Suchergebnisse

Not much research has looked at how diversity and gender affect military professionalism and diverse groups perceive this concept. Using a qualitative approach, the study examined perspectives on military professionalism and unprofessionalism among diverse members of the Albanian Armed Forces (AAF). To ensure a diversity of participants, the study was based on the constructivist paradigm (multiple realities) as well as the Gender Perspective in the Albanian Armed Forces report (2013), which helps identify the varying impacts of such research on diverse groups of men and women. A total of 150 individuals participated in interviews and focus groups between October 2022 and August 2023. The findings show that professionalism and unprofessionalism each have distinct characteristics, where leadership is a key factor. This study sheds light on the members' experiences and how the latter affect the way in which professionals are perceived. Keywords: Albanian Armed Forces, Military Professionalism, Qualitative Research, Diversity

Abstract. The Covid-19 crisis that hit the USA especially hard was accompanied by intensified anti-Chinese racism fuelled by the anti-Chinese rhetoric used by the Trump Administration. Although Trump's political opponents blamed him for having mismanaged the pandemic response, the anti-Chinese stance was a bipartisan issue. The article aims to analyse anti-Chinese racism in its systemic and historical dimensions. It examines the nature and strategic utility of antiChinese racism for past, the Trump, and future administrations as well as for America's elites generally. It is shown that anti-Chinese racism was substantially transformed during the pandemic and above all utilised to address the general destabilisation of the US-dominated socio-political and socio-economic order both at home and globally. China's growing importance around the world and the potential domestic destabilisation of the US mean that the strategic utility of anti-Chinese racism may well remain important for some time to come. Keywords: Covid-19 crisis, Trump's presidency, antiChinese racism, systemic racism, foreign policy

Discussions of political metaphors provide fertile grounds for understanding issues in political theory and political practice. The article departs from the established theoretical and methodological approaches to political metaphor (e.g., classical, conceptual, hermeneutical, cognitive) to introduce (post)structuralist and (post)Marxist methodological and theoretical bases. It maintains that the established approaches to the study of functionalities and ontologies of political metaphors are possible, primarily by researching their functioning in political discourses and as events in the power/truth dispositive. Metaphors can be researched as specific political technologies (strategies of power) that influence/create regimes of truth. Keywords: political metaphors, political theory, linguistic theory, political discourse, power, knowledge

Abstract. The article explores the significance held by political myths for
legitimacy and politics. To that end, we examine political myth in line with
the contemporary theory of political myth, which understands political
myths as an integral part of all political communities that is not inherent
to just authoritarian and totalitarian regimes. Every political community
has their own stories/narratives that are accepted by most of the population and form the base of the legitimacy of the political order, whether it be a democratic or a non-democratic political order. In the final part of the article, we examine which narratives had such a legitimising power by analysing the political speeches of Franjo Tuđman while he was in office.
Keywords: legitimacy, politics, political myth, political speech analysis,
Tuđman.

Abstract. The Covid-19 pandemic has transformed our
society, with administrative procedures – as relationships between public authorities and citizens and businesses – being no exception. Still, the innovative digitalisation of such procedures means the 58 administrative
units across Slovenia have been able to develop a responsive administrative system. Using normative, descriptive
and statistical research methods, the article identifies the
relevant drivers and barriers, like user demands leading to a more responsive service, the lack of legal bases,
and the top-down approach discouraging progress.
Correlation analysis shows that digitalisation also holds
important positive implications for the principles of good
governance. Moreover, larger administrative units are
more likely to achieve a higher degree of digitalisation
and hence better public governance. The findings are
useful for designing evidence-based public policies to
properly respond to pandemic-associated challenges.
Keywords: public administration, administrative procedures, Covid-19, good public governance, innovation,
digitalisation, Slovenia

Notions of the power associated with the European Union's foreign policy and its role in international relations are mostly liberal in origin. This explains the EU's special role in the Cold War era and that it has since emerged more as a moral, ethical and normative power. The EU's lack of military capability has probably been the main cause that prevents it from acting as a great or superpower. The distinction between materialistic and immaterial elements of power has been a crucial point of contention between realists and liberal thinkers. In international relations, we are also witnessing the trend of the EU increasingly using the geopolitical approach (such as in the Ukrainian crisis) besides the normative one. In the article, different concepts of EU foreign policy regarding power in the light of realism and liberalism are compared where, alongside the descriptive method, a SWOT analysis is performed. Keywords: realism, liberalism, power, European Union, Ukraine, foreign policy, international relations

Abstract. Among twentieth-century political philosophers, Americans
John Rawls and Robert Nozick are generally recognized as giants – both
for the boldness of their arguments and for the influence they have exerted. They sketched rival visions. Rawls, inspired by Immanuel Kant, argued for a world characterized by tolerance, equality, and justice as fairness. Nozick, claiming a Lockean heritage but actually inspired by Adam Smith (the "invisible hand") and Herbert Spencer ("survival of the fittest"), outlined a program for a minimal state, with very little taxation, offering no cushion at all against poverty, and providing no state assistance for the poor, the sick, the disabled, or the widowed. Rawls' vision is clearly part of the liberal tradition, while Nozick's championing of a minimal state contains illiberal elements.
Keywords: John Rawls, Robert Nozick, political liberalism, libertarianism, taxation, equality, justice.

Platform work is often characterised by economic insecurity, dehumanising control procedures, isolation, deepening racial, economic and gender inequalities, and other socio-economic problems. There are lively debates underway concerned with how to regulate or limit the negative effects of platform capitalism. This article reviews two of the most common calls for action – regulation and platform co-operatives. We argue that there is also an unexplored, complementary option, which uses the network effects of platforms to provide greater benefits for platform workers. To understand this alternative, we introduce the American Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) mechanism for employee buyouts, redefine the model according to the main cooperative values, and apply it to the platform economy. We conclude that there is a third option is available to governments and municipalities, namely to require an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) in the local subsidiary of the platform company. Keywords: Platform economy, platform co-operativism, employee buyouts, platform ESOP

The article examines the deliberation of
higher education (HE) scholars and practitioners on
research issues in the HE field, which has taken into
account the complexity of current trends of deglobalisation and changing characteristics of globalisation.
More precisely, the article offers a systematic review of
the ideas developed by focus group participants (FGPs)
from different parts of the world while debating internationalisation, globalisation and Europeanisation
with respect to the field of HE. These FGPs agreed that:
1) theoretical definitions used by academics and practitioners are currently socially constructed in a biased
way (in favour of the Anglo-North American point of
view); 2) academic research (notably conceptual definitions) must better take into account the issues contextually and dynamically across time and space; and
3) that HE research is in the stage when a more theoretically refined and a methodologically stronger new
global wave of empirical research is required for further
advancement of theorising and practitioners' work.
Keywords: higher education, methods, theory, definitions, globalisation, internationalisation, Europeanisation

The war in Ukraine is the most significant threat to the peace of the Euro-Atlantic area in decades. After 4 years of Trump's weakening of transatlantic relations, Biden's presumed foreign policy doctrine includes their quick renewal, or re-Atlantisation. The article problematises the 'new' strategy of containment given Russia's aggression, the state of transatlantic relations, and the current global order's configuration, whereby the transatlantic bond is being strengthened and the formation of Biden's foreign policy doctrine is being followed by a 'grand-strategic' shift. Four different models of transatlantic relations (mutual autonomy, strategic autonomy, strategic partnership, situational partnership) are discussed where variables include the approach taken by the USA to transatlantic relations, and the approach of Europe's EU and NATO members to transatlantic relations are addressed. The main argument is that transatlantic relations during Biden's mandate have constantly oscillated between a stra-tegic partnership, especially related to common goals of democracy promotion and containment and situ-ational partnership. Situations like the war in Ukraine have simultaneously acted to strengthen the American–European partnership based on the shared security and political interests.Keywords: transatlantic relations, reatlantisation, USA, Europe, Biden doctrine, war in Ukraine, strategic part-nership, situational partnership

In administrative history of the last six hundred years, different factors & influences had played their role in the formation of middle-level offices. The reason was in management. By dividing provinces into quarters, the provincial estates primarily wanted to protect their property from Turkish raids in the middle of the 15th century. In the middle of the 18th century, the provincial prince or national authority established kresije (state administrative units) that were a prolonged hand of the central state administration. It was supposed to control landowners, enforcement of rules & to protect serfs. By establishing kresije, the Kromeriz Constitution wanted to solve nationality problems in multilingual provinces. The district boards, established after 1868, were also a prolonged hand of the central authority & the result of the hundred-year development of the state administration. The history of middle-level offices shows interests of some groups or individuals that were in power during a certain period of time. Unlike other European countries where these offices were relatively autonomous, they were always a prolonged hand of the central state bodies or at least they served them in the Austrian Empire. The Registry Office plan reflects their competence that comprised all the matters of the population in a certain district from personal to municipal, military, education, ecclesiastical & taxation matters, the result of which was that the population identified itself with a district or quarter or kresija (state administrative unit). The middle-level government name was also one of the reasons for population identification. Figures, References. Adapted from the source document.