You are in the
company of
Roger Warren Evans
Roger Warren Evans
|
|
You are in the
company of
Roger Warren Evans |
|
| Part of www.LivePolitics.net < Back to Home Page |
NewLiving Diary Index
|
item0058E 888, 889 888 15 December 2003 Le Pouvoir Neutre
The State, held the great 18th century French political philosopher Montesquieu, should be le pouvoir neutre - the strictly "neutral power" in society. That political perception runs deep in France, and in French constitutional thinking. That is why it is France that has generated the current debate about Muslim schoolgirls wearing headscarves to school. But the French have nevertheless got it wrong. While I accept the principle of State neutrality, we must develop more sensitive and sophisticated ways of giving effect to this principle. State "neutrality", while not conventionally formulated in English politics in precisely this way, lies nevertheless at the root of British concepts of equality. It lies at the heart of the Human Rights Act 1998. It is reflected in all the modern anti-discrimination legislation - on race, ethnicity, culture, gender, sexuality, disability. While it may be acceptable that individuals "discriminate" in the conduct of their personal (even business) lives, it is unacceptable for any agency of state to do so. "Equality before the law" lays the heaviest possible duty on State agencies to be, and at all times to act as, le pouvoir neutre.Yet this 18th century principle must now be applied in a wide range of contemporary circumstances far more complex than Montesquieu can ever have imagined. And state education has in practice raised many of the critical issues, both in United States (which tends to follow France, in this respect) and in France itself. In the UK, with its Established Church, some of these issues have been taken lightly, perhaps too lightly. But for the Americans and the French, it is a cardinal principle of public organisation that educational institutions should not be allowed to align with any particular religious of philosophical position; indeed, that is an issue still "in play" in the negotiations over EU enlargement. The principle would certainly be infringed by the requirement, of Labour's new "Citizenship induction" rituals, fir the singing of the "National Anthem", with its heavily Christian overtones.
Do you have any further examples of this dilemma? Drop me a line
15 December 2003 2003 China's Year
2003 will always be, for me, China's year. It was in about June 2003 that the Western financial press started to highlight the remarkable growth rates generated by the Chinese economy, the surge of consumer demand, rising oil consumption, and raging commercial enterprise. The drive has revived Hong Kong, and even Japan is showing signs of business life again. This is a force which will transform all our futures. I cannot remember, in my lifetime, any more remarkable change, heralded so quickly.
|
|
|
| Created by GMID Design & Communication COPYRIGHT
NOTICE
|
