This study attempts to evaluate the impacts of macro-structural factors on political freedom in developing countries (DCs). Political freedom is conceptualized as civil liberty and political rights the general population of a society can enjoy in influencing public policy. The Freedom House indexes are used as measures of freedom. In explaining…

This report contains a study done at the request of the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, which studies public policy issues affecting the state of Wisconsin. The purpose of this study was to examine the content of environmental education (EE) materials used in courses required for teacher certification in Wisconsin to see if the knowledge and…

A discussion of government language policies involving more than one language looks at two policy issues: the teaching of ethnic languages and the teaching of foreign languages. A primary issue in ethnic language policy is the reconciling of competing claims of different language communities, which often represent extralingual competition and…

The monograph examines the way in which the Netherlands' three-part system of residential care and independent living (IL) for people with physical disabilities interacts with the country's health and social welfare systems. The three-part system comprises: the residential center model, the clustered housing model, and the independent housing…

The articles in this volume present the views of government representatives and others on law and policy affecting aliens, especially undocumented aliens, in the United States. Part 1 of the volume deals with legal rights and legal representation. Individual papers discuss the role and activities of the Immigration and Naturalization Service;…

In Sweden recent education policy has been aimed at the reform of higher education. This study is concerned with the political decisionmaking process in which a variety of public demands were articulated and reconciled in legislation for reform. It has three purposes: (1) analysis of this decisionmaking process; (2) reconstruction of the higher…

Interest groups have historically contributed more to the maintenance of existing national educational policies and programs than to the creation or shaping of new ones. The uncertain political acceptance of the recently increased federal role in education complicates attempts to predict the degree of change in policy development to expect during…

Historical, philosophical, and social perspectives concerning the development of Soviet society are presented. The concepts of orthodoxy, autocracy, and nationalism that were integral to Russian life for nearly one thousand years of history are discussed, and principles of socialism and communism that were inaugurated in November 1917 in…

The areas of language planning and the language of oppression are discussed within the theoretical framework of existential sociolinguistics. This tradition is contrasted with the contemporary models of positivism with its assumptions about constancy and quantification. The proposed model brings in social history, intent, consciousness, and other…

Two crucial processes are discussed: (1) that through which social problems become public issues; and (2) that through which conflicts between competing diagnoses of, and responses to, publicly recognized social problems are resolved. Regularities in these transformations are conceptualized as follows: groups differ in their definitions of social…

The papers in this report fall into three focus areas: (1) new goals and objectives for educational institutions, with a stress on normative analysis of public policy alternatives and a reexamination of prior assumptions on which research is based; (2) the political education of youth, with a particular examination of directions in research on…

Librarians and media specialists need to know how to develop a political campaign for the improvement of student learning through increased public support for school library media programs. The first step is to organize, with a steering committee and a network of people, for communication and action. Goals must be formulated, priorities…

Examines folkways devised by political leaders in general and those specifically engaged in campaigning as cues to social and policy constraints and manipulative strategies. (For availability see EA 507 214.) (Author/MLF)

If President Carter is to revamp the federal bureaucracy, he is going to need a vast corpus of research on complex organizations. In this connection we should note the increase in the number of American Sociological Association members with competence in this area. The several departments of the executive branch will increasingly find that they…

Explores the assimilation and acculturation of immigrants into American society. Suggests that while adaptation is a product of various factors, it is less dependent on individual traits than on whether immigrants are incorporated into the primary, secondary, and enclave sectors of the economy. (Author/MJL)