bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Optimum Design of Reinforced Concrete Beams with Large Opening Using Neural Network Algorithm
Authors: Ahmed Inas M.
Published: March 2024

It is quite rare to find researches in the literature connecting neural networks to design challenges in civil engineering, particularly with regard to beam with large openings. Therefore, to ascertain the best cost design for such a beam, an optimization technique is developed, written using MATLAB functions, and verified in this study. Because of the efficiency and dependability of the iterative Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) process, the ACI 318-19 code method is adopted via this algorithm. Using four beam design (decision) variables, which are: beam width b, longitudinal tension reinforcement area As, longitudinal compression reinforcement area A’s, and vertical shear reinforcement area Av; the objective is to minimize the overall beam cost function. The constraints for each of the 60 randomly chosen particles are handled using the self-adaptive penalty function technique, which is applied in all the 100 iterations for each of the four proposed beam design case studies with identical openings. For the developed method, completing all iterations serves as a stopping criterion. Comparative studies are conducted to demonstrate how the compressive strength of concrete and the live load scheme affect the optimal overall beam cost and the associated design variables. The relations between cost of beams and the four design variables, which are presented through graphs and tables, indicate that the beam’s cost is significantly impacted by the loading condition. This is shown by increasing the cost of beam B1, with no sustained live loads, from 722 US dollars to 984 US dollars for beam B4, which has concentrated and distributed sustained live loads. Future research is advised to include modern strengthening techniques for beams with openings, and apply this research to a PSO algorithm with several objectives.
Distribution of Adult Education: The Norwegian Case
Authors: Nordhaug Odd
Published: March 2007

The article reviews and discusses recent Norwegian research on the distribution of public adult education resources in relation to the equality goal of the Norwegian Adult Education Act. During the last ten years considerable effort has been devoted to analyzing various distributions of these resources, primarily through the research program "Consequences of the Adult Education Act." This program was financed by the Norwegian Institute of Adult Education and was partly conducted by the institute and partly by social scientists at the University of Bergen. As parts of the program, social, regional, generational, and sex distributions of adult education were analyzed. Studies of these variables have also been conducted independently of this particular research program. The article primarily deals with research that has been done after 1970 and it should be noted that until then very few studies of adult education had been conducted in Norway.
Transformation Theory and Social Action: A Response to Collard and Law
Authors: Mezirow Jack
Published: March 2007

Collard and Law challenged the validity of my writings about perspective transformation on the grounds that I have underemphasized the importance of collective social action as a goal. Transformation learning theory emphasizes the role of meaning schemes and perspectives habits of expectation which serve as culturally assimilated categories of classification for perception and cognition. These may involve assumptions which are distorted in content, process or premise. They may be transformed by validity testing through critically reflective dialogue. Because distortions and assumptions may be epistemic and psychic as well as socio-cultural, the nature of transformation and appropriate action varies. There are significant mediating factors which impede taking collective social action because of a transformed viewpoint. Learning transformations and social action both can take several forms.
Religion and Politics
Authors: Ebersole Luke
Published: March 2007

The controversy over mixing religion and politics has not kept religion apart from government. Religious groups participate in a wide variety of political activities. But religious groups in the United States are not organized as political parties or political machines. There is a relation between religious affiliation and party affiliation. The correlation, however, does not usually indicate a "religious" vote. In part, the relation reflects socio-economic status. For Catholics and Jews it is very much a result of awareness of minority status. As minority awareness declines, trends in voting change. There is no pattern of voting for or against candidates because of their religion. The importance of religion in a presidential election cannot be assessed on the basis of other elections. The election of a Catholic president would not change the nature of our government, but it would have an effect on American politics.
Foreign Policy and Political Style
Authors: Spiro Herbert J.
Published: March 2007

An explanation of the peculiarities of United States foreign policy must be based upon its systematic descrip tion and comparison. American domestic and international politics have tended toward the pragmatic and, until very re cently, away from the ideological. Even legalism and violence have been pragmatically motivated. This peculiarity cannot be explained by socioeconomic factors like industrialization and urbanization. Social mobility and the American educational system can provide road signs toward a more adequate explana tion, to which three primarily political factors can contribute: the break with time executed by the makers of the American Revolution; the adversary method of pleading of the retained Common Law; and the constitutional environment created by the Founding Fathers. Only in the last decade has American foreign policy moved toward an incongruous ideologism.
Assessing the Effects of Drug Use on Antisocial Behavior
Authors: Tinklenberg Jared R.
Published: March 2007

Nonmedical drug taking and antisocial be havior are both complex, dynamic processes; consequently, the impact of these behaviors on each other is difficult to assess. Among the multiple factors to be considered are the pharmacological properties of the drug, the psychological characteristics of the individual, the social environment, and the various categories of antisocial behavior. Many methodological problems are inherent in research that attempts to define relationships between illicit drug use and antisocial behavior. Sampling problems are common since deviant individuals are generally not used in controlled laboratory studies, whereas field studies often are confined to inherently deviant populations such as prison inmates. Field studies are limited by lack of information about pharmacological variables as well as the difficulty in obtain ing adequate control groups. The extreme forms of antisocial behavior are not amenable to laboratory study. Thus, research on illicit drug use and assaultive or sexual crimes is usually restricted to retrospective field studies which often indicate both forms of deviance present in the same individual. A cause and effect relationship cannot be inferred from retrospective studies; both behaviors often appear to be covariants of the same developmental process.
A National Urban Policy: Some Closing Observations
Authors: Howard John R.
Published: March 2007

This paper reflects the perspective that the initial objective in the formulation of urban policy should be melioration of the condition of the urban black poor. Four major strategies are being considered by the Carter Administration in its effort to formulate a national urban policy. The paper discusses them briefly and then considers the role of urban black leadership in the development of an effective national urban policy.
Racial Transition and Black Homeownership in American Suburbs
Authors: Lake Robert W.
Published: March 2007

Home ownership has traditionally served as an efficient wealth generating mechanism for the American middle class. Recent data indicating an increase in the metropolitan area black population living in the suburbs raise two questions: is black suburbanization equivalent to home ownership, and does black suburban homeownership lead to equity accumulation and the generation of wealth? These questions are addressed through analysis of a national sample of suburban housing units surveyed in 1974, and again in 1975, as part of the Census Bureau's Annual Housing Survey. As of the mid-1970s, black suburbanization has not been entirely synonymous with homeownership nor has homeownership automatically served the wealth generating function for blacks that it has provided for earlier suburbanizing aspirants to the middle class.
African Academics: A Study of Scientists at the Universities of Ibadan and Nairobi
Authors: Eisemon Thomas Owen
Published: March 2007

This paper analyzes how western academic and intellectual traditions are being transformed at two African universities, the University of Ibadan (Nigeria) and the University of Nairobi (Kenya). It is argued that the academic and intellectual culture of these universities must be understood in terms of the accommodation of conflicting influences on African academic life: authority and autonomy; individualism and collectivism, and, finally, cosmopolitanism and specificity. While Ibadan and Nairobi are described as faithful to the traditions of Western universities in many ways, these traditions are influential selectively. Moreover, the academic and intellectual culture of these universities is shown to comprise traditions which are indigeneous and unreconciled with their colonial inheritance.
Chapter 10
Authors: Reiss Albert J.
Published: March 2007

The Social Indicators III report on public safety is, as its predecessor in 1976, largely a report on major crimes against persons and their property and social responses to them, rather than a statistical report on public safety. The view of crime as the overriding concern in public safety is examined. The profile of major crimes against persons as violent and against their property as serious is scrutinized by presenting more detailed statistics on victimization by crime and its consequences included in both Uniform Crime Reporting and the National Crime Survey. Evidence is provided that reporting for major types of crime, such as rape, robbery, burglary, and larceny-theft, masks considerable heterogeneity in seriousness of crime events. A substantial proportion of some crimes that are attempted, rather than completed events, that either result in no material harm to the victim or very little, and that disclose recovery and compensation for loss, all cast doubt upon the view that most crimes against persons are violent and that crimes against persons and property result in substantial physical harm and economic loss. Statistics on crime, unfortunately, do not permit one to relate the cost of one victimization to one economic position, so that just how trivial much crime victimization is remains in doubt. Current statistics likewise do not permit one to calculate one's risk of victimization by crime.
Evidence Supporting Comprehensive Early Childhood Education for Disadvantaged Children
Authors: IRVINE DAVID J. , HORAN MARY D. , FLINT DAVID L. , KUKUK SUSAN E. , HICK THOMAS L.
Published: March 2007

A trend toward providing educational experiences for preschool children has been evident in recent years. The trend raises a number of policy issues. Who should be served? What kinds of programs are most effective? Should preschool programs be administered by the public schools? An evaluation of the New York State Experimental Prekindergarten Program provides evidence of the effectiveness of one early childhood education program in improving performance of disadvantaged children and in increasing the likelihood that effects will persist over time. Major components of the program are an instructional program for 4-year-olds, comprehensive noninstructional services, involvement of parents, and staff development to increase continuity of learning experiences of children from prekindergarten through the primary grades. It was found that (1) prekindergarten favorably affected children's cognitive and noncognitive performance; (2) involvement of parents augmented the favorable impact of prekindergarten; (3) prekindergarten reduced the possibility that a child would repeat a grade or would require special education; and (4) increasing the continuity of learning experiences of children helped maintain the effects of the prekindergarten program in the primary grades. The results indicate that a comprehensive early childhood education program, operated by the public schools, can improve the performance of disadvantaged children.
The Administrative Law Judiciary: Change, Challenge, and Choices
Authors: SKOLER DANIEL L.
Published: March 2007

Over the past 40 years, and concomitant with the enormous expansion of governmental function and regulatory reach, an administrative law judiciary has emerged to assist government agencies with the fact-finding and individual case application needs of their regulatory mission. The legislation, case law, and national conceptions of judicial function that shaped the evolution have worked to render that adjudicative corps less an instrument and aid for executive rulemaking and discretionary exercise and more a court-like forum for final determination of rights and obligations in disputed cases of benefit entitlement, regulatory observance, and legal compliance. Fortunately, the realities of administrative law judge (ALJ) functions have moved in this direction. The vast majority of ALJs, at least at the federal level, are now engaged in dealing with an explosion of benefit and enforcement cases well suited to trial-type resolution of disputes in which government is a contending party. The development, however, brings into question the status of ALJs, almost unique to the United States, as agency employees and as surrogates whose decisions are “correctable” at agency level rather than the final determinations of a “trial judiciary.” Accordingly, it appears that a long list of proposals are ripe for evaluation and implementation.
Divorce and Remarriage at Middle Age and Beyond
Authors: BERARDO DONNA HODGKINS
Published: March 2007

Recent societal trends have led to simpler divorces, a growing acceptance of divorce, greater personal freedom, and increased gainful employment for women, as well as a general weakening of institutional norms. The occurrence of divorce at mid-life brings losses and adjustments. Divorce at older ages causes similar losses and adjustments, as well as others associated with old age. In addition, the elderly experience divorce indirectly through the divorces of their children. Beyond divorce or widowhood, there are problems associated with remarriage that arise from age, previous marital status, sex ratios, geographic residence, and kinship relationships. The success or failure of a second marriage depends on many factors and is affected by a lack of institutionalized norms fitting the situation. As expectations change regarding the permanency of marriage, and as the family adapts to changes in its structure, desirable goals will include the establishment of normative behavior patterns for the transitions from married, to divorced or widowed, to remarried; clarification of roles and relationships; ways of easing role transitions; and help in the preservation of long-term marital relationships.
Mortgage Lending in Older Urban Neighborhoods: Lessons from Past Experience
Authors: SAGALYN LYNNE BEYER
Published: March 2007

At a time when policy initiatives of the Reagan administration are reducing government regulations and relying increasingly on private markets, a look at how home mortgage credit was supplied in areas redlined by institutional lenders offers a historical perspective on how the market works in credit-short neighborhoods. The evidence from Chicago shows that credit was available from professional investors using land installment contracts. But the cost to black homebuyers in these neighborhoods undergoing racial change was remarkably high. Investors realized high returns from race- as well as risk-related factors. Without sacrificing the high investment return, they shifted the lending risk to financial institutions. In effect, these institutions' only recourse was the value of the mortgaged property, the element conventionally considered most uncertain in these neighborhoods. The problems of an imbalance between lending risk and return highlight the importance of the structure of lending incentives as well as the availability of credit in these neighborhoods.
The Cuban Boatlift of 1980: Strategies in Federal Crisis Management
Authors: COPELAND RONALD
Published: March 2007

The Cuban boatlift of 1980 has had considerable implications for public attitudes and official actions toward overall immigration and refugee policy. The flotilla was a political liability for the Carter administration in Florida, and seemed to underscore nationally the administration's image of poor executive leadership. It occurred at a time of extreme difficulty for President Jimmy Carter, corresponding with the failure of the mission to rescue the American hostages in Iran, and with Secretary of State Cyrus Vance's resignation. The chief executive was facing a decisive challenge for the democratic nomination for the presidency from Senator Edward Kennedy and was struggling to keep campaign commitments to balance the federal budget, which antagonized several democratic constituent groups. Nevertheless, the boatlift problem had to be met. While it was a surprise to the American public and to most policymakers in Washington, the Cuban boatlift had been forecast by intelligence agencies three months prior to the arrival of the first boats. It exemplified the federal government's lack of control over the arrival of large numbers of asylum seekers, uninvited and without immigration clearances. However, a close examination of the crisis reveals a number of opportunities that the federal government had to prevent or control the crisis and provides a framework for responding to similar experiences in the future.
Gambling: A Sociological Review
Authors: FREY JAMES H.
Published: March 2007

The study of gambling behavior or of the impact of gambling on social institutions does not have a signficant tradition in sociology. There have been a few attempts to test propositions associated with functionalism, alienation, anomie, and decision making; however, the results of these studies have proven inconclusive. Despite the fact that a large proportion of any society participates in gambling and that gambling is continuing to affect public policy in many jurisdictions, sociologists have not treated gambling as behavior worthy of serious investigation. This article reviews (1) the application of various sociological theories to gambling behavior; and (2) the results of the limited number of research efforts prompted by these perspectives.
Gambling as Play
Authors: SMITH JAMES F. , ABT VICKI
Published: March 2007

Individuals are socialized into a culture by means of various myths and rituals characteristic of that culture. Among the rituals that reflect, articulate, and transmit cultural myths are play and games. Materialism and competition are two distinguishing traits of the American character that are reflected in the games children and adolescents play; and in a world that encourages great expectations while offering diminishing opportunities for fulfillment, the playing of gambling games provides a form of recreation that is a product of and a contributor to prevailing cultural myths. The cultural context of childhood and adolescent socialization is discussed. Within this context, selected games combining chance and skill illustrate ways in which individuals learn to bet. As teacher and mirror of cultural values, such games may actually predispose Americans to gambling behavior, and it is not surprising that commercial gambling among adults has become such a significant social, economic, and cultural issue in contemporary American civilization.
Retaining a Modified Insanity Defense
Authors: MORSE STEPHEN J.
Published: March 2007

The insanity defense must be retained because it is fundamentally just. Some mentally disordered defendants are so irrational at the time of their offenses that they lack the basic preconditions of moral responsibility, and therefore they must be excused. Retaining the insanity defense will not compromise public safety, nor will abolishing it lead to the remedying of associated social problems such as the substandard mental health care in jails and prisons. Nevertheless, there are real problems with the administration of the defense that must be addressed. The substantive tests must be revised, the burden of persuasion should be put on the defendant, the role of experts should be limited, and post-acquittal procedures must be made more rational. Impatience with the practical problems, which can be ameliorated by sensible reforms, should not cause society to abandon a basically fair doctrine.
The Curious Path of Conservative Protestantism
Authors: HAMMOND PHILLIP E.
Published: March 2007

The effective origins of contemporary conservative Protestantism are found in the early nineteenth century, when an evangelicalism emerged and so influenced that century. This outlook, both theological and moral, dominated until after the Civil War, when forces of immigration, urbanization, and education severely challenged at least the theological domination. By early in the twentieth century, therefore, Protestantism had split into two factions: a liberal wing that, by accommodating theologically to those forces of modernity, remained dominant, and a conservative wing that seemed, by the 1920s, to have submerged from public life. To understand not only the resurgence of conservative Protestantism but also its unusual political turn, therefore, requires consideration of moral—not just theological—factors peculiar to America since the 1960s.
Traders, Crusaders, and Cruise Missiles: Soviet Foreign Policy toward the Low Countries
Authors: LÖWENHARDT JOHN
Published: March 2007

In Soviet foreign policy, the Low Countries—Belgium and the Netherlands—seem to occupy a position symbolized by their name. Yet, in the past decade, Soviet diplomacy has scored a number of successes: by 1985 the cohesion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization seemed threatened by the recurrent non-decision-making of Belgian and Dutch governments on the issue of intermediate-range nuclear forces; in Belgium the Soviets have succeeded in establishing a valuable Soviet-controlled infrastructure; and the Dutch position on the European gas market is undercut by Siberian gas. These benefits have been reached at minimal cost to the USSR. This discrepancy calls for an explanation that goes beyond simple formulas and delves into Dutch and Belgian political cultures, in which neutralism and Atlanticism are constant but uneasy bedfellows.
A Review of Research on the Insanity Defense
Authors: PASEWARK RICHARD A.
Published: March 2007

Since the attempted assassination of President Reagan by John Hinckley, Jr., avid attention has again focused upon the supposed deficiencies and abuses of the insanity plea, and the nation has witnessed many attempts in various jurisdictions either to alter or to abolish the plea. Unfortunately, these efforts have been conducted within a context where little empirical data on the operation of the plea is available to guide policymakers. The present article represents an effort to summarize the information that is currently available concerning the frequency with which the plea is made, the characteristics of defendants involved, and the subsequent psychiatric and criminal histories of these individuals.
The Eagle and the Bear in Angola
Authors: BENDER GERALD J.
Published: March 2007

The United States and the Soviet Union have supported opposing sides in Angola for more than a quarter of a century. Both superpowers have been stymied by their lack of control over their respective Angolan allies and frustrated by their lack of impact on determining events. Each of the superpowers has also been an unreliable patron for their Angolan clients. One important result is that, not surprisingly, most Angolans—no matter what side they are on—are highly skeptical and cynical about both the United States and the Soviet Union. While superpower intervention is usually justified in ideological terms, few Angolans are fighting for, let alone familiar with, any ideology. The war in Angola is hopelessly stalemated; neither side can possibly defeat the other and there seems to be no prospect for a military solution. Thus it becomes increasingly clear that only a political solution can end the war, but neither superpower is posturing for peace or seriously pursuing political solutions.
A Promising Future: The Fulbright Program with the USSR
Authors: JAMES WILLIAM A.
Published: March 2007

This article offers a brief overview of the Fulbright program with the USSR by looking at the context in which this exchange of lecturers developed, its purpose, its achievements, some of the current critical issues facing it, and possible directions for future progress. Since its establishment during the 1973-74 academic year, this exchange has grown in size, range of academic disciplines, and geographic dispersion in the USSR. From the outset, this exchange has been a beneficiary of good U.S.-Soviet relations. Its current vigorous condition and future development are also dependent on these relations.
Does Jobless Mean Workless? Unemployment and Informal Work
Authors: PAHL RAYMOND E.
Published: March 2007

The spate of interest in informal work in recent years may be related to the hope that such work provides a safety net or survival strategy for those who would otherwise be seriously disadvantaged. Closer examination of this notion requires the disaggregation of informal work into its different forms and also the disaggregation of the unemployed into distinctive categories. The so-called new unemployed people, produced by the economic circumstances of the last decade, have no tradition of working informally to get by. Indeed, most evidence suggests that those in employment are best placed to do other forms of work as well. A detailed sociological study of the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, England, illustrates both divisions in participation in forms of work between men and women and also a process of polarization between work-rich households, with multiple earners engaging in all forms of work, and work-poor households, typically headed by elderly people, single parents, or unemployed people. The social polarization is likely to increase. The article concludes that jobless indeed means workless.
Yesterday's Arms Control Will Not Prevent Nuclear War
Authors: KUPPERMAN ROBERT H. , OPSTAL DEBRA VAN
Published: March 2007

Even as prospects for direct U.S.-Soviet confrontation have decreased, the potential for international collision almost everywhere else is on the rise. Although arms control remains an important long-term issue in superpower relations, the United States and Soviet Union face a more imminent danger of unwanted nuclear escalation through the actions of unstable, unpredictable, and well-armed states in the Third World. This suggests that a better U.S. policy balance must be struck between central strategic threats, to which U.S. resources and attention have been devoted for forty years, and regional conflicts, for which there is a notable lack of contingency planning and a growing record of U.S. failure.
Peace Studies at the Graduate Level
Authors: DUGAN MAIRE A.
Published: March 2007

This article traces the development of peace studies on the graduate level, briefly expanding on three types of programs that have emerged: conflict-resolution programs, programs in schools of education to train teachers, and traditional scholarly academic programs. Information on structural supports for graduate peace studies programs is provided. The author concludes by presenting two recommendations on the future development of graduate peace studies: greater emphasis on peace itself and the fuller incorporation of an action component into programs.
Obstacles to Economic Reform of Socialism: A Property-Rights Approach
Authors: WINIECKI JAN
Published: March 2007

This article sketches briefly an answer to the question of why economic reforms fail under the Soviet-type system in spite of the obvious interest of the respective ruling groups in improving the performance of their ailing economies. The author, applying a property-rights approach, points to the fact that all segments of the ruling stratum benefit from maintaining an undemocratic political system, but party apparatchiks and economic bureaucrats benefit also from the persistent interference in the patently inefficient economic system. Therefore they are most interested in maintaining the status quo in the economic system as well. Moreover, since the rulers turn to them for the design and implementation of reforms, their chances for preventing, distorting, and/or aborting reforms are all the greater.
The Past and Future Directions of Federal Bilingual-Education Policy
Authors: LYONS JAMES J.
Published: March 2007

Although initially conceived as an enrichment program, the 1968 federal Bilingual Education Act had been recast into a compensatory education program by the time it was signed into law. Federal civil rights policies respecting language-minority students reinforced the compensatory character of bilingual education in the 1970s by focusing on the so-called deficiencies of language-minority students. In 1980, the Carter administration proposed new civil rights regulations to protect language-minority students. The regulations ignited a political fire storm. The Reagan administration seized upon the political controversy to relax civil rights enforcement and to slash Bilingual Education Act spending. In 1984, Congress expanded the Bilingual Education Act to authorize developmental bilingual-education programs—integrated, two-way programs that help language-minority and English-language-background students achieve bilingualism in English and a second language. With additional federal support, developmental bilingual-education programs could help millions of American students achieve the linguistic skills they will need in the next century.
Qualified Public Support for Bilingual Education: Some Policy Implications
Authors: HUDDY LEONIE , SEARS DAVID O.
Published: March 2007

Bilingual education has become politicized. It is surrounded by controversy, the outcome of which may play a greater role in deciding its future as an educational program than its educational successes. To better understand this political debate and its possible outcome, the present article examines attitudes toward bilingual education among the Anglo majority, in terms of general support levels, the origins of support, and its future trajectory. We find that currently the majority feels moderately positive toward bilingual education. Opposition is greatest among those who have generally negative attitudes toward minority groups and immigrants and who oppose special favors for them and among those who oppose increased government spending and spending on foreign-language instruction. Anglos' actual personal experience with bilingual education plays only a minor role. Opposition is greater among the well informed, suggesting that opposition may increase further as the issue attains greater national visibility. Opposition is also likely to increase if bilingual education is presented as promoting linguistic and cultural maintenance among language-minority students rather than as a mechanism for teaching English.
Introduction
Authors: HEISLER MARTIN O.
Published: March 2007

The Nordic region is commonly seen to consist of five stable, affluent welfare states, with small and homogeneous populations. Free of war for fifty years, with some of its states neutral, it may seem outside the mainstream of world politics. Yet Finland, by its own efforts and with the tacit collaboration of its Scandinavian neighbors, has maximized its freedom from the influence of its Soviet neighbor, and the three states that are members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have similarly managed to “do it their way.” Norway adjoins the Soviet Union's heavily armed Kola Peninsula; it is managing several difficult relationships with that country; and, like Finland and Sweden, it pays considerable attention to military security. The region's seas are vital for Soviet and American interests. The area is also a nexus for major environmental and resource regimes, and it has offshore oil and gas resources. The uncertainties confronting the region and its states in foreign policy and security, international economic relations, and the workings of ongoing and potential ventures in international cooperation hold many challenges and opportunities.
Form Follows Function: The Evolution of Feminist Strategies
Authors: BOLES JANET K.
Published: March 2007

The contemporary feminist movement that emerged in the mid-1960s had dual origins: liberal women's rights organizations that pursued legislative and judicial reforms, and a radical movement based in numerous small local groups. Over the past 25 years, both movements have been transformed in ways that reflect and complement American federalism. In order to influence legislative policy-making that dominates on the national and state levels, women's rights groups have become professionalized interest group lobbies and have formed policy networks that pursue diverse agendas. Because urban politics are uniquely bureaucratic politics, local feminists currently act through issue-specific women's policy networks composed of advocacy groups, women-run alternative services, and urban bureaucracies responsible for funding, delivering, or regulating programs that meet the special needs of women.
Evolution of a Dual Negotiation Process: Afghanistan
Authors: BOKHARI IMTIAZ H.
Published: March 2007

The negotiations in Afghanistan following the introduction of Soviet troops during a military coup in 1978 were pursued along two tracks. The first consisted of sporadic negotiations between the Soviet-supported Afghan government and several mujahidin resistance groups. To date, these talks have not reached fruition. The second track consisted of negotiations officially conducted between Pakistan and Afghanistan, but in reality between the United States and the Soviet Union over the withdrawal of Soviet troops. The negotiations were conducted in Geneva and in the region over a seven-year period under U.N. mediation. The result was the Geneva Accord of 14 April 1988; the agreement provided for the withdrawal of Soviet troops and the termination of arms supplies by the United States and the Soviet Union, which was dependent upon both sides' observation. The success in the international negotiations can be attributed to the existence of a ripe moment and the skill of the U.N. mediation, neither of which elements are present in the internal negotiations.
A Quasi Certainty: Europtimism
Authors: GODET MICHEL
Published: March 2007

This article is divided into three parts. First, a quasi certainty, Europtimism, is identified. Second, 11 probable trends in the national and international environments of the 1990s are noted. Finally, three major uncertainties are discussed.
National Bank of Greenwood
Authors: ORLANS HAROLD
Published: March 2007

The affirmative action plan, employment records, and personnel practices of the National Bank of Greenwood, employing 138 persons in the Indiana town of 20,000, were subjected to a grueling inspection by Labor Department staff for more than two years starting in 1979. The staff changed frequently, repeatedly demanded more and different information, and then rejected what it had demanded. “We feel,” the bank president said, “that... [the Labor Department] has taken over... [our] personnel function.” Such ordeals have often occurred, especially when contractors were developing personnel records to meet the complex and often unrealistic government affirmative action requirements. Setting aside the manifest incompetence and unreasonableness of Labor staff, the experience reflected the conflicting goals of bank and Labor officials. The bank sought to treat all applicants and employees fairly; Labor, to increase the number of women and minority employees, especially in better-paid jobs.
State Islam and Communal Plurality
Authors: AYUBI NAZIH N.
Published: March 2007

The historical Islamic state developed interesting methods of quasi-consociational and semi-corporatist aggregation of communities. From quite early on, Sunnism became the religion of the ruling elite and of the state as well as part of the state's legal and cultural system. Subsequently, the geographical distribution and the political economy of the Islamic sects and of the religious minorities manifested quite distinct features that were mainly a function of their relationship to the state. Whereas the Islamic sects did not come to terms ideologically and organizationally with the state, the religious minorities, on the whole, adjusted themselves mentally and behaviorally to its requirements. By comparison, the contemporary Middle Eastern state, both the secular and the Islamic, is achieving less success in dealing with its communal problem. Certain groups are excluded in the former type in spite of the secularist slogans, and certain groups are excluded in the latter because of the ideological or religious nature of the state. Improvisation is needed, and Muslim statesmen and intellectuals may need to go beyond, and even outside, conventional Islamic jurisprudence in order to deal with this issue.
The Clergy's Concepts of Rule in Egypt and Iran
Authors: AKHAVI SHAHROUGH
Published: March 2007

In the wake of the current cycle of Islamic resurgence, which began at the time of the June 1967 Arab-Israeli war, the question of rule has been at the center of clerical discourse. This article analyzes this question in the debates of the Egyptian and Iranian ` ulama'. While they agree upon the perception of Islam as both religion and state and upon the need to base public law upon the shari`a (the holy law of Islam), they differ on the role of secular rulers, the relevance of jihad, identifying apostates, calling for rebellion, authorizing the ` ulama' to rule society, and endowing Islamic states with extraordinary powers. The debate will continue to focus on these issues in the future, as Islamic groups press the case for full implementation of the shari`a in all areas of life, not only in Egypt and Iran but in all Muslim societies.
Greenpeace U.S.A.: Something Old, New, Borrowed
Authors: SHAIKO RONALD G.
Published: March 2007

Greenpeace U.S.A. is unique among environmental organizations in the United States. While it is one of the wealthiest and largest membership groups in the environmental movement, its organization and political strategies are quite different from those employed by the more mainstream groups such as the Sierra Club or the National Wildlife Federation. Its status as a new social movement is evaluated on four dimensions: ideology, motivations to participate, organizational structure, and political structure. Greenpeace U.S.A. exhibits characteristics of both new and old social movements and is thus classified as an organizational hybrid. Today, the organization struggles with several challenges. In two decades, it has grown to become part of the largest worldwide environmental network. Greenpeace U.S.A. must decide on the proper mix of old and new methods to continue its mission into the next century.
Rebuilding Rural America: The Southern Development Bancorporation
Authors: KELLEY BRIAN
Published: March 2007

The Southern Development Bancorporation is a development bank based in rural Arkansas. The term “bank” is in some sense a misnomer; Southern is actually a collection of five development companies, for-profit and nonprofit, only one of which is a regulated bank. The other four groups are a venture capital fund, a real estate development corporation, a self-employment microenterprise program, and a manufacturing services program. Founded in 1988, Southern delivers a range of financial and nonfinancial assistance to rural companies with the intent of expanding local firms and thus creating jobs and an improved economic base for the region. Since 1988, Southern has lent or invested $19 million in 150 firms in a 32-county region of rural Arkansas. This article examines Southern's present activity, how it is working to achieve its goals, and what insights it has gained to date in the challenging task of developing the rural economy.
State and Local Policy on the Study of World Languages
Authors: PHILLIPS JUNE K.
Published: March 2007

State policies that impinge upon the study of foreign languages have been largely the domain of educational agencies. These policies frequently respond to events with little thought to necessary supportive relationships. Thus we now see a spate of mandates for programs in elementary schools with no policy for the preparation of teachers for those grades. We see rationales built upon global competition and a response of two years of study for less than an hour a day. In addition, foreign language planning is often the indirect result of larger, more general policies. In recent years, foreign language study has been mandated as part of policies aimed at higher college admission standards, for desegregation purposes, or for international development. None of these address the realistic potential or the value foreign language study might contribute.
Two Paradigms of Negotiation: Bargaining and Problem Solving
Authors: HOPMANN P. TERRENCE
Published: March 2007

The development of negotiation theory over recent decades has been organized around two major paradigms: bargaining and problem solving. For the bargaining paradigm, indicators of flexibility include concession rates, initiation of new proposals, and other soft behaviors. For the problem-solving perspective, flexibility is usually indicated by a search for better, mutually beneficial solutions to problems that satisfy the needs, identities, and interests of all parties. Empirical research generally reveals that bargaining behaviors are used more frequently in international negotiations than is problem solving. This may be explained by the dominance of the realist paradigm of international relations, within which most diplomats are socialized. Since diplomats generally construct their image of negotiations in terms of bargaining, it is hardly surprising that these behaviors should be prevalent in actual negotiations. In addition, empirical research methods utilized to study negotiations tend to emphasize bargaining variables, and more subtle problem-solving behaviors are more difficult to detect. The empirical prevalence of bargaining, however, does not imply that it is the best method to induce flexibility in international negotiations. On the contrary, most research tends to reveal that problem solving produces greater flexibility and more frequent, efficient, equitable, and durable agreements than bargaining does.
Toward a Principled Basis for Federal Criminal Legislation
Authors: ZIMRING FRANKLIN E. , HAWKINS GORDON
Published: March 2007

This article argues for principles governing the creation of federal crimes. It first profiles the offenses that compose the major elements of federal criminal jurisdiction in current circumstances and then discusses the need for jurisdictional principles, using the history of recent federal criminal legislation as a case study. Against this background, the article puts forward a set of guiding principles for the selection of appropriate crimes for inclusion in a limited federal criminal code. When we compare the principles available to govern federal criminal jurisdiction with the current pattern of federal versus state criminal justice activity, the result is that no set of principles matches the current reach of the federal criminal code. Requiring both federal interest and some distinctive federal stake in the subject of criminal legislation would substantially reduce the number of federal crimes. The authors' preference would be for the narrower principles combined with the expectation that legislators will not infrequently cheat on the requirement of a distinctive federal stake when constituent pressures are great. A principled standard is valuable even if it is sometimes honored in the breach.
Computers Don't Kill Jobs, People Do: Technology and Power in the Workplace
Authors: RICHARDSON CHARLEY
Published: March 2007

New technologies are increasingly common in America's workplaces. The pace of technological change can be expected to increase in the future. The impacts of technological change include job loss, changes in skills, and health and safety effects, among others. These are of great importance to the workforce. From a social policy perspective, however, the most important impact of technological change is its effect on the power relationships between workers and managers in the workplace. Many of the traditional sources of union or worker power or leverage are undermined as new technologies are designed, developed, and implemented. Effective technology policy needs to go beyond dealing with the symptoms of technological change to taking on the core issue, which is precisely the loss of power that the workforce experiences.
And Deliver Us from Segmentation
Authors: KATZ ELIHU
Published: March 2007

With the rapid multiplication of channels, television has all but ceased to function as a shared public space. Except for occasional media events, the nation no longer gathers together. Unlike the replacement of radio by television as radio underwent a similar process of segmentation, there is no new medium in the wings to replace television that is likely to promote national political integration. No less than in the United States, the governments of Europe—once proud of their public broadcasting systems—are bowing to the combined constraints of the new media technology, the new liberal mood, the economic and political burden of public broadcasting, and the seductions of multinational corporations. Thus is mass democracy deprived of its last common meeting ground, and, if theories of technological determinism are applicable, the cohesion of the nation-state itself is in jeopardy. The case of Israeli broadcasting—now in the throes of this paradigm change—is presented in illustration.
Say it with Pictures
Authors: GRABER DORIS A.
Published: March 2007

The visual information presented in televised news constitutes an important underused and underestimated information resource. After pointing out that human brains extract valuable information from audiovisuals more quickly and more easily than from purely verbal information, the author discusses the advantages of audiovisual processing. They include a more comprehensive and error-free grasp of information, better recall, and greater emotional involvement. Attention then turns to research findings about the content and format of current television news. It is richer than generally believed in significant visually conveyed information that is not covered by the words. It falls far short, however, of taking full advantage of the medium's potential to serve as a vicarious political experience and to offer benefit from the intimacy of the involvement. The article ends with a plea to focus television news on information that citizens in the post-Gutenberg era really need to know in order to carry out the civic functions that they actually perform.