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One always searches for some symbolic point from which one can claim that something ended and something else began, even though there are no beginnings and no endings.
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This book offers an analysis of transitional justice - retribution and reparation after a change of political regime - from Athens in the fifth century BC to the present
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The Gulag Survivor – Beyond the Soviet System is the first book published in Ex-Yugoslavia to examine at length and in-depth the post-camp experience of Stalins victims and their fate in post-Soviet Russia. Based on extensive interviews, memoirs, official records, The Gulag Survivor describes what survivors experienced when they returned to society, how officials helped or hindered them, and how issues surrounding their existence evolved from the 1950s to the present.
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Articles collected in this volume, written mostly in the past five years, attempt to develop themes already articulated in the Les Frontières de la démocratie. The book deals with historical and political borders, as places where citoyenneté and la civilité are being challenged, as loose or firm battle lines where democracy could be tamed or gain new inspiration. It deals with ambiguity of the term »community«, as community of peoples, community of citizens, national community striving to become trans-national on various levels where it is being constructed and sometimes de-constructed. (From Preface)
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The first part of this book gives an account of institutional and substantial changes in Europe, its new wars and new challenges, while the second part focuses on a comparative analysis of different transitions. The third part is dedicated to changes in the Croatian society and the transformation the state is going to. Finally, a synthesis of globalization processes is given, as well as projections of futures scenarios for development of transition and globalization processes.
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This book delivers a thorough analysis of multiple aspects of NATO involvment in South Eastern Europe and implications for Croatia. It also contains an overview of all positive and negative arguments for Croatia's membership in the NATO
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This book is a collection of papers written and presented at the Panel Discussion on Globalization and Neo-liberalism, held on April 19th 2006 in Zagreb. This Panel Discussion was organized by the Political Science Research Centre Forum. It gathered eminent Croatian scientists from different scientific fields of research (sociology, political sciences, economics, history, law, philosophy and others). Multidisciplinary approach ensured a fruitful discussion resulting with this book which aims to enlighten many globalization issues from different aspects and points of view. Understanding the changes in contemporary society connected with processes of globalization and the neo-liberal doctrine and the ways in which they reflect on Croatian society and state requires systematic and multidisciplinary scientific rethinking. In the scope of this comprehension the book intends to provide at least an overview of possible responses to the challenges of the world we live in. Although primarily based on scientific and theoretical ground, papers presented in this book also aim to offer some pragmatic ideas and solutions, which is particulary important for the positioning of Croatian society in the context of transition, European integration and adaptation to global processes. Following the given framework of globalization and neo-liberalism, papers presented in this book examine and question different issues starting with the definition of globalization, neo-liberal globalization and globalism in terms of concepts and contents. Also, putting these phenomena in a historical context offers a basis for understanding of contemporary transformation of society and social structures. Various aspects of global relations have been discussed: the role of major and powerful states, the role of international organizations and transnational corporations, changes in labor conditions, position of small countries, transformation of the welfare state and emersion of new forms of social solidarity, security on global and local level, global environment destruction, antiglobalization responses and others. From different points of view the papers in this book examine almost all important specific implications of the influence globalization and neo-liberalism have on economies, politics, welfare state, regulation, security, environment and social issues, aiming especially at pointing out positive and negative consequences for Croatian society.
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Macedonia features in many discussions as a country with high hidden economy. The European Commission has repeatedly voiced its concerns in its regular country reports about the size and proliferation of hidden economy practices. Hidden employment or undeclared work in Macedonia is of particular concern to the authorities, provided the very high and stubborn levels of official unemployment and low employment levels. However, most studies and research on the matter involve a high level of ambiguity, as they refer to specific narrow outcomes of the hidden economy, usually towards a specific point in time, with dynamics being difficult to trace. The current report, prepared jointly by the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD) and the Center for Research and Policy Making (CRPM), Macedonia proposes a methodology that would allow the tracing of the dynamics of the hidden economy and its components (e.g. hidden turnover, hidden employment, etc.) over time. This would make possible for the Macedonian government and its European partners to follow the impact and assess the effectiveness of their policies for tackling the hidden economy. Estimates suggest that the hidden economy size in Macedonia ranges from 24% to 47% of its GDP according to different measurement methods. The current report indicates that the percentage of hidden salaries remains the most acute concern, with the employment income of some 40% of Macedonian employees being at least partially undeclared. Moreover, 7% of all Macedonian employees work without a contract, and are not being paid any social security contributions whatsoever. The interviewed business representatives confirmed wide scale violations of the Labour Code. Over half of those respondents claimed that signing contracts with ‘hidden clauses’ (not accounting for the full remuneration paid out) were commonplace in their sector. Moreover, large-scale tax evasion seems to continue to pose a serious problem for the Macedonian economy and social system as the government tries to adjust them in order to be compatible with the principles of the market economy without imposing too extensive erosion of the social fabric and the existing social benefits. Tax avoidance is especially widespread among the poorest members of the society, which makes the underprivileged especially vulnerable as they may find themselves being criminally prosecuted for unpaid taxes or charged with paying large penalties. VAT returns are provided back to companies with significant time lags and represent additional burden for companies which are part of the formal economy. The issuance of cash register receipts also remains an issue, as only less than a half of the respondents claimed that they always received receipts when buying groceries. The situation is similar with the purchase of services.
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This document highlights the importance of tracking political party pledges to ensure democracy remains functional and accountable. Without such tracking, democracy risks being reduced to mere voter approval during elections, allowing political elites to focus solely on re-election strategies rather than serving the public will. Over time, this undermines democratic values and erodes confidence in institutions. The National Assembly of Serbia, as defined by the Constitution, is the supreme legislative body responsible for ensuring democratic checks and balances. It holds powers to oversee, control, and, if necessary, terminate the mandates of the government and individual ministers. This oversight is particularly crucial in the security sector due to its potential for power concentration, significant budget allocation, and its role in safeguarding citizens' rights. Parliament also serves as a critical intermediary between the public and executive power structures. The National Assembly employs several mechanisms to exercise its oversight role, including parliamentary questions, reports on government functioning, and interpellation. Parliamentary questions are a significant tool for scrutinizing government activities, particularly in the fields of security, defence, and internal affairs. These questions can address corruption and the management of resources within the security sector. An analysis of the eighth and ninth parliamentary terms (2008–2012) of Serbia's National Assembly reveals both the application and limitations of parliamentary questions in overseeing the executive. While this mechanism is widely used, shortcomings in its application were identified, prompting recommendations for improvement. The article underscores the necessity of enhancing these oversight tools to strengthen parliamentary control, especially in addressing corruption and ensuring transparency in the security sector.
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Wiretapping and tailing of suspects are the traditional mainstays of security service activity. However, the multiplication and growing complexity of security threats and risks, as well as development of technology and communications has led to an increase in the number and variety of techniques used to covertly gather data, such as secretly accessing people’s communications. Additionally, the number of government bodies and institutions implementing such measures has grown beyond the police and security services to include, for example, the Administration for the Prevention of Money Laundering and has also come to include private detective and investigative agencies. Today such measures are no longer applied only for preventative intelligence gathering but also in the course of criminal proceedings. The situation is further confounded by the fact that these activities are governed by a vast number of (unintegrated) regulations and by decreasing understanding of this field, both by the general public and by professionals. This is best illustrated by the fact that lawmakers use a variety of terms to define such measures in legislation: “special procedures and measures” (Law on the VBA and VOA), “special measures infringing on the privacy of correspondence and other communications” (Law on the BIA) and “special investigative activity” (Criminal Procedure Code).
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Despite the fact that public procurement systems in general bear a substantial impact on any given country’s economy, and, subsequently, on the everyday lives of their respective citizens, the social dimension of Serbia’s own public procurement system has been left neglected. Albeit that Serbia’s 2012 Public Procurement Law presents a positive step in its continuous effort to reform public procurement, the fact still remains that Serbia’s professional and academic community, as well as other parties involved in this process, have focused solely on the economic role of public procurements in terms of “procuring goods, services or labour assignments”.1 The result has been a serious lack of attention paid to the due impact of public procurements on social categories as a whole. Bearing in mind that gender perspectives are relevant to all sectors of society, it is important to understand how gender patterns differently affect the organization, implementation, and realization of public procurements as well as the consequences they produce. In this same unique regard, this paper takes as its focus public procurement in Serbia’s security sector in order to better understand the impact public procurements have on both women and men.
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The security vs. privacy dilemma has been a subject of debate for decades. Even through the right to privacy is not decidedly affirmed by the constitutions of some democratic countries, it is clear that without privacy freedom would not be possible. This conclusion is confirmed by the histories of autocratic and totalitarian regimes, which have deployed secret police to suppress privacy and individual freedoms. On the other hand, the rise of new threats to security suggests freedom is not possible without protection. From the perspective of those who believe control is necessary, the problem lies in the fact that the impossibility of monitoring illegal activities makes it difficult to bring those responsible to account. On the other hand, tracking, surveillance, wiretapping, CCTV and hidden cameras are causes of dismay to those who have experienced draconian totalitarian regimes.
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Since the end of the Cold War, peacekeeping has evolved into a more complex, multidimensional effort, encompassing military, civilian, political, and humanitarian tasks. This shift marked the emergence of peacebuilding, a broader concept dating back to post-WWII reconstruction efforts. The term gained prominence in the early 1990s when UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali defined it as actions to support structures that solidify peace and prevent conflict relapse. Subsequent documents, including the Brahimi Report, expanded peacebuilding to include integrated strategies across all phases of conflict. Modern "hybrid" peacebuilding operations, involving collaboration between the UN and regional organizations under joint leadership, engage diverse actors - international and regional organizations, NGOs, financial institutions, national agencies, donors, and local communities. This comprehensive approach has increased the involvement of civilian, police, and military personnel in peace operations. Post-conflict peacebuilding relies heavily on civilian expertise to address security, political, and socioeconomic reconstruction, which is vital for sustainable peace. With growing demands for civilian experts in peace missions - doubling in UN operations over the last decade - this policy brief reviews the operational requirements, legal frameworks, practices, and challenges of deploying civilian experts to UN, EU, OSCE, and NATO peace operations.
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Reality sometimes overtakes scientific research and academic debate. Although the topic of this monograph goes beyond just one in a sea of electoral cycles, the events of the elections held in Serbia on December 17, 2023 significantly influenced the return of the narrative about the need for electoral reform to the domestic public. It certainly contributes to the topicality of this book. Election conditions as one of the important political issues in Serbia have been present in the public discourse for several years - at least since before the 2020 elections and the announced, and then realized, boycott of most opposition parties; while the need for change or at least serious reform of the electoral system has been discussed in academic circles for two decades. Despite this, the electoral system that has been in force in Serbia since October 2000 has proven to be extremely resilient. Its consequences are often extreme, both from the point of view of electoral actors, and from the point of view of the wider institutional and social framework, which we will discuss in a series of chapters below. The proportional electoral system with closed lists and the entire country as one electoral unit is rare in comparative practice and is applied, with greater or lesser variations, by only a few countries around the world, but in Serbia last year it celebrated its anniversary, since it was applied in equal ten consecutive parliamentary election cycles.
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This book comprises essays on political transition in Serbia, written in the 1997 – 2006 period. Twenty-four works are devoted to sociological and politicological-legal aspects of the great changes in the now already considerably differentiated world of post-communism. Particular attention is focused on the problems of an overdue and deformed transition in Serbia, meaning that in the centre of the analysis there are complex interactions of culture and institutional structure in a society that has not yet emerged from the grip of a deep crisis of the change and has not resolved still numerous dilemmas in the confrontation with the many “shocks of the reality”. This relationship may actually be taken as the “red thread” of the topically various reflections of political controversies and theoretic-ideological dilemmas concerning the aims, contents, pace and means of building a modern state and nation, as well as of consolidation of democracy in a heterogeneous (multicultural, pluralist) social setting of Vojvodina and Serbia as a whole. All this has, therefore, caused the essays, the majority of which have so far been published in thematic anthologies and periodicals, to be grouped in this book in five topical wholes.
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Srbija je u proteklih nekoliko godina prošla kroz duboke političke, socijalne, kulturne i institucionalne promene. Zakonodavne promene u oblasti lokalne samouprave predstavljaju osnov za demokratizaciju političkih struktura koje su u ulozi donosilaca odluka. Pored toga, započet proces decentralizacije državnih institucija i službi javne uprave pomogao je da se poveća njihova efikasnost, transparentnost i odgovornost. Posebno je značajno, u skladu s međunarodnim standardima i standardima Evropske unije, u procesu devolucije vlasti, da lokalne vlasti preuzimaju odgovornost za implementaciju lokalnih javnih politika, te da se zalažu za promociju demokratske kulture zasnovane na poštovanju ljudskih i manjinskih prava i vladavine zakona, pri čemu naročito zauzimaju proaktivan stav prema multietničkom upravljanju. Razvoj sistema koji će biti osetljiv na posebne potrebe različitih manjina postaje ključ za stabilne i funkcionalne demokratije. Ovaj vodič ima za cilj da predstavnicima donosilaca odluka na lokalnom nivou, predstavnicima manjinskih zajednica i zainteresovanim organizacijama i pojedincima pruži pregled normativnog okvira koji reguliše rad lokalne samouprave i zakonskih odredbi koje tretiraju položaj manjina, informiše ih i podigne svest o različitim načinima i mehanizmima koji mogu biti značajni za ostvarivanje manjinskih prava usklađivanje interesa različitih etničkih zajednica.
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U Srbiji je sve više gradova i opština, koja predstavljaju kvalitetna mesta za život, privređivanje i investiranje. U ovim lokalnim samoupravama se uprkos ekonomskoj krizi pronalaze alternativni izvori sredstava za dalja ulaganja u infrastrukturu, nezaposlenost je manja od republičkog proseka, vodi se računa o zaštiti životne sredine i potrebama najugroženijih grupa građana, međunacionalni odnosi su dobri a udeo žena u ukupnom broju zaposlenih visok. Recept za uspeh je pametno kombinovanje finansijskih, tehničkih i ljudskih resursa razvojnih banaka i programa (EBRD, EIB, KfW, SIDA, USAID, Evropska komisija), specijalizovanih agencija za podršku stranim ulaganjima kao što su SIEPA ili Fond za podršku investicijama u Vojvodini (VIP) i partnerskih organizacija koje povezuju privredu, lokalnu samoupravu i nevladin sektor (brojne specijalizovane nevladine organizacije u oblastima zaštite životne sredine, demokratizacije i jačanja građanskog učešća). U strateškim osmišljavanjima razvojnih planova za period do 2015. godine pa i dalje svi gradovi i opštine u Srbiji moraju da uzmu u obzir brojne faktore, koji razvojne težnje mogu da podstaknu, ali i uspore ili sasvim onemoguće. Prema prilično pesimističnim makroekonomskim predviđanjima, i nakon što je najozbiljniji talas finansijske krize prošao, Srbija će veoma teško uspeti da dostigne natprosečni priliv kapitala iz rekordnih godina pre krize. Lokalne samouprave u Srbiji su itekako postale svesne da će u zaoštrenoj konkurenciji investitori postati još izbirljiviji te da će samo opštine sa stabilnim političkim institucijama, najkonkurentnijom radnom snagom, najnižim lokalnim taksama i naknadama, najvišim standardima poslovanja, najjednostavnijim procedurama dobijanja dozvola i saglasnosti za početak poslovanja, najopremljenijim investicionim lokacijama i najpovoljnijim paketom dodatnih finansijskih podsticaja moći da ravnopravno uđu u ovu trku. U tom smislu, gradovi i opštine se već uveliko porede sa susednim opštinama, prate primere dobre prakse u regionu, učestvuju na međunarodnim privrednim sajmovima i osluškuju potrebe lokalnih privrednika i investitora.
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In the framework of the Igman Initiative's further strategy, program for the following period includes a number of important activities related to finding permanent solutions for citizens' property and status issues in countries signatory to the Dayton Agreement. Igman Initiative upholds the view that only efficient addressing of certain outstanding issues between Dayton Agreement countries may speed‐up further normalization of their relations and EU integration processes. At the beginning of the past decade, initiation of the process of democratization of the signatory countries of Dayton Agreement set off a number of initiatives aimed at addressing numerous problems in mutual relations. In many spheres, legislation was harmonized and reconciled with European legislation, a number of bilateral agreements were signed and a considerable number of outstanding issues were approached in practice. It was a contribution to amendment and improvement of mutual relations and cooperation. In spite of those efforts, a number of issues remain open, including citizens' status and property issues. There are several reasons for this state of affairs. First comes from the fact that these issues are closely connected with the issues concerning refugees and displaced persons, for which sufficient political will is lacking. This project is being implemented in the midst of significant ongoing regional initiatives aimed at finding permanent solutions for citizens of the signatory countries of Dayton Agreement, who were victims of gravest and widespread forms of violation of human rights, in particular refugees and displaced persons. Upon the initiative launched by European Commission, OSCE and UNHCR, the representatives of countries in this region: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro, have adopted the Sarajevo Declaration in January 2005, and took on an obligation to facilitate the return and local integration of refugees and displaced persons in their countries through joint activities and mutual cooperation. However, in spite of additional incentives and initiatives from the international community, not much progress was made in implementation of the Sarajevo Declaration, which had aimed to finalize the process of return of refugees in the region by the end of 2006.
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