The development of interest groups in the Balkans: Background and contemporary characteristics

Understanding the political development of the Balkans can be challenging even for historians and social scientists. This is particularly the case with the region's past and present interest group systems as virtually no research is available on the subject. With this in mind, this article provides basic background on the region and its fledgling interest group system as a foundation for approaching the analysis in the 7 country articles that follow. The topics considered include an overview of the common elements of the 7 group systems and their differences, developments that shaped these systems, and an initial look at the role of interest groups in consolidating the region's pluralist political systems.     

Interest groups and public affairs in the contemporary Balkans: Project overview and preliminary explanations

This comprehensive coverage of public affairs and interest group activity in the Balkans has 2 objectives. One is to produce the first study focusing solely on interest groups in each of the 7 countries of the former socialist Yugoslavia. The second is to compare developments across the region to assess the extent to which this study reflects existing research and what it can add to this knowledge. To achieve these objectives, this article explains several aspects of the methodology used by all contributors. These include common use of terms, an explanation of the topics covered, and the survey instrument.     

The role of social structure for governing natural resources in decentralized political systems: Insights from governing a fishery in Indonesia

This empirical research investigates whether distinct network configurations between actors facilitate or impede successful local natural resource governance in decentralized political systems. Network analysis is applied to disentangle the interaction between actors involved in a decentralized fishery governance system in Indonesia from a polycentric perspective. Using an embedded network case study design, the study examines whether common interaction patterns are observed in local study sites with more successful governance outcomes compared to study sites with less successful outcomes. Three common patterns are identified: (i) higher frequency of interaction of local actors, and (ii) stronger activity of local non‐governmental actors in the polycentric governance network are found in the sites with more successful outcomes. Furthermore, the results show (iii) a higher centralization of the local governance networks with rent‐seeking actors in strong brokerage positions where highly unsustainable resource use prevails. This points to the existence of a ‘dark side’ of brokerage.     

Nordic involvement in the Baltic states security: Needs,response and success

Since regaining their independence in 1991, the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have sought to bolster their security by applying for NATO membership. This article examines their security context and the security challenges they face. It shows the attempts by the Nordic states to address these problems by offering assistance to the three countries, by supporting them in international institutions and by introducing them to new concepts of security. Thus the Nordic states have tried to ease confrontation in the Baltic, and have created a Nordic project of some importance.     

Personality typologies of male juvenile offenders using a cluster analysis of the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory introduction

The Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory (MACI) is a unique adolescent instrument that attempts to delineate between personality and acute symptoms. This study sought to explore typologies based on the Personality Pattern scales of the MACI in a sample of detained male juvenile offenders (N = 103). A Ward's method cluster analysis yielded a four-cluster solution, and each cluster was provided a clinically relevant label: (a) disruptive, antisocials; (b) agreeable, antisocials; (c) anxious, prosocials; and (d) reactive, depressives. The largest group consisted of the reactive depressives (n = 41). This suggests the importance of considering the role of internalizing problems as a conduit to delinquency in addition to antisocial personality. No interaction between cluster membership and offense history or race was found.     

Participation and political protest: A causal model with Australian evidence

This paper examines a model of political participation and political protest that includes the several well-established modes of orthodox participation as well as a number of dimensions of political protest, and also takes account of the causal order between conventional participation and protest. The analysis indicates that previous findings demonstrating a substantial positive association between unidimensional measures of conventional and unconventional political behavior are incomplete and indeed somewhat misleading. The connection between orthodox participation and protest weakens as the style of protest becomes more unorthodox, to such an extent that none of the separate modes of conventional participation are directly related to radical protest. Using sheaf coefficients, the paper also tests the relative explanatory power of three sets of determinants of participation and protest: social background characteristics, general orientations toward politics, and attitudes toward issues. Issues are repeatedly weaker than the other two groups of variables in predicting conventional participation but have relatively strong effects on political protest, particularly compared with political orientations, while social structure is consistently influential.