Suchergebnisse

In the last decade of the Twentieth century, liberal democracy finds itself without an enemy. Argues that the crisis of the Marxist ideology reflects in the melting away of the culture of revolution; the capitalistic demonology; the utopianism thus resulting; and epithet-thinking. Liberal democracy's performance requires an ever-renewed effort. (SJK)

How can we draw the dividing line between sociol & pol'al sci? Which is the pertinent confrontation between them? Where are we to search for the distinguishing traits? It would seem that: (i) pol'al sociol is often a misnomer, for what goes under its name is often a 'sociol'al reduction' of pot; (ii) a real pol'al sociol is a cross-disciplinary breakthrough seeking for enlarged models which reintroduce as variables the 'givens' of each component source; (iii) the technical sophistication of the res methods of the sociol'st is magnified & the poverty of his conceptual framework is obscured-compare the performance of the sociol'st in the field of pot with that of pol'al sci; (iv) the growth of a real pol'al sociol is hindered by objectivist superstitons & poor causal reasoning; (v) a complete picture requires a joint assessment of the extent to which instit's are dependent variables reflecting soc stratification & cleavages, &, vice versa, of the extent to which these cleavages reflect the channelling of a structured party system. It is an extra-ordinary paradox that the soc sci's should try to explain pot by going beyond pol-looking for the 'invisible hand.' Rather, the sociol'st should catch up with the hazardous uncertainties of pot. IPSA.

The majority of students of politics admit that, for pol'al sci to become a sci in reality, it must divorce itself from value judgments. The 3 Sch'ls of thought which uphold such a viewpoint are: (1) the historicism of Max Weber, which, however, ignores the fact that he was a historian rather than a student of politics, & that value judgments are not a problem for historians, (2) logical positivism & analytical philosophy & (3) the tendency of students of politics to erroneously envy the exact sci's. In fact, this detachment with regard to value judgments indicates that the pol'al sci'st is 'neutral' so far as the situations which he analyzes are concerned. This neutralism leads to an apparently conservative & passive attitude on the part of the pol'al sci'st & tends to encourage subversive & nihilistic elements. The more we try to be liberal with regard to values, the more we open the way to 'historical fatalism.' In the long run, 'objectivity' will ruin the foundations of our civilization, & other values will be introduced. We must therefore be careful not to overestimate 'factualism.' Tr. by J. A. Broussard from IPSA.

2 distinctions ought to be made: (a) Regarding electoral studies, attention may be focused mainly (I) on fact finding, or (ii) on meaning, as the question 'what happens at elections' may be quite diff from the question 'what is the role played by elections in the operation of a democratic system'. (b) If we are interested in (ii), then a 2nd distinction is needed, as the answer to this question is strictly dependent from the type of theory we are dealing with [(i) an empirical type of democratic theory, or (ii) a rationalist type of theory]. This distinction is far reaching, because it is especially in the framework of the rationalist approach that electoral foundations & legitimacy play key roles; in this context the 'meaning' of elections is held to provide the bridge that lets us refer the Greed formula of democracy, cherished by Rousseau, to the ideals & practices of the modern solution. It might also be stressed that electoral studies would become more meaningful if they could cover this aspect of the electioneering process: the part that is played not 'by' pol'al parties, but 'within' parties. We know quite a lot about how people vote, but still very little on why & how candidates are chosen. The main problem seems to be whether, in nominating, the party considers the fact that electors might have preferences of their own. AA-IPSA.

Vengono sintetizzate le criticità emergenti legate alle dinamiche di cambiamento della biodiversità nelle foreste del Veneto anche esaminando i dati delle politiche forestali degli ultimi decenni e delle trasformazioni di boschi e foreste di montagna, collina e pianura conseguenti all'abbandono colturale e ad iniziative locali di contrasto alle alterazioni del paesaggio forestale, di miglioramento ambientale ed estetico e di difesa della biodiversità forestale e naturalistica dei territori del Veneto. Seppur in un confronto europeo l'Italia è forse uno degli stati più virtuosi nella gestione del patrimonio boschivo, sia in termini di risparmio di biomassa (35% di prelievo sull'incremento contro la media europea di oltre 60%) che per modalità di prelievo (è uno dei pochi stati dove il taglio a raso è vietato e, a differenza di molti paesi europei, non ammette l'imboschimento con specie esotiche), in questo approfondimento vengono esaminati gli scenari possibili di riferimento per una programmazione più mirata, incisiva ed innovativa delle politiche di tutela della biodiversità forestale del Veneto, guardando ad alcune esperienze europee volte alla tutela e valorizzazione dei boschi antichi o vetusti. Boschi e foreste si stanno espandendo nel Veneto anche in pianura: ma questo trend è frutto dell'abbandono colturale e/o conseguenza di una programmazione territoriale adeguata? Si propongono linee guida per iniziative locali di contrasto alla banalizzazione estetica ed ambientale del paesaggio e per contro di miglioramento della difesa della biodiversità forestale e naturalistica dei territori del Veneto partendo dalla tutela del patrimonio genetico dei "boschi vetusti".