Suchergebnisse

The provisions of Bologna Declaration are ongoing implemented in several South-Eastern European states, members or non members of the European Union. For most states, important restructuring processes for the legal framework and organisation system of higher education were imperative. At the same time, the content of the programmes for all the three cycles was revised in order to follow closely the finalities stipulated in the European documents, substantiating the European Higher Education Area. In this context, the current paper aims to carry out the comparative analysis for the actual level attained by the mentioned states in implementing Bologna Process, with special attention towards higher education in the area of public administration. Research teams, led by the author of this paper have analysed the degree of curricular compatibility of the Bachelor programmes from various European states. This time, the research will focus on describing the process of convergence related to the delivery modalities and the content of the Master programmes in the area of public administration, corresponding to the second cycle of Bologna system. The indicators of convergence will be defined related to the standards of evaluation, used by EAPAA for accreditation of the public administration programmes.

After many years of debate in the UK about the need for a degree-level qualification in social work, the arguments for a minimum degree-level qualification were accepted. The requirements for the degree in England were developed drawing on work from a number of sources, including a benchmark statement for undergraduate degrees in social work and focus groups with stakeholders. The new degree in England, launched in 2003, involves one extra years study; improvements in the qualifying standard for social work; and specific curriculum and entrance requirements. At the time of launching the degree, the government department responsible for funding (Department of Health) commissioned a three-year evaluation of the implementation of the new degree to establish whether the new qualifying level leads to improvements in the qualified workforce. The aim of the evaluation is to describe the experiences of those undertaking the degree, collect the views of the various stakeholders about the effectiveness of the degree and measure the impact of a degree-level qualification on those entering the workforce. This article, written by the team undertaking the evaluation of the England degree, explores the reasons for the methodological approach adopted and the issues that have arisen in setting up the research.

A luncheon meeting of the Acting Committee of the Pennsylvania Prison Society was arranged at the Manufacturers and Bankers Club in Philadelphia on May 22nd, for the purpose of discussing Third Degree. Dr. N. K. Teeters, Professor of Criminology at Temple University and a member of the Executive Committee of the Society presided. Hon. Raymond MaeNeille, Judge of Common Pleas Court No. 3 of Philadelphia, and William A. Gray, Esq., noted trial lawyer of Philadelphia, were the speakers. Dr. Edwin R. Keedy now Dean of the Law School of Pennsylvania University commented briefly on the subject. The following is an account of that meeting:

AbstractThis paper reviews the key literature on racial disparities in entry and persistence to attain a STEM bachelor's degree. Overall, the literature provides quite consistent evidence that Black and Hispanic students are well represented in college major choices in STEM, which testifies to the interest of racial minorities in STEM fields. However, they are left behind during college, and many are left without a STEM degree or any degree whatsoever. We emphasize that although racial minority students may seem to be left behind during college in STEM fields, the problem dates further back to pre‐college. We need to examine college and pre‐college studies in an integrative manner, in order to achieve full understanding and come up with the right solution to the problem of racial disparity in STEM attainment.

Introduction/purpose: In the current literature, several dozens of vertex-degree-based (VDB) graph invariants are being studied. To each such invariant, a matrix can be associated. The VDB energy is the energy (= sum of the absolute values of the eigenvalues) of the respective VDB matrix. The paper examines some general properties of the VDB energy of bipartite graphs. Results: Estimates (lower and upper bounds) are established for the VDB energy of bipartite graphs in which there are no cycles of size divisible by 4, in terms of ordinary graph energy. Conclusion: The results of the paper contribute to the spectral theory of VDB matrices, especially to the general theory of VDB energy.

Concrete pol'al situations exhibit such characteristics as power & freedom to diff degrees. It therefore becomes necessary to provide operational definitions for the corresponding comparative concepts: `more power than', `as much freedom as'. The relative extent of actor Y's power action (mean - average) of actor (mean - average) & of X's freedom in this respect is a function of the probability that Y prevents (mean - average) from doing (mean - average) or penalizes him if he does, the degree of X's deprivation in such cases, the scope of X's actions (mean - average) over which Y has power or which Y leaves (mean - average) free to do, & the number of actors (mean - average) over whom Y has power or whose freedom Y limits. Though these diff components vary independently, it is possible under certain conditions to draw them together & to speak of the extent of an actor's total power & total freedom within a group & even of the net amount of his total power (but not of his total freedom). On the other hand, to say that democracy `maximizes freedom' & constitutes the prototype of a `free society' is to use this concept in a normative rather than in a descriptive sense. AA-IPSA.

W.H. Auden once proposed that the extent of civilization could be judged by a dual standard: both “the the degree of diversity attained and the degree of unity retained.” I don’t fully agree, but at least to me, the idea captures something important. Here’s how Auden put it in his introductory editor’s essay for The … Continue reading Auden on Civilization: “The Degree of Diversity Attained and the Degree of Unity Retained”
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Basic concepts in political science have been used in a purely classificatory way ever since Aristotle established the sixfold classification of the forms of government: monarchy, aristocracy, constitutional government, and their respective "perversions": tyranny, oligarchy, democracy. Similarly, a modern writer distinguishes among four types of political systems: the Anglo-American, the Continental European, the pre-industrial (or partially industrial), and the totalitarian. All these are categorical concepts; a political system is either monarchical or not, either of the Anglo-American or of another type. Such key terms as influence, control, authority, power, and freedom also tend to function categorically: one actor either has or lacks power over some activity of another actor; with respect to one actor, another is either free or unfree to act in a certain way.However, concrete political situations exhibit such characteristics to different degrees. Just as the substances we encounter in nature have varying degrees of hardness (rather than being either hard or soft), so a given political system is more, or less, totalitarian (or of the Anglo-American or of the pre-industrial type) than another. The United States and Soviet Russia have at present more power than any other country, and both are perhaps about equally powerful. Soldiers in general have less freedom than civilians, but they have more than prisoners. There can (or there cannot) be equal freedom for all.Since we do make such assertions, the question arises whether it is possible to give them precise empirical meaning. To do so, we must replace such categorical concepts as power and freedom by the corresponding comparative concepts, e.g., "more power than," "as much freedom as," and provide operational definitions for these expressions.

In the literature on electoral politics full convergence of policy platforms is usually regarded as socially optimal. Thereason is that risk-averse voters prefer a sure middle-of-the-road policy to a lottery of two extremes with the sameexpectation. In this paper we study the normative implications of convergence in a simple model of electoralcompetition, in which parties are uncertain about voters' preferences. We show that if political parties haveincomplete information about voters' preferences, the voters may prefer some degree of policy divergence. Theintuition is that policy divergence enables voters to correct policies that are based on a wrong perception of theirdesires.

In the literature on electoral politics, full convergence of policy platforms is usually regarded as socially optimal. The reason is that risk-averse voters prefer a sure middle-of-the-road policy to a lottery of two extremes with the same expectation. In this paper, we study the normative implications of convergence in a simple model of electoral competition, in which parties are uncertain about voters' preferences. We show that, if political parties have incomplete information about voters' preferences, the voters may prefer some degree of policy divergence. The intuition is that policy divergence enables voters to correct policies that are based on a wrong perception of their preferences.

In the literature on electoral politics full convergence of policy platforms is usually regarded as socially optimal. The reason is that risk-averse voters prefer a sure middle-of-the-road policy to a lottery of two extremes with the same expectation. In this paper we study the normative implications of convergence in a simple model of electoral competition, in which parties are uncertain about voters' preferences. We show that if political parties have incomplete information about voters' preferences, the voters may prefer some degree of policy divergence. The intuition is that policy divergence enables voters to correct policies that are based on a wrong perception of their desires.