Studia Politica. Romanian Political Science Review vol. XXII, no. 1, 2022
ARTICULI
DENYS KIRYUKHIN (H. Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy), SVITLANA SHCHERBAK (H. Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy), The People, Values, and the State: How Vladimir Putin’s Views on Ideology Evolved
The main goal of this article is to analyze the evolution of Vladimir Putin’s understanding of the role of ideology in the Russian political system. This research, based on a discourse analysis of Putin’s addresses, articles, speeches, and interviews, allowed us to reconstruct the Russian president’s views on sovereignty, the Russian state, “the people” and their unity, and trace the emergence of Putinism as a specific ideology directed against the liberal world order. Our study demonstrates that Putin’s approach to ideology has undergone a difficult transformation from abandoning state ideology to a de facto revival of it. Giving ideology formal legal status by amending the Russian constitution in 2020 was the logical conclusion of the evolution of Putin’s views. The public protests that swept through post- Soviet countries played a big role in this evolution because Putin perceived them as a threat to national sovereignty. This article shows that Putin’s pursuit of ideological policy serves two main goals: protecting Russia’s sovereignty, which involves not just building effective protection against external influence on Russia, but also reformatting the system of international relations so that the possibility of this influence can be eliminated and providing “national unity” and loyalty to the regime.
Keywords: Putin, ideology, Russia, sovereign democracy, conservative turn.
DENZS KIRYUKHIN (H. Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy), denys.kiryukhin@gmail.com.
SVITLANA SHCHERBAK (H. Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy), svedep4@gmail.com.
JUSTYNA OLĘDZKA (Vistula University), “Year of truth”: The specificity and shape of the integration project of the Russian Federation and Belarus
Since the 1990s, the integration of Belarus and the Russian Federation has played an important role in Russia’s foreign policy strategy. Russian- Belarusian relations are crucial for Russia due to the geopolitical, political, economic, and cultural context. By contrast, Belarus is much less enthusiastic about the project as there are many objections to its implementation. One of the main concerns is the threat of a loss of sovereignty. Despite the relatively great interest in Belarusian-Russian relations, essential nuances are not considered in academic works. Instead, Western experts are deeply convinced of the inevitability of a rapprochement between Russia and Belarus and the unification of the goals, method, pace, and integration tools. The myth of the almost natural integration of these countries, based on cultural, linguistic, and religious proximity, is still alive. This article is a contribution to this debate whose aim is to discuss the key stages of the analyzed integration process and show this bilateral project’s specificity. Therefore, it focuses on the various dimensions of the integration process between the Russian Federation and Belarus to identify threats and opportunities for its implementation. This introduces a new framework for evaluating the internal situation of Belarus after the mid-2020 elections. The analysis shows that recent trends in the evolution of domestic politics in Belarus may significantly contribute to the intensification of the integration project and the redefinition of Lukashenko’s role in this project.
Keywords: Belarus, Russia, the project of integration of the Russian Federation and Belarus, Lukashenko.
JUSTYNA OLĘDZKA (Vistula University), j.oledzka@vistula.edu.pl.
ELMA HURUZ MEMOVIĆ (University of Sarajevo), DAVOR TRLIN (International Burch University of Sarajevo), Political Parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Principle of the Constituency of Peoples
This article provides an overview of how, although the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina itself proclaims the principle of democracy, it still contains many elements that limit the democratic capacity of the country's institutions. In this regard, the study is particularly interested in the scope of the principle of the constituency of the people, which is the product of the activities of ethno-national political parties in the peace negotiations of 1992–1995 and the negotiation of a new constitutional order, on the electoral and political system of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This article contributes to help filling the gap in the existing literature on the study of the interplay between the democratic process, the choice of the electoral systems and the role of the political parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a new democracy in the Western Balkans. The novelty to the general theory on the models of democracy is the historical development that led to the application of the model of consociational democracy, which includes a combination of the international factors, internal conflicts, and political parties. The case of Bosnia and Herzegovina is interesting because it shows how the constitutional system has changed from citizen-based to an ethnicity-based fundamentals, because of the activity of political parties.
Keywords: democratic transition, ethnicity, constituency of peoples,political parties, electoral system.
ELMA HURUZ MEMOVIĆ (University of Sarajevo), elma.huruz@fpn.unsa.ba.
DAVOR TRLIN (International Burch University of Sarajevo), davor.trlin@cest.gov.ba; davor.trlin@ibu.edu.ba.
NATALIIA STEBLYNA (Vasyl Stus Donetsk National University), IRYNA MATSYSHYNA (Vasyl Stus Donetsk National University), OLENA SKALATSKA (Vasyl Stus Donetsk National University), Archetype of “Country Savior”: Main Signs of Manipulation (Experience of Ukraine)
The COVID-19 pandemic has updated the attention of social scientists in the study of the role and influence of archetypes on public opinion. On social networks, Ukrainian politicians inform citizens about the fight against the pandemic. It is presented as a feat, the salvation of not only the nation, but also the world. Politicians are independently constructing an image of the hero who helps to create a vaccine or arrange its supply and save the country’s population. To establish the archetype of the hero through the discourse of vaccination, this articlea analyzed the strategies of constructing the archetype of the “country savior,” using the Greimas actantial model. As a result, the actantial categories were discovered by using the computer semantic analysis of tweets. It was found that politicians use the archetypes of the savior-industrialist (Viktor Medvedchuk), savior-inspirer (Volodymyr Zelenskyy) and savior-patron (Petro Poroshenko). A method for measuring negativism and its intensity in the messages of politicians was also proposed, and it was found that the representative of the government perceives the situation in a more positive way, while the opposition mostly negatively. It was also found that the amount of negativism and its intensity can be interpreted through the actantial models.
Keywords: Archetype, vaccination, discourse, manipulation, Twitter.
NATALIIA STEBLYNA (Vasyl Stus Donetsk National University), n.steblyna@donnu.edu.ua.
IRYNA MATSYSHYNA (Vasyl Stus Donetsk National University), i.matsyshyna@donnu.edu.ua.
OLENA SKALATSKA (Vasyl Stus Donetsk National University), elena-s2008@ukr.net.
RADU GEORGE DUMITRESCU (University of Bucharest), A Theoretical Overview of the Creation of the Inimical Other in Contemporary Populist Discourse
Populist discourse is notoriously hard to pinpoint, molding itself on a great variety of national circumstances. In every instance, however, one element always remains present, namely the opposition between the people and the inimical Other. The Other has been a constant for populists from Juan Peron to Donald Trump. The present article argues that despite the importance placed upon “the people” within scholarship on populism, the inimical Other is presently the key concept through which populism is defined. Placing a negative term as central to the populist phenomenon, the article will then show the importance of the inimical Other in historical terms. Unlike those who abide by the discursive rules of liberal democracy, which pacify friend-enemy distinctions, populists embrace a foundational Manichean opposition that is reminiscent of defunct ideologies such as fascism, Nazism, and communism.
Keywords: Populism, political theory, comparative politics, political discourse, political identity.
RADU GEORGE DUMITRESCU (University of Bucharest), radu.dumitrescu@drd.unibuc.ro.
ANDREEA ZAMFIRA (“Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu), The RTV Programme in German in the context of the national communist regime’s minority and cultural policies (1969-1985)
Based on audio-visual and written archives of the Romanian Television (RTV), and on document-interviews with TV producers, this article analyzes the Program in German, broadcast by this public institution for the German “cohabiting nationality” between 1969 and 1985, in the context of the communist regime’s minority and cultural policies of that time. Scrutinizing the principal sections of the considered Program, the author observes that this one was massively used as an instrument of the communist propaganda, as a tool for elite manipulation and cultural reproduction. The RTV Program conceived for the German “cohabiting nationality” had, in fact, as main subject the economy and the so-called “communist great achievements,” because it was in fact used as a tribune for praising the regime, the Communist Party and Nicolae Ceauşescu. It serves also as a tool within the process of building the Romanian “socialist nation” – a new “imagined community,” denuded of references to the multiethnic past and exclusively based upon the common ground of ideology. Consequently, references to Germanness became an object of ideologization and censorship.
Keywords: Nicolae Ceauşescu, national communism, “socialist nation,” Germanness, Romanian public television.
ANDREEA ZAMFIRA (“Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu), andreea.zamfira@ulbsibiu.ro.
ANNALES
***, Chronology of the Romanian Political Life. November 1, 2021 ̶ March 31, 2022
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