Kosterlitz-Thouless and Potts transitions in a generalized XY model

We present extensive numerical simulations of a generalized XY model with nematic-like terms recently proposed by Poderoso {\it et al} [PRL 106(2011)067202]. Using finite size scaling and focusing on the $q=3$ case, we locate the transitions between the paramagnetic (P), the nematic-like (N) and the ferromagnetic (F) phases. The results are compared with the recently derived lower bounds for the P-N and P-F transitions. While the P-N transition is found to be very close to the lower bound, the P-F transition occurs significantly above the bound. Finally, the transition between the nematic-like and the ferromagnetic phases is found to belong to the 3-states Potts universality class.Comment: Extended and updated version of arXiv:1207.3447v

Competing nematic interactions in a generalized XY model in two and three dimensions

We study a generalization of the XY model with an additional nematic-like term through extensive numerical simulations and finite-size techniques, both in two and three dimensions. While the original model favors local alignment, the extra term induces angles of $2\pi/q$ between neighboring spins. We focus here on the $q=8$ case (while presenting new results for other values of $q$ as well) whose phase diagram is much richer than the well known $q=2$ case. In particular, the model presents not only continuous, standard transitions between Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) phases as in $q=2$, but also infinite order transitions involving intermediate, competition driven phases absent for $q=2$ and 3. Besides presenting multiple transitions, our results show that having vortices decoupling at a transition is not a suficient condition for it to be of BKT type.Comment: 13 pages, 16 figure

Monologue or Dialogue in Management Decisions: A Comparison of Mandatory Bargaining Duties in the United States and Sweden

Management and labor are adversaries in both U.S. and Swedish industrial relations. The Swedish model, however, is marked by a continual dialogue between the adversaries with the objective of achieving mutual understanding on a wide range of issues. This dialogue has been fostered by Swedish labor law reforms, particularly the Swedish Act on Co-Determination, along with a comprehensive labor market policy to promote employment. The result of such reasoned dialogue is greater labor support for industrial restructurings and management support for the technological modernization of industry. The American system could better be characterized as a monologue. In the U.S. the legitimacy of union representation is systematically undermined by employer hostility, there are far fewer mandatory subjects of bargaining between labor and management, and there is no active labor market policy to comprehensively promote worker retraining and employment. American labor is in a more vulnerable position in terms of job insecurity in a time of rapid technological change. In this article, the author has translated and analyzed more than sixty cases of the Swedish Labour Court, including the leading cases arising from the Swedish Act on Co-Determination, and contrasted these holdings with the development of a restrictive subjects of bargaining doctrine under U.S. labor law. This article focuses on the legal bargaining duties of both Swedish and American employers. According to the author, the Swedish Act on Co-Determination has found significant acceptance among many employers and is a positive step towards increasing worker influence in management decisions. In contrast, American labor lacks a voice in the decision-making process due to the very restrictive legal development of bargaining duties. U.S. employers are not legally obligated to bargain over many of the most important decisions affecting American workers. As a result, labor and management consistently fail to reach consensus on the rationalization and technological development of industry. The author concludes that dialogue is superior to monologue. A system based on reasoned dialogue is a more advanced technology, while a monologue is sure to result in alienation, fear and narrow protectionism. According to University of Stockholm law professor Ronnie Eklund, Canova\u27s comparative study is an important contribution in the literature of comparative labor law, highlighting both significant similarities and differences in Swedish and American labor law and policy

Financial Liberalization, International Monetary Dis/Order, and the Neoliberal State

This article started as a plenary paper that was presented to the annual International Economic Law conference of the American Society of International Law. The conference itself posed the question of whether the new international economic order was leading to greater peace, stability, fairness and justice. At a time when American post-Cold War triumphalism was perhaps at its zenith, Canova answered with an unequivocal indictment of the global order for failing to deliver peace or justice. The first part of the article critiques the international monetary system, and argues that the primary negative consequence of capital liberalization is the undermining of the public sector. Free portfolio capital flows constitute an undemocratic check on once-sovereign nation-states to pursue progressive social and economic policies. Neoliberal capital goes hand in hand with a neoliberal state with declining capabilities to provide for the public safety and general welfare. Part two of the article analyzes the relationship between central bank autonomy, another institutional pillar of the new world order, and questionable economic assumptions, dubious constitutional foundations, and flawed historical narratives that constrain discussion of alternative models. The final part of the article considers alternative futures and paths of globalization

The Role of Central Banks in Global Austerity

The literature on austerity, by scholars and policymakers alike, has largely downplayed the important role of central banks in designing and implementing global austerity both before and since the 2008 financial crisis. This article considers how and why the world\u27s leading central banks display an inherent bias toward austerity. As central banks have become increasingly influenced and even captured by large private banks and financial institutions, they have pursued policy agendas that favor those same private interests. The structure of the U.S. Federal Reserve suggests a central bank that has been captured by design and is rife with inherent conflicts of interest in its governance, regulatory, and monetary policy functions. These conflicts are often overlooked because of the myth of central bank independence, which has rested on truncated empirical studies and flawed readings of economic history. Yet, the myth has legitimized the Federal Reserve\u27s policy agenda-particularly beginning in the 1980s when Alan Greenspan became chair of the Federal Reserve-when deregulation, liberalization, and privatization came to serve the private interests of Wall Street banks while creating a boomand- bust bubble economy. The austerity bias of central banks was also revealed in both the academic work and monetary policy approach of Ben Bernanke, who succeeded Greenspan as Federal Reserve chairman just ahead of the 2008 financial collapse. Not only was the Federal Reserve\u27s response to crisis a reflection of the domination of Wall Street interests, it also revealed a complete misreading of the lessons from the Great Depression by Bernanke and other mainstream economists. The result has been a flawed trickle-down response to the financial crisis, as the Federal Reserve and other leading central banks have provided massive subsidies to financial institutions and markets while relegating other sectors of the economy and society to the pains of austerity. A more balanced economic approach will require reform of central bank governance to include representatives of a wider range of social interests in monetary policymaking