57 research outputs found
Review of Colin Dayanâs The Law Is a White Dog: How Legal Rituals Make and Unmake Persons
Professor Dean Spade reviews Colin Dayanâs The Law Is a White Dog: How Legal Rituals Make and Unmake Persons
Institutions Are neither Autistic Maximizers nor Flocks of Birds: Self-organization, Power, and Learning in Human Organizations
In this work we shall attempt an excursus across fundamentally different streams of modern
interpretations of the â primitive entitiesâ constituting the social fabrics of economic systems. Behind
each specific interpretative story, there is a set of ceteris paribus assumptions and also some fictitious
tale on a 'once upon a time' reconstruction of the theoretical primitives of the story itself. Pushing it to
the extreme, as we see it, there are in the social sciences two archetypal (meta) tales. The first says,
more or less, that 'once upon a time' there were individuals with reasonably structured and coherent
preferences, with adequate cognitive algorithms to solve the decision-action problems at hand, and
with self-seeking restrictions on preferences themselves. They met in some openings in the forest and,
conditional on the technologies available, undertook some sort of general equilibrium trading or, as an
unavoidable second best, built organizations in order to deal with technological non-convexities,
trading difficulties, contract enforcements, etc. In the alternative tale, 'once upon a time' there were
immediately factors of socialization and preference-formation of individuals, including some
institutions like families shaping desires, representations and, possibly, cognitive abilities. Nonexchange
mechanisms of interactions appear in the explanation from the start: authority, violence and
persuasion of parents upon children; obedience; schools; churches; and, generally, the adaptation to
particular social roles. Here 'institutions' are the primitives, while 'preferences' and the very idea of
'rationality' are derived entities.
Which of the primitive tale is chosen bears far-reaching consequences for the interpretation of socioeconomic
organizational forms and their dynamics, and involves different theoretical commitments on
the interactions between agencies and structures in human affairs. In this work , we argue for the need
of moving away from rationality-cum-equilibrium interpretations and of focusing on the varying
balances between selfâorginizing dynamics and institution-shaped constraints
The Contributions of Professor Amartya Sen in the Field of Human Rights
This paper analyses the work of the Nobel Prize winning economist Professor Amartya Sen from the perspective of human rights. It assesses the ways in which Sen's research agenda has deepened and expanded human rights discourse in the disciplines of ethics and economics, and examines how his work has promoted cross-fertilisation and integration on this subject across traditional disciplinary divides. The paper suggests that Sen's development of a 'scholarly bridge' between human rights and economics is an important and innovative contribution that has methodological as well as substantive importance and that provides a prototype and stimuli for future research. It also establishes that the idea of fundamental freedoms and human rights is itself an important gateway into understanding the nature, scope and significance of Sen's research. The paper concludes with a brief assessment of the challenges to be addressed in taking Sen's contributions in the field of human rights forward.Amartya Sen, human rights, poverty, freedom, obligation, capability approach, meta-rights, entitlements, opportunity freedom, liberty-rights
Optimal Parallel Randomized Algorithms for the Voronoi Diagram of Line Segments in the Plane and Related Problems
In this paper, we present an optimal parallel randomized algorithm for the Voronoi diagram of a set of n non-intersecting (except possibly at endpoints) line segments in the plane. Our algorithm runs in O(log n) time with very high probability and uses O(n) processors on a CRCW PRAM. This algorithm is optimal in terms of P.T bounds since the sequential time bound for this problem is Ί(n log n). Our algorithm improves by an O(log n) factor the previously best known deterministic parallel algorithm which runs in O(log2 n) time using O(n) processors [13]. We obtain this result by using random sampling at two stages of our algorithm and using efficient randomized search techniques. This technique gives a direct optimal algorithm for the Voronoi diagram of points as well (all other optimal parallel algorithms for this problem use reduction from the 3-d convex hull construction)
Empowering development: capabilities and Latin American critical traditions
This thesis theoretically and critically examines the move towards people-centred approaches to development. It offers a critical examination of the work of Amartya Sen using theoretical resources emerging from Latin American traditions.
Amartya Senâs calls to understand Development as Freedom (1999) have significantly influenced mainstream development thinking and practice, constituting the clearest example of people-centred approaches to development today. Overcoming the limitations of previous state-centred notions of development articulated around ideas of economic growth, in Senâs Capability Approach (CA) development is seen as a process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy. In this understanding, the agency of development shifts from the state to individuals and the analytic focus moves from economic growth to individual capabilities. In this manner, this framework is structured towards the central goal of empowerment, wherein the expansion of capabilities is seen both as the means and end of development. Since its inception, the widespread support for the CA has allowed for the expansion of ethical considerations within mainstream
development thinking.
Even while the remarkable advances offered by Senâs work should be praised, this thesis argues that these have come with new limitations. These limitations stem from, what is termed here, a âParadox of Empowermentâ that effectively encloses Senâs approach within Western notions of development. While Senâs approach is poised to provide a theoretical framework that is built on the expansion of freedom and individual agency, there is little agency here to move beyond the ideas of development fundamentally linked to liberal democracies and market economies. This thesis engages with several critical traditions from Latin America, recovering their often undervalued insights for development thinking. Crucially, this engagement provides the critical framework to illustrate the aforementioned paradox and explore multiple dimensions of empowerment central for contemporary development thinking and practice. In this, the thesis engages Senâs work with the Liberation Theology of Gustavo Gutierrez, with Paulo Freireâs Critical Pedagogy and with the contemporary discussions of âBuen Vivirâ associated with Indigenous philosophies of the Andean region. Throughout its chapters,it uncovers the conceptual baggage within the Paradox of Empowerment in Senâs work and examines the ethical challenges and boundaries of this approach in relation to the collective dimension of development processes, the possibilities for structural transformation and concerns for sustainability. Progressively engaging the different dimensions of this paradox, this thesis advances the recovery of the transformative potential of the ideas of empowerment for development
Foreword: Law in an Activist State
By saying that we live in an activist state, I mean to mark a special feature of our self-consciousness: an awareness that our society\u27s existence depends upon a continuing flow of decisions made by politically accountable state officials. The sources of this activist consciousness are several. Most obvious is the general recognition that our society\u27s continued existence depends upon the military sanity of its political leadership. Second, and only slightly less pervasive, is the belief that the nation\u27s economic welfare depends upon steering decisions made in Washington, D.C.-both at the macroeconomic level and through the regulation of particular sectors of economic life.\u27 Finally, there is the widespread acknowledgment that the distribution of wealth and status is a central issue for political debate determination. Poverty, racism, and sexism are not inexorable givens; they are the consequences of systematic practices in which state officials are self-consciously involved, from the moment at which they grant or deny an impoverished mother a free abortion to the moment at which Medicare sustains, or fails to sustain, the last efforts to prolong life
Ideology, virtue and well-being : a critical examination of Francis Fukuyama's notion of liberal democracy.
Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2003.This thesis is a critical examination of Fukuyama's "end of history" version of
liberalism, in which he announces the triumphant emergence of liberal democracy
as a universal form of governance. The thesis seeks to investigate Francis
Fukuyama's notion of liberal democracy and his arguments for it, in order to
assess the normative impact of market driven political and economic outcomes on
the human context or life satisfaction, especially recognition. This is contrasted
with Amartya Sen's notion of well-being in order to show that Fukuyama does not
pay attention to some of the basic moral demands of human life.
The thesis is comprised of an introduction and six chapters. The contents of
these chapters can be presented briefly as follows:
⢠The first chapter looks at how Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and Kant use the
theory of social contract to explain the genesis and justification of the state.
Featuring prominently in all their versions of social contract are the values of
freedom, equality, and independence of the individual, the process of
consensus, the primacy of self-preservation and the necessity of the state.
Together these laid the basis for a philosophically reasoned and
progressive theory of politics. This chapter also looks at the theory of
laissez-faire, which paved the way for a free market economy. This doctrine
was developed in the thought of Adam Smith, Ricardo, Mill and Bentham.
For Fukuyama these thinkers inaugurated a tradition of political thought that
ultimately led to liberalism and democracy.
⢠The second chapter discusses the teleological view of history underlying the
philosophical theories of history advanced by Kant, Hegel, and Marx. Each
of these thinkers assumes that history is moving towards an end point or
goal. It is from these philosophers that Fukuyama appropriates the idea of
universality to envisage the universality of liberal democracy.
⢠The third chapter analyzes Fukuyama's "end of history" claim and his
arguments for it. When communism finally collapsed, liberal democracy was
the only remaining option, he claims. Drawing on Kant's idea of universal
history, Hegel's notion of a universal and homogeneous state and Marx's
materialist interpretation of history, Fukuyama envisages a global order that
will be ushered in by the universal and homogeneous liberal state which is the ultimate goal of liberal democracy. It is the duty of the liberal state to
ensure equal and mutual recognition and affirmation of its citizens' freedom.
⢠The fourth chapter stages a debate between Fukuyama and Sen in which
the question of life satisfaction and its achievability is addressed. Fukuyama
claims that human-beings desire recognition, and can best satisfy this
desire through liberal democracy. Sen for his part claims that people need
well-being, and can only achieve it through democracy, which he views as a
universal value. The discussion shows that although Fukuyama and Sen
may share similar political values they differ ideologically and in historical
vision.
⢠The fifth chapter deals with the critical evaluation of liberal democracy.
Several issues present major problems for liberal democracy. These issues
are liberal individualism as the central focus of liberalism and liberal
democracy; the global trend against gender bias; the political and cultural
homogenization of the world; the problem of parallel histories versus a
single inclusive history; desire-satisfaction versus need-satisfaction, and the
cultural preconditions of liberal democracy.
⢠The sixth chapter recapitulates the preceding chapters and spells out the
conclusion reached in the course of the thesis.
The findings on the notion of the "end of history" show that Fukuyama wishes the
equal and mutual recognition of the freedom and dignity of all individuals as well as
the affirmation of their individual rights. This concern for the individual is laudable.
However, excessive individualism threatens the fabric of every society, and
Fukuyama realizes that this threat is especially strong in liberal democracy. His
suggested solution is to cultivate social capital in the form of trust. This thesis
concludes that Fukuyama's medicine is no match for the disease; the whole thrust
of the intellectual tradition leading to liberal democracy - and of much else in
Western culture since Hobbes - is in the direction of excessive individualism and
the withering of community. Moreover, where Fukuyama sees isothymia - the
desire for equal recognition, the psychological truth is probably that people desire
to be recognized as superior - mega/othymia, again making individualism
intrinsically more threatening to a sense of community than Fukuyama seems to realize. Fukuyama suggests that an international consensus in favour of liberal
democracy is emerging. But it appears that such a consensus is unlikely to arise nation-
states fear disenfranchisement and assimilation and thus insist on their
sovereignty, effectively blocking any shift from the nation-state to a homogeneous
and universal liberal state. It is difficult to generate the consensus needed to
receive it as a universal system, because not all people subscribe to its cultural
preconditions. The satisfaction of human desire of any kind cannot be
universalized since human existence is centrally characterized by diversity of
context, culture, and perception. Any attempt to impose cultural or ideological
homogeneity requires conquest - cultural or military imperialism.
The triumphant emergence of liberal democracy cannot be the ultimate end
of the whole of human history. If this were the case, it would no longer be worth
trying to increase human knowledge, since knowledge always points to an open
future in terms of how it will be used for further advancement.
Due to its internal contradictions, such as the tension between excessive
individualism and community, liberal democracy has unintended negative
consequences. Liberal democracy is not yet the final ideology leading to human
satisfaction at a global level for this generation and generations to come as long as
human thought evolves. This will remain the case as long as Fukuyama's
admission that liberal democracy only works where its cultural preconditions are
met, remains true
Introduction: Toward Voice and Reflexivity
In their introductory chapter, De Schutter and Pistor argue that in light of increasing absolute and relative scarcity of land and fresh water there is urgent need to improve the governance of these and other essential resources. Emphasizing âessentialityâ shifts the debate from allocative efficiency to normative concerns of equity and dignity. Essential resources are indispensable for survival and/or for meaningful participation in a given community. Their allocation therefore cannot be left to the pricing mechanism alone. It requires new parameters for governance. The authors propose Voice and Reflexivity as the key parameters of such a regime. Voice is the ability to collectively choose the rules by which social groups wish to be governed; and Reflexivity to recognize competing claims as legitimate and the willingness to accommodate them. Essential resources are not mere commodities. How they are governed must respect their special place in a dignified society
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