Studia Politica. Romanian Political Science Review vol. XXIII, no. 1, 2023
ARTICULI
This article aims to analyze the rise and electoral success of the (Northern) League in Italy, for the period 2008-2018. The purpose of this analysis is to determine whether the economic difficulties encountered by the electorate or other factors, such as political and cultural ones, have influenced the growth and electoral success of the League in Italy. By analyzing both demand and supply-side data, the analysis shows that the League has had better electoral results in the years after the crisis when the economy has been improving than in the years when there has been a major economic shock. Regarding survey data on the supporters of the League, the analysis shows that the economy is among the least influential factors for them to support a right-wing populist party. On the contrary, the analysis shows that the main triggers for radical right populist mobilization have more to do with group values, identity issues, ethnic and cultural affiliation, xenophobic sentiments, skepticism towards foreigners, multiculturalism, and forms of Euroscepticism.
Keywords: populism, the Northern League, economic decline, national identity, Euroscepticism.
INXHI BRISKU (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences & Charles University), inxhi.brisku@gmail.com.
After gaining its independence in 1991, Georgia faced significant challenges on all levels like all other post-communist countries. Therefore, against this background, care for urban historical and cultural heritage, and ecological health was less visible on the agenda. As a result of the Rose Revolution of 2003, various reforms were carried out. After strengthening state institutions, the re-urbanization of cities was gradually included on the agenda. At the same time, growing urbanization resulted in an acute shortage of green space and an uprising of the urban grassroots movements in Georgia. We have selected three cases of urban movement developed in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. “Save Gudiashvili Square,” “Defend Vake Park,” and “No to Panorama Tbilisi!”. Even though these cases occurred almost simultaneously, and the activists involved were quite the same, their achievements are different. The presented research attempts to determine the challenges that arose during the formation of the urban movement agenda and study the activism strategy and how it influenced the results of the movements. By triangulation of multiple methods – analyzing primary and secondary sources and interviews of involved actors –, we argue that the strategy of the movements played an important role, while not crucial, with regard to the studied civic activism.
Keywords: Urban activism, urban re-development, Georgia, political context, strategy, investment.
SALOME DUNDUA (Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University), salome.dundua@tsu.ge.
TAMAR KARAIA (Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University), tamar.karaia@tsu.ge.
SANDRO TABATADZE (Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, sandro.tabatadze@tsu.ge.
The current article is intended to bring two contributions to the study of informality. Empirically, it shares the result of the shadow economy survey for the 2017 and 2018 fiscal years for Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Ukraine. These results are used to calculate the shadow economy index estimated as a percentage of the GDP. Already established as an annual exercise for Latvia and the Baltics since 2010, the survey has been applied to Moldova and Romania (since 2016), Poland (2015-2016), and Kosovo (in 2018). In the frame of the project “SHADOW: An Exploration of the Nature of Informal Economies and Shadow Practices in the Former USSR Region,” the scope of the survey was expanded to Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Ukraine, keeping the same methodology and used for direct measurement of underground activities. By doing this, we discuss the use of direct measurement approaches to suggest that, while quantitative approaches are useful to estimate the size of shadow economies, direct approaches can be used to integrate these data and look for deeper correlations between the persistence of shadow transactions and some societal tendencies that are not necessarily economic.
Keywords: Shadow economy, informality, informal economy, informal practices, post-Soviet region.
ABEL POLESE (Dublin City University), abel.polese@dcu.ie.
TALSHYN TOKYZHANOVA (Tallinn University of Technology), talshyn.tokyzhanova@taltech.ee.
GIAN MARCO MOISE (Dublin City University), gian.moise2@mail.dcu.ie.
TOMMASO AGUZZI (Tallinn University of Technology), tommaso.aguzzi@taltech.ee.
TANEL KERIKMÄE (Tallinn University of Technology), tanel.kerikmae@taltech.ee.
AINOURA SAGYNBAEVA (SIAR Research & Consulting), ainouras@siar-consult.com.
ARNIS SAUKA (Stockholm School of Economics in Riga), arnis.sauka@sseriga.edu.
OLEKSANDRA SELIVERSTOVA (Tallinn University of Technology), oleksandra.seliverstova@taltech.ee.
OLHA LYSA (Kyiv International Institute of Sociology), olysa@ukr.net.
AIGERIM KUSSAIYNKYZY (Narxoz University, School of Economics and Management), kussaiynkyzy@gmail.com.
The multiple hard power engagements of the aspiring Middle East powers (the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Iran) in Yemen are selfevident. However, the disposition of foreign interference in Yemen is multifaced. Current research papers have primarily focused on using hard power military or economic tools, but soft power tools were left behind. Therefore, this article explores soft power’s nature influencing the countries above assert towards the Yemeni population. It focused on three ostensibly distinct areas of soft power – education, religion, and media – within each particular analysis since those three areas are key elements of the Saudi and Iranian soft-power toolkit. Multiple religious, educational, and media tools towards Yemen were detected in each case.
Keywords: Yemen, Yemeni Civil War, Middle East, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Iran, soft power, soft power tools, media, education, religion.
ZDENĚK ROD (University of West Bohemia), zdenekr@kap.zcu.cu.
MICHAL HIMMER (University of West Bohemia), majkl37@kap.zcu.cz.
This article discusses the symbolism of the year 1830 in the transition from the old political order to the establishment and gradual consolidation of the modern Belgian state. Modern constitutionalism was characterized by the struggle against monarchical absolutism and the concentration of political power in
the hands of a single person. In addition, it supported the respect of civil rights and liberties, the individual being at the center of liberal philosophy, along with the idea of a representative government, the separation of powers in the state and the supremacy of the rule of law. The spread of the revolutionary wave from 1830 throughout the country opened a new period in the history of Belgium, in which the ideas of centralizing the state and asserting national independence merged with the urgency to give a direction to the state by choosing the representative monarchy as a form of governance and with the introduction of the Senate as an intermediate power. By analyzing the Belgian deputies’ speeches, this article aims to make an introduction in the way the deputies imagined the construction of the state and to advance the idea of a mutual trajectory of the Belgian society in accordance with the young European nations.
Keywords: separation of power, monarchy, Senate, bicameralism, Belgium, modern constitutionalism.
CLAUDIA-ELENA CRĂCIUN-CHIVEREANU (University of Bucharest), craciun-chivereanu.claudia-elena@fspub.unibuc.ro.
ANNALES
***, Chronology of the Romanian Political Life, October 1, 2022 ̶ March 31, 2023*
ANDRAS BOZOKI, Rolling Transition and the Role of Intellectuals. The Case of Hungary, 1977-1994, Budapest-Vienna-New York, Central European University Press, 2022 (TEODORA LOVIN, University of Bucharest)
KACPER SZULECKI, Dissidents in Communist Central Europe. Human Rights and the Emergence of New Transnational Actors, Cham, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019 (ALATSIDIS GEORGIOS, University of Bucharest)