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A comparative analysis of selected short stories in the Balkan countries, as well as contemporary short stories of the world, will show us that the key themes of those stories are very similar to the short stories written during the period of transition in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1995-2010). For example, the story of the Soul Operation by an Iranian writer Mohsen Mahmalbafa, The Falcons by a Dutch writer Kader Abdolaha and On the Kitchen Stairs by a Polish writer Witold Gombrowic zinter connect with short stories by authors from Bosnia and Herzegovina, such as The Secret of Raspberry jam by Karim Zaimović or The Devilish work of Zoran Riđanović. A common thread manifests itself in the aforementioned stories, more specifically, a common theme which focuses on the need for eradication of the seeds of submission and compliance with the political system. Most authors focus on their domestic political systems; however, some portray and analyze systems in other countries as they see it, such as a Dutch narrator who focuses on a potential threat of infringement of human freedom. Moreover, Bellow Hubei by an Argentinian writer Anhelika Gorodis her underlines the importance of humanization within a political order. Faruk Šehić examines the political system in Bosnia and Herzegovina from a slightly different perspective. His collection of stories Under Pressure emphases the issue of pressure in the above war model of short stories in Bosnia and Herzegovina. These stories are the product of pressure and anxiety, with intent to latently promote new ways of spiritual survival, directly relating to the concept and the theme of the story The Past Age Man by Christian Karlson Stead. Further analysis of the alienation theme singled out short stories in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Plants are Something Else by Alma Lazarevska and Dialogues by Lamija Begagić, and pointed out their connection with some recent international short stories such as The Last Defence by Mahdi Šodžaija a contemporary Persian author who indicates the inappropriateness of spousal relations and the crisis of modern marriage. The alienation theme present in many short stories in Bosnia and Herzegovina also appears in a particularly impressive way in a short story Raggedy Africa by a Slovenian author Mark Švabič, which is clearly related to a short story The Seaside Fairy Tale by Miljenko Jergović from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Extremely interesting are the stories that suggest a crisis of legitimacy of culture and behavior, such as the story of Tito or Curriculum Vitae by a Slovenian writer Maja Novak, or Bankophobia by Ante Zirdum, demonstrating the individual culture of behavior and society in general in a regressive dimension manifested through addiction or phobia from banking institutions

Introduction. The contemporary university in the conditions of globalization has enriched its traditional functions to educate and create new elites with attracting not only domestic students but also the foreign youth to the educational and research process. In some cases it can maintain public diplomacy held by the domestic government still influencing it via the requests made by research professionals. This influence may come through the collision of interests of both researchers with students and the government. A Russian university represents mainly the government, that's why it's important to discover its role in public diplomacy. Methods and materials. The neoliberal approach to J. Nye's concept of "soft power" gives the possibility to consider the university as a public institute enriching state's soft power through public diplomacy. Official speeches of Russian government representatives, publications of Russian researchers, university web-sites give the ground to understand the Russian approach to the methods of public diplomacy. Analysis. First of all, it's important to reveal the ways to interpret the word combination "public diplomacy" in Russian. There are several possible terms: "publichnaya", "obshchestvennaya" , "narodnaya" diplomacy. The ways to use the word show different gradations of its meaning in research and political discourses which determine possible actors of public diplomacy in the Russian language. However, Russian officials in contrast to Russian researchers accept the term "obshchestvennaya" to describe the activity of government institutions in public diplomacy. That's why a university can be considered as an actor of "obshchestvennaya" diplomacy. Secondly, we reveal the ways to implement public diplomacy by Volgograd State University as one of regional universities. Results. Russian researchers following the English-language studies differentiate the concepts of "obshchestvennaya" and "publichnaya" (public) diplomacy according to the actors that implement this policy: the state cannot implement "obshchestvennaya" diplomacy, because it is a prerogative of social movements or non-governmental organizations (NGOs). At the same time, the concept of public diplomacy covers both the work of NGOs and the work of the state in creating its favorable image. However, Russian officials, trying to avoid the use of the Russian term "public diplomacy" incorrectly sounding in Russian, give preference to the phrase "obshchestvennaya diplomacy", implying that NGOs carry out public diplomacy with the help and on the initiative of the state. Moreover, they are not only public organizations who can conduct policies in this area. In other words, officials suppose that in comparison with research discourse, the circle of participants in "obshchestvennaya" diplomacy enlarges at the expense of state funds and platforms. Thus, a university that implements educational, research and publishing projects is involved in "obshchestvennaya" diplomacy. The position of the university in society, the authority of specialists whom it manages to attract, their international activity provide the soft power of the state.

Today, corruption remains a challenge for most post-socialist states. Unfortunately, this social pandemic was by and large inherited by these countries from the Soviet regime. A lot of representatives of that regime, who actually were the instigators of corrupt practices while governing a state, managed to keep their posts in power even after the regime change. In this way the representatives of the old regime facilitated further spread of corrupt practices in new governments. The research, conducted in cooperation with Professor Peter Rozic (USA), indicates an interesting phenomenon: lustration (in other words, the purge of government officials once affiliated with the Communist system) is indeed an effective mechanism to do away with corrupt legacy of a previous government. In the majority of post-socialist states (except for Albania and Bulgaria), where lustration was carried out in one form or another, we can observe a cleanup of the Soviet times instigators' corrupt practices in public authorities. Interestingly enough, nowadays, the corruption situation in these countries is considerably better than in those were lustration was not conducted. However, it is worth noting that lustration per se is not the panacea for corruption, but it does help to create a fertile ground and serves as a springboard for further anti-corruption measures and reforms. Yet what we see in Slovenia is, in fact, an obvious deviation from this pattern. Lustration was not carried out here. Nonetheless, the country is among the best anti-corruption performers and can be compared with Estonia, where lustration took place. Today, Estonia is ranked by Transparency International's CPI as a top performer among all other post-Soviet and post-socialist states. We, therefore, decided to look deeper into Slovenian anti-corruption efforts made by the new democratic government after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and to understand the reasons underlying its success in this field. Our research findings indicate that the first factor, which sets this situation apart, was filtering out the government authorities that could bring corrupt relationships or practices of the old Soviet regime, and replacing them with representatives of the nationally-oriented elites. This kind of purge, supposedly complemented by the factor of a small territorial and demographic size, created the advantageous conditions for corruption to be contained right from the start before it would become widespread. The second factor was following the GRECO recommendations to take institutional and legal anti-corruption measures during the process of accession to the European Union. Another defining characteristic of Slovenia is a relatively high quality of the political and good governance principles implementation inherent to the polyarchic democracy, which allows for corruption to be dealt with and kept at low levels through constant civil checks and balances over decisions and actions of authorities.

El uso que de la expresion monarquia parlamentaria hace la Constitucion de 2011, no es plenamente conciliable con otros pronunciamientos constitucionales. La autonomia que adquiere el Jefe de Gobierno junto a la desaparicion de todo margen de discrecionalidad del monarca en su nombramiento no es suficiente para constatar la instauracion de una monarquia parlamentaria. Esa pretendida 'conversion' de la monarquia al modelo parlamentario no puede sostenerse -a pesar de la imposicion en el nombramiento de Jefe de Gobierno de un representante del partido mayoritario en la camara baja (art. 47 CM), y a pesar de que existe la posibilidad de una mocion de censura en la camara baja que destituya al Gobierno (art. 105 CM)-, si se repara en que se reconocen al Rey otros poderes exentos de refrendo en el terreno de las decisiones politicas, junto a un papel preeminente en la direccion del Consejo de Ministros, alejandolo de este modo de la magistratura sin potestas que entrana la figura de un monarca parlamentario. Indudablemente la adjetivacion que recibe la monarquia en la nueva Constitucion ha de ser interpretada en el contexto en el que se inserta y, en tal sentido, la formula empleada solo cabe referirla a la parlamentarizacion del gobierno, que no es ya un gobierno del monarca, sino el que emana de la voluntad del Parlamento The use of the term parliamentary monarchy in Moroccan Constitution of 2011 not fully reconcile with other constitutional provisions. Autonomy obtained by the Chief of Government with the loss of any monarch's discretion in its appointment is not enough to confirm the achievement of a parliamentary monarchy. That alleged 'conversion' of the monarchy to parliamentary model cannot be argued despite the imposition in the appointment of the Chief of Government of a representative of the majority party in the lower house (art. 47 CM), and although there is a possibility of a motion of non-confidence in the House of representatives to dismiss the government (art. 105 CM) - if we realize that other powers exempted from countersign has been accorded to the King in the field of political decisions as well as a preeminent role in the direction Council of Ministers, far apart from the magistracy without potestas that the figure of a parliamentary monarch implies. Undoubtedly, the adjectives used for monarchy in the new Constitution must be interpreted in the context in which it is inserted and, as such, the formula used only fits only a parliamentary government, which is no longer a government of the monarch, but that which emanates from the will of Parliament. Adapted from the source document.

Populist nationalism is on the rise in sub-Saharan Africa. Depending on the political orientation, it is both reinforced and confronted by social media and social movements. Nationalism also cements the longstanding rule of autocratic regimes in West Africa, particularly in Togo, Benin and Senegal. Supported by the commodification of the party system, autocrats set up a shadow state. They use populism to prop up their illegitimate rule and to destabilize the opposition. The internet and social media play a crucial role in the spread of fake news through the mostly state-controlled media. The Catholic Church also tried, with little success, to counteract the wave of nationalism. In Benin, for example, in 2019 the bishops of Cotonou called for a 'fast on the lies that inundate and poison interpersonal and social relationships'. In Lomé, the bishops' conference condemned the systematic persecution of the opposition and the arrest of its leader, presidential candidate and former prime minister Agbeyome Kodjo. Senegal, like Benin, has long been marketed as a 'showcase of democracy' in Africa, including peaceful political transition. But things changed radically with the 2019 Senegalese presidential election, which brought new configurations. One of the main problems was political transhumance, which was elevated to the rank of religion with disregard for political morality. It threatened political stability and peace. In response, social networks of mostly young activists established in 2011 after the Arab Spring focused on campaigning for grassroots voters for good governance and democracy. They proposed a break with a political system they saw as neo-colonialist. Activists such as 'Y'en a marre' (literally 'I'm fed up') and other dissident social movements benefited from the country's particular social conditions, which favoured collective action. Should President Macky Sall opt for a third term in 2024, it would again pose a serious challenge to Senegalese democracy.