RECENTLY PUBLISHED
Andreea ZAMFIRA,
Une sociologie électorale des communautés pluriethniques,
L’Harmattan, Paris, 2012.
Starting from developing a picture of electoral behaviours in multilingual communities, Andrea Zamfira’s book highlights the influence of the ethno-linguistic factor on the electoral behaviour. An important contribution of this paper is represented by the proposal of a new analytical model able to refund the complexity of elections in countries that have experienced the cultural diversity, on long historical periods.
Richard E. WAGNER, James M. BUCHANAN,
Democraţia în deficit. Moştenirea politică a lordului Keynes,
translated from English by Radu Şimandan, preface by Robert D. Tollison,
Humanitas, București, 2013.
The Romanian translation of the classic work of Richard E. Wagner and James M. Buchanan, Democracy in Deficit:The Political Legacy of Lord Keynes (published for the first time in 1977), recalls the theoretical dispute between the economic school of public choice and the Keynesian model, the stake being the defining of the relationship between business and politics. In this respect, Wagner and Buchanan are taking trenchantly a stand against the Keynesian assumption on the independence and primacy of macroeconomic policy in relation to politics. The book advocates a system of fiscal and monetary rules as a solution to finding the economic optimal balance between lasting stability and growth.
William BARTLETT, Sanja MALEKOVIC,
Vassilis MONASTIRIOTIS (eds.),
Decentralization and Local Development in South East Europe,
Series: Studies in Economic Transition, Palgrave Macmillan, February 2013.
The post-communist states of South East Europe (SEE) have a strong commitment to decentralisation as a means to contribute to the consolidation of democracy, and to improve institutions for local economic and social development. However, the experience of transition in post-communist SEE has been to deepen regional and local inequalities, creating a vulnerability of the affected regions to external shocks such as the recent economic crisis and its subsequent threats to political stability. This book explores the nature and effectiveness of policies of decentralisation and regional development in this less well studied part of Europe. It identifies the impact of decentralisation and regional development on spatial inequalities, and evaluates the policy responses in different political and institutional environments.
Vesna BOJICIC-DZELILOVIC, James KER-LINDSAY,
Denisa KOSTOVICOVA (eds.),
Civil Society and Transitions in the Western Balkans,
Palgrave Macmillan, January 2013.
This book examines the ambiguous role played by civil society in state-building, democratization and post-conflict reconstruction in the Western Balkans. In doing so, it challenges the received wisdom that civil society is always a force that promotes people’s weal. Civil society actors have helped create the conditions for new, more constructive relations inside and between former Yugoslavian countries. But, their agency has also rekindled nationalism by hindering the efforts to rebuild the region after the conflicts of the 1990s. The book demonstrates that diverse civil society effects cannot be captured without querying both the nature of civil society and the complexity of the ongoing transformation. So how can the emancipatory role of civil society be harnessed? This rigorous case study-driven reappraisal of the ability of civil society to support progressive transformation from an illiberal regime to democracy and from conflict to peace will be a valuable resource to scholars and practitioners alike.
About the Author(s)
TO BE PUBLISHED
Johannes STEPHAN,
The Technological Role of Inward Foreign Direct Investment
in Central East Europe,
Series: Studies in Economic Transition, Palgrave Macmillan, June 2013.
The post-communist states of South East Europe (SEE) have a strong commitment to decentralisation as a means to contribute to the consolidation of democracy, and to improve institutions for local economic and social development. However, the experience of transition in post-communist SEE has been to deepen regional and local inequalities, creating a vulnerability of the affected regions to external shocks such as the recent economic crisis and its subsequent threats to political stability. This book explores the nature and effectiveness of policies of decentralisation and regional development in this less well studied part of Europe. It identifies the impact of decentralisation and regional development on spatial inequalities, and evaluates the policy responses in different political and institutional environments.
Vera TRAPPMANN,
Fallen Heroes in Global Capitalism
Workers and the Restructuring of the Polish Steel Industry,
Series: Studies in Economic Transition, Palgrave Macmillan, May 2013.
This book challenges the one-sided account of Poland as a successful transition case, by exploring the huge social costs for workers in terms of impoverishment and employment precarity. The ambivalent role of the European Union in the economic restructuring of Poland emerges through comparisons to earlier rounds of restructuring the steel industry in Western Europe, Eastern Europe and other parts of the world. By offering an exemplary case of multi-level analysis, an in-depth case study and biographical research, Fallen Heroes in Global Capitalism provides a compelling reading on post-socialism and the restructuring of the Polish steel industry.
CONFERENCES 2013
First, the Second International Symposium “The Mediterranean Pattern and the Extended Region of the Black Sea”, organised by The University of South East Europe Lumina and The Italian Institute for Philosophical Studies from Naples, will take place in Bucharest, on 12 - 16 JUNE 2013. The purpose of the symposium is to find, through scientific debate, possible answers to the following question: can the extended region of the Black Sea constitute a pattern comparable to the Mediterranean one? Within the theme sections we will try to identify those elements of similarity, interference and mutual influencing, as well as the specific aspects in the area of culture and civilisation, politics, institutions, as well as economy. This year, the three thematic sections will deal with the following issues:
I. Democracy and political representation
II. Regional identities and regionalization
III. Neo-liberalism and the welfare state today
The working languages in the symposium will be: Romanian, English and Italian.
For more details, see: http://medmodel.lumina.org
Second, the Faculty of Political Science, University of Bucharest and the
Doctoral School of Political Science, University of Bucharest, organizes The International Interdisciplinary Conference “CHALLENGES OF TRANSITION: THE POST-COMMUNIST EXPERIENCE(S)”. The event will take place at the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Bucharest (no. 8, Spiru Haret Street), on May 24-25, 2013.
The aim of this conference is to explore the challenges of transition and the transformations of the international arena in the aftermath of the collapse of communism and the dissolution of USSR. On this note, doctoral students, researchers and faculty staff from the field of social sciences are invited to participate with papers on the following topics (and not only): theories of transition; processes of democratization; political elites; socio-economic policies; public administration; party systems and electoral systems; political elections and electoral campaigns; the legal system; political culture; civil society; political representation and mass-media; international relations and regionalism; equal opportunities and human rights; the role of the intellectual in post-communist societies.
For more details, see: www.fspub.unibuc.ro/doctoralconference
Third, on May 24-26, 2013, will take place the 7th edition of “THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND SECURITY STUDIES”, organized and hosted by "Lucian Blaga" University of Sibiu, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Department of International Relations, Political Science and Security Studies. The aim of the conference is to scientifically debate issues such as: the global economic crisis as a challenge to the traditional views on globalization, the new approaches and policies demanded by the global security and, also, the year 2013 as a switching point in the development of democracy and the existence of the market model. The conference is structured along three tracks, as follows:
I. Political Science Track
II. International Relations Track
III. Security Studies Track
For more details, see: http://conferences.ulbsibiu.ro/crissp/
Florin-Ciprian MITREA
University of South-East Europe Lumina