The article is dedicated to discussion of the main features of political regime transformation in post-soviet Ukraine. In definition of political regime the au thor follows the actor-centered neo-institutional approach that allows focusing on individual and collective social practices determined by an actor's interests, situation, and strategy of action, as well as limited by his/her habits, social skills, resources, and rules. The author argues an illiberal democratic character of former political regime, which was embodied at the end of 1990s in Ukraine, and discusses the zigzags of its future development. The question about social and political factors of the Orange Revolution explosion is also examined.
This chapter examines the dynamics and determinants of different forms of protest activities in Southeast Europe. The author follows a longitudinal approach using statistical analysis of survey datasets, thereby capturing the dynamism of the phenomena allowing for both a single-country analysis and cross-national comparison. The contribution aims to profile different types of protesters and their elite-challenging protest action repertoire, as well as factors that may account for their preference for certain forms of protest actions over others. The chapter ultimately illustrates the implications for our understanding of how protest action repertoires are reconfigured in post-communist societies and their consequences for democratic governance in the region.
"This chapter examines literature on the factors which explain the different levels of attention lavished on political events by the news media. The chapter first identifies several typologies and conceptualizations of events. The author argues that the amount of media attention is not determined by the significance of an event alone but rather by an interplay of criteria both internal and external to the news media (e.g., journalistic co-orientation). Furthermore, the chapter reflects upon how the news media sometimes link similar but unrelated events creating a media-hype or news wave that sometimes has important political consequences. This amplification of coverage happens in a series of stages that are discussed in detail in the remaining part of the chapter." (publisher's description)
"This chapter reviews literature on selective exposure in political communication. It first points to the importance of selectivity given an unprecedented amount and diversity of media sources. The chapter then focuses on the antecedents, psychological processes (e.g., confirmation bias), and outcomes of selective exposure to media content. The relevance of media credibility and hostile media perceptions, of tendencies to self-confirm, and of informational utility for selective exposure are discussed. The chapter then reflects on the consequences of selective exposure for the accessibility of attitudes and partisanship. The author concludes that selective exposure is in fact governed by attitude importance and a confirmation bias, even though informational utility may override this tendency under certain circumstances." (publisher's description)
"This chapter reviews the empirical foundations of key normative theories of political communication, which are the fundaments of media politics, media law, and media research. Because of the complexity of the theories and the contradictions between them, this essay focuses on a few criteria that allow for comparing them. More specifically, the theories are first compared with respect to their concept of man, their idea of society and their perspective on public communication. In a second step, theoretical assumptions are contrasted with empirical findings from political communication research. The author concludes that theories holding extreme positions are based on empirically untenable assumptions and argues that eliminating such deficits is one of the main future challenges for political communication research." (publisher's description)
"This chapter reviews literature on selective exposure in political communication. It first points to the importance of selectivity given an unprecedented amount and diversity of media sources. The chapter then focuses on the antecedents, psychological processes (e.g., confirmation bias), and outcomes of selective exposure to media content. The relevance of media credibility and hostile media perceptions, of tendencies to self-confirm, and of informational utility for selective exposure are discussed. The chapter then reflects on the consequences of selective exposure for the accessibility of attitudes and partisanship. The author concludes that selective exposure is in fact governed by attitude importance and a confirmation bias, even though informational utility may override this tendency under certain circumstances." (publisher's description).
"The author explores in her chapter the EU external policies with regard to EU-Mercosur relations. Due to deeply embedded norms of both liberalism and protectionism and as a result of EU's promotion of both development and regional integration, EU policy towards Mercosur marks a stark contrast to the policy of the USA in this region. This contribution applies historical institutionalism in order to comprehend how liberal tenants of EU competition policy as well as the protectionism of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) have shaped the EU-Mercosur relationship. In particular, Spain's aspirations in promoting EU-Latin American relations and the contribution of the EU's competition policy with regard to the Southern Cone, will be examined." (author's abstract)
"Decentralised policy formation and implementation is one of the salient features of China's family planning programme that is the most important driving force of China's fertility transition. This paper reviews the differentials in local policy and programmes, and examines their effects on patterns of fertility transition across China. Major consequences of the differential fertility transition, such as varied processes of population ageing and labour force supply etc. at provincial level, are then discussed. The author argues that the success of government population policy to a large extent is determined by socio-economic and cultural factors. On the other hand, regional demographic patterns have profound impact on China's regional and rural-urban differences in terms of socio-economic development. Large scale migration is one of such examples." (author's abstract)
The author examines the regional factor's influence on integrative and activating functions of political culture of the population of Ukraine. As a factor of influence on the above-mentioned functions, the region is treated as a territorial organization of socio-political and socio-cultural aspects of a community's activity. The congruence of common socio-cultural values, as well as the level of political solidarity is researched on the basis of historical identity, spatial-territorial self-identification, a desirable line of the regional development related to the opposition "nationally integrated — regionally autonomous", as well as the degree of authoritarianism in a territorial community. Empirical data allow concluding about political culture of all regions of Ukraine that can be defined as tending to the integrative-passive type with slight differences.
"This chapter reviews research on the long-term development of political communication, mainly focusing on the changes occurring over the last decades. The overview first discusses conceptual, theoretical and methodological issues, addressing trends like mediatization and professionalization as well as several phase models developed to describe changes of political communication. Then, the author reflects upon the evolution of mass media and political communication, including technological, organizational and economical changes and their consequences for political media content and political journalism. After that political communication is looked at in a broader perspective of political and social changes which both condition and stimulate the transformation of political communication (e.g., Americanization, modernization, globalization, localization). Finally, the political consequences of this transformation are touched upon by discussing recent trends in election campaign communication." (publisher's description)
"The chapter examines the impact of the EU on Latin American policies. According to the author, this has received less attention as most research has highlighted interregional relations or the relationship between the EU and individual Latin American countries. By examining the contributions and impact of the EU to the improvement of democracy in Latin America this chapter applies an analytical framework of norm-diffusion in Latin American countries. The settings for diffusion of norms, the strength of positive and negative conditionality and the conditions of the norm-takers to embrace the orientation of EU values play a significant role here. Depending on the sub-region or Latin American country, the norm-diffusion policies of the EU have a divergent impact. This will be illustrated in three contrasting cases of Mexico, Venezuela and Honduras." (author's abstract)
"The chapter provides an overview of the EU's policy towards the International Criminal Court (ICC). Also, the EU's policy and support towards the ICC will be compared and contrasted to that of the USA. Given that the Bush administration was severely against the ICC, the author argues that the EU has engaged in 'normative binding' in its global campaign for the ratification of the Roman Statute. An international system based on restrictive norms is significant for the EU in order to be able to increase its power. Since it cannot compete with the US on military terms the ICC provides the EU with a framework to oppose unilateralist US policies. Involving the US into this 'normative binding' may increase the EU's soft power and thus its promotion of international legal institutions has implications for the international system." (author's abstract)
"This chapter addresses the link between self-perception and external perception of the EU and their role in foreign policymaking. By mainly focusing on self-perception the EU views itself often as a model for regional integration, thereby differentiating itself from other international actors. Research on external perception is increasing which the author finds a significant element in the EU's identity-building process. The EU has been an interregional actor negotiating with ASEAN and ASEM for a Jong period. Switching negotiations from a regional to a bilateral level has revealed a certain weakness of the EU as a model for regional integration. This contribution highlights the EU 's external perception utilizing surveys conducted among the Chinese and Indian elites and media in order to examine EU' s regional integration and its external perception in Asia." (author's abstract)
Schulen bieten eine ausgezeichnete Möglichkeit zur Betrachtung und zum Verständnis der breiteren Gesellschaft, in welcher sie hervorgebracht und repliziert werden. Die Untersuchung der Art und Weise, in welcher Schulen strukturiert, positioniert, finanziert, verwaltet, wertgeschätzt, kritisiert, gepflegt und vernachlässigt werden, eröffnet uns - jenseits nationalstaatlicher Rhetorik - eine Sicht auf die von den Bürgern erlebten Realitäten. In diesem Artikel soll die Entwicklung der australischen Bildungspolitik zu Veränderungen in der soziokulturellen Theorie und Praxis, welche die mobile Moderne reflektieren und reproduzieren, in Beziehung gesetzt werden. Besonderes Interesse gilt dabei den Strategien zur Schulfinanzierung mit ihrem Bezug zum privaten bzw. nichtstaatlichen Bildungssektor von der späten Kolonialzeit bis in die sogenannten neoliberalen/spätmodernen Zeiten. Die vorgestellten Aspekte bewegen sich in einem Komplex wechselseitig verbundener Bereiche, vom Urbanen bis zum Ländlichen, vom Öffentlichen bis ins Private sowie in den primären, sekundären und tertiären Schichten von Bildungsangeboten. Die Periodisierung offenbart ein nachlassendes Engagement für eine säkulare, staatszentrierte und am Gemeinwohl orientierte Moderne zugunsten einer "zweiten Moderne" der Individualisierung und Privatisierung. Mit Bezug auf eine Bandbreite verschiedener empirischer Studien zur Schulwahl werden die sich wandelnden Ideen und Praktiken der in die Reproduktion von öffentlichen und privaten Schulen Involvierten hervorgehoben. Im Fokus stehen dabei einerseits die Fachleute und Angestellten des Systems und andererseits die "Konsumenten" der auf den "Quasi-Bildungsmärkten" angebotenen Produkte. (DIPF/Orig.).;;;Schools offer powerful scope for viewing and comprehending the wider society in which they are produced and replicated. The ways in which schools are structured, positioned, funded, managed, appreciated, critiqued, cared for and neglected, presents us with a means for seeing beyond the rhetoric of a nation state to the lived realities faced by its citizens. In this paper the author wants to link the development of Australian educational policies to shifts in socio-cultural thought and practice that reflect and reproduce a mobile modernity. He is interested in school funding policies as they relate to the private, or non-government education sector from the late colonial period to these so-called neo-liberal/late modern times. The interrogated scenes shift about amongst a complex of interrelated fields, from the urban to the rural, the public and the private, as well as the primary, secondary and tertiary layers of educational "offerings". The periodization reveals a loosening of commitments to a secular, state-centred, welfare-focused modernity, towards a privatizing, individualizing "second modernity". Drawing from a range of empirical studies of school choice the author highlights the shifting ideas and practices of those involved in the re-production of both public and private schools either as professionals/workers in the system, or as "consumers" of the products available in education's "quasi-markets". (DIPF/Orig.).
In the present article Kondratieff waves theory is considered in comparison with the theory of production revolutions which analyzes the regularities of the major technological breakthroughs in history. Both theories analyze the processes of cyclic nature related to the innovative technological development of the World-System. The mutual comparison of both theories allows the author to make important clarifications in understanding of the long-wave dynamics as a whole, as well as to give relevant explanations of the peculiarities of the unfolding of each of the five waves and their phases, to make forecasts about the sixth wave and the development of technologies of the sixth technological mode. The special attention is paid to the analysis of aspects and limitations of the theory of technological modes, as it is used by many researchers to explain the causes of the long-wave dynamics.
