320 Politikwissenschaft
Refine
Year of publication
Document Type
- Doctoral Thesis (16)
- Article (2)
- Book (2)
- Preprint (2)
- Report (2)
- Master's Thesis (1)
- Other (1)
Language
- German (14)
- English (11)
- Multiple languages (1)
Has Fulltext
- yes (26)
Is part of the Bibliography
- no (26)
Keywords
- Außenpolitik (3)
- Religion (3)
- Securitization (3)
- Copenhagen School (2)
- Europäische Integration (2)
- Europäische Union (2)
- Internationale Beziehungen (2)
- Politische Kommunikation (2)
- Security Studies (2)
- Auswärtige Kulturpolitik (1)
With respect to religious motivations for political participation and civic engagement, scholars have set their focus on social capital and the recruiting potential for volunteers inside religious communities. Less attention has been paid to individual religious impulses, but also to reasons for which people step out from deliberative processes, especially in regard to the Eastern European Orthodox cultural context. We are approaching this under-explored research field in this dissertation, with focus on the Romanian city of Timișoara, and look at three particular aspects: the influence of religious perceptions on political protests (analysis of the 1989 revolution), the manner in which religion motivates young people to volunteer (view on a local community project) and factors determining people to retreat from public engagement (analysis of citizens` local committees). The research methods are qualitative - interviews, group discussions and analytical interpretation. Results show that non- or less religious young people are encouraged to protest by an indefinable supernatural force and motivated by moral interests (need for dignity and a fair treatment / procedural justice), more than material ones (distributive justice). When engaging in the community, the impulse partially comes from an intrinsic spirituality and a privatized experience with the divine. Giving up civic engagement has nothing to do with remuneration, but with the need for freedom of expression and moral appreciation.
Earlier research showed that religion is related to participation
among adolescents. It emphasized the effects of belonging (affiliation to groups and traditions) on community service among Western populations. This article takes one step further and focuses on religiosity as a potential motivation for community problem solving during adolescence and young adulthood, in the Eastern European Orthodox cultural setting. Data comes from several semistructured interviews with participants in a civic project conducted in the city of Timisoara (Romania). Findings indicated a low impact of the social religious component on engagement. The cognitive dimension of belief and the emotional bonding (prayer, ritual connection to the higher reality) function as indirect motivators, through the moral element of behavior. Results also showed a privatization of spiritual life at young adults (the invisible religion): estrangement from doctrines and the development of an individualistic type of morality, meant to drive volunteer activities further.
After two decades of almost complete isolation, Cambodia was rather suddenly integrated in 1991 into the global ‘free world’. As a result, the function and the role of the administration had to be modified. These transformations in the name of modernization and development have led to a significant rise of professionals, as these provide the necessary knowledge to manage the ongoing socio-economic and political transformations. Due to their educational socialization in urban centers and overseas, they consider themselves the most modern section of their society. Their common objective is to make the organizations they work for less rigid and to reform them along lines of technical-pragmatic concepts. Especially for the professionals working within the Cambodian state, the movement towards more efficiency and effectiveness in the administration and the strengthening of the rule of law is seen as a means to increase credibility of the Government on one hand and to attract foreign investment on the other. However, due to their functional specialization and expertise, professionals in Cambodia are marginalized from the overall socio-political changes in their environment. This has led to the reduction of their possibilities to communicate and organize effectively. Instead, their knowledge is applied to serve the requirements of their organizations/ patron-client networks and not as a resource to form alliances on a national or on a transnational level. A potential exists though for the professionals working in the state administration to either form a strategic group through processes of hybridization, or to form a ‘neutral’ rational administration after the ceding of the ‘old guard’ and thus their ‘disentanglement’ from old clientele structures.
While in some Eastern European countries a wave of colored revolutions challenged existing political orders, Belarus has remained largely untouched by mass protests. In Minsk, the diffusion of democratic ideas leading to the mobilization of population meets a stable authoritarian regime. Nevertheless, the stagnating democratization process cannot be only attributed to the strong authoritarian rule and abuse of power. Indeed, Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko still enjoys popularity by a large part of the population. Although international observers report that elections in Belarus have never been free and fair, few commentators doubt that Lukashenko would not have won in democratic elections. This evidence suggests that the regime succeeded in building a strong legitimizing basis, which has not been seriously challenged during the last two decades. This paper explores the authoritarian stability in Belarus by looking at the patterns of state ideology. The government effectively spreads state ideology since the early 2000s. Ideology departments have been created in almost all state institutions. The education sector has been affected by the introduction of the compulsory course "The Fundamentals of Belarusian State Ideology" at all universities, and increasing attention to the patriotic education at schools. Based on document analysis, I trace the creation of "ideological vertical" in Belarus and focuse on the issue of ideology in education and youth policy sectors.
This cumulative thesis consists of six single contributions: five independent essays and an introductory chapter. All of the conributions have been published or accepted for publication. The overarching scope of these essays is to analyze different factors accounting for the stability of post-Soviet authoritarian regimes and the obstacles, which Western democracy promoters can face when dealing with autocrats. The starting point for these enquiries has been the striking inability of Western democracies and in particular of the European Union to encourage and to assist political transformation in the majority of the post-Soviet republics.
Innerhalb Europas herrschen sehr unterschiedliche Vorstellungen darüber vor, wann, wie und ob militärische Mittel eingesetzt werden sollen. Deutlich wird dies insbesondere in den Diskussionen über die Gemeinsame Sicherheits- und Verteidigungspolitik der Europäischen Union (GSVP). Solche unterschiedlichen Herangehensweisen von Staaten an sicherheitspolitische Fragestellungen möchte der Strategic-Culture-Ansatz erklären, der sich mit kollektiven, kulturell verwurzelten Vorstellungen von Sicherheitspolitik und dem Einsatz militärischer Mittel befasst. Er kann daher einen grundlegenden Erklärungsfaktor liefern, warum es sich immer wieder als schwierig erweist, in sicherheits- und verteidigungspolitischen Fragen zu einer vertieften Integration zu gelangen, weswegen der Erforschung der nationalen Vorstellungen und Legitimationsgrundlagen des Einsatzes militärischer Mittel und deren Kompatibilität, deren Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede eine besondere Relevanz zuerkannt werden kann. Bisher völlig ausgeblendet in der Strategic-Culture-Literatur wurde allerdings die Frage, inwieweit strategische Kultur auch in der Populärkultur, konkret Filmen, repräsentiert ist, da sich in bisherigen Studien nur auf klassische Untersuchungsgegenstände wie Elitendiskurse, Strategiepapiere oder Bevölkerungsumfragen zur Herausarbeitung strategischer Kultur bezogen wurde. Dies ist insofern als Forschungslücke anzusehen, da sich in den letzten Jahren eine rege Debatte innerhalb der Internationalen Beziehungen (IB) zur Rolle von Filmen entfaltet hat. Grundannahme dieser Forschungsagenda ist, dass durch Filme soziale Ordnungen repräsentiert, konstruiert und letztlich normalisiert werden, weswegen solche Untersuchungsgegenstände relevant für politikwissenschaftliche Fragestellungen sind. Gleichzeitig haben auch die filmorientierten IB noch nicht auf den Strategic-Culture-Ansatz zurückgegriffen. Vor diesem Hintergrund verfolgt diese Arbeit die folgenden vier Leitfragen:
1.(Wie) kann der Strategic-Culture-Ansatz für die Analyse von Filmen genutzt werden?
2.Welche Vorstellungen militärischer Gewaltanwendung und damit Ausprägungen strategischer Kulturen finden sich in Filmen aus Deutschland, Frankreich und Großbritannien?
3.In welchem Zusammenhang stehen die filmischen Repräsentationen mit der „realen“ strategischen Kultur dieser Länder?
4.Wie wirken Filme in den gesellschaftlichen Resonanzraum der Debatte zum Einsatz militärischer Mittel?
Das forschungsleitende Interesse dieser Studie liegt damit insgesamt gesehen darin, Filme als Repräsentationen und letztlich Träger strategischer Kulturen zu untersuchen, um so die normativ-kulturellen Grundlagen europäischer Sicherheitspolitik besser zu verstehen. Die Studie argumentiert, dass sich Filme als Träger strategischer Kulturen konzeptualisieren lassen und damit ein großes Potenzial für eine solche Forschungsagenda entfalten können.