A theory of risk colonization: The spiralling regulatory logics of societal and institutional risk

Abstract

Explanations of the growing importance of risk to regulation identify three processes; the need to respond to newly created and discovered risks; the growth of regulatory frameworks; and the use of the risk instrument as an organizing idea for decision-making in modernity. Synthesizing these explanations, we propose a theory of risk colonization. We introduce a distinction between societal and institutional risks, the former referring to threats to members of society and their environment, and the latter referring to threats to regulatory organizations and/or the legitimacy of rules and methods of regulation. We argue that pressures towards greater coherence, transparency, and accountability of the regulation of societal risks can create institutional risks by exposing the inevitable limitations of regulation. In the first stage of risk colonization, framing the objects of regulation as ‘risks’ serves as a useful instrument for reflexively managing the associated institutional threats. This can be followed, in a second stage, by a dynamic tension between the management of societal and institutional risks that results in spiralling feedback loops. The very process of regulating societal risks gives rise to institutional risks, the management of which sensitizes regulators to take account of societal risks in different ways. We discuss links between this theory and the concept of governmentality and conclude with some speculations about the possible positive and negative consequences of risk colonization.     

Conceptualizing economic security and governance: China confronts globalization

Abstract

With the expansion and deepening of globalization, as well as China's entry into the World Trade Organization, the nexus between economic growth and national security has gained prominence in China since the mid-1990s. How to ensure socio-economic security while maintaining its robust economic growth is now the most serious concern of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese government. This paper addresses three questions: first, it explores why and how the transformation of economic growth and national security as two separate logics to a single domain evolved conceptually over the past two decades in China; second, what kinds of insecurities are generated by China's robust economic growth coupled with the expansion and deepening of globalization, and in which way and to what extent do they challenge China's government; third, what kinds of mechanisms or policy instruments have been adopted by China's government to address emerging economic insecurities while maintaining robust economic growth. The paper concludes that in the case of China, globalization has posed new challenges to economic security, but given that economic insecurity has its particular salience in individual countries, national institutional adjustment or adaptation becomes increasingly important for each country to govern in the interests of economic security while maintaining economic growth.     

State sovereignty,political legitimacy and regional institutionalism in the Asia-Pacific

Abstract

Regional institutions in the Asia-Pacific have been of limited efficacy. Asian members of organizations such as ASEAN and APEC have insisted that these institutions not infringe upon their sovereign rights. The basic norms, rules, structures and practices supporting these organizations have, to varying degrees, reflected this concern. A number of factors contribute to explaining this regional reluctance to create effective multilateral institutions. This paper argues that the single most important factor is the concern of most East Asian states with domestic political legitimacy. Drawing on the work of Muthiah Alagappa and Mohammed Ayoob, the paper demonstrates that a significant majority of the states of East Asia see themselves as actively engaged in the process of creating coherent nations out of the disparate ethnic, religious and political groups within the state. As a result, these states are reluctant to compromise their sovereignty to any outside actors. Indeed, the regional attitude towards multilateral institutions is that they should assist in the state-building process by enhancing the sovereignty of their members. As an exceptional case, Japan has encouraged regional institutionalism, but it has also been sensitive to the weaknesses of its neighbours, and has found non-institutional ways to promote its regional interests. The incentives to create effective regional structures increased after the Asian economic crisis, but Asian attempts to reform existing institutions or create new ones have been undermined by the issues connected to sovereignty. East Asian states recognize that they can best manage globalization and protect their sovereignty by creating and cooperating within effective regional institutions. However, their ability to create such structures is compromised by their collective uncertainty about their domestic political legitimacy. In the emerging international environment, being a legitimate sovereign state may be a necessary prerequisite to participating in successful regional organizations.     

How to change other people's institutions: discursive entrepreneurship and the boundary object of competition/competitiveness in the German banking sector

Abstract

The paper explores recent public debates about the structure of the financial system in Germany. It pays particular attention to their symbolic-strategic dimension, that is, to attempts by several institutional entrepreneurs to reformulate the criteria of organizational legitimacy, concentrating on the sense-making and legitimization processes involved in institutional persistence or change. The paper discourse-analyses a campaign by institutional entrepreneurs – mainly representatives of commercial banks – who attempted to homogenize the criteria of organizational legitimacy in the German banking sector by questioning the fundamentals of the three-pillar system and the non-commercial banks. Institutional entrepreneurs are understood as discursive entrepreneurs whose actions refer to institutionalized generalizations of value. In the case of the financial sector in Germany, it was the generalized value of competition/competitiveness that served as a discursive device to legitimize the attempts of commercial banks to alter the institutional structure.     

Norm subsidiarity and institutional cooperation: explaining the straits of Malacca anti-piracy regime

Abstract

Given competing interests among the three littoral states of Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, what explains the nature and timing of their cooperative arrangement in combating maritime piracy in the Straits of Malacca in the post-2004 period? This observation is especially puzzling because the material and strategic interests of these actors generally did not change during the time period that witnessed increased cooperation. We argue that key developments of the anti-piracy regime in the Straits of Malacca cannot be fully explained by rationalist approaches, which traditionally stresses material and national interests of states. By critically engaging constructivist approaches, this paper posits that Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia engaged in a process of norm subsidiarity. Through norm subsidiarity, relatively weak states get together to develop their own rules to prevent their exclusion or marginalization from institutions of global governance by more powerful actors. The littoral states engaged norm subsidiarity to resist extra-regional attempts to manage piracy in the Straits of Malacca. These extra-regional security proposals triggered a powerful regional cognitive prior, providing the impetus for an indigenous response, leading consequently to a collective cooperative effort to deal with the threat of piracy.     

An Analysis of Institutional Change in the European Union

Institutional change is guided by rules. In the European Union these rules are given by Art. 250–252 of the Treaty of Amsterdam. We analyze these articles as games in extensive form and characterize and compare the equilibria of these games. The analysis identifies the decisive actors and the conditions under which it comes to institutional changes in the European Union. In addition we analyze the tendencies for centralization inherent in these decision procedures as well as their ability to guarantee conflict-minimizing compromises between the institutional actors. We show that the historical evolution from Art. 250 over Art. 252 to Art. 251 implies an improved position of the European Parliament. Contrary to part of the literature we show that the move from Art. 250 to Art. 252 may have important consequences for the policies to be implemented and that the move from Art. 252 to Art. 251 improved the position of the European Parliament. Hence, our model is able to resolve the empirical anomalies resulting in conditional-agenda setting model by Tsebelis and therefore points to the importance of the sequential structure of the decision procedures.     

中国刑事辩护制度发展的命运——以建立中国控辩协商制度为视角

从立法的角度看,中国刑事诉讼法的修改,无疑是中国刑事司法改革的一个巨大进步,甚至有人把它说成是刑事诉讼立法科学化、民主化的“一个重要里程碑”也不为过。然而,在司法实践中,就刑事诉讼法的修改对中国刑事辩护制度所引起的实质性影响而言,不仅不是巨大进步,而且是严重倒退。中国的刑事辩护正面临着让立法者始料不及的艰难困境。中国目前的辩护制度状况尚无法满足辩诉交易中国化的基本要求。只有实现中国辩护律师队伍的专业化,赋予中国律师必要的辩护权利和执业保障权利,才能使得辩诉交易在中国移植后,被告人有适格的辩护律师提供帮助,以确保其在控辩协商中得到公平对待。     

哲学视野中的制度演化规律研究

哲学视野中的制度演化规律是指制度在演化过程中所反映出来的一些规律性的现象。制度演化大体遵循这样三条规律:路径依赖、量变中的质变和渐变中的突变并存、客观必然性和现实可能性的统一。     

论发展茂名港口经济

作为一个新兴的沿海港口城市,茂名拥有天然良港茂名港,还具有极其优越的货源条件,充分利用茂名港口区位、交通、资源优势,做大港口经济具有重大的现实意义。当前茂名港口经济的发展已取得了一定成就,加快茂名港口经济朝纵深发展的对策建议有:推进港航企业的规模化、多元化和标准化经营;深化港口自身的功能,促进茂名港向第三代发展;充分挖掘渔港海岛旅游潜力;以服务贸易和加工贸易为核心,形成粤西临海产业带。     

WTO与地方制度创新

地方制度创新在转型期具有重要作用,加入WTO改变了地方制度创新的外部环境,并对地方制度变迁模式形成冲击。在WTO规则的约束条件下,中央和地方制度创新的差异具有新特点,地方制度创新既有来自预期利益的推动力,又有来自财政、既得利益及政绩考核的压力。地方政府必须在意识形态、政府自身、法律、社会及市场等方面进行制度创新,以适应新的环境要求。