Permanent Crisis Research Articles

СУСПІЛЬНО-ПОЛІТИЧНІ ТА ЦЕРКОВНО-РЕЛІГІЙНІ ПРИЧИНИ РОЗКОЛУ В ХАРКІВСЬКІЙ ЄПАРХІЇ УКРАЇНСЬКОГО ЕКЗАРХАТУ РОСІЙСЬКОЇ ПРАВОСЛАВНОЇ ЦЕРКВИ У 20-х РОКАХ ХХ СТОЛІТТЯ

У статті автор досліджує суспільно-політичні і церковно-релігійні причини виникнення розколу на єпархіально-регіональному рівні в межах тогочасної Харківській єпархії Українського Екзархату Російської Православної Церкви у 20-х роках ХХ ст. У зазначений період релігійне життя характеризувалось надмірною політизацією, яка була обумовлена атеїстичною політикою комуністичної влади. Комуністична влада свідомо стимулювала внутрішньоцерковні розколи у середині Українського Екзархату Російської Православної Церкви. Автор зосередив свою увагу на автокефальній, обновленській і лубенській течіях у середині Харківської єпархії. Наведено численні факти внутрішньоцерковної боротьби за храми та вірян, а також доведено безпосереднє втручання органів радянської влади у справи Російської Православної Церкви в Україні. Це втручання носило системний характер і призвело до перманентної кризи в церковно-православному середовищі на Харківщині у досліджуваний період. Автор статті наголошує, що перманентна криза в церковноправославному середовищі Харківській єпархії Українського Екзархату Російської Православної Церкви призвела до незворотних негативних трансформацій, посіяла ворожнечу серед кліру і вірян. Логічним і трагічним результатом втручання органів радянської влади у справи Російської Православної Церкви в Україні стало істотне послаблення позицій Церкви у суспільному житті, а подекуди і повне витіснення релігії з життя суспільства. Тогочасна специфіка церковно-релігійної ситуації в Збірник наукових праць «Історія та географія» / Харк. нац. пед. університет імені Г. С. Сковороди. Випуск 56. Харків, 2019. 67 цілому в Україні і Харківщини зокрема характеризувалась відсутністю чіткої перспективи розв’язання проблеми надання автокефалії для Української Православної Церкви.

«Партийная работа «заброшена»: кризисные явления в партийных организациях РКП(б) Вятской губернии в конце 1918–первой половине 1919 г. По архивным материалам

The article draws on archival materials of the State Archive of the Kirov Region and those of the State Archive of Social and Political History of the Kirov Region to examine the development of uezd organizations of the ARCP (B) in the Vyatka gubernia in late 1918 and the first half of 1919. In late 1918 the Vyatka gubernia became the Civil War battleground. When Perm was taken, the White Guard began to threaten Vyatka. Meanwhile, the political situation in the gubernia was tense; peasants, townspeople, and workers had their grievances against the Bolshevik policies. The existing uezd organizations of the ARCP (B) were unprepared to work in the immediate battle area. Fearing for the fate of the Eastern front, the Central Committee of the party sent a commission to Vyatka headed by Stalin and Dzerzhinsky. It was to carry out a wide range of measures to reorganize party and Soviet work. The power was taken by the Military Revolutionary Committee. The novelty of the study is in the fact that archival materials are used to assess the circumstances of the ARCP (B) organizations. These circumstances can be defined as those of a permanent crisis; the party organizations were ill-adapted to the extraordinary conditions of the Civil War. The narrowing of the party’s social base caused, first of all, by food policies forced the gubernia committee to cleanse party organizations and staff them up with well trusted personnel. The author has introduced into scientific use some previously unknown facts. The analysis of archival material allows to conclude that party work lapsed because party organizations seemed ineffective in the days of the anti-Soviet uprisings of summer and autumn of 1918 and while the Civil War raged. Conflicts, squabbles, intra-party struggles became an everyday occurrence. Party organizations constantly faced infiltration of persons with opposing views who sought to avoid mobilization or improve their financial situation.

ASSESSMENT OF STRUCTURAL DISABILITIES IN THE INCOME OF BUDGETS OF THE UNITED TERRITORIAL COMMUNITIES

Introduction. In today's conditions of reforming local self-government and territorial organization of power, the formation of revenues of budgets of united territorial communities, as well as balancing their components, is a guarantee of the existence of financially capable, self-sufficient and developed UTC. Financially capable UTC should have sufficient resources to fulfill all their own and delegated powers. An important prerequisite for the effective functioning of UTC finances is the formation of the amount of financial resources necessary for the implementation of the functions of local self-government bodies of UTC, the timeliness and completeness of which mobilization is a determinant factor in the growth of budget revenues of territorial communities and the balancing of their structure. In the context of financial decentralization, local budget revenues are embodied in the economic independence of local self-government bodies, and their optimal structure enables them to fulfill their commitments effectively and on time. Purpose. The purpose of the article is an analysis of budget revenues of the united territorial communities, assessment of their structure, determination of factors of structural imbalances, assessment of budgetary risks in order to ensure the timeliness and completeness of the mobilization of revenues to the budgets of the joint territorial communities against the background of permanent crisis phenomena that significantly affect the economic and social development of administrative-territorial units and the state as a whole. Results. The analysis revealed a significant gap between the maximum possible and the minimum revenues to the general fund, which indicates that there is a significant disproportionate distribution of the absolute values of revenues to the general fund of the UTC budgets of the Ternopil region. It also points to the impact of structural imbalances in absolute terms on the general fund revenues of the UTC budgets of the Ternopil region. Using the regression modeling tool, the functional effect of certain types of income on the general fund revenues of the UTC of the Ternopil region was established. It has been established that general fund revenues of UTC budgets on the level of pair correlation are generally the most dependent on official transfers, domestic taxes on goods and services, local taxes, personal income tax and profit tax. Consequently, these types of revenues are structurally and systematically generating revenues of the general budget of the UTC of the Ternopil region. It is determined that the volume of revenues of the special fund of the budgets of the UTC has a fixed functional relationship only with the volume of official transfers. All other components of the revenues of the special budget of UTC budgets do not have stable relations with the revenues of this fund of community budgets, indicating a critical imbalance in its structure and increased risk. The risk of loss for the budget of UTCs is determined on the basis of the mathematical expectation of revenues to their budgets for general and special funds. In this case, the definition of the mathematical expectation of the value of the indicator by the approach of P. Chebyshev was used. Іt was established that the risk of budget revenues of UTC of the Ternopil region is determined by the budgetary risk of revenues of the general fund of community budgets. Conclusions. According to the results of the analysis, in the revenues of the general fund of UTC budgets, more system-based factors were revealed than in the special fund's revenues. In addition, the functional dependence of the components of the general and special funds of the UTC of the Ternopil region is different in nature. This allows us to assert that the system-forming factors and factors that form functional connections form the risk of budget revenues of the UTC of the Ternopil region. Consequently, we can state that the role of general fund revenues in the budget structure of UTC of the Ternopil region is in contrast to the revenues of a special fund that does not fulfill its designated purpose in the process of financial decentralization.

Book Reviews

98 Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Vol. 42, No.2, Winter 2019 Book Reviews Edited by Nadia Barsoum The Middle East, South Asia, and North Africa ISLAMISM: A New Totalitarianism by Mehdi Mozaffari. United States, Boulder, Colorado Lynne Rienner Publishers 2017, 345 pages. What exactly is Islamism? And what explains its violent expansion in recent decades? Why are Islamists so determined to change the world order? Are there similarities between Islamism and classical totalitarian regimes and ideologies? Will it fail, as those regimes did in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union—or can it adapt effectively to changing realities? What are the fundamental strengths and weaknesses of the Islamic project ? Addressing these questions within a context both historical and global , Mehdi Mozaffari provides an important new framework for understanding the full impact of Islamism in the Middle East and beyond.” The author discussed the ideological roots of Islamism and the widespread dream among Muslims of restoring the vanished Islamic Civilization of creating a new Muslim empire. The author also devoted a chapter on the rise and fall of Islamic civilization in the course of history. Mozaffari deals with the world vision of Islamists and their theoretical position and the ultimate outcome of terrorism and an analysis of different scenarios that can be expected for the fate of an Islamist regime. 99 LEBANON: A Country in Fragments by Andrew Arsan. UK, London. Hurst and Company, 2018, 518 pages. This book is about the thirteen eventful years in the life of Lebanon. The author attempts to map out the landscapes of everyday life. He tries to understand how the existence of the Lebanese has been shaped by the succession of the disruptive episodes. Lebanon seems a country in the grip of permanent crisis. In recent years, it has suffered blow after blow, from Rafiq Hariri’s assassination in 2005, to the 2006 July War, to the current Syrian conflict, which has brought a million refugees streaming into the country. This is an account not just of Lebanon’s high politics, with its endless rows, walkouts, machinations and foreign alliances, but also of the politics of everyday life: all the stresses and strains the country’s inhabitants face, from electricity black-outs and uncollected rubbish to stagnating wages and property bubbles. Andrew Arsan moves between parliament and the public squares where protesters gather, between luxury high-rises and refugee camps, and between expensive nightclubs and seafront promenades , providing a comprehensive view of Lebanon in the twenty-first century. Where others have treated Lebanon’s woes as exceptional, a byproduct of its sectarianism and particular vulnerability to regional crises, Arsan argues that there is nothing particular about Lebanon’s predicament . Rather, it is a country of the age—one of neoliberal economics, populist fervor, forced displacement, rising xenophobia, and public disillusion. Lebanon, in short, offers us a lens through which to look on our times. ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS IN THE MIDDLE EAST edited by Harry Verhoeven. United States, New York: Oxford University Press 2018, 345 pages. This book’s nine chapters analyze how the exploitation and representation of the environment have shaped the history of the region—and determined its place in global politics. It argues that how the ecological is understood, instrumentalized and intervened upon is the product of political struggle: deconstructing ideas and practices of environmental change means unraveling claims of authority and legitimacy. This is particularly important in a region frequently seen through the prism of environmental determinism, where ruling elites have imposed authoritarian control as the corollary of ‘environmental crisis’. This unique and urgent collection will question much of what we think we know about this pressing issue. This book rejects the separation of the Middle East’s ecological trajectory from the political and socioeconomic history, both locally and globally. 100 THE ISLAMIC STATE IN KHORASAN: Afghanistan, Pakistan and the New Central Asian Jihad by Antonio Giustozzi. United Kingdom, London: C Hurst & Co. 2018, 292 pages. The so-called Islamic State began to appear in what it calls Khorasan (Afghanistan, Pakistan, Central Asia, Iran and India) in 2014. Reports of its presence were at first dismissed as propaganda, but during 2015 it became clear that IS had a serious...

The Problem Of Improving The Efficiency Of Public Administration In Modern Russia

The paper examines the problem of improving the efficiency of public administration in Russia. The urgency of raising the effectiveness of modern public administration in Russia is caused by a number of reasons. First, the relevance of the problem under consideration is determined by the worldwide trend of increasing the role of the state in the modern era. Secondly, inefficiency of the existing model of public administration: the use of outdated principles, methods and technologies of governance in the system of public authorities. Thirdly, there is no correspondence of state management to internal and external challenges. Fourth, the problem of the public administration effectiveness in Russia is exacerbated by the use of sanctions measures against the country. Fifth, assessment of management efficiency allows societyy to determine the quality of the activities of state institutions and the state apparatus to evaluate the results of its own activities. The purpose of the study is to consider the problem of improving the efficiency of public administration in Russia. Achieving this goal requires revealing the main problems and tasks for improving and reforming the state administration of Russia. As a methodological base of the research, the work includes the following approaches and methods: systemic and structural-functional approaches, sociological, dialectical and comparative methods, as well as analysis of conditions and factors affecting public administration in modern Russia. As a result of the research, we came to the following conclusions: 1. An inefficient public administration model contributes to stagnation and a permanent crisis in the development of society and the state. 2. The ineffectiveness of public administration does not contribute to the growth of Russia's competitiveness in the world. 3. The competitiveness of Russian society and, first of all, the economy of the country is impossible without a corresponding competitive state policy. Contemporary competition policy in Russia is being reduced mainly to antitrust policy, the competition development strategy does not receive due attention from the authorities. 4. A modern effective model of public administration should rely not only on basic values and management principles, but also take into account the realities of the information society that is emerging in Russia, and the formation of a knowledge society. 5.Overcoming the stagnation and social withdrawal of the administrative apparatus by involving the public in the work of state administration bodies. The relationship between the Russian state and civil society built on a hierarchical principle needs to be transformed into a networked relationship with conversion from trusteeship to partnerships.

The History of Politics in Angola

The political, economic and social instabilities of the African countries have been seen as one of the biggest challenges to be overcome in the current days. Today, the lack of economic and social freedom is the great problem that makes the weak effort of the African politicians on consolidating the political and economic systems in permanent crisis, even more vulnerable. We attempt to understand the reasons of the increasing levels of bribery of the public and private institutions besides the deficit of a political ethics and other corrosive factors of the African nations that make it a continent with a high level of vulnerability. So, we task ourselves to draft a historic line of the political thought of one of the most promising countries of the African continent: Angola. This is achieved through the use of historic sources that chain the main political events of the history of Angola that led to the independence and that succeeded. It is concluded that the state intervention based on ideas socialist / communist ideas has been, as theoretically proved by the Austrian School, harmful to the socio-economic development of the African country and it is suggested a review to such intervention to be completed in a future paper.

Autoryzacja w praktyce nowych mediów w dobie kryzysu systemu prawa prasowego

Assuming that a crisis infers the collapse of old values while the new ones to replace them have not developed yet, one can ponder whether we are witnessing a crisis of press law in Poland or not. Taking into consideration the gravity and scope of criticism of the current press law act and the repeated attempts to alter the existing legal status quo, it could be said that we are facing a permanent crisis in the press law system in Poland, and, consequently, of the whole media policy. The paper tries to verify this hypothesis on the example of one of the elements of the press law, namely that of authorization.

Ipek Çelik. In Permanent Crisis: Ethnicity in Contemporary European Media and Cinema

Ipek Çelik. <i>In Permanent Crisis: Ethnicity in Contemporary European Media and Cinema</i>

THE ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, AND SPIRITUAL EFFICIENCY OF THE ECONOMIC SYSTEM: APPROACHES TO ASSESSMENT

The article considers the categories of social, economic, and spiritual efficiency. The emphasis is made on the crisis of modern economic processes. The subject of the article is the contradictions arising in the process of increasing economic efficiency. Existing methodological approaches to the study of these categories are critically reviewed. The main goal of the article is to create the author’s concept of overcoming the contradictions between the growth of economic and social efficiency in the conditions of modern economic organizations. The concept is based on the conflict paradigm. The methodological basis of the study consists of the concepts of foreign and domestic researchers dealing with the effectiveness of social reproduction. The main theoretical concept is neo-Marxism. The purpose of the article is to determine the methodology for reconciling contradictions arising in the process of managing the economic efficiency of an economic system. The thesis of P. Drucker on the inevitability of aggravating the economic crisis is considered as the cause of the conflict. In combination with the totality of such general scientific and special methods of cognition as dialectic, systemic, descriptive, theoretical modelling, the article reveals the main contradictions in the assessment of the growth of the economic and social efficiency of the economic system. The main conclusion of the article is the need to abandon the use of singlefactor methods for evaluating the effectiveness of the functioning of economic systems. The main problem is the fact that the growth of economic efficiency most often has a non-linear effect on the change in social and spiritual efficiency. Therefore, it is necessary to use at the same time changes in all three specified directions of efficiency, so one can determine the general vector of changes in the economic system. As a final conclusion, it was proposed to apply the efficiency rule proposed by Pareto to this assessment, according to which the system state is optimal when the value of each particular criterion describing the system state cannot be changed without deteriorating other system indicators. The article presents a table, in which the contradictory changes that are the result of a number of managerial influences are demonstrated for economic and social efficiency. A logical formula for determining the effectiveness of changes in the efficiency of the economic system, based on the indices of changes in individual quantitative indicators, is proposed. Criteria are defined that make it possible to quantify each of the blocks determining efficiency: economic, social, and spiritual. An assessment of possible indicators at the macroeconomic and microeconomic level is given. The article formulates a model for establishing the balance (optimum) of individual indicators of the total efficiency of the economic system. This model is based on the balance of economic interests of employers (owners) and social interests of workers, coordinated through culture, which is defined as one of the priorities of spirituality. A formula is proposed that enables the analytical establishment of the optimal (balance) state of the efficiency of the economic system. On the basis of the conducted research, it becomes possible to talk about a fair (reasonable) distribution of value added. In fact, at the theoretical level, an economic model for managing the socio-economic efficiency of the economic system is proposed, which creates the prerequisites for the effective management of the socioeconomic development of an organization in a permanent crisis environment.

Profesora Marka Jana Siemka imperium filozofii prawa

In his philosophical opus Marek J. Siemek not only revisited Hegelian two-stage developmental model of the law. He also created his own legal philosophy which is rooted in the tragic conflict of Greek Sittlichkeit. Siemek, however, clearly demonstrates how can an abstract legal system achieve its ethical (sittliche) qualities at modern times, as being mediated by the structures of reciprocal recognition. Siemek’s unique proposal belongs to the neo-positivist and, at the same time, to the post-positivist approaches of the law. The author focuses on the intellectual potential of Siemek’s legal and social thinking as well as on his concept of philosophizing in the era of permanent crisis we experience again today.

Theatre Censorship in South Korea: a Nation in Permanent Crisis

Between 1975 and 1988, the Korean Public Performance Ethics Committee (KPPEC) censored obscene language, body exposure, and extreme violence, as is common in all forms of theatre censorship. However, the KPPEC focused in particular on depictions of the President of South Korea, and proscribed any work that challenged or even questioned the public image of the President as a strong leader for a nation in crisis. Despite the official abolition of censorship in 1988, it was discovered in 2016 that a blacklist had been in operation that excluded ‘left’ and ‘pro-Pyongyang’ theatre directors and actors from accessing public funding. By exploring the process of censorship, Seong-kwan Cho in this article interrogates the relationship between the theatre and the nation. Seong-kwan Cho is a lecturer at the School of Global Communication at Kyung Hee University. With Jae-beom Hong, in his current research he has been exploring North Korean performance, and his article on this subject is forthcoming in Asian Theatre Journal.

European Stability Mechanism Sebagai Upaya Uni Eropa Menangani Krisis Finansial Spanyol

Global Financial Crisis has revealed major weakness in the design and implementation of the existing economic governance framework of the European Union. In addition, the first temporary fiscal backstop is EFSF (The European Financial Stability Facility) as a temporary crisis resolution mechanism by the Euro area Member States. In this case, The EFSF does not provide any further financial assistance, so the task of EFSF being replace by the new mechanism that includes the establishment of a permanent crisis management mechanism as the safeguard against imbalances in individual countries that is ESM (European Stability Mechanism).&#x0D; Spain as one of the Eurozone Member States that fall on financial crisis caused by disproportionate growth in the real estate sector, along with the expansion of credit, on 25 June 2012 made an official request for financial assistance through ESM for its banking system. In accordance with MoU, Spain must conduct a structural adjustment program through identifying individual bank capital needs, recapitalising and restructuring.

Health system structure and transformations in Colombia between 1990 and 2013: a socio-historical study

In 1993, Law 100 introduced major reforms to Colombia’s health system and regulated the health care industry. We analyzed the structure of the social space of Colombia’s health system and the transformations that took place between 1993 and 2013. We conducted a socio-historical study using a theoretical framework based on concepts developed by Pierre Bourdieu. In addition to documentary analysis, interviews were conducted with 26 key agents. We found that private health insurance companies situated at the ‘dominant’ pole accumulated capital and power during the period under study, while public and private providers situated at the ‘dominated’ pole face serious economic challenges due to the loss of capital and power. Measures taken by the state, a major funder of the system, to regulate the market have proved to be ineffective, forcing intervention from the legal field. More than two decades after Law 100 was introduced, health remains on the political agenda and the subject of dispute. A permanent crisis in the sector prevails partly due to the contradiction that exists between protecting the right to health, and strengthening of a profit-orientated market, thus hindering the fulfillment of the principles of quality and equity.

Ethics for Times of Crisis

What will happen in a crisis when Artificial Intelligence systems will decide about increasingly many issues, including life and death? Will a Citizen Score based on Big Data determine our chances of survival? How should autonomous systems make decisions that are ethically aligned with what is morally required from humans? We argue that in times of permanent crisis the dominant approach should be innovation instead of optimization.

Sand Castles Before the Tide? Affordable Housing in Expensive Cities

This article focuses on cities with unprecedented economic success and a seemingly permanent crisis of affordable housing. In the expensive cities, policymakers expend great amounts of energy trying to bring down housing costs with subsidies for affordable housing and sometimes with rent control. But these efforts are undermined by planning decisions that make housing for most people vastly more expensive than it has to be by restricting the supply of new units even in the face of growing demand. I begin by describing current housing policy in the expensive metro areas of the United States. I then show how this combination of policies affecting housing, despite internal contradictions, makes sense from the perspective of the political coalitions that can form in a setting of fragmented local jurisdictions, local control over land use policies, and homeowner control over local government. Finally, I propose some more effective approaches to housing policy. My view is that the effects of the formal affordable housing policies of expensive cities are quite small in their impact when compared to the size of the problem—like sand castles before the tide. I will argue that we can do more, potentially much more, to create subsidized affordable housing in high-cost American cities. But more fundamentally, we will need to rethink the broader set of exclusionary land use policies that are the primary reason that housing in these cities has become so expensive. We cannot solve the problem unless we fix the housing market itself.

In Permanent Crisis by İpek A. Çelik

Author(s): Ruffin, Jessica; Celik, Ipek A. | Abstract: Book Review for Ipek A. Celik's In Permanent Crisis (2015).

THE PROBLEM OF SOCIALIZATION OF YOUTH IN CRISES TRANSITION

The article deals with the problem of self-realization of young people in a permanent crisis. We are talking about youth subcultures, which consist of those who "dropped out" from society or are in an uncertain (liminal) state of transition from one social group (youth) to another (adults), which creates a serious problem for the socialization of young people. In these circumstances, young people are faced with the urgent need to build their own "counterculture", while playing specific roles that do not coincide with the interests of the majority. And although the liminal state of youth self-determination has become a real disaster for the West itself, it continues to be presented to the world community as an achievement of modern Western culture, the main postulate of which is the free choice of the individual.

Taxation, Property Rights and the Social Contract in Lagos

Major taxation reforms over the past decade have been interpreted as facilitating the transformation of Lagos: once widely seen as a city in permanent crisis, it is now seen by some observers as a beacon of megacity development. Most academic attention has focused on personal income taxation, which comprises the lion’s share of government revenue in Lagos. Less attention has been devoted to another crucial innovation over the same period – the Land Use Charge – and other forms of tax related to property. In this paper we show how the story of property taxation in Lagos since the early 2000s is important, not only in terms of the enormous increase in collection, but because of the ways in which property-related taxes have helped to support personal income taxation and to solidify the fiscal contract between state and society more broadly. Moreover, we explore how the payment of the Land Use Charge is interpreted by taxpayers, and how it is used alongside a plethora of other documents and processes to try and shore up fragile claims to property. In a context of intensely insecure tenure, particularly but not exclusively at the lower ends of the socio-economic spectrum, both taxation and other kinds of formal and informal payments play a key role in efforts to incrementally build and solidify property rights.

The Representative Culture of Modern Russian Students

The article touches upon the issues of several problems. Firstly, we attempt to determine the methodology of a sociological analysis of culture which is adequate for modern realities. Secondly, we will apply this methodological basis to the cultural specifics of modern Russian students in a transitive, transitional society. It is stressed that the formation of a global innovative society results in a permanent crisis with the destruction of the old sociocultural forms and the emergence of new ones, with the result that culture becomes not a “guardian of the foundations”, but an active “fermenting” power of society. In these nonlinear processes, a special importance is acquired by subjective culture. Based on F. Tenbrook’s ideas, an analysis of monostylism and polystylism of a student’s representative culture is carried out. It is noted that these processes of representation are contradictory and hybrid. Highly-valued by student youth, the values of independence, individuality, and freedom of the post-materialistic plan are represented primarily in the sphere of leisure and free-time activities. The presented typology of students’ lifestyles in the field of educational activity (“professionals”, “ritualists”, “public men”, and “conformists”) fixes a predominantly adaptive strategy of behavior based on the adoption of a paternalistic attitude on the part of the administration and the teaching staff of universities. The article is based on the materials of the authors’ interregional sociological research, conducted in the Southern Federal District in 2006, 2011, and 2016.

On understanding the crisis of European supernational political integration

It has been shown in this paper that deeper economic and political integration of the EU does not have to be a good in itself because the institutions of a super state most often do not function as a welfare state in a single country the set-up of which is aimed at solving the problem of negative externalities on the basis of a unique and coherent fiscal and social policy on a domestic level. The motivation for a research of this type has been initiated by the idea of ?hidden federalism?. This expression is used in Bojan Kovacevic?s book published under the same title with an aim to explain the fundamental problem in functioning of EU institutions which endangers the very existence of this super national political community. By leaving its contents unchecked by the wide European electorate, and by leaving simultaneously the question of ultimate political authority quite unresolved, the ?founding fathers? of the EU let the final political goal of the EU remain under the veil of non-transparent political agreement. Their hope was that the economic integration of the European Community lead by technocrats would amount eventually to its harmonious political integration on liberaldemocratic grounds. This practice has been continued by later political elite of the EU except that non-elective policy-making group were also in charge for creating central European institutions that shaped its political content in a centralistic federal manner. Since these latter institutions and policies remained unchecked by a wider public, the question of the legitimacy of the EU institutions remains constantly unresolved leaving the EU in permanent crisis.