Suchergebnisse

With the outbreak of the global financial crisis, the vulnerability of democratic capitalism in East- Central Europe has come once again to the fore. Almost all new EU member states have accumulated major economic imbalances, and have been experiencing steep recessions. The crisis in the region is not only economic. Surging protests and the increasing appeal of political illiberalism attest to the end of the 'political economy of patience' (Claus Offe) which characterized the first decade of postsocialism. The paper seeks to understand what has made the region's democratic capitalist project so vulnerable. It takes its cue from an early body of literature which has pointed to the problems involved in simultaneously introducing capitalism and democracy. Contrary to the 'breakdown thesis' which was a part and parcel of this literature, the paper argues that repeatedly, temporary solutions to the dilemma of simultaneity were found. Based on the Hungarian and Latvian examples, the paper shows how at first domestic resources - generous welfare policies in Hungary and appeals to sentiments of national solidarity in Latvia - allowed to reconcile democracy with market reforms. From the second half of the 1990s onwards, EU-accession and deeper transnational integration helped to secure the democratic capitalist project. By the late 2000s the full exposure to the risks of an increasingly instable global order has however become a major source of trouble for the two countries.

Non-renewable resources such as fossil fuels are used extensively in industrial activities and transportation. The carbon emissions gene rated from those markets are the source of a number of negative externalities such as air pollution, climate change , global warming, and the degradation of ecosystems and natural environments. To alleviate such externalities societies are usually left with one of two choices. Governments may choose to impose carbon taxes on consumers and heavy-emitting industries. This is effectively a Pigovian tax regulation, which seeks to make market participants internalize the cost of externalities into their private costs in the hope that the net increase in the cost reduces the size of the externality. As an alternative, governments may use the price mechanism of markets rather than a direct tax. This could be called a Coasian approach to curbing the externality. It usually involves creating property rights over the resource that is being polluted (e.g. air or water) and trading rights to access it. A typical example might be the creation of pollution units such as emission permits or carbon allowances. Through the trading of permits among consumers, mark et forces determine the price of carbon which facilitates an efficient reduction of emissions. In this paper, we debate the relative merits and problems of both approaches - a Coasian market solution and a Pigovian tax regulation. We consider so me concrete applications of both theoretical concepts in doing so.

The Nicaraguan Water Law, enacted in September 2007, is the first attempt to implement a new water law in the country. This is not an isolated legislative process in Central America, as other countries initiated similar reforms based on the Dublin principles. Although all new water laws need time to be implemented, the progress in Nicaragua has so far been meager. This paper provides a diagnosis about the Nicaraguan Water Law by identifying the major factors that may impede or delay its future implementation and enforcement. Its empirical underpinning is provided by 41 in-depth interviews among a sample of representative policy actors and stakeholders. The results show that the law's potential for solving water conflicts has yet to be seen in practice. Major barriers are found in the transaction costs of inter-institutional coordination, information gathering, property rights protection and enforcement, and strategic costs. For example, the institutional remapping grants new roles to old actors as well as old roles to new entities. In addition, sugarcane mills, rice, and coffee lobbies have presence in the legislative and block the appointment of managers in the newly created institutions. This paper argues that at the root of the problems is the inconsistency of setting advanced water objectives that land on weak institutions. Based on this, a number of prioritization, sequencing, and timing policy recommendations are drawn. ; Non-PR ; IFPRI1 ; EPTD

Infiltration-route analysis is a military application of geospatial information system (GIS) technology. In order to find susceptible routes, optimal-path-searching algorithms are applied to minimize the cost function, which is the summed result of detection probability. The cost function was determined according to the thermal observation device (TOD) detection probability, the viewshed analysis results, and two feature layers extracted from the vector product interim terrain data. The detection probability is computed and recorded for an individual cell (50 m × 50 m), and the optimal infiltration routes are determined with A* algorithm by minimizing the summed costs on the routes from a start point to an end point. In the present study, in order to simulate the dynamic nature of a realworld problem, one thousand cost surfaces in the GIS environment were generated with randomly located TODs and randomly selected infiltration start points. Accordingly, one thousand sets of vulnerable routes for infiltration purposes could be found, which could be accumulated and presented as an infiltration vulnerability map. This application can be further utilized for both optimal infiltration routing and surveillance network design. Indeed, dynamic simulation in the GIS environment is considered to be a powerful and practical solution for optimization problems. A similar approach can be applied to the dynamic optimal routing for civil infrastructure, which requires consideration of terrain-related constraints and cost functions.

In recent years the growth of direct democratic procedures in the world has become far more noticeable. Never before such a large number of people could vote for the actual issues since over the past decade. More frequently applied initiative law, general voting with a view to resolving essential problems and using mechanism of cancelation of the elected officials has fundamentally changed the political dynamics. Around the world representative democracy is being transformed and modernized. Thus the topic of the Master's thesis was chosen not randomly but to the more extensive context of the analysis of the referendum institute and aims to approach the experience of the referenda and assessing their prospects in Lithuania, Switzerland and California. The objective has been achieved by analyzing legal doctrine and legislation in terms of Lithuania and the experience of the selected states (Switzerland and California) organizing the referendums as well as their effects on representative democracy. The first part disputes the referendum in detail referring to it as the institute of direct democracy, concept and classification since the researchers' opinion concerning the terminology is different. The second part deals with the practice of referendum law in Lithuania and its assessment is presented. The third part analyzes the institutions of direct democracy in Switzerland and their assessment. The direct democracy in California is assessed in the fourth part while and arguments disapproving sceptics' opinion are presented in the fifth part.

N° ISBN - 978-2-7380-1284-5 ; International audience ; The production of quinoa in the Bolivian Altiplano: between crisis and innovations. The Bolivian Altiplano has become the biggest exporter of quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) in the world. In the last forty years, communities have evolved from subsistence agriculture to a commercial production for exportation. The producers have carried out technical innovations, by entering mechanization into their production system, as well as social innovations, both at the activities and migration to ensure their production system. But the success of this region in getting into the globalization should not hide changes and possible blockades that question the durability of the new production system and at the same time land conflicts become common. In a context of a growing market, the producers of quinoa start wondering about the way to restructure and reinvent, by innovative actions, their production system, but also their social organization which is driven by exogenous and uncertain factors such as market or climatic change. This innovative phase is necessary to perpetuate production and ensure incomes for the population. It demands cooperation between different actors which have sometimes divergent interests. This communication offers an overview of the main problems which appeared when the production system changed from a home consumption into an exportation production system. It analyses the interactions between the producers of quinoa and their environment from the point of view of social and technical innovation.

In recent years the growth of direct democratic procedures in the world has become far more noticeable. Never before such a large number of people could vote for the actual issues since over the past decade. More frequently applied initiative law, general voting with a view to resolving essential problems and using mechanism of cancelation of the elected officials has fundamentally changed the political dynamics. Around the world representative democracy is being transformed and modernized. Thus the topic of the Master's thesis was chosen not randomly but to the more extensive context of the analysis of the referendum institute and aims to approach the experience of the referenda and assessing their prospects in Lithuania, Switzerland and California. The objective has been achieved by analyzing legal doctrine and legislation in terms of Lithuania and the experience of the selected states (Switzerland and California) organizing the referendums as well as their effects on representative democracy. The first part disputes the referendum in detail referring to it as the institute of direct democracy, concept and classification since the researchers' opinion concerning the terminology is different. The second part deals with the practice of referendum law in Lithuania and its assessment is presented. The third part analyzes the institutions of direct democracy in Switzerland and their assessment. The direct democracy in California is assessed in the fourth part while and arguments disapproving sceptics' opinion are presented in the fifth part.

Infiltration-route analysis is a military application of geospatial information system (GIS) technology. In order to find susceptible routes, optimal-path-searching algorithms are applied to minimize the cost function, which is the summed result of detection probability. The cost function was determined according to the thermal observation device (TOD) detection probability, the viewshed analysis results, and two feature layers extracted from the vector product interim terrain data. The detection probability is computed and recorded for an individual cell (50 m × 50 m), and the optimal infiltration routes are determined with A* algorithm by minimizing the summed costs on the routes from a start point to an end point. In the present study, in order to simulate the dynamic nature of a real-world problem, one thousand cost surfaces in the GIS environment were generated with randomly located TODs and randomly selected infiltration start points. Accordingly, one thousand sets of vulnerable routes for infiltration purposes could be found, which could be accumulated and presented as an infiltration vulnerability map. This application can be further utilized for both optimal infiltration routing and surveillance network design. Indeed, dynamic simulation in the GIS environment is considered to be a powerful and practical solution for optimization problems. A similar approach can be applied to the dynamic optimal routing for civil infrastructure, which requires consideration of terrain-related constraints and cost functions.

The i2010 e-Government Action Plan from the European Union forces Public Administrations (national, regional and local) of all Member States that by 2010 to meet all administrative acts of the citizens through the Internet. This implies the need for mechanisms and systems to be able to unequivocally identify people on the Internet, together with a reliable system of interoperable electronic identification management (eIDM), in such a way that citizens, businesses and government departments (even in different Member States) can identify themselves and certify their transactions accurately, quickly and simply. However, despite the clear advantages that this entails for EU citizens, namely the fact that they possess a digital identity which allows them secure and identified access to the services offered by the various public administrations in Member States, the implementation of a solution of this kind involves a series of risks which, if they are not duly dealt with, may engender a reduction in the effectiveness of public institutions and citizens' trust in them. This article will analyse the problems associated with digital identity in the EU framework and the extent to which the solutions adopted to date meet the constitutional requirements, or fail to, highlighting aspects which may entail a risk or detriment to the freedoms of citizens and those relating to the handling of digital identity which have not yet been tackled but which, given their particular relevance, necessitate an immediate solution.

Several ideational approaches in the policy literature draw on models imported from the philosophy of science such as Kuhn's model of scientific paradigms or Lakatos? concept of scientific research programs. A key example of the latter is Sabatier's Advocacy Coalition Framework, which builds its understanding of policy-relevant ideas on an analogy with Lakatos' model of deep core postulates and protective layers. This article gives a critical assessment of the Lakatos analogy in Sabatier's and similar ideational approaches. Theorizing ideas according to this model may incur problems on the practice of conducting policy analysis and the ambition to achieve a dynamic understanding of policy change and ideas. While the initial motivation for bringing ideas back into policy analysis was the dissatisfaction with the 'black-boxing' in institutionalist and interest-based explanations, the Lakatos analogy brings ideas back into the black box. As a result of the positioning of policy ideas as fundamental deep core values, it is very difficult to see how they can facilitate change much less function as the source of ambivalence often characterized as the political aspect of ideas as such. After a critical discussion of the analytical motivations behind the Lakatos analogy, the article concludes with a Foucauldian emphasis on tactical displacements as the key to unleash the analytical strength of ideas in public policy. Adapted from the source document.

N° ISBN - 978-2-7380-1284-5 ; International audience ; Over the past decade, the Dutch Government has increasingly emphasised the need for integral solutions for sustainability problems in the livestock production sector. This led to the adoption of research approaches in line with transition management and system innovation that had been developed in other domains. In 2008, the government set further policy targets of 5% and 100% sustainable livestock production at the farm level for 2011 and 2023 respectively. Policy measures included stimulation of sector initiatives for sustainable agriculture (sectoral innovation agendas) and demand for projects with a focus on system innovation. Two broad approaches may contribute to the realization of these targets, notably top down and bottom up. Top down approaches are usually research-led and characterized by the formulation of visions of future livestock production systems. At the same time a broad variety of bottom up initiatives is taken by farmers who develop and try out new approaches to meet the challenges as they see them. Currently, the links between the bottom up and the top down processes are relatively weak. As both may contribute to a system innovation, a major challenge is to make a fruitful combination between the two approaches. To this end we have developed what we call a "Learning and Experimentation Strategy" (LES) that we will elaborate in the paper.

This paper reviews the scientific consensus as to how climate change will affect human health on a global scale and describes the limited, emerging research findings concerning climate change health impacts along the U.S. Gulf Coast. Through myriad pathways, climate change is likely to make the Gulf Coast less hospitable and more dangerous for Americans, and may prompt substantial migration from and into the region. The paper also summarizes the primary prescriptions and adaptations found in the public health literature for meeting climate change's threats to human health, along with several recent findings that America's state and local public health agencies recognize the approaching problems but lack the resources to make climate change preparedness, education, needs assessment or adaptation high priorities. It also should be noted that several factors besides climate change are converging to exacerbate the fragility of this region, including coastal erosion and subsidence and the ongoing threat of energy infrastructure failure (such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill catastrophe). This paper provides a comprehensive survey of current U.S. federal government activities—as yet uncoordinated and inadequately funded—to elucidate the public health implications of climate change and to help all levels of government create the tools and institutional structures necessary to adapt to the coming crisis. Finally, it considers pending legislation and executive branch actions to jump start public health adaptation to climate change.

В статье анализируются социально-экономические взгляды великого русского ученого Д. И. Менделеева. Менделеев являлся не только выдающимся ученым-естественником, но и широко образованным человеком (энциклопедистом). Его наследие по экономике насчитывает более 100 работ. Как известно, Дмитрий Иванович был убежденным патриотом и считал своим долгом высказываться по наиболее актуальным общественным проблемам. К их числу относятся развитие производительных сил страны, государственная поддержка национального бизнеса, взаимосвязь национального богатства и народонаселения, развитие малого предпринимательства, вопросы методологии экономического анализа и многое другое. Весь этот круг проблем анализируется в статье. В статье доказывается, что многие идеи Д. И. Менделеева получили новое звучание в современную эпоху и не теряют своей актуальности и по сей день. ; The article deals with the views of great Russian scientist D.I. Mendeleev. Mendeleev was not only an outstanding representative of natural sciences, but also a man of wide reading. His legacy in economics consists of more than a hundred works. As generally known, Mendeleev was a convinced patriot of Russia; so due to his practical activity and to his convictions, he considered his duty to express his opinion on urgent social problems. Among them were: development of production forces, interdependence between the national wealth and population, Government support of national business, small business development, methodology of economic analysis, and many others. The author academically proves that many of Mendeleev's ideas have got a new sounding in the modern epoch and do not lose its actuality at the present days

В данной работе автор приводит примеры динамичного взаимодействия между Германией и Индией в разных областях: политическое, военное, экономическое, культурное сотрудничество. Благодаря проведенным в 1990-х гг. демократическим реформам Индия стала экономически сильным и открытым государством, поэтому немецкие инвестиции в экономику Индии возросли в разы в начале XXI в. Даже несмотря на нестабильность в плане безопасности и внутренней политики в Индии, а также внутренние проблемы в стране (большая разница между богатыми и бедными слоями населения, нехватка водных ресурсов, недостаточно развита энергетическая сфера и т. д.), можно наблюдать больше позитивных тенденций развития страны, чем негативных. Стратегическое партнерство между Германией и Индией основано на демократических ценностях, доверии и обоюдном стремлении развивать свои двусторонние отношения. ; In this work the author gives as an example a dynamic cooperation between Germany and India in different spheres: in politics, military area, economics, culture. Thanks for the democratic reforms in the 1990s India became more economically powerful and open state, that's why German investment increased dramatically at the beginning of the 21st century. In spite of instability in India's security and politics, also in some domestic problems (e.g. a significant gap between rich and poor, the lack of water resources, insufficiently developed energy sector etc.), one can observe more positive tendencies, than negative ones in German-Indian relations. The strategic partnership between Germany and India is based on democratic values, confidence and mutual willingness to develop their bilateral relations.

Возможности проведения всестороннего анализа кризисной ситуации, сложившейся в нашей стране в области народонаселения в последние десятилетия, к сожалению, усугубляются существованием достаточно широкого круга правовых, организационных и др. проблем, затрудняющих получение исчерпывающих статистических данных о состоянии демографических процессов. Принятие правовых нормативных актов, направленных, с одной стороны, на совершенствование законодательства в области государственной регистрации демографических событий, с другой стороны, способствуют разрушению исторически сформировавшейся системы статистического учета демографических явлений в России. Такое положение влияет на эффективность управления, а в отдельных случаях приводит к негативным результатам, лишает органы власти полноценной информации, столь необходимой для принятия взвешенных решений по вопросам социально-экономического развития страны. ; Possibilities of carrying out of the all-round analysis of the crisis situation which have developed in our country in the field of the population last decades, unfortunately, are aggravated with existence enough wide range legal, organizational, etc. the problems complicating reception of the exhaustive statistical data about a condition of demographic processes. Acceptance of the legal statutory acts directed, on the one hand, on perfection of the legislation in the field of the state registration of demographic events, on the other hand, promote destruction of historically generated system of the statistical account of the demographic phenomena in Russia. Such position influences management efficiency, and on occasion leads to negative results, deprives authorities of the high-grade information so necessary for acceptance of weighed decisions concerning social and economic development of the country