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The ethical distress of the (post)modern world stimulates and directs us to reflect our ethical and cultural grounds. Man is a transcendent being. He cannot reach or put in order immediate goods he needs if he is not prepared to acknowledge the grounds of his person and develop the virtues of prudence, love, hope, faith, wisdom, justice, courage, temperance etc. These are ethical questions concerning different worldviews and cannot be solved only by scientific methods. Many people who in the past did not care for religion as such, now take seriously religious personal and societal aspects of humane life. The fundamental crucial questions of man are ethical questions. They are in various ways related or perplexed with the question of faith and of science.

Lists the major officials of the Walloon & the French Community governments, 1981-2000.

A descriptive analysis of the concept of interest, which is considered of fundamental importance in societal life. Action arises in a situation where problems constantly exist. These problems are connected with the presence of needs that stimulate the search for solutions. One speaks of interests when the satisfaction of needs is characterized by a certain permanence & constraint so that purposeful action is necessary. AA.

Since the mid-1960s, an important change in the attitude of local Belgian authorities toward cultural infrastructure (meeting halls, public libraries, sporting accommodation, etc) has been noticed. Many state-subsidized initiatives have been taken in this area, & the role of public authorities has changed to action, rather than simply support. However, cultural policy also supposes citizen participation, which has been legally guaranteed: every ideological tendency has the right to participate in the management of public provisions in the cultural sector. To date, the amalgamation of municipalities has had no direct impact on the expansion of the cultural infrastructure. Many options were decided before the mergers, & since 1977, the economic crisis has brought other priorities. Also, the participatory structures have been reorganized on the level of the new municipalities, thus creating a greater social distance between government & citizen. Modified HA.

This paper deals with the linkage between changes in the political culture & changes in class-party alignments. First, we investigate how the political culture in Western countries has changed over time. Three views are tested using data on party-manifestos. The first predicts that only new-leftist issues will increase in salience. The second predicts that both new-leftist & new-rightist issues will emerge at the same time. The third, which is empirically corroborated, predicts that first new-leftist issues will emerge followed by a rise in new rightist issues. Second, we investigate how the emergence of these new issues has affected the traditional class-party alignments. We show that the middle class increasingly votes left-wing as new-leftist issues become more important & that the working class increasingly votes rightwing as new-rightist issues become more important. The middle class also appears to alienate from the traditional party of their class as new-rightist issues rise in salience. Tables, Figures. Adapted from the source document.

Belgium is a rare example of a centralist state that achieved federalism via peaceful means. This process, which was initiated in 1970 & is ongoing, is fundamentally provoked by the development of two subnations within the Belgian body: the Flemish & the Walloons. Elites within both these nationalist movements identified each other as allies in the struggle for federalization. The role & interaction of this alliance in the federalization process in Belgium are described. Modified HA

Belgium,, een utopie voor de XXIste eeuw`/Philippe Van Parijs --Infectieziekten: terug van (nooit) weggeweest /Marc Van Ranst --Acculturatie is meer dan 'willen' alleen: de rol van emotionele acculturatie /Batja Mesquita --Wanneer worden avances in juridisch opzicht transgressies? /Liesbet Stevens --Asbestos: mineralen met een apart verhaal /Jan Elsen --Over tijd, geld en de huwelijksmarkt /Frederic Vermeulen --De impact van migratie op taal: historische overwegingen /Freek Van de Velde --Geluk, mindfulness en bijbelse wijsheid /Bénédicte Lemmelijn --Het menselijk antwoord op buitenaards leven /Leen Decin --Het gelaat tussen beeld en werkelijkheid: maatschappelijke uitdagingen /Constantinus Politis & Hilde Peeters --On the move: migratie als maatschappelijke uitdaging /Johan Wets --Iedereen supporter! het groepsvirus in ons brein /Filip Boen --Uitgewoonde woorden: over literatuur en dementie /Pieter Vermeulen --Het democratisch surplus van de Europese Unie /Steven Van Hecke & Wouter Wolfs.

The present article presents an actual discussion of topics concerning the use of language in academic (Flemish and Dutch-speaking) social- and political education, treating impact factor and web of science indexes motivating publishing in English, and the weight of cultural and scientific heritage influencing Dutch-language publications to continue to inform the public better. The article states that only by continuing to publish in English, Anglo-Saxon "dominance" in political publications can be countered, and challenge the ideas, concepts and practices expressed by the US and the UK. An article that goes right to the core of this particular revue, Res Publica being the only Dutch-language double blind peer reviewed journal in Dutch/Flemish political science. References. O. van Zijl

The development of a sense of national belonging is problematic in a sociopolitical environment where children are confronted with multiple national identities. Analysis of survey data obtained from a sample of 1,000 Flemish secondary school pupils, ages 17-18, reveals that most Flemish respondents hesitated between claiming a Flemish vs Belgian identity. It is suggested that this lack of a single evident fatherland results in an absence of genuine patriotism. Also, identification with the local community takes precedence over allegiance to the nation. The political socialization process apparently does not effect an emotional attachment to either the Flemish or the Belgian political system. 10 Tables, 3 Graphs. Modified HA

Interpretive Political Science has been seen as one of the major critiques against Rational Choice Theory. This review article touches upon the main cleavage between both approaches. It goes beyond the question of rationality as such and asks, instead, what makes actions being understood as 'rational', highlighting by that the socio-cultural context of rationality and its linkage to power. These two elements can be seen as the core of interpretive approaches and they lead us, at the same time, to divergent understandings of the scientific practice that Rational Choice Theory and Interpretive Political Science respectively have. These understandings can be seen as the major difference between both paradigms. Adapted from the source document.