Разкритията в политическата кампания за президентски избори 2016

Author(s): Rayna Dushkova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2017

The political campaign for the presidential and vice presidential election in the Republic of Bulgaria in October – November 2016 gives rise to research interest and is topical. The campaign discusses the messages of the candidates during their coverage in online media and social networks. Focus is placed on their disclosures in the media, as well as the specific political rhetoric on the part of the candidates regarding their opponents in the campaign. Based on a content analysis and using the descriptive approach, articles in the media and social networking publications are analyzed for the purpose of the specific study. The analysis aims to trace whether the specific disclosures for candidates remain as separate publications in a media or turn into political scandals that are effective enough to discredit a presidential and vice presidential candidate. It also aims to address the question of how much media attention is given to individual politicians, their characteristics and qualities, extracts from their biographies, or it focuses public attention on their political and management achievements. Do individual politicians have a key role and do they shun the parties, institutions and organizations from the focus of the media?

Metanaracija, poetizacija i psihijatrizacija Daytona

Author(s): Esad Bajtal / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 03+04/2020

Uostalom, ako je Daytonski sporazum stvarno “sveto slovo”, to se ne dokazuje verbalnim metanisanjem, nego njegovim striktnim provođenjem. Ako je Sporazum, pak, “narodna grobnica” (nešto mračno, hladno, vlažno, pogubno po život), treba je konačno napustiti i tako spasiti narod. Izvesti ga iz memljive grobnice na (političko) sunce. U konstelaciji regionalnih globalizacija, Evropa je aktualna stvarnost tog Sunca. A u Evropu možemo samo evropski okupani i čisti. Drugog načina nema. Vrijeme je da se, konačno, učini nešto. Ne može se aktivno i svim sredstvima opstruirati Dayton, i istovremeno, pred javnošću zagovarati njegovu nedodirljivost. Mora se izabrati.

Egyenes kasza – Parasztok a 20. század forradalmában (Eric Wolf: Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century)

Author(s): Zsófia Ádám / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 29/2021

Eric Wolf: Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century

INFORMATION AND PROPAGANDA COMPONENT OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION HYBRID AGGRESSION: CONCLUSIONS FOR DEVELOPED DEMOCRATIC COUNTRIES ON THE EXPERIENCE OF UKRAINE

Author(s): Vadym Torichnyi,Tetiana Biletska,Oleksandr Rybshchun,Dmytro Kupriyenko,Yurii Ivashkov,Artem Bratko / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2021

On the basis of analytical investigations, the current article has carried out an analysis of information and propaganda component of the Russian Federation hybrid aggression against Ukraine at the present historical stage. The key components of Russia’s ‘information weapon’ have been identified, and it has been emphasized that Russia’s information and propaganda campaign over the past decades has targeted both the specific states of its aggression and the entire consortium of developed democratic countries in the Western world, especially their major associations – the EU and NATO. The experience of a number of countries, in particular Latvia, Estonia, Georgia, in counteracting Russian propaganda has been investigated.

Nie tylko imigranci, czyli programy i działania skandynawskich prawicowych populistów

Author(s): Piotr Wiśniewski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2021

In the second decade of the 21st century, populism is a very popular issue both in political science and in everyday media discourse. It is associated with crises: economic and liberal democracies, which has led to an increase in the im¬portance of anti-liberal and nationalist forces in the world. Also in Scandinavian countries we are dealing with such a phenomenon, although it should be empha¬sized that it did not arise there only in the 21st century. This article aims to present some of the postulates and actions of the largest Scandinavian right-wing populist parties and to define what political ideology they are closest to. As anti-immigration rhetoric is the main part of their program, the content of the article emphasizes other aspects that also affect the activities and popularity of these groups. These are economic, moral and environmental issues, as well as the attitude towards inter¬national organizations. For the purposes of this article, political programs as well as statements and activities of the more prominent representatives of the party in question were analyzed.

The Right-Wing Opposition to “Gender” in the Light of the Ambiguity of the Meaning of the Term in EU Documents

Author(s): Eszter Kováts,Elena Zacharenko / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

Recent years have seen a rise in prominence – at both national and European levels – of anti-gender movements and parties. While actors using this rhetoric can be found across most EU member states, anti-gender rhetoric represents government policy in a few East-Central European countries, bringing these objections to the European level. In this article, we analyse and interpret this ECE-led state opposition to ‘gender’ by examining the diversification of the meaning of this term at EU level, including a shift from a structural to an individualist one, which we argue lends empirical credibility to the anti-gender rhetoric of right-wing populist parties. Based on interviews with EU stakeholders in the European Commission, European Parliament and EU-level civil society, as well as on the analysis of European Commission documents and Council Conclusions, we track the use of the term ‘gender’ and the definition which has been attached to it. We conclude that these changes result at least in part from feminist taboos and neoliberal tendencies within feminist theory arriving to the EU polity. We believe that the shifts around the concept of gender on the progressive side shed light on the popularity of the anti-gender discourse and of the right-wing itself.

CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF DONALD TRUMP’S POLITICAL SPEECH VIA TWITTER

Author(s): Shaalan Najem Abdullah Shammari / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

Although social media was used in the 2008 presidential campaign, it became increasingly important in the 2016 election. Presidents have had to adopt and adapt to new technology in the past as well, and this has had a long-term effect on political discourse. Politicians now have new tools for communicating with the public, thanks to the internet and social media. An important goal of this paper is to examine how political speech has evolved over time, particularly in light of social media's role in political campaigning, and how Donald Trump used social media as a means of political communications. A discourse-historical approach of critical discourse analysis (CDA), has been applied in this study to carry out the analysis that would determine Trump's speech techniques. The results of this study demonstrate how President Trump's used language to influence his audience. Overall, this research paper will focus on Trump’s discourse strategies and how he employed them to create positive self-presentation and negative other-presentation.

Evaluating Compromise in Social Choice Functions

Author(s): Aleksandar Hatzivelkos,Marcel Maretić / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2022

We investigate the notion of compromise in the strict preferential voting setting. We introduce divergence as an inverse measure of compromise in a collection of strict preferential votes. Classical functions of social choice theory are analyzed with respect to divergence. New social welfare functions and new social choice functions with the objective of compromise are defined directly from optimization of divergence and later analyzed with respect to the common desiderata of social choice theory. For a very natural function, a simple divergence minimizer, we prove it satisfies the properties of anonymity, neutrality, consistence, and continuity. Consequently, according to Young’s theorem of characterization it follows that this function is a scoring point function. Its scoring point vector is also given. Finally, we discuss the parameter p in the divergence measure which was introduced to address vagueness and fuzziness of compromise and to control for a variety of intended levels of compromise.

Az őrület kockázata. Pszichiátria mint politikatudomány

Author(s): Nikolas Rose / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 31/2022

The Logic of the Punisher: Retrospective Voting and Hyper-Accountability in Lithuania

Author(s): Mažvydas Jastramskis / Language(s): English Issue: 02/2023

This article explores the roots of electoral hyper-accountability in Central and Eastern Europe. I focus on Lithuania: a country that is a stable liberal democracy, but has reelected none of its governments (in the same party composition) since the restoration of independence. Survey data from the Lithuanian National Election Study reveal that Lithuanian voters are constantly dissatisfied with the economy and retrospectively evaluate it worse than the objective indicators would suggest. This partially explains why the Lithuanian voters constantly turn away from the government parties at parliamentary elections. However, their subsequent choice between parliamentary and new (previously marginal) parties is another puzzle. Using the 2016 Lithuanian post-election survey, I test how retrospective voting (economic and corruption issues) and political factors (trust and satisfaction with democracy) explain vote choice between the three types of parties (governmental, oppositional, and successful new party). It appears that new parties in Lithuania capitalize on double dissatisfaction, as the logic of the punisher comprises two steps. First, due to economic discontent, she turns away from the incumbent. Second, due to political mistrust, she often turns not to the parliamentary opposition, but to new parties. An analysis of retrospective economic evaluations hints at the political roots of hyper-accountability: these two steps are connected, as dissatisfaction with democracy is a strong predictor of negative retrospective evaluations of economy. Additional analysis of the 2019 post-election survey corroborates the results and reveals that a similar logic also applies in direct presidential elections.

Structural Analysis of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion

Author(s): Kateřina Hlaváčová / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

This paper explores one of the most influential conspiracy theories of all time, as described in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, by employing the method of structural analysis. The “master myth” of the Protocols represents a basic structure of the conspiracy narrative, whose motifs were subsequently modified throughout the 20th and 21st centuries according to current events and moods. However, to understand the pamphlet as a whole, it is also important to shed a little light on its specific historical context and the religious, political, and social fervour of the time, which eventually gave rise to this text. The text is one we can still consider a blueprint of contemporary conspiracy narratives about the global cabal that occupies a prominent place within the modern conspiracy culture.

ROMANIAN-AMERICAN RELATIONS DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR

Author(s): Anamaria Lepcaliuc / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 32/2023

The article traces the history of bilateral relations that includes several distinct phases. It is about the period of the First World War, including the important action carried out by the representatives of Transylvanian Romanians in the context of the Wilson doctrine on the territory of the United States, in support of the national cause. That is why, although we are generally talking about relations between two friendly states, frictions did not fail to appear. We took into account the period of the First World War, including the important action taken by the representatives of the Transylvanian Romanians in the context of Wilson’s doctrine on the territory of the United States, in support of the national cause.

THE COORDINATES OF THE FOREIGN POLICY PROMOTED BY THE GREAT POLITICIAN IULIU MANIU (1928-1947)

Author(s): Florin Nacu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 32/2023

Iuliu Maniu's personality is overwhelming through his activity and political thinking. Condemned by the historiography before 1989 to a status ranging from "traitor to the nation", to "British spy", with some reverberations and in the rather grey period of the 1990-2000 years, Iuliu Maniu was rehabilitated by the Romanian justice system in 1998 , only 51 years after his life sentence and exactly seven decades after the moment I chose for the beginning of my scientific endeavour. Iuliu Maniu tries in the days after the armistice of September 1944 and until July 14, 1947 when his men are arrested in Tămădău when they were trying to leave to build a Romanian government in exile (they did not know that the British had in principle admitted to the Soviets that they would not support anything anti-Soviet regarding Romania) to ask for support. His testimonies from the trial of Ion Antonescu in 1946 and even from his trial in 1947, when Iuliu Maniu became accused for the country's disaster, are edifying. Given that this year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of the great politician Iuliu Maniu, the following lines are a modest tribute to this great Transylvanian politician who tried to live up to the difficult times in which he lived and fought.

COOPERAREA ROMÂNO-IRANIANĂ ÎN PERIOADA 1965-1979

Author(s): Roxana Georgiana Nistor / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 32/2023

The present paper analyzes the period in which Romania-Iran relations experienced the greatest development, from their beginnings until Nicolae Ceaușescu took power, both on a political and diplomatic level, and also on economic level. Until the abdication of the Iranian shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in 1979 as a result of the outbreak of the Islamic Revolution, there was an intense collaboration between the governments in Tehran and Bucharest, mostly supported by joint plans for the economic development of the two states. Nicolae Ceaușescu found in Iranian shah a discussion partner with similar views on economic investments, which contributed to the signing of numerous agreements for the industrial infrastructure development in both states.

GERMANIA ȘI CHESTIUNEA UCRAINEANĂ ÎN PERIOADA INTERBELICĂ; PERSPECTIVA ROMÂNEASCĂ

Author(s): Ionuț BRAN / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 32/2023

During the interwar period, the German interest in the Ukrainian issue remained constant and interfered with the Polish attitude and Romania's positioning towards the same common subject: geographical proximity to Ukraine and the existence of an independent Ukrainian state. Germany always looked to the east, showed aggression and sought to capitalize on the readiness of the Ukrainian emigration to be engaged in any possible approach that would have contributed to the unification of the Ukrainian population. For this purpose, plans were developed that also aimed at encouraging Ukrainian separatist movements.

POLITICAL IDEAS AND ATTITUDES IN INTERWAR SIGHISOARA

Author(s): Ion Eugen Sârbu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 32/2023

Sighisoara was the administrative center of Târnava Mare County during the interwar period. After the union of Transylvania with Romania, the number of Romanians increased considerably in the city overtaking the Saxons until 1941. The ideas of the parties were promoted by the local politicians in the political gatherings, in the electoral campaigns and through the party press. Many of the ideas were taken from the top of the party and the central press, but some of the themes were only of local interest. Since the Romanians were disputing their city administration with the Saxons, the political discourse has strong nationalist and sometimes anti-Semitic accents. Saxons were dissatisfied and understood that in the near future, they would lose the city administration and they considered that they were wronged because the Romanians gradually occupied more and more positions in the city administration. The language was quite acidic towards political opponents, which is why libel lawsuits were quite frequent, lawsuits initiated both by some and by others. In political speeches the main themes were the escape from poverty, the "friendship" of political opponents with foreigners and especially the Saxons and Jews.

THE SELECTION OF RUSSIA TO HOST THE 2018 FIFA WORLD CUP – A CASE STUDY

Author(s): Laurențiu-Nicolae Ginghină / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 32/2023

A case study in the sociology of sport on how after taking power in Russia in 1999 and consolidating it in the first half of the 2000s, Vladimir Putin wanted to achieve the organization of FIFA World Cup 2018 as a manifestation of his authority and power on the national and international stage. For this, Putin turned to his old colleague from the St. Petersburg mayor's office, from the 1990s, Vitaly Mutko, a skilled politician, involved in football in Russia, as well as to the oligarch Roman Abramovich. Russia submitted its candidacy for the organization of FIFA World Cup 2018 in 2009, simultaneously with the election of Mutko as a member of the FIFA Executive Committee, whose 24 members were to vote in 2010 to choose the organizing country. The good relations established by Putin, Mutko and Abramovich with FIFA President Sepp Blatter and the other members of the FIFA Executive Committee secured Russia the desired nomination on December 2, 2010. Putin flies to Zurich the same day to personally thank Sepp Blatter for the result of the vote. In the years following the vote, Sepp Blatter will be banned from football for irregularities, and in total more than half of the FIFA Executive Committee members who voted on December 2, 2010 to choose Russia as the host for FIFA World Cup 2018 will be accused of corruption.

THE FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN FIFA PRESIDENT GIANNI INFANTINO AND RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN - A SPORTS SOCIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION

Author(s): Laurențiu-Nicolae Ginghină / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 32/2023

Since 2014, Gianni Infantino developed a special relationship with Russian president Vladimir Putin, although Infantino was aware of the violent actions attributed to Putin. In this relationship Infantino became friends with Putin and increasingly supported the Putin regime in its reprehensible activities. In return Infantino illegally received at least free flights on private jets belonging to individuals and entities controlled by the Kremlin. As UEFA general secretary Infantino left the Russian Football Union (RFU) unsanctioned when it seized three Ukrainian clubs in Russian-occupied Crimea from Ukraine in August 2014, even though RFU was due to be expelled from UEFA. As FIFA President Infantino intervened in 2017 to illegally keep Russian Deputy Prime Minister Mutko on the FIFA Council and unfairly fired Miguel Maduro, head of FIFA's Governance Committee after he declared Mutko ineligible. In 2018, FIFA led by Infantino sanctioned Croatian player Vida with a warning for saying "Glory to Ukraine" in a private video, but in 2019, after Infantino received the Order of Friendship from Putin and shouted "Glory to Russia", instead of being sanctioned like Vida, he was re-elected FIFA president "by acclamation". Although perceived worldwide as an ally of Putin, without ever condemning any reprehensible acts committed by Putin and without returning him the Order of Friendship, Infantino still remains at the head of FIFA, voted by all the presidents of the world's federations and associations, including by those from Ukraine, from all NATO countries and EU member states.

BĂLȚI LOCALITY FROM FAIR TO MUNICIPALITY: URBAN IDENTITY AND HISTORICAL-POLITICAL FLUCTUATIONS

Author(s): Ludmila Șimanschi / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 34/2023

In this study, we intend to reveal the modification of the identity of Bălți locality with the historical-political changes, so to achieve an evolutionary historical panorama of urban identity change. At the beginning, we synthesized all the theories that define the concept of "urban identity", in order to diachronically analyze the urban image of Bălți and to gather all the important components in the formation of identity: both those referring to natural elements (topography, climate, geology, location) and those referring to social identity (demographic structure, institutional structure and cultural structure) and to the human landscape, the artificial built environment, because the series of attributes identified with the city can add symbolic value to the identity of the Balti urban space, modified over time. Bălți has the most spectacular urban evolution compared to other localities in Bessarabia, starting from the uncertain hypostasis of a fair, it becomes an urban locality with a fragile identity, subordinated to the subjective factor, to the entrepreneurial spirit of Alexandru Panaite, the owner of the city; becoming the capital of a county, by chance, and a municipality. Over time, it changed its identity depending on the change of the political regime: tsarist, Romanian, Soviet, neocommunist, and urban function: commercial and economic communications center important for the northern area of the country, episcopal, industrial, university center.

PERSPECTIVES ON THE PARTITION OF INDIA AND PAKISTAN

Author(s): Marian Suciu / Language(s): English Issue: 34/2023

For a long time, the Indian subcontinent was under British rule, but more and more Indians fought for independence in the twentieth century, and the British were forced to renounce their rule. In 1947, the British offered independence to two different states, Pakistan and India, which provoked only violence, as the two peoples had lived together for a long period of time and were suddenly being made to choose a side according to their religion; thus began a time of death and sorrow. The traumatic experience of the partition of India from Pakistan is not only recorded by historians, but also by writers, and the current paper will present both the way in which this event is reflected by history and in novels.