Aim: This article describes ideas of Enlightenment thinkers about the building of a democratic state with responsible and rationally thinking citizens. The article starts with the ideas of Spinoza, formulated in the seventeenth century, and will end in our time, where democracy is under threat....

The defining characteristic of sociological labour market research today is the prevalence of empirical evidence over theory. In order to fill this gap, this contribution collects and compares selected approaches from a variety of social-theoretical traditions (e.g. rational-choice, neo-marxism,...

In this article, we ask whether the presence of populist parties influences the negative effect of income inequality on voter turnout. A number of studies have shown that voter turnout is lower in unequal countries. In particular, citizens with fewer resources abstain at higher rates. Since...

Purpose – To explore the outer reaches of buying, selling, property rights in an Islamic context. Design/methodology/approach – Philosophical, applying legal analysis, critique to the work of Richard Epstein. Findings – That there are no exceptions to the general rule that, under full free...

Based on a case study of environmental organizations\' confrontation of the cruise industry over environmental practices, this article critically assesses several campaigns and actions by the environmental movement as represented by several key organizations that focus specifically on the cruise...

Describes two examples (in France and in the US) of replication of the Danish procedure of the consensus conference for public participation in nanotechnology, and argues that emphasis on the evaluation of the participatory procedure should not be made at the expense of richer analysis of the...

Comments on the potentials of the notion of "experimentation" as a vehicule for the renewal of the theoretical repertoire of political sociology.

Presents a case study on public participation in controversies on nanotechnologies in France, and proposes an analytical typology.

Studies a number of aspects of the reform of public finance and public management in France (LOLF), with special attention to science and technology policy, using a pragmatist approach to the sociology of the state.

In this paper a model-to-model analysis is described which compares a model of ethnic mobilisation with a model of hierarchy decline. Even though the two models are not concerned with the same or at least a similar target, they are related by empirical findings: e.g. the decline of the Federal...