The drive towards Europe has been part of Romanian and Bulgarian political agenda, the syncope of communism apart, since the early days of state building and nation-building in the nineteenth century. This “’geocultural Bovarism,’ a disposition to leap frog” into Europe, was motivated by the “fear … that the country would fall right off the...
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Introduction The era of globalization witnessed concerted anti-corruption efforts to promote political reforms by reducing the costs of corruption, which has become a major governance issue nowadays. This effort has been particularly directed at developing countries like Bangladesh undergoing economic restructuring and democratic change. In recent years particularly since 1990s, political corruption – the misuse...
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Romania and Bulgaria encounter today problems in joining the visa-free Schengen area. The main one in the public eye is corruption. Both countries pledged to improve their rule of law when signing their accession treaties in 2005, yet little progress is perceived by observers or captured with governance measurements relying on perception, such as CPI and World Bank Governance indicators. This paper explores real policy, with fact-based indicators, to trace progress in the area – or lack of it – since 2004 to the...
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In accordance with the European Union Treaty, Member States have a full autonomy in the direct taxation, including corporate income taxation. This autonomy may be limited only if the domestic taxes are not compatible with the EU law. In principle, the national tax legislation should not create obstacles to cross-border economic transactions. In fact, the...
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Twenty years after the fall of communism and the rebirth of multiparty politics in Central and Eastern Europe, the party systems evolved from high levels of fragmentation and volatility characterizing the 1990’s (Mair 1997; Rose et al. 1998; Lewis 2000; Birch 2001; van Biezen 2003) to a general continuity and stability visible in the most...
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On the opposite extreme, Manent finds a secular Europe, ignorant towards its religious past. Again, fearful of differences and separations, accepting only humanitarianism and universalism, Europe renounces religion and only accepts the “European point of view” (p 106) as guiding principle. Consequently, the European identity becomes an ambiguous concept that leaves any effort of defining and limiting the integration process in a permanent state of...
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