Anchoring on Utopia: a generalization of the Kalai–Smorodinsky solution

Many bargaining solutions anchor on disagreement, allocating gains with respect to the worst-case scenario. We propose here a solution anchoring on utopia (the ideal, maximal aspirations for all agents), but yielding feasible allocations for any number of agents. The negotiated aspirations solution proposes the best allocation in the direction of utopia starting at an endogenous reference point which depends on both the utopia point and bargaining power. The Kalai–Smorodinsky solution becomes a particular case if (and only if) the reference point lies on the line from utopia to disagreement. We provide a characterization for the two-agent case relying only on standard axioms or natural restrictions thereof: strong Pareto optimality, scale invariance, restricted monotonicity, and restricted concavity. A characterization for the general (n-agent) case is obtained by relaxing Pareto optimality and adding the (standard) axiom of restricted contraction independence, plus the minimal condition that utopia should be selected if available

Exploring the potential of the union equality representative

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on a qualitative study of the views of a cross-section of union regional activists and officers on the potential of a newly developed equality representative role in promoting greater equality in the workplace. Design/methodology/approach – Findings are based on an analysis of interview data incorporating the views and experiences of 32 officers and activists currently promoting equality in a region of the UK. Findings – Findings suggest that this is an equality initiative whose time may have come. This conclusion, however, is tempered by respondents' belief that the equality representative project can only fulfil its potential if the role is mainstreamed into branch structures, policies and processes and, crucially, that the same statutory recognition enjoyed by other union representatives is granted to the equality representative. Research limitations/implications – The project is at an early stage of development. Therefore, findings are based on the views of significant proponents of union equality initiatives in the region of study. Further research is needed to assess the actual impact of the new representatives as they become active in their branches and organisations. Practical implications – There are clear implications for management in terms of allowing representatives facility time and thus sharing the potential benefits of this new source of equality expertise. For the unions, the challenge is to mainstream the new role at all levels of the union and negotiate adequate facility time for the equality representative. Originality/value – The research is one of the few studies focussing on this new union strategy for better addressing the equality needs of their members and offers a clear insight into its potential success

Politics and Social Partnership - Flexible Network Governance

This paper reassesses the relationship between social partnership and the broader Irish policy process. What has developed may be conceptualised as “flexible network governance”. While pay regulation may be less strongly institutionalised than in other countries with national-level pay deals, social partnership has created networks for establishing and maintaining priorities that matter to those involved in the process. These have not replaced conventional methods of developing policy. Nor do they displace government prerogative - politics can trump partnership. Social partnership is open to some criticism on grounds of both effectiveness and legitimacy. But is has proven robust to date on the core issues it deals with.

Adjudicating Social and Economic Rights: Can Democratic Experimentalism Help?

Social and economic rights (SER) adjudication is an ever more common feature of rights-protecting democracies. Yet democratic concerns continue to be expressed: the threat of a judicialized politics, a politicized judiciary, co-opted claimants, distorted markets, and other (real and imagined) challenges. These concerns are raised within jurisdictions that have not yet entrenched SER and those in which SER are explicitly justiciable. Scholars seeking to address, or at least quiet, such concerns often explore the real-world examples of SER justiciability in South Africa, India, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina and other jurisdictions discussed in this book. Another approach is to examine new ways of theorizing the models of democratic representation and separation-of-powers implicit in these criticisms and to test these new models against comparative experience. This chapter examines the promise of the approach of “democratic experimentalism”. We begin by cataloguing the typical critiques of SER adjudication and then describe how democratic experimentalism, read sympathetically, responds to each. Next we apply these responses to the Mazibuko right-to-water case in South Africa and imagine an alternative approach to that case. Our thought experiment is meant to bring the pros and cons of democratic experimentalist thinking into sharp relief. We suggest that, while the theoretical and practical program of democratic experimentalism retains the potential for securing more democratic participation in SER adjudication, it might nevertheless entail significant costs for under-resourced, unorganized and politically-weak claimants. This conclusion raises the question whether any new procedural or remedial formats for SER adjudication can help to realize such rights without a fundamental rethinking of the material preconditions of democracy itself

Implementation Workshop: High Performance Work Organizations

A report on findings from the first Lean Aircraft Initiative (LAI) Implementation Workshop held on February 5-6, 1997. The report is not a "cookbook" or a "how to" manual. Rather, it is a summary of the first phase in a learning process. It is designed to codify lessons learned, facilitate diffusion among people not at the session, and set the stage for further learning about implementation.Lean Aerospace Initiativ

INDIVIDUAL NEGOTIATION SUPPORT IN GROUP DSS

Negotiation support is an important aspect of multiperson decision support systems. Besides mechanisms for representing and evolving group joint problem representations, such DSS should also provide an environment in which decision makers are supported in developing, analyzing and reinforcing their individual negotiation position. Recognizing the diversity of research approaches to negotiation modeling in the literature, this paper synthesizes an integrated model from which a knowledge-based individual negotiation support environment using tools from different areas can be designed. Role and architecture of such a component are described in the context of MEDIATOR, a database-centered negotiation support system under development at NYU.Information Systems Working Papers Serie

Euro Zone Crisis Management and the New Social Europe

This article analyzes the changes in European governance since the beginning of the euro crisis in relation to the project of constructing Social Europe. The article tracks the incorporation of a structural reform agenda originally designed as bailout conditionality for countries on the verge of default into EU economic governance as a strategy for growth. Beyond the contestable grounds of this reform agenda, its adoption by the EU in the mode of crisis management poses serious questions of legitimacy. The new enhanced economic coordination process includes obligatory guidelines in domains under the legislative competence of Member States, such as labor regulation and taxation, under the guise of a technocratic imperative. The article also shows that despite the intensely neoliberal character of the proposed structural reforms, the Commission has foregrounded the protection of Europe’s welfare regimes as a key reason for reform. In reality, such reforms would dramatically alter welfare regimes, emptying out traditional welfarist goals such as the decommodification of labor without appropriate political processes. This article argues that these developments are likely to challenge the already weakened legitimacy of the European Union