[First paragraph of Introduction]: In this paper, we investigate the evolving relationship between government and voluntary organizations in Ontario that is occurring in the wake of a prolonged period of funding cuts. The cuts are a manifestation of a major philosophical shift in government-third sector relations. We have already examined the impact of this shift on voluntary organizations in several papers (Foster and Meinhard, 2002; Meinhard and Foster, 2003a & b). We now turn our attention to the government sector and its vision for the future. Keywords: CVSS, Centre for Voluntary Sector Studies, Working Paper Series,TRSM, Ted Rogers School of Management Citation: ; Meinhard, A. G., Foster, M., Berger, I., and Moher, L. (2003). The Evolving Relationship Between Government and the Voluntary Sector in Ontario. (Working Paper Series Volume 2003(2)). Toronto : Ted Rogers School of Management, Centre for Volunteer Sector Studies, Ryerson University.
Since formation of European Union (EU) it has had great changes and developed both by expanding and creating close mutual cooperation among the involved countries. New member states have joined the first six founder states, and now EU unifies 27 states. Greater changes have affected the set objectives and activity spheres: from the war industry – coal and steel sector – over-national control institutions the aim of which is to ensure stable peace in Europe, nowadays EU has become a union that comprise more than twenty common policy and activity spheres. The integration process of Europe has been continued by setting new objectives, meeting new challenges and looking for better solutions. EU budgetary funds provide support for wide scope of activities. This support regarding its scope may be changeable – starting from the whole covering of expanses and finishing with financial support of only some percents. The range of potential recipients of financial aid is also wide. Not only member states but also candidate states, separate municipalities, public organizations, private enterprises, universities and even separate individuals can be among them.In many with structural funds related documents it is highlighted, that the aim of EU structural funds is to eliminate the regional and social inequalities among EU member states and to improve economical and social cohesion throughout all Europe. Certainly these funds is a great benefit for EU peripheral countries like Ireland, Baltic states, and they can substantially promote development of these countries. Though one has to remember that a substantial financing also creates a risk and that inadequate use of these funds can stimulate regional inequality, social outcast, environmental degradation and corruption.Ireland is one of economically most developed, industrial, trade – oriented states, that until now has managed to use means of EU structural funds most successfully. The received finances from EU support funds have considerably favoured state's economical growth.During ...
Latvia is a small country and small open economy and its main and the most competitive recourses are highly educated society and well developed science based on the research, innovation and modern technologies. To create a well functioning innovation system as a part of knowledge-based economy several conditions has to be met to insure that all parts of national innovation system do effectively work together.Latvia is considered to be a country in transition between efficiency driven and innovation driven economy after Global Competitiveness report 2009-2010. This means that the development of the country soon would not be possible by improving productivity adopting existing technologies or making incremental improvements in other areas. Bigger and bigger role of country's competitiveness will be in its ability to innovate. This means sufficient investment in research and development, the presence of high-quality research institutions, extensive collaboration in research between universities and research institutes as well as technology transfer to the industry, and the protection of intellectual property. As one of the main obstacles that prohibit the scientific activities development in Latvia after restricted amount of funding is the lack of young scientists. The most significant reasons of ageing of scientific personnel are the insufficient number of doctoral students, brain drain of young scientists, the low percentage of research and development personnel (just 0.54% of the labour force in 2008 (Eurostat)). The aim of this article is to analyse if the problems that accrue in higher education and science because of lack of young human recourse inflow can be solved by interaction of state using the European Union (EU) structural funds assistance. During the programming period 2004-2006 the five main universities in Latvia implemented projects under the activity 'Improvement of quality and implementation of doctoral studies and post-doctoral research'. The aim of these projects was to improve the quality and ...
Lithuania, following its international obligations regarding the protection of child rights,in 2003 adopted the Lithuanian State Policy and established legislative basis, which are the keypreconditions to ensure the guardianship of a child in the country. However during the lastdecade the number of children deprived of parental care is not decreasing. The largest part ofchildren receives institutional guardianship. Large number of social risk families and highamount of complaints about the poor work of child rights protection services while organizingthe guardianship for a child can be named as main issues in this field. The article analysescertain child guardianship problems and provides possible solutions in the following areas:estimating a guardianship for a child, organisation of guardianship in child guardianshipinstitution, organizing guardianship in family.
The methodology of public governance has only been analysed recently. Themethodology of public governance consists of a collection of concepts, ideas,reforms, degrees and other problems of theory. The role of methodology is importantin the field as applied, practical and interdisciplinary as public governance. Thestudy analyses how public administration theory developed at the end of thetwentieth and at the start of the twenty-first century. The article examines thetheories of public sector practice, such as theories on public organization behaviour,public management, and public policy implementation in a global environment.Theories on bureaucratic politics seek to explain how the politics–administrationdichotomy is transforming from the traditional theoretical framework to the newdemocratic systematic framework and to a new understanding of public governancedemocratization, which is central in today's organizational theory. The primary issueaddressed in the article is the development of public administration and governancetheory in the period of globalization and modernization, and changes in thedefinition of the role of theory in public governance.
This article deals with the problems which emerge during the implementation ofmediation in the civil matters of Lithuania. The scope of socio-cultural circumstancesin Lithuania nowadays indicates the evident need to adopt mediation as one of themost powerful and effective conflict management procedures.Mediation comes from the historically mature tradition of communitarianismand cooperation in society, it is interconnected with the culture of interactions ofindividuals and organizations, and it depends on the legal, institutional, andeducational environment. Thus, applying mediation isn't a simple adoption of someactivity patterns. The nowadays rapidly changing socio-cultural environment must beanalyzed accurately in order to achieve the progress of implementation of mediation.A wide range of areas where mediation is in use in many European countriesand overseas shows how promising this direction of peacemaking for societyconsolidation and its functionality is. Lithuanian society definitely requiresmediation for strengthening the integrity and the culture of cooperation.The article investigates the positive and negative factors of the legal,institutional and educational environment in Lithuania, which are vital for theimplementation of mediation. Some experimental projects have been conducted latelyto probe mediation as a way of conciliation in the courts. The code of judicialmediation was approved by the Council of Courts. Hence we may suggest that onekind of mediation—judicial mediation—has moved.It is not the first year in Lithuania that new projects on conflict resolution andmediation have been launched in schools and the community. The interest for conflictresolution, that has up till now manifested rather spontaneously, signalizes the needin society to learn modern ways of solving complex and intricate problems,managing crises, and disputes by using counselling, negotiation and mediationprocedures.What is needed is a conflict resolution pedagogy, which could become anintegral part of education of all ...
Facing the worldwide economic recession, the public research and development (R&D) policy undergo the increasing pressure to economize and improve research performance levels in this way complying with public accountability. Thus the design of R&D policy has to integrate an appropriate set of research performance criteria together with the balanced choice of relevant indicators for the allocation of scarce funds for the very purpose of pursuing scientific advancement in the frames of international rivalry.During several last decades the discourse of the EU politicians expanded with the term of "research excellence", which became conceptual background for further EU R&D policy development. Often excellence in research is used as synonym of "research quality". Nevertheless, rivalry for the highest evaluation of research performance has not yet provided with a single and fixed definition of "research excellence". This paper aims to outline the content of excellence in research and, investigating the existing Lithuanian experience to measure it, discuss the R&D policy intervention impacts on the process and the results of pursuing high level research. The methods of research used are grounded on the investigation of Lithuanian legal acts, valid in the field of R&D and conditioning the performance of public R&D institutions. Two levels of policy intervention: institution and individual are taken into consideration. Also, in the light of research excellence measurement R&D output assessment methodology used by the Government as a basic institutional funding instrument is analyzed. The conclusions mark that due to the conditions of ambiguous definition of "research excellence" the need for the methods to recognize and identify excellence in research are vital. However, its pro-active state-level management practices should contain an umbrella of flexible, well-balanced and situation receptive procedures. Therewith, the research excellence encouragement instruments within the framework of the ...
The paper deals with the problems of tax harmonization and competition in the Eropean Union (EU). It is discussed from the tax theory point of view as well as from the view of the tax practice. Several attitudes to tax competition and tax harmonization are discussed, including the tax competition theories. The paper presents several successes which have been achieved in the area of direct tax harmonization and indirect tax harmonization. Harmonization failures are mentioned and discussed as well for they are the integral part of the harmonization process in the European Union.On New Year's Day 1993 a period of accelerated European integration has began. The physical border controls were eliminated and the last political obstacles to free migration of capital and labor were removed. The liberalization was expected to improve the allocation of resources significantly and to boost European economy. The removal of trade barriers was not free from problems. It may exacerbate existing distortions resulting from non-harmonized tax systems and even create new distortions. Capital flight into low tax countries and changes in patterns of international trade caused by different value added tax (VAT) rates are among the consequences that may occur. To avoid such consequences, fiscal harmonization must follow the fall of barriers. It was preferable to allocate Europe's scarce resources according to the principle of tax minimization. Tax harmonization does not necessarily require centrally coordinated actions by the European governments. The competition of tax systems might also be via process of iterative adjustment, bring about requires harmonization. The European Union (EU) also illustrates the role of tax competition. The barriers to free movement of capital and people were reduced close to nonexistence. Some countries (e.g. Republic of Ireland) utilized their low levels of corporate tax to attract large amounts of foreign investment while paying for the necessary infrastructure (roads, telecommunication) from EU funds. The ...
The aim of this paper is to analyze the performance audit as specific and sufficiently new institute inthe history of auditing. This paper argues that performance audit growth parallels the evolution of politicsand public administration from one-dimensional focus on control of inputs toward broader attention toaccountability for outputs and outcomes. As our survey has demonstrated, the causal relation betweenmanagement reforms and the developments in performance auditing may theoretically go in two directions:reform causes new audit practices or new audit practices cause the reform. Empirically, the relationshipis mainly one directional: management reforms trigger adoption of audit practices. At the auditsides, new public management has influenced development of the audit. This evolution of auditing representsboth a means by which audit can continue to be relevant and a move toward fulfilling accountabilityrole in governance.Basically the survey is based on the experience of Western countries and INTOSAI standards.
Shrinking reserves of fossil fuels and growing anxiety over future energy security have boosted investments in renewable energy worldwide. Alarming climate change scenarios have also increased the focus on creating sustainable energy economies. The solar industry is growing incredibly fast and technology is developing at high speed. Soon the retail price of solar generated electricity will be competitive with that of electricity generated in conventional power plants. The current solar boom is largely the result of market incentives introduced by governments. Critics question the potential of solar energy and note that it currently contributes a meagre 0.1% to worldwide energy consumption. But worldwide volumes for solar energy, the fastest-growing power generation technology, rose at an average annual rate of 56% over the last five years. The Solar Europe Initiative (SEI), a joint initiative of the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) and the EU PV Technology Platform, is currently reviewing a preliminary estimate which indicated that the contribution from photovoltaic (PV) systems may be as high as 6-12% of the total EU electricity consumption by 2020.
The purpose of the article is to analyse the regulation of concessions in Lithuania through the managerialand political approaches of public administration and within the context of the New Public Managementtheory. The article considers the problem of the regulation of concessions within the context of suchdisciplines as Public Administration and Law. Since the EU law is a constituent part of the legal system ofthe Republic of Lithuania, the paper also discusses the Community legislative framework with regard tothe regulation of concessions. Further, it provides an overview of the regulation of concessions laid out inthe Law on Concessions of the Republic of Lithuania. The goal is to determine which approach – managerialor political – has been dominating in the regulation of concessions in Lithuania and which approachwould be more effective. Preliminary findings are in favour of the managerial approach with regard toregulation of concessions in Lithuania.
The entrepreneurship policy to promote economic growth and competitiveness is heavily focused on the supplyof entrepreneurs. However, as it was stressed by Baumol (1990), the neglected factor is allocation between productiveand unproductive entrepreneurial activities. While some EU countries, such as Czech Republic, Poland, and Portugaldemonstrate high rates of entrepreneurial activities, they rank low in terms of competitiveness. This paper argues thatin order to explain such phenomenon, we have to rethink the existing approaches from the perspective of economicsociology. Coming back to Baumol (1990), we should acknowledge a rather trivial but often neglected fact that entrepreneursare persons who primarily seek to enhance their own wealth. The case study of Land Use Administrationin Lithuania shows how entrepreneurial activities are embedded in the informal network of public officers and landdealers. The paper also argues that "land use" entrepreneurship activities are path-dependent. It is implicitly assumedthat entrepreneurship is an exogenous variable, that entrepreneurs should be "bred" at universities and businessschools. However, entrepreneurial activities, such as blat and unofficial economy, also existed in planned economy.Moreover, the legacy of Soviet entrepreneurship affects the current situation in Lithuania. In the case of "land usebusiness" the entrepreneur does not collaborate with public sector, but in contrary – they view the state as a hostilecountry, like it was in Soviet times.
Paper explores role of the Europeanization of private law to economic growth in EU and especially in Eastern and Central Europe states. The purpose of the paper is two-fold. First, the paper seeks to bring out into the open various aspects of the Europeanization of private law – from process and outcome perspectives and analyses private law importance to economic growth especially to attract FDI. It focuses on selected aspects of EU private law and legal policies and other initiatives at European level. Second, and correlatively, the paper aims to introduce the theme of the Europeanization of private law into current debates concerning the effectiveness of Lisbon Agenda. Europeanization of private law both reinforces and strengthens the Lisbon agenda in order to create EU as a competitive in global market and by promoting entrepreneurship culture. On another hand importance of functional convergence of private law systems and competition of private law systems for economic growth can not be ignored because in CEECs foreign direct investment is one of the major sources of growth and those countries could not compete for capital using other means such as natural sources or size of their market as their competitive advantage.
The paper deals with the concepts of image and reputation and peculiarities of managing them in thecontext of politics and public institutions. Substantial stages of image and reputation management developmentare identified and characterized. The necessity for creating sustainable image and seeking a strongpositive reputation, as well as grounding reputation management on the base of holistic approach, is presented.Characteristics and factors driving ones' image and reputation, submitted in the paper, and proposedtheoretical issues and practical considerations of managing image and reputation should be consideredas guidelines for developing comprehensive image and reputation management system in both politicsand public institutions. Exploring such a system is extremely important both in politics, as image-intensive sector,and in public institutions as demand for transparency and power of communication grow increasingly.
The article reveals uniqueness of strategic management system in municipal governments. It determines thegap between theoretical interpretation of strategic planning and its practical understanding. In the analysis ofenvironment, it is suggested to analyse these additional areas: dynamism of environment, need of interest groups,and competitive advantage. The analysis of internal factors should be complemented by studies of characteristicsof executives, strategies (general, departamental, and functional strategies), operational indicators, and qualityrequirements.
