Interest Groups

In the United States, the common interest often is conceived as a by-product of the pluralist, interest-groupdriven democratic process. Special interests dominate in many political arenas. Consequently, we have lost the language, vocabulary, and ability to talk about the common interest. The way to reverse this trend is to develop and practice with new tools that allow us to articulate what we mean by the common interest in specific contexts. In this article, we leveraged the literature on procedural, substantive, and pragmatic decision making to illustrate how they work together to demonstrate whether and how the common interest was served in three case studies of Healthy Forests Restoration Act implementation on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in Arizona. In two of the cases we found that the common interest was mostly served, while in the third case it was not. Our results raise questions about the ability of procedural criteria or substantive criteria alone to determine effectiveness in decision making. When evaluated together they provide a more complete understanding of how the common interest is or is not served.

The common agricultural policy of the EC with its market regulations is decided at EC level by a multilevel system of government, in which the Commission and the parliamentary parties of the European Parliament play the supranational role and the national ministries of agriculture act as parts of the intergovernmental system of the Council of Ministers. National interest groups have thereby three major access routes to the EC system, first through their national governments, or second indirectly, transmitted by their European peak organizations, or third directly to the supranational EC actors. The network approach is applied to study empirically the densities of access through these various routes. The links between actors in the agricultural policy domain are conceptualized as links for the exchange of resources, the most important resource of a policy domain being the final control of policy decisions. The political actors of the governance system originally hold full control of this valuable resource which they exchange for influence resources possessed by the interest groups, as public support or expert knowledge. Empirically, answers to the network questions depend on the type of resource and the viewpoint of the interviewed actors. An index is developed which indicates the resource flows between actors and the distribution of equilibrium control of policy decisions. It is shown that the national ministers of agriculture depend very much on the support and expertise of their national farmers' lobby, whereas the Commission relies more on contacts within the political sector itself. Multilevel systems need a lot of political coordination, so that the political actors within such systems, especially at the supranational level, seem to deal first of all with each other and not so much with the demand side of politics, compared to the national ministers of agriculture.

A collective decision problem is described by a set of agents, a profile of single-peaked preferences over the real line and a number k of public facilities to be located. We consider public facilities that do not suffer from congestion and are non-excludable. We provide a characterization of the class of rules satisfying Pareto-efficiency, object-population monotonicity and sovereignty. Each rule in the class is a priority rule that selects locations according to a predetermined priority ordering among "interest groups". We characterize each of the subclasses of priority rules that respectively satisfy anonymity, hiding-proofness and strategy-proofness. In particular, we prove that a priority rule is strategy-proof if and only if it partitions the set of agents into a fixed hierarchy. Alternatively, any such rule can be viewed as a collection of fixed-populations generalized peakselection median rules , that are linked across populations, in a way that we describe.

Women's advocacy (a.k.a. consumer, self-help, or interest) groups provide important insights into how the Canadian health care system works and its intricate intertwining with politics. C onsumerism in health care occurs at the individual or group level. While the individual may decide on the particular physician, test, or treatment they prefer, 1 at the group level consumerism may affect how health policy is created, how services are delivered, and the research agenda. This paper focuses on the activism of the women's movement and advocacy groups and their role in shaping the Canadian health care system. The women's movement has as its theoretical underpinnings: the political nature of the personal experience, egalitarianism in relationships, and the nurturing and validation of women's experiences. 2 A direct extension of these principles is the empowerment of women in all aspects of their life including health care and ownership of health knowledge. This empowerment and ownership has led to revolutionary approaches in health care policy and delivery, in terms of recognizing and advocating for patient autonomy, respect for the patient's rights, mutuality in the decision making process, and a more client-centered approach to medical care. 3 Generally, women's advocacy groups can be viewed in Canadian society as primarily a white, middle class phenomenon; nevertheless, this movement has shifted some power to groups that traditionally have been impotent. An understanding of how advocacy groups influence the system is important at several levels. First, if you are a member of an advocacy group then this knowledge will help you be more effective. Second, if you are a government and would like to foster advocacy groups then you need to know what policy will help these groups to flourish. Third, this knowledge can help shape systems into entities which have greater consumer, rather than provider, focus. Fourth, and possibly most important, this knowledge reinforces the impression that change can occur and that the individual can make a difference. This knowledge empowers the person. In Canada, for example, the individual member of the Legislative has little influence on legislation. Advocacy groups are more effective by influencing a bill while it is being formulated or within the cabinet, before it has been introduced to Parliament. As such, advocacy groups are best served by having insider information on pending legislation. 4

For intelligent service robots, it is essential to recognize users in order to provide appropriate services to a correctly authenticated user. However, in robot environments in which users freely move around the robot, it is difficult to force users to cooperate for authentication as in traditional biometric security systems. This paper introduces a user authentication system that is designed to recognize users who are unconscious of a robot or of cameras. In the proposed system, biometrics and semi-biometrics are incorporated to cope with the limited applicability of traditional authentication techniques. Semi-biometrics indicates a set of features useful for discriminating persons, but only in the interested group of persons and in the interested frame of time. As a representative semi-biometric feature, body height and color characteristics of clothes are investigated. In particular, a novel method to measure body height with single camera is proposed. In addition, by incorporating tracking functionality, the system can maintain the user status information continuously, which is useful not only for recognition but also for finding a designated person. 1

For intelligent service robots, it is essential to recognize users in order to provide appropriate services to a correctly authenticated user. However, in robot environments in which users freely move around the robot, it is difficult to force users to cooperate for authentication as in traditional biometric security systems. This paper introduces a user authentication system that is designed to

We present a new dataset enumerating the population of organizations listed and/or registered as lobbyists in the EU. In the first part of the paper we describe how we arrived at the population dataset by drawing on three independent sources (Coneccs; Landmarks; EP registry). We briefly discuss the validity of these registers in the context of recent substantial changes in each of them. In the second part, we present descriptive information on the number and type of groups as well as their territorial origins. In the last part, we outline potential research questions that can be addressed with the new dataset. This includes a description of our use of this new interest group sampling frame, combined with internet research, to arrive at a random sample of issues to be used as the basis for further research on the role of groups in the EU policy process.

By compiling data on 12 politico-institutional variables for 25 member states of the European Union over the years 1997-2006, we were able to investigate the emerging patterns of democracy in the European Union. The study addresses the questions of how direct democracy can be incorporated into Lijphart's (1999) typology of consensus and majoritarian democracy and how empirical democratic patterns are affected by this extension. For the western democracies, three dimensions of democracy were extracted using principal component analysis, with two resembling those found by Lijphart (1999) and a third one being shaped by the interplay between direct democracy and cabinet type. East European democracies tend to have a lower degree of interest group corporatism, weaker central banks, stronger judicial review and stronger direct democracy.

While the global convergence of accounting standards is making steady progress, certain issues stand out as challenges. A major area where an international accounting standard has not gained universal acceptance is that of financial instruments. The European Union's refusal to adopt all of International Accounting Standard (IAS) 39, Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement, highlights that fact. The International Accounting Standards Board continues to address financial instruments in efforts to remedy this situation. Thus, it is important to better understand issues affecting the development of an international financial instruments accounting standard. The purpose of this study is to find out what issues are important to respondents in their comment letters regarding the Financial Instruments Discussion Paper (FIDP), and whether stakeholder groups differ in positions and the reasons given to support their views. The FIDP represented a major step toward approval of IAS 39 and proposed fair value accounting for all financial instruments. Over 1500 pages of comment letters were generated by the 168 respondents, who represented over 20 countries and several different stakeholder groups. While most respondents disagreed with the FIDP, differences in support and the specific issues used to support those positions were found by stakeholder interest group (accounting profession, regulators, standard-setters, financial analysts, and preparers) and by stakeholder nationality.

Objective To describe current hospital pharmacy services and facilities provided to United Kingdom Emergency Departments (EDs), identify potential roles for pharmacy technicians and possible benefits pharmacists may bring to the ED. Setting Emergency care specialist interest group workshop at an UK Clinical Pharmacy Association (UKCPA) conference in 2004. Workshop attendance was open to pharmacists and technicians. Method A descriptive study using a voluntary self-completed questionnaire covering ED services, pharmacy services and facilities to the ED and potential roles and benefits. Results Of 40 questionnaires distributed, 31/40 (78%) were returned representing 25 NHS hospitals. Most (72%) EDs received some level of pharmacy service. Emergency Department skill-mix, ED service models and pharmacy services varied. Pharmacists' current roles were similar across EDs, with input into guideline development and review 12/25 (48%), patient group directions 11/25 (44%), provision of training 11/25 (44%), provision of advice (general and clinical)/liaison 10/25 (40%) and drug history taking 11/25 (40%). Potential roles identified for pharmacy technicians included assessment of patients' own drugs, support for drug history taking, stock management and drug storage. Further benefits pharmacists could bring to EDs included rationalisation of medicines on admission, identification of ADRs causing admission, support with complex medicine issues, new prescribing skills, supporting the maximum waiting time target and facilitating discharge. Conclusion Pharmacy services have developed to support service provision in EDs with similar roles to in-patient pharmacists. Pharmacy services in some EDs are now extensive with funded, full-time pharmacy posts but pharmacy service review is required to optimise ED patient care where there is limited or no current pharmacy input. New pharmacy services must fit with local ED service models and skill mix. Evaluation of these new services is vital to maximise benefit to patients and the NHS.

This study of Greater Yellowstone interest groups uses a mixed methodology that addresses methodological criticisms of narrative policy analysis. Three research questions guide the research: (1) Is it possible to connect narratives found in public consumption documents to interest group policy beliefs? (2) Can narratives be made falsifiable? (3) Does a quantified method add to the usefulness and explanatory power of narrative policy analysis? Seventy-five public consumption documents from the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and the Blue Ribbon Coalition were content analyzed for policy beliefs. The results indicate statistically significant differences between the two groups for all three policy beliefs: federalism, science, and the relationship between humans and nature. Despite these statistically significant results, some of the findings run counter to expectations. The implications of the study's methodological approach are explored.

This review gives an account of the current knowledge on the chemical constituents, biological activity and pharmacological properties of Securinega suffruticosa. A wide range of chemical compounds have been isolated, mainly alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins and lipids. From the pharmacological point of view the most interesting group are the alkaloids, among which securinine, an indolizidine alkaloids containing a unique tricyclic structure.

Groundwater over-exploitation has been on the rise in Jordan. Competing demands have grown in the face of perennial water shortages, a situation which has been exacerbated by drought conditions in the past decade. This paper reports findings of a project in which management options to address over-exploitation were developed for one of Jordan's principal aquifer systems, the Amman-Zarqa Basin. Options for addressing the situation were developed through a participatory approach that involved government officials and various public and private sector interest groups. Particular efforts were made to involve well irrigators, who are likely to be heavily impacted by the changes required to reduce groundwater pumping to a sustainable level. With information obtained from a rapid appraisal survey as well as from interviews with farmers, community groups, government officials, and technical experts, an extensive set

Russian foreign policy the Russian Orthodox Church has become an important actor. Its most important role has been that of supporting the emergence of a new nationalist Russian identity to undergird Russian policy. On specific policy issues, it has advocated the political reunification of Eastern Slavic Orthodox peoples, the emergence of a multipolar international system and the restatement of traditional values as the foundation for the pursuit of global human rights.

One of the fundamental questions of sexuality research is how erotic attraction arises across the social fault lines of gender, age, and kinship. The social promotion and institutionalization of sexual relations between (some) men and (some) women are the universal prerequisites of heterosexual reproduction, but they are only starting points in understanding how eroticism comes about among different classes of people and how these attractions are turned into socially recognized categories. While traditional conceptions of sexuality in Western societies have tended to rely on a semiotic binary distinguishing "the" normative heterosexual family from other forms of sexuality that "deviate" from it, cumulative research in anthropology, history, and sociology-and, more particularly, research influenced by feminism, gay and lesbian studies and queer theory, social constructionism, and poststructuralismhas demonstrated just how ethnocentric and limited these widely held conceptions are. The variation among heterosexual family forms is immense, 1 and they, as well as alternative sexual formations, are socially patterned after basic categories of gender, age, kinship, and, in complex societies, race and class.

This article presents the results of a survey sent to Evaluation Use Topical Interest Group (TIG) members for the purpose of ascertaining their perceptions about and experiences with evaluation use. Fifty-four percent (n = 282) of the 530 members surveyed responded. These respondents agree that the major purposes of evaluation are to facilitate organizational learning, provide information for decision making, improve programs, and determine the merit or worth of the evaluand. Performance-results oriented

The exploding Internet has brought many novel network applications. These include teleconferencing, interactive games, the voice/video phone, real-time multimedia playing, distributed computing, web casting, and so on. One of the specific characteristics of these applications is that all involve interactions among multiple members in a single session. Unlike the traditional one-to-one message transmission (unicasting), if the underlying networks provide no suitable protocol supports, these applications may be costly and infeasible to implement.

This paper explores the dynamics of high-tech industrialisation in three emerging countries with sub-regional power ambitions in the peculiar case of aerospace. The focus of the analysis is on the interaction between economic and political factors, at both the domestic and the international levels. The three (initially) state-owned firms show diverging fortunes that reflect differences in the ability to align the ownership structure to the financial requirements of technological upgrading, to adopt modern management practices, to participate actively in the internationalisation of global supply chains, and to garner the support of domestic interest groups.

The growth of the Finnish wolf (Canis lupus) population during the last years has highlighted people's contradictory attitudes toward wolves. The supranational conservation objectives brought on by Finland's membership in the European Union (EU) and the regional application of the official policy on wolves have led to conflicts. This article is based on the preparation process of the wolf management plan in Finland. As a part of the process, a nationwide hearing was arranged in 2004. Fear of wolves is widespread and even more common in areas with low wolf population. People living in areas where wolves occur feel that they can no longer influence decision making which affects them and that the authorities, conservationists, and the EU do not listen to their opinions. Numerous requests have been made for the legislation and its interpretation, and concessions to these requests would promote consensus and increase tolerance for wolves. Proposed changes include reforming the damage compen-sation system and formulating a clearer interpretation of the conservation status of wolves. However, it seems impossible to create a policy that would be universally supported. As the wolf question has become more central in environmental policy, the conservation and management of the species have become more complicated, and the cooperation between various interest groups has declined. The wolf conflict could be mitigated by compromises, but because the conflict is value-based, solutions are illusive.

The present period of economic globalization originated following World War II. Given the strongly protectionist tendencies prevailing at the time, how did this happen? Structural economic and military causes, along with intervening coalitional and institutional factors, are considered. Trade policy change is examined in the five largest trading economies—Britain, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Japan, and the United States. Structural economic causes best explain why protectionist tendencies were so strong, and why they were weakest in the United States and the Federal Republic. The liberalizing trend inaugurated in the United States and the Federal Republic was also facilitated by coalitional side payments to agriculture. Cold War–related military interests appear to have been the strongest impetus behind the unilateral form of the liberalization.

The field of cognitive engineering and decision making (CEDM) has grown rapidly in recent decades. At this writing, it is the largest technical interest group within the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. Work that falls into this area of research and study is also widely practiced across Europe and in countries around the world. Along with this growth, there is a significant need for a peer-reviewed journal that focuses specifically on CEDM as a science and applied discipline. The Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making is intended to meet that need. It will cover current research, theory, and practice in ways that not only provide for the sharing of information across interested parties but also serve to move the field forward. This will advance theoretical bases; address outstanding scientific challenges; set new courses and directions; address methods, measurement, and methodological issues; and show useful applications of this work in the development of operational and training systems in many domains that are of significance to society, government, and business. In this article, we provide background on the CEDM field and its areas of research. We use this as a platform for further specifying the scope of this journal along three technical tracks. Objectives are identified for each track as it supports the overall mission of the journal. Finally, we provide information on an electronic companion to the journal that is intended to support advances in the field through dialogue and access to further resources.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of osteoarthritis (OA) in the knee and/or hip of the intact leg among traumatic leg amputees compared with the general population and its relationship with amputation level, time since amputation, age, and mobility. Design: Cross-sectional observational study. Setting: Outpatient population of 2 Dutch rehabilitation centers. Participants: Patients (Nϭ78) with a unilateral traumatic transtibial amputation, knee disarticulation, or transfemoral amputation of at least 5 years ago; ability to walk with a prosthesis; older than 18 years of age; and able to understand Dutch. Patients were excluded if they had bilateral amputations, other pathologies of the knee or hip, or central neurologic pathologies. Interventions: Not applicable. Main Outcome Measure: The prevalence of OA. Results: The prevalence of knee OA was 27% (men 28.3%, women 22.2%) and hip OA was 14% (men 15.3%, women 11.1%). This was higher compared with the general population (knee OA men 1.58%, women 1.33%, hip OA men 1.13%, women 0.98%, age adjusted). No significant relationships between the prevalence of OA and level of amputation, time since amputation, mobility, and age were found. Conclusions: The prevalence of OA is significantly greater for both the knee and hip in the traumatic leg amputee population. No specific risk factors were identified. Although no specific risk factors in this specific population could be identified, it might be relevant to apply commonly known strategies to prevent OA as soon as possible after the amputation.

This paper presents the results of a cross-sectional survey on evaluation use completed by 1,140 U.S. American Evaluation Association members. This study had three foci: evaluators' current attitudes, perceptions, and experiences related to evaluation use theory and practice, how these data are similar to those reported in a previous study conducted by , and to identify characteristics that distinguish high endorsers of use items from others in the sample. Findings suggest a fair level of agreement on several dimensions of use including stakeholder involvement, factors that influence use, and the varied roles of the evaluator. Logistic regression results indicated that external evaluators were less likely to be high item endorsers while those who reported being members of the Evaluation Use Topical Interest Group of the American Evaluation Association were more likely to be high item endorsers.

The unsustainable nature of current urban transportation and land use is well recognized. What is less clear is the prescription for how to move towards a more sustainable future, especially given the many interest groups involved, the complexity of urban systems and the fragmented nature of decision-making in most urban regions. It is argued that the process of achieving more sustainable transportation requires suitable establishment of four pillars: effective governance of land use and transportation; fair, efficient, stable funding; strategic infrastructure investments; and attention to neighbourhood design. A review of each pillar identifies key issues. The characteristics of an ideal body for governance of land use and transportation are considered. Trade-offs are identified with: spatial representation; organizational structure; democracy; and market philosophy. Effective financing and pricing of urban transportation may be distorted because responsibility for infrastructure is separated from service provision. Financing mechanisms are categorized depending on vehicle use and location. Investment in infrastructure for alternative fuel vehicles and intermediate semi-rapid transit may be required in many cities. Major investment in public transit infrastructure will likely not suffice if macro land use and micro neighbourhood designs are not supportive of these investments.

... Nike provided software tools for local soccer teams and professional leagues to co-design and customize the soccer shoe. ... The company soon recognized that competition for advantage in the sneaker market had shifted to creating value through experiences. ...

In this study we are documenting and comparing the economic and travel impacts of bypass roads in the United States and Israel on the towns near which they are constructed. Using historical research, on-site observations, interviews, surveys, and data analyses we consider the effects of bypasses on local and through traffic, travel patterns, development patterns, and the local urban economy in the immediately affected communities. We aim elucidate how road design, market forces, local politics, land use policies, planning and zoning and location-specific factors interact to produce the effects we observe. The incidence of costs and benefits upon various interest groups within the local community is a particular focus of the research.

Criteria and indicators assessment is one of the ways to evaluate management strategies for mountain watersheds. One framework for this, Integrated Watershed Management (IWM), was employed at Chittagong Hill Tracts region of Bangladesh using a multi-criteria analysis approach. The IWM framework, consisting of the design and application of principles, criteria, indicators, and verifiers (PCIV), facilitates active participation by diverse professionals, experts, and interest groups in watershed management, to explicitly address the demands and problems to measure the complexity of problems in a transparent and understandable way. Management alternatives are developed to fulfill every key component of IWM considering the developed PCIV set and current situation of the study area. Different management strategies, each focusing on a different approach (biodiversity conservation, flood control, soil and water quality conservation, indigenous knowledge conservation, income generation, watershed conservation, and landscape conservation) were assessed qualitatively on their potential to improve the current situation according to each verifier of the criteria and indicator set. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), including sensitivity analysis, was employed to identify an appropriate management strategy according to overall priorities (i.e., different weights of each principle) of key informants. The AHP process indicated that a strategy focused on conservation of biodiversity provided the best option to address watershed-related challenges in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh.