Alexis de Tocqueville

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Philosophical Analysis ◽  
Alexis De Tocqueville ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
Egalitarian Society ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Simple Narrative

This chapter offers a reading of Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, arguing that the book was not a philosophical analysis of the concept of democracy, nor a simple narrative of the origins of American political institutions, but a form of political theory that used historical evidence to teach general lessons about the prospects for politics in the present. The chapter first places Tocqueville in his times and among his family before discussing his journey to America in 1831. It then considers the three major themes that might be extracted from the second volume of Democracy: the quality of intellectual and cultural life in an egalitarian society; the stability or proneness to revolutionary upheaval of such societies; and Tocqueville's final and most distinctive thoughts on democratic despotism, or what one might term quiet totalitarianism.

The Struggle for the Tripod and the First Sacred War

1957 ◽  
Vol 77 (2) ◽  
pp. 276-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. W. Parke ◽  
John Boardman
Keyword(s):  
Chief Factor ◽  
Late Archaic ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
Historical Importance ◽  
Real Value ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Original Speech ◽  
Simple Narrative

The purpose of this article is to try to show that the legend of the rape of the Delphic tripod by Herakles became associated as symbolic with the First Sacred War and that this association is a chief factor in the great popularity of that subject in late archaic art.We should begin with the First Sacred War itself, an event whose historical importance is inadequately matched by the quality of our literary sources. The earliest account of it occurs in Aeschines' speech against Ktesiphon (iii. 107 ff.), where he introduced the subject because it provided the theological justification for the line which he had taken when attending the meeting of the Delphic Amphictyony in the autumn of 340. So it is not a simple narrative, but a tendentious statement, carefully designed to bring out the points which suited the orator's case. At the same time it has real value as historical evidence, because it is based to some extent on an ancient stele, a memorial of the war, to whose text Aeschines had referred in his original speech at Delphi. A copy of the inscription was read to the jury, and the extant speech contains quotations and paraphrases of portions of it.

scholarly journals The limits of conjecture: Political liberalism, counter-radicalisation and unreasonable religious views

Ethnicities ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriele Badano ◽  
Alasia Nuti
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
John Rawls ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Political Liberalism ◽  
Comprehensive Doctrine ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Theory Reasoning ◽  
The Stability

Originally proposed by John Rawls, the idea of reasoning from conjecture is popular among the proponents of political liberalism in normative political theory. Reasoning from conjecture consists in discussing with fellow citizens who are attracted to illiberal and antidemocratic ideas by focusing on their religious or otherwise comprehensive doctrines, attempting to convince them that such doctrines actually call for loyalty to liberal democracy. Our goal is to criticise reasoning from conjecture as a tool aimed at persuasion and, in turn, at improving the stability of liberal democratic institutions. To pursue this goal, we use as case study real-world efforts to counter-radicalise at-risk Muslim citizens, which, at first glance, reasoning from conjecture seems well-placed to contribute to. This case study helps us to argue that the supporters of reasoning from conjecture over-intellectualise opposition to liberal democracy and what societies can do to counter it. Specifically, they (i) underestimate how few members of society can effectively perform reasoning from conjecture; (ii) overlook that the burdens of judgement, a key notion for political liberals, highlight how dim the prospects of reasoning from conjecture are and (iii) do not pay attention to the causes of religious persons’ opposition to liberal democracy. However, not everything is lost for political liberals, provided that they redirect attention to different and under-researched resources contained in Rawls’s theory. In closing, we briefly explain how such resources are much better placed than reasoning from conjecture to provide guidance relative to counter-radicalisation in societies (i) populated by persons who do not generally hold anything close to a fully worked out and internally consistent comprehensive doctrine and (ii) where political institutions should take responsibility for at least part of the existing alienation from liberal democratic values.

Criteria for evaluation of the coordinate measurements quality of parts geometric parameters at pilot-experimental production

2019 ◽  
pp. 3-8
Author(s):  
N.Yu. Bobrovskaya ◽  
M.F. Danilov
Keyword(s):  
Quality Indicators ◽  
Quality Management System ◽  
Technical Specification ◽  
Experimental Production ◽  
Technological Heredity ◽  
Coordinate Measurements ◽  
Reasonable Choice ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Geometric Elements

The criteria of the coordinate measurements quality at pilot-experimental production based on contemporary methods of quality management system and traditional methods of the measurements quality in Metrology are considered. As an additional criterion for quality of measurements, their duration is proposed. Analyzing the problem of assessing the quality of measurements, the authors pay particular attention to the role of technological heredity in the analysis of the sources of uncertainty of coordinate measurements, including not only the process of manufacturing the part, but all stages of the development of design and technological documentation. Along with such criteria as the degree of confidence in the results of measurements; the accuracy, convergence, reproducibility and speed of the results must take into account the correctness of technical specification, and such characteristics of the shape of the geometric elements to be controlled, such as flatness, roundness, cylindrical. It is noted that one of the main methods to reduce the uncertainty of coordinate measurements is to reduce the uncertainty in the initial data and measurement conditions, as well as to increase the stability of the tasks due to the reasonable choice of the basic geometric elements (measuring bases) of the part. A prerequisite for obtaining reliable quality indicators is a quantitative assessment of the conditions and organization of the measurement process. To plan and normalize the time of measurements, the authors propose to use analytical formulas, on the basis of which it is possible to perform quantitative analysis and optimization of quality indicators, including the speed of measurements.

Statistical Management of Food Production Processes

2020 ◽  
pp. 30-35
Author(s):  
N.A. Jurk ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Production Process ◽  
Control Chart ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Time Interval ◽  
Bakery Products ◽  
Shewhart Control ◽  
Manufactured Products ◽  
Mnemonic Technique ◽  
The Stability

The article presents scientific research in the field of statistical controllability of the food production process using the example of bakery products for a certain time interval using statistical methods of quality management. During quality control of finished products, defects in bakery products were identified, while the initial data were recorded in the developed form of a checklist for registering defects. It has been established that the most common defect is packaging leakage. For the subsequent statistical assessment of the stability of the production process and further analysis of the causes of the identified defect, a Shewhart control chart (p-card by an alternative feature) was used, which allows you to control the quality of manufactured products by the number of defects detected. Analyzing the control chart, it was concluded that studied process is conditionally stable, and the emerging defects are random. At the last stage of the research, the Ishikawa causal diagram was used, developed using the 6M mnemonic technique, in order to identify the most significant causes that affect the occurrence of the considered defect in bakery products. A more detailed study will allow the enterprise to produce food products that meet the established requirements.

Institutions and Political Support

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaun Bowler
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Institutional Reform ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Political Support ◽  
The Political ◽  
General Expectation ◽  
Using Data

This chapter analyzes to what extent variation in political institutions affects political support. The chapter observes that the existing research is not always clear on which institutions should produce what kind of effect, although a general expectation is that institutional arrangements improve political support when they give citizens an increased sense of connection to the political process. In general then, we should expect institutions that strengthen the quality of representation to strengthen political support. This general expectation is specified in six hypotheses that are tested using data from the ESS 2012. The chapter demonstrates that electoral systems that provide voters with more choice about candidates, multiparty governments, and “responsive” legislatures, correlate positively with political support. However, compared to other macro-level factors and individual characteristics, the effects of political institutions on political support are modest. The chapter concludes that the prospects for institutional reform to strengthen political support are limited.

Humanist Engagements

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howell A. Lloyd
Keyword(s):  
Educational Provision ◽  
The Third ◽  
Social Composition ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
Law Faculty ◽  
Editorial Work ◽  
Governmental Institutions ◽  
The University ◽  
The City

Bodin arrived in Toulouse c.1550, a brief account of the economy, social composition, and governmental institutions of which opens the chapter. There follow comments on its cultural life and identification of its leading citizenry, with remarks on the treatment of alleged religious dissidents by the city itself, and especially on discordant intellectual influences at work in the University, most notably the Law Faculty and the modes of teaching there. The chapter’s second part reviews Bodin’s translation and edition of the Greek poem Cynegetica by Oppian ‘of Cilicia’, assessing the quality of his editorial work, the extent to which allegations of plagiarism levelled against him were valid, and the nature and merits of his translation. The third section recounts contemporary wrangling over educational provision in Toulouse and examines the Oratio in which Bodin argued the case for humanist-style educational provision by means of a reconstituted college there.

Domestic Colonies

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Arneil
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Abraham Lincoln ◽  
The State ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Alexis De Tocqueville ◽  
Modern History ◽  
Peter Kropotkin

Colonization is generally defined as a process by which states settle and dominate foreign lands or peoples. Thus, modern colonies are assumed to be outside Europe and the colonized non-European. This volume contends such definitions of the colony, the colonized, and colonization need to be fundamentally rethought in light of hundreds of ‘domestic colonies’ proposed and/or created by governments and civil society organizations initially within Europe in the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries and then beyond. The three categories of domestic colonies in this book are labour colonies for the idle poor, farm colonies for the mentally ill, and disabled and utopian colonies for racial, religious, and political minorities. All of these domestic colonies were justified by an ideology of domestic colonialism characterized by three principles: segregation, agrarian labour, improvement, through which, in the case of labour and farm colonies, the ‘idle’, ‘irrational’, and/or custom-bound would be transformed into ‘industrious and rational’ citizens while creating revenues for the state to maintain such populations. Utopian colonies needed segregation from society so their members could find freedom, work the land, and challenge the prevailing norms of the society around them. Defended by some of the leading progressive thinkers of the period, including Alexis de Tocqueville, Abraham Lincoln, Peter Kropotkin, Robert Owen, Tommy Douglas, and Booker T. Washington, the turn inward to colony not only provides a new lens with which to understand the scope of colonization and colonialism in modern history but a critically important way to distinguish ‘the colonial’ from ‘the imperial’ in Western political theory and practice.

scholarly journals Identifying Stabilising Effects on Survey Based Life Satisfaction Using Quasi-maximum Likelihood Estimation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Klement
Keyword(s):  
Life Satisfaction ◽  
Maximum Likelihood ◽  
Maximum Likelihood Estimation ◽  
Negative Binomial ◽  
Measurement Instrument ◽  
Likelihood Estimation ◽  
Satisfaction Scale ◽  
Quasi Maximum Likelihood ◽  
The Stability

AbstractTo which extent do happiness correlates contribute to the stability of life satisfaction? Which method is appropriate to provide a conclusive answer to this question? Based on life satisfaction data of the German SOEP, we show that by Negative Binomial quasi-maximum likelihood estimation statements can be made as to how far correlates of happiness contribute to the stabilisation of life satisfaction. The results show that happiness correlates which are generally associated with a positive change in life satisfaction, also stabilise life satisfaction and destabilise dissatisfaction with life. In such as they lower the probability of leaving positive states of life satisfaction and increase the probability of leaving dissatisfied states. This in particular applies to regular exercise, volunteering and living in a marriage. We further conclude that both patterns in response behaviour and the quality of the measurement instrument, the life satisfaction scale, have a significant effect on the variation and stability of reported life satisfaction.

scholarly journals Quantifying the Effects of Vibration on Medicines in Transit Caused by Fixed-Wing and Multi-Copter Drones

Drones ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Andrew Oakey ◽  
Tim Waters ◽  
Wanqing Zhu ◽  
Paul G. Royall ◽  
Tom Cherrett ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Road Transport ◽  
Uv Spectra ◽  
Frequency Spectra ◽  
Vibration Measurements ◽  
British Pharmacopoeia ◽  
Medical Products ◽  
Industry Standard ◽  
The Stability ◽  
In Transit

The concept of transporting medical products by drone is gaining a lot of interest amongst the medical and logistics communities. Such innovation has generated several questions, a key one being the potential effects of flight on the stability of medical products. The aims of this study were to quantify the vibration present within drone flight, study its effect on the quality of the medical insulin through live flight trials, and compare the effects of vibration from drone flight with traditional road transport. Three trials took place in which insulin ampoules and mock blood stocks were transported to site and flown using industry standard packaging by a fixed-wing or a multi-copter drone. Triaxial vibration measurements were acquired, both in-flight and during road transit, from which overall levels and frequency spectra were derived. British Pharmacopeia quality tests were undertaken in which the UV spectra of the flown insulin samples were compared to controls of known turbidity. In-flight vibration levels in both the drone types exceeded road induced levels by up to a factor of three, and predominant vibration occurred at significantly higher frequencies. Flown samples gave clear insulin solutions that met the British Pharmacopoeia specification, and no aggregation of insulin was detected.

scholarly journals Optical Analysis of RF Sputtering Plasma through Colour Characterization

Coatings ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Salimian ◽  
Roohollah Haghpanahan ◽  
Abul Hasnath ◽  
Hari Upadhyaya
Keyword(s):  
Rf Sputtering ◽  
Plasma Source ◽  
Film Coating ◽  
Chamber Pressure ◽  
Plasma Power ◽  
Plasma Sputtering ◽  
Chromaticity Index ◽  
Colour Parameters ◽  
The Stability

The photometric properties of an radio frequency (RF)-based sputtering plasma source were monitored through optical spectroscopy. The colour of the plasma source was deduced based on conventional chromaticity index analysis and it was compared to the direct spectral data plots of the emission peaks to investigate the possibility of characterising the plasma based on its specific colour and exploring the potential of defining a new method by which the plasma sputtering process can be addressed based on the plasma colour parameters. The intention of this investigation is to evaluate the possibility of simplifying the monitoring and assessment of the sputtering process for applied scientists operating plasma sputter deposition systems. We demonstrate a viable potential for this technique in terms of providing information regarding the stability of the plasma, chamber pressure, and plasma power; however, further work is underway to verify and assess a relationship between the quality of the thin film coating and the colour characteristics of the deposition plasma. Here, we only focus on the feasibility of such an approach and demonstrate interesting observations. We observed a linear relationship between the colour functions and the plasma power, while the stability of the sputtering plasma can be assessed based on the plasma colour functions. The colour functions also follow a unique pattern when the working gas pressure is increased.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document