Communist Bloc Research Articles

Organization of the Albanian Judicial System

All the countries of the former communist bloc, after the fall of totalitarian regimes in the early 1990s, established new governments oriented towards democratic reforms, following the model of countries with high standard democracies, which put the focus on the individual and his freedoms and rights. A distinctive feature of these new democracies in relation to their socio-political tradition was the drafting of liberal constitutions in which state power is distributed among different institutions to achieve a separation of powers, where a functional component of any government is the separation of the judiciary by the executive. The Constitution of the Republic of Albania clearly reflects the intention of the people for the construction of the rule of law, ie a state where the rule of law shall prevail and where everyone is equal before the law. The Constitution, based on the state-building philosophy, accepts the principle of separation of powers . By sanctioning this principle in the given Constitution, the powers in the Republic of Albania are separated and exercised by different state bodies in such a way that no power can exceed its competencies, without being subject to control and counteraction by other powers. Based on the principle of separation of powers, the judicial function is exercised only by the courts. This is the reason why the exercise of judicial function by other powers shall be prohibited, since it violates the independence of the judiciary.
 
 Received: 5 June 2021 / Accepted: 10 July 2021 / Published: 15 July 2021

Britain and African Nationalist Leaders: The Response to Arms Deals with South Africa, 1968-1972

ABSTRACT In the Cold War, South Africa saw itself an important stronghold of the West, being also Britain’s fourth largest export market. Edward Heath’s Conservative government assumed that Pretoria would participate in the region’s defence, thus resumption of arms supplies for external defence was necessary, while African countries could not ignore their economic dependence on the White regime. On the other hand, Black Africa perceived South Africa as a danger to international stability. Kenneth Kaunda, Zambia’s president, warned that Western Powers' failure to ‘assist the oppressed’ was forcing nationalists into the communist bloc, while Julius Nyerere of Tanzania wrote that outside forces were oppressing Africans. The freedom struggle had become part of the global ideological conflict. For Britain, it remained part of Cold War issues and balance of payments questions; for Africans, it was something non-negotiable. Nonetheless, Western regional security favoured a flourishing arms market from which no one wanted exclusion.

Economic and Political Reconstruction and Development of FRG in the Period after World War II

In the first post-war years, the policy of the Western occupying powers towards Germany was aimed at preventing the economic revival of their former formidable competitor. As a result of these efforts, West Germany rebuilt its economy to the pre-war level later than Great Britain or France. The undoubted shift in the economic development of West Germany began in mid-1948. The impetus for the rapid growth of industrial production was the monetary reform carried out by the Western occupying powers, as well as the inflow of funds under the Marshall Plan. The monetary reform carried out in June 1948 favoured the strengthening of the financial market and was an incentive to invest. The influx of capital under the Marshall Plan had a similar impact on the West Germany’s economy during this period. The western zones of Germany played a special role in this plan. The United States, striving to strengthen its position in these zones as much as possible and use them as a strategic base (aimed, inter alia, against the communist bloc), provided West Germany with a sum of loans and subsidies significantly exceeding the amount of aid provided to other Western European countries. An extremely serious burden for the Western occupation zones was the influx of refugees from neighbouring areas (a total of about 10 million people) and the need to maintain the occupation troops, which directly led to a huge deficit in food resources. Agricultural production fell and ranged only from 66% to 75% of the pre-war production level.

Almost as good as Soviet cinema: Reception of Italian neorealism in Poland: 1946–56

With the onset of the Cold War, the cinema culture in the People’s Republic of Poland underwent rigorous transformation. One of its aspects was the new film import schema: most of the international sources dried up to be replaced, for the most part, by films from the Communist Bloc. However, Italian films constituted an important exception. This article investigates the critical reception of Italian neorealist films in Poland in the first decade after the war, focusing mainly on reviews published in Film, the most relevant Polish magazine dedicated to cinema culture. The first part of the article outlines critical debates on differences and similarities between neorealism and socialist realism. The latter part of the article focuses on the critical reception of Vittorio De Sica’s Ladri di biciclette (Bicycle Thieves) and Miracolo a Milano (Miracle in Milan), as evaluations of the Italian director’s cinema fluctuated during the Stalinist period and after the thaw.

Towards institutionalization of communication as a strategic function in organizations of Argentina, Lithuania and Spain

This research paper discusses the degree of institutionalization of communication as a strategic managerial function to explore the different scopes and status achieved across countries and organizational sectors. Empirical work was conducted in Lithuania, Spain and Argentina, chosen as pioneers and regional leaders towards institutionalization through the establishment of the first university-level communication studies, national and worldwide networks of communication researchers and practitioners. Purposeful convenience sampling also ensured data collection through 61 semi-structured interviews with communication experts, senior managers and scholars from these countries, and a pilot survey with 20 Lithuanian communication specialists. The results suggest that CEOs in Argentina (70.6%) and Spain (65%) are more aware of the communication value, 60% communication specialists hold executive/senior positions. All this is 10-15% lower in post-communist countries. For 90% Lithuanian respondents, the CEO’s full understanding of communication is the number 1 factor affecting the institutionalization of communication, followed by the evolution of their profession in the country, which influences the perception of the communication function. Strengthening their role and status is the 4th priority for communication professionals in Europe and Argentina. This requires further education to fill a widening gap of data competencies and management skills, expressed by 69% of Spanish communicators, 75-87% in the former communist bloc, and 45% of seasoned Argentinean communicators. The empowerment of communication specialists remains highly dependent on the communicative competence and willingness of CEOs, who also need ad hoc executive education, which is more widely available in Spain and Argentina than in Lithuania. AcknowledgmentThis paper was written under the Lithuanian Research Council and European Investment Funds grant No. 09.3.3-LMT-K-712, as part of the post-doctoral research project “Towards an assessment model for mission-based strategic communication excellence”.

Nation Branding in the Post-Communist World: Assessing the Field of Critical Research

AbstractIn the second decade of the 21st century, the practices, discourses, and implications of nation branding have attracted growing interest from scholars in the humanities and social sciences seeking to understand the linkages between national identities, reputations, governance, and the phenomenon of nation branding. This strand of critical research, as opposed to instrumentalist approaches, is the focus of this review. In line with the scope of the journal, the review looks at nation branding research that relates to the countries of the former communist bloc. The analysis finds that the state of the field is fragmented due to its multi-disciplinary nature. It is also argued that the field may be suffering from methodological nationalism. The discussion identifies epistemological and theoretical approaches, pointing out gaps and limitations along the way. It is suggested that research in the field can be grouped into “identity studies” and “practice studies” as a way to better understand key theoretical influences. Finally, it is proposed that future research should look at nation branding both as a field of practice that merits critical examination in its own right and as a lens that can be used to investigate changes in the state of nationhood today.

The dynamics of human capital accumulation in the ex-communist countries in Europe in the context of globalization

Research background: Countries with a similar background before 1990, in the communist bloc in Europe, have begun since the ‘90s to differentiate one from another in terms of development. Nowadays, in many aspects of the socio-economic environment, including welfare and labor productivity, the gaps between them are significant. Measurements done by World Bank Group through The Human Capital Project give us the opportunity to compare the achievements from the last 30 years of the ex-communist countries building strong democracies and open markets. Purpose of the article: The purpose of this paper is to identify the major gaps between 8 EU ex-communist countries in terms of human capital accumulation in the context of globalization – and the way the globalization fostered or suppressed the human development and human capital accumulation. Methods: We will do a comparative analysis of the indicators that the Human Capital Project are based on – life expectancy, expected years of schooling, quality of education and GDP/capita of the 8 EU ex-communist countries. Findings & Value added: This paper may add value to the economic and educational policies in the 8 EU ex-communist countries by identifying the policies that proved their effectiveness in generating higher labor productivity, policies that can be adapted and then adopted by the UE ex-communist countries that are less developed.

The right to comfort in the century of the self

After the war, the world was divided between two main powers, a Western capitalist bloc led by the USA, and an Eastern communist bloc, driven by the USSR. From Japan to Mexico, the post-war years were ones of prosperous economic growth and profound social transformation. It was the time of re-housing families split apart and of rebuilding destroyed cities, but it was also the time of democratic rebirth, the definition of individual and collective freedoms and rights, and of belief in the open society envisaged by Karl Popper. Simultaneously, it was the time of the biggest migrations from the countryside, revealing a large faith in the city, and of baby booms, revealing a new hope in humanity. (...) Whether through welfare state systems, as mainly evidenced in Western Europe, under the prospects launched by the Plan Marshall (1947), or through the establishment of local housing authorities funded or semi-funded by the government, or through the support of private companies, civil organizations or associations, the time had come for the large-scale application of the principles of modern architecture and engineering developed before the war. From the Spanish polígonos residenciales to the German großsiedlungen, ambitious housing programs were established in order to improve the citizens’ living conditions and health standards, as an answer to the housing shortage, and as a symbol of a new egalitarian society: comfort would no longer only be found in bourgeois houses.

Globalization and working conditions in developing countries

Research background:In the last two decades, labor markets around the world have become increasingly integrated. Political change and economic reforms have transformed China, India, Indonesia and the former communist bloc countries, effectively involving their consistent workforce in market economies.Purpose of the article:The aim of this paper is to offer globalization, a concept that identifies in the minds of many people with multinational companies and greedy capitalism and that would exploit anyone, a more humane image in terms of the beneficial effects it has on working conditions.Methods:As it becomes more and more a contemporary reality, globalization becomes the most controversial concept in the international economic and political literature. In order to write this article, a methodology was used based on the analysis of demographic and socio-economic statistics, analysis and interpretation of the literature, as well as conducting a case study on the impact of globalization of an emerging country, namely Indonesia. We live in a globalized world and yet there is still no consensus on what globalization meansFindings & Value added:At the same time, the development of technologies, combined with the gradual removal of restrictions on cross-border trade and capital flows, have allowed production processes to be relocated away from target markets for an increasing number of products and services. The process of choosing the location of the production center has become more receptive to labor costs.

Diplomats in Science Diplomacy: Promoting Scientific and Technological Collaboration in International Relations**

Diplomats in Science Diplomacy: Promoting Scientific and Technological Collaboration in International Relations**

독일 재통일과 미국의 탈냉전 구상

This paper analyzes the strategies of and a role played by the United States in the reunification of Germany. First, it explains that the main goal of US defense and security policies had been replaced in the second term of the Reagan administration from the containment of the Soviet Union to the fight against terrorism in the 3rd World. This was demanded by the changing international geopolitics toward the termination of cold war and the collapse of the communist bloc. The Bush administration started with this new set of strategies as it faced the rising tensions from the fall of the Berlin Wall to german reunification process. The United States tried to place the reunified Germany into the NATO system and make it a supporting partner of her post cold war strategies, including the war against Iraq. The story of the U.S. involvement in German unification reveals another episode of her continued efforts to hold world hegemony.

A Near-Normalisation? Sino-Saudi Diplomatic Flirtations between 1955 and 1957

The article examines a window of opportunity that emerged between 1955 and 1957 and which could have resulted in the normalisation of Saudi Arabia’s relations with the People’s Republic of China, along with a few other states from the communist bloc. As the article will show, this possibility emerged as a by-product of the Kingdom’s national security challenges during that juncture, and which in turn contributed towards its embrace of a strategy playing both sides of the Cold War divide against one another. This strategy elicited the desired American response which, hand in hand with changing Saudi assessments of regional threats by late 1956, consolidated the American-Saudi security partnership and foreclosed Sino-Saudi normalisation. While the Kingdom had ‘moved on’ by 1957, a reading of open Chinese sources from the late 1950s suggests that Beijing continued to harbour the hope that formal relations could be established.

Compartmentalized minds: the Communist security services’ understanding of the Western espionage threat to the Communist bloc during the Cold War

ABSTRACT Marxism-Leninism required the counter-intelligence officers of the East German Stasi and Soviet KGB to believe in a Western espionage threat to their states which was far greater and more malevolent than was actually the case. In fact, the two counter-intelligence staffs knew that the Western states were trying to create small agent networks on their territory, tasked only with collecting intelligence. This accurate understanding enabled them to contain Western espionage during the Cold War. They ‘compartmentalized’ their knowledge of the real Western espionage threat from their belief in a much greater threat. They believed in one, but knew of another.

PERSONAL INDEPENDENCE OF THE CENTRAL BANKS ON THE EXAMPLE OF BULGARIA, CROATIA, HUNGARY AND ROMANIA

The central bank represents institution that creates and implements monetary policy and has great impact on proper functioning of state and citizens and their welfare. Bearing in mind their role in society, it is of outmost importance to properly regulate their status and functions, especially in the field of ensuring their independence. As a matter of fact, over the last few decades, theory and practice have come to such opinion that is necessary to do so. Accordingly, the main subject of this paper is the analysis of the legal framework that enables the personal independence of central banks. Independence has several aspects. By using a comparative legal and normative method, on the example of four European countries from the region, which were members of the former communist bloc and are now members of the European Union, authors tried to find out certain legal solutions within these countries regarding personal independence of national bank management structures. Specifically, legal solutions are being explored in Hungary, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria. Personal independence concerns issues related to the appointment of top central bank officials, and the duration of their mandate, as well as the conditions for their dismissal. The aim is to determine their common characteristics and at the same time the authors give some appropriate critical considerations. These countries were chosen because, in the historical and social sense, they went through what Serbia is going through in the process of joining the European Union. Also, it is assumed that they have met certain standards by joining the EU. It has to be noted that the goals guaranteed and proclaimed by legal norms do not always have to be achieved in practice. A special focus in the paper is made on the issue of personal independence of central banks in relation to the centers of political power. As a result of the analysis, the authors were free to address the fact that an appropriate legal framework is the first and necessary step towards achieving the proclaimed goals of independence. At the same time, however, one must be aware that this is the first step towards achieving real central bank independence. Also, we will add that the entire process of building personal independence takes time and it certainly cannot be obtained by a legal norm. This is where the social justification of the scientific study of this topic is reflected, because it encourages the development of awareness of the importance of this topic, as well as the development of critical thinking about it.

Perception and Drivers of Financial Constraints for the Sustainable Development

Financial market imperfections constrain firms’ ability to obtain funds. This is especially true for the former communist bloc countries. However, the restrictions on access to financing and the attitudes of management in these geographies remain overlooked by academic research and represent an important obstacle on the roadmap to sustainable development. The objective of this paper is to fill this gap by analyzing the impact of ownership structure, institutional environment development, and debt market profile on the perception of financial constraints by the representatives of corporate top management from 28 countries of the former communist bloc. Our analysis spans over the period 2002–2013. We apply the probit and Heckman models to investigate nonlinear and multicast effects of the considered factors. We evidence that during the crisis and post-crisis periods, foreign ownership alleviates the restrictions on access to financial resources. We also discuss the role of state ownership. We find that the volume of local currency bond market has a nonlinear U-shape relationship. Our results are useful for policy makers focused on sustainable development of the former communist economies by means of improving access of businesses to financing.

TAXATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN THE FORMER COMMUNIST BLOC. A PANEL DATA APPROACH

Taxation and its implications are an increasingly debated topic since taxation is a very important tool for the governments of all countries in controlling public finances. At the same time, taxation regulates in one way or another the wealth of a country and, implicitly, of its citizens. In this sense, through this paper we aim to analyse the impact of taxation on economic growth felt by citizens, and our attention has been focused on EU Member States from the former Communist Bloc: Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. To measure the economic growth felt by the citizens, the best proxy is GDP per capita. Regarding taxation, we resorted to the use the revenues registered from personal income tax, corporate income tax and VAT. The chosen countries share a similar past and had in one way or another the same starting point in the 1990s. These countries are also from the same geographical region (Central and East European countries) and have to some extent comparable economies. Furthermore, we performed an econometric analysis with panel data for the period 2003-2018. The results thus obtained from the econometric tests indicated by an econometric model with random effects showed a direct positive relationship between the dependent variable and the independent variables. The coefficients obtained were statistically significant in the case of independent variables represented by the revenues from personal income tax and VAT, while the coefficient related to revenues from corporate income tax proved to be statistically insignificant.

The PAIGC ‘Congratulatory’ Diplomacy towards Communist States, 1960-1964

Abstract Through a critical analysis of primary and secondary sources, this paper reconstitutes the PAIGC’s main strategies and processes of diplomatic communication and engagement towards the states of the communist bloc, which were the main backers of the liberation enterprise. The paper argues that the PAIGC’s diplomacy in its first four years rested on two strategies. First, it consisted of “shoe-leather” diplomacy, as its leaders regularly attended public spaces frequented by foreign diplomats and embassy officials. Second, it involved a congratulatory diplomacy, the initiating of diplomatic communication with foreign governments by deliberately using the recipient country’s national days as the key motive for the message.

Export restrictions in the Japan-China-U.S. Trilateral relationship

The U.S., in its current offensive against Chinese high-technology industries, is employing export restriction measures developed during the Cold War as weapons for Western economic warfare against the Communist bloc. This study reviews how the export control regime was created, as well as how Japan and China became involved in economic warfare. Based on the hypothesis that the scope of export restrictions is determined by the perception of the target countries’ threat, foreign pressure, and foreign availability, this study explores factors that influence the scope of restriction in the case of Sino-Japanese trade. The author found that export restrictions justified by security concerns were often used to pursue industrial policy goals. In most circumstances, such restrictions turned out to be ineffective in achieving aims and were painful to implement.

Correlation between the Level of Economic Growth and Foreign Trade: The Case of the V4 Countries

Purpose: The main aim of this article is to search for long-term correlations between the level of economic growth and the level of export and import with cointegration analysis. To this end, the authors used the statistical data of the V4 countries which, since the 1990s, have been implementing market economy elements to different degrees. Approach/Methodology/Design: Econometric methods were used, including stationariness testing using ADF and KPSS tests and Engle-Granger cointegration test. Findings: The results obtained confirm that only in the case of Poland and Hungary there were two-way long-term interdependencies. For Poland, it was a pair of variables (GNP and export value), for Hungary (GNP and import value). No long-term correlation between economic growth and the value of foreign trade could be confirmed for Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Practical Implications: The study of interdependence using statistical methods is an important element in testing economic theories in the field of economic growth research in the countries of the former communist bloc. It is also an important stage in the search for economic growth generators. Originality/Value: Given the importance of trade, it is necessary to study the interaction of variables, check whether exports and imports had an impact on the level of economic growth and whether economic growth determined the increase in foreign trade turnover. The results obtained are the basis for the construction of a vector-autoregressive models (VAR).

The Afghan “Fog of War”

Abstract The terrorist attacks of 9/11 took the USA and NATO by surprise, as they are still under the euphoric effect of celebrating the fall of the Eastern European ideological walls and the collapse of the communist bloc. The immediate response of the military operations led to the neutralization of the Taliban forces or more precisely to their removed from political power and denial the influence of Al Qaeda. The purely military approach dominated the initial kinetic clashes and conquered the physical terrain but failed to dominate the society marked by perennial conflicts, widespread corruption, poverty and multiple ethnic and tribal fragmentations. The Afghan insurgency that formed seems to have managed to slow down and finally block the reconstruction and development effort made by the strong NATO-centred coalitions. The article examines the causes of the Afghan “fog of war” that led to this great failure and makes recommendations that must be taken into account in future military conflicts.