...the new post-communist EU member states Sergiu Bălțătescu University of Oradea, Romania www.sergiubaltatescu.info Abstract: Ten of the post-communist countries managed to integrate into EU. Which are the subjective outcomes of socio-economic transformations in these countries? Did they manage to increase their citizens’ happiness in this process? To give an answer to these questions I used data from Candidate Countries Eurobarometer (2001-2004), Standard Eurobarometers (2005-2007), and World Bank Development Indicators. Developments in average national happiness have been compared with the economic (GDP, optimism concerning the level of living) and political (satisfaction with democracy) trends on the same time span. In all the studied societies, trends were positive after 2001. Eastern European countries showed higher increases in GNI per capita and also life satisfaction than in the rest of European Union. Those who started with lower levels increased more, strongly suggesting a possibility of convergence. A non-economic factor, satisfaction with democracy, mediates the influence of GNI on life satisfaction. Overall, access of Eastern European countries in European Union seems to be a success story, from both economic and non-economic points of view. However, the economic crisis may change the prognosis, raising the issue of sustainability of growth in happiness levels. Keywords: subjective well-being; economic development; Post-socialist...
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...Romania’s Post Communism Accounting Practices and The Effects of Adapting IFRS for SMEs Abstract Romania, located in southeastern European, was heavily influenced by the Russian Soviet Union as a socialist republic between 1947 and 1989. With becoming a capitalist country in 1989, its accounting practices began its transformation. The purpose of this paper is to analyze Romania accounting practices post its revolution. The paper discusses three major accounting practice conversions made in Romania post communism. Included in this paper are comparisons of previous practices and the implications presented within each practice; along with the pros and cons and many challenges that are associated with the adaptation of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for small and medium-sized entities (SMEs). Romania’s Post Communism Accounting Practices and The Effects of Adapting IFRS Romania is country located in southeastern Europe and is the ninth largest country of the European Union. Between 1947 and 1989, Romania was controlled by the Russian Soviet Union and enforced by communism. Today, reported in its 2011 Census, Romania’s currently has a population of 21,390,000 people and a gross domestic product (GDP) of $179,793,512,340. Though now considered as an upper-middle income country by the World Bank, Romania has faced many transitions from communism to capitalism over the course of the past three...
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...Ethnical and religious cleavages in central and eastern Europe Does Europe exist? Where should be the borders? Russia and Turkey had a big influence on Europe as well. They dispatched parts of Europe for a long time. Of course the path dependency is present in these regions. The process of European integration started later there. European identity is difficult to describe. Distinction between east and west means post-communism (eastern). Central Europe: Czechs feel like being central Europeans (since they don’t want to be part of eastern Europe.) idea of central Europe is based on Austrian-Hungarian-Empire + parts of Germany eg Bavaria. The link is also the way of making decisions, working, doing things, tradition, waking up early (Franz Josef) many similarities. Lot of conflicts in Europe are still connected to events that happened hundreds of years ago. Poland (republic) Linguistic Group: Western Slavic Religion: Catholic (important part of national identity) Ethnical Minorities: German, Ukraine, Belorussian (small and not important) Often divided (Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary) Is called state of wheels always moving We are Poles because we are not Russian, not German religion became very important for their identification. Day 2 Post-Yugoslavia states Tito managed to unify Yugoslavia after WWII and to keep it independent from Russia. self-managed socialism (market orientation). More contact to the west. Authoritarian system but not as closed as...
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...Berend (2000) – From Plan to Market, From Regime Change to Sustained Growth in Central and Eastern Europe * After the state socalism collapsed in Central and Eastern Europe in the early 1990s, the Washington consensus of 1989 (a broadly accepted set of criteria for a reform program) was adopted as a blueprint for the process of transformation. * Central elements: * Macro-economic stabilization (for countries with significant inflation and indebtedness) * New institutions * Legislation * Price and trade liberalisation * Radical privatization * Most of the “transformatology“ literature is based on the assumption that the elimination of deformed non-market economies, a restoration of market, and private ownership, paired with a laissez-faire free market system would automatically solve all major economic/social problems of the transforming countries. * The economic crisis within the Central and Eastern Europe area started much earlier – in the mid-late 1970s when growth slowed significantly and the terms of trade for the state socialist countries began to deteriorate (1973 first oil shock 20% decline, for some even 26-32%) Schumpeter’s theory of “structural crisis”: advancements in technology lead to decline of the old leading sectors and export branches based on old technology, generating wide-ranging slow-down and decline and causing an economic crisis even in rich, advanced countries. However, although rising new technology...
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...It escalated due to antagonist values between the Cumulated States, representing capitalism and democracy, and the Soviet Cumulation, representing communism and authoritarianism. Being the two ascendant world powers after WWII, contention between the Americans and Soviets became an ecumenical conflict. The Cold War differed from most wars in that it was as much of a propaganda war as a war with military engagements. The Korean and Vietnam Wars are consequential examples of military intervention by the Americans in the denomination of ceasing communist expansionism. However, these wars did not have the decade’s long impact on American domestic and peregrine policy that the cultural, political, and economic battles of the Cold War had. (Katy Fletcher,...
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...words as weapons. They threatened and denounced each other. Or they tried to make each other look foolish. Over the years, leaders on both sides changed. Yet the Cold War continued. It was the major force in world politics for most of the second half of the twentieth century. The Cold War world was separated into three groups. The United States led the West, including countries with democratic political systems. The Soviet Union led the East. This including countries with communist political systems. The non-aligned group included countries that did not want to be tied to either the West or the East. Harry Truman was the first American president to fight the Cold War. He used several policies. One was the Truman Doctrine. This was a plan to give money and military aid to countries threatened by communism. The Truman Doctrine effectively stopped communists from taking control of Greece and Turkey. Another policy was the Marshall Plan. This strengthened the economies and governments of countries in Western Europe. The United States also led the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in nineteen forty-nine. NATO...
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... BERNATH LECTURE The New International History of the Cold War: Three (Possible) Paradigms* The Cold War is not what it once was. Not only has the conflict itself been written about in the past tense for more than a decade, but historians’ certainties about the character of the conflict have also begun to blur. The concerns brought on by trends of the past decade – such trifles as globalization, weapons proliferation, and ethnic warfare – have made even old strategy buffs question the degree to which the Cold War ought to be put at the center of the history of the late twentieth century. In this article I will try to show how some people within our field are attempting to meet such queries by reconceptualizing the Cold War as part of contemporary international history. My emphasis will be on issues connecting the Cold War – defined as a political conflict between two power blocs – and some areas of investigation that in my opinion hold much promise for reformulating our views of that conflict, blithely summed up as ideology, technology, and the Third World. I have called this lecture “Three (Possible) Paradigms” not just to avoid making too presumptuous an impression on the audience but also to indicate that my use of the term “paradigm” is slightly different from the one most people have taken over from Thomas Kuhn’s work on scientific revolutions. In the history of science, a paradigm has come to mean a comprehensive explanation, a kind of scientific “level”...
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...1 At the beginning of the 21st century, nations are more closely linked to one another than ever before through trade in goods and services, flows of capital, movement of labour—though to a limited extent—and through investments in each other’s economies. There are several factors that have played a key role in promoting international trade. These are as follows: Falling trade barriers: Liberalization of trade has been recently accelerated as a result of free trade agreements, emergence of trade blocs and the facilitating roles played by international organizations such as the WTO, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Political reforms have opened up new frontiers: As pointed out by James Post et al.,2 the former communist nations of Eastern Europe are now open to doing business around the world. Millions of people in these countries are now able to take advantage of goods and services that global commerce provides in an open and free market. There have been...
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...CHAPTER 01 INTRODUCTION 1.1. BACKGROUND Just twenty years ago, the dismantling of Cold War division in Europe began with parliamentary changes in Poland (Bochniarz and Cohen 2006). These changes initiated a domino effect in transformation of other Central and Eastern European countries (CEE); the transformation of Romania, East Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria was soon followed by sweeping changes in Russia and Central Asia, affecting more than 400 million people (Chandler 2000). Needless to say, however, the transformation of Central and Eastern Europe near the climax of the 80s took the European Community (EC) by surprise. In the pre1989 era, the EC exercised only a limited relationship with CEE countries and showed no serious interest for a European project of political and economic integration that would include any of the CEE states. According to Gower (1999), this inability to foresee the potential of the CEE region strongly reflects the ineffectiveness in the EC policies. Shortly after transition to democracy, ten CEE states (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia) declared their utmost desire to join the “family of Europe” (Andonova 2004). As the idea of EU membership for these newly independent democracies in Central and Eastern Europe started to gain some serious ground in the early 90s, the debate over enlargement and its economic, social and The first chapter is like a long foreword...
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...This article was downloaded by: [University of Southampton Highfield] On: 15 March 2013, At: 09:07 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Post-Communist Economies Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cpce20 Debt sustainability in the EU New Member States: empirical evidence from a panel of eight Central and East European countries Matthieu Llorca & Srdjan Redzepagic a b a b LEG/FARGO, University of Dijon, France CEMAFI, University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, Nice, France Version of record first published: 16 May 2008. To cite this article: Matthieu Llorca & Srdjan Redzepagic (2008): Debt sustainability in the EU New Member States: empirical evidence from a panel of eight Central and East European countries, Post-Communist Economies, 20:2, 159-172 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14631370802018882 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation...
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...Istanbul is undoubtedly an important city as the centre of various civilizations and cultures in the entire history. Its crucial cachets had attracted at least three giant empires (Roman, Byzantium and Ottoman Empires); that was made Istanbul to be the “nest” and “bridge” not only for dominant cultures to prevail, but also provided “shelter” for vulnerable and weak minorities.14 Istanbul made a significant progress after the conquest by the Turks. Constantinople gradually had lost its essence and influence, subsequently took a new thrilling “breath” for re-strengthening as a capital of an Oriental and Muslim culture. Istanbul became a face of the East Muslim culture for the West Christian world: it played a role of linkage between the East and West. Concerning importance of Muslim Culture, Turkish in particular, for the West, Chris Morris analyzes backward situation of the West. Moreover, he sheds light on the East’s contributions to the reduction of gap and states that European Christian space was lagging behind the Muslim East in terms of improvement of technology and civilization up to 16th century. Ottoman conquests urged interaction of Christians and Muslims, herein “Islamic world became Europe’s link with more advanced civilizations to the East. Knowledge of medicine and mathematics, astronomy and the arts, hygiene and new agricultural techniques all flooded in with the invading armies of soldiers, sailors and merchants.”15 However, the challenges coming from the East as...
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...What are the global ‘North’ and ‘South’ and why they are increasingly unrelated to geographical locations? Like many other concepts within the social sciences, globalisation is a highly debated and controversial issue with a diversity of opinions ranging across a broad spectrum. At one end of the spectrum, there are those who view globalisation as the source of many of the major social problems currently affecting developing countries. At the other, are those who view it as a process that will dissolve boundaries between nations and promote global unification. Similarly, definitions of the terms ‘Global North’ and ‘Global South’ are just as varied with the term ‘globalisation’ also carrying many different and often contrasting meanings. According to Modelski, Devezas and Thompson (2008, p.13), globalisation is not a new concept but rather, diachronic, or ‘a process in time’. The authors viewed globalisation as a historical process, the understanding of which required tracing it far back into the past (Modelski et al. 2008, p. 13). However, Heywood (2007, p. 143) suggests, that because globalisation refers to such a wide range of things, e.g. policies, strategies, processes or an ideology, it may be concluded ‘slippery and elusive’ understanding of globalisation arises from its involvement in so many different areas of academia and the extensive and continuing discussion therein surrounding its properties. Regardless of different views on the definition and scope of globalisation...
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...Once the proud capital of Germany Berlin was divided by a barrier that was patrolled day and night by armed soldiers and guard dogs. On August 13, 1961 shortly after midnight police and soldiers in the Communist controlled Berlin moved quickly to set up barriers. Berliners woke to find their city divided into east and west sectors. A communist nation led by the Soviet Union was in control of East Berlin. While West Berlin was controlled by a democratic nation led by the United States (Epler, 1992). The Berlin Wall known as Berliner Mauer in German (Rosenberg, 2016). It was a symbol of the Cold War. Trying to cross the Wall meant risking one’s life. One side of the Wall people were free to do all the normal things. While the other side of the wall people’s freedom was being taken away. Imagine that your best friend lives a mile away. You have been pals since first grade. You do everything together: school, soccer games, sleepovers. One day, men come and put up a barbed-wire fence between your house and your buddy’s house. Later, they replace it with a very long, very tall concrete wall. Each slab weighs 6,000 pounds, and many of them are topped with sharp wire. When they finish, you stare at the giant wall that has split your home town in two. On your side the wall is ugly but not too scary. On the other side, rattling tanks, soldiers with machine guns and growling dogs keep people from trying to cross the barrier. The wall stands 12 feet high. Your friend...
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...role in leading the rebuilding of a powerful Western Europe. Britain wanted to be treated as an equal by their victorious partners after WWII, the US and USSR, and the British leaders believed this could be accomplished by the creation of a unified Western bloc in Europe. From 1945 until 1957 with the signing of the Treaty of Rome, Britain was successful in leading Western Europe through leadership in post war reconstruction, economic arrangements, security, and atomic weapons. Britain’s commitment to being a world power as well as their widespread influence overseas also helped the British to maintain a leadership role in Western Europe despite French ideas of British Americanization. Overall, despite occasional moments of weakness, Britain was essentially the driver of the “European bus” from 1945 until 1957 when the British decided they no longer wanted to be on board the European bus. World War II devastated Western Europe both physically and economically but provided an opportunity for Britain to take a leading role in the reconstruction process. Reconstruction became the immediate concern for Britain and their Western European neighbors. Britain’s leading role in Western Europe was sparked by their success in post war reconstruction beginning with their role in the Marshall Plan funding by the United States. The British recognized the need to rebuild Western Europe in order to prevent Soviet Union communist influence. Lord Inverchapel sent a note to the United...
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...Social Science Research Center Berlin Reichpietschufer 50, 10785 Berlin Federal Republic of Germany Telefon: +49/30/25491-0 Telefax: +49/30/25491-684 E-Mail: wzb@wz-berlin.de Internet: http://www.wz-berlin.de Agnes Arndt ist Historikerin. Sie ist Promotionsstipendiatin der Gerda Henkel Stiftung am Berliner Kolleg für Vergleichende Geschichte Europas“ an der Freien Universität Berlin sowie Gastwissenschaftlerin der Forschungsgruppe „Zivilgesellschaft, Citizenship und politische Mobilisierung in Europa“. Agnes Arndt is Historian. She is PhD fellow at the “Berlin School for Comparative European History” at the Free University Berlin and associated research fellow of the research group “Civil Society, Citizenship and Political Mobilization in Europe". Dariusz Gawin ist Direktor am Museum des Warschauer Aufstands in Warschau. Dariusz Gawin is director at the Warsaw Rising Museum, Warsaw. Zitierweise: Agnes Arndt and Dariusz Gawin, 2008 Discourses on Civil Society in Poland Discussion Paper SP IV 2008-402 Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB) Agnes Arndt: Premisses and Paradoxes in the Development of the Civil Society Contents: Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... 1 I....
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