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Spanish exploration and colonization of the New World has long been characterized as a quest for "Gold, Glory, and God." This article examines the last of these motives, the religious aspects of colonization, as revealed through seventeenth‐century mortuary remains and documentary evidence from the Spanish territory known as La Florida. Data suggest that these missionized native populations underwent religious transformations that resulted in a unique expression of Christianity incorporating both European and native elements. Related data indicate that while religious conversion may have had a lasting impact, other native social and political institutions remained largely intact during the mission period. [missions, Native Americans, Spanish colonization, southeastern United States]

For more than 5 weeks after the ballots were cast, the presidential election of 2000 continued. During that period, the extensive national, and even worldwide, focus on disputed Florida ballots elicited a wide variety of reactions, ranging from keen interest to apathy, from disgust and anger to confusion and bewilderment. This article addresses from a historical perspective several of the key issues that emerged during this ordeal. After providing broader historical context by summarizing both the constitutional framework for presidential voting and selected past presidential election disputes, this article focuses on the most significant political, legal, and constitutional aspects of the postelection campaign of 2000.

This article argues that the village election in China is a case of "politics by other means" in that it is a state act imposed on the peasantry with the purpose of reorganizing the peasantry and maintaining the state's macroeconomic and political control under the conditions of economic reform. In analyzing village elections, the paper examines the institutional limbo in the countryside and the state's motivations for introducing this electoral process in the 1980s. The paper also analyzes the inherent limitations of the "Organic Law of Villagers' Committee" by reviewing the central role of the state in village elections processes as well as by discussing economic aspects of the politics of village elections.

Since 1998, Northern Ireland has been the subject of a unique experiment in governance and democracy. The experiment includes the establishment of a participatory Civic Forum in which the voluntary and community sector has an important stake. Beginning with a discussion of the merits of a participatory aspect to democracy in the contemporary age, this paper identifies factors that might help establish the Civic Forum as a successful participatory institution in Northern Ireland. Key factors include the attitude towards the Forum of political representatives and their willingness to foster a participatory dimension to the new democracy. Other important factors are inclusiveness and the balance of sectoral representation in the Forum.

This paper discusses aspects of harmonisation of regulatory structures (occupational, product approval etc) between jurisdictions. The primary focus is on trans-national arrangements, but many of the issues also apply to relations between central and regional/local government, and between regional/local governments. The paper addresses a taxonomy of harmonisation approaches, who to harmonise with, how far and in what areas, and a range of implementation issues, before reviewing some relevant EU examples, outlining existing trans-Tasman regulatory relationships and current trans-Tasman harmonisation proposals, and noting some issues relevant to local government. It does not address wider economic integration issues or currency or political union.

This paper surveys the literature on the relationship between international trade in goods and the factors and the environment. Traditional approaches based on the HEckscher-Ohlin trade model and more recent models looking at non-competetive market structures are discussed. Moreover, the paper covers intertemporal aspects (foreign debt, stock pollutants), public-choice models (the political economy), the empirical evidence and the instituonal issues. This paper was written for the Handbook of Environmental and Resource Economics to be edited by Jeffrey Vincent and Karl-Göran Mäler for the Handbooks in Economics series (North-Holland, Amsterdam), where a revised and probably shorter version of it will appear. Comments are very welcome.

At a time when revenue from oil is set to fall, and the state has admitted to a budget deficit, Saudi Arabia is aware that it must begin reforms to reduce its excessive dependence on oil revenue and re-launch growth industries likely to employ its fast growing active population. These reforms are still too slow. Tentative moves, towards tourism for instance, have been halted by the events of 11 September. The state must join the WTO and start making the customs union of the Gulf Cooperation Council a reality. Apart from the purely economic aspect, this requires a political overhaul. (Monde Arabe Maghreb/DÜI)

This commentary discusses several journalistic, literary, and historical accounts of the AIDS epidemic as it has unfolded in the United States over the past 2 decades. By examining the different ways that different types of storytellers chronicle the political, social, public health, medical, and economic aspects of epidemic disease, this essay will demonstrate why the AIDS epidemic has been of such intense interest not only to physicians and public health experts but also to journalists, novelists, playwrights, memoirists, and historians. AIDS is a particularly fascinating example of society's broad concern with epidemics because it both is a global pandemic and, in recent years, has become a chronic disease.

This paper assesses the preparation of Ghana's Poverty Reduction Strategy paper (GPRS), paying particular attention to its likely influence on the institutionalisation of anti-poverty measures in the country's political economy. After examining contextual factors, it analyses the strengths and weaknesses of the GPRS processes, including the responses of donors and the extent to which the GPRS will result from wider consultation and participation. It also examines its monitoring and informational aspects. It concludes that the process has much potential value but has also contained serious weaknesses, including poor integration into governmental decision processes, an ownership too narrowly grounded in the central government and very weak arrangements for monitoring and implementation. – PRSP ; poverty ; Ghana ; policy

Though education was not one of the policy areas underlying the formation of the European Union, today it is an established aspect of Europeanized policy making. This chapter summarizes educational policy in the EU, pointing out the characteristics that have distinguished the process of educational institutionalization during the last 30 years. It then discusses the educational programs & initiatives that were introduced in the mid-1980s & 1990s. Finally, the institutionalization process itself is examined, & trends & new policy directions are explored. In particular, it is noted that the question of national identity must be considered, as EU involvement in educational policy has caused & will continue to cause conflict among member countries & transnational political groups. K. A. Larsen

This article reviews the shaping forces in the last 30 years on Internet development. A case in point is the convergence of media, computers and telecom, of which the Internet has always been an important aspect. This historical process, which is widely recognized as at once technical , industrial and political , has been and will continue to be fiercely multi-party and multifaceted. There is a variety of technical alternatives being fought over. Different interests represent different meanings of communications technologies as well, including ideals of private profit and universal access. It is still not clear whether the future of the Internet will be like its past, or like telephone or television, or something altogether different.

This article is a study of some aspects of the non‐military response of the Menzies government to the decolonisation of the European empires and the cold war in Asia. In the mid‐1950s R.G. Casey, the Minister for External Affairs, was given responsibility by the cabinet to develop a programme of Colombo Plan ‐ educational, cultural, propaganda, intelligence and political initiatives ‐ which the Menzies government hoped would influence the outcome of the cold war in Asia. This article suggests that an examination of these government initiatives reveals some important insights into the nature of the Menzies government's understanding of and response to the revolutionary changes which swept through Asia in the decade after the Second World War.

The articulation between banality of evil and radicalising it, issued from the partly arguable lecture of Kant by Hannah Arendt, is a good approach to totalitarianism, because it shows the co-responsibility of everybody facing evil in politics. Some other texts by Arendt lead to another aspect of the relationship between annihilation and politics. Total war non only destroys what had been produced but politics itself while supposing other people's presence and a plurality of points of view, the relation all through the roman lex or the "unceasing talking" of the polis. Facing the collective identities which believe the possibility of ignoring otherness, political sympathy puts identity aside and assumes a founding plurality .

The notion that anti-immigrant and racist voting sentiment underscore mass electoral behaviour has been a familiar aspect of the British political landscape for more than a generation. Seeks to place these assumptions in the context of modern party competition. Notes that a tremendous head of steam developed surrounding the race card thesis in the period leading up to the 1997 general election. Turns to the relative absence of race card politics in 1997 and presents a range of explanations for this dog that did not bark. Concludes that substantial reworking of the race card hypothesis is now an urgent question facing academic and press commentators alike. (Original abstract - amended)