Suchergebnisse

The paper analyses secondary data from Czech, Hungarian, Polish, and Slovak (Central Eastern European Countries – CEECs) labor inspectorate reports to argue that the prevalence and patterns of labor law violations should be understood as a result of adaptations/innovations undertaken by firms in CEECs that use them to strategically lower labor law costs and make employment conditions more flexible. The paper is informed by dependent market economy theory from the varieties of capitalism approach. The main comparative advantage of dependent market economies lies in low labor costs. The spread and pattern of violations suggest that firms use labor law violations in a creative way to enhance their competitive advantage. It is enabled by an ineffective labor standards monitoring system. The possibility to circumvent and violate specific employment regulations to lower labor costs should be treated as an element of the institutional comparative advantage of CEECs. The paper also suggests that governments in CEECs partially promote labor law violations through "drift policies".

Concerned about a lack of legitimacy, European Union (EU) institutions have increasingly engaged in memory politics to enhance European identity. Yet, memory of the EU is still closely connected to the collective identity formation of nation-states, especially in the field of education, the focus of this study. Inspired by this dilemma, the present paper examines the representations of European unification in textbooks of six countries: Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Finland, Hungary, and Estonia. By focusing on countries on the margins of Europe, the present study explores shared and diverse narratives of the European unification process and asks whether or not a shared historical charter of European unification exists. All together 86 history textbooks used in upper secondary school were analysed by adopting a three-step multi-method approach. The results suggest that the representation of European unification is more diverse than it is homogenous. It can be narrated as a political value community or as a community based on utilitarian interests, or it can be represented from a unified European or from a more national perspective. Exploring representations of European unification is crucial to understanding how they can be used as legitimizing charters to navigate through the European challenges of the 21st century.

Aus indischer Sicht

The high degree of sustainable nominal convergence between EMU member states have not implied a corresponding degree of real and structural convergence. Still existing structural asymmetries in the monetary union, which is not an Optimum Currency Area, are bound to broaden due to continuous enlargement of Europe, giving rise to various kinds of shocks and divergences, poor economic performance in some member countries and to Europe as a whole. This paper examines the potential sources of asymmetries, which to a large extend determine the exposure to asymmetric shocks, or asymmetrical effects stemming from symmetric shocks. We also analyze available adjustment mechanisms and appropriate policy instruments in EMU's economic reality. Using a set of economic indicators we investigate how some product and labor market rigidities affect in an adverse way macroeconomic performance in EMU. Having restricted the fiscal room for maneuver under the Stability and Growth Pact, existing asymmetries and structural rigidities call for a speed-up of structural reforms, as the only way to growth and prosperity. ; peer-reviewed

The purpose of this paper is threefold: First, to note an unspoken, but obvious fact. The European Union is a living organism that functions with relative success at several levels: legal, economic and monetary in particular. Second, the threat to the EU is from its very success, a desire to overreach natural and functional boundaries by including nation-states with profoundly different structures ands goals. Third, this paper seeks to awaken the policy making bodies in North America to the emergence of regional force in most of Europe that is by varying degrees complementary to US interests and at the same time competitive to the present notion of hegemony. The EU along with the US illustrates the power of bipolarity in the West. The issue of Turkish entrance indicates the limitations of such a condition.

In a 'demoi-cracy', separate statespeoples enter into a political arrangement and jointly exercise political authority. Its proper domain is a polity of democratic states with hierarchical, majoritarian features of policy-making, especially in value-laden redistributive and coercive policy areas, but without a unified political community (demos). In its vertical dimension, demoi-cracy is based on the equality and interaction of citizens' and statespeoples' representatives in the making of common policies. Horizontally, it seeks to balance equal transnational rights of citizens with national policy-making autonomy. The EU belongs to the domain of demoi-cracy and has established many of its features. We argue that both vertical and horizontal demoi-cratization have been triggered by processes of supranational integration in the EU. They differ, however, in the origins and the outcomes. Vertical demoi-cratization has initially been a reaction of parliamentary institutional actors to majoritarian decision-making in regulatory policy-areas, resulting in the empowerment of the EP and the strengthening of parliamentary oversight at the national level. By contrast, horizontal demoi-cratization has been promoted by governments as an alternative to majoritarian and legally binding policy-making in core areas of statehood as well as coercive and redistributive policy-areas; it has resulted in soft, coordinative forms of policy-making, seeking to protect national autonomy. The extent to which these developments actually meet the normative standards of demoi-cracy in practice, however, is mixed.

The functioning of patent pools leads to specific benefits in the transfer of technologies, and it accelerates technological advancement and provides easy access to technologies. Therefore, one could expect that the European Union (EU) – an organization which attempts to gain competitive advantage of its economy on the basis of knowledge and technology – should support patent pools. However, due to the possibility of anti-competitive practices, the functioning of patent pools is subject to EU legislation and competition laws. In this context patent pools pose a challenge in the area of reconciling the process of supporting technological advancement with the protection of fair competition. The paper presents an analysis of EU regulations in the area of patent pools. The author assesses the pro- and anti-competitive effects of activities carried out by patent pools. The further part of the paper discusses an evolution of the EU's approach to such organizations, presenting specific patent pool laws in the context of technology transfer agreements. Finally, the author presents some specific problems and future changes related to EU competition laws with respect to patent pools.

The functioning of patent pools leads to specific benefits in the transfer of technologies, and it accelerates technological advancement and provides easy access to technologies. Therefore, one could expect that the European Union (EU) – an organization which attempts to gain competitive advantage of its economy on the basis of knowledge and technology – should support patent pools. However, due to the possibility of anti-competitive practices, the functioning of patent pools is subject to EU legislation and competition laws. In this context patent pools pose a challenge in the area of reconciling the process of supporting technological advancement with the protection of fair competition. The paper presents an analysis of EU regulations in the area of patent pools. The author assesses the pro- and anti-competitive effects of activities carried out by patent pools. The further part of the paper discusses an evolution of the EU's approach to such organizations, presenting specific patent pool laws in the context of technology transfer agreements. Finally, the author presents some specific problems and future changes related to EU competition laws with respect to patent pools.