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21. The Concept of the Common Good in the Iberian Renaissance

Author:
Isabel de Assis Ribeiro de Oliveira
Publication Date:
02-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
The Iberian legacy in political thought has been mischaracterized as a source of authoritarianism, with scant attention to the theme of legitimacy. For Golden Age writers, however, care for the common good constitutes the main reference for distinguishing legitimate from tyrannical rule, although nowhere in their writings can we find a coherent and sustained discussion of this central political concept. Its description constitutes the object of this paper. The common good takes into consideration both natural sociability and freedom as its major assumptions, finding its due place in a representation of society as a hierarchical association of equally free and unique persons who cannot live well without each other, since no one has all the abilities required to preserve his life and fulfill his own nature. What is at stake, thus, is not an authoritarian legacy but a tradition that—acknowledging asymmetries, differences, and inequalities among men and a beautiful order in the universe—tries to deduce from the latter a logic for preserving human society.
Topic:
Civil Society, Political Theory, and Sociology
Political Geography:
Europe

22. Families, Welfare Institutions and Economic Development: Chile and Sweden in Comparative Perspective

Author:
J. Samuel Valenzuela
Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Since the 1960s, the sociology of development has drawn its explanations for the inadequate development of Latin American countries from culturalist paradigms, such as modernization theory, or macro-structural ones, like the dependency perspective. Setting such perspectives aside, this paper seeks to reinvigorate a sociological focus on development by arguing that it requires “social fundamentals”—and not only the economic and political ones that have taken center stage in recent discussions of this topic. Such social fundamentals have to do primarily with the synergies that are generated between properly designed welfare institutions and the characteristics of a nation's families.
Topic:
Development and Sociology
Political Geography:
Europe, Latin America, Sweden, and Chile

23. Turkey: The Elephant in the Room of Europe

Author:
Hüseyin Selçuk Dönmez
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis (CESRAN)
Abstract:
Turkey's accession process to the European Union (EU) has been a rather challenging issue for more than two decades now. Turkey applied for membership in 1987, "that is, three years before Cyprus and Malta and between seven and nine years before applications were lodged by ten Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs)." By the year 2011, Turkey has been waiting for 24 years to become a member of the EU. No other country in history of the EU enlargement has waited this long to become a member and not managed to become one after a quarter of a century. It would not be wrong to consider Turkey's bid to join the EU as a unique case in comparison to the former applicant countries, especially CEECs. As a result of this, there has been a continuous debate about Turkey's application and whether it has been treated differently or not. The aim of this paper is to shed a brighter light on this debate by presenting examples of different treatment towards the Turkish application. Before exploring the reasons of why and how Turkey has been treated differently, there are some key facts worth mentioning while defining Turkey's difference from other applicant countries. What makes these facts important is that they have formed the foundations of hurdles and their justifications for Turkey's possible membership in the EU. These facts will be touched upon prior to a deeper analysis.
Topic:
Economics, Sociology, and Culture
Political Geography:
Europe and Turkey

24. Who Cares?: How best to protect UK care workers employed through agencies and gangmasters from exploitation

Author:
Krisnah Poinasamy
Publication Date:
11-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
There are an estimated 1.5 million workers in the adult social care workforce in the UK, working in residential care homes or providing care to people in their own homes. And with an ageing population the number of care workers is set to rise in the next two decades.
Topic:
Labor Issues and Sociology
Political Geography:
United Kingdom and Europe

25. Culture, Agency and Power: Theoretical Reflections on Informal Economic Networks and Political Process

Author:
Kate Meagher
Publication Date:
12-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Do network theory really offer a suitable concept for the theorization of informal processes of economic regulation and institutional change? This working paper challenges both essentialist and skeptical attitudes to networks through an examination of the positive and negative effects of network governance in contemporary societies in a range of regional contexts. The analysis focuses on three broad principles of non-state organization – culture, agency and power – and their role in shaping processes of economic and political governance. It will be shown that the effective theorization of informal regulatory processes requires attention to the specific interaction of culture, agency and power in particular social contexts. Emphasizing a grounded theory approach, this article draws on cutting-edge network research from East Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa and Western societies to develop theoretical tools for the comparative study of non-state governance and its impact on wider processes of institutional change.
Topic:
Political Theory, Sociology, Governance, and Culture
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, and East Asia

26. Regional Inequality and Convergence in Europe, 1995 – 2005

Author:
Arne Melchior
Publication Date:
11-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
The paper presents new results on within-country regional inequality in per capita income for 36 countries during 1995-2005; focusing on Europe but with some non-European countries included for comparison. In 23 of the 36 countries there was a significant increase in regional inequality during the period, and in only three cases there was a reduction. Regional inequality increased in all countries of Central and Eastern Europe, while for most Western European countries there was little change. For the EU-27 as a whole, there was a modest increase in within-country regional inequality, but convergence across countries. The latter effect was quantitatively more important, so on the whole there was income convergence in the EU-27, especially after 2000. Regional inequality is particularly important for some large middle-income countries such as China, Russia and Mexico. In such countries there may however be considerable price differences across regions, and the use of common price deflators for the whole country may lead to a biased assessment of regional inequality.
Topic:
Economics, Political Economy, Social Stratification, and Sociology
Political Geography:
Russia, China, Europe, and Mexico

27. Regionalization and Retrenchment: The Impact of European Integration on the Welfare State

Author:
Jason Beckfield
Publication Date:
01-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:
This paper demonstrates the utility of a sociology of regional integration by addressing two central questions that have sparked much debate over the welfare state. Is there evidence of long-anticipated retrenchment? Does globalization cause that retrenchment? I redirect these debates by showing that there is evidence of retrenchment in Europe, and that regional integration – not globalization – accounts for it. Regional integration is conceptualized as the construction of supranational political economy in negotiated and bounded regions through political institutionalization and market expansion. I develop the argument that regional political integration should constrain the welfare state through policy feedbacks, the politics of blame avoidance, and the diffusion of classical-liberal policy scripts, while regional economic integration should constrain the welfare state by expanding labor markets and undermining labor unions. I assess these arguments with time-series cross-section models and data from 13 European Union (EU) and non-EU states. The results show that (1) there is evidence of retrenchment, (2) regionalization is significantly associated with retrenchment, and (3) the effect of regional integration is dampened in the strongest welfare states. I draw the general conclusion that regional integration is a new and consequential part of the social context that should receive more attention from sociologists.
Topic:
Globalization, Regional Cooperation, and Sociology
Political Geography:
Europe

28. 2008 Hate Crime Survey

Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Human Rights First
Abstract:
European and North American governments are failing to keep pace with a wave of violent hate crime that continues to rise across the region. Racism, xenophobia, antisemitism, anti-Muslim and anti-Roma hatred, religious intolerance, homophobia: the list of biases that fuel these crimes is a long one. Attacks range from lethal assaults to threats and harassment to vandalism and desecration of religious and community property. The perpetrators are individuals acting alone, or in concert with neighbors, coworkers, and fellow students, as well as loosely-knit or more organized groups that share ideologies of hatred and act on them. The violence can ruin lives, or end them. It can terrorize whole communities, driving away vulnerable minorities or forcing them to stay out of sight. Violent hate crime, especially when the official response to it is weak or nonexistent, also attacks the society at large, undermining the very notions of equality and the equal protection of the law.
Topic:
Crime, Sociology, and Culture
Political Geography:
Europe, North America, and Kurdistan

29. L'analyse des transferts internationaux de politiques publiques : un état de l'art

Author:
Thierry Delpeuch
Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales
Abstract:
Several prolific research fields dedicate themselves to the analysis of the contemporary phenomena of circulation, transfer and convergence of public policies. These clusters of studies have in common to explore the impact of external influences and foreign sources of inspiration or imitation on policy making process. Two major research orientations can be distinguished among these studies. The first one develops a perspective in the close proximity of the new sociological institutionalism. It scrutinizes the causal grounds and the social impacts of the expansion of policy transfers, by putting the stress on the influence of cultural and institutional factors. The second one, which is related to the sociology of social action, primarily examines the implementation of concrete policy transplant operations from one social context to another, by meticulously investigating the social characteristics of transfer agents and analyzing their interactions. Our argument is that the various approaches covered here–which are sociology of diffusion, new sociological institutionalism, europeanization studies, lesson-drawing and policy learning literature, structural sociology, and, of course, the research stream which identifies itself as policy transfer studies - are today on the way to overcome their divergences and to consolidate a common framework of sociological knowledge about policy transfers, grounded in both holistic and individualistic sociological traditions.
Topic:
Civil Society, Political Theory, and Sociology
Political Geography:
Europe