Democratic World Research Articles

TWO HEARTLANDS THEORY AND CENTRAL ASIAN CHOICE

The articlepresents the new theoretical approach to modern geopolitics. It argues that nowadays both old and new Heartlands coexist and clash with each other. This is the struggle betweenimperial and autocratic world –on one side, and free and democratic world –on the other side. Both have geopolitical background and strength. The analysis of the context of development of Central Asian region and geopolitical trends it is exposed to reveals profound challenge of choice between two Heartlands. This analysis also contributes to existing arsenal of the theory of International Relations

The political mechanism of governance in the United States public opinion assessments

The article discusses the current problems of functioning democratic institutions in the United States. The consequences of presidential elections and their influence on public opinion are analyzed. In the face of growing tensions toward world democracy and democratic values, US citizens usually agree on the importance of democratic ideals and values that are important to the United States. The results of the study also demonstrate the awareness of American society of the objective existence necessary criticism. Most respondents emphasize their knowledge of basic facts about the political system and democracy in the United States. The majority of respondents said that “significant changes” are necessary in the fundamental structure of the executive bodies of the American government in order for it to work effectively at the present time.The article states the complexity of the ongoing domestic political processes in the United States, the existence of existing contradictions and the split of public opinion regarding the stability of democratic mechanisms of the functioning of the US political system. The complexity of religious, national, social and other contradictions of social development brought to the surface of public debate a complex of problems of the dynamics of political development and the state mechanism of government.

Permissibility of Electoral Systems: A New Look at an Old Question

Permissibility of electoral systems, and in particular the conversion of voices in the electorate to the legislature, is broadly considered to depend on the number of seats per district (district magnitude) in a country. Yet the most prevalent electoral system in the democratic world, proportional representation with districts, is often characterized by an almost entirely overlooked variation: within the same country districts vary in their magnitude, sometimes by a factor of 20. How does such variation affect permissibility of electoral systems? Drawing on a broad cross-section of democracies, we demonstrate that contrary to what the literature implicitly assumes, other things equal, a combination of large and small districts results in greater permissibility than a set of districts of similar magnitude. We find that where districts are of similar (different) magnitude the degree of permissibility is lower (higher) than that found by current literature.

Queer Disidentification: Or How to Cook Chinese Noodles in a Global Pandemic?

In an online research seminar titled ‘Intimacies in Asia in a Time of Pandemics’ (GCS Sydney 2020), Hans Tao-Ming Huang, a queer studies scholar from National Central University, Taiwan, compares the geopolitics in the current COVID-19 pandemic to a ‘new Cold War’. This war is characterised by an intense political and ideological antagonism between communist China and the liberal, democratic world led by the United States. In this antagonism, national borders are redrawn; political and ideological affiliations are re-enforced. As was the case with the last Cold War, the political and ideological affiliation of queer-identified people are under constant scrutiny. Queer people from China are often forced to take a stance by making a choice between China and the rest of the world, and between a country where LGBTQ rights are not recognised and the part of the world where same-sex marriages have been legalised and gay people can be ‘out and proud’, and between illiberal neoliberalism and liberal neoliberalism. This is a choice easier for some than others. As a queer-identified person born in the People’s Republic of China and currently living in the UK, I constantly feel the pressure to declare my own political and ideological allegiances. The ‘new Cold War’ accompanying the global pandemic has only exacerbated the pressure.

The possibility of democratic socialism in Habermas

In keeping with the radical openness of his theory of democracy, Habermas avoided pre-determining the ideal mode of economic organization for his favoured model of deliberative democracy. Instead of attempting a full-blown derivation, in this article, I propose adapting the Rawlsian method of comparing different political–economic regimes as candidate applications of his theory of justice to Habermas’s theory of deliberative democracy. Although both theorists are seen as endorsing liberal democratic world views, from the perspective of political economy, the corollary of their conceptions of democracy would arguably veer elsewhere: in Rawls’s case, into the territory of property-owning democracy or democratic socialism, and in Habermas’s, into any political–economic regime which guarantees the real exercise of full political and discursive liberties against the background of legitimate lawmaking. The ultimate aim of this article is to discuss whether a concrete conception of democratic socialism, if any, is compatible with Habermas’s theory of deliberative democracy.

Democratic Trends in Foreign and Domestic Policy of Post-Reformation Indonesia: Historical Aspect

Liberal democracy, the theory of a democratic world and a number of other liberal theories today are strongly associated with the Western world and the globalization model of development. Critics of this trend draw attention to the need to take into account objective differences in approaches to the perception of democracy in different countries and sociocultural communities. Indonesia is one of the most striking examples of the distinctive perception of democracy at different socio-political levels, which manifests itself both in national ideology and in the people's consciousness. This article is supposed to consider the Indonesian approaches to the definition of democracy and their impact on the implementation of Indonesia's foreign policy in the world arena based on these basic foundations.

Fear of Small Numbers and Political Behaviour of Ethnocentric Majority of Sri Lanka: Undeclared War against Upcountry Tamil Females

Abstract The United Nations Human Development Report (UNHDR) mentions that the rights of women and female children are inalienable, integral and indivisible. It further highlights the full and equal participation of women in every segment of the social process without any discrimination or without considering sex - gender hierarchies.1 The legal frameworks of the international system and local political space is accepting of the normative values of gender equality and the eradication of gender-based discrimination. But most of the majoritarian societies challenge these legal frameworks to address their political, social and market-oriented interests. These actions are driven by political, social and structural frameworks which have been accepted by the majoritarian societies in the liberal democratic world. Tamil women in upcountry tea plantations in Sri Lanka were subjected to systemic and structural violence because of Sinhala majoritarian statecrafts in post-independence Sri Lanka. The ethnocentric violence directly problematises human security, survival and the personal rights of the upcountry Tamil female labour force. This paper discusses the survival of Tamil female plantation labour forces, focusing mainly on the security crisis of female reproductive rights under the ethnocentric Sinhala Majoritarian Society.

A interface dialética entre a democracia e a globalização

A pesquisa intenta deslindar a relação dialética entre a democracia e a globalização, num processo simbiótico que envolve uma série de atores, estatais e não estatais, que se interagem e se influenciam reciprocamente. O ensaio aborda a contextualização histórica do processo democrático, desde a democracia direta da antiguidade grega, ressurgindo após dois mil anos, sob o paradigma de democracia representativa, evoluindo hodiernamente para a democracia semi-indireta. A seguir, o estudo relata as diversas perspectivas ideológicas sobre a democracia, bem como os entraves enfrentados no processo de democratização na sociedade globalizada. Analisa o panorama histórico da globalização, sobretudo a partir da segunda metade da década de 1980, com o surgimento de novas tecnologias de comunicação e informação, com a redução dos custos dos meios de transporte, o desenvolvimento da internet e uma acentuada interdependência econômica mundial. A partir de então, aludido fenômeno passou de uma dimensão restritamente econômica, a uma realidade mais ampla e profunda, a qual inclui a ciência e tecnologia, as relações sociais, políticas e culturais. Destaca a possibilidade da relativização da soberania estatal diante da interdependência multifacetada do processo de globalização, concluindo que o processo da ampliação da democracia deve, necessariamente, estar condicionado à redução das disparidades sociais, uma vez que os princípios democráticos ficam demasiadamente inócuos quando a democracia é reduzida à simples regime político. Outrossim, a história tem demonstrado que extremas desigualdades sociais funcionam como um fator limitativo do processo solidificador da democracia mundial.

Роль официальной риторики между РФ и США в процессе формирования образа России (2009–2019 гг.)

The image of Russia as an image of any country is undergoing constant changes. In the early 1990s Russia is focused on the democratic world. In the future, the image undergoes serious changes in the 2000s, after the speech of Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Munich Security Conference, in which the Russian President outlined the national interests of Russia. In the 2010s, the situation changed dramatically, as Russia supported the consolidation of Russia and the Crimea following to a referendum, thus protecting not only national interests, but also the interests of the Russian-speaking world. The formation of the image is influenced by a number of factors, such as object, subject, temporal, spatial and communication ones. The object factor is represented by political culture and event series. The subjective factor is represented by the values, culture, stories of citizens living in a particular state, in this study the citizens of Russia. The temporal factor is implemented in the historical dynamics of relations between the countries, here Russia and the United States. Communication factor is based on reports, publications of key communication channels in the analyzed states. The study used the content analysis in the period of 2009–2019; 4 828 official publications were analyzed. The presented temporary area of analysis includes the period of Barack Obama’s Presidency (2009–2017) and the beginning of Donald Trump’s Presidency (from 2017 to the present day) in the United States, the D.A. Medvedev’s Presidency (2008–2012) and the V.V. Putin’s Presidency (from 2012 to the present day) in Russia.

The Future of Europe's Democratic Way of Life

In 2016 the democratic world experienced two major shocks. Although support for illiberal nationalism has been on the rise for at least a decade, the events of that year, starting with the narrow victory of the Leave campaign in the United Kingdom's 23 June referendum on its membership in the European Union (EU), followed less than six months later by Donald J. Trump's election as president of the United States on 8 November, constituted a clear break. In contrast to the postwar liberal democratic order, which legitimized itself through the provision of welfare benefits and effective management of competing interests, these two developments seemingly signaled a return to the more rough-and-tumble, unstable politics of the interwar period.

A strong defence of democracy: Introduction to a symposium on Cristina Lafont’s Book ‘Democracy without Shortcuts’

The democratic world, the one in which the claim that all those affected by decisions should also be equally involved in the process of legislation on which these decisions are based prevailed, is vanishing. This historical legacy, as we are dramatically reminded in the light of the current economic, financial and pandemic developments could be lost for ever. Cristina Lafont’s book “ Democratic Shortcuts” seems to have been written in this spirit. It is concerned with nothing less than defending an idea of democracy that can be described as normatively desirable and empirically feasible. The introduction briefly introduces the current debate and the book and highlights some points of criticism.

THE RIGHT TO A RAINBOW CITY: THE ITALIAN HOMOSEXUAL SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

Nowadays, the legal status of homosexual people varies widely from one country to another (ILGA 2019). In many contexts, the homosexual social movement has played a central role in fighting heterosexism and homophobia (Weinberg 1983). Especially in the democratic world, the homosexual social movement has been capable of spreading solidarity and inclusion and also of leading changes in regulatory terms, with different results context by context (Adam, Duyvendak, Krouwel 1999).
 The paper aims to point out the Italian situation and the main characteristics of the gay social movement in Italy as key factors of the social change. More specifically, the paper is aimed at recounting the political process and the symbolic and cultural factors that led the Italian homosexual social movement to impose itself on the social scene as a reality with its own specific identity. The paper’s last section analyses the so-called “Italian rainbow cities”, urban contexts where the LGBT community is highly concentrated and in which it is so active as to stimulate, in cooperation with the local urban administrations, capacity-building processes oriented to the construction and consolidation of LGBT people’s rights and social inclusion.

NEW TRENDS IN HRM & KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN THE HEALTH SECTOR BEYOND COVID-19 - A PRACTICAL MODEL

The world of work and the status of the human being is constantly changing by the influence of new technologies and the contributions of scientists and practitioners of HRM; therefore, the human being is currently considered as a wealth and its value is maximized. Economists have called it (human capital), accountants (human assets), while contemporary managers have called it (knowledge capital). This change has occurred in the perception of HR due to the transformations that affected the work process began with the TIC revolution of the 21st century, which is concentrated on creativity, innovation based on Competencies to achieve total quality and well-being. But globalization, by for-profit companies, has prioritized profit and the values added to the detriment of which weakened the existence of medical organizations and their personnel as revealed by the Covid-19. Currently, political leaders in the democratic world are turning their eyes and considering human strategies that protect human and open the doors of health protection. Strategic and innovative leadership move on to the development of preventive management which concentrates its priority investments on the KM. New HRM trends, knowledge management (KM) and transformational organizations have become a “strategic” investment as an option in institution building and in health organizations. This new approach adopts the method of KM, competency management in HRM in order to achieve a high-level performance of merit characteristics, efficiency and effectiveness, which combine (motivation, constant incentive, qualities of excellence, clear self-orientation, indepth and up-to-date knowledge and competencies, ...). This paper presents the subject of new trends in HRM and KM in the health sector as well as the principles of these trends, European, Canadian and American application models, it offers a practical model aimed at improving the health system after Covid-19, in close relation with the improvement of HRM.

Boxing Pandora: Rethinking Borders, States, and Secession in a Democratic World

Boxing Pandora: Rethinking Borders, States, and Secession in a Democratic World

Social Media Use and Political Polarization: Political Engagement as a Mediator

Social media, in the new millennium, has become a very effective tool of communication, information, and propagation regarding all social, religious, and political discourses that further lead towards ideological divisions. In the contemporary democratic world, the role of social media for political opinion building is obvious which is done by opinion leaders through political information and debates. The purpose of this study is to explore the social media use and political polarization among social media users. The survey research method was used to examine social media use for political engagement and political polarization. Private university students were selected as participants (n=350). The result was found positive which means that social media use is responsible for political polarization. Moreover, social media use is also a significant predictor of political engagement. In addition to this, the results show that political engagement is a mediator between the relationship between social media use and political polarization. The practical implications of the study have been discussed.

Ukrainian Youth Association and Its Journalistic and Publishing Activities in Emigration

The article is based on the author’s research of documents and materials of the UYA Board, conducted during his scholarly internship in the UK. The materials belong to the library of the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain in London and the archives which exclusively store complete files of such periodicals as Holos Molodi, Avanhard, Ukrainska Dumka, and Vyzvolnyi Shliakh, which were also studied.In the ongoing scientific debate over the assumption whether the Ukrainian Youth Association was a project of the Soviet secret services formed to identify and eliminate the nationally conscious part of the Ukrainian society in the 1920s and early 1930s, or the hypothesis that it was backed up by real organizers and cases, the author belongs to the group of researchers that share the second point of view.Modus operandi of this organization was as follows: it was founded in Kyiv on the basis of the First Shevchenko Kyiv Labor School in late 1925 as an alternative to the Moscow organization of the Communist Komsomol. Mykola Pavlushkov became the founder and first head of UYA. In 1929, UYA was exposed by the punitive Soviet authorities as an “underground counterrevolutionary organization”. In 1946, the organization resumed its activity in Germany, in the camps of American-funded forced refugees from Eastern Europe. The first volume of the organization’s main publication was released in Munich in December 1946. In December 1949, Holos Molodi magazine was founded in London. The active book publishing movement of this organization begins there.The author’s attention is focused on the analysis of printed materials produced by this organization and not fully available today in Ukraine. They include a number of small-print cyclic publications issued in Munich and London, as well as Avanhard and Holos Molodi monthlies, and the thematic page of the UK regional branch of UYA in the London newspaper Ukrainska Dumka. According to the thematic principle, the following main subjects of the publications are analyzed: propaganda of the ideas of belligerent Ukraine in the non-Bolshevik democratic world; protection and continuation of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army’s deeds and those of fallen heroes of Ukrainian national liberation struggles of all times; assimilation of foreign experience in all spheres of life and state-building for its further use in Ukraine liberated from Bolsheviks.

Populism and domestic/international politics: theory and practice

Purpose This paper aims to contend that populism is damaging to both domestic and international politics; not only does it erode liberal democracy in established democracies but also fuels authoritarianism in despotic regimes and aggravates conflicts and crises in international system. Design/methodology/approach The research is divided into two main sections. First, it examines how populist mobilization affects liberal democracy, and refutes the claims that populism is beneficial and reinforcing to democracy. Second, it attempts to demonstrate how populism is damaging to domestic politics (by undermining liberal democracy and supporting authoritarianism) as well as international relations (by making interstate conflicts more likely to materialize). Theoretically, populism is assumed to be a strategy used by politicians to maximize their interest. Hence, populism is a strategy used by politicians to mobilize constituents using the main features of populist discourse. Findings The research argues that populism has detrimental consequences on both domestic and international politics; it undermines liberal democracy in democratic countries, upsurges authoritarianism in autocratic regimes and heightens the level of conflict and crises in international politics. Populism can lead to authoritarianism. There is one major undemocratic trait shared by all populist waves around the world, particularly democracies; that is anti-pluralism/anti-institutions. Populist leaders perceive foreign policy as the continuation of domestic politics, because they consider themselves as the only true representatives of the people. Therefore, populist actors abandon any political opposition as necessarily illegitimate, with repercussions on foreign policy. Originality/value Some scholars argue that populism reinforces democracy by underpinning its ability to include marginalized sectors of the society and to decrease voter apathy, the research refuted these arguments. Populism is destructive to world democracy; populists are reluctant to embrace the idea of full integration with other nations. Populists reject the idea of open borders, and reckon it an apparent threat to their national security. The research concludes that populists consider maximizing their national interests on the international level by following confrontational policies instead of cooperative ones.

Ombudsman Institute: Basic Models and Problems of Reception in Constitutional Law

In the search for optimal ways of improving the normative foundations and organizational-legal forms of human rights protection, the problem of institutional support of relevant processes is actualized. The protection of human rights is inherently linked to all public-power structures of the mechanism of state power and is possible only in the context of optimal implementation of the principles of the rule of law, separation of powers, democratic, social, rule of law. In Ukraine, in the context of constitutional modernization, the problem of improving the organizational-legal mechanism of human rights protection remains urgent. For this purpose, the Institute of the Ombudsman operates in Ukraine. Its implementation fully meets the tendencies existing in the modern democratic world and is a reaction to those conflicts and contradictions that exist in the field of human rights protection. Nevertheless, the social insecurity of certain sections of the population (children, pensioners, persons with disabilities, servicemen, migrants, internally displaced persons, ethnic minorities, persons belonging to the LGBTI community, entrepreneurs, patients and other categories of citizens) is an indicator of the relevance of the problem and the functioning of national human rights protection mechanisms, including the strengthening of the relevant oversight functions of the Ombudsman. The subject of the research is the problems of reception in the constitutional law of the basic models of organization of the Ombudsman Institute in the mechanism of functioning of the rule of law. The object of the study is the public relations that delve into the human rights protection process and the ombudsman's exclusivity in the relevant processes. The methodological basis of the study are general scientific methods, such as dialectical, comparative-legal, formal-legal, historical, and logical methods of cognition, as well as special and private-law methods. The history of development, the causes, the processes of institutionalization and constitution of the ombudsman services in the modern world, the permanent transformation of their functions and the differentiation of their specialization are evidence of the improvement of the classical system of separation of powers and the constitutional mechanism of its organization. It is argued that the functional isolation, independence, and organizational diversity of the control bodies, first of all, the Ombudsmen, is a testament to the formation of control power, the conceptual idea of which is the existence of a system of measures to ensure control over public authority.

Real World Democracy!! Democratic Globe!! Spiritual Globe!!!

Disclosed are method of a real world democracy is one where in all the citizens of all countries across the globe are included and the whole globe can be run on the democratic basis. The following steps are interconnected, so if it is applied or implemented across the globe it brings the love and peace across the globe. Democratic Globe or World Democracy is one wherein all the countries across the globe are included as well all the citizens of all the countries are the citizens of the world democracy. The main objective of the world democracy is to avoid the unwanted violence across the globe and bring love and peace across the globe. As well as the citizen of world democracy have equal powers to avoid the violence across the globe.

Advertising for the People: The History of the Social Democratic Party of Sweden’s Own Advertising Company—Folkreklam and Förenade ARE-Bolagen, 1947–1997

The Social Democratic Party not only ruled Sweden for most of the twentieth century but also owned one of the country’s largest advertising groups. The company, founded in 1947 as Folkreklam and later renamed Förenade ARE-Bolagen, rapidly became dominant in outdoor advertising in Sweden and remained in that position until the late 1980s. This paper expands the previous research on party-owned enterprises, a type of businesses that is rare in the Western democratic world, covering the history of ARE from its inception to its eventual merger with JCDecaux in 1997. It is shown that the owner relationship with the party was highly beneficial for the company, as it provided preferential access to adverting space and public contracts from government agencies and municipalities without formal competition. The party benefited from the control over sensitive information pretraining to strategies in political propaganda during elections and from the financial contribution of ARE.