<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> Following the attempt by Alesina and Guiliano (2013) to measure global culture and to project these measurements onto real choropleth geographical world maps, we utilize the data from the World Values Survey (WVS) to arrive at robust measurement scales of global economic, political and social values and to assess Turkey’s place within them. Our study, which is based on 92,289 representative individuals with complete data in 68 countries, representing 56.89% of the global population, looks at hard-core economic values in these countries. From our new nine dimensions for the determination of the geography of human values, based on a promax factor analysis of the available data, we use six factor analytical scores to calculate a new Global Value Development Index, which combines: avoiding economic permissiveness; avoiding racism; avoiding distrust of the army and the press; avoiding the authoritarian character; tolerance and respect; and avoiding the rejection of the market economy and democracy. Turkey is ranked 25, ahead of several EU member countries. But there are still considerable deficits concerning the liberal values components, which are very important for effective democracy, and there are very large regional differences, confirming the dictum by Huntington (1996) about Turkey as a torn country.</abstract>

Testing Turkey’s Place Within the Maps of Global Economic, Political and Social Values

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>The conducted analysis evokes the polysemous character of the concept of laicism, which was influenced by modern political and philosophical ideas. Two positions have determined this: a diachronic one encompasses laicism as a process extended in time, and a synchronous one allows one to perceive the simultaneity of phenomena. Thus, the concept itself reveals its practical value, especially in the context of these challenges, which affect both the state crisis and the changing relationship between the State and the Church. This value is confirmed by an important place in the secular research that is based on the principles of sovereignty, equality and separation. Th us, laicism postulated and implemented in the democratic system and its reference to fundamental values should support, above all, the importance of arguments, mutual persuasion and decision-making procedures based on consensus.</abstract>

Laicism: Polysemy of the Term and its Determining Functions

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>The objective of this analysis is to examine political party leadership with reference to the rules and results of its selection process in post-communist Poland. The exploration of these matters is based on qualitative and quantitative data concerning 16 different political parties and 80 selections they conducted in the years 1990-2013. The comprehensive research methods employed for this study ranged from in-depth analysis of particular election results to analysis of constitutional and structural party variations. This extensive investigation enables the reader to draw conclusions about Polish intra-party politics and to understand the vetting processes that Polish politicians must undergo. The findings indicate that political parties tend to address wider selectorates; and that the rules of selection are transparent, democratic, and empirically predictable.</abstract>

The Selection of Party Leaders in Poland: Democratisation of Rules and Predictability of Results

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>The article discusses conceptualisation of populism, Lithuania’s party system and electoral dynamics and their relation to the sustainability of populist parties. Special attention is given to Party Order and Justice, a former populist and protest party, and its leadership, namely to the issues related to scope and competencies of a leader’s intra-partisan power, leadership selection rules and history, development of leaders’ political careers and their electoral activity. The L ithuanian party system now exhibits moderate fragmentation without centrifugal tendencies. Voter volatility is still relatively high, yet the share of new parties has dropped to zero. The protest and populist parties in Lithuania went into the margins of political establishment. Popularity of the Order and Justice party has long been connected to the formerly impeached president Rolandas Paksas. His long-term leadership in the face of plummeting electoral support and an emphasis on his political martyrdom resulted in poor electoral performances, ensuing internal squabbles and his departure. Party Order and Justice’s internal regulations, however, remained favourable to strong leadership.</abstract>

Populist Parties in Lithuania: Curious Case of Party Order and Justice and its Leadership

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>The main aim of the article is to present the relationship between urban policy and the marketing activity of the presidents of Wrocław, Wałbrzych, Legnica, and Jelenia Góra during the period of the 2014 local government election campaign. Analysis of the marketing activity of the presidents, conducted via chosen social media, enables presentation of the most important conditions and reasons for using urban policy in the competition for the support of citizens – potential voters. First, it will show that the marketing actions of a president during an election campaign are not the means of creating the image of a city but gaining the support of voters. Second, the analysis will prove that the election message constructed by presidents is based on the actions conducted in the various areas of urban policy.</abstract>

Urban Policy in Election Campaigns – The Case of the Presidents of the Biggest Cities of Lower Silesia

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>This article focuses on attitudes towards Russia in Bulgaria and Hungary — two EU and NATO countries with special relations to Russia — in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and military intervention in support of separatists in the Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine in 2014 and onwards. We begin by putting the relations to Russia in a historical perspective. We then set out to account for support for Russia with the help of survey data from the Post-Crimea Barometer (2015) — a unique survey focusing on geopolitical orientation (East versus West) and attitudes towards Russia in Latvia, Hungary and Bulgaria in a post-Crimea setting. Latvia is a special case because of its large Russian minority population; we therefore confine our comparison to Bulgaria and Hungary. The findings suggest that long-term attachment to Russia is decisive in Bulgaria. In Hungary, long-term attachment to Russia is important, but not sufficient to account for post-Crimea attitudes towards Russia.</abstract>

In the EU and NATO but Close to Russia — Post-Crimea Attitudes in Bulgaria and Hungary

Report of the “Euarenas Conference on the Radical Side of Participation”, Wrocław, 22.09.2023

Book Review: “Leksykon Mediacji”, Edited By Magdalena Cetera &amp; Magdalena Tabernacka, Published By Difin Sp. Z O.O, Warszawa 2023 Isbn 978-83-8270-192-0

<abstract>
<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
The Belarusian minority in Poland is the second largest national minority, almost entirely concentrated in Podlasie. Qualitative research conducted by our team in 2020 allowed diagnosis of the reasons for the “invisibility” of Belarusians. The Polish state’s policy has always influenced the mood of Belarusians who, despite being passive in creating their own political representation, are often identified as the electorate of left-wing parties. Currently, eight years after the 2015 elections won by the PiS party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, Law and Justice), Podlaskie Voivodeship is sometimes referred to as a “bastion of the right”, especially of extreme right-wing forces. The aim of the paper is to determine the impact of the current political situation on the sense of identity of the Belarusian minority by referring to the results of the National Census of 2002 and 2011, as well as the circumstances and results of the 2021 census. The analysis pays attention to factors such as historical policy, religion, and axiology, which determine the “borderland identity”. The research method used is primarily a comparative method, but we also applied the results of interviews based on scenarios, conducted in selected Podlasie municipalities with at least 50% of Polish Belarusians.
</abstract>

Changes of Polish Democracy and their Impact on Polish Belarusians

<abstract>
<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
This article explores some challenges of enforcing public accountability in Tanzania using secondary data. In so doing, the article employs the institutional perspective to identify and discuss five challenges within the institutional architecture that constrain enforcement of public accountability. The main argument is that most of the challenges facing enforcement of public accountability are resulting from the institutional architecture, which presents a paradox of two contradictory logics. One logic is that citizens are the principals with the power to hold their leaders accountable. The other logic is that the ability of citizens to hold their leaders to account must be restricted. Previous research offers explanations for accountability deficits in Tanzania. However, these studies under emphasize the contradictions in the legal framework and the role of political culture thereby obscuring an understanding of constraints to public accountability in Tanzania. This article expands this discourse by exploring the contradictions within the legal framework and between the formal and informal institutions in a way that subverts the ability of citizens to hold their leaders to account. The article also identifies the gap between the theory and practice of accountability to appreciate the role of political culture among citizens as a significant agency in enforcing accountability.
</abstract>

The Challenges of Enforcing Public Accountability: Experience from Tanzania

<abstract>
<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
The material scope of the research problem in the text encompasses selected issues concerning the content and sense of the elements characterizing the offense of establishing contact with a minor via ICT systems and telecommunications networks (also referred to as “grooming”) under Polish criminal law. In the legislation currently in force the offense of grooming is criminalized under Art. 200a §1–2 of the Criminal Code. The main purpose of the analysis is to perform a substantive criminal examination of the offense of grooming under Polish law, taking into account a practical case study. The analysis contained in the text is chiefly an overview, and includes mainly an institutional and legal analysis performed with the aid of textual, functional and doctrinal interpretations, which have been supplemented with the author’s own conclusions and opinions concerning de lege lata and de lege ferenda solutions. The institutional and legal analysis has been supplemented with an abstract case study of grooming. The presented abstract case study is helpful in considering selected legal problems, and ultimately in presenting example legal classifications of the described acts referred to as grooming.
</abstract>

Penal Policy on Combatting the Offense of Contacting a Minor Via ICT Systems and Telecommunications Networks in Poland

<abstract>
<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
The text provides a summary of several months of research on Russian false religious accusations against Ukrainians (Satanists, Satan) and actions (de-Satanization, Holy war, Jihad). Only the essential elements required for the conceptual analysis of the insufficiency of existing explications will be presented. The extensive evidence supporting the existence, falseness, and characteristics of the accusations will be supplied where necessary for the analysis. The analysis requires certain preliminary clarifications, namely: the evidence of the existence, falseness, and other attributes of the Russian accusations (section 1), the description and analysis of the most plausible explanations regarding the motives behind the accusations (section 2), and an argument highlighting the insufficiency of these explanations, which includes logical, factual, clinical, and interpretative objections (section 3). The underlying reason for the insufficiency of explanations can be attributed to various possibilities, some of which include the peculiarity of the phenomenon itself, particularly within the context of Russia, as well as the absence of applicable models for seemingly similar contemporary and historical phenomena such as a lack of democratic practices (section 3.2).
</abstract>

Russian False Religious Accusations of Ukrainians

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>The aim of this article is to analyse the role and importance of leaders in the Czech populist parties and movements, as well as determining significant factors which condition their institutionalisation. The main focus will be placed on the role of leaders in establishing their respective parties, their formal position and intraparty selection processes in VV, ANO, SPD and ÚPD. Examples of actions taken by the leaders of ANO and SPD show that building populist parties on the foundation of the strong, formal and official position of the leader in their party as well as becoming open to more members prove effective when it comes to the discussed issues...</abstract>

Party Leaders in the Czech Populist Parties and Movements

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>As interdependence grows, economic issues are increasingly political in their nature and impact, and political issues are increasingly economic. The interdependence is acute in issues that relate to international trade, and especially in the case of landlocked countries. Nepal is one such land-locked country, being between India and China, whose economy depends on the trade relations with its neighbouring countries. Two-thirds of Nepalese trade depends on India. The article presents a summary of Nepal-India trade cooperation, primarily the Nepalese dependence in trade and transit route to India and its effects. It also presents an overview of the trade pattern between the two countries and focuses on the trade embargoes by India. The article analyses the reason behind the embargoes of 1969, 1989 and 2015 and how the situations have been resolved. The embargoes imposed by India on Nepal seem to be more political in nature and their impacts are both political and economic. The Indian embargoes in Nepal follow an objective of compliance, deterrence and subversion. By analysing India’s pursuance of trade embargoes against Nepal, the article reaffirms that landlocked nations such as Nepal are susceptible to manipulation by geopolitical threats since neighbouring countries adjust trade ties or use trade ties to fulfil their political, security and economic interests.</abstract>

Trade Embargo as a Geopolitical Tool: A Case of Nepal-India Trade Relations

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>This study examines how populist politicians made sense of the issue of fake news. They generally consider fake news as a valuable propaganda tool for their political interests. According to the Reuters Digital News Report in 2018, Turkey ranks first on the list of countries where people complain about completely made-up stories. The study researched how fake news is helping facilitate the rise of populism in Turkey. There is plenty of fake news aired by pro-government media. Therefore, the Turkish government is emerging as a suspect behind the fake news cycle. The fact is that most of the fake news is published for the benefit of the government. Research shows that, paradoxically, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is regarded as one of the most important populist politicians in the world. These two different indicators can be valuable data in revealing the relationship between fake news and populist politicians. The aim of this paper is to consider the significance of this apparent relationship between fake news and President Erdogan. In order to do this, a critical discourse analysis method was based on the fake news about the pastor Brunson case, because Turkish readers came across a huge amount of fake news regarding his case in pro-government media.</abstract>

Fake News as a Tool of Populism in Turkey: The Pastor Andrew Brunson Case

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>Rarely do twins play active and significant roles in politics. Yet in 2006 President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, designated his twin brother Jarosław to be prime minister. The aim of the current publication is to analyse the political activity of Lech and Jarosław Kaczyński in the context of the founding of PiS and its functioning. Their position inside the party is undisputed. Moreover, as there is no opposition inside the party and Jarosław Kaczyński achieves spectacular electoral results, his legitimisation as autonomous leader of the party is strengthened even further.</abstract>

Twins In Power. Jarosław Kaczyński and Lech Kaczyński as Leaders of Law and Justice

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>Political transformation reached Hungary in parallel with other Central and Eastern European countries at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s. The core of the events, the year of 1989, the so called “annus mirabilis” when, within one year almost the entire Central and Eastern European region stepped onto the path of changes. The actors adopted Western patterns within a short period, institutions of new political systems were established, and a new political power verified and consolidated its legitimacy by free elections. As a final proof of transformation, most of former socialist bloc member states joined both the NATO and the European Union. Hungary had the chance to enter in the 21st century under radically changed and much more favourable conditions than it ever had before. This smooth transformation interrupted by political and economic crisis that finally led to the victory of the opposition that managed to repeat the next elections and implemented the Programme of National Cooperation. The aim of the paper is to analyse why the adoption of the new system enjoys wide support from different social groups and how the old fixations and obsessions persisted in society. This paper also gives a brief explanation about the nature of illiberal democracy in a wider scope and link it with the history of the Hungarian democracy, the (dis) functioning institutions, and confirms the argumentation with some statistical data explaining the correlation between the support of the government and the living standards. It investigates, if the Hungarian illiberal democratic regime interpreted as consequence of the troublesome system changes or if it is rooted in the distorted political system.</abstract>

Challenges of the Illiberal Democracy in Hungary. Some Aspects to the 2018 Elections


Referee's Report

Submission Guidelines

Open Access Policy

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Polish Political Science Review

Polski Przeglad Politologiczny

The Polish Political Science Review (PPSR), or Polski Przegląd Politologiczny, is an online, peer-reviewed (double-blind review process), open-access journal. All articles are published...

MNiSW

The Polish Political Science Review (PPSR), or Polski Przegląd Politologiczny, is an online, peer-reviewed (double-blind review process),...