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Topic Review
Digital Government
Digital Government (DG) may be treated as an umbrella concept, and engaged rhetoric may respond to different government priorities. DG does not have one settled definition; extracting the “perfect” one emerges as a scientific activity on its own, and circulating definitions vary in terms of scope—from information supply to e-democracy; subject—from citizens to all public stakeholders; and technology family—from personal computers to the Internet. To make things even more complicated, DG is also called by various synonyms or near synonyms, such as “electronic government,” “electronic governance,” “transformational government,” and others. In our paper, we stick with the “digital government” label and study its relations with governance. A clarification for readers not familiar with this nomenclature: DG does not refer to a “digital” variant of “normal” government; it is rather about the use of digital technologies by government. What is more, a distinction between “government” and “governance” should be made: governance is a multi-stakeholder process and government at any level can be a stakeholder in this process.
  • 1.7K
  • 29 Dec 2021
Topic Review
Conservative Democracy
Conservative democracy (Turkish: muhafazakâr demokrasi) is a label coined by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Turkey to describe Islamic democracy. Forming as a modernist breakaway party from former Islamist movements, the AKP's conservative democratic ideology has been described as a departure from or moderation of Islamic democracy and the endorsement of more secular and democratic values. The electoral success and the neo-Ottoman foreign policy of the AKP that aims to broaden Turkey's regional influence has led to the party's conservative democratic ideals to be mirrored in other countries, such as by the Justice and Development Party in Morocco and the Ennahda Movement in Tunisia. In its broadest sense, the term conservative democracy highlights the compatibility of Islam with democracy, a Western-oriented foreign policy, neoliberal economics and secularism within government. Since the view has been reflected in several economic, foreign, domestic and social policy initiatives, the term conservative democracy has been referred to as a floating signifier that encompasses a broad coalition of ideas. In contrast, and because of its broad definition, the term has also been accused of being a red herring designed to conceal a hidden Islamist agenda but maintain public support. The main ideals of conservative democracy are best identified when they are compared to the Islamist ideology advocated by the AKP's preceding parties. A substantial contrast between the two exist, for example, on their position regarding the European Union, Israel, the United States , economic policy, and to a lesser extent social policy.
  • 1.7K
  • 31 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Inequalities and Power in Digital Agriculture
There are several patterns of inequalities linked to the development and adoption of digital technologies in agriculture that can be observed across the globe: (1) in digital technology development; (2) in the distribution of benefits from the use of digital technologies; (3) in sovereignty over data, hardware and digital infrastructure; (4) in skills and knowledge (‘digital literacy’); and (5) in problem definition and problem-solving capacities. The existing inequalities are structural and represent expressions of corporate power. From such a perspective, digitalization in agriculture is not a ‘revolution’ per se; rather, digital technologies mirror and reproduce existing power relations. However, there are also emancipatory initiatives that are applying digital technologies to challenge existing inequalities and to advance alternative visions of agriculture. 
  • 1.7K
  • 16 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Probation Officer
Probation and Parole Officers are officials appointed to investigate, report on, and supervise the conduct of convicted offenders on probation and/or those released from incarceration to community supervision such as parole. Most probation and parole officers are employed by the government of the jurisdiction in which they operate, although some are employed by private companies that provide contracted services to the government.
  • 1.7K
  • 14 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Minority Influence
Minority influence, a form of social influence, takes place when a member of a minority group influences the majority to accept the minority's beliefs or behavior. This occurs when a small group or an individual acts as an agent of social change by questioning established societal perceptions, and proposing alternative, original ideas which oppose the existing social norms. There are two types of social influence: majority influence (resulting in conformity and public compliance) and minority influence (resulting in conversion). Majority influence refers to the majority trying to produce conformity on the minority, while minority influence is converting the majority to adopt the thinking of the minority group. Unlike other forms of influence, minority influence is often thought of as a more innovative form of social change, because it usually involves a personal shift in private opinion. Examples of minority influence include the Civil Rights Movement in America and the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa .
  • 1.7K
  • 23 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Carinthian Plebiscite, 1920
The Carinthian plebiscite (German: Kärntner Volksabstimmung, Slovene: Koroški plebiscit) was held on 10 October 1920 in the area predominantly settled by Carinthian Slovenes. It determined the final southern border between the Republic of Austria and the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia) after World War I.
  • 1.7K
  • 11 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Social Proof
Social proof is a psychological and social phenomenon wherein people copy the actions of others in an attempt to undertake behavior in a given situation. The term was coined by Robert Cialdini in his 1984 book Influence: Science and Practice, and the concept is also known as informational social influence. Social proof is considered prominent in ambiguous social situations where people are unable to determine the appropriate mode of behavior, and is driven by the assumption that the surrounding people possess more knowledge about the current situation. The effects of social influence can be seen in the tendency of large groups to conform. This is referred to in some publications as the herd behavior. Although social proof reflects a rational motive to take into account the information possessed by others, formal analysis shows that it can cause people to converge too quickly upon a single distinct choice, so that decisions of even larger groups of individuals may be grounded in very little information (see information cascades). Social proof is one type of conformity. When a person is in a situation where they are unsure of the correct way to behave, they will often look to others for clues concerning the correct behavior. When "we conform because we believe that others' interpretation of an ambiguous situation is more accurate than ours and will help us choose an appropriate course of action", it is informational social influence. This is contrasted with normative social influence wherein a person conforms to be liked or accepted by others. Social proof often leads not only to public compliance (conforming to the behavior of others publicly without necessarily believing it is correct) but also private acceptance (conforming out of a genuine belief that others are correct). Social proof is more powerful when being accurate is more important and when others are perceived as especially knowledgeable. In 2020, a young scientist from Poland , Michal Klichowski, proved that this phenomenon also applies to interactions with artificial intelligence. His results show a new AI proof mechanism: AI that people have more and more contact with is becoming a new source of information about how to behave and what decisions to take.
  • 1.7K
  • 11 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Afghan Presidential Election, 2009
Presidential elections were held in Afghanistan on 20 August 2009. The election resulted in victory for incumbent Hamid Karzai, who won 49.67% of the vote, while his main rival Abdullah Abdullah finished second with 30.59% of the vote. The election was characterized by lack of security, low voter turnout and low awareness of the people about the election and election process and widespread ballot stuffing, intimidation, and other electoral fraud. A second round run-off vote, announced under heavy U.S. and ally pressure, was originally scheduled for 7 November 2009, but it was cancelled after Abdullah refused to participate, and Hamid Karzai was declared President of Afghanistan for another 5-year term. The election was the second under the present constitution of Afghanistan and was held on the same day as elections for 34 provincial council seats. The Taliban called for a boycott of the election, describing it as a "program of the crusaders" and "this American process".
  • 1.6K
  • 16 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Participism
Participism is a libertarian socialist political philosophy consisting of two independently created economic and political systems: participatory economics ("parecon") and participatory politics ("parpolity"). Participism is intended as an alternative to both capitalism and centrally-planned state socialism. Participism has significantly informed the International Organization for a Participatory Society.
  • 1.6K
  • 25 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Comparison of Electoral Systems
Electoral systems can be compared by different means. These comparisons can focus on different aspects: on suffrage or rules for voter eligibility; on candidate eligibility and the rules governing political parties; on the way elections are scheduled, sequenced, and combined; or on the rules for determining the winner within a given election (also called the "election rule" or "voting method"). Attitudes towards systems are highly influenced by the systems' impact on groups that one supports or opposes, which can make the objective comparison of electoral systems difficult. There are several ways to address this problem. For example, criteria can be defined mathematically, such that any voting method either passes or fails. This gives perfectly objective results, but their practical relevance is still arguable. Another approach is to define ideal criteria that no voting method passes perfectly, and then see how often or how close to passing various methods are over a large sample of simulated elections. This gives results which are practically relevant, but the method of generating the sample of simulated elections can still be arguably biased. A final approach is to create imprecisely defined criteria, and then assign a neutral body to evaluate each method according to these criteria. This approach can look at aspects of voting methods which the other two approaches miss, but both the definitions of these criteria and the evaluations of the methods are still inevitably subjective.
  • 1.6K
  • 05 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Objectivism (Ayn Rand)
Objectivism is a philosophical system developed by Russian-American writer Ayn Rand. Rand first expressed Objectivism in her fiction, most notably The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957), and later in non-fiction essays and books. Leonard Peikoff, a professional philosopher and Rand's designated intellectual heir, later gave it a more formal structure. Rand described Objectivism as "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute". Peikoff characterizes Objectivism as a "closed system" insofar as its "fundamental principles" were set out by Rand and are not subject to change. However, he stated that "new implications, applications and integrations can always be discovered". Objectivism's main tenets are that reality exists independently of consciousness, that human beings have direct contact with reality through sense perception (see direct and indirect realism), that one can attain objective knowledge from perception through the process of concept formation and inductive logic, that the proper moral purpose of one's life is the pursuit of one's own happiness (see rational egoism), that the only social system consistent with this morality is one that displays full respect for individual rights embodied in laissez-faire capitalism, and that the role of art in human life is to transform humans' metaphysical ideas by selective reproduction of reality into a physical form—a work of art—that one can comprehend and to which one can respond emotionally. Academic philosophers have mostly ignored or rejected Rand's philosophy. Nonetheless, Objectivism has been a significant influence among libertarians and American conservatives. The Objectivist movement, which Rand founded, attempts to spread her ideas to the public and in academic settings.
  • 1.6K
  • 18 Oct 2022
Topic Review
The European Labour Authority
On June 20, 2019, Regulation 2019/1140 was published in the Official Journal of the European Union. Under this Regulation, the European Labour Authority is established. The aim of the entry is to briefly explain the organisation and main functions of this new EU agency, using the relevant Regulation provisions and therefore underline its importance in the EU institutional system.
  • 1.5K
  • 30 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Big Science
Big science is a term used by scientists and historians of science to describe a series of changes in science which occurred in industrial nations during and after World War II, as scientific progress increasingly came to rely on large-scale projects usually funded by national governments or groups of governments. Individual or small group efforts, or Small Science, are still relevant today as theoretical results by individual authors may have a significant impact, but very often the empirical verification requires experiments using constructions, such as the Large Hadron Collider, costing between $5 and $10 billion.
  • 1.4K
  • 24 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Integrated Maritime Policy
Integrated and ecosystem-based maritime policy should be seen as a versatile multidisciplinary and cross-sectoral instrument for international dialogue within the region.
  • 1.4K
  • 17 Jun 2021
Topic Review
2015 Cash for Vote Scam
The 2015 cash-for-votes scam was a political scandal, the second scandal of its kind since the 2008 cash-for-votes scandal. The 2015 political scandal started off when the Telugu Desam Party Leaders of Telangana state were caught in a video footage, aired in the media, offering bribes to a nominated MLA for his vote in the 2015 elections of the Telangana Legislative Council. The Telugu Desam MLA Revanth Reddy was arrested by the Telangana Police when he was offering Rs. 50 lakhs to the nominated MLA Elvis Stephenson. Reddy was then presented before the court of justice and sent to jail. Similarly, the phone conversation, which was quoted as the voice of N. Chandrababu Naidu, the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, with the same nominated MLA was aired in the news media. The Telugu Desam party alleged that the scandal, was a political vendetta, doctored by the Telangana State Government under the direction of K. Chandrashekhar Rao, the Chief Minister of Telangana, alongside the YSR Congress Party. In a further development, The High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad for the States of Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana, granted bail to Revanth Reddy and two other co-accused due to lack of substantial evidence.
  • 1.4K
  • 18 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Neo-Confederate
Neo-Confederates are groups and individuals who portray the Confederate States of America and its actions during the American Civil War in a positive light. Some neo-Confederate organizations such as the League of the South continue to advocate the secession of the former Confederate States.
  • 1.4K
  • 17 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Participatory Democracy and Sustainability
The crisis of representative democracy triggered democratic innovations. Endeavors for the qualification of democratic systems and democratic reforms are high on the agenda. Political participation plays an important role in democracies. With the Rio conference in the 1990s, the Local Agenda 21 strategies strengthened a new trend towards more deliberative political participation, focusing on sustainability. Political participation is defined as an individual and organized act to influence political decision-making. Democratic innovations focus on political participatory instruments, electoral reforms, etc. In contrast, civic engagement and all forms of communal self-help predominately concentrate on producing certain services and, in general, do not include any decision-making competencies. This social innovation is not primarily oriented towards the influence of decision-making, but focuses on civic engagement as co-production. Political participation and civic engagement are interdependent, but have to be differentiated.
  • 1.3K
  • 28 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Korea Green New Deal
Various developed nations, including the US (February 2019) and the EU (December 2019), have recently relaunched Green New Deals similar to the climate-oriented economic stimulus policies implemented after the 2008–2009 Great Recession; such green stimulus packages not only raise investments with short-term benefits for economic output and jobs, but also lay the groundwork for long-term innovation and economic development aligned with environmental constraints. The Korean government also considered reintroducing the Korean Green Growth Initiative of 2009 in response to the COVID-19 crisis as a national industrial strategy to promote green innovation and transform the industrial structure of key global industries such as motor vehicles, batteries, and electricity distribution systems; the aim was to make Korea a competitive leader in the future global economic structure. Eventually, the Korean government announced the Green New Deal as one of the three pillars of the Korean New Deal on 14 July 2020, and proposed a total investment of KRW 73.4 trillion (KRW 42.7 trillion from the treasury) over the next five years.
  • 1.3K
  • 09 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Gift
A gift or a present is an item given to someone without the expectation of payment or anything in return. An item is not a gift if that item is already owned by the one to whom it is given. Although gift-giving might involve an expectation of reciprocity, a gift is meant to be free. In many countries, the act of mutually exchanging money, goods, etc. may sustain social relations and contribute to social cohesion. Economists have elaborated the economics of gift-giving into the notion of a gift economy. By extension the term gift can refer to any item or act of service that makes the other happier or less sad, especially as a favor, including forgiveness and kindness. Gifts are also first and foremost presented on occasions such as birthdays and holidays.
  • 1.3K
  • 06 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Court of Auditors (Spain)
The Tribunal de Cuentas (Court of Auditors) is the supreme governmental accounting body of Spain responsible of the comptrolling of the public accounts and the auditing of the accountancy of the political parties, in accordance with the Constitution and its Organic Law. The Court of Auditors is composed by the President and 12 counsellors. The Counsellors are appointed by the Cortes Generales, six of them by the Congress and the other six by the Senate. To be appointed Counsellor of the Court it is needed to be a person with knowledge in audit, judge, prosecutor, university teacher or a public servant in an office that requieres superior studies, lawyer, economist or trade profesor, all of them with recognized experience and with fifteen years of professional activity. The Court Account Counselors are independent and irremovable. Their term is 9 years.
  • 1.2K
  • 21 Nov 2022
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