scholarly journals Countries of former yugoslavia: Periphery vs. super-periphery in the great recession and beyond

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (223) ◽  
pp. 11-38
Author(s):  
Velimir Bole ◽  
Miha Dominko ◽  
Ada Gustin-Habus ◽  
Janez Prasnikar

The paper deals with the performance of former Yugoslav countries during the Great Recession. It compares the performance of peripheral countries (Slovenia and Croatia) with those of superperipheral countries (Bosnia, the Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia). The focus of the analysis is the four channels of crisis transmission and amplification: the capital surge as the external channel on the one hand, and the financial accelerator, the banking credit extension, and liquidity as internal channels on the other. While the external channel drove the dynamics of the crisis, the internal channels amplified, broadened, and prolonged its drastic economic consequences. The paper depicts the trajectory of the consequences of the Great Recession for both peripheral and super-peripheral countries. It shows that, regarding financial stability, peripheral countries outperformed superperipheral countries in the boom phase, but not in the bust and recovery phases. The crucial factor influencing such a deterioration of peripheral countries? financial stability was the policy measures enforced by the European Commission and ECB, calibrated to the needs of the largest and strongest economies of the euro area, while neglecting the asymmetric dynamics of European economies in the bust and recovery phases. The paper concludes with a warning that something similar could happen in the present crisis triggered by the Covid-19 virus.

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 387-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Freire ◽  
Luís Cabrita ◽  
Mariana Carmo Duarte ◽  
Hugo Ferrinho Lopes

Using data from the European Election Study 2014, this article focuses on workers’ EU political alignments during the Great Recession. It deals with two research questions. First, how does the attitude of (manual) workers towards the EU compare to that of the middle and upper classes in the aftermath of the Great Recession? Second, when it comes to workers’ support for the EU, are there systematic differences between countries affected by the crisis? The article finds that, on the one hand, in terms of patterns of workers’ EU political alignments, there are no systematic differences between countries affected to varying degrees by the Great Recession. On the other hand, workers still feel fundamentally detached from the EU, especially when it comes to the manual workers. However, high levels of generalised detachment from the EU are not clearly translated into preferences for Eurosceptic parties, since there are high levels of vote fragmentation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-93
Author(s):  
Nikolay Neykov ◽  
Petar Antov ◽  
Viktor Savov

AbstractIndustrial policy determines the industry's orientation for growth, in line with the economic development stage. The main objective of this article is to establish the sustainability of the relationship between the development of forest resources, on the one hand, and their use in wood and furniture products in the Republic of Bulgaria, on the other hand. The main tasks are to find out the sustainability in the production of timber and products from it, to assess the tendency of development and needs of policy measures. The methods used include statistical methods for trend analysis, descriptive methods and others. Forestry is a clear example of the transformation of natural resources into consumer products, where sustainability in the development of society can easily be disturbed. Forestry policies should support the use of tree resources in products with the highest possible added value.


Author(s):  
Ronen Palan

The chapter addresses the nature of the power relationships between the business world and the state as seen from the perspective of a relatively new field of study called international political economy. Theories of corporate power in a globalized economy evolved along two parallel lines. On the one hand, the globalization literature of the 1990s has tended to assume there was a marked shift of power from states to markets. Recent literature questions these assumptions, not least in light of the experience of the great recession of 2007–2008. In parallel, conceptualization of power has evolved from relatively simplistic theories of relational power to theories of structural power and, increasingly, arbitrage power. Arbitrage power is the ability to arbitrate legal systems against each other, or against themselves, for pecuniary purposes.


1882 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 312-343
Author(s):  
Isaac N. Arnold

The noblest inheritance we Americans derive from our British ancestors is the memory and example of the great and good men who adorn your history. They are as much appreciated and honoured on our side of the Atlantic as on this. In giving to the English-speaking world Washington and Lincoln we think we repay, in large part, our obligation. Their pre-eminence in American history is recognised, and the republic, which the one founded and the other preserved, has already crowned them as models for her children.


2019 ◽  
Vol 66 (4 SELECTED PAPERS IN ENGLISH) ◽  
pp. 63-86
Author(s):  
Beata Gawrońska-Oramus

The Polish version of the article was published in “Roczniki Humanistyczne,” vol. 61 (2013), issue 4. Analysis of the mutual relations between the main intellectual and spiritual authority of the Plato Academy—Marsilio Ficino on the one hand, and Girolamo Savonarola, whose activity was a reaction to the secularization of de Medici times on the other, and a thorough study of their argument that turned into a ruthless struggle, are possible on the basis of selected sources and studies of the subject. The most significant are the following: Savonarola, Prediche e scritti; Guida Spirituale—Vita Christiana; Apologetico: indole e natura dell'arte poetica; De contempt mundi as well as Ficino’s letters and Apologia contra Savonarolam; and also Giovanni Pica della Mirandoli’s De hominis dignitate. The two adversaries’ mutual relations were both surprisingly similar and contradictory. They both came from families of court doctors, which gave them access to broad knowledge of man’s nature that was available to doctors at those times and let them grow up in the circles of sophisticated Renaissance elites. Ficino lived in de Medicis' residences in Florence, and Savonarola in the palace belonging to d’Este family in Ferrara. Ficino eagerly used the benefits of such a situation, whereas Savonarola became an implacable enemy of the oligarchy that limited the citizens’ freedom they had at that time, and a determined supporter of the republic, to whose revival in Florence he contributed a lot. This situated them in opposing political camps. They were similarly educated and had broad intellectual horizons. They left impressive works of literature concerned with the domain of spirituality, philosophy, religion, literature and arts, and their texts contain fewer contradictions than it could be supposed. Being priests, they aimed at defending the Christian religion. Ficino wanted to reconcile the religious doctrine with the world of ancient philosophy and in order to do this he did a formidable work to make a translation of Plato’s works. He wanted to fish souls in the intellectual net of Plato’s philosophy and to convert them. And it is here that they differed from each other. Savonarola’s attitude towards the antiquity was hostile; he struggled for the purity of the Christian doctrine and for the simplicity of its followers’ lives. He called upon people to repent and convert. He first of all noticed an urgent need to deeply reform the Church, which led him to an immediate conflict with Pope Alexander VI Borgia. In accordance with the spirit of the era, he was interested in astrology and prepared accurate horoscopes. Savonarola rejected astrology, and he believed that God, like in the past, sends prophets to the believers. His sermons, which had an immense impact on the listeners, were based on prophetic visions, especially ones concerning the future of Florence, Italy and the Church. His moral authority and his predictions that came true, were one of the reasons why his influence increased so much that after the fall of the House of Medici he could be considered an informal head of the Republic of Florence. It was then that he carried out the strict reforms, whose part were the famous “Bonfires of the Vanities.” Ficino only seemingly passively observed the preacher’s work. Nevertheless, over the years a conflict arose between the two great personalities. It had the character of political struggle. It was accompanied by a rivalry for intellectual and spiritual influence, as well as by a deepening mutual hostility. Ficino expressed it in Apologia contra Savonarolam written soon after Savonarola’s tragic death; the monk was executed according to Alexander VI Borgia’s judgment. The sensible neo-Platonist did not hesitate to thank the Pope for liberating Florence from Savonarola’s influence and he called his opponent a demon and the antichrist deceiving the believers. How deep must the conflict have been since it led Ficino to formulating his thoughts in this way, and how must it have divided Florence's community? The dispute between the leading moralizers of those times must have caused anxiety in their contemporaries. Both the antagonists died within a year, one after the other, and their ideas had impact even long after their deaths, finding their reflection in the next century’s thought and arts. 


2019 ◽  
pp. 31-64
Author(s):  
Demetrios Argyriades ◽  
Pan Suk Kim

With the Great Recession receding, but crises still afflicting large swaths of the world and a climate of rampant distrust adversely affecting governance, it may be time to ask whether and, if so, how and where our field went wrong. Have we been willing victims of sleep-walkers using metaphors as models? This paper argues as much. Specifically, it contends that, foisted on the world as the one- size-fits-all prescription for good governance, nationally and internationally, it has ended turning governance and democracy on their heads, while also undermining the very foundations on which a global order, based on peaceful coexistence and constructive cooperation through the United Nations, was predicated. The prevalence of symptoms of hurt and discontent should lead us to conclude that the roots of our predicament and problems go much deeper, to a might counter- culture, which triumphed in the 1990s but still goes strong, in places.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 595
Author(s):  
Hellen Rumiris ◽  
Stanislaus Atalim

Granting credit by the bank to the society greatly helps to develop a business that is run by community both individuals and legal entities. The government of the Republic of Indonesia has intructed banking to provide credit facilities especially for the middle and lower businesses. Banking credit agreement is a standard contract made by the bank by almost not giving freedom at all to the other parties to do negotiation for the requirements offered. This type of research using a normative juridicial research. This research aims to analyze the exoneration clauses in a credit agreement between PT. Bank Mandiri Persero (Tbk) Semarang with Wibowo, S.E. and Siti Aisyah. The bank credit agreement is the legal agreement to the Article 1320 of Indonesian Civil Code. However, the exoneration clauses listed on it contradicts some basis in the law agreement and also violates the provisions of Article 18 of The Consumer Protection Act. Clauses in a credit agreement are made to regulate the rights and the obligatons of the parties so that reasonable risk sharing occures between the bank and the customer. In fact, exoneration clauses are often abused by businessman attempting to diminish, divert and even refuse responsibility. The result of this research concludes that: First, the Government must provide more limits on the using of exoneration clauses through revision of The Consumer Protection Act. Second, PT. Bank Mandiri (Tbk) Semarang must be more meticulous and careful to determine contents of credit agreement.


Author(s):  
Manuel Jiménez Sánchez ◽  
Raúl Álvarez Pérez ◽  
Gomer Betancor Nuez

El movimiento de los pensionistas en 2018 supuso la primera movilización multitudinaria basada en una identidad colectiva de personas mayores en España, y mostró una capacidad de contestación popular sin precedentes en el tema de las pensiones. Este trabajo indaga en el proceso de configuración de la identidad colectiva como estrategia analítica que permite entender la aparición y la naturaleza (exitosa) de la movilización. Siguiendo la conceptualización de Melucci, este proceso se analiza desde una doble perspectiva. Por un lado, como estrategia de actores colectivos que persiguen articular la contestación popular a la política de pensiones puestas en marcha durante la Gran Recesión. Aquí, el análisis se centra en identificar el proceso organizativo en el que se sientan las bases identitarias del movimiento, y que se extenderían con éxito en la fase posterior de contestación masiva. Por otro lado, se presta atención a la naturaleza de la identificación entre los propios pensionistas como resultado de procesos de aprendizaje durante sus experiencias de movilización. Para la primera perspectiva, el trabajo se basa en informaciones obtenidas en noticias de prensa sobre las actividades de protesta y en documentos producidos por las organizaciones del movimiento. La perspectiva individual de los participantes se fundamenta en el análisis de los discursos obtenidos en entrevistas personales focalizadas a participantes. Este doble enfoque, como estrategia organizativa intencionada y como proceso de aprendizaje durante la experiencia de la movilización, ofrece informaciones clave para comprender no solo el proceso, inédito en España, de construcción de una voz propia de los pensionistas sino también para indagar en los procesos de aprendizaje y cambio actitudinal que implican para los participantes corrientes. En un sentido más amplio, esta estrategia de análisis permite igualmente, por un lado, ubicar el proceso de movilización de los pensionistas en una trayectoria temporal más amplia de contestación popular y, en particular, vincularlo a los legados del ciclo de movilización que protagonizó el 15-M. Por otro lado, también permite destacar esos procesos de contestación como espacios de aprendizaje en los que se modelan actitudes, valores y demás elementos de la cultura de protesta. The pensioners' movement in 2018 was the first mass mobilization based on a collective identity of older people in Spain, and showed an unprecedented capacity for popular contestation on the issue of pensions. This paper inquires into the process of collective identity configuration as an analytical strategy that allows us to understand the emergence and (successful) nature of the mobilisation. Following Melucci's conceptualization, this process is analysed from a double perspective. On the one hand, as a strategy of collective actors seeking to articulate popular contestation to the pension policies implemented during the Great Recession. Here, the analysis focuses on identifying the organizational process in which the identity bases of the movement are established and, which were successfully extended in the subsequent phase of mass protest. On the other hand, attention is paid to the nature of the collective identification among pensioners themselves as result of learning processes during their protest experiences. The analysis of the organizational configuration of the movement is based on information obtained from press reports on the protest activities and documents produced by the movement's organizations. The individual perspective of the participants relies on the analysis of the discourses obtained in focused interviews with participants. This dual approach, as an intentional organizational strategy and as a learning process during the mobilization experience, provides key information to understand not only the process, unprecedented in Spain, of building a voice for pensioners, but also to investigate the learning processes and attitudinal change involved for ordinary participants. More broadly, it also allows, on the one hand, to place the process of mobilization of pensioners in a broader temporal trajectory of popular contestation and, in particular, to link it to the legacies of the cycle of mobilization in the wake of the 15-M movement. On the other hand, it also allows us to observe protest as learning spaces in which attitudes, values, and other elements of the culture of protest are modelled.


2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (4/2019) ◽  
pp. 193-206
Author(s):  
Darko Simović

The adoption of the Act on Prevention of Domestic Violence was driven by the creation of a more effective legal framework for the protection of victims of domestic violence, and, therefore, also by the alignment of the legal system of the Republic of Serbia with international obligations. The main novelties include multi-sectoral cooperation and primarily preventive nature of the law. However, from its very adoption, it has been pointed to its noticeably repressive character, as well as to provisions with potentially harmful impacts. Hence, this paper represents a contribution to the discussion on the importance and scope of the solutions provided for in the Act on Prevention of Domestic Violence. On the one hand, it points to major novelties intended to contribute to a more effective prevention of domestic violence. On the other hand, it questions the constitutionality and appropriateness of some of the legal solutions, arguing that, in particular respects, the lawmaker had to use a wiser and more subtle approach to conceptualising the provisions of this law.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (18) ◽  
pp. 7613
Author(s):  
Armand Kasztelan

In this paper, the aggregate index of national economies’ circularity (INEC) was proposed and empirically verified. For this purpose, the taxonomic linear ordering method was used, which is a multi-criteria decision-making procedure. This method replaces the analysis of the phenomenon described by a set of indicators with an analysis using one aggregate indicator: the so-called ‘synthetic metric’. Based on 14 circular economy indicators that are available in the Eurostat database, the circularity indexes were constructed for 24 EU countries (including the United Kingdom). This allowed the author, on the one hand, to create a ranking of the countries, and on the other, to assign them to four groups, which were characterized by a similar level of circularity. This paper attempts to answer the following questions: how circular are the European economies? What are the main challenges in achieving circularity in Europe? Taking into account the INEC range [0,1], it should be noted that the level of circularity in the analysed European countries is low (an average of 0.3021). Therefore, the paper indicates the areas requiring improvement in this respect.


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