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The 'new politics' perspective in welfare state research holds that class-based parties and unions have lost some of their influence and that they have been replaced by client organizations that are capable of resisting retrenchment pressures. However, scholars within the 'power resource tradition' contend that class is still fundamental and that client interests are weak in corporatist countries with a strong labour movement. It is argued in this article that scholars within the power resource approach have focused too much on social insurance programmes and traditional forms of political participation, and that this has made them blind to client protests. An empirical study of political efforts to close down nighttime emergency surgery in Swedish hospitals is presented. The Swedish counties planned to close down emergency surgery in 17 hospitals in the period 2003-04. The political proposals to close down emergency departments were met with strong protests from client groups, and politicians often withdrew their proposals of closures. In this case study, politicians claim that it was client protests that made them withdraw a decision to close the emergency surgery. This result suggests that client protests are politically important and diverges from the expectations deduced from the power-resource approach but lends credibility to the theory of the new politics of the welfare state. Adapted from the source document.

How does power work in practice? Much of the 'stuff' that state agents and other international actors do, on an everyday basis, remains impenetrable to existing International Relations theory. This is unfortunate, as the everyday performance of international practices actually helps shape world policy outcomes. In this article, we develop a framework to grasp the concrete workings of power in international politics. The notion of 'emergent power' bridges two different understandings of power: as capability or relation. Emergent power refers to the generation and deployment of endogenous resources — social skills and competences — generated in particular practices. The framework is illustrated with an in-depth analysis of the multilateral diplomatic process that led to the 2011 international intervention in Libya. Through a detailed account of the negotiations at the United Nations, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the European Union, the article demonstrates how, in practice, state representatives translate their skills into actual influence and generate a power politics that eschews structural analysis. We argue that seemingly trivial struggles over diplomatic competence within these three multilateral organizations played a crucial role in the intervention in Libya. A focus on practice resituates existing approaches to power and influence in International Relations, demonstrating that, in practice, power also emerges locally from social contexts.

The question of foreign policy within Socialist Unity Party 1966 - 1969 The research project aims to carry out an analysis of the different positions within the Socialist Unity Party, taking into consideration the years of its political activity, 1966 – 1969. The research try to follow the political debate born in these years, from some of the most important international issues such as the Vietnam War, the Arab-Israeli question and the Prague Spring; the research also analyzes the relationships between the PSU and the Socialist International. The central theme of the project will, therefore, consist of a precise examination of the various interpretations developed within the party, divided in recent years in current well-defined and often contradict each other in relation to these important events in international politics. A careful reflection on these different judgments could also allow you to determine how much the lack of a precise and systematic program of international politics has helped to speed up the process of separation of the two souls of the party. The research aims, finally, to determine whether and how the socialist unification has put into question and crisis in the traditional guidelines of the socialist party's foreign policy, and to consider, therefore, the elements of continuity or rupture with respect to the ideological principles that the party had followed until then.

This book critically examines peacebuilding, humanitarian intervention and peace operation practices and experiences in francophone spaces. Francophone Africa as a specific space is relatively little studied in the peace and security literature, despite the fact that almost half of all peacekeepers are deployed or were deployed in this part of Africa during the last decade. It is an arena for intervention that deserves more serious attention, if only because it provides fertile ground for exploring the key questions raised in the peacekeeping and peacebuilding literature. For instance, in 2002 a French operation (Licorne) was launched and in 2003 a UN force was deployed in Cote d'Ivoire alongside the French force there. Filling a gap in the current literature, Peace Operations in the Francophone World critically examines peacekeeping and peacebuilding practices in the francophone world, including but not limited to conflict prevention and resolution, security sector reform (SSR), francophone politics, and North-South relations. The book explores whether peace and security operations in francophone spaces have exceptional characteristics when compared with those carried out in other parts of the world and assesses whether an analysis of these operations in the francophone world can make a specific and original contribution to wider international debates about peacekeeping and peacebuilding. This book will be of much interest to students of peacekeeping, peacebuilding, peace and conflict studies, African politics, security studies, and IR in general.

Maģistra darba "Veselības veicināšanas nometnes Iecavas novada jauniešiem" mērķis ir nodrošināt Iecavas novada jauniešiem brīvā laika pavadīšanas iespējas vasaras brīvlaikā. Pirmajā nodaļā veikta Iecavas novada pašvaldības un jaunatnes politikas izpēte, kā arī veikta aptauja un vadīta Jaunatnes konsultatīvās padomes sēde par jauniešu brīvā laika pavadīšanas iespējām Iecavas novadā. Otrajā nodaļā izstrādāts tehniski ekonomiskais pamatojums, kurā ir izstrādāta problēmanalīze, noteikti mērķi un izstrādātas divas alternatīvas, lai nodrošinātu Iecavas novada jauniešiem brīvā laika pavadīšanas iespējas vasaras brīvlaikā. Trešajā nodaļā ir izstrādāta izvēlētās alternatīvas projekta rokasgrāmata. Atslēgvārdi: jaunieši, Iecavas novads, jaunatnes politika, veselības veicināšana ; The aim of the Master's thesis "Health promotion camps for young people in Iecava municipality" is to provide young people living in Iecava with opportunities to engage in leisure time acitivities during summer holidays. The first chapter contains a sudy of youth politics in Iecava municipality. This chapter also includes a poll on this subject and describes the leading of the Youth Advisory Council meeting about youth leisure activities in Iecava municipality. The second chapter contains feasibility study, which encompasses problem analysis, goal setting, and the development of two alternatives that provide young people in Iecava municipality with leisure activities during summer holidays. The third chapter is a project guide for the chosen alternative. Key words: youth, Iecava municipality, youth politics, health promotion

In September 2013 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published its Working Group 1 report, the first comprehensive assessment of physical climate science in six years, constituting a critical event in the societal debate about climate change. This paper analyses the nature of this debate in one public forum: Twitter. Using statistical methods, tweets were analyzed to discover the hashtags used when people tweeted about the IPCC report, and how Twitter users formed communities around their conversational connections. In short, the paper presents the topics and tweeters at this particular moment in the climate debate. The most used hashtags related to themes of science, geographical location and social issues connected to climate change. Particularly noteworthy were tweets connected to Australian politics, US politics, geoengineering and fracking. Three communities of Twitter users were identified. Researcher coding of Twitter users showed how these varied according to geographical location and whether users were supportive, unsupportive or neutral in their tweets about the IPCC. Overall, users were most likely to converse with users holding similar views. However, qualitative analysis suggested the emergence of a community of Twitter users, predominantly based in the UK, where greater interaction between contrasting views took place. This analysis also illustrated the presence of a campaign by the non-governmental organization Avaaz, aimed at increasing media coverage of the IPCC report.

Nationalism represents a serious challenge for the countries in transition. It is a factor which immensely influences and shapes the transitional process in politics in all South-Eastern European countries. It represents a challenge for the post-communist countries especially for countries like the former republics of ex-Yugoslavia, since, as Robert Kaplan points out in his foreword chapter to the book Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History, " in the Balkans, no wars are 'local' ". [1]Societies in Europe are experiencing remarkable changes especially in politics and economy through empowerment of their democratic political and economic systems. Nationalism and nationalist attitudes are present in political cultures in countries of transition despite efforts for implementing democracy, rapid changes and modernization of societies at institutional level and social structure and despite the newly established environment of these societies. Countries in transition borrowed the so-called 'copy-paste' action, and tried the implementation of such systems without considering the specifics of countries in transition which subsequently faced the variances, inadequacy and quite often the inability for the implementation of the latter. Therefore, this paper aims to focus on political culture of transitional countries, with a specific emphasis on Kosovo, covering nationalism and the process of democratization as a very important part of its political system and its political culture.

Nationalism represents a serious challenge for the countries in transition. It is a factor which immensely influences and shapes the transitional process in politics in all South-Eastern European countries. It represents a challenge for the post-communist countries especially for countries like the former republics of ex-Yugoslavia, since, as Robert Kaplan points out in his foreword chapter to the book Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History, " in the Balkans, no wars are 'local' ". [1]Societies in Europe are experiencing remarkable changes especially in politics and economy through empowerment of their democratic political and economic systems. Nationalism and nationalist attitudes are present in political cultures in countries of transition despite efforts for implementing democracy, rapid changes and modernization of societies at institutional level and social structure and despite the newly established environment of these societies. Countries in transition borrowed the so-called 'copy-paste' action, and tried the implementation of such systems without considering the specifics of countries in transition which subsequently faced the variances, inadequacy and quite often the inability for the implementation of the latter. Therefore, this paper aims to focus on political culture of transitional countries, with a specific emphasis on Kosovo, covering nationalism and the process of democratization as a very important part of its political system and its political culture.

This paper will focus on the geopolitical interpretation of religion in international relations. This dimension has historically related religion to politics and politics among nations. More specifically we will analyze the use of religion as a legitimating instrument of political violence, with special focus on the violence emanating from Islamic extremism and terrorism. History of humanity is full of cases when violence has been used for religious purposes, independently from the label accompanying the violence, sometimes as terrorism and other times as organized social violence, or state violence later on. Also, geopolitics has always been an indivisible part of religious violence, not only in ancient times, but also more lately, during medieval or modern times. This paper will use history in order to study today's religious fundamentalism, concentrating in one of the more destabilizing factors of global geopolitics: at the religious Islamic extremism. We will use a number of case studies to illustrate our arguments, such as the cases of Iran, United States, Israel, India, and so on. This study will combine empirical analyses with theoretical one. We aim to articulate that religious violence for political purposes and with a clear strategic objective is not found only in today's Islam, but it has been historically seen in nearly all other religions of the world. DOI:10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n13p184

The paper analyzes the political consequences of religiosity, post-materialism and nationalist attitudes. According to modernization and secularization theses, ideological orientations such as religiosity and (ethno)nationalism are supposed to decline in political relevance as modernizations progresses. On the other side, in the era of political de-alignment and re-alignment, political space is supposed to be determined by the 'new politics' ideological dimensions, of which post-materialist orientation is the most familiar. In order to examine the implications of these theoretical perspectives, this paper analyzes the ability of the aforementioned orientations to explain various aspects of political attitudes and behavior, such as the support for democracy, party preference, or ideological identification. The outlined problems are examined using data the Dutch Parliamentary Election Studies (DPES). Several features make the Netherlands an appropriate case to address these problems. These include the sharp trend of secularization, but accompanied by the persisting religious political cleavage. More recent trends of post-materialist and anti-immigrant politics have also been early and vividly expressed in the Netherlands. The main findings show that ideological orientations such as post-materialism, religiosity, and ethnocentrism, continue to be important for explaining various aspects of political attitudes and behavior in the Netherlands. The results also indicate that modernization and 'post-modernization' theories are imperfect explanations for the observed trends.

Julius Malema has been one of the most prominent and controversial public figures in post apartheid South Africa. This article examines his impact within the post apartheid public sphere as a space of spectacle. Working with a notion of the public sphere as constituted through a hybrid of rational and affective modes of communication, the article shows how a politics of spectacle articulated commercial and cultural changes in the country's mass media after 1994. This confluence shaped Malema's public persona and impact on the terms of public debate during his tenure as president of the ANC Youth League. The angry, unruly bad boy of post apartheid politics, Malema's racial populism provoked garrulous public talk, often with far more heat than light, and traversed by racist invective that the earlier years of public dialogue had largely held at bay; yet he also exposed the force of old and emergent fault lines in the new social order more directly and acutely than many others have done. I argue that, symbolically, Malema entered the public sphere as a counterpoint to Nelson Mandela unsettling the iconography of non racialism, reasserting an angry and confrontational version of race that reinstated the spectre of violent conflagration that Mandela's 'miracle' held at bay.

The environmental politics has assumed in the last times a wide and transversal dimension, focused on the problems and the relationships of a complicated system such as the environment, in whose inner different elements interact and put problems of bilance and disbalance. With the new Strategy, the European Community means to pursue the integration of objectives of environmental sustainability (Goteborg Agenda) with those of the economical and social development (Lisbon Agenda), the environmental politics integrate therefore substantially to the problematics of social- economical development. The adoption of eco-management systems, from a relevant number of firms also in the touristic sector and their certification according to international and european standards represents an important element of innovation, following this strategy aimed to conjugate the development with the environment protection. The systems of environmental management have by now become a distinctive element of the companies which want to cover a relevant role in the competitive national and international scenery, even because their nature itself makes them verifiable from independent third subjects, and suitable to stimulate the continuous development of the environmental and productive performances. Object of the present work is the analysis of the management of a project for the improvement of services quality in the tourism sector, which allows to obtain the certification Emas/Ecolabel in a touristic structure in the south of Italy.