Results of the research "Quality of communication between citizens and governance using the Internet" are analysedin detail and some comparisons are made on the bases of similar surveys conducted in other countries on a topic ofelectronic governance. Different information evaluation criteria were used in survey describing the communicationbetween citizens and every government institution's group (ministries, local authorities). Those criteria were set inaccordance with international and Lithuanian legal acts. Internet websites of Lithuanian governance institutions,communication between citizens and governance via e-mail was analysed in article too.
Italian government has demonstrated its sensitivity towards innovation by including amodernisation of the country public administration through the application of new ICT technologies amongits political programme priorities. In this article are discussed Italian strategies for the development of theInformation Society, giving especially attention to the development of e-Government and to the learning ofpublic servants, citizens and the general public.
The Lithuanian academic community groundlessly pays little attention to the State security policy, even thoughit was of considerable importance in Lithuania's joining to the NATO and EU. In autumn 2002 the efficiency of thepolicy was positively evaluated in the general context of the country and Lithuania eventually received an officialinvitation to join the structures.The article analyses the Lithuanian State security policy, its peculiarities, development from 1990 to 2002, aswell as provides suggestions for the development periods and gives prognosis on its development perspectives.
Spanish electronic government projects are analysed in this article. These projects are the reduction of pricesfor the Internet connection, information society development, modern tax system in Internet, electronic electionpossibilities and perspectives, "Unified Internet window" project, electronic certificates project, telework establishmentand the perspectives of electronic administration. Spanish electronic government were creating in the realizationof individual projects from the year 1998. Spain is a young and quickly developing European Union state andbecause of this the experience of Spanish e-government projects would be very useful for Lithuania.
Lithuania faces difficult dilemmas in the field of old age security. Aging population, weak bonds betweencurrent wages, salaries and amount of (size of) future pensions causes certain dissatisfactions and risks. They along- side with the pressure of certain interest groups which are interested in possibility to enter financial flows and to take benefits from partial privatization of these flows create certain gnoseological, political and ideological climate surrounding the issue of pension reform. In these circumstances the use of neutral, scientific approach would be helpful. Together with more open, comprehensive, democratic discourse it would add to the rationality, prudence of the decisions concerning the issue.Author of the article argues that the currently functioning pay-as-you-go (PAYG) system together with some shortcomings have its advantages which should not be neglected in the discussion on the pension reforms. On the other hand private pension system based on individual accumulation is not so advantages and effective as its por- trayed by its proponents. It is connected with rather high risk both for individuals and for state. The danger of loss of money in the financial markets in case of downfall of the value of securities and the threat to budgetary stability of the country are two major reasons to refrain from overly enthusiastic attitudes towards private, especially manda- tory, pension funds.The experience of Argentina, Hungary, Poland should caution us against impulsive, non-comprehensive de-cision. West European and especially Scandinavian pattern could serve us a good service.
Deeds and decisions made by Lithuanian politicians and public servants are deserving greater public and mass media attention whenever before.Authors directs readers attention to the aspects of significance of ethics in public administration, characterizes the situation of ethics in contemporaryLithuania. Ethical dimension in Lithuanian politics and administration is underestimated. Lithuania has several laws which define ethical principles forpublic servants, prohibit the conflict of interest etc. Laws without their effective implementation are worthless. Professional code of ethics for politiciansand public servants, ethical education and training could help to create ethical climate and ensure public trust which are very important for democracy.Authors concludes that ethical politics and administration in Lithuania could be reached by formulating ethical strategy on the state level.
Democratic government and public sector modernization presumes equality, majority rule, citizen participation,accountability. Major dimensions of modernization process include management innovations such as totalquality management.The challenges of modern organizations require the objective of the manager. Public sector needs morepeople in managerial roles who can find simplicity and order amidst organizational confusion and chaos.Public organizations dependence on pluralistic decision processes – that is processes through which manydifferent people and groups are likely to be involved in any particular decision – makes the process of managing change in the public sector quite complicated. The classical goal of efficiency and the new public management may become partners in opposing the expansion of citizen participation.
In this article the author aims to reveal the legal content of the Fundamental Freedoms enshrined in the ECTreaty, to analyze the relevant ECJ jurisprudence where the Fundamental Freedoms are interpreted in the directtax dimension and in such a way to emphasise the importance of the primary EC law to the individual incometaxation in the Member States.When analyzing the ECJ jurisprudence in the sphere of individual income taxation, the author notes that theMember States, being the source states for the taxpayers from other Member States, usually apply more favorabletax treatment to their residents than to non-residents. For the purposes of establishing the discrimination of a nonresidentin such a case, it shall be clarified whether such a non-resident is in the same situation with a resident. Inthis respect the ECJ distinguishes two types of national rules on individual income taxation: (i) the tax rules thatestablish the tax incentives pertaining to "personal and family circumstances" of a taxpayer and (ii) the tax rulesthat establish the tax incentives pertaining to the employment (business) income of a taxpayer.The author notes that a non-resident and a resident are treated as being in the same (comparable) situationwith respect to the tax incentive pertaining to "personal and family circumstances" if non-resident receives "all oralmost all" his income in the source state and therefore is not able to benefit from the personal and family related tax incentives applicable in his residence state. Such a resident is often called a "virtual" resident. Therefore, it isa source state, but not a residence state, that is obliged to apply the personal and family related tax incentives to sucha taxpayer. If the source state is applying the personal and family related tax incentives to its residents, however, itrefuses to apply such tax incentives to its "virtual" residents, then such a practice shall be treated as being discriminatory.The famous ECJ case Schumacker is a good illustration of such a situation.On the other ...
In view of the robust link often inferred between autonomous journalism and the strength of a society's democratic institutions, and against the background of current challenges to journalists' traditional roles as purveyors of timely and independent information, we interviewed 352 Canadian journalists about their social and political roles and the influences on their news choices. Comparison of their responses against an international dataset (N=27,567) suggests that Canadian journalists place greater value on detached monitorial roles and claim relative autonomy from commercial and other influences on their work. Further, in comparing these findings to an influential panel study from 1999 to 2003, we conclude that the Canadian journalists' "credo," focused on neutral reporting and oriented more to perceived public interest than to business or audience interests, remains surprisingly intact despite contemporary pressures on news forms and business models. This professed neutrality is mitigated by a desire to promote diversity and tolerance. ; Rollwagen, H., Shapiro, I., Bonin-Labelle, G., Fitzgerald, L., & Tremblay, L. (2019). Just Who Do Canadian Journalists Think They Are? Political Role Conceptions in Global and Historical Perspective. Canadian Journal of Political Science, 52(3), 461-477. doi:10.1017/S0008423919000015
The purpose of the paper is to analyze and compare social guarantees for public servants in several Europeancountries. Three groups of countries had been chosen for the comparison: 1) Germany and Belgium as an example ofcareer model civil service, 2) United Kingdom and Denmark as a case illustrating post model, 3) Estonia and Lithuaniaas an example of new democracies. The comparison was based on three dimensions: the scope of social guarantees,the legal regulation and functions and place of those guarantees in general motivation system. Author concludesthat there is no universally accepted definition of social guaranties, but the analysis of states' legislation provides theframework for the clarification of the concept. Often social guarantees compound of certain social rights, variousholidays and leaves, medical insurance, a range of benefits, compensation and other supportive means for civilservants Different centralization / decentralization tendencies, some practises used in the private sector are observedin the above mentioned countries.
