Rachel M McCleary - Böcker

Global Compassion is an ambitious account of the relationship between private voluntary organizations (PVOs) and the US federal government from 1939-2005. After World War II, humanitarian aid became a key component of US foreign policy and has grown steadily ever since. Organizations like Oxfam, CARE, World Vision, and Catholic Relief Services are known the world over; however, little is known about the relationship between these private agencies and the federal government, and how truly influential these organizations can be in the realm of foreign policy. Here, Rachel McCleary provides the first truly comprehensive study of PVOs and their complex, often-fraught interaction with the federal government. The book focuses on the work of PVOs from a foreign policy perspective, revealing how federal political pressures shape the field of international relief. McCleary draws on a wide array of data--annual reports, State Department documents, and IRS records--to assess to what extent international relief and development work is becoming a commercial activity. She analyzes the often competing goals of the federal government and religious PVOs. She then exames the continuing trend of decreasing federal funds to PVOs and the simultaneous increasing awards to commercial enterprises, and looks at what this holds for the future. In this thought-provoking and rigorously researched work, Rachel McClearly offers a unique, substantive look at an understudied area of US foreign policy and international development.

This is a one-of-kind volume bringing together leading scholars in the economics of religion for the first time. The treatment of topics is interdisciplinary, comparative, as well as global in nature. Scholars apply the economics of religion approach to contemporary issues such as immigrants in the United States and ask historical questions such as why did Judaism as a religion promote investment in education? The economics of religion applies economic concepts (for example, supply and demand) and models of the market to the study of religion. Advocates of the economics of religion approach look at ways in which the religion market influences individual choices as well as institutional development. For example, economists would argue that when a large denomination declines, the religion is not supplying the right kind of religious good that appeals to the faithful. Like firms, religions compete and supply goods. The economics of religion approach using rational choice theory, assumes that all human beings, regardless of their cultural context, their socio-economic situation, act rationally to further his/her ends. The wide-ranging topics show the depth and breadth of the approach to the study of religion.

The Westview series Case Studies in International Affairs stems from a major project of The Pew Charitable Trusts entitled "The Pew Diplomatic Initiative." Launched in 1985, this project has sought to improve the teaching and practice of negotiation through adoption of the case method of teaching, principally in professional schools of international affairs in the United States.

In just the past few years, both the theoretical importance and the practical necessity of ethical analyses in international affairs have become well established. In order to more closely examine particular ethical dilemmas, Rachel McCleary has put together a collection of carefully selected case studies illustrating the variety of ethical concerns that arise in international affairs. As in every volume in the Case Studies in International Affairs series, this volume opens with an introduction that gives students the philosophical background and theoretical framework they need to understand the cases that follow. Individual introductions to each case place the study in context relative to the other studies and to the overall theme of the volume. Discussion questions round out the treatment of the issues, prompting explorations beyond the cases themselves. The cases in Seeking Justice range from questions about the U.S. invasion of Panama to the withdrawal from Vietnam, from the uneven application of the Law of the Sea to the equally uneven distribution of trade favors emerging from the integration of the European Community. Considerations of economic justice are also the focus of a case on the IMF and Nigeria. A Brazilian case study brings together several issues implicit in the earlier cases–the nature of state sovereignty, the status of moral obligations and rights in the international arena, and the structural inequality of international regimes. This study shows how the issues of debt, development, and environment are integrally linked and pinpoints the kinds of ethical problems policymakers, experts, and theorists will be wrestling with in the near future. The cases have been selected and presented to help students identify the issues and make connections between disparate sets of circumstances without spoonfeeding interpretation or analysis. Rachel McCleary skillfully presents the spectrum of ethical questions posed by international events and reveals the dialectical interplay among them.

How religious beliefs and practices can influence the wealth of nationsWhich countries grow faster economically—those with strong beliefs in heaven and hell or those with weak beliefs in them? Does religious participation matter? Why do some countries experience secularization while others are religiously vibrant? In The Wealth of Religions, Rachel McCleary and Robert Barro draw on their long record of pioneering research to examine these and many other aspects of the economics of religion. Places with firm beliefs in heaven and hell measured relative to the time spent in religious activities tend to be more productive and experience faster growth. Going further, there are two directions of causation: religiosity influences economic performance and economic development affects religiosity. Dimensions of economic development—such as urbanization, education, health, and fertility—matter too, interacting differently with religiosity. State regulation and subsidization of religion also play a role.The Wealth of Religions addresses the effects of religious beliefs on character traits such as work ethic, thrift, and honesty; the Protestant Reformation and its long-term effects on education and religious competition; Communism’s suppression of and competition with religion; the effects of Islamic laws and regulations on the functioning of markets and, hence, on the long-term development of Muslim countries; why some countries have state religions; analogies between religious groups and terrorist organizations; the violent origins of the Dalai Lama’s brand of Tibetan Buddhism; and the use by the Catholic Church of saint-making as a way to compete against the rise of Protestant Evangelicals.Timely and incisive, The Wealth of Religions provides fresh insights into the vital interplay between religion, markets, and economic development.