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Assuming that there is, with respect to systems of political and socioeconomic relations, a radical difference between systems peculiar to state socialist societies and those peculiar to capitalist societies, Soviet society, from the standpoint of its technological and institutional organization, exemplified a specific variation of the modern, industrial, urbanized, bureaucratized society, embracing all levels of education. In this sense we can talk of the modernization of society during the Soviet period, the development of the essential features of primary modernity, according to Ulrich Beck. In our view, Soviet modernity would be a conceptually feasible term not only chronologically speaking but also in virtue of its connoting a peculiar social structure, peculiar social relations, and peculiar social actors. The content Soviet would first of all relate to the consequences of the strong systematic repression associated with state socialism. The strengthening of supervision and social control is a characteristic feature of a modern social system which the totalitarian regime of state socialism developed to an utmost degree. This determined a universal institutionalization and the specific social practices of behavioral adaptation exhibited by society and individual social groups. Repressed social protests provoked by modernization manifested themselves in other social forms: deviant social practices and the discourse tolerating them.
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This article presents an analysis of Lithuanian-authored historiographical works on Lithuania‘s relations to Italy (previously the states of the Apennines peninsula). The first to undertake Lithuanian historical and cultural investigations in this direction were historians educated by, or active at, Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, including Jonas Totoraitis, Paulius Rabikauskas, Paulius Jatulis, and Zenonas Ivinskis; the latter three researched Italian archives (mostly Vatican and Roman) and wrote treatises based on studies of the development of Christianity in Lithuania and the historical cultural ties between Lithuania and Western Europe. Another trend in Lithuanian research on Italy focused on culture and took shape in Soviet-occupied Lithuania. Its basis was historical material preserved in archives and manuscripts in Lithuania and neighboring countries, largely consisting of texts from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 16th and 17th centuries. Two prominent research directions here were (1) investigations of the development of Renaissance culture and humanism in Lithuania, exemplified by the work of Juozas Jurginis, Ingė Lukšaitė, Juozas Tumelis, Marcelinas Ročka, and others; and (2) investigations of Latin culture revived during the Renaissance, including studies of the theory claiming the Roman origin of the Lithuanian aristocracy, and of the Latin-language heritage of ancient Lithuania so rich in scholarly treatises. A special place in Lithuanian historiography is occupied by the works of the Italian Balticists Pietro Umberto Dini and Guido Michelini. They were not only interested in the Lithuanian language but devoted attention to Lithuanian culture and Lithuanian-Italian cultural relations. Their work makes it clear that despite the political isolation that had long separated Lithuania and Italy, there was persistent scholarly interest on both sides in each other‘s country. The variety of Italian topics in the Lithuanian historiography of the last decade shows a growing interest in this field, caused in part by the possibility of living and studying in Italy and by the increased cultural cooperation between Lithuania and Italy. This interest was also stimulated by the search for new topics in the subject; and as the inter-war period began to be increasingly studied, cultural cooperation between the two countries during that period naturally became a favored topic of research. Thus research on Italian themes in Lithuanian historiography is topically diverse and presents unique angles on Lithuanian culture and history.
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The main social process taking place in Bosnia and Herzegovina after the Dayton Peace Agreement from 1995 is the internal integrative process and ascension of Bosnia and Herzegovina into the European Union and NATO Alliance. The power of the European integration process occurs as a of internal integration drive force. Not only that, it also appear to be a driver for implementation of reforms that allow the building of European standards in economic, political and cultural sectors. Reforms implementation is carried out within the activities of Bosnian democratic forces and activities of the International Community’s institutions. Many of the carried out reforms are made possible through the moderation and influence of the International Community’s institutions. In the first years of post-war reconstruction, the International Community provided donor funds in the amount of five billion U.S. dollars. These funds had been used for restoring communal and social infrastructure. Roads were reconstructed and new conditions created for the renewal of economic life. Due to the slow course of privatization of state enterprises, new economic structure has not yet been restored. Until 2002, the International Community was the parliamentary elections organizer. It turned out that position of the International Community that democracy was getting strengthened by frequent elections and a shorter two-year term of parliamentary bodies was illusory. Thus, in the time period from 1996 until 2002 was carried out in three election cycles for the parliaments of the entities and the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina. After 2002, four-year terms of parliamentary bodies were introduced. These are the following mandates: from 2002-2006 and 2006 to 2010. In these two mandates of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the ruling majority were uni-ethnic parties. These parties are deriving their political concepts of social development out of the collective ethnic groups. On this basis in the structure of the pluralism, ethnic parties are receiving the main power in the elections for the parliaments.
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The text indicates the main changes that took place in Bosnian society during the period of post-socialist transition. It is possible to speak about many social changes that occurred in a transitional transformation, in terms of risks. The theoretical framework in which the social risks are about to be considered in this paper is based on the paradigm of the risk society derived by a German sociologist, Ulrich Beck, and it points to some of the risks produced in a chaotic Bosnian social upheavals and transformations. After nearly two decades of experiencing transition, and a series of failures, the question is where Bosnia and Herzegovina as a state and as a society is currently situated, and when and in what form the transition process will be completed. We live in a time when the social scene is entangled with the simultaneous interaction of the risks generated on global and local levels, which are intertwined and which create a series of existential problems. We are facing a double threat, our own nationalism, poverty, corruption, unemployment, social inequality and cohesion of society at risk, as well as global risks. In terms of the reduced capacity of social institutions to establish control over the risks, and the situation in which political elites produce certain social risks themselves, the question is how the existing political structure in Bosnia and Herzegovina could answer their own risks today, and the risks of modern society, and how an individual can accomplish “facing with the consequences of risk society“?
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The author of this academic paper gives a thorough presentation of action of the United Nations in relation to international armed conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the first chapter, after the initial review, he analyzes the establishment, mandate and role of the United Nations Protection Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina, mainly through analytical and critical cross-section of the Security Council resolutions of the United Nations. In the second chapter, the author writes of the establishment and role of the safe areas of the United Nations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which constitute as an legal institute, to date, one of the most controversial actions of the United Nations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, respectively the decisions of the international community of States. The paper also brings meaning and consequences of the decision of the Security Council in 1991. which means the introduction of the ban on imports (embargo) of weapons in the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Herzegovina), as well as the importance and effectiveness of the closure of airspace over the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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During the Cold War period, the role and purpose of the NATO was clearly defined by existence of the threat posed by the Soviet Union and the Warszawa Pact. History has showed that NATO’s superiority in technology, in comparison to the Warsaw Pact’s member countries, played a key role in West’s victory in the Cold War period. Upon termination of the Cold War, a unique opportunity for building of new security architecture in the entire Euro-Atlantic region arose. The purpose of this new architecture is assuring the stability and security of all Euro-Atlantic’s nations. The purpose of this paper is to provide outlines of the NATO’s security explicitness as a wider concept encompassing the political, economic, and the defensive component as well.
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Legal and social aspects of integrating soldier care in Bosnia and Herzegovina are highly important and complex questions, requiring multidisciplinary science approach. Essentially, this is one of most sensitive questions in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina that has not been adequately regulated in entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina. On the state level it has not even considered, and there are no any practical attempts to solve it. Analysing basic rights of war veterans and their family members, regulated on federal and cantonal level in Federacija BiH, one can make an unambiguous conclusion that these regulations were made partly, unevenly and irrationally. Additional rights implementation is left to cantonal authorities that have different financial abilities. This kind of regulation process and rights claim directly affects legal, social and economic uncertainty and instability, not only that of war veterans and their family members, but also that of entities, and the whole state. Due to this situation, the analysis of basics and motivation for integration of rights of war veterans and their family members on the state level is totally justified. Acknowledging the adequacy of discussing this question to understand the presentation better, it is essential to define the meaning of the terms that will be used in this paper.
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Approximately, a half of the Bosnian territory is the area of karst. This paper is testing the hypothesis that caves may serve as a potential base of tourism and local development in underdeveloped areas in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The development is conceived in its fullness, as well as in sustainable within the four key aspects: economic, environmental, technological and social. As hypothesis proving arguments, we emphasize the historical moments, the recent economic profile, experience in the tourist valorization of caves in the world, Bosnian caves’ potential, their development and tourist attraction, distribution in space, the position in relation to major transport routes and complementary facilities. The theoretical framework is a new theory of endogenous growth theory, more precisely the attitude that every space has internal features that can lead to economic growth over a longer period of time, assuming that it has been identified and evaluated. The need for defining a new economic geography in the context Krugman understands of this term is already bear in mind. The method of comparison, analysis, synthesis, description, estimates is used to test the basic hypothesis. The hypothesis is being tested on eleven specific examples: the Vjetrenica cave, the Ledenica cave, the Orlovača cave, the Klokočevica cave, Bijambarska cave, the Tito’s cave, the Djevojačka cave, the Hrustovačka cave, the Hukavica cave, the Megara cave, as well as two military underground warehouses near Konjic and Han Pijesak sand (manmade caves) . The basic elements of analysis for the purpose of activating cave exploration as a component of tourism development of local and regional communities have been indicated .it is estimated that approximately 5000 € is needed for a sustainable workplace in the tourist exploitation of caves in undeveloped areas suggesting on a task of seeking solutions to eliminate or mitigate the issue of poverty, and a need for paying close attention to caves , as already existing natural resources, to identify their development and touristic appeal, and then organize the presentation and placement on the market. In the case of eight hundredths of caves in the world, that rating is positive. Tourist valorization of caves will not solve all the problems of development of underdeveloped areas in Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, there is no doubt that it can alleviate the problem of poverty in local and regional communities and to inspire a more proactive approach to solving development problems.
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Social capital and sustainable development are concepts, much discussed in scientific circles, but still without any generally accepted definitions of these terms. Any attempt to make a scientific approach to these phenomena encountered numerous obstacles caused by different and often contradictory understanding of these concepts. However, regardless of the existence of these obstacles, recently, the great interest of scholars around the world to study issues of social capital and its importance for the development of society is evident. Although if there were some consistency regarding the definition of “social capital“ and “sustainable development concepts”, then research of role of social capital in various segments of development would be facilitated, however not diminishing the contribution of the previous research results from this area. Since this stands for a great potential, social capital should be considered as a resource when defining the sustainable development strategy. Given the large number of definitions of both notions in use, and the ambiguity in the grasping of these concepts, the author provides an overview of most commonly utilized definitions that have been used in empirical research in this area, subsequently analyzing the contribution of various studies of social capital in view of its importance for sustainable development, stressing its importance for the development of local communities. Finally, the author reaches a conclusion that by these terms’ precise defining, obstacles, encountered when measuring the degree of achievement of long-term strategic development objectives, would have been avoided. The concluding section shows how authorities should take into account the importance of social capital development’s role in policy fashioning, and in that sense should take participation in its creating.
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Normative designing of democracy is primarily occurring in the parliament, institutionalized congress of society or social stratum where open debates run, where decisions are made and where impact at the process of making key political decisions is produced. The structure or design of parliament, at the same time, depends on many factors such as specific historical legacies, the dominant political ideologies and practices, and socio-economic, cultural and customary ways of living. Will in a political system the legislative operate on the principles of unicameralism, bicameralism or multicameralism depends on the complexity of the social environment, political traditions and the current political praxis at the macro political level. The second chamber’s emergence in the parliament author has associated with the development of liberal democracy and the interests of different social groups (territorial, class, minorities) in order to be adequately promoted politically.
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Wirtschaftlich ist der Euro ein Erfolg, nun muss die politische Bedeutung der Eurozone gestärkt werden. Die Europäer wollen mehr Führung in der Weltwirtschaft übernehmen. Gerade deshalb sollten sie eine Reform des Internationalen Währungsfonds vorantreiben und ihre Interessen im IWF künftig gemeinsam vertreten. Vor allem Deutschland und Frankreich sind in der Pflicht.
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In economic terms the euro is a success. Now it is time to upgrade the po-litical importance of the Eurozone. The Europeans would like to play a greater leadership role in the global economy. That is precisely the reason why they should pave the way for a reform of the International Monetary Fund, and pool the representation of their interests in the IMF. It is above all up to Germany and France to take the lead.
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Georgians may agree that outing KGB agents was a good idea in its day, but many argue that it’s too late now
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In words and pictures, Georgian students express their feelings about Russia and the 2008 war. A TOL/Liberali multimedia production.
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Rising frustration among Romani activists may help seed much-needed new ideas.
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TOL Talk: Author Jonathan Brent on plumbing the Soviet archives, negotiating the new Russia, and encountering the real Josef Stalin.
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Want lots of power but no responsibility? Run for president in the Balkans.
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A well-intentioned effort aims to establish the facts of war crimes in the former Yugoslavia. But then what?
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