This thesis aims to clarify the nature of the relationship between moral reasoning, as per the neo-Kohlbergian DIT approach of Rest and his colleagues, and liberalism-conservatism. Moral reasoning and liberalism-conservatism are consistently found to be related but the resultant interpretation that liberals are more moral-cognitively advanced than conservatives has been challenged by Emler and his colleagues who argue that the DIT is liberally biased. Subsequent research on this issue has produced a methodological quagmire that this thesis aims to proceed beyond. The specific aim of this thesis is to test several different (or competing) hypotheses purporting to explain the relationship between Kohlbergian moral reasoning and liberalism-conservatism. These are (1) that liberals are more morally advanced than conservatives; (2) that "advanced moral reasoning" is merely social presentation; (3) that moral reasoning is separately constrained by moral development and conservatism; (4) that moral development and liberalism represent distinct paths to postconventional reasoning preference; (5) that moral reasoning differences between liberals and conservatives are broader than usually thought; (6) that the political content of moral issues affects moral reasoning differences between liberals and conservatives; and (7) that moral reasoning instruments have exaggerated moral reasoning differences between liberals and conservatives. Study 1 found that a non-ipsative, indirect moral reasoning measure was correlated with liberalism-conservatism thus disconfirming hypotheses 2 and 7. Additionally, hypothesis 5 was not supported by several DIT findings. Opposing hypotheses 2 and 6, Study 2 found that a conservative version of the DIT was correlated with liberalism-conservatism although a potential methodological issue arose. Study 3 developed an objective measure of moral comprehension, broader in scope than previous moral comprehension measures, which demonstrated acceptable reliability and validity. Employing this measure, Study 4 found that moral comprehension and liberalism were weakly correlated and that they independently predicted moral reasoning, although their interaction did not. Together, these findings provide some support to hypotheses 1 and 4 but not hypotheses 3 and 6. Overall these findings reveal that liberals appear more moral-cognitively advanced than conservatives but, compared to conservatives, liberals appear to indicate preference for advanced moral reasoning earlier in their moral-cognitive development. This latter mechanism appears stronger and suggests that, although DIT scores are still somewhat reflective of moral-cognitive development, the DIT�s estimate of liberals� moral-cognitive development is elevated. Future research can continue to explore these hypotheses (e.g., via longitudinal and/or "faking" studies) and, in so doing, further clarify the relationship between Kohlbergian moral reasoning and liberalism-conservatism.

<p>Purpose/Aim: To study the existence and level of bias in British press coverage of the 2008 US presidential election.</p><p>Material/Method: A rhetorical analysis of 20 newspaper articles dealing with the election taken from The Guardian (liberal) and The Daily Telegraph (conservative) newspapers over a fiveday period up to and including the election.</p><p>Main Results: Bias was found to be present, although the level of bias proved significantly higher in the material selected from the liberal newspaper. The conservative newspaper selected exhibited significantly lower levels of bias. This trend was true of both news and opinion articles</p>

Purpose/Aim: To study the existence and level of bias in British press coverage of the 2008 US presidential election. Material/Method: A rhetorical analysis of 20 newspaper articles dealing with the election taken from The Guardian (liberal) and The Daily Telegraph (conservative) newspapers over a fiveday period up to and including the election. Main Results: Bias was found to be present, although the level of bias proved significantly higher in the material selected from the liberal newspaper. The conservative newspaper selected exhibited significantly lower levels of bias. This trend was true of both news and opinion articles

Oggi la Turchia occupa oggi una posizione cruciale nello scenario internazionale grazie al processo di profonda trasformazione politica, economica e sociale che è in corso da tempo ed è promosso dall’attuale amministrazione conservatrice-democratica dell’AKP -Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi. (Partito della Giustizia e dello Sviluppo). La sua recente affermazione come partito di centro-destra con radici ideologiche religiose è un esempio di trasformazione politica, anche se, rifiutando ufficialmente ogni riferimento all’Islam e definendosi un movimento politico “democratico conservatore” è stato più volte accusato di minare i fondamentali principi kemalisti su cui si erge la Turchia moderna. Dalla sua peculiarità e dai trionfi elettorali che hanno sancito il suo incontrastato successo nasce l’interesse verso questo partito, volto a far luce sulla particolarità del progetto di “Conservative Democracy” e a esplorare non solo i diversi aspetti sottesi a questo concetto- finora inesistente nella letteratura politica-, ma anche gli effetti sulla vita sociale e sulla politica turca. In altre parole, il successo dell’AKP e i dinamici cambiamenti riflessi dal sistema partitico sono la principale ragione per condurre un’analisi sulla sua organizzazione e strategia e rappresentano anche un interessante caso di studio riguardo il grado di compatibilità tra Islam (moderato) e democrazia liberale. / Nowadays, in the international context Turkey is in a crucial position because of its political, economic and social transformation process. This is the extent of the current conservative –democratic administration. The recent rise of AKP - Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi- ( Party oF Justice and Development) as center-right party with an Islamic background is a clear example of political transformation. However, even if it doesn’t refer to Islam and define itself as an conservative-democratic party there is suspicious that its performance aims to mine the kemalist principles of the Country. From its peculiarity and its electoral triumphs arises the interest towards this party and its idea of Conservative Democracy- a new concept in political literature-aiming to explore the effects on political and social life in Turkey. This big success and the change inside of Turkish party system are the main reason to explore AKP’s strategy and organization. Moreover, this is an interesting case study about the compatibility between moderate Islam and liberal democracy

This essay will show how conservatism and liberalism is established and maintained in American presidential rhetoric, by analyzing the speeches held by George W. Bush in 2000 and Barack Obama in 2008 at their respective party’s national convention, at the time when they accepted their party’s nomination for the presidency for the first time. By conducting an ideology analysis by examining the language used in the two speeches, and connect that to the metaphors of morality in George Lakoff’s (2002) theory of the Nation-as-Family, the essay will show examples of how the two presidential candidates establish themselves as bearers and protectors of their party’s ideological base and how this can be related to the view on moral in American politics. The Republican Party connects to conservative ideology and the Democratic Party to liberal ideology. The Nation-as-Family theory involves looking at the relationship between the government and its citizens as that between parents and their children. Connected to conservative ideology is the Strict Father who proclaims authority, obedience and character and connected to liberal ideology is the Nurturant Parent who proclaims nurturing, empathy and equal distribution of opportunities. Connected to Strict Father and Nurturant Parent there exists a number of metaphors of morality that helps organize the language being used. Although notions of the ‘wrong’ moralities appear in the ‘wrong’ speeches, the results from the analysis clearly indicates that the Nation-as-Family theory is highly valid in displaying the connections between political speeches and the ideological bases to which the speakers adhere.

Prior research on conservative accounting and bondholder-shareholder conflict show that firms with higher degree of conservatism experience less austere conflict and lower cost of debt. However, since the implementation of IFRS in 2005, conservatism has been widely reduced in favor of fair value principles. This study sets out to examine if accounting conservatism still mitigates the conflict and reduces cost of debt. We regress two measures of conservatism on three conflict proxies and debt cost, respectively, for firms on the Norwegian market. Our results support the conclusion that conservative accounting mitigates the bondholder-shareholder conflict even after the introduction of IFRS, but we find no significant evidence that bondholders reward high level of conservatism with lower cost of debt.

No description available.

This thesis draws on ethnographic research from three communities of conservative Christian women who find empowerment and agency through their religious traditions. Two communities are politically active, outspoken women who also believe strongly in "traditional" roles for women, and one community idealizes conservative standards of sexuality while accepting women who work as sex workers. These women did not view their positions as contradictory, rather, they used religious beliefs and religious practices to enact, embody or explain their complex genders and sexualities. This thesis draws on ethnographic, feminist and queer theories while showcasing the diversity within a movement largely believed to be monolithic. The researcher aims to encourage more dialogue between liberal feminists and conservative Christians.

Trough this thesis, it is aimed to study &quot / the conservative-democratic&quot / identity of the Justice and Development Party(AKP), which was established just before the November 3, 2002 elections and has still been running the country as the single party, in the context of the Turkish center-right tradition. Although the AKP comes from the political legancy of the National View Tradition (MG), it has presented itself as a new political formation at least aspiring to a centrist location in the political spectrum.Thus, the AKP puts itself in the political tradition inherited from the Progressive Republican Party, the Democratic Party, the Justice Party, and Turgut &Ouml / zal&#039 / s Motherland Party with an attempt to forge a synthesis between liberal and conservative trends within Turkey around a new social consensus. In this thesis, the components of the &quot / conservative-democratic&quot / rhetoric of the AKP is analyzed to shed light over its conceptualization of democracy, pluralism, social change and secularism.This thesis is presented through an over its rhetoric of &quot / change&quot / . It is argued that the conservative-democratic rhetoric of the party is characterized by ambivalent points, if not contradictions, which reflect the party&#039 / s ongoing search for a distinct position and identity and its aim of appealing to broader sections of the conservative electorate.

<p>Consider a mixture of two immiscible, incompressible fluids e.g. oil and water. Since the fluids do not mix, an interface between the two fluids will form and move in time. The motion of the two fluids can be modelled by the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations for two phase flow with surface tension together with a representation of the moving interface. The parameters in the Navier-Stokes equations will depend on the position and other properties of the interface. The interface should move with the velocity of the flow at the interface. Since the fluids are incompressible, the density of each fluid is constant. Mass conservation then implies that the volume occupied by each of the two fluids should not change with time. The object of this thesis has been to develop a new numerical method to simulate incompressible two phase flow accurately that conserves mass and volume of each fluid correctly.</p><p>Numerical simulations of incompressible two phase flow with surface tension have been a challenge for many years. Several methods have been developed and used prior to the work presented in this thesis. The two most commonly used methods are volume of fluid methods and level set methods. There are advantages and disadvantages of both of the methods.</p><p>In volume of fluid methods the interface is represented by a discontinuity of a globally defined function. Because of the discontinuity it is hard both to move the interface as well as to calculate properties of the interface such as curvature. Specially designed methods have to be used, and all these methods are low order accurate. Volume of fluid methods do however conserve the volumes of the two fluids correctly.</p><p>In level set methods the interface is represented by the zero contour of the globally defined signed distance function. This function is smooth across the interface. Since the function is smooth, standard methods for partial differential equations can be used to advect the interface accurately. A reinitialization is however needed to make sure that the level set function remains a signed distance function. During this process the zero contour might move slightly. Because of this, the volume conservation of the method becomes poor.</p><p>In this thesis we present a new level set method. The method is designed such that the volume of each fluid is conserved, at least approximately. The interface is represented by the 0.5 contour of a regularized characteristic function. As for standard level set methods, the interface is moved first by an advective step, and then reinitialized. Unlike traditional level set methods, we can formulate the reinitialization as a conservation law. Conservative methods can then be used to move and to reinitialize the level set function numerically. Since the level set function is a regularized characteristic function, we can expect good conservation of the volume bounded by the interface.</p><p>The method is discretized using both finite differences and finite elements. Uniform and adaptive grids are used in both two and three space dimensions. Good convergence as well as volume conservation is observed. Theoretical studies are performed to investigate the conservation and the computational time needed for reinitialization.</p>