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Modern society is in an unsustainable state. There is a crisis in our political systems, economies, finances and, what is worse, in our morals and value standards. On one side, American capitalism is burdened with the struggle for profit and social justice, and on the other, Europe is burdened with a grand unifying project as a way of building stability and security. Where is the Christian church in all of this? What does Christianity offer? Is there a Christian socialism? Regardless of how the system is named – be it capitalism, socialism or something else - only a system without the basic objective of profit maximization, one that does not consume resources to the point of their exhaustion, beyond its borders, one which is not based on greed, only considering its own well-being, and that does not blame others for its mistakes, but the one that is aware of its neighbor, only that one has a future.
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In this article we try to estimate the activity of the banking institution in the General Government which used the pre-war apparatus of The National Bank of Agriculture. The bank was one of the largest banks realising the aim delineated by the government of the Second Polish Republic, such as the support of agricultural reform in the mid-war period. German authorities in the General Government used assets of the bank for other tasks. They were eager to use The National Bank of Agriculture and the Polish staff employed in the bank in order to liquidate fast and effectively the mid-war assets of the bank. Leaving The National Bank of Agriculture was also good for Polish staff in the bank. Raising pre-war debts was the only way to guarantee salary and pensions for the employees of the National Bank of Agriculture and taking care of them in the hard life of occupation. The activity of the National Bank of Agriculture in the General Government was also profitable for a part of debtors as they could pay the pre-war credits earlier. One reason for agriculture farms becoming poorer and even ruined was war actions and the occupation. However, the farmers could save money and gather capital more easily. When they often sold food in secret, they got a large amount of money. In many cases, paying back the pre-war debt was the only reasonable way of getting rid of almost valueless money, although it did not mean that it was done without doubts. In the beginning, many people claimed that they would give it back to whom they had borrowed from. However, after a while the patriotism of farmers who were debtors was overcome by the willingness to have no debts and leave children in a new condition. The period of German occupation and increasing inflation was used for paying back the debt in valueless money, not only by farmers but also by owners of the large mansions such as Earl Adam Branicki.
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Crisis, sometimes associated with historically distant times or centrally planned economies, has turned out to be one of the main contemporary issues. Hence different systems like socialism and capitalism become similar in their inability to reply to expectations for a safe, peaceful and abundant life. It means that economic problems are more complex in their nature. Thorough analysis of the roots of different crises should therefore reach deeper than just economic explanations. This is the point where ethical and cultural explanations may be useful because they strive to explore the socio-cultural fabric at its foundations in the hierarchy of values and vision of human beings and society. When it comes to contemporary crisis the problem is twofold: firstly, there is the threat that the crisis will be treated inadequately and not realistically in consequence. Secondly, the roots of the crisis may not be diagnosed properly, which may lead to false ‘treatment’. This article is an attempt to highlight the above issues and analyse them in the context of the common good approach, which seems to offer valuable potential to understand the difficulties properly and offer a reasonable plan for recovery.
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Currently, in the sphere of relationships at work, the issue of behaviours classified as unethical, which cause the violation of the employee’s dignity and other personal rights, is increasing. Mobbing is one of the manifestations of such behaviours described in the provisions of the Labour Code. The phenomenon of mobbing refers to the quality of interpersonal relationships at work and affects the operation of the entire organisational structure of the employer. This is the most severe example of the violation of personal rights because this is a kind of harassment, namely psychological terror effected by one person or more against (typically) one person. Thus, the subject of the study is an analysis of mobbing especially with regards to the employer’s obligation to oppose mobbing practices. Ethical behaviour towards staff is not only the condition of observing the principles of community life in the work environment, but is a building block for creating a positive image of the employer in business. Therefore, such behaviours as mobbing, which endanger that image, pose a significant problem for the employer and bring about severe effects, also for finance.
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We regard this article as a plea for the modular design of a practice-related discipline of business ethics, in which we analyse under what conditions economic decisions and actions in firms – regardless of their content – are to be understood as morally right. Following the clarification of certain fundamentals of the ethical substantiation of economic decisions, we describe a system of modules as the epistemological frame of reference that designs the formal analysis. We examine in detail the contribution of the descriptive module (as a conception of representation), the theoretical module (as a conception of explanation and prediction), the pragmatic module (as a conception of designing) and the normative module (as a conception of value-judgment) to the ethical substantiation of economic decisions and actions. As a conclusion of the formal analysis, we show that the ideal of the virtuous merchant as a basis of the ethics of conviction for the substantiation of economic decisions offers, at best, an imperfect solution. Following this, we give reasons why a practice-related discipline of business ethics as ethics of responsibility for the substantiation of economic decisions is particularly efficient. The main reason for this lies in the fact that this discipline integrates relevant insights (statements) from the descriptive, theoretical, pragmatic and normative modules into a self-contained system of statements. We ensure the systematic complementation of business administration by the discipline of business ethics by relating the statements of both systems to the same decisions concerning scarce goods that form the subject of business administration, and close factual and methodical relations between the two systems.
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The aim of this article is to scrutinise the relationship between the moral attitude of an entrepreneur and their possibility to gain a competitive advantage. This declaration leads to the following question: Whether the everyday practice confirms or denies the economic usefulness of the postulate of corporate social responsibility. On the one hand, moral desertion is obviously profitable (also in an economic sense). Partners of the deserter, in most cases, are not able to avoid (unexpected and expansive) the consequences of this new attitude towards them. On the other hand, this strategy – in the long run – is unlikely to be profitable. The former victims adjust to their new circumstances and become ready to face the attack. Therefore corporate social responsibility, in the final calculation, should be taken as the only way to protect an active participant of the market against the temptation to neglect his obligation towards people, who can punish or reward him (as stakeholders or whistleblowers).
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The article presents the idea that the maximisation of profit seems not to be the most important goal for contemporary enterprises. The author – basing on literature and empirical research – tries to indicate those activities undertaken by enterprises in the interest of the local community that have an impact not only on building managers' mental well-being and quality of life. They are also different kinds of CSR activities, but they could also be considered as proof of changing the economic model. The article ends with conclusions in which the author tries to answer the following question: what kind of profit could bring about the realisation of that new model.
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It is a great developmental challenge to create the global economic order. Economic and ethical values must be taken into account to manage this task, otherwise the prosperity of the global economy is in danger.
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Although all the Western Balkan countries have been offered the prospect of European Union (EU) membership, the accession process still constitutes a complicated and multi-aspect challenge. EU support and engagement in the region have resulted in a few successes, nonetheless, describing them as major breakthroughs is far from the reality. Since the establishment of the Dayton Agreement in 1995, ending the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina, most of the Balkan states have not managed to accomplish their political, ideological and civic transformations yet. However, the difficult situation and frequent negotiation stalemates are not only the outcomes of the unsatisfactory progress made by the Peninsular countries. Ambiguous and unethical (in some cases) behaviour can also be noticed from the EU decision-makers’ side. The following article aims to present concrete examples of EU external policy actions in Bosnia and Herzegovina which can be described as controversial. However, the author attempts to prove the thesis that unethical external policy is not always a zero-sum game, and in particular circumstances it can be paradoxically perceived as the best solution. Taking into consideration the comprehensiveness of the problem and editorial limitations, the analysis focuses on activities of the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, who used to be (during four out of seven tenures) the EU Special Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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This article presents both the legal regulations concerning lobbying in Poland and an evaluation of lobbying practices. It makes reference to the results of sociological research conducted among Polish members of Parliament, professional lobbyists and journalists who cover parliamentary issues. The research was conducted in cooperation with the S. Batory Foundation’s Anti-Corruption Program from May to July 2008.
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The aim of the article is a review of the wide spectrum of lobbying formulations and definitions to answer questions regarding the areas of lobbying activity. The author argues that lobbying is a wide scope of activities that lobbyists undertake according to their expectations and preferences. Ethical reflections on lobbying activity should then take into consideration the conditions in which the main players on the democratic political scene interact with each other.
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Taxes are closely related to the functioning of the state. From the moral and social point of view, it should always be directed towards the common good. Implementing this principle, the state supports the improvement of citizens’ welfare. Provides them with collected taxes their services, such as internal and external security, education, culture, infrastructure, social services and others. The formation of fair tax system and the mechanism of budgetary resources also has great importance because of the importance of the whole economy. In addition, the state’s fiscal system applies to every citizen as a taxpayer. Therefore, this issue also has important ethical dimension of individuality. The article focuses on these issues, emphasizing an ethical perspective the following three issues: (1) The social context of contemporary reflections on the obligations to the state, (2) the state and its goals, and (3) the moral aspects of the duty to pay taxes.
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Taxes are closely related to the functioning of the state. From the moral and social point of view, it should always be directed towards the common good. Implementing this principle, the state supports the improvement of citizens’ welfare. Provides them with collected taxes their services, such as internal and external security, education, culture, infrastructure, social services and others. The formation of fair tax system and the mechanism of budgetary resources also has great importance because of the importance of the whole economy. In addition, the state’s fiscal system applies to every citizen as a taxpayer. Therefore, this issue also has important ethical dimension of individuality. The article focuses on these issues, emphasizing an ethical perspective the following three issues: (1) The social context of contemporary reflections on the obligations to the state, (2) the state and its goals, and (3) the moral aspects of the duty to pay taxes.
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The problem of charging interest has been discussed since the time of Aristotle. It was condemned in the Christian religion in the Middle Ages. Only when the interest was specified as a payment for productive capital was it considered that the borrower, enriched by the money lent, should let the lender benefit in accordance with the principle of fairness. The borrower should share the profit with the lender, and from this moment the percentage is no longer something shameful and neglected. Religious beliefs and accepted moral values have changed over time, adapting to the circumstances, so has the approach to collecting interest from the capital lent. However, there is still a great deal of criticism of excessive interest rates. The purpose of this paper is to present a discussion related to the charging of interest presented in the tradition of economics and also to show some aspects of the problem in relation to the present times, such as excessive debt and responsible lending.
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Charity, the core of the Gospel ethos, became one of the founding ideas of European civilization and distinguished it from others. In Polish territories, as in other Western European countries, charity work was conducted primarily by the Church, which together with its sense of Gospel duty, defended the weak by concerning itself with economic development. For this purpose, charitable credit institutions, so-called mounts of piety (montes pietatis), were established. They were continued by reformers, in a somewhat changed form, until the decline of the Polish Commonwealth (Republic). The most original institution of this kind was Rev. Stanisław Staszic’s foundation: the Hrubieszów Agricultural Society, which survived until the days of the Polish People’s Republic.
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The problem of fires in Poland is an important element of public safety. One of the reasons of the fires are different types of arson of buildings, crops or forests. This paper presents a quantitative scale of the phenomenon of arson in Poland. Basing on data from the General Headquarters of the Police and Fire Headquarters it analyzes the scale of fire danger. It also presents the role of specialists in the detection of causes of fires. The article points the role of insurance in the compensation of fire damage.
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This paper is the fourth part in a series of studies that present additions to the corpus of etymological comparisons between the Uralic languages, drawing data from all the major branches of the language family. It includes both previously unnoticed cognates that can be added to already established Uralic cognate sets, as well as a few completely new reconstructions of Uralic word roots. In this fourth part new Uralic etymologies for 18 Ob-Ugric (Khanty and Mansi) words are discussed. The etymologized words are Proto-Mansi (PMs) *äɣt ’channel, head of a river’ (< PU *wiksi/*wiski), Proto-Khanty (PKh) *čǖɣ ’mist’ (< PU *čäki), PKh *či̮ji̮, PMs *šāĺ ’true, truth’ (< PU *čoďi), PKh *čɔɔp, PMs *šup ’piece, block of wood’ (< PU *či̮ppa- ’cut, notch (wood)’), PKh *jiɣ, PMs *jäɣ ’father’ (< PU *ekä), PKh *jil- ’go, visit’, PMs *jäl- ’go, walk’ (< PU *elä- ’live, visit’), PKh *jēm ’taboo’ (< PU *jemä), PKh *jipǝḷ ’shadow’ (< PU *eji ’night’ + *pälä ’side’), PKh *küć- ’track, follow’ (< PU *küji-), PKh *kājǝm, PMs *kūĺmǝ ’ashes’ (< PU *kaďa- ’leave’), PMs *kär- ’cut, be sharp’ (< PU *kirä-), PKh *lǟnt ’corn, grain’ (< PU *sewi- ’eat’), PMs *lūp-luw ’shoulder-blade’ (< PU *lapa ’shoulder’ + *luwi ’bone’), PKh *mūɣǝt ’anabranch, side channel of a river’ (< PU *mi̮tka), PKh *pǟɣǝl- ’forge’ (< PU *peksä-), PMs *tim- ’turn soft’, PKh *tintǝl-, PMs *tintǝl- ’soften (skins)’ (< PU *tejmi-), PKh *tam ’trapping pit’, PMs *tam ’hunting fence’ (< PU *tuma), and PKh *wi̮i̮č ’border’ (< PU *woča ’fence’). The principles of reconstruction and the citation of lexical material are explained in the first paper of the series (Luobbal Sámmol Sámmol Ánte (Aikio) 2013).
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The article reports the first-ever attempt to analyse Udmurt fishing vocabulary from both synchronic and diachronic aspects. The classification of the lexical units, based on their material and conceptual content, aims to find out their micro- and macrostructural elements. The borrowed lexical material is analysed according to its source languages.
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