Consumer morality in times of economic hardship: evidence from the European Social Survey

Crimes of everyday life, often referred to as unfair or unethical practices committed in the marketplace by those who see themselves and are seen as respectable citizens, have burgeoned as a result of the transformations in the European economy in the late 20th century, namely the transition to neo‐liberal markets and the emergence of consumer society. A ‘cornucopia of new criminal opportunities’ has given rise to a new range of crimes such as ripping software, making false insurance claims or paying cash on hand to circumvent taxes. These shady behaviours (legal or not) are part of people's experience, albeit they are collectively regarded as morally dubious. Taken collectively, crimes of everyday life are indicators of the moral stage of a particular society and therefore a valuable instrument for social and political analysis. This paper addresses the question of whether and under which conditions feelings of economic hardship trigger crimes of everyday life. A multilevel theoretical and empirical perspective that integrates theories stemming from political science, sociology, and social psychology is adopted. I start by exploring the embeddedness of economic morality in social institutions, followed by an elaboration of the concept of market anomie to account for deviant behaviour in the marketplace, to finally step down to the examination of the correspondence between social attitudes and consumer behaviour, as postulated by the Theory of Planned Behaviour. The empirical study relies on micro data from the European Social Survey (ESS) (Round 2) and attempts to model, for each country, a formative measure of crimes of everyday life based on socio‐demographic variables and the current economic situation, as it is perceived by the individual (taken as a measure of relative deprivation). The resultant country‐specific regression coefficients are mapped onto the broader economic and normative context of 23 European countries. The results reveal that crimes of everyday life are driven by feelings of economic hardship only in countries where normative factors dictate their deviance. In countries where fraudulent behaviour is more generalized, inner motivations to offend play a secondary role as the more privileged consumers are more likely to commit fraud as they interact more often with the market. In turn, normative aspects result from a dynamic interplay of cultural and economic factors. As the economy grows faster, the tendency to offend in the market becomes more visible, but only in countries whose gross domestic product (GDP) stands above the European average. In countries with low GDP, the normative landscape is shaped by cultural factors that seem to obfuscate the power of economic factors favourable to consumer fraud.     

封建帝王“德主刑辅”观探视

"德主刑辅"作为一种治国理念、治国思想,是封建士大夫探索的理论结晶。但在现实生活中,封建帝王并非按其行事,而是因地制宜地实施其统治。实践证明,凡当帝王因地制宜实施统治时,便会国泰民安、国祚长久;反之,则会社会混乱、国祚短暂。     

浅论新形势下的师德建设

本文从推进素质教育出发,论述新形势下如何进行师德建设。     

浅析E．弗洛姆人道主义宗教思想

E．弗洛姆是现代西方著名的人道主义伦理学家，他通过综合马克思的宏观社会理论和弗洛伊德的微观心理分析理论而建立的人道主义伦理学体系在西方伦理学发展史上具有独特的理论贡献。在其伦理学体系中，宗教思想是其中重要的内容。弗洛姆从人的精神需要的角度探讨了宗教的根源和定义，划分了宗教的两种类型，揭露了现代社会宗教异化对人造成的危害，并积极探索建立人道主义宗教的具体对策。他的思想既有独特的理论和现实意义，同时也有明显的局限性。     

大学生婚恋家庭伦理危机及教育对策研究

大学生恋爱、性行为越来越普遍,婚姻问题开始出现,代际矛盾、冲突也非个别现象。这其中存在的价值取向和道德缺失问题,引起社会舆论的广泛关注。对此,高校不可坐视,须有所作为。本文通过调查分析,了解大学生婚恋家庭伦理危机状况;并提出,要因势利导,借助多种途径和渠道,强化婚恋家庭伦理道德教育,促进大学生身心健康成长和社会风尚的良好发展。     

Ethical Dilemmas in Performance Measurement

In this article we discuss the ethical dilemmas facing performance evaluators and the "evaluatees" whose performances are measured in a business context. The concepts of role morality and common morality are used to develop a framework of behaviors that are normally seen as the moral responsibilities of these actors. This framework is used to analyze, based on four empirical situations, why the implementation of a performance measurement system has not been as effective as expected. It was concluded that, in these four cases, unethical behavior (i.e. deviations from the ethical behaviors identified in the framework) provided, at least to some extent, an explanation for the lower than expected effectiveness of the performance measurement procedures. At the end of the paper we present an agenda for further research through which the framework could be further developed and systematically applied to a broader set of cases.     

自然债务法律问题探讨——兼论和谐社会下的法律与道德

自然债务相较法律债务而言,存在权能上的障碍。自然债务问题是由法律与道德双重规范调整的问题,本文以其为视角,探讨了法律的合理性问题以及法律与其他社会行为规范之间的应然关系问题,并认为自然之债制度具有弥补成文法局限性的功能,因此在立法与司法中应予以肯定并加以规范。     

人品修养是领导干部立业之基

领导要想清清白白做官 ,踏踏实实做事 ,必先堂堂正正做人 ,而且必须注重自身的人品修养和人格形象 ,要在实践中 ,锤炼正派高尚的人格品行 ,核准为“官”的人生坐标 ,树立高度自觉的修养风范     

利益制衡——解决营销道德失范的良药

近年来假冒伪劣、虚假广告等不道德营销行为不时见诸媒体 ,营销道德失范问题日益成为人们谈论的热门话题。营销道德失范给咨询行业乃至整个社会造成了极为不良的影响。咨询公司营销道德失范是一个经济方面的问题 ,另辟蹊径 ,利益的驱动是产生不良营销行为的根本原因 ,为此引入第三方 ,建立利益制衡系统的解决思路。     

Tractable Morality

This article discusses five propositions about managerial moral tractability -- that is, a morality that is amenable to the complexity of managers’ continual pressure to decide and act -- in their customer relations. The propositions come from the comparison of three case studies of different types of managers. To analyze the morality of managers, discursive practices of managers are studied. At the end of the article also some consideration is given to “information strategies” of managers, in relation to their tractable morality.Gjalt de Graaf received his Ph.D. at the Rotterdam School of Management of the Erasmus University Rotterdam. He worked for two years as an assistant professor ‘‘strategic management” at the Faculty of Economics and Business Studies of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Currently he works as a post-doc “Integrity of Governance” at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.