Archives
-
Vol. 54 (2022)
Özge Korkmaz Şahbaz delves into the complex landscape of constitutional reform in Turkey. The study investigates the underlying reasons behind the last constitutional reform, emphasizing the transformation of the presidency, the weakening of military tutelage, the mobilization power of Erdogan, and the impact of the failed coup attempt in 2016. Employing the method of causal process tracing, this research offers valuable insights into the historical and political context surrounding institutional change in Turkey.
Donovan van der Haak takes on the topic of epistocracy and its compatibility with different meta-ethical frameworks. Focusing on Jason Brennan's argument for epistocracy, van der Haak questions the extent to which this argument withstands challenges posed by meta-ethical moral relativism. The central research question revolves around the repercussions of moral relativism on Brennan's use of the competence principle in advocating for epistocracy over democracy. The paper ultimately argues that democracy aligns more closely with Brennan's principles, as epistocracy's reliance on experts may hinder the collection of sufficient information about moral facts from the right voting population.
-
Vol. 53 (2022)
In their thought-provoking study, Vaia Papanikolaou, Yiannis Roussakis, and Panagiotis Tzionas explore a critical yet often overlooked aspect of universities - their internal democratic institutions. While universities' contributions to democratic societies are well-documented, this research delves into the establishment of democratic characteristics within these institutions. Developing a comprehensive framework based on democracy indicators sourced from international organizations, the authors investigate the relationship between these indicators and the level of democracy within universities. They pose a vital question: How far can these democratic attributes erode before a university faces collapse?
-
Vol. 52 (2022)
In this issue of Politikon: The IAPSS Journal of Political Science, we delve into two significant topics that impact the political landscape of East Asia and Southern Africa. Yeo Qin-Liang explores the role of pro-welfare civil society in driving welfare expansion in East Asian countries with conservative governments. This article sheds light on the evolving dynamics of social policy in the region. Tinashe Sithole delves into the pressing issue of the Cabo Delgado insurgency in Mozambique and its implications for regional security within the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). This study underscores the need for proactive intervention to address the conflict's destabilizing effects on the region. Both articles contribute valuable insights into these complex political issues, enriching our understanding of East Asian social policies and the security challenges facing Southern Africa.
-
Vol. 51 (2021)
Anti-Corruption NGOs as Think Tanks: The Effect of Transparency International UK on the UK Bribery Act 2010 (Yusuke Ishikawa, Asia Pacific Initiative)
Building Legitimacy: The Role of Political Myths in the Presidential Campaigns of the Early 90s in Romania (Andrei Dălălău, Babes-Bolyai University)
Developing a Theoretical Framework for Processing the Negative Information in Social Media: Analysis of Twitter User Interaction with Negative Political Misinformation (Jinwook Lee, Soka University)
Populist Government and Constitutional Democracy: Radical Incompatibility or Possible Coexistence? (Francesco Maria Scanni, University of Calabria)
-
Vol. 50 (2021)
Missing Cooperation in the Eastern Mediterranean: Greek- Turkish Securitizations and their Impact on Regional Collaboration (Luca Doll)
One, No One, and One Hundred Thousand: Exploring Identity and Electoral Performance of Italian Southernist Parties (Marco Improta)
Sustainable Development in Middle Powers’ Governance Arrangements: The Cases of IBSA and MIKTA (Camila Saute Torresini)
-
Vol. 49 (2021)
Published almost exactly twenty years after the publication of the first issue of the journal, Volume 49 of IAPSS Politikon contains five original contributions to Political Science, International Relations and European Studies.
Carol-Ann Rouillard and Mireille Lalancette argue for improvements in political representation via an analysis of media speeches on gender parity in Canada. Esther Ng K. H. sets out to demonstrate that a better understanding of state decisions to retain its existing practices rather than adopt new ones can be gained via the concept of ontological security. Building on insights from deliberation theory, Oxana Pimenova delves into the subsidiarity principle in the EU as an opportunity for enhanced dialogue and understanding between EU and national institutions, provided that some improvements to the principle are implemented. Fernando Ursine Braga Silva provides preliminary empirical support for a new explanation for the split of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ). Paul Fricker presents an up-to-date picture of the cooperative as well as conflictual patterns of interaction between China and the US in Djibouti.
-
Vol. 48 (2021)
From among the five contributions in this issue, three articles comprise a special section on 'Populisms, Hybrid Regimes and Political Change'. They represent memoirs from the first edition of the Leonardo Morlino Lecture Series that was organised in Mexico in November 2019. They are followed by a study of the prospects and pitfalls of a South African developmental state in regional comparative perspective, and by a book review on the perils of corruption and state capture in South Africa. Hence, the issue brings together Latin American and South African perspectives in particular.
-
Vol. 47 (2020)
While the COVID-19 pandemic may be the first reference point for a ‘contemporary challenge’, climate change has anything but disappeared in 2020. While the immediate effects of the pandemic might not persist in the long term, climate change remains an undisputedly central point of focus for social science research and thinking. Thus, Vol. 47 of IAPSS Politikon contains a special section on "Paths to Climate Justice", consisting of two articles and a research note.
Melina Kotsinas studies disaster management and stakeholders working in this field in a Small Island Developing Nation, Antigua and Barbuda, following Hurricane Irma and how they understand and respond to crisis. Lisa Carroll discusses the fact that the current international legal system cannot ‘effectively manage and sufficiently protect’ people moving due to climate and that the issue surrounding the definition of people undertaking this type of movement is doctrinal as well as definitional. Lisa Nowag reviews past research on the links between environmental changes and violence as well arguments for and against the controversial climate-conflict nexus.
In addition to the special section, Chloé Bernadaux provides insights into the operation of consociational systems in Northern Ireland and Lebanon from the perspective of their capacity to prevent conflicts along ethnonational lines.
-
Vol. 46 (2020)
Following an Editorial Note that summarizes an IAPSS Politikon webinar on 'Research and Education in Times of Pandemic', this issue contains three original articles and a book review. The first half of the issue consists of two articles employing interpretive methods (Ceren Çetinkaya) and critical theory (Ander Arredondo Chopitea). Çetinkaya studies one domain of the Turkish government’s efforts to reconstruct ‘a neo-Ottoman identity’, that of Ottoman-themed soap operas, juxtaposing this reconstruction to Turkey’s European identity that seeks affinity between Turkey and the European Union. Arredondo Chopitea contributes with an article asking whether development policies, in fact, can meet their intended aims to contribute to equality and global justice.
Subsequently, Hakan Sönmez analyses how various democracy indices capture democratic backsliding. He argues for approaching democracy indices with caution since they are based on complex measurements entailing a range of conceptual and methodological choices. The issue closes with Chetan Rana’s book review of an edited volume analysing the status quo and prospects for the ‘Indo-Pacific axis’.
-
Vol. 45 (2020)
IAPSS Politikon is committed to demonstrating that Political Science has a lot to contribute to the analysis of the phenomena and issues in a world in turmoil. Volume 45 presents research into aspects of some of the most pertinent developments of our age, using the full range of publication formats (articles, review essays, research notes, book reviews).
Beyza Sarıkoç Yıldırım analyses municipal action plans that address climate change in Turkey. Ilia Viatkin invites us to reflect on the variables that explain the unexpected increase in voting for the German Green party during the 2019 European Parliament elections in the German East and the West. Peter Wedekind presents a review essay which emphasises the usefulness of the principles of liberalism in order to safeguard liberal democracies. Clara Ribeiro Assumpção's research note explores the tense relationship between intelligence services and democracy, which appears more conflictive in contexts in which there has been a shift from authoritarian regimes to consolidating democracies. In another research note, Serena Alonso García reflects on the 2014 Hepatitis C crisis that occurred in Spain, as a case in which the collective interest gave way to private interests. Sukhayl Niyazov reviews Harry Frankfurt’s book On Inequality.
-
Vol. 44 (2020)
This issue can be symbolically divided into two sections. The first one features contributions from Jessica Nuske and Justinas Lingevicius. Nuske revisits the concept of representation in contemporary times when the ‘electoral connection’ between citizens and representatives alone is woefully inadequate to capture the complex relationship between these two subjects. Lingevicius, similarly to Nuske, departs from constructivist premises in his effort to make sense of the changes in Lithuanian foreign and security policy after the Crimean annexation. He reads the growing emphasis on Lithuanian independence in this discourse as an indicator that state identity in foreign policy can change due to relevant external events.
The second section focuses on African politics. Pieter Labuschagne studies new political parties in the South African party system, concluding that, in this respect at least, South African elections does not identify significant differences compared to ‘consolidated democracies’. Thomas Ibrahim Okinda, Benson Oduor Ojwang, and Charles Ongadi Nyambuga use survey data from female voters in one of the counties for the Kenyan general elections to investigate how socio-democratic and attitudinal variables correlate with their electoral participation. Their findings argue in favour of female electoral participation facilitating gender equality in general. The study of the relationship between election management systems and peaceful alternation of power in Ghana and Nigeria by Harrison Adewale Idowu and N. Oluwafemi ‘Femi’ Mimiko is a qualitative explorative analysis arguing that the credibility of the election management system has been conducive to the peaceful alternation of power in Ghana while other factors facilitated the same outcome in Nigeria. Finally, Idris Buta reviews the book 'Violence in African Elections', praising it for its scope as well as the capacity to recognise the uneven distribution of electoral violence across the cases studied, but highlighting the need for more recommendations focused towards domestic rather than international actors in eliminating electoral violence.
-
Vol. 43 (2019)
Volume 43 once again features timely contributions from different subfields. If one were to identify ‘labels’ for them, they would fall into political philosophy, public policy and the study of political institutions. First, Verónica Gutman’s content analysis spanning two decades of the United Nations Climate Change Conferences generates a range of hypotheses for further research that may provide novel empirical support for theories of the influence of global governance bodies and of the transnational legal process. Second, Luigi Cino analyses the case of the Tunisian revolution through institutionalist lenses, trying to apply a number of typologies from existing literature in order to better understand the characteristics of the institutional change that took place after the Arab Uprisings. Third, Samantha Trudeau goes back to the ever-fruitful discussions of Greek philosophy, placing under scrutiny the rarely discussed (in political science at least) Plato’s dialogue ‘Lesser Hippias’. Her article makes an interesting read for political communication enthusiasts as well, even more commendable in times of growing popular concerns about a ‘post-truth world’. Fourth, Yankı Doruk Doğanay offers an unconventional analysis of the sources of support of the contemporary Turkish government. He uncovers how several components of the Turkish political leaders’ discourse contribute to cementing their support, even though conventionally they would be seen as sources of weakness. In addition, readers may find it stimulating to think about the review of Francis Fukuyama’s book on 'Identity' written by Joshua Makalintal.
-
Vol. 42 (2019)
Volume 42 opens with a special section with two articles presented at the 2018 IAPSS Academic Convention (Convention Panels Coordinator: Katsiaryna Lozka). Here, Francisca Sassetti examines the effect of crowdsourced elections monitoring on transparency and quality of the electoral process. She finds that crowdsourcing techniques have a causal effect on electoral transparency by encouraging a more peaceful and democratic electoral process. Baptiste Brodard analyses the impact of the initiatives promoted by Islamic grassroots organisations in Switzerland, providing empirical evidence for the claim that social participation of Islamic organisations can have a positive value by rethinking and redefining social work practices. In the first of two regular articles included in the issue, Andrew Devine identifies China’s approach to promotion of its preferred norm of internet governance known as cyber sovereignty. Using a combination of frames, this form of global internet governance is being advanced especially towards developing countries in opposition to the currently prevailing ‘multistakeholder model’. Next, Velomahanina Tahinjanahary Razakamaharavo uses an innovative methodology to determine how grand narratives she calls ‘metanarratives’ shaped the dynamics of domestic conflicts in Madagascar. Collecting and coding a diverse pool of data, she conducts a qualitative comparative analysis of conditions for different dimensions of conflicts. The resulting study provides valuable insights into the recent political development of Madagascar, among others.
-
Vol. 41 (2019)
Volume 41 begins with the contribution by David Guignion, which critically assesses some of the central theses of the well-known contemporary thinker Jordan Peterson. Departing from the context of a particular piece of Canadian legislation, Guignion mounts an ambitious ‘counter-critique’ to Peterson’s critique of the notion of science in contemporary society. Next, AJ Golio’s article combines theory and empirics by identifying the ‘human costs’ that accompany the “fortress design” preservation policy of national parks which carries severe restrictions on land use including by local rural communities. The South African case, with its regime transition, enriches the understanding of how opening up this policy area to more public participation, in particular through electoral accountability, may help reduce its negative side effects on the communities that existentially depend on the land. Bernardino Leon-Reyes gains inspiration from the Weberian conceptualization of rationality in studying how a critical take on terrorism seems to have missed the centrality of (a certain type of) rationality in the conduct of terrorist actions. In a research note, Maxim Chupilkin advocates a more intense focus on inequality in political economy. He argues for a bi-directional study of social mobility, looking at both those who achieved a better economic position than their predecessors and those whose position worsened. Lastly, Marzio Di Feo reviews the popular book by Yuval Harari Homo Deus.
-
Vol. 40 (2019)
Vol. 40 of IAPSS Politikon contains a special section bringing together three contributions of three members of the IAPSS Academic Think Tank and Academic Committee (ATT & ACOM) 2017/2018, coordinated by Dr. Jamila Glover. Firstly, Lora Hadzhidimova and Aaron Stacey analyse the relationship between populism and the national concerns expressed by citizens in the European Union’s (EU) Eastern and Western member-states. The authors find that the predominant type of populism in the EU does not overlap with the type of concerns on a national level. The article concludes with outlining the implications of their findings. Secondly, in a single-authored piece, Lora Hadzhidimova presents a comprehensive overview of the emergence, evolution and current state of scholarly debate on the contentious issue of integration in the European Union. She argues that the debate has shifted from a paradigm perspective to a problem driven approach. The article further contends that this new approach is optimal because it is pragmatic in solving complex problems that occur within the EU. Thirdly, Rigina Syssoyeva’s research note addresses the growth of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). She conducts s a rigorous qualitative research study that demonstrates that Schimmelfennig’s theoretical concepts can explain the process of enlargement of the EAEU. Vol. 40 concludes with a stand-alone article by Joshua Schwartz who critically examines the argument Joseph Parent presented in his book Uniting States, and claims that it does not provide a satisfactory explanation for the emergence of voluntary mergers of states into one. Surveying the argument in detail, the article offers an in-depth analysis of the case of the United Arab Republic and concludes that there are other possible causes of voluntary unions than the one Parent identified.
-
Vol. 39 (2018)
Vol. 39 of IAPSS Politikon includes four research articles. In the first one, Jessica Neafie puts forward a hypothesis that, contrary to conventional assumptions, foreign direct investment decreases access to clean water. She presents and statistically tests the validity of this hypothesis, as well as of several possible explanations of it. Her findings contribute to the broader debate about the ways how potable water access can be increased. The issue continues with Paola Imperatore’s analysis, based on her paper presented at the IAPSS World Congress 2018 in Paris. She shows how the opposition movement towards locally unwanted land use (LULU) has emerged in Italy, and how it functions. Applying frame analysis to evaluate primary sources from a number of these oppositional movements, she discovers the pushback of infrastructure owners to these movements, and the subsequent ways of reacting to it. These ways indicate how a particular contentious issue may be generalized so that it speaks to general public concerns such as democracy, corruption, the application of public finances and social justice. The background of these discursive constructions point to the dialectic between the local and the global, exemplified in the IAPSS 2018 Annual Theme ‘Diversity and Globalization’ as well. Thirdly, Adil Nussipov presents the revised and abridged version of his graduate thesis which argues that there is an inverse U-shaped relationship between the ‘international authority’ of international organizations and the levels of access these IOs provide to transnational actors (such as international NGOs or multinational companies). His article explains how organizations with medium authority provide the most access through a perspective of rationalist self-interest: it is these organizations that can gain most by allowing the participation of transnational actors in their decision-making processes. In the final article of this year, also based on a presentation at the IAPSS World Congress 2018, Fiammetta Colombo explores the possible connections between several phenomena that are frequently associated with economic globalization (such as growing rates of inequality and unemployment rates), and the rise of nationalist political parties in the Western Balkans. While no causal relationship emerges, she shows how nationalism goes hand in hand with support of economic globalization in the majority of the nationalist parties of the region, and suggests avenues for further research based on this observation.
1-25 of 55
Next
