Debt in just societies: A general framework for regulating credit

Debt presents a dilemma to societies: successful societies benefit from a substantial infrastructure of consumer, commercial, corporate, and sovereign debt but debt can cause substantial private and social harm. Pre‐crisis and post‐crisis solutions have seesawed between subsidizing and restricting debt, between leveraging and deleveraging. A consensus exists among governments and international financial institutions that financial stability is the fundamental normative principle underlying financial regulation. Financial stability, however, is insensitive to equality concerns and can produce morally impermissible aggregations in which the least advantaged in a society are made worse off. Solutions based only on financial stability can restrict debt without accounting for the risk of harm to persons least able to bear the risk, worsen preexisting inequalities, destroy or impair the net worth of households, and impose unfavorable distributive consequences. This article offers a new approach to assist policymakers in developing and evaluating regulation to take criteria in addition to financial stability into account, but which do not undermine the aim of financial stability. It calls for a luck egalitarian approach, offering policymakers options to take the debtor's choices into account while still accounting for cognitive mistakes people often make in debt decisionmaking. It offers a general framework for the underlying principles for the regulation of debt: its focus is not on any particular forms of debt or its regulation but in structuring debt regulation more generally. It offers a set of recommendations on how regulators can take concerns about luck and equality into account in regulatory design.     

The role of rural indebtedness in the evolution of capitalism

Few studies have attempted to systematize the broader consequences of ordinary indebtedness – the inevitable other side of credit. My purpose here is to suggest four preliminary theses on the role of indebtedness in the evolution of capitalism, with special reference to the rural sphere. I argue that across time and space, credit/debt relations have not only been a key factor behind social differentiation through the control of land, labour and capital (Thesis I). They have also fostered market discipline by forcing the borrower – whether a poor peasant or a company manager – to calculate, pay, trade, work, intensify (Thesis II). Interest-bearing and guarantee-based loans have thus generated pressures for economic growth, short-termism and innovations, but have also undermined traditional community bonds and environmental conditions (Thesis III). Through its remarkable reward-or-punish nature, the credit/debt couple represents a powerful mechanism of social selection that has, in the long run, crucially shaped the evolution of capitalism (Thesis IV).     

Rethinking the livret d’ouvriers: time,space and ‘free’ labor in nineteenth century France

ABSTRACT

The paper analyses the control of labor mobility through the livret d’ouvriers (1803–1890): a sort of internal passport aiming to subordinate workers’ circulation to the abidance of contract terms. The effective enforcement of livrets had a limited scope for various reasons. Nevertheless, those same difficulties offer a privileged perspective from which to analyze the shifting meanings of freedom and coercion in relation to labor poverty. The politics of identification show that it has been necessary to politically act on the spatial organization of productive processes in order to control labor through time, reacting to workers’ mobility as a specific form of collective bargaining. Through the lens of labor defection we see the emergence of a form of integration deriving from the cash nexus, the vehicle of market concurrence. Such integration calls for a form of control which cannot be subsumed within common law and that is rather axed on the modulation of market pressure – which we analyze through the 1850 debate over advance pay. From this perspective, the issues of breach of contract, police identification and debt insolvency allow to rethink the notion of coercion beyond its penal criminalization and, consequently, to frame the continuities between the police des manufactures, and the modern welfare State.     

Competitive Global Fruit Export Markets: Marketing Intermediaries and Impacts on Small-Scale Growers in Chile

Abstract — This paper explores the implications of increased competition in global fruit markets for the Chilean small-grower sector. Stagnation in the growth trajectory of such exports has precipitated significant changes in the structure and strategy of the private fruit export company sector. It is proposed that this restructuring discriminates against small growers, whose position within the market has become increasingly vulnerable. To support this idea, evidence obtained from a field study of small-scale grape growers operating in the locality of El Palqui, Region IV is presented. It is argued that increased vulnerability is not simply a function of the inefficiency of diminutive scale per se. Rather, the nature of economic power relations, which tilt heavily in the favour of export companies, form an important explanatory factor in the increasing rate of failure among the fruit growing parceleros. It is argued that the implications of the failure among small growers who have already 'reconverted' is of particular importance. It is proposed that steps re-dress structural imbalances in the market could precipitate productive gains, increase the potential success of small growers attempting to 'reconvert' to fruit production and improve rural equity. If applied to the small scale fruit sector as a whole such moves could help sustain Chile's fruit export sector — an objective which can be seen as crucial to Chile's economic well-being. In this way the argument of free-market purists — that rural economic differentiation which has taken place to date is inevitable and desirable — is challenged.     

Does public debt matter for human capital development? Evidence from Nigeria

An inquiry into the impact of external and domestic borrowings is considered timely for Nigeria, given the growing public debt profile amid deteriorating human capital development. Using data from 1990 to 2021, the study estimates the effects of domestic and external debts on Nigeria's human capital development. The study employed the fully modified ordinary least squares and canonical cointegration regression as the main estimation technique and the robustness check, respectively. The study discovered that domestic and external debt, economic growth and debt servicing exert positive and significant influence on human capital development in Nigeria while environmental pollution has an inverse and significant impact on human capital development in Nigeria. Premised on the outcomes, policy suggestions aimed at enhancing human capital development in Nigeria have been put forward.     

Linking two levels of governance: Citizens’ trust in domestic and European institutions over time

This article puts forward a comprehensive framework for explaining the complex and dynamic relationship between trust in the domestic government and trust in the EU, considering time, country and individual-level variation. Using longitudinal comparative data from 32 Eurobarometer survey waves (2004–2018), we first establish that the link between attitude formation at the national and the EU supranational levels is present over time. Second, we show that during ‘extraordinary’ times of crisis the strength of that relationship intensifies. Third, we posit that the European sovereign debt crisis changed the mechanism for this relationship in two ways: during ‘extraordinary’ times, the link is much stronger in countries hardest hit by the crisis, and the relationship holds independent of individuals' political sophistication across all countries. Our findings have implications for understanding the drivers of EU support and theories of institutional trust.     

Do citizens care about government debt? Evidence from survey experiments on budgetary priorities

Ever since the Great Recession, public debt has become politicised. Some research suggests that citizens are fiscally conservative, while other research shows that they punish governments for implementing fiscal consolidation. This begs the question of whether and how much citizens care about debt. We argue that debt is not a priority for citizens because reducing it involves spending and tax trade-offs. Using a split-sample experiment and a conjoint experiment in four European countries, we show that fiscal consolidation at the cost of spending cuts or taxes hikes is less popular than commonly assumed. Revenue-based consolidation is especially unpopular, but expenditure-based consolidation is also contested. Moreover, the public has clear fiscal policy priorities: People do not favour lower debt and taxes, but they support higher progressive taxes to pay for more government spending. The article furthers our understanding of public opinion on fiscal policies and the likely political consequences of austerity.     

论刑事证明标准及其层次性

在刑事诉讼中,由于诉讼阶段不同,认识的层次和阶段任务有所差异,这就决定了在不同的刑事诉讼阶段应适用不同的证明标准;同时,由于证明责任机理的存在,控方与被告方所负的证明责任或举证责任的性质不同,导致对控、辩双方所适用的证明标准有所差异。另外,从诉讼效率及保护人权出发,对于不同的证明对象也应适用不同的证明标准。本文在考察国外立法例以及对相关原理进行分析的基础上,对我国证明标准的多元化和层次性进行了探讨,并提出了相应的立法建议。     

浅论定金之债的认定和适用

定金是合同之债中债的担保的一种独特而重要形式。在具体司法实践中,定金之债的认定与适用是研究定金问题的关键所在。文章结合我国当前相关法律规定对定金在认定与适用中的几个问题进行了理论探讨,并提出了作者自己的观点。     

毛泽东邓小平经济分权思想比较

生产关系一定要适应生产力的发展是马克思主义的一个基本观点。基于此,毛泽东、邓小平在不同的时期,针对高度集中的计划经济体制弊端,提出经济分权思想,并在若干原则上体现出一致性。由于时代背景和历史使命不同,他们对经济分权的认识、分析和解决的侧重点也不尽相同。他们的思想是一脉相承的,是既不断继承又不断创新的过程。