Issue XII: Control

VOX voxjournal.co.uk

The Student Journal of Politics, Economics and Philosophy

Published termly by the Club of PEP at the University of York Issue XII- Summer 2010

VOX

voxjournal.co.uk

The Student Journal of Politics, Economics and Philosophy

ISSUE XII - SUMMER 2010

cONTROL CONTENTS

PAGE

MASTERY OVER NATURE Riccardo Mastini

6

TAKING OBAMA AT HIS WORDS Professor Kenneth Lasson

10

THE MOTIVE TO REBEL Timothy Alston

13

CONTROL IN COMMAND ECONOMIES Peter Hill

17

INVISIBLE WOMEN Alexandra Khoo

20

VIRTUE AND ENKRATEIA James Hodgson

24

SNAPPING THE CROOKED TIMBER Dan Iley-Williamson

27

HOW THE RICH CONTROL THE POOR Roy Moore

30

resources and their role IN CONFLICT Bethany Donkin

34

bibliographies

38

The Club of

PEP Journal

VOX is a student academic journal that aims to provide a platform for the exchange of ideas and insight into the debates relating to Politics, Economics and Philosophy (PEP).

VOX is published triannually by the Club of PEP at the University of York and distributed on York’s campus as well as other universities in the UK.

VOX - The Student Journal of Politics, Economics and Philosophy

EDITORIAL

C

ONTROL IS A FEATURE OF THE HUMAN CONDITION, THAT AFFECTS EVERY ASPECT OF OUR LIVES. We try to control everything as a species, as nations, as governments and as individuals. As individuals, we fear domination from anyone, ranging from other individuals right up to our own governments; we even bemoan the influence of nature on our daily lives.

This issue of Vox explores the attempts by humanity both to control and rebel against their surroundings, and the results of these attempts. The first article explores the disastrous results of humanity’s attempts to dominate nature and the needs to work with it (p.6). This is followed by articles considering the nature of greed in conflicts where resource control is involved (p.13 and p.34). A highly topical article is about whether the foreign policies of the Obama Administration will be able to ‘control passions and encourage peace among nations’ (p.10). Another considers the negative uses of the power rich nations have over those in ‘Third World’, and the legacy of Colonialism (p.30). There are articles considering the implications of attempts by societies and governments to control citizens, and the terrible effects this has on the humanity of individuals within society (p.17 and p.27). As well as these, we have an essay on the gendered nature of poverty, considering the possibility for impoverished women to regain control over their own lives economically and politically (p.20).

Finally, there is an article over the status of self control in Aristotelian ethics (p.24).

As this is our first issue of Vox as a new committee, we hope that you will enjoy reading it as much as we have enjoyed publishing it. If you would like to get involved with Vox, e-mail us at vox@clubofpep.org. Details of how to contribute to the next edition can be found inside the back cover of this issue.

Elena Villarreal, Editor

EDITORIAL TEAM

Editor: Elena Villarreal Co-Editor: Adam Czopp Layout Editor: Emily Coward Press and Publicity Officer: Alexandra Aninoiu External Liaisons Officer: Fay Farstad

Sub-Editors: Mira Wolf-Bauwens Ieuan Ferrer Dan Iley-Williamson Firdaus Koder Stephanie Pansar Clement Wee

Front cover design: Adam Czopp and David Staffell

Peer Reviewers and Proofreaders: Abir Ahmmed Lorna Brankley Rupert Callingham Risga Carson Frances Croft-Wang Moses Lemuel Alexa Mitterhuber Chris Navier Luke Smalley

Issue XII - Summer

I put for the general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death.

Thomas Hobbes

I think people want very much to simplify their lives enough so that they can control the things that make it possible to sleep at night.

Twyla Tharp

The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.

Charles Darwin

Culture means control over nature.

Johan Huizinga

The state has, in order to control us, introduced division into our thinking, so that we come to distrust others and look to the state for protection.

Butler Shaffer

VOX - The Student Journal of Politics, Economics and Philosophy

mastery over nature

By Riccardo Mastini

h

umans, like all other species, alter their surrounding

environment to meet their basic needs.

However, technology has granted society the power to re-engineer ecosystems to an extent that has no equal within the natural world. We have almost forgotten the requirement for every living organism to fit into its lifesupport system (Rolston, 1988). Thus, as our economy and our living patterns reveal themselves as increasingly unsustainable, we ought to realise our limitations in controlling Nature.

Tightly interwoven with this theme is the process of cultural globalization. This is shrinking the cul

tural variety accrued in different parts of the world during millennia of parallel development, by substituting it with a “Westernisation� of lifestyles and worldviews. The Western cultural hegemony over local cultures in every continent is the result of centuries of colonisation. Initially, this happened through armies and missions. It continued through philanthropic and financial institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank, who grant funds to developing countries provided that they embrace export-oriented economies and developing projects alike to the Western growth paradigm (Stiglitz, 2002).

In this essay, I maintain that the roots

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of our current ecological and social crises lie both in our attempt to treat the environment as something amenable to our economic purposes, and in the imposition of Western logic of environmental management over all communities and ecosystems of the world.

The reason why humanity appears more and more as an element of disturbance inside natural systems - which, without us, would work smoothly - has to be searched for within our “ecological hubris”: every organism adapts and coevolves with the surrounding environment, whereas humanity wants to dominate it. To this purpose, an enlightening example of this kind of dynamic is offered by the way we eat, which “represents our most profound engagement with the natural world” (Pollan, 2006). Since the dawn of civilization, humanity has reshaped the environment through agriculture, in order to make it more conducive to his development. Thus the process of interacting with nature, and the attempt to mould her according to our needs, is not new at all. However, in the last few decades, the resilience of the ecosystems and the sustainability of our farming systems have shrunk dramatically, due to the application of an industrial logic to the natural world.

From the start of the Twentieth Century, agricultural techniques have been marked by a deep wave of innovation brought on by scientific ad-

vances such as the internal combustion engine. As a result of the introduction of chemical fertilizers, which ensure the fertility of the soil even if all the diversity of animal species and the rotation of different crops have been displaced, the farm can now be treated as a firm pursuing economies of scale and mechanical efficiency. This is what lies behind the practice of monoculture. “Fixing nitrogen allowed the food chain to turn from the logic of biology and embrace the logic of industry.

Instead of eating exclusively from the sun, humanity now began to sip petroleum” (Pollan, 2006). The drawbacks of this system are evident: the two most serious environmental impacts of this “industrial agriculture” are characterised by biodiversity loss and pollution due to monocultures, chemical pesticides, and fertilizers. However, as these problems become more and more acute, our attitude is still the old “reductivist” one; that is, applying our technology to solve a specific problem, and believing that this will not alter some other natural process connected to that one. In our quest for efficiency, we have oversimplified the complexity of natural ecosystems beyond a threshold of safe management (Rockstrom, 2009). Our Faustian desire for mastery over nature has turned an ancient human activity like agriculture - which was, in Carlo Petrini’s phrase, “the government of the limit” - into the blind application of technology without any regard for the intrinsically

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complex nature of ecosystems.

As a matter of fact, Western conventional science is based on Newtonian physics (Berkes & Folke, 1998; Leiss, 1972; Callicott, 1989) and describes nature as a machine, constituted by discrete building blocks from which any one of them can be extracted with predictable effects on the others. This world view deeply affects the management of natural resources and is conflicting with ecology’s teachings.

“Just as in the shift from Newtonian to Einsteinian physics, where the meaning of mass changed from velocityindependent to a velocity-dependent term, in a shift from reductionist forestry to ecological forestry, all scientific terms are changed from ecosystem-independent to ecosystem-dependent ones” (Shiva, 1993). The reductivist approach toward the natural world is not at all surprising if we understand toward which end scientific and technological research has been aimed so far. Actually, the watchword of the classical resource management science and of neo-classical economy is ‘efficiency’ (Berkes & Folke, 1998; Rifkin, 1989). This obsession for efficiency has been pursued at the expense of the resilience of ecosystems (Holling, 1995).

Nevertheless, many of the ecosystems endangered due to extractive practices were dwellings for cultural groups long before the influence of the Western civilization and the introduction of the management practices

explained above. Many of the indigenous denizens in these areas had been able to establish stable and long-lasting practices of environmental management, thanks to an ecological knowledge accrued over centuries. In fact, biodiversity is the origin of cultural diversity; every human group settled in a specific natural environment learns to interact with it – in more or less sustainable ways – in order to ensure its own survival. The knowledge accrued through a process of trial-and-error is stored in the culture handed down from generation to generation (Berkes, 1999; Shiva, 1993). The great challenge we are facing today is represented by the need to abandon our cultural contempt for indigenous knowledge and to start learning from their cultural capital, namely the modality through which “societies convert natural capital into human-made capital” (Berkes & Folke, 1998).

In our quest for efficiency, we have oversimplified the complexity of natural ecosystems often beyond a threshold of safe management.

An example of the linkage between social and ecological systems is offered by the Gangte villages in India. Until the British colonised India, the traditional land-use system among these communities had involved leaving uncultivated groves, which were con-

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sidered sacred. In fact, the larger commercial interests had little spur to preserve the ecosystems of the area, and influenced the local communities to abandon their conservation practices in order to start marketing the precious forests. The effects of the elimination of these groves were noticeable on the ecosystem services and brought about the deterioration of the environment underpinning the local subsistence economy. As a result, the protection of forests has been reinstituted in the area and enforced with new social incentives. “While these refugia are no longer considered to be inviolable as abodes of spiritual beings, the system of community-based vigilance and protection is identical to that prevailing with the sacred groves”(Berkes & Folke, 1998). The idiom of conservation has changed, but the relevance of local knowledge in preserving the ecosystems is still pivotal to the pursuit of sustainability.

The new form of social development for the twenty-first century must be represented by a shift of paradigm from the view of a society detached from the environment to one

in which civilization is seen as embedded in it. Furthermore, we ought to cease trying to control and homogenise cultural diversity on behalf of a new form of syncretism that enriches each human group with the ecological knowledge gained by the others. We ought to substitute our reductivist approach with a holistic one, which accepts the complexity of nature and the uncertainty intrinsic to the outcome of the interaction between humans and the natural world. Our need for a new harmony between civilization and nature must be a spur to create a new ethics concerning economic growth, science and technology, because, as the philosopher Rolston stated: “great power, unconstrained by ethics, is subject to great abuse” (1988).

Bibliography available online at www.voxjournal.co.uk _____________________________ Riccardo Mastini is a first year undergraduate reading Environmental Economics and Environmental Management at the University of York

VOX - The Student Journal of Politics, Economics and Philosophy

TAKING OBAMA AT HIS WORDS

By Professor Kenneth Lasson

H

EADS OF STATE CANNOT ALWAYS CONTROL WHAT THEY SET OUT

to do, much less the events and reactions often occasioned by their words and conduct. No better example of this reality is the leader of the Free World, the President of the United States, whose eloquence and actions have been of questionable effect in cooling passions, either domestic or foreign, that motivate violence in the Middle East.

As the more mild-mannered among his fellow Americans might say about our First Citizen, he’s enigmatic.

Our friends and foes overseas may be more (or less) charitable in their assessments.

For many of us on this side of the Pond, taking the measure of Barack Obama can be as mystifying as charting the course of the country’s future. To those on the Right, he’s a control freak with communist leanings; to those on the Left, a cult hero with impeccable credentials, charm, and charisma. But no one knows for certain where he’s coming from, much less the direction where any of us are headed.

This is particularly true in the policies he seems to espouse for promoting peace (containing 10

violence?) in the Middle East.

Two notable speeches early in his first year in office, one in Cairo and the other in Buchenwald, offer typically confounding contrasts. Both were heartfelt, articulate, and well-reasoned, but they resonated with different meanings for different listeners. (“Government is not reason,” pointed out George Washington, a President no less charismatic. “It is not eloquence. It is force.”)1

In Egypt, Mr. Obama gave a lengthy address at Cairo University that was, at its core, a conciliatory olive branch held out toward Islam. There were some stern comments about freedom of religion for all and the need for women’s rights, but there was little condemnation of terrorism or honor killings, and no mention of Hamas and Iran. Platitudes were earnestly expressed, but prescriptions for reform or honest rebukes for clear violations of human rights were scarce.2

Observers from around the world seemed to agree that Mr. Obama’s Cairo speech would have little impact if it were not followed by action. Israeli reaction at the time was mixed, from an optimistic editorial in Ha’aretz (“the chance for a fresh start was laid out in Cairo yesterday”)3 to the

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disconcerting moral equivalency noted by the Jerusalem Post (“The president juxtaposed the Jewish suffering in the Holocaust to that of the Palestinians since Israel’s creation – something all Israeli Jews find unacceptable”).4

Heads of state cannot always control what they set out to do, much less the events and reactions often occassioned by their words and conduct.

A decidedly different note was struck in Germany, where Mr. Obama’s remembrance of the liberation of the notorious Nazi death camp at Buchenwald was both pointed and poignant.

“More than half a century later, our grief and our outrage over what happened have not diminished. I will not forget what I’ve seen here today.” He went on to condemn “those who insist that the Holocaust never happened – a denial of fact and truth that is baseless and ignorant and hateful” – as well as “those who perpetuate every form of intolerance . . . that degrades its victims and diminishes us all.”5

Barack Obama reflected as well on the human capacity for good, the acts of kindness and courage in the midst of horror, the bravery of those who defied and resisted. He remembered the astonishment of the American GIs at finding more than 900 children still alive, the youngest

was just three years old. He recited a verse from a song by inmates at Buchenwald: “...Whatever our fate, we will say yes to life, for the day will come when we are free...in our blood we carry the will to live and in our hearts, in our hearts – faith.”6

“These individuals,” said the President of the United States, “could not have known how the nation of Israel would rise out of the destruction of the Holocaust and the strong, enduring bonds between that great nation and my own.”7

“They could not have known these things,” he said, and his words are worth repeating. “But still surrounded by death they willed themselves to hold fast to life. In their hearts they still had faith that evil would not triumph in the end, that while history is unknowable it arches towards progress, and that the world would one day remember them.

And it is now up to us, the living, in our work, wherever we are, to resist injustice and intolerance and indifference in whatever forms they may take, and ensure that those who were lost here did not go in vain. It is up to us to redeem that faith. It is up to us to bear witness; to ensure that the world continues to note what happened here; to remember all those who survived and all those who perished, and to remember them not just as victims, but also as individuals who hoped and loved and dreamed just like us.”8

To be sure, most of us are resolute as to our traditional and con11

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temporary shared values: life (security in our homelands); liberty (especially religious freedom); and the pursuit of happiness (read Peace in Our Time).

But the moving rhetoric has been followed by little action. The Obama Administration, which declared its commitment to routing the Taliban in Afghanistan and challenging the nuclear ambitions of Iran, has been unable to contain the runaway leadership of either country.

Many of the Americans who voted for or against Obama did so with uncommon passion: “he’d make a great President” or “he’d be a disaster on foreign policy.” In this regard they reflected the media’s pugnacious pundits – from the attack-dog Right, for whom Obama has never done anything good, to the fawning Left, for whom he can do little wrong.

Others were somewhat more reserved. There was respect, even grudging if not genuine admiration, for his consistently calm and cool demeanor in the face of furious political attacks, a country engaged in two unwinnable wars, and an economy in dramatic free-fall.

But they were also wary of his inexperience and naiveté on foreign policy and, perhaps worse, his failure to grasp the progressively hardening realities of life in the Middle East.

Many who were so optimistic about the Oslo Accords fifteen years ago have come painfully to realise that much of the Arab world would like to 12

see Israel annihilated. What was supposed to have been a milestone – the first direct, face-to-face agreement between Israel and political representatives of Palestinians to address and ultimately resolve the outstanding differences between them – disintegrated into yet another protracted intifada.

One might think that President Obama has a very selective memory of the years before he assumed office.

In the Summer of 2000, hadn’t significant concessions toward Yasser Arafat been brokered by the US and made by Israel, only to be categorically spurned?

In September of 2001, hadn’t 3000 Americans been murdered by fanatical Islamists whose clerics demanded that they “kill the Jews, and those who support them, wherever they are to be found”? In August of 2005, hadn’t every one of the Jewish settlers in ‘occupied’ Gaza been removed – only to

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be followed by four years of incessant rocket fire into southern Israel?

Along the way, hadn’t Barack Obama railed against the policies of his predecessor, such as the military surge to contain Iraqi insurgents – only to claim victory in Iraq a few years later based on the success of the same policy?

How long will it take our talented President to understand the Realpolitik of the Middle East, where our ostensible allies – Egypt, Jordan, and especially Saudi Arabia – demand ever more concessions from Israel without offering anything tangible in return?

There is ample evidence that Barack Obama is an intelligent, charismatic, well-intentioned leader.

But “eloquence, at its highest pitch”, as David Hume, the famous 18th

Century Scottish philosopher, pointed out, “leaves little room for reflection, captivating the willing hearers, and subduing their understanding.”9

Whether the President can put the power of his speech and the promise of his eloquence into actual effect – whether whatever he says can be translated into actions that control passions and encourage peace among nations – remains largely to be seen.

Footnotes available online at www.voxjournal.co.uk

____________________________________

Kenneth Lasson is a law professor at the University of Baltimore, where he specializes in civil liberties and international human rights.

the MOTIVE TO REBEL

By Timothy Alston

R

EBEL GROUPS OFTEN CLAIM THAT THEIR CAUSE IS JUSTIFIED, DUE

to their aims of overthrowing repressive governments. This article will argue that in conflicts where natural resources are involved, these claims are often false, while the real reasons for rebellion lie instead in the financial benefits arising from control of natural resources.

With the use of Sierra Leone as an example, this article shall exam-

ine the reasons for civil war and how the presence of natural resources significantly increases its likelihood. That presence of natural resources, and the revenue generated for those controlling them, gives rebel groups incentive to rebel. Presence of diamonds and hydrocarbons has been shown to increase the likelihood of conflict by 40% and 50% respectively (Lujala, 2010, p.26 and p.24). This, combined with a study showing that the severity 13

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of repression prior to conflict has no effect on the conflict (Collier, Hoeffler, Söderbom, p.266), gives credibility to the conclusion that rebellion is financially motivated. This is further backed when it is noted that if the world prices of exports of a country experiencing civil war drop by 10%. the duration of the conflict reduces by 12% (Collier, Hoeffler, Söderbom, p.266). This is because the resources become less valuable; and thus there is less incentive to continue fighting. Rebellions need financing, and gems and oil are easy methods of obtaining money. This is why the presence of these resources leads to increased chances of rebellion occurring, despite the claims like that of Foday Sankoh, spokesman for the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone, who announced that the movement had started a ‘people’s war’ in order to “liberate” the masses from “the corruption and oppression” of the government (Abraham, H., p.207).

It may be argued that gem and hydrocarbon revenues rely on exports, which would be affected by civil wars within the country, thus reducing the financial incentive for rebellion due to the inability to extract these revenues during conflict. This problem has been

14

previously recognised by rebel and government forces alike, who have overcome the problem by selling future rights to resources in return for funds to fight their current wars; a system given the name ‘Booty Future’ (Ross, p.3). Examples of Booty Futures made by both rebel and government powers within a war can be seen during the conflict in Sierra Leone.

The rebel group RUF agreed to give Charles Taylor, the leader of Liberia, access to Sierra Leone’s diamonds in exchange for his support for the RUF invasion of Sierra Leone. In early 1995, the government of Sierra Leone offered future mining rights to the South African company ‘Branch Energy’ in return for help from the mercenary firm ‘Executive Outcomes’. By the end of 1995, Executive Outcomes had taken the Kono mining fields (Ross, p.15).This shows how both sides in the Sierra Leone conflict traded potential future access to diamonds in exchange for support of their cause, demonstrating people’s willingness to invest in rebel or government forces in exchange for a potential payback after the conflict. Sierra Leone is not the only example of this. The French oil company Elf-Aquitaine supported a private army belonging to Denis Sassou-Nguesso (the potential future president of Congo at the time) in exchange for future exploitation rights to Congo’s oil reserves (Ngolet, F, p.74).

Therefore, even when revenues are not immediately accessible, potential

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rights to the resource are sold to either generate revenue to fight the war, or are exchanged for assistance in winning the conflict.

The presence of natural resources, and the revenue they will bring to those in control of them, gives rebel groups incentive to cause rebellions and civil wars.

Having already established that civil wars involving natural resources are mainly financially motivated, this article will now consider how the presence of natural resources affect the nature of civil wars. Where ‘lootable’ resources exist, the ability to fund an army is enhanced. The effect is that where gems are present, the duration of conflicts on average double (Lujala, 2009, p.57), as both rebel and government forces use the resource to sustain their fighting. The presence of hydrocarbons doubles a conflict’s duration (Lujala, 2010, p.22) and intensity, because mere control of hydrocarbon sources in times of conflict does not give rise to instant revenues; peace is needed for their extraction and subsequent sale. Therefore rebels will fight until either state collapse or secession of the government in order to control the resource to extract its revenue (Lujala, 2009, pp.67-68). The disruption of extraction during conflict gives rise to governments losing out on the hydrocarbon revenue they would otherwise

be receiving, making governments and rebels equally willing to invest more in the fighting in order to secure this large potential revenue from the hydrocarbon extraction (Lujala, 2009, p.68).

These conflicts require troops to fight them, which become a financial cost for both sides in the conflict.

Cheaper recruitment of troops allows for wars to be sustained over longer periods of time (Collier, Hoeffler, Söderbom, p.255) and also makes them more profitable. The side effect of this is the recruitment of child soldiers.

In Sierra Leone, children, often from the street, joined the conflict either in search of a surrogate family or seeking protection (Zack-Williams, p.125).

Others are recruited through the threat of ‘tabay’ - having your elbows tied behind your back until your ribcage separates - whilst some were made to join in order to prevent the killing of innocent family members (Sesay & Ismail, p.146). Only the minority were paid to take part. In Liberia, the cost of a child soldier was a promise to pay $5, and a pair of blue Levi Jeans (Kelly, D., p.13). This led to approximately half of the soldiers in the Sierra Leone conflict being children between the ages of eight and fourteen (Sesay, A., p.13). Atrocities in which child soldiers were indoctrinated to take part included 3.2% of child soldiers in Liberia practicing cannibalism (Sesay & Ismail, p.146). This is just one example of the terrible costs associated with conflicts revolving around control for natural 15

VOX - The Student Journal of Politics, Economics and Philosophy

resources, where the parties involved will go to any length to cut down on their financial costs so that they can fight for a longer period in order to improve their chances of success.

The implementation of trading bans (in the case where both sides are unable to sell future rights to the resources in question) affects both parties, meaning that both the government and rebel troops are hindered.

Although this may bring about an end to conflict sooner, as both groups run out of resources, it may not create the desired outcome in terms of who wins. This also gives rise to the question: should international actors make the decision as to which group is victorious? I believe that this would lead to international actors making decisions based around which outcome would best suit them financially; which I do not believe is the way a conflict should be settled. An example of this is seen with China supplying Sri Lanka with military and diplomatic aid to defeat the Tamil Tigers in return for building a Naval port in Sri Lanka to defend its supplies of oil (Timesonline, 2009).

This article has shown why conflicts revolving around natural resources are often financially motivated, despite using ‘repression’ as a justification in the media’s eye. When hydrocarbons are present, conflict is more intense due to higher financial stakes; both sides are willing to invest more in order to gain the victory; the presence of lootable resources, like gems, 16

only allows rebels to sustain themselves longer, prolonging conflict. The aim of financial success from rebellion has led to the atrocious outcome of children being exploited by both sides in many conflicts. This leaves the question: is there any way for international actors to prevent conflicts being fought for financial gain? I believe that this is not possible. When warring groups do not have current control over resources, they sell the future extraction rights. Therefore, even if trade bans are imposed on countries experiencing conflict, these countries can sell future rights to the resources in order to maintain their finances. The groups could alternatively make promises to their troops of payments once they are successful in their campaign and trading bans have been lifted, as was seen in the promise to pay child soldiers in Liberia. This article therefore concludes that there is no optimal outcome in conflict; if there is to be international intervention, it must be impartial, with the pure aim of preserving life, not ending the conflict in either side’s favour.

Bibliography available online at www.voxjournal.co.uk _____________________________

Timothy Alston is a second year undergraduate reading Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the University of York.

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CONTROL IN COMMAND ECONOMIES

By Peter Hill “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:7-8)

“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!”

(Marx, K. 1875)

T

HE CALLS FOR SELFLESS GIVING AND THE SUBORDINATION OF

the individual to the community are strong in both Christianity and Communism. The reality of these altruistic principles applied to economic systems across history is far removed from such idealistic sentiments. Command economies - economies where decisions are made by a central authority, such as the former USSR, China and Cuba - have demanded the absolute surrender of freedoms and democratic rights from their citizens in the name of ‘The People’. How was such social control established and maintained?

This article will explore the means by which the political elites of the Communist Party controlled the masses under a centrally planned economy. It will then explore why control failed,

and under what, if any circumstances, a command economy could operate democratically and justly.

Harold Laswell famously said “Politics is who gets what, when, and how” (Laswell, H. 1911). In the USSR, from 1921 until for the fall of the Soviet Empire in 1991, the State Committee for Planning was responsible for the creation of five-year economic plans, and ultimately the creation, distribution and allocation of economic resources. Individuals were denied any part in making economic decisions for themselves, and therefore in planning any part of their lives. It is also important to note that despite this central control of the economy, not a single one of the thirteen five-year plans met its targets; the last plan ended in economic collapse and the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Over time, legal constraints were also strengthened in favour of the state and against individual economic freedom. The 1918, 1924, 1936 and 1977 USSR constitutions all saw more political power being held by the Communist Party and the ‘Supreme Soviet’, the ruling council of the USSR. Although Article 39 in the final constitution of 1977, allowed for political freedom of speech, freedom of the press, 17

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freedom of assembly and the right to religious belief and worship, it also enabled the government to prohibit any activities it considered ‘detrimental’ to the socio-economic status quo. It did this by stating that: “Enjoyment by citizens of their rights and freedoms must not be to the detriment of the interests of society or the state, or infringe the rights of other citizens” (Supreme Soviet of the USSR, 1977).

This sub-clause undermined all other promises of civil rights present both in the remainder of the document and in all laws in force at the time. Thus the state had the legal ability to enforce civil and economic order however they wished.

To this end, various repressive state apparatuses were also created. The most important and well known of these was the ‘Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti’ (The KGB or the ‘Committee for State Security’). The KGB and its predecessors operated from the beginning of the revolution in November 1917 until

18

November 1991, and the collapse of the USSR, with the KGB working under the NKVD, or People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs, alongside NKVD troikas (literally meaning ‘threesome’ or ‘triumvirate’ of citizen magistrates). These bodies were able to sentence political dissidents and other minor criminals to lengthy, often fatal prison sentences within the ‘The Chief Administration of Corrective Labour Camps and Colonies’ or GULAG. This severe punishment created an atmosphere of intense fear amongst Soviet citizens thus helped to keep the socio-economic order in place despite its continual failures. An estimated six to seven million prisoners served sentences in the GULAG with 1,053,829 people dying between 1934 and 1953 alone, due to Stalinist purges and general repression (Getty, Rittersporn, and Zemskov, 1993).

The inevitability of failure in command economies Due to the strict commitment to economic equality in the USSR, private property was banned and financial incentives were not offered for hard work; housing, income, food and other basic goods and services were assured by the state. This system led to misplaced incentives, resulting in poor productivity, indolence, alcoholism, and other serious problems, many of which can be seen in individuals who suffer from welfare dependency in the United Kingdom today. Quality con-

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trol in production also failed as only the quantity supplied was important to planners and Soviet propagandists.

Economists such as Ludwig Von Mises (1920) and later Freidrich Hayek (1935) were quick to raise the problem of information constraints in command economies in what became known as the ‘Socialist Calculation Debate’. Essentially, under a free market. the price mechanism is able to send messages to consumers and producers about the levels of supply (abundance of the product) and demand for the product (its desirability by consumers).

In the absence of such an information system, they argue, central planners will fail to be able to accurately estimate individual utility, demand levels and therefore the correct allocation of capital resources across the economy over time. In the USSR this was proven in the continual misallocation of resources towards the armed forces and state apparatus, and away from consumer products, with economic decisions being made with regards to political rather than economic considerations.

Finally, the USSR saw severe environmental degradation, epitomised by such examples as Chernobyl where a lack of democratic structures and a strong civil society left a vacuum in which the state was able to completely exploit the environment, as well as the Soviet people.

The culmination of the economic system’s failures and a lack of

democracy lead to the decline and eventual breakup of the United Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, on the back of civil unrest and economic chaos.

Possible worlds Despite the failure of all command economies to date, many on the extreme left and right still claim that a command economy is the best economic order to ensure economic and social justice, but is such an economic system compatible with the fundamental human and democratic rights we have come to expect?

By definition, this is impossible. A command economy relies upon a central authority making all economic decisions, and is fundamentally dictatorial. As Lord Acton said: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” (1877).

The power to allocate resources, left in the hands of anyone other than ourselves, will deny us our economic freedom and corrupt those in positions of power. It did in the USSR, and always has done. We should always be mindful of those who claim to know what is in our own best interest and those who seek to subjugate us and control us in the name of equality. In the words of US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis: “Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficent... the greatest dangers to liberty 19

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lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding” (1928). This sentiment is expressed in the words of Lord Acton: “Socialism means slavery”.

If command economies are therefore to be avoided, what kind of economic system should we adopt?

Thinkers such as Adam Smith, Milton Friedman, Fredrich Von Hayek and others of the Austrian School strongly argue that free markets with a functioning price system lead to a spontaneous order and “a more efficient allocation of societal resources than any design could achieve” (Hayek cited in Christian, 2001, p.2). The creativity and innovation of such capital-

ist free markets is demonstrated on a daily basis with the vast improvements in technology that is changing our lives for the better.

In conclusion, the role of the state should, I believe, be limited to facilitating the price mechanism, providing a limited range of public goods, protecting property rights and contractual agreements, and protecting our natural and common law rights.

Bibliography available online at www.voxjournal.co.uk _____________________________

Peter Hill is a graduate student reading Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the University of York.

INVISIBLE WOMEN

By Alexandra Khoo

T

HE PORTRAIT OF POVERTY IS OFTEN GIVEN A FEMALE FACE; IT

a fact that women are over-represented in poverty. Yet, women’s agency is rarely given much thought in poverty-reduction projects. It is falsely assumed that the benefits they have regaining control over their lives are equal to their male counterparts from the projects. Poverty is gendered in its experience and impact, and any projects that fail to recognise this almost inevitably have a pro-male bias. Specifically targeting women in povertyIS

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reduction efforts is a more moderate move than having an overt element of women empowerment, but it is an effective start to helping poor, disadvantaged women obtain control and attain a better future.

Relieving a Heavier Poverty Burden Impoverished women tend to be harder hit by poverty. Adopting a women-orientation in poverty-reduction projects would help level the playing field for women in providing them with a fairer

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chance of regaining control. Genderbased power relations translate into impoverished women generally experiencing poverty differently and more intensely than their male counterparts (Catagay, 2001).

Within the household, the ‘anti-female bias’ results in a male preference when allocating food and healthcare (Sen, 1999, p.194). Inequitable distribution of household resources extends to poor men withdrawing portions of their income from domestic collective funds for personal consumption like alcohol. This ranges from around one-third in Honduras to a half in areas like Nicaragua and Mexico. Hence, women and girls in the family usually experience sharper poverty than husbands and sons (Chant, 2003, p.20).

Women are unable to utilise opportunities presented by development as effectively to improve their welfare.

In the sphere of public policy, poor women have difficulty accessing welfare benefits in their own rights and have to act as dependents of male relatives. Poverty-reduction projects ought to rectify this flaw by targeting women in particular and enabling direct access to resources. Additionally, women may work long hours every day in the household, but this is often ignored

when the government or household members account for the respective inputs of women and men in the family’s joint prosperity (Sen, 1999).

When scrutinising the labour market, poor women are shown to be economically active, and yet they form majority of the world’s poor. This is because they are often limited to jobs with little or no income (Johnsson-Latham, 2004. pp.21-28). Unless poverty alleviation projects are women-centred, it is difficult to address women’s poverty issues on equal terms with those of men.

Removing Invisible Obstacles Having a female focus also better places these projects to tackle the additional obstacles women have in comparison to men in overcoming poverty.

It allows poverty alleviation results to be more gender-balanced, especially in helping beneficiaries obtain greater control over the circumstances they live in. Due to a prevalent “inegalitarian social and economic order that is difficult to break down”, (Myrdal, 1997 as cited by Rai, 2002) women are unable to utilise opportunities presented by development as effectively to improve their welfare.

The unjust order may manifest itself in legalised discrimination in property rights and income-earning rights. In many countries, including Namibia and Swaziland, husbands are the permanent custodians of married 21

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women, who have no right to manage property. Even where that is not the case, husbands can limit their wives’ outside employment (Dollar & Gatti, 1999, pp.4-6). Less attention is also given to the intellectual and cognitive development of women. Poor women are thus comparatively less endowed with physical assets (e.g. land) and essential skills like literacy. A downward spiral persists as they are then often bypassed in typical poverty reduction strategies. These approaches mostly attempt to build upon existing assets to produce results (Buckland, 1998).

Specifically, the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) as prescribed by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), and Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRS) by organisations such as the United Nations Development Programme, focus on income, salaries and commodities transactions. There is a great lack of female involvement in those areas, leading to women often being omitted as aid recipients in practice (JohnssonLathnam, 2003, pp.24-30). Informal sector work, especially that of unpaid, domestic work, in which women are the primary labourers, are rarely considered in poverty discourse, despite the long hours required and their contributions to formal income-generating work.

Meeting Specific Needs A gendered approach is more critical 22

in targeting a group identified as the majority of the world’s poor: women. They make up about 70% of the world’s 1.3 billion people in poverty (DFID, 2000. p.13). ‘Gender-informed efforts’ must be applied to reduce women poverty and poverty as a whole (Whitehead, 2003). This means recognising that poor women have differentiated needs from poor men. For instance, women’s high concentration in the unstable, low-wage informal sector when compounded by gender discrimination indicates that they have more pronounced problems of inadequate social security and limited access to credit (Harris-White, 2010).

Helping poor women regain control requires a prior understanding that they are also ‘time-poor’. This arises from their dual roles in ‘reproductive economy’ as primary family caretakers and in outside labour markets (Were & Kiringai, 2003). For example, water collection already takes up to 40% of a woman’s day in some

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rural areas of Kenya, not withstanding her other duties (World Bank, 1993 as cited by Were & Kiringai, 2003). It is clear that poor women are in acute need of labour- and energy-saving technologies and strategies catered to their context. These women-centred poverty reduction projects are betterpositioned to introduce measures to grant them greater autonomy in how they spend their time.

It must also be realised that women are not a homogenous block.

We must ask the question: ‘which women?’ Poverty-reduction efforts must be differentiated to target different groups of women who require help in different ways. There exists a ‘geography of poverty’, in which the extent and kind of help women required depends on how the patriarchical structure in a community disadvantages them through defining gender-specific roles and powers (Kabeer, 2003).

Finally, programmes must also consider individual economic positions. For instance, the poorest women are still excluded from microcredit scheme targeting women (Mayoux & Lacoste, 2005). Culprits are problems like the vicious cycle of having no initial entrepreneurial projects required to access loans that are needed to start such projects.

Conclusion Human dignity demands that people have sufficient control over their lives

to create meaningful livelihoods. Poor women, a marginalised group within a marginalised group, face much deprivation in this aspect. Poverty is harsher for them; they have weaker social mobility to overcome poverty and they have largely unmet femalespecific needs as the majority of the world’s poor. In order to redress these problems, more needs to be done in poverty-reduction efforts. Not all contexts are suitable for having an explicit element of women empowerment in aid programmes, but having more programmes that specifically target women is a good step forward. It will be helpful if governments facilitate the work of NGOs co-ordinating such programmes by: improving women’s education; launching public campaigns to counter gender discrimination; and adopting gender-balanced policies in the public sector. Globally, concerned citizens could petition these governments or their partners in aid development such as international aid organisations and donor governments to address the issue. Making the invisible women visible paints a brighter future for them.

Bibliography available online at www.voxjournal.co.uk _____________________________

Alexandra Khoo is a first year undergraduate student reading Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the University of York.

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VIRTUE AND ENKRATEIA

By James Hodgson

W

HAT IS THE PLACE OF SELF-CONTROL IN ARIISTOTLE’S ETHICAL

system? It is tempting to assume that all theories of morality must award their highest honours to the showing of self-restraint – especially those theories of the ancient world, where the character traits of self-control and toleration were rarely displayed. As we shall see however, the highest form of moral character in Aristotle’s virtue ethics is that which no longer has any need of self-control.

Aristotle divides the virtues into those relating to the part of the soul which reasons (intellectual virtue) and those relating to the part which is guided by reason (moral virtue). Our discussion is confined to moral virtue.

Aristotle defines moral virtue as neither a pathos (passion or emotion) nor a faculty (the capacity to feel emotions), but rather a hexis (state or disposition).

The genus of moral virtue, then, is a state of character – that is, a disposition to experience emotion in a certain way. Aristotle explicates this in the differentia of moral virtue: it is a state of character in which emotions are experienced according to an intermediate or mean. That is, a mean which rests between an excess and a deficiency.

We stand well with reference to our 24

emotions, he claims, if we feel them moderately (p.35) . Likewise, we stand badly if we feel them “violently or too weakly” (p.35).

Aristotle is not, however, saying that we should experience our emotions to an intermediate degree in all situations, but to a degree which is appropriate given the particular circumstances. For example, it is inappropriate to experience the same amount of anger towards a trivial slight and an act of murder. Rather, the mean amount of emotion is that which it is appropriate for the agent to feel in the particular situation – neither always becoming enraged, for instance, nor always being a placid and indifferent observer. Moral virtue is not only concerned with how an agent feels emotions however, but also with which actions he performs, and how he performs them. As with virtuously felt emotions, virtuous acts

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are those which correspond to a mean; instead of acting in a cowardly or rash manner, for example, the appropriate act is that which corresponds to an intermediate of courage.

With regard to the relationship between virtuous feeling and virtuous action, and to what is needed for an act to be virtuous, it is useful to consider Aristotle’s account of how a person becomes morally virtuous. People are not born morally virtuous, as “none of the moral virtues arises in us by nature” (p.28). Rather, they arise as a result of habit. Just as one becomes a musician only by practising the playing of music, one who wishes to acquire moral virtue does so by a process of habituation – a result of practising acts displaying a mean. However, it is not enough for an act to display a mean for it to be considered virtuous. Aristotle gives three conditions for the performance of a virtuous act: the agent must have knowledge of the virtuous act, that is, he must know what it is that he is doing; he must “choose the acts, and choose them for their own sakes” (p.34), that is, not as a means to some other end; and the act must arise from a “firm and unchangeable character” (p.34), so that the disposition to act virtuously was not merely a passing inclination.

With regards to virtuous actions, consider the following passage from EN II.4: “Actions, then, are called just and temperate when they are such as the just or the temperate

man would do; but it is not the man who does these that is just and temperate, but the man who also does them as just and temperate men do them” (p.35).

Acting virtuously is conditional upon experiencing the corresponding emotions in a virtuous way.

What Aristotle claims, then, is that actions can only be virtuous when they are done by a virtuous person – that is, acts arising from a settled disposition to act virtuously. The acts by which we become virtuous, therefore, may appear to an external observer to be acts of virtue as they correspond to a mean. However, they are only approximations to virtuous acts, as they are not yet done in a manner which meets the three set conditions. The virtuous act is the one which is performed just as the virtuous person would perform it – that is, emanating from a virtuous state of character. Therefore, acting virtuously is conditional upon experiencing the corresponding emotions in a virtuous way – that is, to perform a virtuous act the agent must actualise his virtuously felt emotions.

We see Aristotle’s virtuous person more clearly if we examine the contrast between the virtuous and the continent, self-controlled person (enkrates). The virtuous agent knows which actions are appropriate, 25

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experiences emotions with respect to a mean, and so chooses the action which corresponds to virtue. The continent man also knows which actions are proper, and acts in accordance with that knowledge; that is, he outwardly acts in the same manner as the virtuous person. He does not, however, enjoy doing so. He does not experience emotion as the virtuous person does, and so he does not act virtuously. His actions are self-enforced, as he knows the proper course of action but would like to act differently – he experiences inner conflict and must exert control over himself if he is to act according to an outwardly virtuous standard.

The virtuous person, however, is without such friction. The act displaying the mean which he performs is virtuous because it is in harmony with his virtuously felt emotions; indeed, it is an actualisation of his emotions.

Moreover, the virtuous person likes and desires to act in this way without reservation. The difference between the virtuous and the self-controlled person, then, is that the virtuous person performs acts corresponding to a virtuous mean because he feels emotions which also correspond to a virtuous mean, and so wants to perform the act and enjoys it; the continent person, however, performs the same acts, but only because he disciplines himself to do so – not from any established disposition to do so.

For example, in a situation which calls for courage, the continent 26

man may be tempted to act in a cowardly or rash manner, but does not because he knows which act is appropriate and so forces himself to perform it, even though he would like to do something else because his emotions are not habituated to a mean. The virtuous man would feel no such temptation, as it would not occur to him to act rashly; he performs the appropriate act of courage because he desires to do so. It is not that he would not experience fear – to do so would be insensible. Rather, he would experience the correct amount of the emotion of fear – an amount which cautions but does not overpower.

In conclusion, for Aristotle, to feel the temptation to cowardice or rashness, even if one acts appropriately, is to expose a defect of character because one’s emotions are not felt virtuously, however praiseworthy one’s actions may be. For Aristotle, therefore, the superior moral character will have risen above the need for self-control.

All references refer to Aristotle (1998) The Nicomachean Ethics Translated

by W.D. Ross (Oxford World’s Classics Edition, Oxford University Press). _____________________________

James Hodgson is a graduate student reading Political Philosophy (The Idea of Toleration) at the University of York.

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SNAPPING THE CROOKED TIMBER CONTROL AND THE ENDS OF LIFE

By Dan Iley-Williamson

G

REAT STRIDES TOWARD PROGRESSION CAN BE SEEN IN TWO

lights – the determined pursuit of a utopian ideal, or the comparative and pragmatic betterment of affairs. Each side of the debate has great thinkers in its heritage – Plato, Rousseau and Marx in the former; Hume, Smith, Mill and Sen in the latter. I shall argue that state control exerted over the individual to achieve utopian ideals – what shall be called the ‘transcendental approach’ (Sen, 2009) is both incorrect and fundamentally incoherent. In its place, state control should be limited to helping individuals choose their own ends, in their own individual manner. What is call the ‘comparative approach’ is that which attempts to improve lives, not perfect them, for it recognises that perfection is beyond humanity (Sen, 2009). I shall begin by outlining what the transcendentalists hope to achieve.

I will then argue that this approach is fundamentally flawed – it views questions posed by political philosophy in the manner of mathematical problems, where there is a single and definitive truth, when in fact humanity does not conform to such rigidity (Berlin, 2003). For transcendentalism, extensive state control is necessary for the ‘correct’ realisation of human

existence. However, I propose that state control must be limited, and pluralistic life choices allowed. Instead of state control moulding individuals to fit a desired end, liberty must be preserved to allow people to flourish in their own individual manner.

Some hold that the ends of life are single, knowable and universal.

It is found within each and every individual, rationalising can, and moreover must, result in this one undeniable truth. Such is the theory of transcendentalists, Plato and Rousseau amongst others. They state that once this truth is recognised, humanity is awakened to the knowledge of how to lead a harmonious, utopian life. Rousseau’s general will and Plato’s ideal republic are both expressions of this search. For Rousseau, man comes to be truly free once he reasons correctly, comes to understand the truth, and sees that life has one goal – that of obeying the general will. Submission to reason not only creates ‘absolute liberty’, it also brings equality, justice, knowledge, happiness, mercy. All restrictions - slavery, the chains of passion - are removed (Berlin, 2003, p.47). Life becomes harmonised, balanced perfectly – all pieces of the jigsaw puzzle of life fit together 27

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faultlessly. This is the utopianism of transcendentalism. Once knowledge of this utopia is acquired, where all human goals are achieved, there are no costs too great; nothing should stand in the way of the true, perfect and everlasting human existence. Yet it is this dogmatic certainty that there is a definitive answer to all of life’s problems that has caused more bloodshed and misery than any other idea.

Nazi Fascism and Soviet Russia’s Communism are the failed attempts at achieving Rousseau’s dream.

The 20th century is the tale of this certainty colliding with reality. The notion of a ‘final solution’ is what transcendentalists seek, and all the historical connotations of this phrase are entirely appropriate (Berlin, 1990). Nazi Fascism and Soviet Russia’s Communism are the failed attempts at achieving Rousseau’s dream; he, along with Plato, is the forefather of the pursuit of freedom through violence and coercion, from the French Revolution to the modern day – for as he says, people must be ‘forced to be free’ (Rousseau, 1994, p.58; Russell, 2009; Popper, 2002). This theory has caused unimaginable horror, and this is the ideal that I shall argue is so drastically far from what it purports to uphold: individual liberty.

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Rousseau claims that obeying the general will not only provides freedom, it also guarantees equality, ‘absolute justice’ and fairness – in sum, everything that we have reason to value. This ignores what Berlin calls the ‘tragedy of choice’ – that genuine and ideal goals do not harmonise into a perfect and single truth, for they are in conflict (Gray, 1996, p.63). Liberty and equality are in constant tension; democracy and security do not perfectly correlate; mercy and justice diverge; these truths are ignored by Rousseau and his ilk, for they take it to be that any loss of a good must be the result of an error. Rousseau maintains that life must have a single and reasoned answer, for all genuine questions have genuine answers – ‘truth is one, error alone is multiple’ (Berlin, 2003, p.28). Yet one sees liberty curtailed in the name of security, equality promoted in preference to freedom.

These are necessary choices, but what is essential is that they are recognised as being choices – they are not a failure of human reason, but a result of the necessity of trade-offs, of different desires, characters, interests and beliefs. Transcendentalism ignores the pluralistic and divergent interests and desires of individuals. It supposes that humanity is a being that can be shaped into a perfect form. Yet as Kant said, and Berlin echoed, ‘out of the crooked timber of humanity nothing entirely straight can be carved’ (Berlin, 1990, p.19), and attempts to carve individu-

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als perfectly result in snapping the timber. It is therefore essential to recognise the known imperfection of the comparative approach, to realise that different opinions are not necessarily the result of incorrect reasoning, because it is only this approach that can serve the incommensurable nature of human interests. In place of utopian ideals, comparative and pragmatic attitudes must be adopted. Striving for improvement neither requires nor finds transcendentalism helpful; instead discourse must be allowed, people must be given room to pursue their pluralistic ends (Sen, 2009). The ‘experiments in living’ (Mill, 1991, p.63) that Mill called for are continually necessary, for people are continually different. Consequently, when humanity

‘Carving an Angel’ by Tatjana http://tellaine.deviantart.com/

is seen as having incommensurable values, what is necessary is not control to apply a uniform end of life, which ‘reason’ dictates is correct for all, for no such truth exists. Instead, state control must be minimised, allowing a pluralism of life choices and ensuring the liberty to lead the life one thinks is best. It is this approach that serves the ‘progressive being’ of man.

To conclude, the transcendental approach sees all human dilemmas in the same light as mathematical questions, where one and only one answer is conceivable. However, this fails to appreciate the tragedy of human choice; of the need to trade-off ideals in order to create an environment suitable for the varied paths of people.

Transcendentalism tries to correct the ‘crooked timber of humanity’, but instead, snaps it. The ideals proposed do not lead to utopia. Instead they lead to dogmatism and the tyranny of certainty. Control of the individual, the shaping of his life in accordance with supposed reason, creates this danger. As captains of their boats, to use Plato’s analogy, Rousseau and Plato dictate that there is one, and only one, destination (Plato, 2007). They hope to steer the people to this absolute end. Yet this boat is not hoping to sail on the sea, their target is to ascend to heaven – this is their desired end, and this is their failure. For the ends of life cannot be controlled, instead they must be allowed to flourish in all appropriate areas. One must recognise the plural29

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ism of human ends. This is captured by the comparative approach that does not seek perfection. Perhaps it is not so inspiring for revolutionaries at the barricades, but it suits the nature of humanity. It does not attempt ascention to heaven; instead it recognises that man is diverse and grounded, and it allows him to stand on his own two feet.

Bibliography available online at www.voxjournal.co.uk _____________________________

Dan Iley-Williamson is a first year undergraduate student reading Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the University of York.

How the rich control the poor

By Roy Moore

I

T HAS BEEN HALF A CENTURY SINCE MOST OF THE FORMER COLONIES

of European and American powers became independent countries. During this time many have hoped these countries would establish their own successful institutions, but the aftermath of colonialism allowed ‘first-world’ countries to more subtly control the lives and economies of their former slaves. The institutions of political power, generally adapted from their old colonial masters, seem out of context in Africa, Asia and Latin America respectively; arbitrary boundaries cut across tribal settlements, laying the foundations for many conflicts later to come. Too often critics have blamed tribal differences for regional conflicts, without alluding to the nature of the conflicts, which more often reflects competition between organised elites 30

for the monopoly of violence, the worst of which, as we shall see, was often sponsored by Europeans and Americans (Berkeley, 2001).

For newly independent countries, it is difficult to establish an infrastructure and develop the nation without the interference of former masters. Corruption is a huge problem which still raises questions of legitimacy in even the most ‘developed’ countries in the world. Aside from the ‘cash for honours’ scandal and the more recent expenses row in the United Kingdom, one particularly interesting case is that of Paul Singer, whose company bought discounted Peruvian debt for US$11 million. He later threatened to bankrupt the country if they did not repay the full value of US$58 million, a figure he received in full. More recently he has sued the Republic of Congo for

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US $400 million for a debt he bought for just US $10 million. Such ‘vulture funds’ prey on ‘developing’ countries, regularly using the British legal system to pursue their cases, exploiting sympathy for creditors rather than debtors.

Paul Singer was also the largest contributor to George Bush and the Republican Cause in New York City, donating US$1.7 million since Bush’s first presidential campaign and US$15 million to Rudolph Giuliani’s campaign.

Another vulture fund, Debt Advisory International, took US$40 million from Zambia for a debt it bought for less than US $4 million while contributing US$240,000 annually to lobbying firms. These donations and contributions have inevitably affected policies, and the legal system itself; democratic principles are being bought out for special interests - interests which are affecting more remote parts of the

world as globalisation spreads (Palast & Goodman, 2007).

Corruption is often cited as a major cause of increases in poverty despite massive injections of ‘aid’ from developed countries and their respective institutions. In Uganda, for example, it was noted that “less than 36% of expenditure in the health and education sub-sectors reach the intended beneficiaries: the health centres, hospitals and schools” (Potter, 2000). What is often forgotten, however, is that Ugandan leaders, such as Idi Amin, subject of the recent film ‘The Last King of Scotland’, were groomed by the British who, in return, received lucrative business opportunities in the area. Aiding his coup and providing military and financial assistance, the British sponsored his brutal regime which killed tens of thousands of people, displacing many more and destroy-

31

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ing the Ugandan economy (Hebditch and Connor, 2005). Unfortunately this is a recurring theme as the coup d’état remains the most common form of regime change in developing nations; British and US-sponsored coups and regimes in Chile, Nicaragua, Liberia, DR Congo, Indonesia, Philippines, have resulted in millions of people dying from war and its effects.

Globalisation and Debt The more globalisation has taken route, the more capital has been free to travel the world in search of the cheapest labour. Initially it was argued that trade liberalisation would bring benefit to all, but more recently it has become plain that “80% of the world suffers from these forces but do not participate in their benefits... only those economies with per capita incomes of more than US$10,000 can even hope to come out ahead.” (Potter, 2000). It is common practice for the World Bank, IMF and governments to attach tariff and subsidy reductions as conditions for their loans. Such practice is encouraged under the rhetoric of the free market, but has rarely provided benefits to those poorer countries that cannot compete with foreign subsidised goods (Stiglitz 2002 & 2007). In one particular act of hypocrisy, during WTO negotiations, the US offered to reduce tariffs on 97% of imports from ‘developing’ countries, a number specifically chosen to eliminate competitive foreign goods, such as Bangladeshi textiles, 32

while Bangladesh would be free to export jet engines and other goods it has no capacity to produce. This was offered in return for imposed conditions of trade upon the ‘developing’ countries, which has been estimated to cost ‘developing’ countries US$350 billion annually. Conditionalities on loans have historically given greater trading platforms to the ‘developed’ countries, who received a “net transfer of funds between 1980-86 [which] totalled almost US $650 billion”, a figure that has continued to increase (Potter, 2000).

The country with the lowest tariffs, Haiti, is also one of the poorest, as second-hand foreign goods are dumped in its economy; without the infrastructure for domestic industry to compete, unemployment increased when the domestic suppliers failed. In many ways, Haiti’s poverty is sustained by the global economic order. Aid for Haiti in the wake of the recent natural disaster, though well-meaning, will never be successful unless the broader issues of crippling debt, unemployment and poverty are properly addressed. The global economic order works for the richest, not the poorest; for every US$1 in loans, US$25 is given back (Shah, 2006). The Latin American and Caribbean “region paid US$1.165 trillion in debt service over the last two decades of the century and still owed Northern creditors US$750 billion at the end of the millennium (Garcia, 1999, original emphasis). This

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unsustainable debt continues to grow in compound interest, inflation and inability to pay: Africa, Asia and the Latin American/Caribbean region owed US$610 billion in 1980, by 1997 they owed US$2.3 trillion (Potter, 2000).

Aid? It seems paradoxical to call loans to developing countries ‘aid’, given the imposed conditions and the subsequent profit earned by richer nations.

Peruvian economist Javier Iguiniz, for example, notes that “to eliminate Peru’s extreme poverty would cost US$332 million a year”; Peru pays five times that amount in annual debt service (Boyd, 1999). It seems very possible to help such countries, but the IMF and World Bank, among other agencies, focus more on macroeconomic factors and their own interests.

Despite heavy criticism, there seems to be little change in the way the IMF and World Bank operate. The IMF’s Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF), which would attach conditions of structural change to loans, mostly involving trade liberalisation and reductions in public spending, evolved into Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP). PRSPs are a concept which supposedly includes input from the borrowing country’s civil society, government and NGOs, but which has subsequently been criticised for doing none of these effectively. On one occasion, the IMF gave two days’ notice to those it invited to its dis-

cussions, clearly sending the message that everyone must fit their timetable around the IMF, excluding any who could not (Stiglitz, 2002).

Our Moral Demands Such massive escalations in poverty and unsustainable debt hurt most of the world, creating inequalities whereby “the three richest individuals in the world have combined wealth greater than the 48 least developed countries and their 600 million inhabitants” (Potter, 2000). With 24,000 children dying every day due to malnutrition and easily preventable diseases (You, et al.), while life expectancy is half that of many ‘developed’ countries - there is an ever growing demand for justice in those ‘developing’ countries. Having paid many times more than their original loans, it would be fair for the governments of developing countries to refuse to pay any debt they currently owe, while lobbying for massive trade reforms. These would eliminate the hypocritical protectionism of those developed countries that demand trade liberalisation from developing countries. For half the world’s population, who must survive on US$2 a day, there is no irony that the average European cow is subsidised US$2 a day, it is simply another cruel twist in the narrative of world politics (Potter, 2000).

Many debts are from loans given by the World Bank, IMF, and European and American governments 33

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because of the profit margins, political ideology and geopolitics. Knowing the human cost and financial corruption of Mobutu, Suharto, Amin and others, demanding the poorest people pay for these mistakes is morally abhorrent.

It is also in our interest, though, to establish a fairer trade system, eliminating British subsidies would save billions for taxpayers while simultaneously lowering prices. The solutions are there and, in many cases, obvious.

The initial step is to develop the will to demand from the rich elite who affect

such control, that there is a limit to how much inequality can be tolerated.

It is not a matter of ‘aid’, or charity: it is simply a matter of justice.

Bibliography available online at www.voxjournal.co.uk _____________________________ Roy Moore is a third year undergraduate student reading Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the University of York.

resources and their role in conflict

By Bethany Donkin

S

INCE THE END OF THE COLD WAR IN THE EARLY 1990s, and the ideological divide between communism and capitalism, certain aspects of conflict have become much more prominent as states have had to find alternative sources to fund their conflicts. There is no longer any need for so-called super-powers, such as the United States of America, to fund conflicts in different parts of the world.

The incidence of conflicts by proxy, which were closely linked with the Cold War, has been reduced. Instead, conflicts have developed a highly dis34

tinctive element relating to the desire to control resources. This control of resources can fund conflicts, allowing them to be sustained over generations, such as in Angola. However, this need to control resources can also be linked to a need to support economic growth within a state, such as the situation in the South China Sea. The necessity of control often specifically relates to which resources are being controlled.

For example, those linked to economic growth are most often oil and natural gas, whereas resources that allow conflict to be sustained over generations,

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as in Africa, are typically mineral resources such as diamonds. Therefore, the role of resources has become a crucial element to modern conflict, but the importance of these resources depends on their individual nature, and the initial reasons for the conflict.

Disputes over resources may not be the reason that conflict begins in a state, but the fact that this type of resource-related warfare most frequently appears in developing countries cannot be ignored. The resource based dimension to conflicts can often be a contributing factor as to why this type of conflict may be so protracted.

Post-colonial states are often seen as particularly vulnerable to resource conflict, explaining the geographic concentration of resource conflicts to areas like Africa and South-East Asia. Post independence, countries often enter a transitional phase in their development. These anocracies are a unique mixture of autocracy and democracy specific to the state, and are notoriously politically unstable. This causes states to appear weak, especially politically, making them particularly vulnerable to conflict. Post-colonial governments can sometimes identify with a certain set of interests - whether these are ethnic interests, in the case of the Sinhalese in Sri Lanka, or political - since the interests of the colonial power may be represented more effectively than the will of the people. This can often lead to dissatisfaction within the state, as certain groups may feel

excluded, and such discontent with the state and its institutions can result in conflict.

However, conflicts require a huge amount of funding to equip the military for warfare, which is where resources become crucial to modern conflict. In states where resources are lootable, for example mineral wealth such as diamonds, it becomes relatively easy for groups to find the necessary funds to engage in conflict.

These lootable resources are normally classified as timber, narcotics, or minerals such as diamonds or gems. Mineral wealth has been particularly associated with the funding of conflict in Sierra Leone and Angola. In these cases, states could, for a long period of time, sell diamonds on the international market to fund their ongoing conflicts.

Conflict have developed a highly distinctive element relating to the desire to control resources.

With market leaders such as De Beers in South Africa purchasing these diamonds, it was relatively easy for warring factions to secure the funding necessary to continue the conflict. This was curtailed to an extent by the diamond embargo which the United Nations (UN) placed on Angola and Sierra Leone to prevent conflict diamonds from getting into the global market, 35

VOX - The Student Journal of Politics, Economics and Philosophy

and therefore dramatically reduced the funding available to warring factions.

Diamond funded conflict is also further reduced by the Kimberley Process, which requires rough diamonds to be certified. Most diamonds mined from these states get sold into the Western Market and by the UN initiating such a process, coupled with their status as a luxury good, their high cost means that many people want the appropriate documentation to show that the diamond is of value. This made it much easier for the UN to place sanctions on states, thereby reducing their ability to fund conflict through a resource such as diamonds. Yet this is not appropriate for other lootable resources, such as timber, as they are much more difficult to restrict in a similar way.

Resource conflicts are not solely concerned with resources which

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can be exported. Unlootable resources such as oil, natural gas and water are also a huge source of conflict. Many countries have changed their defence policies to ensure that the resources they import from other states, on which their economy is dependent, remain safe. For example, the United States of America signed an agreement with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to protect it from external threats.

The oil found in the Persian Gulf is essential to America and its economy, therefore America feels that it is necessary to safe guard this resource. This means that countries are willing to intervene to ensure the safety of parts of their economy, enforcing the notion that resources are a huge factor in conflict. Essential resources for life, such as oil and water, are seen to be much more likely to start large scale

Issue XII - Summer 2010

conflicts in comparison to lootable resources. Due to such resources often crossing state boundaries, and many oil reserves being found under the sea, claims to these resources can become much more contested in comparison to those on land. In the case of water, countries further up stream can have control over how much passes through to other states – states that may be entirely reliant on this water.

With growing economies in many developing countries being dependent on importing resources such as oil, to be less dependent is seen positively. Furthermore, with growing populations, more and more pressure is being put on these resources, and states are willing to use conflict to ensure the survival of their population.

The World Bank suggests that a state is four times more likely to experience conflict if it has primary commodities than if it does not. Therefore states with these resources are likely to be experiencing, or to have recently experienced, conflict. This implies that resources are integral to the funding of warfare, as modern conflicts, unlike the super-power funded wars associated with the Cold War, are becoming self-funded. Collier suggests these conflicts are started solely to further personal interests, with greed as the driving force. However, the ‘paradox of plenty’ is where countries with natural resources, and particularly those which are non-renewable, often experience less economic growth and

development, suggesting that multiple factors are required for conflict to break out. These factors include macroeconomic instability, a government dominated by the elite and corrupt, oppressed groups within society, and a significant proportion of society living in poverty. When combined, such factors make conflicts funded by resources, or conflicts breaking out due to an unequal distribution of resources, much more likely.

Natural resources can be exploited solely for personal gain; however exploitation is driven by greed which can lead to a much more unequal distribution of resources, making conflicts within in a state much more likely. Therefore it can be seen that such conflicts revolve around the ‘predatory exploitation of lucrative natural resources’ (Ballentine, 2001, pg1). Thus, although conflict may begin due to a sense of grievance, with factions feeling that they have a cause worth fighting for, if a war is seen to be more profitable than peace, then sadly greed and personal gain could be seen as huge contributing factors in a lot of drawn out and bloody resourcerelated wars.

Bibliography available online at www.voxjournal.co.uk _____________________________ Beth Donkin is a first year undergraduate student reading Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the University of York.

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Bibliographies MASTERY OVER NATURE

By Riccard Mastini Berkes, F., Folke, C. (1998), Linking social and ecological systems, Cambridge University Press Berkes, F. (1999), Sacred Ecology, Tailor & Francis Callicott, J. B. (1989), In Defense of the Land Ethic, State University of New York Press Chrispeels, M., Sadava, D. (1994), Plants, genes and agriculture, Jones & Bartlett Publishers Holling, C. S. (1995), Biodiversity in the functioning of ecosystems, in C. Perrings, eds. Biodiversity Loss, Cambridge University Press, pp.

44-83 Leiss, W. (1972), The domination of Nature, Beacon Press Boston Pollan, M. (2006), The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Large Print Press Rifkin, J. (1989), Interviewed by Dick Thompson, The Most hated man in science: JEREMY RIFKIN, Time Magazine, 4 December 1989 Rockstrom, J., et al. (2009), A safe operating system for humanity, Nature, 461, 472-475 Rolston, Holmes, III (1988), Environmental Ethics, Temple University Press Shiva, V. (1993), Monocultures of the Mind, Zed Books Ltd Stiglitz, J. (2002), Globalization and its discontents, Penguin Books

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TAKING OBAMA AT HIS WORDS

By Professor Kenneth Lasson 1 See Geroge Washington Quotes, thinkexist. com, available at http://thinkexist.com/quotation/government_is_not_reason-it_is_not_eloquence-it/10898.html.

2 See Michael Slackman, “On Eve of Obama’s Visit, Egyptians Crave Deeds More Than Words,” NEW YORK TIMES, June 4, 2009.

3 “Israeli Media Have Mixed Reaction to Obama Cairo Speech,” QATAR NEWS AGENCY, June 5, 2009.

4 Id. 5 Remarks By President Obama, White House Documents and Publications, June 5, 2009, available at http://www.lexisnexis.com/lawschool/ research/default.aspx?ORIGINATION_ CODE=00092&signoff=off.

6 Id. 7 Id. 8 Id.. See also Jeff Zeleny and Nicholas Kulish, “At Ceremony Looking Back, Call by Obama to End Stalemate in Middle East,” NEW YORK TIMES, June 6, 2009.

9 Quote by David Hume, IWise/Wisdom on Demand, available at http://www.iwise.com/ ZUN2h.

Issue XII - Summer 2010

MOTIVE TO REBEL

By Timothy Alston Abraham, H. (2001) ‘Dancing with the Chameleon: Sierra Leone and the Elusive Quest for Peace’, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, Vol. 19, (2) pp.205-228 Collier,P., Hoeffler, A., Söderbom,M. (2004) ‘On the Duration of Civil War’, Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 41, (3) pp. 253-273 Kelly, D. (1998) The Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintergration of Child Soldiers in Liberia, 1994-1997: The Process and Lessons Learned (New York: Unicef) Lujala, P. (2009) ‘Deadly Combat over Natural Resources: Gems, Petroleum, Drugs, and the Severity of Armed Civil Conflict’ Vol.53 (1) pp.50-71 Lujala, P. (2010) ‘The spoils of nature: Armed civil conflict and rebel access to natural resources’ Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 47 (1) pp.15-28 Ngolet, F. (2000) ‘African and American Connivance in Congo-Zaire’ Africa Today, Vol. 47 (1) pp.65-85 Page, J., 2009, Chinese billions in Sri Lanka fund battle against Tamil Tigers. Times Online, 2 May. Available at: http://www.timesonline. co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6207487. ece [Accessed 12 April 2010] Ross, Michael. 2005. Booty futures. Working paper. Dept. of Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles. http://www.polisci. ucla.edu/faculty/ross/bootyfutures.pdf (accessed March 19, 2010).

Sesay, A. (2003) Civil Wars, Child Soldiers and Post Conflict Peace Building in west Africa (College Press and Publishers Ltd) Sesay A., Ismail W. (2003) The Phenomenon

of Child Soldiers in Armed Conflicts in Liberia and Sierra Leone. In Sesay ed. Civil Wars, Child Soldiers and Post Conflict Peace Building in west Africa (College Press and Publishers Ltd) Ch.5 Zack-Williams, T., B. (2006) ‘Child Soldiers in Sierra Leone and the Problems of Demobilisation, Rehabilitation and Reintegration into Society: Some Lessons for Social Workers in Wartorn Societies’ Social Work Education, Vol. 25 (2) pp.119-128. ____________________________________

CONTROL IN COMMAND ECONOMIES

By Peter Hill Lord Acton. (1887). Letter to the scholar and ecclesiastic Mandell Creighton, Also known as, Lord Acton’s Diktum. URL: http://www.acton.org/research/acton/lol-lord-acton-quotegenerator.php. Accessed: 25/03/10.

US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis.

(1928). Olmstead vs. United States. Washington DC: United States Supreme Court.

Christian, P. (2001.) Hayek’s Liberalism and Its Origins: His Idea of Spontaneous Order and the Scottish Enlightenment. Routledge: London. p. 2 Getty, Rittersporn, Zemskov. (Oct., 1993). Victims of the Soviet Penal System in the Pre-War Years: A First Approach on the Basis of Archival Evidence. The American Historical Review, Vol. 98, No. 4 pp. 1017-1049.

Hayek, F. A. (1935), “The Nature and History of the Problem” and “The Present State of the Debate,” from in F. A. Hayek, ed. Collectivist Economic Planning, pp. 1-40, 201-43.

Laswell, H. D. (1911). Politics Who Gets What, When and How. Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith Pub Inc.

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Marx, K. (1875). Part I. Critique of the Gotha Program. URL = http://www.marxists.org/ archive/marx/works/1875/gotha/ch01.htm.

Retrieved: 20/03/10 Von Mises, L. (1920). Economic calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth. Ludwig von Mises Institute. URL = http://mises.org/pdf/ econcalc.pdf. Retrieved: 20/03/10 The Supreme Soviet of the United Soviet Socialist Republics. (1977). The 1977 USSR Constitution. URL = http://www.departments. bucknell.edu/russian/const/1977toc.html.

Retrieved: 20/03/10. ____________________________________

INVISIBLE WOMEN

By Alexanra Khoo Buckland, J. (1998) ‘From Relief and Development to Assisted Self-Reliance: Non-Governmental Organizations in Bangladesh’ Journal of Humanitarian Assistance. Available at: http:// www.jha.ac/articles/a052.htm (Accessed 26th February 2010).

Catagay A. (2001) Trade, Gender and Poverty.

New York: United Nations Development Programme. [Internet] Available at: http://www. libertyparkusafd.org/lp/Hancock/papers/Tr ade,%20Gender%20and%20Poverty.pdf (Accessed 13th February 2010).

Chant, S. (2003) New Contributions to the Analysis of Poverty: Methodological and Conceptual Challenges to Understanding Poverty from a Gender Perspective. Santiago: United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. [Internet] Available at: http://www.eclac.cl/publicaciones/ xml/6/13156/lcl1955i.pdf (Accessed 6th March 2010) Chant, S. (2008) ‘The ‘Feminisation of Pov-

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erty’ and the ‘Feminisation’ of Anti-Poverty Programmes: Room for Revision?’ Journal of Development Studies. 44(2) p.165- 97 Department for International Development (DFID) (2000) Poverty Elimination and the Empowerment of Women. London: DFID. Dollar, D. & R. Gatti. (1999) ‘Gender Inequality, Income, and Growth: Are Good Times Good for Women?’ World Bank Policy Research Report Working Paper No. 1. Washington DC: World Bank. [Internet] Available at: http:// darp.lse.ac.uk/frankweb/courses/EC501/ DG.pdf (Accessed 26th February 2010) Harris-White B. (2010) ‘Work and Wellbeing in Informal Economies: The Regulative Roles of Institutions of Identity and the State’ World Development. 38(2), p.170-183 Hulme D. & Shephard A. (2003) ‘Conceptualising Chronic Poverty’ World development. 13 (31) p.403-423. [Internet] Available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/ science?_ob=MImg&_imagekey=B6VC64811T8B-4-1&_cdi=5946&_user=126317&_p ii=S0305750X0200222X&_orig=search&_ coverDate=03/31/2003&_sk=999689996&v iew=c&wchp=dGLbVtz-zSkzk&md5=13c32 b8b1004842b9013b75b252b4aa7&ie=/sdarticle.pdf (Accessed 13th February 2010) Kabeer, N. (2003) Gender Mainstreaming in Poverty Eradication and the Millennium Development Goals. London: Commonwealth Secretariat & the International Development Research Centre and the Canadian International Development Agency. [Internet] Available at: http://www.idrc.ca/openebooks/067-5/ (Accessed 6th March 2010) Mayoux, L. (2005) ‘Integrating Gender Policy in Micro-Finance: Community Development Centre (CODEC), Bangladesh’ Aga Khan Foundation Website on Sustainable Micro-finance for Women’s Empowerment. [Internet] Available at: http://www.genfinance.info/ Case%20Studies/CODEC_genfinance.pdf (Accessed 18th February 2010)

Issue XII - Summer 2010 Mayoux, L., and J-P Lacoste (2005) ‘Saving for Sustainability: Self-Help Development Foundation’ Aga Khan Foundation Website on Sustainable Micro-finance for Women’s Empowerment. [Internet] Available at: http://www. genfinance.info/Case%20Studies/SHDF_genfinance.pdf (Accessed 18th February 2010) MkNelly, B. & McCord, M. (2002) ‘Economic capacity and security’ Credit With Education Impact Review No. 2. p.1-23 Ozerdem, A. & Rufini, O. (2005) ‘Humanitarianism and the Principles of Humanitarian Action in Post-Cold war context’ In S. Barakat (ed.) After the Conflict: reconstruction and development in the aftermath of War. London: I. B. Taurus. p.51-66.

Sen. A. (1999) Development as Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sudarshan R. & Unni J. ( 2001) ‘When homebased workers raise their voices: An Indian perspective’ SAIS Review. 21(1) p. 109-115.

Whitehead A. (2003) ‘Failing Women, Sustaining Poverty’ Gender and Development Network & Christian Aid. [Internet] Available at: http://www.siyanda.org/docs/gad_failingwomen.pdf (Accessed 13th February 2010) Were M. & Kiringai J. (2004) ‘Gender Mainstreaming in Macro Economic Policies and Poverty Reduction Strategy in Kenya’ Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis. Nairobi: African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) ____________________________________

SNAPPING THE CROOKED TIMBER

By Dan Iley-Williamson Berlin, I. (1990) The Pursuit of an Ideal in The Crooked Timber of Humanity (London, John Murray)

Berlin, I. (2003) Freedom and its Betrayal (London, Pimlico Press) Gray, J. (1996) Isaiah Berlin (Princeton, Princeton University Press) Mill, J. S. (1991) On Liberty and other essays (Oxford, Oxford University Press) Plato. (2007) The Republic (London, Penguin) Popper, K. (2002) The Open Society and its Enemies (Abingdon, Routledge) Rousseau, J. J. (1994) The Social Contract (Oxford, Oxford University Press) Russell, B. (2009) A History of Western Philosophy (Abingdon, Routledge) Sen, A. (2009) The Idea of Justice (London, Allen Lane) ____________________________________

HOW THE RICH CONTROL THE POOR

By Roy Moore Berkeley, B. The Graves are not yet Full: Race, Tribe and Power in the Heart of Africa, Basic Books, 2001 Hebditch, D. & Connor, K. How to Stage a Military Coup: From Planning to Execution, Greenhill, 2005 Palast, G. & Goodman, A. Vulture Fund Threat to Third World, BBC 2007, available at: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Third_ World/Vulture_Funds.html, last accessed 00:31, 13/4/2010 Pilger, J. Suharto, the Model Killer, and His Friends in High Places, available at: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Pilger_ John/Suharto_US_Killer.html, last accessed 13:35, 25/3/2010

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VOX - The Student Journal of Politics, Economics and Philosophy Potter, G.A. Deeper Than Debt, Latin American Bureau, 2000 Shah, A., Poverty Facts and Stats, 2010: http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/ poverty-facts-and-stats, last accessed 20:07 7/2/2010 Shah, A. The Scale of the Debt Crisis, 2005, available at: www.globalissues.org/article/30/ the-scale-of-the-debt-crisis, last accessed 02:00, 8/4/2010 Stiglitz, J. Globalization and its Discontents, Penguin Press 2002 Stiglitz, J. Making Globalization Work, Penguin Books 2007 You, D., Wardlow, T., Salama P., and Jones, G., 2009, ‘Levels and trends in under 5-mortality, 1990-2008’, The Lancet, 375, no. 9709 pp.100103 (Garcia 1999 & Boyd 1999 quoted in Potter, 2000)

RESOURCES AND THEIR ROLE IN CONFLICT

By Bethany Donkin Ballentine, Karen and Nitzschke, Heiko (2005) Profiting from Peace Managing the Resource Dimensions of Civil War Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers.

Collier, Paul and Hoeffler, Anke (1999) ‘JusticeSeeking and Loot-Seeking in War’ Washington DC: World Bank. (Unpublished paper) Humphreys, Marcatan (2005) ‘ Natural Resources and Armed Conflicts: Issues and Options’ in Karen Ballentine and Heiko Nitzschke (eds) Profiting from Peace Managing the Resource Dimensions of Civil War Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers pp.25-47.

Klare, Michael T (2001) Resource Wars The New Landscape of Global Conflict New York: Henry Holt and Company.

YorkWorks is the Club of PEP’s Career Service.

It is every other week during term time, starting October 2010.

Next theme: Growth Email: info@thetransatlantic.org

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Issue XII - Summer 2010

VOX Call for Papers VOX - the Student Journal for Politics Economics and Philosophy is calling for articles to be submitted for the Autumn Issue 2010, with the broad theme ‘The Pursuit of Happiness’.

Articles should be between 1,000 and 1,250 words in length, and fully-referenced using the Harvard style.

If you would like to write on this theme, please e-mail your article to vox@clubofpep.org.uk by the 16th July 2010.

You may wish to write on a topic from the list below: • • • • • • • • •

Can happiness be defined?

The moral pursuit of happiness (Kantian ethics vs. Utilitarianism) The Economics of Happiness Is happiness just another commodity for sale?

International development and well-being European welfare states – breeding grounds for happy people?

Do advances in science always tend toward the greater good of humanity?

Work – making necessity enjoyable ____________ (your own idea)

(Undergraduates, Graduates and Academics all welcome) Back issues and bibliographies are available at: www.voxjournal.co.uk.

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