PUBLIC AND ELITE ATTITUDES TO ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

This paper puts the environment into perspective. Politiciansand commentators see the environment as yesterday's issue, forgettingthat the core of environmental activists is still double thelevel of just five years ago. International comparisons stretchingfrom Poland to New Zealand are made, examining the public'senvironmental behavior, attitudes and values. Using Great Britainas a case study, detailed comparisons are made between the attitudesof the general public with journalists, the financial community,captains of industry, and Members of Parliament and the latterthen compared with Members of the European Parliament. The publicis demanding action by companies and by governments on environmentalissues and has little faith in either to take corrective action.     

CANADIAN AND AMERICAN ATTITUDES TOWARD THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT AND THE PRIVATE ENTERPRISE SYSTEM

This paper compares the attitudes of Canadians and Americanstoward their governments and selected aspects of the privateenterprise system. It examines some of the historical differencesbetween the two countries and hypothesizes that these differenceswill be reflected in current attitudes. Further, it hypothesizesthat Canada's two main linguistic groups—the English andthe French—will be closer in attitude to each other thaneither will be to the American sample.     

TRANSITION OF THE POLITICAL SYSTEM AND POLITICAL ATTITUDES IN PORTUGAL

The period of Portuguese authoritarian government, followingupon the heels of economic and social decline which the countrylived through after the installation of the republic in 1910,was bolstered politically, culturally, and economically by theexperience of the country during these 64 years. Economic andcultural changes after 1945, including development of the media,worker migrations, tourism, and the decolonialization movements,gave rise to attitudes and behavior of increasingly wide groupswho rejected authoritarianism and the monolithic political system.Various factors paved the way for the downfall of this regime,among them Oliveira Salazar's physical incapacity and his replacementby the more liberal but less prestigious Marcelo Caetano, theunease in public opinion caused by the sending of troops tothe colonies in Africa, and international and political andcultural pressures. Public opinion was in favor of the new politicalsystem, and, gradually consolidated its hold with the supportof the Western international community, and, in particular,the countries of the EEC. The political parties contributedto the development of the political attitudes of the Portuguesepopulation and ensured that the regime maintained itself withina liberal democratic framework.     

PUBLIC OPINION AS PARADOX: AUSTRALIAN ATTITUDES TO THE RATE OF IMMIGRATION AND THE RATE OF ASIAN IMMIGRATION, 1984-1990

Over the last few years, questions in the Australian polls aboutthe rate of immigration and the rate of Asian immigration havegenerated a remarkably wide range of response. While most ofthe polls conducted since 1984 suggest majority opposition tothe rate at which immigrants, including Asian immigrants, havebeen coming to Australia, other polls suggest majority support.Differences between the 1984 poll figures and some of the morerecent polls may reflect changes over time. Other polled differencesalmost certainly reflect differences in the way the questionswere worded. However, the most remarkable if least obvious causeof the difference seems to be the contexts in which the questionswere asked; more precisely, differences in the length and focusof the various questionnaires in which questions on immigrationwere embedded. Public opinion on the rate of immigration isnot only ‘soft’, it is created in the very attemptto measure it. Under these circumstances there is little pointin trying to isolate ‘majority opinion’ or in attemptingto establish which of the polls provides the most accurate reading.Where different readings are a product of differing contextsthey may be best understood in terms of competing conceptionsof what ‘public opinion’ itself is all about.     

THE MARGINS OF JUSTICE ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE LAW AND THE LEGAL SYSTEM AMONG JEWS AND ARABS IN ISRAEL

Based on a national survey, attitudes towards the law and thelegal system of both Jews and Arabs in Israel were measured.Findings support the notion that Arabs as members of a minoritygroup express a higher degree of disobedience and express ahigher sense of injustice compared to the Jewish subjects. Findingstend to point to growing disobedience in the Israeli society,indicated by 22 percent of the Jewish subjects and 53 percentof the Arabs who express their readiness to take the law intotheir hands.     

高校图书馆为社区服务的实践与探索

开展社区信息服务是高校图书馆责无旁贷的新使命。高校图书馆应增强对社会生活的参与,从文化、教育、科研等多方面促进社区经济发展和社会进步,哈尔滨师范大学图书馆在一些方面已有较好的尝试与探索。     

REPORTING THE EUROPEAN UNION

This article sketches a picture of the journalists involved in European Union (EU) reporting. Firstly, it presents an overview of the entire body of EU-accredited journalists, examining how they are distributed across the various nationalities, the different forms of media and whether an historical evolution can be traced in either distribution. Secondly, the mechanisms influencing the news flow on EU topics are described, using information gathered from numerous interviews with EU journalists from 10 European countries. The researchers distinguish structural, geographical, economical and policy-related obstacles influencing the EU newsflow. As an example of a media-related obstacle the authors focus on the privileged position of the Financial Times.     

ARGENTINE ATTITUDES TOWARD THE UNITED STATES

Survey research from the larger cities of Argentina during the1960s and the 1980s demonstrates a consistent level of antagonismtoward the United States by at least a fifth of urban Argentines.Hostility increased when the United States sided against Argentinain the Malvinas (Falklands) War of 1982, but it declined from1983 to 1988 under the conciliatory policies adopted by thegovernments of Raúl Alfonsín and Ronald Reagan.Asking identical questions of urban residents in Brazil indicatesstrikingly similar patterns of attitude. Antagonism tends tofocus upon specific elements of United States government policyin Latin America, while little hostility is expressed towardthe people of the United States. In contrast to foreign policyinitiatives, elements of the culture, the political freedoms,and the economic and educational opportunities of the UnitedStates are clearly admired in Argentina.     

GREEK PUBLIC ATTITUDES: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE

The dictatorship that ruled Greece between 1967–74 hadlasting consequences on the country's political culture. FromWorld War II and the Greek civil war until the dictatorship'scollapse, pro-Western, anti-communist, pro-business, sociallytraditional values had dominated public opinion. The dramaticfall of the dictatorship amidst a ‘national tragedy’made it a scapegoat and made what it stood for very unpopularespecially among the younger generation. So, when the lattercame of age, it contributed to the emergence of a new set ofvalues that were anti-rights, anti-Western, anti-business, anti-traditionalistand even historically revisionist, and were majoritrian in the1980s. These values have been so strongly entrenched that neitherthe Panhellenic Socialist Movement's (PASOK's) poor record inpower, nor the indictment of some of its leaders for seriousscandals in 1989, nor even the emergence, under PASOK rule,of a new more moderate generation, have helped the right toregain the absolute majority of the votes so to govern the country,although it has led to a partial moderation of the radical ‘juntageneration’.     

PARTY IDENTIFICATION AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS HOMOSEXUALS IN GREAT BRITAIN

Legislative activity and controversy concerning the issue ofhomosexual rights and practices has intensified in Britain overthe last decade. Despite this increase in intensity, however,the question of mass public opinion in relation to homosexualrights and practices has received little empirical investigation.In an effort to remedy this situation, this paper focuses onthe influence of party identification in determining publicattitudes towards homosexuals. Using data from the British SocialAttitudes Surveys, the results suggest that although party identificationexerts an independent and statistically significant effect onattitudes towards homosexuals, in all cases, however, theseeffects are both secondary and variable. Other equally, if notmore salient, determinants include: gender, education, age,occupation, and type of homosexual relationship. Of these varioussocio–demographic variables, both age and education standout as having the strongest and most consistent effect. In otherwords, at least as far as current British society is concerned,anti-homosexual views are most prevalent among both older individualsas well as the lesser educated.     

ATTITUDES TOWARDS DEMOCRACY IN ARGENTINA DURING THE TRANSITION PERIOD

Transitions to democracy are good settings to observe possiblechanges of beliefs, attitudes and values. This paper analyzesshifts in democratic beliefs during Argentine political transitiontowards democracy. Through the analysis of different surveysin the period 1982–8 diverse patterns concerning two setsof democratic attitudes were observed. Those dealing with participatorydemocracy proved to be not only highly supported but also stablethroughout the period. On the other hand the libertarian orientationsexhibit lower consensus and proved to be much more unstable.They grew at the beginning of the transition but later a regressionto pretransition levels took place, associated with the increaseof socio-economic discontent. Also a relationship between lesslibertarian democratic attitudes and lower socio-economic levelswas observed. The findings call into question the socializationeffects of democratic institutions during relatively short periodsin a context of economic crisis and rising discontent.     

“档案春秋丛书”序

此书编辑、付梓、出版之时，我们伟大祖国正经历盛世——送别奥运、纪念改革开放三十周年、迎接建国六十周年大庆、筹办世博召开。这些举世瞩目的事件都将被一一记录在册，成为永久的历史记忆，成为人类攀登文明高峰的标高。     

Ontology与叙词表的融合初探

文章主要论述了ontology的产生,ontology与叙词表的关系,ontology与叙词表融合发展的可行性,以及由叙词表向ontoloty转换发展的方法、原则和转换过程中存在的问题。