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2. Democratic Contributions to UN Peacekeeping Operations. A Two-Step Fuzzy Set QCA of Unifil II
- Author:
- Tim Haesebrouck
- Publication Date:
- 06-2016
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Romanian Journal of Political Science
- Institution:
- Romanian Academic Society
- Abstract:
- What explains democratic participation in United Nations peacekeeping operations? Although the division of the burden of UN peacekeeping operations has attracted a considerable amount of scholarly attention, neither the impact of domestic variables, nor the interaction between the domestic and international determinants of peacekeeping contributions has been systematically analysed. This article aims to fill this gap in academic research. First, insights from research on peacekeeping burden sharing, democratic peace theory and integrated decision models are combined in a multi-causal framework. Subsequently, two-step fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis is used to assess whether this model explains diverging contributions to the 2006 enhancement of the UNIFIL operation. The results of this analysis show that contributions result from a complex interplay between domestic and international conditions. Two combinations of international level conditions allowed for large contributions. In the absence of significant military engagements, military capable states and states with a high level of prior involvement in UNPOs had an incentive to participate. Actual contributions, however, only materialized if such a conductive international context was combined with favourable domestic conditions: only states governed by a left-leaning government that was not constrained by either proximate general elections or a right-leaning parliament with extensive veto powers participated in the operation.
- Topic:
- Conflict Prevention, Democratization, Politics, United Nations, and Peacekeeping
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
3. Lessons from a Divided Society: How to Deal with Party Factionalism
- Author:
- Alexandra Ionascu
- Publication Date:
- 07-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Romanian Journal of Political Science
- Institution:
- Romanian Academic Society
- Abstract:
- Despite the fact that party dissolutions and degenerative forms of factionalism, no major splits or internal divides shaded the image of the main ethnic based party: the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (DAHR). Similarly to other post communist countries, the minority representation in Romania constitutes an electoral success story. In a general framework of fragmentation and organisational instability, the DAHR's political performance and continuity were doubled by an exceptional organisational strength. Although the ethnic based parties do tend to manifest higher levels of external cohesion as a result of their single-issue nature, their organisational continuity constitutes rather a cas a part which deserves further investigation. Consequently, the following article focuses on highlighting the mechanisms conducive to the accommodation of different factions considering that the anatomy of such internal arrangements constitutes an important resource for the understanding of party organisational survival. The analysis will show that even if DAHR seems to describe a mixture of party types, with important elements of party centralisation and party discontent among elites and delegates, the internal party regulations, notably the party primary system, balanced the power struggles within the organisation, resulting thus in a general model of auto proclaimed party democracy.
4. Romanian Journal of Political Science
- Author:
- Alina Mungiu-Pippidi
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Romanian Journal of Political Science
- Institution:
- Romanian Academic Society
- Abstract:
- The paper is an attempt to identify main challenges of the EU and of EU's eastern neighbours generated by EU's enlargement in 2007,that resulted in the shift of frontiers eastwards. The paper finds that the present EU eastern frontier is placed in an area where countries in between are subject to influences and centripetal forces coming from both east and west. The focus in this article is on Moldova and Ukraine–which represents the ‚southern flank' of the 'tectonic plate' that separates EU from Russia. The first three parts of the article discuss the parallel evolutions of Russia and EU in the last twenty years, the development of the relationship between them and the impact of EU on Moldova and Ukraine, underlying some elements of Russia's impact as well. The fourth part is dedicated to the identification and discussion of the challenges EU, Moldova and Ukraine are faced with as a result of the evolutions generated by the 2007 enlargement.
- Political Geography:
- Russia, Europe, and Ukraine
5. Governance and Corruption
- Author:
- Alina Mungiu-Pippidi
- Publication Date:
- 07-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Romanian Journal of Political Science
- Institution:
- Romanian Academic Society
- Abstract:
- Romania and Bulgaria encounter today problems in joining the visa-free Schengen area. The main one in the public eye is corruption. Both countries pledged to improve their rule of law when signing their accession treaties in 2005, yet little progress is perceived by observers or captured with governance measurements relying on perception, such as CPI and World Bank Governance indicators. This paper explores real policy, with fact-based indicators, to trace progress in the area – or lack of it – since 2004 to the present.
- Topic:
- Corruption
- Political Geography:
- Bulgaria and Romania
6. Governance after the Crisis
- Author:
- Alina Mungiu-Pippidi
- Publication Date:
- 06-2010
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Romanian Journal of Political Science
- Institution:
- Romanian Academic Society
- Abstract:
- In this paper, I examine the effectiveness of improvements in political and civil rights for attracting foreign direct investment flows (FDI) into democracies. I contend that advances in the quality of democracy – specifically those concerning civil rights – present positive but decreasing marginal returns in attracting FDI inflows. I empirically prove this proposition by using panel data regressions within the Latin American and Eastern European contexts from periods following their democratization (1991-2003).
- Political Geography:
- Europe
7. Political or Economic Crisis?
- Author:
- Raúl de Arriba Bueno
- Publication Date:
- 07-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Romanian Journal of Political Science
- Institution:
- Romanian Academic Society
- Abstract:
- This study analyzes why the presence of economic policy on rural development is justifiable and the recommendable modes of intervention from the perspective of rural area needs and diversification opportunities of the rural economy in the European context. This reflection on the role of economic policy in rural change and the structure of the paper are organized around the following questions: what is the importance and specificity of the rural sphere? What does rural development mean? What arguments justify the intervention of the State in the rural sphere? Which objectives and what forms must this intervention adopt?
- Topic:
- Economics
- Political Geography:
- Europe
8. Twenty Years After: from Fall to Fall?
- Author:
- Alfio Cerami
- Publication Date:
- 12-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Romanian Journal of Political Science
- Institution:
- Romanian Academic Society
- Abstract:
- This article provides a brief description of the main systemic problems (strukturprobleme) of post-communist capitalism(s), as well as exploring the main changes occurring in the socio-economic structure and the subsequent new social risks emerging. It shows that post-communist societies are characterized by more intense strukturprobleme, which are resulting in the materialization of broader social risks types and groups. As a consequence of a difficult and still uncompleted process of recalibration (functional, distributive, normative and institutional), the welfare states in Central and Eastern Europe and in the Russian Federation are called to face a double burden of responsibilities: they must ensure protection against old and new social risks for a larger proportion of citizens than those in the West, while, simultaneously, dealing with the most serious social, economic and political challenges stemming from the transition.
- Political Geography:
- Russia and Europe
9. Volume 8, Issue 2 - Full Issue (PDF)
- Author:
- Suzana Dobre, Dragoş Bogdan, and Sorin Ioniţă
- Publication Date:
- 12-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Romanian Journal of Political Science
- Institution:
- Romanian Academic Society
- Abstract:
- Real estate speculations are the source of fortune for many of the Top 300 richest people and this national sport continues; those paying the price are former owners deprived of their properties by the Communist regime. Leaving aside the judicial details of the restitution program, two traits distinguish Romania in Central and Eastern Europe: the indecision regarding the restitution process and , in nature or compensation, the successive adoption of several laws in more than a decade caused confusion and overlapping rights; and large scale abuse at both local and central levels, sustained by ambiguous laws and discrete judicial practices, can be seen in the questionable discrepancies of the restitution process from one county to the other.
- Political Geography:
- Eastern Europe and Romania
10. Full Issue
- Author:
- Alexander Stoyanov
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Romanian Journal of Political Science
- Institution:
- Romanian Academic Society
- Abstract:
- Corruption, particularly in the high echelons of power, is one of the most serious problems faced by Bulgaria on the eve of its accession to the European Union. The problem has remained on the monitoring agenda for Bulgaria and extensively commented by the EC in its monitoring and evaluation reports in the last 2-3 years. In a period of three years subsequent to EU membership the government and the European Commission will report on the progress in countering administrative and political corruption in the country.
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Bulgaria
11. Foreword
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Romanian Journal of Political Science
- Institution:
- Romanian Academic Society
- Abstract:
- Since the collapse of communism and communist states from 1989-1992, the twenty-eight states that currently comprise postcommunist Europe and Eurasia have evolved to different political directions. Some regimes in this region have completed a transition to democracy; others have been arrested at some point on the path to democracy and became a sort of 'defective democracies'; and still others have yet to break with the communist past. This issue focuses on this middle-ground category: countries where elections are regularly held, but the behavior of political actors, notably the government, but not only, is not always democratic. Albania, Moldova, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, the Caucasus countries present a great variation among themselves, but have also something in common: they do not fit well the classic patterns of either democracy or authoritarianism. The regional trend, particularly noticeable over the past decade, showed hybrid regimes resisting to political change - either in the direction of becoming authentic democracies or reverting back to dictatorship. The purpose of this issue is to explore the lessons for democratization that can be drawn from the postcommunist experience over the past seventeen years. First, what explains defective democracies? Second, what can and cannot be transferred from successful Central Europe to the rest of countries? Finally, is there still a future for democracy promotion in postcommunist Europe?
- Topic:
- Government
- Political Geography:
- Russia, Europe, Eurasia, Ukraine, Moldova, Albania, Central Europe, and Belarus
12. Administrative and Political Corruption in Bulgaria: Status and Dynamics (1998-2006)
- Author:
- Alexander Stoyanov
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Romanian Journal of Political Science
- Institution:
- Romanian Academic Society
- Abstract:
- Corruption, particularly in the high echelons of power, is one of the most serious problems faced by Bulgaria on the eve of its accession to the European Union. The problem has remained on the monitoring agenda for Bulgaria and extensively commented by the EC in its monitoring and evaluation reports in the last 2-3 years. In a period of three years subsequent to EU membership the government and the European Commission will report on the progress in countering administrative and political corruption in the country.
- Topic:
- Corruption
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Bulgaria
13. Democratization in Eastern Europe: A Viable Model for the Middle East?
- Author:
- Gül M. Kurtoglu-Eskisar
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Romanian Journal of Political Science
- Institution:
- Romanian Academic Society
- Abstract:
- Almost a decade before the end of the 20th century, most parts of Eastern Europe were still under the communist rule and, with a few exceptions, the Middle East was checker squared with varying degrees of authoritarianism. Almost a decade into the 21st century and many East European countries are now regarded as democracies. The Middle East, however, continues to be dominated by authoritarian regimes. This study outlines some of the factors that can help to explain this contrasting outcome in a comparative framework.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Islam, and Terrorism
- Political Geography:
- Middle East and Eastern Europe
14. Transition as a Legacy
- Author:
- Maximilian Spinner
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Romanian Journal of Political Science
- Institution:
- Romanian Academic Society
- Abstract:
- Almost two decades after their transition to democracy it is no longer questioned whether the new EU member states of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) are democratic in the minimalist, procedural sense. Academic attention has turned to analysing various pathways of democratic development in the region and the consolidation of democracy (CoD). CoD in the broadest sense investigates the stability and survival of democratic regimes. In opposition to transitologists (which focuses on the regime question), CoD addresses the question of what kind of democracy is actually developing in various countries. Next to institutional and behavioural factors cultural or attitudinal variables are increasingly considered in this context. Elite commitment to the existing democratic system is seen as a crucial component of CoD.
- Topic:
- Democratization
- Political Geography:
- Eastern Europe
15. From Sofia to Brussels - Corrupt Democratization in the Context of European Integration
- Author:
- Gergana Bulanova
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Romanian Journal of Political Science
- Institution:
- Romanian Academic Society
- Abstract:
- This paper examines the correlation between corruption, democracy and transformation. It is designed as a study of the quality of the established model of democracy, focusing on the governance capacities of one of the newest EU-member states – Bulgaria to effectively counter political corruption. Taking into account the levels of corruption spread in Bulgaria since 1989, I address the following question: why does Bulgaria fail to effectively counter political corruption, notwithstanding the large scale anticorruption campaign, launched in the course of the democratization and Europeanization processes of the last years? I suggest that the state failure in anticorruption is tightly connected to the quality of the established (achieved) democratic model. Furthermore, I argue that this state weakness refers to profound institutional shortcomings, which in turn cause the contamination of the exchange of wealth and power. Respectively the study's main goal is to offer an analyse of the influence of the level of attainment of a balanced, liberal democracy over the state capacities to effectively counter political corruption, while taking into account the role played by particular context factors.
- Topic:
- Corruption and Democratization
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Bulgaria
16. How Media and Politics Shape Each Other in the New Europe
- Author:
- Alina Mungiu Pippidi
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Romanian Journal of Political Science
- Institution:
- Romanian Academic Society
- Abstract:
- Denying the huge influence of 'new' media over politics in our times would be foolish: and since politicians are no fools the development of the new media seems to be accompanied by the development of new strategies to control media contents and influence. While it remains undeniable that the social control patterns of a given society have a considerable influence over how the media system is shaped, I believe that globalization has opened the door to outside influences on a scale undreamed at the times of Four Theories of the Press.
- Topic:
- Civil Society and Democratization
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Eastern Europe
17. The Romanian Revolution of December 1989
- Author:
- Milena Marin
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Romanian Journal of Political Science
- Institution:
- Romanian Academic Society
- Abstract:
- After almost 10 years since the Romanian revolution of December 1989, both the academic community and public opinion of Romania, have still many doubts regarding the nature and the exact unfolding of those events. Peter Siani- Davies, one of the few western researchers involved in the study of the Romanian society, through his excellent work “The Romanian Revolution of December 1989”, offers a detailed account of the Romanian revolutionary upheaval and of the difficult birth of democracy in Romania, giving at the same time an important contribution on the elucidation of the myths and realities of the Romanian revolution.
- Topic:
- Civil Society
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Eastern Europe, Romania, and Sydney
18. What`s Wrong With The European Union How to Fix It
- Author:
- Cristian Ghinea
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Romanian Journal of Political Science
- Institution:
- Romanian Academic Society
- Abstract:
- However different they are, John McCain and Barack Obama have a common message: unifying a divided America. Both candidates aim to come across the aisle for less divisive politics. This sort of message seems to become a mantra for politicians and scholars. And yet Simon Hix swims against the current in his newly released book `What`s Wrong With The European Union How to Fix It`. Hix analyses the political system of EU as a classical case of a consensualist democratic model. And he points out precisely to this consensualism as being the main problem of the EU. The political game at European level needs a real stake, with clear winners and clear losers.
- Political Geography:
- America and Europe
19. CALL FOR PAPERS; INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Romanian Journal of Political Science
- Institution:
- Romanian Academic Society
- Abstract:
- Russians elected this year a new leadership for the country. Although some analysts claim it is the same leadership as the old, some things are bound to change. More important changes are expected from American elections, whose unfolding has captured the imagination of the whole world. Results of both elections are likely to play an important role for shaping the world of 21st century.
- Political Geography:
- Russia and America