International Relations and Political Philosophy

This book collects Martin Wight’s works on the theory and philosophy of international politics. It includes classic works, such as “Why Is There No International Theory?” and “Western Values in International Relations,” as well as previously unpublished works such as “The Communist Theory of International Relations” and “Gain, Fear and Glory: Reflections on the Nature of International Politics.” These works encompass four categories: (a) traditions of thinking about international politics since the sixteenth century, (b) the causes and functions of war, (c) international and regime legitimacy, and (d) fortune and irony in international politics. Wight identifies and analyzes three major traditions of thinking about international politics in the West since the sixteenth century: Realism, Rationalism, and Revolutionism, also known as the Machiavellian, Grotian, and Kantian approaches. Wight examines the causes of war highlighted by Thucydides and Hobbes (material interest, fear, and reputation), and considers the functions of war in international politics (such as winning and retaining national independence and upholding the balance of power). Wight reviews the history of dynastic and popular legitimacy as well as post-1945 concepts of international and domestic legitimacy. Finally, Wight considers fortune and irony, including the decision-maker’s frequent rediscovery of the recalcitrance of events. Unintended, unexpected, and ironical consequences abound in international politics. This volume also features eight book reviews by Wight, including his assessments of works by Raymond Aron, E. H. Carr, Friedrich Meinecke, and Hans Morgenthau.

The Abolition of the Concept of “Causa” in French Civil Law

Causa is a subjective motive that determines the content of the obligation or material interest, which encourages the party to the trade to enter into an obligation taking on the associated burdens. In the countries of continental (mainland) Europe that belong to the Romano-Germanic law system, such as Germany, France, and Italy, the goal (objective) of the parties to the trade, causa, is legally significant. In the theory of the Civil law of the Romano-Germanic system, there is a general principle – any obligation arises for some purpose, which is called the basis of obligation. Causa is an individual interest that meets the requirements of the legal system. France was one of the last European countries that did not recognise the contingency theory as a basis for regulating the binding force of a contract. In practice, the courts have faced criticism of the concept of causation from both doctrine and law enforcement practice. In 2016, there was a significant reform of the French law of obligations. Legal science, undeservedly, did not attach due importance to one of the most noticeable innovations within the framework of the mentioned reform – the abolition of the concept of “causa” (reason, basis) of the contract, which until recently was one of the most original features of the French law and originated from Roman law, which was fixed in the Napoleonic Code. In this article, the theoretical provisions for the abolition of the concept of causa in French civil law, within the framework of the reform of the Civil Code, were investigated, and the corresponding conclusions were drawn.

Problems and directions of improving the insurance of agricultural crops and plantings of perennial plantations against the risks of natural emergencies

The simultaneous existence of two interrelated forms of state aid - subsidizing classical agricultural insurance and compensation for damage to affected regions from the federal budget - requires understanding the basic principles of interaction and assessing the mutual impact of these areas of support. The purpose of the study is to identify the problems of the development of crop insurance and planting of perennial crops against the risks of natural emergencies. The research was carried out in the context of insurance statistics of Russian regions using generally accepted methods. The conducted research revealed the negative dynamics of a significant decrease in the volume of crop insurance of agricultural crops in 2016-2020. Regional authorities in the conditions of a single subsidy are not interested in the independent distribution of funds allocated by the state for the development of agricultural insurance. This is due to the fact that when the agricultural sector has significant losses as a result of the impact of natural disasters, the practice of introducing an emergency regime by the region is widespread. Which gives grounds for receiving compensation for half of the amount of damage directly from the federal budget. This determines the main problem of the development of classical agricultural insurance - the lack of expediency and material interest in this mechanism of protection of property interests both on the part of producers of agricultural products and on the part of regional authorities. In this regard, a brief justification was given for the feasibility of transforming the mechanism for providing direct assistance to the regions from the federal budget into a separate area of crop risk insurance in case of a natural emergency. This line of support will complete the classic multi-risk agricultural insurance.

Electronic health care system (e-Health): implementation mechanism and stages of development

The article analyzes issues related to one of the types of Internet technologies in the field of health care, electronic health care system (e-Health) in Ukraine, components and mechanism of its implementation. Information rights, the right to access the Internet and the use of innovative technologies in medicine have traditionally been referred to as the "fourth generation of human rights", the emergence of which is due to the realities of the XXI century. The medical reform introduced in Ukraine has focused on the patient in the field of health care. The purpose was to bring medical services closer to the patient, simplify the procedure for their provision (use of telemedicine), "material interest" of doctors in providing services (payment for each patient), which should improve the quality and availability of relevant services. The concept and content of the electronic health care system as an integral part of health care reform are analyzed. The purpose of which is to assist in establishing a relationship between doctor and patient regarding the proper quality of available (receiving) medical services. The functional capabilities of e-Health, positive aspects and certain "weaknesses" in the mechanism of its implementation are identified. Some components of the e-Health implementation mechanism are considered, which are: introduction of an electronic form of declarations between patients and family doctors, therapists, pediatricians; translation into electronic form of prescriptions under the program "Available Medicines"; introduction of electronic referrals, which is a part of the program "Free diagnostics"; introduction of electronic hospitals; creation of an electronic patient cabinet.

‘Impossible to provide an accurate estimate’: the interested calculation of the Ottoman public debt, 1875–1881

When the Ottoman Empire defaulted on its public debt in 1875, British bondholders launched a campaign to win government intervention on their behalf. This article interprets the unprecedented success of this campaign as a matter of knowledge production. Mobilizing the newly established Corporation of Foreign Bondholders as a kind of ‘centre of calculation’, bondholders argued that they deserved assistance because of the unique size of the Ottoman default and the proportion of it that was held by British subjects. Yet neither of these numbers was easily calculated. In fact, influential bondholders worked closely with accountants and members of the Statistical Society to devise an accurate method for quantifying the Ottoman debt – and concluded that such a method did not exist. Historians of quantification and accounting have argued that the scientific status of nineteenth-century accounting depended on its disinterestedness. In the case of the Ottoman default, however, calculation was understood to be inseparable from material interest and political debate.

ECONOMIC BENEFITS OF INTEGRATION PROCESSES

Agroindustrial integration, which is an organic union and effective functioning of specialized agricultural, industrial and processing enterprises in order to obtain final products from agricultural raw materials and achieve greater economic benefit through mutual material interest, has gained practical relevance in modern conditions, when various organizational forms of integration began to emerge. The problem of further development of both agricultural production and processing industry should be solved by creating a mutually beneficial and mutually stimulating mechanism of cooperation between them. The importance of ensuring technological, economic and organizational unity of production, processing, procurement and sale of agricultural products determines the need for the development of integration processes in the agroindustrial complex. Agroindustrial integration solves the problems of accumulating financial resources to solve the priority areas of development of agriculture and its service spheres, the improvement of the financial condition of enterprises and organizations of agroindustrial production, the expansion of opportunities to market the products of agricultural producers. At the present stage integration develops on the basis of the movement of investments, for which certain state norms and rules have been created, proposals for institutions - organizations have been developed to promote the inflow of investments in the regions as well as in the agrarian sector of the economy. Economic integration in the agroindustrial complex and certain food subcomplexes is aimed at establishing interaction and business cooperation between various economic entities and their partners in technologically, organizationally and economically interrelated sectors of the economy. Any integration structure is focused on improving the use of partners’ production potential on the basis of mutual interest and close mutually beneficial cooperation.

Motivation and psycho-emotional state in the competitive activities of veteran judokas

Purpose: to study the features of motivation and psycho-emotional state in the competitive activities of veteran judokas. Material and methods. The pedagogical research used analysis and generalization of scientific and methodological literature, surveys of athletes and specialists in judo, study of videos of competitive activities of highly qualified judokas and veteran judokas, methods of mathematical statistics. Results: the level of psycho-emotional sphere of athletes' personality was assessed by a modified test RB Ketella (16-FLO-105-C). The results of this testing showed that the main parameters of the psycho-emotional state in judo veterans are within normal limits. Veterans are characterized by more objective self-esteem, good intelligence, less subordination, and stable emotional stability. A questionnaire survey of veteran judokas was conducted, which revealed that 92,9 % of respondents started regular classes before the age of 15; 96,4 % interrupted active wrestling for 5-10 years; 28,6 % of veteran athletes sometimes included wrestling and its elements in their exercise. In order to determine the motives for sports activities of veteran judokas and young athletes, a modified version of the method of identifying significant factors of sports activities was used, which showed that veteran athletes and young judokas have different motivations for training. 71,4 % of judo veterans are motivated to return to sports by meeting the needs of competitive activities, getting closer to their «motor past» and maintaining good health; 21,4 % of the surveyed athletes returned for self-expression and self-affirmation, and only 7,1 % said they continued to exercise to meet their ambitions. The main motive for young athletes was the need for self-expression (46,9 %), material interest (33,9 %). Conclusions. Studies have shown little effect on the competitive outcome in veteran judo injuries and sports qualifications of athletes. Apparently, the basis of success of highly qualified judokas-veterans is high psychological readiness, strictly individual physical and technical and tactical training. Keywords: judo, psychological training, motivation, competitions, veterans, veterans' sports

A Model of Queue Scalping

Recent years have witnessed the rise of queue scalping in congestion-prone service systems. A queue scalper has no material interest in the primary service but proactively enters the queue in hopes of selling his spot later. This paper develops a queueing-game-theoretic model of queue scalping and generates the following insights. First, we find that queues with either a very small or very large demand volume may be immune to scalping, whereas queues with a nonextreme demand volume may attract the most scalpers. Second, in the short run, when capacity is fixed, the presence of queue scalping often increases social welfare and can increase or reduce system throughput, but it tends to reduce consumer surplus. Third, in the long run, the presence of queue scalping motivates a welfare-maximizing service provider to adjust capacity using a “pull-to-center” rule, increasing (respectively, reducing) capacity if the original capacity level is low (respectively, high). When the service provider responds by expanding capacity, the presence of queue scalping can increase social welfare, system throughput, and even consumer surplus in the long run, reversing its short-run detrimental effect on customers. Despite these potential benefits, such capacity expansion does little to mitigate scalping and may only generate more scalpers in the queue. Finally, we compare and contrast queue scalping with other common mechanisms in practice—namely, (centralized) pay-for-priority, line sitting, and callbacks. This paper was accepted by Victor Martínez de Albéniz, operations management.

Objective and subjective characteristics of the success of post-Soviet youth

The phenomenon of success is covered in many works of philosophers, psychologists, and sociologists who study this concept, the ethics of success and the pursuit of it in different social groups. However, achieving success as a special type of activity that is emerging in modern Russia remains largely outside the scope of empirical analysis. This article examines the genesis of the concept of "success" from antiquity to the present day, gives its definition as a subject of empirical research. The study was based on a survey conducted with the participation of the author among young Muscovites (25 - 30 years old). This age group was chosen because for sociological analysis the most interesting is the generational cohort that grew up and formed during the years of the liberal reformation, in a state and society that differ from the state and society of the Soviet type. In this age group, the most interesting are individuals who already have life experience and are implementing effective life strategies. Therefore, a group of Muscovites aged 25–30, who assess themselves as successful people, was selected for the analysis. The analysis of relevant social and socio-psychological characteristics of the group of respondents who define themselves as “successful” is carried out in comparison with the group of “losers”. Comparative analysis showed that these groups implement two life programmes: survival and success, determined by status (education, position, income) and socio-psychological characteristics (attitude to work, methods of selection and setting goals, the level of their implementation, type of rationality). Each of these programmes has its own behavioural logic. Thus, low labour motivation and activity of “losers”, their low production status and very limited material opportunities, dooming them to survival, form a model of social maladjustment that impedes the healthy development of the economy and society. On the contrary, success in life is based on a high personal and material interest in one's work, on dedication to work and financial independence. Personal ways of achieving success play an equally important role here: self-confidence, optimism; the ability to set simple and clear goals for oneself, to show perseverance in their implementation. At the same time, it was revealed that successful young Muscovites remain people who are able to correlate their own and other people's interests, when a person perceives his being not alienated from the existence of other people. This is a new socio-cultural type, combining traits of a social character that were not very compatible in the recent past, realising an ethically and socially safe model of life success.