Peter Hägel
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780198852711
- eISBN:
- 9780191887079
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198852711.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics, Political Economy
Chapter 7 examines two cases of how billionaires use philanthropy to promote social change in foreign countries. Through the massive funding of research and public–private partnerships, Bill Gates, ...
More
Chapter 7 examines two cases of how billionaires use philanthropy to promote social change in foreign countries. Through the massive funding of research and public–private partnerships, Bill Gates, via the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has advanced international vaccination programs to fight communicable diseases. His influence on agenda-setting and policy implementation in the governance of global health can be seen in the World Health Organization’s declaration of a “Decade of Vaccines.” The second case is George Soros, whose attempts to build open societies as a “stateless statesman” are extremely wide-ranging. The chapter focuses on his efforts to promote human rights and democracy, putting the spotlight on his role in regime change during the so-called “Rose Revolution” in Georgia (2002–4).Less
Chapter 7 examines two cases of how billionaires use philanthropy to promote social change in foreign countries. Through the massive funding of research and public–private partnerships, Bill Gates, via the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has advanced international vaccination programs to fight communicable diseases. His influence on agenda-setting and policy implementation in the governance of global health can be seen in the World Health Organization’s declaration of a “Decade of Vaccines.” The second case is George Soros, whose attempts to build open societies as a “stateless statesman” are extremely wide-ranging. The chapter focuses on his efforts to promote human rights and democracy, putting the spotlight on his role in regime change during the so-called “Rose Revolution” in Georgia (2002–4).
George Soros
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195300611
- eISBN:
- 9780199850754
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195300611.003.0011
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
George Soros, financier and philanthropist, provided details of his Russian philanthropic interests in the increasingly chaotic situation under Yeltsin. He established the International Science ...
More
George Soros, financier and philanthropist, provided details of his Russian philanthropic interests in the increasingly chaotic situation under Yeltsin. He established the International Science Foundation, which distributed $500 each to the top thirty thousand Russian scientists. Western companies have little appetite for investing in Russia and the cash they received is practically the only Western aid that Russians have received. He wanted the foundation to lead the way toward an open society in Russia but it became embroiled in the transition.Less
George Soros, financier and philanthropist, provided details of his Russian philanthropic interests in the increasingly chaotic situation under Yeltsin. He established the International Science Foundation, which distributed $500 each to the top thirty thousand Russian scientists. Western companies have little appetite for investing in Russia and the cash they received is practically the only Western aid that Russians have received. He wanted the foundation to lead the way toward an open society in Russia but it became embroiled in the transition.
Octavian Esanu
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- May 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781526158000
- eISBN:
- 9781526166487
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7765/9781526158017.00006
- Subject:
- Art, Art History
The introduction provides a general outline of the book. It is divided into four sections, with each part clarifying the author’s approach to the study of art in Eastern Europe after the fall of the ...
More
The introduction provides a general outline of the book. It is divided into four sections, with each part clarifying the author’s approach to the study of art in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall, as it revolves around new practices, institutions, and norms introduced by the SCCA network. The introduction begins with clarifying the author’s position vis-à-vis the figure of George Soros – the Hungarian-American financial speculator and philanthropist who had played a key role in the postsocialist reforms of the 1990s. The introduction states that the book does not study Soros as a personal figure, or his other activities, but only focuses on one art program, proceeding then to clarify its political position and critical interventions. It insists that this criticism must not be confused with current right-wing attacks on key liberal figures and institutions, but it is rather a critique formulated from the position of the left, which has traditionally approached art as an intrinsic part of social reality. The next section states the thesis and the intended contribution, offering a general introduction to the cultural context of Eastern Europe in the 1990s. This section also announces that the book builds upon the urgency of turning attention to the radical transformations taking place in the art of the 1990s, suggesting that its key motivation is the study of the relation between “contemporary art,” the ideological universe of liberal democracy, and neoliberalism. Finally, the introduction discusses the book’s method, concluding with a general outline of its five chapters.Less
The introduction provides a general outline of the book. It is divided into four sections, with each part clarifying the author’s approach to the study of art in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall, as it revolves around new practices, institutions, and norms introduced by the SCCA network. The introduction begins with clarifying the author’s position vis-à-vis the figure of George Soros – the Hungarian-American financial speculator and philanthropist who had played a key role in the postsocialist reforms of the 1990s. The introduction states that the book does not study Soros as a personal figure, or his other activities, but only focuses on one art program, proceeding then to clarify its political position and critical interventions. It insists that this criticism must not be confused with current right-wing attacks on key liberal figures and institutions, but it is rather a critique formulated from the position of the left, which has traditionally approached art as an intrinsic part of social reality. The next section states the thesis and the intended contribution, offering a general introduction to the cultural context of Eastern Europe in the 1990s. This section also announces that the book builds upon the urgency of turning attention to the radical transformations taking place in the art of the 1990s, suggesting that its key motivation is the study of the relation between “contemporary art,” the ideological universe of liberal democracy, and neoliberalism. Finally, the introduction discusses the book’s method, concluding with a general outline of its five chapters.
Erin K. Jenne, András Bozóki, and Péter Visnovitz
- Published in print:
- 2022
- Published Online:
- June 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780197627938
- eISBN:
- 9780197627976
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780197627938.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter investigates the ways in which the post-2010 Fidesz government under Viktor Orbán used antisemitic tropes to configure George Soros—once hailed as a champion of market reform, freedom, ...
More
This chapter investigates the ways in which the post-2010 Fidesz government under Viktor Orbán used antisemitic tropes to configure George Soros—once hailed as a champion of market reform, freedom, and democracy—as an ontological threat to the Hungarian nation that should therefore be expunged from the country, together with “his networks,” including the Open Society Institute and Central European University. To show the government’s communication strategy in action, we combined an analysis of antisemitic discourse on the far right with a media content analysis of Sorosozás in government-backed online news portals from 2015 to 2020. We show that, from 2010, Orbán and his media allies discursively interpellated specific individuals and states as “financiers” and “global powers” as cogs in a global “Soros network.” In doing so, they drew upon well-established fifth-column narratives originally constructed and refined by ideologists from the Kádár era who employed a latent antisemitic code in their writing. At one time vehemently rejecting such discourse, Orbán and his government allies have become its chief articulators with devastating effects for one of his targets—the Central European University in Budapest.Less
This chapter investigates the ways in which the post-2010 Fidesz government under Viktor Orbán used antisemitic tropes to configure George Soros—once hailed as a champion of market reform, freedom, and democracy—as an ontological threat to the Hungarian nation that should therefore be expunged from the country, together with “his networks,” including the Open Society Institute and Central European University. To show the government’s communication strategy in action, we combined an analysis of antisemitic discourse on the far right with a media content analysis of Sorosozás in government-backed online news portals from 2015 to 2020. We show that, from 2010, Orbán and his media allies discursively interpellated specific individuals and states as “financiers” and “global powers” as cogs in a global “Soros network.” In doing so, they drew upon well-established fifth-column narratives originally constructed and refined by ideologists from the Kádár era who employed a latent antisemitic code in their writing. At one time vehemently rejecting such discourse, Orbán and his government allies have become its chief articulators with devastating effects for one of his targets—the Central European University in Budapest.
Padma Desai
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195300611
- eISBN:
- 9780199850754
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195300611.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
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 ...
More
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, the author of this book'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 14 years, and why. Conversations from Russia thus serve as a 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, the author 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. She ties the interviews together with an introduction, ultimately reaching her own judgment on each issue considered in the conversations.Less
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, the author of this book'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 14 years, and why. Conversations from Russia thus serve as a 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, the author 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. She ties the interviews together with an introduction, ultimately reaching her own judgment on each issue considered in the conversations.
Octavian Esanu
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- May 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781526158000
- eISBN:
- 9781526166487
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7765/9781526158017
- Subject:
- Art, Art History
The postsocialist contemporary intervenes, from the historical perspective of Eastern Europe, in a wider conversation about “contemporary art.” It departs from, and revolves around, a concrete case ...
More
The postsocialist contemporary intervenes, from the historical perspective of Eastern Europe, in a wider conversation about “contemporary art.” It departs from, and revolves around, a concrete case in which a program called “for contemporary art” was assembled on the debris of the Berlin Wall by the Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros. The Soros Centers for Contemporary Art (SCCA) was a network of twenty art centers active during the 1990s in Eastern Europe. The book argues that this program played an important role in the actualization of the paradigm of contemporary art in the former bloc. The main goal of this study, however, is not to recreate the narrative but to take this Soros-funded art infrastructure as a critical point of inquiry in order to engage with key permutations occurring in art during the transition to capitalism. The book argues that with the implementation of Western art institutional models and norms by Soros, and other players after 1989, a radical departure takes place in the art of this region: a departure from an art that (officially at least) provided symbolic empowerment to the masses, toward an art that affirms the interests, needs, desires, and “freedom” of the private individual acting within the boundaries of the bourgeois civil society and the market. The book considers the “postsocialist contemporary” in a broader context of late twentieth-century political, economic, and cultural processes of (neo) liberalization, promoting and encouraging more critical historical materialist examinations of “contemporary art” – the dominant aesthetic paradigm of late-capitalist market democracy.Less
The postsocialist contemporary intervenes, from the historical perspective of Eastern Europe, in a wider conversation about “contemporary art.” It departs from, and revolves around, a concrete case in which a program called “for contemporary art” was assembled on the debris of the Berlin Wall by the Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros. The Soros Centers for Contemporary Art (SCCA) was a network of twenty art centers active during the 1990s in Eastern Europe. The book argues that this program played an important role in the actualization of the paradigm of contemporary art in the former bloc. The main goal of this study, however, is not to recreate the narrative but to take this Soros-funded art infrastructure as a critical point of inquiry in order to engage with key permutations occurring in art during the transition to capitalism. The book argues that with the implementation of Western art institutional models and norms by Soros, and other players after 1989, a radical departure takes place in the art of this region: a departure from an art that (officially at least) provided symbolic empowerment to the masses, toward an art that affirms the interests, needs, desires, and “freedom” of the private individual acting within the boundaries of the bourgeois civil society and the market. The book considers the “postsocialist contemporary” in a broader context of late twentieth-century political, economic, and cultural processes of (neo) liberalization, promoting and encouraging more critical historical materialist examinations of “contemporary art” – the dominant aesthetic paradigm of late-capitalist market democracy.
David Clark
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199311613
- eISBN:
- 9780199344925
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199311613.003.0001
- Subject:
- Palliative Care, Palliative Medicine and Older People, Patient Care and End-of-Life Decision Making
This chapter presents a brief history of Project on Death in America (PDIA) from its pre-beginnings to its closure. It explains how the initiative came about, how it was resourced, structured, and ...
More
This chapter presents a brief history of Project on Death in America (PDIA) from its pre-beginnings to its closure. It explains how the initiative came about, how it was resourced, structured, and governed—and the programs that it developed and supported. The PDIA was unveiled publically on November 30, 1994, when George Soros gave an Alexander Ming Fisher Lecture in the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York. He identified three major recommendations. First, improved training for professionals involved in the care of the dying. Second, the adoption of a comprehensive Disease Related Group (DRG) for terminal care in hospitals. Third, the increased availability of hospice services for terminally ill patients, without restrictions on admission and reimbursement.Less
This chapter presents a brief history of Project on Death in America (PDIA) from its pre-beginnings to its closure. It explains how the initiative came about, how it was resourced, structured, and governed—and the programs that it developed and supported. The PDIA was unveiled publically on November 30, 1994, when George Soros gave an Alexander Ming Fisher Lecture in the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York. He identified three major recommendations. First, improved training for professionals involved in the care of the dying. Second, the adoption of a comprehensive Disease Related Group (DRG) for terminal care in hospitals. Third, the increased availability of hospice services for terminally ill patients, without restrictions on admission and reimbursement.
Paul Stubbs and Janine Wedel
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198743996
- eISBN:
- 9780191803994
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198743996.003.0011
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter explores the role of new flex actors (flexians) in global social governance, who personalize bureaucracy, privatize information, juggle roles and representations, and test the rules of ...
More
This chapter explores the role of new flex actors (flexians) in global social governance, who personalize bureaucracy, privatize information, juggle roles and representations, and test the rules of both democracy and the market, crafting and co-opting policy agendas to their own interests. Flexians are at their most powerful when acting in ‘flex nets’, small, tightly knit, networks, acting as resource pools, able to prescribe, coordinate, implement, promote, and justify particular policies in order to serve their own, not their organizations’, agendas. The chapter discusses the roles of Jeffrey Sachs, a typical flexian, and George Soros, creating spaces for new flex actors to emerge, in the light of this framework, before concluding with a discussion on how best to hold flexians to account in the future.Less
This chapter explores the role of new flex actors (flexians) in global social governance, who personalize bureaucracy, privatize information, juggle roles and representations, and test the rules of both democracy and the market, crafting and co-opting policy agendas to their own interests. Flexians are at their most powerful when acting in ‘flex nets’, small, tightly knit, networks, acting as resource pools, able to prescribe, coordinate, implement, promote, and justify particular policies in order to serve their own, not their organizations’, agendas. The chapter discusses the roles of Jeffrey Sachs, a typical flexian, and George Soros, creating spaces for new flex actors to emerge, in the light of this framework, before concluding with a discussion on how best to hold flexians to account in the future.
George Soros
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231158633
- eISBN:
- 9780231530286
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231158633.003.0007
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Financial Economics
This chapter presents the keynote address of George Soros during the October 2010 conference “Sovereign Wealth Funds and Other Long-Term Investors: A New Form of Capitalism?” held at Columbia ...
More
This chapter presents the keynote address of George Soros during the October 2010 conference “Sovereign Wealth Funds and Other Long-Term Investors: A New Form of Capitalism?” held at Columbia University. Here, he argues that the credibility of sovereign credit has come into question in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. If governments are now forced to pursue fiscal discipline and tighten monetary and fiscal policy too soon, there is a danger that the recovery will abort because the imbalances that have accumulated over a quarter of a century have not yet been corrected. The United States still consumes too much, and China is still running an unsustainable export surplus. A similar imbalance prevails within the Eurozone, with Germany in the surplus position. He concludes that the right policy is to reduce the imbalances as fast as possible, while increasing the debt burden at a minimum.Less
This chapter presents the keynote address of George Soros during the October 2010 conference “Sovereign Wealth Funds and Other Long-Term Investors: A New Form of Capitalism?” held at Columbia University. Here, he argues that the credibility of sovereign credit has come into question in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. If governments are now forced to pursue fiscal discipline and tighten monetary and fiscal policy too soon, there is a danger that the recovery will abort because the imbalances that have accumulated over a quarter of a century have not yet been corrected. The United States still consumes too much, and China is still running an unsustainable export surplus. A similar imbalance prevails within the Eurozone, with Germany in the surplus position. He concludes that the right policy is to reduce the imbalances as fast as possible, while increasing the debt burden at a minimum.
Alexander R. Bazelow
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780823249602
- eISBN:
- 9780823250752
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823249602.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter discusses the movie Twelve Hours to Midnight— How Brazil Has Responded to the Global Financial Crisis, a documentary about how a country emerges from an economic crisis and ultimately ...
More
This chapter discusses the movie Twelve Hours to Midnight— How Brazil Has Responded to the Global Financial Crisis, a documentary about how a country emerges from an economic crisis and ultimately redeems itself. Above all, it is the story of five men, Oded Grajew, Helio Mattar, Paulo Itacarambi, Ricardo Young, and Raymundo Magliano, who helped found the corporate social responsibility movement and later the Instituto Ethos in Brazil. It is a documentary about what happens to a country when it realizes it has hit “rock bottom” and has no choice but to face traditionally repressed realities and begin the long hard road to reforming itself. In short, it is where this conference should end, rather than begin, and I think it is also a fitting tribute to Hannah Arendt, the thinker whose ideas inform and inspire it.Less
This chapter discusses the movie Twelve Hours to Midnight— How Brazil Has Responded to the Global Financial Crisis, a documentary about how a country emerges from an economic crisis and ultimately redeems itself. Above all, it is the story of five men, Oded Grajew, Helio Mattar, Paulo Itacarambi, Ricardo Young, and Raymundo Magliano, who helped found the corporate social responsibility movement and later the Instituto Ethos in Brazil. It is a documentary about what happens to a country when it realizes it has hit “rock bottom” and has no choice but to face traditionally repressed realities and begin the long hard road to reforming itself. In short, it is where this conference should end, rather than begin, and I think it is also a fitting tribute to Hannah Arendt, the thinker whose ideas inform and inspire it.
James K. Galbraith
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- April 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199855650
- eISBN:
- 9780190261375
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199855650.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Financial Economics
As Wall Street rose to dominate the U.S. economy, income and pay inequalities in America came to dance to the tune of the credit cycle. As the reach of financial markets extended across the globe, ...
More
As Wall Street rose to dominate the U.S. economy, income and pay inequalities in America came to dance to the tune of the credit cycle. As the reach of financial markets extended across the globe, interest rates, debt, and debt crises became the dominant forces driving the rise of economic inequality almost everywhere. Thus the “super-bubble” that investor George Soros identified in rich countries for the two decades after 1980 was a super-crisis for the 99 percent—not just in the U.S. but the entire world. This book demonstrates that finance is the driveshaft that links inequality to economic instability. The book challenges those, mainly on the right, who see mysterious forces of technology behind rising inequality. And it also challenges those, mainly on the left, who have placed the blame narrowly on trade and outsourcing. Inequality and Instability presents straightforward evidence that the rise of inequality mirrors the stock market in the U.S. and the rise of finance and of free-market policies elsewhere. Starting from the premise that fresh argument requires fresh evidence, this book brings new data to bear, presenting information built up over fifteen years in easily understood charts and tables. By measuring inequality at the right geographic scale, the book shows that more equal societies systematically enjoy lower unemployment. It shows how this plays out inside Europe, between Europe and the United States, and in modern China. It explains that the dramatic rise of inequality in the U.S. in the 1990s reflected a finance-driven technology boom that concentrated incomes in just five counties, very remote from the experience of most Americans—which helps explain why the political reaction was so slow to come. That the reaction is occurring now, however, is beyond doubt. In the aftermath of the Great Financial Crisis, inequality has become, in America and the world over, the central issue.Less
As Wall Street rose to dominate the U.S. economy, income and pay inequalities in America came to dance to the tune of the credit cycle. As the reach of financial markets extended across the globe, interest rates, debt, and debt crises became the dominant forces driving the rise of economic inequality almost everywhere. Thus the “super-bubble” that investor George Soros identified in rich countries for the two decades after 1980 was a super-crisis for the 99 percent—not just in the U.S. but the entire world. This book demonstrates that finance is the driveshaft that links inequality to economic instability. The book challenges those, mainly on the right, who see mysterious forces of technology behind rising inequality. And it also challenges those, mainly on the left, who have placed the blame narrowly on trade and outsourcing. Inequality and Instability presents straightforward evidence that the rise of inequality mirrors the stock market in the U.S. and the rise of finance and of free-market policies elsewhere. Starting from the premise that fresh argument requires fresh evidence, this book brings new data to bear, presenting information built up over fifteen years in easily understood charts and tables. By measuring inequality at the right geographic scale, the book shows that more equal societies systematically enjoy lower unemployment. It shows how this plays out inside Europe, between Europe and the United States, and in modern China. It explains that the dramatic rise of inequality in the U.S. in the 1990s reflected a finance-driven technology boom that concentrated incomes in just five counties, very remote from the experience of most Americans—which helps explain why the political reaction was so slow to come. That the reaction is occurring now, however, is beyond doubt. In the aftermath of the Great Financial Crisis, inequality has become, in America and the world over, the central issue.
Marko Dimitrijević and Timothy Mistele
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780231170444
- eISBN:
- 9780231542357
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231170444.003.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Strategy
Describes how Dimitrijević started investing in frontier markets, defines what a frontier market is, and gives a roadmap for the rest of the book.
Describes how Dimitrijević started investing in frontier markets, defines what a frontier market is, and gives a roadmap for the rest of the book.
