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Der Beitrag dokumentiert die Diskussion auf der "Author Meets Critic"-Veranstaltung zu John Urrys "Sociology Beyond Societies" auf dem 32. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie (2004). Zunächst erläutert Urry den Grundgedanken seines Ansatzes, der auf eine Aufhebung der Trennung zwischen Naturwissenschaften und Gesellschaftswissenschaften hinausläuft. Unter dem Leitbild "Komplexität" wird die Analyse physischer und sozialer Welten integriert. Dabei werden auch Elemente von Hardt/Negris "Empire und Multitude"-Konzept aufgegriffen. Der Begriff der Globalen Komplexität steht auch im Mittelpunkt der Kommentare von Junge und Schwengel zu Urrys Buch. (ICE)

This executive order by Governor Mark Sanford declares Monday, December 24, 2007, as the Christmas Eve holiday for state government employees.

Insufficient attention towards the topic of public service motivation among Lithuanian scholars encouragedthe author to choose the object for the paper. The paper starts with the analysis of various theories of motivation(starting with A.Maslow theory of needs hierarchy and analyzing more complex theories of F.Herzberg,K.Alderfer, D.McCleland, V.Vroom, J.Adams, E.Lawler, W.Porter ). Similar theories can serve as the basis forfuture research in Lithuanian public sphere. Author states, that universal theory on motivation does not exist.This fact complicates applicability of various theories in practice as raises the question, which theory is the bestone (qualitative dimension). After choosing the theory, another question is what we have to measure. Attitudes(satisfaction), behavior (involvement) or both these elements should be used trying to measure motivation. Awish to participate in public policy implementation, serving public, loyalty to government; commitment andbenevolence are several specific motivators, which influence public servant's activity. It is shown that workingconditions, work content, salary, work safety, challenges, and possibilities for a career in private and publicsector lead to distinguish certain similarities and differences.

This article seeks to lay a theoretical foundation of the internal decentralization (decentralization in the localmunicipality): its essence and content are defined, the main forms as well as the kinds of forms are identified. Thisis performed by using theoretical propositions of decentralization in the state (at the state level) following differentresearchers' works and verifying whether they are suitable for local municipalities of Lithuania and other countries.In the article the set goal is being sought by these actions:1) the origin and the meaning of the word "decentralization" are explained;2) the essence and the content of decentralization in the state (at the state level) are defined;3) the essence and the content of decentralization in the local municipality are defined, its main forms andkinds of forms are named;4) currently the most frequently applied forms of internal decentralization in local municipalities of othercountries are submitted.In the opinion of the author of the article, decentralization in the local municipality (or internal decentralizationin the local municipality) means the transfer of the powers assigned to municipal bodies, which belong to ahigher hierarchical level, to a subordinate or non-subordinate bodies, which belong to a lower hierarchical level, ordivision of powers to a bigger number of bodies of the same hierarchical level. The bodies that have received thesepowers are guaranteed some discretion to make decisions and operate. Moreover, a certain interaction (relations,responsibilities) between the bodies that have transferred the powers and the ones that have received those powersis foreseen.From the author's of the article point of view, the internal decentralization in the local municipality isperformed by these forms:1) deconcentration;2) transfer of powers (delegation);3) fiscal decentralization;4) economic decentralization.The author thinks that at present the most frequently applied forms of internal decentralization in municipalitiesof different countries are the ...

The author has carried out a study in regard to aspects of gender equality in politics and publicadministration in Latvia. The author has questioned 85 women, leaders of local governments, interviewed20 respondents in Latvia, asked men, leaders of local governments, for their opinion, as wellas conducted expert interviews in Finland. Results of the study show that the women, leaders of localgovernments, acknowledge themselves as leaders and they are such indeed. Majority of them have notencountered gender discrimination. Women leaders have positive attitude towards women organizations.A half of the respondents suggest other women should participate in politics, work in local governmentswhich gives them satisfaction regardless of the fact that the participation in politics affectstheir family lives, and stereotypes existing in the society about a woman in politics. Results gainedfrom the survey examining men's opinion revealed stereotypical thinking about women holding managerialpositions by emphasizing feminine qualities of the women and the role the woman plays in thefamily. Although it cannot be affirmed that gender discrimination has been ended completely inFinland, interviews with experts in Finland have shown that women's participation in politics, cultureand trust in political power are greater in Finland than in Latvia.

Dorothy Eck explains the events that guided her interests in politics, her eventual membership and presidency of the Montana League of Women Voters, and discusses issues backed by that organization. She discusses her experience in the Montana Senate, 1980-2000, and describes former political leaders such as Mike Mansfield, Lee Metcalf, Arnold Olsen, and various influential legislators. At the end of the interview, she gives a detailed account of her participation in the Montana Constitutional Convention of 1972. ; https://scholarworks.umt.edu/brown/1010/thumbnail.jpg

The aim of the paper is to discuss introduction of New Public Management (NPM) ideas in Latvianpublic administration after 1990 in the context of policy transfer. Since, policy transfer conceptincludes a wide scope of actors involved, the paper will concentrate upon politicians and elected officials.Politicians are the only actors in policy transfer who can decide to transfer entire policies. Inthis respect, the motivation of politicians imposed by external and internal constraints to use policytransfer is relevant. In order to explore scope of policy transfer utilised during administrative transformationin Latvia, the author will analyse governmental declarations and the activities performedas the main source describing governmental commitments.

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

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 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.

In this article the author aims to reveal the legal content of the Fundamental Freedoms enshrined in the ECTreaty, to analyze the relevant ECJ jurisprudence where the Fundamental Freedoms are interpreted in the directtax dimension and in such a way to emphasise the importance of the primary EC law to the individual incometaxation in the Member States.When analyzing the ECJ jurisprudence in the sphere of individual income taxation, the author notes that theMember States, being the source states for the taxpayers from other Member States, usually apply more favorabletax treatment to their residents than to non-residents. For the purposes of establishing the discrimination of a nonresidentin such a case, it shall be clarified whether such a non-resident is in the same situation with a resident. Inthis respect the ECJ distinguishes two types of national rules on individual income taxation: (i) the tax rules thatestablish the tax incentives pertaining to "personal and family circumstances" of a taxpayer and (ii) the tax rulesthat establish the tax incentives pertaining to the employment (business) income of a taxpayer.The author notes that a non-resident and a resident are treated as being in the same (comparable) situationwith respect to the tax incentive pertaining to "personal and family circumstances" if non-resident receives "all oralmost all" his income in the source state and therefore is not able to benefit from the personal and family related tax incentives applicable in his residence state. Such a resident is often called a "virtual" resident. Therefore, it isa source state, but not a residence state, that is obliged to apply the personal and family related tax incentives to sucha taxpayer. If the source state is applying the personal and family related tax incentives to its residents, however, itrefuses to apply such tax incentives to its "virtual" residents, then such a practice shall be treated as being discriminatory.The famous ECJ case Schumacker is a good illustration of such a situation.On the other ...

The aim of the EU regional policy is to increase the level of social and economic cohesion of the Community. The effectiveness of this policy is not unanimously agreed upon. There are regions in Europe which took maximum advantage of the Structural Funds and considerably decreased the gap between them and the average EU level (Lisboa e Vale Do Tejo), or even went beyond it (Ireland). However, there are also regions that, despite huge transfers from the EU budget, are stagnant (southern Italy) The negative examples are exploited by the opponents of the current policy. According to them, the policy's achievement in its current shape is too expensive for the entire Union (too high opportunity cost). The same transfers used to support innovativeness in the well-developed regions would lead to an increased innovativeness and modernization of the Member States' economies in general. The article's aim is an attempt to answer the question about the policy's future shape. It will depend on many factors (social and economic situation in the entire Europe, catch-up processes, political situation, etc). A different shape of regional policy could, however, mean a return to the idea of two-speed Europe, which would not be advantageous to the new Member States.