The purpose of this article is to investigate about the differences and, if any, the similarities among the modern State and the mafia criminal organizations. In particular, starting from their definitions, I will try to find the differences between State and mafia, to then focus on the operational aspects of the functioning of these two organizations, with specific reference to the effect/impact that both these human constructs have on citizens’ existences, and especially on citizen’s economic lives. All this in order to understand whether it is possible to identify an objective difference – beside morals – between taxation by the modern State and extortion by criminal organizations. With this of course I do not want to argue that the mafia is in any way justifiable or absolvable, nor that it is better than the State. However, I want to investigate whether there is a real, logical reason why the State should be considered by the citizens more desirable than the criminal organizations oppressing Southern Italy, from a strictly logical point of view and not from the point of view of ethics and morality.
The article discusses the state of research on liturgical monody of the Armenian Apostolic Church. This monody is a collection of musical and literary works, coming mostly from the period from the fifth to the fifteenth centuries and performed during the liturgy of the Armenian Apostolic Church. In the Middle Ages khaz (neumatic) systems were developed for recording the melodies of monody, but most of the systems have been forgotten. In the nineteenth century in several centers of Armenian culture, melodies of that monody were written down from the oral tradition with the so-called new Armenian notation. Studies of the monody since the eighteenth century were followed by both researchers of Armenian origin, as well as other nationalities, but to this day no university has established any entity, which could be regarded as a center for research on liturgical monody of the Armenian Apostolic Church. In the world literature no monograph has been written, which would include general issues concerning the liturgical monody of the Armenian Apostolic Church. There are several lines of research on this monody: history, theory and khazology (neumology), retrieving, processing and cataloging sources, the study of medieval commentaries on sacred music, the study of various kinds of the monody, and finally performance practice in the liturgy of the Armenian Apostolic Church. There are difficulties in conducting research on this monody, including scattered sources and limited contact between researchers from Armenia and other countries. The final conclusion of the work is that the issues concerning the Armenian Apostolic Church monody not yet been sufficiently studied.
The problem of institutionalization and the impact of institutions on individual and collective action is discussed by Attila György in his article. The author focuses on communication processes that take place at various levels of the state and society. Participants’ behaviour (public and private actors), administrative and legal regulations influence the quality and effectiveness of communication. The article examines the factors determining the model of power distribution and how it shapes interaction between individuals and institutions.
The paper discusses the area of Political Science as a discipline and its borders. The four chapters include: terminology and its practical consequences, genesis and development of Political Science, research methods of Political Science and the position of Political Science in comparison to Social and Human Sciences.
In the first CSR, mainly under the influence of normative theory, several legal scientists began to focus on the public-law branches of law. Administrative law and self-government were not exceptions. The main subject of the dispute in terms of self-government consisted of the different view of its status and purpose in society. On the one hand, in the first CSR we are confronted with the political concept of self-government and, on the other, the legal concept of self-government. The theory of a political concept of self-government was based on the historical origin of self-government before the state, and on the idea that self-government is a collective equivalent of an individual with natural and inalienable rights. From this statement, several theorists have inferred that self-government is necessarily an existing union with the original power. On the contrary, the theory of the legal concept of self-government was based on the fact that, despite the historical origin of self-government, the state is the only sovereign on its territory. Therefore, self-government is only an entity with delegated power and a clearly defined sphere of competence, therefore self-government is a union created by the state.
The article describes how transnational corporations, international organizations, and supranational institutions play an increasingly important role in the global economy. The complex array of relationships involves political actors – states and their associations, as well as market entities, which – by getting stronger – enter in competition with states for dominance in the global market. The increasing competition between state and international corporations limits room for society (societies), reserving for them sometimes a marginal position.
In the following article the author presents an evolution of views, in theory and practice, within the field of security in the broader sense. Such issues were initially closely related to the essence of a state’s institution and implemented using the state’s administration as a tool. Alongside constitutional and ideological changes, the views concerning the character and meaning of security also changed. Another question which is considered is the subject of terminology. Undoubtedly one of the factors determining the extent of legal regulations in the field of security and public order is the way of comprehending these concepts. The author has drawn up a pioneer periodisation of the issues of security from an historical perspective . The turning points for particular periods of comprehending the essence of this issue have been determined. The analysis of internal security strategy ‘Towards a European Security Model’, which was adopted in 2010 after years of disputes and discrepancies in standpoints of particular EU member states, is a specific recapitulation of these deliberations.
The role played by the state in economy is one of the most important problems in economic science. With regard to this role and its importance, it is often forgotten that the state is largely influenced by the cultural values of its citizens. This paper evaluates the role of cultural values in explaining the differences in state tax revenues as percentage of GDP in cross-country perspective. Our results suggest that there is a statistically significant relationship between shared cultural values and taxation (measured by the revenues that are accumulated by the state). Therefore, it seems to be important to take culture into account when designing optimal economic policies and influencing the level of life and well-being.
: The ideas of state of exception and sovereignty presented by Italian political philosopher Giorgio Agamben in the aftermath of post September 11 context generated a new discourse in the realms of public law and political philosophy on how law and its protection becomes invalid under state of exception. Agamben showed how suspension of constitutional liberties within so called state of exception legally erases any status of an individual regardless of international legal or constitutional norms. However, this article seeks to examine how Agamben had excluded the nature of state of emergency doctrine in colonial societies under European colonialism, where emergency regulations were frequently adopted by colonial masters in subordinating the colonized; at the same time, this article will focus on the racial element appearing behind enacting state of emergency in both colonial era and modern states. The objective of this article lies in underpinning the much important, yet neglected two factors in the whole state of emergency scenario. The results emerging from this article will demonstrate how Eurocentric academic thinking has abandoned some real pertinent issues in constructing the notion on state of emergency.
The present study is intended to discuss the way in which the state is constituted as a major element for the management of Brazilian university teams, pointing out, above all, the most recent moment that represents a hybrid model of development. To do so, empirical resources of research has been used: 1. Documents that belong to the file of the FPDU (an institution in the state of Paraná which is in charge of university teams), 2. The existing legislation on the theme, 3. Interviews with some of the agents who took part in the FPDU as members of the directory board throughout its history. It has been concluded that the state is directly responsible for the development of university sports in Brazil, mainly because between them there is an inter-dependence relationship through the financial support of sports.
The phenomenon of American nationalism dates back to the pioneer times of the Pilgrims and Founding Fathers who established first social and political relations creating origins of a future developed country. Throughout the past centuries the term “nationalism” from an American perspective was tangled to various definitions and sometimes official politics of the state. American nationalism was first represented by faithful Protestant settlers who believed strongly in a God’s destined society. Based on that the first definition was coined by John Winthrop in his poem “City upon a hill” – idea of a land deprived of evil in all of its emanations, which is not distant and obeys the will of an Absolute. One of the Founding Fathers – Thomas Paine in his Common Sense developed Winthrop’s idea and presented Americans as people with unlimited abilities. American writers and first colonists believed in a Biblical promised land that offered them unlimited abilities of self-growth. This strength of a self consciousness paved a way to a scientific term of super-patriotism. Coined by Michael Parenti, this term encompasses both democratic ideas of Alexis de Tocqueville and vision of a self-made man, who is the organizer of American statehood. American nationalism is also a derivative of ideology of americacentrism with its roots in the 19th century concept of Manifest Destiny proclaiming a nation that is endowed with an eternal right to secure the world for democracy. This idea has been a long term debate in American political and social life as United States became more and more involved in international affairs since the beginning of 20th century. In sum, the idea of American nationalism is the result of American melting-pot of religious, cultural and specific historical circumstances that built this nation.
The text attempts to reconstruct the major factors that shaped the modern economic, political and intellectual orders. Based on the assumption that the philosophical and ideological sources of the modern state were derived from social, economic and technological changes, the article explains how these changes were prepared in the modern age and how they influence development in the following 200 years. It also presents the ideas of dependencies between the rise of the modern state and capitalist economy. The conclusion presents the challenges connected with new means of communication, new trends in economy and new social expectations, as well as the role that may be played by academic circles in responding to these.
Background: Border protection is an extremely important area in ensuring the national security of each country. Objectives: The purpose of this article is to show the role of the Polish Border Guard in the area of Poland’s national security. The Border Guard in Poland is responsible for ensuring state security and responding to emerging threats using available methods and tools. Methods: To identify the role of the Border Guard in maintaining state security, an analysis of the literature on the subject was made. Results: The role of the Border Guard in ensuring state security is extremely important. Conclusions: Today, security issues have become very important both from the point of view of the individual and the country.
This article examines the history of formation and development of the institution of judicial protection of information rights and freedoms of man and citizen.
This paper shows that corruption constitutes a threat to the rule of law in a democratic law-observing state, destroying it from within and ridiculing it outside. It destabilises social relations in such a state, which adversely affects the political system as well as the development of legislation and economy. The paper also reminds that corruption erodes social relations, causing demoralisation and slackening of morals in society. Corruption may also be a threat to the life, health and property of citizens. The author tracks views about corruption using the method of theoretical analysis of the notions (critical analysis of secondary sources); the statistical method, mainly analysing the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (2019); and the dogmatic-legal method. He concludes that corruption destabilises multiple areas of the functioning of a democratic law-observing state, disrupting the political space, spoiling the law, and causing destructive phenomena in the economic as well as in the moral sphere. It ultimately destabilises state structures, rendering them dysfunctional and perverting the principles of democracy. Corruption interacts with legality acting as a feedback loop, as it destroys the rule of law and democracy, which in turn deepens corruptive phenomena.
Two parallel problems come under close scrutiny in my paper. First of them concerns the question whether victims of a (politically or economically) stronger thief are ethically entitled to steal their property in revenge? I argue that this kind of theft could be seen as a hidden form of protection because the symbolic relation between the first aggressor and his victim is extremely unequal. An ordinary man usually has no public means to oppose corporation or political institution. He has then to decide whether he chooses ethical perfection, which would stop him from doing anything; or he is ready, by himself, to inflict punishment on an (institutionalized) thief. The other problem concerns the consequences of the acceptance of ‘the balancing strategy’. The case of modern state shows how hidden fighting against a stronger thief brings about opposite results. On one hand, an unfair political institution is deprived of its rights. But, on the other hand, the insubordinate citizen, who plays the part of the only owner of the criterion of fairness, destroys the rules of common life.
Civil society was defined in various ways. Among others, J. Locke, G.W.F. Hegel and A. de Tockeville presented the most relevant characteristic of what civil society is or could be. For the purpose of the paper we distinct civil society and the state. To the first one we assign spontaneity and diversity, the second we treat as procedural and homogeneous. In the paper we will stand for the thesis: civil society is the nest of virtues and as such characterized plays one of the most prominent parts in contemporary social and political reality. The problem is not that presently civil society does not exist. The problem is that once it was established within the state, it has been developed in such a way that it became a hybrid combined from the state and what could be called apolitical human activity. The core of the problem is that the hybrid is more political than apolitical. To the essence of civil society belong: existence of free associations of any kind, economy free from political coerce as much as it could be and public sphere of opinion, all organized in such a political way that the political power is limited by division of it to three independent institutions: a legislature, an executive and a judiciary and also by the law. A ground for apolitical human social activities was prepared by J. Locke in his political theory. The state is one of possible emanations of apolitical society in the state of nature. Montesquieu expanded such a vision of society that it exists within the state but the state itself is limited by division of political power and civil rights which allow the members of the society to protect their freedom and dignity. Moral civil society we are developing protect the citizens from overwhelming influence of the state and particular egoisms of individuals. As such it promotes moral activity, it brings trust to the public sphere and it protects human dignity.
In a contemporary state, cybersecurity is becoming an increasingly important issue. In order for a state to adequately respond to changing threats, it must be a learning organization. Learning about cybersecurity should include specialist knowledge, but also knowledge about cybersecurity shaping the behaviours of the general public and policy makers. Legal regulations are an important instrument of shaping cybersecurity in a learning state.
This article is an attempt to clarify the situation after the rise of Slovak State. Its politics, ideology and philosophy of nation. It is focused on philosophy of Š. Polakovič and M. Chladný-Hanoš from the perspective of dogmatism and pluralism in their thoughts. The paper analyse 'ideology of slovakian national socialism', which is faced with Christ's nationalism' and ' German national socialism'.
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