CAPITALISM IN TIMES OF CRISIS

This article investigates how Danish industrialists responded to the rise of the modern state in the decades up until the Second World War, a period in which many of the basic principles of liberal capitalism were called into question, and in which the relationship between the state and the economy underwent major changes in all Western societies. It argues that the industrialists remained firm believers in classical liberalism and, on that ground, opposed growing state intervention as a slide towards socialism. The article has an emphasis on their reactions to calls for social policy initiatives, and it shows that the industrialists typically opposed such initiatives, either on pure ideological grounds or as conflicting with the economic competitiveness of Danish firms. When accommodation to selected demands for a stronger state did take place, it was typically in periods of crisis, the most important being the years just after the First World War. The interwar years did, however, see some approbation to increasing state intervention in the economy, and in the 1930s the idea of cooperation with the state entered their rhetoric. Thus, the article argues that the rhetoric and narratives gradually changed, while the ideological core did not.     

Nudges and the limits of appropriate interference: reading backwards from J.S. Mill’s harm principle to Jeremy Bentham’s indirect legislation

ABSTRACT

The starting point of the present paper is the nudge phenomenon. The most disturbing element of nudge is its potential for individual manipulation, that is, for relying on initiatives that go beyond the acceptable limits of interference in individual choice. This feature is not ignored by nudge advocates, who discuss it extensively to justify the overriding benefits of such initiatives. In this discussion, they acknowledge the seminal importance of J.S. Mill’s harm principle, which is introduced in On Liberty. Academics without hidden agendas must look into Mill’s theories from an intellectual history perspective and study to what extent Mill’s harm principle lends support to the interference of government and society in private lives. This paper first unveils some contradictions in the interpretation of Mill’s harm principle in order to show that it is an unlikely source of philosophical justification for nudge proponents. The paper argues further that Mill was familiar with Jeremy Bentham’s writings on indirect legislation, presented in the Traités de legislation civile et pénale. It pinpoints elements of indirect legislation that are discussed by Mill in On Liberty, without ever naming them as such. The paper contends that Mill’s presentation of the harm principle can be read as a discussion with Bentham in relation to the appropriate limits of government intervention in people’s lives. This double reading of Mill and Bentham through the lens of indirect legislation makes it possible to pinpoint the main differences between the authors as regards the appropriate degree of government interference. Bentham’s theories appear to be a more appropriate source of philosophical justification for the use of nudges than Mill’s harm principle.     

Controlling the Waters of Granducal Florence: A New Look at Stefano Bonsignori's View of the City (1584)

ABSTRACT

A striking feature of Stefano Bonsignori's Nova pulcherrimae civitatis Florentiae topographia accuratissime delineata, printed in 1584, is the pre-eminence of the Arno River and the detailed depiction of a variety of often quite minor water-related structures. This large (nine-sheet) map was dedicated to Francesco I de' Medici, Granduke of Florence. Contemporary initiatives and legislation as well as works of art and literature reveal that water management had been an important aspect of the policies of Francesco's father, Cosimo I, whose achievements had transformed the city's landscape and whose efforts earned the Medici ruler the title of Granduke of Tuscany in 1569. Bonsignori's portrayal of urban structures was created as a celebration of Cosimo's architectural legacy, and the depiction of the Arno, with its embankments and riverside structures, along with some of the city's fountains and wells, acknowledged granducal ambition to control its waters.     

The Influence Of States On Federal Policy Adoptions

This article examines whether stales, in the role of "laboratories of democracy," influence federal policy adoptions. Taking the recent past as the time frame, the article begins by examining major federal legislation to gauge the extern to which stale models were an influence. Following this, the focus shifts to important slate initiatives of the early 1980s, and their impact on subsequent federal legislation. The article concludes that the nature of the policy issue and the accompanying political dynamics are critical in determining whether states act as laboratories of democracy.     

Innovation policy at the local and national levels: The case of Emilia‐Romagna

The article describes the main Italian policy instruments for innovation and how these have been used by companies located in the Region of Emilia‐Romagna. It also describes the role played by structures set up at the local level in the enactment of innovation policies in Emilia‐Romagna. In the first part, the article analyzes the current organization and legislation of Italian innovation policy; and in the second part, it examines the reasons which have led to the recognition of the importance of the local level of innovation policy, looking more closely at innovation initiatives in the Region of Emilia‐Romagna. In the third part, it draws the conclusions. In particular the article underlines that Italian local governments, even without legislative and financial autonomy, can play an important role in modernizing the industrial system through initiatives which do not require vast sums of money but which identify and meet specific local needs.     

Danish and Swedish immigrants’ cultural policies between 1960 and 2006: toleration and the celebration of difference

In the late 1960s, as non-Nordic immigrants became an important component of their immigration flows, despite their similar policy backgrounds Sweden opted for multiculturalism, while Denmark did not. Their policies diverged even further from the so-called migration crisis of the 1990s. This article compares and analyses Sweden and Denmark’s respective policies between 1960 and 2006, arguing that their policies effectively diverged in the late 1960s; Danish assimilation is constituted of the toleration or acceptance, albeit disapproving, of immigrants’ cultures. Swedish multiculturalism, by way of contrast, celebrates difference, holding that immigrants’ cultures are necessary for their well-being and that ethnocultural diversity enriches the national culture. However, both policies deemed some aspects of immigrants’ cultures unacceptable, in that they were looked upon as illiberal or repugnant. This study also contends that, alongside citizenship and national identity studies, Ministries of Culture’s policies are a relevant field of enquiry into states’ policies on immigrants’ cultures.     

Peripheral creativity: temporary cultural uses as alternatives to inefficient policies?

ABSTRACT

The article focuses on temporary and improvised cultural spaces in marginalized neighbourhoods of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. They are presented here as alternatives to current urban and cultural policies, often based on international ‘best practices’ models with exclusionary and segregating consequences. It begins with a brief overview into North American and Western European cultural planning policies. It then analyses the instability of cultural policies in Brazil, highlighting that, after a period of State recognition of bottom-up actions, administrators have turned to a contradictory planning scheme that mixes outdated and recent international trends, leading lower-income inhabitants to self-build their own cultural spaces. Unlike many products of today’s global strand of ‘tactic urbanism’, Rio’s temporary spaces are politically charged territories of resistance. An example is ‘Cine Taquara’ – an improvised cinema and debate forum that illustrates how, in an unequal city, such initiatives can do more towards social inclusion than ready-made models.     

Gender Equality Policies in Rwanda: Public Relations or Real Transformations?

This article examines Rwanda's gender equality policies with the intention of contributing to the ongoing debate in the literature on the meaning of gender equality initiatives in authoritarian states. The article evaluates the transformative potential of Rwanda's gender equality policies with reference to deep‐rooted societal norms and practices within which gender inequalities are embedded. To this end, the article draws on in‐depth interviews conducted in Rwanda with a range of stakeholders, as well as on documentary research. It explores the factors informing the Rwandan commitment to gender equality, and the positive developments this has brought about, before identifying five trends that threaten the transformative potential of Rwandan gender equality policies. The authors conclude that while a strong political will and target‐driven policies offer opportunities for promoting gender equality, the transformative potential is jeopardized by the dominance of an underlying economic rationale; the neglect of the ‘invisible labour’ of women; the formalistic implementation of gender policies and their focus on quantitative results; the limited scope for civil society voices to influence policy; and the lack of grassroots participation.     

State power and protected areas: Dynamics and contradictions of forest conservation in Madhya Pradesh, India

The traditionally coercive and state-controlled governance of protected areas for nature conservation in developing countries has in many cases undergone change in the context of widespread decentralization and liberalization. This article examines an emerging “mixed” (coercive, community- and market-oriented) conservation approach in managed-resource protected areas and its effects on state power through a case study on forest protection in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The findings suggest that imperfect decentralization and partial liberalization resulted in changed forms, rather than uniform loss, of state power. A forest co-management program paradoxically strengthened local capacity and influence of the Forest Department, which generally maintained its territorial and knowledge-based control over forests and timber management. Furthermore, deregulation and reregulation enabled the state to withdraw from uneconomic activities but also implied reduced place-based control of non-timber forest products. Generally, the new policies and programs contributed to the separation of livelihoods and forests in Madhya Pradesh. The article concludes that regulatory, community- and market-based initiatives would need to be better coordinated to lead to more effective nature conservation and positive livelihood outcomes.     

Securing the World and Challenging Civil Society: Before and After the ‘War on Terror’

Following President Bush's declaration of a ‘War on Terror’ in 2001, governments around the world introduced a range of counter‐terrorist legislation, policies and practices. These measures have affected not only human rights and civil liberties but also civil society and aid frameworks. Although the Obama administration has renounced the language of the ‘War on Terror’ and taken steps to revoke aspects such as water‐boarding and the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, the bulk of the legislation and practices associated with the post‐9/11 global security framework remain. The cluster of papers which follow provide detailed studies of the effects of the War on Terror regime on civil society in four contexts: the USA, Spain, Kenya and Uzbekistan. In this way it lays a basis for civil society actors and aid agencies to reflect more strategically on how they should engage with security debates and initiatives in a way that best protects the spaces of civil society and the interests of minority and vulnerable groups. This introduction sets out the three key themes pursued throughout the cluster articles, namely, the selective impact of counter‐terrorist measures on civil society; the particularity of civil society responsiveness to these measures; and the role of aid and diplomacy in pursuing security objectives and its consequences for civil society.     

LOCAL LAND POLICY OVERRIDES: WHEN ARE THEY APPROPRIATE?

The state has the power both to enable local communities to regulate land usage, as well as to override local jurisdictions' zoning policies. In Massachusetts, two pieces of legislation have empowered the state to override local land use control for the purpose of constructing two types of facilities: low and moderte income housing and hazardous waste treatment facilities. Both initiatives have stimulated considerable debate and controversy. This paper provides a framework or “test” for understanding the relative appropriateness of state overrides in general. In addition, the two Massachusetts case are discussed and analyzed according to these criteria.     

The EHCA 1985 (NSW): A Historical Perspective on Issues Arising in the Control of Toxic Chemicals

The paper applies the social systems theory of Claus Offe to a case study of the Environmentally Hazardous Chemicals Act (EHCA) 1985 (NSW). The events of the case study lead to the conclusion that the EHCA represents a failed attempt at democratic rationalisation and reform of toxic chemicals legislation in NSW. Moreover, the values embedded in the legislation reflect the interests of international corporate goals and domestic political expediency. Offe's exposition of the contradictory role of the advanced capitalist state illuminates both critiques. Not only must the state actively foster the process of capitalist accumulation but it must prevent this drive from suffering its own consequences through the violation of 'natural limits' as well as instigate policies to maintain and further its own legitimacy. Hence the paper acts as a study of the structural impediments to environmental policy reform.     

‘Likewise no one shall be tortured’

The article deals with judicial torture, which was prohibited in the Danish legal system in the early modern period, essentially focussing upon the time from the Lutheran Reformation in 1536 to the introduction of a comprehensive statute book for the entire kingdom in 1683. The author’s perspective is comparative, especially looking for parallels and contrasts in Sweden during approximately the same period, but to some extent also including the case of England. The common feature of the three kingdoms is that they were outside the regions governed by the Romano-canonical ius commune.

The article is based upon an analysis both of Danish legislation relating to torture and of the limited number of cases in which torture was applied, in most of these cases in contravention of current legislation. The author concludes that if 16th- and 17th-century Denmark saw extremely little use of torture, the main reasons are: in the first place, an internal political climate that was far more stable and peaceful than in Sweden and England, both of which were affected by dynastic rivalries and succession crises during this period; secondly, the fact that commissions of inquisition with extraordinary judicial powers were not used in Denmark also contributes to the Danish development.     

The construction of Israeli Citizenship Law: Intertwining political philosophies

Because of the significance attached to it, the Knesset passed the 1950 Law of Return in an unprecedentedly short time, but it took two more years to pass the Citizenship Law. The official protocols regarding the legislation of Israel’s Citizenship Law illuminate the main concerns of the drafters. The goal of the emerging national citizenship regime was not just to promote Jewish immigration but to establish a modern state that prohibited dual citizenship, accepted naturalizations, prevented statelessness, and granted equal citizenship to women. These policies are accumulations of countless opinions, values, interests, and ideas, each with different conceptions of citizenship and nationhood.     

A Multipopulation Comparison of the Diffusion of Public Organizations and Policies across Space and Time

This study examined the longitudinal spatial diffusion of state government policies and their related implementation organizations in the American states. The impact of coercive, institutional, and competitive processes on policy and state agency adoption were considered, as well as how aspects of the underlying policy can impact the degree of spatial diffusion. The rises of 27 different policy populations were analyzed over time, each representing not only a different policy form but a distinct implementation organization.
The policy adoption/spatial diffusion relationship across all populations was examined and results showed that the degree of spatial diffusion varied greatly. Analysis of potential relationship moderators indicated that federal impetus (coercive processes) led to an absence of spatial diffusion. Policies with an institutional basis also showed an absence of spatial diffusion while competition-based policies diffused spatially.     

Beyond Market Logics: Payments for Ecosystem Services as Alternative Development Practices in the Global South

Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) initiatives, which provide financial incentives for management practices thought to increase the production of environmental benefits, have expanded across the global South since the late 1990s. These initiatives have thus far been conceptualized rather narrowly; by their early proponents as a novel economic instrument for more ‘rational’, effective and efficient environmental policy or by their critics as an exogenously imposed conduit of hegemonic neoliberalism. This introductory article to the special issue that follows advocates for and demonstrates a more grounded and historically situated approach for understanding the conformation and outcomes of PES in actual practice. It proposes a framework for examining individual PES initiatives as shaped by dynamic interactions between imposed structure and the development pathways and situated agency of actors in the territories in which they are implemented. It finds that certain ubiquitous components of this approach — the valuation of nature, the creation of institutions and the negotiations that inevitably surround the distribution of benefits — provide potential openings for articulation and engagement that can allow these initiatives to be contested, adapted, hybridized or more fully co-opted and captured. This framework opens a pathway for more inclusive, nuanced and grounded research on PES and on market-based environment and development policies more broadly.     

Zanzibar Stone Town Joins the Imagined Community of World Heritage Sites

In 2000, Zanzibar Stone Town was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List after a long campaign whose start date may be taken as 1988. In view of the difficulties, one might ask why places such as Zanzibar should undertake such initiatives. Without recognition from UNESCO the Stone Town would be under pressure to approve developments that would change the character of this historic centre, and could make it difficult to develop tourism, but this is not the only reason. This paper argues that the supporters of Zanzibar's application to UNESCO were responding to a message that they detected in the formulation of the World Heritage Convention, namely that designated sites belong to a kind of international body which may be likened to an 'imagined community'. World Heritage Sites (WHSs) are, in theory, part of global heritage and are thus subject to the policies and laws of an international order. In reality, however, international legislation is notoriously difficult to implement without the support of the states concerned and it may be more useful to think of WHSs as an 'Imagined Community' in Anderson's sense, a kind of pre-state entity.     

'Euroscepticism', Political Agendas and Spatial Planning: British National and Regional Planning Policy in Uncertain Times

Over the last 10 years, European Union interest in planning has increased significantly. Although land use planning remains a function of each member state, the legal obligations imposed by the EU in the fields of environmental law, structural funds, the Common Agricultural Policy, and Trans-European Transport Networks, have all impacted upon the context of the operation of the British planning process. Many of the EU initiatives have had to be transposed into domestic legislation, while others form an important-if oft-times uncertain-framework for British policy-makers. This paper examines the relationship between the European Union's policies and initiatives as they have potentially impacted upon the British planning system and the contents of Britain's national and regional planning policy guidance to local planning authorities in the assessment period 1988-1997. But the Conservative governments adopted a 'Eurosceptic' approach to their relations with Europe and, as demonstrated within this paper, also towards spatial planning issues that caused uncertainty in practice. The research indicates that although the EU has impacted upon British planning, particularly at the local level of government, this has not been reflected at the national and regional levels in planning policy documentation, mainly because of the 'Eurosceptic' attitude of the government. Policy-makers at both the national and regional levels in England, Scotland and Wales are now recognizing the need, however, to keep apace with changes occurring simultaneously with regard to enhanced European integration, and the approach of the Blair government since 1997 has re-focused the relationship between the EU and UK over spatial planning.     

Economic Policy and Women’s Informal Work in South Africa

This article examines the gender dimensions of the growth in informal and flexible work in South Africa and the government’s policy response to this. It outlines the growth in informal and flexible work practices and, as illustrative examples, analyses how trade and industrial policies and labour market policies are impacting on the growth of informal and flexible work. It is argued that the South African government’s trade and industrial policies are shifting the economy onto a path of capital intensification. Allied to this, firms are undergoing a process of extensive restructuring. These developments are further promoting the growth of flexibilization and informalization, and thereby disadvantaging women. The article demonstrates that whilst the government offers a vast package of support measures to big business, its policy is largely irrelevant to the survivalist segment of small business, where most women in the informal economy are to be found. The picture for labour policy is more diverse. Aspects of the labour legislation are promoting the growth of a dual labour market, whilst there seems to be some tightening up of practices aimed at bypassing aspects of the protection provided to workers.     

William Rufus: myth and reality

The commonly accepted view of the reign of William II (1087–1100) is a political myth, primarily the work of Eadmer, who depicted the king as the villain against whom St Anselm strove to impose the revolutionary Gregorian reform programme in England. Henry I, moreover, denigrated his brother's regime as a cover for furthering William's harsh but constructive policies. Eadmer's writings were quarried by subsequent twelfth-century writers in the mainstream of the English monastic historical tradition, who added their own literary embellishments. Nineteenth-century historians uncritically accepted these accounts and Henry I's gloss on the reign. They then contributed moral judgements of their own, which passed without qualification into modern secondary works.This paper re-evaluates William II's political and governmental achievements, and his ecclesiastical policy. His character is considered in the light of recent work on twelfth-century intellectual and psychological attitudes, and the accounts of more favourable chroniclers. It is concluded that the king developed his father's strong policies in every direction with considerable success, making possible the more publicized but essentially imitative work of Henry I. William's expansion and consolidation of national frontiers, his legal and financial developments, and his maintenance of royal control over the Church are revealed under the distortions of ecclesiastical and Henrician historiography.