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In recent years, the trade policy of various countries has become an important topic, both for administration and business. The present paper aims at presenting the EU trade policy and some of its advantages and challenges.
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The article presents the results of an empirical study on the use of the term 'hybrid war' (and its analogs) in Bulgarian media. It is focused on the use of the concept in meanings and contexts different from those implied by the existing definitions. The study covers the first five months of 2019. The publications in Bulgarian online media are selected through the news aggregation and analysis system 'European Media Monitor' (EMM). The results show that, in certain cases, the concept is not only used with different meanings, but some derivative concepts are created by the media such as 'hybrid propaganda' or 'hybrid content'
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National and international corruption indices suggest that the Bulgarian tax administration has an important role to play in fighting corruption. While the general public and the business community are inclined to think better of the tax administration, in terms of the levels and spread of corruption, by comparison with other institutions, such as customs, the police or the judiciary, corruption in the tax administration is still admittedly rather high. Business largely believes that most, if not all, tax officers are involved in corruption. Over the last five years, one out of five businesses on average has come under corruption pressure at the hands of tax officers. While they would not go as far as to accept the taxpayers’ perception of the situation, members of the tax administration do not deny the problem. They see the administration’s functional areas for Tax Audit and Operational Control as worst affected in terms of, respectively, the amounts of money changing hands and the frequency of such transactions. International surveys are inconclusive about the level of corruption in the Bulgarian tax administration on a comparison basis. The World Economic Forum rates it as relatively low within the enlarged European Union. By contrast, the World Bank has found it to be higher than corruption levels in most of the Balkans and the former Soviet republics. The purpose of this study is not primarily to add another estimate of the level and scale of tax corruption in Bulgaria but rather, to contribute to an in-depth diagnosis of the phenomenon in terms of its drivers at work in individual and institutional behaviour.National and international corruption indices suggest that the Bulgarian tax administration has an important role to play in fighting corruption. While the general public and the business community are inclined to think better of the tax administration, in terms of the levels and spread of corruption, by comparison with other institutions, such as customs, the police or the judiciary, corruption in the tax administration is still admittedly rather high. Business largely believes that most, if not all, tax officers are involved in corruption. Over the last five years, one out of five businesses on average has come under corruption pressure at the hands of tax officers. While they would not go as far as to accept the taxpayers’ perception of the situation, members of the tax administration do not deny the problem. They see the administration’s functional areas for Tax Audit and Operational Control as worst affected in terms of, respectively, the amounts of money changing hands and the frequency of such transactions. International surveys are inconclusive about the level of corruption in the Bulgarian tax administration on a comparison basis. The World Economic Forum rates it as relatively low within the enlarged European Union. By contrast, the World Bank has found it to be higher than corruption levels in most of the Balkans and the former Soviet republics. The purpose of this study is not primarily to add another estimate of the level and scale of tax corruption in Bulgaria but rather, to contribute to an in-depth diagnosis of the phenomenon in terms of its drivers at work in individual and institutional behaviour.
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The continuing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, together with the increased tension in relations between Russia and the West, have led the Belarusian authorities to attempt to redefine their country’s foreign policy by stressing neutrality towards the two sides in the conflict. As a result, over the last year or so Belarus has clearly adopted a non-committal stance. Minsk is trying to play the part of a neutral mediator in the hope that this will safeguard it in the event of escalation of tensions between Russia and the West, which is seen as the greatest threat to the country’s security at the present time. Thus Minsk is returning to the notion, discussed in the early 1990s, of Belarus striving for neutrality. Officially, the goal of neutrality is still stated in the Belarusian Constitution. However there are serious limitations to the effectiveness of this new strategy, due to Minsk’s close military alliance with Moscow, and therefore Belarus will not be entirely credible on the international stage as a country that wishes to remain neutral.
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The Belarusian opposition is currently experiencing its deepest crisis since Alyaksandr Lukashenka took power in 1994. Following many months of negotiations, opposition leaders failed to select a joint candidate for the presidential election scheduled for 11th October. The failure of this latest round of talks has proven that not only is the opposition unlikely to threaten Lukashenka’s rule; it will not even be able to demonstrate to society that it could provide a genuine alternative to the present government.The presidential election in 2010 was a painful landmark for the opposition. The repression that accompanied the election has largely weakened political circles opposed to the government. Against this backdrop, the traditional internal problems of the opposition have worsened, such as its incapacity to reach agreement and develop a common, coherent operational strategy, the excessive ambitions of the leaders of particular groups, the low level of political maturity, mutual distrust and frequent personal conflicts. As a result the opposition has for years been unable to gain confidence in society and reach beyond the limited number (20%) of staunch proponents of democratic transformations. Given the fact that the Belarusian opposition is fragmented and lacks one clear leader, the readiness to support individual leaders does not exceed several per cent, according to independent surveys. Lukashenka’s present political opponents rather resemble a group of dissidents, than constitute a genuine opposition to the government. The crisis and helplessness of opposition circles are more acute given Belarus’s internal situation since for the first time Alyaksandr Lukashenka will run his presidential campaign in the context of the economic crisis and a forecasted fall in GDP.
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The study of the global and local aspects of Bulgaria’s possible future entry into the Eurozone is partly based hereunder on the study of the evolution of the Polish, Estonian, Lithuanian and other strategies for joining the Eurozone. The reason for that is that there are fewer analyzes of the Bulgarian situation, which is still unfolding. The Polish, Estonian, Lithuanian and other cases overtake the Bulgarian one for several years. Therefore, in some places, the text below is a compilation of texts of research articles on these close cases. Poland is the largest economy among the New Accession countries in the EU. Estonia and Lithuania are small economies but used to have currency board arrangements before adopting the euro exactly as the plans for Bulgaria are. Moreover, all these countries were part of the Eastern bloc unlike Greece and this makes them useful examples. Of course, there are also historical, cultural, political and economic differences that also need to be highlighted.
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The purpose of this study is to assess the implementation of balanced scorecard in the offices of Trade and Industry Development, Micro and Small Scale Enterprise Development and Finance and Economic Development Bureaus of Addis Ababa City Administration. To collect and analyze data this study employed both quantitative and qualitative method using variables such as strategy setting, implementation of the change initiatives performance measurement, leadership, management and staff commitment. The findings show that though there have been positive achievements, the leaders and organizers of the change initiatives have not yet fully discharged their responsibilities of using strategic measures and customer service standards as performance measurement and management tool. Moreover, the actions taken in monitoring and evaluation is not satisfactory. The feedbacks did not go beyond awareness creation, and they are not being consistently utilized as an input for any administrative and corrective measures. Though the leaders made efforts, the city administration had to play a leading role in supporting the implementation of the change initiatives to bring the desired changes in the sectors.
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The concept of abuse of rights is universal in nature and is present in all branches of law. The development of scholarly opinion and jurisprudence led in time to the introduction of the prohibition on abuse of rights as a general principle of administrative law, understood as a ban on the use of rights or powers in a manner inconsistent with the purposes for which they were established or in violation of constitutional and axiological order. This paper is a presentation of a model that describes basic characteristics of abuse of right in administrative law. These basic characteristics can be summarized in a few theses as follows: (1) subjective variability – prohibition of abuse applies to both the authority as well the individual; (2) strong links between abuse and circumvention of law – abuse of right is often aimed at avoiding the application of those norms of administrative law which the individual considers to be disadvantageous to her/him; (3) different legal basis of the prohibition of abuse – general principles of law (e.g. the principle of good faith), specific regulations referring to specific powers, immanent limits of the powers or the right; (4) “axiological entanglement” – links with universal, basic administrative law values: legality, rule of law, certainty, justice and common good; (5) vague boundaries and casuistic nature, making it difficult to formulate generalized conclusions, especially with regard to the consequences of abuse of right.
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Access to public information in Poland is most typically discussedin the legal and political contexts. However, it is not consciouslydiscussed as a possibility for political scholars to exercise their right ofaccess to public information. This paper, which is of postulatory nature,identifies the benefits for those political scholars who decide to use, inthe process of data collection, their right of access to public informationas a data collection technique. The proposed technic of data collectionmay be used by scholars – political scientists around the world.
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The optimal size of government or the public sector in general has been the topic of many studies and debates all over the world. There are some who state that the public sector should play a much greater role in the economy, while others proclaim the private economy is a much better placed to generate the desired economic outcomes. This article investigates this issue and applies it to South Africa as there is no consensus on the optimal size of the South African government. The reporting formats of the National Treasury and South African Reserve Bank (SARB) were used to define the public sector, and estimate its actual size and contribution to the country’s economy. The research period ranges from 1992 to 2017. In theory, the BARS or Armey curve suggests that there exists an inverted U shape association between the size of government and optimal economic growth, and that was tested. Various regression equations were assessed using the fully modified OLS (FMOLS) estimation technique. The optimum level of the public sector size is estimated to be between 18 and 24% of the economy, which compares to the current level of between 30 and 50%, while optimal levels were experience between 2005 and 2007. The results suggest that the size of the South African public sector is significantly larger than optimal.
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Government administration, both central and municipal, creates a system that is a result of solutions introduced many years ago, and then changed or refined. The Constitution defines the nature of the state, political system, legal system and relationship between the institutions of power. State law is based on the Constitution, the Constitution provides undisturbed peace in the implementation of its provisions. State institutions through its activities protect constitutional order. In this context, here are two principles that ensure safety – the principle of legality and the rule of law stability. Hence, all the institutions and legal persons are responsible for the security of the state according to the provisions of the Constitution.
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Administrative costs of taxation are for many years investigated by the economic theory and practice. They are connected with the principle of effectiveness of taxation and the goal for any state is to collect taxes relatively as cheap as possible. The goal of this paperis to present our data about the administrative costs of taxation in Slovakia and to compare results with the situation in other developed countries. We decided to use the already existing and tested Czech methodology to calculate results, to be able to obtain comparable data. Our results suggest that the administrative costs of taxation in Slovakia, expressed by the percentage of costs to tax revenues, are higher than in almost all comparable countries – some actions to improve this situation would be necessary.
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Global organizations have become more and more informed and more demanding in identifying and selecting the best suppliers for technological infrastructure, for courses, services and implementations.With the global development of new information and communication technologies, they will have to be applied in more and more countries, in more languages and in more and more cultures. Dissemination of knowledge through books, articles, research, professional organizations, conferences, seminars, courses will increase as new concepts and new technologies will be implemented in organizations in order to improve the training and through this to increase the efficiency of their own human resources.Younger generations that grew up in the digital age will require more interesting, exciting and entertaining learning experiences that are consistent with the way in which they collaborate, work and learn. The E-learning technologies are becoming more and more accessible, e-learning can be used on more and more communication devices.
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Międzynarodowa aktywność samorządów może być jednym z istotniejszych narzędzi zaangażowania Polski w państwach Afryki Subsaharyjskiej. Poprzez organizację misji gospodarczych oraz działania informacyjne jednostki samorządowe wspierają lokalne przedsiębiorstwa na rynkach afrykańskich. Innym obszarem zaangażowania miast i regionów jest pomoc rozwojowa oraz humanitarna w biedniejszych regionach kontynentu. Z uwagi na szybką urbanizację w państwach afrykańskich współpraca z władzami lokalnymi może też stać się ważnym elementem wymiany doświadczeń i promocji polskich miast.
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Two years after the Revolution of Dignity, it is clear that hopes of a quick reconstruction and modernisation of the Ukrainian state as a political and institutional system have not been fulfilled. The resistance of the bureaucrats, politicians and oligarchs who make up the informal, corrupt systems has proven to be very strong, and the will of part of the political elite and the EU and the United States to implement the procedures they have suggested has proved insufficient. If not for the war and the economic collapse, which forced Kyiv to seek external financial assistance and political support, the modernisation of the state would have proceeded even more slowly and with yet greater difficulty.
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This article focuses on the quality assurance reforms that higher education in Albania has undertaken during the timeframe 2014-2019 in regard to implementing the standards and guidelines of the European Higher Education Area. Albania is a candidate country and it has been making a continuous effort to become a member of the EU; thus, Europeanization is been used as a theoretical framework to analyse policy changes. The research aims to analyse what Europeanization approach the domestic reforms have pursued, based on the mechanisms, veto points and the outcomes of the Europeanization process. Moreover, through empirical findings on the Albanian quality assurance system, it attempts to define the extent to which these reforms comply with European standards and guidelines (ESG). Europeanization of the educational policies is guided by causal mechanisms with non-binding stimuli; thus, socialization, much more in the terms of instrumental learning, is defined as the main mechanism of the Europeanization approach of Albanian quality assurance. The policy convergence is mostly happening as an internalization of the rules regarding changing the policy means, not the policy ends, which produces only a formal absorption of ESG and not a substantial transformation of the system.
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This paper addresses the necessity of research on mechanisms for the establishment of cooperation between the authorities, the private sector, and the public in the field of solid domestic waste management (hereinafter – SWM) in the conditions of present day Ukraine. A brief excursus was made on both global and Ukrainian practices of forming partnerships. In order to reinforce the theoretical material, the paper presents the results of an expert survey on determining the prospects for improving the state of SWM through the use of mechanisms for establishing cooperation between the authorities, the private sector, and the public. The findings provided information that is useful for identifying the major barriers that prevent the authorities, the private sector, and the public from collaborating in SWM, as well as for setting the criteria for estimating the efficiency of cooperation between these entities. Furthermore, in the course of the study, a hypothesis was formulated: that the crisis determinants of SWM stem from conflicts of interest between the authorities, the private sector, and the general public.
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The paper presents results of research into municipal waste treatment expenditures efficiency in the Czech Republic. In this paper we construct a method for current municipal waste expenditures efficiency analysis which, based on inputted variables, calculates “minimal value” of expenditures per municipal waste ton that municipality should spend.
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The paper highlights the effects of the link between budgetary allocations to the public health system and quality of life in Turkey using data from OECD. Over the years, Turkey's healthcare system has undergone numerous reforms, private insurance has grown, even so an old problem from the past, hemoglobinopathy is not disappearing. The Ministry of Health seemed to be very involved in current issues and established several programs, plans or founding distinct institutions that are on his control. It is revealed that, despite the growing population in Turkey, the budgetary allocations for the health system are declining. It remains to be indicated the initiatives dedicated to counteract cardiovascular disease, infant death, and what causes a surplus of antibiotics on their pharmaceutical market.
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In August 2014, Poland planed to adopt the National Municipal Policy in the perspective of 2020. The need for this document stems from the fact that urban areas most contribute to the socio – economic development of the country. In addition, in recent years a number of strategic documents changed or updated, among others: National Strategy of Regional Development 2010–2020: regions, cities, rural areas, National Spatial Planning Concept 2030. These key documents relating to the development of formed the basis of the state's policy towards territorial development. Also, horizontal strategy documents, take into account the territorial dimension as an essential element of all policies and public action character development. In the assumptions of the National Urban Policy is information that is programmed at the national level and implemented through the creation of optimal conditions for urban development and investment activities by public and private entities. Accordingly, the National Urban Policy will act on all three levels of local government: the province, districts and municipalities, both urban and urban – rural and rural to urban areas. This involves the need to apply a number of policy changes and development. Changed will also have to be development strategies of the different levels of local government. It is therefore advisable to analyze existing strategies and identify necessary changes directions.
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