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4071. Twenty years of Slovakia

Author:
Maros Sefcovic
Publication Date:
08-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Issues: Slovak Foreign Policy Affairs
Institution:
Slovak Foreign Policy Association
Abstract:
The Czechoslovak "divorce" on January 1, 1993 brought high hopes and great expectations, as well as worries. Both the political elite and citizens were in search of answers to many questions concerning Slovakia's future and its role in the globalized world. The author argues that Slovakia has achieved much in a short period of time and has taken its place both in the world and in Europe. Slovakia has chosen the right EU path. As the author concludes, despite the fact that Slovakia still has its own issues to tackle, being part of the EU makes this task easier.
Political Geography:
Europe

4072. Mongolian Values and Attitudes toward Democracy

Author:
Mina Sumaadii
Publication Date:
11-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
For most of modern history Mongolia has been isolated from the world due to the geopolitical struggles between Russia and China. As the Communist system collapsed and liberal democracy was established, many outsiders wondered why the country succeeded in democratization where other neighboring ex-Soviet states had failed. The odds were mainly against the country, due to high levels of poverty and geographical distance from established mature democracies. Nevertheless, in Mongolia the common answer is that the political culture was compatible with the principles of liberal democracy. This work is an empirical study of macro and micro developments based on modernization theory. It explores the values and attitudes of the general population in an effort to examine what makes it pro-democratic. The main finding is that the general claim of modernization theory is applicable to Mongolia, but in relation to political culture as a mediator between economic development and democratization.
Topic:
Government
Political Geography:
Russia, China, and Mongolia

4073. National Heroes vs. EU Benefits: Croatia and the EU Conditionality

Author:
Ana Jese Perkovic
Publication Date:
11-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
With the powerful attraction of membership and conditionality, the EU has been encouraging democratic processes in the Western Balkans, however not always as successfully as in Central-Eastern Europe. This article looks at how the condition of full cooperation with the ICTY influenced political discourses and public opinion in Croatia by challenging national identity which was partially built on the patriotic war and national heroes from the 1990s. The question is why domestic political elites still complied with the ICTY condition although it clashed with national identity. The main argument is that even if the so-called 'ICTY condition' is unpopular with the public because it challenges national identity, domestic political elites still complied with it because the benefits of the European integration process are greater than its costs
Political Geography:
Europe

4074. Intermingled Cycles of Hegemony-Building: Europeanization and Minority Policies in Greece During the Simitis Period

Author:
Umut Koldas
Publication Date:
11-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Drawing on the changes and continuities in Greek official discourse and state policies towards the Turkish speaking Muslim minority in the 1990s, this article discusses the impact of Europeanization process on the state-minority relations in Greece from the neo-Gramscian perspective. Referring to an upper cycle of hegemony-in-building process between the -EU and Greece in the late 1990s, the article addresses the discursive and/or practical changes and continuities in the minority policy framework during the 1990s as well as prospects of the Greek state\'s relations with the Turkish/Muslim minority. Within this context, it examines the likelihood of a hegemonic relationship between the Greek state and the Turkish/Muslim minority, based on the consent of the latter under the framework of a broader hegemonic structure of the European Union.
Political Geography:
Europe

4075. Is Leviathan Back? Circassian Ethnic Mobilization After the 2012 Presidential Elections in Russia

Author:
Marat Grebennikov
Publication Date:
11-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
This article explores the hypothesis that on-going instability in the North Caucasus can no longer be explained by its violent history of colonization. Instead, instability is carefully negotiated by ethnic elites, who do not see the North Caucasus as an indispensable part of the Russian Federation and who can only make a public show of action on the eve of crucial political campaigns: the 2012 presidential elections and the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Focusing on the question of ethnicity and its relation to federal politics in the North Caucasus, the main argument of the article is while Circassian ethnicity and ethnic politics in general, have been partly the outcome of the authoritarian rule of the Russian Imperial and Soviet legacies, the way ethnicity has been and is being politicized by the ethnic, federal, and international actors, have created serious grounds for the rise and the consolidation of Circassian nationalism in the North Caucasus.
Political Geography:
Europe

4076. Olivera Simic, Regulation of Sexual Conduct in UN Peacekeeping Operations (Berlin: Springer, 2012)

Author:
Rajeesh Kumar
Publication Date:
11-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Reports of sexual abuse and exploitation by UN peacekeepers were a black mark in the history of United Nations Peacekeeping. The metamorphosis of peacekeepers to perpetrators has been part of almost all the discussions on peacekeeping in the last two decades. In the 1990s the discussions centred on the absence of rules and procedures for preventing sexual exploitation by the peacekeepers. The discussions have forced the United Nations to make some regulatory measures to prevent such actions and to form laws to penalize peacekeepers who violate these codes of conduct. The culmination of all these developments was the formation of Secretary General's Bulletin (SGB) commonly known as Zero Tolerance Policy (ZTP) in the year 2003. In the meantime, the discourse over the sexual exploitation has taken a new shape by debating pros and cons of the new rule.
Topic:
United Nations
Political Geography:
Europe

4077. Damien Cahill, Lindy Edwards, and Frank Stilwell (eds.), Neoliberalism: Beyond the Free Market(Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Author:
Emmanuel Kipole
Publication Date:
11-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Apparently capitalism and neo-liberalism have elevated the market to a position of omnipotence as a spontaneously occurring best resources' distributor. However, neo-liberalism as a philosophy that informs capitalism has always sparked divergent opinions as to its core spirit and practice. Neo-liberalism has always been netted into different perspectives. Although the consensual bottom-line of neo-liberalism philosophy is the free market, there is no consensus on its interpretation, contextualization and practices. As a whole, there is optimism in neo-liberalism the same as there is skepticism.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, America, and Europe

4078. Rudy B. Andeweg, Lieven De Winter and Patrick Dumont (eds.) Puzzles of Government Formation: Coalition Theory and Deviant Cases(New York: Routledge, 2011)

Author:
Martin Mölder
Publication Date:
11-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Analyzing coalition governments in Western parliamentary democracies has followed more or less the same design throughout the years. The objective has been to “predict” or “explain” the formation of governments in general. Although the explanatory power of models has improved, even the most comprehensive are able to predict government formation in less than half of the cases. 1 This can mean either that the process of coalition formation is to a significant extent idiosyncratic or that current models have not been fully specified.
Topic:
Government
Political Geography:
Norway and Austria

4079. J.G.A. Pocock, Political Thought and History: Essays on Theory and Method (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 2009)

Author:
Mark Castelino
Publication Date:
11-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
J.G.A. (John) Pocock is a renowned historian of political ideas and is most associated with the so-called “Cambridge School” of political thought whose founding members in the 1960's also include Quentin Skinner and John Dunn. This volume is a collection of essays arranged more-or-less in chronological order of publication that are “concerned with relations between history and political theory” (ix) and encompasses the full length of Pocock's half-century-long writing career. As such, it is very instructive for getting a grasp of a major author in a significant current of contemporary political thought.
Political Geography:
Europe

4080. Nermin Abadan-Unat, Turks in Europe (London: Berghahn 2011)

Author:
Patrick Hein
Publication Date:
11-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
In his 2010 best-selling book Germany Is Doing Away with Itself former German Central Bank executive member Thilo Sarrazin denounced the structural integration unwillingness of the Turkish community in Germany. The book sparked a fierce controversy especially among young, liberal, German-speaking Turks who feltCEU Political Science Journal. Vol. 8, No. 2 267 deeply offended by Sarrazin's allegations. The German unease with Islam and Turkey has cast a shadow over bilateral relations between the two states. With the rise of radical Islam and ongoing human rights violations in Turkey, tensions have been on the increase.
Topic:
Government
Political Geography:
Europe, Turkey, and Germany