Sichuan: Driving Capitalist Development Westward

2004 ◽  
Vol 178 ◽  
pp. 426-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher A. McNally
Keyword(s):  
Economic Reform ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Business Leaders ◽  
Investment Climate ◽  
Infrastructure Projects ◽  
Regulatory Structure ◽  
Capitalist Development ◽  
The Sichuan Basin

The central government's Open Up the West campaign has failed to reach one of its primary objectives in Sichuan: to diminish the large developmental gap between poor and affluent regions. In fact, most investment flows, policy initiatives and infrastructure projects initiated under the campaign concentrate on localities in or adjacent to the Sichuan basin, therefore widening the gap between Sichuan's poor western mountain regions and affluent basin cities. Notwithstanding this deficiency, significant effects have resulted from the campaign's initiation. First, the campaign is facilitating central government approval for large-scale environmental protection and infrastructure projects, thereby quickening the national integration of Sichuan's economy and society. Secondly, it is prodding government and business leaders to ameliorate the investment climate and regulatory structure. As a result of these two effects, the campaign is accelerating processes of economic reform, urbanization and globalization already under way. It is putting in place the infrastructure for accelerated capital accumulation, thus extending capitalist development from China's seaboard towards the interior.

Rival governments risk permanent division of Yemen

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Economic Reform ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Major Change ◽  
Humanitarian Relief ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Reform Programme ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Military

Subject Yemen partition prospects. Significance The August 6 launch by the Huthis and loyalists of former President Ali Abdallah Saleh of a joint ruling body to govern Yemen has led to the collapse of peace talks, and an escalation in the conflict with forces aligned to Saudi Arabia and the internationally recognised government of President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi. The UN has said that the creation of the Supreme Political Council (SPC) violates Security Council resolutions on resolving the conflict. It also brings Yemen a step closer towards the creation of a new central government in Sana'a rivalling Hadi's government based in Aden. Impacts A new UN peace initiative is unlikely to succeed unless there is a major change in the military situation. Prolonged conflict in Yemen will distract Saudi focus and resources from its domestic economic reform programme. Large-scale humanitarian relief and reconstruction will only begin following a (currently unlikely) deal on a unity government.

Levantine Joint-Stock Companies, Trans-Mediterranean Partnerships, and Nineteenth-Century Capitalist Development

2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 150-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristen Alff
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
World War I ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Capital Investment ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Business Community ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Capitalist Development ◽  
Labor Control

AbstractThe Levantine business community—the Sursuqs, Bustruses, Tuenis, Khuris, Debbases, Trads, Tabets, Naggiars, and Farahs—created large agricultural estates in the Levant and established company branches in Beirut, Alexandria, Haifa, London, Liverpool, Paris, and Marseille in the mid-nineteenth century. Against both culturalist and new institutional paradigms, I argue that the trajectories of the Levantine firms were much like those of their European counterparts; Dutch and English capitalism—what came to be recognized as modern forms of capitalism—developed out of long-distance trade and relied on forms of coerced and semi-coerced labor as well as other so-called “non-capitalist” or “precapitalist” elements. Beirut-based companies relied on tenant contracts, sharecropping, and other forms of labor control rooted in the Ottoman social formation. Drawing upon the unexplored private papers of these business families in Beirut and a diverse collection of documents from Istanbul, Beirut, Jerusalem, London, Liverpool, and Marseille in Arabic, German, Ottoman Turkish, and French, this paper examines the parallels and the links between the business practices of the Levantine joint-stock companies and their European partners. It contends that the development of nineteenth-century capitalism relied on several different institutions and relations of production formulated and articulated on both sides of the Mediterranean and in the competition between them. Only after World War I, because of settler-colonialism, the settlement of nomads, and large-scale European capital investment backed by imperial power, did Levantine capital accumulation begin to take a form that was subordinate to Europe.

Accidental Sustainability

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Jones
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Organic Food ◽  
The United States ◽  
Air Travel ◽  
Business Leaders ◽  
Natural Beauty ◽  
And Diffusion ◽  
Whole Foods

This chapter examines the scaling and diffusion of green entrepreneurship between 1980 and the present. It explores how entrepreneurs and business leaders promoted the idea that business and sustainability were compatible. It then examines the rapid growth of organic foods, natural beauty, ecological architecture, and eco-tourism. Green firms sometimes grew to a large scale, such as the retailer Whole Foods Market in the United States. The chapter explores how greater mainstreaming of these businesses resulted in a new set of challenges arising from scaling. Organic food was now transported across large distances causing a negative impact on carbon emissions. More eco-tourism resulted in more air travel and bigger airports. In other industries scaling had a more positive impact. Towns were major polluters, so more ecological buildings had a positive impact.

Meta-Governance

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morten Egeberg ◽  
Jarle Trondal
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Reform Processes ◽  
The Government ◽  
Central Government Agencies ◽  
Instrumental Control

Chapter 8 draws attention to meta-governance and how the governing of reforms is affected by how reform processes are organized. The chapter asks how reformers can ensure support for large-scale reforms that are likely to attract profound resistance. The focal point of the chapter is a study of geographical decentralization of central government agencies. The chapter argues that successful meta-governance can be provided for by careful organization of the reform process. The empirical case studied is a large-scale relocation of government agencies in Norway during the early 2000s. In carrying out this reform, the government succeeded against the odds. Most importantly, research has revealed huge constraints on the instrumental control of large-scale reforms in general and of geographical relocation of organizations in particular. Yet, this chapter shows that large-scale reforms can be successfully achieved through careful crafting of the reform organization.

scholarly journals Quantitative Evaluation of China’s Pork Industry Policy: A PMC Index Model Approach

Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 86
Author(s):  
Youzhu Li ◽  
Rui He ◽  
Jinsi Liu ◽  
Chongguang Li ◽  
Jason Xiong
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Industrial Structure ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Operation Mode ◽  
Control Policy ◽  
Price Control ◽  
Price Regulation ◽  
Index Model

To ease the fluctuation of hog prices and maintain the hog market’s stability, the central government of China has issued a series of hog price control policies. This paper, supplemented by co-word analysis and LDA thematic modeling, constructed 9 first-level indicators and 36 s-level indicators and used a PMC index model to conduct quantitative research on the selected 74 policies and regulations of China’s pig price regulation policies from July 2007 to April 2020. The research concludes that the research tool system of China’s hog price control is formed. The overall design of the hog price control policy is relatively reasonable, but there are still the following problems: the subject of China’s pig price control policy is singular, so it is difficult to form a resultant force; the policy pays attention to the price regulation in the short term, but ignores the long-term industrial structure adjustment; it emphasizes market supervision, but insufficient support for slaughtering and processing; it focuses on production and management to improve the development quality and efficiency of the pig industry, but does not take social equity into account. Finally, some policy suggestions are put forward: multi-department division of labor and close cooperation; adjusting the industrial structure of hog and carrying out appropriate large-scale breeding; establishing the operation mode of slaughtering and processing in the producing area to reduce the circulation cost of the pig industry; ensuring the consumption of pork by low-income groups and giving consideration to social efficiency and equity.

Making the world’s longest subsea tunnel sustainable

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ketil Søyland ◽  
Christer Wolden ◽  
Christopher Garmann ◽  
Debbie Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Carbon Footprint ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Infrastructure Projects ◽  
Subsea Tunnel ◽  
Engineering Practices

<p>How can large-scale infrastructure projects be sustainable? The purpose of this paper is to discuss how engineering practices were changed in order to reduce the carbon footprint of the E39 Rogfast project, the world’s longest roadway sub-sea tunnel. The project will generate greenhouse gas (GHG)-emissions exceeding 1% of Norway’s total annual GHG-emissions. The paper covers the project process, including some of the challenges to be overcome.</p>

Capital Production and Social Equity: Finding Balance in Chinese Cities

2014 ◽  
pp. 28-35
Author(s):  
Andrew Liang
Keyword(s):  
Economic Reform ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Social Equity ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Global Market ◽  
Wealth Creation ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
Chinese Cities ◽  
The One

China’s massive capital accumulation, economic ascent and wealth production has largely been the result of their rapid urbanization effort. While it is indisputable that the country has largely succeeded in its economic reform efforts given its status as the world’s second largest economy and in that process lifted hundreds of millions of its population out of poverty, it has also, in that process, created severe social inequality and friction. This essay largely argues that Chinese cities are purpose-built financial instruments for capital accumulation, a result of the forces of globalization which could only have happened in sync with the time and space of a global economy. Though highly successful, so far the process has marginalized the objective of social integration into its performative matrix indexing. In this regard China has pursued an exploitive model of market driven urbanization and the resultant morphological and spatial attributes of the Chinese cities, while having achieved spectacular results on many levels, are nevertheless disjunctive. They are commodities of generic sameness that are mass-produced and exhibit the same anesthetizing effects of the spectacle that are ever prevalent in today’s global market production process, product and place. Recognizing that globalization and capitalism are here to stay in the immediate future, it begs the question if China, while having already undertaken extreme economic reform experimentations allowing it to now bask in its temporal success, will be able to leverage its acquired market knowledge and wealth creation to prospectively overcome the incredibly complex challenge of creating equitable cities in the future — ones that balance the demands of capital production on the one hand and social equity on the other — or rather will it sink deeper into the “neoliberal modern society” that it has already become.

scholarly journals Investigating the Sustainability Performance of PPP-Type Infrastructure Projects: A Case of China

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 4162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shengqin Zheng ◽  
Ke Xu ◽  
Qing He ◽  
Shaoze Fang ◽  
Lin Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Behavioral Control ◽  
Equation Model ◽  
Perceived Behavioral Control ◽  
Actual Behavior ◽  
Infrastructure Projects ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Managerial Implications

In China, the demand for public infrastructure projects is high due to the acceleration of urbanization and the rapid growth of the economy in recent years. Infrastructures are mainly large scale, so local governments have difficulty in independently completing financing work. In this context, public sectors often seek cooperation from private sectors, in which public–private partnership (PPP) is increasingly common. Although numerous studies have concentrated on sustainable development, the unsustainability performances of infrastructures are often reported on various media. Furthermore, studies on the sustainability performances of PPP-type infrastructure (PTI) projects are few from the perspective of private sectors’ behaviors. In this study, we adopted the modified theory of planned behavior and the structure equation model and conducted a questionnaire survey with 258 respondents for analyzing the sustainable behaviors of private sectors. Results indicated that behavioral attitude, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norm interact significantly. They have direct positive effects on behavioral intention and then indirectly influence actual behavior through this intention. Actual sustainable behaviors of private sectors have significantly positive effects on the sustainable development of cities. We offer theoretical and managerial implications for public and private sectors on the basis of the findings to ensure and promote the sustainability performances of PTI projects.

The Unanticipated Consequences of Decentralization and Reinvention: The Case of the Province of South Holland

2002 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 579-597 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. K. Yesilkagit ◽  
J. de Vries
Keyword(s):  
Private Sector ◽  
Financial Management ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Relative Deprivation ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Public Administrators ◽  
Institutional Reforms ◽  
The Public ◽  
Administrative Practice ◽  
Central Government Agencies

Two developments flowing from the institutional reforms in The Netherlands of the 1980s currently form ‘the usual suspects’ in a series of scandals or instances of public arousal within the public sector. The first factor is the large-scale decentralization of tasks from central government to provincial and municipal authorities. Initiated under the name of democratization and efficiency this decentralization programme was part of a large package of operations, including deconcentration, deregulation, privatization, and reconsideration, that were to to slim down central government in terms of personnel, tasks and organization. Second, managerialism, i.e. the adoption of business management ideas and concepts by public administrators, entered Dutch public service vocabulary during the second half of the 1980s. Managerialism did not limit itself only to central government agencies but also — and perhaps more succinctly — found openings in provincial and municipal authorities, mainly as a fierce reaction against the ‘bureaucratism’ of daily administrative practice to counter the relative deprivation perceived by civil servants in relation to their private sector counterparts. This article shows that the decentralization of financial management and the emergence of ‘reinvention’ ideas have had autonomous but drastic effects. While the former blinded central government and provincial controllers, the latter legitimized practices that even under a private sector regime would have been deemed improbable.

scholarly journals The “Smart Work” Myth: How Bureaucratic Inertia and Workplace Culture Stymied Digital Transformation in the Relocation of South Korea’s Capital

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
JY Hur ◽  
Wonhyuk Cho ◽  
G Lee ◽  
Sarah Bickerton
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Business Processes ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Digital Transformation ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Digital Government ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Work Routines ◽  
Traditional Work

© 2019, © 2019 Asian Studies Association of Australia. Starting in 2012, the South Korean government has implemented a large-scale relocation of its central government agencies, which are now split between the existing capital city (Seoul) and a new administrative-capital city (Sejong). One of the most controversial aspects of the relocation has been the bureaucratic inefficiency caused by its split nature. ICT-enabled solutions, dubbed “Smart Work”, were adopted to deal with this challenge, but have not been effective in avoiding inefficiency. In this article, we argue that different forms of organisational inertia created resistance to switching from traditional work routines to Smart Work’s ICT-assisted equivalents. Various forms of inertia–psychological (anxiety around learning new technologies), cognitive (culture/norms in face-to-face work routines), technological (stickiness of pre-existing IT system), political (continued influence from elected officials), and resource allocation (success bias from previous digital government projects)–significantly influenced public managers’ work practices in Sejong. These types of inertia, we argue, have reinforced face-to-face communication rather than digital communication, on-site visits rather than video-conferencing, and fixed-time work rather than flex-work. Our findings challenge dominant views from functionalist models of digital transformation and emphasise the importance of cultural congruency between workplace norms and technophilic business processes.

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