Free Market Of Ideas Research Articles

Defamation and Privacy Reform: A Democratic Model of Media Freedom

This paper considers the extent to which the defamation and privacy reforms announced by the Irish government reflect emerging trends in the treatment of the concept of media freedom of expression.The paper argues that there are two primary models of media freedom.The first school of thought sees media freedom as a specific example of the more general constitutional entitlement to freedom of speech. Advocates of this view tend to value expression for its own sake. Ensuring the ability of individual citizens or the press to put forward their opinions and ideas is regarded as a way of guaranteeing the entitlement of all to contribute to, and to participate in, the process of public debate. From the democratic point of view, this is justified by reference to the notion of the ‘free market of ideas’. This theory argues that a democracy is strengthened when robust and uninhibited public debate is encouraged. This school is most associated with American First Amendment jurisprudence.The rival interpretation of media freedom is one in which the media is conceived in primarily didactic terms. Journalists are expected to inform the public about the actions, praiseworthy or otherwise, of their elected officials. On this view, democracy is strengthened when the public makes an informed electoral choice. The logical corollary of this position is that there is no constitutional protection for inaccurate or false reporting. In fact, supporters of this idea of the media-as-educators have argued that a Sullivan-style immunity for untrue claims is actually damaging for democracy.The paper considers these models in light of jurisprudence in Canada, Australia and the UK and concludes that the Irish legislative proposals conform to an emerging trend towards the democratic model of media freedom.

Serving a stir-fry of market, culture and politics – on globalisation and film policy in Greater China

This article examines film policy in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan in the context of globalisation. The three markets face a similar set of challenges posed by globalisation, and they equally see the need to promote the local film industry through policy-making. The rhetoric of their film policies converges in embracing free-market ideas and a strong economic logic. However, their specific measures diverge when it comes to the extent and nature of government intervention, restraints posed upon foreign film businesses, vigour and objectives of government film censorship and emphasis given to the cultural imperative of film policy.

Public or private water management: Experience from different European Countries

Faced with liberalisation proposals and an increasing internationalisation of water resource management, the question arises as to how a change of the regulatory framework would affect the market structure and the supply conditions in this area. While the term "privatisation" relates to the ownership structure of the providers, the term "liberalisation" implies extensive free market ideas. Privatisation involves the outsourcing of public services from the public authorities to a privately organised organisation. Through this, however, nothing needs to change in terms of the market or the intensity of competition for the commodity in question. Within the framework of privatisation it can also occur that the public monopoly is only transferred to a private monopoly. The term "liberalisation" in addition refers to the basic regulatory constraints: liberalisation signifies the cessation of limitations to competition and supply monopolies, and open competition between several suppliers for the consumers. In the EU-15, the only country where the provision of operational services in the water supply has been totally passed to the private sector is the UK, but this is only true for UK and Wales. Another singular case is France, where there is a mix of mainly private operating companies and municipalities which have divided the regional supply areas among themselves. In six other EU-15 countries where some privatisation took place, either the municipalities or (majority) publicly owned companies are controlling water supply. In the remaining seven countries, the water supply is organised by municipality companies only. In an international comparison, there are three basic models for the regulation of natural monopolies in the public water supply: the Anglo-Saxon, the French and the German model. The delimitation between supervisory bodies and operations in the water supply is strongest in the first model and weakest in the last. This has led to three basic types of privatisation: "full privatisation", "privatisation through delegation" and "privatisation with regulation by the supervisory bodies". These have led to three clearly distinguishable forms of competition: substitute competition simulated by the regulation authorities between private supply-enterprises, competition between private operators for the right to the temporary provision of water supplies, and competition in the product and service markets in the provision of water. In this paper, these different forms of privatisation and liberalisation are described and their impact on competition and market structures is analysed.

The Two Markets

If we live in an attention economy, where it is not information that is in short supply but the human attention needed to make sense of it—and we do; if librarians have always played a central role in organizing this attention—and you have; then why is it that Google seems to be eating your lunch? One way to frame this question is to discriminate more clearly than we usually do between the two markets: the free market of stuff and the free market of ideas.

Hitting first: preventive force in U.S. security strategy

The U.S. war in Iraq was not only an intelligence failure - it was a failure in democratic discourse. Hitting First offers a critical analysis of the political dialogue leading up to the American embrace of preventive war as national policy and as the rationale for the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Taking as its point of departure the important distinction between preemptive and preventive war, the contributors examine how the rhetoric of policy makers conflated these two very different concepts until the public could no longer effectively distinguish between a war of necessity and a war of choice. Although the book focuses on recent events, Hitting First takes into consideration the broader historical, ethical, and legal context of current American policies. Precedents are examined for preventive military action based on conventional as well as nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons threats. The authors also consider recent examples of the rhetoric of humanitarian intervention, which have tended to undermine traditional notions of national sovereignty, making purportedly morally justifiable actions easier to entertain. Intelligence gathering and its use, manipulation, and distortion to suit policy agendas are also analyzed, as are the realities of the application of military force, military requirements to sustain a policy of preventive war, and post-conflict reconstruction. Hitting First presents a timely and essential view of the lessons learned from the failures of the Iraqi conflict and offers a framework for avoiding future policy breakdowns through a process of deliberative public and governmental debate within a free market of ideas. The critiques and prescriptions offered here provide a unique and valuable perspective on the challenges of formulating and conducting national security policy while sustaining the principles and institutions of American democracy. This collection will appeal to students and scholars of American foreign policy, international relations, political communication, and ethics.

Principle, Pragmatism, and Paralysis: Stanley Fish on Free Speech

Unlike those who read Fish as declaring that free speech is an illusion or incoherent, I argue that Fish provides a superior explanation of what makes free speech possible, and a more insightful description of what judges are doing when they decide cases under laws which protect it. In this paper I first identify the central philosophical commitment from which Fish derives most of his controversial positions. Next, I demonstrate how his position on free speech in particular flows from this central philosophical commitment. Finally, in the main section of the paper, I consider three serious objections to Fish’s analysis of free speech, and consider how Fish might respond to them. I seek to defend Fish's denial that the relationship between freedom and constraint is one of simple opposition; rather he claims that constraint is the precondition for freedom. He therefore sees all speech as made under conditions of constraint. He also sees a commitment to censoring some speech as inherently contained within any commitment to freedom of speech, and so toleration of all viewpoints is impossible. He denies that any free speech principle can be neutral regarding viewpoints, and he denies that any "free market of ideas" is without bias and exclusions. He therefore rejects the accounts given by American courts deciding cases under the First Amendment which stress a fidelity to neutral principle. Since there are no such principles in existence, such courts are really doing one of two things. Either they are pragmatically advancing a partisan agenda, and constraining some speech in a way which is obfuscated, or their false belief in the existence of neutral principles paralyses them in the face of danger and prevents them from performing this pragmatic exercise.

Alternative Ways of Organising: Asian Labour’s Response to the ‘New’ Globalisation: Introduction

Globalisation--when defined as the 'linking of distinct localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring miles away and vice versa' (Giddens 1990: 64)--is nothing new. However, the most recent wave of globalisation has distinctive features. Rather than being linked to the activity of identifiably imperialist powers such as Britain or France, post-1960s globalisation is driven by often faceless investment interests using vehicles other than the nationstate. These include transnational corporations who have no clearly identifiable home country base, and global structures such as the WTO (World Trade Organization), which have erected a 'boundaryless world' that prioritises capitals' interests over those of the nation-state or labour. This 'new globalisation' is modelled on an American style of neoliberalism under which the conduct of individuals, groups and nations is clearly dominated by economic imperatives. American neo-liberalism promotes a minimalist approach to social obligations while maximizing economic interests; it differs from the Ordo neo-liberalism practised in Europe, which combines free market ideas with the need for social welfare provisions (Emy 1993). However, both forms of neo-liberalism have had significant effects on society. Not only does neo-liberal ideology seek to eliminate restrictions and regulations such as tariffs, quotas and other tariff and non tariff barriers, it also seeks to actively construct an enterprise culture (Peters 1996), or enterprise mentality, that prioritises market or economic interests above social needs. Individualism not collectivism, user pays not social justice, become the dominant values guiding the conduct of individuals, groups and nations operating within this framework of governance as each person, group, or community of persons, aims to carve out their own 'best deal'. These principles drive the export-oriented model of industrial development (EOI) that now dominates the economies of Asia. EOI advocates argue that a reassertion of the primacy of economic growth and market interests reduces poverty and generates prosperity in newly industrialising environments (NIEs) (see Balassa 1981; Krueger 1985). The International Monetary Fund's promotion of EOI, along with the rapid growth achieved~by Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong, encouraged other Asian countries to adopt EOI policies. As a result, EOI has become the industrial development model of choice in the region, even in previously closed or centrally managed economies such as India, Vietnam and now of course China. This pathway has been pursued with relative ease because most Asian NIE economies were governed by authoritarian or single party democratic regimes, which erected legislative and regulatory frameworks to proactively promote EOI even when social costs were incurred. Asian governments' commitment to export-driven economic growth has had serious implications for labour. Exchange controls, guarantees concerning repatriation of investment, taxation and general industry assistance schemes to attract investment were complemented by an industrial relations model characterized by restrictions on freedom of association, collective bargaining and the right to strike. These governments tightly controlled remuneration and workplace conditions to match the needs of international capital, as opposed to broader community needs. In summary, the Asian labour-management model has heightened the vulnerability of Asian workers in comparison to those working in more industrialised environments. Collective resistance is not only difficult to co-ordinate within this paradigm; it is also difficult to stimulate. However, the papers in this symposium suggest that the harsh regimes of labour control characteristic of Asia's EOI economies have not been able to eliminate labour collectivity altogether. Rather, they have encouraged novel forms of labour activism both within the tradition of unionism and beyond it. …

Competing Policy Frames in EU Policy Making: The Rise of Free Market Ideas in EU Steel Policy 1985-1996

EU steel policy offers a particularly good example of how policy ideas can be transposed from the national to the supranational level via advocacy coalitions and policy entrepreneurs. The Treaty of Paris, which founded the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951, gave steel a firm institutional base, and made it a 'special case' within the European Community. Although the Treaty was a hybrid in which liberal principles rested somewhat uneasily against the potential powers given to the High Authority, in the 1970s and early 1980s the Commission adopted a highly interventionist policy in response to the deep crisis in European steel. Consequently, it might have been expected that rival free market ideas would encounter great difficulty in altering the dominant policy frame, but in the late 1980s and 1990s these have successfully infiltrated the steel sector. This article describes and analyses this process, particularly with regard to the effects of the ideological push given to free markets by the Thatcher government in Britain in the 1980s, and a change in the French industrial culture which played an important part in shifting the balance of power in European steel policy.

The Worldwide Movement in Private Universities: Revolutionary Growth in Post‐Secondary Higher Education

The end of the Cold War, which resulted from the collapse of communism and the spread of free market ideas in the former Soviet Union, China, and nations in Eastern Europe, has brought about many dramatic and momentous changes on the world scene. One remarkable development not widely recognized outside specialized academic circles is the emergence of new institutions of higher learning in the private sector of previously command economies and also in many developing countries that had been wedded to a culture of socialism for decades. The “privatization” of higher education is by all accounts a global phenomenon. Very few systematic studies of these new trends in private post‐secondary education exist to date, although the impact of this development could be far‐reaching not only for higher education but also for the social and economic development of many societies in the world. In this paper we attempt to analyze the phenomenon of new private universities in non‐Western nations, focusing on the developing world in general, and Asia in particular. What missions have these institutions chosen? Which models are these institutions following? What challenges do they face? How are they coping with their relationship to existing public universities? How are they dealing with tuition and budgetary issues? What sources of funding are they tapping into? How are they dealing with issues of equity, excellence, and access? In the composition of their faculty, student body, and curriculum, are these institutions sufficiently international? How are the funding institutions and universities in the West helping these fledgling universities? Are these trends expected to accelerate in the future? We attempt to answer these questions within the context of a few case studies that reflect the breadth and diversity of this revolutionary growth in post‐secondary higher education.

Néolibéralisme ou keynésianisme rénové : la fausse alternative

Denis Collin, Keynesianism against Neoliberalism : A Real Alternative ? ; Current political and economic debates seem to be dominated by the opposition between the free-market ideas which now prevail and their keynesian or neo-keynesian critics. In many ways, however, such an opposition is false and deflects attentions from a more proper focus upon property relations and the nature and principles of political power.

Women's Work and the Howard Government

Abstract This paper undertakes a preliminary exploration of the impact of social conservatism on Australian industrial relations. It posits that contradictions have emerged under the current government in terms of, on the one hand, support for ‘freeing up’ of the labour market, and, on the other hand, the inherent logic of Howard's free-market economic agenda. The contradiction is that freeing up the labour market involves support for a male breadwinner wage so that women do not enter the workplace. This agenda is carried out driven by free market ideas of minimum legislation, including no minimum wage legislation. To explain this agenda, attention is turned to the influence of right-wing pressure groups. Changes in the composition of the Lyons Forum within the Liberal Party of Australia since the 1998 election are then examined. A continuing influence by the forces of moral conservatism during the second term of the Howard coalition government is evident.

Science and Religion at the Turn of the Millennium

The categories of conflict, independence, dialogue, and integration have been used to organize the wealth of opinion on the relationship of science and religion (Barbour, 1997). This approach is especially useful in college or high school science courses, or special seminars, because it allows the instructor to locate his or her own opinion, and challenge students to determine their own beliefs. This effectively lays most opinions “on the table” for display in a free market of ideas. Using this approach, students can examine the strengths and shortcomings of major opinions, and it has the advantage of preserving the dignity of all religious views that reside in the science classroom, without compromising any science. The wealth and depth of new ideas that have been forthcoming from both science and theology offer the exciting promise of future wisdom that can serve both religion and science.

The Temporary Victory and Ultimate Failure of Free Market Rationalism

The virtues of the free market are everywhere extolled today. Yet, in fact, a blind application of free market ideas and a dismantling of government controls has led to disaster and misery for millions. The article shows how the New Right, advocating the free market, has abandoned ethics, social concern and even rationality. In the end, however, rationality is bound to reassert itself.

Competing advocacy coalitions and the process of 'frame reflection': a longitudinal analysis of EU steel policy

European Union steel policy offers a particularly good example of how policy ideas in the form of 'policy frames' can be transplanted across national boundaries and into supranational arenas via interests, in the form of advocacy coalitions, and individual policy entrepreneurs. These dynamics of policy change illustrate not only the power of economic and political ideas to influence policy, but also how interests compete to impose their own 'frames' of reality on the policy discourse of the day. The Treaty of Paris, which founded the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951, gave steel policy a firm institutional base, and made it a 'special case' within the European Community. The Paris Treaty embodied Keynesian ideas of countering trade cycles, enabling the institutions of the ECSC to adapt to exogenous changes. Nevertheless, in the 1990s the fashion for free market ideas within the ECSC has caused the Paris Treaty to be identified with the old interventionist policy frames of the 1970s and 1980s, with the result that the Treaty has fallen out of fashion. This article describes and analyses this process over a fifty-year period, in terms of shifts in the balance of power in European steel policy which enabled a new policy frame to emerge.

Covering the Global Village

In the eighties, the Berlin wall was shaken by faxed, telephoned and broadcast reports which overwhelmed state sanctioned news and helped the deconstructions of Stalinist confections of reality. In contemporary mainland China, the state monopoly of foreign news is being undermined by growing usage of the Internet, which can allow access to the international free market of ideas. But such ‘democratic competition also promises to challenge Western information orders; with profound implications for foreign correspondets and international news agencies which have dominated international news production and distribution since the last century. Now anyone with a computer, a modem and Internet account can read dozens of newspapers, and share their views with others around the world. On-line reporters can access distant databases to research their stories. They can ask questions and receive tips via email. As a result, international news need no longer be the preserve of the elites. But will this new technology enhance accurate globalized journalism or merely accelerate the trend towards superficial instant reports which are little more than rumour styled as news?

Reflexivity, community and education for the learning society

In this article it is argued that the idea of a learning society is consonant with developments in the social world conceived as part of the ongoing project of reflexive modernity. This project is characterised by a dynamic process of individualisation which on the one hand results in widening opportunities for self-creation and the construction of democratic, flexible communities, but on the other is associated with new kinds of structures and cultural processes which continue to reproduce inequality whilst failing to counter the tendency to fragmentation. The idea of a learning society is a response to the dilemmas of these ‘new times’. The New Right idea of such a society is reviewed and found wanting; the particular mix of neo-liberal free market ideas and neo-conservative authoritarianism just cannot deliver the flexibility, diversity and scope for reflexivity required at the level of the self or the community. It is then argued that the most appropriate conception of the learning society is that which grasps the nettle of individualism whilst at the same time deploying an understanding of the self as constituted in practices – a model which avoids the conceptual split between the individual and society and captures the duality of persons as individuals and as members of communities. An attempt is then made to outline a curricular and pedagogical strategy appropriate for a democratic version of the learning society. This involves two aspects: first a teaching approach which focuses on the nature of commitment to and participation in reflexive communities and second, one that fosters the kind of self-reflexivity and self-knowledge required for individuals to sustain and develop their self identities in the circumstances of reflexive modernity.

Why tolerate? Reflections on the Millian truth principle

The aim of this essay is to reflect on the Millian, utilitarian argument from truth that is held as one of the most conspicuous answers to the question Why tolerate? This argument postulates that only in a free market of ideas may the truth be discovered. Even the most unpopular idea may contain some truth in it and may contribute to the advancement of knowledge. It further commands us to contest those opinions which are believed to be true vigorously and earnestly to explore some further truth, and to acknowledge their false aspects. The results of free exchange of opinions will either confirm our idea, or bring some doubt to our attention, to cast accounts and maybe change our opinion, at least to some extent.After reflecting on some of the common arguments that are frequently mentioned in this connection, I discuss Mill's formulation of the Truth Principle as it came into expression in his writings. Here I reflect on his article "Law of Libel and Liberty of the Press" which did not receive adequate attention by scholars. I show that it is difficult to reconcile what Mill had to say in this article with what he later said in On Liberty. I further maintain that the Millian view of truth as superior to all other social values might endanger the very ground which the Truth Principle is intended to safeguard, i.e., tolerance. The holding of truth as the most important value might result in harming individuals, and in generating an atmosphere of intolerance.

The nature of liberal civilization: a discussion between Sidney Hook and Bertrand Russell

The nature of liberal' civilization: a discussion between Sidney Hook and Bertrand Russell The British Broadcasting Corporation presents a conversation on the nature of liberal civilization between Dr. Sidney Hook, well-known educator and philosopher and Chairman ofNew York University's Graduate Division of Philosophy and Psychology, and the eminent British philosopher Bertrand Russell. Hook: Our theme, Russell, is the nature ofliberal civilization, and the problems which it confronts today. All sorts of definitions of liberal civilization have been offered, and I suppose we don't want to take too much time exploring definitions. Well, I want to propose a definition of liberal civilization as one in which there is a free market of ideas and in which there is a belief that the play of intelligence will lead to equitable solutions of problems more readily than by the use offorce, tradition, or similar instruments. Now, from the belief in the free market of ideas, it seems to me that, as liberals, we are committed to a defence ofthe right of heresy, because one never knows when a heretical idea may turn out to be a valid idea. We cannot make the assumption of absolute truth, and so I've very often tended to identify a liberal civilization with a belief in the right to heresy. But now, unfortunately, our modern society differs from the society of fifty or seventy-five years ago in that on various occasions we have encountered movements designed to destroy free society and with that the right to heresy. And these movements distinguish themselves from the revolutionary movements of old in not being outspoken and honest in their declaration that they wish to substitute a different kind ofsociety, but they have taken a conspiratorial form. The heretic is a man who honestly defends unpopular ideas and prepares to take the 5 6 Russell summer 1985 consequences for it. The conspirator is one who works by stealth, who works outside the rules of the game and today, as in the Fascist and the Communist movements, works on behalf of a foreign power which has declared its purpose as being the destruction ofliberal civilization, which it regards as decadent. And I maintain that our moral obligation in political life is to the toleration ofdissent, no matter how heretical, not to the toleration of conspiracy, no matter how disguised; and our practical problem is to find ways of implementing that distinction. But I would like to know whether you accept this distinction between heresy, to which I say yes, and conspiracy, to which I say no. Russell: Yes, up to a point I accept it. I'm not quite sure but what I should go even further than you do in the way of things not to be tolerated. I should say, for example, that ifthere were a political doctrine of which the chief tenet was the assassination of the heads ofstates, that you would have a certain right to suppress that doctrine, in so far as it went in for assassination. Hook: Only in so far as there was a clear and present danger that some would carry out the assassination. Russell: Quite. So that I don't think that it's altogether the distinction between a conspiracy and a doctrine. And I should go further and say this, that even supposing that a man is a heretic and a conspirator, you ought to be able to distinguish his conspiratorial activities from his other activities, and allow him his other activities, and only catch him up when you find him being a conspirator. Hook: I agree with you. That is to say, that if a man professes Fascist ideas, or if he professes Communist ideas, I think that he should be treated as a heretic, and be given an opportunity to present them in the market-place of opinion. But if he joins an organization with a declared objective of infiltrating into strategic posts In the government, if he assumes a Party name and then professes to be something different, then I should say that he is a conspirator-not necessarily a political conspirator , but that he is playing outside the rules of the game in the...

Free market ideas deluge industrial policy

RETURN TO ISSUEPREVNewsNEXTFree market ideas deluge industrial policyCite this: Chem. Eng. News 1984, 62, 19, 25Publication Date (Print):May 7, 1984Publication History Published online7 November 2010Published inissue 7 May 1984https://doi.org/10.1021/cen-v062n019.p025Copyright © 1984 American Chemical SocietyArticle Views5Altmetric-Citations-LEARN ABOUT THESE METRICSArticle Views are the COUNTER-compliant sum of full text article downloads since November 2008 (both PDF and HTML) across all institutions and individuals. These metrics are regularly updated to reflect usage leading up to the last few days.Citations are the number of other articles citing this article, calculated by Crossref and updated daily. Find more information about Crossref citation counts.The Altmetric Attention Score is a quantitative measure of the attention that a research article has received online. Clicking on the donut icon will load a page at altmetric.com with additional details about the score and the social media presence for the given article. Find more information on the Altmetric Attention Score and how the score is calculated. Share Add toView InAdd Full Text with ReferenceAdd Description ExportRISCitationCitation and abstractCitation and referencesMore Options Share onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InReddit PDF (97 KB) SUBJECTS:Dissection Get e-Alerts

Opening and closing in open systems

After considering some phenomena of collective behavior, this paper suggests an amendment to the open social system model. Only under some conditions does a pluralistic society approximate J. S. Mill's description of the free market of ideas. A more accurate picture is continual oscillation between relative openness and closedness—resilient adjustment to intakes of information and states of entropy. When such oscillations are more fully analyzed as information games, we may better understand how open systems work, as well as such phenomena as ethnic revivalism, cultic movements, backlashes, mass contagions, fads, and fashion cycles.