1,721,030 research outputs found
FAIREU key country report : electoral participation in Sweden
Full text linkThis Key Country report focuses on electoral registration and turnout in Sweden, where the most recent general election was held on 9 September 2018. It provides a historical perspective on patterns of electoral registration and turnout among foreign-born voters (non-citizens and Swedish citizens) in local and regional elections.This report was funded by the European Union's Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020). The content of this report represents the views of the author only and is his/her sole responsibility. The European Commission does not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information it contains
The Quality of Democracy in Post-Communist Europe
No full textThe countries of the former Eastern Bloc and Soviet Union have exhibited remarkable diversity in their post-communist regime paths. Whereas some states have become demonstrably more democratic and have moved in the space of fifteen years from the periphery to the centre of European politics, in others the political and economic climates seem hardly to be better, and their societies no more free, than in the final years of the Cold War.
Assessing progress towards democracy in the former Eastern Bloc - or the lack of it - requires a qualitative examination of post-communist polities. This collection of articles brings together a number of perspectives, both macro and micro-analytical, on the 'quality' of democracy in post-communist Europe.
This volume was previously published as a special issue of the Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics
The Identity of Northern Ireland - A Change over Time
No full textThe result of Brexit in 2016 gave rise to an imposing question for many political
scholars, what will happen to Northern Ireland? The region had seen a continuous divide
since its establishment under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, with violence taking center
stage over three decades in what has become known as ‘The Troubles’. This period led
to the death of some three thousand plus people. All had then been stabilized by the
Good Friday Agreement in 1998, which sought to ensure cooperation amongst the
political parties, as well as the disarmament of paramilitary groups. Brexit may now
pressure this peaceful period as we see Northern Ireland becoming an increasing focal
point between the Republic of Ireland, the European Union, and the United Kingdom.
They all look to establish a more defined political foothold in Northern Ireland as it
plays an increasingly larger role for the future of Europe. Internally, Northern Ireland
also has the ideologies of its citizens who still have strong beliefs in how the region
should move forward. Nationalists still long for unification, uniting Northern Ireland
with the Republic of Ireland, while Unionists demand that they remain a part of the
United Kingdom. Brexit is a major factor for the people of Northern Ireland, it has
swayed their opinion in favor of belonging to the European Union although they still
proceeded to leave at the end of January this year. This thesis explores the idea of
Northern Ireland’s identity, whether it will sway in the opinion of the United Kingdom,
the Republic of Ireland or become something new entirely.
Keywords: Northern Ireland, identity, natio
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Securitizing Migration in the West - On the ways in which the refugee crisis has been socially constructed by Europe's far-right
No full textThe research focus of this study is to investigate the ways in which the so-called European refugee crisis has been socially constructed as number one urgent matter for the European community in the years between 2015-2017. Noting the unprecedented rise of the public support for far-right parties in the European polls, the goal of this study is to understand and conceptualize the ways in which the refugee crisis has been presented as an existential threat by the right-wing political leaders in the Netherlands, France and Germany, three core European members, which held elections in 2017. This has been done by utilizing the theoretical framework, composed of the Copenhagen School, as well as the categorization framework which builds upon the results from previous literature on the topic of the securitization of migration. In addition, by utilizing critical discourse analysis this study probes the hypothesis that regardless of the magnitude of the crisis, the securitizing discourses are largely revolving around four overarching realms: the identity, criminological, political and economic realm.
The findings infer that the securitizing discourses of the right-wing leaders in the Netherlands, France and Germany in relation to migration are identical and are revolving around the aforementioned domains, regardless of the countries’ political landscape
Political Knowledge of The European Union among Finnish Citizens and Its Effects to Political Participation
No full textThe discussion about what kind of standards are required from democratic citizens dates back to Ancient Greece, Aristotle, and Plato. Democracies require democratic citizens with specific knowledge, competences, and character to work properly (Galston, 2001, p.217). In this thesis, the main focus is on political knowledge on the EU matters and political participation in a form of voting. The research is conducted as a case study of Finnish citizens, were the turnouts in the EP elections have been consistently below the EU average. The data used in the thesis comes from the Knowledge of Politics and Society 2008 survey. The thesis uses a quantitative research method to analyze the distribution of political knowledge among Finnish citizens and the relationship between factual political knowledge and voting as a form of political participation, and how different sociodemographic factors affect political knowledge and participation.
The findings reveal that the level of political knowledge on the EU matters among Finnish citizens is rather low and that respondents with higher political knowledge are more likely to think that voting in elections is meaningful or important. Finnish citizens do not consider EP elections very important to vote in, however, voting in overall is considered as a meaningful form of civic participation. The results of a low level of political knowledge and the idea that voting in the EP elections is not important might pose an issue to the legitimacy of the EU in the framework of democratic theory
Avoiding geopolitical self-destruction in the 21st century: How pragmatic idealism accounts for Sweden's neutrality in regards to its actions following the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea
No full textThis thesis intended to examine how the actions of Sweden, following the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea, fit within the international relations theoretical perspective of pragmatic idealism, focusing on the actions of Sweden's foreign policy that impacted its neutrality policy.
This thesis is built upon the pragmatic idealism theoretical perspective of international relations, and attempted to address how this perspective accounted for, or failed to account for the actions of Sweden in the face of the escalating Russian threat. The analysis herein is grounded in case study methodology. First, the thesis examined how Sweden-Russia relations evolved in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Second, the thesis examined how Sweden-NATO relations changed after the 2014-15 annexation of Crimea by Russia. In both cases, the paper analysed how the evolution of these relationships affected Sweden's neutrality, and how the evolution was consistent or not consistent with the “pragmatic” and “idealist” dimensions of the theoretical perspective of pragmatic idealism. The culmination of this paper drew an inference of the applicability of the perspective of pragmatic idealism to Sweden's application of neutrality to international relations. It concluded that Sweden's neutrality both prior to and following the invasion, as well as its subsequent actions, were in line with the theoretical perspective of pragmatic idealism
Greenlandic Paradiplomacy: Greenland’s Arctic Advantage and the Unity of the Realm
No full textIn recent years, an era of renewed Arctic attention has begun as the Arctic region with
Greenland at its center has increasingly caught the attention of global powers. Greenland has
successfully embraced the increased international attention and the Arctic advantage afforded to it as an opportunity to acquire greater political autonomy and expand its room for
maneuver to conduct its own international relations as a subnational government.
The purpose of this thesis is to explore how Greenland as a subnational actor uses its Arctic
advantage to enhance its political autonomy through displays of multilateral leadership and
playing sovereignty games and how this affects the Unity of the Realm. It utilizes
paradiplomacy as a theoretical lens, equipping it with an analytical framework through the
application of the concepts of multilateral leadership and sovereignty games, to do so.
This thesis firstly concludes that Greenlandic representatives display leadership and play
sovereignty games on the basis of its Arctic advantage to enhance its political autonomy and
project an image of Greenland as sovereign state-in-the-making in charge of conducting its
own international relations. Secondly, it concludes that as Greenlandic representatives work
to carve out a space for the island as a subnational actor in international Arctic politics,
enhanced Greenlandic political autonomy sparks demands for greater autonomy from the
Realm, necessitating a reconfiguration of the Unity of the Realm into an ever looser union
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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