A Comment on: “ State Capacity, Reciprocity, and the Social Contract” by Timothy Besley

Econometrica ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 88 (4) ◽  
pp. 1337-1343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Bowles
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
State Capacity ◽  
The State ◽  
Government Policies ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
Modeling Approaches ◽  
The Social ◽  
Historical Fact ◽  
The Way

Treating civic preferences as endogenous and government policies and tax capacities as both an influence on and a consequence of their evolution is an important new strand of thinking to which Besley has contributed. I ask: Does his model provide a convincing explanation of the way that civic cultures and the expansion of the state evolved as a matter of historical fact? And I suggest a number of alternative modeling approaches that both would recognize that policy makers take account of the effects of their policy choices on preferences and, consistent with empirical observations, would support equilibria with culturally heterogeneous rather than homogeneous populations.

The Oxford Handbook of Modern British Political History, 1800-2000

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
Political History ◽  
The State ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Methodological Innovation ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Way

The two centuries after 1800 witnessed a series of sweeping changes in the way in which Britain was governed, the duties of the state, and its role in the wider world. Powerful processes—from the development of democracy to the changing nature of the social contract, war, and economic dislocation—have challenged, and at times threatened to overwhelm, both governors and governed. Such shifts have also posed problems for the historians who have researched and written about Britain’s past politics. This volume shows the ways in which political historians have responded, and provides a snapshot of a field which has long been at the forefront of conceptual and methodological innovation within historical studies. It comprises thirty-three thematic essays written by leading and emerging scholars in the field. Collectively, these essays assess and rethink the nature of modern British political history itself, and suggest avenues and questions for future research. The Oxford Handbook of Modern British Political History thus provides a unique resource for those who wish to understand Britain’s political past and a thought-provoking ‘long view’ for those interested in current political challenges.

Motherhood in France: Towards a Queer Maternity?

Paragraph ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 254-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Power
Keyword(s):  
Queer Theory ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
The State ◽  
Symbolic Order ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Maternal Status ◽  
The Way

This article examines the relationship between feminism, queer theory and the rise of popular debate over maternity and anti-maternity that has arisen in recent years in France. Through the image of ‘queer maternity’, that is to say, of women who question motherhood from the position of already having had children, the article tries to rethink the way in which feminism, queer theory and motherhood could be placed in relation to one another such that by questioning maternity, the symbolic order that places motherhood on the side of the state and futurity can itself be questioned as a whole. This has particular resonances in the French context where a discourse of ‘natural’ motherhood has come to dominate: the ‘queer’ mother who questions her maternal status is thus argued to represent a threat to the futurity of the family, the social contract and the existing order.

Endless Patience: Explaining Soviet and Post-Soviet Social Stability

1998 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Ashwin
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
Social Organisation ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Social Stability ◽  
Stalin Era ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Way

Various arguments have been put forward to explain the social stability of the post-Stalin era, in particular theories of a “social contract”, “incorporation” or “atomisation”. This article argues that all these theories have been cast into serious doubt by the response of workers to the reforms of the post-communist era and proposes an alternative view of the integration of workers which centres on the social organisation of the traditional Soviet enterprise. It goes on to show the way in which the form of workers' relation to the labour collective has structured their behaviour during the transition era.

Coleridge’s Exile from the Social Contract, 1795–1829

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoe Beenstock
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
The State ◽  
The Self ◽  
Breaking Point ◽  
General Will ◽  
Social Crisis ◽  
State Of Nature ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Better Than

Coleridge wrote frequently about Rousseau throughout his varied career. His early lectures and letters draw on Rousseau’s critique of luxury and frequently allude to the general will, depicting Rousseau as a Christ-like figure. Coleridge’s subsequent disappointment with Pantisocracy led him to reject Rousseau and the social contract. Comparing Rousseau to Luther in The Friend, Coleridge argues that Rousseau’s unhappiness arises from a conflict between an age of individualism and an ongoing need for community. According to Coleridge, poetry tolerates this conflict better than philosophy. In ‘Reflections on Having Left a Place of Retirement’ Coleridge suggests that social retreat offers illusory solace from war and social crisis. He critiques the state of nature, sympathy, and even religion for failing to balance the self with its environment. Thematically and formally The Rime of the Ancient Mariner explores this crisis in cohering systems. Through the mariner’s relationship to the albatross, the wedding that frames the poem, and episodes of the supernatural that disrupt the ballad form, Coleridge defines a breaking point between the individual and general wills.

scholarly journals L’entrepreneur social, une catégorie émergeante au Québec

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mélanie Claude ◽  
Stéphanie Gaudet
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
The State ◽  
Social Entrepreneur ◽  
Social Category ◽  
Social Responsibilities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Services Sociaux ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Institutional Actors ◽  
The Way

Cet article pose un regard critique sur la catégorie de l’entrepreneur social présente dans le paysage socioéconomique québécois contemporain. L’objectif est de comprendre comment les processus de formalisation et d’informalisation de l’État participent à la construction de cette catégorie sociale. Pour ce faire, nous établissons quatre périodicités des dynamiques d’informalisation des services sociaux de l’État depuis les années 1960. Ces dynamiques ouvrent la voie à une ambiguïté grandissante du partage des responsabilités sociales. Ce mouvement d’informalisation cependant n’est ni unidirectionnel ni unidimensionnel. Nous expliquons qu’il s’agit de changements dans des dynamiques de partage de pouvoirs entre les sphères du marché et du communautaire que tente de réguler l’État. Ceux-ci bénéficient à certains acteurs institutionnels et ouvrent la voie à une nouvelle catégorie sociale elle-même empreinte d’ambiguïté : l’entrepreneur social.This article takes a critical look at the category of “social entrepreneur” present in the socioeconomic realm of contemporary Québec. Its objective is to understand how State processes of formalization and informalization contribute to the construction of such a social category. To that end, we describe four consecutive periods in the informalization of social services by the State since the 1960s. These four periods, as they unfold, contribute to an increasing ambiguity regarding how social responsibilities are to be shared. This process of informalization, however, is neither one-directional nor onedimensional. In our article, we observe that it reflects fluctuations in power between market and community that the State has been trying to regulate. These fluctuations benefit certain institutional actors and pave the way for a new, somewhat ambiguous, social category, that of the social entrepreneur.

Narrative Fictions on State-Terrorism and Trauma: Re-reading Helon Habila’s Waiting for an Angel and John Nkemngong Nkengasong’s Across the Mongolo

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-166
Author(s):  
Eric Nsuh Zuhmboshi
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
The State ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Mongo Beti ◽  
State Terrorism ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Agitation ◽  
African Writers ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract The relationship that exists between the state and her citizens has been described by Jean Jacques Rousseau as “a social contract.” In this contractual agreement, citizens are bound to respect state authority while the state, in turn, has the bounden duty to protect her citizens and guide them in their aspirations. In fact, any state that does not perform this duty is guilty of violating the fundamental rights of her citizens. This, however, is not the case in most postcolonial societies where the citizens see the state as an aggressive apparatus against their wellbeing because the state is not fulfilling its own part of the social contract, which requires them to protect the citizens and guide them in their aspirations. This unfortunate situation has laid the foundation for protest and anti-establishment writings in post-colonial societies – especially in Africa. Since literature, as a semiotic resource, is coterminous with its socio-political context, this attitude of the state has drawn inimical criticism from key postcolonial African writers such as Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Mongo Beti, and Nadine Gordimer. Using Helon Habila’s Waiting for an Angel and John Nkemngong Nkengasong’s Across the Mongolo, this essay shows the relationship between state-terrorism and the traumatic conditions of the citizens in contemporary Africa. From the perspective of trauma theory, the essay defends the premise that the postcolonial subjects/characters, in the novels under study, are traumatized and depressed because of their continuous victimization by the state. Due to this state-imposed terror and hardship, the citizens are forced to indulge in political agitation, radicalism and violence in response to their destitute and impoverished conditions.

scholarly journals A Greve e seus sentidos político e jurídico / Strike and its political and Legal senses

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 252-268
Author(s):  
Felipe Cesar Rebêlo
Keyword(s):  
Social Action ◽  
Class Struggle ◽  
Institutional Structure ◽  
The State ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Political Aspect ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Way

A greve é reconhecida como um instituto em constante evolução, representativo dos direitos sociais. Passa por uma evolução constante, de acordo com as demandas que surgem historicamente. Nesse ponto, se averigua como o instituto jurídico é construído, bem como a forma que sua feição política pode desenvolver. A compreensão da doutrina e da jurisprudência se faz necessária, em consonância as determinações legais, bem como ao espírito social que move multidões, em expressão de uma ação social que necessita ser revisitada considerando cânones mais profundos, e do próprio direito e da constituição do Estado, como forma de legitimação da estrutura institucional em que a sociedade pode se formatar. A forma de concretização das demandas sociais, à luz de uma preocupação que se compactue com a luta de classes no ambiente capitalista, em que o direito é analisado como instrumentalização dessa constante social, merece ponderação na análise contemplada.   Abstract: Strike is recognized as a constantly evolving institute, representative of social rights. It goes through a constant evolution, according to the demands that arise historically. At this point, it examines how the legal institute is constructed, as well as the form that its political aspect can develop. Understanding the doctrine and jurisprudence is necessary, in accordance with legal determinations, as well as the social spirit that moves crowds, in expression of a social action that needs to be revisited considering deeper canons, and of the law itself and the constitution of the State, as a way of legitimizing institutional structure in which society can be shaped. The way of concretizing social demands, in the light of a concern that is compacted with the class struggle in the capitalist environment, in which the law is analyzed as an instrumentalization of this social constant, deserves consideration in the analysis.

scholarly journals THE QUESTION OF IMPLEMENTATION OF AUTONOMY OF SUBCARPATHIAN RUS’ IN THE CONTEXT OF THE SECOND CZECHOSLOVAK CRISIS OF 1938

2021 ◽  
pp. 352-367
Author(s):  
Tetiana Kuprii ◽  
Lidiia Tymish
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
The State ◽  
National State ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Historical Method ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Press ◽  
Current Events ◽  
Short Time ◽  
Second World

Summary. The purpose of the study is to analyze the process of implementation of the national-state autonomy of Subcarpathian Rus’, its gradual nature during the Second Czechoslovak Crisis of 1938. The research methodology is based on the principles of historical method and scientific objectivity. The system-analytical approach was applied, which allows consider the sources, essence and specificity of the state-making processes and phenomena of the pre-war period. The scientific novelty of the article is in the analysis of the factors of the autumn 1938 Czechoslovak crisis that influenced the deployment of the state movement in Subcarpathian Rus’. The press revealed the provisions of public and unofficial policy makers and their contributions to the establishment of Carpathian Ukraine as an autonomous part of Czechoslovakia. Conclusions. In the late 1930s, the Subcarpathian press extensively covered the national search for Ukrainians in the Transcarpathian region. Newspapers covered international events, known as the Munich Crisis that took place during the short-lived existence of the Carpathian Ukraine. The Ukrainian state in Transcarpathia emerged for a short time in difficult international political circumstances on the eve of the Second World War. According to the press, this process was natural and historically grounded. In general, newspapers of Subcarpathia were a significant means of informing Ukrainians about the current events in the world, as well as the social arena of cultural, spiritual and national-state life of the region.

scholarly journals Fiscal-Budgetary Policy as a Stimulation Tool of Economic Growth and of the Level of the Financial Resources of the State

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 37-45
Author(s):  
Elena Florişteanu ◽  
Dragoș Florişteanu
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Public Funding ◽  
Optimal Level ◽  
The State ◽  
Financial Resources ◽  
Disturbing Factor ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Budgetary Policy ◽  
The Social ◽  
Legislative Changes

Abstract The fiscal and budget policies developed over the last few years by policy makers emphasize fiscal relaxation measures in order to stimulate economic growth. Expected by employers and employees alike, they sometimes lead to results opposite to those pursued, especially if they do not take into account the particularities of the economic domains concerned and the social realities of the state. Due to the limited and often insufficient financial resources, it is necessary to stimulate those areas considered as generators of growth, and a good example in this sense is the research, development and innovation. In the context of the difficulties of ensuring an optimal level of public funding, it becomes increasingly obvious that legislative changes of fiscal and budgetary nature and how they can be implemented can be both a basis for the sustainability of public finances and for increasing competitiveness and a disturbing factor in the labor market and progress.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document