Non-competitive Elections at the Local Level and the Incumbency Advantage of Mayors – Research Experiences from Poland

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 1015-1041
Author(s):  
Marek Mazurkiewicz
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Incumbency Advantage ◽  
Research Experiences ◽  
Political Pluralism ◽  
Political Scene

The objective of this paper is an attempt to answer if non-competitive elections to commune councils in Poland may be the result of incumbency advantage of mayors. The author assumes, that the effects of incumbency advantage of mayors in influence not only the competition for the office of mayor, but also the entire local political scene. These effects may weaken the competitiveness of elections and lead to the cartelisation of local political scenes. In extreme cases, it may even cause the degeneration of political pluralism and lead to non-competitive elections at both the executive and legislative levels. The paper analyses relationships between the competitiveness of elections at the local level and the incumbency advantage effect as exemplified by a group of small communes with up to 20,000 inhabitants and presents the findings of the conducted research in the form of case studies of 18 localities representing six regions of Poland.

scholarly journals Potential Benefits and Constraints of Development of Critical Raw Materials’ Production in the EU: Analysis of Selected Case Studies

Resources ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 67
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Guzik ◽  
Krzysztof Galos ◽  
Alicja Kot-Niewiadomska ◽  
Toni Eerola ◽  
Pasi Eilu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Social Acceptance ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Ore Deposits ◽  
Abandoned Mines ◽  
Social Constraints ◽  
Cost And Benefit Analysis ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Critical Raw Materials

Major benefits and constraints related to mineral extraction within the EU have been identified on the examples of selected critical raw materials’ deposits. Analyzed case studies include the following ore deposits: Myszków Mo-W-Cu (Poland), Juomasuo Au-Co (Finland), S. Pedro das Águias W-Sn (Portugal), Penouta Nb-Ta-Sn (Spain), Norra Kärr REEs (Sweden) and Trælen graphite (Norway). They represent different stages of development, from the early/grassroot exploration stage, through advanced exploration and active mining, up to reopening of abandoned mines, and refer to different problems and constraints related to the possibility of exploitation commencement. The multi-criteria analysis of the cases has included geological and economic factors as well as environmental, land use, social acceptance and infrastructure factors. These factors, in terms of cost and benefit analysis, have been considered at three levels: local, country and EU levels. The analyzed cases indicated the major obstacles that occur in different stages of deposit development and need to be overcome in order to enable a new deposit exploitation commencement. These are environmental (Juomasuo and Myszków), spatial (Juomasuo) as well as social constraints (Norra Kärr, Juomasuo). In the analyzed cases, the most important constraints related to future deposit extraction occur primarily at a local level, while some important benefits are identified mainly at the country and the EU levels. These major benefits are related to securing long-term supplies for the national industries and strategically important EU industry sectors.

scholarly journals Informação, Publicidade, Propaganda: Correspondentes estrangeiros, agências noticiosas e a “Grande Guerra de palavras” da primeira metade do século XX

2021 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 11-31
Author(s):  
Fernando Clara
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Foreign Correspondents ◽  
Decisive Importance ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
News Agencies ◽  
The Great War ◽  
Political Scene

The essay takes as a starting point Goebbels’ speech delivered at the closing session of the Continental Advertising Congress, held in Vienna in June 1938, and explores the transformations that the communicational public space of the first half of the twentieth century underwent following the two world conflicts that erupted then. In the first part, the essay addresses the progressive hybridisation of public discourse at the time, the increasing blurring of information, advertising and propaganda, and the rapid acceleration of the international circulation of communication during the period. In this context, special attention is paid to actors who, though not new to the international political scene – such as foreign correspondents and news agencies –, gained a new and decisive importance throughout the period in question. The second part analyses two case studies involving these actors and their power on the international political scene during World War II. Geographically, the two case studies are centred around an axis that is usually considered peripheral to the war – neutral Portugal – but which appears central and, in a way, paradigmatic to the “Great War of Words” that was also being fought in the international public space.

scholarly journals On the Way to Eco-Innovations in Agriculture: Concepts, Implementation and Effects at National and Local Level. The Case of Poland

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 4839 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michał Dudek ◽  
Wioletta Wrzaszcz
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Agricultural Policy ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Physical Capital ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Policy Support ◽  
Organic Farms ◽  
Data Collections

The aim of the study was to provide the examples of eco-innovations in agriculture relating to the concept of sustainable development and the indication of their conditions. Quantitative and qualitative methods were applied to the research, namely: descriptive statistical and economic analysis of the Polish Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) data and Statistics Poland data, as well as case studies of organic food producers, covering the years 2005–2019. Indicated information sources, encompassing long time span of analysis and various data collections, allowed presenting the complementary picture of eco-innovations at the sector and farm levels. The research examined the different types of ecological innovations in Polish agriculture, including: (1) organisational innovations with an institutional background (e.g., the organic farming support and greening mechanism of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)—implemented in the family farming sector); and (2) the product, marketing, process and organisational innovations in selected organic farms that were individual farmers’ initiatives. On the one hand, the research documented the effectiveness of new agricultural policy solutions in the agricultural sector that are examples of organisational eco-innovations. During 2005–2016, the certification system, as well as policy support, contributed to the development of organic farms in Poland in terms of the growth in the share of this type of holdings in total (from 0.5% to 4.6%) and in the overall utilised agricultural area (UAA) (from 0.3% to 3.7%). Moreover, during 2014–2015, as a result of the greening in agricultural holdings, the area sown with pulses and papilionaceous, i.e., crops improving soil structure and protecting soils, rose by 174% and 161%, respectively. On the other hand, the case studies conducted showed that the food producers’ knowledge and skills combined with a favourable local economic and social situation, as well as institutional support, played a key role in the process of the emergence of eco-innovations. Among those factors, the respondents’ individual characteristics associated with attitudes towards farming and the social, human and physical capital passed on by family members should be highlighted. This paper contributes to existing literature in two ways. First, this study combines both quantitative and qualitative (including in-depth interviews) approaches to eco-innovations at the micro and macro level of analysis. Second, by differentiating two approaches to ecological innovations, namely the conventional and the sustainable, the article indicates and considers the key factors favourable to the latter.

scholarly journals Comparison of CORINE Land Cover Data with National Statistics and the Possibility to Record This Data on a Local Scale—Case Studies from Slovakia

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (15) ◽  
pp. 2484
Author(s):  
Vladimír Falťan ◽  
František Petrovič ◽  
Ján Oťaheľ ◽  
Ján Feranec ◽  
Michal Druga ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Cover ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Hierarchical Level ◽  
Minimum Width ◽  
Corine Land Cover ◽  
The Third ◽  
National Statistics ◽  
Local Case

Monitoring of land cover (LC) provides important information of actual land use (LU) and landscape dynamics. LC research results depend on the size of the area, purpose and applied methodology. CORINE Land Cover (CLC) data is one of the most important sources of LU data from a European perspective. Our research compares official CLC data (third hierarchical level of nomenclature at a scale of 1:100,000) and national statistics (NS) of LU in Slovakia between 2000 and 2018 at national, county, and local levels. The most significant differences occurred in arable land and permanent grassland, which is also related to the recording method and the development of agricultural land management. Due to the abandonment of agricultural areas, a real recorded increase in forest cover due to forest succession was not introduced in the official records of Land register. New modification of CLC methodology for identifying LC classes at a scale of 1:10,000 and fifth hierarchical level of CLC is firstly applied for local case studies representing lowland, basin, and mountain landscape. The size of the least identified and simultaneously recorded area was established at 0.1 ha the minimum width of a polygon was established at 10 m, the minimum recorded width of linear elements such as communications was established at 2 m. The use of the fifth CLC level in the case studies areas generated average boundary density 17.2 km/km2, comparing to the 2.6 km/km2 of the third level. Therefore, when measuring the density of spatial information by the polygon boundary lengths, the fifth level carries 6.6 times more information than the third level. Detailed investigation of LU affords better verification of national statistics data at a local level. This study also contributes to a more detailed recording of the current state of the Central European landscape and its changes.

Modelling vehicle emissions using the TEMIS program: Part 2: Case studies

1998 ◽  
Vol 212 (3) ◽  
pp. 205-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
W Saleh ◽  
J D Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Alternative Fuels ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Transport Sector ◽  
Air Emissions ◽  
Global Level ◽  
Ozone Layer Depletion ◽  
Technical Advances ◽  
Fuel Consumption And Emissions

Many challenges are associated with the ever increasing level of energy consumption and the damage to the environment caused by the pollutants from all sectors, On the local level the problem is associated with matters such as noise and air pollution, while on the global level the problems are associated with acid rain, ozone layer depletion and the greenhouse effect (global warming). The transport sector is a major contributor in this respect. The use of appropriate decision-making tools to assist in the assessment of alternative transport policies is required urgently. One such tool is the TEMIS program which was described in Part 1 of this investigation, where the methodology for the enhancement of TEMIS was reported. The enhanced version of TEMIS has subsequently been used to model the effects of different transport scenarios in order to improve future fuel economy and the adverse effects of air emissions as well as the greenhouse gases. In the present paper, three main case studies have been considered to test the effect of different scenarios (in terms of alternative fuels and technical advances) on energy consumption and emissions: firstly, the switch to alternative fuels, through investigating the effects of switching from petrol to diesel, secondly, the effects of switching from diesel to bio-diesel (for buses) and, finally, the effects of technical advances (three-way catalytic converters) and the effects on fuel consumption and emissions are considered.

The “Poli-Migra”

2014 ◽  
Vol 58 (13) ◽  
pp. 1805-1819 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecilia Menjívar
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Policy Reform ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Immigration Law ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Immigrant Incorporation ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Sound Policy ◽  
State And Local

This article discusses what we know about immigration law in the lives of Latinos today and what we learn from this knowledge to possibly establish links beyond specific case studies. We know a great deal about the multilayered enforcement regime in place today—the federal, state, and local level laws and ordinances and the various enforcement strategies—which act all at once in highly articulated fashion to affect the lives of immigrants, their families, and communities. What we learn from this accumulated knowledge—the unevenness of enforcement across contexts, the heterogeneity of experiences among Latinos as not all are affected in the same way, and the short- and possible long-term effects—can be helpful for theorizing more broadly about immigrant incorporation and can also serve to formulate sound policy reform.

The Impact of Seismic Strengthening and Code Related Issues in Restoration, Renovation, and Re-Use of Historic Buildings

1994 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-21
Author(s):  
Brenda Levin ◽  
Margaret Bach
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Historic Preservation ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Life Safety ◽  
Historic Buildings ◽  
Design Phase ◽  
Seismic Strengthening ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Code Compliance

The need to reconcile seismic strengthening and other code-related issues with historic preservation objectives poses a variety of challenges for the design professional. A thorough knowledge of the local, state and national regulatory contexts, along with an understanding of two underlying principles, equivalency and life safety, provide a necessary framework for undertaking renovation projects. Two case studies involving important Los Angeles historic buildings, the Wiltern Theater and Grand Central Square, illustrate the complexities of code compliance with respect to preservation and programmatic goals, specifically in the areas of seismic retrofit, fire-life safety and disabled access. Successful historic preservation projects can benefit from a thorough pre-design phase and an experienced project team. Modifications and refinements to regulatory procedures, particularly at the local level, could also significantly facilitate restoration, renovation and re-use of historic buildings.

scholarly journals A New Model for eGovernment in Local Level Administrations in Libya

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Yousef Forti
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Local Authority ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Process Efficiency ◽  
Maturity Stage ◽  
Stage Model ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Technology Deployment ◽  
Effective Manner ◽  
Process Level

The assessment of eGovernment capability has often focused on assessing website functions and their use, whereas relatively little attention has been given to other aspects of local authority operations, particularly back-office processes. The study provides a literature review, from which a model for the assessment of eGovernment at individual process level is derived. The study provides a maturity stage model for analysing eGovernment based on technology deployment, organisational capability and process efficiency dimensions. For each of these three dimensions, a number of key change factors are identified and assessed to allow a positioning of the organisation in the stage model; and this is applied at individual process level within the organisation, as well as for the organisation as a whole. This research reports on the use of the model in two case studies - Sabratha local authority and Rujban local authority in Libya. The study illustrates the potential of the model in assessing eGovernment readiness and identifying opportunities for investment and change. It highlights the need for process improvement to accompany technology deployment, and the key role of organisational factors in bringing about the necessary change for the move to e-Government. The potential of the three-dimensional maturity model for developing appropriate strategies and plans for a transition to eGovernment is evidenced in the case studies. At Sabratha and Rujban local authorities, processes are generally not well developed, although in terms of technology deployment and organisational capability, there are some processes which have a reasonable basis from which to move forward. It is clear, however, that process maturity is generally weak in the local authorities studied, and this area needs appropriate focus and investment to allow the authorities to transition to an eGovernment in a planned and effective manner.

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