Publisher: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung

The New Society - Frankfurt Booklets

Die Neue Gesellschaft - Frankfurter Hefte

Frequency: irregular and other / Country: Germany

Die NEUE GESELLSCHAFT wurde 1954 als Theoriezeitschrift im sozialdemokratischen Umfeld gegründet. Nach der schweren Niederlage der SPD bei der zweiten Bundestagswahl im Jahr zuvor sollte die linke Opposition im Lande mit einem neuen Debattenblatt aus der geistigen Enge geführt werden. Zu den Gründungsherausgebern zählten Willy Eichler, der spätere Verfasser des Godesberger Programms, sowie die Professoren Otto Stammer von der FU Berlin Fritz Bauer, 1963 Chefankläger im Frankfurter Auschwitz-Prozess und Carlo Schmid, einer der geistigen Väter des Grundgesetzes. Im Mittelpunkt der ersten programmatischen Bemühungen der Zeitschrift standen die Abkehr von einem deterministisch geprägten Sozialismus-Verständnis, die Annäherung an Europa, der Brückenschlag zu den Kirchen. Chefredakteure waren Prof. Ulrich Lohmar, Leo Bauer, ein Wegbereiter der neuen Ostpolitik sowie von 1972 bis 1982 Herbert Wehner, von 1983 bis zu seinem Tod 2005 Peter Glotz. Seit Oktober 2005 ist Mitherausgeber Thomas Meyer auch Chefredakteur. Die FRANKFURTER HEFTE entstanden 1946 im linkskatholischen Milieu und erreichten als Pioniere der nachkriegsdeutschen Publizistik eine Spitzenauflage von 70.000. Ihre Gründer waren der Politologe Eugen Kogon, Autor des Buches "Der SS-Staat", und die Publizisten Walter Dirks, Walter Maria Guggenheimer und Clemens Münster. Nachdem Kogon und Dirks noch das christlich-sozialistische Gründungsprogramm der hessischen CDU verfasst hatten, wandten sie sich rasch von der Partei Konrad Adenauers ab und standen in Opposition zur Regierungspolitik der frühen Bundesrepublik. In ihren Europavisionen forderten Kogon und Dirks eine Abkehr vom klassischen Nationalstaat und den Aufbau einer europäischen Republik. Außerdem spielte die Zeitschrift mit den Debatten um eine paritätische Mitbestimmung in Großbetrieben lange Zeit eine herausragende Rolle. 1985 wurden die FRANKFURTER HEFTE von der NEUEN GESELLSCHAFT übernommen. Heute versteht sich die Zeitschrift nicht mehr als Theorieorgan klassischen Typs, sondern als Zeitschrift für Politik und Kultur, der kluge Zeitdiagnosen und Kommentare ebenso am Herzen liegen wie praktische Zukunftsentwürfe.

ALBANIANS AND THE EUROPEAN SOCIAL MODEL. Public Administration in Albania: Between Politics and Citizens

ALBANIANS AND THE EUROPEAN SOCIAL MODEL. Public Administration in Albania: Between Politics and Citizens

Author(s): Elona Dhëmbo / Language(s): English

Recalibrating Conventional Wisdom: Romania-IMF relations under scrutin

Recalibrating Conventional Wisdom: Romania-IMF relations under scrutin

Author(s): Cornel Ban,Daniela Gabor / Language(s): English

Keywords: IMF; financial policy; Central Bank; Liquidity management; financial stability;

This study proposes a critical evaluation of Romania-IMF relations by focusing on financial, monetary and fiscal policy choices. As such, the study has two pillars. First, Daniela Gabor scrutinizes the IMF’s take on the Romanian central bank’s monetary and financial stability policies. Gabor finds that the central bank and the IMF have constructed and reproduced the fiction that the central bank controls monetary (and to some extent financial) conditions in the economy through its inflation-targeting regime. This fiction is useful for the central bank to deny responsibility for domestic economic developments, and for the IMF to construct balance of payment crises as crises of state intervention in the economy. Moreover, the central bank uses liquidity management instruments (standing facilities, open market operations) for the purpose of managing capital flows, and not for inflation targeting, as the IMF demands. Finally, both the central bank and the Fund share the belief that a gradual, orderly transition to a local banking model is to be achieved by market means rather than via regulatory interventions. This market-driven approach enables transnational banks to forge alliances with the central bank in order to oppose government-initiated measures by narrating them as measures that pose serious risks to financial stability.

Social dialogue in times of economic crisis. Survival of collective bargaining in the industrial sector in Romania

Dialogul social în timpul crizei economice. Supraviețuirea negocierilor colective în sectorul industrial din România

Author(s): Aurora Trif / Language(s): Romanian

Keywords: collective bargaining;

Legislative changes coupled with the economic crisis have made collective bargaining for unions at the unit level much more difficult. The number of collective agreements decreased by 25% between 2008 and 2013, but collective bargaining has generally survived in large organizations. The degree of change in terms and conditions of employment after 2011 in the industrial sector depends on three factors: (a) the attitude of the employer (and top management) towards employees and their representatives; (b) the local labor market; and (c) the ability to mobilize the union in the company.

Stray Dogs in Romania. - Policies, legal Framework and Solutions

Stray Dogs in Romania. - Policies, legal Framework and Solutions

Author(s): Roxana Pencea,Tudor Brădățan / Language(s): English

Keywords: stray-dogs;

Some of the animal attacks most publicized in the Romanian media are those by dogs without an owner. The entire issue is covered extensively by the domes¬tic media, with over 12 thousand articles containing the words “dogs without an owner” and almost 25 thousand articles containing the words “street dog.” The situation of street dogs has generated heated debates between animal lovers and those who will see the streets clear of the quadrupeds at any price. The debates are most often restricted to the law¬fulness and morality of the act of ending the life of unclaimed or unadopted dogs, a method which is preferred by authorities and receives generous bud¬gets but has proven ineffective in the medium and long run. While solutions have been sought all these years, the situation has remained almost unchanged – large numbers of dogs in the streets and ineffective authorities.

Social and Labor Market Inclusion of Older Persons

Social and Labor Market Inclusion of Older Persons

Author(s): Victoria Stoiciu / Language(s): English

According to the last Romanin census in 2011, the persons aged 65 and over represent 16.1% of total population. A Presidential Committee report es¬timates that the five million persons aged 65 and over will represent, at the middle of the century, 30% of the country’s population, i.e. third times more than in the early 1990s (Presidential Admin-istration, 2009). // Aging is usually associated with a decline in activity or with entering inactivity, with higher depen-dency on healthcare and social services and often with a more precarious economic situation. This has economic implications, as well as an impact on the organization and functioning of society. // This paper is intended as a brief overview of the situation of older persons in Romania. The follow¬ing analysis will focus on the economic and social inclusion status of older persons, as well as on the access of the elderly to the labor market.

Exploitation as a business model. European workers, deprived of their rights in Germany

Exploatarea ca model de afaceri. Lucrători europeni, privați de drepturile lor în Germania

Author(s): Carmen Molitor / Language(s): Romanian

Keywords: shadow economy in Germany; exploitation by sub-contracting;

Part of the world of work has always been in the shadows: especially on construction sites and in households, informal work, "gray", could never be eradicated. Recently, however, an obscure area has appeared on the German labor market, with a completely new bill. It is based on the systematic exploitation of workers from Central and Eastern Europe. Modern informal work relies on subcontracting, contracts with temporary agents and posted workers, being organized cross-border by companies with substantial profits. Employers do pay - at least in small installments - taxes and social security contributions to avoid conflict with the law, but are constantly looking for ways to minimize the wages actually paid to workers. Their rights, social protection, health and fair pay have become irrelevant in this world. // This study sheds light on these clandestine niches in the German labor market. It presents practices of social and wage dumping, which mobile workers in Central and Eastern European countries currently face in Germany, when they are posted from their own country, when they are placed by temporary employment agencies, when they perform fictitious self-employment. or work under company contracts. The examples presented show how in many economic fields, along with the well-protected social, legal and wage universe of those with a fixed and stable job, a parallel world of exploitation can coexist.

Foundations and Crisis of the European Peace and Security Order

Foundations and Crisis of the European Peace and Security Order

Author(s): Wolfgang Richter / Language(s): English

Keywords: OSCE; NATO; European security concept;

The year 2015 marks the anniversaries of events that fundamentally changed the ideological paradigms, political arrangements and military postures governing the European security order – 70 years after World War II, 40 years after the Helsinki Final Act (Helsinki) and 25 years after the Charter of Paris for a New Europe (Paris). The current European crisis stimulates us to reflect on the foundations of Europe’s peace and security, analyze the causes for renewed tensions, new or revived threat perceptions and violations of agreed norms and principles, as well as to search for ways out of the crisis. // Whether a return to a cooperative and rule-based peace and security order in Europe is possible will depend on the political will of all major stakeholders to understand mutual threat perceptions, exercise military restraint and seek a new and broad dialogue on all open questions with a focus on the pillars of the order of Paris. It will be crucial to renew mutual security reassurances and find an appropriate balance between the roles of the OSCE, NATO and the EU within the European security architecture.

2015 - Annual Review of Labour Relations and Social Dialogue Romania

2015 - Annual Review of Labour Relations and Social Dialogue Romania

Author(s): Victoria Stoiciu / Language(s): English

Although the macroeconomic indicators point to a solid economic recovery in 2015, the social situation in Romania is not marked by considerable improvement. Despite the country’s high economic growth, the Government’s recent announcement of freezing the minimum wage in 2016 seems to have put an end to a five-year period of regular augmentation of the minimum wage. Inequality has increased while the unemployment rate and the percentage of people at risk of poverty declined insignificantly. // Albeit, some efforts have been made to improve social dialogue and labour legislation even though few actual changes have occurred in the area. The Social Dialogue law was amended in December 2015, bringing some changes to the Social Dialogue Act (62/2011) that en-larges trade union powers in the collective bargaining process. The draft law amending the Labour Code, which was the result of a legislative initiative carried on by the National Trade Union Block, one of the biggest Romanian umbrella organisations, is being debated in the Parliament.

Romania’s Trade Unions at the Crossroads. Challenged by Legislative Reforms, Economic Crises and a Power-loss of 60 per cent

Romania’s Trade Unions at the Crossroads. Challenged by Legislative Reforms, Economic Crises and a Power-loss of 60 per cent

Author(s): Victoria Stoiciu / Language(s): English

Keywords: Romanian Trade Unions;

The 2011 labour law reform considerably diminished employees’ freedom of association and restricted the right to form unions to an extent that the ILO has criticized as non-compliant with its standards. // Through legal reforms, the collective agreement coverage rate dropped by twothirds to only 35 per cent. The enterprise level is now the main level of collective bargaining, in effect crowding out representative trade union organisations. // The abolition of national collective bargaining in 2011 has effectively deprived union federations of their most important instrument of action, while new tripartite mechanisms for minimum-wage determination have so far been unable to fill the gap. // Chronic strategic shortcomings and a legitimacy crisis had contributed to the trade unions’ inability to influence labour legislation reforms in 2011. The impact of economic recession was less severe for trade union membership than the economic transition period that preceded it. // While changes to the 2011 reform package appear to be critical, that would not solve the trade unions’ structural problems, which need to be addressed from within.