The «New Towns » experience. A tentative reply to J.-P. Alduy. (J.-E. Roul-lier, p. 79-104) «Few equally ambitious urbanistic projects have been conceived, adopted, planned and carried out so rapidly as have the New Towns. » J.-E. Roullier quotes this remark of J.-P. Alduy and makes of it the central question to which an answer must be found in order to grasp the dynamism of the New Towns. After criticizing J.-P. Alduy' s thesis (the New Towns as a «beacon» project of the technology), J.-E. Roullier puts forward three sets of explanatory hypotheses that call for examination, verification and comparative research : a widespread consensus on the aims ; the existence of the Paris region district with its own budget and resources, a unique insitution in France ; lastly , a decentralized system for the creation of the New Towns giving full responsibility to all the parties concerned, especially the elected officials and Government representatives â a non-technocratic arrangement compared with other Western experiences of the same type. Aside from these considerations, the former high-ranking official of the Groupe central des villes nouvelles (Central Agency for New Towns) feels that the French New Town experience merits careful examination with particular attention to the following points : â the coincidence, at least from the historic standpoint, of the New Towns achievement with the phase of economic expansion and rapid urbanization in France (1960-1975) ; â the «technocracy» : its composition, the role of the various groups that constitute it ; â the 1962-1967 period witnessed the establishment of the New Town project and the setting up of the basic mechanisms required for its implementation : A careful analysis of the motivations, the power relationships, the role of the various actors during that period would be useful. The way the project was set up and financed, the organization and working methods of the various agencies concerned with its implementation, marked a break with the habitual behavior of the French administration, upsetting previous balances. Examples of this are the Central Agency for New Towns, the constant support of the Finance Minister for the New Towns, the working methods put into practice that forced Government officials to establish a different type of relationship with the local elected authorities and those directly responsible for carrying out the operations. In conclusion, J.-E. Roullier spells out the «lesson» of the New Towns : As opposed to the generally «dis-articulated» functioning of the chain of urbanism agents and officials, the New Towns experience is a successful example of a different way of operating which «re-articulates », on the one hand, responsible community groupings having at their disposal the programmed means required but limited role of stimulation, assistance, for an overall facilities policy, and, on guidance, and supervision. This is an the other, permanent interdisciplinary interpretation substantially different from teams working on the spot in contact Alduy' s view of an all-powerful techno- with the builders and fulfilling a vital cracy, arm of the central state apparatus.
The extraordinarily rapid advance of microelectronics is causing a rapid drop in both the cost and economy of scale of computing equipment. In less than a decade, the powerful economic incentive for centralizing the production of computing cycles has reversed. Simultaneously, the productivity of computing professionals has not kept pace with inflation, and it appears that staff productivity gains will be difficult to achieve in a decentralized environment.Distribution of computing equipment is making support for the individual computer user more difficult in the following ways:-- There is a need for support of multiple types of small computer hardware.-- There is a need to maintain multiple operating systems and versions of applications software.-- There is little knowledge and experience in providing documentation, user training, and consulting support in a highly distributed multi-architecture computing environment.This paper outlines Cornell's response to the challenge of decentralized computing. The paper details the rationale, planning, organization, financing, and staffing for the new Decentralized Academic Computer Support group in Cornell Computing Services. In addition, the responsibilities of that group and its interaction with the other groups in Computing Services is described. Finally, attention is given to the relationship between Computing Services and the Cornell community regarding small computers.The accelerating trend of decentralizing the production of computing cycles presents user support groups with both a challenge and an opportunity. Failure to respond will result in more expensive and lower quality computing for the university community as well as declining utilization of user support services.
672 BOOK REVIEWS not with the evil that fear has to do with, but rather with " the eminence of the divine good, by whose power some evil can be inflicted." And in the ad 2 St. Thomas quickly tosses aside the objection, as not being about the gift of foar at all, because that objection had to do with the sort of fear which has evil for its object. Plainly, the position now is that the gift of fear does not have any sort of evil for its object. That is not the position either of the De spe or the ST 2-2 (and seems at odds also with ST 2-2.19.9. ad 2 and ad 3) . And if reverence, an act of the gift of fear, is a form of fear, what has become of the position that the objectof fear is evil? All I mean to argue here is that Guindon should have presented a full-dress discussion of this issue, not the few remarks such as he gives at pp. 77-79 and 246-247. This is especially so in view of his own judgment concerning the importance of the doctrine at stake: thus, at p. 319, he can speak of St. Thomas's keen awareness of the ultimate foundation of fear, namely the finitude of the creature faced with the infinity of God. A much less serious point: Guindon's use of the expression "la pedagogic nouvelle" for the learning process proper to the New Law (cf. p. 139, p. 323, etc.). "Pedagogue" suggests the stern discipline proper to the Old Law (cf. p. 134). At p. 330 he speaks with more finesse, in my opinion, using "pedagogic" for the Old Law and "education" for the New. The book is well proof-read by today's standards, but on p. 359, the first mode of amor sui (wrongly numbered" 3 ") has a lacuna: this at an important moment of the discussion. The size of the numbers used to designate the notes is inconveniently small. College dominicain de philosophie et de theologie Ottawa, Ontario, Canada LAWRENCE DEWAN, 0. P. Theology in a New Key. By ROBERT McAFEE BROWN. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1978. Pp. 212. $6.95. This appealing book is an introduction to a body of literature, Latin American liberation theology, that is not well-known in the Englishspeaking world. Thanks to Orbis Books, founded by the Maryknoll Fathers, the principal books and documents of this theology are available in English. Still, since the method of this theology is of recent origin, and since its starting point is very disturbing to the industrialized countries of the West, it is not easy to understand what is being said by this theology. What is this disturbing starting point? According to the theology of liberation, the Gospel can be grasped only if we analyse the concrete form which BOOK REVIEWS 678 evil takes in our society and understand the Christian message as God's initiative summoning and directing us to overcome evil. According to the Latin American theologians, the dominant systemic evil in their society is the international capitalistic system that inflicts on this society economic and cultural dependency, pushes large sections of the population into destitution and early mortality, and creates in the middle classes a distorted perception of reality. Robert McAfee Brown, a well-known Protestant theologian, is famous for his ability to introduce a wide Christian audience to issues discussed in high theology. Brown writes about learned things in a simple and direct style and relates them to people's experiences. He knows where the mind and heart of the Protestant community are. For him, theology is never a conversation confined to academics: 1t must always involve the believing community. This is so because Christian truth is propter salutem. The conversation with the local congregation protects the theologian from losing the thread. The book under review is a brilliant application of this method to an explosive topic. Can one kee'P a congregation in their seats while explaining to them that capitalism may have a distorting effect on the perception of God and divine salvation? Brown does it. Brown offers us a propaedeutic of...
Blockchain technology has held numerous promises: for a better internet, for decentralization, for a critique of power â and maybe even a critique of capitalism. Until, that is, capitalism struck back and turned this new tech into a symptom rather than a solution. But is there still the potential to change trajectory? Wassim Alsindi talks to Simon Denny about the function of ideology in Web3 communities, the origin of seed phrases, and the role of art in enabling positive change.\nAn astrophysicist by education, Wassim explains why he started working at the crossroad of science, Web3 initiatives, and art. He talks about ...
THE MAJOR INTEREST in the recent literature on economies has lain in the results about but finite economies that have been derived from the results proved for economies. It is thus important to find simple yet general proofs for economies. In this article we wish to provide a simple yet general proof of the existence of a competitive equilibrium in an infinite, nonstandard economy with production. The simplicity of our proof comes from the fact that nonstandard analysis can deal with large and small quantities very much as ordinary analysis deals with finite quantities.2 As a result, it is possible to follow very closely the proof of existence for an economy with a finite number of traders, such as that in G. Debreu's classic Theory of Value [6]. In fact, if one is willing to believe that nonstandard analysis permits us to manipulate quantities as claimed above, then no further knowledge of nonstandard analysis is required in order to follow the proof. As examples of the simplicity of nonstandard analysis, it may be pointed out that no analogue of the Fatou-Schmeidler lemma [7, p. 69], a fairly difficult mathematical theorem, is required; nor is it necessary to prove separately that preserves upper-semicontinuity, a proof that Aumann [1] has recently simplified, because integration in the nonstandard model consists of an infinite summation, hence an appeal to 1.9.4 of Debreu [6] suffices to establish this point. As our main objective is to obtain results about but finite economies, it is a welcome bonus to find out that no further effort is needed to obtain these desired theorems. This arises because of the following property of nonstandard analysis. Consider a sequence of real numbers {an} which tends to zero. If we could extend this sequence to the integers, it would surely be a necessary property of the values of {an} at the integers that they are all infinitely close to zero. What makes nonstandard analysis powerful is that the above line of reasoning can be reversed, so to speak. Suppose we have a sequence which
SHORTLY BEFORE HIS DEATH IN 1555, the Marian martyr Laurence Saunders condemned the highly ceremonial nature of the Roman Catholic religion. Even from the beginning, he declared, ceremonies had been invented and ordained for the rude infancy and weak infirmity of man. That the primitive had few ceremonies was proof of its greater perfection. By contrast, the many ceremonies of the late church papistical-partly blasphemous, partly unsavory, and unprofitable1-were evidence of its rudeness. Yet Saunders himself displayed a ritualistic pattern of behavior replete with ceremonial devices through much of his life. In study he was diligent and painful; in godly life he declared the fruits of a well exercised conscience; he prayed often and with great fervor; and in his prayers, as also at other times, he had his part of the spiritual exercises.... 2 Saunders was not alone. Many Marian martyrs prepared themselves for death in ways reminiscent of Catholic ceremony. They devised a compulsive ritual that they performed meticulously in exacting detail. This elaborate ceremony followed an inflexible pattern: a precise, self-disciplined daily existence, culminating in a ritualistic burning at the stake that duplicated the deaths of the pre-Nicean martyrs. Why did Saunders and his fellow reforming martyrs adopt a stylized pattern of behavior similar in many respects to the Catholic ritual they abhorred and believed ineffectual for salvation? By using the insights gleaned from psychological theory, it may be possible to shed some light on the phenomenon of Christian martyrdom and to understand why the most fervent and enigmatic of all religious types followed a rigid style of life and a ritualistic ceremony of death. Those insights suggest that the martyrs found it necessary to adopt an unbending form of ritualistic behavior to insulate themselves from the inner perturbations caused by their fear of martyrdom. Many were plagued by the suspicion that the actual motive in accepting martyrdom was suicide. Assuaging this fear required a
The organizational structure of the League of Nations' non-political workâon economic and financial matters, on communications and transit, on health, on narcotic drug control and certain other social problemsâwas essentially a centralized one, although each technical âorganizationâ enjoyed a considerable degree of independence. The Expert Committees in each organization reported to the League of Nations Council and were served by members of the League secretariat; and the work was financed from the budget of the League. That budget also financed the work of the International Labour Organization (ILO), which had been established, in accordance with Chapter 13 of the Treaty of Versailles, âat the seat of the League of Nations as part of the organisation of the Leagueâ. The proposals made in August 1939 by the Special Committee of the League of Nations on the Development of International Co-operation in Economic and Social Affairs (the Bruce Committee) would have replaced in this field the League Councilâa body consisting largely of Ministers for Foreign Affairs and concerned primarily with political issuesâby a Central Committee for Economic and Social Questions, composed in large part of ministers and high officials directly involved in such questions and in which non-Members of the League could participate on a basis of equality with Members. The Central Committee was to exercise, as the League Council had done, âdirection and controlâ over all the League's economic and social activities.
The relationships among transaction costs of lending and the size of borrower, capital market imperfections and economic development, and small enterprise financing and informal credit markets are described. Transaction costs include both administrative costs and default risk. Financial innovations reduce these costs and thus lower the costs of lending and borrowing and narrow the interest rate differential. In India, the Syndicate Bank has used financial innovations to compete with larger banks. The major feature of these innovations has been the creative adaptation of banking technology to suit local conditions, including recruitment and promotion policies, decentralized decision-making and avoidance of paper work, and innovative deposit schemes. The Syndicate Bank until 1965 was considered an unsophisticated rural bank, and the Central Bank did not like some of its innovations. However, since the 1969 nationalization of 14 major banks, the Central Bank has been induced to expand branches in rural areas. In forcing this emphasis on the widening and deepening of the geographical and functional scope of the banking system, the Syndicate Bank has been regarded by the Central Bank as a model bank. Tabular financial data are appended.
This paper presents a preliminary exploration of the design and deployment of solidarity primitives for Web3 social security, based on insights generated during Other Internet’s Web3 Work Forum held in July 2023. The paper proposes a modular framework to develop solidarity primitives addressing the three dimensions of security for DAO contributors: psychosocial stability, financial stability, and regulatory clarity. Additionally, it outlines a range of on-chain and off-chain mechanisms and improvement proposals specific to each dimension. Lastly, it discusses current challenges to implementation.\n
Aspects of the finnish administration. After a short historical introduction (before and after independence), the author describes the organization of central administration and decentralized units and presents some services : Finance, Education, National Defense. Reforms are under way or in the blueprint : they concern the administration of justice, deconcentration of some services, democratization of administrative life, departmental autonomy.
Research in Social Sciences
European Socioeconomic and Political Studies
Hungarian Social, Economic and Educational Studies
The reform of decentralization in Belgium Recent developments of the Belgian territorial administration reflect the constitutional problems that have arisen in Belgium since the 1970 reform which reorganized the State by setting up three autonomous regions according to the cultural duality of the country, viz Flanders, Wallonia, and the bilingual region of Brussels. The regionalization of the State is followed up by another reform movement which aims at strengthening the local administrative level of municipalities : the association and federation of communes. There are hence at present five administrative levels : State, region, province, association-federation of communes, commune. This reform, which is still provisional, allows for a complex administrative organization, at times rather incoherent, comprising too many levels of decision-making with often rather vague or ill-defined terms of reference. This has brought about a trend towards simplification of institutions leading some critics to advocate an increase in powers, according to relevant matters, either at the central (State or region) or at the local level. Without contesting the good reasons for such a criticism, the author is neverthe-less reluctant to endorse such a position which would imply that the existence of the intermediary administrative level (the traditional provinces) would be open to question, whereas he feels that it has a role to play in that this is the adequate level to handle a number of managerial tasks.
In 1971 the California Supreme Court opened the door to a major reform movement to restructure the present system of decentralized school finance. With the exception of Hawaii, elementary and secondary education in the United States is supported primarily by local property taxation supplemented in part by state funded grants-in-aid. The California Supreme Court, in the now famous Serrano rulings, declared the California system in violation of the state constitution's equal protection clause. Similar rulings have also been handed down by the New Jersey Supreme Court (Robinson vs. Cahill) and the Superior Court of Hartford, Connecticut (Horton vs. Meskill). In addition, ten states have recently enacted major reform bills, and legislation is under consideration in several others. The pressure for reform is strong and continuing. As a review of the recent reform proposals indicates, the legislative search for new means of financing local schools is not simply an incremental tinkering with existing laws.' Major changes, often court required, are at issue. Long-run outcomes are uncertain; each proposal has new winners and new losers. When planning a major reform of local school finance, therefore, past experience from incremental policymaking may not be an adequate guide to choice. Long-run general equilibrium predictive models and a clearly specified evaluation rule will be needed. It is the purpose of this paper to develop such a policy framework and to apply the analysis to one region currently in the midst of school reform, the New York metropolitan area. Six alternative reform proposals are considered: foundation aid, two district power equalization plans, property tax credits, expanded Title I assistance under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and centralized financing and spending controls. Preferred reforms are selected under utilitarian (promiddle class), Rawlsian (pro-poor), and equal school spending (Serrano) criteria.
A currently popular systems research project is to explore the possibilities and problems for computer system organization that arise from the rapidly falling cost of computing hardware. Interconnecting fleets of mini- or micro-computers and putting intelligence in terminals and concentrators to produce so-called "distributed systems " has recently been a booming development activity. While these efforts range from ingenious to misguided, many seem to miss a most important aspect of the revolution in hardware costs: that more than any other factor, the en_ ~ cost of acquiring and operating a free-standing, complete computer system has dropped and continues to drop rapidly. Where a decade ago the capital outlay required to install a computer system ranged from $150,000 up into the millions, today the low end of that range is below $15,000 and dropping. The consequence of this particular observation for system structure comes from the next level of analysis. In most organizations, decisions to make capital acquisitions tend to be more centralized for larger capita] amounts,
Abstract Rural development activities are frequently more important than isolated health care interventions in maximizing improvements in rural health status. In addition, integrated socio-economic development of rural areas ensures availability of local resources to finance health schemes, encourages community involvement in development and reforms and strengthens management capacity for health programme implementation and development. Public health services provide in turn an entry point for directly productive development activities. In designing, implementing and operating health components of rural development projects in developing countries, the most serious obstacles are almost invariably the following: (i) how to strengthen the managerial capacity of the health administration from the national to the local level and how to execute integrated programmes through decentralized and uncoordinated agencies; (ii) how to ensure adequate recurrent cost financing and contribution of beneficiaries to operating cost; and (iii) how to achieve active involvement of rural communities in decision-making and services delivery when projects are large and planned and executed by government authorities. In discussing these issues the paper will cite the World Bankâs experiences in a number of African, Asian and Latin American countries.
We study the following two related questions:\n- What are the minimal computational resources required for general secure multiparty computation in the presence of an honest majority?\n- What are the minimal resources required for two-party primitives such as zero-knowledge proofs and general secure two-party computation?\nWe obtain a nearly tight answer to the first question by presenting a perfectly secure protocol which allows n players to evaluate an arithmetic circuit of size s by performing a total of O(s log s log2 n) arithmetic operations, plus an additive term which depends (polynomially) on n and the circuit depth, but only logarithmically on s. Thus, for typical large-scale computations whose circuit width is much bigger than their depth and the number of players, the amortized overhead is just polylogarithmic in n and s. The protocol provides perfect security with guaranteed output delivery in the presence of an active, adaptive adversary corrupting a (1/3 Âż ") fraction of the players, for an arbitrary constant Âż > 0 and succiently large n. The best previous protocols in this setting could only offer computational security with a computational overhead of poly(k; log n; log s), where k is a computational security parameter, or perfect security with a computational overhead of O(n log n). We then apply the above result towards making progress on the second question. Concretely, under standard cryptographic assumptions, we obtain zero-knowledge proofs for circuit satisfiability with 2 -k soundness error in which the amortized computational overhead per gate is only polylogarithmic in k, improving over the Âż(k) overhead of the best previous protocols. Under stronger cryptographic assumptions, we obtain similar results for general secure two-party computation.
Formalization of personnel procedures in 229 city, country, and state finance agencies is a function of era of origin and subsequent effects of the environment. Whereas origins and the environment account for the extent of formal personnel procedures, formalization in turn gives rise to multitier hierarchies and hierarchy to decentralized decision making. The effects of origins are due to greater openness to environmental pressures at the time of formation than later on.
In this paper, we argue that discussion of worker participation in decisionâmaking is very limited in its usefulness unless the analysis looks at the structure of decisionâmaking, particularly in terms of centralization, in the organization concerned. The issues of worker participation are not instructive per se . If there is decentralization, it may assist the effectiveness of participation structures at lower levels, but the problem remains of the degree to which the costs of some decentralization are tradedâoff by the âdominantâcoalitionâ in the corporation against the benefits of centralization of decisionâmaking in the areas of finance and senior personnel.