Strengths and stresses of socialist states

He is author of several books, including The Contemporary Marx; From Affluence to Praxis: Philosophy and Social Criticism;and Democratic Socialism: Theory and Praxis.     

邓小平对毛泽东发展观的若干历史超越

邓小平发展观着眼于国际国内各种现实问题的研究和解决 ,具有马克思主义的基本特征和世界现代化普遍内涵 ,又更加注意反映当代中国的实际和时代特色。在继承和借鉴的基础上 ,邓小平发展观在社会主义发展道路、发展中心、发展动力、发展战略、发展阶段和发展环境等诸多方面实现了对毛泽东发展观的历史超越。     

The political economy behind the gradual demise of democratic institutions in Serbia

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to accomplish two goals. First, to present recent empirical evidence supporting the claim that Serbia is on the path towards embracing a more radical version of electoral authoritarianism. This is accomplished by examining most recent illiberal politics aimed at controlling electoral processes and the media sphere, and extracting public funds for partisan purposes. I claim that the incomplete design of democratic institutions in Serbia set up between 2001 and 2012 is primarily responsible for the democratic decline. The second goal is more general and aims to emphasize the importance of extracting public funds for hybrid regimes. Extractive institutions matter because they directly impact other critical segments of electoral authoritarianism (notably, elections and media freedom), but also because they explain the type of leadership they promote in politics. If public resources remain without proper institutional oversight and are simply ‘up for grabs,’ this will attract leaders more willing to dismantle democratic institutions and violate democratic procedures. Serbia serves as a good and current example of this linkage.     

Rule of law and democracy in the Western Balkans: addressing the gap between policies and practice

ABSTRACT

Three decades since the beginning of democratization processes, the Western Balkan countries have built a democratic façade by holding elections, by promulgating legal acts guaranteeing freedom of expression, or by constitutionally declaring a strict system of checks and balances. In reality, however, political elites rely on informal structures, clientelism, and control of the media to undermine democracy. Given that formal democratic freedoms are effective only to the extent that political elites are bound by the effective rule of law, the core argument of this study is that the structural weaknesses of democratic institutions are purposefully exploited by domestic regimes, which are able to misuse these fragile institutions to their advantage.     

From Dayton to Bernese Jura: The Election of the Croat Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina

After the signing of the Dayton Agreement, critical literature has attempted to portray consociation in Bosnia and Herzegovina as the predominant source of the country's political problems. At the same time, this literature has widely neglected the centripetal rules that have existed since the first elections of the tripartite Presidency. The paper analyzes the outcomes of the existing centripetal cross-ethnic vote pooling rules. It concludes that such outcomes are negative and it then discusses a possible solution by drawing inspiration from the application of the Bernese Jura's geometric mean. The paper focuses on the election of the Croat member in the tripartite Presidency as representative of the least numerous ethnic group. We argue that the application of the geometric mean based upon results in Croat-majority municipalities could eliminate certain grievances and weakens the chances for election of the Croat member by voters from dominantly Bosniak areas.     

Die Zusammensetzung des Schweizerischen Bundesrates nach Partei,Region, Sprache und Religion, 1848–2015

Verschiedene Kriterien sind für die Wahl in den Bundesrat bedeutend. Seit 1999 muss die Bundesversammlung darauf Rücksicht nehmen, dass verschiedene Sprachen und Regionen der Schweiz im Bundesrat angemessen vertreten sind (Art. 175 Ab. 4 BV). Zusätzlich achtet das Parlament darauf, dass ein gewisser Parteiproporz und die Präsenz beider Geschlechter in der Regierung gesichert werden. Früher war auch die konfessionelle Zugehörigkeit der Bundesratsmitglieder ein Thema und bis 1999 durfte maximal eine Person pro Kanton amtieren. Mittels einer Vollerhebung relevanter Merkmale aller Mitglieder des Bundesrates seit 1848 und einer, verglichen mit bisherigen Studien, differenzierteren Auswertungsmethode legen wir einen präzisen Überblick über die Vertretung der Parteien, Regionen, Sprachen und Religionen in der Regierung vor. Ein Anwendungsbeispiel – der potentielle Einfluss des Übergangs vom Majorz‐ aufs Proporz‐Wahlsystem für die Wahl des Nationalrates im Jahr 1919 – illustriert, wie diese Daten für wissenschaftliche Zwecke genutzt werden können.     

Critical legal and environmental view on the Ramsar Convention in protection from invasive plant species: an example of the Southern Pannonia region

The emergence and continued expansion of one of the most dangerous causes of biodiversity loss and habitat alteration such as invasive species at some Ramsar wetlands of the Southern Pannonia raise a series of questions of both an environmental as well as a legal character relevant to these fragile ecosystems. The Ramsar Convention provides a set of general instructions and guidelines, but it does not establish an adequate mechanism of sanctions that could be imposed on states or individuals who violate its provisions. Fully aware of the importance of wetlands and their wildlife for a healthy living environment and human welfare, the authors of this paper describe the present conditions of invasive plant species at some Ramsar Sites and briefly analyze the current legal framework for the implementation of the Ramsar Convention. Finally, the authors propose innovative normative solutions that would improve the protection of wetlands and contribute to the suppression and prevention of the presence of invasive species not only in this region, but also worldwide.     

Law,Love and Legality

The argument of this paper is that our lives have meaning because theyare structured by rules which are open to the outside, through which theoutside can reflexively fold back into the rules so that it canregenerate and transform them. It is this process that constitutes theunity and integrity of our lives and gives them coherence. Our lives donot have certainty in the sense that there is always a definite answeras to how we should live. It is in the reflexive unity of law and lovethat we have the confidence to respond to the outside and create andtransform our narratives, however dangerous that may seem. We might callthis ``legality' – the ability to go beyond the law at theappropriate time. In this sense then, it is a creative activity and isto be distinguished from legalism, which thinks that following the rulesis all that there is. But following the rules is important, for it isonly in following them and being faithful to them that we gain theunderstanding of when to break them. That creativity, which stems fromthe precarious linking of the arbitrary and the structured, might leadus to think of legality as a form of anarchy – not of thenihilistic variety but of the ability creatively to break the law andthus regenerate it.