Discourses on Poverty: emerging perspectives on a caring economy

In The Real Wealth of Nations, Eisler proposes a holistic view of the economy, which would include the caring sectors—the household, unpaid community work and the environment—as an alternative to market-oriented economic models that have proven ineffective in dealing with the problems facing our local and global communities. Her inclusion of language change as part of a strategy for economic transformation implicitly recognises the socially constitutive function of discourse, a notion put forth by critical linguists. Based on these economic and linguistic perspectives, this article reports on a study that examined the social knowledge about poverty constructed through selected discourses to determine whether they communicate a narrow or holistic view of the economy. It proposes that economic planning for poverty reduction build upon the process of language change towards a caring economy as revealed by the study.     

Six Deadly Flaws

Following publication of the Brahimi Report on the future of UN Peacekeeping Operations under Chapter 6 of the UN Charter, the author, a former Operations Officer with UNTSO-OGL on the Israeli-Lebanon border, casts a critical eye over the report's recommendations and identifies areas that raise some concern.     

From contention to social bargaining: labour unions and democratic consolidation in Spain

The main objective of this article is to examine how the links between trade unions and affiliated political parties of the left influenced the strategies of labour during the transition and the early years of democracy in Spain. It argues that political partisanship is a key factor for understanding the unions' strategies. After a period of intense labour conflict during the transition to democracy, labour mobilization decreased and Spain's unions and other social actors initiated distinctive processes of social bargaining, starting in 1979. The central argument is that the relationship of unions and political parties in the authoritarian and transition periods was a major factor in conditioning strategies in the post-authoritarian period. In the end, the consolidation of Spanish democracy has led to the strengthening of the main trade unions. Contrary to what happened in other historical periods they used this power to contribute to governability and the consolidation of the new democratic regime.     

Determinants of cabinet size

A large literature examines the composition of cabinets in parliamentary systems, but very little attention has been paid to the size of those cabinets. Yet not only is the size of the cabinet related to the division of portfolios that may take place, cabinet size is also related to policy outcomes. In this article, a theory of party size is considered which examines how coalition bargaining considerations, intra‐party politics and efficiency concerns affect the size of cabinets. Hypotheses derived from the theory are examined using an extensive cross‐national dataset on coalition governments which allows us to track changes in cabinet size and membership both across and within cabinets.     

“讨价还价”的背后——对现行市场销售模式的法理批判

当今,讨价还价已经成为市场销售的主要模式。讨价还价虽然与自愿和公平有联系,但并不反映自愿与公平;相反,讨价还价与欺诈联系在一起。从效率的角度看,讨价还价也不能反映真实的市场供需关系;相反,它极大地增加了市场的交易成本以及政府的决策成本和管理成本,也抑制了供应商的生产积极性。商品的价格不只是人与自然的关系,更反映了人与人之间的关系,因此,商品价格的确定就不只在于效率,更在于公平。商品价格的公平性就在于成本加合理利润,因此,成本与利润信息的充分披露可以保证消费者在讨价还价中免于欺诈。集团购买以及标准合同也在一定程度可以弥补消费者讨价还价能力的不足。而作为消除讨价还价的销售模式最为有效也最为现实的办法,莫过于以明码实价的方式代替明码标价的规定。对此,政府的价格调控措施必须有所作为。     

马克思的分配正义思想研究——兼论与罗尔斯分配正义论的比较

如何使财富在全社会实现正义的分配,是构建社会主义和谐社会必须回答的重大问题,研究马克思的分配正义思想对当前我国的分配制度改革有一定的启示。马克思从经济和伦理的范畴探讨了分配和正义的内涵,并且指出实现分配正义的途径。比较马克思这一思想与罗尔斯的分配正义论在前提条件、对象和最终目的上的不同,有助于理解马克思分配正义的最终归宿,以及预测“自由人联合体”分配正义的趋势和走向,有助于寻求马克思分配正义的可能性和现实性。     

Negotiating Effective International Environmental Agreements: Is an Objective Approach to Differential Treatment Possible?

The negotiation of international environmental agreements is rendered less effective and more costly than necessary on account of the incentives for rent seeking. This article argues that the problem of rent seeking in this context is complicated by the legitimate demand for the differential treatment of relevant heterogeneity, when insufficient information is available to distinguish between demands based on legitimate differences and rent-seeking. In order to reduce the overall costliness of the totality of international resource agreements, the general rule should be that differential treatment should be provided only in exceptional circumstances. A corollary to this rule is that differences that do not affect future negotiating costs may be considered in current negotiations. This points to differences that are exogenous to the bargaining process, such as a country's physical location. It is argued that development status of a country is another such factor, since the incentives to pursue development are unlikely to be affected by its recognition in current negotiations. Furthermore, the failure to recognise development status as a legitimate basis for differentiated treatment implicitly rewards the early identification and exploitation of unmanaged resources. Restriction of differential treatment to a small number of such differences enables the focusing of negotiations, and the structuring of discussions. A case study of the Montreal Protocol illustrates how the differential impacts of a uniform standard may be estimated, once the range of impacts is delimited.     

认罪认罚案件量刑建议问题研究

在认罪认罚案件中,检察机关提出的幅度型或精准型量刑建议都是控辩双方合意的产物,也是审判人员最终作出量刑判决的重要依据,审判人员“一般应当采纳”。但对于检察机关提出精准的量刑建议是否存在理论上的正当性以及实务上的可操作性,理论界和实务界仍存在不同意见,实践中也存在部分审判人员“不愿接受”或“勉强接受”精准量刑建议的情况,影响着认罪认罚从宽制度总体功能的发挥。为解决此问题,有必要从理论上明确检察机关量刑建议权以及法院审判权的性质及关系,使审判人员内心“愿意”采纳精准的量刑建议;在实际操作层面需要加强精准量刑建议本身的合理性和合意性,使审判人员经过审理后,“能够”采纳精准的量刑建议。此外,根据具体情况,还需要明确精准量刑建议的变更和补救问题,促进量刑公正。     

Justice and organizational punishment: Attitudinal outcomes of disciplinary events

This study utilized a justice framework to investigate punished subordinates' attitudinal reactions to specific disciplinary events. Results suggested that personality variables (negative affectivity and belief in a just world) influenced subordinate perceptions of the disciplinary event. In addition, belief in a just world had a direct effect on satisfaction with the supervisor, intention to leave, and organizational commitment. Contrary to expectations, harshness (a distributive aspect of the event) influenced perceptions of procedural justice and attitudes toward the institution (organizational commitment) and the leader (trust in supervisor), in addition to its influence on perceptions of distributive justice. The influence of procedural aspects of the event on attitudinal outcomes varied by dependent variable. The implications for future research and for management are discussed.     

Toward the Assessment of Procedural and Distributive Justice in Resolving Family Disputes

The first phase of this study focused on the development of comprehensive, conceptually integrated measures of procedural and distributive justice in the context of family decision making. In the second phase, these measures were used to examine older adolescents' justice appraisals of specific family disputes and the relation of these justice appraisals to family systems functioning along dimensions of conflict and cohesion. A Family Justice Inventory was constructed, which included two global indices (one for procedural justice and one for outcome fairness) and 13 subscales: 9 measuring specific facets of the procedural justice construct and 4 measuring specific dimensions of the distributive justice construct. Factor analysis revealed that the 13 Family Justice Inventory subscales could be reduced to 5 interpretable procedural justice factors (personal respect, status recognition, process control, correction, and trust) and 4 interpretable distributive justice factors (decision control, need, equality, and equity). Using procedural justice factor scores in regression analyses, personal respect, status recognition, correction, and trust each accounted for unique variance in family conflict and family cohesion. Using distributive justice factor scores in regression analyses, both decision control and need accounted for unique variance in family conflict and family cohesion. Using both procedural and distributive justice factor scores in regression analyses, personal respect, status recognition, and trust each accounted for unique variance in both family conflict and family cohesion. Additionally, equity also accounted for unique variance in family conflict but not family cohesion and the direction of the relationship was positive, that is, more equity in resolving specific family disputes was associated higher levels of general family conflict.