Suchergebnisse

SummaryThe aim of the European Court of Human Rights is to bring about a situation in which individuals are able to get effective guarantees of their rights within their national legal systems. With this in mind, the author reviews some of the recent developments in cases before the court relating to evolutionary interpretation of the provisions of the convention, the role of the separation of powers in ensuring the protection of freedoms under the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and the notion of human dignity within the convention framework. The author also considers the growing case load before the court and the need for reform and concludes by pointing out that the European system is the most effective international system yet for securing human rights protection.

The author analyzes the position of journalists at the time of elections. It turns out that they are subject to pressures by politicians, who try to use the media for their promotion. Electoral reporting is extremely & precisely regulated; it would be hard to find some other field of journalism with such clearly elaborated recommendations & rules. Nevertheless, journalists are exposed to various methods of manipulation & pressures. Legal provisions are necessary, but it is also vital to understand the laws of the journalistic profession & the media. Also important is advertising or hidden advertising. The author concludes that reporting about elections could be professionalized primarily by decreasing the influence of political parties on the media, strengthening the institutions of civil society, & permanently educating journalists. 15 References. Adapted from the source document.

In a reply to Vujevic's response to his earlier review of the latter's FTRPoliticka i medijska kultura u HrvatskojR ([Political and Media Culture in Croatia] 3PLMS 2003 1), the author points out the polemical nature of invoking fascism, communism, etc, to make rhetorical points; also notes that Vujevic fails to grasp his own nuanced thought, & that he also fails to distinguish between tolerance as a virtue of the civil society & tolerating in the sense of tacitly accepting the odious. The author takes issue with Vujevic's definition of tolerance as embracing difference rather than supporting it, & also asserts his claim that Vujevic does not analyze his own data correctly, claiming that a 38% sector of the population in favor of legally protecting political parties of various ideological stripes is a majority. 1 Table. A. Siegel

The author argues that sustainability of a global environment depends on implementation of current knowledge & capacities to manage the transition to a sustainable future. A historical account of a paradigm shift away from Baconian attitudes about nature is evidenced by international environmental conferences, but evidence shows that human's increased capacity to manage the environment has not been matched by the will to do so. The author argues that governance is our greatest challenge to manage issues such as water & food security, & that all expert sources need to adopt systemic, integrated & multi-disciplinary approaches for the transition to sustainability. Suggestions are offered for a system of governance advocating greater involvement of civil society, & the role of the UN in global commons issues. References. J. Harwell

The author argues for the importance of humor both as a part of the human condition & as particularly important to the modern condition. Humor is often seen as a low form of intellect, & the author does not deny that this may be true. But he argues that this "lowness" is not the same thing as unimportance. Indeed, he believes that it is the task of late modernity, of post-historical humanity, to focus on humor. Other eras have contributed great ideas & lofty ideals to society & to the history of humanity. They have left our age to fill in the lower intellectual strata, including those layers dedicated to humor. It would be a violation of our place in history to fail to do so. D. Knaff

Paper prepared for presentation at the national conference of the American Psychological Association, Toronto, Canada, August 2003. ; This paper was presented at the national conference of the American Psychological Association in Toronto, Canada, August 2003. The author examines three different perspectives on the military's treatment of gays during the 1990s. One perspective comes from disinterested observers in another place and time. For the purpose of alliteration, these observers are termed spacemen. A second perspective comes from the author, who works in the community of scholars, and feels the pressing need to tell a story from years past. The third perspective—and the main focus of the paper—comes from Navy officers, or sailors, who participated in three surveys that span the history of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy on gays.

The author discusses the PAN's evolution from 1994 to 2000, analyzing the party's most important transformations during that period: its electoral victories & defeats, changes in its organizational structure, & changes -- including ideological changes -- that contributed to its institutional consolidation. These changes helped it overcome the disruptive potential of Fox's candidacy, which was imposed on the party without significant costs to its internal stability. The author also discusses a crucial aspect regarding the question of how predictable was the party's victory in the 2000 presidential election, & analyzes not only the influences that affected the party's development & its degree of institutional maturity but the weight of each of these factors regarding the PAN-Fox binomial during the last six-year administration under the PRI's hegemony. Adapted from the source document.

Discusses the gradual emergence of a movement from below demanding political change since the shift to an authoritarian market economy in the 1980s; some focus on the debate over the relevance of civil society to China.

The author argues that the People's Republic of China, considering its geopolitical situation, its extensive control over the water resources of south & southeast Asia, & relatively high intelligence & educability of its population, will emerge as the dominant world power by the middle of the 2lst century. An important dimension of its international influence will derive from the fact that as a nation with a population estimated to approach possibly 1.8 billion, its highly educable & hardworking people will be able to out-produce the rest of the world at salaries unacceptable to the West. The author suggests that its power will create a new Asian hegemonic association of states, possibly including even Korea & Japan. Only internal instability can prevent it from attaining world dominance by the late 21st century. Adapted from the source document.

The article reviews pragmatic, conservative, radical, idealistic, neutral, critical, and vulgar-managerial worldview approaches to the interpretation of public relations' social role in a society wide-familiar within the theory and practice of Western countries. Sharing the American scholar James Grunig's and his colleagues' point of view on the normative theory of ethical PR, the author shows that only in case of the practical application of symmetrical (ideal) model of communication between organizations and publics, the social institute of public relations may overcome an utilitarian approach to ethics and become more effective and socially responsible. The author comes to the conclusion that application of such a symmetrical model of public relations in Ukraine will promote the democratic development and creation of a civil society in this country.

The author used a random sample of 57 cities with populations between 25,000 and 1,000,000 to predict the impact of the form of government on voter turnout in city elections, controlling for socioeconomic variables and the timing of elections. Results show that voter turnout is dependent on the form of government. Political cities have the highest voter turnout, while administrative cities have the lowest voter turnout. By comparing structural differences between cities with different forms of government, the author determined that the direct election of the mayor, the expansion of mayoral executive authority, the separation of political power between the mayor and council, and/or the full-time status of the mayor and council are likely contributors to higher voter turnout in city elections.

Parties participate in national politics that do not pretend to national presence. The author asks whether such parties affect policy outcomes and concludes that they do, albeit in unexpected ways. Basically, nonnational parties influence policy making under certain conditions by trading policy for authority. They help national parties get the policies they want in return for transfers of policy-making authority to regional governments. This willingness to support national policies with minimal amendment makes regional parties attractive partners for national parties in government. The author examines this argument in light of detailed evidence from Spain's minority Socialist and Popular Party governments in the 1990s, along with discussions of the role of regionalism in Belgian politics and of the relationship between the Scottish Nationalist Party and the Labour Party in the United Kingdom.

In this article, the author first argues that Habermas's distinction between the two modes of language use that, he alleges, are central to the two starkly different modes of human cognitive activities, that is, analytical-empirical sciences and hermeneutics, is untenable and should be eventually abandoned. For, contrary to Habermas's argument, the analytical-empirical sciences, if they are to be properly understood, must also be conceptualized as involving the performative mode of language use that Habermas thinks is characteristic of hermeneutics only. Second, by using historical examples, the author proceeds to demonstrate why Habermas's hermeneutic objectivism that is based on the methodology of rational reconstruction is doomed to remain wedded to the epistemological foundationalism that he wants to displace by introducing his methodology of rational reconstruction.

The author points out that Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) insurgents actively are pursuing a strategy to mobilize the disaffected and disposed people of Colombia, and to control the entire national territory. At the same time, he argues that no one in the national political establishment has taken the initiative to conduct an appropriate effort to deny FARC its objective. As a result, the Colombian Army has been left alone to direct the fight, without a coordinated and integrated national campaign plan or other resources that would allow for success. The author concludes that the Army has bought time, and there is still an opportunity for the United States to help Colombia deal with its insurgent threat in new ways. ; https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/1827/thumbnail.jpg

Game theory as a theory of interactive decision making formalizes the modeling of social processes by creating an analytical basis for analyzing decision making in circumstances of risks, & the actors' cooperation or noncooperation. The core concepts -- Nash & Stackelberg's equilibrium, stochastic & differential games, transferable utility, cooperative & noncooperative games -- illustrate the scope of issues in the international economy that are applicable to the game theory. The author analyzes several instances of game theory in the international economy: various national tariff policies & the creation of tariff unions; international cartels; extraction of the resources of joint property; coalitions; & international negotiations. The author presupposes a smattering of knowledge of the game theory technique; as far as possible, the analysis is carried out nontechnically. 30 References. Adapted from the source document.