Liberalism

Chapter 8 argues that liberal values of freedom and equality not only form the basis for social justice (as argued in Chapter 4), but shared liberal values also provide a social basis for trust, solidarity, and egalitarian redistribution. More specifically, it is argued that shared liberal values have positive institutional, distributive, and direct value effects on social cohesion. Rawls made similar claims, but here a more thorough argument is provided. First, shared liberal values facilitate electoral support for universal, social democratic welfare states, which are conducive to institutional and generalized trust and redistributive solidarity. Second, shared liberal values facilitate electoral support for egalitarian redistribution, where socio-economic equality tends to promote trust and solidarity. And third, shared liberal values have direct value effects, where people who share such values tend to have a more inclusive conception of their in-group, and extend their trust and solidarity to, for example, immigrants.

Political Hearts of Darkness: The Dark Triad as Predictors of Political Orientations and Interest in Politics

Background: This study investigated the relationships between the Dark Triad of personality (sub-clinical psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism) and four political variables: socio-religious conservatism, support for greater economic equality, overall liberal–conservative orientation, and interest in politics. A theoretical approach that focused on the influence of the Dark Triad in large groups was provided to interpret those relationships. Methodological issues found in previous research that related to the use of abbreviated scales to measure the dark traits and the use of unidimensional indicators of political orientations were addressed. Methods: A hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to determine whether any of the three dark traits could explain variance in the aforementioned political attributes over and above that accounted for by the Big Five, sex, age, and nationality, using the full personality scales and measures of political orientation that captured both social and economic liberalism–conservatism. Results: Machiavellianism uniquely predicted lower levels of socio-religious conservatism, and both Machiavellianism and narcissism uniquely predicted lower levels of overall conservatism. Conclusions: There were important links between the Dark Triad and politics.

Human Rights and Economic Inequalities

Economic inequalities are among the greatest human rights challenges the world faces today due to the past four decades of neoliberal policy dominance. Globally, there are now over 2,000 billionaires, while 3.4 billion people live below the poverty line of US $5.50 per day. Many human rights scholars and practitioners read these statistics with alarm, asking what impact such extreme inequalities have on realizing human rights and what role, if any, should human rights have in challenging them? This edited volume examines these questions from multiple disciplinary perspectives, seeking to uncover the relationships between human rights and economic inequalities, and the barriers and pathways to greater economic equality and full enjoyment of human rights for all. The volume is a unique contribution to the emerging literature on human rights and economic inequality, as it is interdisciplinary, global in reach and extends to several under-researched areas in the field.

Sustainable Energy Policies and Equality: Is There a Nexus? Inferences From the Analysis of EU Statistical and Survey Data

Energy Justice (EJ) and particularly Energy equality (EE), arguably a radical conceptualization of energy justice, advocated for distributional justice and policies addressing distributional inequalities. Distributional policies are known to be contentious and often raise debates on the opportunity to interfere with the free-market allocation of goods in capitalistic economies. Whether EE inspired policies might be considered implementable or not depends on their social acceptability. Therefore, holding on to previous research findings pointing to the higher acceptability of equitable climate policies and the relationship between economic inequality and environmental degradation, we analyse EU data regarding income and income and wealth inequality and data from the H2020 ECHOES project, which consists of an extensive European survey of household energy consumption attitudes. We found that economic equality accounts for 41% of the variance explained at the country level of our sustainable energy care index (SECI), accounting for sustainable energy attitudes. We conclude that the interplay between economic equality and sustainable energy attitudes deserves further attention and might warrant a broader discussion about distributive policies within and beyond the energy sector.

Tanggung Gugat Konsultan Pengawas Konstruksi Dalam Pekerjaan Terintegrasi Pengadaan Barang/Jasa Pemerintah

Public Procurement has an important role in achieving the goals of the Indonesian people as stated in the Constitution. Especially in the development of infrastructure because the existence of adequate infrastructure will move the wheels of the economy even better and economic equality throughout Indonesia. Integrated construction work is a combination of construction work and consultancy services. Every construction carried out by the service provider must get technical supervision in the field. Field supervision must be carried out by placing supervisory experts according to the needs and complexity of the work. In this case the supervisory consultant is generally tasked with overseeing construction work with the aim of controlling the completion of the work process and minimizing irregularities that occur in the procurement contract. The method of approach used in this research is the statute approach, case approach, and conceptual approach to assessing legal issues that occur, namely the accountability of supervisory consultants in integrated work. Keywords: Integrated Construction; Supervisory Consultant; Public Procurement.AbstrakPengadaan Barang/Jasa Pemerintah memiliki peran yang penting dalam mencapai tujuan bangsa Indonesia sebagaimana tercantum dalam Konstitusi. Terutama dalam pembangunan infrastruktur karena dengan adanya infrastruktur yang memadahi akan menggerakkan roda ekonomi lebih baik lagi dan pemerataan ekonomi di seluruh wilayah Indonesia. Pekerjaan konstruksi terintegrasi merupakan gabungan antara pekerjaan konstruksi dan jasa konsultansi. Setiap pelaksanaan konstruksi yang dilakukan oleh penyedia jasa harus mendapatkan pengawasan secara teknis dilapangan. Pengawasan lapangan harus dilakukan dengan menempatkan tenaga-tenaga ahli pengawas sesuai dengan kebutuhan dan kompleksitas pekerjaan. Dalam hal ini konsultan pengawas bertugas secara umum mengawasi pekerjaan konstruksi dengan tujuan agar terkendalinya proses penyelesaian pekerjaan dan meminimalisir penyimpangan yang terjadi dalam kontrak pengadaan. Metode pendekatan yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah pendekatan perundang-undangan, pendekatan kasus, serta pendekatan konseptual untuk mengkaji permasalahan hukum yang terjadi, yaitu tanggung gugat konsultan pengawas dalam pekerjaan terintegrasi. Kata Kunci: Pekerjaan Konstruksi Terintegrasi; Konsultan Pengawas; Kontrak Pengadaan Barang/Jasa.

Retreating from Redistribution? Trends in Democratic Party Fidelity to Economic Equality, 1984–2020

During his presidency, Barack Obama described rising economic inequality as “the defining challenge of our time.” But a growing number of scholars and journalists argue that rising inequality is in part a result of the Democratic Party’s diminishing fidelity to an egalitarian economic agenda and its embrace of neoliberalism. In this article, we assess the veracity of this claim through a content analysis of all national Democratic Party platforms issued since 1984. We find that broad assertions of Democratic retreat from economic equality are for the most part exaggerated. Specifically, we argue that Democrats’ support for egalitarian policies has been complex and varied over time, with a marked decline under the influence of the New Democrats in the 1990s followed by a significant resurgence thereafter. However, while party support for equalizing policies has rebounded overall, the extent of the party’s commitment to specific policies varies according to the purported deservingness of beneficiaries. Our findings have important implications for debates concerning Democratic Party change, the politics of inequality, and the policy agenda of the Joe Biden administration.

Indonesia’s capital city relocation: A perspective of regional planning

The role of a capital city is essential for a nation. Indonesia’s plan to relocate its capital from Jakarta to North Penajam Paser has been set in stone. The Indonesian government targets the relocation to be executed in 2024; therefore, the preparations and capital city development must start from 2020. This research aims to study capital relocation from the perspective of regional planning concerning institutional, spatial planning, the economy, social aspects, and the environment. The data source used in this research was the secondary data obtained from literature review and document analysis. The new capital must present a distinct identity, as it will determine the institutional that will lead to success. The main reasons for the capital relocation are growth and economic equality for the eastern part of Indonesia. It means that development will be encouraged to achieve these goals. On the other hand, overly rapid development in the new capital is also undesirable—a challenging paradox for the institutions involved that demands creativity and innovation for a successful capital relocation.

Inequality, Education, and Corruption

This chapter shows a link between levels of mass education in 1870 and corruption levels in 2010 for 78 countries that remains strong when controlling for change in the level of education, GDP/ capita, and democracy. A model for the causal mechanism between universal education and control of corruption is presented. Early introduction of universal education is linked to levels of economic equality and to efforts to increase state capacity. First, societies with more equal education gave citizens more opportunities and power for opposing corruption. Secondly, the need for increased state capacity was a strong motivation for the introduction of universal education in many countries. Strong states provided more education to their publics and such states were more common where economic disparities were initially smaller.