Suchergebnisse

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan sparked acute Cold War tensions. The war soon became an undesirable distraction and burden for Soviet leaders, who did not expect to spend most of the 1980s propping up a client regime in Kabul. Drawing on archival sources and interviews, this article traces Soviet decision-making from the intervention in late 1979 to the final withdrawal in early 1989. The article shows that the supporters of the Soviet intervention believed that Soviet military and economic aid efforts were making progress and should not be aborted early. They warned that a premature withdrawal would undermine Soviet prestige in the Third World. Before Mikhail Gorbachev came to power and to some extent afterward, the supporters of intervention were usually able to silence or sideline their critics through deft political maneuvering. Adapted from the source document.

Decision-Making under Ambiguity and Time Constraints -- Table of Contents -- List of Figures and Tables -- List of Abbreviations -- Contributors -- Preface -- Chapter One Introduction: Policy-Making under Ambiguity and Time Constraints Reimut Zohlnhöfer and Friedbert W. Rüb -- Part One The Theoretical Assumptions of the Multiple-Streams Framework -- Chapter Two Lost in Translation: Re-conceptualising the Multiple-Streams Framework Back to its Source of Inspiration Harald Sætren -- Chapter Three Clear Enough To Be Proven Wrong? Assessing the Influence of the Concept of Bounded Rationality within the Multiple-Streams Framework Johanna Kuhlmann -- Chapter Four Agenda-Setting and Policy-Making in Time: What the Multiple-Streams Approach Can Tell Us - and What It Cannot Friedbert W. Rüb -- Part Two The Elements of the Multiple-Streams Framework -- Chapter Five Kingdon à la Carte: A New Recipe for Mixing Stages, Cycles, Soups and Streams Michael Howlett, Allan McConnell and Anthony Perl -- Chapter Six Refining the Idea of Focusing Events in the Multiple-Streams Framework Thomas A. Birkland and Megan K. Warnement1 -- Chapter Seven Framing the Problem: Knowledge-Brokers in the Multiple-Streams Framework Åsa Knaggård -- Chapter Eight Clarifying the Concept of Policy-Communities in the Multiple-Streams Framework Nicole Herweg -- Chapter Nine Political Leadership, Multiple Streams and the Emotional Endowment Effect: A Comparison of American and Greek Foreign Policies Nikolaos Zahariadis -- Part Three The Applicability of the Multiple-Streams Framework in Parliamentary and Multi-Level Systems -- Chapter Ten How Well Does the Multiple-Streams Framework Travel? Evidence from German Case Studies Reimut Zohlnhöfer and Christian Huß.

This study examines the contents and functions of dramatizations in natural team decision making. Theoretically, the study employs symbolic convergence theory to understand decision making as a complex phenomenon constructed in symbolic communication. Observational meeting data and thematic interview data from an autonomous team in Finland were analyzed. A fantasy theme analysis and an inductive, rhetorical discourse analysis revealed three rhetorical visions and seven functions of dramatizations in the team's decision making. Visions represented social, righteous, and pragmatic master analogues. The functions of dramatizations were legitimizing independent and current decisions, reinforcing past decisions, arguing, leading, embedding decisions, and controlling decision making. Symbolic realities were constructed and refined before, during, and after decision making. The processes of creating and using dramatizations were intertwined and simultaneous. The interview analysis showed the team was aware of many of these processes. The applicability of symbolic convergence theory in team decision-making research and training is discussed, specifically in connection to communication competence.

The literature on organizational politics has described organizational decision making as a fluid, informal process characterized by conflict and compromise. One of the most important reasons decision making tends to become politicized is because decision situations are uncertain and open to multiple interpretations. The political process develops as coalitions attempt to define the decision context to gain control over the decision-making process. But the concept of information typically used to investigate organizational politics is defined in terms of the ability to predict future states of the world. This definition completely overlooks the socially constructed nature of information and the fundamentally socially constructed nature of the decision-making process. The result has been an ignoring or underestimating of the role the distortion and manipulation of information plays in communicating and decision-making processes. In this essay, information is understood as a socially constructed phenomenon and a concept of secrecy is developed to investigate its effect on decision making. This framework is applied to a battle between staff and line groups for control over the Phone Stores in a Bell Telephone operating company. The concept of secrecy is developed empirically and elaborated theoretically.

ABSTRACTMany queuing situations present themselves in which multiple alternatives should be evaluated. This is especially true in cases where the alternatives refer to the number of service channels and types of service channels to be utilized. In such cases, it is appropriate to develop suitable queuing models and introduce the additional exogenous variables in the model graphically. This paper presents an example where such a methodology of model construction is feasible and helpful in deciding guidelines for making decisions. The working methodology is explained with a numerical illustration and guidelines for using the proposed methodology are described.

Currently the European Union (EU) consists of a group of nation states that exhibit an array of constitutional systems, ranging from the unitary to the fully federal. Among the EU member states, the United Kingdom (UK) has traditionally been regarded as an example par excellence of a unitary state. However, since taking office in the late 1990s, Labour Governments have pursued a programme of constitutional reform. This has included the decentral-isation of decision-making powers through a process of devolution to bodies in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the English Regions. One policy area that has been devolved as part of this process is environment policy. However, it could be argued that even before the formal 1998 Acts of devolution that environmental policy was already highly decentralised. Crucially though, one policy area that has been 'reserved' to the UK Executive in Whitehall and the Parliament in Westminster is international relations and EU matters, and UK environmental policy is one policy area that is deeply affected by EU level policy making. These circumstances, therefore, raise some important questions about British environmental governance, which this paper seeks to address. Crucially, what are the likely or potential implications of devolving environ-mental policy, whilst at the same time reserving EU relations to London (Whitehall and Westminster)? In reflecting on these issues, this paper draws on theories and concepts derived from governance and historical institutionalist literature.

This thesis seeks to understand why some policymakers sign international agreements governing the rights of investors by looking at the effects of winning coalitions on state leaders. The two empirical sections of this thesis examine the mechanisms through which political institutions, and the policymakers within them, shape executive level policy toward bilateral investment treaties in autocratic states. I find that signing agreements with highly developed OECD states contributes to the credibility of policymakers within the regime, which ultimately incentivizes the signing of international agreements.

Temsili demokrasiler için yapılan seçimler, iktidarların meşruluk kaynaklarıdır. Siyasal seçimler bu demokrasiler için önem arz etmektedir. Siyasal seçimlerin temel aktörü olan seçmenlerin davranışlarını anlamlandırmak da iktidara talip olan partilerin ve liderlerin ilgi alanına girmekte, tüm bu hususlar seçmen davranışlarını siyaset biliminin önemli inceleme konularından biri haline getirmektedir. Seçmen davranışlarına etki eden birçok faktör vardır. Yaş, cinsiyet, aile, çevre, gelir düzeyi ve eğitim bu faktörlerden ilk anda sayabildiklerimizdir. Fakat günümüzün seçmenlerinin güvenlik kaygısı ile güçlü devlet vatandaşı olma isteği, oy verme davranışlarını siyasi lider faktörü çerçevesinde şekillendirmelerine neden olmuştur. Üstelik güçlü lider isteği artık siyasal kültürler üzerinde neredeyse tüm ülkelerin seçmenlerinde genel olarak bir eğilim göstermektedir. Tezin yukarıda da özetlenen iddiası kapsamında; seçmen davranışlarına etki eden en önemli faktörün siyasi lider olduğu fakat bu etkinin sadece siyasal kültürle açıklanamayacağı, günümüzde yaşanan güvenlik kaygısının, seçmenlerin, siyasi lideri gözeterek oy verme davranışlarını şekillendirdikleri yapılan anket çalışmaları ile de kanıtlanmıştır. ; Elections for representative democracies are the legitimacy sources of power. Political elections are important for these kind of democracies. Understanding the behavior of the voters who are the main actors of the political elections, is also of interest to the parties and leaders who want to take power. There are many factors affecting voter behavior. Mainly age, gender, family, environment, income level and education are among these factors. However, today's electorate's security concern and strong state demand have led us to think that the leading factor in voting behavior is more effective. Moreover the demand for a strong leader shows a general tendency in the voters of almost all countries on political cultures. Within the scope of the claim of the thesis summarized above; It has also been proved by the surveys that the most important factor affecting the voter behavior is political leader but this effect cannot be explained only by political culture, the security concern of today, the voters shape the voting behavior by considering the political leader.