The Burdens of Freedom: Eastern Europe since 1989
* Acknowledgements * Maps * Introduction: The Shock of the New * 1. Different Paths on an Open Road: Economic and Social Change * 2. In Praise of Ethnic Cleansing? National Struggles * 3. Peeling the Past: Nostalgia and Punishment * 4. Portraits in Hubris: Democratic Politics * 5. A New Europe: The East in the West * Conclusion: The Edge of History * Notes * Index
Europe’s Little Tiger?: Reassessing Economic Transition in Slovakia under the Mečiar Government 1993-1998
Vladimir Meciar, the first Prime Minister of independent Slovakia, is often criticized for his suppression of free media, political repression, and the widespread corruption of his government from 1993-1998. Meciar has also been attacked for his economic policies, which critics suggest slowed down privatization and left Slovakia in a huge debt crisis. A closer look at macroeconomic data, however, demonstrates an impressive economic record for Meciar, who oversaw several years of strong GDP growth, and relatively low levels of unemployment and inflation. By slowing down the privatization process, retaining control of key industries, and maintaining the social safety net, Meciar was able to soften the blow of economic transition in Slovakia and prepare the groundwork politically for later market reform. Quick “shock therapy” in 1993 would have been politically disastrous in the nascent state, and it was only as a result of Meciar’s slow-go policies that Slovakia is seen today as one of the great successes of post-Communist economic transition.
The National PKI of Peru: a new certification hierarchy
In order to guarantee secure transactions through the Internet and to generate strong evidence that could be used in case of future legal disputes, several countries around the world have promoted and regulated the use of digital signatures based on Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). However, despite the high expectations, its implementation has achieved neither the desired results nor its globalization. Many of the reasons were discovered years ago, but they are still open problems for the scientific community nowadays. In order to consider the case of the national PKI of the Peruvian state as empirical evidence for studies that address the open problems, this article describes the details about a new certification hierarchy which is expected to overcome some of its predecessors’ limitations. It is also expected that the information disclosed in this article could be useful to other countries for making a preliminary assessment for possible cross-border recognition of Peruvian digital signatures.