Equality,value pluralism and relevance: Is luck egalitarianism in one way good,but not all things considered?

Abstract

Some luck egalitarians argue that justice is just one value among others and is thus not necessarily what we should strive for in order to make the world better. Yet, by focusing on only one dimension of what matters – luck equality – it proves very difficult to draw political implications in cases where several values are in tension. We believe that normative political philosophy must have the ambitionto guide political action. Hence, in this paper we make a negative and a positive point. Negatively, we argue that the inability to offer recommendations on what to strive for potentially weakens Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen’s account of luck egalitarianism. In order not to be irrelevant for political practice, a more serviceable version of luck egalitarianism that would allow for all-things-considered judgments is needed. Positively, we examine two possible routes toward such a view. One would be to stick to pluralism, but to discuss possible clashes and find a rule of regulation in each case. Another would consist in giving up value pluralism by identifying an over-arching value or principle that would arbitrate between different values. We suggest that Lippert-Rasmussen’s foundation of equality carries the potential for such an overarching principle.     

The logic of multiculturalism and Korean democracy

In this article, I attempt to construct a normative framework of Korean multiculturalism in the Confucian public-societal context of Korean democracy by focusing on the political implications of the claim to cultural rights (so-called ‘logic’ of multiculturalism) and cultural pluralism that it is likely to entail for Korean democracy. After examining the logic of multiculturalism that often puts multiculturalism in tension with liberal democracy, I turn to Will Kymlicka's account of immigrant multiculturalism that resolves the potential tension between multiculturalism and liberal democracy in a liberal way. Then, I construct a normative framework of Korean multiculturalism in a way that a decent multicultural society can be established on the same public-cultural ground on which Korean democracy has matured in the past two decades.     

转型时期高校管理者的素质和能力

转型时期的高等教育 ,出现了新的机遇和发展空间 ,同时也相伴而来许多挑战和困难。要用科学的态度和方法来圆满地解决过去从未出现过的新的困难和问题 ,需要当代高校管理者有强烈的使命感 ,有充分的心理准备 ,有对事物的敏感性和前瞻性 ,有创造力和承受力 ,有奉献精神和团队精神。只有具备了以上基础素质 ,才能迎接新的挑战 ,并利用机遇来发展全新的、开放的高等教育事业。     

Signs of change in North Korea

The spread of liberal democracy around the world has raised the risk of wishful thinking by students of democratization who hope that what they study will happen. One way of reducing this risk is to focus on regions that challenge the expectations and explanations of democratization. Four criteria can roughly measure a region's ‘recalcitrance’ in this regard: the extent to which it: (1) lacks liberal democracy, thus disappointing democ‐ratizers; (2) is diverse, thus making it hard to explain the lack of liberal democracy with across‐the‐board generalizations; (3) seems not to fit a particularly common expectation, e.g., that more well‐to‐do countries should be more liberal‐democratic; and (4) has leaders who have articulated a serious critique of liberal democracy. By meeting all of these criteria more fully than other parts of the world, Southeast Asia qualifies as the most recalcitrant region. The anomalousness of Southeast Asia is no reason for pessimism. But it does suggest that observers would do well to diversify what they mean by democracy beyond its conventionally liberal form.     

Does the Government Selection Process Promote or Hinder Pluralism? Exploring the Characteristics of Voluntary Organizations Invited to Public Consultations

To what extent does the government selection process practised in public consultations promote or hinder pluralism in the policy-making process? This article addresses this question by exploring and analysing the characteristics of voluntary organizations invited to public consultations. Evidence is drawn from the formerly corporatist Scandinavian country of Sweden and the policy-making process referred to as the ‘remiss procedure’. The article shows that the government selection process encourages a multitude of organizations to participate. Consistent with recent studies on Scandinavian corporatism, this study provides weak support of corporatist practices in the Swedish policy process. However, and without challenging the seemingly pluralistic nature of the remiss procedure, voluntary organizations with ‘insider status’ in the policy process are more frequently invited to formal decision-making arenas such as the remiss procedure. It is argued that the policy network literature and the theory of political opportunity structures may further the understanding of the government selection process practised in public consultations.     

Epistemic pluralism for knowledge transformation

ABSTRACT

When Aristotle wrote that a human being is a rational animal, race, creed and colour were excluded from his declaration. Such a view is informed by the axiom that all human persons are capable of and are endowed with scientific rationality. However, colonialism sought to entrench Western epistemologies (ways of knowing) at the expense of the conquered communities’ world experiences. To deny the reasoning capacity of the Other is tantamount to questioning their humanity. It leads to a fallacious belief that there are modes of knowing, knowledge generation and knowledge application that are inferior, simply because of the pigmentation of the individuals articulating them. Scholarship is violated and impoverished by such an imperial approach. This article argues for the promotion of a holistic and normative epistemology oriented towards the development and happiness of the individual and society, while affirming the humanity of the African person.     

法律多元主义及其中国语境：规范多元化

法律多元主义的产生与发展,对各国法治发展的影响不容忽视.当代中国自上而下推行法治,法律规范创制体系以国家制定法为中心,但现代社会中民间法的超强生命力、道德的法律化、法律原则的普遍适用等现象冲击了制定法的中心地位,法律规范的创制体系也由此趋于多元.这种多元主义法律观对当代中国的法治运行具有现实意义.     

泰国宪政体制多元化的进程、动力与前景

宪政体制变革的动力,源于新旧利益集团在政治博弈中对权力边界的制度化诉求。20世纪90年代以来,随着军人集团的没落,以及城市中产阶级与新资本集团的相继兴起,泰国宪政体制在各派利益集团的持续冲突与妥协中不断重构。通过完善公民政治权利、提高地方自治、加强立法权与行政权制衡、创设独立监督体系等制度建设,泰国的宪政架构开始从一元转向多元。尽管从短期来看,由于宪政体制与权力结构的错位,各派利益集团将围绕修宪议题展开针锋相对的政治博弈,从而引发社会分裂与政治动荡,但从中长期来看,随着政治权力结构日趋多极化,泰国宪政体制将在“权力制衡”的多元化道路上继续前行,进而为社会经济发展提供平稳有序的政治环境。     

Nationalist discourse and the ultra-conservative press in contemporary Poland: a case study of Nasz Dziennik

After the democratic transition to post-Communist Poland, ultraconservative groups found themselves legitimately able to propagate a nationalist ideology. They focused on an idea of ‘national identity’ that clearly and restrictively defined the boundaries of the national community. In the late 1990s a far-right movement supported by a radical faction of the Roman Catholic Church gained wide public support and, eventually, political legitimization. The fears of those for whom the transition of the socio-economic system did not bring a change for the better have been exploited by activists and institutions that consistently point to various foreign ‘threats’ (external and internal) against Poland’s political and economic independence and against national integrity. Starnawski analyses forms of anti-pluralist backlash as strategies undertaken by the ultra-conservative media. Provided is a case study of Nasz Dziennik, one of the major Polish newspapers to disseminate a far-right discourse that combines a concept of ‘national identity’ with radical Catholicism. Such nationalistoriented media use rhetoric that claims to be representative of the dominant group, and attempt to provide the audience with a restrictive sense of identity that is based on the construction of elements that are considered foreign and threatening to a sense of nationhood, a mobilization of the audience against foreign ‘threats’, and the exclusion or marginalization of elements depicted as incongruous with collective identity, especially the cultures of national and ethnic minorities (both ‘native’ minorities and recent immigrants), minority religions and alternative cultures, as well as liberal advocates of diversity. Since Polish society is in large part culturally homogeneous, its members are more often exposed to stereotyped images of minority groups than they are to face-to-face contact with members of minorities. Therefore, Starnawski argues, exploring the contemporary nationalist discourse in ‘pluralizing’ societies such as Poland is no less essential for the diagnosis of anti-democratic obstacles than studying the actual conditions of minority groups themselves. The future of social and cultural pluralism in Poland heavily depends on the majority’s awareness of diversity and its ability to promote attitudes of openness to and understanding of cultural differences on the one hand, and a readiness to extend the notion of ‘Polishness’ to a wide range of cultural and social categories on the other.