Reconstructing Sovereignty: A Human Rights Perspective

1997 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt Mills
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
International Community ◽  
Humanitarian Assistance ◽  
The State ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sovereign Authority ◽  
The Relationship

The balance between traditional conceptions of sovereignty and human rights is changing. This article argues that developments in the area of human rights and humanitarian assistance are forcing a reconceptualisation of the rights and duties inherent in claims to sovereign authority. Further, from a normative political theory perspective, this article maintains that by investigating the social purpose of the State, we can identify’ three essential building blocks of sovereignty – human rights, popular sovereignty, and self-determination. In addition, this same analysis leads to the conclusion that the international community has not only a right but a duty to ensure that human rights are protected. In other words, a reconceptualisation of the relationship between individuals, groups, the State, and the international community is put forth which is more ambiguous than traditional formulations.

The Sovereignless State and Locke's Language of Obligation

2000 ◽  
Vol 94 (3) ◽  
pp. 547-561 ◽  
Author(s):  
John T. Scott
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Power ◽  
The State ◽  
Natural Rights ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
Individual Rights ◽  
Liberal State ◽  
Sovereign Authority ◽  
Liberal Thought

Modern liberal states are founded on individual rights and popular sovereignty. These doctrines are conceptually and historically intertwined but are in theoretical and practical tension. Locke's political theory is a source for proponents of both doctrines, and the same tension that runs through modern liberal thought and practice can be found in his theory. Rather than define the state in terms of a single sovereign authority, Locke constructs a sovereignless commonwealth with several coexisting claimants to supreme authority. He rejects sovereignty as what unifies the state, and he wants to replace the discourse of sovereignty theory with a language of obligation that will help bind together the sovereignless state. This language permits its adherents to articulate the reasonable basis and limits of political power. An understanding of Locke's sovereignless state helps us better comprehend the tensions embodied in discourses about individual natural rights, popular sovereignty, and governmental authority heard in the liberal state.

Respect for the social and economic rights of citizens as an imperative to reduce poverty in the Khabarovsk territory

2020 ◽  
Vol 93 (4) ◽  
pp. 161-169
Author(s):  
I. I. Chesnitskiy ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
The State ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Priority Area ◽  
Regional State ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
A Priority ◽  
Social And Economic Rights

The article presents an analysis of the state and problems of implementing the socio-economic rights of population of the Khabarovsk territory as a priority area for reducing poverty. Attention of the authorities was drawn to the situation of poverty in a number of northern municipalities, where the population is experiencing difficulties in realizing their socio-economic rights due to the lack of jobs. Concern was expressed about the socio-economic rights of persons released from the places of deprivation of liberty. The Commissioner for human rights in the Khabarovsk territory, taking into account the study of situation in the region, sets out his vision for solving the problem of reducing poverty in the Khabarovsk territory and makes proposals that, in his opinion, can be used by the regional state authorities to achieve the indicators set by the President of the Russian Federation.

Not In Their Name

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly Lawford-Smith
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Public Services ◽  
The State ◽  
Alternative Conceptions ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
Collective Agency ◽  
Single Individual ◽  
Collective Agent ◽  
Social Metaphysics ◽  
Ordinary Citizens

Given their size and influence, states are able to inflict harm far beyond the reach of a single individual. But there is a great deal of unclarity about exactly who is implicated in that kind of harm, and how we should think about both culpability and responsibility for it. The idea of popular sovereignty is dominant in classical political theory. It is a commonplace assumption that democratic publics both authorize and have control over what their states do; that their states act in their name and on their behalf. Not In Their Name approaches these assumptions from the perspective of social metaphysics, asking whether the state is a collective agent, and whether ordinary citizens are members of that agent. If it is, and they are, there is a clear case for democratic collective culpability. The book explores alternative conceptions of the state and of membership in the state; alternative conceptions of collective agency applied to the state; the normative implications of membership in the state; and both culpability (from the inside) and responsibility (from the outside) for what the state does. Ultimately, Not In Their Name argues for the exculpation of ordinary citizens and the inculpation of those working in public services, and defends a particular distribution of culpability from government to its members.

Real-World Global Egalitarianism

2018 ◽  
pp. 117-129
Author(s):  
Darrel Moellendorf
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Real World ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
International Political Theory ◽  
Human Rights Norms ◽  
Egalitarian Justice

This chapter notes that normative International Political Theory (IPT) developed over the past several decades in response to political, social, and economic events. These included the globalization of trade and finance, the increasing credibility of human-rights norms in foreign policy, and a growing awareness of a global ecological crisis. The emergence of normative IPT was not simply an effort to understand these events, but an attempt to offer accounts of what the responses to them should be. Normative IPT, then, was originally doubly responsive to the real world. Additionally, this chapter argues that there is a plausible account of global egalitarianism, which takes the justification of principles of egalitarian justice to depend crucially on features of the social and economic world. The account of global egalitarianism applies to the current circumstances in part because of features of those circumstances.

scholarly journals The European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003 – Ten Years On

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-96
Author(s):  
Ronagh JA McQuigg
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
The State ◽  
European Convention ◽  
General Level ◽  
Human Rights Act ◽  
Human Rights Act 1998 ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

The European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003 has now been in force in Ireland for ten years. This article analyses the Act itself and the impact which it has had on the Irish courts during the first decade of its operation. The use of the European Convention on Human Rights in the Irish courts prior to the enactment of the legislation is discussed, as are the reasons for the passing of the Act. The relationship between the Act and the Irish Constitution is examined, as is the jurisprudence of the Irish courts towards the interpretative obligation found in section 2(1), and the duty placed upon organs of the State by section 3(1). The article ends with a number of observations regarding the impact which the Act has had on the Irish courts at a more general level. Comparisons will be drawn with the uk’s Human Rights Act 1998 throughout the discussion.

scholarly journals Civil Economy in the Social Market Economy: a Theoretical Perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-98
Author(s):  
Flavio Felice
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Market Economy ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
The State ◽  
Social Market Economy ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Galaxy ◽  
Civil Economy ◽  
State And Market ◽  
Social Market

Abstract What do we mean by “civil” and “civil society”? This paper attempts to describe a complex notion of “civil economy” in Sturzo’s theoretical perspective of the social market economy. According to this political theory, “civil” is not opposed to “market,” which is not opposed to “the political” (the state). Rather, instead of being the transmission belt between the state and market, civil is the galaxy in which we find also the market and the state (but not only), each with its own functions. This tradition – rooted in Christianity – was able to oppose both Nazi and communist totalitarianism, while many Catholics made an impossible attempt to exhume corporatism.

Institute of social work as a promising tool for social dev

2020 ◽  
pp. 31-35
Author(s):  
Maria Kudryavtseva
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Development ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Social Assistance ◽  
The State ◽  
Economic Situation ◽  
Promising Tool ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Relationship

The article examines the relationship between the social policy of the state and the Institute of social work. Some foreign and domestic approaches to defi ning the essence of social work as a specifi c type of activity are presented. It is noted that at a specifi c historical stage, the prevailing directions of social work, models of social assistance and support are determined by the socio-economic situation in the country, the level of social development, and the socio-cultural context. It is emphasized that in the conditions of modern reality, there is a need to develop the Institute of social work and realize its potential.

The Middle Classes in Non-Western Societies: Inner Dynamics and Self-Assertion Perspective

2015 ◽  
pp. 95-105
Author(s):  
A. Volodin
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
The State ◽  
Western World ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
The Social

The present article focuses on the entity of middle classes in non-Western societies. The social formation of this kind is a relatively new phenomenon. As far as the modern Western societies are concerned, the social and political “materialization” of the above-mentioned entity has covered the period of no less than five centuries. The middle class in modern transitional societies began to emerge quite recently, with a few notable exceptions, after gaining sovereignty. That is one of the reasons why political systems in the non-Western world are mostly fragile and susceptible to instability of different kinds and origins. The so called “Arab awakening” gives a vivid example for the “underdevelopment” of indigenous middle classes. Whilst in the advanced industrial societies middle classes were (and are) the building blocks of social structure, economic and political development, elite recruitment, etc., among the non-Western societies (with the salient exception of the North-East Asia) the process of the middle class institutionalization as well as its economic and political self-assertion is still under way, somewhere at the initial stage of development. Comparing various non-Western societies from the middle class inner dynamics as well as self-assertion perspective, the author concludes that in the ultimate analysis, the maturity of this process is dependent on the pro-active and creative role of the State. The latter serves as the main driving force of the middle class consolidation and the instrument of political and economic systems for increasing and advancing development. The cases of India, on one hand, and Indonesia, on the other, demonstrate convincingly that the State remains the leading institution of the society able to accelerate economic growth and development, but also to stimulate the emergence and socio-political assertion of the middle class in contemporary non-Western world.

Competition by mutual adjustment

Competition ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 48-60
Author(s):  
Patrik Aspers
Keyword(s):  
Social Process ◽  
Unintended Consequence ◽  
The State ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter looks at competition, asking how it comes about and how it develops, with a focus on mutual adjustment. Mutual adjustment covers the social process due to decisions that actors make for themselves and not for others. Though all actual competition involves mutual adjustment, the focus here is on how a state of competition arises as a consequence of actors who mutually adjust to one another. Competition is seen as an unintended consequence created by actors who may have different desires and intentions and who are observing, adjusting, mimicking, and relating in different ways to what others are doing. The chapter analyses the relationship between mutual adjustment and organized competition and offers empirical examples of the state of competition due to mutual adjustment.

Basic Income as a Human Right?

2019 ◽  
pp. 541-552
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Hemel
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Public Goods ◽  
The State ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Basic Income ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Global Commons ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter suggests a human rights–based justification for national basic income schemes, contrasting it with justifications based on welfarist principles or notions of entitlement to a share of the global commons. Starting from the premise that a state is a collective enterprise that generates a surplus, it contends that any human being who is an “obedient” member of that state has a right to some share of the surplus. That right—which arises from the relationship between the individual and the state, and is independent of need—could justify the entitlement to a basic income. Such income should be provided in cash, not in kind, because the latter risks depriving the individual of the enjoyment of his share of the surplus—in effect, forcing him to forfeit or transfer it to others if he does not use the public goods or services provided by the state.

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