Identification as an Indicator of Social Entropy Under Globalization: Ukrainian Realities and International Context

The purpose of the article is to show modern trends in identification in the context of globalization and the specific conditions of political and economic systems, to indicate ways of influencing their formation, to change the value paradigm of identification associated with harmonious human relations. А hypothesis is that modern identification in Ukraine does not correspond to the liberal-democratic tradition and will continue to generate conflict. The existing identification structure should be used to reorient individuals and groups to effective communication within organizations, which will contribute to the political stability and security of the state. The following approaches and research methods have been used as tools to achieve this purpose: synergetic method; the reflective method; the dialectical method; a comparative method; structural-systemic method; synthesis method. The article covers the following issues: Analysis of identification models; Features of the identification mechanism in post-soviet realities; Modern synergetic model of identification in Ukraine; Peculiarities of culture formation in the conditions of digital and socio-cultural globalization; A new approach to identification as a factor of political stability and security. The authors made the following conclusions: The “ethnic model” of identification turns into a strange attractor, resulting in the Ruelle-Takens scenario. According to the theory of synergetics, this scenario became possible after three bifurcations in the political and economic system of Ukraine over the past 29 years. The “turquoise paradigm” elements should be taken as a basis for model of national identity.

Socio-Religious Visionaries in Bulgaria (1920–1950s): the Christo Oustabachieff Case

The article is a case study of the life, work and ideas of the Bulgarian political and religious figure Christo Oustabachieff (1871–1953). Beginning his career as a financial official, political activist and founder of one of the first xenophobic organizations, after the First World War he devoted himself entirely to religious activities: he founded the “Good Samaritan” Religious Society (1921), became leader and ideologist of the Orthodox Holy Society for Spiritual Renewal of the Bulgarian people (1924), of the "Greater (Peaceful) Bulgaria" Union (Political Party) (1926–1944), of the "St. John of Rila” National Defense Organization (1933) and of the Slavic-Bulgarian People's Christian Union (1945–1953). His ideas have a religious and political character and represent a prototype of the Christian Democratic tradition in Bulgaria. In the context of the post-WW1 crisis and the widespread of the New Religious Movements, he declared himself a spiritual leader and initially guided his numerous followers with oral prophecies, revelations and dreams. Developed in the 1930s in written messages, they acquired an eclectic character, uniting religious fundamentalism, messianism and prophetism. Oustabachieff 's political visions in the 1930s–1940s were strongly influenced by authoritarianism, nationalism, xenophobia, and anti-Semitism. Their core was an idea of a Slavic monarchy – based on Christian Democratic values, a future center of a Balkan federation, and a realized Medieval and Bulgaria Revival period ideal of "Great Bulgaria”. The study uses historical approach and is based on unknown archival sources, combined with data from periodicals and published works of Oustabachieff.

A Self-Critical Public: Cumulation of Opinion on Belarusian Oppositional YouTube before the 2020 Protests

YouTube-based discussions are a growing area of academic attention. However, we still lack knowledge on whether YouTube provides for forming critical publics in countries with no established democratic tradition. To address this question, we study commenting to Belarusian oppositional YouTube blogs in advance of the major wave of Belarusian post-election protests of 2020. Based on the crawled data of the whole year of 2018 for six Belarusian political videoblogs, we define the structure of the commenters’ community, detect the core commenters, and assess their discourse for aggression, orientation of dialogue, direction of criticism, and antagonism/agonism. We show that, on Belarusian YouTube, the commenters represented a genuine adversarial self-critical public with cumulative patterns of solidarity formation and find markers of readiness for the protest spillover.

Citizens support ambitious but costly food waste governance

About one-third of all food produced for human consumption worldwide is wasted, particularly in high-income countries. Reducing this waste is key to decreasing negative environmental impacts from the food sector and increasing food security in developing countries. Yet, achieving food waste reduction is challenging. It is widely presumed that efforts at stronger food waste governance may increase food prices, and hence consumer and citizen opposition that renders effective governance politically unfeasible. Here, we assess this critical presumption and argue that policy framing and design can ensure public support for ambitious but costly food waste governance, while policy feedbacks from voluntary firm actions are unlikely to diminish public support. Our empirical analysis uses survey experiments with a population-representative sample (N=3’329) from a typical high-income country with a unique direct democratic tradition, Switzerland. First, in a combined framing and conjoint experiment, we show that messages emphasizing national or international social norms in favor of reducing food waste (policy framing) can increase public support for more ambitious reduction targets. We also show that a majority of citizens support food waste governance that leads to substantial increases in food prices, but only if such policies set stringent reduction targets and are transparently monitored (policy design). Finally, in a vignette experiment, we show that voluntary industry initiatives do not crowd out individuals’ intentions to reduce their food waste nor support for stronger governmental regulation, but even crowd public support in if industry initiatives are unambitious (policy feedback). Our research offers an analytical template for studying public support for food waste governance and shows that there is more political room for adopting ambitious policies than hitherto presumed.

The State of Liberal Democracy With Regard to Elections and Political Stability in Africa: Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice in Tanzania and Keny

This study explores the state of liberal democracy and political stability in Africa. In particular it intends to assess what is said about liberal democracy in relation to free and fair election, political stability and the politics of ethnicity in Tanzania and Kenya and the reality happening on the ground (the practice) in East African countries. The rationale for undertaking this analysis is that the East African countries have experienced political transformation: for instance, for much of the post-colonial period East African countries tended to live under one-party regime, but since 1990s East African countries embraced multiparty system. This study pays attention to assessing the outcomes of liberal democracy in East African countries in particular examining the extent to which the liberal democracy promotes free and fair elections, political stability and the mitigation of the politics of ethnicity. This study employed a comparative analysis, in which it compared the extent to which liberal democracy is practiced in Tanzania and Kenya and how far the above-mentioned parameters are realized under the broad spectrum of liberal democracy. The methods of data collection were interviews and documentary review and the discussion of the findings was organized around the sub-themes of this study. The period covered in this discussion is the contemporary period from 1990’s to 2019. The findings indicate that even though African countries have adopted liberal democracy, in some of the East African countries like Kenya, political stability and free and fair elections have not been fully realized, while in Tanzania the experience indicates that political stability is relatively realized after elections. This study concludes that even if the institutions of liberal democracy have gradually developed with partial free and fair elections, the manifestations of political instability still exist in some of the East African countries, as shown by the election violence in Kenya comparatively to Tanzania. Therefore, the interface between the liberal democracy and political stability has not been sufficiently realized in the liberal democratic tradition. This study recommends that elections as one of the pillars of liberal democracy should be properly and fairly instituted, so that the role of liberal democracy is realized in fostering peace and tranquility.

The Oxford Handbook of Freedom of Speech

This book discusses freedom of speech, which is central to the liberal democratic tradition. Freedom of speech touches on every aspect of our social and political system and receives explicit and implicit protection in every modern democratic constitution. Moreover, it is frequently referred to in public discourse and has inspired a wealth of legal and philosophical literature. The book provides a critical analysis of the foundations, rationales, and ideas that underpin freedom of speech as a political idea, and as a principle of positive constitutional law. In doing so, it examines freedom of speech in a variety of national and supranational settings from an international perspective.

Dissenting opinions on the freedom of peaceful assembly

The main purpose of the article is to analyze the content of dissenting opinions of the judges of the Constitutional Court of Russia regarding the implementation of freedom of peaceful assembly. The author concluded that in 2009–2020, there were three judgements (postanovlenie) and one decision (opredelenie) by the Constitutional Court of Russia (hereinafter also referred to as the CCR) that were accompanied by dissenting opinions of CCR judges. In 2013, one single judgment of the CCR was accompanied by three dissenting opinions. This research analyzes the six dissenting opinions of the judges of the Russian Constitutional Court, which considered various problematic issues regarding the implementation of freedom of peaceful assembly in the contemporary Russian Federation. The author also analyzes the role and significance of the dissenting opinions in the context of amendments to the Russian Constitution in 2020, and changes in legislation that significantly limited the publicity of dissenting opinions of CCR judges. This article shows the role of dissenting opinions as: a means to raising the level of legal consciousness in society, a guarantee of a fair and open trial, a guarantee of the independence of judiciary and judicial democracy, and a means of improving legislation and law enforcement practice. The author concludes that the CCR judges’ dissenting opinions could in some cases be regarded as “sleeping law”, because the European Court of Human Rights later confirmed the judges’ minority report in findings. The article uses traditional research methods such as analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, logical method, and comparative legal methods. The author expresses that it is necessary to keep the democratic tradition of constitutional justice, which allowed the publicity of dissenting opinions of CCR judges during 1991–2020. It is also concluded that the dissenting opinions of the Constitutional Court judges enable a deeper understanding of the political and legal nature, features, and main stages of the development of Russian public assembly law, one of direct democracy’s most important institutions alongside elections and referendums. The author argues that dissenting opinions of the judges of the Constitutional Court of Russia make it possible to identify gaps and defects in the legal regulation of public events in Russia. The study was funded by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) and the Expert Institute for Social Research (EISR) in the framework of the research project no.20-011-31740.

A estabilidade da democracia e a cultura política no Uruguai: revisão a partir da ciência política uruguaia

According to the existing literature, Uruguay is considered as one of the countries with the largest democratic tradition in Latin America, with several papers and books discussing its development and stability. From sociological essays of the mid-twentieth century up to the most recent studies in the field of political science, the dominant interpretations point to the longevity of the party system and the premature establishment of the “polyarchy” democracy. Based on the perspective of Uruguayan researchers, this paper aims to perform a literature review on democracy in Uruguay. Despite methodological and theoretical advances in political science, interpretations regarding the theme have been associated to the earliest hypothesis. Therefore, a wider use and deepening of cultural hypotheses as sources of democratic stability would enrich the debate around democratic stability in Uruguay.