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One of the main features that has characterized the Albanian political scene during these three decades of democratization, has been the problematic relationship that political parties have had with political ideologies as a linkage mechanism to mobilize their electorate and secure votes in elections. The relationship of Albanian political parties with certain political ideologies can be described as a strained and problematic. This has happened because such ideologies have either remained too “tight” to the suit of action or policies that our parties undertook when they were in power, or because political ideologies have not served these parties as an effective instrument, or as a linkage mechanism, to attract votes from the Albanian electorate. In this sense, this paper argues that Albanian political parties have increasingly relied on nonideological instruments and strategies to guarantee what is the main goal of political parties in every country: securing votes in elections. The aim of this paper is to address the causes of the problem of de-ideologization of Albanian political parties, seeing this as a problem that relates and reflects the social structure of Albanian society during the period of its democratization after the ‘90s.
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The analysis of the Minsk agreements implementation (a common name for a package of documents adopted in September 2014 and February 2015 aiming to resolve a current crisis in the Eastern region of Ukraine) demonstrates that despite a few steps forward, the systematic violation of certain clauses as well as serious manipulation of the others by the so-called ‘Donetsk People Republic’/ ‘Luhansk People Republic’ (‘DPR’/‘LPR’) combatants and the Russian Federation has been observed and confirmed by the international community. Lifting international sanctions seems the only incentive for Russia to comply with the Minsk agreements. Its current tactic involves partial implementation, which would help to apply for easing sanctions and thus to decrease the cost of its waging war against Ukraine. At the same time, Russia preserves the possibility to re-escalate the currently low-intensity-conflict at any convenient moment.
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Review of: Petra Kovačević - Kelly McErlean, INTERACTIVE NARRATIVES AND TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING, Routledge, 2018, 202 pp ISBN 978-1-138-63882-2, ISBN 978-1-315-63753-0 (electronic) Tanja Grmuša - Turo Uskali, Astrid Gynnild, Sarah Jones, Esa Sirkkunen IMMERSIVE JOURNALISM AS STORYTELLING. ETHICS, PRODUCTION AND DESIGN. Routledge 2021, 212 pp ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 71329- 4 (hbk) ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 71330- 0 (pbk) ISBN: 978- 0- 429- 43774- 8 (ebk) Višeslav Raos - Vít Hloušek and Petr Kaniok (eds) THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: ELECTION OF 2019 IN EAST-CENTRAL EUROPE: SECOND-ORDER EUROSCEPTICISM, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, 297 pp. ISBN 978-3-030-40857-2 ISBN 978-3-030-40858-9 (eBook) Hrvoje Jakopović - Božo Skoko, STRATEŠKO KOMUNICIRANJE DRŽAVA – JAVNA DIPLOMACIJA, BRENDIRANJE DRŽAVA I NACIJA, MEĐUNARODNI ODNOSI S JAVNOŠĆU, Synopsis, Zagreb – Sarajevo; Plejada, Zagreb i Edward Bernays, visoka škola za komunikacijski menadžment, Zagreb, 2021., 854 str. ISBN 978-953-8289-40-8, ISBN 978-9958-01-101-6
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The 2020 parliamentary elections in Croatia were held in an atmosphere marked by fear and anxiety because of negative consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, and riddled with other unresolved socio-economic and political issues. Therefore, choosing appropriate political slogans that would reflect positive messages of hope, encouragement, and safety to the Croatian people seemed of utmost importance. This paper identifies and discusses political discourse strategies behind the creation of selected billboard slogans used in the pre-election period by different political parties and platforms. Taking into account the results of the elections, the research focuses on the negative reactions to the content of the slogans in the Croatian public space. For this purpose, a corpus of readers’ online comments was built and subjected to a computer sentiment analysis. The results show that the majority of citizens in the research sample created negative mental images of political agents and the policies they promote. Further investigation of the reasons for the negative perception and evaluation revealed that the politico-historical and situational contexts play a significant role in shaping the public opinion, specifically in times of crises and threats to public health and wellbeing.
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This paper questions the political and social circumstances in the Bjelovar county immediately after the end of World War II in which the Communist Party of Croatia (hrv. KPH), Bjelovar Committee attempted to gain legitimization and confirm rule. The basic intention of the paper is to show that the CPC had difficulties in the setup and affirmation of its rule in the Bjelovar county, an area which was connected firmly to the political, economic, and cultural work of the former Croatian Folks Party before, during, and after the war.
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In accordance with the principles of the Ustaša movement, in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) it was rejected system of liberal democracy and the people should be divided according to estates or professions. In November 1941 poglavnik Ante Pavelić founded the General union of estates and other units, which consisted 16 estate and professional organizations. On its top in May 1944 came Ivan Oršanić, who suggested to Pavelić to organize the elections for Parliament and local authorities on estate principles in order to get important legitimacy at Western allies. After mayor of Zagreb Ivan Werner died in June 1944, Pavelić decided that the new mayor, the deputy mayor and the newly established City council will be elected by representatives of estate organizations. Elections were held on 18 August 1944, Eugen Starešinić was elected the city mayor and Franjo Mokrović his deputy. Pavelić confirmed their election, and in his speech for the first time rehabilitated by then proscribed term of democracy, saying that in NDH has been built „Ustaša democracy”. In October 1944, on the same way city leaders in Sisak, Karlovac and Dubrovnik were elected, while a similar model of elections has been already held in March 1943 in the village of Gračani near Zagreb. Pavelić and the Ustaša propaganda announced that elections for Parliament will be held on the same way, but they have never been realized. Episode with local elections based on the „Ustaša democracy” model is therefore reduced to only a propaganda move which aim was gaining the support of the people and a better image at future war winners. However, at the end of the NDH, when its leadership tried to curry favor with Western allies, this episode could no longer be proof that NDH has not been led by fascist ideology, on the contrary, it is not even mentioned.
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Participatory budget is an innovative tool for public policymaking, which is characterized by the particpation of residents of territorial administrative units. In the paper, authors focus on the evaluation of the participatory budget within the Visegrad Group, which is linked by specific ties due to the special development of this geopolitical area after the political and social changes in the late 1980s. Identifying the specifics of participatory budgeting in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia is set as the main goal of the article, specifically evaluating the pilot project model, analysing the legislative framework, which regulates participatory budgeting, and extending this tool at the local level in terms of current statistics. As for the pilot projects, the authors identified differences in the following indicators: initiator of its implementation; participation of citizens and their position and powers in project design; participation in the decision-making on projects in terms of voting; whether a direct physical vote or online form was used. In addition, the authors evaluate the legal framework of the selected states in terms of presence of the primary or secondary regulation. Finally, the quantitative development of participatory budgets is monitored, while the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is also reflected in the paper. Based on the data from other states of the Visegrad Group, in the final chapter the authors present optimization proposals, which they consider applicable in Slovakia. The authors identified at least three possible ways of amending the current Slovak legislation in order to improve the implementation of the participatory budget. The paper specifies the shortcomings in the form of low citizen participation in the drafting phase and in the voting process. The paper also identifies the same bottom-up implementation process in all V4 member countries. Poland is the only V4 country that has enshrined primary legislation on participatory budgets in its legal system.
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In 2010, Viktor Ianukovych, a candidate whose democratic credentials were disputed and whose shady background hardly inspired feelings of admiration or trust, was elected president of Ukraine. By asking the voters themselves on the eve of the election how such an individual could have won their votes, this article shows that when Ukrainians went to vote in 2010, they evaluated the qualities and the policy-issues associated with Ianukovych higher than those ascribed to his opponent, Iuliia Tymoshenko, even if only slightly so. In a Ukraine that since the Orange Revolution in 2004 has come increasingly to embrace democracy, the 2010 presidential elections marked a certain democracy fatigue that in the end came to favour Ianukovych’s “strong hand” image. Regional belonging is a usual factor in Ukrainian voting, and it played a role in the political assessments of the 2010 presidential election. However, issues of identity and language were among the lowest ranked in both eastern and western Ukraine, far behind the heated topics of jobs, unemployment, and welfare services. Later, identity-politics became more accentuated in the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity in 2014 and the ensuing war between Ukraine and Russia. In 2010, what united many voters regardless of region was a stronger concern for jobs and welfare services than for democratic commitment in the candidates, or for identity politics. Those more personal issues paved the way for Ianukovych to become the president of Ukraine.
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Media publiczne stały się ostatnio propagandowym pasem transmisyjnym władzy. Ale to nie znaczy, że należy je likwidować. Trzeba przywrócić tradycyjną rolę mediom publicznym, ukrócić wpływ polityków na ich funkcjonowanie oraz poddać je kontroli społecznej.
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The 2020 general elections in Ireland were important for both citizens and political parties since they were the first after Brexit got into effect. They marked the surprising electoral success of Sinn Fein, a relatively small party, which means relevant change of preferences compared to the previous election. This article seeks to explain the electoral success of the two top parties according to the received share of votes: Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail. The five potential causes covered by this comparative analysis are the electoral system, the competition with other parties and the type of campaign used, the internal organisation of the party, the media reporting, and the party leader. The data consists of official party, campaign and election documents, and comes from databases, literature, press articles and election statistics. The results indicate that the messages used in the campaign and a new charismatic leader were important drivers for electoral success.
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The article uses Eric Voegelin’s ontology to address domestic processes in contemporary Ukraine. It explains how interpretations of experiences of history and transcendence evoke political order and justice. It also outlines the nature of political symbols deriving from these experiences. The article argues that Ukraine’s social architecture is constructed according to a set of arrangements that are generally regarded as moral and functional under given circumstances. As a result, it provides political elites a platform from which to build a plan of action and gain legitimacy. The article not only shows how Voegelin’s ontology can be used to explain Zelensky’s 2019 presidential election victory but also highlights its interpretative advantages over competing analytical approaches from within the frameworks of institutionalism and behaviorism.
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Köprübaşı, a district in the Province of Manisa in the Aegean region of Turkey, was established in 1958. Considering the constantly changing administrative structure of Köprübaşı, this study discusses the settlement’s political life from 1968, when it became a municipality, to 2004. In line with this purpose, archival documents, official publications, and written sources have been reviewed, and many oral history studies have been carried out. Based on the information collected, the political life of Köprübaşı was examined by dividing it into three periods: from when it first became a municipality in 1968 to the military coup of September 12, 1980; from 1980, when it was turned into a district, to 1990, and from 1990 to the 2004 local elections. Thus, the people, organizations, events, and elections that made up the political life of Köprübaşı have been discussed within the framework of a specific plan. As a result, the reflection of the political atmosphere throughout the country at the local level has been addressed in relation to Köprübaşı. This study investigates the establishment of Köprübaşı and the development of political life in the district, which continued in parallel with the factors such as its establishment during the Democratic Party period and the fact that its founders were Democratic Party politicians.
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In this paper, the author presents the results of the Tanzimat principle of electoral equality of Muslims and non-Muslims in the District of Banja Luka and its subdistricts. By the Tanzimat regulation of electoral equality, the author refers to those parts of the 1864 Ottoman Vilayet Law and its 1867/1871 amendments that regulate the equality of Muslims and non-Muslims in terms of electing their representatives in the local councils. In that sense, this paper does not present the implementation of the entire Vilayet Law, the entire administration and its bodies and services, but only refers to the local councils at the levels of sanjak and kaza. The paper has been written on the ground of relevant references, while the Ottoman annual reports for the Vilayet of Bosnia were the sources for the data regarding the councils. A general assessment is that the electoral equality in the said area was mostly respected, but not entirely since there were obvious deviations from the Law.
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While women constitute half of the world's population and electorate, many countries of the world are not adequately represented in political institutions and this creates the problem of equality. In order to talk about a real democracy and to ensure social development, the active participation of women in political representation and decision-making processes, on an equal basis with men, is of vital importance. The process of women gaining equal social and political rights with men intensified in the late 19th century. The first movement on women's rights in Turkish society was with the Tanzimat Edict of 1839, and although some rights were given to women in the Ottoman Empire, which engaged in innovation movements, it is seen that Turkish women were given the social and political rights they deserved in the first years of the Republic. Women who were granted the right to be elected to the Municipality in 1930 and to the village headman and committees in 1933; The right to elect and be elected as a deputy was given on 5 December 1934. While the representation rate of women, who won the power of representation in the Turkish Grand National Assembly in the 1935 elections compared to male deputies in the parliament, was 4.5%, there was no such increase in the 45- year period until the September 12, 1980 coup, even below it. In the study, the adventure of women's political representation in the parliament from 1935 to 1980 will be presented on the basis of the political environment of the period.
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The aim of this article is to analyze the process of creating a politician as a political product on the example of the Polish presidential election of 2010. In this context, the focus was on the candidates of parliamentary parties because they constitute a more interesting area of research, if only due to the fact that they represent highly relevant formations on the Polish political scene. The conducted analysis shows that the carefully created image is what most supports the perception of a politician as a political product. Three of the four analyzed candidates in the 2010 presidential election achieved considerable election success thanks to image strategies that create them as specific political products. B. Komorowski won the election thanks to the image of a „father”, or even a „statesman”, avoiding a clear political conflict. The politician met the expectations of voters because he fit in with a vision close to the expected „ideal”.
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Nationwide electoral thresholds (NETs) are known to secure a parliamentary majority for the largest party, reduce party system fragmentation, and prevent extreme, minor, or non-core group parties from entering parliament. By comparing Greece and Turkey, which have applied NETs since 1993 and 1983 respectively, this article investigates why some of these aims have not been achieved. Using time-series data since 1950, we show that neither country needed to introduce NETs to establish single-party governments. Rather, they were implemented primarily to prevent noncore groups from entering parliament as a party. This caused disproportional legislative representation, especially in Turkey. Although Turkey’s NET initially reduced the raw number of parties contesting elections, this effect weakened in the long run and, in contrast to the literature, increased party system fragmentation. Finally, extreme parties have benefitted from Greece’s fragmented party system since 2012 whereas electoral engineering in Turkey has failed to prevent non-core groups from passing the electoral threshold.
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Political parties are a suitable option when one wants to implement a democratic system in a country, and this process has undergone plenty of changes over time. The best way for political parties to become attractive for citizens is to show that they share the same interests, usually through election promises. In terms of pledge fulfillment, there isample research made by academic writers and we can identify certain reasons for which political parties fulfill their electoral promises or not. My paper has two components and aims to identify the situation of fulfilling the electoral promises of a political party in Romania in 2020. I propose to add to the previous papers a supplement, having as case study of a political party „Alliance for the Union of Romanians” in Romania. The gap I was able to identify in the literature refers to Romanian political parties and their rate of pledge fulfillment. The thesis I illustrate an answer in this paper is” Why does (or does not) the party AUR keep its electoral promises?”. The purpose of this paper is to find out whether or not the party AUR has fulfilled its electoral promises (and in what percentage) and what are the main causes that have influenced the fulfillment of these promises. The data collected come from online sources, more specifically all the AUR party posts on social portals and legislative initiatives, both in the Senate and in the Chamber of Deputies, and the method used for data analysis is process tracing. My results are represented by a small rate of fulfilling electoral pledges (17,64%) and 6 specific causes that affected this rate (one of them didn’t go through, four of them showed why these percentage is so low and the last of them showed why the percentage is not 0%).
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The 2018 midterm elections brought many surprises when talking about election results on Congressional level. One of them was definitely Democrats picking up four seats in the Orange County, which for many years was a Republican heartland in California. What happened? Was this just a one-time thing or a sign of blue wave in Donald Trump's era? The four case-studies of Democratic political campaigns will not only try to answer these questions, but also predict how should Republicans respond taking the example of 2020 elections.
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Since 2002 in Poland voters in the local government elections can directly elect the head of the rural municipality, mayor and city president. Local elections, in Polish conditions, are treated as an arena favourable for local committees, often non-party. However, it should be noted that many analyses show that the higher the level of self-government, the more important the committees of political parties are. The increase in the participation of political parties in the election competition is also noticeable in medium and large cities. The author decided to check whether the cities with poviat status of the Silesian Voivodeship favour party committees or rather a committee unrelated to any political parties. For this purpose, the participation and effectiveness of these committees in local elections of cities presidents with poviat rights of the Silesian Voivodeship in 2002-2018 was analysed. The study confirmed that the level of politicization in elections is increasing, however, the effectiveness of party committees in the election of city presidents is lower than the effectiveness of local committees. In addition, political parties are more active and influential in larger cities.
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