Number of results to display per page
Search Results
1062. Bulgaria and the Balkans in the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union
- Author:
- Plamen Pantev, Valeri Ratchev, and Venelin Tsachevski
- Publication Date:
- 07-1995
- Content Type:
- Case Study
- Institution:
- Institute for Security and International Studies (ISIS)
- Abstract:
- Bulgaria's integration in the European Union (EU) became an undoubted strategic objective of the country, forming the basis of a national consensus among the political forces and society in general. The association stage of the integration process implies the beginning of an active, purposeful adaptation of the different branches of national policy to the main directions of EU's common undertakings. This means that the country's foreign relations and national security policy need to adapt to the Common foreign and security policy (CFSP), Common defence policy (CDP) and Common Defence (CD) of EU. A short study cannot cover all essential details about the character, history, formation and implementation of CFSP of EU, as well as specific issues touching certain Bulgarian interests. The Institute for Security and International Studies, recognising the special meaning of the forthcoming Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) in 1996 of EU member states, will carry out three other shorter studies, in addition to the present one. This should help develop a better picture of the following issues: the political dialogue of EU with the associated countries in Central and Eastern Europe (ACCEE); the economic factors of stability on the Balkan peninsula; and Russia's relations with EU and the repercussions for Southeast Europe.
- Topic:
- Security, Foreign Policy, Politics, European Union, and Dialogue
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Eastern Europe, Bulgaria, and Balkans
1063. Recombinant Property in East European Capitalism
- Author:
- David Stark
- Publication Date:
- 01-1994
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- In contrast to the problematic of transition, this paper sees social change not as the passage from one order to another but as rearrangement in the patterns of how a multiplicity of social orders are interwoven. From that perspective we see organizational innovation not as replacement but as recombination. The findings of field research in Hungarian firms. data on ownership of the largest Hungarian enterprises, and interviews with key policy makers in government. banking. and industry indicate the emergence of new property forms that are neither statist nor private, in which the properties of private and public are dissolved. interwoven. and recombined. Recombinant property is a form of organizational hedging, or portfolio management. in which actors are responding to extraordinary uncertainty in the organizational environment. For enterprise actors the question is not simply, "Will I survive the market test?" but also, under what conditions is proof of worth on market principles neither sufficient nor necessary to survive. Recombinant property is an attempt to have resources in more than one organizational form-or similarly-to produce hybrid organizational forms that can be justified or assessed by more than one standard of measure. The clash of competing organizational principles that characterizes post-socialist societies produces new organizational forms; and this organizational diversity can form a basis for greater adaptability. At the same time, however, this multiplicity of ordering principles creates problems of accountability. Accompanying the decentralized reorganization oj assets is a centralization of liabilities. Both processes blur the boundaries between public and private. On the one hand, privatization produces the criss-crossing lines of recombinant property; on the other, debt consolidation transforms private debt into public liabilities. Whereas in the state socialist economy paternalism was based on the state's attempts at the centralized management of assets, in the first years of the post-socialist economy paternalism is based on the state's attempts at the centralized management of liabilities.
- Topic:
- Capitalism, Property, Social Change, and Post-Communism
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Eastern Europe, and Hungary
1064. The Race for the Pax Germanica: Spain versus Central & Eastern Europe
- Author:
- Hans Slomp
- Publication Date:
- 01-1993
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- Most Central and Eastern European countries are experimenting with forms of tripartism, i.e., trade union/employer/government contacts at all-industry level. This form of bargaining and consultation is patterned after the tripartite councils in Northern Europe. Spain has also had a number of tripartite agreements in the early 1980s, and its transition toward democracy is sometimes compared to that in (Central and) Eastern Europe. In this paper, Spanish and Eastern European labor relations are compared on the basis of the basic features of Northern European labor relations, in which tripartism has a longer tradition: the nature of the labor movement, the pacification of the enterprise by a shift of conflict to the branch level, and the depoliticization of labor relations. Eastern Europe's trade union density and trade union structure seem to be better adapted to tripartism than the Spanish labor movement. The major hindrance to a system of branch bargaining is the absence of employers organizations. It could be overcome to some extent by regional collective bargaining, with the local government as an active participant.
- Topic:
- Industry, Trade Unions, Democratic Transitions, Labor Movement, and Tripartism
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Eastern Europe, Spain, and Central Europe
1065. Between State & Market: Changing Agriculture in Postcommunist Poland
- Author:
- Krysztof Gorlach
- Publication Date:
- 01-1993
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- The paper deals with the problems of changes in Polish agriculture under current conditions. These conditions include the legacy of the communist period (agrarian structure as well as patterns of activity among farmers), the new pro-market agricultural policy, and the need for privatization of former large state farms. However, the transformation of the largest part of Polish agriculture, that is, about two million relatively small family farms, seems to be the key problem now. The author tries to analyze some stimulants and barriers to the process of change, as well as some options for the future. These options include: the so-called "farmerization path," the "fossilization solution," and the "third way."
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Markets, Privatization, and Post-Communism
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Eastern Europe, and Poland
1066. Resolving Intra-National Conflicts: A Strengthened Role for Intergovernmental Organizations
- Author:
- Jimmy Carter
- Publication Date:
- 02-1993
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Carter Center
- Abstract:
- On the following pages, the reader will find a comprehensive summary of the 1993 International Negotiation Network (INN) Consultation, "Resolving Intra-National Conflicts: A Strengthened Role for Intergovernmental Organizations."
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, International Cooperation, and United Nations
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia
1067. Ethnic Issues in Post-Communist Czechoslovakia
- Author:
- Sharon Wolchik
- Publication Date:
- 01-1992
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- This paper examines the increase in the political salience of ethnicity in the postcommunist period in Czechoslovakia. as in several other postcommunist states, ethnic issues dominated the political agenda in the first two years after the collapse of the communist system and led to the negotiated breakup of the federation. Differences regarding reform led to a series of political crises in 1990 and 1992. Symbolic issues also contributed to the conflict. Political leaders played an important role in increasing the political salience of ethnicity during this period. Their ability to channel the dissatisfaction and uncertainty that accompanied the economic and political changes underway to mobilize support for ethnic aims reflect the fact that Czechs and Slovaks differ in their attitudes toward many important economic and political issues. These differences, in turn, reflect the influence of each people's history, levels of economic development, the legacy of the communist period, and the distinct ways in which the transition to the market affects each region.
- Topic:
- Politics, Economy, Ethnicity, Post-Soviet Space, and Post-Communism
- Political Geography:
- Eastern Europe and Czechoslovakia
1068. Democratic Transitions: Puzzles & Surprises from West to East
- Author:
- Giuseppe di Palma
- Publication Date:
- 01-1990
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- Recent communist crises in Eastern Europe seem to have caught many analysts by surprise. They also show features that set them apart from contemporary crises of right-wing dictatorships. The paper analyzes the reasons for the surprise in the light of theories of communism and of civil society under communism developed since the death of Stalin. It also examines and tries to account for the special features of the crises: their sudden acceleration •. the regimes' loss of a will to rule, the mobilization of large popular strata. Explanations focus on the goal-oriented nature of communist regimes as an alternative to the Western order. It makes the issue of self-identity and self justification crucial to these regimes-more crucial than for right-wing dictatorships. Therefore, the announcement by the Soviet hegemon itself that the goal has failed removes those tenuous shreds of self-justification to which the regimes desperately cling. This also makes possible and explains mass mobilization and the revival of civil society as a cathartic exercise. The paper concludes with an analysis of the prospects for democratization in Eastern Europe in the light of recent transitions in Southern Europe and Latin America. Democracy may develop-theoretical pessimism notwithstanding--as a matter of calculus and through an accelerated process of learning.
- Topic:
- Politics, Dictatorship, Identity, Post-Communism, and Democratic Transitions
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Eastern Europe
1069. Work, Worth, & Justice in a Socialist Mixed Economy
- Author:
- David Stark
- Publication Date:
- 01-1990
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- A French translation of this essay appears as "La valeur du travail et sa retribution en Hongrie," in Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales, no. 85, November 1990, pp. 3-19. An earlier version of this paper was presented in a seminar of the Group de Sociologie Politique et Morale, November 1986. It benefitted from conversations with Pierre Bourdieu and from lengthy discussions with Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thevenot while their book, Les economies de la grandeur (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1987), was in progress. My thanks especially to Monique Djokic Stark for her helpful criticisms and suggestions.
- Topic:
- Justice, Socialism, Work, and Mixed Economy
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Eastern Europe, and Hungary
1070. Stabilization & State Enterprise Adjustment: The Political Economy of State Firms After Five Months of Fiscal Discipline, Poland 1990
- Author:
- Janusz M. Dabrowski
- Publication Date:
- 01-1990
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- This report describes the behavior of Polish state firms after six months of fiscal stabilization. On the one hand, it is shown that state firms are attempting to adapt to fiscal constraints and the fall in domestic demand caused by the Mazowiecki government's stabilization plan. On the other hand, it tries to demonstrate that the continued confusion of both property rights and managerial authority impede the formulation and implementation of strategic adjustment plans at the firm level. The report also challenges a number of the governing stereotypes concerning managerial, union, and Employee Council behavior during the process of firm adjustment. In the final section, a proposal for the partial, indirect give-away of state assets is sketched. It is argued that the commercialization of state enterprises, and their partial assignment to publicly held investment associations presents the possibility of both clarifying managerial authority and more clearly introducing external market pressures into the strategic calculation of firms.
- Topic:
- Political Economy, Investment, Fiscal Policy, and Stabilization
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Eastern Europe, and Poland