As financial turmoil in Europe preoccupies political leaders and global markets, it becomes more important than ever to understand the forces that underpin the European Union, hold it together and ...drive it forward. This timely book provides a gripping account of the realities of power politics among European states and between their leaders. Drawing on long experience working behind the scenes, Luuk van Middelaar captures the dynamics and tensions shaping the European Union from its origins until today.It is a story of unexpected events and twists of fate, bold vision and sheer necessity, told from the perspective of the keyplayers - from de Gaulle to Havel, Thatcher to Merkel. Van Middelaar cuts through the institutional complexity by exploring the unforeseen outcomes of decisive moments and focusing on the quest for public legitimacy.As a first-hand witness to the day-to-day actions and decisions of Europe's leaders, the author provides a vivid narrative of the crises and compromises that united a continent. By revisiting the past, he sheds fresh light on the present state of European unification and offers insights into what the future may hold.
There has been an enormous increase in interest in the use of evidence for public policymaking, but the vast majority of work on the subject has failed to engage with the political nature of decision ...making and how this influences the ways in which evidence will be used (or misused) within political areas. This book provides new insights into the nature of political bias with regards to evidence and critically considers what an ‘improved’ use of evidence would look like from a policymaking perspective. Part I describes the great potential for evidence to help achieve social goals, as well as the challenges raised by the political nature of policymaking. It explores the concern of evidence advocates that political interests drive the misuse or manipulation of evidence, as well as counter-concerns of critical policy scholars about how appeals to ‘evidence-based policy’ can depoliticise political debates. Both concerns reflect forms of bias – the first representing technical bias, whereby evidence use violates principles of scientific best practice, and the second representing issue bias in how appeals to evidence can shift political debates to particular questions or marginalise policy-relevant social concerns. Part II then draws on the fields of policy studies and cognitive psychology to understand the origins and mechanisms of both forms of bias in relation to political interests and values. It illustrates how such biases are not only common, but can be much more predictable once we recognise their origins and manifestations in policy arenas. Finally, Part III discusses ways to move forward for those seeking to improve the use of evidence in public policymaking. It explores what constitutes ‘good evidence for policy’, as well as the ‘good use of evidence’ within policy processes, and considers how to build evidence-advisory institutions that embed key principles of both scientific good practice and democratic representation. Taken as a whole, the approach promoted is termed the ‘good governance of evidence’ – a concept that represents the use of rigorous, systematic and technically valid pieces of evidence within decision-making processes that are representative of, and accountable to, populations served.
Prispevek premišljuje emancipatorni potencial gibanj v vstajah 2012–2013, najbolj silovitih v zgodovini samostojne Slovenije. Ne glede na njihovo organizacijsko obliko (iniciativa, kolektiv, ...neformalno združenje, društvo, zavod, politična stranka …), čas nastanka ali številčnost je v središču predvsem njihovo razumevanje politike in potencial za razvoj strategij za politično delovanje. Pri tem avtorica izhajam iz temeljnega aksioma, da resen premislek o politiki nujno vključuje premislek o temeljni radikalni enakosti med ljudmi, to je politiki emancipacije, ki ji je inherentna egalitarna norma. Analiza temelji na intervjujih s sogovorniki iz 19 gibanj, aktivnih v času vstaj, in pokaže na nasprotja, ki so se vzpostavila med gibanji znotraj paradigme »možnega«, kjer je politika razumljena kot vladavina, in tista na področju »nemožnega«, to je izumljanja prostorov politike, ki bi temeljili na radikalni enakosti onkraj boja za oblast.
Against the backdrop of ever-increasing nationalist violence during the last decade of the twentieth century, this book challenges standard analyses of nation formation by elaborating on the nation's ...dream-like hold over the modern social imagination. Stathis Gourgouris argues that the national fantasy lies at the core of the Enlightenment imaginary, embodying its central paradox: the intertwining of anthropological universality with the primacy of a cultural ideal.Crucial to the operation of this paradox and fundamental in its ambiguity is the figure of Greece, the universal alibi and cultural predicate behind national-cultural consolidation throughout colonialist Europe. The largely unpredictable institution of a modern Greek nation in 1830 undoes the interweaving of Enlightenment and Philhellenism, whose centrifugal strands continue to unravel the certainty of European history, down to the internal predicaments of the European Union or the tragedy of the Balkan conflicts.This 25th Anniversary edition of the book includes a new preface by the author in which he situates the book's original insights in retrospect against the newer developments in the social and political conditions of a now globalized world: the neocolonial resurgence of nationalism and racism, the failure of social democratic institutions, the crisis of sovereignty and citizenship, and the brutal conditions of stateless peoples.
Avtorica v prispevku bralcem predstavi pregled bogate selitvene dinamike na prostoru današnje Slovenije in obmejnih prostorih v zadnjih dvesto letih. Obravnava selitve v »avstrijskem času«, med prvo ...svetovno vojno in prvo Jugoslavijo, med drugo svetovno vojno in drugo Jugoslavijo ter med vojno v Jugoslaviji in osamosvajanjem Slovenije. Ne le intenzivna priseljensko-izseljenska oziroma selitvena dinamika, do katere je prihajalo z namenom iskanja dela in zatočišča, ampak tudi politično spreminjanje meja sta selitvene študije konstituirala kot zelo kompleksen pojav. Ta postavlja številne izzive za interpretacijo, »kako migracije razumeti« kot selitvene študije 21. stoletja.
volilna kampanja je posebne vrste informacijska kampanja. kandidati na volitvah imajo v tem času priložnost, da volivcem sporočijo informacije o sebi, svojih stališčih in programih. Hkrati imajo ...volivci priložnost pridobiti informacije, potrebne za oddajo premišljenega glasu. zanimalo nas je, ali je ob teh posebnih značilnostih obdobja kampanje možno opaziti kakršnekoli spremembe pri političnem vedenju anketirancev. Pri tem smo opazovali zelo ozko področje političnega vedenja v smeri politične aktiva- cije. Z uporabo zbranih podatkov v raziskavi Politbarometer od leta 1996 do leta 2013 smo opazili, da se v obdobjih kampanje poveča delež anketirancev, ki se opredelijo pri nedeljskem vprašanju kot tudi pri orientacijskem vprašanju »levo–desno«, in to tako v obdobju državnozborskih kot v obdobju predsedniških volilnih kampanj.
Conflict Resolution Actors, Dynamics and Cases deals with multiple concepts and themes of the broad subject area of conflict resolution, seeking to highlight empirical studies that examine several ...topics from conflict prevention to peacebuilding, including conflict management, institution building, the role of formal and informal actors, the features of conflicts in different political contexts and the methods and strategies used for resolution or transformation (mediation, non-violence, reconciliation, transitional justice, second track diplomacy, peace education, post-conflict reconstruction, among others) in intra- and inter-state conflicts. The book is open to several methodological approaches, focusing on empirical studies that address several cases, including studies on Cyprus, the South Caucasus region, DR Congo, the Middle East region, Tunisia and Iraq, as well as on the role of regional organizations such as the European Union in peace-making and peacebuilding. Conceived this way, this edited volume on conflict resolution complements existing books on the theme, seeking not only to apply conflict resolutions theoretical frameworks and concepts to contemporary case studies but also to contribute, based on these empirical studies, to advance the academic debate towards critical perspectives that guide the conflict resolution field to more pluralist, emancipatory and transformative approaches.
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