ABSTRACT This article explores the gender outcomes of political transitions by investigating gender politics in Hong Kong from the colonial era to the post-2020 period. By drawing on official documents, media reports, and empirical studies, this article illuminates the mutually constitutive nature of political processes and gender politics. It analyzes the complementary, but conflicting, relationship between feminist movements and pro-democracy activism during the pre – and post-handover eras and exemplifies the recent emergence of a patriarchal authoritarian gender regime, alongside the political transition, after 2020. In addition, it proposes the concept of the ‘politics of existence’ to capture how progressive women’s groups respond to the shifting political climate. This article argues that gender politics are inseparable from political processes and state-society struggles, as they can facilitate both democratic and authoritarian regime-building, while these processes also shape the trajectories of feminist activism, which faces the risks and opportunities arising within these sociopolitical (re)configurations.

ABSTRACT This study empirically analyses the interregional influence of the European Union (EU) on Mercosur's economic integration between 1995 and 2024, explicitly incorporating the conditioning role of Mercosur's internal political context. Moving beyond normative assumptions of integration as an automatic institutional outcome, the study conceptualises integration as an observable variable through the construction of a Mercosur Economic Integration Index (MEI) based on a structural gravity framework. Methodologically, it adopts a mixed longitudinal design combining: (i) a geographical influence model capturing EU hard, soft, and independent power; (ii) a Bayesian causal impact model to assess political transitions; and (iii) a structural gravity econometric model to evaluate intraregional integration. Results indicate that EU influence does not produce homogeneous effects. On average, stronger European influence is associated with lower intraregional integration, suggesting external anchoring dynamics. However, this effect is significantly moderated by favourable internal political configurations, under which European influence may align with integration objectives. The findings highlight the politically contingent nature of interregional influence and underscore the importance of political economy perspectives in regional integration analysis.

ABSTRACT This article explores how political elites use reference-point framing in democratic transitions to reduce uncertainty, thereby enhancing the credibility of commitment to democracy during periods of regime change. Drawing on the concept of reference points, primarily applied in political science to voters’ evaluation of government performance, this study examines its applicability in democratization. A case study of Georgia’s Rose Revolution demonstrates how elites effectively reference historical instances of democratization to garner domestic and international support and reduce the risks associated with political transitions. Using a dataset on reference-point framing in democratic transitions, the paper reveals several key patterns. Elites select precedents to demonstrate their regime change as democratic, peaceful, and gradual. Specifically, they tend to select precedents based on familiarity, connectivity, and similarity. The study contributes to the theoretical understanding of how elites mitigate uncertainty in democratization and opens avenues for future research on the empirical effects of reference-point framing on citizens and international perceptions.

Rentier states, by relying on revenues derived from natural resources rather than citizen taxation, construct a distinctive rentier social contract, ideally exchanging welfare provisions and subsidies for political loyalty. In such systems, a patrimonial rather than democratic social contract emerges, reducing citizens to passive clients and undermining the fundamental principles of democratic governance, such as transparency and accountability. Where citizenship is degraded to clientelism and rights are treated as revocable privileges, civil society is not merely an amalgam of service-oriented organizations; it becomes a hegemonic battlefield in the Gramscian sense—potentially transcending its conventional intermediary role and emerging as a workshop for constructing alternatives. Therefore, this article, employing a qualitative approach, argues that the primary function of civil society in rentier states is not necessarily to engage in direct power struggles (a war of manoeuvre), but rather to conduct a protracted war of position aimed at eroding the ideological and/or cultural foundations of the rentier order. The findings prove that the success of civil society in such contexts is not measured by immediate political changes, but by its ability to reshape the societal “software”—transforming the citizen’s identity from a passive beneficiary to an active, rights-bearing agent. It is through this transformative function that civil societies lay the human and institutional foundations necessary for meaningful political transitions during critical junctures.

The study explores the definition of public policy as a technocratic function and examines the underlying capacity of rhetoric to persuade the public in the developmental setting. It is common to describe public policy as a technical, logical process of making decisions based on facts. However, academic research indicates that policy is essentially a rhetorical and communicative activity in which narratives and persuasion are crucial to gaining legitimacy. Using the Aristotelian triad of ethos (credibility), logos (logic), and pathos (emotion) as an analytical framework, this study explores the crucial role of rhetoric in public policy and development. With an emphasis on Nepal's changing policy environment, the study uses a qualitative, interpretive design to analyze national development plans, policy documents, and international agreements. The results show that Nepal's development discourse is marked by pathos, using aspirational narratives of national pride and inclusion to navigate political transitions and post-conflict reconstruction, whereas international development organizations heavily rely on logos-dominated technocratic language to project neutrality. The study also looks at how these rhetorical techniques are used to create institutional trust and public consent in times of crisis, like the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2015 earthquake. The study comes to the conclusion that rhetoric is a fundamental component of governance rather than an incidental aspect. In order to close the gap between policy intentions and lived realities in sustainable development, it makes the case for a move toward ethical rhetoric a practice that strikes a balance between

Since the late 20th century, national dialogues have been a widely recognized mechanism for peace-building during political transitions. Following its own transition in 2018, Ethiopia launched an inclusive public dialogue process aimed at addressing both historical and contemporary sources of discord while fostering national consensus to build a peaceful and prosperous state. While this process holds significant transformative potential, it currently lacks a systematic framework for integrating empirical lessons from comparative international models, which hampers its ability to incorporate proven success mechanisms. This study examines national dialogues in Rwanda, Tunisia, and Yemen to extract a comprehensive set of lessons that could inform Ethiopia’s ongoing process. Through a systematic literature review and thematic data analysis, the study identifies ten key factors that contribute to the success or failure of national dialogues: political will and national ownership; the credibility of the convener; the inclusion or exclusion of key stakeholders; the scope and nature of the dialogue agenda; connecting public suffering to structural solutions; decision making systems; unifying dialogue slogans; support structures and programs; the interplay between tangible and intangible goals of national dialogue; and the implementation and sustainability of dialogue outcomes. Effectively adapting these insights could significantly enhance the prospects for the success of Ethiopia’s national dialogue.

The abrupt stagnation of tourism development on Rupat Island, Indonesia, following a 2015 political leadership change presents a compelling case study of policy discontinuity in decentralized governance systems. This research investigates how the transition from Regent Herliyan Saleh (2010-2015) to his successor triggered the collapse of a previously successful tourism development initiative, despite the island's designation as a national strategic tourism area. The study employs a qualitative single-case study design, utilizing multiple data sources including government planning documents, budgetary records, in-depth interviews with key stakeholders, and extensive field observations conducted between 2017-2018. The findings reveal a two-phase developmental trajectory: rapid progress (2010-2015) driven by a powerful policy entrepreneur who allocated approx. 500 billion rupiah to infrastructure development, followed by immediate stagnation post-2015 when the new administration abandoned key projects, particularly a crucial 20-kilometer road connection. The research illustrates that the failure to institutionalize tourism development policy within permanent bureaucratic or legal frameworks created vulnerability to political transitions, effectively derailing national strategic objectives through local electoral politics. The study contributes to understanding policy implementation challenges in developing democracies, highlighting the critical need for institutional mechanisms that protect long-term development projects from political discontinuity. These findings have significant implications for sustainable tourism development in decentralized systems, emphasizing the importance of embedding transformative initiatives within robust institutional frameworks rather than relying solely on individual political champions.

ABSTRACT This study investigates whether political uncertainty (PU) motivates firms to voluntarily participate in the poverty alleviation campaign (PAC), a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative embedded with political natures, launched by the Chinese government. By leveraging a unique dataset of provincial officials’ turnover from 2016 to 2020 as a proxy for PU, we uncover that heightened uncertainty significantly boosts firms’ contributions to the PAC. This behavior suggests that firms strategically navigate political transitions by utilizing the PAC to strengthen their ties with government stakeholders. Notably, firms with a pronounced need for political connections exhibit an even greater propensity to engage in the PAC. Beyond the political dimension, our findings highlight substantial economic rewards for participating firms. Moreover, our results reveal that firms’ contributions to the PAC crowd out other forms of CSR, indicating that politically salient CSR becomes an important channel for maintaining government alignment under uncertainty. These findings provide novel evidence on politically embedded CSR by showing that PAC serves as a strategic and effective mechanism for firms to cultivate political legitimacy. This study also enriches the understanding of how business—government interactions unfold in the context of short cadre rotations.

This article examines the interconnected dynamics of NATO’s evolving security role, domestic political transitions in Ukraine, and the influence of major European media outlets in shaping international perceptions of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The analysis highlights how NATO, confronted with intensified hybrid, cyber, and conventional threats, continues to adapt its decision-making structures and operational capabilities while facing persistent challenges related to burden-sharing, rapid response, and alliance cohesion. Particular attention is given to the impact of political leadership changes within Ukraine, illustrating how administrative turnover affects defense coordination, negotiation continuity, communication strategies, and vulnerability to disinformation campaigns. These domestic processes interact with the broader security architecture, affecting both external support and internal resilience. The article also investigates how The Guardian, Le Monde, and Deutsche Welle construct international narratives about Ukraine through distinct journalistic traditions –ranging from human-centered storytelling to analytical governance-focused reporting and policy-oriented assessments. Their coverage not only informs foreign publics but actively shapes political will, influencing governmental decisions on military assistance, reconstruction frameworks, and long-term strategic cooperation. By synthesizing insights from security studies, political communication, and media analysis, the study argues that contemporary conflict environments require an integrated approach: one that aligns military strategy, institutional continuity, and resilient information ecosystems. The conclusions emphasize the need for NATO’s procedural modernization, Ukraine’s strengthened governance capacity, and sustained support for independent journalism as core elements of effective security and democratic stability in the Euro-Atlantic space.

Engineering polarization: How contradictory stimulation systematically undermines political moderation

ABSTRACT Scholars studying national movements in the late Russian Empire acknowledge Alikhan Bokeikhan as a leader of the Kazakh national intelligentsia, or the Alash movement. Historians also praise Bokeikhan as a scholar of the socio-economic life of modern Kazakh nomads. However, they do not appreciate his historical works enough, especially those from the earlier period of his career, before Bokeikhan became a nationalist speaker. This study examines Bokeikhan’s early works, revealing his initial acceptance of colonial narratives, which earned him some cultural capital through scholarly expertise, and his eventual adoption of anti-colonial rhetoric. By analysing Bokeikhan’s writings, the paper seeks to contribute to a deeper understanding of the intellectual roots of Kazakh nationalism and the development of Kazakh national identity. While he shares a primordial notion of Kazakh nomads, he also challenges traditional institutions of the past that he views as the root of the social problems of the present; at the same time, he uses the glorified past as a reference to the decadent present. These narratives appear as a lab for his political transition away from imperial loyalism to nation-building, with the works around the Revolution of 1905 highlighting the sharp shift in discourse.

ABSTRACT Urban form in Kosovo has been shaped by successive political transitions, post-war reconstruction and a rapidly evolving municipal planning system in a post-socialist and post-war context. Despite the formal establishment of planning legislation and decentralized governance, many municipalities continue to develop in the absence of approved zoning and regulatory plans, resulting in widespread informal and uncoordinated urban growth. This study employs a qualitative and spatially informed methodology combining chronological document analysis, policy and legal review, semi-structured interviews with municipal officials and GIS-based spatial analysis. A detailed case study of the municipality of Vushtrri is used to examine how legal provisions and governance practices materialize in urban space. The findings show that weak institutional capacity, delayed implementation of zoning instruments and extensive reliance on Article 18 of the Construction Law have enabled permit-based development to substitute formal planning. This practice has contributed to fragmented urban form, high levels of illegal construction and governance driven by legal interpretation rather than spatial vision. By demonstrating how temporary legal mechanisms become structurally embedded in post-conflict planning systems, the study contributes to broader debates on urban governance and urban form in post-socialist and transitional contexts beyond Kosovo.

This review examines Early Childhood Education in Social and Political Transitions: The Legacy of the Open Society Foundations Step by Step Program by Klaus, Peeters, and Vonta, a historically grounded analysis of early childhood education as a democratic and ethical project. Situating early childhood education within post-socialist, conflict-affected, and transitional contexts, the book demonstrates how pedagogy, teacher agency, and institutional culture contributed to democratic renewal. Through historical analysis, narrative inquiry, and policy reflection, the authors position early childhood institutions as spaces of participation, inclusion, and social cohesion. Despite limitations related to insider perspective, the volume offers a compelling framework for understanding early childhood education as foundational democratic infrastructure.

Research aims: This study examines the effects of regulations, human resource competence, and budget politics on budget absorption. In addition, it seeks to analyze the moderating role of budget politics in strengthening or weakening the relationships between regulations, human resource competence, and budget absorption. Design/Methodology/Approach: This research adopted a quantitative approach using a questionnaire survey. The study population comprised all government officials from 27 regional apparatus work units in Nagan Raya Regency, Aceh Province, totaling 108 respondents, including service secretaries, financial administration officials, expenditure treasurers, and heads of finance subdivisions. Data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Research findings: The results indicate that budget politics positively influence public budget absorption, whereas regulation and human resource competence do not have a direct effect. The moderation analysis further reveals that budget politics has a significant negative moderating effect on the relationship between regulation and budget absorption, implying that heightened political intensity may weaken the effectiveness of regulatory frameworks. Conversely, budget politics does not moderate the relationship between human resource competence and public budget absorption.Theoretical contribution/Originality: This study has expanded the literature on the political budget cycle by emphasizing the significance of balancing political stability, regulatory flexibility, and adaptive human resource capacity to improve the effectiveness of public budget absorption.Practical/Policy implication: Local governments should design regulations that are adaptive to political dynamics, strengthen managerial human resource capacity, and optimize digital technologies to enhance transparency and efficiency in budget management.

ABSTRACT Ethiopia’s political transition under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (2018–present) represents a critical juncture, marked by bold reforms – liberalizing politics, ending the Eritrea conflict, and shifting from ethno-nationalism and state-led development to pan-nationalism and capitalism. Yet, rising ethnic violence and polarization threaten its stability. While Ethiopia’s transformation holds regional significance, few studies systematically analyze its reform-stability nexus. This research fills that gap through qualitative analysis of secondary data (academic works, reports, media) and comparative insights from South Africa and Kenya. Findings reveal that sustainable democratization hinges on constitutional reform, inclusive governance, and institutional resilience. The study underscores the imperative of leadership commitment, genuine reconciliation, and national cohesion to avert state fragility. Without these, Ethiopia risks cyclical instability despite its reform ambitions.

ABSTRACT This article examines the socio-political dynamics of 1980s Brazil through Morangos Mofados (1982) by Caio Fernando Abreu. Composed of short stories, the collection portrays alienation, emotional fragmentation, and existential uncertainty within a society shaped by political transition, neoliberal reforms, and the emerging AIDS crisis. Using contextual, environmental, and psychological frameworks, the article analyzes how Abreu’s literary form – including free indirect discourse, narrative fragmentation, and lyrical language – reveals the affective dimensions of social disintegration. The stories reflect lived experiences of marginalization while also enacting resistance to normative frameworks that regulate recognition, visibility, and emotional expression. The article situates Morangos Mofados as a diagnostic literary intervention that highlights epistemic and affective blind spots in mainstream organizational studies. By linking Abreu’s narrative strategies to debates in Critical Organizational Studies (COS), the article argues that literature can function as both an epistemological lens and a conceptual resource for rethinking alienation and identity in contemporary organizational contexts.

The end of the Franco dictatorship opened up a whole series of questions about how its cultural legacy should be dealt with in the public space. The social movements during the Spanish political transition carried out organised and com-mitted work in Barcelona to change the names of the city’s streets, a task that was taken up by the new democratic institutions, but not without difficulties. This text shows how the Francoist nomenclature was implemented and how, during the transition, neighbourhood mobilisations and the Catalan Culture Congress were organised to demand the return of the Republican names and their Catalanisation. On the other hand, we will see the different reactions of the city council until it carried out the renovation of the street directory and created the Ponència del nomenclàtor, the municipal instrument in charge of managing it.

Every word spoken, every sentence constructed, and every discourse contains ideological weight that reflects the power structures within society. In the political landscape of the United States, presidential speeches hold a special position as a genre of discourse that not only reflects the individual vision of a leader, but also represents the aspirations, values, and identity of the nation. This phenomenon becomes even more significant when analyzed through the lens of critical discourse analysis, which allows researchers to uncover layers of meaning hidden behind linguistic constructions. This study uses critical discourse analysis to examine Barack Obama's farewell speech as a complex discourse practice that reflects and shapes contemporary American socio-political reality. Using Fairclough's three-dimensional analytical framework, this study analyzes the speech in terms of its textual, discursive, and sociocultural dimensions during the contentious transition to the Trump administration. Textual analysis reveals the strategic use of language with carefully chosen vocabulary and grammatical constructions, reinforcing the themes of unity and democracy. At the discourse practice level, the speech employs effective rhetorical strategies, including personal addresses and compelling narratives to build emotional connections with the audience. Sociocultural analysis shows deep integration with the American institutional context, evidenced by the strategic choice of location in Chicago, acknowledgment of racial challenges, and calls to overcome intensifying political polarization. Findings indicate that Obama's farewell speech illustrates how political discourse functions as an instrument for maintaining and transforming democratic values during critical political transitions. The speech's power stems from its sophisticated linguistic construction and its capacity to respond to the broader sociopolitical context with profound nuance.

The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) emerged as an ethno-nationalist political movement on February 18, 1975, initiating an armed struggle primarily based in Dedebit, North-western Tigray. The movement’s initial political program was rooted in pro-Albanian socialist theory and included the establishment of a Republic of Greater Tigray. However, shifts in the global geopolitical architecture, particularly the dissolution of the Cold War order, significantly altered the movement’s objectives and provided a strategic avenue for the seizure of central state power. Following a seventeen-year insurgency against the socialist military government known as the Derg. The predecessor was also a socialist military junta that deposed Ethiopia’s last Emperor, King Haile Selassie. The TPLF successfully overthrew the Derg junta in 1991. Subsequently, the TPLF founded the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a coalition that established a system of ethnic and linguistic federalism structured around a multiparty framework organised along ethno-regional lines. For three decades, the TPLF served as the dominant force within the EPRDF coalition, consolidating control over the nation’s political, military, and economic institutions. This sustained period of institutional capture and its attendant narrow political agenda precipitated widespread mass protests beginning in 2015. This grassroots mobilisation ultimately resulted in a significant internal political transition within the EPRDF coalition in 2018, leading to the TPLF’s loss of control over the central executive authority. This study employs a rigorous qualitative, single-case study research design, framed within a critical postcolonial perspective. The primary objective is to undertake a systematic investigation into the confluence of postcolonial governance structures, tribal party politics, and ethnic-based federalism, examining their function as sources of conformity or contradiction and assessing their resultant impact on state stability and institutional resilience in Ethiopia. The article may be categorised as a historical trajectory and institutional analysis of ethno-federalism in Ethiopia.

As a new and evolving polity in South Asia during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the Sultanate of Delhi experienced rapid regime changes and contested social hierarchies. Discussing social implications of political transition and disruption during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, this paper examines Persian advice literature, chronicles and inshā (letters) to analyse how social categories of ḵẖāṣṣ (elite) and ‘āmma (commoners) were constituted, contested and reconfigured. It explores how Persian literati advised new rulers on recognising the rights of subjects to maintain social order, and how this guidance contrasted with actual disruptions, when established ḵẖāṣṣ were displaced to create a new ruling elite. It is argued that literary representation of ideal social hierarchies provides critiques of the contemporary social milieu, as well as the expectations and anxieties of the authors. The paper also argues that social hierarchies under the Delhi Sultanate were neither stable nor predetermined, but historically contingent and actively negotiated. In light of this, the Persian literature of the Delhi Sultanate period becomes records of both social disruptions and social-political order, situated amid the tension between idealised norms and historical realities.