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Using the "classical twin method," political scientists John Alford, Carolyn Funk, and John Hibbing conclude that political ideologies are significantly influenced by genetics, an assertion that has garnered considerable media attention. Researchers have long used human twins in attempts to assess the degree of genetic influence on various behavioral traits. Today, this methodology has been largely replaced in favor of contemporary molecular genetic techniques, and thus heritability studies have seen a diminishing role in behavioral genetic research of the twenty-first century. One important reason the twin method has been superseded is that it depends upon several questionable assumptions, the most significant of which is known as the equal environments assumption. Alford, Funk, and Hibbing argue that this crucial assumption, and thus their conclusion, holds up under empirical scrutiny. They point to several studies in support of this assumption. Here, we review the evidence presented and conclude that these attempts to test the equal environments assumption are weak, suffering significant methodological and inherent design flaws. Furthermore, much of the empirical evidence provided by these studies actually argues that, contrary to the interpretation, trait-relevant equal environments assumptions have been violated. We conclude that the equal environments assumption remains untenable, and as such, twin studies are an insufficient method for drawing meaningful conclusions regarding complex human behavior.

Der Tschetschenien-Krieg führte zu einer Akzentverschiebung im ideologischen Kräfteverhältnis in Rußland zugunsten antiliberaler und antidemokratischer Tendenzen. Immer mehr breitet sich ein 'neuer' ideologischer Mythos aus - die sogenannte 'Staatlichkeit'. Einflußreiche Meinungsmacher und Politikwissenschaftler sowie politische Persönlichkeiten fordern zur Abkehr von den angeblich für Rußland unpassenden und 'überholten' liberalen Werten auf und bejahen den Vorrang des 'starken' Staates und seiner Interessen vor den Menschenrechten. So geraten die Theoretiker der 'Staatlichkeit' in eine gefährliche Nähe zur kommunistisch- chauvinistischen Reaktion. (BIOst-Mrk)

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Tables and Figures -- Preface -- Note on Transliteration -- Local Heroes -- CHAPTER 1 Introduction -- CHAPTER 2 The Political Economy of Government Performance -- CHAPTER 3 Decentralization and Democratization: The Development of Regional Government Institutions -- CHAPTER 4 Who Governs Russia Well ? Measuring Institutional Performance -- CHAPTER 5 Testing Theories of Performance Variation: Economic, Social-Structural, and Cultural Hypotheses -- CHAPTER 6 The Political Economy of Government Performance: Testing the Theory -- CHAPTER 7 Democracy and the Market at Risk -- APPENDIX A Regional Government Structures -- APPENDIX B Cross-Tabulations of Constituent Satisfaction with Regional Government by Urban and Rural Dwellers and by Levels of Education -- Bibliography -- Index

In The Social Contract in America: From the Revolution to the Present Order (2007), Mark Hulliung attempts to compare the influence of political theorists Samuel Pufendorf, Hugo Grotius, and John Locke on the republic's founders, a narrower project than the title of his book suggests. Unfortunately, Hulliung's aim is off target because American patriots appealed to both radical and conservative ideas and because both reformers and reactionaries invoked his three principal theorists at various times. Adapted from the source document

Es lässt sich ein Trend verzeichnen, nach dem gewalttätig rassistische Haltungen sowohl von extrem rechten als auch reaktionär-bürgerlichen Milieus geteilt werden und sich im öffentlichen Diskurs normalisieren. Diese Situation spiegelt wider, was die soziologische Einstellungsforschung seit Jahren attestiert: Zivilgesellschaften sind nicht unbedingt progressiv, demokratisch und gemeinwohlorientiert. Sie können reaktionär, antidemokratisch und aggressiv eigenwohlorientiert sein. Mit Blick auf diese "dunkle Seite der Zivilgesellschaft" untersucht der Band speziell für solche Problemkonstellationen konzipierte Projekte einer menschenrechtsorientierten Gemeinwesenarbeit (GWA). Dabei werden Gelingensbedingungen für sozialräumliche Veränderungsprozesse zu mehr demokratischer Alltagskultur durch GWA beleuchtet und Vorschläge für deren konzeptuelle Weiterentwicklung entwickelt.

This dissertation aims to analyze the correlation between overconfidence and political ideologies. Because we live in the European Union that is facing social and economic disintegrations as well as new challenges, it's more usual to see the arising of more extreme, radical political ideologies. In this paper it is studied, based on previous literature, how conservatives/right-wing parties might display higher amounts of overconfidence bias than liberals/left-wing parties. With the assistance of an online survey, overconfidence is tested not only in financial literacy but also in decision making. Subjective and Objective Knowledge are also analyzed independently so that it is possible to correlate both overconfidence and political ideologies. Regression Models are also used. It was confirmed that it's not possible to correlate objective knowledge and political ideology, however it wasn't possible to confirm that conservatives do display higher amounts of overconfidence than liberals. It was concluded that political ideology might not be a good estimator for overconfidence. ; Esta dissertação procura analisar a correlação entre ideologias políticas e o excesso de confiança. Porque atualmente vivemos na União Europeia que sofre com uma desintegração social e económica, e novos desafios, é frequente ver a ascensão de partidos e ideologias mais extremistas e radicais. Nesta dissertação é estudado como Conservadores/ Defensores de partidos de Extrema Direita cometem mais o erro de excesso de confiança do que os Liberais/Defensores de partidos de Extrema Esquerda, algo já defendido anteriormente noutros estudos científicos. Com o auxílio de um questionário realizado online, o excesso de confiança é testado no conhecimento financeiro, assim como na tomada de decisão de cada indivíduo. Conhecimento Subjetivo e Objetivo são também analisados independentemente, de forma a ser possível correlacionar o excesso de confiança com as diferentes ideologias políticas. Modelos de Regressão Linear são também usados. Foi confirmado que não é possível correlacionar conhecimento objetivo com ideologias políticas, no entanto, não foi possível confirmar que pessoas mais conservadoras demonstram maiores níveis de excesso de confiança do que liberais. Foi concluído que ideologias políticas não são o melhor estimador para prever o excesso de confiança de um individuo.

"Edited and with an introduction by Alan Sica. In 1975 Joseph Gabel published a modern masterpiece which appeared in English as False Consciousness: An Essay on Reification. Combining his special knowledge of existential psychiatry, axiology, Marxism, and political history, Gabel proposed the utterly novel idea that victims of serious mental disturbances (especially paranoia and schizophrenia) reproduce those distorted thought patterns commonly associated with ideological beliefs at the collective level. Such beliefs initially had been laid bare in the 1920s by Gabel's intellectual progenitors, Karl Mannheim and George Lukacs. Gabel's remarkable innovation was to transfer the private crisis of mental collapse into the analytic framework previously reserved for ideological critique, making him an expert on what was later called "the micro-macro problem."Ideologies and the Corruption of Thought includes Gabel's essays over the last 40 years, characteristically treating micro and macro theoretical matters simultaneously. Originally written in French and German, they have been recast in idiomatic English and bibliographically updated. Using a unique mode and vocabulary of analysis, Gabel offers theoretical investigations of McCarthyism and Stalinism (original and more recent types), as well as Althusser, Orwell, and Jonathan Swift in his capacity as a psychiatric theorist. He also explores anti-Zionism, anti-Semitism, and a fascinating case study of a paranoid who regarded himself as the pope. In addition this volume includes a range of general commentaries on ideological "thought," utopianism, and false consciousness. This rich feast of social and political analysis and theory illuminates a range of contemporary concerns: racism, utopian fantasy, ethnocentrism, anti-Semitism, the interplay of social structure and mental illness, and ideological transformations of social life, which only Gabel's unique mixture of the clinical and the political could achieve. It will be studied with interest by all theorists and politically alert readers in the social sciences, philosophy, and related fields of study."--Provided by publisher.

This contribution discusses recent debates on the adequate form of 'critique' with a meta-critical intention. Since the partisans of academic critique typically fail to account for the effects of their own institutional embeddedness, their methodological reflections neutralize oppositional demands and turn political struggle into a scholastic exercise. In an extension of this analysis, the article aims to show how the academic class over-estimates its potential for bringing about liberating political change, how it falsely generalizes its own conditions of existence, and how it really contributes to the justification of capitalist power structures. The suspicion that recent populist attacks on the 'elite' have a fundament in progressive-liberal coalitions thus finds support in the practice of progressive discourse.

Although the dominant political ideology in Scotland between 1707 and the present, unionism has suffered serious neglect. One of the most distinguished Scottish historians of our time looks afresh at this central theme in Britain's history, politics and law, and traces the history of Scottish unionist ideas from the early sixteenth century to the present day. Colin Kidd demonstrates that unionism had impeccably indigenous origins long predating the Union of 1707, and that it emerged in reaction to the English vision of Britain as an empire. Far from being the antithesis of nationalism, modern Scottish unionism has largely occupied a middle ground between the extremes of assimilation to England or separation from it. At a time when the future of the Scottish union is under scrutiny as never before, its history demands Colin Kidd's lucid and cogent examination, which will doubtless generate major debate, both within Scotland and beyond

A study of the impact of the TV miniseries "Amerika" -- which aired 15-22 Feb 1987 & presented a fictional account of a Soviet invasion of the US -- on political attitudes & beliefs. Panel survey data were collected the week before the miniseries aired & the week after from 245 Long Island, NY, residents. The first wave gauged attitudes toward international affairs, the second asked questions about the miniseries itself. It was found that there was a significant conservative shift toward greater approval of a strong US military even among liberals, & that negative stereotypes of Russians & communism were reinforced. Influences on attitudes included: perceived realism of the presentation, education of those surveyed, & indirect exposure to the miniseries, eg, via peers & media. It is concluded that TV can & does affect political attitudes. 3 Tables, 34 References. A. Cole