Regional Diversity and Divided Memories in Ukraine

2012 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 616-642 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ararat L. Osipian ◽  
Alexandr L. Osipian

There appears to be a virtual absence of any serious distinctions in the programs and rhetoric of the three leading political parties in Ukraine: The Party of Regions, Bloc of Yulia Timoshenko, and Our Ukraine. Each party is in support of the market economy, democracy, human rights, and joining the European Union. The major distinction between these parties is in the way they see the country’s past. Such an intensive use of the past reflects the absence of differences in the way they see the future. This article is dedicated to the analysis of how the past has been used in Ukrainian politics during the period of active political and regional confrontation in 2004–2010. In particular, what specific historical stories and topics are in high demand in the political rhetoric and why, and how all of these factors may prevent the process of political consolidation of the nation. The article concludes that major political parties will most likely use the same regional stereotypes of viewing the past in mobilizing their electorate during the coming parliamentary elections of 2012. The technology of confronting the “two Ukraines” will be employed by the competing political camps once again.

Author(s):  
Piero Ignazi

Chapter 1 introduces the long and difficult process of the theoretical legitimation of the political party as such. The analysis of the meaning and acceptance of ‘parties’ as tools of expressing contrasting visions moves forward from ancient Greece and Rome where (democratic) politics had first become a matter of speculation and practice, and ends up with the first cautious acceptance of parties by eighteenth-century British thinkers. The chapter explores how parties or factions have been constantly considered tools of division of the ‘common wealth’ and the ‘good society’. The holist and monist vision of a harmonious and compounded society, stigmatized parties and factions as an ultimate danger for the political community. Only when a new way of thinking, that is liberalism, emerged, was room for the acceptance of parties set.


2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 675-684
Author(s):  
Johannes Krause

Despite the 2020 reform of Germany’s national parliament voting law, the debate about a robust voting system has not ended . Träger and Jacobs have convincingly shown that Naun­dorf’s suggestion to introduce a parallel voting system creates more problems than it solves, and thus more far-reaching approaches have to be considered . One way to stop the Bunde­stag from growing is to reject the two vote-system . Comparable to the system of Thuringia’s local elections, with open lists and three votes per voter, both the standard size of the Bun­destag can be safely adhered to and at the same time a personalized proportional represen­tation can be maintained . Among other advantages, the voters would have greater influence on the personalized composition of the Bundestag . In particular, reservations on the part of the political parties could stand in the way of such a sustainable solution to the ongoing problems with the German electoral system .


2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
Ahmad El-Sharif

The Late King Hussein’s last Speech from the Throne in 1997 was given amidst public outcry over the outcomes of the parliamentary elections which resulted the triumph tribal figures with regional affiliations after the boycott of most political parties. This brought to public debate the questions of maintain the long-established balance between the several socio-political structures in the political life in Jordan. While the speech can be perceived as a reflection of King Hussein’s vision about ‘Jordanian democracy’, it can also be interpreted as an elaborate scheme to construct the conventional understanding of the exceptionality of Jordan and its socio-political institutions; including democracy. This article discusses the representation of ‘Jordanian democracy’, the state, and the socio-political structures in Jordan as reflected in the Late King’s last speech from the throne (1997). The analytical framework follows a critical metaphor analysis perspective in which all instances of metaphors used to epitomise these issues are primarily acknowledged from there sociocultural context. Herein, the article focuses on revealing the aspect of metaphorical language by which the Late King Hussein legitimizes and, hence, constructs, the prevailing ideology pf the ‘exceptionality’ of Jordan.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 122
Author(s):  
Jaime Almansa Sánchez

While Archaeology started to take form as a professional discipline, Alternative Archaeologies grew in several ways. As the years went by, the image of Archaeology started being corrupted by misconceptions and a lot of imagination, and those professionals that were claiming to be scientists forgot one of their first responsibilities; the public. This lack of interest is one of the reasons why today, a vast majority of society believes in many clichés of the past that alternative archaeologists have used to build a fictitious History that is not innocent at all. From UFOs and the mysteries of great civilizations to the political interpretation of the past, the dangers of Alternative Archaeologies are clear and under our responsibility. This paper analyzes this situation in order to propose a strategy that may make us the main characters of the popular imagery in the mid-term. Since confrontation and communication do not seem to be effective approaches, we need a change in the paradigm based on Public Archaeology and the increase of our presence in everyday life.


2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Yudina

Abstract In this article, I am going to focus on how the radical nationalist movement in Russia fares in the current situation, given the political consolidation of the current regime, and the war in Ukraine1 and the government’s reaction to it. The article describes the situation as it stood at the end of 2014, which makes it predictably incomprehensive because new updates on the conflict still arrive every day, and there has also been more news about Russian ultra-right forces over the past few months.


1928 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 698-705
Author(s):  
James K. Pollock

The elections which were held throughout Germany on May 20, 1928, are of considerable interest and importance not only to Germany but also to the rest of the world. These elections, to be sure, did not have the dramatic interest which attended the Reichstag elections of December, 1924. But they deserve attention for a number of reasons: first, because they are the first elections to be held in the Reich under what may be called normal conditions; second, because elections for five Landtags and several city councils were held at the same time; and third, because the elections gave a further test, and supplied additional evidence of the operation, of the German system of proportional representation.Despite the intensive work of the political parties, the people were not aroused to much enthusiasm during the campaign. The old Reichstag was dissolved before Easter, but not until the last week of the campaign could one detect any excitement. Never before had the electors been bombarded with so much printed matter, posters, and, last but not least, loud-speakers and films. All the modern methods of appealing to the voters were tried by the numerous political parties. There were lacking, however, the overpowering issues and the battlecries which were so effective in 1924. Parades, demonstrations, meetings, and all the rest were carried through successfully on the whole, but they were quite dull and uninteresting. Only the two extreme parties, the National Socialists or Hitlerites on the right, and the Communists on the left, could appear enthusiastic. Nevertheless, the lack of what the Germans call a “grosse Parole” and the lack of excitement are not to be deplored; their absence probably indicates progress toward social and political consolidation.


2020 ◽  
pp. 000276422098111
Author(s):  
Cristina Del-Castillo-Feito ◽  
Gabriel Cachón-Rodríguez ◽  
Iria Paz-Gil

According to political science, modern societies can separate the state function and the politicians’ mission. However, the existing relationship between political disaffection and state legitimacy indicates the contrary. The interest held by the European Union inhabitants in their politicians has been decreasing, and the closeness to a specific political party or political leader has been weakening. Many European countries have a great degree of polarity in their political parties’ system, which augments the complexity of forming governments or even makes it impossible. Citizens have been affected by corruption, the economic situation, migratory crisis, or the European project weakness. They feel that politicians have forgotten their role as the people’s representatives and their responsibility to behave according to society’s general interest. Through its institutions, the state must ensure the country’s performance and maintain it despite the change in the political leaders. Moreover, its legitimacy will depend on the level of social support received by these institutions. This research aims to quantify if the current political disaffection influences the European Union states’ social support level or state legitimacy. It also expects to demonstrate which sociodemographic and psychographic variables influence on governments’ fragility and the dilution of state legitimacy, which is critical for countries’ stability. For this purpose, we used the available data from the European Social Survey for 2016, and we developed a statistical analysis through variation and regression analysis. The results highlight the strong effect that political disaffection, as well as variables such as religion, immigration perception, citizenship, or emotional state have on state legitimacy and reveal the need for changes in the political parties’ performance and behavior to maintain the countries’ stability.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Winfried Böttcher

In retrospect, the decade from 2010 to 2020 has provoked a crisis in human progress. In this book, the author proves this thesis using six occurrences, while also paying particular atten-tion to Europe’s role in relation to them: the refugee crisis the conflict in Ukraine Brexit the environment as a political issue nationalism the new coronavirus These six examples, which have had a staggering influence on the past decade, will also de-termine the political agenda in the coming decade. In view of this, the European Union has no future in its current state and thus needs to be reconceived.


2001 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana Chiroleu ◽  
Osvaldo Iazzetta ◽  
Claudia Voras ◽  
Claudio Diaz

Although university autonomy was apparently protected during Carlos Menem's government (1989-1999), actually it was gradually undergoing substantial changes. "Intrusive" devices had been prepared by the executive power, thus causing the restriction of its objectives. This kind of state participation was less explicit than in the past, being now associated with the establishment of a system of "punishment and reward," in which financing is subordinated to "performance," evaluated according to the parameters of multilateral credit organizations . In this work, we analyse the way in which this conflict took place under Menem's government, contrasting the meanings given to the idea of autonomy by the government and by the public institution; attentin focuses on the case of the National University of Rosario.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoltán Loboda

A tanulmány aktualitását az adja, hogy 2015-ben az UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organistion) közgyűlése a nemzetközi közösség felnőttoktatás-politikájára vonatkozóan új ajánlást fogadott el, amellyel egyben hatályon kívül helyezte a 39 évvel korábban elfogadott, és a nemzetközi felnőttoktatás-politikában sokáig meghatározónak számító ajánlását . Az új ajánlás nemcsak egy globális szakpolitikai reflexió az eltelt időszak politikai-ideológiai, társadalmi, gazdasági változásaira, hanem egyfajta szintézise is az UNESCO humanisztikus hagyományának és az OECD s az Európai Unió felnőttoktatás-politikájának. A tanulmány célja, hogy áttekintse, hogyan változott az elmúlt 40 évben a felnőttoktatás-politika célja, fogalmi és szakpolitikai keretrendszere, s hogyan ébredt az UNESCO a 2010-es évek közepére egy hosszú „csipkerózsika-álomból” s definiálta újra globális felnőttoktatás-politikáját.***Adoption of the new UNESCO Recommendation on adult education, and repailing the nearly forty years old recommendation, which provided reference points for international edult education policies and discourses, gave a momuntum for the analysis. The new recommendation is not only a global reflection on the political, ideological and econmical, social changes occured during this period but a sort of synthesis of the humanistic traditions of the UNESCO and the adult education (learning) policies of the OECD and the European Union. The aim of the study is to review how the concepts, policy frameworks and objectives of the international adult education policies changed in the past forty years and how the UNESCO awoke from its ’dream of Sleeping Beauty’ in the years of mid 2010’s and re-defined its new global adult education policy. 


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document