1990: Volume 21
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 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.
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.
Volume 20 Number 3 July 1989
Edited by: John Toye
This issue of the IDS Bulletin examines Dudley Seers' work on development policy and development issues, and his continuing influence on these areas in the years since his death. It does so in two separate ways. In the first section of this issue, we publish the texts of three lectures on themes closely related to some on which Seers himself worked - nationalism, the future of Europe as a region and the role of the development economist.
These lectures, given in a Dudley Seers memorial series, are by three highly distinguished development academics and practitioners - Hans Singer, Louis Emmerij and Gerald Meier. In the second section, we publish four new interpretative essays - by Paul Streeten, Richard Jolly, Barbara Ingham and myself aimed at elucidating key aspects of the personality, intellectual thrust and practical leadership of Dudley Seers.
This section is rounded off by Mike Faber's reconstruction of the journey leading up to Dudley's untimely and much mourned death in March, 1983. Rosalind David's first attempt at a bibliography of Dudley's many writings concludes the Bulletin.
Volume 20 Number 2 May 1989
Edited by: Robert Chambers
'Vulnerable' and 'vulnerability' are common terms in the lexicon of development, but their use is often vague. They serve as convenient substitutes for 'poor' and 'poverty', and allow planners and other professionals to restrain the overuse of those words. Some precision can be found in the use of 'vulnerable groups' where this refers to pregnant and lactating women, to children, or to disadvantaged communities such as Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in India. More often, though, vulnerable is used simply as a synonym for poor.
With concerns like these a workshop on vulnerability and coping was held at IDS in September 1988, leading to this Bulletin. Some 20 people took part, about half of them reporting on recent fieldwork. The focus was at the household level, and the aims were to try to understand better the nature of vulnerability, how poor people cope with risks, shocks and stress, and what should he priorities for policy and research.
