The rapid decline of democracy in Hungary has been one of the EU's most challenging phenomena. The Hungarian parliamentary elections in 2010 saw Viktor Orban's Fidesz party rise to prominence and win a majority in the Hungarian parliament. That would be the starting point of a rapid decline in democracy but also in terms of civil liberties and political rights. This essay aims to address the serious issue of democratic backsliding in Hungary which has influenced other European union (EU) member states to follow the same course, such as Poland. This research identifies issues posed by the current ruling Fidesz party in five arenas: the civil society, the political society, the rule of law, the state bureaucracy, and the economic society. The issue of democratic backsliding is a common phenomena in the 21st century. Therefore, this bachelor's thesis will examine why Hungary became the subject of an extensive democratic backsliding which would turn the country into a hybrid regime.

The aim of this research is to show the effects of financial liberalisation on emerging market economies, how these economies removed restrictions on financial institutions so that they can be globally integrated, and to show the flow of international finance in and out of a country. This research also illustrates how the financial system in these economies moved from being government-led to being market-led. The main finding of this research is that many countries failed to reap the benefits of liberalisation because of weaknesses in the regulatory structure, undercapitalised banks, volatile markets and contagion effects. The research concludes that the long-term gains of liberalisation certainly supersede short-term instability of liberalisation. Thus, for financial liberalisation to have predominantly positive effects, attention should be drawn to the importance of a more prudent regulatory and supervisory environment. Furthermore, financial liberalisation must be accompanied by a sound institutional infrastructure, proper conduct of monetary and fiscal policies, a reduction in corruption, and an increase in transparency. In addition, liberalisation should be a gradual process whereby the right measures are taken in the right sequence. / Economics / M. Comm. (Economics)

The aim of this research is to show the effects of financial liberalisation on emerging market economies, how these economies removed restrictions on financial institutions so that they can be globally integrated, and to show the flow of international finance in and out of a country. This research also illustrates how the financial system in these economies moved from being government-led to being market-led. The main finding of this research is that many countries failed to reap the benefits of liberalisation because of weaknesses in the regulatory structure, undercapitalised banks, volatile markets and contagion effects. The research concludes that the long-term gains of liberalisation certainly supersede short-term instability of liberalisation. Thus, for financial liberalisation to have predominantly positive effects, attention should be drawn to the importance of a more prudent regulatory and supervisory environment. Furthermore, financial liberalisation must be accompanied by a sound institutional infrastructure, proper conduct of monetary and fiscal policies, a reduction in corruption, and an increase in transparency. In addition, liberalisation should be a gradual process whereby the right measures are taken in the right sequence. / Economics / M. Com. (Economics)

This research, has relevance in the wake of dwindling aid channelled to the third world rural poor. This study has explored ways of breaking away from benevolence and economism. The research explores four objectives that are focussed on scanning the boundary, in terms of challenges and possible solutions. This provides some in-depth understanding of challenges that face the process of establishing self-sustaining institutions of development. In the last two objectives, the research explores some programming alternatives that would enhance the establishment of democratic and participatory organisations that maximise social capital and grassroots democratisation. A list of guidelines specific to institutions has been drawn. The results of the survey reveal that sustainability cannot be predicted due to the uncertainties and ambiguities associated with project success. The hypothesis that participation and grassroots democratisation facilitates project success has been validated and there was greater project success in participatory organisations, given the baseline context. / Development Studies / M.A. (Development Studies)

Financial liberalisation, through increasing investment as well as the average productivity of capital, should stimulate economic growth, or so the theory goes. Bank lending unfortunately suffers adverse selection and moral hazard effects, to which the establishment and expansion of stock markets has been offered as a remedy. However, research from developing country stock markets have shown that in many cases these markets did not complement the effects of credit market liberalisation but in rather important aspects subverted them. Countries that implemented credit market liberalisation and raised real interest rates only increased the price of debt capital rather than all capital. This caused a share price boom in many of them. When the price of equity capital fell it seriously undermined and indeed allowed large private corporations to skip altogether the main channel of high interest rates through which the theoretical McKinnon-Shaw effects were to operate. This study asks the research question of what effect the expansion of the South African stock exchange has had for its economic development. It makes use of a general empirical model to explain the relationship between financial development and real output. The model comprises indicators for growth, banking system development, stock market volatility; and, stock market development through a conglomerate index that accounts for market size, liquidity and integration with world capital markets. Quarterly data from 1989 to 2001 is analysed based on the null hypothesis that, as far as financial architecture is concerned, the development of the JSE Securities Exchange has stimulated the country's economic growth. This study found a negative and statistically significant relation between stock market development and economic growth. It suggests that while the JSE Securities Exchange is a relatively large stock market it is the presence of thin trading that prevents the proposed benefits of market development from accruing to the economy. Thus the hypothesis is rejected. However, since the only stable cointegrating vector is between growth and banking sector development, it recommends that by expanding their universal banking functions, the present banking structure, though oligopolistic, may be better suited to act as a catalyst for growth. / Business Management / D. Comm.

This is a comparative study of the spatial patterns of peasant crop farming in Chibombo District between the 1980s and the 1990s. The study lists and discusses the agricultural support system, communication infrastructure and the crop production and patterns of the 1980s within the environment of centralised planning and then compares these to the structures and patterns of the 1990s in an atmosphere of economic liberalisation. This comparison in crop production, cropping patterns, institutional support systems and the communication infrastructure in five sampled farming wards of Chibombo District, leads to the conclusion that there is a marked change in the structures and patterns of the 1990s from those of the 1980s. Thus, in Chibombo District, the state of the communication infrastructure in the 1990s is generally poorer than the communication infrastructure of the 1980s, the agricultural support system of the 1990s is largely privately owned and found in fewer farming areas while the agricultural support system of the 1980s was state controlled and more widely spread, and crop patterns in some farming wards are different in the 1990s from those of the 1980s. In the 1990s, crop production in farming wards with a supportive environment has increased than it was in the 1980s but decreased in those where a conducive environment lacks. In this line, the study makes several recommendations for consideration on how to mitigate the problems that the peasant farmers are facing or how to enhance the positive changes that have occurred in Chibombo District. / Geography / M.A. (Geography)

L'importance considérable des marchés publics, parmi les activités économiques de l'administration de l'État moderne, a poussé l'Union européenne, pour plusieurs raisons socio-économiques, à établir une réglementation unifiant les règles nationales afférentes afin d'assurer dans l'espace de l'Union une concurrence libre et saine entre les opérateurs économiques intéressés. Pour ce faire, outre les préceptes impérativement édictés par son droit primaire, l'Union a imposé aussi son droit dérivé sur la matière par des directives bien détaillées. Une définition extensive de la notion de marchés publics, encouragée constamment par la jurisprudence de la Cour, une catégorisation des modalités du régime de « passation des marchés publics » et une réglementation européenne procédurale pour la protection des intéressés ont été élaboré. La question s'élève donc sur l'impact de ce droit ainsi établit en la matière par l'Union européenne sur des considérations de base du droit public hellénique. Dans ce cadre d'harmonisation des droits nationaux sur la matière, se trouve l'opération d'insertion du droit de l'Union européenne dans l'ordre juridique hellénique ; insertion effectuée par les autorités normatives nationales, législateur et administration ; tandis que sur le domaine procédural un contrôle juridictionnel s'exerce sur cette réception dans l'ordre juridique national tant par le juge européen que par le juge national. De cette manière on peut esquisser la marge de liberté contractuelle des autorités publiques helléniques à l'aune des exigences du droit de l'Union européenne. / The significance of public contracts amongst the economic activities of the modern state's administration, has led the European Union- for several socio-economic rationales- to establish a uniform regulatory framework so as to ensure fair and unbridled competition between the economic operators of the different Member States. To this end, in addition to the provisions of primary law, the EU has further enacted secondary legislation in the form of exhaustively detailed directives. In order to achieve the effective application of EU law in several public contracts a broad interpretation of the public contracts concept was developed, persistently encouraged by the Court's case law, and a categorisation of the public procurement types was adopted. Furthermore, European procedural rules were introduced with the aim of safeguarding rights that individuals derive from that law. The question thus is what is the impact of this comprehensive regulatory framework on the Greek public law considerations on the subject. It is in the context of national laws' harmonisation on the matter, that EU law is inserted in the Greek legislation ; this insertion is carried out via national regulatory authorities, the legislator and the administration ; moreover, in the procedural field, both the European and the national judge exercise judicial control over the reception of the EU law in the national legal order. By way of the aforementioned structure the contractual discretion of the Hellenic public authorities in the course of fulfilling the requirements imposed by EU law can be thoroughly explored.

This thesis deals with a description and analysis of the EU law and policy on Schengen visas. The EU visa policy is analysed in its historical development and its place in the framework of Schengen acquis. Separately, important visa policy measures are analysed including the typology of visas, exceptions from visa obligation, visa reciprocity, visa facilitation and processes of visa liberalisation. Different phases of the visa procedure are studied with focus on the questions whether there is a right to be issued a Schengen visa when the conditions are met and the right of appeal. The relevant legislation subject to analysis is above all the Visa Code, the regulation on visa lists and the relevant jurisprudence of the Court of Justice. By way of illustration, the implementation in the Czech legal order is used and jurisprudence of the Czech higher courts is quoted to show to what extent the EU visa procedure and visa refusal matches the requirements of the administrative law theory on the administrative procedure and decision in general. The relevant rules are assessed as to the extent they match with principles of legitimacy, influence of legal certainty, effectiveness and proportionality. The core of the work is a hypothesis that current EU visa rules do not establish a right to a visa when the...

Cette étude analyse l’impact du processus libéral de paix en République Démocratique du Congo sur la poursuite des violences dans les provinces du Nord et du Sud Kivu. Elle soutient que les dynamiques conflictuelles dans ces deux régions sont entretenues par l’établissement d’un programme de partage de pouvoir (power sharing), inclusif, jumelé à l’application des réformes économiques libérales. En se concentrant sur la réforme du secteur de sécurité et l’harmonisation de la politique nationale (en vue des élections post-conflictuelles de 2006), le processus de paix néglige les enjeux politiques et socio-économiques locaux. Le désengagement de l’État et la libéralisation du secteur minier accentuent le taux de corruption du gouvernement de transition et renforcent l’exploitation illégale des ressources par les groupes armés. Cette recherche soutient que l’implantation massive d’entreprises minières multinationales dans les provinces du Nord et du Sud Kivu aggrave la déformation des tissus socio-économiques locaux, accentue la dépendance des populations aux réseaux de gouvernance informelle et renforce les divers groupes armés présents sur le terrain. Par conséquent, les réformes structurelles menées dans le cadre du processus libéral de paix font perdurer les violences et occasionnent de nouvelles dynamiques conflictuelles localisées autour du contrôle des ressources locales, qu’elles soient d’ordre économique ou politique. / This study analyzes the impact of the liberal peace process on the continuation of violence in the provinces of North and South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The study finds that conflict dynamics in the two regions are maintained by the establishment of an inclusive power sharing program that is paired with the application of liberal economic reforms. By focusing on reforms in the security sector and on the harmonization of national politics (with the post-conflict elections of 2006 in view), the peace process neglects local political and socio-economic issues. The disengagement of the state and the liberalization of the mining sector increase the corruption levels of the transition government and reinforce the illegal exploitation of resources by armed groups. This research supports that the massive establishment of multinational mining companies in the provinces of North and South Kivu contributes to the deformation of the local socio-economic fabric, increasing the dependence of local populations to informal governance networks and strengthening the diverse armed groups present in the region. Thus, the structural reforms carried within the framework of the liberal peace process perpetuate violence and cause new conflict dynamics centered around the control of local resources, whether economic or political.

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