Preferences,Knowledge, and Citizen Probability Assessments of the Terrorism Risk of Nuclear Power

How does the American public assess risk when it comes to national security issues? This paper addresses this question by analyzing variation in citizen probability assessments of the terrorism risk of nuclear power plants. Drawing on the literature on how motivated reasoning, selective information processing, and domain‐specific knowledge influence public opinion, we argue that heterogeneous issue preferences and knowledge of nuclear energy and homeland security have important explanatory power. Using original data from a unique 2009 national survey in the United States, we show that Americans are divided in their probability assessments of the terrorism risk of nuclear power plants. Consistent with our theoretical expectations, individuals who support using nuclear power to meet rising energy demands, who are generally less concerned with terrorism, or who are more knowledgeable about terrorism and nuclear security tend to provide lower assessments of the likelihood that nuclear power plants increase terrorist attacks, and vice versa. The findings have implications for the literature on public opinion, risk assessment, energy policy and planning, and homeland security.     

Insurance Law Reform by Degrees: Late Payment and Insurable Interest

Over the last 11 years, the Law Commission and the Scottish Law Commission have worked on a joint project to modernise the law of insurance contracts. Due to the size of the project, the Law Commissions proceeded in phases and separated out specific issues for legislative reform. Their proposals have already resulted in the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012 and the Insurance Act 2015 which brought about significant changes for consumer and non‐consumer insureds and insurers alike. This paper examines two further areas of reform: the introduction of an implied term about payment of insurance claims by insurers within a reasonable time and a statutory restatement of the doctrine of insurable interest. It considers the old and new substantive law and provides an insight into the reform process.     

Verzicht auf Räumungsexekution bei pünktlicher Zahlung des laufenden Mietzinses

Gerichtsvergleich, wonach keine Exekution auf Grund des R?umungstitels geführt wird, wenn (und solange) pünktlich der laufende Mietzins gezahlt wird: für den VwGH gerichtsgebührenrechtlich (idR mit dem Zehnfachen der Jahresleistung) beachtlich, wenn die Formulierung gew?hlt wird "die Parteien kommen überein" oder "der Kl?ger verzichtet"; unbeachtlich bei Formulierung "der Kl?ger wird keinen Gebrauch machen".     

Potentials for federation of East African educational programmes

Educational planning, in the modern sense of the term, goes back in Thailand no further than 1962, when the Second Economic and Social Development Plan (1962/66) was launched. The Second Plan included a plan for the educational system as did the Third Plan (1967/71) which is now drawing to a close. These two educational plans were based on a variety of methods, including those of making long‐term forecasts of manpower requirements. Between 1963 and 1967, five different groups prepared manpower forecasts for Thailand, some of which looked no further than 1970, while others projected manpower requirements up to 1968. In this paper we will try to assess the quality of these forecasts and, so far as it is possible, to cmmpare prediction with outcome.

The paper consists of four parts. We begin with a brief review of background data in order to highlight the problems of manpower forecasting in an economy such as that of Thailand. The second section is devoted to a detailed discussion of the first and most ambitious of the five forecasts that have been made in Thailand. This is followed by brief evaluations of the remaining four forecasts. In the fast section, we will consider the influence that these forecasts actually exerted on educational planning in Thailand.     

Covering HIV/AIDS: Towards a heuristic comparison between communitarian and utilitarian ethics

Abstract

This article considers two approaches to ethical decision-making on the issue of reporting on human immunodeficiency virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS)-related deaths in the popular media. The conflict between cultural values and the public interest is explored via the ethical approaches of communitarianism and utilitarianism. The death of a former South African presidential spokesperson, is taken as an illustration of how these approaches might lead to different ethical decisions.     

The Australian journalism vs cultural studies debate: implications for South African media studies

ABSTRACT

This article describes an investigation into factors required for a development programme in intercultural business communication amongst the personnel of a South African company operating in the Japanese market. Drawing from items that were identified in the literature, and amongst individuals who operate in the Japanese market, a set of criteria was identified that could be included in a South African-Japanese intercultural business communication course. These criteria were used in a structured questionnaire, which was pre-tested in interviews and a focus group, and then administered to a group of company managers who had travelled to Japan on business. The results of the research are a set of items ranked in terms of salience within three categories. The first comprises degree of knowledge of important aspects of Japanese life, the second consists of factors that lead to culture shock, and the third includes aspects that are deemed to be important in a course on South African–Japanese intercultural business communication.