You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Despite providing society with a set of crucial services, large groups of workers in the informal economy are subject to exclusion and discrimination, and their lives are characterised by various types of vulnerabilities and deprivations that result from the denial of social, economic, political and legal protection. Although not new to the development vocabulary, the informal economy has received renewed attention in recent years largely due to the ILO's 'decent work' agenda and various efforts to promote 'legal empowerment of the poor'. With an explicit focus on labour rights, the book focuses on a nuanced understanding of the regulatory and operational challenges and dilemmas related to implementing the two approaches in selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to analyzing structures and relations of power between the formal and the informal economies, the book critically discusses the work of governments, civil society organizations and the poor themselves to address the daily challenges of living in the informal economy.
The Oxford Handbook of the Malawi Economy is an essential reference material with new research contributions and insights across the different areas of economic development to shape the country's future growth and development trajectory. The volume is the first publication that tries to assess the performance of the Malawi economy since independence, by examining how the underpinning political and economic history, and the associated policies and strategies have affected the country's long-term socio-economic development. It captures a broad range of opinions, approaches, and conclusions, which serve to underline both the complexity of the issues and challenges facing Malawi, and the immense difficulties in tackling them. Common themes emerge as many authors agree that the country needs to learn from its past experiences in terms of policy design and implementation, and the need to implement dynamic policies that could spur productive and sustained growth and development by tackling challenges associated with the continuously evolving global economic environment.
How best to improve the position of the world's poorest people remains one of the major issues facing the human species. This book investigates the role that legal empowerment and rights (including human rights) can play in tackling poverty and enabling poor people in developing countries to take action to improve their positions.
The rise of populism in new democracies, especially in Latin America, has brought renewed urgency to the question of how liberal democracy deals with issues of poverty and inequality. Citizens who feel that democracy failed to improve their economic condition are often vulnerable to the appeal of political leaders with authoritarian tendencies. To counteract this trend, liberal democracies must establish policies that will reduce socioeconomic disparities without violating liberal principles, interfering with economic growth, or ignoring the consensus of the people. Poverty, Inequality, and Democracy addresses the complicated philosophical and moral issues surrounding the distribution of eco...
Builds upon two earlier reports on extreme poverty as well as a mission report on extreme poverty conditions in the United States and takes into account observations of the Expert Seminar on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights in Geneva in 2007.
This book analyzes India’s impressive efforts in responding to sensational and easily visible disasters in contrast to the ‘silent emergency’ of drought-induced under nutrition and starvation deaths. Building on Amartya Sen’s famous claim that no famine has ever occurred in a democratic country, it re-examines the relationship between democracy, public action and famine prevention. Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative data in India at national, state and local levels as well as in-depth field visits to two states on India’s east coast, Orissa and West Bengal, the author analyzes the following issues: the interaction between specific institutions in India and their accountab...
Malawi is among the few countries in sub-Saharan Africa that has witnessed significant improvements in relation to meeting the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets. It exhibits some of the main challenges facing African democracies while they attempt to consolidate the benefits of democratisation. Political Transition and Inclusive Development in Malawi critically analyses opportunities and constraints related to the impact of democracy on development in one of the world’s poorest countries. The book explores how, and to what extent, processes related to democratic and economic governance can be strengthened in order to make political and administrative authorities more responsive to ...
There is much debate about the scope of international law, its compatibility with individual state practice, its enforceability and the recent and limited degree to which it is institutionalized. This collection of essays seeks to address the issue of access to justice, the related element of domestic rule of law which does not yet figure significantly in debates about international rule of law. Even in cases in which laws are passed, institutions are present and key players are ethically committed to the rule of law, those whom the laws are intended to protect may be unable to secure protection. This is an issue in most domestic jurisdictions but also one which poses severe problems for international justice worldwide. The book will be of interest to academics and practitioners of international law, environmental law, transitional justice, international development, human rights, ethics, international relations and political theory.
China’s rise to power is one of the biggest questions in International Relations theory (IRT) and foreign policy circles. Although power has been a core concept of IRT for a long time, the faces and mechanisms of power as it relates to Chinese foreign policymaking has changed the contours of that debate. The rise of China and other powers across the global political arena sparks a new visibility for different kinds of encounters between states, particularly between China and other Global South states. These encounters are more visible to IR scholars because of the increasing influence that rising powers have in the international system. This book shows that foreign policy encounters betwee...
Studying the State explores the results of governments in the Global South, particularly in Latin America, turning to the state as a vehicle for mobilizing people, resources and political change. The book evaluates the results of this return to the state by looking at recent historical events to analyse the outcomes, processes, successes and failures of these projects. It also explores the role of China in affecting the margins of manoeuvrability of states, especially Latin American states. Finally, the book considers various perspectives on the theory of the state, contributing to theoretical approaches in the social sciences but in a way that is always grounded in their utility for addressing real-world problems. Contributing to theoretical understandings of the state through grounded case studies, Studying the State will be of great interest to scholars of Latin America, the Global South and neoliberalism and the state. This book was originally published as a special issue in Third World Thematics.