The origins of severance pay in unemployment compensation: a comparative analysis

ABSTRACT

This article contributes to an under-developed field in the social policy literature through an analysis of the origins of severance pay (SP)/redundancy pay schemes and, more specifically, their first designs in nine countries—Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Sweden, Spain, and Portugal. It has two objectives: first, to identify the key actors who shaped the design of the first SP schemes; second, to explain variations in terms of their mode of regulation, generosity and coverage. By building on the state-centric and power-resource perspectives, it identifies the conditions under which the state had an autonomous role vis-à-vis organized labour in SP reforms and the circumstances under which organized labour was the main actor. When the state was the key actor, it preferred legislation for the regulation of SP either to legitimize its apparatus in a ‘revolutionary’/‘potentially revolutionary’ context or to facilitate structural transformations of the economy in a ‘reformist’ context. When organized labour was the key actor, its preference was to regulate SP through ‘only collective bargaining’ or ‘legislation’, subject to the degree of unionization. Lastly, the paper argues that key actors (the state or organized labour) took into account the distributive structure of existing UI schemes when designing the coverage and generosity structure of the first SP schemes during the post-war era.     

People,power, change: three pillars of a food sovereignty research praxis

ABSTRACT

This article is situated within nascent debates on the role of academics within food sovereignty movements. Drawing on insights from a collective autoethnography, we report on our experiences conducting three food sovereignty research projects in different contexts and at different scales. We suggest that that the principles and practices of food sovereignty translate into a food sovereignty research praxis. This consists of three pillars focusing on people (humanizing research relationships), power (equalizing power relations) and change (pursuing transformative orientations). This article discusses these pillars and analyzes the extent to which we were able to embody them within our projects.     

Revolution,power and the Third World: a review of Michael Mann’s The Sources of Social Power,Volume 4

The fourth volume of Michael Mann’s The Sources of Social Power is the last in his historical sociological series, which has centred on an analysis of ideological, economic, military and political power in human societies from the start of civilisation. Mann’s final volume provides an important overview of the period of American hegemony and its worldwide effects, the rise and crisis of neoliberalism, the contrasting fates of the USSR and Maoist China, the vagaries of American empire, and modern revolutions. The implications of his study, particularly regarding the history and theory of revolutions, are of the utmost value to anyone on the Revolutionary Left today, especially in the Third World. While Mann’s study is primarily focused on the West, it provides important lessons to be drawn for the Third World.     

Governing the souls of young women: exploring the perspectives of mothers on parenting in the age of sexualisation

The sexualisation of young women has emerged as a growing concern within contemporary western cultures. This has provoked adult anxieties that young women are growing up too fast by adopting inappropriate sexual practices and subjectivities. Psychological discourses have dominated, which position sexualisation as a corrupting force that infects the ‘true self’ of young women, so they develop in abnormal ways. This in turn allows psychological practices to govern how to parent against sexualisation within families. To explore this further, six mothers each with daughters aged between 8 and 12 took part in one to one semi-structured interviews designed to explore how they conceptualised and parented against the early sexualisation of young women. A Foucauldian inspired discourse analysis was employed, which suggested that the mother's talk was situated within a psychological discourse. This enabled sexualisation to be positioned as a corrupting force that disrupted the natural development of young women through deviant bodily practices (e.g. consuming sexualised goods), which prevented them from becoming their ‘true self’. Through the disciplinary gaze of psychology, class inequalities were reproduced where working class families were construed as ‘chavs’ who were bad parents and a site of contagion for sexualisation.     

海洋命运共同体思想的内涵和实践路径

海洋命运共同体思想是人类命运共同体思想在海洋领域的细化,反映了国际海洋法的发展趋势和价值目标。它创造性的继承并发展了和而不同思想以及共同体思想,为全球海洋治理提供了新的价值指引。海洋命运共同体是共同体成员基于海洋共识和共同的海洋利益产生认同感和归属感,通过在海洋领域的共同合作形成的联合体,包括海洋政治、安全、经济、文化和生态命运共同体。中国在区域可以通过实施多边海洋行动,构建区域海洋命运共同体,实现区域合作关系的升级。海洋命运共同体是超越民族和国家的海洋观,中国在全球可以通过构建海上丝路命运共同体、提升国际制度性话语权和形成国际海洋法律新制度来践行海洋命运共同体思想。     

Parliamentary Prorogation in Comparative Context

This paper examines the power to prorogue (or suspend) Parliament following the 2019 prorogation controversy in the UK. We outline the legal basis of prerogative-based prorogation, survey its uses in the UK and other Westminster systems, and compare it with equivalent rules in other European parliamentary democracies. The comparative perspective highlights the outlier status of the UK among comparable European democracies. In the UK, the absence of explicit legal limits on the use of prorogation gives the executive exceptional scope to employ the power for political purposes to sidestep Parliament. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for current discussions about the desirability of reforming the UK’s prorogation rules and placing express legal limits on the executive’s power.     

David and Goliath in the poll booth: group size,political power and voter turnout

ABSTRACT

This article analyses how the presence of a dominant group of voters within the electorate affects voter turnout. Theoretically, we argue that its absolute size affects turnout via increased free-riding incentives and reduced social pressure to vote within a larger dominant group. Its relative size compared to other groups within the electorate influences turnout through instrumental and expressive responses – in both the dominant and dominated groups – to the degree of electoral competition between groups. Empirical evidence from a large cross section of German municipalities is in line with these theoretical predictions. The observed effects should be taken into account when redesigning electoral jurisdictions through, for instance, municipal mergers or gerrymandering.     

从“救济”到“治理手段”？——当前农村低保政策的实践分析：以河南F县C镇为例

作为国家推行的一项福利政策,农村低保要实现对农村贫困人群的救助。然而,在现实中,低保政策经历了从“绝对贫困”到“相对贫困”、从以户为单位到以人为单位的扭曲和变通,以至低保政策在某种程度上成为了基层政权的一种治理手段,从而背离了政策的本意。事实上,低保政策执行中出现的种种问题既是监管力度不够及制度建设不到位所导致,更与税费改革后乡村组织的治理困境密切关联。在这个意义上,基层政权的治理状况既是保障低保政策能否顺畅执行的根本,也是一个现代国家基本治理能力强弱的重要体现。     

政府公权力异化的微观经济机理研究

公权力问题是吏治的一个核心问题,政府公权力异化的预防和治理是当代中国法治政府和责任政府建设的一项重要内容。从微观机理探讨公权力异化的成因,以此为基础构建公权力治理的多种途径,对于当代中国吏治研究具有重大的理论和现实意义。     

台湾地区公诉权制约机制及其借鉴意义

近年来台湾地区的刑事诉讼经历了重大的改革,其公诉权制约机制较为完善。对于检察官不起诉、缓起诉处分,立法设置了再议制、交付审判制进行监督和制约,防止检察官滥用不起诉权;对于检察机关的起诉则在审前以起诉审查制进行制约,防止未达起诉法定门槛的案件进入审判。对于大陆来说,其公诉权制约机制有很大的借鉴意义。大陆也应设立公诉权的司法权制约机制,对于检察机关的起诉和不起诉都应最终由法院来进行审查和制约,以保证公诉权合法行使。但对于台湾地区公诉权制约机制的不足之处,借鉴的同时需予以改进。