Word: civics
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...there is something else we are seeing in the land. Polls show that while confidence in our democracy and our government is near an all-time low, volunteerism and civic participation since the '70s are near all-time highs. Political scientists are perplexed about this. If confidence is so low, why would people bother volunteering? The explanation is pretty simple. People, especially young people, think the government and the public sphere are broken, but they feel they can personally make a difference through community service. After 9/11, Americans were hungry to be asked to do something, to make some kind...
Paul Berkeley, the president of the Allston Civic Association and a task force member, said that regardless of when community members were notified, the necessary planning Harvard must do to minimize the game's neighborhood effect could pay dividends for future games, evening or otherwise...
...matters of foreign policy, Civic Platform leaders are just as staunchly nationalistic as their rivals. On Aug. 15 - the same day that Lech Kaczynski paraded alongside columns of tanks and troops to celebrate a great Polish victory over Russian Bolshevik forces in 1920 - the Civic Platform leader Donald Tusk, a prospective Prime Minister, did his own bit for Polish patriotism by trying (unsuccessfully) to enter Belarus to celebrate the holiday with Polish nationals there. Economists, for their part, say that while the Civic Platform is friendlier toward business than the current government, it still may not have the political will...
Polish sociologist Kinga Dunin, writing in the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, described the difference between the two groupings by invoking potatoes, again. If the Kaczynskis are plain old tubers, she wrote, the Civic Platform politicians are French fries. The cut is different and their appearance may attract more consumers, but "the thing is that French fries are made of potatoes and it is not possible to hide it." To be sure, some things will change. What critics regard as Jaroslaw's preference for loyalty over competence - evidenced, they say, by key appointments in his Cabinet - may not be repeated. And some...
...watch, and the economy is growing at an impressive rate of 6%. No doubt the Kaczynskis will seek to stress that part of their record in the upcoming election campaign. Given the mishaps of the past two years, however, their party seems unlikely to close the gap with Civic Platform as it did back in 2005. But humorists can take heart. The twins are likely to remain political players in Poland for some years to come...