Suchergebnisse

Zsfassung in niederländ. Sprache

Majority rule has various applications. In parliamentary theory, it intervenes at the level of relations between assembly & gov, & again, in elections. We find it in democratic theory where the majority of the people must approve decisions of the constitutional organs. Finally, it is employed in the decisionmaking process of the assemblies, & it is this aspect which forms the object of the present study. Since antiquity the majority principle has been generally observed in the decisions of deliberating bodies; but it was not until the 16th cent that it triumphed in England & France. In Switzerland up to the 16th cent majority rule was in effect, disappeared for a while, & then reappeared after the transition from confederation to federation. In Holland, majority rule was applied with certain restrictions from the 16th cent on. Poland had the 'liberum veto' up to the beginning of the 19th cent. From a theoretical viewpoint, the jurists of the Middle Ages based their justification of majority rule on an old Roman adage, & Canon Law has also made an important contribution to this doctrine. The authors of the 18th cent elaborated a legal theory based on rational fictions & on the doctrine of the Social Contract in particular. Among the moderns, 3 principal schools can be distinguished: those who, with Duguit, give a utilitarian basis to the principle, those who see in it a sublimated power, particularly sociol'ts, & finally the theoreticians who accept the principle for ethical reasons. The problem has increased in importance with the existence of international org's where at present, the majority principle is applied only exceptionally. (Translated by Z. Dana from IPSA).

Typical of current work in contemporary Soviet political theory is the work of V. N. Danilenko, a specialist in French political theory which appeared in Sovjetskoje Gosoedarstvo i Pravo (1976, Apr). Danilenko analyzes some French political theorists. The needs of ideological struggle require attention to new development in bourgeois ideology. The crisis of world capitalism as well as the emergence of formerly colonial nations has created a need for a renovation of political theories. Today's interest in the typology of political systems is typical of that renovation effort. The French theorists are criticized for assuming the independence of the political & economic structures & for not recognizing the role of ideologies as well as of social & geographic factors. They absolutize political systems & study them abstractly. By contrast, Marxist-Leninist political science asserts that a political system is an expression of the relations between classes & of the means by which the dictatorship of the ruling class is enforced. Therefore, the important criteria in the classification of bourgeois systems are: the rights & liberties of the Wc, how the Wc is represented in the parliamentary institution, what share the Wc has in state power & to what extent the state is forced to respond to PO & use democratic means of government. The Soviet juridical literature is criticized for not recognizing the full diversity of bourgeois systems. However, Marxism-Leninism brings to light what all these systems have in common: they are dictatorships of the bourgeoisie. A. Orianne.

Complexity thinking and qualitative research
Complexity thinking and qualitative research
In this article complexity thinking (or complex thought) is conceived of as a generalization of complexity theory, which was developed at the Santa Fe Institute. Especially Edgar Morin and Paul Cilliers have contributed to the idea of generalized complexity. Within this approach all living and social systems are complex systems: adaptive, dynamic, consisting of emergent features and being able to self-organization, in an almost unpredictable way. Methodological pluralism is a consequence of this type of thinking. Thus, mixed methods are preferred. However, qualitative methodology can already be seen as a striving for complex thought. This concerns its anti-reductionism as well as its anti-holism. In addition, ethical responsibility of empirical researchers is emphasized.

The possible contributions of sociobiology & ethology to the political sciences are critically examined. E. O. Wilson's Sociobiology: The New Synthesis (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard U Press, Belknap Press, 1975) is reviewed & the key concepts of his theory are presented. The group "Science for the People" criticizes Wilson's work as racist & supportive of the status quo; their complaints are rejected as biased & unjust. The last three IPSA congresses in Munich (1970), Montreal (1973), & Edinburgh (1976) show that attempts to relate biology & political sciences exist, though they are still rare. The sessions on "Biology & Politics" in the Montreal congress are presented as an example. Here, the emphasis is on the methodological contributions of ethology to political sciences. The concept of "social systems" is seen as a major contribution to the social sciences. It demands a stronger shift toward interdisciplinary works between political & biological sciences. W. Zimmerman.

Third and last part of the basic work 'Thinking about religion' by Valeer Neckebrouck Met Part III. Contemporary Perspectives, author Valeer Neckebrouck has come to the conclusion of the chronologically conceived series Thinking about Religion. Anthropological theory and religion. The study of the anthropology of religion is discussed in this last part from the most leading contemporary models and perspectives. The secularization theories, postmodernism, feminism, neo-Darwinism and the cognitive anthropology of religion are discussed in detail, but also thinkers such as René Girard, Walter Burkert, Edward O. Wilson and Richard Dawkins are reviewed. The treatment of contemporary theoretical perspectives in the anthropological study of religion concerns areas of research that are still in constant flux, insights that are still in full development. Almost every day new discoveries are made in biology, some of which require a radical revision of insights that were previously regarded as established achievements. Because our knowledge of biology and neurology is constantly evolving, its balance has to be rewritten again and again. With this third part of the Thinking about religion series, Valeer Neckebrouck has undeniably made an important contribution to this. In this final volume Neckebrouck presents the reader with a thorough analysis and critical evaluation of the various theoretical systems with which great and lesser minds from recent Western cultural history have attempted to clarify the enigmatic phenomenon of "religion" from an anthropological point of view. For anyone interested in the phenomenon of "religion" and wanting to know how anthropologists have thought about religion throughout history, this trilogy is an indispensable and very richly detailed reference book. Until now, such a detailed description and critical evaluation of the subject matter has not been available in any language area