The Massive Exchange of Elites as a Mean of Formation of the Authoritarian Regime

Author(s): Janusz Reykowski / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2017

After parliamentary election of 2015 in Poland the winning party (Law and Justice, PiS) initiated the major socio-political transformation labeled by its authors the “good change”. Its main characteristic is the process of the massive exchange of elites. The process of exchange of the elites has elaborated ideological justifications – broadly popularized legitimizing myth. Its main claim is the thesis about illegitimate origins of the Third Republic of Poland that was established after the fall of communism and about policies of the previous governments that were allegedly contrary to the basic interests of Poland. The practical realization of the idea of the massive exchange of elites might require certain conditions such as the existence of social groups that feel that the current system limits their chances for personal advancement, broad disappointment with the ruling elites, growing tolerance for authoritarian politics, social support for the change. It should be noted that some of these conditions exist, to the certain degree, in various countries of Europe and facilitate the development of the radical right wing movements. This paper describes some of the mechanisms of the change that on the abstract level are similar to processes of exchange of elites in other geo-political contexts.

Putin’s Russia in Russian Eyes

Author(s): Jerzy J. Wiatr / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2017

AFRICA IN QUEST OF STABILITY? REFLECTIONS INSPIRED BY THE CURRENT PROBLEMS OF HUMANITY

Author(s): Alphonse Zozime Tamekamta / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

This study proposes to analyze the determinants of the volatile situation of Africa and its capacity of adaptation or appropriation of the global stakes, with regard to the current problems of the humanity, described in the work coordinated by the Professor Dumitru Otovescu. Africa is considered here as a field of application since this continent is subject to all attention eye, all anxieties and all hopes. To lead this reflection, three methods of data collection were favoured: First, the ethnographic method which involved neutral direct observation. Observation provides information about social and political actors. Then, the interviews (unstructured, semi-structured and standardized) that gave rise to conversations, formal and informal, conducted on the basis of an interview guide, a questionnaire or a survey, structured around from subject. Finally, the exploitation of newspaper articles, magazines and periodicals, various reports, books, etc. At the end of this work, it is observed that Africa suffers as much as the other continents the volatility of the banking and economic system due to the practice of capitalism. Although sector-specific (developed-country) and global responses have been taken following several global economic and financial crises, Africa has remained isolated and compartmentalized. Today, its galloping demography and the extreme youth of its population as well as the natural wealth at its disposal are the basis of the hope of Africa. In contrast, the segmentation of its economic recovery programs, the tribulations of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), the faculties of its political governance and the recurrence of crises and complex escapes.

COMPULSORY VEIL IN IRAN: A SOCIAL JUSTICE PROBLEM

Author(s): Nasim Basiri / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

This paper looks into different aspects of compulsory veil in post-revolutionary Iran and discusses this discriminatory and exclusionary law as a social justice problem. The paper also demonstrates and brings into the light a number of consequences related to implementation of compulsory hijab in Iranian society that has led to gender-based violence targeting women.

Imperium tekstu kontratakuje. Refleksje socjologa. Recenzja książki Marcina Matczaka Imperium tekstu. Prawo jako postulowanie i urzeczywistnianie świata możliwego

Author(s): Lech M. Nijakowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2019

Смъртта на крал Едуард VII и политическите отношения между България и Великобритания

Author(s): Emil Alexandrov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 6/2019

The article aims to show some unknown historical facts about the death of King Edward VII of England. In this context the political relations between the British Empire and the Kingdom of Bulgaria are developing. In view of the polarization of Europe between the Triple Alliance and the Entente, Sofia seeks to secure the support of London and to establish good connections and feelings. Bulgaria’s foreign policy is still with loose hands, but considering the pursuit of national unification, it looks for allies and friendly countries. Naturally, King Ferdinand I and his family ties to the royal family of England are naturally counting, given the English-Russian idea circulating in the diplomacy of 1908-1909 to create a Balkan Union.

State – Religion Relations: the Bulgarian Case

Author(s): Maya Grekova,Iva Kyurkchieva,Maya Kosseva / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

The objective of this article is to outline in the light of the relations between the nation-state and the various religious organizations and individuals the main tensions in the contemporary Bulgarian society concerning the intertwining of religion and secularism. The general goal is to combine the presentation of national historical context, existing legislation and the current social debate based on fieldwork.

‘Gezi Spirit’: Narrative Fragments and Modes of Articulation. Ethnography of Post-Protest (Istanbul 2013–2015)

Author(s): Zornitza Draganova / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

This text is based on an ethnographic study on the protests and civic initiatives that initially took place in 2013 but then continued with varying intensity throughout the following years. While applying the method of participant observation during the Gazi events’ and conducting interviews with individuals who had taken part in the protests, a main goal of this study is to grasp the transformation in the identification, articulation and presentation of important and secondary topics and problems that had been brought forward throughout the public discussions. The initial motivation of this study is the idea that after the first demonstrations and clashes, the interpretation of the political projects’ turbulence, of the reinvention of urban spaces, of the success or failure of diverse protest and resistance practices, gradually modifies the way the aforementioned events and ongoing processes are being thought and talked about. The research questions the respondents’ participation in protests, the constitution and disintegration of communities, the ‘diagnosis’, ‘prognosis’ and ‘rationale’ elements in respondents’ and informants’ micro-discourses and their acts in relation to diverse initiatives. The text attempts to systematize the observation data and the collected ‘narrative fragments’ within four ‘modes of articulation’: transformative, subjective, argumentative, and topological.

Музикантите като фенове на публиката. Образи на концертната публика и медийната аудитория

Author(s): Zhana Popova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 6/2019

The research of the media publications and TV shows after 1989 with the participation of a certain group of musicians - the artists making Estrada - shows that there is an area where the power of the audience is a necessity that preserves the power of the author. The Estrada musicians describe their audience as a ‘good person’ or a child, they need to teach how to recognize valuable music. In the period 1990 - 2017 the musicians draw a couple of key images of the audience: the weddings audience, the parents and the child in the audience, the supranational symbol, the constantly reminded image of the “phenomenon soviet audience”. A key finding of the research is that the musicians clearly distinguish between “concert audience” and “media audience” as imaginary communities.

Научен отзив за международна научна конференция „(Пре) осмисляйки социализма: знание, памет и забрава за социалистическото минало”

Author(s): Zlatina Bogdanova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 6/2019

Conference report on the International science conference '(Re)thinking socialism: knowledge, memory and oblivion of the socialist past'

A Brief View over American Most Prominent Abolitionist Newspapers and Writings during the Mid XIX Century (1820-1850’s)

Author(s): Borislav Momchilov / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2016

The main purpose of this article is to show the different aspects of abolitionist literature in United States during the mid-nineteen century. The wide historiographical view of this subject brings to the reader chance to receive accurate knowledge over this object. Over the last few decades the rhetoric over the abolitionism debate is circulating in many aspects, in a slightly range of historical researchers. Important target of this lemma is to show the main and impacting literature and newspaper writings in USA during relevant period.

FACTORS THAT CAUSED THE DETERIORATION IN AMERICAN – TURKISH RELATIONS

Author(s): Valeri Modebadze / Language(s): English Issue: 03/2020

During the Cold War Turkey had excellent relations with the United States of America. Both countries needed each other and saw the Soviet Union as their main rival. Strategic Partnership was established between the two nations and USA provided military assistance to Turkey in order to contain the Soviet Union. With the assistance of the USA, Turkey managed to neutralize Soviet threat and integrate into NATO. Turkey became a close ally of the West. After the Cold War, American - Turkish relations have gradually cooled and deteriorated significantly over the last years. The aim of this article is to analyze those factors that have caused the deterioration of American – Turkish relations.

Фолклорeн събор, фестивал, конкурс в съвременността. Значение и място на музиката в тях

Author(s): Radka Bratanova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2019

From the beginning of the 21st century and especially in its second decade, a lot of folklore festivals, sabors, singing and music making competitions, fairs, exhibitions and feasts have been created and organized. In almost every town or village (predominantly these are towns) the events take place once a year – a fact which suggests that they are in a way substitutes of the local fairs from the past. In all these cases there is folk music – either processed or unprocessed. Its role and significance determine to a great extent the type, the format and the level of the particular event.The article reveals different phenomena, certifying for the influence of the music performed on the festival where it is performed – played by professionals or by amateurs, having a main or an accompanying role, used or not with different functions and with different cultural aims.

Elections, Representations, and Journalistic Schemas: Local News Coverage of Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib in the US Mid-term Elections

Author(s): BASHRI Maha / Language(s): English Issue: 24 (2)/2019

Communication research has systematically pointed to the disparities in news coverage of political candidates from women and minority groups. These differences may hurt the chances of these candidates at being elected. Recently more migrants are entering the political arenas in their adopted Western countries. Migrants have become the center of debates over the rights and wrongs of multiculturalism. In particular, Muslim women, in liberal democracies have been turned into an allegory for undesirable cultural difference. The November 2018 US Congressional race saw an unprecedented number of women especially minority women run for office. Ilhan Omar (representing Minnesota) and Rashida Tlaib (representing Michigan) are the first Muslim women elected to Congress. Both Omar and Tlaib won by large margins. This study examines if local news coverage of Omar and Tlaib’s candidacy was congruent to prevalent schemas in representations of Muslim women and minorities in American media.

Transitions Online_Around the Bloc-13 May

Author(s): Ioana Caloianu / Language(s): English Issue: 05/18/2020

Highlights from our coverage region: asylum seeker abuse in Croatia; opening up in Uzbekistan; Telegram abandons blockchain; stunning fossils in Bulgaria; and a friendly reminder for Georgia.

Достъпът на хора с увреждания до програмите на аудиовизуалните доставчици на медийни услуги – задължение и демократична ценност

Author(s): Diliana Kirkovska / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2018

Audiovisual media services providers play informational, educational, social, cultural roles and therefore it is of extreme importance all parts of their programmes to be easy of reach for every consumer. At high level that is to be obligatory for people with specific difficulties of usage of the media, such as the visually and hearing impaired persons/blind or deaf –TV media content should be naturally accessible via various tools and no extra charge. At high extend the legislation in Bulgaria is appropriate and well prescribed but in practice that presentation is out of time and humiliatingly small in quantity and access tools.The media providers should deliver to that specific part of the audience full access to their programmes by using different approaches – the sign-language translation, audiodescriptions and audiosubtitles, subtitles in multiplex platforms, as well as news scrolls as an alternative tool. That is a mark of the democratic society – not to exclude that part of the public but on the contrary – the visually and hearing impaired persons should get media content at ease anytime and anywhere.

THE JAPANESE DIPLOMACY IN ASIA: EVOLUTION AND CHALLENGES

Author(s): Georgios Zacharias / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2020

The diplomacy of Japan towards its Asian neighbours has always been a complex issue. Throughout the years, the foreign policy of Japan has witnessed severe alterations specifically after the Second World War. Since then, new challenges and opportunities have risen which have formed a new, adapted Japanese diplomacy, albeit not disconnected from its traditional aspects and its past. The current purpose of the paper is to highlight these evolutions and challenges of the post WWII Japanese diplomacy. The focus will be on the two main neighbours and traditional partners of Japan, the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Korea. There will be an effort to highlight the challenges that Japan experiences with the aforementioned countries, its diplomatic approaches and how these could be evolved in the near future.

REFOCUSING THE EUROPEAN UNION ATTENTION ON THE WESTERN BALKANS: THE IMPACT OF THE BERLIN PROCESS

Author(s): Elton Tota / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2020

The expectations of the Western Balkans (WB) on the EU membership perspective could have been ‘undermined’ with the halt in the EU enlargement process as declared by the former European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in 2014. In the meantime, even though the WB countries were part of the EU’s regional approach through the mechanism of Stabilization and Association Process (SAP) working on the implementation of the Acquis Communautaire, the slowing down of the integration process could have economic and political consequences and threaten the regional stability. This paper shows how the Berlin Process (2014) was the proper intergovernmental initiative taken by some EU Member States to keep alive the EU integration perspective of the WB, thus refocusing the EU attention on the challenges the WB was facing on the way towards EU integration.

US-CHINA RIVALRY FOR GLOBAL HEGEMONY

Author(s): Valeri Modebadze / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2020

This article describes the competition between China and the USA for global hegemony. Both states have hegemonic ambitions and compete with each other over the domination of Asia. The rise of China has transformed global politics, as well as the balance of the global economy. As China’s economic and military power increases steadily, its geopolitical ambitions are also constantly growing. Some experts do not exclude the possibility of conflict between China and the USA in the future. There are many potential hot spots in East Asia where conflict could erupt at any time in the future between the USA and China. Many experts doubt whether the USA and China can escape Thucydides’ Trap in the future.

Nieudane samobójstwo polityczne – ustawa o powszechnym głosowaniu korespondencyjnym w wyborach prezydenckich 2020

Author(s): Jarosław Flis,Wojciech Ciszewski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2020

The paper relates to main problems regarding the conducting of presidential election in Poland during the COVID-19 lockdown. The presidential elections in Poland were originally scheduled for May 2020, that is at the time when COVID-19 restrictions were in force.The ruling party in Poland – Law and Justice – decided to hold the elections in the form of universal postal vote. Unfortunately, due to many complications, the elections were finally postponed. In this paper the authors, firstly, describe the legal context of the election, and secondly, introduce a taxonomy of problems involved in the organization of the election.