Ethical aspects of scientific progress

Ethics and science are much more closely connected than some people assume. Erroneous perceptions of the nature of ethics are the probable cause of this. Ethics is an intrinsic and productive component of scientific work, not some external or retrospective obstruction of “real” scientific research. The ethical component is positively influenced by a thorough knowledge of the discipline it belongs to. Science thrives in a climate of freedom, but this must not be used as an alibi to circumvent social responsibility and ethical concern. Ethical science has a direct bearing on science policy. Giving due attention to the ethical aspect of scientific work leads to several tangible results. It increases interdisciplinary openness, it promotes the communicability of science, and, ideally, it demonstrates the difference between knowledge and wisdom. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

La justicia social y la globalización monetarista

The author analyzes the doctrinal concept of social justice, in light of the ILO at its 75th anniversary, in which he was questioned their future, like a universal postulate. Whither goes the job? Social justice as a principle and aspiration of the right amount of work trying to promote and preserve decent existence of the community by imposing human values to all speculative consideration, commercial or financial information, proposed by globalization.     

The Grey Threat: Presence of Jihadist Terrorism and Failings in the Portuguese National Security System

This article starts by establishing a link between the nature of the threats created by jihadist terrorism and global organized crime and the investigation model used by Portuguese intelligence and police entities to detect and eliminate them. The visible manifestations of jihad terrorism and related organized crime recorded in Portugal since 2001 are also documented. The article goes on to analyze most recent theories produced on the importance of intelligence work and criminal investigation in combating these threats. On this basis, the article raises the hypothesis that Portugal's capacity to confront these threats has been dangerously weakened by the investigation powers constraints and conflicts of jurisdiction in the national security system, the lack of effective coordination in the whole system, and delays in the necessary reforms for over a decade.     

The Cortes of Castile and Philip II's fiscal policy

Summary

This article analyses the evolution of the fiscal policy of the Crown of Castile in the reign of Philip II in relation to the salient characteristics of the tax system and of the political and constitutional structure of the kingdom. The character of the Kingdoms of Castile as an aggregate of autonomous communities coordinated by the superior authority of the monarch was reflected in a fiscal system based upon the delegation to local authorities of the management of the most important royal taxes (alcabalas and servicios) and thus upon principles of autonomy and decentralization which made negotiation with the Kingdom in the Cortes, both with regard to the total sum and to the conditions of its collection, unavoidable. The financial needs of Philip II led him to try to overcome the rigidities of this system by extending the fiscal powers of the Crown by means of the creation of new taxes or the increase of those already in existence, as well as by redefining the constitutional processes of negotiation with the Cortes and the cities. Nevertheless, Philip II neither succeeded in getting acceptance for all his demands nor did the pressure to which he subjected the Kingdom generate any significant change in the nature of the Castilian fiscal system nor in the politico‐constitutional bases which sustained it.     

Triangulation of Salient Studies to Date on Trust-Building in Mediation

Many studies have empirically demonstrated the importance of trust-building between mediators and parties to a dispute. We wrote this article in response to a call by Stephen Goldberg and Margaret Shaw for studies conducted in North America to be triangulated in other countries where mediation is taking off as an alternative tool in the resolution of disputes. Our objective was to test theories on the factors that increase trust-building in mediation. With this in mind, the study conducted by Jean Poitras in Montreal (Canada) was triangulated in the Balearic Islands (Spain) and an analysis was made of the similarities and differences between both studies using different methods.     

Civic Duty and Voter Turnout

We argue that two different sets of considerations shape the decision to vote or abstain in an election–ethical and non-ethical. First the citizen may vote out of a sense of duty. Failing that, she may vote because she has strong preferences about the outcome of the election. Abstention occurs when neither duty nor a sufficiently strong preference is present. The implication is that while duty and preference each have strong positive effects on turnout, they also have a negative interaction effect, since the impact of preference is much weaker among those with a sense of duty. We present a wide array of empirical evidence that systematically supports our claim that the turnout decision is importantly shaped by this causal heterogeneity. Thus a turnout model misses something fundamental if it does not take into account the effect of civic duty.