The United States retains many aspects of a healthy open society, but there are indicators of trouble and deep divisions around the meaning and importance of democratic values. This debate has significant repercussions for universities and their academic communities. In the most-simple terms, there is a red and blue state divide over the role and…

The Kettering Foundation is a nonprofit, operating foundation rooted in the American tradition of cooperative research. Kettering's research is distinctive because it is conducted from the perspective of citizens and focuses on what people can do collectively to address problems affecting their lives, their communities, and their nation. The…

In most economically developed countries, the authorities have recognized the importance of academic migration as a means of formation of human capital, essential for the development of the national economy. They actively encourage academic migrants to come to the country by simplifying migration rules for college students and other academic…

Dissemination of journal submission data is critical for identifying editorial bias, creating an informed scholarly marketplace, and critically mapping the contours of a discipline's scholarship. However, our survey and case study investigations indicate that nearly a decade after the Perestroika movement began, political science journals remain…

In this article, a civil society is viewed as the qualitative state of the social organism as the result of the social actions of individuals in the framework of the particular culture. Such a representation is based on the sociocultural approach, and it finds expression in the formulation of the terms "culture of civic-mindedness" and…

Many people in Russia feel that the intelligentsia is on its way out. This is something that writers sense more keenly than anyone else. Symptomatic of this is the headline of an article by Daniil Granin published in the newspaper "Izvestia" on 5 November 1997: "The Russian Intellectual Is Going Away" [Russkii intelligent…

Examines the differentiation of 17-year-old Russians' preferences over the range "liberalism" and "antiliberalism," focusing on conceptions of social-economic relations, political life, and spiritual-ideological life. States that the liberal and antiliberal orientations of the young carry tendencies of constructive and…

The Junior G8 competition allows groups of young people from each of the G8 countries to have their voices heard on a global stage--the annual G8 summit. An international essay competition results in the selection of teams of students who travel to the G8 summit to provide a youth perspective on global issues. The 2006 competition focused on four…

Presents an analysis and personal reflections on social and political changes in Russia between 1970 and 1994. Discusses how the social and economic changes have had a profound impact on elderly Russians. Concludes that the changes in Russia are a microcosm of those taking place throughout the world. (CFR)

Discusses the historical role of the zemstvos and their current contribution to educational efforts in Russia. Zemstvos are local assemblies that have traditionally addressed municipal, health care, and education concerns in the smaller cities and countryside. Criticizes current efforts for being disjointed, fragmented, and lacking a cohesive…