The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics (288 page)
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voluntary export restraint
(VER)
(VER)
Agreement by an exporting country to limit exports to a specified importing country, for a price.
GATT
prohibits discriminatory arrangements in international trade, and has led to a substantial reduction in tariff barriers. The resulting intensified competition among manufacturing producers often leads to painful industrial dislocation, generating a political dynamic which many governments have difficulty resisting. One way around the problem is to negotiate Voluntary Export Restraint Agreements with those countries which are a source of rising import penetration. The successful exporter, such as Japan, ‘voluntarily’ agrees to restrict exports to the country whose products it is displacing. Japanese and other successful exporters tolerate VERs because, although they make fewer sales than under free trade, they make more profit per sale. The resulting subsidy from the citizens of the protectionist country to Japan is unnoticed and therefore uncontroversial, although the flows can be enormous. It has been estimated that the VER between Japan and British car producers in the 1970s and 1980s involved a flow of some £50 per head per year from Britain to Japan.
As VERs do not involve any formal violation of GATT rules, they have provided an extralegal channel for dealing with tensions in the international trade regime. However, their discriminatory character cannot be denied, and partially successful attempts were made in the context of the Uruguay Round (December 1993 agreement) to remove them.
GU
GATT
prohibits discriminatory arrangements in international trade, and has led to a substantial reduction in tariff barriers. The resulting intensified competition among manufacturing producers often leads to painful industrial dislocation, generating a political dynamic which many governments have difficulty resisting. One way around the problem is to negotiate Voluntary Export Restraint Agreements with those countries which are a source of rising import penetration. The successful exporter, such as Japan, ‘voluntarily’ agrees to restrict exports to the country whose products it is displacing. Japanese and other successful exporters tolerate VERs because, although they make fewer sales than under free trade, they make more profit per sale. The resulting subsidy from the citizens of the protectionist country to Japan is unnoticed and therefore uncontroversial, although the flows can be enormous. It has been estimated that the VER between Japan and British car producers in the 1970s and 1980s involved a flow of some £50 per head per year from Britain to Japan.
As VERs do not involve any formal violation of GATT rules, they have provided an extralegal channel for dealing with tensions in the international trade regime. However, their discriminatory character cannot be denied, and partially successful attempts were made in the context of the Uruguay Round (December 1993 agreement) to remove them.
GU
voting
There are three main subdivisions of the study of voting in political science: voting procedures, voting behaviour in mass electorates, and voting in smaller bodies such as legislatures.
Voting as a procedure for selection is first encountered in ancient Greece. It was not much used for elections to offices, which were filled on the
jury
principle of random selection. But it was used for decisions on propositions put before the democratic assembly, and also for decisions on the fate of individuals. Periodically, assemblies voted on whether to ‘ostracize’—that is, temporarily banish—somebody. The words
ostracize
and
ostracism
are derived from the Greek for ‘tile’ because bits of broken pottery were used as voting slips. Multiple voting slips with the same name in the same handwriting have been found, suggesting the earliest organized write-in (or rather write-out) vote.
There is a pioneering discussion of voting procedures in the Roman Senate in a letter of Pliny the Younger, AD 105, but the elaboration of voting procedures was next advanced in Europe by the medieval religious orders. As they had to choose their own officials independently of the papal authorities in Rome, they drew up elaborate procedures for doing so. At the same time, Italian city-states drew up elaborate voting procedures. The best-known of these were the rules for electing doges in Venice.
Voting re-emerged as a central theme in democratic theory in the eighteenth century with the contributions of
Rousseau
and
Condorcet
. Democratic constitutions containing voting rules were written between 1787 and 1793 for the United States, France, and Poland. For the evolution of voting rules since then, see also
social choice
;
proportional representation
;
plurality
.
The study of voting behaviour as opposed to voting procedures began in the twentieth century. The first studies of mass voting behaviour were based on aggregate data such as election results. Electoral geographers in the
Siegfried
tradition were able to establish the links between certain geographical features and patterns of voting behaviour. Herbert Tingsten in Sweden produced one of the first studies of the factors associated with
turnout
, again based on aggregate data.
However, aggregate data must always be used cautiously ( see
ecological association
). Data about individuals required the development of the techniques of
survey research
from the late 1930s onwards. Since then, vast quantities of evidence have accumulated on the relationships between such things as class, education, religion, and social attitudes (‘independent’ or ‘predictor’ variables) on the one hand and voting behaviour (as ‘dependent variable’) on the other. ( See also
Michigan school
; postmaterialism.) Two related developments enable this work to be done at a more sophisticated level than before. Where, say, class and education both have an effect on voting, but are of course also related to each other because people in higher classes have or acquire more education, how do we disentangle the effects of each of the two on voting? Powerful computers enable more sophisticated statistical techniques based on multiple regression to attack these problems.
The study of voting in legislatures such as the House of Commons and the US Congress (often called ‘ rollcall voting’) also dates back to early this century. Initially, aggregate methods were used, notably by A. L. Lowell in his
The Government of England
(revised 1919). In the United States, where party discipline is weak, methods of analysing the divisions among Democrats or among Republicans by such predictors as their ideology, the length of time they had served in Congress, or the interests of their districts, are very well established. In the United Kingdom, the power of the party whips means that House of Commons division lists are usually quite uninformative. However, a few studies of rollcall voting have used more indirect measures such as floor revolts, membership of party factions, or
Early Day Motions
.
Voting as a procedure for selection is first encountered in ancient Greece. It was not much used for elections to offices, which were filled on the
jury
principle of random selection. But it was used for decisions on propositions put before the democratic assembly, and also for decisions on the fate of individuals. Periodically, assemblies voted on whether to ‘ostracize’—that is, temporarily banish—somebody. The words
ostracize
and
ostracism
are derived from the Greek for ‘tile’ because bits of broken pottery were used as voting slips. Multiple voting slips with the same name in the same handwriting have been found, suggesting the earliest organized write-in (or rather write-out) vote.
There is a pioneering discussion of voting procedures in the Roman Senate in a letter of Pliny the Younger, AD 105, but the elaboration of voting procedures was next advanced in Europe by the medieval religious orders. As they had to choose their own officials independently of the papal authorities in Rome, they drew up elaborate procedures for doing so. At the same time, Italian city-states drew up elaborate voting procedures. The best-known of these were the rules for electing doges in Venice.
Voting re-emerged as a central theme in democratic theory in the eighteenth century with the contributions of
Rousseau
and
Condorcet
. Democratic constitutions containing voting rules were written between 1787 and 1793 for the United States, France, and Poland. For the evolution of voting rules since then, see also
social choice
;
proportional representation
;
plurality
.
The study of voting behaviour as opposed to voting procedures began in the twentieth century. The first studies of mass voting behaviour were based on aggregate data such as election results. Electoral geographers in the
Siegfried
tradition were able to establish the links between certain geographical features and patterns of voting behaviour. Herbert Tingsten in Sweden produced one of the first studies of the factors associated with
turnout
, again based on aggregate data.
However, aggregate data must always be used cautiously ( see
ecological association
). Data about individuals required the development of the techniques of
survey research
from the late 1930s onwards. Since then, vast quantities of evidence have accumulated on the relationships between such things as class, education, religion, and social attitudes (‘independent’ or ‘predictor’ variables) on the one hand and voting behaviour (as ‘dependent variable’) on the other. ( See also
Michigan school
; postmaterialism.) Two related developments enable this work to be done at a more sophisticated level than before. Where, say, class and education both have an effect on voting, but are of course also related to each other because people in higher classes have or acquire more education, how do we disentangle the effects of each of the two on voting? Powerful computers enable more sophisticated statistical techniques based on multiple regression to attack these problems.
The study of voting in legislatures such as the House of Commons and the US Congress (often called ‘ rollcall voting’) also dates back to early this century. Initially, aggregate methods were used, notably by A. L. Lowell in his
The Government of England
(revised 1919). In the United States, where party discipline is weak, methods of analysing the divisions among Democrats or among Republicans by such predictors as their ideology, the length of time they had served in Congress, or the interests of their districts, are very well established. In the United Kingdom, the power of the party whips means that House of Commons division lists are usually quite uninformative. However, a few studies of rollcall voting have used more indirect measures such as floor revolts, membership of party factions, or
Early Day Motions
.
W
want-regarding principles
wants
Unfulfilled desires for oneself or for others. Since individuals commonly aim to satisfy their wants, want-satisfaction may be a goal of public policy, either directly or through response to persons'
interests
. For example, Benthamite
utilitarianism
has been accused of seeing happiness as constituted by meeting desires. The ‘efficient’ satisfaction of wants is commonly taken to be a virtue of market allocation. The desire of individuals to satisfy their wants generates only a weak normative weight, however, since such want-satisfaction may be inimical to the well-being of the agent, or of other people. Hence there may be a conflict between individual freedom and welfare considerations, prompting the distinction between want-regarding and
ideal-regarding principles
.
AR
interests
. For example, Benthamite
utilitarianism
has been accused of seeing happiness as constituted by meeting desires. The ‘efficient’ satisfaction of wants is commonly taken to be a virtue of market allocation. The desire of individuals to satisfy their wants generates only a weak normative weight, however, since such want-satisfaction may be inimical to the well-being of the agent, or of other people. Hence there may be a conflict between individual freedom and welfare considerations, prompting the distinction between want-regarding and
ideal-regarding principles
.
AR
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