Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
The border between Russia and Ukraine became a political reality in 1991 with the breakup of the Soviet Union and the creation of two independent states. Since then, Ukraine's Eastern border has turned itself into a perfect laboratory for studying processes of border construction.
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Turkey's transformation evidenced best by its more active and assertive foreign policy and economic growth for the last decade has deservedly attracted a great deal of attention. More and more students of Turkish politics have tried to explain underlying domestic, regional, and international dynamics of these monumental changes. As Turkish landscapes alter, a powerful current of scholarship with a revisionist approach to nationalist historiography and the Alevi, Kurdish demands as well as Armenian genocide claims have also surfaced.
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Through an analysis of the Danish asylum issue network on the Internet, this article discusses the possibilities of the online sphere as a deliberative space, where politics is happening. By assessing the hyperlink structure of the issue network and a subsequent content analysis of the claims presented by the various actors on the issue the study finds that even though the network contains the overall structures for a functioning deliberative space, the actual deliberation occurring between the actors is very limited. The issue network approach in this case study is seen to be a good way to identify relevant political issues online, but it does not manage to bring together the various antagonistic actors in one deliberative space online. In a triangulation of the results from the two separate analyses, the study further finds evidence, which suggests that the relationship between hyperlinks and deliberative activity is not as definitive as it is often assumed in network analysis.
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Economic freedom leads to and maintains democracy – this hypothesis popularly known as Hayek-Lipset-Friedman hypothesis has been examined empirically in this study for South Asian region. Using data on economic freedom and political freedom (democracy) for a panel of five South Asian countries over the period 1995-2008, the Granger-causality test confirms that democratic society must be economically free, it does not happen other way round. Applying static panel data estimation technique this study also finds significant positive relationship between democracy and economic freedom and the degree of responsiveness of economic freedom on democracy is found less proportionate in South Asian countries. It is also found that economic prosperity fosters democracy in this region, whereas government spending does not have significant impact on the level of democracy in South Asian countries.
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Dominant anti-trafficking discourse adopts a single voice in presenting the victim of trafficking as a young, innocent and naïve woman who is deceived and coerced into the sex industry. She suffers physically at the hands of individual men: traffickers, procurers and clients. This is informed by a neo-abolitionist perspective. This article aims to serve as a critique of this discourse by presenting the polarization between two camps in trafficking literature: neo-abolitionists, who see human trafficking as a grave human rights violation that amounts to slavery and equates sex work with trafficking, and pro-rights that perceive it as something within unauthorized international migration, initiated by the women themselves who want to ameliorate their lives. Through a critical literature review, I echo the position of pro-rights group and note that trafficking must be understood and addressed within the larger framework of exploitation of undocumented workers that are vulnerable to exploitation, not from an isolated and distinct location that aims to identify and paternalistically protect “passive victims”.
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Although humanitarian intervention has been a recurrent issue in moral and political philosophy for some years, much disagreement over its moral justifiability persists among scholars. The common denominator of previous views is their reliance on the assumption that solving the moral problem of humanitarian intervention comes down to making a choice between preserving sovereignty or protecting human rights. The present thesis follows a different strategy: it proceeds from an understanding of the moral puzzle humanitarian intervention presents us with by exploring the philosophical underpinnings of sovereignty and human rights. I argue that humanitarian intervention is morally justified when human rights violations are purposive, systematic, extensive, and preventing or ending them represents an emergency, because it aims to restore a genuine form of sovereignty, consistent with its moral rationale (the sovereignty-centered argument). Additional requirements deriving from this purpose further constrain the justifiability of humanitarian intervention.
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Successful negotiators, remarked author Jim Hennig, have formed the habit of doing those things that unsuccessful negotiators dislike and will not do. Armed with Alexander Mühlen's new political negotiation manual, the student of international negotiation will at the very least know what is expected of a master of conciliation and, more likely, emerge from their reading with a deep understanding of negotiation tools, tactics and strategy. Heavy with specific and relevant examples from the international political and business spheres and including four detailed practical role play activities aimed at student and professional readers, Mühlen's book could well serve as a core text for tertiary students in both Bachelor and Master's degree programs.
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
The legislature remains an important institution of democracy worldwide. It is the home of the elected representatives of the people and often largely responsible for law making, budgeting as well as overseeing the powers of the executive. In Africa, as elsewhere in the Third World, parliaments have had a checkered history. The executive arm of the government, more often than not, has monopolized political space, normally through excessive ruling party discipline, thereby undermining the powers of legislatures. Yet some countries in the region have experienced a history of military coups with the consequence of halting democratic practices and the functions of legislatures. Nigeria is one country in which military coups became the order of the day. With the restoration of democratic governance in Nigeria, the newly instituted legislature is a clear symbol that distinguishes democratic governance from the authoritarian past. Perspective on the Legislature in the Government of Nigeria is a much needed study to understand how this institution functions in a nascent democratic nation like Nigeria.
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Resurgence and reappraisal of democracies and democratic ideals in the 21st century has surely received its due share of academic attention. However, growing discontent with the existing forms and practices of representative democracy has facilitated the emergence and revival of ideas of deliberative and direct democracy. As a critical examination of the existing practices of 'democratic innovations', Graham Smith's book is a systematic and coherent collection of previously disengaged thoughts, practices and criticisms that were under-analyzed in the literature. Moreover, as a unique amalgam of democratic theory and new practices, it is the first comprehensive study of the different forms of democratic innovations.
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Diversity of opinions, claims and actions are an undeniable fact of any society. There were many books devoted to the discussion of the ways in which diversity should be treated. Kantian and Neo-Kantian philosophers appealed to universality of reason and higher-order values, Rawls appealed to equality and justice. The authors of the book claim that both arguments are not enough to provide a background for the interpersonal framework, they see a solution of the problem in liberal-pluralism which essentially combines Kantian and Rawlsian arguments. They argue that the key to the problem is reasonability which should be based on principles of equality, justice, rights, fairness, cooperation, reciprocity, and tolerance.