Procedural decisions in intergroup conflict situations: The influence of hierarchical group membership

A review of research on procedural and distributive justice shows that whereas distributive justice research has examined people's actual choice of outcomes, procedural justice research has paid little attention to the investigation of people's actual choice of procedures. In the present paper, three experiments are presented, all investigating people's actual choice of procedures. In all three experiments, participants were in a middle-management position where their subordinates demanded an opportunity to voice their opinion, while their superiors demanded that the subordinates should not be allowed voice. In Experiments 1 and 2 it was found that participants who were induced to identify with the low hierarchical group (subordinates) allowed more voice than participants who were induced to identify with the high hierarchical group (superiors), but that the effect of hierarchical group membership was absent when maximizing performance (Experiment 1) or participative values (Experiment 2) were explicitly emphasized. In Experiment 3 it was found that the effect of hierarchical group membership on procedural decision making was also evident in persons who progressed from identifying with both hierarchical groups to identifying with one hierarchical group. In the discussion it is argued that cross-fertilization between the fields of procedural and distributive justice will deepen our understanding of social justice in general.     

中层突破：中国工会改革的路径与成效——基于深圳市的实践

工会十八大报告系统阐述了新时代建设什么样的工会、怎样建设工会等方向性、根本性、战略性重大问题,明确提出要完善和创新工会工作体系、工作内容和工作方式,创建高质高效的矩阵网络系统,为新时代工会深化改革指明了方向。本研究以深圳市总工会发起建设的源头治理劳资纠纷试验区为观察案例,探究中国工会改革的路径与成效。深圳市总工会的实践表明,存在一条介于“顶层设计”和“基层创新”这两种路径之间,上下联动、具备一定制度设计和政策协调及资源筹措能力的“中层”改革路径。这种“中层”工会改革路径是在中国工会科层体系、双重领导体制下的有益探索,对其研究有助于思考各层级工会的职责分工问题。     

中央政府发展序演化考察:制约与选择

通过所构建的发展序分析框架,本文对我国中央政府1978—2006年间的发展序进行了考察,结果显示:1978—1994年间,经济体制改革的持续推进促成了发展序向更高层级演化;1994—2006年间,受制于庞大的开支需求所形成的资金约束,发展序的演化与时代背景不尽吻合。当前,中央政府虽然仍面临各种制约因素,但是必须再一次以务实的行动促成发展序向更高层级演化。     

宪法的溯及力论纲

宪法的溯及力属于宪法法律效力的范畴,是宪法时间效力的一种。关于宪法溯及力,国内外研究成果极其鲜见。在宪政秩序较为发达、违宪审查机制较为成熟的国家,宪法的效力尤其是其溯及效力,已在司法实践中发挥了重要作用。只有对宪法溯及效力进行系统的理论分析,并切实提出其发挥现实作用的机制建构,才能对我国发展宪政、构建和谐社会有所裨益。     

法律的生成———边沁的法律概念的构成

边沁的法律是主权者的命令这一定义是其价值追求与逻辑推演的结果,经解释性研究而展放出边沁创立这一定义的整体思想框架,即边沁以安全、生存、富裕、平等为价值序列体系;依据经验主义本体论,反驳了自然法与自然权利的虚有性,确定了快乐为立法追求的根本目标,进而,以其价值序列体系与功利计算方法来推导出他的主权者,以道义逻辑推导出命令,最后推导出法律是人民意志的表达。     

论法的价值层次

随着人类社会的演进和人类理性的发展 ,法的价值层次逐渐显现出来。伴随法的不同发展阶段 ,它体现为 :作为基础性价值的秩序、作为扩展性价值的功利和作为法的终极价值的正义     

Equality and family values: conflict or harmony?

Abstract

This paper provides a critical commentary on the claim advanced by Harry Brighouse and Adam Swift in their book Family Values: The Ethics of Parent–Child Relationships that there is an ineliminable conflict between relationship goods and fair equality of opportunity. I argue there need be no conflict between family values and equality of opportunity in a suitably non-hierarchical society. I also argue that the idea that equality of opportunity might be served by abolishing the family is mistaken. Egalitarian justice does not provide an obstacle to the realization of family values.     

Status and Foreign Policy Change in Small States: Qatar’s Emergence in Perspective

ABSTRACT

Small states are just as easily seduced by status and glory as other states. When conceived as situated in a stratified international society, small states acquire an inherent tendency to overcome their disadvantage in conventional power terms through the pursuit of status. Hence, it is precisely because of their position in the international hierarchy, not in spite of it, that strategic ideas based on state size stimulate foreign policy change in small states. This mechanism provides an explanation to the question why the small state of Qatar has pursued such a high-profile diplomatic strategy since its emergence in the late 1990s.     

Grading greatness: evaluating the status performance of the BRICS

An impressive portfolio of case-study research has now demonstrated how and through what means the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) countries have sought higher social status. However, this field of research lacks systematic means of evaluating this status-seeking. This article fills this lacuna by developing a mixed-methods framework enabling scholars to zoom in and compare individual states’ relative status performance. Using diplomatic representation as a proxy for status recognition and comparing it to a country’s status resources (wealth), the framework indicates how successfully countries have generated recognition from the international society. The findings show that China’s economic ascent has been matched by increased recognition, and that South Africa enjoyed an almost immediate ‘status bounce’ following apartheid, turning it from a pariah to a significant overperformer. Russia should be understood as an ‘overperforming status-dissatisfied power’ while India’s status performance has been around ‘par’ for a country of its economic resources. Lastly, Brazil underperforms more than any of the other BRICS, especially since its democratic transition. The findings highlight considerable variance in the type and duration of gaps between status resource and recognition and suggests that rather than treating these as ‘inconsistencies’ awaiting correction, they can and should be accounted for by case study analyses.     

In-between anarchy and interdependence: from state death to fragile and failing states

International relations scholars concede a vital role for anarchy in structuring state behaviour towards survival. Anarchy provides strong incentives for power-maximising behaviour, since states that do not act accordingly risk death by conquest. This assumption raises an important question: if international anarchy is pervasive, leading to processes where only the fit survive, how do we explain the survival of fragile and failing states? Under conditions of self-help such states should be tempting targets, yet these vulnerable states avoid death by conquest. Fragile and failing states survive because international order is based on a sovereignty regime backed by major powers. International order is more salient than anarchy and provides better vantage points to understand the absence of state death. Elements of international order, like the relational hierarchies between dominant and subordinate states, no longer tolerate state death. This largely explains the survival of fragile and failing states.