Book Description
From the late nineteenth century to the eve of World War II, America's experts on Russia watched as Russia and the Soviet Union embarked on a course of rapid industrialization. Captivated by the idea of modernization, diplomats, journalists, and scholars across the political spectrum rationalized the enormous human cost of this path to progress. In a fascinating examination of this crucial era, David Engerman underscores the key role economic development played in America's understanding of Russia and explores its profound effects on U.S. policy.
American intellectuals from George Kennan to Samuel Harper to Calvin Hoover understood Russian events in terms of national character. Many of them used stereotypes of Russian passivity, backwardness, and fatalism to explain the need for--and the costs of--Soviet economic development. These costs included devastating famines that left millions starving while the government still exported grain.
This book is a stellar example of the new international history that seamlessly blends cultural and intellectual currents with policymaking and foreign relations. It offers valuable insights into the role of cultural differences and the shaping of economic policy for developing nations even today.
Customer Reviews:
Out of this crooked timber of humanity..........2004-05-27
If one agrees that not everything about the Soviet Union was pre-ordained, then the collectivization was the crucial turning point. The brutality involved and the millions of deaths from the resulting famine was the greatest single atrocity of the Soviet regime, far outnumbering the victims of the purges. Not only did collectivization bring to fruition all the worst features of the Soviet regime such as gross brutality, callous indifference in the name of progress, the most fanatical and intolerant one-party culture, and the worst sort of bureaucratic mediocrity, it also burdened the Soviet Union with a crippled agricultural sector that it was never able to cure. And yet, at the time Americans knew little about it. The way that New York Times journalist Walter Duranty helped to euphemize the famine has become infamous.
But the problem was larger, much larger than the blindness of a few socialist intellectuals and the corruption of one spectacular journalist, as David Engerman points out in his important new book. One might imagine liberals and technocrats and socialists failing to appreciate the cruel truth. But what can we say about the attitude of Hoover's State Department? These people also showed little concern. Yet these people were so hostile to Communism they ensured that the United States was one of the few countries in the world that refused to recognize the Soviet Union. The problem, as Engerman details, arose from several key western prejudices, even if he does not fully recognize their complete importance. Americans were enthusiasts for progress and modernization. Many of them by the twenties were believers in a planned economy and this belief only increased with the Great Depression. The key problem for Russia and the later Soviet Union was that the overwhelming peasant population did not fit American plans for modernization, (or that of their rulers). For decades many Americans believed in a "national character" view of Russians that condemned them as "savage, hopeless, and helpless." There were exceptions, such as the first American translator of Tolstoy who uncritically supported czarism. And there were the supporters of American intervention in 1917 who deluded themselves into thinking that the Russian peasantry had swept aside Czarism in a wave of instinctive patriotism. But once the Soviets fell, the belief that the peasants had become lawless, anarchistic and hopeless was widespread. Wilson's Secretary of State, Robert Lansing, believed that the Russians needed a strong firm hand from a right-wing dictator.
As the twenties progressed this chauvinist attitude was replaced by the more hopeful, universalistic attitudes as Russian Studies became professionalised and institutionalized in the nation's universities. But the view of the Russian peasant as hopelessly backward and "Asiatic" did not go away. There was a natural sympathy from many Americans towards the technocratic, modernizing plans of the Soviet state. In one of the most interesting chapters, there is a long discussion of how Duranty, Louis Fischer, Eugene Lyons and William Henry Chamberlin viewed the Soviet famines. Engerman shows how Lyons and Chamberlin, who became heroes on the American right for revealing the famine's existence, showed the same anti-peasant prejudices that Duranty and Fischer did. Based on dozens of sets of private papers, and including a helpful biographical essay, Engerman points out the weaknesses of both particularism, with its enormous condescension towards people of other countries, and of universalism, which tends to believe that people are identical, and especially identical with Americans. It is with his quotations of Herzen in his introduction that Engerman strikes the wrong note. "To sacrifice others, and to be self-sacrificing on their behalf, is too easy a virtue." Later on Engerman quotes Herzen's comparison of modern ideologies and panaceas to the great idol Moloch to which children were sacrificed by being burned alive. But it is not quite fair to say that Russophiles were asking Russians to make sacrifices they themselves were not going to make. After all, in their dreams of progress, they were assuming that the Russians would become "modern" and "progressive," like Americans themselves. There would therefore be no need for Americans to sacrifice for what they had already achieved. More important, the reason that contempt for the Russian peasantry crossed ideological lines was because they were not capitalist farmers. Had they been capitalist farmers with capitalist property their dispossession would have caused more outrage. But they weren't, so it didn't. More to the point, capitalist agricultural modernization going back to Robert Young and the proponents of enclosure argues that peasants hamper economic progress. Dispossessing them in one way or another has been a hallmark of capitalist growth for centuries, (never more so than in the past half-century as E.H. Hobsbawm's "The Age of Extremes" points out). Engerman's failure to really appreciate this is a weakness. He also fails to realize that in order to provide a more humane alternative of economic growth for the Soviet Union, an economic theory based on respecting peasants would have had to exist. And given the lack of experience in the United States for such a sympathy, that was not going to happen.
Book Description
Taking as its starting point the elections of 2000 and 2004, Developments in Russian Politics 6 brings together all new, specially commissioned essays by leading experts to provide a wide-ranging assessment of Russian politics under Vladimir Putin. The contributors provide succinct overviews of aspects of contemporary Russia’s political landscape, including presidential power, parliamentary politics, elections and voters, political parties, federalism, regional politics, the media, the economy, and social and foreign policy. Clearly and accessibly written, Developments in Russian Politics remains the first-choice text for students and anyone seeking a reliable and current introduction to the politics of the world’s largest state.
Contributors. Alfred B. Evans, Zvi Gitelman, Gordon Hahn, Margot Light, Michael McFaul, Sarah Oates, Thomas F. Remington, Peter Rutland, Richard Sakwa, Robert Sharlet, Darrell Slider, Judy Twigg, Stephen White, John P. Willerton
Book Description
In the Caribbean Windward Islands, one in three jobs and half of export earnings depend on bananas. But from the end of 2005, the European Union will give up the last non-tariff measures designed to protect this trade. Looming over the islanders are unemployment, poverty, further emigration, and the almost inevitable switch to growing illegal drugs. Banana Wars tells how the US government, answering the grievances of a single American corporation, forced the World Trade Organization to nullify a European Community commitment to protect small Caribbean banana growers. The international trading system lacks the flexibility needed to give states like the Windward Islands the protection that they need to survive, while powerful supermarket chains insist on ever-lower prices, to the short-term benefit of consumers but the serious detriment of growers. This book calls for new EU arrangements to help the Caribbean banana industry beyond 2005 and for the WTO to give greater consideration to the needs of very small states with vulnerable economies.
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Travelling internationally on business has increased dramatically as the world has become more of a global village. More than ever, it is imperative to understand the customs, cultures, and practices of the country you are doing business in. Without this understanding it is almost impossible to bring business negotiations to successful conclusions.The International Travellers Guidesby Terri Morrison and Wayne A. Conawaysolve the problems of doing business in a given country by providing "absolutely essential information" on particular business practices of other countries. Based upon the author's highly successful Passport Software System, these guides provide valuable advice and information on local customs and culture (art, literature, gift-giving practices, selling techniques, and behavioral styles). Each book will include a cultural I.Q. test about the key customs of a country. Designed for easy carry along use, these volumes belong next to one's passport.
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What requirements must Turkey¡Xthe largest country among the candidate and accession countries¡Xmeet to join the European Union? What progress has been made toward meeting them? This timely volume analyzes the economic challenges confronting Turkey in its quest to accede to the European Union (EU). It focuses on the extent to which Turkey is ready to join the Single Market, comply with the EU¡¦s body of economic regulations and directives, the Acquis Communautaire, and meet the Maastricht criteria for fiscal, monetary, and exchange rate policies. This book also provides an assessment of Turkey¡¦s national program to meet the accession requirements. It describes briefly what Turkey needs to achieve on the economic policy front to satisfy the conditions for accession, the progress to date, and the likely consequences of implementing the full body of EU requirements. The book is divided into four parts: * An analysis of the macroeconomic policies for EU accession
* An analysis of the effects of integration on key sectors: agriculture; manufacturing; services industries, including banking, telecommunications, transportation, and natural gas; and network industries
* An exploration of key economic policy challenges, including labor market regulation, foreign direct investment challenges, and the costs and benefits of meeting the EU environmental Acquis The quantification of the impact of EU accession and consideration of the welfare effects of integration While the focus is on the specific situation of Turkey, the subject will be of value to all researchers with an interest in the challenges of deeper integration through regional agreements.
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"What requirements must Turkey-the largest country among the candidate and accession countries-meet to join the European Union? What progress has been made toward meeting them? This timely volume analyzes the economic challenges confronting Turkey in its quest to accede to the European Union (EU). It focuses on the extent to which Turkey is ready to join the Single Market, comply with the EU's body of economic regulations and directives, the Acquis Communautaire, and meet the Maastricht criteria for fiscal, monetary, and exchange rate policies. This book also provides an assessment of Turkey's national program to meet the accession requirements. It describes briefly what Turkey needs to achieve on the economic policy front to satisfy the conditions for accession, the progress to date, and the likely consequences of implementing the full body of EU requirements. The book is divided into four parts: An analysis of the macroeconomic policies for EU accession An analysis of the effects of integration on key sectors: agriculture; manufacturing; services industries, including banking, telecommunications, transportation, and natural gas; and network industries An exploration of key economic policy challenges, including labor market regulation, foreign direct investment challenges, and the costs and benefits of meeting the EU environmental Acquis The quantification of the impact of EU accession and consideration of the welfare effects of integration While the focus is on the specific situation of Turkey, the subject will be of value to all researchers with an interest in the challenges of deeper integration through regional agreements. "
Book Description
The creation of the European Community ranks among the most extraordinary achievements in modern world politics. Observers disagree, however, about the reasons why European governments have chosen to coordinate core economic policies and surrender sovereign prerogatives. In this eagerly awaited book, Andrew Moravcsik analyzes the history of the region's movement toward economic and political union.
Do these unifying steps demonstrate the preeminence of national security concerns, the power of federalist ideals, the skill of political entrepreneurs like Jean Monnet and Jacques Delors, or the triumph of technocratic planning? Moravcsik rejects such views. Economic interdependence has been, he maintains in his provocative argument, the primary force compelling these democracies to move in this surprising direction. Politicians rationally pursued national economic advantage through the exploitation of asymmetrical interdependence and the manipulation of institutional commitments.
Focusing on Germany, France, and Britain, Moravcsik examines the five decisive agreements that propelled integration forward. He seeks to reintegrate the historical study of European unity with theoretical inquiry into the sources of international cooperation.
Customer Reviews:
Absorbing study of the EU's development.......2001-07-18
In this deeply researched book, Andrew Moravcsik studies five key moves toward wider and deeper European integration: the Treaties of Rome, consolidating the Common Market, monetary integration, the Single European Act and the Maastricht Treaty. He argues that the member governments chose ever closer union in order to promote their countries' economic interests. He aims to prove that economic interests, not political ideas, drive EU integration. He focuses on how the governments of Germany, France and Britain made their decisions.
Moravcsik argues that the British government's policy in the 1950s of opposition to joining the Common Market "was the rational one for a government that traded little with the Continent, had high tariffs in place, and feared competition with German producers." So there was economic logic to staying out. It is less clear that there was good reason for the subsequent reversal of policy: trading with a bloc does not oblige us to join it!
He shows that De Gaulle vetoed Britain's application not out of chauvinism, but because we opposed generous financing for French farmers through the Common Agricultural Policy. In 1969, Pompidou lifted the veto, but only in exchange for the British government's huge concession of agreeing to a permanent financing arrangement for the CAP. This made it CAP reform impossible.
Similarly, member governments have pursued integration through creating the Single Market and EMU. Moravcsik shows how Europe's multinational companies and the national employers' organisations backed integration. The European Commission admitted, "The single market programme has done more for business than it has for workers", a judgment true also of Economic and Monetary Union. Economic interests may well have determined the drive to a single state, but paradoxically the closer the cooperation between EU members has become, the worse their economies have performed.
Capitalist states and multinational companies have taken the EU road to lost sovereignty and economic integration, but the peoples of Europe are increasingly choosing otherwise, as the Irish people showed in the 7 June referendum on the Nice Treaty. In particular, here in Britain the option of leaving the EU looks more and more inviting.
Renewing the Debate about the Causes of European Integration.......2000-07-16
Andrew Moravcsik boldly makes the case for the centrality of the three largest member states in the construction of Europe. In this volume, Moravcsik articulates his "liberal intergovernmentalist" (LI) framework of analysis and utilizes primary sources to strengthen his response to Paul Pierson's "historical institutionalist" (HI) account of European integration. As Moravcsik explains, in making the choice for Europe
"...it was the deliberate triumphs of European integration, not its unintended side-effects, that appear to have increased support for further integration. This is the key point of divergence between HI theory and the tri-partite "liberal intergovernmentalist" interpretation advanced here. For most governments, inducing economic modernization-even with unpleasant side-effects-was the major purpose of European integration." (p. 491)
One of the strongest contributions of Moravcsik's volume is to revisit the classic neo-functionalist-intergovernmentalist debate and to place it in a new theoretical context. To Moravcsik's credit, this tome offers a detailed, thorough and remarkably organized assessment of competing explanations in the European integration literature. Students and scholars of integration will grapple with the issues raised as a result of this work for years to come.
Moravcsik's volume challenges the "myths" of European integration and calls into question the relevance of actions taken by supranational entrepreneurs. National versus supranational debates notwithstanding, Monnet's (and later Delor's) talent was to seize a moment in history when Europe was at the brink of continuity or change. Monnet's use of crisis as opportunity sought to alter fundamentally the way in which France and Germany interacted within the European system. Is this not the essence of the Schuman Plan in 1950, namely, to use the opportunity to modernize France economically as part of an equation to make future wars with its neighbor across the Rhine impossible?
Although convergence was already apparent among European economies, did the initial political decision to pool the critical resources in the making of war, to integrate in the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), require individuals like Schuman, Monnet, Adenauer and Hallstein to work against the fact that European states mistrusted each other and were therefore disinclined to integrate? It is most unfortunate that volume length does not permit Moravcsik to cover this initial case. In the light of the ECSC experience, was the agreement to create the Common Market in 1958 intrinsically about making European countries richer? The archival research of Raymond Poidevin and Andreas Wilkens sheds light on the experience of the ECSC. Their writings may help us evaluate the extent to which the initial experiments in integration, including the aborted European Political Community (EPC) and European Defense Community (EDC), influenced the interests of the Six during the Treaty of Rome negotiations. References to Poidevin's work are scarce among the 1116 footnotes in The Choice for Europe. There are some citations of Wilken's writings, but not those that critically evaluate the impact of Monnet's role during the period 1950-57.
In Moravcsik's analysis, economic interests, asymmetrical interdependence and more credible commitments, respectively, drive states to negotiate, cooperate and integrate in Europe. Moravcsik candidly (and correctly) acknowledges that his primacy of economics explanation is less helpful to our understanding of German motivations to cooperate in Europe. In the French case, does Moravcsik's revisionist account successfully convince us that de Gaulle emphasized national economic interests over geopolitical priorities or an ideology of grandeur? By asserting that ideas motivate only when no strong interest is involved, does Moravcsik's account draw an unnecessary dividing line between the General's socio-economic and geo-political goals? It may be argued that the General's priorities were inextricably intertwined as President to assure the country's place as the first among states in Europe. My own volume on the Maastricht process demonstrates the relevance of two-level analysis. Other writings about Britain's role in the Maastricht negotiations likewise stress the importance of simultaneous domestic-international interactions in intergovernmental conference diplomacy. Given that Moravcsik's own prior writings strikingly illustrate the contributions of Putnam's model, it is puzzling why he does not emphasize two-level games in The Choice for Europe. Moreover, the potential for interactions among the three analytical stages Moravcsik defines in his book, namely, preference formation, interstate bargaining and implementation, also warrants more attention in future editions.
The phenomenal number of sources cited in Moravcsik's tome is a compelling reason to include a bibliography, including the names, places and dates of all interviews conducted. This would help the reader locate cited materials more efficiently. Moreover, it would underline Moravcsik's attention to primary sources which brings us to a methodological point. Moravcsik does not cite magazine or newspaper articles and relies a good deal on confidential interviews. It may be argued that journalistic writings are helpful when "hard" primary sources, namely, internal government documents, are systematically cross checked with these accounts. Accurate journalistic reporting, when referenced consistently, can also confirm or deny explanations given in confidential interviews. These techniques allow for a greater degree of transparency in source materials.
The preceding points are evidence that, given the numerous questions this volume raises, Moravcsik has admirably achieved his most important objective: to renew the intellectual-practitioners' debate about the fundamental causes of European integration. The Choice for Europe is recommended to a wide audience as an unprecedented work that incorporates elements of comparative politics, international relations and political economy in a historical narrative that challenges us to think critically about the reasons why states choose to cooperate.
excellent revisionist overview of European integration.......2000-03-09
I found this book one of the best I have read on European integration history. It is a good example of revisionist history at its best. Compared to other books i have studied on the same subject this one makes a number of novel points and gives a completely different emphasis on driving factors & driving actors of the process of EU integration, putting the role of the Member States at centre stage all the way, and their economic interests as primary driving elements. To me, as an economist, this sounded convincing and certainly puts a novel slant on the traditional 'high politics' integration story. At the same time, I also found it a somewhat depressing account of the ineffectiveness of the Commission at crucial times of decision making. The book certainly puts into question some cherished notions about the role and functioning of the Commission, and since I am proud to work there it was not easy to take this in.
I found the first chapter hard going and somewhat obtruse, although i can appreciate the methodological points he makes, which are all to often ingnored. Once one is through that, though, the real story begins and a fascinating account it is, especially since it certainly does not follow the analysis i have read previously on this subject.
An excellent reference work, and certain to stimulate many a (heated) debate.
Political science for European integration historians.......1999-07-01
For once, here is a general text purporting to analyse the history of European integration that actually lives up to its billing. It is quite rightly considered a tour de force. Indeed, Andrew Moravcsik's "The choice for Europe" has already established itself as one of the most important publications to date on this subject. While it is obvious that the continued evolution of the European Union has been one of the most `extraordinary political achievements' to have taken place during the 20th century, the reasons why this community of states was created in the first place and the ways in which it has since developed have not always been so convincingly explained or succinctly outlined, that is until now. What Robert Keohane describes on the fly-cover as the `most compelling and significant analysis yet of the European Community' is just that.
Moravcsik is not a historian, but in this text he tries to integrate political science theory into a historical study of European unity; this is in order to discover why there has been such a high-level of cooperation between Western European states during the last half-century. His book fills an important gap in our knowledge by tracing the somewhat erratic developments that have led to a greater degree of economic and political union gradually being instituted throughout this region and by placing these in a theoretical perspective.
In this most accessible work, he persuasively argues that economic interdependence has been the prime motivator in successive governments making these rational choices. One of the weak (and strong) points however regarding Moravcsik's investigation is that it only focuses on the big European powers - Germany, Great Britain and France, as well as the European Commission - and does not really delve into small-power politics. Questions such as how these smaller nations tried to operate within, or negotiate entry into, the EEC as they became more aware and realistic about their world positions, how they operated in relation to the big powers, et cetera, must wait until their specific histories have been chronicled before they can be answered. At least historians now have a tool to do so.
In taking the case studies that he does, Moravcsik examines them in the context of what he sees as the five decisive agreements that have driven European integration all the way from Messina to Maastricht: via the Treaties of Rome in 1957, the EC Merger Treaty and other consolidatory and expansionary agreements enacted during the 1960s, the various examples of European monetary integration during the 1970s and early 1980s, and the Single European Act of 1986, all the way to Economic and Monetary Union in 1991. In so doing, he develops his thesis on integration history to fit the facts rather than the other way round, while providing a critique of existing theories and presenting us with one of the best existing analyses on this topic. This volume by Moravcsik is clearly a strong basis for future historiographical debate.
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Turkey and the European Union: Internal Dynamics and External Challenges
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The European Union, Turkey and Islam
ASIN: 0230005497
Release Date: 2007-02-06 |
Book Description
Accession negotiations are underway and Turkey is preparing to become a full member of the EU. Turkey and the EU makes a scholarly contribution in the debate over Turkey's participation in the European integration process and the EU's future enlargement. It explores the recent history of ups and downs in EU-Turkish relations and looks at the prospects and challenges that Turkey's membership presents to both the EU and Turkey. The central question is how the internal economic and sociopolitical dynamics, and external orientations of Turkey, will meet the challenges of EU membership. Turkey's regional role and relations with the US are also examined.
Book Description
Much of the discussion of Russia's recent post-Communist history has amounted, both in Russia and the West, to a series of monologues by strong-minded people with starkly divergent views. In contrast, Padma Desai's conversations with influential, intelligent participants and observers provide the reader with a broad, nuanced view of what has and has not happened in the last fourteen years, and why. Conversations from Russia will thus serve as a much-needed reference volume, both for academics who study Russia and for laypeople who only have vague perceptions of what has occurred in Russia since the collapse of Communism. In conversations with important figures like Boris Yeltsin, George Soros, Anatoly Chubais, and Yegar Gaidar, Desai considers questions like why the Soviet Union fell apart under Gorbachev, what went wrong with economic reforms after Gorbachev, whether the privatization of Russian assets could have been managed differently, and what the prospects are for the Russian economy in the near future. Desai, a recognized expert in the field of Soviet studies, ties the interviews together with an introduction, ultimately reaching her own judgment on each issue considered in the conversations. This book will appeal to researchers and students in developmental economics, political economy, and Soviet studies, and educated laypeople interested in Russia.
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The textbook introduces the concept of experiential learning and establishes the recurrent themes for the chapters that follow. The text also raises ethical issues common to externship placements and provides a framework for students to work through the issues. Provides guidance for students who use journals to record and reflect on their externship experience. Focuses on how students can learn from observation of lawyering behavior during the externship. Also introduces issues of bias in the legal profession for reflection and discussion as part of an externship experience. Discusses use of externship to improve traditional lawyering skills.
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Written for the Mentally Challenged Law Student.......2007-01-10
This text blows. It is so dumbed down that I find it more excruciating to read 10 pages in this than 100 pages of Con Law. It gets an extra star because it is paperback.
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- Fascinating account of EU economics
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European Responses to Globalization and Financial Market Integration: Perceptions of Economic and Monetary Union in Britain, France and Germany
Amy Verdun
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
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ASIN: 1403900590 |
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Contributing to the literature on European integration, this book investigates the perceptions of political actors towards the creation of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) in Europe. The research is largely based on personal interviews conducted with key informants in central banks, finance ministries, employers' organizations, and trade unions in Britain, France, and Germany. It examines why actors perceived EMU to serve or frustrate their interests, concluding that actors favored the EMU for a variety of reasons.
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Fascinating account of EU economics.......2001-05-17
Verdun aims to discover why, given that EMU greatly reduced national sovereignty, there was so little public discussion of its costs and benefits. As she noted of EMU, "This transfer of national sovereignty can arguably be considered to be one of the most far-reaching formal transfers of sovereignty to the European level that the European Community (EC) members have witnessed to date." She studied the ways that central bankers, Ministries of Finance, employers' organisations and trade union leaderships in Britain, France and Germany all perceived EMU. The bankers, Ministries and employers' organisations agreed that EMU would strengthen the market mechanism in Europe. They also agreed that it would assist their efforts to create a single European state. As Verdun observed, "EMU will eventually necessitate more integration of economic, fiscal, social and labour policies." Some quarters of the TUC hoped that associating themselves with the EU's decision-making process would increase their power. But the more the TUC claimed to set the EU agenda on social and employment issues, the more it linked itself to the EU's disastrous impact on Britain's industry and welfare. Some trade union leaders thought that the EU would restore the influence over economic policy-making that they had lost at national level. But cosying up to the employer, whether European or British, weakens our unions, not strengthens us. Some thought that possible gains from the Social Charter would justify the certain losses from labour market flexibility. But who talks about the Social Charter today? Did it save any of the 96,000 manufacturing jobs destroyed in Britain last year? So why was there so little public discussion of EMU's costs and benefits? Verdun does not finally explain, but one suspects that it was because its benefits would accrue only to the ruling classes of Britain, France and Germany, while the public, the vast majority of us who have to work for a living, would suffer all the costs.
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