Anne O. Krueger, Constantine Michalopoulos and Vernon W. Ruttan. Aid and Development. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. 1989. xiv + 386 pp.Price: U.S. $ 52.00

1991 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-217
Author(s):  
Mir Annice Mahmood
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
International Development ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Development Assistance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Infrastructure ◽  
Low Literacy ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Impact

Foreign aid has been the subject of much examination and research ever since it entered the economic armamentarium approximately 45 years ago. This was the time when the Second World War had successfully ended for the Allies in the defeat of Germany and Japan. However, a new enemy, the Soviet Union, had materialized at the end of the conflict. To counter the threat from the East, the United States undertook the implementation of the Marshal Plan, which was extremely successful in rebuilding and revitalizing a shattered Western Europe. Aid had made its impact. The book under review is by three well-known economists and is the outcome of a study sponsored by the Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development. The major objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of assistance, i.e., aid, on economic development. This evaluation however, was to be based on the existing literature on the subject. The book has five major parts: Part One deals with development thought and development assistance; Part Two looks at the relationship between donors and recipients; Part Three evaluates the use of aid by sector; Part Four presents country case-studies; and Part Five synthesizes the lessons from development assistance. Part One of the book is very informative in that it summarises very concisely the theoretical underpinnings of the aid process. In the beginning, aid was thought to be the answer to underdevelopment which could be achieved by a transfer of capital from the rich to the poor. This approach, however, did not succeed as it was simplistic. Capital transfers were not sufficient in themselves to bring about development, as research in this area came to reveal. The development process is a complicated one, with inputs from all sectors of the economy. Thus, it came to be recognized that factors such as low literacy rates, poor health facilities, and lack of social infrastructure are also responsible for economic backwardness. Part One of the book, therefore, sums up appropriately the various trends in development thought. This is important because the book deals primarily with the issue of the effectiveness of aid as a catalyst to further economic development.

Western Europe and the collapse of Bretton Woods

2019 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 282-300
Author(s):  
Michael De Groot
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Rate System ◽  
Bretton Woods ◽  
The Us ◽  
Exchange Rate System ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Impact

This article contends that Western Europe played a crucial and overlooked role in the collapse of Bretton Woods. Most scholars highlight the role of the United States, focusing on the impact of US balance of payments deficits, Washington’s inability to manage inflation, the weakness of the US dollar, and American domestic politics. Drawing on archival research in Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States, this article argues that Western European decisions to float their currencies at various points from 1969 to 1973 undermined the fixed exchange rate system. The British, Dutch, and West Germans opted to float their currencies as a means of protecting against imported inflation or protecting their reserve assets, but each float reinforced speculators’ expectations that governments would break from their fixed parities. The acceleration of financial globalization and the expansion of the Euromarkets in the 1960s made Bretton Woods increasingly difficult to defend.

Growing Incomes, Shrinking People—Can Economic Development Be Hazardous to Your Health?

2004 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-270
Author(s):  
Michael R. Haines
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
The United States ◽  
Real Income ◽  
Food Prices ◽  
Similar Process ◽  
Human Organism ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
The Impact

This article examines declining adult human stature in the nineteenth century in three countries: the United States, England, and the Netherlands. While this was not unprecedented, these three relatively important nations did experience a deterioration in the biological standard of living at a time when economic development was proceeding at a goodly pace. England and the Netherlands were among the most urbanized countries in Europe at the time, while the United States was still predominantly rural and agrarian. The essay argues that a confluence of circumstances contributed to the worsening of the physical condition of these populations even while real income per capita was growing. Among the factors involved were rapid urbanization without adequate public health and sanitation; a transport revolution and related commercialization, which brought people and goods into much closer contact; the consequent integration of disease environments, both within and across nations; and a growing dependence of the working populations on wage income along with a probable growing inequality in wealth and income, exacerbating the impact of fluctuations in food prices. Technological change had an impact on these events by lowering the relative prices of industrial goods. While the term Malthusian crisis (i.e., a shortage of subsistence followed by a rise in mortality) seems inappropriate in these cases, a similar process may have been taking place. It suggests that such a crisis may not commence with an increase in mortality but rather with an adjustment of the human organism to new nutritional circumstances.

The Parvin-Brigham Mission to Spanish America, 1823–1826

1945 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-103
Author(s):  
J. Orin Oliphant
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin America ◽  
The United States ◽  
War Of 1812 ◽  
Spanish America ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Impact

Slowly during the years just preceding our War of 1812, and rapidly during the decade that followed the Peace of Ghent, the vast reaches of Latin America swam within the ken of the people of the United States. Of this “discovery” of our southern neighbors and of our relations with Latin America before 1830, we have learned much from a volume recently brought out by a distinguished historian of the United States, Professor Arthur P. Whitaker. Professor Whitaker's informing study was intended to be nothing less than a well-rounded history of the impact of Latin America upon the United States to 1830; and such it has proved to be—with one exception. Professor Whitaker completely overlooked the religious phase of the subject he otherwise treated so skillfully. Upon this neglected part of the history of our early relations with Latin America this paper will endeavor to throw some light.

Organizing Concepts and ‘Small Differences’ in the Comparative Secularization of Western Europe and the United States

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Church And State ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Congregations ◽  
Free Markets ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Generational Transmission ◽  
Transatlantic Comparison ◽  
The Impact

This chapter offers a long-range historical perspective on the comparative secularization trajectories of Western Europe and the United States, built around the idea of ‘small differences’ which, over time, produce different patterns. The main categories of analysis include the separation of church and state, the democratization of Christianity and the role of free markets, the relationship between religion and political culture, the organizational characteristics of religious congregations, the contrasting roles played by social elites and a correspondingly different relationship between religion and popular culture, the differential importance of evangelical Christianity and the impact of immigration. The chapter finishes with a plea for more attention to the social historical dimensions of transatlantic comparison, including how churches were funded, the impact of fertility rates and generational transmission, and a preliminary look at current trends and future projections.

Danzas Chuscas: Performing Migration in a Zapotec Community

2008 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana Cruz-Manjarrez
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Inner City ◽  
Social Disorganization ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Instability ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Village

Danzas chuscas are parodic dances performed in indigenous and mestizo villages throughout Mexico. In the village of Yalálag, a Zapotec indigenous village in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, danzas chuscas are performed during religious celebrations, a time when many Yalaltecos (people from Yalálag) who have immigrated to Los Angeles return to visit their families. Since the late 1980s, these immigrants have become the subject of the dances. Yalaltecos humorously represent those who have adopted “American” behaviors or those who have remitted negative values and behaviors from inner-city neighborhoods of Los Angeles to Yalálag. Danzas chuscas such as “Los Mojados” (“The Wetbacks”), “Los Cocineros” (“The Cooks”), and “Los Cholos” (“Los Angeles Gangsters”) comically portray the roles that Yalaltec immigrants have come to play in the United States. Danzas chuscas such as “Los Norteños” (“The Northerners”), “Los Turistas” (“The Tourists”), and “El Regreso de los Mojados” (“The Return of the Wetbacks”) characterize Yalaltec immigrants as outsiders and visitors. And the choreography in dances like “Los Yalaltecos” (“The Residents of Yalálag”) and “Las Minifaldas” (“The Miniskirts”) reflect changes in these immigrants' social status, gender behaviors, and class position. In other words, these dances embody the impact of migration on social, economic, and cultural levels. Through physical humor immigrants and nonimmigrants confront the tensions and uncertainties stemming from Zapotec migration into the United States: community social disorganization, social instability, and changes in the meaning of group identity as it relates to gender, class, ethnicity, and culture.

The United States, Italy, and the Opening to the Left, 1953–1963

2002 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 36-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leopoldo Nuti
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The United States ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Test Case ◽  
World War ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Cold War

Drawing on newly declassified U.S. and Italian documentation, this article as-sesses U.S. policy toward Italy under the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations and uses this test case to draw some general conclusions about the nature of U.S. -Italian relations during the Cold War. The first part of the article focuses on issues that have been neglected or misinterpreted in the existing literature on the subject, and the second part presents some of the lessons that can be learned from the study of U.S. -Italian relations in the 1950s and 1960s. The aim is to cast broader light on the current debate about the role and influence of the United States in Western Europe after World War II.

The Urban Economy in Premodern Muslim India: Shahjahanabad, 1639-1739

1987 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 447-471 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen P. Blake
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Urban Economy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Organization

Economists and economic historians have not devoted much time or effort to the analysis of premodern economies. Most scholars have tended to concentrate on the United States and Western Europe during the twentieth century. While a few persons have examined the economic development of premodern Europe (1000–1700 a.d.), almost no one has chosen to write about economic organization in the countries of Asia and Africa before 1800.

Thoughts about America

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence A. Scaff
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
The United States ◽  
Moral Order ◽  
Historical Imagination ◽  
Economic Action ◽  
Spirit Of Capitalism ◽  
American Progressivism ◽  
The Impact

This chapter examines the origins and direction of Max Weber's thinking as he set his sights on America. It first considers Weber's enthusiasm as a traveler, citing his trips to various countries as well as the impact of these journeys on his spirits and his historical imagination. It then discusses one reason why Weber's travel to the United States in 1904: it came just as Weber had turned his attention to the problems of his most famous work—the theme of the relationships among economic action, economic development, and the moral order of society, explored in his two-part essay The Protestant Ethic and the “Spirit” of Capitalism. The chapter explains why the journey became a touchstone for a number of Weber's later reflections on issues on the agenda of American Progressivism, from immigration and race to education, religion, democracy, political economy, and capitalism.

Immigrant Integration, Naturalization, and Citizenship

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin A. Schain
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The United States ◽  
Immigrant Integration ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
National Differences ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The One ◽  
The Impact

The impact of immigration on socioeconomic stability, the challenge of integration, and issues surrounding citizenship has generated the interest of scholars for years. The literature is generally focused on the challenge (rather than the benefits) of immigration for social cohesion, identity, and the well-established rules of citizenship. For social scientists and analysts in Western Europe and the United States, the destabilizing aspects of immigration appear to have largely displaced class as a way of understanding sources of political instability. Scholarly interest in questions of immigrant integration on the one hand and naturalization and citizenship on the other, first emerged in the social sciences in the 1960s. In the United States, integration and citizenship questions have often been explored in the context of race relations. In Europe, the debates on issues of citizenship have been much more influenced by questions of identity and integration. As interest grew in comparison, scholars increasingly turned their attention to national differences that crystallized around national models for integration. However, such models are not always in congruence with aspects of public policy. There are a number of research directions that scholars may consider with respect to immigrant integration, naturalization, and citizenship, such as the relationship between immigrant integration and class analysis, the careful development of theories of policy change, the role of the European Union in the policy process, and the impact of integration and citizenship on the political system.

Political Socialization in Quebec: Young People's Attitudes toward Government

1973 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 303-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Pierre Richert
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Political Socialization ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
The United States ◽  
French Canadian ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
People’S Attitudes ◽  
The Impact

Social scientists have for some time been interested in the socialization of young people. An increasing number of studies are available which deal with Western Europe, Japan, South America, and the United States. However, little empirical research has been done on the socialization of Canadian children. The purpose of this paper is to consider the development of English- and French-Canadian children's attitudes toward government in Quebec and to determine, in particular, the impact of their cultural membership on their perception of government. The ultimate goal of this research – though not of this paper – is to investigate empirically the development of national identity in Canada, a concept that has been singled out by several scholars as crucial in political development and nation building.

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