This paper investigates the benefits of joining the European Union (EU) and its impact on innovation for two indicators: patents and R&D expenditure. Based on a sample size of 27 countries within the EU observed over the time period 1996 to 2013 and utilising the GMM, FE and OLS models, I showed that, overall, entry into the EU has provided substantial benefits. Nevertheless, not all of the indicators of EU benefits are significant and sometimes did not provide positive impact on innovative activities. My evidence also suggests that with a further breakdown into two different regions, Western and Eastern Europe, there is a further rift in gains. Financial integration, for starters, has had a negative impact on innovation for both Western and Eastern Europe. Nevertheless, for the entire EU, financial integration has a positive impact on the number of patents filed. I also showed that another benefit of joining the EU, free movement of labour, has a negative and significant effect on both innovative indicators. This is consistent with the idea not all benefits of the EU provide a positive impact on innovation. Further research is warranted due to the insufficient time period.

China's emergence as one of the largest FDI source country has attracted global attention. There are many researches on the determinants and characteristics of China's outward FDI, but there are only few researches about China's outward FDI in CEE countries. Based on the dataset, which comprises data of 11 CEE EU member states over the period 2003-2014, this thesis investigates the determinants and patterns of China's outward FDI in CEE-11 countries by using a panel data technique. The regression results reveal that for the whole sample period, culture proximity and existing trade relation have significantly positive impacts and China's FDI in CEE-11 is negatively associated with the institution environment of host country. And the results also demonstrate that determinants of China's FDI in CEE-11 change over time. Besides, political relation is also an important influential factor and policy makers should put more effort to strengthen the bilateral cooperation.

Within the last decade, European states, particularly in the post-Communist and post-Soviet region, have elected more rightist-led governments. Poland is no exception and after a surprising election in 2015 led to a Law and Justice Party (PiS) government majority in the state, questions of how this political shift in the "role model" Eastern European state could impact Polish security began to circulate. (Lupitu, 2016, p. 25) This study analyses the PiS's security actions within its first year as the Polish government majority (2015-2016) to discern the potential agency political actors have in determining how regional security organisations function through a structure vs. agency framework. Using NATO as a unit of analysis, the study aims to synthesise regional security implications of Poland's political shift on the Alliance. To do so, a triangulated methodology is applied to four key security events and actions PiS took within 2015-2016 using both a document and news media analyses as well as three elite interviews. These four events include a controversial pardoning of the minister responsible for all Polish Special Services, lustration activities within Polish security agencies, a controversial dismissal of the head of NATO's Centre of Excellence in Warsaw and the Warsaw Summit of 2016. A common...

Finanční krize, která začala v roce 2008, ovlivnila nejen finanční sektor, ale i zbytek ekonomik mnoha zemí světa. Země střední a východní Evropy (SVE) zažily především negativní externí poptávkový šok. Tato dizertace analyzuje, zda exporty zemí SVE odpovídají změnám HDP a zda finanční krize měla na obchod zemí SVE dlouhodobé dopady. Analýza využívá data za období 2000-2018 za 12 zemí SVE v roli exportérů a celkem 198 importérů. Je založena na strukturálním gravitačním modelu využívajícím Baier & Bergstrandovu (2009) "Bonus Vetus" metodu doplněnou o roční dummy proměnné a vybrané párové dummies pro vybrané páry zemí. Výsledky v první řadě ukazují, že v souladu se základní logikou gravitačních modelů jsou vzdálenost a HDP vývozců a dovozců významnými determinantami exportů. Výsledky dále ukazují na přítomnost dalších efektů, tj. že obchod se během krize změnil více, než by odpovídalo čistě změnám HDP. Dummy proměnné vztažené k citlivosti na HDP a k úrovňovému efektu ukazují na dlouhodobé dopady krize na obchod. Pokud jde o další vlivy, členství v EU a přítomnost plovoucího kurzu může exportům napomoci, zatímco vliv členství v Eurozóně byl nevýznamný. Kvůli přítomnosti trvalejších efektů dále analyzujeme data na sektorové úrovni. Dopady se týkaly všech sektorů, ale příčiny a velikost se lišily. I...

The author (of the book) examines the religious musical traditions of Jews from Central and Eastern Europe, especially from the regions situated within the borders of pre-WWII Poland. These traditions are presented in a broader historical context, from the biblical times until today, as well as a geographical context, with the author outlining the main musical idioms of the Jewish Diaspora. The source basis comprises sound material collected during field research carried out in Poland and other Eastern European countries (between 2002 and 2013).

This thesis examines the intersection of cultural discourse and economic policies of the Hungarian populist radical right party, Fidesz. It classifies the cultural discourse of the governing party as neo-traditionalist by examining how the party's leader, Viktor Orbán, rhetorically shapes his vision of the nation, espouses traditional values, and uses missionary politics to create a personalized moral code under the guise of cultural Christianity. It examines the government's economic policies of nationalization and re-privatization, crony capitalism, and national work program within a neo-feudalist classification. This research finds that the neo-feudalist economic policies of Fidesz serve as a reinforcement mechanism that legitimizes the cultural discourse espoused by Orbán. Furthermore, the neo-feudal economy is reshaping the social system into a highly centralized and hierarchical structure and having lasting macroeconomic effects, including demographic issues and increasing levels of wealth inequality. This emerging illiberal model of governance is not only reshaping Hungary's political, economic, and social systems, but also contributing to a larger movement away from the tenets of liberal democracy within CEE. Keywords Neo-traditionalism, Neo-feudalism, Delayed transformational fatigue,...

After the signing of the Cultural Exchange Agreement in 1958, exhibitions of culture and technology were exchanged between the Soviet Union and the United States. These exhibitions continued to be exchanged well into the 1980s. This paper focuses on comment books from seven of these cultural exchange exhibitions, five in the Soviet Union and two in Eastern Europe, in the years between 1961 and 1976. The public nature of the comment books and the way they were treated by visitors made them a space for expressions of popular opinions over the issues of public policy and ideology. As such, they provide contemporary historians with a unique glimpse into the mindset of ordinary Soviet and Eastern European citizens during the Cold War. Based on the evidence from the comment books, and using methods elaborated by cultural anthropologists, this study shows that challenged by the display of apparent American superiority, most Soviet visitors preferred to fall back on the official ideology which claimed the moral superiority of their system. In the 1960s and early 1970s, the Soviet citizens experienced an upswing in communist morale, expressed a desire to compete with America and a conviction that their system will ultimately prevail over capitalism. However, to what extent such declarations should be accepted at their face value as sincere expressions of Soviet citizens‟ deep-seated convictions and to what extent they should be seen as situational responses to the perceived humiliation at the hands of foreigners remains unclear. While most Soviet visitors were defensive, invested in their ideology, and competitive with America, their reactions were not monolithic. Some of them were clearly fascinated by American consumer products and expressed an envious yearning to get possession of them, iv others stressed their openness to cultural exchange. There were apparently sincere expressions of support to the policy of détente, and of outrage over the Vietnam War. The Soviet visitors were aware of the unrest in American society caused by the civil rights movement, but were uninformed of the profound changes effected by this movement. Members of non-Russian minorities were interested in American ethnic diversity and sometimes implied their dislike of Moscow treatment of non-Russian nationalities. Eastern Europeans were less defensive and more open to American society and culture than the Soviets. Still, some of them also expressed procommunist sentiments and national pride. There was one issue, however, on which the Soviets and Eastern were clearly more in tune with American popular culture than with their own governments: consumerism and the sentiment of entitlement to the high quality goods that Americans had access to while they did not. It was on this issue that the eastern bloc regimes were facing the greatest threat.

Lelov, an otherwise quiet village about fifty miles south of Cracow (Poland), is where Rebbe Dovid (David) Biederman founder of the Lelov ultra-orthodox (Chasidic) Jewish group, - is buried. His grave is now a focal point of the Chasidic pilgrimages. The pilgrims themselves are a Chasidic hodgepodge, dressed in fur-brimmed hats, dreadlocked, and they all come to Lelov for the same reasons: to pray, love, and eat with their brethren. The number of pilgrims has grown exponentially since the collapse of Communism in Poland in 1989; today about three hundred ultra-orthodox Jews make a trek. Mass pilgrimage to kevorim (Chasidic graves), is quite a new phenomenon in Eastern Europe but it has already became part of Chasidic identity. This thesis focuses on the Chasidic pilgrimage which has always been a major part of the Jewish tradition. However, for the past fifty years, only a devoted few have been able to undertake trips back to Poland. With the collapse of Communism, when the sites in Eastern and Central Europe became more open and much more accessible, the ultra-orthodox Jews were among the first to create a ‘return movement’. Those who had been the last to leave Poland in search of asylum are now becoming the initiators of the re-discovery of Jewish symbols in this part of the world.

The wealth of literature which intends to explain various aspects of LGBT rights, politics, and activism in Eastern Europe has been well established (Swimelar, 2017, p. 912). There are currently two opposing theories on the effect of backlash on LGBT attitudes and activism. One theory, purported by O'Dwyer, suggests that backlash is beneficial to the visibility of LGBT issues and for attracting international attention and support. Rosenberg argues that right-wing backlash is detrimental to attitudes and activism (Rosenberg 2008, p. 344-347). These two arguments for and against the "benefits to backlash" approach are clearly defined and testable. With this paper, I will map out the history of anti-LGBT backlash in Russia, along with the development of the gay propaganda law, and how it supports or detracts from both theories.

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