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The article presents the concept of human development & its measurement using the Human Development Index (HDI). The first three parts explain the evolution of the human development concept & the methodology of the HDI & provide some analysis of HDI results. The focus of the article is to critically discuss the HDI as a measure of human development. Based on critical perspectives of selected authors, the article analyses the weak points (and by implication the strong ones as well) of the HDI, & it also discusses proposed changes in the HDI methodology. The combination of relative comprehensiveness of the scope of the indicator & relative simplicity of its methodology made the HDI more popular than its creators may have expected. Despite all the critical comments on the HDI, it may be used as a summary measure of development. However, it should be noted that it may serve only as a rough measure. Adapted from the source document.

This article inquires into the connection between individualisation and environmental issues. Following an introduction to the topic in the opening of the article in chapters II and III the author provides a definition of some basic concepts and asks whether and how the relationship between individualisation and environmental issues is reflected in sociological literature. In chapter IV the author formulates a general framework that in chapter V gives insight into the inconsistent conception of individualisation in environmental ideologies. The article closes with chapter VI, in which, with the aid of a theoretical sociological framework, the author formulates some themes for studying the environmental aspects of the individualised lifestyle.

In the article, issues relating to the sociopolitical measures aimed at increasing flexibility in managing the relationship between the spheres of work & family on the individual level of life strategies are examined within the framework of the gender theories of organization. The environment of management is described as a gender regime in which an organizational masculinity functions. This a priori establishes unequal conditions for the formation of women's career patterns. On the basis of a case study of the life strategies of women in managerial positions & other results drawn from research on the management environment from a gender perspective, the author identifies strategies employed toward women, who in the management environment are in the position of tokens, by the gender regime & its actors in the highest positions of the organizational hierarchy, & identifies the strategies that in connection with these conditions are created by women who desire to succeed in an environment set up in this way. The certain degree of flexibility that on the individual level can be achieved in the management environment is founded on a gender contract, which in the end continues to disadvantage women because it emerges in connection with the given structure of set rules of the environment. If flexibility is to be introduced as a nondiscriminatory mechanism, organizational masculinity as such must be called into question.

The article focuses on the relationship between marital status & life satisfaction in the countries of Europe. The first part of the article discusses subjective evaluations of life satisfaction & the theoretical concepts that explain differences in the levels of life satisfaction according to marital status. The second part of the article is devoted to empirical analyses of data from the European Social Survey (ESS), the results of which indicate that in the countries studied married people tend to be more satisfied with life than others, even though the strength of this effect varies. The differences in the effect of marriage cannot be ascribed to a given society's divorce rate. In some countries the life satisfaction of the cohabiting population is almost as high as for married people, while in other countries it is closer to the level of life satisfaction observed among single people, & in other countries the level of satisfaction of the cohabitating individuals lies midway between married & single people.

The aim of this article is to provide insight into the circumstances of long-term unemployed graduates of (mostly) non-GCSE vocational programmes from the perspective of their transition to adulthood. The analytical framework used for this research is life course theory, according to which it is possible to approach the transition from youth to adulthood as a multiple transition. This point corresponds well with reality because young people follow at least three trajectories on their way to adulthood: from school to work, from family of origin to family of procreation, and from dependence to independence. The data necessary for the analysis were collected through repeated biographical and semi-structured interviews with 14 long-term unemployed graduates of non-GCSE vocational programmes and 6 employed graduates of vocational programmes as a reference group. Their implicit theories of adulthood, progress on the path to adulthood, and everyday strategies were examined in a qualitative data analysis, with special attention paid to contextual aspects. As for the dominant form of transition, the author found that long-term unemployment has a delaying impact on the transition to adulthood, above all owing to financial strain. These people suffer from prolonged economical dependency on their parents and remain at the threshold of the socially constructed path to adulthood. Typically there social status is vague.

The article documents the development of life satisfaction in four transitional Central European countries since 1991, in comparison with Germany and Austria. After presentation of data sources and the overview of the literature regarding the effect of transition on life satisfaction, surveys of European Values Study 1991, 1999 and 2008 are analysed together with macroeconomic data. First, satisfaction levels are correlated with GDP and then, individual characteristics of income, gender, education and family status are regressed to as explanatory variables of life satisfaction. While the explanatory power of GDP is found as very weak for the entire period, the effect of objective characteristics has peaked in 1999 and the effect of subjective perceptions in 2008. The survey information on trends after 2008 differs but no dramatic change of the life satisfaction due to the economic recession has so far appeared. Adapted from the source document.

This article discusses the growing role of China in UN peacekeeping operations since 1989. First, the reasons for the non-engagement of China after its admission to the UN and its Security Council in 1971 are described to stress the difference of the Chinese behavior after the end of the Cold War. Second, the increasing Chinese activity in UN peacekeeping is shown by describing China's gradually changing behavior in three areas: voting in the Security Council, personnel contributions to peacekeeping operations and financial contributions to the UN peacekeeping budget. In the end, the article suggests that China's growing role in UN PKO could be understood as an important part of China's peaceful rise policy. Adapted from the source document.

This article applies classical typologies of totalitarian & authoritarian regimes by Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carl Friedrich & Juan Linz to the case of the first Slovak Republic (Slovak State). Its political regime between 1935/1939 & summer 1940 can be classified as organic statism. Organic structures (corporativist structures) & the antiliberal & anticapitalist rhetoric of the Catholic Church in encyclicals like the Rerum Novarum were typical of this type of authoritarian regime. Nevertheless, the Nazi pressure led to the transition of the regime to the "defective" (or "arrested") totalitarian regime, which is, according to Linz's typology, in the "grey" zone between totalitarian & authoritarian regimes. The defeats of the German army & changes inside Slovak's camp resulted in the erosion of the regime base at the end of 1942 & brought about yet another regime change. The end of the stage of "unclear" authoritarian regime was marked by the armed insurrection in August 1944. The totalitarian episode, in which the main role was played by the German occupation forces, characterized the last months of war. 39 References. Adapted from the source document.

Slovak Republic entered the ERM II in the end of 2005 whereby it came nearer to its strategic objective -- joining the euro area. In this paper we try to answer two questions. Section 1 examines the features and risks of the EMU. Is EMU an optimum currency area and what is the OCA scorecard of euro area? We conclude that euro area -- in spite of its indisputable benefits -- is rather a premature monetary union with asymmetric monetary policy effects and other policy asymmetries. Section 2 analyzes possible effects of the EMU on the Slovak economy. We examine the experience of other countries and compare their real convergence to average level of euro area before and after joining the EMU. The readiness of Slovak economy for euro adoption, possible obstacles on this uneasy way and the connection between income level, price level and real convergence are analysed at the end of the paper. Adapted from the source document.

2004, which was also the year of EU entry, was quite successful for the Czech economy. Economic growth accelerated, driven in particular by the investment demand & exports. After 10 years of permanent deficits, the trade balance deficit diminished significantly. The effects of EU entry, which opened new chances to the exporters, accompanied the positive impact of FDI inflows from the past. Due to acceleration of exports, industrial output registered a record high growth within the last decade. Accelerating economic growth did not provoke inflationary pressures. Two waves of VAT increase (in January & May) were absorbed until the end of the year. A strong increase in PPI resulting from high world prices of oil & gas had no spillover effect to consumer prices due to strong competition between both the producers & traders. At the beginning of 2005, economic growth continued with the same pace as in 2004, driven by investment demand & exports. Consumer demand kept on weakening, consumption of households registered the weakest growth since the end of 1998. Both the industrial production & exports reported a slowdown due to sluggish economic activity in the euro area, especially in Germany. Tables, Graphs. Adapted from the source document.

In the 1990s, the research of political field was ultimately established as part of German political science. The article describes the development of the research of political field in both the international & the German contexts & overviews the current state of this research in Germany. First, the article introduces important researchers & research institutions. Further, the article discusses the relationship between basic & applied research & between research & politics. The list of sources at the end of the article contains not only available literature, but also Internet links of important researchers & institutions. References. Adapted from the source document.

This study examines the question whether uncoordinated steps of some EU states changing their deposit insurance schemes in the middle of 2008 could have led to shift of deposits among EU countries. The paper deals with changes of the rules which were introduced at the end of year 2008, and concerns with the amended Directive on Deposit Guarantee Schemes. Empirical analysis concentrates on the impact of state guarantees on the deposit grow rate in individual states. In the final part, we discuss the consequences of recent development. Adapted from the source document.