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In line with the concept of politics developed by ancient Greeks, the political sphere is identified with transparency and overtness. However, it has always been hiding secret actions, conspiracies and collusions. The emergence of the modern model of the state, along with the rationalisation of its structures, enabled the secret equivalents of authority to transform into organisations, i.e. institutions alternative to official organisations, established by law and having specific powers. Rather than talking about actual organisations, the author discusses the process whereby these secret, underground structures turn into organisations that influence the sphere of overt politics. She tries to show that this is a specific kind of game between what is explicit and public and what is concealed and secret. This game is constantly present in political activities, although we seldom realise it.

AbstractThis paper examines the impact of environmental, social, governance (ESG) and sustainability initiatives on stock value of listed companies in Hong Kong. Event methodology is used to examine whether the market responses significantly to the implementation of these initiatives. Our result shows that the market reacts more positively to ESG initiatives than sustainability initiatives. This brings several implications to corporates' strategy as well as development of socially responsible investments (SRI). To facilitate the development of SRI, companies should communicate the value and returns of these initiatives clearly with investors; financial institutions should also equip investors with knowledge to understand non‐financial information. Enhancing the transparency of sustainability index will also give investors more credible information to relate firms' CSR performance with firm value. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

The ethnic composition of state security forces is believed to have important effects on the dynamics of conflict processes, but data limitations have impeded our ability to test such hypotheses cross-nationally until now. To address this problem, the Security Force Ethnicity dataset provides time-series, group-level measures of the ethnic composition of military forces in the Middle East between 1946 and 2013. We draw on an extensive review of case studies and histories to produce unique ordinal codings for participation rates in the officer corps and in the rank and file. We demonstrate the utility of the data through empirical applications, examining the relationship between military ethnic composition and the incidence of coups and repression. Our findings illustrate the theoretical and empirical importance of disaggregating ethnic representation in the military from inclusion in other institutions of the state.

William Shakespeare's Tragedy of King Richard III, written approximately in 1592, is the story of evil acts by the detested and misshapen hunchback, Richard, who plots to sow discontent among his brother, the King, and others, and has his brother murdered along with other wicked deeds in order to gain the throne. It opens with the line, "Now is the winter of our discontent" (p. 111, ed. Wright 1936). "The Winter of Our Discontent" is also the title of John Steinbeck's (1961) novel of a man who trades his moral convictions to reclaim lost family wealth. "Globalization and Its Discontents" is the title of Joseph Stiglitz's (2002) book that critiques rigid adherence by major economic institutions—such as the International Monetary Fund—to economic orthodoxy in the promotion of globalization. (JEL F6, D72, D3, O23, O24, L17, K33)

The first considerations about increasing a person's media competence aspart of lifelong learning in post-modern society had already appeared inpost-war Europe. International institutions, however, only began paying attention to media education in the 1990's. At the beginning of the 21st century, the topic of media education has been implemented into the content of general education in most countries of the European Union. In most countries, this topic has been integrated into compulsory subjects, in some countries it is a cross-cutting theme in several subjects, while in some places the increase of media competence is a part of extracurricular education. The situation across countries is differentiated —Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian countries have the longest history and the highest scores in the Union—. The presented research study deals with comparing the implementation of media education in Western and Central Europe.

This article focuses on three professors from Midwestern University and how their intentions to encourage women to see themselves as leaders play out in their respective classrooms. Through educational connoisseurship and criticism we describe and interpret the ecological impacts of professor intentions in promoting women as leaders. To this end, we find the professors realize these intentions by the way in which they care for their students. In caring for their students, the professors take an "always loved by never entitled" approach, where they balance building a sense of support and confidence among their students with an understanding that leaders are forged through dedication and a willingness to speak up. It is recommended for professors and high education institutions to consider how implicit curricula could help in developing leadership qualities in women and other historically underrepresented populations.

AbstractThe European Union is best understood as a liberal power – as an actor that is composed of liberal democracies whose interests, identities and institutions motivate and constrain its policy. The conceptualization of the EU as a liberal power helps to overcome three shortcomings of alternative notions such as civilian power or Normative Power Europe: First, norms are not only understood as driving forces but also as constraints on foreign policy; second, liberal power Europe emphasizes the contested nature of norms and conflicts between norms and thus draws attention to the politics of EU external relations; third, it encourages an engagement with the vast literature on the distinctive policies of liberal democracies in international relations and foreign policy analysis. The EU's crisis management serves to illustrate the value‐added of the liberal power Europe concept.

Traditional class theories underestimate the ability of welfare institutions to foster support for social redistribution among the economic elite. Analyses show that the economic elite is more opposed to social redistribution than ordinary employees who have no authority in the social division of labor. However, the relationship between economic elite position and attitudes toward social redistribution is relatively weak. Nor is the economic elite instinctively opposed to the political views of the working class – or instinctively in favor of the views of the upper class. The economic elite is both aware of its own interests and supportive of underprivileged groups in society. Finally, the analyses show that personal income mediates the relationship between economic elite position and attitudes toward social redistribution. The empirical analyses are performed on a (postal) class survey fielded in 2015 (n = 1,032).

The European Commission has played a crucial role in promoting ambitious EU climate targets and policies that boost the credibility of EU leadership-by-example efforts internationally. The approach has gradually shifted from leadership toward more strategic behavior that reflects the preferences of the member states. Reduced uncertainty concerning member-state preferences and solutions accounts for much of the change in leadership. Uncertainty has decreased as climate policies have become more mature and member states have gained experience from implementing them. Asymmetries in member-state preferences, decision-making procedures, and impatience caused by the international context are all important conditions for the European Commission's leadership. These observations lend support to apparently contradictory theories that have seen EU climate policy as propelled either by autonomous supranational institutions or by increasingly ambitious member states.

AbstractResearch has documented that religious minorities often face the brunt of religious discrimination. Yet formal tests, using global collections, have been lacking. Building on the religious economy theory and recent work in law and politics, we propose that minority religions face discrimination from the state because they represent unwanted competition for the state supported religion, are viewed as a threat to the state and larger culture, and lack support from an independent judiciary. Drawing on the recently collected Religion and State-Minorities collection on more than 500 minority religions, we find support for each of the propositions, though the level of support varies based on the targets of state discrimination. In general, the support is strongest when explaining discrimination against minority religion's institutions and clergy, but weakens when explaining more general discrimination against the membership.

Since March 2015, the United States has supported a Saudi-led military coalition fighting a Houthi insurgency that seized control of Yemen's capital and governmental institutions in 2014. At the request of ousted Yemeni President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi, the Saudi-led coalition launched an air campaign in Yemen to "defend Saudi Arabia's border and to protect Yemen's legitimate government." To support these efforts, President Obama authorized the "provision of logistical and intelligence support to [coalition] military operations" and the establishment of a "Joint Planning Cell with Saudi Arabia to coordinate U.S. military and intelligence support." The United States has disclaimed any direct offensive role in the conflict while acknowledging that it has provided support by refueling coalition warplanes, supplying targeting intelligence, and sending U.S. military personnel to assist the planners of the coalition's air campaign.

This paper examines the extent to which the official discourse of 36 institutions of higher education in 15 Arab countries pronounces four meanings depicted in the extant literature on the pedagogy of inquiry and deliberation: cooperative/collaborative learning; problem-solving; critical thinking; and discussion/debate. Results derived from the discourse analysis showed a weak emphasis on cooperative learning and discussion/debate while problem solving comprised the highest number of sentences in the discourse followed by critical thinking. Information analysed from interviews and course syllabi provided a portrait of how teaching might be carried out in the universities surveyed. However, for a complete picture of pedagogy of inquiry and deliberation to be drawn, research emphasis should be shifted into action research and observational case studies that tend to yield an in-depth account of teaching and learning in higher education.

We draw on the economic institutions literature and on transactional stress theory to explain differences in employee reactions to mergers and acquisitions (M&As) across 29 nations. Using a sample of 10,803 middle managers and executives, we find that country-level economic development moderates the effects of an M&A on employee attitudes and outcomes. Unlike in more advanced economies where M&As are associated with a reduction in perceived growth opportunities among employees, in less advanced economies, M&As are associated with increased perceptions of growth opportunities. These perceived growth opportunities post-M&A are associated with positive employee outcomes such as work–life balance, job satisfaction, organizational satisfaction, and reduced turnover intentions. Our results highlight the role that growth opportunities and the economic context play in harnessing human capital after an M&A.

Diplomacy is a neglected field in American higher education. Both practitioners and academics have repeatedly cast the seeds to grow the discipline in the United States, but with limited germination. Although diplomacy curricula are rare, courses do exist. Following a review of 75 syllabuses and lengthy interviews with many of their authors, this article's author finds that academics and practitioners teaching the limited number of diplomacy courses make very different choices in content and pedagogy. Drawing on over 25 years of diplomatic practice followed by twenty years teaching at the college level, she evaluates why the main institutions of American society do not support diplomacy as either a profession or a field of study. The article argues that the few 'resident gardeners' rarely stray from their own plots to 'fieldscape' together in hard American ground.

This article reports on the development of a new blended-learning model for beginners' Ukrainian language learning and instruction, an innovative approach in foreign language education. This model is a combination of face-to-face and online learning and is a response to new realities in education, and language learning in particular, in our fast-paced, technologically enhanced everyday life. The authors focuses on the design of their new blended-learning textbook Подорожі.UA (Travels.UA), which contains a considerable online component, closely interconnected with in-class, or face-to-face, learning and teaching materials. They discuss their approach to the pedagogical design of this new model, used in the textbook, and also address piloting challenges. The study concludes with a report on the overall success of this project and invites others who teach Ukrainian at postsecondary levels to pilot the project in their institutions.