How to Advance Social Rights without Jeopardising the Human Rights Act 1998

When the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was drafted, governments grasped that human rights are needed as safeguards, not only against authoritarianism but also against the causes of authoritarianism. For this reason, the UDHR encompasses civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. This holistic vision of human rights was obscured during the Cold War and more recently by economic neo‐liberalism. The UK government neglects social rights, which have a very low public profile, although there is evidence that the profile of these human rights is increasing. UK domestic law and practice is inconsistent with the holistic vision of human rights and the government's binding international social rights obligations. The UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights recommends that the UK provides for ‘the legislative recognition of social rights’ which can be approached in various ways. One way is to proceed social right by social right (for example, the rights to housing, health and education), and sector by sector (for example, the sectors of housing, health and education). This administrative law approach advances explicit social rights without implicating or jeopardising the Human Rights Act 1998.     

Civil Rights and Social Welfare: Some Thoughts on the Contemporary Relevance of T. H. Marshall

This article draws on T H Marshall's celebrated classification of civil, political and social rights to examine the use of the courts by individuals seeking to establish rights to particular forms or models of welfare service provision. It argues that tensions between the collective and individual aspects of social rights, the relationship of social rights to inequality, and the difficulty of quantifying (and therefore enforcing) legitimate expectations, all make the use of litigation to establish social rights intensely problematic. Drawing on the recent UK Supreme Court case of R (on the Application of McDonald) v Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, it goes on to suggest that it is unhelpful to think of social rights in terms of human rights: instead, we would do better to adopt Marshall's emphasis on the citizenship basis of social rights and on the social and political context within which they necessarily exist.     

新中国成立以来社会福利制度的演变与发展——基于社会权利视角的分析

新中国成立70年来,社会福利制度体系经历了深刻的变迁。尝试从社会权利视角出发,通过构建福利资格准入、福利制度安排和福利结果的解释框架,对四个历史阶段的社会福利制度演变进行梳理和分析,可以发现:新中国的社会福利制度经历了国家主义统揽、发展主义主导、新世纪初期政策扩张和新时代政策深化的变迁过程,并面临严峻的现实挑战。为了建构新时代中国特色社会福利制度体系,应该克服福利发展上的认知悖论,重视福利制度安排的积极作用,着力解决福利责任主体不清的问题,形成多元的社会福利供给模式,并通过改变社会福利制度碎片化格局,构建统一公民身份的社会中国。     

Bringing Home the Bacon or Not? Globalization and Government Respect for Economic and Social Rights

The impact of globalization on human rights has generated substantial debate. On the one hand, those making liberal, free-market arguments assert that globalization has a positive impact on developing countries through the increased generation of wealth (e.g., Garrett 1998; Richards et al. in International Studies Quarterly 45:219–239, 2001; Rodrik in Challenge 41:81–94, 1997). On the other hand, the critical perspective claims that globalization negatively impacts respect for human rights because trading arrangements, while open, are detrimentally uneven (e.g., Carleton 1989; Haggard and Maxfield 1996; Stiglitz and Charlton 2005). However, few have looked at the relationship between globalization and respect for economic and social rights. In order to test this relationship, I examine non-OECD countries utilizing two-stage regression analysis to control for investment-selection factors. I find mixed results for the hypothesis that globalization negatively affects respect for economic and social rights. Consistent with Richards et al. (International Studies Quarterly 45:219–239, 2001), I conclude by arguing for the need to disaggregate globalization in order to determine its true effects.

城乡经济社会一体化问题研究

党的十七大报告在阐述和部署社会主义新农村建设任务时明确提出,要建立以工促农、以城带乡长效机制,形成城乡经济社会发展一体化新格局。目前城乡经济社会一体化还存在一些问题,通过调整对农政策、加强基础设施建设、发展农村公共事业和加快小城镇建设等途径可以缩小城乡差距。     

警察权益界说

警察权益概念的界定是解决警察权益保障问题的基础。权益是一个内容非常广泛的概念,警察权益是国家特别赋予作为公务员的警察所享有的权益。从词语结构上警察对权益进行限定,使警察权益有了具体指向并被赋予特定内涵。警察权益是一种法定权利,能否得到切实保障,要看警察的行为是否具有合法性。     

经济全球化及其对西方社会运动的冲击和影响

近20年来,经济全球化加速发展,国际分工日益深化,各种生产要素的国际性流动增强,资本在生产中的地位明显上升,各国经济上的相互依存度增大。这些变化对西方国家的政府、经济和社会生活带来了巨大冲击,同时也给西方社会运动带来了不利影响。     

水权与水权的界定--水资源利用的产权经济学分析

在公有水权基础上实行可交易水权制度涉及到三个重要环节,即水权的界定、水价以及水权运作规则和水资源管理,其中水权的界定是水资源市场形成和运行的前提条件,没有排他性水权的确立,水权的让渡和交易是不可能的.本文从产权经济学的理论出发,分析水权的清晰界定与水资源市场的关系,并在此基础上分析水资源利用中的各种水权关系,指出进一步界定和明晰水资源的配水量权是实现水权制度创新的前提条件.     

中国经济定型之后社会转型若干问题

与中国的经济转型相比,中国的社会转型远不如前者成功,存在许多值得争议之处。为此,首先需要明确社会转型的四个前提约束条件。在这样的前提约束条件之下认识中国社会转型的具体目标模式,就需要结合构建社会主义和谐社会的总体要求做进一步的理论探索。其中一个关键是如何正确看待社会事业的性质,前一段社会转型出现重大失误的主要原因就是沿用经济转型成功的理念指导社会转型,由此出现了重大偏差,忽略了社会事业自身的三种客观性。     

全球化时代企业劳动者权益保护面临的挑战和对策

经济全球化、全球市场的开放和融合使全球范围的竞争加剧。为了降低生产成本,提高竞争力,许多国家都把压低本国劳动力成本作为首选的方式。这就使政府对劳动关系规制放松,企业拥有更多的工作场所的支配权,采取了更为灵活的雇佣方式,雇佣更多非全日制员工、短期员工、租赁员工等。而这些非“正式”员工的劳动保障和待遇往往都很低,一些基本的劳动权益很难保障。本文分析了全球化对劳动者权益的影响,指出劳动者权益缺失产生的严重后果,最后提出相应的解决对策,即政府应加强对劳动者权益保护,加强企业社会责任,强化工会职能,三管齐下维护劳动者权益。     

马克思主义社会与历史理论的经济学视角——罗伯特·布伦纳教授访谈

罗伯特·布伦纳(Robert Brenner)系当代美国“经济马克思主义”学者.受法国结构主义马克思主义阿尔都塞的影响,并在英国马克思主义历史学派的直接启发下,他致力于在二战后的英美世界继续从事历史唯物主义当代重建这一传统西方马克思主义重要使命.基于此,他提出了著名的“社会财产关系理论”,引发了著名的关于社会形态过渡(主要是从封建社会向资本主义社会过渡)的“布伦纳之争”,并由此重新开启了探讨历史唯物主义的经济学维度,按照他自己或者英美世界通行的说法,就是探索马克思主义社会与历史理论的经济学视角.     

转型期弱势群体社会保障问题探析

随着我国社会体制的变革和社会结构的转变,弱势群体的内涵不断发生着变化,其可能引发的社会风险也与日俱增,如何有效保护弱势群体的合法利益,直接关系到和谐社会的实现.目前我国对弱势群体的社会保障方面却存在着法律体系滞后、救助理念落后、救济程度有限、综合性保障机制不完善等问题,应予健全与完善,以促进社会稳定、实现公平正义和社会和谐.     

From the Cycle of Deprivation to Social Exclusion: Five Continues

One important aspect of Tony Blair's speech on social exclusion, given to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in York on 5 September 2006, has been ignored-that its content was prefigured by Sir Keith Joseph, in his famous 'cycle of deprivation' speech, on 29 June 1972. This article seeks to explore these continuities over the past thirty-four years, tracing similarities and differences between the two speeches. Moreover, it also reflects on the earlier Joseph speech and subsequent Research Programme, to see where government policies on social exclusion might lead. The article argues that while earlier writers have acknowledged the intellectual debt that New Labour owes to Joseph, and noted similarities between current policy approaches to child poverty and earlier debates about transmitted deprivation, recent moves on social exclusion mean that these continuities are now more striking than ever before.     

In Praise of Social Democracy

This article makes the case for social democracy in the context of difficult national and international economic conditions and changes in domestic politics that see a Conservative‐dominated Coalition government and the Labour party in Opposition for the first time since 1997. It rejects much current thinking in the Labour party and instead argues that traditional social democratic values, such as equality and social justice, are of contemporary relevance and can only be achieved through a strong central state committed to those values.     

论村民委员会作为乡村社会维权性组织的可能与路径

“三农”问题的实质是农民权益问题,作为村民自治组织的村民委员会应成为维护乡村社会权益的组织依托;当前在我国乡村治理的实践中,乡村自治性组织的维权性功能存在着缺位、错位和异化的现象,这是由诸多原因造成的;在社会主义新农村建设中应着力构建以保障农民权益为根本的乡村治理新机制,推进乡村自治组织的社会性复归;通过政治环境的发展、制度机制的重构、文化观念的培育,挖掘和塑造村民自治性组织作为村民群众维权性组织的组织资源和实践能力。     

Economic Sanctions and Political Repression: Assessing the Impact of Coercive Diplomacy on Political Freedoms

This article offers a thorough analysis of the unintended impact economic sanctions have on political repression—referred to in this study as the level of the government respect for democratic freedoms and human rights. We argue that economic coercion is a counterproductive policy tool that reduces the level of political freedoms in sanctioned countries. Instead of coercing the sanctioned regime into reforming itself, sanctions inadvertently enhance the regime’s coercive capacity and create incentives for the regime’s leadership to commit political repression. Cross-national time series data support our argument, confirming that the continued use of economic sanctions (even when aimed at promoting political liberalization and respect for human rights) will increase the level of political repression. These findings suggest that both scholars and policy makers should pay more attention to the externalities caused by economic coercion.

Monitoring State Fulfillment of Economic and Social Rights Obligations in the United States

This article adapts the economic and social rights fulfillment index (SERF Index) developed by Fukuda-Parr, Lawson-Remer, and Randolph to assess the extent to which each of the 50 US states fulfills the economic and social rights obligations set forth in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. It then extends the index to incorporate discrimination and examines differences in economic and social rights fulfillment by race and sex within each of the states. The overall SERF Index score varies between states from below 70% to almost 85%, with wider variation on some of the six substantive rights that comprise the overall SERF Index score. The findings reveal limited sex discrimination but pronounced race discrimination.