Developing State Coalition-Building: A Focused Comparison

This article pits two diplomatic strategies in competition for policy officials’ support. Distributive strategies promote one party’s goals at the expense of another. Integrative strategies promote goals that are in conflict with those of another state. The focus is strategy choice and strategy’s bargaining potential of less developed countries (LDC) coalitions in the GATT/WTO regime. Amrita Narlikar, whose study of LDC coalitions is relied upon here, finds that many LDC states employ distributive strategy because of asymmetric structure, which emphasizes the gap between LDC and developed state capabilities, yet she critiques that strategy as ineffective in supporting LDC objectives. This disconnect is probed in this article, which concludes that LDC distributive strategy must be improved and that the integrative strategy’s success in attaining LDC objectives can be important enough to override the structural argument for distributive strategy.

Os coletivos em cena: algumas contribuições para o debate

Em meio ao recente ciclo de protestos pelo qual passou o Brasil entre os anos de 2013 e 2016, uma nova atenção teórico-analítica foi conferida às experiências organizacionais, que se autodenominam coletivos. Visando contribuir com esse debate, neste artigo, parte de uma pesquisa em andamento, nos guiaremos a partir de dois objetivos: (i) sistematização dos elementos centrais da recente literatura sobre coletivos que poderiam auxiliar um exame mais detido sobre essas experiências organizacionais; (ii) análise discursiva do processo de identificação dos sujeitos como coletivos contemporâneos. Para o segundo objetivo, também nos valemos de seis entrevistas realizadas com ativistas de coletivos culturais na Cidade de Vitória, Espírito Santo, entre os meses de dezembro de 2018 e março de 2019. Considerando os achados da literatura e nossos primeiros dados de pesquisa, o argumento estruturante da análise é que a construção da ideia de coletivo também significa a demarcação de uma posição diferencial em relação a outras experiências associativas. Palavras-chave: Coletivos; posição diferencial; novas experiências associativas; repertórios. Abstract During the recent cycle of protests that happened between 2013 and 2016 in Brazil, a new theoretical and analytical attention was granted to organizational experiences, called collectives. This article, which is part of research in progress, aims at two goals: (i) assist in the detailed exam about the organizational experiences; (ii) conduct a discourse analysis of the identification process of the subjects as contemporary collectives. To contribute to the second aim, we will also use six interviews done with activists from cultural collectives in Vitoria, Espírito Santo, between December 2018 and March 2019. Considering the literature and our first research data, the structural argument of the analysis is that the building of the idea of collective also means the demarcation of a differential position related to other associative experiences. Keywords: Collectives; differential position; new associative experiences; repertory. Resumen A partir del reciente ciclo de protestas que aconteció en Brasil entre 2013 y 2016, comenzó a darse una nueva atención teórico-analítica a las experiencias de organización social que se autodenominan colectivos. Con el propósito de contribuir a ese debate, este artículo – que es parte de una investigación en curso – se desarrolla en dos ejes: (i) el de la sistematización de elementos clave que se encuentran en la literatura reciente sobre colectivos, que podrían contribuir a un análisis más detallado sobre esas experiencias de organización social; y (ii) el de un análisis discursivo del proceso de identificación de los sujetos como colectivos contemporáneos. Como insumo para este segundo eje, nos valemos de seis entrevistas en profundidad realizadas a activistas de colectivos culturales de la ciudad de Victoria, Espíritu Santo, entre los meses de diciembre de 2018 y marzo de 2019. Tomando en cuenta los hallazgos de la literatura y nuestros primeros datos producidos en esta investigación, el argumento estructurador de este análisis es que la construcción de la idea de colectivo también significa la demarcación de una posición diferencial en relación con otras experiencias de organización social. Palabras clave: Colectivos; posición diferencial; nuevas experiencias asociativas; repertorios.

Not Ready for Democracy

Comparing Egypt and Tunisia, Tarek Masoud argues that the distinctive make-ups and strengths of civil society in those two countries explain why their transitions took different paths. He dismisses previous arguments about the role of the army or the democratic commitment of politicians, arguing instead that Tunisian civil society was stronger and had a less pronounced religious coloration than Egypt’s, with the result that its secular politicians could easily acquire a substantial political base, leading to more balanced electoral results. As no single party or camp had hegemony, leading politicians were forced to make the necessary political compromises. Masoud then builds on this conclusion to suggest a more structural argument: that the greater economic development, industrialization and urbanization of Tunisia explains why its civil society had those specific features that Egypt’s lacked.

Money and Power in Europe: The Political Economy of European Monetary Cooperation. By Matthias Kaelberer. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001. 254p. $49.50.

The puzzle of European monetary cooperation—namely, why sovereign nation-states would relinquish monetary autonomy in return for some measure of exchange rate stability—has produced a growing body of highly informed and theoretically strong works on European integration. Matthais Kaelberer's account fits nicely into this mold. The author argues convincingly that European monetary cooperation—especially Germany's leading contribution to the European Monetary Union (EMU)—is the result of a structural conflict of interest between weak and strong currency countries over the rules of monetary cooperation. In laying out his “structural” argument, Kaelberer's analysis, as he notes in his own words, “complements rather than substitutes for other explanations of European monetary cooperation” (p. 6). In making this claim, his work will not settle the extremely lively theoretical debate on European integration, and European monetary cooperation more specifically. However, it is an important contribution to the literature and fills in some of the theoretical void involving concepts of “leadership” and “asymmetry” of power that help explain European integration.

Mechanistically based, allometric models to predict tree diameter and height in even-aged monoculture of Eucalyptusregnans F. Muell.

A randomly selected sample of 22 trees was felled in a stand in a 20-year-old monoculture of Eucalyptusregnans F. Muell. in southern Tasmania. One-half of the trees were from a section of the stand that had been heavily thinned 10 years previously, and the remainder were from the unthinned section. The trees were sectioned and the fresh weights of their stems (including bark) and crowns (leaves plus branches) determined. By combining a geometrical argument about the shape of tree stems with a structural argument about their vertical stability, allometric relationships were established relating tree diameter at breast height or tree height to total aboveground weight and the ratio of crown to stem weight. These relationships were found to hold in both the thinned and unthinned sections of the experiment. When combined with a model to predict biomass of individual trees, these models can be used to predict diameter or height of individual trees in E. regnans monoculture.