We need innovation and courage to rejuvenate democracy
A conversation with Basil Kerski, director of the European Solidarity Centre in Gdańsk. Interviewer: Iwona Reichardt
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A conversation with Basil Kerski, director of the European Solidarity Centre in Gdańsk. Interviewer: Iwona Reichardt
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In 2020 a research project dedicated to understanding the meaning of 1989 conducted a series of talks with intellectuals and scholars in Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania. It collected witness testimony of these events as well as interviewing the post-1989 generation in order to understand their relationship to the history of the transformation. This essay is based on the outcomes of these discussions, focusing primarily on the role and meaning of citizen actions.
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Almost 30 years ago, on May 9th 1992, Armenian forces captured the Azerbaijan city of Shusha after a spectacular offensive. In a world without Twitter, the narrative about liberation and escaping the Azerbaijani army spread instantly. The story of the restoration of historical justice for Armenians deprived of their ancient lands for years covered the catastrophe of thousands of Azerbaijani families forced to flee the Nagorno-Karabakh. Two years later, a ceasefire was signed in Bishkek, yet the war did not end for good.
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Review of: Kinga Anna Gajda - The Legacy of Division: East and West after 1989. Edited by: Ferenc Laczó and Luka Lisjak Gabrijelčič. Publisher: Central European University Press / Eurozine, Budapest/Vienna, 2020.
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This article examines the laws in the Republic of North Macedonia (hereinafter RNM), that prohibit agreements among competitors to fix prices, divide markets or in other ways avoid or undermine market competition, otherwise known as competition laws. It explores the conditions and challenges in implementing Macedonian competition laws, as well as the role of the state (regulatory) authorities, the degree to which the competition laws comply with the European Union’s competition laws, and finally, the degree to which competition laws are effective and beneficial for the Macedonian economy. Properly implemented competition laws hold much promise. The enactment of competition laws is fundamental for the benefits of a market economy to be achieved. This encompasses economic growth, innovation, lower prices and higher quality of goods and services. The enactment of competition laws since the independence of the Republic of Macedonia is furthermore important. This is due to Macedonian obligations to meet the requirements for EU accession. Additionally, adoption of competition law and competition by-laws in RNM, positively affects on the work of authorities for the protection of competition. What is most important, this competition legal regime represents a base for reducing the abuse of the state authorities and theirs incompetent behaviors. At the end, the article contains conclusions, opinions and suggestions from the conducted research, which hopefully will be beneficial for the relevant auditorium. The analytical-descriptive method, the comparative method, the method of analysis and synthesis, and the method of induction and deduction were used to analyze the subject matter for this article.
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Poczucie, że władza nas zdradziła i bije naszych, zmieniło radykalnie postrzeganie Łukaszenki przez Białorusinów. Analitycy i urzędnicy nie przewidzieli, że naród białoruski może wystąpić w roli podmiotu procesu politycznego i zabrać głos jako suweren.
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Review of: Andrzej Krawczyk - Andrzej Friszke, Marek Kornat, Ryszard Stemplowski, Dwie epoki. O celach w polskiej polityce zagranicznej 1918–1939 i 1989–2015, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar, Warszawa 2020, 228 s.
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W Polsce brakuje solidarności i brakuje braterstwa. Zużyliśmy je w sporach i osobistych ambicjach. Zgubiliśmy je w walkach „o znaczek”, w wojnach na górze. Z czegoś, co miało łączyć, uczyniliśmy pałkę do bicia inaczej myślących.
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This article investigates, for the first time, the local musical tradition of the Udmurt of Chainsk district (Tomsk oblast). The overwhelming majority of migrants in this region arrived from the Sharkan district of the Udmurt Republic, in Siberia, at the beginning of the 20th century. For a long time they kept their original culture in an ethnically alien environment. However, at the beginning of the 21st century, their singing tradition started to fade under the influence of different factors (such as the disappearance of Udmurt rituals and festivals, as well as mixed marriages). The aim of this article is to compare the ‘Chainsk migrational’ singing tradition to the ‘Sharkan original’ musical tradition. The main collection of audio recordings covering the Chainsk district Udmurt musical tradition is conserved in the archives of the Udmurt Research Institute at the Russian Academy of sciences. It is comprised of fieldwork material gathered by researchers from the Institute in 1974 and 2006. We discovered new sources of audio and video recordings of the singing tradition in this territory, which allowed us to integrate more song samples. The analysis of both traditions reveals the basic genres of ritual singing, each of which has been examined from the point of view of the topic of the poetic text, the mood structures, and the metro-rhythmic and melodic peculiarities of their development.
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The remittances or money transfers set by migrants to the country of origin are considered to be one of the welfare channels with a potential to influence macroeconomics indicators. The aim of our paper is to analyse migration and remittance behaviour of Ukrainian migrants in the context of the EU. Our study is based on the questionnaire survey inspired by similar projects in Latin America and Mexico. The paper’s main contribution and value-added is in the detailed analysis of the topic that distinguishes different forms of remittances using the statistical summary of the data. According to our findings, the probability and amount remitted are determined by demographic factors and the direction of effects differs in the case of regular and one-time payments. Altruism and business financing come through as the primary motives to remit. Ukrainian remittances appear to be transferred by informal channels into the productive forms of consumption. A procurement of skilled position is positively influenced by human capital factors but is also reflected in the labour market situation in the destination country.
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The aim of this study is to discuss nexus between defense spending and certain economic variables in Lithuania during 2009–2018. Considering the fact that there are no universal analytical tools for measuring defense expenditure nexus with economic growth, in this study, data comparison and correlation analyses are conducted with key economic variables being interpreted. Increased defense spending, successful reforms in the Armed Forces, and NATO/EU activities contributed to the security of Lithuania and provided positive stimulus for the national economy. The term security fluctuate factor, describing the yearly security investment responsiveness effect on the state economy, is offered in the study for the first time. The main results support nexus findings between defense spending and economic growth as they indicate positive correlation between distinctive state economic variables and extensive defense spending in Lithuania, especially in the post-2014 period.
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On May 14, 2018—exactly 73 years to the day after the order issued by the Internal Affairs Section of the Central People’s Liberation Committee of Vojvodina— Mr. Mirko Bajić, the president of the Bačka Bunyevs’ Alliance (BBA), informed the general public about a request by which the alliance “demanded that, without further ado, the parliament of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina (APV) adopt a declaration to pronounce” the aforementioned order “an act of forced assimilation ... and annul it.” Mr. Bajić also explained that the initiative to annul the May 14, 1945 order had been submitted to the APV parliament more than a year and a half earlier and, despite initial support by the APV government, no declaration had been adopted by the time of Mr. Bajić’s statement.
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The aim of our study is to examine the positive or negative effects of poster art, which is one of the graphic design and graphic design elements used in elections, on people. Scanning model was used in the study. The graphic design elements (posters, etc.) used by the AK Party in the election campaigns in the general elections held between 2002-2018 were examined by literature review. In this article, between the years 2002- 2018 visual elements and communication campaigns that took place in the general elections and winning the AK Party in Turkey use, message strategies were tried to be determined. The campaigns were tried to be conveyed with a descriptive narrative and the posters of the elections in the 2002-2018 period were examined. As a result of the study, it was observed that the Ak Party, which achieved success in the elections held between 2002-2018, developed a discourse in line with its vision and mission, had promising discourses that gave a positive message, and was brought to power by the voters. In our research, the election campaign of the Ak Party, which participated in the elections held between 2002-2018, was mentioned.
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Membership in a common currency area is thought to promote economic stability by facilitating macroeconomic convergence, but a country might give up important monetary policy tools that could help stabilize its economy following a shock. The effect of a common currency on macroeconomic volatility can therefore be ambiguous. This study examines five Central and Eastern European countries that joined the Eurozone since 2005; their differences, particularly with regard to the countries’ economic performance and pre-accession exchange-rate regimes, help drive a unique set of results. Structural breaks in the volatility of real output, consumption, and investment generally correspond to events other than Eurozone accession, and Vector Autoregressive methods show that global shocks have more of an impact on output volatility than do regional shocks or economic openness. Spillovers affect Latvia and Lithuania more than Estonia, Slovakia, or Slovenia, which suggests that a unified currency space might have difficulty managing idiosyncratic shocks.
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The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an intergovernmental economic organization with 36-member countries, was established in Paris,1961. OECD aims to stimulate sustainable economic growth and improve social well-being in many of the world's most advanced countries but also emerging countries. It provides a forum in which governments can work together to share experiences and seek solutions to common problems. The Global Enabling Trade Report was first published in 2008 by the World Economic Forum. It has become a powerful tool for alliances about improving trade facilitation by focusing on the right countries and the right projects, quickly and efficiently. Co-published by the World Economic Forum and the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation, the report features the Enabling Trade Index which measures the factors, policies and services in economies that facilitate the flow of goods over borders and to their destination. This study aims to classify OECD member countries including Turkey, based on the data of the Enabling Trade Index 2016. For the process of entering the data, Excel and the statistical software program SPSS have been used. In the process of analyzing the data, cluster analysis has been used and Ward’s hierarchical clustering method has been chosen. In conclusion, the result indicates that OECD member countries generate five clusters.
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Education in Albania, as an important sector of the national development, aims to equip the future Albanian citizens with the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities in order to educate and commit them to achieve the country’s economic and socio-cultural development. After the 90’s the Albanian economic and social situation have significantly influenced the education and reforms. Despite the political changes, education imposed profound changes in curricula or other components. Emerging from highly politicized curricula, the reform has set new principles and modern requirements. Other issues that constitute the reforms, includes the development of preschool education, reduction of illiteracy, avoiding the phenomenon of school abandonment, improving schools infrastructure, increasing the teachers professionalism, providing free textbooks, modernization of teaching methods, establishing evaluation standards. This paper will highlight the main problems based on the substantial education methods on international and national levels and the impact of reforms implementation in education system.
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Review of: Danijel Džino - Dražen Pehar, Peace as War: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Post-Dayton. Central European University Press: Budapest and New York, 2019, pp. 294; index; bibliography; hb; €53/£47/US$60; ISBN 9789633863022.
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Democracy has promoted political and socio-economic development far more effectively than any other political system across many countries and centuries of history. In Nigeria, it has been characterized with political corruption, ethnic politics, politicking of core government policies and programmes and politics of godfatherism. Since the return of democratic rule in 1999 to date, the country witnessed a heightened tempo in the politics of godfatherism, which has not only retards the process of democratic consolidation but also undermines effective state governance and restricts rather than broadens democratic representation. Godfatherism is one of the greatest glitches facing the Nigerian political system. This paper therefore, attempts a reflection on the nature, causes and effect of godfatherism on Nigeria’s nascent democracy. We anchored our investigation on some basic propositions arising from the elite theory and argue that politics of godfatherism negates peaceful coexistence, law and order and poses a threat to the Nigeria’s nascent democracy. This paper which is theoretical in nature draws its argument basically from secondary data which include journal articles, textbooks and internet sources. Requisite conclusion and recommendations were provided in the light of the theoretical findings.
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This article examines various annual trends in climate and hydrological changes in Slovenia’s mountain regions between 1961 and 2018. Climate changes are primarily reflected in the increase in average annual temperatures and significantly decreased duration of snow cover, and hydrological changes in the decrease in the minimum and mean annual discharge, whereas the maximum discharge is increasing in some places. Among the factors affecting the reduction in the annual water volume in rivers, land-use changes (i.e., increased forest cover) especially stand out. In addition to the water volume, rivers’ discharge regimes are also changing. In nearly all locations, the autumn maximum discharge now exceeds the spring maximum discharge, which was once one of the basic characteristics of mountain snow-rain discharge regimes.
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