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1
Pastorella, Giulia. "Technocratic Governments in Europe: Getting the Critique Right." Political Studies 64, no. 4 (July 5, 2015): 948–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9248.12217.
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In Europe, technocratic governments have become a popular topic of debate. Commentators have condemned them as a ‘suspension of democracy’ or even as ‘the end of democracy as we know it’. However, no academic analysis has assessed whether technocratic governments are indeed undemocratic. This article is intended to fill this gap by assessing technocratic governments’ democratic credentials. It compares them to party governments along the main dimensions of party democracy, including representation, deliberation, constitutionality and legitimacy. It concludes that technocratic governments in Europe are not undemocratic per se, but are still a worrying phenomenon insofar as they reveal shortcomings that remain hidden in normal party governments: a loosening of delegation and accountability ties between voters, parties and cabinets; increasing external pressures on domestic political actors; and the weakening of partisan ideology-based politics. The article will add further elements to reinforce the already vast literature on the crisis of – especially party – democracy in Europe.
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Hanley, Seán. "Legitimacy and the Paradox of Technocratic Government in Newer European Democracies: The Fischer Administration in the Czech Republic Revisited." East European Politics and Societies: and Cultures 32, no. 1 (October 15, 2017): 78–100. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0888325417734281.
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The creation of technocratic caretaker governments in several European countries in the wake of the Great Recession (2008–2009) and the Eurozone crisis led to renewed academic interest in such administrations. Although such governments are often assumed to be illegitimate and democratically dysfunctional, there has been little empirical consideration of if and how they legitimate themselves to mass publics. This question is particularly acute given that, empirically, caretaker technocrat-led administrations have been clustered in newer, more crisis-prone democracies in Southern and Eastern Europe where high levels of state exploitation by parties suggest a weak basis for any government claiming technocratic impartiality. This article uses Michael Saward’s “representative claims” framework to re-examine the case of one of Europe’s longer-lasting and most popular technocratic administrations, the 2009–2010 Fischer government in the Czech Republic. The article maps representative claims made for Fischer and his government, as well as counterclaims. Claims drew on the electoral mandate of sponsoring parties, the government’s claimed technocratic neutrality, and on Fischer’s “mirroring” of the values and lifestyle of ordinary Czechs (echoing some populist framings of politics). The article argues that the Fischer government benefited from multiple overlapping representative claims, but notes the need for robust methodology to assess the reception claims by their intended constituency. It concludes by considering the implications of actors’ ability to combine populist and technocratic claims, noting similarities in technocratic governments and some types of anti-establishment party.
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Glied, Viktor. "The Populist phenomena and the reasons for their success in Hungary." Politics in Central Europe 16, s1 (February 1, 2020): 23–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/pce-2020-0002.
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AbstractAfter the parliamentary elections in 2014, the weakened legitimacy of the Hungarian government could be re-established through activism in migration issues. Fidesz-KDNP that won elections twice already highlighted migration as the main theme of governance from 2014 to 2018, suppressing every other topic on the political agenda. The position that was established for purposes of the Hungarian domestic situation and politics initially faced intense rejections all over Europe, but then garnered some supporters as well, mostly in post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe, and to a smaller extent among the right-wing and populist parties of Western Europe. The anti-refugee and populist approach caused significant success in the communication field to the subscribing parties and governments, and also legitimised Hungarian government’s efforts that could mean it met the majority of the Hungarian society’s expectations. The most essential question is that how can political science reshape its terms and thoughts on populism to understand this phenomenon better, moreover what are the reasons of populism and why is the populist propaganda such successful in Hungary and Eastern Europe.
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Vasilyan, Syuzanna. "The External Legitimacy of the EU in the South Caucasus." European Foreign Affairs Review 16, Issue 3 (August 1, 2011): 341–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.54648/eerr2011024.
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This article delves into the external legitimacy of the European Union (EU) in the South Caucasus by analysing the perceptions of the EU's image and role as held by the Armenian, Azeri, and Georgian governments, the public, and political parties. It tests the academic claims regarding the EU's 'difference' by scrutinizing key official documents, drawing on surveys, and relying on in-depth semi-structured interviews. Consequently, it reveals the variations among the three South Caucasian states in terms of their current and potential future visions of the EU. By showing that the Union is seen as comparable to others, like the United States and Russia or intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Council of Europe (CoE), and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), this article ponders on the potential future perception of the Union provided the needs, interests, demands, and aspirations of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Most importantly, it probes into the proportionality of the EU's policy in the South Caucasus, ponders on its ramifications as a result of the boost in its external relations foreseen by the Lisbon Treaty, and offers policy advice for the Union to meet the expectations of its 'neighbours'.
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Garamvölgyi, Bence, and Tamás Dóczi. "Sport as a tool for public diplomacy in Hungary." Physical Culture and Sport. Studies and Research 90, no. 1 (April 30, 2021): 39–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/pcssr-2021-0012.
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Abstract Sport is often utilized as a tool by governments and nation-states in building a favorable international image, seeking external political legitimacy, and strengthening nation-building endeavors across borders. Given its universal appeal, sport is often perceived as a valuable soft power asset for conveying positive messages to foreign publics. Against this backdrop, the present study aims to introduce the sports diplomacy approach of Hungary, specifically focusing on the state-led utilization of sport in public diplomacy under the recent government of Viktor Orbán (2010–2020). With the institutionalization of sport in public diplomacy, Hungary has become a pioneering country in Central and Eastern Europe that can provide an example for other nation-states in the region. The Hungarian government’s sports diplomacy ambitions have not been curbed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the country continues to invest large amounts of public funding in attracting and organizing international sporting competitions. Hosting the Summer Olympic Games in Budapest remains the ultimate goal of the current government’s sports diplomacy strategy, which focuses on elite sport.
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Brayson, Kimberley. "Securing the Future of the European Court of Human Rights in the Face of uk Opposition." International Human Rights Law Review 6, no. 1 (May 24, 2017): 53–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/22131035-00601001.
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This article highlights transnational consequences for access to justice of political posturing by national governments in respect of the European Convention on Human Rights (echr). It charts the uk context preceding the adoption of Protocol 15, which inserts the concepts of subsidiarity and the margin of appreciation into the echr preamble. The article argues that whilst this was an attempt to curb the European Court of Human Rights’ (ECtHR) powers, this proved limited in effect, as the court is too well established as a Supreme Court for Europe in the cosmopolitan legal order of the echr. The political-legal interplay which is the genesis of the echr system means that political manoeuvring from national governments is inevitable, but not fatal to its existence. However, the legitimacy of the ECtHR is secured only through political concessions, which act to expel surplus subjects from echr protection. The article concludes that the legitimacy of the ECtHR is therefore secured at the cost of individuals whose rights are worth less than the future of the court.
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Lewis, Paul G. "The Repositioning of Opposition in East‐Central Europe." Government and Opposition 32, no. 4 (October 1997): 614–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1477-7053.1997.tb00449.x.
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THE EVENTS OF 1989 IN EASTERN EUROPE HAVE BEEN INTERPRETED in diverse and often contradictory ways: from the end of history to its rebirth, as both negotiated revolutions and popular uprisings. In many countries a fundamental repositioning of opposition and dissident forces was observed — changing from groups of anti-system activists quite outside the political establishment into major statesmen and national leaders involving, in some cases, rapid transformation into the occupants of major or even prime ministerial roles. Similarly, the former monopolistic ruling parties often found themselves quickly relegated to the margins of political life as oppositions of dubious legitimacy and minuscule political influence. Yet these roles were also subject to rapid reversal and further repositioning in a number of countries. The major difference now was that former governments became formally constituted oppositions rather than political pariahs or enemies of the people. That was a measure of the significance of the change that had been effected.
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Bejtja, Saida, and Dritan Bejtja. "Comparative Study in Central and Eastern Europe Regarding Restitution/Compensation Process." European Journal of Economics and Business Studies 1, no. 1 (April 30, 2015): 31. http://dx.doi.org/10.26417/ejes.v1i1.p31-45.
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The aim of this paper is to analyze the transformations that occurred in the area of private property ownership following the change of political regime in former socialist or communist countries. The six countries looked at are: Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Serbia. These countries illustrate well the whole range of contentious problems in a region where the Communist regimes have varied tremendously in their approach to private property, intensity of social control, repression and overall legitimacy. This diversity of situations poses today different types of dilemmas for the property restitution process, dilemmas which are approached by each country in a different manner. The main question for the countries is how an emerging democracy can "respond to public demands for redress of the legitimate grievances of some without creating new injustices for others. " Moreover, property rights and transparency represent the very bases of a functioning market economy: each of the countries faces the difficult task of finding a balance between remedying violations of property rights and guaranteeing a functioning land market, which enables or will enable full freedom of movement of capital in the EU. There are a number of fundamental difficulties and dilemmas regarding nationalization and restitution/compensation policies in the post-Communist governments in Albania, Bulgaria, Romania and the Western Balkans had to face.
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VAN GERVEN, WALTER. "The European Union institutions in the draft Constitution for Europe." European Review 12, no. 4 (October 2004): 465–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1062798704000419.
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This paper deals with the Institutions of the European Union in the draft Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (hereinafter: ‘the draft Constitution’) submitted to the European Council meeting in Thessaloniki on 20 June 2003. It describes these institutions and their task from a perspective of the Union's democratic legitimacy. The paper is based on a book entitled The European Union: a Polity of States and Peoples, which will be published by Stanford University Press and Hart Publishing, Oxford. In this book, I examine the democratic legitimacy of the European Union as a whole. The book parts from the proposition that the Union is a ‘body politic’ which develops into a federal system, however not a State, with a parliamentary consensual (non-majoritarian) form of government. In the meantime, the draft Treaty has been amended by the Inter-Governmental Conference (IGC) held in Brussels on 17/18 June 2004. In so far as the amendments relate to the subject of this paper, they are mentioned below in the text or the endnotes.
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Lidström, Anders. "Public Authorities and Intermunicipal Cooperation in a European Context." Urban Affairs Review 53, no. 2 (August 3, 2016): 403–9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1078087416630613.
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Although not entirely clear with regard to definitions and delimitations, the article by Savitch and Adhikari opens up for a comparative research agenda of considerable importance for better understanding the preconditions for how the metropolis can be governed. Their suggestion that public authorities are important for solving collective problems in the metropolitan areas is also relevant in a European context. There is already a tradition in Europe to establish cooperative arrangements between metropolitan local governments for tasks that requires a larger territorial scale, but Savitch and Adhikari direct our attention to private law arrangements, i.e. inter-municipal corporations. Also in Europe, these have become increasingly common, which may be understood in the light of the increasing marketization of local government. Although lacking in democratic legitimacy, they provide more flexibility and may also include private businesses in their governing body. However, knowledge about their occurrence and functions is limited, which calls for further, systematic and comparative research. In particular, it should be investigated whether they, as in the US, are more common in the metropolitan areas with the strongest resources.
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Horler, Vanessa. "Steven Blockmans and Sophia Russack (eds.): Representative Democracy in the EU: Recovering Legitimacy." Mezinárodní vztahy 56, no. 1 (March 1, 2021): 131–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.32422/mv-cjir.1757.
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Representative democracy is beset by a crisis of legitimacy across the world, but in Europe this crisis is compounded by the inadequacy of national governments to address citizens’ frustrations and to achieve transnational unity on common issues. How representative are national parliaments in their decision-making on EU matters? This volume investigates the relationship between the democratic institutions of the member states and those of the EU. With a focus on polity rather than policy, it looks at voting and decision-shaping mechanisms in selected member states, in particular the ‘Europeanisation’ of representative democracy at national level. It also assesses the state of parliamentary democracy at the EU level. Expert analysts share their insights into the changing nature of our political eco-systems and the (dis)connections within and between them.
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Sajó, András, and Juha Tuovinen. "The Rule of Law and Legitimacy in Emerging Illiberal Democracies." osteuropa recht 64, no. 4 (2018): 506–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.5771/0030-6444-2018-4-506.
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The current legal changes in Eastern and Central Europe leading to illiberal regimes are raising fundamental questions about the nature of the legitimacy of these regimes. While constitutional democracies rely on legitimacy originating from the observance of the rule of law, the rule of law is challenged in countries like Hungary, Poland and progeny. This article analyses, in particular, the lack of clear standards in illiberal regimes, especially where the cultural traits that underlie and animate the rule of law, in particular fairness, are not part of the “folklore”. It then thoroughly outlines the transformation of the judiciary in an illiberal state, followed by an analysis of the demise of the rule of law beyond the attack on the judiciary, and the use of legality in an illiberal state. The article concludes that governments, while relying on certain aspects of the rule of law in protecting their own position and their own assets, nevertheless do not see value in following the rules of reason and fairness for the reasons that the rule of law is valued. They rather see it as a smoke screen for their activities that may justify them to some, and hide them from others.
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Pernice, Ingolf. "European v. National Constitutions." European Constitutional Law Review 1, no. 1 (October 12, 2004): 99–103. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1574019605000994.
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In federal systems public authority is established by the people and exercised for the people at two levels. The treaties establishing the European Union may be conceptualised as the constitution of a supranational public authority, part of a federal system. And what the European Convention has submitted to the European Council to agree upon is an attempt to give this constitution a more coherent, more complete and more appealing form. The new ‘Constitution for Europe’ will be concluded, formally, by an international treaty. But governments and national parliaments will do this on behalf of the citizens of the Union, and insofar as national Constitutions provide for a referendum, the citizens will directly be involved. This Constitution will, therefore, like national constitutions, draw its legitimacy from the people, citizens of the polity, through their constitutional representatives. Legitimacy obtained is similar to that sought for a regular treaty but specific due to the contents and the explicit constitutional claim of the instrument.
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Sunier, Thijl. "The Production and Transmission of Islamic Knowledge in Europe." Context: Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 8, no. 2 (March 10, 2022): 7–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.55425/23036966.2021.8.2.7.
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This article deals with the training of imams to work for Muslim communities in Europe with a migrant background. Imams are considered the prime actors in conveying Islamic knowledge and the training of these figureheads is a crucial issue with many implications. Imam training is a particular aspect of a broader multifaceted process that includes the production, transmission, reception, and interpretation of Islamic knowledge. Imam training is thus part of the much broader issue of the positioning of Islam and Muslims in Europe, particularly given European governments’ intention to take a more active role. It should be analyzed within this broader political and historical context. The “politics of imam training”, as I call the ongoing debates, negotiations, and initiatives involving the various stakeholders, entail more than just educational logistics. At heart, these are issues of authority and legitimacy and ultimately the questions of who is entitled to produce, transmit, and, of course, teach Islamic knowledge, and who is accepted by Muslim communities. This aspect has not been widely addressed by researchers.
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Regan, Aidan. "Rethinking social pacts in Europe: Prime ministerial power in Ireland and Italy." European Journal of Industrial Relations 23, no. 2 (September 12, 2016): 117–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959680116669032.
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In Ireland and Southern European countries, social pacts were widely seen as a mechanism to mobilize broad support for weak governments to legitimate difficult reforms in the context of monetary integration. I retrace the politics of these pacts in Ireland and Italy to argue that it was less the condition of ‘weak government’ that enabled the negotiation of tripartite pacts, than the intervention of a ‘strong executive’: the prime minister’s office. Social pacts were pursued as a political strategy to enhance prime ministerial executive autonomy. In the aftermath of the euro crisis, this means of enhancing executive autonomy has been replaced by the negotiation of grand coalition governments, with the exclusion of unions; but this continues the trend towards the prime ministerialization of politics.
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Babül, Elif M. "Training Bureaucrats, Practicing for Europe: Negotiating Bureaucratic Authority and Governmental Legitimacy in Turkey." PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review 35, no. 1 (May 2012): 30–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1555-2934.2012.01178.x.
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CONWAY, MARTIN, and PETER ROMIJN. "Introduction." Contemporary European History 13, no. 4 (November 2004): 377–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0960777304001857.
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The concept of political legitimacy has hitherto tended to occupy a rather modest place in the historiography of twentieth-century Europe. In contrast to the attention paid by historians of pre-modern and non-European societies to issues of political culture and, more especially, to the ways in which the exercise of power by all rulers, be they sacred or secular, putative or actual, has to be located in a complex matrix of conventional beliefs, rituals and practices, historians of contemporary Europe have tended to regard issues of political legitimacy as of secondary importance compared with other more tangible factors. Political power in Europe during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has been perceived by historians as being the product of an amalgam of ideological projects, forms of state (internal and external) aggrandisement and nationalist struggles for emancipation. Modernity – so it seems to be assumed – transformed the exercise of power, creating both new needs and justifications for active government and massively increased resources to bring these to reality, as well as flattening much of the pre-existing undergrowth of ancien régime convention and pre-industrial tradition. Government became incommensurably stronger, but also simultaneously starker. In the new world that emerged between the mid-nineteenth and the mid-twentieth centuries, the powerful forces of ideological or national messianism and the democratic (or assumed) mandate of the people lifted state power to new heights. Consequently, governmental authority flowed remorselessly downwards through the new structures of civilian and military bureaucracy and legal authority, reducing social organisations, local communities and above all the individual citizen to the role of disciplined, though not necessarily powerless, subjects. Legitimacy, in so far as it surfaces in such accounts, is regarded as having been largely constructed by rulers themselves and subsequently conveyed by the modern institutions of social control – notably mass education, conscription and state propaganda – to the population. Thus, French peasants were made into Frenchmen, Russian workers into agents of Bolshevik power and German bureaucrats into functionaries of the Nazi state.
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Алла Анатоліївна Гринчак. "Parliamentary responsibility of the government in the european countries." Problems of Legality, no. 149 (June 9, 2020): 24–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.21564/2414-990x.149.201832.
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The article reveals the features of parliamentary responsibility of the governments of Western Europe. When the government or some of its members is to be failing to carry out their duties, parliament can initiate procedures which have the potential to replace all or part of the government. There are two different types of procedure. One is the withdrawal of confidence in the government or in individual ministers. The requirement for a certain minimum number of votes to be obtained before such motions can be initiated or passed highlights the relative strengths of the different political groups within parliament. Where the government has a parliamentary majority, it can usually count on that majority to block the motions. The majority of the parliaments in Europe allow votes of no confidence in the government. Where the legitimacy of the government rests on parliamentary confidence, the withdrawal or denial of confidence by parliament can force the government out of power. For a vote of no confidence to be passed an absolute majority of all members of the chamber (or chambers, if votes are taken in joint session) is required. Where the collective responsibility of the Cabinet is stressed, a votum of no confidence againstindividual members is prohibited. Several parliaments admit both collective and individual responsibility and allow both types of no confidence motions. The difference between votum of no confidence in the government as a whole and votum against individual ministers were researched.It is concluded that institute of government’ parliamentary responsibility of is the an integral feature of a democratic state with parliamentarianism, ensuring the optimal functioning of the highest bodies of state legislative and executive power.
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Wade, Marianne L. "True EU citizenship as a precursor to genuine criminal justice in Europe: an analysis of EU citizenship as it relates to a sustainable area of freedom, security and justice." Criminal Law Forum 31, no. 3 (July 24, 2020): 291–344. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10609-020-09396-9.
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Abstract This paper traces developments - both legal and political in nature - relating to EU citizenship and compares the status quo to what individuals might expect from citizenship particularly within the context of criminal proceedings. Drawing upon debates in political science, it highlights the divergence between EU citizenship and what would normally be associated with any idea of citizenship. Exploring the parameters of European criminal justice and its revolutionary direction of travel, this essay highlights how strongly exposed EU citizens are to enhanced coercive state power within criminal proceedings because of this status. Consequently it advances an argument that reasonable expectations of citizenship are set up to be disappointed in the current context. This is particularly true as the CJEU scales back the protections associated with EU citizenship in the face of political pressure. It argues that the loss of legitimacy the EU may suffer as a result affects not only its relationship to citizens. As the European institutions take action against democratically elected governments viewed as in breach of fundamental EU values, its potential as a policy-laundering governance level in the criminal justice arena is identified as an enormous legitimacy problem. Analysing developments relevant to citizenship from a criminal justice perspective, this paper demonstrates that reform is urgently required. Leaving EU citizenship in its current form - shaped by Executive powers - is argued to expose the EU to legitimacy arguments it cannot win, as well as individual citizens to injustice in criminal proceedings.
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Vetter, A. "Local Political Competence in Europe: A Resource of Legitimacy for Higher Levels of Government?" International Journal of Public Opinion Research 14, no. 1 (March 1, 2002): 3–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/14.1.3.
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Ongaro, Edoardo, Ting Gong, and Yijia Jing. "Toward Multi-Level Governance in China? Coping with complex public affairs across jurisdictions and organizations." Public Policy and Administration 34, no. 2 (September 27, 2018): 105–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0952076718799397.
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This special issue argues for the applicability of the conceptual framework of Multi-Level Governance to the political–administrative regime of China, provided significant adaptations and qualifications are developed. The application of Multi-Level Governance to China enables to account for global influences as well as for the involvement of non-governmental actors in public policy making. More radically, we suggest in this introductory article that the development of Multi-Level Governance may be interpreted as a way of enhancing the societal legitimacy of the political regime under the conditions of new authoritarianism. We conclude this article by drawing a fascinating yet possibly hazardous and overstretched parallel; that is, the development of Multi-Level Governance may be part and parcel of a process of building political legitimacy in China, just as it may be a way of exploring paths for the renewal of beleaguered traditional liberal democracy in Europe. Albeit along profoundly different trajectories, China and Europe might adopt Multi-Level Governance arrangements for a very purposive course of action: enhancing the legitimacy of the respective and very diverse political systems and buttressing their very foundations. This suggests a strongly normative and purposive application of Multi-Level Governance.
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Dobos, Balázs. "The Elections to Nonterritorial Autonomies of Central and South Eastern Europe." Nationalities Papers 48, no. 2 (October 31, 2019): 289–306. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/nps.2019.1.
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AbstractIn managing ethno-cultural diversity, several countries in Central and Eastern Europe refer to the notion of nonterritorial/cultural autonomy in their legislation and policies, and in some of them, namely Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Serbia, and Slovenia, registered minority voters are granted the right to create their own representational, consultative, or decision-making bodies by direct or indirect elections. While a growing body of literature has examined the functioning of these elected minority councils/self-governments at various levels, numerous features of their elections have not been addressed. Elections, commonly understood as formal group decision-making processes, may fulfill various functions both in theory and practice, and these are highly context-dependent. In this regard, little is known about the role played by minority elections in intra-community relations, and whether and how these elections can contribute to increasing legitimacy and accountability and strengthening the political weight and influence of the respective minority groups. This article seeks to address these issues. Written from a theoretical perspective, but based on electoral statistics and country experiences, it comparatively explores the main issues related to the special minority elections in the five countries of analysis and assesses whether they can be considered successful forms of diversity management.
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Veebel, Viljar, and Raul Markus. "Europe´s Refugee Crisis in 2015 and Security Threats from the Baltic Perspective." Journal of Politics and Law 8, no. 4 (November 29, 2015): 254. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/jpl.v8n4p254.
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Recent developments in Europe starting with the Russia-Ukraine conflict and ending with the economic and political instability in Greece have given rise to instability in the European Union. Yet, none of the previous crises could be compared with the crisis concerning the current massive influx of refugees into the EU that challenges both solidarity and responsibility of the member states. In this context, it is extremely important to understand the actual security threats related to the refugee crisis, particularly for the Baltic countries that have linked their security with European Union and the NATO. Particularly in Estonia and in Latvia, the refugee crisis has been presented as a high security matter as possible rejection of the EU-migrant could lead to the country’s isolation from the international community, the loss of the NATO security network and its exposure to the security threats from Russia. Alternative decision to accept the refugee quotas could on the other hand create challenges for internal security in terms of legitimacy of national governments and public support to refugee policy. In the light of recent terrorist attacks in France these questions seem even growingly important.
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Sunier, Thijl. "Religieus gezag op drift." Religie & Samenleving 10, no. 2 (September 1, 2015): 156–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.54195/rs.12246.
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Islamic authority and leadership are probably the most sensitive issues in contemporary debates about Islam in Europe. In the 1990s the religious landscape was still firmly anchored in immigrant networks and structures. These networks still play an important role, but the process of diversification among Muslims significantly undermined their legitimacy. Although governments seem to persist in the idea of a homogeneous national Islam that speaks with one voice, the current situation shows the reverse. There are numerous indications that the authoritative and institutional frameworks of Islam in European countries, which are mainly developed under migratory conditions are under pressure. There are initiatives to set up theological institutions and organizational structures that transcend ethnic divisions. Also the rapidly increasing numbers of ‘new’ independent preachers, who are especially popular among young Muslims, are an indication of the changes that currently take place.
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Plottka, Julian. "Die Konferenz zur Zukunft Europas zwischen „Konvent 2.0“ und „Intergouvernementalismus 3.0“: Warum Europa diese Chance zur Reform nutzen muss." integration 43, no. 3 (2020): 231–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.5771/0720-5120-2020-3-231.
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Three months after the initially scheduled start of the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) its design remains unclear. While the European Parliament proposed a rather ambitious concept of a “European Convention 2.0”, the European Council seeks additional legitimacy for its Strategic Agenda, excluding the possibility of treaty reforms. However, not all national governments seem to be convinced that such an “Intergovernmentalism 3.0” legitimised by participative democracy is a good idea. In between these two positions, the European Commission seeks to water down Ursula von der Leyen’s bid to the European Parliament. Comparing the opportunities and risks entailed in these three concepts of the CoFoE, the article argues for an open process, which neither pushes for nor excludes treaty reform. If citizens and civil society support such a constitutional momentum, it is about time to address the numerous reform needs and to end the further procrastination of treaty reforms.
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Patterson, James M. "The Anti-Nationalist Patriotism of Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen." Religions 13, no. 9 (September 4, 2022): 822. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel13090822.
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Scholars today regard Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen as a supporting player in the American efforts to drum up support for the Cold War; however, this view limits Sheen’s influence to the years he spent on television hosting his program, Life Is Worth Living (1952–1957). Yet, by the time Sheen left his program, he had been part of public discussions of religion and American politics for almost thirty years. Before his 1930 debut as an authoritative Catholic voice in America, Sheen had become a decorated Catholic scholar, both in his home country and in Europe, earning him a papal audience and broad support in the American Catholic hierarchy. His early contributions to public discussion were sophisticated adaptations of Leonine Catholic social teaching to American circumstances. Critical to his teachings was his view of the American people as the source for political legitimacy. In this respect, he defied the more reactionary clergy of Europe; however, Sheen’s views were vital to his efforts to distinguish why America had a just war against the totalitarian governments of the Axis powers but also a duty to spare people who were as likely to be victims of the regime as they were supporters. Sheen carried this distinction into the Cold War, in which he called for Americans to support the Russian people by opposing totalitarian government there. Therefore, Sheen never advocated the “us vs. them” nationalism so common among Cold War propaganda, which is consistent with his initial opposition to the Vietnam War and his only partial reconsideration of that opposition later.
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Hodge, Carl Cavanagh. "Botching the Balkans: Germany's Recognition of Slovenia and Croatia." Ethics & International Affairs 12 (March 1998): 1–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-7093.1998.tb00035.x.
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On December 23, 1991, the Federal Republic of Germany announced its intention to proceed with unilateral diplomatic recognition of the secessionist Yugoslav states of Croatia and Slovenia, unquestionably one of the most precipitous acts in post-Cold War Europe. With it the Bonn government in effect renounced the legitimacy of the existing Yugoslav state and pressured other European governments to do the same. Within weeks the Yugoslav federation came apart at every seam, while its civil affairs degenerated into an anarchy of armed violence as convoluted in many respects as the Thirty Years' War.In Germany's defense, it should be conceded at the outset that an alternative approach to recognition would not necessarily have produced a fundamentally more peaceful transformation of Yugoslavia. In light of the deepening political and economic cleavages with which the multinational state had been wrestling since the 1970s, the reasonable question is not whether the serial wars of the Yugoslav succession could have been avoided altogether, but whether Germany's action offered Yugoslavia and its populace the best chance for a more peaceful course of change given the circumstances. Did Bonn apply the best of its diplomatic and political brains to the issues of sovereignty, self-determination, and human rights? Were its actions morally responsible with regard to Balkan, German, and European history?
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Dabic, Dragana. "The crisis of democracy in Eastern Europe: (un)successful political integration of new members?" Medjunarodni problemi 71, no. 2 (2019): 188–214. http://dx.doi.org/10.2298/medjp1902188d.
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The main hypothesis of this paper is that when it comes to its member states, the European Union does not possess effective legal and political mechanisms to sanction and/or reverse their democratic backsliding. Emphasis is put on the examples of violations of liberal-democratic norms undertaken by governments in Hungary, Poland and Romania, in order to analyse political will, ability, and legitimacy of the European Union to defend basic values stated in the Founding Act. The aim of the author is to examine the impact of questionable political integration of Eastern European countries in regards to the continuation of the enlargement of the Union in the region of the Western Balkans. It is concluded that due to the pragmatic policy of support to the stabilitocracy regimes and, in general, due to the ambivalent attitude towards the future of enlargement, the European Union could face negative consequences in the coming years. Conceding to candidate countries in fulfilling the Copenhagen criteria in exchange for meeting the current geopolitical interests of the European elites (as was the case in some of the earlier EU enlargements) would have following implications for the Union itself: first, internally, casting further doubts on already shaken credibility of the project to build a European identity based on common values; and secondly, externally, the loss of reputation of a normative power that facilitates global relations by spreading its own principles and values.
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Damurski, Lukasz, and Hans Thor Andersen. "Towards political cohesion in metropolitan areas. An overview of governance models." Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series, no. 56 (April 15, 2022): 43–62. http://dx.doi.org/10.12775/bgss-2022-0012.
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As cities grew beyond their administrative borders, the demand for metropolitan governance appeared. The last 50 years proved that there is no one, universal model of metropolitan governance as urban regions are very different all around the world. However, it seems quite obvious that if metropoles are to be the forefront of development, they need to provide a widely defined cohesion within their subordinate territories. Metropolitan political cohesion may be defined as a collaborative public governance which offers tailored managerial solutions for enhancing development based on the subsidiarity principle and the place‐based approach. Drawing on the lessons from major cities in North America and Europe: Copenhagen, Rotterdam, Stockholm, Hannover, London, Wrocław and Toronto the paper intends to dive into a few, selected cases of metropolitan government and the causes behind their failure and reappearance. How have various governments met the cardinal question of metropoles: to provide a resilient match between the functional urban region and the administrative structure? The answer to this question is not straightforward. Metropolitan authorities all over the world manage exceptionally complex systems, where the diversity of actors, complexity of relations and interdependences across an extended, fragmented and dynamic metropolitan region restrain governability. However some general trends in metropolitan governance may be outlined, regarding the recent history, main types of governance and legitimacy of metropolitan administration.
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Elander, I. "Between Centralism and Localism: On the Development of Local Self-Government in Postsocialist Europe." Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy 15, no. 2 (June 1997): 143–59. http://dx.doi.org/10.1068/c150143.
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During real-socialism in Central and Eastern Europe the scope for local government discretion was marginal. Local government had a very low degree of legitimacy, and this is something that poses a big problem when it comes to developing local self-government under postsocialism. It seems as if most citizens are prepared to pin their hopes on new central leaders, while they are still very hesitant with regard to local self-governance. Various expressions of localism appeared during the first three to four years of postsocialist development. However, today it seems as if the tide has turned in favour of more centralist hopes and policies. This development is discussed in the light of some of the arguments commonly raised in favour of centralism and localism, respectively, highlighting the complex relationships between the two concepts and their current manifestations. In the concluding section some ideas are put forward concerning the issue how to bridge the gap between centralism and localism, and there is also a reminder that some of the current developments of local government in Eastern and Central Europe are similar to those in Western Europe. This makes a strong argument in favour of intensified transnational contacts between academics, practitioners, and ordinary citizens with an interest in developing local self-government.
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Casagrande, Agustín Elías. "Between History and Passion: The Legitimacy of Social Clubs in the Province of Buenos Aires (2001–2007)." Politics and Governance 5, no. 1 (March 15, 2017): 34–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.17645/pag.v5i1.775.
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In the last few decades the concept of self-regulation accompanied the process of dismantling the welfare state. In this context, in central countries—Europe and North America—the importance given to private regulations versus public action increased, thus requiring new mechanisms of legitimacy. To this end, appeals to the principles of economy and technical efficiency to legitimate private regulations have been made by several researchers. However, these principles acquired a negative view in Argentina because they were used to use to legitimate processes that led to various crises, especially taking into consideration the neo-liberal experience of the 1990s. Against this historical background, this paper seeks to show a particular case of legitimizing the self-regulation of non-state organizations (social clubs) by using classic <em>topoi</em>, which had been historically used to legitimize state action. In order to do so, this text focuses on the analysis of “Luna de Avellaneda” Act of 2007, by which the government of Buenos Aires sought to legitimize the self-regulation of clubs appealing to the classical values of democracy, participation, and solidarity. For this, the historical experience of the Argentinean political community will be observed from the perspective of the history of these clubs, thus recovering the social function they played in the diverse political and economic crises.
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MOURLON-DRUOL, EMMANUEL. "Steering Europe: Explaining the Rise of the European Council, 1975–1986." Contemporary European History 25, no. 3 (June 23, 2016): 409–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0960777316000242.
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AbstractThis article seeks to explain the emergence of the European Council at the heart of Europe's governance between 1975 and 1986. It highlights four factors that quickly made the newly-created institution both indispensable and stable, despite concerns over the excessive reliance on the intergovernmental method in European cooperation processes. These factors were the rise of globalisation in its multi-faceted policy dimensions, a satisfactory new-found institutional balance, the public impact of societal actors’ connections with regular and frequent heads of government meetings and the democratic legitimacy issue in European integration. The article further argues that this period witnessed the de facto emergence of the three-pillar Maastricht structure and shows how the study of the early days of the European Economic Community can shed light on the current development of the European Union and the European Council after the 2009 Lisbon Treaty.
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Polat, Oğuz, and Zeynep Reva. "LEGAL DIMENSION OF CHILD MARRIAGES IN TURKEY: COMPARED WITH THE EASTERN EUROPE AND MIDDLE EAST COUNTRIES." International Journal of Research -GRANTHAALAYAH 7, no. 4 (April 30, 2020): 338–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.29121/granthaalayah.v7.i4.2019.916.
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Child marriage is defined as a marriage before the age of 18. In many countries, a significant number of girls still marry before the age of 18. The country governments and international communities are increasingly aware of the negative impacts of child marriages, but the actions to end the practice is still limited.
Child marriage threatens particularly girls’ lives and health, and it limits their future prospects. Early marriages are not considered as a "problem" by the majority of the society where as it is a phenomenon that has been existing for long years in our country. It is observed that one of the most important sources of legitimacy of marriage is public accord and these marriages are realized mostly in the framework of this accord. Patriarchal and traditional social structure have unfortunately normalized and legitimized early marriages.
It is necessary to hold meetings to create and develop awareness for implementation of Turkish Civil Code, Turkish Penal Code and Law on Protection of Minors. It will be therefore possible to ensure that children, families and people understand what kind of problems and penal responsibilities that early marriage of children constitutes
Child marriage is a problem that prevents the exercise of human rights, undermines the status of women and deprive child from their main rights including especially the education. Their marriages are a field that must be struggled with in Turkey targeting social gender equality.
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Gaul, Jerzy. "Polska racja stanu i legalizacja przez Józefa Piłsudskiego przewrotu majowego 1926." Studia Historyczne 62, no. 3 (247) (March 18, 2022): 31–62. http://dx.doi.org/10.12797/sh.62.2019.03.02.
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THE POLISH REASON OF STATE AND THE LEGALIZATION OF THE MAY 1926 COUP D’ÉTAT BY JÓZEF PIŁSUDSKI
Having unconstitutionally seized power in the military coup of May 1926, Józef Piłsudski lacked an immediate legal framework that legitimized his rule. This crisis of state not only raised the specter of civil war, but also raised doubts among the countries of Western Europe that Poland could continue as a bulwark of Western civilization and a barrier against Russia. In these circumstances, Józef Piłsudski launched a wide-ranging campaign that included high-ranking government ministers to convince the people of Poland and Western European governments of the legality of the new regime. The campaign was broadly successful. Having rejected the possibility of direct dictatorship in favor of representative government, Józef Piłsudski recognized the marshal of the Parliament, Maciej Rataj, as the interim president of Poland, rejected the idea of imposing military commissioners, and worked with Parliament to establish a new government, at the head of which sat Prime Minister Kazimierz Bartel. Józef Piłsudski himself assumed the portfolio of minister of military affairs after rejecting the National Assembly’s efforts to elect him president. All these steps convinced Polish society and many foreign governments that the regime established as a result of the coup of 1926 was legitimate.
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van Biezen, Ingrid, and Helen Wallace. "Old and New Oppositions in Contemporary Europe." Government and Opposition 48, no. 3 (June 5, 2013): 289–313. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/gov.2013.11.
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Unity and peace in Europe, freedom and democracy in Eastern Europe: Government and Opposition's founding editor Ghiţă Ionescu – the centenary of whose birth this special issue commemorates – might have been contented to see that two of his main ideals have now by and large been realized. At the same time, in contemporary Europe we can observe a huge variety of forms of opposition to the conventional holders of power, who appear to have been unable to respond successfully to new and pressing societal and economic challenges. The old convictions that once characterized politics in the European liberal democracies are gradually eroding, while the volatile and fragmented polities of the new post-communist democracies in the East are only adding to the increased uncertainties. The ongoing financial and economic crises have exacerbated many of the existing tensions, between new and old generations, between groups with levels of educational attainment, and between the domestic and supra-national levels. European democracies in the twenty-first century are thus having to contend with various challenges that are aimed, directly or indirectly, at the core of the political system, including the populist disregard for some of the fundamental values of liberal democracy and the rule of law, the variety of anti-establishment parties and movements challenging the democratic legitimacy of a discredited financial and political class, and the unclear outcomes of further European integration. Taken together, the contributions to this special issue suggest, these developments may cast a different light on our empirical and normative understanding of the European models of liberal democracy and the welfare state
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Tagirova, N. F., E. I. Sumburova, Yu A. Zherdeva, and A. S. Zotova. "“Mobilization of Ethnicity” as Europe-Asian Project: Constructing a Higher Education Policy." SHS Web of Conferences 71 (2019): 05009. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/20197105009.
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The article discusses the ethnic policy in the field of higher education in Russia between the First and Second World Wars. The "mobilization of ethnicity" in the educational policy of the first years of Soviet power is presented in the study as the "European-Asian project" of Soviet Russia - an attempt to create a single supranational economic, political and cultural space in a significant part of Eurasia. Based on the materials of the multicultural region of the Middle Volga region, the authors analyze the process of integration of the Volga peoples (Tatars, Mordovians and Chuvash) into the higher education system. The study showed that at the first stage of designing the new policy (1920s), the key direction was to provide ethnic groups with relative cultural autonomy (preserving and supporting national languages, religious customs and social traditions) in exchange for recognizing the legitimacy of the new government. At the second stage (1930s), the national educational policy of the state became more straightforward, integration processes intensified and, as a result, the mutual economic dependence of the capital and regions.
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de Wet, Erika. "The African Union’s Struggle Against ‘Unconstitutional Change of Government’: From a Moral Prescription to a Requirement under International Law?" European Journal of International Law 32, no. 1 (February 1, 2021): 199–226. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ejil/chab015.
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Abstract In 1992 Thomas Franck proclaimed an emerging right to democratic governance in international law. With reference to developments in the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, he identified free and fair elections as the core benchmark of this right, possessing significant legitimacy in terms of its pedigree, determinacy, coherence and adherence. The current contribution examines Franck’s understanding of the right to democratic governance within the African context, notably in relation to those institutional developments that have occurred since the adoption of the Constitutive Act of the African Union (AU) in 2000. Specifically, the article assesses the benchmarks of the notion of ‘unconstitutional changes of government’ in Article 4(p) of the AU Constitutive Act and their inter-linkage with free and fair elections. In so doing, it critically questions the response of the AU to unconstitutional changes of government and its implications for the normative maturity of the benchmark in question. It places the analysis in a broader context by drawing some parallels with the current back-sliding in democratic governance that is occurring also within the Council of Europe (CoE) and the European Union.
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Jackson, Robert. "Teaching about Religions in the Public Sphere: European Policy Initiatives and the Interpretive Approach." Numen 55, no. 2-3 (2008): 151–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156852708x283032.
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AbstractThis paper charts a policy shift within international and European inter-governmental institutions towards advocating the study of religions (or the study of religions and beliefs) in European publicly funded schools. The events of September 11, 2001 in the USA acted as a "wake up call" in relation to recognising the legitimacy and importance of the study of religions in public education. For example, policy recommendations from the Council of Europe and guiding principles for the study of religions and beliefs from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe have been developed and are under consideration by member or participating states of both bodies. In translating policy into practice, appropriate pedagogies need to be adopted or developed. The paper uses the example of the interpretive approach to indicate how issues of representation, interpretation and reflexivity might be addressed in studying religious diversity within contemporary societies in ways which both avoid stereotyping and engage students' interest.
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Benhabib, Seyla. "The new legitimation crises of Arab states and Turkey." Philosophy & Social Criticism 40, no. 4-5 (April 29, 2014): 349–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0191453714529770.
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The Arab Spring uprisings that led to the downfall of erstwhile authoritarian regimes in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya heralded the end of a state system introduced into the Middle East and North Africa by imperialist powers after the First World War. Characterized by an authoritarian model of modernization and secularization from above, these regimes are challenged by the rise of political Islam and its ideology of a transnational ‘ ummah’. Islamist parties that have come to power in Egypt and Tunisia, however, have proven remarkably unsuccessful in stabilizing governments and writing new constitutions. Are democracy and a religious revival compatible? What will replace the spent legitimacy of these regimes across the region? The legitimation crises of the Arab world have transnational dimensions as well as being influenced by the politics and attitudes of diasporic populations in Europe who need to contend with a different model of church–state relations referred to as ‘the Protestant model of religion’. Contemporary Turkey, which was often pointed to as a successful model of the synthesis of Islam with a pluralist representative democracy, is itself in the throes of another legitimation crisis in the aftermath of the Gezi Park protests which took place in the summer of 2013. What does all this bode for the region?
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Gómez-Reino Cachafeiro, Margarita, and Carolina Plaza-Colodro. "Populist Euroscepticism in Iberian party systems." Politics 38, no. 3 (March 28, 2018): 344–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0263395718762667.
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As the introduction to this special issue highlights, the Great Recession, along with the more recent phenomenon such as the refugees’ crisis and the Brexit referendum, has contributed to the success and strengthening of populist Eurosceptic parties across European party systems. The loss of legitimacy of governments and European institutions has opened a window of opportunity for parties expressing anti-establishment positions and populist orientations and criticizing the political-economic arrangements prevailing in Europe. Our study focuses on the rise of a specific left-wing populist Euroscepticism linked with the impact of the Great Recession and austerity measures in Portugal and Spain and the party system transformations. Thus, economic issues, bailouts, and, above all, anti-austerity measures were the main driving forces behind the transformations of Iberian party systems. The increase in populist reactions in both countries after the economic crisis and the implementation of austerity had to do with the transformation of the radical left emphasizing distributive issues in Eurosceptic populist directions. Finally, the analysis shows the distinctiveness of the populist Euroscepticism of the new challenger, Podemos, which illustrates the opportunities afforded with the economic crisis for the rise of new challenger parties exhibiting the contemporary link between populism and Euroscepticism in the radical left.
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Sætra, Henrik Skaug. "A Hobbesian Argument for World Government." Philosophies 7, no. 3 (June 15, 2022): 66. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/philosophies7030066.
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The legitimacy of government is often linked to its ability to maintain order and secure peace. Thomas Hobbes’ political philosophy provides a clear description of why government is necessary, as human nature and the structures emerging out of human social interaction are such that order and peace will not naturally emerge to a sufficient degree. Hobbes’ general argument is often accepted at the national level, but in this article, I explore why a Hobbesian argument for the international level—an argument for world government—is deducible from his philosophy. Hobbes builds his philosophy on his conception of human nature and argues that individuals’ interests and preferences should be the determinant for evaluating the value of a political entity. By emphasising these aspects of Hobbes’ theory, I argue that several contemporary phenomena suggest that a world government could be preferable to the states system. The cases used are the outbreak of war in Europe in 2022 and the continuing and accelerating environmental crisis. Through this examination, the continued relevance of Hobbes’ political philosophy is demonstrated, and according to Hobbes’ own logic, those who accept the argument should also seek to implement such a solution.
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Medushevsky, Andrey. "The future of Europe: a political discussion of prospects of the European Union integration project." Sravnitel noe konstitucionnoe obozrenie 30, no. 5 (2021): 15–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.21128/1812-7126-2021-5-15-41.
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The European integration project as designed by its founders seventy years ago is experiencing difficulties in the current conditions of globalization, confronting challenges which were unpredictable beforehand. Many of these are of crucial character for the European Union, putting in question its constitutional organization, institutional structure, and political sustainability in the international balance of power. The list of most important issues includes ones like the yet incomplete character of the Union’s legal construction, which is balanced between supranational and national forms of regulation; the erosion of legitimacy of European institutions; the growing democracy deficits in transnational and national governance; the decline of solidarity in inter-governmental relations; and the falling level of accountability and decision-making mechanisms in Europe. The very natural response to these problems was a Pan-European discussion, stimulated by European elites after Brexit, on the future of the European project in order to frame existing opinions, provide a fresh start to “the European dream”, and possibly find appropriate solutions to legitimacy problems. An analysis of this ongoing discussion is the main subject of this article. This analysis involves such key issues as the future role of the EU founding agreements, as to keeping them or amending them in order to reconstruct the European constitutional settlement. It demonstrates the complex nature of the basic communitarian concept, in view of its various interpretations by different ideological trends such as cosmopolitism and confederation and federation movements. It explores the current agenda of institutional reforms involving parliamentarian and presidential strategies and reviews proposed solutions of the European leadership problem. The conclusion of the article makes it clear that the European Union is confronted today with the most dramatic challenge in its entire history. It consists in the necessity of making a decisive choice between two polar options — to preserve an amorphous conglomerate of states or to establish a new federal state. This must be done in a rather short period in order to avoid falling apart and to become a full-fledged and independent global political player.
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Pilgrim, Sarah, and Mark Harvey. "Battles over Biofuels in Europe: NGOs and the Politics of Markets." Sociological Research Online 15, no. 3 (August 2010): 45–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.5153/sro.2192.
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In this paper, we argue that a consortium of NGOs has played a significant role in shaping the market for, and restricting the use of, biofuels as an alternative to conventional fuels for road transport in Europe. This paper considers why a number of NGOs (Greenpeace, Oxfam, WWF, RSPB, Friends of the Earth) have chosen to enter the biofuels debate, and how they have variously developed policy, agreed a political campaign, and exercised political influence, in a key area of the world's response to major global climate change: how to reduce the carbon footprint of transport. We found that in many cases the development of NGO policy has been driven more by narrow political opportunities for influence than by broader and more coherent policy responses to global climate change or economic development, or indeed rigorous assessment of the scientific evidence. The research provides evidence of how NGO policies and lobbying significantly affected biofuel policy changes, review processes, target reductions, and sustainability regulation in the UK and in Europe. We consider that politically instituted markets, such as the one for biofuels, are examples of the emergence of new forms of governance of capitalist political economies facing a novel and pressing combination of drivers (climate change, energy security, resource constraints, and sustainable land-use). Politically instituted markets open up possibilities for political intervention from non-governmental or party-political actors, in ways that other markets do not. If political shaping of markets by NGOs becomes more widespread, issues of democratic legitimacy and public scrutiny will become ever more pressing. The paper is based on in-depth interviews with senior scientific directors and policy-makers in five NGOs, and of senior officials in UK government departments and the European Commission (DG Environment and DG Transport and Energy). It forms part of a wider ESRC research project in Brazil, the USA and Europe on the Transition to Sustainable Bioeconomies.
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Mugge, Miqueias Henrique. "Building an empire in the Age of Revolutions: Independence and immigration in the Brazilian borderlands." Topoi (Rio de Janeiro) 23, no. 51 (September 2022): 870–96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/2237-101x02305110.
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ABSTRACT Throughout Brazil’s Independence process, its central elites and the Crown planned what was to become of their new nation. Arguments over political systems and the continuation of slavery were at the heart of the debate, which drew in rich, poor, and the enslaved alike. As the empires of the Old World were rent at the seams by wars and conflicts, Brazil was rethinking its role in the world. In this article, inspired by the dialogue between micro-history and global history, and by the trans-imperial trajectory of the Bavarian doctor Georg von Schaeffer, I examine the political ideas that informed the consolidation of the Brazilian Empire as a de facto empire. I also situate the ideas and proposals put forth by Schaeffer, a representative of the Brazilian government in Europe, within the crisis of legitimacy sparked by the Napoleonic invasions, the subsequent independence of Portuguese America, and the array of political projects that were able to emerge as a result. Through an analysis of the diplomatic documentation produced by the Brazilian Empire’s main posts in Europe, I reveal a complex web from which the Brazilian government drew information, and the channels that carried news of alliances, clashes, and political repertoires that would go into the making of a tropical empire.
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Schweiger, Christian. "Parliamentary Scrutiny of the European Semester: The Case of Poland." Politics and Governance 9, no. 3 (August 13, 2021): 124–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.17645/pag.v9i3.4250.
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The European Semester became an essential part of the revised governance architecture of the Europe 2020 reform strategy for the Single European Market under the conditions of the global financial crisis and the emerging eurozone crisis a decade ago. The article examines to what extent the European Semester offers channels to establish <em>throughput legitimacy </em>by granting national parliaments the ability to effectively scrutinise executive decision-making in the annual policy cycle. Poland is chosen as the case study for parliamentary scrutiny of the EU’s system of multi-level governance in the East-Central European region. The analysis adopts a liberal intergovernmentalist two-level approach. On the domestic level it concentrates on the involvement of the Sejm, the lower house of parliament, on the drafting of the Polish National Reform Plans for the annual Semester policy cycle between 2015 and 2020. The basis for the analysis are official transcripts from the plenary debates in the relevant committees, the European Affairs Committee and the Public Finance and the Economic Committee. The Polish case study illustrates that the European Semester represents a predominantly elite-driven process of policy coordination, which is strongly geared towards EU-level executive bargaining processes between national governments and the European Commission at the expense of domestic parliamentary scrutiny.
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Babelon, Ian, Jiří Pánek, Enzo Falco, Reinout Kleinhans, and James Charlton. "Between Consultation and Collaboration: Self-Reported Objectives for 25 Web-Based Geoparticipation Projects in Urban Planning." ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information 10, no. 11 (November 17, 2021): 783. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijgi10110783.
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Web-based participatory mapping technologies are being increasingly harnessed by local governments to crowdsource local knowledge and engage the public in urban planning policies as a means of increasing the transparency and legitimacy of planning processes and decisions. We refer to these technologies as “geoparticipation”. Current innovations are outpacing research into the use of geoparticipation in participatory planning practices. To address this knowledge gap, this paper investigates the objectives of web-based geoparticipation and uses empirical evidence from online survey responses related to 25 urban planning projects in nine countries across three continents (Europe, North America, and Australia). The survey adopts the objectives of the Spectrum for Public Participation that range from information empowerment, with each category specifying promises about how public input is expected to influence decision-making (IAP2, 2018). Our findings show that geoparticipation can leverage a ‘middle-ground’ of citizen participation by facilitating involvement alongside consultation and/or collaboration. This paper constitutes a pilot study as a step toward more robust and replicable empirical studies for cross-country comparisons. Empowerment (or citizen control) is not yet a normative goal or outcome for web-based geoparticipation. Our evidence also suggests that information is pursued alongside other objectives for citizen participation, and therefore functions not as a “low-hanging fruit” as portrayed in the literature, but rather as a core component of higher intensities of participation.
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ÖZTÜRK, Efe Tuğberk, and Aslı DALDAL. "New Social Movements as Postmodern Challanges To Neoliberalism and Representative Democracy." International Journal of Political Studies 7, no. 2 (August 31, 2021): 1–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.25272/j.2149-8539.2021.7.2.01.
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In this article, the relationship between new social movements, representative democracy and neoliberalism is examined. Starting with student protests in Europe and the United State, the late 1960s have witnessed the emegence of new social movements. Ecological, anti-nuclear, feminist, student, anti-racist, and LGBTI+ protests all have been examined with the scope of the new social movements paradigm. The remarkable protest wave of the 1970s has been followed by contemporary movements in different forms like the Arab Spring and the Occupy movement. Although these movements differ in terms of issues they deal with and goals they seek, they have a lot in common. Unlike the old movements like labour protests, these new movements primarily focus on postmaterial issues. Postmaterial identity demands and rights of these movements conflict with material demands of neoliberal governments. Furthermore, modern democracies fail to address these issues. Representative democracy is seen as an obstacle to political participation. On the other hand, postmodernism is a suitable concept to explain internal discrepancies and dispersion of new social movements. It is argued that (a) the legitimacy crisis of representative democracy and neoliberal response of capitalism to its structural crisis have triggered new social conflicts and movements, (b) these movements differ from old movements in terms of their forms, goals, and demands, (c) new social movements are postmodern.
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Di Mascio, Fabrizio, Alessandro Natalini, Edoardo Ongaro, and Francesco Stolfi. "Influence of the European Semester on national public sector reforms under conditions of fiscal consolidation: The policy of conditionality in Italy 2011–2015." Public Policy and Administration 35, no. 2 (April 10, 2019): 201–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0952076718814892.
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This article applies the Schimmelfennig and Sedelmeier “governance by conditionality” framework to public sector reform in a European Union (EU) country subject to implicit rather than explicit conditionality in the context of severe fiscal consolidation. It analyses the reform programmes of the governments that alternated in power in Italy over 2011–2015, focusing on three major areas of public sector reform – fiscal consolidation, labour market reform and liberalization – in the context of the Country-Specific Recommendations–National Reform Plan (CSR-NRP) cycle. We show that the EU has influenced governance (budget institutions and the governance structure of the NRP process) as well as the content of reforms. These results are consistent with the Schimmelfennig and Sedelmeier framework regarding the importance of external incentives in explaining adoption and implementation of reforms. Our findings confirm not only the importance of material conditions and their credibility in explaining the fit between EU recommendations and domestic reforms, but also the significance of the strategic usage of Europe by domestic policy makers, which has become more important as the legitimacy of the EU has decreased among voters. We conclude with some reflections on the implications of our research for the ongoing debate on the reform of the European Semester, in particular with regard to the question of how to ensure a higher fit between EU recommendation and domestic policies.
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Sadrić, Benjamin. "The Use of Military Forces in the Protection of the Borders and Prevention of Irregular Migrations in Selected South East European Countries." Hrvatska i komparativna javna uprava 19, no. 3 (September 27, 2019): 474–99. http://dx.doi.org/10.31297/hkju.19.3.6.
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The 2015 refugee crisis in Europe was a humanitarian, legal, and logistical cri sis. New circumstances gave rise to ideas of calling upon armies to serve at bor ders. This paper analyses all the elements of the refugee crisis that could serve to legitimise or oppose the use of military forces in the protection of state borders. Governments’ international obligations to protect refugees and providing security for their citizens came into conflict during the crisis. In an age of terrorist threats, the roles of the police and the military are shifting in an unknown direction, yet these international obligations remain. The refugee crisis challenged not only international law but also European Union policies and ethical principles. The possible solutions were either to ac cept all refugees or to close the borders entirely and somewhere in between these opposing solutions the army was considered as a tool. Many have emphasized that there is no place for military personnel at state borders regardless of refugee inflow. Hence, this paper examines the arguments for a “military ban”. Furthermore, a thorough analysis follows on the legal and logistical legitimacy of army usage at borders. At the end, Hungarian, Slovenian, and Croatian legislation are discussed and compared with a view to problems that could arise from the differences in the legislation regarding possible future migration and refugee inflows.
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Gjana, Ferdinand. "EU and NATO, Need For a Coherent Partnership." European Journal of Social Sciences Education and Research 1, no. 1 (May 1, 2014): 332. http://dx.doi.org/10.26417/ejser.v1i1.p332-341.
Full textAbstract:
The United States and its European allies share a common commitment to global order, moderated by the quest of global justice. So long as the Soviet Union stationed its armies across central Europe, the overriding common interest of maintaining the security and freedom of Western Europe held the Atlantic Alliance together. Underneath this, however, interests (and perceptions of interests) had diverged from the 1960s onwards, as American security concerns focused more on Southeast Asia and the Persian Gulf, while European governments explored the possibilities of détente within their own region. Since 1990, different geopolitical positions have driven US and European interests apart. Different trends in energy dependence - and different understandings of climate change - have also shaped distinctive interests. Different levels of military capability in the projection of force have interacted with divergent understandings of the process of political, social and economic development, of the roots of terrorist movements and the pathology of aggressive state regimes. Widespread resistance within the USA to accepting the legitimacy of international law and of global institutions, rooted in the belief in the exceptional character of the U.S. Constitution and the self-evident morality of American policy, as well as in the self-evident supremacy of U.S. military power, has also widened the gap in interests and understandings across the Atlantic. In recent years, the most fundamental challenge to management of the EU-NATO relationship has been the combination of a United States drifting toward unilat¬eralism and European concentration on creating an "autonomous" defence policy. Such natural but ominous tendencies could feed on one another, creating cir¬cumstances that could lead the transatlantic bargain from one crisis to another. This article deals with the EU-NATO relations and their views regarding the security and the partnership in general.