Influence of Ancient Mesopotamian Aesthetics of Gardens/Parks and Water Installations on the Development of Landscape Architecture

Based on the information from fundamental historical sources, the oldest origins of civilization can be found in the river valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates. Throughout Mesopotamia important routes of trade and migration of peoples followed, which influenced the emergence and development of one of the world’s first urban-type civilizations. It was here that the Sumerian civilization evolved, leading to a major cultural and technological breakthrough. Their widely used irrigation canals influenced not only the landscape, but also the entire ecological, economic and political systems of the time, water being a particularly important factor in this civilization. The oldest known gardens have also expanded here, and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon still fuel people's imagination. Due to its unique geographical location, the region has had a profound impact on the surrounding nations, and it is no accident that the Assyrian Imperial Parks of Northern Mesopotamia exerted a great influence on the civilizations that followed. Undoubtedly, ancient Mesopotamia occupies a fundamental place in the development of garden art. With the growing use of roof gardens and the use of plants in modern architectural constructions as an extremely important tool for composition, it is worth exploring more closely the origins of this landscape-relevant process.

The Challenges of Political Corruption in Australia, the Proposed Commonwealth Integrity Commission Bill (2020) and the Application of the APUNCAC

Political corruption affects each nation-state differently, but the outcomes are nominally the same: a deficit of public trust, weakened government institutions and undermined political systems. This article analyzes issues of political corruption in Australia by framing them within a national integrity ecosystem (NIE) and addressing them against the proposed Commonwealth Integrity Commission (CIC) 2020 bill. It also discusses prevalent ‘grey’ areas of Australian politically-corrupt behavior where they interact with the private sector: the revolving door, political donations, and lobbying; and the state of Australia’s implementation of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. This article argues for their inclusion within the mandated scope of the proposed CIC. There is a need for strong legislation, both domestic and international, to fight corruption. This article then discusses the application of the provisions of the draft Anticorruption Protocol to the UN Convention Against Corruption (APUNCAC) that may apply with respect to these ‘grey’ issues, and how an International Anti-Corruption Court may provide another institutional model for Australia to follow. Finally, this article links these proposals to the 2021 UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on Corruption and the 9th Conference of States Parties on the UNCAC (COSP9). These events illustrate multilateral momentum and progress on anti-corruption. As a country that has historically supported the UN multilateral framework and its institutions, this article recommends a proactive approach for Australia so that the passing of a strong domestic anticorruption initiative will contribute to the adoption, and eventual ratification, of the APUNCAC.

The Bright Future of Democracy is in Education

Does democracy have a bright future? This brief paper addresses this question and argues, that, thanks to Prometheus, political “animals” can build a better-managed corral for their common living which includes a better provision of education for all “animals.” A historical analysis of the long past may be used to discern what lies ahead. Democracy requires education and virtue, or to put it in one word, it requires pedagogy. The higher the level of pedagogy, the closer a politeia would come to an ideal democracy. Sometimes democracy is confused with equality in everything. Political “animals” are not equal, and political systems which treat people with different abilities equally have no future. An ideal society should discriminate according to levels of education obtained and the acquisition of material wealth. If the politeia is ideal, then each citizen has the same opportunity to become more educated and wealthier. In this free competition of being educated and the acquisition of individually made material wealth, ideal societies can flourish as Hesiod postulated in the 8th Century BCE and become stable despite Polybius’ predictions in the 2nd-1st Century BCE of the inevitable historical cyclicality of political systems. Keywords: education, pedagogy, democracy, oligarchy, monarchy, ochlocracy, tyranny, ideal politeia, Polybius

The Development of Initiatives and Municipal Referendums in Germany

Direct democracy offers possibilities for citizens to influence political decisions especially at the local level. In Germany, the local political systems have been affected by the introduction of direct democratic tools such as citizen initiatives and local referendums since the Reunification. The state legislations defined new conditions for citizen initiatives and municipal referendums with a minimum number of valid signatures for initiatives and a minimum approval rate for referendums. The chapter evaluates the practice of local initiatives and municipal referendums in Germany and examines the routinization of these tools in local politics.

Saving the Fundaments: Impact of a Military Coup on the Sudan Health System

Military coups are not uncommon occurrences, particularly in developing nations where political systems might be less firmly entrenched or still evolving. Developments of this nature can often have profound implications for the affected nation’s healthcare systems, both in the immediate aftermath and over the longer term. This paper narrates some notable consequences of political instability on the national health system, particularly placing them in the context of the military coup in October 2021 – emphasizing the context behind the political turbulence, its acute and direct consequences, and the possible long-term legacies of political shocks on the already overwhelmed health system. As a descriptive piece, this narrative does not only look at the impact of the military coup on hospitals, but considers the implications for the healthcare system as defined by the WHO, with particular emphasis on the impact of the coup on health funding from multi-laterals, service delivery, human resource availability, and supply chains in Sudan.

Populism, Media and Journalism

The articles in this special issue on populism, media and journalism build on, but also contribute to the extensive literature on the nature and consequences of populism. Among the questions raised are those about the gap between populism’s radical democratic discourse and actual practice, the destructive effects of populism on the structure and dynamics of various social fields, the importance of context in determining the actual nature of populist discourse and practice, as well as the role of globalization as it interacts with local context. Anti-elitism, anti-pluralism, polarization, charismatic leadership are not new tropes in studies of populism, yet they gain new tones when its effects on media and journalism are assessed. All in all, the study of populism in media and journalism raises important questions about its specificity in the context of new forms of communication and connection, how crises can create opportunities for its emergences, and how difference political systems engage with, or are resistant to, populist critiques. This special issue contributes to these questions and suggests new avenues for future research.

The Varying Mechanisms of Media Access: Explaining Interest Groups’ Media Visibility across Political Systems

A growing body of studies analyzes interest groups’ media visibility. Yet little is known about how the drivers of media access may vary across different interest group systems. This article focuses on two major mechanisms through which organizations can gain media visibility: media management efforts and the newsworthiness of elite actors. We hypothesize that media effort explains interest groups’ media access more strongly in competitive, pluralist interest group systems and that insider (i.e. “elite”) status does so more strongly in hierarchical, corporatist systems. We analyze surveys and media data on interest groups in the pluralist United Kingdom, the moderately corporatist Denmark, and the more strongly corporatist Finland. As hypothesized, media effort is most effective in the UK and weakest in Finland. However, we find only weak support for the insider status hypothesis: there is some evidence of the expected cross-country differences, but the effects are small and unrobust.

The Sound of Silence: Minorities, Abstention and Democracy

Despite the existence of an extensive literature, no definitive conclusion seems to emerge on the extent to which minorities are guaranteed by democratic rules in political systems. This paper contributes to this debate by proposing a modified Heigselmann and Krauss two-dimensional model of preferences in order to capture the role of abstention on minority representativeness. Regardless of the typology of abstention, simulation results show that voter abstention always benefits minorities.

The Principles of The City-State in Aflatun’s View

Aflatun’s thoughts, as great Greek philosopher, are still counted as one of the best references in terms of political philosophy and are in practice in the world of politics. Aflatun owns a utopian state based on the foundation of justice and virtue. Aflatun’s state, ruled by philosopher-kings, is characterized by having particular thoughts about the system of education. Politics is vitally important within Aflatun’s philosophy. It is regarded as means of planning his utopian city. Aflatun believes that political systems can be classified, in accordance to their ruling type, into aristocracy, timocracy, oligarchy, democracy, monarchy and dictatorship. Among them, Aflatun believes that aristocracy is the best since it’s practiced by a philosopher-king. Aflatun in his ideal state refers to metaphysics as an important basic of his utopian city. Aflatun’s view is that the ideal state can only be cherished in the life of hereafter, though those in power may be able to find some sort of the ideal life in this world. The philosopher-kings, on the other hand, are able to practice such an ideal life in this world. In Aflatun’s view, any sort of change happening in the world from the perfection towards the imperfection and weakness. This is due to the unstable feature of the world that never stays constantly. Only God is characterized by stableness and mortality. Aflatun thinks that ‘ethics’ is one of the practical fields of philosophy which shows the will of any human being that depends on performing the duty of individuals in the society to establish social justice. Aflatun states that education refers to the right preparation of human beings to suit the world of justice. He sees the education as the highest virtue. Aflatun repeats that all the social city-state classes have to get the proper education formed in certain phases based on the age of the citizens.