Suchergebnisse

Work on the emergence and stabilization of stratification in small groups is reviewed. The work on emergence points to three basic conditions underlying the development of stratification in small groups and raises the question as to what mechanism substitutes for some of these conditions in larger systems. Several theories are shown to offer possible solutions. The work on stabilization raises questions as to the nature of the social‐psychological processes involved. The relevance of various reinforcement and cognitive consistency theories is considered. Finally, a number of theories concerning the ways stability may be achieved in small groups and larger systems are considered.

The idea of including a right of secession in democratic constitutions has been discussed by different political and legal theorists; however, little has been said on the matter from the point of view of democratic-republican political philosophy. This article undertakes this effort by means of a normative analysis of Quebec's constitutional right of secession, as outlined in the Quebec Secession Reference. This analysis shows how the non-unilateral nature of this right minimises the risks for republican freedom (as non-domination) and inclusion in the Quebec secession conflict, while the fact that it is limited to a national constitutional framework dampens this achievement.

Two Phenomena Have Converged in recent years to account for the current interest among international lawyers in the concept of the "consensus" of states. The first is the recognition in jurisprudence that all law, and particularly the international legal system with its lack of centrally organized sanctions, is founded on inductively verifiable psychology and not in deductive principles purportedly derived from God, nature, or reason. If international law is nothing more or less than what states (national decisionmakers and their counsel) think it is, then do not particular rules of international law owe their existence and transmutations to the flow of international consensus?

Pareto isn't interested in the nature of politics but in the political society and in its equilibrium. The method he finally adopted, after some hesitations, is the one he tested in his economical and sociological research work. Analysing the changing of the elites, he stresses the importance of the minority that is in power. However the decline of an oligarchy is always concomitant with the coming up of another one. As far as Pareto's personal political stand is concerned he was neither a fascist nor a democrat but a liberal. This is revealed by a careful analysis of his works, from the first to the last of his writings.

Kunz (1973) argued that refugees are a distinct social type, whereas Coker (2004) referred to Victor Turner's (1967) influential work on liminality to highlight the inherent 'transitional' nature of a refugee's identity. It is an identity that is essentially liminal – a state characterized by ambiguity, openness, and indeterminacy. Refugees are faced with the loss of patterns that sustained previously established identities and new factors that require effective adaptation and identity transformations. The interplay between these factors results in tremendous identity struggles. Not surprisingly, identity confusion is one of the most common stressors facing refugees (Baker, 1983; Stein, 1986).

Learning about Arab culture is a dual process of unlearning the static, oversimplified views that have guided Western thought, then relearning by following a dynamic, analytical approach to a highly complex and contradictory reality ... Unlike mainstream Western scholarship, Arab critical approaches aredeeply embedded in a sense of Arab belonging and a commitment to the transcendence of the prevailing order (Barakat p.181). The intensily transitional nature of contemporary Arab society makes generalization difficult. Arab society today is neither traditional nor modem, old or new, capitalist or socialist or feudal,Eastern or Western, religious or secular; particularistic or universalistic in its cultural orientations (Barakat, p.22).

The book Great Divergence and Great Convergence: A Global Perspective is an attempt at analysis of historical process that led to current state of global socioeconomic system. Grinin and Korotayev suggest that both Great Divergence and Great Convergence are two different stages of the same process called by them Global Modernization. Authors also claim that globalization have weakened the core and strengthened the periphery of World System due to "law of communicating vessels" of global economy. The purpose of this paper is to reconstruct authors' view on nature of historical process and to present non-Marxian historical materialism as an alternative theory.

The incidence of spina bifida and anencephaly, according to reports, has declined in some parts of the world but not in others. It is suggested that social factors, greater awareness of the familial nature of these disorders coupled with the increased availability of effective contraception, may account for part of the decline and that these factors are less operative in the areas where no decline in incidence has been observed.Data are presented for 65 families living in the Manchester area, each of which contained at least one affected child. Forty of these families appeared to have been 'discontinued' after the birth of the affected child.

This article deals with the issue of educational versus social integration. It attempts to analyze the historic and social motives of the Israeli elite in delegating to education an important role in the social integration of ethnically different groups. A distinction between two main groups of factors responsible for these students' failure in school are made: (1) causes of failure directly related to a state of disadvantage; (2) causes of failure stemming from the nature of modern school. The article concludes with a discussion of the measures employed by the Israeli school system to reduce this failure and offers a set of additional measures.

The substantivist‐formalist debate over the applicability of economics to non‐Western societies may be illuminated by consideration of the nature of economic analysis. Because this analysis takes as data preferences technical production or exchange possibilities and an inventory of resources, it is shown incapable of being an exhaustive model of a society, but since these patterns interact in any human group, there is always a use for economic analysis in tracing how resources are allocated to needs, whether on a basis of maximization or of fixed targets. Applications of economic analysis to anthropologists' problems and alternative definitions of "the economy" are also considered.

Recent political events across the United States and Europe have shaken the international community. A weakened European Union, the presidential election of Donald Trump, and widespread anti-immigration sentiment indicate a decrease in support and enthusiasm for international cooperation. Countries have turned their focus inward and are emphasizing border protection and national interests above all else, at the expense of broader international concerns. The geopolitical landscape is marked by anxiety and uncertainty, as the bonds of the global community seem increasingly fragile. The nature of today's political climate led me to Stefan Zweig's autobiography, The World of Yesterday (1964).

ISRAEL IS MORE SUI GENERIS THAN OTHER POLITICAL SOCIETIES not so much in virtue of the nature of its political arrangements and postures as in virtue of what underlies them. To highlight some basic issues of Israeli politics from this point of view is to take one's cue from the most fundamental question of Jewish existence: To be like or unlike, any other nation? If Zionism prevents Israelis from distinguishing themselves in the manner in which other nations distinguish themselves from each other, a major reason is that Israel's neighbours deny her the right to realize within sovereign boundaries the resurgence of a Jewish state and nation.

Pour éclairer le débat qui s'est instauré sur la nature de la société d'Ancien Régime (société d'ordres ou société de classes ?), et donc sur la signification profonde de la Révolution française, il ne nous paraît pas inutile d'aborder le problème des survivances féodales dans la société rurale française au XIXe siècle.La féodalité abolie totalement et définitivement par le décret de la Convention du 17 juillet 1793, des survivances persistèrent cependant durant le premier XIXe siècle, parfois jusqu'à l'aube du xxe . Elles affectèrent essentiellement les pays de petite culture et de métayage, France de l'Ouest et du Sud-Ouest, où la « révolution agricole » s'affirmait difficilement.

The subject-matter of African politics has always presented a special challenge and a special problem to political scientists, namely to develop a theory which would make sense of a vast, inchoate, and unfamiliar body of material. This problem has become particularly acute in the last year or two. The rapid deterioration of African political parties, a series of military coups, recurrent crises of national unity, and heightened tendencies towards anomic and violent behaviour have not only cast doubt on previous assumptions as to the nature of African political life but have also led to a heightened mood of theoretical uncertainty among political scientists.

The traditional distinction between domestic and foreign politics, made by both decision-makers and analysts, is increasingly called into question by contemporary historical developments. The cold-war conflict and the attending mobilization of military, socioeconomic, and psychological resources by the superpowers and their allies; ventures of regional economic integration; the changing nature of the nation-state; the close connection between the conditions prevailing in the international system and the attempts made by the new states to modernize and to coalesce into viable societies—these are just a few examples of how foreign and domestic policy projects have become overlapping and perhaps entirely inseparable.