bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Legal Aspects of Grey Zone and Hybrid Threats
Authors: Nasu Hitoshi
Published: April 2024

Is legal uncertainty within the existing structure of international law truly responsible for a grey zone that hostile actors can exploit by employing hybrid tactics? This chapter argues that the ability of hostile actors to exploit a grey zone by employing hybrid tactics does not derive from legal lacunae in which they can operate with impunity but rather represents structural problems of international law. The chapter critically considers how the existing structure of international law contributes to the growth of hybrid threats as a strategic choice of hostile actors, causing law-abiding states to suffer a disadvantage to the detriment of their security.
A Topography of Information-Based Foreign Influence
Authors: Cibralic Beba
Published: April 2024

In this chapter, I explore information-based influence in the context of epistemic security. My aim is to provide a topography of landscape and an assessment of how best to conceptualize contested terms in the discourse on influence. I begin with a foundational question: what is information-based foreign influence? I answer this question in section 2 with a structure that helps make sense of different activities and campaigns associated with information-based influence, which I refer to as ‘lines of effort’. I then compare different kinds of lines of effort: influence operations, information campaigns, psychological operations, information operations, reflexive control, social engineering, and foreign influence efforts. In section 3–6, I examine four core concepts in the discourse—propaganda, disinformation, narratives, and mediatization—and consider their epistemic consequences. I also evaluate how we ought to understand these concepts for analytical purposes. I conclude by summarizing the upshots of the arguments and offering suggestions for future research.
Decoding Grey Zone Environments
Authors: Mosquera and Andrés B. Muñoz , Chalanouli Nikoleta
Published: April 2024

Today, grey zone activities undermine the legitimacy of democratic institutions, disrupt social cohesion, and risk wearing down societies and their way of life. Identifying grey zone activities and the threats they pose is key to developing resilience. To assist with this process, the chapter reflects on what the grey zone is, its nature and characteristics, and why this concept should be considered in conjunction with that of hybrid warfare. The chapter then turns to exploring some of the key instruments of grey zone competition, illustrating the range of methods and means employed in this area by reviewing and comparing the approach taken by selected grey zone aggressors. Based on this, the chapter identifies additional lessons and implications of grey zone competition, before offering some concluding observations.
Trapped in the Grey Zone
Authors: Kleczkowska Agata
Published: April 2024

The term ‘hybrid warfare’ not only describes actions which combine different techniques and tools of combat, but also denotes the involvement of States and non-State actors (NSAs) in hostile activities. The aim of the chapter is to review the international legal norms applicable to NSAs. The chapter is divided into two parts: the first part discusses the legal framework applicable to NSAs acting independently from States. It focuses on three categories of NSAs—individuals, armed non-State actors, and transnational corporations. The second part concerns States’ responsibility for the actions of their proxies. It concludes that due to the ambiguities in the rules of attribution of responsibility, as well as imprecise treaty norms, States may evade responsibility for their proxies’ actions.
The Practice of Legal Resilience
Authors: Mazel Marlene
Published: April 2024

In today’s world, conflict is no longer restricted to military combat on the traditional battlefield. Over the past two decades, there has been an increase in the use of legal terminology and proceedings by States, non-State actors, non-governmental organizations, and other actors to achieve tactical and strategic goals, often termed ‘lawfare’. The use of lawfare may compromise not only the national security of States but also the fundamental integrity of international and domestic legal institutions and the rule of law. This chapter provides a practitioner’s perspective regarding the use of the legal domain both on and off the kinetic battlefield. It describes how operational legal tools were and are continued to be strategically employed by Israel’s adversaries to promote their political and military agenda, using the 31 May 2010 maritime incident as an illustrative case study. The chapter concludes with some insights drawn from Israel’s experience with lawfare.
Building Academic Communities
Authors: Marsden George M.
Published: April 2024

This chapter argues that contemporary Christian scholarship will not realize its potential unless it can establish a strong institutional base. Isolated individuals in university culture can make impressive efforts here and there, but unless their voices are concerted, they will be lost in the general cacophony of the contemporary academy. Scholars, like everyone else, depend on communities. If like-minded academics do not form their own sub-communities, then they will be dependent entirely on the communities that already exist. These, of course, have little place for inquiry concerning faith and learning. If such inquiry is to grow as a recognized part of contemporary academia, it must depend on institutions and networks which can sustain that enterprise.
Introduction
Authors: Vallor Shannon
Published: April 2024

This chapter explains how today’s powerful AI technologies work like mirrors designed to show us who we are, and who we will become, while threatening the very self-knowledge and possibilities for the future that they promise to reveal. The companies that forge our data into these mirrors market them as windows into our future, predicting what we will do, what we will say, what we will consume, and what we will believe. Yet as this chapter explains, because the data used to make these predictions reflect the unsustainable patterns of our past, these mirrors don’t foretell the future; in fact, they endanger it. Dispelling overhyped fears of our extinction at the hands of malevolent AI overlords, this chapter outlines the real existential threat to our humanity posed by our increasingly distorted relationships to these tools. Taking inspiration from ancient mythology and modern philosophy, this chapter is a call to reclaim the humane potential of AI technologies—and our ability to make our own futures—by refusing to be captured in their frame.
The AI Mirror
Authors: Vallor Shannon
Published: April 2024

This chapter outlines the history of artificial intelligence, from ancient attempts to construct machines that would mirror and mimic sounds and movements of living creatures; to the twentieth-century birth of AI as a scientific research program; to the latest advances in deep learning, large language models, and generative artificial intelligence; to dreams of building human-like machine minds or artificial general intelligence (AGI). The chapter explores differences between “artificial” intelligence vs. biological intelligence and discusses how those are revealed in the limitations of today’s even most powerful AI tools. Finally, drawing on the ancient myth of Narcissus and Echo to illustrate our human vulnerability to the power of reflection, the chapter explains why the remarkable ability of these tools to mirror the nature of our own minds is so captivating to us—and so perilous.
The Thoughts the Civilized Keep
Authors: Vallor Shannon
Published: April 2024

Provoked by the philosopher and mathematician Alfred North Whitehead’s claim that civilization advances by automating the work of thinking, this chapter asks: what aspects of thinking must resist automation? We are witnessing a rapid AI-driven expansion of automated decision-making systems predicted decades ago by Isaac Asimov in his stories of the fictional Multivac. In this chapter, the reader is challenged to reflect on the limits of this path, and on what we stand to lose—morally, politically, and personally—by surrendering to machines the hard-won moral and political labor of thinking. Our chances to craft a sustainable future for the human family hang upon our shrinking capacity to perform this labor together, to stand with one another in what the philosopher Wilfrid Sellars called “the space of reasons.” AI mirrors only regenerate the thoughts we’ve already had. To hold open a future, we must once again fight to think for ourselves.
Practitioners’ Perspectives on Operationalizing Strategic Workforce Planning
Authors: Feinzig Sheri L.
Published: April 2024

High-quality data are an essential foundational element of strategic workforce planning (SWP), as are the knowledge and skills to apply the right analytical techniques to varying types of data to derive impactful insights and recommendations. Data and analytics on their own, though, are insufficient for successful SWP. Also required are a strong understanding of the business and its strategic goals, effective stakeholder relationships, and linkages to the organization’s talent processes that bring workforce planning to life. This chapter explores the different ways SWP practitioners define their craft, summarizes the variety of data sources (internal, external, HR and non-HR) and analytical techniques typically used, highlights the importance of qualitative information, considers the focus on critical roles and skills, and describes uses of scenario planning in building workforce plans. Important operational considerations are discussed, and advice is shared for anticipating and addressing challenges in the practice of SWP.
Strategic Workforce Planning in the US Federal Government
Authors: Knowles Laura , Adrignola Samantha
Published: April 2024

With millions of employees organized across multiple agencies and organizations, the US federal government has strategic workforce planning challenges that are both familiar and unique to strategic workforce planning (SWP) practitioners. How do practitioners implement and assess SWP activities across the broader enterprise while addressing organization-specific needs? This chapter addresses the difficulties of balancing rigor and practicality, long-term strategic planning and immediate tactical support, and applying common best practices while respecting the autonomy of individual agencies. The authors make a case for increased engagement of industrial-organizational (I-O) psychologists in federal SWP to influence data-driven workforce management in the complex environment of the government.
The History of the Workforce at Saudi Aramco
Authors: Hobson and Christian , Katwyk Paul van
Published: April 2024

As a national oil and gas company that prides itself on safe and reliable operations, Aramco has ensured that its strategic workforce planning approach is practical, robust, and integrated into business decision making processes. As the company has evolved into a huge and diverse publicly listed global energy and chemicals company, the approach to SWP has needed to mirror this evolution. This case study explores the unique workforce demands associated with an alignment to a country’s national ambition, demanding a broader workforce planning agenda and significant investments. In Aramco’s case, workforce planning required the creation of a Saudi national talent pool which drove initiatives like the Saudization of corporate leadership. As Aramco has evolved and broadened, the efforts to mature its workforce planning efforts to be more strategic have included a more advanced predictive analytics framework and the building of a talent organization to support SWP and its implementation.
Scenario Planning
Authors: Goldberg Edie
Published: April 2024

This chapter introduces the idea of using scenario planning as a tool to help make strategic workforce planning (SWP) more agile. Using a real-life example, the reader is walked through the approach used to help a high-growth biotech company prepare the organization to launch its first product. This case study also emphasizes the importance of focusing on future capabilities (a skills-based viewpoint) versus traditional SWP, which focuses on roles and headcount. Many unknown variables existed during this transitional time for the case study company, making scenario planning an ideal tool to help the organization imagine and plan for different outcomes.
Moving Mountains
Authors: Aiken Juliet R. , Glascock Tori
Published: April 2024

In this chapter, the authors discuss the personal and professional tribulations and joys that come from planning for a more just (diverse, inclusive, equitable, secure, and healthy) workforce. The work of creating a just workforce pits practitioners against formidable, imposing mountains of tradition that are so deeply rooted and entrenched that they become the unquestioned, immutable “given” (status quo) in workplaces and in the workforce planning discipline, training, and theories. The authors describe how organizations can begin to engage in just workforce planning, including how to leverage top-down and bottom-up forces to change for better and for good, and the interplay of the personal and the professional when working to change workforces as well as the world. The authors situate lessons learned and tips for thriving in this space within the context of an organizational change project inspired by real events.
Zero Hour for Jobs
Authors: Bazigos Michael N.
Published: April 2024

This chapter explores the innovative approaches taken during the COVID-19 pandemic to address labor market volatility and workforce disruption. Through strategic workforce planning (SWP) and the deployment of technologies such as natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML), the “People + Work Connect” platform facilitated labor exchanges between a global ecosystem of companies, job redesign, and skill analysis. Analyzing roles in terms of automatability and remote work capabilities, the platform redefined traditional thinking about job roles. Key to the success was the combination of consulting skills, analytics expertise, and organizational psychology domain expertise. Real-world examples, like automated decomposition of a customer service analyst role and finding near-fit roles based on skill proximity exemplify the potential of these strategies.
Interstate Commerce, Foreign Commerce, and Related Principles
Authors: Siegel Neil S.
Published: April 2024

Chapter 5 of The Collective-Action Constitution leverages collective-action reasoning to explain the origins of the Interstate Commerce Clause, to critique the US Supreme Court’s formal distinctions in many cases interpreting this clause, and to identify a functional replacement: the distinction between collective and individual action by states. In partial contrast to the Court, this chapter reads the Interstate Commerce Clause textually and structurally as authorizing federal legislation that helps address a multistate collective-action problem caused by interstate spillovers with economic effects. Under this approach, Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) and all important decisions from 1937 to the 1990s are correctly decided. A collective-action approach also explains why the contemporary Court has decided most of its Interstate Commerce Clause cases correctly, albeit for reasons other than what its doctrine states. The chapter next questions the categorical nature of the Court’s anti-commandeering principle and defends the Court’s dormant commerce doctrine, including its two exceptions. The chapter then leverages collective-action logics to illuminate the Founding history and scope of the Foreign and Indian Commerce Clauses. The states must act collectively, not individually, to act effectively in their commercial relations with other nations. Moreover, “Commerce” in these clauses should be interpreted how it is structurally best understood in interstate-commerce cases: to include interactions and affairs outside markets in addition to trade and other economic activities. Finally, this chapter discusses the constitutional principle that valid federal law supersedes conflicting state law (preemption), which flows directly from a collective-action account of the Constitution.
Conclusion
Authors: Siegel Neil S.
Published: April 2024

This conclusion identifies key takeaways of The Collective-Action Constitution and different audiences that would benefit from accepting the central claims of the book. Constitutionally conscientious legislators and executive-branch officials, both federal and state, may better execute their responsibilities if they mind the collective-action logics that explain and justify much of the Constitution. Similarly, concerned citizens may reorient elements of their civic participation—what they demand of different governments—if they bear these logics in mind. Moreover, because this book privileges breadth of coverage of the Constitution and constitutional law over depth, there will remain room for legal scholars and political scientists to examine more closely the collective-action dimensions (or not) of specific clauses, sections, principles, decisions, and ideas—including those neglected here. Finally, the book cautions the Supreme Court and other federal courts, which can be quite assertive, not to substantially restrict federal authority in the years ahead, whether through constitutional-law holdings contracting congressional power or administrative-law decisions diminishing agency power. The nation will continue to face pressing problems that spill across state (or national) borders, so federal action will be needed to address them effectively. In general, the federal government has authority to act. And given the horizontal structure and the era of partisan polarization and animosity in which Americans will continue to live, there are already major impediments to the ability and willingness of members of Congress to overcome their own collective-action problems and legislate. Doctrine should vindicate, not thwart, the Constitution’s main structural logic—its collective-action objective.
The Political Ascent of the New Creed
Authors: Kus Basak
Published: April 2024

This chapter examines the growing political appeal of economic theories of regulation beginning in the early 1970s, when regulation was still largely seen as a beneficial solution in the public’s interest, to be modified only when economic costs outweighed public advantages. The critique against substantial government regulation, emerging within governmental corridors, was of a revisionist and pragmatic bent. Regulatory reform was seen as a tool for controlling inflation and spurring growth, often implying a reduction in regulations and the incorporation of market incentives in congruence with cost–benefit analyses. Later, in the 1980s, the critique evolved into a more systematic stance, with regulation being viewed not as a solution but as the inherent problem. There was a palpable shift in regulatory approach towards privatized decision-making, endorsing concepts of individual rationality and market discipline.
The Common Law of Property
Authors: Essert Christopher
Published: April 2024

This chapter explores the core of the private law of property, and shows how the doctrines commonly understood to be at that core can be seen as realizations of the idea of yours and mine in their particular contexts. It begins with trespass, viewed as the most basic realization of the idea of yours and mine, and shows how, paired with the power to license entry, the right protected by trespass can be seen as the common law’s way of allowing us to have things as our own. It then proceeds to extend the account to the law of nuisance, and then to the law of acquisition and possession more generally, to transfer of property, to shared ownership, tenancy, and the law of servitudes.
Collective Bargaining and Labor’s Industrial Democracy
Authors: Staszak Sarah
Published: April 2024

Chapter 2 details the development and entrenchment of labor arbitration, one of arbitration’s original institutional orders that was later converted in the service of modern, private arbitration. It examines labor arbitration’s origins and early development to show that its use in this area of policy was legitimated by characteristics that are meaningfully absent from modern arbitration today, among them its democratic origins, reliance on government-regulated collective bargaining processes, and equality among the contracting parties. It would later be used as a foundation for modern arbitration nonetheless. This transition, however, required reformers across government to strip labor arbitration of its context and underpinnings to repurpose it in the service of establishing the modern PDAA.
Conclusion
Authors: Staszak Sarah
Published: April 2024

Chapter 8 concludes with a discussion of the book’s arguments and its implications, particularly the extent to which private arbitration in modern employment and consumer contracts is the culmination of a decades-long process of institutional conversion. It argues that, by repurposing arbitration’s original institutional orders, advocates—once meaningfully bipartisan, and only recently so strictly ideological—have successfully unmoored arbitration from its original understanding, utilizing those same roots to pursue arbitration of an entirely different form. This change constitutes nothing less than a shift from public to private governance, a privatization of a central function of democracy across a growing array of policies. It also explores the ways this phenomenon also has implications for how we understand institutional change; alternative to arbitration; the politics of litigation reform through privatization; and what this privatization of dispute resolution might mean for a democracy.
Defective Primary Laws
Authors: Boatright Robert G.
Published: April 2024

This chapter uses contemporary comparative work on the quality of election laws to analyze variations in American primary election reform. There is substantial variation in primary laws across the United States, and many of the nation’s primary laws are the result of decades of tinkering with laws that were initially unworkable or problematic. Some modifications were thus the result of identifiable problems in the laws themselves. Others, however, were efforts by opponents of primaries to modify the laws for their own advantage or to make primaries less democratic. It can be difficult to distinguish between these two approaches. However, using contemporary theories of election design, we can determine when election laws alleged to be problematic were actually flawed, and whether reforms to these laws changed them in ways that contemporary observers would support. This chapter identifies poorly written primary laws and analyzes the rationale for reforms.
Are Southern Primaries Different?
Authors: Boatright Robert G.
Published: April 2024

Most histories of the direct primary tend to treat Southern states differently from Northern ones, on account of the one-party nature of Southern elections and the use of the primary to exclude Black voters. Yet many of the causes of election reform in the North, such as the Progressive movement and the effort to accommodate nonparty groups, were still felt in the South. This chapter explores the relevance of theories about the development of the direct primary to primary law changes in the American South, with a particular focus on how Southern primary laws shaped the behavior of Southern House and Senate members. In addition, the chapter addresses the question of whether primary election laws that are uniquely Southern, such as the runoff election, can be understood as being about anything other than race. The discussion here suggests that we should not necessarily treat Southern primaries as being sui generis on account of their racial dynamics.
Politics, conflict, and ideology
Authors: Ferrera Maurizio
Published: April 2024

The concept of ideology occupied a central position in political thinking during the twentieth century. Empirical political science has however increasingly marginalized ideology as both an object of study (think of the ‘end of ideology’ thesis) and an analytical category. Much of the debate has continued to take for granted the pejorative connotation of the Marxist school (ideology as false consciousness), on one side, and of pluralist approaches (ideologies as dogmatic doctrines or mentalities), on the other side. If we revisit classical accounts—as well as some less-known contemporary strands of research in the cognitive sciences and political theory—it becomes possible to provide a different, more neutral, and more general conceptualization of ideologies, understood as mental maps which contain a description of reality and a set of prescriptions about how to improve it. Ideologies provide meaning to interests (even create them) and embody themselves in institutions, of which they define the purpose and often the design. What are the features of ideology that enable them to autonomously impact on society and politics? This chapter provides a review of key debates, focusing in particular of three strands of literature: political psychology, discursive institutionalism, and the morphological theory of ideology.
The age of unsettlement (1980–2010)
Authors: Ferrera Maurizio
Published: April 2024

The deep crisis of the 1970s rapidly eroded the foundations of the social democratic consensus. Somewhat paradoxically, the very achievements of the postwar welfare state contributed to the exhaustion of mainstream ideological traditions and their original normative commitments. The left, in particular, was unable to undertake a morphological reconfiguration capable of countering the rising hegemony of neoliberalism. New ideologies emerged and some old ones resurrected. The left-right frame lost increasing traction, while the rise of nationalism and populism shifted ideological competition towards the in-out and down-up frames: natives versus immigrants, the people versus corrupted elites. Thus the Golden Age—underpinned by pragmatic social reformism—was ingloriously replaced by a litigious constellation of juxtaposed ideological oppositions along a plurality of dimensions.
The decommunalization of Europe
Authors: Ferrera Maurizio
Published: April 2024

The Euro crisis unleashed an unprecedented conflict between North and South, essentially revolving about crossnational transfers. Policy choices were driven by functional and econocratic thinking, but they inevitably raised issues related to the attribution of merit and guilt, thus originating a moral conflict, which resurrected the old cultural-religious cleavage between Catholic and Reformed Europe. The internal features of ordoliberalism conferred to this ideology an extraordinary capacity to prevail by means of persuasion, manipulation, and situational conditioning, drawing on specific morphological and motivational advantages. Thus this ideology (turned into a fully fledged civic religion) acquired a hegemonic role in orienting attitudes and behaviours at both the elite and mass levels. With the passing of time, ordoliberal power provoked in turn a political and ideological backlash, prompting an aggressive revival of anti-system visions on the side of the radical left. Despite the dramatic social implications of the crisis, once more the reformist left was unable to overcome its internal divisions. In many ways, the first half of the 2010s can be seen as the peak of that process of decommunalization which accompanied ideological restructuring since the 1990s.
The solidaristic turn in public opinion
Authors: Ferrera Maurizio
Published: April 2024

The reluctance of European leaders to promote solidaristic solutions during the crisis mainly responded to the rise of Eurosceptic sentiments at the national level (the so-called transnational cleavage). However survey data show that Northern leaders were much more opposed to crossnational solidarity than their voters, especially centre-right leaders. Given the role of Germany within the EU, the responsibility of this country’s Christian democrats in eroding the communal foundations of the EU is hard to deny. The divergence between the German elite and the voters corroborates the deep influence exercised by the ordoliberal ideology at the elite level—and thus indirectly and more generally the autonomous causal role of ideologies. The situation started to change in correspondence with the 2019 European election. A gradual realignment of elite-mass orientations took off, driven by a process of ideological revision which affected in particular the German context.
Trust and the Rule of Law
Authors: Simpson Thomas W.
Published: April 2024

This chapter is interested in the conditions that sustain the rule of law. It is argued that there is a reciprocal relationship between the rule of law and trust. The rule of law promotes a culture of trust, while a culture of trust promotes the rule of law. Conversely, the absence of the rule of law undermines a culture of trust, and a culture of distrust inhibits and undermines the rule of law. The reciprocal relationship has significant normative implications. Because trust is an independent influence on the rule of law, protecting the sources of social trust is a goal of both law and policy, and one that may trade off against that of social justice.
Understanding Praise
Authors: Wolf Susan
Published: April 2024

This chapter responds to Zoe Johnson King’s Chapter 9, ‘What are we praiseworthy for?’, raising some questions and challenging some details and assumptions. It argues that understanding praise should not be identified with answering Johnson King’s title question. The former task should give some attention to the relation between moral praise and praise more generally, and should consider the distinction between praising someone and giving them credit. Further, it suggests that morally good or right action may only deserve praise if it passes a threshold of difficulty. While agreeing with Johnson King’s view that moral praiseworthiness requires roughly ‘doing the right thing for the right reasons’, it questions whether this idea is best analyzed in terms that refer to ‘the correct moral theory’. Finally, the paper warns against identifying the aims of being praiseworthy and doing what is praiseworthy with the more properly fundamental aims of having the right attitudes and doing what is good.
Intentions, Procedures, and Social Rules
Authors: Bratman Michael E.
Published: April 2024

Brian Flanagan asks in Chapter 27: What explains why certain texts are legal statutes? His answer highlights majority-preferred legislative procedures: certain outputs of such procedures are intentions of the legislature that certain texts be statutes––though intentions that need not conform to a List-Pettit model of group intentions as involving dense structures of a group mind. This chapter is in agreement with Flanagan’s focus on legislative procedures and with the idea that the outcomes of such procedures can be institutional intentions of the legislature. But an alternative model of such procedures, one that sees them as a kind of social rule that need not satisfy a strong majoritarian constraint is argued for. This proposal highlights, but qualifies, the role of shared policies in relevant social rules; and it supports the idea that certain procedural outputs are intentions of the legislature, functionally speaking. This highlights the core role of planning agency in our institutional lives.
Welfare performance over the long 2010s
Authors: Hemerijck Anton , Matsaganis Manos
Published: April 2024

In this chapter, we trace the progress of European welfare states towards reconciling economic prosperity and social cohesion at the macro-level. We do this by looking at a set of economic and social indicators, comparing performance in 2007 and 2019. We find that in terms of spending and (most) outcomes the welfare state was in better shape when Covid-19 broke out than it used to be in the more carefree days before the global financial crisis. Some developments do give cause for concern. Income inequality rose, though its overall growth was rather limited; economic growth was slow; wage growth was even slower; (male) employment growth was disappointing; demographic ageing has advanced; tax rebalancing remains inadequate; and training systems seem ill-prepared for the digital transition. Nevertheless, compared with other parts of the world, Europe continues to offer an attractive combination of economic prosperity, lower inequality, and higher social mobility.
Fostering resilience
Authors: Plavgo Ilze , Hemerijck Anton
Published: April 2024

This chapter investigates whether and in what ways European governments departed from the austerity-dominated paradigm of welfare reform after 2014. It explores the direction of change and relative coherence between the functions of social protection, activation, and capacitation, in twelve European countries, in 2015–2019. Drawing on data from national legislation, social policy reform is tracked across the life-course arenas of family policies and work–care reconciliation, lifelong education, employment, and retirement, distinguishing between regressive/exclusionary and progressive/inclusive adaptations. Overall, we observe welfare expansion and recalibration towards more integrated social investment policy mixes, especially regarding lifelong education and gender-balanced activation. This includes countries which had pursued austerity up to 2014. Nevertheless, significant cross-country variation remains in the extent to which policies have been aligned, with some pursuing a ‘synergy-oriented’ approach and others more ambivalent reform trajectories. A minority of cases remained skewed towards transfer retrenchment and deregulatory labour market flexibilization.
New Social Contract Theory
Authors: Moehler Michael , Thrasher John
Published: April 2024

Social contract theory enjoys a long history in moral and political philosophy. Since the European Enlightenment, social contract theory has become one of the most important traditions in moral and political philosophy. This chapter provides a brief introduction to central concepts in social contract theory and their development over time. Most importantly, the chapter clarifies some of the distinct features of new approaches to social contract theory (or “new social contract theory” for short) that have evolved in the twenty-first century and are most suitable for capturing the circumstances of contemporary societies. The chapter also provides an overview of the contributions to this book and their connections both methodologically and thematically.
Diversity, Polarization, and Dynamic Structures
Authors: Fard Sahar Heydari
Published: April 2024

This chapter argues in favor of a structural turn in social contract theory. More precisely, the chapter argues that dealing with the complex and dynamic nature of the social world requires an emphasis on social structures greater than those contractarians often consider. The argument takes structures to be the dynamic and nonrandom networks of interdependence among all active components that shape society. The chapter constrains its focus to a growing body of literature on diversity that explores plausible contractarian alternatives, given the complexity of modern societies. It maintains that shifting weight from diversity to structures in theorizing alternative contractarian frameworks would be an improvement.
Bargaining, Diversity, and the Veil
Authors: Bruner Justin P.
Published: April 2024

The social contract is often modeled as a bargaining problem. Yet how should the fruits of cooperation be divided? Despite more than fifty years of debate, philosophers and economists cannot agree on a privileged solution to the bargaining problem. This chapter considers rational bargainers tasked with selecting a solution behind a veil. The chapter shows that, surprisingly, consensus behind the veil is robust and agreement holds even as the veil becomes increasingly “translucent.”
South Africa and Botswana
Authors: Cormier Ben
Published: April 2024

Chapter 4 traces annual fiscal and borrowing policymaking processes in South Africa and Botswana. These countries are helpful initial comparative tests of the theory presented in Chapter 2 because their annual external borrowings defy disciplinary expectations—there is variation on the dependent variable, and not in the manner than each country’s economic characteristics would lead one to expect. Despite junk credit ratings, high interest rates, and left-leaning governments, South Africa has historically used bond markets rather than official creditors when meeting annual external borrowing needs. In contrast, despite investment grade credit ratings, repeated encouragement by investors to issue bonds, and a conservative government, Botswana has almost strictly used official credit when borrowing abroad each year. The chapter illustrates how these different annual borrowings and subsequently divergent debt structures can only be explained by understanding the role of government partisanship in sovereign debt accumulation. South Africa’s left-leaning government uses markets as an exit option from conditional official creditors that would constrain their policies, even though markets are more expensive than official creditors. Meanwhile, Botswana’s conservative government implements policies that official creditors prefer in the first place, meaning Botswana does not seek to avoid conditionality and uses official creditors’ cheaper and longer-term credit without risking immediate political backlash for loss of policy autonomy.
Peru
Authors: Cormier Ben
Published: April 2024

Chapter 5 covers Peru, an important third case for two reasons. First, government partisanship changed over the timeframe of this study. This allows for a within-case test of partisanship’s effects on foreign borrowings, adding to the between-case test in Chapter 4. Second, the country’s DMO is a unit within a reputably independent ministry that uses its influence to promote conservative economic policies in many areas of Peru’s economy despite the election of increasingly left-leaning governments since the early 2000s. If this book’s model of sovereign debt accumulation is credible, the effect of government partisanship on external borrowing should persist throughout these partisan shifts and despite an influential and ideological DMO. This chapter shows this is the case: as Peru has elected more left-leaning governments, the DMO has been forced to use more bond market finance to fulfill its external borrowing needs.
The UK and the Global Health and Social Care Labour Market
Authors: Elliott Robert
Published: April 2024

This chapter documents the dependency of the UK health service and adult social care sector on foreign-born workers. It details the scale of this dependency, contrasts it to that of other countries, and reveals the increasing globalization of health care labour markets. It explores the economic explanations for this dependency, distinguishes the reasons that health and social care workers come to the UK, and examines some of the impediments to their migration. It considers the impact of migration on the UK labour market and what this might mean for the pay and employment prospects of native workers.
Recovery with Distress
Authors: Rahman Hossain Zillur , Rahman Atiya , Islam Md Saiful , Faruk Avinno , Matin Imran , Wazed Mohammad Abdul , Zillur Umama
Published: April 2024

The social and economic impact of COVID-19 has been deep, wide-ranging, and multidimensional. While anecdotal evidence of distress among the poor, particularly those with informal occupations, has been widespread, effective policy response has required real-time, researched data disaggregated for urban and rural populations and for various categories of the poor. The Power and Participation Research Centre and BRAC Institute of Governance and Development’s five-round panel survey during 2020–22 provides unique insights into how COVID-19 impacted specific categories of the poor and vulnerable population in Bangladesh, their coping strategies, and the extent to which policy support materialized. While the poor as a whole demonstrated their agency in the face of the crisis, their resilience has been as much about deepening vulnerability as about recovery, representing an unfair burden of distress resilience. Informal workers, women, and the urban poor have been disproportionately impacted.
A New Social Contract Inclusive of Informal Workers
Authors: Chen Martha Alter , Plagerson Sophie , Alfers Laura
Published: April 2024

This chapter makes the case that current social contracts are often inadequate, irrelevant, or unjust for informal workers. It outlines three possible future scenarios: the bad old contract, an even worse contract, and a better new contract. Under the bad old contract, informal workers lacked legal recognition, were stigmatized and penalized, and were excluded as partners. The intensification of predatory capitalism, repressive state policies, and the collusion of state and capital in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic recession makes the possibility of a worse new deal all too real. The key changes needed for a better new contract are a change in mindsets and dominant narratives that stigmatize the informal economy and the inclusion of informal workers as key partners. The key features of a better new deal are recognition, responsiveness, and reciprocity between state, capital, and informal labour (the majority of workers globally).
Reflections on Informal Employment, COVID-19, and the Future
Authors: Kanbur Ravi , Ghosh Jayati , Harriss-White Barbara , Breman Jan
Published: April 2024

This chapter features reflections of four eminent scholars on key themes of the volume. To prepare for future crises, economist Ravi Kanbur recommends stress testing social protection systems in the face of crises and using the findings to enhance automatic funding for financing the increased needs of social protection during crises. In her reflections on social contracts, economist Jayati Ghosh endorses the important principles, described in the book, for just and viable socio-economic arrangements for informal workers. Economist Barbara Harriss-White focuses on waste workers in India and calls for transformative change to address the patriarchal and caste-based waste system in which they operate. Reflecting on runaway wealth and deepening poverty before and during the COVID-19 crisis, sociologist Jan Breman, underscores that the pandemic has further widened the already steep gap on both sides of the welfare fence.
Brutalization
Authors: de Ruiter Adrienne
Published: April 2024

What does it mean for people to come to fail to recognize their own humanity due to severe destitution or mistreatment? This chapter looks into this question by analysing the so-called ‘brutalization’ of refugees, asylum seekers, and unwanted migrants in the setting of immigration detention centres. Brutalization entails that people become less human(e) or lose touch with their own sense of humanity through severe forms of abuse or deprivation. This chapter highlights the complexities of brutalization by considering how victims in many cases are not turned into something less than human but impeded from enjoying or expressing their full range of human qualities. Only when the human spirit is utterly broken does brutalization dehumanize people in the sense that victims come to fail to recognize their own humanity. Nonetheless, brutalization can constitute a performative act of dehumanization by portraying the victim as less than human.
Conclusion
Authors: de Ruiter Adrienne
Published: April 2024

What can be done to counter dehumanization? This chapter reflects on what could and should be done to resist dehumanization using measures to counteract, challenge, or mitigate its exclusionary logic. Three constitutive elements of our response to dehumanization are identified: persuasion, support, and coercion. The chapter’s main argument is that strategies of persuasion should be the cornerstone of our approach since dehumanization is a social process that is upheld by ideology and propaganda. Support to the victims of dehumanization is required to affirm the moral significance of their human subjectivity and rebuild trust in the moral human community. Beyond persuasion and support, coercive means, directed against perpetrators, may be needed to resist dehumanization in light of its detrimental impact on the victims’ lives. The chapter therefore considers which forms of coercion, aimed at restricting the space for action and expression available to perpetrators, are conceivable and permissible.
Echo
Authors: Procter James
Published: April 2024

Dictaphones, transistors, microphones, amplifiers, loudspeakers, and cassette recorders became tools of the writer’s trade at the mid-century. Far from foregrounding the fidelity of voice, the mechanical reproduction of speech and the separation of sound from source had a range of estranging effects that prompted suspicion and invention among this generation of West Indian and West African artists. The Nigerian novelist Amos Tutuola used the read-write technologies of transistors and tape recorders as creative tools, and as literary devices which he fused with the Yoruba folk tale to create the surreal, nightmarish worlds of his fiction. It was through the friction of radiophonic reverberation that the St Lucian poet Derek Walcott first experimented with what became his abiding aesthetics of mimicry. Along with their contemporaries, Walcott and Tutuola pursued the boundary conditions of echo as an insistent ricochet of sound that troubled both late colonial relations between centre and periphery, and the unilateral ideals of cultural diffusion associated with the BBC.
Persons
Authors: Briggs Adrian
Published: April 2024

This chapter examines the private international law of adults and of children. The role or concept of status is questioned, prior to examination and analysis of the private international law of marriage (formalities, capacity, consent, polygamy, same sex, other issues) and of matrimonial causes (jurisdiction to grant divorce and declare nullity, recognition of foreign decrees). The particular problems caused by divorces which involve steps taken in more countries than one, and the difficulty of separating proceedings divorces from non-proceedings divorces are explained in the context of the Family Law Act 1986, but no solution is offered other than the hope of new legislation. Matrimonial relief and personal bankruptcy are also examined. On the private international law of children, the role, and problems generated by the role, of the habitual residence of the child as the principal organizational tool are examined, followed by a summary of the law on welfare, and abduction and return. The problems are shown to be deep and not susceptible of easy improvement.
Corporations
Authors: Briggs Adrian
Published: April 2024

In this chapter the private international law of corporations and of corporate insolvency is examined as well as the role of the lex incorporationis, and the question whether it is appropriate as a conflicts rule of wide application. The question whether the law should regard the corporate veil as impenetrable, and the doctrine of separate corporate personality as of rigid application, in the 21st century, is examined with a critical eye. The problems created when a corporation makes a contract which is ultra vires, or illegal, or made by an officer not duly authorized to act, are disentangled. Corporate insolvency is summarized in relation to jurisdiction (COMI and domicile) and the extent to which an English court can assist a foreign court exercising insolvency jurisdiction by reference to the Insolvency Act s 426, the UNCITRAL Model Law, and the common law.