Spoor Globalisation, Poverty and Conflict

A Critical 'Development' Reader
1. Auflage 2005
ISBN: 978-1-4020-2858-8
Verlag: Springer Netherland
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 349 Seiten, eBook

Is ‘development’ passé? Is it merely a by-product or a ‘trickle down’ effect of economic growth, spurred by globalisation? Will poverty simply diminish with increased global markets? This state-of-the-art critical ‘development’ reader deals with these and related questions. Globalisation, Poverty and Conflict examines the inter-relationships between globalisation, poverty and conflict. It complements current debates in the field of development studies and, in an era in which development fatigue seems to have become more profound than ever before, it brings the importance of development once again to the forefront. Achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 is a concrete target which many governments have agreed to work towards.Whether these goals can be realised is another issue. Nonetheless, the Millennium Development Goals have brought more focused attention to development in the past few years and renewed debate about the relationships between the process of globalisation and widespread poverty and the emergence of violent conflicts. The authors in this edited volume discuss these inter-related and highly controversial topical elements of development in a number of chapters organised around three sets of issues: (1) globalisation, inequality and poverty; (2) governance, civil society and poverty; and (3) resource degradation, institutions and conflict. The contributions represent current thinking on (and practice of) development policy, poverty reduction, the need for multi-level democratic institutions, and the containing and prevention of conflicts. The authors confront the predominant mainstream ideas on ‘development’ and propose alternatives. The chapters, written by a select group of scholars and development practitioners, will be of direct interest to those involved in this field of social sciences and in ‘development practice’, but they are composed in such a way as to remain accessible for the generallyinterested reader.

Zielgruppe

Professional/practitioner

Autoren/Hrsg.

Spoor, Max

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Globalisation, Inequality and Poverty.- From Exclusive to Inclusive Development.- Collateral Damage or Calculated Default? The Millennium Development Goals and the Politics of Globalisation.- Can Improved Human Development Policies Break the Cycle of Poverty?.- Inequality, Poverty and Conflict in Transition Economies.- Globalisation, Marginalisation and Conflict.- The Slow Progress of International Financial Reform.- The Debt Crisis and the South in an Era of Globalisation.- Resource Degradation, Institutions and Conflict.- Multi-Level Governance and Resilience of Social-Ecological Systems.- In Conclusion.- Knowledge Sharing in Support of Human Development.- Disempowering new Democracies and the Persistence of Poverty.- Local Governance and Rural Poverty in Africa.- Local Governance Hybrids: Enabling Policies and Citizen Approaches to Poverty Reduction.- Civic Engagement, Social Accountability and The Governance Crisis.- Blurring The State-Private Divide: Flex Organisations and The Decline of Accountability.- The Limits of Institutions: Environmental Degradation and Knowledge Framing.- Beyond State-Community Polarisations and Bogus “Joint”Ness: Crafting Institutional Solutions for Resource Management.

Leseproben

WHAT PROGRESS TILL NOW? (p.83-84)

Almost six years after the Asian crisis and with new crises still unfolding, it is important to evaluate progress achieved in reforming the international financial system. Though some progress has been made, it is clearly insufficient. The mechanisms that existed previously and the adaptations of recent years still do not fully meet the demands created by financial globalisation.

The extensive debates in recent years, and the parallels from national systems, indicate that the international financial architecture must provide four services: (i) appropriate transparency and regulation of international financial loan and capital markets and private capital account flows, as well as mechanisms to encourage flows in times of drought; (ii) provision of sufficient international official liquidity during crises; (iii) mechanisms for standstill and orderly debt work-out at the international level; and (iv) appropriate levels and instruments of development finance. The first two mechanisms are essential for preventing crises, which have proven to be developmentally, socially and financially costly.

The third and fourth mechanisms would help manage crises to lessen their costs and also have preventive effects, since a system better suited to manage crises is less prone to destabilising capital flows. This has indeed been the experience of national financial systems in relation to the lending of last resort by central banks. Finally, it is essential to channel flows of development finance to countries, especially low-income ones, that have insufficient access to private flows. An adequate supply of funds must also be guaranteed to middle-income countries during periods of insufficient private capital flows.

Progress in reforming the international financial system has so far suffered four serious problems. Firstly, there has been no agreed international reform agenda. Furthermore, the process has responded to priorities set by a few industrialised countries. These priorities have not always been explicit and have varied through time. In this regard, the "Monterrey Consensus" of the International Conference on Financing for Development of the United Nations, held in March 2002 (see United Nations 2002), provided for the first time an agreed comprehensive and balanced international agenda. That agenda should be used to guide and evaluate reform efforts. Secondly, progress has been uneven and asymmetrical in several key aspects.

The focus of reforms has been largely on strengthening macroeconomic policies and financial regulation in developing countries – that is, on the national component of the architecture –, while far less progress has been made on the international components. This is a major weakness, since crises have been caused not only by country problems (though these have obviously been important) but also by imperfections in international capital markets, such as herding, leading to rapid surges and reversals of massive private flows and multiple equilibria, which may push countries into self-fulfilling or deeper crises.

Another set of asymmetries relates to the excessive focus of the reform effort on crisis prevention and management, mainly for middle-income countries. Important as this is, it may have led to the neglect of equally if not more important issues of appropriate liquidity and development finance for both low-income and middle-income countries. For several years, the problem has seemed to be one of insufficient private flows.

Über Autor(innen)

Max Spoor is Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Centre for the Study of Transition and Development (CESTRAD), Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, The Netherlands, and Extraordinary Professor, Centre of International Relations and International Cooperation (CIDOB), Barcelona, Spain.