Promises of an impossible compromise: conceded constitutions in Europe, 1814–1906

The enactment of a constitution through the method of ‘concession’, as it was used in Europe between the Napoleonic wars and World War I, indicates that a hitherto absolute ruler understood the need for a higher level of institutionalization and collective exercise of state power, but mistrusted institutionalized and collective processes, which would define the level needed. In other word, a ‘concession’ comprehended an imminent contradiction. Drafting an enduring constitution is a complex and difficult task, which requires consensus- building on a wide scale through collective procedures. However, a ruler who ‘concedes’ implicitly denies any kind of collective constitution-making, which could get out of the ruler’s control. Instead rulers preferred a non-inclusive approach, using court advisors and/or ministers appointed by the ruler, to draft the constitutional text. The European experience analyzed in this article shows that popular involvement through representative procedures (such as the election of a constituent assembly) in the making of a constitution can improve its chances for endurance through time and create a political environment more favourable for the constitution to achieve normative quality, instead of remaining essentially a false promise.     

美国私人养老金担保项目的政治经济分析

私人养老金担保项目是《雇员退休收入保障法》中最有争议的措施,它由汽车工会等产业工会倡议,但由于受到企业雇主和部分劳联工会的反对,其出台经历了漫长曲折的斗争过程。在汽车工会和钢铁工会的游说压力之下,国会负责财税立法的委员会向负责劳工立法的委员会做出了完全的让步,使担保项目条款在很大程度上反映了产业工会所要求的高水平待遇保障。担保项目不仅允许联邦政府介入私人部门养老金,还在私人部门之间形成了一种强制性的再分配关系,使产业工会成员获得了享有保障的特权地位。     

Dealing with North Korea: The case of the agreed framework

The “Agreed Framework,” a deal that the United States and the DPRK cut in Geneva in October 1994 on the North Korean nuclear issue, now approaches the first of its check points to pass a test as to whether it really has a chance to survive. The United States is required to secure by April 21, 1995, a “supply contract” for the provision to North Korea of a light water reactor project as a quid pro quo for North Korea’s eventual dismantlement of its suspected nuclear weapons program over a period of ten or more years. With the reactor issue looming as but the tip of the iceberg that results from the many “ambiguities” and “omissions” of the Agreed Framework, the United States now enters a stage where it will have to brace for another wave of North Korea’s “diplomatic brinkmanship” featured again by threats of reneging on the Agreed Framework and involving the United States in a renewed military conflict on the Korean peninsula.     

Reform and Damages for Breach of Contract in the Soviet Economy

Reforms in remedies for breach of contract emerging under perestroyka have as a main goal a reduction in the use of penalties in favor of compensation for damages. As background to these reforms, the basic principles of the Soviet law of contract damages are outlined, and the law's operation in practice under the traditional planning system is examined. Western economic theories of the choice of contract remedy are used to analyze the underlying causes of the difficulty of measuring and proving damages in the pre-reform system. Emerging reforms in contract remedies are described and evaluated in light of this analysis. journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 052, 124.     

Changes in the Partisan Composition of the Swiss Government. 1891, 1919, 1929, 1943, 1959, 2003, …?

After almost half a century of an unchanged distribution of seats among political parties in the federal government (Federal Council), the Swiss executive has experienced a new change in 2003. This change follows up on other changes in the past which occurred at irregular intervals. The question we wish to address in this paper is how these changes related to the electoral fortunes of the political parties. We find that electoral success does not translate directly into seat gains in the executive. A lag of up to two elections provides the best predictor. Thus, the rapid concession of a second seat to the SVP in 2003 is an outlier compared to the previous changes in the partisan composition of the Swiss government.     

A Triptych in honour of the cultural revolution

Abstract

Here are three valuable books which sincerely try to understand the Cultural Revolution and make it understandable to Westerners. They avoid theoretical juggling as well as picturesqueness for its own sake. None of these books takes for granted what a certain rhetorical type of Chinese propaganda states with overflowing phraseology, nor do they indulge in the kind of trifling questions characteristic of many Western commentators, such as: Is Chou En-lai losing ground? Is there a rift between the Secretariat and the Politburo? A rebirth of regionalism? and so on. The authors' most obvious concession to Western “bourgeois-educated” readers is that they try to avoid jargonistic Marxism, and to explain even the doctrinal grounds of the Cultural Revolution with plain words; but maybe it could be argued. that they only apply Chairman Mao's teachings in opposition to the “eight-legged essay style.” As for the “socialist-educated” reader, I should add that the authors also escape flatulent psychoanalysis and sociology.     

Tobacco contract farming in Zimbabwe: power dynamics,accumulation trajectories,land use patterns and livelihoods

ABSTRACT

Zimbabwe's Fast Track Land Reform Programme resulted in a massive growth of the country's tobacco sector. Some authors have labelled this, the ‘tobacco boom’. The effects of this growth are variegated across space and time. This study explores the growth of tobacco contract farming in Goromonzi and Zvimba districts and the resultant effects on land use patterns, accumulation, power dynamics and livelihood outcomes. In illuminating on contract farming, the study also pays attention to non-contract farmers. The rise in the number of contract farmers is attributed to; better extension services, improved and guaranteed access to input and output markets. At the same time, tobacco contract farming is marked by several vicissitudes. Some farmers withdrew from the contracts due to low output prices and high input costs resulting in indebtedness. Similarly, some contracting firms dropped out from the contracting arrangements. Overall, many contracted growers accumulated more than non-contract farmers.     

“Dished like a dinner” by the Victorians? The 1899 Seat of Government Compact and its Repercussions in the early Australian Commonwealth

At a “secret” conference in January‐February 1899, the premiers of the Australian colonies agreed on an amendment to the draft Commonwealth Constitution Bill to grant New South Wales the permanent seat of government in the Australian federation. One of the conditions placed on that concession, however, was that Melbourne would initially host the Commonwealth parliament. Spanning the decade from that agreement to the Commonwealth parliament's selection in 1908 of Canberra as the site for the permanent federal capital, this paper shows that the compact on the seat of government provoked powerful resentments in New South Wales and especially Sydney because of the political and material advantages it was seen to have conferred on Melbourne. While the paper argues that resentment was actuated by residual anti‐federal sentiment and regional chauvinism, it also suggests that hosting the legislature did promote Victoria's pre‐eminence in the early Commonwealth and had enduring effects on the nation. In doing so, it speaks to the shaping influence of place and distance in Australian history.     

‘Strong,United and Independent’: the British Foreign Office,Anglo–Iranian Oil Company and the internationalization of Iranian politics at the dawn of the Cold War, 1945–46

This article challenges traditional accounts of the 1946 Cold War Crisis in Iran by moving beyond Soviet–American confrontation to focus on British policy. In contrast to the United States, Britain was a major stake-holding power in Iran due to the valuable holdings of the Anglo–Iranian Oil Company (AIOC). By comparing the reactions of the AIOC and Foreign Office, continuity between the events of the 1946 Crisis and later developments in the Mosaddegh premiership becomes apparent. Soviet interference in Azerbaijan prompted great concern from representatives in Iran, but the central Foreign Office pursued a more cautious policy. Only concerns relating to the growth of domestic Iranian communism in the form of the Tudeh Party and the threat this entailed to the British concession prompted the Foreign Office and AIOC to take measures rendering them partially complicit in the internationalization of Iranian politics, setting an important precedent for future action. This article evaluates the policy-making process and its impact on Anglo–Iranian relations by utilizing records from the UK National Archives, British Petroleum Archive and diplomatic personal papers.     

日本老年人雇佣政策及其对中国的启示

日本已进入人口减少及超老龄社会,劳动力不足问题将会制约日本经济未来的发展。为了解决劳动力不足问题,促进老年人就业,日本政府修改了《老年人雇佣稳定法》,制定了继续雇佣制度。这些法律和政策的实施在一定程度上缓解了劳动力短缺问题,基本保障了日本老年人的收入及就业稳定。但也存在大多数企业与职工签订短期非正式雇佣合同等问题。这些经验和问题可为中国进一步完善《老年人权益保障法》及促进老年人再就业提供借鉴。     

The 2009 Landtag Election in Saxony

The Landtag election in Saxony was one of three elections for state parliaments, all taking place on 30 August 2009. Out of the three, it was the one where there was little doubt that the CDU would, once again, appoint the next Prime Minister. Aside from the lack of surprise in the election outcome, this election had some historic moments. After the right-wing NPD was able to re-enter the Saxon Landtag, Saxony is the only German state parliament with six party parliamentary groups present. Further, turnout at this election was 52 per cent, an all-time low. The election ended Saxony's grand coalition and established its first CDU–FDP coalition. Within two weeks after the election, the new coalition contract was negotiated and the new government was sworn in so as to present a clear signal to national voters that a black and yellow coalition was a good and workable alternative to the grand coalition in the German Bundestag as well.     

Displaced Persons,Family Separation and the Work Contract in Postwar Australia

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on the migrant family in postwar Australia. The Commonwealth government’s two-year work contract scheme had significant effects on the initial settlement experience of displaced persons (DPs)—particularly, through the family separation that the contract enforced. Family reunification was afforded in accordance with an occasionally callous and pragmatic concern for maintaining a directable pool of labour. In this regard, the scheme and the available hostels and centres, while extensive in their bureaucracy and administrative reach, were woefully unprepared for the needs and wants of DPs, specifically the need for family unity during the initial settlement process. In drawing on archival sources, this article explores bureaucratic practices, and responses to DP resistance and dismay in the face of family separation.     

Youth and Development in the Arab Countries: The Need for a Different Approach

Arab countries are currently faced with the highest youth cohort in their modern history. Arab youth are not only more numerous, but they are also more educated and marrying at a later age than before. One in each three young Arab persons is unemployed, and gender bias against young women's university enrolment and labour participation is pervasive. Against a backdrop of rising frustration among their youth, Arab policymakers need to act quickly. A revision of the social and economic contract towards more and better provision of public goods is central to addressing the challenges faced by the Arab youth.     

Gorbachev's Social Contract

The Soviet economic slowdown is explained in the context of an eroding “social contract” between regime and society, established in the 1950s and defined as a set of norms, constituency benefits, and political-economic institutions which elite and public have regarded as legitimate means of regulating their mutual relations. Gorbachev must rebuild state legitimacy; the “objective,” mutually constraining relationship between economic system and state legitimation implies that a new social contract can serve as a “test” of Gorbachev's intent to pursue “radical” economic reform. Evidence suggests that prospects for radical reform have risen substantially since Gorbachev's election as General Secretary. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 052, 124, 830.     

弗莱堡学派和宪政经济学

本文首先介绍弗莱堡学派的历史背景及其方法论,然后叙述弗莱堡学派和德国社会市场经济之间的联系。其次,阐述了现代宪政经济学的基本思想,分析立宪选择的问题,然后区分了宪政的两种观点:契约观点和传统习俗观点。本文还比较了弗莱堡学派和宪政经济学,指出它们的相同点和不同点。最后讨论了弗莱堡学派传统的未来前景。     

The viability of the welfare state in Botswana

ABSTRACT

Vulnerability, mainly manifesting in poverty, economic risk and insecurities of life, is a universal problem. There are huge pockets of vulnerability in the developing world, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa. Sub-Saharan African states provide social welfare goods to address vulnerability. Social welfare programmes cost money, hence, there is a need to consider issues of sustainability, particularly, given constrained revenue envelopes. Similarly, while Botswana has posted developmental successes, there are vulnerabilities such as poverty, unemployment and income inequality which demand intervention through welfare programmes. Thus, the objective of this desktop study was to discuss the state's response to vulnerability. It concluded that Botswana funds welfare programmes. However, there are affordability challenges, mainly, a constrained post-2007 fiscal space calls into question the viability of the welfare state. The general lesson from the case is that while the welfare state goes to the heart of the social contract, its viability must be guaranteed through reforms.     

从对俄政策调整看日本周边外交的困境

日俄关系在日本的周边外交中占有重要位置,近年来日本试图通过调整对俄政策彰显外交的自主性,改善周边外交状况,推出了一些新的政策措施。首先,日本建议绕开领土问题,扩大与俄罗斯的经济合作,为两国关系的彻底改善,也为最终解决领土问题奠定基础。其次,提出日俄在争议领土从事"共同经济活动"的建议,旨在与俄罗斯在争议领土进行"共同"开发,获得俄罗斯默认日本对争议领土具有主权权利,以便打开日俄关系的大门。第三,日本试图通过调整对俄政策改善周边关系,维护日本在周边外交中的有利地位。但是,日本的对俄政策依然受到内外因素限制,俄罗斯不会轻易在领土问题上让步,日本国内舆论也不可能支持政府在领土问题上让步,日俄之间也不可能在领土问题上达成共识,日俄之间的经济合作也很难脱离政治环境而有所扩大,特别是在日美同盟的框架下,日俄合作具有局限性,日本的周边外交仍然陷于困境之中。     

Sweat or No Sweat: Foreign Workers in the Garment Industry in Malaysia

In the last decade factory owners, in response to brand-name Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) parameters, have joined associations that verify (through a monitoring and audit system) that management does not exploit labour. There have been no reports of violations of codes of conduct concerning Malaysian workers but for foreign workers on contract there are certain areas that have been reported. These areas, including trade union membership, the withholding of workers' passports and unsuitable accommodation, generally escape notice because auditors who monitor factory compliance do not question the terms of contracts as long as they comply with national labour standards. This paper is based on research with foreign workers in Malaysia and argues that despite the success of the anti-sweatshop movement in a global context, the neo-liberal state in Malaysia continues to place certain restrictions on transnational labour migrants which breach garment industry codes of conduct. Available evidence does not support the assumption that CSR practices provide sufficient protection for both citizen and foreign workers on contract in the garment industry.