The article is devoted to the methodological problems of the political economy of socialism. It provides a categorical distinction between the structural and dynamic dependencies of the political-economic system. On the one hand, structural dependence has an object–subject direction, ascending from productive forces to production relations and from them to state power. On the other hand, the direct opposite, subject–object direction is inherent in dynamic dependence, descending from state power to production relations and the conscious use of their objective laws for the development of productive forces. This subject–object dependence reaches its fullest embodiment under conditions of strong power, the standard of which is the political-economic system of contemporary China.
A specific Flight and Maintenance Planning problem is presented. In this problem, preventive maintenance operations are scheduled for military aircraft along with the assignment of regular missions. The quality of the solutions is measured via a bi-objective function that smooths both maintenance operations and aircraft unavailability among time periods. A real world dataset provided by the French Air Force is used to test an exact optimization approach based on a Mixed Integer Programming model. Mono-objective computations are solved to optimality for medium size instances, allowing to compute exactly the Pareto frontier of the bi-objective optimization problems. The tests show that these two objectives do not lead to the same optimal solution, but very good compromise solutions can be found thanks to the bi-objective optimization.
This work contains a phenomenological analysis of blindness, providing a basis for the evaluation of rehabilitation practice in South Africa and the formulation of future objectives in the field. Stereotypes of blindness associated with the perspectives of consumerism, scientific research, and social casework are analysed. Theories of blindness proposed by Braverman, Carroll, Monbeck, Foulke, Jernigan, and Scott are critically examined. The findings give substance to the claim that professional workers with the blind are guided in their attitudes and actions by images and meanings originating from these sources. All such preconceptions are rejected in favour of a description of blindness in terms of actual experience. An in-depth study of experience reveals how the nature of perception determines the blind person's relationship with the physical environment, with other people, and with the welfare system. In each sphere limitations arise which are overcome by specific responses and appropriate techniques. These observations lead to the formulation of a set of basic principles of rehabilitation, stressing the importance of individualization, self-reliance, assertiveness, versatility, and a personal interpretation of blindness. The relevance of traditional modalities is explained, while the need to expand rehabilitation teaching to include assertive skills training and various types of vocational instruction is emphasized. Current rehabilitation practice in South Africa is evaluated, comparisons being drawn with programmes offered by Beit Halochem in Tel Aviv, Arkansas Enterprises for the Blind, and the Center for Independent Living of the New York Infirmary. South African training is characterized as fostering the independence of the individual. Negative features are the lack of an effective delivery system and failure to meet the priority needs of certain groups. This prepares the way for a case study in which the redevelopment of rehabilitation services for the blind in South Africa .is discussed, beginning with the establishment of a new national rehabilitation centre. Amongst other matters, the study deals with negotiations to circumvent restrictive legislation, funding through a system of corporate sponsorship, and purposeful architectural design. The rehabilitation centre is viewed as the first component of a broader strategy to provide rehabilitation training to all blind people in South Africa, incorporating national, urban, rural, and specialized services. The successful implementation of any action plan will require the participation of blind people themselves by way of a disability rights movement. Finally, attention is focused on the effect of South African racial policies on welfare work. The principle of equal opportunity cannot be practised under present legislation.
The Need for Factually Defined Concepts. Most political utterance is necessarily normative in import since it occurs in the process of motivating human behavior. Popularly employed political concepts, appropriately, are frequently of the ideal type in that they tend to denote an hypothetical situation toward conformance with which actual human institutions are being impelled. Ask any student to define a state or a government and he is almost certain to bring in some such notion as "operation in the public interest," which might or might not be judged applicable to an actual situation. It is safe to say that ninety per cent of the time such concepts as state, government, court, law, administration, political party, and many others are used in this normative sense, not only popularly but in learned circles.Without desiring the exclusion of the normative from the social sciences, the writer believes that rigid conceptual clarity in distinguishing norm and fact is necessary for the progress of these disciplines. To attain this goal, the technical requisite is a system of concepts having an understood reference of a purely factual character. The absence of such factually defined concepts is noteworthy in political science, and largely unrecognized. Although most of our studies are factual in nature and the intended reference of concepts is usually factual, definition is largely subconscious and when brought to the surface is likely to have normative form, particularly a form borrowed from legal norms.True definition is appropriate in such disciplines as logic and mathematics and in physics, which has attained since the seventeenth century to the explanation of phenomena by hypothetical systems employing purely postulated entities like electrons and atoms. A set of pure definitions gives postulates from which theorems are derived by rigid deduction. What is put into the definitions comes out in the theorems.
Using the theory of state political cultures discussed by D. Elazar (Cities of the Prairies, New York: Basic Books, 1970) the utility of political culture in explaining state political systems' characteristics is explored. Indices of moralistic, individualistic, & traditionalistic political cultures are constructed using religious census data for each state. Using discriminant analysis, there is some success in replicating the classification of states by the dominant political culture set forth by Elazar. Expected relationships between political culture & 8 dependent variables are specified & listed. Significant correlations in the predicted direction were found for 6 dependent variables: government activities, local emphasis & administration of programs, innovative government activity, encouragement of popular participation in elections, popular participation in elections, & party participation. Hypothesized relationships were not supported for two dependent variables: centralized governmental decision making & the importance of political parties. 5 Tables. Modified HA.
This paper identifies and explores in detail two objectives for Alfarabi's Book of Religion. The first objective is political and aims to reconcile religion with philosophy. This objective is addressed to the political and religious leadership of the larger political community. The second objective is pedagogical and aims to show how taking seriously the claims of religion (and especially of virtuous religion) is an essential component of philosophic education. This objective is addressed to those inclined toward the philosophical way of life. Adapted from the source document.
