Political Characteristics Research Articles

Putin and Erdoğan – A “Beautiful Friendship” of Illiberal Presidents

Putin and Erdoğan’s “beautiful friendship” has been defining Russian–Turkish political, diplomatic and economic relations on the one hand, and the handling of many conflicts, including the Syrian civil war, for nearly two decades on the other. It can be said that in many cases, when the interests of the Russian and Turkish states clash with each other or there are conflicts of principle and values, it is the two presidents who, because of their similar habitus and political character, find solutions to the problems. One thing is for sure: without the personalities of Erdoğan and Putin, the recent history of the two nations would not be so diverse and full of twists and turns. This article would like to give an analytical journey into the common history of the Turkish and Russian nations, as well as to the souls of the two politicians to look at the reasons and motivations behind the often contradictory political moves. As relatively little work has been done on the topic in Turkish, but more in English, the study is based on scientific papers and Internet publications written in the latter language. It aims at disclosing the role of the two regional powers in a global framework.

Improving Student Polite Character in Online Learning in the Covid-19 Pandemic Period

This study aims to track and formulate the strategies of teachers in building students' ethical manners during the online learning process which tends to decrease or even disappear. Since the presence of the Covid-19 virus outbreak, the learning system has transitioned from offline to online as a measure to control the wider virus outbreak. However, this online learning model still has many obstacles that arise, one of which is the decline in the polite character of students during implementation. When the camera is off, students are not known whether they listen to the teacher's explanation or not, several cases show that students sometimes do not follow lectures interactively, even though they are joined in a zoom link. If this kind of habituation is not responded to immediately by education practitioners, it can be fatal for the students' character to shift towards a negative direction, especially the character of politeness. This research study was carried out using a qualitative approach, where data collection used interview, observation and documentation techniques for five high school teachers from three different schools. Data analysis uses Miles and Huberman's work tools: Display data, Reduction data, Drawing, and Conclusion. The results of the study show several important points: 1) Online learning has an impact on reducing children's character, 2) online learning challenges are difficult to monitor student involvement in learning, 3) strategies for improving polite character include providing clear rules, reward and punishment systems, habituation through teacher example. , learning contracts between teachers and students, consistent monitoring of student assignments, giving pre-tests 5 minutes before learning, providing materials related to manners and 4) character building requires integral cooperation from all parties, both teachers, parents, students , the community, and the school.
 Keywords: Direct Learning Model, Learning Outcome, Classroom Action Research

Globalization and Disability Addiction in Working Populations: Unlocking the Global Correlates to Disability Addiction Calls for the Healthicization of Society.

Addiction behavior and the resulting short-term or long-term disabilities continue to increase globally, especially during the current COVID pandemic. We analyze how national measures of 38 global indices correlate with national addiction-related disability rates resulting from four primary addictive substances: alcohol, tobacco, drugs, and food. We utilized a canonical correspondence analysis to explore the relationships between 38 political, economic, and cultural characteristics and years of life lived with a short-term or long-term health loss in 78 countries. The model selection approach reduced 38 global indices to 13 explanatory variables (final model: F13 = 5·64, p < 0.001 after 1000 permutations). Results show that the following factors are correlated with increased addiction disabilities stemming from obesity, alcohol, drug, and tobacco use: political stability; voice and accountability; control of corruption; economic freedom; women economic opportunity; Human Development Index; individuality; masculinity; long-term orientation; indulgence; uncertainty avoidance; personal contact; and religious diversity. Health care policy makers should consider that national culture, political attributes, and economic characteristics can influence national disability rates resulting from addictions.

Introduction: spaces of upset in the Nordic region

Abstract This introductory article opens the thematic issue Spaces of Upset in the Nordic Region. It introduces the contributions of the issue, outlines the concepts that unite them, and discusses the sociolinguistic area in which they are set: the Nordic region. Centering on Denmark, Finland and Sweden, the article offers an overview of some of the sociolinguistic, ideological and political characteristics of the region and the countries it comprises. The Nordic region is widely seen as a paradigm case of social stability, consensus and cohesion. This vision is, however, a mirage. To be sure, upset often lingers below the discursive veneer of Nordic harmony, concord and agreement. Breaking with this outlook, this thematic issue takes a closer look at some of the antipodes of this sociolinguistic and ideological condition. Its contributions engage with ‘spaces of upset’, that is, with manifestations and experiences of sociolinguistic rupture, upheaval or change, in and through which visions of sociolinguistic stability and cohesion are disrupted and challenged. These spaces of upset bear witness to social, ideological and linguistic tensions and changes, be they incipient, enduring or surpassed. They accordingly provide a new take on processes of continuity and change, pointing out the ideological faultlines of the orders they disrupt, or upset.

Playing the refugee: aesthetics of trauma in mainstream refugeehood dramaturgy

ABSTRACT There can hardly be a more commonplace way to start talking about playing on stage than stating the social and political character that theatre has had since its inception. Even when it is not self-defined as ‘political’, the aesthetic and the educational value of theatre is considered self-evident while its engagement with issues of the day is very common. Refugeehood could not escape stage representation, and this is what I consider in the following few pages. How should refugehood be represented on stage beyond aestheticisation of trauma?

ON THE BASIC CONNOTATION OF OVERSIGHT REGULATIONS

As a new type of legal norms, oversight regulations come from the legislative authorization of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, and the National Oversight Commission is its legal formulation subject. As a legal norm on all kinds of oversight matters, oversight regulations are the lower-level law of oversight laws, so their effectiveness is lower than oversight laws, but higher than all kinds of oversight regulatory documents. As a legal form based on China's history and national conditions, oversight regulations have both legal and political characteristics, which serve as a bridge linking national laws and inner-Party regulations, and an important institutional guarantee to bring anti-corruption into the track of the rule of law. Clearly defining the basic connotation of oversight regulations and grasping their nature and characteristics can provide a certain theoretical basis for their formulation.

Moving Publicness Forward: Merging Moulton and Merritt’s Frameworks to Examine Managed Care Organizations

Abstract Publicness work focuses on the unique characteristics that make an organization more, or less, public, and dates back to the late 70s. Despite the range of publicness research that exists, the characteristics explored remain largely unchanged. However, merging Merritt’s (2019) primary influences that make an organization public and Moulton’s (2009) realized publicness frameworks provides the structure necessary to explore a broader conceptualization of organizational publicness. This study pushes theory forward by considering aspects of publicness beyond political authority-specific characteristics and uses behavioral health managed care organizations (MCOs) as the tool for exploration. This work outlines propositions, offers metrics that can be used in future studies, and explores how the framework can be valuable and what it might reveal in organizational settings beyond MCOs.

How to make forest governance reform real? Formal and informal institutions during implementation of the forest rights act 2006 in India

Scholars are increasingly paying much attention on institutions and process of institutional change to find ways to improve environmental governance across the globe. This article tests the existing framework of studying the process of institutional change, particularly in the context of valued resources like forests, and argues for broader framework for improved understanding. Based on intensive field work during the implementation process of the Forest Rights Act 2006 in West Bengal state of India, this article examines the patterns of institutional reform in forestry sector. It shows how ambiguities while framing rules under the central Act helped the states to craft a new institutional structure during the implementation, serving their political interests. It also demonstrates how state agency is working to disrupt legal institutions and maintain pre-existing institutional structure to continue internal culture of forestry and ideology of the forest department. I argue for a broader perspective that not only includes political context and institutional characteristics, but also activities of actors who intentionally adopt informal institutions to resist change, and thereby maintain political power and / or reinforce the bureaucratic ‘command and control’ approach. This approach provides an improved understanding on institutional change and stability, particularly in the context of complex, multi-actor and multi-layered federal structure of forest governance in India.

Flowing Across with Demonic Hate: Belief in Supernatural Evil and Support for Stricter Immigration Policy

AbstractPrior research has found that different aspects of religion (such as service attendance and fundamentalism) have significant and varying effects on public attitudes about immigration. We identify an important but understudied aspect of how religion connects to immigration attitudes: beliefs about the reality of supernatural evil (e.g., Satan, hell, and demons). Using a national sample of Americans, we find that greater belief in supernatural evil is a strong and consistent predictor of more restrictive views of immigration, even after controlling for other dimensions of religiosity, sociodemographics, and political characteristics. Overall, beliefs about religious evil are the aspect of religion with the strongest connection to views of immigration. Consequently, consideration of religious evil is integral to understanding how religion influences public attitudes about immigration.

EVOLUTION OF CONVERGENCE THEORY IN THE CONTEXT OF INTEGRATION OF THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC SYSTEM OF REGIONS

The article considers the processes of convergence and divergence in the regional space and identifies the main differences. It is established that the representatives of the first theory insist on the need to unite and converge economies, while divergent see the effective economic development of regions by concentrating all resources in potentially developed areas. Theoretical phenomena about the nature, forms and nature of regional development are constantly expanding and improving. The generally accepted basis of regional economy is the concept of regional development, which is divided into two opposing theories: the first theory - advocate the possibility of convergent regional development, the second theory - insists on the divergence of levels of regional development. If the first theory insists on the need to unite and bring economies together, divergent see the effective economic development of regions by concentrating all resources in potentially developed areas. The vast majority of researchers use convergence in terms of global scale and global space, but according to the author, it is regional economic convergence that has a good chance of realization and growth rate more successful than the process of convergence of economies. It is worth noting that the regions of one country have similar territorial, economic, political and social characteristics, which allows us to consider the process of their convergence on different grounds. If we talk about countries and their rapprochement, then, firstly, this process is long-term and risks not "catching up" with constant technological and global changes, as each country is in its own technological structure, and secondly, there are a number signs that the convergence of the economies of certain countries is unlikely or partial, and as a result, the expected equalization of the level of development of economic economies will be difficult to achieve. Therefore, taking into account the positions of the considered researchers, we consider it expedient and effective to study the processes of economic convergence in terms of convergence of levels of regional development.

A Mobile Teaching Method of Ideological and Political Education in Colleges and Universities Based on Android Platform

With the advent of mobile Internet technology, mobile teaching platforms have emerged as the times require and are actively applied in the teaching platform, which greatly enhances the effectiveness of teaching. However, many concerns remain in the integrated development of ideological and political education and mobile teaching platforms, such as improving instructors’ information literacy and improving classroom-platform coordination. The integration of teaching and platforms is not high, the main role of students is not paid enough attention, and platform functions need to constantly improve the lack of fusion effect evaluation mechanism, etc. In order to address these issues, it is necessary to investigate the integration and development of the two from the perspectives of improving teachers’ information literacy, strengthening online and offline interaction, creating a platform with ideological and political characteristics, implementing the “education-oriented” concept, continuously optimizing platform functions, and developing a scientific evaluation mechanism. Only by following the road will we be able to continue to develop their deep integration and, as a result, increase the teaching quality platform.

Becoming Global Governors: Self-Agentification, Recognition, and Delegation in World Politics

AbstractThe emergence of new global governors and the ensuing complexity marks one of the most noticeable characteristics of contemporary global politics. However, this core axiom of global governance has not been unpacked in terms of why and how new actors emerge. This is surprising, since the emergence of new global governors raises fundamental questions about the very architecture of global governance. To unpack the dynamics of agency emergence, the article proposes a conceptual framework eclectically derived from relationalism. The framework defines foundational terms and allows us to posit assumptions on self-agentification, recognition, and delegation. We illustrate the framework and its mechanisms by reconstructing the emergence and evolution of corporate agency within the United Nations (UN) from initial debates in the 1960s to the UN Global Compact and conclude that this is mostly a story of contested recognition rather than self-agentification, with the international community and, in particular, states of the global north, inviting business to become more active.

Beyond Local Government Reforms: A Case Study of Toro and Kigezi Districts in the Politics of Postcolonial Uganda

This study contributes to the understanding of ethnicity in local government politics in Uganda. The idea here is to explain how ethnic patriotism was possible under the circumstances in which the colonial mode of governance rigidly recognized only one official identity of the Batoro in Toro. In comparison, the study demonstrates how the response from the colonized in Kigezi set parameters outside the indirect rule politics partly because the colonial mode of governance there was flexible in as far as it recognized the multi-ethnic identity of Kigezi. Therefore, instead of focusing on the idea that the response from the colonized was always derivative, I also explore how it was dialectical. I deploy qualitative social science methodologies to study archives, literature review and oral interviews to examine three main ideas. The first idea is on how the colonial practice of homogenizing Toro served to reproduce ethnicity in politics. The second idea is that the colonial practice in Kigezi, which was flexible and other factors inspired a residence-based mode of governance. The third idea is that the colonial reforms of the 1940s served to strengthen ethnic institutions and the character of ethnic politics at the national level as opposed to democracy.

Regional development dynamics: university-business cooperation strategies

In today’s world, with the globalisation process, the functions of higher education institutions have changed within the framework of new strategies and cooperation models. In this process, the potential of higher education institutions to increase local, regional, national and international development and competitiveness, especially through their innovation development capabilities, becomes increasingly important. Universities, within the framework of their education, research and innovation missions, have defined their role in regional development by developing other cooperation models. The most effective way of transferring the knowledge produced in the academic field to the production process is to provide university-business cooperation. The cooperation in question both ensures the rational use of scarce resources and constitutes the driving force of national and regional development. Higher education institutions reflect political, socioeconomic and cultural characteristics of the region. Universities have to respond to the opportunities presented in the regional context by developing research agendas that reflect these characteristics and to be the focal point of the regional innovation system and trigger the process. In this study, university business world cooperation models and the effects of these formations on the regional economy are examined.

ON THE INNTERACTION OF EURO PARTIES WITH PARTIES FROM THE EASTERN PARTNERSHIP COUNTRIES. PART 3

The article analyzes the cooperation of one of the leading pan–European political organizations – the European Green Party (EPP) – with its partners in the countries participating in the Eastern Partnership program (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine). Since 1994, the European Greens have established partnerships with the environmental parties of these countries and even accepted them into their ranks. The profiles of these organizations and their leaders, the results of participation in national parliamentary, presidential and local elections were studied. The interaction of these parties with other political forces of their countries on the formation of pre-election and ruling coalitions is considered. The main provisions of their program documents, which reflect the pro–European choice, as well as the resolutions of the EPZ Council concerning the situation in the countries participating in the Eastern Partnership program, are given. It is shown that the EPZ actively supported this program itself and its partners, regardless of their electoral results. It is noted that in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, local green parties initially achieved good results in elections, including in the national parliament, but in recent years they have fallen by the wayside of the party-political system of their countries due to a number of objective and subjective circumstances. First of all, this was due to the fact that the political turbulence characteristic of these states made environmental issues irrelevant to public consciousness. Nevertheless, the European greens are confident that as the situation stabilizes, the issues of environmental protection and sustainable development will return to the political agenda and the green parties will once again become in demand.

Sociohumanistic Knowledge and the Future of Science.

The author’s understanding of the role of the social sciences and humanities in preserving and developing science as a sociocultural phenomenon is substantiated. This justification is built as an explication and critical analysis of the program of philosophical research in science and technology, the main content and results of which are presented in the monograph by I.T. Kasavin Science As a Humanistic Project (2020). This article describes how the search for new strategies for the study of science is carried out within the framework of Russian philosophy. The historicity of science is analyzed, and the complex topology of its genesis is shown, which does not fit into the linear scheme of historical continuity, reflecting the synchronous coexistence of different variations of science as a cultural phenomenon. The historicity of science makes us turn to the question of its cultural and historical agency; it is substantiated that this agency acquires a political character in the current activity. How can the political agency of science be perceived and consistently combined with the ethos of the expert community? According to the author, political agency and the range of interests that scientists defend in public are determined by understanding the essence of science as a cultural phenomenon. The existential and cultural-creative functions of science are emphasized; on this basis the author’s interpretation of the humanistic project suggested by Kasavin is proposed as a program for the humanization of technoscience.

Implementation of preschool universal education in rural preschools of Ukraine (1963-1984)

Emphasis is placed on the periodization of the development of preschool institutions in rural areas of Ukraine in the chronological boundaries of 1945-1991. There are three periods of formation and development of rural preschool institutions: 1st period (1945-1963) refers to the revival and formation of preschool institutions in rural areas, 2nd period (1963-1984) refers to the implementation of preschool education in rural preschools, 3rd period (1984-1991) refers to the renewal of the educational space of preschools in rural areas. The historical facts of the organization of public preschool education in the Ukrainian village in 1963-1984 are generalized – period of dynamic development of rural preschools: intensive construction of preschools in the village according to standard projects, merging nurseries and kindergartens into one institution, mass transformation of seasonal preschools into permanent ones, period of critical analysis, use and implementation of pedagogical experience, scientific and methodological developments, organization of patronage (mentoring) work, creation of "kindergarten schools". The author's periodization is based on scientific achievements in the periodization of the history of pedagogy by socio-economic and political characteristics and periods of formation of Ukrainian statehood. It is emphasized, that periodization is only an author's version, which can be accepted by scientists or refuted by replacing it with another. The following methods were used in the process of scientific research: analysis, generalization, systematization of archival documents, legislative acts, substantiation of the initial positions of scientists and practitioners on the researched problem. Chronological-systemic and historical methods were used in the dynamics and sequence of time to consider the peculiarities of the functioning of preschool institutions in rural areas of Ukraine in the period 1963-1984.

Antisemitism in Russia: evaluating its decline and potential resurgence

ABSTRACT The treatment of Jews by the state and society in Russia is an important measure of Russia’s civic and political character. The evidence presented in this paper indicates that Russian Jews now enjoy the greatest freedom from antisemitism in modern Russian history. The explanation for the decline of antisemitism is found in two categories: the political and the societal. At the level of “high politics,” the post-Soviet Russian state has abandoned Soviet policies that promoted or condoned the persecution and discrimination of Jews. This development was preceded and reinforced by the bottom-up growth in Russian society of a more tolerant attitude toward Jews. The first two sections of the paper explain the decline in antisemitism at elite and mass levels in Russia, underscoring mutually supportive institutional, political, and socio-cultural changes. The final part of the paper suggests that public expressions of antisemitism may re-emerge due to the weakening of the factors that have thus far restrained this prejudice.

&lt;i&gt;Cultural Studies&lt;/i&gt; as a Political Practice

The phenomenon of politicization of humanitarian scientific thought is becoming increasingly noticeable in the modern philosophical, cultural and political science. Scientists and philosophers belonging to political parties are nothing new in the history of science. Today, however, this kind of division into separate groups reveals not only ideological, but also a pronounced political character. The example of the Western European, English-speaking humanitarian academic community appears to be particularly indicative in this regard. Apparently, the conflict between the increasingly radicalized left and right discourses within the English-speaking academic community is entering an active phase. To understand the nature of this confrontation, it is necessary both to consider these discourses as separate phenomena, and to delve into their historical roots. The political discourse of the New Left is most clearly revealed in the program of the so-called cultural studies that appeared among post-war English Marxist intellectuals and later took root in the USA. The term was popularized by Herbert Richard Hoggart a British academic who specialized in sociology, English literature, and British popular culture. In 1964 he founded the Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies in Birmingham (CCCS). The history of CCCS is strongly associated with the name of Stuart Henry Hall, who was Hoggart's assistant and headed the Center since 1971. The connection between political action and cultural studies permeates the entire history of this field of knowledge. The very formation of the discipline and its institutionalization in the UK were influenced by such political and cultural events as the post-war Americanization of English popular culture, the spread of telecommunications, the new era of multiculturalism in Britain, and new critical theories. At the same time, many post-war European countries, such as Germany and France, showed interest in research, which ultimately shaped the apparatus of cultural studies. Within the framework of this program, we can see an increasingly nature perspective on culture that combines the Marxist view on the problem of culture and the sociological one but is not reduced to either of them. In this kind of paradigm, culture is understood as a consequence of people's social actions, and at the same time, as a certain system that fixes the ways of implementing these relations. This approach differs from both classical Marxism facosed on economic relations between people and from structural functionalism, in which the concepts of society and culture are almost synonymous. The author states that the discourse of the New Left and the program of cultural studies are different manifestations of a single methodological approach or worldview. At present, this is the dominant worldview in the Western academic community. The article examines the history and main methodological guidelines of this type of cultural studies, as well as today's criticism of this approach.

When do municipalities smooth access for new social assistance claimants? Local determinants of municipal welfare agency’s implementation practices in Belgium

AbstractIn many Western countries local welfare agencies retain large responsibilities in the practical organisation of means-tested support. While this may lead to substantial differences in the application trajectories of prospective claimants, what has garnered little empirical research is how local agencies use their discretion to implement practices that may encourage or discourage take-up. In addition, we know little on the extent to which variation in local implementation is attributable to differences in local conditions. Focusing on Belgium as an interesting case, this article addresses this gap by mapping the variation in local implementation practices in specific aspects of social assistance that are relevant in terms of limiting non-take-up. We assess whether certain local political, socio-demographic or economic characteristics favour implementation practices, using structural equation modelling on custom-collected data on the practical organisation of social assistance application trajectories in 119 Belgian municipalities. The results show that local welfare agencies implement coherent practices regarding information provision, accessibility, trust and the locus of initiative in the claiming process. We find the political orientation of the municipality and the share of foreigners in the municipality to be related with, respectively, shifting the locus of initiative away from the welfare claimant and a focus on information provision.