Democratic Contributions to UN Peacekeeping Operations. A Two-Step Fuzzy Set QCA of Unifil II

Democratic Contributions to UN Peacekeeping Operations. A Two-Step Fuzzy Set QCA of Unifil II

Author(s): Tim Haesebrouck / Language(s): / Issue: 01/2015

Keywords: burden sharing; UN Peacekeeping; QCA; democratic peace theory;

What explains democratic participation in United Nations peacekeeping operations? Although the division of the burden of UN peacekeeping operations has attracted a considerable amount of scholarly attention, neither the impact of domestic variables, nor the interaction between the domestic and international determinants of peacekeeping contributions has been systematically analysed. This article aims to fill this gap in academic research. First, insights from research on peacekeeping burden sharing, democratic peace theory and integrated decision models are combined in a multi-causal framework. Subsequently, two-step fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis is used to assess whether this model explains diverging contributions to the 2006 enhancement of the UNIFIL operation. The results of this analysis show that contributions result from a complex interplay between domestic and international conditions. Two combinations of international level conditions allowed for large contributions. In the absence of significant military engagements, military capable states and states with a high level of prior involvement in UNPOs had an incentive to participate. Actual contributions, however, only materialized if such a conductive international context was combined with favourable domestic conditions: only states governed by a left-leaning government that was not constrained by either proximate general elections or a right-leaning parliament with extensive veto powers participated in the operation.

Voters’ Personalities and Ideal Party Personality. Evidence from Poland

Voters’ Personalities and Ideal Party Personality. Evidence from Poland

Author(s): Agnieszka Turska-Kawa,Irena Pilch / Language(s): / Issue: 01/2015

Keywords: political party; personality traits; ideal party; voting behaviour;

The objective of this article was to make an empirical attempt at reflecting the popular concept of brand personality within the realm of voting behaviour. We assumed that voters can perceive political parties in terms of features which are characteristic for people. Parties could be identified as separate brands which, in the process of communicating with voters, represent unique, more or less distinct personalities. The study used a set of eighteen selected adjectives to describe both the personalities of an ideal party, as perceived by a voter, and the personalities of the voters. Two factor analyses revealed a four-factor structure of voters’ and ideal party’s personalities. These factors were utilised to obtain personality profiles of the participants and of the ideal party, and to examine the relationship between them. Afterwards, a cluster analysis was applied in order to assess the types of the ideal party’s personalities, which were next analysed in terms of the Polish political market. We found evidence that there was a positive relationship between preferred ideal party’s personality and voting behaviour.

Voter Characteristics and Leader Effects in a Post-Communist Context: The Case of the 2012 Legislative Elections in Romania

Voter Characteristics and Leader Effects in a Post-Communist Context: The Case of the 2012 Legislative Elections in Romania

Author(s): Andrei Gheorghiță / Language(s): / Issue: 01/2015

Keywords: leader effects; voter characteristics; electoral politics personalization; political knowledge; party identification;

In the contemporary political environment, the added value brought by leaders to the electoral performance of the parties appears to be significant and growing. However, the impact of leader evaluations on the vote choice is likely to vary from one voter to another. This article explores the influence of voter characteristics on the magnitude of leader effects in the context of the 2012 legislative elections in Romania. Five such characteristics are considered: objective political knowledge, subjective political information, party identification, political engagement, and time of voting decision. For this purpose, the paper employs data from the 2012 Romanian Election Studies (RES) three-wave panel survey. The analyses prove a significant influence of political knowledge and party identification and negligible effects of the other three voter characteristics considered. Thus, political knowledge appears to stimulate the manifestation of leader effects. Similarly, voters holding partisan ties appear to experience higher levels of personalization. The implications of these findings are discussed extensively.

Government engagement in co-operative service delivery in Romania: knowledge and acknowledgement

Government engagement in co-operative service delivery in Romania: knowledge and acknowledgement

Author(s): Cristina Stănuş / Language(s): / Issue: 01/2015

Keywords: third sector organisations; co-operative service delivery; governance; policy discourse; Romania

This paper approaches the engagement of successive Romanian governments with service delivery by third sector organisations and uses policy discourse to assess governance practices associated with collaborative service delivery. The topic is approached by a theoretically-informed qualitative analysis of policy documents spanning a decade. Results point out that the most important subjective factors shaping collaborative service delivery in post-communist Romanian are the conditionality of EU accession and the polarisation of policy-making in key sectors. The paper identifies three stages of cooperative service delivery in Romania, each characterised by a specific mix of governance elements. It shows hierarchical and market governance discourse to be prevalent as compared to the network governance discourse, with policy consequences in the area of co-operative public service delivery in Romania.

Factors Affecting Green Party Development: Explaining the Decline of Green Parties in Slovenia

Factors Affecting Green Party Development: Explaining the Decline of Green Parties in Slovenia

Author(s): Danica Fink-Hafner,Matej Knep / Language(s): / Issue: 01/2015

Keywords: Green parties; Slovenia; party system; party competition; environmental consciousness;

This article tests the thesis that the internal agential characteristics of the Green party segment in a relatively open and dynamic party system are a crucial factor in the long–term success or failure of Green parties in that system. The case study of Slovenia offers a natural laboratory to test this thesis, because its political system is characterised by institutions and a party system that are favourable to the establishment of new parties and by a persistently relatively high environmental consciousness among voters. In such a context, internal party developments obtain critical importance for explaining the decline of the Green party segment in Slovenia.

Innovation Systems in Croatian Regions

Innovation Systems in Croatian Regions

Author(s): Katarina Bačić,Zoran Aralica / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2016

Keywords: regional innovation system (RIS); Croatian regions; innovation activity; innovation diffusion;

The goal of this paper was to research and apply the concept of Regional Innovation Systems (RIS) to Croatian regions and to identify particular strengths supporting innovation diffusion as a source of regional competitiveness. A system of indicators is envisaged, with the choice of RIS dimensions and indicators largely relying on Evangelista, Iammarino, Mastrostefano, and Silvani (2001). In total, 32 relevant regional indicators are grouped into three dimensions – Knowledge creation and dissemination, Firm innovation activity and Systems' performance. Regional heterogeneity is noted with respect to innovation capacities in the 2006–2010 period: North-West Croatia is leading in the diffusion of innovation, with overall RIS configuration most conducive to innovation activity; Central and East Croatia (CEC) has a distinct value chain in agriculture and low-technology industries and industries' needs for technological upgrading are resolved through external R&D (acquisition of licenses, patents and know-how), backed up by strong public financing; Adriatic Croatia is underperforming in innovation activity, given the advantages it has over CEC in important elements of systemic dimensions such as entrepreneurial and technological infrastructure and in scientific capacities. Policy implications are drawn from highlighted regional differences in innovation capacities and in sectoral structures.

Survival Guide to Grand Theorizing and the Central Dogma of Social Science

Survival Guide to Grand Theorizing and the Central Dogma of Social Science

Author(s): Shing-Chung Jonathan Yam / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2016

Keywords: philosophy of social science; epistemology; sociology of knowledge; scope; determinacy;

Grand theorizing and empirical (quantitative or qualitative) research are often separately conducted. In this paper, the separation in question is traced from scholars' differential observance of the yardsticks of the philosophical, scientific and literary/historical methods respectively. The philosophical method relies on deduction and develops into grand theorizing by adding assumptions stemming from life experience, leading to conceptual fluidity. Contrarily, the scientific method relies on experiments, which produce more determinable outcomes as asserted by Popper's (1959) falsificationism. The literary/historical method shares this commitment to determinacy by providing in-depth understanding of spacetime-specific events/meanings. The roles of grand theorizing and empirical research are reviewed: grand theorizing provides categorical schemes, organizes assumptions into perspectives, uncovers hidden assumptions and generates arguments, while empirical research facilitates contextualized comparisons and generates theory. The other side of the story is then presented with the Central Dogma of Social Science, which limits the scope and determinacy of any social understanding with an inverse relationship. The central dogma constrains the possibility of social knowledge and, through institutionalized practice such as the acceptance of journal articles or staff promotion, academic development. For grand theorizing to 'survive', it needs to identify and reembrace its yardstick, which could then lead to confident communication with results generated by other methods.

Tax Advisors: Blurred Identity, Great Expectations

Porezni savjetnici: zamagljen identitet, velika očekivanja

Author(s): Tereza Rogić Lugarić / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 2/2016

Keywords: tax advisors; tax compliance; co-operative compliance; tax authorities;

A high degree of engagement between tax authorities and taxpayers is nothing new in tax law but it is an approach that gained in importance towards the end of the 20th century. The last ten years were characterised by co-operative compliance theory. The mentioned theory, among other things, has provoked a process of reviewing the tax advisors' role. Therefore, the relationship between tax authorities and tax advisors has an increasing importance. The article consists of two main thematic parts. The first part introduces a "general state" and tendencies in the tax advising profession. In the second part, the results of empirical research conducted among tax advisors in Croatia are presented. The aim of the research is to examine how tax advisors in Croatia perceive their role and their relationship with tax authorities as well as to gain useful insight which would contribute to a better understanding of relationships between the participants in the tax-law relationship. The method used for data collection was interview. Results of the research point to several conclusions. Firstly, most tax advisors believe that the tax authorities are distrustful toward tax advisors and are of the opinion that tax advisors mostly help taxpayers to evade their tax obligations. With regard to the attitude of the tax authorities towards taxpayers, they point out that it is an authoritarian relationship dominated by the "cop and robber" approach. Also, most advisors are of the opinion that their profession lacks a distinctive identity. To conclude, the article provides some recommendations and possible legal and tax policy changes.

Transport Accessibility As a Factor of Depopulation and Developmental Delay: Case Study Žumberak

Prometna dostupnost kao čimbenik depopulacije i razvojnoga zaostajanja: primjer Žumberka

Author(s): Ivo Turk,Nikola Šimunić,Dražen Živić / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 2/2016

Keywords: depopulation; emigration; transport accessibility; population ageing; Žumberak;

Žumberak has recorded depopulation processes in the past eight decades. A complete demographic breakdown of Žumberak happened in the second half of the twentieth century. That period in Croatia was marked by urban-based industrialization on one hand and deagrarization and deruralization on the other hand. In those circumstances, socio-geographic transformation failed in Žumberak. Modernization processes in the cities, in combination with their absence in Žumberak, have made Žumberak unattractive for living. In the second half of the twentieth century, emigration led Žumberak to the verge of extinction. In this paper, methods of demographic statistics and GIS analysis of transport accessibility are used in combination with the application of graph theory in the analysis of the transport network of the researched area. The results of the research suggest the conclusion that the revitalization of Žumberak is only possible with considerable material investments in the framework of well-elaborated and well-designed development plans. They should certainly include transport accessibility improvement.

Evolutionary Reality of the Revolution in Military Affairs: Results of a Comparative Study

Evolutionary Reality of the Revolution in Military Affairs: Results of a Comparative Study

Author(s): Iztok Prezelj,Erik Kopač,Aleš Žiberna,Anja Kolak,Anton Grizold / Language(s): English / Issue: 02/2015

Keywords: military policy; transformation; revolution; evolution; change;

Revolution in Military Affairs has been one of the driving concepts for creating modern armed forces capable of coping with the challenges of a contemporary security environment. Revolutionary change in Military Affairs has been interpreted as discontinuous, radical, non incremental, and even disruptive change. Evolutionists, however, oppose this view and stress that past military transformations were actually more evolutionary, continuous, incremental, piecemeal, and slow. The third view tried to integrate both views by stressing the patterns of interchange of the periods of evolution and the turbulent periods of revolution. This article explores the revolution-evolution dilemma quantitatively by setting three logical revolution criteria/thresholds and discovers the number of changes in military affairs on a sample of 33 countries that were actually revolutionary in the period 1992-2010. The article confirms the argument that Revolution in Military Affairs has been in practice predominantly an incremental evolution in several military dimensions, with rare major (revolutionary) shifts. The statistical results show that only from 2 to 4% of possible revolutionary situations (periods in our measurement) were Revolution in Military Affairs. Only nine countries occasionally reached the revolution threshold of 30% change in one year, 10 countries reached the threshold of 50% change in three years, and only six countries reached the threshold of 70% change in five years. These findings suggest that Revolution in Military Affairs was used more as a promotional slogan, and perhaps even a motivational tool in military affairs.

The System of Political Party Funding as a Sign of Weakly Institutionalized Party System in Slovakia

The System of Political Party Funding as a Sign of Weakly Institutionalized Party System in Slovakia

Author(s): Radoslav Štefančík,Alica Nemcová / Language(s): English / Issue: 02/2015

Keywords: Slovakia; party system; political parties; institutionalization; party funding;

This text deals with the issues of the financing of the political parties in Slovakia. We are coming out of the assumption that the Slovak system of the political party funding is based on the multi-funding, but the contributions from the government budget will form the most dominant source of the income. This system negatively affects the stability of the political parties and the party system because it does not equally contribute to building a party structure at the regional and local levels. Except earnings, we are also paying our attention to the questions that are connected with the expenditure of the political parties. Our consideration is based on the assumption that the well – institutionalized political parties spend a significant part of their budget for the financing of their organizational structures, i. e. they use their funds for the personnel costs and administrative costs. Regarding the nature of the income that is concentrated at the party in public office (or at party in central office), the majority of the party costs will be spent on the promoting of the party elite (during the election campaign), not on the building of the party structures.

Challenges in Recruitment Procedures in the Georgian Civil Service

Challenges in Recruitment Procedures in the Georgian Civil Service

Author(s): Archil Abashidze,Giorgi Selimashvili / Language(s): English / Issue: 02/2015

Keywords: Georgia; bureaucracy; civil service reform; recruitment;

The aim of this article is to examine the current tendency of recruitment in the civil service of Georgia, in light of the wave of dismissals after the 2012 parliamentary elections, and to highlight common problems that are characteristic for competitions in state organizations. Based on data collected during research, this article claims that drawbacks of the current recruitment practices in the Georgian civil service demonstrate that this aspect of human resources management carries signs of “team or leader affiliation and loyalty” approach. This tendency, which relies less on the assessment of applicants’ competency and motivation, seriously hinders the development of the public administration system in Georgia.

Narratives of European Politics in the Czech Republic: A Big Gap between Politicians and Experts

Narratives of European Politics in the Czech Republic: A Big Gap between Politicians and Experts

Author(s): Vít Dostál,Vít Hloušek / Language(s): English / Issue: 02/2015

Keywords: Czech Republic; political elites; Europeanisation; Euroscepticism;

The low interest in the political questions of European integration in Central and Eastern European countries, which has sometimes lead to apathy, and in some cases to increasing Euroscepticism among the citizens, can perhaps be partially explained by the lack of expertise and interest among politicians. This article analyses data on the level of knowledge and position towards the European Union among Czech political elites in the Czech Republic. Using party manifestos and secondary literature, the authors present a conceptual map of the Czech debate among Czech political parties and party politicians on the EU. First, the main currents of the debate are shown, as well as, and especially, the superficial, vague and ideological nature of that debate. The key narratives are divided according to positive and negative attitudes toward the EU and European integration in general, as well as according to domestic or imported sources of a party’s view on integration. In the second part of this article, the broader views of Czech political elites who focus on EU politics are presented and discussed. Original data from the expert survey are presented. The authors show that the debate of “European” politics by the expert elite is much better structured and less ideological than among the politicians, although it is not quite as consensual as expected. The political narratives are present among the elites of European politics in the Czech Republic as well, which can hamper the necessary communication between politicians and the experts and, as a consequence, rather naïve and superficial features of the Czech political debate on integration tend to persevere.

Institutional counteraction to digital divide of selected social groups

Jakość szkoleń nauczycieli z perspektywy wykładowców

Author(s): Jan Fazlagić / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 4/2014

Keywords: system edukacji; zarządzanie szkoleniami; zarządzanie szkołą; zarządzanie innowacjami w sektorze usług

Teacher training expenditure is a necessary component of quality assurance in the education system. The expenditure on training courses is the equivalent of R&D Expenditure in the manufacturing sector. Teacher training courses should aim to improve the quality of education in schools. The quality of teacher training can be assessed from several perspectives – one of them, applied in this papers, is the perspective of teacher trainers (educators). The paper presents the empirical findings from the survey conducted by the author. The respondents were asked about such issues as the attitudes of teachers towards their own development, the quality of in-house teacher training centers in Poland, the impact of quality of training on the quality of education in schools. The attributes of good quality training courses were identified and described.

Building Intra-organizational Trust

Building Intra-organizational Trust

Author(s): Zbysław Dobrowolski / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2014

Keywords: public organization; trust; public management

In the era of globalization, state and public organizations must be effective. One of the conditions of this effectiveness is the creation of intra-organizational trust. The author identifies factors, that affect this trust, and formulates a definition of public trust and intra-organizational trust. It was stated among others, that public trust to the organization can be reduced due to lower lever of intra-organization trust. It was also stated, that staff willingness to remain in the organization does not depend only on job satisfaction. A lack of willingness to sharing by employees the knowledge and skills with others can be considered as an indicator of the level of intra-organizational trust. A high staff fluctuation can be considered as an indicator of a lack of trust in the organization.

A Framework for National Public Projects Implementation Systems

Zarys modelu krajowych systemów realizacji projektów publicznych

Author(s): Stanisław Gasik / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 4/2014

Keywords: administracja publiczna; zarządzanie projektami

Public project management is one of the most important areas of operations of contemporary public government institutions. All investments and many public services are performed as projects. The public projects implementation capability significantly influences national economies development. Up to now there exist no model of national public projects implementation systems. Papers dealing with public projects analyze them from the point of view of single projects or institutions. The article presents the first proposal of defining a framework model of national public projects implementation systems. Such system consists of six interrelated areas: the portfolio management area, the institutions area, the processes and methodologies area, the knowledge management area, the public projects actors area, and the development of national public projects implementation systems. The presented framework is of descriptive type – it was developed as the result of an analysis of solutions in this area performed in over 90 countries.

Examples of Use of Agile Methodologies in Managing Projectsin the Public Sector

Przykłady wykorzystania metodyk typu Agile w zarządzaniu projektami w sektorze publicznym

Author(s): Monika Konieczny / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 4/2014

Keywords: agile; organizacja publiczna; sektor publiczny; Scrum; zarządzanie projektami

The ongoing global socio-economic changes combined with everyday broader access to information and civic awareness fast growth results in new sophisticated challenges posed in front of public organizations. Currently, the process of project development must not only be efficient and taking into consideration all stakeholders needs. More and more important becomes flexibility in actions allowing quick adaptation to rapidly changing requirements and environment. The other crucial element is transparency [Ustawa, 2011; www.gov.uk; Lathrop, Ruma, 2010] which let’s all the external organizations and civil, who are in most cases the key stakeholders, constant verification of taken actions. It’s also very important to engage the main stakeholders in the development process to make sure that the final product will meet their expectations as well as fulfill their needs. Given such a ranking cell it is necessary to calibrate the method of implementation of the projects. Therefore, more and more public organizations in the world consider the implementation and use of Agile methodologies [http://agilemanifesto.org], like Scrum [Schwaber, Sutherland, 2013] or Kanban [Anderson, 2010] as well as use of high-tech informatics solutions. In this paper the examples of the use of Agile methodologies in organizations such as the FBI – in the Sentinel project [www.fbi.gov], the municipality of San Jose, CA [http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com] will be presented. In the conclusion section potential advantages and disadvantages of Agile methodologies use in public sector will be described.

Scientific Projects Management and Improvement of Scientists’ Qualifications (on the Example of Kazakhstan Republic President International Program “Bolashak”)

Scientific Projects Management and Improvement of Scientists’ Qualifications (on the Example of Kazakhstan Republic President International Program “Bolashak”)

Author(s): Gulzhan Abdramanova / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2014

Keywords: scientific project; innovation; rationalizer; international program; commercialization of technologies

This paper reviews the theoretical aspects of the scientific aspects management.The author analyses the ways of scientific projects encouragement, sources of their financing and spheres of their implementation in Republic of Kazakhstan. Furthermore the paper discusses the state policy in specialists training and improvement of scientists’ qualifications through international program “Bolashak”.

Public Transport in EU Projects on the Example of the City of Białystok

Public Transport in EU Projects on the Example of the City of Białystok

Author(s): Kamil Waligóra / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2014

Keywords: bus lanes; mobility; long-term planning

Raising the level of mobility for urban populations is of interest to the authorities of practically all major governments. Projects of European Union funding (2007–2013 and earlier) enabled the process of reclamation and regeneration of public transport as well as the necessary infrastructure to accelerate. Larger urban units such as provincial capitals faced even more difficult task – the integration of public transport in the metropolitan area. The paper aims to present three integrated projects implemented by the City of Białystok, in collaboration with its communication companies on public transport. The projects and their strategic relationships may be an example of long-term planning by financial means of different programming periods.

Review: Mark Bevir (2013), A Theory of Governance, California University Press, Berkeley

Recenzja: Mark Bevir (2013), A Theory of Governance, California University Press, Berkeley

Author(s): Piotr Feczko / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 4/2014