Book Description
China's new economic surge is a surprise to all, but this ancient land remains a myth to both foreigners and Chinese. Get the inside story from a Chinese journalist/consultant about China's business, society, and politics under globalization and capitalism. This revised volume gives an insider's analysis on what's behind China's surge and its implications to the world. It covers key global issues such as manufacturing and job transfers, Chinese multinationals vs. global giants, and changing production, trade and investment trends, as well as evolving international relations.
"China's Global Reach" explores:
- The ever-increasing influence of foreign multinationals (15 plus case studies);
- National and business competition;
- The ever-expanding power of Chinese multinationals (15 plus case studies);
- Global job and manufacturing transfers;
- The rise of Chinese consumers vs. opportunities;
- China's political-economic reform;
- Changing global production and economic map;
- Comparative studies on China, US, Europe, Japan and India;
- Evolving international relations;
- Convergent movement of global civilizations; and
- And more - including an afterword by Andre Gunder Frank!
"China's Global Reach: Markets, Multinationals, and Globalization" is a straightforward and timely analysis of a changing world in relation to a fast-developing China. It is a book perfect for professionals, investors, policy makers, educators, and students, as well as for anyone who questions how the world will move ahead to the next stages.
Customer Reviews:
revealing and decent.......2006-08-16
Author Gu is a brave fellow. He offers straightfoward info and analysis on what is really inside Chinese business and political world. He is highly critical of the Communist ills that continue to cause hellish problems for China and foreign operations inside. Other than this abusive bureaucratic power, Chinese people are very diligent and creative. But the key is to get rid of the overextended bureaucratic power, as so claims by Gu.
This book is a must read -- it is a rare book that reveals the inner workings of the Chinese bureaucratic system. This new edition is very nice, which is sharply revised and expanded. (Five stars for his new edition)
powerful development lessons .......2006-08-03
Author George Zhibin Gu is a high-profile Chinese journalist whose powerful newspaper pieces are widely read. This book is a must read. The reason for my recommendation is simple: This book summarises the key lessons from a fast-changing China under globalization and capitalism.
These lessons are powerful. First, an open society is a must in order to gain true development. Second, having foreign involvement is a key driving force for China's quick development in this era. Third, a truly meaningful development must depend on individual private initiatives other than government bureaucracy.
This book gives rather straightforward analysis on what is behind China's new development. It gives tremendous information on foreign multinationals and investors doing biz inside. Furthermore, it gives huge info on how this foreign involvement affects China's society, government and economy. In particular, it is extremely open about the ills of the Chinese bureaucracy. To overcome bureaucratic barriers, it emphasizes the need for greater private initiative as well as openness, among other things.
Also, the book talks about the ever-increasing influences of China's surge on global development. It gives very insightful analysis on a changing global production, investment, and trade map, as well as manufacturing and job transfers, among other issues.
The book also offers much practical advice on doing biz in China. Numerous case studies are presented, including both successes and failures.
must read.......2006-07-29
This book is for all readers. Not to mention other things, it contains several dozen case studies on global multinationals doing business in China, like Wal-Mart, P&G, Intel, HSBC, Bank of America, Ford, Siemens, BP, Unilever, Sony, GE, GM, Morgan Stanley, and Microsoft. (Amazingly, this revised and updated volume gives most current info on China -- even events happened in May 2006 are contained here.)
It also gives huge info on emerging Chinese multinationals. All the leading Chinese companies such as Haier, Huawei, TCL, Lenovo, China Telecom, Baosteel, China Oil, Sinopec, CNOOC, and Ping An are studied here. Furthermore, comparisons are made between the Chinese companies and their international counterparts. These discussions are straightforward, covering both strengths and weaknesses.
Its scope is rather wide: the author aims to identify key factors behind global development: causes, effects, and consequences. He offers vast info and analysis on a changing global production, investment and trade map, which involves all nations, rich or poor. Interesting comparative studies involve US, Canada, Europe, India, Japan and China. Above all, he pinpoints opportunities and challenges under globalization.
Also it is highly critical of the abusive Chinese bureaucratic power. Gu claims that China's fundamental weakness is with this overextended, self-appointed bureaucratic power. Vast info and facts are presented to support his statement.
He is a high-profile newspaper commentator/consultant that adds much color to his discussions. The book's key strengths come from the fact that the author has vast first-hand experiences, so that he gives countless insider's stories. Its style and presentation is very reader friendly and straightforward, but its analysis is overpowering.
Book Description
Named one of the best books of the year by The Sunday Times of London, and already a bestseller in England, Noreena Hertz's The Silent Takeover explains how corporations in the age of globalization are changing our lives, our society, and our future -- and are threatening the very basis of our democracy.
Of the world's 100 largest economies, fifty-one are now corporations, only forty-nine are nation-states. The sales of General Motors and Ford are greater than the GDP (gross domestic product) of the whole of sub-Saharan Africa, and Wal-Mart now has a turnover higher than the revenues of most of the states of Eastern Europe. Yet few of us are fully aware of the growing dominance of big business: newspapers continue to place news of the actions of governments on the front page, with business news relegated to the inside pages. But do governments really have more influence over our lives than businesses? Do the parties for which we vote have any real freedom of choice in their actions?
Already sparking intense debate in England and on the Continent, The Silent Takeover provides a new and startling take on the way we live now and who really governs us. The widely acclaimed young socio-economist Noreena Hertz brilliantly and passionately reveals how corporations across the world manipulate and pressure governments by means both legal and illegal; how protest, be it in the form of the protesters of Seattle and Genoa or the boycotting of genetically altered foods, is often becoming a more effective political weapon than the ballot-box; and how corporations in many parts of the world are taking over from the state responsibility for everything from providing technology for schools to healthcare for the community.
While the activities of business, frequently under pressure from the media and the consuming public, can range from the beneficial to the pernicious, neither public protest nor corporate power is in any way democratic. What is the fate of democracy in the world of the silent takeover?
The Silent Takeover asks us to recognize the growing contradictions of a world divided between haves and have-nots, of gated communities next to ghettos, of extreme poverty and unbelievable riches. In the face of these unacceptable extremes, Noreena Hertz outlines a new agenda to revitalize politics and renew democracy.
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"Named one of the best books of the year by The Sunday Times of London, and already a bestseller in England, Noreena Hertz's The Silent Takeover explains how corporations in the age of globalization are changing our lives, our society, and our future -- and are threatening the very basis of our democracy. Of the world's 100 largest economies, fifty-one are now corporations, only forty-nine are nation-states. The sales of General Motors and Ford are greater than the GDP (gross domestic product) of the whole of sub-Saharan Africa, and Wal-Mart now has a turnover higher than the revenues of most of the states of Eastern Europe. Yet few of us are fully aware of the growing dominance of big business: newspapers continue to place news of the actions of governments on the front page, with business news relegated to the inside pages. But do governments really have more influence over our lives than businesses? Already sparking intense debate in England and on the Continent, The Silent Takeover provides a new and startling take on the way we live now and who really governs us. The widely acclaimed young socio-economist Noreena Hertz brilliantly and passionately reveals how corporations across the world manipulate and pressure governments by means both legal and illegal; how protest, be it in the form of the protesters of Seattle and Genoa or the boycotting of genetically altered foods, is often becoming a more effective political weapon than the ballot-box; and how corporations in many parts of the world are taking over from the state responsibility for everything from providing technology for schools to healthcare for the community. What is the fate of democracy in the world of the silent takeover? The Silent Takeover asks us to recognize the growing contradictions of a world divided between haves and have-nots, of gated communities next to ghettos, of extreme poverty and unbelievable riches.
Customer Reviews:
Fuzzy Hyperbole.......2006-06-26
I'm about 35 pages into this book, and while some of the information it has presented has been useful (IE, more and more Argentinians were falling into poverty in 2000 or so), mostly the author has made the kind of broad, context-less statements you'd find on a protestor's sign.
Additionally, there are many factual-sounding statements which I don't know the meaning of, and I suspect many others won't know the meaning of either. For example, "51 of the hundred biggest economies in the world are corporations". I'm sure this is important, but I'm not told why. Instead, I'm left with the impression that it's supposed to be ominous, which I don't think is a legitimate way to inform people.
Finally, the example which the author gives as somehow epitomizing how global capitalism leaves people behind is absolutely ridiculous. She describes some guy who was born to a wealthy family, went to school with prince Charles and later attended top education institutions. He later had a successful career. Then tragedy struck and he became an alcoholic, squandering all his money and becoming homeless.
How in the world is this related to global capitalism? It's not in any way that I can discern. I've concluded, then, that the story was included to link some sensational and moving tidbit to her cause.
That's the tone and content of her book so far. She sensationalizes material which, if treated properly, wouldn't need it, and the same time glosses over facts and statistics.
Mind triggering, but just not elaborated well enough.......2005-09-20
In my opinion, "The Silent Takeover" gives only an introduction to the global problems Noreena Hertz sees developing in the 21st century.
Probably she did it on purpose, but when reading the different chapters, I was often wondering where she was taking me. From the very start it is clear that Hertz does not agree with the economic policies of the USA and the UK, that now dominate the world. But every now and then, especially in the beginning of the book, I wondered: so, what's so bad about all this?
Hertz sums up loads of data to illustrate the point she is trying to make. Somehow, I got the feeling that she often makes somewhat strange comparisons. Probably, those who oppose her point of view will find it rather easy to prove her wrong (in their own manipulative way of using statistics).
But all in all, I think the general idea of this book is interesting. It is probably true that companies are acting more and more globally and getting more and more bargaining power with respect to governments. We also see that people are losing interest in politics and that they start protesting against companies. Yes, information provided by the media is crucial for people to know when they should protest, and yes, media companies depend to a large extent on advertising revenues from those same companies, so there you have another problem.
There are many social issues that cannot and will not be dealt with by companies. I think Hertz could have explained that in more detail. I also missed a deeper discussion about the fundamental difference between people voting during elections and people influencing the way companies do business by boycotting them and/or using their votes as shareholders. Or, of course, between NOT voting and NOT influencing those companies.
But my largest disappointment was that the suggestions Hertz offers are very concise. I think she should have spent at least one third of her book in providing solutions, not just some one liners covering the last five pages of the book. With such an abrupt ending the book is unfinished, giving the George Ws and Berlusconis of this world all the opportunities to claim that it is always much easier to criticize than to really do something.
Finally, I think it is also not very convincing to mention that more and more people are joining the camp of the "anti-globalists", when it is clear that most of these have completely different reasons to protest. Although probably many readers of this book would sympathize with Hertz's ideas, I doubt that they would also identify themselves with those protesters we see on TV during G8 meetings etc. In that sense, I think Hertz also failed to present a clear vision, something all her readers would be able to keep in the backs of their minds and do something with, for example convince other people.
In the end, I believe that political parties with such a clear vision could have the impact to change.
So, I think this book is incomplete and therefore a missed opportunity. However, I sympathize with the thoughts presented by Hertz, so I hope she will compensate for the missing solutions in next books.
Even-handed and thought-provoking.......2005-06-27
I contemplated reading Hertz's book a few years ago but passed on it, fearing it would simply retread the same ground as so many others emerging in the wake of the "anti-globalisation" protests. In some ways, I was right, but coming to it four years after publication I found it a useful summary of many of the issues barely-fettered capitalism presents to society, and a fair-handed exploration of the strengths and weaknesses of the corporation-based society we find ourselves in.
Hertz is unabashedly a believer in capitalism, though (in the tradition of such eminent predecessors as Keynes) believes that it should be embedded in a stronger civil society/democratic framework than has been the case since the Thatcher-Reagan revolution. She details many of the ways major corporations (particularly media corporations, but also others from a wide variety of areas) have begun replacing many roles which were formerly those of government.
She points to numerous positive examples of the social contribution of corporations and of the wealthy individuals benefitting from them, but encourages the reader to reflect on the wisdom of ceding so much power to unelected bodies. While consumers retain some power due to the fact that they can set their spending priorities, the distribution of such power is uneven, disenfranchising the poor and favouring those who can shout loudest.
As Hertz clearly demonstrates, a new democratic framework will differ significantly from those of previous times, but if we are to ensure ongoing social support programs and care about long-term community development, democratic oversight is desparately needed. This is not an academic work (those looking for such from Hertz would be better off looking elsewhere) but it is a powerful summary of serious issues confronting global society.
Compelling reading.......2005-05-01
The Silent Takeover by Noreena Hertz is a readable and reasoned critique of globalization from a capitalist perspective.
Hertz, professor of international business at the University of Cambridge, argues that global trade and economic development has become seriously unbalanced in favour of multinational corporations, and that governments have become little more than handmaidens to corporate interests.
Hertz argues that after the fall of communism in Eastern Europe the right-wing in the United States, Britain, Canada, and much of the rest of the developed world vilified the redistributive role of government in society and forced governments to retreat from involvement in the economy.
Known as the Washington Consensus, this movement made International Monetary Fund and other institutional loans to nation-states contingent on government deregulation and trade liberalization. Hertz contends that this retreat from the public sphere has increase inequality and poverty throughout the world and reduced governments to handmaidens for corporations. She writes:
"The role of nation states has become to a large extent simply that of providing the public goods and services that business needs at the lowest cost while protecting the world's free trade system."
Heertz points-out that many Asian governments rejected the imposition of American-style capitalism and regularly intervene in the market for social, political and economic reasons. Although these countries are subjected to the same vicissitudes as states operating on other economic principles, they continue to prosper and some have been so successful they are considered threats by many "First World" states.
Anti-globalization protests are, Heertz contends, motivated by a variety of well-founded suspicions of the emerging capitalist world order. She argues protestors recognize the principle proponents and beneficiaries of globalization in its present form are the United States, international organizations controlled by the U.S. such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and multinational corporations. The protestors suspect - rightly in my opinion - current trends in globalization will result in gross income equalities like those that have emerged in the U.S. in recent decades. Heertz notes that 97% of the increase in income in the U.S. in the last 20 years has gone to the richest 20% of the population, and that the 13,000 wealthiest households in the United States have almost as much income as the 20 million poorest households.
Heertz claims anti-globalization activist are motivated by the hypocrisy of so-called "First World" countries demanding poor states open their doors to international trade and cease intervening in their economies. The world's richest nations are far more likely to offend the principles of free trade than the world's poorest. The United States pays American cotton growers and buyers approximately 4 billion dollars a year in subsidies. The United States and the European Union use non-tariff trade barriers to keep foreign goods and commodities out of their domestic markets.
Heertz also notes that political campaigning has become so expensive in the United States - and elsewhere in the developed world - candidates must solicit financial and logistical support from corporations, making politicians beholden to corporate interests rather than the electorate they putatively serve. As corporations and their agents use their influence to shred the social contract, anti-globalization activists respond by demanding they provide the services once offered by the state.
From my perspective, the major flaw in this book is Noreena Heertz's failure to address historical claims made by proponents of current trends in globalization. Heertz's critique would be stronger had she pointed-out that the richest nation-states in the world today are wealthy because their governments intervened in their economies. Nonetheless, Noreena Hertz "the Silent Takeover" is a coherent and well written analysis of globalization.
The X factor.......2005-04-07
As an author myself, I recommend that you purchase this book for personal study. "The Silent Takeover" is a great book that confirmed to me the potential problems of Global Capitalism. I never believed that capitalism was truly beneficial, and has caused many problems.
Author. "Knowledge For Tomorrow" Quinton D. Crawford
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The Future of Global Conflict
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This critical analysis of long-term trends and recent developments in world systems examines such questions as: Will the cycles of boom and bust, peace and war of the past 500 years continue? Or have either long-term trends or recent changes so profoundly altered the structure of world systems that these cycles will end or take on a less destructive form?
The noted international contributors to this volume examine the question of future dominance of the core global systems and include comprehensive discussions of the economic, political and military role of the Pacific Rim, Japan and the former Soviet Union.
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Improving Service Quality in the Global Economy: Achieving High Performance in Public and Private Sectors, Second Edition
Michael Milakovich
Manufacturer: AUERBACH
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ASIN: 0849338190 |
Book Description
Within American service sector organizations there exists a gap between understanding customer service quality improvement (QI) theories and applying them. Improving Service Quality in the Global Economy: Achieving High Performance in Public and Private Sectors, Second Edition fills that gap by presenting theory, application models, and cases of successful customer service QI efforts in both the public and private sectors. The book emphasizes the selection and development of strategies for quality improvement in regulated public non-market-driven services such as education, government, and healthcare. This revised edition promotes managerial thinking that integrates QI and Knowledge Management (KM) concepts with leadership principles that enable effective responses to the changing demands of the global economy. The text provides step-by-step guidelines, recommendations, and action plans for implementing quality improvements in service sector industries, which now generate two-thirds of America's GDP. Throughout this volume, cases of successful QI efforts in service industries complement major points in each chapter, offering profiles of global service quality leaders that serve as examples to organizations in the public sector. Current and future managers will gain insight into how the global service quality revolution effects their daily work environments, inspiring improvement in products, services, and support that American companies provide to markets worldwide.
Book Description
This provocative book asks readers to be politically realistic about what is happening to the overwhelming majority of people in Third World countries. With three exceptions (Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan), development has not come. A myriad of people in feeble infant-states have been born--children of self-determination, but not of economic and scientific progress. State-driven, communist, and neo-liberal development models have failed most of these people. The large majority of Third World countries are only mistakenly called "developing." They are not actually in the process of becoming Newly Industrialized Countries (NIC's), but Non-Viable National Economies (NNE's). This book explores the option of replacing the wealth of nations agenda with a survival of nations agenda. In order to prevent increasing social and political disorders, the author argues that many countries with primary production and explosive urban growth will have to abandon dreams of development to adopt a policy of national survival based on the search for water, food, and energy security--and the stabilization of their populations.
Customer Reviews:
Very cogent.......2006-03-15
This book is a very persuasive, level-headed account of why most "developing countries" will never really develop. De Rivero cites the scientific and technological poverty of such countries as a prime reason. The modern "casino economy" of the global financial system makes it unlikely that this kind of poverty can be cured, since financial markets offer far richer short-term gains than capital investments in all but a handful of developing nations. Western abandonment of human rights in post-Cold War diplomacy (to say nothing of international business)also contributes to the problem.
Some of the book's other insights are quite arresting -- such as its points about the globalization of rubbish, the futility of the IMF's and World Bank's exclusive focus on countries that "have no influence on the world economy," and the notion that even the Four Tiger economies (Taiwan, S. Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore) probably would not have succeeded but for the fact that they were all strategic for (and so subsidized by) the US and Japan during the Cold War. The writing style is very clear and powerful; I was amazed to see that it was a translation.
The book isn't free from occasional overstatements; for example, I have the feeling that the environmental doom and gloom it describes might not descend upon us quite as soon as the author predicts. You should also note that the book was written before such developments as 9/11 and the offshoring boom in India. Nonetheless, I don't think either of those factors should discourage you from reading this very thought-provoking book.
Is there a future for the 'underdeveloped' states?.......2003-01-18
This is global classic by a Peruvian diplomat who has become convinced that the so-called 'underdeveloped' states are actually non-viable under the prevailing international order. He became convinced of this while participating in the longest trade talks in human history called the Uruguay Round under GATT. He discovered that the industrialised states who dominated the talks by reason of their share in international trade hardly paid any heed to the rest of the world exporting primary commodities and only marginally value-added manufactures. The emphasis was on export of high-tech goods, on trade of sophisticated services and on standards for the protection of intellectual property. There was a time when Peru, exporting raw materials and traditional Latin American items like guano, sugar, saltpetre, rubber, coffee, cotton, wool and minerals, had its clout. In the 1990s, it was sidelined, with its slightly value-added exports and a population that had doubled and an economy that was creaking under foreign loans.
The author is aware that the Latin American countries that got their independence in the 19th century were much better off than those in Africa and Asia that got free in the 20th. Yet, after 150 years as sovereign states the Latin American countries had neither become modern nor economically self-sufficient. Prosperity under capitalism had eluded them. Was it possible to 'develop' like the industrialised states of Europe and North America? Since the Industrial Revolution 185 new states had emerged on the world map but most of them were dysfunctional, unable to modernise to the level where they could participate in the international economy. While these states failed to keep pace, global economy itself shifted its paradigm: it no longer required raw material in the same quantity as in the past, and relied on technologies that cut cost by minimising labour. These states had nothing but raw materials and proliferating population to export.
They were in fact quasi nation-states. They had not evolved the way the nation-states of the industrialised world had evolved. The advanced nation-states had produced a middle class market of national dimensions before coming into their own. The new nation-states that came upon the scene suddenly after the Second World War were mostly without a middle class, a bourgeoisie and a unifying nationalist economy. The states had emerged before the nations could be sufficiently formed. They were the children of their enthusiasm rather than of prospering middle and scientific and technological progress, and they embarked upon the dubious task of replicating the developed, capitalist and democratic nation-states. They continue to survive as low-income, poverty-stricken, technologically backward societies ruled over by authoritarian regimes or 'low-powered' democracies. The survival was made possible because of the strategic value in the cold war and because of the residual value of their raw materials.
These non-viable quasi nation-states are told that they can achieve development under globalisation and its totally unfettered market. For this they have to open themselves to the multinationals and the floating international finance that comes in their wake. The leverage for this process is provided by the fact that state loans have dried up after the cold war and the developing states have no income and no savings to embark on investment on their own. The state is increasingly broke and has to privatise its assets developed during the cold war under inefficient comprador regimes. There is massive unemployment in consequence which the multinationals will not absorb because of an increased reliance on information technology and enhancement of profits through the cutting down of production cost. Because of the devaluation of exports coming mostly from the agrarian sector, poverty is first produced in the countryside from where population makes an exodus into the cities. There is unskilled labour which is sought to be absorbed into industries that increasingly require skilled manpower.
Oswaldo de Rivero Asks: 'How can the quasi-nation states be made economically viable when their populations are growing explosively and their export goods consist of primary goods or only slightly processed products, which fetch low prices and are in little demand? How are we to deal with ungovernable countries where corruption is rife and the daily practice of democracy is rudimentary at best? How are market economy and consumer society to be produced in Latin America. Asian and African countries that have more than 40 percent of their population living below the poverty line, on less than one dollar a day? How are nearly 5 billion persons with low incomes to be integrated into global consumption patterns, without seriously damaging the biosphere? How is the enormous gap between the rich and poor countries to be closed without gravely affecting the planet's ecological balance'. Add to that the developing countries' obsession with nationalism and war, and you have the slippery slope these states will never be able to negotiate.
What does the author offer as solution? Alas, there is no solution because the anti-globalisation drive is still a protest from the utopian well-wishers of humanity without a clear-cut anti-capitalist economic doctrine. After the collapse of socialism as a counter-system, no one risks recommending a return to the state sector economy, especially in the third world where it was simply another name for corruption and authoritarianism. The book ends with a pious hope that the more vigilant of the developing states would curb population growth and somehow save the ecology from being destroyed. The dream of a kind of 'union' of the poor is impossible because the poor are busy more often in fighting each other than in getting together against a hostile global environment.
Book Description
Policy decisions at the domestic level--whether relating to currency rates, tariffs on certain goods, or labor protection--factor heavily on such issues as trade, monetary policy, foreign debt, and development. How can we best understand the way those decisions and events at the national level affect outcomes and policy at the international level? A focus on one over the other paints an incomplete picture for students. Sobel contends that we must focus on the individual preferences, strategies, and choices of political-economic policymakers in order to fully understand the larger, macro view of international political economy. With the aim of linking the two, Sobel helps students develop analytic skills for describing both what happens in the international political economy, and why policymakers make the choices they do.
In this groundbreaking new text, Sobel presents--in a lucid and intuitive way--the core assumptions of scarcity, political survival, and rationality which form the basis of the book's "micro-level" approach. Individuals--not nations--make choices. With constraints as to what resources and opportunities are available, policymakers choose among alternatives that are most in sync with their self-interest. If students understand market failure and social traps, as well as how collective action problems affect interest group and institutional performance, they will be able to answer questions about a wide spectrum of events that start at the domestic level and spill over into global economic markets.
To add context, Sobel presents a concise but detailed historical overview of globalization that demonstrates the shortcomings of common macro-level models in the field, from realism to liberalism to hegemonic stability theory. Your students will be equipped with a set of analytic tools that better explain individual behavior and social outcomes in areas such as trade liberalization, institutional bargains, factor endowments, currency exchange systems and convertibility, and development.
Special features:
- Exercises at the end of each chapter encourage students to apply the concepts they've just read about.
- A suggested reading list for each chapter provides rich sources for further study.
- Valuable figures and tables as well as highlighted key terms and a glossary help students grasp important concepts and aid in study.
- Photos enliven the book's presentation and provide visual examples to help students understand core concepts.
Customer Reviews:
How to Really Study Economics.......2007-01-27
For undergrads who are relatively new to advanced economics, and grads who need a refresher while proceeding into deeper theories, it's high time to move into political economy. This robust and mostly even-handed text will be a strong choice for all of the above purposes. Political economy is infinitely more useful than "pure" economics, which in its pursuit of numbers and laws that supposedly don't lie, refuses to admit that it is actually a political endeavor in which evidence is found to support the economic ambitions of those who enjoy political power. On the contrary, political economy freely engages in the analysis of political factors that play on economic activity, as well as the economic influences on the political decisions of both power players and regular citizens. This particular text does not entirely avoid boosterism of entrenched ideologies like free trade and the invisible hand (which are not unassailable laws, as neoclassical economists would argue). However, this book excels in studying the human factors in its titular subject matter, at least acknowledging dissenting viewpoints and the potential structural shocks and social ramifications of macroeconomic and global trade policies. This book also benefits from an extremely useful historical section (Part II) which, while prone to dryness and proselytization at times, does an excellent job of increasing the reader's knowledge of both historical trends and the vagaries of advanced matters of monetary and trade policy. Recommended for thinking students who crave political realism above the condescending impersonal dogma of standard economics. [~doomsdayer520~]
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Global Accountabilities: Participation, Pluralism, and Public Ethics
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0521700116 |
Book Description
Accountability is seen as an essential feature of governments, businesses and NGOs. This volume treats it as a socially constructed means of control that can be used by the weak as well as the powerful. It contributes analytical depth to the diverse debates on accountability in modern organizations by exploring its nature, forms and impacts in civil society organizations, public and inter-governmental agencies and private corporations. The contributors draw from a range of disciplines to demonstrate the inadequacy of modern rationalist prescriptions for establishing and monitoring accountability standards, arguing that accountability frameworks attached to principal-agent logics and applied universally across cultures typically fail to achieve their objectives. By examining a diverse range of empirical examples and case studies, this book underscores the importance of grounding accountability procedures and standards in the divergent cultural, social and political settings in which they operate.
Average customer rating:
- Highly recommended for students of international capitalism.
|
Global Fortune
Ian Vasquez
Manufacturer: Cato Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1882577906 |
Book Description
This collection of essays proposes improvements to the international financial system and evaluates the prospects that the recent conversion to global capitalism will be sustained.
Customer Reviews:
Highly recommended for students of international capitalism........2000-09-06
Experts from four continents here show how Asian nations and others have suffered from government intervention as the world renews its global economic links. Issues of social improvements and reforms are related to increasing world capitalism in a title which promotes adherence to market principles to allow nations to enjoy real prosperity. A recommended pick for any studying world capitalism markets.
Average customer rating:
- The search for solutions in an imperfect world
- Required Reading for world leaders
- A book about justice for the whole human family
|
Global Governance, Economy and Law: Waiting for Justice (Routledge Studies in International Law, 4)
Ozay Mehmet
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0415282632 |
Book Description
This multi-disciplinary volume considers the moral, historical, legal, political and economic structures of global governance trends and institutions and their impact on the evolution of international legal standards. The impact of the global private sector on global governance, international legal standards and the emergence of corporate social responsibility regimes is also addressed in order to show how the institutions and realities of globalization that we are faced with today have been the result of convergence and conflict between fundamental values in these areas.
Customer Reviews:
The search for solutions in an imperfect world.......2004-05-12
By explaining how our current global institutions came to be and examining their imperfections, Professors Mendes and Mehmet have made an important contribution to the search for solutions. The United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are all put under their microscope and found wanting, some because they were poorly designed in the first place, others because they have not kept up with a constantly changing environment. The chapter on the efforts to make corporations as responsible as they are powerful is particularly relevant and reflects Prof. Mendes's deep experience and input into corporate codes of conduct and the UN Global Compact. The careful reader is also rewarded with some interesting historical tidbits, such as China being the only government at the Dumbarton Oaks conference to push for a reference to the right of all people to equality in the founding charter of the UN. The authors' suggestion of a World Development Fund to help improve the skills of workers should be examined in other fora as the world grapples with the problems caused by more liberalized global trade. The glaring gaps in global governance affect us all. Anyone searching for a better understanding of our world should read this book.
Required Reading for world leaders.......2004-01-07
This exceptionally well researched book painstakingly analyses the policies and practices of Global institutions such the United Nations, WTO, World Bank & the IMF in relations to human rights. It concludes not unsurprisingly that these institutions have badly failed the international community in this respect. This outcome is not necessarily the result of concerted political direction, but a failure of imagination on the part of these institutions. It critically examines the growth and power of multinational corporations and how its interests overides the civil, economic and political rights of the peoples of the third world.
The scope of this this book is truly remarkable, ranging over politics, law, the nature of justice, economics and philosophy.
It is written in an accessible and informative manner and should be required reading for students, politicians and the general reader.
I thoroughly recommend this book.
A book about justice for the whole human family.......2003-12-28
This book is a must read for anyone concerned about justice in our globalized society and the future of our children and generations to come. It is stunning in its breath dealing with the crisis facing human rights around the world, the democratic deficits at the international financial institutions, the power of multinationals that rival nations and the need to integrate the environment and labour standards into the world trade regime. It is also a book about hope if the right reforms to the institutions of global governance take place and if the resources are found to integrate justice into the global economy.
Books:
- Critical Issues in Ecotourism: understanding a complex tourism phenomenon
- Design for Six Sigma : A Roadmap for Product Development
- Economics in the Movies (with Access Card)
- Economics of Money, Banking and Financial Markets plus MyEconLab plus eBook 1-semester Student Access Kit, The (8th Edition) (MyEconLab Series)
- Elements of Dynamic Optimization
- Ethical Theory and Business, Seventh Edition
- Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
- Falling Off the Map: Some Lonely Places of The World
- Financial Risk Manager Handbook (Wiley Finance)
- Fiscal Administration
Books Index
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