Central European Nations Research Articles

A window on quality improvement in the Czech Republic

The Czech Republic has a long history of product excellence recognizable in such diverse areas as beer, weapons and shoe manufacture. Moreover, many of the ideas regarded as central to contemporary expression of TQM such as empowerment and primacy of the organization’s human resource are to be found in the 1920s and 1930s speeches and essays of Czech industrialist and organizational behaviorist Tomas Bata. Nevertheless, the Czech Republic faces distinct challenges brought about by the Velvet Revolution ‐ challenges common to many Central and Eastern European nations. Challenges, practices, trends and the future promise of quality in the Czech Republic are discussed.

Bringing Diverging Paths Back Together

EXPANDING EU: CZECH/SLOVAKThe breakup of Czechoslovakia into the Czech and Slovak Republics 6 years ago today interrupted seven decades of joint scientific effort. And last year, when the European Union selected five central European nations as fast-track candidates for membership, it included the Czech Republic but left out its Slovak neighbor.

Foreign marketing control decisions of firms engaged in west-east technology transfer: a test of the transactions cost hypothesis

Businesses engaged in technology transfer from West to Central and East European nations must decide on the extents to which they will contribute to the marketing of the outputs resulting from the technologies they make available to their foreign partners. This can be problematic in situations where recipient enterprises lack rudimentary marketing skills and/or are located in countries with poor marketing services' infrastructures. Western firms face a continuum of choice in relation to this matter, ranging from the situation wherein they retain total control over the marketing of final products, through to allowing recipient businesses to assume complete responsibility for the marketing function. This article reports the results of: (1) an application of the transactions cost model to the analysis of decisions concerning the degrees to which Western companies integrate the marketing of end products emerging from West-East collaborative ventures into their internal operational systems; and (2) a test of the transactions cost hypothesis in relation to the engagement of independent distributors in Central and East European states.

Ownership and Control of the Hungarian Press

This article analyses the economic structure of the Hungarian press. We describe the circulation figures of national, political daily newspapers, their editorial profiles and market positions, how they were privatised, and how their editorial content is controlled. We also look at the ownership and control of the regional and weekly press. The analysis reveals that despite the unprofitability of most national newspapers, the market is relatively stable. While control of editorial content is mainly a function of ownership and market forces, journalists at some publications have secured a degree of independence. East Central European nations have widely embraced liberal-pluralist economic and political models. Here, press freedom is equated with private ownership by individuals, and the market is seen as the surest safeguard against state interference. But in practice, the press throughout the region is still heavily saturated with politics. Thus, our economic analysis is followed by a case study that examines recent efforts by the Hungarian government to use public money to establish a right-centrist newspaper. The discourse surrounding that event is used to explore notions of cultural democracy where the active participation of journalists and citizens in the production of a news reading culture is central.

Social representations of the individual: a post-Communist perspective

Social representations of the individual are examined in three post-Communist Central European nations, i.e. the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, and in three West European nations, i.e. Scotland, England and France. All six nations share a common European history since the Renaissance and Humanism, based on such values as freedom, agency, individual rights and individual responsibility. Many of these values were rejected by the Communist regimes in which people lived for 40 years. Extreme forms of individualism developed in certain West European nations during the same period. In view of these historical events we have asked the following questions: Do people in the post-Communist countries of Central Europe, after 40 years of totalitarian collectivism, still adhere to the values of the common European heritage? What is the meaning of ‘the individual’ today, in Western democracies and in Central European post-Communist nations? Which issues are important for the well-being of the individual and how do they relate to the political and economic circumstances of those individuals? The results show that the values of the common European heritage in Central Europe have not been destroyed and that factors relating to the well-being of the individual differ between the two parts of Europe. These data are discussed in terms of the political and economic situations in Central and Western Europe, the relationship between language and social representations and the structure of social representations. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS ON THE HYDROLOGIC RESOURCES OF EUROPE: A SIMPLIFIED CONTINENTAL SCALE ANALYSIS

U.S. Country Studies supported analyses of climate change impacts on water resources have been completed or are underway in the following Central and Eastern European nations: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Romania, Estonia, Russian Federation, and the Ukraine. Climate change impacts on the hydrologic resources of these countries is being performed at the river basin scale using monthly water balance models using GCM-based climate scenarios. The authors have performed a regional analysis of climate change impacts on the Hydrologic Resources of Europe using the Turc Annual Model. The regional analysis was done with GIS methodolgies using regional climate databases. The regional results were compared to the U.S. Country Studies hydrologic assessmnent results to validiate the use of this simplified methodolgy for making regional climate change assessment. Results from three countries showed acceptable performace of the annual approach . Using GCM-based climate scenarios regional analysis of potential climate change impacts on the hydrologic resources of Europe was conducted and national and regional results are presented.

Budgeting in hungary during the democratic transition

The transition to democracy and a free market economy in Hungary and other Central European nations has provided a unique opportunity to study rapid change in budget systems, institutions, and policies. This article examines budgeting in Hungary since 1989, beginning with an analysis of the comparative budgeting literature in an attempt to identify an appropriate theoretical framework for the study. Then it explores budgetary definition and measurement problems, debt and economic conditions, external actors and constraints on the budget, budget institutions and process, and the impact of Parliament on the budget and concludes by assessing the problems and prospects for Hungarian budgeting.

Progress?

Scientists who were once protected by the hammer and sickle are now being bludgeoned with them, according to a report published in November by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Thousands of scientists, professors, and science teachers who had been affiliated with the communist regimes of Central and Eastern European nations are being purged from academic institutions under the premise of righting a perceived historical wrong.More than 3,000 scientists in Bulgaria, as well as 884 university professors and 10,000 teachers in the German state of Saxony, have lost their jobs in the past 5 years. Nearly 6% of all Czech faculty members also have been fired. The purges—which are more reminiscent of the communist past than of a democratic future—are the result of government‐sanctioned programs to weed out public employees who may have received their positions due to their Communist affiliation.

Overcoming the past: De-communization and reconstruction of post-communist societies

In several of the central and eastern European nations, the fall of Communism has initiated a new round of political intolerance that threatens to destroy the foundations of their fragile democratic regimes. Campaigns of lustration (political “cleansing”) have imposed ideological tests for employment and political participation in the Balkan countries and in parts of the former Soviet Union. The small, poor nation of Albania has been especially seriously impacted by this atmosphere of vengeacean against ex-Communists and their families. Justified by the principles of destructive entitlement—reminiscent of ancient cultural rituals of blood retribution—journalists have been arrested, members of the opposition have been imprisoned, and University programs have been suspended. In response to Albania’s plight, and to a similar pattern of civil rights abuses in neighboring countries, social scientists have begun to analyze the powerful role played by the “past-in-the-present” in current reconstruction efforts. As Jurgen Habermas, Adam Michnik, Seymour Martins Lipset, and others have noted, a new “culture of forgiveness” may well be a necessary condition for the development of stable and authentic democratic societies in the region.

Class and Class Conflict in Six Western Nations

People's subjective images of class and class conflict reflect a mixture of both materialist forces and the vivid subjective images of equality and consensus among family, friends, and coworkers. These reference group processes distort perceptions of class: They make most people think they are middle class, thereby weakening the link between objective class and subjective perceptions of class and class conflict, fostering consensual rather than conflictual views of class relations, and attenuating the links between class and politics, particularly in Central European nations. Maximum-likelihood analyses of large, representative national samples from six Western democracies support the argument.

The Eastern enlargement of the European Union

This paper examines the prospects and problems of Eastern enlargement. It argues that considerations of stability and long run prosperity are the primary reasons why the EU has promised to enlarge eastward and why the Central and Eastern European nations wish to join. While high politics prompted this promise, opposition from EU special interest groups is likely to delay fulfilment of the promise for many years. If this is the case, Europe should create a series of intermediate steps that would permit the reintegration of Europe to proceed apace. If a quick enlargement does occur, EU politics is likely to become much more complicated. The CEECs would have many votes in the Council of Ministers yet they would be very different economically to the average EU incumbent.

Modernization of telecommunications in Central Europe and the CIS—What happens next?

Thoreau once wrote, “In the long run, men hit only what they aim at.” I think that idea is central to a discussion about reaching the potential of anything; one must have a clear idea of where one is going in order to arrive at the right place. This article presents a realistic growth target, and then discusses how Central European nations and the CIS will be able to “hit” it. Specifically, it focuses on the capital requirements necessary to aim at the target, and offers a few ideas on how those requirements might be met.

An Alternative Scenario for Central and East European Transformation

Examines the main problems plaguing Central and East European nations. Offers an explanation of why orthodox Western policies embodied in the “shock” approach will not be effective for resolving the region′s problems. Suggests an alternative perspective and type of economic policy for alleviating economic and social problems throughout Central and East Europe, namely that of the negotiated economy. Explains why such an economy would be more efficacious for Central and East European nations than orthodox policies have proved thus far.

The Fall and Rise of the Communists: Guess Who's Running Central Europe?

In the fall of 1993 and spring of 1994, Western politicians and journalists were caught off guard by a series of political changes in Central Europe. In Poland, parties led by former communists and their rural allies won a majority of parlia mentary seats; in Hungary, the former Communist Party won absolute parlia mentary power; in Slovakia, former com munists calling themselves Social Democrats replaced former communists calling themselves Nationalists. If the changes caused surprise in the West, they were greeted with shock by former dissidents and anticommunist intellectuals in Central Europe. In both West and East, observers had assumed that the former communist parties were thoroughly demoralized and defeated and would remain nothing more than a marginal political force. Most believed that the potential for trouble in Central Europe lay elsewhere?in the resurgence of i93os-style nationalist parties. After all, several Central European nations did have authoritarian or fascist governments before the Second World War, and it was feared that they might well bring such people to power again. Western, particularly American, diplomats in Central Europe went out of their way to encourage politicians whom they perceived as antinationalist and to discourage decommunization pro grams, which were often favored by politicians whom they perceived as nationalist. This was the case across the

Privatisation in Eastern Germany—Experience with the treuhand

WHENEVER ONE DISCUSSES THE PROCESS OF PRIVATISATION in Eastern Germany after 1989 one must refer to the Treuhandanstalt (Treuhand). The reason is simple: the Treuhand took over all state property as the German Democratic Republic (GDR) collapsed. In June 1990, just one month before German Currency Union (GCU), the Treuhand assumed the task of selling East German state holdings to private owners as quickly as possible. The Treuhand's task went beyond the act of just selling off state property, however; it had the additional responsibility of reorganising firms so as to make them profitable as a precondition for sale. In those former socialist enterprises where reorganisation for profitability was not viable, liquidation was the expected solution. The lack of clarity between these functions-privatising through selling and reorganisation for profit-has provided the basis for serious disputes. Within a few months, the Treuhand was created and then made into the largest holding company in the world. After a slow pace of privatisation during its first half year of existence, sales speeded up beginning with 1991.1 In July 1993, three years after the decision to set up the Treuhand became law, the Treuhand had sold 95% of the former GDR state-owned enterprises. From 1992 numerous newspapers included lists of (small and medium sized) enterprises offered by the Treuhand for potential buyers. The largest 1 000 enterprises were not listed publicly, but were sold by discrete bargaining, the prevailing method of selling in 1990/91, the first year. What remained in late summer 1993 were only 523 enterprises, 20 of which were larger enterprises with a total of 90 subsidiaries.2 It is not surprising, therefore, that since July 1992 the Treuhand had announced the closure of half a dozen of its 15 regional subsidiaries in Eastern Germany, because the selling operation in some regions was over. Not only regional assets but entire industrial branches, like the chemical industry, were soon to be privatised.3 At the end of 1993, according to Birgit Breuel, President of the Treuhand since spring 1991, the privatisation of industrial plants, or the so called 'big privatisation', would be completed. By spring 1994 one third of the Treuhand staff of 4 200 is expected to be dismissed. The remainder will then concentrate on the privatisation of land and buildings and monitor the fulfilment of the privatisation contracts concluded between 1990 and 1993.4 Compared with the slow pace and the many obstacles hindering progress with 'big privatisation' in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the speed of privatisation in East Germany can be regarded as remarkable. Understandably, the Treuhand views it this way. Breuel called on the Central and East European nations to make use

Exporting process technology: Transplanting north american public interest mediation to central europe

AbstractMediation is often used in North America to resolve public policy conflicts. Its basic techniques are well understood, and its successes are well documented. Beyond the Western European context, however, we know much less about the cross‐cultural applicability of this process. This article chronicles an environmental mediation in a Central European nation that tested the transportability of North American public policy dispute resolution processes into a region with a radically different history that is now undergoing dynamic change. It offers a snapshot of the advantages and limitations of using mediation in cultures that lack our traditions of process neutrality and bureaucratic accountability.

History, Reality, and Central Europe's Security

HISTORY, REALITY, AND_______ CENTRAL EUROPE'S SECURITY Petr Lunak Pcoland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia have, throughout their histories, been mere "grains of dust" between two great millstones: Russia and Germany. These countries have been affected by both friction and harmony between their powerful neighbors, who repeatedly subjugated them by military means. Poland was first carved up by Russia, Prussia, and Austria in the 1790s; in 1939 it was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union; it then fell under Soviet domination. What is today Czechoslovakia was first divided between German-dominated Austria and Magyar-dominated Hungary; it was occupied by Germany during the Second World War and then became a satellite of the Soviet Union. For Hungary the twentieth century began in 1919 at Versailles, when it was deprived ofits empire. Budapest's World War II alliance with Hitler was motivated by the desire to renew its empire; it resulted first in German and then Soviet occupation, confirmed by the invasion of 1956. How does history affect the actions ofthe Central Europeans? Some see it as a key of interpretation for the present and the future. Poland, Hungary , and Czechoslovakia, they claim, should look into the past for a way to avoid a repetition of decades of traumatic non-history under alien domination . However, others claim that history can deceive rather than guide. They argue that the historical experience of the region is negative, a curse that should be forgotten, for it cannot explain and change current realities. Petr Lunak is a recent graduate of SAIS (M.A., 1992). 129 130 SAISREVIEW This article traces the efforts ofHungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia to find their foreign policy identities in an atmosphere in which reliance on history and its refusal awkwardly coexist. A Czechoslovak-Polish Confederation? The following historical parallel can be seductive: After the First World War Central European nations attained independence because Germany and Austria-Hungary had been defeated, and the Russians were distracted by their revolution. However, an attempt to stabilize the region through an alliance system with the French failed, and World War II put an end to the independence ofPoland and Czechoslovakia. In 1941 Czechoslovak President Benes and Polish Prime Minister Sikorski began negotiations on a possible postwar confederation of Czechoslovakia and Poland in order to prevent history from repeating itself. The talks were soon interrupted, however, by Stalin. The idea of a Czechoslovak-Polish confederation was revived by Andrzej Kozminski in late December 1989. Kozminski argued that the region's security would be augmented by such a move, and that the opportunity was not to be missed, as was done in 1943.1 This proposal was repeated by Zbigniew Brzezinski in January 1990 and gained considerable attention, particularly in the Polish parliament. Senator Jerzy Rusecki said: "I think that the concept is interesting and right. I back it also because the Czechs and Slovaks are closest to us among Slavic nations, they are our kinsmen."2 The idea of a Czechoslovak-Polish confederation had the full support of Polish Foreign Minister Skubiszewski,3 but Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki did not express any particular enthusiasm for the plan. Prague's reaction was not as favorable Warsaw's. Before his visit to Poland, Foreign Minister Jiri Dienstbier said: This is a proposal brought in by an American political scientist of Polish origin. I myself do not think, and hardly any Poles do, that we can resolve our situation by creating some kind of Polish-Czechoslovak confederation. Our problems are absolutely different.4 1.Gazeta Wyborcza, December 28, 1989, p. 3. 2.Some deputies and senators went even further. Senator Stanislaw Hoffmann proposed that "a union ofcountries ofBulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary should counterbalance other economic and political forces in Europe." FBIS-EEU, January 11, 1990, p. 58. 3.See the Mazowiecki's interview in Zycie Warszawy, January 20, 1990, p. 2. 4.Lidova demokracie, January 8, 1990, p. 3. HISTORY, REALITY AND CENTRAL EUROPE'S SECURITY 131 After Prague's cold reaction, Polish attitudes toward the proposal began to change. Solidarity leader Lech Walesa called it "a proposal from another era."5 Bronislaw Geremek, who was personally in favor of the plan, acknowledged that the differences between Czechoslovakia and...

The nature of the transformations of the political systems in Eastern and Central European nations

The nature of the transformations of the political systems in Eastern and Central European nations

Václav Havel: Building Beyond Democracy

This study explicates the political thought of the playwright and dissident Vaclav Havel, who emerged as the most important and visible central European intellectual during the ferment leading up to the revolutions of 1989 and now serves as President of Czechoslovakia. Havel’s political thought is centered in the interaction of three themes: the idea of a pretheoretical anti-politics from below; the phenomenon of the second, or parallel, culture; and the principle of living in truth. His ideas are likely to have great impact on Czechoslovakia and possibly other central and east European nations undertaking democratization.

Les millésimes de la Tchécoslovaquie

The Anniversaries of Czechoslovakia. The four major anniversaries of 1988 relate to radical social and political changes in the seven decades of independent Czechoslovakia's history. The Czechoslovak state was born in 1918, lost in 1938, transferred under communist rule in 1948, and it saw a reformist attempt thwarted by force in 1968. Every one of these changes was strongly influenced by external factors. Each resulted in a momentous upheaval in the social organization of society and the political culture of the Czech and Slovak nations. October 1918 is remembered both as the culmination of the process of nation building and as the event that ushered in democracy. September 1938 (the Munich Agreement), is recalled as a symbol of the weakness of democracy at home and in the West. February 1948 climaxed the evolution of Czechoslovak communism into an instrument of Soviet power. The Prague Spring and its suppression remain terms of reference in the present reformist climate. The discontinuity of modern Czechoslovak history, epitomized by the four anniversaries, reflects the predicament of Central European nations which developed and practised their statehood on the borderline between democracy and communism. The sequence of changes has not led to a satisfactory state of affairs and further sociopolitical reorganizations are on the horizon.