Search Results

This chapter looks at the issue of how it might be possible to decluster disadvantage. The best means of doing so will be for government to attend to corrosive disadvantages — those that cause other disadvantages, and fertile functionings — those that have good effects on other functionings. It is argued that while empirical studies strongly suggest that being disadvantaged in terms of affiliation and control over the environment are corrosive, it is less clear which particular functionings are fertile. However, there is some evidence that possession of ‘soft skills’ and being educated are fertile at least in certain circumstances. By contrast, while poverty is very corrosive, the mere possession of extra money above a certain level does not appear to be particularly fertile. It is suggested that states invest in such research.

This chapter addresses the questions: why should poor countries be expected to repay the debts imposed upon them by unelected and repressive governments? Who should shoulder the burden of repaying the billions of dollars stolen by the likes of Mobutu, Marcos, and Saddam Hussein? How can creditors expect South Africans to pay for loans taken out during the apartheid regime and at that time used as a means of oppression? It argues that loans to certain borrowers or for certain purposes are prima facie illegitimate. This category includes loans to dictators, odious debt (debt used for repression), and extortionate loans. Second, certain types of behavior by lenders can also make a loan illegitimate: usury, money laundering, and gross negligence in lending. When these conditions are met, responsibility for repayment cannot be properly placed on the borrower.

This chapter focuses on the Bhats’ tactical narration of their religious history, and specifically the manner in which they present themselves as alternately Hindu or Muslim in order to gain employment as political propagandists for both India’s secular Congress Party and Hindu-nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (B.J.P.). The chapter also examines how Bhats “cast” traditional Rajasthan in a puppet drama sponsored by a state-run bank meant to teach Indians an ethic of saving their money and planning for the future. Bhats are not entirely serious about the claim explored throughout the book that they are the former bards of kings. Instead, claims of royal ancestry are just one tool in a repertoire of tricks that Bhats use to advance in contemporary India. Bhat speech about kings, then, is less representative of true claims to royalty and more indicative of a bardic cleverness which forms a deeper basis of Bhat identity claims in contemporary Rajasthan.

Although there is now a general recognition that capital market liberalization failed to help developing countries achieve economic growth and stability, the important question remains of why the supporters of liberalization were so wrong. The chapter begins with the ‘debate in brief’, which presents the central arguments for and against CML. The next three sections look at the impact of capital market liberalization on stability, growth, and poverty. The chapter then discusses the impact of the international policy response to instability known as ‘bail-outs’. The sixth section presents a brief discussion on the interaction of capital market liberalization, political processes, and democracy.

This chapter reviews existing research about campaign finance and the funding of the campaigns of women candidates for public office. Burrell discusses the role of women's political action committees (PACs), reviews the findings regarding campaign contributions to women candidates, and proposes an agenda for future research on money and women's candidacies for office.

This chapter argues that the utilitarian approach to money is a theoretical and empirical straitjacket. Money belongs to the market, but not exclusively so. And while money is indeed an objective means of rational calculation, it is not only that. It first considers the traditional interpretation of money, that is, as “market money,” and then proposes an alternative model of “special monies” that incorporates the social and symbolic significance of money. Next, it presents a historical case study of domestic money as one example of a special money. It argues that domestic money—which includes a wife's money, husband's money, and children's money—is a special category of money in the modern world. The discussion focuses on the changing meaning of married women's money between the 1870s and 1930s, showing how this money, whether given by the husband or earned in the household or in the labor market, was marked as a different form of currency from an ordinary dollar.

Provides background accounts of political development in the USA from the American War of Independence to the Philadelphia Convention, and establish that, by 1787, Congress was marked by military weakness and financial insolvency. Here, an account is given of the efforts of Congress to implement the fiscal clauses of the US Constitution, which shows that the national government created by the Articles of Confederation experienced serious difficulties in its ability to raise money, and in the end failed to raise sufficient money to meet its expenses. The focus of the chapter is on the means by which Congress raised money from the outbreak of the War of Independence up to the Philadelphia Convention, and also on how, one by one, these means were lost, so that by 1787 the insolvency of the national government was total. The first two parts of the chapter describe the attempts of Congress to raise money through fiat (printed) money, loans, and taxes, with the author contending that the Federalists accepted existing restrictions to taxation and formed a tax system that would be able to generate sufficient income for the national government without putting undue pressure on the American people. The last section of the chapter looks at the problem of the public debts run up by Congress and the states during the War of Independence, and at the reasons for the federal assumption of state debts – whether they were democratic or economic – and the reasons given by the Federalists as to why Congress had to resume payment of the public domestic and foreign debt.

Juan Linz examines the same theme of anti‐party sentiments among citizens in contemporary democracies as did the previous chapter, but from an entirely different perspective. He starts by looking at the fundamental differences between the roles played by parties in presidential and parliamentary democracies, and notes that each type of party system also generates different critiques of parties. Notwithstanding, these differences among party systems and between presidential and parliamentary democracies, Linz notes that parties everywhere have become the focus of a remarkably similar litany of complaints and criticisms, and asks to what extent these represent expressions of reasoned concerns over the shortcomings of the actual performance of parties, and conversely, to what extent they reflect ambiguous, confusing, or even self‐contradictory evaluations by citizens based upon unreasonable expectations or a lack of understanding of the complexities and cross‐pressures that parties are subjected to in performing their many roles in democratic politics. On the basis of survey data from Spain and Latin America, he suggests that the increase in negative attitudes towards political parties maybe less attributable to the behaviour of parties themselves than it is to inconsistencies or outright contradictions among relevant beliefs held by citizens, to unrealistic expectations concerning the extent to which parties can achieve a series of demanding objectives, or to the increasing number of the functions that parties must play in representative democracies. The main sections of the chapter are: Attitudes towards parties: paradoxes, contradictions, and ambiguities; Personalization of politics and professionalization of politics; Parties, money, and party democracy; and Distrust of parties and the legitimacy of democracy.

Brian Barry examines the idea that the demands of justice in a given society can be ascertained by interpreting the shared understandings of the meanings of the goods that are to be distributed. Focusing on Michael Walzer's claims regarding the meanings of such goods as money, health, and leisure, Barry argues that for meanings to determine the uniquely right distributions, the criteria of distribution need to be built into the meanings. He criticizes the implications of Walzer's theory for thinking about global justice.

Jeremy Waldron argues that Michael Walzer's theory of justice mischaracterizes money's influence on social meanings. Waldron argues that the correct conception of money reveals that Walzer is mistaken in categorizing various social goods primarily in terms of their exchangeability or non‐exchangeability for money. Waldron offers an alternative explanation of why some monetary transactions are wrong. He argues that meanings of goods should be questioned and re‐examined.

This chapter explores the current annuity market in Singapore in view of the plan to mandate annuitization under the Singaporean Central Provident Fund (CPF). The authors evaluate the pricing of various annuity policies in order to assess whether plan participants might benefit from higher annuity returns per dollar premium and lower adverse selection costs under the new annuitization mandate. Results indicate that private annuity providers currently offer good value‐for‐money annuities, with money's worth values in line with those found for other developed countries. This has implications for proposals to mandate annuitization.