Principles and Economic Style Moulded Into Sustainability and Foreign Policy Interests
“The concept of the Social Market Economy links the principle of freedom on the market and the instrument of competitive economics with the principle of solidarity and with mechanisms of social compensation. This link is not a mere smart decision of a purely institutional wisdom, but it lays on a decision on values which is borne by the moral foundations of our European culture”. This is the statement of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community. Most politicians and even academics who see themselves as Catholics normally take seriously most doctrinal declarations of this church’s leadership. Thus, it is expected that such declarations are to be found to a larger or smaller extent in drafted legislation and in created institutions. From such statements, the Social Market Economy develops advantages and shortcomings. Its advantages are related to its purpose of organising economic and social life at a national level in such a way that a competitive and creative balance of power between the economic agents, government and individuals as actors is achieved. Another advantage is its attempt at inclusiveness which is done via the corporatist approach in social and professional relations. Convincing individuals to join professional groups and defend their common interest is an inclusive and integrative approach. Nevertheless, corporatism can also be a shortcoming of the Social Market Economy because it induces a danger. If professional groups defend their interests in common, they have quite a big chance to dominate not only some of the members of parliament via their professional affiliation but even minister and thus parts of government. Particular interests are served here, even though they are not individual interests but small group interests. This happens at the expense of the general interest when such corporatist groups from within the Social Market Economy delay and sometimes block necessary economic reforms. Following the economic and financial crisis in 2007–2009, the national economic and social system in place in Germany and Austria had become known enough in order for the term “social market economy” to be adopted in art. 3 (3) of the EU Treaty of Lisbon. Thus, this system managed to pass from a national terminology in economic policy, which at times was even taken for a mere political label given in Germany, to a legally consecrated term enshrined in the EU Treaty texts.
A history of Western society
Origins ca. 400,000-1100 B.C.E. Small Kingdoms and Mighty Empires in the Near East ca. 1100-513 B.C.E. The Development of Classical Greece ca. 2000-338 B.C.E. The Hellenistic World 336-30 B.C.E. The Rise of Rome ca. 750-31 B.C.E. The Pax Romana 31 B.C.E.-284 C.E. Late Antiquity 250-600 Europe in the Early Middle Ages 600-1000 State and Church in the High Middle Ages 1000-1300 The Life of the People in the High Middle Ages 1000-1300 The Creativity and Challenges of Medieval Cities 1100-1300 The Crisis of the Later Middle Ages 1300-1450 European Society in the Age of the Renaissance 1350-1550 Reformations and Religious Wars 1500-1600 European Exploration and Conquest 1450-1650 Absolutism and Constitutionalism ca. 1589-1725 Toward a New Worldview 1540-1789 The Expansion of Europe 1650-1800 The Changing Life of the People 1700-1800 The Revolution in Politics 1775-1815 The Revolution in Energy and Industry, ca. 1780-1850 Ideologies and Upheavals, 1815-1850 Life in the Emerging Urban Society, 1840-1900 The Age of Nationalism, 1850-1914 The West and the World, 1815-1914 War and Revolution, 1914-1919 The Age of Anxiety, ca. 1900-1940 Dictatorships and the Second World War, 1919-1945 Cold War Conflict and Consensus 1945-1965 Challenging the Postwar Order 1960-1991 Europe in an Age of Globalization 1990 to the Present
Multi-layer inpainting on Chinese artwork
Digital inpainting uses spatial or frequency information to restore partially damaged/removed photos and artworks. Most restoration algorithms take a picture as a single layer. We propose a new approach, which subdivides a Chinese painting into several layers. Each layer is inpainted separately. The layer fusion mechanism then finds the optimal inpaint among layers, which are restored layer-bylayer. We apply the algorithm on Chinese and western drawing. The result shows a high PSNR value as well as a high user satisfaction. The demonstration of our work is available at: http://www.mine.tku.edu.tw/demos/inpaint.