Transitional social policy in the Czech Republic and Poland

It is argued that the Czech Republic's attention to the social effects of its economic reforms has significantly reduced the negative impact of these reforms, while Poland's ignorance of social aspects of its economic policies has severely hampered the reform process. The social net erected by the Czech Republic in the postcommunist period is credited with reducing social insecurity, while the lack of such a safety net in Poland has led to widespread social displeasure & significant social problems. It is suggested that because of its attention to such issues, the Czech Republic is on its way toward the rebirth of a welfare state, while in Poland, progress has not gone beyond reactive measures

How politics and institutions affect pension reform in three post-communist countries

The author examines the political and institutional processes that produced fundamental pension reform in three post-communist countries: Hungary, Kazakhstan, and Poland. He tests various hypothesis about the relationship between deliberative process and outcomes through detailed case studies of pension reform. The outcomes of reform were similar: each country implemented a mandatory funded pension system as part of reform, but the extent, and configuration of changes, greatly differed. Countries with more"veto actors"- social and institutional actors with an effective veto over reform - engaged in less radical reform, astheory predicted. Poland and Hungary generated less radical change than Kazakhstan, partly because they have more representative political systems, to which more associations, interest groups, and"proposal actors"have access. Proposal actors shape the reform agenda and influence the positions of key veto actors. Pension reform takes longer in countries with more veto and proposal actors, such as Poland and Hungary. Legacies of policy, the development of civil society, and international organizations, also profoundly affect the shape and progress of reform. The author sees pension reform as happening in three phases: commitment-building, coalition-building, and implementation. He presents hypothesis about tradeoffs among inclusiveness (of process), radicalism (of reform), and participation in, and compliance with, the new system. The hypothesis: including more, and more various, veto and proposal actors early in the deliberative process, increases buy-in and compliance when reform is implemented, but at the expense of faster and greater change. Early challenges in implementation in all three countries, nut especially in Kazakhstan, suggest the importance of improving buy-in through inclusive deliberative processes, where possible.Children and Youth,Pensions&Retirement Systems,Enterprise Development&Reform,ICT Policy and Strategies,National Governance,Enterprise Development&Reform,Pensions&Retirement Systems,National Governance,ICT Policy and Strategies,Children and Youth

How populism emerged from the shadow of neoliberalism in Central and Eastern Europe

Hungary and Poland have pursued a notably ‘populist’ approach to the economy in recent years, which has begun to spread to other countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Mitchell A. Orenstein and Bojan Bugarič argue that Central and Eastern European states’ dependence on foreign capital initially constrained them to follow neoliberal economic policies following their democratic transition. After the global financial crisis, populist parties began to break from this consensus, embracing a populist agenda which includes an economic programme built on a conservative developmental ‘statism’

Globális nyugdíjpolitika

A tanulmány áttekinti a globális nyugdíjpolitikát és bemutatja, hogy a globális politika szereplői egyre jobban befolyásolják az országok reformdöntéseit. A globális nyugdíjpolitika hatásának felismerését ösztönözte az új nyugdíjreformok bevezetéséért a Világbank vezetésével 1994 óta folytatott nemzetközi kampány. E kampány sikerének eredményeként a Világbank kiszorította a Nemzetközi Munkaügyi Szervezetet a globális nyugdíjpolitika domináns alakítójának pozíciójából. Az esettanulmányok azt bizonyítják, hogy a globális politikai szereplők Világbank vezette szövetsége világszerte több mint harminc országban segítette új nyugdíjreformok kezdeményezését és bevezetését

DILEMMAS OF DEMOCRATIC STATE-BUILDING IN SLOVAKIA

U tekstu se analizira politički razvoj Slovačke nakon sloma komunizma. Demokratske promjene u Slovačkoj predvodila je organizacija Javnost protiv nasilja (VPN), pandan češkom Građanskom forumu, u čijem se krilu vrlo rano profilirao Vladimir Mečiar. On je, nakon sukoba s vodstvom VPN-a u proljeće 1991., izrastao u karizmatskog političkog vođu. Oslonjen na svoju populističku stranku nazvanu Pokret za demokratsku Slovačku (HZDS), Mečiar je 1992. osvojio slovačke parlamentarne izbore i postao premijerom. HZDS-ova radikalizacija nacionalističkog diskursa i težnja za potpunom institucionalnom transformacijom češko-slovačke federacije dovele su do “baršunastog razvoda” i osamostaljenja Slovačke početkom 1993. Mečiar i HZDS kratkotrajno su izgubili vlast 1994. zbog rascjepa u stranci, da bi se pobjedonosno vratili nakon izbora u jesen iste godine. Ovime je, tvrde autori, u Slovačkoj nacionalni populizam i klijentelističko-patrimonijalni tip vladavine prevladao nad demokratskim konstitucionalizmom. Autori smatraju da se uzroci takvog razvoja nalaze u socijalnim posljedicama poratne forsirane industrijalizacije kao i u snažnoj tradiciji kulturno-političkog nacionalizma.Slovakian political development following the collapse of communism is analysed in the text. The instigator of the democratic change in Slovakia was the organization “Public against violence” /VPN/ (the equivalent to the Czech “Citizens\u27 Forum”), in which Vladimir Mečiar came to prominence very early on. Following his clash with the leadership of VPN in spring of 1991, he emerged as a charismatic political leader. Relying on his populist party called “Movement for Democratic Slovakia” /HZDS/, Mečiar in 1992 won the Slovakian parliamentary elections and became Prime Minister. HZDS\u27 radicalization of the nationalist discourse and its striving for a total institutional transformation of Czechoslovakian federation led to the so called “velvet divorce” and Slovakian independence early in 1993. Mečiar and HZDS briefly lost power in 1994 due to the party rift, but made a triumphant comeback after the elections in autumn of the same year. The authors\u27 thesis is that this is responsible for the fact that in Slovakia national populism and client-patrimonial type of government have prevailed over democratic constitutionalism. The authors claim that the causes for such a development can be found in the social repercussions of the forced postwar industrialization and in the powerful tradition of cultural and political nationalism

Competition of charge, orbital, and ferromagnetic correlations in layered manganites

The competition of charge, orbital, and ferromagnetic interactions in layered manganites is investigated by magneto-Raman scattering spectroscopy. We find that the colossal magnetoresistance effect in the layered compounds results from the interplay of the orbital and ferromagnetic double-exchange correlations. Inelastic scattering by charge-order fluctuations dominates the quasiparticle dynamics in the ferromagnetic-metal state. The scattering is suppressed at low frequencies, consistent with the opening of a charge-density wave pseudogap.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Organizing for impact: International organizations and global pension policy

The internal dynamics and politics of international organizations influence how international policy agendas are set and how effectively they are pursued. International organizations are open systems which respond and adapt to the external policy environment in order to remain relevant to global policymaking. Through an analysis of the internal politics of the World Bank and International Labour Organization, the leading global agenda-setters for pension reform, this article shows that internal political battles and restructuring have a decisive influence on global pensions policy. Appointment of key personnel and internal reorganization can help make certain policy ideas prominent over others. Scholars should pay greater attention to processes of change within international organizations in order to better understand the international agenda setting process

HIV-1 assembly in macrophages

The molecular mechanisms involved in the assembly of newly synthesized Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) particles are poorly understood. Most of the work on HIV-1 assembly has been performed in T cells in which viral particle budding and assembly take place at the plasma membrane. In contrast, few studies have been performed on macrophages, the other major target of HIV-1. Infected macrophages represent a viral reservoir and probably play a key role in HIV-1 physiopathology. Indeed macrophages retain infectious particles for long periods of time, keeping them protected from anti-viral immune response or drug treatments. Here, we present an overview of what is known about HIV-1 assembly in macrophages as compared to T lymphocytes or cell lines

Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy of the cuprate superconductors

This paper reviews the most recent ARPES results on the cuprate superconductors and their insulating parent and sister compounds, with the purpose of providing an updated summary of the extensive literature in this field. The low energy excitations are discussed with emphasis on some of the most relevant issues, such as the Fermi surface and remnant Fermi surface, the superconducting gap, the pseudogap and d-wave-like dispersion, evidence of electronic inhomogeneity and nano-scale phase separation, the emergence of coherent quasiparticles through the superconducting transition, and many-body effects in the one-particle spectral function due to the interaction of the charge with magnetic and/or lattice degrees of freedom. The first part of the paper introduces photoemission spectroscopy in the context of strongly interacting systems, along with an update on the state-of-the-art instrumentation. The second part provides a brief overview of the scientific issues relevant to the investigation of the low energy electronic structure by ARPES. The rest of the paper is devoted to the review of experimental results from the cuprates and the discussion is organized along conceptual lines: normal-state electronic structure, interlayer interaction, superconducting gap, coherent superconducting peak, pseudogap, electron self energy and collective modes. Within each topic, ARPES data from the various copper oxides are presented.Comment: Reviews of Modern Physics, in press. A HIGH-QUALITY pdf file is available at http://www.physics.ubc.ca/~damascel/RMP_ARPES.pd