The main objectives of the paper are to review the development of productivity indicators of the agricultural sectors in Lithuania and Germany and to discuss the role and potential contributions of the support measures in the Rural Development Programs. The paper will focus on sectorial productivity and profitability indicators included in the Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (CMEF) of rural development policy in the EU and carry out a comparative statistical analysis with policy support indicators over the period 2000 to 2011. The results of the analysis indicate that the impact of RDP funding on sectorial economic development is rather limited and other intervening factors play a much bigger role. Further case study analysis is required to examine the specific causal relationships between the main determinants of competitiveness and RDPs at regional level. This would create a better understanding of how specific regional factors can hinder or foster positive economic impacts of rural development measures on agricultural sectors in the EU.
The main objectives of the paper are to review the development of productivity indicators of the agricultural sectors in Lithuania and Germany and to discuss the role and potential contributions of the support measures in the Rural Development Programs. The paper will focus on sectorial productivity and profitability indicators included in the Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (CMEF) of rural development policy in the EU and carry out a comparative statistical analysis with policy support indicators over the period 2000 to 2011. The results of the analysis indicate that the impact of RDP funding on sectorial economic development is rather limited and other intervening factors play a much bigger role. Further case study analysis is required to examine the specific causal relationships between the main determinants of competitiveness and RDPs at regional level. This would create a better understanding of how specific regional factors can hinder or foster positive economic impacts of rural development measures on agricultural sectors in the EU.
The study relies on a complex research project, financed by the European Union, which aimed at measuring, first of all, the training and managerial consultancy needs of entrepreneurs and of those who wish to start a business in the rural environment in the North-Eastern, Central and South-Eastern areas of Romania (18 counties). In order to understand these training and consultancy needs, the research also investigated the issue of values. By identifying the specificity of rural entrepreneurial culture, we can understand the current situation in the entrepreneurial environment of Romanian villages and draw up strategies for its development. The research shows that there is a great deal of interest to start a business among young persons, but the existent managerial culture is extremely poor.
The socio-professional element in marital options was extremely reduced taking into account that we have considered a rural area almost in its entirety. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, this world used to have a strong traditional propensity with a low number of professional options, as most inhabitants were mainly involved in agriculture. As a consequence, when speaking about the socio-professional determinism in choosing a marriage partner, we have to take into account the fact that most youth getting married had mostly rural professions. On the other hand, the socio-professional element was more active in urban area and in the environment dominated by Roman-Catholic or Reformed population. The social and professional status undoubtedly had an important role in achieving and settling a family despite the reduced number of options. Personal emancipation and socio-professional status had a determining influence on choosing a partner. The phenomenon was more obvious in the city and towards the beginning of the 20th century in other rural places, where the traditional left room to a process of socio-economic modernisation under the influence of the increasing number of non-agricultural activities. As one can easily anticipate, these changes led to new mental perceptions and hence to a new reaction of the community. Deep changes could be noticed as this area joined an economic circuit leading to new mutations in several economic sectors. Economic development and the spreading of non-agricultural activities associated to urban development whose influence was ever growing entailed changes in family relations. There were also mutations in family relations, domestic group and household resources. These changes were not yet visible in all places in the region: some were still anchored in the traditional where the new had a hard time to penetrate, while major changes on the level of the collective mental could not be seized during the time we analysed. The large scale analysis of the phenomenon has led to the conclusion that where there were better socio-professional options, their determinism on marriage could be identified as highly important. How can we determine the way in which the socio-professional element influenced marriage? To what extent a young man with a superior social and professional status had more marital options? To what extent other "constraints" (confession, ethnie, civil status, age, etc.) were less important when facing strong socio-professional determinism? More precisely, was a man with a superior socio-professional status wanted by many young women despite old age, his civil status as a widower or a divorcee, of if he had a different confession or ethnie? To identify the mechanism of this determinism, we suggest a more complex analysis where the socio-professional element should be corroborated with other marriage determinisms or constraints. From these premises, we will attempt to make a methodological analysis of the socio-professional status from three points of view: ethno-confessional element, civil status and age of partners.
I present an analysis of the electorate of the left in Romania in the last 25 years (1990-2014), both longitudinal and comparative. The analysis reveals an electorate that has hardly changed since the early 1990's - it continues to be predominantly poor, old, and rural, with little education, much like the electorate of parties such as the Russian Communist Party or the Hungarian Fidesz. I argue that this profile, and its lack of evolution, is largely a product of the left's (FSN, FSDN, PDSR and PSD) lack of genuine commitment to the institutions and principles of liberal democracy.
The purpose of this research paper is to assess the causes of the territorial distribution of the votes in Romanian local elections held in 2004. Using an aggregate level statistical analysis, I explore three competing theories. The territorial distribution of votes might be first function of geographical localization, people from Transylvania voting against the ruling party and largely favoring the opposition. Counties supporting the opposition are generally the most developed, least rural and wealthiest counties, but in the same time a number of these counties are located in Transylvania. All the same, people may support effective and accountable politicians in office and sanction the others. Testing the three hypotheses, I find that the economic voting has no empirical evidence. The only significant factor unraveled is the counties' location in Transylvania. This factor continues to be significant even when the relationships are controlled with different local development measures, unraveling a regional voting pattern in Romania.
The parish registers of civil status, although the main sources of documentation for historical demography, are used with significant results by the other sciences such as history, ethnography, sociology, anthropology, linguistics, etc.. The perspectives of approaching the rural community and family have expanded considerably using these sources of ecclesiastical origin documentaries. The first researchers who refer to a systematic methodology that uses the parish registers of civil status as documentary sources for the completion of demographic data suggest the use of other sources, hitherto unused for this purpose. They will apply a new method, a modern innovation, the stripping and analysis of parish registers of civil status within the meaning of the reconstruction of demographic events (birth, marriage, death). The family reconstitution method, by analyzing the parish registers of civil status proposed by L. Henry and M. Fleury, has revolutionized the field of study dealing with people. Louis Henry believes that the parish registers of civil status is the ultimate source of information for the pre-state period and this is precisely the reason for which he proposes restoring the family's biological life. Church registers are only able to give us an insight into the family in rural areas, at least for the second half of the XIX century. Church documents, the fundamental sources for researching family life, are of two categories: 1. civil status registers and annual reports of the parishes, 2. Church authorities funds, documents and minutes recorded by the bishops. These documents are complex sources for the researcher interested in historical demography, social history, and the economic history of toponymy, birthdays, etc. Processing the data contained in these records requires a specific methodology. They allow us to observe trends that have occurred on the long-term demographic events such as: birth, marriage or death. These records are presented for a long time as their only source of documentation regarding civil status and demographic events in the life of most people. Researching these records can unveil important features of natural population movement, the phenomenon of birth, of marriage, the divorce or death. Then, an analysis of form and content of these registers can capture the cultural universe of the priests who fill these records. These Church documents proved to be important, especially where other documentary sources (mainly those in the category of records made by the state) have proved insufficient, incomplete and unclear. The parish registers of civil status in this case are suitable for both a qualitative analysis, and a quantitative one at the level of local communities. Beyond their usefulness and significance of documentary source, these documents should be regarded as being subjective because they were managed by priests (every priest is then an exponent to promote demographic and confessional "realities" and such realities were viewed from the perspective of his own religious convictions). The parish registers, however, prove to be the only documents that allow us to penetrate the privacy of individuals in each community. A documentary is also undeniably a good dowry that researchers should promote and use in their research not only locally but also to verify and demonstrate certain behaviours and overall trends.
The family, its formation, the relationships between man, woman, children and relatives, as well as the relationships with the rest of the community were filtered by the "village gossip". The need for a strong solidarity that was necessary in the unfriendly conditions at the time compelled the individuals to accept the cohabitation with other members of the family (including the extended one) and with the rest of the community. More often than not, the individual behaviour acquired the expression of the collective behaviour. Such an influence of the community was obvious in the traditional rural societies. However, in time, it became progressively diluted under the pressure of modernity. We can see that there were deep changes as the area integrated to an economic circuit that would lead to imposing new mutations in several economic sectors. The economic development and the dissemination of non-agricultural activities associated to urban development whose influence went growing brought about alterations in the family relations. Then, there were mutations in the relationship between the family, the domestic group and the household resources. These changes were not obvious in all localities in the region: some of them were still anchored in the traditional as the new managed to penetrate more difficultly, while major changes on the level of the collective mental could not be perceived on a short span of time. Nevertheless, under the influence of modernity, society influenced the family not only in point of form, but also insofar as its role and functions were concerned. Mentalities changed together with the form and nature of society. Family was no longer big; it did no longer accept the interference of the relatives and even less that of the community. Changes were more visible in the city; however, once the social, cultural and economic changes, they became obvious in the countryside too. The nuclear family was the new family model where interference from the outside was insignificant.
