Jaroslav Dvorak

Public administration approach : What do libraries need for consistent information services evaluation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to define the problem and to initiate discussion on library evaluation as significant part of institutional evidence-based management from public administration approach. Design/methodology/approach – In order to fulfilling the purpose, special attention to present the concepts of valuing information, library performance evaluation, measurement, etc. is drawn, main evaluation functions are analysed. Economic aspects of information services vs intellectual ones are discussed. Consistent patterns and principles of public administration as well as possibilities of public administration influence in creation of systematic base of library performance evaluation as well as of information services impact to the user are analysed. Findings – The paper provides insights about different aspects of information services evaluation. Results of analysis of economic aspects of information services vs intellectual ones are presented, consistent patterns and principles of public admi...

The Characteristic Features of Social Dialogue in the Baltics

This article analyzes the characteristic features of social dialogue in the Baltic states. The methodology of the current research is based on an intensive analysis of literature and statistical data. The aim of the present research is to address some gaps that were identified during the literature review. Firstly, why does the social dialogue develop so slowly in the Baltic states? Secondly, what was the role of social partners in that process? We find that the main achievement in social dialogue have been reached by social partners on the national level and, despite the painful austerity measures, the Baltic states showed the benchmark of advanced crisis management.

New social cooperation model in service oriented economy: the case of employee financial participation in the Baltic states

Abstract The article discusses the issues of employee financial participation in Baltic states which differs and depends on political, legal and economic preconditions. The aim of the research is to analyse employee financial participation as an instrument for collaboration in companies and a new social cooperation model in the Baltic states. The qualitative research was conducted by telephone and e-mail in 2016. The interviews were carried out with the experts (academics, civil servants, lawyers and human resource consultants working in a relevant field) as well some trade union and company representatives. In general, the new policy for supporting employee financial participation has been renewed in Latvia and Lithuania. It started recently with the revision of the legislative framework that was initially established during the privatisation period. The revision of the Law of Companies was driven by the business interest (to have a new effective human resource management tool or to transfer employee share plans from parent companies in Western countries to subsidiaries in the Baltic states) to introduce (or revise, in the case of Lithuania) new employee share ownership (ESO) plans. The research has also proven that there are common similarities in the use of employee financial participation plans despite the existing differences which are based on national features, such as tax and legal regimes, historical development patterns, or economic and structural factors.

The politics of corruption in dictatorships, by Vineeta Yadav and Bumba Mukherjee

In The Politics of Corruption in Dictatorships, Vineeta Yadav and Bumba Mukherjee analyse corruption, a topical problem in modern society, which has been the topic of much recent research.

Nicholas Aylott, Models of democracy in Nordic and Baltic Europe: political institutions and discourse

Twenty-five years of independence of the Baltic states pose many questions: what models of democracy have formed in these states? To what extent have the Scandinavian countries influenced these dem...

The Lithuanian Government’s Policy of Regulatory Impact Assessment

Abstract Purpose: This paper critically evaluates the development of the impact assessment instrument in Lithuania’s public administration and suggests improvements to its impact assessment system. Research question: What interesting conceptual imperatives have appeared in Lithuania’s investigation of the impact of regulatory policy? Methodology: This research study uses positivist methodology to analyse the problems that researchers have identified in Lithuania’s impact assessment. This investigation explains why certain problems have appeared, what has changed and what system changes can be identified traced. The study proceeds as follows. First, the research on impact assessment carried out in Lithuania is analysed. Second, regulations on impact assessment in Lithuania are investigated. A substitute for non-existent integrated theory is emphased by the logical structure of the EU administrative system imperatives, principles, and norms, whose modifications have become the basis of impact assessment system design in Lithuania. The present research combines, integrates and consolidates the theoretical and practical information on impact assessment into an explanatory scheme, which could be developed into a model in the future. Information from two qualitative interviews conducted in 2009 and 2010 was also used. Conclusions: The present research reveals that Lithuania’s regulatory impact assessment model is still being constructed and reconstructed towards evidence-based management. A model which revises the old impact stereotype has been designed, based on contemporary methodologies (cost- -benefit and cost-effectiveness analyses), consultations with the interested parties, a small but exhaustive legal initiatives impact assessment, and a centralised and institutional coordination of impact assessment. Practical consequences: The present research presents the issues which could be useful for the states that are starting to implement a regulatory impact assessment model. This study described the pitfalls to avoid in order to implement a successful evidence-based management initiative. Originality: In the present research, regulatory impact assessment is emphased as an assessment model and normative of the EU administration effectiveness and optimality, which can be used as a good-practice example for the modernisation of administrative activities in Central and Eastern Europe to the level their European counterparts

If Money Talks, What Does It Say? Corruption and Business Financing of Political Parties

come to include states with national welfare systems displaying diverse characteristics that make the development of unified EU welfare state characteristics well-nigh impossible; but the authors here set out to demonstrate that, nevertheless, the EU has not been devoid of action in the social field. With the development of the four freedoms of the internal market, the freedom of movement for workers was strengthened by a number of rights in the form of EU directives concerning, inter alia, working conditions, health and safety measures, discrimination and the protection of migrant workers and their families. By 2009 the EU’s social regulation was composed of about 80 binding provisions, thus proving that those who argue that a country’s public policy can only be altered within an agreed Treaty are, at the very least, disingenuous. The book includes some interesting chapters comparing circumstances in a range of EU member states and in the USA in which voluntarism, ‘the rise of the unelected’ and the role of privatisation are explored. The eight senior academic contributors to this volume, all of whom work in Australia, New Zealand or Sweden at least bring a degree of detachment to the research as they explore the rather understated question of the democratic legitimacy of a ‘quasi’ European policy in a field which is subjected to the contradictory impact of ever-tighter European economic governance. They are thus able to pose questions concerning welfare choices that lie at the heart of the democratic system, the tensions this has produced and the innovative responses in policy content and institutions that emerge. They conclude, somewhat tentatively—and not a little worryingly—that the strengthening of economic governance in Brussels holds a distinct risk of undermining the ability of national parliaments to influence their nations’ economic policy-making and maintain an effective voice in framing national budgets. At the same time, they suggest, it opens the possibility for national Parliaments to argue for a more active role in shaping EU policy and cooperation between national parliamentarians and members of European parliament in monitoring the Commission apparatchiks. We should not hold our breaths! The volume should find a good readership among economists, scholars in public and social policy and private finance experts and indeed anyone who seeks to engage with the increasing clamour between sceptics, phobes and enthusiasts which will absorb us all in the next few years.

The International Economic Crisis and the Post-Soviet States

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