1989: Volume 20
Volume 20 Number 4 October 1989
Edited by: Raphael Kaplinsky
There is now widespread recognition by economists and industrial planners that, after some decades of historically unprecedented economic growth, the world economy is in a period of transition. The conditions which govern and shape best-practice industrial accumulation are changing, and new types of economic structures are now required for competitiveness to be achieved. This transition is reflected in a significant decline in both productivity growth and GDP growth in Europe and North America, a phenomenon which first emerged in the late 1960s. By contrast, in Japan and the Asian NICs it is reflected in a sustained high rate of growth. These changing conditions of industrial accumulation affect all economies - including developing countries and require appropriate policy responses if economic >decline is to be averted.
1990: Volume 21
Volume 21 Number 1 January 1990
Edited by: Susan Joekes and Naila Kabeer
This issue of the IDS Bulletin has been prepared for the 25th anniversary of UNCTAD, which is uniquely dedicated, within the United Nations system, to the promotion and regularisation of trade in the interests of development.
Volume 21 Number 2 May 1990
Edited by: Mike Faber and Stephany Griffith-Jones
It has been said that 'the liberty of the subject is secreted in the interstices of procedure'. In other words, resounding proclamations about the rights and freedoms of citizens are worthless unless procedures exist that are known, accessible and affordable which will enable the individual to exercise those rights through due process of a court of law. This dictum came sharply to mind a year ago when reading an account of the speech which US Secretary of the Treasury Nicholas Brady had given to a conference of the Brookings Institution and the Bretton Woods Committee in Washington on 10 March 1989. What struck us immediately about Secretary Brady's proposals was the extent to which their success or failure in achieving their declared object of LDC debt reduction would depend upon the decisions and actions of parties outside the US government's control.
Those decisions and actions by foreign and US bank regulators, tax authorities, company auditors and legal advisers will establish 'the interstices of procedure' which must determine whether individual banks in different jurisdictions will or will not participate in Brady-type schemes in a manner that would achieve Brady's declared objective. One ofus predicted, based on a first tentative analysis, that 'the Plan's early results will probably give rise to frustration and disappointment' and 'the amount of debt extinguished in exchange for their accepting new obligations towards the World Bank and the IMF is likely to seem to debtors disappointingly small') It was that line of thought, namely that the success of any scheme of debt reduction would depend upon an accurate assessment of the reactions and initiatives of many types of actors in the Third World debt drama, that gave rise to the idea behind this Bulletin.
The Bulletin's purpose is to enable readers to learn something of the considerations which will determine how such actors are likely to respond not just to Brady, but to other forms of debt reduction initiatives. For that understanding to be complete, we have thought it necessary to enable our contributors not just to talk about their reaction to the Brady proposals, but also to explain their perception of the role of their own institutions and their interpretation of what it was that gave rise to the problems of excessive LDC indebtedness in the first place.
Volume 21 Number 3 July 1990
Edited by: Simon Maxwell
In April 1989, the IDS convened a workshop on Food Security in Developing Countries. The workshop was organised by Simon Maxwell and Stephany Griffith-Jones at the request of the UK Overseas Development Administration, ODA provided most of the participants; others came from related departments of the British Government, from aid ministries in other countries and from the international agencies.
The papers presented to the workshop form the core of the Bulletin, though all have been revised and some have been written from scratch since April 1989. Additional papers have been contributed by Walter Kennes of the EC Commission and Peter Dearden and Eamon Cassidy of the ODA. Taken together, the papers provide a snapshot of current thinking on food security, both in the academic community and in the aid agencies. There is a bias in the Bulletin to sub-Saharan Africa, but this is an accurate reflection at least of Agency interests. Otherwise, the Bulletin demonstrates the range of food security concerns in production, marketing and consumption.
We are grateful to ODA for their initial encouragement of the workshop; and to the participants for their comments on the material presented. Needless to say, ODA bears no responsibility for this publication.
Volume 21 Number 4 October 1990
Edited by: James Manor
Adrian Leftwich has recently identified two problems that assail the study of Third World politics. First, there has been 'a drift away from some of the fundamental questions to do with the role of power, politics and the state', so that in studies of the Third World, the discipline of politics has 'to some extent lost its way'. Second, the reluctance of many western governments and international aid agencies to consider the political dimension in their policy studies has distanced political analysts from research exposure to the role of politics and the state in the development process.
These two problems are related but different, and they need to be tackled in different ways. Political analysts at IDS are at work on both fronts. The second problem is being addressed through research on the 'developmental state' in various Third World settings.
This Bulletin arises out of an effort to address the first problem by redirecting the attention of political scientists to fundamental questions such as those outlined above.
