The transformation of post-socialist education is perhaps one of the most interesting developments in the history of comparative education. The collapse of the socialist system led to a series of ...crises: - Ideological crisis – the collapse of the socialist idea of education, partially replaced by the ideology of neoliberalism. - Social crisis – dismantling of the socialist welfare system and attempts to replace it by different Western models of social welfare. - Economic crisis – transition from planned to market economy which led to deterioration of educational infrastructure. - Cultural crisis – socialist culture was replaced by different modifications of promoting national and/or regional cultures. - Structural crisis – countries with practically identical educational structures chose different ways of restructuring education. After the failure of the previous system Western researchers assumed that the common model of transition will be very straightforward – post-socialist countries should catch up with the more “modern” Western educational models. However, the transition did not follow the prescribed path and post-socialist countries have chosen different trajectories of educational development.
•Effects of former Communist party membership on bribing behaviour 25 years after the fall of Communist rule.•Former party members, their children and relatives more likely to pay bribes.•People with ...the party links more likely to offer bribes and think that bribe payments are expected.•Institutional norms and former elite networks persistent after regime change and transmitted through family.
We study the effect of former Communist party membership on paying bribes to public officials and motivations for bribery, 25 years after the fall of communist rule. Data come from a large representative survey, conducted in post-socialist countries in 2015/16. To deal with endogeneity, we instrument party membership with information on whether family members were affected by the Second World War. Instrumental variable results suggest that links to the former Communist party increase the likelihood of paying bribes today; this result applies to the former party members as well as their children and relatives. Among bribe payers, people with the party links are more likely to offer bribes as well as think that bribe payments are expected. Overall, our findings suggest that the proclivity to corruption of the former Communist party members has been transmitted through family and thus sustained over time, contributing to corruption decades after the demise of the Socialist bloc.
The model of ethnification posits that in post-socialist contexts ethnic identities are used as a source for political mobilization against ethnic outgroups. In Croatia, this is further amplified by ...collective war experiences. This paper investigates the association between identity-based variables, related to ethnification and war experiences, and anti-immigrant prejudice in Croatia. The study employed structural equation modelling of the data from a large youth sample (N = 1,034). Higher ethnic threat, lower cultural capital, more exclusive conception of nationhood and right-wing political orientation predicted stronger anti-immigrant prejudice. Ethnic threat moderated the effect of political orientation on prejudice: under high ethnic threat there was no difference between left-wing and right-wing individuals. As the results correspond to findings from Western countries, we argue that comparable explanations of anti-immigrant prejudice may be applied to non-Western and Western contexts.
The main aim of the paper is to evaluate the impact of respect for human rights in post‐socialist countries on the volume of foreign direct investment (FDI). The methodology used in the study ...consists of the two econometric model specifications–GMM spatial panel Durbin error model and panel gravity ordinary least squares model. The main results indicate a positive and significant relationship between respect for human rights and foreign investment. The outcomes of the spatial model suggest the presence of competition and reinforcement effects of particular kinds of human rights on FDI as well as significance of the ‘human rights distance’.
In many transitional economies all over the world, government and state land agencies continue to intervene in agricultural land market. For example, in post-socialist countries, the frequent legal ...changes have been affecting i.e. the structure of agricultural land ownership and area of agricultural holdings. The main purpose of this article is to suggest a research method to investigate the influence of legal instruments on the process of transformation of state-owned agricultural land and then to test the applicability of this method in a selected area. Because legal regulations affect various spheres of life, and such effects can be measured on different scales or in different ranges, the dynamics indicator used in this study serves an adequate tool for studying and comparing changes occurring over time. Additionally, the graphical analysis allowed to compare the observed developments. The analyses carried out for the exemplary post-socialist European country - Poland as a whole country and for every province as well showed that the actual impact of legal regulations on agrarian changes is different in areas which are different spatially and environmentally. In further research the influence of the government intervention should be also considered along with legal regulations concerning private sector.
•In post-socialist economies state land agencies supply the market with agricultural land.•Frequent legal changes, involving rigorous solutions, affect land purchase and sale transactions.•National law affects agricultural land market and the structure of farms.•Analyses made for each Polish province proved that real impact of legal regulations varies.•Dynamics indicator serves as an adequate tool for studying and comparing agrarian changes over time.
This article discusses political state capture in the context of party patronage. Evidence of this is delivered from state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and the rotations of members of their management ...and supervisory boards. In this case, it is deemed that an interest group, which consists of politicians and representatives in the government administration, decides about the appointment and dismissal of board members through the corporate governance of SOEs and ownership policy of the state. We analyzed the scale and intensity of rotations in Poland of about twelve thousand joint-stock companies in the years 2001–2017 according to their ownership structure. We show that changes of managers and supervisory board members in state-owned enterprises are higher than in private companies and are related to political elections. We estimated that on average three months after a new government is formed, a peak of changes in the composition of boards is observed, though they are earlier in the case of a supervisory board. We conclude that this can be regarded as an example of state capture by politicians.
Studying green urban infrastructure is important because of its ecosystem services, contributing to the welfare and comfort of citizens, mitigation of climate changes, and sustainability goals. Urban ...planning can increase or diminish the performance of ecosystem services. Despite numerous studies on the green infrastructure–services–planning nexus, there are very few concrete planning recommendations. This study aims to provide such recommendations for a broader audience by analyzing the dynamic of open green areas in Polish and Romanian cities, connected with its drivers. A novel approach including mathematical modeling and geostatistical analyses was applied to Urban Atlas and statistical yearbooks data. The results indicated that open green areas were lost and fragmented in all Romanian and Polish cities during 2006–2018. The drivers included urban built-up areas, population and density, the number of building permits, number of new dwellings completed, number of employees, and total length of roads. The study also revealed a tremendous lack of consistent datasets across the countries using the same statistical indicators. Based on the findings, planners should aim to preserve and develop urban greenery and maintain its continuity. City managers should use more research and decision-making policy developers to develop targeted policies and scientists should develop planning manuals.
•Social Network analysis and social capital structures in post-social countries.•Evidence that the members of agricultural cooperatives have better access to information and resources.•Cooperative ...managers have essential role in information diffusion and confidence boost among cooperative members.•Identifying powerful individuals - constructing cooperation models in which these powerful individuals can have valuable role in information diffusion.•Positive example for small-scale farmers still doubting the concept of cooperation.
Agricultural cooperatives in post-socialistic countries often fail to justify their purpose. Lack of trust and social capital are plausible reasons. In this paper we map the relationship structure of farmers that seek information about rural development programs, in a region where cooperatives operate. The Social network analysis demonstrates low levels of social capital, however, the cooperative acts as valuable information provider for its members, serving as information mediator to the rural development program’s resources, required for farmers’ investment initiatives. This is a positive evidence of small-scale farmers' attitudes towards cooperatives and a step forward towards cooperation and re-establishment of agricultural cooperatives in post-socialist countries.
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