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Contemporary cultural theories that stress the potency of invented and selected traditions could select no better subject than the Olympic Games. The games are a kind of super-example of invented [...]

The article discusess the effectiveness of Great Britain's sports policies. Topics discussed include views of Alan Tomlinson on international sports governance; relationship between government and sport; and an account of advantages of sports on social and economic benefits, and wellbeing of the country.

An analysis of the book market in the United Kingdom from the point of view that there are now too many books being published. It is argued that in the UK, where over 120,000 new books/yr are published, books are being published that there is no market for and, it is claimed, the reason for this is the research assessment exercise, which coerces people who have no real desire to publish much to produce more than they otherwise would in order to fulfill certain criteria.

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Analyzes the concept of civil society in relation to sport, in an effort to close the gap between political science, social history and sociological theory. Background information on the relationship between political science and sport; Speculation on the meaning of civil society; Reference to a variety of purposes for which civil society has been re-developed.

The criteria of conceptual correctness tell us something about liberty, but only a bare minimum. They tell us, as MacCallum puts it. that 'freedom is … always of something (an agent or agents), from something, so do. not do, become or not become something; it is a triadic relation.' Within this form, many different approaches are permissible, depending on how the nature of agents or the list of valid constraints is interpreted. One sense of liberty can, though, claim conceptual primacy. It is that implicit in capitalist law and economics: the freedom of a man, as he is, given only a fair access to significant information, from the sovereign acts of the state, to live his life as he chooses. There are many good arguments for constraining liberty in this sense in the fields of education and environmental planning. These arguments arc best expressed as arguments against liberty in its primary sense and not, as they so often are, as arguments for re-interpreting 'true' liberty to suit the writers policy preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a strong case for a policy of conceptual scepticism about ‘civil society’ given the wide range of uses of the term and the ideological reasons which have led to its reintroduction to the study of politics. However, consideration of the idea of civil society remains an extremely useful exercise to the understanding of political change provided that we do not lose sight of its ambiguities and limitations. Civil society is weak in Thailand, extremely weak in Georgia, but strong in many respects in South Africa; these differences are both exemplified and magnified when we consider the nature and range of sporting organisations in the three countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the evaluation of the report of the Expenditure Committee in Great Britain concerning public planning procedures of private development. Planning decisions have become an increasingly important part of government, both locally and nationally. The 1947 Town and Country Planning Act firmly established that the development rights of land are to be publicly controlled and although this act has been extensively modified by subsequent legislation, the basic principle has remained. Its aim was to look at development control and land use planning as it affects the procedures for planning applications and appeals, and it was intended that this evaluation should pin-point the reasons for delays in the systems and the costs involved.

The article discusses the attribution of the democratization in the Republic of Georgia. The country's democratization is started from 1988 to 1996 as they become an independent country. Most authorities categorized the country as free country and working a methodology of democratic reform. The country fights off for its survival against from Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Mongols, and Persians, and recognized for its Orthodox Christian identity. The pro-Western social democrats are dominated the country's government and acquire political system with free, multi-party elections, and constitution which involved political consensus. The "Co-ordination Council" is developed by the national-liberation movement to serve as intermediate level for the development of unified party.

In the study of politics in the West, `democracy' is treated in two different ways. An established group of political scientists, interested in the conditions favouring democratization, assume that the principal western countries are ‘democracies’ in as strong a sense as one might realistically use the term. Much democratic theory, on the other hand, is critical of western institutions and seeks ‘emancipationst’ extensions of democracy into the home and the workplace. Both have a very limited value as instruction for those seeking to democratize societies which do not already have democratic institutions, especially the former communist countries. The ‘emancipationist’ prescriptions of radical democratic theorists are largely irrelevant to the culture and standard of living of the societies in question while the more conservative political scientists tend to regard the values to which democratizers aspire, including democracy, private ownership, stability, prosperity and freedom, as a causal cluster, ignoring the very important tensions between them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]