Bulgaria: Science is Golden

Bulgaria: Science is Golden

Author(s): Boyko Vassilev / Language(s): English / Issue: 12/08/2009

Keywords: Bulgaria; science; Simeon Djankov; deputy prime minister and finance minister; Bulgarian Academy of Science; Bulgarian Literary Society; John Atanasov; Carl Djerassi; contraceptive pill; PC; Assen “Jerry” Jordanoff; aviation; communism; mathematics;

Sofia ponders how to get its science groove back, assuming aliens don’t ruin everything.

Identities: Who Killed the Sultan?

Identities: Who Killed the Sultan?

Author(s): Adrienne Davich / Language(s): English / Issue: 12/08/2009

Keywords: Albanian; Kosovo; Rudyard Kipling; book; The Battle of Kosovo 1389: An Albanian Epic; history; Turkish invasion; Serbian; Croatia; Anna Di Lellio; neighbors;

Translations of little-known Albanian oral epics add another dimension to the endless conversation over the Battle of Kosovo. The Battle of Kosovo 1389: An Albanian Epic. Introduction by Anna Di Lellio; translations by Robert Elsie. I. B. Tauris, 2009.

Russia: The Final Solution to Rising Crime

Russia: The Final Solution to Rising Crime

Author(s): Galina Stolyarova / Language(s): English / Issue: 12/08/2009

Keywords: Russia; death penalty; 19 November 2009; Constitutional Court; jury trials; punishment; Protocol Six; the European Convention on Human Rights; Council of Europe; Chechnya; imprisonment; execution; Vladimir Zhirinovsky; Boris Gryzlov; Levada Center;

Despite the country’s promise to ban it, Russians are increasingly in favor of the death penalty.

Bosnia: Facing Our Fears

Bosnia: Facing Our Fears

Author(s): Marko Prelec / Language(s): English / Issue: 12/08/2009

Keywords: Bosnia; High Representative; NATO; Republika Srpska; EU; USA; constitutional reforms; Austrian diplomat Valentin Inzko; Peace Implementation Council; environment; political leaders; international community; Peace Implementation Council; reform package;

Bosnia won’t collapse without its crutches, and the sooner they are removed, the better.

Form and re-form in Bulgaria: avoiding pitfalls in eastern European privatisation

Form and re-form in Bulgaria: avoiding pitfalls in eastern European privatisation

Author(s): Collin Gonze,Daniel Sieber / Language(s): English / Issue: 02/2000

Keywords: privatisation in Bulgaria;

Our experiences as consultants concerned with transforming a bankrupt stateowned textile enterprise into something more appealing to potential investors was instructive as well as being a good example of why some eastern and central European post-communist economies are failing to manage their transition to the new economic realities. Our conclusions to the first part of our experience suggest the need to understand cultural differences as well as engage in careful planning if investors are to reach positive results before a second, fruitful stage can be reached.

The rule of law, human rights and poverty: questions with and without answers

The rule of law, human rights and poverty: questions with and without answers

Author(s): Iv. Ivanov / Language(s): English / Issue: 02/2000

Keywords: Bulgaria and the European Union; Bulgarian Crisis in the 1990ies;

The European Union and the west in general take the position of a tutor who knows better than anybody what should be done and how it should be done. Nevertheless, most people in the west have absolutely no idea what is going on in the “new democracies” in central and eastern Europe. When mentioning the countries of the region, especially the ones in its south-eastern part, the first thing that comes to the minds of westerners is “Are they after money again?” Many others are staggered by a strange phenomenon – the “nostalgia” of people in the east for the life before 1989. It should be clear right from the beginning that this nostalgia is not for the communist rulers, nor for the restriction of their rights and freedoms, but for the more or less decent life they had in this period. It is true that people did not always have jam with their bread, but the question of simple survival was never put. Poverty in today’s sense did not exist – the worry about how to pay for food, heating, electricity, telephone, taxes, not to talk of cars and other “luxuries”. People were not free, but they were not hungry either.

The development of trade unions in Slovakia during the last decade

The development of trade unions in Slovakia during the last decade

Author(s): Mária Svoreňová / Language(s): English / Issue: 02/2000

Keywords: trade unions in Slovakia;

This paper is a preliminary attempt to describe how political and economic developments in the last decade have influenced the role of trade unions in Slovak society. It draws attention to the creation of new trade union organisations and examines their negotiations with organisations of employers and the government, as the social partners, within the process of the transformation of Slovakia into a democratic society. After the former socialist regime collapsed, fundamental political and economic changes began. The conditions under which new trade unions worked were changed fundamentally due to the comprehensive political, economic and social transformation process. Trade unions have had to develop themselves as a powerful group representing workers and, in the Slovak case, also the majority of citizens, promoting their interests in the establishment of free market economic conditions.

Leadership: power and empowerment – a study of two Hungarian companies

Leadership: power and empowerment – a study of two Hungarian companies

Author(s): Dan Chiaburu / Language(s): English / Issue: 02/2000

Keywords: management in Hungarian enterprises; transformation in Hungary;

The rapid and continued changes of the last few years, especially in the central and eastern Europe region, have produced a context in which the understanding of individual and team psychology is paramount in business settings. This trend shift is visible not only in business strategy, which aims more aggressively at effectiveness, but also in organisational structures, which tend to be flatter and more flexible. On one hand, there is an increasing emphasis on managerial initiative and accountability, and on the power of managers and how they use it. On the other, there is a shift towards the ‘empowerment’ of employees, who thereby cease to be passive, reactive and inert. In the same vein, hierarchical and crystallised structures have begun to make way for cross-functional and project-based teams. This study analyses the creation and distribution of power from leaders to managers and workers in two Hungarian companies situated at opposite ends of the spectrum: an industrial manufacturer and a creative agency.

Trade unions in Moldova: on the cusp of change or collapse?

Trade unions in Moldova: on the cusp of change or collapse?

Author(s): Igor Munteanu / Language(s): English / Issue: 02/2000

Keywords: trade unions in Moldova; labour constraints in Moldova;

Report on the actual situation of the trade unions in Moldova and their development since the Republic of Moldova became an independent state (i.e.: since 1990)

Editorial

Editorial

Author(s): Peter Scherrer,Calvin Allen / Language(s): English / Issue: 02/2000

The world of labour in a state of precarious transition: the case of Serbia

The world of labour in a state of precarious transition: the case of Serbia

Author(s): Darko Marinković / Language(s): English / Issue: 02/2000

Keywords: trade unions in Serbia;

The long-term social crisis present in Serbia has affected first and foremost wageearners and people who are dependent on transfer payments from the state budget. This has been the source of particularly strong social conflicts, in which wage-earners have been one of the main actors. This discontent and the gradually-rising awareness that, within the old approach to trade unionism it is impossible to resolve social contradictions, were the motive forces behind the emergence of new, democratic, independent forms of trade unionism. Thus, from numerous initiatives in factories and establishments, and from the reformist wing in the then only trade union – SSS – emerged the new, independent trade union movement, in which UGS Nezavisnost is developing as the main driving force. The free trade union movement emerged in extremely difficult, restrictive political and social circumstances, characterised by the break-up of the country, war, nationalism, rising economic degradation and the impoverishment of the working class, and the brutal violation of trade union freedoms and rights. Hence, change in the social environment became a vital area for trade union action and social conflict in general.

Hopes and illusions

Hopes and illusions

Author(s): Matthias Fritz / Language(s): English / Issue: 02/2000

Keywords: Nezavisnost; Yugoslav Trade Unions; opposition against Milosevic;

the article gives a report on the situation of GSM Nezavisnost, the engineering workers union in the Yugoslav trade union confederation Nezavisnost (“Independence”), after the NATO strike against Serbia and in the midst of strong manifestations against the Milosevic regime.

New interpretations and deliberate misinterpretations of the Jewish question in Slovakia: some remarks

New interpretations and deliberate misinterpretations of the Jewish question in Slovakia: some remarks

Author(s): Pavol Mešťan / Language(s): English / Issue: 02/2000

Keywords: Jewish question in Slovakia; Jews question in Slovakia; Jozef Tisza; Antisemitism in Slovakia;

Since 1989, various interpretations and deliberate misinterpretations of the Jewish question in Slovakia have achieved great prominence both in political life and in propaganda. The sources have been, for the most part, nationalist political parties and their leading figures and press offices. Citizens living abroad have also been involved, including various representatives of Slovaks throughout the world and former functionaries and ideologues of the Slovak state who were – or still are – resident outside the country’s borders. The re-animated Jewish question has provided the impetus for the exploration of a wider problem – namely the very essence of the 1939-1945 Slovak Republic, for decades labelled “the so-called Slovak state”, and the significance of this for present-day Slovakia. The extreme nationalist right in the country has returned to the wartime state and its President, Dr. Jozef Tiso, and has taken up the politics and ideology of this period. But this must, of necessity, entail a cleansing of Slovak fascism of its crimes and viewing it merely as a historical national movement, hampered by the circumstances of war and acceptable as such (with evident reservations) to the present (or anticipated) democracy.

Employment and workers’ protection in Kosovo

Employment and workers’ protection in Kosovo

Author(s): Lajos Héthy / Language(s): English / Issue: 02/2000

Keywords: employment and unemployment in Kosova;

The article describes the employment situation in Kosova one year after the implementation of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission for Kosovo (UN-MIK)

European Parliament delegation visit to Czech Republic

European Parliament delegation visit to Czech Republic

Author(s): Phillip Whitehead / Language(s): English / Issue: 02/2000

Keywords: Vaclav Havel; Vaclav Klaus; Czech Republic and European Union;

sahort resumé on the relations between Czech Republic and the European Union

The automotive industry in the Slovak Republic

The automotive industry in the Slovak Republic

Author(s): Lubos Vagac / Language(s): English / Issue: 02/2000

The role of the automotive industry in the Slovak economy after 1989, automotive assembly production, Production of cars – Volkswagen Slovakia, FDI and foreign trade in the Slovak automotive industry, and an outlook at the future of the automotive industry in Slovakia – Globalisation and Slovakia (the case of the government’s Development Programme for the Automotive Industry)

Changes in the Identity of the Non-Profit Sector in Serbia

Promena u identitetu neprofitnog sektora u Srbiji

Author(s): Žarko Paunović / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 08/2012

Keywords: non-profit sector; non-governmental organisations; civil society; identity; Serbia

Today's non-profit sector stands at its crossroad due to new circumstances present in contemporary state and society which leads to a new transformation of the sector with both, positive and negative effects. In the coming years, the non-profit sector will be faced with changes that will pose various challenges before this sector. The sudden qualitative and quantitative growth of the non-profit sector has led to increasingly higher level of professionalization and institutionalization. Therefore we shall soon have to talk about a parallel actions of three types of non-profit sector: governmental non-profit sector, profit non-profit sector and non-governmental conventional non-profit sector. The non-profit status (non-profit distribution of assets) and areas o activity will continue to be the same for all three types, while the differences will be reflected in their organisation, social impact and sources of financing. This will lead to the creation of complex and combined non-profit sector which will change its identity, and subsequently form of work and actions.

Republic Broadcasting Agency - The Fourth Power or Simulation of Independence

Republička radiodifuzna agencija - Četvrta vlast ili simulacija nezavisnosti

Author(s): Rade Veljanovski / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 08/2012

Keywords: broadcasting; regulation; agency; independence; power; freedom; media

The independent regulatory bodies in the broadcasting area, which are an important part of every country's media system, have become in the first decade of the twentieth century a standard of European politics and regulations. In Serbia this regulatory bodies exist based on the laws. However, from the very foundation of the Republic Broadcasting Agency, regarding its construction and work, there have been some indications that brought in question the status and basic functions of these bodies. This text analyses the functioning of the above mentioned institution from the point of view of democratic orientations of the modern world and most of all independence.

Subaltern Studies and Interpretation of Post-Yugoslav Space

Subalterne studije i tumačenje postjugoslovenskog prostora

Author(s): Zoran Ćirjaković / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 08/2012

Keywords: postcolony; break-up of Yugoslavia; subaltern; provincializing Europe; modernization; cosmopolitan liberals; nationalism; Balkanism; Serbism; neoessentialism

This article attempts to show the relevance of the Subaltern Studies for various interpretations of the violent break-up of Yugoslavia and its consequences. 2012 marked the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the South Asian Subaltern Studies Group, which has subsequently grown into one of the most influential schools of postcolonial critique. But, aside from the Women's Studies, numerous useful insights that had been developed by the Subalternists have had here only a minor influence on the interpretations that have often led, instead of delegitimizing negative stereotypes and essentialist narratives of Balkanism, into their ethnocentric reformulations. The article introduces the subalternist discourse of „provincializing Europe“, expressed primarily through representation of European history and experience as particular and culturally-conditioned, as a possible way for „deprovincializing Balkans“ and delegitimizing neoessentialist interpretations that have found a prominent place in the analysis of Post-Yugoslav disorder.

Political Identity of Serbia: Constitutional Patriotism Approach

Politički identitet Srbije: Pristup ustavnog patriotizma

Author(s): Nikola Beljinac / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 08/2012

Keywords: political identity; constitutional patriotism; liberal nationalism; liberal multiculturalism; national minorities

In this text I examine a possible direction of reconciliation of ethno-cultural pluralism and democratic legitimacy, using the case of Serbia. The theory of constitutional patriotism is in the centre of this normative solution. The first part provides a critical review of the most influential liberal modes of political integration in multicultural states: liberal proceduralism, liberal nationalism and liberal multiculturalism. Later on, I explore dynamic of state and nation building in Serbia in historical perspective. In the final chapter I defend the thesis that political identity of Serbia should be embedded in political structures of society, rather then ethno-cultural characteristics of majority.