Orbán, Vona, Gyurcsány. Politikai vezetők integrációs tevékenysége a migrációs válság idején

Author(s): Balázs Kiss / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 3/2016

The paper presents the behaviours of Viktor Orbán, Gábor Vona and Ferenc Gyurcsány in 2014 and 2015 in order to contribute to the explanation of their respective performances in gaining support and integrating political communities. The method of the research was based on the CIP model elaborated by Michael Mumford and collaborators. The model defined three types of leaders: charismatic, ideological and pragmatic. A successful, outstanding political leader recognizes a potential situation, reconstructs it in a specific way so that the redefined situation should suit his/her most convenient behaviour, which behaviour, in turn, would meet the political needs of a large enough coalition of citizens. By the fortunate interaction of the three components: situation, leadership style and popular requirements, the politician will probably integrate a political community. Having presented the model, the paper tells the activities and communications of the three Hungarian politicians in reaction to each other in the context of the migration crisis in 2015.

Aristokratska teza

Author(s): Đorđe Pavićević / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 16/2016

The article deals with the aristocratic thesis about the character of the elections in representative governments, which has been widely discussed in political theory in previous decades. according to the thesis, the elections have two faces – they are in the same time aristocratic and democratic by nature. as a mixture of democratic and aristocratic principle, representative democracy remains a mixed form of government. The main difference between this form of government and the older form of mixed republic is that general elections have become a method of legitimating the government. This form of government is allied with democratic elitism in their effects, despite the differences in justification of the essential role of elections in democratic processes. according to critics, the aristocratic element in contemporary democracies is more like oligarchic or plutocratic in traditional sense of the word. These critics occasionally refer to this state of affairs as a state of postdemocracy. The main thesis of the article is that differentiation between the two faces of elections is a powerful toll for analysis of contemporary democracies. The author does not defend the aristocratic thesis itself.

Konstitutivna moć u osnivačkim ustavima

Author(s): Milan Podunavac / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 15/2015

the author analyses the normative consequences of the relationship between constituent power and constitutional identity in founding constitutions. In the first part of the article, the author points to the centrality of the constitution in the normative integration process of post-communist regimes, while in the second part he analyzes competing constructs of ‘constituent power’ in the modern state building processes in europe. In the third part the author uses the normative theoretical map of professor Ivan Prpić to analyze the structural deficits of post-communist founding constitutions and the specific form of tension between ‘constituent power’ and constitutional identity. the argument is that this tension can produce both democratic and liberal deficits of these regimes.

Poland and Hungary after the 2008 Global Crisis

Author(s): Bogdan Góralczyk / Language(s): English Issue: 02/2015

Under an unprecedented political system, created since 2010, the Orbán government in Hungary has been dismantling liberal democracy. But this devlopment has remainedrelatively unknown to the world – even to Hungary’s neighbour states and countries in the European Union. This study follows the internal political dynamics in both Hungary and Poland in the decade that has elapsed since the EU enlargement of 2004 brought these countries into the European Union. Traditionally Poland and Hungary have stayed close to each other in development. In 2005-07 Poland tried to establish a “Fourth Republic” foreshadowing the types of policy change the Orbán government later espoused. This Polish attempt collapsed, but the ideology is still very much alive.

Electoral Reform in Romania: From the Need for Party System Consolidation to Concern for Improved Quality of Representation

Author(s): Emanuel Emil Coman / Language(s): English Issue: 01/2015

This study looks at electoral reforms in Romania made since the end of the communist period. It identifies two broad periods of reform corresponding to two different types of pressures on the policy-makers. (1) In the 1990s, there was a need for party system consolidation, and this led to the adoption of a highly inclusive first electoral law, followed up by two increases in the electoral threshold. (2) In the 2000s, a vociferous movement demanded more individual responsibility from parliamentary representatives. This led to the electoral reform of 2008, stipulating that candidates must run in single-member districts. The two different pressures outlined correspond to different stages of democracy and indicate a healthy evolution from the proto-democratic order of the 1990s, concerned with party system consolidation, to the more developed democratic order of the 2000s, when the public was concerned with the quality of representation and the power to unseat unresponsive MPs. In practice, however, as the academic literature shows, the 2008 reform has fallen short of its promises: the individual responsiveness encouraged by the reform seems instead to be leading to stronger political clientelism.

The Interethnic Stalemate in Romania: Origins and Risks

Author(s): George Jiglău / Language(s): English Issue: 01/2015

The accommodation of ethnic diversity has played an important role in the development of the Romanian political system following the fall of communism. The first decade of transition witnessed a sinuous path of interethnic relations between the Romanian majority and the Hungarian minority, from violent clashes and implementation of minority unfriendly legislation to minority inclusion in the national government. The second stage, associated with the efforts leading to Romania’s Euro-Atlantic integration, brought a change in tactics from the Hungarian politicians. The author presents a general overview of how the political game between the Romanian state and the Hungarian minority developed in the last two decades and emphasises the legislative dimension of the disputes. The main argument of this article is that, although the interethnic relations have been normalised, the legal dispute is in a stalemate, which, if unresolved, threatens the current stability in the longer term.

The Role of Social Capital in Developing Democracies

Author(s): Žarko Đorić / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2016

The term social capital is characterized by a proliferation of meanings which give rise to different debates. The aim of this paper is to analyze the role of social capital in developing democracies. To this end, Argentina and Nicaragua, as two Latin American nations, ideally illustrate two novel theoretical positions which can serve as representative models for developing democracies. In these two countries, the process of democratization had quite a different course, method and dynamics. Nicaragua employed more "social-centrist" style of democratization, while Argentina used more "state-centrist" path to democracy. In Nicaragua, it was a "bottom-up" process in the development of democracy based on the social capital, where civil society and horizontal connections among citizens were the engine of the political process. As a developing democracy, Argentina offers an interesting opposite scenario. In Argentina, it was a "top-down" institutional process of democratization, where the political institutions have done most of the work and compensated for the absence of initiatives to strengthen the civil society.

AKTYWNOŚĆ INWESTYCYJNA POLSKICH MIAST WOJEWÓDZKICH

Author(s): Katarzyna Przybyła / Language(s): Polish Issue: 46/2/2016

The article attempts to identify and assess the investment activity of Polish provincial capitals. Based on the group of diagnostic characteristics (municipal investment expenditure per resident, municipal investment expenditure against total municipal expenditure, municipal investment expenditure against its own revenues and investment expenditure per 1 km2 ) taxonomic synthetic measures were constructed for the studied cities. The research covered the years 2004–2014, the period of particular investment intensity resulting from the inflow of the European Union means. The research is important to determine the distance dividing the studied cities in terms of the selected aspect of development and, moreover, it allows identifying groups of cities characterized by a similar level of investment activity.

Opsesija krizom države i nemogućnost izgradnje ustavne države: Circulus Vitiosus partokratije u Srbiji

Author(s): Aleksandar Molnar / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 3/2013

In the article the author deals with the persisting impossibility of Serbian political elite to build constitutional state. Instead of developing constitutional state, modern independent Serbia in her century and a half long history witnessed only various constitutional facades for either autocracy or partocracy. After experiencing communism in so-called Second Yugoslavia, Serbian political elite proved to be most devoted to the principle of partocracy, which survived the autocratic challenges of Slobodan Milošević (1997–2000) and Zoran Đinđić (2000–2003), never facing any real constitutional “threat”. Therefore, the real “crises of state” was always perceived by this elite as combination of dangers, coming from “above” (i.e. from federal structures such as Yugoslavia or supranational organizations such as European Union) or from “beneath” (i.e. from various self-organized social groups opposed to the ruling party/parties). In the article, the author argues that the most important source of the “crisis of state” in Serbia was and is mentioned persisting impossibility of Serbian political elite to build constitutional state.

Bilans srpskog oktobra - 13 godina posle

Author(s): Srđan Cvetković / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 1-2/2013

Koncept političkog stila operacionalizovan u analizi političkog liderstva u Srbiji

Author(s): Predrag Pavlićević / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 1-2/2013

This paper gives an indication of the modalities of meanings in category of political style and its use in the theory of politics – including theoretical thought in Serbia, as a basis for presentation of key elements of the author’s concept of political style as operationalized in the analysis of political leadership in Serbia, as well as analyses of its achievements and limitations. The author’s concept of the style of political leaders constitutes a unity of thinking, values and action aspects – through identification of key attributes that are related to the way of acting leader. The paper contributes to the epistemological method by defining the concept of style of political leadership, and since this concept is defined through several aspects, that is, through the key concepts of the theory of politics, category apparatus is outlined that specifies the meaning of the dimensions of political style. The paper also outlines methodological foundations for defining political typology of political styles appropriate to the specific context of actions of political leaders in Serbia.

Türk Siyasetinde Yeni Bir Slogan: Ortanın Solu

Author(s): Erkan Dağlı / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 13/2016

The concept of the centre-left symbolises an important and groundbreaking period in the ideological history of the Republican People’s Party (Turkish Abbreviation CHP), which considered to be valuable not only for party itself, but also for the Turkish political life as well. With the approach of centre-left it has been laid the foundations of Turkish social democracy at all. Although this new discourse hold on especially in 1960s and 1970s, its effect has lasted to the nowadays. However it must be stressed that the tradition of social democracy in Turkey is relatively new compared to West European countries. Within this context the Republican People’s Party has been defined itself as a social democratic party in the 1960s, “democratic left” in the 1970s, “new left” in the 1990s and the “new CHP” since 2010. The concept of centre-left has been gradually abandoned from political scene of Turkey, instead of which Bülent Ecevit used the concept of "democratic left".

IMPROVING LOCAL BUDGET REVENUES COLLECTION - CASE OF ROMANIA

Author(s): Elena Cigu Rusu,Florin Oprea / Language(s): English Issue: 21/2015

The present paper attempt to provide an analysis of the evolution of the collection rate of local budget revenues in Romania, considered as an expressive indicator of local fiscal effort, focusing on the causes of it was situated in the undesirable frequency (min. 100%) and especially during the crisis. We will use the background offered by literature and the official statically data for analysis offered by National Institute of Statistics, Ministry of Regional Development and Public Administration, Ministry of Public Finance, Court of Accounts and other national and international institutions. We estimate the analyses of the collection rate of local taxes to present various trends, depending on the type of territorial-administrative units/subdivisions, showing disparities regarding administrative capacity in terms of tax collection.

Interview on Current Problems in Turkish Foreign Policy

Author(s): Taner Karakuzu,İlker Limon / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 14/2017

Interview on Current Problems in Turkish Foreign Policy with Prof. İlhan Uzgel, the Head of Department of International Relations, Faculty of Political Sciences at Ankara University

Nation Building Extended: Hungarian Diaspora Politics

Author(s): Eszter Herner-Kovács / Language(s): English Issue: 17/2014

The article aims to present and analyze Hungarian diaspora policy, the most recent aspect of Hungarian nation building politics. The first part of the paper builds on literature on various types of diaspora politics and tries to situate the Hungarian model in that framework. The second part introduces and analyzes the diaspora projekts launched after 2010 in Hungary in order to realize the objectives of Hungarian diaspora politics. The paper claims that diaspora projekts launched by the Hungarian government after 2010 form a coherent strategy aiming to reach the diaspora, to raise their awareness of their Hungarian heritage and culture, as well as to enhance their connection with the homeland.

Kulturni pluralizam

Author(s): Jeff Spinner-Halev / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 01+02/2001

Multikulturalizam koji pokušava stvoriti društvo s nekoliko posebnih kultura ozbiljno ugrožava građanstvo. U toj vrsti multikulturalnog društva ljudi se ne zanimaju za građanstvo; nisu zainteresirani napraviti državu koja bi bila bolja za sve; malo ih se tiče kako javne službe pogađaju većinu ljudi, odnosno njihove sugrađane. Cak ih se i sam termin “sugrađanin” može dojmiti tuđim. Ono što oni poznaju jesu su-Jevreji, ili su-crnci, ili su-muslimani, ili su-Sikhi. Građani, pak, nisu njihovi bližnji. Ovi bi se multikulturalisti mogli zanimati za državu jedino ako bi je mogli ubijediti da im da potporu, financijsku ili kakovu drugu, da bi dalje slijedili svoje sopstvene ciljeve.

Neue Formen autoritärer Gouvernementalität

Author(s): Vedran Džihić / Language(s): German Issue: 02/2017

The article illustrates the emergence of new forms of authoritarian governmentality by looking at recent trends and developments in Serbia, Macedonia and Turkey.Based on some general debates concerning the character of neo-authoritarian regimes, the paper discusses central characteristics of newly emerging forms of governmentality. Hence,the question whether and how the rather slow pace of EU integration correlates with the emergence of authoritarian tendencies is discussed. Additionally, the role of ‘strong men’ in the three countries and the use of nationalist rhetoric to secure legitimacy are put under scrutiny. The further paper takes a look at informal and clientelistic networks established by ruling parties with the aim to provide infrastructure for securing power and satisfying particular needs of the ruling elites.The paper finally highlights possible alternatives to authoritarian governmentality. A major alternative is presented by today’s new protest movements and citizen actions. These new civic coalitions, currently formed in all three countries, stand for open societies, democracy and human rights. They constitute an emancipatory resistance to any form of illiberal and authoritarian governmentality.

Alternatywne mechanizmy rządzenia na szczeblu samorządów lokalnych z perspektywy nowej ekonomii instytucjonalnej

Author(s): Joe Wallis,Brian Dollery / Language(s): Polish Issue: 11/2010

The “new institutional economics” (NIE) can go a long way toward comprehending the emerging complexities of local government. As local bodies seek to forge collaborative partnerships with other organizations, they have to decide whether to solve horizontal co-ordination problems through market, hierarchy or network mechanisms. NIE can show that where other governance mechanisms are incomplete or subject to high transaction costs, trust and cooperation can develop informally through the process by which network interactions become embedded within each other. We show how this approach can be revised to take into account the expressive dimension of behavior in hope-based networks whose members are bound together not so much by structures of resource dependence as by the hope they place in the advancement of common goals. To co-ordinate these networks in multi-organizational partnerships, local authorities may have to play a transformational leadership as well as a facilitative role.

Zakres indywidualnej odpowiedzialności parlamentarnej osoby powołanej w skład Rady Ministrów na więcej niż jeden urząd

Author(s): Maciej Pach / Language(s): Polish Issue: 6/2014

This article provides an analysis of the scope of individual parliamentary accountability of personsholding more than one Government post. According to the author, the scope of responsibility to Parliamentarising from holding separate posts by the same person at the same time should also be treatedseparately. It is, therefore, possible to pass a vote of no confidence on a particular politician relatingnot only to both, but also to one of the posts held by him/her. There are no obstacles that couldprevent politician who is president of the Council of Ministers and at the same time holds anotherpost in Government from being held individually responsible before Parliament. However, this responsibility will be limited to that additional office, as currently the Constitution excludes the voteof no confidence on the head of government.

Rząd mniejszościowy

Author(s): Remigiusz Mróz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2013

The article is concentrated on the question whether minority government can be regarded as a crucialelement of a stable political system. In Polish literature, it is usually considered as a negativephenomenon that arises from excessively broad spectrum of parties in the parliament and causes disintegrationof the political system, while e.g. Scandinavian countries found it to be beneficial for thestability and efficiency of the political scene. Therefore, if it were to be regarded as a factor behindthe political crisis, the only conclusion would be that those countries struggle permanently with suchdiffi culties, but the history shows that they do not. The author also attempts to compare the practical experiences of implementing and functioning ofsuch model to the sphere of ideologies, to determine whether a minority government is not, in fact,one of the most profound means of practicing democracy