Suchergebnisse

The study deals with the so far mostly unaccented problem of the conflict in Northeastern Sudan. In contrast to the Darfur crisis, the conflict in NE Sudan is in progress without attracting any greater amount of international attention. In the text, I examine the development of the general marginalization of the inhabitants of the region in the context of the Sudanese politics since independence until the present time. The main issues of the study are the ethnicization & economization of the conflict & its international consequences. These consequences are still only latent, but the lack of conflict management might contribute to the spread of tensions abroad, as was the case with Darfur. I then argue that the passivity of the international society, as in the case of Darfur, makes certain that there is no chance for the NE Sudan conflict to be quickly resolved. As a conclusion, I suggest a solution to the crisis in the form of a broader engagement of regional organizations & states, especially IGAD (Inter-Governmental Agency for Development). Adapted from the source document.

The article is concerned with analysis of independence of central banks of the EU Member States within the framework of the ESCB, as well as independence & responsibility of the ECB, & suggests an alternative institutional embodiment of its position, reflecting the specific framework of the EMU. The system of selection of members of the ECB's Executive Board blurs a real collective responsibility towards Member States, which opens possibilities for nontransparent lobbyism. Modified system is suggested so that national banks governors have a symbolic relationship to the political representation, i.e. that they reflect a national economic policy in some way, without being bound & restricted by its formation whatsoever. Tables, References. Adapted from the source document.

Zsfassung in engl. Sprache

This article deals with the relations between two different cultures existing within one state: the dominant culture is continental France & the peripheral one is the insular society of Corsica. This article reviews the historical background of the problem in France & subsequently analyzes the response of the administrative center to the Corsican independence struggle. Regarding the cultural, historical & political differences, the distinct experiences of these two cultures, the collective identity of the Corsican community & the institutionalization of its ethnic-regional representatives, the situation can be described as a center-periphery cleavage. The Corsican society -- asking for autonomy within the state or even for separation -- faces the domination of the administrative center. This independence struggle originates within the community, which is the reason why the dominant culture has several times modified its strategy for dealing with the demands & violence of Corsican patriots. The analysis illustrates the power & the limits of the independence struggle of this small island that is still economically dependent on France. 33 References. Adapted from the source document.

The post-Keynesian approach to the nature of money brings some other conclusion to the monetary policy, independence of a central bank, & function of commercial banks. The source money is created by demand of businessmen especially. Loans create deposits, deposits create reserves. Central bank plays two roles: lender of last resort & inflation supervisor. Crediting by commercial banks & their credit policy in post-Keynesian economics is considered as credit rationing. If the role of central bank -- lender of last resort -- is not connected with changes of regulation, which reduce new practice of financial markets to avoid regulation, the influence of central bank to fight with inflation declines. Post-Keynesian economics is not directed against competence & independence of central bank. On the contrary, it welcomes the more direct influence of central bank on commercial banks & other financial institutions, however, with use of alternative limiting facilities. 2 Graphs, 15 References. Adapted from the source document.

Violent conflict is very old in human society. The development of military technology brought with itself the worst tragedies loss of human live and material devastation in the second half of 20th century in the Horn of Africa. This region is one of the centers of various political violent conflicts in the world, according to length of these violent conflicts, the number of death of people, mainly civilian, refugees and internal displaced persons (IDP). This study elucidates the root causes of long wars in the Horn of Africa focusing mainly on South Sudan and Somalia. It also illustrates how the Super Powers during the Cold War helped their client states to prolong the suffering of people in the region. When Socialist system disappeared from Eastern Europe, Mengistu Haile Mariam's and Siyad Barre's regime ignominiously collapsed. In Ethiopia Amhara power elite, who ruled the Empire state from 1889 to 1991 lost their state power and Tigrian guerrilla fighters captured it through the power of the gun, Eritrea gained its independence from Ethiopia, South Sudan is emerging from long heinous war to independence. The violent conflict in Somalia transformed after the old regime demise in 1991 and the new leaders unable to build new central government. Somalia is fragmented and became the good example of failed state in the theory of contemporary political sociology. The paper tries to explain these complex violent conflicts in this part of Africa.

When examining the gender of institutions of parenthood, lone motherhood is a key issue. In this article the author focuses on the economic implications of lone motherhood and on the strategies that women living with children without a partner develop in order to ensure their livelihood. The author begins by presenting the theoretical background and some results from European and North American research on lone motherhood. She then provides an overview of research on lone parenthood done in the Czech Republic since 1959. Finally, the author describes the qualitative study she conducted on divorced mothers. The results show how women deal economically with marital separation and which livelihood strategies they opt for. The research methodology was based on constructivist grounded theory and the technique of interviews. From the research results the author distinguishes fi ve basic strategies that can be combined and that are based on the sources that women have at their disposal. Those strategies may differ in terms of their degree of success, dependence/independence on others, and their efficacy at different points in time. The results also indicate that the success of these working strategies depends mainly on the age of the youngest child in the family and the caring responsibilities required by that age. The author argues that while for some women heading one-parent families paid work is an option that allows them to obtain a certain degree of independence and self-confidence, its efficacy depends on the context and immediate conditions in which the women find themselves. Overstressing the employment of lone mothers as a universal solution may thus lead to new dependencies.

This study analyses the causes of the fall of the Chechen state after its de facto independence (1996-1999) following the so-called First Russian-Chechen War (1994-1996). The failed incursion of the (predominantly Wahhabi) Chechen-Dagestani guerillas in Dagestan (August 1999), designed to inflame a regional rebellion against Russia, resulted in the current Second Russian-Chechen War. The Chechen state's failure was mainly caused by internal factors, primarily the 'clanish' division of Chechen society & customary legal norms (eg., blood feuds), but also the spread of political Islam & the expansion of North Caucasian Wahhabism. Considering recent attempts to extend the conflict over Chechnya's borders, this field continues to be of immense import. In Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria & elsewhere, processes similar to those being studied may be better understood following this study. Adapted from the source document.

The article examines the meanings that space and things acquire in the context of ageing and old age. The author draws on a study that was conducted with the objective of understanding the signifi cance of autonomy in old age and the ways in which the elderly attempt to maintain it. The data from this study were subjected to a follow-up qualitative analysis based on the reformulated research question: 'What role do space and things play in the life of a senior as a person of a certain age at a certain period of life?' The results of the analysis are presented in the third part of the article, following sections devoted to the subject of space and things in sociological gerontology and to a description of the methodology used in the cited research. The analysis reveals that space and things are meaningful elements in the lives of seniors, who place them within three main frames: physical independence or personal autonomy and security, integration into informal social networks, and the home as a subjective centre of community. Space and things clearly become an important part of the strategies of 'coping with ageing'.

The essay deals with the development of theory in development economics as a subdiscipline of international economics, within the context of general economic theory. Although some authors believe that it started to develop during the 19th century (as some Latin American countries gained their independence at this time), most authors connect its origin with the decolonization process of the 1950s. The first part describes its rather "naive" beginnings, when it was believed that it is possible to discover a universal theory applicable to the whole "third world" -- such as theories of vicious circles of poverty, the best ways & tools for breaking them, etc. The second phase of development economics, spanning approximately 1970-1990, was characterized by disillusionment & produced a lot of mostly analytical works dealing with partial problems. The third stage (1990-present) has been characterized by a growing demand for the so-called new synthesis. As the authors believe, such a goal would be very difficult to achieve, but in essence, it is achievable by means of joint efforts based on the Millennium Development Goals, changes of international economic & political relations systems & changes in a wide range of global issues. Adapted from the source document.

Parties are essential components of a political system, since they provide access to the decision-making process for the citizens. In democratic society they have to execute some basic functions (e.g. interest aggregation, articulation and representation). For this they need material and financial resources. In the recent year funding of the parties must deal with growing expensiveness on the one hand, and on the other with bribery and corruption (which can seriously damage citizens' confidence in the democratic system). Even the most democratic countries have from time to time problem with this unacceptable social phenomena. And it is more important to avoid it in transition countries and in so-called "new democracies" – as central and east European countries, where the democracy is not stabile enough. In this article we focus on the case of Slovakia. We try to outline party finances system and analyse financial resources structure. There are two main models of parties financing, one based on private finances and second based on public resources. Apart from serious defects in laws (still present in Slovak legislation), the main problem of parties financing in Slovakia is growing rate of public party subvention (what can negatively affect parties' independence on the state) and reducing number of party subjects, which participate on it.

The aim of this article is to provide insight into the circumstances of long-term unemployed graduates of (mostly) non-GCSE vocational programmes from the perspective of their transition to adulthood. The analytical framework used for this research is life course theory, according to which it is possible to approach the transition from youth to adulthood as a multiple transition. This point corresponds well with reality because young people follow at least three trajectories on their way to adulthood: from school to work, from family of origin to family of procreation, and from dependence to independence. The data necessary for the analysis were collected through repeated biographical and semi-structured interviews with 14 long-term unemployed graduates of non-GCSE vocational programmes and 6 employed graduates of vocational programmes as a reference group. Their implicit theories of adulthood, progress on the path to adulthood, and everyday strategies were examined in a qualitative data analysis, with special attention paid to contextual aspects. As for the dominant form of transition, the author found that long-term unemployment has a delaying impact on the transition to adulthood, above all owing to financial strain. These people suffer from prolonged economical dependency on their parents and remain at the threshold of the socially constructed path to adulthood. Typically there social status is vague.