Easton's effort in theory construction was motivated mainly by his critical assessment of historicism & empiricism -- approaches that dominated political science in the 1950s. This criticism, which, at that time, he shared with other political scientists, finally resulted in what came to be known as "behavioralism." Behavioralism stressed theory-led empiricism as well as empirically grounded theory formation. Easton himself developed a general theory of politics that was always related to & helpful for empirical research. This general theory was also a framework for integrating partial theories of politics. The basic concept of Easton's systems analysis of politics is the political system, a system of interaction through which authoritative allocations are made & implemented for the society. The point of reference of Easton's theory is the idea of the persistence of the political system. It is assumed that political systems want to persist. In the context of his systems theory of political life, Easton developed concepts that have become part & parcel of contemporary political science, including concepts such as specific & diffuse support as well as demands that designate fundamental "input" categories of the political process & categories such as political community, political regime & political authorities that characterize the basic objects of a political system. There is no doubt about his monumental impact on the theoretical & empirical development of contemporary political science. 32 References. Adapted from the source document.
This paper traces Finer's intellectual development, including a short period of Marxism, a thorough reading of Pareto, & an intensive dialogue with comparative politics scholars in the US. He criticized the black box model of systems theory as well as the evolutionary bias in comparative development studies. While his early work concerned GB, his role in heading two departments of politics made him rethink a general political science curriculum. He pioneered the study of the lobby in Anonymous Empire (1958) & of the military in politics in The Man on Horseback (1962). In his retirement, he wrote A History of Government from Earliest Times, published posthumously in three volumes (1997), leaving valuable testimonies about methods & concepts. Only a true erudite, fascinated by all aspects of government, could have engaged in such a venture. Finer was a teacher sans pareil of both the professional & the layman interested in the ubiquity of government & politics. 32 References. Adapted from the source document.
The attitude of individuals towards saving, the motivations which lead people to save or not to save, the government-mandated pension and retirement policies have changed dramatically during the past decades. The purpose of this work is to give an in-depth look at these important policy issues and changes happened in four chapters. Chapter one provides some definitions of the main economic variables both at the micro and macro levels and a closer look at the current data on savings and on the complex range of public, private and voluntary retirement plans which are now playing a greater role in pension-provision in many OECD countries. Chapter two is devoted to the most significant theories about the origin and the effects of pension systems, in particular, the "Intertemporal choice model" by Irving Fisher, "The life cycle model" by Franco Modigliani and the "Permanent Income Theory" by Milton Friedman. Chapter three presents a consistent framework which describes the social security systems across OECD countries: replacement rates, financial schemes (Pay-As-You-Go and Fully Funded), contribution systems (defined contribution and defined benefit), the calculation of pension benefits, the effects of the social security system on individual decisions and the problems related to the transition from a Pay-As-You-Go to a Fully Funded program. Finally, chapter four attempts to develop a model whose purpose is to find the optimal mix between the Pay-As-You-Go and Fully Funded programs, and in the last section it also provides some numerical estimates related to the model. A description of the Italian pension system and the most significative steps of the long series of reforms that have affected the social security system in Italy in the last two decades are provided for in Appendix A.
Power systems have been undergoing radical changes in recent years, and their planning and operation will be surely undertaken according to the Smart Grid (SG) vision in the near future. The SG initiatives aim at introducing new technologies and services in power systems, to make the electrical networks more reliable, efficient, secure and environmentally-friendly. In particular, it is expected that communication technologies, computational intelligence and distributed energy sources will be widely used for the whole power system in an integrated fashion. In particular, nowadays, unprecedented challenges like as stringent regulations, environmental concerns, growing demand for high quality, reliable electricity and rising customer expectations are forcing utilities to rethink about electricity generation and delivery from the bottom up. Moreover, the availability of low cost computing and telecommunications technologies, new generation options, and scalable, modular automation systems push utilities to be dynamic, innovative and ambitious enough to take advantage of them. Driven by the dynamics of the new energy environment, leading utilities, technology vendors and government organizations have created a vision of the next generation of energy delivery systems: the Smart Grid. Operational changes of the grid, caused by restructuring of the electric utility industry and electricity storage technology advancements, have created an opportunity for storage systems to provide unique services to the evolving grid. Especially Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESSs), thanks to the large number and variety of services they can provide, are powerful tools for the solution of some challenges that future grids will face. This consideration makes BESSs critical components of the future grids. The BESS can be applied for different services into the different levels of power system chain to satisfy technical challenges and provide financial benefits. In the context of the application of BESSs in SGs, there are two main problems that need to be addressed in a way that exploits the BESS potential, that are linked to their operation and sizing. This thesis focuses on both these aspects, proposing new strategies that allow optimizing the BESS adoption. When dealing with BESSs, sizing and operation are strictly linked. The correct sizing of a BESS, in fact, needs to take into account its operation which in turn will be effected with the aim of optimizing the whole system where it is included. In the first part of this research study, advanced optimal operating strategies were proposed for BESSs by considering both the distribution system operator perspective and the end user. Thus, the proposed operating strategies were performed with the aim of (i) leveling the active power requested by the loads connected to a distribution system (distribution system operator service), (ii) reducing the electricity costs sustained by an end-use costumer that provides demand response (DR) (end user service) and (iii) scheduling a microgrid (µG) with DR resources such as Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEVs) and Data Centers (DCs) (both the two section service). The proposed strategies also satisfied technical constraints of BESSs and other components of the µG. The second part of the thesis presented the optimal sizing of BESSs aimed at maximizing the benefits related to their use. In the thesis, the sizing, which is performed by considering the end user point of view with reference to both the industrial and residential customers, is effected by adopting both deterministic and probabilistic approaches. With reference to the deterministic approach, a simple and quick closed form procedure for the sizing of BESSs in residential and industrial applications was proposed. In case of probabilistic approach, the case of a BESS installed in an industrial facility was considered and the sizing was performed based on the decision theory. Technical improvements and economic benefits of optimal operation and optimal sizing of BESSs in SG are demonstrated by the obtained results which are reported in the numerical applications. More specifically, it was clearly determined that BESSs can offer technical supports into the distribution operator section of the grid in terms of load management and security challenges. Moreover optimal integration of BESSs into the grid was also appealing for end users thanks to valuable amounts of electricity bill cost reduction. Regarding the original contribution of the thesis, the following considerations can be done. With reference to the load leveling service, an innovative two-step procedure (day-ahead scheduling and very short time predictive control) was proposed which optimally controls a BESS connected to a distribution substation in order to perform load leveling. In case of DR, a proper control of the BESS was proposed in order to perform DR under different price schemes, such as Real Time Pricing (RTP) and Time of Use (TOU) without modifying the daily work cycle of the industrial loads. The control procedure allows achieving contemporaneously two important goals that are the reduction of the bill costs and the prolonging the battery's lifetime so further reducing the costs sustained by the customer. With reference to the scheduling of microgrids, the original contribution of the thesis is focused on the proposal of optimization strategies aimed at managing and coordinating, simultaneously, batteries on board of vehicles or equipping data centers' Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) and Distributed Generation (DG) units. Also comparisons among different single-objective based strategies are made in order to highlight the most convenient. With reference to the sizing based on deterministic approach, unlike the other relating literature, the innovative contribution is that the closed form procedure takes into account both the technical constraints of the battery and contractual agreements between the customer and the utility. Moreover, in the economical analysis performed for the sizing, which is applied with reference to both residential and small industrial customers and is based on actual TOU tariffs, a wide sensitivity analysis to consider different perspectives in terms of life span and future costs was performed. Some aspects that affect the profitability of the battery, such as technological limitations (e.g. the battery and converter efficiency), economic barriers (e.g. capital cost and the rate of change of the cost) and variation of the load profile along the years were deeply analyzed. In case of sizing based on probabilistic approach, the original contributions of the thesis are mainly referred to the proposal of a new method that uses a decision theory-based process to obtain the best sizing alternative considering the various uncertainties affecting the sizing procedure. The thesis is organized in three chapters which are dealing with integration of BESSs in SGs. The first chapter reports basic concepts and characteristics of BESSs, fundamental components and features of SGs and different services that BESSs can provide. The optimal operation strategies of BESS are considered in second chapter which includes their problem formulation, solving procedures and results. The third chapter deals with the optimal sizing problem of BESSs for which the problem formulation, solving procedures and results are reported. Finally, the conclusions are presented in the last part of thesis.
How can we understand and interpret culture today? This concept – often referred to the 'centre of gravity' of the cognitive strate gies developed by human sciences1 to analyse phenomena such as the dynamics of social interactions, the performances and functioning of the politicaleconomic systems, grand and minor historical transformations, appears to be facing a theoretical identity crisis [Santoro, 2000].
Social impact finance has emerged in recent years in response to the crisis of traditional welfare systems and the gradual decrease in public funding to the Third Sector, by offering new financial instruments to convey private capital to social entrepreneurship in order to create positive social impact combined with economic returns (Agrawal and Hockerts, 2019; Daggers and Nicholls, 2016; Hochstadter and Scheck, 2015). The debate on the effective application of these instruments has so far focused on social impact as a measurement for return on invested capital, neglecting the role of motivations driving involved agents (investors and social entrepreneurs). In this work, we investigate the impact of different financial instruments on governance structures and on the motivations of social enterprise stakeholders, both from a theoretical point of view and through pilot experiments that mimic the main features of social impact finance. Our experimental design aims to recreate in the laboratory the relationship between social enterprise, beneficiaries and financiers, including the following characteristics: extremely diversified/personalized goods/services (complexity); quality of the good/service; risk (linked to the effectiveness of the intervention provided) and components related to: information asymmetries, evaluation (impact), parameters of the financial instrument. Starting from this setting, we intend to evaluate the effect on motivations of alternative evaluation methods (input, output, outcome) linked to the financial instrument.
Il rischio dell'assicurazione contro i pericoli è il titolo di una recente opera di Luhmann che raccoglie la traduzione italiana di alcuni saggi sul rischio nella stipula dei contratti assicurativi. L'argomento, a prima vista paradossale, rimanda al tema, di primaria rilevanza nella teoria dei sistemi, della definizione dei concetti di rischio, di pericolo e di sicurezza nella società complessa dove le incognite hanno profondamente mutato forme e modalità di intervento. ; The risk of hazard insurance is the title of a recent work by Luhmann that collects the Italian translation of some essays on risk in the stipulation of insurance contracts. The topic, at first glance paradoxical, refers to the topic, of primary importance in systems theory, of the definition of the concepts of risk, danger and safety in complex society where the unknowns have profoundly changed forms and methods of intervention.
La recente Direttiva 31/2010 dell'Unione Europea impone agli stati membri di riorganizzare il quadro legislativo nazionale in materia di prestazione energetica degli edifici, affinchè tutte le nuove costruzioni presentino dal 1° gennaio 2021 un bilancio energetico tendente allo zero; termine peraltro anticipato al 1° gennaio 2019 per gli edifici pubblici. La concezione di edifici a energia "quasi" zero (nZEB) parte dal presupposto di un involucro energeticamente di standard passivo per arrivare a compensare, attraverso la produzione preferibilmente in sito di energia da fonti rinnovabili, gli esigui consumi richiesti su base annuale. In quest'ottica la riconsiderazione delle potenzialità dell'architettura solare individua degli strumenti concreti e delle valide metodologie per supportare la progettazione di involucri sempre più performanti che sfruttino pienamente una risorsa inesauribile, diffusa e alla portata di tutti come quella solare. Tutto ciò in considerazione anche della non più procrastinabile necessità di ridurre il carico energetico imputabile agli edifici, responsabili come noto di oltre il 40% dei consumi mondiali e del 24% delle emissioni di gas climalteranti. Secondo queste premesse la ricerca pone come centrale il tema dell'integrazione dei sistemi di guadagno termico, cosiddetti passivi, e di produzione energetica, cosiddetti attivi, da fonte solare nell'involucro architettonico. Il percorso sia analitico che operativo effettuato si è posto la finalità di fornire degli strumenti metodologici e pratici al progetto dell'architettura, bisognoso di un nuovo approccio integrato mirato al raggiungimento degli obiettivi di risparmio energetico. Attraverso una ricognizione generale del concetto di architettura solare e dei presupposti teorici e terminologici che stanno alla base della stessa, la ricerca ha prefigurato tre tipologie di esito finale: una codificazione delle morfologie ricorrenti nelle realizzazioni solari, un'analisi comparata del rendimento solare nelle principali aggregazioni tipologiche edilizie e una parte importante di verifica progettuale dove sono stati applicati gli assunti delle categorie precedenti ; The recent Directive 31/2010 of the European Union requires that the member states reorganize their national legislative framework in the field of energy performance of buildings. so that from 1 January 2021 the energy balance of all new buildings will tend to zero (1 January 2019 for public buildings). The concept of nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEB) is based on the assumption that the envelope follows the standard of the passive houses and the small energy consumption required on annual basis is compensated by the production of renewable energy, preferably on-site. In this context, the rethinking of the potential of solar architecture allows to identify concrete tools and valid methodologies to support the design of increasingly efficient envelopes that take full advantage of an inexhaustible, common and affordable energy source, such as the solar energy. This should be achieved considering the necessity of no longer delaying the reduction of the energy load due to buildings, known as responsible for over 40% of world consumption and 24% of greenhouse gas emissions. According to these premises, the central theme of the research is the integration of the heat gain systems, so-called passive, and the solar energy production, so-called active, in the envelope. The carried out analytical and operational path has set the objective of providing practical and methodological tools for the design of the architecture, in need of a new integrated approach to achieve the goals of energy savings. Through a general survey of the concept of solar architecture and its theoretical assumptions and terminology, the research has envisioned three types of outcome: a codification of the recurring morphologies in solar constructions, a comparative analysis of the solar performance in the principal types of building aggregations and a significant design verification, where the assumptions of the previous categories have been applied
This research presents results of the last three years collaboration between the Centro di Ricerca ''E.~Piaggio'' and the company Ingegneria dei Sistemi SpA (IDS), on the application of game theoretic algorithms. Based on the results obtained by this research, IDS has decided to investigate the implementation of the proposed system on board of its unmanned vehicles, in order to provide a novel security system to the market. This research proposed the application of a coordinated multi robot system to the problem of asymmetric threat, both in military and civilian scenarios. The problem of detecting and accordingly reacting to an asymmetric threat (Asymmetric threats or techniques are a version of not ''fighting fair,'' which can include the use of surprise in all its operational and strategic dimensions and the use of weapons in ways unplanned) is a challenge both from research and technological points of view. Even though the available surveillance sensors are sufficient to identify and classify asymmetric threats, they are able to give a quick alert only in nominal working conditions. Indeed, adverse weather conditions easily lead to degradation of sensors performance leading to a drastic reduction of the time available for a possible reaction after the detection, identification and classification procedures. The short time--to--reaction may increase the possibility of human errors especially in stressful situations (e.g. an incorrect assessment of the necessary reaction). This research proposes the use of multi--robot coordinated team as autonomous surveillance systems that can guarantee an adequate supervision of the area in any working conditions even though the entire area is not fully monitored at any time instant. Indeed, the mobility abilities of autonomous vehicles can be exploited to deploy the team of robots to monitor the environment and to react to possible intruders. In particular, this research is focussed on the problem of coordinating a team of robots based on partial knowledge of the environment due to limited sensors footprint and communication range. The coordination of the robot must also guarantee the accomplishment of other tasks in a framework in which communication is limited due to security issues or deteriorated communication channels (e.g. underwater scenarios). An example of antagonistic tasks is the monitoring of the area around the main ship while detecting, tracking and herding an intruder toward a safe area. It is worth noting that the marine scenario is only a possible application of the proposed methodology that is valid whenever the goal is to detect, localize and react to any environmental changes of interest, e.g. high variation of temperature, water pollution, terrorists attacks, etc. In this research a unified model has been proposed for the problem under study for different application scenarios such as asymmetric threats protection in marine environments and safety at border crossing points, such as airports. The proposed unified framework is based on the Game Theory. Indeed, it is well known that the particular class of potential games solves several cooperative control problems with a reduced amount of communication between robots. In particular, the considered control problem is transformed into a non--cooperative game where the goal is to reach specific equilibria. Moreover, the case of ``payoff--based'' scenarios, where robots get a reward in the reached regions based on the action performed by other robots, helps in capturing the requirements into the problem formulation. Learning algorithms that can steer the robots toward Nash equilibria are proven to solve partially the problem. In case of a static environment, e.g. fixed area of interest in the scenario, the coverage problem has been largely studied with a game theoretic approach. However, such algorithms are proven to converge to a static configuration maximizing the number of interested area covered by the robot sensors' footprint but are not able to handle a dynamic intruder. On the other hand, in case of dynamic environment, as for asymmetric threat protection, existing algorithms have been only designed to explore the entire area without selecting the sub--regions of major interest or doing it with high communication costs. Concluding, with respect to the state of the art literature, in this research, a game theoretic approach is used to detecting, track and herd a dynamic intruder protecting pre-defined areas. In particular, the work proposes two kind of coordination protocols which are proved to solve the asymmetric threat protection problem. Based on the well--known payoff--based algorithms, the research presents some extension of state--of--the--art coordination protocols which are suitable for dynamic environment. Moreover, the work presents new payoff--based algorithms to deal with the problem of multi--robot coordination in dynamic environment where the robots must accomplish antagonistic tasks simultaneously. For those new algorithms convergence to equilibria is formally proved. Finally, our research is interested in investigating the relationship between the team of guards and the intruder once it has been identified, i.e, the \emph{reaction phase}. Such problem is investigated with the use of a game theoretic framework and, a novel team coordination protocols for the intruder herding problem, is proposed. Such new algorithm solves the problem of steering a team of guards for guiding an intruder towards a restricted area of a known environment. The proposed system, based on the virtual objectives concept, is able to limit the movement of an intruder without communication between robots of the team. Proposed framework has been validated with a Monte Carlo simulation in order to cover a large set of different situations. Based on Monte Carlo simulation, a novel tool, that solves the problem of determine the minimum number of robots contrasting an intruder which is moving in the area, is proposed. Indeed, it can be used to determine the maximum volume to store autonomous vehicles on board. Proposed algorithms have been evaluated against intruders piloted by human, in order to test the robustness of the proposed solution. The proposed game theoretic framework has been tested in real robot experiments thanks to the use of a novel multi--robot system for managing team of robots. Based on the promising results, the proposed model has been extended to cope the asymmetric threat protection problem when sensors are affected by uncertainty on the detection. Video of some validation results are available online (https://youtu.be/emyf4xx-_pY, https://youtu.be/rBs23CNdh8U and https://youtu.be/ODoHY7WgQdc).
The emergence of risk as the dominant issue of the second modernity is primarily due to a crisis in scientific knowledge and the ability to foresee the consequences of human decisions on the socio-natural environment. The concept of risk highlights the limitations of deterministic approaches and the difficulty of recomposing disciplinary knowledge and decision-making criteria within a consistent epistemological framework, suitable to complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity. The apparent irreducibility of languages, scientific cultures and normative claims, along with the illusion of self-sufficiency of knowledge, have often amplified risks rather than mitigating them. Risk communication goes far beyond to be a set of messages conveyed by experts (scientists, public authorities), thus becoming a place of complexity, where the process of mediation of knowledge is aimed at inclusion, confidence building and the construction of rules and shared procedures for a more open, participatory and democratic management of risks. Keywords: Risk Communication, Risk Society, Risk governance, Complexity, Theoryof Systems
Downs is unusual in having been active in economic & political research during the 1950s & 1960s, & then turning to real estate & urban planning for the rest of his career. Focus here is on his first book, An Economic Theory of Democracy (1957), which presents not one, but many theories of democracy even if they are all generally couched in economic terms. This paper expounds the argument of the Economic Theory systematically & sequentially covering (a) the general non-spatial model of party competition; (b) the effects of information shortage; (c) party reliability & responsibility; (d) the two-party spatial model; (e) the multiparty spatial model; (f) further consequences of information shortage; & (g) problems of voting turnout. Evidence from quantified election programs is used to show that the models leading to limited party policy movement & non-convergence are the more realistic ones. Despite its defects, the book laid down the agenda for mathematical political theory & empirical research over the last 50 years & has a fair claim to being the most influential single book written on politics in that period. 1 Table, 6 Figures, 1 Appendix, 38 References. Adapted from the source document.
The paper investigates the relationship between the classical liberal tradition & Daniel J. Elazar's neofederalism. In the opinion of this important political scientist of the 20th century, it is federalism that makes possible the protection of individual rights: without the constitutional framework of a pluralist federalism, democracy becomes centralized & can be a road to dictatorship. But the article is also an attempt to underline the limits of Elazar's theory & the inconsistency of his opposition between federal freedom & natural freedom. Moreover, it was not clear to Elazar how calling any form of political organization a "state" is a great obstacle to understanding the phenomenon of federalism & its polycentric order. Adapted from the source document.
Since the beginning of the 1990s there has been in Italy a partial and incomplete transition from a consensual to a majoritarian form of democracy. And the traditional interpretations of the 'Italian case' have been gradually abandoned without having been substituted by new ones. So, nowadays there are many detailed empirical researches about specific aspects of the Italian political system and transition, but no comprehensive model is available to understand the overall logics of its functioning and development. The thesis of the article is that the models proposed to depict the First Republic can be useful to understand also the Second one, once they have been adequately revisited and updated. Then, three frameworks are analyzed -- polarized pluralism, party government, and the theory of democratic consolidation and anchoring -- in order to suggest how they can be applied and how to 'rediscover' a tradition of research that risks to be lost. Adapted from the source document.
