Vistas for the Politicization of Scientific Knowledge Through the Lens of Post-Normal Science

The article summarizes some results of the discussion, which has the goal to grope the prospects for science to acquire the status of a political actor in contest with the emergence of the phenomenon of post-normal science. Leaning upon the comments and considerations expressed by the participants in the discussion, questions raised for a further, more in-depth study of the problem of politicizing science. These questions assess the importance of forecasts of human society development within the context of the constantly growing and deterrent problems of life support that accompany the movement towards the post-industrial era on a global scale.

7. The Court of Justice of the European Union:

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) is one of the key institutions in the European political system, and amongst the less well known. Described as one of the most powerful international courts, and perceived as one of the reasons the UK left the European Union (EU) (their main argument being that they did not want to be held to account by an unelected and non-British court), the Court continues to be shrouded in mystery. The aim of this chapter is to facilitate an understanding of the structure, history, and workings of this Court, as a key actor in the EU’s institutional system. As such, it is not only a judicial actor but a ‘political’ actor too. Its constitutional role, as well as its role during the economic and financial crisis, illustrates these multiple facets.

The nasty face of the liability of foreignness: MNCs and rent extraction

Purpose This study aims to clarify the factors that act as a buffer to rent extraction from multi-national corporations (MNCs) in exchange relationships with the host country’s political actors. Design/methodology/approach This study proposes a conceptual model of the factors that determine rent extraction by host country political actors from MNCs. The model identifies the sources of power the MNC can use to alleviate the power imbalance relative to the political actor to decrease rent extraction. Additionally, it identifies the factors that constrain the power-advantaged political actor, thus moderating the relationship between power imbalance and rent extraction. Findings This conceptual paper’s propositions remain for future empirical validation. Originality/value This study integrates insights from the international business literature and resource dependence theory (RDT) to identify the determinants of firm-specific rent extraction risk for MNCs. First, the model sheds light on the heterogeneity among MNCs in their susceptibility to rent extraction and their ability to manage their liability of foreignness in the host country. Second, by integrating the horizontal and vertical distribution of power in the political environment to analyze the power-dependence relationship between the MNC and host country political actors, the framework addresses a shortcoming of RDT and accounts for the dynamics of the external environment for MNCs managing their dependencies. This study also provides a basis for discussing the rent extraction MNCs face worldwide and lays the foundation for future empirical works.

Theorizing the globally engaged city in world politics

Cities both large and small, more and less economically advanced, are deeply involved in efforts to address the most challenging and complex issues of contemporary global governance, ranging from climate change and conditions of insecurity to human migration and public health. Yet this puzzling phenomenon is largely ignored within International Relations (IR) scholarship, and only partially theorized by scholars working in other fields of inquiry. Our premise in this article is that attempts to understand and assess city participation in world politics are augmented by focusing on the global identity of the city, since understanding what cities do in world politics is shaped by who cities (think they) are on the global stage. In proposing a subtle shift, from the passively labeled global city to what we call the globally engaged city, we direct analysis to the political and discursive forces shaping, delimiting, and informing this novel role for the city as a world-political actor. We propose that city identity is now fractured into local and global dimensions and set out two analytically distinct contexts in which the global identity of the city is forged through a process of differentiation from the nation-state. Our framework highlights in particular the politics of recognition shaping how the globally engaged city is defined and diffused. Through two empirical vignettes we illustrate the value of our framework as a means for IR scholarship to bring cities in from the analytic hinterlands and better understand their (potential) impact on the world stage.

The European Parliament’s role in EU digital governance: Aspiration and reality

Despite its enhanced legislative powers, the European Parliament still struggles to be recognised as an authoritative and reliable political actor. Its current role in EU digital governance serves as a good example to illustrate both the aspirations of the parliamentarians as well as their actual impact. Confronted with a horizontal policy issue that affects all sectors of the analogue and digital world parliamentary working methods have proven to be unfit for purpose. The European Parliament has so far been unable to assume leadership to guide the EU through the digital transformation process. Yet, its aspirations are not pulled out of thin air. Intellectual freedom, swift decision-making channels, and an open and pragmatic debating culture make it, in fact, predestined to define an overarching and balanced digital agenda for the EU. Before this is achievable, however, it is necessary to execute comprehensive internal reforms to overcome a list of structural, financial, political and external deficits.

A New Letter from Byron to Count Alborghetti

This article introduces a newly re-discovered letter, now in the Pforzheimer collection at the New York Public Library, that Byron sent to Count Giuseppe Alborghetti on 11 December 1820. His letter is quick, business-like, and urgent, one of the many that sped between Byron and the Count throughout this period. Alborghetti was Byron’s neighbour in Ravenna and the secretary to the Papal Legate of Lower Romagna. Alborghetti was a political ally but not a revolutionary, a reader of Byron’s poetry, a confidante, and maybe also a friend. Their correspondence spotlights Byron in one of his most complex roles: as a political actor at once naïve and savvy, firing off reports, questions, and opinions on political affairs that entangled him, involved him, and yet found him always at a remove.

PEOPLE AS A COLELCTIVE POLITICAL ACTOR (ON THE EXAMPLE OF TUNISIA)

The article discusses the role of people as a collective actor in the Jasmine Revolution, which occurred in Tunisia at the beginning of 2011. The Tunisian revolution, that had aris-en from collective national sense of dignity and justice, was marked by its spontaneous character. It is shown, that this revolution was related neither to parties nor movements, preparing politically revolutionary renewing of the society. The revolution was guided neither by leaders nor authoritative persons. The program of country transformation also lacked. Taking into account positions of Tunisian scholars, the content of notion “people” and its changeable character, as well as its liberating function, manifesting during political reforms is revealed. Peculiarities of political transit during first months of its post-revolutionary development are analyzed.

Advertising communications in politics: the essence and main approaches to the study

The purpose of this work is to develop and test a definition of «advertising communications in politics». A retrospective method is used, which assumes an analysis of development of scientific approaches to the phenomenon of political advertising in the Russian political science. The result of this study is the definition of «advertising communications in politics», by which it is proposed to consider the process of transmission by a political actor to other political market participants of advertising information containing some data about this actor, their program and activitywhileusing various argumentation, as well as rhetorical, stylistic and other speech techniques, and the purpose of which is to influence the behavior of the selected electoral groups and to encourage them to commit certain targeted actions. The proposed definition allows identifying and analyzingof advertising communicationsin the digital environment with its new frameworks, such as for example posts and publications in social networks, as well as materials on the official websites of political actors. The theoretical significance of this work lies in the relevance of the proposed definition for the digital environment, as well as in the possibilityof using it for distinguishing advertising communications from PR communications, since the nature of the information transmitted in the process of communication is used as a criterion for distinction.

Manipulation in Politics

Manipulation is a means by which a person is gotten to do something that the person was not initially inclined to do. As such, it is a form of power. Distinguishing it from other forms of power, such as persuasion, coercion, and physical force, is both important and difficult. It is important because it often matters which form of power a political actor uses, and manipulation is commonly thought to be a form of power whose exercise is undesirable. It is difficult because the line between manipulation and persuasion is often obscure, and because the term manipulation can be applied to tactics that influence the target’s state of mind, and tactics that change the target’s situation. Political theorists and philosophers have offered several accounts of manipulation: Some see it as deceptive influence, some see it as covert influence, some see it as influence with covert intent, some see it as offering bad reasons, and some see it as changing the external situation. While each of these approaches gets some things right about manipulation, each faces important challenges as well. One reason why manipulation seems undesirable is that it appears to undermine autonomy. This fact helps explain why concerns about manipulation arise in discussions of “nudges” that are meant to improve people’s decision making without coercion. Even if nudges benefit their targets, they may be undesirable on balance if they involve autonomy-undermining manipulation. Manipulation is a useful tool for autocrats, but it poses serious problems for democracies. This is because it appears to undermine the consent on which democratic legitimacy depends. Some political theorists argue that the problems posed by manipulation can be best addressed through deliberative democracy. Others dispute this suggestion. At the level of practice, there is reason to worry that late-20th- and 21st-century developments in psychology and the social and information sciences, as well as changes to the media landscape, threaten to make manipulation more prevalent and effective.