The Destruction of the Soviet Economic System: An Insider's History
The Destruction of the Soviet Economic System: An Insider's History

Author: Michael Ellman

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-02-24

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 131745748X

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The inside story of the political collpase of the Soviet Union is far better understood than the course of economic and social disintegration. In order to capture the story, the editors compiled a list of questions which they addressed to former top Soviet officials and economic and other policy advisors (both Soviet and foreign) who were privy not only to data on the functioning of the Soviet economy but also to the internal policy debate during the 1980s. This volume assembles the Informants' analyses of key issues and the turning points, and weaves them into a compelling history of systemic collapse. Among the topics investigated are: economic policies in the 1980s; the standard of living: the reliability of Soviet statistics; Gosplan's projections for the economy to the year 2000; was the arms race starving the civilian economy? the role of ideology in supporting the functioning of an economic system; the party's participating in economic management; the influence of foreign advisors; the struggle over a transition program; the functioning and collapse of the supply system, the CMEA, and the foreign trade system.

Centrifugal Empire
Centrifugal Empire

Author: Jae Ho Chung

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2016-09-06

Total Pages: 229

ISBN-13: 023154068X

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Despite the destabilizing potential of governing of a vast territory and a large multicultural population, the centralized government of the People's Republic of China has held together for decades, resisting efforts at local autonomy. By analyzing Beijing's strategies for maintaining control even in the reformist post-Mao era, Centrifugal Empire reveals the unique thinking behind China's approach to local governance, its historical roots, and its deflection of divergent interests. Centrifugal Empire examines the logic, mode, and instrument of local governance established by the People's Republic, and then compares the current system to the practices of its dynastic predecessors. The result is an expansive portrait of Chinese leaders' attitudes toward regional autonomy and local challenges, one concerned with territory-specific preoccupations and manifesting in constant searches for an optimal design of control. Jae Ho Chung reveals how current communist instruments of local governance echo imperial institutions, while exposing the Leninist regime's savvy adaptation to contemporary issues and its need for more sophisticated inter-local networks to keep its unitary rule intact. He casts the challenges to China's central–local relations as perennial, since the dilution of the system's "socialist" or "Communist" character will only accentuate its fundamentally Chinese—or centrifugal—nature.

Introduction to Social Systems Engineering
Introduction to Social Systems Engineering

Author: Huijiong Wang

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-03-28

Total Pages: 728

ISBN-13: 9811070407

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This book integrates the basic theories (GST and Parson’s AGIL framework), applying them to the components of social systems, state-run and business firms. China’s development experience offers a valuable case study that can provide readers deeper insights into this comparatively young discipline, and into China. Though the discipline of systems engineering and its application to hardware engineering system are well established, social systems engineering is an emerging discipline still being explored. This book may be the first English-language publication on this promising subject.

Phases of Rural Development in Malaysia: Shifting Towards Human Resource Development and Well-being (UUM Press)
Phases of Rural Development in Malaysia: Shifting Towards Human Resource Development and Well-being (UUM Press)

Author: Kalthum Hassan

Publisher: UUM Press

Published: 2021-11-28

Total Pages: 145

ISBN-13: 9672486685

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The rural development approach should be flexible and dynamic to correspond with the transformation of the rural economy and society. Therefore, the phases of rural development in Malaysia illustrate the transformation of rural development approaches in Malaysia and how these approaches have changed the overall rural landscape. Different from other books on rural development, this book presents discussion and analysis on rural development approaches since after independence until during the COVID-19 pandemic. The content of the book is a mixture of primary and secondary information gathered from literature reviews, interviews, and on-site observation. It provides a diverse and rich discussion on various aspects of rural development approaches. The early phase of development approach which was at macro level targeting the mass of rural poverty since the poverty incidence was high. The goal of rural development was two prongs; to develop the economy, infrastructure and facility of the rural areas and to alleviate poverty. As the incidence of poverty has reduced remarkably, the development approach has separated from the poverty alleviation programmes. Development initiatives was more to provide basic urban infrastructure and facilities, to develop human resources through skill-training and improve level of education of the rural residents. In addition, rural development provides employment opportunities through decentralization of industrial sector to rural areas and fosters entrepreneurship activities. Meanwhile, the poverty alleviation programmes are tackled at micro level, that is more towards individual or a household level. The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic alters the approach of rural development focusing on providing facilities, services and assistance to preserve the well-being of rural community, especially the low-income group.

Citizens Abroad
Citizens Abroad

Author: Laurie A. Brand

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2006-02-27

Total Pages: 15

ISBN-13: 1139450891

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Despite the fact that the majority of emigration today originates in the global south, most research has focused on the receiving states of Europe and North America, while very little attention has been paid to the policies of the sending states toward emigration or toward their nationals abroad. Taking the country cases of Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon and Jordan, this work explores the relationship between the government of the sending states, the outmovement of their citizens and the communities of expatriates that have developed. By focusing on the evolution of government institutions charged with various aspects of expatriate affairs, this work breaks new ground in understanding the changing nature of the relationship between expatriates and their home state. Far from suggesting that the state is waning in importance, the conclusions indicate that this relationship provides evidence both of state resilience and of new trends in the practice of sovereignty.

De Facto Federalism in China
De Facto Federalism in China

Author: Yongnian Zheng

Publisher: World Scientific

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 458

ISBN-13: 9812706801

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This book is the first attempt to conceptualize ChinaOCOs central-local relations from the behavioral perspective. Although China does not have a federalist system of government, the author believes that, with deepening reform and openness, ChinaOCOs central-local relations is increasingly functioning on federalist principles. Federalism as a functioning system in China is under studied. The author defines the political system existing in China as OC de facto federalismOCO, and provides a detailed analysis of its sources and dynamics in the book. The system is mainly driven by two related factors OCo inter-governmental decentralization and globalization. While economic decentralization since the 1980s has led to the formation of de facto federalism, globalization since the 1990s has accelerated this process and generated increasingly high pressure on the Chinese leadership to institutionalize de facto federalism by various measures of selective recentralization."