The two-party tendency in Poland’s political system: manifestations, causes and prospects
The article analyses the Polish political system and the increasing role of two political parties in it. This tendency has been observed in Poland for more than 15 years. We can draw a conclusion that two-and-a-half-party system has formed in Poland. Using Duverger’s phrasing, there is a “two-party tendency” in the functioning of the Polish model. The study analyses the facts that firm up this conclusion: not only the distribution of seats in the Sejm (the main criterion) but also many other...
Geopolitical regionalisation of the Baltic area: the essence and historical dynamics
The article discusses a theoretical framework for investigating regionalisation and geopolitical regionalisation, employing the activity-geospatial approach. The main theoretical foci of this study are system-forming, or region-building, socio-geo-adaptation and geopolitical relations. The article examines various types of transboundary and transnational geopolitical regionalisation as manifestos of geopolitical relations. These types are categorised based on scale, functional area, historical and...
Reputation core of Russian authorities: the case of the regional level of executive power
The importance of studying the reputation of authorities is connected, on the one hand, with the formation of a consolidated system of political power and, on the other hand, with the highly social orientation of the category of the ‘reputation of authorities’, reflecting the value-based attitude of citizens towards them. The article presents the results of research aimed at the analysis of the reputation of Russian authorities, with a special focus on the regional branch of executive power....
Expansionism in Poland’s strategic culture: historical retrospective and variations
This article deals with the problem of assessing and interpreting expansionist elements in Poland’s international political behaviour. The problem is approached using the concept of the strategic culture of states, which covers beliefs, perceptions, and the language states use to describe their own and other countries’ actions. The study examines what expansionist types of strategic culture have developed in Poland, how relevant they are in the current political landscape, and describes their...
The Accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO: Geopolitical implications for Russia’s position in the Baltic Sea region
The article examines Sweden’s and Finland’s motives for ending their long-time non-aligned policies and joining NATO after Russia had launched a special military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. The two countries’ decision is shown to be in the interest of the United States, which has always sought to fill the geopolitical vacuum reigning after the collapse of the opposing Soviet bloc and the Soviet Union itself. Finland and Sweden were the missing links for Washington and NATO in the...
New stage in the development of political science in Russia
1. Gaman-Golutvina, O. V., Nikitin, A. I. (Ex. ed.) 2019, Sovremennaya politicheskaya nauka: Metodologiya [Contemporary Political Science: Methodology], Moscow (in Russ.).
2. Beck, N. 2000, Political Methodology: A Welcoming Discipline, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 95, no. 450, p. 651—654.
3. King, G. 1991, On Political Methodology, Political Analysis, no. 2, p. 1—30, available at: https://gking.harvard.edu/files/gking/files/polmeth. pdf (accessed 21.06.2019).
4. Achen...
The structure of political elite networks in the Republic of Poland in 1993—2013
To identify the structure of network ties within Polish political elites; to study the features of network ties formation and the impact that both primary and labour socialisation periods and diaspora characteristics have on this process; to describe the structural features of the resultant network structures over different periods of time and analyse the structural dynamics of political elites for the purpose of forecasting major trends in the structural transformation of Polish political elites...
Multimodal text as a means of political identification: an analysis of the Russian blogosphere
This article explores the phenomenon of online political activism, specifically political blogging, from the perspective of the author's concept of prosumer activity. It focuses on the multimodal texts of websites that convey political messages using a range of semiotic codes. The study aims to demonstrate how the political identity of the addresser is encoded and expressed in the information product. The analysis results in a typology of multimodal texts, classified into three types based on their...
Geopolitical Security of Russia: Remarks on the Problem Statement
This paper summarizes the results of the seminar “Geopolitical Security of Russia: Remarks on the Problem Statement”, held on August 26, 2022, at the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kaliningrad. During the seminar, the Institute of Geopolitical and Regional Studies of the university announced an initiative to devise a system of monitoring the geopolitical (regional) security of Russia. The debate centred around the development of a conceptual framework and a geopolitical security model...
The formation of the political elite in Lithuania at the turn of the 1980s—1990s: the role of “moral politicians”
This article considers the trend of structural changes in the political elite of the Republic of Lithuania in the post-Soviet period through analyzing the role of the so-called “moral politicians” — intellectuals, artists, and cultural figures, who played a decisive role in the period of the communist system disintegration and further development of the country's policy. The role of the political elite, which is understood according to R. Putnam and J. Higley's definition, is considered in...
On crisis trends in the legitimacy of the political regimes of the Baltic States
This article considers the legitimacy of political regimes in the Baltic States by analysing three major parameters: confidence in political institutions, level of corruption, and the development of their party systems. The author identifies the major crisis trends in the legitimacy of the political regimes of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. The article stresses the problem of legitimacy reproduction resulting from the limited representation of the national party systems. Special attention is paid...
Supranational party system of the EU
The article confirms the hypothesis that a multiplicity of parties of the European and national levels forms the party system of the European Union (EU). The authors describe the main characteristics of Europarties and political groups comprised of them as key actors in the European Parliament’s (EP) political and legislative processes. The authors adopt the institutional approach and make use of the tools of the comparative, structural, and functional analyses. Special attention is paid to the...
Reputation and status in Denmark’s strategic culture
The primary objective of the article is to evaluate the significance of status and allied reputation within Denmark’s strategic culture. Amongst Danish international relations scholars, there is a well-established notion that one of the key motivations for the use of military force in Danish foreign policy was the aspiration to cultivate special relations with the United States and achieve the status of a privileged ally. This status would confirm guarantees for Denmark’s national security, provide...
Estonian Political Parties in the mid-2010s
The article provides an analysis of political party system of the Republic of Estonia in the mid-2010s. The analysis is based on the works of Moris Duverger. As one might expect, the establishment of proportionate electoral system in Estonia has resulted in the formation of a multi-party system, in which no single party dominates in the parliament even in a short run. The article demonstrates that though Estonian political party system develops in line with the tendencies typical to political party...
The Visegrad Group and the Baltic Assembly: coalitions within the EU as seen through Russian foreign policy
Today Russia has difficulty doing business-as-usual with EU states. It seems that the countries of the Visegrad Group (V4) and the Baltic Assembly/Baltic Council of Ministers (BA/BСM) have contributed substantially to this state of affairs. Overall, the tensions between Russia and the EU are building up – another tendency that did not arise on the Russian initiative. This article aims to address the question of whether Russia should establish direct relations with the V4 and the BA/BCM as tools...
Models for countering the segregation of ethnoreligious immigrant areas in Denmark and Sweden
The article explores the immigration and integration strategies of Denmark and Sweden while assessing their efficacy. The two countries, sharing historical, cultural, social and economic similarities, face a common challenge: the formation of ethnoreligious enclaves primarily inhabited by individuals with a Muslim background. Due to the recent European migrant crises, there has been a notable increase in the number of migrants, leading to stricter integration policies in the Scandinavian countries...
Confiscation Estonian style: legal and political aspects of potential seizure of Russian assets in EU countries
The possible confiscation of Russian assets by Western countries is one of the serious challenges to modern international law and the system of international relations. Since the greater part of the frozen assets is under the jurisdiction of EU countries, special attention should be paid to studying mechanisms for the use of Russian assets within the EU. The purpose of this article is to identify the key characteristics of the EU’s approaches to the use of frozen Russian assets, determine their...
Societal security in the Baltic Sea Region: the Russian perspective
This study discusses whether the concept of societal security is embedded in the Russian formal and informal discourses as well as in the Russian strategic documents on national security and the Baltic Sea region. Particularly, the paper describes four paradigms of international relations (neorealism, neoliberalism, globalism and postpositivism) and theoretical approaches to the concept of societal security formulated in them. On a practical plane, Russia has managed to develop — together with...
Transformations in the Communicative Characteristics of Political Discourse in the Current Information Space
The article analyses the main causes and the genesis of transformations in political discourse (PD) and provides a comparative analysis of the present and earlier forms of PD. The author examines the ontology and principal characteristics of PD, describes the state of political discourse prior to its current transformation and identifies the key problems and actual results of political communication in modern society. Considering the rise of populism, the author stresses that the current problems...
Modern trends in paradiplomacy: a case of Russian-Finnish regional cooperation
... sides of the border stimulated mutual interest in further communication [28, p. 32].
Despite the fact that after the Second World War otherness was projected across the border, later on, twinning became a tool for strengthening the input of peripheral polities [29, p. 11] and the socio-economic development of bordering areas. In 1993, the signing of an agreement on cooperation between the neighbouring cities ushered in a new wave of cooperation. Intercity cooperation covered areas such as economy, ...
The Swedish institute’s scholarship policy as a soft power instrument
This paper examines how soft power, nation branding and academic cooperation came together in the scholarship policy pursued by the Swedish Institute (SI) from 1995 to 2023. An investigation of the organisation’s materials, scholarship statistics and feedback interviews with SI programme alumni suggests that the implementation of the scholarship policy was erratic during the study period. A comprehensive analysis of the Institute’s efforts was carried out to describe the relationship between...
Estonian ‘Balticness’ as a social construct: meanings and contextual specifics
This paper explores the Estonian vision of Baltic identity. Estonia’s authorities have repeatedly articulated their scepticism towards the concept of a stand-alone ‘Baltic region’ and the inclusion of Estonia in it, preferring to position their state as a Nordic country. Yet, in numerous cases, they have clearly labelled Estonia as a Baltic State. To identify the contexts and meanings labelling the country as a Baltic State, this contribution provides a content analysis of official speeches...
Eastern Europe. On the centenary of the political project
This article describes the characteristics of Eastern Europe as a political pro-ject. The author considers the genesis of Eastern Europe as a political region and identifies several periods in its history. The author analyses key features of sover-eignization- desovereignization of the region and examines geopolitical projects of Intermarium. It is shown that Eastern Europe as such is an objective reality, whose history has not ended. At the same time, the author advances and proves the thesis that...
Military and political cooperation between Germany and Lithuania in the late 2010s to early 2020s
Since the mid-2010s, Germany has significantly adjusted its approaches to the use of the Bundeswehr, pivoting its strategic focus from regions distant from the Euro-Atlantic community to those within or near it. This has underscored the pressing need to address issues related to securing steadfast allies in Eastern Europe and enhancing cooperation with them. This article aims to explore the current evolution of German-Lithuanian relations in both political and military domains. The approach of...
The adaptation of Russian regions’ economies to the rupture of relations with Europe: the case of Baltic Sea ports
Despite the sweeping economic sanctions imposed by Western countries, Russia has managed to avoid a significant recession, experiencing recovery growth. The situation in the regions earlier involved in cooperation with Europe was more complicated. Yet, these territories have also succeeded in reviving their economies and returning to growth. A number of growth areas have emerged in the Russian regions, which continue to develop under sanctions. A prime example of this is Russian seaports. This article...
Three Russian Baltic regions in the context of confrontation between Russia and the West
This study examines the features, limitations and development prospects of three Russian territories bordering the Baltic Sea — St. Petersburg, and the Leningrad, and Kaliningrad region — amid the sharply heightened confrontation between Russia and the West, which has affected the Baltic region. The time frame spanning from 2014 to 2023 was chosen for the study. This period encompasses the sanctions imposed by Western countries and their associations, primarily the EU, in response to the return...
Regional trends in electoral support for Latvian parties: the neighbourhood effect
The article analyses the neighbourhood effect in the voting behaviour of the Latvians at the four recent parliamentary elections, the ethnic and national leaning of parties considered. The study expands a set of electoral geography tools by adding modern techniques of spatial analysis as well as by increasing the knowledge on the position of the Russian speakers within Latvia’s political party landscape. The research aims to evaluate the role of the neighbourhood effect at Latvian elections and...
Kantian ethos in J. Rawls’s political philosophy
This article examines the relation between J. Rawls’s philosophical and political conceptions and I. Kant’s ideas and the intellectual and political tradition of the Enlightenment in general. The author defends Rawls’s approach to Kant’s works interpreting it as “discipleship”, the assimilation and intrinsic reconceptualization of Kantian ideas preserving the essence of the assimilated. Rawls justifies his own re-description of Kantian philosophy by using Kant's ideas. Transforming Kant’s...
Historical memory in the age of globalization: the case of Russian- Estonian relations
This article contributes to the discussion within the "Towards the Common Past" international academic network bringing together scholars from Russia, the Baltic States and the Nordic countries. It assesses the relationship between globalization and historical memory, thus contributing to the discussion on globalization and the roles and applications of history. On the basis of an analysis of academic discourses on globalization and historical memory, the author arrives at two conclusions...
Political communication in the period of international bifurcations
The avalanche-like nature of information flows has led today to the destructuring of all communication links in the world. Political communications under these conditions look more and more like channels with expanding "black boxes" and improperly used "white noise". The purpose of this analysis is to identify the specifics of political communication under conditions of international bifurcations. The methodology of the analysis is based on the symbiosis of modern theories: mathematical...
How transcendental are Kant’s principles of public law?
This article presents a comprehensive analysis of the content, meaning, and scenarios of applying the transcendental principles of public law formulated in the second appendix to Kant’s treatise Toward Perpetual Peace. The author compares different interpretations of these principles by Russian and international researchers. The article strives to answer the question as to what type of ‘public’ is meant by these principles, whether these principles can serve as a priori criteria for selecting...
The system of financing political parties in Latvia
This article considers the mechanism of financing of political parties in the Republic of Latvia. The author analyses the participation of financial and economic groups in the country’s political life. Key business actors affecting the formation of Latvian political system are identified. It is concluded that, since regaining independence in 1991, business has been a principal source of financing for Latvian political parties. The scope of financing of political parties in the republic depends...
The political elite recruitment in the Baltic: the role of the ethnic factor
The role of the ethnic factor in political processes in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia has been rather significant since these countries’ independence. The author investigates the assumption that after the completion of major Eurointegration procedures, the ethnic factor — which became especially important in the Baltics after independence — relegated to the periphery of political life. After a period of ‘independence-induced euphoria’ faded, Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian power groups...
Political reconsideration of the Soviet past: attitudes and actions of the Lithuanian elites
Different political elite groups of post-communist Lithuania offer different accounts of the Soviet past. Even twenty years later, after the collapse of communism Lithuanian politicians (with the exception of certain conservative anti-nostalgic leaders allied with some populists) still do not have a unified and coherent view on the Soviet political and social practices, truths, and methods. However, conservatives are very consistent in their restrictive views about the past and are willing to engage...
Territorial-political and regional geopolitical systems: correlation of concepts
The article examines the notions of ‘territorial political system’ and ‘regional geopolitical system' as well as a correlation between them from the viewpoint of the socalled activity-based geospatial approach. A regional geopolitical system includes geopolitical relations between the states within the region and those with powerful external actors. A geopolitical region itself can be characterized by integration, autonomization or a permanent geopolitical conflict. A territorial political...
France’s strategy in the Baltic region: military and political aspects
This article examines the current military-political strategy of France in the Baltic region. This area has not traditionally been among the main priorities of French diplomacy. However, under President Emmanuel Macron, France pays closer attention to the Baltic Sea due to the growing tension between Russia and the West. According to France’s key strategic documents, the government assesses the present-day situation mainly in a negative way, considering Russian actions as the main reason for the...
Polish-Russian relations as reflected in the programmes of right-wing political parties in Poland: a quantitative and qualitative analysis
Programmes of political parties are an important element of public discourse. In this article, I present the results of research aimed at defining the place of Russia and Polish-Russian relations in the programmes of several Polish right-wing political groups. I attempt an overview of the political programmes of the right-wing parties as regards their principal features, internal structure, and central postulates. Content analysis shows that relations with Russia are an impor tant element in most...
Rent and anti-rent in partly competitive political markets
The author critically re-considers the neo-institutional approach to the essence of political rent. The notion of political anti-rent is introduced and substantiated. The author considers forms and significance of political rent in the political space of modern party systems. The article provides a quantitative evaluation of rents and anti-rents in political markets of some states.
1. Беккер Г. С. Человеческое поведение: экономический подход. Избранные...
Duty and Coercion in Kant’s Republican Cosmopolitanism
This paper argues whether Kant’s cosmopolitanism entails a specific theory of coercion. I will especially tackle Kant’s account of international political order. First, I claim that Kant attributes a systematic role to the cosmopolitan right, what justifies considering this part of the doctrine of law as a necessary rational conclusion of the legal system, although its institutional embodiment differs from that required by the rights of states. I highlight that according to Kant states may not...
Coalition Within a Coalition: The Baltics in the European Union
This article gives an overview of small power problem focusing on the behaviour of small power states within coalitions and their proneness to free riding. To pursue an independent agenda and increase their significance within large associations, the authors argue, small powers tend to create ‘coalitions within coalitions’, essentially acting as free riders and transferring costs and political responsibility for decision-making to larger players. Such an asymmetric strategy makes it possible...
Political interests in the context of political diversity in the Russian Federation
This article addresses the problem of the realisation of political interests in the Russian Federation in the context of political diversity stipulated in the Constitution. The author distinguishes the social groups of political process actors, analyses their current state, and formulates the problems and possibilities of the realisation of their political interests.
1.
Абдулатипов Р.
Г., Болтенкова Л.
Ф., Яров Ю.
Ф.
Федерализм в истории...
Geopolitical transformation of the Kaliningrad oblast of the Russian Federation
After the World War II, the part of East Prussia taken by the Soviet Union was transformed into a gigantic Soviet military base. It performed the functions of the outpost in the West on the one hand; and on the other hand, of the barrier which helped the USSR to ensure the dependence of the Eastern Baltics and domination in Poland. After the Cold War, Kaliningrad Oblast, a territory of 15,000 square metres with a population of nearly one million people, owned by the Russian Federation and located...
Socio-political moods of the residents of the Kaliningrad region as an indicator of the geopolitical security of the region
The article considers one of the indicators of geopolitical security — socio-political moods. Social dissatisfaction, political trust, political activity, migration attitudes of the inhabitants of the Kaliningrad region were revealed. The study was based on the theoretical and empirical provisions of FCTAS RAS of socio-political sentiments and social tensions in Russian society. The main method is a personal semi-formalized interview of the population over 18 years old (n = 915). As a result of...
The transformation of the Baltic countries’ political elites: general and specific features
This research focuses on the features and transformations of power groups and their role in the political life of the societies of the Baltic countries. This article aims to analyse structural and functional changes in the composition of the Baltic political elites after these countries gained independence in the 1990s. The main objective of this research is to reveal the general and the specific in the transformations of Latvian, Lithuanian, and Estonian elites. Changes in the structure of power...
The Republic of Belarus and the Kaliningrad region of Russia as a sub-regional security complex
The formal indivisibility of security, which theorists in the field of international relations speak of, is an indisputable thing. Although the development of military technology, the format of globalization, a critical attitude towards classical geopolitics have led to an underestimation of the spatial factor, regionalisation has once again proved that it is an integral part of globalisation and its alter ego. At the beginning of the third decade of the 21st century, political developments in Europe...
Internet in political communication of contemporary Poland: challenges and prospects for development
The article reveals the problems of political communication in modern Poland, the role of the Internet in the dialogue between the authorities and society. Particular attention is paid to the impact of social networks on the quality of political communication. The characteristic features of the position of ordinary users and representatives of political elites in the communication process are singled out and described. As a research task, the authors identified the main characteristics of political...
The concept “people” in the modern European political thought: Hobbes, Spinoza, Pufendorf
The author considers the evolution of the concept “people” in the political philosophy of Thomas Hobbes, Samuel Pufendorf and Benedict Spinoza. The political thought of Europe in the 17th century demonstrates a conscious turn from the medieval scholastic tradition of thinking about people and power. Politics begins to be thought of as a complex of human actions aimed at achieving certain human goals. This, in turn, leads to the rationalisation of politics and, as a consequence, to the rejection...
The development of political geography and geopolitics as an academic and research discipline in the Baltic region: the historical contribution of Saint Petersburg University
In this article, we address the little-researched and complicated problems of the genesis, periodisation, and development of political geography and geopolitics as academic and research disciplines across the Baltic region in general and the contribution of Saint Petersburg University in particular. The terms ‘political geography,’ ‘geopolitics’ and the corresponding academic disciplines, as well as the first concepts of political geography and geopolitics, emerged in the Baltic....
Linguistic and pragmatic potential of metaphors in political discourse
The linguistic and pragmatic analysis of expressive means in political texts is gaining popularityamong researchers. The study of the role of metaphor in enhancing the pragmatic effectiveness of political speech is relevant due to the fact that metaphor, being not only a way of expressing thought, but also being a thought itself, creates the necessary conditions for influencing the addressee's perception. This research is aimed at establishing linguistic and pragmatic means of achieving the planned...
Functionalist evaluation of the effectiveness of political institutions in Russia
The article investigates the specifics of the interaction between political institutions and civil society. Analyzing relevant research literature, the author studies the effectiveness and legitimacy of political institutions in Russia. The author identifies the main trends in their activity of political institutions, which should be given special attention when establishing functional connections between civil society as such and political institutions.
1. Голосов Г. В. Сравнительная...