Human rights and the rights of states: a relational account

What is the relationship between human rights and the rights of states? Roughly, while cosmopolitans insist that international morality must regard as basic the interests of individuals, statists maintain that the state is of fundamental moral significance. This article defends a relational version of statism. Human rights are ultimately grounded in a relational norm of reciprocal independence and set limits to the exercise of public authority, but, contra the cosmopolitan, the state is of fundamental moral significance. A relational account promises to justify a limited conception of state sovereignty while avoiding the familiar cosmopolitan criticisms of statist accounts.

The Public Form of Law: Kant on the Second-Personal Constitution of Freedom

The two standard interpretations of Kant’s view of the relationship between external freedom and public law make one of the terms a means for the production of the other: either public law is justified as a means to external freedom, or external freedom is justified as a means for producing a system of public law. This article defends an alternative, constitutive interpretation: public law is justified because it is partly constitutive of external freedom. The constitutive view requires conceiving of external freedom in a novel, second-personal way, that is, as an irreducibly relational norm.

When Subcategorization Facilitates Group Cohesion

This paper analyzes the conditions under which groups composed of two opposing factions are able to preserve group cohesion and subgroup opinion divisions simultaneously. Results from two experimental studies conducted with small interactive groups showed that groups with opposing factions were able to preserve subgroup divergence without jeopardizing superordinate group cohesion. A process termed relational regulation of ingroup opinion divisions explains these findings: The more group members perceived the group as promoting good relations, the more they maintained or even radicalized their initial opinions. In contrast, in an experimental context in which opinion divergences were not reinforced by subcategorization, we observed convergence toward a unique group position destined to maintain group cohesion that was independent of the perceived relational norm.

The Effect Of Group-Orientation Culture On Inter-Organizational Cooperation Mechanisms

Cooperation between exchange parties becomes a center for inter-organizational relationship. Cooperation reduces the attractiveness of opportunistic behavior that seeks short-term benefits, so it has been identified as a key factor for inter-organizational cooperation. Although several factors affecting cooperative relationship have been studied, the majority of inter-organizational studies are conducted on the basis of an individualistic perspective view of Western culture. This study introduces group-orientation culture and tries to enhance the understanding the effect of group-orientation culture on inter-organizational cooperation in the relationship between exchange parties. This study suggests that group-orientation culture influences the generation of informal cooperation between exchange parties. When a party expects harmonious relationship with its partner, the party develops the relational norm through accepting short-term disadvantages that are expected to be balanced out by longer-term advantages. However, exchange parties with a low group-orientation culture do not rely on formal cooperation mechanisms.

Trust As A Precursor Or Outcome Of Relational Norm Development: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Of US And Hungarian Managers

This study proposes and tests a model delineating relational norms and their relationship with the construct Trust and compares the results across two culture groups. The norms of Solidarity, Flexibility, and Mutuality are proposed as precursors to the formation of Trust. SEM results confirm two opposing models for U.S. and Hungarian respondents. Relational Norms have a strong positive relationship with formation of Trust for the Hungarian respondents, acting as a precursor of Trust. Whereas, the relationship between trust and the relational norms is weak for the U.S. respondents, and indicates that Trust is a precursor to the formation of Relational Norms.