Western Economic System Research Articles

The Intersection in Marxist New International Politics and Derrida’s Philosophy: A Meta-Analytics Inquiry of Its Impacts on Western Macro-Economy

The Intersection in Marxist New International Politics and Derrida’s Philosophy: A Meta-Analytics Inquiry of Its Impacts on Western Macro-Economy

Analisa Pemahaman Masyarakat terhadap Ekonomi Syariah

The lack of academic or professional outreach from related institutions, the existence of Islamic Financial Institutions (LKS) does not necessarily play an active role. Not to mention the lack of knowledge of Islamic economics in society, which encourages public perception that the Islamic and Western economic systems are equal. Even though there are many LKS in the area, people's understanding of Islamic economics is still very minimal. This case study was carried out partly because of the concern of the residents of Pangulah Selatan hamlet. The purpose of this research is to increase public awareness and understanding of the fundamental ideas of Islamic economics, support local community economic development, and protect against usury debt (including loan sharks). The author's research methodology is qualitative.

Conditional Support: Chinese Development Aid in the Caribbean

Abstract: In recent decades, China has emerged as a major economic power operating within the Caribbean, making the analysis of its foreign policy strategy in the region of paramount importance. This essay will seek to identify the ideology undergirding China’s foreign policy within the Caribbean, using these insights to analyze the effects of Beijing’s increased engagement within the region. This essay will argue that Beijing has sought to create close ties with a number of Caribbean states by launching a slew of generous development assistance projects, attaching conditionalities to these projects to effectively incorporate partner states into their export and ideological network. China views the Caribbean as a valuable political partner, as its proximity to the United States makes its potential alliance with China a prominent counterfactual to Western hegemony. To achieve this argument, I will highlight how China’s Maritime Silk Road Initiative (MSRI) has influenced China’s grand strategy within the Caribbean, as it seeks to incorporate the region into a broader economic network to challenge Western economic systems. I will then highlight how economic considerations influence China’s bilateral relations with a number of resource-rich Caribbean states, investigating the diplomatic approach China has used to increase its access to natural resources in the region. Lastly, this essay will investigate how China’s development assistance based strategy has impacted the Caribbean itself. This will cover both its negative and positive effects on domestic industries, while also exploring how China’s ambitious economic expansion has stoked social discontent in the region.

Ukrainian culture of the XVII–­XVIII centuries as a “window of opportunities” for modernization processes

The purpose of the article is to study Ukrainian culture of the middle of XVII — the end of XVIII centuries as a “window of opportunities” for full-fledged modernization, especially within the territorial and chronological boundaries of the newly emerged Ukrainian statehood — the Hetmanate.
 The metodology. In the article we used the theory of classic modernization as the transition of a certain society from the traditional, agrarian stage of development to industrial one due to complex, profound changes in all spheres of public life and culture. Based on the structural-systemic approach the main manifestations of opportunities for classical modernization in the Ukrainian lands at the beginning of the period were identifed, and then based on the historical method the most important results of their evolution at the end of XVIII century were considered. By the method of comparative analysis, these results were compared with the achievements of European societies.
 The results. It was concluded that the scale and duration of the innovations at the end of the XVIII century were insufficient to make a real modernization of the Ukrainian culture and to establish the foundations of a new industrial society, compared to the center or the semi-periphery of the Western economic world system. Regressive tendencies in all spheres without exception mutually blocked the “window of opportunities”.
 The scientific novelty of this article is a contribution to the innovative vision of the historical development of Ukrainian culture as a number of opportunities for successful modernization lost in different periods.
 The practical significance. It was shown, that the failures of modernization processes for Ukrainian culture are equal to the failures of national liberation struggles.

Kontrak Kerja Sama Usaha Di Indonesia Dalam Perspektif Hukum Islam

The existence of varied form of corporation contract in Indonesia cannot be separated from the existence of corporation forms regulated in the constitution. The forms of corporation as like companies, firms, commanditer companies, PT, and cooperation which come from the constitution of colonial Netherland are surely influenced by the capitalist of western economic system. Meanwhile, in Islamic law there are mechanism of corporations in every sector, like al-Shirkah, al-Mudharabah, al-Muzaro’ah, and al-Musaqoh. This research discusses various mechanisms of corporation that are regulated in the constitution in Indonesia and in Islamic law, and the comparison between both of them. By using qualitative research design through library research in each law product, analyzing the content and comparative analysis, it can be concluded that the various forms of corporation in Indonesia can be made same with (al-Qiyas al-Musawi) the various forms of corporation in Islamic law. This similarity can be seen from the agreement, the goal, the right, the true effort, the important of the agreement, the authority of the people, and the separation aspect. However, there is exception in the law of obligation. The obligation law in the mechanism of the corporation contract cannot be true (haram) since it is not in line with al-Qur’an and the rules in the various forms of corporation contract in Islamic law.

The Contribution of the Western World to the Islamic Economy in Indonesia

Islamic economics that is applied in various countries, including Islamic banking or in Indonesia is called Sharia Banking. This study wants to reveal how the western world's response to Islamic economics is?; and what is the contribution of the western world to the Islamic economy in Indonesia?. This type of research is a normative juridical research with the nature of this research is a descriptive legal study. This study is intended to explore the response of the western world to the Islamic economy that exists in Indonesia. This study produced findings, namely: First, the western world's response to the Islamic economy, namely the Western economic system is intended to embrace the Islamic economic system and support the existence of the Islamic economic system itself, as a result, the western world applies a free business system based on capitalism which prioritizes capital for development. economy in the Islamic world. Second, the contribution of the western world to the economy in Indonesia is a necessity which incidentally is not an Islamic State. However, in its scope, Islamic law in Indonesia in this case the sharia economy is subject to the national economic system, although in Indonesia itself the sharia economic system and conventional economics in Indonesia have their own legal umbrella. So that the Islamic economic system in Indonesia until now is an alternative concept for a prosperous economic system in Indonesia, one of which is a capitalist economic system. Islamic law, especially the Qur'an and al-Hadith. The implication of the western response to the existence of a sharia economy in Indonesia is a golden opportunity for Indonesia to develop a sharia economy, one of which is the halal industry, halal tourism (religion), sharia economic brand, money waqf, the potential of the halal industry sector in Indonesia can be developed through halal food ( halal food), halal fashion, halal cosmetics, and so on, this means that economic freedom in Indonesia needs to be developed. In addition, halal tourism can also be developed in Indonesia, with various potentials that exist in Indonesia. Another implication related to the western response to the Islamic economy in Indonesia is the presence of a diversity of halal food. However, the development of this potential needs to make the resulting production must be based on the principles of benefit and justice, where this benefit is carried out by prioritizing sharia economics as a real need where justice is very meaningful in the economy, especially in Indonesia.

Market economy vs. capitalism (On the book by Bannas S. and Herrmann-Pillath C. “Marktwirtschaft: Zu einer neuen Wirklichkeit. 30 Thesen zur Transformation unserer Wirtschaftsordnung”)

The authors of the book published in Germany in 2020, unlike most researchers who adhere to the established traditional views, do not consider capitalism as a kind or form of manifestation of the market economy, which, in their opinion, as an authentic form of social order, opposes capitalism. The position of the authors also differs from other reformist doctrines by the emphasis on the mental, or rather, moral requirements that must be imposed on the actors of the market economy. Environmental and ethical issues largely determine their specific proposals for the transformation of the modern Western economic system. One of the core elements of the authors’ position is the requirement of full legal responsibility in relation to all economic agents. The authors rely on almost all known developments on the topic that they propose in the 30 theses of the reform, including the latest articles and monographs. The book can definitely be recommended to Russian researchers of macroeconomics and economic policy.

İslam ve İktisadi Büyüme

Islam's ultimate aim for Muslims is to render Muslims to achieve the salvation (falah) in afterlife as well as their temporary life in earth. A moderate welfare in this life is required for Muslims in order for them to fulfil their responsibilities in terms of their personal religious life. What is meant by a moderate economic life standard is that the welfare of the entire society should not be accumulated in some certain classes of the society, and instead, it should circulate among all of the people, which in turn leads these people to achieve an average life standard. Thus, some certain rules and organizations were designed and created in order to reach the said ultimate aim and almost all Islamic states, which had reigned during this long period of Islamic history tried to practice these rules in a right way and aimed to ensure their citizens to live through the said moderate welfare. It is natural that the Islamic economic system that includes all these rules and institutions is different from the western (conventional) economic systems. In this chapter (that I have translated into Turkish) Barro and Cleary have been primarily and implicitly questionning Islam's approach of moderate wealth from a viewpoint of western oriented economic growth, and also asserting that Islam has an economic doctrine that can be defined as “status quoist” and thus leading economic activities and economic growth slowing down. In order to do so, authors use the concept of economic growth which is measured in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) and compare GDPs of some contempopary Muslim states that had constituted Ottoman Empire in the past and of OECD counties which some of them, especially European ones, had been historical opponents of Ottoman Empire. By doing so, authors question why Muslim states remained behind, although they were scientific and economic leaders of the world in the past. In brief, other phenomena that the authors discuss throughout the text can be listed as follows: The generation and rise of Islam and how Islam changed Arabic political system; the role of madrasas and waqfs first in the rise and the second in the decrease of Islam in terms of science and civilisation; the role of Islamic jurisprudence; Muslim effects on European conflicts in terms of political and military situations; the effect of Ramadan on economic growth of Muslim countries; economic courses of Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism; the comparison of Islam with other world religions in terms of economic courses and implications. In the end, the authors conclude that Christendom have succeeded a transformation within its internal structure by letting the emergence of Protestantism, and Jewish people concentrated on so called earthly success of this world and also on human capital instead of concentrating on spiritual values. These together constituted reasons why Christian and Jewish nations are scientific and economic leaders of this age. Unlike them, Muslims were not able to perform enough scientific and economic progress since they did not succeeded a similar transformation and remained stuck to original religious values, rules and corporate structure of Islam. Of course, this kind of approach which only relies on limited criterion like economic growth and excludes other elements such as political and military contexts and worldwide conjunctures is defective and should be challenged by experts and academicians by evaluating this approach in terms of Islamic economics, Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), political, military and economic, cultural and civilisation history of both Islamic states and Ottoman Empire. It is only possible to constitute a counter-view against these type of approcahes to Islam in general and Islamic economics in particular, by generating such kind of all-inclusive academic works. Eventually my aim in translating this work into Turkish is to make negative approaches and dissertations against Islam's economic and financial order which have been longly become widespread in a harmony, especially those which appeared in the non-Muslim world and English-written academic literature, accessible in Turkish and to make the way to scholarly rebuttals and refutations of Turkish academicians against aforesaid negative approaches and dissertations.

Rethinking the Budapest Memorandum from the Perspective of Ukrainian-Russian Relations in the Post-Soviet Period

The Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine was adopted in 1990 and declared Ukraine a non-nuclear state. However, Kyiv was not eager to surrender the nuclear arsenal that it had inherited from the Soviet Union. It is possible to divide Ukraine’s denuclearisation process into two different phases. The first phase consisted of bilateral discussions between Russia and Ukraine, which ended due to Russia’s inability to understand Ukraine’s security concerns. In 1993, the United States joined the discussion, and the trilateral phase began. The involvement of the United States helped to reach a consensus and promote nuclear non-proliferation in Ukraine by providing security assurance and some economic benefits. The case of Ukraine’s nuclear non-proliferation was supposed to be one of the most exemplary cases of denuclearisation in the last two decades. But in light of the Ukrainian crisis which started in 2014, the world recognizes that the security assurances provided in the Budapest Memorandum ultimately failed to deter Russian aggression towards Ukraine. Scott Sagan believes that the international norms and an image of ‘a good international citizen’ that can integrate into the Western economic and security system while maintaining good relations with Russia mattered the most in view of Ukraine's decision to give up nuclear weapons. This article suggests that the Ukrainian denuclearisation is the fusion of both the norms and domestic factors that Ukraine faced in 1990s. The article will review Ukraine’s decision to return the nuclear weapons, despite the ongoing Russian threat. It will also clarify Ukraine’s decision to not pursue nuclear proliferation, despite recent trends within Ukraine’s political circle that would be in support of this decision.

The Possibility or Impossibility of Islamization of Knowledge in a Neoliberal Market Order

This paper argues that the project of the Islamization of Knowledge (IoK) has overlooked the role of a neoliberal politicoeconomic order in the knowledge production along with the relation between knowledge and the market established by economic liberalization. So the resulting discourse perhaps inadequately explains the incapacity of contemporary application of Islamic economics and finance to provide a viable alternative to western economic systems, let alone solve socioeconomic problems in Muslim countries. This paper will attempt to cover this inadequacy by explaining the relation between mind, knowledge and market as theorized by Hayek, along with Foucault’s perspective power-knowledge nexus. The Hayek’s and Foucault’s perspective on the relation between state, market, mind and knowledge creates an interesting challenge for IoK because it is not only the issue of reconciliation of the spheres of knowledge, rather free unhampered flow of market is also presumably necessary for the growth of human mind and consequently human knowledge as argued by Hayek and Foucault. The neoliberal-state allows free unhampered flow of the market, subsequently creating knowledge in pursuit of continuous capital accumulation. Production of knowledge, therefore, becomes a mechanism to maintain the hegemony of the neoliberal-state and market, while establishing authority of capital on ontological position of man and society. In this context any intervention in the process of IoK under religious obligation is not just an epistemological, rather a moral impossibility within capitalist discourse. The relationship between the neoliberal-state, market and production of knowledge will enable the scholars of Islamic economics and finance to reassess their strategies pertaining to IoK.

ПРОБЛЕМА ВНУТРЕННЕЙ ВАЛЕНТНОСТИ МОРФЕМ: ОПЫТ ПОЛИПАРАДИГМАЛЬНОГО ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ

It is proved that the imperative of modern linguistic science is a multiparadigmatic approach in the study of existing facts of language and speech, which is manifested in the priority of three basic principles: explanatoriness, anthropocentrism and functionalism. During this study we found that the complexity of approaches in research provides objectivity and completeness of knowledge about the phenomena under study and allows to solve urgent problems. In this regard, we made an attempt to show the ways of studying the problem of inner valence of morphemes in various areas of modern linguistics (on the material of newspaper discourse neologisms). Attention is paid to the solution of the problem of valence in the direction of sociolinguistics, which allows to establish the non-linguistic causes of the emergence of new words and explore through the neologisms the space of the language functioning outside its autochthonous territory. We analyze body of neolexical item in author card index records and its wordbuilding processes in the discourse activity of Russian-speaking mass media of Kazakhstan, allows us to conclude that extra-linguistic factors causing the birth of new categories include the politicization of society, the adoption of western economic system, the rapid technical development.

THE APOLOGISTS AND CRITICS OF CAPITALISM

Abstract: The study analyzes the essence of the modern capitalist system, attempts by the capitalists to ennoble the Western economic system, which is described by Aristotle as hrematics, a counterbalance to the economy or “house building”. The work emphasizes the absurdity of determining the market economy. “ It is emphasized that modern capitalism is, first of all, not an economic, but a spiritual phenomenon. It has all the religious symbols, it is an invisible religion in all its main directions, which diametrically contradict Christianity. It can be called a “monetary religion”. The paper also presents when, by whom and in what context the term “capitalism” is first mentioned in chronological order. The paper notes that, despite the “titanic efforts” of the “economic science”, the “progressive” approval of capitalism was difficult: this social and economic education largely discredited itself.

Konfucjanizm jako ekonomia moralna

Kazimierz Poznański, Konfucjanizm jako ekonomia moralna [Confucianism as a moral economy] edited by W. Banach, M.A. Michalski, J. Sójka, „Człowiek i Społeczeństwo” vol. XLVI: Między Chinami a Zachodem. Pytanie o źródła chińskiego sukcesu gospodarczego [Between China and the West. An inquiry into the sources of the Chinese economic miracle], Poznań 2018, pp. 11–42, Adam Mickiewicz University. Faculty of Social Sciences Press. ISSN 0239-3271.Western economic system is usually called “democratic capitalism”. But how should be called the system in today’s China? China is not a capitalist economy, but a market economy without capitalism. She is also a democracy but without direct voting for the highest posts. The doctrinal roots of “democratic capitalism” are in liberalism and the Chinese system is ingrained in Confucianism. For this reason, what is in use in China can be called “Confucian system” or, alternatively “Confucian meritocracy”. This kind of meritocracy is not limited to Chinese state, it operates through entire society. As Confucians argue, state is a function of family. Thus, only when family is a meritocracy, so is the state, actually the whole society. Chinese meritocracy is an ethical concept, because in Confucian tradition “merit” means “virtue”. Two thousand years old, Chinese system of ethics has continued. But two hundred years ago, parallel Western ethical vision of society has been assaulted by liberalism. This marked a gigantic split between the two civilizations. Escaping from ethics to – call it – logic, is the reason why liberalism has been failing to accurately reflect economic reality. As a consequence, Western economies work below their potential. In contrast, sticking to her ethical philosophy – of life – China has been excelling. To properly address this dynamic, it is necessary to determine what constitutes Chinese view of economy as a study of wealth. Not yet formalized, it is her peoples’ “second nature”. It all begins with a claim that goal of people is the extension of life to next generations. But liberalism – with “liberal (classical) economics” – argues that the goal is an “instant gratification”, i.e., consumption of goods. In pursuit of personal satisfaction, individuals face no moral dilemma. But since life is a gift, for Confucians choices are moral. Chinese reject the liberal notion of scarcity and claim abundance of resources. With excess, people can “afford” morality which is about sharing. Since there is no need for live-or-die competition for resources, to survive people need only to work. For Confucians, not market but family is the prime form of organization. This is so, since morality comes from family. Market can enhance efficiency only when “embedded” in morality. This is true about other key institution – state. China continues her “success story” by restoring Confucian past, with meritocracy at the core. To stimulate its economy, Western civilization also needs a return to the past. It needs to remake its mainstream liberalism by returning to roots as formulated by proto-liberalism. Focused on morality and family, this approach has been renewed by Joseph Schumpeter and the Austrian School. Parallel reforms may bring two grand civilizations close by again.

الأحکام الفقهية المتعلقة بالشرط الجزائي في القروض المالية

الأحکام الفقهية المتعلقة بالشرط الجزائي في القروض المالية

A Delicate Relationship: The United States and Burma/Myanmar since 1945

For many Westerners, Burma (changed to Myanmar in 1989) carries both distant and familiar connotations. The bitter jungle warfare of World War II and the more recent heroic struggles of Aung San Suu Kyi, the winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, certainly stand out as bookmarks. The complex intervening years, however, are foggier. Fortunately, the veteran historian Kenton Clymer has stepped in with an enormously well-researched, clear, and cogent study of postwar American relations with Burma/Myanmar, a “delicate” relationship revealed to be fraught with peril and tensions. During the Cold War, Americans wished to forge a strong anticommunist Burma integrated into the Western economic system. Conversely, the Burmese, emerging from colonialism, sought nonalignment and autonomy. Numerous entrenched variables frustrated the aspirations of both nations. In Burma, ethnic groups pressed their own interests in the face of a state determined to assert control. The economy floundered, hampered by natural disasters and poor planning. Meanwhile, Americans struggled to control missionaries and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officers clinging to their own independent agendas. U.S. officials also grappled with a Burmese government that simultaneously sought and resisted American aid.

The Turkish Drawbridge: European Integration and the Cultural Economics of National Planning

AbstractThis article examines the relations between the Turkish State Planning Organisation (SPO) and the Western economic system during the first two decades of national planning in Turkey (1960–1980). It traces how the SPO, established with the guidance and full endorsement of international economic institutions came to vehemently oppose Turkish participation in one of their pillars: the European Economic Community (EEC), the predecessor of the European Union. It argues that the shift in the SPO's world-view was founded upon two distinct understandings of the Turkish nation and its development, situates these understandings within the intellectual history of Turkey's past ambivalence towards the West, and, in doing so, provides a historical case-study of the ideological clash between modernisation and dependency theories of development.

Marginalization and the Multiplicity of Rationalities: A Discourse Theory of Poverty

The roots of global poverty are often explored from a purely economic perspective. Its main causes have been attributed to the exploitative practices of the dominant economies of the first world and the continued imposition of unfair and unjust trade relations with the global south. From the dire and unabashed exploitation of natural resources and manpower during the colonial era to today's almost manic imposition of free trade policies on the world market, Western nations work hard to keep the world order subjugated under policies which keep exploited former colonies from developing their own higher income-producing industries or from realizing models of development and progress that are more advantageous to non-western peoples. These same practices confine the so-called developing world to the role of low-cost labor and raw material supplier whose produce not even traded fairly. The current regime of intellectual property protection and the imposition of WTO policies that allow the unregulated dumping of manufactured goods from the west illustrate effectively how poverty maintained in the so-called developing world.Aside from the exploitative policies that the economically dominant nations impose on the world that keep developing nations from actually developing, we can also look at exploitative structures within nations where the elite effectively control all the resources and means by which incomes can be generated and wealth created. Exploitative structures exist in poor nations that allow the elite to capture all forms of political and economic power thus depriving the vast majority of the opportunity to earn better incomes or create new forms of wealth.Often, the prescribed remedy for poverty to reform existing market systems and economic structures in order for facilitate the entry to the poor into mainstream systems of production and income generation. Global market systems are also being reformed in order to create what economists view as genuinely free markets that will allow poor nations to engage fairly in trade with other nations based on each one's comparative advantage. Whatever prescription of reform for poverty given, reformers always look for ways to equalize the existing economic system in order to allow the economically marginalized to fruitfully participate in it. However, these prescriptions do not genuinely respond to the roots of poverty. This because they fail to see how the way out of poverty demands more than just the inclusion of the poor in the existing economic systems. A deeper, more radical reform than this needed and genuine liberation from poverty can only be achieved if it understood from its root cause. In this paper, I will argue that the poor are impoverished because their rationalities are rendered inutile by existing socio-political and economic systems. Certainly they are poor because of oppressive policies of the dominant countries of wealth and because of the unfair practices of those who dominate the markets, however, more fundamentally than that, the poor are poor because they are unable to participate in the dominant systems as creative participants. And the root of this the marginalization of their rationalities by the existing systems. The just and effective reform of the existing system would be to address this marginalization so that the marginalized other of the world global economic order will be given a chance to reshape this world order to be more responsive to their conception of development, progress, and a good, human life.THE MARGINALIZED RENDERED INUTILEIn the dominant world order where modern, market driven, Western economic systems prevail, traditional peoples and their wisdom are alienated from productive activity. This because modernization, which the foundation of economic development, is authored on an implicit belief in the value of western rational scientific thought and 'objective' truths, that discredit and erase individual people's interests1 and not to mention their unique conceptions of the good human life. …

Diversity in a Global Era: The context and consequences of differences

Global challenges (e.g., hegemonic globalization, demographic shifts, poverty/famine, conflicts and wars, and environmental disasters) are bringing diverse populations into contact under conditions of rapid socio-technical changes, social upheaval, conflict, competition, uncertainty, and anger and resentment. These complex circumstances of interpersonal and national contact are associated with widespread psycho-social and socio-political problems. Powerful global efforts to reduce diversity conflicts by the hegemonic imposition of Western economic, political, and cultural systems is not a solution to the emerging diversity conflict issues. Rather, the “global monoculturalism” being promoted represents an exacerbation of the problem as evidenced by the growing radicalization of individuals, groups, and nations seeking to resist the homogenization pressures. This paper offers a series of recommendations for individual and collective solutions that may serve to promote and to sustain both diversity and solidarity via both policies and actions. The recommendations include world citizenship, global leadership, diversity education and training, positive attitudinal shifts, universal human rights, and the development of the full-functioning global citizen. Nobel Laureate Octavio Paz has noted: “Life is diversity, death is uniformity …. Every view of the world that becomes extinct, every culture that disappears, diminishes a possibility of life”. Clearly, diversity and unity are not opposites to be pursued independently, but rather manifestations of the same principle on which our universe was born and functions – fission and fusion – separation and connection. Diversity is life. Life is diversity.

Transnational Coalition-Building and the Making of the Cold War in Indochina, 1947-1949

One of the most striking contributions of recent scholarship on the origins of the Cold War has been to demonstrate the significant role played by smaller, ostensibly peripheral states on both sides in the creation of the bipolar world. Neither Moscow nor Washington, we now know, controlled developments within their blocs to the degree that historians once assumed; “satellite” regimes, like dog-wagging tails, sometimes wielded considerable influence at the centers of their emerging alliance systems and dictated policies ultimately embraced by their superpower partners. On the Eastern side, for example, new studies show that Polish, East German, and Hungarian communists enjoyed more agency in the creation of the Soviet bloc than historians have usually assigned them.1 Similarly, on the Western side, scholars have demonstrated that Great Britain, France, and other European governments sometimes held the initiative in their relationship with the United States and drove policymaking during the Cold War's formative stages.2 Geir Lundestad advanced this idea forcefully in a landmark 1986 essay, asserting that the extension of U.S. economic and military power to Western Europe in the years following World War II amounted to “empire by invitation,” since Washington, in assuming a major role across the Atlantic, was merely responding to what Europeans wanted.3 More recently, John Lewis Gaddis has placed a multivectored vision of power within the Western alliance at the center of a new master narrative of the Cold War. In We Now Know, Gaddis argues that while Moscow relied on coercion to build and manage its empire in Eastern Europe, the U.S. “empire” was characterized by a remarkable amount of give and take among its members, thus ensuring relative harmony within the alliance and facilitating its long-term victory in the Cold War.4 Gaddis and the numerous younger scholars on whose work he draws have done Cold War history a great service by putting to rest the notion that Washington unilaterally imposed a distinctly American set of policies to remake the world after 1945. On the contrary, it is now clear that the Western economic and security system that came into being after World War II was the work of multiple like-minded governments.

Participation Versus Social Exclusion

The different experience of unemployment and of poverty in the two main Western economic systems (roughly, Europe and the US) demonstrates that a simple economic approach to these problems does not exist. In this paper I deal with the question of the impact of technological change on productive activities, employment and income distribution. The main idea is the following: technological progress may lead to an impoverishment of the disadvantaged people in a free-market society, as a consequence of their inability to adjust their skills to the new requirements of the labour market. By contrast, a just society, grounded on moral principles, recognizes that the distributive criterion has to take into account not only individual contributions to production, but also the relative needs of the individuals. In that context, everyone should be better off after a technological change, since it is fair that everyone gains some advantage from a generalized improvement in the productive conditions of society. A policy that adopts this perspective should provide an effective guard against the danger of social exclusion that strikes modern societies.