Around the Bloc: Notorious Uzbek Security Chief Ousted
President Mirziyoyev slates security police for magnifying trivial matters into national threats, vows to end repression.
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President Mirziyoyev slates security police for magnifying trivial matters into national threats, vows to end repression.
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Aliev calls poll six months early, leading to speculation about his motives.
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The number of Chinese cities and provinces among the foreign partners of Polish regions has been increasing steadily, with 11 Polish voivodships now declaring active cooperation with Chinese partners. The local authorities are taking advantage of intensified relations at the governmental level and China’s growing interest in Poland and Central Europe. The aim of the article is to characterise Polish-Chinese partnerships at the regional level and to examine how the broader context of Polish-Chinese relations affects cooperation at the lower level of administration.
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This year, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) celebrates the50th anniversary of the signing of the Bangkok Declaration. The jubilee is an opportunityto sum up the organisation’s achivements and draft plans for future development. Thisarticle aims at analysing integration within ASEAN from the perspective of the CLMV states(Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam) as the newest members of the community. The researchfocusses on whether or not it is justified to perceive ASEAN as a “two-tier organisation” andif developmental differences between the two groups of members exert a significant influenceon the efficiency of the integration process. The integration in examined in three crucialaspects compatible with ASEAN’s three-pillar division: politics and security, the economyand socio-cultural cooperation.
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The quantitative analysis focuses on effects of a single nationwide electoral district on proportionality of seats–votes shares (Least Squares Index) and proportionality of territorial representation (advantage ratio index at the individual level and an adaptation of distortion index at the aggregate level) in the Slovak parliamentary elections. The case study concludes that metropolitan area (the Bratislava Region) is strongly over-represented in the Slovak parliament while other regions are under-represented. At the same time, the analysis showed that seats-votes proportionality and proportionality of territorial representation are not necessarily opposing principles. For example, the mechanism of the electoral system to the German Bundestag makes clear that it is possible to maintain a high degree of both of them.
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The aim of this article is to present the legitimacy of power in Russia. The special emphasis is placed on the correlations between Russian political culture and the legitimacy of the power of Vladimir Putin. Taking into consideration that social acceptance and support given to the authorities are the result of the relationship between the values pursued by the government and the values recognized by the society, the author presents the example of this mechanism in Russia. As many theorists note, investigation of the degree of legitimacy of the authorities should be determined by the compatibility of arguments that are used by the rulers and values and attitudes approved by the society. Therefore, this paper will present the relations between the authorities and society as well as the perception of Vladimir Putin’s domestic and foreign policy by residents of the Russian Federation.
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Head of Pentagon’s DARPA tech incubator says the agency is working with local partners.
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Problem gambling has been identified as an emergent public health issue, and there is a need to identify gambling trends and to regularly update worldwide gambling prevalence rates. This paper aims to review recent research on adult gambling and problem gambling (since 2000) and then, in the context of a growing liberalization of the gambling market in the European Union, intends to provide a more detailed analysis of adult gambling behavior across European countries. Methods: A systematic literature search was carried out using academic databases, Internet, and governmental websites. Results: Following this search and utilizing exclusion criteria, 69 studies on adult gambling prevalence were identified. These studies demonstrated that there are wide variations in past-year problem gambling rates across different countries in the world (0.12–5.8%) and in Europe (0.12–3.4%). However, it is difficult to directly compare studies due to different methodological procedures, instruments, cut-offs, and time frames. Despite the variability among instruments, some consistent results with regard to demographics were found. Discussion and conclusion: The findings highlight the need for continuous monitoring of problem gambling prevalence rates in order to examine the influence of cultural context on gambling patterns, assess the effectiveness of policies on gambling-related harms, and establish priorities for future research.
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Review of: Joseph Zajda and David T. Gamage "Decentralisation, School-Based Management and Quality";
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When Donald Trump became president, many voiced concern that rather than working with Congress, he would use the power of presidential actions, as he himself seemed to indicate. Yet in the first eleven months of his presidency, Trump’s use of presidential directives remained quite restricted. He used them sparingly and within numerical limits set by his predecessors. Analyses presented in the article clearly confirm this, both in general terms and in Trump’s use of specific categories of presidential actions, from the most significant executive orders to relatively unimportant presidential sequestration orders. From this perspective, Donald Trump is simply another U. S. chief executive, working through Congress whenever possible and resorting to unilateral decisions only when absolutely necessary.
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The 19th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party marked the completion of the first term of the fifth generation of leaders. Xi Jinping announced that China entered “a new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics,” which is a new slogan, a symbol of Xi’s second term. Contrary to some expectations, the Congress was not a political breakthrough, as the party’s goals—to hold its power, maintain stability in the country and regain a superpower status—remain unchanged. New means of achieving these goals will be employed, however, including new technologies in economic and social management, while in foreign policy China will be more active globally, proposing or even exporting solutions based on Chinese standards.
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The author examines the record of Poland’s non-permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council after the General Assembly voted on 2 June 2017 in favour of a seat for Poland (for the sixth time ever) on the Council in 2018–2019. The key challenges currently facing the Council are outlined, and comments are offered on the role of non-permanent members in developing the U.N. Security Council.
More...Discuție pe marginea lucrării Zbigniew BRZEZINSKI, Brent SCOWCROFT, moderator David IGNATIUS, America și lumea. Conversații despre viitorul politicii externe americane, traducere de Andreea Năstase, Ediura Antet, București, 2009, 231 pagini)
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Equity in health care financing and equity in access to health care have been long established as guiding principles in Europe. Although European patients are accustomed to pay for health care commodities, such as pharmaceuticals, extensive patient charges for public health care services are uncommon. Free-of-charge access to essential health care services is even seen as a patient’s right in some countries. Nevertheless, the scarcity of public resources, combined with the global economic crises, puts pressure on European governments to set new priorities. As a result, charges for public health care services are being extended in Europe as a means to shift health care costs to consumers and to reduce the need of government funding.
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The article explores the types of actors (of political or economic nature) involved in energy issues of all sorts. The first chapter explores the traditional role of the state. The second one explores the consequences – in energy issues of all sorts – of the fact that state is a sovereign entity with all correlated rights (including the way in which the relations with foreign investors are shaped and regulated). The third chapter explores and presents non-state actors with interests and activities in the area of energy (mainly trans-national companies – TNCs). The fourth chapter – the final one – explores the role of state-owned companies, mainly in the context when they are completely controlling national markets.
More...Towards a Value-Rational Approach to Europeanization
In light of a new low in EU-Turkey relations, it is urgent to formulate a new stance. The article sketches a new approach to Europeanization, suggesting that we must change our perspectiveon the relation between politics and society and privilege an organic bottom-up Europeanizationin Turkey over a Europeanization ‘from above’. That is because a top-down Europeanization wholly driven by EU conditionality is unsustainable in the long run since reforms are not passed for intrinsic motives. Instead, the incentive of EU membership should be removed for Turkey in order to enable a fully value-rational commitment to implementing EU standards irrespective of gains from EUmembership. To facilitate this process, the EU should strengthen Turkey’s civil society and foster bottom-up change through transnational exchange by implementing visa liberalisation for Turkish citizens. Also considering the political consequences for the EU, the article concludes that an end of the accession talks may, in fact, allow for a more sustainable EU and a more sustainable Europeanization in Turkey.
More...Rechtsstaatlichkeit in Gefahr?
There are good and bad news from Romania: They concern the highest economic growth in Europe, but at the same time we hear about serious threats against the independence of justiceby the social-democratic led government. Is Romania following the path of Hungary and Poland, as is presumed in the international media and expressed in numerous public protests inthe country? The article argues for a more detailed assessment of the present developments in Romania. A simple black and white interpretation prevents an adequate understanding of the challenges that Romania and its political system is currently facing. The high economic growth must contribute to overcoming cleavages between the better off part of society and marginalized sectors. But economic growth cannot be sustainable as long as GDP growth increases inequalities instead of reducing them. The reforms of justice laws have spread protests and public debates in and outside Romania. The text argues that most of the articles of the legislation are un-problematic and contribute to the standardization as well as the functionality of the juridical system. However, the nontransparent and badly communicated procedures and the hasty process of decision-making in Romania in the many past months have contributed to a political and general climate of suspicion and mistrust. The public debate about the “independence of the justice system” became politically instrumentalized in the struggle for power.
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Despite expectations, fake news appears to have played a relatively minor role during the recent Czech presidential elections. But that doesn’t mean the popularity of such “alternative” sites should be ignored or the reasons why so many Czechs are willing to take the bait.
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The Critical Mass bicycle movement, whose main aim is to reclaim cyclists’ right to use city streets freely, safely and proudly, is arguably the single most powerful grassroots movement that has emerged in Hungary since the 1989 change of regimes. While Critical Mass is a critique of today’s dominant motorized transportation practices as well as a celebration of alternative modes of transportation, it is not only about the environment. The Budapest Critical Mass can be read as the spatialized enactment of a direct and embodied form of democratic participation that goes beyond and at the same time transforms representative democracy. In the context of growing political apathy and widespread disillusionment with the formal public sphere in post-socialist Hungary, Critical Mass has emerged as a unique and powerful channel of citizen participation by forging a new kind of relationship between citizens, civil society and the state.
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