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The manifestations of EU integration were already discernible during WWII. In 1944, the Treaty of the Benelux was signed, at a moment when it was unknown what the new political & economic structures of Europe would be. The author recapitulates the developments & stages of the European integration. He contends that one of the fundamental objectives is the transformation of European institutions, such as transforming Parliament into an institution comparable to the national parliaments, transforming the European Commission into a true European government, & transforming the Council into a Senate responsible for legitimate interest of the nations that have largely transferred their competences to the European institutions by the transference of political or economic sovereignty. E. Sanchez

THE DECADE SINCE THE 1989 FALL OF COMMUNISM HAS BEEN FULL OF UNFULFILLED EXPECTATIONS. FAR FROM OPENING THE WAY FOR INNOVATIVE PROJECTS AIMED AT COMBINING MARKETS WITH EGALITARIAN REDISTRIBUTION, THE SOVIET COLLAPSE LED AT ITS BEST TO THE CONSOLIDATION OF LIBERAL DEMOCRACIES IN CENTRAL EUROPE. AT ITS WORST IT BROUGHT CASINO CAPITALISM AND MAFIA-STYLE POLITICS TO RUSSIA AND ETHNIC CLEANSING TO THE BALKANS. THE PRINCIPAL LESSON OF POSTCOMMUNISM, THEREFORE, IS THE NEED TO RETRIEVE AND UPDATE WHAT REMAINS UNSURPASSABLE IN THE SOCIALIST VISION. ONLY WHEN WE BEGIN TO REALIZE THAT MULTICULTURALISM IS NOT POSTSOCIALISM WILL IT BE POSSIBLE TO LEARN FROM THE PAST AND REMAIN OPEN TO THE FUTURE.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the enterprise funds, established to support private sector development in selected countries of Eastern and Central Europe, focusing on: (1) whether enterprise funds are assisting private sector development; (2) what factors have affected the funds' ability to carry out their activities; (3) whether funds still have a role in private sector development, given other private investment and international donor efforts; (4) whether the funds are likely to recoup their authorized capital; and (5) whether the funds are complying with recent changes in the Agency for International Development (AID) reporting requirements."

En France , la nationalité détermine qui appartient et qui n'appartient pas à la nation , qui est citoyen et qui ne lest pas. Pourtant les derniers développements du concept de nationalité la désignent de plus en plus comme un espace de discrimination , insuffisant à garantir une égalité d'accès aux droits des citoyens. La République reconnaît elle-même les insuffisances du pari de l'intégration républicaine : la création des Codac (Commissions départementales d'accès à la citoyenneté), chargées de prévenir les discriminations en fonction de l'origine des individus, en même temps que de faciliter l'accès à la citoyenneté touche directement à l'édifice de la nationalité 'a la française en écho des mutations à l'œuvre en Europe.

En étudiant les principales étapes de la normalisation de la politique extérieure allemande durant la dernière décennie, on constate l'abandon de la diplomatie de la retenue en faveur d'une politique de plus en plus affirmative. La RFA est certes plus consciente que jamais de son poids en Europe mais les changements que l'on observe sont plutôt des transformations du style, de la façon de défendre ce qu'elle perçoit être ses intérêts nationaux. Peu importe la composition de la coalition gouvernementale à Bonn, et bientôt à Berlin, ce pays demeure fidèle aux principes du multilatéralisme qui lui ont valu une riche moisson de succès de politique étrangère depuis sa fondation en 1949.

An instrument has been developed to empirically measure the factors (constructs) influencing inventory systems and their effectiveness in international environments. The relevant literature was examined and eight constructs were identified to be included in the scale: the level of infrastructure, government policy, product characteristics, productions environments, supply base, degree of uncertainty, information level and effectiveness of the inventory system. The instrument was tested through structured interviews in operations in North America, South America, Europe and Asia. These scales provide an essential building block for empirical researchers and managers to document the state of international operations. As an example of using this scale a comparison of US, European and Latin American inventory systems is provided.

AbstractBecause of the political importance of stable and affordable food prices, governments in transitional economies in Europe and Asia fkequently struggle to balance the desire to maintain state controls in the rural sector with the goal of promoting market development and privatizing or commercializing state agencies involved in rural trade or finance. This paper examines institutional change in China's rural state agencies during the reform period, focusing on the conflict between managerial incentives to maximize profits, on the one hand, and implement policy, on the other. We explain the reasons for changing contractual incentives and authority arrangements over time, assess the effects of new institutional forms on economic performance and policy implementation, and consider reform options.

This article explores the links between globalization and ethnic violence in comparative perspective. By looking at ethnographic material from Central Africa, Europe, India and China, the paper suggests that bodily violence between social intimates may be viewed as a form of vivisection, and as an effort to resolve unacceptable levels of uncertainty through bodily deconstruction. This approach may cast light on the surplus of rage displayed in many recent episodes of inter‐group violence. At the same time, the study suggests that the conditions for such extreme and intimate violence may partly lie in the deformation of national and local spaces of everyday life by the physical and moral pressures of globalization.

Recently, scholars have debated the effects of presidentialism on the development of new democracies. We seek to add to this debate by: (1) extending the investigation to the post-communist countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union; (2) employing an interval measure of presidential power as opposed to previously used categorical measures of presidentialism; (3) testing the relationships between institutions and democratic consolidation using multivariate rather than bivariate analytical techniques. In sum, the evidence suggested that the electoral system had a greater effect than either the power of the constitutional president or socio–cultural or economic factors on various measures of democracy and consolidation.

This paper presents the results of a study undertaken in Australia which investigated the extent of Australian thinking and experience with business process reengineering (BPR). The data for the study were gathered through a postal questionnaire survey which was mailed to 535 of Australia's top businesses. The findings of the survey are compared with earlier studies on BPR conducted in the USA and the UK/Europe. The hypothesis that "expectant business process change is not significantly related to business improvements along dimensions of benefits and corporate impact" is tested. Finally the paper provides recommendations for managers which are seen as important for successful implementation of BPR projects.

This paper considers recent comment and discussion on monetary union in Europe, and appraises recent steps towards Union. It is plain that politics is blinding both supporters and opponents of EMU to issues of major importance, and is also leading them often to'talk past each other'in debate. In the light of this, the article reappraises our earlier proposal for running the euro as a'parallel currency'with national currencies. We suggest that this could still be a sensible strategy for the'outs'and a fall‐back if the politicians managed to wreck what could have been a worthwhile venture ‐ a possibility that has been highlighted by events at the early May meeting.

Nowadays we could hardly find a sociologist, who could reasonably deny the significance of the structural changes in the decade after the start of 'singing revolution' in Lithuania. The change occurred not only in the spheres of politics and economics; it slowly and reluctantly transformed the structure of the society, its values and norms. What is the logic of such change? Is it already possible to define the stages of post-communist development? Is it possible to delineate tendencies of the development? Whether Lithuania – together with other neighbors in the Eastern Europe – is capable of following the path of 'post-modern' democracy in the West; or, despite all the efforts, the paths of development are unprecedent.

The year 1995 was momentous for the Gagauz people located primarily in the towns and villages of southern Moldova in the area known as Gagauzia. The Gagauz leadership in Comrat and the Moldovan government in Chişinău reached agreement in December 1994 on autonomy for Gagauzia, ending a five-year secessionist movement involving both a war of words and sporadic conflict. For Chişinău, this agreement settled the lesser, but nonetheless important, of two secessionist movements that threatened the Moldovan state's viability. For Gagauzia, the agreement set the terms for extensive cultural, political, and social autonomy within Moldova. For Europe, this agreement broke new ground in granting a small nation control of its affairs within a larger state.

Abstract: Social science is a very historic and unique form of knowledge. It was institutionalized in nineteenth century Europe. By the time Europeans came to East Asia in the late nineteenth century, Western social science was already a dominant form of social knowledge, delegetimating many other forms of social knowledge of the world. After European social science had been implanted in East Asia, issues such as relevancy and indigenization haunted East Asian scholars. Now the quest for "East Asian" social science is very strong in part because of the shifting world power relations and also due to the emergence of indigenization discourse. This paper is an attempt to discuss these issues from an East Asian perspective.