1,721,217 research outputs found
From peace between democracies to global democracy
No full textBook synopsis: Democracy is increasingly seen as the only legitimate form of government, but few people would regard international relations as governed according to democratic principles. Can this lack of global democracy be justified? Which models of global politics should contemporary democrats endorse and which should they reject? What are the most promising pathways to global democratic change? To what extent does the extension of democracy from the national to the international level require a radical rethinking of what democratic institutions should be? This book answers these questions by providing a sustained dialogue between scholars of political theory, international law and empirical social science. By presenting a broad range of views by prominent scholars, it offers an in-depth analysis of one of the key challenges of our century: globalizing democracy and democratizing globalization
Knowledge as global public good
No full textThis chapter applies the framework of public goods to knowledge. It shows that knowledge has some characteristics of public good, such as being non-rival in consumption and in the long run non excludable. But it also argues that knowledge cannot be transferred from producers to users at low or negligible costs: to effectively use knowledge, prospective users should devote time and energy to its assimilation. Consequently, free-riding in knowledge is less likely to be successful than with other public goods. This has also important implications for national and global policies. Catching up countries need to implement policies of active learning if they really wish to get the benefit of knowledge. Intellectual property rights have the purpose of making knowledge institutionally excludable, and this contradicts the objective pursued by governments and international organization to disseminate science and technology. It is finally argued that the normative implication of the global public goods analysis in the
case of knowledge requires greater public investment and international cooperation
Claiming citizenship rights in Europe: Emerging challenges and political agents
No full textWhile the European integration project is facing new challenges, abandonments and criticism, it is often forgotten that there are powerful legal instruments that allow citizens to protect and extend their rights. These instruments and the actions taken to activate them are often overlooked and deliberately ignored in the mainstream debates.\ud
This book presents a selection of cases in which legal institutions, social movements, avant-gardes and minorities have tried, and often succeeded, to enhance the current state of human rights through traditional as well as innovative actions. The chapters of this book investigate some of the cases in which the gap between the conventionally recognized rights and those advocated is becoming wider and where traditionally disadvantaged groups\ud
raise new problems or new issues are emerging concerning individual freedom, transparency and accountability, which are not yet properly addressed in the current political and legal landscape. Can political institutions and courts without coercive power of last resort actually foster more progressive\ud
rights? This book suggests that the expansion of human rights might be a viable strategy to generate a proper European citizenship.\ud
This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of European Studies, Politics and International Relations, Law and Society, Sociology and Migration Studies and more broadly to NGOs and policy advisers
The globalization of intellectual property rights
No full textThere is a heated debated – in academia and in policy circles – about the usefulness of a stronger global regime of intellectual property rights (IPRs). Supporters of strong IPRs argue that they will allow financing R&D and innovation and disseminating it across countries. Detractors respond that this will imply another burden on developing countries, making slower and more difficult their catching up. The introduction of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) in 1994 has even further polarized these positions.
We argue that the relevance of IPRs in facilitating or obstructing technology transfer has largely been exaggerated. Innovation-based development is neither hampered nor facilitated by strong or weak IPRs, but rather by the willingness to invest resources in R&D, education, and infrastructures. While TRIPS have effectively represented an attempt to generate a global regime of IPRs, its economic effectiveness has been rather limited since enforcement and policing of IPRs infractions are still firmly in the hands of national authorities
The globalization of technology and national policies
No full textKnowledge is becoming increasingly important in contemporary economic systems, and economic growth and welfare depends on how promptly economic agents are able to exploit the benefits derived from technological innovations. In a landscape characterized by globalization, the contributors to this volume offer a new perspective on the transformation undertaken by firms, universities, and other agents. They urge for a wider involvement of public policies to foster learning and innovation
Who is swimming against the stream: is accumulation more creative than destruction?
No full textBook synopsis: The recent financial and economic crisis has spurred a lot of interest among scholars and public audience. Strangely enough, the impact of the crisis on innovation has been largely underestimated. This books can be regarded as a complementary reading for those interested in the effect of the crisis with a particular focus on Europe
Innovation systems and policy in a global economy.
No full textNew technologies are a fundamental part of modern economic life. Economists and engineers, no less than politicians and public opinion, are devoting increasing attention to understanding why, how and where technological innovations are generated. This book is devoted to discussing two separate, but closely connected bodies of literature on the sources and nature of new technologies. The first set is focused on the similarities and differences in the organisation of innovative activities at the national level, whilst the second group is centred on the role of globalisation in shaping technological change
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