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This article focuses on the online news service Malaysiakini and describes the specific mechanisms by which it uses the ideology of independent journalism to challenge authoritarianism. It takes an ethnographic approach and analyzes how journalists at Malaysiakini conceive of 'independent journalism' and how this understanding is related to broader questions of democracy and social change. Malaysian journalists are not only restricted by the law but also by structures of ownership in which mainstream news organizations are linked to the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition. Like Malaysia's proliferating blogging community, Malaysiakini has taken advantage of an unlikely loophole in the law that promises a 'no-censorship' policy for the Internet. Yet unlike Malaysia's bloggers, Malaysiakini functions as a traditional news provider, and it is the norms and values of journalistic professionalism rather than the medium of the Internet that make Malaysiakini so threatening to government authorities. The author argues that Malaysiakini uses the norms of good journalism to legitimize alternative views of events, thus challenging the authoritarianism of the Barisan Nasional. She concludes by suggesting that in creating a space where citizens are free to express their opinions, Malaysiakini deliberately promotes a blueprint for democratic civic discourse in Malaysia. [Reprinted by permission; copyright Sage Publications Inc.]

Abstract.Most of the empirical work on the decision making of justices on the Supreme Court of Canada has taken as its exclusive focus the divided decisions of the Court. In contrast to this extensive body of research on divided decision, the much more limited knowledge of unanimous decisions is troubling because such decisions constitute nearly three-quarters of all of the formal decisions of the Court. The analysis reported below provides a first step towards understanding the neglected nature of unanimous decisions. This investigation of the nature and causes of unanimity in the Supreme Court of Canada explores two competing explanations: one drawn from the most widely accepted general explanation of judicial voting (that is, the attitudinal model) and the other from the perspectives of the justices themselves. To determine that perspective, the author interviewed ten of the current or recent justices on the Court. After describing these two alternative accounts of unanimity, empirical tests are conducted of the implications of each view. We find substantially more support for the perspectives of the justices than for the perspective derived from the attitudinal model on unanimity.Résumé.La majeure partie du travail de recherche empirique portant sur la manière dont les juges de la Cour suprême du Canada prennent leurs décisions se concentre exclusivement sur les décisions divisées de cette institution. En contraste avec cette foison d'études sur les décisions divisées, le corpus beaucoup plus limité de connaissances sur les décisions unanimes pose un problème important, car celles-ci représentent presque les trois quarts de la totalité des décisions formelles de la Cour suprême. L'analyse présentée ci-dessous se veut un premier pas vers une meilleure connaissance de la nature, trop négligée jusqu'à présent, de ces décisions unanimes. Cette investigation sur la nature et les causes de l'unanimité dans les décisions de la Cour suprême du Canada explore deux voies se trouvant en compétition : l'une qui résulte de l'explication la plus largement acceptée du vote judiciaire (soit le modèle attitudinal), et l'autre qui découle de la perspective personnelle des juges. Pour élucider cette perspective propre des juges, les auteurs ont interviewé dix juges actuels et récents de la Cour suprême du Canada. Après avoir décrit ces deux explications alternatives de l'unanimité, ils effectuent des tests empiriques sur les implications respectives du modèle attitudinal et des perspectives propres des juges. L'étude révèle que les perspectives propres des juges ont beaucoup plus de poids que la perspective dérivée du modèle attitudinal en ce qui concerne l'unanimité.

Обобщается и анализируется информация по коллекции археологических находок боевых топоров в средневековых древностях Кузнецкой котловины. Устанавливается факт использования боевых топоров местной военной аристократией, что позволяет относить этот вид оружия ближнего боя к категории элитного. Классифицируется материал, исследуются вопросы появления и эволюции этого вида оружия на северной периферии Саяно-Алтая в эпоху Средневековья. Отмечаются малое типологическое разнообразие и вялое изменение форм изделий во времени. Подтверждается гипотеза о заимствовании местным населением этого вида оружия ближнего боя от западных тюрок в период раннего Средневековья. ; The paper generalizes and analyzes information on a collection of archeological finds of fighting axes in medieval antiquities of the Kuznetsk hollow. The fact of use of fighting axes by local military aristocracy is established, and this conclusion allows us to attribute this kind of the near fight weapon to elite category. The author classifies material and investigates problems on appearance and evolution of this weapon in northern periphery of the Sayano-Altai during an epoch of the Middle Ages. A small typological variety and slack change of forms of products in time is marked. The hypothesis about borrowing of this near fight weapon during the early Middle Ages by local population from western Turkic is confirmed.

SUMMARY:
The article by Olivier Beaud surveys the recent legal and political theoretical debates about federation and federalism and suggests an alternative interpretation of federation as a political form different from the state. The author mentions two misconceptions and logical vicious circles about federation: one reads that federation is a state form, the other – that federation is different from confederation. These misconceptions arise from the analysis of federation through the hegemonic lens of the political, that is, the modern concept of sovereignty. Some political theorists, Beaud observes, note the logical inconsistencies of analysis of federation from the view point of sovereignty and refrain from the legal and political classification of federation as a political form. Beaud takes a different approach and on the basis of analysis of European political thought constructs a different interpretation of federation. He suggests that federation is a form of political community rather than a hierarchically based system of political relations. Therefore, Beaud contends that the best way to approach the theoretical riddle of federation and federalism would be to bracket federation and confederation as a single political type and allow for the possibility of dual orders of sovereign relations inside the political community of federation.

SUMMARY:
In his survey review article, Ronald Suny analyzes various approaches taken by historians to the biography of Iosif Stalin. He situates biographical studies of Stalin on a continuum of historical reflections that stretches from neglect of the individual features of historical actors in structuralist or Marxist methodologies to an overemphasis on individual and psychological features (to the neglect of socioculturally constructed biographies) in the Freudian tradition and studies of psycho-history. This survey of historical research that directly or indirectly pertains to reconstruction of Stalin's biography starts with the first attempts of Leon Trotsky and Boris Souvarin and ends with contemporary writings, including those of Simon Sebag Montefiore. Suny strongly criticizes the prevalence of psychoanalytical approaches to Stalin's biography that retain the reductionist core of their methodological point of departure, which results in neglect of the contextual and socioculturally embedded paths of lived lives. However, he also notes, with reference to Peter Gay, that even those historians who are not shaped by the psychoanalytic tradition also tend to resort to a one-cause, unidimensional frame of interpretation of Stalin's biography. This reductionism is unveiled by the author in his analysis of the most recent biographies of Stalin by Montefiore.

What are the caracteristics of the political leader that Colombia needs to achieve proper growing and welfare indicators for its inhabitants, mending basic needs of the person in broad of pacific living with others? In this essay, the author proposes three items which, by nature or manner, political leaders must have in account -identification, integrity and comunication-. Making a historic vision and prospective at the same time, invites the reader to understand that the lack of these caracteristics in their leaders, has been one of the principal causes for the critical situation of the country now a days. ; ¿Cuáles son las características del líder político que necesita Colombia para alcanzar adecuados indicadores de crecimiento y bienestar de sus habitantes, subsanando las necesidades básicas de la persona en plena convivencia pacífica? En este ensayo, el autor propone tres puntos que, por naturaleza o hábito, los líderes políticos deben tener en cuenta -la identificación, la integralidad y la comunicación-. Con una visión histórica y al mismo tiempo prospectiva, invita al lector a comprender que la falta de estas características en sus líderes ha sido una de las principales causas de la situación crítica por la que atraviesa actualmente el país.

El texto presenta una disquisición teórica acerca de la configuración del poder en las estructuras políticas de tipo imperialistas. En este sentido, plantea el debate entre el descentramiento y la desterritorialización del poder (imperio del no-lugar), por una parte, y la figura tradicional del Imperio con un único centro territorial de poder, por otra. El autor concluye que con el adjetivo de desterritorializado se enmascara de alguna manera una política de expansionismo y que es imposible establecer un Imperio sin un centro geográfico de poder, aun en las principales economías capitalistas del mundo desarrollado. ; The text presents a theoretical disquisition about the configuration of the power in the imperialist political structures. In this respect, it raises the debate between the off-centering and the un-territorial condition of power (Nowhere Empire), on one hand, and the traditional figure of the Empire with an unique territorial center of power, for other one. The author concludes that with the adjective of "un-territorial" an expansion policy is masked and that it is impossible to establish an Empire without a geographical center of power, even in the principal capitalist economies of the developed world. ; 9-38 ; alfve2806yahoo.com.mx

The article explores the historical nature behind the Canadian Department of External Affairs' creation of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada (APFC) and follows the mechanisms and development implemented by both organizations from the 1970s into the 1980s. The author examines former Prime Minister Joe Clark's view re Canada as a Pacific nation and the key steps taken to begin assessing closer ties to Asia, and the domestic undertones from within. As the concept grew legs, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) developed a program of its own, geared toward Asia. The article also studies the trade conference, 'Pacifica 80', which was geared toward promoting Asian trade to western Canada and studies the policies in effect at the time. However, by 1981, the burden had fallen upon John Bruk, president of Cyprus Anvil Mining Corporation of Vancouver, because of his extensive experience in the region, which also kicked off a series of symposiums in Toronto and Montreal. The article then follows the financing and start-up phases of APFC, and the establishment of committees, intertwined with External Affairs and other governmental entities. The article concludes with the controlling and legislative issues concerning the APFC in early 1984. Adapted from the source document.

Die Implementierung einer 'demokratischen Schulkultur' bildete angesichts wahrgenommener Demokratie-Defizite in der Gesellschaft und speziell in der nachwachsenden Generation ein zentrales Anliegen westdeutscher Schulreformbestrebungen der 1960er-Jahre. Internationale Schulsystemvergleiche und die positive Bezugnahme auf die Schulorganisation, die Partizipationsmöglichkeiten und das Lehr-Lern-Klima in Schulen des Auslands spielten dabei eine prominente Rolle. Am Beispiel der Studienreisen deutscher Bildungsexperten in die USA sucht der Beitrag die Mechanismen und Risiken aufzuzeigen, die derartigen Vergleichen und Rezeptionsprozessen inne wohnen: die Neigung zu dichotomen Konstruktionen und zur diskursiven Funktionalisierung 'des Auslands' wie die in der realen Begegnung sich einstellende Ambivalenz des Urteils. (DIPF/Orig.) ; In view of the perceived deficit in democracy within society and especially among the younger generation, the implementation of a "democratic school culture" constituted a central request of West German attempts at a school reform during the 1960s. International comparisons of school systems and the positive reference to the school organization, the possibilities of participation, and the teaching-learning-climate at schools in foreign countries played an important role in this. Taking study trips by German educational experts to the United States as an example, the author reveals the mechanisms and risks inherent in such comparisons and processes of reception: namely, the proneness to dichotomic constructions and to a discursive functionalization of "the foreign countries" as well as the ambivalence of the judgement, which becomes apparent in the actual encounter. (DIPF/Orig.)

An example of native-language literature of the early Middle Ages, "The Seafarer" is a poem
based on a seafaring population's experiences and realities of life. In an additive manner, the
work combines various motifs and strands of lore from non-Christian and Christian antiquity as well as from the Irish-Celtic tradition. The author moreover arrived at a complex texture through the creation of various levels of abstraction which nonetheless closely interweave the very different sections of the poem. The symbols and images of maritime life running through the work occupy an exceptional position in the Old English and European literature of the period in question. The range of levels of meaning would have provided the contemporary reader or listener with various means of access to the text, and were perhaps intended to do so. In analogy to heathen literature of antiquity, and despite formal differences, the "Seafarer" can also be read as a Christian "Periplus", a sea voyage at the end of which - after all the storms and dangers of shipwreck, the nemeses with which this-worldly life on the seas is constantly threatened - the soul reaches the safety of the home port in God's realm.

The article investigates the practice of female marriages in 19th century Great Britain and United States and argues that female marriages provided model for more progressive forms of the legal marriage between men and women. Unlike homosexuality in the 20th century, the same-sex relationships between women in the 19th century often enjoyed social recognition and some women in female marriages occupied prominent social positions. Because they were considered to rest on contract, female marriages served as inspiration for the contractual view of marriage advocated by many supporters of the Victorian marriage reform. The contribution of women in female couples to the success of the marriage reform was further underlined by their belonging to influential social networks. The author also argues that while the structuralist anthropology of mid-20th century, represented through the work of Claude Lévi-Strauss, had limited understanding of homosexuality as a socially legitimate phenomenon, the Victorian anthropology of the second half of the 19th century was relatively more open regarding the same-sex relationships. It is contended that authors as diverse as Henry Maine, Johann Bachofen, or Frederick Engels provided impulses in their work both for a positive evaluation of the same-sex relationships and for a more egalitarian understanding of marriage.

The article focuses on an analysis of the situation in which information is obtained from respondents in questionnaire surveys. From the perspective of the cognitive aspects of survey methodology the article takes a complex view of this situation and applies theoretical concepts and empirical evidence in order to explain the close connection between the interview situation and the quality of the information obtained. The interview situation is portrayed in its twofold form: personal aspects (the mental operations of respondents) and social aspects (the interaction and communication between the interviewer and the respondent). The analysis of the interactive aspects of the interview situation draws attention to the rules of standard communication, which interfere with the ordinary concept of the standardised interview and the course of mental processes. The cognitive aspect of responding to questions is analysed from the perspective of the wider understanding of context effects, the author refers to the most important theoretical concepts relating to individual effects and empirical evidence of some effects that infl uence the response process. The article takes a somewhat untypical approach to some aspects of data collection in questionnaire surveys and into the Czech context introduces the cognitive aspects of the methodology of questionnaire surveys.