Returning to the record: Originalism and the evolution of public assistance policy

This article clearly demonstrates that qualitative techniques are indispensable for gaining a more comprehensive understanding of public assistance policy's evolution. Rather than reinforcing the generally accepted view that Southern Members of Congress were steadfastly opposed to an expansion of central government power and influence, an analysis of the Congressional Record reveals that representatives from the South often were ardent advocates of an expanded federal role. Qualitative analysis also challenges the prevailing view that the national government is the primary instigator of policies which enhance federal power. During the period under study, all increases in federal match rates for public assistance, except one, emanated from Members of Congress who were attempting to increase the flow of federal funds to their states. In view of the divergence between generally accepted views and the findings produced by qualitative analysis, it is clear that qualitative methods are an invaluable tool in theory construction and highlighting promising avenues of inquiry.     

澳大利亚联邦法院对专家证据的采纳

I. Introduction
The opinion evidence of experts is an exception to the general rule that witnesses can only give evidence of that which they have seen or heard and may not give evidence of inferences which arise from their observations and from that which they have heard.     

Darwall,Habermas, and the Fluidity of Respect

What moral commitments do we manifest when we make claims upon one another? The practice of claiming is inescapable, and so any normative presuppositions of that practice are similarly inescapable (at least on pain of self‐contradiction). This inquiry thus promises an Archimedian point from which to address intractable moral disagreements in modern society. Whatever we happen to differ about, we can be shown to agree about these premises, and therefore to share commitment to whatever can be derived from these premises. The most prominent developer of this approach is Jürgen Habermas, who has sought to ground, inter alia, religious and cultural rights on this basis. I will argue that the strategy cannot resolve disagreement in the way Habermas hopes, and that this has been shown, perhaps inadvertently, by Stephen Darwall, who for very different reasons seeks to work out the premises of the practice of claiming (and who never discusses Habermas). Darwall has no apparent interest in finding a universally convincing basis for resolving moral controversies. He seeks to address, not the practical problems of a pluralistic society, but some specialized, albeit important, questions of metaethics, having to do with what kind of entity a moral claim is 1 1 These are the focus of a symposium on Darwall's book The Second Person Standpoint (Darwall 2006) in Ethics 118 (Oct. 2007). To avoid misunderstanding: I am not here attempting a comprehensive comparison of Darwall and Habermas, but only juxtaposing their views on a single important issue.
. Both Habermas and Darwall think that discourse presupposes a kind of respect among persons. Darwall, however, shows that respect is too fluid, and takes too many possible forms, to ground any but the most trivial specific moral claims.     

Short notes on some books received

China's rural enterprises are economic units established by local government in the countryside or by the peasants and they operate outside the planning system. Rural enterprises have grown twice as fast as the rest of the economy since 1984. The rural enterprise sector has so far challenged the urban economy, in both product markets and markets for raw materials. What are the prospects for their relationship ‐ competition or cooperation? To answer the question, we develop a well‐specified but simple model of the rural and urban economies. The rural enterprise boom was caused in this model by the presence of barriers to factor mobility within China, price distortions and the pool of available labour in the countryside. The origins of the boom imply that rural enterprise exports tend to be relatively labour intensive. The complementarities between rural and urban enterprises are likely to dominate their future economic relationship and lead to further growth in the rural enterprise sector.     

Wage determination in Brazil: The growth of union bargaining power and informal employment

This article examines wage determination in Brazilian manufacturing during the 1980s and early 1990s. It presents evidence to show that the reduction in state regulation of collective bargaining has led to the development of a system of wage determination which is increasingly characterised by rent sharing and insider trade union bargaining power. Real wages appear increasingly inflexible with respect to movements in open unemployment, with a large informal sector disciplining formal sector wage bargaining and cushioning the impact of broader labour market conditions. An important consequence of this is that the employment costs of a successful counter‐inflationary strategy may be very severe.