Suchergebnisse

The article deals with contemporary executive's rewards system in the Lithuanian public sector and its changes over time. This analysis includes high officials in civil service as well as heads of public service's providers and managers of state-owned enterprises. The analysis bases on the reward dimension of the Public Service Bargains (PSBs) model which reflects different approaches to tangible and intangible reward elements. This theoretical approach is used to test the hypotheses that there is a clear public sector bargain on the executive's rewards system, and this bargain was shaped by pre-planned reforms in the public sector. This article concludes that the Lithuanian public sector executive reward system can be regarded as egalitarian and was largely shaped by incremental policy decisions, changes in economic conditions, and court decisions but not by pre-planned reforms. Adapted from the source document.

The article is dedicated to the discussion about the notions of the 'political system' and 'political regime' in the fields of its meanings as autonomous analytical constructions. The main arguments are that the 'political system' describes a stable and normal political process and determinate interrelations between power structures and civil society institutions as a complex sociopolitical unity. On the other hand, concept of 'political regime' stresses dynamic aspects of the government activity as a realization of the basic political functions. Pointing to the fact that a political system explains events and relations in the modern democratic context and a regime -- its peculiarities in the process of decision-making, the authors share attention to specific negative aspects of the separate interpretation and recognition of the various forms in the national politics spheres. All these conditions may sharp influence over the quality of the authority decisions, feedback among political institutions as a civic interests representatives etc. And otherwise, this implies that the political systems and political regimes realize an isomorphic similarity for taking evasive action between them. Adapted from the source document.

Value orientations of Lithuanian civil servants are analyzed in the context of political culture of society. After the short summing-up on Lithuanian political culture research author concentrates on such features of political culture as distrust in authorities, public institutions, state & democracy; negative attitude towards legislation & attempts to drive through using informal rules & networks; inability to envisage difference between private and public. The role model of civil servant prescribed by Lithuanian legislation reflect the striving, meanwhile in reality officials' practiced values correspond with the orientations of consuming society & some negative habits & stereotypes inherited from the soviet times. Adapted from the source document.

Implementation of government commitments is one of the most relevant issues of public policy studies. A gap between electoral pledges, government priorities and their practical execution brought disappointment in many democratic countries and attracted significant attention from public policy researchers. This article elaborates a theoretical framework and sets several hypotheses for analysing the process of implementing performance priorities of the Lithuanian government and achieving their results. It argues that public policy decisions can be best explained by the interaction of advocacy coalitions in different policy subsystems. A public policy research agenda focused on the analysis of government commitments can be also applied to assessing how specific political priorities or other policy decisions are carried out in Lithuania and other democratic states, as well as to explaining successes and failures of their implementation process. Causal process tracing can be employed for the within-case and between-case analysis of policy studies. Theoretically developed and empirically rich policy studies following this research agenda would provide interesting insights on policy implementation to researchers, politicians, civil servants, various policy stakeholders, and even citizens. Adapted from the source document.

Siame straipsnyje nagrinejama Lietuvos Vyriausybes istaigu ir istaigu prie ministeriju vadovu kaita ir politizacija 1990-2012 m. Nors de jure ir de facto vadovu politizacija sioje istaigu grupeje nera didele, ji skiriasi - priklauso nuo atitinkamu laikotarpiu ir istaigu tipu. Mazejant strukturinei agenturu vadovu pareigybiu politizacijai, Lietuvoje didejo faktine vadovu politizacija ir atvirksciai. Del ju pareigybiu specifikos Vyriausybes istaigu, kurios institucineje sandaroje veikia arciau Vyriausybes centro, vadovai labiau politizuoti nei istaigu prie ministeriju vadovai. Straipsnyje teigiama, kad siu agenturu vadovu kaita geriausiai paaiskina esminiai valdanciosios daugumos ir Lietuvos Vyriausybiu pokyciai, o politizacija - politiniu partiju valdymo trukme ir ju tinklai, taip pat politinis valdymo sriciu jautrumas This article analyses the change and politicisation of the senior levels of management in the Lithuanian government agencies and agencies under the ministries in the period 1990-2012. This research indicated that de facto politicisation of the Lithuanian agencies is relatively small with only 19.1% of all agency heads engaged in party networks. The turnover of agency managers is best explained by alterations of ruling majorities and governments, taking into account more the intensive turnover of agency managers during the Lithuanian governments controlled by the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party. Politicisation of the agency managers could be explained in terms of 'push' factors (politicisation is associated with party entrenchment in power and density of the party networks) and 'pull' factors (party patronage is exercised more frequently over more politically salient areas of public services). Changes in de jure politicisation of the higher civil service depended on structural and civil service reforms. Our analysis also revealed some differences in the pattern of politicisation according to the Lithuanian political parties: if the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party de facto appoints politically affiliated managers to career positions in the Lithuanian higher civil service, the Homeland Union (Lithuanian Christian Democrats) frequently adopts the structural form of politicisation through government-wide organisational or civil service reforms. Adapted from the source document.

The aim of the article is to disclose a possible view held by Kant towards the solution of the KOnigsberg problem after World War II. Philosophers of today usually show little interest in discussing the so-called "Kaliningrad puzzle." This is a certain misunderstanding. As one of the most outstanding representatives of the idealistic paradigm of international relations, Kant can be treated as a full-fledged participant of the discussions on the future of the Kaliningrad region. His political philosophy contributes towards a better understanding of certain important aspects related to the Kaliningrad problem. Kant would strongly criticize the decisions made at the Potsdam conference. The above decisions contradict his understanding of international relations. However, Kant would not demand an urgent solution to the Kaliningrad problem. His flexibility is worthy of the respect shown by the realpolitik supporters. On the other hand, Kant did not have the slightest doubt as to the necessity of amending the injustice of improper political decisions. The European future of the Kaliningrad region is first & foremost related to the ability of the population to enforce the political principles formulated by Kant -- the freedom of the citizens, the rule of law & the equality of every single citizen under the law. This seems to be the most topical message made by Kant to the present day population of his native town. The Kaliningrad region of today has failed to justify the requirements of civil society. It reminds one more of a hostage to the central power. From the perspective of Kant's political philosophy, one could state that the Kaliningrad region has not yet used the opportunity to become an association of free citizens. This is the only trustworthy way for this hostage of international politics of the 20th century to become part of cultural & political life within the unifying Europe. Adapted from the source document.

Political corruption in Japan is a very important issue. According to the Global Corruption Barometer 2009 survey Japanese perceived political parties, public officials and civil servants to be the institutions which are the most affected by corruption. In addition, governmental measures against corruption are regarded to be ineffective and inadequate to the real situation. Japanese have keen concern toward Japanese political parties, intransparent activity of politicians and preventive measures taken by government. The purpose of this research is to examine political corruption phenomena in contemporary Japanese politics. Research questions are what are the structure, scale, and causes of political corruption in Japan during 2001-2009. For answering to these research questions first of all it is discussed the concept and definition of political corruption itself. Article overviews previous political corruption studies in Japan from the time of Second World War to the recent times, including the report of the Transparency International National Integrity System. In third chapter of article the scale, the varieties and the main practitioners of political corruption in Japan are to be analyzed. It reveals the biggest political corruption scandals in Japanese politics in given time-period. Last chapter focuses on the explanation of political corruption mechanism in Japan and in particular relationship with clientelism practises. Combination of primary and secondary sources led me to make the following conclusions on the main political corruption tendencies in Japan during 2001-2009. First, the Asahi Shimbun front page content analysis indicates that 2002 and 2007 are special years in the context of corruption studies because in those years published the largest number of political corruption articles and the biggest number of the new themes on the political corruption issue revealed. Second, the common point of the three most significant political corruption scandals during 2001-2009 is that all of them have the relationship with political finance issue and in particular a suspicion on the violation of the PFRL. This finding reaffirms the NIS statement that political finance is one of the top priority issues in Japanese corruption scheme. Third, illegal political donation and influence peddling are the most frequent types of corruption in Japan during the period of 2001-2009. Fourth, main practitioners of political corruption in Japan were the LDP members from the House of Representatives. In addition, in as many as nine cases the Diet member secretaries were involved in political corruption scandals. The Diet member secretaries play an important role in political corruption scheme because they are often responsible for the political fund management. Fifth, the most vulnerable institution to political corruption seems to be Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and Ministry of Construction. Finally, article concludes that political corruption in Japan, to some extent, could be explained through the analysis of political clientelism. Adapted from the source document.

Engl. Zsfassung S. 275 - [290] u.d.T.: Diagnosis of the state of Lithuanian civil society

This article describes the problem of conflict of interest and its regulation in Lithuania. After a short introduction of conflict of interest and related notions, types, and forms of conflict of interest the Lithuanian case study is followed. After a short historical review of such conflict regulation in interwar Lithuanian Republic period the analyses turns to contemporary legislation concerning this ethical problem. Lithuanian Law on the Compatibility of Public and Private Interests in the Public Service was edited three times what allows the author to distinguish tendencies and evaluate them in the broader context. The author provides a snapshot of the conflict of interest in codes of ethics of Lithuanian public institutions. The analyses of legislation regulating conflict of interest in politicians and civil servants activity allows concluding that behavior of civil servants is more regulated due to their role. Adapted from the source document.

After liberation Lithuanian society & Lithuanian nation expected to build nation state & to consolidate & recreate national identity at the same time denouncing the Soviet legacy, however European integrational processes promoted the political & cultural attitude to create new European civil identity. The author of this article examines the deconstructional impact on the debates about the Idea of Europe & the efforts to deconstruct all types of identities, including national identity, & national essentialism. Some features of new European identity are highlighted by critical analysis of the meditations of J. Derrida on today's Europe, his & J. Habermas' joint efforts to ground the necessity of European Constitution & base new European identity on constitutional patriotism, solidarity, unconditional openness to the Other & the feeling of common destiny. The article examines the radical criticism of the Idea of Europe & Europeanness provided by G. Agamben & A. Amin. The author of this article comes to conclusion that the efforts to create & embed European civil identity disconnected from national identity features & feelings & national state power disavow the possibility of promoting a manifest European identity politics & disclaim the idea of Europeanness, because of the idea of multi-ethnicity on which these efforts are based. Adapted from the source document.

Influence the television enjoys over the political processes, creating a community opinion, should be interconnected with its distribution, attainability & communicational suggestion. Audiovisual media took back the intonations of spoken language to the mass communication. Radio created a new talk, the so-called stylistic dualism, when a huge audience is addressed in a personal & intimate way. Radio has created the new forms of dialogue, audience being affected to an anonymous voice, created new relationship between the politicians & the community. Regular appeals of politics leaders through the radio to the nation became a usual phenomenon of political life. Simplicity & honesty of speech became important components of a successful political communication. Television set forth the tune of intimacy, chamberness formulated by radio. The context of view, text & sound let transmit information through all channels of public communication. Anonymous radio voice became the face of a show, which performs a ritualistic teller's role in television. History of the television development can be divided into two phases -- paleo- & neo-television. Clear gradation of genres is characteristic to the first phases, performance is distinguished from documentary, television & audience are tied by vertical hierarchic connections. Fragmentarity, convergence of genres, vanishing barriers between documentary & performance are characteristic to the conception of neo-television. Interests of the audience are taken into account much more, political, civil & private spheres come closer. Representatives of each of them perform specific roles in television: politicians make decisions (engaged word), citizens force to make decisions (expert word), & the ordinary people observe (vox populi). The approach of political & civil sphere prove the growing role of "a man from the street," naivety & familiarity is demonstrated by politicians. Openness, unforced refusal of privacy, become an important part of political life. Deflection from classical debates (word direction) to talk shows (performance of conflict) & reality shows (performance of trueness) show the alternation of dialogue genres of television. Television creates a new democracy of performance, where facts are replaced by emotions, reflection -- by action, ideas -- by personalities. Television offers its own rules of democratic discourse, politicians & citizens are motivated to become participants of this communication performance. Adapted from the source document.