2009. The main category of virtual land imports had changed from cereals to oil crops, which accounted for 82.2% of the total virtual land imports in 2009. Over the two decades the main source of virtual land imports had changed from North America to both South America and North America. International trade could also lower demand for land resources at the global level: our results showed that China's crop trade was contributing to global land savings by 3.27Mha on annual average during 1986–2009. Economic development, and associated dietary changes and policy shifts were linked to the change of China's virtual land trade pattern. To make land use more sustainable at the global level, both importing and exporting countries of virtual land should consider ecological and socio-economic impacts of these trade flows in their policies.

China-ASEAN Relations, January 2012 to April 2012: Chronology of Events

China-ASEAN Relations, January 2012 to April 2012:Chronology of Events Wu Dan (bio) JANUARY 2012 3rd Passenger services on the Mekong River are restored after being suspended in August 2011, when a group of 14 tourists, who sailed into the Golden Triangle area from Jinghong, a port city in the south-western province of Yunnan, were robbed. Shipping services were also halted after 13 Chinese sailors on two cargo ships were killed in the area on 5 October 2011. 10th The Xiushan Tunnel of the Yuxi-Mengzi line of the Pan-Asia Railway is successfully completed on 10 January. It is Yunnan province's longest railway tunnel. To be launched for operation this year, the Yuxi-Mengzi Railway will become the first domestic section of the Pan-Asia Railway in operation and will play a major role in facilitating land trade between China and the ASEAN. 14th China and the ASEAN member convene at the Fourth Senior Offcials' Meeting on the Implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea. The participants held an in-depth discussion and reached consensus on future working direction and several cooperation projects. [End Page 134] 16th Chinese State Councillor and Defence Minister Liang Guanglie meets with Indonesian Ambassador to China Imron Cotan in Beijing. Liang says that China wants to work with Indonesia to further strengthen friendly exchanges and cooperation between the two countries' militaries. FEBRUARY 2012 5th Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong visits China from 5 to 7 February at the invitation of Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi. Hor Namhong holds talks with Yang and other Chinese officials and the two sides exchange views on issues of common interest. 16th China approves the construction of a new bridge across its border river with Vietnam, connecting Dongxing and the Vietnamese city of Mong Cai — a move to further boost the border trade of the two countries. The new bridge, Beilun River Bridge No. 2, will be located three kilometres away from the existing Beilun River Road Bridge. 20th The Ninth China-Thailand Friendship Forum, co-hosted by the Office of Thai Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn's Projects and the All-China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives (ACFSMC) in Bangkok, attracts about 500 Chinese and Thai cooperative experts. Chinese and Thai representatives at the forum, themed "Cooperatives: Power for Sustainable Development", exchange views on topics that include ensuring the sustainable development of Chinese and Thai agricultural cooperatives, improving administration of agricultural cooperatives and protecting agricultural cooperatives against various risks. Princess Sirindhorn presides over the forum and delivers a lecture entitled "Student Cooperatives: Youth and Secure Community Building". 23rd The ASEAN defence senior offcials' meeting plus dialogue partners, which aims to strengthen cooperation in regional peace and security, kicks off in Phnom Penh. Participants include senior defence officials of ASEAN and the United States, Russia, China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Among the items on the agenda is discussion of the draft Concept Paper on Review of Frequency of ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus), which proposes meeting to convene once every two years instead of three years. MARCH 2012 1st The Second Conference of the ASEAN Plus Three Ministers Responsible for Information (AMRI+3), which aims to boost regional media exchanges and cooperation, promote the participation and support of all social forces in the the building of a peaceful, prosperous and harmonious East Asia, is held in [End Page 135] Kuala Lumpur. Wang Chen, Minister of the State Council Information Office of China, says East Asian countries should encourage international media to cover the region in a more objective and accurate manner. 7th China appoints Liu Jianchao, a senior diplomat and former spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry, as its new Ambassador to Indonesia to further strengthen the growing strategic ties between the two countries. Liu's appointment comes just ahead of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's state visit to China in late March. 14th Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra receives the 10-member China Asso-ciation for International Friendly Contacts (CAIFC) delegation at the Thai Government House. She says that the Thai government is willing to cooperate with China...

الطرق التجارية في مملكة الأنباط

Recent archaeological discoveries have enriched our knowledge of Nabataean trade routes and caravans? stations. The geographic and strategic of the area have been influential factors in determining the trade routes' positions. The routes were provided with watching towers, and rest houses in order to protect and facilitate caravans. The occasion scarcity of the archaeological evidence makes it blur to distinguish between local and regional trade routes and furthermore it is uncertain whether some routes were in use. Nabataean economic interests were not restricted to land trade, whereas they also used sea to transport their goods. They had their own boats that they developed into ships that would navigate in the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. Nabataean profited from imposing levies on caravans passing thorough Nabataea under their protection.

Neoliberalism, Globalization and the Capitalist World Order

We often forget how fast things change; for example, my father was born at a time when a wagon ride to the major city center 50 miles away took half a day and by the time he died almost a century later he could travel across a major ocean and traverse a continent in the same time. Those of us old enough to recall having to literally cut and paste together edits on our work know that the “cut” and “paste” features on most word processing software is a reference that most undergraduates cannot understand in their literal sense. My teenage son recently saw a rotary phone in a communication museum and pondered how you make a call, and it is only recently that he has become comfortable with telling time on an analog watch (who knows what he makes of old war films with “bandits at four o’clock” ‐ is that a reference to some appointment or anticipation?). In much the same way we get wrapped up in current debates and discussions over globalization, the internationalization of production, and the spread of capitalism as it penetrates all corners of the globe. Empires were built on commerce and there is no need to review the history of societies developing the fastest and safest means to bring goods to market ‐ whether it was the building of roads and garrisons to ensure the flow of goods toRome,guardingthetraderoutesacrossAsia,ordevelopingfasterandmoreefficientmeans of transportation over water. Early European empires grew out of trade and conquests, and early stages of capitalist development were inexorably tied to increasing global markets (primarily for the raw materials that fed the engines of production, and to some smaller extent as the outlet for the goods produced).The ability to utilize transportation, whether the land trade routes across Europe and between Europe and Asia, the inland waterways of northern and central Europe, or conquering the oceans to link continents, all contributed to the growth of great commercial empires. We need not repeat here the lessons of global processes so ably detailed in grand works of epic (and epochal) proportion by scholars like Braudel (1992a [1979], 1992b [1979], 1992c[1979])andWallerstein(1974,1980,1989).Itisenoughtopointoutthatsomeform

Groundwater exploitation for public and private uses in the towns of the Roman province: the emblematic example of Formia (Latium adiectum: central Italy)

Formia was a Roman municipality (central Italy) and one of the Roman notables' favourite holiday destinations from the 2nd century B.C. to the 1st century A.C. The town was also a strategic hub for sea and land trade and drew its strength from its geographic position, climate and abundance of spring waters near the sea. This wealth of freshwater, managed by special magistrates (curator aquarum), had multiple public and private uses: (i) intake structures (draining tunnels, cistern and an octagonal hall/musaeum/nymphaeum which may have been used as a model for the most famous octagonal hall of Nero's Domus Aurea in Rome); (ii) supply structures (above all aqueducts); (iii) storage structures (above all cisterns); and, finally, (iv) utilisation structures for public use (thermal baths, probably a pond/piscina dulcis and at least two fountains located along the Appian Way, the regina viarum of the Roman period) and private use (balnea and nymphaea/oeci described by the famous architect Vitruvius who was born in Formia). Hence, as a municipality located in the hinterland of the caput mundi, Formia may be regarded as a typical example of management and public and private use of water resources in the Roman period.

Indian Work: Language and Livelihood in Native American History. By Daniel H. Usner Jr. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009. xii, 202 pp. $49.95, ISBN 978-0-674-03349-8.)

In Indian Work Daniel H. Usner Jr. draws together two strands of American history that have gone unconnected for far too long. How first peoples survived the collapse of colonial trade and loss of land to American expansion is an important question, and Usner explores the ways that they eked out livelihoods across the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. But the book is not just about how people worked. Usner is also interested in the language outsiders used to describe the work, and his exploration of the language around Indian work is significant. By braiding together the history and the historiography of Indian work, Usner deconstructs a number of powerful and pernicious myths that have subjected first peoples to an unfair accounting of their lives and labors in the past as well as in the present. Non-native observers have tended to condemn Indian workers. For example, people often denigrated the native folk who peddled baskets in the markets of New Orleans or on the backroads of the Mississippi pine woods as miserable creatures who had no place in civil society. For Usner, however, such work afforded opportunities for first peoples in the lower Mississippi River valley to retain their work and aesthetic traditions and, at the same time, to supplement their household incomes with cash or barter earnings. Modern criticism of “shiftless welfare Indians” falls to similar scrutiny when Usner explains how the modern social service system managed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs was largely a creation of the treaty rights that the United States granted to the various nations in exchange for the peoples' land.

Comparative analysis of temporal changes of multifunctionality benefit of two major rice paddy plains in Taiwan

Recently, free trade of farm land, changes of agricultural policy and global climate changes have resulted a significant reduction of rice planting area and the multifunctionality values of paddy field in Taiwan. This study aims to evaluate the temporal changes of multifunctionality benefit of two major rice paddy plains in Taiwan. The main agricultural production regions of the Chou-Shui river alluvial fan and Ping-Tung plain are selected for the comparative study. The replacement method is adopted to quantify the multifunctionality of the paddy field. The results show that percentage of cultivated paddy to the total paddy gradually decreases from 92 to 80% and the external value remains from 572,000 to 668,000 NT$/ha in the Chou-Shui river alluvial fan. Whereas, the percentage of area of cultivated paddy to the total paddy markedly decreases from 37 to 23% from 1999 to 2006 and resulting the external values of paddy only ranges from 156,000 to 258,000 NT$/ha in the Ping-Tung plain. To maintain the sustainable agriculture in the paddy field, government needs to formulate incentive policy to conserve the paddy farming, promote, and transmit the general understanding of the environmental and living-hood multifunctionality values to the people.

Fiscal and trade distorting effects of capital gains tax on land sales -empirical evidence from agricultural land market in Finland

Luovutusvoittojen verotus on keskeinen osa rikkaiden maiden verojärjestelmiä varsinkin korkean veroasteen pohjoismaissa, kuten Suomessa. Luovutusvoittojen verottaminen kuitenkin vääristää markkinoita vähentämällä myyntejä, jotka laukaisevat ajan mukana syntyneestä arvonnoususta kannettavan veronmaksun (=lock-in effect). Ilmiötä on tutkittu aikaisemmin pääasiassa osakeomistuksen kohdalla, mutta myös viljelysmaan kohdalla ongelma on ilmeinen. Viljelysmaan kohdalla ongelma korostuu, koska se aiheuttaa merkittäviä kustannuksia reaalitalouteen. Maanomistus pirstaloituu samalla kun aktiiviviljely keskittyy yhä pienempään määrään ammattiviljelijöitä. Maan vuokraus lisääntyy, maan tuottavuuskasvu pysähtyy ja ympäristöohjelmien tehokkuus heikkenee. Tässä tutkimuksessa haetaan keinoja vauhdittaa peltokauppoja verotuksen keinoin ja arvioidaan verotuksellisten keinojen vaikutusta verokertymään. Selvitämme luovutusvoitosta kannettavan veron ja siihen kohdistuvan, määräaikaisen verohuojennuksen vaikutukset peltokauppoihin ja valtion verokertymään kahdesta eri näkökulmasta ja kahdella eri menetelmällä. Ensimmäinen menetelmä on maanomistajan myyntitilannetta kuvaava matemaattinen optimointimalli, jonka tulokset osoittavat, että yksin taloudellisesta näkökulmasta katsottuna myyntivoittoverotuksella on keskeinen merkitys myyntien ajoitukseen. Toinen menetelmä on ekonometrinen malli, jolla selvitetään maanomistajien omat näkemykset siitä, millä tavoin he reagoisivat myyntivoittoveron huojennuksiin. Tässä osassa hyödynnetään Suomalainen pellonomistaja -tutkimuksen kyselyaineistoa ja sen pohjalta laadittuja malleja pellonomistajien reaktioista veromuutoksiin. Omistajien reaktiot veromuutoksiin tarjoavat mahdollisuuden tarkastella verohuojennuksen verokertymävaikutuksia ja optimoida kertymää. Tulosten mukaan luovutusvoittojen verotuksella on merkittävä vaikutus peltomarkkinoihin. Määräaikainen luovutusvoiton verohuojennus voisi tuottaa nykyisen verokertymän ja samalla oikaista verotuksen peltomarkkinoille aiheuttamaa vääristymää siitäkin huolimatta, että pellon myyntihalukkuus on yleisesti ottaen heikko. Peräti 87 % omistajista ei myisi peltoaan, vaikka vero poistuisi kokonaisuudessaan. Verotasojen muutoksilla olisi kuitenkin huomattavia vaikutuksia nykyisin kovin ohuilla peltomarkkinoilla. Kolmanneksen verotason alennus johtaisi 50 prosentin nousuun myyntien todennäköisyydessä. Veron tilapäinen poistaminen nelinkertaistaisi myyntien todennäköisyyden. Näin ollen voidaan todeta pellonomistajien reagoivan varsin joustavasti myyntivoittoveron huojennuksiin. Verohuojennukset olisi kuitenkin saatava nopeasti voimaan, koska markkinoilla oleva tieto tai epäilys tulossa olevasta huojennuksesta pysäyttää peltokaupat kokonaan siihen saakka, kunnes huojennus astuu voimaan.

Fiscal and trade distorting effects of capital gains tax on land sales - empirical evidence from agricultural land market in Finland

Capital gains taxes are important sources of government income in particular in high tax Scandinavian countries. Theses taxes, nevertheless, likely distort the market and resource allocations through so called effect by discouraging trade transactions that would trigger the tax payments. When it comes to agricultural land, the lock-in effect implies that, along the structural development, the land ownership and active farming gradually deviate from each other and land tenancy increases. Increasing land tenancy and land tenure insecurity have shown to incur a significant social cost, because they discourage and delay irreversible land improvements that would be necessary for maintaining land productivity. Therefore, the knowledge about the trade-off between the level of capital gains taxes, land sales and, thus, the resulting fiscal revenues is valuable in designing optimal tax policies. This study estimates the fiscal effects of reduction in capital gains taxes imposed on land sales and provides grounds for optimizing the tax scheme. The results suggest that certain temporary tax waiver programs could maintain the current tax revenues with less trade distorting effects on the land market. By simulating the land trade quantities conditional on alternative tax rates, the study gives information on how much a particular tax waiver program would trigger land sales. The results signal that tax waiver programs could shift the current structural development pattern of gradually increasing tenancy and land tenure insecurity to a pattern, in which the share of land ownership would be increased.

Two Different Routes of Colonization ofAedes aegyptiin Argentina From Neighboring Countries

Aedes aegypti L. (Diptera, Culicidae) is the main vector of dengue and yellow fever. In Argentina, the species was apparently eradicated approximately in 1964; by 1986, it was reintroduced. To identify different gene pools in geographical populations of the species and to ascertain the possible routes of colonization, we analyzed the diversity of mitochondrial DNA haplotypes in 572 specimens from Argentina and neighboring countries. We found that the restriction fragment length polymorphism-polymerase chain reaction screening of a large DNA fragment including the A+T-rich region was the best strategy to reconstruct the colonization pattern ofAe. aegypti in Argentina. Twenty haplotypes were recognized; levels of genetic similarity varied among populations from different geographical locations. The haplotype network constructed on the basis of genetic distances showed three well differentiated groups. Two of them exhibited a well defined spatial distribution and populations in these groups presented an isolation-by-distance pattern. The persistence of relictual populations after the last eradication campaigns would explain the high levels of haplotype diversity and the presence of exclusive haplotypes in urban centers from northwestern Argentina. Eastern Argentine populations showed one prevalent haplotype, also predominant in Brazil and Paraguay. Our results highlight the need for efficient surveys and control campaigns, given the strong effect of land trade on genetic exchange among mosquito populations from Argentina and neighboring countries where dengue is endemic.

Crucibles of Political Loyalty: Church Institutions and Political Continuity in Hungary by Jason Wittenberg (review)

176 SEER, 87, I, JANUARY 200g and those backing the junta that ousted him, plus a decade when the SW. province ofAdjaria (Ach'ara) was effectivelya self-governing fiefdom under local potentate Asian Abashidze, who controlled all land trade with neigh bouring Turkey (1993-2003). A fractious state and consequential weak central authority facilitated the development of decentralized corruption, based on the long-standing networks of family, friends or other social groupings thathad become a sinequa nonof daily life inGeorgia. After toppling Shevard nadze inNovember 2003,Mikheil Saak'ashvili quickly re-established control over Ach'ara (spring 2004), but S. Ossetia and Abkhazia remain de facto independent (though unrecognized) states. Divergent recent historiesmust have contributed to the different structures obtaining inArmenia and Georgia, and my only slightquarrel with the book is itsacceptance of the view that responsibility for theAbkhazian war laywith the paramilitary leaders of the then-ruling State Council, Tengiz K'it'ovani and Djaba Ioseliani (p. 42), the potted history of whose career in note 8 needs refining. I have long argued that the only logical explanation for this pointless war was the (vain) hope thatGamsakhurdia's supporters innext-door Mingrelia would rally behind Shevardnadze's 'pan-Georgian' flag against the common (Abkhazian) enemy; in other words, I see Shevardnadze's cynical (mis)calculation behind this catastrophe at a timewhen he was immune from criticism in the West. Stefes makes some complimentary remarks about Saak'ashvili, the current Georgian president, in terms of anti-corruption moves but recognizes that ultimately there could be dangers ahead, given the powers amassed in the president's hands ? Shevardnadze too originally came topower as Party Boss in Georgia in 1972 as an anti-corruption campaigner. The book should be a valuable eye-opener for all interested in the region, where ignorance has too often determined policy. Occasionally a wrong word or syntactic construction has crept in, but these are minor distractions. Department of Near & Middle Eastern Languages& Cultures B. G. Hewitt SOAS, UniversityofLondon Wittenberg, Jason. Crucibles ofPolitical Loyalty: Church Institutionsand Political Continuity in Hungary. Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York, 2006. xiv + 293 pp. Tables. Figures. Notes. Appendices. Bibliography. Index. ?45-00. This, the firstbook by a young American political scientist,has the rare dis tinction of having considerable value to scholars working indistinct academic disciplines. In examining theChristian churches' resistance to theHungarian Communist regime, and the influence they had on shaping current party affiliations, this study has an importance for both historians and political scientists of post-World War Two Hungary and should be of interest to any scholar studying Communist and post-Communist regimes. REVIEWS 177 This study derives its double appeal by explaining why traditional party loyalties in Hungary endured the revolutionary transformation of society brought about by theCommunist regime that governed the country between 1948 and 1989. Not only did the elections of both 1948 and 1990 result in a victory for the parties of 'the right' but also, as this study carefully demon strates, an examination of voting preferences on a local level reveals remark ably strong continuities between pre- and post-Communist election outcomes. In spite of the socio-economic and generational changes that took place inHungary under the Communist regime, many localities inHungary sup ported precisely the same type of parties in 1990 that they had supported forty-twoyears earlier. The key to explaining these continuities, this study argues, lieswith the Christian churches which, in spite of the Communist regime's secularizing efforts, retained their influence on, and continued to shape the voting preferences of, the Hungarian electorate. To demonstrate how the churches were able to retain their influence, the author has made profitable use of local and church archives (supplemented by additional research in theHungarian National Archive) to examine how, in two sample counties, theChristian churches resisted the secularizing pressures of the Communist regime. The close examination of these two counties situ ated at opposite ends of the country, the one (Zala) predominandy Catholic, the other (Hajdu-Bihar) predominantly Calvinist, enables this study toprovide a compelling account of how both the Catholic and Calvinist churches provided a viable alternative to theCommunist regime. The picture of church state relations that...

CHANGES IN THE AGRICULTURAL LAND MARKET AND AGRARIAN STRUCTURE OF INDIVIDUAL FARMS IN POLAND

The study is aimed at the analysis of the situation in the agricultural land market in Poland, including the identification and description of factors affecting the turnover and rules governing trade in agricultural land and the influence of the Agricultural Property Agency on the supply and demand relationships in trade in agricultural land. Analysis allows to draw the conclusion that the situation on agricultural market as well as Common Agricultural Policy motivate economically strong farms to strengthen their position on the agricultural market, and to extend the area of their land. So far the main effect of this situation is progressing polarization of area structure of individual farms, what is represented by a greater share of units of relatively small and big land acreage

Existence of the core in a heterogeneous divisible commodity exchange economy

We consider the exchange of a heterogeneous divisible commodity modeled as a measurable space. Under rational, continuous and convex preferences over characteristic measures a weak core is shown to exist. Further, a core exists if characteristic measures are mutually absolutely continuous. Applied to the land trading economy, the core existence results in Berliant (J Math Econ 14:53–56, 1985) and Dunz (Reg Sci Urban Econ 21:73–88, 1991) are obtained.