Evolution Of Norms Research Articles

Emerging powers and the responsibility to protect: non-linear norm dynamics in complex international society

The perceived clash of norms associated with the emergence of rising powers is nowhere more pronounced than in relation to the responsibility to protect (RtoP). However, attempts to explain rising powers’ engagement with norms such as the RtoP are often limited and limiting in what they can tell us. Orthodox models portray predominantly linear and diffusionist logics of norm evolution that underplay the complex interaction implicit in unpredictable outcomes at the systemic level. This article identifies a range of factors that drive participation (or generate hesitation) amongst emerging powers in the development and application of the RtoP. It proceeds to illustrate how changes in normative behaviour emanate from top-down and bottom-up processes as well as the feedback between them. It argues that norm evolution is consequently a unique and emergent outcome of complex international society and therefore argues for using complexity thinking as a heuristic to augment current models and explanations of the evolution of norms in the international system.

Migration as a Window into the Coevolution between Language and Behavior

Understanding the causes and consequences of language evolution in relation to social factors is challenging as we generally lack a clear picture of how languages coevolve with historical social processes. Research analyzing the relation between language and socio-economic factors relies on contemporaneous data. Because of this, such analysis may be plagued by spurious correlation concerns coming from the historical co-evolution and dependency of the relationship between language and behavior to the institutional environment. To solve this problem, we propose migrations to the same country as a microevolutionary step that may uncover constraints on behavior. We detail strategies available to other researchers by applying the epidemiological approach to study the correlation between sex-based gender distinctions and female labor force participation. Our main finding is that language must have evolved partly as a result of cultural change, but also that it may have directly constrained the evolution of norms. We conclude by discussing implications for the coevolution of language and behavior, and by comparing different methodological approaches.

Dynamics for Integrative Social Contracts Theory: Norm Evolution and Individual Mobility

This article proposes a specific logic of dynamics for integrative social contracts theory (ISCT) that combines two empirically oriented process extensions strengthening concreteness of Donaldson and Dunfee’s conceptualization, namely (1) international policy regime theory and (2) Tiebout migration. While either would help “dynamize” and “concretize” ISCT, the two combined are even more insightful. Real-world policy regime processes can develop concrete action-guiding norms instantiating hypernorms to guide business decisions. Donaldson and Dunfee placed empirical reliance on expectation of converging parallel evolution of universal principles and authentic local values. ISCT remains vague on how global or local norms can develop and change, for two reasons. First, ISCT does not explain mechanisms for how proposed hypernorms can become actual global norms and also become accepted across extant authentic communities. International policy regime theory explains how hypernorms can become instantiated as global norms expressed in policy regimes. Second, a basic element in ISCT is implied consent positing free exit from voluntary moral communities. Empirically, individuals or businesses may be unable to exit from undesired membership in authentic communities to which they do not consent. The Tiebout migration model provides valuable insights concerning how substantive mobility or its absence improves on the minimum ISCT assumption of implied consent. An integrated logic of ISCT dynamics generates a three-level framework in which instantiated hypernorms and authentic community (microsocial) norms can empirically change, and individuals or businesses can migrate more freely across extant communities.

Training, Quality of Management and Firm Level Bargaining

The double aim of this paper is to investigate the link between firm training behaviour and the adoption of performance-related pay (PRP) and to verify how the quality of management contributes to explaining the strength of this link. Using Ordinary Least Squares Estimates and Fixed Effect Estimates for a sample of Italian firms, we find that training is a significant determinant of firm level bargaining on PRP. Furthermore, we find that managerial quality plays a significant positive role and suggest that this is because managerial quality favours the evolution of social norms based on wage bonuses that enhance trust, sustain collaborative relationships and motivate co-workers to train each other.

The World is Outraged": Legitimacy in the Making of the ASEAN Human Rights Body

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) established its first human rights body in 2009: the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR). Given the traditional interpretations of ASEAN norms such as sovereignty, non-interference, equality and independence, this was a curious development. In particular, the norms of sovereignty and in the internal affairs of one another have been central to the code of conduct among ASEAN member states since the organization was established in 1967, and are reiterated in ASEAN agreements and declarations. (1) The non-interference norm means that domestic governance issues, including member states' human rights records, traditionally have been off the table in official ASEAN dialogue. It also means that member governments have refrained from publicly criticizing each other's actions. Moreover, only five of the ten member states have national human rights bodies (with varying mandates and degrees of independence from their respective governments). (2) Why, then, did ASEAN create a regional human rights body? The references to human rights and the creation of a human rights body raise the question of whether traditional interpretations of ASEAN norms are under challenge. The case study also raises a more fundamental question: why and how do norms emerge and evolve among states in a regional institutional context? This puzzle has implications for the study of regional organizations. ASEAN is a particularly interesting case in this regard because of its environment of contestation. Norms are dynamic and evolve over time, and there may be tensions between norms in a regional institutional environment. Moreover, member states have diverse understandings of ASEAN norms. This article takes a consciously Constructivist approach in its recognition of ideational factors and sociological dynamics in international relations. This article traces the negotiations leading to the adoption of the ASEAN Charter, focusing on the processes through which ten member states with significantly diverse identities, interests and practices accepted references to human rights as principles and purposes of ASEAN, and agreed to create a human rights body. After a period of debate, negotiation and drafting from January to November 2007, ASEAN member states agreed to make a normative about human rights in the Charter. In this article, a statement represents rhetorical adoption of a norm in an official text, even if that norm has not been internalized. In contrast, the term is used to denote the common understanding of a norm: a standard of appropriate behaviour for actors with a given identity. (3) The article traces the processes through which ideas are initially proposed and advanced, and eventually emerge in agreed-upon text. As such, it provides a case study of the emergence and evolution of norms in a regional institutional context. This article argues that regional norms are shaped by competing perceptions of legitimacy. Legitimacy refers here to the social judgements of an entity as appropriate, proper or desirable, within a particular institutional environment. Member states' interpretations of the legitimacy of ASEAN and its norms as perceived by those outside the region--external regional legitimacy--were crucial in shaping the decision to establish a regional human rights body. In particular, the international outrage over the Myanmar regime's crackdown on protesting monks in September 2007 brought ASEAN's legitimacy concerns into sharp relief. ASEAN officials were concerned about the impact of this event, and of Myanmar's membership generally, on ASEAN's reputation and credibility. They believed that creating a human rights body was an important mechanism to improve the legitimacy of ASEAN and its norms, as perceived by extra-regional actors. Thus, member states--even those who generally resist increased interference in internal affairs, and those with poor human rights records--accepted the need to adopt references in the Charter to provide a role for ASEAN vis-a-vis human rights. …

Keeping your options open: Maintenance of thermal plasticity during adaptation to a stable environment.

Phenotypic plasticity may allow species to cope with environmental variation. The study of thermal plasticity and its evolution helps understanding how populations respond to variation in temperature. In the context of climate change, it is essential to realize the impact of historical differences in the ability of populations to exhibit a plastic response to thermal variation and how it evolves during colonization of new environments. We have analyzed the real-time evolution of thermal reaction norms of adult and juvenile traits in Drosophila subobscura populations from three locations of Europe in the laboratory. These populations were kept at a constant temperature of 18ºC, and were periodically assayed at three experimental temperatures (13ºC, 18ºC, and 23ºC). We found initial differentiation between populations in thermal plasticity as well as evolutionary convergence in the shape of reaction norms for some adult traits, but not for any of the juvenile traits. Contrary to theoretical expectations, an overall better performance of high latitude populations across temperatures in early generations was observed. Our study shows that the evolution of thermal plasticity is trait specific, and that a new stable environment did not limit the ability of populations to cope with environmental challenges.

Models of Dispersal Evolution Highlight Several Important Issues in Evolutionary and Ecological Modeling.

Previous results showing that lack of information on local population density leads to higher emigration probabilities in unpredictable environments but to lower emigration probabilities in constant or highly predictable scenarios have recently been challenged by Poethke et al. By reimplementing both our model and that of Poethke and colleagues, we demonstrate that our original results indeed hold to the presented critiques and do not contradict previous findings. The comment by Poethke and colleagues does, however, present potentially intriguing results suggesting that negative density-dependent dispersal evolves under white noise for some model formulations. Here, through intermodel comparison, we seek to better understand the source of the differences in results obtained in our study and theirs. We conclude that the apparent negative density dependence reported by Poethke et al. is effectively density independence and that the shape of the reaction norm they obtain is a model artefact. Further, this response provides an opportunity to elaborate on some important issues in evolutionary and ecological modeling regarding (i) the importance of carefully considering different models' assumptions in comparisons among models, (ii) the need to consider the role of stochasticity and uncertainty when presenting and interpreting results from stochastic individual-based models, (iii) the adequate choice of the underlying ecological model that creates the selective pressures determining the evolution of behavioral reaction norms, and (iv) the appropriate choice of mutation models.

Parody as Norm Contestation: Russian Normative Justifications in Georgia and Ukraine and Their Implications for Global Norms

Western observers often perceive Russian normative justifications in Georgia and Ukraine as a parody of Western normative discourse. This article argues that describing the relationship of Russian normative arguments to the Western originals as parody not only means that it is a contemptible copy which fails to cover strategic motivations, but also indicates a more complex interaction between the two in altering how the scope and content of civilian protection and secession are understood. Two factors prompt an analysis of this interaction. First, Russian normative discourse systematically references the Western one; second, it does so in relation to norms where the relevant standards of behaviour are profoundly contested. The article asks how the Russian recycling of Western normative language alters interpretive dispositions towards these norms, and conceptualises parody as a heuristic device to shed light on its potential normative impact. It argues that the core of the parodic effect is to disclose the original normative discourse as just one possible “reality-making script”. Reconstructing the Russian replications of Western normative argumentation deployed in Kosovo, the article argues that parodic appropriation of normative language has a destabilising impact, and thus plays a role in the contested evolution of global norms.

The Evolution of Norms of Protection: Major Powers Debate the Responsibility to Protect

Global expectations for protecting populations from mass atrocities have significantly expanded. This special issue analyses the debates about a “responsibility to protect” (R2P) that resulted from this normative change. At specific events throughout the past decade (the 2005 World Summit and the 2011 proposal for “responsibility while protecting” as well as crises in Darfur, Kenya, Myanmar, Georgia, Sri Lanka and Libya), the norms of protection have been contested and (re-)shaped. This introduction outlines the ideational origins of R2P, presents conceptual commonalities and summarises the cases' contributions to a non-linear process of norm evolution. We find that despite expectations that the increased weight of “non-Western” powers would lead to the demise of humanitarian norms, the concern for atrocity prevention has become universal. However, that consensus is tied to a supportive relationship with sovereignty and thus privileges action against non-state actors, not repressive regimes. Effective and responsible means of implementation remain contested.

Norm Evolution a Matter of Conformity and Contestedness: South Africa and the Responsibility to Protect

Research on international norms has been thriving for decades, most prominently exploring processes of norm creation and compliance. Yet the mainstream literature has paid scant attention to the issue of continuous norm evolution beyond a norm’s emergence. In this article we aim at framing the wider context in which norm evolution is taking place. We identify two antipodes: conformity and contestedness between which norms continue to evolve. We will exemplify this by analysing the norm of the responsibility to protect (R2P) through general usage and South Africa’s response. The article finds that norm evolution is mostly influenced by conformity with some measure of contestedness as a motor for change.

From Kosovo to Syria: the transformation of NATO Secretaries General's discourse on military humanitarian intervention

ABSTRACTThe civil war in Syria began approximately four years ago and has resulted in the murder of thousands by the Assad regime and the flight of millions to neighbouring countries. The international community's reluctance to intervene to halt the ongoing massive human rights violations has been explained in geopolitical, military-strategic, diplomatic, and legal terms. Yet, what does this imply normatively? And does the weakening of the military humanitarian intervention (MHI) norm support arguments regarding the poverty of constructivist security studies? This article examines these two questions and demonstrates the weakness of the MHI norm, especially in light of the new interpretations and meanings which authoritative agents ascribe to its key conceptual components in changing strategic, social and political contexts. Yet, the article employs constructivist tools to explore the endogenous challenges to the MHI norm while proving the added value of constructivist security research, not only for explaining “norm evolution” but also “norm decline”. Taking discourse as a reflection of social norms and an arena for encouraging new intersubjective interpretations of concepts, it examines the above assertions by analysing the discourse of NATO Secretaries General from 1999 (Kosovo crisis) to today.

Evolution of environmental cues for phenotypic plasticity.

Phenotypically plastic characters may respond to multiple variables in their environment, but the evolutionary consequences of this phenomenon have rarely been addressed theoretically. We model the evolution of linear reaction norms in response to several correlated environmental variables, in a population undergoing stationary environmental fluctuations. At evolutionary equilibrium, the linear combination of environmental variables that acts as a developmental cue for the plastic trait is the multivariate best linear predictor of changes in the optimum. However, the reaction norm with respect to any single environmental variable may exhibit nonintuitive patterns. Apparently maladaptive, or hyperadaptive plasticity can evolve with respect to single environmental variables, and costs of plasticity may increase, rather than reduce, plasticity in response to some variables. We also find conditions for the evolution of an indirect environmental indicator that affects expression of a plastic phenotype, despite not influencing natural selection on it.

Key Questions on the Role of Phenotypic Plasticity in Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics.

Ecology and evolution have long been recognized as reciprocally influencing each other, with recent research emphasizing how such interactions can occur even on very short (contemporary) time scales. Given that these interactions are mediated by organismal phenotypes, they can be variously shaped by genetic variation, phenotypic plasticity, or both. I here address 8 key questions relevant to the role of plasticity in eco-evolutionary dynamics. Focusing on empirical evidence, especially from natural populations, I offer the following conclusions. 1) Plasticity is--not surprisingly--sometimes adaptive, sometimes maladaptive, and sometimes neutral. 2) Plasticity has costs and limits but these constraints are highly variable, often weak, and hard to detect. 3) Variable environments favor the evolution of increased trait plasticity, which can then buffer fitness/performance (i.e., tolerance). 4) Plasticity sometimes aids colonization of new environments (Baldwin Effect) and responses to in situ environmental change. However, plastic responses are not always necessary or sufficient in these contexts. 5) Plasticity will sometimes promote and sometimes constrain genetic evolution. 6) Plasticity will sometimes help and sometimes hinder ecological speciation but, at present, empirical tests are limited. 7) Plasticity can show considerable evolutionary change in contemporary time, although the rates of this reaction norm evolution are highly variable among taxa and traits. 8) Plasticity appears to have considerable influences on ecological dynamics at the community and ecosystem levels, although many more studies are needed. In summary, plasticity needs to be an integral part of any conceptual framework and empirical investigation of eco-evolutionary dynamics.

Thermal plasticity of growth and development varies adaptively among alternative developmental pathways.

Polyphenism, the expression of discrete alternative phenotypes, is often a consequence of a developmental switch. Physiological changes induced by a developmental switch potentially affect reaction norms, but the evolution and existence of alternative reaction norms remains poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that, in the butterfly Pieris napi (Lepidoptera: Pieridae), thermal reaction norms of several life history traits vary adaptively among switch-induced alternative developmental pathways of diapause and direct development. The switch was affected both by photoperiod and temperature, ambient temperature during late development having the potential to override earlier photoperiodic cues. Directly developing larvae had higher development and growth rates than diapausing ones across the studied thermal gradient. Reaction norm shapes also differed between the alternative developmental pathways, indicating pathway-specific selection on thermal sensitivity. Relative mass increments decreased linearly with increasing temperature and were higher under direct development than diapause. Contrary to predictions, population phenology did not explain trait variation or thermal sensitivity, but our experimental design probably lacks power for finding subtle phenology effects. We demonstrate adaptive differentiation in thermal reaction norms among alternative phenotypes, and suggest that the consequences of an environmentally dependent developmental switch primarily drive the evolution of alternative thermal reaction norms in P. napi.

The Evolution of Social Norms

Social norms are patterns of behavior that are self-enforcing within a group: Everyone conforms, everyone is expected to conform, and everyone wants to conform when they expect everyone else to conform. Social norms are often sustained by multiple mechanisms, including a desire to coordinate, fear of being sanctioned, signaling membership in a group, or simply following the lead of others. This article shows how stochastic evolutionary game theory can be used to study the resulting dynamics. I illustrate with a variety of examples drawn from economics, sociology, demography, and political science. These include bargaining norms, norms governing the terms of contracts, norms of retirement, dueling, foot binding, medical treatment, and the use of contraceptives. These cases highlight the challenges of applying the theory to empirical cases. They also show that the modern theory of norm dynamics yields insights and predictions that go beyond conventional equilibrium analysis.

How the indirect reciprocity with co-evolving norm and strategy for 2 [formula omitted] 2 prisoner’s dilemma game works for emerging cooperation

We built a new indirect reciprocity model based on binary image scores, where an agent’s strategy and norm co-evolve. The norm, meaning what behavior is evaluated as “good” or “bad,” stipulates how image scores of two agents playing a game is altered, which has been presumed to be a fixed value in most previous studies. Also, unlike former studies, our model allows an agent to play with an agent who has a different norm. This point of relaxing the freedom of the model pulls down cooperation level vis-à-vis the case where an agent always plays with another one having same norm. However, it is observed that a rather larger dilemma shows robust cooperation establishing compared with a smaller dilemma, since a norm that punishes a so-called second-order free-rider is prompted. To encourage the evolution of norms to be able to punish second-order free-riders, a society needs a small number of defectors. This is elucidated by the fact that cases with action error are more cooperative than those without action error.

Mango Trees, Offices and Altars: The Role of Relatives, Non-governmental Organisations and Churches After Rape in Northern Uganda

This article reflects on why so many women never access justice or take advantage of available services after rape in northern Uganda. It focuses on roles of three prominent non-governmental actors: lineage-based kinship authority, churches, and non-governmental organisations examining the parts they played after 94 instances of rape in this study and more broadly, how they have shaped notions of rape and appropriate responses to it. Evidence from this study (participant observation over three years and 187 in-depth interviews) suggests that although non-governmental organizations and churches have impacted evolution of social norms, reactions to wrongdoing are primarily decided by extended family structures, and are subject to a primary value of social harmony.

EVOLUTION OF LEGAL NORMS REGULATING THE OBLIGATIONS ENSURING SECURE STORAGE OF THE FOUND PROPERTY

The article deals with the evolution of norms regulating civil matters on the found property. According to the current law, the problem of storing the found property described in the article is in the fact that a person who found the property must choose himself whom to hand over the property for storage. The purpose of the study is to examine the evolution of legal norms regulating the obligation to ensure the safety of the found property and to suggest amendments to the current legislation. The analysis of the legal norms regulating the obligation to ensure the safety of the found property shows that in the civil law the first regulations of findings were reflected in the Roman law, but in the Russian legislation they were reflected in detail from the middle of the XVIII century, when the findings were regulated by orders of deputies given to them from the nobility of several provinces; from that time the finders face the choice as to whom to hand over the found property. Special actors involved in the search of the owner of the property are the policemen, but at the same time they are charged with the function not related to their main duties keeping the found things. The analysis proposes to make amendments to the legal norms related to findings in the legislation of the Russian Federation.

EVOLUTION OF LEGAL NORMS REGULATING THE OBLIGATIONS ENSURING SECURE STORAGE OF THE FOUND PROPERTY

The article deals with the evolution of norms regulating civil matters on the found property. According to the current law, the problem of storing the found property described in the article is in the fact that a person who found the property must choose himself whom to hand over the property for storage. The purpose of the study is to examine the evolution of legal norms regulating the obligation to ensure the safety of the found property and to suggest amendments to the current legislation. The analysis of the legal norms regulating the obligation to ensure the safety of the found property shows that in the civil law the first regulations of findings were reflected in the Roman law, but in the Russian legislation they were reflected in detail from the middle of the XVIII century, when the findings were regulated by orders of deputies given to them from the nobility of several provinces; from that time the finders face the choice as to whom to hand over the found property. Special actors involved in the search of the owner of the property are the policemen, but at the same time they are charged with the function not related to their main duties keeping the found things. The analysis proposes to make amendments to the legal norms related to findings in the legislation of the Russian Federation.

EVOLUTION OF LEGAL NORMS REGULATING THE OBLIGATIONS ENSURING SECURE STORAGE OF THE FOUND PROPERTY

The article deals with the evolution of norms regulating civil matters on the found property. According to the current law, the problem of storing the found property described in the article is in the fact that a person who found the property must choose himself whom to hand over the property for storage. The purpose of the study is to examine the evolution of legal norms regulating the obligation to ensure the safety of the found property and to suggest amendments to the current legislation. The analysis of the legal norms regulating the obligation to ensure the safety of the found property shows that in the civil law the first regulations of findings were reflected in the Roman law, but in the Russian legislation they were reflected in detail from the middle of the XVIII century, when the findings were regulated by orders of deputies given to them from the nobility of several provinces; from that time the finders face the choice as to whom to hand over the found property. Special actors involved in the search of the owner of the property are the policemen, but at the same time they are charged with the function not related to their main duties keeping the found things. The analysis proposes to make amendments to the legal norms related to findings in the legislation of the Russian Federation.