Has the AfD changed German politics

The entry of the AfD to the Bundestag marks a new stage in German politics. This article traces the origins of this right-wing populist party against the background of extreme rightwing parties in post-war Germany. It analyses the main precepts of the party’s programme and its activity in parliaments on the regional (Länder) level. A look at where AfD-voters are coming from reveals a long-term trend of a weakening alignment between voters and parties and a growing fragmentation of the German party system.

Judicial activism and the American election process

This article analyses the phenomenon of judicial activism in the American electoral process. It tries to estimate whether the political system of the United States of America has become hostage to the law-making role of the judiciary, which actively controls the compliance of election laws with the Constitution, thus drawing courts into purely political processes, or whether the nature of the disputes settled by judges rather makes it impossible for them to avoid being influenced by and influencing issues of a political nature. The article analyses various legal acts and court decisions, mostly concerning the current status of federal campaign finance in the United States, and demonstrates that more spheres traditionally reserved for other branches of government are being appropriated by the judicial branch.

The basis of state image formation in international communication, as exemplified by the Republic of Belarus

In the modern world, the formation of a state’s image, which is one of its main resources, largely depends on the state’s participation in international communication processes. Whether the formation of the image will be successful is largely determined by three factors: the clarity and intelligibility of its identification, both for its citizens and the international community; the compliance of the legal framework in the field of information relations with international standards; and the structuring of the information policy according to the principles of two-way communication, including openness and free access to information. The political authorities of the Republic of Belarus, relying on the concept of ideologization, treat the global exchange of information as a threat to the legitimacy of its power and try to cultivate absolute control over the communication and information processes, paradoxically making it impossible to implement the tasks set by themselves in this area.

When Catholicism meets the EU: it’s not always Euroenthusiasm

This paper examines why, when and how Catholicism adopts a Eurosceptic narrative and whether religious Euroscepticism can emerge in post-communist countries, also comparing how the narrative changed before and after accession. The scope is threefold: (i) first, it seeks to provide an in-depth study on Catholicism and European integration. While religionhas generally been considered as supportive of a positive attitude toward the European Union (EU), this analysis shows it can also become an element of Euroscepticism; (ii) second, it focuses on the case study of Poland, using CBOS and PNES data; and (iii) third, it suggests an original framework, and explores, from a comparative perspective, when and how the Roman Catholic Church (or a branch thereof) has sought an alliance with a political party.

Party funding regulation in Poland (1990–2015): an appraisal

In the second half of 2015 Poland held a referendum in which voters were asked to give their opinion on the way party funding was regulated. Of those 7.8 percent of voters who turned out at the polls, only 17.4 percent voted in favour of the system of public funding in force at the time. Taking into consideration such a “negative” social opinion regarding the Polish regime of party funding, this article examines how political party funding (bothpublic and private) is regulated in Poland, how it has changed over time, and how it could be developed. The main conclusion is that even if the current regime is better than the one existing before 2001, there is still much room for improvement.

The cartel party, consensus democracy and democracy without politics

Although the age of the mass party as an organizational form is long in the past, the mass party remains a widely accepted normative ideal, closely connected to the idea of party government and to a voters-as-principals-parties-as-agents understanding of democracy. In evolving from mass party, to catch-all party, to cartel party European democracies have also been evolving towards an ‘anti-political’ view of government, along with models of consensus democracy and the regulatory state. This evolution helps to explain the decline in popular connection to political parties. Ironically, the associated causes of this decline are generally regarded as good, notwithstanding that the decline itself is often identified as a crisis. Moreover, analysis of this decline suggests as striking similarity between the consensus model of democracy and the cartel party model of democracy, notwithstanding that the first is often seen as a goal to which democracies should be moving while the second is seen as a threat to democracy itself.