首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
考研
The main feature of a convention—a pattern of behavior that is customary, expected, and self-enforced—is that, out of a host of
The main feature of a convention—a pattern of behavior that is customary, expected, and self-enforced—is that, out of a host of
admin
2013-01-30
15
问题
The main feature of a
convention
—a pattern of behavior that is customary, expected, and self-enforced—is that, out of a host of conceivable choices, only one is actually used. This fact also explains why conventions are needed: they resolve problems of indeterminacy in interactions that have multiple equilibria. Indeed, from a formal point of view, we may define a convention as an equilibrium that everyone expects in interactions that have more than one equilibrium.
The economic significance of conventions is that they reduce transaction costs. Imagine the inconvenience if, whenever two vehicles approached one another, the drivers had to get out and negotiate which side of the road to take. Or consider the cost of having to switch freight from one type of railroad to another whenever a journey involves both a wide-gauge and a narrow-gauge railroad line. This was a common circumstance in the nineteenth century and not unknown in the late twentieth: until recently, Australia had different rail gauges in the states of South Wales and Victoria, forcing a mechanical switch for all trains bound between Sydney and Melbourne.
Conventions are also a notable feature of legal contracts. People rely on standard leases, wills, purchasing agreements, construction contracts and the like, because it is less costly to fill in the blanks of a standard contract than to create one from scratch. Even more important, such a-greements are backed up by legal precedent, so the signatories have even greater confidence that, their terms are enforceable.
We may discern two ways in which conventions become established. One is by central authority. Following the French Revolution, for example, it was decreed that horse-drawn carriages in Paris should keep to the right. The previous custom had been for carriages to keep left and for pedestrians to keep right, facing the oncoming traffic. Changing the custom was symbolic of the new order: going on the left had become politically incorrect because it was identified with the privileged classes: going on the right was the habit of the common many and therefore more "democratic" .
In Britain, by contrast there seems to have been no single defining event that gave rise to the dominant convention of left-handed driving. Rather, it grew up by local custom, spreading from one region to another. This is the second mechanism by which conventions become established: the gradual accretion of precedent. The two mechanisms are not mutually exclusive, of course. Society often converges on a convention first by an informal process of accretion: later it is codified into law to regulate exceptions. In many countries, rules of the road were not legislated until the nineteenth century, but by this time the law was merely reiterating what had already become established custom.
The surprising fact is that until the end of the eighteenth century, the dominant convention was for horse-drawn carriages to keep to the left. This situation obtained in Great Britain, France, Sweden, Portugal, Austria, Hungary, Bohemia and parts of Italy. A chain of historical accidents—Napoleon adopting the new convention for his armies and imposing this convention in occupied countries; Portugal sharing a common border with occupied Spain; Austria, Hungary and Bohemian Czechoslovakia falling under German rule; Italy having elected a "modern" leader under a king—gradually tipped the balance.
We may assume that_____.
选项
A、Italy’ s king codified the new regulations
B、Germany took its traffic customs from Austria, Hungary and Bohemian Czechoslovakia
C、Napoleon conquered Portugal
D、Napoleon conquered Spain
答案
D
解析
根据最后一段“A chain of historical accidents--Napoleon adopting the new convention for his armies and imposing this convention in occupied countries;Portugal sharing a common border with occupied Spain;”可知,拿破仑为了他的军队采取了新习俗,并把它强加到他占领的国家;葡萄牙与被占领的西班牙共享一块领地。由此得出,答案为D。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/aqOjFFFM
0
在职申硕(同等学力)英语
相关试题推荐
ChildrenintheUnitedStatesareexposedtomanyinfluences______thoseoftheirfamilies.
Huntershavealmostexterminatedmanyofthelargeranimalswhilefarmersdestroyedmanysmalleranimals.
Becauseofadverseweatherconditions,thetravelersstoppedtocamp.
"Businesscasual"wasprevalentseveralyearsagobecause______Whenthe"businesscasual"prevailed,______
Inthe1997general-electioncampaign,"Education,Education"wasTonyBlair’spetphrase.Timechangesquickly.Educationisgo
(Unable)toseetheirbusinessasaseparateentity,manypeoplefailtomake(a)distinction(between)theircompanyand(them)
Nuclearenergyisanefficientandconvenientsubstituteforconventionalformsofenergywhichwerefoundinspecialgeographic
Accordingtosociologists,thereareseveraldifferentwaysinwhichapersonmaybecomerecognizedastheleaderofasocialgr
TheSecurityCouncilisthemostpowerfulbodyintheUN.Itisresponsibleformaintaininginternationalpeace,andforrestori
(Witnesses)ofthecrime(finddifficult)toexplain(why)they(didn’t)callthepolice.
随机试题
学生的基本权利有哪些?
某企业利用社会上的现有资源,实现组织内在核心优势与外部资源优势动态有机结合,具备了敏捷性和快速应变能力。该企业的组织结构形式是()
L是沿y=1-|1-x|从点O(0,0)到点B(2,0)的折线段,则曲线积分∫L(x2+y2)dx-(x2-y2)dy=()
Thebuyersaskthesellerstosendthemnewones.
一女性病人因不孕症、闭经伴厌食、消瘦就诊。妇科做了各种常规检查后,决定行腹腔镜检查,通知患者准备。患者不知该检查如何做,便随医生进入处置室检查,检查中发现做了切口。患者及家属均不满意手术,向院方提出赔偿要求。行腹腔镜检查如何决定为合理
关于钢筋混凝土柱的受力特点和配筋要求,下列说法错误的是()。
目前世界范围内,最普遍和最基本的教学组织形式是()
下列关于HIV的说法正确的是()。
下列属于实践性民事法律行为的是
______是指信息沿输入通路进入系统,同时由外部形式变换成内部形式,进入系统的信息通过变换中心,经加工处理后再沿输出通路变换成外部形式离开软件结构。
最新回复
(
0
)