The Services Directive: the legislative process clears the first hurdle

2006 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Kowalsky
Keyword(s):  
Large Degree ◽  
Internal Market ◽  
Legislative Process ◽  
The Public ◽  
European Institutions ◽  
Community Approach ◽  
Core Elements ◽  
Ecological Dumping ◽  
Considerable Controversy ◽  
Intensive Work

In January 2004 the European Commission put forward a proposal for a Directive on services in the internal market that triggered considerable controversy both within the European institutions and amongst the public at large. It was praised by its proponents as a breakthrough for the internal market and sharply criticised by opponents as being a neoliberal abandonment of the Community approach that would merely encourage social and ecological dumping. This paper looks beyond the polemics, myths and ideological battles associated with the issue and attempts to examine the core elements of the proposal in order to identify its objectives and the problems associated with it. It also traces the intensive work carried out by the European Parliament, which discussed the proposal over a period of two years before coming to a decision on it. The ETUC critically monitored the Parliament and the Council during this process, articulating its demands very clearly — and with a large degree of success — through a combination of intensive lobbying and demonstrations.

The CDC Field Epidemiology Manual

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Incident Management ◽  
The Public ◽  
Field Epidemiology ◽  
Field Investigations ◽  
Toxic Agents ◽  
Core Elements ◽  
Multiple State ◽  
Prompt Action ◽  
Collection And Management

The CDC Field Epidemiology Manual is the definitive resource for the most up-to-date guidance for epidemiologists and other experts conducting field investigations to address acute public health concerns that require prompt action. This latest edition (an update of the 3rd edition of the popular book Field Epidemiology, edited by Dr. Michael Gregg) offers practical advice to guide investigators through the core elements of field investigations, beginning with initiating operations and ending with developing interventions and communicating findings to the public. The manual also provides special considerations to address challenges that often arise during field investigations, such as addressing legal issues, working with multiple state and federal agencies, navigating a multinational outbreak investigation, and working within an incident management structure. The manual includes updated information on using new tools for field investigations, such as the latest technologies for data collection and management and incorporating data from geographic information systems (GIS). Finally, the manual includes tips for investigations in a wide variety of settings, including healthcare and community congregate settings, and different types of outbreaks, including acute enteric disease outbreaks, those suspected to be related to intentional use of biologic and toxic agents, and outbreaks of suicide, violence, and other forms of injury. The manual is written primarily for epidemiologists who will be conducting field investigations in local, state, federal, or international settings. However, others who contribute to field investigations (e.g., laboratory scientists, lawyers, experts in public policy and communications) will also find the book to be an excellent source of information. The manual is written in an easily readable format, including boxes and bulleted points, to provide greater utility for investigators in the field.

scholarly journals Information Disorder and Self-Regulation in Europe: A Broader Non-Economistic Conception of Self-Regulation

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aznar
Keyword(s):  
Social Communication ◽  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Regulatory Mechanisms ◽  
The Public ◽  
Media Companies ◽  
The Past ◽  
European Institutions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Information Manipulation

Over the past decade, the problems arising from social communication have yet again become burning issues on social and political agendas. Information disorder, hate speeches, information manipulation, social networking sites, etc., have obliged the most important European institutions to reflect on how to meet the collective challenges that social communication currently poses in the new millennium. These European Institutions have made a clear commitment to self-regulation. The article reviews some recent European initiatives to deal with information disorder that has given a fundamental role to self-regulation. To then carry out a theoretical review of the normative notion of self-regulation that distinguishes it from the neo-liberal economicist conception. To this end, (1) a distinction is drawn between the (purportedly) self-regulating market and (2) a broader conception of self-regulation inherent not to media companies or corporations, but to the social subsystem of social communication, is proposed. This involves increasing the number of self-regulatory mechanisms that may contribute to improve social communication, and reinforcing the commitment of those who should exercise such self-regulation, including not only media companies but also the professionals working at them and the public at large.

Mumtaz Bibi's broken heart

2009 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohit De
Keyword(s):  
South Asian ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Legislative Process ◽  
The Public ◽  
Traditional Practitioners ◽  
Women In India

This article investigates the formation of a political consensus between conservative ulama, Muslim reformers, nationalist politicians and women's organisations, which led to the enactment of the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act in 1939. The Act was a radical piece of social legislation that gave South Asian Muslim women greater rights for divorce than those enjoyed by other women in India and Britain. Instead of placing women's rights and Islamic law as opposed to each other, the legislation employed a heuristic that guaranteed women's rights by applying Islamic law, allowing Muslim politicians, ulama and women's groups to find common ground on an Islamic modernity. By interrogating the legislative process and the rhetorical positions employed to achieve this consensus, the paper hopes to map how the women's question was being negotiated anew in the space created in the legislatures. The legislative debate over family law redefined the boundaries of the public and the private, and forced nationalists to reconsider the ‘women's question’. The transformation of Islamic law through secular legislation also gave greater licence to the courts in their interpretation, and widened the schism between traditional practitioners of fiqh and modern lawyers.

A Republic of distrust, fear and division. Rethinking contemporary Polish Experience

2021 ◽  
pp. 312-324
Author(s):  
Ryszard Piotrowski
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
European Law ◽  
The Public ◽  
European Institutions ◽  
Polish Experience ◽  
Constitutional Identity ◽  
Ways Of Life

The system of governance in contemporary Poland is founded mainly on a negative narrative of distrust. That narrative brought to power the country’s present scaremongering rulers. They continue feeding the public with frightening stories of an influx of refugees, threats of war and terrorist attacks, evils of globalisation and a loss of cultural identity to foreign ways of life. A balance between distrust of rulers and trust in them is part of democracy’s constitutional identity. Those currently in power sow distrust in liberal democracy and its values – they violate the constitution, stir up distrust of elites, and make attempts at bringing the judiciary to heelwhile staging judges bashing propaganda campaigns. Distrust of European law and European institutions is part and parcel of this process. The negative narrative weakens and threatens to disenfranchise civil society, blurring the line between law and lawlessness. It also weakens those in power.

scholarly journals Minister-Permanent Secretary Relationships: Lessons from Zimbabwe’s Government of national Unity

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Tawanda Zinyama ◽  
Joseph Tinarwo
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Large Degree ◽  
The State ◽  
Team Work ◽  
The Political ◽  
National Unity ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Government

Public administration is carried out through the public service. Public administration is an instrument of the State which is expected to implement the policy decisions made from the political and legislative processes. The rationale of this article is to assess the working relationships between ministers and permanent secretaries in the Government of National Unity in Zimbabwe. The success of the Minister depends to a large degree on the ability and goodwill of a permanent secretary who often has a very different personal or professional background and whom the minster did not appoint. Here lies the vitality of the permanent secretary institution. If a Minister decides to ignore the advice of the permanent secretary, he/she may risk of making serious errors. The permanent secretary is the key link between the democratic process and the public service. This article observed that the mere fact that the permanent secretary carries out the political, economic and social interests and functions of the state from which he/she derives his/her authority and power; and to which he/she is accountable,  no permanent secretary is apolitical and neutral to the ideological predisposition of the elected Ministers. The interaction between the two is a political process. Contemporary administrator requires complex team-work and the synthesis of diverse contributions and view-points.

scholarly journals Public Influence on Legislative Process in the Problem of De-occupation of Donbas

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 224-244
Author(s):  
Olena Gilchenco ◽  
Yulia Konstantinova ◽  
Natalia Pashina
Keyword(s):  
Public Involvement ◽  
Legislative Process ◽  
The Public ◽  
Organizational Conditions ◽  
Civic Organizations ◽  
Economic Elite ◽  
Occupied Territories ◽  
Legislative Initiative ◽  
The Law ◽  
Ukrainian Crisis

Abstract In the context of the Ukrainian crisis, the Law ‘On the specifics of state policy to ensure the state sovereignty of Ukraine in the temporarily occupied territories in Donetsk and Lugansk regions’, which is also called the ‘Law on De-occupation (or Reintegration) of Donbas’, became the key point. After four years of occupation of parts of southeastern Ukraine, the adoption of such a law was necessary, since this particular law formed and legally established the legal and organizational conditions for the resumption of territorial integrity of Ukraine. The importance of this law and the consequences of its adoption caused public involvement on behalf of civic organizations, political analysts, representatives of the academic and economic elite in the process of its discussion. However, due to the small amount of time from the stage of the legislative initiative to the publication of the law, it was not officially discussed by the public. Despite this, the enactment of the law led to an active public debate. Our study is aimed to investigate the degree of public involvement in the political decision-making process and the extent of public influence on lawmaking in Ukraine on the example of this legislative act.

scholarly journals Anonymity and Democracy: Absence as Presence in the Public Sphere

2018 ◽  
Vol 112 (3) ◽  
pp. 459-472 ◽  
Author(s):  
HANS ASENBAUM
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Central Feature ◽  
Identity Performance ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Identity Creation ◽  
The Public ◽  
Core Elements ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Explanatory Concept

Although anonymity is a central feature of liberal democracies—not only in the secret ballot, but also in campaign funding, publishing political texts, masked protests, and graffiti—it has so far not been conceptually grounded in democratic theory. Rather, it is treated as a self-explanatory concept related to privacy. To overcome this omission, this article develops a complex understanding of anonymity in the context of democratic theory. Drawing upon the diverse literature on anonymity in political participation, it explains anonymity as a highly context-dependent identity performance expressing private sentiments in the public sphere. The contradictory character of its core elements—identity negation and identity creation—results in three sets of contradictory freedoms. Anonymity affords (a) inclusion and exclusion, (b) subversion and submission, and (c) honesty and deception. This contradictory character of anonymity's affordances illustrates the ambiguous role of anonymity in democracy.

11. The key functions of Parliament

2019 ◽  
pp. 229-254
Author(s):  
Anne Dennett
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Executive Power ◽  
Legislative Process ◽  
Government Action ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Record ◽  
The Government ◽  
And Control ◽  
Law Making

This chapter identifies Parliament's primary functions of making law and scrutinising government action. Parliament's scrutiny of government has been defined as ‘the process of examining expenditure, administration, and policy in detail, on the public record, requiring the government of the day to explain itself to parliamentarians as representatives of the citizen and the taxpayer, and to justify its actions’. In the absence of a codified constitution and entrenched limits on executive power, the requirement for the government to answer to Parliament for its actions acts as a check and control. The chapter also considers the legislative process, particularly legislative scrutiny. Secondary legislation made by the government can often be subject to much less scrutiny and debate than primary legislation, and sometimes none at all. These scrutiny gaps increase the risk of arbitrary law-making and ‘governing from the shadows’, again raising rule of law concerns.

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