The impact of sectoral cleavage and public spending cuts on labour party/trade union relations: The social contract experience

1994 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-28
Author(s):  
Steve Ludlam
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Public Spending ◽  
Labour Party ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Spending Cuts

The Gilets Jaunes and the New Social Contract

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Devellennes
Keyword(s):  
Social Movement ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Fundamental Challenge ◽  
New Type ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Impact

This book provides a detailed account of the gilets jaunes, the yellow vest movement that has shaken France since 2018. The gilets jaunes are a group of French protesters named after their iconic yellow vests worn during their demonstrations, who have formed a new type of social movement. They have been variously interpreted since they began their occupation of French roundabouts: at first received with enthusiasm on the right of the French political establishment, and with caution on the left. They have provided a fundamental challenge to the social contract in France, the implicit pact between the governed and their political leaders. The book assesses what lessons can be drawn from their activities and the impact for the contemporary relationship between state and citizen. Informed by a dialogue with past political theorists — from Hobbes, Spinoza and Rousseau to Rawls, Nozick and Diderot — and reflecting on the challenges posed by the yellow vest movement, the book rethinks the concept of the social contract for contemporary societies around the world. It proposes a new relationship between the state and the individual, and establishes the necessity of rethinking the modern democratic nature of our representative polities in order to provide a genuine process for the healing of social ills.

scholarly journals The Legacy of Austerity

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-110
Author(s):  
Zoë Irving
Keyword(s):  
Unmet Needs ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Political Capacity ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
Political Relations ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Capacity For Change ◽  
Spending Cuts ◽  
The Welfare State

In considering the impact of austerity, much attention has been focused on the immediate effects of public spending cuts and on documenting the resulting increase in hardship and unmet needs. However, in calculating the consequences of austerity for the welfare state, it is its enduring legacy that is equally important. This article examines the proposition that the indirect effects of austerity on social, economic and political relations are as significant for the welfare of future generations as the ‘decade of austerity’ has been for contemporary welfare. The analysis draws on the approach adopted by Paul Wilding (1992) reflecting on the 1980s as the ‘decade of Thatcherism’. Wilding’s ten legacies are recategorised across four dimensions: normalising a non-commitment to welfare, societal scarring, refuelling the race to the bottom and diminishing the political capacity for change. The conclusions suggest that austerity will abide in the social and political relations of welfare long after austerity measures have ceased.

Reformatting the Social Contract in the Context of a Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-116
Author(s):  
A. N. Leontieva
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
National Development ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Scientific Methods ◽  
Russian Economy ◽  
Development Agenda ◽  
The Social ◽  
Socio Economic Development ◽  
The Impact

Aim. The presented study aims to identify the most significant changes in the global and national development agenda associated with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.Tasks. The authors analyze the performance of the financial sector; summarize the assessments of leading consulting companies and the results of public opinion polls regarding the actual and projected state of the global and Russian economy and changes in consumption patterns; determine challenges that national authorities are currently facing.Methods. This study uses general scientific methods of cognition: observation, generalization, comparison, deduction and induction, methods of institutional and structural analysis.Results. Major trends of socio-economic development during the post-crisis period are examined and analyzed; factors affecting changes in the social structure and potential directions of managerial influence are determined.Conclusions. The 2020 coronavirus pandemic has been a huge stress for the established management systems at all levels, generating additional public demands that need to be reflected in the social contract. Changes in the main trends of socio-economic development caused by quarantine measures determine the parameters of a different environment for national and social development. Production and industry are affected by regionalization, while consumption is becoming increasingly globalized. Human capital is undergoing transformation in response to the digitalization of the economy, which creates the prerequisites for increasing inequality.

John Rawls

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
John Rawls ◽  
Civil Disobedience ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Theory Of Justice ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The U.S

This chapter examines the impact of John Rawls's A Theory of Justice on the liberal audience that took it up. In A Theory of Justice, Rawls offers a defense of civil disobedience that would make politically motivated disobedience a much more acceptable part of our political life than either the U.S. Supreme Court or the English judiciary seems likely to contemplate. Furthermore, his views about the subservience of economic institutions to “social justice” place him firmly on one side of what is currently the most fiercely contested dividing line in politics in Britain today. The chapter also considers Rawls's use of the theory of the social contract to support his arguments; his principle of “the priority of liberty”; and his “difference principle.” It asserts that Rawls is safe from those critics who maintain that what purports to be a defense of liberalism actually collapses into a wholesale collectivism.

scholarly journals COMMENTARY: The Trade Union Response to Structural Change

1970 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alf Kirk
Keyword(s):  
Structural Change ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Economic Background ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
The Impact

In looking at the trade union response to the structural changes posed by the dramatic economic events of the 1970s, it is first necessary to look at the background which determined the institutional nature of unions to that change beating upon our shores. Therefore I wish to divide this paper into 4 parts: the social and economic background of the 1950s and 1960s; longer term social changes influencing trade unions; the impact of change and the trade union response; implications.

scholarly journals The ethics of genomic medicine: redefining values and norms in the UK and France

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Gaille ◽  
◽  
Ruth Horn
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Clinical Care ◽  
Genomic Medicine ◽  
Public Healthcare ◽  
Individual Rights ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThis paper presents a joint position of the UK-France Genomics and Ethics Network (UK-FR GENE), which has been set up to reflect on the ethical and social issues arising from the integration of genomics into routine clinical care in the UK and France. In 2018, the two countries announced enhanced cooperation between their national strategies, Genomics England and Plan France Médecine Génomique 2025, which offers a unique opportunity to study the impact of genomic medicine and relevant policies in different national contexts. The paper provides first insights into the two national strategies and the norms, values and principles at stake in each country. It discusses the impact of genomic medicine on established relationships and existing regulations, and examines its effects on solidarity and trust in public healthcare systems. Finally, it uses the social contract as an analytical lens to explore and redefine the balance between individual rights and collective duties in the context of genomic medicine. This paper leads to three key observations: (1) despite each country’s strategy being at a different stage of implementation, the two countries face similar ethical issues; (2) each country tries to solve these issues by (re-)defining individual rights and collective duties in its own way; (3) the social contract presents a useful tool to analyse the ways the UK and France address the ethical challenges raised by genomics. This overview lays the groundwork for future in-depth comparison, and drive collaborative research, between the UK and France.

scholarly journals Artificial Intelligence in the Context of Global Resource Mobility. What Can Be Expected from It?

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 93-107
Author(s):  
Ryszard Piasecki ◽  
Miron Wolnicki ◽  
Erico Wulf Betancourt
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Business Strategy ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
High Growth ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Labor Policy ◽  
Proper Actions ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact

The impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on business, government, and society is getting more attention. The leading AI sectors have higher productivity but a lower share of GDP than those lagging in digitization and AI. There is a technological gap, with still unknown consequences concerning the social contract, the expected new digital welfare profile, as well as the business strategy about globalization. The hypothesis is that while digitization was already in motion (2000–2005), capital outflow from the US to MHGEs (market high-growth economies) in Asia negatively affected its productivity outcome. Additionally, it is expected that AI will give more market power to multinationals, reshaping the social contract. Thus, the current western social contract will no longer be able to cope with the consequences of the weakness of the nation-state, its policymakers, or the powerful profit-driven multinationals to deal with the overall effect of AI. We aim to look at the impact of this new state of technology on the social contract, focusing on the proper actions of government and business to deal with it. We used a descriptive approach based on desk research concerning productivity data, European government policies, trade model analysis, and business approach to AI. We expect to demonstrate the dynamic interaction of the K/L ratio within the prevailing status of global resources mobility, and the dangers unregulated AI represents to labor. Policy actions are needed concerning the legal status of AI and how to avert the collapse of the social contract and the rise of oligarchic cyber‑autocracies. Our general conclusion is as follows: While capital investments, which would have contributed to improved total factor productivity (TFP) in the USA, went to MHGEs, increasing their GDP growth in less than a decade, the broad use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) will reverse massive offshoring, and new types of manufacturing processes will emerge in developed countries.

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