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From what i understand, his proposal is that sharia law should be available to those wishing to abide by it as a form of community/family/personal arbitration. Something similar apparently has existed for a long time for those of the Jewish community who wish to use it. He was at pains to stress...

Sorry Gavin that was unwarranted and not constructive. I just get a little irritated by the use of "neo-liberal" as some sort of catch all expression for labelling all the ills in the world. Inequality, poverty, loss of community, destruction of local values, destruction of the environment etc...

power, status, security, ideas (political or religous)? economic incentives are undoubtedly another cause. but wouldn't you agree that we should steer clear of economic reductionism - i.e the only (or even primary) source of human motivation for action - as this would be IMHO an ahistoric...

Are you deliberately missing my point? I don't doubt that the global political economy is comprised of often highly assymetric power relations and self-serving agendas. But the use of the term neo-liberal as a perjorative without any attempt on your behalf to validate any of your claims...

So historically wars have been fought primarily over money/economic incentives? Hmmm not sure about that...

but that describes the Vietnam experience right? you know killing in worship of the neo-liberal deities of global capitalism :rolleyes:

Just for the sake of playing devils advocate - how 'rational' was the US military action in Vietnam for example? Years of bombing using the most technologically advanced equipment against a low-level insurgency hidden in the jungle. Millions dead for what purpose?

Well Gavin, I'm interested to hear what you have to say to this.....

So Charles Tilly's logic as applied to state-formation in Europe - simply defined is: "war made the state, and the state made war". Here, Ian Lustick takes this theory and applies it to the Middle East: A broader but weaker version of my argument is that states, anywhere in the world, that...

I love the way you lump together a set of at best tenously connected processes, provide no empirical evidence to show that they are even occuring, and then lay resonsibility for the whole dastardly plot on a set of philosophical/economic ideas - neoliberalism. Each one of these processes you...

My reading is that "social consensus" is based on shared norms, values, beliefs etc (i.e. the institutional framework of society). Changing this is very difficult since it is historically contingent i.e. it accumulates through long-run historical processes. So top-down alteration is not really...

WTF? please explain what you mean by this....

Exactly! Its a pretty cynical way of looking at things but labour to tory would hardly represent a radical shift would it? Still, is it a bad thing really? Do we want the option of some populist radical alternative or are we happy with two centrist parties who differ only slightly but who...

Read this - brilliant peice by Charles Tilly entitled 'War-Making and State-Making as Organised Crime'. Excellent theory of the process of state-making in Europe - along similar lines to Douglass North et al in their work 'A Conceptual Framework For Interpreting Recorded Human History' - read here.

Just been reading 'Lawlessness and Economics' by Avinash K. Dixit and I'd highly recommend it. Here's what google books say: How can property rights be protected and contracts be enforced in countries where the rule of law is ineffective or absent? How can firms from advanced market economies...

I fail to see how autarky would lead away from the interests of small elites. Import-substitution, protectionism etc have historically led to institutionalised rent-seeking behaviour - special privileges to interest groups - and ultimately to stagnant/declining productivity due to lack of...

Don't know it mate, what's he say?

it's totally possible that both are happening simultaneously -- two sides of the same coin?

hmmm... or is it driving fragmentation, reactionism, reassertion of distinct identities in the face of the 'forces of homogenisation' (bluuurgh)?

If thats the case.... can anyone hear the death tolls? RIP development studies!