Scientific Approaches to Understanding the Conception of Global Economic Security

The purpose of this publication is to study scientific approaches to understanding the conception of global economic security. The analysis of current foreign and domestic sources made it possible to classify the scientific approaches of different authors regarding the essence and features of the conception of economic security: as a process of meeting needs; from the point of view of protecting the national interests of a particular country, business entities, individuals; as a state of the system-based object; as a condition for sustainable development; as features of the system elements; as a system for preventing harm; as a manifestation of an integrity of security measures; in terms of economic sustainability and sovereignty of a country; as an aggregate of conditions and factors; as a dynamic development of a system component. It is determined that the conception of global economic security covers a wide range of interrelated issues and elements, such as investment verification, instruments to counteract coercion, research integrity, and stability of supply chains. When focusing on supply chain stability, three main issues should be considered. It is found that the regimes of national economic security require a balance between defensive and offensive policies depending on the specific conditions of the country. The main factors in developing strategies are national security interests and competitive advantages in certain sectors of the trade. Transparency and information exchange between countries is the first step towards meaningful international cooperation on economic security issues. This is crucial to avoid creating protectionist economic weapons that countries can use against rivals. It is defined that in a rapidly changing world, the issue of global economic security becomes the most open and at the same time of responsibility in case of calling and responding to problems caused by various factors of society life as a subject of international economic relations, developing effective mechanisms for dealing with challenges in the sectoral economic parts of the institution of economy

Is German Domestic Social Policy Politically Controversial?

This paper investigates empirically the influence of government ideology on social policy using German data. Examining the funding and the benefits of social security and public healthcare policy, my results suggest that policies implemented by governments dominated by left- and rightwing parties were similar over the 1951-2007 period. Leftwing governments, however, spent more in the 1970s and rightwing governments did so after German Reunification in 1990. Since policy convergence encourages new parties to enter the political arena, and party platforms on social policy matters are likely to undergo further changes in light of demographic change, the observed pattern may thus be a transitory phenomenon.social policy, political business and partisan cycles, government ideology, policy polarization, demographic change

Come as You Are

Galatians 6:11-16; Pentecost 5

Rf/6/11: Don Pinnock interview with Rica Hodgson

An interview conducted by Don Pinnock circa 1992 with Rica Hodgson. Part of a series carried out at Grahamstown University. and held at the UWC/Robben Island Mayibuye Archive

On the lower bound of the spectral norm of symmetric random matrices with independent entries

We show that the spectral radius of an $N\times N$ random symmetric matrix with i.i.d. bounded centered but non-symmetrically distributed entries is bounded from below by 2 \*\sigma - o(N^{-6/11+\epsilon}), where $\sigma^2$ is the variance of the matrix entries and $\epsilon$ is an arbitrary small positive number. Combining with our previous result from [7], this proves that for any $\epsilon >0,$ one has \|A_N\| =2 \*\sigma + o(N^{-6/11+\epsilon}) with probability going to 1 as $N \to \infty.

Differences in Family Policies and the Intergenerational Transmission of Divorce

The intergenerational transmission of the risk of divorce is a well-known long-term effect of divorce that has been found in many Western societies. Less known is what effect different family policies and divorce laws have on the intergenerational transmission of divorce. In this paper, the division of Germany into two separate states from 1949 until 1990, with the consequent development of two very different family policies, is regarded as a natural experiment that enables us to investigate the effect of family policy on the mechanisms underlying the social inheritance of divorce. Data from respondents from the former East and West Germany participating in the German Life History Study are analyzed using multivariate event-history methods. The results indicate that the strength of the intergenerational divorce transmission, when adjusted for differences in divorce level, was lower in the East than in the West. Differences in religion, marriage age and timing of first birth, which are partial indicators of family policy, could explain this effect. Furthermore, we did find a tendency towards a reduction in the dynamics of divorce transmission over time, both in East Germany and in West Germany.divorce risk, family policy, intergenerational transmission of divorce risk

Is marriage losing its centrality in Italy?

Unlike the countries of north-western Europe, marriage in Italy has maintained a crucial role in the process of family formation. This raise doubts about the possibility that the theory of "second demographic transition" could adequately account for the behaviour of the European population living south of the Alps. The aim of this paper is twofold: to provide some empirical evidence that cohabitation is now spreading in Italy; and to propose an explanation of the delay of its diffusion until the 1990s. The hypothesis proposed here explains the delay, not so much in terms of limited interest of the Italian youth towards this type of union, but with the convenience of the children in the Mediterranean area to avoid choices which are openly clashing with the values of parents.cohabitation, Italy, strong family ties