Visualizing Estonia

The concept of "Estonia" is constituted in different sign systems. Each such sign system models and communicates various aspects of "Estonia", adding simultaneously its medium specific signs to the concept. The dominating visual representations circulating internationally about Estonia are photo albums, postcards, films, web pages and other iconic items. Photo albums in particular are constituted by the orthoscopic parameters of painting and the innocent notion of ‘picturesque’. In Estonia these albums present hardly anything else than architecture and weirdly empty environment. The reason for this might be a long-term impact of ideology of the past that still tends to constitute an idealist kaleidoscopic overview of the country with no social dimension and its problems as a part of it. The modest level of visual literacy is obviously another reason of the endencies of representation that we observe in this research. The scenes offered in the visual façade menu mostly come from the past that refersto the vitality of the "national" model of culture in Estonia. Hence we haveCorrection Form file:///C:/Workdir/PROG/recfolder/111113/STY39736/Correction for So... 1 of 2 11/11/2013 3:39 PM the concept of a city/state as first of all an open-air museum. The status of "visual Estonia" would be more interesting with inclusion of first: heterotopic environment in the visual representations; second: shifing the "orthoscopic parametres" of representations; and third: diversifying scopic positions.     

From the headscarf to the burqa: the role of social theorists in shaping laws against the veil

Abstract

Opposition to the burqa is widespread in Europe but not in the United States. What explains the difference? Focusing primarily on the French case and its Belgian facsimile, we seek to underscore the role of social theorists in legitimizing bans on the full veil. Ironically, this role has been largely disregarded by Anglophone theorists who write on the veil, and who often oppose its prohibition. This article suggests that Europe tends to be more repressive towards full veils because its political process is more open to multiple theoretical representations of the phenomenon of veiling. Conversely, the United States is more open to the provocative display of religious symbols in public because the political process is pre-structured by legal conventions that tend to filter out social theory. The push to ban the burqa in France principally derives from its brand of republicanism rather than being a product of racism and Islamophobia. Of particular significance in the French case is the emphasis on reciprocity as a political principle, a principle that is elongated into an ideal of sociability by French theorists in different disciplines. The arguments of these theorists are described, their rationale is explained and the impact of their intervention on the policy process is documented. The French case, where the popular press and legislature play a major role in shaping policy towards the burqa, is contrasted with that of the United States, where the judiciary, defending religious freedom, remains the most influential collective actor. Each country has correspondingly different attitudes to democracy. In France, the mission of democracy is to extend political equality to the social realm whereas in the United States it is religion that is prioritized so as to protect that which is deemed most sacred to the individual.     

Taxation and the Veil of Ignorance – A Real Effort Experiment on the Laffer Curve

In this paper we address the role of theveil of ignorance on work incentives andtax rates in a two-person real effortexperiment. We find that effort levelsdecrease with a rise in tax rates. Taxrevenues peak at intermediate tax rates of50% to 65%, supporting the existence of aLaffer curve in taxation. Tax authoritiesdo not exploit their power to tax in full,which is compatible both with revenuemaximizing but also fair behavior. Behindthe veil of ignorance, subjects care morefor efficiency and restrict the power totax more than in case their position(taxpayer or tax authority) is fixed inadvance.     

Alternative forms of the Shapley value and the Shapley-Shubik index

We prove the validity of an alternative representation of the Shapley-Shubik (1954) index of voting power, based on the following model. Voting in an assembly consisting of n voters is conducted by roll-call. Every voter is assumed to vote "yea" or "nay" with equal probability, and all n! possible orders in which the voters may be called are also assumed to be equiprobable. Thus there are altogether 2 ⁿ n! distinct roll-call patterns. Given a simple voting game (a decision rule), the pivotal voter in a roll-call is the one whose vote finally decides the outcome, so that the votes of all those called subsequently no longer make any difference. The main result, stated without proof by Mann and Shapley (1964), is that the Shapley-Shubik index of voter a in a simple voting game is equal to the probability of a being pivotal. We believe this representation of the index is much less artificial than the original one, which considers only the n! roll-calls in which all voters say "yea" (or all say "nay"). The proof of this result proceeds by generalizing the representation so that one obtains a value for each player in any coalitional game, which is easily seen to satisfy Shapley's (1953) three axioms. Thus the generalization turns out to be an alternative representation of the Shapley value. This result implies a non-trivial combinatorial theorem.     

"Bru-u-u-uce": The simple economics of mob goods

This paper provides a pure economic rationale for chronic excess demand for tickets to events like rock concerts. The model focuses on "mob goods", which are consumed jointly with crowd reaction, or "noise". Whereas the primary commodity is provided by the seller, the joint product is provided collectively by buyers. If propensities to make noise are inversely correlated with reservation prices and a capacity constraint applies, excess demand (queuing) is a necessary condition for profit maximization. One important implication is that anti-scalping laws may be welfare-increasing. The paper explores other applications in professional sports, restaurants, and on-stage theatre.     

Equilibrium and efficiency in an organized vote market

We study an organized market for votes, in which trade is directed by a market "specialist". This market mechanism always produces an equilibrium outcome, and whenever vote buying occurs the alternative chosen is Pareto superior to the alternative that would be chosen without trade. We then characterize the equilibrium outcomes in a one-dimensional policy space, and show that if the distribution of ideal points is skewed enough, then the equilibrium with vote buying differs from the equilibrium without vote buying (the median ideal point). This difference reflects the ability of an intense minority to obtain a policy it prefers in exchange for side-payments.     

Correction to: Rigid Religious Faith Promotes Selective Exposure to Attitude-Congruent Political Information

Political Behavior - The original version of this article unfortunately missed to add the "Dependent Variable" note is Table 3 footnote. The note is given below: "The dependent...     

Social order through constitutional choice: A contractarian proposal

The present paper consists of two closely related parts: one which outlines a normative criterion for evaluating the legitimacy of constitutional change and one which specifies a particular proposal of a constitution. The criterion used stems directly from the "pragmatic" brand of contractarianism developed by Buchanan, where an approximate rule of unanimity is utilized. The proposal aims at the highest possible freedom of choice for individuals when it comes to defining the political system of their liking: a core (dealing with public goods and rights) is common for all, but everything else can vary between different sub-constitutions between which individuals choose.     

Random errors, dirty information, and politics

Rational voters' assessments of candidates and policy proposals are unbiased, but affected by random errors. "Clean" information decreases these errors, while "dirty" information increases them. In politics, most voting procedures weigh random individual errors asymmetrically. Thus, such errors do not counterbalance one another in the aggregate. They systematically affect politics. This illuminates the roles of political propaganda and interest groups. It helps to explain various puzzles in Public Choice, e.g., the frequent use of inefficient policy instruments. Institutional conditions are identified that shape the aggregate impact of individual errors and the politicians' incentives to produce dirty information.     

论马克思哲学思想的恩格斯化

始于1859年的马克思哲学思想恩格斯化过程持续了36年,结果是恩格斯化马克思主义哲学的形成.恩格斯以哲学著述和立场宣示两种形式向世人申明,他的哲学观点与马克思的哲学思想之间没有任何意见不一致,哲学整体和具体观点两个层面的情况都是如此.文献梳理的结果令人惊诧,二人哲学思想之间的异质性明显可见:1、哲学研究的本体;2、哲学分析框架;3、对相同思想资源的解读;4、对历史唯物主义内容范围的理解;5、对马克思主义理论体系的理解;6、哲学观.事实表明,二人的哲学思想之间确有差别,它影响了马克思主义哲学的基本形态.     

Precedence,privilege, preferences,plus Pareto principle: Some examples on egalitarian ethics and economic efficiency

It is demonstrated how economic theory of justice as fairness, Pareto improvements on situations involving equity, can be used to analyze the ethics contents of distributions of rights and privileges. The analysis makes use of the concept of a veil of ignorance to define a status quo. A property right to an ability or a privilege is interpreted as a transparency in the veil in respect to this ability or privilege. Three different examples are investigated, focusing on rights as collective goods, non-transferable abilities, and privileges as inherent rights.Revised version of Presidential address to the annual meeting of the European Public-Choice Society in Linz, Austria, 29 March to 1 April, 1989. I thank Johann K. Brunner, Josef Falkinger, and Björn Sandvik for many helpful comments.     

Political deadlocks and distributional information: The value of the veil

Contractarian normative theory relies on the veil of ignorance construct to generate the political consensus required for its theories of justice. By eliminating distributional information, the veil is presumed to facilite consensus building by reducing conflict over the distributional effects of proposed constitutional rules or institutions. This paper explores the extent to which excessive distributional information might also impede the ordinary day-to-day decision making of democratic institutions. Our analysis suggests that distributive information makes political deadlocks under majority rule more likely. Statistical evidence suggests that the efficacy of the U.S. Congress has been reduced by the dramatic increase in distributional information made available to it over the past twenty five years.The authors would like to thank an anonymous referee and the participants of the Center for Study of Public Choice Luncheon Work Shop for helpful comments and suggestions. Helpful comments were also provided by Bruce Benson and Z.A. Spindler at the 1988 meeting of the Public Choice Society. We also wish to thank Jack Triplett for providing us with a pre-publication copy of the page proofs of his piece on computer price indices.     

Is Rule by Majorities Special?

One way of making decisions is for political associates or their representatives to vote on each issue separately in accordance with the majority principle and then take the cumulative outcomes of such majority decision making to define the collective choice for public policy. We call such a system one of majorities rule. Thought of in spatial terms, majorities rule is equivalent to the principle of making decisions according to the issue-by-issue median of voter preferences. If popular control and political equality are core democratic values, they can be rendered as requirements on a collective choice rule, involving resoluteness, anonymity, strategy-proofness and responsiveness. These requirements entail that the collective decision rule be a percentile method. If we then add a requirement of impartiality, as exhibited in a collective choice rule which would be chosen behind a veil of ignorance, then the issue-by-issue median is uniquely identified as a fair rule. Hence, majorities rule is special. Some objections to this line of reasoning are considered.     

(Non)equivalence in a federalism: Dual tax shares, flypaper effects and Leviathan

Among the best-known theorems of fiscal federalism is the presumed allocative and distributive equivalence between a lump-sum grant to a collectivity and a set of lump sum grants to the members of a collectivity. Interestingly, the simple elegance of the theorem is at odds with observed behavior. Grants to governments produce greater public spending than does tax reduction. Explanations of this "flypaper effect" range from misspecified econometric modeling to presumed behavior based on fiscal illusion. In this paper we show that theoretical equivalence exists in a model that recognizes only one tax share, the citizen voter's local tax share. When the model is expanded to include voters' federal tax shares as well as local taxes, non-equivalence and the flypaper effect become the rule, not the exception.     

Loyal political cartels and committee assignments in Congress: Evidence from the Congressional Black Caucus

This study presents a political model whichsuggests that monopoly legislators form cartel-likeorganizations (referred to as ``memberships'') in aneffort to extract greater benefits in the politicalprocess. Based on a model by Coker and Crain (1994)that provides theoretical and statistical argumentsfor congressional committees as loyalty-generatinginstitutions, the instant research examines committeeplacement of ``members'' of the Congressional BlackCaucus (CBC) in the U.S. House by Democrat leaders.Voting records indicate that the CBC is uniform in itsvoting patterns, indicating cartel-like behavior.Because of this, the Democratic leadership in theHouse chooses to place CBC members on importantcommittees in order to support their policy agenda.The general finding of this study is that ``blackrepresentation'' may be greater than simply theproportion of seats held by black Representatives."Legislators differ substantially by virtue of their committeeassignments. Committees in Congress, and particularly in theHouse of Representatives, possess disproportionate power over thepolicy areas in their respective jurisdictions, have the rightto hold hearings, and recommend budget allocations for ...bureaus ..." (Grier and Munger, 1991: 25)     

Looking at Muslims: the visibility of Islam in contemporary French cinema

ABSTRACT

Tarr analyses the representation of Islam in five feature films made since 2006 that centre on the changing identities of Muslims in contemporary France. She locates the films within the context of the rise in Islamophobia in France following 9/11 and anxieties about immigration and terrorism, but also in relation to France's troubled postcolonial history and French republican ideology. In particular, the French notion of laïcité (secularism) has given rise to active hostility to any public expression of religious or cultural difference, particularly on the part of Muslims. Cinematic representations of Muslims, and particularly of the children of migrants from the Maghreb, have, therefore, since the mid-1980s, been treated with caution in order not to alienate mainstream Franco-French audiences and to facilitate the second generation's integration into French society. However, the five feature films addressed here—two mainstream popular comedies, Mauvaise foi/Bad Faith (2006) and L'Italien/The Italian (2010), and three independent, low budget, auteur-led, realist films, Dans la vie/Two Ladies (2008), Dernier maquis (2008) and La Désintégration/Disintegration (2012)—offer new narratives that challenge fears of Islam by foregrounding the protagonists' negotiation of their Muslim identities in a French context and, by implication, argue for the integration of Islam as a legitimate referent of French identity. However, their construction of Islam does not extend to positive representations of young veiled women, and they thus still risk confirming the oppressive majority view that certain practices associated with Islam, such as the wearing of the veil, are incompatible with the secularism of the French Republic.     

C's Moscow station – The Anglo-Russian trade mission as cover for SIS in the early 1920s

Considering that the Soviet Union was the main target of the SIS throughout the 1920s, very little has been written on the subject of its penetration of this target, the methods used, or the degree of success achieved. This article attempts to lift part of the veil, and to suggest that there was considerably more success than SIS has commonly been given credit for,‘At no point between the wars did SIS possess a Moscow station’¹‘surprisingly it seems that one of the sacrifices he (Sinclair) decided to make was not to open a station in Moscow… instead a representative was infiltrated into the country under cover of a building project’²‘Before the break our [excised] in Russia were extremely reliable, but now they have to send in much less stuff’³     

Adorno,Gastronomic Authenticity,and the Politics of Eating Well

Recent trends like locavorism, green consumerism, and ethical consumption point to a new politics of eating, what is called in this article the new gastronomy, which centers on buying locally, humanely, and sustainably produced foods. However, rather than exemplifying a novel and contemporary turn in food politics, it is argued that the new gastronomy's faith in buying local is linked to an ancient politics of consumption that can be traced back to the Greeks and is grounded in virtue and temperance; and, furthermore, that this is most evident in the new gastronomy's emphasis on the humane treatment of animals. Additionally, the new gastronomy's claim of authenticity with regard to production, distribution, and consumption (for example, artisan, farm to table, etc.) works to veil this traditional politics of eating, lending its supporters a false sense of political progressivism or radicalism. Working from Theodor Adorno's analysis in The Jargon of Authenticity, it is demonstrated that what the local foods movement really offers is a jargon of gastronomic authenticity that claims self-transparency of action and provides a superficial escape from the exploitative reality of late capitalism. Finally, Adorno's critique of ideology and authenticity and his special attention to animals in his work are presented as potential disrupters of bourgeois identity and as a way to strip the ideological surface of this new gastronomy to reveal its complicity with exploitative systems of food production and distribution.     

Secular spaces and religious representations: reading the headscarf debate in Turkey as citizenship politics

Although in recent years there has been a relaxing attitude in Turkey towards wearing headscarf in the public sphere, the controversy surrounding the visibility and use of the headscarf has often been read through modernity/tradition dichotomy which sees the use of headscarf by women as a threat to modernity by religious subjectivities. The principal reason for this reading is that the citizenship regime in Turkey has not been simply about defining a framework of membership to a political community but rather has been used to construct modern subjectivity. This article attempts to dislocate the headscarf controversy from this dichotomous reading by moving it into the larger framework of citizenship politics. It argues that instead of interpreting the growing visibility of the headscarf within the public sphere that pits modernity against tradition, we need instead to identify the wearing of the headscarf as a specific ‘act of citizenship’ that challenges dominant citizenship practices.     

Rights of Self-delimiting Peoples: Protecting Those Who Want No Part of Us

While in recent years new charters and government actions have boosted the collective and individual rights enjoyed by “Fourth-World” indigenous peoples such as the Inuit, another set of indigenous peoples has not experienced such protection: “self-delimiting” peoples. Their rights go largely unprotected because of deliberate ambiguities in the word “indigenous”; because these peoples generally avoid all contact with the larger society, and so are unknown by it and have no voice in it; and because charters and institutions generally require validation of an indigenous people as bona fide—such as a history of contact and of evident land occupation—in order for the group to enjoy full rights protections. Both practice and theory may militate against the extension of full protection. This paper argues that theory, institutions building upon it, and practice realizable from theory and institutions must be reconsidered in terms of the particular circumstances and needs of these peoples if their rights are to be fully respected and maintained. Clear, special protection for these peoples’ rights to their culture must be established.