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.

Download

Ermenistan Cumhuriyeti’nin Siyasal Dönüşüm Süreci

Author(s): Hatem Cabbarli / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 1/2020

In this study, the struggle in political life after the declaration of Armenia’s independence in 1991 and the process of transition to the multi-party system issues were studied, the struggle for command of political parties which acted jointly in the process of independence was also evaluated. The separations in the Armenian National Movement and the Karabakh Movement after the declaration of independence, and the process of setting up new political parties were subjected to construe. The presidential system that Armenia adopted as the state administration system was examined and although the solid presidential system during the first years, the causes and results of the transition to the semi-presidential system with the Constitutional amendment made in the following years were investigated.Also, the establishment and the activities of the coalition governments in Armenia were evaluated, information was given about the public votes made for the transition of the state administration system to the parliamentary administration system and at the same time, theworking type of the process was examined.

More...

Download

The Influence of Political Culture on Democracy in Parliamentary and Semi-Presidential Systems

Author(s): Romeo Terolli / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

The governing systems are affected by how a country develops the elements of the political culture. Political culture differs from the approaches, recognitions, assessments or interpretations that are made to the political system itself. The measuring indicators of political culture are freedom, equality, democracy, civil rights, and individual responsibility. Political culture is influenced by a country’s political, economic and historical conditions, but the way the government systems approach the political culture varies from country to country. The purpose of this research paper is to compare the impact of the political culture of two democratic but no similar governing systems. The first system is the system of the parliamentary republic where the case study will be the Republic of Albania and the second system is the semi-presidential system where the case study will be the Republic of France. The methodology used in this paper is the qualitative comparative analysis. Qualitative analysis will provide preliminary research information for both countries being studied. The comparison of political systems will be carried out through the indicators of political culture, which will be provided by the evaluation of the indices of international institutions. The semi presidential system of the Republic of France turns out to have the highest indicators of political culture. Measuring indicators such as democracy, civil rights, political rights, and equality show stability in the democracy of this country. Indicators for the Republic of Albania have significant differences in comparison to the Republic of France. Based on the study, it is concluded that the political culture has not managed to consolidate democracy in the parliamentary Republic of Albania.

More...

Download

The ‘Expertisation’ of European Studies. A critical perspective on discursive institutionalism

Author(s): Zoltán Grünhut / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

The paper puts into perspective the conceptual evolution of European Studies and one of its latest theoretically based approaches, Discursive Institutionalism. It argues that in the field of European Studies expert frameworks aiming for ‘answers’ are overshadowing the intellectual efforts striving for ‘questions’. This tendency undermines the proper identification of problems and it also erodes the effectiveness of proposed policy solutions as these recommendations lack the appropriate conceptual foundations. The paper stresses that this negative trend of ‘expertisation’ is particularly relevant nowadays, when the European Union is undoubtedly struggling with challenges of social disengagement, and that research projects are required to apply approaches that can adequately reveal people’s cognitivenormative understandings and ideationally driven praxes, as well as, most importantly, the generative causes behind EU-sceptical attitudes.

More...

Download

Impeachment w Hispanoameryce w latach 1993-2015 w ujęciu komparatywnym

Author(s): Piotr Walewicz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2017

Sudden changes in power and unfinished terms have been a part of Latin American politics since the countries’ birth. For more than one and a half century they had been made by way of coup d’état or revolution. However, the “third wave” of democratization brought new, democratic and legal ways to remove the most important people from power. The article aims to compare specific cases of impeachment, which took the place of the coup, although the political, economic and social background differs in each case. The analysis showed that some patterns are noticeable, like removing a president after a corruption scandal or because he had not fulfilled his campaign promises or because of mass demonstrations of discontent with neoliberal reforms. Impeachment is a very welcome alternative to any use of force, but at the same time its high frequency proves that there are some faults in the political systems.

More...

Download

Ustrój miast stołecznych państw Europy Wschodniej (Białoruś, Ukraina, Mołdawia)

Author(s): / Language(s): Polish Issue: 5/2019

The paper tackles the issue of the legal status of Minsk, Kyiv and Chisinau, i.e. the capital cities of some Eastern European countries. The consecutive chapters of this article present the general characteristics of local government in Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova, key legal acts regarding capitals and final conclusions. The paper acknowledges significant differences in the legal position between these cities and some main weaknesses. In the case of Minsk, it is a strong need for the country’s new local government model while in the case of Kyiv and Chisinau it is the need to optimise and strengthen the city’s local government.

More...

Download

Finding Solutions to Endemic Corruption in Post-Soviet Countries

Author(s): Mykola Harbunov / Language(s): English Issue: 5/2019

With the fall of the Soviet Union in 1992, various countries under Soviet domination were tasked with reimagining their governing structures. For some, however, lack of historical association with Western European values led to endemic corruption characterized by bribery, embezzlement, and, in some cases, resorting to murder. There have been, however, cases where governments and societies have successfully reduced the amount of corruption, especially in the political sphere. When research into how countries such as China, Singapore, New Zealand, Sweden and others tackled this problem was conducted, there appeared certain commonalities among them. These commonalties, including but not limited to rule of law, removal of political immunity and surety of punishment, serve as an outline for addressing and solving the ongoing corruption problems that plague many countries, especially post-Soviet ones.

More...

Download

The Concept of Patriotism as Perceived by Teenagers in Latvia

Author(s): Marina Marchenoka / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

Aim. The aim of the research is: theoretical investigation of the problem of patriotism and its urgency, the empirical research for defining the level of perception of the concept “patriotism” by teenagers in Latvia. Methodology of the research. The theoretical basis of the research includes theoretical analysis of various conceptual approaches to understanding of the phenomenon of patriotism in the philosophical aspect, as well as official documents of the European Union and the Republic of Latvia: documents of the Republic of Latvia (the preamble to the main law of the Latvian Republic – the Constitution; National Development Plan of Latvia for 2014-2020; Guidelines for the Development of Education for 2014-2020; Guidelines on national identity, civil society and integration policy 2012-2018); documents of international organisations (United Nations International Children’s Fund; European Commission; the EU Strategy for Youth – Investing and Empowering; Universal Declaration of Human Rights). The Empirical methods of the research: methods of data acquisition: a questionnaire (anonymous); methods of data processing and analysis: quantitative data processing with methods of mathematical analysis of statistical data and forecasting analytical methods in data processing software Microsoft Office Excel 2010 and SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) 18.0 version; qualitative data processing (analysis of the content, coding and processing of the acquired data); interpretation of quantitative and qualitative. Results. The theoretical analysis makes it possible to conclude that the main idea of the concept patriotism consists in considering it as one of the highest values of the individual and is the basis of life orientations, defining the strategy of the individual’s development, harmonisation of the society and the state. The main approaches for investigation of the concept of patriotism are: sensitively emotional, active and publically national.

More...

20.00 €

Preview

The Greengrocer and Compassion in Time of War

Author(s): James F. Pontuso / Language(s): English Issue: 02/2018

This is a personal reflection on the effects of The Power of the Powerless on students living in post-tyrannical societies—the Czech Republic in 1993 and Iraq in 2010. Czech students read the essay as an indictment of Marxist ideology, one-party rule, bureaucratic stagnation, and their former educational system. Havel was a symbol of resistance, human rights, and courage. Iraqi students found a different lesson. The Power of the Powerless does not excuse tyranny, but it does explain the way people trying to live a normal life rationalize their compliance with repression. Havel’s essay made Iraqi students comprehend how complicated choices are under difficult circumstances. Perhaps, as its author intended, the essay proved upon reflection to be a source of compassion.

More...

20.00 €

Preview

The Effects of Electoral Rules on Parliamentary Behavior: A Comparative Analysis of Poland and the Czech Republic

Author(s): Mary Stegmaier,Kamil Marcinkiewicz,Michael Jankowski / Language(s): English Issue: 04/2016

Do different types of preferential-list PR systems create different incentives for how Members of Parliament vote? To examine this, we compare the quasi-list system of Poland, where only preference votes determine which candidates win seats, to the flexible-list system in the Czech Republic, where the 5 percent preference vote threshold required to override the party ranking of candidates gives the party greater power in influencing which candidates become MPs. We analyze roll call votes in the 2007–2011 Sejm and the 2010–2013 Czech Chamber of Deputies and, after controlling for party and MP characteristics, we find that in both countries, MPs with lower preference vote shares are more likely to vote along with their party. But, when we compare the strength of this relationship, we observe substantial differences. The magnitude of this relationship in the Czech Republic is ten times stronger than in Poland, which can be attributed to the more prominent role Czech electoral rules give to the party.

More...

20.00 €

Preview

Between Contextualization and Comparison: A Thorny Relationship between East European Studies and Disciplinary “Mainstreams”

Author(s): Jan Kubik / Language(s): English Issue: 02/2015

The essay introduces five principles of an approach that helps to combine context sensitivity with generalizing ambition necessary for any serious comparative work. It also offers a list of five areas where East European experts are or should be making major contributions to the “general” knowledge while remaining attentive to the “specificities” of their region. It emphasizes a dialogue among scholars of several theoretical and methodological persuasions. Such synthetic/syncretic studies—also in the study of power and politics—may and often do begin with the work of researchers who construct panoramic vistas (via large-N statistical work) and/or reconstruct mechanisms of individual decision making (via game theoretic models). Nevertheless, they cannot do without the work of those who delve into the details of social processes (via sociological analysis); those who decipher the intricacies of meaning creation, transmission, and decoding (via interpretive work); and those who are able to place all of this in proper historical contexts.

More...

20.00 €

Preview

External Actors and Regime Change: How Post-Communism Transformed Comparative Politics

Author(s): Milada Anna Vachudova / Language(s): English Issue: 02/2015

This article explores how the study of post-communism has transformed comparative politics by adding a substantial role for external actors to existing theories of democratization. The big, overarching finding is dramatic: external actors can, under certain conditions, tip the balance in favor of democracy by offering strong rewards to elites, conditional on complying with tough requirements. External actors can also influence the performance of the state—and how the state treats its citizens. The main causal player is the European Union. This simple finding is consequential for all three major strands of democratization theory. The article goes on to explore how the leverage of the European Union has shaped the trajectories of political change in the new and credible future EU members in East Central and South Eastern Europe. The great variation among existing and candidate members can be largely explained by different domestic conditions, even though there are many areas where the EU’s use of its leverage could have been improved.

More...

Download

AVRUPA VE SAĞ KANAT MİLLİYETÇİLİK: YENİ BİR SÖZLEŞME

Author(s): Emrullah Ataseven / Language(s): Turkish Issue: Suppl. 1/2020

The movements that can lead to serious changes in the traditional political structures of European countries, some of which for a long time, and some others for the last thirty years, have been ruled with a democratic and liberal understanding, are gaining strength. Although they are still far from grabbing the power completely, right-wing, nationalist and populist movements in Europe have begun to be effective in determining center politics. This study, by focusing on the “unneeded, precarious” people who form a significant part of the bases of these movements, examines the fact that how these movements began to reshape the center politics in Europe. The study also discusses the process through which the nationalist, right-wing movements have become tools to express demands and complaints for these people.

More...

Download

TEMELCİLİK-SONRASI DEMOKRASİ TEORİSİ ÜZERİNE NOTLAR: BİRLİKTE-VAROLUŞ VE ANTAGONİZMA

Author(s): H. Furkan LİVAN / Language(s): Turkish Issue: Suppl. 1/2020

In the theory of democracy, the functioning of foundationalist paradigm is in a deepseated crisis. This study focuses on the post foundational debates emerged in contemporary political theory through the critique of foundationalist paradigm. As the starting point, two major arguments that lead to the theory of post-foundationalist democracy are considered: coexistence and antagonism. Accordingly, in post-foundationalist arguments based on the critique of the foundationalist democracy -particularly liberal representative democracy-, there are two approaches that seek the possibility of coexistence on the one hand and evaluate democracy as the playground of antagonistic struggles on the other. In the light of this information, firstly the concepts of foundationalism and post-foundationalism are explained; then, the meanings of foundationalism and post-foundationalism in the context of the theory of democracy are analyzed. Finally, criticism of the discussions of coexistence and antagonism is put forward and a possibility of democracy beyond these two approaches is questioned.

More...

Download

RADİKAL DEMOKRASİ BAĞLAMINDA SOL POPÜLİZMİN İMKÂNI

Author(s): Selim RÜŞEN,Uğur IŞIK / Language(s): Turkish Issue: Suppl. 1/2020

This study will focus on the possibility of radicalizing democracy in the context of Chantal Mouffe's "Left Populist Strategy". Mouffe states that after World War II, the agonistic tension between democracy and liberalism dissipated against democracy with Thatcherism and that the political one's was replaced by technocratic politics. Mouffe claims that the consensus of post-political mediocre, which eliminated the differences between center-right and center-left policies, has been questioned by the global financial crisis that erupted in 2008. Mouffe states that the neoliberal crisis created a 'populist moment'. This moment suggests that left populism is an opportunity to intervene in massification in a right-populist form through anti-popular and political elites. Mouffe states that left populism is not an ideology, but a political logic and strategy in the process of building a new counterhegemony. It also rejects pejorative literature that evaluates populism through anti-democracy with an essentialist approach. However, Mouffe is subjected to criticism that the alternative to right populism cannot be left populism and that every populist model will result in a vertical democracy.

More...

20.00 €

Preview

Party Patronage in Poland. The Democratic Left Alliance and Law and Justice Compared

Author(s): Anna Gwiazda / Language(s): English Issue: 04/2008

Patronage is central to Polish party politics. The power of a governing party to appoint its supporters to positions in public and semi-public spheres will be examined in this paper. The two governments under investigation are: the center–left coalition government of the Democratic Left Alliance, the Labour Union, and the Polish Peasant Party formed in October 2001 and the center–right minority government of the Law and Justice party formed in October 2005. A significant extent of party patronage was expected in the case of the Democratic Left Alliance, which confirmed a dominant party thesis. However, in the case of Law and Justice, party patronage was expected to be hindered by party competition. This has not been the case, which challenges two arguments put forward by Grzymala-Busse that the dispersion of parliamentary power constrains party patronage and that in Poland the general pattern is that of decreasing rent-seeking.

More...

20.00 €

Preview

Democratization and Hybrid Regimes. Comparative Evidence from Southeast Europe

Author(s): Marcus Alexander / Language(s): English Issue: 04/2008

Despite the central place of democratization studies in comparative politics, scholars still lack both theory and empirical evidence to understand institutional change in hybrid regimes (characterized by a collapse of one authoritarian regime and failure to transition to a consolidated democracy). This article makes a contribution to the emerging study of hybrid regimes by developing a middle-range theory for a medium-N set of previously neglected cases in Southeast Europe. It theorizes institutional change as a process initiated by the elites in power but then either accelerated or hampered by structural factors. After decomposing the effects of state capacity, opposition, and international influence in this dynamic and focusing on the process rather than the outcome, it is possible to refine the standard assumptions of democratization paradigm. The study finds that a strong state, a united opposition, and Western assistance can help authoritarian-leaning governments consolidate their coercive power.

More...

Download

PITANJE KONAČNOG SUVERENITETA KROZ PRIZMU DVA KLASIČNA I DVA MODERNA TEFSIRA

Author(s): Ilma Delić / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 81/2020

As opposed to democracy as a form of government wherein it is generally understood that the ultimate power belongs to people, we here have Islamic political system where the ultimate authority is actually affirmation of the sovereignty of God’s will. Thus the following question arises: are the principles of democracy opposed to the principles of the Sharia? This article offers a comparative view of interpretations of ayahs of the Qur’an containing the word hukm (judgement, verdict, authority, command, decree, decision) as seen in two classical and two modern interpretations of the Qur-an. It is the fiftieth ayah of the surah Al-Ma’idah - (Then is it the judgement of (the time) of ignorance they seek? And who is better than Allah in judgement for a people who are certain (in faith)? It is concluded that the democracy and pluralism in the Muslim world have their bases in religious principles and not on the bases of the principles of the late modern West. In practice this would imply that realisation of the principles of Islam is best attained in well-controlled separation of religious and political organs.

More...

20.00 €

Preview

Southern Europe, Eastern Europe, and Comparative Politics: “Transitology" and The Need for New Theory

Author(s): Howard J. Wiarda / Language(s): English Issue: 03/2001

A vigorous polemic has been conducted over the last decade concerning the usefulness of employing in Central and Eastern Europe the model of transitions to and consolidations of democracy fashioned out of the Southern European (Greece, Portugal, Spain) and Latin American experiences. Some scholars of these latter regions, have taken to calling themseives "transitologists" and "consolidologists" and have put forth sometimes exaggerated and self-important claims to have invented entirely new areas of the discipline. Actually, the study of the transitions to and consolidation of democracy, is a fascinating and important one, but, since its theory and empirical material are still weak and underdeveloped, it ought at this stage to be considered merely a new, significant, interesting, but perhaps also topical subject matter, like "liberation theology" or "bureaucratic-authoritarianism," rather than a major theoretical breakthrough. [...]

More...

20.00 €

Preview

Germany's Party of Democratic Socialism in Comparative Perspective

Author(s): David F. Patton / Language(s): English Issue: 03/1998

In the early 1990s, political scientists expected that the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) would soon vanish from the German party landscape. The reasons were obvious. This successor of the former ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED) of East Germany (GDR) was losing its members, its resources, its battle to distance itself from the former East German secret police (Stasi), and its voters. In March 1990, the party had won 16.4 percent of the vote in parliamentary elections in the GDR, but by December 1990 in the federal elections of a newly unified Germany its share had fallen to 11.1 percent of the eastern vote, a drop that was hardly compensated by the .3 percent won in western Germany. [...]

More...

Download

İTALYA’DA YÜKSELEN AVRUPA ŞÜPHECİLİĞİ

Author(s): Sinem ÇELİK / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 48/2020

Especially in the last decade, attitudes towards the European Union (EU) have gradually changed in Italy. Consistent traditional support expressed by Italians has recently taken a volatile and even critical structure. Faith in EU membership has declined significantly among Italian citizens. Euroscepticism rhetoric reflecting anti-EU sentiment has escalated in the country. Especially after the 2018 elections, the Italian government has often come into conflict with the EU. This article aims to provide a brief overview of the reasons for the Euroscepticism that existed in the country especially after the 2000s and the changes in Italian attitudes towards European integration, focusing on the public and politicians of Italy.

More...