The Shifting Relationship between Post-War Capitalism and Democracy (The Government and Opposition/Leonard Schapiro Lecture, 2021)

This article argues that the relationship between capitalism and democracy is not immutable but subject to changes over time best understood as movements across distinctive growth and representation regimes. Growth regimes are the institutionalized practices central to how a country secures economic prosperity based on complementary sets of firm strategies and government policies. Representation regimes reflect conditions in the arenas of electoral and producer group politics that confer influence on specific segments of the population. The emphasis is on how economic experiences and changes in the structure of electoral cleavages alter the terms of political contestation, thereby giving voice to specific sets of interests and altering the balance of influence between capitalism and democracy. The analysis examines how the growth and representation regimes of the developed democracies have changed through three post-war eras to yield distinctive distributive outcomes in each era.

Features of sheep breeding development in the Transnistrian territories of East Podillya at the end of the XIX – the first half of the XX century

Based on the interpretation of archival sources and field data, the article analyzes the specifics of sheep breeding in the ethno-contact zone of the Ukrainian‑Moldovan borderlands and traces the basic displays of ethnocultural interactions in it. It was found that because of long-term interethnic contacts in the Transnistrian territories of Eastern Podillya, ethnocultural complexes with a symbiosis of economic experiences have been formed, which is also typical for sheep breeding. Methods of historical comparisons, interviewing respondents, and partially – the principles of ethnographic mapping were used in the research. The materials of the Ukrainian archives in Kyiv, Odessa, Vinnitsa, as well as the National Archives of the Republic of Moldova in Chisinau, were examined. The main aspects of the topic were revealed with the help of the author’s expedition materials, recorded in 2013–2016 in the border villages of Vinnitsa and Odessa regions of Ukraine. The number of sheep, the characteristics of their keeping, forms of grazing and some ritual manifestations of sheep breeding were considered. In the conclusion, the facts were summarized and the directions for further research were indicated.

From the Editors

Contexts editors Rashawn Ray and Fabio Rojas introduce the spring issue, focusing on various economic experiences.

Andrić and Bašagić in the Yugoslavian Key

The different views on identity politics in Ottoman Bosnia presented by Ivo Andrić and Safvet-beg Bašagić in their respective doctoral dissertations stem from differences in the historical and socio-economic experiences of each of their respective religious and confessional communities. Andrić, oriented towards the future, perceives Bosnia from the perspective of a newly introduced concept of Yugoslav national unity that does not value diversity. Bašagić, romantically looking into the past, sees Bosnia through rose-coloured glasses. Both Andrić and Bašagić share distinct notions of their historical periods and allow for non-scientific influences to shape their academic discourses.

Kinship and gendered economic conduct in matrilineal Offinso, Ghana

For many decades, anthropologists have debated the question of matriliny, with some expressing concerns about its prospects of survival in a modern economy of private property and greater economic differentiation. In continuing this debate, this article provides new and contemporary evidence of the continued relevance of matriliny as a kinship practice that shapes the daily conduct of women. Using ethnographic evidence from the Asante town of Offinso in Ghana, the article demonstrates the crucial role of matrilineal kinship through the economic experiences of two market women living with their respective husbands. The evidence shows that the persistence of economic values that encourage female enterprise, norms of kinship that privilege maternal relations over paternal ones and marriage conventions that allow spouses to maintain separate economic resources create a social and economic environment in which women actively assert their independence from husbands. Women's strong allegiance to their matrilineage is mirrored in their economic conduct, further accentuating the antithesis between conjugal and lineage bonds. Put together, these factors point to greater social and economic autonomy for Asante women.

Uneven, Contradictory, and Brutal Economic Development in Africa

Even where capitalist expansion brings about dramatic and progressive changes, it is always and everywhere contradictory, uneven, and brutal. All good things do not go together. African economic experiences have—similarly—been contradictory. That is one reason why efforts to fit African economic experiences into linear narratives of ‘tragic growth’ or ‘Africa Rising’ are doomed. African economic development is also extremely diverse. This variation is not just between countries. There is also huge variation, perhaps more significantly, within countries. That is why we argue against relying heavily on averages or on continent-wide pronouncements based on just a handful of countries. This variation, as we argue in this chapter and in others, is also often a useful analytical starting point to consider the possible and to identify potential for economic policy to bring about change.

Racial and Ethnic Differences in Consumers’ Economic Expectations

Consumers’ expectations about the future of their own finances and the macroeconomy are used to forecast consumption, but forecasts do not typically account for differences by race and ethnicity. In this report, the author asks (1) whether there is consistent racial and ethnic variation in consumers’ economic expectations, (2) if differences can be explained by economic experiences, and (3) how the scope of expectations matters. The author uses the Survey of Consumer Finances to examine variation in the likelihood of positive national and personal economic expectations among individuals who identify as black, white, or Hispanic. The author finds that national expectations have substantial racial and ethnic variation net of economic experiences. For personal expectations, initial racial and ethnic variation in the likelihood of positive expectations disappears once economic experiences are accounted for. These findings have important implications for consumption forecasts, especially as the racial and ethnic composition of the United States changes.