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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Some Economic Issues In Indian Textile Sector, Badri Narayanan G. Dec 2007

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

Badri Narayanan G.

No abstract provided.


Princípios-Tópicos De Hermenêutica Constitucional, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha Nov 2007

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 Nov 2007

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.


How The Next Us President Should Slow Global Warming, Elizabeth L. Aldrich Oct 2007

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 Oct 2007

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

Tatsushi Arai

This essay identifies actors, motivations, and social forces driving and sustaining the deeply entrenched conflicts underlying the nuclear and missile crisis on the Korean Peninsula. It also explores the applicability of the methods of conflict transformation to the crisis in order to find a practical way forward. Diplomatic and civil society exchanges designed to re-frame the past, present, and future-oriented discourses of historical conflict are considered to support long-term reconciliation as well as practical short-term measures. To illustrate long-term visions, the feasibility of institutionalizing the two Koreas' peaceful coexistence under a Korean commonwealth, the establishment of a legal and symbolic …


Electric Power: Cyber And Electromagnetic Security Issues, George H. Baker Oct 2007

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.


Transformation Of Japan’S Civil Society Landscape, Mary Alice Haddad Aug 2007

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.


A Critical Review Of The Energy Policy Act Of 2005'S Treatment Of Hydrogen, Elizabeth L. Aldrich Jul 2007

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.


Valuing Renewable Energy In Emerging U.S. Carbon Markets, Elizabeth L. Aldrich Jun 2007

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 Jun 2007

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 Jun 2007

Managing Risks, Beat Habegger

Beat Habegger

No abstract provided.


Creative Renewable Energy Purchasing Options For Businesses, Elizabeth L. Aldrich May 2007

Creative Renewable Energy Purchasing Options For Businesses, Elizabeth L. Aldrich

Elizabeth Lokey Aldrich

No abstract provided.


Political Control For China’S State-Owned Enterprises: Lessons From America’S Experience With Hybrid Organizations, Jonathan Koppell Mar 2007

Political Control For China’S State-Owned Enterprises: Lessons From America’S Experience With Hybrid Organizations, Jonathan Koppell

Jonathan GS Koppell

China’s reform of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is intended to liberate the companies from bureaucratic control that hinders their management. Discussions of SOE reform, however, downplay the policy consequences. Can SOEs be “free” to succeed economically while some political control is maintained? Surprisingly, American experience with hybrid organizations—government-created companies that straddle the line between public and private—offers some precedent for managing the balance between political control and enterprise independence. Three strategies are derived for China. First, welfare functions must be stripped from SOEs and replaced by policy objectives compatible with commercial purposes. Second, reducing financial dependence on SOEs will remove a …


The Disablement Of Traditional Political Institution In Nigeria, Ozy B. Orluwene Jp Mar 2007

The Disablement Of Traditional Political Institution In Nigeria, Ozy B. Orluwene Jp

Dr Ozy B.Orluwene,JP

ABSTRACT This paper discusses various salient issues that relate and led to the disablement of traditional political institution in Nigeria. These include the colonial subjugation, vilification by the combined forces of western influence-Christianity and western education, and finally the defilement by some of the contemporary occupants of these institutions. It highlights the vicissitudes that the institution has experienced over the years from the advent of colonialism to the present and the effect of some of the status and operation in the institution. These, among others, are what the paper seeks to bring to the fore.


Response To The Library Of Congress Request For Comment On Specific Issues In Section 108., Denise Troll Covey Feb 2007

Response To The Library Of Congress Request For Comment On Specific Issues In Section 108., Denise Troll Covey

Denise Troll Covey

No abstract provided.


A Window Into The Regulated Commons: The Takings Clause, Investment Security, And Sustainability, Josh Eagle Dec 2006

A Window Into The Regulated Commons: The Takings Clause, Investment Security, And Sustainability, Josh Eagle

Josh Eagle

The holding of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in American Pelagic Fishing Co. v. United States points to the conclusion that the government will almost never be liable, under the Takings Clause, when fisheries regulations reduce the value of commercial fishing permits, vessels, or gear. From the perspective of natural resource economics, this is a healthy result. Economists suggest that solving commons problems requires that natural resources be under the complete control of a sole owner who makes self-interested decisions about resource use, and if the Fifth Amendment required the government owner to compensate fishermen when …


The Precautionary Principle In Context: Us And Eu Scientists’ Prescriptions For Policy In The Face Of Uncertainty, Carol Silva, Hank Jenkins-Smith Dec 2006

The Precautionary Principle In Context: Us And Eu Scientists’ Prescriptions For Policy In The Face Of Uncertainty, Carol Silva, Hank Jenkins-Smith

Hank C Jenkins-Smith

Objective. Our objective is to explain how scientists interpret less-than-certain scientific findings to inform policymakers’ choices on controversial science policy issues. We focus on two particularly difficult policy cases concerning global climate change and low-dose radiation protection. Methods. Our method is to analyze data from a unique multination survey of scientists to analyze the ways their views about what is scientifically correct are translated into judgments about appropriate policy. The surveys asked scientists, randomly drawn from U.S. and E.U. subscribers to the journal Science, to indicate the ‘‘most likely’’ relationships between greenhouse gas emissions and average global temperatures and between …


Legislative/Judicial Interaction: Do Court Ideologies Constrain Legislative Action?, Elizabeth Stiles, Lauren Bowen Dec 2006

Legislative/Judicial Interaction: Do Court Ideologies Constrain Legislative Action?, Elizabeth Stiles, Lauren Bowen

Elizabeth A. Stiles

The article presents a study which examines whether the anticipated actions of the courts to interpret, expand, or retract legislative meaning discourages or prevents policy making by legislatures. It suggests that state legislatures are significantly less likely to pass legislation when state supreme courts are ideological. It concludes that there is evidence that judiciaries exercise preemptive suppressive powers upon legislation.


Mental Health Parity Laws, Louis Graham, Kisha Braithwaite Dec 2006

Mental Health Parity Laws, Louis Graham, Kisha Braithwaite

Louis F Graham

Mental illnesses and disorders affect many people around the world annually, but unfortunately infrastructures and systems are not in place to adequately address these issues as much as they are for somatic diseases and ailments. Mental Health Parity Law seeks to equalize and improve available and accessible mental health treatment with medical care by mandating insurance and payment provisions. Mental Health Parity Law exists at federal and most state levels, however, federal and many state laws are not as inclusive and comprehensive as is necessary to fully reap the benefits of increased quality and affordable mental healthcare.


Child Care Quality In Different State Policy Contexts, Elizabeth Rigby, Rebecca M. Ryan, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn Dec 2006

Child Care Quality In Different State Policy Contexts, Elizabeth Rigby, Rebecca M. Ryan, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn

Elizabeth Rigby

No abstract provided.


Grandparents Raising Grandchildren: A Call To Action, Deborah M. Whitley, Susan J. Kelley Dec 2006

Grandparents Raising Grandchildren: A Call To Action, Deborah M. Whitley, Susan J. Kelley

Deborah M. Whitley

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), in partnership with the Administration on Aging (AoA) in Region IV, has demonstrated its commitment to supporting vulnerable families by undertaking a leadership role to establish a network of services for grandparents raising grandchildren. Beginning in 2002, the southeastern offices of ACF and AoA collaborated with federal, state and local public welfare, academic, and community service agencies in Georgia to form a provider consortium to identify the needs of grandparent-headed families, and to develop and execute a service delivery plan to address their needs. As a result, the focus of this paper describes …


Alternative Policy Designs And The Socio-Political Construction Of Child Care, Elizabeth Rigby, Kate Tarrant, Michelle Neuman Dec 2006

Alternative Policy Designs And The Socio-Political Construction Of Child Care, Elizabeth Rigby, Kate Tarrant, Michelle Neuman

Elizabeth Rigby

No abstract provided.


Same Policy Area, Different Politics: How The Characteristics Of Policy Tools Alter The Determinants Of Early Childhood Policymaking, Elizabeth Rigby Dec 2006

Same Policy Area, Different Politics: How The Characteristics Of Policy Tools Alter The Determinants Of Early Childhood Policymaking, Elizabeth Rigby

Elizabeth Rigby

This article tests a theory of how key characteristics of a policy tool under debate magnify the importance of particular elements of the policymaking context in U.S. states. In particular, it is expected that state use of more visible policy tools will depend on the economic context in the state, whereas state use of more coercive policy tools will vary with the ideological and partisan context in the state. These hypotheses are tested in a policy area for which states employ a range of distinct policy tools—early childhood education policy. Pooling data from all 50 states at four time points …


Corruption And Policy Implementation In The Philippines: A Comparative Analysis Of The Teacher Training And Textbook Delivery Programmes, Vicente C. Reyes Jr Dec 2006

Corruption And Policy Implementation In The Philippines: A Comparative Analysis Of The Teacher Training And Textbook Delivery Programmes, Vicente C. Reyes Jr

Dr. Vicente C Reyes Jr

Corruption is a perennial obstacle to the Philippines’ pursuit of development. The Department of Education (DepEd) is considered to be one of the most corrupt agencies in the Philippines. However, there are two DepEd programmes with different levels of effectiveness in controlling corruption. The Textbook Delivery Programme has been ineffective while the Programme on Basic Education has been successful. The article explains the different levels of implementing these programmes by using local perspectives via the ‘narratives of implementation actors’. Apart from providing insights on the challenges facing the evolving educational bureaucracy in the Philippines, this article also demonstrates the utility …


Knowledge, Technology Trajectories, And Innovation In A Developing Country Context: Evidence From A Survey Of Malaysian Firms, Deepak Hegde, Philip Shapira Dec 2006

Knowledge, Technology Trajectories, And Innovation In A Developing Country Context: Evidence From A Survey Of Malaysian Firms, Deepak Hegde, Philip Shapira

Philip Shapira

This paper investigates the applicability of contemporary firm-level innovation concepts to a developing country context by drawing on the results of a survey of Malaysian manufacturing and service establishments. We build on Keith Pavitt’s ‘technology trajectories’ framework to empirically test the effect of firms’ structure, strategy, resources, and environment on the probability of their product, process, and organisational innovations across various sectors. We find that Malaysian firms possess relatively high process and organisational innovation capabilities, but lag in new product development. Further, they more frequently utilise a variety of ‘soft factors’ like employee training, knowledge management practices, and collaboration with market actors …


The Precautionary Principle In Context: Us And Eu Scientists’ Prescriptions For Policy In The Face Of Uncertainty, Carol L. Silva, Hank C. Jenkins-Smith Dec 2006

The Precautionary Principle In Context: Us And Eu Scientists’ Prescriptions For Policy In The Face Of Uncertainty, Carol L. Silva, Hank C. Jenkins-Smith

Carol L. Silva

Objective. Our objective is to explain how scientists interpret less-than-certain scientific findings to inform policymakers’ choices on controversial science policy issues. We focus on two particularly difficult policy cases concerning global climate change and low-dose radiation protection. Methods. Our method is to analyze data from a unique multination survey of scientists to analyze the ways their views about what is scientifically correct are translated into judgments about appropriate policy. The surveys asked scientists, randomly drawn from U.S. and E.U. subscribers to the journal Science, to indicate the ‘‘most likely’’ relationships between greenhouse gas emissions and average global temperatures and between …


Application To Participate In The Library Of Congress Section 108 Roundtable., Denise Troll Covey Dec 2006

Application To Participate In The Library Of Congress Section 108 Roundtable., Denise Troll Covey

Denise Troll Covey

No abstract provided.


Garbage Cans, Recycling Bins Or Think Tanks? Three Myths About Policy Institutes, Diane L. Stone Dec 2006

Garbage Cans, Recycling Bins Or Think Tanks? Three Myths About Policy Institutes, Diane L. Stone

Diane L Stone

The phrase ‘think tank’ has become ubiquitous – overworked and underspecified – in the political lexicon. It is entrenched in scholarly discussions of public policy as well as in the ‘policy wonk’ of journalists, lobbyists and spin-doctors. This does not mean that there is an agreed definition of think tank or consensual understanding of their roles and functions. Nevertheless, the majority of organisations with this label undertake policy research of some kind. The idea of think tanks as a research communication ‘bridge’ presupposes that there are discernible boundaries between (social) science and policy. This paper will investigate some of these …


Bibliometric Data Study: Assessing The Current Ranking Of The People’S Republic Of China In A Set Of Research Fields, Frietsch Rainer, Sybille Hinze, Li Tang Dec 2006

Bibliometric Data Study: Assessing The Current Ranking Of The People’S Republic Of China In A Set Of Research Fields, Frietsch Rainer, Sybille Hinze, Li Tang

Li Tang

No abstract provided.


Agrarian Scenario In Post-Reform India: A Story Of Distress, Despair And Death, Srijit Mishra Dec 2006

Agrarian Scenario In Post-Reform India: A Story Of Distress, Despair And Death, Srijit Mishra

Srijit Mishra

Indian agriculture today is under a large crisis. An average farmer household’s returns from cultivation would be around one thousand rupees per month. The incomes are inadequate and the farmer is not in a position to address the multitude of risks: weather, credit, market and technology among others. Social responsibility of education, healthcare and marriage instead of being normal activities add to the burden. All these would even put the semi-medium farmer under a state of transient poverty. The state of the vast majority of small and marginal farmers and agricultural labourers is worse off. An extreme form of response …