THE IDEOLOGICAL SPECIFICS OF THE VARIANTS OF CONTEMPORARY CONSERVATISM

Author(s): Nikola Gjorshoski / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2016

In the imminent paper the author elaborates the primary theoretical modalities of conservative ideology. Such variants arises from the conservative ideology where diversity, specificities and needs are treated as a fundamental principle of their activity. The necessity to present the basic modalities of conservative philosophy lie in the fact that modern right-centrist parties are faced with the dilemma of ideological repositioning and expedient concretization of the priorities in their own political action. In this respect the author concentrates on four essential concepts that shape the conservative action in modern discourse. Paternalistic Conservatism, Neoliberal Conservatism, Neoconservatism and Christian Democracy create a framework of conservative worldview through the theoretical prism and also withdraw substantial axiological and praxeological differentiations on relevant issues such as freedom of the market, media, agriculture, financial sector, solidarity, religion, penal policy, taxes etc.

Demokratizacija europskih tranzicijskih država

Author(s): Damirka Mihaljević / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 3/2014

System changes in Eastern Europe are different from transformation autocratic system in South Europe (1974), Latin America (since 1985) and Eastern Asia (1983), which are also included in the third wave of democratization. Unlike transformation in other parts of the world, two or three transformation processes were going on at the same time in postcommunist Eastern Europe: political transformation (transition from dictatorship to democracy), economic transformation (transition from commanding to market economy) and in some cases state transformation such as dissolution of Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and SFRJ. However, democratization process was not being conducted in the same way in all former socialist countries. Historical, cultural and economic differences, as well as the character of former socialist system, had a significant influence on that. For example, reformed communists controlled the transformation process in Rumania for seven years, what was the longest period, due to the special form of rule established by Ceseausecu. From the other side, democratic developments in Poland were lead by the movement Solidarity and with the support of Catholic Church they succeeded to suppress hegemony of the state over society.

ОСОБЕНОСТ ПОЛИТИЧКЕ МИСЛИ ЈОВАНА ЦВИЈИЋА

Author(s): Dragan Simeunović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 4/2015

This contribution aims to shed some light on, hitherto unexplored within scientific research as an specific topic, political thought of great Serbian geographer and ethnologist Jovan Cvijić (1865-1927), through analysis of his works and documents, but also his actions, which, in very specific social and political circumstances in Serbia during the first decade of 20th century indisputably had certain political dimension. Pronouncedly political activity of Jovan Cvijić consists of his international engagement as an expert in the process of establishing the borders of newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Using historical comparative method and content analysis the author has determined that Cvijić’s political thought can be labeled as developing. This development can be divided in several phases, starting with the time of early infatuation with the ideas of socialism and patriotism, followed by the phase of benign nationalism during the Balkan Wars and first half of the First World War, then phase of Yugoslavism in the second half of that war, which lasted until the end of his life, when he completely turned to socialist ideals of his youth – which can, for that reason, be described as a time of Cvijić’s open advocating for ideas of socialism. Jovan Cvijić was very early exposed with patriotic and socialist ideas. With the patriotic ideas he was instilled with by his family, and with the socialist ideas in secondary school, by his teachers. In the periods since the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908, throughout the Balkan Wars, and by the middle of First World War, Cvijić’s political thought was mostly nationalist, and after that Cvijić starts to defer to ideas of Yugoslavism, becoming soon one of its most vocal advocates. Although he invested his great name and enormous energy into formation of state union of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, Jovan Cvijić was also among the first promoters of Yugoslavism who became disappointed in it. He refused all political functions, including the position of prime minister. While remaining close to the king and other members of Karađorđević dynasty, until the end of his life he stayed loyal only to socialist ideas, even publicly calling for revolution. The author concludes that Cvijić’s political thought and actions can be, from theoretical point of view, considered as civically profiled socialist political engagement, belonging by the modernity of its concept completely to Central European, and by the form of its expression equally to nationally and supra-nationally motivated Serbian political thought of his time. By its objectives and the direction of actions, his political thought and activity were a mixture of expressive patriotism and introverted sympathy for socialism.

Közép-európai EP-képviselők karrierútjai.

Author(s): András Bíró Nagy / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 1/2016

The article investigates the career paths of Central European Members of the European Parliament. Based on the analysis of biographies and the results of a quantitative survey research about career ambitions with MEPs from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, the paper both outlines the career paths that lead to the European Parliament and the perspectives for a career after the EP mandate. The research proves that the Central European MEPs are more strongly linked to national politics than the MEPs of the EU-15, and they are even more embedded in their country of origin than the MEPs of the fi rst directly elected EP were in 1979. However, local politics is a much less frequent recruitment base for future MEPs in Central Europe than in the ”old Member States”. The political experience and career ambitions of Central European MEPs prove the popular myth wrong, according to which the European Parliament is essentially a retirement home for politicians who have no future political goals. The development of a supranational elite has started in all fi ve countries between 2004 and 2014. The majority of Central European MEPs plan further career steps at European or national level, and only approximately one third of them can be considered as ”European pensioners”.

Politička suština islamske teologije

Author(s): Jelena Vukoičić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 15/2016

Islam is one of the three main monotheistic religions, but also one of the most dynamic and most influential ideologies in the contemporary world. The main reason of the huge popularity of this ideology in the Muslim world is the fact that Islam, unlike some other religions, has a significant political dimension and, beside religious, also represents a political system. Islam has always been the key factor of social and political mobilization in Muslim history, in the periods of crisis as well as in the periods of stability, and no other ideology has ever managed to reach the power of faith. This situation also characterises modern Muslim states in which almost all relevant political organizations, to a certain extent, base their ideological principles on religious postulates. Beside that, in accordance with the trend of religious revival, that has affected Muslim countries and communities in the last few decades, there has been a growth of political organizations that strongly support the complete return to the traditional Islamic norms and laws, so it could be said that Islam is a political choice of the majority, both in the Muslim countries and within Muslim minorities throughout the world.

ROMANIAN`S SOCIAL PROTECTION PROGRAMS REFORM DURING THE ECONOMIC CRISIS

Author(s): Arpad Todor / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2015

The post 2007 economic crisis significantly affected EU`s states public finances and triggered various fiscal adjustments processes. Inevitably, policies related to social protection benefits were scrutinized and more or less radical reforms were enacted in most states. This article assesses the evolution of spending on various social protection programs in Romania in a comparative perspective. Using data from Eurostat, the effects of Romania`s 2011 austerity program are compared with evolutions in the other EU member states. The artcile also compares the observed modification in comparison with the aims set by the Cabinet through its Social Assistance Reform Strategy. The article also tests whether the intensity of adjustment programs are connected with the intensity of economic crisis.

Budování postsovětského státu. Ukrajina a Gruzie na cestě k demokracii a (nebo) stabilitě?

Author(s): Vincent Kopeček,Jakub Kašpar / Language(s): Czech Issue: 1/2016

The article analyses political transformations in Ukraine and Georgia after Orange and Rose Revolutions. Both countries are treated as hybrid regimes and the concept of competitive authoritarianism is used as the main framework for the comparison. Afterwards, diverging political paths of Ukraine and Georgia are interpreted by means of the theory of patronal politics. In the conclusion we argue that whereas Ukraine’s political liberalisation lead to political chaos, economic stagnation and, finally, to the autocratic backsliding, Georgia’s focus on reforms under relatively autocratic Saakashvili’s administration resulted in relatively stable and efficient institutional framework, which enabled political liberalisation of the country after 2012. The article analyses political transformations in Ukraine and Georgia after Orange and Rose Revolutions. Both countries are treated as hybrid regimes and the concept of competitive authoritarianism is used as the main framework for the comparison. Afterwards, diverging political paths of Ukraine and Georgia are interpreted by means of the theory of patronal politics. In the conclusion we argue that whereas Ukraine’s political liberalisation lead to political chaos, economic stagnation and, finally, to the autocratic backsliding, Georgia’s focus on reforms under relatively autocratic Saakashvili’s administration resulted in relatively stable and efficient institutional framework, which enabled political liberalisation of the country after 2012.

Koncept političkog stila operacionalizovan u analizi političkog liderstva u Srbiji

Author(s): Predrag Pavlićević / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 1-2/2013

This paper gives an indication of the modalities of meanings in category of political style and its use in the theory of politics – including theoretical thought in Serbia, as a basis for presentation of key elements of the author’s concept of political style as operationalized in the analysis of political leadership in Serbia, as well as analyses of its achievements and limitations. The author’s concept of the style of political leaders constitutes a unity of thinking, values and action aspects – through identification of key attributes that are related to the way of acting leader. The paper contributes to the epistemological method by defining the concept of style of political leadership, and since this concept is defined through several aspects, that is, through the key concepts of the theory of politics, category apparatus is outlined that specifies the meaning of the dimensions of political style. The paper also outlines methodological foundations for defining political typology of political styles appropriate to the specific context of actions of political leaders in Serbia.

U utopije se ne veruje

Author(s): Elmar Altfater / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 1-2/2014

Komparacija konsocijacijske i centrifugalne demokracije: Švicarska i Bosna i Hercegovina

Author(s): Višeslav Raos,Ivan Pepić / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 03/2015

This paper analyzes differences between consociational and centrifugal democracy. It offers a conceptual framework for the two models and compares them through the Swiss and Bosnian-Herzegovinian cases. For the first time, the concept of centrifugal democracy is attributed to the Bosnian-Herzegovinian model of democracy. This attribution is confirmed through an analysis of the historical institutional development, and of existing cleavages and conflicts among political elites. The development of Swiss consociational democracy is examined since 1848, while the development of Bosnian-Herzegovinian centrifugal democracy is assessed since 1878. The paper also considers “political correctives”, which stabilize and direct the work of political elites in Switzerland and Bosnia and Herzegovina. These comprise referenda and popular initiatives in the first case and international community in the second case. The paper concludes with an assessment of a possible process of transformation of Bosnian-Herzegovinian centrifugal democracy into consociational democracy, and provides examples of potential institutional innovations that would follow the Swiss model.

The Intersubjectivist Conception of Autonomy: Axel Honneth’s Neo-Hegelian Critique of Liberalism

Author(s): Marjan Ivković / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2017

The paper reconstructs Axel Honneth’s Neo-Hegelian critique of the classical-liberal conception of autonomy and his articulation of an alternative view of personal autonomy as the property of certain types of intersubjective relations of recognition in modernity, developed most systematically in Honneth’s recent work Freedom’s Right (Das Recht der Freiheit). The analysis of Freedom’s Right focuses on reconstructing Honneth’s critique of the ‘negative’ and ‘reflexive’ types of freedom (autonomy) articulated within the liberal tradition, and contrasting the former two with the conception of ‘social freedom’ (the intersubjectivist conception of autonomy) that Honneth formulates through a detailed ‘normative reconstruction of modernity’. Finally, the paper considers the proximity of Honneth’s ‘Hegelian liberalism’ to communitarianism.

Challenging Institutions: Getting Goods or Getting Your Own Institution?

Author(s): Matt Millard / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2016

I present a discussion of the current state of liberal internationalism as it relates to international organisations. I maintain that the literature focuses too much on liberal internationalism instead of non-liberal internationalism. This is problematic because non-liberal states are increasingly becoming important players in the international system, as is the case with Russia and China. I argue that non-liberal states have a variety of approaches in their dealings with international institutions that can enable them to maximise their net gains from institutions. These are: 1) keep using the liberal institution, 2) utilise institutional àla cartism (forum shopping), 3) create an anti-liberal institution, or 4) opt out of institutions alltogether. Scholars and practitioners alike should acknowledge that international institutions can be a vehicle whereby non-liberal states maximise their power and diminish the power and influence of liberal states.

Grounds for Difference: Seminar with Rogers Brubaker

Author(s): Rogers Brubaker,Ljubica Spaskovska,Gëzim Krasniqi,Tamara Petrović-Trifunović,Jovana Mihajlović Trbovc,Viktor Koska,Jovo Bakić,Jelena Bakić,Marko Kovačević,Ivan Đorđević / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2017

Grounds for Difference was not conceived or written as a monograph. The essays were written at different times. The two long pieces at the beginning of the book (“Difference and Inequality” and “The Return of Biology”) were written last and were not previously published. Indeed they were too long to publish as journal articles. (The maximum length of journal articles, alas, keeps shrinking, even in an age of electronic publication. Articles of more than 10,000 or 12,000 words are increasingly difficult to place. I essentially found myself having to write a book in order to publish these longer essays.)

Tacikistan’da Dış Güçler: Rusya, Çin, Amerika Birleşik Devletleri, Avrupa Birliği, İran ve Türkiye

Author(s): Türk Fahri / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 15/2017

This research work deals with the Tajikistan policy of the external powers such as Russia, China, United States of America, European Union, Iran and Turkey as well. As it does exceed the analytical framework of this article the other regional actors such as Pakistan, India and Japan excluded from this research that maintain also close ties to Tajikistan from a historical and cultural point of view. The determinants of the Tajikistan policy of the above mentioned countries have analysed regarding their priorities by means of a comparative method. In the existing literature on the external powers in Tajikistan there is rare analysis from a comparative perspective. The authenticity of this article lies on analysing of the Tajikistan policy of these external actors by means of quantitative Data, which is gathered partly through conducting fieldwork in Tajikistan by the author in 2014.

Interpretacija Marksove misli u delima Remona Arona

Author(s): Dušan Marković / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 17/2017

This paper explains Raymond aron’s critical analysis of karl Marx’s economic and political ideas. attitude towards Marx’s concepts is regarded through aron’s broader political and philosophical affinities. it is obvious that Aron was motivated to contest Marx’s theories by political and socio-intellectual situation in France, dominated by Marxism in its different theoretical forms. Most of Marx’s economic theories aron found non-scientific, while he was frightened by their political use – because of the theoretical arguments as much as because of the experiences from the countries governed by the Marxist political parties.

О појму револуције

Author(s): Zoran B. Kinđić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 154/2016

Having attempted to understand the concept of revolution, which is one of the most controversial concepts in science and philosophy, the author explores the meaning of the concept in different theoretical and practical areas. In order to reassert his thesis (it is unjustified to restrict the concept of revolution to political and social area), the author reminds us about the frequent discussions about industrial, technological, scientific, cultural, sexual and spiritual revolutions. After a detailed reflection on different meanings of the concept of revolution in these areas, the author concludes not only that the philosophical concept of revolution theoretically excels the sociological concept of revolution, but also that the spiritual concept of revolution is superior to the philosophical concept of revolution. Warning us about the moral and spiritual crisis of today’s world, about the ever-increasing evil, the author reaffirms the significance of the spiritual revolution. He believes that the flame of many small, individual, spiritual revolutions could save the world from the threatening disaster.

The perception of the traditional international relations schools representatives on the evolution of World Order after the Post-Cold War

Author(s): Ioan Horga / Language(s): English Issue: 11/2019

After 1990 the international society knows two contradictory phenomena, political-military instability, the expansion of the market economy on a global scale, which contributed to the forging of the Post-Cold War Order in which the tendency towards a unipolar and hegemonic system with global dimensions was inevitable in our opinion, entering the first stage of what we called during the study the Global World Order (GWO-1). At the beginning of the twenty-first century, these contradictory evolutions are amplified, on the one hand, by the rising of strong global economies, which compete with the USA (China, India, EU, Japan, Brazil, South Africa) and on the other, by the signs of returning to the international scene of Russia, which claimed the legacy of the place occupied in the great international politics by the Soviet Union, to which are added the political-military ambitions of China and India. To all these are added the challenges that climate change has on the whole of international relations. Or this stage of the evolution of Post-Cold War Order as a global order no longer responds to the characteristics of the first stage (GWO-1), based on unipolarity, so it is necessary to introduce a new concept, which reflects these evolutions, namely the second stage- the Global World Order (GWO-2). In this research we tried to see how these evolutions are perceived by the main representatives of the traditional schools of international relations - realists and liberals: first, how are these transitional evolutions perceived from GWO -1 to GWO-2, and secondly, how GWO -2 is perceived and finally what are the options regarding GWO -2.

DE LA MERCENARI LA PRIVATE DEFENCE. CAZUL COMPANIILOR MILITARE PRIVATE RUSE

Author(s): Iulian Chifu,Teodor Frunzeti / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 01/2020

The modern hybrid warfare came with an important added value involving old instruments in new clothes. It is the case of the Private Military Companies, used in a way that allows credible denial and the hiring of mercenaries with impunity. It is the case of the Russian PMCs, a form of the private defence that goes the closest to mercenaries. Lawfare, another very present form of the hybrid approaches nowadays, has provided the means to hire and change a highly condemn practice as well as the breach of the rules of war and the human rights into a very effective tool with a very high impact when facing regular armies as well as guerillas, irregulars or legitimate protesters. The study makes an overlook into the international legal framework for the use of mercenaries, and moves to the uses and abuses of the new PMCs – Private Military Companies. From the legal framework observed in the case of American legislation and private defence approaches in the US, the translation of the PMCs as an instrument in Russia has put the framework under the umbrella of a real lawfare, with ambiguity in the status and illegality according to the internal Russian legislation. Not talking about difficulties of those PMCs and their way of operating to fit into the international legislation regarding mercenaries and the illegal interventions of hybrid nature.

FROM MERCENARIES TO PRIVATE DEFENCE. THE CASE OF RUSSIAN PRIVATE MILITARY COMPANIES

Author(s): Iulian Chifu,Teodor Frunzeti / Language(s): English Issue: 01/2020

The modern hybrid warfare came with an important added value involving old instruments in new clothes. It is the case of the Private Military Companies, used in a way that allows credible denial and the hiring of mercenaries with impunity. It is the case of the Russian PMCs, a form of the private defence that goes the closest to mercenaries. Lawfare, another very present form of the hybrid approaches nowadays, has provided the means to hire and change a highly condemn practice as well as the breach of the rules of war and the human rights into a very effective tool with a very high impact when facing regular armies as well as guerillas, irregulars or legitimate protesters. The study makes an overlook into the international legal framework for the use of mercenaries and moves to the uses and abuses of the new PMCs – Private Military Companies. From the legal framework observed in the case of American legislation and private defence approaches in the US, the translation of the PMCs as an instrument in Russia has put the framework under the umbrella of a real lawfare, with ambiguity in the status and illegality according to the internal Russian legislation. Not talking about difficulties of those PMCs and their way of operating to fit into the international legislation regarding mercenaries and the illegal interventions of hybrid nature.

Political Science in Canada on Post-Independence Ukraine

Author(s): Ivan (John) Jaworsky / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

When Ukraine became an independent state, Canada’s political science community, and the country’s Ukrainian studies infrastructure, generally lacked the expertise to effectively analyze the ensuing political changes in Ukraine. Over the years that followed there has been a growing awareness of the importance of studying politics in Ukraine, and a realization that greater efforts should be made to infuse the traditional area studies approach, which dominated studies of Ukraine in the past, with greater methodological rigour, and to situate political developments in Ukraine within a broad comparative context. As a result, Canadian academics are now in a much stronger position to contribute to the study of politics in Ukraine. There is, however, much room for improvement.