The Machinery of Planning in the United Arab Republic

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68717/2/10.1177_002085236503100203.pd

Development Planning in Iraq, Israel, Lebanon and the Uar.

Ph.D.Public administrationUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156871/1/6511015.pd

The Gulf Corporation Council Sovereign Wealth Funds: Are They Instruments for Economic Diversification or Political Tools?

Our research has two objectives. The first objective is to review the historical evolution of the Gulf Corporation Council (GCC) sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) and to demonstrate how their conception and evolution was in fact an integral part of an overall prescription for the cyclical economic and fiscal imbalances of the oil-based GCC economies. The second objective is to review economic and political claims and arguments that have been developed to trim the tide and influence of the GCC SWFs in Western economies. Applying institutional and factual analyses, the paper provides counterarguments that rebut these claims and arguments. For a long time, advocates of globalization have argued its benefits to all parties. The experience of SWFs puts such claims to the test. In the meantime, however, GCC SWFs should open up a bit more and reveal their investments profiles showing both gains and losses. This should quell fears and convince skeptics that the GCC SWFs confidentiality practices are not hiding any "threatening secrets." Finally, recent financial and global turmoil generated acceptance of SWFs in Western economies with policymakers touring the GCC to "welcome" more SWF flows into advanced economies. However, only time will tell if such Western policy gestures are sustainable in the end, or were merely temporary policy switches rendered under severe pressures from global and financial crises. (c) 2010 The Earth Institute at Columbia University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

State and ethnicity in Botswana and Mauritius: A democratic route to development?

Botswana and Mauritius stand virtually alone among developing countries in having achieved rates of economic development rivalling those of the East Asian NICs, while maintaining democratic institutions. We compare their experiences with the goal of identifying aspects of a democratic route to development that avoids the inherent authoritarianism of the East Asian model. Our study is based upon Hyden's [1992] governance model, but we suggest two important modifications to that model. A strong state seems essential to achieving economic development, and we identify means of reducing the tendency for such states to lose accountability. Secondly, the experience of these two countries suggests ways in which the ethnic and tribal divisions that are so common in LDCs can be recognised by the state so that social pluralism makes a positive contribution to effective and democratic governance.

Along-side global political economy–a rhizome of informal finance

One contemporary issue confronting global finance is the nature and extent of its participation in and contribution to a global war on terror. To date, efforts have involved a variety of methods, including both an increase in the surveillance of financial transactions and the regulation of previously unregulated methods of financial exchange. This paper offers a conceptualisation of one informal value transfer method (known by its Arabic name — hawala) in the form of a rhizome, using the concept as developed by Deleuze and Guattari in A Thousand Plateaus. This paper argues that the ability of hawala to regenerate itself along multiple pathssituates the procedure as a rhizome, and that standard methods for inancial regulation fail to appreciate the crucial difference this regenerative ability makes for attempts at control and regulation. Consequently, the activity that the state is seeking to control will merely be displaced, to reform and regenerate itself yet again. To ground this argument in the present condition of the global political economy, the specific example considered is Al Barakaat, a transnational Somali firm that fell victim to the global war on terror in late 2001