Advanced electro-optical imaging techniques

The papers presented at the symposium are given which deal with the present state of sensors, as may be applicable to the Large Space Telescope (LST) program. Several aspects of sensors are covered including a discussion of the properties of photocathodes and the operational imaging camera tubes

An intrinsic homotopy for intersecting algebraic varieties

Recently we developed a diagonal homotopy method to compute a numerical representation of all positive dimensional components in the intersection of two irreducible algebraic sets. In this paper, we rewrite this diagonal homotopy in intrinsic coordinates, which reduces the number of variables, typically in half. This has the potential to save a significant amount of computation, especially in the iterative solving portion of the homotopy path tracker. There numerical experiments all show a speedup of about a factor two

Participation, Representation, and Social Justice: Using Participatory Governance to Transform Representative Democracy

The direct incorporation of citizens into complex policymaking processes is the most significant innovation of the third wave of democratization in the developing world. Participatory governance (PG) institutions are part of a new institutional architecture that increases the connections among citizens and government officials. This article draws from a single case of participatory governance to explore how its particular mechanisms work to transform representative democracy. In the cases examine here, PG institutions are grafted onto representative democracy and existing state institutions. These are state-sanctioned venues that require the intense involvement of citizens and government officials, without which the programs would grind to a halt. These features can expand citizen participation, enrich political representation, and enhance social justice

Re-Engineering the Local State: Participation, Social Justice and Interlocking Institutions

The municipalization of basic social service delivery in Brazil provides significant incentives for local public officials to have a better understanding of their constituents’ needs and requirements both to govern and for political purposes. The broadening of participatory venues under the 1988 Constitution allowed for the establishment of a broad number of public venues that civil society leaders could use to represent their associations. Government officials and civil society leaders have constant contact with each other as each seek to promote polices that advance their narrow and broader concerns. This article focuses on the establishment of three governing principles of five successive governments in Belo Horizonte: Social justice, popular participation, and interlocking institutions. The government and its allies in civil society redesigned citizen access points into the state as means to clarifying the signals sent from citizens to government officials, to allow civil society organization (CSO) leaders to act as intermediaries between citizens and public officials and to allow government officials’ to tap into CSO leaders and citizens’ attitudes on a wide range of pressing political issues. These interlocking venues are a key moment of interest mediation, which partially accounts for how Belo Horizonte produces robust social policy change in a context of a highly fragmented party system. Participatory governance is now the key mechanism that allows for constant dialogue among citizens and government officials. This article is part of a larger research project seeking to understand how and why the local Brazilian state was restructured in the 1990s, how citizens are incorporated into state-sanctioned governance bodies, and importantly, how the new institutional environment has helped to transform state-society relations

Participatory Budgeting: Core Principles and Key Impacts

This essay is a reflection piece. I identify key principles at the core of how PB functions and to discuss the scope of change we might expect to see generated by these institutions. I move beyond the idea that there is a specific model or set of “best practices” that define PB. Rather, it is most fruitful to conceptualize PB as a set of principles that can generate social change. The weaker the adherence to these principles, the less social change generated. The second purpose of the essay is to reflect on the impacts generated by PB. How do these institutions matter? My assumption is that ordinary citizens are more likely to be supportive of new democratic processes if they are able to clearly identify positive changes created by their participation in the new democratic institutions. Ordinary citizens are unlikely to continue to participate in new political institutions unless they perceive that these institutions produce tangible, positive changes in their lives. In this short reflection piece, I analyze how PB may affect democratic legitimacy, social well-being, and civil society

Affirmative Action: Diverse Goals, Diverse Policies

Presented January 19, 1998 for Martin Luther King Jr. Day at Western Michigan University. Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Ethics in Society, the Department of Philosophy and the Wesley Foundation