Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Michael Hoffman

This chapter introduces the key issues addressed in the book. Why does religion sometimes strengthen support for democracy and sometimes do just the opposite? This book argues that theological explanations alone cannot account for the wide variety of influences that religion can have on political preferences. It argues, instead, that we must consider the role of group interests. The book presents a new theory that uses an interest-based approach to explain these complex relationships. Evidence from Lebanon, Iraq, and elsewhere supports these claims.

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 259-267
Author(s):  
Sami Uljas

This article discusses, first, the role of the i-prefix in the so-called “nominal” sḏm-f paradigm in earliest Old Egyptian textual data. It is argued that this represented a means of facilitating the creation of a distinctive syllabic structure with 2rad roots and of harmonising it with that of the 2red and 3inf classes. Second, the study contains a partial revision of some of the key issues treated in an earlier article by the present author on the role of the similarly written prefix in the subjunctive and “circumstantial” sḏm-f paradigms.


Author(s):  
Mary Donnelly ◽  
Jessica Berg

This chapter explores a number of key issues: the role of competence and capacity, advance directives, and decisions made for others. It analyses the ways these are treated in the United States and in selected European jurisdictions. National-level capacity legislation and human rights norms play a central role in Europe, which means that healthcare decisions in situations of impaired capacity operate in accordance with a national standard. In the United States, the legal framework is more state-based (rather than federal), and the courts have played a significant role, with both common law and legislation varying considerably across jurisdictions. Despite these differences, this chapter identifies some similar legal principles which have developed.


Author(s):  
Timothy Gibbs

This article focuses on M15 organization and Klaus Fuchs, a German-born physicist and Soviet “Atom Spy” who was arrested in 1950 and served fourteen years for offences related to atomic espionage. It examines how Fuchs was identified as an “Atom Spy” in 1949 and describes the MI5's investigation, which ended in the early 1950 with the successful arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment of this highly significant Cold War figure. Key issues discussed in this article include the difficulties encountered by MI5 and the budding British atomic program in the sphere of security. It also discusses the role of Signals intelligence (SIGINT) in the investigation of Fuchs, and the high-risk but ultimately successful approach taken by MI5's key interrogator, William Skardon. This case study highlights both the unparalleled level of international intelligence cooperation between the British agencies and their American counterparts, which made the resolution of this case possible, and some of the frailties in the Anglo-American alliance that were brought to the fore by the exposure of Fuchs as an Atom Spy.


Author(s):  
Beata Zagórska-Marek ◽  
Magdalena Turzańska ◽  
Klaudia Chmiel

AbstractPhyllotactic diversity and developmental transitions between phyllotactic patterns are not fully understood. The plants studied so far, such as Magnolia, Torreya or Abies, are not suitable for experimental work, and the most popular model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana, does not show sufficient phyllotactic variability. It has been found that in common verbena (Verbena officinalis L.), a perennial, cosmopolitan plant, phyllotaxis differs not only between growth phases in primary transitions but also along the indeterminate inflorescence axis in a series of multiple secondary transitions. The latter are no longer associated with the change in lateral organ identity, and the sequence of phyllotactic patterns is puzzling from a theoretical point of view. Data from the experiments in silico, confronted with empirical observations, suggest that secondary transitions might be triggered by the cumulative effect of fluctuations in the continuously decreasing bract primordia size. The most important finding is that the changes in the primary vascular system, associated with phyllotactic transitions, precede those taking place at the apical meristem. This raises the question of the role of the vascular system in determining primordia initiation sites, and possibly challenges the autonomy of the apex. The results of this study highlight the complex relationships between various systems that have to coordinate their growth and differentiation in the developing plant shoot. Common verbena emerges from this research as a plant that may become a new model suitable for further studies on the causes of phyllotactic transitions.


2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Joyce

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the 2016 elections for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and to compare them with those that took place in 2012. It seeks to evaluate the background of the candidates who stood for office in 2016, the policies that they put forward, the results of the contests and the implications of the 2016 experience for future PCC elections. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based around several key themes – the profile of candidates who stood for election, preparations conducted prior to the contests taking place, the election campaign and issues raised during the contests, the results and the profile of elected candidates. The paper is based upon documentary research, making particular use of primary source material. Findings The research establishes that affiliation to a political party became the main route for successful candidates in 2016 and that local issues related to low-level criminality will dominate the future policing agenda. It establishes that although turnout was higher than in 2012, it remains low and that further consideration needs to be devoted to initiatives to address this for future PCC election contests. Research limitations/implications The research focusses on the 2016 elections and identifies a number of key issues that emerged during the campaign affecting the conduct of the contests which have a bearing on future PCC elections. It treats these elections as a bespoke topic and does not seek to place them within the broader context of the development of the office of PCC. Practical implications The research suggests that in order to boost voter participation in future PCC election contests, PCCs need to consider further means to advertise the importance of the role they perform and that the government should play a larger financial role in funding publicity for these elections and consider changing the method of election. Social implications The rationale for introducing PCCs was to empower the public in each police force area. However, issues that include the enhanced importance of political affiliation as a criteria for election in 2016 and the social unrepresentative nature of those who stood for election and those who secured election to this office in these contests coupled with shortcomings related to public awareness of both the role of PCCs and the timing of election contests threaten to undermine this objective. Originality/value The extensive use of primary source material ensures that the subject matter is original and its interpretation is informed by an academic perspective.


2011 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 392-401 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sue Bussell ◽  
John Farrow

This article begins by discussing the specific industrial relations challenges of the highly competitive aviation industry. It then reflects on the outcome of the recent intense national debate over industrial relations, exploring the consequences of that debate for practice and policy, and discusses some key issues that remain in play. Although the Fair Work Act 2009 may have come about as a reaction to what many perceive as the ‘excesses’ of Work Choices, the new Act does not so much ‘wind back the clock’ as represent a significant new development in Australia’s long and unique industrial relations history. This article will discuss the impact of the changes, to date, made by the Fair Work Act on one organization, including the expansion of the ‘safety net’, and how the new compromise between the role of the ‘collective’ and the role of the ‘individual’ struck by the Act has the potential to fundamentally change the nature and structure of bargaining. We offer these comments as practitioners who have worked under successive industrial relations regimes since the early 1980s.


2011 ◽  
Vol 61 ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tristan Carter

AbstractThis paper reviews 50 years of obsidian studies at Neolithic Çatalhöyük in the Konya plain, central Anatolia. A number of key issues are addressed: (1) the source of the site's raw materials, the means and forms by which the obsidian was introduced to the site and the role of Çatalhöyük in the supra-regional dissemination of these raw materials; (2) the alleged gender associations of certain obsidian goods in the burial record and beyond; (3) a more general consideration of the social significance of the circulation and consumption of obsidian at the site, including the phenomena of hoarding and gifting, plus the important role of projectiles in the creation of social identities and various forms of ritual behaviour, not least the termination of the life of a building/individual; (4) the technotypological and raw material variability through time; (5) the use of obsidian in daily practice and craft-working.


Slavic Review ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
pp. 694-702 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rochelle Goldberg Ruthchild

This paper argues for greater integration of considerations of women and gender in the history of the 1917 Russian Revolutions. Two key issues have long been discussed by historians: the spontaneity/consciousness paradigm, and the role of class in the revolution. Neither has been adequately analyzed in relation to gender. Women's suffrage has been largely neglected despite the fact that it was a significant issue throughout the year and represented a pioneering advance won by a countrywide coalition of women and men from the working class and intelligentsia, and from almost all political parties. In this centennial year, accounts of the Revolution remain one-dimensional; women remain the other.


2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 292
Author(s):  
Abdelhakim Ben Ali

<p>The objective of our research is to show the role of “game theory” as a scientific discipline permitting better explanation of the nature of complex relationships between the different stakeholders of the company. Motivated by the current discussions on the choice of the composition of the college auditors, we try to study the combination of auditors to ensure a better audit quality; and to demonstrate the gains and losses of the two players in the game studied during the period 2005-2010.</p>The empirical results reveal that the best audit quality is conditioned by the presence of pair heterogeneous auditors (Big4_Non Big4). Added to that, the audit quality is affected by a high level of audit fees, minimizing the debt ratio, a large reflection of the business performance and financial means to enable it to meet the economic crises that surround it.


2012 ◽  
Vol 19 (1, 2 & 3) ◽  
pp. 2011
Author(s):  
Benjamin L. Berger

There is perhaps no more important access point into the key issues of modern political and legal theory than the questions raised by the interaction of law and religion in contemporary constitutional democracies. Of course, much classical political and moral theory was forged on the issue of the relationship between religious difference and state authority. John Locke’s work was directly influenced by this issue, writing as he did about the just configuration of state authority and moral difference in the wake of the Thirty Years’ War. Yet debates about the appropriate role of religion in public life and the challenges posed by religious difference also cut an important figure, in a variety of ways, in the writings of Hobbes, Rousseau, Spinoza, Hegel, and much of the work that we now view as being at the centre of the development of modern political philosophy.


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