A tranzitológiának vége, felejtsük el? Az átmenet tervezett intézményeitől a tervezetlen hibridizációig

Author(s): Ervin Csizmadia / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 2/2016

The essay focuses on answering the question of what happened to transitology, the main narrative of the 1989–90 process of democratization, after it prevailed. The theory lasted for just one decade and already at the beginning of the millennium Thomas Carothers declared the end of transitology. However, many things happened between its birth and demise. This essay aims to map this intermediate phase, as well as to present two experiments for the theoretical adaptation of transitology: the theories concerning the foundation and consolidation of institutions, and those concerning the creation of hybrid and illiberal regimes. The analysis would like to call attention to the fact that the theories of the period of transition were far from identical, they went through serious changes during the 90s. These changes however came about not outside of the trend, but within, therefore the approach of the founding theory pervades these pieces of writing. In some places the essay refers to criticisms incurred by transition theories, nevertheless, these are external critiques of transitology, therefore the essay only speaks of these tangentially. The author comes to the conclusion that though transitology has run out of wind, the theoretical and attitudinal lessons of it remain largely unprocessed to this day.

ANDRZEJ JAN CHODUBSKI, WSTĘP DO BADAŃ POLITOLOGICZNYCH WYDAWNICTWO UNIWERSYTETU GDAŃSKIEGO, GDAŃSK 2004

Author(s): Kazimierz Lastawski / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 03/2006

Approaches in the Political Science Today

Author(s): Ciprian Iftimoaei / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2015

In over 2,000 years of existence, approaches in political science evolved from philosophical and normative reflections on various forms of organization of the ancient world to contemporary interdisciplinary approaches based on refining concepts and theories accumulated over time and the use of complex research methodologies, own or borrowed from related fields of studies such as sociology, political psychology, econometrics, advanced statistics. Although quantitative approaches prevails in contemporary research, does not lack political philosophy studies, theoretical and ideological approaches, inspired by everyday realities and empirical research results.

Centrum federalne wobec problemu aktywności międzynarodowej regionów w kontekście ewolucji stosunków federacyjnych w Rosji

Author(s): Michal Slowikowski / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 3/2016

The paper’s aim is to explore the federal-regional model of relations as far as international activities of regions is concerned. A persistent centralization tendency,applied to the federal-regional model of relations and started under Vladimir Putin’s presidency, has created an unusual concept of centralist coordination concerning the international activity of regions. Despite the federal dominance over regions, the concept is far from being consolidated, since the Kremlin lacks the resources, mainly human, to fully control the political situation in the regions. Yet, this evolving centralist concept seems to be detrimental not only to regions’ interest, but also questions the strength of Putin’s model of an authoritarian regime in the long term.

Diplomacy and Diplomatic Protocol

Author(s): Oana Iucu / Language(s): English / Issue: 8/2012

The present study aims to observe relationships and determining factors between diplomacy and diplomatic protocol as outlined by historical and contextual analyses. The approach is very dynamic, provided that concepts are able to show their richness, antiquity and poly-valence at the level of connotations, semantics, grammatical and social syntax. The fact that this information is up to date determines an attitude of appreciation and a state of positive contamination.

Epistemic Value of Public deliberation in a Democratic Decision-мaking Process

Author(s): Ivan Cerovac / Language(s): English,Bulgarian / Issue: 4/2016

This paper discusses the epistemic value of public deliberation in a democratic decision-making process. I first discuss David Estlund’s standard account of epistemic democracy – in order to be legitimate, a decision must be a result of both fair and epistemically reliable procedure, i.e., of procedure that in most cases leads us to (procedure-independent) correct outcomes. This approach is characterized by the idea that democratic deliberation only has instrumental epistemic value, i.e., serves as a good means to achieve desired ends – a high correctness probability of the outcomes. I defend this approach from three objections put forward by Fabienne Peter, who claims that Estlund’s position is not a practicable conception of democratic legitimacy, that it makes unnecessary demands and that it is normatively misleading. Finally, I argue against pure epistemic proceduralism, an alternative approach that tends to reject consequentialist epistemology in favor of proceduralist epistemology. By doing so, it has lost a way to evaluate the epistemic value of (deliberative) democratic procedures, and is thus vulnerable to the problem of various (reasonable) people holding different epistemic practices and disagreeing on which practice should be the one that is epistemically valuable and that produces legitimate decisions.

Europinė dimensija Lietuvos referendumų kampanijose

Author(s): Aušrine Jurgelionyte / Language(s): Lithuanian / Issue: 71/2015

The referenda of the 21st century were also inevitably related with the European dimension: the referendum in 2003 on the membership of the Republic of Lithuania in the European Union (EU); the referendum of 2008 on exceeding the operation of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (INPP); the referendum of 2013 on building a new nuclear power plant in the Republic of Lithuania; and the referendum of 2014 on land for sale to foreigners. These four referenda are the object of this paper. It analyses the reflections of the European dimension in the referenda campaigns. The campaign slogans are mainly taken into account when reconstructing various discursive devices. The explanatory power of the new institutionalism (discursive) theories is discussed.

Housing Policy and Housing Market in Serbia

Author(s): Snežana S. Ðordevic,Dora Z. Petronijevic, / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2015

This article analyses housing policy and the quality of housing market in Serbia. Housing policy is analyzed in connection with policy of spatial and urban planning and building and construction policy, focusing on the housing availability as vital need in everyday life for each person, family and community in general. Numerous researches show that this policy field in Serbia has been pretty neglected, letting citizens alone to find their way on housing market. Above all that, this policy field is centralized, poorly coordinated between state and local government, and local government as important actor, still doesn`t have enough competencies and capacities for this kind of activity. The analysis of housing market focuses on the most important factors that influence the housing demand and supply. Through empirical research was predicted how long it will take for housing to be approachable to population. The aim of this paper is to show the possible way for development of housing policy in Serbia, to procure more affordable housing market for citizens, upgrading the quality of their lives. The main methods used in this study are: analysis (quantitative and qualitative), comparative analysis, empirical research, and predictions of future developmental scenarios. The paper has two parts: housing policy and housing market.

Hranice a cezhraničná spolupráca. Úvod do výskumu hraníc. Prešov: ADIN s.r.o. 2017. 152 s. ISBN 978-80-89540-89-1.

Author(s): Jurij Ostapec / Language(s): Slovak / Issue: 1/2017

O.: Duleba, A. a kol.: Hranice a cezhraničná spolupráca. Úvod do výskumu hraníc. Prešov: ADIN s.r.o. 2017. 152 s. ISBN 978-80-89540-89-1

Hu Chunhua – dotychczasowa kariera i szanse na awans

Author(s): Dominik Michonski / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 10/2016

The article aims to describe the political career of one of the most promising members of the so-called sixth generation of Chinese leaders, Hu Chunhua. Hu, a protégé of the former Secretary Hu Jintao, is currently a strong candidate for a place in the Standing Committee of the CPC’s Politburo, whose members will be officially appointed next year. However, there are several indications that Hu’s political future may not look as bright as in 2012, at the beginning of Xi Jinping’s first term of office. The conclusion of the paper therefore aims to critically assess Hu Chunhua’s chances of future promotion in the context of the changing political status quo.

Impact strategic

Frequency: 4 issues / Country: Romania

Impact Strategic is the Romanian edition of Strategic Impact, an academic open access quarterly, edited by the Centre for Defence and Security Strategic Studies (CDSSS) since 2001, published by „Carol I” National Defence University Publishing house.

The publication gathers a Scientific Board of academic professors and researchers who evaluate the scientific content of the submitted papers according to double blind peer review process. Previous to the evaluation, the papers are subject to a process of anti-plagiarism analysis (www.sistemantiplagiat.ro).

Strategic Impact collaborates with leading figures in the field of national and international scientific research and military and civilian higher education, from the Romanian Ministry of National Defence, General Staff, military services, the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, military units and other state institutions, non-governmental organisations, companies, etc.

The quarterly publishes analyses, syntheses and evaluations of strategic level, points of view which study the impact of national, regional and global actions dynamics, on the following topics: security and defence related issues; security and military strategies; NATO and EU policies, strategies and actions; political-military topicality; geopolitics and international relations; future of conflict; peace and war; information society, intelligence community.

Inauguracja prezydentury Andrzeja Dudy jako zespół roszczeń legitymizacyjnych

Author(s): Malgorzata Kolodziejczak / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 3/2016

The author of this paper analyzes a specific political fact, namely the inauguration of presidency in modern democratic systems. Focusing on the inauguration of Andrzej Duda’s presidency, the author answers the question of whether this extensive range of activities (encompassing the act of swearing in, symbolical acts, presidential address and other speeches) is an element of a consciously created legitimacy claim made by the president-elect. Answering this question in the affirmative, the author illustrate show the claims that refer to all three of Weber’s types of legitimacy are encompassed in the successive parts of the inauguration: the swearing in refers to the legal element of legitimacy, an extensive range of symbolical acts refers to tradition, whereas the presidential address introduces yet another element justifying legitimacy, this time resulting from the heritage of Lech Kaczyński’s charisma.

Izbori i izborni sustavi

Metodološki prinosi

Author(s): Andelko Milardovic-Ivankovic,Wilko Zicht,Martin Fehndrich / Language(s): Croatian / Publication Year: 2003

This book offers an overview of different election systems, with their specific features, rules and methods. Case studies include Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Germany, UK, USA, Croatia and the European Union. With contributions by Martin Fehndrich and Wilko Zicht.

Je li egalitarni sindrom samo teorijska fantazija? Empirijski hommage Josipu Županovu

Author(s): Aleksandar Štulhofer,Ivan Buric / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 03/2015

The egalitarian syndrome theory (EST), proposed in 1970 by Croatian political scientist and sociologist Josip Županov (1923-2004), is likely the most important theoretical contribution to the Croatian social sciences. Due to the fact that EST has never been operationalized and systematically verified, its influence has been steadily diminishing – particularly among mainstream researchers. The aim of this study is to operationalize EST and, using confirmatory factor analytic approach, to construct and validate a multi-faceted measure of the egalitarian syndrome. Based on two models characterized by acceptable fit to data, the authors propose a longer version (27-item long) and a shorter version (15-item long) of the Egalitarian Syndrome Scale. The initial validation of the scale suggests that the composite measure can be useful in a wide range of social science studies. For the first time, Županov’s claim that egalitarianism remains a persisting obstacle to the country’s socioeconomic development can be rigorously tested.

Kampanja pred vanredne parlamentarne izbore u Srbiji 2014: Teme u funkciji promocije lidera

Author(s): Siniša Atlagic / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 11/2014

The domination of economic and social issues in 2014 Serbian parliamentary election campaign could have lead to a conclusion it had been an issue one. However, once again, as it happened in the campaign two years ago, very similar promises made in a general manner have made voters’ emotional and value-orineted attitudes and not their rational motivation to be in the foreground.

Kas lemia europos parlamento narių balsavimą – nacionaliniai interesai ar ep frakcijos linija?

Author(s): Rolandas Tucas,Ieva Savickaite / Language(s): Lithuanian / Issue: 4 (84)/2016

The European Parliament has gained more legitimacy power after Lisbon treaty in 2009. However, there is unclear how EP members are distributing their votes. Do they vote according with the EP party line or their national interest? This scientific article attempts to look at the MEPs voting related to foreign policy issues that are identified as one of the most sensitive to reach a general consensus. This research focuses on MEPs roll call results related to the EU–Russia partnership issues from 2014 to 2015, followed by the annexation of Crimea. Due to this, scientific paper aims to determine the regional dimension between MEPs (geo) political preferences and the relation to Russia votings. This scientific article tests two hypotheses: 1) The voting, following the EP group’s position, is often characterized by MEPs from those countries where there is no clear commitment to Russia. 2) The voting is done in accordance with the national positions often characterized by MEPs from those countries where there is a clear (relatively favorable/critical) position towards Russia. These hypotheses are tested by using roll calls and EU countries position towards Russia index which was updated in this work following the research of S. Braghiroli ir C. Carta. The results partly proved the tested hypotheses. The roll calls confirmed the first hypothesis that voting, following the EP group’s position, is often characterized by MEPs from those countries where there is no clear commitment to Russia. Such voting is often characterized by MEPs from West-Central European countries. The second hypothesis stands to be partly proved. The voting in accordance with the national positions is often characterized by MEPs from those countries where there is a clear critical position towards Russia (mostly from Poland and the Baltic States). However, the results haven’t confirmed that this hypothesis applies as well to MEPs from countries of a relatively favorable stance towards Russia. It discovered that an MEP from these countries tends to abstain more while voting for questions favorable to Russia. This shows another tendency to find a compromise between a national and an EP party line. Recommendations for future research. In order to find out more details related to the voting trends of MEPs, the future research should involve a longer period of roll calls. The research methodology could be enhanced by including details of the MEPs voting “abstentions“. Also, future research could emphasize the “rebels“ in the EP parties who act when expressing „softer“ disapprovals from general party political line by abstaining from the voting.

Kobiety jako uczestniczki sprawowania władzy w Polsce po 1989 r.

Author(s): Beata Pajak-Patkowska / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 4/2016

Basing on the analysis of available statistical data, this article presents Polish women’s participation in the processes of exercising political power (legislative and executive) within central institutions of the state. The analysis covered a time frame between 1989 and 2015. The reasons for disparities between the numbers of women and men in political authorities as well as its possible consequences have also been illustrated. The received results allow arriving at the following conclusions. In the analysed period, a considerable increase in the number of women in both chambers of the Polish parliament and the subsequent governments was observed. However, the numbers are still far from political parity. In case of the government, the increased presence of women holding posts of the heads of ministries for affairs traditionally linked with feminine activity (e.g. culture, education, social policy) can also be underlined. Inequality within the area of exercising political authority may exert a significant impact on the society, i.e. limit the ability to shape the state policy within areas particularly interesting to women or reinforce gender stereotypes in the society.

Kvaišalų geografija posovietiniame mieste: nelegali narkotinių medžiagų apyvarta ir narkomanija Klaipėdoje, 1990-2010 m.

Author(s): Liutauras Kraniauskas,Laimonas Beteika / Language(s): Lithuanian / Issue: 02/2014

This study explores transformations of local drug geography in Klaipeda, 1990-2010. Using spatial analysis of geocoded data about 1351 cases of drug crime (manufacturing, storing, possession, and sale) and 1510 registered drug users, we researched spatial temporal patterns of drug crime and drug abuse in changing post-soviet urban environment. Data for this study was provided by Klaipeda Police Headquarters and Klaipeda Centre for Addictive Disorders. We found, that key changes within local drug geography started in 1997-1999 and were caused by development of new economy expanding drug sale to anonymous customers. Since the collapse of the Soviet regime, drugs were mostly manufactured, circulated and used within underground social networks of drug users. The main features of those networks were trust and direct communication among drug users and dealers, who regularly were drug users also. Therefore drugs were locally produced, stored, sold and used in the same places; places of drug abuse and drug crime regularly overlapped. Nevertheless spatial patterns of such underground networks were more accidental in their nature, they had not clear attributes of spatial identify within urban environment. But newly emerging drug economy was based on commodity-money relations between drug dealers and drug users and new market regime clearly differentiated places of drug sale and drug use. Drug sale moved from blocks to the night clubs, marketplaces and surroundings of huge shopping centres. Sociologically such change within drug economy of post-soviet city might be interpreted as a shift from subcultural networks, where local knowledge and practices of street pharmacology were transmitted to new users, to the conspicuous consumption of branded and recreational drugs .

MESURE DE L’INSTABILITÉ POLITIQUE DANS LES PAYS EN DÉVELOPPEMENT: UNE APPROCHE MULTIDIMENSIONNELLE

Author(s): Marzougui Mounir / Language(s): French / Issue: 1/30/2016

In this article, we aim to examine the multidimensional nature of the political instability in developing countries and to derive new measures of political instability. To this end, we use a principal components analysis on a set of 25 indicators of political instability for 114 developing countries. We arrived to detect four dimensions of political instability, namely; the level of democracy, violence and politically motivated protest, the effects of neighboring countries, and instability in government.

Metodologiczne wizje i koncepcje G.L. Seidlera

Author(s): Lech Dubel / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 1/2014

The methodological concepts of Grzegorz Leopold Seidler touched upon numerous important issues involved in the cultivation of legal sciences. Formulated on different levels of abstraction, they addressed the most significant issues of the academic discipline of law, as well as other social sciences. In the field of legal sciences, they were mainly connected with the philosophy of law, the theory of law, the history of political and legal doctrines, the history of the State and law, and the constitutional and administrative law. However, His academic research interests also corresponded to the political sciences, and the theory of organisation and management. Frequently, these were the visions and ideas which turned into concepts due to the endeavours by Professor, or subsequently his students. Tue same was the case with the history of political and legal doctrines, a research discipline that has been cultivated since the nineteenth cenrury. His ideas were, however, rooted in a concrete historical situation. The whole academic research life of G.L. Seidler was characterised, among other things, by the attempt to define the subject and the method of his basic research area and exposition, i.e. the political and legal thought. It needs to be emphasised that he was not only interested in the history of legal thought, but the modern political thought as well. The methodological pursuits and their consequent continuation that were actually present in nearly all of the author's works, inspire admiration for their pioneering nature as well as the depth of exploration of this research area. The critical appraisal of the methodological proposals by G.L. Seidler covered the definition of the research subject, i.e. the approach and concept of doctrine, the proposal to systematise the periodisation of political thought, and certain conclusions stemming from the applied research method. The importance of these studies may be evaluated on many levels. Among the most major ones seems to be its capability to inspire a discussion among the historians of political and legal thought concerning the author's theses. Another aspect of the appeal of the methodological ideas is the extent of its acceptance, i.e. whether and to what extend it was accepted by historians of doctrines. The author of the present article puts forward a thesis that in both aspects Grzegorz Leopold Seidler's thought was academically significant and still is an important source for the methodological reflections by contemporary authors.