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State System (state + system)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	50%
Law and Criminology	20%
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	20%

Selected Abstracts

Agriculture Under the Public Eye: Who Cares for What

EUROCHOICES, Issue 2 2004
Cees Veerman
Summary Agriculture Under the Public Eye: Who Cares for What? The new CAP is becoming geared towards a more sustainable agriculture that takes account of the needs of future generations. Achieving sustainability, however, means meeting three challenges-, (a) profit - strengthening the viability and competitiveness of the agricultural sector; (b) planet - the ecological challenge of promoting good environmental practices; and (c) people-the social challenge to improve the living conditions and economic opportunities in rural areas. In the food chain we see responses to consumer concerns about food safety, quality and welfare issues through the development and implementation of mandatory and voluntary quality control and assurance schemes. And the consolidation and internationalisation of the food retailing and the manufacturing industry is expected to continue. An important duality has emerged. On the one side, we find a state system of regulation, on the other a system of self-regulation, largely driven by the major forces in supply chain management, the food retailers in particular. A simple and effective regulatory environment for the agri-food complex is essential if we are to achieve our competitiveness goals. One of the priorities for discussion by politicians, therefore, should be whether current and expected policy and industry developments should lead to a review of the balance between markets and government, ,who cares for what?' l'agriculture aux yeux des politiques publiques qui doit faire quoi? La nouvelle PAC est maintenant bien orientée vers une agriculture plus durable, en mesure de tenir compte des besoins des générations futures. Une véritable durabilityé suppose cependant que soient relevés trois défis: a) le profit - renforcer la viabilityé et la compétitivité du secteur agricole; b) la planète - le défiécologique de promouvoir des pratiques favorables à l'environnement; c) les gens - le défi social d'améliorer les conditions de vie et les opportunités économiques dans les zones rurales. Du côté des filières alimentaires, la réponse à trouver aux inquiétudes des consommateurs vis à vis de la qualityé sanitaire et organoleptique des produits devrait pouvoir venir de l'élaboration de contrôles de qualityé et de systèmes d'assurances, à appliquer sur la base du volontariat ou à rendre obligatoires. En même temps, il faut s'attendre à la continuation du mouvement vers l'affermissement du rôle des industries alimentaires et du commerce de détail, ainsi qu'à leur internationalisation. Un système dual vient d'émerger: d'un côté, un système de réglementations étatiques, de l'autre, une autodiscipline, pilotée par les plus solides des maillons de la filière, en particulier les grandes surfaces. Un environnement réglementaire à la fois simple et efficace est essentiel pour atteindre l'objectif de compétitivité du complexe agroalimentaire, II en résulte que, pour les pouvoirs publics, une des grandes questions à discuter est de savoir dans quelle mesure l' évolution des conditions politiques et celle du développement industriel imposent une révision de l'équilibre actuel entre les marchés et les autorités gouvernementales; en d'autres termes, qui doit faire quoi ? Landwirtschaft in der öffentlichen Meinung; Wer ist wofür zuständig? Die neue GAP wird gerade auf eine nachhaltigere Landwirtschaft hin ausgerichtet, welche die Bedürfnisse der kommenden Generationen berücksichtigt. Nachhaltigkeit kann jedoch nur erzielt werden, wenn den folgenden drei Herausforderungen Rechnung getragen wird: (a) Ökonomie , Stärkung der Leistungs- und Wettbewerbsfähigkeit des Landwirtschaftssektors; (b) Ökologie , Förderung umweltgerechter Verfahrensweisen; und (c) Soziales - Verbesserung der Lebensbedingungen und der wirtschaftlichen Lage im ländlichen Raum. Im Bereich der Nahrungsmittelkette wird den Bedenken der Verbraucher hinsichtlich der Nahrun gsmittelsicherheit, der Qualität und der Wohlfahrt durch die Entwicklung und Implementierung von obligatorischen und freiwilligen Qualitätskontrollen und Sicherheitsprogrammen Rechnung getragen. Es ist davon auszugehen, dass sich die Konsolidierung und Lnternationalisierung im Bereich des Lebensmitteleinzel-handels und der weiterverarbeitenden Industrie fortsetzen wird. Es ist eine bedeutsame Dualität entstanden. Auf der einen Seite erfolgt eine Regulierung seitens des Staates, auf der anderen Seite erfolgt eine Selbstregulierung durch die Vermarktungskette, insbesondere durch den Lebensmitteleinzelhandel. Eine sowohl einfache als auch wirksame Regulierung der Agrar- und Ernährungswirtschaft ist von grundlegender Bedeutung für das Erreichen unserer Wettbewerbsziele. Daher sollte in der Politik mit Priorität diskutiert werden, ob die gegenwärtige und zukünftige Politik und auch die industrielle Entwicklung zu einem neuen Gleichgewicht zwischen Markt und Staatseingriffen führen sollte: Wer ist wofür zuständig? [source]

The Politics of Belonging: Complexities of Identity in the Catalan Borderlands

GEOGRAFISKA ANNALER SERIES B: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, Issue 3 2001
Jouni Häkli
The rise of the European nation,state system profoundly influenced the map of linguistic and cultural minorities. Catalonia in northeastern Spain is no exception. The consolidation of the Spanish and French kingdoms during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries left Catalan speakers without political and cultural sovereignty. Furthermore, in the Treaty of the Pyrenees of 1659, the Catalan homeland els Països Catalans was divided by the Franco,Spanish border. Today, Catalan culture and politics enjoy increasing latitude in both Spain and France. This has encouraged various forms of cross,border co,operation in the Catalan borderlands. It has also led many Catalan nationalists to expect still greater political autonomy. Some activists have voiced claims for independence and even the reincorporation of the Spanish (el Principat) and French Catalonias (Catalunya Nord). However, political tensions regarding the borderland's development exist between the local actors and the Spanish and French national governments, as well as between Catalan nationalists and the population at large. This article examines these tensions, first by looking at cross,border co,operation efforts in Catalonia, and second by assessing the visible markers of identity that Catalan nationalists have placed in the border landscapes. These are contrasted with the results of a survey charting the opinions and attitudes of ,ordinary' Catalans. The article argues that there are significant cleavages among Catalans, and that the era of the nation,states has left a legacy of complex loyalties at international frontiers. [source]

FELLOW CITIZENS AND IMPERIAL SUBJECTS: CONQUEST AND SOVEREIGNTY IN EUROPE'S OVERSEAS EMPIRES

HISTORY AND THEORY, Issue 4 2005
ANTHONY PAGDEN
ABSTRACT This article traces the association between the European overseas empires and the concept of sovereignty, arguing that, ever since the days of Cicero,if not earlier,Europeans had clung to the idea that there was a close association between a people and the territory it happened to occupy. This made it necessary to think of an "empire" as a unity,an "immense body," to use Tacitus's phrase,that would embrace all its subjects under a single sovereign. By the end of the eighteenth century it had become possible, in this way, to speak of "empires of liberty" that would operate for the ultimate benefit of all their "citizens," freeing them from previous tyrannical rulers and bringing them under the protection of more benign regimes. In such empires sovereignty could only ever be, as it had become in Europe, undivided. The collapse of Europe's "first" empires in the Americas, however, was followed rapidly by Napoleon's attempt to create a new kind of Empire in Europe. The ultimate, and costly, failure of this project led many, Benjamin Constant among them, to believe that the age of empires was now over and had been replaced by the age of commerce. But what in fact succeeded Napoleon was the modern European state system, which attempted not to replace empire by trade, as Constant had hoped, but to create a new kind of empire, one that sought to minimize domination and settlement, and to make a sharp distinction between imperial ruler and imperial subject. In this kind of empire, sovereignty could only be "divided." Various kinds of divided rule were thus devised in the nineteenth century. Far, however, from being an improvement on the past, this ultimately resulted in,or at least contributed greatly to,the emergence of the largely fictional and inevitably unstable societies that after the final collapse of the European empires became the new states of the "developing world." [source]

Revisiting the welfare state system in the Republic of Korea

INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SECURITY REVIEW, Issue 2 2008
Yong Soo Park
Abstract The Republic of Korea's welfare system has undergone radical institutional expansion since the 1990s, largely as a consequence of the financial crisis of 1997. In spite of these changes, public social expenditure remains extremely low , particularly with regard to all other OECD countries , with the result that the overall social insurance system and social welfare service sector remain underdeveloped. Thus, the current welfare system can best be characterized as a residual model, in that state intervention as a provider of welfare remains highly limited and the family and the private market economy play the central roles in offering a social safety net. This situation is largely the legacy of the so-called ,growth-first' ideology, which has remained the dominant approach favoured by the majority of the country's political and economic decision-makers since the period of authoritarian rule (1961-1993). The adoption of Western European-style neo-liberal restructuring, implemented following the 1997 financial crisis, has also played a role. [source]

The Role of Communication in Global Civil Society: Forces, Processes, Prospects

INTERNATIONAL STUDIES QUARTERLY, Issue 3 2001
Edward Comor
The author examines the concept of global civil society (GCS) through the use of theoretical tools and empirical evidence related to the study of International Communication. He demonstrates that scholarship on GCS tends to simplify the process through which information becomes knowledge and that the state system,GCS relationship often is presented in terms of an ahistorical power dichotomy. In relation to these problems, what the author calls "GCS progressives" tend to underplay political-economic factors shaping GCS, including the implications of structural power; they tend to emphasize the importance of spatial integration while neglecting related changes in temporal norms; and, more essentially, they often under-theorize the importance of socialization processes and relatively unmediated relationships in the ongoing construction of "reality." The author concludes that through a more focused analysis,concentrating on how new technologies can be used to organize nationally and locally, and on lifestyle changes associated with communications developments,more precise analyses and fruitful strategies for GCS progressives may emerge. [source]

Can a Global Peace Last Even If Achieved?

INTERNATIONAL STUDIES REVIEW, Issue 3 2005
Huntington, the Democratic Peace
Current events have surfaced new challenges in the international state system. These are alternatively characterized as state versus substate conflicts, religious conflicts or the outgrowth of the rise in fundamentalism, class struggle between the West and the Third World resulting from globalization, and the lack of democratic government in those states that breed terrorists. Whereas religious conflict is difficult to fix if true and globalization hard to stop, the democratic peace offers promise because changing the form of government is a conceivable goal. But would it help? Samuel Huntington provides an interesting, if unintended, challenge to the democratic peace in both The Third Wave and The Clash of Civilizations. If democracy is reversible under some circumstances, can it really lead to a lasting peace? If there are cultural divisions in the world, are these necessarily united by polity? If racism is real, does polity really eliminate it? Based on Huntington, the democratic peace falters. [source]

Tales of Deviance and Control: On Space, Rules, and Law in Squatter Settlements

LAW & SOCIETY REVIEW, Issue 2 2010
Jean-Louis Van Gelder
In Latin American cities, around a third of the urban population lives in tenure situations that can be designated as informal, yet variation in the ways and extent to which these arrangements do not comply with law is extensive. Furthermore, informal dwellers often employ a variety of strategies to legitimize and ultimately legalize their tenure, implying a dynamic rather than a static relationship between illegality and legality. Conceiving of land tenure in dichotomous terms, as simply being either legal or illegal, therefore, fails to reflect this diversity, nor does it capture the evolving nature of the relationship between informal settlements and the state system. Drawing from the development of squatter settlements in Buenos Aires, this article proposes an alternative perspective and shows how settlements alternate strategies of noncompliance with adaptation to the state legal system to gradually increase their legality. [source]

Uses of Kansas study data at state system and institutional levels

NEW DIRECTIONS FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGES, Issue 134 2006
George E. Malo
This chapter describes how the Kansas Study of Community College Instructional Costs and Productivity can be used in state, institutional, and regional accreditation contexts. [source]

DIVISIONS OF LABOUR, SPECIALIZATION AND THE ENFORCEMENT OF A SYSTEM OF PROPERTY RIGHTS: A GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM ANALYSIS

PACIFIC ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 4 2004
Li Ke
The model suggests that fiscal competition between states facilitates important circular effects, which propel improvements in economic welfare and promote economic growth. In particular, improvements in institutional efficiency expand the demand for transactions, which in turn increases the need for further third-party protection of property rights. We illustrate our results using the growth of the state system in Western Europe. [source]

Regulation of Firearm Dealers in the United States: An Analysis of State Law and Opportunities for Improvement

THE JOURNAL OF LAW, MEDICINE & ETHICS, Issue 4 2006
Jon S. Vernick J.D., M.P.H.
Firearms were associated with 30, 136 deaths in the United States in 2003. Most guns are initially sold to the public through a network of retail dealers. Licensed firearm dealers are an important source of guns for criminals and gun traffickers. Just one percent of licensed dealers were responsible for more than half of all guns traced to crime. Federal law makes it difficult for ATF to inspect and revoke the licenses of problem gun dealers. State licensing systems, however, are a greatly under-explored opportunity for firearm dealer oversight. We identify and categorize these state systems to identify opportunities for interventions to prevent problem dealers from supplying guns to criminals, juveniles, or gun traffickers. Just seventeen states license gun dealers. Twenty-three states permit routine inspections of dealers but only two mandate that those inspections occur on a regular basis. Twenty-six states impose record-keeping requirements for gun sales. Only thirteen states require some form of store security measures to minimize firearm theft. We conclude with recommendations for a comprehensive system of state licensing and oversight of gun dealers. Our findings can be useful for the coalition of more than fifty U.S. mayors that recently announced it would work together to combat illegal gun trafficking. [source]