Political Participation and Varying Understandings of Democracy

This chapter focuses on the behavioral implications of popular conceptions of democracy, that is, the attitude-to-behavior connections and in particular, conventional and unconventional political participation. The chapter shows that overall, compared to their fellow citizens emphasizing the instrumental values of democracy, people embracing the procedural understanding of democracy are significantly more likely to cast ballots, help with electoral campaigns, contact political and government agencies or agents, join a demonstration, march in a protest, or use violence for a political cause. Meanwhile, this impact varies significantly, depending on the features of the regime in a society: it is much stronger in authoritarian regimes than in democracies. In some cases, the impact even reverses as we move from autocracies to democracies. The chapter argues that such patterns are primarily driven by the expressive values served by political participation, which people embracing the procedural conception of democracy are more sensitive to.

Democratic Assessment Colored by Understandings of Democracy

This chapter examines the attitudinal consequences of popular understandings of democracy. In particular, we focus on the influence of this critical mass opinion on how citizens assess democratic practices in both foreign countries and their own societies. Mixed-effect regressions confirm that, ceteris paribus, people who have embraced the procedural understanding of democracy by prioritizing its institutions and procedures in protecting basic rights and liberty are more critical of China’s democratic practice but more favorable to that in the United States. Similar mixed-effect regressions reveal that, again, people’s different understandings of democracy significantly shape how they assess their own societies’ democratic practices. On average, people who prioritize the intrinsic values of democracy are less satisfied with their regime’s democratic practices and more critical in assessing their regimes’ democratic nature. Furthermore, even a full democracy still needs to deliver to win over people’s hearts and minds, thereby fostering its popular support.

Effect of electrode material on removal efficiency regarding single discharges in wire EDM

For the precise machining of demanding materials, wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM) is a flexible and often irreplaceable manufacturing process. In order to enhance productivity as the main focus of the wire EDM process, the advancement of the fundamental procedural understanding is of decisive importance. In order to be able to energetically evaluate the removal process, the individual energetic contributors of the process hence the individual discharges need to be understood in terms of their contribution to material removal. In this paper, an experimental setup is presented, which permits the generation of individual discharges on a modern industrial wire EDM machine tool. For three different wire electrodes, the correlation of the discharge energy and the individual removal volume is quantitatively described, showing that coated wires achieve a significantly higher energy-specific removal. Furthermore the removal efficiency is defined as a key figure to transfer the findings to the continuous process and compare theoretical and effective removal rate.

Understanding strategy assessment in IS management

In our research, we suggest a process theory for explaining the strategy assessment process and its effect in information systems (IS) planning. The proposed theory is derived from an analysis of practitioners and the practices they employ. Based on a multiple-case study design, we look at the IS management teams of three corporate IS departments and how they prepare for strategy development. The analysis of the projects reveals a stable pattern of activities employed by the three teams to assess their departments’ strategic positions and existing strategy. Along with this procedural understanding, our research also produces a detailed look at the outcomes of these managerial practices.

Using Yeast Fermentation as a Context for Meaningful Learning of Procedural Understanding

Students need procedural understanding—that is, knowledge of the procedures that scientists use to establish scientific evidence (also known as “concepts of evidence”), to successfully perform scientific investigations, and to evaluate public and scientific claims. However, concepts of evidence are seldom explicitly targeted in routine practical activities in secondary school science classrooms. We describe how a commonly used practical activity, yeast fermentation, can be modified to provide a meaningful context for developing students’ understanding of concepts of evidence associated with measurement, as well as more difficult-to-learn scientific ideas, such as rates of reaction. The modified practical activities give students opportunities to exercise their creativity in assembling setups; brainstorm solutions to design problems in teams; reflect on their decisions related to concepts of evidence associated with measurement when designing their setups; compare the validity and reliability of data produced using different setups; and develop their understanding of difficult-to-learn scientific ideas.

An Identification of Conceptual and Procedural Understanding: Study on Preservice Secondary Mathematics Teacher

Preservice mathematics teachers (PSMTs) need to master teaching material besides pedagogical competence. This knowledge is a combination of conceptual and procedural knowledge. Teachers should possess the ability to explain a concept, the reason for the concepts used, and the relationship among several concepts clearly and effectively to identify why the concept is used. This study aimed to identify the conceptual and procedural knowledge of PSMTs in Linear Algebra courses. Data collection was carried out through tests and interviews. The interview was conducted with several participants to clarify their test answers. The participants' interview answers revealed that they had difficulty in choosing the proper concept answering modified questions. Also, the participants tried to answer the question using a procedural approach. According to the findings, it is vital to construct appropriate teaching materials appropriate for the learning objective and material map concept.

Typologization of security regulation

The purpose of the article is to typologize terminological definitions of security, to find out the general, to identify the originality of their interpretations depending on the subject of legal regulation. The methodological basis of the study is the methods that made it possible to obtain valid conclusions, in particular, the method of comparison, through which it became possible to correlate different interpretations of the term "security"; method of hermeneutics, which allowed to elaborate texts of normative legal acts of Ukraine, method of typologization, which made it possible to create typologization groups of variants of understanding of the term "security". Scientific novelty. The article analyzes the understanding of the term "security" in various regulatory acts in force in Ukraine. Typological groups were understood to understand the term "security". Conclusions. The analysis of the legal material makes it possible to confirm that the issues of security are within the scope of both legislative regulation and various specialized by-laws. However, today there is no single conception on how to interpret security terminology. This is due both to the wide range of social relations that are the subject of legal regulation and to the relativity of the notion of security itself and the lack of coherence of views on its definition in legal acts and in the scientific literature. The multiplicity of definitions is explained by combinations of material and procedural understanding, static - dynamic, and conditioned by the peculiarities of a particular branch of legal regulation, limited ability to use methods of one or another branch, the inter-branch nature of some variations of security, etc. Separation, common and different in the definition of "security" can be used to further standardize, in fact, the regulatory legal understanding of security to more effectively implement the legal regulation of the security direction.

Infrastructure and perceptions of democracy in Zambia: Democracy off the rails

ABSTRACT In Zambia, some people describe their political participation as a way to transmit ideas and hold politicians accountable, while others explain their participation as a bid for resources or personal assistance. These differences follow a geographic trend, with residents of remote areas more likely to focus on substantive material gain. What accounts for this geographic variation? I argue that the centre/periphery distinction within the country influences the way people understand democracy. People living centrally are more likely to hold a procedural understanding of democracy and value democratic rules and process, while people living peripherally are more likely to hold a substantive understanding of democracy and view periodic acts like voting as a bid for resources. I employ geocoded Afrobarometer data alongside 92 original semi-structured interviews to demonstrate that those living further from Zambia’s central rail line are less likely to hold procedural understandings of democracy. I explore several mechanisms that could drive this difference, including homogeneity of remote communities and increased reliance on traditional leaders in peripheral areas. Divergent understandings of democracy between more and less remote denizens have important implications for the future of democratic regimes.