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The article includes five parts: 1. Introduction – information about the book promotion event held in Warsaw on December 19, 2019 on the Polish edition of Xi Jinping's Governance of China vol. I. The book launch was great not only because of the editing and the contents of the book, but also because it was a political, economic, cultural and international event, since the author is the number one politician not only in China but also in the contemporary world. The introduction includes information about the book content and demonstrates its importance for the theoretical generalizations and recognition of the main problems of contemporary China. 2. According to the authors of the paper, problems mentioned in the book are especially important. The original Chinese way of building socialism and the early stages of Chinese revolution were national, anti-feudal, anti-capitalist, democratic and socialist. Mao Zedong established class-based Maoism as a Marxism-Leninism in the Chinese version, while Deng Xiaoping and his successors established and developed the socialist market economy, which is the continuation of Maoism in the new era and they created the Chinese path to the anti-capitalist revolution and the building of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The perspective of the development of China till 2021 and 2049 (as a modern and developed socialism) and its influence on the national rejuvenation is not only Chinese but also an international issue. 3. Third part of the paper is devoted to the problems of building socialism in China, the analysis of the theory of Xi Jinping, the leading role of the CPC, the economic role of the owner and foreign capital in economy and policy, and the socio-economic contradictions in the contemporary PRC. 4. Forth part concerns Confucianism and Marxism as theoretical and practical problems in China; the original Chinese culture and civilization; the continuation and discontinuation of the historical development in contemporary epoch; the original development; the policy of opening- -up; the necessity of considering human contents of Confucianism in building and developing of socialism in China. 5. Fifth part of the paper is on the future status of the Communist Party of China's Economy. Since the emergence of state-owned economy, it has played a huge role in the economic development of all countries. However, under the way of neoliberalism, state-owned economy has gradually been associated with backwardness and inefficiency. On the forum of state-owned economy enterprise reform in China, General Secretary Xi Jinping gave out important instructions. State-owned enterprises are an important force for strengthening the comprehensive power of the country and safeguarding the common interests of the people. State-owned enterprises must be made stronger, better and bigger. Academia has had a huge disagreement on this, and some scholars believe that this is an act of favoritism toward state-owned enterprises. This paper analyzes China's state-owned economy from the perspective of total factor productivity (TFP), Marx's historical materialism, national productivity, and social development, clarifying that state-owned economic reform is diff erent from the system of "profit based demands" rooted in the private economic market, but a system based on national productivity and the "needs" of the people. Making state-owned enterprises "stronger, better, and bigger" is in line with the historical development of socialism and material productivity, resolving doubts on the direction of state-owned economic reform.

This paper examines the origin and the relationship between Islamist and non-Islamist political trends in Libya, highlighting the development of the contestation between the two before and after the fall of Gaddafi's rule. The relationship appears to be that of a contestation between Islamists and liberals but this may be misleading. Islamists are not united but they share an adherence to the establishment of a Muslim society and some form of a khilafa. However, non-Islamists may not easily be identified as "on current." Indeed, the "current" includes an array of political factions of various dispensations with some not necessarily subscribing to liberal models of democracy. Some belong to pre-Gaddafi-era political parties or were political and human rights' activists during Gaddafi's reign. They range from leftist, nationalist, and liberal orientations to populist Arab nationalist forces (including the Ba'th, Pan-Arabists, and others with socialist or communist orientations). When the uprising took place in 2011, the positions each trend took differed before some tactical unity was deemed necessary. When the regime fell, however, differences remerged and became more evident once the transitional structures were put in place. Just before and during the first elections in 2012, Islamists broke ranks with their struggle comrades and fired their cannons at the leaders of the liberal, nationalist, and other elements within the non-Islamist orientations. Islam then became crucial in political expression and rhetoric, especially for Islamist actors. Focusing on the development of this contestation, this paper analyzes the reaction of both Islamist and non-Islamist trends to the policies and tactics adopted by each side in the aftermath of the 2011 uprising and the post-Gaddafi phase. It suggests that although ideology, specifically references to Islam, became crucial in the political contention between Islamists and non-Islamists, the cleavage was not entirely ideological, as both trends considered the Islamic identity of Libya central to their political programs. The interviews with leading representatives of both trends that the author conducted for the purpose of writing this article confirm such a view on the role of ideology in the contestation. As the following discussion indicates, ideology is evidently part and parcel of each sides' tools, ready to be employed against the other. However, when it does not suit all their purposes, they claim ideology has no role, offering insights into the instrumental and tactical approach to the ongoing contestation of both sides. The article therefore examines the struggle between the two factions as a political competition for the control of resources and positions of power, yet it also argues that ideology and ideas have a role to play, as they constitute the instruments deployed in this struggle, which has, with foreign involvement and backing of different sides, reduced Libya to a "failed state." In fact although ideological contraposition figures in the contestation, political factionalism and contention in post-2011 were actually fuelled by political factors related to the struggle over access to power and resources, which are instrumental in enabling each side to shape the future state and its political order according to their plans. The struggle between Islamists and non-Islamists may have been the most visible, but it is certainly not the most significant factor in explaining the political dynamics and contention in the country since the fall of Gaddafi.

The article deals with the problems to conceptualize social ethics of democratic transformation in post-soviet society. Special attention is paid to the role of European social standards in the process of realizing the European civilization choice of Ukraine. It is also stressed here that European social standards remain a key factor making a project of European integration so attractive for the majority of Ukrainians. Special role of a stage by stage solution of a so-called «social approach» on the way to all-rounded humanization of state-forming strategies of European nations and of the system of European international relations in general is being stressed here. The main emphasis is also laid on the historical role of common European values. An attempt is made here to elucidate the above problems in correspondence with the ones expressed in the National report «Civilizational choice of Ukraine — a paradigm of cognition and a strategy to act» (2016), prepared by the leading scholars of Ukrainian Academy of Science. It is also accentuated that decisive factor to achieve success in joining the space of European unity is in integrity of understanding the ideas of Freedom and Justice. Since internal and external components of European freedom and justice are so closely intertwined that their separate interpretation in author's opinion has no epistemological perspective. In conditions of world economic crisis the configuration, dynamics and content of integrational processes both in Europe and in post-soviet countries are being substantially changed while preserving basic system factors. Stable economic prosperity and social progress are becoming more and more dependent on world economic situation. At the same time, social welfare of citizens in some countries as well as their authority in contemporary world fully depend on moral-ethical maturity of national elites, level of confidence in society, general level of culture and the rate of individual responsibility of citizens for their future. With this view we consider the role of social ethics in general context of forming new theoretical and methodological basis of contemporary historical science. The utter importance of social problems for adequate understanding of crisis phenomena in political, economic and cultural life of the European Union after several stages of substantial expansion is being underlined. Special place of «European social model» in contemporary scientific and political discourse is being emphasized. It is underlined that nowadays we speak not only about rational and pragmatic correction of logic of international interaction but about radical change of all logic of internal social interaction, about formation and application of qualitatively new theory of making decisions. The above problems acquire special meaning in modern conditions of sharpening geopolitical competition concerning Ukraine. Real social result of Ukrainian civilizational choice directly influences the process of this competition, as it directly defines the position of both Ukrainian citizens and citizens of European Union countries. Modern financial and migration crisis of EU only enhances the influence of social factor on collective consciousness of «old» and «new» Europeans, frequently engendering rather dangerous tendencies in European life. The author tries to accentuate the importance of the idea of a serious social optimization strategy of European integration of Ukraine while considering qualitatively new external and internal conditions of National progress.

Purpose
Health care is a complex system, mandating adoption of unrelenting updates of guidelines and best practices. Securing a balanced system of current practice and matching documentation has always been a challenge due to impaired connection between traditional forms of documentation (e.g. policies, procedures, and guidelines) and users. Departmental manuals always find their way back to shelves away from the workplace, and continuous interaction with customers and complexity of business processes hinder timely update and consequently sustainable improvement. The paper aims to discuss this issue.


Design/methodology/approach
In late 2014, the corresponding author visited Japan as part of Kaizen benchmark tour that introduced the concepts and applications of "Kaizen," the Japanese word for continuous improvement, in Toyota factory and health care institutes in Fukuoka, Nagoya, and Tokyo. Soon thereafter, the authors adopted Kaizen to be the organizational theme for improvement. QPS team launched several initiatives throughout 2015 to improve the quality of documentation. Documents submitted had one thing in common, all participants used flowcharts, diagrams, and even drawings to simplify hard-to-understand processes. This challenge highlighted the utilization of diagrams, well-organized forms, infographics, and other methods to simplify processes and to vitalize documents.


Findings
Since the hospital utilizes the paper-form prescribing system, prescription errors lead to delays in dispensing time, affecting patient satisfaction in emergency room's pharmacy. Pharmacy team launched a project using document vitalization as an improvement strategy. Aggregate results showed 16.7 percent reduction in average time per prescription in inpatient pharmacy and 20.0 percent reduction in emergency room pharmacy. Although measurements did not continue over a longer period or were statistically analyzed, they provide a crude indication of possible improvement using document vitalization.


Research limitations/implications
Lack of a sound measurement system with proper statistical analysis prevented the provision of reliable evidence of improvement. Moreover, lack of previous case studies has been an obstacle. It is the authors' plan to provide measurable evidence of improvement for multiple projects through measurement of process time, customer and employee satisfaction, the number of process errors, etc. Nevertheless, feedback from users provides a rough indication of possible improvement using document vitalization. It is the authors' aim to incorporate "document vitalization" into the fabric of documentation process and SFHPM culture.


Practical implications
Empowerment creates an energy-filled work environment where staff members feel they are the real change factors and are actively contributing to the advancement and success of their organizations (Taylor 2013). This does not mean allowing chaos and unplanned changes to disrupt process flow but rather to leave room for trial and error in a controlled environment and pilot-testing significant changes before generalization.


Originality/value
The term vitalization itself is a brand new one used in this field, and the authors introduce it for the first time to be a solution that comes from frontliners and can bridge the gap between document and practice. If all document vitalization successes were a tribute to one factor, it would be "empowerment." Once leaders have the courage to listen to frontline staff voice and allow them to do things differently, the staff members will surprise their organizations with the marvels of their creations.

The maritime and land trade of the City of Ragusa (Dubrovnik) and its surroundings has always been "the corner stone" on which the grandeur of Dubrovnik, its political and economical power and culture were built. As early as 1441, the Dubrovnik trade was considered to consist of 3/4 of the maritime and only 1/4 of the land based trade. In 1181, the comunitas ragusina - the Commune of Ragusa was mentioned for the first time; as the time went by, it became the City-state. It was named The Ragusan Republic in 1430. The treaty concluded with Turkey in 1442 was in force up to the twilight of the Dubrovnik Republic (1806). It was convenient for Ragusans to have a sole ruler and a single state in their neighbourhood, not to mention how stubborn and quite often wanton ones. In his work "Mari, Gol , Isole,..." (1688.), Vincenzo Coronelli, the mapmaker, said about the Ragusans: "...They are the most ardent defenders of their freedom, putting in a great deal of effort to secure it, and at the same time, hating any kind of slavery...". The Ragusan vessels were attacked by the pirates from Rhodes from 1507-1509 and later on. The main reason for flourishing of Ragusan shipping and trade was based upon focussing on their public life within these domains. The Ragusan Republic depended upon its investments into maritime affairs and assistance offered through stimulations, interaction of processes and consequential strengthening of its own prosperity (its enriched citizens). The Ragusan Maritime Insurance Law (Ordo super assecuratoribus) of March 5th, 1568 is the oldest enacted law in the world, and in this way it was more than a century older than legal regulations on the maritime insurance - Ordonnance de la marine of 1681. Apart from the main shipyard in the old City port (in portu interiori Ragusii, in portu Ragusii), up to the construction of the new shipyard in Gruž (1526) there were shipyards in Ston and in the nearby islands of Lopud, Šipan (in Suđurađ) and Koločep (Kalamota) already in the 14th century. Palladius Fuscus (1450-1520), in his work De situ orae Illyrici (published posthumously in 1540) cited that "there was no such a secluded part of Europe or one so inaccessible to the newcomers, where you would not encounter Ragusans practicing their merchant activity". According to some researchers, Ragusa was the third strongest force in the Mediterranean (after Genoa and Venice) in the 14th century. The Ragusan Republic was the first in the Mediterranean in the 16th century and, in terms of their trading ocean-going sailing vessels under Ragusan and foreign flags, it was the third in the world (after Spain and the Netherlands). In his work Nautica Mediterranea (Rome, 1602, pp. 4-5), Bartolomeo Crescentio said: "...among experts and master craftsmen for galleons are the most numerous, and the most capable in this (the Mediterranean Sea, observation of the author) are Ragusans", and Pantero Pantera in his work L'Armata Navale (Rome, 1614, p. 66) wrote down: "...while for navas and galleons building, masters of Dubrovnik, Portugal and England were highly esteemed"."Argosy", in fact, means "a Ragusan ship". Many endeavours and achievements in the art of shipbuilding raise the East Adriatic coast above the West one, since it had most frequently been a successful way in which ships and men reached di erent parts of the world.

ResumenDesde el triunfo revolucionario, el modelo de desarrollo cubano se ha destacado históricamente por una concepción política, basada en la centralidad del Estado en la provisión del bienestar y en una vocación de justicia social, así como en la construcción de ciudadanía a través de la implementación de políticas de carácter universal. Un dilema, sin embargo, con el que ha tenido que lidiar este modelo, ha estado asociado a la contradicción entre la intención política, los avances obtenidos en materia social, por un lado; y las dificultades para sedimentar un sostén económico con el cual respaldar una propuesta integral de desarrollo. El artículo presenta una propuesta de análisis sobre la reforma iniciada en el 2011, presentando resultados respecto al estrechamiento de las políticas sociales en el marco de un legado institucional de desarticulación entre universalidad y focalización en ese contexto. Desde la perspectiva metodológica, las principales fuentes utilizadas fueron de base documental: fuentes oficiales y resultados de investigación realizados por la autora y autores sobre la reforma cubana actual.Palabras-Chaves: Políticas Sociales, Asistencia Social, Pobreza y Desigualdades en Cuba, Reforma. ***Tensões no Modelo de Proteção Social Cubano: uma arqueologia para olhar o presente das políticas sociais.ResumoDesde a vitória da revolução, o modelo de desenvolvimento cubano vem se assentando em uma concepção política que enfatiza a centralidade do Estado na provisão do bem-estar e na promoção de justiça social, assim como na construção de cidadania pela via da implementação de políticas de escopo universal. Contudo, este modelo teve de enfrentar o dilema colocado pela contradição entre, de um lado, os avanços obtidos em matéria social, e de outro, as dificuldades de consolidar um suporte económico capaz de respaldar uma proposta integral de desenvolvimento. O artigo pretende analisar a reforma iniciada em 2011, apresentando resultados a respeito do estreitamento das políticas sociais no marco de um legado institucional de desarticulação entre universalidade e focalização. Do ponto de vista metodol&oacute ;gico, privilegiou-se base documental, incluindo fontes oficiais, e resultados de pesquisa realizados tanto pela autora como por outros autores sobre a trajetória recente da reforma cubana.Palavras-chaves: Políticas Sociais, Assitência Social, Pobreza e Desigualdade e Cuba, Reforma. ***Tensions in the Cuban Social Protection Model: an archeology to look at the present of social policies.AbstractThe Cuban Model of Development has been characterized, since the Revolution triumph for a political conception based on State centrality in welfare provision and social justice. As well as in the building of a citizenship trough the implementation of social policies with universal perspective.A dilemma, however associate to this Model has been related to the contradiction between the political intentions, the advancement achieved in social indicators in one hand; and in the other, the difficulties in order to achieve efficient economic policies, which could support the social development.This article present a proposal about the reform started on 2011, which the objective to present outcomes about the retrenchment of the Cuban social policies in the frame of non-correspondence between universality and focalization in a historical perspective. Since the methodological point of view, the main sources used were official and research results conducted for the author and other academics about current Cuban reform.Keywords: social policies, social assistance, poverty and inequalities in Cuba, reform

O objetivo deste artigo é analisar o avanço de conceitos e práticas de gestão do trabalho designados como "flexíveis" na indústria automotiva do Brasil, em especial os oriundos do Sistema Toyota de Produção. Por meio de uma investigação bibliográfica e de um estudo de caso empírico numa planta pertencente a um grupo transnacional do setor de autopeças, situada em Campinas, SP (Brasil), demonstra-se como foram efetuadas alterações na organização do trabalho, concomitantes à exigência de novos perfis de qualificação profissional e educacional aos trabalhadores. Em termos conclusivos, a presente análise evidencia como tais perfis – articulados a métodos gerenciais de avaliação em processos de contratação e promoção – têm fragmentado o coletivo de trabalhadores nas empresas, mercantilizando as relações que estabelecem entre si no cotidiano de trabalho, uma vez que se baseiam na introjeção e manipulação de princípios de conduta entre eles, no sentido de servilizá-los ao propósito da acumulação capitalista. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Sistema Toyota de Produção. Sociologia do Trabalho. Indústria Automotiva – Brasil. TOYOTISM AND THE MERCANTILIZATION OF LABOR IN THE BRAZILIAN AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY Geraldo Augusto Pinto The aim of this article is to analyze the advancement of concepts and practices in labor management called "flexible" in the Brazilian automotive industry, particularly those rooted in the Toyota Production System. Through bibliographical research and an empirical case study of a Campinas, SP (Brazil) plant belonging to a transnational group in the auto parts sector, the author shows how changes in the organization of labor were brought about, together with the demand for the workers to have new professional and educational profiles. This analysis conclusively shows how these profiles – articulated with management's methods of evaluation in the contracting and promoting processes – have fragmented workers' collectivity in companies, putting monetary value on the relationships that they establish with one another in the workplace since they are based on the introjection and manipulation of their principles of conduct, in the sense of making them subservient to the purpose of accumulation of capital. KEY WORDS: Toyota Production System. Labor Sociology. Automotive Industry – Brazil. LE TOYOTISME ET LA MERCANTILISATION DU TRAVAIL DANS L'INDUSTRIE AUTOMOBILE AU BRÉSIL Geraldo Augusto Pinto L'objectif de cet article est d'analyser l'état d'avancement des concepts et des pratiques de gestion du travail appelées "flexibles" dans l'industrie automobile au Brésil, et en particulier celles provenant du Système Toyota de Production. Grâce à une recherche bibliographique et à une étude de cas empirique dans le cadre d'un groupe transnational de pièces détachées automobiles situé à Campinas (Etat de Sao Paulo/Brésil), nous démontrons comment des changements ont eu lieu dans l'organisation du travail, changements liés à l'exigence de nouveaux profils de qualification professionnelle et d'éducation des travailleurs. En conclusion, l'analyse montre bien comment de tels profils – articulés à des méthodes de gestion pour l'évaluation en cours de contrats et de promotions - ont fragmenté le collectif des travailleurs au sein des entreprises, monnayant les relations qui s'établissent au quotidien dans l'ambiance de travail étant donné l'introjection et la manipulation des principes de conduite entre eux afin de servir à l'accumulation capitaliste. MOTS-CLÉS: Système Toyota de Production. Sociologie du Travail. Industrie Automobile – Brésil. Publicação Online do Caderno CRH no Scielo: http://www.scielo.br/ccrh Publicação Online do Caderno CRH: http://www.cadernocrh.ufba.br

65 Filgueiras


O aprimoramento recente da sociologia latino-americana caminha no
sentido de reforçar e valorizar a
produção
científica própria. Isso permite consolidar uma
autointerpretação de sua
realidade social capaz de promover o desenvolvimento das diferentes
potencialidades das sociedades latino-americanas. O objetivo deste
texto é resgatar as posições
práticas e
epistemológicas de Alberto Guerreiro Ramos publicadas em
diferentes meios e conhecidas como
"redução
sociológica". A partir das
posições de
Guerreiro Ramos apresentadas no II Congresso
Latino Americano de Sociologia, pretende-se relacionar os termos da
redução sociológica com o
imaginário
pós-colonialista, observando proximidades e distanciamentos
metodológicos do ofício da sociologia e as
inovações proporcionadas pelo autor a partir do
conceito
de redução sociológica.

PALAVRAS-CHAVE: teoria sociológica, pensamento social
brasileiro, epistemologia das ciências sociais, nacionalismo,
pós-colonialismo.

GUERREIRO
RAMOS, LA RÉDUCTION
SOCIOLOGIQUE ET L'IMAGINAIRE POST-COLONIAL
Fernando de Barros Filgueiras

Le perfectionnement récent de la sociologie
latino-américaine se veut de renforcer et de valoriser une
production scientifique propre. Ceci permet la consolidation
d'une auto-interprétation de sa
réalité
sociale capable de promouvoir le développement des diverses
potentialités des sociétés
latino-américaines. L'objectif de cette
étude est
de reprendre les opinions pratiques et
épistémologiques
d'Alberto Guerreiro Ramos publiées dans
différents
milieux et connues en tant que "réduction
sociologique". Partant des idées de Guerreiro
Ramos
présentées lors du IIe Congrès Latino-
Américain de Sociologie, nous voulons faire le lien entre
les
termes de la réduction sociologique et
l'imaginaire
post-colonialiste, à partir de l'observation des
rapprochements et des éloignements
méthodologiques du travail de la sociologie ainsi que les
innovations apportées par l'auteur avec ce concept
de
réduction sociologique.

MOTS-CLÉS: théorie sociologique,
pensée sociale
brésilienne, épistémologie des
sciences sociales,
nationalisme, post colonialisme.

GUERREIRO
RAMOS, THE SOCIOLOGICAL
REDUCTION AND THE POST COLONIAL IMAGINATION
Fernando de Barros Filgueiras

The recent improvement of Latin-American sociology moves towards
reinforcing and giving value to its own scientific production. This
enables the consolidation of the self interpretation of its social
reality, capable of promoting the development of several potentialities
in Latin-American societies. The objective of this text is to recover
the practical and epistemological positions of Alberto Guerreiro Ramos
published in different media and recognized as a
"sociological
reduction". Based on Guerreiro Ramos' standpoints
presented
in the 2nd Latin-American Conference in Sociology, this paper aims at
relating the terms of sociological reduction to the postcolonialist
imagination, observing methodological proximities and distances from
the craft of sociology and the innovations provided by the author,
bearing in mind the sociological reduction.

KEY WORDS: sociological theory, Brazilian social thought, social
sciences epistemology, nationalism, post-colonialism.

Publicação
Online do Caderno CRH: http://www.cadernocrh.ufba.br


Publicação
Online do Caderno CRH no Scielo: http://www.scielo.br/ccrh

This short article offers a simple but profound alternative to the economic dogma of continually seeking to maximize profit and growth—seek instead to maximize personal happiness. Drawing on the work of Donella Meadows and others whose updated study, produced 30 years after the original Limits to Growth thesis that found existing economic policies and practices to be already unsustainable, the author cites Aristotle and thinkers from other cultures who proposed centuries ago that it was happiness not wealth or reputation that human beings truly desired. Recent international surveys of what makes people happy, and research into the theoretical consequences of expanding prosperity without material growth by reducing time devoted to work, are offered as examples of how educators and policy makers can act to raise general awareness that happiness is not linked to excessive wealth and that a sustainable environment combined with the optimum development of each individuals" mental, physical, and moral potential can in fact be achieved. There might be more professional economists in our society than people in any other profession. Yet, most of them appear to still accept without question the idea that growth is always beneficial. Conventional wisdom says that growth is essential to control unemployment and promote stability. As our current recession shows, when growth stops, demand falls, and business revenues drop, all leading to a reduction in levels of investment and the laying off of workers. In fact, as a nation's economy becomes more efficient, it actually generates more unemployment. At the same time, since most nations run their economies in deficit, there are strong arguments to support the idea that growth is needed to pay off our high levels of personal and national debt. These arguments are hard to refute. But the other side of the coin is: more growth necessarily brings leads to greater depletion of resources, and destruction of the environment, all contributing to global climate change and potential ecological collapse. The consequences of not limiting our growth—the "business as usual" route that our world is on—are so dire that it is high time we explore what might be done to limit economic and social growth while maintaining a functioning capitalist free market system. Though we have long recognized that there would be a limit to growth eventually, few macro-economic models have seriously examined just where that limit might lie. In 1972, commissioned by The Club of Rome, Meadows, Randers and Meadows of MIT compiled a study entitled: "Limits to Growth." 1 Using system dynamic theory and computer modeling, they produced a model called "World3." With this model they produced 12 different scenarios for Earth's future. World3 showed how the interaction of population growth and natural resource use necessarily imposed finite limits to industrial growth. The idea of such a limit was novel and somewhat controversial at the time and many, as expected, dismissed it as an alarmist doomsday prophecy. At that point in time, the world's economy with a global population at about 3.8 billion 2 was still comfortably within the planet's carrying capacity. Thus it seemed to many that the Earth still had plenty of room to grow.

In Romania there are only a few parental education programs being carried out, but most of them are not properly/scientifically measured in terms of efficiency. For this reason, the purpose of the research was the implementation and scientific validation of a training program for developing the parental competence. The parental competence was defined as a system of knowledge, skills, capabilities, abilities and habits that would allow the parent to successfully fulfill the parental responsibilities and also prevent/deal with crisis situations in a manner that would contribute to the child's development (Glăveanu, 2009). The above-mentioned term became widely spread in Romania after 2010, when the Integrated National Strategy for Creating and Developing Parental Competence was published. The Strategy is supported by the Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sports and its deadline is in the summer of 2012.
The 298 parents who participated in the research were selected based on the criteria of average and low parental competence and their children had educational and social adaptation difficulties. The methods used during the research were the formative experiment and the questionnaire-based investigation. The participants were evaluated before and after the training with the Parental Competence Questionnaire (PCQ, developed by the author of the study). The PCQ had five dimensions comprised of a total of 81 items: knowing the specificities of the child between 6 and 11 years of age (alpha=0.69), affective support and stress management (alpha=0.74), disciplining (alpha=0.82), time management (alpha=0.77) and crisis management (alpha=0.77). Each of the PCQ dimensions (which were built in accordance to the conceptualized structure of the parental competence) had a training module dedicated to it.
PCQ was validated with the Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ, built by Buri in 1991); significant correlations for the two questionnaires occurred (between 0.5 and 0.9).
The statistical results obtained by using PCQ six months after the training (Independent-Samples T Test=61.43; df=298; p<0.001) showed significant differences between the experimental group (M=315.81) and the control group (M=243.22); the PCQ results of the experimental group were also compared (Paired-Samples T Test=58.39; df=141; p<0.001) and showed statistically significant differences between the pre-training results (time 1=just before training, M=221.31) and the post-training ones (time 2=graduating training+6 months, M=315.81). Similarly, the scores of the control group at the two chosen moments (time 1: M=221.57 and time 2: M=243.22) indicated a timed evolution, but statistically insignificant of the parental competence (Paired-Samples T Test=34.19; df=155, p=0.07). These results proved the certain and significant influence that the training had over the development of the parental competence, in comparison to the case of the spontaneous growth – thus being confirmed the hypothesis of the study.
As a conclusion, the results proved the internal validation of the training program (according to Vaughn's criteria, 2005). It is yet to be proven the external validation regarding the impact of the training program on the child's overall development (Kirkpatrick, 2006; Vaughn, 2005) and this will be done by applying the training program on an expanded/national level.
Key words: adult education, child development, parental competence, parental training, training validation.

Whilst Edward Gibbon's Memoirs of My Life comprise a notoriously complex document of autobiographical artifice, there is no reason to question the honesty of its revelation of his attitudes to geography and its relationship to the historian's craft. Writing of his boyhood before going up to Oxford, Gibbon commented that his
vague and multifarious reading could not teach me to think, to write, or to act; and the only principle, that darted a ray of light into the indigested chaos, was an early and rational application of the order of time and place. The maps of Cellarius and Wells imprinted in my mind the picture of ancient geography: from Stranchius I imbibed the elements of chronology: the Tables of Helvicus and Anderson, the Annals of Usher [sic] and Prideaux, distinguished the connection of events . . .
This seems a fairly direct comment on Gibbon's attitude to geography as a historian in that it is confirmed by various of his working documents and commonplace book comments not aimed at posterity and by the practice embodied in his great work that was thus targeted, the Decline and Fall. Taking Gibbon's private documents, the first manuscript we have in his English Essays, for example, is a tabulated chronology from circa 1751 when Gibbon was fourteen years old, which begins with the creation of the world in 6000 BC and runs up to 1590 BC, this being exactly the sort of material which could be commonplaced from the likes of Ussher and Prideaux. Matching this attention to chronology is a concern with geography, and indeed the two are coupled together as in his comment in the Memoirs. Thus in his Index Expurgatoris (1768–9), Gibbon berates Sallust as "no very correct historian" on the grounds that his chronology is not credible and that "notwithstanding his laboured description of Africa, nothing can be more confused than his Geography without either division of provinces or fixing of towns". In this regard, Gibbon the author of the Decline and Fall was a "correct" historian, in that he was careful to frame each arena in which historical events were narrated in the light of a prefatory description of the geography of the location under discussion. This is most readily apparent in the second half of the opening chapter of the work, where Gibbon proceeds on what his "Table of Contents" calls a "View of the Provinces of the Roman Empire", starting in the West with Spain and then proceeding clockwise to reach Africa on the other side of the Pillars of Hercules, a pattern of geographical description directly mirroring ancient practice in Strabo's Geography and Pomponius Mela's De Situ Orbis. But this practice of prefacing a historical account with geographical description repeats itself at various points in the work, as when, approaching the end of his grand narrative, Gibbon reaches the impact of "Mahomet, with sword in one hand and the Koran in the other" on "the causes of the decline and fall of the Eastern empire". Before discussing the birth of Islam, Gibbon treats his readers to a discussion of the geography of Arabia, beginning with its size and shape before moving on to its soils, climate and physical–geographic subdivisions.

The following document, previously unpublished, was written in March 2010 by a recently retired ( June 2009) U.S. Army colonel with thirty years experience in the Middle East, including tours of duty and advisory roles (in both military/security and civilian domains) from North Africa to the Persian Gulf. The subject of the informal report is the author's first two trips as a "civilian" to Israel and the West Bank, where he had served two tours of duty, most recently as U.S. military attachéé in Tel Aviv during Israel's 2005 unilateral disengagement from Gaza and the formation of the U.S. Security Coordinator's (USSC) mission to reform Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces.
Written as an internal document for military colleagues and government circles, the report has been circulating widely——as did the author's earlier briefings on travel or missions in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, and especially Iraq——among White House senior staff, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Defense Intelligence Agency, CENTCOM (U.S. Central Command), EUCOM (U.S. European Command), and the USSC team.
The document's focus is the state of the "peace process" and the current situation in the West Bank, with particular attention to the PA security forces and the changes on the ground since the author's last tour there ended in mid-2007. But the real interest of the paper lies in the message directed at its intended audience of military and government policy officials——that is, its frank assessment of the deficiencies of the U.S. peace effort and the wider U.S. policy-making system in the Israel-Palestine arena, with particular emphasis on the disconnect between the situation on the ground and the process led by Washington. The critique has special resonance in light of the emerging new thinking in the administration fueled by the military high command's unhappiness (expressed by CENTCOM commander General David Petraeus and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Michael Mullen) with the State Department's handling of Middle East diplomacy, especially with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, on the grounds that diplomatic failures are having a negative impact on U.S. operations elsewhere in the region.
For most JPS readers, the report has additional interest as an insider's view of the U.S. security presence in the Israel-Palestine arena. It also reflects a military approach that is often referenced but largely absent in public discourse and academic writings.
The author, in addition to his tours of duty and peacekeeping missions in various Middle Eastern countries, has served as advisor to two U.S. special Middle East envoys, the U.S. negotiating team with Syria, General Petraeus, Lieutenant General Keith Dayton, Vice President Dick Cheney, and, more generally, to CENTCOM, the Department of Defense, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, among others. In retirement, he has worked with CENTCOM as a key primary subject matter expert in the development of analyses and solutions for its area of responsibility, leads predeployment briefings for army units heading to Iraq, and travels frequently to Iraq and elsewhere in the region as an independent consultant. He is currently in Afghanistan with the CENTCOM commander's Afghanistan-Pakistan Center of Excellence.
The report, made available to JPS, is being published with the author's permission.

Editor's Note Robert A. Dahl, the foremost living theorist of democracy, is the emeritus Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University, where he received his Ph.D. in 1940 and where he spent virtually his entire academic career. After five years working for the government—as a management analyst at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, then as an economist in the Office of Price Administration and the War Production Board, and finally as a member of the Army—he returned to Yale in 1946. With colleagues Charles Lindblom, Robert Lane, and others, he helped build the first modern department of political science, a department that asked major substantive questions while using the best social science techniques available at the time. In the interview that follows, which I conducted on March 30, 2008, Dahl grounds his motivation for studying democracy not only in his academic encounters but also in his experiences growing up in Alaska, attending public schools there, and working with longshore workers as a boy. He does not want to replicate the utopian visions of classical philosophers. His commitment is to the development of an empirical model of democracy that guides scholars in their efforts to determine the extent of democratization throughout the world as well as in the United States. Normatively, he is committed to a democracy that recognizes the rights and voice of all who have a legitimate claim to citizenship. Although he is known for his arguments about the procedures democracy requires, some of his most important work deals with the distribution of power. He engaged in debate with elitist theorists such as C. Wright Mills and Floyd Hunter, who argued that a small elite determined virtually all important policy decisions. Dahl's book Who Governs?, winner of the 1962 Woodrow Wilson Prize of the American Political Science Association, makes a very different set of claims. There Dahl analyzes decision making in several policy arenas and finds different key actors influencing the outcomes. The debate did not stop there, of course, but Dahl transformed the style of argument by investigating how decisions were made and who made them. Dahl continued to study and contemplate democracy, winning a second Woodrow Wilson Prize in 1990 for Democracy and Its Critics. By his admission, he concluded his writing career with a second edition of How Democratic is the American Constitution in 2003 and On Political Equality in 2006. Robert Dahl has received numerous honors. He was a Guggenheim fellow in 1950 and 1978, a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences in 1955–1956 and 1967, and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Philosophical Society, National Academy of Sciences, and British Academy (as a corresponding fellow). He served as President of the American Political Science Association in 1966–1967. He was the 1995 recipient of the Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science. He holds numerous honorary doctorates in addition to other major awards in recognition of his remarkable standing in the profession. The editorial committee of the Annual Review of Political Science was unanimous in its selection of Robert Dahl as the author of this first prefatory article by a distinguished living scholar to be published in our pages. -Margaret Levi

Straipsnyje aptariama graikiškojo filosofavimo genezė, t. y. nagrinėjamos pirmojo filosofijos teiginio susiklostymo prielaidos ir tų prielaidų numanoma teiginio prasmė. Filosofijos istorijoje nusistovėjusios pirmųjų filosofų teiginių interpretacijos kilmė siejama su Aristotelio filosofija. Teigiama, kad Aristotelis graikiškąjį filosofavimą jau visiškai įkurdina rašte. Iš rašto pozicijų Aristotelis žvelgia ir į pirmųjų filosofų ištaras, todėl suvokia jas vien kaip rašto (teorinio mąstymo) elementus. Straipsnyje daroma prielaida, kad filosofavimas prasidėjo ne kaip raštas, o kaip su žmogaus veikla susijęs tradicinis kalbėjimas. Filosofavimo kaip konstruktyvios kalbėjimo atmainos specifiką lėmė antikoje susiklosčiusi refleksijos situacija, kuri siejama su septynių išminčių imperatyvu 'Pažink save!' Parodoma, kad šis imperatyvas steigia skirtį tarp logo ir kosmo, kurią antikos išminčius išgyvena kaip sinkretinio gyvenimo vidujybės netektį. Straipsnio autorius interpretuoja filosofavimą kaip kalbėjimą ir veikimą, kuriais antikos išminčius siekia susigrąžinti ikirefleksinę būseną. Teigiama, kad sinkretinių mąstymo įgūdžių nepraradęs antikos išminčius savąjį filosofavimą linkęs aiškinti kaip pritapimo prie kosmo būdą. Kadangi refleksija įkurdina žmogų teorinio mąstymo erdvėje, tai pritapimo prie kosmo veiksmas tegalimas mąstymo plotmėje, todėl filosofavimą steigianti skirtis tarp logo ir kosmo besiplėtojančiame filosofavime nuaidi skirtimis kosme. Tačiau pirmieji išminčiai dar tikisi pilnatviško pritapimo prie kosmo ir tokio pritapimo regimybę jie dar pelno kosmo kaip grožio išgyvenimu, kurį Platonas ir Aristotelis sieja su nuostaba. Pirmoji kanonizuotoji filosofijos ištara interpretuojama kaip estetinį pritapimą prie kosmo referuojantis poetinis bylojimas.Pagrindiniai žodžiai: raštas, priežastis, refleksija, kosmas, pritapimas, archė, grožis, tiesa, būtis.On the Nature (of Philosophy)Skirmantas Jankauskas

SummaryThe paper deals with the genesis of Greek philosophy. The circumstances of the appearance of the first utterance in Greek philosophy and their impact upon its meaning are revealed. The traditional interpretation of the first utterances in the early Greek philosophy is attributed to Aristotle. The latter is said to have transferred Greek philosophizing totally into writing and subsequently to treat the first utterances as elements of writing. In the article, the suggestion is put forward that philosophizing did not begin as a writing but rather as a talking activity immersed in human activity in general. The specificity of philosophizing as constructive talking is related to the situation of reflection, caused by the imperative of the Seven Sages, namely by the imperative 'Know thyself!". It is shown here that the imperative introduces the difference between logos and cosmos, which is experienced by a Greek Sage as a loss of sincretic life. Philosophizing is then introduced as an activity of talking, provoked by the will to reestablish the original sincretic state. The author argues that because of syncretist skills, this activity is treated by early Greek philosophers as a way of partaking in cosmos. As reflection conveys a philosopher into the realm of theoretical thinking, partaking in cosmos is possible only as a way of thinking. Consequently, the difference between logos and cosmos in philosophizing resolves itself in the differences of cosmos. Nevertheless, the first philosophers still retained some hope for complete partaking in cosmos, and they gained the illusion of such a partaking by aesthetic experience of cosmos, which was attributed by Plato and Aristotle to wondering. Consequently, the first utterance of Greek philosophy is interpreted in this article as a kind of poetic discourse that refers to the activity of aesthetic partaking in cosmos.Keywords: writing, reason, reflection, cosmos, partaking, arche, the beautiful, truth, being.

Yugoslavia, once an advanced country in market reforms, was one of the least transformed countries in Eastern Europe in the nineties. Such a situation was caused by the civil war, policy of the Milosevic?s regime and international sanctions. The resistance of the ruling conservative forces made it impossible to establish an adequate reform policy. Thus, the transition stopped short halfway. The situation has radically changed only since the autumn of 2000, after Milosevic?s downfall, when after the gradual lifting of international isolation, economic and political reforms were given a new stimulus, and the country could start the process of European integration. This article is an attempt to give an overview of the transition of the Yugoslav economy in the last ten years or so. The growth rate of Yugoslavia?s GDP is compared not only with that of its neighbouring countries, i.e. other former socialist countries of South-Eastern Europe (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Romania) but also with that of other transition economies in Central and Eastern Europe, including the Commonwealth of Independent States. A particular attention is given to the role of research and development (R&D) in Yugoslavia in the nineties as compared to Croatia, Slovenia, and the United States. The structural changes in the Yugoslav economy during the past decade are analysed together with property relations as well as the issues concerning small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). At the sectoral level, it is the performance of manufacturing and agriculture that is separately explored. In relation to this, wage formation and relative wage levels in Yugoslavia?s manufacturing are viewed regarding the country?s international competitiveness and wider characteristics of globalising world economy. In analysing the role of external sources in the Yugoslav economy, the problems of foreign trade, external indebtedness, and attraction of foreign direct investment (FDI) are emphasized together with the economic assistance rendered to the FRY by the European Union. Regarding the important indicator of openness, i.e. the share of exports and imports in GDP, a comparison is made between Yugoslavia, on one hand, and Croatia, Slovenia, the European Union, and the United States, on the other. The economic policy of Milosevic?s regime is contrasted with that of the new democratic government that came to power after the events in October 2000. Stabilisation, liberalisation, privatisation, and institutional reform are considered giving particular attention to the experience of the member republics of the Yugoslav federation: Serbia and Montenegro. The author comes to the following conclusions: in transition countries stabilisation, liberalisation, and privatisation cannot be successful without carrying out a comprehensive, deep reform of the system of political institutions that along with creation of conditions for establishment of democracy and its strengthening also enables building of a modern and efficient market economy. This complicated and often contradictory process could come across serious obstacles if the old state and party nomenclature in power retains the command economy without planning, and under demagogical, nationalistic, and populist slogans gets involved in wars even taking the risks of being put under international isolation. However, such an outdated economic system characterised by autarchy can only temporarily exist and hinder the unravelling of market reforms in the epoch of globalisation.