_________________________________________________________________________ * The authors are Ph.D. Candidate, Professor, and Assistant Professor, respectively. Contact author is Yuliya Bolotova. Research for this paper was supported in part by the Edmund S. Muskie Ph.D. Fellowship Program, a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), U.S. Department of State, administered b...

Changes to the Environmental Protection Act in 2012 mean that Local Authorities (LAs) have to set natural background contamination (NBC) levels for their areas. This project collected all Phase II site investigation data held by the councils and used the geochemical data to calculate the NBCs. These values were checked against samples collected in the regions to assess their accuracy. These res...

Classification: FS 52 u Od Local self-government has a long tradition in Sweden. The first legislation in this field is generally considered to be the Local Government Ordinances of 1862, which separated Church of Sweden tasks from civil ones. Church tasks were assigned to the parishes of this Lutheran State church, while civil tasks were assigned to cities and rural municipal districts. At the...

Many commentators today lament the politicization of bioethics, but some suggest distinguishing among different kinds of politicization. This essay pursues that idea with reference to three traditions of political thought: liberalism, communitarianism, and republicanism. After briefly discussing the concept of politicization itself, the essay examines how each of these political traditions mani...

Presents a study which investigated how school councils operate in the Australian state of Victoria and how parent councillors participate in the affairs of the school council. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey on 172 schools, as well as visits to schools and attendance at school council meetings. Proposes a theoretical model linking personal, institutional and communityrelated...

Box 1: Selected Gender Indicators for Ethiopia • Gender-related Development Index (GDI): 142 out of 157 countries • Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM): 84 out of 108 countries • Maternal mortality: 673 deaths per 100,000 live births (2005) • Violence against women (including FGM): affects 73% of women and girls • Early marriage: 75% of girls marry before age 17 • Combined gross primary, secondary...

German Works Councils and Productivity: First Evidence from a Nonparametric Test This paper presents the first nonparametric test whether German works councils go hand in hand with higher labor productivity or not. It distinguishes between establishments that are covered by collective bargaining or not. Results from a Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for first order stochastic dominance tend to indicate...