Doug,
Well, I finally got my latest LBO. A few remarks, first
on the Hayden interview on Kosovo.
1) Hayden labels Milosevic a "dictator." I think that
we have established on these lists that he was democratically
elected, however imperfectly. He is an "evil thug," as
Hayden says, and he has authoritarian tendencies. But he
is no more of a dictator than what the Serbs have committed
on the Albanian Kosovars is a "holocaust."
2) Hayden does not actually respond to your question
regarding the existence or non-existence of a Serbian plan
to ethnically cleanse the Albanians from Kosmet. The
Washington Post had a major article several weeks ago
(sorry I don't remember the exact date except that it was a
Sunday) that was fairly convincing regarding the existence
of such a plan. Frankly I think that we do not know whether
there was one or not. But in any case, even if there was one,
it certainly was triggered into a much quicker effectuation
than would have been the case without the bombing.
3) I have already noted that his claims regarding the
locations of the "important religious and symbolic sites" is
simply dead wrong. This guy lived there? Obviously he only
visited Kosmet and never looked closely at a map or is just
geographically incompetent. I also find it a bit disturbing,
although it may come to pass, that he recommends partitioning
Macedonia as well as Kosmet, and handing over a chunk of
it to Albania. Ugh.
BTW, Rep. Blagojevich, only Serbian-American in the
House of Representatives (Sen. Voinovich also has Serbian
ancestry) who accompanied Jesse Jackson and apparently
had a great deal to do with setting up the trip, is still pushing
his partition scheme that sounds the same as Hayden's, along
with the same ignorant claim that the Serbian religious and
historical sites are in the north of Kosmet. This guy's a Serbian-
American? Guess he also has not looked at a map. It certainly
might make things easier if this claim were true. But for better
or worse it is not, and the Serbs have done their best to "cleanse"
the southern zone of Albanians, where their monuments are,
and not the northern zone. The latest major wave of refugees is
apparently out of Prizren, the medieval capital, located in the deep
south of Kosmet.
Congrats to Doug on the section on transfer payments and
poverty drawing on the LIS studies. Well done!
My only complaint involves the use of the term "corporatism."
Esping-Andersen may use it to describe the German style system
in contrast to the Scandinavian or the British/US. But this is an
idiosyncratic usage out of line with how most people use the term.
It is true that the German Mitbestimmung approach of having union
representation on boards of directors can be viewed as somewhat
corporatist. But this term is usually applied to countries where
there exists some kind of economy-wide wage negotiation
process along Post Keynesian incomes policies lines.
Germany most definitely does not fit that model at all and
never has. Indeed, virtually of the current EU members besides
the UK and France have more such elements than does
Germany. Very high on the list are indeed those Scandinavian
social democracies, although the old system broke down in
Sweden in 1986 that had been established in 1938 with the
Saltsjobaden Agreement between the LO and the SAF. Austria
is also a leading example of this corporatism, with its form
more directly descending from the old fascist variety with its
"chambers" and more overt government direction of the process.
For some references on this, see:
Frederic L. Pryor, "Corporatism as an Economic System:
A Review Essay," _Journal of Comparative Economics_,
1988, vol. 12, pp. 317-344.
L. Calmfors and J. Drifill, "Bargaining Structure,
Corporatism and Macroeconomic Performance,"
_Economic Policy_, 1988, vol. 6, pp. 14-61.
Jukka Pekkarinen, Matti Pohjola, and Bob Rowthorn, eds.
_Social Corporatism: A Superior Economic System?_
1992, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Barkley Rosser
