Suchergebnisse

The fact that corruption has become one of the most notoriously persistent and progressively worsening social and welfare problems afflicting virtually all economic processes today is indisputable; while critics of corruption have long argued that corruption reflects government failure in providing health development infrastructures. This paper however provided the basis of theoretical interrelationships between corruption and health sector performances in West African countries. The paper also examines various policies measures as employed by other nations as lessons to improve the performances of health sector in these countries. One implication of these results as evidenced from Singapore, Hong Kong and Tunisia, is that attainment of stronger and effective institution and good governance will lower corruptive practices and improve health sector performances in West Africa nations. The paper therefore calls on governments of West African countries to concentrate on strengthening their institutions especially by reducing corruptive practices and promoting accountability, integrity and transparency in health sector.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the development of knowledge economy and its importance for the competitiveness of the Western Balkans countries. The aim of the research is to evaluate the development degree of knowledge economy in the Western Balkans countries through the comparison of relevant indicators with the European Union countries. The research information base is the official World Bank data about values of "the knowledge economy index" (KEI). Comprehensive analysis leads us to conclusions about: a) the relative positions of the Western Balkans countries in relation to the EU countries, b) the development state of knowledge economy in analysed countries according to the pillars of the knowledge economy index. The paper concludes by highlighting the implications and recommendations for conducting the economic policy in the area which encourages the development of knowledge economy and improves competitiveness.

"This edited collection delves into the horrors of November 1938 and to what degree they portended the Holocaust, demonstrating the varied reactions of Western audiences to news about the pogrom against the Jews. A pattern of stubborn governmental refusal to help German Jews to any large degree emerges throughout the book. Much of this was in response to uncertain domestic economic conditions and underlying racist attitudes towards Jews. Contrasting this was the outrage expressed by ordinary people around the world who condemned the German violence and challenged the policy of Appeasement being advanced by Great Britain and France towards Adolf Hitler's Nazi German government at the time. Contributors employ multiple media sources to make their arguments, and compare these with official government records. For the first time, a collection on Kristallnacht has taken a truly transnational approach, giving readers a fuller understanding of how the events of November 1938 were understood around the Western world"--

The article comparatively examines the levels of populism exhibited by parties in Western Europe. It relies on a quantitative content analysis of press releases collected in the context of 11 national elections between 2012 and 2015. In line with the first hypothesis, the results show that parties from both the radical right and the radical left make use of populist appeals more frequently than mainstream parties. With regard to populism on cultural issues, the article establishes that the radical right outclasses the remaining parties, thereby supporting the second hypothesis. On economic issues, both types of radical parties are shown to be particularly populist. This pattern counters the third hypothesis, which suggests that economic populism is most prevalent among the radical left. Finally, there is no evidence for the fourth hypothesis, given that parties from the south do not resort to more populism on economic issues than those from the north.

Analyzing data obtained from the literature and our own calculations, significant differences were found among countries in their levels of class voting. The Scandinavian countries had the highest and Canada and the USA the lowest levels of class voting. Since the 1950s, there was a decline in almost all countries in the level of class voting. In this article, several hypotheses were deduced from a limited number of individual assumptions, each purporting to explain the differences among and declining trends within countries. Testing these hypotheses with multilevel techniques revealed that differences among countries can best be explained by their population's religious-ethnic-linguistic diversity, and by the union density within countries. The decline in most countries can best be explained by the rise in their standard of living. Furthermore, a rise in the percentage of union members, especially among the nonmanual classes, accelerated the decline in the level of class voting in some countries. (European Journal of Political Research / FUB)

"This book examines security cooperation between Western states. Security cooperation occurs between Western (i.e. European and North American) states as a coping mechanism, as an imperfect substitute for integration. The book investigates the reasons for cooperation and what Aristotle called the 'final cause', as well as the material, formal, and efficient causes of cooperation. Such a causal explanation is based on a Critical Realist philosophy of social science. The book is also based on an embedded multiple-case study; the states studied are the United States, France, and Luxembourg. Within each state, the embedded subcases are three types of state security organizations: the armed forces, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies, which have rarely been compared in this way. Comparing different types of states and different types of state security organizations has allowed temporal, spatial, national, and functional variation in cooperation to be identified and theorized. The empirical evidence studied includes participant observations at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and documents such as state policy documents, annual reports by organizations, reports by parliaments and non-governmental organizations, autobiographies, books by investigative journalists, and articles by newspapers and magazines. The book is also based on a score of elite interviews with ambassadors, diplomatic liaisons, ministerial advisors, foreign ministry officials, and military commanders. This book will be of much interest to students of security studies, intelligence studies, military studies and International Relations in general"--

Addresses made by heads of government reflect their views and opinions. This article presents a quantitative content analysis of public addresses made by heads of government of the five countries, namely Japan, the USA, New Zealand, Germany, and Slovenia, which were done in response to the novel coronavirus (Covid-19). Word frequency analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis were used to identify the content specifics of these addresses. The comparative analysis of speeches concerning the novel coronavirus enables us to determine how these addresses reflect the speakers' perspectives and political orientation and what they attempted to convey to the public. ; Nagovori voditeljev vlad odražajo njihova stališča in mnenja. Ta članek predstavlja kvantitativno vsebinsko analizo javnih nagovorov voditeljev vlad petih držav, in sicer Japonske, ZDA, Nove Zelandije, Nemčije in Slovenije, ki so bili izvedeni kot odziv na novi koronavirus (Covid-19). Za prepoznavanje vsebinskih posebnosti teh nagovorov smo uporabili analizo frekvence besed in hierarhično analizo gruč. Primerjalna analiza nagovorov v povezavi z novim koronavirusom nam omogoča, da ugotovimo, kako ti nagovori odražajo perspektivo govorcev in politično usmeritev govorcev ter kaj so govorci poskušali sporočiti javnosti.

The article analyses the negotiations between European Union and countries of the Western Balkans and attempts to identify where the major problems are likely to be. The main obstacles in the process of European integration of the countries from Balkan region are analyzed. Also, the paper focuses on the key priorities that Western Balkan countries have to accomplish in order to reach the domestic readiness for their process of European integration. An important goal of the article is to identify some important conclusions for the European roadmap of the Republic of Moldova from experience of the presented states.

The export-led growth hypothesis (ELGH) postulates that export is a major driver of economic growth. This study tests this hypothesis and further analyses the determinants of exports in the case of West African countries. An annual panel data spanning from 2008 to 2018 was used. Findings from the system GMM and OLS estimations validate the ELGH in West Africa. The results also reveal that foreign direct investment, employment, remittances, land area and infrastructure are significant boosters of export while population, real effective exchange rate and taxes on international trade are detrimental to export performance in the region. The study recommends the relaxation of taxes especially on international trade to encourage businesses that produce to feed the export sectors, provide an enabling environment for businesses and also attract foreign investors. JEL Codes: F14, F21, O55

In this paper the aim is to identify key drivers that have contributed the most to the prosperity of European Union and Western Balkan countries in the 2007-2016 period. Empirical analysis is based on data for cumulative growth rate of values of nine original Legatum Prosperity Index (LPI) pillars and on implementation of Multivariate Data Analysis. Using Principal Component Analysis, four principal components are obtained and we named them: Economic Environment, Social Infrastructure, Institutional Framework and Life Conditions. Based on standardised score values of four new variables, we distinguish the countries that had the highest positive and negative score in each component. With cluster analysis based on LPI pillars growth rates, four clusters of countries have been formed: the first cluster consists of three Western Balkan countries, the second and third of, respectively, ten and four mostly new EU member state countries, and fourth of fourteen predominantly 'old' EU member countries. The analysis points out the fundamental drivers of prosperity in countries belonging to different clusters according to changes in values of nine LPI pillars in the previous decade. In all observed countries it is possible to identify certain similarities in the change of components of prosperity, as they are EU members or candidates for membership.