1,721,009 research outputs found
D’Hondt’s spirit in Strasbourg : the principle of proportional distribution of posts in the European Parliament
Full text linkProportionality is an intrinsic feature of parliamentary democracy. It is a principle stating that, depending on its size, each political party has a commensurate ability to influence legislature. This is confirmed by comparative studies which show that proportionality is a significant principle in the distribution of parliamentary posts in a majority of West European states. Consequently, even deputies from the smallest parties can chair commissions or lead sessions of the chambers, and by this token participate in the political decision-making process. This softens the domination of the majority party and – in line with Arend Lijphart’s concept – generates consensual democracy, based on the search for broad compromises instead of simply outvoting the opponent.
Given this picture, a question emerges whether the situation is similar in the representative institution of the European Union, i.e. the European Parliament. The paper answers this question positively. The standard of proportionality has strong roots in the European Parliament forming a fundamental principle expressed in terms of d’Hondt’s formula applied to distribute posts among different political groups. This mainly concerns the division of the members of the Presidium and commission chairmen, who exercise the most important decisive functions. The implementation of the idea of appropriate representation may not be ideal, but divergences are rare, insignificant and usually they result from political bargaining that favors smaller fractions. The proportionality principle is also binding when distributing parliamentary posts inside political groups. There is a strong and positive correlation between the size of national delegations and the number of key posts they obtain in the Parliament – members of the Presidium, commission chairmen and coordinators. Only in thecase of the latter is proportionality subjected to certain distortions, following from their key political importance. This, however, does not interfere with the general picture of symmetric participation of national groups in appointing parliamentary posts. In conclusion, the standard of proportionality allows all political groups to adequately participate in the work of the European Parliament, which deserves to be emphasized, the more so, as it is not formalized
Evaluating the impact of the Lisbon Treaty on the European Union's legislative productivity
Full text linkThe purpose of this article is to analyze whether the Treaty of Lisbon provisions have - as expected - increased the EU legislative productivity. To this end, the author tests the hypothesis that the TL has increased the number of legislative proposals submitted by the European Commission under the ordinary legislative procedure. This expectation is verified using a negative binomial regression on a dataset containing 1116 draft acts proposed by the Commission in 2004-2014. The analysis shows that, contrary to expectations, the Treaty of Lisbon has not led to a visible increase in EU legislative productivity. Despite the extension of treaty bases envisaging the OLP and QMV, the number of proposals submitted under this procedure after the entry into force of the TL remained more or less at the same level as before. In addition, the study reveals that adaptation, anticipation of future enlargement, closeness to the end of the EP term as well as annual schedule of legislative work are key predictors of the Commission’s productivity
Political and economic aspects of relations between Ukraine and the European Union within the Eastern Partnership in 2009-2024
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Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
How to negotiate in Brussels? : decision-making in the European Union
No full textCelem książki jest dokonanie wielowymiarowej, empirycznej analizy procesu podejmowania decyzji w Unii Europejskiej oraz sformułowanie rekomendacji dla Parlamentu Europejskiego, jak powinien negocjować z Radą, aby zwiększyć skuteczność swoich poprawek. Przedmiotem analizy jest proces decyzyjny w ramach zwykłej procedury ustawodawczej (ZPU, wcześniej współdecydowanie) oraz jednej ze specjalnych procedur ustawodawczych - konsultacji. W książce postawiono trzy pytania badawcze. Pierwsze brzmi: Jak wygląda formalny oraz nieformalny przebieg podejmowania decyzji w ramach ZPU i konsultacji? Szczególny nacisk położono na ten drugi aspekt, gdyż wymiar prawny został już właściwie wyczerpująco omówiony w literaturze. Odpowiedź na powyższe pytanie zawarto w rozdziale trzecim, w którym szczegółowo zanalizowano formalnoprawne ramy ZPU i konsultacji, oraz w rozdziale czwartym, gdzie scharakteryzowano praktyczne, nieformalne mechanizmy unijnego podejmowania decyzji. Drugie pytanie badawcze dotyczy efektów procesu podejmowania decyzji i zostało sformułowane następująco: Jakie czynniki i warunki wpływają na określony wynik negocjacji legislacyjnych w ZPU i w konsultacji? Inaczej mówiąc, co sprawia, że w danej procedurze postulaty Parlamentu i Rady są częściej akceptowane niż inne? Rozstrzygnięcie tego problemu znajduje się w rozdziale piątym i szóstym, w których zbadano wpływ teoretycznych czynników na prawdopodobieństwo inkorporacji żądań Parlamentu kolejno w ZPU i w konsultacji.
Trzecie pytanie badawcze brzmi: Czy teoria konstruktywizmu społecznego dobrze wyjaśnia przebieg i efekty unijnego procesu podejmowania decyzji i - tym samym - zawiera jakąkolwiek wartość dodaną w świetle dotychczasowych badań w tej materii
Making decisions in the area of Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union from the perspective of social constructivism
No full textBiometric identification of human identity in the light of human rights : the case of a biometric passport
No full textOd początku XXI wieku, zwłaszcza od momentu zamachów terrorystycznych z 11 września 2001 r., w prawodawstwie Unii Europejskiej uwidacznia się zjawisko zwane biometryzacją. Polega ono na przyjmowaniu aktów normatywnych umożliwiających wykorzystywanie charakterystycznych i niepowtarzalnych cech człowieka (np. odcisków palców, tęczówki oka, profili DNA) w celu ustalenia jego tożsamości. Niniejszy artykuł ma na celu analizę prawnych aspektów oraz konsekwencji tego zjawiska. Rozdział pierwszy koncentruje się na technicznych aspektach biometrii, w szczególności wyjaśnia główne pojęcia z nią związane, opisuje dwie metody biometrycznego uwierzytelniania - weryfikację i identyfikację oraz sprawdza ich skuteczność przy ustalaniu tożsamości. W rozdziale drugim ma miejsce krytyczna analiza postanowień rozporządzenia ustanawiającego paszporty biometryczne. Natomiast rozdział trzeci przedstawia zarzuty w stosunku do polskich unormowań paszportowych. Konkluzje podsumowują uzyskane wnioski. Generalnie, artykuł stwierdza, że przepisy biometryczne mają wiele wad i luk. Po pierwsze, rozporządzenie paszportowe UE nie przechodzi testu „niezbędnego w społeczeństwie demokratycznym” zawartego w art. 8 ust. 2 Europejskiej Konwencji Praw Człowieka. Po drugie, narusza ono zasadę proporcjonalności ustanowioną dyrektywą 95/46/WE, ponieważ użycie dwóch identyfikatorów biometrycznych (odcisków palców i skanowania twarzy) jest nadmierne w stosunku do celów, dla których są gromadzone. Po trzecie, rozporządzenie umożliwia wybór modelu identyfikacyjnego sprawdzania tożsamości, który jest znacznie bardziej wrażliwy dla prywatności ludzi niż model weryfikacyjny. Ponadto przepisy polskiego paszportu biometrycznego określają szeroki i nieproporcjonalny zakres podmiotów, w tym policję, które mają dostęp do cech biometrycznych, są głównie umieszczane w akcie wykonawczym, co jest niezgodne z art. 8 ust 2. EKPCz, a nawet wprowadzają rozwiązania niezgodne z Konstytucją RP.Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, especially after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, one can observe the emergence of a number of biometric regulations in the European Union legislation. These normative acts enable to use specific and unique human qualities (such as fingerprints, iris or DNA) in order to establish identity. The article aims to discuss the legal factors and consequences of this phenomenon. The first chapter focuses on the technical aspects of biometrics, in particular two methods of biometric authentication - verification and identification, and their effectiveness in determining human identity. It comes to conclusion that biometrics is not as accurate and faultless as it is commonly presented. In the second chapter, the article critically examines the legal aspects of the use of biometrics in the EU biometric passport regulation, while the third section presents the allegations against Polish passport provisions. Generally, the article finds that biometric regulations have plenty of drawbacks and lacunae. First, the EU passport regulation does not pass the "necessary in a democratic society" test included in article 8.2 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Second, it breaches the principle of proportionality established by 95/46/EC directive as the use of two biometric identifiers (fingerprints and face scan) is excessive in relation to the purposes for which they are collected. Third, it permits to choose identification model of checking identity which is much more sensitive to human privacy than verification. In addition, the Polish biometric passport provisions specify a wide and disproportionate range of entities, including the police, who have access to traits, are mainly placed in the executive act what is inconsistent with art. 8.2 ECHR, and even introduce unconstitutional measures
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