Suchergebnisse

The countervailing forces in French administration

French administration is shaken by opposing forces which have to be articulated rather than distinguished, since a distinction would contribute to shaping them into two separate realities put side by side, but one incapable of explaining the other. With this in view, the author researches an explaining principle and the components for a theoretical model showing the reasons why French administration is committed to play an active political part on account of the more or less obvious functions it has to assume in the French political System and also by reason of its relations with the social body, the economic System, and what the author calls the 'French cultures' (meaning the cultural System).

France and American policy as regards the security of Europe, by Pierre Lellouche
After other European countries, France now knows its debate on the defence and future security of Europe. The debate originated from a noted decline of American nuclear guarantee. This noted decline has not strained relations between Paris and Washington, as is the case for Germany. Nevertheless the diminishing credibility of America, even though it confirms the policy of independent dissuasion, followed since General de Gaulle, worries the French confusedly by reason of its effects on the security of our neighbours, Germany in particular. Thus the reason for the present debate on the probable increased role of France in matters of European defence.

This paper gives some solutions concerning the maximum available electrical power by a passive network from an active one, where the optimality conditions given by C. A. Desoer cannot be realized, for physical reasons. The theory given in this paper mainly concerns the distribution and subtransmission power systems.

The CCEI works upon energy (1976-1977): the reasons and the lessons of a failure by Francois Bujon de l'Estang
In 1976, the CCEI appeared as an innovation of historical importance: it escaped the UN universalist yoke calling together, in a concern for efficiency, only 27 States. This product of the 1973-1974 oil crisis was going to serve for the first time as a frame for an international debate upon the world energy crisis. The reasons of the failure of this first attempt of an international dialogue upon energy are various and imbricated. They are the results of the circumstances in which the CCEI was created and the consequence of the nature of the main topic of the debate and of the chosen procedure. Furthermore, the industrialized countries were unprepared to such a big world economic bargaining, reachable aims having even not been precised. This explains why the conference found itself in a dilemma. But it could nevertheless give some important lessons which may be useful today to the dynamics which have been now revealed.

Summing up
Dean Favoreu first of all reviews the topics discussed at the symposium with particular reference to the problem of defining this new form of administration — of parallel administration — which, in his opinion, needs to be set alongside local, departmental or regional administration — the situation in Provence being a case in point. What is more, such a definition has the effect of sanctioning the need for this type of intervention. Lastly, it would appear impossible to State to what extent this parallel administration encourages or hinders decentralisation.
In his analysis of the features of this new form of administration, Dean Favoreu draws attention to the fact that this is an administrative System which duplicates the traditional administrative machinery and which has temporary and sometimes even clandestine features. This new administration is also of an experimental nature. And lastly, it is a foretaste of things to come. This new form of administration is the result of technological necessity (meaning in most cases the need for efficiency), financial reasons, of which the most important is surely that of overcoming the constraints of public accountability, psychological reasons (the new form of administration being generally better accepted) and lastly, political reasons, in particular promoting the grouping together of communes. Dean Favoreu goes on to examine the legal forms adopted by this new form of administration and concludes by listing the consequences arising from the use of such structures. He seems to see emerging a form of administration with tangled, overlapping areas of competence, often not subject to any law, and symptomatic of the dilution of responsibility. However, he feels that, in the last analysis, the drive and energy of this new form of administration should enable one to overlook its inevitable shortcomings.

Barbara Rogulska. — Plan Fulfilment and Wage Policies in Poland (1950-1975).
The author's initial premise is that the problem of formulating the plan and subsequently fulfilling the targets set forth is not an expression of economic know-how, but rather a reflection of the political economy and even beyond that of the relationships that govern the society. For this reason an assessment of wage policies and of the levels of fulfilment of planned targets over a period of twenty five years (1950-1975) appears apt to yield significant findings.
The first part is devoted to an analysis of the wage bill: the magnitude of wage funds and of individual nominal and real remunerations, covered by successive five year plans. Two levels of effectiveness come under consideration here — that of direct effectiveness in relation to the plans and that of final effectiveness in terms of the wage policies enacted. A rather low direct effectiveness was noted along with constant tendencies concerning real wage plans and an increase in the wage funds over and above planned levels. The same is true of indirect effectiveness.
In view of this, the following questions are examined: can the non-fulfilment of wage plans be explained by errors in planning and management? For example, by over-spending in relation to the plans for investment or by productivity levels that are below par — reasons, among others, commonly proposed by economists in the Eastern countries. Or should more basic reasons be sought, such as elements residing within the characteristics of the system itself or the conflict of interests inherent to it?
The conclusion leans towards the latter alternative succeeding a refutation of why the difficulties may not be attributed to errors and that the errors, therefore, are consecutive to the logic of the system.

The Historian and the Current Rediscovery of Festivity.

The author examines the reasons underlying the recend rediscovery of festive celebration as both a collective social need and an object of historical study. Can the historian be of any use to today's social worker or community leader in their search for models and references ? While perhaps not, such dialogue is useful, serving to clarify the issue at hand.

Apology for an Ambiguous Italy, by Sergio Romano
In Italy, foreign policies emanating from society coexist with that emanating from the State. Despite Unification, regional and "ideological" foreign policies still exist. Catholics are sympathetic to Italy's Mediterranean role whereas the Northern Italian industrial "bourgeoisie" is strongly European and pro-Western for economic and cultural reasons. Two greats currents of post-Risorgimento diplomacy have conditioned the foreign policy of the Italian government: a feeling of insecurity and a desire to affirm the role and the originality of Italy in the world. The feeling of insecurity pushes Italy to seek the protection of a powerful partner: Germany, the United Kingdom and, after 1945, the USA. The Italian government must also try to reconcile the foreign policies of its society and this explains the permanent interaction between foreign and domestic policies. But, due to the pluralism of its protagonists, Italy is much more present on the international scene than its size and political importance would warrant. The ideal world for Italian diplomacy is one in which no one moves, where its allies do not try to impose on it coherent choices. For this reason, the suggestion found in the report of the four institutes on "Western Security" that Italy only participate for Mediterranean problems is dangerous as it would oblige Italy to express only part of its history and aspirations.

Silence as Violence in Traditional Sicily

Omertà, or the law of silence, which we associate nowadays with the Mafia, was formerly a traditional peasant response to the violence they endured collectively or as individuals. The author underlines the reasons for the emergence of this peculiar form of aggression — «silence» — and its consequences on the antagonism between the peasants — «the berets» — and the landowners — «the hats» — with the help of six allegorical stories (parità) collected among the peasants of eastern Sicily by S. A. Guastella and published in 1884.

No general solution to the Fredholm integral equation of the first kind is known : each integral kernel needs its own method of solution. In addition to this difficulty, several common kernels originate improperly-posed problems, because the solutions for these kernels are unstable. This instability occurs, for instance, when the kernel is given by the Fermi-Dirac, the Bose-Einstein or the Boltzmann laws, but does not occur when the kernel is any unitary matrix describing a change of representation in quantum mechanics. The physical ultimate reasons for these different behaviours are discussed.

Societies, here and way out.

This paper attempts to show a small rural society of the Pyrénées' piedmont, undergoing demographical and economical crisis, protects itself against the external, urban and national society; what it tries to keep under its control, how and to what extent it succeeds.
The reasons why the two societies (local and external) oppose each other are to be found in the different finalities assigned to space: the peasants use it for production, the townsmen for enjoyment. Until now, a balance has been kept ; but for how long?

Nostalgia for Europe, by François Gorand
The political situation in Central Europe and the Balkans is not at a standstill. At the present time, they seem to be experiencing two simultaneous crises, one conjunctural, récurrent in character, and resulting from stale government and deteriorating economie conditions. The other is more profound, and centres on the relationships between the people and their regimes. The manifestations of these crises vary from country and some are only beginning. There are many reasons why Western Europe should not remain disinterested, one of which is the renaissance of a poignant nostalgia for « Europe » felt by the people in the East.

Factors affecting Social Mobility for Women in the Soviet Countryside.
This study is based on a wide range of sociological, ethnographic, and public- health literature. The author re-examines her original position that "the peasant is a man in transition", and concludes that the proposition should undergo a gender change. Soviet rural women are not being given access to technical training, in spite of official desire. Several reasons are given for this, and the author concludes that in order to achieve their maximum potential, rural women are having to leave for the cities. The situation is not likely to change unless the biological role of women is altered.