Media: Russia’s Media Imperialism
A revanchist Kremlin exports its own toxic brand of media management.
More...We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.
A revanchist Kremlin exports its own toxic brand of media management.
More...
Plus, Macedonia gets a new-old government, and Czech scientists say they have a Lyme disease vaccine. Around the Bloc is TOL's daily digest of the important, the trivial, the tragic, the weird, and the sober from its coverage region.
More...
Plus, the Czechs drop their human rights qualms about business with China, and Ukraine’s president wants to liberate detained journalists. Around the Bloc is TOL's daily digest of the important, the trivial, the tragic, the weird, and the sober from its coverage region.
More...
Also, Hungarian banks face a billion-euro loss on foreign-currency loans and Romania’s first brother is jailed for alleged criminal ties. Around the Bloc is TOL's daily digest of the important, the trivial, the tragic, the weird, and the sober from its coverage region.
More...
The Czech leader’s remarks on NATO and Russia are a source of worry and puzzlement in some quarters.
More...
Plus, Georgian Dream sweeps local elections and Poland’s central bank chief faces resignation calls after bad-mouthing his colleagues. Around the Bloc is TOL's daily digest of the important, the trivial, the tragic, the weird, and the sober from its coverage region.
More...
Plus, Georgians rally against harsh drug laws and a new report details the long hours and low pay of garment workers in the region. Around the Bloc is TOL's daily digest of the important, the trivial, the tragic, the weird, and the sober from its coverage region.
More...
In the past couple of years, European politicians and citizens had to become more and more conscious of the fact that domestic policy issues suddenly turned out to be the common concerns of politicians, intellectuals, celebrities, street protesters and online activists all over Europe which has been discussed as precondition for a vivid European political community. The aim of the paper is to sketch a theoretical and conceptual ground for future evidence-based empirical studies which might provide analytical and explanatory schemes for comprehending Europe (including the EU regime) as an agency-centred political space which is continuously being confi gured and reconfi gured via publicly available communications on controversial issues. Our point of departure is the social constructivist turn in European studies, namely, seeing institutions/ structures as a result of the actors’ eminently communicative activities. The article also proposes to redefi ne the role of the European public sphere in studying the behaviour of political actors in making a European political space. Finally we present a tentative list of potential research directions to test comparatively the current European political space models via the European political debates.
More...
The paper intends to draft an anthropology for political studies. It is striking that while political science relies extensively on the behavioural models of economics (this is the model of the rational, self-interested actor), sociology (the model of norm-abidance and conformity), or even psychology (an actor motivated by her emotions, neurosis, etc.), it has not developed an anthropology for its own purposes. Does this mean that political action has no proper motivational basis as such? The paper argues that this is not the case. In fact, there is a model implicitly present in political science. This is the actor following the common good, along the lines of collective rationality. The paper aims at making the fi rst steps towards elaborating the theoretical and empirical foundations for such a model.
More...
Pál Gábor: Közpolitikáról kezdőknek és haladóknak (Gajduschek György–Hajnal György: Közpolitika. A gyakorlat elmélete és az elmélet gyakorlata) . Pál, Gábor: On Public Policy for Beginners and Advanced Ones (Gajduschek, György–Hajnal, György: Közpolitika. A gyakorlat elmélete és az elmélet gyakorlata. – The Theory of Practice and the Practice of Theory) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
More...
The paper seeks an answer to the question of what kinds of governmental systems have emerged in the new Central and East European democracies as shown by the experience of the past twenty years, and how far these systems have promoted the consolidation of the democratic set of institutions and their operation. In addition to describing and comparing the different countries and subregions it is also presented along which background considerations they have chosen the presidential, the semi-presidential or the parliamentary system or a certain combination of these alternatives. Though the analysis of governmental systems requires the traditional institutional approach, the present study moves amidst a broader network. On the one hand, the so-called actor approach is applied which intends to fi nd an answer to why and by what motivations the decisive political actors of the change of system and the process of democratisation have decided for the introduction of a particular governmental system. On the other hand, we study with the help of the neo-institutionalist method of investigation what historical, cultural, political and institutional traditions and customs were behind the choice of institutions by the actors, which also offers an explanation for the survival of certain institutional continuities and continued presence even after the change of the system.
More...
Legal approach towards and within public administration is prevalent in Continental European countries; especially so in the Germanic administrative systems, like that of Hungary. Based on statistical and documentary analysis, the paper demonstrates the presence of the ‘Legal’ in various segments of administration: proportion of lawyers in senior civil service (57%); legal regulation on professional requirement (71% of civil service positions may be fi lled in by lawyers); academic approach to public administration (cca. 60% of papers in the leading PA journal are dominantly based on Law as a discipline); civil service training (72% of the training material being of a dominantly legal character). According to survey data civil servants devote two thirds of their working time to activities of a predominantly law-related character (such as drafting or executing laws). The fi nal section of the paper discusses policy and implementation failures of the government that presumably stem from the legalistic nature of the administration.
More...
The article diagnoses a low level of female political presence in Hungary both in national and local politics. This requires an explanation, particularly in face of comparative fi gures in other East-Central European countries and also due to the cemented nature of the situation. In harmony with more recent approaches of gender academic research the article seeks to identify the critical actor in this respect. It argues that it is the parties’ candidate selection strategies and their repulsive behaviour with respect to attempts to increase female political participation that are largely responsible for gender glass ceilings. These are not visible obstacles but are present nationally and locally and in the gender hierarchy in each context.
More...
The authors’ study examines a potential application of the realist approach – a formidable factor in foreign policy as well as in homeland security – that could be used to explain a wider range of social relations. After an introduction of the modernist discourse, the polemic counterpart of the realist interpretational frame, through a presentation of its key junctures – economic development, political institutions, and cultural value shifts – the authors outline the major cornerstones of the realist approach: anthropological pessimism, theories concerning the drive for power, and the applicability of these to social relations. The presentation of two popular realist books published in 2011, Why Nations Fail, and The Dictator’s Handbook serves, among other things, as an illustration of the above-mentioned junctures. Finally, the authors attempt to put forward the basis for a possible moderate realist approach and argue its applicability.
More...
Democracy and Socialism converge and interlink in contemporary Latin American experience — in their development as social movements, in their political allies, and in the obstacles and enemies that they confront. In this analysis I want to deal with the socio-political background of the emergence of a socialist-democratic project. Particular attention is given to the political crisis, the rise and primacy of the Nation-State's power and intervention, and to the appearance in some primary countries of a sui generis Neo-Fascism. In a subsequent analysis, I will explore the role and responsibilities of the Latin American Left, and the origins, content, and possibilities of a socialist-democratic project.
More...
On the potential influence of the international situation on the political situation in Poland.
More...
In Russian everybody is certain of the fact that Gazprom is in charge of the Russian foreign policy and plays now the role of the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
More...
“The fact that the Belarusians managed to keep their language – in spite of destroying villages, churches and all traditional forms of social life – is a real miracle.“
More...
“Poland is only big European country which has lost the independence for more than 100 years. That’s why the national security so important the Poles is.” The Poles do not consent to Russia’s attempts to dominate its neighbours.
More...
„Die vorliegende Ausgabe des „Deutsch-polnischen Jahrbuches" unterscheidet sich recht stark von ihren Vorgängern. Es ist die dreizehnte Ausgabe der seit 1992 von der Forschungsgruppe Deutschland des Instituts für Politische Studien der Polnischen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Warschau herausgegebenen Schrift. […]“
More...