Autonomy and Paternalism

1982 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 47-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Young
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
The State ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Adult Individual ◽  
Voluntary Consent ◽  
Human Autonomy

Paternalism has generally been thought of as forcible or coercive interference with a person's liberty of action which is (believed to be) justified because it will prevent harm to that person's welfare interests or the like. Opposition to paternalistic interference with adults, whether it involves the intervention of the state (legal paternalism) or another adult individual, has usually been based on a concern to preserve human autonomy or self-determination. More strictly it is opposition to so-called ‘strong’ paternalism - interventions to protect or benefit a person despite the person's informed voluntary consent to the contrary- which has been grounded on such a commitment to self-determination. ‘Weak’ paternalism involves interference where there is (or is believed to be) a defect in the decision-making capacities of the person interfered with (or to ascertain whether the person's behaviour is fully reflective). It is claimed to be justifiable insofar as consent to the interference would be forthcoming were these capacities restored.

From Individual to Collective Consent: The Case of Indigenous Peoples and undrip

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-269
Author(s):  
Richard Healey
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Informed Consent ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
The State ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Sexual Ethics ◽  
The Third ◽  
Collective Decisions

Much of the debate around requirements for the free, prior, and informed consent of indigenous peoples has focused on enabling indigenous communities to participate in various forms of democratic decision-making alongside the state and other actors. Against this backdrop, this article sets out to defend three claims. The first two of these claims are conceptual in nature: (i) Giving (collective) consent and participating in the making of (collective) decisions are distinct activities; (ii) Despite some scepticism, there is a coherent conception of collective consent available to us, continuous with the notion of individual consent familiar from discussions in medical and sexual ethics. The third claim is normative: (iii) Participants in debates about free, prior, and informed consent must keep this distinction in view. That is because a group’s ability to give or withhold consent, and not only participate in making decisions, will play an important role in realising that collectives’ right to self-determination.

Enhancing the Participation of Indigenous Peoples at the Intergovernmental Level to Strengthen Self-Determination: Lessons from the Arctic

2018 ◽  
Vol 87 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-55
Author(s):  
Dorothée Cambou
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
State Level ◽  
The State ◽  
Regional Level ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Policy Goal ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Right

With a focus on the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination, and an eye on Arctic practices, this article analyses the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination and its exercise at the intergovernmental level. While the exercise of self-determination necessarily implies the right of indigenous peoples to autonomy in their internal and local matters and their involvement in decision-making at the state level, this article argues that self-determination additionally includes the right of indigenous peoples to be represented and to participate in the international arena: the intergovernmental aspect of self-determination. Although this analysis determines that it is yet too early to indicate the existence of a fully-fledged right, this article also evidences that there is a new policy goal at the un level, accompanied by practices at the arctic regional level, which could support the emergence of such a right in the future.

scholarly journals Free states for free citizens!? Arguments for a republicanism of plural polities

2021 ◽  
pp. 175508822110294
Author(s):  
Anna Meine
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
The Political ◽  
Institution Building ◽  
Democratic Institution ◽  
European Context ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Self Rule

The paper assesses the questions if and, if yes, how the republican conception of free statehood can and should inform a compelling understanding of a legitimate post-Westphalian political order. To answer these questions, it, first, reconstructs the foundational arguments of republican internationalists in favour of free states and, second, assesses the points of contention republican cosmopolitans raise. Third, it develops an alternative approach, a republicanism of plural polities: Based on a relational and multi-dimensional understanding of citizenship, the paper questions the strong internationalist reliance on the citizenship-state-nexus and on statehood in general, but also takes issue with cosmopolitans’ neglect of the boundedness of democratic self-determination. A republicanism of plural polities as a multi-perspectival approach to democratic institution-building in and beyond the state is open to constellations of plural polities of different forms and on different political levels while simultaneously recognising the particularity of each ‘free polity’. It thereby adds a new dimension to debates on the political forms legitimate institutions can assume under post-Westphalian conditions and opens avenues for research on inter-polity relations, on more complex constellations of self-rule and shared rule as well as of multilateral decision-making, on sovereignty and independence. The latter are exemplified by reference to the European context.

Sovereign Debt and Self-Determination

2018 ◽  
pp. 267-283
Author(s):  
Ilias Bantekas
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Sovereign Debt ◽  
External Pressure ◽  
The State ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Policy Decisions ◽  
Effective Policy ◽  
Fundamental Needs

In this chapter we make use of the word ‘effective’ in order to test whether a particular action, contractual clause or other measures produce an outcome that is otherwise offensive to self-determination. This is not always easy because economic self-determination is sparse in the human rights literature. In this chapter we put forward the proposition that a state is sovereign where it is effectively empowered, without pressure or coercion, to make all policy decisions required to run the state machinery and satisfy the fundamental needs of all its people (at the very least), both individual and collective. A state’s effective policy and decision-making power is effectively curtailed where: a) it has been substituted in these functions by a third state or an organ of that state; b) where it is prevented from taking a particular action, such as unilateral default; c) where it is forced to violate fundamental domestic laws, including its constitution or the result of a referendum or; d) where external pressure is exerted against its government and institutions with the aim of creating volatility and uncertainty concerning its finances so that it succumbs to such pressure.

Minimizing Missed Opportunities: Modeling Relationships between the State and Business in Russia

2009 ◽  
pp. 42-61
Author(s):  
A. Oleynik
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Common Good ◽  
The State ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
Individual Decision ◽  
Missed Opportunities ◽  
Power Domination ◽  
Individual Decision Making ◽  
Optimal Outcomes

Power involves a number of models of choice: maximizing, satisficing, coercion, and minimizing missed opportunities. The latter is explored in detail and linked to a particular type of power, domination by virtue of a constellation of interests. It is shown that domination by virtue of a constellation of interests calls for justification through references to a common good, i.e. a rent to be shared between Principal and Agent. Two sources of sub-optimal outcomes are compared: individual decision-making and interactions. Interactions organized in the form of power relationships lead to sub-optimal outcomes for at least one side, Agent. Some empirical evidence from Russia is provided for illustrative purposes.

Institutionalism: Theory, Decision-making Basis, Method of Criticism

2009 ◽  
pp. 110-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Moskovsky
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Institutional Economics ◽  
Economic Reforms ◽  
The State ◽  
Economic Approach ◽  
Main Attention ◽  
Technological Imperative ◽  
Logical Inconsistency ◽  
Basis Method

The author analyzes the state of institutional economics in contemporary Russia. It is characterized by arbitrary confusion of the ideas of «old», «new» and «mathematical» versions of institutionalism which results in logical inconsistency and even eclectics to be observed in the literature. The new and mathematical versions of institutionalism are shown to be based on legal, political and mathematical determinism tightly connected with the so-called «economic approach» (G. Becker). The main attention is paid to the discussion of theoretical and practical potential of the contemporary classical («old») institutionalism. The author focuses on its philosophical grounds and its technological imperative, the institution of science, the method of criticism, the opportunity of using classical institutionalist ideas as the ideology of economic reforms in Russia.

How far ethics education positively influences ethical decision making of the young lawyers in Kedah?

2007 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 83
Author(s):  
Anida Mahmood ◽  
Haswira Nor Mohamad Hashim ◽  
Kamarul Ariffin Mansor
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Ethics Education ◽  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Current Practice ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
The State ◽  
Legal Ethics ◽  
Basic Premise ◽  
Law Faculty ◽  
Ethics Course

This paper was written based on part of the findings of a survey made on young lawyers who are practicing in the state of Kedah. Young lawyers are advocates and solicitors with less than seven y ears of active practice. The objective of this study is to determine what factors positively influenced young lawyers' ethical decision making. Data was collected from /33 young lawyers who are practicing in the state of Kedah between January - June 2006 through self-administered and close- end questionnaires. The finding suggests that knowledge in professional legal ethics gained at the law faculty, pupil age and short ethics course does not contribute much to the ethical decision making of the young lawyers. Moved by this finding. this paper attempts to discuss the current legal ethics education in Malaysia. The main contention of the writers is their firm belief that the current practice of professional legal ethics education in Malaysia is insufficient and far from being adequate in producing ethical lawyers. Therefore the writers have proposed for professional legal ethics education in Malaysia to be reformed and this proposal serves as the basic premise of this paper.

Scham und Autonomie

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-192
Author(s):  
Sonja Rinofner-Kreidl
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Intentional Content ◽  
Conceptual Clarification ◽  
The Social ◽  
Conventional Behavior ◽  
And Control

Autonomy is associated with intellectual self-preservation and self-determination. Shame, on the contrary, bears a loss of approval, self-esteem and control. Being afflicted with shame, we suffer from social dependencies that by no means have been freely chosen. Moreover, undergoing various experiences of shame, our power of reflection turns out to be severly limited owing to emotional embarrassment. In both ways, shame seems to be bound to heteronomy. This situation strongly calls for conceptual clarification. For this purpose, we introduce a threestage model of self-determination which comprises i) autonomy as capability of decision-making relating to given sets of choices, ii) self-commitment in terms of setting and harmonizing goals, and iii) self-realization in compliance with some range of persistently approved goals. Accordingly, the presuppositions and distinctive marks of shame-experiences are made explicit. Within this framework, we explore the intricate relation between autonomy and shame by focusing on two questions: on what conditions could conventional behavior be considered as self-determined? How should one characterize the varying roles of actors that are involved in typical cases of shame-experiences? In this connection, we advance the thesis that the social dynamics of shame turns into ambiguous positions relating to motivation, intentional content,and actors’ roles.

Territorial Sovereignty

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Stilz
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
International Law ◽  
International System ◽  
Core Values ◽  
The State ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Territorial Sovereignty ◽  
Collective Self ◽  
Political Units ◽  
Territorial States

This book offers a qualified defense of a territorial states system. It argues that three core values—occupancy, basic justice, and collective self-determination—are served by an international system made up of self-governing, spatially defined political units. The defense is qualified because the book does not actually justify all of the sovereignty rights states currently claim and that are recognized in international law. Instead, the book proposes important changes to states’ sovereign prerogatives, particularly with respect to internal autonomy for political minorities, immigration, and natural resources. Part I of the book argues for a right of occupancy, holding that a legitimate function of the international system is to specify and protect people’s preinstitutional claims to specific geographical places. Part II turns to the question of how a state might acquire legitimate jurisdiction over a population of occupants. It argues that the state will have a right to rule a population and its territory if it satisfies conditions of basic justice and facilitates its people’s collective self-determination. Finally, Parts III and IV of this book argue that the exclusionary sovereignty rights to control over borders and natural resources that can plausibly be justified on the basis of the three core values are more limited than has traditionally been thought.

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