This chapter presents the indicators of regulatory quality. It draws on the discussion of the notion of quality, the role of different stakeholders, the suggestions arising out of the literature, the new initiatives of Member States and the EU in terms of measurement, and the questionnaire dataset. The chapter first discusses the definition, purpose, limitations and types of indicators, and then illustrates how indicators of regulatory quality can be used in the EU. Finally, it develops indicators. It fleshes out the basic elements of a possible open method of coordination applied to indicators of regulatory quality. It argues that the only feasible way to make progress with quality measures is via facilitated coordination.

This chapter shows the living environment and conditions of the minorities. It reports on earlier studies that cover a wide range of topics, including the health of the minorities and migrants, and their chances of ending up in jail. The chapter then addresses the argument that different kinds of social problems are more common in communities which feel obligated to live a life set apart from society, and determines that the extent of segregation matters not only for evaluating social cohesion, but also for monitoring social justice.

This chapter sets out the constitutional and legal framework under which direct rule was introduced and evolved in Northern Ireland. It explains the temporary context of the arrangements and the procedures introduced for both replacing and restoring direct rule. The legal basis for direct rule has never been put on a permanent or settled foundation but only renewed regularly for yearly or six-monthly cycles. The major constitutional arrangements of the Government of Ireland 1920 Act have remained as the bedrock of the constitutional framework and have been amended and added to for the purposes of devolved settlements primarily by the Assembly Act 1973, the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973, and other legislation, and have been suspended or replaced temporarily in order to introduce and continue direct rule.

While the public health lobby became more influential in the 1970s and 1980s, it struggled to have an impact on policy. The political mood, which had swung towards the liberalisation of the drinks trade in the early 1960s, did not change under Margaret Thatcher's Conservative administration. If anything, it became more firmly established. This is not to say that there were no concerns over drink and drunkenness. In 1989, the Monopolies and Mergers Commission published a report on the supply of beer which looked specifically at the question of tied houses. The report formed the basis of the Supply of Beer (Tied Estate) Order — otherwise known as the ‘Beer Orders’. The historic tie between brewers and retailers collapsed following the Beer Orders; the principle of ‘need’ collapsed under pressure from both central government and the magistrates' own advisory bodies. For the first time, the alcohol industry began to market drunkenness as a primary aim of drinking as they sought to compete with other psychoactive youth markets.

This chapter focuses on the eight-quilled swan of Nordic co-operation depicted in the logo of the Nordic Council, representing the five nation states of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, and the three Home Rule territories of the Faeroes, Greenland and Åland. It offers a broad introduction to the changing geo-politics of the Nordic region and views co-operation and, more frequently in an historical light, conflict between the member states in a longitudinal perspective. Iceland is the only Nordic state never to have applied for membership of the European Community (EC)/European Union (EU) and, distinctively in the region, has a special relationship with the United States through its 1951 Defence Agreement. Of the three languages in the Nordic region that are not Indo-European, Finnish and Sámi belong to the same language family. The Scandinavian languages are most clearly related to the other Germanic languages, including English, German, Dutch and Frisian.

This book analyses talking, voting and fighting among citizens, in an attempt to understand why and when ordinary people engage in these activities or combinations of them. Political activity defies traditional boundaries. Sometimes political activists use arguments, at other times they vote—and occasionally they resort to violence; in other words: talking, voting and fighting. This chapter notes that the politics of participation involves all three forms. We endorse talking and voting because they are activities based on peaceful and reasoned arguments, and we condemn violence because we know that might is not right.

This chapter explores the ambiguous and ambivalent outworking of the anxieties of Englishness in contemporary engagements with the ‘particular’ of Englishness. It discusses the differences between the left/liberal version of the English particular that celebrates a multi-ethnic idea of Englishness and the conservative version which celebrates a more populist idea of England. The chapter suggests that the current debate of the anxieties of Englishness reveals a deeper concern with questions of nationhood ranging from advocacy of English secession from the United Kingdom to the fostering of a new British solidarity.

This chapter highlights Logue's journey through the university campaign. The issue of university education in Ireland was a constant source of grievance for the bishops. The university system in Ireland was at the center of a network of proselytism and indifferentism which the hierarchy had come to regard as characteristic of the Protestant constitution in Ireland. The Roman Catholic Church demanded the same rights and recognition that the state extended to Protestants in terms of state funded, denominational university education. The demand for national justice, however, masked other concerns and preoccupations. The challenges to traditional faith thrown up by the intellectual revolution and the advent of Darwinism made a truly Catholic university not only desirable, but also essential. Furthermore, Logue's determination to have a university acceptable to Rome ultimately ensured the success of the campaign. Logue trusted Walsh to deliver an institution that would not only meet the requirements of Rome but also be of sufficient prestige to redress Catholic grievances on the status of Trinity College. This cooperation eased whatever early tension existed in the relationship between the two men, though the partnership between Armagh and Dublin sometimes dismayed others within the episcopate.

This chapter explores how the connections between technology and culture have been drawn — and may be drawn — in relation to new media technologies. One key issue here is how and why newly introduced information technologies are so often perceived to be powerful or transformative, able to create new cultural forms and practices, remediate others, and render others still entirely irrelevant — and why they so often disappoint. The first sections of the chapter consider this issue, exploring the interplay between innovation and determination, and showing how the circuit as a whole has a certain ideological force. It concludes by suggesting that these circuits of reception and acculturation temper the critical and popular reception new media technologies receive. The middle sections of the chapter go on to suggest that this dynamic also conditions ways in which developments in the history of information technology are understood within cultural theory. The final sections of the chapter bring the arguments about the relationship between technology and culture up to the present. It explores the contemporary techno-cultural climate, considering various ways in which information technology is understood within the contemporary constellation.