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Public administration reforms in Central-Eastern-Europe
124-142Views:64The goal of this paper is in one hand to summarize how public administration reform trends
have spread in Central-Eastern-Europe since the transition, on the other hand to overview the
techno-economical paradigms which can determine the near future in the region. To analyse
spreading and development of New Public Management to Post-NPM doctrines periodization of
Drechsler and Randma-Liiv (2014) is being used. At the end threads and opportunities related
to technological development are aimed to be found in relation with public administration and
governance. Using entrepreneurial state’s concept shows that solving wicked issues needs active
state’s involvement, which might have a strong effect on public administration’s reform as well. -
A possible vision for young public workers or The Hungarian JWT
121-130.Views:45According to different statements more and more youngsters, under 25 years of age, appear in Public Work Programs at the present time in Hungary. Even it occurs more frequently that pa-rents, primarily because of financial reasons, take out their children from school, and send them to public workers.This paper draws attention to this phenomenon. Furthermore, it shows a possible paral-lel between those young people who are in JWT (Job Without Training) and those Hungarian youngsters who are working in Public Work Programs reflecting on the Hungarian particulari-ties of this parallel.
The concept of JWT and its categories are presented, and also which of these categories may connect with the Hungarian public workers’ state of being. Statistical data show the rate of public workers and their gender breakdown. Reports also suggest that the rate of young public workers is growing and their situation may become futureless.The author thinks that the growth of young public workers’ rate and their settled situation in this employment sector is likely to make inevitable for them to become NEET in the future. -
The Rethinking the public in Higher Education: Communitarian Engagement vs. Service-Based dependency
79-108Views:74There has been structural change in higher education due to the impact of institutions built or maintained in private public partnership. The aim of the paper is to give a deep insight into how these institutions could accomodate or shape the public higher education sector’s discouses, spaces, procedures. The research used mixed method to approach this complex question from a multidisciplinary perspective (sociology, education). Within this framework two residential halls were chosen and 17 interviews were carreid out with all relevant figure of the management. Due to the analytical tools of Maxqda 12 the qualitative results will be presented giving an insight into the differing discourses and practices of the public vs. private-public management. Based on the analysis of the managerial interviews it is safe to state that the public management struggles to balance a communitarian, democratic discourse and objectives with the requirements of efficiency and accountability. The presence of private-public management unintendedly shapes its public counterpart. The institutional analysis revealed that due to the swiftly changing institutional and policy environment residential halls are forced to be efficient leading to difficulties in managerial legitimacy and questions concepts such as community, conformity, commitment and action. Under the circumstances of increasingly growing institutional service-based dependency and control, academic consumers, institutions and students alike, paradoxically avoid integrating into macro groups. As a consequence, the institution encourage and educate student into a particular type of citizenship based on communication and consumerism rather than consensus.
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Reconfiguration in Post Euromaidan symbolic landscape: comparison of Kyiv and Transcarpathia
142-164Views:44The relation between power and public space has been one of the main interest of geographical
research in the last decades (Massey 1994, Mitchell 2003). Researches have illustrated that
following a regime change, the symbolic space of the city – compiled of street names, statues
and monuments – usually gets reconfigured. Following the Euromaidan, in 2015, the laws on
decommunization were accepted in Ukraine, which disposed more comprehensibly than ever before the banishment of Communist symbols from the public space. The decommunization
besides toponymy, entangled other elements of public space resulting in major shifts the urban
landscape as well.
Main interest of present paper is to study the major shifts in symbolic landscape in the capital,
Kyiv and compare it to the processes that have taken place in the westernmost periphery of the
country, Transcarpathia. Based on the examples of Uzhhorod, Berehove raion and Berehove, our
further aim is to shed light on the role of locality and how local memory is represented in public
space. -
Experiencing religiosity in prison: First results of qualitative research among long-term prisoners
1-23Views:41Religion has several positive effects on the life of the prisoner, helping him to cope with prison conditions and can significantly reduce the problems associated with imprisonment. In our qualitative research, we asked long-term prisoners in 3 prisons in Hungary, using a semi-structured interview method, about their perceptions of religiosity, the impact of religion on their life management, and the role they predict religion to play after the end of their sentence. Following a review of the literature, three hypotheses were put forward. We hypothesized that imprisonment is a crisis in the individual’s life that makes him or her open to religious values; religiosity influences the individual’s values and, through them, his or her attitude towards world phenomena; religious prisoners are a lower security risk. The hypotheses are confirmed. Beyond the reintegration of prisoners into society, the analysis of the interviews reveals that some of the narratives not only reflect a desire for reintegration but also a desire to serve as a goal.
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Closed institution inmates’ views about the family
138-153Views:35When researching the reasons for criminal behaviour, literature almost unequivocally emphasises the responsibility and role of the family, where as the number of studies analysing the functioning of families of inmates in closed institutions (reform schools, special children’s homes) is relatively low. The present pilot research (with the purpose of preparing a wider one) tries to fill this gap. Using semi-structured interviews, we attempted to explore the inmates’ family background, what methods were used during their upbringing, what they thought about the family and its role and importance in one’s life. Harassment had occurred in juvenile delinquents’ families in various forms: it had physical and emotional manifestations, and therefore its impact on the affected person’s personality is extremely complex. These young people did not/do not have a safe background, and thus they were more easily influenced to choose the wrong way; they did not have a real childhood, never had the experience of common games or hiking, and never felt an atmosphere of trust, love and security. It was apparent that in these young people’s families very little attention was paid to each family member’s personal sensitivity or opinion, and emotional ties were either missing or were strongly distorted. In such a family environment, the young people were unable to solve the crises of adolescence which are parts of normal development, the family did not ensure support in coping with the tension, and they were left alone with solving their problems. Consequently, it is not surprising that they had great difficulties in telling what the family meant to them and what ideas they had about their future family.
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Hopes and concerns of democratization: Ideas about popular vote in Hungarian political discourse 1985–1989
5-27Views:85The article analyzes the political discourse concerning direct democracy between 1985–89, when the issue of introducing popular vote at local and national level became relevant, both as a general institutional reform of political decision-making, and as the result of some major initiatives launched by social movements. The analysis covers the related law journal articles, party-state documents, the writings of political and intellectual elites (including the opposition), and the wider public (mainly daily and weekly newspapers). The discourse analysis is based on the academic literature of direct democracy and some new aspects, like the timing of introducing direct democracy, its role and perspectives, the consideration of threats and benefits, and the relevance of international examples as possible models for reform. The paper finds that the opposition and the party-state regarded the introduction of popular vote differently: while the emerging opposition emphasised the function of controling the state power by popular votes, the party-state expected to stop shrinking its social legitimacy. Meanwhile, general public seemed to be indifferent about this remarkable democratic reform.
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Through the screen of the majority ...: Public opinions on the social situation of Roma and their media representation
74-92Views:66This paper presents the results of a questionnaire survey on public opinion on the social situation of Roma and their media coverage. The survey was based on the attitudes of the population towards the Roma, their perceptions and prejudices, and their perceptions of the media coverage of the Roma.
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Factor of wage satisfaction in the light of a satisfaction survey
105-116Views:42Present study reports about the survey results of an empirical research reflecting the wage satisfaction level of employees. The part of the empirical research done in 4 different administration bodies in 2019 with the help of an online questionnaire survey is presented, in which results are summarized concerning responses to competitiveness of the wage system, relation of wage and performance, and the satisfaction with wage and further allowances.
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The 2022 Italian election under the microscope
53-72Views:121The 2022 parliamentary elections marked a turning point for the Italian political system in many ways. As a result of the measures approved and introduced over the past almost ten years to change the electoral system (electoral reforms, decisions of the Constitutional Court, constitutional amendments, parliamentary reforms, etc.), Italian voters had the opportunity to elect the new members of both chambers of the parliament under the same electoral system, for the first time in the Republican era. The purpose of the article is to present the steps leading to this historic moment by analysing in detail the different measures affecting the electoral system and their impact. The paper then describes the electoral results and explains the processes leading to the vast victory of Italy’s first female Prime Minister, with a particular focus on the return to the bipolar logic favoured by the electoral system following the release of the three-pole system in 2013.
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From Sunday lunch to the ballot box: Political socialisation and political homophily in Hungarian society
8-36Views:197Political socialisation is the process of forming an individual’s political identity, in the course of which the individual’s attitude to politics and political worldview is formed. Political socialisation takes place in different spheres, of which the family and parents are of particular importance. Previous research in Hungary has confirmed that the family is an “incubator” of citizenship. However, there is little data available in Hungary that would allow for a more precise understanding of the transmission of political attitudes. This study investigates political homophily within the family (between parent and child) and the effects of parental political characteristics on the individual in Hungary. Our data are drawn from a nationally representative telephone survey of 2000 respondents sampled in 2023. The results show that in nearly two-thirds of Hungarian families, family members held the same political views during the respondent’s childhood, with the highest proportions of homophily indicators, fathers’ and respondents’ voting activity, and mothers’ and respondents’ conservative-liberal attitudes. The effect of parental characteristics was tested using structural equation modelling (SEM). Parents’ political interests and ideological positions had a strong direct effect on the same child characteristics, but the individual’s political participation and party preference were only indirectly influenced by parents. The success of attitudinal transmission was strongly enhanced if the parents were themselves, homophiles, along with the trait in question. Our results point to the important role of the family as a primary agent in political socialisation and suggest new research directions.
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Health-related information gathering practices among outpatients
124-138Views:59Introduction: Obtaining health information is an important part of health behaviour. However, there is limited data available about information gathering habits of patients. Aims: To identify different patient groups according to their information gathering habits.
Methods: Questionnaire survey among potential patients in an outpatient clinic in Budapest. The survey consisted of the following domains: sociodemographic data; habits of visit a doctor; communications method with a specialist; use of technical devices.
Results: The survey was completed by 260 patients (36,2% men; 63,8% women). Patients primarily get medical information from their doctors, followed by the internet, where different websites and Facebook groups are the most common sources of information. Mostly they use the internet for checking their symptoms and complaints, however searching for data about their physicians and healthcare institutions are uncommon. Patients who are young, active workers, highly educated are more active, while elderly patients and widows search less information on the internet. Conclusions: There are socio-demographic groups who are underinformed by digital healthcare related issues. Audited websites and social media releases could play an important role in
the information gathering process of patients, and also supplement patient-doctor relationship. -
Start-up studio, the business model innovation (The example of INNONIC Zrt.)
66-83Views:90Public discourse mostly uses the term start-up as a simplified collective category to describe companies founded to sell technological innovations. At the same time, in addition to bringing a new or novel idea to market, most business functions (marketing, sales, product/service development, HR etc.) are performed in an innovative and proactive way. In spite of the uncertainty of the market and limited resources, one of the key characteristics of such organisations is the high potential of the rapid economic development. In order to be able to take the advantage of the business opportunity, a supportive socio-economic and institutional environment is essential to obtain intensive growth and sustainability. In our case study, we are aiming to illustrate the importance of so-called start-up studios in catalysing innovation by the example of a company operating in international markets in the Debrecen region. Illustrating our findings by an analogy, we examine how the studio as a “mother ship” uses organizationalmanagement methods, cultural patterns, and through what mechanisms it contributes to the success of start-ups.
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Representations of induced abortion in the Hungarian online media
121-152.Views:72This study focuses on how induced abortion is represented in the Hungarian online media in
relation to the reception of the public debate on the new Polish abortion law. The study was aimed
at revealing the major themes, the embedding conceptual network and the framing of induced
abortion in the online press. Since the press is an essential influencing factor of public opinion
due to its broad publicity, research should focus on the characteristics of the discourse in whose
space the concerned individuals form their views and make decisions on abortion. A thematic
analysis of relevant press releases revealed eight major themes that framed abortion in a specific
manner: thematization of induced abortion as a social/demographic issue; legislative issues of;
and attitudes towards, abortion; abortion as an act of (physical) self-determination; contents
related to the abortion decision; to its causes and consequences; and depiction of women
choosing abortion. Furthermore, the analysis revealed the themes most frequently associated
with abortion and potentially related themes typically not associated with it. -
Youth NGOs at home and abroad
216-231Views:33NGOs are now considered by social researchers to be a full member of society, and are increasingly visible in public awareness, media and vocabulary, which shows their growing influence and importance.
Their numbers are constantly growing, and their services and activities are expanding. However, in addition to the wide range of tasks and services, there are common features of NGOs that make them a completely separate sector. Their mission is to serve the public and the community, without profit-making being their primary objective (Bányai 1997).
The non-profit sector includes those organisations in society which operate as private institutions but in fact serve community purposes (Simon 1998).Since the range of activities of NGOs is very broad and it is difficult to draw conclusions from the whole, the focus of this short study is on youth NGOs.
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Do we have the effect of poverty ethnicisation in the Biharkeresztes micro-region?
81-92Views:44At a research in the Biharkeresztes micro-region (conducted via semi-structured interviews) we
asked family households living in poverty. Roma households were mostly among the respondents.
We also found that that estimated number of Roma population in the settlements correlated to
the number of people working in public service. The examination of age structure diagrams at
the settlements showed that the ones the mayors estimated to have a higher Roma population,
are the younger settlements. The fact that there can be a causal relationship between these
phenomena is supported by numerous previous researches (Kemény, 2004; Molnár, 2007). These
researches pointed out the effect of poverty ethnicisation in Hungary (Ladányi – Szelényi, 2004).
Furthermore, a research conducted in 2007 at the neighbouring Szabocs-Szatmár-Bereg County
also confirmed the ethnicisation theory (Fónai et al.). The aim of this study is to examine the
possibility of poverty ethnicisation at the five settlements of the Biharkeresztes micro-region,
with the help of the implemented qualitative inquiry, previous researches, and databases from
CSO and TeIR . -
The Career Concepts of Male Workers with or without Child
91-105Views:50The question of reconciliation of work and family is getting highlighted in social studies. For a
long time, a lot of studies concentrated on young mothers; however, researchers have realized
that this problem proves difficult to men as well. As Bencsik-Juhász write: ” As the actual labor
market primarily employs and caters for men, with all the inherent ad-vantages (like higher wages for the same job) and disadvantages (like longer working hours), it is no wonder that
the stronger labor-market presence and activity of women also changes the traditional family
roles”(Bencsik – Juhász 2012: 616). The public opinion has been starting to expect double sets of
obligations from the fathers, the traditional family supporter role is still strong, while men are
also expected today to take part in child-rearing. The question is whether these processes effect
on men’s career.
This study presents career perspectives of male workers with or without child. The authors
made a quantitative survey in order to get to know this question. Based on research conducted in
2016, it is possible to say that men with or without child are different in this question. -
Conflicts and democracy: Considerations on political conflicts and the need of their delimitation
8-24Views:51According to our common experience of political life, the relationship between politics and
conflicts seems to be obvious. However, it is also common to think about delimiting the intensity
of conflicts in a democratic context. This kind of complexity of the relation of democracy and
conflicts can be cexplained from two theoretical perspectives. First, in order to protect democratic
order, conflicts may lose their relevance in comparison to the value of consent or compromise. Second, even if we accept the importance of conflicts, we also should take into account the limits
of their intensity. These theoretical problems arise in the context of contemporary politics which
nature is eminently public and in which every announcement is open to discussion. This is what
discourse as a theoretical horizon means. The core concept for theorizing the conflictual character
of politics in a discursive manner is political debate. The article explores three kinds of debate
and communicative conflicts: John Stuart Mill, as a classical nineteenth century liberal, sheds
light on the importance of debate in issues of collective truth-seeking and emotional devotion
to our personal values. Márton Szabó, a leading theorist of political discourse in Hungary, also
treats debate as a core concept of political discourse studies, and theorizes debate not only as
a series of singular acts in the realm of politics, but as a mode of existence of politics itself.
Contrary to other contemporary ideas of communication and politics, discourse is therefore
inherently conflictual in its character. Similarly, but more embedded in contemporary debates
over democracy, Chantal Mouffe, one of the eminent theorists of agonism, interprets conflicts
in the context of democratic order, and emphasises the democratic conditions for constructing
democratic identities. Her ideas on agonistic democracy can fathom the relation of valuable
conflicts and their limits in a democratic regime. -
Communities – in another way
161-168Views:38This paper summarizes the main characteristics of the formation, the internal dynamics and the transformation of the communities. I have used the worthes and communutuies researches and analyzes of Hankiss Elemér. His main qoestion was the individaul estrangement and the restraint of the action.
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The Changes in political participation among Hungarian youth
25-41Views:51Citizens’ political participation is a key issue of a democratic political system. The starting point of the paper is political participation of young people in democratic institutions is not merely a question of young people’s interest in politics, but also the result of institutional opportunities and mobilization channels that are available for them. The present article aims to interpret the political participation of Hungarian youth is interpreted more broadly than in former studies. On the one hand it shows how a change of attitudes occurred among Hungarian youth concerning the perception of political participation perception. On the other hand it describes the institutional and social context where participation of Hungarian young people is taking place today.
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Gyermekvédelmi háttérrel a felsőoktatásba: a YIPPEE nemzetközi kutatás egyesült királyságbeli és magyar tapasztalatai
24-38Views:97A Gyermekvédelmi gondoskodásban élő és onnan kikerülő fiatal felnőttek: Utak az oktatásba Európában (Young People from a Public Care Background: Pathways to Education in Europe) című nemzetközi kutatás célja az volt – mely az Európai Unió 7. Kutatási keretprogram „Fiatalok és Társadalmi Kirekesztődés” témakör keretében valósult meg –, hogy átfogó képet kapjunk arról, hogy az egyes országokban a gyermekvédelmi gondoskodási háttérrel rendelkező, jelenleg 19-21 éves fiatalokat mi segíti és mi gátolja a továbbtanulásban; a gondoskodási háttérrel milyen oktatási utak léteznek Európában. A kutatás Dániában, Magyarországon, Spanyolországban, Svédországban és az Egyesült Királyságban zajlott 2007-2010 között. A vizsgálat több szakaszból állt.
Elsőként egy szakirodalmi áttekintésre és a publikált statisztikai adatok elemzésére került sor. Ezt követően interjúk készültek döntéshozókkal, ellátást nyújtókkal, valamint egy kérdőíves felmérés olyan 19-21 év közötti fiatalok körében, akik életük során legalább 1 évet gyermekvédelmi gondoskodásban töltöttek és 16 éves korukban is a rendszerben voltak.A felmérés eredményei általános képet adtak arra vonatkozóan, hogy hogyan alakult a fiatal felnőttek tankötelezettségi kor utáni iskolai karrierje. Ezen eredményekre építve minden országban 35 fiatallal és egy általuk megnevezett kulcsszeméllyel (aki tanulásra ösztönözte őket) újabb interjú készült. Ennek fókusza, hogy mélyebben megismerjük, hogyan alakult a fiatal oktatási karrierje, melyek voltak a nehezítő tényezők, egyáltalán milyen tényezők határozták meg, hogy a fiatal a tankötelezettségi kor után is folytatta a tanulmányait. A továbbtanulásban, felsőoktatási tanulmányok folytatásában kik azok, akik segítséget nyújtottak számára. Egy évvel később a kiválasztott fiatal felnőttekkel ismét interjú készült mely azt vizsgálta, mennyire sikerült megvalósítani elképzeléseiket, hogyan módosultak rövidtávú terveik.
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College and university students’ attitudes towards democracy in Hungary
47-69Views:48The existence of education for democracy has positive impact on citizens’ political knowledge
and the identification with the democratic values. In the process of civic education, the
universities and high schools play an important role. Many scholars argue that the high schools
have a civic mission to serve a public good or the university is the civic mission itself. To examine
democratic citizenship among high school and university students we use a dataset composed of
three surveys (2011/2012, 2013, 2015) of 4800 Hungarian students. We build on the literature
about the empirical and theoretical framework of democratic citizenship to answer the question
if 25 years after the collapse of communism we can witness the emergence of a new generation
of democrats in Hungary? Have young people successfully come to terms with their countries' authoritarian past and developed a commitment to democracy as a system of rule? Are they
ready to defend it in the face of challenges? Based on the empirical framework of citizenship we
derive a number of significant lessons from the Hungarian case, with important implications
about the ability to teach the norms and responsibilities of democratic citizenship in the world’s
emerging democracies. -
„Women Question” in the Political Parties’ Discourse in Post-Revolution Tunisia (2011–2014)
127-145Views:54For more than fifty years, the Tunisian political system has been considered as a so-called secular system that had provided women with many rights in education, healthcare and in economic and political sectors, besides that woman friendly family laws reforms After the overthrown of Ben Ali regime on 14th of January 2011, the Tunisian society witnessed an economic, social and political significant transformation. A new Islamic-secular discourse have been raised debates both in public and private sphere, women’s rights have been one of the incendiary topics of these debates. Therefore, with the participation of the Islamists in political life, the country has faced a new political dynamic which made the pollical scene complex and ambiguous. In this context, discourse analysis is a very important and crucial to be used as a method to approach to the research main question. Some leaders’ speeches, events which took place during the democratic transition are examined and analyzed in order to serve the research’s analytic interest through the relevant materials.
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How do the Spanish families face to crisis? The types and consequences of coping strategies
156-170.Views:63The impact of the crisis in Spain helped to harden the difficulties of a large number of households
in Spain. Even though these conditions had a widespread impact, it has been more acute in
families that prior to the crisis were dealing with difficult situations. The main objective of this
paper is to identify strategies the households developed in order to face these difficulties. The
results have been selected from a qualitative analysis of 34 excluded household´s life stories. From
this analysis two interesting results were obtained: On the one hand, households have developed
prevention and survival strategies. On the other hand, the study identifies the consequences of
the strategies and their impact in terms of household´s social integration. With all the results,
the paper invites to reflect on the limits of survival strategies.
