Thinking about the Needy, Justice, and International Organizations

This article has three main parts, Section 2 considers the nature and extent to which individuals who are well-off have a moral obligation to aid the worlds needy. Drawing on a pluralistic approach to morality, which includes consequentialist, virtue-based, and deontological elements, it is contended that most who are well-off should do much more than they do to aid the needy, and that they are open to serious moral criticism if they simply ignore the needy. Part one also focuses on the United States, and illustrates both how incredibly wealthy the U.S. is and some of the spending habits of its citizens; however, its considerations apply to the well-off generally. Section 3 considers whether justice provides reasons for helping the needy. Noting that justice in an extremely complex notion, it discusses numerous considerations relevant to justices scope and implications, including an extended Rawlsian conception of justice, an absolute conception, a comparative conception, the distinction between natural and social justice, and various elements of common-sense morality. Section 2 also distinguishes between agent-relative justice-based reasons, which are relevant to whether we act justly, and agent-neutral justice-based reasons, which are relevant to whether we have reasons of justicefor acting. Correspondingly, it argues that even if one can ignore the needy without acting unjustly, as philosophers like Robert Nozick and Jan Narveson contend, there may be powerful reasons of justicefor addressing their plight. Section 4 briefly address the responsibilities of international organizations like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and World Trade Organization (WTO). Drawing on Section 2, it is suggested that in addition to standard reasons to act justlytowards needy members of the worlds community, there will be reasons of justicefor such organizations to aid the needy in both present, and future, generations. The article concludes by contending that the well-off in countries like the U.S. have reason to view international organizations like the World Bank, IMF, and WTO as their agents, and to seek to insure that they alleviate misfortunes amongst the worlds needy.     

A policy‐modeling approach to examining fairness judgments in organizational acquisitions

Organizational acquisitions may be characterized by the degree of friendliness or hostility as well as the degree of autonomy or absorption of the organizations following the merger. This study examined judgments of fairness across four types of organizational acquisitions. Students read fictitious newspaper accounts of a university acquisition and rated their expectations and perceptions of fairness about possible changes. Results indicated that in an acquisition, both the procedures used and the outcomes provided influenced how fair the acquisition was perceived. As predicted, the relative importance of procedures and outcomes in overall perceptions of fairness shifted depending on the context of the acquisition. As the desirability of the acquisition increased, individuals placed greater importance on the procedural elements. In a friendly and low integration acquisition, the processes and outcomes became equally important. Individuals faced with a high integration acquisition expected more unfair changes and fewer fair changes to occur. Furthermore, these results highlight the importance expectations play in perceptions of fairness. The type of acquisition will influence expectations for fair treatment. Under less desirable conditions (hostile and high‐integration mergers), organizations should take steps early in the process to manage fairness perceptions. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

医疗保障制度改革过程中的价值取向问题及其影响

随着社会主义市场经济体制的建立,我国传统的劳保医疗制度和公费医疗制度已越来越不适应社会发展的要求,呈现出诸多弊端,亟待改革。作为一项公共政策,医疗保障制度在改革与完善的过程中应根据科学行政的要求对政策的价值取向进行深入分析,以便顺利实施改革的各项方案。分析医疗保障制度改革中所涉及的各方面的价值观及其对改革的影响,希望唤起政策制定者对不同群体利益的关注,从而保证政策体系的稳定。     

Theorizing Gerontology: The Case of Old Age, Professional Power, and Social Policy in the United Kingdom

This article examines the interrelationship between old age, professional power, and social policy. In particular, dominant theoretical models in social gerontology are reviewed and an alternative framework for understanding social gerontological issues—Foucauldian gerontology—is advanced. Foucauldian narratives are employed to delineate the historical relationship between professional social work and recent social policy for older people in the United Kingdom. In addition, a Foucauldian framework employed to examine identity formation, professional practices, and policy narratives enriches and widens the disciplinary subject matter of theorizing aging studies. The structure of this article is in three parts: review of theories of aging with an introduction of Foucault's potential contribution to gerontological analysis, the historical overview of the instigation of professional intervention in modernity and the changing roles and responsibilities in relation to older people utilizing Foucault's (1977) genealogical method, and the exploration and application of Foucault's key notion of governmentality (1977; Rose & Miller, 1992) in the analysis of social policy for older people.     

医患关系由“双输”到“双赢”

我国医患关系日趋紧张已是一个不争的事实,日趋恶化的医患关系使患者无奈、天使流泪、医院苦恼、政府尴尬,可谓"全盘皆输"。实现和谐医患关系达到"全赢",必须解决影响医疗服务水平的这一关键障碍,需要政府、医院、医务人员和患者多方的共同努力。     

The Church and the World: Are There Theological Resources for a Common Conversation?

Abortion is an especially salient issue for considering thegeneral problematic of religiously based conversation in thepublic square. It remains deeply divisive, fully thirty-fouryears after Roe v. Wade. Such divisiveness cannot be interpretedas merely an expression of profound differences between "secular"and "religious" voices, because differences also emerge amongChristian denominations, reflecting different sources of moralauthority, different accounts of moral discernment, and differentjudgments about the appropriate relations between law and moralityin the context of pluralism. As this paper explores, however,despite those differences, a generally identifiable "Christian"position concerning the moral status of abortion can be distinguishedfrom secular philosophical judgments on the issue, which isimportant for Christian engagement with public policy debate.     

Are Newborns Morally Different from Older Children?

Policies and position statements regarding decision-making for extremely premature babies exist in many countries and are often directive, focusing on parental choice and expected outcomes. These recommendations often state survival and handicap as reasons for optional intervention. The fact that such outcome statistics would not justify such approaches in other populations suggests that some other powerful factors are at work. The value of neonatal intensive care has been scrutinized far more than intensive care for older patients and suggests that neonatal care is held to a higher standard of justification. The relative value placed on the life of newborns, in particular the preterm, is less than expected by any objective medical data or any prevailing moral frameworks about the value of individual lives. Why do we feel less obligated to treat the premature baby? Do we put newborns in a special and lesser moral category? We explore this question from a legal and ethical perspective and offer several hypotheses pertaining to personhood, reproductive choices, “precious children,” and probable evolutionary and anthropological factors.     

认知评价与心理控制感在中年人对社会政策变化感受与心理健康之间的作用

采用自编问卷以714名城镇中年人为被试,考察了认知评价与心理控制感在中年人对社会政策变化感受与心理健康之间的作用。结果发现:(1)总体上,社会政策变化对中年人造成的心理感受以及对心理健康的影响都是积极的。(2)认知评价、心理控制感在中年人对社会政策变化感受与心理健康之间起中介作用。     

Multi-criteria evaluation of climate policy interactions

The effectiveness of a national climate policy instrument is affected by the presence of policy interactions with other instruments that were not forecasted before its implementation. The problem can be confronted during the design of the instrument by determining forms, types and size of emerging interactions. This paper presents a systematic approach for evaluating the aggregate effect of interactions using a combination of three multi-criteria methods, the analytical hierarchy process, the multi-attribute utility theory and the Simple Multi-Attribute Ranking Technique. The first is used for determining the weight coefficients for interaction forms and sub-criteria. The other two are used for grading policy interactions under a set of three criteria and their sub-criteria. The method is tested for two pairs of interactive instruments, IPPC and EU-ETS, EU-ETS and policies for the promotion of RES, within the Hellenic climate policy framework. Consistency and robustness tests are performed. Results are commented. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Chinese Version of the Revised Creativity Domain Questionnaire (CDQ‐R): First Evidence for its Factorial Validity and Systematic Association with the Big Five

The present study examines the factor structure of a Chinese version of the Revised Creativity Domain Questionnaire (CDQ‐R; Kaufman, Waterstreet, Ailaouni, Whitcomb, Roe, & Riggs, 2009) as well as its relation to Big Five personality traits within a Chinese sample (N = 787). Analyses indicate the appropriateness of the Chinese version of the CDQ‐R in terms of internal consistency, factorial validity as well as convergent and divergent validity concerning the Big Five personality factors. Revealing some culture‐specific variation, confirmatory factor analysis indicated a slight superiority of a five‐factor model for this Chinese sample over the existing four‐factor model established with American samples. This higher level of differentiation in terms of one factor of the creativity domain could be explained on the basis of the specific characteristics of the Chinese culture.