Doktorafhandling. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

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The thesis has as purpose to describe and analyse a decision made be the Swedish tax committee in which it was decided that a cooperative economical associations selling price, which was less than the comparable public bonds market price, would be the focus of a withdrawal tax. There are exceptions from a withdrawal tax, that is if the transaction has a business motivation. However the concept, business motivation, is narrowly interpreted both in the preparatory works and in case law, which makes it irrelevant to the situation at hand. A cooperative economical association is a form of association nearest akin to the limited companies. These types of associations have as purpose to increase their owners wealth with the benefit of freedom from personal responsibility. The work concludes that the purpose and meaning of a withdrawal tax is necessary to secure a consistent legality and neutrality between persons conduction business and persons who do not. However, there is one part of the subject matter that seems to be unreasonable. This thesis will show that the market price taken from the public bond market, is not a legal, neutral or comparable price to estimate the full width of a withdrawal tax.

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The concept of Humanitarian Military Interventions has become a core issue within the international community since the 1990s. Human rights violations carried out on a massive scale are no longer perceived as purely domestic concerns but are now recognized as a central concern of the international community. This study of four cases of HMI -Somalia, Rwanda, Haiti and East Timor- is intended to shed the light on two political factors that play a determining role in HMI: the national interests of the interveners and the level of neutrality of the operations. I argue that the level of success of HMI is highly dependent on the presence of national interests in the region for the interveners and a low level of neutrality. This thesis also reflects on the ongoing challenges facing the international community regarding the most efficient ways to address massive human rights violations and presents suggestions towards addressing them.

This paper takes as its starting point the fact of reasonable pluralism and defends political liberalism as the best means of accommodating diversity and a plurality of different conceptions of the good. I then ask what is needed for a social order characterized by diversity and a multiplicity of different ways of life to come into existence and perpetuate itself over time. First, I defend political liberalism and argue that the creation of a society that is accommodating of diversity requires that the state be mindful of the spillover effects between public institutions and the private lives of citizens. Second, I argue that the individuals living in such a society must adopt certain virtues, both publicly as well as privately. I achieve this by presenting an account of the virtues of citizens in a political liberal society. Third, I draw out the implications of having a society characterized by reasonable pluralism and many different conceptions of the good, by arguing that such a society should avoid adopting too expansive a role, since an overly ambitious conception of social justice risks stifling the diversity a political liberal society is trying to protect. I conclude with some general remarks about the current state of liberal theorizing and the need for liberal theorists to provide an account of liberalism that includes more than one’s conception of distributive justice and legitimate state coercion. / Thesis (Master, Philosophy) -- Queen's University, 2008-09-22 21:48:39.206

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Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Introduction: New Zealand (NZ) ratified the Kyoto Protocol in 2002, committing to prudent greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions. In an effort to promote public sector carbon management, in 2004, Clark’s Labour-led Government funded local government membership in ICLEI’s Communities for Climate Protection - NZ (CCP-NZ) programme. In 2007, the same Government, in tandem with efforts to price carbon and develop an Emissions Trading Scheme, through the Carbon Neutral Public Service (CNPS) programme, sought to move the core public sector towards carbon neutrality (Clark, 2007c). In 2008, the NZ government changed from a Labour-led to a National-led Government, and this resulted in a shift in its carbon emission mitigation strategy, including the termination of the CNPS and the CCP-NZ programmes. Purpose: The research has two central objectives: First, to determine why NZ’s newly elected National -led Government cancelled the CNPS and the CCP-NZ programmes; and, second, to determine whether despite the discontinuation of these two programmes and in the absence of Government support, will NZ government organizations continue to strive for carbon emission reductions and neutrality. Approach: This empirical research is investigative and probing, and comprises a series of semi-structured interviews with senior managers responsible for the delivery of the CNPS and the CCP-NZ programmes within their respective organization. The architects of each programme (e.g. the NZ Prime Minister and CEO of ICLEI/ Director of ICLEI Oceania) are also investigated in order to glean insight into the rationale for the ultimate termination of these two programmes. Fieldwork is informed by publicly available information that provides insight into Government’s rationale for creating and discontinuing the CNPS and the CCP-NZ programmes. Narrative analysis and termination theory serve as the primary methodological tools for this study, providing insight into meaning, interpretation and individual experience as it relates to the dismantling of the CNPS and the CCP-NZ programmes. Findings: This study finds that though economic constraints and programmatic inefficiencies may have played a contributing role, political ideology is the primary rationale for the termination of the CNPS and the CCP-NZ programmes. With the ideological shift towards strong neoliberal market environmentalism, Government support for initiatives like the CNPS and the CCP-NZ programmes has declined markedly, with the desire to demonstrate leadership in this area in complete retreat. Ultimately, notwithstanding the desire of some government organizations to continue with programme objectives, albeit with less priority, NZ public sector organizational resolve towards these goals has weakened.

Komunitarizmas atsirado kaip kritika liberalizmo atžvilgiu. Laikui bėgant, jo atstovai siekė ir siekia pateikti šią kryptį kaip alternatyvią teoriją, turinčią išskirtinių bruožų ir galinčią konkuruoti su kitomis politinės filosofijos teorijomis. Bet tvirtinama, kad liberalizmas ir komunitarizmas iš esmės nesiskiria. O liberalai ir komunitarai vienas kitam prieštarauja tik apibrėždami valdžią ir jos funkcijas. Šiame darbe siekiama įvertinti šio teiginio pagrįstumą. Komunitarizmas atmeta tiek liberalų tvirtinimą, kad galima susitarti dėl teisingumo principų, tiek ir liberaliąją laisvo individo sampratą. Komunitarai pabrėžia, kad individo gyvenime nepakeičiamą vaidmenį atlieka bendruomenė ir tik joje jis tampa tikru žmogumi. Jie teigia, kad yra tik bendruomeninės vertybės ir jos negali tarpusavy būti palyginamos, nes nėra jokių universalių principų. Vadinasi, viskas tinka ir bet kokia bendruomeninė praktika gali būti pateisinta. Komunitarai nesutinka, kad galimos bet kokios bendruomenės. Joms įvertinti įveda visuotinius visų lygaus dalyvavimo bei lygių teisių principus. Be to, nė viena bendruomenė nėra vertesnė už kitą, tad valdžia ne tik prižiūri kaip bendruomenės atitinka minėtus principus, bet taip pat turi išlikti nešališka jų atžvilgiu. Komunitarų kritika liberalų atžvilgiu nėra neatremiama. Viena vertus, jie supaprastina liberaliąją individo sampratą, o antra vertus, liberalai be jokių keblumų gali priimti daugelį dalykų, kuriuos tvirtina komunitarai (bendruomenių svarba)... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Communitarianism emerged as a critique to liberalism. Communitarians are aiming to show that communitarianism is an alternative political theory which could successfully compete with other political theories. However, it is maintained that liberalism and communitarianism are not separate theories and they only disagree over the proper role of power. Thesis claims that the communitarian concept of power is liberal and, therefore, communitarianism is not a distinct political theory, but a liberal one. Communitarianism denies a liberal claim that it is possible to agree about the principles of justice. Moreover, communitarians maintain that a liberal concept of free individual is a false view. They emphasize the significance of the community in the life of an individual, because it helps one to become a real human being. On the other hand, if there are only communal values and we cannot commensurate them, because there are no universal principles then everything is possible. Thus it is impossible to criticize or condemn other communal practices. That is why communitarians claim that there are some non-communal principles, like “parity of participation” and “everyone has an equal rights”. They emphasize that no community can be more superior than other, so power has to be neutral. Communitarian critique of liberalism is not irresistible. Firstly, it simplifies the liberal concept of an individual. Secondly, liberals agree with some of the communitarians proposals, like the role... [to full text]