Suchergebnisse

The ambition of the paper is to analyze the major characteristics of the Chinese energy policy towards the most important producers of natural gas in Chinas neighborhood. The analytical perspectives of a strategic approach to energy security and state-centric realism are used to work with case studies of Sino-Russian and Sino-Turkmen relations from the energy security perspective. The paper concludes that Chinas energy policy towards the given producers in Russia and Turkmenistan comes significantly close to the selected analytical perspectives and that natural gas has become an important part of the strategic considerations of the Chinese political leadership. This conclusion, however, applies more to Turkmenistan and less to Russia, as in the case of the Sino-Russian relations, both parties fail to achieve a mutual complementarity, and economic thinking prevails over Beijing's strategic interests. Adapted from the source document.

The paper deals with the organizational model of political parties created by Italian political scientist Angelo Panebianco. For presentation of this, outside Italian academic discourse, an 'unknown' model is necessary to briefly describe the whole organizational theory and to introduce the review of this model. After that we examine the applicability of Panebianco's scheme on the structural transformation of communist political parties at the end of 1980s. This suitability will be measured on the case example of the Italian Communist Party (PCI). The PCI was historically the strongest and most influential communist party outside the Soviet bloc and that is why it is convenient to apply the organizational model to the organizational changes of the PCI during its transformation. We also define five main criteria of these changes and their compatibility with the Panebianco's model. Thus the main aim of this paper is to prove the suitability of the organizational model not only to the structural transformation of the Italian communists but using this case example also to the universal transformation of the communist parties in the western world. Adapted from the source document.

The survey covers the third month after the first diagnosed case of COVID-19 in Slovakia on March 6 2020. It was fielded in a period of gradual lifting of quarantine measures. The survey monitors fears of the disease, agreement and compliance with the introduced quarantine measures, changes of behavior at times of the epidemic and the approval of government strategies, state of mental health after extended quarantine and environmental topics. Surveyed are also fears of loosing work, changes in the income situation and relations within households. The survey also includes questions from Values in Crisis Austria survey which was fielded in the same time in Austria. This is the third survey from the "How are you, Slovakia?" survey series.

The survey covers the period of a gradual decline from the record levels of hospitalization at the end of February and a decline in new daily cases. During the fieldwork a the curfew rules became stricter and forbade a walk in nature after 8 pm. Travel abroad for holidays was also forbidden. Fears of the disease, agreement and compliance with the introduced quarantine measures, changes of behavior at times of the epidemic and the approval of government strategies are surveyed. Several questions are dedicated to vaccination plans and factors influencing the decision to not/vaccinate. Surveyed are also fears of loosing work and changes in the income situation and situation in the public health care system during the pandemic. This is the eight survey from the "How are you, Slovakia?" survey series.

This study seeks to make a contribution to a limited research on the systemic level of the national coordination of European affairs, which involves both domestic institutions and a permanent representation at the EU and national embassies in the EU member states and other countries. We explore the issue through a case study which concentrates on 1) several middle-sized EU member states and 2) coordination in the field of foreign and security policy. The study argues that the coordination at the systemic level has a rather a centralized character. The elements of decentralization, which can be also identified at the systemic level, are primarily related to information-gathering as well as representation at negotiations. Permanent representations are considerably more involved in coordination than national embassies, however. Adapted from the source document.

The survey covers the second month of quarantine measures after the first diagnosed case of COVID-19 in Slovakia on March 6 2020. A week before the fieldwork, the measure limiting movements between administrative regions (SK: okres) of Slovakia during Easter holidays – the most limiting quarantine measure so far - has been lifted. The survey monitors fears of the disease, the expected duration of the epidemic, agreement and compliance with the introduced quarantine measures, changes of behavior at times of the epidemic and the approval of restrictions introduced by the government limiting personal freedoms. Surveyed are also fears of loosing work, changes in the income situation and changes in leisure time activities and relations within households. The survey also includes questions from the Austrian Corona Panel Project which was fielded in the same time in Austria. This is the second survey from the "How are you, Slovakia?" survey series.

The author treats the topic of AIDS as a focal point for artistic politics in the United States and, eventually, in a larger international context as well. He considers a range of representations of AIDS in contemporary art since the 1980s & considers how AIDS became a pivotal point around which thinking about artists' activism & art as social intervention turned. He discusses AIDS as a paradigmatic case for a new global, biopolitical, & mediatized cultural phenomenon that bore with it a new ensemble of political, moral, & economic effects, in turn profoundly affecting conceptions of aesthetics & activist art. In the latter part of the essay, he develops a typology of strategies utilized by artists in addressing the problem of AIDS: 1) transcoding strategies; 2) media critiques and/or critiques of culture industry representations of AIDS; 3) alternative publicity; 4) AIDS exemplars; & 5) strategies of mourning & memoralization. Adapted from the source document.

The survey covers the first weeks of quarantine measures after the first diagnosed case of COVID-19 in Slovakia on March 6 2020. At the time of the fieldwork – on March 24 2020 – Slovakia introduced obligatory wearing of face mask outside of home. Before the fieldwork schools have been closed as well as shops and services (with the exception of groceries, chemists, medical supplies, drugstores, petrol stations as well as post offices, banks, insurance services and several other businesses). The survey monitors fears of the disease, the expected duration of the epidemic, agreement and compliance with the introduced quarantine measures and changes of behavior at times of the epidemic. Surveyed are also fears of loosing work, changes in the income situation and changes in leisure time activities and relations within households. Questions on changes in shopping behavior are also covered. This is the first survey from the "How are you, Slovakia?" survey series.

The aim of this paper is to examine the consequences of a failure to make a preliminary reference from the point of view of consumer organizations striving for the protection of collective consumer rights. Also, this paper argues against a strict application of the principle of procedural autonomy of Member States, as it makes the enforcement of consumer rights practically impossible, in particular with respect to Directive 2009/22/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on injunctions for the protection of consumers' interests (the Injunctions Directive). The author discusses both judicial and extrajudicial remedies that are available in case of a failure to make a preliminary reference to the Court of Justice of the European Union. She believes that procedural rules and the specific conditions for obtaining damages based on the Francovich judgment are not sufficiently harmonized throughout the European Union. Adapted from the source document.

It is clear from political science literature that political parties are not static entities. Similar to other political institutions, they tend to transform with time, in response to changes in their surrounding environment. If the economic, social, cultural and political parameters in society are to substantially change, it is possible to deduce a change in the role of a political party and its organisational structure. The transition from totalitarian to democratic societies in Central, and partially in Eastern Europe, presents a process so unique that one may legitimately question if this has not resulted in a serious modification of the catch-all party type. In the region of Central Europe, Czechoslovakia - and after 1993 the Czech Republic - presents a special case, where during political and economic transformation next to general features, specific factors were also enforced, which eventually influenced the set-up and formation of parties in their early stages. It is left to consideration and further scrutiny to decide whether the unrepeatable environment of the Czech-Moravian melting pot, has not cultivated the clientelistic form of political party. Adapted from the source document.

A major representative of Kurdish nationalism in Turkey, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) renewed its violent activities while ending a ceasefire that lasted for almost five years in 2004. The nature of its armed struggle is in many aspects different from that of the period of 1984-1999. The issue of the Kurdish question in Turkey has been once again becoming increasingly dynamic in the last years, and the violent manifestations connected with this issue have been increasing as well. The presented case study deals with the offensive tactics of the PKK during its armed struggle in Turkey in the period from 2004 to 2011. The activities of the PKK are framed in the concept of insurgency. The analysis is focused on a description and interpretation of the nature of the PKKs offensive operations. On the basis of the analysis of the operational level of the PKKs activities, the pursued insurgent tactics are identified. The PKK pursues and combines four kinds of typical insurgency tactics - provocation, intimidation, protraction, and exhaustion, with the first two being the most important. In the background of the PKKs campaign, we can observe that the PKK plans and times its operations very carefully. At the same time the PKK focuses on getting and maintaining popular support for itself. Adapted from the source document.