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Transitions Online_Around the Bloc-Poles Rally Against Government’s Judicial Overhaul
Rightist government says judges are corrupt and immoral, so it needs more powers to hire and fire them.
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Rightist government says judges are corrupt and immoral, so it needs more powers to hire and fire them.
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The author claims there are various types of tolerance. He defines tolerance as a dispositional feature of human beings versus other human beings. The basic formula of democratic tolerance runs as follows: mutual tolerance is better than both the risks of tyranny due to intolerance and the risks of a civil war. It disguises the latent aggressiveness underlying our democratic societies. Dangerous developments have been detected for the future of European Union. It is faced with a choice: is it going to develop according in the direction of national states or the europeization of national states. The first leads into an increasing intolerance. The solution lies in tolerance which can be preserved by the europeization of democracy.
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The problem of article is how American administrative branches depends and not depend on each other and how does it influents on foreign policy and security policy of USA. The article is an essay of analyze individual competencies of executive, legislative and judicial branches given by American Constitution and also by Supreme Court during the time by practical needs. The author analyzes competencies of each power at the context of foreign policy and national security of USA.
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In this paper, the concept of creative emotion (émotion créatrice) and the understanding of democracy, which arises out of it, in the philosophy of Bergson is analysed. This specific emotion does not depend on an object’s intellectual representation; therefore, Bergson refers to it as “supra-intellectual.” Contrary to the usual “infra-intellectual” emotions, it is primary in regard of the mind and the will, and it comprises the fundamental matrix of creative acts of the human being. Creative emotion is one of the forms of the intuition of duration that is rooted in élan vital. It not only determines the essential changes in the fields of art, religion or science, but also re-configures the political rationality by revealing a deeper form of sociality. Thus, the presumed anti-sociality of the philosophy of Bergson is denied. In his last work, The Two Sources of Morality and Religion, Bergson shows how creative emotion transforms understanding of democracy and how it turns this political conception into a dynamic movement corresponding to the deep process of the human being and the whole reality.
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The article deals with the areas of Ukrainian-Slovak relations, in which changes took place under the influence of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement provisions and the tendencies in the development of the bilateral relations in new institutional and geopolitical conditions. The conclusion is made that institutional environment between Kyiv and Brussels, which began to form in 2014 with the beginning of the signing of the Аssocaition Agreeement has the significant inuence on the development of bilateral diplomatic, economic, trade relations, migration trends of Ukrainian citizens to Slovakia. More attention has to be paid to the practical convergence of socio-economic development of border territories and the stimulation of the cross-border practices of local communities, the support of business and public bilateral initiatives and projects.
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This paper reports original research into how parliaments (legislatures) address the ethical conduct of their members of parliament (MPs) as that may affect the accountability of MPs for their conduct, performance of the parliament and the reputation of the institution. It reports the findings of (i) a survey of all Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) member parliaments (ii) interviews of MPs and Clerks of selected CPA member parliaments and (iii) processes to develop benchmarks intended to guide CPA member parliaments in the design and/or revision of codes of conduct for MPs. Parliament is a key pillar of the National Integrity System (NIS) in a contemporary democracy. The NIS is the system of structural and behavioural features intended to improve accountability for conduct and reduce risks of corrupt behaviour, thereby improving the efficiency and effectiveness of societal outputs and hence superior social outcomes. The paper presents analysis of the range of provisions in current codes (or code-like provisions) as features of the Parliamentary Integrity System component of the NIS in CPA member parliaments. Whilst sanctions for unacceptable behaviour are found to be essential to the effectiveness of codes, behavioural factors are crucial to the effectiveness of any code. A disregard for a code and a failure to enforce it would render it ineffective. The paper discusses the effects of providing MPs with one or more sources of independent advice on ethical matters and also of providing for receipt and investigation of complaints to be independent of possible or perceived partisan influence. Finally, proposed benchmarks applicable to codes of conduct for MPs are outlined.
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The goal of this study is to respond to an intriguing question that has been the focus of Slobodan Jovanović’s research: Is dictatorship a common denominator for European countries during and after the two world wars, as well as for LatinAmerican countries during and after the ColdWar ended in the digital era? The paper draws on the hypothesis that in the interwar period, Jovanović built the foundation for more advanced and comprehensive research into a state and its internal integration processes. With this claim inmind, one can discuss the validity of Jovanović’s research. The conclusion is based on the statement that during the global migration and simultaneous health crisis, the countries should maintain close cooperation in order to ensure the survival of democracy and the prevention of dictatorships both in European and Latin American countries.
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Utopias are mirrors of the period in which their writers live. The conditions and problems of those periods are reflected in utopias. The utopia writer gives place to these problems in her/his work, sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly. The nineteenth century is a period of abundance in utopia literature. With respect to political regime and geographically, not only Europe but also America has been the place of utopias. America’s desire for development was due to its political regime as well as the abundance of its natural resources on the continent. The idea of the development of society in the nineteenth century was related to industrialization and the development of capitalism. The world that Edward Bellamy envisions in Looking Backward as a utopia is an industrialized state monopoly. The capitalist company is replaced by the monopoly state, which is defined as nation. The nation is mechanized as an economic and political organization rather than a living organism. The ideology that sustains the society is an industrial nationalism which leans on the concept of nation. Production and working order are shaped according to a military discipline. The capitalist corporation’s state is transformed into a socialist nation corporation.
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A prerequisite for the development of the local community are different forms of citizen participation in achieving goals of interest to the local community and meeting their personal needs at the local level. Citizens can participate in the local community activities directly or indirectly. The direct participation in local life is exercised on the basis of strictly formal legal framework, including civic initiative, referendum, and citizens' assembly. The quality of the relationship between the local community and the citizens largely determines the degree of citizens’ indirect participation in political life. This paper will address the mechanisms of citizen participation at the local level, with specific reference to public debate and public hearings as mechanisms enabling citizens to participate in local decision-making processes, draw attention to problems and difficulties, and insist on the obligation of local self-government bodies to transparently implement some procedures envisaged in the 2018 amendments to the Local Self-Government Act. The paper also elaborates on other forms of citizen participation, such as consultations, information requests, petitions, surveys, and other available forms of citizen participation in public life.
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Since the identity policies of the post-Yugoslav states have been creating tensions domestically and internationally in the last two decades, the aim of this paper is to study and explain the causes that encourage antagonisms. We start from the assumption that these causes are related to models of identity policy and memory culture mediated by transnational media. This is because the essence of collective identity is in the consciousness of belonging, which should not be an obstacle to coexistence and good neighborly relations, as long as that consciousness does not imply the negation of the identity system of social groups living in the state. Thus we come to the policy of pluralization of identity as a public policy pursued by the state policy of cultural memory as a “social and cultural framework” of identity policy. In the absence of pluralization, culture is located on the scene of a struggle between different models of identity policies fueled by a densely intertwined network of transnational media. Their influence on public opinion formation comes from the realm of countercultural transculturalism and neoliberal globalism.
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The democratic transition in Bulgarian society at the very beginning was a “paradox.” Because the existing ruling set did not allow ethnicity, that is, their politics, to prosper. The transition from the non-democratic to the democratic regime in Bulgaria, compared to other transitions in Eastern Europe (Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary), was transparent, but on the other hand, the process of democratic consolidation, which by its very nature was complex, was problematic and thus a long one. In accordance with the above, in the first part of the paper, we discuss the political elites in the process of democratic transition and consolidation, and in the second part we focus on the latter problem: the transition from non-democratic to democratic regime in Bulgaria. In conclusion, we indicate the key findings that have come over by considering this problem.
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In this paper, I deal with the parliamentary elections in Germany in 2021. Apart from the statement that there has been a change in the party system, the ruling coalition, the chancellor, I am trying to answer the question if there has been a change in politics. In other words, is it a government of continuity or have the Liberal Greens brought fresh ideas and fresh air (green agenda) that significantly changes politics. At the beginning, I analyze the election results, answering the question who are the winners and losers of the elections. Did the SPD win or the CDU/CSU lose the elections? What was the party’s competition, what topics dominated the campaign, how did the citizens of Germany vote on the route: east – west, urban – rural, more educated – less educated, young – old, male – female. These elections showed a crisis of leadership within the CDU, a crisis of leadership within Germany, and maybe Germany within the EU. In the end, I deal with the coalition negotiations and the coalition agreement reached: politics and personnel decisions. After sixteen years, Germany got a new chancellor, Olaf Schulz, who was the vice chancellor of the outgoing chancellor Angela Merkel. He and the SPD remain in government, now with a key role, while the Liberals and Greens bring in a significant amount of fresh air and fresh ideas. It is at the same time a new paradigm and a new narrative and continuity and modernization, primarily in terms of climate, infrastructure, digitalization of education and health.
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During the second part of this study, we aim to analyze other aspects regarding the duties of the Romanian President in the procedure of appointing a Government, particularly in regard to naming the candidate for the office of prime minister, thus referencing the potential situations which can occur in the exercise of these duties according to the constitutional regulations in force. We will also express a point of view in regard to the particular situation which is currently developing on our political stage. We will also consider constitutional regulations specific to other European states so as to point out possible solutions of constitutional revise in order to prevent or even avoid such political crisis in the future.
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The article analyzes the management of the influence of organized interests on public policy. The article reveals the concept of organized interests, the essential differences in comparing the concepts of organized interests and interest groups. The article takes the view that organized interests are a more neutral concept that better explains the nature of all actors seeking to influence public policy-making. The author of the article is of the opinion that the concept of interest groups – due to the disagreement of scientists in defining it – causes a lot of confusion when comparing the results of different researches and using the theoretical insights of other scientists. Organized interests interact with other public policy makers to influence policy outcomes. This article analyzes the ways in which organized interests can influence public policy. According to the author of the article, by identifying the ways of influencing public policy, it is possible to envisage ways to manage that influence. The article applies methods of analysis, synthesis, generalization and comparative analysis of scientific literature.
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This regime is known as one of the wildest regimes in Europe and the world. Based on the Marxist-Leninist Doctrine this regime and its suite led by dictator Enver Hoxha had good diplomatic relations in the beginning with Tito's former Yugoslavia until 1948, with which he severed diplomatic relations by declaring that “Yugoslav revisio-nists were neither for peace nor for socialism. They were linked to the imperialists and helped to overthrow the communist regimes in the countries bordering Yugoslavia.” The Soviet Union until 1960, then seceded from the USSR and approached China that lasted until 1978, when it severed ties with China that led to the formula of self-isolation until 1991. Afterwards Albania would be the most isolated country in the world and would fanatically defend Marxism-Leninism and Stalinism that had been denounced by Khrushchev and Soviet Union. The period of the fall of the communist regime and the emer-gence of political pluralism is one of the most important periods of recent national history. Although this is a short period, it is packed with many important events of a political, economic and cultural nature. For more than four decades, respectively since the Second World War in Albania has ruled the Albanian Labour Party. During the 80s the economic situation in Albania will become unbearable and after all the efforts made by the Albanian Labour Party to save the regime will not succeed and when the situation came to boiling point it erupted in December 1990. The situation was followed by much unrest until the pluralist political system emerged and the victory of the Democratic Party in March 1992 came to power.
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This paper analyzes the characteristics and the functioning of the semi-presidential system in the Republic of Serbia. The subject of analysis are various factors that influence in a fundamental way the political practice of semi-presidentialism – the constitutional structure, constitutional powers of the executive, electoral system, party system, the relationship between the president and the parliamentary majority. The paper explains the evolution of the concept and key features of semi-presidentialism from its inception to the contemporary definitions offered by the comparativists. The general knowledge of the semi-presidential systems is examined through the case of Serbia. Semi-presidentialism in the Republic of Serbia is characterized by the oscillations between two phases – the presidential phase and the parliamentary phase. The crucial causes of this phenomenon are the party system and the relationship between the president and the parliamentary majority. The possibility of holding a party and a state function simultaneously strengthens the actual power of the person using it, resulting in the often homogenization of the dual executive.
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In this paper, we examine whether it is possible to improve democracy by encouraging ordinary citizens to participate in political decision-making and if participation in deliberative institutions can make citizens more competent decision-makers. By using qualitative data, we analyze the discussion from the Belgrade citizens’ assembly (CA) focused on the topic of expanding the pedestrian zone in the city center. The CA was organized in Serbia for the first time, as part of a research project aimed at promoting and advancing innovative democratic practices in the Western Balkans. The goal was to encourage the involvement of citizens in discussions of public interest. Our hypothesis was that, through the process of participation and deliberation in CA, ordinary citizens can make reasonable and informed choices, increase their knowledge of the issue discussed, and become more motivated to participate in political decision-making on the local level. Our qualitative content analysis suggests that deliberation had a positive impact on participants’ knowledge of the chosen topic of the assembly. It also shows that citizens used exhaustive explanations rather than brief statements, could differentiate the good arguments from the bad, and more often appealed to general rather than private interests. Participants in the assembly reported a significant increase in interest in political decision-making that affects their lives, as well as a sense of being informed about politics. Finally, we wanted to draw attention to the challenges and open questions that remain, namely those that concern the impact of a deliberative body on political decision-making in the real world.
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Participation in deliberation in stable democracies produces effects which are beneficial for democracy, while the results of deliberative innovations in non-democracies are more ambiguous. This article contributes to the debate about the effects of participatory democratic innovations on attitudes, related to democratic commitments, political capacities and political participation, in the increasingly ubiquitous hybrid regimes. We present the evidence collected from the participants before and after deliberative mini publics (DMPs), held in Serbia in 2020. Serbia is an exemplary case of a recent wave of autocratization, which had led to it becoming a hybrid regime, and it had no track record of deliberative innovations. When conducting the mini publics, we introduced an innovation in the standard design, by including active citizens – representatives of local initiatives or social movements particularly interested in the issue of DMPs. We could not find evidence that the democratic innovation affected attitudes of participants regarding democratic commitments, political capacities and political participation. However, we did find that participants of the DMPs became less satisfied with the functioning of the democracy on the local level. We argue that the anti-democratic wider context of hybrid regimes can produce adverse effects when introducing participatory democratic innovations, at least when it comes to this specific dimension of political participation. We conclude with the suggestions for further research, and a call for consideration of the wider political context when designing democratic interventions in hybrid regimes.
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Protests among citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina are becoming more frequent. Most often, their aim is to decry the dysfunctionality and opacity of the government, which are the result of the ethno-political structure created by the Dayton Agreement, but also a trend towards democratic regression and autocracy. A number of authors have tackled the “JMBG” protests of 2013 and the Plenums that emerged from the February 2014 protests, from their particular disciplines. The focus of this paper is the social movement “Justice for Dženan,” organized by the Memić family upon the tragic death of Dženan Memić in Sarajevo in February 2016. An in-depth study was conducted with key actors of the movement, as well as those who follow or in some way support the protests. Particular emphasis in the research was paid to the pragmatic symbiosis of the social movement and one political party. We argue that it is possible to identify a pragmatic symbiosis as a novel form (democratic innovation) of socio-political cooperation that can impede rising autocratization. Through the quest for accountability, social movements are introducing new strategic practices of mobilization and a novel type of alliance-building with external factors (new political parties as well as other social movements). The goal of the paper is to explore how the social movement “Justice for Dženan” interacts with political parties and approach the political sphere in BiH. Also, the idea is to examine the possibilities and functionality of this kind of cooperation with the framework of contentious politics.
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In our study on current views on the position of power in politics, we were based on a number of modern political theories, where the fundamental aspect of modern power and politics is conflict and the aim of politics is to gain and retain power. The constitutional position of power in these theories is characterized as a „goal about itself“. Power is a goal, it is not an instrument of politics. Political philosophy from Hobbees to Nozick rejects theories that give politics (or political power) higher goals. We analysed new concepts of the position of power in political relations (Badiou, Oakeshott, Balibar, Ranciere, Shapiro), leading to a new concept of politico. We have concluded that the perception of power is gradually taking shape, which represents a categorical turnaround compared to the understanding of modern power and politics as conflict. The basis for the new perceptualisation of power is the change in its existing constitutional position within political relations - as an objective. The new concepts of power and politics represents a power that has undergone conversion on the basis of a new understanding of political objectivity and does not involve conflict between opposites and coercion or violence.
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