SEARCH RESULTS

A lively debate has arisen in the last twenty years inside the countries which experienced colonialism. The main point of the discussion is that decolonization did not end with the achievement of political independence. A subtler, but not less intruding colonization persists and it’s growing. So many solutions have been elaborated in order to manage the cultural marginalization of the ex-colonies. The author discusses the well-known Indian contribution to the debate on universal values. This contribution eludes some of the most interesting parts of the Indian history, it neglects the dissonant voices, and it excuses aged believes and institutions despite their obvious dangerousness for the safety of the fundamental human rights.

This article argues against the argument that justifies violence when it is used to protect of a third, innocent party. My confutation presents various counter-arguments. It shows that the effectiveness of this extreme case is based on an extreme coercion: the threat of death. But such a coercion has the same heuristic power of a tautology, from which anything follows: correct and incorrect conclusions. Moreover, the argument treats violence and non-violence as contrary categories, and not as different ones. It allows an erroneous inference, inasmuch as it assumes that from the confutation of the one, the other follows.

The notion of ‘civilization’, dismissed by the social sciences and, especially, by anthropology since long time, is now back in the spotlight and it plays a political role which clearly reveals its eurocentric and racist premises. The article tries to deconstruct this notion by re-telling the story of that «parochial universalism» that has become the founding discourse of western ideology and that lay behind the colonialist enterprise and the mass-murders of native populations.

The paper deals with regulation authorities/agencies and local monopolies. The framework of the analysis can be useful, in general, for franchising/contracting-out relationships between local governments and firms. The core thesis of the paper is that the effectiveness of local regulatory authorities is significantly weakened, a part from information asymmetries largely treated in literature, by several factor. Some of these are external to the authority, like the incumbent’s proximity to the local market and socio-political environment; some influence the authority behaviour, like the improper costs due to inertia and osmosis between professional statuses with interest’s conflict. These factors are also present in the regulation process at national level, yet they seem more incisive when the geographical dimension of the regulated markets shrinks. Besides, there are interesting analogies with the auditing and rating sectors. Corrective policies may consist in spreading the culture of regulation at local level, enlarging the spatial competence of the authorities/agencies,

Estimates of external costs of transport are quoted in important political and statistical documents. However, some theoretical and methodological aspects of the definition of external costs are still unclear. The paper discusses some of these issues. In the first part of the paper, having analysed the concept of external costs, and assessed its dependence on the institutional set up and on the assumption about altruism and information, the paper proposes a distinction between external costs and social costs. The former is associated with efficiency analysis, the latter with cost-efficiency analysis. The two concepts are then discussed with specific reference to external costs caused by transport activities. The second part of the paper reviews and discusses the main methodological uncertainties connected with the estimation of external cost of air pollution, congestion and accidents. It is argued that because of methodological and data constraints there appears to be insufficient knowledge on marginal external cost, whereas average social costs are better known.

The recent revision of the Italian Constitution has profoundly altered the distribution of powers between the state and the regional administrations, with the latter acquiring extremely important areas of jurisdiction. Among the powers devolved to the regions is authority to issue rules which integrate the state law on supplementary social security, or the set of financial instruments that flank traditional state pensions. This decision by the Italian legislators appears justified by a set of «failures’ associated with the mechanisms for voluntary subscription to supplementary pension schemes. The first and most important of such failures is the modest proportion of the population " especially among the most vulnerable groups " which opts for these investments essential to guarantee a future characterized by significant cutbacks in state pensions. In this regard, signal mention should be made of the experience of the Trentino-Alto Adige region, which has implemented a series of innovative measures able to overcome many of the difficulties that elsewhere have obstructed the introduction and development of new social security models.

The role of the regional Councils is currently being redefined: this will take shape and substance in the new statutes, since the direct election of the regional Presidents and the duties now assigned to the managers have effectively shifted authority back within the institution of the Region. In the framework of this repositioning of the Council, together with the relevant commissions, the functions of orientation and control could be decisive, especially when reviewed with respect to the present situation. In the current state of considerable ferment, this paper seeks to pinpoint certain functions of the Council relative to the checks on the efficiency, effectiveness and economic viability of the operative structure. Also noted are the features peculiar to public organizations precisely as regards the modalities of control over the management and strategies of the body. Particular analysis is made of the traditional typologies of control and those typical of a regional authority, the possible qualitative and quantitative developments, and the possible tools, in view inter alia of the ever-growing need to investigate and assess the effects, as these make themselves felt, of the provisions of the regions as bodies exacting financial resources and regulations, rather than services.

In Historians and History, Rudy Koshar analizza la produzione scientifica dello storico George Mosse, scomparso da qualche anno, che spazia su un ampio ventaglio di tematiche e comprende circa trecento titoli fra libri, saggi e opere da lui curate. Esule dalla Germania negli USA a quattordici anni, Mosse è diventato uno dei massimi studiosi di lingua inglese del fascismo europeo: la sua opera si impone per qualità e per l’apertura mentale, che testimonia la mancanza di risentimento nei confronti della Germania e il grande equilibrio e la serenità di giudizio che la ispirano

Il saggio di Alberto Melloni esamina la politica internazionale della S. Sede all’indomani del Concilio Vaticano II, che ricolloca la chiesa su vari scenari, ridefinendone le priorità: il Medio Oriente, il valore politico dell’ecumenismo, le sfide della deterrenza, ecc. Attraverso una lettura delle fonti, edite e non, l’A. sostiene che al termine degli anni Sessanta la fine della distensione, la fallita mediazione vaticana sul Vietnam, il controllo di Israele su Gerusalemme e la vocalità della chiesa latino-americana mostrano come il "secolo lungo" iniziato a Porta Pia non si chiuda quando nel centenario dell’evento Paolo VI ne riconosce la provvidenzialità.

Secondo la legge italiana, l’incesto costituisce un reato soltanto se suscita "pubblico scandalo" ed è dunque lesivo della morale familiare. Così è stato dall’Unità ad oggi, secondo una sconcertante peculiarità e continuità giuridica, nonostante la presenza di diversi codici pre-unitari, i ripetuti dissensi espressi al legislatore e i mutamenti nella mentalità, nella sessualità, nella famiglia. Esaminando la giurisprudenza, il saggio di Patrizia Guarnieri accosta fonti recenti e fonti lontane nel tempo, per far risaltare continuità e cambiamenti

The current British emphasis on the «special Relationship» between Britain and the US can only be fully understood, according to David Ellwood, in terms of the 20-year effort by successive London governments to transform national economic performance and political culture in the direction of American modernity as they perceive it to be. This impulse fits in to a pattern of responses to crises in national identity first seen as the Empire began to wane, repeated after each World War and then after the Cold War. But the lessons of these experiences are clear: top-down, State-promoted "Americanization" never produces the hoped-for results

Federico Romero provide an analysis of the American vision of international order in the twentieth century, arguing that Washington has come to see its hegemonic power as an indispensable feature of an international system of democracies. From Wilson's analyses of the perils and opportunities of interdependence to the German and Soviet threats in mid-century, culture and strategy have interacted in joining democracy and (American) power in a single, pivotal concept that is here explored in its intellectual roots and historical evolution.

Nell’Editoriale Giovanni Gozzini ripercorre i mutamenti di significato della parola globalizzazione nel dibattito delle scienze sociali e nel lessico comune: in questo caso, dall’enfasi posta in origine sullo sviluppo dei mezzi di comunicazione (il «villaggio globale» di McLuhan) siamo passati alla centralità della questione ambientale, intesa come questione globale. In tempi più recenti l’ascesa del movimento «no global» ha diffuso un’immagine negativa della globalizzazione, intesa come aumento degli squilibri economici del mondo a causa degli interessi delle potenti compagnie multinazionali private. Storici, economisti e sociologi suggeriscono di ricorrere a un’immagine più neutra della globalizzazione, intesa come interdipendenza culturale e politica tra Stati-nazione, attraversati da masse crescenti di persone, merci e capitali