Can Labelling Policies Do More Harm Than Good? An Analysis Applied to Environmental Labelling Schemes

In certain plausible circumstances, the introduction of labelling schemes can lead to adverse effects. In the case of ecolabelling, the adverse effects are an environmental degradation rather than an environmental improvement. To take into account the environmental sensitiveness or responsiveness of consumers, we introduce the concept of environmental elasticity which enables us to classify goods. In a basic analytical model, we describe the conditions under which different outcomes—overall impacts of change in environmental quality due to environmental labelling—arise after the introduction of an ecolabelling scheme. We show that an ecolabelling scheme can lead to an increase in purchases of environmentally sustainable products. The net effect on the environment can be worse than the initial situation without ecolabelling, because the environmental unit improvement is compensated by an over-consumption. We suggest several tests to detect this potential perverse effect, some policy implications to avoid it and stress the need for further research.JEL Classification: D11, L15, Q28     

Incarcerated youths with high or low callous–unemotional traits: a comparison controlling for age of crime onset

The aim of this study was to analyze the relevance of callous–unemotional (CU) traits in incarcerated juvenile delinquents. A sample of 160 incarcerated male youths was used. Results showed that youths with high CU traits had an earlier age of crime onset and of trouble with the law, and also had higher levels of conduct disorder. When controlling for age of crime onset, youths with high CU traits showed higher levels of general psychopathic traits and of psychopathy taxon membership as well as lower levels of prosocial behavior, but no differences were found for self-reported delinquency, crime seriousness, impulsivity-conduct problems, and general conduct problems. Also, no significant associations of CU traits with self-reported delinquency and crime seriousness were found when controlling for age of crime onset. Future studies of CU traits should take into account the specific importance of age of onset.     

L'Europe comme dépassement de l'Etat ?

Les rapports entre l'Europe et l'Etat ne doivent pas être conçus dans les termes d'une opposition théorique. L'Union européenne ne constitue pas un espace public et valorise la légitimité économique de l'action publique. Mais les réformes managériales comme l'évolution de l'échange politique ont provoqué de profondes transformations dans les Etats membres eux-mêmes depuis une quinzaine d'années. L'évolution des Etats-nations et de l'Europe paraît donc convergente et semble produire une nouvelle théorie du pouvoir. Cette évolution commune s'appuie sur des valeurs universalistes et sur la multiplication des réseaux et des corporatismes. Les arrangements contractuels prennent le pas sur l'ordre hiérarchique ou les marchés. Cette évolution ne débouche pas nécessairement sur une gouvernance démocratique. Développant une logique artificialiste, elle suscite l'opposition des partisans des valeurs naturalistes et communautaires. Elle exige également des individus un capital social important.     

Church,State, Resistance1

This article problematizes a separation of Church and State that is nevertheless identified as constitutive of politics. Democracy has come to manifest a tension between the ‘autonomy’ of the political and a ‘heteronomy’ that, exceeding rationalist or social contractarian accounts of our co‐existence, is here presented as an irreducible affect of our being together. Autonomy, it is argued, resists heteronomy through all representations of democracy; yet, by contrast, heteronomy resists autonomy, and does so with the force of this affect. So if civil religion is impossible – and if we know only too well where its realizations lead: by default, to republican celebration, or by excess, to fascism – then we must take up again, and from scratch, the question of the affect according to which we co‐exist.