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This study will first present a series of striking similarities between the imperial Japanese predicament in China and the contemporary U.S. quagmire in post-Saddam Iraq. Second, the study will provide a theoretical perspective on why the two cases share such commonalities. Third, the study will explore the implications of the perspective to international politics, with a focus on the future of the U.S. hegemony. The study is based on the basic understanding that the developing world across regions today has continued to suffer the ongoing single macro-historical process consequent upon the breakdowns of empires as the once-predominant organizational mode of human societies. The analysis argues for the central importance of a stable national identity for modernization and development as well as freedom and democracy.

Once considered the Asian country least likely to have any positive LGBT developments (Leong 1997), Singapore has witnessed a number of such advances in the last decade. Invoking the ideas of cultural and sexual citizenship to critically frame my examination of a failed gay pride parade and an immensely successful rally for the freedom to love called "Pink Dot," I make two assertions. First, I maintain that attempts at asserting one's citizenship succeed more often when they take into account the country's communitarian ideals. Second, I argue that Singaporeans once gave the state the right to determine the contours of their citizenship, but now take full advantage of every single loosening of the state's rules. This study illuminates the processes of queer cultural citizen-making in Singapore.

The article asks which human qualities can serve as the base for a liberal economic policy. The author is looking for an answer to this question in the classical works of economic liberalism - in the books by F. Bastiat, L. von Mises, F. von Hayek, W. Eucken, and M. Friedman. The two main qualities can be summarized as follows: the relatively high rank of freedom among human values and rational utilitarian calculus. It is assumed that in those countries where the both human prerequisites are present the liberal policy (for instance, liberal reforms) can be self-supportive and may have good results. On the contrary, if the first prerequisite is missing and a liberal policy can be based only on rational calculus, the "paternalistic" liberalism prevails and chances for success are much smaller.

In this article, the author reflects on how she and her students were able to draw on elements of popular culture to develop their understanding of Africa's international relations. The article shows, in particular, how the use of popular culture material has, as the relevant pedagogical literature suggests, strengthened student engagement and deepened their learning experience, notably by offering them greater freedom in their analysis and interpretation of the ideas and issues studied in class. Most importantly, the use of popular culture has helped them consider the very wide range of voices and views on Africa, its politics and international relations, but also apprehend popular culture as a political arena – one where political images and ideas are shaped that durably inform and influence international relations and politics.

The notion that cultural characteristics influence political regimes remains popular, despite mixed supporting evidence. In particular, democracy is argued to emerge and thrive in countries where liberal or freedom-oriented values (so-called self-expression values) are widespread. Inglehart and Welzel, for instance, report such an effect, mainly drawing inferences from cross-country comparisons. Yet cross-country correlations between self-expression values and democracy could stem from different processes. Reinvestigating this relationship, this article finds no empirical support when employing models accounting for sample-selection bias, country-specific effects and the endogeneity of values to democracy. Self-expression values do not enhance democracy levels or democratization chances, and neither do they stabilize existing democracies. In contrast, this study finds indications that a country's experience with democracy enhances self-expression values.

Abstract
The emergence of new platforms for public communication, public deliberation, and public action presents new possibilities for forming, organizing, and mobilizing public bodies, which invite philosophical reflection concerning the standards we currently look to for coordinating public movements and for evaluating their effects. Developing a broad understanding of public philosophy, this article begins with the view of philosophy and intellectual freedom articulated in Kant's publicly oriented writings. We then focus on the power of philosophical discourse to form and further articulate public bodies. Drawing on Dewey's work, we discuss the role of philosophical discourse in the articulation of publics into self-regulated, sovereign entities. We conclude with an account of how publishing itself might come to play an important role in the practice of public philosophy in a digital age.

AbstractThe public administration literature has paid attention to the relationship between the structure of a government and its ability to provide public services, reflected by its fiscal health. Although this literature has provided a useful understanding of government structures, it has largely ignored the charter form of government. As a formal written document that grants counties the power of self‐governance, a charter frees the county from state control. Included in this freedom is the ability to establish its own tax policies and services. In this article, the effects of charter adoption on fiscal health are tested using Florida county data from 1980 to 2012. The results show that the presence of a charter can improve the fiscal health of a county, which, in turn, can affect overall service provision.

The political trajectories in Southeast Asia are much more complex than neat theoretical models would suggest. In particular, the diverse experience of post-authoritarian states are far from linear – often moving forward, backward, and forward again, or stalling for a number of years. Political trajectories can thus be uneven and erratic, as exemplified by Thailand's military coups, graduating from hegemonic to competitive electoral authoritarian rule in Singapore and Malaysia and lingering within the zone of low-quality democracy as characterized by Indonesia's poor governance and neo-patrimonial dynamics. Indeed, since 2014, Freedom House no longer classifies Indonesia as 'Free', following the passage of legislation restricting the activity of civil society and the human rights violations against religious minorities. Similarly, Thailand lost its 'Free' ranking in 2006 and the Philippines in 2007.

This study attempts to examine the role of women empowerment in the utilization of antenatal care in Bangladesh. Four dimensions are considered to measure the women empowerment: the highest level of education, freedom of choice/movement, power in the household decision making process and involvement in economic activities. Factor analysis technique is employed to construct the last three dimensions. The probit and the zero-inflated negative binomial regression models are specified and estimated using the 2011 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey data. Results show that all four dimensions of women empowerment contribute positively and significantly to the decision and intensity of utilization of antenatal care in Bangladesh. Findings of the study have a number of policy implications on this issue for a developing country like Bangladesh.

Abstract:In this study, we look at two interpretive puzzles associated with the thought of Avicenna that are still of intrinsic philosophical interest today. The first concerns to what extent, if at all, Avicenna's deity can be said to act freely. The second concerns to what extent, if at all, humans within Avicenna's philosophical system can be said to act freely. It is our contention that only through a careful analysis of Avicenna's theory of action can one begin to assess his position concerning the status of the will and so provide a satisfactory response to these two interpretative issues. We hope to show that Avicenna can account for divine freedom and that, at least in the case of prophets and sages, humans too are capable of free action.

Being able to contribute in constructive way to activities of social and democratic society is an essential skill in school and in life. Most of what the child will do in life will be in cooperation with other people. A consequently, the social skills and social living values in education are very important to learn. Therefore, teacher needs to choose an appropriate .instructional strategies to teach the skills andliving values, i.e.: cooperation, caring, responsibility, honesty, respect, simplicity, tolerance, unity, open-mindedness, love, happiness, freedom, empathy, humility. Cooperative learning is one of the appropriate strategies to teach those skills and values. When it is applied properly, many living values will be studied by students, those are: cooperation, responsibility, tolerance, unity, respect, caring, love. Key Words: social and democratic society, Social skills, living values, cooperative learning

Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986 talks about the hazardous units of the employability and prohibit the employers to employ children in them and regulate employability of children in the non-hazardous units. Law has laid emphasis on physical injury that effects the physiology of a child but the "psychological injury" is left as such. Psychological injury can have disastrous impact to shape the personality of a child. The paper reviewed types of non–hazardous occupations where children are involved at work, methods, Ericson's developmental stages of children affected by child's labour activities, assessing psychological effects, constitutional provisions; psychosocial analysis, and concluded that once a child gets employed he or she loses the freedom to spend his or her time by his own free will.

143Human rights — Right to freedom from arbitrary detention — No deprivation of liberty except on grounds established by law — Persons arrested to be informed of reason for arrest and promptly informed of charges against them — Proceedings not to be affected by unlawful delay — Entitlement to a fair and public hearing by a competent, impartial and independent tribunal established by law — Right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty — Right to be informed promptly of the nature and charge against a person — Right to adequate time and facilities to prepare a defence — Right to trial without undue delay — Purpose and conditions of pre-trial detention — International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966, Articles 2, 9 and 14 — Effective remedy — United Nations Human Rights Committee

Since the final two decades of the 20th century technology mediated communication transforms from analogue into digital with serious implications on human communication. This process is usually called (digital) innovation. This article revisits the scholarly understanding of innovation in the field of media and communication from a normative point of view and subsequently develops an innovation research agenda which builds on this concept. This research agenda is built on the requirements of a democratic public sphere and consists of five levels: structural conditions, content production, communication and media economics, distribution and delivery as well as usage and user experience. Communication Innovation Studies (CIS) should undertake interdisciplinary research on communication innovation to evaluate and measure improvements or deteriorations of democratic values such as freedom, equality, diversity, solidarity and participation.

В статье рассматриваются основные тенденции использования мягкой силы в политических стратегиях Венесуэлы. Анализируются основные каналы использования «мягкой силы»: медиаэкспорт, индекс свободы, участие в Олимпийских играх, туризм и др. Большое внимание уделяется политике Уго Чавеса, с которого началось активное использование «мягкой силы». Обозначены основные характерные особенности модели «мягкой силы» Венесуэлы. ; The article examines the main trends in the use of soft power in the political strategies of Venezuela. Analyzes the main channels of the use of soft power: media exports, the index of freedom, participation in the Olympics, tourism and others. A lot of attention is paid to the policy of Hugo Chavez, which began with the active use of soft power. It outlined the main characteristics of the model of soft power of Venezuela.