A ‘society … divisible into the blessed and the unblessed’: Michael Young and Meritocracy in Postwar Britain

‘Meritocracy’ continues to unfold as both core conceptual framework and political ideal of the language of social mobility. In recent decades, politicians of various hues have declared it a sine qua non of the so-called ‘classless society’. The longer trajectory of postwar discourses of equality reveal a more chequered conceptual past. Its origins in the forums of revisionist social democracy of the 1950s, and subsequently popularised in the writings of social democratic polymath, Michael Young, are much more circumspect. The article considers pivotal contributions and developments of this conceptual history and trajectory. It considers the origins and emergence of meritocracy as a dimension of discourses of equality in the 1950s, and the formative contribution of Michael Young, reaction and responses on the left to his 1958 seminal work, The Rise of the Meritocracy, and the subsequent ‘meritocratic turn’. In spite of its satirical origins and warnings of dire social consequences, meritocracy presently enjoys a confirmatory position as a concept of opportunity and social mobility, as an embedded ideal of social organisation and means of allocating differential rewards.     

OECD 国家和中国生育产假政策的比较

生育保护假期制度是保障育龄妇女权益的重要手段,OECD国家将产假期限、工作保护和津贴补助三者有机结合,创设的陪产假和育婴假制度极大地促进了性别平等,帮助受雇者平衡工作与家庭的冲突,提升了生育保护水平。当前中国面临着二孩政策全面放开后生育率不如预期乐观的情况,如何走出低生育率陷阱成为亟需解决的问题。通过对OECD国家和中国现有的产假制度进行比较,研究为完善我国生育产假政策提供建议。     

Relativism

Modern democracies increasingly confuse civic or political equality with a radical relativism that calls into question legitimate principles of hierarchy and the very idea of reasonable value judgments. This confusion reflects a “corruption,” in Montesquieu’s sense, of democracy rooted in a refusal to recognize distinctions that are integral to both human nature and social life. A moderate form of cultural relativism is a genuine intellectual achievement that helps combat ethnocentrism and allows one to better appreciate the full range of human experience. But criteria of meaning and truth are by no means entirely dependent upon cultural context. Our contemporary awareness of the “relativity” of cultures and historical experiences must be complemented by a robust appreciation of the universality of Reason and citizenship.

婚姻身份协议的社会性别分析

婚姻身份协议正以越来越丰富的形态出现，中国民事立法尚未对其效力作出明确规定，司法实践对其效力认定不一。婚姻身份协议不同于一般的民事契约，它是饱受家庭暴力、婚外情等行为困扰的女性自我保护的一种救济手段。但建立在性别不平等基础的婚姻身份协议必然存在着难以解决的现实问题，因此这些受侵害女性的权益保障命题绝不仅仅通过婚姻身份协议就能够完成，它需要国家公共政策主要是法律作出相应的制度安排。     

Love and the State: Gay Marriage in Spain

On 30 June 2005, the Spanish Parliament approved Law 13/2005, which amends the Civil Code to permit same-sex marriage. This formal equality measure put Spain in the spotlight of the international media. It is the culmination of a series of developments spanning from the last years of the Franco regime (which ended in 1975), through the enactment of anti-discrimination measures in 1995, to the recent fight for kinship recognition. It also follows a recent shift, from 1998 to 2005, towards the enactment of same-sex partnership laws at regional level, the approval of same-sex marriage and finally, the approval of a ‹gender identity law’ (2007). This legislative note assesses the context in which the new law on same-sex marriage has been enacted. I argue that although same-sex marriage has been represented by many activists and politicians in Spain as a gender neutral contract, it has the potential for differential impacts on lesbians and gay men, and further research and debates are needed in this area.     

论法律的安定性

法律安定性不仅是法律自身的逻辑自恰性、连续性和体系化,更应该从法律与社会生活的适应关系中去理解。法律须被明确规定、实用而且保持相对不变,否则,法律平等、合目的性将无法实现。在转型社会法律安定性是在应对法律移植与本土资源、法律与方法和法外空间等紧张关系中实现的。     

可持续发展伦理观辨正

可持续发展问题不单是人与自然关系应当如何的问题,归根结底是一个怎样确立人与社会和谐关系的问题.无疑地,应当对可持续发展伦理观作一番仔细辨正.对于发展中的中国来说,在平等与发展之间,孰轻孰重、孰先孰后,应有符合自己国情的选择,不能离开社会现实而抽象地谈论所谓"人与自然的平等"问题.     

略论债权平等原则

债权具有相容性和平等性,不仅在同一标的物上可以同时并存数个债权,而且数个债权人对同一债务人先后发生数个普通债权时,其效力一律平等,不因其成立先后而有效力上的优劣,是为债权平等原则.债权平等原则是体现民法上的平等原则和债之相对性原则的一项重要具体原则,为债权与物权区分说的基本构成要素之一.但在现代民法上,由于债权物权化趋势、优先权制度的设立以及协调公平与效益的法律价值冲突等因素,债权平等性原则正在被打破.即便如此,债权平等原则在债法领域的基础地位并未发生根本改变.     

Ambivalence About Equality in the United States or, Did Tocqueville Get it Wrong and Why Does that Matter?

Alexis de Tocqueville believed that “democratic peoples’... passion for equality is ardent, insatiable, eternal, and invincible.” This article examines whether and under what conditions residents of the United States demonstrate such a commitment to equality. I show that at many points in history, Americans have indeed chosen to move toward greater justice and less oppression; however, there are clear limits to their passion for equality. White Americans endorse less social, political, and economic equality than do African Americans, but even the latter often resist equality for groups that they perceive to be threats, or for behaviors that threaten strong social or moral norms. The article discusses implications for political activists of these patterns of support for and resistance to greater equality, and suggests strategies for overcoming oppression and promoting justice.