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Even though studies have intensively investigated personalization in the media, little is known about the effects of personal information on the perception of politicians (privatization). Especially if politicians share information about their private life, gender might play an important role. To test this assumption, we conducted two experiments (2 × 3 between-subjects design, Nstudy1 = 472; Nstudy2 = 739) varying gender of a politician (male/female) and the disclosure of personal information (no information/hobby/family) in a fictitious news interview. Results show that gender can play a crucial role depending on the form of privatization. While we see no significant changes in the politician's perception when they are mentioning their hobby, we find that, for a male politician, sharing information about family life in a traditional manner leads to a decline in trust and reduces perceptions of warmth. For a female politician, the different kinds of self-presentation do not affect image perception and voting outcomes.

According to a widely held view, a broad and strong middle class is a criterion for social stability and a decisive force for democratization. This paper first examines this normative concept of the middle class before investigating how the situation of the middle class changed in Hungary after the regime change and how broad and strong it is today. Finally, we examine to what extent today's Hungarian middle class can be regarded as a pillar of democracy and an engine of democratization.

Recent democratic regressions and crises suggest democracy is at risk across East and Southeast Asia. One of the factors that can determine democratic stability are citizens' attitudes. While previous research has concentrated on support for democracy-in-principle, this contribution argues that it is political trust, i.e. support for democracy-in-practice, which is crucial for democratic stability. For democracies to be stable, political trust should be high as well as rooted in long-term factors like liberal democratic value orientations or social trust to protect it from short-term fluctuations following economic crises or political scandals. This contribution therefore examines not only the current levels and development of political trust but also whether it is influenced more by long-term factors (liberal democratic value orientations, social trust) or short-term factors (economic performance evaluations, incumbent support). The empirical analysis shows political trust in five East and Southeast Asian democracies (Indonesia, Japan, Mongolia, South Korea, Taiwan) to be mostly mediocre and primarily dependent on economic performance evaluations and incumbent support. Among the five democracies, citizens in Japan appear most resilient to democratic regressions; on the other hand, Taiwanese democracy seems least equipped to master future crises.

In this paper we propose a computational approach to empirical optimal taxation. We develop and estimate a microeconometric model that is run to simulate household labour supply decisions and the implied economic, fiscal and welfare effects. The microsimulation is embedded into a numerical optimization routine that identifies the tax-transfer rule that maximizes a social welfare function. We consider the class of tax-transfer rules where net available income is computed as a 4th degree polynomial transformation of taxable income plus a transfer. We present the results for six European countries: Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain and the United Kingdom. For most values of the inequality aversion parameter k that characterizes the social welfare function, the optimized rules provide a higher social welfare than the current rule, with the exception of Luxembourg. The optimized tax-transfer rules are close to a Flat Tax plus a Universal Basic Income (or equivalently a Negative Income Tax).

The Tatmadaw's military takeover in Myanmar on the 1st of February has marked a significant step back in the country's path towards democracy. Several doubts are raised as to why the military has decided to dismiss the institutional changes that it agreed to grant the country after the Saffron Revolution of 2007 in the first place. This paper seeks to examine the current military takeover in Myanmar through the lenses of its complex post-colonial history, marked by the continuous evolution of various intra-state stakeholder's interactions, such as the Sangha, the Tatmadaw and the students. Subsequent to the historical analysis, we provide a legal outlook combing through the salient constitutional provision on the division of powers, aiming to understand if the balance thereof has been seen as an existential threat undermining the military's hegemonic position over time. Finally, we aim to offer an account on why western expectations regarding Aung San Suu Kyi as a representative of Western liberal democracy could not be factually met. We conclude that the 2007 constitution institutionalized a political system that allowed wiggle room for non-military stakeholders to obtain further democratic concessions, that could result in a significant threat to the Tatmadaw's rule. Such approach sheds outlook on the causes of the coup d'état and allows projections for the near future.

Much has already been written about the emergence of "fast fashion": clothing retailers that are able to translate trends seen on the world's fashion runways... to a store near you in a matter of weeks. The success stories of Sweden's H&M and Spain's Mango have become the stuff of business legend in upending the fashion industry in recent decades. It was probably only a matter of time that onetime suppliers in China would become the firms at the cutting edge of evolving to customer's whims and desires that move so quickly. Younger women should be familiar with China-based online retailer Shein. Reflecting the democratization of fashion brought by the online world, it's not the big fashion houses that set today's trends but rather posts on the likes of Instagram and Pinterest. In keeping with the times, Shein is almost entirely an Internet selling pure play instead of having bricks-and-mortar stores still like H&M or Zara. Rest of the World writes more about this emerging business success story:Shein eventually expanded to offer apparel for women, men, and
children, as well as everything from home goods to pet supplies, but its
core business remains selling clothes targeted at women in their teens
and 20s — a generation who grew up exploring their personal style on
platforms like Instagram and Pinterest. 



Its clothes aren't intended for Chinese customers, but are destined
for export. In May, the company became the most popular shopping app in
the U.S. on both Android and iOS, and, the same month, topped the iOS rankings in over 50 other countries. It's the second most popular fashion website worldwide.By 2020, Shein's sales had risen to $10 billion, a 250% jump from the year before, according to Bloomberg. In June, the company accounted for 28% of all fast fashion sales in the U.S. — almost as much as both H&M and Zara combined. The same month, a report circulated that Shein was worth over $47 billion, making it one of the tech industry's most valuable private startups.Think of Shein more as an Amazon-a-like instead of comparing it to the established fast fashion names in terms of its business model: At the heart of these issues is Shein's aggressive business model.
Comparisons to fast-fashion giants like H&M miss the point: it's
more like Amazon, operating a sprawling online marketplace that brings
together around 6,000 Chinese clothing factories. It
unites them with proprietary internal management software that collects
near-instant feedback about which items are hits or misses, allowing
Shein to order new inventory virtually on demand. Designs are
commissioned through the software; some original, others picked from the
factories' existing products. A polished advertising operation is
layered over the top, run from Shein's head offices in Guangzhou.Ethical concerns with work conditions in Chinese garment factories aside, Shein's advantage is being able to call on PRC suppliers to shift even more quickly than European fast fashion firms:For years, European brands like Zara and H&M have embodied fast
fashion, shortening the route from runway to storefront from months to
weeks. But Shein isn't chasing runway trends — rather, it often knocks
off items seen on TikTok and Instagram, where hype cycles move
significantly faster. Whereas Zara typically asks manufacturers to turn
around minimum orders of 2,000 items in 30 days, Shein asks for as few
as 100 products in as little as 10 days. "They want factories to be much
more nimble," said Lu.If speed is Shein's competitive advantage, it must adapt to even quicker cycles going forward. Or, will someone even speedier supplant Shein just as it has H&M and Zara (which outran department stores before them)? Something else I thought the article could have shed more light on is how Shein is working around supply chain snags like the US-China trade war, intermittent COVID-19 lockdowns in the PRC, and rising shipping costs.

Abstract
Throughout the history of psychiatric ethical professionalization, the question of the "extremist" contextualizes and frames the limits of medical practice. Using archival research at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the article explores how professional committees debated medical ethics after evidence of psychiatric participation in national security measures against dissidents. British, American, and global professional associations organized a prominent struggle against Soviet membership of the World Psychiatric Association in the 1970s and 1980s—reconstituting the field of professional expertise through Cold War geopolitics. The Special Committee on the Political Abuse of Psychiatry was formed in 1978 at the British Royal College of Psychiatry to publicize the medical detention of dissidents in the USSR and to pursue the expulsion of the USSR delegation from global professional fora. In doing so, it constituted an identity for Global Mental Health (vis-à-vis Soviet abusive practice) as impartial, objective, and uncompromised. However, this article explores the many ambiguities that complicate the performative constitution of Western psychiatry as good, and Soviet psychiatry as bad—reflecting on the political dynamics, and philosophy of science, which underwrote the struggle for global expertise.

AbstractAs the world's population rapidly ages, older people are increasingly placed in long-term care institutions. Although this global trend is supposed to protect older people, it is unclear whether they have any voice in decisions about such placements. The aim of this paper is to report a qualitative study into whether and to what degree social workers involve older people in these decisions. The study employed in-depth semi-structured interviews, focused group discussion, sociograms, and the daily and weekly schedules of 17 respondents (7 social workers and 10 older people in long-term care) in Warsaw, Poland. The findings show that social workers did involve older people, but only in minor decisions after their placement to help them adapt to the new situation. This practice seems to be attributable to neoliberal and managerial tendencies in the policy guidelines that social workers must follow in performing inherently relational tasks. The paper concludes by outlining the implications of these findings for social work.

В данной статье исследуется несколько аспектов феномена границы: философский, гносеологический, культурно-исторический, практический. Особенности границы исследуются в историческом цивилизационно-эволюционном ключе. На основании изучения границы в историческом аспекте, авторы сделали вывод о том, что граница, пройдя большой эволюционный путь от границ родоплеменного социума до современного национального государства, играла важнейшую роль в обеспечении безопасного функционирования общества, жизни человека, деятельности государства, развитии мирового сообщества. В настоящее время в условиях процессов глобализации, инновационно-цифровой революции и формирования нового мирового порядка граница испытывает давление со стороны новых вызовов и угроз. Это, в свою очередь, требует от государства выработки современных форм и методов функционирования границ.

Статья посвящена исследованию и сравнению существующих в мире моделей предоставления юридической помощи, гарантируемой государством, с целью поиска наиболее эффективной из них. Делается вывод о том, что более эффективно использовать ресурсы, предназначенные для предоставления бесплатной юридической помощи и оказывать более качественные услуги позволяет смешанная модель.

The concept that encompasses to a significant extent and at multiple levels the participation of citizens is that of participatory democracy. This requires people, communities or different social groups to be involved in decision-making and resource management. Participatory democracy is a continuous process, with risks, requiring organization, collaboration, identification of common goals in a group

The article examines the main challenges in attracting human resources to achieve goals in the organizations of the Republic of Moldova. The results of the study, as well as proposals for improving the mechanisms for attracting human resources are provided

Problemele dezvoltării exportului de bunuri și servicii moldovenești, precum și creșterea competitivității internaționale sunt foarte relevante astăzi. Consolidarea poziției Republicii Moldova în economia mondială este o sarcină necesară și inevitabilă. Cu toate acestea, politica externă și factorii economici externi, cum ar fi presiunea corporațiilor multinaționale, creează dificultăți pentru companiile moldovenești de a-și apăra și promova interesele pe piețele externe. Subdezvoltarea sistemului intern de promovare a exporturilor, complexitatea mediului politic și economic internațional și numeroase riscuri actualizează necesitatea de a analiza și a considera conceptul de business-diplomație în cadrul diplomației economice ca un mecanism promițător pentru asigurarea intereselor industriei și companiilor individuale din țări străine. Ca subspecie a diplomației economice, business-diplomația este caracterizată ca o formă mai aplicată de realizare a intereselor economice, inclusiv metode de lobby și comunicare cu statul. Această formă de promovare a intereselor economice la nivel internațional, bazându-se pe structuri diplomatice și misiuni comerciale, poate facilita interacțiunea mai strânsă a companiilor interne atât cu agențiile guvernamentale străine, cât și cu departamentele moldovenești, pentru a realiza interese comerciale în străinătate. Articolul prezintă situația reală din domeniul diplomației economice în Republica Moldova și oferă câteva recomandări pentru îmbunătățirea acesteia.

Protecția și păstrarea datelor cu caracter personal țin în mod clar de dreptul la respectarea vieții private, astfel cum este garantat de art. 8 din Convenția Europeană a Drepturilor Omului. Această din urmă dispoziție protejează o întreagă serie de drepturi, și anume dreptul la respectarea vieții private și de familie, a domiciliului și a corespondenței. Principiul este acela că art. 8 protejează informațiile cu caracter personal în privința cărora un individ poate spera în mod legitim că nu sunt publicate sau utilizate fără consimțământul său. Studiul își propune o incursiune în jurisprudența Curții Europene a Drepturilor Omului, obiectivul principal fiind identificarea hotărârilor care au un impact fundamental asupra doctrinei și practicei în materia colectării datelor cu caracter personal. Suntem conștienți de faptul că multiple reglementări în domeniul colectării datelor cu caracter personal pot fi spicuite și din practica Curții de Justiție a Uniunii Europene (CJUE). Totuși, având impactul direct al hotărârilor CtEDO asupra Republicii Moldova, am găsit de cuviință să ne rezumă doar la acest aspect. Cu toate acestea, în studiile ulterioare vom aborda problematica protecției datelor cu caracter personal și pe dimensiunea Curții de Justiție a Uniunii Europene. Ideea de bază, desprinsă din studiul respectiv ține de faptul că autoritățile din Republica Moldova urmează să-și ajusteze legislația și practicile la standardele enunțate de CtEDO și astfel să evite eventuale condamnări din partea Curții Europene