Re: some topics

I think Jozsef Borocz has raised a host of critically important issues in
his previous post today.  One of the reasons, I think, why many folks are
either "silent" monitors of this listserv, or have simply dropped off
entirely, is that a number of folks who are most eager to share their
views are frequently rather poorly informed about the topics that they are
"weighing in" about.  While many of us would like to be "optimistic" the
idea that most of the semiperiphery will soon be joining the core is, I
believe, typical of what I'm talking about.  So thanks to JB, also, for
actually presenting some real data about Eastern Europes post-state
socialist DECLINE.  To have reasonable discussions of these important
topics -- which are vitally relevant to WSN -- we need more INFORMED
opinions about them...

cheers,

dave smith
sociology, uc-irvine  


On Sat, 20 May 2000, Jozsef Borocz wrote:

> On Sat, 20 May 2000, The McDonald Family wrote:
> 
> |>- since the collapse of European state socialism, has there been any
> |>discernible sign of upward mobility (toward the core of the world 
>economy)? 
> |>--> if no, why is that? if yes, where?
> |
> |I may be an optimist, but I think that there are signs of this. Central
> |Europe, the Southern Cone states, and the islands and peninsulas of East
> |Asia (Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia/Singapore, arguably Thailand and portions 
>of
> |coastal China) could be expected to attain Spanish levels of output and
> |living standards relative to the core over the next generation. I agree 
>that
> |wouldn't be enough dispersion of wealth to prevent some kind of cataclysm
> |later in the 21st century. 
> 
> 
> As for central Europe, I sure don't see this (in spite of a recent, modest
> rebound in the Polish and Hungarian GDP/cap). See it for yourself:
> 
> 
> Changes in Country-by-Country Ranking along the Human Development Index,
> 1990-1994
> 
> ========================================================
> Country               HDI rank in 1990        HDI rank in 1994
> ________________________________________________________
> Albania                       49                      102
> Bulgaria              33                       69
> Croatia / Yugoslavia  34                       77
> Czech Republic 
>   / Czechoslovakia    27                       39
> Hungary                       30                       48
> Macedonia / Yugoslavia        34                       80
> Poland                        41                       58
> Romania                       58                       79
> Slovakia 
>   / Czechoslovakia    27                       42
> Slovenia / Yugoslavia 34                       35
> ========================================================
> 
> 
> HDI=Human Development Index (combo of life expectancy,
> education and health measures)
> 
> HDI rank= position of country in the global list of countries
> (1=top). Countries split in the interim are compared to their
> predecessor state.
> 
> Source: Tbl 1 in my paper in Smith-Solinger-Topik: States and Sovereignty
> in the Global Economy, Routledge, 1999, p.204. 
> 
> Data from UNDP 1991 and 1997: Human Development Report 1991 & 1997. New
> York: UN Devt Program.
> 
> 
> Jozsef
> 
>