Suchergebnisse

What shapes a European Union member state's preferences & why do some states seem much more enthusiastic about further integration in some policy areas than others? This paper examines the factors which shape the preferences of three of the 2004 entrants: Slovakia, Slovenia & the Czech Republic. Based on a detailed study of government & party documents complemented by a series of 40 semi-structured interviews, I argue that whilst there is merit in many of the explanations used to explain national preference formation in the longer-established member states, the key to preference formation lies in vulnerabilities & perceived weakness. Adapted from the source document.

Europe is a contingent product of its institutions rather than a political project. Although the announced goal was simplification & rationalization of its institutional system, the opposite occurred: the system has become even more complex. The author looks into the process dynamics & implementation results of the Lisbon Treaty (effective 1 December 2009), showing that the traditional European compromise leads to outcomes that none of the actors really wanted, & that no one is satisfied with. The European Union is an arena of institutional coercions & games, the rules of which are occasionally readjusted. This occasional readjustment accounts for the survival of the system, which is a priori unstable, for each unsatisfied partner thinks & hopes that redefinition might provide him with an opportunity to gain a better position. The process is especially visible in negotiations regarding the Lisbon Treaty, above all in the institutional innovation which is the function of the new president (of the European Council). The conclusive interpretation of the Lisbon Treaty will depend on the outcome of the bureaucratic struggle right until 2011, & prior to a new definition of the rules, undoubtedly no later than 2014. The new EU system testifies primarily to the fundamental trait of European integration, which strongly favoured from the outset a repeated rethinking of its form (its institutions) in the light of considerations regarding its goals (its policies). Adapted from the source document.

The criticism levelled at the American foreign policy revolves around three lines of objections. The first is that the US lacks a global vision of its role in the international arena. The second line of criticism refers to the limitations of the domestic context, ie, the rise of isolationist tendencies & aspirations in the American society. The third group includes perhaps the most serious developments, since they find their rationale in the institutional solutions of the American foreign policy, particularly in the claims about the restricted foreign policy capacities of the American executive. Adapted from the source document.

The paper looks into the institutional features of regulating the 2005 campaign for the election of the president of the Republic of Croatia. The role of the regulative institutions is analyzed within a broader context of the regulation of political funding in Croatia. The paper offers the arguments concerning the non-transparency of the system of party & election funding in Croatia based on a comparison of the principles of good practice in political financing. Nassmacher's approach to the regulation of political finances is used as the analytical framework for the analysis of financing the 2005 presidential campaign in Croatia. It is based on four options: the autonomy option, the transparency option, the advocacy option & the diversified regulation option. & finally, the paper includes a brief overview of the funding budgets of the election campaigns of the 2005 presidential candidates. Tables, References. Adapted from the source document.

An analysis of the relations among the government departments traditionally responsible for American foreign policy at the dawn of the Cold War during President Harry Truman's mandate, enables us to draw tentative conclusions regarding the policies & activities of the administration of today's President George W. Bush II. Bush's administration is expected to come up with an urgent definition of the new direction of US foreign policy, & provide the corresponding means & resources required for its implementation in this era of globalization, post-militarism, & the singular role that US plays in world affairs. Using as his starting point the assumption that without an awareness of the significance of a transformation of state power (the transformation carried out by the Truman administration), it is not possible to arrive at a comprehensive understanding of the direction & the speed of the changes the Bush administration is to initiate in the foreign policy arena. The author first reviews the genesis of the goals of the US foreign policy during Truman's presidency, then looks into the manner & the forms of identification of foreign policy objectives &, finally, deals with the strategies mapped out for the realization of the identified foreign policy goals. By reviewing this important period in the history of US foreign policy, the author outlines all the major issues confronting the designers of today's American foreign policy & thus provides some cumulative & comparative insights. Adapted from the source document.

According to his own words, Jefferson's guideline while composing the American Declaration of Independence was "to harmonize the political sentiments of the day." This text is an attempt to explain the meaning & the underlying tenor of that statement. It focuses on the analysis of the structure of the Declaration, which is both a political & legal text & is rooted in the rationalist tradition. Structured as a legal syllogism based on the unfamiliar premises at the time of its compilation, the Declaration anticipates, rather than reflects, the "sentiments of the day." Thomas Jefferson's greatness rests not only on the Declaration but also on his consistent application of its principles. Thus, the great American president made sure that through the centuries the dominant political & legal paradigm in the world would follow its stipulations to the letter. Adapted from the source document.

The author looks into the role of TV debates in presidential electoral campaigns & how the pioneering attempt at their organization in Croatia in 2005 was received by Croatian voters & how these TV debates differed from the American model. Namely, one of the novel developments in the Croatian 2005 presidential electoral campaigns were three TV debates between Stjepan Mesic & Jadranka Kosor, the two leading candidates who competed in the run-off ballot. The debates were organized on the three national TV networks (HRT, RTL & Nova TV) & the ratings were high. Tables, Graphs, References. Adapted from the source document.

The author writes about Jefferson's political philosophy. There is no text by Jefferson that would set out a certain political issue. There are numerous texts of his, written in the course of fifty years, but a collage of them would not amount to a political theory or a doctrine. Jefferson was not interested in theoretical but solely in technical & practical issues. This makes him a typical 18th-century lawyer of the common law vein. Common law of that time was an amateur area, devoid of any technical or professional expertise & part of general moral principles. Jefferson was deft at formulating the widely held ideas of his time, embracing some century-old well-known political truths by Grotius, Milton, Locke, & Burlamaqui. The author suggests that Jefferson was first & foremost a statesman, & his judgments were politically tainted. Nevertheless, he was the most educated statesman ever among American presidents. Adapted from the source document.

The author describes Thomas Jefferson's life from his birth to his death. The paper focuses on his place & role in the creation & the formation of the US & the hardships accompanying that process. Multiple links of Thomas Jefferson with the European political scene of his time are depicted. Adapted from the source document.

What are the reasons for change of electoral system in a country in transition? Who are the actors involved and how they do that? What consequences it has for parliament and the party system? This paper attempts to provide answers to these questions in the case of Ukraine. In that country, in less than two decades three types of electoral systems have been implemented: majority system in 1994, mixed system in 1998, 2002 and 2012, and proportional system in 2006 and 2007. Such frequent changes occurred due to elite-manipulation which aimed at satisfying self-interests of political elites. Both parliamentary and non-parliamentary elites have been involved in that process, and the most important actors among them have been oligarchs and the President. When the Ukrainian oligarchs as veto-players began to intensively participate in parties' activities, parties began to play a more important role than they did before. We conclude that the type of electoral system and oligarchic influence on parties and elections impacted the way how the party system has been shaped. We show that this system has been instrumentalised to achieve particular objectives of the dominant segments of political and business elites in Ukraine. Adapted from the source document.