Suchergebnisse

The Nordic Region offers innovative interpretative approaches and models to overcome the "dilemma between security and prosperity". In this region, integration and fragmentation have been well-balanced and grounded on diversity. The first aim of this article is to explain the reasons for peace in Nordic Europe, a task sometimes more difficult than explaining wars. Historical cases of pacific resolution of disputes and the possible reasons for those policies are considered. Finally, the theoretical foundations of these approaches and how they influenced the political institutions are also analyzed.

This essay examines the effects of the electoral reforms in Italy on the behaviour of political parties, focusing on their conflicting & cooperative interaction. It identifies the incentives provided by the two different electoral systems introduced in 1993 & in 2005. It emphasizes the crucial role played by the strategic coordination between parties -- whose main product has been the making of pre-election coalitions -- in the causal path going from the electoral rules to the election results & the party system. It discusses the main features of new Italian party system & of its evolution up to the 2006 general election, particularly the establishment of a bipolar setting & the high degree of party fragmentation. Tables, Figures, References. Adapted from the source document.

The debate on citizen images of political parties is long standing, but recently it has taken on added importance as the evidence of party dealignment has spread across Western democracies. This article assembles an unprecedented cross-national array of public opinion data that describe current images of political parties. Sentiments are broadly negative, & this pessimism has deepened over the past generation. Then, we demonstrate how distrust of parties decreases voting turnout, contributes to the fragmentation of contemporary party systems & the electoral base of new protest parties, & stimulates broader cynicism of government. Although political parties are the foundation of the system of representative democracy, fewer citizens today trust political parties, & this is reshaping the nature of democratic politics. 7 Tables, 2 Figures, 48 References. Adapted from the source document.

Following a protracted period of political paralysis, in Mar 1992, Israel's parliament adopted a new & original institutional reform meant to address the political system's shortcomings -- mainly, a fragmented party system in which small parties were thought to hold excessive power & government coalitions were ineffective & costly. The new system -- adopted in 1996 & repealed in Mar 2001 -- introduced the direct election of the prime minister alongside general parliamentary elections, whose voting system remained unchanged. This article discusses the nature of the reform, its impact on Israel's political system, & the reasons that ultimately led to its early demise. It documents how certain shortcomings in the reform -- the use of a double ballot, the possibility of by-elections for the Prime Minister only, the persistence of the confidence vote, & the parliamentary power to vote early dissolution -- led to split ticket, party fragmentation, unworkable coalitions, government paralysis, & frequent early elections. A discussion of the system's performance 1996-2001 helps clarify why it failed to achieve its goals & why it was replaced with a slightly modified version of the old system in place before 1996. 1 Table, 4 Figures, 30 References. Adapted from the source document.

In 1970, a new institutional arena for interpolitical party competition was introduced in Italy with the creation of fifteen regions. This paper aims at developing the topic of territorial differentiation of the Italian party system. It highlights facets & features of regional party arenas through a comparison between these arenas & the national system. Five systemic properties are taken into account: fragmentation, concentration, competitiveness, net volatility, & regionalism of voting behavior. The various indexes measuring these dimensions have been computed from both regional & national election results. It appears that a general nondifferentiation between local & national arenas has occurred, with a few relevant exceptions. Also investigated is whether these properties & the pattern of regional voting have undergone any significant change during the transition from the so-called "first" to the "second" Italian Republic. Some distinctive cases &, overall, four clusters of local party systems are identified, & some hypotheses concerning the reasons for the emergence of the various patterns are offered. Notably, a "personal factor" in several southern regions may be regarded as relevant. 7 Tables, 3 Appendixes, 47 References. Adapted from the source document.

The article provides a systematic assessment of the Italian political transition through the results of three national elections, from 1994 to 2001, covering a wide variety of topics. In particular, the residual polarization assumed by the previous literature is found theoretically flawed & empirically disproved. The more recent center-periphery cleavage has evaporated with the demise of the Northern League. Far from being "winning," the political extremes are stable or losing; parties of the center, in turn, are declining at a faster pace than in comparable democracies, & their numbers are, by 2001, among the smallest, whereas they were the strongest 10 years ago. As a consequence, the Italian case shows the whole set of standard conditions for bipolar, centripetal competitions, though two problems remain: fragmentation, which might be cured with the electoral reform, but is not the main, nor the most deviant feature, of the present system; & a deep destructuration crisis, whose indicators distinguish more sharply the Italian parties from their European counterparts, & whose effects might be felt for a long time & significantly depress the system performance of the main political actors. 13 Tables, 55 References. Adapted from the source document.

The creation of an efficient Common Market has been, & for many aspects still is, the main goal of European regulation. Until the Single European Act, European regulation was mainly implemented through judicial policies, but during the 1990s the development of regulatory reforms called the EU for moving to a new form of regulation: administrative regulation. Today, in fields of policy like monetary policy, competition policy, telecommunication policy, & energy policy, the EU is called to implement European rules in a permanent, focused, sustained, & homogeneous way. Transnational networks made of national independent regulatory agencies have been created in order to achieve an efficient & effective regulation. Agency theory gives theoretical support to the creation of transnational regulatory networks. Nevertheless, an empirical analysis of successes & failures proves that institutional design of the network (independence, communication, & coordination) is only one out of four factors that can determine efficiency & effectiveness of European administrative regulation. The other factors are: the level of political support of the policy, the quality of European rules, & the structure of the policy field (fragmentation rather than the presence of one dominant powerful actor). Thus, in order to evaluate the probability of success or failure of transnational regulatory networks agency theory must be integrated in substantial ways. 3 Tables, 38 References. Adapted from the source document.

Lebanon is often considered the unique country in the Arab world that witnessed some form of democracy. Confessional conflicts and the long civil war have revealed the instability of "Lebanese democracy" but, at the same time, its everlasting endurance that prevents authoritarianism. One of the most interesting interpretations of this phenomenon is Lijphart's model of consociational democracy focusing on the role of elites. The consociational model works in Lebanon since its independence (1943) to the outbreak of the civil war (1975) and with some important modifications, it has been re-established during the Lebanese Second Republic (from 1989 until today). The founding elements of those periods are the various national pacts (1943, 1898, 2008) that contributed to the development of a system based on the balance among confessions. The civil war had modified the basis of the 1943 National pact and those of the consociational model. However, in the post war period, Lebanon adopted a new formula that was, again, clearly inspired by consociativism. The new consociational model is less flexible both at the institutional (troika system) and the social levels and increased confessional divisions thus preventing the attainment of any compromise among communities, which could guarantee a political equilibrium. Paradoxically consociativism has been institutionalized and transformed in a sort of "communitarized constitutionalism", a system that perceives fragmentation both insuperable and fundamental. Adapted from the source document.

The paper reveals the features of sociological theorizing offered by classical sociology, including M. Weber's concept. The thematic directions that became central to the German scholar's sociology are identified: modernization, rationalization, legitimization, etc.; their genesis is analyzed from the point of view of the philosophical (Baden School of Neo-Kantianism) and sociological (G. Simmel's concept of cultural forms) studios. It is emphasized that rationalization, which was first considered by M. Weber, becomes a cross-cutting theme in sociology up to the end of the twentieth century. Further development of the concept of rationalization takes place within the communicative turn, associated with the name of J. Habermas. The concept of constructing the social, taking into account the meaning that the author puts into his actions, becomes the first attempt of theoretical synthesis in the process of overcoming the methodological crisis in sociological science. M. Weber's sociology offers a departure from the "container approach" in the analysis of society, which was later realized within the world-systemic (A. G. Frank, I. Wallerstein, J. Arrighi, etc.) and synthetic (M. Archer, P. Bourdieu, E. Giddens, P. Sztompka, etc.) concepts. The problematic of a bureaucratization, formulated by M. Weber in the early twentieth century to describe the processes of formation of the modern state, acquires new relevance today in connection with the expansion of the "bureaucratic spirit" to commercial enterprises, built according to the network logic. The tendencies of (self-)management on the part of employees, which are accelerating due to the transition to the remote form of work. The author shows how processes of legitimation, which are necessary for the perception of changes in professional activity, simultaneously contribute to the fragmentation and disintegration of local social spaces.

Constitutionally guaranteed validity of international treaties, ratified by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the fact that they are appeared to be a part of national legislation determines the relevance of international legal approaches in the development of national environmental legislation. The article analyses the international environmental monitoring regulations in order to implement their provisions into Ukrainian environmental legislation. The authors propose the new ways of the environmental science development and amendments to the national legal regulations in the field of environmental monitoring.

The article investigates European approaches to legal regulation of relations on the implementation of environmental monitoring in order to adapt national environmental legislation to the legislation of the European Union and to eliminate deficiencies and gaps. The purpose of this article is to study the legal nature of environmental monitoring with the help of sources of international environmental law and environmental law of the European Union, cooperation of the countries of the world with the participation of Ukraine.

The objective of this article is making proposals regarding the consideration of European legal and international approaches to the regulation of relations on the implementation of environmental monitoring in the current legislation of Ukraine. In order to improve legal regulation of environmental monitoring in Ukraine, it is suggested to support the adoption of the Law of Ukraine on Environmental Monitoring; to eliminate the fragmentation in the creation of subordinate regulatory mechanism for of environmental monitoring; to continue the research in the field of international environmental law implementation, taking into account European approaches. The methodological basis of the study comprises general scientific and special cognitive methods: formal-logical and logical-semantic methods, a method of system analysis and a method of interpretation of legal norms are used. These methods application contributes d to substantiating proposals for improving the provisions of the current Ukrainian legislation in the field under study.

The transformation of spiritual and educational practices in contemporary culture is analyzed. Spirituality is considered as the basis of modern Ukrainian identity. It is proved that Ukrainian post-colonial discourse is not possible without the interaction of the modern and postmodern identity type. This is a critique of the modern and postmodern way of seeing the problem. Cultural and social consequences of the first stage of the information society, the first stage of globalization are: internal fragmentation of the workforce of information producers and the rest; social exclusion of many individuals and entire segments of society. A new stage in the development of identities should consolidate society. It turns out that the dialogic nature of communication forms identity as knowledge of the nature of its own Self, ready to respond to the challenges of the Other, thus not only my identity is formed, but my place in the world, my spirituality, the limits of my values. The modern type of identity is associated with a nation-state, which tries to maximize its influence, the modern type of identity produces a colonial world, where there is a clear division into metropolis and colony, a special type of colonies are internal colonies. In the case of Ukraine, we can see the complex combination of external and internal colonialism, and the particular danger of internal colonialism lies in the fact that it remains unclear to the end who conqueror, but who is subdued. The postmodern identity type in the Slobozhanschyna culture is connected with the rethinking of modernity, it is not so critical, but unifying. Human beings in a globalized world must rely on the renewal of humanistic ideals, a sense of home and security. A new ethics is proposed based on the principles of freedom, democracy and respect for every individuality that extends a new understanding of spirituality in connection with national culture and national outlook.

The article analyzes the relevance, factors and prospects of the transformation of modern sociological science. It is noted that digital technologies significantly change the fundamental foundations of social interaction, most everyday social practices, structures and conflicts. This poses a number of serious challenges to sociology as a science. It is emphasized that it is time to think deeply not only about the problem of transformation of what sociology studies, but also about the transformation of sociology itself as a specific intellectual practice. Attention is focused on the need for sociological analysis and interpretation of large-scale and long-term social processes, changes in the traditional way of sociology's participation in the formation of state social policy and the implementation of social reforms. Endogenous factors hindering the leadership of sociological science in the modern public intellectual discourse are identified, namely: fragmentation of sociology, its division into a huge number of directions, particular, local thematizations; lack of research attention of sociologists to the fundamental problems of social life; modern sociology does not form an agenda for public intellectual discourse and scientific research, does not define the problematic field of research and interpretation both at the microsocial level and at the level of societal and global phenomena; it is not socially engaged, does not engage in dialogic interaction with various groups of the public, does not help them to realize their values, interests and problems, to fight for their solution; sociologists do not show activity in related research areas (for example, such as social communications, public relations, advertising, marketing, political consulting, conflict studies), do not use for this a rich arsenal of sociological theoretical concepts, quantitative and qualitative methods; despite the mediatization of social life, sociology is not sufficiently media-based, it is extremely weakly present in the media space. A conclusion is formulated about the need to transform sociological thinking and sociological imagination, the need for serious changes in the educational programs of professional training of students, in particular their practical component, the search for new formats of professional communication.