124 research outputs found
European âfreedomsâ: a critical analysis
Faced with the present migrant crisis and the dismal record of Europe in protecting vulnerable refugeesâ and migrantsâ rights, what could be the view of the moral philosopher? The contrast between the principles enshrined in the European Charter of Fundamental Rights and the reality of present policies is shocking, but more scrutiny will show that it is the result of a larger trend towards an understanding of freedom mostly in economic terms, at a time when economists such as Amartya Sen have revised their approach to economic growth and prosperity, noting the central role played by a much richer conception of freedom. The paper will scrutinize these inconsistencies and the conception of the person from which they derive and will provide an alternative and more coherent moral vision that could strengthen the legitimacy of the European Charter, at a time of growing dissatisfaction and so-called democratic deficit. Such a vision could help reconnect the Charter with a conception of the human person as in need not solely of passive legal protection, but also of active promotion of her self-respect and capabilities, and of her aspiration to a valuable life
Islands and despots
This paper challenges a conventional wisdom: that when discussing
political systems, small is democratic. And yet, can there be paradises
without serpents? The presumed manageability of small island spaces
promotes and nurtures dispositions for domination and control over
nature and society. In such dark circumstances, authoritarian rule is a
more natural fit than democracy. By adopting an inter-disciplinary
perspective, this paper argues that small island societies may be
wonderful places to live in, as long as one conforms to a dominant
cultural code. Should one deviate from expected and established
practices, the threat of ostracism is immense. Formal democratic
institutions may and often do exist, and a semblance of pluralism may
be manifest, but these are likely to be overshadowed by a set of
unitarist and homogenous values and practices to which many
significant social players, in politics and civil society, subscribe (at
least in public).peer-reviewe
Applying the Theory of Affective Intelligence to Support for Authoritarian Policies and Parties
Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/148346/1/pops12571.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/148346/2/pops12571_am.pd
A New Way to Link Development to Institutions, Policies and Geography
The paper aims to examine the role of institutions relative to economic policy and geography in explaining the differential level of development across countries over time. To that end, it attempts to construct a Development Quality Index (DQI) and an Institutional Quality Index (IQI) by using multivariate statistical method of principal components. It shows that (i) higher level of IQI along with economic policy and geography factors lead to a positive improvement in the level of DQI; and (ii) results remain robust for IQI and relatively robust for economic policy and geography even when it is compared across cross-section and panel data estimation for a set of 102 countries over 1980 to 2004. The results strongly indicate that institutions matter in the context of specific economic policy mixes and geography related factors illustrated by disease burden, etc. It demonstrates that relative influence of institutions varies across stages of development
- âŠ