scholarly journals Economic Reforms in Pakistan: One Step Forward, Two Steps Backwards (The Quaid-i-Azam Lecture)

2012 ◽  
Vol 51 (4I) ◽  
pp. 7-22
Author(s):  
Ishrat Husain
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
International Development ◽  
Structural Adjustment ◽  
Economic Reforms ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Institutional Reforms ◽  
One Step ◽  
Cross Country

In 1998 I was invited by Dr Sarfraz Qureshi, the then Director of PIDE to deliver a lecture on “The Political Economy of Reforms: A Case Study of Pakistan”.1 This lecture was subsequently published by PIDE as a monograph. A year later, in December 1999, I had the honour of becoming the Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan and actually participated actively in the formulation and implementation of economic reforms. During the six year period of public policy making I realised that my knowledge about the political economy as manifested in my PIDE lecture was incomplete. The narrative was more complex than I had developed as an outsider. Now, six years later after my retirement from the State Bank of Pakistan I again reflected upon this topic as an observer and analyst rather than a participant. I realised that my learnings have become much richer by applying these different prisms—those of an international development economist, a public policy-maker and now an independent analyst. I am grateful to Dr Rashid Amjad and Dr Musleh ud Din and their colleagues at PIDE for providing me this opportunity to share these learning with my colleagues, peers and other scholars present here today. The political economy of economic reforms and structural adjustment has become focus of growing attention in the literature drawing at the inter-disciplinary tools of analysis and cross-country comparative perspectives. Detailed case studies of country situations do throw useful insights which are not captured through cross-country studies. The key question that is explored by this group of researchers is: if policy and institutional reforms are associated with high economic pay offs, then why are these reform programmes not sustained and implemented consistently? Why are they derailed? I would like to focus the discussion on Pakistan only and address the following questions:

scholarly journals The political economy of reforms and the present Chinese transition

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 789-807 ◽  
Author(s):  
ELIAS JABBOUR ◽  
ALEXIS DANTAS
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Economic Policy ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Foreign Trade ◽  
Economic Reforms ◽  
Economic Planning ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Chinese Transition

ABSTRACT The main aim of this paper is to demonstrate, through a review of China’s economic reforms, that the emergence of a large private sector and the increased sophistication and diversification of industry has required the continual reorganization of activities between the state and private sectors of the economy. We argue in this paper that the state began to play a major role in important industries and in big finance, as well as in the coordination and socialization of investment, such as economic policy (monetary and fiscal), foreign trade and, especially, the launch of new and higher forms of economic planning.

All Shook Up?

2020 ◽  
pp. 157-174
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Chatterjee
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Economic Reforms ◽  
Rent Seeking ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
State Autonomy ◽  
The Public ◽  
Indian State ◽  
Dominant Classes

The Political Economy and Development of India (PEDI) outlined highly influential theories of both the Indian state and its bureaucracy. Professionals within the public sector were one of Bardhan’s three competing dominant classes, yet he was also clear that the state was an autonomous actor distinct from the rent-seeking officials who populated its lower ranks. Three decades later, economic reforms have ostensibly challenged the public sector’s economic, ideological, and policy dominance. This chapter argues that the Indian system remains more statist—and correspondingly less ‘pro-business’—than many scholarly interpretations today allow. Nonetheless, elite public sector professionals have become fragmented that challenge their coherence as a class, while new obstacles to effective state autonomy have arisen from the nexus between politicians and the petty bureaucracy.

scholarly journals GARBAGE CRISIS AND FEDERALISM IN NIGERIA: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ENVIRONMENTAL SANITATION IN LAGOS STATE

1993 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
F. O. Nyemutu Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Third World ◽  
Economic Reforms ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Local Power ◽  
Local Institutions ◽  
Environmental Sanitation ◽  
Lagos State

Since the 1980s, it has been part of state policy in Nigeria to mobilize Nigerians into a state of consciousness for a cleaner environment. This was justified on objective grounds of aesthetics and public health — an emerging priority for most African and Third world cities. However, the manner of this ‘mobilization’ raises serious questions for contemporary Nigerian -political economy along two planes. These are the power implications for local institutions of the state constitutionally charged with the responsibility for environmental sanitation under Nigeria’s federal structure; and the consequences of preferred state solutions for the welfare of the underprivileged in society. These concerns assume significance in the context of the on-going political and economic reforms simultaneously designed to enhance local power as represented by local government, and improve the welfare of local clients of the state. This article addresses the problem

Bridging the Gap between Political and Penal Legitimacy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph Henham
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Social Exclusion ◽  
Social Value ◽  
The Political ◽  
Institutional Reforms ◽  
Social Morality ◽  
Penal Policy ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Sentencing Policy ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter argues that the relationship between penal policy and the political economy provides important insights into the political and institutional reforms required to minimize harsh and discriminatory penal policies. However, the capacity of sentencing policy to engage with this social reality in a meaningful way necessitates a recasting of penal ideology. To realize this objective requires a profound understanding of sentencing’s social value and significance for citizens. The greatest challenge then lies in establishing coherent links between penal ideology and practice to encourage forms of sentencing that are sensitive to changes in social value. The chapter concludes by explaining how the present approach taken by the courts of England and Wales to the sentencing of women exacerbates social exclusion and reinforces existing divisions in social morality. It urges fundamental changes in ideology and practice so that policy reflects a socially valued rationale for the criminalization and punishment of women.

The Political Economy of Post-Independence India—A Review Article

1989 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 787-797 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akhil Gupta
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Newly Industrialized Countries ◽  
The Past ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Balance Of Forces ◽  
The Third World

Economists and political scientists have become increasingly interested in the political economy of India during the past decade and particularly during the past three or four years. The titles under review will be valuable not only to India specialists but also to comparative scholars because of the intriguing mix of conditions found in India. More like a continent than a country in its diversity, India is in some ways very similar to densely populated, predominantly rural and agricultural China, differing most perhaps in the obstinacy and depth of its poverty. In the predominant role played by the state within an essentially capitalist economy, it is closer to the model of Western social democracies than it is to either prominently ideological capitalist or socialist nation-states; like other countries in the “third world,” the state in India plays a highly interventionist developmental role. Finally, since Independence it has pursued, more successfully than most nation-states in Latin America and Asia, policies of importsubstituting industrialization and relative autarchy. In terms of its political structures, India differs from most newly industrialized countries (NICs) in that it generally continues to function as a parliamentary democracy. The federal political system creates an intriguing balance of forces between central and the regional state governments, which are often ruled by opposition parties with agendas, ideologies, and organizational structures quite different from those of the central government.

The Saint with Indra's Sword: Khruubaa Srivichai and Buddhist Millenarianism in Northern Thailand

2014 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 681-713 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Bowie
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
The State ◽  
Capital City ◽  
The Political ◽  
Northern Thailand ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
Modern Context ◽  
A Charge ◽  
Social Causes

AbstractDespite a growing literature revealing the presence of millenarian movements in both Theravada and Mahayana Buddhist societies, scholars have been remarkably reluctant to consider the role of messianic beliefs in Buddhist societies. Khruubaa Srivichai (1878–1938) is the most famous monk of northern Thailand and is widely revered as atonbun, or saint. Althoughtonbunhas been depoliticized in the modern context, the term also refers to a savior who is an incarnation of the coming Maitreya Buddha. In 1920 Srivichai was sent under arrest to the capital city of Bangkok to face eight charges. This essay focuses on the charge that he claimed to possess the god Indra's sword. Although this charge has been widely ignored, it was in fact a charge of treason. In this essay, I argue that the treason charge should be understood within the context of Buddhist millenarianism. I note the saint/savior tropes in Srivichai's mytho-biography, describe the prevalence of millenarianism in the region, and detail the political economy of the decade of the 1910s prior to Srivichai's detention. I present evidence to show that the decade was characterized by famine, dislocation, disease, and other disasters of both natural and social causes. Such hardships would have been consistent with apocalyptic omens in the Buddhist repertoire portending the advent of Maitreya. Understanding Srivichai in this millenarian context helps to explain both the hopes of the populace and the fears of the state during that tumultuous decade.

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