Rousseau's General Will: Freedom of a Particular Kind

Had Rousseau not been centrally concerned with freedom, some of the structural features of his political thought would be unaccountable. Above all, the notion of general will would not have become the core of his political philosophy. Rousseau's reasons for using 'general will' as his central political concept were essentially philosophical. The two terms of general will - 'will' and 'generality' - represent two main strands in his thought. 'Generality' stands for the rule of law, for civic education that draws us out of ourselves and towards the general (or common) good. 'Will' stands for Rousseau's conviction that civil association is 'the most voluntary act in the world', that 'to deprive your will of all freedom is to deprive your actions of all morality'. And if one could 'generalize' the will, so that it 'elects' only law, citizenship, and the common good, and avoids 'willful' self-love, then one would have a general will in Rousseau's particular sense. The distinctiveness of Rousseau's general will is further brought out through a comparison with Kant's 'good will' about which Rousseau would have felt severe doubts.     

主体性黄昏:特指还是泛指?

主体性黄昏旨在批判当代个人主体性发挥所造成的个人与自我、自然及他者等方面的反主体性现象,但其并不意味着所有的个人主体性都将走向衰落,恰恰相反,无论从理论还是从现实来说,真正的个人主体性都是不可消解的。在当代,告别主体性的黄昏,就必须实现主体范式的交往转向,走向个人交往主体性的黎明视界。     

From Voucher Auditing to Junkyard Dogs: The Evolution of Federal Inspectors General

Accountability in American government reaches as far back as the Continental Congress and General Washington's army. This tradition of accountability is carried on today by inspector general offices set up in almost every major department of the federal government. Through their audits and investigations, the inspectors general voice concerns over government internal controls, economy, efficiency, and effectiveness. Since 1981 they claim savings from their work totaling $92 billion.
"Some officials handle large sums of public money; it is therefore necessary to have other officials to receive and examine the accounts. These inspectors must administer no funds themselves. Different cities call them examiners, auditors, scrutineers and public advocates." These are the words of Aristotle in 325 B.C. Today, the United States government has its inspectors general to examine, audit, scrutinize, and advocate.     

The Mystery of the Third Hurdle: Re-electing the Conservative Leader

This article examines one aspect of the contests for the leadership of the British Conservative Party: the 'third' burdle. Since the introduction of formal elections no Conservative leader has been tripped up by the third hurdle (a need to win 'convincingly') but this has not prevented its existence as being taken as fact. This article considers whether it exists at all, and if so, attempts to consider its height. It concludes that if the third hurdle exists it owes more to realpolitik than to precise statistical measurement.     

The Will to Consume: Schopenhauer and Consumer Society

Consumer society has negated Freud's thesis presented in Civilization and its Discontents. The hindrance of desire affirmation is no longer the foundation of discontent. The inverse is now true. A seemingly limitless number of desires have been manufactured and administered with a solitary route to their affirmation via consumption. Because of this, consumer society's members find themselves in a lifeworld of aimless striving, dissatisfaction, disappointment and boredom. I demonstrate that the attempt to flee the sufferings of estranged labour through consumption has pushed consumer society into a new web of suffering brought on by a continual development of manufactured desires, creating a minor yet perpetual pain that is best understood in the light of a sociologized and historicized Schopenhauerian philosophy.     

From Policy to Practice: From Ideas to Results,From Results to Trust

Few areas of public administration have been more discouraging, over a longer period of time, than the struggle to build public trust in government's work. However, new research suggests that public administrators can build trust by improving the results they produce for citizens. Practical, practicable steps can produce big improvements: improving government's focus on citizens' needs; engaging employees; focusing on fairness; and, especially, concentrating on the delivery of public services at the “retail” level. Citizens, research shows, can discriminate among levels of government, the administration of different programs in different functional areas, and the work of individual administrators. That provides strong hope for improving trust, in an era when too often government appears too untrustworthy.     

The Will to Transform: Nation-building and the Strategic State in South Africa

This paper proposes the neologism ‘the will to transform’ to explore the political rationalities of a state-sponsored national reconciliation project—specifically the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa (TRC). In this instance, the will to transform refers to the strategic impulse for nation-building that emerges from multiple agencies in society but is codified and directed by ‘the state’. The will to transform not only implies action, it opens up critical questions concerning strategic intentionality and the agency of ‘the state’. As the case explored in this paper shows, the will to transform is not a given but rather an emergent device. In opening up a terrain of analysis centred around the will to transform, the objective of this paper is to disturb the secure conceptual vantage point offered by Foucauldian theorisations of the state by placing state-led projects of nation-building at the heart of the arena of strategic intentionality.     

The Bureaucratic Approach to the Financial Revolution: Japan's Ministry of Finance and Financial System Reform

While all industrialized countries have enacted financial reforms over the past decade, Japan's Ministry of Finance (MoF) officials have crafted a distinctive approach to reform. They have managed to pursue their own agenda while at the same time responding to international market pressures and domestic political demands. This article examines Japan's "financial system reform," the process by which the MoF has recast the regulatory barriers between different types of financial institutions, such as banks and securities houses. Financial system reform represents an extreme case of a common Japanese policy pattern—the bureaucratic-led bargain—in which Japan's bureaucrats, rather than its politicians, organize the bargains that eventually emerge as policy. Two ministry policy councils deliberated for seven years before the Diet passed comprehensive reform legislation in 1992, and the ministry continues to redefine the reform at the stage of implementation today. While MoF officials have been forced to make concessions to industry groups and to adjust to unforeseen developments along the way, they have maintained overall control of the reform process. In fact, this article suggests that they have been remarkably successful in promoting their own peculiar interpretation of the public interest and in preserving and, in some cases, enhancing their own power.     

方法论革命:马克思破译人学“斯芬克司之谜“的关键

"人是什么"一直是哲学家们不懈追问而未解的"斯芬克司之谜".马克思从历史唯物主义的立场和方法出发才破译了这一千古之谜,达到了对人的本质的科学认识.而马克思科学回答人的本质的关键在于实现了一场方法论革命,即从唯心史观为基础的方法转变到历史唯物主义方法.这主要体现在以下几个方面从感性存在转变到感性活动;从既定本质上升到生成本质;从单一本质过渡到多重本质;从纯粹理想回归到现实生活;从自我确证跨越到对象互释.     

‘The Settled Will of the Scottish People’: What is Next for Scotland's Parliaments?

Following a likely relative shift from Labour to SNP in the Scottish Parliament elections of 3 May 2007 the eight year Labour/Liberal Democratic Party coalition will come under great pressure and may be replaced by a minority administration or a Liberal Democrat/SNP coalition. While the independence issue may be sidelined, key constitutional issues will arise as a result of the Liberal Democrats' proposals featuring in Moving Towards Federalism which envisage greater legislative and taxation powers for the Scottish Parliament and a reconsideration of the devolution settlement. A number of weaknesses in the documents' proposals are identified. If it is acted upon there is the possibility of considerable resulting constitutional conflict arising which could pose considerable challenges for the future of the UK. The UK government which has actual competence on these issues has largely stayed silent on them during the campaign but may have to respond sensitively in its aftermath.