Malicious Information Threats of a Post-Covid World in Europe and the European Union

The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has had a significant impact on a wide range of areas in which the information sphere occupies a special place. The context of the pandemic distorted the online space. From the very start of the pandemic, the information related to the coronavirus was often unreliable or questionable due to the lack of comprehensive information about the virus. The dominance of digital disinformation disseminated via social media has led to the situation of an “infodemic”. It reflects a massive propagation of unverified information. To understand the consequences of this situation, this article examines diverse models of European national and supranational responses to the infodemic. The aim of the study is to systematize the actions of the EU and European countries. The author carried out a comparative analysis comprising a distinction between the actions launched by the European Union and non-EU countries, as well as national authorities and supranational structures. Based on the presented data, this article revealed the absence of a single “European response” to disinformation, which the European Union is trying to achieve. It also demonstrated the existing desire of different countries to move towards legislative actions and regulation on countering disinformation but the pace and means of this development depend on the degree of state involvement in a multistakeholder dialogue with online platforms.

Citizenship as an Aim of Higher Education

The focus of this chapter is on the merits of civic education as an aim of higher education. First, the chapter explains how a legitimate and justifiable liberal civic education for children must (and can) strike a balance between the goods of political stability and individual freedom. Second, it makes the make the case for extending civic educational goals to higher education. The third and fourth sections show how civic educational aims look like a promising foundation for the justification of higher education. But a closer look reveals that this justification cannot strike a balance between stability and freedom. The upshot is that while it makes sense to cherish the indirect benefits of higher education for the civic capacities of graduates, these benefits ought not be understood as the overarching aim that justifies state involvement in its management and provision.

The Paradox of State-Funded Higher Education: Does the Winner Still Take It All?

Contrary to the overall tendency to increase student participation in the financing of higher education, Estonia abolished student tuition fees in 2013. We study the effects of this reform on the students’ access to and progress in higher education, concentrating mostly on the changes in probabilities of rural and remote students being admitted (extensive margin) and graduating within a nominal time (intensive margin). We distinguish between four different outcomes: admission in general, admission to vocational education, admission to high-rank curricula, and graduation within nominal time. We confirm the tendency that a high socioeconomic status increases the probability of being admitted to high-rank curricula and reduces the probability of choosing an applied curriculum, and the 2013 reform did not change that. While the reform weakly improved rural students’ tendency to graduate on time, it diminished the probability that they were admitted to high-rank curricula. So, paradoxically and contrary to the intention of the reform, higher state involvement in higher education financing has not improved the equity in university admission in Estonia in terms of either socioeconomic background or regional disparities. We claim that part of the explanation of that paradox lies in the conditionality of this reform and the combination of a scarce needs-based and a competitive merit-based student support system in Estonia. We see our broader contribution in emphasising the important role of support systems in the future analysis of the potential to improve students’ access.

Creating and Protecting Paths: Learning in an Entrepreneurial State

This paper discusses how a Norwegian entrepreneurial state has performed over more than seventy years, based on an analysis of state involvement in Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk/the Kongsberg Group from 1945 and to 2015. Mariana Mazzucato has argued that bold technological investments by the state has long-term beneficial effects. The development of the Kongsberg companies adds nuance to this picture. On the one hand, the defense company Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk failed as a company in 1987 and was unbundled into a number of new companies independent of one another. On the other hand, some of the successor companies have been very successful, both in the oil and gas sector and within defense. Taking the defense and oil and gas company the Kongsberg Group as a case, this paper argues that a new style of entrepreneurial state developed in the 1990s and that it proved very successful. The old entrepreneurial state was heavy-handed, bold, and very long-term in its aims; the new entrepreneurial state was cautious, many-headed, and worked through the management of the company. The new entrepreneurial state combined state ownership, stock listing, and procurement considerations and was supported by both the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Defense. This new governance structure facilitated a stable corporation that over time integrated other Norwegian maritime electronics companies, which themselves had a checkered history under the old entrepreneurial state. A new corporate governance regime emerged and managed both to protect old and established product lines and to facilitate innovation both in defense and maritime electronics.

Dual Logic of Sports Violence Governance in China: A Comprehensive Survey of Law and Industry Autonomy

Sports violence is a critical issue that has hindered China’s sports development. Dual logic is currently the mainstream rule of law and industrial autonomy, although it has not produced satisfactory results. In this paper, we used expert interviews, text analysis, and case analysis to investigate the flaws in the current governance process and found that the dual logic of sports violence governance has problems of varying degrees. The low degree of legislative specialization, the hazy limit of judicial intervention, and disparate law enforcement are examples of the rule of law. The clash of rights and interests between the association and the state, the association’s ineffectual control over the junior leagues, and the limited scope of governance are all examples of industry autonomy. Based on the issues mentioned above, this paper proposes dual logic strengthening measures and the notion of integrated governance. In particular, we should improve the rule of law thinking and construct a legal system for sports violence in China from legislation, justice and law enforcement, and law-abidingness to compensate for the current lack of law in sports violence. Second, we define the scope of the association’s “postdecoupling era” powers and obligations, resolve conflicts through state involvement based on the rule of law, and remove governance hurdles. Finally, we thoroughly investigate three aspects of integrated governance between the rule of law and industry autonomy: respecting industry autonomy and providing specific implementation space for industry norms, not excluding the rule of law’s intervention, and establishing an industry autonomy supervision mechanism. The rule of law and industry autonomy permeate each other and realize integration.

NEGARA KESEJAHTERAAN (WELFARE STATE) DALAM KONTEKS KEBIJAKAN POLITIK EKONOMI ISLAM DI INDONESIA

ABSTRAKDalam konteks keislaman, Islam adalah ajaran yang komprehensif yang didalamnya memiliki konsep negara, pemerintahan, kesejahteraan ekonomi dan lain-lain. Dalam pandangan Islam, negara tidak bisa lepas dari konsep kolektif yang didalamnya termasuk landasan moral dan syariah Islam. Dalam konteks sekarang, negara kesejahteraan (Welfare State) merupakan sesuatu yang sangat penting dan mempunyai nilai yang strategis, mengingat bahwa negara kesejahteraan dianggap sebagai salah satu jawaban yang paling tepat atas bentuk keterlibatan negara dalam mengubah kesejahteraan rakyat. Dalam konteks keindonesiaan cita-cita mewujudkan negara kesejahteraan sudah direncanakan jauh sejak negara ini didirikan, walaupun dalam perjalanannya menemui banyak permasalahan dan tantangan, bahkan ketika upaya-upaya yang berkaitan dengan perangkat untuk menuju konsep tersebut sudah tersedia termasuk didalamnya aturan-aturan yang telah disusun dalam bentuk perundangan ataupun kebijakan politik. ABSTRACTIn the context of Islam, Islam is a comprehensive teaching which includes the concept of the state, government, economic welfare and others. In the view of Islam, the state cannot be separated from the collective concept which includes the moral foundation and Islamic sharia. In the current context, the welfare state is something that is very important and has strategic value, considering that the welfare state is considered as one of the most appropriate answers to the form of state involvement in changing people's welfare. In the Indonesian context, the ideals of realizing a welfare state have been planned long since this country was founded, although along the way it encounters many problems and challenges, even when efforts related to the tools to achieve this concept are already in place, including the rules that have been compiled in form of legislation or political policy.

Bringing Our Boy Home: the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, Its Visitors, and Contemporary War Remembrance in New Zealand

<p>In November 2004 the remains of an unknown New Zealand soldier from the First World War were brought home from France and placed in the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior (TUW) outside the National War Memorial (NWM) in Wellington. This was one of the largest ceremonial events ever held in New Zealand, and the entire programme was broadcast live on national television. An estimated 100,000 people lined the streets of Wellington to watch his casket make its way from Parliament to its final resting place. Why did the return of the Unknown Warrior, some 90 years after his death, have such an impact on the country, and what is the significance of the TUW for visitors today? The aim of this dissertation is to bring together the material culture of war commemoration with aspects of public memory and meaning-making in an examination of visitor interpretations of the TUW. To achieve this, entries left in the NWM visitor books and onsite survey interviews are analysed in the light of the institutional objectives set out in the design and planning of the TUW, and the political and popular motivations that led to its construction. The view advanced by this dissertation is that visitors draw on individual memory, civil remembrance and national commemoration to construct meanings of the TUW. Their interpretations draw on lived experience and personal connections to form connections with the TUW. These are influenced by the impact of 'grassroots' interest in war remembrance, soldier ancestors and an understanding of the experience of war, public ritual and state involvement in commemoration. This provides a snapshot of contemporary war remembrance in New Zealand.</p>

Bringing Our Boy Home: the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, Its Visitors, and Contemporary War Remembrance in New Zealand

<p>In November 2004 the remains of an unknown New Zealand soldier from the First World War were brought home from France and placed in the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior (TUW) outside the National War Memorial (NWM) in Wellington. This was one of the largest ceremonial events ever held in New Zealand, and the entire programme was broadcast live on national television. An estimated 100,000 people lined the streets of Wellington to watch his casket make its way from Parliament to its final resting place. Why did the return of the Unknown Warrior, some 90 years after his death, have such an impact on the country, and what is the significance of the TUW for visitors today? The aim of this dissertation is to bring together the material culture of war commemoration with aspects of public memory and meaning-making in an examination of visitor interpretations of the TUW. To achieve this, entries left in the NWM visitor books and onsite survey interviews are analysed in the light of the institutional objectives set out in the design and planning of the TUW, and the political and popular motivations that led to its construction. The view advanced by this dissertation is that visitors draw on individual memory, civil remembrance and national commemoration to construct meanings of the TUW. Their interpretations draw on lived experience and personal connections to form connections with the TUW. These are influenced by the impact of 'grassroots' interest in war remembrance, soldier ancestors and an understanding of the experience of war, public ritual and state involvement in commemoration. This provides a snapshot of contemporary war remembrance in New Zealand.</p>

Zunz in Prag: Ein vergessenes Kapitel in der jüdischen Kultreform

The paper addresses an under-researched chapter in the history of the Jewish Reform movement which is at the same time a commonly overlooked period in the biography of Leopold Zunz (1794–1886), one of the founding members of Wissenschaft des Judentums. By placing his eight-month appointment as a preacher to the Reform synagogue in Prague in its socio-political and biographical contexts, the article sheds new light at Zunz’s commitment for the religious renewal of Judaism. A schematic comparison between the development of the Reform movement in the German lands and the Habsburg Monarchy, at the beginning of the nineteenth century highlights the role of state involvement into internal Jewish affairs. Finally, the analysis of Zunz’s Synagogenordnung from 1836, according to the original manuscript from the National Library of Israel, allows a re-evaluation of the (Reform) synagogue as an institution for social disciplining of its members.

Bringing Back the State: Understanding Varieties of Pension Re-reforms in Latin America

ABSTRACTPension policy is a highly political issue across Latin America. Since the mid-2000s, several countries have re-reformed their pension systems with a general trend toward more state involvement, yet with significant variation. This article contends that policy legacies and the institutional political setting are key to understanding such variation. Analyzing the cases of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile, this article shows that where a weak legacy, characterized by low coverage and savings rates, a weakly organized pension industry, and strong societal groups that oppose the private system, combines with a strong institutional setting, characterized by a government with large support in Congress and where the president concentrates decisionmaking, re-reform outcomes may lead to the outright elimination of the private pillar. Conversely, where a strong legacy combines with a weak institutional setting, re-reform outcomes will tend to maintain the private pillar and expand only the role of the public one.