Policy-Making Civilians
A Review of the Volume Attila Antal (ed.): A civilek hatalma – a politikai tér visszafoglalása [The Power of Civilians: Recapturing the Political Space] Published by Noran Libro, Budapest, 2016.
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A Review of the Volume Attila Antal (ed.): A civilek hatalma – a politikai tér visszafoglalása [The Power of Civilians: Recapturing the Political Space] Published by Noran Libro, Budapest, 2016.
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This text re-constructs the evolution of anticommunist ideas and practices during the period of Romania’s ‘great union’, while it also sketches the international context that enabled this evolution. It is a genealogical discourse analysis that serves for a better understanding of Romania’s present political and social climate. The political, diplomatic and military process of crafting ‘Greater Romania’ between 1918 and 1919 rested fundamentally on the anticommunist discourse. This discourse functioned as a pretext for the armed interventions in the desired territories. It also helped to securitize and pacify these three territories. The Romanian army entered Bessarabia, Bukovina, and Transylvania with the goal of protecting the local population against Bolshevik disorders and ‘anarchy’. The anticommunist discourse evolved from the panic generated by retreating Russian soldiers and the ‘anarchy’ they created towards the fear of contagion with the revolutionary ‘psychosis’. The answer to the communist threat was invariably violent and militaristic in nature. The ideas and issues raised by the communists were never legitimized as a political project but as a crime and a pathology that could destroy society. In this context, what we now refer to as ‘the Great Union’ was largely the substitution of social and economic projects with the hegemonic narrative of anti-communism.
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Estonia held the presidency of the Council of the European Union for six months from 1 July to 31 December 2017. This was a great opportunity to strengthen and shape the country image, also known as the country brand.They do have something to build on: there have been very few countries in recent years and decades where country branding was so conscious. It was a brave choice: in the early 2000s, they decided that they would become E-Estonia. This is not just a means to communicate but also involves policies and tangible developments regarding electronics, IT, and brand new technologies in order to build the most advanced digital society of Europe and the world.But how did this appear during the EU Presidency and how are Estonian citizens involved in branding? This rather lengthy case study explores the concept as a good practice, also setting an example for other countries.
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International Conference Civil Society & Think Tank Forum 2022 in the Framework of the Berlin Process Organizers: Southeast Europe Association (Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft) in cooperation with Aspen Institute Germany, supported by the German Federal Foreign Office Berlin and online, 1 / 2 November 2022 ----------------------------- Fachkonferenz Regionale Initiativen auf dem Westbalkan - Chancen oder Fallen Veranstalter: Zentrum für zivile Erziehung (CGO/Centar za građansko obrazovanje) in Podgorica in Kooperation mit der Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft und der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Belgrad Ort: Podgorica (Montenegro), 25. Oktober 2022 ------------------ 19. Frankfurter Medienrechtstage 2022 Der öffentlich-rechtliche Rundfunk – Ein Grundpfeiler der Demokratie? Veranstalter: Studien- und Forschungsschwerpunkt Medienrecht an der Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) / Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft e.V. / Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e.V. / mit freundlicher Unterstützung der Märkischen Oderzeitung Ort: Frankfurt (Oder), 1./2. Dezember 2022 ---------------- 7. Deutsch-Bulgarischer Geschichtstag Veranstalter: Deutsch-Bulgarischer Geschichtsverein „Pamet“ e. V. (Münster), Verein L. Bulgaricus Jena e.V., Institut für Slawistik und Kaukasusstudien der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena mit Unterstützung der Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung und der Alfred-Töpfer Stiftung (Hamburg) sowie in Kooperation mit der Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft, der Deutsch-Bulgarischen Elterninitiative „Jan Bibijan“ und der Stadt Jena Ort: Jena, 12. November 2022
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Governance of companies in the Republic of Serbia in which the state is the majority or predominant owner for many years represents a big problem and an even bigger challenge for all economic policy makers and power holders. Due to the unwanted social consequences and their political reflection, radical cuts in this area were avoided, despite periods of great crisis and significant losses among some of the largest state-owned enterprises. The major financial crisis in the world in 2008 and the onset of the corona virus pandemic in 2019 certainly contributed to the delay and hesitation. However, the foundations of a new policy in this area were already laid in 2020, and the Strategy of State Ownership and State Sector Governance was adopted in 2021. At the same time, the Action Plan for the implementation of the Strategies in the period from 2021 to 2023 was adopted, so that in December 2022 the Draft Law on the Management of Business Companies owned by the Republic of Serbia finally saw the light of day. Undoubtedly, the corporatization of state enterprises and the improvement of their operations, and above all management in this sector, are included in the very top of national priorities. Regardless of the fact that the law has not yet entered the procedure, the first radical move was made on April 6, 2023. The largest public company in Serbia, Elektroprivreda Srbije, was transformed into a joint stock company. In this paper, we shall consider some of the most important issues, problems and possible solutions, raised by the above-mentioned documents, which are important for the organization, implementation and improvement of corporate governance in the public sector in the Republic of Serbia. It is otherwise a very complex and sensitive matter, both in a practical and theoretical sense, which requires comprehensive research and complex answer, and the following text should be understood as an invitation and incentive to the academic and professional public to pay more attention to them.
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Jovan Đorđević’s scientific work is a paradigm to political science included in creating of the Yugoslav political system. During more than three decades, this political system has generated the tension between the historical project of socialistic self-management and the reality of the society full of economic, socio-political and cultural contradictions. The political science has taken a double function: to express and develop theoretically possibilities and values of this historical project; and to participate in the practical constituting and realization of a political system in which social forces and political trends have their effects, more or less favourable or contrariant to this historical project. The political theory of socialistic self-management, created among this contradictions, has tried, in the first place, to point out the basic social values and norms, as well as the goals and means of institutional social action, expressing the trend of the more democratic and free society, the position and rights of men and communities as sovereign creators of the conditions of their own social life. In this way, from the trend of socialistic self-management, from the emancipating praxis of the society to which this trend belongs, the legitimate basis of the political system was drawn out and theoretically developed as a support to some and a counteraction to the other social and political forces really effecting the political system. As well as the trend of socialite self-management inside political system was faced with antagonistic social and political forces, in the same way, the political theory of socialistic self-management, specially in Jovan Đorđević’s work, was faced with authoritarian ideology resulted from the historical involution of classical theories and ideas of socialism, specially from the involution of marxism.
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From the statement that the Federal Chamber is the most significant form of representing the federal units in the organization of the Federation, and with this, the most significant means of participation of the federal units in the exercise of the functions of the federation, the author * deals with two of several essential questions of the character of the federal chamber, not only in the contemporary federation, but in the earlier ones, as well. The first question regards the representation of federal units in the federal chamber. The topic of deliberation is the widespread principle of equal (parity), and the principle of unequal representation of the federal units, as well as the modes of their implementation. The second essential question deals with the election of the members of the federal chamber. Most frequent, these elections are carried out by the federal units, and very rarely are they their elections carried out by the federal power, apart from some forms of combined elections. The author concludes that the character of the federal chamber as the representation of the federal units, and with this its main function (securing the equality of federal units and to enable equal influence on the functions of the federation), must presuppose the equal representation of the federal units in the federal chamber, as well as election by federal units. The departure from this principle certainly represents the weakening of the federal principle. The principle of equality in this way, appears as a requisite condition in the establishment of the federal chamber and the realization of its role and existance, which, nevertheless, does not mean that it carries a universal value in federal system in general.
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In the situation of fast growth of cities, particularly big cities, in the conditions when by the, end of the century the greatest majority will dwell in big cities, regardless of the social system, in the conditions when closed communities are dissapearing — one of the greatest problems of contemporary mankind is the search for the new concepts of organizing local communities and local self-rule suited for living in the industrial and postindustrial society. Academy member Jovan Đorđević, .as one of the founders of the Yugoslav theory of local self-rule in conditions of the development of socialist self-management, with his new ideas and concepts — the open community, direct democracy and the responsible society — has greatly contributed to the solving of questions not only regarding the possibilities of the existence of local communities, but has given sufficient elements for the solution of the question of haw to organize them. Đorđević points to, and proves in all his theoretical opus regarding local self-rule, particularly in his theory and practice of the commune and communal system, that only in socialism with the positive elimination of private property and the elimination of -the „dual” character of power — that there are created real predispositions for the development of local self- rule and the new local communities,.but at the same time points out that without the development of local self-rule and local communities it is not possible to form socialism as a new- humanism
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Témata spojená s Evropskou unií a jejím fungováním jsou v českém prostředí často přijímána s emocemi a více než o jejich podstatě se diskuse často mění na vášnivé výměny názorů o moci Bruselu a na omezené možnosti Česka vyjádřit se k obsahu evropské legislativy. Obecným problémem je pravděpodobně limitovaná znalost komplexní problematiky Evropské unie, jejího fungování, politik či pozic členských států. Tato témata jsou v jisté formě zařazena do rámce odlišných úrovní vzdělání a jejich prohlubování je pak často součástí mnoha různých předmětů na vysokých školách. Napříč stupněm vzdělání se pochopitelně využití literatury liší.
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This article is one of the first attempts to launch a national research aimed at understanding the activities of state authorities under extreme conditions of war. It aims primarily to identify and analyse the features of the functioning of the institution of the presidency in Ukraine during the first 50 days of the full-scale Russian aggression against Ukraine. Looking through the prism of the synergetic paradigm, using a number of research methods (real-time analysis of events, phenomena and processes, content analysis and comparative analysis) and based on the study of a number of documents (decrees, orders) approved by the signature of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and analysing the dominant ideas uttered by him in numerous speeches and addresses, proclaimed during the hostilities conducted on the territory of the Ukrainian state, marked by the crimes committed by the Russian aggressor, the following was identified:• a time of transformation of the institution of the presidency, which is usually seen as a result of the autonomy of the incumbent president;• the effectiveness of the institution as a centre for making political decisions in times of war in the face of increasing instability and imbalance of processes and phenomena both in the Ukrainian state and in the political environment of Europe and the world;• the ability of the institution to cooperate (with other institutions of state power, the people, and the international community) and to a high degree of self-organisation in times of war.
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Review of the monograph by Marzena Cichorzewska and Dawid Kostecki Organisational Culture of Good Governance in Public Administration Units. Good Practice Handbook covers the formal and substantive evaluation of the work, which is a valuable scientific monograph that accurately combines theoretical issues with practice. In addition to the analysis of doctrinal positions and the authors’ own proposals, it contains a presentation of a diagnostic tool constructed as part of the research project “Organisational culture in public administration units – Good Governance” along with valuable interpretative guidelines that enable the measurement of the organisational culture of a given organisation.
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This article presents international labour law standards on women’s employment and analyses their compliance in selected Southeast Asian countries: Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. Issues concerning equal rights in employment and maternity protection were discussed. The compliance of national regulations with the acquis of international labour law, particularly with the standards developed in the conventions of the International Labour Organization, was assessed. This article considers two areas of women’s employment. The first, related to gender equality, compares women’s and men’s salaries in the Southeast Asian countries in question and presents national laws prohibiting gender discrimination. The second develops issues related to maternity protection, such as the length of maternity leave, maternity allowance and breastfeeding breaks during work.
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The uplift of a governance paradigm opened the door for different non-formal actors to join the policy-making process. This proliferation of actors posed some new questions about the relationship between them. One of the aspects of this relationship is the power of actors. The paper seeks to contribute to public policy literature in a way to explore if a policy formulation stage of a decision-making process can be used as an arena for assessing the power of the aforementioned actors. The argument this paper suggests is that policy formulation as a stage where the confrontation of actors is most visible and prominent is in fact an appropriate place for studying actors’ dynamics and should be taken into consideration when discussing the power of policy actors.
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Describing the international relations in Central Asia as the “New Great Game” has become entrenched in academic and political discourses. However, references to the “Great Game” – the nineteenth-century regional rivalry of the Russian and British Empires – do not answer the fundamental questions about the Game’s “second round,” its participants, stakes and rules of the game, and the relevance of this historical analogy. This paper aims at revealing how the “New Great Game” discourse has become commonplace in the analyses of Central Asian international politics, and what this historical allusion elucidates and obfuscates. The questions are raised: Are there any “rules of the game” implied by the ludic discourse? What is the heuristic and methodological potential of the New Great Game concept? Starting with an overview of the Old Great Game narrative, the research focuses on the New Great Game discourse, questioning its assumptions and revealing its inconsistencies.
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The article is dedicated to the work of the Nitra canon Andrej Cvinček in the Regional Council of the Slovak Republic during his entire term, in which he was first duly elected and later appointed by the government. He was a member of the Country Committee in both election periods. Since political topics were almost completely excluded from the very nature of the council, Cvinček's activities can only be perceived from the position of submitting proposals to the committee related to the all-round development of the Slovak country, especially of an economic nature, even though even here it is not easy and completely possible to attribute the collective body's proposals to Cvinček, their thorough presentation and defense is recognized. In the first election period, he was in charge of budgetary matters in the area of trade, commerce and industry, in the second, in addition, it was mainly about transport matters. His presentations were not met with criticism, rather he was expected to implement the communicated needs in a practical way. His reactions were factual and directed attention to essential things, constructive criticism was understood by him. When it came to specific regional proposals, he did not only support the interests of his region, he repeatedly returned to most topics, and it should be emphasized that he did not skip meetings. In addition to the above, the contribution offers a picture of problems and proposals for their solutions not only in times of economic crisis in individual areas of social life.
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The article discusses the models of constitutional accountability as well as the personal and material scope. The Polish model of accountability is much closer to politicization than to juridization. The Constitution defines a closed circle of entities that may be held accountable before the State Tribunal, which adjudicates on three types of liability: 1. For a constitutional tort, i.e. a violation of the Constitution or a statute, however, without the characteristics of a criminal offence. 2. Criminal law unrelated to a constitutional tort, this applies only to the person holding the office of the President of the Republic of Poland. 3. Criminal for a constitutional delict meeting the criteria of a criminal offence, concerning an act committed in connection with the function performed.
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The aim of this article is to analyze the policy of the Gulf monarchies in the Horn of Africa. Close historical ties between two regions have given rise to deep cooperation between African and Arab states nowadays. Gulf monarchies competed for a long time to deepen their political, economic and security impact in the region.Strengthening economic ties with the Horn of Africa has helped increase food security in the Persian Gulf. Investments by Arab monarchies in modernizing ports in Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia and Djibouti are helping to improve logistics infrastructure in the Northeast Africa. At the same time, the rapid militarization of the region due to the establishment of a number of Gulf states military bases in the Horn of Africa is increasing the level of conflict-generating in the region. The Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden both have strategic importance for the armed support for the military campaign of the Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates coalition in Yemen. That is why the Horn of Africa has also gained strategic importance due to the conflict in Yemen, and therefore the ambitious Gulf states have become increasingly have become increasingly involved in the regional geopolitics. Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as the main ally of Riyadh in the Persian Gulf, are increasingly seeing the Horn of Africa as their “western flank of security.” They are united by the desire to prevent the growing influence of Turkey, Iran and Qatar in this part of the world.The competition between Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar and Iran helps to attract investments, maintain general stability and improve the security situation in the Horn of Africa. Conflict mediation and asset build-up in the Horn of Africa have enabled Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar to establish political influence in the region. The Gulf states are using their growing economic, security and diplomatic influence in Africa to reduce the influence of competitors and gain international support on the world stage.
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Urban governance (UG) is a place-based network of cooperation between public and non-public actors where public authorities play a strategic role in deciding on city matters. A number of UG actors include advisory councils (ACs), characterized by a long tradition, universality, stability and objectives related to urban affairs. The article aims to identify AC roles in UG. In addition, the author hypothesizes a correlation between the number of official (statutory) and informal (not legally regulated) roles and differences between ACs in terms of the roles they play. The hypotheses were verified in qualitative research. 57 semi-structured interviews were conducted with members of the youth councils, senior citizen councils, sport councils, and councils for residents with disabilities in 16 Polish cities. The interview transcripts were uploaded to QDA Miner for encoding and analysis. It was found that all ACs, regardless of their official roles, play informal roles, and all these roles are related to UG. There is no correlation between the number of official and informal roles, which would make ACs very similar unless the mandatory character of the roles played by the council for residents with disabilities, which differs this AC from the other. The results of the study lead the author to recommend revisions to AC regulations in order to increase their participation in the UG.
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The article presents the phenomenon of the so-called privatisation of censorship and the commercialisation of propaganda and their impact on the independence of the fourth authority. The author intends to confirm or question the hypothesis according to which, in the 21st century, the new phenomenon of the so-called privatisation of censorship and the commercialisation of propaganda. To this end, he intends to use a descriptive method, situational analysis, and comparative analysis elements. The concept of the so-called “privatisation of censorship” was first described by J. Kurzlantick and P. Link based on observing components of the media policy of the People’s Republic of China towards Taiwan in the 21st century. According to these authors, a very worrying phenomenon can be seen in outsourcing content control to private sector representatives. This means that censorship is delegated to private media companies. This action is supposed to consist of exercising actual control over the circulation of content and messages, not by state bodies but by media owners or advertisers who exert direct or indirect pressure, usually economic, on journalists intending to publish critical texts. The concept of privatisation of censorship should be broadened to the idea of the so-called commercialisation of propaganda. This type of strategy seems to be observed in Hungary and Poland in recent years, the most apparent evidence of which is the remedial action taken recently by the European Union, particularly the European Media Freedom Act proposal. Based on the analysis of the described examples seen in Taiwan, Hungary and Poland, it has been demonstrated that the measures referred to as the privatisation of censorship and the commercialisation of propaganda can prove very effective and thus dangerous for the independence of the fourth estate. The current legal regulations guaranteeing freedom of speech and the media, although explicitly prohibiting, among other things, preventive censorship, turn out to be insufficient in ensuring the independence of the fourth authority in the case of actions termed “privatisation of censorship” and “commercialisation of propaganda”.
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