Prisoner releases in postcolonial Uganda: Power, politics, and the public

This article examines prisoner releases in postcolonial Uganda, focusing on the period between independence in 1962 and the inauguration of Yoweri Museveni in 1986. During these decades, Uganda's government enacted over 30 large scale releases of prisoners and detainees, affecting approximately 20,000 individuals. These acts of clemency were highly politicized and frequently occurred during times of political transition or tension. While framed by Uganda's leaders and the official media as gestures of goodwill and symbols of progress, these releases ultimately reinforced executive power and the centrality of incarceration in state repression.

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE THEORY AND MODEL : A CONCEPTUAL OBSERVATION

This paper outlines the conceptual, contextual and disciplinary scope of the rapidly evolving topic of corporate governance. The aim of this paper is to make a study of different theories and models of corporate governance that have been used globally by analysing strengths and weaknesses for each one. This is to determine which one is the best theory and model and if it can be adopted to different economic systems. Corporate governance theory has tended to look to this theory to guide the decisions of the board of directors in curbing excessive executive power in the hands of management. While useful for this purpose, the Agency Theory provides limited guidance on corporate governance in real life situations which are far more complex. With the blurring of the roles of the principal and the agent, the currently prevalent governance framework, based on the Agency Theory has become self limiting and ineffective. Efforts to supplement the Agency Theory with alternative theoretical frameworks such as the Stakeholder Theory and the Stewardship Theory have, at times, tended to place the board of directors in conflict with their legal obligations to work in the interests of the shareholders. A governance model based on the concept of Trusteeship, while providing fresh insights, suffers from problems in implementation and remains a goal . These alternative frameworks have, therefore, not been of much practical use to the board members in helping them to decide what constitutes the “right” decision. We need new theoretical insights that will take us towards a comprehensive theory of governance. This paper seeks to highlight the various theoretical frameworks for corporate governance.

Institutional conditions for the implementation of sustainable development on the example of self-governing agricultural bodies in Poland

Motivation: The need for balance in the social, environmental and economic developments has been explored by numerous academic disciplines and fostered the implementation of subsequent political agendas both at the global and local levels. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the United Nations in 2015 is an example of an international initiative for sustainable development. All the goals of the Agenda were determined in view of global civilizational challenges, but in order for them to be implemented various stakeholders have to be involved, and projects on a national, regional, and local scale have to be carried out. Given the postulate of creating multilateral public and public-private partnerships for sustainable development and the principle of subsidiarity, it seems important to take into account the role of self-governing agricultural bodies in the system, implementing sustainable development goals. Agricultural self-governance is exercised in Poland through agricultural chambers established as public-law associations, forming part of the institutional system of public administration. The scope of tasks performed by these agricultural chambers covers matters of agriculture and rural development, including sustainable development. Aim: In her study the author seeks to answer the questions of whether the self-governing agricultural bodies in Poland are the key entities in the implementation of the postulates of sustainable development, or whether the competences of these agricultural chambers allow them to fully use the social potential of farmers for the dissemination of the concept of sustainable development. Results: The results of the survey demonstrate that the self-governing agricultural bodies play only a superficial role in the implementation of the sustainable development postulates. Although these agricultural chambers are formally established in the public law system, they do not have sufficient executive power, or material, human and financial resources to engage in effective action. The potential of the self-governing agricultural bodies to achieve the goals of sustainable development is not being fully used.

ШУМЕН ПО ВРЕМЕ НА ВТОРАТА СВЕТОВНА ВОЙНА

This article traces the development of the city of Shumen and partly of the Shumen region during the Second World War. Some important issues of the political, economic and cultural development of the city and the region are discussed. Emphasis is placed on the prosperity of the city of Shumen, which is mainly due to the fact that many of the senior representatives of the executive power were born in this city.

Bots in Public Arenas of Social Networks

In the study of social bots, one of the important trends is the transition from a technology-centered understanding of bots as a threat to information and computer security to a broader, socially-focused understanding of bots as a new tool of informational influence used by various social actors in online social networks. This transition is of value to modern sociology. As one such actor, the authors consider a group of civic activists who use bot-technology to construct and solve the problem of defrauded equity holders. The novelty of the article lies in the interpretation of this group’s activities in the context of the concept of public arenas. The botnet “Deceived equity holders of LenSpecStroy” was detected thanks to the author’s complex methodology that combined the method of frequency analysis of messages, profiling of bot accounts, including static and behavioral analysis of user profiles, statistical analysis of texts, analysis of the botnet’s structural organization, analysis of the content of its publications, and analysis of bursts of network publication activity. Analyzing these bursts of publication activity and the content of botnet publications showed how bot-technologies aided in implementing effective techniques aimed at constructing and maintaining the social problem of defrauded equity holders: expanding the capacity of the public arena, realizing (creating) dramaturgical novelty and emotional richness in discussing the problem, taking into account the organizational specifics of the public arena, directing interest in the problem towards other (related and equally important) public arenas (media, legislative and executive power, political parties).

Fullerowski paradygmat (nie)dobrego prawa i jego aktualność „hic et nunc”

The subject of the article is Fuller’s concept of the (not) good law paradigm defined by three notions: “internal morality of law,” “natural law of a formal nature,” and “formal rule of law” — in the perspective of its application in the current legal order of the Republic of Poland. The discourse was conducted in two stages: on a general, theoretical, and axiological levels as well as on a detailed, practical, and praxeological ones. The epistemological level with its retrospective view bears resemblance of two models: bad law and good law. The first, encapsulated in literary legal fiction, describes eight cases (anti-values) of King Rex’s legislative failures. King Rex is monarch with authoritarian and conservative traits who excludes the system of government based on the proportional cohabitation of three powers — legislative, executive, and judicative — in favour of anocracy, which is a hybrid regime “suspended” between democracy and authoritarianism. The second is a remedy in the form of axiological contours, postulates (values) of good law: generality, promulgation, prospectivity, clarity, non-contradiction, reality, stability, and compliance. These principles of the formal rule of law, contained in the concept of “soft” jusnaturalism, are a specific professional and ethical code for the public authority which constitutes, executes, and applies the law. The practical-cognitive level refers to subjectively selected examples of abusing the good lawstandard in the Polish legal and administrative order. It shows the omnipotent and simultaneously dysfunctional executive power in the area of governance and administration, aimed at a radical reconstruction of the social and legal system.

The Populist Moment

This chapter unpacks the populist moment by paying close attention to two main mechanisms that explain the reproduction of populism in power: electoral validation and the aggrandizement of executive power by eliminating institutional checks and balances and reducing societal accountability. The chapter shows how populist presidents found electoral validation for their radical institutional change by winning key referendums and immediate reelection. All these legitimizing elections have one important commonality: despite valid complaints about the lack of a level playing field, contenders did not dispute their outcome. The chapter also examines the different mechanisms populist presidents use to transfer political power in their favor: the gaining of new presidential powers; the subordination of state institutions, in particular the judiciary and the legislature; and the reduction of societal accountability by curtailing freedom of expression and association. These processes are examined in four cases of unconstrained populism in power.