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Now showing 1 - 10 of 79
  • Publication
    Barney Frank's Rules of Order
    (2015-01-01) Conti-Brown, Peter
  • Publication
    Compass and Dead Reckoning: The Dynamic Implications of ISCT
    (2009-01-01) Donaldson, Thomas
    The dynamic relationship between hypernorms and microsocial contracts can explain novel, evolutionary changes in economic life. The conceptual machinery of Integrative Social Contracts Theory (ISCT) can be expanded in order to understand dynamic moments in the evolution in economic life such as the economic crisis of 2008–2009. When a transition in the ethical interpretation of economic events occurs over time, it can be understood as a transition from the opaqueness of hypernorms to the relative clarity of microsocial contracts. This phenomenon deserves more study than it has received, and entails, at a minimum, the application of an enhanced, more dynamic interpretation of ISCT.
  • Publication
    Penn State and the Blame Game
    (2012-01-07) Sepinwall, Amy J; Rosner, Scott
    It has now been two months since scandal rolled into the Happy Valley, with the news that Jerry Sandusky has been charged with 52 counts of child molestation. Much is still uncertain and yet the university, the surrounding community, and the nation as a whole remains fixated on the question of responsibility. In particular, does Penn State bear responsibility for any of the alleged acts of abuse and, if so, on what grounds? If the institution does bear responsibility, ought we to transmit that responsibility to members of the Penn State community? To which members? And what measures should Penn State undertake in response? We address each of these questions in turn.
  • Publication
    Toward a Theory of Business
    (2015-01-01) Donaldson, Thomas; Walsh, James P
    What is the purpose of business? While most agree that business minimally involves the creation of value, a blurred double image of value haunts our discussion of purpose. The image of what counts as value for a single firm is laid atop an image of what counts as value for business in general. These two images cannot match. Indeed, the resulting conceptual blurriness is a classic example of a composition fallacy. We should never mistake the properties of a part for the properties of the whole. A theory of the firm is ill equipped to handle the many expectations we hold for business practice. As such, we seek to establish the beginnings of a theory of business, one that is both empirical and normative. Offering four central propositions about the purpose, accountability, control and success of business, we close with a consideration of several important theoretical issues and practical opportunities that await us in the years ahead.
  • Publication
    Survey Article: Justice in Production
    (2008-01-01) Hsieh, Nien-hê
    Liberal egalitarianism has been criticized for paying insufficient attention to what justice requires for the institutions that structure economic production. In the light of such criticism, this paper investigates arguments that liberal egalitarians might give for the kinds of institutional reforms that critics have proposed. These reforms include (1) guarantees for meaningful work, (2) worker participation in the governance of economic enterprises, and (3) democratic participation in the control of the means of production at the level of society. The paper argues that liberal egalitarianism has much to say not only about questions regarding distribution, but also about questions regarding production.
  • Publication
    Burdening "Substantial Burdens"
    (2016-05-28) Sepinwall, Amy J
    In Hobby Lobby v. Burwell, the Supreme Court held that religious believers could establish that their free exercise was substantially burdened just so long as they—or the corporation they had formed—believed that it was. This highly deferential stance paved the way for yet another challenge to the contraceptive mandate. In Zubik, religious organizations (ROs) contend that it is not just subsidization of contraception that can make an employer complicit in contraception use. Instead, even filling out a form registering one’s objection to the mandate can do so. The government has responded by vigorously arguing that filling out a form cannot reasonably be construed as a substantial burden. One can read the Court’s per curiam opinion as an implicit endorsement of the RO’s claim that the accommodation process substantially burdens their free exercise. Nonetheless, without a decision on the merits, it is not clear just why the ROs should prevail on the substantial burden question. Nor do the parties’ submissions provide the needed clarity as the arguments on each side are irredeemably flawed. Or so at any rate I argue here. I nonetheless believe that there is good reason for ROs to contest the accommodation process, as it requires that the ROs ratify contraceptive use, in contravention of their religious beliefs. On these grounds, I find that the existing process imposes a substantial burden on religious exercise. But I also take seriously the rationale behind the contraceptive mandate and I conclude by seeking to vindicate women’s rights to free contraception in ways that the ROs should find congenial.
  • Publication
    The Moral Problem in Insider Trading
    (2009-01-01) Strudler, Alan
    This article identifies the moral wrongness of insider trading. It examines the leading arguments for treating insider trading as morally wrong and suggests that these arguments are unpersuasive because they either rely on dubious empirical premises or assume normative premises that are equivalent to their conclusions. It concludes that it is the unconscientious dealings involved in insider trading that is the most persuasive moral basis for wrongfulness of insider trading.
  • Publication
    Responsive Government and Duties of Conscience
    (2015-05-01) Hughes, Robert C
    Many political philosophers have defended the importance of enabling citizens to participate in law-making. Some argue that widespread citizen participation makes the law making process more likely to produce just law.1 Others argue that government must enable citizens to participate in law-making for law to be legitimate or to have legitimate authority.2 Still others argue that government must give citizens an equal share of political power in order to express equal respect for them.3 I will not dispute any of these arguments, but I believe they need to be supplemented, in part because they do not fully capture the reasons that enabling citizen participation matters morally, in part because they do not completely explain what democratic governments owe to citizens with minority political views. I claim that citizens need genuine opportunities to participate in law-making for another reason: they need to be able to satisfy individual duties of conscience.
  • Publication
    Corporate Social Responsibility and Different Stages of Economic Development: Singapore, Turkey, and Ethiopia
    (2009-01-01) Robertson, Diana C
    The U.S. and U.K. models of corporate social responsibility (CSR) are relatively well defined. As the phenomenon of CSR establishes itself more globally, the question arises as to the nature of CSR in other countries. Is a universal model of CSR applicable across countries or is CSR specific to country context? This article uses integrative social contracts theory (ISCT) and four institutional factors – firm ownership structure, corporate governance, openness of the economy to international investment, and the role of civil society – to examine CSR in Singapore, Turkey, and Ethiopia. Field research results illustrate variation across the institutional factors and suggest that CSR is responsive to country differences. Research findings have implications for consideration of the tradeoff between global and local CSR priorities and practices.