scholarly journals Relevance of the Federal Idea

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 33-35
Author(s):  
Rupak Chattopadhyay

When the decision to establish the Forum of Federations was made in 1999, founder Canada had just survived a major existential crisis. In 1995, the second referendum on Quebec independence almost lead to the breakup of the country. Therefore, the contribution that federalism (or more accurately, the federal idea or federal spirit) can make to national unity and democratic consolidation has been at the heart of the organization’s work since its founding...

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-229
Author(s):  
Sead Selimović ◽  

The school system represents one of the most important segments for each state and society. For this reason, and for a number of other reasons, the authorities are trying to put schools under their control. Through the education of Bosnia and Herzegovina, political, economic, cultural, national and other goals of the ruling political elites were achieved. The curricula removed contents whose educational goals were in line with the interests of the Austro-Hungarian regime. The ruling elite was spreading the idea of a "three-nation nation", seeking to create a unique political, economic, educational and cultural space. Schools were given the task of developing the idea of a common fold and the idea of '' national and national unity ''. The idea, in the view of the ruling elite, could have been realized by schools, not by the army and officials. Teachers who had to respond to the '' spirit of the times '', as well as curricula and textbooks, played an important role in achieving the goals. Significant changes were made in the group of national subjects (history, geography, Serbian or Croatian language), with an emphasis on the history and geography of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and works on Serbian, Croatian or Slovenian literature were prescribed for the school textbook. Most of the textbooks were written by authors from Croatia and Serbia, while only a small number were from Bosnia and Herzegovina.


Author(s):  
Rosario Forlenza

This book links the emergence of democracy in Italy after World War II to human experiences and the symbolic formation of meaning in a time of political and existential uncertainty. Between 1943 and 1948 Italians experienced the most intense period of the war, with its hardship and violence, and the most intense period of social, economic, and political reconstruction, with its hopes and vitality. Unlike conventional accounts that focus on institutions, ideologies, and political norms, On the Edge of Democracy examines the aspirations, expectations, and hopes of real people in real time—the social dramas the individuals engaged with. Adopting an anthropological approach, it sees the process of democratization in Italy as analogous to a ritual passage, in which social order was suspended and then reasserted following a liminal time during which ideas and beliefs were reformulated and new meanings, symbols, and identities emerged. The period of civil war 1943–5, especially, was a time of brutality and dramatic violence as well as a critical juncture of creative existential pluralism. The events during the period following the collapse of Fascism and the disintegration of national unity created a new popular consciousness and changed the relationships among individuals, and between individual and political power. Existential crisis and lived experiences during this period of uncertainty generated new meanings, interpretations, and hopes that shaped post-Fascist democracy. Democracy in Italy was the consequence of ordinary’s people reactions to, and symbolization of, the circumstances which they went through in those extraordinary times.


2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 23-38
Author(s):  
Tordue Simon Targema ◽  
Joseph M Lucas

Hate speech is among the most significant communication issues that preoccupy the agenda of relevant governmental agencies and media analysts in contemporary Nigeria. It is an unfortunate phenomenon that manifests in the public sphere, and is fast threatening the fragile democracy which the country is struggling to consolidate. Against this backdrop, this study investigates the nature of readers’ comments on online news sites in the country, their place within the context of hate speech rhetoric, and their implication on democratic consolidation in the country. Hinged on the Social Responsibility Theory, the study employs two research methods- Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and content analysis to investigate the manifestation of hate speech in online readers’ comments. Population of the study comprises 2,530 comments, generated from ten stories on prominent online news platforms in the country. From these, a sample of 250 comments (10% of the population) has been selected systematically for closer examination. Findings reveal that, although quantitatively, positive comments dominate the study population (comprising 60% while negative comments account for the remaining 40%), qualitatively, the trend of discussion is disturbing, as commentators employ the use of hate language, verbal assault, name calling, insults and derogatory words to describe subjects. To this end, the study concludes that readers need to exhibit a high sense of responsibility in the course of interaction on the online comments platforms. Where such responsibility is not self-enforced by commentators, news platforms should remove comments that contain venomous hate language in the interest of national unity, democracy and development.


1999 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 635-664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald J. Savoie

AbstractThe article challenges long-established conventions about how Canada's federal government works. It argues that Cabinet has joined Parliament as an institution being bypassed. In the late 1990s, political power is in the hands of the prime minister and a small group of carefully selected courtiers rather than with the prime minister acting in concert with his elected cabinet colleagues. The article reviews the forces that have led to the rise of court government and the policy instruments and administrative tools that enable it to function. National unity concerns, the role of the media and lobbyists, as well as reforms at the centre of government and globalization, have all served to reshape how policy and decisions are made in the government of Canada. The changes hold important implications, not just for cabinet government, but also for the public service and Canadians themselves.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Peter Martin ◽  
John Michael Carey

The Hare Quota-Largest Remainders (HQLR) formula promoted consensus-building during Tunisia’s constitution-writing process and in the new democratic regime’s first years but it is now an obstacle to democratic consolidation. HQLR discourages the development of a tractable partisan choice set -- one large enough to afford voters meaningfully distinct options but not so large as to be cognitively overwhelming -- and fosters party fragmentation in parliament, obstructing the formation of workable governing coalitions. One result has been coalitions and national unity governments so heterogeneous as to lack common purpose, frustrating and disillusioning citizens and risking nostalgia for the decisiveness of the previous, authoritarian system. Replacing HQLR with either D’Hondt or St.Lague divisors formula would reverse the incentives toward parliamentary fragmentation, foster a more coherent political party landscape, and, if democratic competition is restored following President Kais Said’s auto coup in July 2021, facilitate Tunisia’s democratic consolidation by clarifying partisan accountability in parliament.


1966 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 118-119
Author(s):  
Th. Schmidt-Kaler

I should like to give you a very condensed progress report on some spectrophotometric measurements of objective-prism spectra made in collaboration with H. Leicher at Bonn. The procedure used is almost completely automatic. The measurements are made with the help of a semi-automatic fully digitized registering microphotometer constructed by Hög-Hamburg. The reductions are carried out with the aid of a number of interconnected programmes written for the computer IBM 7090, beginning with the output of the photometer in the form of punched cards and ending with the printing-out of the final two-dimensional classifications.


Author(s):  
J. Temple Black ◽  
William G. Boldosser

Ultramicrotomy produces plastic deformation in the surfaces of microtomed TEM specimens which can not generally be observed unless special preparations are made. In this study, a typical biological composite of tissue (infundibular thoracic attachment) infiltrated in the normal manner with an embedding epoxy resin (Epon 812 in a 60/40 mixture) was microtomed with glass and diamond knives, both with 45 degree body angle. Sectioning was done in Portor Blum Mt-2 and Mt-1 microtomes. Sections were collected on formvar coated grids so that both the top side and the bottom side of the sections could be examined. Sections were then placed in a vacuum evaporator and self-shadowed with carbon. Some were chromium shadowed at a 30 degree angle. The sections were then examined in a Phillips 300 TEM at 60kv.Carbon coating (C) or carbon coating with chrom shadowing (C-Ch) makes in effect, single stage replicas of the surfaces of the sections and thus allows the damage in the surfaces to be observable in the TEM. Figure 1 (see key to figures) shows the bottom side of a diamond knife section, carbon self-shadowed and chrom shadowed perpendicular to the cutting direction. Very fine knife marks and surface damage can be observed.


Author(s):  
M. Ashraf ◽  
F. Thompson ◽  
S. Miki ◽  
P. Srivastava

Iron is believed to play an important role in the pathogenesis of ischemic injury. However, the sources of intracellular iron in myocytes are not yet defined. In this study we have attempted to localize iron at various cellular sites of the cardiac tissue with the ferrocyanide technique.Rat hearts were excised under ether anesthesia. They were fixed with coronary perfusion with 3% buffered glutaraldehyde made in 0.1 M cacodylate buffer pH 7.3. Sections, 60 μm in thickness, were cut on a vibratome and were incubated in the medium containing 500 mg of potassium ferrocyanide in 49.5 ml H2O and 0.5 ml concentrated HC1 for 30 minutes at room temperature. Following rinses in the buffer, tissues were dehydrated in ethanol and embedded in Spurr medium.The examination of thin sections revealed intense staining or reaction product in peroxisomes (Fig. 1).


Author(s):  
J.M. Titchmarsh

The advances in recent years in the microanalytical capabilities of conventional TEM's fitted with probe forming lenses allow much more detailed investigations to be made of the microstructures of complex alloys, such as ferritic steels, than have been possible previously. In particular, the identification of individual precipitate particles with dimensions of a few tens of nanometers in alloys containing high densities of several chemically and crystallographically different precipitate types is feasible. The aim of the investigation described in this paper was to establish a method which allowed individual particle identification to be made in a few seconds so that large numbers of particles could be examined in a few hours.A Philips EM400 microscope, fitted with the scanning transmission (STEM) objective lens pole-pieces and an EDAX energy dispersive X-ray analyser, was used at 120 kV with a thermal W hairpin filament. The precipitates examined were extracted using a standard C replica technique from specimens of a 2¼Cr-lMo ferritic steel in a quenched and tempered condition.


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