Selected by Choice magazine as an Outstanding Academic Book for 1996 Since the 1950s, sub-Saharan Africa has been the site of profound political changes initiated by ascendant nationalism and rapid decolonization. With this new beginning came fresh challenges involving many crucial aspects of human rights: self-determination; civil and political rights, including government legitimacy; military involvement in African politics; and unfulfilled basic needs that have cried out for economic and social development. Protecting Human Rights in Africa is the first major comparative study of the way human rights NGOs have brought revolutionary change south of the Sahara. Governments are both the most important protectors and abusers of human rights, while NGOs have become the most effective detectives in discovering abuses and the most active advocates in seeking solutions.

Full convertibility on the capital account brings with it the danger of real appreciation of the domestic currency as a consequence of additonal net capital imports. The real appreciation, in its turn, disfavours exports. At the end of the 1970s, Singapore and Malaysia had liberalized almost completely their international capital flows. Both countries experienced approximately the same growth and inflation rate. During the first hald of the 1980s, both currencies went through a considerable appreciation of their real efective exchange rates, since at that particular period both pegged their currencies to the U.S. dollar. In 1985, both were "an island of recession" when industrialized Asian and other developing countries passed through an economic boom. The recession was an outcome of their domestic stabilization policies. Singapore, which developed towards an international financial centre, had to assure the "quality" of its domestic currency in order to overcome the regualtory and fiscal advantages of Asian dollar deposits. The Singapore dollar became misaligned since financial priorities overruled commercial considerations. In contrast, Malaysia's real effective appreciation was the outcome of its huge government expenditures since it fell into the trap of the Dutch disease after the commodity price boom of 1979/80.

BL Gives a definitive description and analysis of the main bank system BL Strong contributors BL Understudied subject BL Incorporates results of a major World Bank research programme BL Balances institutional description with financial theory and empirical analysis This volume looks at systems of corporate finance, concentrating on the Japanese main bank system. The remaining chapters describe different systems, assessing to what extent the Japanese system can serve as a model for developing market economies and transforming socialist economies. The basic characteristics of the main bank system are examined here, its roots, development, and its role in the heyday of its rapid growth. The volume looks at how the system has performed and at its strengths and weaknesses. It goes on to look at how the system has changed and what its approprate role is as deregulation, liberalization, and internationalization of Japan's financial markets have proceeded over the past two decades and a new issue securities market has emerged. A basic conclusion of the book is that banking-based systems are in most cases the most appropriate for industrial financing until a rather late stage of a country's economic and financial development. It aims to identify the conditions under which banks are better able that securites market institutions to evaluate the credit worthiness of borrowers and the viability of new projects, to monitor the ongoing performance of firms, and to rescue or liquidate firms in distress. Contributors: Masahiko Aoki, Theodor Baums, V.V.Bhatt, John Campbell, Yasushi Hamao, Toshihiro Horiuchi, Takeo Hoshi, Anil Kashyap, Dong-Wong Kim, Gary Loveman, Sang-Woo Nam, Frank Packer, Hugh Patrick, Yingyi Qian, Mark Ramseyer, Clark Reynolds, Satoshi Sunamura, Paul Sheard, Juro Teranishi, Kazuo Ueda,