Peace and Conflict: Alternative Strategies of Governance and Conflict Resolution

This article examines the present discourse of conflict resolution and offers an alternative framework for analyzing the generic sources of conflict at the community, state, and interstate levels. In particular, we argue that although peace is a universal value, there are no universally best strategies to achieve it. This, however, does not mean that the path to peace is fundamentally different in every context. We claim that stable democratic political structures in general lead to peace both in the international and the domestic realms. As such, democratization does lead to peace, but the paths to stable democracy are context sensitive. Therefore, the success of efforts aimed at creating long-term peace, both among and within nations, depends on the extent to which, democratization incorporates the norms and values of the societies in question. The article begins with a brief overview of some of the problems associated with defining peace. We suggest that peace should be looked at as a universal value, as democracy has been in the recent past. We provide a more detailed theoretical assessment of the linkage between democracy and peace. Our general argument is illustrated in the South Asian, specifically the Indian, context.     

Vehicles of opposition influence or agents of the governing majority? Legislative committees and private members’ bills in the Hungarian Országgyűlés and the Israeli Knesset

ABSTRACT

In this article, we assess the role and the strength of the legislative committee system of two legislatures: the Hungarian Országgy?lés and the Israeli Knesset, by looking at the fate of private member bills over the past four legislative cycles (1998–2014 in Hungary and 2006–2019 in Israel). We find that Israeli committees allow opposition PMBs to succeed at a significantly higher rate than Hungarian committees do, even though the formal properties of the two committee systems are very similar: during the examined period, more than one-fifth of the laws that were passed by the Knesset were initiated as opposition sponsored PMB, whereas the corresponding number in the Országgy?lés was only one per cent. The central reason for this unexpected divergence in the success rate of opposition sponsored PMBs, in spite of a favourable institutional setting shared by the committee systems of the two parliaments, may lie in the different degrees of party concentration in the two legislative party systems.     

The Constitutionalisation of Party Unity: The Origins of Anti-defection Laws in India and Israel

In spite of a pronounced increase in the number of states that have adopted anti-defection laws over the past several decades, the literature on party unity in democratic legislatures has paid scant attention to understanding the conditions that lead to the adoption of such restrictive measures on the mobility of elected deputies. This article seeks to fill this gap. The authors provide a simple game-theoretic model to explain the passage of anti-defection measures in India, in 1985, and Israel, in 1991. These two democratic states were among the first to experiment with the constitutionalisation of anti-defection measures. Moreover, their comparison is important because although these laws were adopted under seemingly very different circumstances, they were supported with a strong consensus by both the government party, or coalition, and the opposition. It is argued that the reasons for the passage of the anti-defection laws in these two states were rooted in the strategic consequences of the changes that took place in the format of their party systems. The Indian and the Israeli cases show, respectively, that a dominant party system (India) and a tightly balanced bipolar party system (Israel) provided equally compelling incentives for rampant party switching between government and opposition, which therefore created an incentive for both sides to agree to, and adopt, a strict legislative measure to curb defections.     

Y-chromosome STR haplotype in Szekely population

Eight Y-chromosome STR markers (DYS19, DYS389/I, DYS389/II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, DYS385) were examined in an isolated Szekely (known as old Hungarian) population living in Corund, Romania. Ninety different haplotypes were obtained from 99 unrelated Szekely males.     

DYNAMIC SCORING OF TAX REFORMS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

In this paper, we present the first dynamic scoring exercise linking a microsimulation and a dynamic general equilibrium model for Europe. We illustrate our novel methodology analyzing hypothetical reforms of the social insurance contributions system in Belgium. Our approach takes into account the feedback effects resulting from adjustments and behavioral responses in the labor market and the economy‐wide reaction to the tax policy changes essential for a comprehensive evaluation of the reforms. We find that the self‐financing effect of a reduction in employers’ social insurance contribution is substantially larger than that of a comparable reduction in employees’ social insurance contributions.     

Validity

Validity is the qualifying label of the norms in law and the acts executedin the name of the law, according to and by the force of which the norms andacts in question are recognized as the norms and the acts, respectively, ofthe existing legal system. This concept of validity, defining membership withinthe system,1 is simultaneously completed by a concept of validity that selectsand identifies the system itself. Accordingly, validity is also the qualifyinglabel of the system itself, according to and by the force of which the systemin question is recognized by the law and order of the international communityas one of the national legal systems.     

Motor vehicle accident with complete loss of consciousness due to vasovagal syncope

Vasovagal syncope (VVS) is one of the most common causes of complete or partial loss of consciousness, thus it might cause harm to the patients themselves or innocent bystanders while driving a car. In our case report we introduce the case of a 60-year-old man who was admitted to hospital after a serious motor vehicle accident due to loss of consciousness. We demonstrate the process and results of complete cardiologic and neurological assessment. Our case report illustrates the importance of recognition of patients with a high risk for incapacitating symptoms due to VVS, and the use of head-up tilt-table tests to determine the diagnosis and to guide therapy with beta-blocking agents. As transient loss of consciousness during driving may cause potentially fatal accident, it has to be taken into consideration during decision making for issue of driving licenses to patients with VVS.