Political Science Perspective Research Articles

THE “HIDDEN“ ROLE OF THE STATE IN DIFFERENT APPROACHES ON COMPETITIVENESS (THEORETICAL COMPARISON)

From the perspective of political science the paper is a comparative overview of some of the main approaches on competitiveness. The focus is on their strengths and weaknesses in the explanation of the role of the government. Yet the paper compares some of the more recent authors as Porter, Reich, Thurow, Ohmae and Strange. The implication is that government intervention is still needed to provide both sustainable competitiveness (Strange) (modesty as opposed to resource depletion) and social adjustment (jobs) to innovation in the long-term dynamic picture (Porter) because government is still at the basis of the welfare pyramid (Thurow). I start with the authors’ assumptions and proceed with their view on the role of the government to conclude that this role is underestimated in the social and overestimated in the business sphere.

The Political Development of Contemporary China from the Perspective of Historical Political Science

The political development of contemporary China defies existing political theories. The framework of “political science” based on the ‘rational man hypothesis’ has proven to be fallible in terms of correctly envisioning China’s future. Appertaining to the Chinese political history, historical political science offers not only epistemology and methodology of the subject, but also an ontological element, for observation. With respect to historical political science, contemporary Chinese politics is considered to be the natural genetic extension of the Chinese civilization as well as a continuous and unified development process spanning over a period of 70 years ever since the People’s Republic of China was founded. Historical political science, deemed to be a tailored research approach for the development of contemporary Chinese politics, essentially adds further value and significance to this discipline.

Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Constitutional Conventions in Central Europe: Presidents in Government Formation Process

ABSTRACT This article is focused on constitutional conventions pertaining to government formation in the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia. Using the concept of informal institutions, building on Anglo-Saxon scholarship complemented with Central European literature, the article approaches constitutional conventions as a special type of informal institution. Taking perspectives of political science and constitutional theory, and employing both formal analysis of constitutional articles as well as analysis of actual political-constitutional practice, the article has identified two or three constitutional conventions that have emerged in each country since 1990.

Explaining Conspiracy Beliefs and Scepticism around the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Public opinion on COVID‐19 provides new empirical evidence for the debate on the ideological contours of conspiracy theories. I report findings from a web survey in Greece where participants were recruited via paid advertising on Facebook and the study sample was adjusted for age, gender, education, domicile, and region of residence using a nationally representative reference sample. I find that beliefs about conspiracy theories are more correlated than the values associated with established political ideologies, and that conspiracy beliefs and scepticism about the pandemic are best explained by belief in unrelated political and medical conspiracy theories. No other demographic or attitudinal variable has such a strong influence, and the results are robust to different statistical specifications. In comparison, the effect of ideology measured by left‐right self‐placement is rather negligible and further moderated by trust in government. The results have implications for the strategies aimed at fighting disinformation during public health emergencies.

Impact of COVID-19 on Czech cross-border commuters: legal perspective

The paper focuses on the impact COVID-19 has on Czech cross-border commuters. Emphasis is placed on the legal and political science perspective and on the comparison of measures against traffic at the state border, against the free movement of persons and specifically against commuter workers (also known as cross-border commuters, or as pendlers in the Czech context), during both previously declared states of emergency in the Czech Republic. From a theoretical perspective, the paper summarizes information and data on cross-border commuters in Europe and the world. The research was performed by means of two qualitative case studies. In general, the legal measures at the Czech-German state border and the conditions of commuter workers during these states of emergency are compared. The research stage also included media searches (during both states of emergency) and content analysis of relevant policy outputs. The results suggest that border closures and related measures and the inability to travel abroad were unconstitutional, which also damaged commuters. And this also resulted in the fact that during the second state of emergency, the commuters were, in effect, not subject to any measures from the Czech side.

Policy actors' perceptions on applying a SDH approach in child health policy in Australia: A cross‐disciplinary approach (public health and political science)

AbstractResearch suggests policy action on the social determinants of health (SDH) is required to reduce child health inequities (HE). However, there has been limited action in this area in Australia. Political will has been identified as a barrier but few public health scholars have conducted research which adopts a political science perspective to explore this issue. This study aims to address this gap in the literature. We conducted 27 semi‐structured interviews with policy actors involved in the development of four Australian child/youth health policies selected as relatively good practice in addressing the SDH and HE. Several political science theories guided the design of the study with the Shiffman and Smith framework predominantly used, and adapted, for analysis. The findings suggest policy development was supported by a cohesive policy network, including credible leaders. Framing of issues varied with early childhood development, health equity, and child rights being clear motivators for change. Policy actors used several tactics to navigate a neoliberal policy environment and promote a SDH agenda including adopting a credible framework; consultation with children/youth; establishing an institute outside of government; engaging medical entrepreneurs; and combining a Public Health and Wellbeing Act with a healthy cities approach.

Local Adaptation Without Work Intensification: Experimentalist Governance of Digital Technology for Mutually Beneficial Role Reconfiguration in Organizations

This 1.5-year ethnographic study of a U.S. medical center shows that avoiding loss of autonomy and work intensification for less powerful actors during digital technology introduction and integration presents a multisited collective action challenge. I found that technology-related participation problems, threshold problems, and free rider problems may arise during digital technology introduction and integration that enable loss of autonomy and work intensification for less powerful actors. However, the emergence of new triangles of power allows for novel coalitions between less powerful actors and newly powerful third-party actors that can help mitigate this problem. I extend the political science perspective of experimentalist governance to examine how a digital technology-focused, iterative collective action process of local experimentation followed by central revision can facilitate mutually beneficial role reconfiguration during digital technology introduction and integration. In experimentalist governance of digital technology, local units are given discretion to adapt digital technologies to their specific contexts. A central unit composed of diverse actors then reviews progress across local units integrating similar digital technology to negotiate a new shared understanding of mutually beneficial technology-related tasks for each group of actors. The central unit modifies both local routines and the technology itself in response to problems and possibilities revealed by the central revision process, and the cycle repeats. Here, accomplishing mutually beneficial role reconfiguration occurs through an experimentalist, collective action process rather than through a labor-management bargaining process or a professional-led tuning process.

Book Review: “WILL THIS BE CHINA’S CENTURY?”

Mel Gurtov is the editor of chief of Journal Asian Perspective and professor of Political Science at Poland State University. He has many published pieces including Prospects for security and Cooperation in East Asia, Global Politics in the Human Interest (also published in Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese) and Superpower on Crusade: The Bush Doctrine in US Foreign Policy, and Pacific Asia?

Carl Schmitt als Klassiker? Über das Anregungspotential denkerischer Provokation

In his contribution, Jens Hacke considers the potentials of a liberal reception of Schmitt from the perspective of political science. On the one hand, he highlights the descriptive value of some of Schmitt’s theorems when being taken up and modified under liberal premises. On the other hand, he argues that liberal positions can gain in profile by confronting Schmitt's objections. Moreover, Hacke argues that Schmitt’s affirmative explanations of concepts such as “people”, “unity”, and “homogeneity” can provide insights into current populist mechanisms that weaken present democracies.

Structural Causes of the “Gender Gap” in Nuclear Security: An Overview

This article elaborates on the discussion from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) International Conference on Nuclear Security (ICONS) 2020 conference and discusses the reasons for the gender gap between professionals working in nuclear security. It puts forward the structural causes for women's choice of field and the formation of gender biases from the perspective of Political Science. It emphasizes the importance of having role-models for women working in the field and provides recommendations to increase the number of women working in nuclear security.

Cybersecurity Politics – Conceptualization of the Idea

The cybersecurity issue discussed in the paper is seen from the perspective of political science with the indication that the subject under discussion concerns the multifaceted nature of the state’s actions, which consists of political, economic, social, and cultural factors. At the same time, the work also intends to prove that cybersecurity is not only a domain of technology because it is the mentioned aspects that shape the conditions of stable development of the state and its citizens in a space dominated by cyber technology in a much more decisive way. Given the growing role of cybertechnology in almost all areas of human life, its importance also forces and inspires political science to question the shape and model of modern policy, which is significantly evolving under the influence of new technologies. On the one hand, emerging cyber threats reveal the weakness of the state and the dependence of state institutions on cybertechnologies, but on the other hand, existing cyber incidents may also motivate many governments to take action to increase the level of cybersecurity.

Alternative approach to security – soft power

The purpose of the article is to describe, from the perspective of political science and sociology, an alternative approach to security connected with soft power in the context of the endeavour to ensure security to every human being. The authors propose to consider security-related alternatives of the second half of the 21st century as a combination of soft power and hard power – that is, smart power – applied in the area of social and political relations. Conducting politics in the spirit of soft power seems particularly justified and substantial in the face of the contemporary immigration and refugee crisis. Modern states, especially European states and the US, are security subjects that both defend security and seek it using soft power with potential support – when necessary – on the part of hard power. The authors discuss this phenomenon on the example of the US. The article shows, in a manner substantive for security sciences, the relations between knowledge and power, because it is them that determine contemporary societies. An approach to security in the spirit of soft power is becoming a significant factor shaping security culture.

Regional Politics and Ethnic Identity: How Silesian Identity Has Become Politicized

AbstractEthnoregionalist movements across Western Europe are gaining scholarly attention. Central European states usually have limited places in those studies. Still, in Polish Upper Silesia, ethnoregionalist movements have been present since 1989 and have stable support from the inhabitants of the region. Since at least 2002, ethnoregionalists have attempted to secure political representation among the Upper Silesians. Recently registered parties have used the ethnic identity of this minority group as the main tool to gain support in political elections in the region. This article applies social science and political science perspectives to the politicization of ethnicity. These equip the researcher to answer the question: How has Silesian ethnic identity become politicized? In responding, the researcher explores the consequences of the emergence of the ethnoregionalist movement in Upper Silesia.

Associativity and social capital in the multicultural context of Chilean migration 2014-2017 Social networks in the immigrant response?

This article discusses Putnam’s (2007) proposal about the possibility that intercultural heterogeneity may negatively affect social capital creation in the short term while also negatively affecting associativity. This issue will be discussed in relation to the case of collective political action by migrant organizations, namely MovimientoAcciónMigrante (MAM) and Coordinadora Nacional de Inmigrantes (CNI) in Chile during the 2014-2017 period. From a social network perspective, this article describes the context of the Chilean socio-political integration model, by both characterizing these groups and exploring the existence of—or lack thereof—politicization and social capital. This exercise seeks to elucidate whether these groups may or may not be considered social networks. By using a mixed-methods approach that included interviews and social network analysis techniques, the researchers accounted for here explores the question: Which are the politicization strategies used by socio-political networks composed by multicultural migrant organizations in the Chilean public sphere? From a combined perspective of political science and network analysis, this article addresses politicization and collective action of these collectives in Chile.

Capitalism under pressure

Guest editorial Capitalism in various forms and transformations has evolved as countries have opened up to more trade and seen the globalization process as a way of achieving higher levels of growth. In some countries, large numbers of people have been brought out of poverty. However, it has been questioned whether global markets in this process need to be regulated in order to avoid huge income inequalities, financial crashes as well as damage to the planet through climate change. This special issue does not get into the theoretical models of capitalism from pure economics or political science perspective. It instead sets out to address some of these concerns, the factors that have led to a backlash in the global system, whether things can improve, by what means as well as considering whether there will be a temporary slowdown or further movement toward a process of deglobalization.

Revisiting the Role of Institutions in Transformative Contexts: Institutional Change and Conflicts

The study of conflicts over natural resources is neither governed by a coherent set of theories nor limited by strict disciplinary boundaries. Rather, it encompasses a multitude of conceptions grounded within a wide array of disciplines and epistemological assumptions concerning the links between institutional change and conflicts, often concluding in contradictory propositions. This article aims at providing conceptual guidance for the special issue, by reviewing institutional research with a particular focus on institutional change and associated conflicts and drawing some implications from transformative settings. More specifically, the paper explores certain propositions and concepts utilised by institutional economists to explain why conflicts persist despite institutional reforms explicitly or implicitly introduced to resolve them. The author revisits diverse cases from different regions to investigate key concepts related to institutional change and its implications on environmental conflicts associated to transformations, complementing this view from a political science perspective. The paper concludes by offering an overview of factors identified as instrumental in understanding the institutional change and conflict–cooperation continuum.

No Justice, No Peace: Political Science Perspectives on the American Carceral State

AbstractThis essay explores four key dimensions of political science literature on the U.S. criminal legal system, by way of introducing articles in the special issue on criminal justice featured in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Politics. We situate police as an institution of social control, rather than providing safety for people vulnerable to crime. The vast array of policy tools to surveil, track, and detain citizens, which lack commensurate restraints on their application, amount to a finely tuned carceral machine that can be deployed against groups newly identified as deviant. We therefore turn attention to this dynamic with our second theme: the criminalization of immigrants, the expansion of interior immigration enforcement, and the consequent targeting of Latinx people. We likewise discuss lessons for reform that can be drawn from research on representation and the political socialization that occurs as a consequence of involuntary contact with the system. We conclude with a brief discussion of directions for future research. The criminal legal system is a key force for persistent racial and class inequality. By turning attention to the politics of the criminal legal system, we forward a critical and understudied facet of American political life that intersects with all corners of the discipline.

Review of Powell, Emilia (2020): Islamic Law and International Law: Peaceful Resolution of Disputes, Oxford and others, Oxford University Press

Purpose The purpose of this study is to critically review the book Islamic Law and International Law by Emilila Powell. Design/methodology/approach The book review is undertaken from a comparative legal and political science perspective, including arguments and insights from international relations, international law, Islamic law, Islamic culture, religious studies, legal history and European as well as international political history. Findings While the empirical part of Powell’s work (chapters 5, 6 and 7) shows a methodologically veryc well done approach and at the same time highly interesting insights, both foundation and context show several critical points, in particular, a lack of differentiation with respect to the Western politico-legal tradition, its concepts and the resulting implications. Research limitations/implications The book represents an excellent starting point that should inspire new, more intensive as well as exhaustive research on this topic. Practical implications The book generates valuable insights for practitioners such as judges at international courts dealing with issues involving so-called Islamic law states, as well as politicians or public service officials in the context of international law and international politics. Originality/value As the paper is a comprehensive review of the book based upon comparatively based insights from international relations, international law, Islamic law, Islamic culture, religious studies, legal history and European as well as international political history, the arguments of Powell are analyzed and commented upon in a comprehensive, well-founded and fair way. This should give potential readers a good understanding of Powell’s arguments, inspire a critical lecture of the book and contribute to the important discourse on the connex between international law and Islamic law.

Judicial Independence from Political Science Perspective: A Theoretical Model Proposal

Yargı bağımsızlığı üzerine yapılan bilimsel çalışmalarda iki farklı yargı bağımsızlığı kavramı ön plana çıkmaktadır. “De jure yargı bağımsızlığı” yargıçların görev ve yetkilerinin anayasal güvence altına alınmasını ifade ederken, uygulamadaki yargı bağımsızlığı da “de facto yargı bağımsızlığı” olarak ele alınmaktadır. Literatürde yargı bağımsızlığının anayasal güvence altına alınmasının uygulamadaki yargı bağımsızlığını etkileyip etkilemediğini sorgulamak önemli bir araştırma sorusu olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır. Bu çalışmanın amacı da anayasada öngörülen yargı bağımsızlığının uygulamadaki yargı bağımsızlığını hangi şartlar altında etkileyebileceğine dair kuramsal bir model sunmaktır. Halkın yargıya duyduğu güven, sahip olduğu siyasal farkındalık ve demokratik değerler doğrultusunda de jure yargı bağımsızlığının de facto yargı bağımsızlığı üzerindeki etkisinin siyasal rejimler arasında farklılık göstermesi beklendiği bu çalışmanın temel savıdır. Bu doğrultuda, gelişmiş demokrasiler ve otoriter rejimlerde yargı bağımsızlığını anayasal güvence altına almanın uygulamadaki yargı bağımsızlığını anlamlı bir şekilde etkilemediği savunulurken, hibrit (melez, karma) rejimlerde halkın yargıya duyduğu güven, sahip olduğu demokratik değerler ve siyasal farkındalık arttıkça anayasal güvencelerin uygulamadaki yargı bağımsızlığını anlamlı bir şekilde etkilediği savunulmaktadır.