Around the Bloc: Romanian Senators Propose Amending ‘Books by Crooks’ Law
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Prisoners can reduce jail terms by 30 days for each work of ‘scientific value’ they publish.
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The Millennial Memorial, erected in 1896 to celebrate one thousand years of Hungary’s statehood, was the embodiment of what many a contemporary would have sworn was impossible: welding the various conflicting interpretations of power and the legitimacy of power advanced by Hungary’s fiercely competitive political parties into the semblance of a balanced and unified whole. The completed work, at any rate, has a force and serenity suggestive of ideological unity.
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The political and economic relations between the United States and Cuba have been “frozen” for over 50 years. Only in December 2014 the diplomatic relations between those two states were restored. It was one of the rare achievements of the foreign policy of the president Barack Obama, who in March 2015 paid an official visit in Havana. That visit has brought about in practice the end of Cuba's isolation, but has not led to the full normalization of the political and economic relations. The trade embargo was laid on Cuba by the United States in 1962 and can be eliminated (removed) only by the Congress when the Cuban government will meet the requirements of the Helms-Burton law. They include financial compensation for the nationalized property of the American companies and significant change in the existing political and economic system.
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The review of: Nemzet és egyéniség. Drámairodalmunk az 1810-es években: a hazafiság drámái (Nation and Individual. Hungarian Drama in the 1810s: Patriotic Dramas) by Imre Nagy; Budapest: Argumentum Kiadó, 1993, 242 pp.
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The review of: A centralizáció csapdája (The Trap of Centralization) by László Bruszt; Szombathely: Savaria University Press, 1995, 293 pp.
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This paper aims to demonstrate the significance and relevance of the poststructural gaze towards the economy by both tracing the conceptual common places of this approach as well as practicing this theoretical position in the concrete analysis of indebtedness of the financial system. A brief and localized, but nonetheless significant tradition of the poststructural problematizing of the category of economy is here presented through three key disciplines: governmentality studies, economic sociology and international political economy. After portraying the contributions and limitations of those disciplines, the second part of the paper analyzes the apparatus of standardification and validification of credit risk within banks, namely the Basel Capital Accord and practices of securitisation. By offering a genealogy of those techniques, we interpret finance as a discursive space (re)articulated through an aggregate of normalized mechanisms and practices which collectively form a rationality of governance. In this way, we point out the importance of performative, symbolic, relational, decentered and contingent moments in the critical conception of (financial) economy, as well as show that the critique of economy does not necessarily have to be organized and conducted through the capital – class – ideology matrix.
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Recent debates on refugees and migrations in Europe have primarily focused on the vast amount of migrants arriving from North Africa and the Middle East and the large number of Poles who have relocated to the United Kingdom; arguably both issues have played a major role in the outcome of the Brexit referendum as well as political changes elsewhere in Europe. What is largely missing from these discussions, however, is an examination of previous centuries of European immigration to other parts of the world, such as Central and Eastern European migrations to South America.
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Moj prilog razmatra slijedeća pitanja: Prvo pitanje je: - zašto su manjine u tako velikom broju zemalja izložene diskriminaciji vladajućih većina - čak i u uvjetima demokratske vlasti i ustava? Dokazat ću da prevlađujući oblik zapadne demokracije - model većinske demokracije - ima ozbiljnih nedostataka u pogledu zaštite manjina. Moje drugo pitanje bavi se slijedećim problemom: - postoji li oblik demokracije koji je posebno prilagođen za bavljenje integracijom manjina i problemom multikulturne koegzistencije? Pokušat ću pokazati uporednim sagledavanjem, da postoji alternativni model "većinskoj demokraciji" - "demokracija konsenzusa". Demokracija konsenzusa se sastoji iz podjele vlasti između većinskih grupa društva a njezini glavni elementi su proporcionalno predstavljanje i federalizam. Povijesno iskustvo uči da ovaj oblik demokracije nudi brojne prednosti za političku integraciju u multikulturnom društvu. Treće i posljednje pitanje je slijedeće: - postoje li putovi i sredstva za razvijanje demokratske podjele vlasti čak i u teškim uvjetima kakve nalazimo u demokracijama Centralne i Istočne Europe, ili ovdje u Bosni?
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The article presents the main topics related to the lifestyle of patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes based on an analysis of biographical interviews. The paper examines the content of the concept of self-management and provides an analysis of research on the impact of social networks – their mechanisms and practices. A scheme of thematic analysis of the biographical narratives is developed and key categories, topics and subtopics with relevant quotes are offered to illustrate patients’ self-management process. The levels of analysis include individualperceptual level; social-categorical level associated with social network analysis and macroorganizational level, dealing with system factors. Conclusions are made both for the serious methodological potentials of biographical interviewing in health sociology and the overall description of the process of self-management of patients with type 2 diabetes in Bulgaria.
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The Sonderdienst (Special Service) was an enforcement agency developed by German SS and Police authorities, specifically in the Lublin District of the so called Government General (central and southeastern German-occupied Poland) to assist in enforcing German occupation ordinances in the cities and particularly in the countryside, where lack of police personnel, ignorance of local conditions, and perceived fear of partisan attack discouraged a direct German police presence. After February 1941, the SS and Police relinquished control over the Sonderdienst to the German civilian occupation authorities. Under civilian authority, the Sonderdienst was deployed at the Kreis level, under command of the so-called German Stadt- and Kreishauptmänner in detachments of approximately 30 men to carry out administrative enforcement activities when the civilian authorities were unable to count or SS and police support. This article examines how the Sonderdienst highlights the dependence of German administration in the Government General on locally recruited auxiliaries, particularly in the countryside. The Sonderdienst was conceived, developed, expanded, and deployed within the context of a bitter battle between German civilian authorities and the SS/police apparatus over control of local executive police power. This is hardly new; yet the Government General is unusual in that the German civilian authorities were able to fight the SS to a draw on this issue. Since its formation followed the recruitment of the “ethnic” and ideological “cream” of the ethnic German population of occupied Poland into agencies such as the Selbstschutz, and the Waffen SS, the Sonderdienst represents an early effort of the National Socialist authorities to fashion an ethnically conscious and ideologically committed corps from young men of questionable, even dubious, German ancestry and heritage. Finally, this study reveals not only the complicity of the civilian authorities in Nazi crimes, but the link in German-occupied Poland between “routine” administrative duties, such as collecting fines for ordinance violations, and the brutal persecution and annihilation of groups targeted as enemies of the German Reich, such as the Polish Jews. Civilian administrators and SS and police authorities shared the “National Socialist consensus” in occupied Poland. They wanted to annihilate the Jews and the Polish intelligentsia, to exploit the labor potential of the Polish masses, and to turn the Government General into a region of German settlement. As a part of this vision, the Sonderdienst was to serve not only as a police executive, but as a political and cultural steppingstone to full acceptance into the German “racial community.” There is no question that, even in “routine” duties, the Sonderdienst participated, more or less willingly, in the implementation of the most evil racist policies of the National Socialist regime.
More...REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN AND MEN IN THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH IN BIH
Women are traditionally underrepresented in the governments in Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter BiH) and none of the 14 governments in BiH (The Council of Ministers of BiH, entity, cantonal and the Government of the Brčko District of BiH) to date has been appointed in such a way that the goal from Article 20 from the Law on Gender Equality in BiH – consolidated version (“Official Gazette of BiH”, No. 32/10) was fulfilled. There are two women appointed in the current convocation of the Council of Ministers of BiH, four in the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter the Government of FBiH) while there is one woman prime minister and three ministers appointed in the Government of Republika Srpska (hereinafter the Government of RS). In the governments of the cantons there are no women appointed as prime ministers of the cantonal government, while the percentage of women ministers in cantonal governments was around 17.5%1 (the number of women ministers varies from 0% to 25% depending on the canton). The most drastic example is the government of the Zenica-Doboj Canton (hereinafter ZDC) where there is not even one woman appointed.
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This report looks into the participation of women in politics in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is a gendered study of the 2010 election. Three things were examined: • The position and distribution of women on electoral lists, • The change in the position of women on the electoral lists as a consequence of voting, • The presence of women in the political parties. Following the 2010 election, where women made up 39,39% of candidates on the list, the legal requirement was raised to 40% in 2013 and is now in line with the BiH Gender Equality Law. In order to evaluate the likely impact this will have on the 2014 elections, the study looked into the 2010 election in order to see if any patterns regarding participation of women appear. Eleven parties were included: SDP, SNSD, SDA, SDS, SBB, HDZ BiH, SBiH, HDZ 1990 - HSP, NSRZB, PDP and DNS, based on the gains they made either in the state, or entity parliaments. It has been found that the official figure of 11.95% of women as the top of the list candidates overestimates the participation of women, because the number is far lower among the parties that actually gained seats. Further, only 20.3% of women on the lists for the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH were listed higher than the legal requirement, and the number is even lower for the entity parliaments. It has also been shown that women slide down the electoral lists as a result of voting, with SBB lists being the only exception. Finally, party statutes and programs, as well as executive boards were analyzed in order to asses the representation and participation of women in parties, and it has been found that with a few exceptions (notably SDP) presence of women is a symbolic, rather than a substantive gesture. The following conclusions were derived: • There is no correlation between the percentage of women at the top of the list, the percentage of women that were listed higher on the list than the minimum legal requirement and the percentage of women parliamentary representatives; • The highest percentage of women listed higher on the list than the minimum legal requirement is for the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH (20.03%), then FBiH Parliament (17.2%) and the lowest is National Assembly of RS (12.16%); • Regarding the number of women at the top of the list, the entity lists fare better than the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH lists; • In addition to being lower on the lists to begin with, women further dropped down the list of candidates as a result of elections; • The smallest difference was on the lists for the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH and the highest difference with the biggest drop was on the lists for the National Assembly of RS; • SBB was the only party where women climbed on the list and placed higher as a result of the election; • There is a range, from the parties which have mainstreamed gender in their statutes, to parties that are only selectively opening their doors to women, to, finally, parties that are only including select women in select bodies, therefore limiting the access to higher party echelons to men, and there is a similar range in the content of the party programs - from cursory mentions of women in the context of motherhood, to references to the Gender Equality Law; • SDP has the highest proportion of women in their executive bodies, while SDA has the lowest; • There is a correlation between the attitudes towards gender equality in party statutes and programs, but it is impossible to establish correlation between the percentage of women in leadership positions in the parties and the percentage of women representatives from that party in the parliament. Finally, quotas have contributed to positive change, but have possibly reached their limits. Without a change in the political culture that sees female and male candidates as equal, and more importantly treats them as such, quotas do little more than just up the numbers, without making politics more equitably gendered.
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Američki diplomata Richard Holbrooke je duboko razmišljao o jednom problemu uoči izbora u Bosni septembra 1996., a koji su bili zamišljeni da povrate građanski život u toj razorenoj zemlji. “Pretpostavimo da su izbori proglašeni slobodnim i poštenim”, rekao je, i da su ti izabrani “rasisti, fašisti i separatisti koji su javno suprotstavljeni [miru i reintegraciji]. To je, dakle, ta dilema.” Uistinu, to jeste dilema, ne samo u bivšoj Jugoslaviji nego, u velikoj mjeri, i širom svijeta. Demokratski izabrane vlasti, često uključujući i one koje su ponovno izabrane ili potvrđene putem referenduma, rutinski ignoriraju ustavna ograničenja svoje moći i lišavaju građane osnovnih prava i sloboda. Od Perua do palestinske administracije, od Sierra Leone do Slovačke, od Pakistana do Filipina, vidimo uspon uznemiravajućeg fenomena na međunarodnoj sceni - neliberalne demokratije.
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Our analysis deals with the electoral contest of individual political parties both before and after the 2016 Slovak parliamentary election was held. The space, which is provided from all kinds of media to political parties, is various. Each medium has an owner and each owner supports different interests. Parliamentary election is considered to be the most important election in Slovakia and thanks to that really wide media coverage is givento them. A couple of months before the opening of the polling stations, discussions had already been underway in both professional and amateur circles regarding the possible variations of the next governing political parties. The media play a large part in decision-making because they can have a meaningful influence on public opinion. Many voters today decide who they will vote for according to media coverage. Political programmes and agendas of the parties and political representatives come second in this decision. In our analysis we also look at online social networking sites, which are currently a huge phenomenon. Every political subject nowadays has its own website and every modern politician has a profile page on Facebook, an account on Twitter and on other social networks. We will also try to approach the possible perspectives of the development of the Slovak political scene.
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An attempt to contextualize the political power structure in Nigeria exposes an orientation and practice that directly negates the democratic norm of power belonging to the people. Today, power belongs entirely to government officials who use it to advance the course of their political and economic interests. The people are thus, subjected to the point and path of complete alienation from the demands and benefits of their democratic citizenship. Given the weakness of the rule of law and institutions of check in Nigeria, established statutes and legislation have not been able to stand tall to relevance in dislodging the hegemony of the ruling elites as is evident in our case study- Imo State. This has since 1999, propped up a telling political effect, which also spirals to the arena of development, and quakes the stability of the state, and the nation at large. The paper examines the current domiciliation of political power, its potential effect on the people, and on service delivery in the country. A case is made for recovery of power for the people and reasserting the law as a balancing force and as means of providing check against breach of constitutionally prescribed political power structure and configuration.
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The review of: Siyasetin Yeni Hali Vaka-i Sosyal Medya: Seçimden Seçime, Gezi Direnişi’nden Hükümet Cemaat Çatışmasına (2014) by: Burak Doğu, Aslı Telli Aydemir, Burak Özçetin, Gözde İslamoğlu, Günseli Bayraktutan, Mutlu Binark, Tuğrul Çomu; İstanbul: Kalkedon.
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The public administration is composed of state and local administration. Both administrations are condemned to cooperate with each other in the implementation of various tasks for the local community and they are part of the interests of the entire society. Despite this, in practice. it can occur and there is a conflict between the local administration and the state administration. As a result, both parts of the public administration go to the court, which resolves these disputes. However, there are many areas and examples of cooperation between the two administrations, which complement each other.
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