Building our future glass homes – An essay about influencing the future through regulation

The present paper surveys the prospects and possibilities of regulating the application areas of Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) – or in a broader sense, of influencing the future way of life – at the intersection of law, technology and society. It dissects the anticipated further erosion of personal privacy – the focus area of the essay – caused by technological developments and related interests. After sketching out an ironic dystopia, in which the idea of transparency is foisted upon the public by future technological developments, the author contemplates the relationships between legal regulation and the underlying values in the predictable but unknowable milieu of future life conditions. While studying the immutability of fundamental values, the author offers a brief survey of the role of public opinion, as well as of the limitations of taking into account the majority opinion, followed by a thought experiment about the possible ways of regulating the “Code”, approaching it from the direction of two fundamental rights, the right to human dignity and the freedom of academic research. After reaching conflicting conclusions and making a few suggestions about possible ways to regulate the area, the author makes a proposal about the introduction of a small-scale experimental tool, metaphorically named as a predictive learning model of regulation. Despite the difficulties and the uncertainties, the essay's overall perspective on the role of legal regulation is not a pessimistic one, as long as it is used flexibly and in conjunction with other means of regulation.     

The politics of quantitative easing and housing stimulus by the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank, 2008‒2018

Abstract

Central banks have been important yet underexplored actors in the fight against the Great Recession. In addition to ultra-low interest rates, they adopted large-scale bond-buying programmes known as quantitative easing (QE). Yet there is significant variation in QE programmes with important distributive consequences. Why has the Fed adopted multi-trillion-dollar bond-buying programmes in housing, while the ECB has not? This article argues that the Fed targeted the integrated housing finance market as a monetary transmission strategy to stimulate core elements of the US growth model: credit, demand, and consumption. In contrast, the ECB hardly stimulated housing given the eurozone’s fragmented housing finance markets and the macroeconomic frictions with some eurozone growth models, particularly export-oriented Germany. Analysing archival and interview data, this article traces the decisions of these central banks since the Great Recession, contributing to scholarship on the politics of central banking, economic policy in hard times, and the welfare state.     

The Behavioral Effects of Environmental Regimes: Collective-Action vs. Social-Practice Models

International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics - Most observers agree that institutions play significant roles both in causing and in confronting large scale environmental...     

Emerging US public affairs practice: the 2000+ PA model

Many larger US corporations are re‐assessing their participation in the public policy process and their entire approach to managing public affairs. This paper will attempt to synthesise much of what is happening to US corporate public affairs. It describes the forces driving the changes and addresses the ways corporations are responding to these forces. Finally, the paper offers an argument of the ‘New Public Affairs’ 2000 and beyond model as it will likely be practised in the USA, and perhaps elsewhere, at least early into this decade. Copyright © 2001 Henry Stewart Publications     

Dynamic approaches to government formation and the generic instability of decisive structures in Japan

This paper relaxes the “party as unitary actor” assumption that characterises much theoretical work on party competition and government formation. It first sketches some of the theoretical implications of assuming that legislators are free to defect from parties of which they are members, and to join other parties that might be willing to accept them. This leads to a dynamic legislative party system that is quite distinct from the type of party system assumed by most models, which remains essentially static between elections. Working from “office-seeking” assumptions about the motivations of legislators that seem very plausible in the Japanese case, it shows that such a dynamic party system is likely to be unstable, since there are generic gains to be derived from the fission and fusion of parties. The paper then moves on to explore the Japanese case in these terms. The Japanese party system is self-evidently dynamic and characterised by a high degree of flux, with legislative parties regularly splitting and fusing between elections. The evidence suggests that large parties that pass a certain size threshold can be attractors in the dynamic system, both offering benefits to and receiving them from defectors from other parties. In this way, a “near-majority” party can pass the majority threshold between elections, as happened with the Japanese LDP.     

Educational figures as models for empathetic communication at school： An exploratory examination of an integrative assessment model

This paper presents an exploratory examination of a methodology deliberated to quantify empathetic modeling in Israeli schools. Approximately half a dozen disciples and 3-5 teachers in each of 102 elementary and high-schools from various regions of Israel, affiliated with different educational sectors, participated in the study, which was conducted by 40 well trained interviewers. Using sophisticated algorithms, integrative scores were extracted in order to represent each school＇s pupils-teachers fit in viewing the empathetic approach by the school＇s leading educational figures. The results are conceived as indicative of the viability of the to-be-evaluated assessment method and the construct of school-empathy. Applied implications are suggested and continued research deliberated to test the hypothesis of an inverse causal connection between school-empathy, and school-violence is proposed.     

中国特色社会主义道路的四个前提性问题

中国特色社会主义是科学社会主义在中国创造性的运用,是在坚持科学社会主义的基本原则下,根据中国实际和时代特征赋予其鲜明的中国特色的社会主义.思考如何认识苏联模式的社会主义、如何认识社会主义模式的多样性、如何在经济文化比较落后的国家建设社会主义和如何开辟中国特色社会主义道路等几个问题,对于理解和坚持中国特色社会主义道路具有重要意义.     

Determinants and Evaluation of Local Energy‐Efficiency Initiatives from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

This article examines variation in local‐level energy‐efficiency grants and corresponding initiatives from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) in the United States. The analysis is based upon a hurdle model of counts of energy‐efficiency grants received by 348 local governments that received these grants from 2009 to 2013, as well as 348 matched local governments that did not receive such funds. City‐level characteristics including amount of federal financial support, per capita income, signaling of preferences for sustainability policies, manufacturing, and political influences are shown to be empirically important determinants of variation in local energy‐efficiency initiatives. The evidence suggests that all else held equal, the $21.8 billion in ARRA funds expended with the intent of increasing local energy‐efficiency programs and policies successfully led to this end.     

Trust,mental models and community participation in transition: Evidence from rural Ukraine

As participatory governance approaches find their way into the development agendas in transition countries, a key question is how to increase citizens’ participation rates. This study examines how social trust and mental models inherited from the communist past shape individual decisions to participate in rural collective action. Using unique data from rural Ukraine, I approach these questions empirically distinguishing different types of participation. I find that social trust and mental models about the roles of communities and the state stemming from the Soviet past affect participation with some reservations. Results suggest that community-driven initiatives should invest more in educational and awareness-raising activities.     

欧洲国家人类辅助生殖的法律规制

欧洲所有国家都有关于规范辅助生殖的全面立法计划。欧洲国家的立法机构在调整辅助生殖的过程中在个人生育权与负责任的生殖实践和养育子女有关的信念之间寻求平衡。欧洲关于辅助生殖的立法分为宽容型、谨慎型和禁止型。意大利和西班牙作为具有天主教悠久历史的两个国家,在调整辅助生殖立法方面走上了两个截然相反的道路。医师团体、女权主义者、堕胎问题对于欧洲国家辅助生殖立法进程起到了重要作用。