Equal Marital Property Rights

Although the Family Law Act recognizes the contribution of a marriage partner as homemaker and parent, in practice, such contributions are often not recognized as equal to those made by paid workers when property is divided on divorce. Because a woman's earning capacity is usually diminished by her family responsibilities, the existing discretionary approach to property division reinforces women's dependency on men. Under a system of equal marital property rights, the equal value of contributions of unpaid spouses would be clearly established. Assets accumulated before marriage would usually be excluded from the equal ownership rule (and hence from distribution to the other party on divorce), both partners would be informed of transactions during marriage, and parties who choose to could contract out of the equal rights scheme. Men and women would know from the outset of marriage what their rights were.     

On having the opportunity

There are least two general notions of having the opportunity to perform an action, one that concerns what is permitted on the basis of rules, regulations, or customs and another that concerns what is possible according to the physical or mental circumstances. The notion of having the opportunity within a set of circumstances is investigated and analysis in terms of physical possibility is proposed. A distinction is then made between a strong, person-dependent sense of opportunity and a weak, person-independent sense. It is also observed that care must be taken to distinguish the proposed analyses from criteria for determining whether someone has an opportunity.     

Older people, work and equal opportunity

People in industrialized countries are living longer, having fewer children and retiring sooner. The proportion of older people in the population is rising; their labour force participation is declining. These trends are arousing apprehensions about future labour supply and pension financing as contributor/beneficiary ratios decrease. A widely advocated policy response is to seek higher participation rates, especially by raising pensionable ages and restricting early retirement. Little has been done to improve the labour market position of seniors. Three-pronged action is needed: promoting training, placement and workplace flexibility; changing attitudes through education and information; and prohibiting age discrimination in employment.     

Electoral Simultaneity: Expressing Equal Respect

The principle of simultaneity—that citizens should vote as far as possible at the same time—is more significant than is usually appreciated. It is based on a fundamental value of democratic theory, and it has substantial implications for electoral practice. It also invites further normative and empirical research.
The most important value that simultaneity expresses is a form of equality—equal respect. First, if citizens have only information they would have had if they were voting at the same time, the value of each citizen's choice is no greater than that of any other citizen. Second, when citizens go to the polls on the same day, publicly participating in a common experience of civic engagement, they demonstrate their willingness to contribute to the democratic process on equal terms. Taking simultaneity seriously has implications for electoral practices. It would limit the practice of media projections of election results, including the reporting of exit polls, and the calling of elections before all the polls close. It also casts doubt on the increasingly widespread use of early voting—absentee ballots and voting by mail. Early voting weakens the value of the experience of participating in a civic activity. Voting alone may be worse than bowling alone.     

Finite Alternating-Move Arbitration Schemes and the Equal Area Solution

We start by considering the Alternate Strike (AS) scheme, a real-life arbitration scheme where two parties select an arbitrator by alternately crossing off at each round one name from a given panel of arbitrators. We find out that the AS scheme is not invariant to “bad” alternatives. We then consider another alternating-move scheme, the Voting by Alternating Offers and Vetoes (VAOV) scheme, which is invariant to bad alternatives. We fully characterize the subgame perfect equilibrium outcome sets of these above two schemes in terms of the rankings of the parties over the alternatives only. We also identify some of the typical equilibria of these above two schemes. We then analyze two additional alternating-move schemes in which players’ current proposals have to either honor or enhance their previous proposals. We show that the first scheme’s equilibrium outcome set coincides with that of the AS scheme, and the equilibrium outcome set of the second scheme coincides with that of the VAOV scheme. Finally, it turns out that all schemes’ equilibrium outcome sets converge to the Equal Area solution’s outcome of cooperative bargaining problem, if the alternatives are distributed uniformly over the comprehensive utility possibility set and as the number of alternatives tends to infinity. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Number: C72.     

毁灭资本主义不等于赢得社会主义

苏东巨变证明了早期的一个预言,资本主义是可以被毁灭的,但却不一定意味着社会主义的胜利。     

Participation and opportunity: Redefining social security in Australia and New Zealand

Against a political background of shifting societal expectations about the role of social security in terms of mutual obligation and social responsibility, both Australia and New Zealand have conducted major social policy reviews within the past two years. Two of the central themes of the McLure Report (Australia) and the Pathways to Opportunity Report (New Zealand) are social participation and opportunity creation. This paper focuses on these issues from several perspectives. An outline of the motivations for reform and the concepts guiding it is followed by a summary of the reform strategies identified in each report. After a discussion of the similarities and differences in the changes implemented since the two reviews, the conclusion points to some of the potential problems raised by the critics of the reform proposals.     

Equality of opportunity and treatment: Namibia. Working for equality

In 1991, the government of Namibia created a Department of Women's Affairs. The objectives of the Department are: a) to integrate women into all development programs; b) to coordinate women's programs; c) to establish links with international women's organizations; d) to establish a network among governmental and non-governmental organizations; and e) to advise the government and assist in the eradication of discriminatory laws.     

Socioeconomic status,perceived inequality of opportunity,and attitudes toward redistribution

Previous research suggests that an individual’s socioeconomic status (SES) is negatively associated with attitudes toward redistributive policies. The objective of this study is to examine whether the relationship between an individual’s subjective SES and his or her attitudes toward redistribution is contingent upon perceptions of inequality of opportunity. A series of multilevel analyses was performed using data from 28 countries from the 2009 International Social Survey Program (ISSP). Results revealed that the relationship between individual SES and attitudes toward redistribution was weaker among individuals who more strongly believed that success lies beyond the control of individuals. Shared perceptions of inequality of opportunity at the country level were also significant. The relationship between SES and attitudes toward redistribution was weaker in countries with higher levels of public perceptions of inequality of opportunity. In conclusion, people commensurately support redistribution policies (even contrary to their own self-interest) as they recognize the significance of inequality of opportunity. The greater the support among people for redistribution against their self-interest, the weaker the social cleavage in attitudes toward redistribution across different SES strata, and the higher the overall level of support for redistribution in society.     

Anti-racism and the Limits of Equal Opportunities Policy in the Criminal Justice System

In this paper some of the evidence relating to the incidence of racial discrimination in the criminal justice system will be critically examined. It will be argued that equal opportunities policies have been adopted in the British case with the stated aim of tackling the exclusionary effects of racial discrimination. The notion of equal opportunities has been contested not least by those who have advocated anti-racist approaches towards discrimination. Anti-racism has been represented by some of its advocates as reflecting a critique of the authentic source of racism which is loosely defined in terms of social structure and capitalist social relations. The case for reconstituting anti-racism in such a way as to make it relevant to the lives of black offenders will be made. Finally, a framework for developing policies based upon the implementation of specific and clearly stated rights will be made.     

Axiomatizations of a Class of Equal Surplus Sharing Solutions for TU-Games

A situation, in which a finite set of players can obtain certain payoffs by cooperation can be described by a cooperative game with transferable utility, or simply a TU-game. A (point-valued) solution for TU-games assigns a payoff distribution to every TU-game. In this article we discuss a class of equal surplus sharing solutions consisting of all convex combinations of the CIS-value, the ENSC-value and the equal division solution. We provide several characterizations of this class of solutions on variable and fixed player set. Specifications of several properties characterize specific solutions in this class.     

新农村建设中基础公共服务均等化的探析

实施基本公共服务均等化为统筹城乡发展、推进社会主义新农村建设提供有力支撑,研究认为目前中国城乡基本公共服务不均等的原因,主要是公共财政对农村投入不足、公共产品供给主体角色不明晰等,总结出有利于农村公共服务实施均等化推进的理念,理顺了政府、企业和农民的角色定位,以实现公共资源配置的合理性、高效性、归责性和完整性。     

Interracial marriage and family socio-economic well-being: Equal status exchange or caste status exchange?

Minorities outmarried to Whites are often assumed to exchange their higher achieved status for an ascribed racial status. This study challenges this traditional exchange perspective by examining three SES measures (education, job prestige and income), using census 2000 PUMS data. Findings indicate that couples have similar statuses in all types of marriages, either endogamous or exogamous, and there is no evidence of status-caste exchange in intermarriage to Whites, except in Asian husband–White wife marriages in income (not in education or job prestige). Equal status exchange in intermarriages, however, may have stratified racial groups, especially for Native Americans, Native Hawaiians and Hispanics. Intermarriage thus widens gaps of inequality between endogamous minorities and endogamous Whites through equal status exchange between spouses.     

从美国平权修正案的争议看男女平权和母亲角色

二十世纪美国女性主义者推动平权修正案(Equal Rights Amendment,ERA)的出台,禁止美国政府法令用性别的理由歧视女性,目的是消除性别歧视,却遭到挫败。而且,有相当多的女性反对。本文从平权修正案反对者的论点中,来探讨他们对传统母亲角色观点坚持的缘由。从而再评论美国女性主义者的新母亲角色观。本文的结论是,女性主义者用男女无差异的男女平权观点无法彻底和完整地探讨母亲角色的问题。     

配额制:对妇女平等参政的快速跟进

概论 尽管十分具有争议性,但选举的性别配额制正在世界上主要地区被越来越多的国家所引入.最近几年中,大约有40个国家已经通过宪法修正案或选举法,在议会选举中引入了性别配额制.在超过50个国家中,在要求参选国家议会的各政党候选人中妇女所占最低人数的配额现在已在主要政党的纲领中出现.这一发展挑战了先前关于妇女参政的各种不同的理论.     

Catch 22--Black Workers' Role in Equal Opportunities for Black Service Users

Correspondence to: Beverley Prevatt Goldstein, BECON, 4a Callerton Place, Newcastle, NE4 5NQ, UK. Summary This paper is based on the findings of a qualitative study ofblack social care workers (28) in white-led organizations, largelyin the north east of England. This study sought to assess theextent to which the practice of employing black workers to promoteequal opportunities for black service users led to additionalstress for black workers and to identify the contradictionsin this employment practice. It explored the expectations blackworkers held of themselves and perceived others to hold of themvis-à-vis the promotion of equal opportunities, the levelsof stress of black workers, and the black workers' perceptionsof their working conditions. This paper summarizes the findingsof the study, largely through the respondents own words, andanalyses how this approach to equal opportunities for blackservice users may contribute to negative working conditionsand high stress levels for black workers. It concludes thatin order to reduce the stress of black workers and provide abetter service for all, organizations need to move towards askills based rather than a ‘race’ based ethos andto constantly challenge the homogenization, interpersonal andinstitutional racism experienced by many black workers.