Suchergebnisse

THE PRINCIPAL CONCERN OF THIS STUDY IS POLITICAL PARTICIPATION BY INDIVIDUAL CITIZINS, RATHER THAN BY PROFESSIONAL POLITICAL ELITES OR INTEREST GROUPS. THE FOCUS IS PLACED ON THE AVERAGE CITIZEN IN EACH NATION. THIS ANALYSIS OF MASS POLITICAL PARTICIPATION INVOLVES THREE MAJOR ASPECTS: TYPES OF POLITICAL ACTIVITIES, THE CONDITONS UNDER WHICH THESE ACTIVITIES TAKE PLACE, AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE AS A WHOLE.

The article discusses the conceptual and methodological challenges of comparative economic history, focusing on recent debates concerning alternative pathways of development in Europe and Asia, the agricultural systems of early modern England and the lower Yangzi region in China, and the historical demography of Eurasia. The article concludes that such debates support the perspective that there is substantial path dependency and contingency in economic history and that alternative development paths can be discerned across and within Europe and Asia.

THE PROMOTION OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IS AN IMPORTANT FOREIGN POLICY GOAL FOR THE U.S. GOVERNMENT, WHICH HAS BEGUN TO RESPOND TO PUBLIC CONCERNS ABOUT RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN VARIOUS PARTS OF THE WORLD. IN FURTHER DEVELOPING ITS POLICY RESPONSES, WASHINGTON SHOULD EXPAND ITS CONCERNS, ACKNOWLEDGE THE COMPLEXITY OF THE PROBLEM, HIGHLIGHT THE HUMAN RIGHTS APPROACH, AND WORK WITH NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS, ESPECIALLY RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES.

It is a settled principle of Soviet constitutional law that the USSR Supreme Soviet is the supreme representative organ, the supreme legislative body, and the supreme executor of the people's sovereignty. The 1936 Constitution subordinates all other organs of government to the Supreme Soviet, and it alone, on the national level, has the right to form governments, pass laws, and amend the Constitution. The Constitution also stipulates, however, that the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is "the vanguard of the workers in their struggle for the construction of a communist society and constitutes the guiding core of all workers' organizations, public as well as governmental."