The Baltic miracle? The economic crisis and its consequences for young people in the labor market of the Baltic states, 2007–2017

ABSTRACT

The financial crisis (2008–2009) resulted in significant deterioration of the youth labor market in the Baltic states. In 2017, however, the Baltic states were among the countries with the highest employment-to-population ratio in Europe (the ‘Baltic Miracle’). This article shows that the observed progress is mostly due to the demographic changes in the three countries. Isolating the demographic effect demonstrated that it played crucial role in mitigating the negative effects of the crisis, especially in Latvia and Lithuania. The results of the study show that in 2017 only in Estonia had the youth labor market returned to its precrisis conditions.     

Uhlin,Anders. Post-Soviet Civil Society: Democratization in Russia and the Baltic States. London and New York,Routledge, 2006, ISBN: 0-415-36804-9.

The Baltic German politician and political thinker Paul Schiemann (1876–1944) is widely recognized as the most prominent defender of liberalism in the Baltic states during the interwar period. However, his liberal ideas have rarely been interpreted in their own right. This article explores the main presuppositions of Schiemann's liberalism: his conceptions of individual freedom, democracy, and cultural development. Although Schiemann's main intentions are liberal, his theory of the anational state includes significant Marxist elements, which call into question the potential of the democratic state. In my conclusions, I will argue that Schiemann's ideas still have theoretical relevance, which must be further explored in the context of contemporary liberal theory.     

Liberals and nationalism: E. H. Carr,Walter Lippmann and the Baltic States from 1918 to 1944

The Baltic states were among the ‘new’ states that were created after the First World War; they were the only states to lose their sovereignty during the Second World War. Most historians explain the birth and demise of the Baltic states in terms of their relative strength vis-à-vis the great powers. This article places the short-lived independence of the Baltic states into the perspective of intellectual history by focusing on two Western thinkers: E. H. Carr and Walter Lippmann. The analysis assumes that ideas matter in international politics. It adds to our understanding of the forces that led to the creation and later to the extinction of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in the period of the two world wars.     

The Evolution of Innovation Policy Governance Systems and Policy Capacities in the Baltic States

This paper analyzes the evolution of innovation policy (IP) governance systems in the Baltic States and discusses how this progression has influenced the development of long-term IP capacities. The Baltics must attend to their long-term policy capacities as they are going through a ‘catch-up’ process while being influenced by both historical socioeconomic legacies and pressures of the global political economy. At the same time, they have delegated key policy activities away from centers of policy making and moved toward increasingly fragmented IP governance models, which provide narrow feedback and policy learning mechanisms that complicate the creation of long-term policy capacities.     

The official art of the Khrushchev Thaw: The Severe Style as an ambassador of the Estonian national school at Baltic art exhibitions in Moscow

In Estonian post-Socialist art history writing, the term ‘national’ has mostly been introduced as a defense mechanism against the Soviet regime. The aim of this article is to indicate that concept ‘national’ also played quite an important role in ‘official’ Soviet cultural politics, especially after Stalin’s death. The processes of cultivating ‘national particularities’ in the arts will be exemplified by the Baltic exhibitions in Moscow in the end of 1950s and 1960s.     

The Saracens of the Baltic: Pagan and Christian Lithuanians in the Perception of English and French Crusaders to Late Medieval Prussia

This paper investigates the use of the term ‘Saracens’ to describe the Lithuanian opponents of the Western crusaders who took part in expeditions launched from Prussia by the Teutonic Order against the grand duchy of Lithuania in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It presents a variety of evidence from narrative and documentary sources to demonstrate that this usage was derived from existing images of Muslim opponents and was reinforced by epic and romance literature. The use of the term Saracens, which by the fourteenth century had become a generic designation for pagans, was both a convenient way for Western crusaders to imbue the Prussian crusades with a value commensurate with campaigns in the Holy Land, but also to blacken their Lithuanian opponents even when they had abandoned paganism.     

Introduction: Assessing the Social and Political Impact of the Internet and New Social Media in Asia

This paper introduces a special issue on the social and political impact of new information communications technologies (ICTs) in Asia, with specific attention paid to new social media. This paper provides some contextualisation of the broader questions that the principal literature on the subject raises, namely questions about the effectiveness of ICTs as tools for mobilisation and information exchange; mechanisms of censorship and control; and the nature of public discourse on the Internet. In doing so, the paper introduces and locates the articles that comprise this special issue within these debates.     

The twists and turns of institutional innovation in small island developing states: the case of Tuvalu

The question of institutional reform in small island developing states (SIDS) has so far attracted two general perspectives. The predominant approach prescribes neo-Weberian principles such as de-politicisation, neutrality, ‘professionalism', continuity and anonymity, and rational-bureaucratic structures. Critics highlight contextual specificities and maintain that Weberian principles are not plausible amid key constraints in SIDS including low human and logistical capacity, pervasive inter-personal and cross-cutting relations, and difficulty in attaining anonymity in public affairs. This debate remains largely intuitive, without the requisite empirical insights about the peculiar institutional trajectories and incentive structures driving change and continuity within SIDS. This paper provides a critical examination of the enduring quagmire of institutional development in SIDS based on a comprehensive account of the experience of Tuvalu.     

First calculations of the total output of Latvia and Lithuania in the 1920s: a comparison

The contemporary system of national accounts (SNA) framework is used to compare the methodologies and to adjust the findings to allow for cross-country comparisons of the very first calculations of the total economic output of Lithuania in 1924 by Albinas Rimka (1886–1944) and of Latvia in 1925 by Alfrēds Ceihners (1899–1987). Ceihners’ notion of national income corresponds to the SNA concept of gross national income (GNI), while Rimka measured net national income (NNI). Rimka’s estimate has a downward bias, because he applied a fixed capital depreciation rate that was too high and did not include the value of noncommercial public sector services.     

FDI in small states and unattractive markets: the case of São Tomé and Príncipe

ABSTRACT

Studies on Small States, ‘unattractive’ markets, namely those from Africa, are very scarce. São Tomé and Príncipe (STP), a Small State, insular economy, has had considerable momentum in attracting FDI in the last decade albeit its geographical and demographic constraints and relative weak economic growth. The current study uncovers the potential determinants of FDI in unattractive markets using STP as a case study. Based on (robust) logistic estimations on a sample of 56 Portuguese companies that have trade relations with African countries, we show that in the case of Small States economies and unattractive markets, the relevance of institutional factors and resource seeking strategies surpass internalisation and location factors related to market size and dynamics. We further uncovered that foreign companies’ characteristics, namely size and (general) human capital, are critical in explaining companies’ likelihood to invest in an ‘unattractive’ market.     

蓬勃与多元:20世纪以来《罗摩衍那》在中国藏区的译介与接受

印度史诗《罗摩衍那》自吐蕃时期传入中国藏区后,在悠久绵长的千年历史中扎根藏地,逐步成为藏族人民耳熟能详的外国经典故事.中国藏区的罗摩故事形态受到印度和藏区本土的历史语境、文化氛围、宗教传播及译介主体等多种现实因素的限制与影响.长期以来,由于《罗摩衍那》的印度教文本属性与藏区的藏传佛教信仰,藏族学者的文学接受过程中出现了大量过滤与变异现象.20世纪初,《罗摩衍那》的藏译与接受现象迎来了具有重要意义的历史性变迁.藏族学者筚路蓝缕,抛弃了狭隘的宗教派别偏见,力求探索真知,开创了《罗摩衍那》在藏区译介与接受史的系统化、全面化和多元化局面,呈现出全新的文学景观.以根敦群培为代表的藏族学者开始跳脱佛教神学观念藩篱,以人文史观与实证考察的学术方法开启对《罗摩衍那》的评判与研究.这与当时藏族学者学术价值观念的剧变紧密相连.此外,罗摩故事与藏戏表演艺术的密切结合使其根植于民间口头叙事传统,纷繁多样的藏戏流派因地制宜,基于地方性知识与各自独特的表演模式进行阐释,衍生出丰富各异的罗摩故事样态,进一步强化了藏族群众对这一古老外来题材的文化认知.可见,印度罗摩故事已深入当代藏族本土语境,成为藏族民众喜闻乐见、津津乐道的经典故事.