Council of EuropeThe Council of Europe (CoE; Conseil de l'Europe, CdE) is an international organisation established in the wake of World War II to uphold human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it brings together 46 member states, with a population of approximately 675 million; it operates with an annual budget of approximately 500 million euros. The organisation is distinct from the European Union (EU), although people sometimes confuse the two organisations - partly because the EU has adopted the original European flag, designed for the Council of Europe in 1955, as well as the European anthem.
Christian democracyChristian democracy is a political ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics. Chief amongst these challenges was reconciling Catholicism with democracy, answering the "social question" surrounding capitalism and the working class, and resolving the tensions between church and state. Christian democrats led postwar Western Europe, building the welfare states and constructing the European Union.
History of democracyA democracy is a political system, or a system of decision-making within an institution, organization, or state, in which all members have an equal share of power. The most famous examples of direct democracy are recorded in the history of Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and also in Russia: the Novgorod Republic (in the XII-XV centuries), the Pskov Republic (in the XII-XV centuries), the Vyatka Republic (in the XV-XVI centuries).
Equal opportunityEqual opportunity is a state of fairness in which individuals are treated similarly, unhampered by artificial barriers, prejudices, or preferences, except when particular distinctions can be explicitly justified. For example, the intent of equal employment opportunity is that the important jobs in an organization should go to the people who are most qualified – persons most likely to perform ably in a given task – and not go to persons for reasons deemed arbitrary or irrelevant, such as circumstances of birth, upbringing, having well-connected relatives or friends, religion, sex, ethnicity, race, caste, or involuntary personal attributes such as disability, age, gender identity, or sexual orientation.
Social equalitySocial equality is a state of affairs in which all individuals within a specific society have equal rights, liberties, and status, possibly including civil rights, freedom of expression, autonomy, and equal access to certain public goods and social services. Social equality requires the absence of legally enforced social class or caste boundaries and the absence of discrimination motivated by an inalienable part of an individual's identity.
Liberal democracyLiberal democracy or western democracy is the combination of a liberal political philosophy that operates under a representative democratic form of government. It is characterized by elections between multiple distinct political parties, a separation of powers into different branches of government, the rule of law in everyday life as part of an open society, a market economy with private property, universal suffrage, and the equal protection of human rights, civil rights, civil liberties and political freedoms for all people.
Decision theoryDecision theory (or the theory of choice; not to be confused with choice theory) is a branch of applied probability theory and analytic philosophy concerned with the theory of making decisions based on assigning probabilities to various factors and assigning numerical consequences to the outcome. There are three branches of decision theory: Normative decision theory: Concerned with the identification of optimal decisions, where optimality is often determined by considering an ideal decision-maker who is able to calculate with perfect accuracy and is in some sense fully rational.
VotingVoting is a method by which a group, such as a meeting or an electorate, convenes together for the purpose of making a collective decision or expressing an opinion usually following discussions, debates or election campaigns. Democracies elect holders of high office by voting. Residents of a jurisdiction represented by an elected official are called "constituents", and the constituents who choose to cast a ballot for their chosen candidate are called "voters.
Megali IdeaThe Megali Idea (Megáli Idéa) is a nationalist and irredentist concept that expresses the goal of reviving the Byzantine Empire, by establishing a Greek state, which would include the large Greek populations that were still under Ottoman rule after the end of the Greek War of Independence (1821–1829) and all the regions that had large Greek populations (parts of the southern Balkans, Anatolia and Cyprus). The term appeared for the first time during the debates of Prime Minister Ioannis Kolettis with King Otto that preceded the promulgation of the 1844 constitution.
TechnologyTechnology is the application of knowledge for achieving practical goals in a reproducible way. The word technology can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible tools such as utensils or machines, and intangible ones such as software. Technology plays a critical role in science, engineering, and everyday life. Technological advancements have led to significant changes in society.
AutonomyIn developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy is the capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision. Autonomous organizations or institutions are independent or self-governing. Autonomy can also be defined from a human resources perspective, where it denotes a (relatively high) level of discretion granted to an employee in his or her work. In such cases, autonomy is known to generally increase job satisfaction. Self-actualized individuals are thought to operate autonomously of external expectations.
Control theoryControl theory is a field of control engineering and applied mathematics that deals with the control of dynamical systems in engineered processes and machines. The objective is to develop a model or algorithm governing the application of system inputs to drive the system to a desired state, while minimizing any delay, overshoot, or steady-state error and ensuring a level of control stability; often with the aim to achieve a degree of optimality. To do this, a controller with the requisite corrective behavior is required.
