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Plus, Georgia and her allies decry Russia-Abkhazia pact; Estonia opens its e-government platform to the world.
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Why does the quality of strategic decisions drop despite the increase of strategic projects in the public sphere? This study reveals the weaknesses of the traditional intuitive reductionistic understanding of strategizing that reduces it to long-term planning. A deductive concept derived from philosophical axiology is developed instead. Thus, from one point of view strategy appears as a supreme sense in the context of Kants' categorical imperative. When compared to the tactical and operational management, strategy proves to be a value-selected ideal for the distant future the common sense of which is being further developed in socially constructed more specific meanings that finally reach the state of end goals of strategic importance. All this creates the basis for a positive attitude towards the uncertainties used as opportunities rather than risks that should be avoided. The strategy is not a preliminary plan as usually considered but rather a permanent “cascade“ of rationalization of 1) the overall behaviour of organizations and 2) the process of optimizing the knots of constant problems specific to certain sectors of social life within the global environment of a certain historical period. On this basis, strategic goals’ nature is determined as well as the way they are formed, the process of strategic planning and 12 principles of strategic management, compliance with its performance and efficiency.
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The article defines the basic concepts of the theory of local government. The municipality is seen as a political community. The basic concepts of the role of municipal government are explained. The areas of competence and powers of local authorities in Bulgaria and the allocation of responsibilities between local and central government are analyzed. Special attention is paid to local finances and citizen participation in local government.
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The growing importance of regional policy in Europe, the economic crisis of recent years, the inevitable reforms in the EU more sharply raises questions about the effectiveness of regional policy and methods of its evaluation. In this paper it is examined the problems in elaboration of a systematic methodological framework for policy evaluation. The main challenges in policy evaluation of regional policy are related to its large range goals and the many different types of tools used. The choice of methodology for policy evaluation is related with the type of goals, type of tools and the different stages of the evaluation. Different methodologies are described altogether with evaluation of their advantages and disadvantages. It is considered that the only possible approach for elaborating adequate framework of evaluation of regional policy is through adaptation of the most commonly used models according to regional specifics and using integrated framework of evaluation that includes statistical, econometric and qualitative methods.
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Donald Trump’s first year as President of the United States foreshadowed serious political changes and raised a number of questions related to the future of both domestic and foreign US policy. The main tasks for the new administration were: to „repair damages” created by its predecessors, eliminate malpractices in American politics, and implement ambitious election goals – all under the general „America First” slogan. Domestically, Donald Trump’s administration focused primarily on issues related to health care (i.e. repealing “Obamacare”), tax reductions, strengthening the American energy sector and enhancing US security through reorganization of immigration issues. Key foreign policy goals included: the rejection of Obama’s legacy (i.e. suspension or rejection of Obama’s most significant projects) and redefinition of foreign policy priorities. All that came amid growing interest in the media and public opinion, increased attention paid to Trump’s family businesses and the office he held, prosecutor inquiries into Russian interference during the US elections and contacts between the President’s most trusted associates and the Russians (the so-called Russiagate), ethic and moral scandals and personal problems in the President’s immediate surroundings. At the same time, the American economy was booming, and the US stock exchange achieved record highs. The aim of this article is to examine the transformation of Donald Trump-businessman into the President of a superpower, the implementation of the idea of „America First” and its consequences for the United States as well as its position in the international arena in 2017.
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Although the data collected by Esri Story Maps team and PeaceTech Labdemonstrates that 2017 saw a decline in the number of terrorist attacks around theworld, and ISIS in Syria and Iraq was nearly destroyed, this does not mean that theterrorist threat has expired. This threat can be compared to a virus which continuesto be dangerous and keeps attacking, using different methods in different parts of theworld. In this context, several important research questions should be asked about thescale and characteristics of modern terrorism on the one hand, and on the other, onits future, for example, its further evolution and escalation, its forms, or the potentialtactics and strategies that may be used by terrorists. Some experts anticipate thatfurther serious evolution and escalation of terrorist attacks should be expected inthe future. This evolution will be marked not only by an increase in the number ofattacks, but above all by even greater diversification of terrorist forms and methods,including the use of, for example, drones, cyberterrorism or chemical, biological orradiological agents. Another manifestation of this evolution will be the escalation ofattacks on Islamist, as well as extreme right, leftist, separatist and other grounds. Thisfollows from the connection of terrorism with many different phenomena, such asthe influx of migrants. In this context, it is necessary to take into account the use ofterrorism by extremist groups (e.g. right-wing or left-wing) opposing or supporting,for various reasons, the influx of immigrants/refugees and its consequences. In orderto present the scale and characteristics of modern terrorism, and to show potentialnew trends, the author analyzes three important reports on the terrorist threatpublished in 2017 by the US Department of State, the National Consortium for theStudy of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) University of Marylandand Europol.
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The passage of more than a decade since the system was introduced and 3 years since the beginning of the third trading period (Phase 3) has coincided with a period of aggravating crisis (referred to even as a breakdown) and recurring doubts as to whether the system is capable of achieving the desired goal or perhaps it should be replaced with another instrument. However, no concept of such an instrument has been proposed yet, which would enable harmful emissions to be reduced efficiently and cost-effectively instead of the current EU ETS. Ten years after the launch of the system and three years into Phase 3, intensive work started on a structural reform of the EU ETS. The aim of this article is to give account of the state of research in the reform, present the principal directions and objectives, and to provide an evaluation.
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This article summarises recent disputes on politics in the face of history. The first of its three sections discusses the historical background of the Polish debate on memory. The second section presents politics confronting the history of the period 2004/5 – 2007 and what its alternative options were. In his conclusion the author considers, in the context of the phenomena presented above, how to define politics facing history, but so as to avoid the trap of ideologisation. The article’s core part describes and criticises the so-called new historical politics (2004/52007), which was and is still an instance of a unilateral affirmation of national history. An alternative option to such a type of politics is to approach history in terms of social dialogue. In internal discussions, what this stands for is a tolerance for the polyphony of memory, whilst externally it is about the primacy of cross-border policies with regards to memory.
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The article is composed of two integrally associated parts. The first, introductory, section attempts at describing how sites of memory tend to be comprehended and investigated. The second part formulates and gives grounds for a hypothesis claiming that the sources of the career of the notion of sites of memory should be traced in that it harmonises with sensitivity to spatial/visual aspects of our contemporary culture, including present-day historical culture.
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One of the most topical and painful social policy issues in Bulgaria today is the status of people with disabilities, the paths to its legitimization, and the changes that society expects to see in this regard. To design policies that respond to societal expectations, more information is needed, acquired both from existing statistical data and from targeted empirical studies. This article discusses the results from a 2017 survey of health inequality. We analyze and evaluate the differences and inequalities between subcategories of people with disabilities. We underscore that looking at this group of people as a whole masks the specific needs of each subcategory. What’s more, such a one-size-fits-all approach makes it difficult to develop individually tailored social policies in line with the abilities and needs of different people.
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In the article, the author brings back the forgotten poet of the interwar period Elizabeth Szemplińska. The starting point of the discussion is the political and social situation that occurred in Poland in the thirties. The economic crisis, from which the whole of Europe was struggling from, favored radicalization among the Polish intelligence. Szemplińska openly admitted to her communist sympathies. The article remembers young poets from the Quadriga group, one of whom was also Nina Rydzewska. The group suggested the slogan „poetry socialized” showing the misery and suffering of the lowest social class. The author focused on the analysis of several lines from Szemplińska’s poems, in which the poet shows a woman of the proletariat crippled by hard work.
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This article will be structured as follows: Firstly, it will be described what is to be understood by the term „identity‟. After that, this article will explore the significance of the topic „identities of population‟ regarding the political, social, economic and cultural developments in the border areas of East-Central and South-East Europe. Because identities are not essentially but constructed phenomena, the next chapter will deal with the role of conceptions of the border area populations for the building of identity. The then following remarks on categories of border areas shall suggest that a great variety of border areas needs to be considered if one is occupied with the subject of this article. From these explanations the article's relation to application will be derived, and groups of questions as well as detailed questions will be developed.
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The article aims to evaluate the heterogeneous nature of the regional space of Romanian Banat, perceived as a developed region. The method is based on the complex paradigm of the concept of territorial disparities, which includes other concepts such as development, territory, spatial equity. The elementary disparities are analyzed by studying three categories of variables: social, economic and of life standard. In order to reveal the intraregional behavior the presented methodology used data from two census – 1992 and 2002, which permitted an analysis in two key moments: little after the change of political regime and respectively, after 1o years of transition. Global disparities are studied by calculating a global development index; according to it two types of areas were established: advantaged (above the regional average) and disadvantaged (under this average). The study of the territorial disparities – both elementary and global ones – and of their dynamics 1992-2002 led to the establishment of a territorial model.
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Geographical factors play a critical role in determining how acivil war is fought and who will prevail. Nations fighting forindependence, even if they win often don’t gain independencebecause lack of international recognition of their state. Long-termintrastate wars often involve a period of geographical division withinthe state. An insurgent group may control a portion of the country fora period of years. This happens most often in cases of regional ethnicstruggle, but can happen in ideological and religious wars as well.Formal partition has often been proposed by outside actors as apeaceful solution to an intra-state conflict. Kosovo and South Sudanmight be best examples of that. This paper will study the outcomesthat partitions might create as peace settlements. The concept ofpartition has never been normatively appealing, but has come toprominence in academic and policy oriented debates. The aim is toreview this debate and find conclusions for problem shown in the title
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W naszym kraju mamy nie tylko chaos przestrzenny, ale wprost bałagan związany z określeniem tego, co konkretnie i w jakim zakresie może zbudować właściciel danej nieruchomości. Gminy przygotowały dokumenty, w których brakuje całościowej koncepcji rozwoju przestrzennego.
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The aim of the article is to determine the influence of the transformation of Polish railways on the functioning of regional railways in the country and on their role in transport systems of the selected voivodeships. The rail reforms launched at the end of the 20th century which derived mainly from EU regulations resulted inter alia in the transfer of responsibility for regional rail transport to regional governments and in the long run they induced large scale changes in the ownership. The paper analyses the changes in the regional railway services of four selected voivodeships: Dolnośląskie, Kujawsko-pomorskie, Małopolskie and Podlaskie between 2005 and 2017. For the chosen voivodeships the authors analysed the number of open railway stations and stops of regional trains on them itemising the number of direct trains to the capital of the region and to the capitals of the neighbouring regions. The result of the survey is that the organisational and ownership transformations of Polish railways have caused fundamental changes in the functioning of regional railways in the country. Diverse trends in railway development can be observed in several voivodeships which results in increasing spatial differences in regional railway functioning over Polish regions. There are many factors which influence increase or decrease in the role of rail in regional transport systems. One of the most important of them are railway subvention levels and the general interest of regional governments for railway transport the reflection of which are initiatives aimed at improving the situation of the railways. Creating the own regional government-owned railway companies as well as opening the market for external railway carriers is certainly an important but not sole factor of this improvement.
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In this study, we analyze the survey data of the research results of the Carpathian Basin Kindergarten Development Program. In the survey, parents of Hungarian nursery schools across the border were interwieved. The data collection was based on a questionnaire survey, with a sample of 482 people. In the framework of the research, we learned about the sociodemographic background of parents of children attending Hungarian kindergarten, the five most important factors affecting pre-school choices and school choices, the relationship between parents with the kindergarten and kindergarten teachers. We have also learned the factors based on Hungarian parents enroll their children in majority language kindergartens.
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The kindergartens, as well as most of the minority schools in Vojvodina, are bilingual (Serbian and Hungarian). Education and nursing take place in 136 localities in Vojvodina. The survey presents the situation of Serbian – Hungarian pre-school institutions, based on the opinion of Hungarian parents. In the survey, we examined the motivations of preschool selection, which can be categorized primarily as subjective factors: the personality and sympathy of the teacher, as well as the quality of the pedagogical work. There were objective factors as well, such as the importance of mother tongue education and nursery, or the good physical condition of the facility in a safe area. The parents formulated some development directions, such as the importance of sports and physical education, and playful acquisition of the official and foreign languages (primarily English). The paper highlighted that in Hungarian families the plan of the majority language education hardly appears.
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The paper examines the tendencies of kindergarten and school choice in Transcarpathia in the 2017–2018 academic year. Based on 407 questionnaires, the survey points out that the post Euromaidan political and economic crisis overwrites the actual nationalist discourses in the Ukrainian education and language policy: not only parents of Hungarian homogeneous marriages choose Hungarian kindergartens and schools, but also their counterparts of ethnically heterogeneous and Ukrainian homogeneous marriages follow the same strategy. Generally speaking, the main reasons behind choosing Hungarian kindergartens are the better quality of the pedagogic work and the more sympathetic personnel. However, motivations differ according to the nationality of the parents: Ukrainian families would like that their children learn the Hungarian language, ethnically mixed pairs choose according to inner and outer quality aspects of the kindergarten, while for the Hungarian parents the most important thing is to prepare their children for the Hungarian-medium school. The participants – parents of children in kindergarten – were also asked about the approaching school choice. As the results show, 90% of them will remain in the minority Hungarian education system, but 10% plan to choose Ukrainian-medium schools. Among families with one or two older, school-aged children we noticed a change: these families are less likely to choose Ukrainian-medium school for their younger children than previously.
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