Applies theoretical, typological, conceptual, & empirical analysis to the changes within the European catch-all political parties. This article focuses on the 'crisis' of the changes in the catch-all party (Vokspartei) since the 1970s & the restructuring of the Western catch-all parties as society & the Parteienstaat, or party state, where they function. Three waves of party building are identified & four resulting types of parties are described. The author argues that O. Kirchheimer's term, 'catch-all' party has been used inappropriately since he referred only to the outgrowth of the mass-integration party. Most of the major parties in Europe are still catch-all, however, & since the 1980s, they have experienced lower levels of organization & societal penetration. Social democratic, Christian democratic, & conservative parties have adapted by becoming smaller, less structured, & more flexible in order to remain electorally competitive. The disadvantages of these changes have been their 'short-termism' & 'ad-hockery' in their programs & electoral appeal as well as their inability to socially integrate & mediate. The Spanish, Portuguese, & Greek parties that have traditionally been ad hoc mobilizers have adapted better than the more structured German SPD or the social democrats in Scandinavia. The catch-all parties are not in a crisis of legitimation, but have remained stable & have generally been able to reorganize enough consent to re-equilibrate the system. L. A. Hoffman
New agricultural biotechnologies that can design agricultural products at the molecular level are beginning to impact society in social, technical, & ethical ways without the safeguards of democratic rules & regulations. Not only can these methods transform the agrifood system, but they can alter ecosystems, the organization of agriculture, & the development, or lack of development, of Third World countries. As industries create microorganisms, plants, & animals to specifically meet human needs & desires, moral & ethical dilemmas are raised; & the expanded claims to intellectual property rights for genetic advancements could privatize plants & animals that were once public domain. Such changes could take the market of crops such as cocoa, vanilla, sugar cane, & coffee away from Third World countries; & give unprecedented power to large corporations. Most of this transformation is taking place quietly within the private sector without public awareness, input, or decision making. While claims of humanitarian reasons for increasing agricultural output are given, the taking of jobs from Third World countries leaves their peoples without the means of purchasing food & other necessities. The author details current biotechnological advances in plants, enzymes within foods, & animals. While biotechnologies could benefit society, they need to be democraticized to ensure that they are used for beneficial purposes. 1 Table. L. A. Hoffman
This article is part of the publication of contributions delivered at the 24th annual conference of the Association for Teacher Education in Europe (ATEE), held at the University of Leipzig, 30.08.-05.09.1999. "A change of perspective has taken place in teacher education: It is no longer seen as the problem-solving agent of education but rather as just another source of educational problems. In this article, the author tries to trace the roots of such a negative image. The most obvious approach is a historical one. An enormous number of attempts have been made to reform teacher education. The most important and positive among these attempts has been the academic orientation of teacher education. Yet, seen from the educationalists' perspective, there have appeared a number of traps and false conclusions, possibly due to a misinterpretation of what the role of science in education should be. The reorientation of teacher education, i. e. the turn from purely didactical and practice-oriented courses at educational colleges to mainly academically oriented courses at universities, have brought up new problems that urgently need to be solved. The author discovers major problems in the fact that the great variety of research interests have to be brought in order to make them accessible to students. Didactics which are said to be the most important of all professional disciplines for teachers need to be applied to the structure of the educational discipline as a whole. An agreement on a fundamental canon of topics, methods and knowledge is necessary. This demand is, however, not meant to minimize the range of areas of study; instead, it should rather be considered to broaden specific fields of interest in order to avoid one sided academic points of view. The still unsolved problem of theory and practice is another point to be discussed. The author's question here is: "Where should educational knowledge be grounded - in the discipline or in the profession?" As it is not possible to make a clear distinction between theory and practice but rather to distinguish between the production and the application of knowledge, a curriculum is needed where those two aspects can be put together interactively. This seems to be a solution to many unsolved problems, as it would lead to a more specified target of academic teacher education. In Germany, the academic foundations for the teaching profession are laid in the initial phase of training at university. One should be careful not to ascribe tasks to academic studies that can realistically only be part of the probational second phase of teacher education. Yet, as education needs to be perceived as an action-oriented system of reflection, a significantly stronger combination of practical school experience and theoretical reflection is needed. Ideally, there would be greater stress on the combination of observation and analysis of school work which could be a means to reflect on professional practice. Also, the didactical aspects of teacher training, which are constantly being claimed as being of major importance to teachers, need to be rethought on the level of university teaching. This is a demand going with professionality on the side of academic teachers but it is also meant as a kind of compensation for the lack of practice-related teaching. Seminars and lectures would then be turned into didactical workshops. Another field of possible improvement is seen in an intensified form of investigative learning where school research is seen as a task for both students and teachers. For matters of quality ensurance university teachers need to be willing to co-operate and start to develop ideals and criteria which can later be evaluated. But as the great day of general consent on the national level can not be expected and as new regulations only will not bring real change, innovation can alone be expected by people bearing responsibility at the basis of different universities. The financial crisis of public households should not focus an saddening thoughts an economic efficiency that keep real innovation in the minds of idealists without being ever put to practice." (DIPF/Orig.).
