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Scotland means kilt, bagpipes, Loch Ness Monster, whiskey, medieval buildings and beautiful views. It is a country worth seeing. And who knew how to promote its brands. After 2008, when the number of tourists visiting Scotland decreased, especially in terms of tourism business, severely affected by the economic crisis, the organization VisitScotland aimed at raising revenues from tourism for the 2009-2012 timeframe. And it succeeded! Currently, the tourism industry is vital to Scotland’s economy, bringing up to £ 4,1 billion to the state budget and also providing jobs for 200,000 people. This paper analyses the promoting campaign “Homecoming Scotland” 2009 (“Return Home”). Tools and methods used by the Scottish are presented and effects at strategic level are evaluated. The study results indicate that a promoting campaign carefully designed and properly built for the country brand becomes a management option in the strategic development of the community.
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The main goal of the present work is to propose new ways of examining the performance of public servant, others than the ones already specified in the frame law, tested by the private system and well-known as being efficient. Although we are going trough period marked by a profound financial, economic and social crisis, the public servant is required to perform his duties to a high level of quality and to creatively contribute at the ongoing and proposal of new projects. Therefore, the ensuring of an efficient management can be materialized by using modern methods, techniques and tools in the public management context too. Thus, the development of the capacity of performance analysis and job satisfaction in the public institutions becomes a precondition for the dimensioning of labor productivity. Establishing priorities, strategy directions, strategic objectives, operational plans, assessment and control plans and performance indicators must take account of changing endogenous and exogenous variables of the public servant itself. Furthermore, the economic growth of a country or a public sector may be related, in terms of human resource utilization, to the increasing number of employees or to the better use of the existing employees. Therefore, a thorough analysis of the performance scale periodical is required for each public servant, in the dimensioning of proactive involvement in specific activity. This last aspect is statistically described through labor productivity- a key element of economic performance. The understanding of the forces that rule the labor productivity and the accumulation of fixed capital especially, improving the institutional infrastructures or generating new technologies is and will be a necessary objective in creating policies that increase workplace performance. The salaries and incentives management should take into account three essential elements: Ø the economic impact of salary and incentives granting system; Ø the impact of granting salary and incentives system on employee behavior; Ø the impact of granting salary and incentives system on the balance. These elements are a set of constrains which limits the maneuvering area of the public institutions and dictates the granting of salary and incentives based on the level of performance indicators of each public servant, after periodic analysis. So, there is an extremely varied range of performance indicators available and many others can be developed to fit the needs of specific public or local administration projects. Yet, performance indicators aren't Key Performance Indicators until they are selected and applied as key for a specific aspect. The analysis of fundamental economic correlation between salary dynamics and labor productivity dynamics is necessary to assessing the economic efficiency, this correlation being the maxim expression, overview of the balanced functioning of budgetary device. [Ro
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The paper discusses the development of Romanian Public Administration following the abolition of the Communist regime with the focus on Performance Management and Skill Retention. The challenge for the Romanian administrative system lies in the inertia caused by the previous regime and global influences emanating from entering the European Union in 2007. The paper presents proposed research which aims to provide a positive approach by emphasising the challenges and value-adding actions that will lead to the improvement of Public sector quality in Romania. This paper will also show that the recent international economic crisis has provided an opportunity for confronting the classical perception towards skills within the Public sector and the actual standards that should be obtained so as to ensure continuous improvement of professional talent within the administrative apparatus. Public sector management is increasingly seen as more than just modernising state institutions, it is also about fostering dynamic partnerships with civil society and the private sector in order to improve the quality of service delivery, enhance social responsibilities and ensure the broad participation of citizens in decision-making. This calls for increased attention to the issue of decentralised government as a means to support poverty alleviation goals and conflict prevention policies. These trends put increased emphasis on the performance of the civil service and on the need for an effective and efficient public management that is transparent and accountable. In the light of the recent financial crisis, not only in the private sector, which classically is more exposed to adversities, the public sector has had to consider structural changes. Osborne’s approach (2002) to defining Global influences on public administration can be summarised with the following statement: Globalization has the tendency to promote elites. In a shrinking state, professionalization of the public services becomes compulsory. Under these circumstances the fostering of talent and talented professionals becomes a necessity, not a whim. Although Romania is not explicitly tackling performance and performance management issues, it has taken a number of measures. These include the unified pay scheme for the public sector, which the Government has put into law, as well as the principle of contributions as the mainstay of the pension draft law. In addition, the streamlining of state agencies and authorities whose activity can be covered by existing ministries are also preconditions for a harmonization of competitiveness criteria in both the public and private sectors, as well as incentives to professionalization.
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This paper presents some of the results of an ample comparative study on public administration developed by the author. It contains five sections in which the main characteristics of the public administrations models in Finland and Sweden are looked at, a comparative analysis of the two is undertaken, on the basis of which substantial advantages and means of know-how transfer are identified, from the administrative systems of the Scandinavian states into that of Romania.
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The European Union is increasingly confronted with compliance problems. In line with the recent trend of 'agencification' in modern societies, a suggestion to address compliance problems is the use of European agencies as they are expected to improve the way rules are applied. This is no grounded expectation, however. Empirical evidence on this presumably positive impact of agencies on compliance within the member states is lacking. This article provides a conceptual evaluation of the assumption that agencies play a positive role in securing compliance. By linking the state of the art in compliance theories with an analysis of the phenomenon of agencification within the European Union, light can be shed on this potential role for agencies in improving compliance. While theoretically agencies could play a positive role in securing compliance, the ‘improved-compliance’ legitimation for agency-establishment is still to be empirically tested and calls for a new research agenda
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Fragment from "Abisul luminat" (The Illuminated Abyss), a book about detention in a communist prison between 1956-1964, discussions (especially about the "evening talks"), thoughts, friends, contacts with the authorities.
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Review of Adriana Bittel's book Întâlnire la Paris, unsprezece povestiri, (Meeting in Paris, Eleven Stories) Bucureşti, Ed. Compania.
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An article about Monica Lovinescu's book "La apa Vavilonului". In this second volume of Monica Lovinescu's memories, covering the seventies and the eighties, the main character is the microphone of Radio Free Europe, a seismograph of the changes that affect the Western intellectuals and the chance of conscience forming for the listeners in Romania.
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A collection of thoughts and quotations regarding life, sickness, knowledge, success, ethics, culture, and writing, very often taking a sad and ironic tone.
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The right in Serbia during the 30-is of 20 centaury in many aspects looked up to the more developed and original right in the West. Certain specificities, however, that originated from homecountry conditions and circumstances, were emphasized. The right in Serbia underlines faith and peasantry. The cult of the village appeared as a continuation of the critique of contemporary civilization of the West that is typically tied to the city (civilization of the megalopolis).The starting points were ideas of Spengler and other right theoreticians. Parallels in the past, through which it was proved that Europe created by bourgeoisie revolutions reached a state of decadence and inevitable death, were found. This is why “rescue of exception” of Serbia from Europe was suggested. The most important political accomplishment of civil Europe is certainly the political system of democracy. The critique of real-democracy represented an introduction into affirmation of the corporative and/or estate order. All right oriented thinkers of this period refute that their ideals are fascism or Nazism and according to them corporativism and/or estate society are qualified as indigenous conceptions that originate from old Slavic community.
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In this article the author thematizes the relation between philosophy as knowledge of reason and its decisive influence on the field of practice and politics through analysis of Plato, Aristotle and Kant. Investigation of inner interconnectedness of the question of crisis of philosophy and crisis of contemporary world is simultaneous with pointing out to the lack of foundation of interpretations that make fun of the speech about life significance of philosophy and “philosophers-rulers” and attempt to oppose it to the concept of rule of the law. The author demonstrates that, on this issue, their is no great difference between Plato’s and Aristotle’s standpoint and that both, as well as Kant, plead for the rule of the law. Also, according to the author, it is exactly the refutation of the significance of theory for the life world that hides actual sources of the crisis of the epoch, disables its analysis and the potential for finding possible ways to overcome it. In the second part of the article, the author reminds of the relation between philosophy and Europe and paradoxical fact that philosophy today gains more and more importance outside of the European cultural circle, especially in China and Japan, while in Europe itself it is too often forgotten and regarded as mere anachronism.
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Review of the book "Ideologija srpskog nacionalizma" by Vojislav Šešelj.
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Starting from new reactualization of Huntington’s work The Clash of Civilizations as a paradigm for real understanding of global international relations, in first part of the article theoretical hypothesis of Fukuyama’s and Bzezinski’s project, i.e. the models of unipolar or bipolar picture of the world, as well as radical ideas of sovereignty and general decadence are exposed. Although, however, the author agrees with Huntington about the justification and the central role of the category of civilization, he criticizes Huntington’s view of the border of „Europe“ i.e. its reduction to the borders of „the West“, an act that without historical arguments excludes from Europe and European values all orthodox countries. Rethinking essence and determining elements of „the Western“ civilization (sovereignty, human rights, division of power, representative government, market economy), the author exposes their development and presence in non-western societies.
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The author criticizes a superficial and wrong understanding of the right and conservativism in post-communist Serbia. Conservativism is characterized by faith in the significance of institutions, as a corrective of weaknesses which are inscribed in the human nature. Its other characteristic is conviction in the complexity of relations that structure society, refusal of simplified ideologies and simple solutions. Its third characteristic is graduality and procedurality of changes. As for other issues – such as the open market and strong government - the conservatives can have different views. The author concludes pleading for the development of standard, European conservativism in Serbia, as a part of the spectrum of moderate political forces.
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