Katarina Vitalisova, Kamila Borsekova (p)

The recent economic downturns and needs of austerity measures call for more efficient solutions not only in private, but also in public sector. The same counts for criminal justice system providing wide scale of public services requiring significant funding from public resources. Therefore, public sector is forced to search for more efficient ways of provisioning public services. Over the past few decades, the public sectors all over the world has undergone series of financial and non-financial reforms in an effort to improve its efficiency, effectiveness and accountability (Guthrie1998; Barton 2005). These reforms are considered to be driven by an ideological shift in the public sector to adopt more business, like private sector practices (Jackson and Lapsley 2003). Social Responsibility is equally applicable to both the public and private sector, and is concerned about professional and responsible management of relationship with the key stakeholders’ groups (On and Ilies 2012; Peattie 2011). Presented paper is focused on two significant reforms implemented in the public sector—social responsibility and electronic monitoring as well as their mutual relation and impact.The scientific objective of the paper is to analyse how is social responsibility approach implemented in the system of electronic monitoring on economic, legal and social level and to evaluate impact of this mutual interaction on selected public sector services. The paper is unique in its interdisciplinary orientation, brining social responsibility approach together with law, economic and social aspects of electronic monitoring. Present paper contains original data and the robust overview of implementation of electronic monitoring in European countries and outlines a close link to social responsible behavior in several aspects.
Key message of the paper is in interconnection of electronic monitoring and social responsibility approach on the level of individuals and institutions. Implementation of electronic monitoring as an alternative form of punishment may bring positive externalities in the matter of more responsible individuals and institutions that leads to the more responsible society.

Chen Sharony (p), Shlomo Mizrahi , Miki Malul

What are the factors affecting the gap between preferences for income redistribution and policy? Public preferences and policy are not in agreement in this field in some countries. This study compares preferences for redistribution and voting in OECD countries.
Previous studies dealt with identity politics, by which people base their political position on the interests of the social group with which they identify. However, few studies looked at the level of consistency between public preferences and election results.
This is a comparative study that used panel data from 24 OECD countries and compared the distribution of preferences for income redistribution and the distribution of election results between 1998 and 2013. Public preferences were measured by value surveys (ESS, ISSP). Election results were coded by "socio-economic policy position left-right scale". The study had 2 phases: 1. measuring the gap between public preference and election results using chi-square test for comparing both distributions. We used sum of squares to assess the gap level; 2. Panel regressions assessing the factors affecting this gap. The proposed factors are: social capital, ethnic heterogeneity, and government effectiveness and corruption.
The main finding is that none of the countries in any of the years had significant results. That is, the distributions of redistribution preferences and voting were always different. In addition, the countries that had a larger gap between preferences and voting were: Greece, Ireland, France, Portugal, and Japan. The countries that had a small gap were: Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Norway, and New Zealand. In the second step, the only factor that had significant effect on the gap was government effectiveness and corruption.
The main finding is compatible with identity politics theories and with previous studies showing incongruence between preferences and voting behavior. Most of the countries that had a large gap belong to the Mediterranean welfare model. This model is characterized by over-use of the welfare system and by Clientelism, which means use of the welfare system by politicians for political means. In this situation it is not surprising to find a gap between redistribution preferences and voting behavior. This is also in line with the finding that the main factor affecting the gap is government effectiveness and corruption. If the public perceives the welfare system as corrupt, or as a system that serves only certain (political) groups, people can become indifferent and so it is less likely that they would vote according to their preference.

Rebecca Riley (p)

This study looks at the emergence of new models of university civic engagement institutes and the hybrid roles which are being established to generate research impact in the UK. These roles sit in a 'grey space', the area which exists between the academic and the professional services, which by nature have mixed characteristics of both roles and leverage impact through these characteristics. The new government policy focus on impact is driving an agenda in UK universities around collaboration with local institutions, this work looks at whether the policy is working, what models are emerging and how universities are rising to the challenge. We will review the current policy context and drivers of the Research Excellence Framework, impact case studies and changing nature of UK research funding and how this is shaping activity in the social sciences and place based impact through collaboration with local public sector institutions. This review is grounded in the context of the role of anchor institutions and emerging civic engagement approaches. We will present a comparative assessment, where hybrid roles which span both the research delivery and the professional engagement and business management have been established. The comparative analysis will focus on the characteristics of these roles. We draw out the opportunities created for wider society, engagement with the local geography of the university, the theory of change and impact generated, business models employed and the roles and functions in the institutions. We will assess alternative models and develop a framework for measuring and evaluating the success of collaboration. This will be illustrated through a deep dive case study into City-REDI at the University of Birmingham, looking at the range of projects, partners and impact generated to understand the lessons for collaboration with universities, development of evidence based policy and the future of civic engagement which creates impact by default.

Ramona Tiganasu, Loredana Simionov (p)

The analysis of resilience can outline the vulnerabilities within a system in relation to various types of shocks (natural disasters, climate change, social and economic crisis, wars etc.), which may further explain its capacity to resist, to recover and to transform by adopting a new growth and development pattern. In particular, the resilience approach can capture the weaknesses of the systems characterised by instability, insecurity, institutional weaknesses and structural fragilities, as well as inefficient governance, thus offering a scientific basis for the design of public policies. An investigation of resilience capacity from institutional perspective should provide a system evaluation of the current situation in the EU’s eastern part, defined by political and economic crisis, the globalisation effects, the structural changes in the economy and society, the continuing search for reliable adaptability to a changing geopolitical environment, where the core-periphery relations on the European continent are repositioned in the context of a new power equilibrium between EU and Russia. Considering these aspects, the main purpose of the research is to identify which vulnerabilities caused delays in the development of EU’s eastern border countries (Romania, Republic of Moldova, Ukraine) and also a considerably slow progress through the implemented reforms. The paper will also examine to what extent the governance type in these states is dependent on the informal institutions, and how this fact influences the growth. To better capture the resilience capacity of these countries, will be done a reporting to the developed countries of the EU (it is also important to outline the differences in terms of resilience between EU and non-EU Member States). The addressed issues will be presented in a dynamic manner (ante and post-global crisis from 2007/2009) and the research methods used will include qualitative, comparative and empirical analysis. In the same time, using GIS (Geographical Information Systems), some resilience maps will be designed. Such analysis can help to propose adequate measures in order to increase resilience capacity, reinforcing cross-border cooperation and enhancing eastern economies’ convergence.