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21. Constructing Quality: Producer Power, Market Organization, and the Politics of High Value-Added Markets.

Author:
Elizabeth Carter
Publication Date:
12-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
Abstract:
Economists assume increased producer flexibility creates production advantages. So why do inefficient French quality wine producers dominate their flexible, efficient Italian counterparts? French AOC wine producers created “corporatist” producer organizations which served three purposes: encouraged increased product quality information across the supply chain; allowed for the emergence of a unique production style; and enabled producers to define their production methods as “quality” via state regulation. Italian DOC wine producers have fragmented political structures at both the regional and national levels, causing producers to rely more on the price mechanism and less on political structures to coordinate supply chain transactions. Market asymmetries persist across the supply chain, making it difficult for producers to guarantee quality and adversely shaping their potential production and brand strategies. Solving supply chain problems through representative political institutions yields superior economic outcomes than uncoordinated market transactions because the former corrects market power asymmetries.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, Politics, and Regulation
Political Geography:
France, Italy, and Global Focus

22. Internet Freedom and Human Rights

Author:
Daniel Joyce
Publication Date:
04-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
This article considers whether the Internet has become so significant, for the provision of, and access to, information and in the formation of political community and associated questions of participation, that it requires further human rights protection beyond freedom of expression. In short, should Internet freedom be configured as a human right? The article begins by considering the ubiquity of the Internet and its significance. A wider historical view is then taken to understand Internet freedom in terms of its lineage and development from earlier debates over freedom of expression and the right to communicate, through to the recognition of the significance of an information society and the need for Internet regulation on the international plane. The current debate over Internet freedom is then analysed with particular focus given to Hillary Clinton’s speech on Internet freedom and its subsequent articulation by Special Rapporteur Frank La Rue. The concluding part introduces the critical work of Evgeny Morozov and Jaron Lanier to an international law audience in order to deepen the debate over Internet freedom and to point to the concept’s limitations and dangers. It is too early to say whether a ‘right to Internet freedom’ has achieved universal recognition, but this article makes the case that it is worth taking seriously and that Internet freedom may need its own category of protection beyond freedom of expression.
Topic:
Human Rights, International Law, History, Regulation, Internet, and Freedom of Expression
Political Geography:
Europe, Global Focus, and United States of America

23. Taking Control: Pathways to Drug Policies That Work

Author:
Global Commission On Drug Policy
Publication Date:
09-2014
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Global Commission On Drug Policy
Abstract:
The Commission’s 2014 report broke ground by advancing and globalizing the debate over drug control measures and its alternatives. Anticipating the 2016 United Nations General Assembly Special Session on drugs (UNGASS), the report provides clear-cut pathways for Member States. The five recommendations for more effective drug policies include: putting health and community safety first; ensuring equitable access to controlled medicines; ending the criminalization of people who use or possess drugs; promoting alternatives to incarceration for low-level participants in illicit drug markets, including cultivators; and encouraging policy innovations such as legally regulated markets, beginning with, but not limited to cannabis, coca leaf and certain other psychoactive substances. Never had so many former world leaders spoken out in support of legal, regulation of currently illicit drugs.
Topic:
Crime, War on Drugs, Regulation, Drugs, Public Health, and Medicine
Political Geography:
Global Focus

24. Rethinking International Cooperation: The Case of Regulatory Networks in Competition Policy

Author:
Umut Aydin
Publication Date:
08-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
In the last few decades, globalization has led to the emergence of complex international problems and new methods of cooperation to deal with them such as Transnational Regulatory Networks (TRNs). In this article I argue that dominant rationalist theories of International Relations such as neorealism and neoliberal institutionalism have difficulty accounting for the emergence of TRNS and their effects on state behavior. Thus, there is an increasing need to rethink our concepts and theories of international cooperation with the spread of TRNs. 6 e article explores this argument by focusing on cooperation on competition policy in the International Competition Network.
Topic:
International Relations, International Cooperation, and Regulation
Political Geography:
Global Focus