Rational Calculation Research Articles

Is Europe in a Crisis of Faith?

The British want to leave the EU and the rest of Europe is shocked. The Europeans may have lost their faith in their common destiny. The large number of strong arguments for a membership in the Union did not convince the majority of the British voters, although those arguments have been clearly demonstrated again and again. Many political fields cannot be ploughed unilaterally. Environmental protection is a global challenge. The tough competition prevalent in the global economy will not be suspended by referendums of ageing, wealth-saturated European societies. The single European market is more resilient against global competitive pressure than an array of small domestic economies on their own. All these reasons do not seem to pervade. EU- opponents see the membership of their country as an act of self-enslavement and the Brexit as a new biblical Exodus incident. Boris Johnson – a modern Moses? The construction of Europe in this perspective is no longer a rational calculation but turns into a question of faith and it congeals into political theology.

Characteristics of market-oriented rice production of farmers in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam

This study of rice production in Thoai Son district of An Giang province points out that the characteristics of rice farmers’ market-oriented production are constantly expanding areas of production; getting loans to invest on intensive production; applying advanced technologymechanization; and participating or not participating in agricultural value chain. Underlying these characteristics is the choice making of farmer households which are determined by their interests. In the present context of rice producing when rice farmers’ economic behaviors result from the interaction of their rational calculation and the market structure, farmers’ interests contradict with those of state models or designs for rice production development, it is true that farmers’ rationality at household levels can be seen as an obsable to the efforts of establishing a big and modern rice industry.

国家主导型发展规划的地方回应研究——以宁边村“美丽乡村建设工程”为中心讨论

Despite their recurrent disjunction with the real world of rural dwellers in their everyday life due to state authorities’ oversimplified approach to the governance of society, most of the macro development plans imposed from above came to fruition in the end and had a profound impact on social changes in rural China. As the case of Ningbian village shows, three key actors were involved the process of the making and implementation of development plans. The first is the makers of the development plan, who had to reach a consensus with the beneficiaries of the projects over the future life goals of the latter. The second is the villagers who accepted the state’s macro development plan only on the basis of their rational calculation of self-interest. And the third is those who implemented the development plan; they had to positively respond to the reasonable claims by the villagers and handle the possible conflicts between the development plan and the concerns of local community with flexibility. 国家基于对社会的简单化管理而制定的发展规划常常与农民的微观生活世界之间出现断裂，但是这些宏观的发展规划最终能够成功执行，并对中国乡村社会变迁产生深远影响。宁边村的研究个案表明，在发展规划从制定到执行的过程中，三个行动主体的行为发挥了作用。发展规划的决策者与政策实施对象之间关于对未来美好生活的实现达成了共识；村民出于理性的利益计算而接受了来自国家的宏观发展规划；发展规划的执行者在政策执行过程中积极回应村民的合理诉求，采取了变通措施弥合了宏观的发展规划与农民微观生活世界的断裂之处。 (This article is in Chinese.)

Power, capital, and immigration detention rights: making networked markets in global detention governance at UNHCR

AbstractWith the expanded use of immigration detention and migration management practices worldwide, detention has emerged as a key issue for United Nations and international human rights institutions. A growing international rights movement seeks to make the practice fairer and more humane, leading to the dominance of a mainstream detention rights agenda and counter‐hegemonic system of governance. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Geneva and elsewhere, this article examines the capital, knowledge, and technological expertise that went into the construction of UNHCR's Global Detention Strategy. I highlight the rational calculation undergirding this global detention rights agenda, including the transnational policy networks of NGOs, INGOs, and academics that facilitate the movement's moral authority and capitalist growth. Their practices have become powerful neoliberal development tools, which give veracity to human rights agendas and attract oppositionally‐figured abolitionist praxis.

A Study of Adam Smith’s Original Contributions to Economic Theory and Decision Making under Uncertainty

The current, dominant belief among economists that Smith had made no original contributions to economic theory, outside of presenting an original system of thought that was composed of the original analysis of other thinkers, is incorrect. Smith made four unique contributions which have been overlooked. The first contribution was clear cut recognition that probabilities could not be calculated exactly using precise, single number answers .Probabilities were indeterminate and/or imprecise. The mathematical laws of the probability calculus can’t be applied, in general, to decision making in the real world. Smith rejects any decision making approach based on fair, or mathematical, lotteries .Secondly, Smith was the first to explicitly recognize that real world decision making was very uncertain, as opposed to being based on the mathematical concept of risk which was based on known probabilities and outcomes leading to expected value and expected utility calculations a la Jeremy Bentham’s rational economic calculator of probable odds model .Third, Smith was the first to recognize that, as long as the probabilities were greater than 0 , retaliatory tariffs might lead a country that had imposed a tariff on another country to rescind that decision .There was room for a set of strategies in conflicts between nations over tariffs involving war ,threats, negotiations, mediation, and retaliation implying tit for tat or chicken strategies .Fourth, Smith recognized that the main threat to economic prosperity originated from projectors, prodigals, and imprudent risk takers (J M Keynes’s speculators and rentiers) ,who were able to obtain bank loans in order to try to leverage their debt position many times over. The result would be that the bank’s deposits would be wasted and destroyed. This will lead to a recession or depression. Smith did not add this last sentence because it is obvious.

Withering regulation? An interim review of Modi government’s labour reforms

ABSTRACTLabour reforms seem to be one of the arenas where the Modi government has brought about marked policy interventions in a relatively shorter span of 1 year. Behind this sense of urgency, it is plausible to decipher a new rational calculation where labour question hold vector to other larger goals of the present leadership. This paper aims to survey the labour reforms initiated by the Modi government since May 2014 and presents an interim review. I examine two draft legislations at the bill stage, the labour code on industrial relations and the Factories Act amendment bill, to explain how the reforms obliquely wither the statutory regulations and also why the government approach is premised on the view that the regulation is patently flawed The paper tries to elaborate how the ideational origins as well as the institutional inclination of the BJP government tend to subordinate labour question to the larger economic agenda.

The Future of Utopia

ABSTRACTThe widespread notion that the city is secular and that therefore society’s future is secular is in need of serious reconsideration. This paper argues that religion does not melt away but rather morphs into modern forms of aspiration, speculation, and contention. Religion is therefore crucial to social inquiry into the nature of the urban. The paper argues that in Asia the Christian modern is close to the secular modern with fragments of rational planning and calculation in constant interplay with fragments of the magic of speculative modernity. Both communism and market capitalism are ideological cousins of Christian millenarianism. In a comparison of India, China, and Singapore it argues that the Christian form of modernity has been much better able to penetrate and coalesce with Sinic civilizational traditions than with Indic civilizational traditions.

Are the terms “socio-economic status” and “class status” a warped form of reasoning for Max Weber?

AbstractA classic definition of social inequality comes from the sociologist Max Weber, who wrote that there are three fundamental types of inequality. The first is based in the marketplace and is “social class”. The second, and more important distinction, is based in estimations of honour that Weber called in German Stand, which traditionally is translated into English as “status group”. The third type of stratification is “party” where power is distributed. Weber emphasized that the two forms of stratification emerge out of two different parts of society: Stand with its emphasis on honour emerges out of the most fundamental part of society rooted in loyalties, the Gemeinschaft, whereas class emerges out of a sub-unit of the Gemeinschaft, rationally ordered markets and legal structures of the Gesellschaft. Party emerges out of both. In Weber’s estimation, two types of social stratification, class and Stand, although related, cannot be mixed because they are fundamentally different. The former is rooted in abstract emotion and the latter in rational calculation. To do so, he writes, is a “warped reasoning”. Despite Weber’s warnings, English-language terms used to measure social inequality, particularly “socio-economic status”, conflate the two qualities, presenting them as a single variable. However, when the two are separated, analysts get a much more nuanced view of the mechanisms for how different types of inequality persist, be they in the professions, residence, ethnicity, race or caste.

Are tourists animal spirits? Evidence from a field experiment exploring the use of non-market based interventions advocating sustainable tourism

ABSTRACT Tourists' travel decisions can be influenced by appropriate policies that seek to encourage them to choose travel plans leading to more sustainable tourism practices. Based on using conventional cognitive decision-making models, most current policy recommendations employ market-based economic incentives (e.g. taxes). This paper employs a dual emotional-cognitive decision-making model to represent tourists' choices. This framework allows comparing the efficacy of taxing emission levels against non-market sustainability policies including: (1) environmental information labelling; (2) emotional communication messages, and (3) limiting time pressure marketing practices. A field experiment (N = 509) was used to test the effectiveness of both market- and non-market-based sustainability policies in reducing overall CO2 emission levels by affecting destination choice. It found that the sensitivity of the choice decision to price is overestimated if and when emotions are not considered in the choice context. Tourists' decisions can not only be guided by rational financial calculations but also by the interplay of their emotions or the “animal spirits” cited by John Maynard Keynes. Therefore, effective policies to change behaviour towards more sustainable practices in tourism can be induced by working through non-market interventions like shaping positive emotional messages (but avoiding negative ones) and limiting time pressure marketing techniques.

RASIONALITAS KONVERSI BANK KONVENSIONAL KE BANK SYARI’AH

<p align="center"><strong>RASIONALITAS KONVERSI </strong></p><p align="center"><strong>BANK KONVENSIONAL KE BANK SYARI’AH</strong><strong></strong></p><p align="center"><em> </em></p><p align="center"><em>Aji Damanuri</em></p><p><strong><em> </em></strong></p><p><strong><em>Abstract</em></strong><em>: Shari</em><em>></em><em>’ah banking, for the last ten years, has increased in prosperity not only at the quantity of conventional banks but also at the count of assets and customers. This economical opportunity drives amount of conventional banks both to convert their institutions to be shari</em><em>></em><em>’ah banks and to open officially shari</em><em>></em><em>’ah platform units with their own assets. This system takes a significant question, is the conversion effected by both banker ideological factor and capitalists or pure economical rational calculation? Is a religious consideration linked to economical rationality? This paper is to elaborate the conversion using not only ‘choice theory’ (teori pilihan) but also ‘rational action’ (tindakan rasional) to seek religious action possibility in a reasonable way of shari</em><em>></em><em>’ah banking.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><strong><em>Keywords</em></strong><em>: shari</em><em>></em><em>’ah bank, conversion, rational action, religiosity. </em></p>

Mises, Rand and the 20th Century

The two most ardent critics of collectivism in the 20th century were arguably Ludwig von Mises and Ayn Rand. Mises was a hard-nosed economist and political economist; Rand was a hard hitting novelist and philosopher. Mises attacked the economic and political workings of collectivism; Rand attacked the morality and aesthetics of collectivism. This essay discusses the relationship between these two modes of argumentation, what I will term the “head” and the “heart” arguments and why the “head” must be used to temper the “heart”. Both Mises and Rand emphasized the primacy of private property in their defense of individualism. Whereas Mises was using the “head” argument to emphasize the role of private property as the necessary institutional framework for rational economic calculation, Rand appealed to the “heart,” emphasizing the role of private property in securing the conditions necessary for the operation of human reason. I then discuss why a “heart” tempered by the “head” is still nevertheless a beating “heart”. The essay addresses the relevance of the relationship between technical economics and social philosophy and explains why the abysmal failure of collectivism should be seen not as a weakness of humanity, but as a failure of the ideal.

Confidence, Fear, and a Propensity to Gamble:The Puzzle of War and Economics in an Age of Catastrophe 1914–45

This paper uses the notion of animal spirits introduced by John Maynard Keynes in the General Theory, and more recently employed by George Akerloff and Robert Shiller in their book Animal Spirits, to explain the speculative bubbles and decisions for war from 1914 to 1945. Animal spirits are a spontaneous urge to action rather than inaction that produces decisions that are not bounded by rational calculations. My analysis shows how confidence, fear, and a propensity to gamble can encourage aggressive behavior that leads to speculative “bubbles” in financial markets and military or political crises. Elements of prospect theory are added to demonstrate how the presence of risk in crises tend to produce a very strong bias toward taking gambles to avoid economic or military loses. A basic premise of the paper is that war and economics were inexorably joined together by 1914 to a point where economic strength was as important as military might in determining the outcome of a war. The final section of the paper deals with the problem of measuring military and economic strength by using the Composite Index of National Capability created by the Correlates of War Project to evaluate the riskiness of the Schlieffen Plan in 1914 and the changes in military capability of major powers between 1914 and 1919.

Aircraft Combat Survivability Calculation Based on Combination Weighting and Multiattribute Intelligent Grey Target Decision Model

Aircraft combat survivability is defined as the capability of an aircraft to avoid or withstand a man-made hostile environment, which has been increasingly important. In order to give a rational calculation of aircraft combat survivability, an integrated method based on combination weighting and multiattribute intelligent grey target decision model is proposed. Firstly, an evaluation index system containing susceptibility index and vulnerability index as well as their subindexes is established. Then a multiattribute intelligent grey target decision model is introduced. A combination weighting method is brought up based on a modified AHP (analytic hierarchy process) method and the entropy method, offering a rational weight for various indexes. Finally, utilize the multiattribute intelligent grey target decision model to assess the aircraft combat survivability of aircraft, verified by a practical case of five aircraft. The results show that the proposed method is effective and has a great value in engineering application, which will provide useful references for other projects’ evaluation.

Rasionalitas Indonesia dalam Pengimplementasian “40+9 Rekomendasi” FATF

Global anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime set up by G7 countries in 1989 had established a nontreaty yet significantly influencing standard setter body named Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Regime norms codified by FATF in “40+9 Recommendations”, hand in hand with “Non-cooperative Countries and Territories (NCCTs)” list have become two most powerful instruments in enforcing international AML/CFT regime, not only for member but also non member countries, including Indonesia. This study is aimed to explore the reasons behind Indonesia’s decision to adopt and thus implement “40+9 Recommendations”. Using power-based regime approach and the economic sanction theory, this research finds that the said decision is a result of rational calculation, considering both international and domestic dynamics. On international side, there are global financial hegemon countries as FATF members behind “40+9 Recommendations” who can act unilaterally to foster and enforce its global implementation. On the domestic side, its implementation can provide a basis for good financial governance, a much needed foundation to build anti-corruption and anti-terrorism national regime.

Rallying around the President: When and Why Do Americans Close Ranks behind Their Presidents during International Crisis and War?

Many studies have reported that US presidents often become more popular at the onset of wars and other security crises. Research on this “rally-round-the-flag” phenomenon has focused on either rational calculation of success, chances of military actions, popular perceptions of security threats, or the role of opinion leaders. This paper proposes a new approach: I argue that challenges to the symbolic status of the nation vis-à-vis other nations drive rally periods. This study examines the rally-round-the-flag phenomenon from a comparative historical perspective, using a new database of war events and security crises from 1950–2006. The analysis reveals that two types of status challenges result in nationalist rally reactions: first, the public has rallied behind presidents when wars and security crises were viewed as an opportunity for the United States to reclaim its previously damaged national honor; and second, rallies have emerged when the president claimed the mantle of “leader of the free world” in an internationally authorized coalition attack on a foreign country.

Do people choose to be homeless? An existentially informed hermeneutic phenomenological analysis

Purpose – Homeless populations are a politically contentious problem and researchers struggle to achieve a balanced approach. They place emphasis on sharply contrasting factors, such as; institutional structures, ideologies or individual dispositions and differences. Central questions remain unanswered, i.e., is homelessness an outcome of society’s failings related to housing shortages, or a personal choice, as in the status of “intentional homelessness?” The purpose of this paper is to set aside assumptions, to explore experiences of homelessness and psychosis. Design/methodology/approach – An existentially informed hermeneutic phenomenological analysis; exploring transcribed narratives from semi-structured interviews with three men. Findings – These participants started to wander as a spontaneous response to distressing life experiences. Without any plan they travelled to new locations living on the street. Being contained and treated against their will in the psychiatric system was another source of distress. They did not choose homelessness through a rational calculation of their best interests. They felt at odds with society, which did not protect them and failed to meet their needs. Research limitations/implications – In qualitative research, findings are not generalisable to other settings. Practical implications – Homeless services should be enhanced by psychological expertise along with more person-centred emphatic approaches; the authors of social policies should consider their philosophical assumptions. Social implications – Systemised mental healthcare does not solve complex problems; fails to meet needs. Originality/value – The analysis informs the design of further research, prompts practitioners to review their understandings and provides grounds for the rewriting of policies.

Landscapes of Aspiration in Guangzhou's African Music Scene: Beyond the Trading Narrative

This article is an exploration into the personal aspirations that converge in Guangzhou's African music scene. I argue that despite being often traversed, articulated, fuelled, and constrained by economies and economic discourses, aspirations are not necessarily economic or rational calculations. I contend that the overarching trading narrative about “Africans in Guangzhou” has left little space for issues of agency, emotion, and aspiration to be considered in their own right. Drawing on a year of continuous ethnographic fieldwork, I show how aspirations are crucial arenas where the rationales behind transnational mobility are developed, reproduced, and transmitted. Indeed, aspirations can be thought of as “navigational devices” (Appadurai 2004) that help certain individuals reach for their dreams. By bringing the analysis of aspirations to the fore, I intend to provide a more complex and nuanced landscape of the multiple rationales behind African presence in Southern China; promote a better understanding (both conceptually and empirically) of how individuals navigate their social spaces and guide their transnational journeys; and draw attention to the incessant frictions and negotiations between individual aspirations while on the move and the constraints imposed by more structural imperatives.

Metabolizable energy intake of client-owned adult cats.

A retrospective analysis of the metabolizable energy (ME) intake of privately owned pet cats from the authors' nutrition consultation practice (years 2007-2011) was carried out to test whether current recommendations are suitable for pet cats. Data of 80 adult cats (median age: 9.0 years, median deviation from ideal weight: +22.5%, majority neutered) at maintenance were available. Six percentage of the cats were healthy and the others were affected by various chronic diseases. A standardized questionnaire was used, cat owners weighed cat and food. For ration calculation, the software Diet Check Munich(™) was used (ME prediction according to National Research Council, 2006: Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats. National Academy Press, Washington, DC). Data were analysed for the factors deviation from ideal weight, breed, age, gender, disease and type of feeding [prepared food (dry, wet) vs. home-made]. Over- or underweight were defined as ≥15% deviation from ideal body weight (BW) according to Kienzle and Moik (British Journal of Nutrition 2011, 106, Suppl 1: S113). Cat owner's estimation of ideal BW was higher than literature data from Kienzle and Moik (2011). Based on literature data, 26.3% of the pet cats were normal weight, 63.7% overweight and 10% underweight. The mean ME intake of all adult cats amounted to 0.40 ± 0.14 MJ/kg actual BW(0.67) (n = 80). When the data were analysed according to normal, over- and underweight, there was a significant effect with normal weight cats eating 0.46 MJ/kg BW(0.67) . Underweight cats ate even more (0.49 MJ/kg BW(0.67) ), whereas overweight cats ate considerably less (0.36 MJ/kg BW(0.67) ). The other factors had no influence on ME intake of adult cats.

Voter Ignorance Is Not Necessarily a Problem

ABSTRACTIlya Somin's case for smaller government and “foot voting” rests on at least two questionable assumptions. The first is that voter ignorance is based on rational calculation. This assumption requires arbitrary stipulations about the degree of voter altruism and the low values voters assign to the victory of their candidates. The second is that voter ignorance betokens bad public policy. But there is plenty of evidence to the contrary. How can this be the case? One explanation is that individually ignorant voters are small pieces of a large system that divides intellectual labor through discussions among elites, opinion leaders, and ordinary citizens. This system may entitle voters to trust in the opinions of others, sparing them the need to be well informed.

Using Behavioral Insights to Increase Vaccination Policy Effectiveness

Even though there are policies in place, and safe and effective vaccines available, almost every country struggles with vaccine hesitancy, that is, a delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccination. Consequently, it is important to understand the determinants of individual vaccination decisions to establish effective strategies to support the success of country-specific public health policies. Vaccine refusal can result from complacency, inconvenience, a lack of confidence, and a rational calculation of pros and cons. Interventions should, therefore, be carefully targeted to focus on the reason for non-vaccination. We suggest that there are several interventions that may be effective for complacent, convenient, and calculating individuals whereas interventions that might be effective for those who lack confidence are scarce. Thus, efforts should be concentrated on motivating the complacent, removing barriers for those for whom vaccination is inconvenient, and adding incentives and additional utility for the calculating. These strategies might be more promising, economic, and effective than convincing those who lack confidence in vaccination.