"Care Drain". Explaining Bias in Theorizing Women's Migration

Author(s): Speranta Dumitru / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2016

Migrant women are often stereotyped. Some scholars associate the feminization of migration with domestic work and criticize the “care drain” as a new form of imperialism that the First World imposes on the Third World. However, migrant women employed as domestic workers in Northern America and Europe represent only 2% of migrant women worldwide and cannot be seen as characterizing the “feminization of migration”. Why are migrant domestic workers overestimated? This paper explores two possible sources of bias. The first is sampling: conclusions about “care drain” are often generalized from small samples of domestic workers. The second stems from the affect heuristic: imagining children left behind by migrant mothers provokes strong feelings of injustice which trump other considerations. The paper argues that neither source of bias is unavoidable and finds evidence of gender stereotypes in the “care drain” construal.

10 points versus 11 points? Effects of Left-right Scale Design in a Cross-national Perspective

Author(s): Cornelia Zuell,Evi Scholz / Language(s): English / Issue: 25/2016

Left-right self-placement on a unidimensional scale is a standard question in many social and political surveys to measure respondents’ ideological orientation in a minimalist way. Although the left-right scale is a standard question, the scale design is not standardized across surveys. One aspect of scale design is the offer of a midpoint. This paper is about design effects on central left-right scale placement in a cross-national context. How do respondents answer if there is no true midpoint: Do respondents who want to express a middle position, in the case of a 10-point scale, use scale middle categories as a substitute for a true midpoint? Are findings consistent across countries? Offering a midpoint is much debated among researchers and quite often, a midpoint might serve as a hidden “don’t know” or a missing attitude. Does nonresponse increase when non-attitudes cannot be expressed by choosing the neutral midpoint to hide nonresponse? If middle categories in the 10-point scale work as substitute for a true midpoint in the 11-point scale, nonresponse will not differ. We tested these questions in a split-half experiment where either a 10-point or an 11-point scale was asked in an experimental web survey fielded in six countries. Our results seem to confirm the idea that respondents who favor choosing a scale middle find a virtual center in the 10-point scale. However, results are inconsistent in cross-national perspective.

1917-2017: Уроки столетия для России и мира

Author(s): Konstantin Lobanov / Language(s): Russian / Issue: 12/2016

В сознании россиян 1917 год связывается, прежде всего, со столетием Февральской революции и последующими за ней октябрьскими событиями. И не случайно. Ведь тысяча девятьсот семнадцатый справедливо считается переломным моментом новейшей истории, после которого Россия и мир уже не могли быть прежними и начали развиваться по новой социальной траектории. Многие государства под влиянием идей русского революционизма и практики постреволюционной модернизации развернулись от дикого капитализма к социальной ориентированной экономике, отказались от авторитаризма и формальной демократии в пользу открытой и диверсифицированной системы власти и управления, перестали подавлять личность и предоставили людям больше прав для самореализации. Все это стало возможным благодаря глубокому осмыслению русского опыта, его творческой переработке в сферахэкономического моделирования, государственного строительства и социальных взаимоотношений. А что же россияне? Как у них обстоит дело с рефлексией? Иначе говоря, усвоили ли они собственный опыт, извлекли ли уроки из своего прошлого?

1989: Szempontok a rendszerváltás globális politikai gazdaságtanához

Author(s): Márk Áron Éber,Ágnes Gagyi,Tamás Gerocs,Csaba Jelinek,András Pinkasz / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 21/2014

This article rethinks 1989 – the year commonly treated as a milestone of regime change. As contrary to this narrow view, and with the aim of laying out the conceptual foundations of possible future research projects, we give a short overview of the way Hungary became incorporated into the capitalist world system and of the key global, economic, and geopolitical factors that influenced its dependent development. For this we present a historically sensitive, global political economic narrative within which we pay special attention to the way public debt had been accumulated and how this, in turn, shaped Hungary’s position within the world system. After our analysis of the regime change we continue with an overview of the main structural dynamics of the last two decades. Finally, through two short case studies, we show how our perspective can throw new light on the political ideologies and economic policies of the era. The accumulation of state debt was not a Hungarian specificity: instead, we argue that it was rather a result of the global restructuring process and of its concomitant effect of decreasing national state-sovereignty. In the following manner, we also argue that the emergence of debates (which were central in evaluating the regime change, revolving around issues like „democracy” vs. „dictatorship” or „planning” vs. „market”) can be better understood within our global, historical, and political economic analytical framework. In the long run we identify two economic development strategies – namely, the strategy of liberalization and the strategy of protectionism – both structured around the, nonetheless entirely unfulfilled, hope of overcoming Hungary’s semi-peripheral position by „catching up” to its Western neighbors. These strategies then can be analyzed on the base of how they relate to global cycles of accumulation; how their shifts were influenced by changes in the world system; and, in turn, how these strategies organized both various elite projects shaped by global cyclical dynamics and the interpretations about our historically unfolding dependent position.

2016 metų Seimo rinkimų iššūkis partinei sistemai ir politologams: kaip numatyti žemės drebėjimą?

Author(s): Mažvydas Jastramskis / Language(s): Lithuanian / Issue: 2 (86)/2017

This article strives to begin an academic discussion about the impact of the 2016 parliamentary elections on the Lithuanian party system. It was previously argued by political scientists that stabilization could be observed around the 2012 parliamentary elections. On the basis of renewed measures of electoral volatility (total volatility, party replacement and external volatility), the following is argued: the observed party system stabilization was more an exception than a trend. In 2016, the party system returned to the usual track: despite the deceptively small success of new parties, an increase in total and especially external volatility (signifying a weak institutionalization of the party system) was observed. If compared to the Western countries, such levels of electoral volatility point to an inchoate party system at best: 2016 was not that special, since earthquakes in Lithuanian elections are very common. Moreover, an updated map of party competition (based on the voters’ evaluations of the parties) space raises another challenge for previous research. It was previously accepted that traditional parties in Lithuania are quite successful in the integration of newcomers: hence, the party system sustains its patterns of competition from election to election, despite the high levels of volatility. However, the 2016 elections bring back the second dimension of competition, which now divides not only the newcomers and the surviving parties, but also the older populist parties vs. the election winner, the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union. Resting on these preliminary findings, the need to further investigate electoral behavior in Lithuania is obvious. The second part of the article discusses what questions are (again) raised for the electoral research after the 2016 elections. It is not an exhaustive list, but there is a clear need to advance knowledge in these aspects: the logic of electoral volatility at the voter’s level, the (changing?) role of the electoral system, the impact of the electoral campaign, the divide between voters and politicians. In the context of these unknowns, the current possibilities of both the party system stabilization and electoral forecasting (political scientists in Lithuania are sometimes criticized for their inability to do this successfully) are viewed critically. There is a parallel between seismologists and Lithuanian political scientists, as both an earthquake and earthquake elections are hard to predict. There is a three-body problem in Lithuanian elections: unstable interactions between the supply, demand and the electoral system lead to unpredictable election results. But precisely because of this there is a need for continuing research.

A “Stepchild” of Minority Rights Arrangements

An Important Piece of Contribution on Non-Territorial Autonomies

Author(s): Norbert Tóth / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2017

Tove H. Malloy – Alexander Osipov – Balázs Vizi (eds.): Managing Diversity Through Non-Territorial Autonomy. Assessing Advantages, Deficiencies, and Risks. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2015.

A balatoni társadalom kohéziójának kérdései

Author(s): Gergely Kabai / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 04/2014

A Century of Failure: Political Science and the Issue of Governance in the Arab World

Author(s): HAMDY R. HASSAN / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2015

What has the Arab world benefited from a century worth of political study? Has it been able to utilize such studies in issues of political succession and democratization? To answer such questions, this paper explores three sets of contexts. First, since the outbreak of WWI, there has been no significant original scientific work in the Arab World. Second, the experts in the field of political science in the Arab World have failed to offer a sufficient degree of formulation or analysis that can aid in solving contemporary issues. This way, stable authoritarianism, has remained the ruling paradigm until the outbreak of Arab Spring. Third, there is a time gap between the East and the West; where the East is always a step behind Western conceptual and theoretical advancements. In addition, many Arab researchers find themselves tied to a Western agenda for research. Even with the limited effort to formulate an Arab-Islamic perspective of political science, such effort is usually directed at the study of early Islamic experiences, with little direct impact on current politics.

A Conceptual History of Political Regimes: Democracy, Dictatorship, and Authoritarianism

Author(s): Adam Przeworski / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2017

The labels we attach today to distinguish political regimes have histories. Applying them without understanding these histories is sometimes anachronistic and ethnocentric. I have little new to say about “democracy” and “dictatorship”, so that the discussion of these concepts is just a reminder. “Authoritarianism”, however, is a dubious neologism. I advance two claims: (1) In all regimes the power to command and be obeyed entails some dose of reason-giving, (2) What distinguishes regimes is the form and the extent to which the authority of rulers is monopolised by physical force. I conclude that the concept of “authoritarianism” adds little to the distinction between democracy and dictatorship.

A CYBERNETICS APPROACH TO THE SOVEREIGN DEBT CRISIS

Author(s): Alexandra Maria Constantin / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2015

The purpose of this paper is to approach the sovereign debt crisis from a cyberneticsperspective, as a system that includes several interrelated subsystems. We emphasize thedynamic nature and sustainability of the sovereign debt system. The paper also discusses thetransition from a sovereign debt dynamic system to a sovereign debt crisis dynamic system,transition included in the feedback control loop of the dynamic system of national economy.

A Distant Mirror: Poland between the Visegrad Group and the Eastern Alliance

Author(s): Artur Roland Kozlowski,Andrzej Piskozub / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2016

The article offers an overview of the position of the Visegrad Group in the history of Central-Eastern Europe. The Group emerged in the 14th Century as a coalition of three medieval kingdoms: Poland, Bohemia and Hungary. Towards the end of the century, Poland favoured an alliance with Lithuania, motivated by the conflict of both states with the Teutonic Order. The shift involved a personal union under the Jagiellonian dynasty, which in the course of time evolved into an actual union (the Union of Lublin, 1569) creating the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów). Nationalist ideology, which emerged after the partitions of the Commonwealth towards the end of the 18th Century, resulted in the disintegration of entire Central-Eastern Europe into nation states formed on the basis of ethnic differences. The present study have aimed to verify the potential of the cultural contribution of the Visegrad Group and the Eastern Alliance for the development of European integration processes. The influence of these groups of countries in the external environment in the development of European civilization has been presented in terms of historiosophical. Today, the former medieval partners are members of the European Union, where they revive the Visegrad Group in order to pursue their narrow interests, thus affecting the progress of European integration. Unlike the Visegrad Group there is Easter Alliance perceived as a bloc of countries with a potential for introducing progressive ideas for a constructive development of the European Union.

A Jobbik mérséklődése az egyéni képviselő-jelöltek vizsgálatának tükrében

Author(s): Dániel Kovarek,Attila Farkas / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 1/2017

Jobbik (The Movement for a Better Hungary) is generally the subject of scholarly attention due to the anti-gypsy sentiment typical of the party, its tone of speech ignoring political correctness, and its far-right connections. Nonetheless, in the past three years the tone of Jobbik’s campaign messages has become substantially more moderate, party offi cials distanced themselves from racist and anti-Semitic statements, eventually declaring that the aim of Jobbik is to reposition itself as a ‘real people’s party’. Given the freshness of this transformation process, only a handful of scholarly works investigated the topic until now, and even if doing so, the literature almost exclusively focused on the analysis of Jobbik’s parliamentary elite, and its management. This article seeks to analyze and understand the process by comparing Jobbik’s candidates fi elded in single-member districts in 2010 and 2014. Conclusions are drawn from quantifi ed content analysis of short candidate introductions (résumés and pledges), accompanied by the analysis of databases with variables on political career, electoral experience and former partisan affiliation.

A kiengesztelődés a második afrikai szinóduson

Author(s): Poucouta Paulin / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 04/2012

Ainsi donc, pour le second synode africain, l’avènement de la réconciliation est un des principaux défis pour le continent aujourd’hui. Il s’agit d’un défi colossal qui demande la collaboration de toutes les institutions et de toutes les personnes de bonne volonté : la société civile, les religions, toutes les instances panafricaines, les institutions internationales, les Eglises soeurs d’Occident, les institutions universitaires. Tous ces milieux doivent être animés d’une véritable spiritualité de réconciliation : “Car c’était Dieu qui dans le Christ se réconciliait le monde, ne tenant plus compte des fautes des hommes, et mettant en nous la parole de réconciliation. Nous sommes donc en ambassade pour le Christ” (2 Cor 5,19-20). La réconciliation englobe une manière de vivre (spiritualité) et une mission. Pour mettre en oeuvre la spiritualité de la réconciliation, de la justice et de la paix, l’Église a besoin de témoins profondément enracinés dans le Christ, nourris de sa Parole et des sacrements. Ainsi, tendus vers la sainteté, grâce à une conversion permanente et à une vie de prière intense, ils s’investiront dans l’oeuvre de réconciliation, de justice et de paix dans le monde, au besoin jusqu’au martyre, suivant l’exemple du Christ. Par leur courage dans la vérité, leur abnégation et leur joie, ils donneront un témoignage prophétique d’une conduite de vie en cohérence avec leur foi. Marie, Mère de l’Église-Famille de Dieu, qui a su accueillir la Parole de Dieu, être à l’écoute des besoins des hommes et se faire médiatrice, dans sa compassion, sera leur modèle”. Cette Parole rejette toutes les idoles de la race, de la tribu, du parti politique, de la religion, de la race, de la culture. La réconciliation est un témoignage qui doit s’inventer dans le triple rapport à la tradition africaine, à la tradition biblique et au vécu actuel. N’est-ce pas à ce témoignage que le synode invite nos institutions universitaires comme l’UPAC et l’UCAC ? Alors, peut-être pourrons faire notre cet appel des Pères synodaux.

A konszenzusok felszámolása – Jobboldali populizmus és a „gender-ideológia” fenyegetése

Author(s): Eszter Kováts / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 22/2017

Since 2012, several European countries have seen the rise of conservative and, in part, fundamentalist social movements fuelled by the animosity against the perceived threat of „gender ideology” or „gender theory”. Being opposed to women’s rights, LGBTQ issues, certain administrative policy instruments (such as gender mainstreaming) as well as the public financing of gender studies departments, the advocates of these platforms tend to regard all political and non-governmental actors, administrative staff and scientific researchers who focus on these issues as a single homogeneous group and an organised lobby. This is partly manifested in grassroots or religiously-affiliated movements and partly in the agenda of right-wing and populist parties. More and more researchers are convinced by the transnational character of the movements as well as the broad impact of discourses and practices reaching across national borders and issues that we are not dealing with isolated cases, but a coherent phenomenon. Contrary to the three most frequent interpretative frameworks, i. e. the national/local political context, the discourse/mobilisation of the Roman Catholic Church, and the conservative backlash, I discuss these movements in the context of the rise of right-wing populism and on the basis of theoretical explanations seeking to grasp the demand side. On the one hand, I argue that the study of this phenomenon provides important clues for understanding the reasons behind the gain of populist forces in Europe and beyond. On the other hand, I propose that „gender” is not the final target for these movements which should primarily not be understood as mobilizations against equality. Rather, the emergence of these movements is a symptom of a larger crisis, and their ideologies are the surface, where „gender” is a symbolic glue. These mobilizations are rather the throes of a contest for redefining liberal democracy where, in the interpretation of its adversaries, „gender ideology” embodies numerous deficits of the established global power order and the so-called progressive actors, and they react to these by re-politicizing certain issues. Therefore, the interpretations limited to a ‘fight between values’ are rather an obstacle to understand the phenomenon, by repudiating or obscuring this important structural realignment. Based on Chantal Mouffe’s concept of ‘consensus’ and her critique of the established hegemony of consensus in liberal democracy, I discuss the contribution of three phenomena that are characteristic of the so-called progressive actors (including the feminis and LGBTQ actors), namely the neoliberal consensus, the human rights consensus and the consensus about liberal progress, to the rise of the movements against ‘gender ideology’.

A külhoni magyarok nyelvi diszkriminációja az Unióban

Az EU közszolgálati törvényszékének ítélete a román bővítéssel összefüggésben szervezett versenyvizottságról

Author(s): Petra Lea Láncos / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 1/2016

The present article gives a critical account of the European General Court's judgment in the B.A. vs. Commission case. B.A., a Hungarian and Romanian dual citizen sought the annulment of the decision of European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) which denied her the right to sit for the competition in her native language, Hungarian and refused to admit her to the oral test after she failed the test in Romanian. B.A. claimed that she had been afforded unequal treatment, since the fact that she was precluded from writing the test in Hungarian “placed her, on an objective view, at a disadvantage compared with her fellow citizens who had received their school and university education in Romanian.” The case and the arguments put forward by the parties provide a clear insight into the ambiguities surrounding the EU language regime as well as the difficulties faced by minorities whose mother tongue is both an official language of the EU and a minority language with no official recognition in the Member State in which it is spoken.

A politika, mint politikai probléma. Kis János és Schlett István a politika autonómiájáról

Author(s): Attila Gyulai / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 4/2016

Political realism claims that politics can be understood only on its own terms. Realist political theory attempts to have the autonomy of politics recognized and to emancipate politics from the authority of other domains such as ethics, economy or aesthetics. After the democratic transition, Hungarian political theory has claimed autonomy of politics as opposed to technocratic and other deterministic approaches. The study discusses two texts of Hungarian political theory which, differing from the mainstream, conceived the problem of the autonomy of politics in the context of the relationship between politics and morality. János Kis’ ‘Politics as a Moral Problem’ and István Schlett’s answer to that book, ‘Morality as a Political Problem’ represent the two main standpoints in the realist – moralist debate described by contemporary realist theory, however, neither of them fi ts into those positions perfectly. The differences analysed in this article emerge regarding the autonomy of politics. As a conclusion, it is supposed that the concept of the autonomy of politics cannot account for a realist approach to politics.

A Soros Alapítvány képzőművészeti támogatásai Magyarországon: A nyolcvanas évek második felének tendenciái

Author(s): Kristóf Nagy / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 21/2014

The following paper examines the influence of the Soros Foundation over the internal and external relations of the Hungarian art field form 1984 to 1989. More specifically, it investigates the forms and directions of fine art subsidization and their political and ideological contexts. The activities performed by the Soros Foundation in the second half of the 1980s can be seen as part of a regime change within the artistic scene. In their struggle for cultural hegemony various actors related to the Foundation were able to strengthen their counter-hegemonic artistic practices. Opposing the late socialist artistic hegemony of the Kádár regime, this also was the period when „contemporary” art appeared in Hungary for the first time. As a result, Hungarian art had been put into context with the Western art world: new dependencies were formed, within which Hungarian and Eastern European art found itself in a peripheral position. An important consequence of this was that Eastern European artists became forced to continually demonstrate their Europeanness both internally and externally.

A STUDY ON DEFENSE ACQUISITION MODELS WITH AN EMERGING MARKET PERSPECTIVE. THE CASE OF TURKEY

Author(s): Mustafa Kemal Topcu,Murat Mala,Selim Müslüm / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2015

With the end of the Cold War, the static environment, characteristic of thebipolar world, has changed quickly into a dynamic and complicated environmentwith new actors. These changes have also affected the countries’ armed forces andnew approaches to procurement/acquisition come into progress. After the Cold War,countries have focused on responding to changing threats with their decreasing defensebudgets. In this study, acquisition models and their effects on Turkey’s technologyacquisition and defense industry are evaluated. The evaluation is performed basedon criteria such as contribution to national economy, customization, acquisition cost,time and risk, life cycle cost, and technology acquisition. Major acquisition modelsin this study are determined as direct procurement, production under license, jointventure, indigenous development, production via international consortium. Finally,it is observed that the best model is indigenous development while the others willserve as technology acquisition for indigenous development.

A terapeutaszerep mint retorikai stratégia Bibó István politikai gondolkodásában

Author(s): Gábor Kovács / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 12/2016

Acharya, Amitav. 2014. The End of American World Order. Cambridge: Polity Press, 157 pp.

Author(s): Marija Popovic / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2015