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Pierre Manent "Przemiany rzeczy publicznej. Od Aten do całej ludzkości"
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Pierre Manent "Przemiany rzeczy publicznej. Od Aten do całej ludzkości"
More...Rozmowa z Maciejem Janowskim
More...Статья отражает один из этапов исследования, посвященного атрибуции текста автора еженедель- ника «Гражданин», опубликовавшегося в № 41 за 1873 год под псевдонимом «Х.». Ранее было уста- новлено, что анонимным автором оказался один из корреспондентов
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The subject of the article is the conditions for the construction and development of the People’s Republic of China’s naval base in Djibouti. It consists of an introduction, three parts and conclusion. The introduction discusses the methodological assumptions of the article. The first part presents the reasons for the location of China’s first foreign naval base in Djibouti. The second part is devoted to issues concerning the base’s construction and development. The third part examines the consequences of locating a Chinese base in Djibouti for the purpose of strategic rivalry between states. The research takes into account both the local, regional and global perspective. The most important conclusions and summaries, as well as prospects for the development of the base in Djibouti and further activities of the PRC in the field of maritime expansion, are presented at the end.
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This paper examines the main features of the political system in the People’s Republic of China and the changes in the power structure of the Communist Party of China since the introduction of the reform and opening-up policy. The author analyses the key features of the decision-making process, institutions, model of governance and leadership of the PRC during the eras of Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping. Since the beginning of the 1980s, China’s political system has undergone a transformation from one-man rule to a “collective leadership”, facing various challenges in governing the country and upholding the process of reform. The deepening of economic reforms, which began in the 1990s required a significant improvement in the state’s ability to govern and its adoption of a more flexible approach to the Party’s guiding ideology. As a result, China’s top decision-making bodies started to evolve into professional governing boards supported by highly educated cadres, experts and think-tanks. However, the end of Deng Xiaoping’s “strong-hand” rule led to the formation of a number of factions and interest groups within the Party’s establishment, each holding different views on the way, and the extent to which, such reforms should be pursued. During the last two decades, this factional struggle has exerted a negative influence on China’s economic and social transformation, as well as initiating the process of internal decay in the Party. Facing a growing number of challenges in China’s development and a lack of political unity within the CPC, the present leadership has strived to reorder the power structure and streamline the process of reform. Although it has managed to consolidate political power and partly eliminate some of the gravest problems, such as corruption, discord within the Party has prevailed and increased, leading to a visible decline in the reforms over the past few years, as well as to a growing number of voices demanding a thorough change in the political system. This paper concludes with remarks regarding the further evolution of the political system in the PRC, and possible developments in the Party’s leadership.
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The last forty years of Reform and Opening Up in China have brought many changes and corrections in the policies of the Chinese state towards religion. Those policies were incorporated into the overall state policy and recognised as an important part of the Party’s work. The theoretical basis for the state religious policy is the so-called “theory of religion with Chinese characteristics”. In 2015, Xi Jinping for the first time stated the need for “persisting in the Sinicisation of religion”. His particular understanding of “Sinicisation” applies not only to the foreign religions such as Islam or Christianity, but to indigenous Daoism as well, which implies that, in the modern official parlance of the PRC, the term “Sinicisation of religion” has a new meaning, different from the more traditional understandings of the word. In fact, it has been translated in English-language publications as the “Chinafication of religion”; an even more appropriate translation, however, would be the “PRC-isation of religion”, as the afore-mentioned “Sinicisation” most of all means obedience to the CCP’s rule and “adaptation to the needs of the socialist society”. This article outlines the evolution of the theory of religion with Chinese characteristics as it is understood and presented in official publications, and attempts to analyse the scope of the prescribed “Sinicisation of religion” in modern China.
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This paper examines the scope of redistribution requirements that come from recognition policies. Politic of recognition, that is, difference policies, basically make redistributive claims based on recognition of the specific way of life of a particular social group. These are, above all, requests coming from the LGBT community, minority ethnic communities and women’s groups, and in earlier times from the labor movement. on the one hand, such a theoretical position offers a good basis for the practical political mobilization of members of a given group and historical examples of organizing on the basis of a common identity are arguments in favor of the politics of recognition. By strengthening a specific identity, a sense of solidarity within the group develops, which creates the preconditions for successful political action. On the other hand, there is the problem of defining the boundaries of the group and exclusion because they do not belong to the group, although persons may be in equally poor economic position, which is the basis of criticism from universalist positions. in addition to problematizing the limitations of redistribution requirements that come from recognition policies, the paper also examines the possibilities of co-operation of identically defined groups through different alternative models of democracy.
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A comprehensive understanding of historical trends and current events in the Republic of Turkey inevitably requires an insight into the development of the oldest and the most stable political party in this country. The aim of this causal study is to provide explanations for the current situation and the problems Republican People’s Party (CHP) is facing. accordingly, the study will demonstrate how CHP and its ideological principles were established in the context of turbulent historical trends in Turkey during 20th and the beginning of 21st century. The position and the role of this party in the Turkish political system will be analyzed with regard to local and international current events. an overview of CHP’s evolution in chronological order directly indicates complexity of the Turkish political system and shows how influential CHP was in its formation and development.
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The Belt and Road initiative, also known as „The new Silk Road’, covers more than 60 countries on three continents, which in cooperation with China see an opportunity for economic and political gains. China also sees an opportunity for benefits from cooperation within The Belt and Road initiative, which was launched on the basis of the combination of China’s trade, financial, political and security interests. This article aims to explore economic and political dimension of The Belt and Road initiative, covering the primary interests of subjects working on the initiative’s realization, challenges they face on that path and expected economic and political consequences of the initiative. according to research results, the economic dimension of the Belt and road is more visible and includes matters such as infrastructure development and consequently trade expansion, matters closely connected with China’s economic growth, the problem of China’s sub-regional economic development and financial issues. The political dimension of the initiative, on the other hand, should be observed through China’s coping with international system’s pressure, strengthening of its influence across the globe, as well as through China’s domestic and international security interests.
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The Shiite position before the Lebanese civil war differs significantly from the one after it. Through the war they were transformed from a marginalized group to compelling players on the lebanese and regional political arena. The momentous reason behind the Shiite empowerment was the emergence of Hezbollah, which is backed by iran. The relation between Hezbollah and the Lebanese government is decided by the controversial regional issues. The paper aims to investigate Hezbollah’s ideology and so-called Lebanonization regarding Lebanese foreign policy. it demonstrates that Hezbollah is a rational non-state actor who is part of the regional comparative dynamics and power struggle. it argues that Hezbollah is a pragmatic ideology-driven actor which plays both cards of integration and segregation. The integration provides a refuge for Hezbollah while the segregation enables it to pursue its regional agenda. The method of discourse analysis is used in examining Hezbollah’s ideology, governance and foreign policy.
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The aim of this paper is to use the example of count Corti’s mission to explain the difficulties that Cetinje had with implementing a decision of the Treaty of Berlin – the annexation of Plav and gusinje to Montenegro. This mission implied that the problem created by Turks who opposed the decision that these towns should be incorporated into Montenegrin state was going to be solved by giving the territory of albanian Catholic tribes of grudi and Hoti to Montenegro instead. Though it seemed that Corti’s idea would be successful, the diplomatic efforts to implement the idea of the territory compensation were not fruitful.
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The subject of this paper is the analysis of perspectives for the implementation of anti-oppressive practice in social work. Reductionist tendencies in social protection are estimated to have endangered the value base of social work in recent years, whose primary focus is on the individuals, their needs and rights. The aim of the paper is to understand the advantages and limitations of this concept, and to identify the steps that need to be taken for its successful implementation. The paper is based on the analysis of existing scientific and scholarly literature. The paper used the method of content analysis of documents. The conclusion points to the strong need for the development of anti-oppression practices, and the increasing aspirations of neoliberal doctrine to reduce social work to the technical management of individual cases and to the maintenance of social peace, thereby protecting the oppressive order.
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Taking an example of corona-crisis management in Croatia, the author discusses the rela tionship between crisis and some aspects of democracy. At the level of constitutional and legal prerogatives, as well as at the level of electoral procedures, it was shown that Croatian democracy is not ready for the legislative and executive authorities to function smoothly in extraordinary circumstances. Such a situation potentially can lead to erosion of democratic legitimacy and produce unwanted consequences for future functioning of democracy.
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The crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic did not bypass Bosnia and Herzegovina. It created challenges of crisis management for the country’s complex institutional structure. Although the worst-case scenario did not happen, the crisis exposed major institutional weaknesses, poor coordination, endemic corruption, and authoritarian tendencies within consociational democracy and multilevel governance. The upcoming local elections at the end of the year will show whether BiH is able to maintain democratic rule and civil liberties during the crisis.
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Democracy in Montenegro was under attack during the emergency situation caused by the coronavirus, which is a continuation of some well-established autocratic practices that existed even before the epidemic. Violations of the Constitution and other legal regulations, contraversial changes to the law, marginalization of the role of parliament, restrictions on media freedom and freedom of expression, are just some of the practices that the government resorted to during the epidemic. They are all the even more problematic as they have been recorded in a country that has been negotiating membership in the European Union for eight years now, so it should have reached a certain level of democratization so far, but also due to the fact that 2020 is an election year in Montenegro while such practices further affect un even playing field. This paper points out the dimensions of the problem of autocratization in Montenegro, concluding that authoritarian practices are deeply rooted in the system itself, which has been controlled by the same party for thirty years.
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The Republic of North Macedonia has had a relatively stable democratic rise in the period prior to the pandemic caused by the Covid-19 virus. However, the crisis that officially started in February 2020 in the country, brought a new political paradigm along. Besides the heavy mobility restrictions imposed in the country, North Macedonia has been undergoing a period with postponed elections, a technical Government as well as a Parliament that was self-dissolved prior to the crisis and refused to reconvene during the state of emergency proclaimed by the President of the country. This has put North Macedonia in a very delicate position, additionally challenged by the very instable relations between the state and the religious communities, whose behavior has created political turmoil in the country.
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Political situation during the pandemic has a specific context. Firstly, danger from autocracy in Kosovo comes as a result of the lack of a solution regarding ideological and statutory relations of Kosovo with Serbia. Secondly, for around 20 years a corrupted leadership who rose from the last conflict with Serbia has been rooted, who is exploiting dialogue and pandemic to strengthen their authoritarian positions with autocratic tendencies. Mostly because of the above mentioned reasons the state of Kosovo doesn’t have a consolidated democracy. Further more the newly elected government faced a no confidence vote initiated by it’s coalition partner (LDK) with American Administration’s support in the middle of a pandemic, after 50 days of governance! The created context of the new circumstances can be easily exploited by authoritarian leadership for autocratic solutions. Along unconstitutional measures thathave been taken, the risk of further autocratization it’s not gone regardless if a new government is formed without elections or after the election process.
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The coronary virus pandemic (COVID 19) has further strengthened authoritarian tendencies and reduced human rights and freedoms. In Serbia, it is disputable that the decision on the state of emergency was not made by the parliament, it came to deparliamentarization and even greater supremacy of the executive. The introduction of the state of emergency was followed by the adoption of 38 decrees and conclusions of the government and the President of the Republic. Restrictive and repressive measuresand limited rights and freedoms of citizens were introduced. The decline in trust was accompanied by stricter measures, arrests, repressive measures and the most terrible threats. The opposition was not consulted in the adoption of measures, it did not have the opportunity to appear in public. During the state of emergency, there was an inadmissible action of the judicial authorities, the trial via Skype and the verdict that self-isolation was not respected upon return from abroad „despite the appeals of President Vučić broadcast on television”. Media control and pressure on journalists has been strengthened: by arresting journalists, reducing the provision of information on the epidemic to the Crisis Staff, and holding a press conference without journalists. Discriminatory treatment of pensioners, children with autism and other disabilities, pets, etc. The rule of fear has intensified. The existential fears so far have been further strengthened by the fear of death, disease and repressive measures. The rule of fear is not a feature of democratic regimes. At the time of the pandemic, the divisions in society that existed before the pandemic deepened even more: a boycott of parliament, a commitment to boycott elections and protests. The decision to lift the state of emergency was made in the shadow of the decision on the new election date, June 21. 2020. Democratic norms, values and institutions must be preserved even in times of crisis, because power without control is like a car without brakes. A state of emergency accustoms people to submission. After the pandemic and after 53 days of the state of emergency, a great effort will be needed to reanimate society, and probably „mechanical breathing” for democracy. One of the most important transfers in the history of democracy was the transfer of power from the individual to the institutions. The reverse process, that is underway, must be stopped!
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I dicuss democratic erosion in the eight Southeast European post-communist regimes—Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia, and Kosovo—during the 3-month lockdown (March-May 2020). Only one Southeast incumbent attempted to permanently aggrandize executive powers or change the character of the regime. This is Slovenia. Other regime’s incumbents either did not attempt to permanently change democratic rules; or if they did, the attempts did not result in permanent changes. Naturally, all conclusions are provisional because most Southeast regimes still keep some sort of lockdown as well as state of emergency and even curfew.
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