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From the perspective of 20th century minorities it is crucial to answer the question whether or not it is possible to have good minority policies? While this naturally means human rights and democracy, its best indicators are still the demographic development and the ‘health’ of the minority. In this context it is necessary to examine the minority policy of a specific country. The paper examines Elemér Jakabffy’s study concerning the Transylvanian Swabian Germans. It raises the question: Why the German and Hungarian minorities not capable of political cooperation, when both faced the same threat of assimilation? The study investigates the role of the leaders in the German communities and their responsibilities. After many centuries of German history in Transylvania, and their key role in the modernization of the region, why is the role of Germans – both Swabians and Saxons – currently reduced to a symbolic presence in Romania? The paper contends that it is a reflection of the failure of the German elite to correctly confront the historical challenges of the 20th century.
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The Bulgarian Social Policy model is a mixture of increasing social expenses payed from the State, low social benefits and relatively high income inequality. This strange combination of peculiarities is a consequence of the try to stabilize without changing the market social policy model shaped during the 90s. The inclusion in the European transfer of social policies tends to support this situation. Because of specific European institutions it takes soft forms that change the ideas, lightly influence the practices and keep the models stable.
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The article presents the role of court managers for effective performance management in judiciary system administration. Adopting as a starting point modern ideas about administrative capabilities and performance management capacity, the analysis outlines some important distinctions in approaches and techniques, applied to magistrates and court administrators. Some specific steps are proposed to reach better performance management in Bulgarian court administrations.
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The article aims to summarize the many approaches for studying the relationship between national and European dimensions of public policy. Based on existing analytical tools the article attempt to draw up a sufficiently broad and pluralistic approach to the study of public policy coordinated at EU level without falling within the exclusive or shared competence of the Union. The three branches of the new institutionalism serve as methodological basis – the institutionalism of rational choice, sociological institutionalism and historical institutionalism, which are complemented by other approaches and concepts which contribute to European researches. As a result, an exemplary studying model is formed which having no claims of universality, allows testing a wide range of policies for which regulatory and economic analyzes appear to be limited.
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The article is the first of several publications, clarifying the actual tendencies of political influence in public administration. Several research goals are set: first, to define political influence (the term “politicization” is widespread), it’s causes and consequences; second, to present the degree and specific features of politicization in Bulgarian civil service; third, to propose some steps toward common understanding of the problem and its solutions. 17The study is based on data, collected in the research project “Political influences in public administration: the Bulgarian context”, carried in 2012 with the financial support of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ochridski” and with the participation of more than 35 students and PhD students at the Department of Public Administration.
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The article gives short presentation about the ongoing rapid changes in the way the information is created, stored and distributed in the latest years. It focuses on the importance of these processes which influence practically each aspect of the social life around the planet – economics, policy, culture. The rising trends of globalization of ideas, means of production, markets, combined with the rapid technological development creates new medium in which the todays societies can’t operate any longer on the same industrial way that brought them at this point of their evolution.
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The article offers an systematic view on the public engagement as a key element in policy making and focuses on a promising approach to policy communications – the еvidence-based policy making. Comparing different methods and techniques for building public engagement, the author proposes a framework to evaluate communication strategies in policy making. Having in mind the general transition from opinion-based to еvidence- based policy making, some lessons for communication strategies are outlined, including for communication strategies for public-private partnerships.
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AbstractThe article considers the interdependence between missions, functions, legal mandates and policies in the process of organizational design. and management of the public service is widespread today. We focus on one interesting case - the largest government reorganization in a half-century in the United States, creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The significance of the political influences and bargains may be addressed by a combining the detailed analysis of the different design options process of the DHS with an assessement of the crisis condition on in loosening the constraints of organizational interests and the impact of senior politicians, following their own priorities. An attempt is made to broaden the scope of the analysis, as policy changes and the following organizational design in the area of concern - in our case, homeland security - can be driven by the efforts of politicians trying to affect regulatory and administrative activities and correspondin organizational structures in a different domain.
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The aim of this work is an attempt to better understand and analyze the system of public administration in Greece, to see its structure and the way it works. In recent years worldwide there have been major and significant changes in areas such as economics or technology, entrepreneurship, international market, the labour market, culture and political culture, but also changes in society in general. Of course the Administration and especially the Public Administration could not stay out of these changes or significantly get influenced by the structure of the changes that were made. Greece is trying to modernize and to make changes with the aim to become a more effective the administration in Greece. This article presents an image of the new structure of administration and the basic structure in Greece.
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The purpose of this article is to outline the main characteristics of the Open Method of Coordination as a model of governance in the EU. The substantive and principal components of the OMK which distinguish it from the other procedures for development of European policies are examined as well as the additional elements that build on the benchmarking used in the business sector and partly in the public sector. Formula for assessing the added value of the OMC is proposed which is not on the basis on the compulsory convergence and harmonization but on the mutual learning and the provision of agreements. To a large extent the analysis is focused on the OMC in employment - the first and most developed procedure for coordination.
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Political ideology of gender and gender relations is considered a crucial factor in shaping family policy as a relatively late and less prominent component of modern social policy systems. It is therefore surprising that, despite widespread theses about the tendencies of re-patriarchalisation of society in transition from socialism to (neo)capitalism, the issue of consequences of transition in the area of family policy from a gender perspective remained on the margins of public interest. Specifically, the focus of social and partly scientific interest in the changed position of women in the Bosnian transitional society was confined in the last two decades exclusively to the issues of marginalization of women in terms of political representation and gender-based or domestic violence. The objective of this study is to map the transitional changes in the area of family policy in BiH through review and analysis of relevant policies and practices of social and labour legislation at the level of three administrative units: FBiH, RS and BD. The presented analysis indicates that the transitional period in the area of family policy in BiH has brought a return to the pre-socialist period of maternalistic familiarism, whose current policies and practices, paradoxically at the same time belittle and devalue not only the institution of motherhood, but also the very idea of family itself.
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The problem of nuclear proliferation is an old one dating back to the first offensive nuclear detonation in 1945 when the United States used nuclear weapons on Japan2. The problem resurfaces each time a new nation develops nuclear weapons: the Soviet Union in 1949, the UK in 1952, France in 1962, China in 1964 and India in 1974. Israel claims to have nuclear weapons. Brazil, South Africa, Egypt, Argentina could but have stopped development; and Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Syria and probably others have express the desire to have them. The development of a nuclear black market is well known over the past four decades. Iran and to a lesser degree India remain active customers by using procurement networks to supply its nuclear programmes via the private sector notes the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)
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The article offers an analysis of major current in-house challenges to an effective defence and security policy-making and implementation, based on the author’s extensive experience in a post-communist environment. With clear understanding and belief that without dealing with – or at least mitigating – these inner challenges first, any expectations for a long-term, effective, efficient, and sustainable defence and security policy are not only illusory but also dangerous for the nation, the article aims at inspiring and providing food for broader discussion and at encouraging applied and academic analyses, as well as at supporting immediate practical steps to successfully manage these challenges.
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Current research, commissioned by RiskMonitor Foundation shows that the Bulgarian National Assembly has still unutilized potential to play a significant role in overcoming serious problems concerning organized crime and political corruption. Based on the empirical findings, the current paper seeks solution of the fundamental problem with the passive role of the legislature in formulating and implementing policies aimed at organized crime and corruption. The paper tries to explain the magnitude of the problem and the impossibility of radical and permanent change without having thorough institutional reform. The paper offers a number of short-term, still applicable solutions that could restrict the negative effects of the National Assembly’s work deficits. However, a completely new stage in the fight against organized crime and political corruption can be expected only as a result of grand institutional reform that prescribes the parliament a key role in this policy sector by making the Prosecutor general and the Minister of Interior subjects of parliamentary control.
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Noah’s Flood is a narrative structure that has cross ages and civilizations. It is above all a deterministic posture in our perception of the relationship between societies and their environment. We attempt in this paper to examine the universal character of the Flood myth, and how some scientists call upon this mythological structure to justify or dress up their studies. Consequently, we try to observe the causal links established by some researchers between the history of climate and societies, to explain the origin of the Noah’s Flood. We seek to understand how scientific discourse was built around the research dedicated to the incarnation of the place, and how today the use of Earth Sciences to unravel the true of the fake is carried out. Furthermore, it is particularly interesting to pore over the links between archaeologists - historians of materiality - and environmental scientists. In this article, we will briefly present our investigations conducted on the populating of the Black Sea coastline during recent Prehistory, and the way we evidenced a landscape (more than 7000 years old), nowadays largely submerged by the floodplain of the Danube delta. Those works have led us to many questions about the existence of a flood in the Black Sea.
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The Political Works Office, an institution established by the Polish Government-in-exilein London, prepared in October 1940 a study in which Poland's territorial claims on Germany and the course of the new post-war Polish-German border were overworked.This little-known study was reminded in the article and subjected to thorough analysisas well as political and geographical assessment.
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In recent years, tension has grown between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Among theresearchers appeared the term "new" or "cold” war to describe the state of tensionprevailing between Tehran and Riyadh. This term is justified because both powers arenot interested in direct involvement in armed conflict. The aim of the study is to describethe Saudi-Iranian relations along with embedding them in the present-day balance ofpower in the region by indicating the significance for both powers of individual localconflicts for building their regional position. Thus, the work will answer the questionwhether relations between the great powers and the current geopolitical situation areconducive to the outbreak of a new conflict, or whether the existing dispute can beresolved at a relatively low level of intensity, by means of peaceful methods.
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The aim of the article is to explain the origins and the course of the armed conflict inMali, launched in January 2012. The Polish armed forces, which together with otherEuropean Union countries trained the Malian armed forces, were also involved inresolving this conflict. This conflict is a perfect example of showing the possibilities ofterrorist organizations in the face of a weak state, with the passive attitude of theinternational environment. The war in Mali also shows how the involvement of theinternational environment into one conflict - in this case in Libya - may have an impacton the destabilization of the security situation in the other country – i.e. in Mali. Thearticle discusses the effects of the collapse of Muammar Gaddafi's dictatorship on theoutbreak of the insurrection in Mali, as well as the most important armed organizationsinvolved in the conflict, their role and the effects of several-month rule in the north ofMali. Actions taken by the international community to end the conflict and createconditions for the restoration of democratic rule in Mali were also presented
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The first part of the article explores David Hume’s and Adam Smith’s reasons due to which mutual care is limited to people close to one another, at which point the authors emphasize the influence of both emotional and physical closeness. Contrary to this, Singer’s conception of universal duties implies that from the perspective of morality the particularity of relationships between moral subjects is irrelevant, and that ethical actions should be led by the content, i.e. the significance, urgency, and relevance of needs. This text argues that it is insufficient for duties to be established exclusively on the basis of the needs of person who requires assistance, and that duties as concrete ethical imperatives are inseparable from assignments that belong to subjects as duty-holders. The article analyses in what way the encounter or physical closeness may constitute special relationships. In addition, the text analyses whether, and in what way, residing on the same territory, that is, within the borders of the state, may be accepted as an argument in favour of special duties. The argumentation defending the specificity of duties formed on the basis of closeness would imply that non-citizens in our country, who came here due to extremely bad conditions in their own state, should receive assistance just as our co-citizens.
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