Delegates examined the use of technology in the dissemination of information to the public and the role played by Parliamentary Monitoring Organizations (PMO). While there was scepticism around the passing of protection of information bills in many countries, the adoption of the Declaration on Parliamentary Openness by all PMOs was considered a step in the right direction in monitoring the work of Parliaments. The role of PMOs should also cascade down to State or Provincial Legislatures in order to increase public participation and sharing of information. Public education around the role of Parliament is a crucial component and technology could be employed to assist in this regard. Adapted from the source document.
Äänestämisen läheisyysteorian mukaan mikäli puolueet ja äänestäjät ovat edustettuina samassa poliitiikkadimensiossa, äänestäjät äänestävät puoluetta, joka on lähinnä heidän positioitaan asiakysymyksissä. Vastoin spatiaalista perinnettä Michiganin koulukunnan mukaan äänestäjät eivät äänestä rationaalisesti poliittisiin asiakysymyksiin perustuen, vaan antavat äänensä puolueelle, jota kokevat olevansa psykologisesti lähinnä, eli puoluetta, johon he samastuvat. Adams, Merrill ja Grofman (2005) yhteensovittavat yllämainitut äänestysperinteet teoksessaan, johon tukeutuen tämä väitöskirja osoittaa vaikutuksen, joka puoluesamastumisen kaltaisella psykologisella ominaisuudella on rationaalisiin strategioihin, joilla puolueet hakevat optimaalisia paikkojaan politiikkadimensiossa. Analyysi on jaettu kahteen osaan. Ensimmäisessä osassa oletetaan, että äänestäjät äänestävät valitsemaansa puoluetta varmuudella tai deterministisesti läheisyyden ja puoluesamastumisen perusteella. Toisessa osassa oletetaan, että äänestäjien päätökset ovat probabilistisia, sillä heidän päätöksiinsä vaikuttavat määrittelemättömät tekijät, jotka tekevät heidän päätöksistään epävarmoja puolueiden näkökulmasta. Deterministisen äänestämisen kohdalla käytetään simulaatioanalyysiä, jonka avulla osoitetaan, että puolueilla on kannustimena hakea erilaisia optimaalisia positioita silloin kun puoluesamastuminen vaikuttaa äänestämiseen kuin silloin, kun se ei vaikuta. Probabilistisen äänestämisen kohdalla osoitetaan, että puoluesamastumisella on kurvilineaarinen vaikutus suomalaisten puolueiden Nashin tasapainotiloihin: vähäinen puoluesamastumisen aste johtaa vahvaan keskihakuiseen kilpailuun, keskivahva puoluesamastuminen johtaa vähemmän vahvaan keskihakuiseen kilpailuun ja korkea puoluesamastuminen vie kilpailun takaisin vahvasti keskihakuisiin tuloksiin. Edellämainittu puoluesamastumisen kurvilineaarinen vaikutus pitää myös paikkansa kun tarkastellaan Ruotsin vaaliaineistoa, ja vastaa tuloksia, jotka Adams, Merrill ja Grofman (2005) ilmoittivat sovellettaessa samaa äänestysalgoritmia Ranskan politiikkaan. Soveltamalla spatiaalisen mallin tekniikoita eduskuntavaalitutkimusten aineistoihin tutkimus osoittaa myös missä määrin suomalaisten äänestäjien päätökset perustuvat psykologisiin komponentteihin kuten puoluesamastumiseen sen sijaan, että ne perustuisivat poliittiseen suuntautumiseen akselilla vasemmisto-oikeisto. Tutkimus osoittaa Nashin tasapainon Suomen ja Ruotsin tapauksissa ja miten nämä tasapainotilat vertautuvat aikaisempiin empiirisiin tutkimuksiin. Se osoittaa missä määrin puoluesamastuminen ja poliittinen suuntautuminen vasemmisto-oikeisto -akselilla vaikuttavat puolueiden odotettuun äänisaaliiseen ja miksi suuren puolueeseen samastuneen äänestäjäkunnan omaavilla suomalaisilla puolueilla on kannustin keskihakuisuuteen politiikkadimensiossa, sekä osoittaa onko suomalaisten puolueiden asiakysymyksissä ottamissa positioissa vuonna 2007 samankaltaisuuksia niiden Nashin tasapainotilojen kanssa. Lisäksi tutkimus osoittaa onko psykologinen käsite, projektio, vaikuttanut suomalaisten äänestäjien näkemyksiin puolueiden sijoittumisesta vasemmisto-oikeisto -akselilla vuonna 2007. ; According to the proximity theory of voting, if parties and voters can all be represented on the same policy issue dimension, voters will vote for the party that stands closest to their policy issue position. Contrary to the spatial tradition, the Michigan school of voting professes that voters do not take rational decisions on the grounds of policy issue proximity but vote for the party that they feel psychologically close to, meaning the party of identification. Relying on Adams, Merrill and Grofman (2005) work that reconciles the above-mentioned traditions of voting, the thesis at hand shows the effect that a psychological characteristic such as party identification imparts on parties rational strategies to locate their optimal positions on the policy issue dimension. The analysis is divided into two parts. The first part assumes that voters vote with certainty or deterministically for the party of choice on the grounds of proximity and party identification. The second part assumes that voters decisions are probabilistic in the sense that their utilities are perturbed by unmeasured components that render their decisions uncertain from the parties perspectives. Under deterministic voting it is shown by means of a simulation analysis, that parties have incentives to present different optimal positions when party identification affects the voting and when it does not. Under probabilistic voting it is shown that party identification has a curvilinear effect on Finnish parties Nash equilibrium positions; low levels of party identification lead to strong centripetal competition; medium levels of party identification lead to less strong centripetal competition; high levels of party identification bring the competition back to strong centripetal outcomes. The afore-described curvilinear effect of party identification also holds sway when data on Swedish elections is used and is in line with the results reported by Adams, Merrill and Grofman (2005) when applying the same algorithm of voting to French politics. Applying spatial model techniques to survey data on real elections this work also shows the extent to which voters decisions in Finland are based on long-term psychological characteristics such as party identification as opposed to left and right policy orientation; whether Nash equilibrium positions exist in the case of Finland and Sweden and how the characteristics of such equilibrium configurations compare with previous empirical studies; the extent to which party identification and left and right policy orientation affects parties expected vote share; why Finnish parties with large partisan constituencies have electoral incentives to move centripetally on the policy issue dimension; whether there is a similarity between Finnish parties policy issue positions in 2007 with their Nash equilibrium configurations; and whether Finnish voters perceptions of parties left and right positions in 2007 are shaped by the psychologically based concept of projection.
According to the Finnish National Election Studies (FNES) the positions of Finnish parties in the years 2003 and 2007 were almost identical. In FNES, party placement is based on the voters' perceptions and therefore it is assumed that either the voters have correctly guessed the positions of the parties or they have been wrong in their judgments. In the first case, the Finnish parties are likely to have reached a state of equilibrium where no party has an incentive for unilaterally changing its optimal position. On the other hand, if the voters are incorrect, it is likely that they have projected their own positions to the parties. The results reject the equilibrium hypothesis and confirm the projection hypothesis. Voters perceive Finnish parties' positions as being unchanged during 2003-2007. Finnish parties are not in Nash equilibrium. There is a U shape relationship between the voters' positions and the perceived distance of parties. Finnish voters have projected their own positions to the positions of the parties. [Copyright Elsevier Ltd.]
One of the major advancements in the IT industry during the 1990s was the development of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. Beyond the high costs and significant amount of effort needed to implement such a system, the possible benefits for the organization in achieving more efficient operations and improving its competitive stance in the competitive business environment have been undoubted. The high failure rates of ERP systems implementations (Soh et al., 2000; Willis and Willis-Brown; 2002) have paved the way for a chase from both academicians and practitioners to understand and pinpoint the critical success factors that positively impact this type of projects' success. Research has been done for ERP implementations in numerous environments but there is a serious gap in the literature regarding implementations in the Cypriot context. Furthermore, after the island's accession to the European Union (EU) in 2004, the need for the governmental sector to harmonize its systems and processes according to EU directives and to provide efficient services through transparent processes to citizens of Cyprus urged public organizations to proceed with the adoption of ERP systems to serve these purposes from both technological and business aspects. This thesis aims to investigate the critical success factors that foster the successful rollout of ERP implementation projects in Cypriot public sector organizations. From the literature review a research proposition is devised through the development of a theoretical framework consisting of 10 critical success factors. These factors are examined in the specific project environment and their applicability and impact in successful implementations is determined. A qualitative approach has been followed, through a multiple-case study in three Cypriot public sector organizations, by conducting a set of 9 semi-structured interviews and analyzing the results to determine the theoretical framework's fit in the particular context and furthermore to determine the criteria which are used to determine ERP implementation success in the specific projects. The results of the study indicate that project success is evaluated solely based on three criteria; time, cost and quality. In addition, 9 out of the 10 factors of the theoretical framework appear to be critical for implementation success.
1.- Artículos ; Políticas de liberalización de mercados y estrategias adaptativas de uso de la tierra: Caso de estudio en los altos valles andinos de Venezuela. ; Freeing markets and adaptive strategies of land use: The case study of the Venezuelan high Andean Valleys. ; Politiques d'ouverture de marché et stratégies adaptatives de l'utilisation des sols: Le cas des hautes Vallées Andines. ; Arias, Eliézer ; Estrategia metodológica para la construcción de redes comunitarias agrícolas en pro del desarrollo local. Caso: Productores de plátano del Sur del Lago de Maracaibo, Venezuela. ; Methodological strategy for the construction of agricultural community networks: Plantain producers in the south of lake Maracaibo, Venezuela. ; Stratégie méthodologique pour la construction de réseaux communautaires agricoles pour le développment local: Le cas des producteurs de banane plantain dans le sud du lac de Maracaibo, Venezuela. ; Delgado Barrios, Juan Carlos ; La recherche de reconnaissance de la qualité dans la vitiviniculture du Santa Catarina (Brésil). ; The search for quality recognition of the viticulture in Santa Catarina, Brazil. ; La investigación del reconocimiento de la calidad en La vinicultura de Santa Catalina, Brasil. ; Desplobins, Gérard ; Pensamiento estratégico en el negocio mundial de manzanas. ; Strategic thought in the world apple business. ; Pensée estratégique dans le négoce mondial de la pomme. ; Giacinti, Miguel Angel ; Aproximaciones a los efectos ambientales, sociales y económicos de la erradicación de cultivos ilícitos por aspersión aérea en Colombia. ; Approximation to the environmental, social and Economic effects of erradication of illicit crops by air aspersion in Colombia. ; Une approximation aux effets écologiques, sociaux et économiques de l'éradication des cultures illicites par aspersión en Colombie. ; Osorio G., Ana Rocio ; L'union européenne et la globalisation du système agroalimentaire Grec. ; The European Union and the globalization of the Greek agro-food system. ; La Unión Europea y la globalización del sistema agroalimentario Griego. ; Papageorgiou, Athanassios ; Entorno macroeconómico, productividad del trabajo y cambio tecnológico en la agricultura Venezolana. ; Macroeconomic environment, labor productivity and technical change in Venezuelan agriculture. ; Environnement macroeconomique, productivité du travail et changement technologique dans l'agriculture Vénézuéliènne. ; Rodríguez Rojas, José E. ; 2.- Reseñas ; Agroalimentaria es ahora también una publicación indexada en el Hispanic American Periodical Index (HAPI) y en Latindex. ; Agroalimentaria is also indexed in the Hispanic American Periodical Index (HAPI) and Latindex. ; Agroalimentaria est registrée dans L´Hispanic American Periodical Index (HAPI) et en Latindex. ; Anido, Daniel ; diatha@pgcom.gr ; semestral ; Nivel analítico
