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The article examines the history of the formation and reform of the system of state and municipal administration in Ukraine. In the conditions when the socio-political space of Ukraine is characterized by pronounced regionalism, and the issue of transition to a federal state system is excluded from the real political agenda, the nature of the development of the system of state and municipal administration can serve as a reflection of the ratio of centrifugal and centripetal trends in the internal political development of Ukraine. The article presents an analysis of the factors of internal political development of Ukraine that most influenced the formation of a centralized system of territorial administration in the country in the post- Soviet period and predetermined the weakness of local self-government, as well as the reasons for the failure of several attempts at reforms. Special attention is paid to the implementation of the decentralization policy after 2014. The article reveals the connection of the concept of modern administrative-territorial reform in Ukraine with the settlement process in the Donbas, as well as with the approaches in Western political science, according to which decentralization is considered as a tool for neutralizing the political potential of regionalism and countering regional separatism. The results and political orientation of decentralization in the context of the acute socio- economic crisis in Ukraine are evaluated.

The road to universal health coverage depends on resources committed to the health sector. In many cases, the political structure and strength of advocacy play an important role in setting budgets for health. However, this has, until recently, not been of interest to health system researchers and policymakers. In this study, we document the political path to the establishment of the Ghana National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) as well as continuous political interest in the scheme. To achieve our objectives, we used qualitative data from interviews with key stakeholders. These include stakeholders instrumental in the design and establishment of the NHIS. We also reviewed party manifestoes from the two main political parties in the country. Promises relating to the NHIS were extracted from the various manifestos and analysed. Other documents that account for the design and implementation of the scheme were reviewed. We found that the establishment of the NHIS was down to political commitment and effective engagement with relevant stakeholders. It was considered a solution to the political promise to remove user fees and make healthcare accessible to all. A review of the manifestos shows that in almost every election year after the NHIS was established, there has been some promise related to improving the scheme. There were several policy propositions repeated in different election years. The findings imply that advocacy to get health financing on the political agenda is crucial. This should start from the development of party manifestos. It is important to also ensure that proposed party policies are consistent with national priorities in the medium to long term.

In this manuscript, we point out that the federal government headed by President Bolsonaro has pursued a political agenda that contributed to the spread of COVID-19, transforming the country into a major repository for SARS-CoV-2 and its variants, thus representing a risk for worldwide containment efforts. Furthermore his actions are also weakening democratic institutions, which could counter his political agenda, effectively facilitating the spread of COVID-19. Thus, the perpetuation of the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil is due to human behaviour factors, especially high-level public decision makers.

This article advances research on the normalisation of far-right rhetoric on the “migration issue” by analysing statements from the current Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and the ruling political party New Democracy political figures. Having presented the discourse-historical approach (DHA) from critical discourse studies (CDS) as a suitable theory and method of analysis of political discourses, I use an argumentative-based DHA approach and add the argumentative schemes of Aristotelian topoi and fallacies to explore how the leadership of the conservative New Democracy government adopted far-right rhetoric on the refugee issue to justify its tough political agenda on security, law, and order. In particular, I focus on the representation of migration as a threat to national security and public health, the politics of hate, and theories of securitisation via an in-depth analysis of the current and former prime ministers’ discourses, the former government spokesman’s statement on the refugee issue and a popular journalist and New Democracy’s MP television interview, and intend to illustrate how extreme right rhetoric could serve the conservative New Democracy’s political strategies.

Although international proclamations increasingly recognize legal sex beyond binary categories, domestic legislation is lagging behind. Germany and the Netherlands are the first countries in Western Europe where courts have ruled in favour of a third option. While the German constitution was amended to guarantee a third option, the Dutch government has refrained from implementing comparable legislation. What explains this difference? This article draws on parliamentary debates, newspapers and statements from activists to follow the trajectory of the third option. Building on literature on intersex rights legislation and the diffusion of LGBT rights norms, we find that an established progressive reputation can lead states like the Netherlands to take a back seat, while mobilization by activists was crucial in establishing the self-determination of legal sex on the German political agenda. Our study contributes to unravelling the complex ways in which new norms shape – or fail to shape – domestic political outcomes.

Mass-Mobilization is one of the key ingredients for not only launching a movement but also for spreading any political agenda. The involvement of the masses always plays an important role in a process of bringing change anywhere and at any time. The history of South Asia, however, witnessed that in the struggle against the colonial rulers, to begin with, started by the elite alone. Politics was considered as the domain of a selected few and the common men were considered as ignorant and perhaps irrelevant and thus were kept at a distance. It was only after the beginning of the twentieth century and especially after the entrance of Gandhi on the political screen that the masses gained importance and were directly involved in political affairs. They not only became part of the Non-Cooperation Movement but also played an important role in spreading the movement all across India. In this paper, an attempt has been made to highlight Gandhi’s efforts to mobilize Indian masses during the Non-Cooperation Movement and its impact on the future politics of the region. The paper also discusses in detail different groups of society that actively participated in the process of mass-mobilization.

Cuba is a paradigmatic case where the term and concept of the peasantry remains of lived importance. Cuban peasants had a significant role in the past as they did return to the political agenda after the Revolution with particular emphasis under Raul Castro’s administration. However, the Cuban case has not been significantly explored from a long-term perspective that connects the old debates and dimensions of land reforms under developmentalist states to the new agrarian questions in the global era. Based on secondary sources, semi-structured interviews and updated data on land structures, this article explores the long-term process of land reform in Cuba.

Studies on underground (or clandestine forms of political struggle) remain largely unknown with just a few of them published. The study focuses on underground political work in southern Mozambique from the 1950s to the 1970s. The main argument that the study seeks to make is that despite the intensification of colonial exploitation for the benefit of the Portuguese capital, violent repression, imprison and systematic denial of the exercise of political rights for most of the Mozambican people, the people of southern Mozambique had already a period of active underground political growth, inspired by the international political environment (decolonization process after World War II) and after connected to FRELIMO and its platform. Small cells, mostly connecting educated, assimilated people, civil servants, artists, writers, painters, self-employed and workers developed underground activities ranging from the political task of organization, to political awareness, propaganda and spying, to the military task of recruitment for training abroad and to provide the military. Therefore, they countered Portuguese state propaganda and articulated an alternative political agenda. The underground political work had connections and continuity with other forms of struggle, such as with the colonial resistance of the 1950s and the FRELIMO struggle. The study combines primary and secondary written materials and oral accounts with underground political activists/militants.

This paper explores the European suspicion against the migrants and analyses the European security concerns regarding terrorist attacks. The paper shows that Europeans’ wrong perception about migrants has been created by homogenizing the category of migrants as well as politicizing the issue of migrants for electoral maneuvering. The suspicion has been grown after the 9/11 terrorist attack on America. Islamic radical organization Al-Qaeda perpetrated this attack to achieve its political agenda. This attack gave legitimacy to America and Europe to suspect everybody who is coming into their area. The studies on linking migration with terrorism show scanty evidence, but scholars have biased opinions on this. The paper explores all these issues.

After the collapse of the Habsburg Empire and the sanctioning of new national borders in 1920, the successor states faced the controversial task of reconceptualizing the idea of national territory. Images of historically significant landscapes played a crucial role in this process. Employing the concept of mental maps, this article explores how such images shaped the connections between place, memory, and landscape in Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Hungarian revisionist publications demonstrate how Hungarian nationalists visualized the organic integrity of “Greater Hungary,” while also implicitly adapting historical memory to the new geopolitical situation. As a counterpoint, images of the Váh region produced in interwar Czechoslovakia reveal how an opposing political agenda gave rise to a different imagery, while drawing on shared cultural traditions from the imperial past. Finally, the case study of Dévény/Devín/Theben shows how the idea of being positioned “between East and West” lived on in overlapping but politically opposed mental maps in the interwar period. By examining the cracks and continuities in the picturesque landscape tradition after 1918, the article offers new insight into the similarities and differences of nation-building processes from the perspective of visual culture.

Increased diversity has accompanied dramatic demographic growth of the Asian American population in recent years. If the common characteristic of Asian Americans is a diversity of origins, languages, resources, and cultural traits, what holds this group together, particularly in the political sphere? The model minority stereotype suggests that Asian Americans might converge around education policies. That most Asian Americans are foreign born and the tenacious power of attendant “forever foreigner” tropes suggest that immigration issues might be the basis for a shared political agenda. Analysis of the 2016 National Asian American Survey, however, shows surprising political consensus within the Asian American population outside the policy realms of education and immigration. In other policy issues, particularly those involving the government’s role, important points of convergence among these groups on certain public policies are clear. Political differences within the Asian American community are between those who are progressive and those who are even more so.

Pakistan's confessional parties are re-inventing themselves. The Parties that are carrying a legacy from the time before partition are struggling to keep themselves relevant in mainstream political discourse. Pakistan's political landscape is changing because of the rise of Tehreek-i-Insaf, a progressive center-right political party that has altered the electioneering environment in Pakistan. Two main confessional parties Jamaat Islami (JI) and Jamiat Ulma e Islam Fazal Ur Rehman (JUI-F) are trying to develop an inclusive and pluralist political agenda. JI is a hierarchical Islamic party whereas JUI-F is a network Islamic party. Political Islam is in the process of shrinking in Pakistan because of the rise of political alternatives and outdatedness of the political and electoral discourse of confessional parties. Political Islam in Pakistan is changing by improving its ideological, political, and organizational structure in relation to its contemporary rivals. Changes in political Islam are not because of intellectual diversity and growth within confessional parties but to manage and compete for the rise of competing domestic political perspectives. Transnational connections with like-minded Islamist groups have scaled-down as the like-minded religio-ideological partners are termed as extremists and terrorists.

During the last decades, the field of political communication has experienced a great transformation due to the appearance and consolidation of digital technologies. The aim of this research is to analyse the political agenda developed on Twitter and Facebook by the main Spanish political parties during the electoral campaign of June 2016, as well as to examine the users’ engagement to their messages. According to the results obtained, political actors prefer sharing content related to the strategic aspects of the campaign instead of sharing their political proposals. In addition, our research has detected strong discrepancies between the interests of political actors and the interests of users. In addition, a ‘more is less’ effect has been observed, in which the interaction that political parties get for each message is inversely proportional to the number of messages that they published.

The promotion of Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development is one of the 169 targets of the 2030 Agenda, and considered a key means of implementation. The 2030 Agenda, while noble and necessary to put humanity on a sustainable path, has vastly exacerbated the complexity and ambiguity of development policymaking. This article challenges two assumptions that are common in both policy discussions and associated scholarly debates: First, the technocratic belief that policy coherence is an authentically attainable objective; and second, whether efforts to improve the coherence within and across policies makes achieving the Sustainable Development Goals more likely. We unpack the conventional ‘win-win’ understanding of the policy coherence concept to illustrate that fundamentally incompatible political interests continue to shape global development, and that these cannot be managed away. We argue that heuristic, problem-driven frameworks are needed to promote coherence in settings where these fundamental inconsistencies are likely to persist. Instead of mapping synergies ex-ante, future research and policy debates should focus on navigating political trade-offs and hierarchies while confronting the longer-term goal conflicts that reproduce unsustainable policy choices.

Parliamentary debates are an important instrument for setting the political agenda. We hypothesize that parliamentarians belonging to a Green party deliver more speeches on issues related not only ...

Will nationalism thrive in times of crisis? A broad segment of scholarly literature has found that a crisis often leads to the resurgence of nationalism. When the coronavirus started to spread rapidly in Europe, individual European nation states unilaterally closed their borders, hoarded critical medical supplies, and played blame games. The early period of the pandemic crisis revealed some hybrid form of medical nationalism, economic nationalism, and everyday nationalism. However, the common crisis has also heightened the importance of regional solidarity, and reinforces a strengthening of cross-national cooperation and multilateral institutions. Based on empirical discussions, this research offers an analytical framework to establish the hypothetic mechanisms of understanding this mixed phenomenon. Delving into the interaction between crisis and nationalism, this article argues that the causation from one to the other is not a linear, one-way process. There are competing mechanisms through which both nationalists and liberalists can use the crisis to push for their political agenda. Whether there will be a new wave of neo-nationalism in Europe is largely contingent on the responses the EU and the member states adopt in handling domestic and regional challenges in the post-pandemic era. Therefore, instead of simply exploring the causal relation between crisis and nationalism, more-nuanced questions can be examined in the future concerning the conditions under which and the mechanisms through which a crisis is more/less likely to provoke neo-nationalism.

After Franco’s death in 1975, a transition to democracy took place in Spain, accompanied by formation of a two-party system. While the overall transition was peaceful, it did not solve a number of important problems in Spanish society that became of paramount importance over the past decade. The peculiarities of the regime enshrined in the 1978 Constitution, combined with the consequences of the financial and economic crisis of 2008-2010, created the breeding ground in which populist parties formed in 2010s. The article examines the crisis of the post-Francoist political model as a prerequisite for emergence of populist parties, particularities of their programs, as well as the actions taken by them in the context of the Coronavirus pandemic. The author notes that by 2014 there developed a situation when the main parties of the country either demonstrated an unwillingness to solve pressing problems or proposed solutions that were unacceptable for a significant part of the population. In such a situation, social protest began to take its political form. The emergence of populists in the electoral field has largely renewed the country’s political agenda, revitalizing discussions on topical issues and forcing a change with the ‘heavyweights’ of Spanish politics – the Socialists and the People’s Party. The author concludes that transformation of political discourse can lead to a renewal of an entire political system of the country and a search for some new solutions to issues that remain key on the political agenda of Spain over the past decades.

The article presents the results of a large-scale applied study of “Constitutional Amendments” and “Coronavirus Pandemic” discourses as a part of the digital political agenda formed by the state media in 2020. The empirical dataset comprises an array of network data collected by the continuous sampling of news articles published by Interfax, RIA Novosti and TASS agencies on their official websites in 2020 within the March-September period.The obtained data was subjected to network analysis, visual analysis and linguo-discursive analysis. It allowed the authors to identify the dominant topics in the digital agenda created by the state media, determine the techniques used to form and manage the digital political agenda in the online space and assess their effectiveness. The article concludes by the description of the identified features, strategies and techniques used for shaping, maintaining and managing the digital political agenda by the state media regarding the analyzed discourses – "Constitutional Amendments" and "Coronavirus Pandemic". The authors infer that the strategy of pragmatic modeling was used for online agitation with the aim of ideological mobilization of citizens. Оnline-informing strategy was used to neutralize panic sentiment among citizens and form constructive civic behavioral patterns in the context of a pandemic and an internal lockdown.

We provide a potential explanation, based on the “political agenda effect”, for the absence of, and unwillingness to create, centralized power in the hands of a national state. State centralization induces citizens of different backgrounds, interests, regions or ethnicities to coordinate their demands in the direction of more general-interest public goods, and away from parochial transfers. This political agenda effect raises the effectiveness of citizen demands and induces them to increase their investments in conflict capacity. In the absence of state centralization, citizens do not necessarily band together because of another force, the escalation effect, which refers to the fact that elites from different regions will join forces in response to the citizens doing so. Such escalation might hurt the citizen groups that have already solved their collective action problem (though it will benefit others). Anticipating the interplay of the political agenda and escalation effects, under some parameter configurations, political elites strategically opt for a non-centralized state. We show how the model generates non-monotonic comparative statics in response to the increase in the value or effectiveness of public goods (so that centralized states and public good provision may be absent precisely when they are more beneficial for society). We also suggest how the formation of a social democratic party may sometimes induce state centralization (by removing the commitment value of a non-centralized state), and how elites may sometimes prefer partial state centralization. © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Following the signing of the Prespa Agreement in June 2018, the Macedonian name issue became the most prominent topic on the Greek political agenda, catalysing an exceptional political confrontatio...

From its establishment until 2013, the issue of Daylight Saving Time (DST) featured on Israel’s political agenda with the religious sector opposing by and large its implementation as an infringemen...

Although scholarly interest in populism has increased as populist parties have risen across Europe, the subnational level has been largely overlooked. This article adopts an original subnational focus and explores an unlikely but increasingly prevalent political agenda: the combination of technocracy and populism. We focus on technocratic populism as a political and governance strategy at the municipal level and assess how the interaction of populism and technocracy plays out empirically in relation to administration and public policies and how the tensions and synergies between technocracy and populism are solved at the local level. The article argues that the local level is especially prone to this kind of intersection between technocratic and populist ideology. While the article is mainly an exercise in concept development, two illustrative cases at the city level, namely the Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S, Five Star Movement) in Rome and the Akce nespokojených občanů (ANO, Action of Dissatisfied Citizens) in Prague are used to support the argument.

Calls against austerity have entered the political agenda of very different actors in the political spectrum – from social democratic to right-wing populist parties. In this article, we argue that the main failures in realizing these claims and thus overcoming austerity can hardly be explained only in terms of (lacking) political will. We rather approach this problem complex in the two emblematic cases of Italy and Spain by foregrounding the disciplinary effects of capital accumulation in both the countries through a long-term historical reconstruction of the fiscal and steering capacity of their respective state institutions. Despite key specificities in the respective fragile accumulation regimes, the main findings point to the fact that the structure of accumulation has imposed strong constraints in both Italy and Spain. An unstable and crisis-prone capital accumulation characterized by low productivity, a lack of sectoral diversity, regional fragmentation, as well as high levels of exposure and dependency within variegated capitalism have restricted state capacity – a tendency only ruptured in temporary boom-cycles. This, we argue, entails some major implications, first, to address the present failures of social democratic forces and second, to gauge the concrete transformative potential at the politico-economic level of populist calls for ‘breaking the chains’ of austerity.

Israel’s April 2019 elections witnessed the use of unprecedented tactics by some politicians seeking to promote their political agenda. This study focuses on one of the most remarkable examples of ...

The literature has described trade unions’ positions towards both precarious workers and migrant workers as ambivalent. By studying an extreme case, the meat-processing industries in the United Kingdom and in Germany, we show how trade unions were decisive in both countries in bringing exploitative working conditions on the political agenda and in advancing policy change. However, the strategies through which trade unions contributed to this differed remarkably, highlighting different causal pathways in both countries. The British case can clearly be seen as an example of successful union revitalisation by relying on innovative strategies. In contrast, the German story exhibits a strong reliance on a more traditional approach to improving workers’ rights, which was only successful after employers were willing to improve working conditions in the sector as well. Our analysis shows that policy change can happen despite unfavourable conditions and weak actors, especially if these actors make strategic use of situational conditions.

Taking pride in the vibrancy and transparency of democracy, countries such as the USA have prioritized the spread of democracy in its foreign policy. The admirable impact that this political agenda has garnered across the globe pushes us to ponder what China would offer as it aspires for a more prominent position on the international stage. Particularly, how would China foster its image in Asia and, as a result, earn a favorable voice and even all-out support from Asian countries, countries economically underdeveloped and politically volatile? This paper sets out to answer this question by critiquing whether or not popular perceptions of China's political system impact how Asians perceive China's influence in general. Conducting statistical analysis using the fourth wave of Asian Barometer Survey (2016) to assess the above argument, we find that Asians who lend their support for China are more keen to the economic opportunities that China's growing economy offers their country than they are of China's political system. In short, China's authoritarian regime type does not factor into Asians' perception of China, except when individuals are highly educated with and committed to democratic principles.

This article suggests that the term "innovation," which is nowadays a ubiquitous buzzword for policy makers and economic analysts, should be viewed as a political agenda and a way of practicing Ramp;D adopted by a wide range of historical actors, including bureaucrats, corporate executives, engineers, and social scientists. To examine the politics of innovation, this article looks at South Korea in the 1980s and 1990s, when different ideas of innovation were mobilized, conflicted, and reshaped in the context of political regime changes and global trade disputes. Rather than exploring the factors that contribute to being innovative, this article attempts to reveal the socio-technical dynamics in which certain types of practicing Ramp;D are understood as innovation.

Deeply shaken by the COVID-19 outbreak and the crises it has caused, the international community must draw the right lessons and embark on a common path towards a healthier and more resilient society To this end, this paper argues that the large-scale economic recovery packages currently being drafted represent a once-in-a-generation opportunity to accelerate the structural transformation of the economy toward zero pollution, biodiversity restoration, and climate neutrality The first part of the paper therefore outlines how a green recovery investment plan can unite economic and environmental ambitions, resulting in a double win—in Europe and beyond However, national recovery efforts must be guided by and embedded in an international political agenda Addressing the diplomatic void caused by the postponement of major multinational conferences this year, the second part of the paper argues that, on the basis of an ambitious green recovery plan, the European Union can and should be at the forefront of international efforts toward a greener post-COVID-19 world, leading by example and enabling the likeminded to follow

The markedly neoliberal economic policies adopted by the federal government (Temer and Bolsonaro) favored and favored the informal sector even more, which, in the long run, undermines national development and frustrates one of the fundamental objectives of our Republic (Art. 3, II, of Constitution). The search for emergency aid showed millions of people not seen (80 million Brazilians) and the paralysis of the formal economy, with very serious and rapid social consequences. Governments at the most diverse levels, for the most part, show little concern for maintaining jobs and saving small and micro enterprises. In view of this reality, the aim is to examine the possibilities of including the necessary Universal Basic Income in the political agenda.

After many years of general disregard political risks are back as a major threat to international business. Though the phenomena are not new, today’s political risks are rather different from those studied in the aftermaths of the Second World War. Hence the classical framework of political risk analysis needs substantial reconsideration. The complexity of the present geopolitical context together with the interconnectivity characterizing our modern world impact the very logic and motivation lying beneath political actions which in turn may result in a negative side-effect to international trade and investment. The present research brings focus on two grounds for political risks transformation. The first is lying in the field of the new basis of the government action. The network concepts replacing traditional hierarchy of political actors, the wider access to political action and weakening of the nation state foundations result in the change of the very nature of political risks, their institutional origins and their geographical coverage. The other explanation for the new forms of political threat emergence is the switch in the political agenda. While in the 1960s–1970s political risks came as a consequence of various nationalist ideologies in the developing world, its recent manifestations are strongly connected with the new objectives of the modern state and society. Climate change, technological threats, word economic slowdown and other top global risks lead to drastic government and extra-government actions which incorporate a great potential for the development of political risks. The research unveils the algorithms of politically motivated business losses in the context of the global challenges our states are facing today. It resumes in a list of the main characteristics upon which they can be defined as „new political risks”, distinguished from the traditional forms and, thus, in need of the updated analytical approach.

“A structuring method for understanding the dimensions of populism” is divided into three subsections: The semantic vacuum of populism; Populism and its manifestation in the limbo of liberal democracy; The semantic range of populisms. Five methodological problems plague the study of populism today: the lack of gender specification; essentialism; conceptual stretching; the negative pole of the concept; and its poor operationalization. To establish a minimum semantic range of populism, a parameter that contains only the core of the concept must be determined by extracting its variables that will be treated as the focus of investigation and not as meanings. In other words, there may be numerous variable properties of populism found in different political and cultural contexts without losing their semantic core. Variable properties can be manifested through different cultural and ideological political mobilizations; intimidation of the free press; the rejection of election results; the weakening and attacks on institutional safeguards; the massive use of intelligence and data control and surveillance services; the polarization of sectarian politics by charismatic leaders; the routine of the charism; rhetoric and demagogues speeches as particular styles of extremist communication; formulation of policies driven by impulses and subject to sudden changes and upheavals because it is designed to respond to the political climate of the moment; anti-democratic behavior; the rhetorical use of government policies and actions; exploring the popular feeling of disbelief in institutions; the segregationist political agenda; the systematic use of the media environment on social platforms such as WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook; the unrestrained use and promotion of misinformation and fake news; the subversion of the constitutional process and the rejection of the rules of the game; tolerance or encouragement to violence; the excessive use of referenda; the propensity to restrict liberties and culture; the use of political and religious moralism; mythical politics; the politicized inspection body; populist governance of the use of military power in politics and the “militarization of politics,” among other behaviors that fit the anti-democratic and illiberal principles. These variables are supported through formal and informal movements directly or indirectly in the field of democratic illiberalism. With the purpose of extracting the inflection of their senses from the semantic range, we consider that populisms are conceptual-instrumental in nature and can be defined as democratic illiberalism with variable properties. They represent a certain type of ideology, discourse, strategy, mobilization, and political action in the specific cultural and political context. It is celebrated through formal and/or informal movements directly or indirectly in the democratic system by a charismatic leader who represents and leads an anti-establishment force resting his beliefs in moral and ethical institutions with the purpose of consolidating and legitimizing a populist political regime under the mantle of popular sovereignty and democracy.

Grassroots-led global social movements have become increasingly prominent on mainstream media and political agendas. In Scotland, several of these have resulted in significant policy change, including the period poverty movement, which addresses inequalities relating to menstruation. This chapter looks to this movement as a case study, showing how several interventions have led the country to be hailed a world leader in policies providing free access to menstrual products. It will analyze the conditions under which this movement first took hold in Scotland in 2016, moving chronologically from the first mention of the term 'period poverty' in legacy media. It will show how the increasing visibility and discursive realization, or crystallization, of the term itself fueled further activism to influence the political agenda. In doing so, it will show the increasingly hybrid and circuitous dynamic of contemporary political communication and how taking a holistic approach to viewing this may give added insight to appraisals of media and political agenda setting.

It is commonly understood that leftist political ideology is aligned with the working class and trade unions in democracies. However, in authoritarian regimes like Egypt, where political parties are not the main source of political power, the leftist ideology is not “free” or able to support the working class or even provide it with the ideological “food” to nurture and nourish its ideological needs. The thesis of this chapter is to show how the stunted growth of Egypt’s political leftist groupings, movements, and even political parties were not allowed to function freely, and thus had a dysfunctional impact on the working class and its development. The Egyptian labour movement was corporatized or otherwise co-opted to serve the needs of Nasser’s socialist movement and thereafter to serve Sadat, Mubarak and now President el-Sisi’s political agenda. The political agenda was that of controlling the workers, and definitely not to support independent trade union working class organizations to either protect or advocate for workers’ rights.

The issue of climate change is not of the recent past. However, it was late in the nineteenth century in the US that the phenomenon was defined and framed as an issue of public interest by those who say it mattered. The reason was the occurrence of indicators such as a rise in earth temperature and prolonged summer season. The mass displacement of people from their places of inhibits and damages to their properties forced the government to take the issue seriously. A change in the administration in the federal capital, along with pressure from civil society and demand from various groups to resolve the issue of climate change, proved to be something that ultimately led to the resolution of the issue and taken seriously by the government of the day. While answering the question of how the issue of climate change made its way to the agenda-setting stage of policymaking, Jhon Kingdon model of agendasetting has been applied, which is more relevant and acceptable in terms of conceptual logics and the issue at hand.

The Egyptian media system shows a stark paradox: Despite its long history and pioneering position in the Arab media landscape, under the current authoritarian trends today the media system has extremely blocked potentials for the possibility of independent media and journalism. Analyzing the current situation in Egypt does not disclose its status as a country with 200 years of history in journalism in the region, which has been marked by struggles and paradoxes. Reviewing the history of the Egyptian media system shows that three elements have influenced the evolution of the country’s media system. These include the geo-political position that made possible an early contact to the colonial French expedition which introduced the print press technologies and the restrictive political role of all subsequent rulers, whether foreign or Egyptian, in regulating and shaping possible media outlets as well as Egypt’s close connections to the evolution of global communication technologies. The political and legal framework has been dominated by mainly illiberal phases, with brief intermittent phases of liberalization that led to short-lived flourished media landscapes. The state engages in methods that apply legal authoritarianism to convey an impression of observing the rule of law, while in fact restricting freedoms and, in addition, controlling the political economy through indirect state capitalism, where media ownership stays within the state or the loyalist business elite, in particularly the popular audio-visual media. Amid the global journalism crisis, Egypt’s media system struggles for its financial survival, professional quality and recognition among young generations. Experts speak openly of “death of journalism”. Investments in the media are not on the current political agenda. On the contrary, they are viewed by the rulers as adversaries. Instead of making them powerful, the current credo is to weaken the media, as their loyalty and public influence are not guaranteed. The serious economic crisis and the lack of public credibility in media institutions only make struggles for professional independence harder. Coupled with brain drain trends and self-exile of oppositional journalists, forces to renew the profession seem to be distant under current circumstances. The article takes a nuanced position in the debate on the liberalizing role of the media in relation to the Arab Spring debate. The relevance of new digital media in Egypt had increased in the past 15 years. Many scholars and commentators attribute the Tahrir Revolution in 2011 directly to the rise of the Internet, as it was widely called Facebook Revolution. However, the article maintains that this is a simplified view of the events and interactions between media, politics and the online sphere. While the semi-liberal phase in the mid-2000s and the new technologies led to a vibrant blogosphere and opened up online spaces for otherwise marginalized voices, it took real grievances and real activism on the ground that interacted together. Since 2015, there are increasing signs of controlling the Internet: zero toleration policies towards dissent and criticism have marked the years through increased police control and imprisoning journalists, as well as takeover of all semi-independent media outlets and use of online surveillance technologies. Currently, more than 500 websites and news media are banned within Egypt. Therefore, despite growing numbers of Internet users and high Facebook penetration we cannot expect a simple linear mobilization effect. On the contrary, a strong backlash awaits any attempts for challenging the current regime. Situated within the persistent socio-economic problems that caused the Tahrir Revolution in the first place, the political system fears a potential opening of the media system and attempts at keeping a fragile stabilization at any cost. Clinging to the national security concerns and harboring stability at any cost, encouraged by the current global rise of right-wing authoritarianism, suspends any pressures towards reforms as previous US governments pursued. In addition to the restrictions, the professional media scene faces numerous crises: one of which is the erosion of the economic viability of media in times of a massive journalism crisis. Another crisis is the declining professionalism and reproduction of loyalist and propagandistic practices due to self-censorship and clientelist practices within a highly restrictive environment. These developments fragment the professional community of journalists across numerous political camps and weakens unionizing efforts. Finally, the audiences are increasingly pushed away from politics. Based on the analysis and challenges, the Egyptian media are heading into the unknown: “death of journalism”, extreme depoliticization of the public sphere and restrictive media environment weaken the media system. Under the current circumstances—and unlike former President Mubarak’s policies—no politician will push for progress and investments in the media sector. The Supreme Media Regulatory Council announced an ambitious digitization plan of the media; no clear agenda is seen, except tightening control and advancing loyalist media. In the current globally interconnected world, this is a serious challenge for the power holders. The current weakened and stifled media system has many potentials if given the chance to grow autonomously: a strong legacy, unused economic assets, talented journalists and a big market. These unused resources for now make it unlikely for Egypt’s media system to witness another golden time soon. Having said that, the situation is extremely unpredictable on the mid- to long term. Therefore, in case of a political opening, whether through reforms from above or a system forced to respond by a renewed public upheaval, potential for transformation is there, if given the necessary freedoms of expression.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the Versailles system of international relations. The author emphasizes the fact that it was the product of the first total war in the history of mankind, and as such had a number of characteristics that strikingly distinguished it from the models that had existed in the past. The goal of its founders was to establish a lasting peace in a situation where the course and consequences of the world war preconditioned the use of particularly harsh sanctions against the vanquished party. In addition, the war linked the problems of the post­war settlement and the internal political agenda of the warring countries, marked by the “uprising of the masses”. All this created a special background for the work of the Paris Peace Conference. The leaders of France and Great Britain acted, in many respects, under the influence of these factors, which limited their field for maneuver. It turned out to be impossible to fully implement the project of a democratic world proposed by US President W. Wilson. These contradictions were most clearly manifested during the discussion on the Russian question. As a result, the emerging system of international relations was marked by a number of structural contradictions, which made its disintegration inevitable. According to the author, modern world politics is facing similar challenges.

The article analyzes the institutional foundations of the emergence and functioning of the major party factions in Uruguay and their influence on maintaining the stability of the presidential regime. The Uruguayan parties are historically characterized by fragmentation and consist of many ideologically diverse movements, which allows us to view them as coalitions. The factions competing among themselves for the influence on the political agenda ultimately form the party’s common strategy. Coalition tendency within parties is largely determined by the peculiarities of the electoral system established in Uruguay. The elected president with a broad mandate, being a representative of his faction, must build coalition relations with other factions of his party, giving them various concessions in the executive branch. Based on the factors considered, the author concludes that the electoral characteristics of the Uruguayan political system create the necessity for coalitions among party factions, thus affecting the stability of presidential rule.

The article examines the on-growing role of international sports events as some newsbreaks which are actively used within the current political agenda. Several examples reveal the use of biased and fake information to form a negative image of Russia in front of the world community. The author indicates several trends of the coverage of international sports events as well as opportunities to improve the country's image through their implementation and the effective delivery of content.

Why do some Islamic political parties (IPPs) pursue a ‘moderate’ political agenda and focus on economic development and democratic reform, while others pursue an ‘immoderate’ political agenda deman...

The immigration issue seems to have consolidated a top position on the European political agenda, and the body of literature devoted to explaining attitudes toward immigration continues to expand. ...

"Climate change communication" is taking the strategic position in the international and national politics around the globe. In the recent decade, different developing nations have started considering "climate change communication" as an integral part of the political campaigns and sustainable development. Specifically, the current document comprised of two sections. In the first section of the study, authors briefly compared the attributes related to "climate change communication" in the mainstream political parties' manifesto for the general election 2018 in Pakistan in a qualitative manner. In the second part, the difference of opinion among voters of mainstream political parties towards "climate change" was examined. In a bird's eye view, the perceived seriousness of "climate change" as a real challenge among voters mapped by the independent factors of "urbanization," "industrialization," "transportation," and "waste management" for sustainable development through the primary quantitative survey of 732 voters in the country. The finding highlights (1) public understanding of "socio-scientific issues," i.e., climate change is easy to communicate, and (2) how political parties are framing and communicating about "climate change" plays a significant role in climate change communication. The study concludes that "climate change communication" holds a critical role in developing regions' future political discourse to shape sustainable development policies.