Spontaneous Protests Research Articles

Exploitation, slavery, and protest in the global north: the silicon ‘plantations’ of Salento (Italy) – the tecnova case

This study analyses the Tecnova case in Salento (2009-2011), a paradigmatic example of the exploitation of migrant labour in the context of renewable energy, a sector often celebrated for its innovative and sustainable potential. Through a sociological analysis combining qualitative interviews with privileged observers and the Protest Event Analysis approach, the complex connections between racialisation, precarious labour and the dynamics of global capitalism are explored. Migrant workers, employed in conditions of extreme exploitation, have given rise to spontaneous protests that, while achieving concrete results in terms of immediate demands, have failed to undermine the deep structures of racialised capitalism and the migration policies that fuel its existence. Using the concepts of the coloniality of power and the racialisation of labour, the study highlights how even sectors related to the energy transition can reproduce the extractive, hierarchical and oppressive logics typical of contemporary capitalism. Finally, the research sheds light on the structural limits of traditional unionisation in supporting migrants' forms of spontaneous resistance and reflects on the theoretical and practical possibilities of building broader movements capable of challenging the racial hierarchies and extractive logics underpinning the global economic system.

Political participation and digital communications of Russians after the start of the SMO: features and main forms

The article is devoted to identifying key changes in the practices of political participation of Russian citizens during the period of a Special military operation on the territory of Ukraine, caused, among other things, by the transformation of public political discourse and the digital environment. Analyzing the phenomenon of social consolidation in the conditions of ITS, key models of political participation and changes in media consumption of Russians over the past two years, the author concludes that after February 24, 2022, a certain transformation of public discourse and structure of media consumption, as well as related practices of political participation of Russians, took place in Russia. There is a differentiation of the socially active part of the population into two unequal groups: on the one hand, a dissenting protest minority, whose main form of political participation and "statements" were emigration or spontaneous protests; on the other hand, a consolidated patriotic majority expressing support for the activities of the country's leadership through traditional as well as new forms of participation: charity, volunteering, "pro-government" electoral behavior, information and campaigning work. It is also noted that the prevailing practices of political participation due to the use of digital technologies today are volunteer activities (including "virtual volunteering"), protest political participation, as well as conventional practices of electoral participation using remote electronic voting technologies.

The problem of depoliticization of the Russian army in the crisis of the 1990s.

The object of the study is the policy of the Russian authorities aimed at leveling protest activity in the Armed Forces in the context of the protracted crisis of the 1990s. After the fall of the one-party dictatorship that subordinated the security forces, Russian legislation provided for a rigid model of de-partization and depoliticization of the Armed Forces. However, in the post-Soviet years, this strategy lost its relevance both due to the weakness of the parties themselves and the apolitical nature of the officer corps, tired of years of pressure from political organizations (CPSU). The problem was something else: the huge "Soviet-Russian" army, being a vestige of the previous system, did not fit into the paradigm of the new statehood, and therefore was subject to radical and painful reform, which threatened to put the Armed Forces on the brink of disaster. For thousands of military personnel and their family members, the most acute problem has become the elementary problem of survival. Historical, sociological, formal legal, institutional and systemic approaches are used as the main research methods. In the second half of the 1990s, against the background of chronic underfunding in the army, cases of spontaneous protest became more frequent. These actions were nonviolent, spontaneous and scattered in nature, and therefore did not pose a serious threat to the authorities. Among the main factors that restrained open rebellion, one can name the lack of an all-Army protest coordination center, the lack of independent political thinking among senior officers, and the lack of a constructive program. This also includes army discipline, as well as the availability of sufficient means for the regime to pre-empt and suppress individual pockets of protest. At the same time, the authorities, realizing that by condemning their military to a miserable existence, they themselves act outside the legal framework, tried to resolve the conflicts that arose cautiously, trying not to resort to harsh measures. The question of how long this delicate balance could have been maintained remains open. At the end of the 1990s, there were faint signs of a revival of the army. The military was one of the first to catch these trends: exhausted by the "five-year plans" of liberal reforms, after all the temptations offered to them by opposition parties, they regained faith in the state. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the application of an interdisciplinary approach to the study of a complex problem related to the restructuring of the Russian army during the years of unstable internal political instability.

Covid on the Coast: Pandemic Governance and Protests in Fishing Villages in South Kerala, India

In this article, we reflect on the consequences of COVID-19 interventions on coastal communities in south Kerala (India), and the responses of the local population to the latter. In particular, we map out the events which led to spontaneous protests in a number of fishing villages during the second wave of the epidemic in July 2020. We will show that whilst during the first wave of the epidemic, coastal communities remained supportive of government intervention, such an initial support begun to wane as the epidemic unfolded over time and became more aggressive and widespread. We argue that such a shift in fishing communities’ attitudes was a response not only to the consequences of a more forceful policy of containment of the epidemic but also to a sudden identification of coastal communities as the main locus of contagion in the district. We suggest that the consequent restrictive measures enforced on coastal communities were driven as much by epidemiological concerns as by a media-driven social panic built upon widespread negative stereotypes that have historically worked to marginalize, and even criminalize coastal communities in Kerala. We deploy the notion of bio-moral marginality to reveal ways through which the attribution of specific—and largely stereotyped and negative— physical attributes and moral dispositions to the bodies and behaviour of people belonging to fishing coastal communities constituted the ground upon which the social panic concerning the spread of the COVID-19 virus unfolded in south Kerala, thus leading to fishers’ militant response.

Experts as Game Changers? A Critical Discourse Analysis of Climate Measures in the Metropolitan Region of Amsterdam

This article analyzes the acceptance of climate policy measures in the Metropolitan Region of Amsterdam to understand how policy and planning interrelate with private and public interests. While legitimizing climate policy and measures, values can also cause conflict when operationalized locally. By analyzing value conflicts in public discourse, we gain insights into questions of environmental behavior and their influence on the acceptance of climate action. We report on quantitative and qualitative discourse analysis covering 410 articles from Dutch newspapers between 2015 and 2021 in the Metropolitan Region of Amsterdam related to the energy transition, mobility, and urban greening. Our findings show that public discourse mostly remains abstract and detached from local contexts. As experts and politicians dominate the debate, the discourse mainly addresses science- and policy-related arguments, representing the public interest but reflecting only insufficiently private interests and the local (re-)distribution of benefits and burdens. Therefore, we attribute spontaneous protest to the lack of reference to differentiated values at the local level and find the argument of NIMBYism insufficient to explain residents’ opposition. Instead, our findings point to experts’ and decision-makers’ lack of recognition of the local “idea of place” and a community’s identity as an explanation for the sudden emergence of protests. Here, urban design may bridge the gap between policy and planning by translating technical and economic constraints into place-specific designs.

Протидія антицерковній політиці радянської влади в Україні у 20–30-х рр. ХХ ст.: причини, перебіг та наслідки

In the article research the resistance of Ukrainians to the anti-religious policy of the Bolsheviks, the first years of their stay in power. The article notes that one of the main characteristic features of the development of Ukrainian historiography at the current stage is the increasing attention of scientists to problems related to the history of church life in Ukraine. This especially applies to the Soviet period of history, when the traditional church, which used to be one of the determining factors in the development of Ukrainian society, suffered a significant blow as a result of the implementation of the anti-church policy of the Soviet government. At the same time, especially in the first decades of the existence of the Bolshevik regime, opposition to the anti-religious policy of the Bolsheviks on the part of the Ukrainian population was quite noticeable. This aspect, in our opinion, needs a more detailed scientific rethinking, which is aimed at this scientific article. Are shown the main directions and types of resistance, its results and consequences for the further implementation of the church policy by the Soviet authorities. It also depicts a complex of punitive repressive measures against the religious communities of Ukraine during the period under study. As a result of the conducted research, the author comes to the conclusion that from the moment the Bolsheviks came to power, their anti-church company encountered spontaneous protests from various religious communities. The protest took various forms – from ignoring and sabotaging the anti-religious initiatives of the Bolshevik government, to active armed resistance against its representatives. This, in turn, led to the intensification of the terror of the Soviet authorities against the church, which, in the end, was forced to recognize the politics and power of the Bolsheviks.

MEDIA IMAGE OF RUSSIA IN KAZAKH TELEGRAM CHANNELS

The article is devoted to the assessment of the current media image of Russia in the telegram channels of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The data sources were information published in Kazakhstani telegram channels (posts and comments) from 2016 to 2023 and selected according to predetermined criteria. In total, during the specified period, 8333 posts and 35339 comments were recorded for the given markers, which were subjected to further analysis. The information content of Kazakh telegram channels is overwhelmingly devoted to the review of political events, law, as well as bilateral economic cooperation between Kazakhstan and Russia. Against the background of strong information pressure on Russia from the Western media, the coverage of the media image of Russia in the sphere of trade and economic cooperation by the Kazakh media is in line with traditional cooperation, interaction and good neighborliness. However, starting from 2020, the negative information agenda in Kazakhstani telegram channels has been demonstrating a steady growth. In particular, the largest increase in negative materials was recorded in 2022 as a reaction to 2 major events: the January spontaneous protests in the Republic of Kazakhstan (the entry of the CSTO troops into the country by the Russian leadership) and a special military operation on the territory of Ukraine (and, accordingly, the migration of some citizens Russia to the territory of Kazakhstan). Moreover, the negative attitude is directed not to the Russians, as to the civic identity living in this territory, but to the ethnic Russians, as responsible for the current foreign policy events. The growth of a negative assessment of Russia in the Kazakhstani online space may also negatively affect the change in the trend in the perception of Russia among the Kazakhstani population from “Own”, towards “Other”, or even “Enemy”. A gradual change in foreign policy guidelines (growth of trade relations with China, rapprochement with the US and the UK) will only accelerate this trend.

The Power of the People: Everyday Resistance and Dissent in the Making of Modern Turkey, 1923–38 by Murat Metinsoy

<i>The Power of the People: Everyday Resistance and Dissent in the Making of Modern Turkey, 1923–38</i> by Murat Metinsoy

Identity House and a Gestalt Experiment Revisited

What I learned from readings and studies on the Gestalt approach has framed my way of working with individuals and in groups struggling to change the society around us. The need for that struggle began early in life.From my father and mother I received messages of social justice: how the world is, and how the world should be. My first remembered political action was when I must have been around 14 years old. I went down to Washington, DC, for the Youth March for Integration. Forward to other marches for civil rights, against the Vietnam War. I picketed our Bronx White Castle and demonstrated in Times Square against the resumption of nuclear weapons testing. When I was attacked by mounted police, my dad comforted me, and related his stories of police hitting hard on union strikers. He advised me it was always good to carry a pin to stab the horses.In college student government, I believed we had a right to comment on the world around us, not just confine ourselves to campus matters. And a duty to act. Paul Goodman’s two works, Communitas: Means of Livelihood and Ways of Life (1947) and Growing Up Absurd (1960) were part of my being. My social justice DNA propelled me to become a city planner. This was my way to make a better world. Then Chile, the Peace Corps. We saw our mission of bringing “power to the people” by helping our communities forcefully participate in the decisions shaping their lives.I returned to the US post–Stonewall riots (a series of spontaneous protests by members of the gay community June 28–July 3, 1969). Through personal relationships, I became involved with the LGBT peer counseling center Identity House. Unbeknownst to me, this organization was Gestalt informed. Created by people believing in consensus decision-making, gender equality, and letting emerge from the group what was important, many of these founders were part of the New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy (NYIGT), trained by the first generation of Gestalt practitioners. Here was my conjuncture of the personal and the political. With each person I counseled, I modeled a publicly out gay man. To present that was revolutionary; to support others in becoming that was a change in the wider world. To work in this way felt liberating and enlivening. The bait was out there. I wanted more of this Gestalt teaching, and so I entered into theory groups and practica of the NYIGT.Using what we were learning at the NYIGT, several of us helped organize a community-based group, the Chelsea Gay Association. We brought people together along expressed needs and created gatherings in small groups followed by larger groups connecting all. Small step on small step, we built a visible organization establishing a presence in the neighborhood, moving anti-violence measures forward, promoting theatrical endeavors, and creating alliances with other local groups pushing forward gay rights legislation in the City Council.Eventually, I became a psychotherapist. Simultaneously, I found work with a firm representing labor unions. My connection with labor is now of many years. I try to bring to my union work what I have learned in the Gestalt approach: listening; helping people to find their voice, to speak to one another; supporting others to assume leadership. Using my Gestalt perspective to strengthen unions creates a more effective fight for social equity and justice.

Theory and practice of participation of the population of the Russian Federation in urban planning activities (on the example of Leningrad Region)

The participation of citizens in the implementation of urban planning activities is a form of public influence on the content of decisions taken by local self-government bodies. However, the attitude of scientists and the population of the Russian Federation to the institution of public hearings, as one of the forms of participation of citizens in the implementation of local self-government, is not unambiguous. The absence of binding decisions of the public for public authorities on issues of land use regulation may lead to a decrease in the activity of the population in these issues and cause spontaneous protest of citizens. In its current form, the institution of public hearings has little influence on the content of decisions taken by local self-government bodies in the field of urban development, and is a formal, but actually sluggish institution of direct democracy.

KAFKASÖTESİ’NDE İLK “BABİY BUNT” HAREKETİ

In the early 20th century Russian Empire a number women-led riots called “Babi Bunty” manifested. The underlying reason of such actions was actually the economic outcome of the WWI. Famine and scarcity at the end of the war led women whose spouses were fighting to a number of spontaneous protests. The protests that in a short time reached even the furthest margins of the Empire, demonstrated their impact over South Caucasia, a significant part of the Empire. Baku, a substantial industrial city of the Empire became the epicenter of protests by February 1914. &#x0D; This study discusses the short history of these women-led riots and then it comprehensively analyzes the February protests in Baku by referring to contemporary memorandums and media coverage. The paper focuses on the aims of the rioting women and the reaction of local administrators to the protests. &#x0D; Moreover, such actions in the Russian Empire could be evaluated as a logical continuation of women’s movements manifesting in the modern world.&#x0D; Keywords: Woman, press, Baku, Russian Empire, riot, Babi Bunty.

Normative views and resource distribution behavior in childhood: Dissociated at the group level, but associated at the individual level

Previous research debated whether and to which extent normative views and own resource distribution behavior in childhood are dissociated or aligned. The present study aims to advance this debate by examining the relation from two different methodological viewpoints within the same study. Here, 4–6-year-old children’s (N = 91) normative views and distribution behavior when confronted with a rich friend and a poor non-friend were assessed. Children’s spontaneous protest and affirmation toward distributors, evaluations, and punishment judgments served as normative indicators. Looking at average normative views and behavior, preschoolers held a normative view toward rectifying inequalities while favoring the rich friend themselves. Looking at the consistency of interindividual differences, preschooler’s normative view correlated with behavior. The study highlights that the relation between normative views and behavior is characterized by both dissociation and coherence.

Towards Improving Decision-making Capabilities in Higher Education for Stressful Periods: A Participatory Action Research Approach (PARA)

Of late, South African higher education sectors have been engulfed with spontaneous and frequent protests by students. These protests have often led into violence and horrifying physical injuries to some victims, some victims being students, while some are members of the public. Amongst others, the latest episodes of the #FeesMustFall movement and protests bear witness. During this violence, valuable time is lost and assets are vandalized and also destroyed. The state has also suffered implacable budgetary loses when property gets torched and destroyed. Various studies have mushroomed investigating the causes of these violence and in addition their resolves. However, this literature has a gap because it fails to investigate the critical issue on decision-making during critical times. Decision-making plays a major role during these times. However, decision-making being not a simplistic issue needs to be developed to an extent of worthwhile decision-making and avoiding naïve arguments as well as opportunism. The aim of this article is to improve decision-making capabilities through knowledge management and critical thinking. Critical thinking enhances the potential of being judgmental. This qualitative study which uses desktop approach and PARA focuses on the higher education sector of South Africa. However, the higher education sector is vast as it includes hundreds of TVET colleges and several universities for example. For the purpose of this study, one rural-based university was purposively selected for study. The data was collected through qualitative technique. Collected data was analyzed using thematic code and results presented as main report

ФАКТОРЫ, ПРИЧИНЫ И УСЛОВИЯ ФОРМИРОВАНИЯ ЭКСТРЕМИСТСКОГО ПОВЕДЕНИЯ В МОЛОДЁЖНОЙ СРЕДЕ

The article deals with the peculiarities of the manifestation of extremism among young people. It is noted that modern youth is not ready for both economic and social upheavals, which leads to spontaneous protests and aggressive forms of behavior, the extreme of which is extremism. It is noted that extremist manifestations among minors can be attributed to acts of delinquent behavior. It is argued that the study of the process of formation of extremist ideology in the youth environment should be complete and comprehensive, if its integral, differential and dynamic characteristics are considered. The article describes the social, cultural and communication factors that influence the spread of extremist ideology. Attention is focused on socio-political, socio-demographic, socio-cultural and socio-psychological reasons. Personal, socio-pedagogical and situational conditions for the formation of extremist behavior of young people are shown. It is concluded that understanding the peculiarities of determining extremist behavior of young people makes it easier to plan preventive measures and predict a surge in the number of extremist offenses among young people.

The connection between the «color revolutions» and the strategic doctrines of the United States (late 20th century — 2014)

After the collapse of the USSR, fundamentally new phenomena appeared on the world arena, which became a watershed separating the bipolar order from the monopolar order associated with the establishment of the US global hegemony. Such phenomena were the events that are most often called «revolutions» in connection with the scale of the changes being made — «velvet revolutions» in the former Eastern Bloc, as well as revolutions of a different type, which ended in a change in the current regimes with such serious consequences that we are also talking about revolutionary transformations. These are technologies of «color revolutions» that allow organizing artificial and seemingly spontaneous mass protests leading to the removal of the legitimate government operating in the country and, in fact, to the seizure of power by a pro-American forces that ensure the Westernization of the country and the implementation of "neoliberal modernization", which essentially means the opening of national markets and the provision of natural resources for the undivided use of the Western factor (TNC and TNB). «Color revolutions» are inseparable from the strategic documents of the United States, in which, from the end of the 20th century, even before the collapse of the USSR, two main tendencies were clearly traced: the expansion of the right to unilateral use of force up to a preemptive strike, which is inextricably linked with the ideological justification of «missionary» American foreign policy, and the right to «assess» the internal state of affairs in countries and change it to a «democratic format», that is, «democratization». «Color revolutions», although they are not directly mentioned in strategic documents, but, being a «technical package of actions», straightforwardly follow from the right, assigned to itself by Washington, to unilateral use of force, which is gradually expanding from exclusively military actions to a comprehensive impact on an opponent country, i.e. essentially a hybrid war. Thus, the «color revolutions» clearly fit into the strategic concept of Washington on the use of force across the entire spectrum (conventional and unconventional war) under the pretext of «democratization». The article examines the period of registration and expansion of the US right to use force (which, according to the current international law, is a crime without a statute of limitations) in the time interval from the end of the twentieth century until 2014, filling semantic content about the need for «democratic transformations» of other states, with which the United States approached the key point of the events of the «Arab spring» and «color revolutions» in the post-Soviet space, the last and most ambitious of which was the «Euromaidan» in Ukraine in 2014. The article presents the material for the preparation of lectures and seminars in the framework of the training fields «International Relations» and «Political Science».

Paradoxes of the 1968 Events in the Interpretation of Paul Ricœur’s Student

The author considers the reasons and problems of civil unrest in France in the end of the 1960s. The author analyzes sources of revolutionary movement and comes to a conclusion that initially spontaneously developed events had no concrete political plan and organized guidance, its purposes had utopian character, methods of fight were mainly anarchical. Activity was motivated with romantic aspiration to freedom, reforming society, counteraction to totalitarianism, commercialism, social injustice, obsolete rules of life. Participants of events fondly believed that the spontaneous protest and refusal of submission to any established order automatically will lead to awakening of consciousness and transformation of social life. As a result, they faced an inevitable paradox of revolutionary movement. Approving need of use of violence for the purpose of opposition to violence from the government, revolutionaries destroy public order and a legal state for creation of the new world of freedom that leads to the enormous growth of violence, chaos, and unfreedom and causes in society fear and nostalgia of order. The author examines Ricœur’s position during revolutionary events in France. The philosopher evaluates the experience of his own work for the reorganization of education system (aiming to strengthen horizontal relations) as a fundamental failure. Nevertheless, as the author of the article claims, in the sphere of philosophy Ricœur created the profound and far-sighted conception of criticism of transformation, this conception is based on the principle of the conflict of interpretations and allows to resist destruction, to constructively rethink and improve society management system.

Левые взгляды на либеральные протесты в России (рецензия на монографию Осина Р.С. «Левые силы и стихийный протест: история, уроки, современность, перспективы»)

This review is an analysis of the monograph of Roman Osin, candidate of philosophy, associate Professor of the Department of fundamental legal and social-humanitarian disciplines at synergy University "Left forces and spontaneous protest: history, lessons, modernity, prospects". The monograph examines the political and socio-class nature of the mass protests of 2011-2013 from the perspective of Marxist methodology and tactics of the Russian left movement in them. The monograph is of interest both from the point of view of studying the protest and left-wing movements of the early 2010s, and from the point of view of the methodology for understanding the phenomenon of "color" revolutions in General. The author analyzes the social composition of the protesters, their political views, as well as the political forces of the protest and their tactics based on the empirical material of sociological research, as well as personal experience of participating in the ongoing processes. Based on the study, R.S. Osin concludes that the protest was generally "petty-bourgeois" in nature and could not lead to fundamental changes in the basis of society. At the same time, from the author's point of view, this protest was an important milestone in the development of the politicization of Russian society and could not fail to be a useful experience for Russian citizens. Analyzing the tactics of the left forces, R.S. Osin notes as a disadvantage the political and ideological inconsistency of many left-wing organizations, which benefited the liberal protest forces or the authorities. From the point of view Of R.S. Osin, the most correct tactic was the tactics of those organizations that simultaneously opposed the liberal and state-Patriotic forces, which in practice means participating in protests with their own independent agenda. In conclusion, R.S. Osin expresses his own point of view on the need for fundamental changes in society, reveals the concept of social and political revolutions, and also States the thesis that only the organized labor movement and other layers of workers can change the system of industrial relations in the country. Despite the obvious ideological color of the work and the use of exclusively Marxist methodology as the research base, R.S. Osin's monograph is of scientific interest and can be used to study the modern protest and left-wing movement.

Corruption, illegitimacy and external influence: political factors of state instability

The article constructs a descriptive and analytical description of the connection between corruption, delegitimization and loss of state sovereignty over society as background factors for increasing external influence and the destruction of political and spatial cohesion. As a result of the study, a conclusion was formulated, according to which the complete or partial loss of legitimacy coincides with the spread of corruption, which entails the devaluation of value and regulatory systems of social behavior. It is emphasized that corrupt practices contribute to the destruction of morals, law, ideology, have a devastating effect on government structures, procedures for its institutionalization, prevent the nomination of elites and leaders to command positions in the state apparatus, negatively affect the power and centralizing capabilities of the state. legitimate physical violence. It is noted that the loss of legitimacy is preceded by the loss of dialogue between government and society, the habitualization of corruption and its transformation into an endemic component of social life.It was stated that corruption increases the level of public permeability for external actors who take advantage of the situation of blurring the boundaries of political space and encourage citizens to spontaneous protests, which should shake the procedural principles of law and order, to achieve open conflicts between government and self-organized communities. what are the conditions for dialogue. External actors can seek to actively discredit the ruling elites by simultaneously unscrewing instability and escalating waves of destructive criticism aimed at disavowing all kinds of legitimacy: ideological, ethnic, structural, personalistic (charismatic), and others.It is noted that the final destruction of the state is the loss of a monopoly on public violence within the procedures established by law. Actors of external influence can resort to various acts of violence in order to encourage the ruling elites to increase security with the use of special Praetorian groups (paramilitary formations).It is summarized that the emergence of paramilitary formations is an indicator of the fragility of the state and its inability to control its own power structures, as evidenced by the violation of paramilitary formations of the usual official hierarchies and privatization of legitimate violence by alternative centers of power. Finally, it is emphasized that the destructive accompaniment of the latter is the growth of shadow arms markets, criminalization of the behavior of ordinary citizens who cease to see the state as an authorized defender of sovereignty and security and cease to trust legitimate law enforcement agencies, and these processes precede their colonial expansion. frozen conflicts with accompanying negative consequences for the state.

Transnational Economic Constitutionalism in the Varieties of Capitalism

Among the remarkable results of globalization are economic constitutions, which have emerged independently from the political constitutions of the nation-states. Against ordoliberal as well as critical theorists, who expected a uniform economic world-constitution, a fragmented meta-constitution dealing with massive constitutional conflicts has emerged. Moreover, the conflicting economic constitutions are no longer delineated by the boundaries of nation-states but by different boundaries of various transnational production regimes. The constitutional alternative for the national economies—ordoliberal economic constitution versus social-democratic economic democracy—which had been formulated by the classics of economic constitutionalism, Franz Böhm and Hugo Sinzheimer, has been replaced by the opposition in the Western Hemisphere between neocorporatist production regimes in Northern Europe and the financial-capitalist production regimes of the Anglo-American world. Against all predictions of their failure, the neocorporatist constitutions of European economies, after the financial crisis, have undergone a reorganization that resulted in their remarkable resilience. Moreover, they have developed a potential for strengthening economic democracy. In particular, public good–oriented corporate codes of conduct, which emerged in large numbers in the sweep of globalization, have contributed considerably to this potential. The codes opened, beyond the protection of workers’ rights, a new opportunity for societal actors. The oppositional power of civil society—the media, public debate, spontaneous protest, protest movements, NGOs, labor unions, intellectuals, and the professions—as well as the legal norms created by state intervention exercise such massive pressure on corporations that the latter are compelled to enact binding self-restrictions oriented to the public interest: environmental protection, antidiscrimination, human rights, product quality, consumer protection, data protection, freedom of the internet, and fair trade.

The idea of creating a national armed forces in the socio-political discourse of the Ukrainian SSR in the 80s–90s of the 20th century

The article deals with the process of initiation and implementation of the idea of creating the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the social and political discourse of the USSR in the late 1980s – early 1990s. The positions of key pro-Ukrainian public associations and movements, their programs, and statements concerning the "Ukrainianization" of the military forces that were located in the USSR are explored. An estimation of the position of these forces on public policy in the military sphere is given. It has been found out that the majority of the public associations and movements created under the conditions of "restructuring" insisted on the need for de-ideologization and demilitarization of social and political life. In most cases, members of such organizations required on the need to form military units based on the existing USSR armed forces exclusively from residents of the republic, who would report directly to the leadership of the USSR. Besides, the demand for military service by USSR citizens only within the republic remained one of the principal in the speech of Ukrainian associations and movements. The main proposals for possible reform of the military sphere on the territory of the republic are outlined. The author points out that among the Ukrainian intelligentsia, there were different visions regarding the ways of creating such forces. One part insisted on the creation of armed forces subordinated to the government based on and in the composition of the armed forces of the USSR. The other required a complete reboot of the military sphere, the introduction of a new approach to the army formation, and, ultimately, the creation of an army of an independent Ukraine. Much attention is given to the youth’s opinion about the ideologization and militarization of the Soviet high school. Representatives of the student youth were much more active than other social groups, expressing their dissatisfaction with the current situation, which resulted in spontaneous protests against the authorities. It was concluded that, at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, the issue of military development was one of the key issues in the activities of Ukrainian unions, movements, and the first political parties. The members of these organizations were aware of the need to create an armed force in Ukraine that could counteract potential threats to state sovereignty. Such policies have resulted in numerous political actions, strikes, and demonstrations, which have been used as a mechanism to put pressure on the authorities to achieve individual political goals. In the end, under public pressure, as well as in the context of disintegration processes in the USSR, these requirements were fulfilled, which created the necessary basis for the creation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.