Today, crises strike corporations, political & government institutions & a plethora of organizations, as well as individuals. In this paper the authors analyze the types & the causes of crises, & strategies as crisis response. Some crises trigger off major & irreparable damage, & some can result in improved credibility (crisis as opportunity). Due to the significance of crises, today's management pays a lot of attention to crisis communication. Crises have, or at least ought to have, a strategic position in the life of organizations. Crises & crisis communication can be understood by means of using strategies as a crisis response. Tables, References. Adapted from the source document.
The author looks into the thesis about the cognitive-theoretical & scientific-political congruence of George Soros' & Karl Popper's thinking. Although Popper is considered to be the originator of the idea & the concept of the open society while George Soros is thought of as a practitioner who attempted to implement the idea, the author nevertheless points out an array of dissimilarities between these two major thinkers of the 20th century & claims that the assumed identicalness cannot be convincingly defended. On the contrary, though it is possible to glean several potential reasons why Soros took up philanthropy, the desire to put Popper's concept into practice is not the most important one among them. Thus he concludes that their close relationship can be primarily explained at the level of emotive generosity, the result of very similar life experiences. Tables, Figures, References. Adapted from the source document.
Tabloidization, sensationalism, the loss of credibility & professionalism, & the violations of ethic norms & standards have been increasingly evident in the Croatian mass media. The broadening of media freedoms is not accompanied by a sufficient level of responsibility regarding reporting; consequently, there is a sort of the media bullying whose victims are individuals or companies. Some of those whose privacy, honor & reputation have been violated send denials to the media, appeal to the journalist associations or seek justice through judicial bodies. In some cases the reports in question were a product of objective & professional reporting, while in others untruths were reported or facts manipulated. The authors analyze the major elements of the above phenomena in the media & the society & the possibilities of protecting the violated rights & interests within the framework of the existing regulations of the Republic of Croatia. Tables, Figures, References. Adapted from the source document.
A consequence of the growing dynamics of the media market is tile increased influence of advertisers manifested in, among other things, disguised advertising. As most Croatian citizens cannot see through advertisements that masquerade as ordinary articles, disguised advertising is increasingly evident in the content of the Croatian media. This manipulation of readers affects the citizens' trust in the media. On the basis of comparative analyses of the classical & the disguised advertising, this paper brings the results of the content analysis of two most influential Croatian dailies: in December of 2006 there were 327 texts with the elements of disguised advertising. Tables, References. Adapted from the source document.
The author suggests that the multilayered concept of secularization should be understood as the dezideologization of culture, religion, nation, language. economy, opening the space for democratic decision-making in the European Union, & consequently the space for politics with the capacity for collectively binding decisions in the democratically generated pluralism, & not in the historically generated pluralism of the old Europe. Secularization originally meant the transfer of clergy (priests or monks) from regular to secular thereby making them secularis or laypersons. Since the Westphalian Treaty of 1647 the word secularization has meant the transfer of ecclesiastical property to civil possession or use. Secularization means a strict separation of the church & the state. It also means a secular implementation of Christian postulates of universal equality of equals among equals. Today, the concept of secularization is used metaphorically as dezideologization i.e. as the criticism of state forms such as fascism and communism which possessed only ideological & not democratic legitimacy. In that sense the thesis of the cultural or spiritual unity of Europe as its legitimizing grounds is undemocratic as it replaces & conditions democracy with a vague concept of culture or spoken communication. References. Adapted from the source document.
Although the representation of women in national parliaments has been on the increase since World War Two, the number of women in assemblies has yet to reach 20 percent. The parliaments in which women participate with 30 or 40 percent are most viewed as laudable exceptions rather than (as yet) the unattained objective. The reasons lie in the specific gender obstacles ie., political, socio-economic & socio-cultural factors affecting the entry of women into parliaments. This paper deals with these factors & the consequences of a stronger female representation for the political system & the society on the whole. The author concludes that besides satisfying the ideal of justice the increased share of women in national parliaments may improve the position of women in the society & also strengthen the trust of both women & men in representative institutions. Tables, Graphs, References. Adapted from the source document.
The author looks into the significance of Nietzsche' s work On the use and abuse of history for life through the reception of that work by the eminent historian Burckhardt. He suggests that their disagreements are paradigmatic for understanding the role of history & historical education in shaping the European spirit i.e. the meaning of the continuity of European history. The second part offers various interpretative possibilities in analyzing the relationship between Nietzsche's thought & the historical reality of National Socialism. The author concludes that Nietzsche has been seen as a radical thinker whose influence cannot be disregarded. References. Adapted from the source document.
The aim of this article is to describe the distribution of social conservatism in the Serbian population & the association of its latent dimensions with sociodemographic characteristics & party preferences. The research was carried out using the sample of 1,172 full aged participants from the territory of Republic of Serbia (without Kosovo & Metohia). Internal reliability of the measure of social conservatism (Cronbach alfa=0.89) allows for the standardization of the scale. About one third of the examinees express a high degree of social conservatism. A factor analysis yields five latent dimensions explaining 67.59% of the variance. The factors were labeled authoritarianism, anti-European sentiment, collectivism, traditionalism, & patriarchal syndrome. Statistically significant but low correlations were found among age & education & dimensions of conservatism. Results of canonical discriminative analysis prove a significant influence of social conservatism & could interpret about 41% of the total variance of party preferences. Discriminative functions derived on the basis of party preferences show the existence of the three latent political options among the Serbian voters. The first option is labeled the radical-conservative, characterized by anti-European sentiment & authoritarian tendencies. The second is labeled the democratic-liberal that makes the opposite pole of the first option. The third is labeled the traditionalistic option accompanied by pro-European orientation. Tables, Figures, References. Adapted from the source document.
In this paper the author deals with the nature of culture, the culture of peace, education as an eminently cultural activity, & the projections of the future. The author defines culture as people's cooperation in improving the quality of their lives & considers it at the same time to be both a part of individuals & a part of communities. Furthermore, the author advocates the culture of peace & cooperation & argues that culture in principle promotes peace, eliminates war & immanently strives for the ascendancy of peaceful cooperation among people. For the sake of peace & understanding the author thinks that the united Europe ought to standardize learning & education concerning the optimal forms of togetherness. & finally the author promotes the concept of "project identity" i.e. emerging identity. Adapted from the source document.
The author's starting assumption is the domination of two undemocratic ideological orientations: liberalism & republicanism. The author sees republicanism & liberalism as the ideas proximate to the political or the democratic. These ideas operate semantically but cannot be identified with the political or the democratic. This is not possible as they are not commensurable structures. By providing a theoretical account of various historical traditions the author shows that European republicanism ignored democracy & considered it to be the worst form of government. This is partly true of the liberal political doctrine that evolved later. The author argues it is possible to convert republicanism to democratic pluralism i.e. that this is the biggest common good today. In this way republicanism may be spared its controversies. References. Adapted from the source document.
This paper is a continuation & an extension of the longitudinal monitoring & analysis of the party dynamics, social structure & certain political features of the representatives in the Croatian Parliament (Sabor). The goal of the research was to discern the patterns of political recruitment of the parliamentary elite by means of a comparative analysis of social & political characteristics of the representatives in all five compositions of the Parliament & -- in the last, fifth composition -- by comparing the representatives' political party affiliations & their parliamentary experience. It has turned out that the representatives are mostly male (average age 49 years), of urban provenience & residence, Croats, Catholics, diploma-holders (largely in social sciences & humanities), & politicians with a remarkable managerial & political experience gained primarily through their work in political parties. The conclusion is that in Croatia the trends regarding the patterns of political recruitment of the parliamentary elite are in line with those in developed democratic systems. Tables, References. Adapted from the source document.
Due to the historical experience with the Weimar Republic, some abiding constitutional principles have been built into the new Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany (its Fundamental Law). Instead of the positivist & formalistic interpretation of democracy of the Weimar Constitution, the authors of the Fundamental Law have opted for the concept of the so-called "militant democracy" i.e. democracy firmly linked to certain values. The concept of "militant democracy" is found in a number of articles in the German Fundamental Law, as a preemptive protection of democracy & a bulwark against extremist positions even before extremist groups break any law. The concept of "militant democracy" is based on the democratic theoretical & sociological-philosophical assumptions by Karl Loewenstein & Karl Mannheim. They have been converted into constitutional practice & incorporated into the Gennan Fundamental Law. However, the instruments of "militant democracy" do not include only the protective measures stipulated by the Constitution but an array of other measures of different intensity. Various instruments of "militant democracy" meant to protect democracy in the FR of Germany are described & include the discursive, penal-legal, administrative & constitutional-legal protection of democracy. The instruments of the protection of democracy in the Federal Republic of Germany are not unique, but some instruments e.g. the possibility of banning political parties are very rare in western democracies. & finally, this situation is briefly compared to the situation in some western & postcommunist democracies. References. Adapted from the source document.
