Comparative Political Analysis Research Articles

Об обязательствах по национальному регулированию деятельности частных военных и охранных компаний: опыт Российской Федерации

This article is the next stage of the author's research in the field of international security problems, the emerging international emergency law (PIL) and is a continuation of the existing scientific and practical discourse on the problems of understanding legal problems related to the search for effective regulators in the field of PMSC activities. Considerable attention is paid to the analysis, search and formation of a modern concept of regulatory regulators of PMSC activities. Based on the study of international legal "soft" regulation, as well as the available examples of national regulation of a number of states, the article analyzes the existing draft legislative acts on the regulation of PMSCs in the Russian Federation. The methodology of the research includes the methods of general scientific, comparative political and legal analysis.

The political economy of electricity market coupling: Comparing experiences from Europe and the United States

Advancing the integration of neighbouring power markets is widely identified in the literature as a key enabler of power system efficiency, flexibility, and variable renewable energy integration. Nonetheless, the existing economic literature offers only partial explanations of why greater market integration is difficult to achieve in the real world despite its evident advantages in terms of overall welfare, supply security, and competitiveness. It is argued that power market coupling is an inherently political process involving significant institutional contestation and adaptation, and hence requires a more nuanced political analysis to be fully understood. This paper adds to the existing literature by conducting a comparative political economy analysis of electricity market coupling processes in Britain, Italy, and California, spanning from 2013 to 2021. It seeks to unpack how differences in the political economy contexts of these jurisdictions influenced the electricity market coupling process with their respective neighbouring systems. The analysis draws on 86 key policy documents, and 53 in-depth interviews with senior power system stakeholders in the three jurisdictions. Results widely align with claims in the political economy literature that market coupling outcomes do not simply reflect the most efficient solution. While all three jurisdictions have shown a commitment to enhance regional integration of short-term wholesale energy markets, there is considerable variation in policy outcomes, particularly the extent to which different segments of the market have been coupled. These differences can largely be attributed to variations in the political economy contexts of the three jurisdictions, including multi-level governance structures, diplomatic relations with neighbouring countries, and interactions with national political priorities and contexts. The main implications for the governance of electricity market coupling are discussed in the conclusion.

A Comparative Political Analysis of Finland and Belarus Based on the 2022 World Happiness Report

This analysis is in the field of Political Science, specifically Comparative Politics. This paper analyzes the scores of two countries Finland and Belarus on the 2022 World Happiness Report. Finland, known as the happiest country in the world is highly esteemed as a leader in democracy, healthcare, and education, and ranks number 1 on the World Happiness Report with a score of 7.821. Belarus*, a former Soviet Republic famously known for its lack of free and fair elections, ranks number 65 with a score of 5.821 (Helliwell et al., 2022). According to the report, the asterisk near Belarus signifies that the ranking is based on survey reports from 2019, and not from 2020 or 2021 (Helliwell et al., 2022). This analysis explains the gap between the two countries and identifies factors responsible for the stark differences between the scores. Several factors identified that explained the differences in the scores were related to politics, such as formal political institutions (political structure within both countries), political informal institutions (political culture), election processes (validity of elections), and the presence of a steady modern democracy or lack thereof, determined by the presence of four requirements. Another important factor identified was economic performance and the presence or lack of economic stability. This paper concludes that although Belarus presents itself as a democracy, the country does not in fact qualify as a modern democracy because of its inability to pass the requirements of a modern democracy.

Фактор политической стабильности и устойчивости в привлечении прямых иностранных инвестиций в страны Центральной Азии

Abstract. Introduction: the region under analysis is of strategic importance in terms of geopolitics and geo-economics of the post-Soviet territory. Having a special transit potential, the region’s involvement in the modern international processes is actively growing. In addition, the politicalgeographical area of the Central Asia countries is diversified: some of them have a relatively good standard of living and are rich in resources (Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan), while the others reveal a problematic political situation (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan).; the former demonstrate generally high level of political stability during the post-Soviet period and have stable political systems, while the latter, in contrast, are marked mostly by instability and unsustainability. At the same time, these countries display similar features, such as a significant proportion of public sector and low rates of innovation and technological development; the institution of head of the state plays the role in the political field, regional division of elite groups and clan system are clearly marked, as well as a strong influence of cultural-historical specificity of the society. Objectives: to reveal the importance of the political stability and sustainability factor for attracting foreign direct investment to the Central Asia countries. Methods: the study of political stability and sustainability is built on the system approach, comparative-political analysis, index analysis; the countries investment attractiveness, economic opportunities and economic potential are dealt with through comparative-economic analysis of statistical data; the hypothesis on the influence of political stability and sustainability factor on the influx of foreign direct investment is tested by the extended Dickey-Fuller criterion and the Granger test for causality. Results: the study showed that the factor of political stability and sustainability is not the determining factor for attracting foreign direct investment to the countries of Central Asia. Conclusions: the influx of foreign direct investment into Central Asia countries is likely to be largely dependent on their economic development and/or other factors.

Why the West’s alternative to China’s international infrastructure financing is failing

As geopolitical rivalry intensifies, Western states have moved to compete with China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). However, the mobilisation of funds for global infrastructure remains paltry, suggesting that Western states cannot contest Chinese dominance here. Why? Through comparative political economy analysis of China and the United States, we argue that serious competition cannot be willed into being by state managers thinking geostrategically. States’ strengths and weaknesses are rooted in structural political economy dynamics. Where state managers’ plans jibe with, or express, the interests of powerful social forces and the capital and productive forces they command, a powerful impact results. This is true of China, whose BRI is principally a spatio-temporal fix for industrial overcapacity and over-accumulated capital. Conversely, where geopolitical ambitions are divorced from powerful groups’ interests and material realities, results are lacklustre. This applies to the United States, characterised by infrastructural decay, industrial hollowing-out and a dominant financial sector largely disinterested in infrastructure. Although US state managers are turning towards increased state spending on domestic infrastructure, internationally, the West’s continued neoliberal approach still relies on the already-failed approach of mobilising private capital into infrastructure investment.

The political economy of electricity system resource adequacy and renewable energy integration: A comparative study of Britain, Italy and California

The need to integrate growing shares of variable renewable resources, like solar and wind, into the power system has initiated a new wave of resource adequacy policy reforms. Securing adequate resources on the system, particularly flexible and peak capacity, is indeed crucial for ensuring long-term grid reliability amid increased supply variability. While extensively explored from a techno-economic perspective, the political economy drivers and implications of these changes are frequently overlooked. Yet, power system evolution is not merely shaped by logics of techno-economic optimisation, it is also inherently political, rooted in specific liberalisation histories, political and institutional settings.This paper contributes to the literature by conducting a comparative political economy analysis of recent resource adequacy reforms in Britain, Italy, and California. It explores how differences in the technical and political economy contexts of these jurisdictions affected their strategies for securing resource adequacy capacity and investment between 2013 and 2021. Conclusions draw on the analysis of over 134 policy documents and 53 in-depth interviews with power system stakeholders.All jurisdictions introduced significant changes in resource adequacy policy, including explicit out-of-market mechanisms to remunerate resource adequacy capacity. The energy transition is thus reconfiguring state-market relations in the power sector, even in traditionally liberal countries. However, variation exists in the scope of reform, mechanism designs, policy trade-offs, and technological outcomes. This stems from context-specific political priorities, state-market relations, national and multi-level governance arrangements, market structures and stakeholder interests. This has important implications for power sector governance, as discussed in this paper.

The Neo-Positive Value of Symbolic Representations and Ritual Politics: Reconsidering the South Korean Allegory in Popular Film, Asura: The City of Madness

The article is a preliminary effort to join neo-positive and historical institutional analysis from comparative politics with insights from discursive and phenomenological analysis. It highlights a message arising from a South Korean film related to moral–ethical dimensions and the implications of development policy. Taken in symbolic as well as empirical terms, the film proffers that economic development policy not attending to political institutional development—including correct institutional practices at the micro-level—is feeding Asia’s demons (e.g., asuras) rather than its forces of stability and (rational, democratic, participatory) political order. The film suggests that institutional atrophy and social decay may emerge from the breakdown of political institutions and participatory politics as a political system moves from rationalized institutions and practices into what the current work calls, “mafia politics.” Political ritual and political theatre are actively employed in the film in ritualized acts of the desecration of political order. The current work suggests that the analysis of symbolic representations relating to ritual politics and performativity (e.g., “political theatre”) located in certain art forms, such as international film, may be useful in studies of religion and politics, and in qualitative comparative political and historical institutional analysis more broadly.

Legal Framework for the Protection of Entrepreneurs’ Rights

Abstract It is difficult to overestimate the importance of protecting the rights and freedoms of entrepreneurs in a market economy – they are necessary “tools” and a driving force in the market relations that expand a country’s gross domestic product, and as such should be directly involved in the socio-economic policy of the state. Due to a historical absence of the specialised legal means and procedural tools required to ensure the effective security and protection of the rights of entrepreneurs, Kazakh legislators have carefully studied examples from other countries to develop their own legislation relating to profit-making entrepreneurial activities during the early stages of the post-independent development of Kazakhstan. In this way, licensing processes, protections for entrepreneurs from unreasonable inspections and abuse of power by the authorities, the creation of special organisations to protect entrepreneur’s rights, and a reduction in the number of administrative barriers in practice were all consolidated and codified into the regulatory structure. All the above allowed the authors to highlight the main purpose of this study – a comprehensive systemic study of the protection of the rights and legitimate interests of entrepreneurs in socio-economic, political, and legal relations (as exemplified by the Republic of Kazakhstan). The main and practically significant results were obtained by employing both theoretical and methodological analysis of scientific publications covering the issues of legal security and the protection of entrpreneurial rights and freedoms at the national and international levels, as well as tools of comparative legal, comparative political, systemic and structural analysis, value-statutory and institutional methods, and content analysis of statistical data and official documents. This paper constitutes a study of a scientific and recommendatory legal and socio-political nature, which has unconditional practical significance, originality in clarifying certain issues, and is aimed at a broad study of the essential aspects of the legal protection of entrepreneurial activity in modern Kazakhstan. We recognize that the subject considered in this paper is promising for further scientific elaboration and detailing of certain points, which have been superficially touched upon in this study.

Muslim political dissent in coastal East Africa: complexities, ambiguities, entanglements

ABSTRACT This article stages a comparative analysis of Muslim politics in coastal Kenya and Tanzania between 2010 and 2023. We explore parallels, discontinuities, and entanglements between different expressions of – and responses to – Muslim political dissent. Our insights are drawn from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Dar es Salaam, Malindi, and Zanzibar City. We begin by investigating a sharp rise of militant jihadi activity across the region, examining responses by Kenyan, Tanzanian, and U.S. governments, as well as the perceptions of ordinary Muslim citizens. We then explore currents of Muslim civic activism, highlighting the different claims, sentiments, and memories that these movements invoke. Merging these discussions, we analyse episodes of civil unrest and violence that are associated with Muslim dissenters, but which are shrouded with uncertainty. We examine the shifting interpretive frames that Muslim residents apply to these events. We demonstrate how these uncertainties and framing practices, alongside state security strategies, impact the capacity for Muslims at large to engage in political dissent. Using our analysis, we argue that forms of Muslim political expression in coastal East Africa, though comparable and sometimes entangled, must be interpreted with close attention to the distinct experiences, demographic configurations, and political landscapes that characterise different (sub-)national contexts.

Personalities of the heads of Russian regions: Comparative Political and Psychological analysis

The article presents a comparative political and psychological analysis of the of Russian governors divided into two categories: “newcomers” and “old-timers”. The article focuses the study of their personal characteristics within the following levels: cognitive, affective, behavioral. At each level, certain personal components were studied in relation to the transformation of the governorate’s institution, which then allowed to identify the main trends in its functioning in modern Russia. The research used political and psychological methods that allowed to create personal profiles of heads of Russian regions. The authors concluded that “newcomers” and “old-timers” have both common and special features.

M.K. ATATURK’S LANGUAGE POLICY AS A FACTOR OF NATIONAL IDENTITY IN TURKEY

With the formation of the Republic of Turkey and M.K. Ataturk’s accession to government, the ideological policy of the state was based on the principles of unifying the peoples under the single nation. This required the implementation of a language and nationality policy. The preparation and transition to the Latin alphabet was followed by a policy of “cleaning” the Turkish language from Arabo-Persian elements. A combination of national policies were the main points in the implementation of the “Turkish nation” mentality. Every citizen, irrespective of his/her nationality, started to be referred to as a Turk by official documents in the newly established state in 1923. M.K. Ataturk’s policy of national identity eventually led to the consolidation of the peoples of all of Turkey.  The implementation of this policy entailed both the use of harsh methods and the fight against the scholastic religious leaders and the forcible introduction of a new alphabet. These innovations and the abrupt rejection of the Arabic alphabet naturally aroused the discontent of some sections of the population. Considering the totality and the aims of M.K.Ataturk’s policy, the process of nation building as reflected in modern Turkey must be emphasised. Today, despite the ideologisation of society as a whole and its division into several branches of right-wing and left-wing, the population of Turkey has a strong sense of national cohesion due to threats to national security from the outside. The current domestic and foreign policy of R.T. Erdogan in the Middle East and the Black Sea region is proof of this. Naturally, these historical processes increase the relevance and necessity of the study. In this study historical continuity, content analysis, historicism, comparative analysis of politics and national identity process and critical approach to language policy have been used.   Keywords: Turkey, M.K. Ataturk, language policy, national identity

Картирование этнополитической конфликтности: прогностический потенциал и методологические ограничения

The article presents a critical analysis of scientific and practical results of using the mapping method and an analysis of the possibilities created by an analytical assessment model of ethnopolitical conflictivity potential in studying ethnopolitical conflicts in various countries and regions of the world. These approaches are an integral part of the identity research agenda promoted at IMEMO and implemented in the development of the Ethnopolitical Conflict Monitor, a map and a computer application for comparatively analyzing in dynamic and predicting areas of ethnopolitical conflictivity. The Monitor was put together as a result of the 2015-2017 Russian Science Foundation project ‘Regulating Interethnic Relations and Managing Ethnic and Social Conflicts in the Contemporary World: The Potential of Civiс Identity (Comparative Political Analysis)’ executed at IMEMO. Ethnopolitical Conflictivity Monitor as a science project involves a continuous monitoring of conflicts with an ethnic component, where identity serves as a non-material resource of each conflicting side and identity politics is a crucial tool in regulating such conflicts. This type of monitoring is performed with the help of scientists from many IMEMO structures, specialists on the analyzed countries and regions. The work on the Monitor involves an expert selection of conflicts in countries and regions of the world, typology of confrontations in accordance with the formulated classification, analysis and classifying of regulation practices, especially those with identity politics as a regulation tool, estimation of the practices in correlation with the current state of affairs and regulation prospects. Ethnopolitical Conflict Monitor has an evident practical significance. It can help in developing guidelines on interethnic tension mitigation and and promoting civic solidarity important for Russia's social and political development.

The phenomenon of Western alienation in Canadian politics

The article deals with the phenomenon of ‘Western Alienation’ which is fundamentally linked to the regionalist movements in the Western Canada. Special attention is paid to the latest developments of this process with a comparative analysis of Western regionalist movements and Quebec politics.

Историческая политика Польской Народной Республики в российской историографии XXI века

Introduction. The article is devoted to the development of the Russian historiography of the study of the historical politics of the Polish People’s Republic. The author considers that the transformation of this historiographical field was inextricably linked, firstly, with the formation of an interdisciplinary field of collective memory research in Russia, and secondly, with the stable institutional cooperation of Russian and Polish scientists. Materials and Methods. Using the essays of Russian authors specializing in the issues of historical politics, the main problem blocks are identified. Analysis. It is noted that the commemorative trends in the Polish Republic were analyzed through the prism of the concept of «anniversary», the confrontation between state power and the Catholic Church, as well as through the study of educational policy in the field of historical knowledge. The diversification of the research field of memory studies in the 2010s contributed to the expansion of the set of subjects suitable for analysis from the point of view of politics of memory. The author notes that the comparative analysis of Polish historical politics was carried out by Russian historians from two different approaches, one of which included placing the problem in the pan–European context of the formation of historical narratives, the other assumed a broader consideration of the issue, including the analysis of non-European plots. The Commission of Historians of Russia and Poland is singled out as a key institutional core of Russian historiography, which for a long time carried out projects aimed at studying various aspects of memorial management of the Polish People’s Republic. Results. It is concluded that the urgent task of Russian specialists can be considered, on the one hand, the further development of specific commemorative projects of the Polish government and the analysis of transformations of its memorial management, on the other, the obstacle to any autarchic trends in historiography and the restoration of networking with Polish and other foreign colleagues.

Afilierea lui Mattei Dogan la sociologia românească (1990-2000)

The article reconstructs the mechanisms through which the work of the French scholar of Romanian origin, Mattei Dogan was brought to light in Romania after 1990 thanks to the efforts of the community of sociologists. Romanian sociologists used three methods to assimilate the author who is considered the founder of comparative political analysis and who left Romania immediately after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in sociology under Henri H. Stahl supervision: they translated Dogan’s articles and books, they made him a member of prestigious institutions and they included him in the post-communist effort to reclaim the legacy of the school founded by Dimitrie Gusti. To capture the institutional and editorial strategies that were used, I conducted interviews with several protagonists of the Romanian sociology renaissance movement. I also used epistolary resources, sociology and political science journals, press articles, as well as documents from the archives of the University of Bucharest and from the Mattei Dogan Foundation. The article shows the success of some methods and the failure of others. It also brings to light a text that was ignored in the studies and bibliographies that discuss the work of the scholar who was born in Roman in 1920 and who went by the name of Matei Pinsler until 1945 (Preda, 2020). This research paper is relevant for various reasons. Firstly, it complements not only the biography of Dogan, but also that of Henri H. Stahl. Furthermore, it highlights the trajectory of a discipline in a period of dissociation with the communist past while restoring the connections with the interwar period.

The Specific Definition of Ecoterrorist Organizations in the USA and Russia

Nowadays there are two main interpretations of the concept of "ecoterrorism". According to the first interpretation, environmental organizations are classified as ecoterrorist organizations that fight for animal rights and against pollution using violent methods of a criminal nature. In conformity with the second interpretation, the concept of ecoterrorism is interpreted more broadly and includes acts of deliberate damage to the environment to achieve certain political and other goals. After conducting a comparative political and legal analysis of ecoterrorist organizations in different countries (primarily, the United States and Russia) and their activities in national legislations, the authors of the article have concluded that the absence of a single and internationally recognized definition of ecoterrorism is associated with the ideological assessment of the phenomenon of "terrorism", on the one hand, and with the clash of not only different concepts but also various methodologies typical of the political and legal field of a given country, on the other hand. Due to various interpretations of environmental terrorism, a list of generally recognized international ecoterrorist organizations has not been compiled, which hinders any counteraction to ecoterrorism.
 
 Received: 23 September 2021 / Accepted: 22 February 2022 / Published: 5 March 2022

Why it Is Indeed Time for the Westminster Model to Be Retired from Comparative Politics

AbstractThe term ‘Westminster model’ is frequently used by political scientists and practitioners. But our recent examination (Russell and Serban 2021), published in this journal, uncovered wide variation in how it is defined – demonstrating that it is more ‘muddle’ than ‘model’. This sparked a response article from Flinders et al. (2021), which we in turn respond to in this piece. We briefly revisit our initial research questions, methodology and findings, before reflecting on their analysis. We emphasize that, notwithstanding the critics’ negative tone, we and they agree on certain fundamentals. In particular on our original central point, that the ‘Westminster model’ is an ill-defined term with a long history, which mostly makes it unsuited to positivist comparative political science research. While the ‘Westminster model’ may have some valid vestigial uses, within the UK political system, or as an object of study for interpretivist political science, it does not provide a rigorous basis for case selection and comparative political science analysis.

Terrorism and Politico-Cultural Deviant Behavior: A Case Study of the Rise and Fall of Secular and Religious Political Parties

This paper assumes a part of scholar's Ph.D. dissertation on(comparative analysis of the electoral politics of religious and secular political parties both at macro and micro level) and examines the causes of their success and failure in district Charsadda, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The paper specifically examines Awami National Party (ANP) and Jamiat-e-Ulama Islam Fazalur Rehman (JUI-F) having opposing ideologies. ANP leaders and workers suffered when faced with an unrestricted socially revolutionary message from the Taliban as the Taliban could only appeal to Pakhtun nationalists' aspirations against the disgust of US presence in Afghanistan. Being part of the government ANP hindered Taliban confrontation against US forces which seemed a start of civil war between Pakhtun nationalists and Pakhtun Taliban. A qualitative research method was used, and data were collected through participant observation, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions. This paper suggests that terrorism had significant impacts on the rise and fall of ANP and JUI-F in the electoral politics of Pakistan. Furthermore, this study finds that on the grass-root level, deviant cultural behavior of both the parties' leaders and workers affected the vote bank badly, causing the emergence of new political thinking in the area under study.

Understanding political influences on Southeast Asia's development experience

PurposeThe per capita GDP of the countries of Southeast Asia (SEA) varies from less than $5,000 to over $97,000. This paper aims to analyze the political factors behind such variation, such as wars, extreme politics, political instability, and kleptocratic governments and leaders, and how they affect the development experience within the region.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses the comparative political economy analysis approach to make a comparison among SEA countries using knowledge from well-known political–economic history and development data from World Development Indicators provided by World Bank.FindingsA long period of political stability creates a favorable environment for investment that, in return, stimulates sustained economic growth in SEA. The countries have all grown rapidly, but their experience of development varies. The four countries that avoided political extremes (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Brunei) have the highest per capita incomes today. Those that have had long periods of war and political instability, but which have also had substantial periods of stability (Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines), come next. Cambodia and Laos have suffered long periods of war and are the least developed. Myanmar’s military rulers, through civil wars and kleptocratic mismanagement of the economy, have prevented growth much of the time.Originality/valueMost studies of Southeast Asian growth have analyzed the experience of single countries and missed the central role played by extreme politics, including wars, to explain why some countries have much higher per capita incomes than others. This paper is expected to fill this gap.

Studying states and regimes in Central Asia: contributions to comparative politics and future challenges

ABSTRACT This article surveys research on regimes and states in Central Asia and assesses its contribution to Political Science, specifically the subfield of comparative politics. It discusses three areas in which research on the region has been influenced by and, in turn, fruitfully shaped the comparative political analysis of state and regime: a turn from macro- to micro-level topics; innovations in research design; and the embrace of interdisciplinarity. It then addresses the challenges confronting scholars of the region, including uneven theoretical contributions to comparative politics and impediments in the feasibility of field research. It identifies several lively debates in comparative politics to which Central Asianists have the potential to contribute important insights. It concludes that the study of states and regimes in Central Asia has greatly enriched some debates in comparative politics (and vice versa), but declining pools of funding, the politicization of academic research, and unequal access to institutional resources among local and Western scholars threaten to diminish the field’s contributions in the coming years.