Transitions Online_Around the Bloc-Czech Man Shocked by Impact of Hillary Clinton Video
Concerns about the U.S. presidential candidate’s health emerged after a man from Moravia filmed a faint Clinton on 11 September.
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Concerns about the U.S. presidential candidate’s health emerged after a man from Moravia filmed a faint Clinton on 11 September.
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In the past few years there have been considerable and positive developments in important issues for the Muslim communities in Greece. The paper focuses on a number of initiatives and policies that have been taken by the Greek state in the last years, aiming at the improvement of Muslim education structures and the strengthening of the religious identity of the Muslim minority of Thrace; it also focuses on recent decisions and initiatives aiming at the improvement of the religious structures of Muslim immigrants in the metropolitan area of Athens. The paper shows the reasons behind these developments, namely the role of the European Union financial and symbolic resources, the changes in the priorities and the mentality of Greek governments since 1990 and especially in the very recent years.
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The interview focuses on Henning Meyer’s view on technology and digitalisation in the terms of jobs and social security. It deals with insecurity of the technology age where the people are not capable of comprehending the fast development. While discussing the topic, Henning Meyer presents his view on the possible solutions to the insecurity in the meaning of job or activity guarantee. The interview also addresses issues of education in the technology era. At the same time, it focuses on the recent crises in Europe – including refugee crisis, the Brexit and ‘Eurozone’ crisis with the focus on the role of social democracy in these crises.
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The notion of a clan of the first secretary in the soviet Lithuania or, in contrast, speaking about the consolidated titular nomenklatura enables to penetrate deeply into the governing of a soviet republic. The key questions here are: what kind of networks? Could the sort of networks and trust help us explain political dynamics in the soviet Lithuania and reasons why exactly Soviet Lithuanian Communist party became the first one in the Soviet Union that break with CPSU in 1989? What kind of circumstances and political context made possible the horizontal links among nomenklatura members and made nomenklatura likely to be a more consolidated network than the personal clan of the first secretary in such a centralized soviet system? Seeking to draw a difference between the clan and the consolidated titular nomenklatura, useful is the concept of krugavaya poruka presenting the Lithuanian nomenklatura as a cycle of functionaries bounded with interpersonal ties and collective responsibility against Moscow to drain out the political forms of nationalism in society. This article focuses on the personal network of Petras Griškevičius, the first secretary of the Communist party of Lithuania (1974–1987), revealing the importance of his networking in controlling the soviet Lithuanian nomenklatura. Griškevičius’ leadership network consisted of professionals and technocrats (functional nomenklatura), on the one hand, and the functionaries loyal to Griškevičius personally (Griškevičius’ personal clan) on the other. Tensions between members of functional nomenklatura and representatives of his personal clan appeared in many sectors of political, economic and social life of the republic. The article investigates cases of intelligentsia and technocracy in order to show how Griškevičius had used the competition between the functional nomenklatura and members of his personal clan aiming to gain more power. While the first secretary succeed in keeping balance among nomenklatura members, his power was limited by political circumstances. There were at least three factors that made possible the distinguished situation in the soviet Lithuania: 1) high expression of nationalism in society, 2) low status of the first secretary of the republic’s Communist party, 3) the role of the second secretary of the Communist party sent by Moscow into republic’s leadership. The obligation against Moscow to drain out political forms of nationalism in the republic led to functionalism in its nomenklatura leadership. Threat and political responsibility for the expression of nationalism demanded functional skills from party and soviet managers able to deal with political, social, and economic problems in the republic. For this reason, Griškevičius could not behave in the nepotism way by recruiting only trusted and personally loyal to him functionaries into leadership; he needed professionals. Secondly, in contrast to the “masters” in other republics, the first secretary of the soviet Lithuania had a comparatively low status in all-Union institutions. Both the first and second secretaries were only a member and a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU. This low status of the first secretary in all-Union bureaucracy ranking made an impact on the behavior of the local nomenklatura, because it got a room for the personal play between the first and the second secretaries.
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Two years after the EuroMaidan Revolution, Ukraine’s reform path is shaping up, but the political context remains eerily similar to the country we knew before. Viktor Yanukovych, who let his family and cronies challenge the oligarchs’ wealth and the freedom of Ukrainians, is gone. The power of the Donbas lobby, which made the Donetsk rules possible, is fading away, though in a manner that may cost Ukraine more than the price of war.
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The paper is analyzing causes and character of irredentist activities of Hungarian governments in relation to Czechoslovakia during the monitored period. Principal aim of irredenta was to establish an alternative to the direct annexation of Slovakia, or at least of part of the Slovak territory inhabited by the Hungarian minority. The goal of irredenta, besides other, was also to reinforce ethnic awareness of the Hungarian population in Slovakia, to cultivate a historic legacy of Hungary and to eliminate integral processes, which could weaken connections of members of the Hungarian community toward their kin country. Parallel with the increase of political instability during the second half of thirties, intensify also irredentist activities among ethnic Hungarians. The status of majority of Hungarians living in Slovakia was dramatically changed after the annexation of the majority of Hungarians to Hungary.
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The study describes the last years of Vojtech Tuka, one of the representatives of the Slovak State (1939-1945). This period was significantly affected by his ill health, which was the official reason for his withdrawal from politics in the years 1943-1944. At the end of the war he moved to western Austria, which became the French occupying zone. French military police arrested him in August 1945 in Kitzbühel and interned him in Innsbruck. Because of the very poor state of his health it was an urgent and speedy hearing. He was transported to Prague in December 1945 and was heard to supply information for the Nuremberg trials. Further questioning took place in May 1946 due to its own process at the National court. Investigators were interested in the circumstances of the Slovak State, his activity during the period of autonomy, his contacts with the Nazis in the 1920s, events of March 1939 and the riots in Bratislava, the Treaty of protection with Germany, the war against Poland and the Soviet Union, economic and military linkage to Germany, meeting in Salzburg and the Jewish question. On the questions of the period of his “first political activity” in 1929 he answered only with the intentions of his request for mercy from 1935. The process ended with sentencing and execution of Vojtech Tuka in August 1946.
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During the IGU Congress in 1934 held in Warsaw there was presented the project of new international scientific organization, namely Joachim Lelewel Society, which was to deal with history and philosophy of geography. Unfortunaltely this decision was not carried into effect because of incoming global conflict and World War II that disabled the necesary friendly contacts between potential members. Joachim Lelewel (1786-1861) was one of the most important founders of history of geography. This field was his inspiration and source of research interests. Lelewel understood that the condition of geography's development is both the increase in theoretical concepts necessary to comprehend and describe the Earth surface, and the extension of geographical horizon due to exploration. According to his views, the pure description and map making is not sufficient to be called geography. This is because geography is a special kind of knowledge which embraces all the terrestial phenomena, and this could be substantiate on the basis of history of geographical ideas. Moreover, an exact recognition of geography's development is the best basis for future research. Lelevel has expressed his philosophy of the field mainly in his works concerning the development of ancient and medieval geography. Those works gave him respect of such known persons like Karl Ritter, Hermann Wagner or Lucien Gallois. The purpose of this short paper is to show the Lelevel's main ideas and concepts concerning the essence of geography. This is necessary since this XIXth century scholar, who became the patron of the international scientific society, remains rather not known among contemporary scientists. The additional aim is to show, that his original ideas could be useful from the point of view of contemporary geographical problems and interests.
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This is a review of Florin Abraham's book, Romania since theSecond World War: A Political, Socialand Economic History, BloomsburyAcademic, Londra-New York, 2016,360 p.
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In a short note, the author outlines a series of Hans Kelsen’s studies dedicated to Ancient political thought, esp. his The Philosophy of Aristotle and Hellenic-Macedonian Policy. He believes that these relatively neglected minor studies of the famous philosopher of law could still be of interest to contemporary classicists and historians of philosophy.
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The article analyzes ideological and political life in monarchic Russian post-revolutionary emigration in the first half of the 1920-s. Considered are the main tendencies connected with the search of the consolidating political ideas, views of thinkers of the right monarchic orientation, and also their influence on social and political life and formation of ideological platforms under the conditions of monarchic associations split concerning a succession to the throne.
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Evidenced by frequent media reports about the riots and the violence that accompanies sporting events in the country. Mass beats on and off the court, resulting in tens of casualties "fans" led lads, have become commonplace in the region. However, this is just a "side effect" of other much deeper issues that affect society, and one of them is hooliganism. Ruined social norms and values as well as the deviant culture among young people, the main cause of the problem arising from the relationship between hooligans, politics and crime.
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In this article, we consider the subject of such scientific and educational discipline as ethnopolitology. We reveal the relationship between ethnopolitology and ethnopolitics as well as between the concepts ethnonation and nation-state, nation and people, and civic identity and ethnic identity. We also analyze the influence of ethnic groups on the political sphere of social life and the impact of power institutions on ethnic groups.
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The paper analyzes central problems in the sphere of physical education and sports and their perception by the subjects of the Russian Federation when setting goals, formulating functions and tasks for the regional policy. Attention is focused on the problem of correspondence between the conceptual frameworks of sports policy at the regional and federal level. It is shown that the low efficiency of the current policy is largely due to the biased understanding of the problems in physical education and sports by regional authorities. In this situation interregional cooperation is required.
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The paper addresses the process of theatricalization of Russian reality in different historical periods. It retraces the influence of political situation on the nature of theatrical dialogue with the audience and specifies its forms in the periods from 1917 to the 1930s and from the 1950s up to now. The authors come to the conclusion that the blurring of borders between the stage and the audience served different goals in different periods: it helped to release the internal energy of the masses at one time and became the means of its oppression at another time, but finally it led to democratization and a person’s acquisition of internal freedom.
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The article discusses the reasons for electoral passivity of modern Russian youth. It is pointed out that various subjective and objective factors have influenced the formation of a unique electoral culture of young people in Russia. The Republic of Bashkortostan is taken as a region for research, since it combines various factors determining the political culture and electoral behavior of the population. The study shows that “damped fluctuations”, depending on the priority and status of the elections, is a common pattern of the electoral behavior of young people in the Republic of Bashkortostan.
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The paper discusses opportunities offered by the Internet to forge new channels of citizen participation in politics. The conventional and unconventional forms of political participation via the Internet resources are analyzed. Special attention is paid to the problem of cyberterrorism. The models of online political participation are considered. The advantages of political participation via the Internet technologies are specified. The conclusion is made that the Internet encourages development of a special and revolutionary type of citizen participation in politics.
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Attitudes towards the institution of elections in the mass political consciousness of Russian society have been discussed. The institution of elections in the 1990s has been evaluated. The reasons for public distrust of electronic voting are singled out. The main grounds for low voter turnout in Russia are provided.
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Promotion of international cooperation between the regions, establishment of a favorable investment climate, and cooperation with foreign partners while implementing large-scale joint projects are considered with regard to the Republic of Tatarstan. The role of regional authorities in motivating and supporting the participants of international affairs is discussed. The need for further improvement of institutions responsible for the coordination of international and foreign economic cooperation is emphasized. The problems of practical implementation of the procedures for interaction between the subjects of the Russian Federation and the federal authorities in particular areas of international cooperation are analyzed.
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This paper reveals the essence of separatism, as well as its sources, driving forces, and historical background. The relationship between ethnicity and ethnic conflicts was established. The influence of separatism on the development of both political process and international situation was described. Based on the historical phenomena of separatism, its potential consequences under conditions of ethnopolitical conflict were formulated using the modeling method. These effects are universal and apply to most cases of separatism. It seems appropriate to take into account the identified potential impacts of separatism in order to achieve reliable results during policy analysis and forecasting.
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