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Many scholars claim that Pentecostalism is the fastest growing religious phenomenon in human history. Using two important essays of Max Weber as a foundation, this thesis examines whether growth of Pentecostalism in Latin America is promoting the Protestant Ethic described by Weber as well as Social Capital and Spiritual Capital. Analyzing data from the World Values Survey, this thesis argues that growth of Pentecostalism in Latin America is not creating a new Protestant Ethic among its followers, nor is Pentecostalism creating any greater Social Capital or Spiritual Capital among its followers when compared to other religious groups in the region. This thesis argues that the strong emotional character of Pentecostalism weighs against the creation or Social Capital and Spiritual Capital and that the tendency of Pentecostals to find assurance of their salvation in emotional experience does not promote the frugality or rationalization of work necessary for the Protestant Ethic.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century a burgeoning global private military sector is increasingly involved in areas of defence and security that, up until recently, were popularly thought of as being within the monopolistic preserve of the nation state. Finding itself at the vanguard of profound political and economic change, today’s Royal Navy is increasingly reliant on relationships with the private sector that only thirty years ago would have seemed unimaginable to many commentators. As naval shipbuilding, dockyard refitting, logistics, training, and even warship ownership and manning, move from a unitary state to an increasingly self-organising private sector bounded by a differentiated and decentered polity, this thesis is concerned with boundaries of elite discourse on legitimacy in the political economy of Royal Navy and British naval sea power and their implications for New Public Management theory. At its core, the study presents original research into the attitudes of fifty elite opinion formers directly concerned with the discourse of Royal Navy modernisation and profiles their ideational boundaries concerning the political economy of force and violence. The thesis makes an original contribution to knowledge by presenting empirically and framing theoretically the ways in which elite naval attitudes to the political economy of legitimated force have changed and are evolving. The research is important because it challenges what many commentators have come to believe to be an a priori function of the nation state, namely, the monopoly use of force, with the actual views of those opinion formers who currently hold positions of power and influence in and around one of its core ‘ideal type’ institutions: the Royal Navy. The research is also significant because in attempting to clarify the conceptual boundaries of this elite discourse, it also presents a powerful critique of New Public Management with reference to the problematic dimensions of time, economic complexity and socio-political power.

Besides the braking system the steering system is one of the most important systems on vehicles. The reliability and the performance of a steering system decides on the controllability of the vehicle under normal conditions as well as emergency situations. In everyday use the characteristics, the connectivity to assistance systems and the energy efficiency of the steering system become more and more important to fulfill the increasing demands regarding fuel consumption, carbon dioxide emissions and comfort. To meet these demands, new steering systems must be implemented and new technologies have to be developed. This contribution compares different approaches regarding functionality and energy efficiency to give an indication which system is the most promising solution for future front axle steering systems as well as rear steered axles (tag- or pusher axle) on trucks.