Lessons from Philosophy? Interdisciplinary Justice Research and Two Classes of Justice Judgments

More and more scholars of social justice have been calling for a closer collaboration between empirical and normative disciplines. Psychological and sociological research, as well as philosophical theories can, so they claim, learn from one another and work should be based on results obtained in the other fields of research. Some political philosophers do not share this view. They argue that, since most empirical research does not capture people's moral views on justice, its results cannot be of any value to their theories. Based on this critique I suggest in the first part of this paper that empirical research should distinguish between two classes of justice judgments: First, justice judgments in a narrow sense, which are made under conditions of impartiality and grounded in moral principles, and second, justice attitudes, which differ from other types of social attitudes only in their attitude objects. In the second part I present a quasi-experimental study that aimed at testing the two different classes of justice judgments empirically. The results show that justice judgments in the narrow sense can be obtained even under conditions in which complex experimental manipulations cannot be employed. In the third part of this paper I hypothesize that justice judgments which are based on the two formal criteria provided by political philosophy (impartiality and reference to moral principles) may serve as important intervening variables when trying to explain the impact of justice beliefs on different patterns of human behavior.     

Think Tanks in Iceland

This article maps the landscape of think tanks in Iceland. It shows that think tanks are very few and insignificant in Icelandic policymaking. In the literature, the growth of think tanks in European countries with corporatist pasts has been linked to a change to a more pluralist system of interest representation. The case of Iceland lends support to this claim. In contrast to Scandinavia, corporatism remains entrenched in Iceland. But although there is a very limited market for local think tanks in Iceland, it is nevertheless recognized by political actors that touting policy advice offered by prestigious (international) think tanks can bring political benefits. This is also demonstrated in the article, showing that the influence of think tanks transcends at times national borders.     

Conflict Resolution Between Power Sharing and Power Dividing, or Beyond?

McGarry, J. and O'Leary, B. (2004) The Northern Ireland Conflict: Consociational Engagements . Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Roeder, P. G. and Rothchild, D. (2005) Sustainable Peace: Power and Democracy after Civil Wars . Ithaca NY and London: Cornell University Press.
O'Leary, B., McGarry, J. and Salih, K. (2005) The Future of Kurdistan in Iraq . Philadelphia PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.     

Land- und Forstwirtschaft im Umweltgesetzbuch – Wird der Referentenentwurf den ökologischen Herausforderungen gerecht?

Zusammenfassung  Eine wesentliche Ursache für den anhaltenden Rückgang der Biologischen Vielfalt und der Belastung des Naturhaushaltes ist die moderne land- und forstwirtschaftliche Bewirtschaftung. Ein zukunftsf?higes Naturschutzrecht, welches den 2010-Zielen und der Nationalen Biodiversit?tsstrategie der Bundesregierung dienen soll, muss bei diesem Wirtschaftszweig ansetzen. Der Beitrag untersucht, inwieweit der Referentenentwurf des Bundesumweltministeriums vom 20. Mai 2008 diesem Anspruch gerecht wird.     

Die symbolische Inszenierung als „kultureller Anderer“ – Zur Auslegung weltkultureller Skripte im Feld der europäischen Inklusionspolitik

This paper puts forward a sociological perspective on the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) going beyond the usual focus on power and learning in governance studies. It uses a combined approach based on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of social fields and John W. Meyer’s neoinstitutionalism. Seen from this angle the OMC transmits and amplifies the abstract ideas of the world polity for EU Member States. The coordination procedure gives rise to a political field in Bourdieu’s sense filled with a variety of actors that claim to be selfless and disinterested “cultural others”. Hence, the OMC can be used by these actors as an opportunity structure for symbolic enrichment. By symbolically enriching their strategies, these actors avoid triggering the automatic recourse to subsidiarity as a means to fend off European influence. Empirically, the article identifies five types of cultural others: conceptual entrepreneurs, knowledge producers, fundamental critics, detached observers and robust actors.     

环境规制对企业有好处吗——对波特假说的一个检验

传统观点认为环境规制对受环境污染的企业有负面影响,但波特(假说)宣称受污染的企业能从环境政策中受益,因为设计良好的环境规制能通过提高生产率或增加产品价值来激励创新,实现个体利益,最终环境规制能使社会和被规制企业都受益。波特假说被政策制定者和通俗刊物所接受,但受到部分经济学家的严厉批评。在本文中,Ambec和Barla列举了这场争论中的主要观点,展示了波特假说的理论基础,进而对迄今为止经济学领域一些适用的经验性证据进行评价。