Paternalism, Public Health Ethics, and Equality

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Søren Flinch Midtgaard
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Inequalities In Health ◽  
Beneficial Effects ◽  
Health Choices ◽  
Inequality In Health ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Policy Measures ◽  
The Government

AbstractPeople’s lifestyles or their health choices importantly affect their general health. Furthermore, there is a social gradient in these choices such that people in relatively disadvantaged social positions tend to make worse choices with regard to their health than people in more advantaged positions. The consequence is deep inequalities in health. The state, to the extent it is part of its role to prevent harm and to reduce inequality, appears obliged to try to influence people’s health choices in the interest of their own health and general well-being. However, the state acting to prevent people from harming themselves is notoriously controversial, at least to liberals. It amounts to paternalism – something liberals have traditionally been loath to accept. Furthermore, the equality-generating credential of the available policy measures is in some cases doubtful. To assess the problem of paternalism in relation to government efforts to change lifestyles, partly with the aim of reducing inequalities in health, we need a clear notion of paternalism. The latter may, roughly, be seen as follows: A acts paternalistically in relation to B, if, and only if, (a) A restricts B’s liberty; (b) A does so against B’s will; (c) A does so in B’s interest; (d) A’s behavior cannot be justified without counting its beneficial effects to B in its favor. According to this conception, when the government informs citizens of the danger involved in certain types of health-related conduct, it is not acting paternalistically. However, campaigns may in fact increase rather than decrease inequality of health (because the worse off are less responsive to such measures than the better off). Nudging, on the other hand, stands a better chance of reducing inequality in health. However, nudging policies are less uncontroversial in terms of the problem of paternalism than their proponents are inclined to think. More familiar measures aiming to make the health-endangering behavior more expensive and/or difficult or outright prohibiting it stand a good chance of reducing inequalities, whilst not being more controversial than nudging policies (perhaps less) in terms of the paternalism they involve.

scholarly journals AN APPRAISAL OF EMPLOYEES WELFARE AND SOCIAL SECURITY MEASURES IN CENTRAL PUBLIC SECTOR ENTERPRISES

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (7) ◽  
pp. 234-247
Author(s):  
Joyjit Sanyal ◽  
Sujit Sikidar
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Social Security ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Security Measures ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Level Of Satisfaction ◽  
The Government

Labour plays a very important role in the industrial production of the country. The human resource managers are concerned with the management of people at work. It is necessary to secure the co-operation of labour force in order to increase the production and earn higher profits. The co-operation of labour force is possible only when they are fully satisfied with their employer and the working conditions on the job. In the past, industrialists and the employers believed that their only duty towards their employees was to pay them satisfactory wages and salaries. But in due course of time, in addition to providing monetary benefits, human treatment given to employees started to play a very important role in seeking their co-operation. Labour or employee welfare activities benefit not only the workers but also the management in the form of greater industrial efficiency. The welfare activities pay a good dividend in the long run, because they contribute a lot towards the health and efficiency of the workers and towards a high morale. On the other hand, social security has come up as a dynamic concept which is considered in all advanced countries of the world as an indispensable chapter of the national programme. Social security is that security which the society furnishes through appropriate organisation against certain risks or certain contingencies to which its members are exposed. These risks are essentially contingencies against which the individual cannot afford by his small means and by his ability or foresight alone. As the name stands for general well- being of the people it is the duty of the state to promote social security which may provide the citizens with benefits designed to prevent or cure disease, to support him when he is not able to earn and to restore him to gainful activity. The state as an employer has provided for certain measures for the welfare and social security of the labourers, who contribute towards the economic development of a country and in this regard, the government has to see towards the proper implementation of such measures to maintain a harmonious industrial relation on the one side and on the other hand towards the upliftment of the members of the society. Thus, there arise the vital needs for the detailed assessments of the measures so provided, its quality of implementation so far and the level of satisfaction of the same among the different class of employees. The present study acts as a working paper with an objective to gather the opinion of the organized workforce in the Central Public Sector Enterprises with regards to their acceptance and satisfaction level of the various ‘Employees welfare and Social Security’ measures by the employers. However, the present study is restricted to two enterprises only and is undertaken with the following objectives: To analyze the opinions of the employees in respect of the labour welfare measures & social security benefits. To analyze the level of satisfaction or otherwise of the workers in respect of social security measures.

Ghana: the State of Agriculture and Prospects for Food Security in the Context of Achieving SDGs

2018 ◽  
pp. 16-31
Author(s):  
Tatyana Denisova
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Socioeconomic Development ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The State ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Careful Study ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
The Government

For the first time in Russian African studies, the author examines the current state of agriculture, challenges and prospects for food security in Ghana, which belongs to the group of African countries that have made the most progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs are a collection of 17 global goals adopted by UN member states in 2015 with a view of achieving them by 2030. The SDGs include: ending poverty in all its forms everywhere (Goal 1); ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture (2); ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages (3), etc. These goals are considered fundamental because the achievement of a number of other SDGs – for example, ensuring quality education (4), achieving gender equality (5), ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns (12), etc. – largely depends on their implementation. Ghana was commended by the world community for the significant reduction in poverty, hunger and malnutrition between 2000 and 2014, i.e. for the relatively successful implementation of the first of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs, 2000–2015) – the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger. However, SDGs require more careful study and planning of implementation measures. In order to achieve the SDGs, the Government of Ghana has adopted a number of programs, plans and projects, the successful implementation of which often stumbles upon the lack of funding and lack of coordination between state bodies, private and public organizations, foreign partners – donors and creditors, etc., which are involved in the processes of socioeconomic development of Ghana. The author determines the reasons for the lack of food security in Ghana, gives an assessment of the state of the agricultural sector, the effective development of which is a prerequisite for the reduction of poverty and hunger, primarily due to the engagement of a significant share (45%) of the economically active population in this sector. The study shows that the limited growth in food production is largely due to the absence of domestic markets and necessary roads, means of transportation, irrigation and storage infrastructure, as well as insufficient investment in the agricultural sector, rather than to a shortage of fertile land or labor.

scholarly journals UNDERSTANDING ASSAM’S SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES

2021 ◽  
pp. 90-96
Author(s):  
Pratyush Paras Sarma ◽  
Sagarmoy Phukan
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Citizen Science ◽  
Performance Index ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
The Government

Assam was the first state in India to have undertaken the Global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a long-term guiding strategy for development. At the end of five years, before the state election, evaluating the work on SDGs in Assam is essential to follow up on the commitment of the government. But before we start evaluating the SDGs it is important to understand the development road Assam has taken over the last 100-150 years and why we must make a new turn. This study has tried to understand certain loopholes which have hampered the progress of SDGs in Assam along with how much Assam has been able to address its sustainability issues and how we can progress. We have reviewed the performance of the state based upon the official performance index released by NITI Aayog, Government of India. Our review of the index reflects that Assam has performed relatively poorer than the other states of the country. However, the ethnic culture of the region was deeply rooted in nature which the state can now adopt and harness to achieve its SDGs. KEYWORDS: Sustainable Development Goals; Assam Election; Indigenous Knowledge; Citizen Science; Polycentric Governance

A Study of Sun Wu Seed Grain Loan Registers from Zoumalou (走馬樓吳簡中的種糧給貸簿研究)

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 191-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiong Qu (熊曲) ◽  
Song Shaohua (宋少華)
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Emergency Relief ◽  
Standard Unit ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Government

This paper reconstructs two documents from the Three Kingdoms state of Wu unearthed at Zoumalou, Changsha, based on archaeological information as well as the form and contents of the excavated slips and tablets. The documents are registers of the state loaning seed grain to commoners: one type are “registers of grain loans,” while the other are “registers of seed grain loans from the Jiahe 3rd year.” Based on this reconstruction, we show that the standard unit to which the government loaned seed was the household, that the purpose was emergency relief of the poor, and that people received more grain than they needed for seed and were then able to eat some of it. 根據考古信息、簡牘形制及其內容，本文嘗試復原了走馬樓吳簡中的兩個官府種糧給貸簿書——出禾給貸簿和嘉禾三年種糧給貸簿。并由此認爲，官府借貸種糧以一户爲標準，以救濟貧民爲目的，但種糧的用途除了耕種外，也會用於口糧。

The Politics of Paternalism

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian Le Grand ◽  
Bill New
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
The State ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right ◽  
Better Than

This chapter examines the politics of paternalism. It first considers the question of whether the government can do better than the individual, outlining a set of justifications for government paternalism and showing how the state can intervene to improve the well-being of its citizens. It then discusses possible ways in which the government could be held to account to ensure that, in its paternalistic interventions aimed at improving its citizens' well-being, it does actually pursue the “right” agenda. It argues that the government can indeed raise the well-being of individuals who suffer from reasoning failure, even when allowance is made for possible reasoning failure among those individuals who constitute the government. However, democratic mechanisms must be put in place to ensure that the latter do not pursue their own agenda and turn the paternalistic state into an instrument of authoritarianism.

The Reckoning

2021 ◽  
pp. 483-520
Author(s):  
Eric Van Young
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Mexico City ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Grand Jury ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Government ◽  
The U.S

Alamán’s internal self-exile in Mexico City, when he hid for nearly two years only to emerge in 1834, is discussed in as much detail as is possible for a largely undocumented episode. Having left the government along with the other ministers during 1832, he was being pursued by agents of the state and political enemies to stand trial before a congressional grand jury for his involvement in the judicial murder of Vicente Guerrero. The chapter also discusses his cordial relationship with the U.S. envoy who replaced the recalled Joel Poinsett, Anthony Butler. The fall of the Anastasio Bustamante government to an uprising led by Santa Anna is narrated, along with Alamán’s eventual trial, his spirited defense of himself, the intervention of Carlos María de Bustamante (not the president) on his behalf before the Supreme Court, and the ex-minister’s exoneration at the hands of President Santa Anna.

Th e Economy

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Baldwin
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Bertolt Brecht ◽  
State Regulation ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Free Markets ◽  
Long Line ◽  
The Government ◽  
New Jobs

Let Us Begin Where Everything Starts, with the economy and the labor market. This is perhaps where contrasts are thought to be sharpest. America—so the proponents of radical differences across the Atlantic argue—worships at the altar of what West German chancellor Helmut Schmidt once called Raubtierkapitalismus, predatory capitalism, where the market sweeps everything before it and the state exerts no restraint. The result is what another German chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, called amerikanische Verhältnisse, “American conditions,” plucked straight out of a play by Bertolt Brecht: America’s labor market is untrammeled and cruel, jobs are insecure and badly paid. Americans live to work, while Europeans work to live. That is the story. But is it true? America’s core ideological belief is oft en thought to be the predominance of the market and the absence of state regulation. “Everything should and must be pro-market, pro-business, and pro-shareholder,” as Will Hutton, a British columnist, puts it, “a policy platform lubricated by colossal infusions of corporate cash into America’s money-dominated political system. . . . ” Hutton stands in a long line of European critics who have seen nothing but the dominance of the market in America. There is some truth to the American penchant for free markets. But the notion that the Atlantic divides capitalism scarlet in tooth and claw from a more domesticated version in Europe has been overstated. When asked for their preferences, Americans tend to assign the state less of a role than many—though not all—Europeans. Proportionately fewer Americans think that the government should redistribute income to ameliorate inequalities, or that the government should seek to provide jobs for all, or reduce working hours. On the other hand, proportionately more Americans (by a whisker) than Germans and almost exactly as many as the Swedes think that government should control wages, and more want the government to control prices than Germans. Proportionately more Americans believe that the government should act to create new jobs than the Swedes, and about as many as the Germans, Finns, and Swiss. The percentage of Americans that thinks the state should intervene to provide decent housing is low.

scholarly journals Problem of Statelessness in Nepal

NUTA Journal ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 64-69
Author(s):  
Rameshwor Upadhyay
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
The State ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
The Other ◽  
Universal Principle ◽  
Legal Obligations ◽  
The World ◽  
Women And Children ◽  
The Government ◽  
International Instruments

This paper highlighted Nepalese statelessness issue from Nationality perspective. Nationality is one of the major human rights concerns of the citizens. In fact, citizenship is one of the major fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution. According to the universal principle related to the statelessness, no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his or her nationality. In this connection, on one hand, this paper traced out the international legal obligations created by the conventions to the state parties in which state must bear the responsibility for making national laws to comply with the international instruments. On the other hand, this paper also appraised statelessness related lacunae and shortcomings seen in Municipal laws as well as gender discriminatory laws that has been supporting citizens to become statelessness. By virtue being a one of the modern democratic states in the world, it is the responsibility of the government to protect and promote human rights of the citizens including women and children. Finally, this paper suggests government to take necessary initiation to change and repeal the discriminatory provisions related to citizenship which are seen in the constitution and other statutory laws.

scholarly journals Resources in vulnerable young adults: self-assessments during preventive consultation with their general practitioner in Denmark

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 1180-1189
Author(s):  
Kirsten Schierup Freund ◽  
Ann Dorrit Guassora ◽  
Trine Hegelund ◽  
Lotte Hvas ◽  
Jørgen Lous
Keyword(s):  
General Practitioner ◽  
Extrinsic Motivation ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Self Determination Theory ◽  
Old Patients ◽  
Vulnerable Patients ◽  
Inequality In Health ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Self Assessments

Abstract Inequality in health is increasing. People with many problems often lack energy to improve well-being and reduce their problems. This study analyses how psycho-socially challenged younger (20- to 44-year-old) patients described their own resources to reach lifestyle goals or alter life circumstances. Within the context of a randomized controlled trial, Danish participants had two structured preventive person-centred consultations with their general practitioner. Consultations focused on well-being, salutogenesis, resources, barriers and support of autonomy. Using the qualitative method: Systematic Text Condensation, we made thematic cross-analysis of patients’ goal-specific resource statements described at the first consultation. Of the 209 patients, 191 (91%) chose one or two goals for a better life next year; nearly all (179) could recall and describe which resources they would use to reach their goal. We categorized resource statements into (i) personal constitution as ‘willpower’ and ‘tenacity’; (ii) network, e.g. family; (iii) personal experience with identical or similar problems. Some patients needed to free up resources by handling psychological problems before being able to focus on lifestyle goals. The study demonstrates that patients with particular psycho-social problems could describe essential resources in a structured, salutogenic, preventive consultation with their general practitioner. Reflecting intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, these resources reflected dimensions of essential health theories like sense of coherence, self-efficacy and self-determination theory. Increased awareness of these resources seems essential for vulnerable patients by improving psychological well-being and optimism, thereby facilitating health-related changes. This may be an important step to reducing inequality in health.

Paternalism and Social Policy

1978 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Weale
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
The State ◽  
Social Policies ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
Policy Measures ◽  
The Government ◽  
Other Regarding

ABSTRACTThis paper discusses the notion of paternalism, and its application to the evaluation of social policies. It attempts first to define the concept, using Mill's distinction between self- and other-regarding actions. A paternalistic policy is one in which the government renders a self-regarding action less eligible for a citizen, with the intention of benefiting the citizen in question. This concept is then applied to the analysis of redistribution by means of social policy measures. Two questions are discussed: (a) whether any redistribution must be paternalist, and (b) whether redistribution in kind is more paternalist than redistribution in cash. It is argued that paternalism need not be the explanation for the policy in either case. Finally three criteria are specified in terms of which paternalistic interventions by the state might be assessed as justified or not.

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