Suchergebnisse

ABSTRACTThe Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh ('the Accord') has received both praise and criticism concerning its implications for corporate responsibility and power. This article contributes to the debate by situating the Accord within a broader set of activities that buyers are engaged in to promote better labour conditions in their supply chains. The authors identify three approaches of buyer engagement: auditing, capacity building and advocacy. Drawing on interviews conducted with European brands and retailers, the article shows how buyers perceive the merits and challenges of these approaches, and whether and how they discharge responsibility and power through these activities. The study shows that the Accord is seen primarily as part of the auditing approach with a key feature being its use of collective leverage as a means of enforcement. While greater buyer power has not necessarily been accompanied by greater responsibility, the article highlights heterogeneity among buyers in how they take up different approaches, painting a more nuanced picture of buyer responsibility and power.

Starting point of the article is a right-wing populist campaign against the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) in Germany, which lead to the foundation of the party "Alternative fur Deutschland" (Afd). Initially the actors of this campaign, their general criticism of the EU, their narrative about the economic crises and their social basis are analysed. But the right-wing populists were also part of a broader coalition in civil society, which called for direct democracy in general and a referendum on the ESM in particular. Therefore the second part of the article analyses the underlying concept of democracy and shows why neoliberals and national-conservatives opt more and more for direct democracy. These issues point to ambivalences of direct democracy, which should not be overlooked by leftists. Adapted from the source document.

In The European Commission of the Danube, 1856-1948 Constantin Ardeleanu offers a history of the world's second international organisation, an innovative techno-political institution established by Europe's Concert of Powers to remove insecurity from the Lower Danube. Delegates of rival empires worked together to 'correct' a vital European transportation infrastructure, and to complete difficult hydraulic works they gradually transformed the Commission into an actor of regional and international politics. As an autonomous and independent organ, it employed a complex transnational bureaucracy and regulated shipping along the Danube through a comprehensive set of internationally accepted rules and procedures. The Commission is portrayed as an effective experimental organisation, taken as a model for further cooperation in the international system

This book offers a new perspective on the history of Argentina by studying economics through the lens of traditionally non-economic perspectives, such as the importance of politics, consumerist culture, women, paternalism, nation-building, and ideology.