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The general assumption that social policy should be utilitarian--that society should be organized to yield the greatest level of welfare--leads inexorably to increased government interventions. Historically, however, the science of economics has advocated limits to these interventions for utilitarian reasons and because of the assumption that people know what is best for themselves. But more recently, behavioral economics has focused on biases and inconsistencies in individual behavior. Based on these developments, governments now prescribe the foods we eat, the apartments we rent, and the composition of our financial portfolios. The Tyranny of Utility takes on this rise of paternalism and its dangers for individual freedoms, and examines how developments in economics and the social sciences are leading to greater government intrusion in our private lives. Gilles Saint-Paul posits that the utilitarian foundations of individual freedom promoted by traditional economics are fundamentally flawed. When combined with developments in social science that view the individual as incapable of making rational and responsible choices, utilitarianism seems to logically call for greater governmental intervention in our lives. Arguing that this cannot be defended on purely instrumental grounds, Saint-Paul calls for individual liberty to be restored as a central value in our society. Exploring how behavioral economics is contributing to the excessive rise of paternalistic interventions, The Tyranny of Utility presents a controversial challenge to the prevailing currents in economic and political discourse.

AT THE 1980 AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION MEETING IN WASHINGTON, A NEW ASSOCIATION DEDICATED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF AN INTEGRATED BIOSOCIAL PERSPECTIVE IN THE POLITICAL SCIENCES WAS FORMED, THE ASSOCIATION FOR POLITICS AND THE LIFE SCIENCES. THIS ARTICLE REVIEWS THE HISTORY AND RATIONALE BEHIND THIS INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITY AND SOME OF OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSOCIATION.

Gehören Bildung, Macht und Elite untrennbar zusammen?
Der Band vereint Beiträge, die diese Verbindung kritisch in den Blick nehmen. Anknüpfend an die Forschungstradition des Eliteforschers Michael Hartmann steht die Frage nach der Bedeutung der sozialen Herkunft im Mittelpunkt: Welchen Einfluss hat sie auf die Erfolgschancen für höhere Bildung, welche auf den Zugang zu gesellschaftlichen Spitzenpositionen? Welche Rolle spielt der Wirtschaftssektor dabei im gesellschaftlichen Machtgefüge? Die Einzelstudien zeigen, dass zwischen sozialer Herkunft und gesellschaftlicher Macht eine enge Verbindung besteht und soziale Ungleichheiten sich über diese Machtverhältnisse reproduzieren.

In this article, the authors analyse attitudes of Slovenian political elites towards EU and the process of European integration on general in the period of crisis. Namely, during the EU accession period, there was a strong consensus among political elites and in general public on desirability of country's integration into European institutional framework. However, the 2008 crisis that strongly affected Slovenian economy and society brought the rise of negative attitudes towards EU and other Western supra-national political entities. The main thesis is that the Europeanness of Slovenian political elites is rather ambivalent since its attitudes are diverging and often inconsistent.