Free Trade: Problematic Theory and Anachronistic Faith

Despite disruptive and costly impacts of imports, the U.S. maintains adherence to an ideal of free trade as the goal of trade policy. This article questions that axiomatic preference in arguing that goods from low-wage and non-market economies pose significant trade policy issues.
It sets forth the costly effects of such imports on workers and producers and asks whether trade benefits are commensurate. It addresses the fairness of competition between American and non-market producers as well as the viability of U. S. fair trade safeguards.
The article ultimately observes that there is a basic conflict of interest between comparatively less developed low-wage countries and high-cost, high-employment nations and that free trade theory does not produce an acceptable resolution of this conflict. At stake for the U.S. is its standard of living and its social values as well. Management of trade thus is not a vestige but an essential part of this nation's commitments.     

法国共产党的现状与未来

法国共产党曾经是一支强大的政治力量,二战结束后一度成为法国最大的左翼党,在整个欧洲地区都颇具影响力。然而在20世纪80年代后,法国共产党开始衰退。直至在2007年的总统选举中,法共遭到惨败。那么,法共是如何从至高点一步一步走入今天的困境的?面对困境,法共又将作出怎样的改革和调整?带着这些问题,本刊特约记者专访了法共中央委员、法国加布里埃·佩里基金会会长米歇尔·马索教授。     

Judges Taken Too Seriously: Professor Dworkin's Views on Jurisprudence*

Abstract. The author analyses Ronald Dworkin's ideas about legal theory and legal philosophy, with particular regard to metatheoretical and methodological problems. He focuses on the questions of the function and the object of jurisprudence, and on those of the content and method of argumentation of jurisprudence. According to the author, Dworkin's theory is a normative theory, an ideology referred to the judicial practice. Although judges really make law, one can deny that they do. This strategy is the one judges traditionally employ when they say that they are merely applying the law-giver's intentions or fundamental principles that existed long before the case they have to decide. It is that discourse, not rights, that Dworkin takes seriously.     

The Institutionalization of Risk

The centrality of risk assessment and risk management to complex organizations testifies to the institutionalization of risk in modern society. Much of the writing on risk assessment and management deals with how decision makers struggle with uncertainty rather than calculable risk. The conceptualization of risk and uncertainty depends in part upon whether one focuses upon decision makers and their decisions or upon outcomes of decisions. Focusing on decision makers leads to concern with risk management whereas focusing on the decision or outcomes draws attention to risk analysis. The papers examined in this paper are primarily concerned with decision makers and risk management. In doing so, we examine the social construction of risks and their control, how intelligence gathering and processing affects risk analysis and management, and the latent functions of risk regulation.