The four Visegrad states — Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia (until 1993 Czechoslovakia) and Hungary — form a compact area between Germany and Austria in the west and the states of the former USSR in the east. They are bounded by the Baltic in the north and the Danube river in the south. They are cut by the Sudeten and Carpathian mountain ranges, which divide Poland off from the other states. Poland is an extension of the North European plain and like the latter is drained by rivers that flow from south to north west — the Oder, the Vlatava and the Elbe, the Vistula and the Bug. The Danube is the great exception, flowing from its source eastward, turning through two 90-degree turns to end up in the Black Sea, forming the barrier and often the political frontier between central Europe and the Balkans. Hungary to the east of the Danube is also an open plain. The region is historically and culturally part of western Europe, but its eastern Marches now represents a vital strategic zone between Germany and the core of the European Union to the west and the Russian zone to the east.

Economy and Society

With digital equipment becoming increasingly networked, either on wired or wireless networks, for personal and professional use alike, distributed software systems have become a crucial element in information and communications technologies. The study of these systems forms the core of the ARLES' work, which is specifically concerned with defining new system software architectures, based on the use of emerging networking technologies. In this context, we concentrate on the study of distributed systems which bring to life the vision of ubiquitous computing systems, also known as ambient intelligence.

반도체 공정 overview

The ascendancy of neoliberalism and the associated discourses of ‘new public management’, during the 1980s and 1990s has produced a fundamental shift in the way universities and other institutions of higher education have defined and justified their institutional existence. The traditional professional culture of open intellectual enquiry and debate has been replaced with a institutional stress on performativity, as evidenced by the emergence of an emphasis on measured outputs: on strategic planning, performance indicators, quality assurance measures and academic audits. This paper traces the links between neoliberalism and globalization on the one hand, and neoliberalism and the knowledge economy on the other. It maintains that in a global neoliberal environment, the role of higher education for the economy is seen by governments as having greater importance to the extent that higher education has become the new star ship in the policy fleet for governments around the world. Universities are seen as a key driver in the knowledge economy and as a consequence higher education institutions have been encouraged to develop links with industry and business in a series of new venture partnerships. The recognition of economic importance of higher education and the necessity for economic viability has seen initiatives to promote greater entrepreneurial skills as well as the development of new performative measures to enhance output and to establish and achieve targets. This paper attempts to document these trends at the level of both political philosophy and economic theory.

Neoliberalism, higher education and the knowledge economy: from the free market to knowledge capitalism

The Social Contexts of Research. Edited by Saad Z. Nagi and Ronald G. Corwin. Pp. xii + 409. (John Wiley: New York and London, August 1972.) £5.65.

Sociology of Science

The rational choice tradition has generated three models of competitive political party behavior: the vote-seeking party, the office-seeking party, and the policy-seeking party. Despite their usefulness in the analysis of interparty electoral competition and coalitional behavior, these models suffer from various theoretical and empirical limitations, and the conditions under which each model applies are not well specified. This article discusses the relationships between vote-seeking, officeseeking, and policy-seeking party behavior and develops a unified theory of the organizational and institutional factors that constrain party behavior in parliamentary democracies. Vote-seeking, officeseeking, and policy-seeking parties emerge as special cases of competitive party behavior under specific organizational and institutional conditions. Since Downs (1957), rational choice theories have come to play an increasingly important role in the study of competitive political parties. Efforts to develop such models of political parties have been of tremendous benefit to political science. Theories based on simple assumptions of party and voter objectives have generated influential (though often controversial) results. But even though rational choice models of political parties have been both powerful and suggestive, they have failed to generate any single, coherent theory of competitive party behavior or to produce robust results that apply under a variety of environmental conditions. There is little theory to help us choose between existing models, and where their assumptions fail, we are often left in the dark. Arguably the defining characteristic and virtue of rational choice theory is precisely its resistance to ad hoc explanation and its quest for equilibrium results independent of structural peculiarities. However, neoinstitutionalists, both within and outside the rational choice tradition, have recently challenged this conception of "pure theory" (March and Olsen 1984; Schlesinger 1984; Shepsle 1979). Moreover, the reluctance of many rational choice theorists to apply their models of electoral competition beyond individual candidates in simple institutional contexts has limited their influence on the empirical study of parties. My objective in this article is to provide a framework in which to explain

/pdf/a-behavioral-theory-of-competitive-political-parties-11iuu73wtl.pdf

A Behavioral Theory of Competitive Political Parties

The importance of health research utilisation in policy-making, and of understanding the mechanisms involved, is increasingly recognised. Recent reports calling for more resources to improve health in developing countries, and global pressures for accountability, draw greater attention to research-informed policy-making. Key utilisation issues have been described for at least twenty years, but the growing focus on health research systems creates additional dimensions.

/pdf/the-utilisation-of-health-research-in-policy-making-concepts-11t07w7tg8.pdf

The utilisation of health research in policy-making: concepts, examples and methods of assessment.

Chapter One: Introduction Chapter Two: A Model For Higher Education Chapter Three: The Development of Higher Education in the UK: Changing Purposes Since 1945 Chapter Four: The Working of the Whole System Chapter Five: The Institution Chapter Six: Basic Units Chapter Seven: The Individual Level Chapter Eight: Initiating and Adapting To Change Chapter Nine: Evaluation, Accountability and the Allocation of Resources Chapter Ten: Managerialism and the Market

Process and structure in higher education

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1057%2Fpalgrave.hep.8300167.pdf

Organization and Governance of Universities

Introduction to the Second Edition.- Part 1: Themes, Concepts and Methods. 1. Comparison and Theories I. Bleiklie, M. Kogan.- Part 2: History, Policy and Structure. 2. Higher Education Policies: Historical Overview M. Bauer, M. Kogan. 3. Policy Regimes and Policy Making I. Bleiklie. 4. The State and Higher Education M. Kogan, S. Marton. 5. Higher Education Institutions B. Askling, M. Henkel.-Part 3: Academics in a Context of Policy and System Change. 6. Policy Change and the Academic Profession R. Hostaker. 7. Academic Identities M. Henkel, A. Vabo.- Part 4: Conclusions. 8. Change and Continuity: Some Conclusions M. Kogan et al.- References.- Subject Index.- Author Index.

Maurice Kogan

Papers

The utilisation of health research in policy-making: concepts, examples and methods of assessment.

Process and structure in higher education

Organization and Governance of Universities

Transforming Higher Education : A Comparative Study

The Use of Performance Indicators in Higher Education: The Challenge of the Quality Movement. Third Edition. Higher Education Policy Series 34.