Pluralist Model Research Articles

Securing patient safety through quality assurance in a mixed economy of healthcare: The role of accreditation

Independent accreditation is the third component of comprehensive regulatory systems of countries with a mixed economy of healthcare provision such as the United States and Australia. Now that the Health and Social Care Act 2013 is fueling more pluralistic provider and commissioner models in England, this article explores the case for requiring all suppliers of publicly funded healthcare to be formally accredited. In doing so, it sets out the benefits of independent accreditation, describes the international market including the UK-based accreditation bodies, lists some NHS providers who have already opted to be accredited and sets out a proposed way forward based on the recent experience of South Africa.

Racionalidad y elección de teorías: una aproximación a Howard Sankey

This paper aims to explore some possibilities of application of the pluralist model for the choice of theories proposed by Howard Sankey. It claims that this model is effective to explain some problems associated with the rational theory-choice, such as the historical variability of the choice mechanisms, the epistemic components of the criteria and the risk of relativism. The paper states that the model is an interesting strategy to defend rationality preserving a version of the incommensurability thesis. The second section addresses the problem of the translatability of incommensurable theories and the varia-tion in meaning, with an emphasis on the concept of background natural language. The third section presents Sankey’s model, tracing antecedents in Kuhn, Feyerabend and Wittgenstein, and analyzing the thesis that states that no criterion of evaluation of theories is inviolable. The concept of rational disagreement is also discussed, using events of the Copernican revolution as reference. The section four continues with the issue of Copernicanism, focusing on the conditions for the breakdown of consensus in the scientific communities. Finally, the paper concludes by defending the functionality of Sankey’s model for dealing with problems associated with rationality.

La Tradizione Giuridica Indigena

The main theme of this work is summarized in the attempt, first, to explain the nature of the relationships that develop in the Indigenous peoples reality, and if you can identify as a legal system. Secondly, we will try to identify the social groups that have imposed a pluralist model. The structure and methods of indigenous systems constitute an indivisible whole with the world view of these same people, and your culture, thus establishing their specific identities.

Teachers' attitudes towards Korean English in South Korea

ABSTRACTThis study explores the attitudes of English teachers, both Korean and non‐Korean, towards ‘Korean English’ (KoE) in South Korea. Data about these attitudes were collected via 204 questionnaires and 25 post‐survey individual interviews, from two major regions, Busan Gyeongnam and Seoul Gyeonggi, and were analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The results indicate that the majority of participants displayed a positive attitude towards KoE, especially regarding to the ‘cognitive’ component of attitude, while they showed ‘confused’ and ‘conflicting’ attitudes in the behavioural element. The unique features of KoE, its intelligibility, demographic and widespread use of KoE were perceived by participants as the most influential factors shaping their cognitive attitudes towards the language. Language variation and an acceptance of a pluralistic model of English language norms played a critical role in developing positive attitudes towards KoE in both the cognitive and behavioural components of participants’ attitudes.

الحوكمة البيئية و التجارة العالمية : نحو تفسير لإشكالات الحوكمة البيئية العالمية = Environmental Governance and Global Trade : Towards an Explanation of Global Environmental Governance Crisis

The study aims at clarifying the features of global governance based on the notion of "Unitas Multiplex", which signify the existence of the object in unitary and multiple figures in the same time. In order to do this, I want to define the transformations of the global regulatory projects after the globalization waves and the return of the market as a global regulatory regime, and analyze the conditions for equal and equitable global governance. After showing the proposal model of global regulation based on the notion of unitary emergence and pluralistic regulation, this research analyzes the debate between the two projects of global trade governance and global environmental governance, and the different formulas for treating this conflict. This research proposes finally a pluralistic model to the global environmental regulation in order to reconstruct contradictory global projects, which take in account the multiplicity of local actors and the necessity to their democratic governance and the unitary of the global project of environmental regulation. I analyzing, than, the various characteristics and configurations of global environmental governance, which form the theoretical basis of this concept, like the characteristic of the institutional multiplicity of the global environmental governance, the participation of non state actors, and the new arrangements of global environmental politics which adopt a new approach of the political economy of global environmental governance. We conclude that the trade-environment conflict should be treated in new ways through the making a non reductionist pluralist analytical frame, with a new logic in order to confront trade to environment, by viewing this conflict in multiple angles in the institutional level, and in the level of the relation between the problem of legitimacy and the notion of democracy, and in the level of the relation between society and nature.

Pluralism, Principles and Proportionality in Intellectual Property

This review article offers a European perspective on the pluralistic, principles-based model of intellectual property (IP) advanced by Robert Merges in his book Justifying Intellectual Property. After introducing Merges’s model and theory of IP with reference to IP theories generally, other pluralistic legal models, and patterns of judicial reasoning in the patent and copyright fields, the article argues that European jurisprudence offers broad support for Merges’s operational model of IP, while also challenging certain aspects of his wider analysis. They include his ‘one size fits all’ foundational theory of IP, his account of key IP rules and practices, and his choice and conception of IP’s midlevel principles. Through this critique the article draws attention to the utilitarian bias of Merges’s model; a bias which undermines its pluralistic claims, in part by undermining Merges’s own foundational theory of IP. The result is to underline the limits of a regime unconcerned with its own normative basis, and the need for more rather than less discussion of IP theory, including more work of the type which Merges’s book undertakes.

Breeding bird assemblage dynamics of a primaeval temperate mixed forest in the Western Carpathians (Slovakia): support for pluralistic community concept

Structure and dynamics of breeding bird assemblages of primaeval beech-fir forest in the Šrámková National Nature Reserve, the Malá Fatra Mts., Slovakia were studied during ten consecutive years 1997–2006. Bird abundances were estimated by the combined ver-sion of the mapping method in the 27.5 ha forest interior study plot. Determination of for-aging guild structure was done by a posteriori approach by a numerical analysis of ran-dom point observations of foraging birds. In total, 53 bird species were recorded as breed-ers in the study plot, averaging 39.0 species per year. Mean value of population variability coefficient (PV) of density of the 22 most numerous species was 0.33 ± 0.14 SD (CV = 42.05%) indicating a mean difference in density among years of 33%. The highest fluctu-ations were detected in plant eaters (PV = 0.47, N = 3) followed by flycatchers (PV = 0.44, N = 3), herb layer foragers (PV = 0.33, N = 2), trunk foragers (PV = 0.33, N = 2), foliage gleaners (PV = 0.29, N = 8) and litter foragers (PV = 0.21, N = 4). Cluster analysis of the Pearson’s correlation coefficient of species densities showed no consistent grouping ac-cording to wintering areas or guild membership. Only seven of 26 simulations by binary null models (9 algorithms, 3 indices) on assemblage level indicated negative associations. None of 9 null model simulations of density assemblage matrix (3 algorithms, 3 indices) or null model analysis of foraging guilds showed negative species associations. The re-sults do not provide evidence for competition in the structuring of this bird assemblage, but instead support a pluralistic model of community functioning.

A Critique of Some Anglo-American Models of Collective Moral Agency in Business

The paper completes a trilogy of papers, under the title: “A Quasi-Personal Alternative to Some Anglo-American Pluralist Models of Organisations: Towards an Analysis of Corporate Self-Governance for Virtuous Organisations”. The first two papers of the three are published in Philosophy of Management, Volumes 10,3 and 11,2. This last paper argues that three dominant Anglo-American organisational theories which see themselves as “business ethics-friendly,” are less so than they seem. It will be argued they present obstacles to collective corporate moral agency. They are: 1) the dominant “soft pluralist” organisational theory of Bolman and Deal, published in 1984 and more recently expressed in Reframing Organisations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership, 5th edition, 2013, which is based on “reframing,” and which we will call reframing theory (RT); 2) the Business Ethics deployment of Stakeholder Management Theory (SMT) associated with R. Edward Freeman, and several colleagues, dominant in the same period (1984-); and 3) to a much lesser degree, an adapted version of SMT in the Integrated Social Contract Theory (ISCT) of Donaldson and Dunfee (Ties That Bind, Harvard Business School Press (1999)).

Introducing social capital into the ‘polarized pluralist’ model: The different contexts of press politicization in Portugal and Spain

Abstract This article presents the concept of social capital as complementary to Hallin and Mancini’s ‘polarized pluralist’ model, which has been used in relation to both Spain and Portugal. In our view, while the current Spanish context may be characterized by ‘partisan’ journalism, this is less true of Portugal. We propose that Hallin and Mancini’s polarized pluralist model be complemented by the concept of social capital to comprehend the specific underpinnings of the power constellations surrounding the press in Portugal and Spain. We will start by comparing the current situation of the press in both countries, with analysis centred on the continuities and discontinuities between past and present in a context of transition to democracy. The evolution of the press under the right-wing dictatorships of Franco and Salazar will then be historically contextualized, with the aim of drawing attention to ideological differences that may currently account for the greater political fissures between the right and left wings in Spain compared to Portugal. Lastly, we will examine the threat that the Portuguese Colonial War and the Spanish separatist movements posed to national, hegemonically defined, ‘imagined communities’ (Anderson 1983) and their subsequent influence on the evolution of press freedom in both countries.

Christian–Muslim Relations inEgypt in the Wake of theArabSpring

AbstractTheArabSpring protests that brought massive and largely unforeseen political change toEgypt included all sectors of society, including theEgyptianChristian population, known asCopts.Copts participated in large numbers in the protests that brought about regime change inFebruary 2011, but the broader implications of the revolution toCopts are unclear. In this essay,Iaddress the changes inChristian–Muslim relations that attended the development of a new republican regime inEgypt as a result of theArabSpring. While the former regime of PresidentHosniMubarak had formed a stable elite partnership with the hierarchy of theCopticOrthodoxChurch (a “neo‐millet” system), the 2011 revolution contributed to the erosion of this partnership in favor of a republican and pluralist model of citizenship in which individualCopts represent their own interests. The increasingly assertive public role of lay movements amongCopts, coupled with the death of theCopticPatriarch (pope) and his replacement by a younger successor, points to the continued erosion of the elite partnership in favor of the new model. Time will tell whether or not pluralist representation or a retrenched corporatism that favors the church will dominateChristian–Muslim relations inEgypt into the future.

Rediscovering the Mediterranean Characteristics of the Croatian Media System

The article presents the analysis of the Croatian post-socialist media system within the comparative framework of Hallin and Mancini’s approach. The media system and the political system are analyzed with the cluster of variables, interpreting the development of the media market, political parallelism, journalistic professionalism, and the role of the state in relation to the existing theoretical framework. The paper demonstrates a perfect fit with the Mediterranean polarized pluralist model of media system, and argues that the Croatian case disproves the proposition that Hallin and Mancini’s model cannot be applied to new democracies in post-communist Europe. The communist period in Croatia provided nuance to an already existing framework of media system, while the post-communist transition after 1990 and ensuing democracy continue to exhibit the historically determined relationships between politics and the media. The article argues in conclusion that ignorance of the true nature of media systems and social and political frameworks that shape them are the reason for the failed internationally assisted democratization processes and successful implementation of foreign media regulation models.

Is Albania Ready for a New Media Model?

Albania inherited a media system with only a handful of state-owned media outlets controlled austerely by the communist party-state. Actually the political system and the society as a whole, and particularly, the media landscape have changed dramatically. Despite the variety of choices the numerous media outlets might seem to offer to a wider public audience, a series of factors, - including the lack of proper journalistic education, political polarization, and still a weak economy and relatively small media market - have hampered the development of a professional media system in Albania, which fails to measure up to any of the key dimensions of well-established western media models. Our analysis is largely based on the most important dimensions that might characterize (and influence) Albanian media systems, more specifically, the Albanian media system, in light of Hallin and Mancini’s (2004) work on comparative political communication. In view of their four key dimensions on media models analysis, Albanian press system clearly lags behind the indicators of most of the countries reviewed, especially in terms of its very low press circulation and readership figures, the severe financial burdens it is faced with; Albania press system clearly lags behind the indicators of most of the countries reviewed, especially in terms of its very low press circulation and readership figures, as well as the severe financial burdens it is faced with; Albanian news media fail in meeting adequate journalistic education and proper training standards; Albania is apparently needing to adopt a new model that could curb the Government’s and state’s potential intervention and attempts to control information. We would argue that Albania is closer to the model named ‘the Mediterranean,’ or ‘the Polarized Pluralistic Model,’ which relates to media systems in Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal and France and we believe that it would be very interesting to explore whether adopting such a model would be a better solution for Albania’s media system. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2013.v2n2p485

One Century of Allgemeine Psychopathologie (1913 to 2013) by Karl Jaspers

One Century of Allgemeine Psychopathologie (1913 to 2013) by Karl Jaspers

Cultural Beliefs about Disability in Practice: Experiences at a Special School in Tanzania

This article examines cultural beliefs and values about disability in one Tanzanian community and the influence of those beliefs on a school for children with disabilities. The larger ethnographic study examined the role of beliefs in the community and the development of the school curriculum. This study used the models of disability as a framework for classifying and understanding the different belief systems present. The study was conducted in a rural community in Tanzania at a school for children with developmental disabilities. In this community, multiple models of disability were present, but the socio-cultural and pluralistic models were most prevalent. Beliefs centred about the causes of disability, God’s plan or role in the community, and a mixture of Christian, Muslim, and traditional beliefs. Participants saw the school staff as integral to influencing beliefs about disability in the community through their presence and outreach efforts.

An Accent-Plus Lesson for an English Phonetics Class: Integrating Indian English into Contrastive Analysis

Despite the diverse forms of English used and spoken around the world, most English learners tend to regard English as a homogeneous language, mistakenly believing that its linguistic variation is an error or a defect, regardless of the context where it operates for international and intranational communication. In response to Kachru and Smith’s (2008) proposal of a paradigm shift towards pluralistic models of English and Larsen-Freeman’s (2007) deconstructive perspective of the acquisition/participation dichotomy, this paper devised a specific accent-plus lesson on Indian English for English phonetics teachers to enhance English learners’ ethnosensitivity towards diverse ways of speaking English in different countries.

The Limits on Pay as a Strategic Tool: Obstacles to Alignment in Non-Union Environments

Strategic human resource management literature emphasizes the potential of pay to secure strategically desirable employee outcomes for the employer. Strategic pay, in contrast with pluralist models of pay determination, assumes an absence of collective bargaining constraints. This article analyses the process of determination of non-unionized managerial, professional and technical pay in seven leading consumer goods firms that claim to use pay as a strategic tool. It demonstrates that implemented pay practice is often remote from what is aspired to strategically. Despite the absence of collective bargaining constraints, there remain unavoidable obstacles to the ability of management to implement pay systems aligned to strategic goals. These constraints impose fundamental limitations on the use of pay as a strategic tool.

Functions, levels, and mechanisms: Explanation in cognitive science and its problems

In the first part of the paper we describe the philosophical debate on the expansions of cognitive science into the brain and into the environment, take sides against the “revolutionary” positions on them and in favor of a “reformist” approach, and conclude that the most appropriate model for cognitive sciences is pluralistic. This is meant in a twofold sense. On the one hand, mental phenomena require a variety of explanatory levels, whose inter-relations are of two kinds: decomposition and contextualization. On the other hand, the arguably quasi-holistic character of some cognitive tasks suggests that the mechanistic style of explanation has to be integrated in these cases with a dynamical explanatory style. This theoretical picture, however, raises two classes of problems: (a) the compatibility between the mechanistic-computationalist explanation and the dynamical one and (b) the nature of theoretical entities and relations postulated at the different levels of a pluralistic model involving computational explanations. Each point will be discussed in the second part of the paper.

Filial Obligations: A Contextual, Pluralist Model

In this article I investigate the nature and extent of filial obligations. The question what (adult) children owe their parents is not only philosophically interesting, but also of increasing relevance in ageing societies. Its answer matters to elderly people and their adult children, and is relevant to social policy issues in various ways. I present the strongest arguments for and against three models of filial obligations: the ‘past parental sacrifices’ model, the ‘special relationship’ model, and the conventionalist model. There is something to be said—and after consideration of objections something remains to be said—for all three models. In other words: filial obligations have more than one source, and an adequate model of filial obligations should reflect this. On its own, each of the above models is one-sided. They also fail to show the connections between the question of filial obligations and various other issues, such as issues of gender justice, the extent of institutionalization of eldercare, and social conventions regarding filial responsibility. Therefore, I integrate what I think we should keep from the aforementioned models into a contextual, pluralist model, which places filial obligations in a broader social and cultural context and relates them to issues of social justice. The model also highlights the difference between general and specific filial obligations, and the factors that determine their nature and extent, thus enabling a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of filial obligations.

Presuppositions of Collective Moral Agency: Analogy, Architectonics, Justice, and Casuistry

This is the second of three papers with the overall title: “A Quasi-Personal Alternative to Some Anglo-American Pluralist Models of Organisations: Towards an Analysis of Corporate Self-Governance for Virtuous Organisations”.1 In the first paper, entitled: “Organisations as quasi-personal entities: from ‘governing’ of the self to organisational ‘self’-governance: a Neo-Aristotelian quasi-personal model of organisations”, the artificial corporate analogue of a natural person sketched there, was said to have quasi-directive, quasi-operational and quasi-enabling/resource-provision capacities. Its use of these capacities following joint deliberation in ethically permissible and just joint acts, their effect on end-users and other parties, and conformity with or challenge to State law, arguably settles its moral status as an ethical or unethical organisational agent. This paper identifies and defends the presuppositions of this conception, and applies the results to business.

Revisiting the Impact of Judicial Review on Agency Rulemakings: An Empirical Investigation

ABSTRACT It is generally believed that the judicial review of agency rulemakings helps protect the public against industry capture. Yet very little empirical research has been done to assess the accuracy of this conventional wisdom. This Study examines the entire set of air toxic emission regulations promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with particular attention to those rules appealed to judgment in the court of appeals, and discovers significant disconnects between popular understanding of judicial review and rulemaking reality. Of these air toxic rules (N=90), the courts were summoned to review only a small fraction (8%), despite evidence that many air toxic rules may have problems, at least from the public perspective. Moreover, although virtually all of the litigation brought by public groups against the EPA's air toxic rules was successful, the resulting victories have not yet had much impact in practice. For most of its vacated regulations, the EPA has either ignored or limited the courts' opinions and has not repromulgated revised rules. Thus, while the tenor of the opinions seems to reaffirm the courts' role as guardian of the public the actual impact of these opinions on agency practice may be less influential than one might expect. A concluding section takes the analysis one step further and explores the possibility that the net effect of judicial review may actually be more perverse. The ability of the dominant parties (which in the case of the EPA's air toxic rules are regulated industries) to threaten the agency with expensive and time-consuming litigation could provide these groups with legal leverage that, in the aggregate, serves to further undermine the agency's ability to act on behalf of the public interest. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION I. JUDICIAL REVIEW OF AGENCY RULEMAKINGS: THEORY AND PRACTICE A. Basics of Judicial Review B. Unreviewed Assumptions II. THE STUDY III. FINDINGS A. The Role of the Courts in Advancing the Public Interest 1. The Court Opinions 2. The Denominator Factor: Comparing the Appeals Against the Larger Set of Air Toxic Emission Standards 3. Summary B. What Is the Impact of the Courts' Rulings on the EPA's Rulemaking Project? 1. Repairing Deficient Rules 2. Precedential Effects C. Some of the Unintended Costs to the Public Interest from Judicial Review IV. REVISITING THE IMPACT OF JUDICIAL REVIEW ON AGENCY RULEMAKINGS A. Interest Group Representation Model B. The Traditional Model, Revisited C. The Limits of the Courts CONCLUSION APPENDIX INTRODUCTION The judicial expansion of standing in the 1970s radically altered administrative process. A legal system available only to regulated industries seeking to protect their narrow interests against agency abuse (1) was transformed into a process that allowed all affected parties, including public groups, to challenge agency rules in court. (2) The risk that the agency could now be sued by all affected parties, rather than just by regulated interests, was expected to cause agencies to be both more solicitous of and more receptive to the views of all stakeholders. (3) Equally beneficial, when an agency did ignore stakeholder input, the agency could be forced to explain its decision to the courts. (4) This new, broader form of judicial review was expected to play a particularly important institutional check against capture by regulated parties. (5) Although there is vigorous debate about whether this pluralistic model--initially dubbed the interest group representation model--is the best one for administrative process, (6) there seems to be tacit agreement among commentators that this model generally describes what occurs on the ground. (7) Yet central features of the pluralistic model remain unsubstantiated as an empirical matter. …