This thesis has two aims. The first aim is to set out an argument for social insurance in the form of compulsory income insurance in the event of sickness or unemployment, and to explore two lines of arguments for social insurance policies that are commonly associated with an active welfare state that seeks to prevent or reduce reliance on social insurance. The second aim is to outline and defend an account of legitimacy that takes moral autonomy seriously by making legitimacy partly dependent on our entrenched values and preferences. The first aim is relevant for articles I-VI. In article I it is argued that the extent to which behavioural responses to social insurance is seen as ethically problematic, it is primarily a problem that concerns the institution rather than the morality of the individual whose behaviour is influenced by social insurance. Thus, insofar as behavioural responses to social insurance are an ethical problem, it is a problem for political philosophy rather than individual ethics. In article II an argument for social insurance in the form of compulsory income insurance in the event of sickness or unemployment is presented, viz. the argument from autonomy. It is based on a concern for the protection of our identity according to what is called a “thick” conception of the person, which holds that our identities as separate persons are constituted by our central aims and commitments. It is also argued that contrary to what has been claimed by its opponents; social insurance needs not lead to the bad risks exploiting the good risks, or be head-on in conflict with individual freedom. Article III identifies normative issues that deserve attention in relation to in relation to a general introduction of prevention policies in social insurance and market insurance. It is argued that the importance of these issues suggests that arguments and distinctions drawn from moral and political philosophy should play a more prominent role both in the debate on the shift towards an active welfare state and the use of prevention policies in market insurance. Article IV is a response to comments from Professor David Buchanan initiated by article III. Article V explores what is called the argument from autonomy for reduced compensation rates in social insurance or making compensation from such insurance conditional on different kinds of requirements such as participation in rehabilitation or vocational training. It is argued that such policies are justified if they tend to ensure an adequate level of autonomy, where autonomy is understood in the sense of a “thick” conception of personal autonomy based on Norman Daniel’s extension of the principle of fair equality of opportunity. Article VI discusses the objection that arguments pertaining to the principle of fairness often are irrelevant since the principle of fairness is based on the acceptance of the relevant benefits. It is argued that this objection from non-acceptance fails because we can – and do – accept the benefits form such institutions on a practical level and this is enough to ground obligations pertaining fairness. The implications of this argument for policies associated with the active welfare state are explored, taking a reform of the Swedish sickness insurance as an example. The second aim is relevant for article VII. In article VII it is argued that an account of legitimacy should satisfy three conditions. The justification thesis and the legitimacy thesis are presented as accounts of justification and legitimacy respectively. It is argued that the proposed accounts satisfy these conditions. An account of political obligations is also given. / <p>QC 20150121</p>

This thesis analyses the Eastern enlargement of the EU in comparison with the past four enlargement rounds, as a result of which it proves that Central and Eastern enlargement (CEE) is a unique experience for the EU. After the fourth enlargement, the EU turned its face to the CEECs, which witnessed unexpected events of a historic nature, with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. This date symbolises a great change for the CEECs, such as the end of communism, transition to open market economy, democratisation and stability. A special focus is given to the inclusion of the CEECs into the EU necessitating to make adjustments both in the EU and in the CEECs. The specifity of the fifth enlargement derives from all the changes and challenges that it poses to the applicant countries and the Union but also to its neighbours. It concludes that the factors of uniqueness of the Eastern enlargement will strengthen the probability of the inclusion of the future applicants in the Eastern part of the continent. This enlargement is a positive development for the old and the new member states, it is one of the most important &lsquo / political necessities&rsquo / and &lsquo / historical opportunities&rsquo / that the EU is facing since its establishment, because it will not only ensure the unification, stabilisation, security, economic growth and general well-being of the continent but also because it has opened the way of membership to the future possible applicants in the Eastern part of the continent.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 294-310).

Thesis (doctoral)--Univesität Tübingen, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.

La protection de l'environnement constitue un défi majeur pour la communauté internationale. Dépassant les frontières étatiques, elle renvoie à une vision globale de son encadrement juridique. Dans cette perspective, la problématique environnementale, incontournable dans bien des domaines, ne peut plus être ignorée par l'aide publique au développement qui doit l'intégrer dans toutes ses opérations. Longtemps critiquées pour les politiques qu’elles ont entreprises, les banques multilatérales de développement (BMD) se sont emparées de la question environnementale. Elles contribuent à renouveler les modalités de la protection de l'environnement, intensifiant et diversifiant l'arsenal juridique international en y intégrant des mécanismes innovants tels que l'évaluation environnementale, la conditionnalité environnementale ou bien encore l'accountability. La thèse se concentre sur l’étude de ces mécanismes. À travers l’observation des pratiques de la Banque mondiale et des banques régionales de développement, cette recherche en apprécie l'effectivité et montre l’ambivalence des dispositifs, oscillant entre innovation normative et immaturité de la mise en œuvre. / Protecting the environment is a major challenge for the international community. Beyond the state borders, the topic refers to a global vision of its legal framework. Hence, environmental issues, which cannot be ignored in many areas, can no longer be ignored by official development assistance and must integrate this process into all its operations. Long criticized for the policies they have undertaken, the multilateral development banks (MDBs) have now seized the environmental issue. They contribute to renew the modalities of environmental protection, intensifying and diversifying the international legal arsenal, integrating innovative mechanisms such as environmental assessment, environmental conditionality and accountability. This thesis focuses on the study of these mechanisms. Through observing the practices of the World Bank and regional development banks, this research appreciates the effectiveness of these various mechanisms, and shows the ambivalence of the devices, oscillating between normative innovation and immaturity of the implementation.

Submitted by Rosangela Silva (rosangela.silva3@unioeste.br) on 2018-05-09T18:59:39Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Naraiana Inez Nora.pdf: 1712593 bytes, checksum: 47e2164ddf4900e4f8b57d94030af8ef (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-05-09T18:59:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Naraiana Inez Nora.pdf: 1712593 bytes, checksum: 47e2164ddf4900e4f8b57d94030af8ef (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-07-25 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This dissertation, exploratory in nature, aims to examine the issue of cash transfers in Brazil and the theoretical and ideological beliefs supporting incorporation of cross education in Bolsa Família. Through a theoretical and research literature and documents, we discuss how to express the conditionality of education and identify the nexus of this requirement with the liberal ideology of equal opportunities. Thus, it was necessary first to understand the determinants of social policy and the Brazilian state from Latin American perspective, considering the specificity and character of the economic model dependent on this in peripheral economies. Then, we undertook an analysis of the foundations of liberal thinking, paying attention to the production of the modern public school and the principle of equal opportunities in order to discuss the incorporation of these provisions under the PBF. In the third section of the work we characterize the PBF under the policies to combat poverty, from the seizure of its historical legal and political boundaries in order to analyze the legal apparatus and the official documents, which are regulated and expressed as legitimized the conditionality of school education program in elementary school. The methodological approach was to reference the dialectical-materialist method. In terms of methodological resources they consisted of the combination of the research literature, a secondary source, and documentary research, the primary source. Secondary sources refer to the literature covering the topic and which were instrumental in building the theoretical framework and, in turn, allowed the analysis of primary sources from a critical perspective. The primary sources relate to legal and official documents governing the Family Grant Program, supplemented by statistical data released by government agencies, such as IPEA and IBGE. The adoption of the method chosen evident from the outset, the importance of precedence for this option theory and method, which allowed the reading and research illuminated the horizon of totality and settled in the concreteness of social phenomena than was possible to undertake some assertions, namely: educational policy in peripheral countries is emphasized as a unique instrument to overcome social inequality in the setting of political and economic reforms of the twentieth century, the PBF contributes to (re) building consensus on the centrality of education to make access to minimum income school attendance, returning and reinforcing the belief of the school as an area of equality and social mobility mechanism, the conditionality of education in PBF updates the promise of the ideology of equality of opportunity, the PBF encourages the illusion that the problem of poverty can be solved through social policy, especially if centered on education. / Esta dissertação de mestrado, de caráter exploratória, pretende analisar a temática da transferência de renda no Brasil e os fundamentos teórico-ideológicos que dão sustentação a incorporação da condicionalidade da educação no Programa Bolsa Família. Por meio de uma pesquisa teórico-bibliográfica e documental, buscamos problematizar como se expressa a condicionalidade da educação e identificar os nexos dessa exigência com a ideologia liberal da igualdade de oportunidades. Para tanto, se fez necessário inicialmente compreender os determinantes da política social e do Estado brasileiro desde o prisma latino-americano, considerando a especificidade e o caráter dependente do modelo econômico presente nas economias periféricas. Em seguida, empreendemos uma análise sobre os fundamentos do pensamento liberal, atentando para a produção da escola pública moderna e para o princípio da igualdade de oportunidades, a fim de problematizar a incorporação destes preceitos no âmbito do PBF. Na terceira seção do trabalho buscamos caracterizar o PBF no âmbito das políticas de combate à pobreza, a partir da apreensão de seu processo histórico e delimitações político-jurídicas, a fim de analisar o aparato legal e os documentos oficiais, que expressam como está regulamentada e legitimada a condicionalidade da educação escolar de ensino fundamental no Programa. O caminho metodológico teve como referência o método dialético-materialista. Em termos dos recursos metodológicos estes consistiram na articulação da pesquisa bibliográfica, de fonte secundária, e na pesquisa documental, de fonte primária. As fontes secundárias se referem as bibliográficas que abrangem a temática e as quais foram fundamentais para a construção do marco teórico e que, por sua vez, permitiram a análise das fontes primárias desde uma perspectiva crítica. As fontes primárias dizem respeito aos documentos legais e oficiais que regulamentam o Programa Bolsa Família, complementadas com dados estatísticos divulgados por órgãos governamentais, como o IPEA e o IBGE. A adoção do método escolhido evidenciou, desde o início, a importância em primar por esta opção teórico-metodológica, no que possibilitou uma leitura e investigação iluminadas pelo horizonte da totalidade e assentadas na concreticidade dos fenômenos sociais, do que foi possível empreender algumas assertivas, a saber: a política educacional nos países periféricos é enfatizada como instrumento ímpar para superação da desigualdade social no cenário de reformas políticas e econômicas do século XX; o PBF contribui para a (re)construção do consenso da centralidade da educação ao condicionar o acesso à renda mínima à frequência escolar, retomando e reforçando a crença da escola enquanto espaço de igualdade e mecanismo de mobilidade social; a condicionalidade da educação no PBF atualiza a promessa da ideologia da igualdade de oportunidades; o PBF incentiva a ilusão de que o problema da pobreza pode ser resolvido por meio da política social, principalmente se centralizado na educação.

The study explored when, under what conditions, and to what extent did European integration, particularly the European Union’s requirement for democratic conditionality, contribute to democratic consolidation in Spain, Poland, and Turkey? On the basis of a four-part definition, the dissertation examined the democratizing impact of European integration process on each of the following four components of consolidation: (i) holding of fair, free and competitive elections, (ii) protection of fundamental rights, including human and minority rights, (iii) high prospects of regime survival and civilian control of the military, and (iv) legitimacy, elite consensus, and stateness. To assess the relative significance of EU’s democratizing leverage, the thesis also examined domestic and non-EU international dynamics of democratic consolidation in the three countries. By employing two qualitative methods (case study and process-tracing), the study focused on three specific time frames: 1977-1986 for Spain, 1994-2004 for Poland, and 1999-present for Turkey. In addition to official documents, newspapers, and secondary sources, face-to-face interviews made with politicians, academics, experts, bureaucrats, and journalists in the three countries were utilized. The thesis generated several conclusions. First of all, the EU’s democratizing impact is not uniform across different components of democratic consolidation. Moreover, the EU’s democratizing leverage in Spain, Poland, and Turkey involved variations over time for three major reasons: (i) the changing nature of EU’s democratic conditionality over time (ii) varying levels of the EU’s credible commitment to the candidate country’s prospect for membership, and (iii) domestic dynamics in the candidate countries. Furthermore, the European integration process favors democratic consolidation but its magnitude is shaped by the candidate country’s prospect for EU membership and domestic factors in the candidate country. Finally, the study involves a major policy implication for the European Union: unless the EU provides a clear prospect for membership, its democratizing leverage will be limited in the candidate countries.

Following the 2008/9 global financial crisis and ensuing economic uncertainty, the roll out of austerity politics has seen significant welfare retrenchment and a recalibration of the state-citizen relationship which can arguably be characterised by a process of punitive Neoliberalism. Nevertheless, the impacts of austerity politics are proving to be geographically uneven: spatially, there is significant evidence that the northern and western parts of Britain, particularly towns and cities therein, are especially prone to the punitive impacts of neoliberal austerity politics, while socially, some parts of society (e.g. the young, the disabled) find themselves exposed to the worst effects of austerity. Conducted under the period of a Conservative-Liberal Democrat UK Coalition Government (2010-2015) this thesis starts by considering the degree to which punitive austerity policies are economically necessary or driven by political ideology. Alongside this it determines whether austerity politics is a (re)new(ed) approach to welfare provision and the state-citizen relationship. The empirical parts of the thesis examine the tactics and strategies utilised by those conducting (the state), implementing (welfare providers and employers), and recipients (people and employees) of welfare-to-work policies, before considering what adaptations, innovations, co-operation, resistance and coping strategies are being employed by these stakeholders in response to austerity politics. In the final part, I argue that whilst many of the neoliberalised policies devised by the Coalition Government have been a renewal and reinvention of those already in place, this is part of a broader trend which is marked by the emergence of a more punitive Neoliberalism associated with a work-first welfare regime.

Using Eli Gateva’s theory of the EU enlargement’s conditionality and the balance in the incitement structure between the terms of rewards and threats, the purpose of the study is to examine the EU commission’s reports of the ongoing negotiation process with Serbia and Montenegro. Furthermore, the study discusses Serbia’s and Montenegro’s relative positions concerning an EU-membership. Through a content analysis of the EU commission’s 2020 reports on Serbia and Montenegro, the study examines how the EU has used rewards and threats on Serbia and Montenegro, and what differences and similarities exist. The study finds that the EU has used different forms of rewards and threats according to Eli Gateva’s Model to conform the respective countries in the EU’s preferred direction. The study mostly discovered similarities but also some differences in how the EU has used rewards and threats on Serbia and Montenegro. The study also finds that Montenegro appears to be closer to a membership than Serbia.

Über das Next Generation EU Programm ist eine gemeinsame Schuldenaufnahme unter dem Dach der EU-KOMMISSION erstmals in großem Umfang ermöglicht worden. Auch wenn stets betont worden ist, dass NGEU eine Maßnahme einmaliger Natur ist, so beschreiben einige EU-Amtsträger:innen, wie etwa der EU-Kommissar für Wirtschaft, PAOLO GENTILONI, sowie EMMANUEL MACRON und MARIO DRAGHI, welche fiskalischen Möglichkeiten die Verstetigung eines solchen Programms bieten könnte. Der Beitrag untersucht daher, welche Bedingungen mit der gemeinsamen Schuldenaufnahme verbunden sind und ob diese Konditionalität für eine künftige Schuldenaufnahme aus fiskalpolitischer Sicht adäquat ist. Daraus sollen Bedingungen abgeleitet werden, die bei einer künftigen gemeinsamen Schuldenaufnahme zu beachten sind. / Through the Next Generation EU Program, joint borrowing under the umbrella of the EU Commission has been made possible on a large scale for the first time. Although it has always been stressed that NGEU is a one-off measure, some EU officials, such as EU Commissioner for Economic Affairs PAOLO GENTILONI, as well as EMMANUEL MACRON and MARIO DRAGHI, describe the fiscal opportunities that the continuation of such a program could offer. The paper therefore examines the conditions associated with joint debt borrowing and whether this conditionality is adequate for future debt borrowing from a fiscal policy perspective. From this, the paper aims to derive conditions that need to be observed for future joint debt borrowing.