Suchergebnisse

The minority policy and integration of ethnic and national minorities belong to the central concepts of domestic policy-making in nation states. The article deals with the different approaches to minority policy and integration from the perspective of the Baltic States and Slovakia. We argue about the political conditionality prior to the access to the EU in 2004 and subsequent developments in the perspective of position and protection of national minorities living in respective countries. We reveal the potential threats of minority integration and cohesive society building process, especially with regard to the historical grievance, different elites' attitudes and minority actors themselves. ; Tomasz Wiskulski

The decentralization of the state public administration was announced in spite of the EU integration process as well as the reform of the state public administration that proved the necessity of transforming and transferring the competences and finances to the subnational levels of governance. From this principle, among others, the regional and municipal administration of education sector evolved in Slovakia. This article aims to study the decentralization development with the particular impact on local self-government and regional school system. The authors argue about the potential threats of school decentralization and challenges that the system of regional and municipal schools brings.

The case study in this paper presents an initial descriptive account of a local initiative in utilizing local resources to stimulate not only economic growth, but also rural resources, knowledge and experience of residents and entrepreneurs. Living Houses project is one example of a tangible local initiative. The descriptive case study describe one local action group located in central Slovenia and their experience with implementing a project that includes principles of rural development set out by EU policy. The authors of the article also present further steps and evaluation tools that need to be implemented into the project.