Word: frameworks
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Klitgaard's purpose is to provide a framework in which selective institutions, in particular colleges and universities, can best choose their members. "If a few highly valued positions or opportunities are to be allocated among a large number of aspirants, how should this be done?" he asks. In essence, Klitgaard examines how society should best choose its elites. His guiding principle throughout is that there is no single "right" admissions process. Rather he offers a way of thinking about these issues, to which admissions officers and other gatekeepers at elite institutions may then apply their own values...
...what he does not adequately address is the intrinsic unfairness of the direction in which he urges us to move. Klitgaard persuasively provides a framework for choosing elites, yet he does not account for the possibility that such a framework would systematically and unfairly perpetuate such at, elite. He tells us that admissions officers cannot avoid questions of just desert in drawing up policies, but points us in directions that would further skew society's distribution of fruits and rewards...
Generally speaking, Klitgaard's book is dogged by the possibility that he is merely setting up a framework for the perpetuation of the current elite structure in this country. Two stark facts stare from his analysis. One is that test scores and grades are the only indicator that can satisfactorily predict academic success in college. The other is that, this said, there is little that can help us predict success in later life. But isn't this latter kind of success exactly the kind of success we are most interested in fostering? Because this type cannot be predicted adequately, Klitgaard...
...abandoned just because they have been less than 100% effective. Seen against the predictions of 20 years ago, the fact that so few phantom proliferators exist today is, as France's Goldschmidt puts it, "a miracle." The nonproliferation treaty and the safeguards system still provide a vital framework for preserving the miracle. It is significant that the countries considered to be the greatest proliferation risks today are those that refuse to sign the treaty. That is proof, says Proliferation Expert Van Doren, that "most countries have some respect for their commitments." Says Herbert Kouts, chairman of the department of nuclear...
Ultimately Reagan's visit will be judged by whether it strengthened the alliance and struck the right note on dealing with Moscow. Said Reagan in Lisbon: "We set forth a sensible framework for improved Soviet relations based on strength, realism, peaceful competition and negotiations." He said he was ready for a summit whenever Gorbachev was. "So the ball is in their court, first to decide whether he's coming here, and then, second, as to time and place for such a meeting, if he's willing." No one could tell whether Gorbachev planned to keep the ball in play...