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The European Parliament is the EU’s institution with the most fascinating institutional development. This study has three goals: to analyze the existence of a tendency towards parliamentarization, to see how the Treaty of Lisbon is placed in relation to this tendency and to conclude whether parliamentarization is significant for the EU’s logic of the evolution.
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In this work the efforts of the European Union will be analysed in relation to the human rights side of corporate social responsibility with an emphasis on transparency.
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Lisbon Treaty enriches the panoply of the European Union’s treaties, being the recent product of the common European effort for integration. After reiterating the main postulates of the Treaty, which consolidates European Union’s democracy, the author considers timely to bring into discussion the evolution of the European Union’s decision making process, for better highlight the importance of the codecision procedure, as described in the Lisbon Treaty, and its consequences for the European Parliam
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In this article the two authors draw an analysis of the Treaty of Lisbon and its innovations. The Lisbon Treaty reformed the foundations of the European Union and marked the culmination of a process of Treaty reform that began soon after the Treaty of Nice. The new treaty will provide the Union with greater external coherence, making the EU more efficient, democratic and transparent; it reinforces the Union's capacity to act, particularly by increasing majority voting in the Council, and it gives Europe a stronger and clearer voice in the international context.
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Sever Voinescu considers that totalitarianism is still one of the biggest problems for a democracy, because uses all the advantages of it (such as free media, free speech) but for some a non-democratic goals. This is why the portrait of a dictator can change and can be more pleasant for audience, but the political threat is the same.
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Andrei Pleşu writes an essay about “the working class” in Romania. He suggests that nobody (either intellectuals or political power) is interested in such a subject and in such ordinary people. The exception was a very interesting TV show, made by H. R. Patapievici on Cultural TV Channel.
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Cristian Ghinea considers that the corruption is a serious and persistent problem in most Central and Eastern European countries. Although the EU accession process has had a major impact on anti-corruption policy in candidate states, major areas of concern remain, making it imperative that the EU devise ways of strengthening its own anti-corruption framework if it is to be prepared to combat corruption in an enlarged Union.
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Historians might think of Edward Heath as a failure if he is to be compared with his heroes, Winston Churchill, and Harold Macmillan, and with his political rival, Margaret Thatcher – and, to be sure, his three and three quarters years as prime minister (1970-74) were marked by industrial strife. However, he deserves to be remembered as the politician who did most to secure Britain’s membership of the European Community, on the continent of Europe itself, in the Westminster Parliament, and in the nation at large, in the very first UK referendum. The following paper is a review of his autobiography, The Course of My Life (1998), in the year of Edward Heath's death, 2005.
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Jean Monnet, ‘the Founding father of Europe’ accomplished his greatest achievement in the setting up of the European Coal and Steel Community. After the rejection of the European Defence Community by France, Monnet lost the initiative and did not really know where to continue the European journey. After the restart in Messina (1955), he found new aims to achieve and he consequently set up an Action Committee with the aim of helping realise the unity of Europe. This essay surveys the creation and the achievements of Monnet’s Action Committee.
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The article aims to present the results of a sociological research of youth political organisations in Lithuania. In this study, youth political organisations are defined as organisations that are affiliated to political parties and share their ideology. Six organisations were researched: the Lithuanian Labour Youth Union, the Lithuanian Social Democratic Youth Union, the Lithuanian Young Centrist Movement, the Young Christian Democratic Organisation, the Young Conservative League, and the Lithuanian Liberal Youth. A survey of the members and interviews with the leaders were accomplished in summer 1999: 17 leaders were interviewed and 171 ordinary members of the organisations were surveyed. In addition, a control group of "established" politicians (members of the Parliament) was included in to the research in order to have a basis for comparison. The group involved the representatives of the "mother" parties (5 leaders of the parties were interviewed and 40 members were surveyed). The basic conclusions of the research concern the functions of youth political organisations as well as the attitudes of the members. As the research data shows, youth political organisations are a significant indicator of an active civil society. Furthermore, they perform an important role in political recruitment, being one of the channels through which youth enters the political parties and, consequently, the political elite. In addition, youth political organisations spread the ideology of their "mother" parties (sometimes they even form ideological views of their younger members); serve as a "school for politicians", on the one hand, and social clubs, on the other hand; they represent youth problems (very often acting as lobby groups); and they educate their members. The activities of youth political organisations do not differ much. The major differences are the ideological affiliation and the dominance of different age groups (e.g. very young liberal youth versus a little bit older young Christian democrats and labour youth). The other important finding is that a significant part of the members of youth political organisations consider seriously the political career (44 proc.-69.6 proc. of the researched members would like to occupy a high post in the Government or local Government in the future; 28 proc.-64.3 proc. of the members would like to become leaders of youth organisation; 16 proc.-37.9 proc. of the members would like to become a leader of the "mother" party; and 6.7 proc.-33.3 proc. hold that they came to the organisations because of the possible political career). Another interesting result concerns the attitudes towards the political opponents: the majority of the members tend to negatively define their political opponents.
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This article has been devoted to answer the question: does Lithuania have to set up a referendum on its membership in the European Union? In this undertaking the author refers to the experience of the direct democracy and referendums concerning the European integration of the European states. A number of Lithuanian politicians, playing with a card of a forthright-understood democracy, have found themselves ready to organize such a referendum irrespective of any claims arguing otherwise. Making it look like a deadly sin, they would like to suppress any discussion on the expedience of referendums because they lack very often the necessary arguments to prove their case. The analysis helps come to a conclusion that the experience of the European Union states and its candidates in organizing the referendums and the overall experience of direct democracy is much too versatile and non-compatible. Therefore, it seems, there is no backbone for arguments saying that should Lithuania refrain from organizing a referendum on the membership in the European Union, would keep itself apart from the long-established European tradition and the practices of the European states. Quite the contrary, having in mind the expanding euro-scepticism in Europe and the failed referendums on the matters of European integration in Ireland and Denmark one may claim that Lithuanian politicians, should they want to be rational, would adhere to a position of giving-up of such a useless undertaking. Pondering on the chances of winning the referendum, the author concludes that we cannot be certain that the referendum on the membership of Lithuania in the European Union is to be won indeed. It's a risky enterprise, - the author puts it clear. He names two reasons why it is: the first one is based on the fact that in Lithuania the number of those in favor of country's membership in the community keep around 50 percent. Thus, given the very strict and high regulations embedded in the Law, there is a great likelihood that in terms of winning the referendum, it would either not take place at all, or it would result in a negative outcome. The second reason is the history of referendums being held in Lithuania. There were seventeen referendums so far held in Lithuania. However, the provisions of only three of them received the necessary support of the electorate. The last successful referendum was held in 1992, and it was the Constitution being approved therein. (…)
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The research has been devoted to investigate a level of readiness and capabilities of conventional and nuclear forces of Russia. The aim was to examine Russian military doctrine balancing between the use of conventional and nuclear armaments and to draw up the possible doctrinal modification or prospects. The article was divided into several parts covering the main features of Russian military doctrine, its conventional armament issues, the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons and its implications on arms control sphere, the condition of strategic weapons and its capabilities. These indicators were being investigated in terms of arms control, technical capabilities and possible threats to Russia. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of main theatre weapon systems: main battle tanks, helicopters, armored vehicles, artillery has been indicated declining Russia's capabilities to ensure its national security by conventional forces. Deplorable condition of conventional forces implies Russia's reliance on non-conventional weapons to ensure national security. Russia's willingness to rely more on nuclear forces (both tactical and strategic) was envisioned in the main documents of Russia's military doctrine. Russia has viewed its tactical nuclear weapons arsenal to be essential for compensating apparent weaknesses of conventional forces brought on by economic retraction; for upholding Russian status and prestige in the post-cold war world; for countering the threat of chemical-biologic weapons; for preventing localized regional conflicts and deterring strategic escalation; and for fulfilling roles in battlefield nuclear combat. At risk is the informal regime on tactical nuclear weapons created by unilateral, parallel statements by George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev in September-October 1991 and slightly expanded by Boris Yeltsin's statement in January 1992. What is more, there were discussions in the United States and Russia about developing new classes of these weapons. (…)
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A review of the book by V.Laurėnas, Lithuanian political scientist, “A case of genesis of normal politics: Lithuanian political sociological study”
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