Suchergebnisse

A stabilised tax system is a necessary element of an efficient legal system. Assurance of stability of thetax system is crucial for tax payers, who can plan their undertakings over a longer period of time, withoutbeing exposed to the danger of tax rate changes. The most visible symptom of tax law stability is the stabilityof tax rates. The guarantee of fixed tax rates is one of the most important incentives for investors, who takeit under consideration when estimating the risk connected with starting a new enterprise in a given market.Establishment of a stabilised tax system turns out to be very difficult in practice. There are severalfactors, amongst which the most important are: political background; sovereignty of lawmakers, who canalmost unlimitedly define the level of tax burden; changes taking place in former socialist countries in thelate 1980's and early 1990's causing radical tax system reforms; and, at last, the process of accession to theEuropean Community, which required harmonisation of state law systems with the European one.The above makes one ask the question whether it is possible to create a stabilised tax system with allthose factors around and eventually how to outline the area of stability

After the restoration of independence, Lithuania faced a rather difficult task: in a period of several years it hadto catch up with the democratically, economically and socially developed countries of the western world that hadsucceeded to achieve their present level over many decades. The ambition to produce fast results preconditioneddifferent problems in a number of political spheres.The creation of the regional policy was not an exception either. Despite the fact that quite a speedy improvementof the regions shows a positive progress in this sphere, problems could not be avoided in the process offormation and implementation of the regional policy. Hesitation in solving these problems may bring the situationunder threat.The article analyses factors that have contributed to the problems in the sphere of regional policy, and stressesthe significance of regionalism on the regional development.

The article analyses the following issues: 1. Performance measurement in literature. The performancemeasurement has an important role to play in the efficient and effective management of organizations. 2.Performance measurement in local authorities. Local governments themselves use a wide range performancemeasurement system in services area such as fire, solid water, water, roads, transportation, health, housing,recreation and social services. Measuring municipal performance means assessing how well a municipalityperforms when delivering goods and services to the public. 3. The principles underlying effective performancemeasurement. An effective performance measurement system will be built around six key principles:clarity of purpose, focus, alignment, balance, regular refinement, robust performance indicators. 4. Types ofperformance indicators. Performance measurements indicate how much or how well agency is doing. Theapproach adopted for developing the performance measurement system is based on the inputs – outputsefficiency outcomes framework. 5. Performance measurement importance for local authorities. 6. Performancemanagement versus performance measurement. 7. Measures, methodologies and approaches.

The word govern comes from a Greek root "kybern", which means to "steer" (The same root appears incybernetics, the science of control.) The job of government is to steer, not to row. Delivering services - whetherrepairing streets or operating an airline - is rowing, and government is nor very good at this task. Privatization is apragmatic policy for restoring government to its fundamental role, steering, while relying on the private sector todo the rowing.Privatization can be defined broadly as relying more on the private institutions of society and less on governmentto satisfy people's needs. It is the act of reducing the role of government or increasing the role of the otherinstitutions of society in producing goods and services and in owning property. In general, both the public andprivate sectors play important roles, and it is increasingly common to refer to "public-private partnerships", a lesscontentious term than "privatization". A public-private partnership is defined as any arrangement between agovernment and the private sector in which partially or traditionally public activities are performed by the privatesector.The distinction between public and private is elusive. We speak of a park or government office building asbeing publicly owned, but we use the same term to describe Microsoft because it has many stockholders and anymember of the public may buy part of the company; it is a private firm that is publicly owned. In the same way, apublic restaurant is one that caters to the public at large, although it may be owned by a sole proprietor. Confusingly,we use the same word, public, to describe three very different conditions: government ownership, widespreadownership, and open access. Their semantic confusion is nevertheless instructive, for it implies that governmentownership - and by extension, government action - is not necessary to achieve widespread (i.e., "public") benefits.Privatization capitalises on this underappreciated truism and takes advantage of the full array of ownership andoperating ...

Impact of the European small and medium enterprises policy principles on the development of institutionalframework in Lithuania has been analyzed in the paper. Exploring the topic changing criteria of small and mediumenterprises in European Union has been taken into account, as well as changes of the institutions, andstages of their development. Problems of public finance support for creating business advisory service systemhave been discussed in the paper. Instruments of direct (PHARE program) and indirect (membership negotiations)of European Union have been characterized. Author concludes that despite the increasing support forsmall and medium enterprises in the amount and innovating forms, it is not sufficient for coping with marketpressure both within Community and externally.

The article examines the size and growth of governments in the United States. The three different measures areused to define the size of government: the number or government units, their expenditures, and the number ofpeople they employ. The number of different government units changes over time. The number of townships hasbeen shrinking while the number of municipalities has been growing, an indication of increasing urbanization andthe incorporation of previously unincorporated areas. The number of special districts shoes rapid growth, a reflectionof the continuous creation of intergovernmental arrangements to perform various functions in metropolitanareas. As a result, and reversing a prolonged decline that resulted from the consolidation of school districts, thetotal number of government units is growing again.While the total number of governments has been growing slowly in recent decades, their expenditures havebeen growing rapidly. Total spending by all levels of government in the United States in 1996 was $2.993 trillion.This does not include "off-budget spending," that is, outstanding federal loans, guaranteed loans, and borrowing byfederally sponsored enterprises. In less than 40 years, measured in constant dollars, expenditures have more thanquadrupled, almost tripled on a per capita basis, and grown by more than half as a fraction of gross domesticproduct (GDP), to 32.2 percent.

The paper deals with the role of economic policy and the role of the state in economy on the backgroundof historic experience. It is particularly focused on the changing role of the state in the globalization processand the impact of recent globalization trends on economic and political decision-making.

The low level of representative power and political parties in Lithuanian public opinion inspired this analysisof political parties, as organizations using basic knowledge of management science. Understanding that voters areconsumers of political party's activities result, programs for election campaigns are considered as a main product ofpolitical parties' activity basing on the most popular contemporary understanding of political party. Basing on thefundamentals of management science a strategy of state development and persons prepared to implement thatstrategy in representative and governmental institutions are considered as a more valuable product of party activitiesin the article. Acquiring the power to govern a state for long enough period, when more than half of citizensparticipating in elections are oriented towards short term goals is considered as a paradox of democracy. Creationand popularizing a philosophy of political party, forming a field of main values in the state's life, serving as a basisfor strategy and short time election programs is considered as a mission of political parties in contemporaryLithuania enabling to overcome the paradox of democracy.

The overview of various theories allows us to conclude that civil society is an important scientific concept and a multi-layeredphenomenon. Philosophical ethical and cultural paradigm stresses the importance of the personality in civil society initiatives, also ittakes the role of the State as an absolute factor. Civic consciousness and responsibility when linked to education, is broadly understoodas civility. Variety of social systems and their change is interpreted with reservation and in relative terms. Political scientists areinterested in a more narrow aspect of civil society – into its manifestation and development under conditions of the democratic State.For them the basic is concept of interest groups is essential therefore public opinion and public discourse are in the focus of the research.Recently topic of corruption, interpreted as a reflection of the civic values functional in the given society, became very popular amongthe researchers. Sociologists view civil society as a political, social and economic complex. High importance is attributed to suchconcepts as volunteerism, philanthropy, trust, etc. Specialists of public administration base their insights on the background defined bythe above-described theories and try to confer them practical meaning, recognize applicable elements, apt to managerial knowledge,create realistic strategies how to foster civil society that is considered to be an important, positive phenomenon that could be improvedby the legal and managerial instruments.

The functions and powers of local self-governance are broadly discussed at all levels of government institutions,non-governmental organizations and communities. There is an expressed position that local communities andtheir local self-governing institutions should be given the power of subsidiary decision making in locally specificissues. However, year after year, the unanimous attitude is suppressed by financial and fiscal dependence upon thecentral government, unreasonably large territorial units with high population density. These circumstances limitdown the decision-making and, moreover, the implementation of the decisions. From this point of view, the financialand fiscal powers of local self-governing institutions and, consequently, the decision-making strata are significantlydifferent from those in other Baltic and Central European countries, as well as Scandinavian states. This articledeals with the analysis of local self-governing administration in terms of its fiscal and financial empowerment, thesize of the local communities and its impact on decision-making. A comparison is drawn with Scandinavian, centralEuropean and Baltic countries.

The article deals with the contradictory effect of civil society and civility discourses for the theory ofmodern democracy. The author concentrates on observed two main theoretical approaches towards the role andposition of civil society in new democracies. Following the cautious optimism of "neotocquevillians" thetransition from undemocratic regime to the democracy was influenced of universal and global spread ofdemocracy. In the transitional period civil society comes into play as the guarantee for consolidatingdemocracy. Scientists skeptics don't share this view and not consider civil society as the panacea buildingdemocracy.Civility can be described as an ethos of citizens conduct, necessary condition for real democracy. Socialcapital theory inspired discussion on the influence of "republican virtues" upon the modern democracy.However, the more important question is what type of civil society promotes democracy.The manifestations of civility discourse complicated the creation of liberal democracy at the initial stage ofpostcommunist transformations in East and Central European countries. Seeking more authentic reflection ofmodern democracy in their own country Lithuanian social scientists should: 1) discard all the uncriticalapproaches to the Western models of civil society; 2) propose the original decision while trying to solve thedilemma of modern democracy, because the one suggested by L. Siedentop is hardly applicable for societieswhich lack the liberal hinge.

The purpose of the paper is to analyze both positive and negative aspects of corruption education in Lithuania.Although anticorruption education in Lithuania is a new phenomenon, but it is making a good progress:anticorruption institutions are established, various anticorruption education researches and projects with localand foreign partners are being implemented, anticorruption education system of public servants is formed, methodicaltraining tools for higher schools and universities are prepared. It demonstrates the seriousness of theproblem of corruption in the country and a real desire to overcome it. However, insufficient financing of anticorruptioneducation, usually only a formal implementation of anticorruption measures in public institutions,the lack of ethical motivation in civil service, poor wittiness of the society hinder the efficiency of anticorruptioneducation. The projects of anticorruption education are too theoretical and difficult to realize in practice.Anticorruption training in civil service is practically based on codes of ethics, which do not guarantee moralityand clearness of their work. The role of mass media in forming anticorruption attitudes of the society is doublefaced.Sometimes non-transparent mass media discourages the fight against corruption, distorts real facts anddiminishes the activity of the society. There are no methods to measure the efficiency of anticorruption education.Its influence on reducing the corruption will be visible only after some time.

Development of democratic principles in European countries also stimulates decentralization processes inthe sphere of state control by relegating ever greater part of public affairs ma-na-gement to local governmentinstitutions and enhancing thereby their significance in state control. The European local government charterstates thet local gover-nment institutions make a basis for any democratic system.Local government means that local authorities, within the limits established by law, have the right and capabilityto manage and control a part of public affairs in the interests of local population, taking the whole responsibility.Local authorities have the right to accomplish the functions delegated by central or regional authorities, at theirown discretion and taking into consideration local conditions. These statements also refer to the economic sphereand their realization would allow an increase in the economic effectiveness of local government.The decentralization process, based on the mentioned principles, takes the shape of the so-called fiscal decentralizationin the economic sphere. The fiscal decentralization is conceived as enhancement of financial independenceof local authorities, by delimiting the functions of the local and central authorities in the public economicsector, and by allocating appropriately financial resources to pursue these functions. The economic foundation ofsuch decentralization is enhancement of the efficiency of the public economic sector. A centralized supply ofstandard wealth disregarding a specific character of individual regions of a country and a variety of the needs ofsocial groups conditions its inadequacy to the needs of society. In this case, decentralization of the public sectorwill stimulate economic efficiency by establishing more favorable conditions to supply public wealth such thatmeet the consumers' needs best.Realization of fiscal decentralization in the public economic sector of Lithuania and its correspondence to theprinciples of the European charter on local ...

As representatives of the construction business are able to manage themselves so that they are in conformitywith the existing and future requirements of Lithuanian market development and international integration, maintainingthe ability to compete on domestic and international markets, thus the alternation of certain public administrationinstitutions for successful development of the construction business should be planned. Unplannedalternation of public administration is conditioned by constant and hardly predicted political, economical andsocial environment. On the other hand, however, purposive alternation of public administration for the constructionbusiness should be pursued by certain public administration institutions and organizations, aiming at theeffectiveness of the activities carried out by public administrators, efficiency, and non-bureaucratic attitude towardsthe construction business.The importance of the ratio between free market and state regulation of economics for the modern life is veryhigh, which means that the importance of public administration on the construction business is tremendous.Survey analysis is used for clarification and respective evaluation of the opinion of the construction businesscommunity with regard to the functioning of public administration in the construction business. Public administrationin the construction business is studied by experts of market economics, officers of public institutions andbusinessmen-builders themselves; the topic, however, hasn't been studied well enough to avoid problems andmistakes when making certain decisions.

Referring to the materials of 6th Global Forum on Reinventing Government: Toward Participatory and TransparentGovernance, relevancies of public administration development are analyzed by emphasizing the paradigm shiftfrom public administration to governance in the link between government and citizens. It is shown, that duringlatter decades the new tendencies prevail in public administration which indicate, that from the administrationdown to the management is being moved, and that principles at the heart of good governance are participation,pluralism, subsidiarity, transparency, accountability, equity, access, partnership, and efficiency. It isemphasized, that the similar provisions are stated in the strategic development documents of Lithuanian publicadministration.