The Empire Struck Back: The Mexican Oil Expropriation of 1938 Reconsidered

The Mexican expropriation of 1938 was the first large-scale non-Communist expropriation of foreign-owned natural resource assets. The literature generally makes three assertions: the U.S. government did not fully back the companies, Mexico did not fully compensate them for the value of their assets, and the oil workers benefitted from the change in ownership. This paper musters data and evidence that supports only the first of those assertions, and only to a limited extent: the companies devised political strategies that maneuvered Roosevelt into supporting their interests, and they were more than fully compensated by the Mexican government as a result.

The Cost of Property Rights: Establishing Institutions on the Philippine Frontier Under American Rule, 1898-1918

We examine three reforms to property rights introduced by the United States in the Philippines in the early 20th century: the redistribution of large estates to their tenants, the creation of a system of secure land titles, and a homestead program to encourage cultivation of public lands. During the first phase of American occupation (1898-1918), we find that the implementation of these reforms was very slow. As a consequence, tenure insecurity increased over this period, and the distribution of farm sizes remained extremely unequal. We identify two primary causes for the slow progress of reform. The first was the high cost of implementing these programs, together with political constraints which prevented the government from subsidizing land reforms to a greater degree. The second was the reluctance of the government to evict delinquent or informal cultivators, especially on public lands, which reduced the costs of tenure insecurity.

When the State is Untrustworthy: Public Finance and Private Banking in Porfirian Mexico

All sovereign governments face a commitment problem: how can they promise to honor their own agreements? The standard solutions involve reputation or political institutions capable of tying the hands of the government. Mexico's government in the 1880s used neither solution. It compensated its creditors by enabling them to extract rents from the rest of the economy. These rents came through special privileges over banking services and the right to administer federal taxes. Returns were extremely high: as long as creditors believed that the government would refrain from confiscating all their assets (let alone repaying their debts) less than twice a decade, they would break even.

The Cost of Property Rights: Establishing Institutions on the Philippine Frontier Under American Rule, 1898-1918

We examine three reforms to property rights introduced by the United States in the Philippines in the early 20th century: the redistribution of large estates to their tenants, the creation of a system of secure land titles, and a homestead program to encourage cultivation of public lands. During the first phase of American occupation (1898-1918), we find that the progress of implementing these reforms was very slow. As a consequence, tenure insecurity increased over this period, and the distribution of farm sizes remained extremely unequal. We identify two primary causes for the slow progress of reform: first, the high cost of implementing these programs was a major factor in reducing take-up. On the other hand, the government was reluctant to evict delinquent or informal cultivators, especially on public lands. This reduced the costs of tenure insecurity. Political constraints prevented the government from subsidizing land reforms to a greater degree.

Reducing Suffering During Conflict: The Interface Between Buddhism And International Humanitarian Law

This article stems from a project launched by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 2017 to examine the degree to which Buddhism might complement or enhance international humanitarian law (IHL), also known as ‘the law of war’ or ‘the law of armed conflict’. Given that Buddhist teachings discourage violence, scholarship has critiqued Buddhists’ involvement in armed conflict rather than considered how Buddhism might contribute to regulating the conduct of hostilities once war has broken out. Yet the Buddhist aim to reduce suffering is particularly relevant during armed conflict, and the empirical realism of early Buddhist texts shows that early Buddhist communities were very much aware of its grim reality. The article investigates the evidence for this empirical realism before exploring a range of concepts, doctrines and practices from within Buddhism that are pertinent to the recognition and implementation of IHL principles and the conduct of war. While IHL lays down explicit rules to follow during war, Buddhism emphasises broader ethical principles to be applied, so as not to dilute its ideal of non-violence. At a deeper level, it addresses the intention or motivation of parties to armed conflict, and possesses psychological insights and resources to help change their behaviour

Public house patrons' engagement in hypothetical sexual assault: a test of Alcohol Myopia Theory in a field setting

Previous research has found that drinking establishments are often antecedent to sexual aggression outcomes. In the present study, male participants were randomly selected from public houses (i.e., “pubs”) and asked to imagine themselves in a hypothetical intimate encounter in which the female in the scenario stops consenting to sexual contact. Participants were given the option to continue making sexual advances up to and including sexual intercourse against the woman’s will. It was hypothesised based on Alcohol Myopia Theory that participant blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels would be associated with hypothetical sexual aggression when stereotypical cues of a woman’s sexual availability (revealing clothing and alcohol use) were present in the scenario. Men’s engagement in hypothetical sexual aggression was associated with BAC levels, but only when the woman was wearing revealing clothing. The sobriety of the female actor was not associated with sexual aggression. Results indicate that Alcohol Myopia Theory generalises to a field setting