Public Policy and Administration

Mоdel for Analysis and Evaluation of Sustainable Cities in Bulgaria in the Context of Local Public Policy Appliance

Nikolay Ivanov Tsonkov, Kamen Dimitrov Petrov — Fri, 20 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0300

In recent years, the digitalization of the economy and the increasing demand for resources have created several challenges for developing countries, their regions, and urban agglomerations. Therefore, many governments have undertaken significant changes in the policies applied to developing regions and cities. These new concepts are aimed at gradually building sustainable and smart cities. This is the response of countries to new challenges such as the digital environment, combating climate change, and maintaining favorable living conditions due to the strong environmental and socio-economic degradation. In this regard, the authors set as their main research objective to analyze and assess the sustainability of cities and the surrounding territory by implementing sustainable development policies at all levels. A major task and difficulty for the authors is to build upon and refine a model that can be used to assess sustainable and smart cities. In this paper, the authors propose an approach to studying sustainable cities, thus evaluating the effects of policies implemented in this field. The model includes the main groups of indicators that are used to analyze the sustainable and smart development of municipalities in the Northeast region of Bulgaria. Based on these indicators, data is collected, and processed, and comparative and statistical analysis is carried out to assess their sustainability and intelligence. The authors reach important conclusions such as an unsatisfactory level of sustainable and intelligent development, although the environment and conditions at the national level are favorable. In fact, in Bulgaria, based on the assessment of the studied municipalities in the Northeast region, it is clear that we cannot talk about sustainable cities because Bulgarian municipalities are still at the beginning of this development path.

Formation of Public Policy in the Field of Physical Education and Sports in Ukraine

Ihor Hotsul, Liliia Honiukova , Oksana Yudenko, Kateryna Maistrenko — Fri, 20 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0300

The development and promotion of sports in society are crucial concerns for governments worldwide, including Ukraine. The purpose of this study is to examine the current state of physical education in Ukraine and create concepts of possible ways to improve this situation. Methods of analysis, synthesis, and sociological survey were used. The key principles governing state involvement in physical education and sports in Ukraine are outlined, forming the foundation for effective state policies. The primary responsibility of the state is to effectively organize and address the fulfilment of societal needs, promoting the prestige and well-being of the nation. In recent years, numerous discussions have arisen regarding the outdated nature of Ukraine's sports system, which fails to align with contemporary realities, yields unsatisfactory results, and necessitates significant reforms. Additionally, evidence has demonstrated a problem with the antiquated organisation of work, resulting in stagnation and a lack of progress. The priority of Ukraine should be the development of sports of higher achievement and mass sports for various social groups. In any conditions, sports must develop and our champions today and tomorrow must have all the available conditions to practice it. The authors emphasise that it is also necessary to create modern infrastructure and make it accessible to all segments of the population. This study will be useful for representatives of executive and legislative authorities.

Regulation, Remainder Risk, and Public Investment Fund: A Theoretical Analysis

Hannu Laurila, Erkki Siivonen — Fri, 20 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0300

In the EU member countries that obey the rule of law principle, the legislative work of the parliament supports the market economy by producing public capital. In many cases, legislation is connected to public investment projects, and sometimes also to socially important private projects. Both include public benefits and costs, but also public risks. Moreover, as the public commitment to major private undertakings may preclude both immaterial and material contributions, there is a noteworthy threat that an accidental actualization of the remainder risk caused by some unforeseen incident would fall heavily on the taxpayers. This paper constructs a club theoretic model for the analysis of representative democracy. In the model, the public commitment to a private project is decided by the simple majority voting rule in the parliament. The analysis shows that strict assessment of the remainder risk may halt the whole undertaking implying that the promised social benefits are also lost. As a solution, we propose a constitutional Investment Fund, which would launch short-maturity public bonds to citizens and pension funds, earmarked to the material part of the public commitment to private projects. The system could partly privatize the public remainder risk so that only the immaterial part remains to common taxpayers thus increasing the probability of a majority vote for the project. At the same time, the government would get equity finance for its investments, and the citizens and pension funds would hold securities with tangible net asset value. The system should increase precision in public debt and risk management and bring democracy, public governance, and the market economy closer to each other.

Hibridinės grėsmės Lietuvoje: sampratos žinomumas ir raiškos formų atpažinimas jaunimo tarpe

Irmina Matonytė, Ieva Gajauskaitė, Matas Jasinavičius — Fri, 20 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0300

2014 m. Rusijos įvykdyta Krymo aneksija ir 2022 m. pradėta plataus masto invazija į Ukrainą į politinę Lietuvos ir bendrai Vakarų pasaulio darbotvarkę ir viešumą iškėlė hibridinės karybos, hibridinių grėsmių (toliau, HG) ir pan. sąvokas. Nepaisant to, akademinių tyrimų ir ekspertinio išmanymo HG, jų suvokimo ir raiškos formų atpažinimo tema nėra daug. HG tyrimus komplikuoja tai, jog šis reiškinys neturi aiškios apibrėžties ar atpažįstamų savybių, kuriomis remiantis galima būtų šias problemas išspręsti vienu universaliai teisingu būdu. Šiame kontekste jaunimas tampa itin aktualia grupe – dėl imlumo ir jautrumo naujai informacijai (ar dezinformacijai) bei svarbaus vaidmens nacionalinio saugumo srityje. Šiame straipsnyje pristatomas tyrimas, kurio objektas yra Lietuvos jaunimo žinios ir suvokimas apie HG. Tyrimu siekta atskleisti Lietuvos jaunimo žinių apie HG įvairovę ir hibridinių grėsmių suvokimo brandą. Tyrime naudotas HG apibrėžimas: tai piktavališkas užsienio aktorių veikimas, pasitelkiant karines ir nekarines priemonės ir siekiant sumažinti piliečių pasitikėjimą demokratinėmis valdžios institucijomis. 2022 m. rugsėjo - 2023 m. kovo mėn. buvo atliktos penkios focus grupinės diskusijos (toliau, FGD) – trys su šaukiamojo, t.y. 18-26 metų, amžiaus jaunuoliais ir dvi su 15-19 metų amžiaus gimnazistais. Iš viso dalyvavo 41 individas (22 vaikinai ir 19 merginų). Išvados. Lietuvos jaunimo tarpe hibridinės grėsmės sąvoka yra sunkiai suprantama ir retai kam girdėta. Dažniausiai HG pirminė asociacija yra susijusi su kibernetinėmis atakomis ir propaganda. Mažiausiai HG yra siejamos su teise, viešuoju administravimu ir diplomatija. FGD eigoje buvo aktualizuojamos ekonomikos, energetikos ir švietimo bei mokslo sritys. Jaunuoliai dažnai vidaus problemas supranta kaip HG ir nesieja jų su sąmoninga piktavališku išorės veikėjų veikla. Tyrimas neatskleidė, kad dalyvavimo visuomeninėje veikloje ir nevyriausybinėse organizacijose patirtis būtų stipriai reikšminga tam, ar ir kiek jaunuoliai žino apie HG.

Citizen Satisfaction's Determinants with the Integrated Public Services Quality Provided by One-Stop-Shop. A case from a Western Balkan Country

Sllavka Kurti, Kristian Kina — Fri, 20 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0300

Government One-Stop Shops are promoted as a strategy for improving intergovernmental collaboration, coordinating "Weberian" bureaucratic structure, and streamlining service delivery using technology. One-stop-shop models, which are seen as a significant accomplishment in recent e-government initiatives, aim to provide public service delivery mechanisms that are efficient, accessible, coordinated, and cost-effective. The purpose of this research paper is to assess citizens' satisfaction with the quality of integrated public services provided by One-Stop Shop (OSS), with a particular emphasis on the relationship between citizen satisfaction with the quality of OSS services and determinant dimensions of trust, procedures, staff skills and qualifications, time and cost savings, and perceived citizen care/support. This paper employs a quantitative approach method through a survey as a research instrument. A structured questionnaire is distributed to 114 citizens receiving service in OSS in a municipality in south Albania, a western Balkan country. The study's primary objective is to provide top-level managers of the OSS agencies and policymakers with an effective instrument for better evaluating and understanding the perceived quality of their integrated public services offered from the perspective of their citizens. This understanding aims to facilitate the formulation of more effective policies and strategies that foster the ongoing enhancement and incorporation of novel public management best practices. The findings of the multi-regression analysis reveal that the factors - Saving, Staff, Support, Procedures, and Trust had a positive and statistically significant impact on satisfaction, accounting for 85.8 per cent of the variation values of citizen satisfaction with the quality service provided by One-Stop Shop.

Implications of Transformation of Adult Education for Political Decisions: a Case of Latvia

Inga Jekabsone — Fri, 20 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0300

The Covid-19 pandemic has significantly contributed to the digitalisation of teaching and learning, including adult education. Since the spring of 2020, adult educational centres transformed the way how they work to ensure the continuity of the learning process. As a result, online adult education, which implies using various web-related technologies during the distance learning process, has experienced an unprecedented rise in replacing the traditional face-to-face teaching model. At the same time, policymakers had to react to external factors affecting the transformation of the adult education system by including the concept of online education in national regulations and policy documents as well as by providing various supporting mechanisms. The purpose of the study is to analyse the connections between the transformation of adult education caused by the pandemic and political decisions in Latvia. The tasks are formulated as follows: to review the latest trends in adult education and corresponding policy responses in the scientific literature; to analyse the political decisions made by the policymakers in Latvia in the context of the transformation of adult education during the Covid-19 pandemic; to formulate recommendations to the policymakers that address the compliance issues of recent developments of the concept of adult education in Latvia. Used research methods: to achieve the purpose of the study, the author has used a scientific literature review for analysing the latest trends in adult education and the political decisions behind them, expert interviews with the specialists of adult education in Latvia, and the doctrinal research method to examine the changes in the national regulation regarding adult education during the pandemic. The main findings of the research show that the transformation of adult education during the pandemic is partly incorporated in the main policy documents and national regulations. The policymakers in Latvia used both shorter-term and longer-term approaches to comply with the restrictions of gathering and the need for the digitalisation of adult education.

Availability of Services for Families of Children with Disabilities in Lithuania by View of Heads of Social, Health and Education Institutions in the Alytus Region

Laura Gardziulevičienė, Agota Giedrė Raišienė — Fri, 20 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0300

Family support is a crucial component affecting the functioning of parents of children with disabilities within society. Sufficient services that cater to both child support and the parents' quality of life are required, or else the state labor market runs the risk of losing able-bodied citizens who are responsible for raising children with disabilities. Thus, the research has twofold aim: to review the system of public services for families raising children with disabilities in Lithuania, and to analyze the availability of services from the perspective of managers of service-providing institutions. A structured interviews was conducted to collect information from eighteen experts who are heads of education, health and social services departments of municipalities and subordinate institutions, responsible for decision-making in the organization and provision of services to families raising children with disabilities in the Alytus region. According to research findings, the Alytus region has the potential to provide education, healthcare, and social services following legal provisions. However, the current range of services is inadequate in practice. Typically, most services are available only upon parental request for children with disabilities, with certain services not being available for numerous reasons. Based on the research findings, the insufficient provision of services in the Alytus region is mainly attributable to a shortage of service staff and limited financial resources. At the same time, the study highlights a slow responsiveness of the municipalities and their subordinate entities towards communicating and collaborating, as well as with parents of disabled children.

Transhumance Crisis and Food Security Issues in Southeast Nigeria: Implications for Sustainable Development

Fri, 20 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0300

Food security in sub-Saharan Africa in recent history is beginning to experience alteration due to some factors such as transhumance-related crises in the region. Although transhumance is an age-long practice among developing nations, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, its relationship with farming and agricultural sustainability has gradually changed due to increasing politically motivated resource-access crises in the region. In this study, we investigated transhumance-related resource-access crises and food security management in southeast Nigeria. The study sample is made up of 625 rural farmers domicile with farmers’ cooperative societies in the region. The study was guided by the Resource-Access Theory and survey research design; a questionnaire instrument was used in data gathering while percentage, correlation and regression statistics were deployed to assess the collected data. Among the major findings of the study, transhumance-related conflict negatively correlated with the four dimensions of food security in the region such as food production (p.000, r = -.386), food availability (p.000, r = -.325), food accessibility (p.000, r = -.376) and food stability (p.000, rho = -.389). Rural-urban food circulation is predicted by open grazing, herdsmen encroachment into the farm, farmers/herders clash, climate change indicators (*** p<.000, R²=.791), while agricultural sustainability is predicted by the age of the respondents, open grazing, herdsmen encroachment into the farmland, farmers/herders clash, climate change indicators as well as desertion of farmland because of herdsmen attacks (*** p<.000, R²=.876).