Lessons for African economies from Irish and East Asian industry policy

When comparisons in terms of industrial policy lessons to be learned have taken place, it has tended to be solely vis-a-vis the ‘development state’ East Asian experience. This paper broadens the analysis and considers lessons which African countries can learn from other so-called ‘tiger’ economies including Ireland and the East and South Asian countries. We recognise that the latter are indeed clearly significant as many African countries at the time of independence had economic structures and levels of income quite similar to East Asian countries, yet have grown at vastly different rates since then. Exploring why this has been the case can thus offer important insights into possibilities for industrial policy. Yet this comes with some health warnings over East Asian experience. We suggest that another important contribution can come by looking at the Irish example, given its emphasis on corporatism rather than simply relying on state direction in the operation of industrial policy. The Irish model is also more democratic in some senses and has protected workers’ rights during the development process in contrast to the often highly dirigisite East Asian model. Overall we suggest that some immediate actions are needed, notably with regard to the financial system in small African economies. Without such changes, a poorly functioning financial system will continue to keep investment at low levels. In relation to the small size of the African economies, the paper recommends regional integration and sufficient overseas development assistance (ODA) for infrastructural development. It is also critical to note that the various small African economies each face their own industrial and economic development challenges, and that a ‘one size fits all’ approach is not appropriate; rather the key is to tailor policies and systems to the unique opportunities and development challenges in each African country.

Le groupe du Fer de Lance mélanésien face à ses défis

Cet article examine la complexité du processus d’intégration régionale en Océanie à travers le cas du groupe du Fer de Lance mélanésien (gflm). L’émergence de cette structure subrégionale en 1988 avait pour but d’affirmer la spécificité mélanésienne au cœur du Pacifique Sud. Or, en vingt-cinq années d’existence, le Fer de Lance ne semble pas avoir pleinement réalisé tous les objectifs qu’il s’était initialement fixés. Ses ambitions, politiques en particulier, ne sont qu’en partie réalisées. Quant à la récente présidence fidjienne du Fer de Lance, elle a tenté de donner une nouvelle stature régionale au groupe, mais y est-elle parvenue ? Cet article analyse les défis politiques, intérieurs et extérieurs, que le gflm rencontre depuis sa création et considère ceux qui lui restent à relever. This paper examines the complexities of regional integration in Oceania through the case study of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG). The emergence of a new subregional structure in 1988 aimed to support the development of the Melanesian identity within the South Pacific. However, after twenty-five years of existence, the Spearhead Group does not seem to have reached all its initial objectives. Its political ambition has only partly been achieved. The recent Fijian leadership of the MSG has attempted to give a new regional dimension to the Melanesian group, but has it succeeded? This paper analyses how the subregional group has faced the challenges that emerged from its regional environment as well as from within its own structure. It fnally considers the new challenges ahead for the Melanesian group.

DEA-R:ratio-based comparative efficiency model, its mathematical relation to DEA and its use in applications

We propose a new mathematical model for efficiency analysis, which combines DEA methodology with an old idea-Ratio Analysis. Our model, called DEA-R, treats all possible ratios "output/input" as outputs within the standard DEA model. Although DEA and DEA-R generate different summary measures for efficiency, the two measures are comparable. Our mathematical and empirical comparisons establish the validity of DEA-R model in its own right. The key advantage of DEA-R over DEA is that it allows effective integration of the model with experts' opinions via flexible restrictive conditions on individual "output/input" pairs. © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

A new role for Low German? Language insertion as bilingual practice in the process of language shift

This article analyses language insertion as a bilingual communicative practice, applying a functional, speaker-focused approach to the study of sociolinguistics and language contact. The article is based on a study of contact phenomena in a formerly diglossic region in Northern Germany, where the previously spoken language – Low German – is in the process of being replaced by the dominant standard variety, German. It examines regional publications in order to establish the linguistic techniques by which Low German elements are incorporated into the Standard German texts and the communicative purposes that they serve. The paper concludes that in the process of language shift an emblematic repertoire from Low German is created which can be applied into the dominant contact language, German, for specific communicative purposes.

War crimes, conditionality and EU integration in the Western Balkans

The baleful legacy of the wars of the 1990s continues to dog the states and societies of the former Yugoslavia and has overshadowed the disappointingly slow and hesitant trajectory of the region towards the EU. At the start of the new millennium, with the removal of key wartime leaders from the political scene in both Croatia and Serbia, it was widely hoped that the region would prove able to ‘leave the past behind’ and rapidly move on to the hopeful new agenda of EU integration. The EU’s Copenhagen criteria, which in 1993 first explicitly set out the basic political conditions expected of aspirant EU Member States, proved effective in the case of the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe in supporting the entrenchment of democratic norms and practices, and stimulating reconciliation and good neighbourly relations among countries with turbulent histories. Building on this experience, the Stabilisation and Association Process, launched for the countries of the Western Balkans in 1999, included both full cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and regional reconciliation among the political conditions set for advancing these countries on the path to EU integration. EU political conditionality was intended to support the efforts of new political leaders to redefine national goals away from the nationalist enmities of the past and focus firmly on forging a path to a better future. This Chaillot Paper examines the extent to which this strategy has worked, especially in the light of the difficulties it has encountered in the face of strong resistance to cooperation among sections of the former Yugoslav population, many of whom have not yet fully acknowledged the crimes committed during the 1990s. Key chapters in the volume raise the vital questions of leadership and political will. EU political conditionality does not work unless the EU has a partner ready and willing to ‘play the game’, which presupposes that EU integration has become the overriding priority on the national political agenda.