Suchergebnisse

The Italian general elections held on 24 and 25 February 2013 took place after the resignation of Prime Minister Mario Monti, head of a technocratic government that ruled Italy for about a year. The government was supported by a 'strange majority' including the three largest party groups in the parliament, i.e. the centre-right People of Freedom party (PdL), the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) and the centrist Union of Christian and Centrist Democrats party (UDC). Three main features marked Italian political life during this period (Di Virgilio and Radaelli, 2013). The first was increasing public discontent with government austerity measures, the high rate of unemployment and the lack of economic growth. The second was the stalemate among political parties that prevented them from implementing long-awaited reforms to political institutions in order to change the electoral rules, cut the 'costs of politics' and fight widespread corruption. The third important feature was the rise of the Five Star Movement, led by the former comedian Beppe Grillo, following the local elections in May 2012 and the regional elections in Sicily in October 2012, when the M5S emerged as the largest party on the island. Due to its internal conflicts and contradictions, the 'strange majority' collapsed in December 2012 after the PdL withdraw its support for the government. Consequently, early elections were scheduled for February 2013. In the history of Italian Republic it was the first time that general elections were held in the winter. [Copyright Elsevier Ltd.]

Motivated, able, and well-trained military personnel are essential to the success of any military, and personnel policies are crucial to getting and keeping qualified servicemen and women. The transformation of personnel policies is an important element of the broader transformation occurring in Western militaries. Across Europe and North America, nations are embracing plans to change military personnel policies to build future capabilities consistent with new strategic environments and with the demographic and societal realities of the future. For many nations, a key reform is to shift from a conscript military to a smaller, all-volunteer force. Other important reforms include expanding recruitment capacity, improving working conditions, revamping career paths, overhauling compensation systems and increasing military pay, modernizing pension plans, improving the quality of life for military members and their families, and improving the post-service prospects for those who serve. Service to Country explores the ongoing transformation of military personnel policies in Europe and North America, looking at causes as well as potential costs and benefits of personnel policy transformation. Contributors to the volume, from both Europe and North America, include experts from militaries, governments, universities, and think tanks; practitioners and scholars; economists, political scientists, sociologists, and a demographer. ContributorsJennifer Buck, Deborah Clay-Mendez, Sylvain Daffix, Chris Donnelly, Curtis Gilroy, Keith Hartley, Hannu Herranen, Bertel Heurlin, Jolyon Howorth, Gerhard Kummel, Juan Lopez Diaz, Karen McKenney, Mihaela Matei, Vincent Medina, Sebastian Negrusa, Cyr-Denis Nidier, Bernard Rostker, Robert St. Onge, Rickard Sandell, Peter Svec, Vaidotas Urbelis, Domenico Villani, John Warner, Cindy Williams, John D. Winkler

[Article first published online] ; International audience ; Background: Patient teachers were involved in training general practice residents (GPRs) to strengthen the patient-centered approach. They teach a course on health democracy by themselves and teach in tandem with a physician teacher during reflective practice-based classes (named GEPRIs). We present the GPRs' representations of patient teacher characteristics and capacities and their perception of how useful patient teachers are to their professional development. Methods: We administered a questionnaire based on a preliminary qualitative study to 124 GPRs. It explored (a) changes in the GPRs' representations about patient teacher characteristics and capacities with regard to teaching over the first year of the experiment; (b) GPRs' perception of patient teacher utility to their training and their contribution to developing patient perspective-related competencies. Results: The response rate was 89.5% (111/124). The majority of GPRs agreed with 17 (before) and 21 (after) of the 23 patient teacher characteristics and with 17 (before) and 19 (after) of the 20 capacities. The agreement rate increased, overall, after patient teacher participation. The GPRs found patient teacher useful to their training in 9 of 11 topics (agreement rate 65%-92%). They felt they had developed the 14 patient knowledge-related competencies (agreement rate 62%-93%), and 52% to 75% of the GPRs rated the patient teachers' contribution to those competencies "high or very high," depending on the competency. Conclusion: This study demonstrates the specific contribution of patient teachers to university-level medical training in France. The GPRs recognized that patient teachers helped them develop competencies by providing patient-specific content.

[Article first published online] ; International audience ; Background: Patient teachers were involved in training general practice residents (GPRs) to strengthen the patient-centered approach. They teach a course on health democracy by themselves and teach in tandem with a physician teacher during reflective practice-based classes (named GEPRIs). We present the GPRs' representations of patient teacher characteristics and capacities and their perception of how useful patient teachers are to their professional development. Methods: We administered a questionnaire based on a preliminary qualitative study to 124 GPRs. It explored (a) changes in the GPRs' representations about patient teacher characteristics and capacities with regard to teaching over the first year of the experiment; (b) GPRs' perception of patient teacher utility to their training and their contribution to developing patient perspective-related competencies. Results: The response rate was 89.5% (111/124). The majority of GPRs agreed with 17 (before) and 21 (after) of the 23 patient teacher characteristics and with 17 (before) and 19 (after) of the 20 capacities. The agreement rate increased, overall, after patient teacher participation. The GPRs found patient teacher useful to their training in 9 of 11 topics (agreement rate 65%-92%). They felt they had developed the 14 patient knowledge-related competencies (agreement rate 62%-93%), and 52% to 75% of the GPRs rated the patient teachers' contribution to those competencies "high or very high," depending on the competency. Conclusion: This study demonstrates the specific contribution of patient teachers to university-level medical training in France. The GPRs recognized that patient teachers helped them develop competencies by providing patient-specific content.

Introduction.--Labor provisions of the Transportation act.--Railway policies and the general welfare.--Freight rates and business revival.--Appendix. ; Mode of access: Internet.

Sammelrezension zu: 1) Yehezkel Dror: Public policymaking reexamined. Scranton, PA u.a.: Chandler 1968. 2) Carl Böhret: Entscheidungshilfen für die Regierung: Modelle, Instrumente, Probleme. Opladen: Westdt. Verl. 1970.

We live in times of increasing public distrust of the main institutions of modern society. Experts, including scientists, are suspected of working to hidden agendas or serving vested interests. The solution is usually seen as more public scrutiny and more control by democratic institutions ' experts must be subservient to social and political life. In this book, Harry Collins and Robert Evans take a radically different view. They argue that, rather than democracies needing to be protected from science, democratic societies need to learn how to value science in this new age of uncertainty. By emphasizing that science is a moral enterprise, guided by values that should matter to all, they show how science can support democracy without destroying it and propose a new institution ' The Owls ' that can mediate between science and society and improve technological decision-making for the benefit of all.

This book offers an anthropological account of Sri Lanka's Eelam Wars III and IV. It is based on the life-narratives of ex-servicemen who fought on the frontlines. The volume approaches militarism as a practice of masculinity. It explores the sense of embattlement that young recruits feel, which stems from the inner war between notions of bodily deference instilled in childhood and having to conduct offensives on the battlefield. Thus though they wish to move smoothly into the assault techniques learnt in combat-training, they sometimes find their bodies are acting-out a different trajectory; engaging in acts of spectacular violence or simply running away. It traverses themes such as masculinity and Sinhala society, British martial masculinity vs the composed body in Sinhala discourse, combat-training and the battlefield. The author traces the ways in which troops tried to negotiate the thin line between valour and violence in a context in which the enemy's suicide fighters engaged in the more extreme code of sacrificing-the-body, which derided the very manliness of soldiers who couldn't prevail against them. She argues that the Sri Lankan experience has resonance for soldiers on battlefields everywhere, who become embattled when confronted by adversaries whose practice seems to diminish their own manliness. Rich in ethnographical narratives, this book will be interest scholars and researchers of war studies, gender studies, masculinity studies, peace and conflict studies, ethnic studies, political science, international relations, sociology, social anthropology, cultural studies, and South Asian studies, especially those concerned with Sri Lanka.

The ten units here cover areas of particular concern in the teaching of science - including organizing the classroom for investigations, and reviewing whole-school coverage of the science curriculum. Ways in which other more general issues - such as the multi-cultural dimension, planning for individual progression and assessment - might affect the teaching of science are also explored.