Public Morals with Chinese Characteristics: Explaining China’s Adoption of WTO Rules

2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 333-351
Author(s):  
Chieh Huang
Keyword(s):  
World Trade ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
State Control ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Competing Interests ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Chinese Characteristics ◽  
Communist Government ◽  
Political Decision Making ◽  
Oriented Approach

Abstract This article examines China’s compliance with World Trade Organization (WTO) law in the field of publications control from an empirical and theoretical perspective. The study of publications control — a policy field of critical concern to China’s Communist government — highlights the competing interests and ideas over ‘liberalisation’ and ‘state control’ within the Chinese leadership and within WTO circles. The article, first, describes these competing and historically shifting interests and ideas in the case of a recent landmark WTO dispute on publications control and, second, uses two apparently distinct IR theoretical approaches to explain China’s behaviour during the dispute. The article argues that neither an interest-oriented approach nor an idea-centred approach by themselves can explain Chinese political decision-making. The article proposes a combination of two particular views that help to explain the dispute examined but also China’s interactions with the WTO more generally.

DEMOCRATIC ETATISM AS A WAY OF ORGANIZATION OF STATE POWER: MAIN FEATURES

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 60-67
Author(s):  
Дорофеев ◽  
Arkadiy Dorofeev
Keyword(s):  
Government Regulation ◽  
Public Life ◽  
State Intervention ◽  
State Control ◽  
Main Criterion ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
Emerging Democracy ◽  
Political Decision Making

The article analyzes the processes of etatization of public authorities in countries with emerging democracy. The author has the view that there is a democratic type of etatism in political practice of modern democratic countries. The author concludes that the presence of etatistic tendencies in the form of increased state control of the process of political decision-making, government regulation of the unit of social and economic relations, etc. is not contrary to the democratic vector of social development; but the synthesis of declared democratic values and etatistic realities allows to select the type of democratic etatization as one of the varieties of modern etatism. The main criterion for distinction of democratic etatism from other varieties, according to the author, is existence of constitutionally set principles of democracy, as well as actual extent of state intervention in public life.

Hindsight Bias in Political Decision Making

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rüdiger F. Pohl ◽  
Edgar Erdfelder
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Hindsight Bias ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Important Conclusion ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Actual Outcome ◽  
Outcome Knowledge ◽  
Political Decision Making

Hindsight bias describes the tendency of persons—after the outcome of an event is known—to overestimate their foresight. For example, following a political election, persons tend to retrospectively adjust their predictions to the actual outcome. These judgment distortions are very robust and have been observed in a variety of domains and tasks. About 50 years of research on hindsight bias have meanwhile brought a wealth of findings and insights. Core research questions are (1) how to explain hindsight bias in terms of underlying processes, (2) whether there are individual differences in susceptibility, (3) how the bias possibly impedes decision-making in applied contexts, such as political decision-making, and (4) how possibly to overcome it. Theoretical approaches suggest that there are distinct components of hindsight bias, and that several, mainly cognitive, mechanisms are responsible for them. Using stochastic models of hindsight bias allows us to estimate the relative proportions of these mechanisms. Depending on the task, motivational factors may also exert their influence. In addition, the strength of hindsight bias appears to be related to some personality traits and also to age. For example, some authors found that hindsight bias tends to increase with the tendency toward favorable self-presentation and to decrease with intelligence. Moreover, lifespan studies have shown that children and older adults show larger hindsight bias than young adults. Hindsight bias has been found in political decision-making (as well as in other applied domains). Surprisingly, attempts to overcome hindsight bias have mainly failed, whereas only a few debiasing techniques show promising results. In sum, one important conclusion is to be continuously aware of the potentially distorting influence of outcome knowledge on the evaluation of our own (or other’s) prior knowledge state.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Political Decision Making

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Information Search ◽  
General Framework ◽  
Individual Psychology ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Individual Preferences ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Political Decision Making

This encyclopedia traces the development and future of research on political decision making through an exploration of its central theoretical approaches, methodologies, and substantive topics of perennial interest. The focus is on political decision making as a question of individual psychology: individual preferences, information search, evaluation, and choice. Under the editorial directorship of David P. Redlawsk and associate editors Cengiz Erisen, Erin Hennes, Zoe Oxley, Darren Schreiber, and Barbara Vis, this publication brings together peer-reviewed contributions by leading researchers and offers a general framework for studying political decision making that applies to both everyday citizens and political elites. As a result, the Oxford Encyclopedia of Political Decision Making is a necessary resource for students and as well as both new and established scholars.

Wegvoeringen en weggevoerden tijdens de meidagen van 1940

2014 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 250-259
Author(s):  
Etienne Verhoeyen
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Large Majority ◽  
The Political ◽  
Extreme Right ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Belgian Society ◽  
Complete Study ◽  
History Of ◽  
Risky Business ◽  
Political Decision Making

Met dit boek levert Frank Seberechts een nagenoeg volledige studie af van een van de minder fraai kanten van de Belgische samenleving in 1940: de administratieve arrestatie en de wegvoering naar Frankrijk van enkele duizenden personen (de ‘verdachten’), Belgen of in België verblijvende vreemdelingen. De extreem-rechtse en pro-Duitse arrestanten hebben na hun vrijlating dit feit politiek in hun voordeel uitgebaat, waardoor volledig in de schaduw kwam te staan dat de overgrote meerderheid van de weggevoerden joodse mensen waren die in de jaren voor de oorlog naar België waren gevlucht. Dat het beeld van de wegvoeringen niet volledig is, is grotendeels te wijten aan het feit dat de meeste archieven die hierop betrekking hebben tijdens de meidagen van 1940 vernietigd werden. Met name de politieke besluitvorming over de wegvoeringen vertoont nog steeds schemerzones, zodat het vastleggen van verantwoordelijkheden ook vandaag nog een gewaagde onderneming is.________Deportations and the deported during the Maydays in 1940 By means of this book Frank Seberechts provides an almost complete study of one of the less admirable sides of Belgian society in 1940: the administrative arrest and the deportation to France of some thousands of people (‘the suspects’), Belgians or foreigners residing in Belgium. The extreme-right and pro-German detainees politically exploited this fact after they had been freed, but this completely overshadowed the point that the large majority of the deported people were Jews who had fled to Belgium during the years preceding the war. This incomplete portrayal of the deportations is mainly due to the fact that most of the archives relating to the events had been destroyed during the Maydays of 1940. The history of the political decision-making about the deportations in particular still shows many grey areas and it is therefore still a risky business even today to determine which people should be held accountable.

Institutionalizing the Liberal Creed

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronen Mandelkern
Keyword(s):  
Political Influence ◽  
Institutional Entrepreneurship ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Economic Liberalism ◽  
Market Economic ◽  
Ministry Of Finance ◽  
Political Entrepreneurs ◽  
Long Term Trend ◽  
Political Decision Making

This chapter analyzes the role Israeli economists have played as purveyors of pro-market economic ideas and political entrepreneurs of economic liberalization in Israel. Israeli economists were strongly committed to economic liberalism already in the 1950s, but they were lacking decisive political influence. Two mechanisms increased their power over policy. First, long-term institutional changes gradually eroded “political” decision-making mechanism and opened the way to greater involvement of professional economists. This long-term trend was joined and reinforced by economists’ institutional entrepreneurship at the height of the 1980s economic crisis, when they initiated changes of macroeconomic governance. These changes enhanced the political power of the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Israel and supported the institutionalization of neoliberalism in Israel.

scholarly journals A survey of methods for evaluating mini-publics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takeuchi Ayano
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The Political ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Sufficient Information ◽  
Practical Case ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Political Decision Making

AbstractPublic participation has become increasingly necessary to connect a wide range of knowledge and various values to agenda setting, decision-making and policymaking. In this context, deliberative democratic concepts, especially “mini-publics,” are gaining attention. Generally, mini-publics are conducted with randomly selected lay citizens who provide sufficient information to deliberate on issues and form final recommendations. Evaluations are conducted by practitioner researchers and independent researchers, but the results are not standardized. In this study, a systematic review of existing research regarding practices and outcomes of mini-publics was conducted. To analyze 29 papers, the evaluation methodologies were divided into 4 categories of a matrix between the evaluator and evaluated data. The evaluated cases mainly focused on the following two points: (1) how to maintain deliberation quality, and (2) the feasibility of mini-publics. To create a new path to the political decision-making process through mini-publics, it must be demonstrated that mini-publics can contribute to the decision-making process and good-quality deliberations are of concern to policy-makers and experts. Mini-publics are feasible if they can contribute to the political decision-making process and practitioners can evaluate and understand the advantages of mini-publics for each case. For future research, it is important to combine practical case studies and academic research, because few studies have been evaluated by independent researchers.

The Reasoning Structure in Legal Disputes on the International Trade of Biotechnology: From a Judicial Balance by Chance to a Judicial Balance by Design

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Alessandra GUIDA
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
World Trade Organization ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Technology Innovation ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Trade Restrictions ◽  
Competing Interests ◽  
The World ◽  
National Economies ◽  
Biotech Products

The international trade in biotech products boosts national economies and advances scientific as well as technology innovation. However, while trading these products increases the spread of benefits on a global scale, it also increases risks to human health and the environment (ie biosafety). This is because the effects of this technology on biosafety are still highly uncertain. Against this background, the judicial bodies under the World Trade Organization (WTO) find themselves in the middle of an intricate and polarised debate in which a proper judicial balance between free trade and biosafety becomes fundamental in order to determine whether requests for ensuring human and environmental health justify trade restrictions. This paper aims to highlight that the WTO is institutionally unready for balancing economic and non-economic values. In suggesting how to rationalise the judicial balance between the competing interests in the context of biotechnology, this paper demonstrates that the judicial adoption of a well-structured proportionality analysis can turn the current balance by chance into a balance by structure.

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