Aspects Of Liberalism Research Articles

Welfare state regimes and the evolution of liberalism

This paper argues that the concept of the liberal welfare state within welfare state regimes discourse fails to account for some important aspects of the historical development of liberalism. It is argued that two key aspects of liberalism have been neglected. First, that liberalism essentially arose in opposition to ascribed status, seeking to replace it with a form of “achieved” status. Second, that a major stream of historical liberalism sought to equalize individual opportunity by suggesting that the state should provide some basic social and economic supports to individuals in need. This paper uses OECD health data to identify welfare state clusters based on the measurement of welfare (rather than neo)liberalism. The emerging cluster model is then compared with other welfare state regime typologies with regard to its ability to predict important social and political outcomes. The paper concludes that the emerging “welfare-liberal” typology may be a better predictor of certain social and political outcomes than other regimes configurations, indicating the usefulness of considering alternative aspects of liberalism when examining welfare state regimes.

Regional integration, international liberalisation and the dynamics of industrial agglomeration

This paper presents a 3-region footloose-entrepreneur new economic geography model. Two symmetric regions are part of an economically integrated area (the Union), while the third region represents an outside trade partner. We explore how the spatial allocation of industrial production and employment within the Union is affected by changes in two aspects of trade liberalisation, regional integration and globalisation, conditional to the skill endowment and the market size of the outside region. Our main contribution pertains to the analysis of the local and global dynamics of the specified factor mobility process. We show that significant parameter ranges exist for which an asymmetric distribution of economic activities is one of the possible long-run outcomes which may allow a smooth transition to agglomeration (in contrast to the NEG typical catastrophic scenario). In addition, we show that multistability is pervasive and that some attractors are Milnor attractors. Both results reinforce the NEG narrative on the importance of initial conditions for the long-run location of industrial activity.

Freedom and law in Liberalism and religious intelctualism in Iran

Liberalism as a universal ideology gained its power as a dominating power in the world after collapsing the east power. It is natural that a universal ideology affects all the other small religions in the world. The main hypothesis of this study is the influence of liberalism after 1980 which includes the first decade after the Islamic Revolution in Iran. The case of study is Mojtahed Shabestari and Soroush. Due to a wide range of topics in liberalism and its influence on many scholars in this study, the authors paid attention to the concepts of “freedom” and “law and separation of powers” in liberalism. Religious intellectualism in Iran and the notions of Shabestari and Soroush in this regard might be the main topics to test and evaluate all aspects of liberalism. Therefore, the main question might be as follow: To what extent the concept of freedom and separation of law and power have been used in the works of these two Iranian elites? The library method was used as the research methodology.

Minimal mutual advantage: How the social contract can do justice to the disabled

In this work we address the proposition that because it emerges from the contract tradition and so relies upon the assumption of mutual advantage, John Rawls' theory of “Justice as Fairness” cannot accommodate persons with severe mental and/or physical impairments. We respond to this criticism by proposing a revision to Rawls' contracting situation, the Original Position (OP). Specifically, we propose to supplant the traditional understanding of mutual advantage—which we agree does constitute the necessary and sufficient condition for deliberation to come about in the OP, as it stands—with a more modest alternative: a Hobbes-inspired concept that we call minimal mutual advantage. We argue that when this revision is introduced into Justice as Fairness, it reconciles admirably the seeming tension between contractarianism’s insistence on the rational, self-interested actor and the reality of societies in which not all members are capable of meeting a standard of reciprocity understood in terms of productive contributions to the general well-being. In so doing, minimal mutual advantage renders indistinguishable the disabled from the able in the OP, allowing Justice as Fairness to capture successfully problems of disability while leaving intact the more appealing aspects of liberalism that other approaches would dismiss.

Complexities at the intersection of tobacco control and trade liberalisation: evidence from Southeast Asia

For more than two decades, public health scholars and proponents have demonstrated concern about the negative effects of trade liberalisation on tobacco control policies. However, there is little theoretically-guided, empirical...

The Language of Revolution and the Power of Storytelling in The Pregnant Widow

Martin Amis uses the language of revolution to describe the newly altered social circumstances at the height of the sexual revolution in his semi-autobiographical novel The Pregnant Widow . The concept of a ‘language of revolution’ as well as second- and third-wave feminist scholarship is applied to a textual analysis of the novel. Amis’s brand of satire creates a sense of displacement and challenges existing perceptions about gender, culture and sexuality, exposing them as constructed and changeable norms. Moreover, it becomes clear that the author is skeptical about the benefits of the sexual revolution for either gender, and that he views its liberating aspects as unfulfilled, particularly for women. Given that Amis names one of his characters Scheherazade, evoking the legendary heroine of The Arabian Nights , the importance of storytelling in the novel is also examined and found to be a potentially redeeming force.

Emancipatory Theatre and Performative Didactics

This article is based on several years of empirical observation, gathered from theatre practice, in which Karin B. Bjerkestrand and Anna Songe-Møller developed what is known as “Solidarity Forum Theatre” (SFT), a form of applied drama. This theatre form is based primarily on the Brazilian, Augusto Boal’s, Theatre of the Oppressed (Boal, 2006). Bjerkestrand and Songe-Møller used and further developed Boal’s theatre principle in a collaboration with various immigrant groups and drama-/theatre students. The intention has been to use the liberating potential into which this form of theatre invites us. In this article, Bjerkestrand and Songe-Møller present the theoretical groundwork, the underlying principles, and examples of SFT in action. One of the participants’ stories in particular have been used to concretize the liberating aspect that arose in the theatre experiences. In relation to this Solidarity Forum Theatre practice, science theorist and art educator Venke Aure presents epistemological and didactic reflections.

JÜRGEN HABERMAS

This paper is a short introduction to Habermas’s life and philosophy. It outlines his views on society, religion, morality and politics. It begins with his ‘methodological pragmatism’ which emphasizes the performative and intersubjective role of language. This rejects the “philosophy of consciousness” and sees society as a medium in which we live. Society is not an aggregate of individuals or a unity but a complex, multifarious, intersubjective structure with many different overlapping spheres. Habermas is essentially a social scientist and his concern about society refers to the problem of how a social order and integrity can be maintained in a modern democratic and secular society. He believes that religion will survive a long time and is unsure whether philosophy will ever triumph over religion but is convinced that it can deal with our religious heritage with more sensitivity than hitherto. Habermas proposes a moral discourse theory based on the universalizability of social norms. In his political system, he combines the ideal of liberal democracy based on human rights with the ideal of republicanism based on popular sovereignty. He is nevertheless critical of some aspects of liberalism. Overall, Habermas foresees the danger to modern society to social groups that feel themselves to be alienated and marginalized from the mainstream.

Essay: Mary Poppins, of hoe een magische nepmoeder een dolle suffragette de les leest - De Britse kiesrechtstrijd in de Amerikaanse populaire cultuur van de jaren zestig

In her contribution Mineke Bosch tries to explain the success of the major box office movie Mary Poppins that came out in 1964. Feminist critique of the movie seems by and large rather predictable in its presupposition that popular success means ideological weakness. Especially the comic representation of the suffragette mother of the children is seen as meaningful in this respect, and the movie’s main message is read as enforcing family life. More positive assessments of the movie, on the other hand, emphasize the vital role of Mary Poppins who teaches feminine values in a non-linear and fragmented way that leaves room for multiple interpretations. However, Bosch argues that the magic of the movie is mainly in the figure of Mary Poppins, who incorporates two aspects of feminism: equal rights feminism as symbolized in the umbrella and a feminism that is defined as ‘spiritual motherhood’. God knows what the second wave of feminism owes to Mary Poppins!

German modernity, barbarous Slavs and profit‐seekingJews: the cultural racism of nationalist liberals

AbstractThis paper examines emblematic texts by two important protagonists of post‐1848 liberalism inGermany,GustavFreytag andHeinrich vonTreitschke, focusing on their treatment ofJews andPoles. The paper analyses the social content of their statements and argues that the elements of anti‐Semitism and anti‐Slav racism that they contain were motivated by the specific kind of nationalist liberalism that frames their affirmation of the process of modernisation. This affirmation was directed against thePoles on the one hand, seen as backwardEasterners who had to be pushed into civilisation byPrussian–German colonialism, and, on the other hand, theJews, largely perceived as representing the wrong kind of modernity against which benign (supposedlyGerman) modernity had to be protected. At the same time, the image of theJew inFreytag andTreitschke also participates in that of the backwardEasterner, permitting to see undesirable, allegedly Jewish aspects of modernity also as distortions resulting from an alien and ancient culture. This analysis has consequences for theorisations of both liberalism and nationalism: it suggests that the racism and anti‐Semitism of nationalist liberals were intrinsically related to core aspects of the liberal world‐view rather than being merely contingent opinions held by particular individuals. It also indicates that the nationalism of manyGerman post‐1848 liberals was ethnic as well as liberal. In this way, the paper contributes to the growing body of literature discussing the illiberal aspects of liberalism as well as the shortcomings of the long‐established conceptual dichotomy of ethnic vs. liberal nationalism.

Feminist translation? No way! Spanish specialised translators' disinterest in feminist translation

Synopsis In this paper I discuss why specialised professional translation in Spain has taken no interest in incorporating feminist proposals. Firstly, feminist translatology has focused on literary translation mainly; seldom has it dealt with translation as a professional practice. Secondly, feminist translation has been considered a North-American literary activity, far from practitioners' concerns. Furthermore, Translation Studies have magnified the subversive role of feminist translation, making it difficult to incorporate feminist proposals to professional activity. As a result, feminist Translation Studies have not joined the ‘linguistic’ translatology debate of the last decade, and there is a conspicuous lack of contributions on feminist aspects of technical translation in essays and journals. Application of the notion of discursive genre does not collaborate with feminist translation either. And there is also a shortage of data bases, glossaries or software which, from a tentative, provisional and temporary nature, may offer feminist textual models to practitioners of non-literary translation.

Electric Feel

Electric Feel: Transduction, Errantry and the Refrain assesses what certain logics gleaned from selected popular music songs might offer to ongoing efforts to renegotiate bonds, institutions and political possibilities shaped by the violences characteristic of capitalism, cisgender and white supremacy, neoliberal multiculturalism and contemporary geopolitics. Making Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari's concepts of ‘the Refrain’, and ‘music’ available as heuristics and technologies to contribute to ongoing explorations of the role that sound plays and yet might play in contemporary Euro-American feminist cultural studies, this essay is animated by what might be called, following Édouard Glissant, a mode of ‘scholarly errantry’. If feminism was music and feminists musicians, it could be said that feminism's histories, its preoccupations, its shifting and fluid subjects and debates, its styles, its canonical texts and concepts, are its refrains, the things to which it returns, its territory, the aspects of feminism that exert a force in the world. These have political indices as well as scholarly, creative ones. Insofar as academic feminism traverses disciplines and constitutes itself as such through reference to those narratives and intellectual lineages that it claims as its own, it has carved out a terrain, a ‘field’, and a set of constituents, but nonetheless contested, organizations and their stated priorities, interests and common senses. The present essay asks, what music might contemporary feminisms make when their existing refrains are placed under pressure? How might sound and music offer insightful support for generating and relating concepts to the rapidly changing present circumstances that queer anti-racist feminisms actively participate in shaping? What tales of errantry might such feminisms tell today?

Vybrané rozsudky soudního dvora Evropské unie ve věci státních podpor v oblasti energetiky

The EU energy industry in is becoming increasingly important and its importance can be expected to grow in the future, especially due to security and environmental issues and aspects of liberalization in the energy industry. In addition, state aid, even outside the energy sector, has had a major impact on the subjects of law in the Czech Republic, and that is not only because of the existence of significant grants from the European Union structural funds. The subject of this paper is selected judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union focusing on state aid to the energy industry. The beginning of this paper contains a general discussion of the conditions of energy policy and state aid policy. The following parts of this paper concern selected judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union. Based on the selected judgments, the aim of this paper is to point out problems of interpretation of the provisions regulating the energy sector and state aid.

Liberal parliamentarianism in Mexico. Notes for reflection: the parliamentary representation of the State of Puebla in the Mexican National Congresses, 1833–56

After achieving independence from the Spanish colonial dominion, a process of political development began in Mexico, tending towards setting up the nation-state while creating and consolidating its own institutions following a liberal political model. This resulted in the beginning of the parliamentarization of Mexican political life and the changing of the ruling classes – with certain filtering – opening up the way to a new political/parliamentary elite linked to diverse liberal options. This article sets out to propose some initial thoughts and debate around one of the most overlooked aspects of the first liberalism in Mexico: the political protagonists of the Mexican parliamentary stages that witnessed the consolidation process of the liberal state model that was representative in the country. To do so, as one of the main research methodologies in terms of the parliamentary participants, basic biographical profiles and prosopographical analysis are set out in this article. In this case, partial results are presented of a specific case study, from which partial conclusions and comparative guidelines are presented. This case focuses on parliamentary representation of the State of Puebla in the Mexican National Congresses, during the period 1833–56.

Trade Liberalisation: Can Restriction and Protectionism Ever Be a Sound Policy

Trade liberalization or free trade is a highly contested subject, especially in the current global financial scenario and ongoing economic recession and slowdown, which draws feverish support and equally violent condemnation. Whether trade liberalization hurts the poor or not is itself a matter of great debate and difference of opinion, one that can be seen in the recent latest move to allow Foreign Direct Investment (hereinafter FDI) by the Indian Government, and the varied reactions from both sides of the spectrum. There are arguments that Trade liberalization helps in growth and growth ultimately helps in lowering poverty, but on the other hand the uniformity of the benefits of globalisaion and trade liberalization is questioned. Arguments against trade liberalization claim that it can cost jobs and even lives, due to cheaper goods not facing the stringent checks at the market, or due to the loss of livelihood due to competition. Proponents and supporters, claim trade liberalization ultimately lowers consumer costs, fosters economic growth while maximizing efficiency. In this essay an effort is made to point down the basic aspects of trade liberalization and free and open market, how they benefit, and how they hurt poor, if at all, and when.

Two Surprising Aspects of Islamic Saudi Liberalism in Public and Private Law

Abstract Saudi Arabia is often defined as a country where the rule of law is challenged by archaism with reference to Islamic criminal punishments or by anarchy with reference to its pluralism combining Western and Islamic laws (and sometimes tribal customs). Both opinions are wrong thanks to two fundamental rules of Ḥanbalism (the Kingdom’s Islamic School of Law). The first rule says: “No obedience to a creature in the disobedience of the Creator”, and the second says: “The Rule in profane activities (muʿāmalāt) is lawfulness until one indication from the Sharīʿah Guides [i.e., Qurʾān and the Prophet’s sayings or Ḥadīth] dismisses it from [the application of] this Rule”. Thanks to these rules and the way in which they have been developed in public and private law, we will see that Saudi law finally appears less contradictory than laws in other Arab countries, and therefore less challenging to the rule of law.

Freud and the Neocons: The Narrative of a Political Encounter from 1949–2000

This article examines the impact of Freud on conservative liberal intellectuals in America particularly during the Cold War. It argues that, compared with studies of the ‘radical’ or left-wing assimilations of psychoanalysis, the Freud of the political Right has been relatively neglected. It concentrates on three figures in particular – Irving Kristol, Norman Podhoretz and Leo Strauss, all of whom were a major influence on the formation of American neoconservatism, and ultimately on the Bush administration at the time of the War on Terror. The article also examines the role of Lionel Trilling in mediating Freudian ideas to Kristol and Podhoretz, who were disaffected with the progressive aspects of liberalism, and shifted their allegiance to the Right by the 1980s. Freud's work, especially Civilization and its Discontents, functions as an ideological landmark at the borderline of their reflections on religion, morality, the failures of democracy and the foundations of social order.

Legal and politicological aspects of liberalism

The core of the idea of liberalism is the citizen as an individual who is the holder of certain rights, independent of his position in society, and which make him equal to other people. The basic principles of liberal policy are: the human rights guarantees, the freedom of thought and the sovereignty of the people. The article analyses liberalism as a theoretical direction and its impact on the legal system and the political elite. The first part of the article is dedicated to the historical review of the idea of liberalism. After the description of the genesis of this idea, follows the part of the article which deals with the conflict between liberalism and totalitarianism. Then focus shifts to the liberal movement and its fractions after the Second World War. When this comparative analysis is provided, the attention is paid to the modern liberal movement, while the article finishes with the description of the development path of liberalism in Serbia from its birth and the first proponents of this idea in our country until the manifestations of liberalism at modern political scene.

Seeing Rape as Rape: Philosophical and Historical Perspectives on Marriage Law

In this paper I critically challenge the ability of legal reforms to recognize and integrate the way in which a rape victim sees rape. Current limitations to the law are mainly due to the accepted patriarchal view on law as a form of objective and rational knowledge, outside which there are only impracticable and irrational views. I investigate the case of marriage jurisprudence in the UK, as a prominent example, because it has long accepted marital rape as objectively and rationally part of a wife’s duty. Even though changes have occurred which improve the marital rape jurisdiction, prejudicial disbelief concerning a woman’s private life is still used in the courts to question the credibility of the victim. Over the past year, extensive efforts have been made to reform the management of rape cases. Whilst there is a need to acknowledge the seriousness of the accusation with rigorous legal principles which provide appropriate safeguards for the accused person as well as the complainant, especially bearing in mind the often ‘private’ circumstances, with a concomitant lack of witnesses, it remains the case that the rate of attribution in attempts to secure successful prosecutions in rape case remains overwhelming. I show how a Wittgensteinian approach to law would take into consideration the shape of gendered lives as they are experienced, and hence would not accept just one legal interpretation of marital law. The phenomenon of “seeing-as” in Wittgenstein’s philosophy can support the experience of being jolted into appreciating the feminist aspect of consent in marital sexual relationships.

Sociological Research on Feminism and the Women’s Movement: Ideology, Identity, and Practice

AbstractThis article provides an overview of sociological research on three aspects of feminism: feminism as an ideology; feminism as an identity; and feminism as a practice. I summarize the main contributions of sociological research in each of these areas, and highlight the overarching contributions for understanding contemporary feminism. Three contributions are key. First, sociological research highlights the existence multiple varieties of feminism –“feminisms” as opposed to a singular “feminism.” Second, this research reveals that feminist ideologies, identities, and movements are each dynamic – they have changed historically, and continue to change in response to shifting socio‐political, economic, and technological landscapes. Third, sociological research demonstrates that feminism is alive and well, and in many senses thriving, in the contemporary United States. Though some aspects of feminism are more widespread than others, sociological research challenges the notion that feminism, on the whole, has declined. As an ideology, an identity, and a practice, feminism remains strong in the contemporary United States.