Russia: An Abnormal Country

Andrei Shleifer and Daniel Treisman recently rendered a summary verdict on the post Soviet Russian transition experience finding that the Federation had become a normal country with the west's assistance, and predicting that it would liberalize and develop further like other successful nations of its type. This essay demonstrates that they are mistaken on the first count, and are likely to be wrong on the second too. It shows factually, and on the norms elaborated by Pareto, Arrow and Bergson that Russia is an abnormal political economy unlikely to democratize, westernize or embrace free enterprise any time soonRussian economy; transition economics; comparative economic systems

"Deepening democracy?" Democratic practices and values in co-operatives operating within a Solidarity Economy framework: a case study of the Tswelelane bakery in Gauteng

University of the Witwatersrand Faculty of Humanities Department of Sociology/ Global Labour UniversityThis research report analyses the relationship between the Solidarity Economy framework and democratic values and practices. The research involved a literature review of the principles informing the Solidarity Economy (SE) framework, the experience of the SE in Brazil compared to South Africa, and the differences compared to conventional co-operatives. The field work involved semi structured interviews and participant observation in a worker co-operative located in Ivory Park, Gauteng. The co-operative is a bakery with approximately seven years of history with struggles and changes. The observation focused on the organization of power relations within the co-operative, the social relations between members themselves, with the community and with another institutions The research found that, despite facing challenges and being a small size cooperative, the social relationships are marked by democratic decision making, a flat, horizontal form of internal organisation and harmonious, collegial social relationships with an overall emphasis on solidarity. It suggests that co-operatives organised in terms of the Solidarity Economy framework have the potential to deepen sustainable democracy. Keywords: Solidarity Economy, Worker Co-operative, South Africa, Brazil, Qualitative method, Leadership, Social Relations, Democracy

A Piece of Land or Peace on the Land: How Much Is a Peasant's Life Worth in Brazil?

Land inequality in Brazil is alarming and several poor individuals living in rural areas do not have enough income to survive decently. The struggle to access land should lead to a paradigm shift with social movements leading this process since democratization. Their strategies vary, but usually focus on complementary activities of mass mobilization that culminate in the occupation of unproductive land that is not fulfilling its social function in order to force expropriation and the creation of new settlements. This study aims to investigate, through empirical evidence, if such strategies are having the desired effect of allowing the poor to access land, without increasing the already high numbers, and potentially aggravating the violent characteristics, of such disputes. During the Cardoso and Lula presidential administrations the relation between the number of new settlements and the number of deaths caused by land disputes increased. However, there is still a long way to go to improve this policy and achieve positive results. Overall, is this struggle for the reduction of inequality in the Brazilian countryside being won? Is the sacrifice paying off? And what is the price regarding the relation between land conflict victims and the creation of new rural settlements

Christian Nationalism in the United States

The essays in this collection engage and build upon the exciting new scholarship in the histories of Christian nationalism within the United States. They cover topics ranging from the Native American preacher William Appess, Federalist party leaders, Manifest Destiny, and West Point, to Donald Trump, the evangelical thinker Richard Mouw, the ecumenical movement, evangelical internationalism, and religious pluralism. Taken together, the contributors discard the old question of whether or not America was ever a Christian nation. Instead, they are concerned with how and why certain persons and groups throughout American history have either embraced or rejected the myth of a religious founding as a political project

'You are too square, I need to straighten you out': The Tamed Rebels of 1950s Coming-of-Age Films in Cross-Cultural Perspective

Coming-of-Age films have in common that they must address the social contradictions an adolescent experiences as he or she joins the world of adults. At the same time they have to come to a resolution of these contradictions that is acceptable to the audiences as well as the direct or indirect mechanisms of censorship of the movie industry. In the aftermath of World War II,  a number of social paradigms had been upset (as for example gender roles, intergenerational relations, representations of state and paternal authority).The 1950s were thus a time when the contradictions experienced by all generations of adolescents were even more acutely brought to the foreground and thus represent a particularly fertile ground for this genre. The Coming-of Age films of this period played a crucial role in reintroducing established social paradigms by way of offering “false closures” that temporarily offered resolutions to the contradictions experienced by this particular generation of young adults

A Piece of Land or Peace on the Land: How Much Is a Peasant's Life Worth in Brazil?

Land inequality in Brazil is alarming and several poor individuals living in rural areas do not have enough income to survive decently. The struggle to access land should lead to a paradigm shift with social movements leading this process since democratization. Their strategies vary, but usually focus on complementary activities of mass mobilization that culminate in the occupation of unproductive land that is not fulfilling its social function in order to force expropriation and the creation of new settlements. This study aims to investigate, through empirical evidence, if such strategies are having the desired effect of allowing the poor to access land, without increasing the already high numbers, and potentially aggravating the violent characteristics, of such disputes. During the Cardoso and Lula presidential administrations the relation between the number of new settlements and the number of deaths caused by land disputes increased. However, there is still a long way to go to improve this policy and achieve positive results. Overall, is this struggle for the reduction of inequality in the Brazilian countryside being won? Is the sacrifice paying off? And what is the price regarding the relation between land conflict victims and the creation of new rural settlements