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In this forward by the Editor in Chief of Foreign Policy magazine, the author contextualizes the surprising developments in Venezuela over the past decade to counter the common wisdom about the primacy of an incompetent opposition funded by displaced Venezuelan elites as the context for an exploration of Venezuelan history and its role in the region. The particularity of Venezuelan history in the 21st century can be interpreted as either a relic of the past or a harbinger of things to come in Latin America & elsewhere in the developing world. As a model in the region, the politics of rage, race, & revenge used by Chavez to mobilize supporters are reflected in new political movements sprouting throughout the region. Their grievances all stem from their countries poor economic performance, the chronic inability of governments to deploy more effective social policies, & an intense democratization process that has enabled the emergence of new political actors capable of challenging the traditional political parties. The assumption that corruption is the single most important cause of poverty & inequality has become an impediment to political, economic, & social progress threatened the region. The Venezuelan experience serves as an example of the collateral damages caused by ineffective, misguided & bankrupt war on corruption. The dominant thought that the money is there, it's just a matter of distributing it better is refuted to show the money stopped being there years ago. Whether the conclusion that "in revolutionary times stealing is more important than ideas" will be answered if Venezuela replaces real achievements with corruption, rage, & revenge to define the nation's political soul. J. Harwell

"Brief sketch of research on mass media portrayal of recent election campaigns in the United States. Most of this research involves media coverage of the 1980 presidential election campaign. The focus is on the substance of information conveyed by mass media stories and on the research methods used to assess the substance of coverage. The general discussion is followed by an analysis of the substance of coverage of the 1980 presidential election by the New York Times. In the paper, 1980 findings are compared to findings from prior elections, particularly the 1976 election. All findings about mass media coverage of presidential campaigns are based on the author"s previous research and involve use of the same type of detailed coding methods. The validity of such content analysis findings, based on well-established research techniques and routines used by most other researchers, is then questioned. Do the usual content-analysis techniques yield adequate information about media content? Do they give a wholly accurate, partially accurate, or totally inaccurate picture? To answer these questions, the paper reports findings from a content analysis of New York Times stories of the 1980 election done through the technique of 'assertion' coding. The results of traditional content analysis and assertion content analysis are then compared. The findings clearly demonstrate the shortcomings of current content analysis methods. They also suggest the direction in which current research findings need to be modified to present a more accurate picture of mass media protrayal of election campaigns." (author's abstract)

"Sino-Vatican diplomatic relation was established in 1924 but was formally cut in 1951 with the expulsion of the Papal Nuncio Archbishop Riberi from China (Chen/Jiang 2003, 162-276). With Mao Zedong's emphasis an dass struggle and his intolerance toward ideological issues, religious idealism in China, including Catholicism, had to give way to the dialectical materialism of Marxist-Leninism and Maoist thought. Also Vatican represented a dass which Mao aimed to get rid of. Only after Deng Xiaoping initiated the modernization policy in 1978 and China began to merge from its isolation was there a possibility for a dialogue, with the view of establishing a Sino-Vatican Concordat. In the context of Vatican's Ostpolitik with Communist states, in 1981, Cardinal Casaroli, then Secretary of the State of the Vatican, made the first overture to China, aiming at normalizing the relationl. China frowned upon the Vatican's unilateral appointment of Bishop Dominic Deng Yiming in 1982, a released prisoner of conscience after 22-years imprisonment as the Archbishop of Guangzhou. By Beijing's order, contact had been temporaries suspended for a short while as retaliation. However, informal contact between the Vatican and China was resumed shortly thereafter, and progress was made. In November 1987, Zhao Ziyang, then Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), met Cardinal Jaime Sin of Manila in Beijing and they agreed to have their aides-de-camp threshing out more details to initiate formal Sino-Vatican negotiation. The meeting gave hope for heralding a new dawn in the Sino-Vatican rapprochement. Twenty years have passed (1987-2007). Since then, it seems the sun has set on the prospects for further dialogue, and that no rapprochement can be imagined for the near future. The change in the political landscape in the international arena and within China added new factors to the SinoVatican negotiation, including the Hong Kong issue. When old problems of appointing bishops have not been resolved, two new requests from Beijing add difficulties to the complexity of the negotiation. These are 1) the transference of the ecclesiastical power of administration to the civil authority in local dioceses and 2) demanding the Vatican to validate appointed bishops. Above all, the tensed Catholic-government relations in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) is among other factors which caused international attention and it should prompt Beijing and the Vatican to reconsider serious about the dormant negotiation. This article aims at discussing 1) the role played by Hong Kong in the Sino-Vatican relations vis-ä-vis in the revival of the Chinese Catholic Church, and 2) the conflicting Catholic and government relations in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The research Eindings reflect on Hong Kong's political participation as viewed from the perspectives from China and the Vatican might throw some light on the Hong Kong Factor in the Sino-Vatican negotiation." (author's abstract)

"This article examines the potentials and limitations of enhancing a teaching- and learning-based profile at a young, middle-sized university in Germany. The current development of the German higher education system points towards an increasing separation of the teaching function and the research function at universities. This separation might lead to a steady decline of the importance of teaching and learning. In a growing national and international competition for reputation and resources, universities seem to focus primarily on their research function today. Given this situation, the author wants to contribute to answer the question, how a better balance between a university's teaching function and its research function can be achieved. He assumes that it is necessary and useful to enhance a university's teaching- and learning-based profile in this regard. The article aims to explore under what conditions and in which way young, middle-sized universities can establish and enhance a teaching- and learning-based profile. This question should be answered with a qualitative study at University Kassel. University Kassel represents the case of young, middle-sized universities in Germany, with little chances to succeed in the competition for research 'excellence', and no ambition to become a pure 'teaching institution'. The empirical study was conducted according to the principles of the Grounded Theory. The data for the study was collected with seven expert interviews with representatives from the university's faculties and the university management, mainly administration, respectively. The method of Theoretical Sampling was used to select the experts, the data was collected according to the principle of Theoretical Saturation, and it was analysed with a five-step coding process." (Text excerpt, IAB-Doku) ((en))

"The author sets out to explain the European Union's military operations in Africa. Are they, he asks, humanitarian responses to alleviate human suffering at the other end of the world? And are they intended to react to an increasing number of internal conflicts before their sheer number and scope turn into a global risk? Burckhardt analyses the international role of the EU as great power versus civilian power by looking at the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP), and the EU missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2003 and 2006 in particular. He argues that the activities of the EU can best be explained in the framework of realism and by considering the EU as a great power since it intervenes to gain prestige - and not to alleviate misery and stop serious violations of human rights. Thus, Burckhardt concludes, the EU undertakes military intervention to serve first and foremost its own concerns and not acting out of humanitarian concerns. With regards to global risks, it seems that the EU uses situations that are commonly perceived as (global) risks, i.e. deadly internal conflicts in Africa, to put forward its own interest in strengthening its status as a great power. This behaviour, in turn, can lead to the emergence of other, new risks: less cooperation with other actors such as the UN and hence a weakening of multilateral institutions, arbitrary (non-)reaction to or disregard of situations in which reaction is really needed (e.g. Darfur), and over-emphasis of military responses to international threats to the detriment of preventive measures and international law." (extract)

"The second contribution in this part deals with a completely different but highly topical risk. By switching focus from state actors to private actors, Joris Larik searches for ways to curtail the currently largely unfettered power of multinational corporations. With yearly turnovers that sometimes exceed the gross national product of states and corresponding political influence, such corporations not only theoretically can, but in the past repeatedly have, created detrimental effects for states and individuals in their sphere of operations. On the other hand, viable international solutions to subject multinational corporations to international rules and obligations comparable to those applicable to states are missing, except for voluntary partnerships like the UN Global Compact introduced by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan or efforts to make human rights obligations applicable to multinational corporations. Larik therefore explores possibilities to extent the applicability of international criminal law to legal persons such as corporations. Instead of interpreting a given treaty, the author shows how often-mentioned theoretical 'stumbling blocks' such as establishing a corporation's criminal intent (mens rea), corporate complicity, and means of punishment for corporations can be overcome. He demonstrates that all three issues are not irresolvable and that international criminal law bears the potential to give remedy to victims not only to crimes committed by states and individuals but also by multinational corporations. Only in extending the scope of international criminal law to multinational corporations, Larik argues, can the former live up to its role not only as a means to punish but also to protect." (extract)

"Zahlreiche Studien belegen, dass Jugendliche und junge Erwachsene türkischer Herkunft auf dem deutschen Arbeitsmarkt in besonderer Weise benachteiligt sind. Der Beitrag untersucht vor diesem Hintergrund, ob hierfür neben den formalen Bildungsqualifikationen weitere gesellschaftsspezifische Kapitalien verantwortlich sind. Während die assimilationistische Perspektive in diesem Zusammenhang vor allem einen Mangel an zentralen Ressourcen und Fertigkeiten des Aufnahmelandes vermutet, wird im populären Konzept der Segmented Assimilation betont, dass unter Umständen gerade die Pflege eigenethnischer Kapitalien und Orientierungen ein Rezept gegen den strukturellen Misserfolg bilde. Die beiden Grundpositionen und die verwandte multikulturalistische Perspektive werden in diesem Beitrag abgegrenzt und mit Daten des Sozioökonomischen Panels überprüft. Danach sind für die Arbeitsmarktprobleme junger Türkinnen und Türken vor allem mangelnde Deutschkenntnisse und eine mangelnde Einbindung in Netzwerke der Aufnahmegesellschaft verantwortlich, während eigenethnische Kapitalien weder einen Ersatz darstellen noch einen zusätzlichen Nutzen versprechen. Die Bedingungen des deutschen Arbeitsmarktes scheinen also weitgehend den in der assimilationistischen Perspektive vermuteten zu entsprechen." (Autorenreferat). Die Untersuchung enthält quantitative Daten.;;;"Many studies show that second generation Turks face specifically severe disadvantages in the German labour market. In this paper the author analyses whether, besides formal education, a lack of country-specific capital may account for this fact. While an assimilationist approach would regard several host-country specific resources and skills as necessary for labour market success, the popular concept of Segmented Assimilation argues that, in contrast, under certain conditions it is ethnic capital and orientations that may advance it. The paper delineates both positions as well as the related concept of multiculturalism and tests their empirical relevance using data from the German Socio-economic Panel (GSOEP). It turns out that the labour market problems of young Turks can be explained by a lack of German language proficiency and low access to German social networks, while ethnic capital neither compensates for host country specific capital nor promises any additional gain. The conditions of the German labour market thus seem to correspond largely to the assimilationist perspective." (author's abstract).

The relationship between global war & global social unrest is investigated in the recent empirical research by Arrighi & Silver to argue that there has indeed been an intimate link that is traceable back to the late 18th century age of war & revolution in the Atlantic world, & a speeding up of social history that is visible from one world hegemonic transition to the next. The author draws on empirical research on the world historical dynamics of labor unrest to describe the cycle of war & labor unrest that characterized the first half of the 20th century. Comparative analysis of the transition from Dutch to British world hegemony in the late 18th & early 19th century to the transition from British to US world hegemony in the late 19th & early 20th century a reveals the recurrence of a "a vicious cycle" in both transitions, as well as the increased scale, scope, & speed of the cycle. The implications of these past patterns for understanding the dynamics of war, world politics, & social conflict are related to the theory that the role of aggressive new powers seeking to dominate their neighbors has lessened from transition to transition, whereas the role played by the declining hegemon attempting to cement their slipping preeminence into an exploitative hegemony, has increased. The intuitive response of mass social protests to US attempts to convert declining hegemony into empire through military force suggest particular points of strategic bargaining power for movements. The hope is that actors & global protesters will change the course of the United States, & facilitate a relatively smooth transition from the decaying hegemonic order to a more peaceful & equitable world order. References. J. Harwell

To place the Marxist observation that ". the country that is more developed industrially only shows the country that is less developed, the image of its own future" in its proper context requires reading the preface to that phrase that "social antagonisms that spring from the natural laws of capitalist production (of)." Read in this way, the incompleteness of the development of capitalist production that Marx noted throughout the European continent can be applied to "signs of the times" in Latin America. The author explores three aspects of the internal reorganization of the state in Latin America, & the evidence of an emphatic turn across the region to the systematic pursuit of international competitiveness & the opening up of a new phase of class struggle. Competition authorities have proliferated across the region over the last decade, reflecting a fundamental reorientation in the political economy of the region. Current hyperactivity around the issue competitiveness is demonstrably a reaction to the "palpable evidence" of rapid development in East Asia, & the poor performance of the region. The international organizations are engaged in a shared project of building "competition cultures" at global & regional levels. The current projects of "market led development based on international competition" in Latin America goes beyond the adjustment oriented policies promoted by the IMF to internalize at a national level the logic of capitalist reproduction & hegemony. US empire in the region is concluded to be part of the rivalry between the advanced capitalist countries that extends the social relations of capitalism across the multiplicity of nation-states. Imperialism, it turns out, is the pioneer of capitalism after all. References. J. Harwell

Der Beitrag berichtet über die Ergebnisse zweier Studien, die den Zusammenhang zwischen staatsbürgerlichen Wissen und zivilgesellschaftlichen Orientierungen - hauptsächlich die Einstellung gegenüber Fremden - näher untersuchen. In der ersten quasi-experimentellen Studie wird den Effekten von kognitiven Komponenten (Wissen) auf die (politischen) Einstellungen (Attitüden) in ihrer Varianz vom Alter bei Adoleszenten nachgegangen, während die zweite Studie mittels einer Befragung von Schülern die Korrelation zwischen schulischer Leistung und den Einstellungen untersucht. Beide Studien zeigen, dass staatsbürgerkundliches Wissen nur eine geringe Rolle bei der Entwicklung einer toleranten Einstellung gegenüber Ausländern spielt. Die geringe Relevanz der traditionellen staatsbürgerkundlichen Erziehung erzwingt für den Autor eine grundsätzliche Revision der Ziele und Curricula politischer Bildung. (ICA). Die Untersuchung enthält quantitative Daten. Die Untersuchung bezieht sich auf den Zeitraum 2002 bis 2004.;;;Different ways in which school may affect adolescents' attitudes are briefly addressed, with a particular focus on the acquisition of knowledge. After that, some empirical findings are presented that shed light on the role which knowledge may play in the formation of tolerance in the political and social domain. ... In the following... two examples, taken from the research, that address the relationship between civic knowledge and civic orientations, namely concerning attitudes towards foreigners [are presented]. In the first study, an experimental intervention is used to examine the effects of knowledge on attitudes, while checking for spurious associations due to age-graded changes in both variables. Based on a larger set of questionnaire data collected in schools, the second study examines correlations between knowledge and attitudes depending on the students' grade levels. [The author concludes], if knowledge has any effect on tolerance, this seems to be mainly the case among students in the higher-grade levels. It has to be noted that the research presented could contribute to [the] thinking about civic socialization in school, but it falls short of providing conclusive evidence. More research is needed before arriving at a solid judgment on information-based civic instruction as a way to foster students' tolerance. (DIPF/orig.).

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.).

Der Beitrag behandelt die theoretische Erklärung und empirisch feststellbare Bedeutung des Einreisealters für die Entstehung einer (kompetenten) Bilingualität. Im Hintergrund steht die theoretisch nahe liegende, aber umstrittene Hypothese, dass bestimmte soziale Bedingungen, die den Erwerb der einen Sprache fördern, den der anderen behindern, etwa weil sich im Alltag die entsprechenden Sprachumwelten räumlich, zeitlich und sozial meist deutlich verteilen. Beim Einreisealter kommt die - ebenfall umstrittene - Hypothese hinzu, dass es eine "kritische Periode" des Spracherwerbs gebe. In dem Beitrag wird ein theoretisches Modell für den Zweit- und Erstspracherwerb entwickelt und anhand von Daten des Sozio-Ökonomischen Panels empirisch untersucht. Die beiden wichtigsten Ergebnisse sind, dass es zum einen in der Tat einige Bedingungen des Spracherwerbs gibt, die den Erwerb beider Sprachen gegenseitig behindern, und dass das für das Einreisealter in einem besonderen Maße zutrifft, und zum anderen, dass es eine deutlich erkennbare "kritische Periode" beim Zweitspracherwerb gibt (etwa ab 13 Jahre). Die Entstehung der (kompetenten) Bilingualität wird damit von zwei Seiten her erschwert: Ein zu niedriges Einreisealter behindert den Erstspracherwerb, ein zu hohes den Zweitspracherwerb. Die praktische Schlussfolgerung für die Förderung der Bilingualität ist damit die möglichst frühzeitige Ermöglichung interethnischer Kontakte für den simultanen Zugang zu verschiedenen Sprachumgebungen in der Periode der höchsten Lernfähigkeit. (DIPF/Orig.).;;;"This contribution deals with the theoretical explanation and empirically observable impact of the age at immigration on the development of (competent) bilingualism. What is behind this, is the obvious, however also controversial, hypothesis that certain social conditions that foster the acquisition of one language impede the acquisition of the other one. This may be due to the fact that the respective day-to-day language environments often differ in terms of space, time and also socially. In addition, with regard to the age at immigration the - also controversial - hypothesis becomes important that there is a 'critical period' in language acquisition. In this article the author develop a theoretical model of second and first language acquisition and investigate it empirically with data of the socio-economic panel. The two most important results are that, first there are indeed certain conditions that mutually impede the acquisition of both languages and that this is especially true for age at immigration as one of these conditions, and second, that there is a clearly identifiable 'critical period' in second language acquisition (starting at about the age of 13). The development of (competent) bilingualism is thus hindered from two sides: a too low age at immigration obstructs first language acquisition whereas a too high age obstructs second language acquisition. The practical conclusion for enhancing bilingualism is then to allow for interethnic contacts at an early stage in order to provide simultaneous exposure to different language environments during the period when learning aptitude is highest." (author's abstract).

"The question at hand seems relatively simple and straightforward: whether and to what extent the protection and promotion of human rights is necessary for efforts to address conflict and build peace. The issue has been much debated over time. The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights forcefully associated the protection of human rights with the prevention of violent conflict, stating that 'it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law' (UN 1948, preamble). Yet in 1996, an anonymous author in Human Rights Quarterly accused the international human rights movement of prolonging the war in Bosnia Herzegovina. There, human rights activists had rejected pragmatic deals that could have ended the violence and, from hindsight, were no worse than the eventual agreement in rewarding ethnic cleansing and aggression. In that author's view, it made 'today's living the dead of tomorrow' by pursuing a perfectly just and moral peace that would bring 'justice for yesterday's victims of atrocities' (Anonymous 1996, 259). Since then, the idea that the normative nature of human rights standards may complicate the practical demands of peacemaking has been a recurrent theme in discussions on the relationship between human rights and efforts to address violent conflict. This is especially the case when the latter is conceived of in terms of conflict settlement or resolution. Questions of definitions and objectives are thus key. Also relevant are the time frame, context and level of intervention one focuses on, though few authors on the subject make this explicit. In addition, narrow perceptions and generalizations abound in this debate as people working on human rights, peace and conflict have been grouped into categories of 'human rights activists' and 'conflict resolvers' as if these were homogenous and coherent clusters of actors. In this chapter, the authoress argues that considering human rights and conflict transformation in conjunction deepens one's analysis of what is involved in moving from violence to sustainable peace. It is informed by the idea that the two fill 'gaps' in one another, in that each contributes to a better understanding of the other by highlighting elements that are relatively under-explored in the theory and practice of each separate field. For conflict transformation, which will be the main focus here, the perspective of human rights forces a greater emphasis on structural conditions, especially the role of the state, systems of governance and issues of power in generating, escalating and transforming violent conflict. Considering human rights in relation to conflict transformation, moreover, highlights the need to employ a holistic, multidimensional understanding of human rights that does not reduce them to their legal foundations. This chapter suggests that conflict transformation, because of its explicit grounding in social justice, and hence inherently normative foundation, may provide a more nuanced and fruitful conceptual space for thinking about human rights, conflict and peace than conflict resolution and conflict management. Placing constructive social change at its core, conflict transformation acknowledges the need for addressing power imbalances and recognizes a role for advocacy and the importance of voices that challenge the status quo. Its concern with direct, structural and cultural violence is thus also highly relevant from a rights perspective. In order to place these ideas in context, the chapter will briefly comment on literature that has been published on human rights and approaches for addressing conflict and building peace (section 2). Section 3 proposes a framework for understanding the relationship between human rights and conflict transformation, using the metaphor of an iceberg, with its graphic image of things visible connected to matters unseen. It also introduces four dimensions of human rights that need to be taken into account in processes to build a just and sustainable peace. Section 4 discusses some of the practical implications of adopting a human rights perspective on conflict transformation. Nepal, South Africa, and other countries where the authoress has worked over the past 15 years, are used as illustrative examples throughout sections 3 and 4. Finally, section 5 concludes and points to some areas for further research." (excerpt)