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This book is intended as a helpful tool for students of political science and history who wish to comprehend national and international realities of the modern world.
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While the enforcement of anticorruption policies has been prioritised by international and national governments, the tools for evaluating this enforcement have not been developed. The main reason for this underdevelopment is that corruption is measured and policies evaluated only at the societal level, while the level of actual corrupt transactions - the public institution - is rarely analysed. This paper outlines the conceptual justification for rethinking the focus of anticorruption monitoring, maps the corruption measurement and monitoring landscape and sketches a new instrument designed to serve a better targeted policy evaluation - Monitoring Anticorruption Policy Implementation (MACPI).
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The current publication presents a study on child trafficking conducted in seven EU member states: Austria, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Romania and Slovakia. The study looks at three specific forms of trafficking in persons: child trafficking for begging, for pickpocketing and for sexual exploitation of boys and the way they manifest themselves among Roma communities.The findings of the study are based on analysis of policy documents and existing statistical data, as well focus groups and in-depth interviews with key stakeholders. The fieldwork conducted in four of the countries, traditionally regarded as origin countries of trafficking victims, relied on participatory research methods. The active involvement of Roma organisations in the research aimed to gain a deeper understanding of the risk factors involved, bring knowledge back to the communities and support Roma experts’ involvement in counter-trafficking policy and mechanisms.The report examines the profiles of victims and discusses the vulnerability factors that make the Roma minority a particular group at risk. The study provides empirical knowledge on the mechanisms of recruitment and exploitation of victims in order to inform identification efforts and counter-trafficking responses. Particular attention is devoted to the policy and measures for assistance of victims. In this field, the report identifies specific gaps in assistance and the way they affect Roma victims in particular, and suggests how child victim assistance could be improved.
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The second book of the four book long life work compilation is about the newly formed social and national system's conceptual, organizational and cohabitational problems, which had taken shape after 1989-
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„In Bárányvakság I tried to find out why - at the end of the 80's – strong, self-assured, all in all westernized hungarian middle class – whose want to free from the dictature – gave up their autonomy between democratic atmosphere. Why did they fall into the state's arms, especially into that kind of bad efficency state's arms?”
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The aim of the course book entitled International Institutions and Organizations is to offer a guide to students specializing in International Relations and European Studies. First of all, it contains a theoretical introduction to the international institutions and organizations in general, going through the basic characteristics of these actors of international relations. Besides historical antecedents of the formation of international institutions and organizations, the introductory chapter contains the definition and a classification, the membership, budget, the legal subjects and diplomatic status, etc. Following the introduction, the course book is structured into seven main chapters, which present the basic types of intergovernmental institutions and organizations, such as political, military, security, economic, environmental protection, financial, scientific and cultural ones. Each of these chapters describe in detail the main international institutions and organizations of the respective domain, arranged in chronological order according to their date of foundation. The following institutions and organizations are presented: the Commonwealth of Nations, the League of Nations, the United Nations Organization, the Council of Europe, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Warsaw Treaty, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the International Labour Organization, the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, the Group of Seven (G-7)–Group of Eight (G-8), the Kyoto Protocol, the Bretton Woods system, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and finally the World Intellectual Property Organization. Besides a short general description, each presentation focuses on the following main aspects: the foundation process, members, headquarters, official languages, organizational structure and activity. These are followed, in each case by a short evaluation referring to the whole institution or organization in question, which offers a surplus to the course book over its encyclopaedic aspect. At the end of the book there is a bibliography and a list of notions that help the students in understanding the material much better. The entire book covers a one-semester course in International Relations and European Studies.
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The aim of the course book entitled Theory of International Relations is to make the education of students specializing in International Relations and European Studies much easier. First of all, it contains a brief theoretical introduction to the very large field of international relations through the preludes of this branch of science, the basics of its name and its origins. In the second part of the book the actors of the international relations are introduced besides the first forms of interstate relations. In this matter, the whole chapter 3 is a presentation of the Westphalian interstate political system, and chapter 4 is a large demonstration of the classic system of the balance of power dealing with its origins and most important aspects as well. The main part of the book (chapters 5-10) presents the basic theoretical schools of international relations: realism, neorealism, idealism, neoidealism and geopolitics. Finally, the last chapter contains the latest theories of international relations: neofunctionalism, neo-Marxism, behaviorism, constructivism and reflectivism. At the end of the book there is a list of notions, which helps the students in understanding the material. The entire book covers a one-semester course in international relations.
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Książka wydana wspólnie z Niemieckim Instytutem Historycznym w WarszawieTajny referat Chruszczowa z 1956 roku zachwiał komunizmem w posadach. Późniejsze lata kojarzone są zwykle z powolnym upadkiem tej ideologii. Pavel Kolář przedstawia natomiast inną perspektywę: interpretuje destalinizację jako początek nowej epoki. Dowodzi, że utopijne wizje cechowały również komunizm doby poststalinizmu. Ich istotą nie było już jednak niepohamowane dążenie do idealnego ustroju społecznego, lecz stopniowa poprawa istniejącej sytuacji. Wychodząc poza historię komunizmu, książka opowiada o przekształceniach nowoczesnych ideologii i budowaniu nowego konsensusu władzy.
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The title of the book refers to a slogan that emerged in the political debate at the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century. The slogan is provocative because, on the one hand, it paraphrases the American return to Asia (US pivot to Asia) and, on the other hand, it recalls not only Russia’s geographical but also political presence in Asia. For Russia, the region of Northeast Asia remains the most important for security reasons, but in the second decade of the 21st century, the region of Southeast Asia became increasingly active. The ASEAN countries developed rapidly and implemented a number of measures to promote closer integration. The growing importance of Southeast Asia has prompted Russia to develop a strategy for this sub-region. It is part of Russia’s broader geopolitical game and must be seen in terms of establishing a balance between the major regional powers of the US, China, Japan and India on the one hand, and seeking a place of its own on the “chessboard. ” The main areas of cooperation with ASEAN are security and arms trade, energy and energy raw materials. Despite all the declarations, economic and trade cooperation has been slow. An example of the latest initiative proposed by President Vladimir Putin is the Greater Eurasian Partnership. I consider the initiative to be unrealistic at this stage, particularly given Russia’s economic constraints, even though diplomatic efforts are under way. In this case, the Chinese factor remains uncertain, as Greater Eurasia refers geographically to the Chinese Belt and Road Project. Russia’s most important partner in the region remains Vietnam, while Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia are among the major trading partners. The analysis was based on international developments up to the end of the second decade of the 21st century.
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The monograph takes up the issues of determinants of electoral volatility in reference tofour groups of factors — that is, systemic, social, psychological, and economic. The openingchapter aims at introducing the reader with the issues of electoral volatility, where definitionsof electoral volatility have been presented with regards to different research perspectives.With due attention to the specific character of the phenomenon, different methodologicalissues have been discussed, predominantly those concerning the indices of electoral volatilityas well as dilemmas over their usage. Moreover, the chapter provides an analysis ofelectoral volatility in terms of democratic consolidation processes. Chapter one ends withcritical analysis of operational and interpretative approaches.The subsequent chapters discuss the groups of electoral volatility determinants. Thefirst group comprises systemic factors that include both the shape of political system andinstitutional solutions at the same time functioning as its framework. Taking into accounttheir range of impact on electoral volatility, the aforementioned areas provide an analysisof the following factors: political regime, political system, compulsory voting, incentivesfor electoral activity, the form of political party system, new parties, political polarization,forced electoral volatility, as well as electoral manipulation. The second group of determinantscomprises social factors connected with the social structure where an individualfunctions, and which is a point of departure in making decisions, including electoral ones(socio-political divisions, politics directed toward the increased electoral participation, preelectionpolls, Democracy 2.0, and political leadership). Psychological factors belong to thethird group. However, they are viewed rather controversially in the literature on the subjectas they mainly concern latent (hidden) variables, which are far more difficult to prove and,apart from that, it generates discussions that are hypothetical and dubious in nature. Withinthis area different factors have been analyzed — that is, axiology, civic competence, psychologicalcontract, party identification, political branding, electoral uncertainty, and a negativeelection campaign. The next chapter deals with the analysis of economic variables whichare expressions of distinct relations between economy and politics.In terms of the analysis of relations between economy and politics that may occur essentialfor the electoral volatility, the analysis has been delineated in regards with the followingtheories and models: rational choice theory, public choice theory, constitutional economy,economic theory of democracy, a model of an investing elector, retro- and prospective voting.The economic factors that moderate electoral volatility have also been depicted in termsof the assumptions of the “New Politics” as well as mechanisms that govern the EuropeanParliament elections. In the summary the author attempts at delineating connections betweenthe presented and discussed in particular chapters of the book, groups of determinants andelectoral volatility, with focus on the essential extent of the hypothetic character of the discussion,which however results from difficulties in their empirical verification. Aside fromthat, the author seeks for answers to questions on the stability of particular determinants intime and possibilities of their external influencing.
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The main goal of this study is the verification of a hypothesis/idea of centralizedpersonalization during Polish electoral campaigns. Because of its goal and implementedmethodology, such research project is unique among research presented in scientificliterature thus far.The work has a descriptive character; it is congruent with treatments from the fieldof political communication, combining approaches of communicology and politicalscience, in that it expresses an attempt to include in the analysis the circumstancesof election campaign personalization and factors specific to mediacentric and political-scientific perspectives, as well as because of the fact of recognizing media contentin political party communication. Election communication research includes six Polishparliamentary elections from the years 1993—2001. Along with an analysis of communiquécontents, published in information media, as well as communiqué prepared bypolitical subjects contending in the elections, basic analysis methods within the studyare historical-comparative and statistical data analyses.The specific objectives of the treatment are:— Description of circumstances of the political communication personalization thesison the level of mediatization of politics and political campaign professionalizationtheories;— Analysis of the trend occurrence and characteristics of the electoral campaignpersonalization trend based on empirical research conducted in western-Europeanparliamentary democracies;— Recognition of conditions of electoral campaign personalization in parliamentaryelections in Poland;— Analysis of the trend occurrence and characteristics of media personalization inPolish electoral campaigns based on opinion-forming press research;— Analysis of the trend occurrence and characteristics of strategic personalization inPolish electoral campaigns based on political TV advertisement research.
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Polish foreign policy may be regarded, as in case of any other country, as the ability tochoose particular aims as well as means and methods to fulfil them. These choices shouldbe adjusted to national interests recognised and pursued by the successive governments. Atevery stage of implementation of foreign policy the decision‑makersface many dilemmasunderstood as difficult choices between at least two different options.The present collection contains transcripts of papers delivered and discussed during theacademic conference titled: “Dilemmas of Polish Foreign Policy in the Context of Evolution ofInternational Environment at the Turn of the First and the Second Decade of the 21st Century,”organized by the Departament of International Relations — celebrating its 40th anniversary —at the Institute of Journalism and Political Science, University of Silesia. The conference washeld on 23rd—25th September 2013 in Ustroń and it was attended by the representatives ofnearly all academic and politological centres around the country.The present study aims at diagnosing the most significant of the new tendencies andphenomena that may be observed in Poland’s closest and broader international environmentand at illustrating their impact on the continuation or modification of the hitherto prevailinginterests and priorities of Polish foreign policy. The main dilemmas connected with foreignpolicy of our country at the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century have alsobeen subjected to analysis.This edition contains twenty‑eightarticles and is devided into seven parts concerningrespectively: the evolution of Poland’s international environment at the turn of the first andthe second decade of the 21st century; some determinants, aims, means and methods of Polishforeign policy; the most important dilemmas entailed by Polish‑Germanrelations; dilemmasof Poland’s policy towards East, especially Russia; challenges and dangers which the policy ofPolish national and international security has to face; implications that the crisis in Eurozonecarries for Polish doctrine and integration policy in relation to non‑Europeancountries. Themain criterion for the division into parts (excluding the first and the second part) were themost important directions in Polish foreign policy at the beginning of the second decade of21st century both in bilateral and multilateral relations.As the author of one of the essays infers, new elements in the Poland’s internationalenvironment at the turn of the first and the second decade of the 21st century have notsignificantly changed the aims and directions of Polish foreign policy. As a consequence ofintroducing these elements, however, people responsible for making decisions concerningPolish foreign policy were faced with difficult choices between continuation and modificationof the so far prevailing policy. New emphases in Polish foreign policy, in the discussed timeperiod, were the result of this modification.The events discussed in particular articles do not relate to the time period after September2013 — the date the conference was held. Thus, except for few cases (eg. Ryszard Zięba’sarticle), the authors of essays which have been included in the volume do not refer to thedilemmas which occured later, including such important problems for the Polish policy ofsecurity and foreign affairs as these connected with the crisis which started in Ukraine inNovember 2013, and with its consecutive stages, one of them being incorporation of Crimeainto Russia.
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The Migration Conference 2023 Programme offers about 80 sessions in four days from 23 to 26 August 2023. The Migration Conference series attracted a few thousand colleagues over the last 11 years and become one of the largest continuous events on migration and the largest scholarly gathering with a global scope. The conference covers all areas of social sciences, humanities, economics, business and management. More popular areas so far included work, employment, integration, refugees and asylum, migration policy and law, spatial patterns, culture, arts and legal and political aspects which are key areas in the current migration debates and research. Throughout the program of the Migration Conference, you will find various key thematic areas covered in over 300 presentations by about 500 contributors coming from all around the world, from Australia to Mexico, Japan to Brazil, and South Africa to Norway. We are proud to bring together experts from universities, independent research organisations, governments, NGOs and the media. The Migration Conference 2023 is hosted by the Faculty of Law at Hamburg University in Germany. Details of the conference programme and the links to the online sessions can be inspected here. www.migrationconference.net | @migrationevent | fb.me/MigrationConference | Email: migrationscholar@gmail.com
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This book includes reports from the Jubilee International Scientific Conference "The New Realities and Political Science", held on 30 October 2020 at the University of National and World Economy – Sofia (UNWE). The conference was organized on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the scientific specialty and department "Political Science" at UNWE, financed by the UNWE R&D Fund under project NP-22/2020.
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The vast literature on European political parties is dominated by works focused on analyzingactivities of the highest branches of state governments. Yet, it is difficult to be surprised by thisstate of affairs — in Europe, central authorities remain as the main political decision-makers, bothin terms of internal affairs and foreign policies. However, it does not change the fact that politicalparties active in and submitting electoral candidates throughout any given country are not the onlyentities influencing the quality of political decisions made. It is particularly the case in federationcountries and the so-called regional states, where regional parties, as well as their particular variety— ethno-regional parties — gain increasing political significance.The intensification of research on the position of regional parties in political systems of individualEuropean states, especially on the subject of their presence in representative organs on fourlevels — European, state, regional, and local — is definitely justified. The first argument in favorof such research is the fact that in contemporary Europe, these groupings play a major role inestablishing regional imagined communities. As a consequence, scientists must attempt to redefinethe existing relations between the core and the periphery. The second argument is the fact that inWestern European countries, the relevance level of regional parties is rather high, which indicatesthat the field of operations for such parties is still widening. Thirdly, regional parties are indeed apolitical occurrence characteristic for “old Europe” states, but they can also be found in Centraland Eastern European countries. It means that conducting research on Western European regionalparties conducted in Poland can be particularly significant. Poland is a rather unitary state and achange in the constitutional order, adopted in 1997, which establishes such a form of regime, israther unlikely. It does not mean however, that the influence of Western European standards willnot have an impact on political events in Poland and the shaping of the local political scene. An indepthanalysis of solutions adopted in individual Western European states in terms of the capacityfor representational participation of regional collectives in electoral representative organs on European,national, regional, and local levels can allow for drawing appropriate conclusions and a substantiveevaluation of chances of and threats to democracy, which result from including politicalrepresentatives of regional collective into lawmaking and — in a wider context — the workings ofthe political system. Fourthly, an analysis of the functioning of regional parties in the framework ofEuropean political systems can significantly contribute to the understanding of some factors conditioningthe so-called “unfreezing process” of political systems. Finally, it should be noted thatdespite the existence of several classifications of political parties, the authors researching the mattertoday usually propose the adoption of a division into party “families”, since the main “rivalrypoles” are similar in most European states. The assumption of divisions based on doctrinal stereotypesis the reason many authors question the purposefulness of including regional and ethnic parties in classifications, which indicate the existence of ideological “families”. It does not, however,change the fact that they comment on the matter of the existence of such groupings in their works,which is why we can assume that this is a consequential research issue.Contemporary Spain is undoubtedly one of the most interesting examples of a European state,where the political rivalry between the core and the periphery indicates the existence of a substantialsociopolitical division in this aspect. It is clear that any attempt to describe the functioningof its party system based solely on a classification formed using traditional doctrinal stereotypesmust lead to an incomplete, heavily distorted image. The political processes in this country duringthe last 150 years show that the socio-political division between the core and the periphery is notany less vital in Spain than the divisions based on the attitudes towards economic and ideologicalissues. It is clear there that at the turn of the second decade of the 21st century, in the midst of aserious economic crisis, the disappointment in elite politics on the political core level resulted inthe rise of popularity of regional parties. It should be noted here that the research on Spanish partiesfrom this party “family” must be coupled with devoting particular attention to a subtype ofgroupings, which advocate ethnic values. This is due to the specificity of periphery regions, differingfrom other state areas in language, customs or tradition of political institutions, but also inusing these differences in political play by ethno-regional parties.From the perspective of a highly centralized state such as Poland, it definitely merits to examinethe case of Spain. The first argument in favor of researching this field is the fact that despitegranting autonomic rights to all regions of Spain, the state still retains the form of a unitary state.This work is therefore an analysis of occurrences within the context of a similar form of state, asopposed to those happening in a federation — a form foreign to Polish tradition. Secondly, addingto Polish literature and therefore widening the knowledge of regional parties in Spain may be usefulin future in the context of gradual maturing of Polish democracy on local and regional levels.The state decentralization, which occurred in Poland after 1989 was probably one of the most difficultpolitical processes carried out in the country. It is suffice to note that in 1990, at the dawnof the Polish Third Republic, only one level of self-government — the municipal government —was established. Further solutions in the local government reform area were not implemented until1998, when the government of Jerzy Buzek decided to create county and province levels. However,those solutions are becoming a frequent subject of political and scientific discussion. These discussionsoften include the notion that the local government reform is a process, which has not beenfinalized in Poland yet. It is worth noting here that the requests related to directions of changesin the field of Polish decentralization often come from local and regional entities. It can be thereforepresumed that the process of development of sub-state political elites will result in subsequentrequests in the future. This can further exacerbate the sociopolitical core-periphery division.Consequently, the main goal of this work is to verify the research hypothesis, which assumesthat the significant sociopolitical core-periphery divisions in Spain must have prompted the politicalelites of the central level - which were active after the demise of general Franco and guidedthe democratic transformation process, setting the state’s territorial integrity as a main goal — toemploy solutions for the creation, activity and financing of political parties, as well as for electorallaws, which would allow for communities from individual historical regions to maintain a representationin representative organs on four levels — European, state, regional, and local — thereforeensuring their significant position in the political system of contemporary Spain.
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This book focuses on the war in Ukraine and how politicians commented on this issue in the first months after the invasion. The reactions of heads of state to the Russian invasion of Ukraine have varied, even in the democratic world. While an overwhelming rejectionist view was expressed in Western Europe, politicians in some Central and Eastern European have demonstrated a difficulty seeing the Kremlin as the culprit for the war.The main aims of the book are to examine how politicians in selected countries reacted to the war, to identify the main actors of the political discourse and how the political elites formed their positions, to analyze the content of the discourse and how the various supported or opposing positions on the war were formulated, and to examine the linguistic means and strategies employed by the political elite. The authors examined political discourse in Slovakia, Hungary, France, Russia, Spain, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and Austria, and compared and contrasted the features of political discourse in countries with a long democratic tradition with those in Central and Eastern European countries which were under non-democratic regimes before 1989. There seems to be a tendency to push political discourse to a different plane in countries with a communist experience, as we found solid, pro-Russian sentiments in Slovakia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic that can attenuate attitudes towards Russian aggression.
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The local foundation is an independent legal entity, whose activities are aimed at development of the local community, through the provision of financial and other forms of support citizens' initiatives. Seven such organizations operate in Serbia today - three that have been established and four that are in the process of being created. The research project "Local Foundations in Serbia" was carried out in the period between June 1 and November 30. 2021 with the aim of analyzing and describing the action local foundations in Serbia, to understand their role in empowering citizens and female citizens to take an active part in shaping their immediate future environment, and to present the challenges they face in their work, problems of the communities in which they operate.
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