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A Perspective of the Parliamentary Elections Results
The author analyses the dynamics of the Polish party system in the light of the outcomes of the parliamentary elections in the Third Republic of Poland (since 1989). He exposes especially the last element of that evolution – the 2015 parliamentary election. It resulted in the victory of Law and Justice (PiS) party. For the first time in the history of democratic Poland, the victor was able to create a government without having to negotiate with coalition partners. The success of PiS seems to be a result of the combination of several factors. It would be mistaken to portray an emerging situation as a simple rightist win. PiS to some extent represents a social attitude, typical for the socialist (social-democratic) parties, with some part of the program including a populist message, but with the combination of a conservative approach to several issues and nationalistic stand on a perception of patriotic mood. The important meaning has a support of PiS by the Catholic Church, especially at the grass-roots level. The victory of PiS and forming of the majority government have an important meaning for the functioning of the political parties’ system in Poland. For the first time since 1989, there were not balancing of power situation which the coalition governments have brought about. The political parties, creating the opposition in parliament, must offer a new strategy of behaviour in such circumstances, especially dealing with challenging the PiS policy to compromise a democratic system based on the 1997 Constitution, e.g. division of power, position of the Constitutional Tribunal and functioning of the judiciary.
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Preparing himself for a more ambitious work dealing with the definition(s), features, merits and limits of global governance, the author lists and presents in this study some of the events and trends which shape the contemporary international arena. All these are regarded as being inputs (or challenges) global governance has to properly cope with. The list of the events and trends the author explores (using mainly concepts and other intellectual tools of the Realist School in International Relations), paying a special attention to strategically significant issues of all sorts, is: 1. the evolutions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the more general context of GWOT; 2. the problems generated by failed – and failing – states; 3. political and military evolutions in Iran; 4. the quick consolidation of strategic military capabilities (and above all of the blue water navy) of China; and 5. continuity and change in the foreign policy of dominant world powers (the case of USA)
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Mass media and their tools have become a permanent part of everyday life. The news services have the most visible impact also on the political market. Mass media views, depending on the context in which the issues related to migration are described, will shape the positive or negative image of the migrant, influence the image of the migrant ethnic group, and determine their position in the new society. The aim of the article is to give examples of media reports showing the phenomenon of migration in European Union countries, presented through the main information services using the Internet in Poland. The methodology of media content analysis was applied. The thorough analysis covered the period of six months. The research process revealed the variety of contexts presenting the phenomenon of migration at the main Polish news services: Onet.pl, Wp.pland Interia.pl. Analysis also showed that huge migratory flows caused by military conflict generate serious threats to the stability of the European Union.
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How did North African states depict their nomadic minorities to the US during the War on Terror in the 2000s? How did this shape American policy in the region?Focusing on Malian-American diplomacy and drawing on post-structuralist analytics of identity-formation, this paper first examines how Malian diplomacy represented nomadic minorities in communication with US diplomatic and military envoys during the period 2002–2010. It is found that Mali consistently branded Saharan nomads as lawless subjects that make territory ungovernable, compromise security, and facilitate terrorism. Second, this paper deploys intertextual analysis to measure the success of these strategic communications efforts. It is found that, despite the advice of some American diplomats on the ground, by the end of 2008 Mali’s depiction of Saharan nomadism had been absorbed into US diplomacy. This subsumed Northern Malian subjects into the categories of the War on Terror, which privileged military control of subjects and territory over development and reconciliation efforts. This policy shift granted Mali influence over US policy and diplomatic support to ignore nomadic grievances. Analysis reveals the key role of identity-making and name-calling in Mali-US relations and in diplomatic communication more broadly, showcasing the potential of textual analysis methods to evaluate strategic communications outcomes.
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Like in many other Central and Eastern European countries, in 2016, Romanian populist parties were voted by the ‘silent’ citizens, by those feeling deprived and not represented properly. Shortly before that, in 2015, the tragic Colectiv nightclub fire had given birth to a new party: Save Romania Union (USR) that promotes a populist discourse on the ‘corrupt elite’ versus the ‘pure people’. At the beginning, however, the new party did not disseminate messages specific to the nationalist or radical right-wing populists. Another party, endorsed by a news television channel Romania TV, almost succeeded at overpassing the electoral threshold in the 2016 parliamentary election: United Romania Party (PRU) used xenophobic and anti-EU messages during the 2016 general election campaign. My hypothesis is that the extremist electoral messages, the expressions of hatred towards foreigners and Western businessmen or the EU institutions were spread through social networks. Using a content analysis, I shall verify the extent to which the official Facebook pages of the Social Democratic Party (PSD, the direct successor of the Romanian Communist Party), the United Romania Party (PRU) and the Save Romania Union (USR) reflected the antagonism of the ‘pure’ people versus the ‘corrupt’ elite and I shall reveal who these parties identified as the so-called ‘people’s enemies’.
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Outline the possibilities offered by the application of the European Label of Governance Excellence at the municipal level for measurements of local democracy and good governance and whether it leads to the unification of practices or reporting specifics.
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As a consequence of the currency board introduced in 1997 Bulgaria became an island of fiscal stability among the South European countries. However this is an insufficient basis for further successful development of the country as a member of the European family. A decisive change in the socio-political model is needed if obstacles such as corrupt judicial system, organized crime, legal predictability, etc. are to be overcome. The problem is that the institutions set up as they are have no capability to make this change effectively given the impossibility for non- partisan vision. Therefore it is after the currency board that another “political board” should be introduced. By no means is it an interference of the European governing bodies in the governance of sovereign Bulgaria. The positive and realistic form of a “political board” is a “Strategic board” creating those complementary scenarios for the long- term European future of Bulgaria that the country itself is unable to produce alone and without which Bulgaria cannot make a decisive progress. The creation of such a joint Bulgarian-European board is proposed here in the shape of a Strategic club “Euxinograde” named after the 120 year old Black Sea governmental residence which symbolizes the Balkans and the wider Black Sea region location of Bulgaria. A European non-partisan long-term strategic framework for Bulgaria can break the vicious circle in which the country is suffocating. The principles on which the Club would be based as well as its design and structure are investigated.
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Undoubtedly, in the period 2001-2008 positive trends are observed in terms of the employment and the overall development of the labor market in Bulgaria. In order to make an objective assessment of the status and trends of employment, it is necessary to trace the impact on the labor market of the overall economic development, demographic trends and of course, policies implemented in relation to the employment. For this purpose it is more appropriate to use the main indicators introduced in the EES and in Bulgarian strategic and operational documents regarding the changes in the employment.
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The article analyses the alternative approaches and related indicators, that can be used for social policy evaluation. The thesis is that values and ideas for needed development of community are concealed behind the choice of method and indicators for evaluation. Therefore the evaluation purpose can be easily changed and instead of being used for policy process improvement it could serve the political completion. In this case the policy evaluation loses its rational character. If there is a politics of evaluation, we need a policy of evaluation.
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This study is an analysis on representative empirical data from two field surveys in Bulgaria (2006 and 2009) within the methodological framework of the European Social Survey (ESS) programme in comparison with other EU countries. Data and analysis show clear the reasons of Bulgarians to feel themselves “at the bottom” in a lot of criteria in respect of their self-estimations of well-being and quality of life, of satisfaction of life and the work of main national institutions. One of the basic reasons is the fact that for its people Bulgaria is “a low-trusted society” – in social and political meaning. There are a lot of conclusions on empirical data confirming the analysis.
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The administration of the national assembly and the principle of the division of the authorities.
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This article deals with the movement known as “Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the Occident,” or Pegida, focusing primarily on the nativist dimension which often takes centre stage in its ideological discourse. Pegida describes itself as a defender of Western Civilization and of its Christian legacy from what it sees as the perils of Islamisation on the one hand, and of globalist political elites on the other. In the context of the political changes and rise of alternative visions of civil society, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe, Pegida should arguably be seen as a representative of a growing European nativist wave. Lastly, the article looks at the “Prague Declaration,” a document which was signed in 2016 by Pegida and a number of allied movements from outside of Germany.
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This article traces and analyses the narrative of the “veil debate” in France and Turkey as constructed by two Greek newspapers: the liberal Kathimerini and the leftist Avgi. It aims, firstly, to bring out the interconnection between the political ideological orientation of each of these newspapers and the narrative that they adopt, and secondly, to shed light on how the peculiarities of the socio-political context intersect with the narrator’s interests and preferences in the process of building the framework for public discussion in Greece. It concludes that the Greek narration of the “veil debate” in France and Turkey runs along normative lines (irrespective of the newspaper’s ideological affiliation), challenges the validity of Westphalian values, reflects the interdependence between socio-political contexts, and takes into consideration the supranational discourse of Greek foreign policy.
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The influence of religion on the freedom of conscience cannot be defined in simple terms. Religion is often conceived as limiting the freedom of conscience. However, from the perspective of the philosophy of religion it is necessary to underline the significance of the adoption of democracy as a principle of government. The limitation of the freedom of conscience by religion could be explained, on an anthropological level, by the identity function realized by religion. Nevertheless, religion can exist without being accepted by all. Beyond the evidence of a possible coexistence of religion and political pluralism, religion inherently implies the recognition of the freedom of conscience. The respect for the freedom of conscience results from the human condition itself. Religion makes it possible to transcend one’s cultural identity. In return, the freedom of conscience is based on a faith in the equal value of the conscience of every human being. The latter is recognized not only as the means but also as one of the purposes of political power. Religion and the freedom of conscience seem to derive from common foundations. The legal recognition of the freedom of conscience has a concomitant impact on religion by the regulation of its exercise.
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If we want to understand how politics really works and/or open up new ways for the criticismof regimes replacing democratic ideas by institutionalism, it is worth to take a lookat the logic of populism. This is the leading statement of Ernesto Laclau, prominent figureof post-marxist political philosophy. The Argentine political theorist’s most importantbook is the Hegemony and Social Strategy (1985) co-authored with Chantal Mouffe. Intheir work they focus on political indentities and discursive strategies of social movements,developing sharp divergences from the dogmatic Marxian class theory. Laclau’slatest book, On Populist Reason, has similar ideological bases. In his approarch populismis neither a social movement nor an ideology. In his book he tries to liberate populismfrom preconceptions and redefine it in a discursive way. Laclau pays special attention tothe populist discourses, in the aspect of how they are created by a democratic demandand to ’the plebs’, wich defines themself as ’populus’ fighting with the hegemonic power.His book published in 2005 has been translated to Hungarian last year. This delay let usdeeply consider how can his theoretical framework help us to interprete the ideology ofthe radical movements rising after the global economic crisis.
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