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1. Democratic Contributions to UN Peacekeeping Operations. A Two-Step Fuzzy Set QCA of Unifil II

Author:
Tim Haesebrouck
Publication Date:
06-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Romanian Journal of Political Science
Institution:
Romanian Academic Society
Abstract:
What explains democratic participation in United Nations peacekeeping operations? Although the division of the burden of UN peacekeeping operations has attracted a considerable amount of scholarly attention, neither the impact of domestic variables, nor the interaction between the domestic and international determinants of peacekeeping contributions has been systematically analysed. This article aims to fill this gap in academic research. First, insights from research on peacekeeping burden sharing, democratic peace theory and integrated decision models are combined in a multi-causal framework. Subsequently, two-step fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis is used to assess whether this model explains diverging contributions to the 2006 enhancement of the UNIFIL operation. The results of this analysis show that contributions result from a complex interplay between domestic and international conditions. Two combinations of international level conditions allowed for large contributions. In the absence of significant military engagements, military capable states and states with a high level of prior involvement in UNPOs had an incentive to participate. Actual contributions, however, only materialized if such a conductive international context was combined with favourable domestic conditions: only states governed by a left-leaning government that was not constrained by either proximate general elections or a right-leaning parliament with extensive veto powers participated in the operation.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention, Democratization, Politics, United Nations, and Peacekeeping
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2. Lessons from a Divided Society: How to Deal with Party Factionalism

Author:
Alexandra Ionascu
Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Romanian Journal of Political Science
Institution:
Romanian Academic Society
Abstract:
Despite the fact that party dissolutions and degenerative forms of factionalism, no major splits or internal divides shaded the image of the main ethnic based party: the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (DAHR). Similarly to other post communist countries, the minority representation in Romania constitutes an electoral success story. In a general framework of fragmentation and organisational instability, the DAHR's political performance and continuity were doubled by an exceptional organisational strength. Although the ethnic based parties do tend to manifest higher levels of external cohesion as a result of their single-issue nature, their organisational continuity constitutes rather a cas a part which deserves further investigation. Consequently, the following article focuses on highlighting the mechanisms conducive to the accommodation of different factions considering that the anatomy of such internal arrangements constitutes an important resource for the understanding of party organisational survival. The analysis will show that even if DAHR seems to describe a mixture of party types, with important elements of party centralisation and party discontent among elites and delegates, the internal party regulations, notably the party primary system, balanced the power struggles within the organisation, resulting thus in a general model of auto proclaimed party democracy.

3. Governance and Corruption

Author:
Alina Mungiu-Pippidi
Publication Date:
07-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Romanian Journal of Political Science
Institution:
Romanian Academic Society
Abstract:
Romania and Bulgaria encounter today problems in joining the visa-free Schengen area. The main one in the public eye is corruption. Both countries pledged to improve their rule of law when signing their accession treaties in 2005, yet little progress is perceived by observers or captured with governance measurements relying on perception, such as CPI and World Bank Governance indicators. This paper explores real policy, with fact-based indicators, to trace progress in the area – or lack of it – since 2004 to the present.
Topic:
Corruption
Political Geography:
Bulgaria and Romania

4. Romanian Journal of Political Science

Author:
Alina Mungiu-Pippidi
Publication Date:
12-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Romanian Journal of Political Science
Institution:
Romanian Academic Society
Abstract:
The paper is an attempt to identify main challenges of the EU and of EU's eastern neighbours generated by EU's enlargement in 2007,that resulted in the shift of frontiers eastwards. The paper finds that the present EU eastern frontier is placed in an area where countries in between are subject to influences and centripetal forces coming from both east and west. The focus in this article is on Moldova and Ukraine–which represents the ‚southern flank' of the 'tectonic plate' that separates EU from Russia. The first three parts of the article discuss the parallel evolutions of Russia and EU in the last twenty years, the development of the relationship between them and the impact of EU on Moldova and Ukraine, underlying some elements of Russia's impact as well. The fourth part is dedicated to the identification and discussion of the challenges EU, Moldova and Ukraine are faced with as a result of the evolutions generated by the 2007 enlargement.
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, and Ukraine

5. Governance after the Crisis

Author:
Alina Mungiu-Pippidi
Publication Date:
06-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Romanian Journal of Political Science
Institution:
Romanian Academic Society
Abstract:
In this paper, I examine the effectiveness of improvements in political and civil rights for attracting foreign direct investment flows (FDI) into democracies. I contend that advances in the quality of democracy – specifically those concerning civil rights – present positive but decreasing marginal returns in attracting FDI inflows. I empirically prove this proposition by using panel data regressions within the Latin American and Eastern European contexts from periods following their democratization (1991-2003).
Political Geography:
Europe

6. Political or Economic Crisis?

Author:
Raúl de Arriba Bueno
Publication Date:
07-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Romanian Journal of Political Science
Institution:
Romanian Academic Society
Abstract:
This study analyzes why the presence of economic policy on rural development is justifiable and the recommendable modes of intervention from the perspective of rural area needs and diversification opportunities of the rural economy in the European context. This reflection on the role of economic policy in rural change and the structure of the paper are organized around the following questions: what is the importance and specificity of the rural sphere? What does rural development mean? What arguments justify the intervention of the State in the rural sphere? Which objectives and what forms must this intervention adopt?
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
Europe

7. Twenty Years After: from Fall to Fall?

Author:
Alfio Cerami
Publication Date:
12-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Romanian Journal of Political Science
Institution:
Romanian Academic Society
Abstract:
This article provides a brief description of the main systemic problems (strukturprobleme) of post-communist capitalism(s), as well as exploring the main changes occurring in the socio-economic structure and the subsequent new social risks emerging. It shows that post-communist societies are characterized by more intense strukturprobleme, which are resulting in the materialization of broader social risks types and groups. As a consequence of a difficult and still uncompleted process of recalibration (functional, distributive, normative and institutional), the welfare states in Central and Eastern Europe and in the Russian Federation are called to face a double burden of responsibilities: they must ensure protection against old and new social risks for a larger proportion of citizens than those in the West, while, simultaneously, dealing with the most serious social, economic and political challenges stemming from the transition.
Political Geography:
Russia and Europe

8. Full Issue

Author:
Alexander Stoyanov
Publication Date:
01-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Romanian Journal of Political Science
Institution:
Romanian Academic Society
Abstract:
Corruption, particularly in the high echelons of power, is one of the most serious problems faced by Bulgaria on the eve of its accession to the European Union. The problem has remained on the monitoring agenda for Bulgaria and extensively commented by the EC in its monitoring and evaluation reports in the last 2-3 years. In a period of three years subsequent to EU membership the government and the European Commission will report on the progress in countering administrative and political corruption in the country.
Political Geography:
Europe and Bulgaria

9. Foreword

Publication Date:
01-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Romanian Journal of Political Science
Institution:
Romanian Academic Society
Abstract:
Since the collapse of communism and communist states from 1989-1992, the twenty-eight states that currently comprise postcommunist Europe and Eurasia have evolved to different political directions. Some regimes in this region have completed a transition to democracy; others have been arrested at some point on the path to democracy and became a sort of 'defective democracies'; and still others have yet to break with the communist past. This issue focuses on this middle-ground category: countries where elections are regularly held, but the behavior of political actors, notably the government, but not only, is not always democratic. Albania, Moldova, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, the Caucasus countries present a great variation among themselves, but have also something in common: they do not fit well the classic patterns of either democracy or authoritarianism. The regional trend, particularly noticeable over the past decade, showed hybrid regimes resisting to political change - either in the direction of becoming authentic democracies or reverting back to dictatorship. The purpose of this issue is to explore the lessons for democratization that can be drawn from the postcommunist experience over the past seventeen years. First, what explains defective democracies? Second, what can and cannot be transferred from successful Central Europe to the rest of countries? Finally, is there still a future for democracy promotion in postcommunist Europe?
Topic:
Government
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, Eurasia, Ukraine, Moldova, Albania, Central Europe, and Belarus

10. Administrative and Political Corruption in Bulgaria: Status and Dynamics (1998-2006)

Author:
Alexander Stoyanov
Publication Date:
01-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Romanian Journal of Political Science
Institution:
Romanian Academic Society
Abstract:
Corruption, particularly in the high echelons of power, is one of the most serious problems faced by Bulgaria on the eve of its accession to the European Union. The problem has remained on the monitoring agenda for Bulgaria and extensively commented by the EC in its monitoring and evaluation reports in the last 2-3 years. In a period of three years subsequent to EU membership the government and the European Commission will report on the progress in countering administrative and political corruption in the country.
Topic:
Corruption
Political Geography:
Europe and Bulgaria