Suchergebnisse

Significant international attention has been directed to the most pressing problem of the financial crisis of 2008/2009 -- global liquidity shortages. The use of adequate foreign exchange reserves during the crisis helped alleviate pressures. However, this was only partially effective in a number of important cases. Some countries also needed to rely on external official financing. The aim of this article is to compare and analyse the main sources of official global liquidity -- foreign exchange reserves, bilateral swap lines of central banks, regional financial arrangements arid IMF resources. To reach effective outcomes in relation to the accumulation of FX reserves and a strengthening of the global financial safety nets, effective international coordination will be necessary. Adapted from the source document.

While Marek Louzek has drawn attention to several issues important for International Relations (IR), his conclusions are highly controversial. In his identification of the basic theoretical approaches to international relations, Louzek disregards liberalism & radicalism, which, alongside the realism identified by Louzek, constitute the three basic approaches in IR. Louzek also inaccurately defines, & rather overestimates, the general significance of public choice theory (PCT) as a possible perspective on international relations & European integration. In this context, the real intellectual core of PCT does not lie in an emphasis on the role of individuals, as Louzek claims, but on the role of social groups. Moreover, a large number of other theories, both in IR & European Studies, emphasize the importance of social groups. Finally, Louzek's explanation of the EU's Eastern enlargement based on PCT lacks a well-developed methodology, has a narrow scope, & subsequently fails to convince. Adapted from the source document.

The paper presents a wide spectrum of the existing theories of sociology, law & political science dealing with the discretion of officials in public & social policy. Concretely, the paper focuses on three different ways of how to understand the existence of discretion (definition perspective), its functions (role perspective), & its use by officials at the state & local levels (structural perspective). These perspectives are presented in order to identify factors that determine officials' discretion & to grasp the concept of discretion as a tool that reveals the limits of officials' behavior. In the end the paper summarizes the constituent factors determining public officials' discretion. 42 References. Adapted from the source document.

The article attempts to interpret changes in the character of communication strategies applied in election competitions during the 20th century. The most important change seems to be shift from cleavage-based to issue-based communication in election campaigns. Such a shift can be interpreted as the result of modernization process (individualizing) & the growing rationality of both factions: voters tend to support specific political parties expecting certain benefits, whereas political parties tend to emphasize those issues which can satisfy voters' demand. Over time, particular issues can, on the basis of successfully executed policies, be "transferred" into the ownership of specific political parties. When the communicated issue is salient, the issue ownership can bring advantages in polling. This brings a new dimension to party competition: Now parties have to compete with other agenda setters for (issue) dominance in the public, media & political spheres. Adapted from the source document.

Foreword by the Editors -- General Introduction -- 1. Status of Religious Communities -- 2. Relations between the State and Islam -- 3. State Support for Islamic Religious Communities -- 4. The Islamic Community of the Czech Republic -- 5. Muslims and the Law on Issues of Social Integration -- 6. Mosques and Prayer Houses -- 7. Burial and Cemeteries -- 8. Education and Schools -- 9. Further and Higher (Tertiary) Education -- 10. Islamic Chaplaincy in Public Institutions -- 11. Employment and Social Law -- 12. Islamic Slaughter and Food Regulation -- 13. Islamic Goods and Services -- 14. Islamic Dress -- 15. Criminal Law -- 16. Family Law -- Bibliography -- Index.

We analyze corruption and economic freedom links to public finance and investment in new EU members. In terms of the public investment our results show that improvement in economic freedom is linked to increases in public investment while lowering of corruption is linked with increase or decrease with respect to public investment. As a complementary finding we show that increases in public investment are also linked with the ambiguous effect. In case of public finance our estimates suggest that debt usually decreases as economic regulation goes down while the effect on budget deficit goes both ways. On other hand, as corruption declines both budget deficit and debt decrease. Based on our results we generalize that measures taken to lower corruption and economic regulation should lead to improvements in fiscal position in most of the new EU member states. Adapted from the source document.

Using the case of the Lebanese movement Hezbollah, the article deals with the phenomenon of the governance of non-state armed groups in failing states and the conditions for its emergence. It argues that one of the key requirements for the emergence and long-term preservation of a non-state armed group's authority is its fulfillment of functions usually associated with the state (such as the provision of security, public goods and services and the legitimation of its authority) that the failing state is not able to provide. The study specifically shows how Hezbollah is able to substitute for or complement the Lebanese state in each of its functions and consecutively use the wide network of its governance institutions for strengthening its political authority. As a result of Hezbollah's practices and strategies of governance, the forms of political control of the territory are being gradually changed and hybridized. Adapted from the source document.

This article presents a possible solution to the problem of the fall of the public in the political thought of Hannah Arendt & Jurgen Habermas. Arendt presents the public as the action of equal people discussing among themselves. Habermas sees it as the discussion of equal people too, but on the pages of newspapers or on radio waves. Both thinkers warn against the fall of the public & propose how to restore it. Arendt considers a system of councils to be a solution, whereas Habermas talks about the institutionalization of corresponding procedures of communication as a new form of the public. This article tries to put these solutions together. It applies Arendt's ideas to the communal or municipal level & those of Habermas to the national level, both in the context of the Czech Republic. One significant difference between a council system & the Czech political communal system is the recall of representatives. Recall can make representatives more responsible to citizens & citizens more engaged in politics so that they become the public, both at the communal & national level. Adapted from the source document.

This paper examines the process of EU enlargement using public choice theory. It starts by outlining the history of EU enlargement, & continues by examining the theoretical approaches to European integration. The third section explores the different theoretical perspectives on enlargement, after which the fourth section explains the use of public choice theory in international relations. The fifth section offers a cost-benefits analysis of enlargement, & the final section analyses the functions of citizens & politicians. Adapted from the source document.

The question of public finance stability & the economic stability are widely discussed topics, not only in transitive & emerging economies, but also in developed countries. The aim of this paper is to find out & measure connections between the fiscal policy development & external economic stability. This research is based on a quantification of the budget deficit & public debt impact onto exchange rate in chosen countries that have recently experienced some kind of financial crisis. External competitiveness is also assessed by the fiscal policy impact onto current account balance. It is necessary to point out that monetary variables are going to be probably more important but the fiscal sector cannot be omitted. Especially nowadays when there is an integration process in EMU going on, where the fiscal policy is going to play important role in the economic stability. Tables, Figures, References. Adapted from the source document.