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The paper examines the possibilities offered by decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) for supporting audience participation in the museum sector. DAOs, a type of digital infrastructure underpinned by blockchains and smart contracts, have been seen as informing a more autonomous, self-managing, transparent, and more efficient online organization, one capable of shaping how users participate and communicate with one another. At the same time significant questions have been raised over how DAO technologies complicate the human issues of democracy and shared authority. This paper explores and evaluates the impact of DAO structures in the context of museum participation, specifically viewing them through the lens of shared authority and democracy. It argues that these technologies are capable of offering evidence-based participation, but that this is contingent on access and trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the designed transformation of South African political identity and its constitutional framework as a core aspect of the democratization of South Africa. It compares the racist and exclusive identity of the apartheid state with a redesigned identity of an inclusive and open 'Rainbow Nation', a concept coined by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and spearheaded by Nelson R. Mandela along with the African National Congress. The study considers changes in the legal framework of identity politics, from the Republic of South Africa Constitution Act of 1983 (and the previous apartheid republican Constitution of 1961) through the interim democratic Constitution of 1993 to the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa of 1996. It discusses the possible significance of the 18 amendments to the act regarding South Africans' social and political identities, and establishes a complex and detailed portrayal of the republic's legal framework of identity politics. The study combines legal, political, and cultural analysis of the role of law in formatting social and political identities, using survey results to test its impact on society. In conclusion, the paper considers the effects of post-apartheid identity transformation in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Constitution of India bestows the right to vote on all its citizens who are above the age of 18 years and possess a sound mind, irrespective of class, caste, religion, or socio-economic status. Unfortunately, in today's times participation during elections is considered to be an unnecessary obligation or rather a chore that can be ignored. Effort has been made in the past to introduce compulsory voting in India albeit without success. The paper evaluates the arguments for and against compulsory electoral participation and attempts to situate its possibility and legality in the current context of India's constitutional democracy. The findings are based on comparative analysis on different cases and hold true for most democratic nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of the paper is to analyse T. G Masaryk's ideas about the importance of education in democratic systems. In particular, the study analyses the ideas that Masaryk associates directly or indirectly with the nature of democracy or with the improvement of the democratic system through changes in the education system. The first part of the paper traces the basic aspects of democratic systems in his work that immediately condition ideas about the importance and role of education in democratic systems. The second part analyses the importance of education in the reproduction of national values, the role of the arts and humanities in the formation of the "democratic man", and the significance of education of broad social strata and political authorities in democratic systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the influence of trade on democracy, aiming to understand whether becoming more open to trade also makes a country more democratic. So far, the scientific literature that investigate this topic is scarce, and has not reached any solid consensus: while some papers find a positive effect of trade openness on democracy levels, others find a negative effect, or no effect at all. Moreover, the empirical literature on this topic is also very prone to technical problems of the research design, such as endogeneity, which increases the risk of obtaining biased estimates. This paper uses an instrumental variable approach, this way avoiding any omitted variable bias and reverse causality problems. More precisely, we instrument trade openness with its natural, geography-determined rate, based on the gravity equation of trade; we then use the predicted rate of trade openness to capture its effect on democracy, employing an OLS regression on a panel sample of 27 post-communist countries across a period of 24 years. Democracy is measured using the polity index (from Polity V dataset), and also five other variables that capture different facets of democracy – electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative and egalitarian dimension (from V-Dem dataset). Empirical results suggest that trade openness has a significant, positive effect on democracy. The effect is only marginally higher for the liberal dimension of democracy, and rather similar in magnitude for the rest of four dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to highlight the decisive role of supranational and national courts in the recognition of a fundamental right to a healthy environment and in widening the scope of its protection. It analyses, in a critical sense, the doctrine that defines this trend as jurisprudential activism and that raises concerns regarding the principle of separation of powers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the period of the kingdom of yugoslavia, urban and rural municipalities were the lowest administrative units and closest to the needs of the ordinary population. the aim of this paper is to determine the level of self-government, whether the leadership of municipal administrations was an expression of the political will of the majority of the population or an instrument of the regime that ensured loyalty through various restrictions, pressures and direct nominations. this case study is spatially limited to the area of the Brod district, which was composed of one city and 18 municipalities. it is limited in period from the proclamation of the dictatorship of King alexander in 1929 until the collapse of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1941. during the 1920s, central government limited local self-government in various ways, and immediately after the proclamation of the dictatorship, it was legally abolished. however, it should be recognised that the law on municipalities was adopted in 1933 and the law on City municipalities a year later in which the regime proclaimed self-government in the municipalities, but in reality, it limited it to a great extent. the situation in cities and rural municipalities is very different. elections for the rural municipalities were held three times (1933, 1936, 1940), while in the cities, despite announcements, these were not held until the collapse of the state. the appointment procedure adopted during the dictatorship period was retained, although the parliamentary elections of 1935 and 1938 showed that the imposed concepts did not have significant support from the electoral base. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Belarusian minority in Poland is the second largest national minority, almost entirely concentrated in Podlasie. Qualitative research conducted by our team in 2020 allowed diagnosis of the reasons for the "invisibility" of Belarusians. The Polish state's policy has always influenced the mood of Belarusians who, despite being passive in creating their own political representation, are often identified as the electorate of left-wing parties. Currently, eight years after the 2015 elections won by the PiS party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, Law and Justice), Podlaskie Voivodeship is sometimes referred to as a "bastion of the right", especially of extreme right-wing forces. The aim of the paper is to determine the impact of the current political situation on the sense of identity of the Belarusian minority by referring to the results of the National Census of 2002 and 2011, as well as the circumstances and results of the 2021 census. The analysis pays attention to factors such as historical policy, religion, and axiology, which determine the "borderland identity". The research method used is primarily a comparative method, but we also applied the results of interviews based on scenarios, conducted in selected Podlasie municipalities with at least 50% of Polish Belarusians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Michael Novak's concept of democratic capitalism in Poland aroused great interest for several reasons. The most important of them consisted in its close relation to the teaching of the Polish Pope John Paul II. The second was its temporal coincidence with the start of a political transformation in Poland, when a model of development consistent with Polish tradition and social expectations was sought. The third was related to its Slavic roots and origin, which gained in importance given a perceived civilizational backwardness of the countries belonging to the former socialist bloc. For Polish Catholic thinkers, the concept of democratic capitalism initially seemed to promise a smooth transition to a market economy, protecting society from the shock of a possible collision with predatory capitalism. But the discussions of Michael Novak's conception which took place in Poland at that time were unfortunately burdened with fears of cultural pluralism and with leaving individuals too much freedom in implementing their own ways of achieving happiness. Polish conservatives, who were in power at that time, did not seem to understand the important need for a dynamic moral and cultural system in a society that was just starting its modernization processes. It is paradoxical, but in these discussions what was most feared was the weakening of religious traditions in Polish society. According to the author, this fear caused distrust of the democratic conception, and especially its moral foundations, which continues to this day. This paper, therefore, also contributes to reflection on to what extent the teachings of John Paul II have been absorbed in Polish conservative circles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea of this paper is to discuss the role of virtues in promoting general wellbeing for the common people. This is meant to contribute to the debate about possible linkages between overall wealth and individual character. My main source of inspiration is Michael Novak's perspectives on the cultural basis for capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pinnacle of the Novak's reflections on possible perspectives for the future of the world and the development of international relations is his vision of "Caritapolis" ("Civilization of love"), which is presented especially in the book The universal hunger for liberty – Why the clash of civilizations is not inevitable (2004a). Novak builds the concept on the religious assumptions and on the minimum level of general belief in basic principles (cultural humility, regulative idea of truth, the dignity of the individual person, solidarity), which he considers to be the key to the world security, prosperity and the democratic future of the globalized world. This "vision for the 21st century" is to contribute to the consideration of a universal civilization that would respect all its internal variations and create a certain unity despite its rich diversity of value and religious ideas. The aim of this paper is to present Novak's concept of Caritapolis and to evaluate it in terms of context of the social doctrine of the Church, Catholic social thought debates, relevance in the context of debates in the social sciences, especially the theories of international relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of democratic backsliding on the management of top officials in Hungary. Based on a unique data set of more than 1,600 top officials the article shows that the number of appointments to top positions increased in 2010 and subsequent years, during which Hungary experienced democratic back-sliding. Moreover, the data shows that turnover in top official positions was higher in 2010 and in subsequent years than in the period between 1990 and 2010. The paper concludes that the politicisation and high degree of instability in top official positions may be characteristic of governance in illiberal democracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although representing half of the world population, women remain largely excluded from political power and government structures. Various strategies have been introduced to increase women’s political representation, including electoral gender quotas. This paper explores the impact of electoral gender quotas on women’s quantitative participation in politics of Bosnia and Herzegovina, analysing quota impact in combination with other related factors, such as the quota design, implementation and broader political context. A diversity of techniques has been used to collect a combination of quantitative and qualitative data, including academic resources collection and analysis, desk research, statistical data analysis and online questionnaire. The paper argues that electoral gender quotas have generally had a positive impact on getting women elected in BiH, though their efficacy depends on their formulation and other aspects of electoral law. Still, quantitative representation of women is not sufficient to facilitate their agency in politics. Social attitudes also continue to affect the electoral success of women once they secure a spot on the candidate list. Therefore, quotas must be implemented within a broader democratic, accountable and gender-sensitive political context to deliver qualitative representation of women in politics. Finally, the paper offers concrete recommendations to promote women’s political participation in BiH.

Political transformation reached Hungary in parallel with other Central and Eastern European countries at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s. The core of the events, the year of 1989, the so called "annus mirabilis" when, within one year almost the entire Central and Eastern European region stepped onto the path of changes. The actors adopted Western patterns within a short period, institutions of new political systems were established, and a new political power verified and consolidated its legitimacy by free elections. As a final proof of transformation, most of former socialist bloc member states joined both the NATO and the European Union. Hungary had the chance to enter in the 21st century under radically changed and much more favourable conditions than it ever had before. This smooth transformation interrupted by political and economic crisis that finally led to the victory of the opposition that managed to repeat the next elections and implemented the Programme of National Cooperation. The aim of the paper is to analyse why the adoption of the new system enjoys wide support from different social groups and how the old fixations and obsessions persisted in society. This paper also gives a brief explanation about the nature of illiberal democracy in a wider scope and link it with the history of the Hungarian democracy, the (dis) functioning institutions, and confirms the argumentation with some statistical data explaining the correlation between the support of the government and the living standards. It investigates, if the Hungarian illiberal democratic regime interpreted as consequence of the troublesome system changes or if it is rooted in the distorted political system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses, from a conceptual and theoretical perspective, the recent debates on the relation between the state and the market as drivers of national development. Since the end of the Cold War, three periods are distinguishable according to the way in which development is discussed, envisaged, and designed through state policies. The first one starts from the end of the Cold War and leads to the 2008-2009 crisis, the second includes the ten years of recovery, while the last is unfolding at the moment. The argument takes globalization into account as the background for development, during the three decades observed. The paper analyses the way in which the state-market relationship was envisaged during each period, both in the developed and emerging economies. The paper identifies the factors that ensure steady development, with an emphasis on current challenges. Lastly, the paper presents the particular experience of Central and Eastern Europe during its transition from the communist regime to democracy. The conclusion is that the better understanding of the relationship between globalization and development, the faster their evolution for a given country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1994, Albania codified the current civil code, harmonizing the national legislation with the democratic values of the Western European Countries. This paper fills the gap in the national and international scientific literature since there is no scientific contribution that examines the Albanian law of succession showing the similarities and differences between the Albanian and the Italian civil codes. This is fundamental because according to Article 33 Albanian Private International Law (Albanian Law no. 10 428 of June 2011), which governs cross-border succession law, in the case of immovable goods, the rule of lex rei sitae has been codified. Thus, in the case of immovable goods, the Albanian succession law will be applied to them. In the conclusion, this research demonstrates that the Albanian Law of Succession of 1994 is different in many ways from the rules established in the Italian Civil Code of 1942. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central concept within this research work is Edu-tensegrity. It is the foundation of the Heasly Thinking Skills System and uses a geodesic dome as a refreshed visual depiction of the many varied elements in the whole world of education, given paradigm changes within lived experience of 21st century education. This system uses a disciplined use of the art of Questioning, a 'ME' diagram, a fully explained process of decision-making, and finally a detailed diagram called the HUG/BUG for application of personally chosen behaviours. This paper explains the integrated connections of education concepts with similar knowledge content from other relevant academic disciplines. The aim allows for the academic support of teachers and lecturers as these paradigm changes are affected, relying on resilience and the authentic projects of our research communities, who are central to the concept of Edu-tensegrity. Edu-tensegrity is central to the twin concepts of Sustainability and Securitability, adding to the educational philosophy of this journal, and cementing the changing landscape of 21st century education in a time of pandemic and change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question of how satisfied people are with the workings of their national democracy has often been criticized but is still the international standard measurement of satisfaction with democracy (SWD). In this paper we explore the benefits of adding questions about remembered and expected satisfaction 'ten years ago' and 'ten years from now', as were asked in the ISSP citizenship surveys of 2004 and 2014. Based on the data from seventeen European countries, we find that national samples: ■ do not show universal 'nostalgia', ■ produce good guesses of past satisfaction but show no futurist insights, ■ give retrospective judgments that do not correlate well with changes in expert opinions, ■ give retrospective judgments that do not correlate well with changes in the share of the populist vote. At the individual level we find: ■ that in almost all countries expected satisfaction with democracy ten years from now is a better predictor of political trust and feelings of political efficacy than satisfaction with democracy today, ■ that in almost all countries expected satisfaction with democracy ten years from now is a better predictor of the preference for populist voting (in one national case study), ■ we note that Poland is the only country in our sample where citizens were, in 2014, retrospectively more positive about the development of their democracy, probably due to the severe economic conditions Poland faced in 2004. Overall, we do not find evidence for the relevance of retrospective judgements, but some evidence for the relevance of prospective judgements. We recommend further research into individual changes in present satisfaction and perceptions of these changes to better understand the frames of reference of 'satisfaction with democracy today'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Support for democratisation and democracy has become one of the leading topics in a wide-ranging debate over the state of democracy in the contemporary world. The European Union became an important player in global politics, one with an ambitious programme for the spreading and supporting of democracy and the process of democratisation in Eastern Europe. Hence the author's attempt at addressing the following question: what actions and strategies have and are being undertaken by the EU to facilitate the above-mentioned processes? The aim of the paper is to describe and assess the strategies and actions of the European Union in the field of supporting democratisation and democracy in selected countries of the former USSR (e.g. Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine), additionally well-fitting to the concept of Eastern Partnership, in the last decade of XX and the first decade of XXI Century. The paper also aims to present which procedures and standards (that are supposed to guarantee their usefulness and effectiveness) are being used by the EU. The emphasis has been placed primarily on the processes of democratisation, their mileage, specificity and possible strategies for supporting democratic development, as well as its potential for consolidation, in the countries of the former Soviet Union. In order to conduct the research it is necessary to assess the political, social and economic conditions in the researched countries. It is to be stressed that one should be aware of the complexity and dynamics of the described processes whilst evaluating the EU's initiatives. The papers topic was chosen due to the importance and currentness of the researched EU actions and their results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Romanian Journal for Baltic & Nordic Studies/Revista Romana de Studii Baltice si Nordice is the property of Sciendo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper deals with the long and rich history of the Austrian Constitutional Court. It focuses on the role of the Austrian Constitutional Court in times of political transitions. As written version of a lecture held in Sousse (Tunisia) it tends to outline the impact a constitutional court could have on a young democracy's political system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although three decades have passed since the fall of communism in Poland, the observed level of social activity in the country is relatively low. Participatory budget emerged as an idea to increase the involvement of citizens in decision-making processes concerning their immediate surroundings. In addition to their inclusion in the activity of local government, this form of citizen participation is expected to have a positive impact on residents' involvement in activities for the benefit of the local community. The aim of this article is to indicate the conditions that influenced the implementation of the idea of the first participatory budget in Poland and emphasizing the importance of the civic budget in managing public administration through partial decentralization involving local communities in social dialogue for local investment initiatives, especially in large provincial cities in Poland. The following research question was adopted in the paper: has the introduction of a participatory budget in Poland increased social activity and has it been conducive to the development of civil society. In Poland, the initiative to create a civic budget met good political conditions in the relatively small city of Sopot, which had the resources to implement the project. After successful implementation, this initiative was relatively quickly adopted by other Polish local governments, which then on their own introduced social consultations called the civic budget. Not all poviats introduced the civic budget of their own volition. The government, seeing the possibility of political discounting of this new solution, decided to introduce a mandatory participatory budget in town counties and ordered the allocation of funds from their budgets, no less than 1 % of budget expenditure. The article relies on the case-study method, comparative analysis and trend analysis, qualitative and quantitative methods of description, document analysis and statistical data. The analysis focuses on the town of Sopot and provincial capitals. Local conditions are important for understanding the processes of shaping active civic attitudes in Poland, because cities are the poles of development of civil society and give impetus to innovative changes in the entire socio-economic system. The materials used in the article include reports, documents and legal acts regarding the functioning of the town of Sopot. The study showed that the participatory budget indeed activates the local community around various projects. At the same time, the question of directly translating this activity into an increase in the number of organizations, associations and foundations remains debatable. The introduction of the participatory budget to administrative management practice in local-government units in Poland should be considered in terms of the soft power impact of administration on the shaping and development of civil society, which is still in the development stage in Poland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is argued that educational spaces often maintain certain forms of hierarchical cultural patterns to reproduce an unequal civil society. The history and contemporary nature of Indian civil society, ridden with relations of caste and class, often interpellates its agenda of hierarchical order in the cultures of schooling. Children from marginalized communities, particularly from the Adivasi (tribal) cultures, are more vulnerable to these undercurrents, and this often results in their dispirited autonomous participation in schooling. The content and nature of the curriculum and modes of pedagogical interactions are the focal channels of its operationalization. In recent times and earlier, various forms of contestations had emerged against this dominant agenda, particularly from subaltern contexts. These took the form of democratic resistances seeking to establish democratic cultures in classrooms and schools (Apple C James, 2007; Darder et.al, 2009). Creating a sphere of this order would promise to enable children to become transformative human beings and autonomous intellectuals. Viewing the regime of education as both liberatory and oppressive (McLaren, 2009), this paper is an attempt to engage with democratic concerns in the realm of schooling in India within the relations of culture, knowledge and its politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cultural policy of the Roman Catholic Church in Poland is incorporated into state-run cultural policies. The organs of public authority enforce the objectives of Church regardless of Church's actual ability to influence the society. It should be pointed out that the secularization of religion in Poland is frequently misinterpreted and usually equated with its deprivatization. It is worth mentioning that Catholicism is the dominant religion of the country and the Roman Catholic Church has hold a special position in Poland and play a major role in the country's social and political life. In practice, however, Polish society appears to be religiously indifferent. This paper proves that the official, state-run cultural policy in Poland is based on favoritism of the Roman Catholic Church, regardless of Church's actual ability to wield influence on society. Thus, there is a variety of implicit and explicit cultural policies implemented by the authorities to support Church. This work also aims at addressing the question of social attitudes to women, especially the one concerning the UN and EU law embracing women's rights, until recently still not implemented in Poland. This paper further explores some peculiarities of this topic as an example of a specific outcome of Church cultural policy and its impact on both the past and present-day society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the first three post-war decades, the party system in the old Federal Republic was concentrated on the two major popular parties, the CDU/CSU and the SPD, and there was a great deal of satisfaction with democracy. In the following decades, the 2.5-party system became a six-party system. This article analyses the economic background of this development. It comes to the conclusion that high growth rates with noticeably rising real incomes led to the concentration, while low growth rates and stagnation or falling real incomes led to the fragmentation of the party system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the cultural and social crisis facing the sporting celebrity, with specific reference to the Australian athlete in the field of swimming. In that sense, this paper argues that parallels in other political systems for ruthless, sustained success, and the loss occasioned by it to individual sports figures, should be considered. Liberal democracies can still be perpetrating systems of sporting depression and mental illness, undermining their representatives in a relentless drive for performance and medals. The problem lies in what might be best described as a sporting industrial complex, one that emerged in Australia with the professionalization of sports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of the article is to contribute to the bourgeoning debate on semipresidentialism, its definition, and its characteristic features, with analysis of the empirical example of the Czech Republic, a country which, according to Elgie´s standard definition, shifted to semi-presidentialism in 2012. The author investigates whether and how Miloš Zeman, the first directly elected president of the Czech Republic, influences relations among the key political institutions in the direction of the model of a semi-presidential democracy. The paper sets out the working concept of semi-presidentialism first and, through the lenses of process tracing, analyses the goals and acts of Zeman after he entered office in January 2013. The case study of the Czech Republic sheds light not only on the recent development(s) in the Czech political system, but it can be seen as an interesting example of how strong political personalities are attempting to expand their influence on politics in a parliamentary democracy and what the possible limits of this effort are. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Court packing greatly threatens democracy. This paper examines, compares and draws conclusions from two attempts: The PiS government is near to packing Polish courts; President Roosevelt tried but failed to pack the U.S. Supreme Court in 1937. In most democracies a head of government with a legislative majority and strong party control can pack courts, giving complete control. The United States escaped; Roosevelt lacked complete party control. Poland is unlucky; PiS is strongly controlled. Peaceful domestic protest is necessary, but Poland's hope is from EU-level institutional pressure, supported by major democracies, to reverse packing and prevent further seizure of power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hybrid regimes are characterised by a balancing act between democracy and authoritarianism, with neither political regime type being dominant. The balancing of the state between democratic and non-democratic modes of functioning can take the form of a state transforming from authoritarianism to democracy and a form of regression from democracy to authoritarianism, when the democratic system is upset by non-democratic mechanisms. The functioning of the political system in Ukraine during the years 1996–2004 was such that the authoritarian aspects of Ukraine's hybrid regime overshadowed its democratic elements. Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way (2002; 2013) refer to this phenomenon as "competitive authoritarianism". This term denotes regimes where authoritarian features are more prevalent than democratic ones, according to the concept. Since 2004, the Ukrainian political system has transitioned towards a hybrid regime that places more emphasis on democratic characteristics. In the following twenty years, the Ukrainian hybrid regime was transformed between democratic-authoritarian hybrid regime (as a result of the events of the "Orange Revolution", and the "Revolution of Dignity") and authoritarian-democratic hybrid regime (during presidency L. Kuchma and V. Yanukovych). The hybridity of the political regime also translated into the functioning of the chief state bodies. The aim of this study was to find an answer to the question whether and to what extent did the hybridity of Ukraine's political regime imply on the specificity of the functioning of the institutions of the prime minister and government in the state. The research hypothesis is that the hybridity of the Ukrainian political regime, as a stage of transition from authoritarianism to democracy, partly contributed to changing the traditional order of functioning of the institutions of prime minister and government in the state just formally losing the head of state's dominant role in the process of government functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Latvian discourse of the theory of law and legal practice, there is a set of influential ideas that constitute a theory of general principles of law. This article aims to offer some critical remarks on the aforementioned theory and to explore some resulting methodological implications. In this article, two main research methods are used: the descriptive and the deductive methods. The examination of the theory resulted in the conclusion that it is self-contradictory to assert that the basic norm (a democratic state based on the Rule of Law) can determine the entire content of the legal system. Following are some methodological implications: First, instead of asserting that all legal methods are general principles of law, one should adopt a more general norm that is flexible enough and avoids contradictions between different obligations to use legal methods, i.e. the principle of reasonable application of legal norms. Second, the interpretation of written legal norms and the concretisation of unwritten ones cannot coexist if the basic norm determines the entire content of the legal system because of the postulate which asserts that writing down unwritten legal norms in a normative act does not change its unwritten nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper assesses the dynamics of social values in postcommunist Romania. The perspective is comparative, aiming to see which might be the differences when comparing to Mediterranean countries and, to a less extend, to Southern Europe. Data from the value studies are used to show how Romanians changed since 1990 their value orientations in domains such as religion, family, gender, democracy, work or tolerance. The neomodernization process combined until now the negative impact of economic recession with the openness given by renouncing to a totalitarian regime. Romanian knew a slight increase of the orientations towards modern values, which is expected to be much higher in next few years. Mediterranean countries may experience similar processes in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An attempt to contextualize the political power structure in Nigeria exposes an orientation and practice that directly negates the democratic norm of power belonging to the people. Today, power belongs entirely to government officials who use it to advance the course of their political and economic interests. The people are thus, subjected to the point and path of complete alienation from the demands and benefits of their democratic citizenship. Given the weakness of the rule of law and institutions of check in Nigeria, established statutes and legislation have not been able to stand tall to relevance in dislodging the hegemony of the ruling elites as is evident in our case study-Imo State. This has since 1999, propped up a telling political effect, which also spirals to the arena of development, and quakes the stability of the state, and the nation at large. The paper examines the current domiciliation of political power, its potential effect on the people, and on service delivery in the country. A case is made for recovery of power for the people and reasserting the law as a balancing force and as means of providing check against breach of constitutionally prescribed political power structure and configuration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to highlight the decisive role of supranational and national courts in the recognition of a fundamental right to a healthy environment and in widening the scope of its protection. It analyses, in a critical sense, the doctrine that defines this trend as jurisprudential activism and that raises concerns regarding the principle of separation of powers.

This editorial from the journal "Contemporary Military Challenges" discusses the 20th anniversary of Slovenia's membership in NATO. The author reflects on the significance of this milestone and the challenges faced by countries on the eastern wing of the Alliance, particularly in light of the war in Ukraine. The editorial also mentions previous thematic issues of the journal that have explored the development of the Alliance and Slovenia's role within it. The document includes articles by various authors discussing topics such as NATO enlargement, the future of the Atlantic Alliance, and national identity and great power politics. The editorial concludes by highlighting Slovenia's efforts to increase defense spending and contribute to the common security and defense capabilities of the Alliance and the European Union. The text also mentions William Lippert's research on military power and finding a balance between countries, as well as expressing hope for the cessation of hostilities in Ukraine. [Extracted from the article]

The right to participate in political life – especially for youth – is very important for an inclusive society. Although the population under the age of 30 represents about 40% of the total population in Albania, the participation of young people in the political, social, and economic spheres remains low. Under current conditions, the youth in Albania tend to remain uninvolved in policy-making, and thus unable to influence their social and economic status. This article points analyzes the economic, social, and political situation of Albanian youth with some recommendations for policy makers related to each area. The institutional and legal structures for young people and the participation of young people in politics are not well developed in Albania. There is a need to review and strengthen the country's institutional/legal framework at all levels, in order to make young people a more important factor in the society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the paper is to present the differences in the grounds of appeal and the appeal proceedings against judgments issued by a court composed of representatives of the public in a criminal trial at first instance. At present, citizens are allowed to adjudicate most often in one of three forms: persons adjudicating independently without the participation of a professional factor, who are not professionals in the field of law and criminal procedure (e.g. judges of the peace in the common law system); a jury composed of citizens and adjudicating mostly on guilt of the accused; or lay judges adjudicating all aspects of the case in one panel together with professional judges. However, the participation of laymen in adjudication is not a prevailing rule. Many countries legal systems do not allow the citizens to co-decide in criminal cases. The paper also indicates the arguments for the democratization of the judiciary through a wider admission of citizens to participate in criminal justice. This issue has been examined on the background of three aspects of democracy: representative, deliberative and participatory.

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The United States considers itself a world superpower in many realms, but equality in political representation is not one of them. Currently, female representation in the United States Congress hovers around nineteen-percent, placing the United States in league with nations that have historically oppressed women, including Kenya and Tajikistan. While other, more infant, democracies have utilized political quotas as a means to increase female political involvement, the United States' maintains a tradition of formal equality and neutralism. Long-standing precedent remains suspicious of anything resembling a quota. However, France faced a similar dilemma, unable to increase female representation due to a tradition of universalism. Working within its constitutional confines, France adopted parity in an attempt to achieve "perfect equality." This paper argues that the United States may be able to use France as an example, thus potentially increasing female representation through a parity system that respects the traditions of our Constitution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rules as we know today in modern societies have their base in the Magna Carta from 1215. In that time people declared that the rights of the king and nobles must be limited and that was the first step toward as we know today 'democracy'. The rights incorporated in the Magna Carta defined the limits what a state can do and also set boundaries in order to achieve equality between the state and the individual. The rights proclaimed with Magna Carta found their path in the French Revolution from 1789 as 'Liberty, Equality and Fraternity' became symbol of democratic freedom and afterwards gave value in the conventions and other international instruments. The main purpose that was achieved with Magna Carta from today's perspective is that the rules have been implanted in the conscience of people, so they learn to obey and practice them. The Magna Carta rights are integral part of international conventions and on that way they have been taken from the states on national level so they become inevitable incorporated segment of the constitution and the laws of states. Those rights have achieved their purpose, because 800 years after their proclamation, some of them are still on force and have been provided in the constitutions of many countries including the Western Balkan countries. The rights that derived from Magna Carta concerning the rule of law, independence of the judiciary, equality before the law and prohibition of discrimination are integral part of the Constitution of Macedonia which makes efforts for their implementation into practice - because contrary, words will be just words on paper and nothing else. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political participation and the public education that have always been deployed to support the incipient progress of the civic life are revived in the modern political discourses. It has been believed that the age of pre-Socrates was the age of the Sophists whose acrid fallacy works occupied the political sphere, a malaise in government. However, speaking non-traditionally in the modern pedagogical system, there were some pre-Socratic thinkers and political philosophers/orators who's works are the backbone of modern discourse on this matter. It will be examined whether any part of the classical rhetoric apparatus can be recovered and put to a good practice in the modern education and modern political participation. This point will be illustrated, furthermore, in this paper by alleging the importance of rhetoric, its role in Ancient Greek Democracy, and its influence on the modern concepts of power and democracy, as a continual element in a historical-political life. The further consideration is whether there was any democratic Polis existed in Ancient Athens and then, if there was, what characteristics it consisted of. Moreover, whether such concept can or should be considered in modern political discourses. In this sense, the liberal, non-dogmatic strain of the sophistry of Isocrates tradition urges us to indicate that the findings of this educational principles are, if not necessary, but adjutant complementary metes to our modern political knowledge of the states. In the end, it is inquired to see comparatively that how the tradition of rhetorical art and the concept of power in the Ancient Greek society have pertained to the modern democratic elements and whether we are able to empower this influential element in modern states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have long debated the normative rationality, the temporal and legal aspects, and finally the limits and modern practices of parliamentary immunity. Therefore, this study does not insist on these classical interpretations anymore, but seeks to contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the conceptual history of parliamentary immunity. Embracing two schools of thought, the Koselleckian interpretation and the Skinnerian variant, this paper aims to establish and clarify in detail the story of the concept of parliamentary immunity in order to elucidate, in a Socratic fashion, what we really mean when we say that a senator or a deputy benefits from legislative immunity. This inquiry will help us emphasise how this concept leaves behind its abstract notion and becomes an institution with strict rules and practices. In addition, considering the importance of this concept in the modern legislative and rhetoric histories and the frequency with which it is used, this study will question the meanings of parliamentary immunity in the light of different historical settings and will eventually trace out a single, coherent, and unified conceptual matrix. My contention is that once parliamentary immunity - seen as a conceptual construct only adjusting the balance of power between the executive and the legislative powers - becomes an institution with strong practices, it enforces the parliament as a unified and independent body and creates the prerequisite conditions for the democratic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article places Hungarian demonstrations in autumn 2014 within an overview of the construction of the political idea of democracy in post-socialist Hungarian politics, and the changes induced by the Fidesz government after 2010. Instead of a short-term, politically focused analysis, it understands recent changes as part of a long-term history of integration into the history of the capitalist world-system. In that interpretation, I rely on the collective work of the Budapest-based Working Group on Public Sociology "Helyzet". Based on the national and international press of the events, as well as on my previous knowledge of movement groups, I explore the ideological forms through which mobilizations' issues are channelled into more politicized vocabularies. Although a full analysis of this complex and hierarchical process falls beyond the purposes of the present paper, it nonetheless points at a major factor within the local dynamics of politicization: that of vertical alliances within a renewed geopolitical tension, framed in the vocabulary of a "New Cold War". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on transparency in lobbying as perceived by in sample organisations in the Czech Republic. The paper’s aim is to study how lobbying and its impact on decision-making practices are perceived by organisational representatives and to empirically assess the perceived transparency of lobbying with a view to the potential introduction of lobbying regulations and their role in Czech democracy. Data for the study was gathered from a sample of business institutions in the Czech Republic. In total, 73 organisations/institutions took part in the survey. One respondent was questioned per organisation/institution. 90 % of respondents perceive that transparent and regulated lobbying has a positive impact on democracy. Moreover, according to the respondents, lobbying facilitates more competent decision-making among politicians, brings more information into the decision-making process and makes the process more efficient. There has been a significant shift in the perception of lobbying over the past ten years in the Czech Republic. Regulations aimed at legitimizing lobbying are seen as having a positive impact on democracy.

The digital transformations of contemporary media systems have had severe consequences for democracy and public debates. This introductory article addresses key challenges of what we refer to as varieties of "digital disintegration" within democratic societies. The eight contributions in the special issue are thematised in three parts. The first part explores disintegration within the context of political communication during elections, including data-driven campaigning, populism, and politicised forms of news production. The second part delves into the role of alternative news curators, audience polarisation, and issues of self-censorship in digital information environments. The third part centres on deliberative norms connected to content moderation of user comments within legacy media and the consequences digitalisation has had on journalistic sourcing practices and source diversity over time. The contributions offer valuable empirical insights, as well as new lines of thinking concerning democracy and digital and disintegrative transformations in the Nordic region and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indonesia, which is a democratic country, is not necessarily free from the practice of ownership of a handful of groups that influence the course of the National constitution. Oligarchy begins with the fact that extreme material inequality produces extreme political inequality. Although in a democracy, position and access to the political process are interpreted as equal, the enormous wealth in the hands of a small minority creates a significant excess of power in the political sphere for that group. The practice of oligarchic politics in Indonesia has been prominent and widespread since the New Order era. Oligarchy has undermined the philosophical meaning of democracy, which is political power or government run by the people, and for the people. Freedom in the political field certainly does not mean legalizing all means but remains in the corridor as contained in Pancasila as the basic ideology of the Indonesian nation. The good and bad of the law must be measured by the good and bad consequences produced by the application of the law, meaning that legal provisions can be considered good and provide benefits if the consequences resulting from their application are good, maximum happiness, and reduced suffering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forced migration during the war led to significant changes in academic mobility in Ukraine. This challenge received a worthy response thanks to the support of Ukraine from the European Union, the USA and other countries of Western democracy: many Ukrainian students and professors received greater opportunities to study and work in European and Western universities in general. This article aims to identify the main threats to inclusivity and new opportunities to provide additional resources and educational space for the development of inclusivity, which is directly related to forced migration as one of the challenges to higher education in Ukraine during this war. The methodology of this article is a philosophical approach based on the use of interrelated concepts of challenge and response. The case study of challenges for academic mobility in Ukraine is used as well. Obstacles and limitations of academic mobility during the war appear to be partially overcome, thanks to distance education. The new opportunities that have opened up for the Ukrainian higher education system provide broad and strategic prospects for the deep integration of the Ukrainian higher education system into the European and world educational space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For two years now, the Taliban have regained control of the "new" Afghanistan. The images broadcast by Al-Jazeera of Islamic fighters inside the government building, of women fleeing, of violence at Kabul airport made this even clearer. The apparent openness to the press soon proved to be a fleeting veneer of democracy, and a sunset period for human rights began. With the advent of the new Taliban government, the figure of the woman was relegated to the stereotype of wife and mother, while freedom of the press began to clash with radical Islamic thought. The panorama for Afghan women remains uncertain, and it remains to be understood to what extent their capacities, on the one hand, and the external actions of the international community, on the other, can influence the protection of rights and the improvement of conditions for women. The work presented here traces the main critical aspects of the relationship between the media, women journalists, and gender equality in Afghanistan from two perspectives: the socio-historical and the socio-visual. Historical facts and international journalistic images accompany the analysis... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]