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Total defence	Total defence is a defence policy combining and extending the concept of military defence and civil defence. It entails a high level of readiness of both the state and its society to defend itself in cases of dangers and catastrophes such as war, crisis, or natural disasters. Total defence represents all activities preparing the society for war. It implies that in a state of war or emergency, all functions of society, both military and civilian, are included in the defence efforts. This means that in the event of a crisis, all social institutions, such as army, police, parliament, government and its agencies, local authorities, the health system, civil society organizations, entrepreneurs, and individuals would all be mobilized to defend the state. The implementation of total defence is not globally uniform; instead, the modalities of its application differ from state to state. Differences can be noticed from the implementing elements. Achieving absolute protection of the population is not possible and requires significant resources and costs, for that reason the states make calculations on how to reach the highest possible level of readiness of the population for crisis situations. They usually opt for certain combinations of elements of total defence, which are adapted to their capabilities and level of threat. Particularly important elements are compulsory military service, territorial defence forces, civil defence, economic defence, and psychological defence. Civil defence efforts might include a compulsory fire service, while economic defence preemptively prepares for a war economy by stockpiling strategic reserves. States applying total defence are also more likely to engage in peacetime tripartite compulsory arbitration in order to maintain essential services. Social and psychological defence as practiced by liberal democracies is sometimes fulfilled by defensive democracy and high policing, while less repressive methods might encourage consensus governments and cordons sanitaires against potential fifth columns. Depending on the country's geography, other aspects of total defence could include the establishment of national redoubts and stay-behind forces, training conscripts in free war tactics, and designing civil infrastructure, such as highway strips, to be easily repurposed for military use. For example, in Finland, the term encompasses all measures in civil and military sectors that safeguard the livelihoods and security of citizens against external threats, in order to defend Finland's independence. Similarly in Sweden, the term means that civil and military defence activities operate jointly, with the aim of protecting and ensuring socially important functions, such as the Swedish Parliament and the Port of Gothenburg. List of users Total defence has been adopted by several countries: Austria Denmark Estonia Finland Indonesia Lithuania Norway Russia Singapore Sweden Serbia Switzerland Taiwan Ukraine See also Total war Whole-of-society References Civil defense	0.773431	0.968728	0.749244
Semi-structured interview	A semi-structured interview is a method of research used most often in the social sciences. While a structured interview has a rigorous set of questions which does not allow one to divert, a semi-structured interview is open, allowing new ideas to be brought up during the interview as a result of what the interviewee says. The interviewer in a semi-structured interview generally has a framework of themes to be explored. Semi-structured interviews are widely used in qualitative research; for example in household research, such as couple interviews. A semi-structured interview involving, for example, two spouses can result in "the production of rich data, including observational data." Comparison to other types of interviews An unstructured interview is the opposite of structured interview, because it tends to be more informal and free flowing and it is more like an everyday conversation. A structured interview is a type of interview that is completely planned, which means every interviewee gets the same interview questions. A semi-structured interview is the one in between. The questions are loosely structured and give interviewees more opportunities to fully express themselves. However, semi-structured interviews are less objective and legally harder to defend when compared with structured interviews. Semi-structured interviews somewhat restrict the interviewee's free flow of thoughts which limited the potential possibility of the interview as a whole. Because semi-structured interview is a combination of both structured interviewing and unstructured interviewing, it has both of their advantages. For interviewers, the constructed part of semi-structured interview gives them a general overview of the interviewees. It helps them draw an objective comparison from the interviewees, which is helpful for either qualitative research study or job interview. For interviewees, because the unstructured part of semi-structured interview gives them more space to ask for clarification on answers and to express free flow of thoughts, the interviewees normally feel less stress during the interview. They would present more communication skills to the interviewers and build personal bond with them under the relatively warm and friendly atmosphere. Advantages and disadvantages Advantages Since a semi-structured interview is a combination of an unstructured interview and a structured interview, it has the advantages of both. The interviewees can express their opinions and ask questions to the interviewers during the interview, which encourages them to give more useful information, such as their opinions toward sensitive issues, to the qualitative research. And they could more easily give the reasons for their answers during the interviews. Plus, the structured part of semi-structured interviews gives the interviewers reliable, comparable qualitative data as well. Disadvantages Even though a semi-structured interview has several advantages, it needs time for the interviewers to prepare and do research before actually starting the interview. And in order to make the results reliable, interviewers need to meet an adequate number of people to conduct the interview. Since it allows people to freely express their thoughts, the interviewers need to carefully plan the questions to make sure they can get the answers they want, which also requires good communication and interviewing skills. Interviewers are responsible for the confidentiality of the interviews. Interview guides The specific topic or topics that the interviewer wants to explore during the interview are typically thought about well in advance—especially during interviews for research projects. It is generally beneficial for interviewers to have an interview guide prepared. An interview guide is an informal grouping of topics and questions that the interviewer can ask in different ways for different participants. Interview guides help researchers to focus an interview on the topics at hand without constraining them to a particular format. This freedom can help interviewers to tailor their questions to the interview context/situation, and to the people, they are interviewing. There are several things for interviewers to pay attention to while preparing and conducting their interviews. When preparing for the semi-structured interview, the interviewers need to consider the characteristics of their questions. They should use open-ended questions but dichotomous questions which only lead to two opposite answers, and they should avoid asking multiple questions, leading questions or why questions. It is helpful for the interviewers that they have a scale for grading the answers prior to the interview. The drawback of the leading question is that it could subtly orient interviewers toward a certain way. And the downside of why questions is they can make the questions sound judgmental and might generate negative answers. During the interview, interviewers could try to restate and summarize the interviewees' answers to confirm their opinions. They could generate new questions based on interviewers' answers, but the questions should be around the particular qualities and experiences that they are looking for in interviewers. It is also helpful to take detailed notes or recording the whole interview to compare the answers afterward. Ethical considerations Because semi-structured interviews allow people to communicate and express their free flow of thoughts at some degrees, the interviewers need to pay attention to their intercultural competence and cultural dimensions during the communication. Intercultural competence requires people to recognize and respect the diversity of different cultural backgrounds. People with high intercultural competence often tend to respect individual variations and different cultural patterns. They often have self-assessments and are aware of the differences between people. They make their conclusions and assessments based on reliable evidence. People can improve their intercultural competence by regular self-assessments including their values, beliefs and personal biases to improve their self-awareness. The interviewers need to understand that their personal beliefs and biases may slightly impact the way they address questions and, as a result, influence the outcomes of semi-structured interviews. Interviewers are also required to realize the cultural dimensions. Lack of the recognition of cultural dimensions could lead to miscommunication and unpleasant results during semi-structured interviews. Having high level of cultural dimensions can be reflected as, for example, respecting masculine, individualistic, uncertainty avoidance cultures. References External links Semi-structured interview at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations's website Qualitative research	0.760376	0.985356	0.749241
Pol.is	Polis (or Pol.is) is wiki survey software designed to get large groups of people to collaborate. An example of a civic technology, Polis allows people to share their opinions and ideas, and its algorithm is intended to elevate ideas that can facilitate better decision-making. Polis has been credited for assisting the passage of legislation in Taiwan. Polis has also been used in America, Canada, Singapore and other governments around the world. Colin Megill is one of the cofounders of Pol.is along with Christopher Small and Michael Bjorkegren who built it after Occupy Wall Street and the Arab Spring. Taiwan vTaiwan vTaiwan has used pol.is as "one of the key parts" of its suite of open-source tools in its citizen engagement efforts. vTaiwan claims that of the 26 national issues related to technology were discussed on the platform and 80% led to government action. Join Pol.is is also utilized by "Join," a national platform for online deliberation run by the Tiwanese government. By 2018, "Join" had 5 million users, more than vTaiwan had up until that point. Megill credits Tang and CL Kao, a cofounder of g0v, with convincing him to open-source pol.is. Reception Andrew Leonard describes Pol.is as being intended as an antidote to the divisiveness of traditional internet discourse. Audrey Tang agreed saying, "Polis is quite well known in that it's a kind of social media that instead of polarizing people to drive so called engagement or addiction or attention, it automatically drives bridge making narratives and statements. So only the ideas that speak to both sides or to multiple sides will gain prominence in Polis." Carl Miller praised the technology as having "gamified finding consensus." Darshana Narayanan, in an op-ed in the Economist, argues that open-source machine-learning-based tools like Polis can help to bypass the influence of special interests or experts. Jamie Susskind cited polis and vTaiwan as a model for democracies, particularly around digital policy issues. See also Recommender system#Decision-making Social media#Criticism, debate and controversy External links Media coverage of the organization compiled by Pol.is Can Taiwan Reboot Democracy? by Click (BBC) via YouTube Website of Consul Democracy, a similar but distinct project Website of CrowdLaw, a similar but distinct project References Algorithms Open source projects Deliberative groups Participatory democracy E-democracy	0.783962	0.955706	0.749237
Robinson Crusoe economy	A Robinson Crusoe economy is a simple framework used to study some fundamental issues in economics. It assumes an economy with one consumer, one producer and two goods. The title "Robinson Crusoe" is a reference to the 1719 novel of the same name authored by Daniel Defoe. As a thought experiment in economics, many international trade economists have found this simplified and idealized version of the story important due to its ability to simplify the complexities of the real world. The implicit assumption is that the study of a one agent economy will provide useful insights into the functioning of a real world economy with many economic agents. This article pertains to the study of consumer behaviour, producer behaviour and equilibrium as a part of microeconomics. In other fields of economics, the Robinson Crusoe economy framework is used for essentially the same thing. For example, in public finance the Robinson Crusoe economy is used to study the various types of public goods and certain aspects of collective benefits. It is used in growth economics to develop growth models for underdeveloped or developing countries to embark upon a steady growth path using techniques of savings and investment. Framework Robinson Crusoe is assumed to be shipwrecked on a deserted island. The basic assumptions are as follows: The island is cut off from the rest of the world (and hence cannot trade) There is only a single economic agent (Crusoe himself) All commodities on the island have to be produced or found from existing stocks There is only one individual – Robinson Crusoe himself. He acts both as a producer to maximise profits, as well as consumer to maximise his utility. The possibility of trade can be introduced by adding another person to the economy. This person is Crusoe's friend, Man Friday. Although in the novel he plays the role of Crusoe's servant, in the Robinson Crusoe economy he is considered as another actor with equal decision-making abilities as Crusoe. Along with this, conditions of Pareto efficiency can be analysed by bringing in the concept of the Edgeworth box. Similar to the choices that households (suppliers of labour) face, Crusoe has only two activities to participate in – earn income or pass his time in leisure. The income generating activity in this case is gathering coconuts. As usual, the more time he spends in leisure, the less food he has to eat, and conversely, the more time he spends gathering coconuts, the less time he has for leisure. This is depicted in figure 1. Production function and indifference curves Crusoe's indifference curves depict his preferences for leisure and coconuts while the production function depicts the technological relationship between how much he works and how many coconuts he gathers. If the axes depicting coconut collection and leisure are reversed and plotted with Crusoe's indifference map and production function, figure 2 can be drawn: The production function is concave in two dimensions and quasi-convex in three dimensions. This means that the longer Robinson works, the more coconuts he will be able to gather. But due to diminishing marginal returns of labour, the additional number of coconuts he gets from every additional hour of labour is declining. The point at which Crusoe will reach an equilibrium between the number of hours he works and relaxes can be found out when the highest indifference curve is tangent to the production function. This will be Crusoe's most preferred point provided the technology constraint is given and cannot be changed. At this equilibrium point, the slope of the highest indifference curve must equal the slope of the production function. Recall that the marginal rate of substitution is the rate at which a consumer is ready to give up one good in exchange for another good while maintaining the same level of utility. Additionally, an input's marginal product is the extra output that can be produced by using one more unit of the input, assuming that the quantities of no other inputs to production change. Then, MPL = MRSLeisure, Coconuts where MPL = marginal product of labour, and MRSLeisure, Coconuts = marginal rate of substitution between leisure and coconuts Crusoe's multifaceted role Suppose Crusoe decides to stop being a producer and consumer simultaneously. He decides he will produce one day and consume the next. His two roles of consumer and producer are being split up and studied separately to understand the elementary form of consumer theory and producer theory in microeconomics. For dividing his time between being a consumer and producer, he must set up two collectively exhaustive markets, the coconut market and the labour market. He also sets up a firm, of which he becomes the sole shareholder. The firm will want to maximise profits by deciding how much labour to hire and how many coconuts to produce according to their prices. As a worker of the firm, Crusoe will collect wages, as a shareholder, he will collect profits and as a consumer, he will decide how much of the firm's output to purchase according to his income and the prevailing market prices. Let's assume that a currency called "Dollars" has been created by Robinson to manage his finances. For simplicity, assume that PriceCoconuts = $1.00. This assumption is made to make the calculations in the numerical example easy because the inclusion of prices will not alter the result of the analysis. For more details, refer to numéraire commodities. Producer Assume that when the firm produces C amount of total coconuts, represents its profit level. Also assume that when the wage rate at which the firm employs labour is w, L is the amount of labour that will be employed. Then, The above function describes iso-profit lines (the locus of combinations between labour and coconuts that produce a constant profit of Π). Profits can be maximised when the marginal product of labour equals the wage rate (marginal cost of production). Symbolically, MPL = w Graphically, the iso-profit line must be tangent to the production function. The vertical intercept of the iso-profit line measures the level of profit that Robinson Crusoe's firm will make. This level of profit, Π, has the ability to purchase Π dollars worth of coconuts. Since PriceCoconuts is $1.00, Π number of coconuts can be purchased. Also, the firm will declare a dividend of Π dollars. This will be given to the firm's sole shareholder, Crusoe himself. Consumer As a consumer, Crusoe will have to decide how much to work (or indulge in leisure) and hence consume. He can choose to not work at all, since he has an endowment of Π dollars from being a shareholder. Let us instead consider the more realistic case of him deciding to work for a few hours. His labour consumption choice can be illustrated in figure 4: Note that labour is assumed to be a 'bad', i.e., a commodity that a consumer doesn't like. Its presence in his consumption basket lowers the utility he derives. On the other hand, coconuts are goods. This is why the indifference curves are positively sloped. The maximum amount of labour is indicated by L'. The distance from L' to the chosen supply of labour (L*) gives Crusoe's demand for leisure. Notice Crusoe's budget line. It has a slope of w and passes through the point (0,Π). This point is his endowment level i.e., even when he supplies 0 amount of labour, he has Π amount of coconuts (dollars) to consume. Given the wage rate, Crusoe will choose how much to work and how much to consume at that point where, MRSLeisure, Coconuts = w Equilibrium At equilibrium, the demand for coconuts will equal the supply of coconuts and the demand for labour will equal the supply of labour. Graphically this occurs when the diagrams under consumer and producer are superimposed. Notice that, MRSLeisure, Coconuts = w MPL = w => MRSLeisure, Coconuts = MPL This ensures that the slopes of the indifference curves and the production set are the same. As a result, Crusoe ends up consuming at the same point he would have if he made all the above decisions together. In other words, using the market system has the same outcome as choosing the individual utility maximisation and cost minimisation plans. This is an important result when put into a macro level perspective because it implies that there exists a set of prices for inputs and outputs in the economy such that the profit-maximising behaviour of firms along with the utility-maximizing actions of individuals results in the demand for each good equaling the supply in all markets. This means that a competitive equilibrium can exist. The merit of a competitive equilibrium is that an efficient allocation of resources is achievable. In other words, no economic agent can be made better off without making another economic agent worse off. Production possibilities with two goods Let's assume that there is another commodity that Crusoe can produce apart from coconuts, for example, fish. Now, Robinson has to decide how much time to spare for both activities, i.e. how many coconuts to gather and how many fish to hunt. The locus of the various combinations of fish and coconuts that he can produce from devoting different amounts of time to each activity is known as the production possibilities set. This is depicted in the figure 6: The boundary of the production possibilities set is known as the production-possibility frontier (PPF). This curve measures the feasible outputs that Crusoe can produce, with a fixed technological constraint and given amount of resources. In this case, the resources and technological constraints are Robinson Crusoe's labour. The shape of the PPF depends on the nature of the technology in use. Here, technology refers to the type of returns to scale prevalent. In figure 6, the underlying assumption is the usual decreasing returns to scale, due to which the PPF is concave to the origin. In case we assumed increasing returns to scale, say if Crusoe embarked upon a mass production movement and hence faced decreasing costs, the PPF would be convex to the origin. The PPF is linear with a downward slope in two circumstances: If the technology for gathering coconuts and hunting fish exhibits constant returns to scale If there is only one input in production So in the Robinson Crusoe economy, the PPF will be linear due to the presence of only one input. Marginal rate of transformation Suppose that Crusoe can produce 4 pounds of fish or 8 pounds of coconuts per hour. If he devotes Lf hours to fish gathering and Lc hours to gathering coconuts, he will produce 4Lf pounds of fish and 8Lc pounds of coconuts. Suppose that he decides to work for 12 hours a day. Then the production possibilities set will consist of all combinations of fish, F, and coconuts, C, such that Solve the first two equations and substitute in the third to get This equation represents Crusoe's PPF. The slope of this PPF measures the Marginal rate of transformation (MRT), i.e., how much of the first good must be given up in order to increase the production of the second good by one unit. If Crusoe works one hour less on hunting fish, he will have 4 less fish. If he devotes this extra hour to collecting coconuts, he will have 8 extra coconuts. The MRT is thus, MRT Coconuts, Fish Comparative advantage Under this section, the possibility of trade is introduced by adding another person to the economy. Suppose that the new worker who is added to the Robinson Crusoe economy has different skills in gathering coconuts and hunting fish. The second person is called "Friday". Friday can produce 8 pounds of fish or 4 pounds of coconuts per hour. If he too decides to work for 12 hours, his production possibilities set will be determined by the following relations: Thus, MRT Coconuts, Fish This means that for every pound of coconuts Friday gives up, he can produce 2 more pounds of fish. So, we can say that Friday has a comparative advantage in hunting fish while Crusoe has a comparative advantage in gathering coconuts. Their respective PPFs can be shown in the following diagram: The joint production possibilities set at the extreme right shows the total amount of both commodities that can be produced by Crusoe and Friday together. It combines the best of both workers. If both of them work to gather coconuts only, the economy will have 144 coconuts in all, 96 from Crusoe and 48 from Friday. (This can be obtained by setting F = 0 in their respective PPF equations and summing them up). Here the slope of the joint PPF is −1/2. If we want more fish, we should shift that person who has a comparative advantage in fish hunting (i.e. Friday) out of coconut gathering and into fish hunting. When Friday is producing 96 pounds of fish, he is fully occupied. If fish production is to be increased beyond this point, Crusoe will have to start hunting fish. Here onward, the slope of the joint PPF is −2. If we want to produce only fish, then the economy will have 144 pounds of fish, 48 from Crusoe and 96 from Friday. Thus the joint PPF is kinked because Crusoe and Friday have comparative advantages in different commodities. As the economy gets more and more ways of producing output and different comparative advantages, the PPF becomes concave. Pareto efficiency Assume that there are c units of coconut and f units of fish available for consumption in the Crusoe Friday economy. Given this endowment bundle (c,f), the Pareto efficient bundle can be determined at the mutual tangency of Crusoe's and Friday's indifference curves in the Edgeworth box along the Pareto Set (contract curve). These are the bundles at which Crusoe's and Friday's marginal rate of substitution are equal. In a simple exchange economy, the contract curve describes the set of bundles that exhaust the gains from trade. But in a Robinson Crusoe/Friday economy, there is another way to exchange goods – to produce less of one good and more of the other. From the figure 8, it is clear that an economy operating at a position where the MRS of either Crusoe or Friday is not equal to the MRT between coconuts and fish cannot be Pareto efficient. This is because the rate at which, say Friday is willing to trade coconuts for fish is different from the rate at which coconuts can be transformed into fish. Thus, there is a way to make Friday better off by rearranging the production pattern. Thus for Pareto efficiency, MRT Coconuts, Fish = MRSCoconuts, Fish (for both Crusoe and Friday) This can be achieved in a competitive market by decentralising production and consumption decisions, i.e. Crusoe and Friday will both solve their own problems of how much to consume and produce independently. See also Autarky Fundamental theorems of welfare economics Robinson Crusoe § Economic — Economic interpretation of Robinson Crusoe Welfare economics § Efficiency — Efficiency between production and consumption References External links University courses Jeffrey Miron's course at Harvard Daniel McFadden's course at Harvard Yossi Spiegel's course at Tel Aviv University Thomas M. Steger's course at Center of Economic Research Joseph Tao-yi Wang's course at Walden University Larry Blume's course at Santa Fe Institute Teng Wah Leo's course at St.Francis Xavier University Articles Stimulus works on absorbability The unfortunate uselessness of most 'state of the art' academic monetary economics Economic growth Microeconomics Self-sustainability Economics catchphrases Production economics Robinson Crusoe Consumer theory Thought experiments Eponymous economic ideologies	0.768625	0.97476	0.749225
Avaaz	Avaaz is an American-based nonprofit organization launched in January 2007 that promotes global activism on issues such as climate change, human rights, animal rights, corruption, poverty, and conflict. The word "avaaz" means voice in several Asian and European languages. In 2012, The Guardian referred to Avaaz as "the globe's largest and most powerful online activist network". Funding, campaigns selection process and management "Since 2009, Avaaz has not taken donations from foundations or corporations, nor has it accepted payments of more than $5,000 (£3,100)", The Guardian reported. "Instead, it relies simply on the generosity of individual members, who have now raised over $20m (£12.4m)." Prior to 2009, various foundations had funded Avaaz's staff and start-up costs. Global campaigns selection process Avaaz global campaigns are managed by a team of campaigners working from over 30 countries, including the UK, India, Lebanon and Brazil. They communicate with members via email, and employ campaigning tactics including online public petitions, videos, and email-your-leader tools. In some cases Avaaz also uses advertisements and commissions legal advice to clarify how best to take a campaign forward, and stages "sit-ins, rallies, phone-ins and media friendly stunts". Examples of stunts include "taking a herd of cardboard pigs to the doors of the World Health Organization to demand an investigation into the link between swine flu and giant pig farms and creating a three-mile human chain handshake from the Dalai Lama to the doors of the Chinese Embassy in London to request dialogue between the parties". Suggestions for campaigns come from members, supplemented by guidance from teams of specialists. Once a suggestion has been taken up as having potential, tester emails are polled to 10,000 Avaaz members; if the emails receive a sufficient response, the campaign is opened up to all Avaaz members. In 2010, The Economist suggested that "the way Avaaz bunches unlikely causes together may be an asset in a world where campaigns, like race and class, can still segregate people, not reconcile them". Ideology Avaaz claims to unite practical idealists from around the world. Former director Ricken Patel said in 2011: "We have no ideology per se. Our mission is to close the gap between the world we have and the world most people everywhere want. Idealists of the world unite!" In practice, Avaaz often supports causes considered progressive, such as calling for global action on climate change, challenging Monsanto, and building greater global support for refugees. During the 2009 Iranian presidential election protests, Avaaz set up Internet proxy servers to allow protesters to upload videos onto public websites. Avaaz supported the establishment of a no-fly zone over Libya, which led to the military intervention in the country in 2011. It was criticized for its pro-intervention stance in the media and blogs. Avaaz supported the civil uprising preceding the Syrian Civil War. This included sending $1.5 million of Internet communications equipment to protesters, and training activists. Later it used smuggling routes to send over $2 million of medical equipment into rebel-held areas of Syria. It also smuggled 34 international journalists into Syria. Avaaz coordinated the evacuation of wounded British photographer Paul Conroy from Homs. Thirteen Syrian activists died during the evacuation operation. Some senior members of other non-governmental organizations working in the Middle East have criticized Avaaz for taking sides in a civil war. As of November 2016, Avaaz continues campaigning for no-fly zones over Syria in general and specifically Aleppo. (Gen. Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States, has said that establishing a no-fly zone means going to war against Syria and Russia.) It has received criticism from parts of the political blogosphere and has a single digit percentage of its users opposing the petitions, with a number of users ultimately leaving the network. The Avaaz team responded to this criticism by issuing two statements defending their decision to campaign. In the 2016 United States presidential election, Avaaz campaigned against Donald Trump with the slogan "Defeat Donald Trump", and produced a software tool to simplify overseas voter registration. Avaaz opposed 21st Century Fox's bid to take over the pan-European broadcasting company Sky plc. As part of this campaign, Avaaz brought Wendy Walsh, a woman who alleges she was sexually harassed at Fox News, to London in May 2017 to testify to British media regulator Ofcom. In September 2017, Avaaz took legal action in the British High Court of Justice, by seeking a judicial review of the regulator Ofcom's decision not to recommend rejection of the takeover. Bloomberg described Avaaz as "the fly in the ointment of Murdoch's Sky bid". When Mr Murdoch withdrew his Sky bid, Ian Burrell commented that it "represents a victory for the civic activist group Avaaz, which has relentlessly campaigned against a takeover which seemed inevitable". Monsanto subpoena In January 2018, Monsanto requested Avaaz hand over all documents the organization held in relation to glyphosate. Lawyers for the company said they planned to use the documentation in their defense during an upcoming court case involving two plaintiffs in Missouri who say their cancer was caused by exposure to Monsanto's "Roundup" herbicide. Avaaz argued that a successful subpoena would result in a "chilling effect" on the group's work. On September 5, 2018, a New York judge sided with Avaaz. The judge stated that the subpoena "risked 'chilling' free speech and political activity", and argued that Monsanto's request was "anti-democratic". Reception Some question whether Avaaz's focus on online petitions and email campaigns may encourage laziness, transforming potential activism into clicktivism. Malcolm Gladwell says that petition tools do not create "close-knit, disciplined and tenacious" networks of activists. In February 2012, Avaaz raised money for the evacuation of Paul Conroy from Syria, a mission that led to the deaths of 13 activists in Syria. A New Republic article accused Avaaz of making false claims about their own role in the evacuation. Jillian York has accused Avaaz of arrogance and lack of transparency. The Defensor Da Natureza blog has accused Avaaz of taking credit for the success of the Ficha Limpa anti-corruption bill in Brazil, which Luis Nassif reposted. In 2008, Canadian conservative minister John Baird labeled Avaaz a "shadowy foreign organization" tied to billionaire George Soros. Another Canadian, conservative media personality Ezra Levant, tried to make a link between Soros and Avaaz.org as an indirect supporter through MoveOn, but the article was later retracted as baseless and an apology was offered to Soros. See also Internet activism Slacktivism References External links AVAAZ home page Organizations established in 2007 Internet-based activism Human rights organizations International political websites American political websites Left-wing advocacy groups Left-wing activism Online petitions International organizations based in the United States	0.760158	0.985609	0.749219
Primacy of European Union law	The primacy of European Union law (sometimes referred to as supremacy or precedence of European law) is a legal principle establishing precedence of European Union law over conflicting national laws of EU member states. The principle was derived from an interpretation of the European Court of Justice, which ruled that European law has priority over any contravening national law, including the constitution of a member state itself. For the European Court of Justice, national courts and public officials must disapply a national norm that they consider not to be compliant with the EU law. The majority of national courts have generally recognized and accepted this principle, except for the part where European law outranks a member state's constitution. As a result, national constitutional courts have also reserved the right to review the conformity of EU law with national constitutional law. Some countries provide that if national and EU law contradict, courts and public officials are required to suspend the application of the national law, bring the question to the national constitutional court and wait until its decision is made. If the norm has been declared to be constitutional, they are automatically obliged to apply the national law. This can create a contradiction between the national constitutional court and the European Court of Justice, like on 7 October 2021 when the Polish Constitutional Tribunal issued a judgment in case K 3/21 challenging the primacy of EU law in certain areas of the Polish legal order. Development In Costa v. ENEL. Mr Costa was an Italian citizen opposed to the nationalisation of energy companies. Because he had shares in a private corporation subsumed by the nationalised company, ENEL, he refused to pay his electricity bill in protest. In the subsequent suit brought to Italian courts by ENEL, he argued that nationalisation infringed EU law on the state distorting the market. The Italian government believed that not to be an issue that even could be complained about by a private individual since it was a decision to make by a national law. The ECJ ruled in favour of the government because the relevant treaty rule on an undistorted market was one on which the Commission alone could challenge the Italian government. As an individual, Mr Costa had no standing to challenge the decision, because that treaty provision had no direct effect. But on the prior issue of Mr Costa's ability to raise a point of EU law against a national government in legal proceedings before the courts in that member state the ECJ disagreed with the Italian government. It ruled that EU law would not be effective if Mr Costa could not challenge national law on the basis of its alleged incompatibility with EU law. It follows from all these observations that the law stemming from the treaty, an independent source of law, could not, because of its special and original nature, be overridden by domestic legal provisions, however framed, without being deprived of its character as community law and without the legal basis of the community itself being called into question. In other cases, state legislatures write the precedence of EU law into their constitutions. For example, the Constitution of Ireland contains this clause: "No provision of this Constitution invalidates laws enacted, acts done or measures adopted by the State which are necessitated by the obligations of membership of the European Union or of the Communities". C-106/77, Simmenthal [1978] ECR 629, duty to set aside provisions of national law that are incompatible with Union law. C-106/89 Marleasing [1991] ECR I-7321, national law must be interpreted and applied, if possible, to avoid a conflict with a Community rule. Article I-6 of the European Constitution stated: "The Constitution and law adopted by the institutions of the Union in exercising competences conferred on it shall have primacy over the law of the Member States". The proposed constitution was never ratified, after being rejected in referendums in France and the Netherlands in 2005. Its replacement, the Treaty of Lisbon, did not include the article on primacy but instead included the following declaration: Particular countries Depending on the constitutional tradition of member states, different solutions have been developed to adapt questions of incompatibility between State law and Union law to one another. EU law is accepted as having supremacy over the law of member states, but not all member states share the ECJ's analysis on why EU law takes precedence over state law if there is a conflict. Belgium In its ruling of 27 May 1971, often nicknamed the "Franco-Suisse Le Ski ruling" or "Cheese Spread ruling", the Belgian Court of Cassation ruled that self-executing treaties prevail over national law, and even over the Belgian Constitution. In 2016, the Belgian Constitutional Court ruled that there is a limit to the primacy of EU law over the Belgian Constitution. Mimicking the Identitätsvorbehalt jurisprudence of the German Constitutional Court, it ruled that the core of Belgium's constitutional identity cannot be trumped by EU law. Czech Republic Article 10 of the Constitution of the Czech Republic states that every international treaty ratified by the Parliament of the Czech Republic is part of the Czech legislative order and takes precedence over all other laws. France Like many other countries within the civil law legal tradition, France's judicial system is divided between ordinary and administrative courts. The ordinary courts accepted the supremacy of EU law in 1975, but the administrative courts accepted the doctrine only in 1990. The supreme administrative court, the Conseil d'Etat, had held that as the administrative courts had no power of judicial review over legislation enacted by the French Parliament, they could not find that national legislation was incompatible with Union law or give it precedence over a conflicting State law. That was in contrast to the supreme ordinary court, the Cour de cassation; in the case of Administration des Douanes v Société 'Cafes Jacques Vabre' et SARL Wiegel et Cie, it ruled that precedence should be given to Union law over State law in line with the requirements of the Article 55 of the French Constitution, which accorded supremacy to ratified international treaty over State law. The administrative courts finally changed their position in the case of Raoul Georges Nicolo by deciding to follow the reasoning used by the Cour de cassation. Germany In its Solange I decision, Germany's Federal Constitutional Court articulated constitutional limits on Germany's integration into the European Union. The Court expressed concern that Europe lacked either a “democratically legitimate parliament directly elected by general suffrage” or a “codified catalogue of fundamental rights.” Consequently, it argued that independent review was necessary to ensure that the unamendable protections of German Basic Law are upheld. In response, the European Parliament, Council, and Commission issued a joint declaration emphasizing the “prime importance” of fundamental rights, as derived from both member states’ constitutions and the European Convention on Human Rights. Noting this development in Solange II, the German Constitutional Court held that so long as EU law had a level of protection of fundamental rights that is substantially in concurrence with the protections afforded by the German constitution, it would no longer review specific EU acts in light of that constitution. The Solange cases engendered a “cooperative relationship” between the Federal Constitutional Court and the ECJ. This amicable rivalry greatly influenced the latter court's jurisprudence, and has been recently reanimated in light of financial disputes in Gauweiler and Others v Deutscher Bundestag. Ireland The Third Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland explicitly provided for the supremacy of EU law in Ireland by providing that no other provision of the Irish constitution could invalidate laws enacted if they were necessitated by membership of the European Communities. In Crotty v. An Taoiseach, the Irish Supreme Court held that the ratification of the Single European Act by Ireland was not necessitated by membership of the European Communities and so could be subject to review by the courts. Italy In Frontini v. Ministero delle Finanze, the plaintiff sought to have a national law disregarded without having to wait for the Italian Constitutional Court do so. The ECJ ruled that every State's supreme court must apply Union law in its entirety. Lithuania The Lithuanian Constitutional Court concluded on 14 March 2006 in case no. 17/02-24/02-06/03-22/04, § 9.4 in Chapter III, that EU law has supremacy over ordinary legal acts of the Lithuanian Parliament but not over the Lithuanian constitution. If the Constitutional Court finds EU law to be contrary to the constitution, the former law loses its direct effect and shall remain inapplicable. Malta Article 65 of the Maltese constitution provides that all laws made by Parliament must be consistent with EU law and Malta's obligations deriving from its Treaty of Accession. Netherlands The Constitution of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (Dutch: Grondwet) functions as a codification of political practice rather than a normative collection of robust guarantees. As in the United Kingdom, the legislature has broad authority to define constitutional law as well as limits on the protection of rights. The Grondwet enshrines neither an absolute right to a fair trial, life, or property, and it provides few guidelines for the formation of governments. Moreover, judicial review of the constitutionality of parliamentary acts was prohibited in 1848. Nevertheless, EU integration has been a relatively seamless process due to the Netherlands’ monist legal order, which considers international law on par with national law even absent any implementing statute. Treaty review powers have consequently expanded the authority of Dutch courts significantly, with the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights serving as a de facto judicially-enforceable bill of rights. The Netherlands ensures that its judges are informed of EU law by offering relevant courses through the Training and Study Centre for the Judiciary, and by providing each court with an expert Coordinator for European Law responsible for offering guidance on practical legal applications. Poland While Poland rejects the idea of Primacy of European Union law as defined in case law on basis of the ruling K 18/04 of The Constitutional Tribunal it follows article 91. sec 3. of Constitution which gives international organization ability to formulate law that can overwrite Polish statutes. The law has priority in conflict with the statutes if the law is concurrent to the text of the treaty that constitutes that international organization. The ratified international agreement also overwrites the statutes if the statute is impossible to reconcile with the agreement on basis of article 91. sec 2. The tribunal also have ruled that EU law can not override the Polish constitution. In a conflict between EU law and the constitution, constitution prevails. Poland can then make a sovereign decision as to how conflict EU law vs Constitution should be resolved (by changing the constitution, seeking to change the EU law or leaving the EU). On 7 October 2021, Poland's Constitutional Tribunal ruled that some provisions of the EU treaties and some EU court rulings go against Poland's highest law. United Kingdom as a former member state The United Kingdom was a member state of the European Union and its predecessor the European Communities from 1 January 1973 until 31 January 2020. During this time the issue of EU law taking precedence over national law was a significant issue and a cause for debate both among politicians and even in the judiciary. In R v Secretary of State for Transport, ex p Factortame Ltd, the House of Lords ruled that courts in the United Kingdom had the power to "disapply" acts of parliament if they conflicted with EU law. Lord Bridge held that Parliament had voluntarily accepted this limitation of its sovereignty and was fully aware that even if the limitation of sovereignty was not inherent in the Treaty of Rome, it had been well established by jurisprudence before Parliament passed the European Communities Act 1972. In 2011 the UK Government, as part of the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition agreement following the 2010 UK general election, passed the European Union Act 2011 in an attempt to address the issue by inserting a sovereignty clause. The clause was enacted in section 18 which says: However, in the 2014 case of R (HS2 Action Alliance Ltd) v Secretary of State for Transport, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom said: At 23:00 GMT (00:00 CET in Brussels) on 31 January 2020, after 47 years of membership, the United Kingdom became the first member state to formally leave the European Union. It did so under the terms of the Brexit withdrawal agreement. At the same time, the European Communities Act 1972 (ECA 1972), the piece of legislation that incorporated EU law (Community law as it was in 1972) into the domestic law of the United Kingdom, was repealed by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, although the effect of the 1972 Act was saved by the provisions of the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 to enable EU law to continue to have legal effect within the UK until the end of the implementation period, which ended on 31 December 2020. Since the implementation period has now ended, EU law no longer applies to the UK. However the principle of the supremacy of EU law applies to the interpretation of retained EU law. In September 2021 the UK government announced a review of retained EU law, aiming to remove the special status retained European Union law currently holds in the United Kingdom, and to repeal retained EU laws which are "no longer right for the UK". The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 became law in June 2023, the act allows the UK government to revoke retained EU laws, modify those remaining and changes how such laws are interpreted. The original act aimed to revoke over 4000 laws by the end of 2023, however this was later reduced to 800, with the remaining laws still under review. The act took effect on the 1st January 2024, as a result retained EU law supremacy has ended within the UK, and retained laws no longer need to be interpreted in line with EU law principles. See also Thoburn v Sunderland City Council (2002) Van Gend en Loos v Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen (1963) National Identity Clause Supremacy Clause, analogous concept within the Constitution of the United States Section 109 of the Constitution of Australia – analogous concept within the Constitution of Australia Subsidiarity (European Union) Paramountcy (Canada) – analogous doctrine in Canadian constitutional law Notes European Union constitutional law Conflict of laws	0.763278	0.981559	0.749202
Hegemony and Socialist Strategy	Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics is a 1985 work of political theory in the post-Marxist tradition by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. Developing several sharp divergences from the tenets of canonical Marxist thought, the authors begin by tracing historically varied discursive constitutions of class, political identity, and social self-understanding, and then tie these to the contemporary importance of hegemony as a destabilized analytic which avoids the traps of various procedures Mouffe and Laclau feel constitute a foundational flaw in Marxist thought: essentializations of class identity, the use of a priori interpretative paradigms with respect to history and contextualization, the privileging of the base/superstructure binary above other explicative models. Organization The book is divided into four chapters (~50 pages each). The first two chapters deal with conceptual developments in the manner of an intellectual history, albeit with much more of an eye to disputation and intervention than traditional intellectual history employs. Specifically, Chapter 1 discusses the work of Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Kautsky, Eduard Bernstein, and Georges Sorel (among other texts by major thinkers in the Marxist tradition). Chapter 2's discussion of Gramsci's conception of cultural hegemony is followed by Chapter 3's more politicized development of Laclau and Mouffe's own arguments regarding hegemony's character and constitution. Finally, the fourth chapter argues for the relevance of hegemony as an analytic for the understanding and governance of contemporary politics, political engagement, and self-understanding on the Left. Reception Hegemony and Socialist Strategy was greeted with positive reviews and has become a reference point in its field; for example, Marxist philosopher Slavoj Žižek cited Hegemony and Socialist Strategy as a work having influenced his book, The Sublime Object of Ideology. Furthermore, its resolutely "post-Marxist" self-definition marks it as one of the first major texts associated with this disciplinary development. A new edition was published in 2001, which included a preface by the authors in which they reaffirmed their commitment to the arguments made in 1985. The concept had a great influence on the theory of social movements and post-colonial research and marked the emergence of post-Marxism in the social sciences. The work also inspired the political movements Podemos and La France insoumise. Norman Geras, in a New Left Review article titled "Post-Marxism?", lambasted Laclau and Mouffe for what he regarded as shallow obscurantism grounded on basic misunderstandings of both Marx and Marxism. After Laclau's and Mouffe's response to Geras' paper (in "Post-Marxism without apologies"), Geras doubled down with "Ex-Marxism Without Substance: Being A Real Reply to Laclau and Mouffe" in which he further criticised the post-Marxist turn. References Bibliography Smith, Anna Marie. Laclau and Mouffe: The Radical Democratic Imaginary. — London: Routledge, 1998. Howarth, David. Discourse. — Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 2000. Philips, Louise, Jorgensen, Marianne. Discourse Analysis as Theory and Method. — London: Sage, 2002. Howarth, David, Aletta Norval and Yannis Stavrakakis (eds). Discourse Theory and Political Analysis. — Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002. Critchley, Simon and Oliver Marchart (eds). Laclau: A Critical Reader. — London: Routledge, 2004. Breckman, Warren. Adventures of the Symbolic: Postmarxism and Radical Democracy. — New York: Columbia University Press, 2013. Howarth, David and Jacob Torfing (eds). Discourse Theory in European Politics. — Houndmills: Palgrave, 2005. Torfing, Jacob. New Theories of Discourse: Laclau, Mouffe, Žižek. — Oxford: Blackwell, 1999. Jacobs, Thomas. The Dislocated Universe of Laclau and Mouffe: An Introduction to Post-Structuralist Discourse Theory — Critical Review 30(3-4), 2018. 1985 non-fiction books Books about socialism Books about cultural hegemony Books by Ernesto Laclau Books by Chantal Mouffe Collaborative non-fiction books Works about Marxism	0.766425	0.977479	0.749164
Gender empowerment	Gender empowerment is the empowerment of people of any gender. While conventionally, the aspect of it is mentioned for empowerment of women, the concept stresses the distinction between biological sex and gender as a role, also referring to other marginalized genders in a particular political or social context. Gender empowerment has become a significant topic of discussion in regard to development and economics. Entire nations, businesses, communities, and groups can benefit from the implementation of programs and policies that adopt the notion of women empowerment. Empowerment is one of the main procedural concerns when addressing human rights and development. The Human Development and Capabilities Approach, The Millennium Development Goals, and other credible approaches/goals point to empowerment and participation as a necessary step if a country is to overcome the obstacles associated with poverty and development. Measuring Gender empowerment can be measured through the Gender Empowerment Measure, or the GEM. The GEM shows women's participation in a given nation, both politically and economically. Gem is calculated by tracking "the share of seats in parliament held by women; of female legislators, senior officials and managers; and of female profession and technical workers; and the gender disparity in earned income, reflecting economic independence." It then ranks countries given this information. Other measures that take into account the importance of female participation and equality include: the Gender Parity Index and the Gender Development Index (GDI). See also Anti-gender movement Diversity, equity, and inclusion Diversity (politics) Diversity training Gender and politics Gender diversity Gender equality Gender essentialism Respect Suicide in LGBT youth Sociology of gender Women's empowerment References Gender equality Human rights concepts Law and economics Sexuality and gender identity-based cultures Law by issue Egalitarianism Empowerment Gender and society Feminism and society Control (social and political) Social privilege	0.766251	0.977668	0.749139
UK in a Changing Europe	UK in a Changing Europe (UKICE) is an academic think tank providing impartial, research-based analysis of the critical issues facing the UK. It is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and hosted by King's College London. Description Led by Professor Anand Menon and supported by an in-house team, UKICE works with its Senior Fellows and numerous other academics to promote quality, timely and accessible social science research. It provides a platform allowing academics across the UK and beyond to ensure their research reaches a wider audience. Their work explores the numerous domestic challenges confronting the UK, its evolving relationship with the European Union, and its place in the world. Within these three broad themes, UK in a Changing Europe’s research draws on experts on politics, society, economics and law, presenting a reliable source of analysis of the key challenges confronting the UK. As well as reports and working papers, UKICE’s outputs include: live and online events; blogs; the ‘UKICE (I Tell) podcast’; and posts on their @ukandeu Twitter feed. The organisation gains regular coverage in UK and international media and can put media in touch with the experts they need. They have also created a Brexit Witness Archive. Ukandeu.ac.uk is their online hub and the gateway to all UKICE content. Director Anand Menon is supported by Deputy Directors Sarah Hall and Paula Surridge, and an expert advisory group that convenes twice yearly. The in-house team includes research, communications and operations staff based at King’s College London’s Policy Institute. UKICE also works closely with a panel of Senior Fellows, who lead research projects in universities throughout the UK. Current Senior Fellows include: Professor David Bailey Professor Catherine Barnard Professor Kathryn Cassidy Professor John Curtice Professor Rob Ford Professor Sarah Hall Professor Donald Houston Professor Hussein Kassim Professor Jonathan Portes Professor Simon Usherwood Professor Richard Whitman Research UK in a Changing Europe’s reports provide comprehensive analyses of a wide range of topics. Recent reports have focused on immigration, the changing attitudes of voters, the relationship between the UK and the EU, and the British monarchy. They bring together leading social scientists to give research-based perspectives on a wide range of topics. The reports are written in such a way as to be easily readable by non-specialist audiences. UKICE reports are frequently cited in the UK and international press and in parliamentary debates. They are used by policymakers and indeed the general public as a reliable source of information and impartial research. The organisation also produces a range of in-house trackers, which monitor key areas using the latest data. These include: The UK trade tracker The UK-EU regulatory divergence tracker The UK-EU relations tracker A working paper series showcases the latest research findings from social scientists on the broad themes of Britain and Brexit, UK-EU relations and the UK’s role in the world. The series provides academics with an opportunity to test their ideas and present their research findings to an audience beyond academia. Drawing from expertise across the social sciences, recent working papers have examined questions including: the impact of EU-UK relationship on family law; post-Brexit trade and manufacturing processes; and the post-Brexit immigration system. References King's College London	0.781184	0.958948	0.749115
Impact assessment	Policy impact assessments, or simply impact assessments (IAs), are formal, evidence-based procedures that assess prospective economic, social, and environmental effects of a public policy proposal. They have been incorporated into policy making in the OECD countries and the European Commission. If the assessment is favourable, and the proposed policy is enacted—after a suitable length of time for the policy to gain traction—it might be followed by an impact evaluation; ideally, assessed impacts before the fact and evaluated impacts after the fact are not wildly divergent. In some cases, impact becomes politicized due to a change in the governing regime between assessment and evaluation, and non-congruence might be amplified for ideological reasons. In other cases, the world is a complex place, and assessment is not a perfect art. Key types of impact assessments include global assessments (global level), policy impact assessment (policy level), strategic environmental assessment (programme and plan level), and environmental impact assessment (project level). Impact assessments can focus on specific themes, such as social impact assessments and gender impact assessments. IAs can improve legislation by: Informing policy makers about potential economic, social, and environmental ramifications Improving transparency so that contributions to sustainability and "better regulation" are disclosed and special interest lobbying is discouraged Increasing public participation in order to reflect a range of considerations, thereby improving the legitimacy of policies Clarifying how public policy helps achieve its goals and priorities through policy indicators Contributing to continuous learning in policy development by identifying causalities that inform ex-post review of policies Procedure The department which is responsible for the policy proposal usually has to carry out the IA. Although the purpose and orientation of IA procedures differ, IA guidelines in the various jurisdictions all follow a similar set of steps to be followed by desk officers: Planning of the IA Carrying out the impact analysis Consultation of affected stakeholders and the general public Coordination with affected departments Summary and presentation of findings in a report Forwarding findings to decision makers Publication of the IA report (not in all countries) The analytical steps, which mainly relate to step 2, can be set out as i. Problem definition ii. Definition of policy objectives iii. Development of policy options iv. Analysis of impacts v. Comparison of policy options and recommendation of one option vi. Defining monitoring measures. Methods Throughout the IA process, methods can be used for support. In recent years governments have increasingly invested in developing and applying methods and tools for IA. Depending on usage, IA methods can be classified as methods for Scoping (e.g., checklists) For qualitative analysis (e.g., focus groups) For quantitative analysis (e.g., life-cycle assessment, material flow accounting, modelling) Aggregation and comparison of options (e.g., cost–benefit analysis) Analysing coherence (e.g., Gender IA) Supporting participation and involvement (e.g., internet consultation) Data presentation and involvement (e.g., GIS) Monitoring and evaluation (e.g., indicators) See also Impact evaluation Outcomes theory Participatory impact pathways analysis Policy analysis Policy studies Program evaluation True cost accounting References External links International Association for Impact Assessment (main source) Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal (a journal) Impact Assessment Page at the European Commission IAIA Wiki Management cybernetics Educational evaluation methods	0.767014	0.976618	0.74908
An Economic Theory of Democracy	An Economic Theory of Democracy is a treatise of economics written by Anthony Downs, published in 1957. The book set forth a model with precise conditions under which economic theory could be applied to non-market political decision-making. It also suggested areas of empirical research that could be tested to confirm the validity of his conclusions in the model. Much of this offshoot research eventually became integrated into public choice theory. Downs' theory abstains from making normative statements about public policy choices and instead focuses on what is rational, given the relevant incentives, for government to do. Contents In chapter eight of the book Downs explains how the concept of ideology is central to his theory. Depending on the ideological distribution of voters in a given political community, electoral outcomes can be stable and peaceful or wildly varied and even result in violent revolution. The likely number of political parties can also be identified if one also considers the electoral structure. If the ideological positions of voters are displayed in the form of a graph and if that graph shows a single peak, then a median voter can be identified and in a representative democracy, the choice of candidates and the choice of policies will gravitate toward the positions of the median voter. Conversely, if the graph of ideological distribution is double-peaked, indicating that most voters are either extremely liberal or extremely conservative, the tendency toward political consensus or political equilibrium is difficult to attain because legislators representing each mode are penalized by voters for attempting to achieve consensus with the other side by supporting policies representative of a middle position. Here is a list of the key propositions Downs attempts to prove in chapter eight: A two-party democracy cannot provide stable and effective government unless there is a large measure of ideological consensus among its citizens. Parties in a two-party system deliberately change their platforms so that they resemble one another; whereas parties in a multi-party system try to remain as ideologically distinct from each other as possible. If the distribution of ideologies in a society's citizenry remains constant, its political system will move toward a position of equilibrium in which the number of parties and their ideological positions are stable over time. New parties can be most successfully launched immediately after some significant change in the distribution of ideological views among eligible voters. In a two-party system, it is rational for each party to encourage voters to be irrational by making its platform vague and ambiguous. The conditions under which his theory prevails are outlined in chapter two. Many of these conditions have been challenged by later scholarship. In anticipation of such criticism, Downs quotes Milton Friedman in chapter two that: “Theoretical models should be tested primarily by the accuracy of their predictions rather than by the reality of their assumptions”. In a 2004 study, Bernard Grofman argued that "A careful reading of Downs offers a much more sophisticated and nuanced portrait of the factors affecting party differentiation than the simplistic notion that, in plurality elections, we ought to expect party convergence to the views of the median voter." According to Grofman, recent research in the Downsian tradition expected nonconvergence of parties in a two-party democracy. See also Mancur Olson References External links Downs: An economic theory of democracy. Article at WikiSummary. 1957 non-fiction books Political science books Harper & Brothers books	0.768429	0.974797	0.749063
Notes on Nationalism	Notes on Nationalism is an essay completed in May 1945 by George Orwell and published in the first issue of the British magazine Polemic in October 1945. Political theorist Gregory Claeys has described it as a key source for understanding Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. In the essay, Orwell uses the term nationalism to pick out a tendency to think in terms of 'competitive prestige' and argues that it causes people to disregard common sense and become more ignorant towards facts. He specifies that this is not a standard use of the term 'nationalism', but is instead a placeholder for a term that would better characterise this unreflective partisanship. The essay was soon translated into French and Dutch, Italian and Finnish. The article was abridged in the translated versions by omitting details of particular relevance to British readers. A short introduction, based on material supplied by Orwell, preceded the translated abridgements. Content The essay was written during the final stages of World War II while Europe had just witnessed the destructive effects of political movements. Nazism is used as an example of how nationalism can cause havoc between groups of people and can instigate ignorance within those groups. Orwell compares Nazism with other forms of nationalistic ideologies to generate an overall argument and questions the function of nationalism. Nationalism is the name that Orwell gives to the propensity of "identifying oneself with a single nation or other unit, placing it beyond good and evil and recognising no other duty than that of advancing its interests". Its occurrence is visible throughout history, and it is prevalent. Nationalism is defined as alignment to a political entity but can also encompass a religion, race, ideology or any other abstract idea. Examples of such forms of nationalism given by Orwell include Communism, political Catholicism, Zionism, anti-Semitism, Trotskyism and pacifism. Orwell additionally argues that his definition of "nationalism" is not equal to the notion, held by himself and most other people, of "patriotism": "Patriotism is of its nature defensive.... Nationalism, on the other hand, is inseparable from the desire for power." Orwell explains that he uses the expression "nationalism" for lack of a better alternative to label the concept that he describes in his essay. Orwell argues that nationalism largely influences the thoughts and actions of people, even in such everyday tasks as decision-making and reasoning. The example provided is of asking the question: "Out of the three major Allies, which contributed most to the fall of Nazism?". People aligned with the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union would consider their country first before they attempt to search for supportive arguments. One of the themes that Orwell discusses is the effect of nationalistic sentiment on human thinking. Nationalism causes dishonesty within people because, he argues, every nationalist, having chosen one side, persuades himself that his side is the strongest, regardless of the arguments against the faction. From that sense of superiority, people then argue for and defend their faction. The slightest slur or criticism from another faction causes them to retort or be violent since they realise they are serving a larger entity, which provides them with that sense of security and so they must defend it. Additionally, they may become ignorant to the point of self-deception: Such people become susceptible to bias by acknowledging only information that they judge as true, as emotions hinder them in properly addressing facts. People believe in what they approve in their own minds as true to the point that they deem it as an absolute truth: "More probably they feel that their own version was what happened in the sight of God, and that one is justified in rearranging the records accordingly". Orwell also criticises the silliness and the dishonesty of intellectuals who become more nationalistic on behalf of another country for which they have no real knowledge, rather than their native country. Orwell argues that much of the romanticism, written about leaders such as Stalin, for example, and describe their might, power and integrity, was written by intellectuals. An intellectual is influenced by a certain public opinion, "that is, the section of public opinion of which he as an intellectual is aware". He is surrounded by scepticism and disaffection, which is not very compatible with a very deep attachment to his own country: "He still feels the need for a Fatherland, and it is natural to look for one somewhere abroad. Having found it, he can wallow unrestrainedly in exactly those emotions from which he believes that he has emancipated himself". Also, Orwell provides three characteristics to describe those who follow nationalistic sentiment: obsession, instability and indifference to reality. Obsession refers to how nationalists passionately tender to their faction: "As nearly as possible, no nationalist ever thinks, talks, or writes about anything except the superiority of his own power unit. It is difficult if not impossible for any nationalist to conceal his allegiance.... he will generally claim superiority for it (if the chosen unit of allegiance is a country) not only in military power and political virtue, but in art, literature, sport, structure of the language, the physical beauty of the inhabitants, and perhaps even in climate, scenery and cooking. He will show great sensitiveness about such things as the correct display of flags, relative size of headlines and the order in which different countries are named". "Some nationalists are not far from schizophrenia, living quite happily amid dreams of power and conquest which have no connexion with the physical world". Orwell argues that uncertainty over the disasters reported ("What were the rights and wrongs of the Warsaw rising of 1944? Is it true about the German gas ovens in Poland?") makes it "easier to cling to lunatic beliefs.... Since nothing is ever quite proved or disproved, the most unmistakeable fact can be impudently denied.... The nationalist is often somewhat uninterested in what happens in the real world". Regarding instability, Orwell reasons that nationalism can become ironical in various ways. Many of the leaders revered by nationalist factions are outright foreigners, who do not even belong to the country that they have glorified. More often, they are "from peripheral areas where nationality is doubtful". For instance, Stalin was a Georgian, and Hitler was an Austrian, but both were respectively idolised in Russia and Germany. Indifference to reality refers to "the power of not seeing resemblances between similar sets of facts" and is a feature of all nationalists, according to Orwell. He describes how nationalism clouds people from perceiving facts of the real world. The use of torture, hostages, forced labour, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians all prove to be irrelevant towards the notion of "good or bad", and there is no outrage from within the public, as the atrocities are committed by "our side". Some nationalists even go into the trouble of defending such actions and search for arguments to support their case. Orwell provides the example of the liberal News Chronicle publishing images of Russians hanged by the Germans to depict the shocking barbarity of the Germans and then, a few years later, publishing with warm approval very-similar photographs of Germans hanged by the Russians. Another similar instance is another newspaper publishing, with seeming approval, photographs of the baiting by a mob in Paris of scantily-clad women, who collaborated with the Nazis. The photographs strongly resembled the Nazi images of Jews being baited by the Berlin mob in the years before the war. Misquotation A statement sometimes incorrectly attributed to Orwell is "There are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them." Orwell expressed a similar, but not identical, idea in "Notes on Nationalism", writing, "I have heard it confidently stated, for instance, that the American troops had been brought to Europe not to fight the Germans but to crush an English revolution. One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool." See also La Trahison Des Clercs, a 1927 book by Julien Benda, which deals with many of the same themes as Notes on Nationalism. Gregory Claeys. "Orwell's 'Notes on Nationalism' and Nineteen Eighty-Four", in: Thomas Horan, ed. Critical Insights: Nineteen Eighty-Four (The Salem Press, 2016), pp. 71–82, connects the text with Nineteen Eighty-Four. References External links Essays by George Orwell Works originally published in Polemic (magazine) 1945 essays Works about nationalism Anti-nationalism	0.774357	0.967299	0.749035
Political myth	A political myth is an ideological narrative that is believed by social groups. Definition In 1975, Henry Tudor defined it in the book Political Myth. He said that myths are believed to be true even if they may be false, and they are devices with dramatic constructions used "in order to come to grips with reality". Political myths simply deal with political topics and always use a group of people as the hero or protagonist. In 2001, Christopher G. Flood described a working definition of a political myth as "an ideologically marked narrative which purports to give a true account of a set of past, present, or predicted political events and which is accepted as valid in its essentials by a social group". In 1946 Ernst Cassirer recounted political theory in his The Myth of the State. In 1973, T. L. Thorson wrote in the 4th edition of A History of Political Theory: "It is the mark of a modern mind to be able to explicitly create a 'myth' as a way of influencing others (as, for example, Plato does in The Republic). In its original sense myth is a literal description." Function According to Tudor, what recasts myth as political in nature is its subject matter, that being politics. In order for a political narrative to be recast as myth, the narrative of events must be cast in dramatic form and it must serve a practical argument. Tudor defines dramatic form, stating "there is indeed a critical event by reference to which men can order their present experience but the events in question are thought of as taken place in the past." The function of political myth can be better understood when it is broken down into the following components: (1) myth provides the theoretical argument, which is incorporated into an (2) ideology that supports the myth by providing a practical argument. Every myth has its protagonist/heroic figure that represents a particular community destined to create a morally coherent world which orients the community's activities towards this end. Mythopoeic narratives in political discourse can range from origin stories (foundation myths) that recount the establishment of a community, to ascribing a political existence to a community based in the future (often a utopic vision), to restoring a political community that has ceased to exist. Although, both myth and ideology carry certain values and beliefs, ideology provides a practical argument rooted in rendering the community's past experiences as coherent, allowing them to make sense of their present circumstances and often, as a result, providing communities with objectives for future activities. A myth is considered a political myth when the narrative provides an ideologically marked account of the past, present, and future of the political community. By ideologically marked, the narrative carries "assumptions, values, and goals associated with a specific ideology… that conveys an implicit invitation to assent to a particular ideological standpoint." In short, political myths offer "an account of the past and the future in the light of which the present can be understood." A political myth's success is dependent on the practical argument being accepted as true. Examples Examples cited as political myths include Manifest Destiny, The Clash of Civilizations, and national myths. See also Georges Sorel Communist symbolism Civil religion Founding myth Habsburg myth National symbol Noble lie Political religion Political symbolism Socialist heraldry References Further reading Arvidsson, Stefan (2017). Style and mythology of socialism: socialist idealism, 1871-1914. Routledge Bottici, Chiara (2007). A philosophy of political myth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Ideologies Myths Political culture Social philosophy	0.775155	0.966192	0.748949
Individualist feminism	Individualist feminism, also known as ifeminism, is a libertarian feminist movement that emphasizes individualism, personal autonomy, freedom from state-sanctioned discrimination against women, and gender equality. Overview Individualist feminists attempt to change legal systems to eliminate sex and gender privileges, and to ensure that individuals have equal rights. Individualist feminism encourages women to take full responsibility for their own lives and opposes any government interference into choices adults make with their own bodies. Individualist or libertarian feminism is sometimes grouped as one of many branches of liberal feminism, but it tends to diverge significantly from 21st-century mainstream liberal feminism of the 21st century. Individualist feminists Wendy McElroy and Christina Hoff Sommers define individualist feminism in opposition to what they call "political" or "gender feminism". Beliefs Libertarian feminists reject gender roles that limit women's autonomy and choice, and assert that strict gender roles limit both women and men, especially if they are legally enforced. Libertarian feminists are critical of using institutional power to achieve positive aims, believing that allowing the government to make decisions on behalf of women may limit women's individual choices. For instance, banning sex work to "protect" women treats women as a monolithic group, rather than individuals, and takes away economic opportunities for women who want to work in the sex industry by choice. The Cato Institute, an American libertarian think tank, argues that capitalism has given women a higher standard of living, greater access to resources, greater individual freedoms and more job opportunities outside of physical labor. Individualist feminism conforms to the theory of natural law, supporting laws that protect the rights of men and women equally. Individual feminists argue that government should not prioritize the needs of women over men, nor should it strive to intervene to create equality in personal relationships, private economic arrangements, entertainment and media representation, or the general sociocultural realm. History in the United States According to individualist feminist Joan Kennedy Taylor, early organized feminism in the United States was fundamentally "a classical liberal women's movement". First-wave feminists focused on universal suffrage and the abolition of slavery, along with property rights for women and other forms of equal rights. During the Victorian era and the early 20th century, individualist feminism fell out of vogue in the US and UK as the progressive, labor, and socialist movements began to hold more sway over politics. Individualist feminism was revived by anti-authoritarian and individualist second-wave feminists in the mid-20th century. According to Taylor, "the political issues that gained wide adherence were the reproductive rights to birth control and abortion, and the Equal Rights Amendment, which (at least in its initial support) was a classical liberal restraint on government." Labels like individualist feminism, libertarian feminism, and classical liberal feminism were explicitly embraced by late 20th century writers and activists such as Taylor, Sharon Presley, Tonie Nathan, and Wendy McElroy. Modern libertarian feminism is a continuation of ideas and work developed by these women and their contemporaries, including Nadine Strossen and Camille Paglia, as well as of the ideas of classical liberal and anarchist writers throughout history. Libertarian feminist organizations Association of Libertarian Feminists The Association of Libertarian Feminists (ALF) was founded in 1973 by Tonie Nathan and Sharon Presley on Ayn Rand's birthday in Eugene, Oregon, at Nathan's home. In September 1975 in New York City, ALF became a national organization. , Presley was the executive director of the organization. The ALF has stated that their purpose is to oppose sexist attitudes, oppose government, and "provide a libertarian alternative to those aspects of the women's movement that tend to discourage independence and individuality." The ALF have opposed the government's involvement in childcare centers, including "zoning laws, unnecessary and pointless "health and safety" restrictions, [and] required licensing." The ALF have also opposed public education, saying that public schools "not only foster the worst of traditionalist sexist values but inculcate docility and obedience to authority with sterile, stifling methods and compulsory programs and regulations." In 1977, Nathan suggested eliminating parts of the United States Postal Service regulations that obstructed the mailing of birth control samples and information about family planning at the National Women's Conference in Houston, Texas. Feminists for Liberty Feminists for Liberty (F4L) is a nonprofit libertarian feminist group founded in 2016. It was founded by Kat Murti and Elizabeth Nolan Brown to promote the values of libertarian feminism. F4L are "anti-sexism and anti-statism, pro-markets and pro-choice" and "classically liberal, anti-carceral, and sex positive". They are opposed to collectivism and argue that "treating someone as simply a representative of their sex or gender" is collectivist. Ladies of Liberty Alliance (LOLA) The Ladies of Liberty Alliance (LOLA) was established in 2009 as a nonprofit organization. LOLA's goal is to engage women in libertarianism through social groups, leadership trainings, and visits from guest speakers. Mothers Institute The Mothers Institute was a non-profit educational and networking organization supporting stay-at-home mothering, homeschooling, civics in the classroom, and an effective networking system for mothers and freedom of choice in health and happiness. It is now defunct. Criticism Criticism of individualist feminism ranges from expressing disagreements with the values of individualism as a feminist to expressing the limitations within individualist feminism as an effective activism. Critics have argued that individualist feminism does not sufficiently address structural inequality. In 1995, American radical feminist Catharine MacKinnon criticized the value of individual choice, saying there were still instances where "women are used, abused, bought, sold, and silenced", especially women of color. In 1999, American feminist Susan Brownmiller suggested that the aversion to collective, "united" feminism was a sign of a "waning" and unhealthy feminist movement. Notable individualist feminists William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) Ezra Heywood (1829–1893) Voltairine de Cleyre (1866–1912) Dora Marsden (1882–1960) Suzanne La Follette (1893–1983) Tonie Nathan (1923–2014) Joan Kennedy Taylor (1926–2005) Mimi Reisel Gladstein (b. 1936) Sharon Presley (1943–2022) Camille Paglia (b. 1947) Christina Hoff Sommers (b. 1950) Wendy McElroy (b. 1951) Virginia Postrel (b. 1960) Cathy Young (b. 1963) Tiffany Million (b. 1966) Rene Denfeld See also Anarcha-feminism Cultural liberalism / radicalism Equity feminism Female entrepreneur Feminist anthropology Feminist economics Feminist existentialism Feminist political theory and ecology Individualist anarchism Left-libertarianism Liberal feminism Libertarian perspectives on abortion List of conservative feminisms Sex-positive feminism Women's property rights References Further reading One of the first individualist feminist essays, by Ezra Heywood. Essay including discussion of libertarian feminism. External links Association of Libertarian Feminists iFeminists Pro Choice Libertarians The Mother's Institute Ladies of Liberty Alliance (LOLA) Feminist movements and ideologies Feminist theory Libertarianism by form Individualist anarchism Feminism and history	0.767723	0.975544	0.748948
Principles of Political Economy	Principles of Political Economy (1848) by John Stuart Mill was one of the most important economics or political economy textbooks of the mid-nineteenth century. It was revised until its seventh edition in 1871, shortly before Mill's death in 1873, and republished in numerous other editions. Beside discussing descriptive issues such as which nations tended to benefit more in a system of trade based on comparative advantage (Mill's answer: those with more elastic demands for other countries' goods), the work also discussed normative issues such as ideal systems of political economy, critiquing proposed systems such as communism and socialism. Along with A System of Logic, Principles of Political Economy established Mill's reputation as a leading public intellectual. Mill's sympathetic attitude in this work and in other essays toward contemporary socialism, particularly Fourierism, earned him esteem from the working class as one of their intellectual champions. Preface and Preliminary Remarks Mill's Principles were written in a style of prose far flung from the introductory texts of today. Devoid of the mathematical graphs and formulae that were only developed after his death, principally by Alfred Marshall, Mill wrote with the rich tone of grandeur that is found in all his books. His book continued to be used well into the twentieth century as the foundational textbook, for instance in Oxford University until 1919. Preliminary remarks Book I Production I Of the Requisites of Production Mill explores the nature of production, beginning with labour and its relationship to nature. He starts by stating, that the "requisites of production are two: labour, and appropriate natural objects." A discussion follows of man's connection to the natural world, and how man must labour to utilise almost anything found in the natural world. He uses a rich array of imagery, from the sewing of cloth, to the turning of wheels and the creation of steam. Man has found a way to harness nature, so that "the muscular action necessary for this is not constantly renewed, but performed once for all, and there is on the whole a great economy of labour." He then turns on the view of who "takes the credit" for industry. "Some writers," he says, "have raised the question, whether nature gives more assistance to labour in one kind of industry or in another; and have said that in some occupations labour does most, in others nature most. In this, however, there seems much confusion of ideas. The part which nature has in any work of man, is indefinite and incommensurable. It is impossible to decide that in any one thing nature does more than in any other. One cannot even say that labour does less. Less labour may be required; but if that which is required is absolutely indispensable, the result is just as much the product of labour, as of nature. When two conditions are equally necessary for producing the effect at all, it is unmeaning to say that so much of it is produced by one and so much by the other; it is like attempting to decide which half of a pair of scissors has most to do in the act of cutting; or which of the factors, five and six, contributes most to the production of thirty." He refers to former French Economists and Adam Smith, who thought land rents were higher because there was more nature being provided. In fact, says Mill, the simple answer is that land is scarce, which is what enables greater rent exaction. He mentions that many things are limited in abundance, for instance, Arctic whale fishing, which could not keep supplied the demand. This alludes to an introductory principle of value, that "as soon as there is not so much of the thing to be had, as would be appropriated and used if it could be obtained for asking; the ownership or use of the natural agent acquires an exchangeable value." II Of Labour as an Agent of Production III Of Unproductive Labour IV Of Capital Capital, says Mill, is "the accumulated stock of the produce of labour". Though its nature is misunderstood. He gives an example of the consumption of food, as opposed to assets allocated for production. "The distinction, then, between Capital and Not-capital, does not lie in the kind of commodities, but in the mind of the capitalist – in his will to employ them for one purpose rather than another; and all property, however ill adapted in itself for the use of labourers, is a part of capital, so soon as it, or the value to be received from it, is set apart for productive reinvestment." Capital, like labour, can be unemployed, and Mill gives an example of inefficient taxation of productive capital. Then he observes the surplus to living standards created by industrialism. "Finally, that large portion of the productive capital of a country which is employed in paying the wages and salaries of labourers, evidently is not, all of it, strictly and indispensably necessary for production. As much of it as exceeds the actual necessaries of life and health (an excess which in the case of skilled labourers is usually considerable) is not expended in supporting labour, but in remunerating it, and the labourers could wait for this part of their remuneration until the production is completed; it needs not necessarily pre-exist as capital: and if they unfortunately had to forego it altogether, the same amount of production might take place. In order that the whole remuneration of the labourers should be advanced to them in daily or weekly payments, there must exist in advance, and be appropriated to productive use, a greater stock, or capital, than would suffice to carry on the existing extent of production: greater, by whatever amount of remuneration the labourers receive, beyond what the self-interest of a prudent slave-master would assign to his slaves. In truth, it is only after an abundant capital had already been accumulated, that the practice of paying in advance any remuneration of labour beyond a bare subsistence, could possibly have arisen: since whatever is so paid, is not really applied to production, but to the unproductive consumption of productive labourers, indicating a fund for production sufficiently ample to admit of habitually diverting a part of it to a mere convenience." V Fundamental Propositions respecting Capital VI Of Circulating and Fixed Capital VII On what depends the degree of Productiveness of Productive Agents VIII Of Co-operation, or the Combination of Labour IX Of Production on a Large, and Production on a Small Scale X Of the Law of the Increase of Labour XI Of the Law of the Increase of Capital XII Of the Law of the Increase of Production from Land XIII Consequences of the Foregoing Laws Book II Distribution I Of Property II The same subject continued III Of the Classes among whom the Produce is distributed IV Of Competition and Custom V Of Slavery VI Of Peasant Proprietors VII Continuation of the same subject VIII Of Metayers IX Of Cottiers X Means of abolishing Cottier Tenancy XI Of Wages XII Of Popular Remedies for Low Wages XIII The Remedies for Low Wages further considered XIV Of the Differences of Wages in different Employments XV Of Profits XVI Of Rent Book III Exchange In his third book, Mill addressed one of the issues left unresolved by David Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage, namely to whom the gains of trade were distributed. Mill's answer was that international trade benefited most the country whose demand for goods is most elastic. It is also in this third book, primarily in Chapter I, that Mill considers communism and socialism as alternatives to capitalism. I Of Value II Of Demand and Supply, in their relation to Value III Of Cost of Production, in its relation to Value IV Ultimate Analysis of Cost of Production V Of Rent, in its relation to Value VI Summary of the Theory of Value VII Of Money VIII Of the Value of Money, as dependent on Demand and Supply IX Of the Value of Money, as dependent on Cost of Production X Of a Double Standard, and Subsidiary Coins XI Of Credit, as a Substitute for Money XII Influence of Credit on Prices XIII Of an Inconvertible Paper Currency XIV Of Excess of Supply XV Of a Measure of Value XVI Of some Peculiar Cases of Value XVII Of International Trade XVIII Of International Values XIX Of Money, considered as an Imported Commodity XX Of the Foreign Exchanges XXI Of the Distribution of the Precious Metals through the Commercial World XXII Influence of the Currency on the Exchanges and on Foreign Trade XXIII Of the Rate of Interest XXIV Of the Regulation of a Convertible Paper Currency XXV Of the Competition of Different Countries in the same Market XXVI Of Distribution, as affected by Exchange Book IV Influence of the Progress of Society on Production and Distribution In his fourth book Mill set out a number of possible future outcomes, rather than predicting one in particular. The first followed the Malthusian line that population grew quicker than supplies, leading to falling wages and rising profits. The second, per Smith, said if capital accumulated faster than population grew then real wages would rise. Third, echoing David Ricardo, should capital accumulate and population increase at the same rate, yet technology stay stable, there would be no change in real wages because supply and demand for labour would be the same. However growing populations would require more land use, increasing food production costs and therefore decreasing profits. The fourth alternative was that technology advanced faster than population and capital stock increased. The result would be a prospering economy. Mill felt the third scenario most likely, and he assumed technology advanced would have to end at some point. But on the prospect of ever intensifying economic activity, Mill was more ambivalent. "I confess I am not charmed with the ideal of life held out by those who think that the normal state of human beings is that of struggling to get on; that the trampling, crushing, elbowing, and treading on each other's heels, which form the existing type of social life, are the most desirable lot of human kind, or anything but the disagreeable symptoms of one of the phases of industrial progress. I General characteristics of a Progressive State of Wealth II Influence of the Progress of Industry and Population on Values and Prices III Influence of the Progress of Industry and Population on Rents, Profits, and Wages IV Of the Tendency of Profits to a Minimum V Consequences of the Tendency of Profits to a Minimum VI Of the Stationary State VII On the Probable Futurity of the Labouring Classes Book V on the Influence of Government In his fifth book, Mill outlined the government’s role in upholding liberty within society through necessary tasks, those that are fundamental to the government’s existence, and optional tasks, those that would arguably benefit the public if implemented. The necessary tasks mentioned include the protection of citizens from invasion, the safety of domestic life, and regulations on private property and the resources it produces. He states that the government must be cautious when intervening in economic issues to avoid disrupting the natural demand for freedom between consumers and producers to trade, he mentions this again when referring to the long-run negative impact of protectionism. However, he also notes the potential benefits of government intervention, including the expansion and maintenance of markets through subsidized exploration and the construction of lighthouses. These are examples of public goods and externalities in modern economics. Mill states that while the market fails to solve certain societal issues, the government must uphold both progress and liberty in its intervention within the market. Like his other work, specifically On Liberty (1859), Mill claims that government activity is justified so long as it is beneficial to society and does not infringe upon any individual’s freedom, other than limits on conduct to prevent harm to others, or on conduct which would affect prejudicially the interests of others. Mill discusses his ideal system of taxation, promoting a tweaked version of proportional taxation that at a lower limit gives exemption to those earning less than the limit. Book V touches on the outdated idea of “double taxation,” which has turned into a debate on the usefulness of the expenditure tax in contemporary tax reform debates. I Of the Functions of Government in General II On the General Principles of Taxation III Of Direct Taxes IV Of Taxes on Commodities V Of some other Taxes VI Comparison between Direct and Indirect Taxation VII Of a National Debt VIII Of the Ordinary Functions of Government, considered as to their Economical Effects IX The same subject continued X Of Interferences of Government grounded on Erroneous Theories XI Of the Grounds and Limits of the Laisser-faire or Non-Interference Principle Reception In 1856, this book was included in the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, thus being banned by the Catholic Church. See also Essays on Some Unsettled Questions of Political Economy (1844) John Stuart Mill Critique of political economy Notes References Hollander, Samuel (1985) The Economics of John Stuart Mill, University of Toronto Press Pressman, Steven (2006) Fifty Major Economists, Routledge, Schwartz, Pedro (1972) The New Political Economy of J.S. Mill'', Duke University Press External links Full edition 1848 books Books by John Stuart Mill Political philosophy literature 1848 in economic history Political economy	0.7674	0.975951	0.748945
European Union–NATO relations	The European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) are two main treaty-based Western organisations for cooperation between member states, both headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. Their natures are different and they operate in different spheres: NATO is a purely intergovernmental organisation functioning as a military alliance, which serves to implement article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty on collective territorial defence. The EU on the other hand is a partly supranational and partly intergovernmental sui generis entity akin to a confederation that entails wider economic and political integration. Unlike NATO, the EU pursues a foreign policy in its own right—based on consensus, and member states have equipped it with tools in the field of defence and crisis management; the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) structure. The memberships of the EU and NATO are distinct, and some EU member states are traditionally neutral on defence issues. The EU and NATO have respectively 27 and 32 member states, of which 23 are members of both. Another four NATO members are EU applicants—Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Turkey—and another one, the United Kingdom, is a former EU member. Iceland and Norway have opted to remain outside of the EU, but do participate in the European Single Market as part of their European Economic Area (EEA) membership. Four non-NATO states are members of the EU: Austria, Cyprus, Ireland, and Malta. Several EU and NATO member states were formerly members of the Warsaw Pact. The EU has its own mutual defence clause in Articles 42(7) and 222 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), respectively. The CSDP command and control structure is however much smaller than the NATO Command Structure (NCS), and the extent to which the CSDP should evolve to form a full defence arm for the EU that is able to implement the EU mutual defence clause in its own right is a point of contention. The United Kingdom (UK) had objected to this, when it was still an EU member state. At the UK's insistence in the negotiations leading to the Treaty of Lisbon, Article 42.2 of TEU specified that NATO shall be the main forum for the implementation of collective self-defence for EU member states that are also NATO members. The 2002 Berlin Plus agreement and 2018 Joint Declaration provide for cooperation between the EU and NATO, including that that NCS resources may be used for the conduct of the EU's CSDP missions. Organization comparison History 1948–1951: Common origins, where NATO cannibalises intra-European initiatives The Western Union, established to implement the 1948 Treaty of Brussels signed by Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and the United Kingdom, represents a precursor to both NATO and the EU's defence arm, the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). 1954: Failure to establish an autonomous European pillar in NATO Had its founding treaty not failed to acquire ratification in the French Parliament in 1954, the European Defence Community would have entailed a pan-European military, divided into national components, and had a common budget, common arms, centralized military procurement, and institutions. The EDC would have had an integral link to NATO, forming an autonomous European pillar in the Atlantic alliance. 1996–present: Tensions and mutual interests as EU gains autonomous defence structures Following the establishment of the ESDI and the St. Malo declaration, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright were among others who voiced concern that an independent European security pillar could undermine NATO, as she put forth the three famous D's: Eastern enlargement Present cooperation The Berlin Plus agreement enables EU operations to be planned and conducted at the military strategic and operational level with recourse to assets and capabilities in the NATO Command Structure (NCS). In such an event, an Operational Headquarters (OHQ) would be set up within NATO's Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in Mons, Belgium. SHAPE is the main headquarters of Allied Command Operations (ACO). When the NCS provides the OHQ, the Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe (DSACEUR) acts as Operation Commander (OpCdr). The Berlin Plus agreement requires that the use of NATO assets by the EU is subject to a "right of first refusal", i.e. NATO must first decline to intervene in a given crisis, and contingent on unanimous approval among NATO states, including those outside of the EU. For example, Turkish reservations about Operation Concordia using NATO assets delayed its deployment by more than five months. The European External Action Service's (EEAS) Military Staff (EUMS), situated in the Kortenberg building in Brussels, has a permanent NATO liaison team and runs a permanent EU cell at NATO's Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in Mons. Comparison Command structures The CSDP entails collective self-defence amongst member states. This responsibility is based on Article 42.7 of TEU, which states that this responsibility does not prejudice the specific character of the security and defence policy of certain member states, referring to policies of neutrality. See Neutral country§European Union for discussion on this subject. According to the Article 42.7 "If a Member State is the victim of armed aggression on its territory, the other Member States shall have towards it an obligation of aid and assistance by all the means in their power, in accordance with Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. This shall not prejudice the specific character of the security and defence policy of certain Member States." Article 42.2 furthermore specifies that NATO shall be the main forum for the implementation of collective self-defence for EU member states that are also NATO members. The EU does not have a permanent military command structure. However it has been agreed that North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military structures may be used for the conduct of the EU's CSDP missions under the Berlin Plus agreement. The Military Planning and Conduct Capability (MPCC), established in 2017 and to be strengthened in 2020, does however represent the EU's first step in developing a permanent military OHQ. In parallel, the newly established European Defence Fund (EDF) marks the first time the EU budget is used to finance multinational defence projects. European Union NATO NATO's command structure, under the North Atlantic Council and the NATO Military Committee, is split into Allied Command Operations, responsible for all military operations, and Allied Command Transformation responsible for capability development. Membership The memberships of the EU and NATO are distinct. The EU and NATO have respectively 27 and 32 member states, of which 23 states are members of both. The four EU member states which are not members of NATO (Austria, Cyprus, Ireland and Malta) held positions of neutrality during the Cold War, which they have since maintained. However, all but Cyprus are members of NATO's Partnership for Peace. Cyprus is the only EU member state that is neither a full member of NATO nor participates in the Partnership for Peace. Any treaty concerning Cyprus' participation in NATO would likely be blocked by Turkey because of the Cyprus dispute. The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine reignited debate surrounding NATO membership in several countries, with Finland and Sweden both joining NATO after decades of neutrality. Of the 32 NATO member states, 30 are European states. The 7 European states which are NATO members, but not EU members, include four states that have applied for EU membership (Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Turkey), as well as the United Kingdom which is a former EU member. The two others — Iceland and Norway — have opted to remain outside of the EU, however participate in the EU's single market. Several EU member states were formerly members of the NATO rival Warsaw Pact. See also United States Mission to NATO Foreign relations of the European Union Foreign relations of NATO United States–European Union relations Council of Europe–European Union relations Canada–European Union relations Iceland–European Union relations Norway–European Union relations Turkey–European Union relations Ukraine–European Union relations United Kingdom–European Union relations Austria–NATO relations Cyprus–NATO relations Ireland–NATO relations Malta–NATO relations Ukraine–NATO relations Brexit Western European Union European Union as a potential superpower Enlargement of the European Union Enlargement of NATO European army Neutral member states in the European Union Strategic autonomy Neutral and Non-Aligned European States References External links NATO article on EU relations EU factsheets on NATO relations EDC Treaty (unofficial translation) see pg 2 EDC information on European Navigation NATO AND THE EUROPEAN UNION: A DEFENSIVE RELATIONSHIP NATO Transatlantic relations NATO relations Foreign relations of the European Union	0.760145	0.985231	0.748918
Koinon	Koinon (, pl. Κοινά, Koina), meaning "common thing", in the sense of "public", had many applications, some societal, some governmental. An abstract noun formed from the neuter of the adjective, koinos, "common", the koinon could mean any sort of organization. It had more than one meaning in the governmental sense. Polis One was a polis or its politeia, Latin res publica, "the public thing", or "commonwealth", as seen in the Athenian model. A polis, by definition, is a government of common concern rather than private, making it a republic. The polis also functioned as a federal state with a politeia, or "constitution", which established citizenship. Citizens managed the state through elected magistracies and the assembly. These institutions, claiming supreme political power, directly performed their constitutional duties across executive, judicial, or legislative domains. While political theory had not yet conceptualized the three-branch system common in modern republics, the functions existed in various forms, including the military, law courts, and economic regulation. Alliance The focus of this article is on a concept that extends beyond the individual polis: the formation of alliances among various poleis. Groups of poleis with shared interests, such as building a strong military for offense or defense, might form alliances, like the Ionians who defended the Greek coast of Anatolia against incoming Iranians. In such cases, the concept of "the public thing" or commonwealth would be extended to the alliance itself. To differentiate the alliance from a single republic, an ethnic name might be used, such as "the alliance of the Ionians." The alliance was then "the common thing of the allies," as it is in Isocrates 14.21, where the allies are symmachoi ("fighters in common,"), and the alliance is a symmachia. The league was not strictly a "federation," as the member states guarded their independence jealously. Even so, in the Delian League, the most powerful state, Athens, managed to control the other states to such a degree as now to be called "the Athenian Empire." As the government of a league, a koinon encompassed functions like defense, diplomacy, economics, and religious practices among its member states. This association more closely resembled a confederation rather than a federal union, like the one Alexander created. Members of the alliance primarily contributed taxes, men, and equipment, rather than directly managing or issuing binding commands. Some examples follow. In Epirus itself there had in ancient times existed the Koinon of the Molossians. There was a Lacedaemonian League (κοινὸν τῶν Λακεδαιμονίων), centered on Sparta and its old dominions for a period under Roman rule, and a Koinon of the Macedonians, also under Roman rule. In modern Greek history, during the Greek War of Independence, a local self-government termed Koinon was set up in the islands of Hydra, Spetses and Psara. See also Symmachia (alliance) List of ancient Greek alliances Notes References External links Greek words and phrases	0.777538	0.963115	0.748859
Political class	Political class (or political elite) is a concept in comparative political science, originally developed by Italian political theorist Gaetano Mosca (1858–1941). It refers to the relatively small group of activists that is highly aware and active in politics, and from whom the national leadership is largely drawn. As Max Weber noted, they not only live "for politics"—like the old notables used to—but make their careers "off politics" as policy specialists and experts on specific fields of public administration. Mosca approached the study of the political class by examining the mechanisms of reproduction and renewal of the ruling class; the characteristics of politicians; and the different forms of organisation developed in their wielding of power. Elected legislatures may become dominated by subject-matter specialists, aided by permanent staffs, who become a political class. Comparative elites The presence or absence of a political class in a country depends on its history. For example Germany (since 1945) has a very weak political class, with a "striking taboo" against the sort of elitism that dominated Germany before 1945, including the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, and Nazi Germany. In sharp contrast France has a very prestigious political class, which is trained in special elite schools. Britain Until the 1970s Britain featured a tight-knit political class that emerged from upper-class families whose sons came to know each other at elite "public schools" (like Eton College and Harrow School) and the "old boy" network, based on Oxford and Cambridge, which dominates public life. After 1970, however, the political class became much more open in terms of the social origins of British politicians and top civil servants. Conservative Members of Parliament (MPs) increasingly include those educated at non-elite schools and are of modest social backgrounds. Labour MPs, in turn, are increasingly middle class, white-collar and university educated. Still, the educational formation of British cabinet ministers has been dominated by a limited number of exclusive institutions at both post-primary and higher educational levels. Spain A political class emerged in Spain during the reign (1833–68) of Queen Isabella II. A modern political class emerged in Spain, adapted to the needs of a representative state that was under construction. To bring that about, the circles of power were open to intense renewal, coopting families of provincial gentry networks. The result was a political class composed mostly of jurists and attached to the values and interests of landed property. It was a new ruling class. Although originally inspired by revolutionary principles, it soon limited the circle of power, becoming aristocratic and largely closed to new membership. Nigeria Lucas (1998) examines despotic versus infrastructural power in terms of relations between the military leaders and the civilian political class in Nigeria from 1985 to 1993. He concludes that weak states experience a conflict between these two types of power. Despotic power, in sociologist Michael Mann's definition, refers to the state's repressive capacities, while infrastructural power refers to its ability to penetrate society and implement its decisions. Whereas leaders cultivate alliances with powerful social groups to realise their infrastructural power, the exercise of despotic power can undermine such patterns of collaboration. Military leaders relied on a number of despotic strategies to extend their control over the political class as part of a promised transition to democracy: many politicians were banned, two government-created political parties were imposed, and elections that yielded outcomes threatening to military interests were annulled. While the military leadership was successful in repressing the politicians, it was unable to restructure the civilian leadership in ways that would further the institutional power of the state. The military's persistent reliance on despotic strategies led to a long-term decline in the integrity and infrastructural capacity of the state. China In China, the country was prevalently agricultural, dominated by an imperial bureaucracy that was crowned by the Mandarins. This was made up of judges, governors, administrators, all highly qualified in the art of governing. The literary official became the pillar of the political system. Populism Populist political movements portray themselves as the enemies of the established political class and outsiders from the main political class that no longer represents the people and are morally corrupt. Such movements have included the United Kingdom’s United Kingdom Independence Party, France's National Front, Austria's Freedom Party and Belgium's Vlaams Belang. United States The term political class has recently been used as an epithet by conservatives, such as the editors of National Review. The theme is that the political elite is undemocratic and has an agenda of its own—especially the aggrandisement of its own power—that is hostile to the larger national interest, and which ought to be opposed by grassroots of populist movements. There was a large movement for term limits in the United States in the 1990s to weaken the political class by limiting the number of terms an elected legislator could serve. Even though it succeeded in many states and cities it was rejected as unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court when it tried to limit the number of terms that a federal officeholder could serve. See also Crony capitalism Elite Political corruption Power elite Ruling class The Establishment References Further reading Albertoni, Ettore, Mosca and the Theory of Elitism. (1987). Beyme, Klaus von. "The Concept of Political Class: A New Dimension of Research on Elites?" West European Politics, (1996) 19: 68-87. Borchert, Jens, and Jurgen Zeiss, eds. The Political Class in Advanced Democracies (2003) Codevilla, Angelo M, America's Ruling Class -- And the Perils of Revolution<, (2010). Cotta, Maurizio. "The Italian Political Class in the Twentieth Century: Continuities and Discontinuities", in M. Czudnowski, ed., Does Who Governs Matter? (1982) pp. 154–87. Eliassen, Kjell A., and Pedersen, Mogens N. "Professionalization of Legislatures," Comparative Studies in Society and History, (1978). 20: 286-318. Horowitz, David A. America's Political Class under Fire: The Twentieth Century's Great Culture War (2003) Mills, C. Wright. The Power Elite and the State: How Policy is Made in America (1956) Mosca, Gaetano. The Ruling Class (1896; English translation 1939) Oborne, Peter. The triumph of the political class (2007), on Britain; online review Putnam, Robert D. The Comparative Study of Political Elites (1976). Thies, Jochen, and Deborah Lucas Schneider. "Observations on the Political Class in Germany," Daedalus Volume: 123. Issue: 1. 1994. pp 263+. Weber, Max. "Politics as a Vocation', in H. Gerth and C. W. Mills, eds., From Max Weber (1958); first published 1918 Majority–minority relations Political activism Political terminology Political science terminology Social classes	0.774255	0.967198	0.748857
Moral high ground	The moral high ground, in ethical or political parlance, refers to the status of being respected for remaining moral, and adhering to and upholding a universally recognized standard of justice or goodness. In derogatory context, the term is often used to metaphorically describe a position of self-righteousness. "Parties seeking the moral high ground simply refuse to act in ways which are not viewed as legitimate and morally defensible." Politics Holding the moral high ground can be used to legitimize political movements, notably nonviolent resistance, especially in the face of violent opposition, and has been used by civil disobedience movements around the world to garner sympathy and support from society. Business Economist and social critic Robert H. Frank challenged the idea that prosocial behavior was necessarily deleterious in business in his book What Price the Moral High Ground? He argued that socially responsible firms often reap unexpected benefits even in highly competitive environments, because their commitment to principle makes them more attractive as partners to do business with. Everyday use In everyday use a person may take the perspective of the 'moral high ground' in order to produce a critique of something, or merely to win an argument. This perspective is sometimes associated to snobbery but may also be a legitimate way of taking up a stance. Social sciences or philosophies are sometimes accused of taking the 'moral high ground' because they are often inherently interested in the project of human freedom and justice. The traditional project of education itself may be seen as defending a type of moral high ground from popular culture, perhaps by using critical pedagogy: its proponents may themselves be accused (rightly or wrongly) of seeking a false and unjustified sense of superiority thereby. See also Critical pedagogy Moral hierarchy Political posturing Virtue signalling References High ground Political science	0.761804	0.982974	0.748834
Legal norm	A legal norm is a binding rule or principle, or norm, that organisations of sovereign power promulgate and enforce in order to regulate social relations. Legal norms determine the rights and duties of individuals who are the subjects of legal relations within the governing jurisdiction at a given point in time. Competent state authorities issue and publish basic aspects of legal norms through a collection of laws that individuals under that government must abide by, which is further guaranteed by state coercion. There are two categories of legal norms: normativity, which regulates the conduct of people, and generality, which is binding on an indefinite number of people and cases. Diplomatic and legislative immunity refers to instances where legal norms are constructed to be targeted towards a minority and are specifically only binding on them, such as soldiers and public officials. In a legal sense, retroactivity refers to a law that impairs or invalidates the vested rights of an individual acquired under existing laws by creating new obligations to considerations that have been pre-established. Legal norms can either classify under true retroactivity, where norms influence the legal relations that have existed before its effect, or pseudo retroactivity, referring to how the validity of old legal relations can be influenced by derogated norms. Legal norms become validated from the moment they are published as part of legal order and take effect from the moment it binds the subjects of the law. The Latin phrase "vacatio legis" refers to the period of time between a legal norm's validity and effect. As the validity of a legal norm is limited from the moment of its adoption by legal institutions, a lapse of time can cause its termination. Legal norms can either be terminated by explicit derogation by the competent state authority, or through automatic derogation whereby the authoritative organisation adopts a new normative act that regulates the same relations, effectively replacing the old one. Planning theory Scott Shapiro's Planning Theory of Law is built upon two concepts: the nature of legal institutions and the nature of legal norms. The thesis of the Planning Theory argues how legal norms function as shared plans that legal institutions implement in order to exercise social control and governance, regardless of the moral merits of those norms and institutions. Legal institutions can govern in two main ways. Firstly, they can be classified as planning organisations which create, apply and enforce social plans, thus suggesting how many legal norms are simply plans. However, planning institutions may also apply and enforce legal norms that were not created during the process of planning but still nonetheless allow organisations to govern. An example of this would be a customary norm, which have been shaped and informed by cultural values over prolonged periods of time. Shapiro refers to these legal norms as "plan-like norms", that have been "sustained by human action" and "economise on deliberation costs, compensate for cognitive incapacities, and organise behaviour between participants". Such jurisprudential concepts can then be positioned and subsequently viewed through the context of modern legal systems. A shared master plan consisting of the fundamental rules that underpin legal systems allows the delegation of rights, powers and responsibilities for different officials. Above this, sub-plans of the master plan are established, which are either in the form of plans or plan-like norms that are administered by the executive government, for example the particular norms of criminal law that prohibit murder or laws specifying the processes of tax collection. Therefore, the total set of laws in a jurisdiction at a given time consists in the totality of plans and plan-like norms enforced by officials, regardless of any facts about moral merit. Normative legal theory Whilst fact-based positive legal theory explains the causes and effects of the law's application, normative legal theory informs what the law ought to be by navigating the values and reasons that underpin legal actions, the adoption of legislation and judge-made law. Legal theorists use the word "normative" in its general sense that encompasses legal norms, social norms and moral norms. Normative legal theories are highly evaluative and are entwined with moral and political theories. An example that highlights the differences between positive legal theory and normative legal theory is presented through a comparison of their approaches to tort law. Whilst positive theory seeks to explain what causal forces have produced the existing tort principles, normative theory determines what rules of tort liability would be the most justifiable. Normative legal theory uses judgments to conclude the most appropriate rule to be applied in legal reasoning and is influenced by moral or political theories. The general normative theories of deontology, utilitarianism and virtue ethics are three general normative theories that significantly inform normative legal theory: Deontology A conceptual rival against utilitarianism, deontological moral theories explore the concept of duty with its correlative notions of rights and permission. An individual can determine the "rightness" of their action by considering whether it is required, prohibited or allowed by a moral rule. Applying this concept within normative legal theory to criminal law, it is reflected when an action cannot be crime unless it violates a moral duty and the retributive theories of punishment. Utilitarianism Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism whereby decisions are made by predicting the outcome that determines the moral worth of an action. It assumes that the system of legal rules as opposed to individual moral rules provide the relevant scope of a decision. Virtue ethics Placing this theory into a legal context, an action is considered right when an individual, being a virtuous moral agent performs a deed that displays the essences of human excellences. In applying virtuous legal norms, a virtue-centred theory of judging displays the characteristics of judicial temperance, courage, temperament, intelligence, wisdom and justice. These excellences may translate into a concern with equity in virtue jurisprudence. Legal philosophers Whilst both legal theorists Kelsen and Hart believe that legal normativity cannot be reduced to mere factuality or moral normativity, their approaches to interpretations of the concept itself differ. A comparison of their respective contributions to legal normativity will be presented. Kelsen's "General Theory of Norms" Kelsen explores factors that contribute to the normative status of legal rules. He believes that although all normative legal systems have similar structures, each particular system displays idiosyncrasies, thus making law conceptually distinct from morality (Moore, 1978). Kelsen puts forth the argument that the Basic Norm is presupposed when an individual chooses to interpret the actions of authoritative officials in a normative way. In his book Pure Theory of Law, Hans Kelsen aims to provide a holistic definition of law by embodying a comprehensive analysis of legal normativity and systematic structures. The Pure Theory champions legal positivism, which draws a clear distinction between the factual "is" and "what ought to be". Kelsen identifies law as both a unique type of social phenomenon that is differentiated from the rest by its specific mode of coercion, thus equating it with a system of norms. Yet, he also propounds the importance to distinguish between law in a factual sense and in the normative sense, associating his conviction about the normative character of law with a methodological dualism. In its factual sense, Kelsen proposes that "law is an order of human behaviour". By drawing similarities between order, customs and etiquette, Kelsen suggests that the highly factual nature of law renders it an empirical phenomenon. Law is thus defined as both a social technique that coerces those who are subject to it into a system of rules of behaviour, while order constitutes an expansive system of norms that are derived from and validated by the same reason. An individual can thus determine whether a norm belongs to a normative system by ascertaining that it derives validity from the basic norm constituting the order. In its normative sense, laws are defined as "what ought to be done if something should be the case". Kelsen proposes that the normative statement, "it is a rule", can only have sense in the context of regular behaviour combined with a reflective, critical attitude by the population. In adopting this perspective, Kelsen ignores the specific "internal" dimension conditioning the meaning of normative utterances that are related to human values and morality. Hart's "Sui Generis" Hart rejects the notion that legal norms are formed by the classical "natural law model" and emphasises the contexts within which legal norms can have meaning. Hart's view navigates how contemporary societies may function better if a more deflationary understanding of the law is implemented, in lieu of restrictive moral standards. Hart explains legal normativity by drawing references to social facts instead of Kelsen's approach that displays a methodological dualism. Unlike Kelsen's belief of the radical independence of law from morality leads him to defend that legal theory is fundamentally value-free, Hart does not champion such an extreme view and instead endorses soft positivism. He acknowledges that conformity with moral principles or substantive values can be incorporated into the criteria to determine the validity of legal rules. In explaining the normative force of law, Hart focuses on the context within which normative propositions exist, which has significant power in conditioning the meaning of these statements. Ontological model of legal norms Legal norms form the foundations of legal systems. Its structure can be presented using an ontological model that depicts how rules of conduct stipulated by legal norms influence the creation and use of legislation. The ontological model of legal norms is an important tool as it facilitates efficient research that enables legal practitioners to make accountable decisions in court by applying legal norms. Legislation refers to laws that have been enacted by the government and made official by Parliament, thus formulating legal norms and their relations. An ontological model of legal norms can provide legal practitioners with explicit, visual representations of the processes through which legislation is created and administered by the executive government. The norms themselves can be modelled by logic, rules or ontologies to ease the process of retrieving legal information and semantic browsing. Traditionally, legislation retrieval and browsing systems were based on text retrieval whereby a legal practitioner was required to enter specific words in order to acquire the section of legislation that was of interest. This was highly inefficient, as a legal rule may be fragmented whereby the property of the legal system a legal norm regulates in one social relation was contained in different legislation. The fragmentation of legal rules thus compounded the inefficiency of legislation usage and created high barriers for lawyers in regard to legal research, and especially for individuals who wished to retrieve legislative information but did not have a legal background. The ontological model posed an effective solution by categorising legislation based on the meaning of the legal norm it contains, enhancing both clarity and efficiency in research. References Further reading Austin, John (1831). The Province of Jurisprudence Determined. Cotterrell, R. (1995). Law's Community: Legal Theory in Sociological Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Cotterrell, R. (2003). The Politics of Jurisprudence: A Critical Introduction to Legal Philosophy, 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Cotterrell, R. (2018). Sociological Jurisprudence: Juristic Thought and Social Inquiry. New York/London: Routledge. Freeman, M.D.A. (2014). Lloyd's Introduction to Jurisprudence. 9th ed. London: Sweet and Maxwell. Hart, H. L. A. (1994) [1961]. The Concept of Law (2nd (with postscript) ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. . Hartzler, H. Richard (1976). Justice, Legal Systems, and Social Structure. Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press. Engle, Eric (2010). Lex Naturalis, Ius Naturalis: Law as Positive Reasoning & Natural Rationality. Elias Clark Group. . Hutchinson, Allan C., ed. (1989). Critical Legal Studies. Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Littlefield. Kempin Jr., Frederick G. (1963). Legal History: Law and Social Change. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Llewellyn, Karl N. (1986). Karl N. Llewellyn on Legal Realism. Birmingham, AL: Legal Classics Library. (Contains penetrating classic "The Bramble Bush" on nature of law). Murphy, Cornelius F. (1977). Introduction to Law, Legal Process, and Procedure. St. Paul, MN: West Publishing. Rawls, John (1999). A Theory of Justice, revised ed. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. (Philosophical treatment of justice). Wacks, Raymond (2009). Understanding Jurisprudence: An Introduction to Legal Theory Oxford University Press. Washington, Ellis (2002). The Inseparability of Law and Morality: Essays on Law, Race, Politics and Religion University Press of America. Washington, Ellis (2013). The Progressive Revolution, 2007–08 Writings-Vol. 1; 2009 Writings-Vol. 2, Liberal Fascism through the Ages University Press of America. Zinn, Howard (1990). Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. Zippelius, Reinhold (2011). Rechtsphilosophie, 6th ed. Munich: C.H. Beck. Zippelius, Reinhold (2012). Das Wesen des Rechts (The Concept of Law), an introduction to Legal Theory, 6th ed., Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer. Zippelius, Reinhold (2008). Introduction to German Legal Methods (Juristische Methodenlehre), translated from the tenth German Edition by Kirk W. Junker, P. Matthew Roy. Durham: Carolina Academic Press. Heinze, Eric, The Concept of Injustice (Routledge, 2013) Pillai, P.S.A (2016). Jurisprudence and Legal Theory, 3rd Edition, Reprinted 2016: Eastern Book Company. Alexy, Robert (1985), Theorie der Grundrechte, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt a. M.. Translation: A Theory of Constitutional Rights, Oxford University Press, Oxford: 2002. Bicchieri, Cristina (2006), The Grammar of Society: the Nature and Dynamics of Social Norms, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Dancy, Jonathan (ed) (2000), Normativity, Blackwell, Oxford. Garzón Valdés, Ernesto et al. (eds) (1997), Normative Systems in Legal and Moral Theory: Festschrift for Carlos E. Alchourrón and Eugenio Bulygin, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin. Korsgaard, Christine (2000), The Sources of Normativity, Cambridge University, Cambridge. Raz, Joseph (1975, 1990), Practical Reason and Norms, Oxford University Press, Oxford; 2nd edn 1990. Rosen, Bernard (1999), The Centrality of Normative Ethical Theory, Peter Lang, New York. Ruiter, Dick (1993), Institutional Legal Facts: Legal Powers and their Effects, Kluwer, Dordrecht. Turri, John (2016), Knowledge and the Norm of Assertion: An Essay in Philosophical Science, Open Book Publishers, Cambridge. von Wright, G. H. (1963), Norm and Action: a Logical Enquiry, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London. Legal ethics Administrative theory	0.765255	0.978526	0.748822
Political engineering	In political science, political engineering is the designing of political institutions in a society and often involves the use of paper decrees, in the form of laws, referendums, ordinances, or otherwise, to try to achieve some desired effect. The criteria and constraints used in such design vary depending on the optimization methods used. Usually democratic political systems have not been deemed suitable as subjects of political engineering methods. Political engineering can also be employed to design alternative voting procedures in a democratic system. References Further reading Benjamin Reilly, Democracy and Diversity: Political Engineering in the Asia-Pacific, 2006. Democracy in Divided Societies. Electocal Engineering for Conflict Management, 2001. Giovanni Sartori, Comparative Constitutional Engineering, 2nd Ed. 1997. Andrés Tinoco, Ingeniería Política y de Gobierno, 2007. Control (social and political) Political science terminology	0.782085	0.957397	0.748766
2015 Japanese military legislation	In 2015, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party promoted legislation, passed on 19 September 2015, despite some public opposition, to allow the country's military to participate in foreign conflicts, overturning its previous policy of fighting only in self-defense. Since the Japanese constitution allows the Japanese military to act only in self-defense, the legislation reinterpreted the relevant passages to allow the military to operate overseas for "collective self-defense" for allies. The legislation came into effect on 29 March 2016. Background Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution prohibits use of military force internationally. On 15 May 2014, an advisory panel formed by Abe recommended that Article 9 be reinterpreted to allow a broader use of military power. On 1 July, the government announced that it had devised a policy dubbed "collective self defense" to allow it to use armed force to defend its allies. Abe had originally proposed to give the military even more leeway, but resistance from lawmakers in both parties of the governing coalition led to softening of the language. With Abe's coalition a majority in both houses of parliament, the language was expected to be passed into law later in the year. In February 2015, Abe said that he planned to begin work to amend Article 9 after the 2016 parliamentary elections. Abe cited the beheading of two Japanese hostages by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (commonly known as ISIS) in his goal of allowing Japan's military to intervene overseas to protect Japanese citizens. Legislative history On 26 May 2015, the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the National Diet, began debate on a package of eleven bills, granting the military the power to engage in foreign combat in limited circumstances. It is called the "Peace and Security Preservation Legislation" by its sponsors. Debate in the Diet had been scheduled to end in June, but a final vote was later delayed to September. On 16 July 2015, the House of Representatives passed the legislation, the final version of which allowed the military to provide logistical support to allies overseas as well as armed support in circumstances when inaction would endanger "the lives and survival of the Japanese nation." The vote was passed on the strength of the majority coalition of LDP and Komeito lawmakers; members of the opposition boycotted the vote in protest. After passage of the bill in the House of Representatives, the House of Councillors, the upper house of the National Diet, debated the bill for two months. It passed in committee on 17 September in a contentious vote in which opposition lawmakers attempted to restrain the committee chairman physically. Then, it moved to the full house for a final vote. Early in the morning on 19 September, the bill passed the full house after a delayed vote in which opposition members used various delaying tactics to draw out the process. In an effort to delay passage until after the Silver Week holiday, Yukio Edano of the Democratic Party of Japan spoke for 104 minutes (having planned to speak for four hours) in support of a no confidence motion against the cabinet, and Tarō Yamamoto of the People's Life Party attempted to delay voting by walking very slowly to the ballot box. Effects The legislation has been effective since 29 March 2016. One of the first applications of the legislation was to authorize the Self-Defense Forces peacekeeping team in South Sudan to aid UN or foreign countries' personnel under attack in the country. While the legislation is expected to allow Japanese and US forces to work more closely together, such as by forming integrated naval task forces to repel an invasion of Japan, Defense Minister Gen Nakatani denied that Japan would always come to the aid of the US, and Prime Minister Abe specifically ruled out the possibility of extending SDF support for the coalition fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. It is reported that Tokyo is sending JGSDF officers to participate with the Multinational Force and Observers in April 2019 by using the new law as a basis. In December 2022 the Kishida government announced a $320bn increase in military spending, due in part to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Public opposition The legislation was controversial within Japan. According to some polls conducted in July, at the time of the legislation's debate in the House of Representatives, two thirds of the Japanese public opposed the bills. A protest on 16 July drew an estimated 100,000 people to the National Diet building. Later protests in September ahead of the House of Councillors vote drew crowds of 10,000 to 30,000. The Abe governments's approval rating fell below its disapproval rating after the House of Representatives passed the legislation in July 2015 and again after it finally approved it in September. A slight majority of poll respondents in September thought that Japan's deterrent capabilities would not be strengthened by the legislation. Much opposition to the legislation centered on its alleged questionable constitutionality. Repeated surveys of experts in Japan's constitution showed that more than 90% of those surveyed believed it was unconstitutional, and in June, Waseda University professor Yasuo Hasebe, in an address to the Diet with two other constitutional scholars, said that it would "considerably damage the legal stability" of Japan. After its passage, it was expected to be challenged in court, although Japan's legal system has rarely ruled against the government in security matters. A revision of the Japanese constitution to revise Article 9 would require a national referendum, which perceived current public opposition to Abe and the legislation made it thought to be unlikely to succeed in the short term. In defense of the bills, Nihon University professor Akira Momochi argued that the legislation was in keeping with the United Nations Charter, saying that the right to self-defense is "a given for international laws, and that supersedes national laws." See also Coalition of the willing – Japan's military was involved in the conflict in Iraq Japanese Iraq Reconstruction and Support Group References External links Japan's Fistfights and Foreign Wars by Angela Carlton / Midwest Diplomacy Yuki's Take / Security legislation points to a bigger problem By Yuki Tatsumi / Special to The Japan News (The Yomiuri Shimbun) 2015 controversies 2015 in Japanese politics 2015 in law 2015 in military history Japanese defence policies Controversies in Japan Japanese legislation Legal history of Japan Military history of Japan Overseas deployments of the Japan Self-Defense Forces Human rights in Japan	0.76108	0.983805	0.748754
State-building	State-building as a specific term in social sciences and humanities, refers to political and historical processes of creation, institutional consolidation, stabilization and sustainable development of states, from the earliest emergence of statehood up to the modern times. Within historical and political sciences, there are several theoretical approaches to complex questions related to the role of various contributing factors (geopolitical, economic, social, cultural, ethnic, religious, internal, external) in state-building processes. Since the end of the 20th century, state-building has developed into becoming an integral part and even a specific approach to peacebuilding by the international community. Observers across the political and academic spectra have come to see the state-building approach as the preferred strategy to peacebuilding in a number of high-profile conflicts, including the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and war-related conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The general argument in the academic literature on state-building is that without security, other tasks of state-building are not possible. Consequently, when state-building as an approach to peacebuilding is employed in conflict and post-conflict societies, the first priority is to create a safe environment in order to make wider political and economic development possible. So far, the results of using the state-building approach to peacebuilding have been mixed, and in many places, such as in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq, the initial high expectations set by the international community have not been met. The literature on state-building has always been very clear that building states has historically been a violent process and the outcomes in the above-mentioned cases and many others confirm the destabilizing and often violent nature of state-building. Definition State-building has been conceptualized in different ways. A historical approach focuses on state-building processes, from the earliest emergence of statehood up to modern times. Historical science views state-building as a complex phenomenon, influenced by various contributing factors (geopolitical, economic, social, cultural, ethnic, religious) and analyzes those factors and their mutual relations from the perspective of a particular historical situation, that is characteristic of every state-building process. A second approach conceptualizes state-building as an activity undertaken by external actors (foreign countries) attempting to build, or re-build, the institutions of a weaker, post-conflict or failing state. A third approach conceptualizes state-building as development. Application of state-building theories The predatory theory War making When studying the development of European states, Charles Tilly identified that European countries engaged in four activities: War making – eliminating or neutralizing their own rivals State making – eliminating or neutralizing their rivals inside their own territory Protection – eliminating or neutralizing the enemies of their clients Extraction – acquiring the means of carrying out the first three activities. Adjudication – authoritative settlement of disputes among members of the population Distribution – intervention in the allocation of goods among the members of the population Production – control of the creation and transformation of goods and services produced by the population For Tilly, these activities are interdependent and rely on the state's ability to monopolize violence. Before the consolidation of European states, kings relied on their lords’ troops to emerge victorious from war, setting the final boundaries of their territories after years of campaigns. Still, these lords and their private armies could become potential threats to the king's power during peacetime. Originally, structures were created to facilitate extraction from the king's subordinates in exchange for protection (from their enemies and from the state), covering the expenses of war campaigns. However, extraction also economically strengthened the states, allowing them to expand their hold over the use of violence. Out of these four activities, war making was the main stimulus to increasing the level of taxation, thus increasing the capacity of the state to extract resources otherwise known as fiscal capacity. The increased capacity of the state to extract taxes from its citizens while facing external threats prompted Jeffrey Herbst to propose allowing failed states to dissolve or engage in war to re-create the process endured by European countries. The process of extraction in exchange for protection was further argued by economic historian Frederic Lane. Lane argued that "governments are in the business of selling protection... whether people want it or not". Furthermore, Lane argued that a monopoly was best equipped to produce and control violence. This, he argued, was due to the fact that competition within a monopoly raised costs, and that producing violence renders larger economies of scale. Although the logic was consistent with the predatory theory of the state in early modern Europe, Herbst's point of view was criticized by several scholars including Richard Joseph who were concerned that the application of the predatory theory was an excessive approach to Darwinism. Many have disregarded the limited view of this theory and have instead extended it to include strong external threats of any kind. External threats to the state produce stronger institutional capacities to extract resources from the state. In harnessing this increased capacity, Cameron Thies describes the state as a machine that requires a "driver" that is able to use the increased capacity to expand the influence and power of government. The driver can be a state personnel, a dominant class, or a charismatic individual. Without these drivers, the political and military machine of the state has no direction to follow, and therefore, without this direction, war and the increased resources extracted from war can not be used for growth. On the other hand, internal wars, i.e. civil wars, have a negative effect on the extraction of a state. Internal rivals to the state decrease the state's capacity to unify and extract from its citizens. Rivals usually will bargain with the state to lower their tax burden, and gain economic or political privileges. Limited access orders In their paper, Douglass North, John Wallis, and Barry Weingast offer an alternative framework - limited access orders - for understanding the predatory role of the state. In limited access orders, entry is restricted in both economic and political systems to produce rents that benefit the ruling elites. In open access orders, entry is open to all. The logic of the open access state is based on impersonality. Both systems are interdependent and are only stable when both have similar access frameworks, either limited or open. Transitioning from a limited access order to an open access order involves difficult, radical changes based on three "doorstep conditions": 1) rule of law for elites, 2) perpetual life for organizations, and 3) political control of the military. Once all three initial conditions are satisfied, more incremental changes can be made to move the state further in the direction of an open access order. External lending According to Didac Queralt, cheap access to credit in the 19th century inhibited state building, as the access to external loans made it unnecessary for rulers to undertake domestic political reforms to enhance internal resource extraction. Social changes and social order In his study on countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, Joel Migdal presented the necessary and sufficient conditions for establishing a strong state. He considered "massive societal dislocation" that weakens old social control and institutions as the necessary condition. Such cases include the Black Death and the Hundred Years' War in Europe, the expansion of world economy into Asia, Africa and Latin America in the 19th century, the combination of war and revolution in China, Korea and Vietnam and mass migration in Taiwan and Israel in the 20th century. Furthermore, he listed the sufficient conditions as follows: World historical timing when exogenous political forces were in favor of concentrated social control; Existence of military threat from outside or other groups in the country; A group of skillful and independent people to build an independent bureaucracy; Skillful top leadership that would take advantage of the above conditions. Differentiating "nation-building", military intervention and regime change Some commentators have used the term "nation-building" interchangeably with "state-building" (e.g. Rand report on America's role in nation-building). However, in both major schools of theory, the state is the focus of thinking rather than the "nation" (nation conventionally refers to the population itself, as united by identity history, culture and language). The issues debated related to the structures of the state (and its relationship to society) and as a result, state-building is the more broadly accepted term. In political science 'nation-building' usually has a quite distinct meaning, defined as the process of encouraging a sense of national identity within a given group of people, a definition that relates more to socialisation than state capacity (see the ODI, OECD, and DFID reports cited above). Similarly, state-building (nation-building) has at times been conflated with military invasions that aim at regime change. This derives in part from the military invasions by Germany and Japan in World War II and resulting states and became especially prevalent following the October 2001 United States invasion of Afghanistan and March 2003 invasion of Iraq. The conflation of these two concepts has been highly controversial and has been used by opposing ideological and political forces to attempt to justify or reject as an illegal military occupation the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. Hence, regime change by outside intervention should be differentiated from state-building. There have been some examples of military interventions by international or multilateral actors with a focus on building state capacity, including Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-1995), East Timor, and Sierra Leone. Such interventions are alternatively described as "neotrusteeship" or "neoimperialism". Under this framework, strong states take over part of all of the governance of territories with underdeveloped existing governing structures, often with the backing of international legal authority. Unlike the classic imperialism of the 19th and early 20th centuries, this type of intervention is aimed at (re)building local state structures and turning over governance to them as quickly as possible. Such efforts vary in the scope of their objectives, however, with some believing that sweeping change can be accomplished through the sufficient and intelligent application of personnel, money, and time, while others believe that any such plans will founder on the inherent unpredictability of interventions and that lengthy, sustained interventions often prevent local leaders from taking responsibility and strengthen insurgent forces. Neotrusteeship, shared sovereignty and other new models of intervention rest on the assumptions that intervention is the most effective strategy for state-building and that countries cannot recover from the failures of government without external interference. However, Jeremy M. Weinstein proposes autonomous recovery exists as a process that offers "lasting peace, a systematic reduction in violence, and post-war political and economic development in the absence of international intervention." The argument suggests that external interference detracts from the state-building by-products produced from war or military victories, given that military intervention makes rebel victories less likely and that peace-building discourages violence. External support undermines the creation of a self-sustaining relationship between rulers or political leaders and their constituents. Foreign aid promotes governments that maintain the same leaders in power and discourages developing a revenue extraction plan that would bind local politicians and local populations. War or military victories create conditions for self-sustaining and representative institutional arrangements through the domestic legitimacy and capacity of state revenue extraction that are by-products of war. Versus peace-building State-building does not automatically guarantee peace-building, a term denoting actions that identify and support structures that strengthen and solidify peace in order to prevent a relapse into conflict. Whilst they have traditionally been considered two individual concepts with a complex relationship giving rise to dilemmas and necessitating trade-offs, as Grävingholt, Gänzle and Ziaja argue, the two actually representative two diverging perspectives on the same issue: a shaky social peace and a breakdown of political order. Whilst the OECD emphasises that peace-building and state-building are not the same, it does recognise the nexus between them and the reinforcement of one component has on the other: 'peace-building is primarily associated with post-conflict environments, and state-building is likely to be a central element of it in order to institutionalise peace'. Paris' model including the peace-building and state-building is one of the better-known ones. He advocates an Internationalisation Before Liberalisation (IBL) approach, arguing that peace-building must be geared towards building liberal and effective states, thus 'avoiding the pathologies of liberalization, while placing war-shattered states on a long-term path to democracy and market-oriented economics'. Despite the advantages of incorporating peace-building and state-building in the same model, applicational limitations should be recognised. In practice, foreign and security policymaking still largely treat them as separate issues. Moreover, academics often approach the subjects from different angles. Heathershaw and Lambach caution that in practice, interventions that attempt the ambitious goals that Paris (amongst others) sets out may be coercive and driven by a 'the end justifies the means' outlook. This concern is acute in United Nations peacekeeping missions for there have been instances where peace-builders aspire not only to go a step further and eradicate the causes of violence, which are oftentimes not agreed upon by the parties to the conflict, but also to invest 'post-conflict societies with various qualities, including democracy in order to reduce the tendency toward arbitrary power and give voice to all segments of society; the rule of law in order to reduce human rights violations; a market economy free from corruption in order to discourage individuals from believing that the surest path to fortune is by capturing the state; conflict management tools; and a culture of tolerance and respect'. Such ambitious goals are questionable when the United Nations has been seen to struggle in high-profile conflict-ridden situations such as Darfur and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Where it has accomplished a degree of stability such as in Haiti and Liberia, it endures pressure 'to transition from heavy and costly security-oriented peacekeeping operations to lighter, peace-building-oriented missions'. Introducing state-building to mandates is controversial not only because this would entail extra costs and commitments but also because 'the expansion of peacekeeping into these areas has de facto extended the authority of the Security Council, with political, financial, institutional, and bureaucratic implications that have yet to be fully addressed'. Due to the inherently political nature of state building, interventions to build the state can hinder peace, increasing group tensions and sparking off further conflict. The strength of the consensus that has emerged stressing that 'a minimally functioning state is essential to maintain peace', ignores the complications that poor legitimacy and inclusion can lead to in the future, undermining the whole process. For instance, while the Guatemala Peace Accords were considered successful, 'the formal substance of these agreements has not altered power structures that have been in place for decades (if not centuries) in any substantial manner. The underlying (informal) understanding among elites – that their privileges and hold on power are not to be touched – appears to remain. Therefore, while the Accords may be deemed successful because they prevented the outbreak of war, this 'success' was tainted by the implications made by a subsequent report published by the Commission of Historical Clarification in February 1999. Its particular institutions were singled out as responsible for extensive human rights abuses. State institutions were assigned responsibility for 93% of these, and the guerrilla forces for 3%. In unexpectedly strong language, the report described Guatemalan governmental policy at the height of the war as a policy of genocide. The reinforcement of these state institutions as part of the peace-building process taints it by association. Efforts to "appease" or 'buy off' certain interest groups in the interest of peace may undermine state-building exercises, as may power-sharing exercises that could favor the establishment of a political settlement over effective state institutions. Such political settlements could also enshrine power and authority with certain factions within the military, allowing them to carve up state resources to the detriment of state-building exercises. However, in weak states where the government has not sufficient power to control peripheries of the territory, alliances with the elites could strengthen the state's governing power. Yet, these alliances are successful if the agreement is mutually beneficial for the parties e.g. elites' power is threatened by competition and the entitlement of the government would help them to diminish it. In return, the government would acquire information and control over the peripheries' policies. Afghanistan since 2001, is an example of a beneficial pact between government and elites; entitling some select set of warlords as governors yielded a strongman brand of governance in two key provinces. Sometimes peace-building efforts bypass the state in an effort to bring peace and development more quickly, for example, it was found that many NGOs in the Democratic Republic of Congo were building schools without involving the state. The state also may be part of the problem and over-reliance on the state by international actors can worsen security inside the country. Conversely, state corruption can mean that state-building efforts serve only one ethnic, religious or other minority group, exacerbating tensions that could escalate toward violence. State building can also assist predatory states to strengthen their institutions, reinforcing abusive authority and further fueling grievances and popular resistance. In practice, however, there remains confusion over the differences between state-building and peace-building. The UN's High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change stated that "along with establishing security, the core task of peace-building is to build effective public institutions that, through negotiations with civil society, can establish a consensual framework for governance with the rule of law". Additionally, a 2004 UN study found that a number of UN officials felt that the establishment of effective and legitimate state institutions was a key indicator of a successful peace operation.<ref>Call, Charles T (2008), "The Fallacy of the 'Failed State', 'Third World Quarterly, 29:8, p 1498.</ref> State capacity State capacity is the ability of a government to accomplish policy goals, either generally or in reference to specific aims. A state that lacks capacity is defined as a fragile state or, in a more extreme case, a failed state. Higher state capacity has been strongly linked to long-term economic development, as state capacity can establish law and order, private property rights, and external defense, as well as support development by establishing a competitive market, transportation infrastructure, and mass education. There are various definitions of state capacity among scholars. Economic historians Noel Johnson and Mark Koyama define state capacity as "the ability of a state to collect taxes, enforce law and order, and provide public goods." Berwick and Christia consolidate the literature on state capacity into 3 different domains: Extractive capacity is the process of collecting rents in order to provide resources for the governed. Taxing is the most common form of extraction. Tilly argues that state-building was not intended, but once it has begun, extraction capacity was necessary. Furthermore, Herbst argues that war is a catalyst to start or increase extractive capacity. Governmental capacity is the ability of lower-level governmental workers to implement the agenda of the higher level of government. Regulatory–productive capacity is the capacity of the state to provide output for the citizens. This output can include the enforcement of laws and the setting of policies for the citizens. State capacity is widely cited as an essential element to why some countries are rich and others are not: "It has been established that the richest countries in the world are characterized by long-lasting and centralized political institutions"; "that poverty is particularly widespread and intractable in countries that lack a history of centralized government... and are internally fragmented"; "and countries with weak state capacity are particularly vulnerable to civil war and internal conflict". Pritchett, Woolcock & Andrews (2013)[36] offer a criticism of why state-building fails to work. They claim that many countries are in a capability trap – countries are, at most, converging at a very low pace to the same levels of state capacity. They estimate that on average, it would take 672 years for the bottom 15 countries to reach the state capability level of the best performer if their capabilities keep growing at the same average rate with which they have grown since their political independence. Other indexes suggest that countries are not catching up: the bureaucratic quality and corruption index from the International Country Risk Guide (ICRG) has a negative pace of growth for the bottom 30 countries. The authors argue that the capability trap shows that external assistance to increase state capacity has not been successful in accelerating the development process. They identify that this implementation failure may occur through two techniques: i) systemic isomorphic mimicry, by which the structures of institutions are imitated (specific rules are followed) but they do not serve purposes functional to the society; and ii) premature load-bearing, in which the pressure exerted by outsiders undermines the organic evolution of local institutions. Approaches While many specific techniques exist for creating a successful state-building strategy, three specific approaches have been identified by the recent 2010 UNRISD report. These three approaches would all fall under the endogenous school of thinking, and are: Good Governance, New Public Management, and Decentralization. Education as a state-building tool Education is used in both democratic and authoritarian contexts to promote state-building. In both democratic and authoritarian contexts, education seeks to promote social order and political stability by teaching citizens to respect the state’s authority from a young age. Governments often turn to primary education to teach a common culture, political values and beliefs, and political behaviors. Education can also improve human capital and encourage economic growth; however, the correlation between access to education and the level of skills of the population is weak. While some suggest that education has a destabilizing effect on authoritarian states, and therefore authoritarian states will refrain from providing it, the historical record shows that authoritarian governments frequently expanded education provision rather than reduced it. Good governance Good governance is a very broadly used term for successful ways a government can create public institutions that protect people's rights. There has been a shift in good governance ideals, and as Kahn states, "The dominant 'good governance' paradigm identifies a series of capabilities that, it argues are necessary governance capabilities for a market-friendly state. These include, in particular, the capabilities to protect stable property rights, enforce the rule of law, effectively implement anti-corruption policies and achieve government accountability." This good governance paradigm is a market-enhancing process that emerged in the 1990s. This approach involves enforcing the rule of law, creating stronger property rights, and reducing corruption. By focusing on improving these three traits, a country can improve its market efficiency. There is a theoretical cycle of market failure which explains how a lack of property rights and strong corruption, among other problems, leads to market failure: The cycle starts with economic stagnation, which can enhance and expose the inefficiencies of a weak government and rule of law that cannot effectively respond to the problem. Because a government is unaccountable or weak, small interest groups can use the government for their specific interests, resulting in rent-seeking and corruption. Corruption and rent-seeking from interest groups will lead to weak property rights that prevent citizens and smaller businesses from the assurance that their property is safe under national law. Also, corruption will result in welfare-reducing interventions. These weak property rights and welfare-reducing interventions lead to high transaction cost markets. High transaction cost markets lead back to economic stagnation. While it is understood that improving rule of law and reducing corruption are important methods for increasing the stability and legitimacy of a government, it is not certain whether this approach is a good basis for a state-building approach. Researchers have looked at this approach by measuring property rights, regulatory quality, corruption, and voice and accountability. There was little correlation found between increasing property rights and growth rates per capita GDP. Similarly, there is disagreement among development researchers as to whether it is more beneficial to promote a comprehensive set of reforms or to promote a minimal set of necessary reforms in contexts of poor institutionalization. Proponents of the latter approach have put forward the concept of "good enough governance". New Public Management In response to the unsuccessful attempts to strengthen government administrations, developing countries began to adopt market-oriented managerial reforms under the pressure of the IMF and the World Bank. The New Public Management approach first emerged in New Zealand and the United Kingdom in the 1980s. New Public management uses market-like reforms within the public sector to provide the government with the necessary power to implement a development plan for the economy while also using competitive market-based techniques to enhance public sector production. It changed public sector employment practices from career tenure positions towards limited-term contracts for senior staff, locally determined pay, and performance-related pay. Secondly, the provision of government services shifted towards contracts, franchising, vouchers, and user charges in an effort to promote efficiency in service provision to citizens. In this type of government, large bureaucracies within a ministry (the principal) no longer maintain their hierarchical structure but rather are composed of operational arms of ministries that perform the role of an individual agent. The strategy has been more prominent in liberal market-driven policy regimes like New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Continental Europe has been more resistant to implementing this type of policy. In developing countries, the implementation of these types of infrastructure has been difficult because the markets for the delivery of services are imperfect and increase the danger of regulatory capture by companies. For successful implementation, governments must have the infrastructure to measure reliable performance indicators and the capacity to regulate the behavior of private providers. Decentralization In reference to state-building approaches decentralization is beneficial because "It seeks to reduce rent-seeking behavior and inefficient resource allocation associated with centralized power by dispersing such power to lower levels of government, where the poor are likely to exercise influence and a variety of actors may participate in the provision of services". Limitations to decentralization are the reduction of the meritocratic basis can limit the state's capacity to serve citizens, limited control of the fiscal funds at the local level can prevent effectiveness and substantial inequalities in fiscal capacity among different regions can create an ineffective redistribution of resources. Therefore, for these policies to work, there must be coordination efforts to ensure that growth-oriented and redistributive strategies initiated by the central government are implemented regionally. Furthermore, government elites must be in favor of low-income groups and grass root groups should be able to engage with local authorities during policy making. Examples of state-building European states replicated or bequeathed their institutions in the territories they colonized, but many new emerging states have evolved differently. European states consolidated after long years of internal and external struggles that greatly differ in context from the struggles of some recently emerged states. Regime type Governments that have implemented the top-down method present the idea that there is a great external threat that can diminish the capabilities of a state and its citizens. The perceived threat creates an incentive that focuses policy, makes elites cooperate, and facilitates the adoption of a nationalistic ideology. In an authoritarian government, political, military, and ideological power is concentrated to be conducive to policy continuation. The bureaucracies implemented are well-trained, well-paid and highly competitive in recruitment and promotion. Economically successful states in East Asia have taken on programs to create infrastructure, subsidize the farming sector, provide credit, support spending on targeted research, and invest in health and education. However, most governments are non-developmental and unstable. Furthermore, even when countries have tried to pursue authoritarian strategies that have worked, specifically Brazil, a divided military, regional oligarchs in power, and vast disparities in inequality delegitimized the regime. A democratic regime engages citizens more actively than a top-down government. It respects the right of citizens to contest policies. Successful democracies developed political capacities by nurturing active citizenship, maintaining electoral competitiveness that gave value to the votes of the poor, fostering political parties that were strongly oriented towards equality and having strong party-social movement ties. Latin America Latin America experienced a period of rapid economic growth and political stability in the late-19th century, following independence and subsequent decades of decline caused by violence, reduced state capacity, and fiscal fragmentation. This trajectory is markedly successful relative to other post-conflict societies at the time. Latin Americans also enacted a number of liberal public policies swiftly and effectively, such as abolition of slavery (Saint-Domingue in 1793, Haiti in 1804, New Spain in 1813, Peru in 1854, Brazil in 1888), socializing property rights over land, and eliminating public monopolies, which fostered long-term stability that facilitated economic growth and established a new political economy for these new nations. The growth and stability seen in Latin America, however, did come at a high social cost in the form of social inequality that continued into the 21st century. In the 21st century it became economically and politically difficult for Latin American countries to increase revenues, which led states to turn to debt for the necessary resources to pay for war. As a result, Latin American countries did not establish the same tax basis that their European counterparts did. This can be explained by the predatory theory. Studies on the extraction of tax revenues have demonstrated that both external and internal rivals affect the ability of a state to develop and extract resources from its citizens. Interstate rivals had a positive effect on the state's capacity to extract resources while intrastate rivals had a negative effect on state building. Africa Tilly's theory that external threats strengthen the state's capacity to extract taxes from its citizens can apply to developing countries in Africa. The presence of both external state rivals and internal ethnic rivals prompted states to increase their extraction of taxes from citizens while internal political rivals failed to affect the extraction of taxes. The leaders in power try to maintain their position by catering to the majority ethnic group and by increasing taxes to gain the resources to diminish threats from minority ethnic groups. Thus the presence of internal ethnic rivals creates the capacity to significantly increase the tax ratio. Drawing on Charles Tilly's theory of European state formation, a number of scholars have suggested that in focusing on internal rivalries, rather than challenging colonial borders, rulers were "less likely to see their economies as a resource to be nurtured than as an object of periodic plunder—the analogy to Olson's (1993) roving bandits should be clear" (Thies, 2004: 58). In the absence of external threats, rulers thus had no impetus to replicate the patterns described by Tilly — war-making, coercion and resource extraction — that had proven crucial to the process of centralization of power in the states of Europe. For example, in States and Power in Africa (2000), Jeffrey Herbst explains that "domestic security threats, of the type African countries face so often, may force the state to increase revenue; however, civil conflicts result in fragmentation and considerable hostility among different segments of the population", undermining the state's ability to rally the population's support for the "national project" (2000: 126). In a later article, Herbst argues that war in Europe led to strong states and that without war African states will remain weak. In Europe, external threats allowed states to tax, increase taxation, and forge a national identity. Additionally, the states that were invaded and taken over (such as Poland-Lithuania or Ireland) by stronger countries were militarily and politically weak. African states are poor, have weak governments, and are fragmented on ethnic or regional lines. According to theory, these weak African states should be susceptible to external threats, but this is not the case. In Africa, Herbst notes, there are rarely conflicts between states, and if there are, war does not threaten the existence of the state. For example, in the 1979 Uganda-Tanzania War, Tanzania invaded Uganda to overthrow Idi Amin, but after the Tanzanians had removed Amin, they left the country. Although African states do not experience widespread interstate war, Herbst argues they need it to reform the tax structure and to build a national identity. Herbst concludes that war in Africa is likely to occur when African leaders realize that their economic reforms and efforts to build a national identity do not work and in desperation will start wars to build the states that their countries need. James Robinson disagrees with Herbst in the grade of influence of war on state-building, stating that European colonization and European influences in the continent impacted more deeply the creation of institutions, and therefore, states in Africa. the provision of public services, another dimension of state-building, which includes the management of human capital within the realm of service along with the delivery of public services, remains another major challenge for post-conflict African nations. Academics have built models of the political economy in post-conflict African societies to understand the trade-off between the capability, delivery, and stability of public-service administration, and policies that result in weak civil service rooted in the nations' legacies of conflict. Several researchers have emphasized that the internal violence seen in Africa was characteristic of early modern European politics and that this type of structure may resolve to produce an increased level of political order. A number of scholars have criticized this claim for its "excessively Darwinian", overly deterministic and Euro-centric understanding of the process of state-formation (Thies, 2004: 69, see also Joseph, 1997). Asia Palestine The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) claims sovereignty over the Palestinian Territories whose legal statehood is widely recognized (though not by some major global powers), as well as representative status over the Palestinian people, a claim that is universally recognized. However, it does not have sole jurisdiction over the areas it claims. In addition, many of those it aims to represent currently reside elsewhere, most notably in Arab countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. Nonetheless, the PLO and other Palestinian organisations have historically made great efforts to install institutions of a type commonly associated with states in the Palestinian territories - as well as in countries with large numbers of Palestinian residents. Examples include: Jordan after the Six-Day War (June 1967), where the installation of parallel structures of power and mechanisms for taxation and education led to largely independent Palestinian enclaves which formed a threat to the power and legitimacy of the Hashemite monarchy Lebanon, where a similar process exacerbated ethnic and religious tensions Despite the break-down of the Oslo process of 1993-2000 and the ongoing construction of Israeli settlements (1967 to present), the Palestinian National Authority continues to engage in state-building activities in its territories and has referred to the "State of Palestine" in official documents since 2013. In 2003 the United Nations Security Council passed UN Resolution 1515, calling for the "establishment of an independent, democratic and viable Palestinian state". Despite this official acknowledgement of the legitimacy of PNA state-building by the international community, a 2011 report prepared by the London-based Overseas Development Institute found international assistance to have been "sporadic and fragmented". Besides the lack of consistent outside support, the report identified key challenges to Palestinian state-building at the international level, including the lack of horizon on "final status" negotiations, failed peace negotiations, the tightening of the occupation, and the weak economic base, in addition to profound challenges at the domestic level, including: a lack of an internal political settlement weak linkages between ruling authorities and society at large weakened social cohesion gender inequality weak civil-society lack of capacity of formal PNA institutions (perceived) securitization of authority across the occupied Palestinian territory A number of scholars have questioned whether the Palestinian Authority was ever in a position to build a viable state. Edward Said, Neve Gordon and Sara Roy – among others – have argued that the PNA was designed as an "occupation subcontractor", only strengthening the power asymmetries between occupier and occupied. Another strand of analysis, associated with Jamil Hilal and Mushtaq Khan (2004), portrays the PNA as a "transitional client quasi-state", stuck in a situation where core functions of the state remain in the hands of the Israeli state. They identify structural issues within the Oslo process and disunity and corruption prevalent among the Palestinian elite as key reasons for the failure of Palestinian state-building efforts. Saudi Arabia Based on kernels of tribalism, fundamentalist religious ideology (Wahhabist Islam) and monarchical dynastic control, Saudi Arabia formed as a 20th-century state with the support of tax revenues and military development. See also Constitutional economics Political economy Rule according to higher law Nation-building Regime change The White Man's Burden – a poem Disaster capitalism Political settlement Sovereign state State (polity) Environmental determinism States and Power in Africa – a book Peacekeeping Stabilization of fragile states References Notes Literature Almond, Gabriel: The Return to the State in: American Political Science Review, Vol. 82, No. 3, 853–874, 1988. Bastian, S. and Luckham, R. ) In Can Democracy Be Designed? : The Politics of Institutional Choice in Conflict-Torn Societies (Ed, Luckham, R.) Zed, London Collier, P., 2003. Caplan, Richard, International Governance of War-torn Territories: Rule and Reconstruction, Oxford: OUP, 2005. Chandler, D. Empire in Denial: The Politics of State-building. Pluto Press, 2006. Chesterman, Simon: You, The People: The United Nations, Transitional Administration, and State-Building. Oxford University Press, 2004. 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In M.H. Khan, G. Giacaman and I. Amundsen (eds.), State Formation in Palestine: Viability and Governance during a Social Transformation. Abingdon: Routledge, 2004. Hehir, A. and Robinson, N. (eds.) "State-building: Theory and Practice", Routledge, London, 2007. Kjær, Anne M./Hansen, Ole H./Frølund Thomsen, Jens Peter: Conceptualizing State Capacity, Working Paper, March, Department of Political Science, University of Aarhus, 2002. Kuzio, Taras/Kravchuk, Robert S./D’Anieri, Paul (eds.): State and Institution Building in Ukraine, London: Routledge, 1998, . Mazzuca, Sebastián L., Latecomer State Formation: Political Geography and Capacity Failure in Latin America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2021. Migdal, Joel S.: State in Society. Studying how States and Societies Transform and Constitute one another, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Nagl, Dominik. No Part of the Mother Country, but Distinct Dominions - Law, State-Building and Governance in England, Massachusetts und South Carolina, 1630-1769 (2013). Paris, Roland, A War's End, University of Colorado, Boulder, 2004. Parish, Matthew: A Free City in the Balkans: Reconstructing a Divided Society in Bosnia, London: I.B.Tauris, 2009. Persson, Anders (2012). "Building a state or maintaining the occupation? International support for Fayyad’s state-building project", Journal of Conflict Transformation and Security, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp: 101–119. Samuels, Kirsti S, State Building and the Consequences of Constitutional Choices in Conflictual Environments: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Fiji, Lebanon, Northern Ireland, South Africa and Uganda, IPA Policy Paper, New York, 2006. Skopcol, Theda: Bringing the State Back In, in: Social Science Research Items, Vol. 36, June 1–8, 1982. Tilly, Charles: Coercion, Capital, and European States, AD 900–1990, Malden: Blackwell, 2000, . Tilly, Charles (ed.): Western-State Making and Theories of Political Transformation, in: The Formation of National States in Western Europe, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975. World Bank : World Development Report 1997: The State in a Changing World, Washington, DC: World Bank, 1997 The U.S. Army. The U.S. Army Stability Operations Field Manual Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 2009. Whaites, Alan: `States in Development: Understanding State-building,' UK Department for International Development, London, 2008 (States in Development paper). Zaum, Dominik: The Sovereignty Paradox: The Norms and Politics of International Statebuilding'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. International relations terminology Public administration Decentralization International development Peacebuilding	0.761211	0.983479	0.748635
Youth politics	Youth politics is a category of issues which distinctly involve, affect or otherwise impact youth. It encompasses youth policy that specifically has an impact on young people (for example, education, housing, employment, leisure) and how young people engage in politics including in institutional politics (elections, membership of a political party), youth organisations and lifestyle. History United States With roots in the early youth activism of the newsboys and Mother Jones' child labor protests at the turn of the 20th century, youth politics were first identified in American politics with the formation of the American Youth Congress in the 1930s. In the 1950s and 1960s organizations such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and Students for a Democratic Society were closely associated with youth politics, despite the broad social statements of documents including the liberal Port Huron Statement and the conservative Sharon Statement and leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. Europe Youth politics have an extensive history in Europe, as well. Free German Youth was founded in 1946 in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany, and served as the official youth organization of East Germany. In the UK there is a strong youth politics movement, consisting primarily of the British Youth Council, the UK Youth Parliament and the Scottish Youth Parliament. Although they have no direct power, the young people in these organisations have a close working relationship with Members of Parliament and are fairly influential, albeit ineffectual at bringing about direct change or tangible objectives. Many organisations that strive for youth movement are on the rise. A notable organisation is YouthDebates, an online organisation aiming to engage young people into the world of politics. Research from the Czech Republic suggests that young MPs are more productive than their middle-aged and senior colleagues in their legislative duties and are also more likely to challenge party discipline at roll call. Globally Other continents have experienced a variety of youth politics and political movements. In the recent Mexico’s presidential election another manifestation of how the youth take the politics in the actual world were see, the students movement called “Yo soy 132” made a very notable change in how the elections developed, showing proofs of the electoral fraud they thought will happen, they changed the percentage of acceptation of the PRI candidate, Enrique Peña Nieto and they achieved to decrease it around 12 percentage points between the highest poll results for the candidate and the final results of the elections. In India youth politicians play an important role. Rishabh Mukati is the youngest politician and leader of India. He has organised sports events and various programs to help youth realize their dreams and awaken the Youth Power of India. Increasingly, young people are involved in global youth-led protest movements, for example, about social and environmental justice. This activism is in part because young people have been particularly affected by various crises (political, social, economic, environmental) notably austerity. Moreover, young people tend to have more post-materialist values (see work by Ronald Inglehart). Present Between the influence of mainstream media and politicians, youth politics in the United States has been illegitimated and deprioritized. Organizations such as National Youth Rights Association and The Freechild Project continue to advocate and educate for issues that affect young people specifically, while other organizations, including Youth Service America and Advocates for Youth work for issues that affect youth directly. Even with the efforts of these organizations, many college students do not see politics as an important part of their lives. Only 33% of college freshmen think being knowledgeable about politics is important. Data collected in by the National Center for Education Statistics found that overall young Americans care more about entertainment and sports than political and foreign news. Despite these statistics there is a positive outlook on youth involvement in the future because of the 2008 election when President Barack Obama ran. List of current youth politics issues There are several issues which are deemed "youth politics" by politicians, mainstream media and other sources. Age of candidacy Age of majority Child labor laws/Right-to-work laws Climate Change Corporal punishment The draft Drinking age Driving age Education policy/reform Emancipation of minors Environmental issues Global Warming Healthcare Immigration Minors and abortion National service School reform Student rights Voting age Youth participation Youth service Youth vote List of current youth politics organizations There are thousands of youth political organizations and programs around the world. Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad All India Socialist Youth Council All-Polish Youth Bibeksheel Nepali British Youth Council Bus Project Canadian Youth Policy Association Christian Democratic Youth College Democrats of America College Republican National Committee Communist Youth of Côte d'Ivoire Communist Youth of Greece Communist Youth Movement Democratic Youth Movement Egypt Youth Party European Free Alliance Youth European Liberal Youth Green Youth, Germany Green Youth, Sweden High School Democrats of America Indian Youth Congress International Federation of Liberal Youth JONG Jugendverband REBELL Malaysian United Democratic Alliance National Youth Organisation (disambiguation) Northern Ireland Young Communist League Puerto Rico Statehood Students Association Sangguniang Kabataan Sveriges Socialdemokratiska Ungdomsförbund (Sweden) Scottish Socialist Youth Scottish Young Liberals Scottish Youth Parliament Traction Teenage Republicans Turkey Youth Union UK Youth Parliament YIP Institute Young Democrats for Europe Young Democrats of America Young Independence Young Liberals of Canada Youth wings of political parties in Denmark Youth of the Danish People's Party Youth of the Progress Party Youth of the Popular Movement against EU Young Americans for Freedom Young Communist League of Germany Young Ecologists Young Republicans Not too young to run National Youth Council of Nigeria NYCN See also Youth voice Youth activism Youth empowerment Youth rights Youth organizations List of youth councils :Category:Youth model government :Category:Youth wings of green parties Youth exclusion Youth in Hong Kong References External links youth and politics Sitaraman, G. and Warren, P. (2003) Invisible Citizens: Youth Politics After September 11. Writers Club Press. Daifallah, A. (1999) A Blueprint for student political influence. Originally published in the Peterborough Examiner. Institute on Shumilov A. (2012) Factors of formation of electoral policy in the youth environment // PolitBook. №1. P. 75-85. Governance website. Hansson K. and Lundahl L. (2004) "Youth politics and local constructions of youth," British Journal of Sociology of Education, Volume 25(2) April 2004, pp. 161–178. SpunOut.ie Irish National Youth Website Giroux, H. (2001) "Zero Tolerance: Youth and the politics of domestic militarization, Part I," Z Magazine. Youth Political Bloggers	0.76402	0.979857	0.748631
Political crime	In criminology, a political crime or political offence is an offence that prejudices the interests of the state or its government. States may criminalise any behaviour perceived as a threat, real or imagined, to the state's survival, including both violent and non-violent opposition. A consequence of such criminalisation may be that a range of human rights, civil rights, and freedoms are curtailed, and conduct which would not normally be considered criminal per se (in other words, that is not antisocial according to those who engage in it) is criminalised at the convenience of the group holding power. Thus, there may be a question of the morality of a law which simply criminalises ordinary political dissent, even though the majority of those who support the current regime may consider criminalisation of politically motivated behaviour an acceptable response when the offender is driven by more extreme political, ideological, religious or other beliefs. Political crime is to be distinguished from state crime, in which states break their own criminal laws or international law. Overview At one extreme, crimes such as treason, sedition, and terrorism are political because they represent a direct challenge to the government in power. Espionage is usually considered a political crime. But offenders do not have to aim to overthrow the government or to depose its leaders to be acting in a way perceived as "political". A state may perceive it threatening if individuals advocate change to the established order, or argue the need for reform of long-established policies, or engage in acts signifying some degree of disloyalty, e.g. by burning the nation's flag in public. But the scope of such crimes can be rather less direct. Structural functionist criminologists recognise that states invest their resources in maintaining order through social conformity, i.e. a particular culture is encouraged and maintained through the primary social discourses which may include religious, economic, social, or other less formal concerns. Any interference with the media of communication or the sets of meanings embedded in the communications themselves may be perceived as a threat to the political authority of the state. Hence, whether in hard copy or electronically, if individuals distribute material containing uncensored information which undermines the credibility of state-controlled news media, this may be considered threatening. Moreover, even an offence against non-governmental institutions, persons, or practices may be deemed political. Violence or even discrimination against an ethnic or racial group, as well trade union strikes or picketing against private employers, can be perceived as a political crime when those in power see such conduct as undermining the political (and economic) stability of the state. In this context, note that the Law Enforcement Code of Conduct passed by the International Association of Chiefs of Police says in part: "The fundamental duties of a police officer include serving the community, safeguarding lives and property, protecting the innocent, keeping the peace and ensuring the rights of all to liberty, equality and justice" (cited in Robinson, 2002). This code requires that police behave in a courteous and fair manner, that they treat all citizens in a respectable and decent manner, and that they never use unnecessary force. When they do, it is argued that this constitutes a crime (e.g. as an assault) and, if it is institutionalised, then over time, the use of unnecessary force become a state crime. Marxist criminologists argue that most political crime arises from the efforts of the state to reproduce the structures of inequality: racism, sexism, ethnic preference as well as class advantages. Thus, states will protect property rights and reduce the rights of trade unions to represent the interests of the poor. Even war could be grounded in the problems of local capitalists in wealthy countries in the effort to move raw materials, profits and jobs in a globalised political economy, and opposing such a war will be a political crime. Marxists do not dispute that, for a society to function efficiently, social order is necessary. But they consider that, in all societies, one class, usually characterised as the "ruling class", gains far more than other classes. Marxists agree with functionalists that socialisation plays a crucial role in promoting conformity and order. However, unlike the latter, they are highly critical of the ideas, values and norms of "capitalist ideology". Modern Marxists point to education and the media as socialising agencies, which delude or "mystify" the working class into conforming to a social order, which works against its real interests. Thus, all controls which directly or indirectly exploit the criminal law to control access to the discourses are political crimes. Authoritarian governments Miller says that one of the defining characteristics of power in modern history has been the rationalisation and bureaucratisation of law. Legal codification, or at least debates over the merits of legal codification, became an almost global phenomenon in the nineteenth century as state power was centralised. In particular, the rationalisation of criminal law standardised not just the concept of crime, but was adopted as the means to eliminate the "deviant" as a threat to a modern, uniform, moral standard. In this, the religious establishment began to play a new role in defining "evil" in which threats to the political or social norm became as dangerous as threats to religious orthodoxy. Thus, political speech became one of the most likely activities to be criminalised. The freedom of association and to meet may also be criminalised if the purpose is to express oppositional political views. Because a political offender may be fighting against a tyrannical government, treaties have usually specified that a person cannot be extradited for a political offense (the political offence exception). Thomas Jefferson wrote: Specific crimes Terrorism People convicted or suspected of certain crimes classified as terrorism by the government of their country (or some foreign countries) reject that classification. They consider that their fight is a legitimate one using legitimate means, and thus their crimes should be more appropriately called political crimes and justify special treatment in the penal system (as if they were soldiers in a war and therefore covered by the Geneva Convention). States tend to consider the political nature of the crimes an aggravating factor in the sentencing process and make no distinction between the terrorists and "ordinary" offenders, e.g. the convicted murderers of Action Directe consider themselves political prisoners. Religious crimes Where there is no clear separation between the state and the prevailing religion, the edicts of the church may be codified as law and enforced by the secular policing and judicial authorities. This is a highly functionalist mechanism for enforcing conformity in all aspects of cultural life and the use of the label "crime" adds an extra layer of stigma to those convicted. References Anderson, K. (2006). "Hacktivism and Politically Motivated Computer Crime". Portland: Encurve, LLC. Barak, G. (Ed.). (1991). Crimes by the capitalist state: An introduction to state criminality. Albany: State University of New York Press. Kittrie, Nicholas. (March 1975). "In Search of Political Crime and Political Criminals", 50 New York University Law Review 202. Kooistra, P. G. (1985), "What is Political Crime?" Criminal Justice Abstracts, pp. 100–115 Miller, Ruth A. "Corruption, Authority, and Evil: The Invention of Political Crime in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey" Robinson, M. (2002). Justice Blind? Ideals and Realities of American Criminal Justice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Ross, Jeffrey Ian. (1995/2000), Controlling State Crime(2nd ed.), New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers. Ross, Jeffrey Ian. (2000), Varieties of State Crime and its Control, Monsey: Criminal Justice Press. Ross, Jeffrey Ian. (2003), The Dynamics of Political Crime, Thousand Oaks: Sage. Ross, Jeffrey Ian. (2012), An Introduction to Political Crime, Bristol: Policy Press. Tunnell, K. D. (1993). "Political crime and pedagogy: A content analysis of criminology and criminal justice texts". Journal of Criminal Justice Education, 4(1), 101–114. Tunnell, K. D. (1993). Political crime in contemporary America: A critical approach. New York: Garland Publishing. External links Crime Crime by type	0.764666	0.978949	0.74857
Law of the Netherlands	The Netherlands uses civil law. The role of case law is small in theory, although in practice it is impossible to understand the law in many fields without also taking into account the relevant case law. The Dutch system of law is based on the French Civil Code with some influence from Roman-Dutch law (which it replaced) and pre-codal customary law. The new Civil Code (which went into force in 1992) was heavily influenced by the German Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch. The primary law-making body is formed by the Dutch parliament in cooperation with the government, operating jointly to create laws they are commonly referred to as the legislature (Dutch: wetgever). The power to make new laws can be delegated to lower governments or specific organs of the State, but only for a prescribed purpose. A trend in recent years has been for parliament and the government to create "framework laws" and delegate the creation of detailed rules to ministers or lower governments (e.g. a province or municipality). The Ministry of Justice and Security is the main institution of Dutch law. Areas of law The domain of Dutch law is commonly divided in the following areas: Administrative law Civil law (including family law, inheritance law, contract law and commercial law) Criminal law Constitutional law (including laws on the structure of the state) European law International law Civil law Civil law is the domain of law that regulates the everyday life of persons and other legal entities (such as corporations). The main code of Dutch civil law is the Burgerlijk Wetboek. Nationality law Criminal law Criminal law deals with the prosecution and punishment of criminal offenses. The main code is the Wetboek van Strafrecht (nl). Constitutional law Constitutional law involves itself with the constitution and the structure of the Netherlands. It involves powers of democratic institutions, the organization of elections and the divisions of powers between central and local governments. See also the article on the Constitution of the Netherlands. Following the practice of many civil law jurisdictions and in contrast to practice in nations such as the United States, the practice of Dutch constitutional law is that judges are not allowed to determine the constitutionality of laws created by the legislature (the government and parliament acting jointly). Administrative law Administrative law is the area of law that regulates the operation of the various levels of government and the way persons and legal entities can appeal decisions of the government. The basics of Dutch administrative law were overhauled completely in 1994 with the advent of the new Basic Administrative Law (Dutch: Algemene Wet Bestuursrecht). European law European law deals with the influence of laws and regulations of the European Union in the laws of the Netherlands. See also Supreme Court of the Netherlands Roman-Dutch Law External links Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security Dutch Judiciary and the Supreme Court of the Netherlands Law of the Netherlands	0.763999	0.979755	0.748532
Critical geopolitics	In the humanities discipline of critical theory, critical geopolitics is an academic school of thought centered on the idea that intellectuals of statecraft construct ideas about places, that these ideas have influence and reinforce their political behaviors and policy choices, and that these ideas affect how people process their own notions of places and politics. Critical geopolitics sees the geopolitical as comprising four linked facets: popular geopolitics, formal geopolitics, structural geopolitics, and practical geopolitics. Critical geopolitical scholarship continues to engage critically with questions surrounding geopolitical discourses, geopolitical practice (i.e. foreign policy), and the history of geopolitics. Key ideas and concepts Rooted in poststructuralism as well as various versions of postcolonial scholarship, critical geopolitical inquiry is, at its core, concerned with the operation, interaction, and contestation of geopolitical discourses. This poststructuralist orientation holds that the realities of global political space do not simply reveal themselves to detached, omniscient observers. Rather, geopolitical knowledges are seen as partial and situated, emergent from particular subject positions. In this context, geopolitical practices result from complex constellations of competing ideas and discourses, which they in turn modify. The linkages between geographical patterns and processes, on the one hand, and various types of discourses on the other hand, are a key contribution to the geography of media and communication. They also imply that geopolitical practice is not, therefore, unproblematically 'right' or 'natural'. Further, since geopolitical knowledge is seen as partial, situated and embodied, nation-states are not the only 'legitimate' unit of geopolitical analysis within critical geopolitics. Instead, geopolitical knowledge is seen as more diffuse, with 'popular' geopolitical discourse considered alongside 'formal' and 'practical' geopolitics. These three 'strands' of geopolitical thought are outlined below: Popular geopolitics Popular geopolitics is one of the ways in which geopolitical knowledge is produced. It argues that geopolitical ideas are not only shaped by the state, intellectual elites and politicians. Rather, it is also shaped and communicated through popular culture and everyday practices. Popular culture construct a common sense understanding of world politics through the use of movies, books, magazines, etc. Political geographers have widely studied the role of popular culture in shaping the popular understanding of politics. Klaus Dodds, a political geographer, studied the conveyance of geopolitical ideas through movies. While analyzing James Bond movies, he discovered a recurring message of Western states' geopolitical anxieties. For example, the movie From Russia with Love conveyed United States' anxieties as a result of the Cold War and The World Is Not Enough conveyed the threats posed by Central Asia. Structural geopolitics Structural geopolitics is defined as contemporary geopolitical tradition. Formal geopolitics Formal geopolitics refers to the geopolitical culture of more 'traditional' geopolitical actors. Critical accounts of formal geopolitics therefore pay attention to the ways in which formal foreign policy actors and professionals - including think-tanks and academics - mediate geopolitical issues such that particular understandings and policy prescriptions become hegemonic, even common-sense. Practical geopolitics Practical geopolitics describes the actual practice of geopolitical strategy (i.e. foreign policy). Studies of practical geopolitics focus both on geopolitical action and geopolitical reasoning, and the ways in which these are linked recursively to both 'formal' and 'popular' geopolitical discourse. Because critical geopolitics is concerned with geopolitics as discourse, studies of practical geopolitics pay attention both to geopolitical actions (for example, military deployment), but also to the discursive strategies used to narrativize these actions. The "critical" in critical geopolitics therefore relates to two (linked) aims. Firstly, it seeks to 'open up' Geopolitics, as a discipline and a concept. It does this partly by considering the popular and formal aspects of geopolitics alongside practical geopolitics. Further, it focuses on the power relations and dynamics through which particular understandings are (re)constructed. Secondly, critical geopolitics engages critically with 'traditional' geopolitical themes. The articulation of 'alternative' narratives on geopolitical issues, however, may or may not be consistent with a poststructuralist methodology. Key texts The emergence of critical geopolitics Critical geopolitics is an ongoing project which came to prominence when the French geographer Yves Lacoste published 'La géographie ça sert d'abord à faire la guerre' ('geography is primarily for waging war') (1976) and founded the journal Hérodote. The subject entered the English language Geography literature in the 1990s thanks in part to a special "Critical Geopolitics" issue of the journal Political Geography in 1996 (vol. 15/6-7), and the publication in the same year of Gearóid Ó Tuathail's seminal Critical Geopolitics book. Ó Tuathail's 1996 book Critical Geopolitics defined the state of the subdiscipline at the time, and codified its methodological and intellectual underpinnings. The historical role of Europe has been subjected to a rich tradition of critical works in geopolitics, as reflected in several book series, such as Routledge's Critical Geopolitics series, edited by Alan Ingram, Merje Kuus and Chih Yuan Woon, as well as the series on Critical European Studies (also at Routledge), edited by Yannis Stivachtis. Contributing to this area is the book entitled The European Union and Global Social Change: A Critical Geopolitical-Economic Analysis by József Böröcz. Critical Geopolitics texts Critical geopolitics-based work has been published in a range of Geographical and trans-disciplinary journals, as well as in books and edited collections. Major journals in which critical geopolitics work has appeared include: Annals of the Association of American Geographers Antipode Geopolitics Political Geography Elsewhere, critical geopolitics-derived studies have been published in journals specializing in popular culture, security studies, border studies (such as in the Journal of Borderlands Studies) and history, reflecting the breadth of subject matter subsumed under the critical geopolitics headline. Texts in Critical Geopolitical theory Critical geopolitics 'theory' is not fixed or homogeneous, but core features - especially a concern for discourse analysis - are fundamental. Introduction to critical geopolitical theory: Ó Tuathail's (1996) Critical Geopolitics (London: Routledge) details the aims, scope and intellectual context of Critical Geopolitics. It also provides a genealogical account of the history of Geopolitics, placing Critical Geopolitics in its temporal and disciplinary context. Relationship between 'classical' and critical geopolitics: There are thematic concerns in common between classical and critical geopolitics, leading to the question of whether 'mainstream' International Relations theory and geopolitics can be reconciled with the critical project. In a 2006 article in the journal Geopolitics (vol. 11/1), Phil Kelly of Emporia State University argues that it is possible. Popular engagement with the geopolitical, as (re)presented in popular culture, is a major area of research within the critical geopolitics literature: Newspapers: The framing of geopolitical events in mass circulation newspapers has been addressed by a number of authors. Thomas McFarlane and Iain Hay's (2003) article in Political Geography, 'The battle for Seattle: protest and popular geopolitics in The Australian newspaper', is a highly cited example. Further, it exemplifies how critical geopolitics research can use both qualitative and quantitative approaches to discourse analysis. Magazines: Joanne Sharp's analysis of the ways in which the Reader's Digest (re)presented a sense of US national identity during the Cold War started life as a 1993 article in the journal Political Geography. Subsequently, it spurred her 2000 book Condensing the Cold War: Reader's Digest and American Identity. Further, Sharp's methodology prompted an in-depth debate (2003) about the practice of popular geopolitics, in the pages of the journal Geopolitics (vol.8/2). Cartoons and Comics: An early (1996) and frequently-cited popular geopolitics study by Klaus Dodds considers the geopolitical content and effect of cartoons by Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell during the Falklands War; 'The 1982 Falklands War and a critical geopolitical eye: Steve Bell and the If cartoons' was published in Political Geography (vol. 15/6). Jason Dittmer has explored the comic book titles of Captain America as an illustration of a "nuanced and ambiguous" geopolitical script in popular culture. 'Captain America's Empire: Reflections on Identity, Popular Culture, and Post-9/11 Geopolitics' was published in the Annals of the Association of American Geographers (vol.95/3). Films: Hollywood has been the subject of numerous popular geopolitics studies, both from explicitly 'geographical' perspectives, but also from academics from a range of backgrounds. Studies of film range from those that deal explicitly with the intertextuality between 'war films' and 'real' wars, to those that deal more broadly with issues of identity formation and representation. Radio: In more recent years, scholars of critical geopolitics have shown an increased interest in radio broadcasting as both a domestic and international form of geopolitical communication. Alasdair Pinkerton and Klaus Dodds laid out their agenda for the study of Radio Geopolitics in Progress in Human Geography (vol. 33/1) during 2009. Pinkerton has also written about the crucial role of radio during the Falklands Conflict. His paper 'Strangers in the Night': The Falklands Conflict as a Radio War was published in Twentieth Century British History (vol. 19/3) and was awarded the TCBH Essay Prize 2007. Notable people John A. Agnew Simon Dalby Derek Gregory Klaus Dodds Gearóid Ó Tuathail See also Balkanization Geopolitik Geostrategy Lebensraum Petroleum politics Realpolitik Theopolitics References External links "Five minutes for critical geopolitics: A slightly provocative introduction" A clear and concise overview of critical geopolitics Geopolitics Critical theory Political geography	0.774825	0.96601	0.748489
Civilian dictatorship	A civilian dictatorship is a form of government different from military dictatorships where the ruling dictator does not derive their power from the military. Among civilian dictatorships, dominant-party dictatorships tend to outlast personalistic dictatorships. Concept A dictator is a political leader who governs a country with absolute and unlimited power or one who circumvents existing rules, regulations and laws, against the common good. Countries ruled by dictators are called dictatorships. The term was first applied to magistrates in the ancient Roman Republic who were given extraordinary powers temporarily to deal with emergencies, modern dictators from Adolf Hitler to Kim Jong-un. A civil dictator, on the other hand, is one who rose to power through trickery or fraud, holding total and absolute power over the armed forces, over legislators, does not respect the decisions of the judiciary, muzzles the media and does not tolerate any form of opposition. History Dictators typically use military force or political fraud to gain power, which they maintain through terror, coercion, and the suppression of basic civil liberties. Often charismatic in nature, dictators tend to employ bombastic mass propaganda techniques to stimulate feelings of support and nationalism among the people. While dictators may have strong political opinions and be supported by organized political movements, they are motivated only by personal ambition or greed to retain power, by all means and at all costs. They often employ a common slogan to gain mass appeal, creating a false sense of revolution, such as anti-corruption or the like. They crave absolute power for a limited time, supposedly to deal with social or political emergencies. As the prevalence of monarchies declined during the 19th and 20th centuries, dictatorships and constitutional democracies became the predominant forms of government around the world. Likewise, the role and methods of dictators changed over time. During the 19th century, several dictators came to power in Latin American countries when they gained independence from Spain. These dictators, such as Antonio López de Santa Anna in Mexico and Juan Manuel de Rosas in Argentina, typically formed private armies to seize power from weak new national governments. Characterized by Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany and Josef Stalin in the Soviet Union, the totalitarian and fascist dictators who came to power during the first half of the 20th century were significantly different from the authoritarian rulers of postcolonial Latin America. These modern dictators tended to be charismatic individuals who rallied the people to support the ideology of a single political party such as the Nazi or Communist parties. Using fear and propaganda to quell public dissent, they harnessed modern technology to direct their country's economy to build ever more powerful military forces. After World War II, the weakened governments of several countries in Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa fell to Soviet-style communist dictators. Some of these dictators posed as hastily “elected” presidents or prime ministers who established autocratic one-party rule by quashing all opposition. Others simply used brute force to establish military dictatorships. Marked by the collapse of the Soviet Union itself in 1991, most of these communist dictatorships had fallen by the end of the 20th century. Throughout history, even some fully constitutional governments have temporarily granted their leaders extraordinary dictator powers in times of crisis. The dictatorships of Adolf Hitler in Germany and Benito Mussolini in Italy began under state of emergency proclamations. During World War II, both the United States and Great Britain granted their executives extensive extraconstitutional emergency powers that ended with the declaration of peace. Africa, in particular, has become notorious today for creating civilian dictators who remain in power for decades, some even in very debilitating health conditions, calling on the people to suspend or amend their constitutions in order to perpetuate themselves in power, even in older ages and apparent senility. Many civilian dictatorships throughout history find their roots in military dictatorships. Some military dictators prepare civilians to succeed them hence the civilian successors would inherit an authoritarian system once they gain power. A notable example is Egypt, when Hosni Mubarak, a dictator with a military background allegedly planned to let his son Gamal succeed him as President of Egypt, which was one of the main factors that led to the 2011 uprising. See also Dictatorship Comparative politics References Constitutional state types Civil–military relations Authoritarianism Dictatorship Comparative politics	0.770382	0.971575	0.748484
Euractiv	Euractiv is a European news website focused on EU policies, founded in 1999 by the French media publisher Christophe Leclercq. Its headquarters and central editorial staff are located in Brussels, with other offices in Paris and Berlin. Its content is produced by about 50 journalists staffed in Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. Euractiv's policy coverage is spread across eight 'hubs', Agrifood, Economy, Energy & Environment, Global Europe, Health, Politics, Technology, and Transport. Its news coverage is complemented by a programme of more than 100 events per year, usually in the form of stakeholder debates that span the same policy areas. Euractiv's policy reporting focuses on the pre-legislative stage of EU decision-making, and it has almost all of its English language content translated into French and German. Euractiv has diversified sources of funding, as the company seeks private and public revenues to run its business. In 2019, about a fifth of Euractiv's income came from public sources, including the EU. Other sources of revenue are advertising and corporate sponsorship. In May 2023, Euractiv was acquired by Belgian media company Mediahuis in what became the company's first international media platform acquisition. It has a three-person leadership team of René Moerland (publisher and formerly editor-in-chief of Dutch newspaper NRC), Claire Boussagol (Managing Director and formerly President, Europe at APCO Worldwide and CEO at Politico Europe), and Emmanuel Naert (Subscriptions Director). Profile Euractiv has been covering the European Parliament and other EU institutions for over twenty years. Its editorial coverage includes European politics in Brussels as well as a more in-depth analysis of EU policies in areas such as energy and environment, agriculture, food safety, transport, and tech policy. Apart from daily articles, Euractiv also produces special reports on specific policy topics. In 2016, the company introduced its flagship newsletter The Brief. In 2019, it launched a new round of EU-focused newsletters: The Capitals, the Tech Brief, and the Transport Brief. Furthermore, Euractiv specializes in hosting events that bring key stakeholders together and into conversation. In 2018, Euractiv organized more than 70 events, most of which were sponsored, mostly in the form of workshops or debates. Newsletters Euractiv distributes newsletters called 'Policy Briefs' in line with the coverage of the largest policy areas of the European Union, e.g. agriculture, technology, and energy. Notably, in the daily newsletter "The Capitals", Euractiv brings together political news from across Europe that has a wider European interest. Impact According to the 2023 EU Media Poll conducted by Savanta for BCW Brussels, Euractiv ranked as the fifth most influential EU source, moving into the top 10 for the first time. In 2022, a study conducted by the Council of the European Union ranked Euractiv second on the list of the most influential media outlets among Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). Euractiv's reporting is regularly quoted by international newspapers such as The New York Times, The Financial Times, CNN, Deutsche Welle, le Figaro, Le Point and Il Post. See also EUobserver Euronews Europe Elects New Europe (newspaper) Politico Europe Voxeurop Notes and references External links News websites Mass media in the European Union Newspapers established in 1999	0.764507	0.979037	0.748481
Cyber-utopianism	Cyber-utopianism, web-utopianism, digital utopianism, or utopian internet is a subcategory of technological utopianism and the belief that online communication helps bring about a more decentralized, democratic, and libertarian society. The desired values may also be privacy and anonymity, freedom of expression, access to culture and information or also socialist ideals leading to digital socialism. Origins The Californian Ideology is a set of beliefs combining bohemian and anti-authoritarian attitudes from the counterculture of the 1960s with techno-utopianism and support for neoliberal economic policies. These beliefs are thought by some to have been characteristic of the culture of the IT industry in Silicon Valley and the West Coast of the United States during the dot-com boom of the 1990s. Adam Curtis connects it to Ayn Rand's Objectivist philosophy in the film All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (TV series). Such an ideology of digital utopianism fueled the first generation of Internet pioneers. Examples Political usage One of the first initiatives associated with digital technologies and utopianism was the Chilean Project Cybersyn. Project Cybersyn was an attempt of cybernetic governance for implementation of socialist planning under President Salvador Allende. The book Towards a New Socialism argues against the perception of digital socialism as a utopia. Digital socialism can be categorized as a real utopian project. Cyber socialism is a name used for the practise of file sharing as a violation of intellectual property rights and whose legalisation was not expected - a utopia. Cyber-utopianism serves as a base for cyber-populism. Electronic democracy as suggested and practised by Pirate Parties is being seen to be an idea motivated by cyber-utopianism. In Italy, the Five Star Movement extensively uses cyber-utopian rhetoric, promising direct democracy and better environmental regulations through the Web. In this case, they used the wonder or digital sublime associated with digital technologies to develop their political vision. Cognate utopias Cyber-utopianism has been considered a derivative of extropianism, in which the ultimate goal is to upload human consciousness to the internet. Ray Kurzweil, especially in The Age of Spiritual Machines, writes about a form of cyber-utopianism known as the Singularity; wherein, technological advancement will be so rapid that life will become experientially different, incomprehensible, and advanced. Hospitality exchange services Hospitality exchange services (HospEx) are social networking services where hosts offer homestays for free. They are a gift economy and are shaped by altruism and are examples of cyber-utopianism. Criticism The existence of this belief has been documented since the beginning of the internet. The bursting of the dot-com bubble diminished the majority-utopian views of cyberspace; however, modern day "cyber skeptics" continue to exist. They believe in the idea that internet censorship and cyber sovereignty allows repressive governments to adapt their tactics to respond to threats by using technology against dissenting movements. Douglas Rushkoff notes that, "ideas, information, and applications now launching on Web sites around the world capitalise on the transparency, usability, and accessibility that the internet was born to deliver". In 2011, Evgeny Morozov, in his 2011 book The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom, critiqued the role of cyber-utopianism in global politics; stating that the belief is naïve and stubborn, enabling the opportunity for authoritarian control and monitoring. Morozov notes that "former hippies", in the 1990s, are responsible for causing this misplaced utopian belief: "Cyber-utopians ambitiously set out to build a new and improved United Nations, only to end up with a digital Cirque du Soleil". Criticism in the past couple of decades has been made out against positivist readings of the internet. In 2010, Malcolm Gladwell, argued his doubts about the emancipatory and empowering qualities of social media in an article in The New Yorker. In the article, Gladwell criticises Clay Shirky for propagating and overestimating the revolutionary potential of social media: "Shirky considers this model of activism an upgrade. But it is simply a form of organizing which favors the weak-tie connections that give us access to information over the strong-tie connections that help us persevere in the face of danger." Cyber-utopianism has also been compared to a secular religion for the postmodern world. In 2006, Andrew Keen wrote in The Weekly Standard that Web 2.0 is a "grand utopian movement" similar to "communist society" as described by Karl Marx. See also References Further reading Dickel, Sascha, and Schrape, Jan-Felix (2017): The Logic of Digital Utopianism. Nano Ethics Margaret Wertheim, The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace (2000) Evgeny Morozov, To Save Everything, Click Here (2013) Turner, Fred. From counterculture to cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the rise of digital utopianism. University Of Chicago Press, 2010. Flichy, Patrice. The internet imaginaire. Mit Press, 2007. External links Utopian Promises – Net Realities Cyberspace Social theories Technological utopianism	0.774807	0.965974	0.748444
Electoral boundary delimitation	Electoral boundary delimitation (or simply boundary delimitation or delimitation) is the drawing of boundaries of electoral precincts and related divisions involved in elections, such as states, counties or other municipalities. It can also be called "redistribution" and is used to prevent unbalance of population across districts. In the United States, it is called redistricting. Unbalanced or discriminatory delimitation is called "gerrymandering." Though there are no internationally agreed processes that guarantee fair delimitation, several organizations, such as the Commonwealth Secretariat, the European Union and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) have proposed guidelines for effective delimitation. Methods Countries delimit electoral districts in different ways. Sometimes these are drawn based on traditional boundaries, sometimes based on the physical characteristics of the region and, often, the lines are drawn based on the social, political and cultural contexts of the area. This may need to be done in any form of electoral system even though it is primarily done for plurality or majority electoral system. These processes of boundary delimitation can have a variety of legal justifications. Often, because of the powerful effects this process can have on constituencies, the legal framework for delimitation is specified in the constitution of a country. The Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) recommends the following pieces of information be included in this legal framework: The frequency of such determination; The criteria for such determination; The degree of public participation in the process; The respective roles of the legislature, judiciary and executive in the process;and The ultimate authority for the final determination of the electoral units. Established democracies Delimitation is regularly used in the United States and Commonwealth countries. This is called redistricting or redistribution respectively. In these countries non-partisan commissions may draw new district boundaries based on the distribution of population according to a census. International standards A number of international organizations including the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the European Commission for Democracy Through Law (the Venice Commission), the Commonwealth Secretariat, and the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA) have established standards which their members are encouraged to prescribe to. Among these standards the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) lists the most common as being Impartiality, Equality, Representativeness, Non-Discrimination and Transparency. Venice Commission As part of its report, European Commission for Democracy Through Law: Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters, Guidelines and Explanatory Reports adopted October 2002, the Venice Commission proposed the following guidelines: 2.2 Equal voting power: seats must be evenly distributed between the constituencies. i. This must at least apply to elections to lower houses of parliament and regional and local elections: ii. It entails a clear and balanced distribution of seats among constituencies on the basis of one of the following allocation criteria: population, number of resident nationals (including minors), number of registered voters, and possibly the number of people actually voting. An appropriate combination of these criteria may be envisaged. iii. The geographical criterion and administrative, or possibly even historical, boundaries may be taken into consideration. iv. The permissible departure from the norm should not be more than 10%, and should certainly not exceed 15% except in special circumstances (protection of a concentrated minority, sparsely populated administrative entity). v. In order to guarantee equal voting power, the distribution of seats must be reviewed at least every ten years, preferably outside election periods. vi. With multimember constituencies, seats should preferably be redistributed without redefining constituency boundaries, which should, where possible, coincide with administrative boundaries. vii. When constituency boundaries are redefined—which they must be in a single-member system—it must be done: - impartially; - without detriment to national minorities; - taking account of the opinion of a committee, the majority of whose members are independent; this committee should preferably include a geographer, a sociologist, and a balanced representation of the parties and, if necessary, representatives of national minorities. Commonwealth Secretariat In the publication Good Commonwealth Electoral Practices: A Working Document, June 1997, the Commonwealth Secretariat identifies the following practices as necessary for proper delimitation: 20. The delimitation of constituency boundaries is a function occasionally performed by an election commission or otherwise by an independent boundaries commission, and in some cases after a population census. 21. General principles guiding the drawing of constituency boundaries include community of interest, convenience, natural boundaries, existing administrative boundaries and population distribution, including minority groups. There should be no scope for any “gerrymandering”, and each vote should, to the extent possible, be afforded equal value or weight, in recognition of the democratic principle that all those of voting age participate equally in the ballot. 22. It is important that the general public play a part in the whole process and that the political parties also have an opportunity to respond to proposals before they are finalized. Where the size of a particular constituency is markedly out of line with the target “quota” of voters per seat, the reasons should be capable of being readily understood by both the parties and the general public. IFES In her study sponsored by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, Dr. Lisa Handley recommends the following considerations: population density ease of transportation and communication geographic features existing patterns of human settlement financial viability and administrative capacity of electoral area financial and administrative consequences of boundary determination existing boundaries community of interest Also, she suggests that the process should: be managed by an independent and impartial body that is representative of society, comprising persons with the appropriate skills; be conducted on the basis of clearly identified criteria such as population, distribution, community of interest, convenience, geographical features and other natural or administrative boundaries; be made accessible to the public through a consultation process; be devoid of manipulation of electoral boundaries to favour political groups or political interests; be conducted by one body; include all spheres of government, both national and local. See also Delimitation Commission of India South African Municipal Demarcation Board Gerrymandering Majority-minority districts Redistricting References External links UN database of Maritime delimitation treaties Constituencies International law Borders Political geography Electoral geography	0.782098	0.956957	0.748434
Vote brigading	Vote brigading is massively coordinated online voting. It refers to the practice of affecting reviews or scores on websites that feature crowdvoting, such as online stores or review websites, by calling on large numbers of people to submit reviews, thus boosting or decreasing ratings artificially. This may be done for political reasons; for example, to harm the commercial prospects and credibility of films dealing with controversial or sensitive subjects. Vote brigading is a form of participation bias, which can decrease the reliability of the aggregated score. Examples Free Republic, an Internet forum for conservative activists, is known for promoting vote brigading in online political polls, known as "FReeping". The online community Reddit, which sorts its content visibility in a popular voting system, has dealt with censorship issues related to vote brigading. As part of a promotional campaign conducted in 2012 for a brand of energy strips, rapper Pitbull was to be sent to a Walmart store at a location voted for by visitors of the brand's Facebook page. An organized campaign ensued, with over 70,000 visitors voting for a store at the remote island of Kodiak, Alaska. In 2013, 4chan engaged in vote brigading to attempt to manipulate a contest being held by Boston radio station Kiss 108, that allowed participants to meet Taylor Swift. While the brigading was successful, the organizers of the contest cancelled the event after learning of the interference. Gunday, a 2014 Indian film, suffered from vote brigading on IMDb due to a supposed historical inaccuracy in the opening narration of the film. At the time of its release it was the lowest-rated film on IMDb, with a 1.4/10 rating based on more than 44,000 votes, out of which 91 percent gave it just one star. The 2014 faith-based comedy Saving Christmas opened to negative reviews, prompting its star Kirk Cameron to use social media to ask fans to review the film positively on Rotten Tomatoes. Cameron's conspicuous promotion of vote brigading prompted a backlash of review bombs on Rotten Tomatoes that later spread to IMDb, resulting in the film having one of the lowest aggregate user ratings on both websites. Cameron attributed the campaign to "haters and atheists" opposed to the film's religious message. Demon, a 2015 film about a groom possessed by an evil spirit the night before his wedding, suffered from vote brigading on IMDb. The Birth of a Nation, a 2016 drama about a slave rebellion in 1831 Virginia, was the target of vote brigading due to the rape charges against the film's director, Nate Parker. Ghostbusters, the 2016 female-led reboot of the 1984 comedy by the same name, was a target of vote brigading on IMDb on the day of its release. Kicks, a 2016 indie film about a boy and his two friends embarking on a dangerous mission through Oakland to retrieve a pair of Air Jordan sneakers that were stolen from him, suffered from vote brigading for unknown reasons. Two other films that shared the same release date as Kicks suffered from a similar issue. The Promise, a 2016 film about the Armenian genocide committed by the former Ottoman Empire, rapidly received over 80,000 votes on IMDb after only three screenings, many of which were either 1/10 or 10/10. I Am Not Your Negro, a 2016 film about the history of racism in the United States, may have been the target of vote brigading. It has been suggested that the wide disparity between CinemaScore audience scores and film critics' ratings and those of Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic users of the 2017 film Star Wars: The Last Jedi may have been due to vote brigading on the latter two. Captain Marvel received over 58,000 audience ratings, mostly negative, on Rotten Tomatoes within hours of its March 2019 release; for comparison, its highly grossing predecessor Avengers: Infinity War, released the previous year, received fewer audience ratings throughout its entire theatrical run. Captain Marvel was also subject to negative audience reception before its release in response to lead actress Brie Larson's supposed feminist activism. Interspecies Reviewers, a 2020 anime series about reviewing monster girl brothel workers in a fantasy world setting. After Funimation removed it from its online streaming platform on January 31, 2020, YouTuber Nux Taku urged his subscribers to rate the series as a 10/10 on MyAnimeList, the largest anime and manga social cataloging website, in response on February 5, 2020. After 24 hours, the score for Interspecies Reviewers went up to 9.13, making it the second highest rated anime on the site. Sadak 2'''s trailer in August 2020 became the most disliked trailer on YouTube due to the conspiracy theory surrounding the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput (who was not among the cast of Sadak 2), alleging that the drama film's director Mahesh Bhatt, producer Mukesh Bhatt, and actress Alia Bhatt, supported nepotism and drove Rajput to suicide. In addition to being universally panned by critics, it also received 1/10 on IMDb, making it the worst-rated film ever on the website, beating Turkish movie Kod Adı: K.O.Z., which had 1.3/10. TikTok's rating on Google Play dropped to 1.2 due to the backlash the app received in India. As a result, Google ended up deleting millions of negative reviews.Racket Boys'', a 2021 Korean sports drama series, due to its controversy over episode 5, which portrays Indonesian people as cheaters lacking in sportsmanship; it only received 1.0/10 on IMDb, making it the worst-rated Korean drama ever on the website. See also Internet bots Review bombing User-generated content Web brigades References Crowdsourcing Review websites Survey methodology	0.769265	0.972911	0.748426
Community economic development	Community economic development (CED) is a field of study that actively elicits community involvement when working with government and private sectors to build strong communities, industries, and markets. It includes collaborative and participatory involvement of community dwellers in every area of development that affects their standard of living. Community economic development encourages using local resources in a way that enhances economic opportunities while improving social conditions in a sustainable way. It equally facilitates the effective exploration and utilization of local resources for optimal community advantages. Often CED initiatives are implemented to overcome crises and increase opportunities for communities who are disadvantaged. An aspect of "localizing economics," CED is a community-centered process that blends social and economic development to foster the economic, social, ecological, and cultural well-being of communities. For example, neighborhood business organizations target growth in specific commercial areas by lobbying government authorities for special tax rates and real estate developments. Community economic development is an alternative to conventional economic development. Its central tenet is that "problems facing communities—unemployment, poverty, job loss, environmental degradation and loss of community control—need to be addressed in a holistic and participatory way." History Economic development has existed even at a basic level since the earliest recorded communities. However, in the US and several other countries, the concept of community economic development emerged "in response to tenacious poverty and the need for affordable housing, good jobs, affordable health care and quality of life matters needed for human existence." CED in the US In the late 19th century, reformers discovered less-than-desirable areas of the country where communities were overcrowded, unhealthy, poor, and located near factories, docks, and other places of employment. In the early twentieth century during the Progressive Era, reformers began making connections between the condition of communities and "social ills" such as crime and poverty and proposing ways to improve upon them. The Progressive agenda of political, social, and physical reform swept the nation and led to comprehensive antipoverty strategies, embodied by New Deal programs and other grants in the 1930s. Policies during this time were top-down, and citizens affected by them had very little input into the changes being made. Once communities began to be revitalized, segregation policy followed to determine who was allowed to live where. Housing policy and real estate practices stifled upward mobility for non-whites, and their communities developed with unique characteristics and problems as a result. These actions shaped communities until the 1960s, when President LBJ signed into law many anti-discriminatory laws, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and declared a war on poverty, which brought renewal and upward mobility for many people. More loan programs, grants, and fair housing policies were implemented throughout the 1960s and 1970s but still failed to be non-discriminatory on the basis of race in some cases thus shaping communities in a particular fashion. Social investment gained momentum once again in the 1980s and 1990s, bringing change to communities across America. Municipal governments become more representative of the communities they serve, and the public is more involved and can interact with bureaucracies and elected officials with greater ease. Many initiatives existed at this time to renew inner cities and rural areas while also tackling social issues such as eradicating drugs and improving education. The modern-day CED movement is focused on renewing urban and rural communities. Social justice is a key component to policy and conversation about changes to be made. Citizens are engaged with bureaucracies and their elected officials through a variety of mediums such as social media. Input from the people has gained more value due to increased demands for transparency. CED around the world In Nigeria CED is approached with a central focus on sustainability referred to as Sustainable Community Development. This concept combines economic, social and environmental practices and policies that promote sustainability for future generations. Much of this began in the 1980s, 2 decades after gaining independence, when the World Bank declared Nigeria eligible to receive funds from the International Development Association (IDA). In Asia for the last 60 years the Asian Foundation has supported Asian initiatives to foster inclusive economic growth and broaden economic opportunities. The Foundation designs and implements economic programs in three core areas business environments for private sector growth, Entrepreneurship Development and Regional Economic Cooperation. Economic development is not just limited to developing countries. Canada's provincial governments have been encouraging and funding municipal economic development efforts for decades. Theories and strategies The most significant aspect of community economic development, aside from the fact that it focuses on economic development in specific localities, is that focuses on the process of community building. This “community” aspect of CED assumes that the community will play a dynamic role in economic development processes and that community development will contribute to sustained economic development and vice versa. In this understanding, the community is considered both an input and an output in CED. Core to some approaches is community economic analysis, where factors affecting the community are analyzed to address economic needs and to pinpoint unfulfilled opportunities. Upon completion of the analysis the group decides what can and should be done to improve the economic conditions within the community, and then move to put the agreed-on economic goals and objectives into action. From an economic viewpoint, the initial purpose of such a CED approach is the creation of local jobs and the stimulation of business activity. Integrally linked to these purposes are strategies to increase access to capital, stimulate asset building, improve the general business climate, and link citywide economic development efforts to specific community development efforts. Increasing access to capital is an extremely important strategy for community economic development. Historically, residents in poor neighborhoods have experienced great difficulty finding access to capital because they are traditionally viewed as credit risks. In places where banks do offer services, these residents face other structural barriers such as minimum deposit requirements, high service fees, and complex paperwork. To solve these problems, a community economic development approach would develop alternate neighborhood community development financial institutions such as community development credit unions, community development banks, and community development venture capital funds. Improving the general business climate is also integral to community economic development. Strategies to do so would include improving the infrastructure and physical appearance of commercial areas, the quality of quantity of residential housing, and the transportation systems in a neighborhood. While these may not directly effect economic activities, they serve to strengthen the economic well being of an area because it encourages businesses to locate there. Objectives and goals Community economic development exists in all developed countries but varies in the way it functions with the different systems of governments around the world. Research makes it apparent that there are common goals and objectives such as economic activities and programs that develop low-income communities. Community Development Corporations, reformers and other agencies have other common initiatives including services to fight homelessness, lack of jobs, drug abuse, violence and crime as well as quality medical and childcare and home ownership opportunities while also bringing economic prosperity. Another increasingly common objective is to preserve the character of communities and strong support for local business. Countries across the globe participate in reinvestment and development through a bank such as the Community Reinvestment Act, World Bank and the IDA amongst many others. Another commonality for nations international is need to incorporate sustainability and the natural environment into the growth of societies. See also List of community topics Community building Community development Community engagement Community Futures Community practice Community service Social economy Urban planning References External links The Canadian CED Network Statement of CED Principles CED Gateway (index) Glen C. Pulver "father of community economics" Center for Community and Economic Development U.S. Department of Health and Human Services - Community Economic Development Community Economic Analysis: A How to Manual Glen C. Pulver "father of community economics" Center for community economic development Community development Economic growth Economic development	0.76921	0.972933	0.74839
Decentralised system	A decentralised system in systems theory is a system in which lower level components operate on local information to accomplish global goals. The global pattern of behaviour is an emergent property of dynamical mechanisms that act upon local components, such as indirect communication, rather than the result of a central ordering influence of a centralised system. Centralised versus decentralised systems A centralised system is one in which a central controller exercises control over the lower-level components of the system directly or through the use of a power hierarchy (such as instructing a middle level component to instruct a lower level component). The complex behaviour exhibited by this system is thus the result of the central controller's "control" over lower level components in the system, including the active supervision of the lower-level components. A decentralised system, on the other hand, is one in which complex behaviour emerges through the work of lower level components operating on local information, not the instructions of any commanding influence. This form of control is known as distributed control, or control in which each component of the system is equally responsible for contributing to the global, complex behaviour by acting on local information in the appropriate manner. The lower level components are implicitly aware of these appropriate responses through mechanisms that are based on the component's interaction with the environment, including other components in that environment. Self-organisation Decentralised systems are intricately linked to the idea of self-organisation—a phenomenon in which local interactions between components of a system establish order and coordination to achieve global goals without a central commanding influence. The rules specifying these interactions emerge from local information and in the case of biological (or biologically-inspired) agents, from the closely linked perception and action system of the agents. These interactions continually form and depend on spatio-temporal patterns, which are created through the positive and negative feedback that the interactions provide. For example, recruitment in the foraging behaviour of ants relies on the positive feedback of the ant finding food at the end of a pheromone trail while ants' task-switching behaviour relies on the negative feedback of making antennal contact with a certain number of ants (for example, a sufficiently low encounter rate with successful foragers can cause a midden worker to switch to foraging, although other factors like food availability can affect the threshold for switching). Examples While decentralised systems can easily be found in nature, they are also evident in aspects of human society such as governmental and economic systems. Insect colonies One of the most well known examples of a "natural" decentralized system is one used by certain insect colonies. In these insect colonies, control is distributed among the homogeneous biological agents who act upon local information and local interactions to collectively create complex, global behaviour. While individually exhibiting simple behaviours, these agents achieve global goals such as feeding the colony or raising the brood by using dynamical mechanisms like non-explicit communication and exploiting their closely coupled action and perception systems. Without any form of central control, these insect colonies achieve global goals by performing required tasks, responding to changing conditions in the colony environment in terms of task-activity, and subsequently adjusting the number of workers performing each task to ensure that all tasks are completed. For example, ant colonies guide their global behaviour (in terms of foraging, patrolling, brood care, and nest maintenance) using a pulsing, shifting web of spatio-temporal patterned interactions that rely on antennal contact rate and olfactory sensing. While these interactions consist of both interactions with the environment and each other, ants do not direct the behaviour of other ants and thus never have a "central controller" dictating what is to be done to achieve global goals. Instead, ants use a flexible task-allocation system that allows the colony to respond rapidly to changing needs for achieving these goals. This task-allocation system, similar to a division of labor is flexible in that all tasks rely on either the number of ant encounters (which take the form of antennal contact) and the sensing of chemical gradients (using olfactory sensing for pheromone trails) and can thus be applied to the entire ant population. While recent research has shown that certain tasks may have physiologically and age-based response thresholds, all tasks can be completed by "any" ant in the colony. For example, in foraging behaviour, red harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex barbatus) communicate to other ants where food is, how much food there is, and whether or not they should switch tasks to forage based on cuticular hydrocarbon scents and the rate of ant-interaction. By using the combined odors of forager cuticular hydrocarbons and of seeds and interaction rate using brief antennal contact, the colony captures precise information about the current availability of food and thus whether or not they should switch to foraging behaviour "all without being directed by a central controller or even another ant". The rate at which foragers return with seeds sets the rate at which outgoing foragers leave the nest on foraging trips; faster rates of return indicate more food availability and fewer interactions indicate a greater need for foragers. A combination of these two factors, which are solely based on local information from the environment, leads to decisions about switching to the foraging task and ultimately, to achieving the global goal of feeding the colony. In short, the use of a combination of simple cues makes it possible for red harvester ant colonies to make an accurate and rapid adjustment of foraging activity that corresponds to the current availability of food while using positive feedback for regulation of the process: the faster outgoing foragers meet ants returning with seeds, the more ants go out to forage. Ants then continue to use these local cues in finding food, as they use their olfactory senses to pick up pheromone trails laid by other ants and follow the trail in a descending gradient to the food source. Instead of being directed by other ants or being told as to where the food is, ants rely on their closely coupled action and perception systems to collectively complete the global task. While red harvester ant colonies achieve their global goals using a decentralised system, not all insect colonies function this way. For example, the foraging behaviour of wasps is under the constant regulation and control of the queen. The ant mill is an example of when a biological decentralized system fails, when the rules governing the individual agents are not sufficient to handle certain scenarios. Human society: Market economy A market economy is an economy in which decisions on investment and the allocation of producer goods are mainly made through markets and not by a plan of production (see planned economy). A market economy is a decentralised economic system because it does not function via a central, economic plan (which is usually headed by a governmental body) but instead, acts through the distributed, local interactions in the market (e.g. individual investments). While a "market economy" is a broad term and can differ greatly in terms of state or governmental control (and thus central control), the final "behaviour" of any market economy emerges from these local interactions and is not directly the result of a central body's set of instructions or regulation. Application Artificial intelligence and robotics While classic artificial intelligence (AI) in the 1970s was focused on knowledge-based systems or planning robots, Rodney Brooks' behaviour-based robots and their success in acting in the real, unpredictably changing world has led many AI researchers to shift from a planned, centralised symbolic architecture to studying intelligence as an emergent product of simple interactions. This thus reflects a general shift from applying a centralised system in robotics to applying a more decentralised system based on local interactions at various levels of abstraction. For example, largely stemming from Newell and Simon's physical-symbol theory, researchers in the 1970s designed robots with a course of action that, when executed, would result in the achievement of some desired goal; thus the robots were seen as "intelligent" if they could follow the directions of their central controller (the program or the programmer) (for an example, see STRIPS). However, upon Rodney Brooks' introduction of subsumption architecture, which enabled robots to perform "intelligent" behaviour without using symbolic knowledge or explicit reasoning, increasingly more researchers have viewed intelligent behaviour as an emergent property that arises from an agent's interaction with the environment, including other agents in that environment. While certain researchers have begun to design their robots with closely coupled perception and action systems and attempted to embody and situate their agents a la Brooks, other researchers have attempted to simulate multi-agent behaviour and thus further dissect the phenomena of decentralised systems in achieving global goals. For example, in 1996, Minar, Burkhard, Lang-ton and Askenazi created a multi-agent software platform for the stimulation of interacting agents and their emergent collective behaviour called "Swarm". While the basic unit in Swarm is the "swarm", a collection of agents executing a schedule of actions, agents can be composed of swarms of other agents in nested structures. As the software also provides object-oriented libraries of reusable components for building models and analyzing, displaying and controlling experiments on those models, it ultimately attempts to not only simulate multi-agent behaviour but to serve as a basis for further exploration of how collective groups of agents can achieve global goals through careful, yet implicit, coordination. See also Centralized system Decentralization Decentralized computing Distributed computing Swarm intelligence Examples of decentralized systems: Network: peer-to-peer technology (e.g. Decentralized network 42) Monetary: Bitcoin Animal communities: Red harvester ant References Further reading Social systems Systems theory Emergence	0.77057	0.971203	0.74838
The Logic of Collective Action	The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups is a book by Mancur Olson Jr. published in 1965. It develops a theory of political science and economics of concentrated benefits versus diffuse costs. Its central argument is that concentrated minor interests will be overrepresented and diffuse majority interests trumped, due to a free-rider problem that is stronger when a group becomes larger. Overview The book challenged accepted wisdom in Olson's day that: if everyone in a group (of any size) has interests in common, then they will act collectively to achieve them; and in a democracy, the greatest concern is that the majority will tyrannize and exploit the minority. The book argues instead that individuals in any group attempting collective action will have incentives to "free ride" on the efforts of others if the group is working to provide public goods. Individuals will not "free ride" in groups that provide benefits only to active participants. Pure public goods are goods that are non-excludable (i.e. one person cannot reasonably prevent another from consuming the good) and non-rivalrous (one person's consumption of the good does not affect another's, nor vice versa). Hence, without selective incentives to motivate participation, collective action is unlikely to occur even when large groups of people with common interests exist. The book noted that large groups will face relatively high costs when attempting to organize for collective action while small groups will face relatively low costs, and individuals in large groups will gain less per capita of successful collective action. Hence, in the absence of selective incentives, the incentive for group action diminishes as group size increases, so that large groups are less able to act in their common interest than small ones. The book concludes that, not only is collective action by large groups difficult to achieve even when they have interests in common, but situations could occur where the minority (bound together by concentrated selective incentives) can dominate the majority. Critique Olson's original logic of collective action has received several critiques, based either on a different interpretation of the observations on minority interest representation, or on a disagreement on the degree of concentrated interest representation. Information asymmetry Lohmann agrees with puzzling observations made by Olson, which she classifies as economic and political puzzles. Economic puzzles are cases of general welfare loss in favour of a minority benefit which is smaller in sum. An example she gives is a quota on sugar imports in the United States, which generates 2261 jobs at the expense of a general welfare reduction of $1,162 million (Hufbauer and Elliott, 1994). Then the implicit price for a job in the sugar industry is above $500,000, allowing for significant room for Pareto improvement. Political puzzles are cases where minority trumps majority. An example she gives is the rural bias in urbanized countries, such as the Common Agricultural Policy in the European Union. Lohmann claims that Olson's free-rider problem is insufficient to explain these puzzles. Instead, she argues they are due to uncertainty (information asymmetry among actors) when special interest groups evaluate how political actors promote their interests. She states that everyone can be considered a special interest. Because everyone is (relatively) sure how well their interests are represented, they give more weight to their interest representation when evaluating political actors than to the general benefit. Lohmann argues that it could be politically viable to focus on separate narrow interests at the expense of general benefits. Legitimacy Trumbull rejects the observation by Olson and Lohmann that concentrated interests dominate public policy. He points out that historically, diffuse interests nearly always found ways to be represented in public policy, such as the interests of retirees, patients or consumers. Trumbull explains this with the role of legitimacy of interest groups that promote policies. He argues that diffuse interests have a legitimacy premium when they manage to mobilize, while concentrated interests are viewed with suspicion. He describes the concept of legitimacy coalitions, which are coalitions between state policymakers, social activists or industry to promote certain policy. By having to form a coalition, the interests are more broadly represented. An example of such a coalition is the post-war neo-corporatist system. Critical mass Marwell and Oliver use mathematical and computational models to show that a number of the assumptions made by Olson are unrealistic, and if they are relaxed, the behavior of a system of rational agents changes dramatically. One assumption is that the "production function" of goods is linear. If this function instead accelerates, then a critical mass of early contributors can encourage a large number of others to contribute. Another assumption is that the cost of the good is a function of the size of the group that would benefit from it. For many public goods, this is not true, and Marwell and Oliver show that when the interest group is larger, there is a larger chance that it will include someone for whom it is rational to provide the good, either in part or in full. Cost-Benefit distribution James Q. Wilson argues that Olson's idea does not include all political constellations and thus cannot be a holistic solution in explaining collective actions. For this argument Wilson explains that costs and benefits are subcategorized in diffuse and concentrated costs and benefits. Olson's constellation in his point of view is merely such that deals with diffuse costs and concentrated benefits. See also Bystander effect Constitutional economics Deindividuation Diffusion of responsibility Groupshift Tragedy of the commons References Description, Table of Contents, and preview. Logic of Collective Action Logic of Collective Action Logic of Collective Action Rational choice theory 1965 non-fiction books	0.765262	0.977936	0.748377
Netnography	Netnography is a "form of qualitative research that seeks to understand the cultural experiences that encompass and are reflected within the traces, practices, networks and systems of social media". It is a specific set of research practices related to data collection, analysis, research ethics, and representation, rooted in participant observation that can be conceptualized into three key stages: investigation, interaction, and immersion. In netnography, a significant amount of the data originates in and manifests through the digital traces of naturally occurring public conversations recorded by contemporary communications networks. Netnography uses these conversations as data. It is an interpretive research method that adapts the traditional, in-person participant observation techniques of anthropology to the study of interactions and experiences manifesting through digital communications . The term netnography is a portmanteau combining "Internet" or "network" with "ethnography". Netnography was originally developed in 1995 by marketing professor Robert Kozinets as a tool to analyze online fan discussions about the Star Trek franchise. The use of the method spread from marketing research and consumer research to a range of other disciplines, including education, library and information sciences, hospitality, tourism, computer science, psychology, sociology, anthropology, geography, urban studies, leisure and game studies, and human sexuality and addiction research. Netnography and ethnography Though netnography is developed from ethnography and applied in the online settings, it is more than the application of qualitative research in the form of traditional ethnographic techniques in an online context. There are several characters that differentiate netnography from ethnography. Research focus. Netnographic research is more focused on reflections and data provided by online communities, whereas ethnography can focus on the entire human society. Communication focus. Ethnography comprises research into all forms of human communication, including body language and tone of voice. Netnography incorporates human online communication, which is textual communication, or some multimedia communication such as video, audio, pictures. Research method. Netnography offers a less intrusive research experience than ethnography, because netnography uses mainly observational data. Netnography is more naturalistic than personal interviews, focus groups, surveys, and experiments, which the qualities are largely influenced by the researcher. In addition, participants may alter their reactions/answers when involving in the interviews, focus group and surveys. The main advantage of netnography is that individuals reveal information, including sensitive details, unasked and voluntarily online naturally, and the netnographer could gain this organic information through observation. Data collection. Compared with traditional ethnography which requires researchers physically immerse into the samples to collect data, netnographic researchers are able to download communication data directly from an online community. Netnographic researchers do not become members of communities and cultures as in traditional ethnographic practice, but are instead engaged in various and flexible levels of committed and public online social interaction, thus immerse oneself in the community. Thus ethnography usually collects real-life observation and primary data, and netnography usually collects computer-based and secondary data Efficiency. Netnography tends to be less costly and timelier than many other methods because it leverages online archives and existing technologies to rapidly and efficiently gather and sort relevant data. Netnographic research is faster and cheaper in comparison with ethnographic research. Number of participants. Netnography enables the researcher to investigate a large number of people, even more than when using ethnography. Retroactivity. Netnography could trace back conversations several years ago so that allow researchers understand the history or the development of a topic/community, but ethnography can only study the current situation. Netnography is also similar to ethnography in these ways: It is naturalistic: it seeks to study online social interaction by participating within and observing it; It is immersive: it involves the researcher as the key element in data collection and creation; It is descriptive: it seeks rich contextual portrayals of the lived experience of online social life; It is multi-method: it can involve a range of other methods, such as interviews, semiotic visual analysis, and data science; and It is adaptable: it can be used to study many types of online sites and technology-related communications and interaction Keys components Key components of netnography include emotion/story, the researcher, key source person, and cultural fluency. Emotion and story Netnography combines rich samples of communicative and interactions flowing through the internet: textual, graphic, audio, photographic and & audio-visual. The data then will be analysed using content analysis, semiotic visual analysis, interviews (online and in person), social network analysis and the use of big data analytic tools and techniques. These techniques are employed to find the emotional story behind a subject. This what differentiate netnography to big-data analysis that often relies on machine (sentiment analysis, word cloud) and also to digital ethnography or digital anthropology. These terms (netnography, digital ethnography, and digital anthropology) are often used interchangeably, but they are very different. The difference between netnography and digital ethnography could be seen in several ways, but the most obvious one is the research motivation and methodology determined by the purpose. Netnography focuses on internet users forming an online community which is highlighted from the substantial daily life, while digital ethnography only treat the digital world as a place to extend their offline data collection to complement the ethnographic research. The methodological framework between them are not typically different, since netnography mainly use online qualitative techniques and use online quantitative research as a supplement occasionally, while digital ethnography combines both quantitative (e.g., network and co-word analysis) and qualitative (e.g., sentiment and content analysis) techniques. To find the emotional story, big data analysis is often used as a complementary technique, usually at the beginning of the research. However, instead of scooping a huge amount of data and relying on machine to analyse it, the strength of netnography is contextualized data, human-centered analysis, and resonant representation. Researcher The researcher is not simply a person who knows how to run a specific software but a living, breathing individual whose personality will enrich the research. In netnography, to find the necessary emotion, the story behind the individuals, the researcher has to have a deep understanding of the culture that surrounds the data that she uses. They have to immerse themself in the community where they source their data. A human being is a very complex being, and the language that we use, regardless of the language itself, has depth. It has nuance, symbolism, sarcasm, to name a few. Not to mention context. What is acceptable or positive in one culture might be the total opposite in others. Unearthing the layers is a complicate and delicate process no algorithm can currently perform. For example, if a researcher wished to understand the sentiment of a brand's customers or potential consumers towards a specific brand, the easiest thing to do is perhaps analyze the comments section of the brand's website. However, should there be a substantial number of comments that are using sarcastic language, solely using a machine-generated algorithm will give the wrong conclusion. Key source person The key to understand the culture is to find rich data from a key source person, the third factor of netnography. Using the same examples, to find the reason behind perception of brand or the reason behind a brand loyalty, a netnographer needs to comb through the comments section to find the gold mine. One examples of a gold mine is a genuine comment written by a person with a very strong emotions towards the brand either positive or negative. On the other hand, the netnographer may find a person who either loves or hates the brand with every fiber of their being. The netnographer should find this data and analyze it. This small but in-depth data could be the answer to the research question. Cultural fluency The goal of a netnographer is cultural fluency. Cultural fluency means that at the end of the research, the researcher should be fluent in the symbolic language of the site and even so knowledgeable about the users that they have an almost biographical authority regarding them. Cultural meaning(s) embedded in the Internet Unlike the fetishization of big data and its attempt to portray a generic, characterization of markets in online communities (i.e., frequency of brand engagement), netnography enables researchers "to argue for a central tenet" (Kozinets, 2016, p. 2) that emerges from the collected data that represents a particular market. Netnography has an advantage over ethnography in that it focuses primarily on the context of textual communication and any affiliated multimedia elements, whereas ethnography focuses primarily on physical forms of human communication (e.g., body language) (Bartl et al., p. 168). Since Netnography uses spontaneous data and conducts observation without intruding online users, it is regarded as more naturalistic than other approaches such as interviews, focus groups, surveys and experiments (Kozinets, 2015). While online communication has a relatively shorter duration in efficiency when compared to human communication, the speed in collecting online communication is much faster and far less expensive than traditional in-person ethnography and other qualitative methodologies like focus groups or interviews . It is also a challenging approach involving work to tackle unpredictable and abundant data (Kozinets, 2015). The need to understand the cultural meaning of online communities (e.g., Reddit; LinkedIn) has grown exponentially since the appraisal of Web 2.0 interfaces (i.e., user-generated content), along with other technological advances. One can no longer assume that people are isolating themselves from the physical world with technology, but rather view technology such as computer-mediated communication and digital information as a gateway that allows them to interact with familiar and, at times, anonymous users on a given occasion. Furthermore, cultural practices within the physical world are extended to, and enhanced by, these online communities, where people can choose a dating partner, learn about a religion and make brand choices, just to name a few examples. With ethnography's influence on netnography, this research method enables the researcher to link the communication patterns in order to understand the tacit and latent practices involved within and between these online communities of interest (Mariampolski, 2005). As Kozinets pointed out, "these social groups have a 'real' existence for their participants, and thus have consequential effects on many aspects of behaviour, including consumer behavior" (see also Muniz and O'Guinn, 2001). People participating in these online communities often share in-depth insights on themselves, their lifestyles, and the reasons behind the choices they make as consumers (brands, products etc.). Such insights have the potential of becoming something actionable. More specifically, this means that the researcher will be able to present an unknown and unseen truth to his/her client (Cayla & Arnold, 2013) so that they are able to make better decisions in engaging with a target community, whether it be in a form of an advertising or a non-profit campaign. While netnography has been predominantly applied within the field of marketing (Bengry-Howell, 2011), its methods can help researchers and their clients within social sciences to create an empathetic understanding of people's cultural behavior via online, and to allow the researcher and clients to 'immerse themselves' in the consumer domain (Kozinets, 2002; Piller et al., 2011; in Bartl et al., 2016, p. 167). The following information provides a systematic process to search for, collect and analyze data (Bartl et al., 2016, p. 168; see also Kozinets, 2000, 2010) Define the research field. Develop a detailed research question(s) that allows the researcher to qualitatively find patterns. Communication identification and selection. Use online search engines in order to identify appropriate, research-related online communities, which the researcher will then need to analyze and select details about the community, its members, and its forum. Community observation and data collection. Observe the selected online communities in a non-participatory, non-biased manner. The researcher will then need to retrieve data from people's communication and data from personal observation. Data analysis. Analyze data with automated software and manual methods in order to uncover patterns from the data analyses. Research ethics. With regards to ethics, be vigilant in ensuring the online community members' anonymity and confidentiality. Finding and solutions. Apply an empathetic perspective in order to obtain a deep understanding about the people of interest in order for the solutions to be well translated and trustworthy. Netnography offers a range of new insights for front end innovation, providing: Holistic marketplace descriptions Communicative and cultural comprehension Embedded understanding of consumer choice Naturalistic views of brand meaning Discovery of consumer innovation Mappings of sociocultural online space Data collection Netnography collects data from Internet data, interviews data and fieldnotes Internet data: Researchers should spend the time to match their research questions and interests to appropriate online forum, using the novel resources of online search engines such as Yahoo! and Google groups, before initiating entrée. Before initiating contact as a participant, or beginning formal data collection, the distinctive characteristics of the online communities should be familiar to the netnographer. Interview data: The interview can be conducted via email, Skype, in person, or by using other methods. Netnography’s emphasis on Internet data does not ameliorate the need to establish data in context and to extend understanding of those data into related concepts, archives, communications, and sites. Fieldnotes: Reflective fieldnotes, in which ethnographers record their observations, are a time-tested and recommended method in netnography. Although some netnographies have been conducted using only observation and download, without the researcher writing a single fieldnote, this non-participant approach draws into question the ethnographic orientation of the investigation. As with grounded theory, data collection should continue as long as new insights are being generated. For purposes of precision, some netnographers closely track the amount of text collected and read, and the number of distinct participants. CAQDAS software solutions can expedite coding, content analysis, data linking, data display, and theory-building functions. New forms of qualitative data analysis are constantly being developed by a variety of firms (such as MotiveQuest and Neilsen BuzzMetrics), although the results of these firms are more like content analyses of than ethnographic representations . Netnography and content analysis differed in the adoption of computational methods for collecting semi-automated data, analyzing data, recognizing words and visualizing data (Kozinets, 2016). However, some scholars dispute netnography's distance from content analysis, preferring to assert that it is also a content analytic technique . Data analysis Distinct from data mining and content analysis, netnography as a method emphasizes the cultural contextualizing of online data. This often proves to be challenging in the social-cues-impoverished online context. Because netnography is based primarily upon the observation of textual discourse, ensuring trustworthy interpretations requires a different approach than the balancing of discourse and observed behavior that occurs during in-person ethnography. Although the online landscape mediates social representation and renders problematic the issue of informant identity, netnography seems perfectly amenable to treating behavior or the social act as the ultimate unit of analysis, rather than the individual person. Research ethics Research ethics may be one of the most important differences between traditional ethnography and netnography. Ethical concerns over netnography turn on early concerns about whether online forums are to be considered a private or a public site, and about what constitutes informed consent in cyberspace (see ). In a major departure from traditional methods, netnography uses cultural information that is not given specifically, and in confidence, to the researcher. The consumers who originally created the data do not necessarily intend or welcome its use in research representations. Netnography therefore offers specific guidelines regarding when to cite online posters and authors, how to cite them, what to consider in an ethical netnographic representation, when to ask permission, and when permission is not necessary (; cf. ). Advantages and limitations Compared to surveys, experiments, focus groups, and personal interviews, netnography can be less obtrusive. It is conducted using observations in a context that is not fabricated by the researcher. Netnography also is less costly and timelier than focus groups and personal interviews. The limitations of netnography draw from the need for researcher interpretive skill, and the lack of informant identifiers present in the online context that can lead to difficulty generalizing results to groups outside the sample. However, these limitations can be ameliorated somewhat by careful use of convergent data collection methods that bridge offline and online research in a systematic manner, as well as by careful sampling and interpretive approaches (, 2002). Researchers wishing to generalize the findings of a netnography of a particular online group to other groups must apply careful evaluations of similarity and consider using multiple methods for research triangulation. Netnography is still a relatively new method, and awaits further development and refinement at the hands of a new generation of Internet-savvy ethnographic researchers. However, several researchers are developing the techniques in social networking sites, virtual worlds, mobile communities, and other novel computer-mediated social domains. Sample netnographic analysis Below are listed five different types of online community from a netnographic analysis by Kozinets (see Kozinets ref. below for more detail). Even though the technologies, and the use of these technologies within culture, is evolving over time, the insights below have been included here in order to show an example of what a market-oriented "netnography" looked like: bulletin boards, which function as electronic bulletin boards (also called newsgroups, usegroups, or usenet groups). These are often organized around particular products, services or lifestyles, each of which may have important uses and implications for marketing researchers interested in particular consumer topics (e.g., McDonald's, Sony PlayStation, beer, travel to Europe, skiing). Many consumer-oriented newsgroups have over 100,000 readers, and some have over one million . Independent web pages as well as web-rings composed of thematically-linked World Wide Web pages. Web-pages such as epinions ([www.epinions.com]) provide online community resources for consumer-to-consumer exchanges. Yahoo!'s consumer advocacy listings also provide useful listing of independent consumer web-pages. Yahoo! also has an excellent directory of web-rings ([www.dir.webring.yahoo.com]). lists (also called listservs, after the software program), which are e-mail mailing lists united by common themes (e.g., art, diet, music, professions, toys, educational services, hobbies). Some good search engines of lists are [www.egroups.com] and [www.liszt.com]. multi-user dungeons and chat rooms tend to be considerably less market-oriented in their focus, containing information that is often fantasy-oriented, social, sexual and relational in nature. General search engines (e.g., Yahoo! or excite) provide good directories of these communities. Dungeons and chat rooms may still be of interest to marketing researchers (see, e.g., ) because of their ability to provide insight into particular themes (e.g., certain industry, demographic or lifestyle segments). However, many marketing researchers will find the generally more focused and more information-laden content provided by the members of boards, rings and lists to be more useful to their investigation than the more social information present in dungeons and chat rooms. social media platforms. Unprecedented changes in the current communications ecology demand attention to social media analytics as a way to gain access to data and facilitate useful insights for organizations in building customer service, loyalty, advocacy, and real-time participation. Social monitoring software like Radian6, Hootsuite, and Google Analytics can help provide data that a netographer then curates and analyzes, outside the use of pie graphs and word clouds, to find the deeper meaning in order direct a company, brand, or advocacy group, to the opportunities and trends that are marketable. Netnographers can use this type of social media listening to draw actionable insights for a current customer or consumer base. Phases in conducting netnography As research practice, netnography has 12 roughly temporal, nonexclusive and often interacting process levels (Kozinets, 2015): Introspection phase: The researcher must reflect upon the role of the research in her current life project and life themes, and her actual life story as it unfolds. Investigation phase: The researcher devise and sharpen the netnographic research question, basing it upon the study of sites, topics or people, posing it appropriately, such that it can be reasonably answered by a netnographic approach. Informational phase: The researcher should raise ethical considerations early and be aware of acceptable research ethics practices. Interview phase: A good range of people or sites are found to investigate and then interviewed and found to match to various online forms of sociality and satisfaction. Inspection phase: The research makes the choice on particular site or sites to investigate. Different sorts of site, topic, person and even group combinations schemes are possible and useful. Interaction phase: The extent of the researcher's participation in online social interactions is plotted out. Creating an interaction research website that is open, generous and ethical is strongly recommended. Immersion phase: Depth of understanding grows organically in a natural unfolding of what feels like 'human' time through the immersion in the data, topic or site on a frequent basis. Indexing phase: An adequate amount of data is collected from a relevant variety of relevant sources. The researcher should focus on small data. She should carefully select lesser amounts of very high quality data that are used to reveal and highlight meaningful aspects of the particular. Interpretation phase: Interpretive analysis, or "interpenetration" is conducted as a striving for depth of understanding. Humanistic, phenomenological, existential and hermeneutic methods are favored and a variety of language theories are usefully applied. Iteration phase: The researcher is interpreting continuously and seeking insights, general rules, patterns, research question saturation. She goes back to the field site, the data and the literature in a spiralling-in cycle looking for contributions, answers, representations, ideas and questions. Instantiation phase: A netnography is instantiated in space and on time in a specific manner. It can take the form of one of the four ideal types (symbolic, digital, auto or humanistic) to guide the instantiated representation. Integration phase: The result of the netnography is detected or measured. The final phase is part of its ongoing life in the world. It deals with the integration of findings and discussions with recommended action in the wider world. Four types of netnography According to Kozinets, any netnography will fall into one of four categories: auto, symbolic, digital or humanist. These types of netnography are defined by distinctive axiologies and foci. In order to visualize how a netnography is defined one should Imagine a simple 2X2 figure. Along the figure's x-axis we see that a netnography can be defined by whether or not it supports or challenges the status quo of business and management. In this way we determine a netnography's axiological representation orientation as either "critical", meant to disrupt, or "complementary", meant to assist in decision making. If we turn our focus to the y-axis of our imaginary figure, we see then that a netnography can also be categorized by its analytic field focus, or what it examines based on its orientation. A netnography can be deemed "global" if its focus is on a larger and more general system, or we can think of it as "local" if it narrows its scope to particular iterations of that more general system. Through the combination these distinct parameters we can end up with the four types of netnography: Auto-netnography: Is the critical and local form of netnography due to the fact that the researcher must render the data through their own identity. It can be thought of as an adaption of auto-ethnography as it also contains personal and auto-biographical elements. However, an auto-netnography must also possess a distinctly critical element in its understanding of the netnographers own position in time suffused with technologically mediated communication. Symbolic netnography: The most commonly used version of netnography, it is both local and complementary. Utilizes social media information and interaction to render identities around individuals or websites in order to inform business decision making. It tends to focus on a particular group or field site and illustrate the group's practices, meanings and generate a more action based understanding of particular consumers. Digital netnography: Sits on the intersection of complementary axiology and global focus. Connects statistical data analysis with cultural understandings, meaning it encompasses a large amount of social data, but always with drive toward deeper cultural understanding, rather than just statistical trends. Along with symbolic netnography, digital netnography looks to reinforce existing business, management and social practices. Humanist netnographies: Focused on research questions with deep social import. Utilizes social media data to attempt to answer these questions and influence social change. Places the researcher firmly in the position of an advocate, and can even push him into activism. Netnography application The main application of netnographic market research is as a tool to explore consumer behaviour by understanding customers and listening to their voice Netnography aids the identification of lead users and the prediction of trends. Netnography serves as an effective driver of innovation and new product development. Example: Nivea White and Black Deodorant Netnography can also be used to understand infrastructures, networks, groups, and any relevant constituent’s online behaviors, and potentially inform us about many elements of their overall lifeworld. Example: Online conversions to Islam Notes References Bartl, Michael; Kannan, Vijai K.; Stockinger, Hanna (2016). A review and analysis of literature on netnography research. International Journal of Technology Marketing. Vol. 11, No. 2, 2016. pp. 165–196. Further reading (First print appearance of netnography method) External links A Brief Introduction to Netnography (slides) Ethnography Qualitative research	0.764177	0.979259	0.748327
Multiperspectivity	Multiperspectivity (sometimes polyperspectivity) is a characteristic of narration or representation, where more than one perspective is represented to the audience. Most frequently the term is applied to fiction which employs multiple narrators, often in opposition to each-other or to illuminate different elements of a plot, creating what is sometimes called a multiple narrative, or multi-narrative. However, a similar concept is applied to historical process, in which multiple different perspectives are used to evaluate events. Educators have extended the concept and term to apply to techniques used to teach multiple disciplines, including social sciences, like economics and civics, and physical education. Use in history The use of multiple perspectives arose because educators and scholars from the recent decades questioned the validity of one-sided historical narratives. Instead of focusing on a dominant group's point of view, they suggested to employ multiperspectivity. This is because of the diversity and cultural pluralism, since many groups – women, the poor, ethnic minorities, etc. – have been ignored in traditional historical narratives. Good historians must not just focus on one side of the story, instead they must look into different sources to know if the facts corroborate with each other and to produce more accurate interpretations. "In history, multiple perspectives are usual and have to be tested against evidence, and accounted for in judgments and conclusions." Ann Low-Beer explains. Multiple historical narratives provide space to inquire and investigate. Different sources offer different historical truths. It brings a more complex, complete and richer understanding of the past. It can be used to show corroboration of acts, to show diverse perspectives of a single event, and to showcase the human condition in compelling ways. Multiperspectivity is a significant tool for stimulating historical understanding and thinking and a necessary precondition for all citizens that live in a multicultural society. See also Mosaic novel - a genre of novel employing multiperspectivity References Narrative techniques Point of view Style (fiction)	0.761664	0.982482	0.748321
Digital rhetoric	Digital rhetoric is communication that exists in the digital sphere. It can be expressed in many different forms, including text, images, videos, and software. Due to the increasingly mediated nature of contemporary society, distinctions between digital and non-digital environments are less clear. This has expanded the scope of digital rhetoric to account for the increased fluidity with which humans interact with technology. Digital rhetoric serves as an extension of human communication within the digital realm. Although this field is still developing, it incorporates theories and practices from traditional rhetoric, functioning as both an analytical framework and a guide for creation. Overall, digital rhetoric can be viewed as a meta-discipline. Eyman, Douglas. Digital Rhetoric: Theory, Method, Practice. University of Michigan Press, 2015. As my understanding of digital rhetoric deepens, I’ve come to realize that it carries different meanings for various scholars, often shaped by the specific aspects being examined. The field of digital rhetoric is not yet fully established. It draws theory and practices from the tradition of rhetoric as both an analytical tool and a production guide. As a whole, it can be categorized as a meta-discipline. Due to evolving study, digital rhetoric has held various meanings to different scholars over time. It can take on a variety of meanings based on what is being analyzed, depending on the concept, forms or objects of study, or rhetorical approach. Digital rhetoric can also be analyzed through the lenses of different social movements. Digital rhetoric lacks a strict definition amongst scholars. The discussion and debate toward reaching a definition accounts for much of the writing, study, and teaching of the topic. One of the most straightforward definitions for "digital rhetoric" is that it is the application of rhetorical theory to digital communication. Definition Evolving definition of 'digital rhetoric' The following subsections detail the evolving definition of 'digital rhetoric' as a term since its creation in 1989. Early definitions (1989–2015) The term was coined by rhetorician Richard A. Lanham in a 1989 lecture and was first published in his 1993 essay collection, The Electronic Word: Democracy, Technology, and the Arts. Lanham avoided coming to a firm definition, instead aiming to connect digital communication to examples from traditional communication, discussing the relationship between postmodern theory, digital arts, and classical rhetoric. Digital rhetoric theory is primarily based in traditional rhetoric and shares many of its methods and characteristics, including it's status as a meta-discipline. Lanham's work referred to many works of Hypertext theory. Hypertext theory is a similar, but less broad concept to digital rhetoric, which studied the consequences of computer users interacting with hypertext links. Much of the writing on the theory focused on how the meaning that hypertext links gave to words and enforces a relationship between users and the particular words, and how this could be implemented in rhetorical and educational settings. In 1997, Calgary University professor Doug Brent expanded on the concept of hypertext theory, approaching the topic from a rhetorical framework, when past studies depended more on literary analysis. This presented hypertext as a kind of "new rhetoric". The same year, Bowling Green University scholar Gary Heba united studies of hypertext and visual rhetoric into the concept of "HyperRhetoric", a multimedia communication experience that could not be replicated outside of an internet setting. Heba stated that as the online landscape and the perspectives of users change, HyperRhetoric must also adapt and evolve. This fluidity remains a characteristic of digital rhetoric. The late 1990s and early 2000s represented a greater shift towards rhetoric in digital communication study, and how "persuasion" functions in an online setting. In 2005, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute scholar James P. Zappen expanded the conversation beyond persuasion and into digital rhetoric's capacity for creative expression in exploring the behavior of individuals and groups in online settings. In his book, Douglas Eyman establishes the different types of rhetoric and the different areas that we can find Digital rhetoric. Standard rhetoric and digital rhetoric have more to do with their creation, producing and distribution, rather than the actual content itself. Contrary to popular belief, digital rhetoric has a connection to the material production of texts. Douglas traces rhetoric back to the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. These types of man made artwork and codes were some of the first forms of digital rhetoric, according to Eyman. Recent scholarship (2015–present) In his 2015 book Digital Rhetoric: Theory, Method, Practice, Douglas Eyman defined digital rhetoric as "the application of rhetorical theory (as analytic method or heuristic for production) to digital texts and performances". By this definition, digital rhetoric can be applied as an analytic method for digital content and be a basis for future study, offering rhetorical questions as research guidelines. Eyman categorized the emerging field of digital rhetoric as interdisciplinary in nature, related to fields like: digital literacy, visual rhetoric, new media, human–computer interaction, critical code studies, and a variety of many more. In 2018, rhetorician Angela Haas offered her own definition of digital rhetoric, defining it as "the digital negotiation of information – and its historical, social, economic, and political contexts and influences – to affect change". Haas emphasized that digital rhetoric does not solely apply to text-based items—it can also apply to image-based or system-based items. In this way, any form of communication that occurs in the digital sphere can be counted as digital rhetoric. In 2023, Zoltan P. Majdik and S. Scott Graham were asked to consider not only the rhetorical landscape of artificial intelligence but what it might mean to use artificial intelligence as a resource for rhetorical scholarship. The authors thus embrace a dual perspective on AI—first, as a rapidly developing technology that will have profound effects on human communication, and second, as an object of study for communication scholars who might want to consider using AI in the same way they might consider using any other resource or technology. In 2024, Penn State rhetorician Stuart A. Selber defined digital rhetoric studies through a selection of guiding questions: How does traditional rhetoric inform the study of digital communication as a rhetorical medium? When traditional rhetoric fails to inform scholars in a situation exclusive to digital formats, are new concepts required or can traditional concepts be reconsidered? If new ideas are needed, what will be their source? How will they be examples of rhetoric? Selber stated that a concept is rhetorical if it helps in analyzing how speakers use the circumstances of society and their message's medium to influence the opinions of others. Other definitions While most research represents a traditionally Western view of rhetoric, Arthur Smith of UCLA explains that the ancient rhetoric of many cultures, such as African rhetoric, existed independent of Western influence, and developed in ways that reflect the values and functions of those societies. Today, rhetoric encompasses all forms of discourse that serve any given purpose within specific contexts, while also being shaped by those contexts. Some scholars interpret this rhetorical discourse with greater focus on the digital aspect. University of Texas's Casey Boyle, Rutgers University-Camden's James Brown Jr., and University of Virginia's Steph Ceraso claim that "the digital" is no longer a single strategy that can be used to enhance traditional rhetoric, but an "ambient condition" that encompass all parts of life. As technology becomes more ubiquitous, the lines between traditional and digital rhetoric will start to blur. Technology and rhetoric can influence and transform each other. Douglas Eyman defines digital Concepts Circulation Circulation theorizes the ways that text and discourse moves through time and space, and any kind of media can be circulated. A new form of communication is composed, created, and distributed through digital technologies. Media scholar Henry Jenkins explains there is a shift from distribution to circulation, which signals a move toward an increasingly participatory model of culture in which people shape, share, re-frame, and remix media content in ways not previously possible within the traditional rhetorical formats like print. The various concepts of circulation include: Collaboration – Digital rhetoric has taken on a very collaborative nature through the use of digital platforms. Sites such as YouTube and Wikipedia involve opportunity for "new forms of collaborative production". Digital platforms have created opportunities for more people to enact and create, as digital platforms open doors for collaborative communication that can occur synchronously, asynchronously, over far distances, and across multiple disciplines and professions. Crowdsourcing – Daren Brabham describes the concept of crowdsourcing as the use of modern technology to collaborate, create, and solve problems collectively. Ethical concerns have been raised while engaging in crowdsourcing, specifically in situations that lack a clear set of compensation practices or protections in place to secure information. Delivery – Digital technologies allow rhetoric to be delivered in new "electronic forms of discourse". Acts and modes of communication can be represented digitally by combining multiple different forms of media into a composite helping to create an easy user experience. The growing popularity of the Internet meme is an example of combining, circulating, and delivering media in a collaborative effort through file sharing. Although memes are sent through microtransactions they often have a macro-level, large-scale impact. Another form of rhetorical delivery are encyclopedias, which traditionally were printed and based primarily on text and images. However, modern technological developments now enable online encyclopedias to integrate sound, animation, video, algorithmic search functions, and high-level productions into a cohesive multimedia experience as part of their new forms of digital rhetoric. Critical literacy Critical literacy is the ability to identify bias in media, under the assumption that all media is biased. It can also be defined as a communicative tool to lead to social change and promote social action by using a critical lens when approaching social-political topics. In order to identify bias amid the immense volume of information imposed on digital audiences, individuals need to develop the ability to process and critically examine content—on both familiar and unfamiliar topics. In an essay on critical literacy in writing, the University of Melbourne stated the importance of developing these skills through reading and questioning what texts are trying to accomplish. Ultimately, this allows an idea's interpretation to come from the reader, not the writer. For example, a study conducted at the Indiana University in Bloomington used algorithms to assess 14 million Twitter messages containing statements about the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign and election. They found that from May 2016 to March 2017, social bots were responsible for causing approximately 389,000 unsupported political claims to go viral. Interactivity Interactivity in digital rhetoric can be defined as the ways in which readers connect to and communicate with digital texts. For example, readers have the ability to like, share, repost, comment on, and remix online content. These simple interactions allow writers, scholars, and content creators to get a better idea of how their work is affecting their audience. Some ways communicators promote interactivity include the following: Mind sharing is a way to get collective intelligence—crowd wisdom that is comparable to expert wisdom. The methodology consists of taking a consensus from the crowd—the answer that most minds are suggesting is the best answer. If the question is numeric (like guessing the weight of an ox), this method gives a calculated average or median. If the question is open-ended (like "what car should I buy?"), it gives the most common answer. Multimodality is a form of communication that uses multiple methods (or modes) to inform audiences of an idea. It can involve a mix of written text, pictures, audio, or videos. Online journals often embrace multimodality in their issues and articles by publishing works that use more than just written text to communicate the message. While the digital turn in rhetoric and composition has encouraged more discussion, theorization, and pedagogical application of multimodality and multimodal texts, the history of the field demonstrates a continuous concern with multimodal communication beginning with classical rhetoric's concern with delivery, gesture, and memory. All writing and all communication is, theoretically, multimodal. Remix is a method of digital rhetoric that manipulates and transforms an original work to convey a new message. The use of remix can help the creator make an argument by connecting seemingly unrelated ideas into a convincing whole. Self-publication sites such as YouTube, SoundCloud, and WordPress have stimulated remix culture, allowing for easier creation and dissemination of reworked content. Unlike appropriation, which is the use and potential recontextualization of existing material without significant modification, 'remix' is defined by Ridolfo and Devoss as "the process of taking old pieces of text, images, sounds, and video and stitching them together to form a new product". A popular example of remixing is the creation and sharing of memes. Procedural rhetoric Procedural rhetoric is rhetoric formed through processes or practices. Some scholars view video games as one of these processes through which rhetoric can be formed. For example, ludology scholar and game designer Gonzalo Frasca poses that the simulation-nature of computers and video games offers a "natural medium for modeling reality and fiction". Therefore, according to Frasca, video games can take on a new form of digital rhetoric in which reality is mimicked but also created for the future. Similarly, scholar Ian Bogost argues that video games can serve as models for how 'real-world' cultural and social systems operate. They also argue for the necessity of literacy in playing video games as this allows players to challenge (and ultimately accept or reject) the rhetorical standpoints of these games. Rhetorical velocity Rhetorical velocity is the concept of authors writing in a way in which they are able to predict how their work might be recomposed. Jim Ridolfo and Danielle DeVoss first coined this idea in 2009 when they described rhetorical velocity as "a conscious rhetorical concern for distance, travel, speed, and time, pertaining specifically to theorizing instances of strategic appropriation by a third party". Author Sean Morey agrees with this definition of rhetorical velocity and describes it as a creator anticipating the response their work with generate. For example, digital rhetoric is often labelled using tags, which are keywords used to help readers find, view, and share relevant texts and information. These tags can be found on blog posts, news articles, scholarly journals, and more. Tagging allows writers, scholars, and content creators to organize their work and make it more accessible and understandable to readers. Appropriation carries both positive and negative connotations for rhetorical velocity. In some ways, appropriation is a tool that can be used for the reapplication of outdated ideas to make them better. In other ways, appropriation is seen as a threat to creative and cultural identities. Social media receives the bulk of this scrutiny due to the lack of education of its users. Most "contributors are often unaware of what they are contributing", which perpetuates the negative connotation. Scholars in digital rhetoric—such as Jessica Reyman, Amy Hea, and Johndan Johnson-Eilola—explore this topic and its effects on society. Scholars have also connected the role of rhetorical velocity to visual rhetoric through a study of environmental image circulation, demonstrating that "while environmental image circulation is often viewed as an ambivalent, or even performative, practice for environmental citizenship, it is also an important space for cultivating participatory culture online." Visual rhetoric Digital rhetoric often invokes visual rhetoric due to digital rhetoric's reliance on visuals. Charles Hill states that images "do not necessarily have to portray an object, or even a class of objects, that exists or ever did exist" to remain impactful. However, the use of imagery for rhetorical purposes in digital spaces cannot always be easily differentiated from "traditional" physical visual mediums. As such, approaching this concept requires a careful analysis of the viewer, situational, and visual contexts involved. A prominent part of this concept is its intersection of perspective with technology, as computers allow users to create a curated view for online space. Examples of the Internet relying and reshaping visual rhetoric include Social media platforms like Instagram, and incredibly realistic deepfakes. Digitally-produced art is a significant way users express themselves on technological platforms; the unique intersection of text and image has given rise to new rhetorical language through the modification of slang and in-group language. In particular, the culturally-specific and nuanced use of pop culture references through Internet memes have gradually built upon themselves to create complex, highly flexible, and Internet-specific (or even platform-specific) dialects of speech. Through popularity-based natural selection, edits of commonly accepted meme templates fuel the cycle of rhetorical creation. Other forms of digital-visual rhetoric include remixing and parodying. In the chapter "Digital Rhetoric Practice" in Digital Rhetoric Theory, Method, Practice, Douglas Eyman speaks about the growth of digital rhetoric in a digital world. Digital rhetoric has become distinguished from its other rhetoric counterparts, as it is an easily accessible path for people to spread their messages through the reuse of already existing content and putting their own twist on it. This is widespread because of meme cultures and online video platforms. Digital-visual rhetoric does not only rely on intentional manipulation. Sometimes, meanings can arise from unexpected places and otherwise-overlooked features. For example, emojis can carry heavy consequences by permeating daily communication. Varying skin tones provided (or excluded) by developers for emojis may perpetuate preexisting racial biases of colorism. Even otherwise-innocuous images of peaches and eggplants are regular stand-ins for genital regions; they can be both harmless modes of flirtation and tools for sexually harassing women online when sent en masse. The concept of the avatar also illustrates visual rhetoric's deeply personal impact, particularly when using James E. Porter's definition of the avatar as an extended "virtual body". While scholars such as Beth Kolko hoped for an equitable online world free of physical barriers, social issues still persist in digital realms, such as gender discrimination and racism. For example, Victoria Woolums found that, in the video game World of Warcraft, an avatar's gender identity instigated bias from other characters even though an avatar's gender identity may not be physically accurate to its user. These relationships are further complicated by the varying degrees of anonymity characterizing inter-user communications in online spaces. While the possibility of true privacy can be facilitated by impersonal avatars, they are still personal manifestations of a user's self in the context of digital spaces. Furthermore, the tools available to curate and express these are platform-dependent and ripe for both liberation and exploitation. Be it Gamergate or debates regarding social media influencer culture and their portrayals of impossible and computer-edited body image, self-presentation is heavily mediated by accessibility to and mastery of online avatars. Forms and objects of study Infrastructure Information infrastructure is the underlying organization of public information on the Internet, which impacts how and what the public accesses online. Databases and search engines are information infrastructure as they play a large role in access to and dissemination of information. Information Infrastructure often consists of algorithms and metadata standards, which curate the information presented to the public. Software Coding and software engineering are not often recognized as rhetorical writing practices, but in the process of writing code, people instruct machines to "make arguments and judgments and address audiences both mechanic and human". Technologies themselves can be viewed as rhetorical genres, simultaneously guiding users' experiences and communication with each other and being shaped and improved through humans use. Choices baked into software that are invisible to users impact the user experience and reveal information about the priorities of the software engineers. For instance, while Facebook allows users to choose over 50 gender identities to display on their public profile, an investigation into the social media's software revealed that users are filtered into the male-female gender binary within the database for targeted advertising purposes. For another example, pieces of software called BitTorrent trackers facilitate the massive distribution of information on Wikipedia. Software facilitates the collective rhetorical action of this encyclopedia. The field of software studies encourages the investigation into and recognition of software's impacts on people and culture. People Online communities Online communities are groups of people with common interests that interact and engage over the Internet. Many online communities are found within social networking sites, online forums, and chat rooms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and 4chan, where members can share and discuss information and inquiries. These online spaces often establish their own rules, norms, and culture, and in some cases, users will adopt community-specific terminology or phrases. Scholars have noted that online communities have especially gained prominence among users like e-patients and victim-survivors of abuse. Within online health and support groups respectively, members have been able to find others who share similar experiences, receive advice and emotional support, and record their own narrative. Online communities support community but in some cases can support polarization. Communities face issues with online harassment in the form of trolling, cyberbullying, and hate speech. According to the Pew Research Center, 41% of Americans have experienced some form of online harassment with 75% of these experiences occurring over social media. Another area of concern is the influence of algorithms on delineating the online communities a user comes in contact with. Personalizing algorithms can tailor a user's experience to their analytically determined preference, which creates a "filter bubble". The user loses agency in content accessibility and information dissemination when these bubbles are created. The loss of agency can lead to polarization, but recent research indicates that individual level polarization is rare. Most polarization is due to the influx of users with extreme views that can encourage users to move towards partisan fringes from "gateway communities". Social media Social media makes human connection formal, manageable, and profitable to social media companies. The technology that promotes this human connection is not human, but automated. As people use social media and form their experiences on the platforms to meet their interests, the technology also affects how the users interact with each other and the world. Social media also allows for the weaving of "offline and online communities into integrated movements". Users' actions, such as liking, commenting, sending, retweeting, or saving a post, contribute to the algorithmic customization of their personalized content. Social media's reach is determined by these algorithms. Social media also offers various image altering tools that can impact image perception—making the platform less human and more automated. Digital activism Digital activism serves an agenda-setting function as it can influence mainstream media and news outlets. Hashtags, which curate posts with similar themes and ideas into a central location on a digital platform, aid in bringing exposure to social and political issues. The subsequent discussions these hashtags create put pressure on private institutions and governments to address these issues, as can be seen with movements like #CripTheVote, #BringBackOurGirls, or #MeToo. Many recent social movements have originated on Twitter, as Twitter Topic Networks provide a framework for online community organizing. Digital activism allows people who may have not had a voice previously an equal chance to be heard. Influencers and content creators As social media is increasingly becoming more available, the influencer/content creator position has also become recognized as a profession. With such a large and rapid consumer presence on social media, it creates both a helpful and overwhelming source of consumer information for advertisers. There is substantial potential to identify "market mavens" on social media due to fandom culture and the nature of influencer/content creator followings. Social media has opened up business opportunities for corporations to employ influencer marketing, where they can more easily find suitable influencers to advertise their products to their viewers.. Online learning Although online learning existed previously, its prevalence increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Online learning platforms are known as e-learning management systems (ELMS). They allow both students and teachers access to a shared, digital space which includes classroom resources, assignments, discussions, and social networking through direct messaging and email. Although socialization is a component of ELMS, not all students utilize these resources; rather, they focus on the lecturer as the primary resource of knowledge. The long-term effects of emergency online learning, which many turned to during the height of the pandemic, is ongoing; however, one study concluded that students' "motivation, self-efficacy, and cognitive engagement decreased after the transition". Interactive media Video games The procedural and interactive nature of video games leads them to be rich examples of procedural rhetoric. This rhetoric can range from games designed to bolster children's learning to challenging one's assumptions of their world. An educational video game developed for students at the University of Texas at Austin, titled Rhetorical Peaks, was made with the goal of examining rhetoric's procedural nature and to capture the constantly changing contexts of rhetoric. The open-ended nature of the game as well as the developer's intent on playing the game within a classroom setting encouraged collaboration among students and the development of individual interpretations of the game's plot based on vague clues; this ultimately helped them to realize that there must be a willingness to change between lines of thought and to work within and past limits in understanding rhetoric. In mainstream gaming, each game has its own set of language which help shape the way information is transferred between players in their community. Within the realm of online gaming—which includes games such as Call of Duty or League of Legends—players can communicate with each other and create their own rhetoric within the established world of the game, which allows players to influence and be influenced by the other gamers around them. The game Detroit: Become Human has another way of encouraging digital rhetoric within the gaming community. This decision-based video game gives the player the power to create their own story that deals with gender, race, and sexuality. Its futuristic message of a human-to-machine relationship prompts discussion due to the difficult moral decisions made while playing. At the end, there are surveys to take to see other players' opinions about certain decisions around the world. Podcasting Podcasting is also an important form of digital rhetoric. Podcasting can augment the ancient progymnasmata in ways that illuminate the relationship between rhetoric and digital sound. Podcasting can teach rhetorical practices through soundwriting. And a rhetorical pedagogy oriented around narrative nonfiction podcasting may—if it can overcome some key limitations—hold the potential to spark social change. Mobile applications Mobile applications (apps) are computer programs designed specifically for mobile devices, such as phones or tablets. Mobile apps cater to a wide range of audiences and needs, and allow for a "cultural hybridity of habit" which allows anyone to stay connected with anyone, anywhere. Due to this, there is always access to changing cultures and lifestyles, since there are so many different apps available to research or publish work. Furthermore, mobile apps allow individual users to manage aspects of their lives, while the apps themselves are able to change and upgrade socially. Information access on mobile devices poses challenges to user interfaces, notably due to the small screen and keys (or lack thereof), in comparison to larger counterparts such as laptops and PCs. However, it also has the advantage of heightening physical interactivity with touch, and presents experiences with multiple senses in this way. Likewise, mobile technologies offer location-based affordances for layering different types of information in communication design. With these varying factors, mobile applications need trustworthy, reliable, and helpful UI design and UX design to create successful user experience. Immersive media Emerging immersive technologies such as virtual reality remove the visual presence of devices and mimic emotional experiences. User immersion into virtual reality includes simulated real-life communication; virtual reality provides the illusion of being somewhere the body physically is not, which contributes to widespread communication that reaches the point of telepresence and telexistence. Critical approaches Technofeminism Digital rhetoric gives a platform to technofeminism, a concept that brings together the intersections of gender, capitalism, and technology. Technofeminism advocates for equality for women in technology-heavy fields and researches the relationship between women and their devices. Intersectionality is a term coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw that recognizes the societal injustices based on our identities. It is often challenging for women to navigate finding and interacting in digital spaces without harassment or gender biases. There is an importance of digital activism for unrepresented communities, such as gender non-conforming and transgender people of all races, disabled people, and people of color. Technofeminism and intersectionality are still not very prevalent when developing new technologies and research. In the journal Computers and Composition, only five articles explicitly use the term intersectionality or technofeminism. Rhetorical feminism Cheryl Glenn, in her article "The Language of Rhetorical Feminism, Anchored in Hope", explores the study of rhetoric, feminism, and hope, introducing a theoretical framework she calls "rhetorical feminism". This framework began as a platform for recognizing and valuing the traditionally overlooked rhetorical practices and powers of marginalized groups called "Others". Glenn's narrative extends an invitation to challenge biased attitudes and actions, promoting a more inclusive and tolerant societal discourse. In connection to digital rhetoric, the article subtly underscores the power of digital platforms in their ability to either facilitate or obstruct democratic dialogues. Glenn acknowledges the influence of rhetoric across traditional and digital domains to challenge unjust systems and engage individuals in democratic practices. Glenn's stance within the article aligns with the broader narrative of digital rhetoric, which often explores the dynamics of power, representation, and access to digital platforms in molding public discourse. As digital rhetoric is described as an extension of human communication within a digital sphere, encompassing various forms like text, images, videos, and software, Glenn's articulation of rhetorical feminism resonates with the philosophy of digital rhetoric. It calls for a more inclusive digital rhetorical practice that appreciates diverse voices and ideals, thereby contributing to a more democratic and tolerant digital discourse. The article further contributes to the field of digital rhetoric by enhancing the understanding of rhetorical practices in digital spaces through a feminist lens, advocating for a more inclusive and empathetic digital discourse capable of challenging prevailing prejudices and fostering democratic engagements. Digital cultural rhetoric As the Internet has expanded, digital media or rhetoric has come to be used to represent or identify a culture. Scholars have studied how digital rhetoric is affected by one's personal factors, such as race, religion, and sexuality. Due to these factors, people utilize different tools and absorb information differently. Digital culture has created the need for specialized communities on the web. Computer-mediated communities such as Reddit can give a voice to these specialized communities. One can experience and converse with other like-minded people on the web via comment sections and shared online migration. The creation of digital cultural rhetoric has allowed for the use of online slang that other communities may not be aware of. Online communities that explore digital cultural rhetoric allow users to discover their social identity and confront stereotypes that they face (or faced). Embodiment One subset of digital cultural rhetoric is embodiment—the idea that every person has a unique relationship with technology based on their unique set of identities. Studying the relationship between bodies and technology is one way that digital rhetoricians are able to promote equal access and opportunity within the digital sphere. Since technology is considered to be an extension of the real world, users are also shaped by the experiences they have in digital spaces. The artificial interactions that occur in online environments allow users to exist in a way that is additive to their human experience. Pedagogy With digital rhetoric becoming increasingly present, pedagogical approaches have been proposed by scholars to teach digital rhetoric in the classroom. Courses in digital rhetoric study the intersectionality between users and digital material, as well as how different backgrounds such as age, ethnicity, and gender can affect these interactions. Higher education Several scholars teach digital rhetoric courses at universities in the US, although their approaches vary considerably. Jeff Grabill, a scholar with a background in English, education, and technology, encourages his contemporaries to find a bridge between the scholarly field of digital rhetoric and its implementation. Cheryl Ball specializes in areas that consist of multimodal composition and editing practices, digital media scholarship, digital publishing, and university writing pedagogy. Ball teaches students to write and compose multimodal texts by analyzing rhetorical options and choosing the most appropriate genres, technologies, media, and modes for a particular situation. Multimodality also influenced Understanding Rhetoric: A Graphic Guide to Writing by Elizabeth Losh (et al.), which emphasizes engaging the comic form of literacy. A similar approach also inspired Melanie Gagich to alter the curriculum of her first-year English course completely, aiming to redefine digital projects as rigorous academic assignments and teach her students necessary audience analysis skills. Such a design ultimately allowed students in Gagich's classroom to develop their creativity and confidence as writers. In another approach, Douglas Eyman recommends a course in web authoring and design that provides undergraduates more practical instruction in the production and rhetorical understanding of digital texts; specifically, it provides opportunities for students to learn fundamentals of web writing and design conventions, rules, and procedures. Similarly, Collin Bjork argues that "integrating digital rhetoric with usability testing can help researchers cultivate a more complex understanding of how students, instructors, and interfaces interact in OWI [online writing instruction]". Other scholars focus more on the relationship between digital rhetoric and social impact. Scholars Lori Beth De Hertogh (et al.) and Angela Haas have published materials discussing intersectionality and digital rhetoric, arguing that the two are inseparable and classes covering digital rhetoric must also explore intersectionality. Lauren Malone has also analyzed the relationship between identity and teaching digital rhetoric through research on online engagement of queer and transgender people of color. From this research, Malone created a series of steps for digital rhetoric instructors to take in order to foster inclusivity within their classrooms. Finally, scholar Melanie Kill actively introduces digital rhetoric to college-aged students, arguing for the importance of editing Wikipedia and capitalizing on their privilege of education and access to materials. Similar to De Hertogh (et al.) and Haas, Kill believes an education in digital rhetoric serves all students, as it facilitates positive social change. K–12 Many educational systems are framed so that students actively participate in technological systems as designers of digital rhetoric, not passive users. There are three core goals students have identified for their coursework: building their own digital space, learning all aspects of digital rhetoric (including the theory, technology, and uses), and applying it in their own lives. The ecological system generated by the interactions of students with classmates, digital media, and other individuals is the basis of "interconnected" rhetorical processes and shared digital work. Video games are one avenue through which students learn to design the rhetoric and code underlying their technological systems. Video game use has evolved rapidly since the 1980s, and current video games have been incorporated into education. Scholar Ian Bogost suggests that video games can be utilized in a multitude of subjects to serve as models for studying the non-digital world. Specifically, he notes that video games could be used as an "entry point" into computer science for students who may not have been interested in the field. Games and game technology enhance learning by operating at the "outer and growing edge of a player's competence". Games challenge students at levels that cause frustration but preserve motivation to solve the challenge at this edge. Bogost also notes that video games can be taught as rhetorical and expressive in nature, allowing children to model their experiences through programming. When dissected, the ethics and rhetoric in video games' computational systems is exposed. Analysis of video games as an interactive medium reveals the underlying rhetoric through the performative activity of the player. Recognition of procedural rhetoric through course studies reflects how these mediums can augment politics, advertisement, and information. To help address the rhetoric in video game code, scholar Collin Bjork makes a series of recommendations for integrating digital rhetoric with usability testing in online writing instruction. Some scholars have also identified specific practices for digital rhetoric instruction in pre-collegiate classrooms. As Douglas Eyman points out, students require agency when learning digital rhetoric, meaning instructors designing lessons must allow students to interact with the technology directly and enact change on the design. This is consistent with discoveries by other professors, who claim one of the primary goals of students in a digital rhetoric classroom is to create space for themselves, connections with peers, and deeply understand its significance. These interpersonal connections reflect a "thick correlation between digitalization and empowering pedagogy". Pre-K The United States Government's Office of Educational Technology has emphasized four guiding principles when using technology with early learners: When used appropriately, technology can be a tool for learning. The use of technology should allow for increased access to learning opportunities for all children. Technology can be used to strengthen relationships between children and their families, early educators, and friends. Technology is most effective when early learners are interacting with adults and peers. Adults can also supervise children online for said effectiveness. Despite these four pillars, most studies conclude that learning technology for children under the age of two is not beneficial. At most, technology can be used to promote relationship development for these children; for instance, by using video chat software to connect with loved ones at a distance. Digital rhetoric as a field of study In 2009, rhetorician Elizabeth Losh offered this four-part definition of digital rhetoric in her book Virtualpolitik: The conventions of new digital genres that are used for everyday discourse, as well as for special occasions, in average people's lives. Public rhetoric, often in the form of political messages from government institutions, that is represented or recorded through digital technology and disseminated via electronically distributed networks. The emerging scholarly discipline concerned with the rhetorical interpretation of computer-generated media as objects of study. Mathematical theories of communication from the field of information science, many of which attempt to quantify the amount of uncertainty in a given linguistic exchange or the likely paths through which messages travel. Losh's definition demonstrates that digital rhetoric is a field that relies on different methods to study various types of information, such as code, text, visuals, videos, and so on. Douglas Eyman suggests that classical theories can be mapped onto digital media but a larger academic focus should be placed on the "extension of rhetorical theory". Careers in developing and analyzing the rhetoric in code form a prominent field of study. Computers and Composition, a journal established in 1985, focuses on computer communication and has considered the use of "rhetoric as their conceptual framework" and the digital rhetoric in software development. Studies on how digital rhetoric implicates various topics are ongoing and encompass many fields. In his book, Digital Griots: African American Rhetoric in a Multimedia Age, Adam J. Banks states that modern day storytellers, like stand-up comics and spoken word poets, give African American rhetoric a flexible approach that is still true to tradition. While digital rhetoric can be used to facilitate traditions, select cultures face several practical application issues. Radhika Gajjala, professor at Bowling Green State University, writes that South Asian cyber feminists face issues with regard to building their web presence. Research ethics Writing and rhetoric scholars Heidi McKee and James E. Porter discuss the complicated issue of Internet users posting information publicly on the Internet but expecting the post to be semi-private. This appears contradictory, but socially the Internet is composed of millions of social identities, social groups, social norms, and social influence. These social aspects of the Internet are important to consider when studying digital topics because the digital and non-digital are getting harder to distinguish from one another. A study conducted by Rösner and Krämer in 2016 showed that participants' identities would reflect the norms of these online social groups. Similar to how social groups are seen in an in-person setting, posts on forums, comment sections, and social media are like having a conversation with friends in a public setting. Typically, researchers would not use a conversation heard in public, but an online conversation is not only available to its social group. James Zappen, in his article "Digital Rhetoric: Toward an Integrated Theory", adds that many of these groups foster a creative and collaborative nature to share information to the public. McKee and Porter suggest the use of a casuistic heuristic approach to doing digital research. This method of study is based on focusing on the moral principle of 'do no harm' to the audience and generating needed formulas or diagrams to help guide the researcher when gathering data. It is noted that this method does not provide all the answers. Instead, it is a starting point for the scholar to approach the digital world. More scholars have added their own take to an ethical approach for digital data. Many have a case-based approach with add-on consent from participants (if possible), anonymity to participants, and consideration of what harm could come to the groups being studied. Eyman gives background information on ancient rhetoric going all the way back to Aristotle. The definition of rhetoric provided by the author is accurate. Eyman included illustrations of both conventional and modern rhetoric. Beginning with ancient Greece and the medieval eras, the shift to more modern methods and instances is made. He explains three expression modes: Ethos, Logos, and Pathos. It is crucial to keep in mind that the term "digital" also refers to the physical production of texts, whether they are produced in print or electronically. In rhetorical studies, text can be seen as the medium for persuasive discourse or arguments; however, this tradition is primarily associated with printed texts. 'Electric rhetoric', 'computational rhetoric', and 'technorhetoric' are only a few of the words that were mentioned. Douglas Eyman's Digital Rhetoric: Theory, Method, Practice features a chapter that analyzes the concept of multimodal composition. He details how society's quickly advancing digital technologies have enabled individuals to communicate in unprecedented ways and to an enhanced extent. Different forms of communication, like images, sound, and video, can be applied in tandem with traditional written text to produce compelling and flexible rhetorical messages. Social issues Access Referred to as the digital divide, issues of economic access and user-level access are recurring issues in digital rhetoric. These issues show up most prevalently at the intersection of computers and writing, though the digital divide impacts a multitude of online forums, user bases, and communities. A lack of access can refer to inequality in obtaining information, means of communication, and opportunities. For many that teach digital rhetoric in schools and universities, student access to technologies at home and in school is an operative concern. There is some debate about whether mobile devices like smartphones make technology access more equitable. In addition, the socioeconomic divide that is created due to accessibility is a major factor of digital rhetoric. For instance, Linda Darling-Hammond, an NIH researcher and professor of education at Stanford University, discusses the lack of educational resources that children of color in America face. Further, Angela M. Haas, author of "Wampum as Hypertext: An American Indian Intellectual Tradition of Multimedia Theory and Practice", describes access in a more theoretical way. Her text explains that through access one can connect a physical body with the digital space. Another contributing factor is technology diffusion, which refers to how the market for new technology changes over time, and how that influences technology use and production across society. Studies conducted by scholar Sunil Wattal conclude that technology diffusion mimics social class status. As such, technology diffusion varies from community to community, making it a much greater challenge to ensure access equity across classes. These examples preface the topic that access encompasses every aspect of one's life and must be perceived as such. If accessibility is not resolved at a foundational level, then social discrimination will be further perpetuated. Another issue of access comes in the form of paywalls, which can be a major hindrance for education and reduce accessibility to many educational tools and materials. This practice can increase barriers to scholarship and limit information that is open access. This industry has gotten flack for its long history of monopolizing the publishing market and forcing universities to pay over $11 million annually for access to certain works. Open access removes the barriers of access fees and the restrictions of copyright and licensing, allowing more equal access to works. Open access and digital rhetoric do not eliminate copyright, but they eliminate restrictions by giving authors the choice to maintain their right to copy and distribute their materials however they choose, or turn the rights over to a specific journal. Digital rhetoric involves works that are found online and open access is allowing more people to be able to reach these works. Politics The increased digitalization of media has amplified the influence of digital rhetoric in politics, as it introduces a more direct relationship between politicians and citizens. Digital communication platforms and social networking sites allow citizens to share information and engage in debate with other people of similar or distinct political ideologies, which have been shown to influence and predict the political behavior of individuals outside the digital world. Some politicians have used digital rhetoric as a persuasive tool to communicate information to citizens. Reciprocally, digital rhetoric has enabled increasing political participation among citizens. Theoretical research on digital rhetoric in politics has attributed the increase of political participation to three models: the motivation model, the learning model, and the attitude model. The motivation model proposes that digital rhetoric has decreased the opportunity costs of participating in politics since it makes information readily available to the people. The learning model established the increase in political participation to the vast amount of political information available on the Internet which increases the inclusion of the citizens in the political process. The attitude model extended from the previous two by suggesting that digital rhetoric has changed the perception of citizens towards politics, particularly by providing interactive tools that allow people to engage in the political process. Online harassment Online harassment has, over time, become an increasingly concerning and persistent issue, especially on social media. Analysis linked cyberbullying-specific behaviors, including perpetration and victimization, to a number of detrimental psychosocial outcomes. The trend of people posting about their characters and lifestyles reinforces stereotypes (such as "hillbillies"), an outcome based on the fact that the rhetoric of difference is a naturalized component of the ethnic and racial identity. Due to limits on the number of characters available to convey a message (for example, Twitter's 280-character limit), messages in digital rhetoric tend to be scarcely explained, allowing stereotypes to flourish. Erika Sparby theorized that anonymity and use pseudonyms or avatars on social media gives users more confidence to address someone or something negatively. In 2005, these issues led to the launch of the first cyberbullying prevention campaign: STOMP Out Bullying. Like the abundance of campaigns that would form in the next fifteen years, it focuses on creating cyberbullying awareness and reducing and preventing bullying. The challenge of bullying within social media has increased following the rise of "cancel culture", which aims to end the career of a culprit through any means possible, mainly the boycott of their works. More recently, techniques utilizing machine learning and artificial intelligence have become popular in synthesizing deepfakes: realistic but fake videos of people whose faces are swapped out with other people's faces. These kinds of videos can be created by easily obtainable and simple software, inciting concerns that people may use the software to blackmail or bully people online. A large quantity of images containing faces are required to create a deepfake. In addition, specific types of characteristics, such as different exposure and color levels, need to be consistent to make a realistic video. However, given the vast amounts of photos of people publicly available on the Internet from social media sites, there is concern about the extent to which people can use deepfakes as a bullying tactic. There have already been multiple incidents of this kind of harassment being used to bully people, one notable one involving a mother who used deepfake software to frame a few of her daughter's classmates at school by producing fake videos of them in pornographic videos. Due to machine learning and artificial intelligence being relatively new subfields of computer science and mathematics, there has not been enough time for deepfake video detection technologies to mature, and so far are only detectable using the human eye to spot irregularities in movement of the people in the videos. Misinformation and disinformation While digital rhetoric can often be used to persuade, in some cases it is used to spread false and inaccurate information. The proliferation of illegitimate information over the Internet has given rise to the term misinformation, which is defined as the spread of false claims that may or may not be intended to mislead others. This is not to be confused with disinformation, which is illegitimate or inaccurate information that is spread with the intent to mislead others. Both misinformation and disinformation have detrimental impacts on the knowledge, perceptions, and, in some cases, actions of susceptible individuals. Social media specifically has greatly impacted the spread of false information. Scientific facts, such as the damaging environmental impacts of climate change, now come into question on a daily basis. Social media has contributed to the proliferation of misinformation/disinformation because of its viral and largely unfiltered nature. Everyday users have the power to join and perpetuate a narrative that could be entirely false. In recent years, the term "fake news"—used synonymously with misinformation—has been highly popularized and politicized in digital spaces. The effects of misinformation were further on display during the 2020 United States presidential election, where social media usage had an impact on Congress. Starting as early as April 2020, then-President Donald Trump tweeted about the dangers of widespread mail voting fraud even though studies have shown that mail voting fraud is rare and the dangers are negligible. Even after losing the election, Trump continued to use Twitter as his main platform to speak about rigged elections, mail-in voter fraud, and other proven falsehoods. On January 6, 2021, Congress was set to certify the results of the 2020 election whilst a rally of Trump supporters were protesting the election results based on Trump's claims of fraud. This assembly of his supporters quickly turned violent, as a mob stormed the Capitol with the intent to overturn election results. The insurrection, which killed five people, was the culmination of Trump's long thread of disinformation spread on social media. As a result, Trump was permanently suspended from Twitter two days later because his involvement in the insurrection violated Twitter's terms and conditions regarding the "glorification of violence". He was also suspended from other major social media sites such as Facebook and YouTube. This incident started a heated debate about social media companies' abilities to limit free speech; ultimately, these companies are still private businesses who are allowed to determine their own terms and conditions as they see fit, which users must agree to in order to use these platforms in the first place. Legitimacy There is controversy regarding the innovative nature of digital rhetoric. Arguments opposed to legitimizing web text are Platonically based, in that they reject the new form of scholarship (web text) and praise the old form (print) in the same way that oral communication was originally favored over written communication. Originally some traditionalists did not regard online open access journals with the same legitimacy as print journals for this reason; however, digital arenas have become the primary place for disseminating academic information in many areas of scholarship. Modern scholars struggle to "claim academic legitimacy" in these new media forms, as the tendency of pedagogy is to write about a subject rather than actively work in it. Within the past decade, more scholarly texts have been openly accessible, which provides an innovative way for students to gain access to textual materials online for free, in the way that many scholarly journals like Kairos, Harlot of the Arts, and Enculturation are already available through open access. COVID-19 pandemic The persistence of the global COVID-19 pandemic has changed both physical and digital spaces. The resulting isolation and economic shutdowns complicated existing issues and created a new set of globalized challenges as it "imposed" a change to the "psychosocial environment". The pandemic has forced the majority of individuals with Internet access to depend on technology in order to remain connected to the outside world, and on a larger scale, global economies have become reliant on transitioning business to digital platforms. Additionally, the pandemic forced schools across the globe to switch to an 'online only' approach. By March 25, 2020, all school systems in the United States closed indefinitely. In search of a platform to host online learning, many schools incorporated popular video chat service Zoom as their method of providing socially distant instruction. In April 2020, Zoom was hosting over 300 million daily meetings, as opposed to 10 million in December 2019. While some may view online learning as a drop in education quality, the shift to online learning demonstrated the current state of accessibility to digital information while promoting the use of digital learning through Zoom meetings, YouTube videos, and broadcasting systems such as Open Broadcaster Software. Still, it is questioned whether or not the switch to online learning has had detrimental impacts on students. In particular, it has been difficult to transition younger students to completely online models of learning. The pandemic has also contributed to creating misleading rhetoric in online spaces. Heightened public health concerns combined with the accessibility of social media led to the rapid spread of both misinformation and disinformation regarding COVID-19. Some people online theorized that the deadly virus could be cured by the ingestion of bleach, while others believed the disease to have been intentionally started by China in an attempt to take over the world. Trump also supported taking hydroxychloroquine to prevent the contraction of COVID-19. The World Health Organization (WHO) has advised on numerous occasions that the drug has no signs of preventing the spread of the virus. Despite their illegitimate nature, these conspiracy theories have spread rapidly in digital spaces. As a result, WHO declared the proliferation of misinformation regarding the virus an "infodemic". In response, many social media sites to strengthen their policies relating to false information, but many misleading claims still find their way online. See also Composition studies Computer-mediated communication Digital humanities Digital literacy Digital media Hypermedia Internet studies Media studies Technological convergence Feminist technoscience Technofeminism References Communication studies Digital humanities Internet culture Rhetoric	0.768697	0.973492	0.74832
Delegative democracy	In political science, delegative democracy is a mode of governance close to Caesarism, Bonapartism or caudillismo with a strong leader in a newly created otherwise democratic government. The concept arose from Argentinian political scientist Guillermo O'Donnell, who notes that representative democracy as it exists is usually linked solely to highly developed capitalist countries. However, newly installed democracies do not seem to be on a path of becoming fully representative democracies, and instead exhibit authoritarian tendencies. O'Donnell calls the former delegative democracies, for they are not fully consolidated democracies but may be enduring. For a representative democracy to exist, there must be an important interaction effect. The successful cases have featured a decisive coalition of broadly supported political leaders who take great care in creating and strengthening democratic political institutions. By contrast, the delegative form is partially democratic, for the president has a free rein to act and justify his or her acts in the name of the people. The president can "govern as he sees fit" even if it does not resemble promises made while running for election. The president claims to represent the whole nation rather than just a political party, embodying even the legislature and the judiciary. O'Donnell's notion of delegative democracy has been criticized as being misleading, because he renders the delegative model that is core to many current democratic governments worldwide into a negative concept. Comparing and understanding delegative democracy Delegative Democracy has found its way to some of the largest countries in the world and some of these being post-communist. These countries include Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, the Philippines, and Korea. When looking at these countries and others, it is evident that delegative democracies are not institutionalized as they are the midpoint between authoritarianism and representative democracy. When looking at authoritarianism, authoritarianism is a type of government that focuses on strong centralized powers, leaving the population to having limited political freedoms. Authoritarianism is seen as having four main qualities of limited political pluralism, political legitimacy based on lawmakers and politicians appealing to emotion, minimal mobilization within the political sphere and the suppression of anti-regime activities, and finally loosely defined executive powers that can lead to dictatorships at times. Representative democracy, on the other hand, is a type of government that is founded on democracy, based on elected officials that represent the governing body. Within a representative democracy, the power for the representatives is backed by a constitution or other factors to balance the representative power, such as independent judiciaries, deliberative democracy, and a bicameral legislature. Delegative democracies are also described as defective democracies. The characteristics of a delegative democracy are that it undermines the idea of separation of powers (checks and balances). This is due to the fact that in the delegative democracy, the Executive branch holds dominant power, as the legislative and judicial branches of government (mainly the legislative) do not hold the ability to "check and balance" the Executive branch. Delegative democracy due to cycles Delegative democracies are able to prosper in their respective areas due to the fact that there is a specific social and economic crisis that allows those in charge to go about the exercise of their authority. When looking at the history of delegative democracies, it is seen that they are typically set into place after an authoritarian ruling. The timing after this ruling and establishment of a democratic-based government is known as the "second transition". This is moving from a democratically elected government to a democratic regime, also known as an institutionalized democracy. During this "second transition", new democracies can become autocracies again. The main element for determining what occurs during the second transition is the governmental policies and the political strategy. When the people see the success of these institutions that specifically support social and economic problems, delegative democracy prevails. This is what occurs in Spain. The overall idea of delegative democracy as a whole is spun from Robert Dahl's definition of polyarchy. When an individual is elected within a delegative democracy, they are able to govern the country as they see fit. Some of these individuals include Indira Gandhi, Corazon Aquino, and Isabel Perón). The president is representative of the nation and their actions are said to represent the needs of the whole nation. Their actions are not party-affiliated and in fact, puts themselves above all parties. Unlike democratic republics like the United States who has Congress and the judiciary, accountability is put all on the president instead of other institutions. Although delegative democracy focuses power on one leader, it shares democratic traditions in terms of allowing the majority to win. Problems Although some delegative democracies have been successful, there have been failures due to them falling into a pervasive cycle of unhappiness felt by those that are being governed. Although the large social and economic problems are what allows these presidents to set the platform of their party, it is also what allows them to receive a free pass from the electorate. Delegative democracy is all about the second phase of the democratic cycle. When this cycle is hindered by a lack of economic and social growth, conditions therefore tend to be unfavorable for the political leader. According to Guillermo O’Donnell, "voters are supposed to choose, irrespective of their identities and affiliations, the individual who is most fit to take responsibility of the country… after the election, voters or delegators are expected to become passive, but cheering audience of what the president does". In this sense, voters and the population have their main say in government while they are voting, but once the president is elected, the system reduces their power in terms of freedom of expression. Case studies Colombia During his period of reign from 2002 to 2010, Colombia president Alvaro Uribe focused all of his power in the executive branch to shift his country towards a delegative democracy. As seen in the examples above, there are times when a delegative democracy can lead to the weakening of institutions, proving to be an endless cycle of political turmoil. Colombia represents an interesting case of overall changes after a delegative democracy is institutionalized through leaders such as Juan Manuel. When looking at Colombia from 2002 to 2010, they were exhibiting a lack of checks and balances due to horizontal accountability where the governmental agencies serve the checks and balances. Various government agencies were not progressive towards people's needs. During Uribe's presidency, his first project was staging a national referendum that focused on establishing a unicameral congress. On top of that, Uribe and his inner group attempted to minimize those that were against this ruling. Credible members of political organizations were removed due to the questioning of his administration. These attacks on key institutions within Colombia represented a large issue in Uribe's governing style in the undermining of the institutionalization of democracy. Uribe and his policies became known as "uribismo". "Uribismo" is what deteriorated the country's capacity for accountability between governmental offices. Uribismo ideas were mainly backed by the "U" Party and the Radical Change Party. Evident in all of these issues that Uribismo caused, delegative democracy leaders have a lack of qualifications but due to the viewpoints of the people, it justifies their authoritarian behavior. Argentina Christopher Larkins argues that due to the impact of the 1980's crisis, delegative democracy (in the sense of O'Donnell) originated in Argentina. The economic crisis was used to justify a centralization of executive authority which began with Raúl Alfonsín's administration and continued with Carlos Saul Menem ascending to the presidency. Larkin's arguments exemplify political outtakes on delegative democracy. One of the largest examples of a Delegative democracy in Argentina. Argentina has seen large success in its delegative democracy due to the vertical accountability that is in place. Vertical accountability is when civilians can enforce the performance of those that are in charge. Horizontal accountability, on the other hand, is when only the government is able to hold itself accountable, leading to check abuses by public agencies. When looking at what transpired in Argentina specifically, the death of Alberto Nisman under the rule of President Fernández led to the foundation of delegative democracy. Fernández was able to dissolve the Secretariat of Intelligence and replace it with her new Federal Intelligence Agency. This ruling became a foundation for delegative democracy. Fernandez also released the Central Bank Chief, Martin Redrado, after he failed to comply with the orders that she instilled. Institutional Revolutionary Party The Institutional Revolutionary Party (Spanish: Partido Revolucionario Institucional, PRI) in Mexico is an example of a party that led to a rise of delegative democracy within a country. The PRI came into power in 1929 with the help of Plutarco Elías Calles, a Mexican general and politician. Prior to the rise of the PRI, the country was plagued with political conflict and turmoil due to the assassination of President-elect Álvaro Obregón in 1928. One of the renowned symbols of the PRI is the dedazo (termed from the word dedo - finger). This symbolized the idea that the current president would pass down the title to whoever they "pointed the finger" to. This process alone shows why delegative democracy takes away the ideas of separation of powers as the democratic process in the people electing their officials is removed. In addition, instead of being checked and balanced by other branches, the president had a select group of cabinet advisers that consisted of at least three individuals extremely close to the president. In 1988, the PRI slowly began to dissolve after multiple progression and the breaking out of the parties "Democratic Current" with Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas (former Governor of Michoacán and son of the former president of Mexico Lázaro Cárdenas). Russian Federation Russia's electoral law stipulates that half of all parliamentarians must come from voting on party lists, which aims to encourage the formation of political parties. In order to look for political partners and confront skeptical voters, parties must focus on introducing legislation, public opinion campaigns and political education. The parliamentarians, while democratically elected, use their democratic legitimacy to justify authoritarian behavior. See also Managed democracy Delegate model of representation Anocracy References Democracy	0.77533	0.965104	0.748274
The Public and Its Problems	The Public and Its Problems is a 1927 book by American philosopher John Dewey. In his first major work on political philosophy, Dewey explores the viability and creation of a genuinely democratic society in the face of the major technological and social changes of the 20th century, and seeks to better define what both the 'public' and the 'state' constitute, how they are created, and their major weaknesses in understanding and propagating their own interests and the public good. Dewey rejects a then-popular notion of political technocracy as an alternative system of governing an increasingly complex society, but rather sees democracy as the most viable and sustainable means to achieving the public interest, albeit a flawed and routinely subverted one. He contends that democracy is an ethos and an ongoing project that requires constant public vigilance and engagement to be effective, rather than merely a set of institutional arrangements, an argument he would later expand upon most influentially in his essay "Creative Democracy: The Task Before Us". The Public and its Problems is a major contribution on pragmatism in political philosophy and continued to promote discussion and debate long after its publication. Background The Public and its Problems was Dewey's first major work concerned exclusively with political philosophy, though he had both commented and written on politics frequently for much of his career, and made forays into the subject as it related to education in Democracy and Education in 1916, and would go on to publish numerous works on the subject, including Individualism: Old and New (1930) and Liberalism and Social Action (1935) and Freedom and Culture (1939). Dewey was an ardent democrat who while still at university in 1888 had contended "Democracy and the one, ultimate, ethical ideal of humanity are to my mind synonymous." Dewey was moved to write in defence of democracy in the wake of two widely read and influential works written by journalist Walter Lippmann in the 1920s which echoed a rising intellectual trend both in the United States and Europe that was critical of the potential for self-governing democratic societies. In the first, Public Opinion (1922), Lippman contends that public opinion suffers from two major problems – that regular citizens have insufficient access to or interest in the facts of their environment, and that what information they receive is heavily distorted by cognitive biases, manipulation by the media, inadequate expertise and cultural norms. Lippmann contends that citizens construct a pseudo-environment that is a subjective, biased, and necessarily abridged mental image of the world, and to a degree, everyone's pseudo-environment is a fiction. Subsequently, because of the near impossibility of developing an adequately informed public that a democracy requires to make effective public policy in a world of increasingly complex policy problems, Lippmann contends that a technocratic elite is better placed to work for the public interest without necessarily undermining the notion of consent of the governed. Lippmann expanded upon his critiques of democracy and the public as an illusory and often dangerous force in The Phantom Public (1925), contending famously that "the public must be put in its place...so that each of us may live free of the trampling and the roar of a bewildered herd." He dismisses the notion of the existence of "the public" as used in democratic theory, and advances again a notion that elites are the only force capable of effectively achieving something akin to the 'public interest' in practice. Dewey saw Lippmann's work as "perhaps the most effective indictment of democracy as currently conceived ever penned" but felt compelled to come to the defence of democratic theory and to reject what he saw as argumentation on the part of Lippman that was particularly doctrinaire and absolutist in its judgements, and saw his own philosophical pragmatism as a means by which a more accurate and realistic conception of what the public and democracy was capable of it, and its limitations. The spirit of Lippmann's critique of democracy was not new to Dewey. One of his first essays, "The Ethics of Democracy," was a response to the jurist and historian Sir Henry Maine, whose Popular Government anticipated many of Lippmann's critique. Written in 1888 at the age of twenty-nine, "The Ethics of Democracy" was Dewey's first defence of democracy, one that can be read as a direct predecessor of The Public and Its Problems. Overview Part I: Origins of the Public, Society, and "The State" Dewey opens with a critique of abstract accounts of the state’s origins — be it the Aristotelian idea that man is a political animal or social contract theories – which, he argues, devolve into "mythology" and "story-telling." Instead, Dewey thinks of the state as a way to respond to human actions and their consequences: “We take our point of departure from the objective fact that human actions have consequences upon others, that some of these consequences are perceived, and that their perception leads to subsequent effort to control action so as to secure some consequences and avoid others.” Certain actions merely affect the parties involved in a specific exchange, transaction, or arrangement; but others affect people with no direct involvement in the action itself. For Dewey, this distinction between direct and indirect consequences underpins the public-private distinction: “The public consists of all those who are affected by the indirect consequences of transactions to such an extent that it is deemed necessary to have those consequences systematically cared for.” There, Dewey argues, lies the nature and office of the state. The res publica, or commonwealth, is the aggregation of the funds, buildings, and institutions required to manage the consequences of actions that affect the public at large. Dewey criticizes aggregative theorists who believe that there exists a collective, impersonal “public will.” As he puts it, “when the public or state is involved in making social arrangements like passing laws, enforcing a contract, conferring a franchise, it still acts through concrete persons.” In this sense, the relevant difference is not between individual wills and what Rousseau calls the "general will," but between actions performed as private citizens, and actions performed in positions of public authority. Any viable theory of the state needs to proceed from the realization that individual actions – done in positions of authority – are required to counterbalance other individual actions – done in private, but with indirect consequences on the public. These individual actions can only be understood in their socio-cultural context. Theorists must neither forget that the state is an aggregation of concrete persons doing concrete things, nor claim that individual actions are independent from one another. As Dewey puts it, "singular things act, but they act together." In particular, political actions necessarily carry a collective dimension, for they are analysed in terms of the consequences upon the public (i.e. others). Going further, Dewey argues that the content of our thoughts and actions is shaped by our associations – political or otherwise. In a well-known passage, he writes: “While singular beings in their singularity think, want and decide, what they think and strive for, the content of their beliefs and intentions is a subject-matter provided by association. Thus man is not merely de facto associated, but he becomes a social animal in the make-up of his ideas, sentiments and deliberate behavior. What he believes, hopes for and aims at is the outcome of association and intercourse.” For Dewey, political associations can be judged according to two distinct criteria: the degree to which the public is organized as an efficient means of collective action, and the degree to which the state — which regulates public affairs — is constituted in a way that serves the interests of the public itself. In this sense, the state as an organization “is equivalent to the equipment of the public with official representatives to care for the interests of the public.” Dewey accepts that the public-private distinction has evolved over time. For instance, he cites the transition from England’s feudal order, in which local lords imposed private forms of justice upon the public, to the establishment of the state’s monopoly of justice, which transferred the judiciary power to distinctly public courts. Similarly, Dewey notes the gradual relegation of religion, once a matter of public concern, to the private sphere. No matter where the line between public and private is drawn, however, Dewey concludes that “the only constant is the function of caring for and regulating the interests which accrue as the result of the complex indirect expansion and radiation of conjoint behaviour." In other words, the increasing scale and complexity of human associations creates a need to coordinate widely distributed indirect consequences, a need that the state is to address. Dewey provides a wide array of criteria to determine whether consequences should be of sufficient importance to concern the state. First are consequences that are far-reaching in time or space — e.g. harmful cultural or economic practices that harm a specific group on a large scale. Second are consequences that affect the most vulnerable (e.g. children). Third are consequences that are recurrent, repeated, systematic, or ingrained in people’s habits. Focusing on the third kind of consequence — which can and does overlap with the first two — allows the state to focus on patterns of behaviour that shape society at large. Nevertheless, Dewey argues that the state’s regulatory focus on the recurrent and the habitual creates an implicit status quo bias. By organizing itself to regulate the indirect consequences of human behaviour, the state relies upon a set of institutions, formal and informal, that are reluctant to accept fundamental change. For Dewey, innovations will thus never come from the state itself: “The most we can ask of the state, judging from states which have so far existed, is that it put up with their production by private individuals without undue meddling.” Part II: Democratic Needs and the Public For Dewey, whether elected in a democracy or not, the state’s officers claim to represent the public. But they remain individuals with their own private interests — many of which are tied to their class, family, and so on. In this sense, the only difference between a “representative” government and other types of government is that the public is organized to secure its own dominance over private interests. Most rulers in history obtained their power ipso facto, by accident or conquest, on the basis of largely arbitrary factors such as military ability, age, or lineage. In non-democratic systems, after the establishment of power-structures, “custom consolidates what accident has originated” and “established power legitimizes itself." In this sense, democracy marks an exception in the course of human events, for its distinctively political character lies in the way in which it selects its public officials, as well as the way it keeps them in check. Dewey argues that the origins of democracy have little to do with democratic ideals and theories, and much to do with a series of “religious, scientific and economic changes” that reshaped politics. The development of science accompanied the decline of ecclesiastical authority as the rise of mercantilism externalized the power of the nobility to an ascending class of bourgeois merchants. Dewey argues that while ideals such as freedom presented themselves as ends to be attained for their own sake, early-democratic theories rationalized a strictly negative desire to do away with crumbling institutions. From these trends emerged a general distrust of authority, a fear of government and a desire to elevate individual autonomy. For Dewey, this desire to escape from deficient forms of association was manifest in all areas of life. From Descartes’s theory of knowledge to John Locke’s political philosophy, all appealed to the self as "the court of ultimate resort." This individualist ethos also served the rising world of commerce that Adam Smith defends in his Wealth of Nations, which places the individual and its desires at the centre of all economic transactions. For Dewey, where most pre-modern states made a mockery of the public-private distinction, liberal democracies fear the state and its encroachments upon the lives of individuals. Popular election of officials, short terms of office, frequent elections, all are attempts to restrict the scope and power of government. Elections align the interests of public officials as private citizens and the interests of the public at large; as for short terms, they allow the people to hold officeholders accountable on a regular basis. Dewey argues that this individualistic ethos is neither necessary nor desirable for democracies to thrive. He recognizes that the convergence of individualism and democracy made sense in the 18th century, but argues that its premises were inaccurate then and now. First, Dewey criticizes the idea that there ever existed a pre-political state of nature, that we possess natural rights independently of human associations, and that we can ever exist without collective attachments. Second, he points to a shift that makes individualism even less appropriate now than it was in the 18th century. Then, Dewey argues, human beings had mostly "face-to-face" interactions that helped perpetuate the illusion that human associations operated between independent individuals. Now, our interactions have become more impersonal and indirect. Our economic and political lives are controlled by institutions which we cannot see, people whom we have never met, and forces beyond our control. Dewey writes that "the Great Society created by steam and electricity may be a society, but it is no community. The invasion of the community by the new and relatively impersonal and mechanical modes of combined human behavior is the outstanding fact of modern life." For Dewey, the emancipatory desire that led to the rise of individualism destroyed communal bonds while liberating people from deficient institutions. In other words, the moderns discovered the individual by forgetting the community. But as modern life becomes more and more impersonal, the disappearance of a properly organized public and the artifice of individualism will continue to be on full display. Further, the displacement of the political by economic forces calls into question the extreme fear of the state that early-liberal democratic theorists embraced. While some expected the market to liberate people from oppression, Dewey argues, market-structures have created their own problems – as he puts it, "the same forces which have brought about the forms of democratic government, general suffrage, executives and legislators chosen by majority vote, have also brought about conditions which halt the social and humane ideals that demand the utilization of government as the genuine instrumentality of an inclusive and fraternally associated public." More specifically, Dewey focuses upon the fact that the democratic public remains unorganized. Analysing the evolution of democracy in America, Dewey laments the abandonment of the localism that characterized early-American townships. Then, American democracy articulated itself around communal life on a small scale. Neighbourly sociability facilitated the formation of an organized public, which assembled at regular township meetings. People knew one another, knew their leaders, and knew the immediate issues facing the town. The problem, Dewey continues, is that while America's foundations were resolutely localist, its present administration is not. Politically and otherwise, America has become a nation-state whose institutions are patched together in an ad hoc way. Where Plato and Rousseau believed that states could not exist on a large-scale, modern technologies – railway networks, interdependence, newspapers, telegraphs, etc. — have made personal acquaintance irrelevant in the political process. For Dewey, institutions have struggled to keep up with this gradual centralization that industrial transformations both enabled and required. Centralization created social and intellectual uniformity, both of which, Dewey argue, breed mediocrity. The centralization of information-gathering and narrative-setting has also regimented public opinion, which finds itself shaped by a series of newspapers and external influences. The administrative state has grown, as has the power and influence of large-scale businesses. In all these respects, the public as a coherent unit has been fragmented, eclipsed, and lost. Dewey considers the fact that fewer and fewer people exercise their right to vote deeply symbolic – for this abdication mirrors the disappearance of the public as a community that controls democratic life. As Dewey puts it, "the machine age has so enormously expanded, multiplied, intensified and complicated the scope of the indirect consequences, have formed such immense and consolidated unions in action, on an impersonal rather than a community basis, that the resultant public cannot identify and distinguish itself." Dewey links the two phenomena by arguing that a public is only capable of organizing itself when the consequences of indirect actions are clearly perceived, and when the causes of indirect actions are clearly identifiable. But in a world of ever-increasing complexity and opacity, indirect consequences are felt rather than perceived, their causes are obscure, and the public thus remains amorphous. Worse still, Dewey argues, instead of questioning the abandonment of localism and the disappearance of an organized public, theorists focus upon the need for non-democratic experts. While Dewey appreciates the need for experts in modern societies, he rejects the idea that technocracy is the panacea for modern ills. For Dewey, the fact of mass-depoliticization is not an inescapable result of modern industrial life, but a choice that can be altered. Part III: Democracy Depends on Education, Effective Communication, and Decentralized Localism Dewey seeks to re-organize the public by linking democracy as a system of government — that is, as a way to choose leaders and organize institutions — and democracy as a way of life. As Dewey puts it, “the idea of democracy is a wider and fuller idea than can be exemplified in the state even at its best; to be realized it must affect all modes of human association, the family, the school, industry, religion." In other words, democracy must shape the lives of people, educate them as citizens, and make them play an integral role in the political process. Rejecting conventional forms of large-scale representative democracy, Dewey advocates smaller-scale, participatory models in which citizens and communities shape every political process. For Dewey, the main difficulty lies in the reconstitution of a public that is a meaningful community — as opposed to a scattered set of atomized individuals. To do so, he claims, democracy must become community life itself, that is, it must become a communal attachment that is as significant to people as their family or their faith. To reinstate this sense of community is to establish what Dewey calls “the clear consciousness of a communal life.” Where modern life abstracts politics away, Dewey defends the development of a real sense of fraternity, without which none of the benefits of democracy can be achieved. For him, true democracies must convert organic and disorganized forms of associative behaviour into real communities of action united by common symbols, concerns, interests, and problems. Dewey then lists two requirements for this new form of democracy to emerge. First is the universalization of the kind of education that equips citizens with the ability to participate in political affairs. Where Walter Lippmann dismissed the idea of the “omnicompetent individual” as a fiction perpetuated by naïve theorists, Dewey argues that it is both possible and necessary to cultivate faculties of effectual observation and reflection in everyone. Such are habits, cultural norms, and values around which democratic institutions — within and beyond the state — should organize themselves. As Dewey puts it, “habit is the mainspring of human action, and habits are formed for the most part under the influence of the customs of a group.” Just as the status quo cultivates short attention-lifespans, insatiability, and depoliticization, Dewey believes that we can cultivate the necessary qualities of democratic life. Dewey does not neglect the role of expertise and science; nor does he claim that ordinary citizens will ever be able to understand complex scientific questions as well as experts. But he does claim that the public can be educated enough to understand the indirect consequences that scientists are trying to address — to an extent that is sufficient for expertise not to become a barrier to true democracy. Dewey’s second requirement for democracy as a way of life is the proper dissemination of information. He criticizes conformism and censorship, thereby arguing that the circulation of facts and ideas should be facilitated. Dewey claims that censorship and conformism tend to be weaponized by those in power, which makes intellectual innovation necessary for democratic equality to persist. He then argues that the eclipse of interdisciplinary work in academia, as well as the centralization of information-gathering in journalism, have both negatively impacted democratic norms — Dewey proposes to reverse both these trends. More broadly, all of Dewey’s proposals seek to make genuine communication of facts and ideas possible. As he puts it, “communication of the results of social inquiry is the same thing as the formation of public opinion.” In other words, by facilitating the dissemination of facts and ideas, democracies encourage the organization of the public into a coherent political force. Dewey’s third requirement is some degree of localism. As aforementioned, Dewey laments the end of face-to-face interactions, which allowed communal bonds to form more easily. While Dewey does not advocate the fragmentation of the nation-state, he does insist upon the importance of local associations. Since local interactions are most direct, they shape human beings in important ways, and often serve as a blueprint for large-scale associations. In this sense, the revitalization of the public as a cohesive entity will necessarily start at the local level. All these proposals serve a single goal: To turn the apathy of the “Great Society" into a meaningful "Great Community.” Reception and influence The main innovation of The Public and Its Problems is to present a vision of democracy not merely as a tool of political legitimacy or as a way to organize political systems, but as a way of life and an ethos. By affirming that democracies ought to cultivate certain virtues and habits in the citizenry, Dewey seems to be proposing a more illiberal conception of democracy than that of classical liberal theorists – in that Dewey's conception of democracy blurs the public-private distinction by requiring the development of democratic habits. As Melvin L. Rogers puts it, "Dewey is critical of the extent to which classical liberalism, with its atomistic psychology, narrow understanding of individuality, and limited role for the state, undermines the communal dimension of democracy." Siding with the likes of L. T. Hobhouse and W. E. B. Du Bois, Dewey stands ready to combat economic deprivations and political exclusions by restricting individual autonomy. In this sense, Dewey belongs to what L. T. Hobhouse calls "new liberalism." Where classical liberals separate the individual sphere of action from the public sphere at large, new liberals try to find the right balance between the two. Like Hobhouse, Dewey retains the classical liberal aspiration to emancipate individuals and free their potential. Unlike most classical liberals, however, Dewey does not bracket the question of the good life to build political institutions. He takes the flourishing of life to require certain pre-conditions, and seeks to use the state to ensure that these pre-conditions are met. The Public and Its Problems follows this approach by defending the cultivation of a participatory, democratic ethos in all spheres of life. Whether Dewey's communitarian bent makes his conception of democracy incompatible with liberalism is a matter of scholarly debate. On the one hand, Dewey belongs to a pluralist tradition that views the individual as the intersecting fusion of diverse social groups and overlapping associations – including the state itself. In this sense, Dewey's liberalism follows the likes of Arthur Bentley, Ernest Barker and Mary Parker Follett. On the other hand, by arguing that proper democracy requires the cultivation of certain personal qualities in all spheres of life, Dewey departs from the kind of liberal neutrality that some associate with John Rawls. Robert B. Talisse, for instance, argues that Dewey's conception of democracy as a way of life is incompatible with genuine pluralism. Talisse claims that Dewey's conception of democracy imposes a specific vision of good onto others, thereby relinquishing the pluralist aspirations of liberalism. Joshua Forstenzer has replied to Talisse's objection by holding that Deweyan democracy relies upon only a "thin" definition of the good – as opposed to a robust, comprehensive doctrine. For Forstenzer, no political system can ever be neutral vis-à-vis substantive definitions of the good; on his view, Deweyan democracy may invite the cultivation of certain democratic virtues, but it remains sufficiently broad for people of diverse backgrounds, faiths, and cultural traditions to live according to their own principles — to a large extent at least. Similarly, Shane J. Ralston argues that Deweyan democracy and pluralism are entirely compatible. More specifically, Ralston claims that Dewey offers a set of pluralist procedures that allow democracy as a way of life to include a robust respect of value-diversity, illustrating her argument with a real-life case studies. More broadly, The Public and Its Problems has been put in dialogue with a variety of historical and contemporary political theorists. In his pluralist critique of Dewey, Talisse compares Dewey's communitarian bent with Michael Sandel's civic republicanism, later mobilising Rawls and Isaiah Berlin to argue against both. Both Melvin L. Rogers and Shane J. Ralston claim that the second and third chapters of The Public and Its Problems flirt with both deliberative and participatory conceptions of democracy. For Rogers, Dewey ties the very idea of representation to deliberation among the citizenry, a connection that contemporary theorists of deliberation à la Hélène Landemore also defend. Lastly, Naoko Saito has put Dewey in dialogue with Henry David Thoreau and Stanley Cavell to compare their competing conceptions of democracy as a way of life. Notes References Asen, Robert. "The Multiple Mr. Dewey: Multiple Publics and Permeable Borders in John Dewey's Theory of the Public Sphere." Argumentation and Advocacy 39 (2003). Bybee, Carl. "Can Democracy Survive in the Post-Factual Age?" Journalism and Communication Monographs 1:1 (Spring 1999): 29–62 Dewey, John. (1927). The Public and its Problems. New York: Holt. External links Archive.org Source of Text 1927 non-fiction books American political philosophy literature Political books Henry Holt and Company books	0.771884	0.969404	0.748267
Instrumental Marxism	Instrumental Marxism, or elite model, is a theory which reasons that policy makers in government and positions of power tend to "share a common business or class background, and that their decisions will reflect their business or class interests". It perceives the role of the state as more personal than impersonal, where actions such as nepotism and favoritism are common among those in power, and as a result of this, the shared backgrounds between the economic elite and the state elite are discernible. The theory argues that due to the high concentration of wealth within the State that the actions of State actors seek to secure and increase their wealth by passing policies that benefit the economically superior class. It is also noted that businessmen-become-politicians who have a say in policy making “are not very likely, all the same, to find much merit in policies which appear to run counter to what they conceive to be in the interests of business.” Instrumental Marxism tends to view the state and law as ultimately an instrument or tool for individuals of the economically dominant class to use for their own purposes, particularly maintaining economic exploitation while promoting ideological assent to their hegemony. Instrumental Marxism is contrasted with structural Marxism, which views the class background of policymakers and so on as purely incidental to the "bourgeois" nature of the modern state, which is seen instead as a result of the position of the state and law in the objective structure of capitalist society and their objective (i.e. consciousness-independent) function of reproducing the relations of production and private property regardless of the class background of the individuals involved in the administration thereof. For example, whereas for instrumentalist Marxists the formal equality of contract law in capitalist societies is a kind of ideological shell or mystification used by the elite to conceal the real kernel of exploitation, for structural Marxists that formal legal equality is itself the real normative basis for properly capitalist exploitation, whether or not elites understand it as such as it allows labour-power to be traded at its real exchange-value (though not the value of its product), thus making regularity and rational allocation in labour markets possible. However, Miliband acknowledges that "there are ‘structural constraints which no government, whatever its complexion, wishes, and promises, can ignore or evade." In the framework of the structure and agency debate in sociology, Instrumental Marxism is an agent-centred view emphasizing the decisions of policymakers, where the relevant agents are either individual elites, a section of the ruling class, or the class as a whole whereas structural Marxism is a structural view in which individuals are no more than the bearers of certain objective structural relations. The British sociologist and Marxist author Ralph Miliband is often considered the main proponent of this theory, however some dispute this. Miliband's proposal of a Marxist theory of the State, in his book The State in Capitalist Society was famously criticised by Nicos Poulantzas which led to the Miliband–Poulantzas debate: a debate between Instrumental Marxism and Structural Marxism. Karl Kautsky is also an instrumental, Orthodox marxist. See also Classical Marxism Elite theory Miliband–Poulantzas debate References Eponymous political ideologies Marxist theory Sociological theories	0.772926	0.968079	0.748254
Politicization of science	The politicization of science for political gain occurs when government, business, or advocacy groups use legal or economic pressure to influence the findings of scientific research or the way it is disseminated, reported or interpreted. The politicization of science may also negatively affect academic and scientific freedom, and as a result it is considered taboo to mix politics with science. Historically, groups have conducted various campaigns to promote their interests in defiance of scientific consensus, and in an effort to manipulate public policy. Overview Many factors can act as facets of the politicization of science. These can range, for example, from populist anti-intellectualism and perceived threats to religious belief to postmodernist subjectivism, fear for business interests, institutional academic ideological biases or potentially implicit bias amongst scientific researchers. Politicization occurs as scientific information is presented with emphasis on the uncertainty associated with the interpretation of scientific evidence. The emphasis capitalizes on the lack of consensus, which influences the way the studies are perceived. Chris Mooney describes how this point is sometimes intentionally ignored as a part an "Orwellian tactic." Organizations and politicians seek to disclaim all discussion on some issues as 'the more probable conclusion is still uncertain' as opposed to 'conclusions are most scientifically likely' in order to further discredit scientific studies. Tactics such as shifting conversation, failing to acknowledge facts, and capitalizing on doubt of scientific consensus have been used to gain more attention for views that have been undermined by scientific evidence. "Merchants of Doubt," ideology-based interest groups that claim expertise on scientific issues, have run successful "disinformation campaigns" in which they highlight the inherent uncertainty of science to cast doubt on scientific issues such as human-caused climate change, even though the scientific community has reached virtual consensus that humans play a role in climate change. William R. Freudenburg and colleagues have written about politicization of science as a rhetorical technique and states that it is an attempt to shift the burden of proof in an argument. He offers the example of cigarette lobbyists opposing laws that would discourage smoking. The lobbyists trivialize evidence as uncertain, emphasizing lack of conclusion. Freudenberg concludes that politicians and lobby groups are too often able to make "successful efforts to argue for full 'scientific certainty' before a regulation can be said to be 'justified' and maintain that what is needed is a balanced approach that carefully considers the risks of both Type 1 and Type 2 errors in a situation while noting that scientific conclusions are always tentative. Politicization by advocacy groups A political tactic, sometimes used to delay the implementation of legislation to control potentially harmful activities, is the "Scientific Certainty Argumentation Method" (SCAM). In many cases, there is a degree of uncertainty in scientific findings and this can be exploited to delay action, perhaps for many years, by demanding more "certainty" before action is taken. Climate change Both mainstream climatologists and their critics have accused each other of politicizing the science behind climate change. There is a scientific consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused primarily by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. In 1991, a US corporate coalition including the National Coal Association, the Western Fuels Association and Edison Electrical Institute created a public relations organization called the "Information Council on the Environment" (ICE). ICE launched a $500,000 advertising campaign to, in ICE's own words, "reposition global warming as theory (not fact)." Critics of industry groups have charged that the claims about a global warming controversy are part of a deliberate effort to reduce the impact any international treaty, such as the Kyoto Protocol, might have on their business interests. In 2006, Guardian columnist George Monbiot reported that according to data found in official Exxon documents, 124 organizations have taken money from ExxonMobil or worked closely with those that have, and that "These organizations take a consistent line on climate change: that the science is contradictory, the scientists are split, environmentalists are charlatans, liars or lunatics, and if governments took action to prevent global warming, they would be endangering the global economy for no good reason. The findings these organisations dislike are labelled 'junk science'. The findings they welcome are labelled 'sound science'." The "selective use of data", cherry picking, is identified as a notable form of scientific abuse by the Pacific Institute, an organization created to provide independent research and policy analysis on issues at the intersection of development, environment, and security. Intelligent design The intelligent design movement associated with the Discovery Institute, attempts to "defeat [the] materialist world view" represented by the theory of evolution in favor of "a science consonant with Christian and theistic convictions". The Discovery Institute portrays evolution as a "theory in crisis" with scientists criticizing evolution and that "fairness" and "equal time" requires educating students about "the controversy." A cornerstone of modern scientific biological theory is that all forms of life on Earth are related by common descent with modification. While many valid criticisms to the theory of evolution have existed throughout time, often certain ideological proponents seek to expand the scope of these disagreements in order to draw doubt onto the entire theory. For example, in the United States, there is a legal precedent of those who sought to discredit the teaching of evolution in classrooms by emphasizing so-called flaws in the theory of evolution or disagreements within the scientific community. Others insist that teachers have absolute freedom within their classrooms and cannot be disciplined for teaching non-scientific "alternatives" to evolution. A number of bills require that students be taught to "critically analyze" evolution or to understand "the controversy." But there is no significant controversy within the mainstream scientific community about the validity of the main pillars of theory of evolution at this time. The current controversy surrounding the teaching of evolution is thus not primarily a scientific one. The 2005 ruling in the Dover trial, Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, where the claims of intelligent design proponents were considered by a United States federal court concluded that intelligent design is not science, that it "cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents", and concluded that the school district's promotion of it therefore violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Tobacco and cancer By the mid-1950s there was a scientific consensus that smoking promotes lung cancer, but the tobacco industry fought the findings, both in the public eye and within the scientific community. Tobacco companies funded think tanks and lobbying groups, started health reassurance campaigns, ran advertisements in medical journals, and researched alternate explanations for lung cancer, such as pollution, asbestos and even pet birds. Denying the case against tobacco was "closed," they called for more research as a tactic to delay regulation. John Horgan, notes a rhetoric tactic that has been used by tobacco companies. It is summarized in a line that appeared in a confidential memo from a tobacco company, in 1969, when they sought to cast doubt on evidence that supports smoking causes cancer. It read, "Doubt is our product since it is the best means of competing with the 'body of fact' that exists in the mind of the general public. It is also the means of establishing a controversy." Eugenics Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler was well known for eugenics programs which attempted to maintain a "pure" German race through a series of programs that ran under the banner of racial hygiene. The Nazis manipulated scientific research in Germany, by forcing some scholars to emigrate, and by allocating funding for research based on ideological rather than scientific merit. In the early 20th century, Eugenics enjoyed substantial international support, from leading politicians and scientists. The First International Congress of Eugenics in 1912 was supported by many prominent persons, including its president Leonard Darwin, the son of Charles Darwin; honorary vice-president Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty and future Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; Auguste Forel, famous Swiss pathologist; Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone; among other prominent people. The level of support for eugenics research by the Nazis prompted an American eugenics advocate to seek an expansion of the American program, with the complaint that "the Germans are beating us at our own game". There was a strong connection between American and Nazi eugenics research. Nazis based their eugenics program on the United States' programs of forced sterilization, especially on the eugenics laws that had been enacted in California. Social justice Some critics argue that science has been politicized by social justice advocates. David Randall, director of research at the politically conservative advocacy group the National Association of Scholars, said that the emphasis on pursuing social justice and political activism "threatens the very definition of science as primarily a search for truth". In October 2021, The New York Times reported a rise in calls for "citational justice" within academic communities, which the article defines as an effort by professors and graduate students "to cite more Black, Latino, Asian and Native American scholars and in some cases refuse to acknowledge in footnotes the research of those who hold distasteful views." Some researchers have defended these efforts against the charge of politicization, arguing that science has always been inherently political. Government politicization Soviet Union In the Soviet Union, scientific research was under strict political control. A number of research areas were declared "bourgeois pseudoscience" and forbidden. This has led to significant setbacks for the Soviet science, notably in biology due to ban on genetics (see "Lysenkoism") and in computer science, which drastically influenced the Soviet economy and technology. United States The General Social Survey (GSS) of 1974 recorded that conservatives had the highest rates of trust in science between the three major political demographics: conservatives, liberals, and moderates. This study was repeated annually between 1972 and 1994, and biannually from 1994 until 2010. In 2010, when the same study was repeated, conservatives' trust rates had decreased from 49% to 38%, moderates' trust rates from 45% to 40%, and liberals' trust rates staying relatively stable, rising slightly from 48% to 50%. The study by Gordon Gauchat, which investigates time trends in the public trust of science in the United States, suggests that the increase of distrust of conservatives can be attributed to two cultural shifts. The first was during the post-Reagan era when the New Right emerged, and the second during the G.W. Bush era when the NR intensified and conservatives commenced the "war on science". Barack Obama and other politicians, since Bush's presidency, have expressed their concerns with the politicization of science in both the public and government sphere. In 2011, during his State of the Union speech, Obama discussed his dissatisfaction of the relationships between organized science, private economic interests, and the government. A 2024 analysis found that 100 U.S. Representatives and 23 U.S. Senators—23% of the 535 members of Congress—were climate change deniers. All were Republicans. George W. Bush administration In 2004, The Denver Post reported that the George W. Bush administration "has installed more than 100 top officials who were once lobbyists, attorneys or spokespeople for the industries they oversee." At least 20 of these former industry advocates helped their agencies write, shape or push for policy shifts that benefit their former industries. "They knew which changes to make because they had pushed for them as industry advocates." Also in 2004, the scientific advocacy group Union of Concerned Scientists issued a report, Scientific Integrity in Policymaking: An Investigation into the Bush Administration's Misuse of Science which charged the following: A growing number of scientists, policy makers, and technical specialists both inside and outside the government allege that the current Bush administration has suppressed or distorted the scientific analyses of federal agencies to bring these results in line with administration policy. In addition, these experts contend that irregularities in the appointment of scientific advisors and advisory panels are threatening to upset the legally mandated balance of these bodies. A petition, signed on February 18, 2004, by more than 9,000 scientists, including 49 Nobel laureates and 63 National Medal of Science recipients, followed the report. The petition stated: When scientific knowledge has been found to be in conflict with its political goals, the administration has often manipulated the process through which science enters into its decisions. This has been done by placing people who are professionally unqualified or who have clear conflicts of interest in official posts and on scientific advisory committees; by disbanding existing advisory committees; by censoring and suppressing reports by the government's own scientists; and by simply not seeking independent scientific advice. Other administrations have, on occasion, engaged in such practices, but not so systematically nor on so wide a front. Furthermore, in advocating policies that are not scientifically sound, the administration has sometimes misrepresented scientific knowledge and misled the public about the implications of its policies. The same year, Francesca Grifo, executive director of the Union of Concerned Scientists' Scientific Integrity Program, stated "We have reports that stay in draft form and don't get out to the public. We have reports that are changed. We have reports that are ignored and overwritten." In response to criticisms, President Bush in 2006 unveiled a campaign in his State of the Union Address to promote scientific research and education to ensure American competitiveness in the world, vowing to "double the federal commitment to the most critical basic research programs in the physical sciences over the next 10 years." Surgeon General Richard Carmona, the first surgeon general appointed by President George W. Bush, publicly accused the administration in July 2007 of political interference and muzzling him on key issues like embryonic stem cell research. "Anything that doesn't fit into the political appointees' ideological, theological or political agenda is often ignored, marginalized or simply buried," Carmona testified. Although he did not make personal accusations, the Washington Post reported on July 29 that the official who blocked at least one of Carmona's reports was William R. Steiger. Food and Drug Administration In July 2006 the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) released survey results that demonstrate pervasive political influence of science at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Of the 997 FDA scientists who responded to the survey, nearly one fifth (18 percent) said that they "have been asked, for non-scientific reasons, to inappropriately exclude or alter technical information or their conclusions in a FDA scientific document." This is the third survey Union of Concerned Scientists has conducted to examine inappropriate interference with science at federal agencies. The Department of Health and Human Services also conducted a survey addressing the same topic which generated similar findings. According to USA Today, a survey of Food and Drug Administration scientists by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and the Union of Concerned Scientists found that many scientists have been pressured to approve or reject new drugs despite their scientific findings concerns. In July 2006, the Union of Concerned Scientists released survey results that they said "demonstrate pervasive political influence of science" at the Food and Drug Administration. United States Department of the Interior On May 1, 2007, deputy assistant secretary at the United States Department of the Interior Julie MacDonald resigned after the Interior Department Inspector General, Honorable Earl E. Devaney, reported that MacDonald broke federal rules by giving non-public, internal government documents to oil industry and property rights groups, and manipulated scientific findings to favor Bush policy goals and assist land developers. On November 29, 2007, another report by Devaney found that MacDonald could have also benefitted financially from a decision she was involved with to remove the Sacramento splittail fish from the federal endangered species list. MacDonald's conduct violated the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) under 5 C.F.R. § 2635.703, Use of nonpublic information, and 5 C.F.R. § 2635.101, Basic obligation of public service. MacDonald resigned a week before a House congressional oversight committee was to hold a hearing on accusations that she had "violated the Endangered Species Act, censored science and mistreated staff of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service." Climate change In December 2007, the Christian Science Monitor reported that at least since 2003, and especially after Hurricane Katrina, the George W. Bush administration broadly attempted to control which climate scientists could speak with reporters, as well as edited scientists' congressional testimony on climate science and key legal opinions. Those who have studied organizations that set up to delay action and manufacture uncertainty about the well-established scientific consensus have divided their tactics into three steps: first, deny that there is a problem, second, make the case that there are benefits involved, and, third, insist that there is nothing that can be done. In a study, "The legitimacy of environmental scientists in the public sphere" by Gordon Gauchat, Timothy O'Brien, and Oriol Mirosa, the researchers conclude that attitudes about environmental scientists as policy advisers are highly politicized. Their results demonstrate that, to be perceived by the public as a reputable policy advisor, the public's perception of their integrity and understanding weigh more strongly than their agreement with scientific consensus. Waxman report In August 2003, United States, Democratic Congressman Henry A. Waxman and the staff of the Government Reform Committee released a report concluding that the administration of George W. Bush had politicized science and sex education. The report accuses the administration of modifying performance measures for abstinence-based programs to make them look more effective. The report also found that the Bush administration had appointed Dr. Joseph McIlhaney, a prominent advocate of abstinence-only program, to the Advisory Committee to the director of the Centers for Disease Control. According to the report, information about comprehensive sex education was removed from the CDC's website. Other issues considered for removal included agricultural pollution, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and breast cancer; the report found that a National Cancer Institute website has been changed to reflect the administration view that there may be a risk of breast cancer associated with abortions. The website was updated after protests and now holds that no such risk has been found in recent, well-designed studies. Abortion–breast cancer hypothesis The abortion-breast cancer hypothesis is the belief that induced abortions increase the risk of developing breast cancer. This belief is in contrast to the scientific consensus that there is no evidence suggesting that abortions can cause breast cancer. Despite the scientific community rejecting the hypothesis, many anti-abortion advocates continue to argue that a link between abortions and breast cancer exists, in an effort to influence public policy and opinion to further restrict abortions and discourage women from having abortions. While historically a controversial hypothesis, the debate now is almost entirely political rather than scientific. The most notable example of the politicization of this topic was the modification of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) fact sheet by the George W. Bush administration from concluding no link to a more ambiguous assessment regarding the abortion-breast cancer hypothesis, despite the NCI's scientifically based assessment to the contrary. United States House Science Subcommittee on Oversight In January 2007, the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space and Technology announced the formation of a new subcommittee, the Science Subcommittee on Oversight, which handles investigative and oversight activities on matters covering the committee's entire jurisdiction. The subcommittee has authority to look into a whole range of important issues, particularly those concerning manipulation of scientific data at Federal agencies. In an interview, subcommittee chairman Rep. Brad Miller pledged to investigate scientific integrity concerns under the Bush Administration. Miller noted that there were multiple reports in the media of the Bush Administration's manipulation of science to advance his political agenda, corrupt advisory panels, and minimize scientific research with federal funds. Miller, as part of the House Committee of Science and Technology, collected evidence of interference with scientific integrity by Bush's political appointees. Trump administration Policy The Trump administration marginalized the role of science in policy making, halted numerous research projects, and saw the departure of scientists who said their work was marginalized or suppressed. It was the first administration since 1941 not to name a Science Advisor to the President. In July 2018, Trump nominated meteorologist Kelvin Droegemeier for the position, and Droegemeier was confirmed by the Senate on January 2, 2019, the final day of the 115th United States Congress. He was sworn in by Vice President Mike Pence on February 11, 2019. While preparing for talks with Kim Jong-un, the White House did so without the assistance of a White House science adviser or senior counselor trained in nuclear physics. The position of chief scientist in the State Department or the Department of Agriculture was not filled. The administration nominated Sam Clovis to be chief scientist in the United States Department of Agriculture, but he had no scientific background and the White House later withdrew the nomination. The United States Department of the Interior, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Food and Drug Administration disbanded advisory committees. Climate change The issue of politicized science surfaced during the 2016 United States presidential campaign by then Republican candidate Donald Trump. Trump stated his intention to strip NASA's Earth Science division of its funding, a move that "would mean the elimination of NASA's world-renowned research into temperature, ice, clouds and other climate phenomena". Subsequently, the Trump administration successfully nominated Jim Bridenstine, who had no background in science and rejected the scientific consensus on climate change, to lead NASA. Under the Trump administration, the Department of Energy prohibited the use of the term "climate change". In March 2020 The New York Times reported that an official at the Interior Department has repeatedly inserted climate change-denying language into the agency's scientific reports, such as those that affect water and mineral rights. Health During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump administration replaced career public affairs staff at the Department of Health and Human Services with political appointees, including Michael Caputo, who interfered with weekly Centers for Disease Control scientific reports and attempted to silence the government's most senior infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, "sowing distrust of the FDA at a time when health leaders desperately need people to accept a vaccine in order to create the immunity necessary to defeat the novel coronavirus." One day after President Donald Trump noted that he might dismiss an FDA proposal to improve standards for emergency use of a coronavirus vaccine, the Presidents of the National Academies of Sciences and Medicine issued a statement expressing alarm at political interference in science during a pandemic, "particularly the overriding of evidence and advice from public health officials and derision of government scientists". The administration reportedly sent a list to the CDC on words that the agency was prohibited from using in its official communications, including "transgender", "fetus", "evidence-based", "science-based", "vulnerable", "entitlement", and "diversity". The Director of the CDC denied these reports. Biden administration As part of an effort to "refresh and reinvigorate our national science and technology strategy," President-elect Joe Biden announced, before taking office, that he will elevate the role of Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy to a cabinet level position. Biden's removal of Betsy Weatherhead from her role as director of the National Climate Assessment has been criticized as being politically motivated. Scholarly studies of the politics of science The politicization of science is a subset of a broader topic, the politics of science, which has been studied by scholars in a variety of fields, including most notably Science and Technology Studies; history of science; political science; and the sociology of science, knowledge, and technology. Increasingly in recent decades, these fields have examined the process through which science and technology are shaped. Some of the scholarly work in this area is reviewed in The Handbook of Science & Technology Studies (1995, 2008), a collection of literature reviews published by the Society for Social Studies of Science. There is an annual award for books relevant to the politics of science given by the Society for Social Studies of Science called the Rachel Carson Prize. See also References Further reading Shawn Lawrence Otto, Fool Me Twice: Fighting The Assault On Science In America, Rodale Books, 2011, Steven Rose, "Pissing in the Snow" (review of Audra J. Wolfe, Freedom's Laboratory: The Cold War Struggle for the Soul of Science, Johns Hopkins, January 2019, , 302 pp.), London Review of Books, vol. 41, no. 14 (18 July 2019), pp. 31–33. External links Integrity of Science initiative of the Pacific Institute Science vs. politics gets down and dirty – USA Today Politicized Science: Science as Public Relations Skeptic (2004). Discovery Institute campaigns Science George W. Bush administration controversies Scientific controversies Religion and science Denialism	0.765498	0.977464	0.748247
Resource mobilization	Resource mobilization is the process of getting resources from the resource provider, using different mechanisms, to implement an organization's predetermined goals. It is a theory that is used in the study of social movements and argues that the success of social movements depends on resources (time, money, skills, etc.) and the ability to use them. It deals in acquiring the needed resources in a timely, cost-effective manner. Resource mobilization advocates having the right type of resource at the right time at the right price by making the right use of acquired resources thus ensuring optimum usage of the same. It is a major sociological theory in the study of social movements that emerged in the 1970s. It emphasizes the ability of a movement's members to acquire resources and to mobilize people towards accomplishing the movement's goals. In contrast to the traditional collective behaviour theory, which views social movements as deviant and irrational, resource mobilization sees them as rational social institutions that are created and populated by social actors with a goal of taking political action. Theory According to resource mobilization theory, a core, professional group in a social movement organization works towards bringing money, supporters, attention of the media, alliances with those in power, and refining the organizational structure. The theory revolves around the central notion of how messages of social change are spread from person to person and from group to group. The conditions needed for a social movement are the notion that grievances shared by multiple individuals and organizations, ideologies about social causes and how to go about reducing those grievances. The theory assumes that individuals are rational: individuals weigh the costs and the benefits of movement participation and act only if the benefits outweigh the costs. When movement goals take the form of public goods, the free rider dilemma must be taken into consideration. Social movements are goal-oriented, but organization is more important than resources. Organization means the interactions and relations between social movement organizations (SMOs) and other organizations (other SMOs, businesses, governments, etc.). The organization's infrastructure efficiency is a key resource in itself. Resource mobilization theory can be divided into two camps: John D. McCarthy and Mayer Zald are the originators and major advocates of the classic entrepreneurial (economic) version of the theory, and Charles Tilly and Doug McAdam are proponents of the political version of resource mobilization called political process theory. The entrepreneurial model explains collective action as a result of economics factors and organization theory. It argues that grievances are not sufficient to explain creation of social movements. Instead, access to and control over resources is the crucial factor. The laws of supply and demand explain the flow of resources to and from the movements and that individual actions or the lack thereof is accounted for by rational choice theory. The political model focuses on the political struggle, instead of economic factors. In the 1980s, other theories of social movements such as social constructionism and new social movement theory challenged the resource mobilization framework. Types of resources Edwards and McCarthy identified five types of resources available to social movement organizations: Moral: resources available, such as solidarity support, legitimacy and sympathetic support, which can be easily retracted, making them less accessible than other resources. Cultural: knowledge that likely has become widely but not necessarily universally known. Examples include how to accomplish specific tasks like enacting a protest event, holding a news conference, running a meeting, forming an organization, initiating a festival, or surfing the web. Social-organizational: resources that deal with spreading the message. They include intentional social organization, which is created to spread the movement's message, and appropriable social organization, which is created for reasons other than moving for social change. Examples include spreading flyers, holding community meetings, and recruiting volunteers. Material: includes financial and physical capital, like office space, money, equipment, and supplies. Human: resources such as labor, experience, skills and expertise in a certain field. More tangible than some of the others (moral, cultural and social-organizational) and easier to quantify. Criticism Critics point out that resource mobilization theory fails to explain social movement communities, which are large networks of individuals and other groups surrounding social movement organizations and providing them with various services. Critics also argue that it fails to explain how groups with limited resources can succeed in bringing social change and that the theory does not assign sufficient weight to grievances, identity and culture as well as many macrosociological issues. Examples Civil Rights Movement Aldon Morris claims that the resource mobilization theory is a possible explanation of the surge of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. The rise of the movement was not because black Americans felt at the same time a frustration that led to a rebellion, Instead, it was the mobilization and organization of the leaders that triggered the movement. Some of the leaders that Aldon Morris reframed are Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., who, combined with the efforts of the NAACP, the SCLC, the SNCC, CORE and small business, labor unions, students' organizations and faith communities, led to the civil rights movement. The organizations together mobilized vast resources together, rather than individually, leading to the massive mobilization of people fighting for the same objective. The research done by Aldon Morris demonstrates that social movements depend on the ability of empower the less powerful people: "the civil rights movement managed, against overwhelming odds and historical tradition, to push for reform of oppressive and rigidly racist cultural repertoires, practices and laws that had denied African Americans basic civil rights." MoveOn.org MoveOn.org is a social movement organization to which resource mobilization theory can apply because it is a platform for people to sign a petition or to start a new petition. Coupled with the political process theory, a social movement theory that posits that social movements either succeed or fail because of political opportunities, MoveOn.org has been a successful tool because of its accessibility, which would make people more likely to start a petition and move toward a common goal. In other words, resource mobilization applies to MoveOn.org because the website itself is an existing resource that is accessible to consumers of the Internet, which helps mobilize the goals of the organization, and that mobilization is essential to MoveOn.org's success. Also, resource mobilization applies because the people who founded the organization knew how to use the resources available, which implies that anyone who uses the website to sign or start a petition is a rational social actor, who acts as a utility maximizer, who compares the costs and the benefits before deciding to be a part of a social movement. Arab Spring The Arab Spring is another example. Born in Tunisia in December 2010, growing unrest spread through Egypt, Syria, and Yemen. Researchers studying resource mobilization through the Egyptian revolution of 2011 found a reliance on social media to spread social action messages while the governments worked to censor the media and cut off those countries from the rest of the world by severing the internet. The activists in those countries were communicating with one another through social media platforms like Twitter to co-ordinate protests, keep tabs on each other and spread the social change messages. The researchers noted the Egyptian Revolution demonstrated the use of social media to spread messages of social change rapidly and to mobilized large groups of people. Another group of researchers studying social movements in Tunisia during the Arab Spring found that cyberactivism sprung from grievances on increasing government restrictions on Internet use for political purposes, coupled with the lack of socioeconomic opportunities. Connection with other fields Resource mobilization theory has been studied in conjunction with other fields, such as framing theory. Evidence has been found of an evolving relationship between framing processes and social movements. The relationship has led to the identification of two frames used in social movement stories: diagnostic, which involves identifying the sources of causality or blame for the situation, and prognostic, which lays out a plan of attack on how to create social change. See also Mass mobilization Social movement organization References Further reading John D. McCarthy and Mayer N. Zald, The Enduring Vitality of the Resource Mobilization Theory of Social Movements in Jonathan H. Turner (ed.), Handbook of Sociological Theory, 2001, p. 533-65 Diana Kendall, Sociology In Our Times, Thomson Wadsworth, 2005, Google Books, p.531 Steven M. Buechler, Social Movements in Advanced Capitalism, Oxford University Press, 1999, , Google Books, p.34 External links Resource mobilization approach Resource Mobilization Social movements Sociological theories	0.761165	0.983005	0.748229
Data portability	Data portability is a concept to protect users from having their data stored in "silos" or "walled gardens" that are incompatible with one another, i.e. closed platforms, thus subjecting them to vendor lock-in and making the creation of data backups or moving accounts between services difficult. Data portability requires common technical standards to facilitate the transfer from one data controller to another, such as the ability to export user data into a user-accessible local file, thus promoting interoperability, as well as facilitate searchability with sophisticated tools such as grep. Data portability applies to personal data. It involves access to personal data without implying data ownership per se. Development At the global level, there are proponents who see the protection of digital data as a human right. Thus, in an emerging civil society draft declaration, one finds mention of the following concepts and statutes: Right to Privacy on the Internet, Right to Digital Data Protection, Rights to Consumer Protection on the Internet – United Nations Guidelines for Consumer Protection. At the regional level, there are at least three main jurisdictions where data rights are seen differently: China and India, the United States and the European Union. In the latter, personal data was given special protection under the 2018 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The GDPR thus became the fifth of the 24 types of legislation listed in Annex 1 Table of existing and proposed European Directives and Regulations in relation to data. Personal data are the basis for behavioral advertising, and early in the 21st century their value began to grow exponentially, at least as measured in the market capitalization of the major platforms holding personal data on their respective users. European Union regulators reacted to this perceived power imbalance between platforms and users, although much still hinges on the terms of consent given by users to the platforms. The concept of data portability comprises an attempt to correct the perceived power imbalance by introducing an element of competition allowing users to choose among platforms. Online platforms With the advent of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and the Wall Street Journal online subscriber community have widely adopted the ability to export and download user data into a ZIP archive file. Other platforms such as Google and Facebook were equipped with export options earlier. Some platforms restrict exports with time delays between each, such as once per 30 days on Twitter, and many platforms lack partial export options. Other sites such as Quora and Bumble offer no automated request form, requiring the user to request a copy of their data through personal support email. Ratings and Reviews Reputation portability refers to the ability of an individual to transfer their reputation or credibility from one context to another. This concept is becoming increasingly important in today's interconnected world, where individuals are involved in multiple online and offline communities. The idea behind reputation portability is that an individual's reputation should not be tied solely to a single community or platform. Rather, it should be transferable across different contexts, such as professional networks, social media platforms, and online marketplaces. This enables individuals to maintain a consistent reputation across various contexts, which can be beneficial in terms of building trust, and overcoming the so-called "cold-start" problem, and hence mitigating platform lock-in. Overall, reputation portability is an important concept in today's digital landscape, and research has shown that imported reputation can serve as viable signals for building trust. As technology continues to evolve, it is likely that reputation portability will become increasingly important in shaping how we interact with each other online and offline. In consumer electronics Mobile devices Some mobile apps restrict data portability by storing user data in locked directories while lacking export options. Such may include configuration files, digital bookmarks, browsing history and sessions (e.g. list of open tabs and navigation histories), watch and search histories in multimedia streaming apps, custom playlists in multimedia player software, entries in note taking and memorandum software, digital phone books (contact lists), call logs from the telephone app, and conversations through SMS and instant messaging software. Locked directories are inaccessible to an end-user without extraordinary measures such as so-called rooting (Android) or jailbreaking (iOS). The former requires the so-called boot loader of the device to be in an unlocked state in advance, which it usually is not by default. Toggling that state involves a full erasure of all user data, known as the wipe, making it a vicious cycle if the user's aim were to access their locked data. Other mobile apps only allow the creation of user data backups using proprietary software provided by the vendor, lacking the ability to directly export the data to a local file in the mobile device's common user data directory. Such said software requires an external host computer to run on. Some device vendors offer cloud storage and synchronisation services for backing up data. Such services however require registration and depend on internet connection and preferably high internet speeds and data plan limits if used regularly. Some services may only allow moving parts of the data such as text messages and phone books between locked directories on devices of the same vendor (vendor lock-in), without the ability to export the information into local files directly accessible by the end user. Restrictions added in more recent versions of operating systems, such as scoped storage, which is claimed to have been implemented with the aim to improve user privacy, compromise both backwards compatibility to established existing software such as file managers and FTP server applications, as well as legitimate uses such as cross-app communication and facilitating large file transfers and backup creation. Further possible restraints on data portability are poor reliability, stability and performance of existing means of data transfer, such as described in . Digital video recorders Some digital video recorders (DVRs) which store recordings on an internal hard drive lack the ability to back up recordings, forcing a user to delete existing recordings upon exhausted disk space, which is an instance of poor data portability. Some DVRs have an operating system that depends on an Internet connection to boot and operate, meaning that recordings stored locally are inaccessible if no internet connection is available. If service for the device gets deprecated by the television service provider, the existing recordings become inaccessible and thus considerably lost. Other appliances Cordless landline telephone units, as well as their associated base stations, which have firmwares with phone book and SMS messaging functionality, commonly lack an interface to connect to a computer for backing the data up. In software Some software such as the Discourse forum software offers a built-in ability for users to download their posts into an archive file. Other software may operate locally, but store user data in a proprietary format, thus causing vendor lock-in until successfully reverse-engineered by third party developers. By country European Union The right to data portability was laid down in the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) passed in April 2016. The regulation applies to data processors, whether inside or outside the EU, if they process data on individuals who are physically located within an EU member state. Earlier the European Data Protection Supervisor had stated that data portability could "let individuals benefit from the value created by the use of their personal data". The European-level Article 29 Data Protection Working Party held a consultation on this in English lasting until the end of January 2017. Their guidelines and FAQ on the right to data portability contain this call for action: The French national data supervisor CNIL hosted a discussion in French. Current participants offer opinions on how the legislation provides few benefits for companies, but many for users. In April 2017, new guidelines were published on the Article 29 Working Party website. In late 2019 the Data Governance Act was published by the Commission. In 2021 researchers, many of them French and Finnish, published a 46-page report covering the state-of-the-art. In 2022 the European Commission published the Data Act. Although the United Kingdom voted to withdraw from the EU, it intends to incorporate much of the GDPR in its own legislation, which will include data portability, as "...the GDPR itself contains some noteworthy innovations – for instance… the introduction of a new right to data portability". In November at the Internet Governance Forum 2019 in Berlin panelists reported that Article 20 GDPR is not actionable, neither legally nor technically. In the UK—ironically post-Brexit—researchers are monitoring developments. Germany has called to strengthen the European Union's right to data portability using competition law. A commission was set up for the purpose of proposing improvements. Switzerland Likewise, in Switzerland, a nation-state that is related to the EU only on a bilateral basis and as an EFTA member state, there has been a trend moving in the same direction. The Swiss view was officially published in March 2018 (as a document in PDF). An association proposed to have a right to data portability anchored in the constitution of the Swiss Confederation. A law was passed that includes data portability; as described here in German and here in French. The association partners with a cooperative called MIDATA.coop, which will offer users a place to store their data. A second association has issued its guideline on the topic. Over the longer term, the Swiss may have to consider that data portability is in the GDPR. Given that the GDPR will raise compliance costs for EU-based companies, it is unlikely that the EU would tolerate a situation with third-party countries in which Swiss companies would not be held to the same standard in order to keep competition fair. The legal terms involved are adequacy and reciprocity. United States, California California has a Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) of 2018, which introduces data portability to the USA. Canada Canada anticipates a law in that it shows Transparency, Portability and Interoperability as Principle No. 4 of its Digital Charter. India Data portability is included in the Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 about to become law as section 26 in chapter VI. Brazil Data portability is included in the Privacy law#Brazil as its Article 18. Australia In Australia, a Consumer Data Right has been proposed. Thailand Data portability is included in the new law. Kenya A right to data portability is enshrined in the new data protection law under clause 34. However, the intentions behind the new law, its enforcement and relation to the government's new Identity management system have already been contested. Requirements for effective data interoperability It is always tricky for legislators to regulate at the right level of precision, as everyone understands technology will evolve faster than the law. So far, only the European Union has formalized the expectations around data portability, requiring the data "in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable and interoperable format". This touches on at least two distinct technical requirements for effective interoperability: the need to use file standards that allow for easy reuse (for instance CSV or JSON instead of PDF or even printed paper), encompassed by a "structured, commonly used, machine-readable" format. the need (hinging on "interoperable") to consider not only an individual's data release on its own, but also in conjunction with other systems and other individuals' data releases from the same company. This hints at requirements regarding data schemas, versioning and specification of those schemas in case of frequent changes, and generally the absence of efforts on the part of the source data controller to complicate the effective interoperability downstream. Likewise, European researchers stress that there are both practical and legal gaps that the EU should fill. Rights of data subjects under the European Union's new GDPR The list of these rights has grown. Data portability in relation to the right of access The data portability right is slightly different from the Right of access to personal data; see GDPR and the seventh item in the list cited immediately above. The right of access only mandates that the data subject gets to see their personal data. The old EU Data Protection Directive used to require explicitly in such cases for the data to be provided in "intelligible" form, which has been interpreted so far as "human readable". This requirement is still somewhat present in the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, but only implicitly in conjunction with Recital (law). Since the right to portability is mostly concerned with reuse by other services (i.e. most likely automated), it could be that both "human readable" and "raw format" would be inappropriate for effective data portability. Some intermediate level might need to be sought. In addition, the GDPR limits the scope of data portability to cases where the processing is made on the basis of either consent of the data subject, or the performance of a contract. Data portability in relation to the right of explanation The data portability right is related to the "right to explanation", i.e. when automated decisions are made that have legal effect or significant impact on individual data subjects. How to display an algorithm? One way is through a decision tree. This right, however, was found to be not very useful in an empirical study. The right to explanation is related to the "Right to not be evaluated on the basis of automated processing" shown as the last item in the list shown in Gabel / Hickman. This includes decisions based on profiling. Such a right was included in the EU Data Protection Directive of 1995, but not much enforcement followed. An article in Wired emphasised the poignancy of the discussion. The issue has been discussed by Bygrave, and by Hildebrandt, who claimed this to be one of the most important transparency rights in the era of machine learning and big data. Contrary to Hildebrandt's high expectations in 2012, four years later, after many revisions to the GDPR, when the text was finalized, three other well-known authors contest whether a right to explanation still exists in the GDPR (see below). In the United States there was a description of related developments in a seminal book by law professor Frank Pasquale; the relevant passages were reviewed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). Even the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency DARPA has an Explainable AI (XAI) program cited critically by blogger Artur Kiulian. Several papers have been published on these topics in 2016, the first of which, by Goodman / Flaxman, outlines the development of the right to explanation. Pasquale does not think the approach goes far enough, as he has stated in a blog entry at the London School of Economics (LSE). In fact at LSE there is a whole series on Algorithmic Accountability of which that was one entry in Feb. of 2016, and other notable ones were by Joshua Kroll and Mireille Hildebrandt. Another 2016 paper, published by Katarinou et al., includes remarks on a right of appeal such that "individuals would have a right to appeal to a machine against a decision made by a human." A third 2016 paper, one co-authored by Mittelstadt et al., maps the literature and relates it to the GDPR on its pages 13–14. A fourth paper, one co-authored by Wachter, Mittelstadt and Floridi, refutes the idea that such a right might be included in the GDPR, proposes a limited 'right to be informed' instead and calls for the creation of an agency to implement the transparency requirement. A further paper by Edwards and Veale claims such a right is unlikely to apply in the cases of the 'algorithmic harms' attracting recent media attention, and that insufficient attention has been paid to both the computer science literature on explanation and how other GDPR provisions, such as data protection impact assessments and data portability, might help. Almost two years later a paper appeared that challenges earlier papers, especially Wachter / Mittelstadt / Floridi. On both sides of the Atlantic, there has been recent activity pertaining to this ongoing debate. Early in 2016 experts on artificial intelligence and UK government officials met during a number of meetings, and developed a Data Science Ethical Framework. On November 7, 2016 an event was held in Brussels, organized by MEP Marietje Schaake in the European Parliament and described by danah Boyd. Only eleven days later at New York University there was a conference on "Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency in Machine Learning " where Principles for Accountable Algorithms and a Social Impact Statement for Algorithms were articulated and placed online for discussion. By mid-December the IEEE came out with a document whose editing was backed up by public comments that were invited by March 2017 on "Ethically Aligned Design". Later in 2017 data portability was analysed by professors of data protection as a central innovation of the new GDPR. See also External wiki GDPR Hub maintained by Max Schrems et al. Data Transfer Project Ethics of artificial intelligence General Data Protection Regulation Notes References Digital rights Interoperability	0.76929	0.972484	0.748123
Politics of outer space	The politics of outer space includes space treaties, law in space, international cooperation and conflict in space exploration, international economics, and the hypothetical political impact of any contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. Astropolitics has its foundations in geopolitics and is a theory that is used for space in its broadest sense. International cooperation on space projects has resulted in the creation of new national space agencies. By 2005, there were 35 national civilian space agencies. Treaties and policies related to outer space Outer Space Treaty Moon Treaty Artemis Accords The Artemis Accords build on a number of treaties that affect the conduct of states and their commercial industries in the exploration and use of space, including the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, the 1972 Liability Convention, and the 1975 Registration Convention. NASA has stated that in leading the Artemis program, international partnerships will prepare for a historic human mission to Mars while playing a key role in achieving a sustainable and robust presence on the Moon. The core of the Artemis agreement requires that all activities be conducted for peaceful purposes, consistent with the principles of the Outer Space Treaty. International cooperation under the Artemis Agreement aims not only to promote space exploration, but also to strengthen peaceful relations between nations. Post-detection policy Global security and space policies US Air Force judge advocate Matthew King, writing in a personal capacity, has looked at the major powers' cooperation in space matters in the light of international geo-political relationships on earth. He holds that joint engagement in space matters, especially for the United States, China and Russia, can be viewed via two alternative lenses: it can facilitate peace and understanding (a lens he refers to as an olive branch) or it can hide true relationships (the lens of a fig leaf). Politics of the ISS Politics of asteroid mining In recent years, the advancement in technology and engineering have made mining asteroid more plausible. The global space mining market is estimated to be worth $14.71 billion by 2025, as indicated by market research. Although the industry could be years away from successfully mining asteroids, this renewed interest in asteroid mining for metal extraction has the potential to influence the global market of rare metal and create a new geopolitical order. Outer space has been a ground for geopolitical competition since the Cold War, and the expected growth in asteroid mining could bring about a new geopolitical order organized around resources extraction. Access to rare metals from asteroids could position nation-states and their private sectors competitively. Countries with technological capacity to explore space and finance a new and costly asteroid mining endeavour are better positioned to dominate the global supply chain for such metals, while a handful of countries will lag behind. This threatens to drive a resource race in outer space and could create similar patterns of conflict around resources extraction to what has been experienced on earth. The expansion of resource extraction in outer space will require the development of a legal regulatory framework that adequately governs asteroid mining activities. The two current treaties that govern activities in outer space are the Outer Space Treaty and the Moon Treaty. Ratified by 98 countries in 1976, the Outer Space Treaty prevents sovereign or private ownership of outer space and its resources, asserting it belongs to all mankind but does not prevent exploitation of its resources. Ratified in 1979, the Moon Treaty clears some of the vague language surrounding the heritage for humankind outline in the Outer Space Treaty. Similar to the Outer Space Treaty, its provisions outline the Moon and other celestial bodies are “not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means” It also introduces a number of provisions that limit activities in outer space. While those provisions have implications for the development of space mining industry, Article 11.7 of the treaty has serious implications for countries that wish to assert monopoly over the emerging asteroid mining industry. Article 11.7: The main purposes of the international regime to be established shall include: 1. The orderly and safe development of the natural resources of the moon; 2. The rational management of those resources; 3. The expansion of opportunities in the use of those resources; 4. An equitable sharing by all States Parties in the benefits derived from those resources, whereby the interests and needs of the developing countries, as well as the efforts of those countries which have contributed either directly or indirectly to the exploration of the moon, shall be given special consideration. Given the limitation the Moon treaty place on states, it has not been ratified by key players in the space frontier, such as the US, China, and Russia. Both the Outer Space Treaty and the Moon Treaty lack a robust enforcement mechanism that holds states and private entities accountable for their violation of the agreements. The lack of clarity over claims for ownership could result in conflicts among countries and private companies. While International efforts to reconsolidate a regulatory framework to govern future mining activities are much needed, they have been slow. Establishing rules on transparency, resource sharing, and mechanisms to guide conflict resolutions are needed to support the growing economy of asteroid mining. Several countries have conducted research missions to asteroids. While the US, EU, Japan, Russia, and China have all had successful asteroid missions, only the US and Japan were able to bring samples from an asteroid. With geological surveys for metals often preceding the militarization of territories and the expansion of nation-states in terrestrial context, research missions to asteroids allude to the expansion of state ambition to dominate a large-scale extraterrestrial extractive regime. While asteroid mining remains in its infancy, countries are competing to dominate it. However, the difficulty of reaching consensus on global treaties has led countries to branch out to legitimatize the economic exploration and exploitation of asteroids, through passing national law, and relying on loopholes in the international law. In 2015, the US passed the U.S Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act. While the act does not position the US as a state to have authority or ownership in outer space, it positions its citizens to have ownership over resources acquired from space. This allows the U.S. to adhere to Outer Space Treaty but also allow to its private entities to carry out mining activities on Asteroids, once feasible. AstroForge, a US start-up with a mission focused on developing technology for asteroid mining, announced two commercial missions to asteroids that were launched in 2023. In 2016, the government of Luxembourg introduced a legal framework that support and guide the private activities of mining asteroids. To grant certainty investors, it passed a law that explicitly permits private entities to own and sell resources extracted from asteroids. The government also pledged to support research and start-ups focused on space exploration and extraterrestrial resource extraction with a funding of approximately US$225 million. Relative to the US, the Luxembourg Space Act provides more clarity and position the country more competitively to engage in asteroid mining. Given its strategic location in Europe, Luxembourg intends to establish itself as a Silicon Valley for space activities. Despite the differences in passed legislation, the goal remains the same: to emerge as a leader in the new asteroid mining frontier and obtain the economic benefits associated with it. Current and future developments in asteroid mining do not indicate whether competition in this frontier will lead to positive changes in international law or allow for the harmonization of national laws among states. Nevertheless, the steady growth in asteroid mining will have implications for the geopolitics of terrestrial and extraterrestrial resource extraction. Colonialism, imperialism and capitalism Space activities entail an environmental costs, which also affect countries that don't participate, prompting questions of environmental justice. The historical dominance of nations in space activities has progressively been challenged by private companies, such as SpaceX and Blue Origin, which have established profitable businesses primarily by providing satellite launching services. This fast-paced new market led to the expression "NewSpace", to contrast it with the "OldSpace" of the cold war era. Since the mid-20th century, it has become possible for a different actors, such as national armies and government agencies, scientists and private companies, to carry out a variety of space activities, such as the regulation of outer space through international law, the deployment of missile and anti-satellite weapons, the establishment of exploration, communication and navigation satellites, and space travel for tourism and habitat expansion. See also References D. Deudney and M. Glassner; Political Geography Further reading Dolman, Everett C. Ed. Colin S. Gray and Geoffrey Sloan. "Geostrategy in the Space Age." Geopolitics, Geography and Strategy. Frank Cass: Portland, Oregon, 2003. pp. 83–106. ^ Eric Cardiff of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, as quoted at http://www.physorg.com/news66314743.html External links Astropolitics.The International Journal of Space Politics & Policy "Assault on the Sky", by Lucio Caracciolo, from Limes 5/2004 Outer space space Geopolitics	0.764772	0.978223	0.748118
Associationalism	Associationalism or associative democracy is a political movement in which "human welfare and liberty are both best served when as many of the affairs of a society as possible are managed by voluntary and democratically self-governing associations." Associationalism "gives priority to freedom in its scale of values, but it contends that such freedom can only be pursued effectively if individuals join with their fellows" The concept of associationalism Roots Associationalism is a European political theory, stemming from 19th and early 20th century social and political theorists from the continent. In France, such political thinkers as de Tocqueville, Proudhon, Durkheim, and Duguit. In England, such pluralists as Cole, Figgis, Laski, Barker, and Maitland. The theory provides an alternative to the previously popular doctrines of state-centered and collectivist ideals which had all but dominated twentieth-century politics: Western social democracy and Eastern bloc Marxist–Leninism. Alexis de Tocqueville's associationalism Alexis de Tocqueville's idea of associationalism “...stressed volunteerism, community spirit and independent associational life as protections against the domination of society by the state, and indeed as a counterbalance which helped to keep the state accountable and effective”. In Tocqueville’s vision then, economic freedom fosters greed, which engenders political apathy, which results in excessive individualism and passive reliance on the state. This political apathy will in turn result in the almost inevitable growth of government if left unchecked by associationalism. Thus, Tocqueville predicted that “It is easy to see the time coming in which men will be less and less able to produce, by each alone, the commonest bare necessities of life. The tasks of government must therefore perpetually increase, and its efforts to cope with them must spread its net ever wider. The more government takes the place of associations, the more will individuals lose the idea of forming associations and need the government to come to their help. That is a vicious cycle of cause and effect”. Expanded definition Associational democracy is, in essence, both a political structure and system of relations with the goal of easing pluralist social negotiation and priorities. It became an important aspect of public policy, countering previous laissez-faire traditions. Critics considered laissez-faire, which essentially equated to liberal individualism, as not conducive to the fostering of upward mobility in society. Associationalism, as opposed to liberal individualism, embodies a deliberate commitment to social cooperation as well as public well-being. "Association....grew out of a sense of difference; for the middle class, it meant crossing class lines to bring together people of diverse identities and conditions". According to David Lewis, during the late 19th and early 20th century the new middle class required “...sanctioned private accumulation underwritten by a state which maintained legal order and stability"· As a result, the state needed to become powerful enough to maintain order, but not so strong as to become oppressive; neither laissez-faire nor statist. Finding this balance between transgressing autonomy and dangerous accumulation of power could prove difficult, and associationalism appeared to be a possible solution. Associationalism brought together several political ideologies which, until its conception, were frequently at odds: pluralism, socialism, and cooperative mutualism. It provides for a pluralist rather than a statist or constraining collectivist socialism, yet it also provides for a mutualist and cooperative pluralism. This, as opposed to pluralism which reacts so far to statist communitarianism that it slides into an unrestricted competitive asociality. The Beginnings of American associationalism Setting the stage Urban politics in late 19th century America proved an ideal situation for the emergence of associationalism, ripe with several qualifications discussed by early associationalists. In addition, voter turnout was relatively high, though usually confined to party lines. Despite this fact, the two large national parties at the time (Democrats and Republicans) lacked significant ideological differences on specific issues. Respected members of communities across the country began to propose associationalism as a solution to America's social political problems. Several Protestant ministers such as Lyman Abbot, Washington Gladden, Josiah Strong, and Walter Raushenbusch began to call for a “social gospel.” “The next great principle,” Rauschenbusch proclaimed in 1896, “is association”. These growing political currents in favor of associationalism perhaps culminated when voters elected William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, a left statist associationalist who would become president shortly thereafter, in 1900. Protective legislation “Associationalism is fundamentally about collective governance – about the legal constitution of groups and bodies politic and the rules and bylaws that regulate the interrelationships of members”. During the early 20th century Congress passed a great deal of “protective legislation,” which was, in essence, legislated associationalism. Labor received improved work conditions resulting in fewer work-related injuries. Wages were increased while hours were decreased. In addition, probably the most important protective legislation pertained to the legal establishment and organization of large labor unions. On the other side of the coin, employer costs went up resulting in outsourcing and decreased cash flow into such areas as research and development, slowing technological progress. Fewer hours and the fact that labor was more organized (allowing for an increase in strikes and protests) resulted in less production. Finally, such strong government influence over labor could lead to an abuse of power, favoring certain unions. The results of these legislated regulations suggested to critics that associationalism tends to benefit labor (the "people”) directly at the cost of both corporate management and technological progress. Early presidential associationalism Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt (President 1901-1909) was the first true champion of American associationalism as evidenced by his intervention into the United Mine Workers strike of 1902. For the first time representatives from government, labor, and management met collectively and were able to resolve the conflict. When management was uncooperative, Roosevelt threatened to employ the military on behalf of labor to arrive at a resolution. Instead, a five-member commission was established to communicate with the company management. Also, wages were increased by ten percent and the length of the work day was cut from ten hours to nine, keeping union membership sound. By demonstrating a new role for the state in such conflicts (aside from the previously held military positions) associationalism took root in American society and politics, and there wasn't another major coal strike in the country until the 1920s. Woodrow Wilson Woodrow Wilson (President 1913-1921), a regulatory liberal, employed associationalism during World War I to control and regulate capital, ensuring a steady flow of war supplies while minimizing the risk of breaks in manufacturing vital to the war effort. The establishment of such government agencies as the National War Labor Board were instrumental in preventing strikes and ensuring collective bargaining. In addition, Wilson appointed the country's first Secretary of Labor that was pro labor (William B. Wilson). The policies were implemented as America successfully met its goals in wartime production. There were nearly no strikes, many companies saw enormous profits, and the Allies won the war. Academic Context Surrounding Associationalism A significant text surrounding associationalism is Robert D. Putnam’s book “Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy.” This book compares Northern and Southern Italy in the frame of the question, “What are the conditions for creating strong, responsive, effective representative institutions?” Putnam essentially answers this question with civil society and associationalism. Northern Italy had lower levels of associationalism which led to higher levels of fascism; whereas Southern Italy had more civic engagement and therefore less support towards autocratic rule. However, association in civic societies is not always a source for good. Sheri Berman in her text, “Civil Society and the Collapse of the Weimar Republic,” argues that participation in civil societies can also help mobilize people to weaken democracy. This claim is analyzed through the case study of the NSDAP (Nazi Party). This study provides a counterexample to Putnam, showing how the NSDAP rose to power not by attracting alienated Germans, but rather by recruiting highly activist individuals that mobilized the political agenda of the Nazi party. In fact, the Nazi activists’ associational skills helped expand the party’s appeal, weakening democracy across the nation. References Footnotes Bibliography de Tocqueville, Alexis. 'Democracy in America. Penguin Press. New York, 2003. Hirst, Paul. Associative Democracy. New forms of economic and social governance, University of Massachusetts Press (January 1994); Kaspersen, Lars Bo. Associationalism for A Hundred and Fifty Years - and still alive and kicking: Some reflections on the Danish civil society Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen. Lewis, David. Civil Society in African Contexts: Reflections on the ‘Usefulness’ of a Concept Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science. Martell, Luke. New Ideas of Socialism School of Sciences, University of Sussex. McGerr, Michael. 'A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America., Oxford University Press. New York, 2003. Novak, Robert. The American Law of Association Cambridge University. Smith, M. K. La Vie Associative and Lifelong Learning:Associationalism, (2000), published on the infed website. Infed is an open, independent and not-for-profit site put together by a small group of educators. Further reading Bader, Veit. "Secularism or Democracy?: Associational Governance of Religious Diversity". Amsterdam University Press, 2007. Kaufman, Jason. Three Vies of Associationalism in 19th-Century America: An Empirical Examination Princeton University. Martinek, Jason D. Assorted Lectures on 20th Century American History. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA. Jan/Feb 2007. Political theories Political science terminology	0.785789	0.95202	0.748086
Professionalization	Professionalization or professionalisation is a social process by which any trade or occupation transforms itself into a true "profession of the highest integrity and competence." The definition of what constitutes a profession is often contested. Professionalization tends to result in establishing acceptable qualifications, one or more professional associations to recommend best practice and to oversee the conduct of members of the profession, and some degree of demarcation of the qualified from unqualified amateurs (that is, professional certification). It is also likely to create "occupational closure", closing the profession to entry from outsiders, amateurs and the unqualified. Occupations not fully professionalized are sometimes called semiprofessions. Critique of professionalization views overzealous versions driven by perverse incentives (essentially, a modern analogue of the negative aspects of guilds) as a form of credentialism. Process The process of professionalization creates "a hierarchical divide between the knowledge-authorities in the professions and a deferential citizenry." This demarcation is often termed "occupational closure", as it means that the profession then becomes closed to entry from outsiders, amateurs and the unqualified: a stratified occupation "defined by professional demarcation and grade." The origin of this process is said to have been with guilds during the Middle Ages, when they fought for exclusive rights to practice their trades as journeymen, and to engage unpaid apprentices. It has also been called credentialism, a reliance on formal qualifications or certifications to determine whether someone is permitted to undertake a task or to speak as an expert. It has also been defined as "excessive reliance on credentials, especially academic degrees, in determining hiring or promotion policies.". It has been further defined as where the credentials for a job or a position are upgraded, even though, there is no skill change that makes this increase necessary. Professions also possess power, prestige, high income, high social status and privileges; their members soon come to comprise an elite class of people, cut off to some extent from the common people, and occupying an elevated station in society: "a narrow elite ... a hierarchical social system: a system of ranked orders and classes." The professionalization process tends to establish the group norms of conduct and qualification of members of a profession and tends also to insist that members of the profession achieve "conformity to the norm." and abide more or less strictly with the established procedures and any agreed code of conduct, which is policed by professional bodies, for "accreditation assures conformity to general expectations of the profession." Different professions are organized differently. For example, doctors desire autonomy over entrepreneurship. Professions want authority because of their expertise. Professionals are encouraged to have a lifetime commitment to their field of work. Eliot Freidson (1923–2005) is considered one of the founders of the sociology of professions History Very few professions existed before the 19th century, although most of the societies always valued someone who was competent and skilled in a particular discipline. The government was especially in need of skilled people to complete various duties. Professionalism as an ideology only started in the early 19th century in North America and Western Europe. Professions began to emerge rapidly. However, a person who wanted to become a professional had to gain the approval of members of the existing profession beforehand and only they could judge whether he or she had reached the level of expertise needed to be a professional. Official associations and credentialing boards were created by the end of the 19th century, but initially membership was informal. A person was a professional if enough people said they were a professional. Adam Smith expressed support for professionalization, as he believed that professionals made a worthwhile contribution to society. They deserved power and high salaries due to the difficulties inherent in gaining entry to professional fields and living up to the rigorous demands of professionalism. State licensure insured that experience could not be substituted for certification, and decreased outside competition. A code of ethics for professionals ensured that the public receiving the service was well served and set guidelines for their behavior in their professions. This code also ensured that penalties were put in place for those who failed to meet up to the standards stated. This could include termination of their license to practice. After the Second World War, professions were state controlled. The degree of legislation and autonomy of self-regulated and regular professions varied across Canada. Possible causes include societal infrastructure, population density, social ideologies, and political mandates. Physicians and engineers were among the most successful at professionalization of their work. Medicine was consistently regulated before the confederation. Medicine and engineering became self-regulated and had their regulatory legislation altered five decades after the confederation even though some other occupations were not able to. This meant these professions could oversee entry to practice, education, and the behavior of those practicing. Physicians Physicians are a profession that became autonomous or self-regulating. Physicians started as a division of labor in health care. The social status of physicians made them feel like they merit deference. Physicians' authority was based on persuasion. Autonomy and independence of the organization of physicians caused a division of labor that is professionally dominated. Licensing caused monopolies on rights. Eliot Friedson had commented that the profession had "the authority to direct and evaluate the work of others without in turn being subject to formal direction and evaluation by them”. Doctors retained their dominance because hospitals were administered rather than managed. The medical field enjoyed more power than some other profession, for example engineering. In the United States physicians from other countries could not practice unless they satisfied US regulation requirements. To ensure social order and establish British institutions, Ontario established medicine as a self-regulating profession in the late 1860s. In many US states however, medicine remained unregulated until several decades later. A publication in the 1840 British Medical Journal revealed an increase in professional consciousness from medical practitioners in England. Physicians in the 19th century came to have the features of modern professions. A major one was autonomy. This was further emphasized with the establishment of a controlling body of the profession. Competition and overcrowding (two or three decades after 1930) also put pressure on governments to establish a system of registration and requirements for those who wished to practice. This led to the Medical Act of 1840. In fact, this council consisted mostly of doctors. Therefore, they were in control of regulating their own profession. The act required their members to oversee medical education, keep track of the numbers of qualified practitioners, and regulate it for the government. Pg 688. It gave the qualified more power and set limitations on the unqualified. The exclusion from government service of the unqualified practitioners was the most influential policy. Along with the act, the qualified practitioners came to be known as the “officially recognized” healers, and as such had a competitive advantage in the job market. To reduce competition, the Medical Act also raised the standards for qualifications in 1858. A modern codes of medical ethics were also implemented in the 19th century. Again, this proves the high degree of power that the profession had. As a result, many medical practitioners came to experience ethical problems. Unlike today, it was more the concern of the behavior of doctors towards each other, than towards their patients. It is suggested to be due by the changes of the medical world in the first half of the nineteenth century. Unlike the pre-industrial age, distinctions between say surgeons and physicians were greatly reduced, to replace a division of mostly consultants and general practitioners. This new division caused disorder in establishing the roles of different types of practitioners and their status. It led to more competition as their various field of expertise was not made clear and thus resulted in accusations of unprofessional conduct among each other to protect their own interests. Issues, around management of medical practitioners and their practice stemming from this change, had to be attended to. In the second half of the 19th century, ethics were more severely monitored and disciplinary action against violators was put in effect. This was allowed as by the act of 1858. Even the allowance to remove from practice any practitioner violating the code of ethics put in place. A more elaborated code of professional ethics emerged. A practitioner had no other choice but to adhere to minimum standards if he wanted to keep his job and keep practicing. The 19th-century education to become a physician encountered some changes from the 18th century. The 18th century was an apprenticeship program. The apprentice and master worked together and so the level of training received varied from person to person varied. In the 19th century, hospital medical schools and universities gained popularity for teaching. Apprenticeships were reducing rapidly. Training became more standardized. It was standardized more all over the world too because medical students that attended these schools came from all over the world. With this came a sense of professional identity and community made possible this modern profession seen today. With the professionalization of medicine came the emergence of the movement of physical diagnoses of physicians' patients in the 19th century. It was believed to help treat patients better. Before the emergence of this movement, physicians based their diagnoses on the interpretation of their patients’ symptoms. Physical diagnoses became part of the modern professional practice of medicine. It was one of the major accomplishments of Parisian hospitals and with the rise of Parisian pathological-anatomy, it became a very important clinical practice. Disease was believed to be an anatomical lesion inside the body. Physical examination was necessary to properly qualify them. This new approach caused the problem of the growing diagnostic competence but smaller treatment capacities. As well, this caused a pressure on the physician to find and classify the illness but also to treat and cure the disease. Skepticism grew in the profession as fellow physicians watched each other for proper treatment of patients. The invention of the stethoscope in 1816 made auscultation and percussion regularly employed to help in the physical diagnosis process. Diagnose and treatment now had to be based on science. The rise of hospitals facilitated physical diagnoses. That being said, patients were often reluctant to undergo physical diagnosis, especially with the rise of new medical instruments being used. In fact, manuals were written to help physicians gain knowledge on proper “patient etiquette” and gain their consent to perform certain procedures. Society had a hard time accepting the procedures required for the routine physical examination and its necessity. It was more interested in the cure and treatment effectiveness of the diagnosis. The industrialization in the late nineteenth century resulted in a demand for physicians. In Canada, the industrializing towns and cities of the Maritimes gave plenty of opportunities for their physicians to show their skills as emerging professionals. For example, medical doctors were needed to inspect tenement housing, and sanitary conditions of factories and schools. Doctors were needed to promote public and personal hygiene to reduce disease transmission. Medical failures often hampered the reputation of these physicians which made their status as professionals harder to implement and make the general population accept them as this. Not to mention over-crowding eventually became a problem. the profession called on the government for help especially in the last quarter of the 19th century. Restriction on who could get in medical schools, and higher demands on their education were put in place. As well, greater attentions to their professional ethics were among the strategies employed to distinguish themselves as high status professionals. Physicians also pressured the government for better attention to the health of its citizens. For example, the recollection of data of the births and deaths which it had stopped doing in the Maritimes in 1877. Provincial medical boards, allowance of registration for practice across all provinces, better schools, protection against the unlicensed physicians and unskilled persons, were some other actions taken. Although medical techniques did approve in the nineteenth century, attempts to deny rights for the other competing professions in the health field made it seem like medical doctors wanted to monopolize medical care and seek their own interests rather the public welfare. Engineers Engineering, as it became a profession, had fewer restrictions in the 19th century. As it did not have mandatory licensing for entrants, competition was bigger. Unlike physicians, engineers could not enjoy protection from competition. For instance, a person without a college degree could still become an engineer. Engineers could be independent. It was a semi-autonomous profession because it could still require extended training and it formed body of specialized knowledge. The nature of their work meant that they were always influenced by business and industry. In many cases they did want to be independent. Oftentimes, they sought power through their connection with an organization. The engineer profession was much more collaborative. In Canada, Interprofessional conflict, differences in organization, and state lobby caused the differences in timing and legislature of occupations such as engineering. In engineering, the profession was initially just organized on a national or cross-provincial basis. For example, the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers was formed in 1887 before it was regulated in each province. Even then, legislation from province to province varied. This was due to the resistance and oppositions of the people in all provinces. For example, in Ontario, the act on engineering did not pass until 1922, and it had to be altered to exempt all mining operations from the bill. This was because the mining industry was afraid the act would alert business and the ability to hire whoever they wanted During times of rapid growth, regulations were added or altered to starve off over crowding. In the 19th century, an engineer qualified to practice in England would not have trouble practicing in Canada. To obtain an engineer’s certificate from them these countries, many demands which had to be met. For example, in Ontario Canada, for each different class of engineer certificate obtained, certain math skills must be met first. To practice as a Water Supply Engineer in England, a person had to obtain a certificate. This certificate was only granted if the provisions under the Water act of 1890 are met. There was little opening for employment as a civil engineer in England, although those who were good eventually found work. In England, because production was controlled by craftsmen, creativity and quality of the product was seen as dominant factors in the emerging engineering profession. During the Industrial revolution, whereas the United States focused its attention to standardization for mass production, England focused on methods of small-scale manufacturing. English engineers still emphasized quality in their work. Learning by practical experience was also strongly encouraged and training new engineers became like an apprenticeship. In France, they were more concern with the theoretical aspect of engineering, specifically understanding the mathematical aspect of it. They built “grandes écoles" of engineering and state employment was the most predominant work for engineering. Engineering practices and education depended upon cultural values and preferences. Oftentimes in the US, business and engineer managers influenced engineer work. In the United States, engineering was more focused on experience and achieving material and commercial success. Manual labor was seen as something positive. It was influenced by France to build schools for engineering training rather than on the site training, in the late 19th century. Professional status was gained through corporate training. Unlike the other emerging professions mentioned earlier, engineering as a profession did not reply on the approval of their peers but rather of corporate and government hierarchies (private industry). The number of engineers increased by 2000 percent in the period between 1880 and 1920 in the United States. The Industrial revolution created a demand for them. Their main competition was Germany. Industries encouraged engineering to change from a craft to a profession. The standardization of practices during this time helped established their professional image as expertise. That being said, many factory and business and factory owners did not particularly like this standardization because they felt threaten that engineers would increase their authority and territory. This was also desired by engineers themselves to end labor troubles. It was believed that it would increase production and predictability. Civil engineers were overtaken by mechanical engineers. In fact, the numbers of professional mechanical engineers increased by 600 percent and college enrollment in this specialization outnumbered civil engineering. Now, they were more needed. Engineers were okay being classified "professionals of a corporation", because they were still mostly industry workers anyway and valued the ideology of no government intervention in the economy. Shortly before, and during the Progressive Era, better organization of various fields of work including engineering took place because it encouraged professionalism, equality, and progress. Systematization was a big part of it. For example, The American Society of Mechanical Engineer was founded in 1880, and met twice a year. Professional codes of ethics were also established for this profession. However, the growing profession of engineering had still difficulty in organizing itself. Making a professional image of engineers was difficult because of its prominent association with manual labor. It struggles to this day to gain similar status as members of autonomous, self-regulating professions such as lawyers and physicians. See also Grade inflation Occupational licensing References Bibliography Andrew Delano Abbott, The System of Professions: Essay on the Division of Expert Labour, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988 Jeffrey L. Berlant, Profession and Monopoly: A Study of Medicine in the United States and Great Britain, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1975. Charlotte G. Borst, Catching Babies: Professionalization of Childbirth, 1870–1920, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995 Robert Dingwall, Essays on Professions. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2008. Eyre and Spottiswoode, Professional handbook, dealing with professions in the colonies / issued by the Emigrants Information Office Early Canadiana Online., 1892. Eliot Freidson, Profession of Medicine: A Study of the Sociology of Applied Knowledge, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970 Merle Jacobs and Stephen, E Bosanac, The Professionalization of Work, Whitby, ON: de Sitter Publications, 2006 Alice Beck Kehoe, Mary Beth Emmerichs, and Alfred Bendiner, Assembling the Past: Studies in the Professionalization of Archaeology, University of New Mexico Press, 2000, . Lori Kenschaft, Professions and Professionalization., Oxford University Press, 2008 Magali Sarfatti Larson, The Rise of Professionalism: a Sociological Analysis, Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1978 Gary R. Lowe and P. Nelson Reid, The Professionalization of Poverty: Social Work and the Poor in the Twentieth Century (Modern Applications of Social Work), Aldine de Gruyter, 1999 Keith M. Macdonald, The Sociology of the Professions, London: Sage Publications Ltd, 1995 Linda Reeser, Linda Cherrey, and Irwin Epstein, Professionalization and Activism in Social Work, Columbia University Press, 1990, Patricia M. Schwirian, Professionalization of Nursing: Current Issues and Trends, Philadelphia: Lippencott, 1998, Howard M Vollmer, and D L Mills, Professionalization, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1966 Anne Witz, Professions and Patriarchy, London: Routledge, 1992 Donald Wright, The Professionalization of History in English, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005 External links Article abstracts on this theme ESA research network on sociology of professions University of Aberdeen reading list: Sociology of Professions An issue of Current Sociology devoted to this topic Sociological terminology	0.766009	0.97651	0.748015
Parallel society	Parallel society refers to the self-organization of an ethnic or religious minority, often but not always immigrant groups, with the intent of a reduced or minimal spatial, social and cultural contact with the majority society into which they immigrate. The term was introduced into the debate about migration and integration in the early 1990s by the German sociologist Wilhelm Heitmeyer. It rose to prominence in the European public discourse following the murder of Dutch director and critic of Islam Theo van Gogh. In 2004, the Association for the German Language ranked the term second in their Word of the year list. See also Parallel state Pillarisation Multiculturalism Leitkultur Auto-segregation Ghetto Dhimmi Parallel Polis, the deliberate creation of a parallel society to overcome oppressive systems Sensitive urban zone (France) Vulnerable residential area (Denmark) Vulnerable area (Sweden) References German words and phrases Identity politics Multiculturalism Society	0.76161	0.982143	0.74801
International regime	An international regime is the set of principles, norms, rules and procedures that international actors converge around. Sometimes, when formally organized, it can transform into an intergovernmental organization. Definition and types Stephen D. Krasner defines international regimes as "sets of implicit or explicit principles, norms, rules, and decision-making procedures around which actors' expectations converge in a given area of international relations". Regimes "are more specialized arrangements that pertain to well-defined activities, resources, or geographical areas and often involve only some subset of the members of international society", according to Oran R. Young. Types of regimes include International Conventions such as the Basel Convention, the Mediterranean Action Plan and well-known regimes like the Bretton Woods System of monetary management. International Regimes might also include international organizations in a broader sense. Formation International regimes often form in response to a need to coordinate behavior among countries around an issue. In the absence of an overarching regime, for instance, telecommunications between countries would have to be governed by numerous bilateral agreements, which would become impossibly complex to administer worldwide. A regime such as ITU serves simultaneously as a forum, a multilateral treaty, and a governing body to standardize telecommunications across countries efficiently. The International Monetary Fund, Biological Weapons Convention, and Kyoto Protocol are other examples of international regimes. The number of international regimes has increased dramatically since the Second World War, and today regimes cover almost all aspects of international relations that might require coordination among countries, from security issues (such as weapons non-proliferation or collective defense), to trade, finance, and investment, information and communication, human rights, the environment, and management of outer space—to name a few. Regimes are dynamic and evolving processes whereby there is no fixed arrangements between participants. Some scholars emphasize the importance of a hegemon in creating a regime and giving it momentum. This is called the hegemonic stability theory. The United States, for example, has been instrumental in creating the Bretton Woods system, with organizations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The rationale is that a hegemon, being the dominant actor in international politics and economics, often stands to gain the most from the creation of global standards. For instance, while other countries might benefit from it, U.S. companies like Microsoft, Universal Studios, and Pfizer would be among the greatest beneficiaries of a strict global intellectual property regime. As the hegemons use their power to create regimes, their withdrawal similarly can also threaten the effectiveness of regimes. Proponents and critics Regimes serve crucial functional needs in international relations. Powerful regimes are considered by some scholars as independent actors in international politics. Although ultimately states create and sustain regimes, once institutionalized, regimes can exert influence in world politics that is practically independent of state sovereignty. The International Atomic Energy Agency, for instance, has certain rights, given to it by states themselves, to monitor nuclear energy activity in countries. Insofar as they are organized by means of treaties among countries, regimes provide an important source of formal international law. Regimes themselves can also be subjects of international law. Insofar as they shape the behavior of states, the most influential regimes can also be a source of customary international law. In this light, some liberal scholars see in regimes the early seeds of peaceful world governance, in the vein of philosopher Immanuel Kant's idea of perpetual peace through a federation of world's states. Critics of regimes deplore their influence as a source of additional conflict or inefficiency in world politics. The security regime organized around the United Nations Security Council is sometimes cited as a case in point. Some other scholars are also alarmed that regimes represent a dilution of democratic control. Although they govern and influence important aspects of life, they operate steps removed from domestic democratic politics, organized around a legislature. In effect, some critics argue, most regimes come to represent the technocratic views of international civil servants, with agreements made behind closed doors, rather than being subject to openness and democratic popular representation. Some regimes, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) have tried to address this "democratic deficit" by establishing civilian affairs departments, which are supposed to act as a liaison to the popular will. Most regimes are still insulated from the direct democratic politics that happen within states. Some, however, consider such insulation necessary, since much of international coordination require specialized expertise provided best by technocrats. See also Danube River Conference of 1948 International Organization Regime theory References International relations	0.776674	0.962982	0.747922
Regulatory capitalism	Regulatory capitalism suggests that the operation maintenance and development of the international political economy increasingly depends on administrative rules outside the legislatures and the courts. In other words, it tells us that capitalism is a regulatory institution – one that is being constituted, shaped, constrained and expanded as a historically woven patchwork of regulatory institutions, strategies, and functions. Although this patchwork varies widely across regions, nations, regimes, sectors, issues, and arenas, the general trend despite and beyond the process of liberalization is that of growth rather than decline of the role regulation in shaping policy and politics. Regulatory capitalism claims that the capitalist system was built, cultivated, and controlled by regulation and that demand for regulation is in fact generated by capitalism. Deregulation may represent trends in some industries (notably finance), but more regulation is the general trend beyond that characterize modern and post-modern capitalism alike. Regulation, which refers to rule making and rule enforcement, is in this interpretation an instrument of organizations—states, business, civil and hybrid and is carried at all political arenas and levels. The concept of regulatory capitalism serves as an alternative to concepts like financial capitalism, welfare capitalism, casino capitalism, developmental capitalism, risk capitalism, state capitalism and crony capitalism in an attempt to shed more light on capitalism as a polymorphous order. It builds on and extends the observations on the rise of a particular form of state–the regulatory state–and social governance via rule making, rule monitoring and rule enforcement. Origins of regulatory capitalism When looking for the origins of regulatory capitalism, the development of capitalism as an order of economic allocation has to be first studied. The maturity of capitalism in this sense was reached during the nineteenth century. The main factors that contributed to its expansion include British hegemony in the nineteenth century, the social and economic implications of the Industrial Revolution, and the global echoes of the French Revolution. Moreover, the crisis of the interwar period as well as the process of democratic enfranchisement enabled a shift towards an increased role of the state, which in many domains took over two major functions of governance previously dominated by business – steering (leading, thinking, directing, guiding) and rowing (enterprise, service provision). In regulatory capitalism, the role of steering is occupied by the state, while the functions of service provision and technological innovation are performed by business. In the 1990s it became more evident that while the state attempted to get rid of running things, it started to regulate more of them instead. At the same time, the regulation expenses of the state soared, incentivising the analysts to talk about the state as a regulatory state. Moreover, many non-state actors, particularly the executive actors beyond the state, started to regulate other organizations more. The term 'regulatory society' was developed. Some researchers pointed out that the markets had become more vibrant at the same time as the regulation of the markets increased. That led to the creation of the term 'regulatory capitalism', which connected the terms 'regulatory state' and 'regulatory society' to the simultaneous rapid development of the capitalist system. One of the first books that attempted to capture how the regulatory capitalism globalized through a variety of mechanisms such as modelling was the book Global Business Regulation by Braithwaite and Drahos, published in 2000. See also Economic interventionism Mixed economy Regulated market Regulatory capture Regulatory economics Regulatory state Social democracy References Bibliography David Levi-Faur and Jacint Jordana Eds, The Rise of Regulatory Capitalism: The Global Diffusion of a New Order, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science Series. J. Braithwaite, Regulatory Capitalism: How it Works, Ideas for Making it Work Better, Cheltenham, Edward Elgar, 2008. Capitalism Sociology of law Political science Economic globalization Public administration Economics of regulation	0.787268	0.949919	0.747841
Enforcement	Enforcement is the proper execution of the process of ensuring compliance with laws, regulations, rules, standards, and social norms. Governments attempt to effectuate successful implementation of policies by enforcing laws and regulations. Enactment refers to application of a law or regulation, or carrying out of an executive or judicial order. Theories of enforcement Enforcement serves a number of functions; the enforcement of social norms can ensure conformity within insular communities, the enforcements of laws can maximize social benefits and protect the public interest, and enforcement may also serve the self-interest of the institutions that oversee enforcement. Enforcement can be effectuated by both public institutions and private, non-governmental actors. Enforcement is often accomplished through coercive means or by utilizing power disparities to constrain action. Some scholars, such as Kate Andrias, have also argued that institutions enforce rules when deciding "when and how to apply" laws and regulations. Delegation of enforcement powers Some governments will delegate enforcement powers to subordinate governmental entities or private parties. In the United States, for example, the federal government and state governments often delegate a range of enforcement powers to administrative agencies. There has been considerable debate in legal scholarship about the degree to which governments should oversee and supervise institutions to which enforcement powers have been delegated. Enforcement mechanisms In 2017, of 265 policies for ocean protection only 13% had specific enforcement mechanisms. Enforcement mechanisms are major component of governance structures. It has been suggested that an effective global public health security convention would require a governing body (or bodies) to enforce the framework with appropriate enforcement mechanisms. Similar approaches include the concept of "climate clubs" of polities for climate change mitigation. In such, "border adjustments [...] have to be introduced to target those states that do not participate [...] to avoid shifting effects with ecologically and economically detrimental consequences", with such "border adjustments or eco-tariffs" incentivizing other countries to adjust their standards and domestic production to join the climate club. The Paris Agreement may lack enforcement mechanisms. On a national level, penalties for non-complying countries could include: public reprimands economic sanctions denial of benefits, such as those related to travel, trade, and tourism public disclosures of compliance, which could act either as an incentive or penalty tariffs Benefits for countries could include: tangible resources, such as financial aid or technical assistance other support access to data and information, recommendations and guidance, or other services provided by a governing body tariffs Selective enforcement Institutions may choose to exercise discretion, thereby enforcing laws, regulations, or norms only in selective circumstances. Some scholars, such as Joseph H. Tieger, have suggested that selective enforcement is an inherent component of all enforcement regimes, because it is impossible for enforcers to observe and catch every violation. Other scholars, such as Margaret H. Lemos and Alex Stein, have suggested that "strategic" enforcement is a cost-effective method of achieving social benefits; by focusing enforcement on the worst violators, other violators will "downscale" their activities so that they do not appear to be the worst offender. See also Law enforcement Primary and secondary legislation State capacity References Governance Statutory law Law enforcement Legal procedure	0.761896	0.981513	0.747811
Social shaping of technology	According to Robin A. Williams and David Edge (1996), "Central to social shaping of technology (SST) is the concept that there are choices (though not necessarily conscious choices) inherent in both the design of individual artifacts and systems, and in the direction or trajectory of innovation programs." If technology does not emerge from the unfolding of a predetermined logic or a single determinant, then innovation is a 'garden of forking paths'. Different routes are available, potentially leading to different technological outcomes. Significantly, these choices could have differing implications for society and for particular social groups. SST is one of the models of the technology: society relationship which emerged in the 1980s with MacKenzie and Wajcman's influential 1985 collection, alongside Pinch and Bijker's social construction of technology framework and Callon and Latour's actor-network theory. These have a common feature of criticism of the linear model of innovation and technological determinism. It differs from these notably in the attention it pays to the influence of the social and technological context of development which shapes innovation choices. SST is concerned to explore the material consequences of different technical choices, but criticizes technological determinism, which argues that technology follows its own developmental path, outside of human influences, and in turn, influences society. In this way, social shaping theorists conceive the relationship between technology and society as one of 'mutual shaping'. Some versions of this theory state that technology affects society by affordances, constraints, preconditions, and unintended consequences (Baym, 2015). Affordance is the idea that technology makes specific tasks easier in our lives, while constraints make tasks harder to complete. The preconditions of technology are the skills and resources that are vital to using technology to its fullest potential. Finally, the unintended consequences of technology are unanticipated effects and impact of technology. The cell phone is an example of the social shaping of technology (Zulto 2009). The cell phone has evolved over the years to make our lives easier by providing people with handheld computers that can answer calls, answer emails, search for information, and complete numerous other tasks (Zulto, 2009). Yet it has constraints for those that are not technologically savvy, hindering many people in society who do not understand how to utilize these devices. There are preconditions, such as monthly bills and access to electricity. There are also many unintended consequences such as the unintended distraction they cause for many people. Not only does technology affect society, but according to SST, society affects technology by way of economics, politics, and culture (Baym, 2015). For instance, cell phones have spread in poor countries due to cell phones being more affordable than a computer and internet service (economics), government regulations which have made it fairly easy for cell phone providers to build networks (politics), and the small size of cell phones which fit easily into many cultures’ need for mobile communication (culture). Names associated with this field Donald A. MacKenzie, Judy Wajcman, Bruno Latour, Wiebe Bijker, Thomas P. Hughes, John Law, Trevor Pinch (also Trevor J. Pinch), Michel Callon, Steve Woolgar, Carl May, Thomas J. Misa, Boelie Elzen, Robin Williams (academic), Ronald R. Kline, Marlei Pozzebon, and Osman Sadeck See also Normalization process theory (NPT) Science and technology studies Science studies Social construction of technology (SCOT) Technological revolution Technology and society References Donald Mackenzie and Judy Wajcman, editors. The Social Shaping of Technology. 2nd ed. Open University Press, 1999. . Robin Williams and David Edge , Research Policy, Vol. 25, 1996, pp. 865–899. Baym, N. K. (2015). Personal connections in the digital age. John Wiley & Sons, pp 51-52. Zulto, J. (2009, April 6). Social Shaping Of Technology. Retrieved May 20, 2018. External links Technological Determinism and Social Choice - deals with both technological determinism and the social shaping of technology social shaping Science and technology studies Social constructionism Technological change	0.777494	0.96182	0.74781
Food politics	Food politics is a term which encompasses not only food policy and legislation, but all aspects of the production, control, regulation, inspection, distribution and consumption of commercially grown, and even sometimes home grown, food. The commercial aspects of food production are affected by ethical, cultural, and health concerns, as well as environmental concerns about farming and agricultural practices and retailing methods. The term also encompasses biofuels, GMO crops and pesticide use, the international food market, food aid, food security and food sovereignty, obesity, labor practices and immigrant workers, issues of water usage, animal cruelty, and climate change. Policy Government policies around food production, distribution, and consumption influence the cost, availability, and safety of the food supply domestically and internationally. On a national scale, food policy work affects farmers, food processors, wholesalers, retailers and consumers. Commodity crops, such as corn, rice, wheat, and soy are most often at the heart of agricultural policy-making. While most food policy is initiated domestically, there are international ramifications. Globally, protectionist trade policies, international trade agreements, famine, political instability, and development aid are among the primary influences on food policy. Increasingly, climate change concerns and predictions are gaining the attention of those most concern with ensuring an adequate worldwide food supply. Gastronationalism Sociologist Michaela DeSoucey in 2010 described the concept of gastronationalism as the use of food and its history, production, control, and consumption as a way of promoting nationalism. It may involve arguments between two or more regions or countries about whether a particular dish or preparation is claimed by one of those regions or countries and has been appropriated or co-opted by the others. Atsuko Ichijo and Ronald Ranta have called food "fundamentally political" and "one of the essential commodities with which political powers at various levels are concerned". Food historian Michelle T. King suggests that cuisine is a natural focus for studies of nationalism, pointing out dozens of such treatments over the first decades of the 21st century. Examples of gastronationalism include efforts by state bodies, nongovernmental bodies, businesses and business groups, and individuals. New York University professor Fabio Parasecoli has defined food as an expression of identity. Conflict between two or more regions or countries about whether a particular dish or preparation is claimed by one of those regions or countries and has been appropriated or co-opted by the others is not uncommon, especially in areas where there has been violent conflict. Dishes affected by these culinary wars tend to be those with "a clearly symbolic ethnic significance". They also tend to be dishes that "represent territorial aspirations" and can be developed and prepared only by settled – and therefore indigenous – peoples. Mary Douglas said "national food cultures become a blinding fetish which, if disregarded, may be as dangerous as an explosion". In 2006 researcher Liora Gvion argued that cuisines of poverty – typically, traditional foods – "reveal the inter-connection between the culinary discourse and the political one" and that the issue was tied up with those of access to land and national identity. According to DeSoucey, gastronationalism uses food to promote a sense of national identity and affects how members of the national community develop "national sentiments and taste preferences for certain foods." Kingston University's Ranta in 2018 said a group's claims to a particular food become important when a "cause or agenda is behind the claim", citing the politics of food in the Arab-Israeli conflict as an example. Technology As with many industries, the food industry has experienced growth in the capacity to produce food with the use of improved technologies. In developed countries, there are a number of important trends at play. Yields, or the amount of food harvested per acre of cropland, have increased less than one percent per year in since at least the 1960s and the amount of land devoted to crop use is in decline due to development pressures for housing and other economic concerns. In the U.S. alone, about 3000 acres of productive farmland are lost each day. This places a premium on quality yields from existing acres of farmland. In addition, the demand for meat products worldwide, expected to double by 2020, has accelerated a trend toward raising more animals on fewer acres of land. Farming of animals More intensive forms of animal farming have largely replaced traditional methods of raising pigs, cattle, poultry and fish for human consumption in the U.S. The increased development of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations have been associated with increased risk of foodborne illnesses from e.coli, environmental degradation, and increased emissions of ammonia, carbon dioxide, and methane into the air. In addition to food safety and environmental concerns, organizations such as the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) have drawn attention to a range of practices that allow for the more efficient raising of animals for meat consumption, but these practices stress the animals, the land on which they are raised and the supply of food for human consumption. In a recent report on industrialized animal agriculture, HSUS called on people in Western countries to shift to a plant-based diet because half the world's grain crop is used to raise animals for meat, eggs, and milk. Fish farming has also come under scrutiny due to high concentrations of fish in smaller spaces than is experienced in the wild. For both land and water animals, the prophylactic use of antibiotics to promote growth and stem the spread of infection among the animals has also been questioned due to concerns that this practice may contribute to strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Genetically modified foods The use of genetically modified organism seeds to grow commodity and other crops in the U.S. has drawn criticism from organizations such as Greenpeace, The Non-GMO Project, and the Organic Consumers Association among others. Concerns center on both food safety and the erosion of agricultural biodiversity. While the European Union regulates genetically engineered foods as they would any other new product requiring extensive testing to provide it is safe for human consumption, the U.S. does not. The Food and Drug Administration generally considers a food with origins from genetically modified organisms (GMO) to be as safe as its conventional counterpart. Numerous studies have backed industry claims that GMO foods appear to be safe for human consumption, including an examination of more than 130 research projects conducted in the European Union prior to 2010 and work published by the American Medical Association's Council on Science and Public Health. In the U.S., the political debate has centered primarily on whether or not to label products with GMO origins to better inform the public about the content of the foods they purchase. A statewide ballot question that would have mandated labeling of GMO products in California was defeated in 2012. The measure, known as Proposition 37 was leading by a wide margin in early polling but was defeated after an advertising blitz bankrolled by Monsanto, the largest supplier of genetically engineered seeds, as well as Kraft Foods, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and other large food business interests. The ballot question's results were closely watched across the country as advocates for the measure hoped that it would pass and spur the federal government to mandate labeling of GMO foods as well. In the wake of the labeling law proposal's defeat, an organization called March Against Monsanto was formed to continue to keep alive the public debate about labeling GMO food products. In 2013, a ballot initiative that would have required labels on GMO foods sold in the state of Washington was defeated by voters, again after a campaign against the initiative was led by major food companies. Pesticide use Among the much-heralded impacts of the Green Revolution was the spread of technological advances in the development of pesticides to ensure higher crop yields. Health effects of pesticides have led to a number of regulatory and non-regulatory efforts to control potential harm to human health from these chemicals in the food supply. The US Environmental Protection Agency has jurisdiction of the use of pesticides in crop management and sets tolerances for trace amounts of pesticides that may be found in the food supply. About 12,000 samples of fruits and vegetables available to U.S. consumers are collected each year and tested for residue from pesticides and the results are published in an annual Pesticide Data Program (PDP) hosted by the USDA. Big food Food manufacturing and processing is a heavily concentrated industry. The 10 largest food companies in the United States control more than half of all food sales domestically and a growing percentage of packaged food and beverage products on store shelves worldwide. Ranked by food sales, PepsiCo, Inc. is the largest food manufacturer in the U.S., followed by Tyson Foods, Nestlé, JBS USA, and Anheuser-Busch, according to a 2013 list published by Food Processing magazine. Big food influence is evident in Washington, D.C. where companies spend millions on lobbying each year, many of whom are members of the Consumer Goods Forum. Lobbying benefits large corporations whose deep pockets and connections get them special access to lawmakers, regulators and other influential officials. According to figures from the United States Census Bureau from 2007, the most highly concentrated food industries in the country included cane sugar refining, breakfast cereals, bottled water, and cookie/cracker manufacturing using the 4-firm concentration ratio. Consolidation of this industry took place in the 1970s and 1980s through a series of mergers and acquisitions. "Big food" has come under fire not only because a small number of players are responsible for a large percentage of the food supply chain, but because of concerns about the links between the highly processed foods they produce and the obesity epidemic both in the U.S. and worldwide. A report from Global Health Advocacy Incubator documents the food industry's strategies to defeat warning labels on ultra-processed food products (UPP). The director general of the World Health Organization, in a speech given at the 8th Global Conference on Health Promotion in Helsinki, Finland in June 2013, noted that the public health community's efforts to combat chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease are pitted against the economic interests of the powerful food industry. Marketing and other strategies of the food industry have been compared to those of the tobacco industry at the height of its influence in the consumer marketplace. In response, the food industry has engaged in some voluntary efforts to improve the nutritional content of their foods. In 2005, General Mills announced a plan to ensure that all of its breakfast cereals contained at least eight grams of whole grain per serving. In 2006, Campbell Soup Company announced an initiative to reduce sodium in its products by at least 25 percent. Due to slumping sales, Campbell's acknowledged that it was adding more sodium back into some of its soups in 2011. The World Health Organization published a report in 2022 which highlights food marketing is especially prevalent where children are and what they watch on TV. Predominantly promoting ultra-processed food which includes sugar-sweetened beverages, and chocolate and confectionery. It confirms food marketing is pervasive, persuasive and bad for health. Food movements A cultural backlash against an increasingly mechanized food industry has taken a number of different forms. Local food is a movement to shift food expenditures by individuals, families, community organizations, schools, restaurants, and other institutions from foods produced and shipped long distances by larger corporate entities to regional farmers and other local producers of food. Small farming interests, relatively heterogeneous products and short supply chains characterize local food markets, though there is no agreed-upon measure of the distances that constitute "local." Community-supported agriculture is a mechanism for connecting consumers with local farmers. Farm-to-table efforts are also part of the local food movement. Meatless Monday is a public health awareness campaign encouraging individuals and families to eat a meat-free diet at least once each week. Launched in 2003 through the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, its focus is on preventable diseases associated with excessive meat consumption but the campaign has also been incorporated by many concerned about sustainable agriculture and the environment. Slow Food is an international movement founded in Italy in 1986, with Slow Food USA established in 2000. The organization stands in opposition to "the standardization of taste and culture, and the unrestrained power of food industry multinationals and industrial agriculture." Among those influential in the food movement in the United States are writers, including Michael Pollan and Marion Nestle, and celebrity chefs such as Alice Waters, Mario Batali and Jamie Oliver. Popular books and movies on contemporary topics in food include Fast Food Nation, The Omnivore's Dilemma and the documentary Food, Inc. In 2011, the president of the American Farm Bureau Federation referred to this influential group as "self-appointed food elitists" and the Washington Post published an op-ed from Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, defending the work he and colleagues have done to improve food systems in the United States. Social justice While the production and distribution of food is primarily an economic activity, advocates for a variety of social justice concerns are increasingly aware of the role that food policy plays in issues of greatest concern to causes they espouse. Biofuel mandates and food supply The interests of varied sectors of the agricultural industry are not always in alignment as illustrated by tensions stemming from a drought in 2012 that affected domestic corn production. Described as the most severe and extensive drought in the U.S. in the last 25 years by the USDA Economic Research Service, thousands of acres of mostly corn and soy fields in the Midwest were damaged or destroyed. This led to increased pressure on the federal government from some domestic farmers and international anti-hunger organizations to relax the Renewable Fuel Standard that call for a portion of the US-grown corn supply to be set aside for ethanol production. Meat and poultry producers, both of whom rely on corn for animal feed and feared rising prices due to the drought conditions, accused the federal government of "picking winners and losers" with its ethanol policy while ethanol producers, many of whom are corn farmers, argued that price spikes would affect them as well and that ethanol production had been scaled back. Domestic food aid Offering government food assistance to the lowest income Americans dates back to the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and has continued into the 21st century. In FY 2011, the budget for the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, which is responsible for the major feeding programs, was $107 billion. The largest single food assistance program in the country is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the provisions for which are contained in a Farm Bill that is re-authorized by Congress and signed by the president every five years. Benefits to SNAP recipients cost approximately $75 billion in 2012. Largely uncontroversial for most of its history, the SNAP program was targeted for major cuts by members of the House of Representatives in the 2012 Farm Bill re-authorization attempt. House leaders also endeavored to separate the SNAP program from the Farm Bill, splitting the long-standing coalition of urban and rural legislators who traditionally backed the renewals of funding for the Farm Bill every five years. Increases in the size of the SNAP caseload during the early 2000s were associated with increases in the unemployment rate and with a number of policy changes made to the program in many states. A series of six measures to better understand employment trends developed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, three of which are more conservative estimates of unemployment and three of which define it more broadly, all showed correlations with SNAP participation. In particular, it was suggested that longer-term unemployment results in the heaviest utilization of SNAP benefits. In addition to concerns about the cost of the program from fiscal conservatives, leaders in the movement to improve the nutritional content of the American diet suggested changes to the program to preclude the purchase of sugar-sweetened soft drinks or other forms of junk food with low nutritional value. In fact, the House of Representatives’ version of the initial Food Stamp Act of 1964 prohibited using food stamps for the purchase of soft drinks, but the provision was not adopted. Efforts to more narrowly define the food purchases by SNAP recipients were derided by anti-hunger organizations as a form of paternalism. The 2008 Farm Bill re-authorization established the Healthy Incentives Pilot, a $20 million effort in five states to learn if offering select SNAP recipients credits on purchases of fresh, frozen, canned, or dried fruits and vegetables with no added sugar, salt, fat, or oil will result in increased purchases of these foods. Results of the pilot study were expected in 2014. In addition to advocacy work in Washington, D.C., on behalf of those in poverty, public awareness campaigns around the constraints faced by families receiving SNAP were launched. The food stamp challenge or SNAP challenge is one mechanism used by advocates such as Feeding America. Individuals are challenged to restrict food spending for a week to levels typical for families receiving SNAP benefits. Labor and immigration Hired farmworkers are among the most economically disadvantaged groups in the United States. Farm labor statistics are published twice yearly by the National Agricultural Statistics Service, a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and are compared with similar data from the prior year. In April 2013, the number of workers hired by farm operators was 732,000. Field workers received an average pay of $10.92 per hour and livestock workers earned $11.46 hourly. Average hourly rates for field and livestock work have been on the rise since 1990. Language barriers, fear of deportation, frequent re-locations, and lack of voting status have contributed to difficulties in organizing farm laborers to advocate for wage, benefit, and working condition reforms. The agricultural industry's reliance on non-native workers has become part of the political debate over immigration policies and enforcement in the country. United States Department of Labor statistics from 2009 indicated that about 50 percent of hired crop workers were not legally authorized to work in the U.S., a figure that remained largely unchanged over the course of the prior decade. During that same time period, intense debate took place in the nation's capital regarding immigration policies and enforcement. Farm interests, concerned about access to a steady workforce, worked on Capitol Hill to secure their interests in the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013. Provisions favored by the farm lobby included: "earned adjustments" that will allow for temporary legal immigration status based on past experience with the possibility of applying for permanent residency by continuing to work in agriculture for a set period of time; and a more flexible guest worker program for agricultural workers. In addition to farm labor, workers in the nation's food service industry garnered attention in 2012 and 2013 with a series of strikes against fast food outlets demanding higher wages, better working conditions, and the right to form unions. A study by the Labor Center at the University of California, Berkeley in October 2013 demonstrated that 52 percent of families of fast-food workers receive public assistance, in comparison to 25 percent of the workforce as a whole. According to the study, full-time hours were not sufficient to compensate for low wages. Security In the past, the denial of food deliveries has been used as a weapon in war. For example, during both world wars, the British naval blockade was intended to starve Germany into submission. Food security is an important political issue as national leaders attempt to maintain control of sufficient food supplies for their nation. It can drive national policy, encourage the use of subsidies to stimulate farming, or even lead to conflict. This is mostly a national policy because nations have only recognized that there is a negative duty to not disrupt other nations food supply and do not require that one help them attain such secure access by protecting them against other threats. In 1974, the World Food Summit defined food security as: availability at all times of adequate world food supplies of basic foodstuffs to sustain a steady expansion of food consumption and to offset fluctuations in production and prices In MENA politics "There are three traditional routes to national food security: 1) domestic production, which contributes to self-sufficiency; 2) commercial food imports; and 3) international food aid". Therefore, we need to make it clear that there is a distinction "between self-sufficiency and food security, in that the former is only one possible route to food security at the national level". Since 2007/2008, multiple Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) region governments have begun to consider more domestic food production as a part of their national aggregate food security laws. Although from a political view that approach may be justified due to it helping in stabilizing domestic food prices and deducting vulnerability to international markets and reliance on other countries, it comes at an enormous economic cost. This due to the resource endowments of the majority "of MENA countries—water scarcity and lack of arable land—are not well-suited to food production", specifically cereal production, and "these countries’ comparative international advantages lie in other economic activities". Many of "the international organizations involved in the MENA economies during the 1990s and the 2000s advocated a food security strategy for most countries" that based on diversification away from agriculture towards multiple other activities, "including manufacturing exports, with the resulting foreign exchange used to purchase food imports". "Within the agricultural sector there has also been emphasis on shifting resources into high- value crops that are most efficient in water use, such as fruits, vegetables, and tree crops", with a view on export markets, in replace of cereal production for domestic consumption. Hunger Malnutrition and starvation continue to be a persistent problem in some areas of the world. The effects of low agricultural output can be exacerbated by internecine struggles, such as the famine conditions that occurred in Somalia during the 1990s. But even under more stable conditions, hunger persists in some nations. Images of starvation can have a powerful influence, leading to charitable and even military intervention. Retailing During the late 1990s and early 21st century a significant amount of discussion and debate has developed surrounding the role of supermarkets in the retailing of food and the impacts of supermarkets both on the supply and production of food. Due to the buying power of the large supermarket chains, they can put huge demands on producers, often pushing prices artificially low, whilst still making large profits on the food themselves, with some products selling at over 400% the price paid to, whilst farmers may only make 50p profit on each animal produced domestically. This buying power also allows supermarkets to transcend national boundaries in sourcing food. For example, in the UK, where the food market is highly dominated by supermarkets, only 25% of apples sold in supermarkets are produced domestically, with out-of-season Cox apples being flown 14,000 miles from New Zealand, despite the UK being a natural producer of apples. Furthermore, due to the national nature of the supply networks used by supermarkets, this often involves domestically produced foodstuffs being transported around the country before being delivered to retailers, creating a huge impact both on traffic and pollution. See also Agroecology Animal welfare Consumer Goods Forum Food and drink prohibitions Food marketing Free range List of food labeling regulations Global Food Security Act of 2009 (in the US) Grass fed beef Organic food Right to food Sustainable agriculture Ultra-processed food Vegetarianism Virtual water Notes and references Bibliography Monbiot, G. (2000) Captive State, Basingstoke: Macmillan, pp. 162–208. External links Kootenay Co-op Radio's Deconstructing Dinner – a weekly one-hour radio program that discusses the impacts of our food choices Politics of Food is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization that is committed to the creation of a locally based, sustainable food systems system that is nutritionally, ecologically, and economically sound. "Stuffed & Starved" – News, opinion and resources on the world food system and politics. "The Battle for Healthy Ads: Gauging the Impact of Junk Food" at AnimationInsider.net "Food Politic: Journal of Food News and Culture" Malnutrition	0.764759	0.977811	0.74779
Social engagement	Social engagement (also social involvement, social participation) refers to one's degree of participation in a community or society. Definitions The term "social engagement" is commonly used to refer to one's participation in the activities of a social group. The term has also been defined as "the extent to which an individual participates in a broad range of social roles and relationships." and as "the commitment of a member to stay in the group and interact with other members". The term has not always been used consistently in literature, and can be sometimes confused with several other similar (but distinct) concepts from social sciences. Social engagement is different from the concept of a social network, as social network focuses on a group, rather than the activity. Social engagement also differs from social capital, with the latter defined as "resources available to individuals and groups through their social connections to communities". Civic engagement is also different, as it refers to political activity, and to membership and volunteering in civil society organizations. Characteristics Social engagement can be evidenced by participation in collective activities, which reinforces social capital and social norms. Key elements of social engagement include activity (doing something), interaction (at least two people need to be involved in this activity), social exchange (the activity involves giving or receiving something from others), and lack of compulsion (there is no outside force forcing an individual to engage in the activity). For the most part, social engagement excludes activities for which one is getting paid, or family obligations. A common metric of social engagement is the quantifiable volume of activity. A traditional form of social engagement, such as church going, may be measured by the number of one's visits to the church. In the Internet setting, a metric of social engagement on a discussion board may take the form of the number of posts made. One of the main questions about social engagement explored by social scientists has been whether individuals are more or less engaged with various communities. Some studies have suggested that modern information and communication technologies have made it easier for individuals to become socially engaged in more distant or virtual communities, and thus have decreased their involvement in local communities. Promotion of positive behavior in, and opportunities for, social engagement also serve as key goals in the field of positive youth development. Health High social engagement may improve happiness and health and well-being; however, context is important. High social engagement in deviant, delinquent activities such as membership in a criminal organization can be detrimental to one's health, as can be being too involved (having too many social roles), which can lead to stress due to conflicts between roles. Covid-19 added a complication to social engagement which relies on face-to-face interactions to compliment social media engagement when it comes to . "Children are among the social groups most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic because they have found themselves forced to stay at home, far from their schoolmates, their friends, and far from all the activities they used to do before the pandemic." Social engagement and inclusion Poverty can greatly impact one’s social participation. Engagement in social activities can be impacted by an individual’s employment or the lack of it. Social inclusion is critical to ensure that the needs of disadvantaged social groups such as indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, older persons, youth, and women, are considered. Socially engaged theater Socially engaged theater is performance work that comments on or raises awareness about social issues around race, gender, disability, sexuality, and equality. The audience is invited to participate in aspects of the performance. See also References Community Sociological terminology	0.762067	0.981262	0.747787
Political ponerology	Political ponerology is a concept popularized by Polish psychiatrist Andrzej Łobaczewski. Łobaczewski advocated using the fields of psychology, sociology, philosophy, and history to account for such phenomena as aggressive war, ethnic cleansing, genocide, and despotism. Andrzej Łobaczewski and early research group During World War II, Łobaczewski worked for the Polish Home Army, an underground Polish resistance organization. After the war, he studied at Jagiellonian University under professor of psychiatry Edward Brzezicki. Łobaczewski's class was the last to receive an education uninfluenced by Soviet ideology and censorship, after which psychiatry was restricted to Pavlovian concepts. The study of genetics and psychopathy was forbidden. Psychopathology and politics Łobaczewski adopted the term "ponerology", which is derived from the Greek word poneros, from the branch of theology dealing with the study of evil. According to Łobaczewski, all societies fluctuate between "happy times" and "unhappy times". During happy times the privileged classes enjoy prosperity and suppress advanced psychological knowledge of psychopathological influence in the corridors of power. Though happy, these times are not necessarily morally advanced as the privileged classes' prosperity or happiness may be premised on the oppression or exploitation of others. To block out such inconvenient truths (the voice of conscience) the privileged use 'conversive thinking', which means changing the outcome of the reasoning process to a more convenient outcome. This is accompanied by a rise in egotism and emotionalism. This growing 'hysteria' of the privileged classes (emotionalism, egotism and conversive thinking) spreads across society over several generations. National hysteria is a natural cycle and forms a sine-wave almost 200 years long. Hysteria causes people to lose the ability to differentiate between psychologically healthy and pathological individuals. In this environment the behavior of 'characteropaths', or individuals with slight brain tissue damage (e.g. from toxic substances, viruses, difficult births, pathological parenting) is accepted as normal and this acts as a gateway to normalizing the behavior of those with genetic deviations, including psychopathy. Finally, near the point of maximum hysteria society becomes polarized and paralyzed and the most pathologically egotistical of all 'spellbinders' can come to power. The spellbinder worsens the psychological health of those under his or her influence. This may be the beginning of a 'pathocracy' (though not inevitable) in which individuals with biologically based psychopathology, including personality disorders (especially psychopathy) occupy positions of power and influence. The spellbinder hides behind an 'ideological mask', a belief system that he uses to gain power. Any belief system can be used as an ideological mask, including religion. Psychopaths have no problems wearing personal masks or ideological masks and are accepted as normal within the spellbinder's movement. A network of psychopaths gradually begins to dominate, and they begin to eliminate the brain-tissue damaged and those who genuinely believe in the ideology. At a certain point the minority block of psychopaths has a showdown with all those they've usurped. A full blown-pathocracy is known as a totalitarian state and characterized by a government turned against its own people. A pathocracy may emerge when a society is insufficiently guarded against the typical and inevitable minority of such abnormal pathology, which Łobaczewski asserts is caused by biology or genetics. He argues that in such cases these individuals infiltrate an institution or state, prevailing moral values are perverted into their opposite, and a coded language like Orwell's doublethink circulates into the mainstream, using paralogic and paramoralism in place of genuine logic and morality. There are various identifiable stages of pathocracy described by Łobaczewski. Ultimately pathocracy dies because the pathological are promoted to positions of power, even though they have little or no talent or abilities. The root of healthy social morality, according to Łobaczewski, is contained in the congenital instinctive infrastructure in the vast majority of the population, and while some in the normal population are more susceptible to pathocratic influence and become its lackeys, the majority instinctively resist. During unhappy times the intelligentsia and society at large can recover real values to resolve the new social order along mentally healthier lines. See also Antisocial personality disorder References and notes External links Political Ponerology: Andrew M. Lobaczewski - Ponerology.com Majority–minority relations Political theories Psychopathology Sociological terminology	0.764669	0.977839	0.747724
Typology (urban planning and architecture)	Typology is the study and classification of object types. In urban planning and architecture, typology refers to the task of identifying and grouping buildings and urban spaces according to the similarity of their essential characteristics. Common examples of essential characteristics include intensity of development (from rural to suburban to urban) and building use (church, hospital, school, apartment, house, etc.) Non-essential characteristics are those which, if modified, would not change the building type. Color, for example, would rarely be considered an essential characteristic of building type. Material, however, may or may not be considered essential depending on how integral the material is to the structure (engineering) and construction (assembly) of the building. Building types may be further divided into subtypes. For example, among religious structures there are churches and mosques, etc.; among churches there are cathedrals and chapels, etc.; among cathedrals there are gothic and romanesque, etc. In architecture and urban planning discourse, typology is sometimes distinguished from morphology, which is the study and classification of buildings according to their shape or form (gk. morph). When this dichotomy is employed between typology and morphology, the term typology tends to refer to the more limited aspects of buildings or urban sites specifically related to their use. In other words: typology is used-based classification; morphology is form-based classification. This distinction is particularly relevant in urban planning and design, where some have begun to question the standard model of single-use zoning codes in favor of form-based zoning codes that regulate development not by use (commercial, residential, industrial, etc) but instead by the shape, size, and placement of buildings on their lots. See also Pattern language Architectural theory Urban studies and planning terminology	0.768862	0.972461	0.747688
Social protection	Social protection, as defined by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, is concerned with preventing, managing, and overcoming situations that adversely affect people's well-being. Social protection consists of policies and programs designed to reduce poverty and vulnerability by promoting efficient labour markets, diminishing people's exposure to risks, and enhancing their capacity to manage economic and social risks, such as unemployment, exclusion, sickness, disability, old age., and enhancing their capacity to manage economic and social risks, such as unemployment, exclusion, sickness, disability, and old age. An emerging approach within social protection frameworks is Adaptive Social Protection, which integrates disaster risk management and climate change adaptation to strengthen resilience against shocks.It is one of the targets of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 10 aimed at promoting greater equality. The most common types of social protection Labor market interventions are policies and programs designed to promote employment, the efficient operation of labor markets, and the protection of workers. Social insurance mitigates risks associated with unemployment, ill-health, disability, work-related injury, and old age, such as health insurance or unemployment insurance. Social assistance is when resources, either cash or in-kind, are transferred to vulnerable individuals or households with no other means of adequate support, including single parents, the homeless, or the physically or mentally challenged. History Traditionally, social protection has been used in the European welfare state and other parts of the developed world to maintain a certain living standard, and address transient poverty. One of the first examples of state-provided social protection can be traced to the Roman Emperor Trajan, who expanded a program for free grain to include more poor citizens of the empire. In addition, he instituted public funds to support poor children. Organized welfare was not common until the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was during this period that in both Germany and Great Britain, welfare systems were established to target the working classes (see National Insurance). The United States followed several years later, during the Great Depression, with emergency relief for those struck the hardest. However, modern social protection has grown to envelop a much broader range of issues and purposes; it is now being used as a policy approach in developing nations, to address issues of persistent poverty and target structural causes. Moreover, it is designed to lift recipients out of poverty, rather than exclusively providing passive protection against contingencies . social protection has rapidly been used in trying to reduce and ultimately eliminate poverty and suffering in developing countries (mostly in Africa), so to enhance and promote economic and social growth. Types Labor market interventions Labor market interventions, consisting of both active and passive policies, provide protection for the poor who are capable of gaining employment. Passive programs, such as unemployment insurance, income support and changes in labor legislation, alleviate the financial needs of the unemployed but are not designed to improve their employability. On the other hand, active programs focus on directly increasing the access of unemployed workers to the labour market. Active labour market policies (ALMPs) have two basic objectives: (1) economic, by reducing the risk of unemployment, increasing the ability of the unemployed to find jobs and increasing their earning capacity, productivity and earnings; and (2) social, by improving social inclusion and participation in productive employment. These programs thus aim to increase employment opportunities and address the social problems that often accompany high unemployment. Active policies are a way of reversing the negative effects of industrial restructuring in transition economies and to help integrate vulnerable people furthest from the labor markets. They are often targeted at the long-term unemployed, workers in poor families, and particular groups with labor market disadvantages. A European Union-funded research as part of the DRIVERS project revealed a linear relationship between investments in national active labour market policies (specifically those directed towards integrating vulnerable groups into employment) and quality of work. It found that European countries with more active labour market policies seem to have healthier, less stressed workplaces. Active labor market programs include a wide range of activities to stimulate employment and productivity such as: Employment services. These services include counseling, placement assistance, job matching, labor exchanges, and other related services to improve the functioning of the labor market. Job Training. This includes training/retraining for the unemployed, workers in mass layoffs and youth to increase the quantity of work supply. Direct employment generation The promotion of small and medium enterprises (e.g., public works projects, subsidies) to increase labor demand. A common issue in implementing successful labor market interventions is how to incorporate the informal economy, which comprises a significant portion of the workforce in developing countries. Informal employment comprises between half and three quarters of non-agricultural employment in the majority of these countries. The proportion of informal employment increases when agriculture is taken into account. Most informal workers are not covered by social security schemes, occupational safety and health measures, working conditions regulations and have limited access to health services and work-related measures of social protection. Labor market interventions work to integrate the different strategies to prevent and compensate occupational and social risks in the informal economy. The strategies that include measures to prevent and mitigate the impact of risks are the most effective. In general, public expenditure on labor market policy (LMP) interventions falls within three main categories: Labor Market Services (1) Total LMP Measures (2-7) training (2), job rotation & job sharing (3), employment incentives (4), supported employment & rehabilitation (5), direct job creation (6), start-up incentives (7), Total LMP supports (8-9) out-of-work income maintenance and support (8), early retirement (9) Social insurance Social insurance schemes are contributory programs that protect beneficiaries from catastrophic expenses in exchange for regular payments of premiums. Health costs can be very high, so health insurance schemes are a popular way reducing risk in the event of shock. However, an individual with low income may not be able to afford insurance. Some argue that insurance schemes should be complemented with social assistance. Community-based health insurance allows pooling in settings where institutional capacity is too weak to organize nationwide risk-pooling, especially in low-income countries, making insurance more affordable. In risk-sharing schemes, the insurance premium is unrelated to the likelihood that the beneficiary will fall ill and benefits are provided on the basis of need. Social assistance Social assistance schemes comprise programs designed to help the most vulnerable individuals ( i.e., those with no other means of support such as single parent households, victims of natural disasters or civil conflict, handicapped people, or the destitute poor), households and communities to meet a social floor and improve living standards. These programs consist of all forms of public action, government and non-government, that are designed to transfer resources, either cash or in-kind (e.g. food transfers), to eligible vulnerable and deprived persons. t. In the context of increasing climate-related shocks, Adaptive Social Protection has emerged as a strategy to help vulnerable populations adapt and build resilience to these events."Social assistance interventions may include: Welfare and social services to highly vulnerable groups such as the physically or mentally disabled, orphans, or substance abusers. Cash or in-kind transfers such as food stamps and family allowances. Unconditional cash transfers, for example, appear to be an effective intervention for reducing extreme poverty, while at the same time improving health and education outcomes. Temporary subsidies such as life-line tariffs, housing subsidies, or support of lower prices of staple food in times of crisis. Policy issues Universalism vs. Targeting There are two main schools of thought concerning scope of social protection. Universalism argues that each person, by merit of simply being a citizen should be entitled to benefits from social protection programs. Such a policy would avoid means-testing and any conditionalities such as work requirements. One of the greatest benefits to this policy perspective is social solidarity, since everyone contributes collaboratively to a system that everyone also benefits from. Social security is one such example. Moreover, economists have argued that universalism is an investment in human capital that aids the development of a nation as a whole. The World Bank's 2019 World Development Report The Changing Nature of Work considers social protection from this perspective, describing existing schemes around the world and presenting simulation data on the potential costs. Opponents would argue that universalism is cost-ineffective and unfairly distorts individual efforts. Such an argument points toward targeting as a better solution. In such a case, the question arises of who should be the target population that receives benefits from social programs. Targeting income vs. capabilities Net income is the simplest method of determining a needy population. Some states use a Guaranteed Minimum Income system, in which all members of a state receive sufficient income to live on, so long as they meet certain conditions. However, proponents of the capabilities approach argue that income is easier to misrepresent, and moreover, fails to target the root causal factors of poverty. Hence, they recommend targeting a minimum level of basic capabilities that will impact quality of life, such as institutional improvements like health and education. Policy examples might include a social floor. Means of provision Social protection is an expensive and difficult endeavor, by any means; the question remains how best to implement programs that effectively aid the people who need it the most. Currently, there are a number of mechanisms that provide social protection in various nations. These policies and instruments vary according to country context. In some nations, governments are strongly involved in the provision of social protection, following a developmentalism model, in which social protection is seen as a tool to promote economic growth. There are also nations which are characterized by dualism, in which there is state-provided protection for those who work in the formal sector, but little to no protection for those who work in the informal sector. Finally, there are nations in which the economy is largely agrarian, and a great majority of the population works in the informal economy. In those countries that have only residual social protection coverage and weak state capacity, social protection is mainly provided by non-governmental means such as kin, NGOs, and individual philanthropic donations. Social protection floor National programs Developmentalism In South Korea and Taiwan, the government provides extensive support for public programs, following the developmentalism model, in which social protection is seen as a tool to promote economic growth. Dualism In Argentina, Brazil, India, China and Indonesia there is a dualist structure of protected formal sector workers with social protection levels similar to that of European countries with strong welfare states and marginalized informal sector workers with basic welfare benefits mostly coming from social assistance. Agrarian-informal In nations such as Tanzania and Ethiopia, governments struggle to provide adequate social protection, and citizens must instead depend on non-state actors and informal provisioning. Donor approaches International donors and organizations have influenced social protection approaches in terms of both policy discourse and program design and implementation. Even though the World Bank and International Labour Organization (ILO) are the major donors and the lead organizations in the field, other organizations are also concerned with social protection. The World Bank is a source of financial and technical assistance for developing countries. In order to identify social risks and potential responses, the World Bank developed a tool called "social risk management" (SRM). The SRM framework includes interventions that focus on managing risks before shocks occur. It is based on two assessments: (1) the poor are most exposed to diverse risks, and (2) the poor have the fewest tools to deal with these risks. The main elements of the SRM framework are: Risk reduction measures that focus on reducing risks in the labor market. Risk mitigation measures to deal with anticipated shock. Risk coping mechanisms to relieve the impact of risk after its occurred. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) brings 30 democratic countries together to seek answers to common problems and coordinate domestic and international policies. The Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the OECD is responsible for the Poverty Network (POVNET) that has become very influential on policy development. The DAC-POVNET focuses on the following areas: Poverty reduction Pro-poor growth People centered development Decent work The International Labour Organization, which covers both issues of social security and labor protection, has been the United Nations agency responsible for setting norms and standards at work. Currently the ILO focuses, amongst others, on the following strategies: Extending social protection to all Promoting decent working conditions Providing programs for informal and migrant workers See also Social security Socialism Social programs in sub-Saharan Africa Welfare state Sustainable Development Goals Sustainable Development Goal 8 References External links Social Protection & Labor Program of the World Bank Welfare economics Retirement Social systems Social programs	0.760891	0.982634	0.747678
Social semiotics	Social semiotics (also social semantics) is a branch of the field of semiotics which investigates human signifying practices in specific social and cultural circumstances, and which tries to explain meaning-making as a social practice. Semiotics, as originally defined by Ferdinand de Saussure, is "the science of the life of signs in society". Social semiotics expands on Saussure's founding insights by exploring the implications of the fact that the "codes" of language and communication are formed by social processes. The crucial implication here is that meanings and semiotic systems are shaped by relations of power, and that as power shifts in society, our languages and other systems of socially accepted meanings can and do change. Overview Social semiotics is the study of the social dimensions of meaning, and of the power of human processes of signification and interpretation (known as semiosis) in shaping individuals and societies. Social semiotics focuses on social meaning-making practices of all types, whether visual, verbal or aural in nature. These different systems for meaning-making, or possible "channels" (e.g. speech, writing, images) are known as semiotic modes (or semiotic registers). Semiotic modes can include visual, verbal, written, gestural and musical resources for communication. They also include various "multimodal" ensembles of any of these modes Social semiotics can include the study of how people design and interpret meanings, the study of texts, and the study of how semiotic systems are shaped by social interests and ideologies, and how they are adapted as society changes (Hodge and Kress, 1988). Structuralist semiotics in the tradition of Ferdinand de Saussure focused primarily on theorising semiotic systems or structures (termed langue by de Saussure, which change diachronically, i.e. over longer periods of time). In contrast, social semiotics tries to account for the variability of semiotic practices termed parole by Saussure. This altered focus shows how individual creativity, changing historical circumstances, and new social identities and projects can all change patterns of usage and design (Hodge and Kress, 1988). From a social semiotic perspective, rather than being fixed into unchanging "codes", signs are considered to be resources which people use and adapt (or "design") to make meaning. In these respects, social semiotics was influenced by, and shares many of the preoccupations of pragmatics (Charles W. Morris) and sociolinguistics and has much in common with cultural studies and critical discourse analysis. The main task of social semiotics is to develop analytical and theoretical frameworks which can explain meaning-making in a social context. Halliday and the social semiotic in language Linguistic theorist, Michael Halliday, introduced the term ‘social semiotics’ into linguistics, when he used the phrase in the title of his book, Language as Social Semiotic. This work argues against the traditional separation between language and society, and exemplifies the start of a 'semiotic' approach, which broadens the narrow focus on written language in linguistics (1978). For Halliday, languages evolve as systems of "meaning potential" (Halliday, 1978:39) or as sets of resources which influence what the speaker can do with language, in a particular social context. For example, for Halliday, the grammar of the English language is a system organised for the following three purposes (areas or "metafunctions"): Facilitating certain kinds of social and interpersonal interactions (interpersonal), Representing ideas about the world (ideational), and Connecting these ideas and interactions into meaningful texts and making them relevant to their context (textual) (1978:112). Any sentence in English is composed like a musical composition, with one strand of its meaning coming from each of the three semiotic areas or metafunctions. Bob Hodge generalises Halliday’s essays on social semiotics into five premises: ‘Language is a social fact’ (1978:1) ‘We shall not come to understand the nature of language if we pursue only the kinds of question about language that are formulated by linguists’ (1978:3) ‘Language is as it is because of the functions it has evolved to serve in people’s lives’ (1978:4). Language has ‘metafunctions’, which in English are: ideational (‘about something’), interpersonal (’doing something’) and textual (‘the speaker’s text-forming potential’) (1978:112). Language is constituted as ‘a discrete network of options’ (1978:113) Social semiotics and critical linguistics Robert Hodge and Gunther Kress's Social Semiotics (1988) focused on the uses of semiotic systems in social practice. They explain that the social power of texts in society depends on interpretation: "Each producer of a message relies on its recipients for it to function as intended." (1988:4) This process of interpretation (semiosis) situates individual texts within discourses, the exchanges of interpretative communities. The work of interpretation can contest the power of hegemonic discourses. Hodge and Kress give the example of feminist activists defacing a sexist advertising billboard, and spray-painting it with a new, feminist message. "Text is only a trace of discourses, frozen and preserved, more or less reliable or misleading. Yet discourse disappears too rapidly, surrounding a flow of texts." (1988:8) Hodge and Kress built on a range of traditions from linguistics (including Noam Chomsky, Michael Halliday, Benjamin Lee Whorf and sociolinguistics), but the major impetus for their work is the critical perspective on ideology and society that originates with Marx. Hodge and Kress build a notion of semiosis as a dynamic process, where meaning is not determined by rigid structures, or predefined cultural codes. They argue that Ferdinand de Saussure's structuralist semiotics avoided addressing questions about creativity, movement, and change in language, possibly in reaction to the diachronic linguistic traditions of his time (the focus on the historical development from Indo-European). This created a "problematic" legacy, with linguistic change relegated to the "contents of Saussure’s rubbish bin" (1988:16-17). Instead, Hodge and Kress propose to account for change in semiosis through the work of Charles Sanders Peirce. Meaning is a process, in their interpretation of Peirce. They refer to Peirce's triadic model of semiosis, which depicts the "action" of a sign as a limitless process of infinite semiosis, where one "interpretant" (or idea linked to a sign) generates another. The flow of these infinite processes of interpretation are constrained in Peirce's model, they claim, by the material world (the "object"), and cultural rules of thought, or "habit". (1988:20) Social semiotics revisits De Saussure's doctrine of the "arbitrariness of the linguistic sign". This notion rests on the argument that the signifier only has an arbitrary relationship to the signified) — in other words, that there is nothing about the sound or appearance of (verbal) signifiers (as, for example, the words "dog" or "chien") — to suggest what they signify. Hodge and Kress point out that questions of the referent become more complicated when semiotics moves beyond verbal language. On the one hand, there is the need to account for the continuum of relationships between the referent and the representation. Here, they draw on Pierce's differentiation between iconic signification (e.g. a colour photograph of smoke, where the signifier recreates the perceptual experience of the signified), indexical signification (e.g. a column of smoke, where there is a causal relationship between the physical signifier and the fire it might signify), and symbolic signification (e.g. the word "smoke", where the arbitrary link between signifier and signified is maintained by social convention). Social semiotics also addresses the question of how societies and cultures maintain or shift these conventional bonds between signifier and signified. De Saussure was unwilling to answer this question, Hodge and Kress claim. This leaves the socially determinist implication that meanings and interpretations are dictated from above, by "the whims of an inscrutably powerful collective being, Society." For Hodge and Kress, social semiotics must respond to the question and explain how the social shaping of meanings works in practice (1988:22). Social semiotics and multimodality Social semiotics is currently extending this general framework beyond its linguistic origins to account for the growing importance of sound and visual images, and how modes of communication are combined in both traditional and digital media (semiotics of social networking) (see, for example, Kress and van Leeuwen, 1996), thus approaching semiotics of culture (Randviir 2004). Theorists such as Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen have built on Halliday's framework by providing new "grammars" for other semiotic modes. Like language, these grammars are seen as socially formed and changeable sets of available "resources" for making meaning, which are also shaped by the semiotic metafunctions originally identified by Halliday. The visual and aural modes have received particular attention. Accounting for multimodality (communication in and across a range of semiotic modes - verbal, visual, and aural) is considered a particularly important ongoing project, given the importance of the visual mode in contemporary communication. In the field of graphic design, the multimodal and social semiotic viewpoint can be perceived as an illustration that connects our sensory abilities together opening up new opportunities for deeper visual interaction. Utilizing this design process, the graphic designers create content which helps improvise the act of meaningful visual communication between the content creators and their audiences. References Sources Halliday, M. A. K. (1978). Language as social semiotic: The social interpretation of language and meaning. Maryland. University Park Press. Hodge, R. and G. Kress. (1988). Social Semiotics. Cambridge: Polity Kress, G., and Van Leeuwen, T. (1996). Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. London: Routledge. Randviir, A. (2004). Mapping the World: Towards a Sociosemiotic Approach to Culture. (Dissertationes Semioticae Universitatis Tartuensis 6.) Tartu: Tartu University Press. Van Leeuwen, T. (2005). Introducing Social Semiotics. New York: Routledge. Semiotics	0.767139	0.97461	0.747661
Social Choice and Individual Values	Kenneth Arrow's monograph Social Choice and Individual Values (1951, 2nd ed., 1963, 3rd ed., 2012) and a theorem within it created modern social choice theory, a rigorous melding of social ethics and voting theory with an economic flavor. Somewhat formally, the "social choice" in the title refers to Arrow's representation of how social values from the set of individual orderings would be implemented under the constitution. Less formally, each social choice corresponds to the feasible set of laws passed by a "vote" (the set of orderings) under the constitution even if not every individual voted in favor of all the laws. The work culminated in what Arrow called the "General Possibility Theorem," better known thereafter as Arrow's (impossibility) theorem. The theorem states that, absent restrictions on either individual preferences or neutrality of the constitution to feasible alternatives, there exists no social choice rule that satisfies a set of plausible requirements. The result generalizes the voting paradox, which shows that majority voting may fail to yield a stable outcome. Introduction The Introduction contrasts voting and markets with dictatorship and social convention (such as those in a religious code). Both exemplify social decisions. Voting and markets facilitate social choice in a sense, whereas dictatorship and convention limit it. The former amalgamate possibly differing tastes to make a social choice. The concern is with formal aspects of generalizing such choices. In this respect it is comparable to analysis of the voting paradox from use of majority rule as a value. Arrow asks whether other methods of taste aggregation (whether by voting or markets), using other values, remedy the problem or are satisfactory in other ways. Here logical consistency is one check on acceptability of all the values. To answer the questions, Arrow proposes removing the distinction between voting and markets in favor of a more general category of collective social choice. The analysis uses ordinal rankings of individual choice to represent behavioral patterns. Cardinal measures of individual utility and, a fortiori, interpersonal comparisons of utility are avoided on grounds that such measures are unnecessary to represent behavior and depend on mutually incompatible value judgments (p. 9). Following Abram Bergson, whose formulation of a social welfare function launched ordinalist welfare economics, Arrow avoids locating a social good as independent of individual values. Rather, social values inhere in actions from social-decision rules (hypostatized as constitutional conditions) using individual values as input. Then 'social values' means "nothing more than social choices" (p. 106). Topics implicated along the way include game theory, the compensation principle in welfare economics, extended sympathy, Leibniz's principle of the identity of indiscernibles, logrolling, and similarity of social judgments through single-peaked preferences, Kant's categorical imperative, or the decision process. Terminology The book defines a few terms and logical symbols used thereafter and their applied empirical interpretation (pp. 11–19, 23). Key among these is the "vote" ('set of orderings') of the society (more generally "collectivity") composed of individuals (“voters” here) in the following form: Voters, a finite set with at least two members, indexed as i = 1, 2, ... n. Commodities, the objects of choice (things that voters might want, goods and services), both private and public (municipal services, statecraft, etc.). A social state is a specification (formally, an element of a vector) of a distribution among voters of commodities, labor, and resources used in their productions. The set of social states, the set of all 'social states', indexed as x, y, z, . ., with at least three members. A (weak) ordering, a ranking by a voter of all 'social states' from more to less preferred, including possible ties. The set of 'orderings', the set of all n orderings, one ordering per voter. The ordering of each voter ranks social states, including the distribution of commodities (possibly based on equity, by whatever metric, or any other consideration), not merely direct consumption by that voter. So, the ordering is an "individual value," not merely, as in earlier analysis, a purely private "taste." Arrow notes that the distinction is not sharp. Resource allocation is specified in the production of each social state in the ordering. The comprehensive nature of commodities, the set of social states, and the set of orderings was noted by early reviewers. The two properties that define any ordering of the set of objects in question (all social states here) are: connectedness (completeness): All the objects in the set are included in the ranking (no "undecideds" nor "abstentions") and transitivity: If, for any objects x, y, and z in the set, x is ranked at least as high as y and y is ranked at least as high as z, then x is ranked at least as high as z. The earlier definition of an ordering implies that any given ordering entails one of three responses on the "ballot" as between any pair of social states (x, y): better than, as good as, or worse than (in preference ranking). (Here "as good as" is an "equally-ranked," not a "don't know," relation.) An ordering of a voter is denoted by R. That ordering of voter i is denoted with a subscript as . If voter i changes orderings, primes distinguish the first and second, say compared to ' . The same notation can apply for two different hypothetical orderings of the same voter. The interest of the book is in amalgamating sets of orderings. This is accomplished through a 'constitution'. A constitution (or social welfare function) is a voting rule mapping each (of at least one) set of orderings onto a social ordering, a corresponding ordering of the set of social states that applies to each voter. A social ordering of a constitution is denoted R. (Context or a subscript distinguishes a voter ordering R from the same symbol for a social ordering.) For any two social states x and y of a given social ordering R: x P y is "social preference" of x over y (x is selected over y by the rule). x I y is "social indifference" between x and y (both are ranked the same by the rule). x R y is either "social preference" of x over y or "social indifference" between x and y (x is ranked least as good as y by the rule). A social ordering applies to each ordering in the set of orderings (hence the "social" part and the associated amalgamation). This is so regardless of (dis)similarity between the social ordering and any or all the orderings in the set. But Arrow places the constitution in the context of ordinalist welfare economics, which attempts to aggregate different tastes in a coherent, plausible way. Arrow (pp. 15, 26–28) shows how to go from the social ordering R for a given set of orderings to a particular 'social choice' by specifying: the environment, S: the subset of social states that is (hypothetically) available (feasible as to resource quantity and productivity), not merely conceivable. The social ordering R then selects the top-ranked social state(s) from the subset as the social choice set. Less informally, the social choice function is the function mapping each environment S of available social states (at least two) for any given set of orderings (and corresponding social ordering R) to the social choice set, the set of social states each element of which is top-ranked (by R) for that environment and that set of orderings. The social choice function is denoted C(S). Consider an environment that has just two social states, x and y: C(S) = C([x, y]). Suppose x is the only top-ranked social state. Then C([x, y]) = {x}, the social choice set. If x and y are instead tied, C([x, y]) = {x, y}. Formally (p. 15), C(S) is the set of all x in S such that, for all y in S, x R y ("x is at least as good as y"). The next section invokes the following. Let R and R' stand for social orderings of the constitution corresponding to any 2 sets of orderings. If R and R' for the same environment S map to the same social choice(s), the relation of the identical social choices for R and R' is represented as: C(S) = C'(S). Conditions and theorem A constitution might seem to be a promising alternative to dictatorship and vote-immune social convention or external control. Arrow describes the connectedness of a social ordering as requiring only that some social choice be made from any environment of available social states. Since some social state will prevail, this is hard to deny (especially with no place on the ballot for abstention). The transitivity of a social ordering has an advantage over requiring unanimity (or much less) to change between social states if there is a maladapted status quo (that is, one subject to "democratic paralysis"). Absent deadlock, transitivity crowds out any reference to the status quo as a privileged default blocking the path to a social choice (p. 120). Arrow proposes the following "apparently reasonable" conditions to constrain the social ordering(s) of the constitution (pp. 25, 96-97). 1. Universal (Unrestricted) Domain U (subsequently so called): Every logically possible set of orderings maps to its own social ordering. Each voter is permitted by the constitution to rank the set of social states in any order, though with only one ordering per voter for a given set of orderings. 2. Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives I: Let , ..., and ' , ..., ' be 2 sets of orderings in the constitution. Let S be a subset of hypothetically available (not merely conceivable) social states, say x and y, from the set of social states. For each voter i, let the ranking of x and y be the same for and for ' . (Different voters could still have different rankings of the 2 social states.) Then the social orderings for the 2 respective sets of orderings select the same state(s) from the subset as the social choice. Arrow describes this condition as an extension of ordinalism with its emphasis on prospectively observable behavior (for the subset in question). He ascribes practical advantage to the condition from "every known electoral system" satisfying it (p. 110). 3. The (weak) Pareto Principle P: For any x and y in the set of social states, if all prefer x over y, then x is socially selected over y.# The conditions, particularly the second and third, may seem minimal, but jointly they are harsh, as may be represented in either of two ways. Arrow's Theorem [1]: The 3 conditions of the constitution imply a dictator who prevails as to the social choice whatever that individual's preference and those of all else. An alternate statement of the theorem adds the following condition to the above: 4. Nondictatorship D: No voter in the society is a dictator. That is, there is no voter i in the society such that for every set of orderings in the domain of the constitution and every pair of distinct social states x and y, if voter i strictly prefers x over y, x is socially selected over y. Arrow's Theorem [2]: The constitution is impossible, that is, the 4 conditions of a constitution imply a contradiction. # Pareto is stronger than necessary in the proof of the theorem that follows above. But it is invoked in Arrow (1963, ch. VIII) for a simpler proof than in Arrow (1951). In the latter, Arrow uses 2 other conditions, that with (2) above imply Pareto (1963, p. 97; 1987, p. 127): 3a. Monotonicity M (Positive Association of Individual and Social Values), as in Arrow (1987, p. 125): For a given set of orderings with social ordering R, such that state x is socially preferred to state y, if the preference for x rises in some individual ordering(s) and falls in none, x is also socially preferred to y in the social ordering for the new set of orderings. Arrow (1951, p. 26) describes social welfare here as at least not negatively related to individual preferences. 3b. As defined by Arrow (1951, pp. 28–29), an Imposed Constitution is a constitution such that for some alternative social states x and y and for any set of orderings , ..., in the domain and corresponding social ordering R, the social ranking is x R y. Non-imposition N (Citizens' Sovereignty): A constitution is not to be imposed. Under imposition, for every set of orderings in the domain, the social ranking for at least one x and y is only x R y. The vote makes no difference to the outcome. Proof The proof is in two parts (Arrow, 1963, pp. 97–100). The first part considers the hypothetical case of some one voter's ordering that prevails ('is decisive') as to the social choice for some pair of social states no matter what that voter's preference for the pair, despite all other voters opposing. It is shown that, for a constitution satisfying Unrestricted Domain, Pareto and Independence, that voter's ordering would prevail for every pair of social states, no matter what the orderings of others. So, the voter would be a Dictator. Thus, Nondictatorship requires postulating that no one would so prevail for even one pair of social states. The second part considers more generally a set of voters that would prevail for some pair of social states, despite all other voters (if any) preferring otherwise. Pareto and Unrestricted Domain for a constitution imply that such a set would at least include the entire set of voters. By Nondictatorship, the set must have at least 2 voters. Among all such sets, postulate a set such that no other set is smaller. Such a set can be constructed with Unrestricted Domain and an adaptation of the voting paradox to imply a still smaller set. This contradicts the postulate and so proves the theorem. Summary, interpretation, and aftereffects The book proposes some apparently reasonable conditions for a "voting" rule, in particular, a 'constitution', to make consistent, feasible social choices in a welfarist context. But then any constitution that allows dictatorship requires it, and any constitution that requires nondictatorship contradicts one of the other conditions. Hence, the paradox of social choice. The set of conditions across different possible votes refined welfare economics and differentiated Arrow's constitution from the pre-Arrow social welfare function. In so doing, it also ruled out any one consistent social ordering to which an agent or official might appeal in trying to implement social welfare through the votes of others under the constitution. The result generalizes and deepens the voting paradox to any voting rule satisfying the conditions, however complex or comprehensive. The 1963 edition includes an additional chapter with a simpler proof of Arrow's Theorem and corrects an earlier point noted by Blau. It also elaborates on advantages of the conditions and cites studies of Riker and Dahl that as an empirical matter intransitivity of the voting mechanism may produce unsatisfactory inaction or majority opposition. These support Arrow's characterization of a constitution across possible votes (that is, collective rationality) as "an important attribute of a genuinely democratic system capable of full adaptation to varying environments" (p. 120). The theorem might seem to have unravelled a skein of behavior-based social-ethical theory from Adam Smith and Bentham on. But Arrow himself expresses hope at the end of his Nobel prize lecture that, though the philosophical and distributive implications of the paradox of social choice were "still not clear," others would "take this paradox as a challenge rather than as a discouraging barrier." The large subsequent literature has included reformulation to extend, weaken, or replace the conditions and derive implications. In this respect Arrow's framework has been an instrument for generalizing voting theory and critically evaluating and broadening economic policy and social choice theory. See also Arrow's impossibility theorem Kenneth Arrow, Section 1 (the theorem and a distributional difficulty of intransitivity + majority rule) Abram Bergson Buchanan and Tullock, The Calculus of Consent: Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy Independence of irrelevant alternatives Pareto efficiency, strong and weak Path dependence, contrasted in Arrow with path independence, which a social ordering assures Political argument Public choice theory Social choice theory Social welfare function Rule according to higher law Utilitarianism Voting paradox Voting system Welfare economics Welfarism JEL D71 by scrolling down for Social Choice Notes References Kenneth J. Arrow, 1951, 2nd ed., 1963, 3rd ed., 2012. Social Choice and Individual Values, Yale University Press. _, 1983. Collected Papers of Kenneth J. Arrow, v. 1, Social Choice and Justice. Description and chapter-preview links. Harvard University Press. _, 1987. “Arrow’s Theorem," The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, v. 1, pp. 124–26. _, 2008. "Arrow's theorem." The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition Abstract. Amartya K. Sen, 1970 [1984]. Collective Choice and Social Welfare (description), ch. 1–7.1. . . Michael Morreau, 2014. "Arrow's Theorem", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.). External links Table of Contents with links to chapters. Link to text of Nobel prize lecture with Section 8 on the theory and background. Comments of Frank Hahn, Donald Saari, and Nobelists James M. Buchanan and Douglass North. Economic-justice high theory with Arrow's framework, context, and references in Sections 1 & 4. James M. Buchanan (1954). "Social Choice, Democracy, and Free Markets," Journal of Political Economy, 62(2), pp. 114-123. H.S. Houthakker (1952). [Review], Economic Journal, 62(246), pp. 355-58. I. M. D. Little (1952). "Social Choice and Individual Values," Journal of Political Economy, 60(5), pp. 422-432. 1951 non-fiction books Mathematical economics Social choice theory Social ethics Social philosophy Works about utilitarianism Value (ethics) Voting theory Rational choice theory Books about philosophy of economics	0.775968	0.963507	0.747651
Recontextualisation	Recontextualisation is a process that extracts text, signs or meaning from its original context (decontextualisation) and reuses it in another context. Since the meaning of texts, signs and content is dependent on its context, recontextualisation implies a change of meaning and redefinition. The linguist Per Linell defines recontextualisation as: the dynamic transfer-and-transformation of something from one discourse/text-in-context ... to another. Scholars have theorized a number of theoretical conceptions of recontextualisation, each highlighting different aspects of the reusing of texts, signs, and meaning from its original context. More importantly, recontextualisation has been studied within the field of linguistics and inter-disciplinary Levels and dimensions Bauman and Briggs and the "political economy of texts" Bauman and Briggs argue that recontextualisation (and contextualisation) are informed by "the political economy of texts". Recontextualisation and recentering is culturally and socially situated, therefore it is bound in socially produced norms and structures including, but not limited to, power differentials. Bauman and Briggs claim that recontextualisation of texts includes a varying amount of control that depends on access, legitimacy, competency, and value. Access refers to the location of the sourced text, sign, or meaning, which can all be shaped by institutional structures. Legitimacy refers to the perceived legitimacy in the source of text, sign, or meaning. Competency refers to the "knowledge and ability to carry out the decontextualisation and recontextualisation of performed discourse successfully and appropriately". Was the act done well and what factors are at play for it to be considered well done? This can include cultural competency, an understanding of the meaning and/or value of a text to a specific cultural context. Value refers to the social importance of the text. Access, legitimacy, competency and value are all culturally situated social constructions that vary among contexts. Therefore, the manner in which each of these elements is embodied through the act of recontextualisation can, and will, vary. Per Linell's three levels Per Linell distinguishes recontextualisation at three different levels: Intratextual: recontextualisation within the same text, discourse or conversation. Intratextual recontextualisation plays an important part in most discourse in so far as it refers to what has been said before, or anticipates what is to be said. In conversation, for instance, the one part usually infuses what the other part just – or earlier – has said in a new context thus adding new meaning to it. Such turns of decontextualisation and recontextualisation combined with metadiscursive regulation are crucial for the continual unfolding of texts, discourses and conversations. Intertextual: recontextualisation that relates elements from different texts, signs, and meaning. For example, the author or speaker can explicitly or implicitly utilize elements from other texts. The importance of this becomes clear when the meaning of a word is clearly based on its meaning in other contexts. Interdiscursive: recontextualisation across different types of discourse, such as genres in which it is more abstract and less specific. In Fairclough, chains of genres are closely connected to interdiscursive recontextualisation. Chains of genres denote how genres are interdependent of discursive material, such as the relation between interviews, transcription of interviews, and the analysis of interviews. However, interdiscursive recontextualisation is also abundant between large interdiscursive entities or formation and is part of society's discursive workshare. An example of this could be the usage of results from a statistical theory into social science, with the purpose of testing quantitative analyses. Basil Bernstein's three fields Though recontextualisation is often used within linguistics, it also has interdisciplinary applications. Basil Bernstein uses recontextualisation to study the state and pedagogical discourse, the construction of educational knowledge. His concept of the pedagogic device consists of three fields: the fields of production, recontextualisation and reproduction. The Field of Production: where "new" knowledge is constructed (i.e. academic institutions). To be recontextulised, there must be an original context and thus decontextualised from that. The Field of Recontextualisation: mediates between the field of production and reproduction. This field "is composed of two sub-fields; namely, the official recontextualising field (ORF) and the pedagogic recontextualising field (PRF). The ORF consists of 'specialized departments and sub-agencies of the State and local educational authorities'. The PRF consists of university departments of education, their research as well as specialised educational media. The Field of Reproduction: where pedagogic practice takes place Precontextualization Rhetorical scholar John Oddo argues that recontextualisation has a future-oriented counterpoint, which he dubs "precontextualisation". According to Oddo, precontextualisation is a form of anticipatory intertextuality wherein "a text introduces and predicts elements of a symbolic event that is yet to unfold." See also Quoting out of context Intertextuality References Literature Sociolinguistics Discourse analysis	0.782132	0.95591	0.747648
Making Democracy Work	Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy is a 1993 book written by Robert D. Putnam (with Robert Leonardi and Raffaella Y. Nanetti). Published by Princeton University Press, the book's central thesis is that social capital is key to high institutional performance and the maintenance of democracy. Summary The authors studied the performance of the twenty regional Italian governments since 1970, which were similar institutions but differed in their social, economic and cultural context. They found that regional government performed best, holding other factors constant, where there were strong traditions of civic engagement. The book has been cited thousands of times by other academics. Northern-Central Italy and Southern Italy The work, also, evaluates the differences between Northern-Central Italy and Southern Italy. Around 1000 A.D. Northern Italy and Central Italy had a more active civil society, with many citizens taking part in politics and social gatherings in their communities. Northern-Central Italians had a mutual trust for their fellow citizen, governing horizontally. Politics was less hierarchical in their region. Southern Italy, however, was very different from its Northern-Central counterpart; a group of Norman Mercenaries created order in the area. The governing structure was much more vertical: the peasants were controlled by the knights and the knights were controlled by the kings. Northern and Central Italy created a democratic-type system for their citizens. Conversely, Southern Italy created a feudal and autocratic system of governing. Putnam concludes that these long-standing differences still help to explain north–south differences in governance, many centuries later. Author thesis Putnam believes that for democracy to be successful there needs to be a level of mutual trust among the citizens and a more horizontal system of governing, all of which Northern and Central Italy has enjoyed. Putnam states in Making Democracy Work that civil society creates wealth, wealth does not create a civil society. The civic nature of Northern Italy and Central Italy dating back to medieval times has caused the region to be prosperous in modern times. Southern Italy, however, with its more feudal nature in medieval times has caused the region to be the origin of the Mafia and has created a less successful region. The Mafia's hierarchical structure is very similar to Southern Italy's feudal roots, according to Putnam. Putnam finds that the stark differences in medieval governing structures caused equally stark differences in the current political and economic atmosphere in both Southern and Northern-Central Italy. Reception Winner of the 1994 Charles H. Levine Memorial Book Prize Winner of the 1994 Gregory Luebbert Award Winner of the 1993 Louis Brownlow Book Award, National Academy of Public Administration Honorable Mention for the 1993 Award for Best Professional/Scholarly Book in Government and Political Science, Association of American Publishers Editorial review Publishers Weekly: "Harvard professor Putnam offers an in-depth examination of Italian politics and government." References 1993 non-fiction books Books about democracy	0.774903	0.964786	0.747615
Democratic legitimacy of the European Union	The question of whether the governance of the European Union (EU) lacks democratic legitimacy has been debated since the time of the European Economic Community in the late 1970s. This led in part to an elected European Parliament being created in 1979 and given the power to approve or reject EU legislation. Since then, usage of the term has broadened to describe newer issues facing the European Union. Voter turnout at the elections to the European Parliament fell consecutively at every election from the first in 1979 up to 2014 when it hit a low of 42.54%, before finally rising in 2019. The 2014 turnout figure is lower than that of any national election in the 27 countries of the European Union, where turnout at national elections averages 68% across the EU. Opinions differ as to whether the EU has a democratic deficit or how it should be remedied if it exists. Some scholars argue that the EU does not suffer from a democratic deficit as it is more constrained by its plural structure of checks and balances than any national polity. The EU is an intergovernmental institutional framework where democratically elected national governments bargain with each other. According to Majone, non-accountable institutions, such as the European Commission or the Court of Justice, are insulated from democratic contestation to achieve greater efficiency and protect minority rights. Some Pro-Europeans (i.e. those in favour of the EU) argue that the European Union should reform its institutions to make them more accountable, while Eurosceptics argue that the EU should reduce its powers and often campaign for withdrawal from the EU. Use and meaning of the term The phrase "democratic deficit" is cited as having first been used in 1977 by the Young European Federalists in their Manifesto, which was drafted by Richard Corbett. In 1979 it was used by David Marquand in reference to the then European Economic Community, the forerunner of the European Union. He argued that the European Parliament (then the Assembly) suffered from a democratic deficit as it was not directly elected by the citizens of the Community. 'Democratic deficit', in relation to the European Union, refers to a perceived lack of accessibility to the ordinary citizen, or lack of representation of the ordinary citizen, and lack of accountability of European Union institutions. Generally, the term 'democratic deficit' describes when there is a gap between the electorate's idea of what a democracy should be, and their perceived conception of how their democracy is currently performing. Constitutional nature of the democratic deficit In the European Union, there are two sources of democratic legitimacy: the European Parliament, chosen by the electorates of the individual EU countries; and the Council of the European Union (the "Council of Ministers"), together with the European Council (of heads of national governments), that represent the peoples of the individual states. The European Commission (the executive branch of the Union) is appointed by the two bodies acting together. Democratic legitimacy within the EU can be compared with the dual legitimacy provided for in a federal polity, such as the United States, where there are two independent sources of democratic legitimacy, the House of Representatives and the Senate, and, to become law, decisions must be approved both by one institution representing the people as a whole and by a separate body representing the peoples of the individual states. The German Constitutional Court referred to a "structural democratic deficit" inherent in the construction of the European Union. It found that the decision-making processes in the EU remained largely those of an international organisation, which would ordinarily be based on the principle of the equality of states and that the principle of equality of states and the principle of equality of citizens cannot be reconciled in a Staatenverbund. In other words, in a supranational union or confederation (which is not a federal state) there is a problem of how to reconcile the principle of equality among nation states, which applies to international (intergovernmental) organisations, and the principle of equality among citizens, which applies within states. A 2014 report from the British Electoral Reform Society wrote that "[t]his unique institutional structure makes it difficult to apply the usual democratic standards without significant changes of emphasis. Certainly, the principles of representativeness, accountability and democratic engagement are vital, but the protection of the rights of minorities is perhaps especially important. The EU is a political regime that is, in one sense at least, entirely made up of minorities." European Commission One assertion of democratic illegitimacy focuses on the role of the European Commission as a non elected institution being the only entity (with some few exceptions) initiating legislation. This criticism has, in turn, been criticized, using comparisons with the situation in national governments where few MP's bills are ever debated and "fewer than 15% are ever successfully adopted in any form", while government proposals "generally pass without substantial or substantive amendments from the legislature". The Commission is reestablished every five years. Individual members of the incoming Commission are nominated by national governments and the proposed Commission is (or is not) approved jointly and severally by the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament. If Parliament passes a vote of censure, the Commission must resign. Such a censure motion has been brought eight times, but never passed. In 1999, an initial censure motion against the Santer Commission was defeated, awaiting the results of an investigation. When the results of the investigation were published, the Santer Commission resigned, forestalling a second censure motion that was expected to pass with a large majority. In an attempt to strengthen democratic legitimacy, the Treaty of Lisbon provided that the nomination of the President of the European Commission should "take account" of the result of the European parliamentary elections, interpreted by the larger parliamentary groups to mean that the European Council should nominate the candidate (Spitzenkandidat) proposed by the dominant parliamentary group. However, this has also been criticized from the point of view of democratic legitimacy on the grounds that the European Union is not a country and the European Commission is not a government, also having a semi-judicial role that requires it to act as a "referee" or "policeman" rather than a partisan actor. The fear is that a "semi-elected" Commission president might be "too partisan to retain the trust of national leaders; too powerless to win the loyalty of citizens". This, too, is seen as a possibly insoluble problem resulting from the European Union's dual nature, partly an international organization and partly a federation. The Electoral Reform Society observed polling evidence from Germany which showed that support for the CDU/CSU (EPP group) ahead of the 2014 European Parliament elections was higher than support for the Social Democrats (S&D group) and that there was little difference between their support in the opinion polls for national and European Parliament elections. This was despite another poll showing that S&D candidate Martin Schulz was more popular among German voters than EPP candidate Jean-Claude Juncker. They concluded that "this does not suggest that the majority of German voters are treating the contest as a chance to choose a Commission President." However, they recommended that the candidate model be kept with "a clearer set of rules for future elections." European Parliament The main assertion of democratic illegitimacy focuses on the European Parliament lacking the power to determine the direction of EU Law, with the European Commission being "the only institution empowered to initiate legislation" and having a "near monopoly on legislative initiative" according to EU sources. Article 225, created in the Lisbon Treaty, sought to put an end to this controversy by giving Parliament a means to request proposals to the Commission, but this puts no obligation on the Commission and is legally non-binding, with the Commission only needing to "inform the European Parliament of the reasons" for rejecting a legislative proposal. Criticism of this alleged deficit has been countered by a number of political scientists, who have compared the systems of governance in the European Union with that of the United States, and stated that the alleged powerless or dysfunctional nature of the European Parliament is now a "myth". It is argued that there are important differences from national European parliaments, such as the role of committees, bipartisan voting, decentralized political parties, executive-legislative divide and absence of Government-opposition divide. All these traits are considered as signs of weakness or unaccountability, but as these very same traits are found in the US House of Representatives to a lesser or greater degree, the European Parliament is more appropriately compared with the US House of Representatives. In that sense, it is now a powerful parliament, as it is not controlled by a "governing majority": Majorities have to be built afresh for each item of legislation by explanation, persuasion and negotiation. Legislative initiative in the EU rests almost entirely with the Commission, while in member states it is shared between parliament and executive. However, in national parliaments less than 15% of legislative initiatives from individual members of parliament become law in any form when they do not have the backing of the executive, while most proposals by the executive are passed without major amendments in parliament. The European Parliament, on the other hand, can only propose amendments, but these proposals are successful in more than 80% of cases, and even in controversial proposals, the success rate is almost 30%. In 2003, Liberal Democrat (ALDE) MEP Chris Davies said he had far more influence as a member of the European Parliament than he did as an opposition MP in the House of Commons. "Here I started to have an impact on day one", "And there has not been a month since when words I tabled did not end up in legislation." European elections The low turnout at European elections has been cited as weakening the democratic legitimacy of the European Parliament: the BBC commented that in Britain many more votes were cast in an election on the reality show Big Brother than in the 1999 European Parliament election. On the other hand, the President of the European Parliament [the 'Speaker'] compared the turnout for the European Parliament to the presidential elections in the United States: In fact, the figures that are compared, the European Parliament voter turnout from 1999 (49.51%) and the US presidential voter turnout from 1996 (49%) are only marginally different, and the US voter turnout for 1996 was the lowest turnout in the US since 1924 (when it was 48.9%). The turnout in European elections proceeded to decline in every subsequent election up to 2014, when it reached a low of 42.54%. In 2019, over 50 percent of EU citizens voted in the European Parliamentary Elections. This is the first time voter turnout in EU Parliament elections has passed 50% since 1994 Whilst the 50.66% turnout in 2019 saw an increase in the percentage of the electorate voting, it was only an increase of 1.11% since the 1999 election. Turnout was also much lower in individual countries, such as Croatia where only 29.85% of eligible voters went to the ballot box, and 22.74% in Slovenia. According to Matej Avbelj (Director of the Law Institute in Ljubljana, Slovenia), the EU democratic deficit can be viewed as having a formal component (which is likely to be remedied) but also a social component resulting from people's low acceptance of the EU, as evidenced by low voter turnout. Legal commentators such as Schmidt and Follesdal argue that the European Union lacks politics that individual citizens understand. This flows from the lack of knowledge of political parties and is reinforced by the lack of votes at European Union elections. Others such as Pat Cox have opined "Turnout across Europe (1999) was higher than in the last US presidential election, and I don't hear people questioning the legitimacy of the presidency of the United States". In September 2022 the European Parliament passed a resolution that Hungary turned into "a hybrid regime of electoral autocracy", putting the democratic legitimacy of Elections to the European Parliament in Hungary in question. Council of the European Union Voting in the Council (of relevant Ministers) is usually by qualified majority voting, and sometimes unanimity is required. This means that, for the vast majority of EU legislation, the corresponding national government has usually voted in favour in the Council. To give an example, up to September 2006, out of the 86 pieces of legislation adopted in that year the Government of the United Kingdom had voted in favour of the legislation 84 times, abstained from voting twice and never voted against. Presidency The European Parliament has questioned the democratic legitimacy of Hungary holding the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2023. Development of democratic legitimacy and transparency Over time, a number of constitutional changes have been introduced that have aimed to increase democratic legitimacy: The Maastricht Treaty introduced the status of EU citizenship, granting EU citizens the right to vote and stand in elections to the European Parliament and municipal elections in their country of residence, irrespective of their nationality (subject to age and residency qualifications). the legislative procedure known as the "co-decision procedure", giving the directly elected European Parliament the right of "co-deciding" legislation on an equal footing with the Council of the European Union. The Treaty of Lisbon, which came into force on 1 December 2009 introduced article 10, confirming that the functioning of the EU shall be founded on representative democracy and giving EU citizens both direct representation through the European Parliament and indirect representation via national governments through the Council of the European Union the establishment of the co-decision procedure as the standard ("ordinary") legislative procedure a significant increase in the powers of the European Parliament where henceforth it would have control over a greater number of policy areas, full parity with the council in approving the annual budget, and the role of electing the president of the commission by majority vote. the right of any EU citizen or resident to petition the European Parliament "on any matter which comes within the Union's field of activity and which affects him, her, or it directly".[Article 227 TFEU]. making meetings of the Council public when there is a general debate and when a proposal for a legislative act is voted on. These debates can be viewed in real time on the Internet. enhancing the role of national parliaments in EU legislation. giving full legal effect to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which was solemnly proclaimed by the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission in the year 2000. According to a 2019 study, the empowerment of the EP does not always lead to more public support, and "further enhancement of public support can be achieved only in the institutional dimension involving proposal power". Political philosophy of the European Union The European Union describes its values as being 'Human Dignity, Freedom, Democracy, Equality, Rule of Law, and Human Rights'. Democracy is a cornerstone of the project that is the European Union, and has been since its inception. It thus also represents a criterion for accession to the EU. In its decision to reject Turkey's petition to join the Union, the claim that the nation is 'eroding democracy' was a contributing factor. Democracy, however, is interpreted and applied differently across the EU. The Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index indicates variance in the strength of democracy amongst EU states - these discrepancies have provided reason for the European Parliament itself to question the democratic legitimacy of the EU. Notes References Further reading Corbett, Richard; Jacobs, Francis; Shackleton, Michael (2011), 'The European Parliament' (8 ed.), London: John Harper Publishing, Follesdal, A and Hix, S. (2005) ‘Why there is a democratic deficit in the EU‘ European Governance Papers (EUROGOV) No. C-05-02 Kelemen, Dr. R. Daniel; (2004) ‘The Rules of Federalism: Institutions and Regulatory Politics in the EU and Beyond‘ Harvard University Press Majone, G. (2005) 'Dilemmas of European Integration'. Marsh, M. (1998) ‘Testing the second-order election model after four European elections’ British Journal of Political Science Research. Vol 32. Moravcsik, A. (2002) ‘In defence of the democratic deficit: reassessing legitimacy in the European Union’ Journal of Common Market Studies. Vol 40, Issue 4. Reif, K and Schmitt, S. (1980) ‘Nine second-order national elections: a conceptual framework for the analysis of European election results’ European Journal of Political Research. Vol 8, Issue 1. Hahm, Hyeonho; Hilpert, David; König, Thomas (2019) 'Institutional reform and public attitudes toward EU decision making' European Journal of Political Research. doi:10.1111/1475-6765.12361 Euroscepticism Political terminology Politics of the European Union Democracy	0.772468	0.967793	0.747589
Dialogic learning	Dialogic learning is learning that takes place through dialogue. It is typically the result of egalitarian dialogue; in other words, the consequence of a dialogue in which different people provide arguments based on validity claims and not on power claims. The concept of dialogic learning is not a new one. Within the Western tradition, it is frequently linked to the Socratic dialogues. It is also found in many other traditions; for example, the book The Argumentative Indian, written by Nobel Prize of Economics winner Amartya Sen, situates dialogic learning within the Indian tradition and observes that an emphasis on discussion and dialogue spread across Asia with the rise of Buddhism. In recent times, the concept of dialogic learning has been linked to contributions from various perspectives and disciplines, such as the theory of dialogic action, the dialogic inquiry approach, the theory of communicative action, the notion of dialogic imagination and the dialogical self. In addition, the work of an important range of contemporary authors is based on dialogic conceptions. Among those, it is worth mentioning transformative learning theory; Michael Fielding, who sees students as radical agents of change; Timothy Koschmann, who highlights the potential advantages of adopting dialogicality as the basis of education; and Anne Hargrave, who demonstrates that children in dialogic-learning conditions make significantly larger gains in vocabulary, than do children in a less dialogic reading environment. Specifically, the concept of dialogic learning (Flecha) evolved from the investigation and observation of how people learn both outside and inside of schools, when acting and learning freely is allowed. At this point, it is important to mention the "Learning Communities", an educational project which seeks social and cultural transformation of educational centers and their surroundings through dialogic learning, emphasizing egalitarian dialogue among all community members, including teaching staff, students, families, entities, and volunteers. In the learning communities, it is fundamental the involvement of all members of the community because, as research shows, learning processes, regardless of the learners' ages, and including the teaching staff, depend more on the coordination among all the interactions and activities that take place in different spaces of the learners' lives, like school, home, and workplace, than only on interactions and activities developed in spaces of formal learning, such as classrooms. Along these lines, the "Learning Communities" project aims at multiplying learning contexts and interactions with the objective of all students reaching higher levels of development. Classroom education Dialogic education is an educational philosophy and pedagogical approach that draws on many authors and traditions and applies dialogic learning. In effect, dialogic education takes place through dialogue by opening up dialogic spaces for the co-construction of new meaning to take place within a gap of differing perspectives. In a dialogic classroom, students are encouraged to build on their own and others’ ideas, resulting not only in education through dialogue but also in education for dialogue. Teachers and students are in an equitable relationship and listen to multiple points of view. The pedagogy aims on arriving at the goal: the students’ knowing for and through themselves and therefore “casting the teacher as a guide rather than a director”. Dialogic approaches to education typically involve dialogue in the form of face-to-face talk including questioning and exploring ideas within a ‘dialogic space’ but can also encompass other instances where 'signs' are exchanged between people, for instance via computer-mediated communication. In this way, dialogic approaches need not be limited only to classroom-based talk or "external talk". In teaching through the opening of a shared dialogic space, dialogic education draws students into the co-construction of shared knowledge by questioning and building on dialogue rather than simply learning a set of facts. As argued by Mikhail Bakhtin, children learn through persuasive dialogue rather than an authoritative transmission of facts, which enables them to understand by seeing from different points of view. Merleau-Ponty writes that when dialogue works it should no longer be possible to determine who is thinking because learners will find themselves thinking together. It has been suggested by Robin Alexander that in dialogic education, teachers should frame questions carefully in order to encourage reflection and take different students' contributions and present them as a whole. In addition, answers should be considered as leading to further questions in dialogue rather than an end goal. Definitions of dialogic There is a lack of clarity around what is meant by the term ‘dialogic’ when used to refer to educational approaches. The term ‘dialogue’ itself is derived from two words in classical Greek, ‘dia’ meaning ‘through’ and ‘logos’ meaning ‘word’ or 'discourse'. Dialogic is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as an adjective applied to describe anything ‘relating to or in the form of dialogue’. Dialogic can also be used in contrast to ‘monologic’, which is the idea that there is only one true perspective and so that everything has one final correct meaning or truth. Dialogic, however, contends that there is always more than one voice in play behind any kind of explicit claim to knowledge. If knowledge is a product of dialogue it follows that knowledge is never final since the questions we ask and so the answers that we receive, will continue to change. Dialogic education has been defined as engaging students in an ongoing process of shared inquiry taking the form of a dialogue and as Robin Alexander outlines in his work on dialogic teaching, it involves drawing students into a process of co-constructing knowledge. Rupert Wegerif sums this up by claiming that 'Dialogic Education is education for dialogue as well as education through dialogue'. Formats There are a number of formats of instruction, that have been recognized as "dialogic" (as opposed to "monologic"). Interactional: Dialogue involves a high student-teacher talk ratio, short utterances/turns, and interactive exchanges. Question-answer: Dialogue involves either a teacher asking students questions and eliciting answers from the students or students asking questions and eliciting answers from the teacher and/or one another. Conversational: Instructional dialogue is modeled after natural mundane everyday conversations. Without authority: Dialogic guidance occurs among equal peers as authority distorts dialogic processes. Jean Piaget was the first scholar who articulated this position. Types There are a number of types of dialogic pedagogy, that is, where the form and the content is recognized as "dialogic". Paideia: Learning through asking thought-provoking questions, challenging assumptions, beliefs, and ideas, that involve argumentation and disagreements. This notion comes from Socratic dialogues described and developed by Plato. Exploratory talk for learning: Collective mindstorming and probing ideas, enabling "the speaker to try out ideas, to hear how they sound, to see what others make of them, to arrange information and ideas into different patterns" (p. 4). Internally persuasive discourse: Bakhtin's notion of "internally persuasive discourse" (IPD) has become influential in helping conceptualize learning. There are at least three approaches to how this notion is currently used in the literature on education: IPD is understood as appropriation when somebody else's words, ideas, approaches, knowledge, feelings, become one's own. In this approach, "internal" in IPD is understood as an individual's psychological and personal deep conviction. IPD understood as a student's authorship recognized and accepted by a community of practice, in which the student generates self-assignments and long-term projects within the practice. IPD is understood as a dialogic regime of the participants' testing ideas and searching for the boundaries of personally-vested truths. In this approach, "internal" is interpreted as internal to the dialogue itself in which everything is "dialogically tested and forever testable" (p. 319). Instrumental Instrumental dialogic pedagogy uses dialogue for achieving non-dialogic purposes, usually making students arrive at certain preset learning outcomes. For example, Nicolas Burbules defines dialogue in teaching instrumentally as facilitating new understanding, "Dialogue is an activity directed toward discovery and new understanding, which stands to improve the knowledge, insight, or sensitivity of its participants". The teacher presents the endpoint of the lesson, for example, "At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to understand/master the following knowledge and skills." However, the teacher's method of leading students to the endpoint can be individualized both in instruction techniques and in time taken. Different students are "closer" or further" from the endpoint and require different strategies to get them there. Thus, for Socrates to manipulate Meno to the preset endpoint – what is virtue is not known and problematic – is not the same as manipulating Anytus to the same endpoint. It takes different and individualized instructional strategies. Socrates, Paulo Freire and Vivian Paley all strongly critique the idea of preset endpoints however in practice they often set endpoints. Instrumental dialogic pedagogy remains influential and important for scholars and practitioners of dialogic pedagogy field. Some appreciate its focus on asking good questions, attendance to subjectivity, use of provocations and contradictions, and the way it disrupts familiar and unreflected relations. However, others are concerned about the teacher's manipulation of the student's consciousness and its intellectualism. Non-instrumental In contrast to instrumental approaches to dialogic pedagogy, non-instrumental approaches to dialogic pedagogy view dialogue not as a pathway or strategy for achieving meaning or knowledge but as the medium in which they live. Following Bakhtin, meaning is understood as living in the relationship between a genuine question seeking for information and a sincere answer aiming at addressing this question. Non-instrumental dialogic pedagogy focuses on "eternal damn final questions". It is interested in the mundane only because it can give it the material and opportunity to move to the sublime. This is seen, for example, in the work of Christopher Phillips. The non-instrumental "epistemological dialogue", a term introduced by Alexander Sidorkin, is a purified dialogue to abstract a single main theme, a development of a main concept, and unfold the logic. According to Sidorkin, ontological dialogic pedagogy priorities human ontology in pedagogical dialogue: Sociolinguist Per Linell and educational philosopher Alexander Sidorkin evidence a non-instrumental ecological approach to dialogic pedagogy that focuses on the dialogicity of the mundane everyday social interaction, its non-constrained nature, in which participants can have freedom to move in and out of the interaction, and the absence or minimum of pedagogical violence. Using the metaphor of "free-range kids", Lenore Skenazy defines the participants in this ecological dialogue as free-range dialogic participants. Theories Wells: dialogic inquiry Gordon Wells (1999) defines "inquiry" not as a method but as a predisposition for questioning, trying to understand situations collaborating with others with the objective of finding answers. "Dialogic inquiry" is an educational approach that acknowledges the dialectic relationship between the individual and the society, and an attitude for acquiring knowledge through communicative interactions. Wells points out that the predisposition for dialogic inquiry depends on the characteristics of the learning environments, and that is why it is important to reorganize them into contexts for collaborative action and interaction. According to Wells, dialogic inquiry not only enriches individuals' knowledge but also transforms it, ensuring the survival of different cultures and their capacity to transform themselves according to the requirements of every social moment. Freire: the theory of dialogic action Paulo Freire (1970) states that human nature is dialogic, and believes that communication has a leading role in our life. We are continuously in dialogue with others, and it is in that process that we create and recreate ourselves. According to Freire, dialogue is a claim in favor of the democratic choice of educators. Educators, in order to promote free and critical learning should create the conditions for dialogue that encourages the epistemological curiosity of the learner. The goal of the dialogic action is always to reveal the truth by interacting with others and the world. In his dialogic action theory, Freire distinguishes between dialogical actions, the ones that promote understanding, cultural creation, and liberation; and non-dialogic actions, which deny dialogue, distort communication, and reproduce power. Habermas: the theory of communicative action Rationality, for Jürgen Habermas (1984), has less to do with knowledge and its acquisition than with the use of knowledge that individuals who are capable of speech and action make. In instrumental rationality, social agents make an instrumental use of knowledge: they propose certain goals and aim to achieve them in an objective world. On the contrary, in communicative rationality, knowledge is the understanding provided by the objective world as well as by the intersubjectivity of the context where action develops. If communicative rationality means understanding, then the conditions that make reaching consensus possible have to be studied. This need brings us to the concepts of arguments and argumentation. While arguments are conclusions that consist of validity claims as well as the reasons by which they can be questioned, argumentation is the kind of speech in which participants give arguments to develop or turn down the validity claims that have become questionable. At this point, Habermas' differentiation between validity claims and power claims is important. We may attempt to have something we say to be considered good or valid by imposing it by means of force, or by being ready to enter a dialogue in which other people's arguments may lead us to rectify our initial stances. In the first case, the interactant holds power claims, while in the second case, validity claims are held. While in power claims, the argument of force is applied; in validity claims, the force of an argument prevails. Validity claims are the basis of dialogic learning. Bakhtin: dialogic imagination Mikhail Bakhtin established (1981) that there is a need of creating meanings in a dialogic way with other people. His concept of dialogism states a relation among language, interaction, and social transformation. Bakhtin believes that the individual does not exist outside of dialogue. The concept of dialogue, itself, establishes the existence of the "other" person. In fact, it is through dialogue that the "other" cannot be silenced or excluded. Bakhtin states that meanings are created in processes of reflection between people. And these are the same meanings that we use in later conversations with others, where those meanings get amplified and even change as we acquire new meanings. In this sense, Bakhtin states that every time that we talk about something that we have read about, seen, or felt; we are actually reflecting the dialogues we have had with others, showing the meanings that we have created in previous dialogues. This is, what is said cannot be separated from the perspectives of others: the individual speech and the collective one are deeply related. It is in this sense that Bakhtin talks about a chain of dialogues, to point out that every dialogue results from a previous one and, at the same time, every new dialogue is going to be present in future ones. CREA: dialogic interactions and interactions of power In their debate with John Searle (Searle & Soler 2004) the Centre of Research in Theories and Practices that Overcome Inequalities (CREA, from now on) made two critiques to Habermas. CREA's work on communicative acts points out, on the one hand, that the key concept is interaction and not claim; and, on the other hand, that in relationships can be identified power interactions and dialogic interactions. Although a manager can hold validity claims when inviting his employee to have a coffee with him, the employee can be moved to accept because of the power claim that arises from the unequal structure of the company and of the society, which places her in a subordinate position to the employer. CREA defines power relations as those in which the power interactions involved predominate over the dialogic interactions, and dialogic relations as those in which dialogic interactions are prevalent over power interactions. Dialogic interactions are based on equality and seek understanding through speakers appreciating the provided arguments to the dialogue regardless of the position of power of the speaker. In the educational institutions of democracies, we can find more dialogic interactions than in the educational centers of dictatorships. Nonetheless, even in the educational centers of democracies, when discussing curricular issues, the voice of the teaching staff prevails over the voice of the families, which is almost absent. The educational projects that have contributed to transforming some power interactions into dialogic interactions show that one learns much more through dialogic interactions than through power ones. History Dialogic education is argued to have historical roots in ancient oral educational traditions. The chavrusa rabbinic approach, for example, involved pairs of learners analyzing, discussing, and debating shared texts during the era of the Tannaim (approximately 10-220 CE). Dialogue was also a defining feature of early-Indian texts, rituals, and practices that spread across Asia with the rise of Buddhism. Indeed, one of the earliest references to an idea of dialogue is in the Rigveda (c. 1700-1100 BC), where the poet asks the deities Mitra and Varuna to defend him from the one “who has no pleasure in questioning, or in repeated calling, or in dialogue”. Later, Buddhist educators such as Nichiren (1222-1282) would themselves present work in a dialogic form. It has also been linked to traditional Islamic education with Halaqat al-’Ilm, or Halaqa for short, in mosque-based education whereby small groups participate in discussion and questioning in 'circles of knowledge'. A dialogic element has similarly been found in Confucian education. Links are often also made with the Socratic method, established by Socrates (470-399 BC), which is a form of cooperative argumentative dialogue to stimulate critical thinking and to draw out ideas and underlying presumptions. Dialogic practices and dialogic pedagogy existed in Ancient Greece, before, during, and after Socrates' time, possibly in other forms than those depicted by Plato. There is some debate over whether the Socratic method should be understood as dialectic rather than as dialogic. However it is interpreted, Socrates approach as described by Plato has been influential in informing modern-day conceptions of dialogue, particularly in Western culture. This is notwithstanding the fact that dialogic educational practices may have existed in Ancient Greece prior to the life of Socrates. Although modern interest in dialogic pedagogy seems to have emerged only in the 1960s, it was a very old and probably widespread educational practice. In more recent times, Mikhail Bakhtin introduced the idea of dialogism, as opposed to "monologism", to literature. Paulo Freire's work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed introduced these ideas to educational theory. Over the last five decades, robust research evidence has mounted on the impact of dialogic education. A growing body of research indicates that dialogic methods lead to improved performance in students’ content knowledge, text comprehension, and reasoning capabilities. The field has not, however, been without controversy. Indeed, dialogic strategies may be challenging to realize in educational practice given limited time and other pressures. It has also been acknowledged that forms of cultural imperialism may be encouraged through the implementation of a dialogic approach. Notable authors Robin Alexander Mikhail Bakhtin Karen Barad Jerome Bruner Martin Buber Jacques Derrida John Dewey Paulo Freire Antonio Gramsci Jürgen Habermas William James Julia Kristeva Matthew Lipman George Herbert Mead Maurice Merleau-Ponty Neil Mercer Michael Oakeshott Jean Piaget Charles Sanders Peirce Plato Lev Vygotsky Rupert Wegerif See also Dialogic Dialectic process vs. dialogic process Dialogical analysis Dialogical self Heteroglossia Intertextuality Learning theory (education) Pedagogy Relational dialectics References Bibliography Aubert, A., Flecha, A., García, C., Flecha, R., y Racionero, S. (2008). Aprendizaje dialógico en la sociedad de la información. Barcelona: Hipatia Editorial. Freire, P. (1997). Pedagogy of the Heart. New York: Continuum (O.V. 1995). Mead, G.H. (1934). Mind, self & society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Searle J., & Soler M. (2004). Lenguaje y Ciencias Sociales. Diálogo entre John Searle y CREA. Barcelona: El Roure Ciencia. Sen, A. (2005) The argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian history, culture and identity. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. External links Journals Dialogic Pedagogy: An International Online Journal International Journal for Dialogic Science Research groups Cambridge Educational Dialogue Research Group (CEDiR) operates out of the University of Cambridge and contributes to this field. As taken from their website, CEDiR's aim is to consolidate and extend research on dialogic education, reaching across disciplines and contexts to influence theory, policy and practice. The Center for Research on Dialogic Instruction and the In-Class Analysis of Classroom Discourse is a joint effort housed within the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Learning Philosophy of psychology Psychological theories Theory of mind	0.768081	0.973255	0.747539
Coding (social sciences)	In the social sciences, coding is an analytical process in which data, in both quantitative form (such as questionnaires results) or qualitative form (such as interview transcripts) are categorized to facilitate analysis. One purpose of coding is to transform the data into a form suitable for computer-aided analysis. This categorization of information is an important step, for example, in preparing data for computer processing with statistical software. Prior to coding, an annotation scheme is defined. It consists of codes or tags. During coding, coders manually add codes into data where required features are identified. The coding scheme ensures that the codes are added consistently across the data set and allows for verification of previously tagged data. Some studies will employ multiple coders working independently on the same data. This also minimizes the chance of errors from coding and is believed to increase the reliability of data. Directive One code should apply to only one category and categories should be comprehensive. There should be clear guidelines for coders (individuals who do the coding) so that code is consistent. Quantitative approach For quantitative analysis, data is coded usually into measured and recorded as nominal or ordinal variables. Questionnaire data can be pre-coded (process of assigning codes to expected answers on designed questionnaire), field-coded (process of assigning codes as soon as data is available, usually during fieldwork), post-coded (coding of open questions on completed questionnaires) or office-coded (done after fieldwork). Note that some of the above are not mutually exclusive. In social sciences, spreadsheets such as Excel and more advanced software packages such as R, Matlab, PSPP/SPSS, DAP/SAS, MiniTab and Stata are often used. Qualitative approach For disciplines in which a qualitative format is preferential, including ethnography, humanistic geography or phenomenological psychology a varied approach to coding can be applied. Iain Hay (2005) outlines a two-step process beginning with basic coding in order to distinguish overall themes, followed by a more in depth, interpretive code in which more specific trends and patterns can be interpreted. Much of qualitative coding can be attributed to either grounded or a priori coding. Grounded coding refers to allowing notable themes and patterns emerge from the document themselves, where as a priori coding requires the researcher to apply pre-existing theoretical frameworks to analyze the documents. As coding methods are applied across various texts, the researcher is able to apply axial coding, which is the process of selecting core thematic categories present in several documents to discover common patterns and relations. Coding is considered a process of discovery and is done in cycles. Prior to constructing categories, a researcher might apply a first and second cycle coding methods. There are a multitude of methods available, and a researcher will want to pick one that is suited for the format and nature of their documents. Not all methods can be applied to every type of document. Some examples of first cycle coding methods include: In Vivo Coding: codes terms and phrases used by the participants themselves. The objective is to attempt to give the participants a voice in the research. Process Coding: this method uses gerunds ("-ing" words) only to describe and display actions throughout the document. It is useful for examining processes, emotional phases and rituals. Versus Coding: uses binary terms to describe groups and processes. The goal is to see which processes and organizations are in conflict with each other throughout the document. These can be both conceptual and grounded objects. Values Coding: codes that attempt to exhibit the inferred values, attitudes and beliefs of participants. In doing so, the research may discern patterns in world views. Sub-coding: Other names of this method are embedded coding, nested coding or joint coding. This involves assigning primary and second order codes to a word or phrase. It serves the purpose of adding detail to a code. The primary and secondary codes are often called parent and children codes. Simultaneous Coding: When same parts of the data have different meanings and two or more codes are applied to the same parts, then this kind of coding is called Simultaneous Coding. The process can be done manually, which can be as simple as highlighting different concepts with different colours, or fed into a software package. Some examples of qualitative software packages include Atlas.ti, MAXQDA, NVivo, QDA Miner, and RQDA. After assembling codes it is time to organize them into broader themes and categories. The process generally involves identifying themes from the existing codes, reducing the themes to a manageable number, creating hierarchies within the themes and then linking themes together through theoretical modeling. Memos Creating memos during the coding process is integral to both grounded and a priori coding approaches. Qualitative research is inherently reflexive; as the researcher delves deeper into their subject, it is important to chronicle their own thought processes through reflective or methodological memos, as doing so may highlight their own subjective interpretations of data. It is crucial to begin memoing at the onset of research. Regardless of the type of memo produced, what is important is that the process initiates critical thinking and productivity in the research. Doing so will facilitate easier and more coherent analyses as the project draws on. Memos can be used to map research activities, uncover meaning from data, maintaining research momentum and engagement and opening communication. See also Codebook Human Relations Area Files Transcription (linguistics) References Literature Hay, I. (2005). Qualitative research methods in human geography (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Grbich, Carol. (2013). "Qualitative Data Analysis" (2nd ed.). The Flinders University of South Australia: SAGE Publications Ltd. Saldaña, Johnny. (2015). "The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers" (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications Ltd. Research Statistical data coding Social statistics Data coding framework	0.765684	0.9763	0.747538
Rationalism (international relations)	Rational choice (also termed rationalism) is a prominent framework in international relations scholarship. Rational choice is not a substantive theory of international politics, but rather a methodological approach that focuses on certain types of social explanation for phenomena. In that sense, it is similar to constructivism, and differs from liberalism and realism, which are substantive theories of world politics. Rationalist analyses have been used to substantiate realist theories, as well as liberal theories of international relations. Rational choice research tends to explain conditions that bring about outcomes or patterns of behavior if relevant actors behave rationally. Key concepts in rational choice research in international relations include incomplete information, credibility, signaling, transaction costs, trust, and audience costs. Rational choice in international relations According to James D. Fearon, a rational choice research project typically proceeds in the following fashion: The analyst identifies an event or pattern of behavior that they want to explain The analyst posits a set of relevant actors The analyst proposes the choices available to the actors The analyst links the preferences of actors to the set of available choices The analyst explains the conditions under which an outcome occurs if the relevant actors are behaving rationally Actors do not have to be fully rational. There are varieties of rationality (e.g. thick and thin rationality). Rational choice scholarship may emphasize materialist variables, but rational choice and materialism are not necessarily synonymous. Rational choice explanations for conflict and the lack of cooperation in international politics frequently point to factors such as incomplete information, and a lack of credibility. Chances of cooperation and peaceful resolution can be increased through costly signaling, long shadows of the future, and tit-for-tat bargaining strategies. According to rationalist analyses, institutions may facilitate cooperation by increasing information, reducing transaction costs, and reducing collective action problems. Rational choice analyses tend to conceptualize norms as adhering to a "logic of consequence" rather than the constructivist “logic of appropriateness”. The “logic of consequences” entails that actors are assumed to choose the most efficient means to reach their goals on the basis of a cost-benefit analysis. This stands in contrast to the logic of appropriateness whereby actors follow “internalized prescriptions of what is socially defined as normal, true, right, or good, without, or in spite of calculation of consequences and expected utility”. Jeffrey Checkel writes that there are two common types of explanations for the efficacy of norms: Rationalism: actors comply with norms due to coercion, cost-benefit calculations, and material incentives Constructivism: actors comply with norms due to social learning and socialization Advantages According to Duncan Snidal, the advantages of rational choice research is that the formalization of arguments helps to clarify the underlying logic of authors' claims, the clarity of arguments makes rational choice arguments falsifiable, and rational choice arguments lend themselves to empirical validation through case studies. Limitations Constructivist scholars argue that while rational choice approaches may be useful to explain the interactions of actors with given interests, rationalist approaches are ultimately limited in explaining how those interests emerged in the first place. In other words, rationalists use exogenously given interests, but struggle to account for endogenously given interests. According to Duncan Snidal, rationalists are good at explaining continuity and stability (equilibrium solutions), but are less adept at explaining why change occurs. He also argues that rationalists are ill-equipped to incorporate norms in their models. According to Sidney Verba, a rational choice model of international relations depends on the quality of assumptions in the model; bad assumptions undercut the usefulness and adequacy of the model. International relations scholars who use methods and theories of psychology and cognitive science have criticized rational choice models of international relations. Bargaining model of war In international relations theory, the bargaining model of war is a method of representing the potential gains and losses and ultimate outcome of war between two actors as a bargaining interaction. A central puzzle that motivates research in this vein is the "inefficiency puzzle of war": why do wars occur when it would be better for all parties involved to reach an agreement that goes short of war? Thomas Schelling was an early proponent of formalizing conflicts as bargaining situations. Stanford University political scientist James Fearon brought prominence to the bargaining model in the 1990s. His 1995 article "Rationalist Explanations for War" is the most assigned journal article in International Relations graduate training at U.S. universities. The bargaining model of war has been described as "the dominant framework used in the study of war in the international relations field." According to James D. Fearon, there are three conditions where war is possible under the bargaining model: Uncertainty: An actor can overestimate his own abilities or the resolve of his opponent and start a war. This under- or overestimation is common throughout history. Hitler's invasion of the USSR in 1941 was motivated by the correct assumption that the Soviet forces were significantly weaker and worse organized than the German ones. Commitment Problems: an actor has a difficulty to commit to not use military strength in the future. A first-strike advantage may force an actor to begin a preemptive war, or the threat of being attacked may cause an actor to start a preventive war. Indivisibility of a good: if actors believe that a certain good could not be divided but only controlled in its entirety they may go to war. In short, Fearon argues that a lack of information and bargaining indivisibilities can lead rational states into war. Robert Powell modified the model as presented by Fearon, arguing that three prominent kinds of commitment problems (preventive war, preemptive war, and bargaining failure over rising powers) tended to be caused by large and rapid shifts in the distribution of power. The fundamental cause for war in Powell's view is that actors cannot under those circumstances credibly commit to abide by any agreement. Powell also argued that bargaining indivisibilities were a form of commitment problem, as opposed to something that intrinsically prevented actors from reaching a bargain (because actors could reach an agreement over side payments over an indivisible good). Applications of the bargaining model have indicated that third-party mediators can reduce the potential for war (by providing information). Some scholars have argued that democratic states can more credibly reveal their resolve because of the domestic costs that stem from making empty threats towards other states. University of Pennsylvania political scientist Alex Weisiger has tackled the puzzle of prolonged wars, arguing that commitment problems can account for lengthy wars. Weisiger argues that "situational" commitment problems where one power is declining and preemptively attacks a rising power can be lengthy because the rising power believes that the declining power will not agree to any bargain. He also argues that "dispositional" commitment problems, whereby states will not accept anything except unconditional surrender (because they believe the other state will never abide by any bargain), can be lengthy. Rochester University political scientist Hein Goemans argues that prolonged wars can be rational because actors in wars still have incentives to misrepresent their capabilities and resolve, both to be in a better position at the war settlement table and to affect interventions by third parties in the war. Actors may also raise or reduce their war aims once it becomes clear that they have the upper hand. Goemans also argues that it can be rational for leaders to "gamble for resurrection", which means that leaders become reluctant to settle wars if they believe they will be punished severely in domestic politics (e.g. punished through exile, imprisonment or death) if they do not outright win the war. Building on canonical work by James Fearon, there are two prominent signaling mechanisms in the rational choice literature: sinking costs and tying hands. The former refers to signals that involve sunk irrecoverable costs, whereas the latter refers to signals that will incur costs in the future if the signaler reneges. Limitations The applicability of the bargaining model is limited by numerous factors, including: Cognitive factors: new information does not lead actors to change their beliefs or behaviors in a consistent way Domestic politics: leaders' aims in war are reflected by personal or domestic political interests rather than what is strictly in the state's interest Constructivism: the identities of actors are realized through conflict Multi-player bargaining: war can be an equilibrium solution to bargaining between more than two actors Divergent interpretations of identical information: two actors can interpret identical information differently Usefulness in individual cases: due to uncertainty, the model cannot explain the onset of war in individual cases According to Robert Powell, the bargaining model has limitations in terms of explaining prolonged wars (because actors should quickly learn about the other side's commitment and capabilities). It can also give ahistorical readings of certain historical cases, as the implications of the model is that there would be no war between rational actors if the actors had perfect information. Ahsan Butt argues that in some wars, one actor is insistent on war and there are no plausible concessions that can be made by the other state. Stephen Walt argues that while the bargaining model of war (as presented by Fearon) is an "insightful and intelligent" formalization of how a lack of information and commitment problems under anarchy can lead states into conflict, it is ultimately not a "new theoretical claim" but rather another way of expressing ideas that the likes of Robert Art, Robert Jervis and Kenneth Oye have previously presented. Jonathan Kirshner has criticized the assumption of the bargaining model that states will reach a bargain if they have identical information. Kirshner notes that sports pundits have high-quality identical information available to them, yet they make different predictions about how sporting events will turn out. International politics is likely to be even more complicated to predict than sporting events. According to Erik Gartzke, the bargaining model is useful for thinking probabilistically about international conflict, but the onset of any specific war is theoretically indeterminate. Limitations of other rational choice scholarship In a prominent 1999 critique of rational choice scholarship in security studies, Stephen Walt argued that a lot of rational choice research in security had limited originality, produced a lot of trivial results, and failed to empirically verify the validity of its theoretical claims. While he praised the logical consistency and precision of rational choice scholarship, he argued that formal modeling was not a prerequisite for logical consistency and precision. He added that rationalist models were limited in their empirical applicability due to the presence of multiple equilibria (i.e. folk theorem) and flaws in human updating. He criticized the shift in security studies research towards formal models, arguing that it added unnecessary complexity (which created an appearance of greater scientism) which forced scholars and student to invest time in reading rational choice scholarship and learning formal modeling skills when the time could be spent on more productive endeavors. Rational choice scholars warn against conflating analytical assumptions in rational choice scholarship with empirical assumptions. In terms of rationalist models in IPE scholarship, Martha Finnemore and Henry Farrell have raised questions about the strong relationship between rational choice models and quantitative methods, pointing out that qualitative methods may be more or equally suitable in empirical tests of rational choice models due to problems in quantitatively assessing strategic interactions. According to Peter Katzenstein, Robert Keohane and Stephen Krasner, rational choice research is limited in the sense that it struggles to explain the sources of actors' preferences. Democratic peace theory Rational choice scholarship has provided potential explanations for democratic peace theory, which is the notion that democracies are hesitant to engage in armed conflict with other identified democracies. One prominent mechanism for the democratic theory is audience costs. An audience cost is a term in international relations theory that describes the electoral penalty a leader incurs from his or her constituency if they escalate a foreign policy crisis and are then seen as backing down. The term was popularized in a 1994 academic article by James Fearon where he argued that democracies carry greater audience costs than authoritarian states, which makes them better at signaling their intentions in interstate disputes. Branislav Slantchev has argued that the presence of a free media is a key component of audience costs. Fearon's argument regarding the credibility of democratic states in disputes has been subject to debate among international relations scholars. Two studies 2001, using the MID and ICB datasets, provided empirical support for the notion that democracies were more likely to issue effective threats. There is survey experiment data that substantiates that specified threats induce audience costs, but also data with mixed findings. A 2012 study by Alexander B. Downes and Todd S. Sechser found that existing datasets were not suitable to draw any conclusions as to whether democratic states issued more effective threats. They constructed their own dataset specifically for interstate military threats and outcomes, which found no relationship between regime type and effective threats. A 2017 study which recoded flaws in the MID dataset ultimately conclude, " that there are no regime-based differences in dispute reciprocation, and prior findings may be based largely on poorly coded data." A 2012 study by Marc Trachtenberg, which analyzed a dozen great power crises, found no evidence of the presence of audience costs in these crises. Other scholars have disputed the democratic credibility argument, questioning its causal logic and empirical validity. Research by Jessica Weeks argued that some authoritarian regime types have similar audience costs as in democratic states. A 2014 study by Jessica Chen Weiss argued that the Chinese regime fomented or clamped down on nationalist (or anti-foreign) protests in China in order to signal resolve. Fomenting or permitting nationalist protests entail audience costs, as they make it harder for the Chinese regime to back down in a foreign policy crisis out of fear that the protestors turn against the regime. Other rational choice scholars argue that the democratic peace is in part explained by the greater transparency of democratic political systems, which reduces the likelihood that states miscalculate the resolve of democratic states. Rational choice institutionalism Rational Choice Institutionalism (RCI) is a theoretical approach to the study of institutions arguing that actors use institutions to maximize their utility, and that institutions affect rational individual behavior. This approach has been applied to the study of domestic institutions, as well as international institutions. In the institutionalist literature, RCI is one of the three prominent approaches, along with historical institutionalism and sociological institutionalism. According to Erik Voeten, rational choice scholarship on international institutions can be divided between (1) rational functionalism and (2) Distributive rationalism. The former sees organizations as functional optimal solutions to collective problems, whereas the latter sees organizations as an outcome of actors' individual and collective goals. A prominent example of rational functionalism is the "Rational Design of International Institutions" literature. Barbara Koremenos defines international cooperation as "any explicit arrangement – negotiated among international actors – that prescribes, proscribes, and/or authorizes behavior." She has provided a rationalist account for the design of international institutions, arguing, "because agreements matter, they are designed in rational ways, and the fact that people make efforts to design them in such ways corroborates their significance." Criticism Proponents of emotional choice theory criticize rationalism by drawing on new findings from emotion research in psychology and neuroscience. They point out that the rationalist paradigm is generally based on the assumption that decision-making is a conscious and reflective process based on thoughts and beliefs. It presumes that people decide on the basis of calculation and deliberation. However, cumulative research in neuroscience suggests that only a small part of the brain's activities operate at the level of conscious reflection. The vast majority of its activities consist of unconscious appraisals and emotions. The significance of emotions in decision-making has generally been ignored by rationalism, according to these critics. Moreover, emotional choice theorists contend that the rationalist paradigm has difficulty incorporating emotions into its models, because it cannot account for the social nature of emotions. Even though emotions are felt by individuals, psychologists and sociologists have shown that emotions cannot be isolated from the social environment in which they arise. Emotions are inextricably intertwined with people's social norms and identities, which are typically outside the scope of standard rationalist accounts. Emotional choice theory seeks to capture not only the social but also the physiological and dynamic character of emotions. It represents a unitary action model to organize, explain, and predict the ways in which emotions shape decision-making. See also Constructivism (international relations) Decision-making models Decision theory Emotional choice theory Homo economicus Logic of appropriateness Preference Rational choice theory Rational expectations Social choice theory References International relations theory Rationalism	0.76928	0.971697	0.747507
Multiwinner voting	Multiwinner, at-large, or committee voting refers to electoral systems that elect several candidates at once. Such methods can be used to elect parliaments or committees. Goals There are many scenarios in which multiwinner voting is useful. They can be broadly classified into three classes, based on the main objective in electing the committee: Excellence. Here, voters judge the quality of each candidate individually. The goal is to find the "objectively" best candidates. An example application is shortlisting: selecting, from a list of candidate employees, a small set of finalists, who will proceed to the final stage of evaluation (e.g. using an interview). Here, each candidate is evaluated independently of the others. If two candidates are similar, then probably both will be elected or both will be rejected. Diversity. Here, the elected candidates should be as different as possible. For example, suppose the contest is about choosing locations for two fire stations or other facility. Most citizens naturally prefer a fire station in the city center. However, there is no need to have two fire-stations in the same place; it is better to diversify the selection and put the second station in a less central location. In contrast to the "excellence" setting, if two candidates are similar and are chosen, the best result will not result. Another scenario in which diversity is important is when a search engine selects results for display, or when an airline selects movies for screening during a flight. As well, elected members should represent the diverse opinion held by the voters, shown by the votes they cast, as much as possible. Proportionality. Here, elected candidates should fairly represent the diverse voting groups as shown by the votes cast by the voters, measured by the votes they cast, as much as possible. A majority group should win the majority of seats; less-popular parties should win fewer seats. This is a common goal in parliamentary elections; see proportional representation. Families of methods A major challenge in the study of multiwinner voting is finding reasonable adaptations of concepts from single-winner voting. These can be classified based on the voting type—approval voting vs. ranked voting. Some election systems elect multiple members by competition held among individual candidates. These systems include Plurality block voting, single non-transferable voting (multiple non-transferable voting) and single transferable voting. In other systems, candidates are grouped in committees (slates or party lists) and voters cast votes for the committees (or slates). Approval voting for committees Approval voting is a common method for single-winner elections and sometimes for multiwinner elections. In single-winner elections, each voter marks the candidate he approves, and the candidate with the most votes wins. With multiwinner voting, there are many ways to decide which candidate should be elected. In some, each voter ranks the candidates; in others they cast X votes. As well, each voter may cast single or multiple votes. Already in 1895, Thiele suggested a family of weight-based rules called Thiele's voting rules. Each rule in the family is defined by a sequence of k weakly-positive weights, w1,...,wk (where k is the committee size). Each voter assigns, to each committee containing p candidates approved by the voter, a score equal to w1+...+wp. The committee with the highest total score is elected. Some common voting rules in Thiele's family are: Multiple non-transferable vote (MNTV): the weight vector is (1,1,...,1). It is also called plurality-at-large approval-voting. Approval-Chamberlin-Courant (ACC): the weight vector is (1,0,...,0). That is, each voter gives 1 point to a committee, if and only if it contains one of his approved candidates. Proportional approval voting (PAV): the weight vector is the Harmonic progression (1, 1/2, 1/3, ..., 1/k). There are rules based on other principles, such as minimax approval voting and its generalizations, as well as Phragmen's voting rules and the method of equal shares. The complexity of determining the winners vary: MNTV winners can be found in polynomial time, while Chamberlin-Courant and PAV are both NP-hard. Positional scoring rules for committees Positional scoring rules are common in rank-based single-winner voting. Each voter ranks the candidates from best to worst, a pre-specified function assigns a score to each candidate based on his rank, and the candidate with the highest total score is elected. In multiwinner voting held using these systems, we need to assign scores to committees rather than to individual candidates. There are various ways to do this, for example: Single non-transferable vote: each voter gives 1 point to a committee, if it contains his most preferred candidate. In other words: each voter votes for a single candidate in a contest that elects multiwinners, and the k candidates with the largest number of votes are elected. This generalizes First-past-the-post voting. It can be computed in polynomial time. Multiple non-transferable vote (also called bloc voting): each voter gives 1 point to a committee for each open seat in his top k. In other words: each voter votes for k candidates where k seats are open, and the k candidates with the largest number of votes are elected. k-Borda: each voter gives, to each committee member, his Borda count. Each voter ranks the candidates and the rankings are scored together. The k candidates with the highest total Borda score are elected. Borda-Chamberlin-Courant (BCC): each voter gives, to each committee, the Borda count of his most preferred candidate in the committee. Computing the winner with BCC is NP-hard. Condorcet committees In single-winner voting, a Condorcet winner is a candidate who wins in every head-to-head election against each of the other candidates. A Condorcet method is a method that selects a Condorcet winner whenever it exists. There are several ways to adapt Condorcet's criterion to multiwinner voting: The first adaptation was by Peter Fishburn: a committee is a Condorcet committee if it is preferred, by a majority of voters, to any other possible committee. Fishburn assumed that the voters rank committees by the number of members in their approval set (i.e. they have dichotomous preferences). Later works assumed that the voters rank committees by other criteria, such as by their Borda count. It is coNP-complete to check if a committee satisfies this criterion, and coNP-hard to decide if there exist a Condorcet committee. Another adaptation was by Gehrlein and Ratliff: a committee is a Condorcet committee if each candidate in it is preferred, by a majority of voters, to each candidate outside it. A multiwinner voting rule is sometimes called stable if it selects a Condorcet set whenever it exists. Some stable rules are: Multiwinner Copeland's method: each committee is scored by the "number of external defeats": the number of pairs (c,d) where c is in the committee, d is not, and c is preferred to d by a majority of the voters. Multiwinner Minimax Condorcet method: each committee is scored by the "size of external opposition": the minimum, over all pairs (c,d), of the number of voters who prefer c. Multiwinner variants of some other Condorcet rules. A third adaptation was by Elkind, Lang and Saffidine: a Condorcet winning set is a set that, for each member d not in the set, some member c in the set is preferred to d by a majority. Based on this definition, they present a different multiwinner variant of the Minimax Condorcet method. Excellence elections Excellence means that the committee should contain the "best" candidates. Excellence-based voting rules are often called screening rules. They are often used as a first step in a selection of a single best candidate, that is, a method for creating a shortlist. A basic property that should be satisfied by such a rule is committee monotonicity (also called house monotonicity, a variant of resource monotonicity): if some k candidates are elected by a rule, and then the committee size increases to k+1 and the rule is re-applied, then the first k candidates should still be elected. Some families of committee-monotone rules are: Sequential rules: using any single-winner voting rule, pick a single candidate and add it to the committee. Repeat the process k times. Best-k rules: using any scoring rule, assign a score to each candidate. Pick the k candidates with the highest scores. The property of committee monotonicity is incompatible with the property of stability (a particular adaptation of Condorcet's criterion): there exists a single voting profile that admits a unique Condorcet set of size 2, and a unique Condorcet set of size 3, and they are disjoint (the set of size 2 is not contained in the set of size 3). On the other hand, there exists a family of positional scoring rules - the separable positional scoring rules - that are committee-monotone. These rules are also computable in polynomial time (if their underlying single-winner scoring functions are). For example, k-Borda is separable while multiple non-transferable vote is not. Diversity elections Diversity means that the committee should contain the top-ranked candidates of as many voters as possible. Formally, the following axioms are reasonable for diversity-centered applications: Narrow-top criterion: if there exists a committee of size k containing the top-ranked candidate of every voter, then it should be elected. Top-member monotonicity: if a committee is elected, and some voter shifts upwards the rank of his most-preferred winner, then the same committee should be elected. Proportional elections Proportionality means that each cohesive group of voters (that is: a group of voters with similar preferences) should be represented by a number of winners proportional to its size. Formally, if the committee is of size k, there are n voters, and some L*n/k voters rank the same L candidates at the top (or approve the same L candidates), then these L candidates should be elected. This principle is easy to implement when the voters vote for parties (in party-list systems), but it can also be adapted to approval voting or ranked voting; see justified representation and proportionality for solid coalitions. See also Participatory budgeting—can be seen as a generalization of multiwinner voting where candidates have different costs References	0.774719	0.964869	0.747502
Liberal paradox	The liberal paradox, also Sen paradox or Sen's paradox, is a logical paradox proposed by Amartya Sen which shows that no means of aggregating individual preferences into a single, social choice, can simultaneously fulfill the following, seemingly mild conditions: The unrestrictedness condition, or U: every possible ranking of each individual's preferences and all outcomes of every possible voting rule will be considered equally, The Pareto condition, or P: if everybody individually likes some choice better at the same time, the society in its voting rule as a whole likes it better as well, and Liberalism, or L (from which the theorem derives its gist): all individuals in a society must have at least one possibility of choosing differently, so that the social choice under a given voting rule changes as well. That is, as an individual liberal, anyone can exert their freedom of choice at least in some decision with tangible results. Sen's result shows that this is impossible. The three, rather minimalistic, assumptions cannot all hold together. The paradox—more properly called a proof of contradiction, and a paradox only in the sense of informal logic—is contentious because it appears to contradict the classical liberal idea that markets are both Pareto-efficient and respect individual freedoms. Sen's proof, set in the context of social choice theory, is similar in many respects to Arrow's impossibility theorem and the Gibbard–Satterthwaite theorem. As a mathematical construct, it also has much wider applicability: it is essentially about cyclical majorities between partially ordered sets, of which at least three must participate in order to give rise to the phenomenon. Since the idea is about pure mathematics and logic, similar arguments abound much further afield. They, for example, lead to the necessity of the fifth normal form in relational database design. The history of the argument also goes deeper, Condorcet's paradox perhaps being the first example of the finite sort. Pareto efficiency Definition A particular distribution of goods or outcome of any social process is regarded as Pareto-efficient if there is no way to improve one or more people's situations without harming another. Put another way, an outcome is not Pareto-efficient if there is a way to improve at least one person's situation without harming anyone else. For example, suppose a mother has ten dollars which she intends to give to her two children Carlos and Shannon. Suppose the children each want only money, and they do not get jealous of one another. The following distributions are Pareto-efficient: However, a distribution where the mother gives each of them $2 and wastes the remaining $6 is not Pareto-efficient, because she could have given the wasted money to either child and made that child better off without harming the other. In this example, it was presumed that a child was made better or worse off by gaining or losing money, respectively, and that neither child gained or lost by evaluating her share in comparison to the other. To be more precise, we must evaluate all possible preferences that the child might have and consider a situation as Pareto-efficient if there is no other social state that at least one person favors (or prefers) and no one disfavors. Use in economics Pareto efficiency is often used in economics as a minimal sense of economic efficiency. If a mechanism does not result in Pareto-efficient outcomes, it is regarded as inefficient, since there was another outcome that could have made some people better off without harming anyone else. The view that markets produce Pareto-efficient outcomes is regarded as an important and central justification for capitalism. This result was established (with certain assumptions) in an area of study known as general equilibrium theory and is known as the first fundamental theorem of welfare economics. As a result, these results often feature prominently in conservative libertarian justifications of unregulated markets. Two examples Sen's original example Sen's original example used a simple society with only two people and only one social issue to consider. The two members of society are named "Lewd" and "Prude". In this society there is a copy of a Lady Chatterley's Lover and it must be given either to Lewd to read, to Prude to read, or disposed of - unread. Suppose that Lewd enjoys this sort of reading and would prefer to read it rather than have it disposed of. However, they would get even more enjoyment out of Prude being forced to read it. Prude thinks that the book is indecent and that it should be disposed of, unread. However, if someone must read it, Prude would prefer to read it rather than Lewd since Prude thinks it would be even worse for someone to read and enjoy the book rather than read it in disgust. Given these preferences of the two individuals in the society, a social planner must decide what to do. Should the planner force Lewd to read the book, force Prude to read the book or let it go unread? More particularly, the social planner must rank all three possible outcomes in terms of their social desirability. The social planner decides that they should be committed to individual rights, each individual should get to choose whether they, themself will read the book. Lewd should get to decide whether the outcome "Lewd reads" will be ranked higher than "No one reads", and similarly Prude should get to decide whether the outcome "Prude reads" will be ranked higher than "No one reads". Following this strategy, the social planner declares that the outcome "Lewd reads" will be ranked higher than "No one reads" (because of Lewd's preferences) and that "No one reads" will be ranked higher than "Prude reads" (because of Prude's preferences). Consistency then requires that "Lewd reads" be ranked higher than "Prude reads", and so the social planner gives the book to Lewd to read. Notice that this outcome is regarded as worse than "Prude reads" by both Prude and Lewd, and the chosen outcome is therefore Pareto inferior to another available outcome—the one where Prude is forced to read the book. Gibbard's example Another example was provided by philosopher Allan Gibbard. Suppose there are two individuals Alice and Bob who live next door to each other. Alice loves the color blue and hates red. Bob loves the color green and hates yellow. If each were free to choose the color of their house independently of the other, they would choose their favorite colors. But Alice hates Bob with a passion, and she would gladly endure a red house if it meant that Bob would have to endure his house being yellow. Bob similarly hates Alice, and would gladly endure a yellow house if that meant that Alice would live in a red house. If each individual is free to choose their own house color, independently of the other, Alice would choose a blue house and Bob would choose a green one. But, this outcome is not Pareto efficient, because both Alice and Bob would prefer the outcome where Alice's house is red and Bob's is yellow. As a result, giving each individual the freedom to choose their own house color has led to an inefficient outcome—one that is inferior to another outcome where neither is free to choose their own color. Mathematically, we can represent Alice's preferences with this symbol: and Bob's preferences with this one: . We can represent each outcome as a pair: (Color of Alice's house, Color of Bob's house). As stated Alice's preferences are: (Blue, Yellow) (Red, Yellow) (Blue, Green) (Red, Green) And Bob's are: (Red, Green) (Red, Yellow) (Blue, Green) (Blue, Yellow) If we allow free and independent choices of both parties we end up with the outcome (Blue, Green) which is dispreferred by both parties to the outcome (Red, Yellow) and is therefore not Pareto efficient. The theorem Suppose there is a society N consisting of two or more individuals and a set X of two or more social outcomes. (For example, in the Alice and Bob case, N consisted of Alice and Bob, and X consisted of the four color options ⟨Blue, Yellow⟩, ⟨Blue, Green⟩, ⟨Red, Yellow⟩, and ⟨Red, Green⟩.) Suppose each individual in the society has a total and transitive preference relation on the set of social outcomes X. For notation, the preference relation of an individual i∊N is denoted by ≼i. Each preference relation belongs to the set Rel(X) of all total and transitive relations on X. A social choice function is a map which can take any configuration of preference relations of N as input and produce a subset of ("chosen") social outcomes as output. Formally, a social choice function is a map from the set of functions between N→Rel(X), to the power set of X. (Intuitively, the social choice function represents a societal principle for choosing one or more social outcomes based on individuals' preferences. By representing the social choice process as a function on Rel(X)N, we are tacitly assuming that the social choice function is defined for any possible configuration of preference relations; this is sometimes called the Universal Domain assumption.) The liberal paradox states that every social choice function satisfies at most one of the following properties, never both: Pareto optimality (collective efficiency): whenever all individuals of a society strictly prefer an outcome x over an outcome y, the choice function doesn't pick y. Formally, a social choice function F is Pareto optimal if whenever p∊Rel(X)N is a configuration of preference relations and there are two outcomes x and y such that x⪲iy for every individual i∊N, then y∉ F(p). Intuitively, Pareto optimality captures an aspect of collective efficiency: the social choice is made so that everyone is collectively as well off as possible, to the extent that every available tradeoff would make someone worse off. Minimal liberalism (individual freedom): More than one individual in the society is decisive on a pair of social outcomes. (An individual is decisive on a pair of social outcomes x and y if, whenever they prefer x over y, the social choice function prefers x over y regardless of what other members of the society prefer. And similarly whenever they prefer y over x, the social choice function prefers y over x.) Formally, a social choice function F respects minimal liberalism if there is more than one individual i∊N for which there exists a pair of outcomes xi, yi on which they are decisive—that is, for every configuration of preference relations p∊Rel(X)N, yi∊ F(p) only when xi≼iyi (and similarly, xi∊ F(p) only when yi≼ixi). As an example of decisiveness: in the Lewd/Prude case, Lewd was decisive on the pair of outcomes ⟨"Lewd reads", "No one reads"⟩ and Prude was decisive on the pair of outcomes ⟨"Prude reads", "No one reads"⟩. Intuitively, minimal liberalism captures an aspect of individual freedom: for some issues, if you prefer x over y (or vice versa), then society respects your preference for x over y even if everyone else is against you. Sen's example is your personal preference for sleeping on your back or your side: on at least one innocuous personal area like this, a liberal society ought to prioritize your individual preference even if everyone else in society would prefer you to sleep another way. The formal requirement is that at least two people are decisive in this way, to rule out the possibility of a single person who dictates society's preferences. In other words, the liberal paradox states that for every social choice function F, there is a configuration of preference relations p∊Rel(X)N for which F violates either Pareto optimality or Minimal liberalism (or both). In the examples of Sen and Gibbard noted above, the social choice function satisfies minimal liberalism at the expense of Pareto optimality. Ways out of the paradox Because the paradox relies on very few conditions, there are a limited number of ways to escape the paradox. Essentially one must either reject the universal domain assumption, the Pareto principle, or the minimal liberalism principle. Sen himself suggested two ways out, one a rejection of universal domain another a rejection of the Pareto principle. Universal domain Julian Blau proves that Sen's paradox can only arise when individuals have "nosy" preferences—that is when their preference depends not only on their own action but also on others' actions. In the example of Alice and Bob above, Alice has a preference over how Bob paints his house, and Bob has a preference over Alice's house color as well. Most arguments which demonstrate market efficiency assume that individuals care about only their own consumption and not others' consumption and therefore do not consider the situations that give rise to Sen's paradox. In fact, this shows a strong relationship between Sen's paradox and the well known result that markets fail to produce Pareto outcomes in the presence of externalities. Externalities arise when the choices of one party affect another. Classic examples of externalities include pollution or overfishing. Because of their nosy preferences, Alice's choice imposes a negative externality on Bob and vice versa. To prevent the paradox, Sen suggests that "The ultimate guarantee for individual liberty may rest not on rules for social choice but on developing individual values that respect each other's personal choices." Doing so would amount to limiting certain types of nosy preferences, or alternatively restricting the application of the Pareto principle only to those situations where individuals fail to have nosy preferences. Note that if we consider the case of cardinal preferences—for instance, if Alice and Bob both had to state, within certain bounds, how much happiness they would get for each color of each house separately, and the situation which produced the most happiness were chosen—a minimally-liberal solution does not require that they have no nosiness at all, but just that the sum of all "nosy" preferences about one house's color are below some threshold, while the "non-nosy" preferences are all above that threshold. Since there are generally some questions for which this will be true—Sen's classic example is an individual's choice of whether to sleep on their back or their side—the goal of combining minimal liberalism with Pareto efficiency, while impossible to guarantee in all theoretical cases, may not in practice be impossible to obtain. Pareto Alternatively, one could remain committed to the universality of the rules for social choice and to individual rights and instead reject the universal application of the Pareto principle. Sen also hints that this should be how one escapes the paradox: Minimal liberalism Most commentators on Sen's paradox have argued that Sen's minimal liberalism condition does not adequately capture the notion of individual rights. Essentially what is excluded from Sen's characterization of individual rights is the ability to voluntarily form contracts that lay down one's claim to a right. For example, in the example of Lewd and Prude, although each has a right to refuse to read the book, Prude would voluntarily sign a contract with Lewd promising to read the book on condition that Lewd refrain from doing so. In such a circumstance there was no violation of Prude's or Lewd's rights because each entered the contract willingly. Similarly, Alice and Bob might sign a contract to each paint their houses their dispreferred color on condition that the other does the same. In this vein, Gibbard provides a weaker version of the minimal liberalism claim which he argues is consistent with the possibility of contracts and which is also consistent with the Pareto principle given any possible preferences of the individuals. Dynamism Alternatively, instead of both Lewd and Prude deciding what to do at the same time, they should do it one after the other. If Prude decides not to read, then Lewd will decide to read. This yields the same outcome. However, if Prude decides to read, Lewd won't. "Prude reads" is preferred by Prude (and also Lewd) to "Lewd reads", so he will decide to read (with no obligation, voluntarily) to get this Pareto efficient outcome. Marc Masat hints that this should be another way out of the paradox: References Philosophical paradoxes Social choice theory Economics theorems	0.767862	0.973425	0.747456
Elicitation technique	An elicitation technique is any of a number of data collection techniques used in anthropology, cognitive science, counseling, education, knowledge engineering, linguistics, management, philosophy, psychology, or other fields to gather knowledge or information from people. Recent work in behavioral economics has purported that elicitation techniques can be used to control subject misconceptions and mitigate errors from generally accepted experimental design practices. Elicitation, in which knowledge is sought directly from human beings, is usually distinguished from indirect methods such as gathering information from written sources. A person who interacts with human subjects in order to elicit information from them may be called an elicitor, an analyst, experimenter, or knowledge engineer, depending on the field of study. Elicitation techniques include interviews, observation of either naturally occurring behavior (including as part of participant observation) or behavior in a laboratory setting, or the analysis of assigned tasks. List of elicitation techniques Interviews Existing System Project Scope Brain Storming Focus Groups Exploratory Prototypes User Task Analysis Observation Surveys Questionnaire Story Board References Psychological methodology Cognitive science Ethnography Linguistic research Methods in sociology	0.769088	0.971819	0.747414
Institutionalist political economy	Institutionalist political economy, also known as institutional political economy or IPE, refers to a body of political economy, thought to stem from the works of institutionalists such as Thorstein Veblen, John Commons, Wesley Mitchell and John Dewey. It emphasizes the impact of historical and socio-political factors on the evolution of economic practices, often opposing more rational approaches. In the political sense, this implies the influences actors like the state have on socio-economic practices and the shaping of institutions via political decision-making. Relevant variables for the study of political institutions include the structures that indicate voting rules, the political system, preferences and ideological leanings of leaders. Overview The institutionalist political economics perspective builds upon core theories from institutional economics and further apply them to the field of contemporary political economy. Wesley Mitchell originally differentiated the institutionalist approach to economics from previous schools of economic thought by emphasizing its focus on the cumulative process of evolutionary change in economics. Contemporary theorists further expand this definition by emphasizing the effects of the historical shift from the classical system of laissez-faire capitalism to contemporary or neoliberal capitalism in the current international economic society, in which various institutions are major actors. The institutional basis of the rights-obligations structure classically assumed of the market is also examined. This includes processes deciding how legitimate actors and legitimate objects of exchange are determined. At their core, proponents of this school of thought maintain that economics cannot be divorced from the social and political context since the market itself is an institution, which is to say is politically constructed. In this sense institutionalist political economists place themselves in opposition to neoclassical economists who assert that the market is an autonomous, apolitical domain. They also differ from proponents of the new institutional economics perspective in that institutions are viewed as being able to fundamentally shape the individual rather than as merely placing constraints on the theoretically pre-defined and unchanging individual. Actors J. R. Commons had discussed how institutions were the result of past choices made on the individual level. These choices then decide the structure in which the institutions operate, and how they enable and constrain market actors. The element of evolution returns by institutions changing in terms of workability, marking his pragmatist influence on the subject. Commons therefore separates himself from other institutionalists by implementing this notion of workability, absent in Veblen. The political implications here mainly effect the way in which political parties interact with private collectives in which parties maximize power and collectives maximize their own organisational efficiencies. Here reasonability is decisive for outcome according to Commons. The political dimension of these institutions lies in the way they exercise control over individual action, along with formal and informal rules and customs. An important aspect of actors within institutional approaches is their potential for morally grounded decision making, which marks a difference from rational approaches. Institutionalist approaches often consider situations in which actors act against their predicted most profitable way of action. This is where institutionalists argue that concepts like habit evolution via institutions come in. Institutionalist accounts have been used to criticize neo-liberal accounts, as it is the institutions that influence how certain actions are understood. The assumption that maximizing profits is the main goal behind incentive-making is widely held in many paradigms, including regulation theory and comparative political economy. This distinction between actors is therefore important for identifying institutional approaches. Institutionalist economics in political case studies Studies of developmental states, countries with recent, fast economic development, have identified common traits that can be classified as institutional. Some of these institutionalist characteristics include elite- and bureaucracy-led intervention and weak civil society, all with the intent of creating institutions that are designed to further bolster economic and human developmental performance. The way states actively participate in the creation of institutions is therefore object of study, and how they might accomplish the structural changes within the institutions that are necessary to bring about economic development, downplaying the role of the free market. Case studies of states have identified traits belonging to institutionalist theory, such as historical influences on present situations and socio-political contestation over policies. In a study of Latin American countries economic underperformance has been linked to institutional durability, due to established elites clinging onto arrangements detrimental to national resources. In addition, dominance of these elites has been linked to their relative organizational strength, compared to the weak national elites of various Latin American countries. See also Constitutional economics Institutional economics References External links Breaking the Mould: An Institutionalist Political Economy Alternative to the Neoliberal Theory of the Market and the State Taking capitalism seriously: towards an institutionalist approach to contemporary political economy Institutionalism as an Approach to Political Economy American Institutional School Thorstein Veblen, Articles by Veblen T. Veblen: Leisure Class T. Veblen: Why is Economics Not an Evolutionary Science? T. Veblen: The Beginning of Ownership T. Veblen: Theory of Business Enterprise Political economy économie institutionaliste sv:Institutionalism	0.783761	0.953534	0.747343
Property-owning democracy	A property-owning democracy is a social system whereby state institutions enable a fair distribution of productive property across the populace generally, rather than allowing monopolies to form and dominate. This intends to ensure that all individuals have a fair and equal opportunity to participate in the market. It is thought that this system is necessary to break the constraints of welfare-state capitalism and manifest a cooperation of citizens, who each hold equal political power and potential for economic advancement. This form of societal organisation was popularised by John Rawls, as the most effective structure amongst four other competing systems: laissez-faire capitalism, welfare-state capitalism, state socialism with a command economy and liberal socialism. The idea of a property-owning democracy is somewhat foreign in Western political philosophy, despite issues of political disenfranchisement emerging concurrent to the accelerating inequality of wealth and capital ownership over the past four decades. Etymology and history Although popularised by Rawls, the term 'property-owning democracy' had been used in different ways before him. Coined by British MP Noel Skelton in 1920, the concept emphasized the terms 'property-owning' and 'democracy' as a conservative response to left-leaning ideas of liberalism and socialism. At this stage, the term represented the necessity of protecting property rights from democratic organisation. British conservatives had one meaning of the term 'property-owning democracy' before it was reconceptualized by British economist James Meade. He co-opted it to argue that re-distributive policies are required to achieve the model society proposed by Skelton and his followers. The concept has since been used to describe an ideal society in which property-ownership is broadly distributed throughout the population. Rawls borrowed the term from Meade in A Theory of Justice (1971), which caused it to spread widely. Description and theoretical foundations Rawls described 'property-owning democracy' as a social system that aspires to distribute the ownership of property widely throughout the populace, so that citizens may co-operate under equal and free relationships. This ideal is based on the premise that individuals must possess productive resources in order to enable fair societal participation and equal political influence. Whereas conventional liberalist thought endows each individual with the autonomy to make rational self-maximising decisions in their own interests, the concept of a property-owning democracy would contrarily argue that citizens cannot freely make political decisions due to the undue influence of wealth inequality. This is identified by Rawls in his Justice as Fairness: A Restatement: Inequalities in the ownership and control of wealth, income, and property can reduce the fair value of basic liberties. This system does not condemn the use of markets to determine demand and fair prices, however, it asserts that private ownership of productive means may corrupt a fair equality of opportunity. As levels of wealth inequality increase, so does the political influence of affluent classes. Similarly, Rawls contrasts property-owning democracy against socialist forms of governance, which are thought to dismiss basic individual liberties in a manner that is inconsistent with democratic values. Although depicted in opposition to these systems, property-owning democracy is accepted by both conservative and liberal theorists. Fundamental components Property-owning democracies promote the power of institutions to implement policies and taxes that regulate the inheritance and acquisition of private property, in order to disperse wealth and capital throughout the population. Concentrated ownership of the means of production in a near monopoly creates a situation in which labour must depend upon their employers for wages in a relationship of unequal bargaining power, causing wealth to increasingly accumulate at the top quintile of society. It is then problematic that the candidates elected for public office are generally those supported by economic elites, through the provision of individual and corporate donations that are required to run successful political campaigns. Subsequently, politicians have been found to produce legislation and policy that favours the interests of donors on whom they depend to be elected, over those of the general public. This is exacerbated by the influence of lobbying, funded interest groups and the concentration of media ownership. Such practices are illustrated in the Princeton University study into wealth's corruption of politics, which found that: The preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy. From this perspective, the concentrated ownership of property acts to diminish democratic values. The notion of property-owning democracy acts to reverse this corruption of political power by redistributing productive property across a greater proportion of society, thereby facilitating a more equal distribution of political power. A satisfactorily implemented property-owning democracy, then, would contain institutional mechanisms that seek to diffuse capital, wealth and productive resources. This would be accompanied by a range of social development schemes that ensure all individuals are equally capable of achieving economic success and political influence. It would include the development of human capital through publicly funded education, free healthcare, an adequate social minimum and policies that seek to ensure the equal participation of individuals within the political society.It may also include a universal right to private property or something akin to that. Comparison to welfare-state capitalism A property-owning democracy differs to a system of welfare-state capitalism, in which the state guarantees a social minimum but does not significantly intervene in the free market. Welfare-state capitalism is based upon a redistribution of income through means tested social welfare, as opposed to a reallocation of productive resources under property-owning democracies. Proponents of property-owning democracy would claim that this form of social structure produces socioeconomic classes, at the base of which sits a demoralised grouping who are dependent upon state-sanctioned welfare. Although welfare systems demonstrate some concern for equality of opportunity, it fails to substantially deliver upon the ideals of equal cooperation because it permits the concentration of wealth and productive resources within an elite minority. The provision of a social minimum does not address the consequences that transpire when wealth, political influence and power coincide. Economists, political theorists and sociologists therefore posit that welfare-state capitalism does not appropriately address the influence of wealth on political decision making, as it reinforces the structural constraints that fail to ensure economic opportunity for the worst-off in society. Perspective of social and political justice Rawls promotes the property-owning democracy above four alternative institutions: laissez-faire capitalism, welfare-state capitalism, state socialism with a command economy and liberal socialism. This ranking is determined in accordance with Rawls' two principles of justice prescribed in A Theory of Justice (1971), which has been widely accepted within political discourse. The first principle mandates that each person is entitled to equal basic liberties, whilst the second principle requires that inequalities exist only where all individuals had equal opportunities and where it is arranged to be of "greatest benefit to the least advantaged". These principles are thought to be best fulfilled by a system of property-owning democracy. Equal basic liberties are improved and ensured, as a dispersal of wealth, income and property allows all individuals a relatively comparable level of political and economic power. The fair equality of opportunity acts to assure that wealth and property ownership cannot improve and manipulate an individual's place in the social order, particularly in relation to their access to education, healthcare, employment and housing. Finally, the redistribution of wealth and productive property acts to satisfy the 'difference principle' by guaranteeing an equal distribution of social primary goods, thereby best aiding those who are most disadvantaged. It is within this context that property-owning democracy derives its esteem. Criticism Property-owning democracy has been criticised broadly by liberal democratic advocates, who argue that democracy is achieved when each individual has an equal vote in the election of representative candidates. It is therefore just for a state to maintain its current politico-economic system, as this is the social structure for which the populace has voted. If the public desired the values and policies that comprise property-owning democracy, they could vote for candidates who promised to implement these institutions. Additionally, if the idea that ownership of productive property determines one's political influence is pursued to its logical conclusion, a truly equal society would mandate policies that extend beyond those redistributive mechanisms outlined by Rawls to allow a fully equal distribution of property throughout society. It is therefore criticised for diminishing the liberty to pursue economic value and acquire property, conforming with the premise of state socialism this is disqualified under Rawls' own internal logic. The universal value of this social system is also limited by its particular bias toward Western ways of thinking, whilst ignoring the pluralistic cultural, religious, philosophical and economic differences worldwide. It is therefore inappropriate to assert the value of this morally charged political structure over all political communities. Welfare-state capitalism Proponents of welfare-state capitalism critique property-owning democracy for too liberally dismissing the role of individual differences of skill, intelligence and physiological qualities to produce divergent outcomes. This perspective reasons that individuals are incentivised by profit to make decisions in terms of human capital development, employment difficulty and time commitment, saving and spending decisions, as well as investment in entrepreneurial endeavours. Where individuals have made differing decisions to their benefit, it cannot be considered just to redistribute the profit, wealth and property attained through their autonomous decision-making. It is more appropriate, from the perspective of welfare-state capitalism, to provide a social minimum whereby those individuals who struggle to convert their capabilities into economic benefits are assured a basic standard of living, without mandating that they be gifted equal ownership over productive property which they have not earned. Laissez-faire Laissez-faire perspectives condemn the tendency of property-owning democracy to neglect the importance of incentive to ensure a productive economy. Insofar as the production of wealth is recognised as the result of human activity, it follows that individuals with high levels of wealth and property ownership are the proper and just owners of those goods. It cannot follow that justice is served by seizing those benefits from their rightful owners. Thus, the goal of property-owning democracy to redistribute this wealth and productive property broadly throughout the population acts to delimit the market incentive to acquire those goods. It is then assumed that laissez-faire capitalism would more appropriately maximise the position of the worst off, as incentivising those with the most marketable talents to excel will propel society to the benefit of all. It additionally criticises the capacity of property-owning democracies to better ensure the liberties and equal opportunities of all individuals, as a laissez-faire market naturally facilitates these outcomes via each individual pursuing their own interests. For instance, individuals of differing arbitrary distinctions, such as race, religion or gender, are equally likely to be employed by a corporation who is incentivised by the free market to hire the individual who maximises returns. Similar to welfare-state capitalism, laissez-faire perspectives also deny that wealth allows individuals to virtually purchase votes in the political realm. Current democratic political systems do not structurally prohibit voters from electing candidates who would promise and legislate a more equitable distribution of property. State socialism Advocates of state socialism criticise property-owning democracy for its soft principles on property redistribution, which fail to effectively enable an equal ownership over the means of production. It posits that the policies prescribed property-owning democracy structures fail to achieve the ideals of its own ideology, as capital will perpetually accumulate within fewer and fewer hands under a market system. The operation of a free market system cannot be decoupled from capitalism. Liberal socialism Although Rawls recognised that liberal socialism could fulfil the two principles of justice, it was discarded as the ideal system of social organisation due to its lack of feasibility in terms of implementation and public acceptance. This system therefore opposes property-owning democracy for its systems' lack of practicality. While property-owning democracy asserts the value of redistributing productive property, liberal socialism claims to achieve the end goal of equal opportunity and political influence through means that are less coercive. By implementing a combination of both capitalist structures and limited forms of social ownership of capital, in conjunction with socialised systems of healthcare, education and security, liberal socialism claims to more fairly achieve the goals of property-owning democracies as it accounts for individual autonomy. References John Rawls Liberalism Types of democracy	0.775408	0.963806	0.747342
End-user computing	End-user computing (EUC) refers to systems in which non-programmers can create working applications. EUC is a group of approaches to computing that aim to better integrate end users into the computing environment. These approaches attempt to realize the potential for high-end computing to perform problem-solving in a trustworthy manner. End-user computing can range in complexity from users simply clicking a series of buttons, to citizen developers writing scripts in a controlled scripting language, to being able to modify and execute code directly. Examples of end-user computing are systems built using fourth-generation programming languages, such as MAPPER or SQL, or one of the fifth-generation programming languages, such as ICAD. Factors Factors contributing to the need for further EUC research include knowledge processing, pervasive computing, issues of ontology, interactive visualization, and the like. Some of the issues related to end-user computing concern software architecture (iconic versus language interfaces, open versus closed, and others). Other issues relate to intellectual property, configuration and maintenance. End-user computing allows more user-input into system affairs that can range from personalization to full-fledged ownership of a system. EUC strategy EUC applications should not be evolved by accident, but there should be a defined EUC strategy. Any Application Architecture Strategy / IT Strategy should consider the white spaces in automation (enterprise functionality not automated by ERP / Enterprise Grade Applications). These are the potential areas where EUC can play a major role. Then ASSIMPLER parameters should be applied to these white spaces to develop the EUC strategy. (ASSIMPLER stands for availability, scalability, security, interoperability, maintainability, performance, low cost of ownership, extendibility and reliability.) In businesses, an end-user concept gives workers more flexibility, as well as more opportunities for better productivity and creativity. However, EUC will work only when leveraged correctly. That’s why it requires a full-fledged strategy. Any strategy should include all the tools users might need to carry out their tasks and work more productively. Types of EUC End-user computing covers a broad range of user-facing resources, including: desktop and notebook computers; desktop operating systems and applications; scripting languages such as robotic desktop automation or RDA; smartphones and wearables; mobile, web and cloud applications; virtual desktops and applications EUC risk drivers Business owners should understand that every user-controlled app needs to be monitored and supervised. Otherwise, organization risk facing a lot of problems and losses if end-users don’t follow company policy or leave their job. In functions such as finance, accounting and regulated activities, unmanaged EUC may expose the organization to regulatory compliance issues and fines. End-user computing operating and business risks may be driven by: lack of rigorous testing; lack of version & change control; lack of documentation and reliance on end-user who developed it; lack of maintenance processes; lack of security; lack of audit trail; overreliance on manual controls. EUC risk management software Many companies elect to leverage software to manage their EUC risks. Software can provide many benefits to organizations, including: automation of risk management activities; reduction in manual effort required for manual controls; version controls for EUC applications; change controls for EUC applications. Examples of EUC risk software include: apparity See also Decentralized computing Defensive computing End-user development Journal of Organizational and End User Computing Knowledge-based engineering Situational application Software engineering Usability Usability engineering User interface User-centered design References External links EUSES Consortium, a collaboration that researches end-user computing. Relationship Between Leadership and EUC Efficiency Human–computer interaction	0.761591	0.981283	0.747336
Integrated assessment modelling	Integrated assessment modelling (IAM) or integrated modelling (IM) is a term used for a type of scientific modelling that tries to link main features of society and economy with the biosphere and atmosphere into one modelling framework. The goal of integrated assessment modelling is to accommodate informed policy-making, usually in the context of climate change though also in other areas of human and social development. While the detail and extent of integrated disciplines varies strongly per model, all climatic integrated assessment modelling includes economic processes as well as processes producing greenhouse gases. Other integrated assessment models also integrate other aspects of human development such as education, health, infrastructure, and governance. These models are integrated because they span multiple academic disciplines, including economics and climate science and for more comprehensive models also energy systems, land-use change, agriculture, infrastructure, conflict, governance, technology, education, and health. The word assessment comes from the use of these models to provide information for answering policy questions. To quantify these integrated assessment studies, numerical models are used. Integrated assessment modelling does not provide predictions for the future but rather estimates what possible scenarios look like. There are different types of integrated assessment models. One classification distinguishes between firstly models that quantify future developmental pathways or scenarios and provide detailed, sectoral information on the complex processes modelled. Here they are called process-based models. Secondly, there are models that aggregate the costs of climate change and climate change mitigation to find estimates of the total costs of climate change. A second classification makes a distinction between models that extrapolate verified patterns (via econometrics equations), or models that determine (globally) optimal economic solutions from the perspective of a social planner, assuming (partial) equilibrium of the economy. Process-based models Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has relied on process-based integrated assessment models to quantify mitigation scenarios. They have been used to explore different pathways for staying within climate policy targets such as the 1.5 °C target agreed upon in the Paris Agreement. Moreover, these models have underpinned research including energy policy assessment and simulate the Shared socioeconomic pathways. Notable modelling frameworks include IMAGE, MESSAGEix, AIM/GCE, GCAM, REMIND-MAgPIE, and WITCH-GLOBIOM. While these scenarios are highly policy-relevant, interpretation of the scenarios should be done with care. Non-equilibrium models include those based on econometric equations and evolutionary economics (such as E3ME), and agent-based models (such as the agent-based DSK-model). These models typically do not assume rational and representative agents, nor market equilibrium in the long term. Aggregate cost-benefit models Cost-benefit integrated assessment models are the main tools for calculating the social cost of carbon, or the marginal social cost of emitting one more tonne of carbon (as carbon dioxide) into the atmosphere at any point in time. For instance, the DICE, PAGE, and FUND models have been used by the US Interagency Working Group to calculate the social cost of carbon and its results have been used for regulatory impact analysis. This type of modelling is carried out to find the total cost of climate impacts, which are generally considered a negative externality not captured by conventional markets. In order to correct such a market failure, for instance by using a carbon tax, the cost of emissions is required. However, the estimates of the social cost of carbon are highly uncertain and will remain so for the foreseeable future. It has been argued that "IAM-based analyses of climate policy create a perception of knowledge and precision that is illusory, and can fool policy-makers into thinking that the forecasts the models generate have some kind of scientific legitimacy". Still, it has been argued that attempting to calculate the social cost of carbon is useful to gain insight into the effect of certain processes on climate impacts, as well as to better understand one of the determinants international cooperation in the governance of climate agreements. Integrated assessment models have not been used solely to assess environmental or climate change-related fields. They have also been used to analyze patterns of conflict, the Sustainable Development Goals, trends across issue area in Africa, and food security. Shortcomings All numerical models have shortcomings. Integrated Assessment Models for climate change, in particular, have been severely criticized for problematic assumptions that led to greatly overestimating the cost/benefit ratio for mitigating climate change while relying on economic models inappropriate to the problem. In 2021, the integrated assessment modeling community examined gaps in what was termed the "possibility space" and how these might best be consolidated and addressed. In an October2021 working paper, Nicholas Stern argues that existing IAMs are inherently unable to capture the economic realities of the climate crisis under its current state of rapid progress. Models undertaking optimisation methodologies have received numerous different critiques, a prominent one however, draws on the ideas of dynamical systems theory which understands systems as changing with no deterministic pathway or end-state. This implies a very large, or even infinite, number of possible states of the system in the future with aspects and dynamics that cannot be known to observers of the current state of the system. This type of uncertainty around future states of an evolutionary system has been referred to as ‘radical’ or ‘fundamental’ uncertainty. This has led some researchers to call for more work on the broader array of possible futures and calling for modelling research on those alternative scenarios that have yet to receive substantial attention, for example post-growth scenarios. Notes References External links Integrated Assessment Society Integrated Assessment Journal Climate change policy Environmental science Environmental social science Scientific modelling Management cybernetics	0.766199	0.975352	0.747314
DHIS2	DHIS2 (also spelled DHIS 2, formerly District Health Information Software) is a free and open-source software platform for the collection, reporting, analysis and dissemination of aggregate and individual-level data. The most common use of DHIS2 is for health data, where it can be implemented for individual health programs and/or as a national-scale Health Management Information System (HMIS). As of the end of 2022, DHIS2 was in use by Ministries of Health in more than 75 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), with 69 countries using DHIS2 at national scale. Beyond health, DHIS2 is used in sectors such as education, supply chain and logistics, water and sanitation, nutrition and food security, agriculture and land management, and e-governance, among others. DHIS2 is officially recognized as a Digital Public Good. Development of the core DHIS2 software is coordinated by the HISP Centre at the University of Oslo (formerly the Health Information Systems Programme), where it is housed within the Department of Informatics. The DHIS2 project is supported financially by a coalition of global partners, including Norad; PEPFAR; The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; UNICEF; Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; and the University of Oslo. The HISP Centre is an official Collaborating Centre of the World Health Organization. DHIS2 software As a digital solution for data collection and management, DHIS2 can be used for aggregate data (e.g. routine health facility data, staffing, equipment, infrastructure, population estimates, etc.), event data (e.g. disease outbreaks, survey/audit data, patient satisfaction surveys, etc.), and individual-level longitudinal data (e.g. vaccination records, lab sample collection and testing, patient treatment and follow-up, student progress, etc.). The system supports the capture of data linked to any level in an organizational hierarchy at any data collection frequency. DHIS2 includes built-in tools for analytics, including dashboards, charts, pivot tables and maps, as well as data validation and data quality features. It also includes tools to support collaborative data use, such as sharing, commenting and interpretation. The DHIS2 platform can be extended with custom applications (which can be published and shared through the DHIS2 App Hub) or integrated with third-party software or external data sources through the open web API. DHIS2 supports health data standards such as FHIR, SNOMED GPS, LOINC, and ICD-10, as well as the generic ADX format for aggregate data exchange. The DHIS2 data model and platform are generic by design, not specifically tailored to the health context, to facilitate the application of DHIS2 to a variety of use cases. DHIS2 is a web-based platform. The core software and database are hosted on a server, which can be either physically located in the country of ownership or cloud-based. Users can access the DHIS2 through any modern web browser. In addition, the DHIS2 Capture Android application can be used to collect and update DHIS2 data on mobile devices and tablets that use the Android operating system. When data is entered through the web or Android application, it is synced with the central DHIS2 server for that instance. Each individual instance of the DHIS2 software and the data it contains is locally owned and managed. DHIS2 includes support for translation and localization, and has already been translated into a number of languages including French, Portuguese, Spanish, Hindi, Vietnamese, Chinese and Norwegian. DHIS2 software development occurs in 6-month cycles of backend releases, plus periodic patch releases and continuous app releases. Development is coordinated by the HISP Centre according to a collaboratively planned, public roadmap that prioritizes generic improvements that meet country needs. Uses of DHIS2 Health DHIS2 is currently in use as a Health Management Information System in more than 75 low- and middle-income countries. 69 of these countries have deployed DHIS2 at national scale. DHIS2 is also used by national health authorities and international health programs and organizations for management of health programs related to specific diseases, such as HIV, TB, and Malaria, among others, as well as for general public health programs such as disease surveillance, routine immunization, and maternal and child health. In addition, during the COVID-19 pandemic, 55 countries rapidly deployed or extended DHIS2 for national pandemic response and/or vaccination. Education Since 2019, the HISP Centre has worked with six countries to pilot DHIS2 as an Education Management Information System (EMIS), with financial support from NORAD and GPE/KIX. This use case adapts the core DHIS2 functionality and data model to the education sector for such purposes as student and teacher records, school report cards, and resource allocation. Logistics DHIS2 is used for health logistics data in more than 20 countries in Africa and Asia, where it serves as a last-mile solution for facility-level data capture for health commodities. Most commonly, this involves regular reporting of aggregate data on stocks and usage of common medical supply items such as vaccines, medications, syringes, etc, which facilitates triangulation of health service and commodity data as well as forecasting. In addition, some countries use DHIS2 for vaccine cold chain or other electronic Logistics Management Information System (eLMIS) use cases. Other uses As a generic software platform, DHIS2 has been adapted for a variety of use cases both within and beyond the health sector. In addition to the most common uses listed above, examples of known DHIS2 projects include water and sanitation, nutrition and food security, agriculture and land management, and e-governance. History of DHIS development The original District Health Information Software (DHIS) was developed for three health districts in Cape Town as part of the Health Information Systems Programme (HISP), a collaborative research project between the University of Oslo and the University of the Western Cape that began in 1994. DHIS 1.3 and 1.4 The DHIS version 1 series goes back to 1996 and was developed on the Microsoft Access platform consisting of VBA for the interface or program logic (front-end), Access as a database (back-end), Excel for reporting and Windows as the OS. DHIS 1.4 (from 2005) is a significant overhaul of the version 1.3 database structure, using various output formats for reporting. It bridges the gap between DHIS 1.3 and 2. DHIS2 DHIS version 2 (from 2004) is a continuation of DHIS version 1 developed on open source Java technologies and available as an online web application. The first release, version 2.0, came in February 2008 after three years of development releases, and the most recent version is 2.39 (as of October 2022). DHIS2 is developed using open-source Java frameworks and tools, such as the Spring Framework, Hibernate, Struts2, Maven, and JUnit. References External links DHIS2 website HISP Centre website Video on DHIS2 in Ghana by Norad Free software programmed in Java (programming language) Free health care software	0.761103	0.981871	0.747305
Eurosphere	The Eurosphere or the European Empire is a concept centered around the European Union's sphere of influence, a term associated with the public intellectual Mark Leonard, Oxford University academic Jan Zielonka, the European Union Director-General for Politico-Military Affairs Robert Cooper and the former European Commission President José Manuel Barroso. Background Over the past 50 years, the European Union has expanded from 6 founding members to 27; additionally there are 7 candidate and potential candidate countries waiting to join: Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Ukraine, which are candidates, and Kosovo, which is a potential candidate. A number of European countries are integrated economically, as part of the European Single Market and using its single currency, the euro. Through its High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the EU has the capability to speak with one voice on the world stage and has established association and free trade agreements with many states. Furthermore, through the European Neighbourhood Policy and Union for the Mediterranean it is creating closer ties with countries on its borders; while developing ties with other former European colonies, the ACP countries. Countries seeking membership in the EU must undergo a great deal of reform, for example the reforms seen in Turkey, such as the abolition of capital punishment. The emergence of the Union's global influence, and the draw of membership, has been the subject of a number of academic writings. Mark Leonard describes the area of EU influence as the "Eurosphere". Countries within the Eurosphere According to Mark Leonard, the Eurosphere includes 109 countries. In Europe, this includes the 27 member states of the EU, applicant countries wishing to join the EU, the Western Balkans and European Commonwealth of Independent States countries (including Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine and transcontinental Kazakhstan). He does not mention Western European countries such as Norway who are already integrated into the EU's single market. Outside of Europe, he lists every African country and every Middle Eastern country, as well as the countries forming the eastern border of the Eurosphere such as Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia. Other countries that could be said to be within the Eurosphere include European countries belonging to the European Economic Area, such as Iceland or Liechtenstein, states using the euro as their currency, such as Andorra, Monaco and San Marino, or the EU's Outermost Regions (OMR) in the Caribbean, South America and in the Atlantic, such as French Guiana, Guadeloupe, La Réunion, Martinique and Saint Martin. In addition, the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT) closely associated with the EU in the Atlantic, Caribbean, Pacific and Southern oceans are generally included in the Eurosphere such as Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, French Polynesia, Greenland and Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon. See also Council of Europe Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area ECHO (European Commission) ACP-EU Development Cooperation ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly EU-ACP Economic Partnership Agreements Enlargement of the European Union European Union Association Agreement European Economic Area Potential enlargement of the European Union Eurasian Economic Union European integration European Neighbourhood Policy Eastern Partnership Euronest Parliamentary Assembly Barcelona Process Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly Mediterranean Union European Union as a potential superpower EuroVoc Foreign relations of the European Union EU economic relationships Greater Europe Multi-speed Europe Pro-Europeanism United States of Europe Southeast Europe Transport Community References Further reading External links "The EU as a Regional Normative Hegemon: The Case of European Neighbourhood Policy" Mahony, Honor (2007-07-11) Barroso says EU is an 'empire' EU Observer. Foreign relations of the European Union Political neologisms 2000s neologisms Spheres of influence Western culture	0.765292	0.976494	0.747304
Al Jazeera effect	The Al Jazeera effect is a term used in political science and media studies to describe the impact of new media and media sources on global politics, namely, reducing the government and mainstream media monopoly on information and empowering groups which previously lacked a global voice. The primary example is the effect's namesake – the impact of the Al Jazeera Media Network on the politics of the Arab world. Origin and use Al Jazeera was created in 1996 with the combination of the Emir of Qatar's money and talent from the defunct BBC Arabic service. It started as a response to the strict control that many governments in Arab League countries exercised over most forms of journalism as well as the lack of a free press. Audiences and journalists alike were drawn to Al Jazeera’s goal of reporting news without government censorship, as well as its recruitment of expert journalists who covered multiple perspectives on a singular issue. At the time, the viewing public did not respect journalism because it considered most reporters to be mouthpieces for dictators or political groups. The Emir of Qatar sought to break the heavy handed media management by the government because he had progressive ideas of expanding political participation and allowing independent press. Similarly, founders set up Al Jazeera to counter the dominant Western viewpoint of Arabs and Arabic culture throughout the 20th century. Arabs depended on the BBC and CNN International – but were frustrated they had to listen to the Western viewpoints about themselves. William Lafi Youmans attributes the first use of the term to Philip Seib, author of The Al Jazeera Effect: How the New Global Media Are Reshaping World Politics (2008). However, Simon Henderson, who in turn attributes the term to "diplomats in the region", had used it as early as 2000. As used by Henderson, the Al Jazeera effect originally referred to Arab Middle East governments losing their monopoly on information because of the popularity and easy access to the Al Jazeera satellite television media network, and scholars still often use it in such a limited context. Thomas L. McPhail used it to refer to the changes in all of the Arab media. Seib generalized it to other, Internet-powered new media worldwide. Al Jazeera challenges authoritarian governments by stimulating discussion on topics and through its provision of multiple perspectives and opinions. Al Jazeera's motto is "The Opinion and the Other Opinion", demonstrating its dedication to covering multiple perspectives rather than taking one stand on an issue. It also takes the position in reporting as the “voice of the voiceless” rather than relying solely on official statements from officials and other figures of power. Al Jazeera was not the first Arab satellite channel, but it did provide new standards and production values in Arab news media. Impact Al Jazeera ended the flow of information that followed the format of from the "West to the rest". Al Jazeera has focused on reporting news stories originating from underrepresented countries, countering the one-way flow of media information from the global north to the global south. Egyptian dissident Saad al-Din Ibrahim spoke of Al Jazeera as giving Arab citizens open public space and new opportunities for expression and assertion, which has been seen through its on-air talk shows, discussion, and phone-in programs. Various critics have acknowledged Al Jazeera's role in aiding reforms during the 2005 Arab Spring, specifically in regard to its news coverage of Iraqi elections and Lebanese protests. Additionally, Al Jazeera created a voting system in which viewers could vote online, formulating a type of democracy via satellite system. This has been a useful tool in measuring public opinion, especially on controversial topics, in the Arab world. As a result of Al Jazeera's programs, individuals in the Middle East have learned more about Western democracy and politics than from other previous sources. The Al Jazeera effect follows a similar pattern to the CNN effect and includes the accelerant effect, impediment effect, and agenda-setting effect. Seib noted that the Al Jazeera effect can be seen as parallel to the CNN effect, which states that coverage of international events can force otherwise uninvolved governments to take action. Whereas the CNN effect is used in the context of mainstream, traditional media networks such as CNN, the Al Jazeera effect generalizes this to newer media such as citizen journalist blogs, internet radio, and satellite broadcasting. He also argues that new media strengthen the identity of and give voice to previously marginalized groups, which previously lacked their own media outlets; he cites the Kurdish people as an example. Many of the new media organizations are affiliated with such groups, social movements or similar organizations. New media weaken the monopoly of many states on information, as even extensive Internet censorship in countries such as China is not wholly effective. He concludes that the new media, while not beyond being abused, are largely contributing to democratization and political reform worldwide. William Lafi Youmans notes that Seib's prediction that the Al Jazeera effect will lead to changes in the politics of the Middle East was realized in the early 2010s during the Arab Spring, with new media provoking widespread debate and unrest within the region. The CNN effect and Al Jazeera effect have had a tremendous impact on policies and the government. They have both influenced foreign policies of the US. the existence of such news organizations is crucial for having global communications and is promising in terms of spreading democracy. Subaltern The Al Jazeera effect has also been referred to as a subaltern, in reference to subaltern (post colonialism). Subaltern, depending on the context and where the subaltern is present, resembles something of opposition to the status quo through the demographic that does not have the capital to have their voices be heard; this form of alternative media gives a "voice to the voiceless". This notion of the subaltern is discussed by scholars, such as Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. See also Slashdot effect Voice of the Arabs References Further reading Khogali, Walied, and Anita Krajnc, Al-Jazeera Effect' Counters 'CNN Effect': Canadians Deserve Al Jazeera", Toward Freedom, 5 June 2009 Miles, Hugh The Al Jazeera Effect, Foreign Policy, 9 February 2011 Ricchiardi, Sherry "The Al Jazeera Effect", American Journalism Review, March & April 2011 Zingarelli, Megan E. The CNN Effect and the Al Jazeera Effect, Master's Thesis Al Jazeera Mass media issues	0.762553	0.979984	0.747289
Digital platform (infrastructure)	A digital platform is a software-based online infrastructure that facilitates user interactions and transactions. Digital platforms can act as data aggregators to help users navigate large amounts of information, as is the case with search engines; as matchmakers to enable transactions between users, as is the case with digital marketplaces; or as collaborative tools to support the development of new content, as is the case with online communities. Digital platforms can also combine several of these features, such as when a social media platform enables both searching for information and matchmaking between users. Digital platforms can be more or less decentralized in their data architecture and can be governed based on more or less distributed decision-making. Operations Based on governance principles that can evolve, platforms shape how their users orchestrate digital resources to create social connections and perform market transactions. Digital platforms typically rely on big data stored in the cloud to perform algorithmic computations that facilitate user interactions. For instance, algorithms can be designed to analyze a user's historical preferences to provide targeted recommendations of new users with whom to connect or of new content likely to be of interest. Platforms can be multisided, meaning that qualitatively different groups of users come to the platform to be matched with each other, such as buyers with sellers of goods, developers with users of applications, or consumers with advertisers. Digital platforms can thus act as catalogs, as marketplaces, as mediators, and as service providers, depending on their focus and the groups of users that they manage to attract. Platform operations are such that platform organizations “connect-and-coordinate” more often than they “command-and-control”. Economic and social significance Digital platforms orchestrate many aspects of our lives, from social interactions to consumption and mobility. That's why law and technology scholar Julie E. Cohen described the digital platform as "the core organizational form of the emerging informational economy" that can, in some circumstances, replace traditional markets. While measuring the size of the platform economy in absolute terms is notably difficult due to methodological disagreements, there is consensus that revenues derived from digital platform transactions have been growing rapidly and steadily over the past twenty years, with the World Economic Forum estimating the growth to be 15-25% a year in emerging markets. As of October 5, 2020, the five most valuable corporations publicly listed in the U.S. were all primarily digital platform owners and operators (Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Alphabet) and so were the top two in China (Alibaba, Tencent). Digital platforms also increasingly mediate the global labor markets as part of the so-called gig economy. Competition between digital platforms Due to the existence of network effects, competition among digital platforms follows unique patterns studied from multiple perspectives in the fields of economics, management, innovation, and legal studies. One of the most striking features of digital platform competition is the strategic use of negative prices to subsidize growth. Negative prices happen, for instance, when a credit card company gives consumers cashback rewards on top of a free credit card to entice merchants to join their payment network. This represents a case of a platform subsidizing one side of the network (consumers) to attract users on the other side (merchants). More recently, another striking pattern has been the growing competition between centralized corporate platforms and decentralized blockchain platforms, such as the competition, in the banking sector, between traditional financial institutions and new "decentralized finance" (DeFi) ventures, or in the file hosting sector, between the likes of Dropbox, BOX, Amazon Cloud, SpiderOak, and Google Drive, on the one hand, and decentralized peer-to-peer alternative InterPlanetary File System, on the other. Impact on Politics Digital Platforms have a significant influence on politics, through enabling rapid information sharing which has shaped public discourse and the spread of misinformation. Social Media Platforms, in particular such as Facebook, Google and Twitter have become instrumental to political campaigns, allowing Politicians to spread their messages across these platforms. These Platforms have used algorithms by analysing user behaviour and preferences to target messages toward influencing individuals. This has been seen in Elections such as the 2016 EU referendum where 'Political Bots' on Digital Platforms targeted older age groups with concerns on immigration for the argument that the U.K. should leave the European Union. The involvement of Digital Platforms on Political Campaigns has sparked lots of controversy; This has raised concerns on the impact that these Digital Platforms actually have in terms of influencing Politics. There has been discussions and laws put in place to regulate the power these Platforms have. Laws such as The Digital Services Act have been put in place to regulate and ensure Digital Programmes are abiding by content moderation, privacy, consent an data protection laws. Examples Some of the most prominent digital platforms are owned, designed, and operated by for-profit corporations such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, and Yandex. By contrast, non-corporate digital platforms, including the Linux operating system, Wikipedia and Ethereum, are community-managed; they do not have shareholders nor do they employ executives in charge of achieving predefined goals. Criticism Despite their notable ability to create value for individuals and businesses, large corporate platforms have received backlash in recent years. Some platforms have been suspected of anticompetitive behavior, of promoting a form of surveillance capitalism, of violating labor laws, and more generally, of shaping the contours of a digital dystopia. The digital platforms operating in social media operate a business model that nudges content creators toward circulating disinformation. References Infrastructure	0.761298	0.981596	0.747286
Network governance	Network governance is "interfirm coordination that is characterized by organic or informal social system, in contrast to bureaucratic structures within firms and formal relationships between them. The concepts of privatization, public private partnership, and contracting are defined in this context." Network governance constitutes a "distinct form of coordinating economic activity" (Powell, 1990:301) which contrasts and competes with markets and hierarchies. Definition Network governance involves a select, persistent, and structured set of autonomous firms (as well as nonprofit agencies) engaged in creating products or services based on implicit and open-ended contracts adapt to environmental contingencies and to coordinate and safeguard ex-changes. These contracts are socially—not legally—binding. As such, governance networks distinguish themselves from the hierarchical control of the state and the competitive regulation of the market in at least three ways: In terms of the relationship between the actors, governance networks can be described as a pluricentric system as opposed to the unicentric system. Governance networks involve a large number of interdependent actors who interact with each other in order to produce an outcome. In terms of decision-making, governance networks are based on negotiation rationality as opposed to the substantial rationality that governs state rule and the procedural rationality that governs market competition. Compliance is ensured through trust and political obligation which, over time, becomes sustained by self-constituted rules and norms. As a concept, network governance explains increased efficiency and reduced agency problems for organizations existing in highly turbulent environments. On the one hand, the efficiency is enhanced through distributed knowledge acquisition and decentralised problem-solving; on the other, the effectiveness is improved through the emergence of collective solutions to global problems in different self-regulated sectors of activity. Due to the rapid pace of modern society and competitive pressures from globalization, transnational network governance has gained prominence. Network governance first depends on the comprehension of the short- and long-term global business risks. It is based on the definition of the IT key objectives and their influence on the network. It includes the negotiation of the satisfaction criteria for the business lines and integrates processes for the measurement and improvement of the global efficiency and end user satisfaction. Beyond that, it allows the constitution and piloting of internal teams and external partners as well as the setting up of a control system enabling to validate the performance of the whole. Finally, it ensures permanent communication at all the various management levels. In the public sector, network governance is not universally accepted as a positive development by all public administration scholars. Some doubt its ability to adequately perform as a democratic governance structure while others view it as phenomenon that promotes efficient and effective delivery of public goods and services. Examining managed networks in health care, Ferlie and colleagues suggest that networks may be the 'least bad' form of governance addressing wicked problems, such as providing health care for the increasing number of older people. Types Provan and Kenis categorize network governance forms along two different dimensions: Network governance may or may not be brokered. They refer to a network whose organizations interact with every other organization to decentralizedly govern the network "shared governance". At the other extreme a network may be highly brokered via centralized network brokers with only few and limited direct organization-to-organization interactions. Network may be participant governed or externally governed. Participant-governed networks In participant governance a network is governed by its members themselves. They call such networks that involve most or all network members interacting on a relatively equal basis in the process of governance "shared participant governance". Lead organization-governed networks More centralized networks may be governed by and through a lead organization that is a network member. Historical and modern examples of network governance From the 10th to 13th centuries, merchants in Cairo begin forming a network of merchants that report to each other the intents and information on agents working for them, and collectively inflict sanctions on agents that perform poorly. This leads to a hub of trading formed in Cairo and Aden – this makes the information on the market conditions, and the reputation of various agents easier to access for the good of the whole. By the 12th century, Venice provides its merchants with an improved flow of information regarding the market conditions they face, as well as information on the practices of individual agents. This recording of information helps merchants make more informed business decisions. The formation of the English and Dutch East India Companies forms a cooperation between merchants and companies to better regulate and inform others on the reputations of trading actors in London, Amsterdam and ports in East Africa and Arabia. This is a collective movement by governments and companies to raise capital for both the country and businesses. These examples show how network governance worked in the eras of increased trade and cooperation between merchants and nations ranging from the 10th century to the 17th century. Ron Harris, in his article "Reputation at the Birth of Corporate Governance", writes: "The questions of who had a good reputation and who had a bad one, whom one could trust and entrust money to, were unaltered, but the relationships to which they applied changed, as did the institutions that provided answers to these questions." Amber Alert – In 1996 the Amber Alert system was established in the United States after nine-year-old Amber Hagerman was kidnapped and murdered in Arlington, Texas. Media networks, in collaboration with law enforcement, joined a grassroots movement to spread the cause in establishing a network to aid in broadcasting alerts in an effort to prevent future crimes. This movement has grown to include all fifty states, and spread alerts across state lines. The Amber Alert system has since been widely accepted as the first-response program for missing persons nationwide. Homeland Security Fusion Centers – After the September 11th attacks, the United States endeavoured to improve the coordination between national and local organizations concerned with security. The Department of Homeland Security and a Director of National Intelligence were implemented at the federal level in response to this problem. Soon after, states began creating their own networks to share information pertinent to homeland security. As a result, fusion centers have popped up in almost every state, as well as many regions. These fusion centers provide a hub for law enforcement agencies to collaborate on national security measures in an effort to promote transparency across agencies, whether it be at the state, local or federal level. Importance of governmental relations Relationships among governing positions and governing institutions are absolutely vital for the success of the internal workings of the governments that aid the public. While federal, state, and local governments differ in their policies, they all work in coherence in order for the foundations to work efficiently. "Checks and balances" is a prime synonym when referring to intergovernmental relations. All participating parties of the government must adhere to specific guidelines in order to cultivate a fair and even playing field that is both beneficial and just to the population it affects. A primary principal in governmental relationships is the balance of power between the parties. The federal government has a large amount of control in terms of national security, national finances and foreign affairs. However, in order to balance that control, state-level governments have a significant voice in intrastate politics. Specific examples of state-level policies include topics such as state highways, borderlines, and state parks. This allows states to still have flexibility while bonding to national policy. Unfortunately, creating relationships among different level governments and government agencies is a complicated, and often grueling process. However, many agencies make deals or compromise within the party in order to further benefit both institutions. For example, a state may fund a county in order to better the county roads because it could be a direct reflection of the state. Intra-governmental relations between agencies, state-level, local-level, and federal-level government must work together in order to prosper and create policies or laws that are beneficial to both the agencies and the public. Role in environmental governance In the wake of apparent failures to govern complex environmental problems by the central state, "new" modes of governance have been proposed in recent years. Network governance is the mode most commonly associated with the concept of governance, in which autonomous stakeholders work together to achieve common goals. The emergence of network governance can be characterised by an attempt to take into account the increasing importance of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the private sector, scientific networks and international institutions in the performance of various functions of governance. Embedding interventions to make society better and to transform conflicts within "relational webs" can ensure better coordination with existing initiatives and institutions and greater local acceptance and buy-in, which makes the intervention more sustainable. Prominent examples of such networks that have been instrumental in forming successful working arrangements are the World Commission on Dams, the Global Environmental Facility and the flexible mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol. Another ongoing effort is the United Nations Global Compact, which combines multiple stakeholders in a trilateral construction including representatives from governments, private sector and the NGO community. One main reason for the proliferation of network approaches in environmental governance is their potential to integrate and make available different sources of knowledge and competences and to encourage individual and collective learning. Currently, environmental governance faces various challenges that are characterised by complexities and uncertainties inherent to environmental and sustainable problems. Network governance can provide a means to address these governance problems by institutionalising learning on facts and deliberation on value judgements. For example, in the realm of global chemical safety, transnational networks have formed around initiatives by international organisations and successfully developed rules for addressing global chemical issues, many of which have been implemented by national legislations. Most notably, these transnational networks made it possible to avoid the institutional apathy that is typically found in political settings with many actors of conflicting interests, especially on a global level. Through integration of actors from different sectors, governance networks are able to provide an innovative environment of learning, laying the way for adaptive and effective governance. One particular form of networks important to governance problems is epistemic communities in which actors share the same basic casual beliefs and normative values. Although participation in these epistemic communities requires an interest in the problem at stake, the actors involved do not necessarily share the same interest. In general, the interests are interdependent but can also be different or sometimes contesting, stressing the need for consensus building and the development of cognitive commodities. The main argument in the literature for the advantage of network governance over traditional command and control regulation or, alternatively, recourse to market regulation, is its capacity to deal with situations of intrinsic uncertainty and decision-making under bounded rationality. This is typically the case in the field of global environmental governance where one has to deal with complex and interrelated problems. In these situations, network institutions can create a synergy between different competences and sources of knowledge allowing dealing with complex and interlined problems. Enhancement of corporate social responsibility As increasing amounts of scientific data validate concerns about the deterioration of our environment, the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in network governance is being utilized in ever-increasing ways to halt or at least slow this deterioration. One of the ways they are accomplishing this is by directing their activities to focus on improving corporate social responsibility (CSR). As a concept, CSR has existed since the first business was formed in civilization. The French philosopher Rousseau described it as the "social contract" between business and society. As theories about CSR have evolved in keeping with their times, today it is increasingly associated with sustainable practices and development, meaning that businesses have a "moral responsibility" to conduct their operations in an ecologically sustainable manner. It is no longer acceptable for corporations just to grow "the bottom line" and increase profits for their shareholders. Businesses remain free to pursue profits but are increasingly obligated to minimize their negative impact on the environment. Network governance, in the form of NGOs, is effectively bringing to light "bad practices" by corporations, as well as highlighting those actively working to reduce their carbon footprints. Private governance networks such as CSRHUB and the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) are entities that hold corporations accountable for their amount of corporate social responsibility. Founded to accelerate solutions to climate change and water management, the CDP discloses information and data on water management, greenhouse gas emissions, and climate change strategies on over 3,000 companies worldwide. It is the only global climate change reporting system and encourages corporations to engage in "best practices" regarding environmental impact by making their formerly private or unknown environmental impact information available to anyone, including the general public. This information can be used (by a variety of entities) to make consumer purchase and investment decisions, formulate governmental as well as corporate policy, educate people, develop less harmful business methods for corporations and formulate action plans by environmental advocacy groups, to name a few. Lord Adair Turner, Chairman of the UK Financial Services Authority, explains how network governance enhances CSR: "The first step towards managing carbon emissions is to measure them because in business what gets measured gets managed. The Carbon Disclosure Project has played a crucial role in encouraging companies to take the first steps in that measurement and management path". Leading European business schools joined with more than sixty multinationals to launch the Academy of Business in Society, the mission of which is to push CSR to the forefront of business practice. Their main activities in pursuing this goal are: 1) developing 'best-in-class' training practices and learning resources for businesses and corporate academies, 2) including the changing role of business in society in business education and 3) creating a global research bank on the role of business in society and delivering interdisciplinary research on CSR. This is an example of network governance using education to improve corporate social responsibility. Use of organization of networks in today's society is a valid means of moving forward in preserving the environment. See also Cyber manufacturing Multi-level governance Netocracy Network society Network economy Policy network analysis Social peer-to-peer processes Sharing economy References Are You a Theory X or a Theory Y Leader? (1999, 20 July). Retrieved 9 March 2016, from http://www.inplantgraphics.com/article/are-you-theory-x-theory-y-leader/ Grossman, S. A., & Holzer, M. (n.d.). Partnership governance in public management: A public solutions handbook. Gordon, C. E. (n.d.). Behavioural approaches to corporate governance. Bakvis, H., & Jarvis, M. D. (2012). From new public management to new political governance: Essays in honour of Peter C. Aucoin. Montreal: Published for the School of Public Administration at the University of Victoria by McGill-Queen's University Press. What is Network Governance? (n.d.). Retrieved 9 March 2016, from http://environmentalpolicy.ucdavis.edu/node/378 Full text. IFCS Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety. World Health Organization 2011. Net-centric Governance	0.773451	0.966119	0.747246
Plurinationalism	Plurinationality, plurinational, or plurinationalism is defined as the coexistence of two or more sealed or preserved national groups within a polity (an organized community or body of peoples). In plurinationalism, the idea of nationality is plural, meaning there are many nationals within an organized community or body of peoples. Derived from this concept, a plurinational state is the existence of multiple political communities and constitutional asymmetry. The usage of plurinationality assists in avoiding the division of societies within a state or country. Furthermore, a plurinational democracy recognizes the multiple demoi (common people or populace) within a polity. Reportedly the term has its origin in the Indigenous political movement in Bolivia where it was first heard of in the early 1980s. As of 2022 Bolivia and Ecuador are constitutionally defined as plurinational states. Plurinational states are similar to multinational states, but are particularly often advocated for by indigenous peoples. Plurinationalism in Chile In Chile constitutional plurinationalism has been a topic of debate. Plurinationalism was not a concept in the constitutional reforms proposed by Michelle Bachelet's second government (2014–2018), yet the proposed reforms included recognition of Chile's indigenous peoples. The 2022 proposed Political Constitution of the Republic of Chile defined Chile as "plurinational", however this proposal was rejected by a large margin in September 2022. Prior to the dismissal of the proposed constitution the issue of pluranationalism was noted by polls and El País as particularly divisive in Chile. The creation of a "plurinational region" in southern Chile has been proposed by some scholars and activists as a solution to the Mapuche conflict. Plurinationalism has been criticized by José Rodríguez Elizondo as being used to advance Bolivian claims against Chile for sovereign access to the Pacific Ocean. See also Biculturalism Consociationalism Federal state Multiculturalism Multilateralism Multinationalism (disambiguation) National personal autonomy Pan-nationalism Pillarisation Plurinational State of Bolivia Transnationalism Unitary state References Further reading Pallares, Amalia. The Politics of Disruption, From Pluriculturalism to Plurinationalism, From peasant struggles to Indian resistance: the Ecuadorian Andes in the late twentieth century, University of Oklahoma Press, 2002, 272 pages MacDonald, Jr., Theodore. Ecuador's Indian Movement: Pawn in a Short Game or Agent in State Reconfiguration? Masnou i Boixeda, Ramón. 3. Recognition and Respect in Plurinationalism, Notes on Nationalism, Gracewing Publishing, 2002, 146 pages Multiculturalism Cultural politics Nationalism Ethnicity in politics Decentralization 1980s neologisms	0.764387	0.977479	0.747172
Anarchy Is What States Make of It	"Anarchy Is What States Make of It: The Social Construction of Power Politics" is a journal article by Alexander Wendt published in International Organization in 1992 that outlines a constructivist approach to international relations theory. Wendt argues that anarchy is not inherent in the international system in the way in which other schools of international relations theory envision it, but rather it is a construct of the nation-states in the system. At the core of constructivist thought is the idea that many core aspects of international relations are socially constructed (they are given their form by ongoing processes of social practice and interaction), rather than inherent, contrary to the assumptions of neorealism and neoliberalism. According to Wendt, the two basic tenets of constructivism are: The structures of human association are determined primarily by shared ideas rather than material forces. The identities and interests of purposive actors are constructed by these shared ideas rather than given by nature. The constructivist sentiment is summed up in the following extract from the article: "I argue that self-help and power politics do not follow either logically or causally from anarchy and that if today we find ourselves in a self-help world, this is due to process, not structure. There is no 'logic' of anarchy apart from the practices that create and instantiate one structure of identities and interests rather than another; structure has no existence or causal powers apart from process. Self-help and power politics are institutions, not essential features, of anarchy. Anarchy is what states make of it". See also Power politics Social Theory of International Politics References External links "Anarchy is What States Make of It" at JSTOR International relations theory Constructivism (international relations) 1992 documents Social constructionism	0.76794	0.972954	0.74717
Harmonisation of law	In the European Union, harmonisation of law (or simply harmonisation) is the process of creating common standards across the internal market. Though each EU member state has primary responsibility for the regulation of most matters within their jurisdiction, and consequently each has its own laws, harmonisation aims to: create consistency of laws, regulations, standards and practices, so that the same rules will apply to businesses that operate in more than one member state, and so that the businesses of one state do not obtain an economic advantage over those in another as a result of different rules. reduced compliance and regulatory burdens for businesses operating nationally or trans-nationally. An objective of the European Union to achieve uniformity in laws of member states is to facilitate free trade and protect citizens. Harmonisation is a process of ascertaining the admitted limits of international unification but does not necessarily amount to a vision of total uniformity. Characteristics of harmonisation Harmonisation is usually not comprehensive but partial, in that it does not seek to create a sole authority of law on a particular subject. This is because measures to harmonise law cannot go further than that which is necessary. Harmonisation is unsystematic. The directives of the European Union do not focus on or contain comprehensive regulation of the entire law. The directives regulate some very specific issues and they regulate them only for particular situations or circumstances and only for particular types of parties. This is most prevalent in European Union contract law. Harmonisation generally takes place on two levels of governance, the overarching body and each of the members individually. Taking the European Union, the two levels are the European level and national level. Although both European and national legislators share the legislative responsibilities, neither of these bodies has final responsibility for the whole. Also, there is no superior political authority which has the final say on who is responsible for what, i.e. no overarching authority over the European and national legislators. The European Court of Justice may however determine the extent of harmonisation when determining cases. Harmonisation is dynamic, in that the instruments of harmonisation aim at change, in particular improving and establishing consistent conditions for the operation of legal principles. Harmonisation versus unification The unification and harmonisation of laws are similar in the sense that both involve approximating several legal systems and both are also oriented towards establishing some level of integration from a previous situation characterized by diversity. On the other hand, unification and harmonisation have different fundamental aims. The former works towards complete unity in substance and detail whereas the latter avoids complete uniformity, and is primarily concerned with approximating the fundamental principles of national laws. In unification, for example, a new law completely replaces the national laws that have existed before. A harmonisation law on the European level does not exceed mere approximation and leaves the national differences in place as long as they are not expressly regulated by the harmonising law. Here, national laws merely become closer but not identical. Unification also focuses on substituting or combining two or more legal systems and replacing them with a single system. Harmonisation on the other hand seeks to co-ordinate different legal systems by “eliminating major differences and creating minimum requirements or standards”“Unlike unification which contemplates the substitution of two or more legal systems with one single system, harmonisation of law arises exclusively in comparative law literature, and especially in conjunction with interjurisdictional, private transactions. Harmonisation seeks to ‘effect an approximation or coordination of different legal provision or systems by eliminating major differences and creating minimum requirements or standards’”. Harmonisation can be seen as a step towards unification and, in a way, harmonisation aims or strives towards unification. Efforts to achieve harmonisation Harmonisation is not a new concept. However, the problem is that no harmonisation project has ever reached completion. That is due to the nature of harmonisation, it is designed to incorporate different legal systems under a basic framework. This is the appeal of harmonisation, it takes into account the local factors yet applies general principles to make a consistent framework of law. It generally incorporates local factors under a relatively unified framework. An example of harmonisation can be drawn from the European Union and the use of Directives. Directives require transposition into the domestic legal system of the Member State in order to become effective. If a Member State fails to transpose the Directive in a timely manner or fails to do it at all, the Directive will take 'direct effect', that is, individuals are able to derive rights from that Directive directly despite not being transposed into domestic law. A Directive could be transposed through enactment under legislation from the national parliament or through agreement by reference. The Directives are flexible to the extent that the national authorities of the Member States have the choice of the form and method of the implementation of the Directive. This takes into account the fact that Member States have differing legal systems. Hence this allows the establishment of a harmonised framework of laws whilst preserving the established national laws of each member. This is the major appeal of harmonisation over unification. Harmonisation can be achieved in two ways, actively or passively. The most common is the active pursuit of harmonisation usually through the enactment of legislation which incorporates the harmonised principles into the local law. Passive harmonisation may occur through non-legislative agreements or a convergence of case law. So far, passive harmonisation is the least successful since the non-legislative agreements tend to be voluntary. The convergence of case law is more promising since: "All that matters is that the courts of different European States achieve similar results in the same cases, regardless of which norms, doctrines or procedures they apply in order to reach this end." Harmonisation and convergence of law Harmonisation is synonymous with convergence of the law however harmonisation is usually associated via active pursuit through enacting legislation whereas convergence is generally associated with a passive approach such as a natural convergence of law through custom and frequent use of harmonised principles. The most prominent example of harmonisation in international law is UNCITRAL (United Nations Commission on International Trade Law). See also European Union law Home state regulation Mutual recognition agreement 28th regime Uniform Act Notes European Union legal terminology European Union law	0.776673	0.962011	0.747168
International inequality	International inequality refers to inequality between countries, as compared to global inequality, which is inequality between people across countries. International inequality research has primarily been concentrated on the rise of international income inequality, but other aspects include educational and health inequality, as well as differences in medical access. Reducing inequality within and among countries is the 10th goal of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and ensuring that no one is left behind is central to achieving them. Inequality can be measured by metrics such as the Gini coefficient. According to the United Nations Human Development Report 2004, the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in countries with high, medium and low human development (a classification based on the UN Human Development Index) was 24,806, 4,269 and 1,184 PPP$, respectively (PPP$ = purchasing power parity measured in United States dollars). Proposed explanations Differences in economic institutions Economic institutions such as competitive markets, credible contracts and systems of property rights allow economic agents to pursue the economic activities which form the basis of growth. It has been argued that the presence or absence of strong economic institutions is a primary determinant of development. Economists have begun to consider the set of economic institutions adopted by countries as a choice that is in turn determined endogenously by competing social forces. According to this theory the differences in economic institutions arise as a consequential effect of the difference in political institutions. In their paper “Paths of Economic and Political Development” Acemoglu and Robinson discuss the intertwined nature of economic institutions to political ones. The authors conclude that although economic institutions are the key factor to final economic outcomes, they are an endogenous one. Meaning economic institutions are determined by political institutions and the distribution of resources. They identify the above mentioned as the “two main state variables”. Accordingly, we find the political institutions to affect economic institutions both directly and indirectly (de jure & de facto power). Connecting to the issue of international inequality, the distribution of resources is identified as the main conflicting point. As the distribution of resources is complex it leads to opposing entities in a country not being able to agree on a set of economic institutions that maximize “aggregate growth” and thus making some countries fall behind. Simply proving the influence of political institutions on economic ones and with that the development of a country. The main conclusion the authors arrive at is that the economic institutions which promote prosperity are conditioned on a foundation of democratic political institutions. Others on the other hand have argued that a country's success is related to the tradeoff between “dictatorship and disorder”. Dyankov et al in “The New Comparative Economics” discusses this idea and uses the IPF (institutional Possibility Frontier) to measure the optimal points of dictatorship vs disorder trade off in individual countries. The idea of new comparative economics focuses on comparing the differences in institutions of capitalism in different countries. The new reforms to market economy and democracy have been different in each specific country and thus have reached different levels of efficiency. This can than manifest in the final outcome we call International inequality. According to Dyankov Institutions are made and work to control the “twin dangers” of disorder and dictatorship. Coase (1960), also argues that "no rules are fully enforced, and no institution fully eliminates the transaction costs of dictatorship and disorder". The IPF as a system can help to discuss the alternative forms of social control of business. It helps determine the efficient choice by finding the shape and location of a countries IPF on an axis of social loses of dictatorship versus the social losses of disorder. In the end the location of the IPF shows a countries “civic capital” or the institutional possibility of a given society in order to reach its optimum. Many now argue that this study is most relevant to our modern-day capitalist society in order to impose efficient institutional design depending on a country's specific characteristics. In a widely cited paper by Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson, the authors concluded that the majority of present-day inequality among former European colonies can be attributed to the persisting role of economic institutions. Describing European colonization as a "natural experiment," they argued that colonizers who encountered dense populations with developed economies such as in Central America and India were incentivized to impose extractive economic institutions, while colonizers who encountered sparse populations with few natural resources such as in North America were more likely to institute broad-based property rights. This resulted in a "reversal of fortune" around 1800 as regions which were under-developed at the time of colonization were able to industrialize more effectively. Path dependence In the context of development, path dependence is the idea that certain points in history may have an outsized and persistent impact on the long-term economic and political character of nations. These points may produce outcomes that induce positive feedback and are therefore difficult to reverse. Political scientist James Mahoney has examined the political consequences of a period of liberal reform in Central America during the 19th and early 20th centuries, and argued that whether policies were implemented along radical or reformist guidelines directly determined the success of the liberalization efforts and ultimately resulted in vastly different political outcomes which persisted for decades, ranging from military authoritarian regimes (Guatemala and El Salvador) to progressive democracy (Costa Rica). The Dualistic-Development Thesis Another concept of international inequality in the context of development can be found in the notion of dualism in the world, understood as "the coexistence of two situations or phenomena (one desirable and the other not) that are mutually exclusive to different groups of [international] society — for example, extreme poverty and affluence, modern and traditional economic sectors, growth and stagnation, and higher education among a few amid large-scale illiteracy." one can find the trace of dualistic society in structural-change as well as international-dependence theories. This concept demonstrates how the gap between the poor and the rich in the global world is persistent if not steadily increasing. There are four key arguments in this thesis; Coexist of two different sets of conditions, one superior and one inferior in a given space The chronic, persistent nature of this coexistence with beyond historical and national elements aspects An inherited tendency to increase the existing cleavage between the superior and inferior Further depression and underdevelopment of the inferior as a result of its interrelation with superior elements The dualism-development thesis rejects the traditional neoclassical and empirical theories that put the blame of poverty and inequality merely on internal factors and the political culture of these poor countries. It also refutes the recommendations given and forced upon developing countries. Instead, it focuses on external and international factors such as international dependence on economics, finance, and trading, and forces that might not have given birth to international inequality, but surely have played an important role in keeping the gap open and wide. Therefore, this doctrine suggests fundamental economic, political, and institutional reforms not only on the regional and domestic levels but also on global and foreign levels. However, there are criticisms about this type of thesis. First, although it indicates a logical and well-founded explanation regarding international inequality, it lacks a comprehensive solution to the said problem. Second, the number of successful fundamental reforms in many of the concerned countries largely did not showcase significant progress and decrease in the overall state of inequality, whether in domestic or foreign levels. Other explanations Multiple other causes of international inequality have been proposed, such as: Geography: The location of countries often affects their economy. For example, landlocked countries have difficulty accessing sea trade routes. Economic structure: the economies of different countries are composed of different industries, such as poorer countries relying primarily on agriculture. The use of the United States dollar in international trade allows the US government to create wealth by creating new money. Environmental factors (including work by Jared Diamond) Cultural factors (including work by Max Weber) International inequality during COVID-19 The worsening of inequality is considered the most significant outcome of COVID-19. The pandemic has had the greatest impact on vulnerable groups such as the elderly, people with disabilities, children, women and refugees, low-income people, youth, and informal workers. The research and measures of the World Bank, say that "Covid-19 has increased inequality in nearly every sphere: in the availability of vaccines, in economic growth rates, in access to education and health care, and the scale of job and income losses". Between 2020 and 2021 global billionaire wealth grew by $4.4 trillion but at the same time, more than 100 million people fell below the poverty line. Impact on the labor market COVID-19 caused the change of view in providing certain activities, goods and services, and certain production processes. They are considered to be riskier and costlier. Staff shortages and breaks of working activity because of compulsory quarantines of Covid-positive workers are the reason for the replacement of the human labor force with robots. Robots are easily managed, don't need masks, can be easily disinfected, and don't get sick. The threat of automation has spread to the work of low-skilled, person-to-person service workers. Before the pandemic, these jobs were seen by literature as less affected – for example, in health and education. New labor market uncertainty brings a decrease in the demand for certain types of labor. This shift consequently causes an increase in inequality. Another inequality was visible after the beginning of lockdowns. Millions of newly unemployed joined the long queues for social security benefits. The loss of jobs differs by the nature of the job. Tourism, gastronomy, recreational services and accommodation, airlines, and industries that rely on personal interactions have been the hardest hit. Lockdown rules and social distance requirements limited employees. The inability of workers to work from home deprived a lot of them of their jobs. Inequality in access to healthcare COVID-19 is the biggest health crisis in a century. Not only were poor countries with weak health care systems hard-hit, but also economically strong and developed rich countries. America is considered the most hit country in a term of unequal access to resources and health services. One of the reasons for their highest number of cases and deaths is their worst average healthcare standards among the major developed economies. The poorest suffer from the lack of a universal healthcare system and high prices of medicaments (and for health care, in general) the most. Many Americans skipped testing to know if they are infected because of the high price of tests. They went to work, spreading the virus mostly among those, who could not have a home office. After being infected, they could not afford to buy medicament or to search for medical help since they have no insurance. Inequality in the distribution of vaccines The development, production, and distribution of vaccines was a scientific, political, and economic triumph seeing that it was relatively quick. However, despite having the technology and the resources, the society failed to raise vaccine supply and distribute enough doses in poor countries. "As of October 1st, 2021, the highest-income countries—as classified by the World Bank—had a per-capita vaccination rate of 125.3 vaccinations per 100 people, representing nearly 3-fold higher than the rate for lower-middle-income countries of 45.3 per 100, and 30-fold higher than lower-income countries with 4.2 per 100." Also, the efficacy varied between distributed vaccines. They are more likely to be a lower efficacy on average in lower-income locations. Sputnik, Sinopharm, and Janssen vaccines are mostly used in low and middle-income countries with lower efficacy against new variants of virus compared to vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna – used mainly in higher-income areas. Inequality in education The control measures introduced around the world to curb the spread of the virus had a considerable impact on education. By April 2020, an unprecedented 1.4 billion students were shut out of their pre-primary, primary, and secondary schools in more than 190 countries and the classroom present education had moved to online distance learning. The number and duration of periods of school closures have varied across countries. Inequalities were observable in the extent to which their learning is supported by their family and home environment background. Lack of opportunities, tools, or access to affordable, reliable internet connections were daily problems to deal with. Children from low-income families were more likely to be excluded from online distance learning because of an inability to afford sufficient internet or devices. Another dimension of inequality relevant to distance learning is the one between low- and high-achieving students. Education from home implies a large amount of self-regulated learning where students must independently acquire and understand the academic content without the support of teachers. This self-regulated learning may be feasible for high-achieving students, but it may be especially challenging for low-achieving students and for students with special needs. In addition, in some countries, girls have faced widespread discrimination in access to education and to the internet. Society was much more likely to expect them to take on a greater burden in the household during distance learning than boys. In developing and poor countries girls who were out of school were at greater risk than boys of facing abuses such as child marriage and other forms of gender-based violence. International wealth distribution Between 1820 and 2000, global income inequality increased with almost 50%. However, this change occurred mostly before 1950. Afterwards, the level of inequality remained mostly stable. It is important to differentiate between between-country inequality, which was the driving force for this pattern, and within country inequality, which remained largely constant. Global income inequality peaked approximately in the 1970s, when world income was distributed bimodally into "rich" and "poor" countries with little overlap. Since then, inequality has been rapidly decreasing, and this trend seems to be accelerating. Income distribution is now unimodal, with most people living in middle-income countries. , a study by the World Institute for Development Economics Research at United Nations University found that the richest 1% of adults owned 40% of global assets, and that the richest 10% of adults accounted for 85% of the world total. The bottom half of the world adult population owned barely 1% of global wealth. Oxfam International reported that the richest 1 percent of people owned 48 percent of global wealth , and would own more than half of global wealth by 2016. In 2014, Oxfam reported that the 85 wealthiest individuals in the world had a combined wealth equal to that of the bottom half of the world's population, or about 3.5 billion people. , the major component of the world's income inequality (the global Gini coefficient) was comprised by two groups of countries (called the "twin peaks" by Quah [1997]). The first group has 13% of the world's population and receives 45% of the world's PPP income. This group includes the United States, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Australia and Canada, and comprises 500 million people with an annual income level over 11,500 PPP$. The second group has 42% of the world's population and receives only 9% of the world PPP income. This group includes India, Indonesia and rural China, and comprises 2.1 billion people with an income level under 1,000 PPP$. In terms of between country inequality, between 1820 and 2000, Latin America, Africa and the middle east almost always had a higher average Gini coefficient than Europe, implying a higher level of inequality. Asia was usually below average. , over 70% of the world's adults had under $10,000 in wealth. Only 0.7% of the world had one million dollars or more in wealth, but this number is increasing. , there were 1,125 billionaires (in US dollars) who owned $4.4 trillion in assets. , the total value of global assets was about $125 trillion. The evolution of the income gap between poor and rich countries is related to convergence. Convergence can be defined as "the tendency for poorer countries to grow faster than richer ones and, hence, for their levels of income to converge". Social welfare spending Overall, social spending is lower in the Global South, with some regions registering just a few percentage points of GDP. Proposed solutions Potential approaches to decrease inequality include: Education and family planning: Many countries with education access have higher income levels. Part of this is because people are striving for a career and are striving for higher education. Countries that do not have access to education have lower incomes. Women who have access to an education will have fewer children because they are focusing on building themselves. Democracy: Democracy allows people to have a say in where money is spent, such as in social welfare programs. Government policies: The government can create policies that can aid the poor and help provide medicine. Empowerment of women Improve agriculture: Poor countries tend to suffer from food shortages. One thing that could be done is to help improve farming grounds and livestock development. By starting the proper groundwork for crops, it will help provide the nutrition that many people need. Livestock can provide milk, eggs, meat, and cheese for consuming. This can also help provide fur and feathers for making clothing and other goods, which could be sold to help with low income. Volunteers who travel to poor countries to help A global wealth tax: Thomas Piketty suggests a global and coordinated wealth tax as the remedy to trends of global inequality, saying that only a direct solution to wealth concentration can be successful where other governmental policies have failed. Piketty proposed an international agreement between nations that would tax all personal assets at phased rates. The simplest version of the proposal would levy a 1% tax on net worth between $1.3 million and $6.5 million, and a 2% tax on wealth above $6.5 million. This idea has so far failed to gain ground and has been subject to criticism. Schuyler argues that a wealth tax would cause significant declines in investment, salaries, incomes, and national production, making all groups worse off. In addition, he raises problems of large administrative and enforcement hurdles, making Piketty's wealth tax impractical to a large extent. Reducing illicit wealth outflows: From 2003 to 2012, developing countries lost $6.6 trillion to illicit financial flows, with the amount rising at an average of 9.4 percent each year. Since this could have been used for investments into human capital, infrastructure and economic growth, a strong correlation exists between illicit outflows and the levels of poverty and economic inequality. Minimum wage: Minimum wage levels are often described as an important part of the challenge to reduce inequality. Worker unions: Historically, labor unions have played an important role in reducing inequality, particularly in negotiating better pay for low-wage workers. Income disparity is typically lower in countries with higher union membership and collective bargaining coverage, while inequality tends to worsen in countries with decreasing union membership and coverage. Research has stressed the need to address inequality with a multi-pronged approach, including taxation reform and curbing excesses associated with financial deregulation, country-specific circumstances, and potential trade-offs with other policy objectives. See also Discrimination based on nationality Distribution of wealth Economic development Economic mobility Income disparity Income inequality metrics Income inequality in the United States International development List of countries by income equality Poverty United Nations Millennium Development Goals Wealth inequality in the United States Wealth inequality in Latin America Family planning in India Family Planning in the United States Global environmental inequality References Sources Milanovic, Branko (World Bank), True world income distribution, 1988 and 1993: first calculation based on household surveys alone, The Economic Journal, Volume 112 Issue 476 Page 51 – January 2002. Article: . Actual report on which the article is based: . News coverage: and . Martin Ravallion, "A poverty-inequality trade-off?", World Bank, 5 May 2005, Policy Research Working Paper no. WPS 3579, Martin Ravallion, "Looking beyond Averages in the Trade and Poverty Debate" , World Bank, November 2004, Policy Research Working Paper No. 3461 . News coverage: External links World Distribution of Household Wealth report at United Nations University The UC Atlas of Global Inequality explores some aspects of inequality using online, downloadable maps and graphics. Poverty Facts and Stats is a well-documented source of comparisons. UN World Social Situation Report 2005 – Inequality Predicament Common Dreams – Globalization Driving Inequality, UN Warns Heritage Foundation – Economic Freedom and Per Capita Income Economic inequality Distribution of wealth Economic globalization Imperialism studies	0.776854	0.961773	0.747157
Malka Older	Malka Ann Older is an American author, academic, and humanitarian aid worker. She was named the 2015 Senior Fellow for Technology and Risk at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, and has more than eight years' experience in humanitarian aid and development. Her first novel, Infomocracy (2016), is the first in the series The Centenal Cycle, which also included Null States (2017) and State Tectonics (2018), which won a Prometheus Award in 2019. Education Older holds an undergraduate degree in literature from Harvard University, a master's degree in international relations and economics from the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of Johns Hopkins University, and a doctoral degree from the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po). Her doctoral work explored the dynamics of multi-level governance and disaster response using the cases of Hurricane Katrina and the 2011 Tōhoku tsunami in Japan. Career Older is currently a Faculty Associate at Arizona State University's School for the Future of Innovation in Society. She has more than a decade of experience in humanitarian aid and development, ranging from field level experience as a Head of Office in Darfur to supporting global programs and agency-wide strategy as a disaster risk reduction technical specialist. In between, she has designed and implemented economic development initiatives in post-disaster context, supervised a large and diverse portfolio as Director of Programs in Indonesia, and responded to complex emergencies and natural disasters in Sri Lanka, Uganda, Darfur, Indonesia, Japan, and Mali, in the last three as Team Leader. In September 2024, Older joined Global Voices as the new Executive Director. Bibliography Centenal Cycle Trilogy Infomocracy. Tor, 2016. , Null States. Tor, 2017. , State Tectonics. Tor, 2018. , The Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti The Mimicking of Known Successes. Tor, 2023. , The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles. Tor, 2024. Ebooks Tear Tracks. Tor, 2015 Trade Deal (Born to the Blade, Season 1 Episode 5). Serial Box, 2018 Assassination (Born to the Blade, Season 1 Episode 9). Serial Box, 2018 Ninth Step Station. Serial Box, 2019 Machina. Serial Box, 2020 Orphan Black: The Next Chapter. Serial Box, 2019 Other Works ...and Other Disasters. Mason Jar Press, 2019. What We Believe About Our Institutions, The New York Times, 2021 ISSN 0362-4331 Awards and recognition Named one of Kirkus Reviewss "Best Fiction of 2016" One of The Washington Posts "Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2016" 2017: Finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer 2019: Prometheus Award 2024: The Mimicking of Known Successes was nominated for a 2024 Hugo Award for Best Novella. References External links 21st-century American women writers Cyberpunk writers Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Women science fiction and fantasy writers Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies alumni Harvard University alumni	0.766337	0.97494	0.747133
Ecoauthoritarianism	Ecoauthoritarianism (also known as an eco-dictatorship) is a political ideology which attempts to reconcile both environmentalist and authoritarian tendencies. It is justified by the belief of the inevitability and necessity of a strong central government to preserve the environment. Characteristics In 2010, political scientist Mark Beeson defined "ecoauthoritarianism" as "the decrease in individual liberty as governments seek to transform environmentally destructive behaviour." Unlike ecofascism, ecoauthoritarianism can be utilized by both the left and right wing. Proponents of ecoauthoritarianism generally tend to critique democratic measures by which environmental sustainability can be preserved, citing that an authoritarian governmental system would be consequentially more preferable than the preservation of individual liberties and human rights through liberal pathways. The common denominator in ecoauthoritarian thought is the focus on environmental sustainability and the belief that political plurality is incompatible with the attainment of this sustainability. Though other regime types are imaginable, the majority of scholars suggest a meritocratic system. Instead of a democratic rule, politicians would be chosen according to their expertise. Within green political thought, ecoauthoritarianism is marginal. Ecoauthoritarianism was inspired by The Limits to Growth and its conclusion that there are physical limits to growth and that without dramatic changes in all areas of life, Earth is doomed to become uninhabitable. Newer ecoauthoritarian thought underlines the tradeoffs and illegitimacy of unsustainable politics in a democracy. It emphasizes that democracy cannot be an absolute, since sustainability is a precondition for everything valuable. It shows how the overexploitation of resources, given its consequences, must be considered as violence and that in fact, many issues cannot be subject to democratic decision making nor should they be subject to democratic decision making. There are many instances where the state already interferes and where interference is essential for public safety. Ecoauthoritarian thoughts are gaining traction recently, as some people believe democracy is an inadequate system to ensure ecological stability. Especially, the recent leaps taken by the Chinese government are seen by some scholars as evidence for the superior potential of autocratic governments when it comes to implementing good environmental governance. See also Deep ecology Ecofascism Eco-nationalism Green Imperialism References Authoritarianism Political ecology Green politics Environmentalism Ecological economics Population ecology	0.777922	0.960416	0.747129
Autonomism (political doctrine)	Autonomism is a political doctrine which supports acquiring or preserving political autonomy of a nation or a region. It is not necessarily opposed to federalism, and souverainism necessarily implies autonomism, but not vice versa. Examples of autonomist parties include Union Nationale, Action démocratique du Québec and its successor Coalition Avenir Québec (Quebec) and recent (2018) Freedom Conservative Party of Alberta (Alberta) in Canada, New Macau Association in China (Macau), Parti progressiste martiniquais (Martinique) in France, in Italy (Northern Italy) and Popular Democratic Party in the United States (Puerto Rico). Canada Alberta In Alberta, the Freedom Conservative Party of Alberta (FCPoA), which was formerly known as Alberta First Party (AFP), Western Freedom Party (WFP), and Separation Party (SP), replaced the party's old ideology Albertan separatism to support promoting Albertan autonomy like Quebec's counterparts, instead as part of the new another changes under then elected Derek Fildebrandt's leadership. In 2022, the Alberta provincial government passed the Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act. Quebec Autonomism is a policy defended by four Quebec political parties, the Union Nationale (UN), the Action démocratique du Québec (ADQ), its successor Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) and the Équipe Autonomiste (EA), are provincial parties that aim to obtain certain federal capacities and to give the title of autonomous state to the province. Saskatchewan The provincial government of Saskatchewan has called for greater provincial autonomy, with premier Scott Moe calling for a "New Deal with Canada" and referring to Saskatchewan as a "nation within a nation" when discussing a desire for more control over taxation, immigration, and policing. The third party Saskatchewan United Party also supports provincial autonomy. In 2022, the Saskatchewan provincial government issued a white paper on its stance against "federal intrusion" and in 2023 passed Saskatchewan First Act. Romania The Székely autonomy movement is supported by local parties representing the Hungarian community and by most of the political parties in Hungary. Spain The Autonomous Communities of Spain may demonstrate the doctrine although it is limited in its extent. Switzerland The 26 cantons of Switzerland demonstrate autonomism in a federal state. The Swiss Federal Constitution declares the cantons to be sovereign to the extent that it is not limited by federal law. The cantons also retain all powers and competencies not delegated to the federal government by the Constitution. See also Localism in Hong Kong Regionalism (politics) References Political terminology Autonomy	0.763141	0.978937	0.747067
Supraethnicity	Supraethnicity (from Latin prefix / "above" and Ancient Greek word / "ethnos = people") is a scholarly neologism, used mainly in social sciences as a formal designation for a particular structural category that lies "above" the basic level of ethnicity. It is often paired with subethnicity, a similar technical term with the exact opposite meaning, also designating a particular structural category, but that which lies "under" the level of ethnicity. Both terms are used in ethnic studies in order to describe structural and functional relations between basic (common) form of ethnic identity and various related phenomena that are classified as belonging to "higher" (supraethnic) or "lower" (subethnic) levels. Formally, both categories (supraethnic and subethnic) are designating levels, not the contents. For example, there are several distinctive phenomena that are manifested on the supraethnic level, like: metaethnicity, multiethnicity (pluriethnicity), panethnicity, polyethnicity, or transethnicity, each of them having their own distinctive contents, but all of them sharing the same structural "supraethnic" level. There have been attempts to define some common, not only structural but also functional properties of supraethnicity, but such attempts were challenged by the present state of terminological diversity and inconsistency within the ethnic studies. See also References Sources Ethnicity	0.773515	0.965787	0.747051
Social Democrats	Social Democrats is a name used by a number of political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy. Social Democrats may refer to: Social Democrats (Croatia), a social-democratic political party in Croatia Social Democrats (Denmark), a social-democratic political party in Denmark Social Democrats (Germany), a social-democratic political party in Germany Social Democrats (Ireland), a centre-left political party in Ireland Social Democrats (Italy), a centre-left political party in Italy Social Democrats (Slovenia), a centre-left political party in Slovenia Social Democrats (Sweden), a social-democratic political party in Sweden Social Democrats, USA, a small association of democratic socialists and social democrats in the United States Social Democrats of Uganda, a political party in Uganda Åland Social Democrats, a social-democratic political party on the Åland Islands Gibraltar Social Democrats, a liberal-conservative, centre-right political party in Gibraltar Portuguese Social Democrats, a liberal-conservative political party in Portugal Social Democrats of Montenegro, a centre-left political party in Montenegro Supporters of social democracy in general Various parties using the name Social Democratic Party See also List of social democratic parties, parties that consider themselves to uphold social democracy Social Democracy (disambiguation) Social-Demokraten (disambiguation)	0.763856	0.977922	0.746992
Social media and identity	Social media can have both positive and negative impacts on a user's identity. Psychology and Communication scholars study the relationship between social media and identity in order to understand individual behavior, psychological impact, and social patterns. Communication within political or social groups online can result in practice application of those identities or adoption of them as a whole. Young people, defined as emerging adults in or entering college, especially shape their identities through social media. Young adults At the stage where a young adult becomes an emerging adult, individuals are especially influenced by social media. Psychologists study methods of self-presentation to determine how a user's patterns and media participation affects their own identity. Young adults, through media literacies, can also find their identity as a part of a social group, such as feminists. These studies are connected to building frameworks for educators on teaching media literacies. Due to their fluency in media literacy, young people often contribute to these larger social identities through their networks, and unique style of communication when sharing information. Young Individuals have been found to be affected by what they take in on Social Media. Psychologists believe that at a time when young adults are coming into adolescence, they are more likely to be influenced by what they see on sites like Instagram or Twitter. More so directed towards the times of Identity Formation, as these individuals are impressionable and still creating their identity. With the advance of social media, most young adults will widely share, with varying degrees of accuracy, honesty, and openness, information that in the past would have been private or reserved for select individuals. Key questions include whether they accurately portray their identities online and whether the use of social media might impact young adults’ identity development. Media Imagery, in particular, is said to be a major influence on the minds of young men and women. Studies have shown that it is even more relevant when it comes to the issue of body image. Social Media, in part, has been created to host a safe haven for those who do not claim a solid identity in the material world, giving them a chance for exploration of other identities in the virtual concept. Psychologists and Scholars have noted that while past identities are not easy to escape from; the Internet is more permanent. Social media is an essential part of the social lives of young adults. They rely on it to maintain relationships, create new relationships, and stay up to date with the world around them. Adolescents find social media to be extremely helpful when changing environments, like moving off to university for example. Social media provides students, especially first year students, the opportunity to create the identity they want the world to see. However, it has been seen that these students create online personas that may not reflect their true selves bringing up the issues of impression management. Social media provides young adults with the opportunity to present themselves as something other than their authentic self. Media literacy The definition of media literacy has evolved over time to encompass a range of experiences that can occur in social media or other digital spaces. The definition of media literacy is also broad and wide ranging in its context. Currently, media literacy includes being able to understand, apply, and share digital images and messages. Educators teach media literacy skills because of the vulnerable relationship that young adults can have with social media. Some examples of media literacy practices, particularly on Twitter, include using hashtags, live tweeting, and sharing information. Overall, the goal of media literacy within social media is to keep young adults aware of potentially violent, graphic, or dangerous content that they may come across on the internet, and how to handle it with responsibility and safety in mind. In order to be considered media-literate, a person must be able to take in media from online and social platforms and have the correct competencies and context to be able to organize the information. In order to be considered media-literate, the digital information must be given to the user in a way that it can be put into the correct perspective and analyzed, deducted and synthesized. Teenagers and young adults can be vulnerable to specific content online outside of their age-range. Media literacy campaigns and education research shows that targeting those who fall into this age category would be the best way to understand and target their needs as young online users. There are multiple individual studies investigating social media identity relating to media literacy online, however there is a need for much more conclusive information that analyzes multiple studies at a time. Social media literacy is still considered an under-researched topic. Many scholars in media literacy research emphasize the impact of training young adults to consume media in a safe way is the major solution for furthering internet education in children and young adults. The more information the young adults are given on media literacy, the better prepared they are to enter the digital world confidently. One scientific model that has been proposed, known as The Social Media Literacy (SMILE) model. This framework hypothesizes that at the core of this model is helping young adults truly know the meaning and display the actions of media literacy online. SMILE is also meant to inspire more research on the subject of media literacy as it relates to social media effects and young adult leaning abilities. The model was applied through the lens of a social media positivity bias among adolescents and puts forth five different assumptions about social media and media literacy; Social media literacy as a moderator (what is seen on social media) Social media literacy as a predictor (what is seen for specific individuals on social media) Media literacy within social media is a reciprocal process The development of social media literacy depends on a conditional process of variables affecting other variables Media literacy within social media is a differential learning process, and who teaches it is highly affective of the outcome This model also stresses that human beings learn media literacy (and social media literacy) naturally as they go through life. Research suggests that having young adults taught media literacy from an educator may make them less interested (and therefore less careful) of threats on social media. Self Presentation People create images of themselves to present to the public, a process called self presentation. Depending on the demographic, presenting oneself as authentic can result in identity clarity. Methods of self presentation can also be influenced by geography. The framework for this relationship between a user's location and their social media presentation is called the spatial self. Users depict their spatial self in order to include their physical space as a part of their self presentation to an audience. In a 2018 research paper, it shares that patients of plastic surgeons have gone in and asked for specific snapchat "filter" features. This led to a theory of Snapchat Dysmorphia. Since the introduction to snapchat in 2011, more and more people each year are going into doctor offices and asking for smoother skin, bigger eyes, and fuller lips. It is creating a disconnect from who they are and who they want to be. Social comparison theory is the idea that people are likely to compare themselves to people who are similar to them. Influencers have impacted this idea, we often watch people on the internet that we feel we can relate too. Within this theory there is 2 subcategories; Upward and downward comparison. Upward comparison is the idea that someone compares themselves to someone they feel is better than they are. Downward is the opposite, they compare themselves to someone they feel is worse off. Cultivation theory is the more often people are going to be exposed to images of society's ideal body, the less they are going to realize the images are unrealistic Self Schema Theory is the idea women use three points to determine how they view themself Socially ideal: ideal ways women are represented in media Objective body: how we view our own self Internalized ideal body: Internalizing media and how much they want to achieve it Pescott (2020) study found that the use of Snapchat filters in preteens has a great impact on how they present themselves online. Boys found filters to be more fun and used for entertainment, whereas girls used filters more as a beauty enhancer. This becomes dangerous for preteens who are not aware of when a filter is being used when consuming content from friends, influencers, or celebrities. The same study found that the use of filters can have a large impact on preteens’ identity formation as they begin to compare themselves with others. Influences on Body Image In comparison to traditional forms of media, where individuals could only act as consumers of media, social media networking sites provide a more engaging opportunity where users can produce their own content, as well as interact with other users and content creators. As these sites have become increasingly popular, researchers have turned their focus to the discussion of the various impacts social media has on users. One of the main focuses researchers have studied is the effects on body image. This is especially seen in adolescents and young adults who engage in social media. It has been suggested that in the early adolescent years, when perceptions about self and identity are being formed, individuals may be influenced by the media to feel certain ways about their bodies based on the ideal body types expressed and perpetuated in the media, which may increase body surveillance behaviors and, consequently, experiencing feelings of body shame. Salomon & Brown (2019), measured self-objectification behaviors on social media, body surveillance behaviors, feelings of body shame, and levels of self-monitoring to examine whether or not young adolescents engaging in higher amounts of self-objectification behaviors on social media also experienced higher levels of body shame. Self-objectification behaviors result from internalizing objectification from others, and may, for example, take the form of taking frequent photos of oneself and valuing how others view their appearance. Body surveillance behaviors indicate a preoccupation with how the appearance of one’s body will be perceived by others and can be measured by behaviors such as constant evaluation and monitoring of one’s body. Body shame refers to a negative emotional experience resulting from feeling as if one failed to meet society’s body ideals. Self-monitoring refers to how much individuals do or do not change their behavior in response to feedback and cues received from peers. In the study, it was found that individuals who reported engaging in self-objectified social media use exhibited more body surveillance behaviors, which led to increased experience in feelings of body shame. Some studies have demonstrated that body image is not influenced by how much time is spent on social media, but is influenced by the way an individual engages with the site. For instance, Meier and Gray (2014), measured Facebook usage among young women and found that those who more frequently viewed posts of images and videos were more likely to experience negative thoughts about their own body image and internalize the thin ideal. However, it is seen that Facebook did not influence body image itself. More interacting on Facebook, in regards to posting, commenting and viewing, causes women, specifically high school females to have greater weight dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, thin-ideal internalization and self objectification. Having more of an opportunity to compare yourself to other people on social media can cause people to feel like they should look that way. Facebook posts more than 10 million photos an hour, so having many examples of an idealistic body-type tempts viewers to compare their bodies to their own. In response to self-portraits on social media, friends and followers can indicate affirmation and acceptance, and creators can receive validation, through feedback such as likes and comments. According to the findings of Bukowski, Dixon, and Weeks (2019), the more value that an individual placed on the feedback received on a self-portrait that they’ve shared, the more they experience body dissatisfaction and a desire to become thinner, but only if they also engage in body-surveillance. Studies have shown that users can also experience feelings of body dissatisfaction when consuming rather than creating content. In a study conducted by Fardouly, et al. (2015), the implications of Facebook usage on young women’s mood, level of body dissatisfaction, and desires to change aspects of their body or facial features were examined. The results of the study indicated that in addition to Facebook usage being associated with a more negative mood, it was associated with an increasing desire to change facial related features in women who were more likely to make comparisons between elements of their and others appearance. Platform Affordances The different platform affordances of social media sites can both enable and constrain the options users have for presenting themselves. Initially coined by Gibson (1966), Affordances, broadly, can be defined as “describing what material artifacts such as media technologies allow people to do”. This can therefore be applied to how users of social media construct identity, through the ways in which social media sites provide users with opportunities for self-presentation. For example, Instagram requires users to create a profile when they register an account. In this, they require a username, profile photo, biography and more recently, the option to present the users chosen pronoun. However, none of these identifiable aspects need to be factual, and unlike Facebook, which requires users to register with their legal name, Instagram users can use pseudonyms or made-up usernames and profile pictures. This gives them the ability to construct whichever identity they choose to present. Media Reactions Within Companies Frank J Lexa and David Fessell managed to test and review a hypothetical question given to a group of MD’s from various universities. The question asks if a key radiologist posted a media post that involved a racial epithet and a younger colleague brought this to your attention, what would you do? Response replies varied, but almost all had one common theme/connection that connected to points made by Darren L Linvell in discussing the dangers of social media. Linvell made a point to bring up how digital civility is key in producing healthy online dynamics and connections. The respondents within Frank J Lexas and David Fessells test, answered by saying how immediate communication would take place to set the basics of the situation down. This focuses on creating civility through proper communication. Another connection seen is that in case of media controversies, training and policy making methods would take place such as sensitivity training. Other policies would take place depending on what specific policies a certain workplace may have. So, within work settings, it is seen to be important to first make sure an establishment has already implemented policy making methods for various cases, and also create an employee board that is able to demonstrate and carry out digital civility. Increased Policymaking The creation of social media has brought along with it various ways for people all around the world to communicate. This media has created a system for all kinds of peoples to connect, create new and improved identities, improve relationships, share information, and be able to reach out into a world of new opportunities. This same media has also given way for young adolescents to access their way into a world of mental health issues, negative self image, racial hostility, cyberbullying, sexual harassment, stalking, and even suicide. As social media continues to fall into the hands of younger children, it is necessary to implement policy making strategies in order to decrease the rate of harm towards adolescents who are more susceptible and fall victim to the dangers that are presented with social media use so it is necessary to implement. 13 year old girls are given access to view methods on how to consume under 300 calories a day through Tik Tok, but youth within the U.S. has been having access to these various kinds of platforms for some while now. Adolescents consuming unhealthy media leads to mental health issues revolving around depression, eating disorders, and sometimes even leading to suicide. Due to this, a research program by the name The Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders (STRIPED) has begun to study the dangerous and harmful effects of social media platforms and how we are able to regulate social media's presentation of harmful content. It has been found that $11 billion revenue has been made from users ages 0-17 through advertisement methods which is why companies continue to display harmful content to youth. Policymaking may be a way to regulate social media platforms, but certain legal obstacles make it difficult to provide regulation. First, The First Amendment protects the rights of social media platforms since social media is just a computer code, individuals attempting to regulate media speech, are at risk of violating this law. As for Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), online services are provided with protection and are not responsible for the speech produced by the 3rd party individuals who are using the platform. Due to this, new laws created for social media safety have to be careful not to overrun and violate the currently standing laws such as the First Amendment. So, it is important to require companies to have algorithm risk audits which are approaches that review media processing systems through testing media outputs or documentations in order to protect the wellbeing of the youth and diminish the risk of danger. Darren L Linvell discusses the “dark side” of social media which is the dangers that are brought along to students within and beyond a college campus. Social media use within students in the college age range use social media as a way to be able to display themselves. Some students choose to display their authentic selves, while others choose to create a different persona to present to surrounding peers. But, social media does come with its dangers such as cyberbullying, racial hostility, aggression, stalking, et. When students present whichever persona they display publicly online, they are at risk of falling victim to cyberbullying. Cyberbullying produces a larger number of bystanders than physical bullying as it is seen as less serious and that the victim brought on the situation to themselves. But, both cyberbullying and physical bullying have the same unfortunate outcomes such as mental health impacts and even suicide. The importance of the idea of teaching social media literacy to students to increase levels of safety within social media through education. Students may not always care to engage in this method, so it is more recommended to focus on the process and communication that occurs in order to give the result of certain information when engaging with information given. Another main focus is also the concept of digital civility as it requires creating healthy relationships through building mutual understanding with each other by learning to communicate properly. Rather than focusing on teaching students all aspects of social media literacy/safety, the light focuses on human communication skills because students are more likely to be engaged and educated more from this method to develop higher social media literacy. Since it is difficult to implement legal policymaking actions against media dangers, the APA has released recommendations which discuss various methods that families may try to improve social media safety. Recommendations vary from stating that adolescents should be educated in social media literacy which is done through the SMILE method. But looking back at points made by Darren L Linvell, this method may make students less interested in being educated on it which results in unsafe media consumption behavior. Other recommendations discuss that setting limitations may decrease intake of harmful content which leads to adolescents engaging in eating disorder behavior, negative self image, and violence. Another goal of limitation is to aid adolescents in keeping up a healthy sleep schedule and physical activity engagement. But, recommendations may not work for every family, which is why some releases as well as clinicians state that rules should be made based on an individual's intellectual stage/knowledge. This connects to the importance of keeping up a healthy family dynamic, which is why parents should aim to understand their children's weaknesses and strengths within knowledge on social media use. Parents need to understand their children and have trust in them that they will use social media safely. Families can discuss together what limitations may be implemented within media use and that way adolescents will not feel unmotivated to use media in a harmful way as they are able to have a say within media rules and not feel limited by external influences (adults, policies, etc.) This connects to another advisory stated by the APA which discusses that parents should collaborate with teens in order to get them on board to use social media more safely. It is important for adults to support teens' personal interests rather than keeping them limited from it as that may lead to harmful/dangerous behavior that is not in the teens best interest. Overall, it is seen that unsafe and sometimes even safe media use, can bring upon negative outcomes such as dangers and various threats that young adolescents have to deal with. Various law making policies are attempting to be made, but current laws create an obstruction in that path which make it difficult to create laws to fight media dangers. Due to this, families and adolescents have to take matters into their own hands to protect themselves from media harm. Fortunately, various sources such as the APA give helpful and effective recommendations to help protect themselves. It is important to address privacy and awareness matters when dealing with media use. Social media is a platform that gives access to endless opportunities and possibilities, but in order to keep this progression up, it is necessary to create effective legal policies as well as understand basic media literacy and digital civility. References Social media Social impact Identity (social science)	0.762701	0.979391	0.746982

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