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From comparative research on the constitutional development in Central & Eastern Europe & also from the long-standing debate on whether parliamentarism or presidentialism best facilitates democracy, it is apparent that there has been & continues to be, a certain degree of confusion concerning the concepts of semi-presidentialism & presidentialism. Different scholars mean different things by the terms & therefore classify countries differently. In this article I argue that the conceptual dichotomy between pro-premiar (premier-presidentialism) & pro-president systems (president-parliamentary systems) provide the best solution to several of the problems related to categorizing constitutional types, most importantly perhaps to the presidential power dilemma. I, furthermore, employ these concepts on the post-communist constitutional systems & try to reveal patterns with regard to presidential power, geographical region & democratzsation. 6 Tables, 3 Figures, 51 References. Adapted from the source document.

Describes what the section Statsvetenskapliga forbundet includes in this edition of the journal Statsvetenskaplig Tidskrift. The section contains one article on internationalization of political science with the focus on European politology. This issue also contains a correction to a previously published article and a eulogy for docent Susan Marton. L. Pitkaniemi

The aim of the essay is to discuss notions of a European public sphere, partly against the findings in previous empirical studies, partly against the results from an analyses of how the bombings in Madrid 2004 were framed & discussed in four different newspapers, based in different countries. The discussion shows that there is no single answer to the question if a European public sphere exists or not. There are some empirical findings which indicate that, at least the conditions for, a public sphere in Europe exist, while other findings points in the opposite direction. One conclusion that can be drawn from this, it is argued, is that the answer will depend on the theoretical point of departure for the study, as well as how the public sphere is measured. Another conclusion in the essay is that we need more empirical studies, where a comparative approach is used. Tables, References. Adapted from the source document.

The article is a comment to an article appeared originally in European Political Science (2004) by Simon Hix from London School of Economics. In it, Hix ranks European Political Science Institutes according to their publication record 1993-2002, regarding quantity & impact. Swedish institutes ranked low (Uppsala Institute, the highest, in place 148). Different reasons for this evaluation are discussed, & the author proposes more articles published in English, more articles in international publications, & an increased presence in international conferences is suggested. A. Barral

The study outlined in the article has the goal of describe & explain the trend of increasing presidential character within the parliamentary system. The project consists of three parts: 1) a comparative quantitative analysis of European governments, 2) field studies of European governments, & 3) a normative evaluation of the empirical results. References. Adapted from the source document.

Discusses a coming research project on how the Soviet Union used soft economic power to increase their influence in other countries. The differences in spreading policy and ideas in democratic and communist systems are researched. Preliminary results indicate that decision making structures in youth organizations and workers unions in Europe come from different sources varying from communists to Christian democrats. L. Pitkaniemi

Introduces political psychology as a field that began in the early 20th century in the United States when Charles Merriam from the University of Chicago was researching how psychological factors are affecting political choices. In Europe political psychology has mainly been concerned with the reverse questioning: how politics are affecting psychology. Since the 1950's political psychology has been associated with analyzing and understanding international conflicts as is exemplified with Kelman and Fisher's research. L. Pitkaniemi

This article presents a way of dealing scientifically with the problem of comparison among dynamically evolving units of analysis in social science, namely by using methods from theoretical, computational & mathematical biology & phylogeny (evolutionary tree) analysis. First, the standard political science & static method of comparative analysis is criticized. Second, some important aspects of the dynamic comparison are presented from its multidisciplinary & historic context, commenting on the compatibility with evolutionary institutional as well as universal Darwinian theoretical perspectives. Third, dynamic comparison is approached using first techniques from standard social science statistical software (SPSS) & then from molecular genetics (MEGA, Molecular Evolutionary Analysis). Examples of evolutionary tree analyses of the European nations are presented & discussed. Similarities & dissimilarities between social science & biological applications of the dynamic comparison techniques are discussed, emphasizing the importance of openness to new techniques & application of panel data for elaboration of new methods of dynamic comparative analyses in social sciences. 2 Tables, 9 Figures, 68 References. Adapted from the source document.