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In this paper, we evaluate what we have learned to date about the effects of privatization from the experiences during the last fifteen to twenty years in the postcommunist (transition) economies and, where relevant, China. We distinguish separately the impact of privatization on efficiency, profitability, revenues, and other indicators and distinguish between studies on the basis of their econometric methodology in order to focus attention on more credible results. The effect of privatization is mostly positive in Central Europe, but quantitatively smaller than that to foreign owners and greater in the later than earlier transition period. In the Commonwealth of Independent States, privatization to foreign owners yields a positive or insignificant effect while privatization to domestic owners generates a negative or insignificant effect. The available papers on China find diverse results, with the effect of nonstate ownership on total factor productivity being mostly positive but sometimes insignificant or negative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature of the party systems in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has puzzled many scholars. High instability of the party systems and their specific evolution makes the application of theoretical models designed predominately for Western European party politics problematic. The paper puts forward the argument that we should further elaborate and specify the models for a small N comparative party system analysis in CEE countries and to incorporate some region specific components into the framework. The essential dimensions included into proposed comparative framework are as follows: (1) the stability of the party system, (2) party system fragmentation, (3) parties' penetration into society, (4) the ideology and origins of the major parties, (5) the dominant cleavage constellations framing the party competition (6) the strength of the party organizations. The above-mentioned dimensions are expected to capture the most important aspects that make the difference between the party systems in general, and each dimension is complemented with the specific additional variables suitable for party system analysis in CEE in particular. The framework will be tested on the Baltic States, which party systems are often regarded to be very similar to each other. However, the analysis will demonstrate that based on the above-mentioned framework, very significant and noteworthy differences will be revealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Central and Eastern Europe Countries (CEECs) have been shaped by the EU conditionality, meaning that these countries were obliged to develop their administrative capacities in completely convergence with the acquis communautaire in order to join the European Union. The 2004 and 2007 enlargement of the EU and the accession negotiations have brought a systemic transformation of the CEECs through what is known in the literature as Europeanization. It seems to be a strong connection between conditionality and Europeanization, the former giving way to the latter. Therefore the capacity and the willingness of candidate countries to transfer the acquis into the domestic legal context have had a significant influence in the way in which the Europeanization process has succeeded in inhabiting the governance system of the CEECs. Considering these, the purpose of this paper is to examine through which mechanisms it was realized the correspondence between EU conditionality and the process of central and eastern enlargement-led Europeanization which seems to have been internalized distinctively by the CEECs, where administrative resources to comply with European standards were lagging behind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the extinction of the communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe and the vacuum left behind by them, states have entered a stage of political crisis and establishing future trajectories in terms of governance. In this paper we propose to discusses several aspects concerning different trajectories of post-communist states and the factors that influenced their journey [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integration of Central and Eastern countries in European Union assumes obtaining certain benefits. Upon joining the European Union internal market and free movement of labour, absorption of European funds could help the convergence go on and reduce disparities between countries. This study aims to provide insights in regionalization, absorption of European funds and economic growth. There are various ways of defining the regional growth. The most common refer to the increase of the total output of a region, output increase per employed person, output increase per capita. In turn, the output can be assessed by the gross production of a region, the region's gross domestic product or net domestic product of that region. The paper proposes an integrated analysis of European situation by means of data and statistics provided by European and national statistics institutions. A better absorption of European funds can lead to growth and economic development and thus reduce regional economic disparities. One of the main objectives should be the absorption as much financial support as possible by continuous efforts from the Central and Eastern European Countries and also regional and local government involved in every stage of the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the early transition phase in post-communist Europe, citizens' perceptions of the national economy appeared more favorable than objective economic indicators would suggest. With triple and quadruple digit annual inflation rates and a severe economic contraction, there was a substantial portion of the population in these countries who still thought that the national economy had been and would be improving. Thus, sociotropic economic perceptions in the wake of the democratic transformation appeared to be disconnected from the real economic situation. The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, it explores the link between objective economic indicators and public evaluations of the economy. Second, it investigates the microfoundations of economic perceptions. And finally, it tests a well-established proposition that political sophisticates are more accurate in their perceptions than their less informed counterparts. The findings of the study can be generalized to any political and economic system undergoing transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shopping centers play an important role in improving the quality of life in town and city centers around the world. Often seen as drivers of local economies, shopping centers are necessary to maintain economic growth and a sense of community, offering employment, and providing a better quality of life. In last decades in all capital cities and large cities in Central and Southeastern Europe numerous shopping centers were open and therefore the situation at retail market and traditional supply chains changed rapidly. The aim of this paper is to provide key data related to shopping center industry in Central and Southeastern European countries and to analyze the structure of retail offers, opportunities for investors, retailers and consumers at given markets. Comparative analysis of secondary data will give an insight into the current state of shopping center development and discuss the problems related to future retail development in Southeastern Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The case of undertaking health policy analysis has been made by a number of academics and practitioners, however there has been given less attention to how the health care decisions are made, what theories and methods best inform policy making processes. This paper aim to conceptualize a theoretical framework in order to describe decision-making models in six Central and Eastern European countries: Romania, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to reassess the contribution of the Balassa- Samuelson effect to the inflation and real exchange rate appreciation using panel data for nine CEECs covering the period ranging from the mid-1990s to the third quarter of 2010. The main idea of this analysis is to answer the question of whether the Global Economic Crisis had a significant impact on the efforts of CEECs to stay on the path of real convergence. The Balassa- Samuelson effect explains less than 1.5 percentage points on average of inflation differential relative to the euro area and around 1 percentage point of the total domestic inflation. The results are robust across the model specification and estimation method. Most of the results point out that the Balassa- Samuelson effect has not changed considerably during the crisis even though it is lower compared to that in the earlier stage of transition (for the period up to 2004). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of a new model of territorial development based on a bottom-up approach appears to be an entirely new process in the formerly communist countries of Central Europe. However, the ongoing process of Europeanisation in these countries is acting as a catalyst for the transmission of this model of endogenous development, a model whose principles are to highlight the specific advantages of each territory and to foster the initiatives taken by decentralised actors. 'Territorial governance' is a notion that sums up these new patterns of public policies that are in keeping with a multi-level environment. At the crossroads of European and national policies with bottom-up initiatives, taken by local stakeholders (local representatives, project managers, etc.), new patterns in territorial resetting are also appearing as part of the change in territorial governance. How does such a transfer of model take place and what effects does it imply? This paper is aimed at analysing the reception of this European model of local development by local actors and their ability for social learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents Central European perspective on why nationalism is not the right doctrine to combat climate change. Topics include nationalism the political doctrine that can help the world to deliver on the need to decrease greenhouse gas emissions; and ideas of ecological modernization that suggest to mitigate climate change efficiently through technological innovations and without reforms in the decision-making.

In Central and Eastern Europe populist regimes are attracting attention as a result of the traumatic legacy of communism, the subsequent overburdening reforms and exhausting systemic transformation, resurgence of ever-lurking nationalism, regional conservatism, parochialism and cultural chauvinism, and/or as an example of the structural shortcomings of young democracies at the borders of civilization. The subject literature also indicates numerous and universal elements of populist governments, present as well in this part of Europe. Without prejudging the aptness and strength of these various concepts and arguments, this article is an attempt to include in these wideranging themes a particular issue that absorbs conservative populists, namely "childhood" and "children". While the problem of children in politics has already received numerous interpretations, the importance of childhood in the right-wing populist discourse and politics has so far remained an issue discussed only occasionally. We put forward the thesis that children play an important and specific role in the right-wing populist superstructure - they constitute an illusory picture of the nation, an allegory of its renewal, as well as a convenient, though inconsistently used, instrument for achieving political, ideological and propaganda goals. Attitudes towards children can be an important characteristic of populism as such, and should be taken into account in research on the subject. We will illustrate these problems using the example of Poland and the populist Law and Justice (PiS) Party that is in power there now. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a comment on the issues concerning central planning in Central Europe. Much of the debate which surrounds these developments is directed at political issues in general, and democratization in particular. The economic issues are no less important however, particularly with reference to long term developments. Although the priors of most economists would no doubt lead them to the belief that the process of transition from a planned economy to a market-based system ought to be smoother than the reverse transition, it does not follow that the process will be frictionless. Experience thus far with Poland and Hungary confirms that this is indeed the case. Economists have much to contribute to gaining insight into these issues. Moreover, they should be discussed in the widest possible forum. The papers by Hare and Kaser make an excellent contribution to this debate. Perhaps a future Policy Forum can return to the issue and see to what extent their speculations are born out. The article also highlights the chart on the key statistics of Eastern European economics.

The article focuses on impact of socio-economic factors on environmental change and affecting of biodiversity and climate change by humans. Topics discussed include rapid transformation in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in terms of political changes and economic growth, political transformation is experienced by CEE countries towards free market and democracy and changes in ecosystem management will also be observed if the European Union (EU) is continuously accessed.

This article measures populist discourse among prime ministers in new Central and Eastern European democracies using holistic grading as a specific type of textual analysis. The article first offers a definition of populism and then measures political discourse by grading political speeches of contemporary prime ministers in Central and Eastern Europe. Next, it presents descriptive data about prime ministers' political discourse and discusses positive cases of populism in reference to democratic structures. Despite suggestions that we live in a populist zeitgeist, populism is a rare and occasional phenomenon in Central and Eastern European executive politics. It has often been associated with violations of democratic structure by individual leaders. However, these violations are more likely to be related to undemocratic political culture in general than to populism in particular. Where populism does coincide with an already undemocratic political mindset, this represents a more serious threat to democratic standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between the mid-eighteenth and the early nineteenth centuries, commercial networks of Ashkenazim in central Europe experienced major shifts. I argue that this was a transitional period between the extensive trading and credit networks of central European Court Jews in the early modern period and the rise of new Jewish banking houses across Europe in the nineteenth century. Based on examples from Amsterdam, Frankfurt an der Oder (Prussia), and Warsaw I demonstrate how Amsterdam served as a center for the provision of credit to central and, indirectly, eastern Europe until the late eighteenth century, with Jewish merchants in central European cities like Frankfurt an der Oder serving as middlemen. Relying not on far-reaching networks but rather on more regional ones, a new mercantile Jewish elite rose in Warsaw beginning around the turn of the century, creating a new financial hub in east-central Europe. I suggest that the rise of Warsaw as a new center of Jewish banking and commerce can be described as a parallel development-though one on a much smaller scale-to the rise of London and that both new centers prospered at the expense of Amsterdam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the effects of the Global crisis on the relative efficiency of ten Central and Eastern European emerging stock markets, using the Generalized Spectral test of Escanciano and Velasco (2006) in a rolling window approach. This test is robust to the distributional assumptions, to the presence of time-varying volatility, being able to detect a wide range of linear and non-linear dependencies in conditional mean. The results suggest that the degree of markets inefficiency varies through time, providing empirical support for the Adaptive Market Hypothesis rather than for a clear trend towards higher efficiency as postulated by the classical Efficient Market Hypothesis. Surprisingly, during the crisis period there has been registered an improvement of the degree of efficiency in the case of seven markets out of ten. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the findings of a research conducted on examining the perceptions of public health experts from Central and Eastern European countries on public health challenges in their countries. It discusses the methodology of the research. The study identifies the factors including the need for public health funding, clinical medicine, and the problems of proving the effectiveness of disease prevention. It concludes that an effective public health interventions is urgently needed.

This article reviews the state’s role in the transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe. Among the countries, Poland is perceived as the leader because it was the first economy to emerge from the decline following the transition, as well the only EU member state to survive the crisis without a recession. This success is often attributed to the high quality of government. However, we show that this popular perception is false and that state malfunctions on numerous fronts may soon impede Polish growth prospects. In Poland, the only bright spot is the quality of the financial supervision, which should serve as a role model for other countries. We attribute the malfunctions to the EU accession period that resulted in an unchecked growth of the government and contributed to the weakening of political and legal institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

By analyzing a newly compiled database of exchange rates, this article finds that in Central Europe money markets integrated cyclically during the fifteenth century. The cycles were associated with monetary debasements. Long-distance financial integration progressed in connection with the rise of the territorial state, facilitated by the synergy between princes and emperor, which helped to avoid coordination failures. For Central Europe, theories of state formation and market integration should therefore take interstate actors into account. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article investigates how political responsibility patterns are constructed in the European Union (EU) and how they relate to issues of accountability, policy, and transparency considerations regarding European unification. Particular attention is paid to how the national polity affects citizens' views of the EU in Central and Eastern Europe. It is argued that the opinion of voters of their home country's democratic performance will influence their views about the EU. It is questioned whether mass opinion and elite views about Europe correspond to the health of the national polity in the same way. The impact of the national citizens' and elites' evaluations of the polity and the policy dimensions are assessed to identify general support or skepticism concerning the EU.

The article presents a comprehensive investigation into the relations between political elites and mass public opinion regarding attitudes towards European Union integration. The systematic study called the Intune project attempts to map the conceptions of identity and their multiple interconnections among elites, citizens, and the mass media considered crucial to the construction of a European identity. A comparison of Central and Eastern European post-communist countries and Southern Europe in terms of identity and representation as two basic dimensions of the European integration process is described.

Objective:To describe the dietary patterns of 10 European countries and their socio-demographic determinants, using the comparable between-countries DAFNE data.Design:Analysis of standardized and postharmonized data collected through the national household budget surveys.Setting:Nationally representative surveys undertaken in 10 European countries, generally in the second half of the 1990s.Results:The differences in the fruit and vegetable consumption previously identified between Mediterranean and Northern European countries seem to be leveling out, particularly in relation to fruit consumption. Pulses, however, still characterize the diet of the Mediterraneans. Straying from their traditional food choices, Mediterraneans recorded high availability of unprocessed red meat, while Central and Northern Europeans preferably consumed meat products. The household availability of beverages (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) is generally higher among Central and Northern European populations. Principal component (PC) analysis led to the identification of two dietary patterns in each of the 10 countries. The first was similar in all countries and indicated ‘wide-range’ food buyers. The second was slightly more varied and described ‘beverage and convenience’ food buyers. PC1 was common among households of retired and elderly members, while PC2 was common among households located in urban or semi-urban areas and among adult Scandinavians living alone.Conclusions:The dietary patterns identified point towards a progressive narrowing of dietary differences between North and South European countries. The comparable between-countries DAFNE data could prove useful in ecological studies, in the formulation of dietary guidelines and public health initiatives addressing specific population groups.Sponsorship:European Commission.European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2006) 60, 181–190. doi:10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602284; published online 9 November 2005 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provides an overview on the field of clinical trials in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Primary factor for considering CEE sites; Nonprotocol issues for CEE trials; Regulations governing clinical trials; Provisions under the EU Clinical trials Directive.

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This article focuses on the close linkage between domestic philanthropy and commerce at the end of the early modern period, and the sophistication with which well-connected evangelical institutions transcended the confines of established religion and territorial boundaries. Use of a large set of primary and secondary sources that are relatively unknown in the history of the voluntary sector permits the examination and analysis of several notable aspects of the Francke Orphanage Foundations, an 18th-century central European institution of evangelical reform and colonial mission. Particular attention is given to the innovative efforts of their founder, August Hermann Francke, to secure an independent financial base for his institutional goals. These goals, which were supported in large part by members of the German nobility and of merchants in the imperial cities, included but were not limited to reform of charity care and education. From the outset, a close network of personal supporters and evangelical institutions that extended throughout Protestant Europe proved essential for both trade and evangelical mission; this network permitted expansion into Russia and the Baltic provinces, Hungary, the Near East and India, and eventually the British North American colonies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The negotiated strategy as an alternative to the liberal approach is based on the interactive method of social change. Implementing this strategy is no easy task. It calls for both a fundamental theoretical reassessment of the problem of systemic transformation as well as changes in habitual patterns of behaviour. Under post-socialist conditions, negotiations take on a double significance: on the one hand, they can create an institutional framework, establish the rules of the market game, and allow particular economic projects to be put into practice (the meso and microstructural level). On the other hand, the resulting arrangements can be used as a basis for defining and implementing a precise strategy to shape the economic system, thus `building up' the state (the macrostructural level). The implementation of the liberal approach based on the imperative method of social change has created an `interaction crisis' in post-socialist societies. One of the major symptoms of this crisis is the contradiction between political articulation and institutionalization. It seems that the only effective, pro-transformation way of overcoming this contradiction would be to create structures able to bridge the gap between society and the authorities, and to mediate interests both between various social groups and between these groups and the authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]