Suchergebnisse

The formal texts of agreements establishing European works councils (EWCs) set out the 'starting conditions' that regulate the activity of these transnational institutions. This article complements an analysis of the formal texts of agreements in 111 EWCs in the metallurgical, chemical and financial sectors with an assessment of the experience of Portuguese members of these EWCs. An analysis of topics in the 111 EWC agreements reveals several difficulties with the functioning of EWCs. Beyond the texts of EWC agreements, the diversity of workers' representatives' experiences is crucial to a better understanding of how EWCs function. The final section of the article highlights several good practices experienced by (Portuguese) workers' representatives belonging to three EWC select committees in three multinationals: VW Group (metallurgical sector), Air Liquide Group (chemical sector) and Banco Espírito Santo Group (financial sector).

AbstractGlobalizing policy fields can contain institutional voids in which effective regulatory frameworks and the corrective counterbalance of civil society are equally absent. With the inherently incomplete regulation of global finance on the one hand and the evident dearth of civil society institutions on the other, a central governance question emerges: under what conditions could civil society help to recapture the financial system by embedding it in a wider social and economic policy, and thereby reversing the erosion of confidence in market capitalism and liberal democracy? For this purpose, this article proposes the systematic development of a transnational civil society infrastructure in terms of organizational capacity and expertise for accountability enforcement, policy review, performance oversight and advocacy. The goal of this infrastructure is to fill the institutional void and form a counterveiling force against the unchecked might of global finance.

The rapid growth in consumption of bottled water across the globe has drawn attention of policy makers and academicians alike. However, its consumption practices have been examined primarily in the context of industrialized countries. Drawing on studies of Science, Technology and Society, Public Understanding of Science, and institutions, this article explores the nuances of the consumption conundrum of bottled water in India. This mixed method study relies on data collected through surveys and ethnography of consumption practices at selected sites in Delhi. We find reasons for bottled water consumption to vary with the site of consumption. Although the notions of "purity" and "scarcity" drive consumption behavior, these attributes are far from being objective. Rather, they are shaped by a complex mix of sociocultural factors, public understanding of science, and trust on various institutional mechanisms of water provisioning.

Les objections à la centralité du travail prennent appui sur une présupposition historique massive et souvent non questionnée, selon laquelle le travail n'est devenu une institution centrale qu'avec l'avènement de la modernité capitaliste occidentale. Cet article pose les premiers jalons d'une cartographie critique de cet arrière-plan historiciste aux objections à la centralité du travail. L'identification des références constitutives de ce champ permet de démêler l'écheveau des arguments impliqués, et de les soumettre à une double critique : sur le plan empirique d'abord, puisque les recherches historiques et ethnologiques spécialisées tendent à démontrer la persistance de la centralité psychologique et sociopolitique du travail à travers les sociétés les plus diverses. À partir de ce matériau historique, une contre-image de la signification anthropologique du travail se dégage qui place ce dernier au cœur de l'ontologie sociale. Summmary , p. 47. Resumen , p. 47.

The capacity to sustain policies over time and the capacity to adjust policies in the face of changing circumstances are two desirable properties of policymaking systems. Veto player theory, a very influential approach in comparative politics, has suggested that polities with more veto players will have the capacity to sustain policies at the expense of the ability to change policy when necessary. This paper argues that once intertemporal considerations are explicitly included, it is not necessarily true that polities with more stable and credible policies have more difficulty in adapting their policies, nor that polities with more veto players have more difficulty in adjusting policies to new circumstances. More generally, the paper argues that, when studying the effects of political institutions on policy outcomes, an intertemporal perspective might lead to predictions different from those emanating from more a-temporal approaches.

L'obéissance hiérarchique s'impose comme un principe d'organisation mais également comme une règle essentielle de fonctionnement de nombreuses institutions publiques et privées. L'action militaire est soumise à « un encadrement hiérarchique strict ». Cependant, à une exigence d'obéissance aveugle a succédé un principe de subordination éclairée. Ainsi, l'article 8 du décret du 28 juillet 1975, portant règlement de discipline des armées, dispose que « le subordonné ne doit pas exécuter un ordre prescrivant d'accomplir un acte manifestement illégal ou contraire aux coutumes de la guerre et aux conventions internationales ». Toute la difficulté réside dans l'appréciation de ce qu'est un « ordre manifestement illégal ». Désobéir peut entraîner des conséquences disciplinaires et pénales ; appliquer un ordre manifestement illégal n'est pas moins grave : ses conséquences peuvent amener le supérieur hiérarchique mais également le(s) subordonné(s) devant le juge pénal.

Kurdish studies have, in the past few decades, come to be established as a respectable field of academic investigation and publication, after long having been as marginal in academia as the Kurds themselves were in the politics of the Middle East. The received wisdom, in many Western academic institutions, was that it was essential to retain access to the "field" and that permits to carry out field research in such pro-Western and relatively accessible countries as Turkey and Iran would continue to be granted as long as scholars stayed away from sensitive issues – and the Kurds were definitely one of the most sensitive of those issues. Turkey and Iran, Iraq and Syria perceived their Kurdish citizens as a major security issue, and scholarly interest in the Kurds aroused suspicions of imperialist meddling in Arab, Persian or Turkish affairs.

The announcement of the Trans-Pacific Partnership in June 2012 raised speculation about dire consequences for the dairy sector and the end of supply management. We examine these claims in the context of tariff liberalization and the transmission of volatile international dairy prices into the Canadian market. The paper examines the implications for dairy farmer welfare, quota values, and the welfare of other agents in the economy. Given that the US dairy industry has interests of its own to protect, significant dairy tariff liberalization is not expected. With modest tariff reductions, the impact on quota values will be minimal. Likewise, the overall decline in producer welfare will also be small. Therefore, supply management, as a marketing institution, is likely to survive the TPP, but marketing boards may have to change their pricing policies in response to tariff reductions.

The article focuses on the political consequences of corruption in government. The author analyzes the foreign and domestic experience in the fight against corruption. At the turn of the twentyfirst century the problem of corruption in the government of national states is attracting continuous international attention with the increasing role of interstate agencies and transnational actors in the struggle against it. The article discusses government corruption in the making as a global contemporary problem, proves the need for closer international cooperation to succeed in fighting against it. Political will of state's leadership and successful functioning of the civil society institutions guarantee the adoption and consistent implementation of comprehensive anti-corruption programs. Special attention is paid to the method of determining the level of corruption in state. The author proposes a set of measures, which will improve the effectiveness of the fight against corruption.

Abstract:Despite the static image of formal common pool resource institutions (CPRIs), interest communities always attempted to adapt their institutional framework to their particular needs and interests. The hypothesis of Ensminger, that formal and informal institutional environments were steered by the interplay of external socioeconomic factors, ideology and bargaining power, will be tested by a comparative analysis of three regions within the North Sea area, namely the Campine, within the Low Countries, the Brecklands in England and the Geest area in Schleswig Holstein. Due to this scope, we will advance that especially the distribution of power was vital for the evolution of one specific aspect of CPRIs, namely accessibility. Only communities with relatively balanced distributions of power could retain an inclusive access regime throughout the early modern period, while polarised societies evolved towards more restrictive access to the common wastelands.

Brief Background ost people seem to be under the impression that democracy was introduced to Japan at the end of World War II. Well – not so much introduced as imposed upon the Japanese people by the Allied Forces. While this may be true to some extent, it is important to note that the seeds of democracy already existed in Japanese society in the early 20th century, which explains the relative ease of transition to democratic processes and receptivity of democratic institutions. Another factor that facilitated the transition from an ultranationalist, militarist government was the retention of the imperial system. Although now mostly symbolic, it nevertheless had a stabilizing effect for the Japanese people at a time of great turbulence and change in the aftermath of war. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5564/mjia.v0i18.74 Mongolian Journal of International Affairs No.18 2013: 118-122

Violence against women in universities is an issue that was not studied in Spain until the pioneer research projects carried out by the CREA research center. Between 2008 and 2012, several studies were performed on this subject through competitive projects and dissertations. This article explains how these pioneer investigations, conducted with a communicative perspective demonstrate that gender violence also occurs in Spanish institutions, contrary to the prevailing wisdom of the university community. Once the problem has been identified, we discuss some of the consequences and the resistances encountered by victims and those who fight for a university free of violence against women when they make the issue visible and implement mechanisms to end it. Finally, we present some actions that are proving successful in overcoming the problem, as well as the first steps that are being taken in Spain in this regard.

AbstractThere is growing recognition of a new human ascendancy: 'the urban age'. Rising interest in urbanism is evident in popular literature, the media and major global institutions. And yet, as with another great issue of the age, global warming, there is evidence that social science is being sidelined from a rapidly enlarging field of human concern. New urban knowledges are forwarded from the physical sciences and from popular commentary that are characterized by naturalism and its kindred tendencies, especially determinism. In this essay I consider why social scientific urbanism seems increasingly marginal to an ever broadening urban discussion. The regressive consequences for human knowledge and prospect are essayed. The essay's final part is prospectus: for a revivified social scientific urbanism that draws from Sayer's recent argument for renewal of critical human knowledge.

Abstract Thailand's on-going political crisis began with agitation against the Thaksin Shinawatra-led government, saw a military coup and a spate of street-based protest and violence. Drawing on Marx and Weber and using the categories of class, status and party, it is argued that Thailand has reached a political turning point. Subaltern challenges to the hierarchical institutions of military, monarchy and bureaucracy appear to have resulted in political patterns of the past being set on a new trajectory. The social forces that congregate around old ideas associated with status honour – hierarchy, social closure and inequality, 'Thai-style democracy' and privilege – are challenged by those championing equality, access, voting and populism. While the balance of forces would suggest that an historical turning point has been achieved, reaction and unexpected outcomes remain possible.

Résumé Les groupes désavantagés peuvent tirer bénéfice de la représentation descriptive dans au moins quatre contextes. Dans les contextes de méfiance discriminatoire à l'encontre d'un groupe et de faible cristallisation de ses intérêts, la compétence expérientielle et communicationnelle supérieure des représentants de type descriptif ouvre la voie à une meilleure représentation substantielle des intérêts dudit groupe en améliorant la qualité de la délibération. Dans les contextes de subordination politique historique et de faible légitimité empirique, la représentation descriptive contribue à engendrer une perception sociale de « compétence politique » du groupe et renforce l'attachement de ses membres au système politique et à ses institutions. Bien que la mise en oeuvre de la représentation descriptive implique des coûts sur le plan d'autres valeurs, ces externalités négatives s'avèrent toutefois plus acceptable dans ces contextes historiques spécifiques.