Digital Commons Network^™

Some Economic Issues In Indian Textile Sector, Badri Narayanan G.

Badri Narayanan G.

No abstract provided.

Introduction: Theorising Politics, Cillian Mcbride, Jurgen De Wispelaere, Shane O'Neill

Jurgen De Wispelaere

This is the introduction to a special issue of Irish Political Studies on "Recognition, Equality, Democracy", to appear in December 2007 as a journal and sometime in 2008 as an edited collection published by Taylor & Francis.

Princípios-Tópicos De Hermenêutica Constitucional, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Houve tempo em que a Constituição servia para poisar ou charuto ou tirar um argumento político, como ironicamente afirmaria o grande escritor oitocentista Eça de Queiroz. Hoje a Constituição é a norma das normas. Daí há consequências hermenêuticas. Ao contrário das teorias que importam interpretação tradicional e, por vezes, em grande medida ultrapassada, para o Direito Constitucional, a tendência actual é a inversa: dada a supremacia da Constituição, deve ser a metodologia constitucional a exportar hermenêutica para o todo do Direito. Para isso, começamos neste artigo com grandes princípios de hermenêutica intra-constitucional. Depois se passará à exportação.

Can Our Community “Afford” This Bond Issue For Our School? Proposed Factors For Determining Affordability Of School Building Projects, Jeff Abbott

Jeff Abbott

This paper explores the literature of whether a community can afford a public school bond issue. This paper sets forth recommended criteria to determine community affordability of local bond issues.

Accommodative Strategies In Nigerian Federalism Since Independence, Ozy B. Orluwene Jp

Dr Ozy B.Orluwene,JP

Abstract This paper primarily illustrates how the practice of federalism in Nigeria has made her an epitome and pioneer of federalism in Africa in the use of power sharing mechanism and practice to promote inter- ethnic inclusiveness or discourage sectional imbalance and bias in decision making processes. This practice of federalism in Nigeria has also validated the idea that federalism is adopted with a view to ensuring unity of the people and faith in their father-land so as to further the end of liberty, equality and justice in the country. This observation has led us to conclude that it is …

Corruption, Governance And Political Instability In Nigeria, Omololu Toluwanimi Omololu

Omololu Michael FAGBADEBO

The Nigerian State is a victim of high-level corruption, bad governance, political instability and a cyclical legitimacy crisis. Consequently, national development is retarded, and the political environment uncertain. The country’s authoritarian leadership faced a legitimacy crisis, political intrigues, in an ethnically - differentiated polity, where ethnic competition for resources drove much of the pervasive corruption and profligacy. While the political gladiators constantly manipulated the people and the political processes to advance their own selfish agenda, the society remained pauperized, and the people wallowed in abject poverty. This invariably led to weak legitimacy, as the citizens lacked faith in their political …

R&D Policy In The United States: The Promotion Of Nanotechnology, Philip Shapira, Jue Wang

Philip Shapira

This case study reviews the evolution of nanotechnology policies and programmes in the United States with a particular focus on three thematic areas: governance, interactions among R&D policies, and interaction between R&D policy and non-R&D policies. Federal R&D policy in nanotechnology has moved through several stages, including initial exploration before the 1980s, the promotion of scientific and technological breakthroughs in the 1980s, policy development in the 1990s and multiagency national initiatives in the 2000s. Since 2001, the major federal R&D policy mechanism in nanotechnology in the US has been the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI). NNI promotes policy deliberation and, most …

How The Next Us President Should Slow Global Warming, Elizabeth L. Aldrich

Elizabeth Lokey Aldrich

This paper addresses the energy technologies and policies that the next US president should immediately implement to slow global warming. Increased reliance on renewable energy through deployment of a National Renewable Portfolio Standard will help meet increased electrical demand in a sustainable way. Carbon regulation through an internationally fungible cap and trade system will help make renewables more cost competitive with conventional energy. Mandating National Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standards will also help decrease electrical demand and reduce the need for large investments in new generation. Within the transportation sector, plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles should be rapidly deployed to shift …

Beyond Nuclear Disarmament: Conflict Transformation On The Korean Peninsula., Tatsushi Arai

Tatsushi Arai

Anthropology During Wartime, John Fox

John Fox

Op-ed critiquing the ethics of a Pentagon program enlisting anthropologists to serve on "Human Terrain Teams" in army combat units in Afghanistan

Electric Power: Cyber And Electromagnetic Security Issues, George H. Baker

George H Baker

Electric power is essential to the functioning of U.S. society. The electric power system increasingly operates at or near its reliability limits. The geographic scale of the tightly coupled networks involved makes the system susceptible to large-scale outages. More frequent natural and accidental failures portend possible catastrophes from intentional disruption. Deregulation has been a major factor to the lack of investment in system upgrades. Techniques to prevent attacks and reduce vulnerabilities are available and affordable.

Managing A Widespread E-Procurement Implementation In Public Healthcare, Tommaso Federici, Andrea Resca

Federici Tommaso

In large parts of Europe, the development of healthcare is subject to contrasting forces. On the one hand, there has been an explosion in spending and, at the same time, governments are faced with strict budget constraints. On the other hand, public healthcare is under pressure to be innovative, technologically advanced and to provide increasingly better quality of services. In this context, eprocurement can be seen as an instrument to offer a solution to the first issue of this dilemma. However, e-procurement initiatives in such domain have not been widely deployed, and most of them have not fully delivered the …

Defining A Research Domain In An Emerging Technology: Vaccine Research In The State Of Georgia, Shannon Barker, Jan Youtie, Philip Shapira

Philip Shapira

This paper presents an approach for measuring emerging technologies in the context of mature industries. In particular, this article focuses on vaccine-related research. Although vaccines comprise an established industry, new developments in biotechnology have led to emerging area in vaccine R&D, including therapeutic vaccines; subunit and DNA-based vaccines; advances in vaccine delivery; and new methodologies for vaccine design, manufacturing, and testing. Defining this field is challenging because it spans multiple disciplines, including biotechnology, public health, and epidemiology. To gain an understanding of the field as it is related to biomedical research, we focused our study parameters to concentrate on these …

Testimony On Broadband To Senate Committee On Small Business And Entrepreneurship, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

No abstract provided.

Neighborhood Dynamics And Superfund: Direct And Indirect Effects On Property Values, Douglas S. Noonan, Douglas J. Krupka

Douglas S. Noonan

No abstract provided.

Political Obligation And Democratic Governance: A Case Of Nigeria, Ozy B. Orluwene Jp

Dr Ozy B.Orluwene,JP

ABSTRACT This paper attempts to seek and examine a balance between the political obligation (rights of the governed and duties of government) in democratic governance. Political obligation is two sided, namely, obligation on the part of government and obligation on the part of governed. It has to do basically with such issues as necessity for law and government, organized society and obedience on the largest possible scale, as the utilitarian would say, “the purpose of government in organized society is to promote the greatest happiness for the greatest number”. The citizens’ willing cooperation and obedience are demanded by the state, …

Law's Autonomy, Ashok Agrwaal

Ashok Agrwaal

Like entropy, autonomy exists. As such, the existence of autonomy does not need any law or laws, beyond itself and its nature. Autonomy can, therefore, be said to be an "original" state of human kind; or at least of the individual. Law, which is frequently seen as preserving/ maximising/ conferring autonomy is actually a device to usurp autonomy. The paper looks at a specific example of how the nation-state, the most powerful usurper of autonomies created till date, arrogates autonomy to itself, in the name of ‘public interest’. Needless to say, in the hands of the state, autonomy translates into …

Monopoly Rights In The Privatization Of Telephone Firms, Bruno E. Viani

Bruno E. Viani

Data from utility privatization sales in 74 countries is analyzed to investigate why governments award monopoly rights, and how monopoly affects government revenue from these sales. Financially constrained governments are more likely to award monopoly rights. Interest groups and institutions are important. Increased importance of taxed business users reduces the probability of a government granting monopoly rights, while an increase in the importance of subsidized residential users has the opposite effect. Durable democracies and market-oriented governments are less likely to award monopoly rights. Monopolies increase government revenue by 66 percent.

Transformation Of Japan’S Civil Society Landscape, Mary Alice Haddad

Mary Alice Haddad

Japan’s civil society is being transformed as more people volunteer for advocacy and professional nonprofit organizations. In the American context, this trend has been accompanied by a decline in participation in traditional organizations. Does the rise in new types of nonprofit groups herald a decline of traditional volunteering in Japan? This article argues that while changes in civil rights, political opportunity structure, and technology have also taken place in Japan, they have contributed to the rise of new groups without causing traditional organizations to decline, because Japanese attitudes about civic responsibility have continued to support traditional volunteering.

The Cultural Approaches To Multiculturalism: Education Policy And Its Implications In Culture, Linda Margaret Broughton

Linda Margaret Broughton

The purpose of this discussion is to analyse three different European states in their approaches to education policy and culture. Each example of a national policy approach is considered separately, as an individual container (or thimble) with a distinct approach to policymaking and culture that is reflected through structure and content. At the same time, the discussion will analyse the comparative advantages of the separate systems in order to illustrate how one approach may address an issue that is problematic in another approach. The purpose of this discourse is to illustrate how a more comprehensive approach to culture in education …

Financial Portfolio Strategy: Application To College Of Southwest, Grace S. Thomson

Dr. Grace S. Thomson

Financial Portfolio Strategy Creating value in the organization is the cornerstone of business activity. Value-creation is a concept that has evolved for the past fifty years, stimulating the generation of theories, techniques, models and institutions (Slater and Zwirlein, 1996). Financial markets have developed in response to the dynamic corporate activity, providing different options of financing and investment. Financial decision-making at the executive level becomes critical in the creation of wealth in the organization, and the financial strategies designed by the Top Management Team (TMT) are expected to seek beyond profit maximization (Lankau et al, 2007; Myers, 2001). However, there are …

Bad Science In Search Of “Bad” Patents, Ron D. Katznelson

Ron D. Katznelson

This paper draws attention to fundamental deficiencies in studies that have been relied upon as authoritative sources on patent grant rate comparisons among national patent offices. The two prominent studies analyzed here had employed erroneous methods to compare patent grant rates, resulting in false high indications of such rates at the U.S. patent office compared to foreign patent offices. The three identified categories of analysis errors found in these studies were (i) the misapplication of conditional probability; (ii) miscounting invention applications; and (iii) failure to account for patent obsolescence and application attrition due to the widely differing delays among national …

A Critical Review Of The Energy Policy Act Of 2005'S Treatment Of Hydrogen, Elizabeth L. Aldrich

Elizabeth Lokey Aldrich

The paper analyzes the Energy Policy Act's goals and proposed action in Title VIII, the section dedicated to hydrogen. It then assesses whether or not the resources dedicated to this cause are sufficient to overcome the obstacles facing the commercial use of hydrogen and fuel cells.

Chronology Of The Drafting, Review, And Revision Of The Proposed Icomos Charter For The Interpretation And Presentation Of Cultural Heritage Sites, Neil A. Silberman

Neil A. Silberman

No abstract provided.

Valuing Renewable Energy In Emerging U.S. Carbon Markets, Elizabeth L. Aldrich

Elizabeth Lokey Aldrich

The inclusion or exclusion of renewable energy generators in emerging U.S. carbon markets could a have profound impact on the whether these markets have the intended effect of reducing overall carbon emissions and whether the voluntary market for green energy will remain or dissolve. This paper explores the allowance distribution schemes for cap-and-trade markets and their impact on renewable energy. The current input-based allocation system proposed for the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative in the Northeastern U.S. prevents renewable energy from contributing to emissions reductions within the market and will preclude green power marketers from advertising carbon offset claims for this …

Market Principles, Philanthropic Ideals And Public Service Values: The Public Policy Program At The Central European University, Diane L. Stone

Diane L Stone

Just as there was a boom in the establishment of Master’s of Business Administration over the past 30 or more years, today there is an equivalent boom in graduate programs in the field of public policy. This is so for the transition states of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the former Soviet Union (fSU) where the dynamics of globalization and ‘Europeanization’ are apparent and the pressures for reform pronounced. The educational prerequisites for managing reform and meeting the challenges of globalization has represented a problematic for both official actors such as national education ministries, international organizations and bilateral development …

Managing Risks, Beat Habegger

Beat Habegger

No abstract provided.

Assessing Chronic Disease Management Strategies Through Community Based Participatory Research, Kevin D. Willison

Kevin D Willison

Comprehensive chronic disease management (CDM) strategies aim to improve such aspects as continuity of care, health-related quality of life and, overall population health. Here, consideration is made of how CDM may be enhanced through a more integrated and holistic health care system by incorporating a community based participatory research (CBPR) approach. This has the potential to provide meaningful participation by citizens in public health policy development. That CBPR may garner improved assessment of the effectiveness of existing CDM strategies, as imbedded in such practices as (regulated) complementary/alternative medicine (CAM), public health, and transcultural health care initiatives, should not be overlooked.

Spatial Heterogeneity And Transit Use, Bradley W. Lane, Takatsugu Kobayashi

Bradley W. Lane

The results of investments in transit and redevelopment vary widely across space. To better understand the investment and use connection, this research analyzes the spatial characteristics of modal choice and land-use locally rather than globally. The proportion of people around stations using transit is modeled as a function of environmental variables, spatial proximity to transit, and spatial autocorrelation among those variables by using geographically weighted regression (GWR) on data from St. Louis, Missouri. The analysis generated spatially variant regression coefficients and R-square values that suggest significant spatial variation in the influence of neighborhood factors on modal choice.

The Bosnian Peace Process: The Power-Sharing Approach Revisited, Nikolaos Tzifakis

Nikolaos Tzifakis

This article argues that the post-Dayton political organisation of Bosnia represents an exemplary illustration of the difficulties associated with the empirical application of the pluralist model of “consociational democracy”. The country’s political system has been predicated on the existence of consensus and the spirit of cooperation among the three ethnic groups without, however, offering any electoral or political incentives to their leaderships to cooperate. Also, the inclusion of several elements to the Dayton accords of a partition approach to conflict resolution has even encouraged the ethnic leaderships to maintain their nationalistic programs and their endeavours to exploit the aforementioned power-sharing …