raising the concept of ‘tyrany of the majority’ by federalists , alexi de tocqueville and john stuart mill in eighteenth and nineteenth centuries , they revealed a new form of tyrany which was uniqe for those who had experienced despotic regimes . with the critique of democracy baised on majority vote , the question of ethnic , religious and linguistic minorities , along with their rights and f...

This paper describes how linguistic knowledge has been declaratively formalised using Functional Descriptions (FDs), in the generation module of the SAGE system. SAGE (Sentence Analysis and GEneration) is the Natural Language Frontend of the Dialogue Manager of the Esprit I project Esteam-316. The present implementation has the advantage of being based on two principles, which are the dynamic c...

From Alexis de Tocqueville to Robert Bellah and Alan Wolfe, the many observers of the United States invariably call attention to its emphasis on individualism. In the popular culture of American television and movies, the autonomous individual stands out, whether as rebel against the system or as self-centered consumer of endless products, services, and other people. Then there are the advertis...

Some two million Americans are currently incarcerated, with roughly six hundred thousand to be released this year. Despite this, little is known about the effects of confinement conditions on the post-release lives of inmates. Focusing on post-release criminal activity, we identify the causal effect of prison conditions on recidivism rates by exploiting a discontinuity in the assignment of fede...

In order to understand the nexus between inequalities, conflict and change in contemporary China, social inequalities should be seen broadly (i.e. include both hierarchy and exclusion), and perceived from social actors’ perspective: as those aspects of social hierarchy and division/exclusion which are problematic because they violate the popular sense of justice. This is in line with the theore...

We consider the thesis of Alexis de Tocqueville (1856) that economic development and increased mobility may generate political discontent that is not present in more stagnant economies. For many citizens, as they become aware of the potential for improvement, aspirations may increase faster than do living standards. Expanded opportunity may thus result in political discontent rather than in inc...