Central Party Research Articles

The Position and Political Discourse of Russian Parties in Latvia and Estonia in the New Geopolitical Reality

The study analyses the position and political discourse of Russian parties in Latvia and Estonia in the context of the special military operation in Ukraine. The analysis is conducted along the lines of interaction of Russian parties with one another, as well as with the government, the Russian diaspora and Russia. The empirical basis of the study is the data of the central election commissions of Latvia and Estonia. The speeches of Russian party leaders about the special military operation are also analysed. The main differences in the representation of the ethnic component of the discourse in the preelection programmes were revealed. Based on this, conclusions are drawn about the different degree of ethnic identity of parties as a criterion reflecting the degree of positioning of a political force as a representative of the interests of a national minority. It was recorded that Russian parties are characterised by different rhetoric regarding the conflict in Ukraine. Some parties preferred silence or neutrality, while the largest Russian parties in the 2000s (“Harmony” and the Estonian Centre Party) chose a hostile stance towards the Russian government. This fact together with the low representation of the ethnic component in their programmes was an important factor that significantly reduced their electoral support in regions with Russian population and in the country. At the same time, the process of fragmentation of the Russian electorate is taking place in the countries under consideration due to the growing number of political actors articulating its interests.

The politics of military assistance: Italian parties’ positions on the war in Ukraine

ABSTRACT In recent years, a research agenda on the party politics of military interventions has flourished. However, considerably less attention has been devoted to analysing party positions on the decision to provide military assistance to an actor involved in the conflict. This article focuses on Italy’s support for Ukraine after the 2022 Russian invasion. Triangulating quantitative and qualitative data, we examine party positions and how they evolved from the Draghi to the Meloni government. We find that moderate parties have generally been more supportive than extreme parties except Brothers of Italy, whose stance is still coherent with its own peculiar core values.

“Red Gold” by Upton Sinclair and Piotr Pavlenko: Unwritten Soviet-American Novel

On April 16, 1938 Upton Sinclair sent a letter to the editors of the Soviet magazine International Literature, in which he shared the idea of a new novel Red Gold and asked to find him a co-author among Soviet writers. In his letter U. Sinclair gave a detailed synopsis of the novel: the plot was to be based on the story of a young American engineer who in the mid-1920s goes to Siberia to provide Soviet gold mining with the American technology. There on the banks of the river Lena he meets a Russian Bolshevik girl and they fall in love. As an American “bourgeois specialist” he used to believe that capitalism is the most effective social and economic system; his belief, however, was shaken in the course of ideological disputes with his girl-friend, and the Great Depression of the 1930s increased his doubts. Soviet partners proposed Piotr Pavlenko as co-author, and the writers began to exchange letters, discussing their future work and various details of the planned novel. The project was supervised by the Foreign Commission of the Soviet Writers’ Union; its functionaries reported to party and government organs (the Central Committee of the Communist Party, the Peopleʼs Commissariat of Foreign Affairs). Letters signed by Pavlenko were read, edited and approved at several levels of Soviet bureaucracy, from the Writersʼ Union to the Press Department of the Central Party Committee. Thus, Upton Sinclair, in fact, negotiated and argued not just with his co-author, but with a hierarchial administrative body with a strict chain of command. Due to the obvious discrepancy between his own and Soviet attitudes, Sinclair soon decided to abandon the idea of a “collective novel”. The study is based on the materials from the funds of the Russian State Archive of Arts and Literature (RGALI).

The Long Decline of South Africa's ANC

ABSTRACT: Three decades after the African National Congress (ANC) won 62.7 percent of the vote that propelled Nelson Mandela into the presidency in 1994, the ANC's vote share plummeted to 40.2 percent of the national vote in South Africa's 2024 general election (down from 57.5 percent five years previously,= and well below the 50 percent predicted by preelection polls). Against thirty years of pessimistic academic literature predicting the opposite, the ANC accepted electoral defeat. But this left the ANC in a strategic quandary. Had it reached the upper 40 percent range, easy coalitions with small parties would have passed the 50 percent threshold. But with only 40 percent, the party reached back into the early years of democracy and formed a government of national unity—a multiparty coalition that left the ANC's most significant political opponents out in the cold. ANC (and national) president Cyril Ramaphosa has sidelined Africanist parties and created a coalition with decidedly centrist parties. The "broad church" which has bedeviled the ANC is at an end. Multiparty coalition government has arrived in South Africa, but questions remain: Can ANC electoral decline be arrested by this sharp move towards the center? And what, if any, substantive role is there for the ANC in the future if not?

Rural but not radical right: The rural‐urban cleavage in Norway

AbstractConventional wisdom claims that rural voters are politically mobilized by right‐wing and culturally conservative forces, while urban voters are left‐leaning and have progressive cultural views. Leveraging original survey data from Norway, our work challenges this dichotomy. We build on cleavage theory and recent research on place identitiesto develop a latent measure of rural attachment. Using regression analysis, we investigate how well this measure maps onto five different cultural attitudes, left‐ right ideology, and partisan voting. The findings show that people with rural identities are not more right‐wing, reluctant towards immigration, or anti‐environmental than their urban counterparts. Instead, the geographic cleavage relates to dissatisfaction with the way the central government treats rural areas, resistance to the EU, and voting for the agrarian Center Party. The findings from Norway therefore show that it is possible to mobilize rural identifiers without disparaging immigrants or adopting other radical‐right stances. Our work suggests that the supply of political parties plays a decisive role in how rural identities are activated and contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the urban‐rural divide in advanced, multi‐party democracies.

EVOLUTION AND PROSPECTS OF THE «ALTERNATIVE FOR GERMANY»

In recent years, the populist Alternative for Germany (AfG) party, which systematically opposes the ruling mainstream parties, has become active on the German political scene. In contrast to the approach of the mainstream parties, the AfG’s views on governance and engagement with the European Union now pose a threat to the coalition of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the Alliance 90 / The Greens because of the increasing popularity of right-wing populists among the German electorate. In autumn 2025, Germany will hold federal elections to the Bundestag, which will determine the political course of the country for the next 5 years. The purpose of this article is to assess the prospects of the Alternative for Germany party in the Bundestag elections in 2025.A significant part of the article is devoted to reviewing the ideological evolution of the party, which has gone from a minor moderate party to the leading opposition force in the country. This is essential in order to understand the implications of the current rise in social tensions and scandals around Alternative and how this may affect its future political sustainability. Authors provide a forecast of the party’s chances of success in the parliamentary elections and assess the risks that the AfG may face during the electoral struggle. The conclusion is made that the chances of the Alternative for Germany party to enter the government in 2025 will depend on its capacity to timely eliminate the accumulated internal contradictions, such as the excessive radicalisation of the party and the lack of a unified ideological component among its leaders.

CHƯƠNG TRÌNH GIÁO DỤC PHỔ THÔNG 2018 VÀ NHỮNG VẤN ĐỀ CẦN TIẾP TỤC NGHIÊN CỨU

This report presents the theoretical and practical foundations upon which the General Education Curriculum 2018 has been developed to comprehensively enhance learners' qualities and competences. It also addresses the initial implementation of the curriculum, highlighting issues that require further research and practical resolution for advancing the curriculum and organising effective practical implementation activities. The ultimate goal is to successfully enact general education innovations in line with the Resolutions of the Central Party Committee and the National Assembly. Keywords: Curriculum; curriculum development; moral quality; capacity; assessment.

Restrictions to civil liberties in a pandemic and satisfaction with democracy

In times of crises, democracies face the challenge of balancing effective interventions with civil liberties. This study examines German states’ responses during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on the trade-off between civil liberties and public health. Using state-level variation in mobility restrictions, we employ a difference-in-differences design to show that stay-at-home orders notably increased satisfaction with democracy and shifted political support towards centrist parties. Stay-at-home orders increased satisfaction with democracy most among individuals who had been exposed to the authoritarian regime of the German Democratic Republic, possibly because they have gotten used to more restrictive state interventions.

Engaging Populism? The Popularity of European Populist Political Parties on Facebook and Twitter, 2010–2020

ABSTRACT Scholars have argued that populists disproportionately benefit from social media, and there is evidence that they attract more engagement than other politicians and parties in several countries. We systematically evaluate the relationship between populism and online popularity using a novel dataset covering over four hundred parties active on Facebook and Twitter in thirty European countries between 2010 and 2020. We use Bayesian hierarchical models to assess the relationship between populism and three types of engagement on each platform. We find that populists received more engagement than other parties on Facebook, but there was no consistent relationship on Twitter. Among these parties, only right-wing populist parties had any widespread advantages. Our results highlight considerable heterogeneity across countries and over time, providing new insight into the scope and scale of populists’ online popularity. This includes evidence that left-wing and centrist parties attracted more engagement in a handful of countries. We evaluate several explanations for these results, finding that negative macroeconomic indicators and increased migration are positively correlated with populist engagement, while internet and social media adoption have mixed impacts that benefit right-wing populists.

Деятельность организационно-инструкторского отдела Ленинградского городского Совета депутатов трудящихся в 1943–1945 гг.

The activities of the Organizational and Instructional Department of the Leningrad City Council during the war and blockade have not previously been subjected to detailed study. The significance of this scientific problem is, first of all, due to the role of instructors, which they played in organizing and monitoring the implementation of regulatory decisions of the Leningrad City Executive Committee, as well as resolutions of local and central party authorities. The article reconstructs the main approaches to the work of an instructor in 1943–1945, identifies the most significant areas of activity, analyzes the problems of the functioning of Department and practical steps to solve them. During the period under study, the key vector of activity of the Leningrad City Executive Committee was the implementation of restoration measures in Leningrad. The study introduces into scientific circulation regulatory and records materials deposited in the Central State Archives of St. Petersburg. By reconstructing the main approaches to instructor work, analyzing key directions of activity, and evaluating challenges and solutions, this article sheds light on the multifaceted dynamics of governance amidst the exigencies of war and blockade.

Nyilasok Komáromban és környékén az első bécsi döntést követően

This study aims to provide a detailed exploration of the Arrow Cross movement in southern Slovakia. In particular, it examines the history of the Arrow Cross movement in and around Komárom (Komárno) between 1938 and 1945, i.e. its actions in the so-called “Hungarian times” following the First Vienna Award of 2 November 1938. It is clear from archival documents and opposition press articles that the Arrow Cross movement had already begun to organise in the Upper Lands immediately after the annexation. After the ‘return’ of Hungary, Arrow Cross ideas also spread among the inhabitants of Komárom and its environs, and the economic difficulties of the town played a part in this. By the end of 1940, along with the central party organisation in Komárom, Arrow Cross party offices were established in the municipalities of the district. Arrow Cross ideas were also popular in the city among former communists, who saw the Arrow Cross party as representing workers’ interests. Many of them, however, soon became disillusioned with the party and joined the next far-right Hungarian Renewal Party (Magyar Megújulás Párt), of which Andor Jaross was one of the leaders, which was founded in October 1940. It was only after 16 October 1944 that the Arrow Cross could become a dominant factor in the town. Shortly after the Szálasi coup, there were also exchanges of officials and acts of terror against ‘enemies’ of the regime in and around Komárom.

Quantum steering in a star network

In this work, we will consider the star network scenario where the central party is trusted while all the edge parties (with a number of n) are untrusted. Network steering is defined with an n local hidden state model which can be viewed as a special kind of n local hidden variable model. Two different types of sufficient criteria, nonlinear steering inequality and linear steering inequality will be constructed to verify the quantum steering in a star network. Based on the linear steering inequality, how to detect the network steering with a fixed measurement will be discussed.

Centre party, district magnitude, and wage inequality in service economy

This paper aims to elucidate the variations in wage inequality within the service industry across different nations. Scholars have emphasised the pivotal role of policies designed to balance flexibility and job security in the service sector, crucial for fostering its growth while mitigating wage disparities. We argue that the balance between flexibility and security of service sector employment is most likely to emerge under centre party governments in high-magnitude electoral systems. Centre parties, owing to their political detachment from organised labour and industry, encounter fewer obstacles in representing the unorganised interests of service sector workers. Furthermore, high-district magnitude systems incentivise centre parties to build comprehensive coalitions that address the diverse concerns of service sector workers. Our empirical analysis, spanning 14 OECD countries from 1995 to 2007, demonstrates that service sector wage inequality diminishes as district magnitude and the cabinet share of centre parties increase.

Иван Ильин и Алексей Боровой: история одной дружбы

The publication is devoted to the reconstruction of the relations that established between the philosopher, sociologist, anarchist A.A. Borovoi and the young philosopher I.A. Il’in. The ideological and political position held by A.A. Borovoi as a Private Associate Professor of the Faculty of Law of the Moscow Imperial University is reconstructed, as well as his attitude to other colleagues, in particular to P.I. Novgorodtsev, B.A. Kistyakovsky. The evolution of the views of the young Ilyin, who initially sympathized with radical political trends and the anarchist movement, and then switched to the positions of liberal conservatism, is demonstrated. Based on memoirs, letters stored in the archives of A.A. Borovoi in RSALA (Russian State Archive of Literature and Art), memoirs and letters of I.A. Il’in, as well as studies dedicated to Borovoi and Ilyin, the period of meetings of thinkers in Paris in 1911–1912 is reproduced in more detail. The details of the changes that occurred at the Faculty of Law of the Moscow Imperial University in connection with the “Casso Case”, which had a different impact on the fate of thinkers, are revealed. The relationship between Borovoi and Il’in with B.A. Kistyakovsky, who was also in Europe in 1911, is mentioned. An assumption is made about the reasons for the cessation of communication between I.A. Il’in and A.A. Borovoi during the World War I, which could be associated both with the ideological differences between the philosophers and the activities to which each of them devoted himself during these years. The meeting between Borovoi and Il’yin after the February revolution could have given rise to a resumption of communication, but the difference in assessment of the October revolution (imaginary or real) became a stumbling block. Based on the fragment mentioned by Borovoi from the book by G.I. Kish “Hitler and others” and the archive of I.A. Il’in there is reproduced an episode of the thinker’s speech at a meeting of the “Men’s Club” in March 1930. The article recreates the history of relations between I.A. Il’in and representatives of the conservative wing of German entrepreneurs and the failed cooperation with the centrist party represented by German Catholics.

Just who wanted dominion home rule?: ‘moderates’ and the Irish War of Independence

AbstractThis article discusses political ‘moderates’, those individuals who reacted to the turmoil of the War of Independence by coalescing around a vision of a dominion of Ireland within the British Empire, with appropriate safeguards for minorities. It will consider how reformist gentry, parliamentary and former unionist elements came together to bring about their preferred settlement. Through statistical examination of the membership of the Irish Dominion League, the leading moderate movement, it will establish the political backgrounds, religion and social class of supporters, and demonstrate the various means by which moderates worked as intermediaries between British forces and the rebels. Southern unionists made efforts to avoid working with moderates and to retain a distinct political identity, and, ultimately, divisions within the movement, and the changing structure of Irish politics, inhibited the creation of an effective moderate party.

Euroscepticism in the Discourse of “Russian Parties” in Estonia

Introduction. The party-political system of Estonia, with traditionally Euro-optimistic elites leading it, was previously characterized by the presence of a number of so-called “Russian political parties”, which traditionally professed Euroscepticism and criticized the European Union as whole or certain areas of its activities. The purpose of the article is to determine the specific features of the Eurosceptic party discourse of “Russian parties” in Estonia. Materials and Methods. The information basis of the paper consisted of the results obtained using a combination of the comparative method (method of comparative analysis) and the method of discourse analysis. A single case study design was chosen for the paper. The data obtained as a result of using the discourse analysis method made it possible to study the indicators of the Eurosceptic discourse of “Russian parties” and process their programs, manifestos, electoral platforms, as well as statements of their high-ranking representatives. Results. It was revealed that the use of Euroscepticism by the analyzed “Russian parties” when targeting the Russian-speaking diaspora of the state in a number of cases (for example, in case of the Estonian Center Party) has shown some efficacy, allowing it to mobilize the electorate among Russian-speaking citizens. However, it was found that for small marginal “Russian parties” in Estonia this did not demonstrate productivity and benefit, since such efforts did not bring them a significant number of votes in elections at various levels. Most of them, adhering to Eurosceptic protest declarations, were never able to take part in “mainstream politics” of Estonia; thereby they failed to implement their Eurosceptic political agenda. Discussion and Conclusion. The results allow us to conclude that a specific characteristic of the Eurosceptic party discourse of the majority of “Russian parties” in Estonia is its focus on pragmatism for ethnic Russian residents living in this state in the form of concrete results that are useful for them: the desire to improve the existing discriminatory position of ethnic Russian population in Estonia through appealing to Brussels, to solve the problem of so called non-citizens, and, finally, to establish good relations between Estonia and its eastern neighbor state – Russia. The results of this study can find application in the academic activities of universities in our country, may be of interest to political and regional scientists studying political processes in the Baltic States.

The notion of transformism in Gramscian theories and its application to social movements studies

The current article examines the notion of transformism within the framework of Gramscian theories. This term was initially used to describe parliamentary politics in Italy and meant the cooptation of radical parties into the government under the leadership of moderate parties and the subsequent moderation of radical parties. Antonio Gramsci rethinks transformism and defines it as the strengthening of the ruling class through the absorption of active elements from other classes. Although this can be found in works of some scholars utilizing different Gramscian approaches, it still requires some concretization. The article examines the development of this notion in Gramsci's texts as well as its usage in the Gramscian political economy and Ernesto Laclau's theory. The article demonstrates that the notion of transformism can be applied to social movements studies. Under conditions of transformism separate achievements of social movements turn into strategic failures. The functioning of transformism is based mainly on trade-offs between upper and lower classes. Upper classes satisfy some demands from below and lower classes constrain their discontent to cooperate with upper classes. Transformism amounts to the absence of independence of social movements, their readiness for trade-offs, cooperation with the authorities and parliamentary mechanisms as well as organizational weakness.

Ideological ambiguity and political spectrum

This study examines the relationship between ambiguity and the ideological positioning of political parties across the political spectrum. We identify a strong non-monotonic (inverted U-shaped) relationship between party ideology and ambiguity within a sample of 202 European political parties. This pattern is observed across all ideological dimensions covered in the data. To explain this pattern, we argue that centrist parties are perceived as less risky by voters compared to extremist parties, giving them an advantage in employing ambiguity to attract more voters at a lower cost. We support our explanation with additional evidence from electoral outcomes and economic indicators in the respective party countries.

The German Parliament and the political crisis of 1917–18: the role of the Intergroup Commission

ABSTRACT In 1917, not least in consequence of the First World War, political and institutional reforms were advanced in Germany which requested the democratization of the suffrage in Prussia and aimed at strengthening the role of the national parliament (Reichstag). Confronted with the resistance shown by the existing powers, the majority parties including the Social Democrats, the Progressive People’s Party and the Centre Party (with the intermittent presence of the National Liberals) created an Intergroup Commission which initially was thought to face the question of a negotiated peace, but it rapidly extended its tasks by enhancing cooperation among the parties and by promoting a reform policy. The novelty of the Intergroup Commission resides in its being informal and fluid, with flexible delegations as well as unbureaucratic procedures, and in maintaining contact with the public by means of press releases. The Intergroup Commission’s activity and significance progressively increased until it became a fundamental interlocutor of the German governments of the time and in October 1918 its programme was set in motion and its reforms were implemented.

Иван Ильин и Алексей Боровой: история одной дружбы

The publication is devoted to the reconstruction of the relations that established between the philosopher, sociologist, anarchist A.A. Borovoi and the young philosopher I.A. Il’in. The ideological and political position held by A.A. Borovoi as a Private Associate Professor of the Faculty of Law of the Moscow Imperial University is reconstructed, as well as his attitude to other colleagues, in particular to P.I. Novgorodtsev, B.A. Kistyakovsky. The evolution of the views of the young Ilyin, who initially sympathized with radical political trends and the anarchist movement, and then switched to the positions of liberal conservatism, is demonstrated. Based on memoirs, letters stored in the archives of A.A. Borovoi in RSALA (Russian State Archive of Literature and Art), memoirs and letters of I.A. Il’in, as well as studies dedicated to Borovoi and Ilyin, the period of meetings of thinkers in Paris in 1911–1912 is reproduced in more detail. The details of the changes that occurred at the Faculty of Law of the Moscow Imperial University in connection with the “Casso Case”, which had a different impact on the fate of thinkers, are revealed. The relationship between Borovoi and Il’in with B.A. Kistyakovsky, who was also in Europe in 1911, is mentioned. An assumption is made about the reasons for the cessation of communication between I.A. Il’in and A.A. Borovoi during the World War I, which could be associated both with the ideological differences between the philosophers and the activities to which each of them devoted himself during these years. The meeting between Borovoi and Il’yin after the February revolution could have given rise to a resumption of communication, but the difference in assessment of the October revolution (imaginary or real) became a stumbling block. Based on the fragment mentioned by Borovoi from the book by G.I. Kish “Hitler and others” and the archive of I.A. Il’in there is reproduced an episode of the thinker’s speech at a meeting of the “Men’s Club” in March 1930. The article recreates the history of relations between I.A. Il’in and representatives of the conservative wing of German entrepreneurs and the failed cooperation with the centrist party represented by German Catholics.