This article seeks to show that although economic and political factors were all important in the Zimbabwean crisis, the unresolved legacies of racial polarization and inequalities in this former white settler colony played a pivotal role in shaping the nature and form of the crisis. The emphasis is on the unresolved racial inequalities in the economy, especially in land ownership and land utilization, which contributed to the country’s economic crisis. Further, the article shows how the Zimbabwe crisis became protracted mainly because the ruling ZANU-PF successfully utilized the emotive issue of race to mobilize support internally, regionally and internationally, while both the opposition and external critics of ZANU-PF underestimated the power of race in mobilizing support for ZANU-PF, and in polarizing political opinion in Zimbabwe.

This essay contends that the economic liberalization, privatization and globalization (LPG) model of development in India is virtually depriving the tribal peopl and other agriculture dependent poor people of their traditional means of sustainable livelihood by promoting the unregulated growth of mineral-based industries in the tribal regions of India. In the name of modernization and the country’s economic development, the elites in India are taking over the life sustaining resources of the poor and pushing them into a further marginalized state of living as a result of displacing them from their land and homes. Such development serves the interests of these elites while it impoverishes the tribal people and poor peasants in these regions who are dependent on the life sustaining resources of the ecosystems in which they live. The mining and other industries that are taking over the resources of the ecosystems of these tribal people and poor peasants fail to provide them with an improved and sustainable means of making a living. The very nature of the present development paradigm does not provide for the absorption of these poor people into the organized non-farm sector economy by either developing their skills or providing them with technical education.

The decline or retreat of the state as well as the triumph of the market today is accompanied by increasing attention to Civil Society Organizations. There is a newfound expectation that NGOs or the ‘third’ sector is better placed as compared to the other stakeholders to provide leadership for social reconstruction in the developing world in particular. This article seeks to critically review the role of the NGO sector in India using empirical evidences collected from secondary sources. It argues that NGOs are not an alternative to the state and the public sector. NGO-ization is also neither a means to correct market failures. In spite of the relevance of this sector, we need to look for other viable alternatives.

This article argues that poverty transcends its traditional definition as a shortfall in income levels. It demonstrates that poverty is multidimensional and that successful poverty reduction rests squarely on understanding these dimensions through the active participation of poor people in all stages of developing that understanding. Drawing on results from a nationally representative sample of rural households and views obtained from focus group discussions in Oyo State, Nigeria, it was found that poverty is more than a lack of adequate income but a combination of many forms of deprivation that together allow human capabilities to go unrealzsed. Although, it was found that income is important, raising income alone is not a sufficient condition for poverty reduction.

The study examined the impact of privatization on economic growth and income inequality in 82 developing countries between 1991 and 2002. Using the least squares dummy variable (LSDV) approach, we found that privatization did not have a significant impact on both economic growth and income inequality. However, good governance had a positive impact on economic growth and a negative impact on income inequality, while foreign direct investment (FDI) had a negligible impact on economic growth but a positive effect on income inequality. The findings of the study suggest that country-specific characteristics may be more important in promoting growth and reducing income inequality than any economic policy per se.

To understand political science, we must understand political power. Our misunder-standing of political power is especially problematic for those concerned with comparative politics.Political Elasticity (PE) theory, including the concepts of ‘quality of power’ and ‘political software’, is used to examine and clarify such dichotomies as: (i) transitive and intransitive power; (ii) hard and soft forms of power; and (iii) power as a resource and power as a relationship. What PE theory attempts to prove (by presenting many examples and using comparative case studies) is that political power tends to be more elastic (with rubber band and balloon characteristics) in more developed countries than in less developed countries.As the conclusion, the relationship of democracy to the evolution of political power is examined, including questions having to do with corruption, authoritarian rule and bureaucratization.The PE theory is also defended against criticisms that it is ‘untestable’ and ‘tautological’.

This article situates my experiences as an active ally with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and their four-year US boycott of Taco Bell (2001–2005) within the history of US migrant farmworker activism. It traces the boycott from nationwide kick-off to victory. An overarching theme is the impact of globalization on the lives of migrant farmworkers and the borders that define them.

Increasing sociopolitical and economic instability – stemming, in part, from the adoption of neoliberal policies – has compelled at least two million (2 percent of total population) Ecuadorians to migrate to the United States and member states of the European Union in search of jobs and a means to survive. It is estimated that more than half a million Ecuadorians live in Spain, and constitute one of the largest immigrant national groups in this country, alongside Moroccans. Women, who have often migrated without their families, make up half of this diaspora.This transdisciplinary study is based on interviews with Ecuadorian women in Spain and Ecuador, and informed by feminist methodologies. It situates the epistemological standpoints of women from (lower) middle and professional classes within recent Ecuadorian migrations, while analyzing the impact of Ecuadorian women's migration to Spain on the sociocultural life of Ecuador, as well as on key aspects of Ecuadorian women's lives in Spain. Despite the discrimination, racism, and xenophobia that Ecuadorian women experience abroad, most agree that they are ‘better off living outside of Ecuador’.

The articles in this special issue demonstrate that neoliberal globalization has a detrimental impact on most women and their families in the global South or Third World.These essays reveal that not only does globalization exacerbate their already subordinate position in the global political economy, but also that women are fighting back.They have devised various ways to resist the negative consequences of neoliberal policies and corporate globalization on their everyday lives and on their nation states. Their politics of resistance offers strategies, insights and practical ideas about how a better, more just world can be achieved.This concluding article focuses on the common themes that appear throughout the articles in this issue, and it gives particular attention to the contradictions of neoliberal globalization and how these contradictions create resistance to it as well as the search for equitable and empowering alternatives.