External Political Context Research Articles

What scholarly practice means to respiratory therapists: An interpretive description study.

Engagement in scholarly practice has been associated with professional empowerment, role satisfaction and improvements in care delivery and patient outcomes across many healthcare professions. However, in evolving professions like respiratory therapy, scholarly practice is excluded from competency frameworks, resulting in a gap in education and subsequent application of this competency in practice. An exploration of scholarly practice in respiratory therapy may provide insights into evolving professions that face tensions between meeting competency requirements as outlined in frameworks and providing quality healthcare to the populations they serve. The aim of the study was to explore what scholarly practice means, and how it manifests in practice from respiratory therapists' (RTs) perspectives. We used interpretive description methodology. We purposively sampled participants to obtain varied perspectives of scholarly practice in respiratory therapy. We conducted 26 semistructured interviews with RTs in different roles (clinicians, educators, researchers, leaders and managers) across Canada and analysed the data using inductive analysis. Data collection and analysis proceeded concurrently. We developed five main themes: (i) the identity of a scholarly practitioner in RTs; (ii) factors influencing scholarly practice; (iii) one's impression of their professional self-image; (iv) scholarly practice as a vehicle for changing practice and (v) the complex interconnections between knowledges and practices. Scholarly practice appears to be a multifaceted phenomenon encompassing a wide range of activities and skills including conducting research, reflective practice, application of research to practice, and contributing to the advancement of the profession and healthcare. Scholarly practice is influenced by organisational context and culture, available resources, intrinsic motivation and external political context. We identified similarities between professional identity and the description of the scholarly practitioner, suggesting that these two phenomena may be interconnected. Furthermore, participants believed that scholarly practice could enhance the image, credibility, legitimacy and professionalisation of the profession.

Natural hazards as political events: framing and politicisation of floods in the United Kingdom

ABSTRACT This study explores how disasters are framed and politicised in the media to provide a systematic assessment of discursive dynamics and external political contexts of natural hazards. Utilising an actor-focused approach, it contributes with knowledge on how politicisation of disaster discourses unfolds. Two similar natural hazard events, the United Kingdom floods of 2005 and 2015, are investigated by means of a content analysis and a political claims analysis. The study finds that a tension between the national government and its contestants following the 2015 floods led to a framing contest which was heavily affected by the external political context at the time. The opposition and journalists constructed a narrative of government failure, not least by intertwining the event with the politically tense situation in the United Kingdom to further populist claims about government spending and EU policies. In 2005, the lack of a comparable external context and polarisation between actors in the media prevented a politicisation of the floods in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. These results illustrate the importance of broader political contexts, even those essentially unrelated to the natural hazard, for the politicisation of a disaster.

«Против огня войны»: практики советского миротворчества в условиях холодной войны

The struggle for peace was of great importance to Soviet cultural diplomacy during the Cold War. In this article, the author analyzes the arsenal and content of the peacekeeping practices of the USSR, forms an idea of the stages of development of Soviet peacefulness, studies the dynamics of its transition from effective innovative strategies to formalized measures. The study of the peacekeeping efforts of the Soviet Union, the internal and external political context of the second half of the 20th century, makes it possible to determine the reasons for the depletion of the potential of the Soviet struggle for peace as an instrument of influencing public opinion and forming an attractive image of the country.

Military Coup of January 21, 1927 in Valmiera In the Reports of Soviet Diplomats

The article discusses the events on the night of January 20—21, 1927 in Valmiera, when Lieutenant Edgars Oliņš, an officer in the Latvian armed forces, attempted a coup d'état. Despite the fact that coup d'état lasted only few hours and the citizens discovered all from the newspapers one must notice the importance of the internal and external political context of the incident and its connection to similar events in Europe — the successful coup of December 17, 1926. in Lithuania, an attempt by the right coup on January 22, 1933 in Czechoslovakia and other similar scenarios. The events in Valmiera had a definite influence on the internal political situation in the country: caused the new round of mutual accusations in the Latvian political environment and in the media, intensified differences between the cabinet and opposition. The sharp criticism of the government intensified in the newspapers of the conservative and right wing after January 21. Public opinion was obviously being prepared for a possible Rightist coup and constitutional alteration. The question of how real the change of power in Latvia is, whether it is by parliamentary or by force, is actualized again. A significant role was played by the policy of Moscow: the Oliņš' action was used by Soviet diplomacy as another stage to stimulate the campaign in Latvian society against the so-called bourgeoisie and reaction and to influence internal politics in Latvia. In this sense, a certain effect was achieved: the Social Democrats, through the press, stated “readiness to fight fascism”, Minister of Foreign Affairs F. Cielēns stated in a public rally about incitement by “Latvian fascists” and the likelihood of a civil war in Latvia, intensified left trade unions whose representatives took the initiative to “create a united front against the fascists”. One must state that the Social Democrats took advantage of the situation to strengthen their position and emphasize the danger of the active position of the leaders of the right-wing spectrum. Permutations were carried out in the army, pressure on the right increased — arrests were made among members of the Latvian Nationalist Club (LNK), a law was passed that allowed the government to create field courts in peacetime and, therefore, a local event was used as an instrument of internal policy. At the same time, Moscow formed a political line in the conditions of negotiations on a political and trade alliance with Latvia. The events in Valmiera were used to support the Social Democratic government as a favorable conjuncture for strengthening mutual relations. The interests of the right-wing opposition were also taken into account. Thus, the events of December 1926 in Kaunas and the attempt of the right putsch in Valmiera in January 1927 defined for Soviet diplomacy both a line of relations with the social democrats and the development of a strategy of interaction with the right opposition in Latvia.

Basarab I at the Beginnings of Wallachia. An Attempt to Recompose the Moment of His Takeover of Power

The beginnings of the Wallachian mediaeval state remain an unwritten page in mediaeval history. The absence of relevant documents apt to set a chronology, to confirm the moment that the first voivode, Basarab I, came into power, prompted the Romanian researchers to formulate viewpoints which could only be partially accepted in the scientific world. Our contribution is to try and arrange the facts logically so as to unravel the complicated file of the Romanian state genesis. In approaching the moment, two aspects of the research must be considered. The first refers to identifying, as accurately as possible, the first Wallachian voivode, which is necessary to formulate general considerations on the period during which he might have assumed power in the sub-Carpathian territories. The other aspect has to do with the entire external political context, with the moment of maximum expansion of the Golden Horde Khanate, under Nogai’s command, when the area was probably ruled by an intercessor of the fierce Tatar prince. The respite following Nogai’s assassination marked the beginning of the unification process south of the Carpathians, which we do not exactly know whether it was initiated under voivode Basarab or it was just completed by him. The dynastic crisis of Hungary, along with the Transylvanian attempts to break away from its trusteeship, also favoured the process of territorial unification south of the Carpathians. Therefore, even though Wallachia and its leader Basarab I were first mentioned in a 1324 diploma, we may assume that the first Romanian mediaeval state was already formed at the beginning of the third decade of the 14th century.

Principles and Politics in Law Reform: Sexual Offences in Scots Law

In 2007 the Scottish Law Commission completed a project for the reform of Scots law on rape and other sexual offences. The bulk, but by no means all, of the Commission's recommendations were enacted in the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009, which came into force in November 2010. Although this paper will have much to say on the new law on sexual offences, its main focus is on the process of law reform which led to this change. In particular, the paper will address two general themes about law reform, in the sense of the systematic method of law reform adopted by bodies like Law Commissions. The first is that most good law reform exercise must identify the underlying principles which inform and structure the ultimate recommendations. The second relates to the 'politics' of law reform. For this purpose 'politics' has two contrasting meanings. One is the external political context to the project itself; what political factors (if any) were involved in the project being initiated, in moulding the proposals for reform, in deciding whether or not to implement the recommendations, and determining the final form which the law would take in statute. In the case of the sexual offences project, politics in this sense was involved at all these stages, and it is impossible to understand how we now have the law in the form it is without being aware of these political factors. Many law reformers are wary of these political influences. Law Commissions spend considerable time and hard work in carrying any project through to completion. Yet, often enough, the strength and purity of their proposals for reform are often watered down in the political process of the passage of an implementing bill in the Scottish or UK Parliament. Worse still, the Government, whether in Holyrood or Westminster, might decide against legislative implementation of the recommendations of an entire project, often but not always, because it anticipates a hostile political reaction to any implementing bill.

The Platform of European Social NGOs: ideology, division and coalition

This paper explores the role of ideological division in complicating collaboration between third sector organizations working to influence European Union (EU) policy processes. The Social Platform, the largest alliance of social justice groups working at EU level, is studied to illustrate how a coalition of ideologically disparate organizations cope with internal tensions that are often exacerbated by external shifts in the political opportunities available for mobilization. The alliance is successful at mediating the most significant sources of ideologically based division. However, the external political context for mobilization requires coalition members to compete for recognition and resources available at EU level. The reordering of EU equality legislation and initiatives has most recently exacerbated a series of competitive dynamics in play across the EU third sector and has stretched the ability of the coalition to maintain unity among member organizations.

From protests to litigation to YouTube: A longitudinal case study of strategic lobby tactic choice for the Buffalo Field Campaign

Interest group scholars have long explored under what circumstances interest groups choose lobby tactics to influence policy. While most studies focus on well-funded national interest groups, this study uses a newly formed interest group, Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC), in order to qualitatively analyze changes in lobby tactic choice from its inception and empirically assess these changes with traditional measures of lobby choice. Additionally, this study employs an innovative methodology by proposing a new typology of lobby strategy and using the interest group's political narratives as the data source. Thus, the research questions addressed in this study are: (1) does the BFC evolve over a ten year period in terms of lobby typologies and if so, how?; (2) qualitatively, what are these lobby activities?; and (3) how does choice of lobby typology relate to age of the group, issue saliency, financial resources, and external political context? The results indicate that BFC has gone through three distinct lobbying stages since its inception from indirect-unconventional to direct-conventional to indirect-conventional. Significantly correlated with these stages are age, financial resources, and governing coalition; interestingly, there are no statistically significant associations between lobby tactic choice and issue salience or external political context measured in the number of bison deaths. The implications of the findings for the study of other interest groups are explored.

Public Managers' Perceptions of Organizational Goal Ambiguity: Analyzing Alternative Models

ABSTRACT Much organizational theory, research, and practice emphasizes the value of organizational members having clear perceptions of the organization's goals. For years, authors have asserted that public organizations have particularly vague goals, goals more vague than those of business firms. Yet, researchers have not devoted a lot of attention to ways of measuring perceptions about organizational goal clarity in public organizations and analyzing these perceptions. Many authors claim that the external political context increases goal ambiguity in public organizations. Some survey evidence, however, suggests that other factors, such as individual dispositions and attitudes, and internal organizational structures and processes, have greater effects. We analyze three alternative models of goal ambiguity—a political model, an organizational model, and an individual model—using data collected in Phase II of the National Administrative Studies Project (NASP-II), and then a composite model. Although political context acts as a significant determinant of goal ambiguity, both organizational and individual models have better explanatory power. Implications of these findings for theory and managerial practice are discussed.

Protest Cycles and Political Process: American Peace Movements in the Nuclear Age

Since the dawn of the nuclear age small groups of activists have consistently protested both the content of United States national security policy, and the process by which it is made. Only occasionally, however, has concern about nuclear weapons spread beyond these relatively marginal groups, generated substantial public support, and reached mainstream political institutions. In this paper, I use histories of peace protest and analyses of the inside of these social movements and theoretical work on protest cycles to explain cycles of movement engagement and quiescence in terms of their relation to external political context, or the "structure of political opportunity." I begin with a brief review of the relevant literature on the origins of movements, noting parallels in the study of interest groups. Building on recent literature on political opportunity structure, I suggest a theoretical framework for understanding the lifecycle of a social movement that emphasizes the interaction between activist choices and political context, proposing a six-stage process through which challenging movements develop. Using this theoretical framework I examine the four cases of relatively broad antinuclear weapons mobilization in postwar America. I conclude with a discussion of movement cycles and their relation to political alignment, public policy, and institutional politics.

Peace Protest and Policy

The tremendous fluctuations in public mobilization against United States nuclear weapons policy, a relatively stable policy over four decades, present a difficult riddle to social scientists. Since the dawn of the nuclear age small groups of activists have consistently protested both the content of United States national security policy and the process by which it is made. Only occasionally, however, has this protest spread beyond a handful of relatively marginal groups, generated substantial public support, and reached mainstream political institutions. This article examines the political cycles of peace movement engagement and quiescence, and their relation to external political context, particularly public policy. I begin with a brief review of the relevant literature on the origins of the movements, noting parallels in the study of interest groups. Building on recent literature on political opportunity structure. I suggest a theoretical framework which emphasizes the interaction between activists choices and political context. I then describe the cycles of peace movement activism and quiescence on nuclear weapons issues in the United States using mass media sources to delineate periods of mobilization. I outline a number of policy variables which may help explain protest mobilization. My conclusions address the importance of policy and political context in explaining movement cycles and the potential influence of protest movements on policy.