What Makes Them Successful? Influential Interest Groups in Hungary (1990–2014)

Although many scholars of Central and Eastern Europe politics write about the relative weaknesses of civil societies, some studies delivered evidence of cases where interest groups were able to influence particular decisions and policies. Therefore, we aimed at identifying and examining the most influential national interest groups of eight different policy areas in post-communist Hungary hoping to explore the reasons for their success. Older generations of organisations benefit from political embeddedness, while newer advocacy groups rely more on legal instruments and public mobilisation. The operation of successful groups has not been affected by the strong political polarisation of the Hungarian party system.     

Élites in Omsk

A French sociologist provides a detailed analysis of the politics, economics, and political elite of Omsk oblast' in Western Siberia. Analysis covers oil politics, reactions to the August 1998 financial crisis, relations with Moscow, the role of entrepreneurs in politics, and the communist and nationalist oppositions. Focus is on the role of the governor and his relations with diverse political forces. The article also examines the gap between formal institutions and actual social and political practices.     

Market,Freedom and the Illusions of Microcredit. Patronage,Caste, Class and Patriarchy in Rural South India

Abstract

As a market tool, microcredit is expected to promote individual freedom, for women in particular. By drawing on a southern Indian case, this paper argues that microcredit is in fact shaped by the power structures it is supposed to eradicate. Even if they are partly reshaped, local structures of power remain unavoidable to protect populations (something that microcredit fails to do) but also to build the microcredit market and ensure its legitimacy, for donors, local political arenas and local populations. Far beyond microcredit, our findings question the uneasy relationships between markets and individual freedoms.     

Implementing the 1902 Midwives Act: assessing problems,developing services and creating a new role for a variety of female practitioners

This article examines the preliminary findings of an oral history project on women's working lives in three Irish counties in the period 1936-1960. By employing a feminist analysis of the narratives, the authors endeavour to investigate the extent to which the reality of married women's working lives corresponded with the rhetoric of Irish womanhood generated by political and religious discourses of the day. The analysis reveals that while the women did accept the home-based motherhood role prescribed for them, in many cases financial necessity dictated that they combine this role with that of part-time and in some cases, full-time participation in the labour market.     

The AIDS epidemic in Brazil: Public health and community responses

Brazil boasts one of the world's most successful programmes to confront the HIV/AIDS epidemic, in spite of the country's rather low social and health indicators. The government recognised early the threat that HIV/AIDS posed to Brazil, and initiated a great number of programmes. However, the success of prevention programmes, assistance to those infected and control of the epidemic in Brazil are the result of a combination of political will, technical and human resource capacity, adequate funding and, most important, social mobilisation.     

Videogame analysis: a social-semiotic approach

The relevance of videogames in the contemporary cultural ecosystem and their social impact make it necessary to develop theories and analytical models to understand the expressive potential of videogame design, and how videogames work as texts, giving shape to certain values, behavioural patterns and ideological visions. To do so, it is crucial to build a bridge between game studies and contemporary semiotics. Thus, with this aim, we present in this paper an analysis model for studying videogames as texts that combines theoretical and methodological elements from social semiotics and procedural rhetorics, a specific branch of game studies. Our model is based on four levels: the narrative, ludo-narrative, system-gameplay and designer-player dimensions. As a case study, the model is applied to the videogame The Last of Us.     

Making votes count in parliament or government?

Several scholars have sought to elucidate voting strategies in proportional representation (PR) systems. The argument is that the existence of coalition governments forces voters to consider potential alliances and to vote in order to maximize their chances of influencing the outcome. In this paper, we argue that this vision is incomplete as PR, just as single-member district plurality, also creates incentives for voters to desert parties that have little chances of obtaining a seat in their district. We validate this theoretical claim using two different surveys conducted during the 2014 Belgian federal and regional elections. Our results show that both government and district viability have a substantial and distinct effect on vote choice.