We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.

Download

Komparativna analiza ekonomskog razvoja i kvaliteta života u zemljama regiona u odnosu na odabrane zemlje Evropske unije

Author(s): Jelena Trivić / Language(s): Bosnian,English Issue: 1/2024

The aim of this paper is to determine how far the countries of the region (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia) lag behind from the youngest members of the European Union (Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania), as well as from the countries that gained membership in 2004, which are often called the countries of New Europe (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia) according to the economic standard measured by some of the macroeconomic aggregates. Gross domestic product or gross national income per capita are usually used as a measure of economic development, but in this paper we used GDP per capita at purchasing power parity because this indicator takes into account the price level and is the only comparable GDP per capita. countries. We used the human development index as a measure of quality of life. The comparative analysis showed that the countries of the region lag significantly behind the youngest members of the European Union and the countries of New Europe according to the indicator of economic development, and that the gap between the countries of the region and the countries of the European Union is not decreasing to a significant extent. The analysis also showed that the quality of life measured by the human development index in the countries of the region is significantly lower than in the countries of the European Union, but that the countries of the region catch up with the countries of the European Union to a greater extent according to this indicator.

More...

Download

Return of Illiberalism: The Results of the 2023 General Election in Slovakia

Author(s): Vlastimil Havlík,Jakub Lysek,Peter Spáč,Ľubomír Zvada / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2024

After a general overview of the context of the 2023 general election in Slovakia, the article provides a detailed analysis of the electoral results and support for political parties. Using both aggregate and individual level data, we show that the results were influenced by a combination of long-term features defining electoral support and voting behaviour in Slovakia and a more recent trend including weaker ideological attachment and the increased importance of leadership personality for political party preference. Also, it seems that the illiberal mobilization may be traced in the dynamic of electoral shifts in the context of different behaviour of various societal groups. Moreover, the return of illib- eral actors to power in Slovakia seems to have been characterized by a surge of votes for conservative or populist left-wing forces in the larger Slovak cities. Although this is not reflected in the turnout, at the individual level we can assume that liberal voters turned out in smaller numbers, while Smer voters may have been more mobilized, or some voters may have switched from other populist parties such as OĽaNO.

More...

Download

Mobile Voters: Patterns of Electoral Volatility in Slovakia

Author(s): Oľga Gyárfášová,Roman Hlatky,Martin Slosiarik / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2024

Electoral volatility is a perennial feature of Slovak general elections. Furthermore, volatility has increased over time, suggesting party system stabilization is unlikely. As the vicious cycle of new party emergence continues, high volatility complicates the attribution of responsibility, and thus accountability. The 2023 early general election found Slovakia in a very precarious political and social situation – trust in political institutions was historically low and public sentiment about future prospects was pessimistic. Focusing on this election, and using aggregate election results as well as exit poll data, this study analyses: (1) trends in volatility; (2) dynamics of volatility within and between two major political blocs; (3) individual vote switching between consecutive elections; (4) the vote choice of remobilized former non-voters; and (5) the motivations that underpin vote switching. The findings indicate that although some voters have made ideological commitments to certain political parties and are therefore loyal between elections, large parts of the electorate remain ‘floating voters’, dissatisfied with political parties generally. As such, volatility is at an all time high and may increase in future elections.

More...

Download

New Breakaway Parties in Slovakia: Exploring Intra-party Democracy Shifts

Author(s): Tomáš Cirhan,Michal Malý / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2024

Many new parties are electorally succeeding across European party systems, including in post-communist countries. This is especially true in Slovakia, where it is accompanied by another very specific phenomenon, which in our perspective defines recent parliamentary elections – the prevalence of new breakaway parties. These newly formed parties created by splitting from parliamentary parties are now competing alongside them in early parliamentary elections. The 2020-2023 period, in addition to seeing the fall of governments, and a general political crisis and instability, was also characterized by frequent party factionalism. During this period, turbulent development within SMER-SD, ĽSNS and OĽaNO translated into the formation of three new parties – HLAS-SD, Republika, and the Democrats, which represent our case studies. The aim of our paper is to analyse how these new breakaway parties differ from their original parties organizationally, in the processes associated with intra-party democracy (IPD). We empirically explore their leadership selection, candidate selection and membership policies. The existing data (based on the Populism and Political Parties Database) indicate that their three parent parties are highly personalized with low IPD. The findings of our comparative analysis reveal that the new breakaway parties have incorporated more transparent approaches to intraparty processes compared to their parent parties. However, concerning candidate selection, they have not embraced greater inclusiveness than the parties they originated from. Overall, despite a noticeable trend towards intraparty depersonalization, the opportunity for a broader membership base to participate in the decision making process remains largely unrealized.

More...

Download

Success or Failure of a Newcomer? The Hlas-SD Party as a New Player in the Slovak Party System

Author(s): Pavel Hynčica,Daniel Šárovec / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2024

This article is an analysis of the establishment and subsequent role of the HLAS-Social Democracy (HLAS-SD) party on the Slovak political scene with a focus on its position in the system of cooperative-competitive interactions in the early elections to the National Council of the Slovak Republic in September 2023. First, it examines the new party in the broader context of the emergence of new political parties generally, which has been a long-term characteristic of the formation and development of the Slovak political system. Second, it investigates the ideological programmatic orientation of the party and its position in the scheme of cooperative-competitive interactions and cleavages in Slovak politics over the last three years. HLAS-SD represents a particular form of Slovak social democracy and, with this ideological orientation, faces competition not only from political parties of a different orientation but also from the programmatic sister party SMER-SD. Finally, the article maps the development of electoral support for HLAS-SD as captured by regular opinion polls and shown by the results of recent elections. Shortly after its establishment, HLAS-SD became for a time preferentially the most supported political entity, but later its electoral strength declined significantly. In this case study we analyse the party positions following the elections and, considering all three mentioned dimensions, explore the development of electoral support for HLAS-SD and its subsequent role in the party system.

More...

8.00 €

Preview

Hungary, Populism and the New Right

Author(s): Nicholas Michelsen / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2024

Hungary has long been recognized as a leader in the international relations of the New Right, playing a key role in the formation of a global assemblage that combines western and non-western right-wing cultural populists into a loosely coherent movement. While riven by internal differences, as noted by Abrahamsen et al., populists of the New Right “revel in demonstrating friendships in public and via public diplomacy” (Abrahamsen et al., 2024). As a consequence, they argue, local contingencies and national ambiguities should not be allowed to obscure the fundamentally international character of these populist actors. Having said that, each national case within this loose international assemblage is important and reveals something specific about what is happening in the wider global movement. Indeed, some cases may be particularly illuminating of wider international dynamics.

More...

8.00 €

Preview

Leadership in International Populism: How Viktor Orbán´s Hungary Shows the Way

Author(s): Igor Macedo Piovezan,Martijn Mos / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2024

Although a burgeoning literature explores the international dimensions of populism, we still know little about how populist leaders gain international popularity. This paper describes how Viktor Orban, the Prime Minister of Hungary, has emerged as the role model of international right-wing ´ populism. It demonstrates that Orban actively supplied himself as an example that like-minded ´ politicians should follow. We draw on the concept of legitimation strategies to illustrate why Orban´ markets himself as the leader of an international movement against liberal ideologues (Wajner, 2022). At the same time, populists in many countries have searched abroad for a successful model to follow. Orban´ ’s anti-migration policies and his defense of conservative family values constitute chapters of an illiberal playbook that right-wing populists are eager to implement. We use the concept of authoritarian learning to develop this demand-side perspective (Hall and Ambrosio, 2017). Empirically, we demonstrate our argument through an analysis of speeches delivered at a leading gathering of right-wing populists and moral conservatives: the Hungarian editions of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) that took place in Budapest in 2022 and 2023.

More...

8.00 €

Preview

Unique, Better, Model, Leader: Claims of Exceptionality in Hungary’s Foreign Policy and Beyond

Author(s): András Hettyey / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2024

In the IR literature, devoting attention to small state exceptionalism remains the exception. This paper aims to rectify this situation by analyzing claims of exceptionality of the successive Orban´ governments of Hungary. It aims to shed light on Hungary’s foreign policy by making two core claims. First, based on a diverse range of sources, it shows that successive Hungarian governments have increasingly come to conceptualize Hungary as an exceptional, trail-blazing, model country in foreign policy and beyond, especially after 2018. Secondly, the paper shows how claims of exceptionality can lead to resentment and isolation in foreign policy, if and when they go hand-in-hand with collective narcissism.

More...

Download

Spravedlnost nejen pro Hartmuta Tautze: Ohlédnutí za deseti lety projektu JUSTICE 2.0

Author(s): Neela Winkelmann-Heyrovská / Language(s): Czech Issue: 02/2024

The article discusses the ongoing pursuit of justice for victims of communist crimes in former Czechoslovakia, focusing on the efforts of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience through its JUSTICE 2.0 project. This initiative aims to hold accountable those responsible for human rights violations during the communist era, particularly the killings along the Iron Curtain. The project has led to legal actions against former officials and raised public awareness about these historical injustices. Despite challenges, including the advanced age of many perpetrators and the reluctance of some authorities to pursue these cases, the project has achieved significant milestones. These include the identification of perpetrators, the collection of evidence, and the initiation of legal proceedings in multiple countries. The article highlights the symbolic case of Hartmut Tautz, a young East German killed while attempting to cross the border, whose story exemplifies the broader struggle for justice. The efforts have also involved public presentations, educational initiatives, and international cooperation to ensure that these crimes are not forgotten and that justice is served. The article underscores the importance of remembering and addressing past atrocities to prevent their recurrence and to promote a culture of accountability and human rights.

More...

Download

Leadership crisis and democratic consolidation in Nigeria: A discourse using Awolowo’s political philosophy

Author(s): Nurain Abayomi Mumuni / Language(s): English Issue: 58/2024

In Nigeria, poor leadership has been a major barrier to the country’s progress and survival. The political class’s reckless pursuit of power has made democracy’s journey more difficult over the past twenty years. This study uses Awolowo’s political philosophy to explore the relationship between Nigeria’s Democratic Consolidation and Leadership Crisis. In this context, the modernization theory was used as a foundation. Nigeria has been shown to have shortcomings in three main areas: security of property and life, descriptive analysis, and data generated from secondary sources. These areas include advancing the rule of law and offering inspirational guidance. The study concludes that a nation’s ability to survive and develop depends on a number of key factors, including the rule of law, the management of plurality, accountability, peace and security, tolerance of opposition, and equality. The study’s recommendations for improving good governance are based on its findings, which suggest that fundamental governance should support self-participation, communal services, motivation, and responsiveness to public needs.

More...

Download

PUBLIC SECTOR COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT UNDER THE STAKEHOLDER MODEL - STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING EFFICIENCY IN PRB

Author(s): Ivan Kadev / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2024

Since the beginning of the century, there have been major changes in the relations of business and public sector representatives with individuals and society on a global scale. A number of surveys have found that senior executives in both the public and private sectors believe they are witnessing one of those turning points in history where the rules are changing in fundamental ways and accepted postulates, long-standing institutions and wildly successful enterprises are subject to quick redefinition. Therefore, it is safe to say that at this point the already known paradigms for communications are not valid. Contemporary concepts such as the triple bottom line, governance, sustainability, corporate citizenship, socially responsible behavior (social, environmental and economic), reputation, trust, legitimacy and ethics monopolize strategic conversations from the US to Europe to South Africa. These qualitatively new concepts have (or at least should have) relevance to the future practice of corporate communication.

More...

Download

Exploring Populism in Erdogan’s Discourse on Turkey–European Union Relations

Author(s): Önder Canveren,André Kaiser / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2024

Many political leaders have adopted populist themes in their foreign policy discourses, motivated by, for example, revisionism, domestic mobilisation, and personalisation of foreign policy. Since the failed coup attempt in 2016, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has become a prime example of this trend. This article analyses Turkey’s relationship with the European Union (EU) by deciphering populist themes in his discourses. The article’s method, thematic discourse analysis, examines speeches and statements from multiple data sources using a deductive codebook. According to the study’s qualitative and quantitative in-depth analysis people-centrism, partnership diversification, general will, positive partisanship, and personalisation emerge as distinct populist themes in Erdogan’s speeches. Erdogan uses populism to project the image of strong/charismatic leadership as a genuine representation of the will of oppressed people(s). In his discourses, special weight is given to people-centrism, and it is supported by the themes of general will and personalisation.

More...

Download

Power, Institutionalisation, and Religion: Gender-Washing as a Tool of Autocratic Control

Author(s): Blanka Knotková-Čapková / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2024

This article reflects on Rola El-Husseini's critique of the Western double standards concerning women’s rights and religious freedom in her work "Double Standards and Dissonance: Women’s Rights and Freedom of Religion in the Global North." It expands on the concept of "gender-washing," illustrating how both left- and right-wing authoritarian regimes exploit gender equality rhetoric for political gains without genuine efforts toward equality. Through examples from Czechoslovakia and contemporary India, the article explores how different ideologies—from Marxism-Leninism to religious nationalism—use women’s rights as a façade while maintaining autocratic control. It also engages with postcolonial feminist critiques of Western universalism.

More...

Download

A Generational Approach to the Crisis Parties: Common Origins and Common Features

Author(s): Jorge Bronet,Rosa Borge / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2024

Over the past two decades, Western Europe has witnessed a boom in new political parties that have obtained significant electoral results, naturally embracing digital technologies and seeking to challenge their traditional counterparts by reconnecting with the citizenry. With a critical review of the main attributes and concepts used so far by the most relevant literature, we propose a new perspective to delimit this phenomenon that allows us to observe it as a whole and not as a particular case. By focusing on scholars who underscore the importance of the historic origin to understand parties, we formulate a generational approach for setting a cohort and analyzing whether the fact that parties share contextual conditions when they emerge also means they have some common features, in contrast to the older political parties. We focus on three dimensions usually highlighted by case studies: strong digitalization (Gerbaudo 2018, 2019), thin structure (Biancalana 2016; Raniolo, Tarditi 2020; Tormey 2015) and more members (van Haute, Ribeiro 2022). In order to do so, we verify it empirically by operationalizing the Political Party Database PPDB round 2 with a sample of 98 parties from 13 Western European countries, comprising 29 new parties (that we generationally call crisis parties) and 69 older parties. This paper aims to better determine whether these new parties, which emerge in a particular political scenario, are (or were) different. The results show that the crisis parties are more digitalized, have less structure and have more members than the previous cohorts parties. In this sense, these crisis parties have brought about some relevant changes in Western European party systems.

More...

Download

A Technocratic Way? Elite-led Democratic Innovations Within Conservative Parties

Author(s): Gema Sánchez Medero,F. Ramón Villaplana / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2024

In recent years, studies on democratic innovations within political parties have proliferated, driven by the success of new digital parties. However, there remains a gap in the literature regarding such innovations in mainstream and conservative parties, and particularly about the motivations behind their implementation (or lack thereof). This article uses as example the case of the Spanish People’s Party (Partido Popular or PP), one of the largest conservative parties in Europe with over 45 years of history. We identify the key organizational innovations introduced by the PP in the last decade and evaluate the impact of its digitalization on intra-party democracy. Our preliminary analysis suggests that the democratic innovations implemented by the PP, including party primaries at the national level for first time in 2018, mostly reflect a technocratic approach to organizational updating, characterized by elite-controlled democratization and uneven digitalization efforts, primarily focused on social media and communication purposes, with the absence of any e-voting mechanism. These findings, along with previous literature on the topic, suggest a recurring pattern in how conservative parties deal with their own democratization and adapt to the digital age.

More...

Download

Determinants of Female Labour Force Participation: Panel Data Analysis

Author(s): Ivana Marjanović,Žarko Popović,Sandra Milanović / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2024

The growing participation of women in the labour market has been undoubtedly one of the main features of the evolution of the economies of the European Union (EU) during the last few decades. Nevertheless, maintaining this increase remains an important policy goal due to the existing population ageing and gender employment gap. This paper aims to analyse the main determinants of female labour force participation (FLFP) in the EU countries using panel data regression analysis covering the period from 2000 to 2021. By employing the fixed-effects regression analysis, an influence of dependent variables such as GDP per capita, presence of anti-discrimination laws, equal opportunities laws and affirmative action, women's participation in parliament work, total fertility rate, paid parental leave, retirement age with full pension benefits, women's education and annual net earnings are assessed on the female labour participation rate in the European Union. Moreover, the robust standard error procedure is performed for model estimation. The empirical results indicate that GDP per capita, total fertility rate, equal age of retirement for men and women, annual net earnings, female upper secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary education and tertiary education enrolment represent significant determinants of FLFP, where all the stated variables have a positive influence on the FLFP rates. Therefore, improvement in education levels, annual net earnings and gender equality policies influence women to participate more in labour markets. These findings demonstrate the significance of improving education and earnings levels and the necessity of the development of adequate policies that will provide that. Implications for Central European audience: The results of this study provide insightful findings concerning the main drivers of female labour force participation in the European Union by taking into account the COVID-19 pandemic period labour market indicators.

More...

Download

THE NEED FOR A SOFT POWER STRATEGY FOR ROMANIA. ELEMENTS

Author(s): Matei BLĂNARU / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2024

The importance of soft power strategies in recent decades has been both overstated in some cases, and understated in others. Both approaches have come with negative effects for the initiators, as well as the recipient societies. We can still encounter both approaches in contemporary societies, but we also encounter more moderate and more balanced successful approaches as well. Our assessment is that a balanced, professional, realistic approach and, above all, having as its final goal collective benefits for several states, for an entire region, not only for the initiating state, a soft power strategy that does not conceal hard power goals behind it, would be extremely welcome for Romania, and we propose several elements for it. It would be even more necessary in an area like ours, where different soft power strategies are seen in action, and they have broader strategies concealed behind them, usually characteristic of hard power, with revisionist aims, namely to resuscitate old empires. We can give the example of neo-Ottoman strategies of Recep Erdogan’s Turkiye, Vladimir Putin’s strategies or Viktor Orban’s. In some cases, the hard power strategies disguised in soft forms have been revealed, in others, not yet.

More...

Download

Verejné obstarávanie ako faktor nízkej kvality manažmentu kontrahovania miestnych verených služieb

Author(s): Beáta Mikušová Meričková,Nikoleta Jakuš Muthová,Lili Ondrejkovič / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 2/2024

A view of the problem of contracting out public services, limited to solving the “make or buy” question, does not fully address the issue: why doesn’t contracting out public services lead to efficiency gains? The controversial effects of contracting out on efficiency can be better understood by shifting the research issue from the cost-effectiveness of contracting out to the quality of management in the contracting process. The public procurement process is crucial to the management of public service contracting. The aim of the study is to define the role of public procurement in the management of public service contracting by analyzing the aspects of public procurement that influence the quality of contracting management of local public services in Slovak municipalities. All data were collected directly by the authors. The results indicate the low-quality contract management, what incerase the risks connected with public services contracting out.

More...

Download

COMPETITIVENESS AND ECONOMIC GROWTH. COMPARATIVE STUDY: ROMANIA – BULGARIA

Author(s): Alin-Vasile STRĂCHINARU / Language(s): English Issue: 27/2023

In terms of structure, state and evolution of the economy in the last decades, Romania and Bulgaria have common characteristics, being similar also, from the development perspectives point of view, with goals and projections that are intertwined. This study aims, on the one hand, to capture the economic situation as a whole, at the level of the two countries, and on the other hand to identify the best ideas, but also viable measures, which lead to the achievement of the set objectives, in the next period. At the same time, based on V A R - Vector Autoregression Model analysis, a correlation report is analyzed, which identifies three of the most important macroeconomic indicators, in the current economic environment, namely: public debt, gross domestic product, respectively investments. The reference period considered is between the years 2009 - 2021, with a quarterly frequency.

More...

Download

Is Populism Inherently Illiberal? Insights from Kirchnerism and SYRIZA in Power

Author(s): Grigoris Markou / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2024

This article delves into the academic discussion on the relationship between populism and liberal democracy, challenging the view that all populist movements, parties, and leaders are inherently illiberal. Drawing from a Laclauian perspective, which frames populism as an integral part of democratic politics that amplifies the voices of marginalized groups, we argue that populism can align with the principles of liberal democracy and/or does not necessarily lead to illiberal democracy or authoritarianism. Through the examination of left-wing populist cases in Argentina [Kirchnerism (2003-2015)] and Greece [SYRIZA (2015-2019)], we aim to demonstrate the inadequacy of approaches that understand populism as an inherently illiberal phenomenon, which often overlook the pluralistic and inclusive aspects of populism. Thus, we provide a response to this query: Is every populist case necessarily illiberal?

More...