POLITICAL IDEOLOGY AS AN EVOLUTIONARY SYSTEM (TO THE THEORY OF COGNITIVE-IDEOLOGICAL MATRICES)

The aim of the article is to concretize the concept of political ideology in the aspect of its matrix structure and in the context of the cognitive-evolutionary approach. Based on Michael Frieden's morphological approach to the analysis of ideological consciousness, the concept of cognitive-ideological matrices is introduced, which allows us to describe the process of transition from proto-ideological to ideological concepts proper, especially at the level of individual consciousness. The identification of the ideological concept as the main “gene” of conceptual variability and inheritance made it possible to describe the main parameters of the evolution of political ideologies and associate it with changes taking place at the individual consciousness level. The described concept was tested in a series of sociological studies of youth consciousness conducted in 2015-2016 and 2018-2020. As a result of the study, it was possible to first identify the “zero level” of ideology, at which the minds of young respondents are potentially open to the influence of diverse and often mutually exclusive ideological orientations, and second, to pinpoint the changes that have occurred in the cognitive ideological matrices of Rostov-on-Don students over the past five years. This study was conducted by scientists from the southern Federal University.

ELECTRONIC EVIDENCE IN CIVIL PROCEEDINGS IN INDIA

A significant leap in the development of information technology over the past twenty years has made the global legal community respond to new challenges that have come along with the progress in the digital environment. Together with the convenience of using electronic resources, society has developed a need for a simple and understandable legislative regulation of legal relations arising from the use of computer information technologies and various products of electronic digital activity in order to protect their interests potentially. The concept and types of electronic evidence in civil proceedings in different countries have different meanings. Meanwhile, the regulations of their procedural admissibility and applicability differ. The common thing is the tendency towards an increase in the use of electronic information carriers in court proceedings, increasing importance for establishing specific facts, and the decisive evidentiary role in making decisions by the court. India became one of the first countries to realize the growing level of implementation of Internet technologies, electronic digital storage media, and computer dominance in society and the state's daily life [1] (Artemyeva, Y.A. et al.). The consequence of this understanding was the timely development and implementation of the substantive and procedural bases in evidence law for practical, understandable, and convenient use of electronic evidence in civil proceedings. The article examines the types and procedural status of electronic evidence and analyzes the current legislation and law enforcement practice in the admissibility and application of electronic evidence in civil proceedings in India. The study identifies the existing system of electronic evidence in the legal field of India, the determination of the advantages and disadvantages in the gathering, presentation, research, and evaluation of electronic evidence by the court in civil proceedings, as well as the identification of the procedural order for their provision. The researchers have identified the following tasks to achieve the goals: • to define and research the legislation of India governing the concept, types and procedural order of applicability and admissibility of electronic evidence in civil proceedings in India; • to develop a particular procedural order for the effective use of the institution of electronic evidence in civil litigation in India; • to identify the current trends in the gathering, presentation, research, and evaluation of electronic evidence in India's courts, based on the established judicial practice study. The research methodology is based on general theoretical and scientific methods of cognition, including abstraction and specification, analysis and synthesis, modeling and comparison, and systemic, logical, and functional analyzes. The scientific novelty of the research consists of a comprehensive study of the instruments of legal regulation of the institution of electronic evidence in India's legal field, including regulatory legal acts and judicial precedents, and a consideration of the possibility of applying Indian approaches in the jurisdictions of other countries. The analysis of legislation and jurisprudence regarding electronic evidence in India's civil proceedings was carried out using the synergistic principle of object study, statistical-sequential analysis, and empirical research method. This study's results can be used in lawmaking to develop and improve regulations regarding the procedural status and use of electronic evidence in civil litigation in any country. The reference, citation, and use of this article's conclusions and materials are permissible when conducting lectures and seminars on civil procedure and private international law, research activities, law enforcement practice, and teaching.

APPLICATION OF SPC AND GROWTH MODELS ON THE ECONOMIC TRAJECTORY OF THE LEATHER AND FOOTWEAR INDUSTRY

The paper shows the relation among the number of small, medium and large companies in the leather and footwear industry in Croatia, as well as the relation among the number of their employees by means of the Spearman and Pearson correlation coefficient. The data were collected during 21 years. The warning zone and the risk zone were determined by means of the Statistical Process Control (SPC) for a certain number of small, medium and large companies in the leather and footwear industry in Croatia. Growth models, based on externalities, models based on research and development and the AK models were applied for the analysis of the obtained research results. The paper shows using the correlation coefficients that The relation between the number of large companies and their number of employees is the strongest, i.e. large companies have the best structured work places. The relation between the number of medium companies and the number of their employees is a bit weaker, while there is no relation in small companies. This is best described by growth models based on externalities, in which growth generates the increase in human capital, i.e. the growth of the level of knowledge and skills in the entire economy, but also deductively in companies on microeconomic level. These models also recognize the limit of accumulated knowledge after which growth may be expected. The absence of growth in small companies results from an insufficient level of human capital and failure to reach its limit level which could generate growth. According to Statistical Process Control (SPC), control charts, as well as regression models, it is clear that the most cost-effective investment is the investment into medium companies. The paper demonstrates the disadvantages in small, medium and large companies in the leather and footwear industry in Croatia. Small companies often emerge too quickly and disappear too easily owing to the employment of administrative staff instead of professional production staff. As the models emphasize, companies need to invest into their employees and employ good production staff. Investment and support to the medium companies not only strengthens the companies which have a well-arranged technological process and a good systematization of work places, but this also helps large companies, as there is a strong correlation between the number of medium and large companies.

STRATEGIES FOR IMPOSING A CHARGE ON ONLINE NEWS CONTENT DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The COVID-19 pandemic not only marked global events in 2020, but also left its marks on news media functioning. The Coronavirus has become a thematic agenda of the newscast of the last month in global, national, and regional media. While radio and TV stations came up with special programmes on the subject of the pandemic, in newspapers, on the Internet and in mobile applications there appeared specialized sections and columns, in which media published news items thematically related to the Coronavirus. Some TV stations made their archives and other usually paid services available free of charge, and mobile operators offered their customers unlimited data. However, the approach to the charging a toll for the Internet content has also changed. While some media made all content available to their readers, others unlocked, for instance, news items and various content devoted to the pandemic (comments, analyzes, information graphics, etc.). The purpose of the paper is to point out different approaches to the strategy of imposing a charge on the content of news websites during the COVID-19 pandemic, on the example of the most widely read Slovak news portals.

CONSEQUENCES OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON THE WORLD AND SERBIAN ECONOMY

One of the biggest economic crises since the industrial revolution centuries ago is underway, and its intensity is still invisible. The current crisis is caused by the corona virus (COVID-19) pandemic. In March, when the corona began to take off all over the world, including in Serbia, leading epidemiologists claimed that it would be better from May, some even from June, guided by the thesis that warmer weather could stop the virus and bring life back. on the "old". It is now almost impossible to give any precise forecast, both from the health and economic aspect. The only thing that is certain is uncertainty, both for workers and managers and owners, and uncertainty often brings with it fear. The economic crisis of 2020 differs from the crisis of 2008 because the current one was caused by the states with their measures, and the last one was caused by the financial sector by uncontrolled risky behavior. The consequences will be similar, because again, the banks will warn the states that they have borrowed too much, as if the debt did not arise first in order for the banks to be saved. Unlike the world economic crisis that was current ten years ago, this crisis does not have a clear focus in the financial system that can be identified and acted upon with adequate measures. The economic consequences of the pandemic are greater the more economically underdeveloped the country is, and Serbia entered this crisis as a country burdened with numerous problems, a high share of public debt in GDP and developmentally dependent on foreign capital. The suspension of economic activity for a certain period and its restart in an environment of uncertainty and fear of the now certain second wave, are trends that some companies will survive with certain reductions in production and work capacity.

ASSESSMENT OF BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT DEVELOPMENT PERCEPTION UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF COVID-19: THE CASE OF LATVIA

Not only macroeconomic growth scenarios and forecasts but also business environment assessments and development forecasts have changed as a result of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the forecasts are based on objective data on the performance of economic sectors; however, some of them are based on business perceptions or business sentiment assessments. There is no doubt that these perceptions and business sentiment assessments differ within business sectors and according to size of the company, regional location and type of business. The aim of the research is to identify and provide an assessment of the business environment development perceptions in the COVID-19 situation in Latvia and compare them with business sentiment assessments from other countries. Specific tasks of the research: to collect information on business environment changes in Latvia in the COVID-19 situation; to compile business perceptions of the impact of COVID-19 on the business environment in the world and in Latvia; to identify the perceptions of the business environment in the most important business sectors in Latvia. Methods: monographic, data grouping, logical construction and mathematical and statistical analysis. The research identified business environment changes in business sectors in Latvia under COVID-19’s influence and business perceptions of the impact of COVID-19 on the business environment for the next 6 months. Based on the research, the authors have drawn conclusions about the future development of the business environment and have identified the sectors that will be negatively affected by the COVID-19 crisis in the coming months.

FOSTERING RESILIENCE IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE 2015 EUROPEAN NEIGHBORHOOD POLICY REVIEW׃ EVIDENCE FROM JORDAN

Resilience has become a priority for the EU in its 2015 European Neighborhood Policy review (ENP), It refers to building state and societal resilience of the Union as a whole, its members and the EU׳s neighbors including Jordan, a strategic southern partner of the EU. In this regard, the EU Building resilience in Jordan in response for crises as the Syrian refugee crisis seems workable but the EU needs to foster it. Thus, this paper’s question is How can the EU foster resilience after it has become a priority in its 2015 (ENP) review in case of Jordan? While many scholars like David Chandler argues that the EU could foster resilience in its neighboring countries by making it a local self-governing project and not an external imposed project where the EU has the mission of monitoring and assessment, in this paper, based on document analysis from official websites for the EU and Jordan including their official bilateral and multilateral agreements and textual analysis of the current literature on building resilience I argue that fostering resilience requires both presenting resilience as a self-governing project with a greater engagement of the Jordanian government, local community and its civil society, at the same time , it needs a better mechanism for the EU in monitoring and assessment, and more importantly helping Jordan to establish the best institutional design that could foster state and societal resilience in Jordan.

COMPETITION FOR EAST ASIA – BALANCING STRATEGIES OF THE USA AGAINST CHINA

China has been a rising power in East Asia for decades. The end of the Cold War and the increasing effects of globalization brought the country in the forefront of attention on the international scene. The economic importance of the East Asian giant cannot be denied. Its economic power has been translating into a powerful tool to upset the balance of power tremendously. China has been expanding its influence around the globe and challenging the status quo more than ever before. The United States, the strongest state in the current international system has to pay attention to the increasingly assertive China. The USA uses several strategies to mitigate the threat China poses to the world order that the USA built. The structural forces of the international system, the Covid-19 pandemic, and American domestic politics make the threat of rising China more challenging. In my paper, I try to identify the balancing strategies of the United States in the 21st century against China. In my opinion, the application of neoclassical realist school of international relations can foreshadow the possible paths of the conflict. The United States of America has to use a wide variety of balancing strategies in order to counter the threat. A heavier reliance on allies is inevitable for the United States if it wants to contain the increasing influence of China around the globe. The USA should increase its hard-, soft-, and asymmetrical balancing methods mixed with smart power strategies to remain on the top of the international system. In my opinion, the showdown between China and the United States of America will be inevitable in the medium term. If the USA uses its position right, the peaceful containment of Chinese ambitions is possible. The successes of the above-mentioned strategies will decide how the competition of these two countries shape the international relations in the coming decades.

ADEQUACY OF DISABILITY PENSION SYSTEM IN LATVIA

The author analyzes the performance of the disability pension system in Latvia in order to assess the ability of the system to perform its main function: to prevent poverty among people with disabilities. It has been found that the system does not meet the criteria of adequacy and the causes of problem have been addressed. In the analysis, the author uses statistical data from Eurostat and the Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia, Mutual Information System on Social Protection (MISSOC) database, as well as considers statutory regulations. Particular attention is paid to such an element of the pension system as statutory minimum pension amount as a key tool aimed at ensuring the adequacy of the social protection of people with disabilities. Additionally, the author provides a comparative analysis of minimum disability pension provisions in the EU member states. Since the systems of old-age pensions and disability pensions in Latvia are closely connected, the author emphases the importance of the improvement of the adequacy of disability pensions in achieving more adequate old-age pensions.

THE RISE OF NEW POLITICAL PARTIES. A NICE STORY OR A STRONG FUTURE?

The current political scene is undergoing visible and often incomprehensible changes for the average person. The rise of new political forces is a topical issue, especially in the context of an ideological reconfiguration. Even if it is possible to play in a vast history, where ideological directions can be given, a specialist can observe that in several ocasions the political parties go beyond their own ideological boundaries to attract more voters and retain power. There are a number of new political forces, built on the fight against corruption and the anti-system in several states of the European Union. They often do not have a clear ideology, consisting of a wide range of members who do not share the principles of a common ideology. Some emerged in response to the populist danger that seemed to grip the European Union ahead of the European Parliament elections on May 26, 2019. Is it a closed path or are we preparing for a new paradigm in shaping political ideologies? I will try to give an answer in this article by going on a case study in Romania, regarding the last configurations of political parties. Is there a need to have a clear ideology, doctrine or the voters need to have a simple set of principles to support?