Search results

Examines various aspects of participation of the left in French government and interaction with political institutions; 5 articles.

The author uses the problematic of modernization to attempt to explain the Turkish political institutions. He first describes briefly the formal institutional framework as set up by the current Constitution. He then analyzes the way the Turks experience their transformation conveyed by ancestral myths. As a result a political culture emerges, a sort of unwritten Constitution that sustains & defines Turkish political life. According to the author, this accounts for both the strength & weakness of the experiment. Adapted from the source document.

The interrelation between the development of political institutions & the processes of scientific-technical revolution is 2-fold. Political preconditions for the rapid change in science & technology must exist, & the processes of rapid scientific & technical change produce important consequences in political life. Economically, Poland has reached the threshold of scientific-technical revolution; whether the country will be able to achieve the stage of high technological development in a reasonably short time depends on the political conditions. 3 changes in the functioning of political institutions are directly related to the processes of scientific-technical revolution: (1) changes in all levels of management, (2) changes in flow of information, & (3) development of automatic structures of decision-making. Other changes in political institutions influence the process of scientific change indirectly. In this context 2 variants of future developments are discussed: rationalized centralism & democratic self-government. Favored is a strategy of combining the strong elements of both. The consequences of the scientific-technological revolution for the political institutions is discussed. 5 major factors could be hypothetically identified: (A) changes in class structure & social stratification, particularly in the direction of increased roles for professionals & an increased educational level for the Wc; (B) further political integration of the nation; (C) changes in the culture of work, increase of social discipline, & higher assessment of collective & individual efficacy of the Poles; (D) achievement of a higher standard of living & leveling of economic inequalities; & (E) increase of the amount of leisure time. All these changes will result in a better & more harmonious society, which in turn makes it both necessary & possible to increase the scope of democratic self-management. Potential restraints to this process may result from the inertia of old political institutions &/or from technocratic tendencies. Greater self-management will mean more direct democracy, better representation, further democratization of the political authorities, & deepening of the leading role of the Communist party. Modified HA.

The idea that the relations of production determine the political life so branded spirits from the 19th to 20th century ending one has failed in a major fact: to be visible, organized the relations between capital and labor must be crystallised in institutions. Better, it is not the economic policies that determine a country's future, but its political institutions. Moreover, the reasons that prevailed during the design calculations constrain subsequent actions of their inventors and their successors - and this has nothing to do with culture or religion, contrary to what is sometimes believed to draw a widespread conventional wisdom but never demonstrated. Finally, institutions are even more durable and efficient that resolvent two central problems in all societies since the beginnings of humanity: limiting extractive capacities of oligarchs and curb the arms race between them. They do so by allowing citizens to consent to delegate their powers to the State. Adapted from the source document.

Explores the correlation between citizens' attitudes toward science and their confidence in political institutions in Switzerland; based on the results of the 2001 Eurobarometer. Summaries in English and German.

Examines how relations between Swiss citizens and their federal political institutions and actors changed between 1989 and 1996; based on two surveys exploring the citizens' trust in the political elite. Summaries in German and English.

This article contends that the present European Union has little in common with the European Economic Community, of which Belgium was a founding & most active member, conscientious of the necessity of European integration. Since the Treaty of Maastricht, Europe has changed significantly. The author ascribes this development to a double process: enlargement & integration, on the one hand, & democratization, thanks to the strengthening of parliament & the commission, on the other. He presents insights of where Europe is going & adds that the coming years will bring tensions between the Committee & Parliament that will place the Commission in a delicate position, yet full of potential. E. Sanchez