Search

The paper "American democracy is distress: The failure of social education" presents several "symptoms of democracy's dysfunction in the United States". These include the extreme reliance on campaign contributions, giving the donors--economic elites and groups representing business, frequently operating at a transnational level--an excessive power in determining government policy in areas such as the environment, media or fiscal regulations, as profusely exemplified in the paper. At the same time, policies impose restrictions on citizens' rights in areas such as voting, healthcare or employment. In this sense, the power gap between citizens and economic elites in the form of a global capital is growing and, as it goes undisputed and unchallenged, menaces the core of democracy itself. This is a paper worth reading. Not only does it present an argument--and this is something to be praised and cherished--but it also sustains its argument on a sound and systematic analysis of documents and research. As such, this is not a trivial paper. The data, analysis and argument the author develops call for our attention and challenges us to reflect on whether and how the situation described for the US resonates with the situation of those currently living in Europe.

In a recent paper, Simpson and Dervin (2019a) offer a radical critique of the Council of Europe's "Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture" (RFCDC). However, Simpson and Dervin's paper contains numerous factual errors, interpretative errors and category errors in its description of the RFCDC. We identify 12 such errors which invalidate the conclusions drawn by them. We correct all of these errors, and suggest that, rather than using Simpson and Dervin's paper as a source of information about the RFCDC, readers should read the RFCDC itself, before drawing their own conclusions about the RFCDC and the adequacy of the arguments offered by Simpson and Dervin.

Purpose: The article gives a brief introduction to the Council of Europe Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education (EDC/HRE) and illustrates the review process of its implementation. Focusing on the second review cycle of 2016, it stresses that the Council of Europe fell short of a thorough analysis of the discrepancy in perceptions between governments and NGOs with respect to the effective implementation of EDC/HRE. Design/methodology/approach: Looking at the 2017 Report resulting from the second review cycle, the paper analyses analogies and discrepancies between responses received from governments and civil society organisations to the surveys organised by the Council of Europe. Findings: Through the selection of answers analysed, it is shown that there are areas in which responses from governments and civil society organisations are similar and aligned, for example on the issues for EDC/HRE to address and on the little priority given to make financial support available. However, there are other areas in which considerable discrepancy can be highlighted. The article draws a reflection on the way in which the Report has been put together and argues that, in order to build a more accurate analysis, the Council of Europe should have connected the responses received from governments and civil society organisations and make them dialogue, rather than providing two unrelated summaries on the state of citizenship and human rights education without merging analogies and questioning discrepancies between responses received from different stakeholders.

Focuses on options for reforming European governance. White Paper of the European Commission.

Identifies the main problems of educational reform in postcommunist countries by using an interactive model of education and developmental dimensions of society. Suggests that the stalemate in the transformation of ownership and political modernization and ideological conservativism will impede the Europeanization of education in Eastern European countries. (Contains 17 references.) (MAB)

Characterizes the social, political, and economic climate underlying educational dilemmas and visions in Czechoslovakia and other Eastern European countries after the fall of communism. Discusses the debate between state control of education and liberal educational approaches facing the area and stresses the importance of teachers in the shaping the education system. (MAB)

When the journal "Minerva" was founded in 1962, science and higher educational issues were high on the agenda, lending impetus to the interdisciplinary field of "Science Studies" "qua" "Science Policy Studies." As government expenditures for promoting various branches of science increased dramatically on both sides of the East-West Cold War divide, some common issues regarding research management also emerged and with it an interest in closer academic interaction in the areas of history and policy of science. Through a close reading of many early issues of "Minerva" but also of its later competitor journal "Science Studies" (now called "Social Studies of Science") the paper traces the initial optimism of an academically based Science Studies dialogue across the Cold War divide and the creation in 1971 of the International Commission for Science Policy Studies as a bridging forum, one that "Minerva" strangely chose to ignore. In this light, attention is drawn to aspects of the often forgotten history of Science Studies in the former Soviet Union and the Eastern European block. Reviewed also are several early discussions that are still relevant today: e.g., regarding differing concepts of Big Science, science and democracy, autonomy in higher education and what conditions are necessary to sustain academic freedom and scientific integrity (some of Edward Shils' primary concerns). Finally, it is noted how the question of quantitative methods to measure scientific productivity lay at the heart of a "Science of Science" movement of the 1960s has re-emerged in a new form integral to the notion of a "Science of Science Policy."

Heraldic traditions in southeast European countries are similar, as are the histories of their state emblems and coat of arms. Their development could be classified into three periods: (1) from the founding of the states until the end of World War II; (2) the socialist period; and (3) the period of democratisation after the collapse of socialism. The focus of this work is the processes of the adoption of coats of arms. The descriptions are taken from the appropriate legal documents. This paper examines the emblems and coats of arms of modern southeastern European, or Balkan states, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Slovenia, and Serbia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Comparative Politics is the property of Journal of Comparative Politics 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.)

Copyright of Toruńskie Studia Polsko-Włoskie / Studi Polacco-Italiani di Toruń is the property of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Faculty of Law & Administration 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.)

Democracy is in deep crisis today: this is indicated by decreasing turnout at elections, media that blur the distinction between information, defamation and propaganda, and the hidden influence of business corporations through tax evasion and lobbyism (Barber 1994; Crouch 2004; Preiss/Brunner 2013; Merkel 2015). In this situation, direct democracy seems to offer a new way to strengthen citizens' political participation. However, several recent referenda have shown that the former can be used by the elites as an instrument for advancing their ambitions to power, and legitimating specific (often problematic) political aims. This paper uses a theoretically informed historical-sociological approach with the intent of explaining elites' attitudes toward democracy. I start from democratic elite theory, which argues that elites are indispensable for the management of large and complex societies, but that they will pursue their own interests if not checked by a strong opposition and civic action from below. Six concrete hypotheses are developed: Direct democracy increases in the course of realizing democratic systems; elites are much more sceptical concerning direct democracy than citizens; the use and implementation of referenda depend on the political system (distinguishing three types); and the dysfunctions of direct democracy are mainly due to its misuse by elites, while the outcomes of strong direct democracy are mostly positive. These hypotheses are tested by looking at applications of direct democracy (referenda) in totalitarian, authoritarian and elitist democratic systems in recent European history. The paper concludes with some considerations about the necessary measures for solving the problems of direct democracy as articulated by the elites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global crisis has shaken all conventional wisdoms, including the faith in the final victory of democracy and market economy. Unlike in the early nineties when the ruling paradigm was "the end of history" (with democracy and market economy in harmony) the late 2000s have not produced the end history but the end of this naive concept due to the global crisis. More and more people consider democracy and market as "strange bedfellows" in journalistic terms. Similarly, in the early nineties the global and national developments seemed to converge in a unicentric global world order under the wise and tough paternalistic rule of the US, and by the late 2000s they seem to diverge more and more in a growing global conflict, instead. The leading representatives of the European political science have formulated this contrast very clearly. Yves Mény in his lecture "Democracy in Troubled Times" (ECPR Lisbon joint sessions, 16 April 2009) has revisited his former concept of democracy from the late nineties. After the collapse of the bipolar world, as he mentioned in this public lecture, he had spoken about the unchallenged supremacy of both market and democracy paradigms. Thus, at that time people could be tempted to agree with the "end of history" theory, but by now it has been "falsified by the recent economic and political development of the world". The contemporary challenges of democracy - as Mény has summarized the new paradigm - have proven that democracy and market is an "unhappy couple", referring to the term of Robert Dahl. Many analysts think nowadays that there is a "bumpy road ahead", or "Europe is in reverse" - this is the new mainstream thinking, based on democratic deficit and global governance deficit. In this paper I argue against the new mainstream thinking with some cautious optimism. My basic argument is that (1) there is more global US deficit than EU deficit, since the EU as soft, civil superpower has proven its superiority to the US global strategy advocated by the former Bush administration that has recently been radically changed by the new Obama administration. This gives a hope that the Global Challenge can be used to improve the global governance and to get closer to the "effective multilateralism" as the EU terms its global strategy. Furthermore, (2) in the EU there is more governance (policy) deficit than democratic (politics) deficit but the EU has taken big strides in combining democracy with good governance by promoting multilevel governance (MLG). Multilevel governance may become the new paradigm not only for the EU "domestic order" but for global governance as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims to illustrate the attempts and the obstacles to reform the EU. Starting with an analysis of the increasing urge of renewing the EU legal structure, this article will highlight the rising interest within the European institutions to involve the citizens and the civil society in the process of renew through a new original tool; in a second step, it will briefly present the architecture of the CoFoE and its hybrid format which combines institutional negotiations and citizen participation. Hence it will focus on obstacles to the reforms proposed by the Conference. In the end, the article draws some critical conclusions regarding the future outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is no doubt that the European Union is at a crossroads. The recently (arguably) ended economic and financial crisis has left serious marks on the deep structure of the Union, which seems feebler than ever in its history. What is currently contested by politicians and people alike is the very raison d'être of the European project: do we need a Union anymore? Should the European Union be abandoned or should it be revived and consolidated? These are serious and timely questions that require urgent attention. The 2014 EP elections offered a platform spread across Europe where issues such as the future of the EU could have been addressed. In this paper, we analyze the three debates between the candidates to the Presidency of the European Commission. We particularly focus on the scenarios for Europe proposed by three of the five main participants and examine their proposals against the arguments on the future of the European project made by established scholars and experts (i.e. federation, supranational democracy, Europe of nation states, an association of sovereign states, fiscal union, banking union, etc.) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the trends in civic participation in ten post-communist countries from Central and Eastern Europe, trying to see which mechanism led to changes in the pattern of civic participation during the post-communist period-- intra-cohort change or cohort replacement. The analyses are based on the three successive waves of European Values Survey, collected in 1990, 1999 and 2008. Using the cohort decomposition analysis, the social change is partitioned in changes due to the replacement of the older cohort socialized in an environment less favourable to civic participation and to the changes produced by the transformation in the social context and by individual aging. During the last two decades, the rate of civic participation has decreased in all the countries included in the analysis, with the exception of Slovenia. This negative evolution is due to the intra-cohorts changes and it is quite likely the outcome of the economic crises occurred during the transition to the market economy and of the inappropriate functioning of the democratic institutions. The cohort replacement exerts a significant positive effect on most countries, but its contribution to the total social change is weaker than the effect of the intra-cohort change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to find out if there is any convergence between the Third Way in Europe and the Conservative Democracy in Turkey in their politico-economic strategies for dealing with the social question with the thought that both the political identities have come into existence as a consequence of a similar initiative to reformulate their egalitarian cores according to the realpolitik of contemporary capitalism, and uncover the consequences of the so-called strategies specifically in the realm of welfare and labour policies. Design/methodology/approach - This inquiry has been contextualised into the evolutionary cycles of the socialism → social democracy → the Third Way in Europe and the Just Order → Conservative Democracy in the Ottoman-Turkish territory. Initially focusing on the first cycle, the paper then turns to examine the second cycle in a comparative and synchorised perspective with the first. Findings - It is concluded that the Conservative Democracy and the Third way have an unmistakable convergence in terms not only of their evolution but also of their strategic policy options to deal with the social question. Their convergence originates in the initiative to find a middle ground between the contemporary capitalism and their egalitarian cores. Such a reconciliative attempt by the both models ends up in a stalemate that triggers recurring conciliative initiatives rather than yield to stable and sustainable policy options which enable their practitioners to deal with the social question in an efficient way. Research limitations/implications - The paper touches on the general points of convergence between the Conservative Democracy and the Third Way in the political economy of social question. The next step should, hence, be to further this argument by means of specifically dealing with the welfare and labour policies in separate in-depth research. Originality/value - This paper is the first in its inquiry as stated above in the purpose and its comparative methodology to deal with this inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to model the link between political participation and life satisfaction whilst correcting for the endogenous nature of the relationship; explore the impact of different strengths of political participation and aim to uncover if the relationship displays different patterns by gender. Design/methodology/approach - The data originate from the 2006/2007 European Social Survey. The analysis spanned across a pooled data set for 20 European countries. Three alternative empirical frameworks were trialled: an ordered probit regression, a linear regression model and a two-step, simultaneous treatment effect model to address endogeneity concerns. Findings - Following the correction for endogeneity via two-step, simultaneous treatment regressions, political participation - and specifically strong political engagement - displays a robust, statistically significant, strong and positive impact on life satisfaction. It was deduced that actual political participation, and not merely the right to participate in the political process, is a source of procedural utility. Research limitations/implications - The cross-sectional nature of the data imposes design limitations to examining trends and changes over time. It follows that the analysis cannot rely on fixed-effect estimations to control for time-invariant factors. Originality/value - Once the results are corrected for endogeneity, the empirical results reveal that the effect of actual political participation on life satisfaction not only matters, but also as the strength of political engagement grows it matters even more. Findings hold true even when a multitude of socio-demographic characteristics are controlled for. These are important results for researchers and policy makers who are concerned about the happiness of people in democratic societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Europe as a continent has throughout its history been one of the most popular destinations for migrants and foreigners who have viewed the Old continent as a place of better social and economic possibilities. However, recently most European states and its publics have not been so willing to accept the refugees fleeing the wars and violence. For instance, there have been only a few countries such as Sweden and Germany which have openly welcomed the migrants over the past years. On the other hand, some EU states such as Slovakia have openly rejected to accept the refugees just because they do not want the Brussels to impose immigration policies on them or because they simply do not want Muslims or non-Europeans in their communities. The migrant crisis has thus become a real litmus test for the EU coherence and unity. Thus, in this paper I study the cases of Sweden and Slovakia in terms of their immigration policies since they have applied completely different responses towards the migrants. Through this comparative study I hope that it will be much clearer whether the last migrant crisis can be an end to a united Europe in a global world or is this just one of the several crises the EU has faced throughout its history. Probably the biggest problem in this sense is that only a few EU states have proved their democratic and humanistic matureness to accommodate the migrants and accept them as equal citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research we present concerns the narratives of political and social identity of young adolescents sampled in Northern, Central and Southern Italy. Our qualitative analysis is based on constructivism and aims to enhance narratives by privileging the communication of meanings elaborated by the young people. Consistent with this perspective is our choice of the paradigm of pedagogical personalism, which places the human being as a 'person' at the center of reflection. The diverse universe of youth manifests multifaceted aspects that it is possible to bring out using interaction with deliberative, open, and non-pre-conceptual discussion. The link between semantic cores such as democracy, freedom, rights, interculturalism, and citizenship runs through the analyses of the entire research (based on the study by Ross's work in 2019, Finding Political Identities: Young People in a Changing Europe), examined here specifically in the Italian context. The article presents some contrasting aspects of the way young people living in Europe. They harbor uncertainties and discontinuities from the universe of values inherited from previous generations. However, from the tunnel of doubt young people show that they know how to emerge by outlining the forms of a promise of social commitment containing a hope for change, defined as the design of a future in which alternatives to the current situation can be found. In the background, the theme of democracy shows as an aspiration for something still struggling to be born. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the promotion paradigm in media activity, it examines various aspects of the concept of promotion, and presents the accumulated experience of the Moldavian and Romanian media in the coverage of the political process through the comprehension of promotion as the primordial current function of media institutions. The paper looks at the peculiarities and the consequences of the promotion process, interpreting it as an expression of the increasing media intrusion into the political domain. A thorough examination of the evidence reveals that the ruling class manages to keep its functions in front of the expanded media power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trust in state institutions is essential for the stability and legitimacy of political regimes. Understood in evaluative terms, political trust has often been linked to the performance of the state and its institutions. The macrolevel sources of trust, however, are not well understood owing to the scarcity of empirical tests beyond cross-sectional analyses. This paper examines economic performance and the quality of governance as determinants of political trust in Europe. The analysis relies on data from the European Values Study and the World Values Survey between 1990 and 2019, covering 42 European countries surveyed at least twice. The modelling strategy explicitly distinguishes between-country variation from within-country variation in macrolevel characteristics, enabling the examination of cross-national and longitudinal effects. The results provide evidence of associations between economic performance - economic development and unemployment - and political trust in the expected directions, with some differences across European regions. Further, countries with less corruption tend to enjoy higher political trust, but the effects of changes in the level of corruption on trust depend on the corruption indicator used. Finally, improvements in the quality of electoral democracy are associated with declines in political trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Horizons of Politics / Horyzonty Polityki is the property of Jesuit University Ignatianum in Krakow 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.)

Copyright of Italian Journal of Health Education, Sport & Inclusive Didactics is the property of Edizioni Universitarie Romane 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.)

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Politik is the property of Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG 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.)

Ideologically committed to the neoclassical notion of "market discipline," the neoliberal regime is argued to promote principles of ethno-cultural neutrality and to create a level-playing field for all individuals regardless of race, class, gender, or other marker of minority status. However, in practice, neoliberal policies have increased the incidence of economic marginalization among lower and middle socio-economic classes in Europe, and have contributed to growing tensions between cultural majorities and ethnic minority groups. While similar sentiments associated with the rise of nationalism in nineteenth century Europe clearly predate the neoliberal era, in this paper I argue that neoliberal policies, backed by European Union institutions, have created material conditions which have exposed and widened structural incompatibilities between the notions of state and nation. Since the 1990s, these incompatibilities have legitimized the resurgence of radical nationalist sentiment within European nation-states, creating a favorable terrain for the populist rise of far-right factions. In lieu of promoting ethno-cultural neutrality, neoliberal policies have weakened liberal and social principles of inclusion, and have eroded welfare state provisioning systems in European democracies. They have fueled what Thorstein Veblen (1923, 28) referred to as "unreasoning habits of national conceit, fear, hate, contempt, and servility." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the author introduces the conceptualization process of militant democracy since the 30s of the 20th century until today. Ideas of the founders of this concept, i. e. Karl Loewenstein and Carl Schmitt, are outlined. He points out the extension of this concept and its criticism by other authors. In this regard, the efforts of the political classification of defense of democracy against its ideological enemies are notified. Finally, the author discusses the application of the concept of militant democracy by European democratic states. In more detail, German and Czech defending democracies are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the impact of the Western assistance for democracy in the Balkans (Eastern Europe), as civil society development programs. The analysis of the situation in the Balkans leads to the conclusion that the main consequence of this Western assistance has not been the export of democracy, but the increased capacity of the receptors (NGOs) to implement such programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Derecho del Estado is the property of Universidad Externado de Colombia 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.)

Copyright of Problems / Problemos is the property of Vilnius University 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.)

Over the past few decades, a variety of groups have begun to argue that the US and European patent systems do not adequately represent the public interest in their decision making and that they need to undergo fundamental changes to their structure and orientation. These challengers have adopted similar strategies-in terms of the venues chosen and the arguments, evidence, and rhetoric used-in each context. However, they have experienced more success in Europe than in the United States. This paper begins to explain this difference by arguing that the US and European patent policy domains have different 'expertise barriers'-formal and informal rules that make it difficult for those without the knowledge that is recognized as relevant and legitimate in that domain to engage as equals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a relational analysis of populism. After placing the rise of contemporary European populism in the post-Cold War context, the static definition of populism as a "thin-centred" and restrictive ideology is exposed. A definition of populism as a process is used, in contrast with the tendency to apply static definitions. The figure of Pablo Iglesias is in this sense presented as an exemplary case that demonstrates the limitations of the use of these static definitions. The EU is also examined as a body that is spearheading the depoliticising processes that provoke the populist reaction - placing the focus on the "New Intergovernmentalism" to interpret the integration dilemmas - and the populist-technocratic and liberal-democratic dichotomies are addressed as historical endosymbioses. Finally, consideration is given to what should be done about the populist impasse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature maintains that not all populisms are equal. Some are seen as projects of regeneration or democratisation because they would incorporate an excluded people; others are movements that would weaken democracy by promoting exclusion (xenophobia and racism). The former is "left-wing populism" while the latter is "right-wing populism". This paper shows that what is central to populism is its model of democracy, not whether it is situated on the right or the left. To do this, an evaluation is made of the democratic balance of populisms in three countries in Europe (Austria, France and Hungary) and three in Latin America (Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela). As will be shown, those of the right have no more contributed to the destruction of democracy than those on the left may be presented as democratising successes; but all represent a profound challenge to liberal democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the EU's usage of conditionality for democracy promotion within the European Neighbourhood Policy and its conditions, possibilities and limitations. In doing so, I will first develop a theoretical framework for analysing mechanisms of democracy promotion in general and conditionality as a state-centred, rational-choice mechanism in particular. I will show that, apart from the attractiveness of the incentives, there are other variables crucial for a successful use of conditionality. Furthermore, conditionality might be used as a promising strategy for the formal implementation of democratic institutions. However, in completing the consolidation of democracy, conditionality is highly limited. The empirical part of the paper will focus on EU democracy promotion in Ukraine and the incentives the EU offers to Ukraine instead of a membership perspective. With the help of this case study it will be discussed whether these elements of flexible integration are suitable for promoting democracy. Examples of such incentives are a visa-free regime, a new enhanced agreement, or a free trade area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of democracy has a long history and the debate on it is a challenging one. The present paper explores the view of Ernst Wolfgang Böckenförde, German jurist and philosopher, on the modern secular state and its challenges through democracy. Starting with the analysis of the representative democracy and of the roots of political culture in the evolution of state, he draws the conclusion that the free, secular state nourishes itself from some assumptions that cannot be guaranteed. Böckenförde offers a potential solution to this problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely acknowledged that the conditionality of European Union membership had a decisive contribution at the standard setting on and institutional development of minority protection at national level in candidate countries. At the beginning of the 1990s, scholars identified several dangerous contextual problems that could have halted Romania's progress in becoming a consolidated democracy, one of them being the ethnic unrests. However, Romania succeeded in becoming member in main international and European organisations dealing, among others, with the protection of minorities. The paper critically assesses the viability of the state apparatus created in Romania in order to safeguard and improve the rights of minorities inhabiting its territory in the context of the European Union integration. The question of whether the institutional framework for minority protection in Romania succeeded in achieving its stated goal: satisfy the Copenhagen criterion of "stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and, protection of minorities" is to be discussed within the paper. Furthermore, the paper assesses the extent to which the accession process has generated a substantial change in the institutional framework in Romania. The paper concludes that in order to produce qualitative results, attention must be paid not only on the formal compliance with legal standards but also on the apparatus created to promote and apply those standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper examines and classifies “uncivil society” in Europe, that is, a set of associational activities characterized by discursively exclusionist, undemocratic or violent features. With particular reference to organizations connected to the political right, it examines the relation between political systems and civil society, identifying the factors that have made civil society relevant for political actors and pointing to a relation of mutual dependence between the associational world and political movements and parties. It is argued that membership in uncivil society organizations is an alternative type of political participation which articulates growing anti-political sentiments, and that the emergence of uncivil society activities is rooted in newly relevant conceptions of social and political life which are anti-modern and based on ascriptive criteria of membership. Uncivil society organizations are classified as racist, nationalist and populist, and characterized as biologically essentialist, or territorially or culturally exclusionist. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Copyright of ÖZP - Österreichische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft is the property of Oesterreichische Zeitschrift fur Politikwissenschaft 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.)

Copyright of Sociologija/Sociology: Journal of Sociology, Social Psychology & Social Anthropology is the property of MOD International 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.)