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Scholars focusing on international relations generally or foreign policy decision making are now paying increasing attention to the ways in which mental constructs—ideas, beliefs, ideologies, or worldviews—affect political actors' perceptions and behavior. The influence of mental constructs in political interaction is particularly visible when actors are trying to extend interaction into new areas or to establish new modes of cooperation. This study will illuminate the impact of mental constructs in these situations by examining the development of outer space law. The Soviets' successful launch of Sputnik in October 1957 shifted outer space from the realm of science fiction and speculation to the realm of real international concerns. Governments were faced with the problem of determining not only what they wanted to do in space but also what sorts of rules for unilateral activity and mutual interaction should prevail there.

Language is a shared set of conventions for mapping meanings to utterances. This paper explores self-organization as the primary mechanism for the formation of a vocabulary. It reports on a computational experiment in which a group of distributed agents develop ways to identify each other using names or spatial descriptions. It is also shown that the proposed mechanism copes with the acquisition of an existing vocabulary by new agents entering the community and with an expansion of the set of meanings. ; The research and writing of this paper has been financed by the Belgian Federal government FKFO project on emergent functionality (FKFO contract no. G.0014.95) and the IUAP >Construct> Project (no. 20) of the Belgian government, with additional support from the external researcher program of the Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Tokyo. ; Peer Reviewed

AbstractThe concept of 'a model' usually evokes the connotation 'model of part of the real world'. That is an almost automatic response. It makes sense especially in relation to the way the concept has been developed and used in natural science. Classical operational research (OR), with its scientific aspirations, and systems engineering, use the concept in the same way and in addition use models as surrogates for the real world, on which experimentation is cheap. In these fields the key feature of a model is representativeness. In soft systems methodology (SSM) models are not of part of the world; they are only relevant to debate about the real world and are used in a cyclic learning process. The paper shows how the different concepts of validation in classical OR and SSM lead to a way of sharply defining the nature of 'soft OR'.

Exploitation has a deservedly bad reputation as an analytic concept in the social sciences. But this need not be so; a simple definition of exploitation is advanced that has a positive basis. Exploitation should be defined as the result of rent-seeking activity that results in social outcomes that are not Paretooptimal. Government, or the organization with a constitutional monopoly on the legitimate use of force, is ideally charged with balancing two competing kinds of exploitation. The first is the private exploitation of agents acting in unregulated markets where property rights are undefined and unenforced. The second is political exploitation using the powers of government itself. The ideal task of government is to minimize the total exploitative activity in the polity. Five case studies are offered as illustrations of political exploitation, and how difficult the task of balancing is.

Guy Oakes's thoughts on Max Weber's methodology are reviewed, arguing that Weber lacks a sufficient & consistent methodology. Objectivity, a problem of proper philosophical assessment of the constitution of culture, is solved by Weber by the principle of value relevance, but Oakes maintains that choosing between alternative value relevancies is a problem in itself. Objectivity in cultural studies depends on distinguishing between empirically possible value relevancies through the use of principles that must be independent of the value relevancies in question. If the solutions are not independent, the solution stems from circular reasoning. Since attempts to prove the objectivity of values have failed, Weber's methodology is suspect. It is maintained that Oakes is incorrect in suggesting that Weber was unaware of the dependence of values on valuation, but Oakes does draw attention to a fundamental problem in the social sciences. D. Generoli

The ability to conduct an investigation of a possible mine, while maintaining a low profile in an area of operations, would be significantly improved through development of a man-portable underwater remotely operated vehicle. The specifications for such a vehicle, as developed in this study, would require a level of performance which does not exist in todays small ROV's. Based on this conceptual study, however, these specifications are attainable with additional development of current systems. ROV systems in use today tend to be a compilation of subsystems from various manufacturers. This results in redundancy of items such as video displays and computers. It is possible to have separate displays and computers for the installed sonar, the ROV itself and the tracking system. The benefits of integrated development for a system such as this are obvious. ; Master of Science

The potential contributions of Afro-American women's literature to social, historical, & literary understanding are discussed, with specific focus on the value of Harriet Wilson's Our Nig & Alice Walker's The Color Purple. This literature offers unique & essential insights into the intersections between race, class, & gender, & its writers have experienced varied & overlapping forms of discrimination. For the early writers, literacy became a means of consolation through which the experience of oppression could be endowed with order & meaning. The synthesis of features from slave narratives & romantic novels in the work of both Wilson & Walker undermines the popularized belief that Afro-American women of their time were illiterate & uneducated. These works are also important in that they offer diverse depictions of the Afro-American female experience, which is too often categorized & homogenized by contemporary social science. T. Sevier

BY FAILING TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE ESSENTIAL FEATURES OF THE POLITICAL CONTEXT, ALL THREE MAJOR COMPETING APPROACHES TO DECISION-MAKING, ANALYTICAL, COGNITIVE, AND MOTIVATED, EXHIBIT SERIOUS DEFICIENCES IN EXPLAINING DECISIONMAKING BEHAVIOR IN THE POLITICAL ARENA. IN PARTICULAR, FAILURE TO UNDERSTAND THE DECISION-MAKER'S PERCEPTION OF THE CONSTRAINTS OF THE POLITICAL CONTEXT MAY RESULT IN LABELLING AS ERROR OR DISTORTION BEHAVIOR WHICH IS QUITE REASONABLE WHEN VIEWED FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THAT CONTEXT. IN ORDER TO REMEDY THESE DEFICIENCIES, PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES ABOUT DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES MUST BE COMBINED WITH THE INSIGHTS OF POLITICAL SCIENTISTS INTO THE NATURE OF THE POLITICAL PROCESS TO DEVELOP A SPECIFICALLY POLITICAL THEORY OF DECISION-MAKING. SUCH A GENUINELY INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION BETWEEN POLITICAL SCIENCE AND PSYCHOLOGY COULD RESULT IN A THEORY OF POLITICAL DECISIONMAKING WHICH TRULY BELONGS IN THE REALM OF POLITICAL COGNITION.

Eurocentric bias in three social science disciplines -- economics, psychology & social anthropology -- is compared. It is argued that in economics & psychology, metaphysical assumptions embedded in the European philosophical traditions of abstract individualism & universalism have been applied uncritically in the study of non-European societies; social anthropology is responsible for the opposite type of bias -- the maintenance of superiority through a reluctance to universalize, ie, maintaining excessive particularism. Analyzed is how the biases are manifested in each discipline & how "discipline-centrism" can exacerbate the biases. Consequences of Eurocentrism are discussed, eg: (1) it has damaged non-European societies through the "colonization" of their intellectuals; (2) it has impoverished the academic disciplines themselves, which remain unaware of alternative sources of knowledge outside mainstream development; & (3) it functions, regardless of intention, to legitimate international inequality. 34 References. Modified AA

Abstract. The assumptions of omniscient rationality and of optimizing behavior of neoclassical economics are serious flaws in that theoretical system. By imitating Newtonian mechanics, by going back to 18th century psychology and philosophy and to Benrtham's rationalism and hedonism, and by assuming the ideal world of perfect competition, neoclassical economics had to ignore its psychological dimension and thus focus on the behavior of a simple and abstract "economic man", who lacks social, ethical and political dimensions, and who is not a creature of habit, hunches, impulses, etc. The rationality postulate cannot be tested empirically and economic behavior is much too complicated to warrant use of the classical optimization techniques of Newtonian mechanics. Economics, dealing with open systems and being an evolutionary science, once again is not logically consistent with the application of classical Newtonian optimization techniques.

AbstractNomocracy is the new mode of production that is replacing capitalism. Intelligence and knowledge are replacing capital and commodity. Knowledge appears as the objectivized reflection of nature and its laws. Nature and man acquire an abstract twin in formula form, and the aggregation of formulas makes the Nomos that gradually takes one crucial role in the production process. Material production becomes a derivative of knowledge. Advances in modern sciences are making mass production into hypermass, and the market system unworkable. Scarcity of knowledge is replacing scarcity of commodities, and accumulation and concentration of knowledge displaces that of capital. A shift to knowledge production sweeps all our preconceptions of work, administration, justice, racial equality, freedom, ethics, etc. from the board. We are moving into a situation where the real material world (inclusive man) will be subordinated to the abstract Nomos.

The translation of citizen votes into legislative seats is of central importance in democratic electoral systems. It has been a longstanding concern among scholars in political science and in numerous other disciplines. Throughout this literature, two fundamental tenets of democratic theory, partisan bias and democratic representation, have often been confused. We develop a general statistical model of the relationship between votes and seats and separate these two important concepts theoretically and empirically. In so doing, we also solve several methodological problems with the study of seats, votes, and the cube law. An application to U.S. congressional districts provides estimates of bias and representation for each state and demonstrates the model's utility. Results of this application show distinct types of representation coexisting in U. S. states. Although most states have small partisan biases, there are some with a substantial degree of bias.

The question addressed by this essay is whether Thomas Hobbes is the true intellectual forebear of John Locke. A brief comparison of the teachings of these two authors with respect to natural justice and civil justice would seem to suggest that Locke is a determined adversary of Hobbes whose views on justice are reducible to the maxim that "might makes right." But a reexamination of Locke's Second Treatise shows that Locke adopts this principle with hardly less thoroughness than Hobbes. Even so, an important difference remains, for Locke takes steps to disguise the grim reality of power, whereas Hobbes makes the enlightenment of people the sine qua non of his political science. Locke's departure from Hobbes is seen as an attempt to instill in the body politic a degree of justice that would not otherwise exist.

HOBBESIAN? THE QUESTION ADDRESSED BY THIS ESSAY IS WHETHER THOMAS HOBBES IS THE TRUE INTELLECTUAL FOREBEAR OF JOHN LOCKE. A BRIEF COMPARISON OF THE TEACHINGS OF THESE TWO AUTHORS WITH RESPECT TO NATURAL JUSTICE AND CIVIL JUSTICE WOULD SEEM TO SUGGEST THAT LOCKE IS A DETERMINED ADVERSARY OF HOBBES WHOSE VIEWS ON JUSTICE ARE REDUCIBLE TO THE MAXIM THAT "MIGHT MAKES RIGHT". BUT A REEXAMINATION OF LOCKE'S SECOND TREATISE SHOWS THAT LOCKE ADOPTS THIS PRINCIPLE WITH HARDLY LESS THOROUGHNESS THAN HOBBES. EVEN SO, AN IMPORTANT DIFFERENCE REMAINS, FOR LOCKE TAKES STEPS TO DISGUISE THE GRIM REALITY OF POWER, WHEREAS HOBBES MAKES THE ENLIGHTENMENT OF PEOPLE THE SINE QUA NON OF HIS POLITICAL SCIENCE. LOCKE'S DEPARTURE FROM HOBBES IS SEEN AS AN ATTEMPT TO INSTILL IN THE BODY POLITIC A DEGREE OF JUSTICE THAT WOULD NOT OTHERWISE EXIST.