Around the Bloc: The Trials and Retrials of Macedonia’s Conservatives
Protests are held in the streets in Skopje and Pristina as opposition leader says he will step down.
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Protests are held in the streets in Skopje and Pristina as opposition leader says he will step down.
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The new European regulation of personal data protection domain is a real reorganization of the specific system, with profound effects on public administration staff or on labor market actors causing the emergence of new opportunities but of limitations too. The institution of the personal data protection officer, although not new, needs some clarification in the new setting.
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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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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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In the past decades, the United States twice undermined the global climate negotiations by declining to ratify or planning to withdraw from ratified agreements. The U.S. position is rooted in the domestic energy and climate policy, including the competences of the authorities at the federal, state and local levels, as well as at business dynamics. For the international community this means that it cannot rely solely on negotiations with the U.S. administration without broad support of the states if it wishes to avoid encountering major obstacles and loss of credibility. Consequently, a broader engagement of states in developing U.S. climate policy is suggested in a bottom-up process in line with the Paris Agreement.
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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.
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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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In a Firm-Idea company, a specific institutional model of organisation and performance, and all kinds of processes, including negotiations, are conducted differently than in a traditional company. Therefore, the objective of the paper is to characterise negotiation processes pursued in Firm-Idea companies through a comparative analysis of the literature and the author’s original ideas. Specific features of idea-negotiations are distinguished based on typical, general concepts of negotiations. Their three substantial dimensions are described, i.e. values, relations and cooperation. In effect, the paper offers a comprehensive description of negotiations viewed as an efficient tool useful in different types of processes in Firm-Idea companies.
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This article describes the results of a survey on the supervision by the counties on the subordinated therapeutic entities (hospitals). Action taken by counties in this area can be considered as insufficient. Despite the declarations of complex administrative structures responsible for the supervision, counties do not have the knowledge not only about the management processes used in the subordinate entities, but also the state of their finances. What counties call a supervision is to a large extent a control – sampling and formal. Information gap between the supervisor and the supervised is so large, that significantly affect the ability of supervision by the counties on the subordinated entities.
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Background: Despite a growing body of research literature focused on public-private partnerships (PPPs) in healthcare, some critical issues still seem to be insufficiently investigated, especially due to the frequent lack of clarity in defining the goals for healthcare management and to an oversimplified framework for analysing PPPs. Resolving conf licts of interest between diverse PPP stakeholders in healthcare requires special attention. Effective solutions in this area are not well known in Central and Eastern Europe countries, which are trying to modernise their healthcare systems.Aims: The purpose of this article is threefold. Firstly, it is to establish an appropriate understanding of healthcare sustainability, currently understood as the ultimate goal for healthcare management. Secondly, it is to shift the contextfor analysing the performance of PPPs from a purely financial to a wider and well-framed one, comprising the pillars of healthcare sustainability. Thirdly, it is to identify the governance mechanisms intended to improve the impact of PPPs on healthcare sustainability.Methods: The methods employed include a broad conceptual analysis of the international literature as well as external online desk research of the materials published by PPP consortia, financial institutions and public authorities engaged in managing PPPs for healthcare in Europe.Results: Healthcare sustainability is a complex, multifaceted and multi-pillar problem. PPPs can enhance, or damage, all healthcare sustainability pillars due to a complex conf lict of interest between the parties involved. Embedding certain governance mechanisms in PPP contracting and management is necessary to foster both financial and nonfinancial sustainability in healthcare provided via PPPs. Some countries and some PPPs have managed to develop suitable mechanisms to govern the conf licting goals in healthcare management.Conclusions: The mechanisms governing PPPs can be programmed as sustainability drivers to improve the resilience of healthcare to the benefit of all stakeholder groups, including capital providers, society and the government. The experiences of PPPs in healthcare operating in the European context may inspire an appropriate design of the PPP framework and PPP contracts.
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The paper is based on an empirical analysis of industrial policy effects on regional development. It looks at the state of the Ukrainian industrial policy and proposes the basic measures for future structural adjustments in Ukraine. The analysis of two groups of factors includes general and specific sources of growth for Ukraine’s 27 regions and estimates the effects of regional industrial policy in Ukraine. The first group of indices comprises macroeconomic indicators. In the aggregate, transition-specific factors combine the indicators of success of reforms, including labour productivity, capital intensity, technological change and regional differences. The regional imbalance assessment is determined by the gross regional product per capita, regional employment and expenditures on education. The use of econometric modelling proves the division into industrial regions with a high urbanisation rate and backward agrarian regions in Ukraine. Different types of industrial policies of protection and production subsidies across industries are proposed for the reforming process within the regions.
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Since the very beginning of their establishment, municipalities, counties and regions (voivodeships) have been struggling with financial problems. Unfortunately, these problems affect the performance of the tasks assigned to these administrative units, including the standard of provided services and investment activities. Although extensive, the scale of the unsatisfied needs in LGUs varies between individual units, including municipalities. Thus, the positive financial results (the balance at the closure of the fiscal year) achieved by local government units in Poland in the recent years, as well as their future, offer an intriguing topic of research. The purpose of this paper is to identify the causes that: 1) underpin the re-evaluation of the LGU goals (from the implementation of the local government mission to achieving a budget surplus), and 2) allow the positive result of the LGU budget to finance goals other than investment-related ones. In order to achieve this, the study covers and illustrates, using the empirical data from the years 2007-2016, the types of possible LGU budget results, LGU activities that could contribute to the closure to LGU budgets with a positive result, directions of using budget surpluses and the so-called uncommitted funds, as well as local governments’ debt in terms of the intergenerational solidarity concept of its repayment and its perceived optimal structure.
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The article is discusses the new concept of harmony limit as an instrument for strategic management of tourism development in tourism destinations. In the author’s opinion, that concept can be used as a basic instrument in creating tourism development strategies, which would help to start or continue the process of developing sustainable tourism. Furthermore, the concept is based on three interdependent elements: pillars of sustainability, multi-stakeholder responsibility and the sphere of needs. The author draws attention to the problems associated with the new concept and offers certain solutions, thereby demonstrating its application value.
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Financial self-sufficiency of the local government units, which means an ability to design their own financial policy in accordance with the applicable law, is one of the preconditions for sustainable local development. Metropolises – the largest towns with county (poviat) rights – because of their high demographic and economic potential are characterised by a high average level of financial self-sufficiency. Various processes and phenomena, including the economic crisis and the phenomenon of suburbanisation, affect the level of financial self-sufficiency of the largest cities. The main aim of the article is to assess the level of financial self-sufficiency of the metropolises in Poland in 2007-2015. The study was conducted in two stages. In the first stage, the analysis was based on the development of the basic indicators of financial self-sufficiency of the metropolises, while in the second stage of the research, a summary assessment of the financial self-sufficiency of the metropolises was conducted using the TOPSIS method. The empirical basis of the study was provided by the data from the Central Statistical Office database (Local Data Bank).
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The article discusses the extent to which the national (Polish) cluster-based policy reflects scientifically-based industrial cluster identification methods as well as policy selection criteria. The framework of the current Polish cluster-based policy is discussed, followed by the presentation of eight well-grounded cluster identification methods. A four-level qualitative scale was used to determine the degree of compliance of 17 selection criteria with the identification methods. Only insignificant links were found in such criteria as “critical mass” (the number of the cluster members and the cluster structure), “concentration” (the number of the entities acting within some distance from their coordinator) and “economic cluster’s potential” (employment rate and sales values).
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The article presents sanctions as an instrument in the United States policy to Iran. Washington accuses Iran for sponsoring terrorism and developing intensively its nuclear program. Since 2006 sanctions have been imposed by the United Nation’s Security Council and additionally and the European Union has imposed embargo on buying Iran’s oil. Each of these imposed sanctions regimes against Iran do not bring to a desirable change in Iran’s policy. The article focuses on the problem of sanctions effectiveness, especially in the situation in which not all states agree in imposing hard sanctions and Iran is strongly determined in further developing its nuclear program despite of costs and condemnation and further sanctions.
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The issue of the function of legal sanctions in the administration law is complex. It results, among others, from the possibility to understand the term “a legal sanction” in different ways. This term can be defined as a particular rule or provision, the act of application thereof, or the outcome of its execution. In practice, the issue of subject, which determines the function of particular sanctions, is also extremely significant. It can be generally said that legal sanctions in administration law can perform five functions: preventive, repressive, compelling, restrictive and redistributive.
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Besides other aspects, one of the fundamental conditions of the modern political system is active and powerful civil society. Representatives of civil society and their increasing influence provide the background for increasing political participation and civic activism with the aim to make decision-making processes more effectual and having an impact on public policy actors. In that context, the objective of the article is to pay particular attention to one of the forms of participation, specifically using a comparative method to theoretically analyse the perspectives and limits of e-participation. The paper presumes the inevitable role of e-participation in the current modernisation of public administration processes which could overcome obstacles related to the participatory gap in post-communist countries.
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The article focuses on the application of the concept of governance in the realities of the Polish political system. The author analyses the forms of participation of citizens and their organisations in the decision-making of public administrations, particularly based on the notion of New Public Management and Governance. Further, he analyses the importance of implementing the concept of governance in the context of the existing models of democracy, especially liberal and participatory democracy. The last part of the article presents the institutionalisation of the notion of Governance in Polish law and practice of socio-political life.
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