A new logic of partitions has been developed that is dual to ordinary logic when the latter is interpreted as the logic of subsets of a fixed universe rather than the logic of propositions. For a finite universe, the logic of subsets gave rise to finite probability theory by assigning to each...

Just as the two sides in the Cold War agreed that Western Capitalism and Soviet Communism were 'the' two alternatives, so the two sides in the intellectual Great Debate agreed on a common framing of questions with the defenders of capitalism taking one side and Marxists taking the other side of...

Liberal-contractarian philosophies of justice see the unjust systems of slavery and autocracy in the past as being based on coercion - whereas the social order in the modern democratic market societies is based on consent and contract. However, the 'best' case for slavery and autocracy in the...

The Kaldor-Hicks principle (potential Pareto improvement) has fostered the modern revival of an older Marshall-Pigou tradition of welfare economics. That tradition was based on the parsing of a potential change into a change in the size of some "social pie" measured in money (e.g., Pigou's...

The purpose of this paper is outline an alternative theory of development assistance by analyzing the old strategies for technical cooperation, capacity-building and, in broader terms, development assistance in a way that will point to new strategies. The perspective is the very old idea that...

It is useful from time to time to revisit the pioneers in a field. The richness of their original thought is often diminished as new specialists in a field are educated or, rather, trained. Stylized caricatures and toy models out-compete nuanced multidisciplinary narratives in the competition...

If development is seen basically as autonomous self-development, then there is a subtle paradox in the whole notion of development assistance: How can an outside party ("helper") assist those undertaking autonomous activities (the"doers") without overriding, or undercutting their autonomy? This...

The market system consists of a price mechanism, built on the foundation of a system of property, and contract. In many developing, and transition economies, the market system functions poorly. In many cases, if not most, the malfunctioning is not simply in the price system (for example,...

Common wisdom among post-socialist reformers has beento use voucher investment funds to provide the corporate governance needed to restructure newly privatized enterprises after mass privatization efforts. The idea has been that mass privatization would spread the ownership too wide and make...