Political Relations Research Articles

The moderating role of women directors in politically connected companies on the performance of Liberian companies

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of political connections and gender diversity on the performance of Iberian companies as a singular market and considering Portugal and Spain separately.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used panel data methodology, specifically GMM system estimation model by Arellano and Bond (1991) for the period from 2015 to 2020.FindingsResults show that the performance of listed Iberian companies is influenced by political connections, by gender diversity and that gender diversity has a mitigating effect on the effects of political connections in each country. The mitigating effect of women is evident in both Portugal and Spain, as they are more cautious and principled, which is valued by short-term investors interested in an immediate investment. However, considering the Iberian Peninsula as a whole, the results indicate that – in the long term – women's political relationships can benefit performance through a better reputation and image, which can lead to better social and economic results in the long term.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is original and covers an important gap in the literature when considering political connections and women's impact on these connections as determinants of the performance of Iberian companies.

Sustaining energetic communities: energy citizenship and participation in an age of upheaval and transition

The human use of energy is inherently understood and experienced through socially constructed frameworks. However, the degree of engagement with this topic on the part of humanities and the social sciences has until recently been uneven at best. This seems strange given current upheavals experienced in Europe and across the globe as the climate and biodiversity crises deepen. At the centre of all these crises is the energy system. Energy flows through various forms of natural and social circuitry (from production, to distribution and consumption) and these energyscapes are sited at the local, national, and transnational scales. The correlation between the (meta)physical flows taken by the various forms of energy we depend on—and the transitory social, cultural, economic, and political relationships that frame them—require much deeper study if we are to achieve the types of sustainable communities envisaged by the United Nations as part of its sustainable development goals (SDGs) for 2030. Arising from a review of current literature, this article presents recent research into the forming of citizen energy communities in Europe and the governance structures designed to facilitate their development. It also highlights the key drivers and barriers to citizen engagement with emergent, novel energetic communities.

Tragedy and comedy, outrage and reconciliation: exploring the insurrection of January 6, 2021, through Burkean frames

ABSTRACT In this article, I rhetorically analyze the Final Report by the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 th Attack on the United States Capitol, released in January 2023, as a jumping off point to explore possible limitations of and opportunities for rhetorical responses to political crises in the wider U.S. public discourse. In contrast to the Report’s tragic centering of Trump as agent, I argue that using a comic frame in the wider political discourse could help bring the scene, or the state of democracy, to a place of interrogation, and allow for a broader accounting of agents and agency, as well as their relationships to one another. Rather than deny an ultimate reckoning of a tragic situation, this article examines the importance of comic processing in service of elevated democratic discourse. By providing a space to reinterpret and resituate the pentadic motives underlying an act of democratic crisis like the insurrection, a comic frame’s pentadic vision can potentially open up new and transformative ways of understanding citizens’ public selves, their political relationships, and democracy, while still allowing for the expression of warrantable outrage.

ТЕОРЕТИКО-МЕТОДОЛОГІЧНІ ЗАСАДИ ВИВЧЕННЯ СОЦІАЛЬНОГО ПІДПРИЄМНИЦТВА

The article examines the essence and historical development of social entrepreneurship to solve and mitigate social problems, proposes its functions, and outlines the differences between social entrepreneurship and socially responsible business. It is proposed to distinguish the following functions of social entrepreneurship: social function, economic function, innovative function, mobilizing function, and motivational function. The five components of social responsibility of business are summarized: a responsible producer, a responsible employer, a responsible participant in social relations, a responsible participant in economic and political relations with the state, and a responsible business partner, and the essence of each of them is revealed. Several advantages arising from the implementation of social responsibility are emphasized, among them: increasing the reputation of the organization as socially active, increasing the level of public trust in the activities of the organization and its products, increasing the professionalism of the company, and preserving the personnel potential; increase in the level of loyalty of the company's employees; creation of a safe environment for the operation and development of the company; compliance with global standards of business activity; formation of partnership and trusting relations with the authorities, public sector and mass media. The difference between social entrepreneurship and the social responsibility of business is substantiated. It is noted that the social responsibility of business is expressed in the implementation of the main activity of the enterprise, taking into account social and environmental aspects. In contrast, social entrepreneurship's social goal is the basis of its existence. The main goal of socially responsible enterprises is to make a profit, and for social enterprises, it is to solve social problems with the help of the obtained profit. In addition, the percentage of profit spent on social goals within the social responsibility framework can vary within individual decisions or commitments. In contrast, this percentage is clearly defined and fixed in social enterprises.

MEANING CHANGES OCCURRING IN PHRASEOLOGY DURING THE TRANSLATION PROCESS

Today, the globalized world economy, international communication and political relations make translation very important. Electronic education and electronic commerce can also be added to this. Transmitting mass media information as quickly and intelligibly as possible also makes the demand for translation extremely important. The most important factor in the success of a translation is always the translation that takes into account the national tradition, the people's worldview, the way of thinking, the belief and faith. The translation includes not only the given text, but also the culture, and presents a new option by analyzing the relevance and close connection between the languages. In the article, the main aspects of the importance of translation, the changes that occur during translation, the preservation of national moral color, how translation mediates between two languages, the changes in meaning that occur during the transformation of phraseological combinations, and the examples of how high result-oriented translation takes place are examined.

Aligned or non‐aligned: South Africa's response to the war in Ukraine

AbstractThis contribution explores South Africa's position in the war in Ukraine. As a major African player, member of BRICS, the G20, and frequent UN Security Council member, the country is a globally engaged and regionally leading actor. Since the beginning of the conflict, South Africa has declared itself as non‐aligned; however, its close political relations with Russia and disinclination to condemn the invasion have raised the issue of whether the country is only declaratory neutral. Although South Africa is only indirectly affected by the war, it was chiefly involved in the first major peace initiative spearheaded by a select group of African countries. This contribution traces South Africa's official state response to the war, exploring its narrative of the conflict and is interrogating its version of non‐alignment in the context of a transitioning world order.

Public servants’ political activity online in an institutional environment of caution: the role of personality traits

PurposeAs social media has become an ingrained aspect of our lives—including our political relationships with other citizens and the state—various governments have warned public servants that being politically active online might threaten the reputed impartiality of themselves and the public service. This study examines whether public servants are less likely to be politically active on social media than other citizens, and seeks to understand public servants’ varying disposition to be politically active online by investigating the role of employees’ underlying Big 5 personality traits.Design/methodology/approachMultivariate regression, along with marginal effects and predicted probabilities, are used to investigate public servants’ online political activity with survey data from Canada, a country where impartiality is a core public service value, and where governments, public service commissions and even public sector unions have voiced cautious messages about the threat online political activity presents to the reputed impartiality of public servants, and the public service at large.FindingsAnalysis of the direct effects of being a public servant and each Big 5 personality trait finds that being a public servant significantly, and substantively, reduces the probability of engaging in online political activity, meanwhile, Extraversion and Conscientiousness have consistent, significant and substantive relationships with being politically active online. Subsequent analysis investigating the dynamic between the Big 5 and being a public servant, uncovers a more complex story. Among public servants, Openness and Neuroticism, rather than Extraversion and Conscientiousness, are associated with significant and substantive changes in the probability of engaging in some online politically activities. This is consistent with research investigating the relationship between the Big 5 and risk aversion, given that public servants in Canada work in an environment with a highly cautious discourse portraying social media as a serious risk to impartiality.Practical implicationsThe findings also speak to best practices for public service human resource managers by shedding light how public servants’ behavior can be better understood and managed by paying attention to their underlying personality traits.Originality/valueThis study moves beyond analyzing trends between public and private sector employees, to instead examine public servants’ online political activity. This study offers theoretical and empirical insight into how public servants’ disposition to be politically active online is, in part, influenced by their underlying Big 5 personality traits, specifically, Neuroticism and Openness.

Russian-Eastern Intersections. A Venetian ‘Anomaly’

This article is devoted to the research of a group of scholars from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice who over the course of several decades – especially starting from the 1970s, and partly up to now – have studied the cultural and political relationships between Russia and Asia. Some of these scholars were specialists in Russian studies, others came from orientalist disciplines (in particular Iranian and Turkish studies), but showed an in-depth interest – also based on acquaintance with the language – in Russia and the Soviet Union. Their research has produced a large number of publications, of a predominantly literary and historical nature, which constitute an important contribution to the knowledge of Russian-Eastern interactions, with particular reference to the Caucasus, but also to Central Asia, Crimea and the Volga region. Some aspects of this ‘Venetian school’ of Russian-Asian studies can be very useful, albeit counter-current, for present-day research on the Russian, Soviet and post-Soviet area.

Turkey’s ‘Return’ to Central Asia in a Shifting Global and Regional Context: New Opportunities and Limitations

ABSTRACT Turkey has been becoming more active in Central Asia recently. This activism entails increasing linkages in the economic, energy, and transport areas, as well as deepening cultural and political relations. Although there are some continuities, Turkey’s new engagement with the region differs from its previous engagements in important ways. The region has also changed, as have extra-regional actors and their roles. This article illustrates the shifting global and regional contexts, and how these shifts have motivated the AKP government’s renewal of interest in Central Asia. The new regional constellations provide both opportunities and challenges for Turkey’s Central Asia engagement. For example, competition among the major powers and regional countries’ quest to diversify their foreign policies provide Turkey with new opportunities, yet Turkey’s complex relations with each of these actors and the challenge of balancing limits its return.

Biopolitics and Governmentality During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Authoritarianism in Turkey

This article aims to show the relationship of Turkish pandemic politics with the concepts of biopolitics and governmentality. It argues that Turkey’s pandemic policy should be considered under the concept of authoritarian governmentality. In this context, the first part of the article theoretically evaluates the relationship between biopolitics and governmentality. The second part shows how Turkey’s COVID-19 policy is related to biopolitics and governmentality. The last part shows how and why biopolitics and governmentality have an authoritarian character in Turkey. In this way, the character of the policy pursued by the Turkish government becomes clear.

Agriculture against the wall: barriers and opportunities for agroecological transitions in California’s industrial agricultural landscapes

ABSTRACT Agroecology emphasizes a shift from low diversity, high chemical input farming to more biodiverse agroecosystems cultivated in conjunction with natural ecosystem processes and embedded in socially just relationships. Yet achieving such agroecological transitions presents enormous challenges in industrial agricultural landscapes dominated by consolidation and overproduction. We examine both the challenges and the opportunities for agroecological transition in one particular industrial agricultural context: the fumigant-dependent strawberry production of California’s Central Coast. We do so by exploring adoption of Anaerobic Soil Disinfestation (ASD), an agroecological alternative to fumigation which has shown considerable promise but has been historically underutilized. Building on previously identified “domains of agroecological transformation,” we characterize the enabling and disabling conditions for agroecological transitions in California’s agricultural landscape. Through semi-structured interviews with farmers, extensionists, and industry stakeholders we uncover significant regime lock-ins: most prominently insecure land tenure and unequal access to land, unequal systems of exchange, and a culture that favors silver bullet narratives and top-down knowledge transfer; as well as drivers of change. The case of ASD, we conclude, reveals that technology-led agroecological transitions will have difficulty succeeding unless they are embedded in broader efforts to transform the social and political relationships of industrial agriculture.

PENGARUH ROTASI AUDITOR, PROFITABILITAS, LEVERAGE, UMUR PERUSAHAAN TERHADAP ASIMETRI INFORMASI DAN PERAN HUBUNGAN POLITIK DI PERBANKAN INDONESIA

This research aims to determine the effect of audit rotation, profitability, Leverage and company age on information asymmetry with political relations as a moderating variable in banking in Indonesia. The data studied is 32 banks registered on the IDX from 2016 to 2022. This research found that auditor rotation did not influence information asymmetry. Even though political relations were added as moderation, auditor rotation did not affect information asymmetry. Profitability and Leverage have a negative influence on information asymmetry, and company age has a positive impact on information asymmetry. The results of this research imply that investors need to consider company characteristics in detecting information asymmetry in financial reports.

Polish-Türkiye cooperation in the area of technology and innovation: Conditions and development directions

Background: The year 2023 is a special time for Polish-Türkiye diplomatic relations. It is the 100th anni-versary of the proclamation of the Republic of Türkiye and the 100th anniversary of its recognition by Poland. One area of this public and economic diplomacy is the debates on the different dimensions of the experiences, practices or frameworks of mutual cooperation between Poland and Türkiye, organised by the Foundation for Research on Türkiye in cooperation with the Regional Centre for International Debate in Krakow. The article is a synthesis of considerations undertaken in the area of Polish- Türkiye economic cooperation, with a particular focus on technology and innovation. Research objectives: The article aims to describe the potential pathways for enhancing mutual eco-nomic and political relations between Poland and Türkiye. Methods: The paper is based on content analysis of the debate on Polish-Türkiye cooperation in the area of innovation and technology, the potential of both countries in this respect, and the possibilities for its development. The debate took place in March 2023, and the authors were one of the panellists. The find-ings enrich statistical data coming from the Polish Central Statistical Office. Results: The paper highlights the strong economic ties between Poland and Türkiye, underscoring their joint endeavours across various industries. Both governments have ambitious plans to significantly boost their trade balance by 2023, with a particular emphasis on sectors like energy, mining, IT, automotive, and textiles, showcasing a mutual commitment to growth and partnership. Conclusions: Establishing and developing economic cooperation between Poland and Türkiye can ben-efit both countries. The mechanisms and initiatives mentioned above can help to increase trade and investment flows, create new business opportunities, and promote mutual learning and innovation.

Digital denizenship: Hindu nationalist architectures of digital closings and unbelonging in India

This paper examines the sociodigital experiences of political and religious minorities in contemporary India to understand matters of voice and power, as well as feelings of belonging, identity and citizenship. It builds out from research conducted in New Delhi between February and June 2019 during and after the Indian national elections and focuses on WhatsApp as an everyday space where Hindu nationalism is (re)produced and articulated through memes, forwarded messages, videos and political talk. In the shadow of right-wing nationalisms, it examines how civic and political relationships are being transformed. Drawing on experiences and narratives of political and religious minorities we contend that the ‘digital denizen’ represents a new digital-political subject, one who is increasingly outcaste within a global conjuncture of exclusionary politics, technological affordances and local histories of power and coercion. Digital denizenship represents the regression of citizenship which connects ways of acting and articulating within intimate and digital storytelling infrastructures shaped by the articulation and defence of ‘truth’. We show how being a digital denizen means recognising, anticipating and navigating the oppressive expressive power of exclusionary sociodigital practices in order to quietly resist difference, disorientation, danger and unbelonging in everyday life.

Perspectives of successes and challenges in collaborations between non-governmental organization and local government on urban forest management

Governments increasingly collaborate with residents and nongovernment organizations (NGOs) in urban forest management because of the underlying belief that these groups improve the delivery of local forest services. However, in practice, the successes, challenges, and outcomes vary drastically by collaborative arrangement; solely documenting positive outcomes in NGO-government collaborations may hinder the ability to mitigate their associated downsides rather than biasing collaborative behaviours towards success. This study draws on the experiences of urban forest professionals across nine Canadian cities who have participated in or observed NGOs and local governments engage in collaborative urban forest management. We employed semi-structured interviews with 32 participants from three groups: leaders of NGOs, municipal government officials, and urban forest experts who have observed the two parties interact. Our results demonstrate that the addition of NGOs in municipal forest management is associated with positive outcomes and the characteristics of relationships, individual personnel, and community support contribute to their success. We also characterize the barriers that collaborators are tasked with navigating in order to achieve positive outcomes, including high employee turnover, siloed departments, competing priorities, shifting politics, and precarious funding and contracts. Our recommendations for successful NGO-government collaborations include arming stakeholders with a thorough knowledge of civic processes, diversifying political relationships, fostering “champions” among a greater number of involved parties, and participating in longer-term contracts and funding agreements. Further, involved parties should ensure they work towards the equitable distribution of the benefits and outputs of urban forest collaborations. Moving forward, because of the insular nature of NGO-government collaborations and a low capacity among NGOs to share the outputs of these collaborations, we recommend researchers continue to study the successes and shortcomings under varying governance arrangements so that groups may benchmark their collaborative activities against others and determine the most effective means of participating in co-management.

The Discourse of Post-capitalism as a Reflection of the Crisis of Globalization

The primary objective of this article is to construct a comprehensive conceptual definition of "post-capitalism." The contemporary global landscape, characterized by postmodernity, is currently undergoing a profound institutional crisis. This crisis impacts both its economic underpinnings, rooted in the dominance of financial capitalism, and its societal foundations, which revolve around a universal model of social development built upon a universalist model of consumption.Discourses surrounding post-capitalism within Russian and Western academic and expert circles exhibit unique characteristics. However, they share common traits. On one hand, these discourses reflect an acknowledgment of the impasses inherent in existing models of globalization. On the other hand, they recognize the transformation of capitalism as a universal socio-economic system that forms the bedrock of international relations. This article underscores the inescapable rise of non-economic factors influencing socio-economic systems' development, including their role in shaping international relations.Post-capitalism is best understood as a collection of principles guiding spatial organization and the establishment of economic and political relationships within these spaces, rather than a specific developmental model. Positioned as an element within the broader return to a spatiality, post-capitalism is predominantly discussed within the context of international processes, serving as a transitional phase in international political and economic relations.

The Game Process and Achievement of EU and US Cross Border Data Flow Rules

In today's data-driven era, the governance of data rules has become a focal point for countries worldwide. This paper elucidates the significant differences between the United States and Europe, both major players in this domain, in terms of legislation and value positions. They also operate within distinct social data environments and possess varying national interest needs. These influence the direction and results of the game between the two sides in the data privacy framework. The paper also encompasses many far-reaching factors involved in this process, such as the political relationships between the United States and Europe, and the economic conditions on both sides. In the contest for dominance in data governance rules, the United States and Europe have been constantly interacting, refining regulations through ongoing friction, and to some extent, driving the development of the data industry. Meanwhile, the world still needs a more mature and stable regulatory framework for data governance rules, indicating the necessity for further significant progress in this area.

The economic and political development of African states in the historical context of the decolonization process

The study of decolonization has long been dominated by political history, focused on formal emancipation of nations at the turn of the 19th and 20th century, societies subject to European colonial administration. The article reveals the reasons for the emancipation of colonised nations and the construction of a new social and economic order in the world. It also presents the relationship between decolonisation and the new global economic hierarchy. In fact, decolonisation did not change anything in the economic and political relations between former metropolises and former colonies, similarly at the cultural level, where the language of the coloniser still dominates in the official sphere and in education.

The People’s Republic of China -ASEAN Political and Security Relationship (2003-2021): A Review and Prospects

The People’s Republic of China -ASEAN Political and Security Relationship (2003-2021): A Review and Prospects

The implication of the technology and chronology reflected in the metal assemblage from the middle‐class Xiongnu burials at Tamiryn Ulaan Khoshuu, Mongolia

AbstractBronze and iron objects from the middle‐class Xiongnu burials at Tamiryn Ulaan Khoshuu were examined for technology and chronology. The bronze objects were made from copper–tin–lead alloys, mostly for ornamental purposes, while the iron objects were household items made of cast iron. Radiocarbon measurements dated the site to the 4th century bce to the 1st century ce. The results revealed two key factors: (1) Xiongnu style material culture established by incorporating various contributions from across Eurasia at an earlier date than previously supposed; and (2) the emergence of regionally stratified material culture suggesting intimate political relationships consistently maintained between geographically distant Xiongnu communities.