Dynamics of democracy aid allocation : from democratic donors to authoritarian regimes

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze democracy aid allocation mechanisms between Western donors and authoritarian regimes in recipient countries. The theoretical mechanism explains how strategic choices of donors and recipient countries based on their interests affect the composition of democracy aid. As a part of democracy promotion policy, Western donors have increased democracy aid after the end of the Cold War. They provide various types of democracy aid targeting the advancement of democratic institutions, practices, and norms in authoritarian regimes. I classify democracy aid into two types: regime-compatible democracy aid and regime-incompatible democracy aid based on authoritarian regimes' preference regarding democracy aid. Then, I discuss that donors' strategic choice based on security and/or economic interests changes the shape of democracy aid patterns. The empirical findings from the analyses of U.S. democracy aid toincreased regime-compatible democracy aid to their client states. Moreover, authoritarian regimes secure more regimecompatible democracy aid using their leverage over the U.S., when they have a higher political instability. The findings suggest that the strategic choices of donors and recipient countries affect decisions on types of democracy aid and shape the democracy aid allocation patterns.

ТЕОРИЯ П. ВИРНО: КОММУНИКАЦИЯ, НОВАЯ ПУБЛИЧНОСТЬ, ДЕМОКРАТИЯ

The article is about the key moments of the theory of post-operaist philosopher Paolo Virno in connection with the concepts of nonmaterial economy and general intellect. The theory of post-operaism is based on the judgment that, from the one hand, communication becomes the leading mean of production and increment of capital in the frame of Post-Fordist capitalism; from the other hand, communication as the mode of production of «common» can be the foundation for the labor autonomy from capital and emergence the new types of democracy. The borders between labor (poesis), political activity (praxis) and intellect (life of Mind) blur in the frame nonmaterial economy functioning. As a result, we have deal with the situation of politization of labor and highlighting the phenomenon of virtuosity as a key competence in the new type of capitalism. Connection between labor and politics moves the labor activity in to category of public action that build new understanding of publicity based on the mastery of language and communication. Marх’s sustained division of labor on productive and unproductive, where the last isn’t able to create surplus value, gets the new conceptualization in the frame of post-operaist theory. Contemporary communicative capitalism has shown that the intellectual worker-virtuoso can make surplus value in the frame of cultural industry development, the «life» labor serves the capital in such situation. But, at the same time, the virtuoso linguistic activity as the basis of nonmaterial economy can become the foundation for the new types of democracy, which differ from the project of neoliberal democracy, where labor gets the characteristics of political action and receives the autonomy from capital. The concept of labor as virtuoso political action based on the idea of interactive and communicative foundation of politics which can to create the new space of publicity using the communicative technologies. These technologies empower the realization of participatory democratic processes for the citizens in the frame of political life and provide type of political interaction which sets out the continuity of the process of production of common knowledge, ideas, communications, relationships and finance as the basis for the new type of democracy. All of that promote the manifestation of communist (production of «common») tendencies in cooperative functioning of knowledge, communication and capital.

Evolution of Types of Democracy and the Threat of Populism for Transitive States: a Media Aspect

Drawing from the examples of newly formed and former democracies, the article examines the directions which the transformation of this political concept has taken in context of the expansion of the public sphere and changes in how the democratic process is implemented. Attention is drawn to how the transition of the forefront of political life from traditional centers of its “distribution”- governments, parliaments, and municipal authorities, to the “fatherland” of the public sphere and media of varying quality has become one of the reasons for the accelerated proliferation of politics of the populist variety. The rise of media in Ukraine, where it falls under complete ownership of centers of oligarchy, provides grounds for mentioning a special type of “oligarchic democracy”, which serendipitously exploits the opportunities offered by populism. At the same time, the examples of democratic crises in other nations have become widespread enough, so that they encourage casting doubt on crucial democratic processes, including elections: electoral democracy has formally taken place, although it hasn’t fulfilled its essential function of including the citizenry in making key social decisions. Researchers assert that media is not the only source that breathes life into populist politics as a means to seize power. This carries the threat of destroying the very institutions through which the democratic form of government is realized. Transitional democracies are also subjected to the erosion of populism through problems with asserting the supremacy of law and difficulties with establishing liberal market economics, which should have been synchronized with their political transformation. Authors refer to the fact, that populism is a problem shared by governments with diverse histories of democratic life. Behind democracy always lurks the threat of false self-rule, which can lead to the rise of new authoritarian regimes under the guise of populist conservative declarations and national protectionism. Russia could become an example of this, after its wholly democratic process of voting on amendments to its national constitution, which is expected during 2020. Controversy in equal or greater measure has also surrounded the future of Great Britain after Brexit.

15. Democracies, Democratization, and Authoritarian Regimes

This chapter focuses on democracies, democratization, and authoritarian regimes. It first considers the two main approaches to analysing the global rise of democracy over the last thirty years: first, long-term trends of modernization, and more specifically economic development, that create preconditions for democracy and opportunities for democratic entrepreneurs; and second, the sequences of more short-term events and actions of key actors at moments of national crisis that have precipitated a democratic transition — also known as ‘transitology’. The chapter proceeds by discussing the different types of democracy and the strategies used to measure democracy. It also reviews the more recent literature on authoritarian systems and why they persist. Finally, it examines the challenges that confront democracy in the face of authoritarian revival.

Funkcje mediów w demokracjach

The belief in the effectiveness and power of media influence causes politicians, media communication specialists, and democracy theorists to use the media for promotional activities aimed at shaping and persuading public opinion and improving it through education and empowerment. It turns out, however, that reading numerous conceptualizations of media functions depends on the way democracy is understood, how politics is perceived, and what is the role of public opinion in the system. The article places various concepts of media missions (from the Hutchins Commission social responsibility trend, through the conceptualizations of Gurevitch, Blumler, Zaller, to participatory journalism and public journalism) in the context of three basic types of democracy: liberal, elitist and participatory, deliberative. Such consideration of democracies and the functions of the media allows for a better understanding of the observed tendencies to appropriate media by politicians and transnational corporations, media concentration processes, and hopes for the revival of journalism and the public sphere in social media.

POSSIBILITY OF LOCALIZATION AND INDIVIDUAL APPROACH TO THE INTEGRATION OF MIGRANTS IN THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

The legislation of the Russian Federation does not provide a full-fledged division of powers between different management levels, without clearly delineating the limits of competence in the field of population migration.There is practically no regulation of the migration sphere at the municipal level, especially with regard to the integration of migrants. At the municipal level all types of democracy state and local self-government intersect and interstate migrants are incorporated into the Russian social, economic, and cultural environment. At the same time, during the administrative reforms of local self-government in 2000-2010, the municipal level was actually drained of blood due to consolidation in order to optimize the budget. This narrows and calls into question the possibility of implementing an individual approach to the integration of migrants on the basis of individual contracts between the head of the municipality and a specific migrant in the modern conditions of the Russian Federation. The need for localization and an individual approach to integration at the municipal level at the present stage of development of the Russian Federation can be traced from the experience of foreign countries where there is a decentralization of power, and municipalities, through their associations, even take on those functions that their States, for one reason or another, including socio-political conditions, have ceased to pay due attention. For example in China the success of economic reform and overcoming the current global crisis was based on the gradual definition of the boundaries of the need for state intervention in the economy. Changing the nature of power relations and the vector of regulation of processes, i.e. delegating competencies, legislative initiative and budgetary powers in various areas to the local level, is the only way to implement an individual approach to the integration of migrants, including the mechanism of integration contracts.

Ewolucja reżimu politycznego w Polsce w okresie funkcjonowania rządu Beaty Szydło

Evolution of the political regime in Poland during the functioning of Beata Szydło’s government Liberal and illiberal democracies can be defined on the basis of five criteria distinct in both types of democracy: the rule of law, the government’s control, political elites’ integrity, media freedom and minorities’ protection. The article shows that four out of five criteria constituting illiberal democracy were fulfilled in Poland while Beata Szydło’s government was functioning the rule of law, the government’s control, media freedom and minorities’ protection, whereas only one systemic norm forming illiberal democracy minorities’ protection was fulfilled when the previous governments Donald Tusk and Ewa Kopacz’s governments operated. Thus, it can be stated that the transition from liberal to illiberal democracy took place in the period of the functioning of Szydło’s government.

What Do We Know about Hybrid Regimes after Two Decades of Scholarship?

In two decades of scholarship on hybrid regimes two significant advancements have been made. First, scholars have emphasized that the hybrid regimes that emerged in the post-Cold War era should not be treated as diminished sub-types of democracy, and second, regime type is a multi-dimensional concept. This review essay further contends that losing the lexicon of hybridity and focusing on a single dimension of regime type—flawed electoral competition—has prevented an examination of extra-electoral factors that are necessary for understanding how regimes are differently hybrid, why there is such immense variation in the outcome of elections and why these regimes are constantly in flux. Therefore, a key recommendation emerging from this review of the scholarship is that to achieve a more thorough, multi-dimensional assessment of hybrid regimes, further research ought to be driven by nested research designs in which qualitative and quantitative approaches can be used to advance mid-range theory building.

Are We on the Right Track? Inserting Democracy System unto Governance Mechanism for Not-For-Profit Organization

Research on good governance mechanism has been done tremendously for more than five decades but not for the not-for-profit sector. The concept is still inclusive and under theorized. Most study focus on adopting concept from commercial sector which is sometimes misleads. This paper tries to find clear evidence by inserting new variables namely democracy. The study begins by looking at the importance of stakeholder and brings in the idea of positioning the society in the organization. Using multiple case analyses in Indonesia, this paper found that types of democracy has a great influenced on how organization sets their governance mechanism. For those who are experiencing an indirect democracy system, democratic governance is the ideal form. Meanwhile for the direct system, compliance model would be the most ideal term. And finally for an active participatory system, the study suggests to use participatory governance model. Among those three, the last model shall be justified as the most ideal form of governance for the sector, thus leaving something for future agenda.

13. Democracies, Democratization, and Authoritarian Regimes

This chapter focuses on democracies, democratization, and authoritarian regimes. It first considers the two main approaches to analysing the global rise of democracy over the last thirty years: first, long-term trends of modernization, and more specifically economic development, that create preconditions for democracy and opportunities for democratic entrepreneurs; and second, the sequences of more short-term events and actions of key actors at moments of national crisis that have precipitated a democratic transition — also known as ‘transitology’. The chapter proceeds by discussing the different types of democracy and the strategies used to measure democracy. It also reviews the more recent literature on authoritarian systems and why they persist. Finally, it examines the challenges that confront democracy in the face of authoritarian revival.