In a round-table discussion held at the U of Pavia on 22 April 2002, in collaboration with the Foreign Affairs Ministry & the university's political science department, the following participants offered their opinions on the effort to reconstruct Afghanistan & Italy's place in it: Enrico De Maio (special envoy to Afghanistan), Anna Dell Croce (embassy adviser), Sergio Romano (Corriere della Sera), Giovanni Porzio (Panomrama), & Giampaolo Calchi Novati (U of Pavia). They offered overviews of Afghanistan's history & the colonial experience in Central & South Asia, US foreign policy, & the war on terror. A. Siegel
In this paper, the author deals with the problem of misfortune from the point of view of a normative theory of justice. In particular, it is claimed that an unlucky event engenders an entitlement to assistance for its victims. The author first takes into account the view that the demand for security addressed to institutions is linked to the idea of causality; this, in terms of political justice, entails the necessity of identifying a liability. On this view, a boundary should be traced between injustice & misfortune; while events caused by human behavior can be judged as either just or unjust, merely fortuitous ones cannot. This implies that victims are entitled to compensation for damages due to unjust events, not for damages due to unlucky events. The author argues that, despite the distinction between unjust & unlucky events, the entitlement to compensation arises in both cases. In the case of merely unlucky events, rather than following the logic of liability, the administration of justice follows a different principle: the author proposes calling this the "principle of assistance." According to this principle, every unlucky event worsening the living conditions of someone must be followed by a redistributive reallocation of resources. Unlike solidarity, the principle of assistance is a (meta )rule of justice, that can be outlined starting from a rereading of Rawls's second principle. The author argues, then, that the victims of misfortune are entitled to a "right to assistance" that has a normative grounding. Adapted from the source document.
Is the referendum phenomenon a manifestation of direct democracy & hence rooted in ancient democracy, or is it the result of political conflict within the democracy of today? Are referendums in democracies the first step down the slippery slope to a plebiscitary hell, or are they the humus that can foster a wide-ranging diversification of experience while staying within the bounds of modern-day, representative democracies? The author takes the stance that the referendum phenomenon stems from modern-day, representative democracies & does not necessarily jeopardize their stability or legitimacy. As a perfect example of popular sovereignty in action, are referendums to be perceived as more favorable toward society's democratic component rather than its liberal one? The author holds that referendum voting enables both liberal & democratic issues to be faced. He discusses Sartori's analysis according to which the referendum is a manifestation of ancient democracy incompatible with the requirements of modern-day democracy, especially concerning matters of a liberal nature. In the area of referendum experiences, the author critiques Sartori's analysis & argues in favor of the compatibility between liberal democracies & referendums. 3 Tables, 58 References. Adapted from the source document.
The idea of self-ownership is often used by libertarians to deny that the state is morally authorized to modify free market transactions coercively by means of taxation &, more generally, redistributive policies. From this perspective, if I am the owner of myself, I also own, according to Lockean teaching, the outcomes of my labor. Thus, there is no room for distributive justice without violating self-ownership. In this essay, the author argues against this idea. The author demonstrates some problems with the Lockean theory of labor mixing. He criticizes the Lockean theory as it has been recently reformulated by Robert Nozick. He explains why the supposed conflict between self-ownership & distributive justice can be accommodated & why it is possible & necessary to continue to elaborate theories of justice compatible with the idea of self-ownership. Adapted from the source document.
In this essay the author chooses to develop the stimulating & intricate theme of liberal socialism from the perspective of cultural-political reviews. After a short reference to the forerunners, like John Stuart Mill & Leonard Hobhouse, the author illustrates the rebirth of a meeting proposal between liberalism & socialism in the middle of the twenties of the last century. With regard to this, beside Carlo Rosselli's notes, the contributions of Arturo Labriola & Guido De Ruggiero come out respectively in "Critica Sociale" & "La Rivoluzione Liberale." The author underlines the newness of these attitudes starting from Labriola's theories. Labriola thinks that the right time has come for the socialism to deliver its teaching from what he calls the "asiatic heritage," which exerted its influence on socialist doctrine by a choking & centralizing collectivism conditioning the individual to coercive institutions as "clan," "caste," "State," &, after 1917, the "one party system." The Italian scholar opposes to this heritage, belonging to the Eastern culture & society, the Western political tradition based on man's rights & freedom. Guido De Ruggiero's contribution -- though almost unknown to scholars -- originates from British political situation & develops in a meaning of liberty that trespasses on territory of equality creating the fundamental concept of his proposal: the "equality of opportunity." However the "equality of opportunity," needs a particular version of liberalism & socialism because it can be carried out only if liberalism is open to social action, a "new liberalism" as De Ruggiero calls it. By this way socialism cannot be Marxist & collectivist, because of freedom requirements. 20 References. Adapted from the source document.
This article analyzes (in terms of "normal science") the two typologies of democratic forms of government elaborated by Arend Lijphart in the last two decades. According to Lijphart, the different forms of government are fundamental variables to define different types of democratic regime. Lijphart marks the difference between presidentialism & parliamentarism without including semipresidentialism in his typologies. On the contrary, as pointed out by Giovanni Sartori, the semipresidential form of government keeps a specific position, both in theoretical & empirical terms. Starting from Sartori's point of view, in the second part of the article, the author elaborates a new typology of democratic forms of government. Based on Lijphart's methodological criteria, the new typology includes, together with presidential & parliamentary, also semipresidential forms of government. 5 Tables, 152 References. Adapted from the source document.
This article evaluates the trends of democratization over the last 10 years, focusing on the new transitions to democracy taking place in Central-Eastern Europe & sub-Saharan Africa, the two regions where this political process has lately been more pervasive. The basic question addressed is whether the conditions that favored the democratic wave originating in Portugal in the mid-1970s are still able to explain the political transformations that followed the breakdown of the Berlin Wall. For many, the implosion of communism makes any such comparisons impossible. After summarizing some crucial variables suggested by the literature to explain democratic transitions & consolidation, the author tests this hypothesis in both Central-Eastern Europe & sub-Saharan Africa. Initial findings show that, in many cases, the variables that favored democratic transitions before 1989 continued to operate in similar ways thereafter. A few differences aside, in the most recent cases, a number of basic economic, institutional, & cultural conditions continue, as they did earlier, to favor or frustrate democratization. 8 Tables, 42 References. Adapted from the source document.
Political science, because of its many subdisciplines & multiple approaches, strongly needs a specific vocabulary. This article compares eleven dictionaries -- in three languages & four different political cultures -- to offer a critical overview of the making of a political dictionary. First, the author reviews the editorial & methodological features (number of editors &/or contributors, average length of the entries, method of explanation of the entries, & the system of cross-references). Then he gives an account of the (eleven) different typologies of political concepts provided by the editors, after which he provides a short review of the entry "political science." A dictionary is more interesting when each single entry goes beyond a simple report of definitions, taking the aim -- as Sartori says -- of reconstructing a concept but also forming a concept. New & original classifications & stronger & stimulating linking patterns among concepts are indispensable to a professional political vocabulary as well as to theory making. In the last 15 years, some steps have been taken -- including by these eleven dictionaries -- but much work remains to be done. 3 Tables, 29 References. Adapted from the source document.
The only case of a Prime Minister directly elected by the voters can be found in the recent Israeli political experience. The system has not worked satisfactorily & after three elections has been abandoned. Even the most powerful of the Prime Ministers, ie, the British Prime Minister, derives his/her powers not from a direct popular election, but from his/her being the leader of the political party that has won an absolute majority of parliamentary seats. For this reason, he/she may be replaced by his/her parliamentary party, as has been the case, in the postwar period, for Anthony Eden, Harold MacMillan, Alec Douglas-Home, Harold Wilson, & Margaret Thatcher. In this article, the author criticizes the recent Italian proposals for an elective Prime Minister as a solution to the problems of the weak & noncohesive political coalitions & of the difficult relationship between government & Parliament. The major contention of this article it that most of the problems derive not from the lack of formal institutional powers in the hand of the Prime Minister, but from the imperfect electoral law that does not reduce the number of parties & gives much leverage to small parties. 3 References. Adapted from the source document.
The article provides a systematic test of the consequences of the electoral system for the format of the party system & the frequency of single-party majority cabinets. The test is based on Lijphart's 1994 data set (extended from 1990 to 1 Nov 2002), but excludes some of his cases, & introduces an additional indicator of the number of parties. Thanks to these changes in the research design, the variance explained by multivariate regression is much higher than Lijphart's results, especially as long as the elective parties (ie, the psychological effects of the electoral system) are concerned. At the same time, the post-1990 data show a decline of the predictive power of the main independent variable ("effective" threshold). In order to explain this decline, the author argues that the growing destructuration of Western parties & party systems occurring since the early 1990s should be taken into account. Indeed, entering into the regression an indicator of such a process (total net volatility) compensates for most of the threshold's lost explanatory power, thus suggesting that destructuration is a far more significant variable than previously recognized by the relevant literature. 11 Tables, 27 References. Adapted from the source document.
Analyzing seven recent books on British politics following the 2001 general elections, the author identifies & evaluates the main features of the Westminster model. Characterized by the preeminence of the prime minister, the model entails a close relationship between the premier & his/her parliamentary majority. It is based on the cohesion & discipline of the parliamentary group & the expectations of the MPs to be promoted to ministerial office. Often met, these expectations help the MPs to perform several important tasks: above all, the task of scrutinizing the activities of the government; &, second, though not least, the task of keeping a working & satisfactory connection with their constituencies. Though the role of the British prime minister has been significantly changed by Tony Blair's spinning & search for visibility outside the parliamentary arena, the Westminster model retains its most important, defining feature. In the words written by Walter Bagehot about a century & a half ago, the efficient secret of the British Constitution is the fusion of the executive & legislative entities. This fusion continues to allow the British prime ministers, no matter their personality, if they so desire, to govern effectively. 15 References. Adapted from the source document.
The vast output of Carlo Cattaneo contains no works specifically on the theme of colonialism. Nevertheless, this author, who is often represented as the historian of the triumphant bourgeoisie, frequently makes observations on the relationship between Europe, at the height of its splendor & its capacity for expansion beyond the continent, & the peoples & civilizations of the non-European world. His essays on India & China are particularly illuminating in this respect. Cattaneo's analyses contain an original mixture of historical reconstruction, cultural comparison & armchair anthropology. One is continuously aware of his perception of the need to reconcile the process of universalization emanating from Europe with the specific practices & values found in other nations & other forms of state. Racialist perspectives are completely alien to Cattaneo's work, & this guarantees an attitude of respect, though without ruling out a realistic recognition of the superiority behind Europe's position of dominance. Moreover, Cattaneo was not in a position to take into account "real" colonialism: having died in 1869 -- the year of the opening of the Suez Canal & the purchase of the Assab Bay by an Italian company -- he was not able directly to witness the emerging experience of Italian colonialism. In this sense, the more direct point of reference for Cattaneo's work is British colonialism. Adapted from the source document.
