Challenges for EU governance through Neighbourhood Policy and Eastern Partnership: the values/security nexus in EU–Belarus relations

Whereas the European Union (EU) has had some effect on political and economic reforms in the Ukraine and Moldova, it almost completely failed to impress the regime and population of Belarus. Despite growing consensus at the EU level that the Union's policies for Eastern Europe cannot succeed without Belarus, few attempts have been made to account for the failure of EU governance in Belarus. Having recalled the current legal and institutional set-up of EU–Belarus relations, this article introduces the notion of the ‘values/security nexus’ to explain the limited impact of EU governance in Belarus. It argues that the highly contradictory normative objectives in the Union's current Neighbourhood Policy towards Belarus effectively undermine the EU's credibility in the country: idealist values of ‘winning the hearts and minds’ of the Belarusian population increasingly collide with traditional realist goals of protecting EU interests and the stability of the Belarusian state. By way of conclusion, the article highlights the challenges facing the EU's new Eastern Partnership, including Belarus.     

An Impasse of Reconciliation in Guo Shaoyu’s Theory “Writing as a Vehicle of Values”

As the founder of the basic research paradigm on “writing as a vehicle of Values” in modern China, Guo Shaoyu established a tri-partite notion consisting of “writing to conform to values”, “writing as a vehicle of values” and “writing to illustrate values”, and this practice has influenced several generations of scholars. However, his approach, which draws heavily on Western literary theory, cannot reveal the original meaning of “writing as a vehicle of values” due to its failure to consider its features and the fact that this notion came into being as a result of “literature miscellaneous”. It is necessary to return to the notion on the ontological level so as to better understand the uniqueness of classical Chinese ideology resulting from China experience which, in turn, is made possible only by Chinese actualities.     

利益语境下经济法的价值分析

经济法在平衡利益冲突和化解社会冲突的同时,就意味着对公正、秩序、效率等价值的追求。在现代社会,经济法无论是在观念实体还是制度建构中,都是有其所赖以为基础并在实践中加以贯彻的一套价值准则作为法律制度的内在价值加以固化的。在我国现阶段,经济法价值目标可以表述为:效益优先,兼顾公平。在利益语境下,经济法所追求的价值目标的实质是以社会整体效益的最优为根本价值目标,在此基础上实现个体利益的最大化、普遍化、持续化。     

论我国《消费者权益保护法》中的惩罚性赔偿

我国在1994年开始实施的《中华人民共和国消费者权益保护法》中规定了惩罚性损害赔偿制度,该制度具有惩罚经营者的欺诈行为和激励消费者维权的功能。但在司法实践中围绕该制度的适用却出现了问题,主要表现为知假买假者能否要求惩罚性赔偿,对适用惩罚性赔偿的条件———“欺诈”应如何理解以及惩罚性赔偿的数额等问题。认可知假买假者的消费者身份,对“欺诈”作有别于《民法通则》与《合同法》中的解释以及重新确定惩罚性赔偿的额度将有助于发挥惩罚性赔偿制度的功能。     

美国对国际核秩序的侵蚀与弱化

美国是国际核秩序的主要创建者、参与者和受益者,维持稳定的国际核秩序符合美国的安全利益。但是,出于战争制胜型核战略、意识形态、盟友关系、地缘政治等方面的战略考量,美国在维持、巩固国际核秩序的过程中,也对国际核秩序造成侵蚀与弱化。美国仍然把核武器置于其国家安全战略的重要位置,重视战术核武器的作用,研发低当量核武器和钻地核弹,模糊了核武器与常规武器的界限,降低了核武器的使用门槛,侵蚀了核价值观。美国追求绝对核优势,部署全球导弹防御系统,研发全球即时打击系统,违反国际核规范与印度进行核能合作,弱化核禁忌等做法,不利于大国之间的战略稳定性,破坏了核规范。在防扩散领域,美国一贯奉行双重标准,缺乏全局观念,对他国进行安全威胁,刺激了核扩散。为维护国际核秩序,美国应从维护全球和平与稳定的长远考虑出发,降低核武器在国家安全战略中的作用,减少缩小核武器的使用范围,停止部署全球范围内的导弹防御系统,放弃防扩散的双重标准,推动核价值观、核规范和核不扩散体制向着更加完善的方向演进,保证国际核秩序平稳、有效运行。     

Childhood bads,parenting goods,and the right to procreate

Abstract

Harry Brighouse and Adam Swift, together with many other philosophers, think that adults’ interests in raising a child can give them a moral right to parent when they will be adequate parents. We consider whether the same interest could give such adults a moral right to procreate, as a means of acquiring a child to raise. We argue that the interest in parenting cannot support a right to procreate, because the features of childhood that make parenting uniquely valuable for adults are bad for children. Adults may have a right to procreate, but they do not have that right due to their interest in a parent–child relationship.     

“我将无我，不负人民”重要论述的四重意蕴

习近平总书记提出的“我将无我,不负人民”这一重要论述,集中彰显了中国共产党人“以人民为中心”思想的重要理念,其理论品质有四重意蕴：坚持人民主体的世界观,保证人民是权力的主体、发展的主体、实践的主体;坚持服务人民的人生观,一切为了人民,一切依靠人民;坚持人民至上的价值观,以实现人民根本利益为价值旨归,以符合人民期待为价值评价标准,以本国和各国人民福祉的有机统一为价值升华;坚持人民立场的文化观,体现了中国共产党执政为民的党内政治文化,继承了中国优秀传统文化中的“无我”之境和民本思想的精髓,同时也践行了为人民无私奉献的敬业精神。这一重要论述将马克思主义人民观深入贯彻于新时代中国特色社会主义各项事业中,是马克思主义中国化的最新理论成果。     

Why Do Citizens Vote Against Their Basic Political Values?

The literature on correct and consistent voting has focused on issue‐opinions and argument‐positions when examining whether vote decisions correspond to individual political preferences. However, the question whether vote decisions align with basic political values has largely been neglected so far. This paper introduces a novel measure named value consistent voting. It finds that, in Switzerland, around 25% jettison their basic political values when deciding on proposals. Using multilevel regression analysis of survey data, this paper investigates the determinants of value consistent voting. Three theoretical approaches are tested; the sophistication, identification and ambivalence hypotheses. The results show that political sophistication and identification foster value consistent voting. Moreover, there is an interaction between education and adhering to the preferred party’s vote recommendation. This finding supports the thesis that highly educated citizens use heuristics most efficiently. However, the more ambivalent people are, the more often they vote against their basic political values.     

The subjective and objective violence of terrorism: analysing “British values” in newspaper coverage of the 2017 London Bridge attack

This article examines how ?i?ek’s analysis of “subjective” violence can be used to explore the ways in which media coverage of a terrorist attack is contoured and shaped by less noticeable forms of “objective” (symbolic and systemic) violence. Drawing upon newspaper coverage of the 2017 London Bridge attack, it is noted how examples of “subjective” violence were grounded in the externalisation of a clearly identifiable “other”, which symbolically framed the terrorists and the attack as tied to and representative of the UK Muslim community. Examples of “systematic” violence were most notable in the ideological edifice that underpinned this framing but also in the ways in which newspaper reports served to draw upon British values in the aftermath of the attack. This directed attention away from the contradictions within the UK, towards narratives that sought to “fix” these contradictions through eradicating the problem of “the other” and/or by violently protecting the British values “they” seek to undermine. As a consequence, newspaper coverage worked to uphold the illusion that “peace” could be achieved by eradicating terrorism through further forms of objective violence, including, internment without trial; the “ripping up” of human rights; and closer surveillance of Muslim communities. Indeed, it was this unacknowledged violence that worked to maintain British values in the press' coverage.     

Media corruption and issues of journalistic and institutional integrity in post-communist countries: The case of Bulgaria

From a normative standpoint the media are usually seen as one of the pillars of a national integrity system, entrusted with the tasks of exposing and preventing acts of corruption and educating the public of the harm caused by corruption. Nevertheless, corruption continues to be one of the most significant challenges that Europe faces, undermining citizens' trust in democratic institutions and weakening the accountability of political leadership. Evidence suggests that in fragile EU democracies such as Bulgaria, despite more than eight years of full membership and numerous preventive measures, corruption is rife and the press is hardly capable of exposing abuses of power or authority. On the contrary - drawing on in-depth interviews with 35 Bulgarian journalists - this paper argues that since communism collapsed in the late 1980s the media in post-communist societies such as Bulgaria has gradually become an instrument to promote and defend private vested interests, and is plagued by corruption. Senior journalists and editors cast serious doubt over the ability of the post-communist free press and journalism to act as a watchdog for society.