The competitiveness of nations and implications for human development

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Socio-Economic Planning Sciences. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2010 Elsevier B.V.Human development should be the ultimate objective of human activity, its aim being healthier, longer, and fuller lives. Thus, if the competitiveness of a nation is properly managed, enhanced human welfare should be the key expected consequence. The research described here explores the relationship between the competitiveness of a nation and its implications for human development. For this purpose, 45 countries were evaluated initially using data envelopment analysis. In this stage, global competitiveness indicators were taken as input variables with human development index indicators as output variables. Subsequently, an artificial neural network analysis was conducted to identify those factors having the greatest impact on efficiency scores

Mapping an ancient historian in a digital age: the Herodotus Encoded Space-Text-Image Archive (HESTIA)

HESTIA (the Herodotus Encoded Space-Text-Imaging Archive) employs the latest digital technology to develop an innovative methodology to the study of spatial data in Herodotus' Histories. Using a digital text of Herodotus, freely available from the Perseus on-line library, to capture all the place-names mentioned in the narrative, we construct a database to house that information and represent it in a series of mapping applications, such as GIS, GoogleEarth and GoogleMap Timeline. As a collaboration of academics from the disciplines of Classics, Geography, and Archaeological Computing, HESTIA has the twin aim of investigating the ways geography is represented in the Histories and of bringing Herodotus' world into people's homes

Template Based Semantic Integration: From Legacy Archaeological Datasets to Linked Data

The online dissemination of datasets to accompany site monographs and summary documentation is becoming common practice within the archaeology domain. Since the legacy database schemas involved are often created on a per-site basis, cross searching or reusing this data remains difficult. Employing an integrating ontology, such as the CIDOC CRM, is one step towards resolving these issues. However, this has tended to require computing specialists with detailed knowledge of the ontologies involved. Results are presented from a collaborative project between computer scientists and archaeologists that provided light weight tools to make it easier for non-specialists to publish Linked Data. Applications developed for the STELLAR project were applied by archaeologists to major excavation datasets and the resulting output was published as Linked Data, conforming to the CIDOC CRM ontology. The template-based Extract Transform Load method is described. Reflections on the experience of using the template-based tools are discussed, together with practical issues including the need for terminology alignment and licensing consideration

Enforcing Global Law: International arbitration and informal regulatory instruments

This paper starts from the assumption that international arbitration easily fits in with a pluralist conception of global law. Globalization has created new informal instruments of regulation, and arbitration is an efficient tool for enforcing them. First, the paper presents a brief analysis of the most noteworthy international initiatives in the area of transnational legal indicators. It will become clear how these indirect regulatory instruments are contributing to the creation of a new regulatory profile in the area of arbitration. Second, a number of examples will show that both commercial and investment arbitration are receptive to the multiple appearances of legal pluralism in the arbitration arena. Arbitral awards are turning ever more frequently to instruments created and managed by the private sector – i.e., codes of conduct, economic indexes, economic indicators, financial premiums, valuation methods, audits – to resolve the complex disputes arising from international business. Third, sectorial arbitrations are striking examples of how private sector initiatives implement sophisticated private conflict resolution mechanisms. The paper will present a particularly detailed analysis of the international sports sector, in which an interesting symbiosis can be discerned: on the one hand this non-state sector has unilaterally created a large number of new instruments of global regulation – i.e., sports constitutions, charters, statutes, codes – that are resorting to arbitration to increase their independence from the public sector. On the other hand, sports arbitration – essentially, the CAS – is meanwhile significantly contributing to the sector’s maturity by actively participating in the consolidation of lex sportiva by means of its awards. Finally, the paper concludes with some reflections and ideas for further discussion

Deliberative Democracy in the EU. Countering Populism with Participation and Debate. CEPS Paperback

Elections are the preferred way to freely transfer power from one term to the next and from one political party or coalition to another. They are an essential element of democracy. But if the process of power transfer is corrupted, democracy risks collapse. Reliance on voters, civil society organisations and neutral observers to fully exercise their freedoms as laid down in international human rights conventions is an integral part of holding democratic elections. Without free, fair and regular elections, liberal democracy is inconceivable. Elections are no guarantee that democracy will take root and hold, however. If the history of political participation in Europe over the past 800 years is anything to go by, successful attempts at gaining voice have been patchy, while leaders’ attempts to silence these voices and consolidate their own power have been almost constant (Blockmans, 2020). Recent developments in certain EU member states have again shown us that democratically elected leaders will try and use majoritarian rule to curb freedoms, overstep the constitutional limits of their powers, protect the interests of their cronies and recycle themselves through seemingly free and fair elections. In their recent book How Democracies Die, two Harvard professors of politics write: “Since the end of the Cold War, most democratic breakdowns have been caused not by generals and soldiers but by elected governments themselves” (Levitsky and Ziblatt, 2018)

Trinity Reporter, December 1972

https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/reporter/1972/thumbnail.jp

Collaborative Research on Academic History using Linked Open Data: A Proposal for the Heloise Common Research Model

International audienceThe paper presents a proposal for the Heloise Common Research Model (HCRM), to be implemented for the European research network on digital academic history – Heloise. The objective of Heloise is to interlink databases and other digital resources stemming from several research projects in the field of academic history, to provide an integrated database for federated research on the network databases. The HCRM defines three layers: the Repository Layer, the Application Layer and the Research Interface Layer, which are presented in detail. As part of the application and research interface layer, essential concepts are the symogih.org ontology and a Heloise network-specific thesaurus. The concepts have been tested on a sample of Heloise network’s datasets as a part of a prototype of the envisaged platform that the authors have started implementing. The paper concludes with future developments to be accomplished within the Heloise network