Article
Great Divergence of the 18th Century?
The article suggests that the Great Divergence of the 19th century between “the West” and “the East” was preceded by the Great Divergence in the 18th century between the Global North and the Global South. This may be attributed to a new, much higher level of state efficiency in the Global North. The eastern and western regions of the Global North frequently used different methods to make their state apparatuses more efficient, but achieved strikingly similar results during the 18th century. The Great Divergence of the 19th century, remarkably, occurred within the Global North.
The 19th century saw an explosive growth of the gap between the “First” and the “Third” World as regards per capita incomes and levels of life that has become to be known as the “Great Divergence”. In the 20th century the Great Divergence continued up to the early 1970s, and then – in the late of the 1980s one could observe the beginning of the Great Divergence when the growth rates of the majority of the Third World countries started to exceed systematically the growth rates in the majority of the countries of the First World. We demonstrate that the dynamics of the gap between the First and Third World correlate in an unusually tight way with the dynamics of the world population growth. We also demonstrate that this correlation is not coincidental but reflects a very tight correlation between the phases of the global demographic transition and the phases of the Great Divergence / Great Convergence. The process of the Great Divergence that transforms rather smoothly into the process of the Great Convergence and the global demographic transition (that is the process of global modernization) can be regarded as different sides of a single process – a phase transition in the World System development – the global modernization process.
The term 'Global South' marks a new attempt at providing order and meaning in the current global political constellation, replacing the term 'Third World'. But the term 'Global South' is fraught with many ambiguities. These eight essays explore the possible meanings of this new distinction and assess the advantages and disadvantages of adopting it. They cast a wide exploratory net, looking beyond the dominant politico-economic meaning to how the way that we interpret the world has changed over time and the wider cultural–intellectual meanings. Key Features Asks whether 'Global South' and 'Global North' are useful for understanding the current global constellation Analyses the recent global transformation that allegedly made the 'Third World' disappear and the 'Global South' emerge Explores how space is used for different but overlapping purposes: to build socio-political concepts, to criticise recent trends in global developments and to develop a normative angle for collective political action Draws on global history, conceptual history, comparative literature, social and political theory, political philosophy and social history to develop a full, interdisciplinary picture of the uses of 'South' and 'North'.
Aleksei Fedorovich Malinovskii, a prominent Russian archeographer and historian, had an outstanding life trajectory. His success was based, among other factors, on the protection by his patrons. Malinovskii's handwritten work “Biographies of the Officials Who Managed Foreign Affairs in Russia” was a tribute to his patronNikolai Petrovich Rumiantsev, State Chancellor in 1807/8–1814. Having studied the drafts of this work I identified its sources. First, they were the lists of the chiefs of Posol’sky Prikaz and of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs (since 1709), and that of the state chancellors and vice-chancellors that were compiled in the 1780s in the Archive of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs in Moscow where Malinovskii was a petty official since 1780, and that he headed in 1814. The second source of the “Biographies” were draft biographies written partly in the late 18th century by his brother Vasilii Malinovsky, a Collegium’s official. In the letters written by Nikolai Karamzin to Aleksei Malinovskii one can trace the way of the “Biographies” to the emperor who favoured Malinovskii with an award; they also shed light on the concept of this compiling work and the place of “Biographies” in the political context of the late 18th – early 19th century.
Die Westöffnung Russlands unter Peter I. und Katharina II., die Errichtung moderner Staatlichkeit in den deutschen Territorialstaaten und ihre Weiterentwicklung in der Zeit des aufgeklärten Absolutismus, Russlands Aufstieg zur Großmacht und die Entstehung der europäischen "Pentarchie", vielfältige dynastische Verbindungen und kulturelle Einflüsse, die Revolutionierung Europas durch Napoleon und die Abwehr des napoleonischen Imperialismus – es ist eine vielgestaltige Geschichte, in die die deutsch-russischen Beziehungen und Zusammenhänge im "langen 18. Jahrhundert" eingebunden sind.
This article deals with the process of the establishment of Russian-Spanish relations in the 18th century and the role of one of the most distinguished Russian diplomats at the court of Catherine II Stepan Zinoviev who spent in Madrid around 20 years (1772-1794). The study is based largely on manuscripts (diplomatic and other correspondence) from the Archives of the External Policy of Russian Empire in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and fills a gap in the investigation of Russian foreign policy of the 18th century and the Russian-Spanish relations. Catherine’s foreign interests were focused toward the major states of Northern Europe, but she also tried to strengthen the position of Russian Empire in Europe, to embed the country in the European 'Balance of Power' by establishing diplomatic relations with all European countries. In this sense, the Iberian Peninsula was not wholly without significance for Russia. The political unions of Russia with the outlying countries, as Spain, depended not only on the international situation in Europe in the second half of the 18th century but on the image of the country that was created by Russians who visited Spain at that time. The position of diplomats was particularly important they were almost the only ones, except for merchants and sailors, who visited that country and it is on the basis of their reports Russia's foreign policy in relation to Spain was built in the 18th century. Based on the reports of Zinoviev we can reconstruct the images of such important political figures as the Spanish King Charles III, Secretary of State Count of Floridablanca and the other ministers of the Spanish government. The biography of the outstanding Russian diplomat Stepan Zinoviev is presented in this article for the first time.
This thought-provoking monograph analyzes long- medium- and short-term global cycles of prosperity, recession, and depression, plotting them against centuries of important world events. Major research on economic and political cycles is integrated to clarify evolving relationships between the global center and its periphery as well as current worldwide economic upheavals and potential future developments. Central to this survey are successive waves of industrial and, later, technological and cybernetic progress, leading to the current era of globalization and the changes of the roles of both Western powers and former minors players, however that will lead to the formation of the world order without a hegemon. Additionally, the authors predict what they term the Great Convergence, the lessening of inequities between the global core and the rest of the world, including the wealth gap between First and Third World nations.
Among the topics in this ambitious volume:
· Why politics is often omitted from economic analysis.
· Why economic cycles are crucial to understanding the modern geopolitical landscape.
· How the aging of the developed world will affect world technological and economic future.<
· The evolving technological forecast for Global North and South.
· Where the U.S. is likely to stand on the future world stage.
Economic Cycles, Crises, and the Global Periphery will inspire discussion and debate among sociologists, global economists, demographers, global historians, and futurologists. This expert knowledge is necessary for further research, proactive response, and preparedness for a new age of sociopolitical change.
We address the external effects on public sector efficiency measures acquired using Data Envelopment Analysis. We use the health care system in Russian regions in 2011 to evaluate modern approaches to accounting for external effects. We propose a promising method of correcting DEA efficiency measures. Despite the multiple advantages DEA offers, the usage of this approach carries with it a number of methodological difficulties. Accounting for multiple factors of efficiency calls for more complex methods, among which the most promising are DMU clustering and calculating local production possibility frontiers. Using regression models for estimate correction requires further study due to possible systematic errors during estimation. A mixture of data correction and DMU clustering together with multi-stage DEA seems most promising at the moment. Analyzing several stages of transforming society’s resources into social welfare will allow for picking out the weak points in a state agency’s work.
This article is talking about state management and cultural policy, their nature and content in term of the new tendency - development of postindustrial society. It mentioned here, that at the moment cultural policy is the base of regional political activity and that regions can get strong competitive advantage if they are able to implement cultural policy successfully. All these trends can produce elements of new economic development.