Official Language Designation: Constitution-Building Primer 20

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sujit Choudhry ◽  
Erin Houlihan

Modern constitutions typically contain a variety of provisions on language. They may designate one or more official languages, each with a different kind of legal status. Constitutions may also create language rights, usually held by minority-language speakers, granting groups and individuals the right to communicate with, and receive services from, the government in their native tongue. In systems of multi-level governance, constitutions may vest the authority to designate official language(s) for each order of government. This Primer addresses the role of language in constitutional design, and the key considerations, implications and potential challenges that arise in multilingual states. It discusses the range of claims around language as a constitutional issue, and the potential consequences of successfully addressing these claims—or failing to do so.

Author(s):  
Levy O’Flynn.

This chapter looks at Deliberative Peace Referendums in the context of secession—that is, where the members of a territorially concentrated group seek legal and political separation from a larger sovereign state of which the group has been an integral part. They typically do so with the aim of establishing a new sovereign state that enjoys international legal status on a par with other states in the international system. As we will see, secession is essentially unilateral: the decision to secede from the existing state rests ultimately with the seceding group. Consequently, the idea that secession referendums should be based on concurrent consent among more than one group will be out of place. Yet while the consent of the existing state may not be formally required, the degree to which the seceding group seeks to include others in its deliberations may make an important difference to how the legitimacy of the referendum is perceived—domestically, regionally, and internationally. In secession conflicts, therefore, Deliberative Peace Referendum design must reflect both the unilateral nature of the decision and the need to reach out to individuals in the existing state, the wider region, and international community. To this end, we consider (among other matters) both the structure of the ballot and the potential role of mini-publics. However, before doing so, we first discuss a prior question. Various legal and political philosophers disagree about when secession is justified. Some argue that secession cannot be sensibly justified on self-determination grounds. By corollary, they argue that the referendum should play no part in our thinking about secession conflicts. Against this view, we argue that the right to self-determination is an important public value of the sort that Rawls describes. Like all such values, it needs to be weighed in the balance against other, competing public values—which is to say that it can and should be tested through a Deliberative Peace Referendum


2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 39-53
Author(s):  
Olga Marques ◽  
Amanda Couture-Carron ◽  
Tyler Frederick ◽  
Hannah Scott

Many post-secondary institutions are developing policies and programs aimed at improving responses to sexual assault experienced by students. In some areas, such as Ontario, Canada, the government has mandated post-secondary institutions to do so. However significant these initiatives, they are predicated on the assumption that students trust, and want to engage with, the university following sexual violence. This study explores students’ perceptions of sexual assault policies and services on one mid-size university campus focusing specifically on how trust factors into reporting sexual victimization and using services. Findings show that students believe that sexual assault policies and programs exist, but this does not meanstudents are willing to use such resources or that they even trust that their university has students’ needs and interests at the fore. This paper discusses policy and programmatic considerations for building student trust in their post-secondary institutions to encourage student use of campus support.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 001-004
Author(s):  
Abdul Rahman ◽  
Muhammad Yusuf

The right man in the right place and the right man behind the right job. The placement of employees becomes very important to improve employee performance including ASN in the government office of Mare Subdistrict, Bone Regency. The purpose of the study is to see the influence or role of employee placement factors on the performance of ASN employees. Apakh has a significant influence. The research was conducted on a number of ASNs in the government office of Mare District of Bone Regency. The method of data collection is done by saturated survey method (census). The method of data analysis is to use a hypothesis test, which is a t-test to see the influence of independent variables, namely placement (X) on dependent variables, namely ASN performance (Y). The results of the study obtained that the placement factor had a significant effect (real) on the performance of ASN in the District Office mare Bone Regency. This is evident from the results of the t test where the placement variable (X) has a significance value (Sig.=0.001<0.05) and is also shown from a t-calculated value (4.015) greater than the value of t-table (1,667).


Hegel's Value ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 222-275
Author(s):  
Dean Moyar

This chapter utilizes the structure of life and valid inference to analyze the internal structure of Civil Society and the State as well as the relationship between the two institutional spheres. The chapter unpacks the passage from the Logic in which Hegel describes the State as a totality of inferences with the three terms of individuals, their needs, and the government. It is shown that the “system of needs” itself forms a quasi-living institutional system of estates centered on the division of labor. This system’s inadequacy motivates the role of the “police” and corporation as ethical agencies, forms of the Good, within Civil Society. While the move to the State overcomes the individualism of “needs,” the right of the individual remains in the dynamics of “settling one’s own account” in receiving from the State a return on one’s duty to the State. Hegel treats the State proper as a constitution consisting of three powers of government that form a totality of inferential relations that has the full structure of a living organism. The executive power is examined in detail as the particularizing element in the system.


2007 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVID A. ROBALINO ◽  
ANDRÁS BODOR

AbstractIn this paper we reconsider the idea of an earnings-related pension system with reserves invested in indexed government bonds as a mechanism to both ensure financial sustainability and improve security. The paper starts by reviewing the characterization of the sustainable rate of return of an earnings-related pension system with pay-as-you-go financing. We show that current proxies for the sustainable rate, including the Swedish ‘gyroscope’, are not stable and propose an alternative measure that depends on the growth of the buffer-stock and the pay-as-you-go asset. Using a simple one-sector macroeconomic model that embeds a notional account pension system we then show how GDP-indexed government bonds, if combined with the right measure for the sustainable rate of return on contributions, could be used to generate a sustainable and secure earnings-related pension system, without becoming a fiscal burden. The proposal is particularly attractive for countries considering reforms to earnings-related systems that have accumulated a large implicit pension debt. In this case, the government bonds allow the financing of this debt in a transparent way. The proposed mechanism can also facilitate the transition to a fully funded pension system when the government bonds are allowed to be traded.


1979 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 137-154
Author(s):  
Hugo W. Campbell

In the multilingual community of Surinam the official language is Dutch. This language has occupied the official status during almost three centuries of colonial government, the intermediate stage of self-government (as part of the kingdom of the Netherlands from 1954 through 1975) and after complete independence in 1975. Though the status of official language did not change, a different language policy had to be adopted with respect to different role components in each of four historical periods. The language policy adopted in each of these periods can be considered the result of social changes which took place, and of attitudinal changes with respect to the functioning of other languages in the community. The changing role of the Dutch language in the four periods is discussed in terms of its changing socio-linguistic profile. The first change was that from an ethnic group specific position (the European population only) to an obligatory position which concerned the whole population. In each of these two periods Dutch was used in relation to all main functions (communication* education., religion and literature). During the period in which Dutch played the ethnic specific role the language Sranan was used as a promoted language to perform the same functions for the slave population of the 17th, 18th and 19th century. This language was also used as language of communication between the Europeans and the slaves. The social change from a slavery society to a society of citizens only had forced the governement to discourage the use of Sranan and to consider Dutch the only language in the country. This obligatory position was eventually disregarded in favor of a partial role of the Dutch language in a multicultural society. The recognition by the government of a multitude of cultural ambitions has led it to accept the possibility of the sharing of functions among languages. Especially with respect to intergroupcoinmunication and literature, the recognition-of the role of Sranan as national language became the main feature of this period. However, the emergency of Surinam-Dutch, as a variety (xized language) of the Dutch language used by the majority of the Dutch speaking community in Surinam, has given the governement of the new republic of Surinam an opportunity to promote cultural integration by means of this language variety. Though this too will have to share functions with Sranan (inter-group communication, literature, etc.), it is suggested that a stan-dardized version might not only change its promoted language status into that of national official language but also give a better criterion to judge and to stimulate performances in education and literature.


2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Maximiliano Senci ◽  
Hipólito Hasrun ◽  
Rodrigo Moro ◽  
Esteban Freidin

In most bribery games in the literature, there is no mention of rights and duties associated to participants’ roles. Authors have hitherto relied on loaded frames, negative externalities, and the possibility of sanctions to implicitly signal prescriptive norms. We argue that participants’ interpretation of these factors may not be univocal. In this study, a participant in the role of a common citizen either did or did not acquire the right to obtain a monetary benefit and could offer a bribe to an associated participant in the role of public official. This participant, in turn, had an explicit duty of providing the benefit only if the citizen acquired the right to it. Conditions with/without the acquisition of the right were crossed with the presence/absence of negative externalities associated with transgressions of the official’s duty. One last (fifth) condition mimicked other bribery games in the literature which rely on loaded frames and negative externalities but no information on rights and duties. We found that both the presence of externalities and information about rights were effective bribery deterrents, and that bribe offers and acceptances were most discouraged with their synergic effect. Interestingly, officials followed prescriptive information even when it was inefficient to do so (when there were no externalities), and implied choosing against their material self-interest (by rejecting a bribe), and not reciprocating bribe offers. We conclude by highlighting the limits of making generalizations from results without explicit normative information and the relevance of present findings as anti-corruption behavioral insights.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seán Molloy

Primarily known as a pioneer of International Relations (IR) theory, Hans Morgenthau also wrote on a series of other political themes. Especially prominent in his later career is a concern with the right and duty of a theorist to exercise academic freedom as a critic of government power and, especially in this particular case, of US foreign policy. For Morgenthau the responsibility to hold governments to account by reference to the ‘higher laws’ that underpin and legitimize democracy in its truest form was a key function of the theorist in society. Dissensus and healthy debate characterize genuine democracy for Morgenthau who was perturbed by what he perceived to be a worrying concern with conformity and consensus among the political and academic elites of Vietnam War era America. This article investigates the theoretical and philosophical commitments that explain why Morgenthau felt compelled to oppose the government of his adopted state and the consequences of his having done so. For all the vicissitudes he endured, Morgenthau ultimately emerged vindicated from his clash with the political elite and his experience serves as an exemplary case of the effective use of academic freedom to oppose government policy by means of balanced, judicious critique. In the final section I argue that Morgenthau’s approach to theory, theorization and the role of the intellectual in society provides valuable insights into the nature of reflexivity in IR that are of relevance to contemporary debates in the discipline.


1990 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-10
Author(s):  
Jayanth R Varma ◽  
N Venkiteswaran

The Indian capital market has shown signs of buoyancy and dynamism in the recent past. There is a very real need, therefore, to nurture and to give positive direction to the emerging trends in this sphere of economic activity. It is in this context that regulatory agencies have a critical role in providing the right kind of support to avoid bunching of issues as well as in protecting investors against manipulation by unscrupulous investors. Have Indian regulatory agencies risen to the occasion by formulating appropriate and adequate policies to facilitate the development of the capital markets in India? In this article, Varma and Venkiteswaran examine the role of Indian regulatory agencies and evaluate the methodology spelt out in the official guidelines for valuation of equity shares made public by the Government of India.


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