The Peculiar Evolution of Slovenian Local Government

The Peculiar Evolution of Slovenian Local Government PDF Author: Simona Kukovic
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1666931624
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 119

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Book Description
After Slovenia's independence in 1991 from Yugoslavia, the introduction of local government was one of the most challenging tasks in the new country, as it meant a radical change from the socialist municipal system to the classical European type of local government. Simona Kukovič and Miro Haček offer a comprehensive analysis of the functioning of local government from historical, normative, systemic, and dynamic perspectives. The authors analyze the historical-normative foundations of the existence of local government and, building on this, examine the functional dynamics of the central organs of local government. In particular, they analyze the position of local mayors in terms of role and the powers assigned to the mayor by law, leadership characteristics, the evolution of eligibility, and relations with other local actors. This is followed by an analysis of the municipal council, in which Kukovič and Haček outline the function and responsibilities and highlight some features of the inner workings of this collective decision-making body. The authors devote special attention and a wealth of empirical data to local democracy, which is particularly vibrant, somewhat peculiar, and undoubtedly one of the strongest elements of Slovenia's still relatively fragile democracy. The book thus provides a holistic and thorough overview of local government, which in three decades has become an important part of the political system and, in practice, an important vehicle of local development within Slovenia.

The Peculiar Evolution of Slovenian Local Government

The Peculiar Evolution of Slovenian Local Government PDF Author: Simona Kukovic
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1666931624
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 119

Get Book Here

Book Description
After Slovenia's independence in 1991 from Yugoslavia, the introduction of local government was one of the most challenging tasks in the new country, as it meant a radical change from the socialist municipal system to the classical European type of local government. Simona Kukovič and Miro Haček offer a comprehensive analysis of the functioning of local government from historical, normative, systemic, and dynamic perspectives. The authors analyze the historical-normative foundations of the existence of local government and, building on this, examine the functional dynamics of the central organs of local government. In particular, they analyze the position of local mayors in terms of role and the powers assigned to the mayor by law, leadership characteristics, the evolution of eligibility, and relations with other local actors. This is followed by an analysis of the municipal council, in which Kukovič and Haček outline the function and responsibilities and highlight some features of the inner workings of this collective decision-making body. The authors devote special attention and a wealth of empirical data to local democracy, which is particularly vibrant, somewhat peculiar, and undoubtedly one of the strongest elements of Slovenia's still relatively fragile democracy. The book thus provides a holistic and thorough overview of local government, which in three decades has become an important part of the political system and, in practice, an important vehicle of local development within Slovenia.

A Short History of Austria-Hungary and Poland

A Short History of Austria-Hungary and Poland PDF Author: Henry Wickham Steed
Publisher: London, The Encyclopaedia Britannica Company
ISBN:
Category : Austria
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description


Fundamentally Flawed

Fundamentally Flawed PDF Author: John Haskell
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780847682416
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description
How are the electoral procedures used in presidential nomination campaigns? Haskell provides an overview of the historical developments that led to the presidential nomination process and analyzes the basic elements of public choice analysis as they apply to nomination campaigns. The book serves as a basic text and an introduction to the study of the nomination process as a method of public choice. Haskell argues that the current arrangements in the presidential nomination process are deeply flawed and offers a set of reforms to the existing system, including using approval voting in the earliest primaries and diminishing the effect of frontloading primaries. Fundamentally Flawed will interest scholars and students of American government, political parties, the presidency, and campaigns and elections.

The Border Multiple

The Border Multiple PDF Author: Dorte Jagetic Andersen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317040082
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 275

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Book Description
Addressing and conceptualizing the changing character of borders in contemporary Europe, this book examines developments occurring in the light of European integration processes and an on-going tightening of Europe's external borders. Moreover, the book suggests new ways of investigating the nature of European borders by looking at border practices in the light of the mobility turn, and thus as dynamic, multiple, diverse and best expressed in everyday experiences of people living at and with borders, rather than focusing on static territorial divisions between states and regions at geopolitical level. It provides border scholars and researchers as well as policymakers with new empirical and theoretical evidence on the de- and re-bordering processes going on in diverse border regions in Europe, both within and outside of the EU.

The Real History of Austria

The Real History of Austria PDF Author: Peter Bubendorfer
Publisher: Peter Bubendorfer
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
One day when I was about 15 as I sat in my high school history class someone asked the teacher what the difference was between an Austrian and a German. “Nothing!” he snapped, “Austrians are just Germans. It’s the same thing.” I was aghast. I felt my whole world shift. How could anyone think an Austrian was a German? They were completely different, everyone knew that. Years later, after I had spent some time in Austria and got to know my family, I began to read academic books written in English about Austrian history and was astonished at how completely at variance they were with my own family’s experiences. All the books were written from an American or English academic perspective, many with a faint but perceptible undercurrent of hostility. I felt a lot of it to be factually wrong and misleading, and in some cases found the proof that that was so. I decided I had to tell Austria’s story as I saw it so I went back to original sources and started from scratch. And here it is.

The politics of heritage regeneration in South-East Europe

The politics of heritage regeneration in South-East Europe PDF Author: Bold, John
Publisher: Council of Europe
ISBN: 9287182868
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 189

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Book Description
Recent developments in cultural heritage policy and practice in South-East Europe. Since 2003, the Council of Europe–European Commission joint initiative known as the “Ljubljana Process: rehabilitating our common heritage” has set out to unlock the potential of the region’s rich immovable cultural heritage, working with national authorities to accelerate the development of democratic, peaceful and open societies, stimulate local economies and improve the quality of life of local communities. In 2003, the region was overcoming the effects of the traumatic transition to a market economy. Since then, it has been hit hard by the economic crisis of 2008, and more recently by an unprecedented migration crisis. Despite the challenges facing the region in the field of cultural heritage, the present situation can be seen as an opportunity to use the lessons learned from the Ljubljana Process to avoid the traps laid by the cumulative and sometimes inconsistent heritage-protection legislation of the past 60 years, overcoming the legacy of the top-down approach that privileges the “high art” canon rather than the local heritage that reflects the culture of everyday life and which often means more to most people. The authors suggest that selecting from innovative practice elsewhere could make heritage management smarter so that it more directly meets the needs of modern society and individual citizens. This volume reflects the views of international experts involved in the joint initiative and complements earlier studies on the impact of the Ljubljana Process by experts from within the region (Heritage for development in South-East Europe, edited by Gojko Rikolović and Hristina Mikić, 2014) and from the London School of Economics and Political Science (The wider benefits of investment in cultural heritage. Case studies in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, edited by Will Bartlett, 2015).

Citizenship and Multiculturalism in Western Liberal Democracies

Citizenship and Multiculturalism in Western Liberal Democracies PDF Author: David Edward Tabachnick
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498511732
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 207

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Book Description
This volume explores some of the tensions and pressures of citizenship in Western liberal democracies. Citizenship has adopted many guises in the Western context, although historically citizenship is attached only to some variant of democracy. How democracy is configured is thus at the core of citizenship. Beginning in ancient Greece, citizenship is attached to the notion of a public sphere of deliberation, open only to a small number of males. Nonetheless, we take from these origins an understanding of citizenship that is attached to friendship, preservation of a distinct community, and adherence to law. These early conceptions of citizenship in the west have been dramatically altered in the modern context by the ascendancy of individual rights and equality, expanding the inclusiveness of definition of citizenship. The universality of rights claims has led to debate about the legitimacy of the nation state and questioning of borders. A further development in our understanding of citizenship, and one that has shifted citizenship studies considerably in the last few decades, is the backlash against the universalism of rights in the defense of cultural recognition within democratic polities. Multiculturalism as a broad spectrum of citizenship studies defends the autonomy and recognition of cultural, and sometimes religious, identity within an overarching scheme of rights and equality. This collection draws upon the many threads of citizenship in the Western tradition to consider how all of them are still extant, and contentious, in contemporary liberal democracy.

Anti-Gender Campaigns in Europe

Anti-Gender Campaigns in Europe PDF Author: Roman Kuhar
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1786600013
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 303

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Book Description
After decades of steady progress in terms of gender and sexual rights, several parts of Europe are facing new waves of resistance to a so-called ‘gender ideology’ or ‘gender theory’. Opposition to progressive gender equality is manifested in challenges to marriage equality, abortion, reproductive technologies, gender mainstreaming, sex education, sexual liberalism, transgender rights, antidiscrimination policies and even to the notion of gender itself. This book examines how an academic concept of gender, when translated by religious organizations such as the Roman Catholic Church, can become a mobilizing tool for, and the target of, social movements. How can we explain religious discourses about sex difference turning intro massive street demonstrations? How do forms of organization and protest travel across borders? Who are the actors behind these movements? This collection is a transnational and comparative attempt to better understand anti-gender mobilizations in Europe. It focuses on national manifestations in eleven European countries, including Russia, from massive street protests to forms of resistance such as email bombarding and street vigils. It examines the intersection of religious politics with rising populism and nationalistic anxieties in contemporary Europe.

Strong Democracy in Crisis

Strong Democracy in Crisis PDF Author: Trevor Norris
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498533620
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
This is a robust and relevant collection from a truly distinguished group of political theorists actively rethinking the promise and perils of democracy. The book is coherent in its focus on a common theme and aim: to advance and refine the political project of promoting democratic theory and practice. While the contributors are admirers of the promotion of various models of democracy they also express distinct approaches and concerns. Each builds on and expands the central theme of democracy and ultimately contends with potential limits of current configurations of democratic life. While to some extent they share common concerns they express considerable dissent and fruitful opposition that deepens and advances the debate. Contributors explore democracy from different perspectives: law and constitutionalism, globalization and development, public life and the arts, pluralism, democracy and education, and democratic listening and democratic participation. The contributions point towards new ways of living and thinking politically, new directions for contending with some of the more significant and seemingly intractable political problems, challenging conventional presuppositions about democracy by expanding the boundaries of what kinds of democracy may be possible. The book critiques liberal notions of democracy that forefront rational autonomy and a citizenship characterized by narrow self-interest, and critique naïve claims that any infringement on the rights of the autonomous individual must invariably lead to authoritarianism and totalitarianism. Instead contributors suggest that the abandonment of the res publica in pursuit of private interests may well lead to arid politics or authoritarianism. Citizens are called upon to be more than just voters but rather define themselves by participation in a community beyond their self-interest—in fact arguing, like Aristotle, Rousseau, Jefferson and Arendt, that we are only human when we participate in something beyond ourselves, that we forge and preserve our political community by our commitment to and participation in robust debate and meaningful political action. Contributors are not only revolutionary scholars that challenge problematic streams of democratic theory and traditions, but are deeply involved in shaping the character and constitution of the American body politic and promoting debates about community and citizenship and justice around the world.

Liberal Forces in Twentieth Century Yugoslavia

Liberal Forces in Twentieth Century Yugoslavia PDF Author: Ladislav Bevc
Publisher: Peter Lang
ISBN: 9781433100086
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 394

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Book Description
Liberal Forces in Twentieth Century Yugoslavia: Memoirs of Ladislav Bevc spans 80 years of his professional and political life: from the early years of his childhood in the large family of a civil servant, to his studies in Vienna and the interruption of his professional career by military service at the Eastern and Western front under the detested Austrian flag, to a flourishing career in the liberated homeland of Yugoslavia. Born in Skocijan, Slovenia, he graduated as a civil engineer from the Technical University in Vienna. In World War I, he served on the front in Russia and France. Following the war, Ladislav Bevc focused his life on politics, civic organizations, and the engineering profession. In Ljubljana, he served as a city councilman and was active in civic and academic affairs. He helped establish a new University and resisted Communist subversion in the Sokol Patriotic Gymnast Association. Following the German invasion in World War II, he joined the resistance movement of General Dragoljub Mihajlovich, which led to encounters with the Gestapo and eventual political emigration. In 1949, he immigrated to California, where he remained active in the efforts to liberate Yugoslavia from the Communists and rescued his family, who had been held hostage. In the free world, he organized the Slovenian liberal émigrés in the Slovenian Democratic Party and was instrumental in rebuilding the Yugoslav Sokol in the Free World. He practiced civil engineering in the United States, where he was elected Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He died on November 29, 1988.