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The article presents a call for papers for the meeting titled "Annual Allied Social Sciences Association Meetings" to be held on January 4-6, 2008 at New Orleans, Louisiana with a theme about inequality, democracy, and the economy. The Association for Social Economics members and nonmembers are encouraged to submit proposals for the New Orleans ASE program. The papers can be send by email of 300 words or less by May 1, 2007 to John Davis of University of Amsterdam and Marquette University. Guide questions are also included.

Understanding multilateral institutions’ role in the construction of desirable goals for educational reform is a key element to grasp the weight globalisation has on local practices of education. Comparative studies of civics and moral education point to the idea of ‘citizenship’ as a site revealing not only the political economy but also the cultural politics involved in the globalisation of education. Through political discourse analysis, this paper analyses key multilateral agencies’ discourses on citizenship education for Latin America. It traces the concerns, diagnoses, definitions and proposals of what citizenship education is (or should be) in agenda-setting documents and policy reports promoted by these organisations. Drawing on Latin American decolonial theories, it challenges concerns with civic disengagement and convivencia underpinning multilateral citizenship education discourses. As a counterpoint, it presents research from scholars highlighting alternative - often overlooked - participatory and decolonial pedagogical experiences present in Latin America that open new standpoints for citizenship education comparative research in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the transition to democracy in the early 1990s, economic research and instruction in South Africa have become far more quantitative and technically sophisticated. In this paper, I trace and discuss reasons for these developments, and I argue that this quantification of economics should not be at the expense of exchanges with qualitative data that fail the criterion of being representative, or with other disciplines that are less quantitative. With South Africa’s complex history, persistent inequality and considerable cultural diversity, economics has much to gain from interdisciplinary collaboration and mixed methods research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, regional economic integration in the Middle East continues to remain at an unusually low level compared to other regions of the world. This is especially problematic because traditionally, regional integration has long been seen as an effective tool for encouraging regional peace, stability and prosperity, with also the added expectation that economic growth may also help or facilitate transition to democracy. This paper asks the question of whether the Arab uprisings might provide a new environment in which Turkey and the USA, together with the European Union, could cooperate to bring about some degree of regional economic integration. The paper discusses Turkey's increasing economic engagement of its neighbourhood since the end of the Cold War and argues that this experience constitutes a good basis for cooperation, even if there remain a number of challenges stemming from Turkey as well as the Middle East. As much as these challenges may seem insurmountable, initiating a tri-lateral dialogue is of critical importance as the rewards of regional integration in the Middle East in terms of stability, peace and prosperity would be huge and of a ‘win-win’ nature for Turkey, for the EU, for the USA, and of course for the region. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Why did developing country governments find themselves mired in high debt by the end of the twentieth century? This paper develops a theoretical framework to understand the relationship between political institutions, resource wealth, and debt burdens. Hypotheses generated are tested on a time-series cross-section data set of developing countries from 1970-2000. Three main findings are reported: oil wealth has a positive relationship with debt; this relationship is weakly conditional on the country's regime type; and the relationship is independent of general commodity price volatility. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of this research for our understanding of the 'resource curse.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rents form a relatively high share of GDP in developing countries (from 15-50%), so that differences in the scale of the rent and in its distribution among economic agents profoundly affect the evolution of the political economy. This paper deploys two rent-driven political economy models to analyse the performance of four oil-exporting countries (Angola, Venezuela, Indonesia and Algeria). The low-rent model provides a counter-factual for the high-rent model, which typifies most oil-exporters. The low-rent model sustains rapid per capita GDP (PCGDP) growth that brings endogenous democratisation, which is incremental. In contrast, high-rent countries tend to deploy the rent in ways that lock the economy into a staple trap, which aborts competitive economic diversification and represses sanctions against anti-social governance. These adverse staple trap features are heightened in oil-exporting countries because they tend to have very high natural resource rent, which is easily extracted by governments. However, a growth collapse may abruptly trigger political and economic reform if exogenous factors are favourable. This paper applies the models to explain the disappointing oil-driven development in Angola and Venezuela, and also the apparent anomaly of Indonesian development during 1966-96. It concludes by outlining with reference to Algeria a dual track strategy to circumvent the political obstacles that prevent reform in a rent-distorted political economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years a debate has emerged about the conditions under which justiciable legal frameworks facilitate the fulfilment of socioeconomic rights. This debate has pitted institutionalist perspectives that emphasise the progressive potential of democratisation against structuralist perspectives that emphasise the constraints imposed by relationships of power and interest. This paper considers the debate in light of Indonesia’s recent experience. It suggests that we need to examine how institutional and structural factors interac twithin particular contexts to shape socioeconomic rights fulfilment, not examine these factors in isolation. It also considers the strategic implications of this argument for rights proponents. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In recent years the assumption that democracy automatically generates peace has been critiqued. It has instead been suggested that the promotion of economic liberalism provides a much stronger basis for peace. In this paper, we examine and contest the normative claims of the 'capitalist peace'. While there is a close association between extreme poverty and the onset of civil war, it is unclear whether economic liberalism will ameliorate conflict. A major reason for this ambiguity is because the emphasis of the 'capitalist peace' literature has largely been on interstate relations rather than intrastate ethnonational conflict. A closer look reveals that neoliberal policies in divided societies can also, in some contexts, exacerbate conflict in violently divided societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neoliberal market reformers stress the 'market building instincts' of private owners to justify rapid forms of property transformation under illiberal political conditions. Private owners demand the institutions of the self-restraining state to protect property from various forms of expropriation and to enforce contracts. Legacy theorists counter that under illiberal political conditions, economic insiders are more likely to capture the benefits of privatization programs and then seek exemption from the rule of law rather than application of it. We employ a 'path contingency' approach to show that under illiberal, competitive authoritarian conditions, privatization recipients and other private economic agents are unlikely to demand the basic institutions of market democracy. Yet, this is by no means a stable set of affairs. Political inequality and its attendant rent-seeking behavior will likely delay or distort growth and can contribute to economic and political instability. Political crisis may follow as regimes face societal frustration and energized, united political oppositions. Such crises are moments of uncertainty and flux. Crises provide private economic agents in particular with an opportunity to reconsider their ties to an illiberal regime. This paper examines these propositions during illiberal regime crises in Serbia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community engagement and citizen participation have long been important themes in liberal democratic theory, although managerial versions of liberal democracy have typically been dominant. In the past two decades, however, many countries have seen a shift away from a managerial or top-down approach, towards a revitalised emphasis on building institutional bridges between governmental leaders and citizenry, often termed 'community engagement'. This paper outlines some of the main explanations for this shift, including international trends in governance and political economy; the availability of improved communications technologies; the need to share responsibility for resolving complex issues; and the local politics of managing social, economic and environmental projects. Some critical perspectives are also raised, suggesting a degree of scepticism about the intentions of government and implying serious limits on the potential influence of the citizenry and community groups. Important distinctions are drawn between policy arenas, in relation to the different dynamics and opportunities in different policy fields. The importance of building effective capacity for citizens and all non-government organisations (NGOs) to participate is emphasised. Typologies of community engagement are outlined, and linked to ideas about social capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a critique of neo-liberal political economy of education. It is argued that neo-liberal ideology trades off democracy against 'economic efficiency.' However, the consequence of the application of neo-liberal principles to education is that overall standards of education are likely to decline, thereby creating the conditions for a low skilled, low morale workforce. It is suggested that this outcome is consistent with the Neo-liberal creation of a low wage low technology economy. On the basis of the critique, an alternative education system concerned with meeting the aims of an education for a democratic, economically sophisticated, society is sketched. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information about the mechanics and requirements of submitting papers for the special issue of the journal. The journal is looking for papers that regard the reality and promise of the arts and culture as the partial basis for a new political economy, the political activism to move people in such arena, and the new democracy both arguable prefigure. Also welcome are submissions that depict American culture and politics in its global context.