Tiltai

Wherewith actualisation of health promotion as an important aspect in the context of public health maintenance, the questions which are connected to public joint responsibility in their health maintenance and improvement attain even greater importance. Taking into consideration the insufficient health quality of Latvian population which ranks Latvia in one of the last places among the European countries, actualisation and implementation of individual responsibility dimension in the health care financing model, is viewed as a possibility of improvement of the current situation. The research overlooked the approaches of individual responsibility integration in health care models employed by the developed countries, classifying those several parameters, established the insufficient Latvian population involvement level which is characterised by large health influencing harmful habit prevalence and low involvement level in illness prevention measures, as well as marked the main challenges and possibilities, introducing individual responsibility dimension in Latvian health care financing model which are referred to both increasing the payment solidarity and lifestyle and behaviour changes.

The spectrum of the links between the quality of life and health has been expanding due to the phenomenon of health acquiring features of a social phenomenon and growing complexity. The research evidenced that health was considered to be one of the most important, and often the most important, dimension of the quality of life. To more comprehensively identify the health-related factors that affected the quality of life in general, the concept of the health-related quality of life has been developed. In our research 1763 children filled KIDSCREEN52 surveys which evidence tendency as follows: even though two thirds of the children did not indicate they had health disorders, only one third of them assessed their health as excellent and very good. This demonstrates that, in the children’s assessment of health, both the absence of a disease or disability and also psychological and social factors are important.

This paper explores the relationship between paternal religious affiliation, practice, and health behavior, namely consumption of alcohol. This research models alcohol consumption as an aggregate sum of weekly glasses of wine, 50 ml vodka shots, half-liter bottles of beer, and cocktails. The model includes religious confession among other independent variables including self-reported health status. In confessional comparison, the largest fraction, Catholic, is the reference category opposite Orthodox, Protestant, Other non-affiliated believers and Atheist. Significantly, Other believers and Lithuanian Protestants consumed significantly more alcohol than Catholic respondents. A unit increase in prayer or religious reading did not significantly predict a change in alcohol consumption. However a unit increase in weekly work hours significantly decreases alcohol consumption in contrast to a unit increase in time spent with children. Higher consumption is associated with lower self-reported health status.

Current transition from agrarian societies to industrial ones around the globe carries shift of values along with – namely, from Traditional to Self-expression. The shift has been described by analysts of the World Values Survey Association (WVSA). In much described Inglehart-Welzel cultural map of the world Baltic States are positioned somewhere in the middle between the poles. The article sketches dangers arising from one-sided over-emphasizing benefits of democracy and self-expression. Societies undergoing fast transition between their former experiences and current challenges testify frictions and they may be described as torn societies. The author uses the term “plastic man” coined by Martin Heidegger – in whom the changing part of personality is increasing whereas the steady side is decreasing. As sociologist Arnold Toynbee puts it, the man of today is a “man running away from God”, consequently, his plasticity takes over and man is not in position to control his own choices and his changeability. The article offers Christian anthropological view of man in his relations with God. The reminder refreshes knowledge of European Christian roots and challenges current social development.

Government organization and activities in a democratic state must be based on the principle of separation of powers. The essence of this principle is to ensure individual rights and freedoms and to help the society prevent government arbitrariness. Each power is implemented through its institutions: Parliament, representing the Nation, legislate the laws and perform other functions provided in the Constitution, the Government implement the laws legislated by Parliament and courts execute justice. If the state does not ensure the implementation of justice, all the talk of democracy, the rule of law, civil society, human rights and freedoms are declarative. Only being independent and autonomous judicial authorities can properly fulfill their function – to execute justice, to ensure implementation of law, expressed in the Constitution, laws and other legal norms, to guarantee the rule of law, to protect human rights and freedoms. Inevitably, the question must be raised whether the courts executing justice ensure these constitutional principles good enough and whether the citizen applying to the court to protect his violated rights can be sure that the court will resolve the dispute impartially and restore his violated rights. Authors of the article examine such an important topic as confidence in the courts, discuss the possible ways and means to achieve that the state government would be more trusted. In the article authors raise a question whether it would be effective to establish associate judges’ institute in Lithuania. The authors conclude that Lithuania is one of the few democratic countries having no jury or associate judges institution and that its establishment would help reduce corruption in the legal system. Also it would be a step to increase public confidence in the judiciary. The main conclusion is that discussions about moderate model of associate judges’ institution shall be encouraged. The authors believe that such a concept model would not form intervention in the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania of 1992 and legal framework, but would complement the practice and the commitment to strengthen the relation between the public authorities and society, which is expressed in the Constitution. The model of such aspiration development really makes sense and would be very necessary.