Suchergebnisse

EU programme documents designed to influence the social policies of the member states are filled with concepts of social exclusion and social inclusion. This paper aims to clarify these concepts as they are employed in academic and public policy discourse and to discuss the societal function of this discourse and the impact of the European agenda of social inclusion. The authors show that although concepts of social exclusion and social inclusion are far from straightforward in meaning, their influence on public policy discourse and agenda is evident. The reason is that they redirect social policy towards a multidimensional approach, towards balancing rights and obligations, and towards more complex but also local and individualised policies, though the corresponding discourse bears the normative features of a social 'vision'. The EU's social policy agenda exhibits aspirations towards and some potential for achieving real policy change. On the other hand, there are reservations about its true impact. In this respect, the specifi c societal and political context of its implementation plays a crucial role.

The article describes the development of Czech social policy & the issues that have surrounded it since 1989. The author begins by describing the character of the communist welfare state & outlining its theoretical alternatives. Despite the introduction of energetic changes during the early years of transition, since the mid-1990s the area of social policy has been dominated by stagnation, & instead of any real & specific efforts in this area there are only debates. Despite all the problems that plague the current social policy, at present the system performs satisfactorily, as is evident in the very low rate of poverty. However, in the long run, concerns may arise over inadequate family situations, a frozen pension system, & poor work motivation. The 'reform' year of 2005 has seen the emergence of many different efforts relating to social policy, but it has not heralded any substantial changes aimed at a more efficient functioning of the system.

The article focuses on the academic discourse of social cohesion, from general theories of social integration through to the definitions, measurement methods, and basic analytical concepts. The authors identify two degrees of universality with respect to the use of the concept of social cohesion: 1) the creation and preservation of social order in general, and 2) the study of particular mechanisms of social cohesion (civic participation, the effectiveness of cooperation, etc.). The first part differentiates between different general social theories according to how they approach the question of integration (norms/procedures and structures/relations), and the second part reviews the most important empirical approaches to the study of cohesion at the micro- and society-wide levels and the indicators used in these approaches. The authors distinguish between approaches 'integration from the bottom up' (e.g. factors of in-group cohesion) and the enlarged multidimensional, normative/relational 'good society approach' to macro-social cohesion. In conclusion, the authors propose a conceptual framework for studying the social cohesion of Czech society broadly based on the 'good society' approach, which they further elaborate in terms of reciprocity and universally applicable rules. This multidimensional conceptual framework encompasses the vertical dimension of social inequalities and civic rights and the horizontal dimension of collective social capital, especially its bridging form.

The post discusses some issues with proving intelectuall and mental maturity of juveniles. In the introduction author briefl y deals with reasons of the adoption of The Juvenile Justice Act and corresponding relative adoption of criminal responsibility of juveniles. Distinctive theoretical attitudes are not omitted with this conception of criminal responsibility. Also the adolescence process is analysed in the brief including factors directly infl uencing this process. Another chapter is dedicated to the examination of the mental state of the juveniles and determination of the degree of their mental maturity by expert's investigation. In this context some factual problems and drawbacks common to the criminal proceeding are pointed out. These issues are demonstrated in the examples from practice. The next part is about proving bio-psycho-social level of the juvenile. The standard procedure of the law enforcement authorities for proving intelectuall and mental maturity of juveniles is described, including possible drawbacks and the opinion of the courts regarding this topic. At the end author summarizes outputs of the individual chapters, including consideration of possible change de lege ferenda.

The article analyses the evolution of the Slovak political party "Smer" (Direction) and its position in the party system of Slovak Republic. The article focuses on the shift of the party program from the "Centrist Populism" towards "Social Democracy." According to the first program documents the Party of "Smer" (Direction) was designed as pragmatic, non-ideological party. In the persistent conflict between authoritarianism vs. democracy "Smer" identified itself as the pro-democratic and pro-market force. Party policy before 2002 contained only few social democratic components; it was closer to the conservative or right-wing populist parties. After the parliamentary election 2002 and the failure of non-communist left "Smer" decided to become a member of the Socialist International (SI) and Party of European Socialists (PES). The process of the institutional approach to the international Social Democratic Party structures was accompanied by the substantial changes in the social and economic program of the party. The process was completed on the institutional level in May 2005, when Smer joined both SI and PES, and on the level of political program on the Party Congress in December 2005. In the process of so called "socialdemocratisation" of "Smer" the international factor played crucial role, especially the need to have an international partner in the European Parliament. "Smer" met the standards of the Social Democratic identity only in the social and economic affairs. The other five dimensions - environmental policy, participative democracy, cultural and human-rights dimension, supra-national dimension and the dimension of equality and freedom "Smer" met only partially or not at all, so these process remains unfinished. According to some political declarations "Smer" remains the populist party and the uncompromising critic of the right-wing government of Mikuláš Dzurinda, on the other side the official documents of the party anticipate only the moderate corrections of the economical and social reforms, ...