Suchergebnisse

Simitis examines the European debt crisis with particular reference to the Greek case. He investigates its spillover from a Greek-specific problem to a Eurozone-wide crisis and chronicles the policy responses to combat it. His central argument is that the main cause of the Eurozone's problems was, and still remains, the indecisiveness of European elites to tackle its underlying deficiencies. Leading Eurozone countries have been unwilling to commit to a common long-term plan which could deal convincingly with complex and inter-related problems affecting both its 'core' and its 'periphery'

Δεν παρατίθεται περίληψη στα ελληνικά. ; Kostas E. Lambrinos, Nobles and Cittadini in the Community of Venetian Sitia. Social Fermentations and Rearrangements (late sixteenth-seventeenth century) This study highlights the community of upper social class in Sitia, a small town in eastern Crete, in the late period of the Venetian dominion. Using new evidence from the State Archives of Venice, the article examines unknown aspects of the topic, such as the social identity of the community council (the so-called consiglio della comunità), the political functions and the evolution of this body, its internal social rearrangements and its particularities by comparison with the community dynamics in the other Cretan towns. The archival data indicate that this socio-political organ played a central role in local public life, but had a secondary position within the Venetian political system. Regarding its social composition, the community originally consisted of nobles-feudatories, according to the model of strict social organization in the island under Venetian rule. However, multiple factors of crucial importance, such as the small number of nobles in Sitia, the inadequate fortification of the town and the increasing financial needs of this region, had a catalytic effect on the local social fabric and, consequently, on the structure of the community: in the early seventeenth century it lost its aristocratic profile and acquired characteristics, which differentiate it from the other community entities of Crete. This decisive evolution occurred with the social advancement of the cittadini. Τhis intermediate social group acquired, with the consent of the Venetian authorities, the right to participate in the community in order to meet government targets in this politically sensitive area of the island. Hereinafter the cittadini had an increasingly strong presence in the community processes, gained more social power and enjoyed privileges previously monopolized by the aristocracy.

Δεν παρατίθεται περἰληψη στα ελληνικά. ; Lina Venturas – Dimitria Groutsis, The Cold War and international migration regulation: The establishment of the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration The immediate post WWII period saw the establishment of the Inter-governmental Committee for European Migration (ICEM) (now International Organisation for Migration, IOM), as a key organisation in the management of post WWII migration. This paper examines the debates and policies surrounding the creation of the ICEM as an agent responsible for the facilitation and administration of labour migration from parts of Europe to a variety of overseas countries. At the conclusion of the Second World War, the problems surrounding 'surplus population' and unemployment in Europe were discussed in many international forums. It was from these discussions that a consensus emerged which saw emigration as a viable solution. To this end, in 1951, the International Labour Organisation convened a Migration Conference in Naples, bringing together key stakeholders. The Naples Conference failed, an outcome driven mainly by the US. The US was particularly concerned with economic stagnation and mounting social unrest related to the 'surplus population' in European countries in this Cold War period. At the same time however, it strived at limiting international influence over migration and refugee policies and on receiving countries retaining their sovereign immigration policies. In spite of the disagreements and through a process of negotiation, the US subsequently led the creation of an intergovernmental body, which was established at a conference convened in Brussels in 1951. This newly formed organisation, initially named the Provisional Intergovernmental Committee for the Movement of Migrants from Europe (PICMME), was open only to states with a 'liberal' political regime and had specifically designed functions based on inter-governmental negotiations. The US ensured its predominance in the organization through budgetary control and other means. In 1953, the PICMME became a permanent 'fixture' of migration regulation and was renamed the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (ICEM). Hereafter, ICEM offered operational and financial assistance for migrants' transportation, language training, reception facilities, settlement services and labour market placement.