The demand for military expenditure in authoritarian regimes

This paper examines whether there are systematic differences in military spending between different types of autocratic regimes. We view military expenditure as an instrument a dictator can exploit in order to stay in power. How he utilises this instrument depends on the institutional set-up of his regime. We distinguish between military regimes, single party states and personalist regimes, and predict that military regimes should have the highest, whereas personalist dictatorships should have the lowest level of military spending. Using panel data on 64 dictatorships from 1960 to 2000, we find empirical evidence that our hypotheses are not rejected.     

Democracy index for Africa, 2010

ABSTRACT

Natural resource-based conflicts continue to occur in different parts of Nigeria with negative implications. This study investigated the phenomena of natural resource conflicts vis-à-vis their propensities to impact political economy and national security negatively. Data for the study were sourced from theoretical and empirical evidence. Empirical data were sourced from existing studies selected on the basis on their relevance to the study and analysed based on their content. The limitation to this approach is the obsolete and subjective nature of some the literature. This limitation was, however, addressed among others through the author’s knowledge of the issues under study. The study found that Nigeria is enmeshed in conflict over ownership, distribution, access to or competition over natural resources such as petroleum resources and agricultural land and these conflicts have undermined democracy, human rights, the economy and the nation’s security. The paper identified poor resource governance, environmental factors and poor political leadership as the causes and drivers of these conflicts. It recommends natural resource governance among others, as a way out of the problem.     

BUTTER,GUNS AND ICE‐CREAM THEORY AND EVIDENCE FROM SUB‐SAHARAN AFRICA

This paper is intended to complement the existing literature on civil wars. First, it presents a simple theoretical model of conflict that defines a two‐sector economy. In a contested sector, two agents struggle to appropriate the maximum possible fraction of a contestable output. In an uncontested sector, they hold secure property rights over the production of some goods. Agents split their resource endowment between ‘butter’, ‘guns’ and ‘ice‐cream’. Following the theoretical insights the empirical analysis focuses on the relationship between civil wars and different sectors of the economy. In particular, a panel probit specification shows that the incidence of a civil war decreases in the size of manufacturing sector.     

Country survey XII: South Africa

This article examines the relationship between defence expenditure and economic performance in South Africa, both prior to and after that country's first fully democratic election in 1994. Prior to 1994 defence expenditure decisions were largely dominated by non‐economic factors; since then defence spending has declined in reaction to, inter alia, the need to address a number of socio‐economic inequities.

After 1975 in particular, military industrialisation in South Africa placed a disproportionately high burden on the country's industrial resources and natural economic and technical capabilities. However, although this suggests that the opportunity cost of domestic arms production has been fairly high, the country's poor economic and development performance since the mid‐1970s is a function of underlying structural deficiencies and institutional constraints rather than the consequence of inordinately high defence spending levels.     

正确认识和评价毛泽东的社会主义商品经济思想

毛泽东的社会主义商品经济思想是毛泽东思想的一个重要内容,是毛泽东对中国社会主义建设实践经验的概括和总结。正确认识和评价毛泽东的社会主义商品经济思想,既要看到它对马列主义的重大创新和发展以及它对我们后来探索经济体制改革的重要意义,又要看到这一理论的时代性和局限性。     

谈国人视野中的中国崛起

随着中国的快速发展,中国正在崛起已成为国内外有目共睹的事实。一些西方学者把中国崛起看成是对世界和平与发展的"威胁",中国人民则根据中国崛起所带来的巨大变化,把中国崛起看成是对人类文明的重大贡献。对中华民族而言,中国崛起造福13亿中国人,使中国人民基本过上了幸福的小康生活;对全人类来说,中国崛起惠及全世界,推动了世界经济的发展乃至人类文明的进步。     

现代技术生存危机下发展低碳经济的必要性分析

人类发展历程先后经历了自然生存和技术生存两个阶段,与人类相伴而生的技术经由古代的手工技术、近代的机器技术,演变成与科学结合、高度发达的现代技术,成为人类卓有成效的生存工具。但现代技术引发的生态与人性危机,促使人类寻求全新的生存方式——新技术生存。作为新技术生存典型代表的低碳经济,既维持生存的高效率,又无碍于人与自然的和谐发展。走可持续发展之路,发展低碳经济,对于克服现代技术危机、实现健康和谐的新技术生存,是非常必要的。     

新疆绿洲的生态环境特点及区域开发规律研究

受区域生态环境的影响,新疆绿洲普遍具有封闭性、局限性和不平衡性特征,区域开发的生态风险大,市场成本高,使绿洲经济规模小而内向,自然经济色彩浓厚。绿洲经济活动是以封闭流域为单元的非连续性过程,空间联系困难,要素流动性差,集聚和扩散效应弱,培育市场经济、提高区域竞争力受到诸多限制,应按流域生态规律来统一规划和协调绿洲经济发展,把专业化和区域协作建立在流域内部的统一性和流域之间的差异性基础上。     

复杂装备军民融合维修保障效益评价研究

针对军民融合维修保障中缺少对合同商效益评价,无法为合同商选择、合同续签等工作提供科学依据的情况,提出基于项目后评价理论的合同商维修保障效益评价理念。在分析了军民融合维修保障项目后评价内容的基础上,以效益评价为例对复杂装备军民融合维修保障效益评价进行分析。建立了合同商保障的费用分析模型和装备可用度模型。最后,通过算例对该方法进行了演示验证。     

“经济自由”与“自由经济”辨析——理想与政策

自由主义的实践历史 ,是从争取宗教自由开始 ,继而争取政治自由 ,直到近代和现代 ,却转移集中争取经济自由。“经济自由”虽然是个极重要的课题 ,但是一般论著却把目标 (理想 )性的经济自由混淆作手段 (方法 )性的自由经济 (制度 )。相应地 ,一般论者也把“经济自由主义”错误地狭限于“放任 (自由 )经济制度”以满足一小撮人的经济自由。再者 ,本文认为高寿昌先生早在 6 0年代在外地发表的《经济的自由主义》一文很具卓见和勇气 ,现在试图运用 (广义 )逻辑学把它精确化 ,特别是严格区分“经济自由”与“自由经济(制度 )” ,以显示逻辑分析的重大实用价值