European Politics

Jörg Baberowski, professor of Eastern European History, draws on a wide scope of literature to explain the phenomenon of  populism disdained in politics and political science alike. He proceeds from the fact power or rule is exercised that in any given society.  Protest, rebellion or resistence from "below"  is inherent in any system of government. Not by chance, modern democracy - based on fictitious abstractions like the of social contract or self-government - bears the "populist" challenge of the "people"  in its very "democratic" concept, i.e. the ideal of self- rule by the demos (= the people). In all Western democracies, in particular in the bureaucratic system of the EU set up after the downfall of the Berlin Wall, "the people" are kept at a distance  by the mechanisms of established power.  Elections do not affect these mechanisms. The people "below" remain below,  dominated by the "overclass" (Michael Lind).  Rather than pleading  plebiscitarian techniques of "direct democracy" ,  Baberowski, aware of being branded as a "populist" himself,  favors the idea of "electoral democracy", distinct from elections tied up party politics and party tickets. My review essay attempts to reconstruct Baberowski´s critique of simplistic concepts of democracy.

Dear Ija from the author -wishing her to use this [book] to combat the very worst enemies, to fight against "those enemies" to liberate our lands. [signature illegible] (translater's note about inscription: Ija Taubmann Kessler, Tolstoy Foundation, future wife of V.V.Pozdnyakov) [Editorial note: The handwritten inscription is difficult to decipher owing to scan quality. "Ija" is the recipient's name as legible in the original. The above represents the closest recoverable reading of the remaining text.]

C'est en inventant les boîtes-cadeaux Smartbox que Pierre-Édouard Stérin a fait fortune. Exilé fiscal en Belgique depuis 2012, le milliardaire catholique ultraconservateur, encore récemment inconnu du grand public, est dépeint dans comme le "Saint patron de l'extrême droite française". Son nom apparaît sur la scène publique quand il tente-comme d'autres milliardaires qui investissent dans les médias, y voyant des leviers d'influence-de racheter le magazine Marianne. En vain. La rédaction s'y oppose, refusant que son journal devienne un tract d'extrême droite. Mais le personnage intrigue… Au point qu'il est convoqué par une commission d'enquête sur l'organisation des élections en France. Convocation qu'il décide, à deux reprises, de ne pas honorer. Ou bien uniquement en visioconférence, ce que les députés refusent. Son projet est un projet d’extrême droite très structuré et capable de permettre la prise de pouvoir anti-démocratique en France.

У статті розглянуто концепцію відкритої науки як стратегічного інструменту монетизації консалтингових послуг українських науковців. Показано трансформацію відкритої науки з етичного імперативу у маркетинговий механізм, що забезпечує формування довіри клієнтів, підвищення конкурентоспроможності та комерціалізацію результатів досліджень. На основі аналізу європейських програм («Горизонт Європа», E-COST) та національних ініціатив (Національний план дій щодо відкритої науки, AKIS) окреслено ключові механізми монетизації: грантова підтримка, контент-маркетинг, розвиток цифрового бренду науковця, інтеграція у міжнародні мережі. Запропоновано системну модель, що концептуалізує відкриту науку як багаторівневу платформу комерціалізації знань, де відкриті публікації, дані та інструменти створюють «воронку продажів» для консалтингових послуг. Визначено основні виклики впровадження (ефект «free-rider», варіативність якості даних, культурний опір) та окреслено шляхи їх подолання через сертифікацію, партнерства й мережування. Зроблено висновок, що системна реалізація принципів відкритої науки є ключовим чинником підвищення міжнародної видимості та економічної цінності українських дослідників у глобальному ринку знань.

This paper explores Open Science as a strategic instrument for monetizing consulting services in the Ukrainian academic context. It highlights the transformation of Open Science from an ethical imperative into a marketing mechanism that fosters trust, enhances competitiveness, and enables commercialization of research outputs. Drawing on European initiatives such as Horizon Europe and E-COST, as well as national programs including the National Action Plan on Open Science and AKIS, the study identifies key monetization pathways: grant-based funding, content marketing, digital branding of researchers, and integration into international networks. A systemic model is proposed that conceptualizes Open Science as a multi-level platform for knowledge commercialization, where open publications, datasets, and tools generate a “sales funnel” for consulting services. Challenges such as the “free-rider” effect, variability in data quality, and cultural resistance are discussed, alongside solutions involving certification, partnerships, and networking. The findings suggest that systematic implementation of Open Science principles is a decisive factor in strengthening the global visibility and economic value of Ukrainian researchers within the knowledge economy.

This article explores the ramifications of the war in Ukraine on Serbian politics. Attention is paid to the governing Serbian Progressive Party/SNS and the "broader right" (national conservative, radical, and extreme right) between 2022 and 2025. This study demonstrates that the war granted Serbia's "broader right" a temporary "common ground" but not a long-term opportunity structure against SNS. The nexus of Russophilia in Serbia is not "fixed" but situationally adaptive. It is conditional upon ideology, the patterns of political engagement among heterogeneous actors, and the unpredictable impact of watersheds in domestic politics.

This study focuses on Albania and North Macedonia during the 2020-2024 period, offering a comparative analysis of their EU accession paths and examining how the European Union's conditionality mechanism functions. With the introduction of the new negotiation methodology, which places the "fundamentals" namely the rule of law, judicial independence, and fundamental rights at the core, the research evaluates both countries' progress dynamics through indicators such as crossing the IBAR threshold and alignment with the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). Albania, through judicial reform and full compliance with the CFSP, succeeded in opening the "Fundamentals" cluster in 2024. North Macedonia, however, did not fulfill the constitutional amendment condition, causing its accession process to come to a standstill. The study argues that EU conditionality produces meaningful results only when accompanied by internal political agreement and institutional strength. Freedom House democracy scores reveal that stable normative convergence depends on solid domestic reform rather than external pressure alone. Building on this insight, the study develops a hybrid explanation of EU enlargement based on the interaction of threshold effects, signal alignment, and institutional agency. The findings show that conditionality in the Western Balkans operates unevenly, with reform sustainability tied closely to institutional capacity.

This study examines the evolu�on of Nigeria-Poland rela�ons with a par�cular focus on trade expansion and defense coopera�on in the post-Cold War era. It explores how both na�ons have leveraged diploma�c engagements, economic agreements, and security partnerships to strengthen bilateral �es since the early 1990s. The study is anchored on the so� power theory with data collected from secondary sources and content analysis employed for analyzing the data collected data. The study highlights the structural transforma�on of trade rela�ons, no�ng Poland's increasing interest in Nigeria's energy and agricultural sectors, as well as Nigeria's importa�on of Polish machinery, fer�lizers, and defense equipment. It also assesses the significance of defense coopera�on through military training exchanges, peacekeeping collabora�on, and mari�me security ini�a�ves. The analysis situates Nigeria-Poland rela�ons within the broader framework of South-North coopera�on and so� power diplomacy, emphasizing how mutual economic and strategic interests have fostered resilience and adaptability in their partnership. The study concludes that sustained dialogue, ins�tu�onal linkages, and diversifica�on of trade and defense rela�ons are essen�al for deepening Nigeria-Poland coopera�on in an increasingly mul�polar world. Nigeria-Poland rela�ons, trade expansion, defense coopera�on, post-Cold War era, so� power diplomacy.

I profili professionali svolgono una funzione centrale nei sistemi formativi: da essi dipende la strutturazione dei curricoli e la validità dei processi di certificazione delle competenze acquisite in contesti non formali e informali. Tuttavia, l'analisi di casi concreti evidenzia due ordini di problemi che ne minano l'efficacia. Il primo riguarda la completezza redazionale: lacune che non riflettono il lavoro reale dei professionisti a cui il profilo si riferisce. Il secondo riguarda la solidità del modello di competenza sottostante: l'uso impreciso delle categorie concettuali, in particolare la confusione tra compiti principali, secondari e indicatori, produce profili internamente contraddittori. Questo contributo analizza entrambi i problemi attraverso il confronto tra il profilo dell'Orientatore della Regione Emilia-Romagna e quello della Regione Lombardia, mostrando come il supporto alla ricerca attiva di lavoro e la conduzione di gruppi orientativi-attività centrali nella pratica professionale-siano mal collocati in entrambi i profili, sia pure con difetti di natura diversa.

Ολοκληρώνοντας την πολύμηνη προσπάθεια εκπόνησης της πτυχιακής εργασίας, θα ήθελα να ευχαριστήσω όλους όσους βοήθησαν καθοριστικά στην ολοκλήρωση της. Κατ' αρχάς, θα ήθελα να ευχαριστήσω όλους τους φοιτητές και τις φοιτήτριες που συμμετείχαν στην ποιοτική έρευνα. Η συζήτηση μαζί τους, μου παρείχε πολύτιμο υλικό, το οποίο ευελπιστώ να αξιοποιήθηκε αναλόγως στο ερευνητικό πλαίσιο της παρούσας εργασίας. Τις πιο θερμές μου όμως ευχαριστίες, οφείλω να τις εκφράσω στον επιβλέπων καθηγητή της εργασίας, τον κύριο Σερντεδάκι Νικόλαο, του οποίου η συμβολή υπήρξε ανεκτίμητη σε όλη τη διαδρομή. Στάθηκε συνοδοιπόρος σε μια πορεία αρκετά απαιτητική για εμένα. Η καθοδήγηση του, οι πολύτιμες συμβουλές και η αμέριστη υποστήριξη του, ήταν ανεκτίμητη για την ολοκλήρωση της εργασίας. Ευχαριστώ επίσης όλα τα μέλη της επιτροπής για τις συμβουλές και τις παρατηρήσεις τους, οι οποίες συνέβαλαν στη βελτίωση της εργασίας αυτής. Επιπλέον, θα ήθελα να ευχαριστήσω την οικογένεια μου για την αμέριστη στήριξη και ενθάρρυνση που μου παρείχαν καθ' όλη τη διάρκεια των σπουδών μου. Η υπομονή και η κατανόηση τους ήταν καθοριστικής σημασίας για την επιτυχία μου. Τέλος, θερμές ευχαριστίες οφείλω και στους φίλους και συμφοιτητές μου, για την αλληλεγγύη και τη βοήθεια τους στις δύσκολες στιγμές της πορείας μου. Φωκά Δήμητρα Μαρία ΠΕΡΙΛΗΨΗ Κατά τη διάρκεια του χειμερινού εξαμήνου 2023-2024, ξεκίνησε η προσπάθεια για τη διεξαγωγή της πτυχιακής εργασίας. Σκοπός της παρούσας εργασίας, είναι η διερεύνηση και η μελέτη της πολιτικής συμπεριφοράς των νέων στην Ελλάδα, από την περίοδο της οικονομικής κρίσης και έπειτα, με έμφαση στις διαδικασίες αλλά και τους παράγοντες που την επηρεάζουν. Κεντρικός στόχος, είναι η κατανόηση της πολιτικοποίησης και της αποπολιτικοποίησης των νέων πολιτών, αλλά και των διάφορων μορφών πολιτικής συμμετοχής που οι ίδιοι υιοθετούν. Επιπλέον επιδιώκεται η ανάλυση των κοινωνικών, οικογενειακών και πολιτισμικών παραγόντων που διαμορφώνουν την πολιτική συμπεριφορά, με σκοπό να εντοπιστούν τα κύρια αίτια της αποπολιτικοποίησης. Η συγκεκριμένη μελέτη, βασίζεται σε εκτενείς βιβλιογραφικές πηγές, αλλά και στην ποιοτική έρευνα, συμπεριλαμβανομένων των ομάδων εστίασης -focus group, προκειμένου να δημιουργηθεί μια σφαιρική εικόνα των ιδεολογιών και των εμπειριών των νέων στην Ελλάδα. Μέσω της παρούσας έρευνας, επιδιώκεται η συμβολή στην ακαδημαϊκή συζήτηση για την πολιτική συμμετοχή, καθώς και η παροχή πρωτοβουλιών για την ενίσχυση της εμπλοκής των νέων, στη πολιτική ζωή.

El reciente vuelco político en Hungría tras las elecciones de abril de 2026,  marca un punto de inflexión histórico para la Unión Europea. Durante más de una década, Budapest utilizó el principio de unanimidad como un mecanismo de chantaje político, bloqueando decisiones críticas que requerían el consenso de los Veintisiete. Con la eliminación de este obstáculo sistemático, se abre una ventana de oportunidad para profundizar en la integración europea en áreas que hasta ayer parecían estancadas. En el artículo se señalan las materias donde la Unión Europea puede avanzar, así como algunas propuestas legales para asegurar que un bloqueo de esta magnitud no vuelva a repetirse.

This edited volume examines Europe's (sub)regional groupings-Benelux, Nordic Council, Baltic Group, Visegrád Four, and EU Med-as nested institutions interacting with, complementing, or contesting EU integration. Framed by shelter theory and diferentiated integration, the book assesses their historical origins, institutionalisation, functions (vanguard, functional cooperation, coordination, resistance), and efects on EU policymaking. Part I revisits Benelux as laboratory and model across internal market, JHA, defence, and police cooperation; Part II surveys other groupings and macro-regional strategies. Through comparative case studies, it tests expectations about the regularity of meetings, institutionalisation, and policy ambitions to understand when and how smaller states leverage regional coalitions to shape Europe today. A must-read for anyone interested in the underexplored engines of European integration-especially in an era of renewed geopolitical tension and shifting alliances.

ISBN: 978-90-04-76126-1

Запропоновано комплексний підхід до оцінювання умов ведення
електронної комерції малими та середніми формами бізнесу в Україні та країнах ЄС на прикладі Німеччини. Розроблено багатокритеріальну модель оцінювання, яка враховує містобудівні, економічні, соціальні та правові чинники, важливі для функціонування електронної комерції. На основі експертного оцінювання та інтегрального критерію здійснено порівняльний аналіз привабливості ведення е-комерції в Україні та Німеччині. Результати дослідження засвідчили, що за сукупністю практичних критеріїв Україна є більш привабливою для малого та середнього e-commerce-бізнесу навіть в умовах воєнного часу.

This paper examines a structural challenge in Luxembourg’s macroprudential framework: the limited integration of housing-market risk monitoring, supervisory visibility, and emerging wholesale settlement innovation. As a highly interconnected AAA-rated financial centre, Luxembourg benefits from strong institutional foundations but faces growing pressures from housing affordability constraints, demographic change, cross-border labour dependence, and evolving financial-market infrastructure requirements.

The paper proposes a Supervisory Visibility Infrastructure (SVI) framework designed to strengthen macroprudential resilience through enhanced monitoring, data integration, and coordinated supervisory oversight. It argues that improving visibility across housing-market indicators, financial-sector exposures, and systemic risk channels can support earlier policy intervention and more effective risk management. The framework also explores the potential role of controlled wholesale settlement innovation within existing Eurosystem arrangements, emphasizing that central bank money remains the anchor of settlement and that any innovation should operate within established regulatory and monetary-policy boundaries.

In addition, the paper assesses institutional coordination among Luxembourg’s supervisory and macroprudential authorities, including the Comité du Risque Systémique (CdRS), and identifies opportunities to improve information-sharing, escalation pathways, and operational preparedness. Rather than advocating radical structural change, the paper presents a phased and pragmatic policy blueprint aimed at strengthening resilience, preserving financial stability, and supporting Luxembourg’s long-term competitiveness as an international financial centre.

This paper examines Egypt's role in the evolving governance architecture of the Rafah Crossing under conditions of constrained sovereignty. While existing analyses have focused on macro-level sovereignty structures (SCBS), bypass strategies (BPM), and micro-operational control systems (CPC), limited attention has been given to the adaptive role of regional actors operating within asymmetric control environments. The study introduces the concept of Adaptive Sovereignty to describe how Egypt engages with, reshapes, and partially reconfigures border operations without possessing full operational control. Rather than exercising absolute authority or withdrawing from the system, Egypt performs strategic interventions that recalibrate spatial routing, preserve geopolitical continuity, and limit the full operationalization of externally imposed control architectures. Through qualitative structural analysis and operational reconstruction, the paper identifies key mechanisms of adaptive sovereignty, including spatial re-linking, routing correction, and selective operational containment. These interventions do not dismantle control systems but constrain their expansion and redefine their functional boundaries. The findings suggest that sovereignty under constraint is neither absent nor fully dominant; it operates as a dynamic regulatory force that mitigates systemic imbalance. The study contributes to border governance literature by introducing a fourth analytical layer that bridges sovereignty structures, bypass mechanisms, and operational control systems within complex conflict environments.

This article aims at exploring and presenting a set of essential personal characteristics necessary to form the leader in the municipal administration in the Republic of Bulgaria. It uses data from a specially
designed online survey among the mayors in the municipalities on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria, as well as the regional mayors of the
cities of Sofia, Plovdiv and Varna. In this article, the focus will be on one
of the questionnaires used in the study. It includes questions grouped in
five building blocks and aims at revealing different aspects of the person‘s
personality who form his/her personal profile. The methods of analysis
that are used are descriptive statistics, the calculation of mean values, and the testing of statistical hypotheses. The analysis identifies the essential personality characteristics that are derived on the basis of the completed questionnaires by the mayors. Statistically significant differences in gender are observed mainly in terms of the Emotionality building block.

Political legitimacy is a contested yet essential topic concerned with multiple issues
and values. Still, despite this importance there is no clear answer to what constitutes
legitimate political authority. This lack of answer means that there are many
conflicting approaches that contribute to the evaluation of the legitimacy of a political
authority which causes confusion regarding what practical stances should be taken
regarding the possible legitimacy conflicts at hand. Descriptive approaches suggest
that a political authority is legitimate so long as it is capable of imposing its power on
those it governs while prescriptive approaches suggest that political legitimacy stems
from reliance on moral conditions, lastly, the critical approaches suggest that political
legitimacy could only be derived from true emancipation. All these approaches
perceive the truth only partially and this work argues that for their weaknesses to be
resolved they must be combined to bring about a more complete approach through
dialogue, moral realism. This approach integrates ideal guidance with non-ideal
diagnostic to achieve this.
This paper will argue that this can be achieved by combining de jure and de facto
legitimacy as ideal and practical legitimacy, arguing that both are indispensable to
understanding political legitimacy. It will be argued that moral realism, the suggestion
that moral rules are self evident, should draw the limits of practical applicability. This
is to be achieved through dialogue, where those affected by the political authority
discuss what ought to be done in a given situation even going far enough to suggest
what sort of steps should be taken in the case of living under an authoritarian
illegitimate regime.
To ground the theory put forward in this paper, three different cases of legitimacy
deficiency will be evaluated with the treatment the Columbia University gets by the
administration of Donald Trump, expelling of Central European University Viktor
Orbán and the overall militarization of the academia in the Russian Federation. These
examples will serve as tools for evaluating issues of political legitimacy related to the
concept of academic autonomy.

A disturbing proposal to finance government expenditure by central banks is the MMT (Modern Monetary Policy) concept, which assumes that an important source of the government's revenue should be the issuance of money by the government (in fact by the central bank, which in this concept becomes an integral part of the government). Then creating money "out of nothing" is limitless, and fiscal expenditures lead directly to an increase in the amount of money in circulation. It is difficult to understand the belief that the effects of such situation will be only beneficial, and that no side or undesirable effects are to take place. Especially if, as a last resort, the solution comes down to making entries in the books of the central bank, and its balance sheet total grows indefinitely. But should the abolition of fiscal rules be introduced by the MMT supporters, this absurd situation will eventually force them to admit that some limiting rules are needed. And then a question returns of what these rules should be, but also who is to establish them, how they are to be established, and who is to guarantee their observance. Normative order in society exists not by means of sanctions themselves, but as a result of cultural (axio-normative) social choice and empowerment, which form the basis of its formal and legal foundation. Therefore, if someone demands abolition of rules, including fiscal rules, because they are ineffective, they should bear in mind that such argumentation is bound to lead to the weakening of the entire normative order and all the rules written into it. Then, the rules gradually cease to apply, and so the resulting limitations as well as the resulting social benefits disappear. There is no credibility of the state without following the rules that this state has established. Observance of the rules ensures predictability, and without it, stabilization of economic conditions necessary for the functioning of the economy cannot be achieved. Crucial for economic credibility of the state is respecting international obligations, i.e. bilateral agreements concluded with other states, and even to a greater extent multilateral treaties often associated with membership in international organizations. These define the functioning of domestic economic agents in the economic dimension in the international arena and the involvement of individual and institutional foreign entities in the economic life of the country. Economic credibility of the state is a specific type of public good that is and must be instrumentalised in order to benefit from it. The crux lies in the fact that the means of instrumentalizing this good should sustain and produce it, and not destroy it. Of fundamental importance is the quality of economic information produced by the state and its agencies. The reverse is tampering with statistics or government propaganda, rather than integral information. Such instrumental exploitation of credibility leads to lowering trust and undermining credibility. Chart 1. Poland's economic credibility index * due to the fact that some of the used databases contained the most up-to-date information for the year 2021, while some of them for the year 2019 only, the index was calculated using the common period 2019-2021, of which the latest available data was classified for calculations Table 2. Weights of indicators in the area of legislation (percentage) Legislation Number of legal acts that entered into force in specific years -30% Lack of any documentation from consultations at RCL -40% No reaction on the part of authors towards opinions issued by RCL -30% Source: own study Value of the Credibility Index in 2020 for the area: The Rule of Law -1.06

Disclaimer This paper is intended as an educational explanation of the Droop quota and its role in PR-STV elections. The examples are simplified for clarity and are designed to help readers understand why the quota is calculated by dividing the valid poll by one more than the number of seats and then adding one. The precise rules for PR-STV counts may vary depending on the election, jurisdiction, statute, regulations, and official counting procedure being applied. This paper should therefore not be treated as a substitute for official electoral rules, statutory provisions, legal advice, or formal electoral guidance governing any particular election.

Entering the Fascist-Marxist Twilight Zone, chapter 23, Freeland Press, 2025 L.K. Samuels and the Freedom Riders Groupe Fascism and Communism are closely related, a narrative that Joseph Stalin famously displayed after the Hitler-Stalin Pact (Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) was signed in 1939. Hitler and Stalin were like two peas in a pod as Russia traded oil and iron for Germany's advanced warplanes and weaponry. Nazis and Communists often held large drunken feasts in Moscow, cheering for each other's health. Both of these left-wing authoritarian socialist movements sat on the same side of the political spectrum. However, this political romance only lasted for about two years. Like many romances, this one disintegrated not over ideology but over power and territory. Communism and Fascism were never polar opposites, as pointed out by England's former Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who in the 1940s emphatically declared to his son, "Fascism and Communism...

Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine created renewed momentum for EU enlargement. The aspiring members are at different stages of the EU accession process. This briefing examines economic, budgetary, trade and digital developments in nine enlargement countries, and explores the role of EU policies in shaping these trends. Progress in aligning with the EU acquis and deeper integration into the EU market and programmes could support increased trade and investment, while contributing to faster economic convergence.

Table of contents Introduction 3 Brigitte Leucht and Katja Seidel Merger Control and the European Courts: A historical institutionalist account 5 Nathalie Aubry Rhetorical convergence: The motivations and effects of German support to Eastward Enlargement in 14 the definition of a ...

I diritti di riproduzione e di adattamento anche parziale della presente opera (compresi i microfilm, i CD e le fotocopie) sono riservati per tutti i Paesi. Le riproduzioni totali, o parziali che superino il 15% del volume, verranno perseguite in sede civile e in sede penale presso i produttori, i rivenditori, i distributori,

The views expressed are those of the author and do not represent the views of any institution. For formal rules governing Irish elections, readers should consult the relevant legislation, official guidance from An Coimisiún Toghcháin, and the instructions issued to Returning Officers.

Κράτος και πολιτικό σύστημα. Πολιτικό σύστημα, πολιτειακό καθεστώς και πολίτευμα. Θεωρίες της δημοκρατίας. Το δημοκρατικό πολίτευμα και το αντιπροσωπευτικό σύστημα. Η σχέση κοινωνίας και πολιτικής. Η κοινωνία στο πολιτικό σύστημα. Η ιδιότητα του πολίτη. Εκλογές, ομάδες συμφερόντων και διαδικασίες λήψεως των αποφάσεων.

This study examines how individual political predispositions and national mobilisation contexts jointly structure protest participation in contemporary Europe across the pre-pandemic, pandemic and post-pandemic periods. Using data from Rounds 9, 10 and 11 of the European Social Survey (2018–2023), the analytical sample includes 106,106 respondents from 33 countries. Descriptively, protest participation remains a minority behaviour, yet displays pronounced cross-national heterogeneity, with participation rates ranging from below 3% in several Central and Eastern European countries to nearly 20% in the most mobilised contexts and remains remarkably stable across rounds at approximately 8.5%. Building on resource mobilisation theory, political process approaches and New Social Movements perspectives, the analysis conceptualises protest participation not as an isolated behavioural act but as the outcome of interactions between individual resources, evaluative orientations toward democratic institutions and broader mobilisation environments. Logistic regression models, country fixed-effects specifications and multilevel models with random intercepts are used to assess these relationships. At the individual level, political engagement emerges as the strongest predictor of participation: higher political interest is associated with substantially higher protest propensity, while ideological self-placement indicates lower participation among respondents positioned further to the right. Younger age and higher education also increase participation. Lower satisfaction with democracy and stronger perceptions of inequality are consistently associated with protest behaviour, supporting grievance-based interpretations linked to democratic evaluations rather than material deprivation alone. Country fixed-effects and multilevel models confirm that these individual-level associations are robust within countries, while significant between-country variation persists (random-intercept SD = 0.554), indicating that national mobilisation environments shape baseline levels of protest participation. Multilevel results further reveal that protest participation was significantly lower during the pandemic period (Round 10) relative to the pre-pandemic baseline, with only partial recovery in the post-pandemic period. A cross-round comparison demonstrates that the core individual-level associations are stable across all three periods, indicating that these relationships reflect durable structural patterns rather than dynamics specific to any particular mobilisation cycle. Beyond this overall stability, the analysis identifies two theoretically informative exceptions: subjective financial difficulty is significant only in the pre-pandemic period and gender differences in protest participation attenuate over time—patterns consistent with broader shifts in protest repertoires during and after the pandemic. These findings make three contributions to the comparative literature on contentious politics. First, by extending the analysis across three ESS rounds, the study demonstrates the temporal robustness of individual-level determinants of protest—an empirical question rarely addressed in the existing literature. Second, the multilevel design with round fixed effects allows for direct estimation of pandemic-related suppression and post-pandemic recovery in protest activity at the aggregate level. Third, the cross-national scope and temporally structured comparison provide new evidence on how individual political predispositions interact with shifting mobilisation environments across a period of exceptional socio-political strain in Europe.

The views expressed are those of the author and do not represent the views of any institution. For formal rules governing Irish elections, readers should consult the relevant legislation, official guidance from An Coimisiún Toghcháin, and the instructions issued to Returning Officers.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected every aspect of life, including higher education. The academic community has been forced to use new ways of teaching and learning. At the beginning of the second semester of the academic year 2019/2020, distance and online education was introduced in all higher education institutions (HEIs) in Poland. The pandemic-forced distance learning changed not only education process but also students' attitude towards combining a study with work generating pay or income. Hence, the aim of the presentation is to show and discus full-time students' activity on labour market in Poland before and after the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. The Authors claim that during the pandemic time, full-time students in Poland became more active on labour market and it is very likely that in the future they will insist on authorities of HEIs to implement both classroom and distance learning to help them balance better working hours with timetable classes. The analysis of students' activity on labour market is based on a questionnaire survey conducted from December 18, 2021 to February 14, 2022 via www.webankieta.pl. A total of 270 students who lived in Poland in the years 2020-2021 participated in the study. During the pandemic time a number of full-time students who perform work generating pay or income significantly increased. What's more, students worked more hours per week than before 2020. In the years 2018-2019, above 40 per cent of respondents worked above 20 hours per week while between 2020 and 2021 a half of surveyed full-time students declared that they worked 20 hours or more per week. It is worth noting that respondents declared much higher level of job satisfaction during the pandemic time than before 2020. In both periods of the analysis students primarily concluded order-agreement and fixed-term employment contracts and worked in two branches i.e. accommodation and food service activities and wholesale and retail trade. Their main motivations to perform work didn't change much. The most often students pointed out that they had performed work generating pay or income to be self-sufficient and gain professional experience. It seems that students in Poland adapted well to the pandemic reality and full distance learning. One third of respondents do not want to return to classroom learning. The higher educational system will face didactic and organizational challenges in the future. Актуальність дослідження. Соціокультурний простір Суспільств світу ХХІ століття в своїй номінації пов'язаний із виникненням концепцій -моделей «інформаційного суспільства» та поняттям «індустрії знань» із п'ятьма секторами інформаційної діяльності у суспільстві: освіта, наукові дослідженняі розробки, засоби масової інформації, інформаційні технології та інформаційні послуги (Ф. Махлуп). Концептуалізацію основ сучасної вищої школи на усіх рівнях в більшій мірі можливо визначити на теоретичному рівні (до створення уявлення) -як «комунікативно-віртуальні» та на методичному (до змісту визначення) -як структурно-«нео-діалектичні матриці», які наповнені «певним» інформаційним змістом, з особливими проявленими завданнями-протиріччями управління якістю підготовки фахівціву вищій освіті, що викликає потребу уваги до даної проблематики для створення концептуального нового підходу до розуміння сутності принципів управління, взаємодії та взаємовідношень в самому процесі навчання. Основний зміст. В сучасній вищій освіті, де «класично-традиційне» навчання пов'язане із віртуальною реальністюяк вторинної «штучної реальності», а також взаємообумовлене програмами-продуктами інформаційно-комп'ютерних технологій, привертає увагу існування особливого «образно-об'єктногопредметного простору» -«комунікаційно-віртуального», який перебуває в своєрідній структурній «павутині образно-знакових відносин», де кожний елемент даної «павутини», вплетений певною частиною в іншу «павутину» -з іншими центрами (Дж. Ділі), створює, в наслідку, об'єктивний -«цілісний» концептуальний простір, що в цілому привносить свої корективи та змінює погляд на теоретично-методичні принципи -концептуалізацію основ навчання та управління якістю підготовки фахівців. Актуальним вважаємо звернення уваги до концептуальних основ -«комунікаційно-віртуальних» принципів підготовки у вищій освіті із констатацією того, що «віртуальність» сприяєяк доповнення до традиційних форм уявлення, більш глибокому проникненню та виявлення специфічних властивостей предмету дослідження. В контексті нашого дослідження виокремлюємо концептуальні методологічні підстави, виходячи із наступних позицій: задіяний «семіотико -феноменологічний підхід» охоплює соціокультурний образний простір; семіотично -образний простір (мова, текст,

This paper analyzes the redefinition of the social order through the impact of fake news and the digital "programming" of individuals, contrasting institutional theories with political praxis. Based on the phenomenon initiated by Obama and the current saturation of social media, the text critiques the "square order" proposed by Sánchez de la Barquera and the institutional incapacity described by Huntington. Through the lenses of Sartori, Luhmann, and Zemelman, the study argues that power is a factual truth exercised through technical-communicative systems rather than mere doctrines. It addresses the "tropicalization" of political environments in Mexico, the evolution of influence through technology-from bulbs to microchips-and challenges the effectiveness of AI and its detection programs in doctoral-level academic discourse.

Research suggests that when RLPs enter national government their linkages tend to weaken because policy compromise is followed by movement demobilisation, and as the party in public office gains influence over the party organisation. Little is known, however, about radical left linkage or potential incumbency effects at the local level where RLPs have more experience of governing. This article addresses this gap by focusing on four RLPs, that headed local councils during the last decade (AKEL, Die Linke, SP, and SV). The analysis of the reported linkage activities of the respective local branches of these parties before and after taking office questions whether an incumbency effect exists at the local level. The findings instead demonstrate that RLPs tend to engage in local level linkages which directly promote aspects of their radical left policy agenda and highlight the role of ideological and organisational variables in shaping RLP links with social groups.

V tomto stručném referátu, předneseném 14. 5. 2026 na Schumanově dnu v Praze 5, jsem se pokusil nastínit odpověď na otázku, proč Francouzské Národní shromáždění odmítlo v roce 1954 ratifikovat smlouvu o Evropském obranném společenství (EOS), které přitom původně ve Francii vzniklo. Ztroskotání tohoto pokusu o společnou evropskou armádu představovalo klíčový zlom v poválečném procesu evropské integrace.

Football in Cameroon changed dramatically once international transfers became common. Earlier generations often built entire careers inside local clubs or nearby African leagues. Modern football created completely different reality. Talented players now attract global attention much earlier. European scouts monitor youth tournaments, academy competitions, and local leagues constantly across Cameroon. One impressive performance may suddenly open doors toward France, Belgium, Portugal, or other international football markets. These transfers transformed Cameroonian football in several important ways. Players gained access to stronger tactical systems, advanced training methods, and elite competition abroad. Local supporters also started following international leagues much more closely because Cameroonian athletes appeared everywhere. Transfer culture therefore influenced both professional football and everyday fan experience throughout the country. Young players changed career ambitions. Coaches adapted training methods. Supporters became more tactically informed through exposure to international football styles. This evolution continues shaping Cameroon football every season.

This study examines the evolution of Nigeria-Poland relations with a particular focus on trade expansion and defense cooperation in the post-Cold War era. It explores how both nations have leveraged diplomatic engagements, economic agreements, and security partnerships to strengthen bilateral ties since the early 1990s. The study is anchored on the soft power theory with data collected from secondary sources and content analysis employed for analyzing the data collected data. The study highlights the structural transformation of trade relations, noting Poland's increasing interest in Nigeria's energy and agricultural sectors, as well as Nigeria's importation of Polish machinery, fertilizers, and defense equipment. It also assesses the significance of defense cooperation through military training exchanges, peacekeeping collaboration, and maritime security initiatives. The analysis situates Nigeria-Poland relations within the broader framework of South-North cooperation and soft power diplomacy, emphasizing how mutual economic and strategic interests have fostered resilience and adaptability in their partnership. The study concludes that sustained dialogue, institutional linkages, and diversification of trade and defense relations are essential for deepening Nigeria-Poland cooperation in an increasingly multipolar world. Key words Nigeria-Poland relations, trade expansion, defense cooperation, post-Cold War era, soft power diplomacy.

This study examines the evolu�on of Nigeria-Poland rela�ons with a par�cular focus on trade expansion and defense coopera�on in the post-Cold War era. It explores how both na�ons have leveraged diploma�c engagements, economic agreements, and security partnerships to strengthen bilateral �es since the early 1990s. The study is anchored on the so� power theory with data collected from secondary sources and content analysis employed for analyzing the data collected data. The study highlights the structural transforma�on of trade rela�ons, no�ng Poland's increasing interest in Nigeria's energy and agricultural sectors, as well as Nigeria's importa�on of Polish machinery, fer�lizers, and defense equipment. It also assesses the significance of defense coopera�on through military training exchanges, peacekeeping collabora�on, and mari�me security ini�a�ves. The analysis situates Nigeria-Poland rela�ons within the broader framework of South-North coopera�on and so� power diplomacy, emphasizing how mutual economic and strategic interests have fostered resilience and adaptability in their partnership. The study concludes that sustained dialogue, ins�tu�onal linkages, and diversifica�on of trade and defense rela�ons are essen�al for deepening Nigeria-Poland coopera�on in an increasingly mul�polar world. Nigeria-Poland rela�ons, trade expansion, defense coopera�on, post-Cold War era, so� power diplomacy.

Good morning, world. Journalists like me spend a lot of time focusing on the leaders of countries. Fair enough-they set the agenda and need to be held accountable. But it's the people below them who carry out that agenda. And in the case of autocracies, where carrying out the work of the state can involve tasks like intimidation or even torture, there have long been questions about why anyone would sign up to be, in effect, a sinister bureaucrat. Argentine security forces in 1982 in Buenos Aires. Horacio Villalobos/Corbis, via Getty Images

This article explores the national role conceptions (NRCs) and underlying sources that Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia adopt in their foreign policy orientations. Applying Holsti's (1970) role theory, we conducted a comparative and discourse-sensitive content analysis of leaders' addresses at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) between 2008 and 2024. The analysis contends that leaders' foreign policy discourse is shaped by a coexisting role tension between identity-missioned and conflict-oriented Balkanisation versus norm-missioned and cooperation-oriented Europeanisation. First, identity-missioned active independent and liberation supporter roles, with pertinent sources of international principles, perception of threat, humanitarian concern, and historical legacies, discursively reproduce Balkanisation across interstate and regional levels. Second, norm-missioned role of faithful ally, grounded in sense of belonging, geographical location, humanitarian concerns, and economic needs, functions as a catalyst for cooperation-oriented discursive Europeanisation at the international level. Third, Serbia, redefining the role tension between Europeanisation and Balkanisation, emerges as a sui generis case. Belgrade's distinct roles, excluding faithful ally and including anti-imperialist agent, and ever-changing interpretations of sources set it apart from other states.

The Hungarian parliamentary elections held on 26 April 2026, with extraordinarily high voter turnout, triggered an unprecedented wave of euphoria across Hungary and Europe.

Voters’ decisions finally brought an end to 16 years of illiberal and autocratic governance and, with it, a hope of reversing a technocratic science-policy regime that had profoundly reshaped Hungarian higher education, research and the concept of academic autonomy in Hungary and beyond.

This is a master plan that fuses geopolitical diagnosis, institutional economics, and great-power strategic design into a single, coherent blueprint for Europe’s next fifteen years. Its central judgment is as cold as it is clear: American hegemony is entering a 15-to-20-year structural collapse—encompassing economic foundations, social cohesion, and military overextension—and if Europe continues to serve as a “blood bag” for the transatlantic system, it will become a pawn on the great-power chessboard by the 2040s, not a player.

The book weaves “strategic autonomy” and “mutually beneficial symbiosis” into a unified strategic logic. The author does not indulge in the fantasy of incremental reform within Brussels’ bureaucratic machinery. Instead, it designs an immediately executable “Franco-German dual-track architecture”: the full EU-27 provides institutional legitimacy and funding scale, while the E6 core group (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland, the Netherlands) serves as the real strategic engine, leveraging Article 20 of the Treaty on Lisbon—“enhanced cooperation”—to bypass the unanimity trap that has paralyzed European action at every critical juncture.

What truly distinguishes this work from conventional EU studies is its complete strategic engineering across three continents.

The Russia dimension rejects the moralized prolongation of confrontation. It offers a rigorously phased, ten-year rapprochement roadmap: from political ice-breaking and high-level secret channels, to comprehensive agreement signing and staged sanctions relief, to deep institutional alignment between the EAEU and the EU Single Market, the reconstruction of the OSCE into a pan-European security body, and the construction of a euro-denominated energy settlement system. The ultimate objective is not appeasement, but a new security architecture “from the Atlantic to the Urals” that restores European energy security and strategic breathing room.

The Africa dimension abandons the charity logic of development aid in favor of industrial symbiosis and resource complementarity. Using the five North African countries as forward pivots, it maps the EU-Africa Industrial Corridor—European design and management, African production, European markets—across three implementation phases. It details the African Green Hydrogen Corridor as Europe’s future energy lifeline, and embeds human-capital bonds through European Partnership Universities and technical colleges that create a trans-Mediterranean professional network whose loyalty is structural, not sentimental.

The military dimension confronts Europe’s ultimate vulnerability: the absence of credible autonomous deterrence. It proposes the “Europeanization” of France’s nuclear arsenal through a shared-cost, shared-benefit framework, and the creation of a European Defence Joint Command—built around a five-nation core, independent from NATO but in transitional parallel—capable of autonomous judgment when core European interests diverge from Washington’s priorities.

Beneath this strategic superstructure lies a precision-built institutional OS. The legal and governance framework covers international-law compliance, bilateral investment treaties, sanctions-circumvention pathways, and ESG safeguards that preempt “neo-colonialism” accusations. The fiscal architecture introduces Strategic Autonomy Bonds collateralized by Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism revenues, a €30 billion Strategic Action Rapid Fund for agile deployment, and the concept of a Euro-African Development Investment Bank independent of the Washington-controlled system. The strategic-communications chapter provides narrative-reconstruction manuals to neutralize populist resistance and seize discourse initiative in the Global South.

If you follow EU institutional reform and the political mechanics of East-West interest coordination; if you track the energy geopolitics of the EU-Russia-China triangle; if you need a practical handbook that decomposes macro vision into annual indicators, financing leverage ratios, and legal pathways—this book delivers a rare, end-to-end strategic framework. It is not a wish list of what Europe should become. It is an operating-system upgrade: a detailed, budget-conscious, legally grounded manual for how Europe can complete the historical leap from vassal to pole without triggering systemic shock.

The boundaries of modernism are fluid, not only in purely temporal terms but also in sociological terms. The famous Polish sociologist Zygmund Bauman speaks about the very notion of fluid society, and according to him, fluid modernism has changed the way we think and experience the modern world. In his masterpiece Fluid Times, Bauman explores, examines, and attempts to explain the sources and causes of the endemic uncertainty that shapes life in a globalized world. This is primarily due to the speed and depth of change that has taken place over the past decades. These changes concern the fall of communism, the block division of the world, but also the enlargement of the European integration or the increase in the number of new nation-states and conflicts. Consequently, modern social interactions and processes create new sociological issues in society, which significantly change the direction of action of sociology itself. For this goal, modern sociology emphasizes focuses on citizen...