Suchergebnisse

This article considers the evolution in South Africa at the end of the last century. The apartheid regime collapsed and Nelson Mandela was finally released from captivity. The authority of Mandela is so great that the next presidential elections inevitably end in a resounding victory for him and his party, the ANC. Adapted from the source document.

The Spade in de Dijk is the first synthesis on the organisation of water management in Coastal Flanders during the later Middle Ages. Based on the unique archival evidence produced by local water boards (wateringen), large landowners and local and regional authorities, Tim Soens argues for the occurrence of profound changes in coastal water management in the later Middle Ages. Water management gradually became less inclusive, investments lowered, and flood risk increased. This evolution was triggered by the social transition from a peasant society of land-owning smallholders to a society of absentee landlords and large tenant farmers.

Virtuous situations from the industrial past and some ideas for the ?climatic metropolis? to come (cases of Brussels and Paris)' compiles examples and projections that question the shape given to the city and territory at a moment of paradigm shift.00The rapid evolution of climate change is leading to a clear state of emergency that is going to redefine the values and forms of our society and its territories. Several signs of a gradual paradigm shift have appeared and citizen voices are being raised against a social model that is at odds with the environment. Looking towards the past, a fascinated reading of a city?s ability to transform itself radically when necessary, is proposed.00The change, generated by the race towards industrialization and social emancipation, forced metropolises such as Brussels and Paris to develop new urban functions and logics. This evolution took shape in territories that were not yet highly urbanized, but also within the city itself, in negotiation with the existing context. A series of 23 situations from the industrial age draws a panorama of virtuous examples, illustrating an assumed cohabitation between the urban fabric and the infrastructural, productive and energy needs at a precise moment of radical change in Paris and Brussels.00The development of the ?climatic metropolis? must imperatively be based on design values and principles capable of generating a common vision. In this perspective, we propose some ideas for reflection formalized by projects tied to the built stories from the past, outlining potential situations of a new state to come for the European city.0

An introduction that sketches a background for the essays included in the thematic section of the journal & notes the sudden rise of interest in studies devoted to electoral campaigns in Belgium & the Netherlands; an attempt is made to explain the rationale for this trend. Major publications in this field are mentioned, & three particular topics that are of special interest to scholars in political science & political communication are identified: (1) the campaigning activities & strategies of political parties & candidates, (2) the content of campaign news & debates in the media, & (3) the effects of (1) & (2) on voter's behavior & choices. The differences in the evolution of studies of election campaigns between in Belgium and the Netherlands are pointed out. Z. Dubiel

The success of Eurosceptic parties had been predicted at the European elections of May 2014. The morning after the ballot battle made it all the headlines and since then the political cards in the European arena and a number of Member States are mixed thoroughly. But the last word on this electoral success has not yet been written, on the contrary. Many questions remain unanswered. Such as: Is the result an accident the track (for the traditional parties), or part of a more stable, long-term evolution? To what extent does Euroscepticism from country to country? And what is the effect of this victory to the position of eurosceptics in the European Parliament. Adapted from the source document.

In recent years, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) have turned from military and industrial products to ordinary consumer products. Hobbyists and even children can use UAVs for various reasons, such as scouting for prey, photography or for entertainment. This evolution led us to believe that in the next decades, UAVs will evolve to a point where they can be present in our daily life. In this thesis, we present a self-contained UAV system for autonomous flight. This system contains a low-cost UAV in combination with a low-cost RGBD camera. This combination allows the UAV to localize itself using a RGBD SLAM approach. Using the localization, the UAV is capable of mapping and navigating in an unknown environment. Due to this, the UAV is able fly autonomously without further user input. The accuracy of the localization is evaluated. Furthermore, we introduce concepts in which human-UAV interaction provides useful.

In the public debate and amongst scientists anxiety prevails concerning the situation of modern parliamentary democracy regarding nearly all established of nearly democracies. The concern focuses on the electoral loss of middle parties and heavily fluctuating election results, and the rise of radical Left and Right, where words such as pallet democracy, crisis and Weimar republic are used. The author sketches the outlines of different research directions he studied regarding European politics: voter behavior; decreasing importance of the Left-Right antagonism; decreasing political faith; increasing numbers of extreme Right parties. This to study more closely the different aspects of the alleged crisis of European party democracies (do citizens have unrealistically high expectations of government; the evolution from cartel parties to campaign parties, including the growing importance of the media; lack of party representation for large groups of citizens). Foremost, the author mentions that neo-liberal economic policies of the European Union do not parallel public opinion of EU member states. Figures. O. van Zijl

We analyze the presence of a cost of ruling and/or incumbency advantage in the municipal elections in Flanders of 1988, 1994 & 2000. The empirical work concentrates on vote share evolutions of the three main parties: CD&V, Sp.a & VLD. We find evidence that being in power leads to an incumbency advantage, especially for those parties who provide the mayor. The results indicate that this electoral advantage is not uniform among parties (the socialist party appears to benefit more) and, importantly, the incumbency advantage seems to dampen over successive elections. From the perspective of the local politicians, it is important to keep in mind that this incumbency advantage at the local level was insufficient to compensate for the general trend of the major parties to lose votes at all levels of government. Indeed, even in the 1988 elections -- where a clear local incumbency (mayor) advantage could be identified for each of the three parties -- it was the case that government parties on average lost votes. Tables. Adapted from the source document.

Although the 2006 local elections can hardly be described as 'historical,' there is sufficient evidence to distinguish remarkable characteristics associated with this elections. For the first time in decades, turnout has been growing. This evolution can be explained by several factors. This article emphasizes besides the impact of changes in the electoral rules, transformations in demographic structure of the population & the stake of the elections the importance of the media campaign surrounding the elections. However, in spite of this (national) campaigns, there are more than enough indications that local politics keeps its local 'nature.' Secondly, the 2006 elections were the first ones organized after the transfer of the responsibility for municipality legislation from the federal state to the regions. This means that each region designed its own local government architecture & electoral rules. Yet, in practice, the consequences of this transformation seem to be very limited. Thirdly, & particular in the Flemish region, 'strong mayors' arose from the ballot stations (with the Antwerp mayor as the most spectacular case). The consequences of this trend will in the future be the issue of a new debate concerning the relations between council, board of alderman & mayor. Adapted from the source document.