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European Union gives extraordinary importance to developing preconditions for e-government, in its strategic documents. Great number of ongoing programmes, or ones planned in near future, encompass promotion of e-government. Reform of national legal systems and existence of clear national strategies and action plans of egovernment, as well as harmonization of legal acts in this area, are necessary prerequisites for achieving e-government at the EU level. SEE countries also give great attention to development of e-government and harmonization of their legal acts in this area with ones of European Union. Harmonization between regulation of SEE countries and EU has been achieved in great degree, but implementation of legal solutions is not being accomplished on same pace in all of SEE countries. It is necessary that those existing differences should be overcome. All strategic documents of SEE countries contain plans for harmonization of all aspects of legislation and implementation for the rules concerning electronic government, so it is expected that even better results will be accomplished in near future.
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This article is a part of one big study – monography that was written by Slobodan Vuković : „The Ethics of the Western Media“. In that book the Anti-Serbian propaganda and the hate speech against Serbs, that were charactersisticof the preceding two decades, are analyzed. But, someone could ask why this text is here and what is the connection between the transition and the Anti-Serbian propaganda that was dominant in the Western world and in the Western media. We think that for the Serbian transition not only wars, criminality, corruption, suicides, social anomy, chaotic social reality, unemployment, depression of the people, new laws are characteristic, but also the negative image of Serbs constructed in the Western media. That negative image had and still has a big and important influence on our transition, on our social reality, on the psychology of those who have contacts with Serbs and on the psychology of Serbs also. Due to that negative false image, Serbia was bombarded ten years ago and that had many other negative social, legal and psychological consequences, such as the criminality, „Vietnam syndrom“, suicides and many other things. In some way, thanks to that fabricated negative image, Serbia is more distant from Europe than other countries of the region.That negative image also had an impact on the foreign investments. So, consequently, we decided to include this text in this book about the Serbian law in transition.
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"A group of about three to four people in their 40s approached us. They were visibly inebriated and started swearing at 'our Chetnik mother', asking 'how come we were not ashamed to come to Zagreb'. My wife and I looked at each other and remained silent. What were we to do, we were here with small children? We waited for their rampage to end but it went on for a while and then they left with the message that they would take care of us and the children, should we ever return", Dušan Kovačević, the director of the Novi Sad music festival Exit, said during his visit to Zagreb. The incident occurred in mid-February 2017, the same month that stickers appeared on the streets of Vukovar with the invitation to hang Serbs, and that members of the extreme right party Autochthonous – Croatian Party of Rights (A-HSP) marched through the Croatian capital dressed in black. Last February will also be remembered as a month when an Ustasha graffiti appeared on the Orthodox church of Holy Trinity in Bjelovar, a protected cultural monument. Also in February, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) MP Milanka Opačić, received police protection because of the photomontage inspired by her Serb nationality, published by the portal Dnevno.hr. Dalmatia was no exception to this trend. At the end of February, organisers of a carnival in Kaštele near Split, torched before hundreds of spectators and effigy of Milorad Pupovac, the president of the Serb National Council (SNC) and of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS).
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Prvi moj zadatak u Institutu za novinarstvo bio je da analiziram sadržaj desetak vodećih jugoslovenskih listova prema projektu jednog apoljnjeg saradnika, metodologa, koji je prethodno bio na nekoj specijalizaciji u Americi. Koliko se sećam, glavno moje "otkriće" bilo je da se svi analizirani listovi uređuju po agitpropovskom šablonu - da veličaju politiku vladajuće partije i kritikuju svakog ko se ne slaže sa tom politikom. Novu fazu u mom istraživačkom radu predstavlja ulazak u istorijske arhive, a to se dogodilo krajem šezdesetih, kada sam prijavio doktorsku disertaciju pod nazivom "Počeci političke štampe u Srbiji 1834-1872". Prekopavajući staru arhivsku građu, ustanovio sam da su svi politički listovi onog vremena primali finansijsku pomoć iz državne ili neke druge kase, što znači da su bili u službi propagande. Rezultate istraživanja ubjavljivao sam u svojim knjigama i raznim zbornicima sa naučnih skupova. U poslednjoj deceniji dvadesetog veka Srbija je imala više nedaća nego mnoge evropske države za ceo vek: raspad SFRJ, rat u okruženju, pa rat na sopstvenoj teritoriji, međunarođne sankcije, hiperinfiacija, nezaposlenost, političke svađe i podele. To je i decenija žestokog medijskog rata koji je srpska vlast vodila protiv stranih država i domaće opozicije. [...]
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Populists usually don’t have much use for complexity. They prefer to build their proposals on the basis of simplistic ideas about the pluralism of our societies and the definition of their electoral platforms. Moreover, we are in the midst of a period when “fake news” competes with reality in an attempt to attract the support of citizens or to manipulate their understanding of what is actually going on. Nowadays, the role of think-tanks is more important than ever before in exposing and countering these trends and providing authoritative analysis to policy-makers and other stakeholders. Based on rigorous analysis of the relevant literature, facts and data, think tanks make an essential contribution to the decision-making process by increasing the awareness of the new challenges and providing educated insights. Their findings and recommendations are instrumental in the design of effective policies, capable of achieving viable outcomes.
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Participation of politically engaged women in political processes in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been a subject of discussion in the public sphere of Bosnia and Herzegovina for many years. This issue is most frequently addressed by civil society representatives, both men and women, relevant institutions and individual female defenders of women’s human rights. The current situation regarding representation of women in politics is not satisfactory. Yet, it is quite rarely in focus of discussions among representatives of political parties who are held responsible, informally and formally, for the lack of women’s participation in government.
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Učešće politički angažiranih žena u političkim procesima u Bosni i Hercegovini je predmet rasprave bosanskohercegovačke javne sfere već dugi niz godina. Ovom temom se najčešće bave predstavnici/e organizacija civilnog društva, pojedine odgovorne institucije i individualne braniteljice ženskih ljudskih prava. Trenutno stanje zastupljenosti žena u političkom životu nije zadovoljavajuće. Međutim, to je vrlo rijetko fokus rasprave predstavnika/ca političkih partija koji/e se neformalno i formalno pozivaju kao odgovorni/e za nedovoljan postotak učešća žena u vlasti. U svrhu razumijevanja konteksta položaja žena u javnoj sferi uopće sa posebnim osvrtom na politički život, u nastavku analize slijedi kratak pregled historijskog razvoja ženskog pokreta u BiH, zatim dio vezan za prava žena u savremenoj BiH, pregled trenutnog stanja učešća žena u politici, a nakon toga podaci o udjelu žena na kandidatskim listama za Opće izbore 2018., medijsko predstavljanje žena za vrijeme predizborne kampanje i pregled rezultata neposrednih izbora 2018.
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The survey was conducted on June 29 – July 2, 2020 on a sample of 305 inhabitants of the commune. He measured people’s opinion about the central and local public administration institutions, about the main candidates for City Hall, the comparison between them, the expectations of the future mayor, the voting intentions, the way the City Hall was involved in certain administrative issues, the achievements and failures of the current mayor. of the main opponents.
More...11-15 iunie 2020
The survey was conducted on June 11-15, 2020 on a sample of 725 inhabitants from all localities of the county. He measured people’s opinion about central and local public administration institutions, about the main candidates for City Hall, about political parties, expectations of the future mayor, voting intentions, how the City Hall got involved in certain administrative issues, opinion about candidates for Council presidency County, voting intentions for this position.
More...9-11 iunie 2020
The survey was conducted on June 9-11, 2020 on a sample of 515 inhabitants of the city. He measured people’s opinion about central and local public administration institutions, about the main candidates for City Hall, about political parties, expectations of the future mayor, intentions voting, the way in which the City Hall was involved in certain administrative issues, the opinion about the candidates for the presidency of the County Council, the voting intentions for this position.
More...10 -19 ianuarie 2020
The survey was conducted between January 10-19, 2020 on a sample of 808 adults living in the city. He measured how the population perceives the involvement of the mayor’s office in various administrative issues, trust in local political leaders, voting intentions in local elections, the perception of local party organizations.
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Given its rapid economic growth and expanded geopolitical ambitions, China’s influence projection has grown globally. The World Economic Forum projected that China may overtake the U.S. as the world’s largest economy by 2024. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), aimed at optimising and expanding China’s economic cooperation with the Eurasian continent, makes Europe a prime destination for Chinese investment. Countries in Europe have largely treated economic cooperation with China as an opportunity, and the Nordic-Baltic region (NB8) has not been an exception to this trend. However, several European countries have grown apprehensive regarding China’s intents, as economic cooperation has become a backdrop to undesirable political influence via bilateral and multilateral fora. At the same time, buoyed by pride from its rapid economic growth, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has become more assertive in defending its national interests, including in the South China Sea region and in response to Western critics of China’s expansionist foreign policy, undemocratic practices and human rights violations. In reaction to these developments, a growing number of European countries have started to look at China’s activities as a challenge or threat to national security. This shift has also become increasingly visible among the countries of the Nordic-Baltic region.
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The book Czech Foreign Policy in 2008: Analysis of the IIR in all regards follows the analysis from last year, namely in its content and in the structure of individual contributions. This continuation of the series that began last year thus enables us to trace and compare the development of the Czech foreign policy in its political and ideational background, in its priorities, and in its execution and implementation, as well as to observe the influence and impact of particular relevant actors and the media con-text of the Czech foreign policy. Compared to the last edition, however, minor changes were made. The first parts of the individual chapters are not so much concerned with the conceptual basis of the Czech foreign policy (which did not undergo any progress). Instead, they focus on political discussion and the general political background of foreign policy. Certain changes were also made in the second chapter, which now solely analyses (audiovisual) media and their informing of foreign policy. This way, we were able to enhance our ability to capture the mutual relationship between issues that have the potential to initiate political and media debates on the one hand and actual foreign policy making and execution on the other. Another goal of the second chapter is to identify issues and agendas that stay beyond the media and political horizon. The year 2008 confirmed that only a small fraction of the Czech foreign policy agenda attracts a broader (public, media or political) interest, while the overwhelming majority of foreign policy is made by administrative and executive actors. Just like last year, the book is divided into six broader parts that reflect several distinctive dimensions of the Czech foreign policy, and these parts are in some cases further divided into separate chapters. The opening part, which is divided into two chapters, captures the continuing change of the political context of the Czech foreign policy making in 2008. It analyses the participation of different actors in the foreign policy making (the government, the president, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the parliament) and the media coverage of the Czech foreign policy. A special emphasis is put on the worsening of the Czech political milieu and its relation to foreign policy making. The following parts deal with the European and security dimensions of the Czech foreign policy. Both reflect those developments that were determining for the year 2008. These developments were namely the process of preparation for the upcoming Czech presidency of the European Council and issues connected to the reform of the Lisbon Treaty in regard to the European dimension and negotiations over the stationing of the U.S. anti -missile defense radar and Czech military missions abroad in regard to the security dimension. These more general parts are followed by several chapters analysing the Czech foreign policy towards selected countries and regions (central European countries, Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, eastern European countries, Balkan countries, the Middle East, the Mediterranean and sub -Saharan Africa). We decided not to broaden the spectrum of the countries analysed as our goal is not to provide a complex overview of the Czech external relations. Instead, our goal is a deep analysis of the most relevant realms and issues of the Czech foreign policy. However, it is possible that the Czech policy towards the Latin American region will be newly included in the edition for next year. After the regionally and bilaterally oriented part comes a chapter dealing with the multilateral dimension of the Czech foreign policy. This part mostly focuses on the U.N. agenda and on the international law framework of the Czech foreign policy. As this international law view is relatively strong, the multilateral chapter mentions some issues that naturally fall under other parts of the book as well (e.g. Kosovo’s independence or the Russia -Georgian conflict). The last part of the book is devoted to a series of issue -based analyses. It begins with the Czech economic diplomacy and then goes on to discuss human rights, development aid and the cultural and public diplomacy dimensions in the Czech foreign policy. Finally, the book is concluded with a summary and a critical contemplation of the ideational and political background of the Czech foreign policy, also focusing on the questions of internal political communication and coordination in the foreign policy making and on the Czech foreign policy stereotypes. To secure a strong sense of continuity, the team of authors underwent only very partial changes. We believe that the second volume of Czech foreign policy analysis produced by this team will confirm our ambition to give rise to a tradition of deep and meaningful annually produced studies. Their assets should consist of both an up-to-date evaluation of the Czech foreign policy and building and providing a rich empirical and analytical database for later scholarship.
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What was the Czech foreign policy like during the years 2007–2009 and why? The team of authors from the Institute of International Relations (IIR) and other partner institutions has been looking for answers to these questions for three consecutive years. For three years the IIR also has been producing Czech written thorough analysis of the Czech foreign policy. The book Czech Foreign Policy in 2007–2009: Analysis in-tends to become the first volume of regularly presented deep analyses of the Czech foreign policy in English which builds on the findings and analysis of the previous three Czech language analytical books and presents their synthesis. The English edition thus aims to offer a long-term and continual observation of the development of the Czech foreign policy in various areas: its ideational background, its concrete agenda and events that occurred in a given period, the influence and involvement of various actors and the overlap of the Czech foreign policy with the media and public spheres. These referential points are built into the structure of each chapter, so that the analysis enables the reader to differentiate and trace the various ways in which the Czech foreign policy is contemplated, produced, executed, implemented and reflected. This concept, among others, promises to disclose the changes in the process of the Czech foreign policy making with respect to different issues and different actual political contexts. As the issue area approach to the study of foreign policy suggests, a specific agenda tends to attract different sets of actors. Thus the process of foreign policy making is not constant and does not remain the same in regard to various issues and agendas. Our approach enabled us to enhance our ability to capture the mutual relationship between issues that have the potential to initiate political and media debates on the one hand and actual foreign policy making and execution on the other.
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Ever since 2007, the Institute of International Relations in Prague has been publishing deep and far reaching analyses of the Czech foreign policy (CFP) in book form every year. In each book the team of authors asks several fundamental questions about the CFP: What was the foreign policy in the previous year like and why? What actors were making the CFP and in what ways? How did the Czech media inform about foreign policy and how did their reporting contribute to the overall context for the CFP making? What have been the main trends of the CFP in the past few years and how does the last year relate to these trends? Can we assess the CFP as successful, where does its potential lie and where can we find the biggest problems? This year’s edition is comprised of twenty-one chapters written by twenty-three authors from the Institute of International Relations and other cooperating institutions. The book focuses on the majority of the principal dimensions of the CFP in 2011. The structure of the book underwent only very few changes since the last edition. Unlike last year we decided not to include a summarizing chapter that would cover the Czech bilateral relations to the Western European countries as a whole; instead, we went back to the original model of analysing only the relations with France and Great Britain and doing so in two separate chapters. Plus, for the first time, there is a chapter specifically oriented to the issue of energy in external relations while, unlike in previous editions, we did not include a chapter on the region of Latin America in this edition.
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Since 2007, the Institute of International Relations in Prague systematically monitors the Czech foreign policy, and this activity results in its publishing of an analytical monograph each year. Every year, the team of authors follows the same basic conceptual framework. The analysis is structured so that the first two chapters analyze the overall domestic political and media context of the Czech foreign policy and identify the influence and involvement of the crucial actors. The second part focuses on the key thematic areas of Czech foreign policy – the Czech activities in the European Union as well as the Czech security and defense policy. The third part analyses the main trends and dynamics of the Czech foreign policy in the immediate region of Central Europe. The fourth part discusses in detail selected bilateral and regional relations, and the fifth section analyzes the participation of the Czech Republic in other multilateral and thematic areas. At the same time all the chapters respect a unifying analytical structure. Again, every chapter first notes the political and conceptual context as the basic internal political basis for foreign policy. All the chapters then describe and analyze the specific agenda and events in 2012 and their impact on and relevance to foreign policy. Most of the authors also include an analysis of the involvement of the actors in their respective area of interest as well as its media coverage. The team of authors emphasizes the continuity of both the conceptual and the thematic matter. Therefore, the analysis contributes to the building of a robust empirical and analytical basis and also to a deepening of our understanding of the Czech foreign policy. The book consists of 20 chapters, which were written by 22 authors from the Institute of International Relations and other collaborating institutions (Charles University, Masaryk University, the University of Economics). Most of the authors point to a continuity in 2012, to the Czech Republic completing the conceptual and programmatic base, and to various responses to the economic crisis. At the same time, however, a general overview of all the chapters points to an interesting argument (the validity of which will be either proved or disproved only over the next couple of years): the Czech foreign policy is currently more complex than it was in recent years in its responding to global and regional processes and challenges and, consequently, this is also reflected in the actual outcomes of the Czech foreign policy (though in many cases with rather significant delays).
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Since 2007 the Institute of International Relations continuously analyzes the Czech foreign policy, and it has released 10 analytical monographs on it (including this one) in both Czech and English language variations. The analytical framework remains the same over all these years (though there was a major addition to it in 2013), which provides a unique opportunity for a long-term comparison of how the foreign policy changed over the years. With this insight in mind, the authors can say that 2014 was the most remarkable year for this analytical series since the time that it started and – perhaps – one of the most remarkable years in the history of the Czech Republic as such. Both domestic (e.g. the change of the Czech government) and international factors (e.g. the violent development in Eastern Europe and the increasingly aggressive Russian behavior) contributed to the fact that the domestic political and public interest in foreign policy reached recorded levels that were previously unheard of. In the past, the authors criticized the overwhelming disinterest in foreign policy matters on the part of the politicians and the public in the Czech Republic. However, the heightened, if aroused, political and public attention to foreign policy cannot be rendered exclusively – or even predominantly – as a positive and constructive feature of the foreign policy in 2014. This is not to say that in the long term, the increased interest in the foreign policy, if sustained and managed in a conscious and responsible way, will not yield a fruitful result in the future. But the nature of the political and public con-text of the foreign policy in 2014 further exposed the immaturity and irresponsibility of the politics of the Czech foreign policy. As mentioned, the books’ structure has been the same since 2007. The first two chapters analyze the overall domestic political and media context of the Czech foreign policy and identify the influence and involvement of each of the main actors in it. The second part focuses on the Czech acting within the European Union and the Czech security and defense policy. The third part analyzes the main development and dynamics of the Czech policies in Central Europe. The fourth section maps out various important bilateral and regional relations, and the fifth part analyzes the participation of the Czech Republic in other multilateral and thematic areas. Furthermore, all the chapters follow a unified analytical structure. Each chapter begins with the political and conceptual context of the discrete analyzed field. In the second part of each chapter, a specific agenda and some events of the examined year, as well as their impact on and relevance for the Czech foreign policy, are analyzed. Most of the authors also included an analysis of the involvement of the different ac-tors in the monitored area and also the media coverage of the given topic. With the support of the Czech Grant Agency, the team of the authors has enriched the conceptual framework in 2013 by adding several further analytical categories that would allow them to qualitatively improve the theoretical knowledge of foreign policy-making. Also, thanks to the deepened cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for the second year now, the IIR’s analysis also includes an overview of the diplomatic activities of the main Czech foreign policy actors. In 2013, several questions were added to our research repertoire in order to develop a new conceptual framework for explaining the foreign policy of small and medium-sized states, as well as a more general explanation of the Czech foreign pol-icy as such. The set of new questions consists of the following: In what areas did the Czech Republic carry out a pro-active or a re-active policy (or no policy at all), and how successful was it in this respect? Why did it carry out these policies? In what areas did a polarization and a politicization of the foreign policy-making agenda occur, and what impact did these factors have on the Czech foreign policy? How does the Czech Republic react to challenges coming from outside the regional/international/global environment, and why? And how is the Czech Republic itself trying to influence the environment?
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Since 2007 the Institute of International Relations continuously monitors the Czech foreign policy, and it has released seven analytical monographs about it, which have always corresponded to the same unified analytical framework. The books’ structure is and always has been as follows: The first two chapters analyze the overall domes-tic political and media context of the Czech foreign policy and identify the influence and involvement of each of the main actors in it. The second part focuses on the most important thematic areas of the Czech foreign policy, specifically the Czech impact on the European Union and the Czech security and defense policy. The third part shows the main trends and dynamics of the Czech activities in the region that is geographically closest to the Czech Republic – Central Europe. The fourth section maps out various important bilateral and regional relations, and the fifth part analyzes the participation of the Czech Republic in other multilateral and thematic areas. Alongside this composition, all the chapters follow a unified analytical structure. Each chapter works with the Czech Republic’s political and conceptual context as a basic internal basis for the Czech foreign policy. In the second part of each chapter, a specific agenda and some events of the examined year, as well as their impact and relevance for the Czech foreign policy, are analyzed. Most of the authors also included an analysis of the involvement of the different actors in the monitored area and also the media coverage of the given topic. The team of authors emphasizes continuity in both conceptual and thematic matters. For this reason, the analysis can build on a robust empirical basis and deepen people’s understanding of the Czech foreign policy. In the yearbook for 2013, there are two significant shifts from the above described concept. First, partly due to a three-year grant of the Grant Agency of the Czech Re-public, the team of authors has enriched the conceptual framework by adding several further analytical categories that would allow them to qualitatively improve the theoretical knowledge of foreign policy-making in the future. Secondly, thanks to the deepened cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the long-discussed plan of the Ministry to replace the regularly published Czech Foreign Policy Report with a new output that would preserve the statistical level of the Report but would also include evaluations and analyses has been put into practice, as this book is precisely this kind of output. On the basis of these discussions, a new concept has materialized this year for the first time. In accordance with this concept, the Institute of International Relations’ foreign policy analysis now includes, for the first time, parts dealing with statistics and surveys, and these parts were prepared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. English versions of the yearbook will also be prepared with the support of the Ministry in the future. Regarding the overall conceptual framework, there have been several changes in terms of the main questions that we are asking, as well as in how the above described concept will be fulfilled. The aim is to develop a new conceptual framework for explaining the foreign policy of small and medium-sized states, as well as a more general explanation of the Czech foreign policy as such.
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