Around the Bloc: Moldova Mulls Changes to Electoral System
Both potential changes drew international criticism for being a way for the current regime to shun accountability and stay in power longer.
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Both potential changes drew international criticism for being a way for the current regime to shun accountability and stay in power longer.
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The Baltic country is taking steps to cut back on alcohol consumption, which is one of the highest per capita in the world.
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The aim of the current study is to present the circumstances in which the Proclamation of Timisoara emerged as a significant document in the attempts to discard the totalitarian heritage and to impose the principles of democratic government in Romania. The Proclamation of Timisoara was drafted at the beginning of the year 1990 and structured into two main ideas: 1) highlighting the ideals of the 1989 Revolution, including the definitive break-off from the communist regime; 2) outlining a framework for Romania’s evolution during the following period. The main element that structured the document was the radical reform of the state, from a political and administrative point of view. In-depth research into the events that took place during the Revolution of Timisoara, and later during the first month of the year 1990, up until the Proclamation of Timisoara, and after its launch into the political sphere, has revealed the fact that the democratic deficit within the Romanian society has a few obvious and explicit causes.
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The Baltic country may be the first in the world to receive gays escaping a reported purge against homosexuals, while Poland continues to send back asylum seekers to Belarus.
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Bosna i Hercegovina od Daytonskog sporazuma iz 1995. godine do danas traje u stanju nezavršenog rata koji je sa vojnog prebačen u političko polje. Dayton je otud kraj jednog oblika rata, vojnog, i početak drugog, političkog, a zemlja je uprkos tome, tvrdi većina onih koji na različite načine analiziraju društvene procese, sve do 2006. godine i pada Aprilskog paketa ustavnih promjena sporo napredovala pripremajući svoj sistem za prihvaćanje standarda i pravnih normi Evropske unije. Od tada pa do danas ona stagnira i nazaduje u procesu približavanja EU, ali i u svim drugim aspektima, ekonomskom, privrednom, kulturnom itd.
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The language of a people highlights the historical, social, political and spiritual evolution of the community speaking it and the events corresponding to these types of evolution influence it to a significant extent. The Romanians have preserved their language and their identity, coped with the successive waves of Eastern migrations, have stepped out of and into the history successively, have absorbed, and, when needed, they waited for the evil to blow over, maintaining their language and Christian faith all the while, that is, their being and their identity.
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Midrash, a Polish social and cultural profile magazine (published since April 1997), is a monthly journal that is a representative of the so-called ‘minor press’. The magazine is connected with the Midrash Library publishing house. Its founder was Konstanty Gebert and the current editor is Piotr Paziński. The articles of Midrash magazine give answers to such questions as: How are women described and treated in modern patriarchal Judaism culture? In what context is it possible to talk about issues connected with women and Zionism. Midrash magazine also deals with a positive interpretation and presentation of women via the multitude of interviews and articles concerning strong, talented, and determined women. Despite their hard lives these women were and are able to create successful careers and wonderful families. Their voices are an important element in discussions that refer to culture, faith, and historical heritage. The image of the woman as presented by Midrash will be confronted with the cultural recognition of the woman in the Jewish community. This article will use quantitative analysis (the linguistic method and literature studies) with help from the qualitative case study research method.
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In order to understand Kant’s idea of perpetual peace, the author considers that it should be observed in context of Kant’s entire philosophy, keeping in mind, besides political and legal writings, his discussions on moral, history, anthropology, teleology of nature and religion. Through careful textual analysis, the author shows that the idea of perpetual peace is related to the earthly sphere and establishment of worldly civil constitution. However, the idea is not devoid of a religious dimension, since providence is a guarantor of viability of perpetual peace. Having indicated that for Kant there is no essential difference between notions of intention of nature and providence, the author reminds of the fact that Königsbergian philosopher was closely familiar with the position of theodicy in understanding of the history. Although he advocates perpetual peace and occasionally curses war as root of all evil, Kant, yet, does not overlook the fact that war often plays a role of means for establishing future peace in a hidden natural plan. Keeping an eye on antagonism between sociable and unsociable moment of human nature, great artist of nature gradually leads mankind to concord through discord. Having indicated that freedom is the highest notion in Kant’s philosophy, that his moral philosophy is the highest philosophical discipline, the author emphasizes that political utopia cannot be realized without unity of freedom and virtue. By reminding that, for Königsbergian thinker, the purpose of peace is not in itself, especially if it would mean suspension of freedom, he claims that Kant does not favor existence of a single united world state, but rather a antiwar league of nations, i.e. a federation, exactly due to fear that freedom would be threatened in a single large state. Being aware of social and historical circumstances of his time, and in order not to jeopardize the project of perpetual peace, Kant allows the monarchies to be ruled in a republican way. Yet, a monarchy to him is just a transitional historical phase towards establishment of a republic. After deliberating Kant’s anthropology and history of philosophy, the author indicates that the idea of perpetual peace is not the highest one in Kant’s philosophy. Religious idea of universal republic based on laws of virtue is higher than the idea of a perfect legal and civil condition. Namely, Kant explicitly claims that, indeed, establishment of a universal civil order and perpetual peace are the highest political goods on Earth, but, by far the highest possible good on Earth is a divine ethical community. Since moral progress of humanity is slower than civilizational and cultural progress, it would continue even after constitution of a perfect government. Namely, the purpose of a political project of perpetual peace is creation of a social ground which would be favorable for unlimited development of human predispositions. Following Kant, the author finally indicates the necessity to unite virtue and practical wisdom in a political life. For those who believe in higher justice, who follow Kant’s practical teaching on almighty moral guarantor of harmony between virtue and happiness, it is clear that we must not abandon the principles and surrender to mere pragmatic Realpolitik.
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The author, pointing in the article to the existence of various, including wrong (re)interpretations of Thoreau’s conception of civil disobedience, strives to offer a different interpretation which discovers his significant importance, inspiring and revitalizing role when it comes to modern man, with truncated human dignity, lost spiritual values and disturbed moral integrity, and his alienated and dehumanized society, which is placed in the vortex of the globalistic jungle. An aim is to show that Thoreau’s conception offers an alternative of life, which in the neo-slaveholding conditions can be sanative. This old, but today very contemporary and modern conception requires a new, liberated and morally renewed man, who is both responsible and actively oriented citizen. Only associated acting citizens form the strength of the social capital which can play potentially significant role in strengthening democratic, institutional and non-institutional capacities, in national, international, transnational and global framework, respectively.
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Social sources of the threat to the capacity of security system pose great problem to each state and its citizens, and of course, for the region. Therefore the author points to and analyzes the most prominent social sources of the threat to the capacity of the modern state security system. Basic form of the express of threat relates to the endangerment of the existing freedom. The endangerment can be achieved by the destructive action of the natural or social force to a certain phenomenon, accidental or deliberate, targeted and purposeful – i.e. with the intention to provoke certain consequences on nature or society, that is on man. All modern security systems, no matter how and with what purpose are they organized, represent the form of the organization of the society in the protection of its vital interests and values. Their organization is based on two essential questions: from whom and from what should we protect the society, and how we should direct the subjects of the security system in order to achieve the basic goal of the existence of the society. Discrimination, that is, the social forms of endangerment of the capacity of the democratic state occurs in several forms: genocide, apartheid, segregation, neoracism or economic racism, international status and demographic development.
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The article is devoted to problems that occur in the process of applying the tort liability of local self-government units. The Author presents major moments in the evolution of the principles of the liability. She also raises the issue of the distinction between imperious and non-imperious spheres of the activity of local self-government units in the context of the basis of liability for carrying out delegated tasks. Another issue referred to in the article is the problem of passive legitimacy (of the self-government college of appeal) in the process of compensation for the unlawful decisions of local self-government units. The Author also refers to the issue of pre-judicature which takes the form of a supervisory act towards defective acts of local law. Finally, she underlines the importance of the constitutionalization of the right to compensation for the interpretation of specific provisions on the example of the liability of municipalities for the failure to provide social housing for evicted tenants.
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This scientific work dealt with relationship of Christian confessions (Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Protestantism), and corruption. Consideration is approached from a theoretical and empirical sides. In the theoretical part, the author tried to penetrate the social relationships and forms of Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Protestantism to corruption, and to determine what characteristics cause this phenomenon more closely. During the empirical research the author has crossed from one independent variable - confession (the majority of Orthodox, Catholic and / or Protestant countries) with variable index ratings (non) existence of corruption based on findings of National Master and Transparency International in the last five years (2005 and 2010). Based on these results the author has confirmed that the confessional factor and correlated corruption, that corruption is best tackled in Protestant countries, and that at least overcome the Orthodox countries. To resolve the problem situation, and curb corruption, it is necessary to pay greater attention to cultural and religious factors and those determinants which may result in corruption, as it were eliminated, or at least significantly reduced.
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The paper reflects on recent developments towards authoritarianism and right-wing populism that have become apparent in a number of Western societies and aims at pinpointing possible cultural foundations for this trend. Using the example of the German PEGIDA movement and the wider milieu in which it is embedded, it identifies and describes a rapidly spreading culture of mistrust and discusses some of its political and epistemological implications. In a second step, the paper draws on Luc Boltanski’s theory of justification in order to attain a better understanding of this political movement’s specificities. It is argued that it is a quasi-violent refusal of justification which is constitutive for the movement in question, thereby transcending the reach of Boltanski’s framework to some extent. In a third step, a closer look is taken at the epistemological paradox that results from the fact that a number of the PEGIDA movement’s crucial points of criticism are effectively shared by a larger part of the overall population, raising severe problems for the question of sociological critique. The paper utilizes ideas by Bruno Latour in order to illuminate this paradox further and examine its consequences. It closes with remarks on the possibility to “reassemble” trust and critique as crucial but contested – and, hence, precarious – foundations of modern society.
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Author defined communicological dimension of the corporative relations with the public in public sector on the basis of Koettler’s foundation (relations with the media, the media, lobbying, etc.), with unavoidable division on corporative and marketing dimension. Also, the author defined ten activities within the public relations, such as cooperation with the media on special events, preparation of public performances, research, counseling, training or management. In line with it, the author presented seven groups of targeted public in question: financing, the media, the state with its own institutions, the citizens, local small and large public with precisely defined the media, the media mass communications, types of the media as well as the relations of the media and censorship in contemporary society. The author also analyzed interaction between public relations and public sector, along with some other notions related to the analysis of modern corporative relations with the public. Public sector, as a part of political system, greatly determinates macro-social relations within whole society, in particular in the field of economy, or in the field of activity of public sector transforming itself on the principles of private-public partnership. In such socio-political and business environment public relations become an important part of deregulation, or, looking at it from a broad perspective, or social modernization in Serbia. Significance of this research is in defining the status and role of corporative relations with the public in contemporary society, along with precise determination of corporative business interactions with public relations, in which a modern corporation, as a economic subject in society, has important role.
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The social political environment has a strong impact on the human capital stock. Therefore, the major political changes that occurred in Romania during the 20th century significantly contributed to the disturbance of the normal forming cycle of human capital, both quantitatively and qualitatively. This paper aims at following, by means of a comparative study and qualitative analysis, the evolution and dynamics of the human capital stock under the two elements of influence, education and healthcare. The objective is to carry out an analysis on the changes occurred at the level of the human capital stock in different social political contexts, by means of the available statistical data and for the purpose of providing a database to be used in taking the right political decisions for its protection.
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The article concerns the constitutional position of the head of state in a parliamentary model of government. The Author makes a distinction between two models of the head of state: the representative model and the regulative (control) model. Then, the Author characterizes the status of the president of the Republic of Poland and concludes that the model of the Polish presidency cannot be described as a representative or regulatory one. It ranks somewhere in the middle.
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This paper addresses the importance of “knowledge” and “access to information” in the formation of young citizens’ opinion through deliberative procedures. The research presented in this paper is grounded in the theoretical framework of deliberative democracy as a democratic model and procedure that allows participants to be engaged in a rational and open dialogue before deciding on a particular issue. Our research draws empirically upon a deliberative event that took place in October 2014 at the Western Macedonia University of Applied Sciences in Greece. The topic of deliberation was “Political Public Opinion Polls.” The results of this study are commensurate with the dominant thesis in the relevant literature, which underlines that the deliberative procedure enriches the knowledge of citizens and thus enables them to participate effectively in the decision making process.
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This article examines how voters and politicians interact through social media to communicate salient issues in highly mobilising contexts, such as elections and protests. It analyses the case of Romania’s 2014 presidential elections, where voters played an active role in promoting themes that candidates had not initially addressed in their campaigns. Two topics emerged as particularly important from the voters’ perspective: systemic corruption and accusations of the government deliberately hindering the voting process in Romanian diaspora communities. A mixed approach of automated and manual content analysis of user comments and campaign materials on social media reveals that, while it is difficult to make precise causal claims, voter demands with regards to these topics had an active role in influencing changes in candidates’ campaign strategies.
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The last few years have witnessed an intensified academic debate on the potential of online social networking sites (SNSs) in the Czech Republic. However, the ensuing academic discussions focused mostly on the SNS pages of political parties. Politicians in particular have recently become the focus of attention in the shift towards research exploring the use of SNSs. The aim of this paper is to provide insight into the role of Facebook in the communication of parties and candidates during the Czech parliamentary elections in 2013. We analyse the adoption of Facebook as a mobilization tool by seven parties as well as by 200 individual deputies, looking for similarities and differences in terms of the adoption, strategy and engagement of users. Although party influence seems to be a significant predictor of Facebook adoption, our data also indicate that using other digital channels increases the chances of higher engagement on Facebook at the individual level.
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Democracy waves today are overflowing the planet, creating dramatic and intensive changes on evolutionary political path. Exciting statistic triumph of neoliberal order excite humanistic orientated part of our planet, but, behind democracy screen, human rights and economic welfare hiding lot of social problems, important for further concept of political development (energetic and ecological crisis, stock market problems worldwide, first signs of planetary recession, growing unemployment…). Catalog of modern crisis depends on many agents which can decide will new established democracy survived numerous illnesses that attacked her. In political arena main goal is to impose agenda of social problems, priorities and ways of solving them. That’s how political leaders and elites impose their own interests as social ones, constructing dominant communication paradigm to promote themselves and their political programs as unavoidable and absolute social power. Society, disintegrated by interests and seduced by narcotic fascination of media spectacles, need time to realize all aspects of manipulation skills, becoming more and more distant from truly problems of society. Informatic power, along with military and security one, triumph in creating of global public. Essence of modern political governance lies into media predicting, controlling and managing social crisis, their presence and absence from public spheres! In mass communication processes political spectacles are not prime time news because of their exclusivity, no, they are present as social relevancy which must be debated in public. In archipelago of high technologies social and ethnical groups, companies and agencies, institutions and individuals are hyper-related in exchanging of information, creating new global system.
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