Decisionism and Humanitarian Intervention: Reinterpreting Carl Schmitt and the Global Political Order

2005 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 443-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven C. Roach
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Theoretical Analysis ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
The Political ◽  
International Level ◽  
Political Dynamics ◽  
Humanitarian Interventions

International legal scholars and political scientists have devised many alternative proposals to legalize politically legitimized humanitarian interventions. While many of these alternative legal mechanisms have addressed the limits to the UN Charter and the political and economic consequences of intervention, they also have exposed the need for more theoretical analysis of the shift in political responsibilities and decision making from the state to international level. In this article, I draw on Carl Schmitt's theory of decisionism in order to understand the legitimacy and political dynamics of global decisionism. I argue that more theoretical analysis of the political substance of global authority is needed in order to understand the revolutionary content of a human rights enforcement regime.

The Political Dynamics of Bureaucratic Turnover

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 823-836 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Dahlström ◽  
Mikael Holmgren
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Research Note ◽  
Political Control ◽  
The Political ◽  
Partisan Politics ◽  
Political Dynamics ◽  
Selection Strategies ◽  
Screening Strategies ◽  
Policy Objectives ◽  
Unique Dataset

This Research Note explores the political dynamics of bureaucratic turnover. It argues that changes in a government’s policy objectives can shift both political screening strategies and bureaucratic selection strategies, which produces turnover of agency personnel. To buttress this conjecture, it analyzes a unique dataset tracing the careers of all agency heads in the Swedish executive bureaucracy between 1960 and 2014. It shows that, despite serving on fixed terms and with constitutionally protected decision-making powers, Swedish agency heads are considerably more likely to leave their posts following partisan shifts in government. The note concludes that, even in institutional systems seemingly designed to insulate bureaucratic expertise from political control, partisan politics can shape the composition of agency personnel.

Getting to the Future

2021 ◽  
pp. 109-128
Author(s):  
Michael K. MacKenzie
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
The Political ◽  
Collective Decision Making ◽  
Political Dynamics ◽  
The Future ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Electoral Cycles ◽  
Shared Futures ◽  
Deliberative Processes

This chapter makes three arguments in support of the claim that we need inclusive deliberative processes to shape the future in collectively intentional, mutually accommodating ways. First, inclusive collective decision-making processes are needed to avoid futures that favour the interests of some groups of people over others. Second, deliberative processes are needed to shape our shared futures in collectively intentional ways: we need to be able to talk to ourselves about what we are doing and where we want to get to in the future. Third, deliberative exchanges are needed to help collectivities avoid the policy oscillations that are (or may be) associated with the political dynamics of short electoral cycles. Effective processes of reciprocal reason giving can help collectivities maintain policy continuity over the long term—when continuity is justified—even as governments and generations change.

scholarly journals ON THE ROLE OF POLITICAL FACTORS IN INTEGRATION PROCESSES (ON THE EXAMPLE OF MERCOSUR)

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (6) ◽  
pp. 0-0
Author(s):  
Дина Пайгина ◽  
Dina Paygina
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
The Political ◽  
International Level ◽  
Integration Process ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
International Integration ◽  
Economic Context ◽  
Mutual Relations

The article analyzes the role of political factors in integration processes. Their implementation is a key component of the foreign policy of any state. As is generally known, the strategy of mutual relations of various countries is determined by a number of political factors, taking into account the interests of the community or competition in various spheres of cooperation. At the same time political factors are seen as the driving force of any process imposed by a public authority. It seems that the effect of political factors in this context is reflected in the fact that during the decision-making the stakeholders of the international integration seek to satisfy their own interests. The condition of mutually beneficial relationships, which has a clear political and economic context, is one of the key conditions in resolving the issue of states’ entering into the integration process. The content of political factors includes not only the political nature of states’ activities at the international level, but also the causes and the circumstances under which these decisions were taken. Thus, political factors are one of the major reasons for making key decisions in the implementation of international integration processes.

Ruling party will look inwards ahead of Burundi polls

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Presidential Elections ◽  
Regional Security ◽  
The Political ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Political Dynamics ◽  
Fourth Term ◽  
The Government ◽  
Ruling Party

Subject Political dynamics ahead of 2020 elections. Significance The government has launched talks with CNARED, a forum of opposition parties, to negotiate the return of its exiled leaders ahead of the 2020 presidential elections. President Pierre Nkurunziza, who has said he will not run for a fourth term, appears to be cautiously reaching out to the opposition in an effort to ease his regime’s diplomatic isolation and deepening economic crisis. Impacts The 2020 elections will likely see continued heavy human rights violations and restrictions on the political space. CNARED’s mooted return might increase tensions, rights violations and repression, especially once they try to campaign outside Bujumbura. Burundi’s crisis weighs heavily on regional security, especially in Congo’s South Kivu Province; the elections might exacerbate this.

Domestic Policies and UN Activities: The Cases of Rhodesia and the Republic of South Africa

1967 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Alfred Mudge
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
New York ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Security Council ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
The Political ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Political Dynamics ◽  
The Republic ◽  
National Framework

The oratory of the General Assembly and the Security Council and the resolutions adopted by these organs are the most obvious activities of the United Nations in the field of human rights and the features usually studied. They alone, however, give little indication of the effectiveness and the effects of the UN's actions. To investigate this one needs to go beyond New York to the national capitals. How do governments whose policies are severely criticized in the UN respond? On one level the questions can be simply answered. The alternatives are reasonably clear. They include token and substantive compliance, indifference, and defiance. But how is one alternative chosen over the others and does what goes on in New York have any impact on the political dynamics within the national framework? This article is an attempt to investigate a limited aspect of this question. It is an analysis of both the reactions within the parliaments of Rhodesia and the Republic of South Africa to UN actions concerning these territories and the possible importance of these reactions in parliamentary elections.

China's engagement in Africa: scope, significance and consequences

2006 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 459-479 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis M. Tull
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
African State ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
International Strategy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Attractive Alternative ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
The Past ◽  
Debt Cancellation ◽  
Recent Developments

China's vastly increased involvement in Africa over the past decade is one of the most significant recent developments in the region. It appears to contradict the idea of international marginalisation of Africa and brings significant economic and political consequences. China's Africa interest is part of a recently more active international strategy based on multipolarity and non-intervention. Increased aid, debt cancellation, and a boom in Chinese-African trade, with a strategic Chinese focus on oil, have proven mutually advantageous for China and African state elites. By offering aid without preconditions, China has presented an attractive alternative to conditional Western aid, and gained valuable diplomatic support to defend its international interests. However, a generally asymmetrical relationship differing little from previous African–Western patterns, alongside support of authoritarian governments at the expense of human rights, make the economic consequences of increased Chinese involvement in Africa mixed at best, while the political consequences are bound to prove deleterious.

scholarly journals “A Conviction about What is Moral or Lawful” Carl Schmitt on humanitarianism, the humanum, and the possibility of a “universal jus commune”

2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. e40279
Author(s):  
Nicholas Hiromura
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Moral Conflict ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Definition Of

Carl Schmitt (1888-1985) spent much of his life arguing against human rights. While this may not come as a surprise, a closer examination of The Concept of the Political reveals that Schmitt’s critique of Liberal humanitarianism is itself rooted in a concept of the humanum as a sphere of substantive moral and political conflict. As an analysis of Schmitt’s concept of the enemy shows, this humanum serves as an argument for the necessity of a juristic distinction between enemy and foe. For, only by distinguishing between the relativized enemy and the absolute foe, Schmitt argues, will we be able to distinguish create a space for particularly political action. Having revealed the framework of mediated moral conflict, in which Schmitt conceives of political action, I then turn to consider Schmitt’s minimalist proposal for a positive definition of a “universal jus commune” and assess its significance for a discussion of human rights.

9. Bias, Impartiality, and Independence

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Elliott ◽  
Jason Varuhas
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Decision Maker ◽  
Procedural Fairness ◽  
European Convention ◽  
The Political ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Financial Interest ◽  
Political Dimensions

This chapter examines the notions of impartiality (and bias) and independence. It first provides an overview of the scope and rationale of the rule against bias before discussing the connection between impartiality and procedural fairness. It then reviews the ‘automatic disqualification rule’ by which a decision-maker can be disqualified if he/she has a sufficient financial interest in the outcome of the decision-making process. It also explores the apprehension of bias and the ‘fair-minded observer rule’, along with the political dimensions of the rule against bias. Finally, it considers Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights in an administrative context and when Article 6(1) applies to administrative decision-making. A number of relevant cases are cited throughout the chapter, including R v. Sussex Justices, ex parte McCarthy [1924] 1 KB 256.

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