The Supreme Court and the Federal System: Federalism from Warren to Burger

The question of the relation of the states to the federal governmentis the cardinal question of our constitutional system. It cannotbe settled by the opinion of any one generation, because itis a question of growth, and each successive stage of our politicaland economic development gives it a new aspect, makes it a newquestion.¹     

Verursacht Globalisierung die Krise des Wohlfahrtsstaates?

Wirtschaftliche Globalisierung bezieht sich auf drei miteinander zusammenhängende Prozesse: 1. das Wachstum der Weltwirtschaft; 2. den Wandel in den Beziehungen zwischen den Ländern der ?ersten“ und ?dritten“ Welt, der sich aus dem Einsatz von Informationstechnologien zur Reorganisation der Produktion sowohl auf nationaler wie globaler Ebene ergibt; 3. die Integration der Weltfinanzmärkte. Diese Prozesse werden gemeinhin für die Deindustrialisierung in fortgeschrittenen Wohlfahrtsstaaten, die Zunahme der Einkommensungleichheiten und jenen Druck verantwortlich gemacht, unter dem Wohlfahrtsregime Arbeitnehmerschutz und Unterstützungsleistungen transformieren sollen. Ich zeige, dass die Veränderungen innerhalb der Weltwirtschaft viel kleiner, unspektakulärer sind als die Globalisierungsthese behauptet und das Ausmaß je nach Gesellschaft variiert. Wichtiger noch: Zwischen der Globalisierung und ihren mutmaßlich negativen Konsequenzen bestehen bestenfalls schwache Zusammenhänge. Die Rhetorik der Globalisierung hat eher mit den USA und den Veränderungen innerhalb ihrer politischen Ökonomie zu tun als mit Veränderungen des Welthandels. Abschließend werden die daraus sich ergebenden Auswirkungen auf Westeuropa diskutiert.     

China's political discourse towards the 21st century: Victimhood, identity, and political power

Political discourse is critical to the legitimisation of China's ruling elite and critically informs its formulation and execution of political action. This study explores the theme of victimhood in China's contemporary political discourse. The constructed nature of political discourse—the ‘official story’ in Benedict Anderson's phrase—draws upon a range of supporting sources. Of central importance is the role of history and one of its key features is the portrayal of China as victim. This offers a distinctive pole of identificatory attachment for the construction of a modernist reading of national Chinese political identity. The study conducts discourse analyses of three primary texts. It is concluded that objectified discursive power remains an influential factor in Chinese politics. “Without legitimacy, words are invalid; invalid words lead man to nowhere” (Mingbuzheng zhe yanbushun; yanbushun zhe shibucheng)—Confucius This paper was presented at the 10th Anniversary Conference of the American Association of Chinese Studies, Washington D.C., 16–17 April 1999. The authors would like to thank their panel discussants, Professor Peter Li and Dr. Gary Rawnsley, for their comments and suggestions on this paper.     

Regulation and the Role of Trust: Reflections from the Mining Industry

The role of prosecution in achieving compliance with social regulation is a highly contentious issue, nowhere more so than with regard to work-related injury and death in the New South Wales mining industry. Following a mining disaster, political pressure prompted the mines inspectorate to abandon its traditional 'advise and persuade' approach in favour of a much tougher, deterrence-oriented approach. Our field-work suggests that while the former approach can result in regulatory capture, the latter can be equally counterproductive. In the mining industry, interactions between inspectors and the regulated industry are frequent and ongoing and trust is central to constructive relations. When those relations break down (as under an inappropriate prosecution policy) then dialogue ceases, information is withheld rather than shared, in-firm accident investigation, prevention, and remedial action are inhibited and both sides retreat to a form of adversarialism that undermines regulatory effectiveness. Through a 20-year case study of the mines inspectorate, the article demonstrates the centrality of trust to regulatory effectiveness, how it can be lost, and how it can best be regained.