Great Middle Eastern instability: Structural roots and uneven modernization 1960-2012

The paper deals with the structural roots of political instability in the Middle East that has been manifested by the Arab Spring throughout the region since early 2011. The roots of the instability are seen in cumulative effects of highly uneven long-term social change in its three main dimensions since 1960s: (1) rapid social and demographic changes, (2) slower and fluctuating economic development, and (3) rigid political subsystem. The Middle Eastern uneven social change is also under way in a specific (4) cultural and (5) international context. The political instability is thus seen as a consequence of multiple and complex interactions among various dimensions of uneven modernisation process, Islamic political imagination and the international context. The paper deals with the interactions on the macro-level and with its politically destabilizing consequences on micro-level using selected examples of causal mechanisms. The Middle Eastern uneven modernisation pattern is systematically documented by empirical macro-indicators and is compared with the modernisation process in other post-colonial world macro-regions.     

Citizenship of Roma after the split of Czechoslovakia: A social problem to be faced by other multinational states

The division of Czechoslovakia into two independent republics in 1993 has far-reaching implications for the citizenship rights of the Roma and Sinti minority population. During the period of so-called socialism, their situation developed very differently from that of related groups living in Western Europe as their cultural identity was totally destroyed by the paternalism of the communist regime. The fundamental political change in 1989, and the advent of a market economy, affected the Roma population more than other Czech citizens. With the ending of a joint federal nationality many Roma living on Czech territory, being regarded as of Slovak origin, lost their citizenship status totally. To acquire Czech citizenship stringent conditions were applied which they were unwilling or unable to meet. The discriminatory nature of the nationality law in the Czech Republic was criticized by European Union and human rights experts, and some non-governmental organizations have also taken up the case. This paper raises fundamental issues of legally sanctioned exclusion and discusses the implications of citizenship concepts for other post-communist countries.     

Transformation of Social Care Services for the Elderly in Slovakia

ABSTRACT

The main objective of this article is to present a theoretical framework for the relevant historical, economic, demographic, and political factors influencing the transformation of social care services for the elderly in Slovakia. A major restructuring of the social care services for the elderly is necessitated by the aging of the Slovak population (demographic reason), the path dependency of the current Slovak elderly care system (historical reason), the growing purchasing power of older people and the general population (economic reason), and new requirements formulated by the European Union and the general public (political reason). Historical documents, legislative acts, strategic documents, international project documents, and statistics were reviewed, and 34 open-ended interviews within the framework of two case studies were carried out in order to obtain qualitative and quantitative data. The theoretical framework and the results based on those interviews indicate that the Slovak social care service for the elderly may turn out to become more similar to the advanced Central European systems, but also that prompt legislative and financial changes are required. Nevertheless, the future direction can only be more precisely identified when more case studies can be compared with one another.     

Those Who Pay the Piper Calls the Tune: Meta-Organisation and Capacities of the Third Sector in Migration Policies

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - In this paper, we examine the changing landscape of migration policy work conducted by civil society organisations (CSOs)...     

Some Remarks about Robust Estimation of the Scale Parameter in Weighted Models

Using Zieliński's (1977 Zieliński , R. ( 1977 ). Robustness: a quantitative approach . Bull. Acad. Polon. Sci., Ser. Sci. Math. Astronom. Phys. 25 : 1281 – 1286 . [Google Scholar]) concept of robustness, B?a?ej (2007 B?a?ej , P. ( 2007 ). Robust estimation of the scale and weighted distributions . Appl. Math. (Warsaw) 34 : 39 – 45 . [Google Scholar]) obtained the uniformly most bias-robust estimates (UMBREs) of the scale parameter for some statistical models, in a class of linear functions of order statistics. Violations of the models are generated by weight functions. In this article the UMBRE of the scale parameter, based on order statistics, a more general weighted model is derived. Extension of a result of B?a?ej (2007 B?a?ej , P. ( 2007 ). Robust estimation of the scale and weighted distributions . Appl. Math. (Warsaw) 34 : 39 – 45 . [Google Scholar]) is given.