European Political Arena Research Articles

Gendered EUropean careers? Representation and the challenges in women's political careers

The European political arena, particularly the European Parliament, is considered a more favourable environment than the national political spheres for women. However, nearly half a century passed before a woman was appointed president of the European Commission. Women remain underrepresented in both the European Parliament and the Council. Against this backdrop, this special issue offers a comprehensive analysis of women's political careers in the European Union addressing barriers to gender equality and examining their influence on political representation. By bringing together distinguished scholars and new insights from two previously rather separate research areas—political careers in the European Union and gender representation studies—this issue sheds new light on the challenges women face. This introduction presents a multidimensional framework addressing who, what, when and how regarding key challenges women face as political leaders in the EU, such as legislated gender quotas, gendered norms, and societal stereotypes. The articles in this special issue reveal that women in European Union politics face challenges from individual and collective actors, with party gatekeeping and institutional structures playing critical roles. Gendered stereotypes and the multilevel nature of European Union politics significantly impact women's career trajectories, highlighting the need for reforms at both the European Union and national levels.

THE LOKARNO AGREEMENTS OF 1925 ON THE PAGES OF THE SOVIET PROVINCIAL PRESS

The article is devoted to the study of the role of local print media as an important means of forming public opinion of Soviet citizens in the mid-1920s. The author traces the coverage in local newspapers of events related to the preparation of the Rhenish Guarantee Pact, the Locarno Conference and the ratification of the signed agreements. The subject of the study is the materials of local press publications of different regions of the USSR. They present various aspects of the stated topic. The author concludes that the regional newspapers of 1925 can be considered sufficiently informed and clearly stated the views of the country's leadership on the turn in international relations, which took place in the European political arena during the period in question. Local periodicals actively contributed to the formation of Soviet citizens by all possible means, both verbal and visual, ideas about the duplicity of the policy of Western countries on the preservation of peace and prevention of war.

Political groups over national parties: Measuring the Europeanization of the political arena through MEPs’ Twitter interactions

The question of the democratic character of the European Union (EU) has been a center-point of decades of political research. An important critique suggests that the development of the European political arena is still incomplete, with European parliamentarians primarily orienting themselves to national issues and politicians, implying a problematic mismatch between the political arena and their policy jurisdiction. Research has however been limited by methodological difficulties of capturing the level of Europeanization of the political arena. This paper contributes a novel method for measuring Europeanization by studying interactions between the European Parliament to their national parliamentarians on Twitter in 15 EU countries. Contrary to expectations in the literature, we find substantial Europeanization of the political arena. The level of Europeanization furthermore varies greatly across countries and political groups. This has important implications on the debate on EU’s democratic deficit, as communication across different levels of parliament indicates democratic debate.

Explaining the electoral performance of radical right parties in Europe (2008-2019): a fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis

Although radical right parties have been extensively examined since their significant breakthrough in the European political arena in the late 80s, not enough attention has been paid to the reasons behind their unequal electoral performance (or in other words, to the cross-national and within-national variations of their success). The aim of this research is to identify the different scenarios of electoral success for radical right parties in ten European countries between 2008 and 2019. Using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) -a case-oriented technique which allows in-depth comparative examination and which is based on the concepts of equifinality and causal heterogeneity- we test the role of several causal conditions related to demand-side and supply-side explanations. Our results reveal four sufficient causal paths that lead to the success of these parties, which confirm that they are able to achieve relevance in quite diverse contexts. The four paths combine both demand-side and supply-side conditions, but the role of the latter is qualitative and quantitative more important. In particular, we see how radical right parties can effectively take advantage of favorable political competitive dynamics, even in the absence of a priori favorable socio-economic context. Overall, our findings run contrary to some mechanistic explanations in the literature and support the idea of conceiving the radical right parties as a complex, multiform phenomenon which requires both theoretical and methodological innovations.

The New European Parties without Registration in the EU

This article presents an analysis of the activities of ten new European parties that do not yet have official registration in the European Union: the Europe-Democracy-Esperanto, the New Europeans, European Party of Individual Freedoms, the European Pirate Party, the European Party for Animal Rights, the European Federalist Party, Volt Europe, the Movement for Democracy in Europe 2025, and Now the People, which have appeared on the European political arena in the last 15-20 years, do not yet have official recognition, Nevertheless, their representatives participate in pan-European and national elections, sometimes quite successfully. A brief historical overview of the emergence and formation of each of these parties is given, their ideological platforms and membership base are presented. The results of their participation in the European elections are considered and it is noted with which factions of European parties in the European Parliament the MEPs elected from these parties cooperate. In conclusion, an analysis of the future prospects for the development of these parties is presented.

1st Politeia International Conference Proceedings. Europe at the Crossroads: Leadership, Challenges and State of Play

In this book of proceedings the reader will find interesting analyses about several contemporary aspects. We have separated the volume into thirteen topics, based on the focus of the papers which were presented in the conference. The papers of the first three topics analyse aspects concerning the EU governance and leadership, the EU defence and international security as well as opinions about the EU integration, politics and governance issues. In the forth topic the contributors focus on issues of energy and sustainable development, which are crucial to the stability in Europe and its periphery and in the fifth topic the focus is on Euroscepticism and populism, which still concern the European political arena. The sixth topic focus on a very important contemporary European problem; the immigration and refugee crisis, with several contributions presenting novel research and important outcomes. Topic seven focuses on finance and investments issues while topics eight and nine on educational policy issues and their connection with social cohesion. Topic ten focuses on regional development and governance in the EU and Greece while topic eleven on media in the digital era. Finally, topic twelve analyses healthcare policy issues while topic thirteen closes the volume with issues concerning governance and politics in Greece. At the end of the volume you could find the full book of abtracts as well as the programme of the conference.

Основні виклики сучасній зовнішній політиці Німеччини

У статті розкриваються результати дослідження основних викликів, які постали перед зовнішньою політикою Німеччини у ХХІ столітті. Німецька єдність стала свого часу одним із ключовим факторів формування постбіполярної системи міжнародних відносин. В рамках цієї системи німецька зовнішня політика отримала певну парадигму можливостей. Проте у ХХІ столітті можна спостерігати значні трансформації постбіполярної системи міжнародних відносин, які, відповідно, можна розглядати як виклики чи як нові можливості для зовнішньої політики Німеччини. Терористичні атаки, міжнародна економічна криза, міграційні потоки, вихід на міжнародну арену нових акторів, а також епідемія COVID-19, поставили під сумнів міжнародний порядок, сформований після руйнування біполярності. Перед об’єднаною Німеччиною, формування якої було одним з ключових параметрів постбіполярної системи міжнародних відносин, постало питання про її змінену роль у зміненій системі міжнародних відносин.

Европейская идентичность Шотландии в контексте Брекзита

The withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union focused the issue of cleavage of British statehood by European criteria. According to the results of sociological surveys and polls, the distribution of preferences of Brexit is correlated with the national identification matrix. Most Scots and Irish of United Kingdom support remaining the membership in the European Union, while the most English defend soft or hard Brexit. However, the depth of such cleavage underlines the uncertainty in the preferences of citizens who identify as British in general. In the context of the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union, the question of the European identity of Scots was also underlines by Scotland's regional political actors. This article is aimed to the analysis of the dynamics of the European identity of the Scottish community in 2016–2020 under Brexit conditions. The author concludes that the share of Scots with European identities increased after 2016, and Brexit was a key factor in the dynamics. At the same time, the actualization of European identity among the Scottish community is connected with the pragmatic strategy of the Scottish community and regional political actors to neutralize the negative economic and social effects of Brexit and plays an instrumental role in the national and European political arenas. The article starts with an excursion to the issues of national identity in the modern United Kingdom in the studies of Western and Russian authors. Then, based on an analysis of sociological data, the question of the European identity of Scots was raised, as well as the role of the national identity of United Kingdom citizens in the issue of membership in the European Union. At the end of the article, author proposes the description of the position and strategy of the Scottish community on the issue of Brexit.

European Virtual Politics

Hooghe and Marks’ update of Rokkanian European cleavages recognises the existence of a European political arena with opposite poles. The paper first contrasts rhetorics on a European level by two European Council members at opposite poles, the French President E. Macron and the Hungarian President V. Orbán, then it compares their immigration policies on a national level. While a vast difference can be detected in the rhetorical dimension, their national regulations and executive decisions on immigration are stunningly similar. Such discrepancies are explained through an institutional analysis of the European Council, which gives structural incentives to perform “virtual politics” consisting of statements aimed at gathering domestic support against virtual “opponents”, while avoiding any political risky decisions at home. Furthermore, as theneoliberal nature of the EU incentivizes the status quo in this area, only pro-found institutional reform can lay the ground for a change.

Problems of Harmonization of European and Russian Legislation on Defamation

Russia’s integration into the global information space largely depends on how effectively fundamental human rights and freedoms will be protected by the current national legislation and the emerging integration law. Harmonization of Russian law with European standards of freedom of speech and protection of intangible rights of individuals and legal entities in terms of liability for defamation statements is a fundamentally important task to maintain the authority of the Russian Federation in the European political arena. The work of international human rights organizations, such as the International Press Institute, demonstrates the problems with ensuring real freedom of speech in the vast majority of European Union countries. The use of criminal sanctions for defamation offences, as well as the use of extremely large administrative fines and civil compensation, in fact, is a pan-European practice of countering not only defamation, but also any abuse of freedom of speech by the media community. Such practices could hypothetically threaten free speech, and they raise understandable concerns among the democratic public about the prospects of state institutions controlling private media. Calls for social and legal experiments in the form of regular attempts to decriminalize libel do not seem constructive. Based on the analysis of the Russian practice of bringing to responsibility for torts in the information space, it is proposed to understand defamation as any illegal dissemination of information with the aim of harming legally protected interests and to make wider use of civil liability measures in punishing such offenses. The authors propose to harmonize the European and Russian legislation on defamation through the development of uniform rules for the production of the forensic linguistic examination of the defamatory materials to substantiate evidence of the unlawful intent of delinquent.

Listen to us: How Dutch subnational governments together use public affairs to create a favorable position in the national and European political arenas

Because of the devolution of tasks and powers from the national political level to subnational levels, subnational governments such as municipalities and provinces are increasingly compelled to express their interests in the national and European arenas. However, to achieve substantial weight, authority, receptiveness, and success in both arenas, active cooperation with other subnational authorities is needed. The question is to what extent subnational authorities acknowledge this need for cooperation and how this cooperation is being organized and structured. More specifically, in this study, the function and role of collective public affairs (PA) activities are investigated. Qualitative interviews with 17 PA professionals and 24 PA practitioners, experienced in working for subnational authorities, were held to find out how subnational governments in the Netherlands together organize PA in both arenas. The results show that subnational cooperation is of ultimate importance for creating a favorable position in these arenas. Such cooperation is favorable if subnational authorities together constitute a clear profile and render thematic collaboration in which the citizen is seen as the most important stakeholder. Further, the level of knowledge concerning the national and European arenas should be optimal among all parties involved in which the PA professional serves as a liaison officer who connects the various stakeholders.

FEATURES OF THE DOMESTIC POLICY OF THE REPUBLIC OF BELARUS IN THE UKRAINIAN VISION (1994-2004)

The article analyzes the political life of the Republic of Belarus in the period from 1991 to 2004. The events related to the election campaign of A. Lukashenko, first elections in Belarus in 1994, and elections of 2001 are directly covered in the study. Clearly defined plans and methods of Lukashenko's policy. The article shows the most important stages of the Belarusian domestic policy. The first steps of the Belarusian politicians after the collapse of the USSR, the struggle for the presidency, the formation of democratic opposition to the Belarusian Communist Party, the preparation and signing of the Belovezha Accords 1991 are analyzed. The author studied the perception, in Ukraine, of the reasons, preconditions, and fact of the Belovezha Accords 1991, the appearance in great politics of A. Lukashenko. The visions of some Ukrainian researchers, who believe that the process of building an independent Belarus was initially successful and gradually implemented all the plans of the new leadership of the country, were traced. Assessments of socio-political processes in Belarus after the collapse of the USSR in Ukraine have been submitted. The reaction of the Ukrainian public to A. Lukashenko's victory on the presidential election 1994 and the attitude of experts on referendums of 1995, 1996, and 2004 are highlighted. These political events returned the country towards growing a dictatorial regime headed by the president, who almost completely controlled the state, economic and social areas of life in the country. After that, parliamentary and presidential election campaigns became a formality in order to preserve the form of democracy in Belarus. The view of the Belarusians on independence and the Soviet past is analyzed. The events in the Republic of Belarus were a clear example, they say, of how the system should be stabilized after the overlong political, economic and social crisis caused by the collapse of the Soviet system in the post-Soviet countries. The dictatorial policy and absolute control of Moscow formed a specific image of the Republic of Belarus in the European political arena. Keywords Republic of Belarus, A. Lukashenko, S. Shushkevich, Kuropaty, presidential election

The home front: Internal organization of public affairs in Dutch subnational governments

Dutch subnational governments such as municipalities and provinces are increasingly compelled to express their interests in the national and European political arenas. Effectiveness in these arenas requires an optimal arrangement of Public Affairs (PA) activities in the subnational organization. Based on 41 in‐depth interviews with prolific PA professionals and practitioners in the Netherlands, this article provides an overview of initiatives that subnational government organizations have to develop in their own organization after their “discovery” of how useful PA may be, but before the moment they enter the arenas. According to the participants, the creation of individual, collective, and regional commitment regarding PA is the first initiative. Subsequently, conditional and instrumental terms should be fulfilled, so that PA will be used as a tool to model PA messages. Concluding from the interviews, human aspects and internal cooperation determine the sensemaking of PA in a subnational organization, but a lack of arena knowledge frustrates this process.

Flexible Loyalties: How Malleable Are Bicultural Loyalties?

Biculturals are individuals who are acculturated in two cultures and have dual identities. Due to this, many early discussions on biculturalism argued that biculturals may have divided loyalties between their two cultural backgrounds and the identities derived from these backgrounds. This view is further highlighted given historical and contemporary debate regarding immigrants in the European and American political arenas. These concerns illustrate two possibilities. First, that biculturals have a preference for their home or host culture, identifying one as the in-group to express loyalty toward and the other as the out-group. Second, biculturals may alternate between who they identify as their in-group depending upon the circumstances. In a particular cultural environment, a given bicultural may feel greater degrees of loyalty toward that culture, while feeling different loyalties when immersed in a different cultural environment. To-date, few empirical studies have examined these two questions in detail. We proposed two hypotheses: First, biculturals will express higher levels of loyalty for a specific culture if they have been exposed to a prime congruent with that culture than if they have been exposed to a prime associated with a different culture. Second, the magnitude of preferences expressed for the two cultures will differ depending on the cultural prime. We experimentally investigated this phenomenon in a sample of Chinese-Americans (N = 136) using a computer simulated soccer game between the United States and China. This simulation was selected in order to avoid the controversial nature of an immigration or cultural conflict scenario. Past research has shown that support for the sports team of a given country is a form of expressing loyalty. Participants were randomly exposed to one cultural priming condition (American, Neutral, Chinese) using commentaries recorded in different languages: English, no commentary, and Chinese. Participants were then asked to what degree they would cheer for each team. Participants expressed more likelihood to cheer for the Chinese team than for the American team. However, our results indicate that cultural priming does influence the degree to which the participants express loyalty for the Chinese team over the American team in the form of rooting behaviors.

A Case Study in Left Wing Neo-Populism: The Rise of the Syriza Party in Greece

<p>This research considers three approaches to the study of populism: populism as an ideology, populism as a discourse, and populism as a strategy. We highlight the debates between these different approaches. Next, we take the most significant definition from each of the three approaches and rethink how populism as an ideology should be defined as fundamentally rooted in popular sovereignty. We then ground this discussion by applying each approach to a recent phenomenon in the European political arena, the Syriza party. Finally, we use discriminant analysis to identify the distinguishing characteristics of a Syriza party supporter. We find that this party’s supporters are less critical of the European Union, younger and more leftist than other recent neo-populist parties in Europe.</p>

Regional public affairs activities in The Netherlands: How to gain ground in the national and European arena

The role of regional authorities is undeniably increasing in Europe. Due to increasing regionalism efforts within European Union (EU) member states and to the fact that EU legislation is affecting subnational authorities more and more directly, these authorities are not only striving for influence in the national arena, but in the European arena as well. The primary task of a public affairs (PA) practitioner working for a regional government in the EU is placing regional interests on national and European political agendas. However, since regional PA is a rather young discipline, opposite to PA in the private sector and in national government, much is unknown about the way regional PA practitioners are operating in the national and European political arenas, and how these arenas are receiving the subnational PA practitioners. In this study, 41 Dutch PA practitioners and PA receivers were interviewed about their opinions on and experiences with regional PA in both arenas: What are the relevant characteristics of these arenas for regional PA activities, and how are regional PA practitioners managing arena characteristics? The results show that at the national level, it is a struggle to find recognition for regional issues, due to dominant high-profiled regions, centralisation tendencies at the national level and a more general non-subnational attitude. At the European level, regional issues are more welcome, but regional PA practitioners have to overcome the dominant national interests of member states.

EUROPEANIZATION AND DE‐EUROPEANIZATION IN UK EMPLOYMENT POLICY: CHANGING GOVERNMENTS AND SHIFTING AGENDAS

This article analyses the UK's engagement with, and the subsequent impact of, the European Employment Strategy (EES). In doing so, it provides an example of the process of Europeanization under the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) in a Eurosceptic centralized polity. Under New Labour (1997–2010) the UK actively engaged to upload its preferences to the European political arena. At the national level, the UK experienced a process of Europeanization that was most evident in the cognitive and procedural dimensions. By contrast, during the coalition government the UK strategically withdrew from the EU governance process and reversed the procedural and cognitive shifts that had occurred under its predecessor. During the coalition government the UK therefore experienced a process of de‐Europeanization. The findings of the article highlight the limitations of OMC‐inspired Europeanization in a setting such as the UK.

The PKK and its evolution in Britain (1984–present)

ABSTRACTAs of today, a highly mobilized Kurdish diaspora and its most prominent representative, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), has become so influential in the European political arena that it might tip the balance of the European Union’s policies on Turkey in its favor. Since too much attention has been given to the PKK’s activities in Germany, the organization’s actions in Britain remain understudied, despite the fact that Britain has been a vital place in Kurdish politics and political lobbying activities. Drawing on fieldwork findings, this article attempts to explore both the evolution and the political activities of the PKK in Britain across three different timeframes, from 1984 until the present time. Our findings suggest that in Britain, the PKK has departed in recent years from its conventional terrorist activities and transformed into a lobbying power that is likely to gain full legitimacy (i.e., being de-listed from terrorist organization lists) in the near future.

Understanding the Political PNR Debate in Europe: A Discourse Analytical Perspective

In this article, the debate on passenger name records (PNRs) in European politics will be perceived from a discourse analytical perspective. After the 9/11 attacks, the US government required PNR from aircraft passengers travelling from or to the USA. This, and the negotiations of the European Commission with the USA, led to heated debates in the European political arena. The PNR debate was pursued as part of a broader privacy and security discourse which shifted significantly over the past decade. In order to understand the PNR debate and the assigning of meaning to key political notions such as privacy and security, discourse analysis can be applied. Specific discourse characteristics and techniques – such as the use of metaphors, framing and exclusion – influence the content and outcome of discourses. By reviewing the characteristics of and techniques used in the PNR discourse, this article unveils values and beliefs of European politicians underlying the discourse.

‘A nation of vicars and merchants’: religiosity and Dutch MEPs

Religion is a major driving force in the Dutch political system and as European integration has progressed, it is often argued that these national practices affect how national representatives act in the European Parliament (EP). Our aim in this study is to determine to what extent the religious divide impacts upon the work of Dutch MEPs in the European political arena. On the basis of the RelEP survey and interviews, we argue that religious or secular views are very salient to Dutch MEPs, but that their impact is largely indirect. Moreover, we find that Dutch MEPs actively use the EP and its committee system in an attempt to redefine the relationship between church and state in the Netherlands. And finally, we argue that the European arena offers new opportunities for mobilisation among those promoting secularist interests.