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Science should be distinguished from scientism, which emphasizes science as the only way to grasp the truth. This claim is based on a metaphysical belief. This article describes the main characteristics and shortcomings of science and interprets the meaning of science within the framework of scientism. According to scientism, rationality inherent to science should extend to all areas of human rationality. Scientism considers beliefs and religion irrational and harmful, while metaphysics is seen as pointless. Scientism gets caught up in logical contradictions, but does not relinquish its claims. Since scientism cannot be scientifically justified and is logically inconsistent, it can be considered a type of ideology.
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The Likert scale is commonly used in survey research using primary and secondary data to measure the respondent attitude by asking insofar to which they agree or disagree with a particular questions. In generals, Likert scale would be preferred in the questionnaire development stage to ascertain the researchers conducting their research needed. However, the researchers nowadays are abuse to understand the nature of measurement scale in data analysis and thus causes the finding obtained are meaningless. This article is aimed to compare the performance of two categories of measurement scales which are 5 point and 10 points of Likert scales using the same sample size and research subject that would pave the way to understand the real different between both of these ranges using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Moreover, this study also interested to clarify briefly between two types of measurement scale namely ordinal and interval data. The findings reveal that 10 points of Likert scale is more efficient than 5 points of Likert scale in operating of measurement model.
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WiMAX(IEEE 802.16)technology empowers ubiquitous delivery of wireless broadband facility for fixed and mobile users. WiMAX standard describes numerous physical and MAC layer characteristics. Here, an attempt is made to implement some of these physical and MAC layer structures including the mobility extension 802.16e. NS2 (Network Simulator -2) is chosen as the simulator to implement these features as NS2 provides suitable library to simulate network scenario. The performance of the simulated module is analyzed by running AODV, DSDV and AOMDV routing protocols on a wired - cum - wireless WiMAX scenario. The throughput for each routing protocol is calculated for varying number of mobile nodes or subscriber stations.
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Can foreign direct investment (FDI) promote growth in Africa? What does the inflow of investment hold for African emerging economies? Are the determinants of FDI different for different regional blocs in Africa? This study reviews the implication of FDI for different regional blocs in Africa. FDI was found to have a significant effect on growth in North Africa but had no significant effect in East, Southern and West Africa. FDI was also found not to be driving growth in the whole of Africa in a significant manner. The implications of the findings are that even though trade openness seems to be a major factor driving FDI. Poor domestic markets were still preventing many African economies from taking full advantage of the gains from foreign direct investment. The study results could be useful to scholars who study the dynamics surrounding FDI disbursement and strategies on how FDI can drive growth in developing countries.
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With the theme of importance of human values in contemporary organizations staff this article has two parts: the theoretical and practical part. The first part presented the concept of human values knowledge. In part two of the article we made of an office research based on the analysis of secondary sources. An analysis approached from two perspectives: at the European level and at national level. The assumption behind this article is that human values are essential in the workplace.. Data was retrieved and processed in Excel, and SPSS. In order to test research hypotheses correlation was used. To support the argument we used a series of tables and representative images. The conclusions of this analysis show that the Romanian and European respondents consider important the following human values: creativity and freedom of decision.
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We intend to analyze the opinion of the population about the health status of the individuals from 20 European countries. The self assessed health ( SAH ) data are associated to an ordinal variable X. Our final aim is to establish the position of Romania in this European context from the health status point of view. The statistical analysis is based on more complementary indices. The mean of X is generally not adequate as an indicator for this type of data. Our study used also two other indicators which are specific for ordinal variables. So, in the present research it was applied a polarization index POA and also an inequality Gini coefficient IGO adapted for SAH data. Comparisons of all these results are also made.
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Political populism is increasingly becoming the topic of important and controversial debates in the area of politics and communication. Some see it as a strategy of governing communication relations, while other authors consider it as a political strategy of the Right wing politicians for spreading nationalistic ideas, fear and threats. Keeping in mind different approaches and perspectives on the concept of political populism, the author will prevailingly deal with the role of media in promoting populist ideas and messages. Politic populism is also seen and investigated in the context of techniques of political marketing. The research aspect of the paper will analyze known populists in Europe and world in order to determine key mainstream communication instruments of political populism.
More...Temeljne odrednice predizborne retorike predsjedničkoga kandidata Ivana Vilibora Sinčića
In the last few years, the term populism has been frequently used in the Croatian public life, primarily with negative connotations. Unlike the countries with long democratic traditions, domestic research projects related to this topic are still in its infancy. Due to differences in research approaches, there is no universally accepted definition of this term. Consequently, populism is simultaneously considered a form of political style and ideology. Within this theoretical framework, this paper aims to determine the main features of the political rhetoric used by the presidential candidate Ivan Vilibor Sinčić, whom media often labelled as “populist” during the 2014/15 pre-election campaign. We analysed all the articles related to the presidential candidate Sinčić published by Jutarnji list and Večernji list newspapers during the pre-election campaign and three days after the elections (December 9th – December 12th 2014) as well as the rhetoric he used in the presidential election debates broadcast by three national TV stations during the period mentioned.
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Ever since political life in Bosnia and Herzegovina became more liberal, ideological polarization has been high. Even the war did not manage to resolve this issue. Ideological clashes caused Bosnia and Herzegovina to lack consolidation and transformation processes to lag behind. High ideological polarization prevents integrative political action and is a feature of inefficient democracies. Bosnia and Herzegovina is changing very slowly while ideological clashes are becoming more complex. The imposed constitutional organization of the country has not been recognized as just or adequate. As such, it is an insurmountable obstacle to the political system support, without which Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot exist. This way, the European outer zone remains unchanged. What should be changed? Firstly, Bosnia and Herzegovina should begin the process of integration and become a member of the EU. Only Europe can provide incentive to this perspective by accelerating negotiations. However, clear signs of the crisis of values are beginning to show in Europe due to the migrant crisis and Schengen regime. If European institutions continue to weaken, it will affect the international order and efforts to make Bosnia and Herzegovina an integrated country.
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Cultures that consciously cherish oblivion of collective memory neccesarily end up in (self)victimisation and victimo transgresional narratives and politics. Following a „culture of selective recollection“ one does not only end in „civil memory wars“, but in armed conflicts as well. Be it individual or collective, memory is a very complex psycho-sociological procces not having in mind utter completeness. It is, on the contrary, always founded on a more or less „rigid choice“. Therefore „the culture of oblivion“ is a counterpart of „culture of recollection“. None the less, the following rule applies: the more the political culture is an expression of prepolitical states or transitional traumas, the more important function do myths have. „Mental images become icons“, stories become myths that separate hystorical experience from concrete conditions of its emergence and transform it into timeless tales. Because of this reason, all nationalisms in BiH (and in surrounding countries) are so little interested in so called synthetic memory, for the cosmpolitization of identity and ambients through trans-national pulsations and networking. and networking. Yet, it is time to stop with unitarian idle tales about BiH or with lies that BiH has, entering UN, become a „political community“. It is also time for the secessionist dreams about a „state inside a state“ to end and start working on a project of a civilised political community in BiH, respecting all identities, inclusive attitudes as co-nations. One other presupposition for a political community in BiH is devictimisation, so the procceses of cosmopolitization of identities and ambients can begin. This project is, of course, founded on the political culture of consensus. In that manner this is a direct plead for „composite integrality“ in BiH. In a world we still need to fight for, every cultural, political or jurisdictional violence would of course be unacceptable, whether they came from a secessionistic or a unitaristic side. In these coordinates is this plead for devictimisation and synthetic memory set.
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The value of memory and collective identity in the process of realizing and forming a political community was known from antic times until the development of the idea about national sovereignty. French historian Jules Michelet highlighted the need of forming a history for a nation. Recollection and historiography supplement each other and history as such has its purpose when its interpretation communicates with the present. Memories fulfil their function in forming and shaping collective and common identity. Historic recollection is used in politics of differentiation through constructing a political fight for legitimizing its own and delegitimizing the opposite position. Conflicts concerning the ways of memorizing cause social divisions in which identities are formed. Language is a part of identity and it enables its users to remain in touch their own history and cultural heritage. Linguistic homogenization is a natural attribute of a nation and a prerequisite for it. Using a national language is a part of the definition of belonging to a nation. Unified language depends on the development of standard language through education, general literacy and the availability of print media. National language is a construct, so the political elite supervises standardization and its planning through institutions, educational system and the action of political elites. The research question will be dealing with the definition and construction of national identity. What is the function of recollection in building identity and forming solidarity which stems out of mutual national affiliation?
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Joining the NATO and EU is the strategic goal of Bosnian-Herzegovinian foreign policy. Taking this fact into account, it is difficult to understand why Bosnian unitary political elite completely ignores the Resolution of the EU Parliament adopted on February 6th 2014 which, among other things, condemns any endeavour to make Bosnia and Herzegovina a unitary state as well as separatism. Due to centralism and separatism, the integrity, stability and functionality of Bosnia and Herzegovina are compromised. The resolution was sent to the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Council of Ministers, the Parliaments of the Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the governments of these two entities. By deliberately suppressing and disregarding the Resolution which was adopted with 468 votes, while 80 MPs were against and 35 abstained, and the recommendations of the EU Council of Ministers on the progress of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosniak leaders demonstrate “political blindness” and determination to make Bosnia and Herzegovina a unitary state. It is interesting to note that the Bosnian elite only mentions parts of the Resolution when they are forced to do so, or when it suits them. In addition, the EU Parliament supports the six items of the Agreement reached in Brussels in 2013, condemns centralists’ obstruction as well as any sort of separatism and emphasizes the principle of federalism and legitimate representation in order to ensure Bosnia and Herzegovina’s smooth integration into the EU. Thus, it is not surprising that the Declaration of the Croatian Parliament, which is based on the above-mentioned Resolution of the EU Parliament but which would be difficult to adopt in the circumstances, was not welcomed. Croats were once again accused of trying to disintegrate the country. It is interesting that numerous media in Sarajevo have supported the unitary manipulations. Even the public broadcasters have made only a brief mention of the Resolution. The author examines this phenomenon, points out the consequences, analyses the attitudes of scientists to federalism, unitary state and nation and warns that a similar problem occurred during the Independence Referendum in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992, when the Croatian issue was ignored. Nevertheless, a large number of Croats voted for independent and sovereign Bosnia and Herzegovina in the referendum.
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Switzerland is the cradle of disperse political power integrated into one political system and therefore is an example of mere contrariety to the classical Westminster model of democracy.The organization of political power is designed as an encouragement for the coexistence of different social units, with basic principles that reside on the adapted election of institutional mechanisms, but with informal arrangement conceptually adequate for heterogeneous and unstable societies. Switzerland is an example of a framework and a starting point where the majority and the minority have no significance at all, while the key mechanism for the political system´s stabilization is the non-competitive rule of conflict solving within different pluralities. The construction of political institutions and the political system is conceptualized in a way that every important representative of social groups participate in the political decision making process, especially on the level of executive power. Both federalism and the elements of consociational and direct democracy are represented within this special structural concept.
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The article outlines the history of Polish culture, underlining its borderland nature, while also showing the thematic connection occurring between the essays that follow it. It invokes a variety of examples of artists to whom an adjective „Polish” does not quite fit, although the language of their work was the Polish language. It indicates „borderlandness” as a typical Polish trait.
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The paper deals with the problem of using different languages of writing in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 15th–17th centuries. Among them there were: Latin, Polish, Ruthenian, Church-Slavonic, Lithuanian, German, Yiddish, Hebrew, Arabic and Greek, written in five alphabets: Latin, Cyryllic, Hebrew, Arabic and Greek. The author noticed that this multi-lingualism and multi-alphabeticism was omitted in Polish studies about history of literature of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He argues that including these two issues in the studies on the Commonwealth’s history is crucial to better understand the muli-cultural and multi-ethnic character of this country. One of the main questions of the paper is about the relationship between a script and an identity. The author notices that comparative approach can be especially productive in such research. He enlists similar borderline processes in use of writing in medieval and early modern England, Sicily, Malta, Cyprus, Venice, Dubrovnik, Moldova and Andalusia. It is illustrated by a few cases of use of the Cyryllic, Latin and Arabic alphabets. The author draws a comparison between the 16th-century literary languages of Spanish Moriscos and Lithuanian Tatars. Both these languages were based on the written version of a vernacular language (Romance and Byelorussian) in the Arabic alphabet.
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Are consumers in high-income countries complicit in labor exploitation when they buy good produced in sweatshops? To focus attention we consider cases of labor exploitation such as those of exposing workers to very high risks of irreversible diseases, for instance, by failing to provide adequate safety equipment. If I purchase a product made under such conditions, what is my part in this exploitation? Is my contribution one of complicity that is blameworthy? If so, what ought I to do about such participation? I address these questions at first by applying a comprehensive account recently offered by Chiara Lepora and Robert Goodin, and analyzing the results in light of some important empirical issues.
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This paper clarifies some of the contested ideas put forward by John Stuart Mill by analyzing the reasons and arguments Mill used to support them and demonstrating how these ideas and arguments supporting them are connected into a coherent system. Mill’s theory is placed in wider explanatory framework of democratic legitimacy developed by Thomas Christiano, and is portrayed as a typical example of democratic instrumentalism—a monistic position that focuses on the outcomes and results of a decision-making process. Following this move, the focus is shifted on the understanding of political equality in Mill’s political thought. I claim that, contrary to some contemporary interpretations, Mill’s theory is based on a few fundamentally inegalitarian ideas. Finally, Mill’s view on the role of experts in democratic decision-making is analyzed and compared with contemporary theories advocating democratic expertism—Mill’s view is again portrayed as inegalitarian, both to the extent of setting political aims and creating methods for achieving these aims.
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The author reviews the pioneering work of Mindaugas Kvietkauskas dedicated to multilingual literature, which was created in Vilnius at the beginning of the 20th century. The book of the Lithuanian historian of literature emphasises multicultural and multi-ethnical trait of the early literary modernism in Vilnius that was created in five different languages: Lithuanian, Polish, Yiddish, Belarussian and Russian. It proves that what is the most interesting in the multilingual cultural environment takes place at the crossroads of apparently looking inwards and isolated worlds of different language and different literature.
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The review describes the anthology Žemaičių šlovė – Sława Żmudzinów. Antologia dwujęzycznej poezji litewsko-polskiej z lat 1794–1830 (Kraków 2012) in edition of P. Bukowiec as a selection of bilingual Lithuanian literature in wider aspect of culture changes in 1794–1830 on Samogitian-Lithuanian land of Russian Empire province.
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