2010 Issue №4(6)

This article discusses the trends of demographic development of the Baltic Sea region's cities. It analyses the factors affecting the urban population dynamics in the second half of the 20th — the beginning of the 21st centuries. The authors emphasise the dependence of the Baltic cities on the socioeconomic development level throughout the region as well as intraregional disparities. The article analyses the conclusions drawn in the "Urban audit.2007" report.

This article focuses on the key aspects of population development in the historical cores of leading global urban regions at the stage of globalisation. The research sets out to identify and describe the common — model — and individual features of the demographic modernisation process.

This article analyses the demographic problems of the Pskov region. The authors propose a system of government regulation of demographic processes in view of the functions of the regional executive authorities.

The paper presents the result of a spatial analysis considering the effect of demographic ageing and ageing-in-place processes in Germany according to spatially differentiated ageing patterns among urban, sub-urban and rural counties up to 2025. As to the latest official population forecast counties of urban core regions will undergo a slower ageing process than other types of counties, resulting in a reversal of ageing patterns. Urban core areas in this analysis will gain demographically from their net migration surplus while suburban housing locations of the past will be no longer able to attract enough young migrants to compensate for their now rapidly ageing baby boomer generation. The process presented is typical for the fate of (suburban) housing areas with homogenous populations under conditions of ageing and shrinking if spatial mobility in ageing population groups is declining.

This article analyses the migration streams in the Baltic Sea region in 1950—2009. The geography of migration movement is considered at the level of state and at the mesolevel. The author assesses the influence of migration on the socioeconomic situation in the region.

This article presents the results of an integrated research encompassing both the study of migration processes in the South-East Baltic (volume, structure, directions) and the analysis of factors affecting migration mobility of the population as well as the assessment of migration influence on the socioeconomic development of three border territories.

This article analyses the problems of the state voluntary repatriation programme and describes its key functions and implementation mechanisms. The author identifies the causes of deceleration in the repatriation process as well as the weak points of the Programme and the ways to improve it. The article offers data on the resettlement of compatriots over the three years of the Programme implementation, its demographic structure, and the regions of resettlement.

This article analyses the spatial features of the settling of Russian Estonians in the Northwest region at the “zenith” of diaspora on the basis of 1920, 1926, and 1939 censuses. The author identifies the principal settling areas and points out the geographical preconditions for the rapid decline of the diaspora.

This article focuses on the problems pertaining to the regionalisation of geo-demographic situation in the Baltic region. Particular attention is paid to the influence of ethnic factors on the parameters and trends of demographic processes. The author comes to a conclusion about the achievement of demographic homeostasis in most ethnos-nations in the Baltic region.

Globalisation creates favourable conditions for the formation of transborder regions through enhancing communication. This process involves industrial, transport, trade and other enterprises as well as education, culture and research institutions, which develop multiple links. The formation of cross-border regions is facilitated by the regional policy of the European Union, which encourages the development of connections between the transborder regions of different countries including non-EU members, for instance, Russia. A positive example is the Baltic macroregion, which serve as a ground for the formation of numerous cross-border meso- and microregions.

This article examines the evolution and current state of the Northern Dimension policy and its role in Russia-EU relations. The authors analyse the discrepancy between the actual achievements of the Northern Dimension and its potential and the over-high expectations, which accompanied the policy renewal.

Parliamentarism can be implemented in a few versions: parliamentary-cabinet,cabinet-parliamentary, parliamentary-presidential and parliamentary-committee. It is, thus, an internally diversified system. It is influenced by a number of factors, among others, the type of party system, the way of granting the non-confidence vote and dissolving the parliament, as well as the scope of so called delegated legislation.In contemporary parliamentary democracies aspirations to strengthen executives can be observed.