The politics of bank ownership and currency policies in Central and Eastern Europe

This paper argues that state-owned, private domestic, and foreign banks have different preferences for exchange rate policies. More specifically, I posit that governments will be less willing and able to maintain fixed exchange rate arrangements in closed banking systems dominated by government-owned banks than in globalized banking systems with a large presence of foreign banks. The article’s principal claim rests on the notion that ownership structure of the banking system empowers different types of banks, affects their interests, and shapes the responsiveness of government politicians to bank demands. The bank ownership types further influence the stability of the domestic monetary system and financial regulation that are of paramount importance in the determination of exchange rate regimes. An empirical investigation of data on exchange rate regimes for 25 Central and Eastern European countries provides strong support for the theory. The results are robust to alternative estimation techniques, instrumental variable analysis, and the inclusion of several economic and political variables.     

From the provinces to the parliament: How the Ukrainian radical right mobilized in Galicia

This article traces the on-the-ground mobilization and recruitment strategies of Ukraine's radical right party, Svoboda (Freedom) in the years prior to its 2012 electoral breakthrough. Ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth interviews with Svoboda party leaders and activists in Galicia show how party leaders strategically created an organizational structure aimed at recruiting young people, making linkages with pre-existing nationalist groups, and shifting the ideological focus away from cultural and toward economic issues. Interviews with party activists reveal how personal networks were key in the recruitment and radicalization process, showing that radical right activists were radicalized, or “made,” through political participation. Consequently, Svoboda's organizational capacity allowed the party to take advantage of a political opportunity – Yanukovych's unpopularity and weakened national democratic parties – in the 2012 parliamentary elections.     

The Theory of International Media Diffusion: Political Socialization and International Media in Transitional Democracies

Despite the long-standing normative assumption that, for individuals in transitional states, exposure to Western media cultivates stronger attachments to Western political and economic values, the evidence presented here suggests otherwise. Using mass public survey data from the mid-1990s in five Central and Eastern European countries, this article demonstrates a general lack of support for international media’s positive contributions to individuals’ democratic attitudes and preferences for market economies. This finding is particularly unexpected because the countries under investigation represent ideal cases based on their proximity to Western democracies and international (Western) media sources’ capacities for extensive transnational media penetration into the region. Yet this failure to find persuasive evidence of the influence of international media diffusion on the development of Western political values sharpens our understanding of the process of political socialization in democratizing countries by eliminating an assumed source and is thus relevant to students of democratization, international development, and mass media.

国际金融危机冲击下中东欧国家经济走势分析

2000-2007年,中东欧国家的经济总体上呈平稳快速发展的趋势,2007年国际金融危机爆发后,中东欧转轨国家经济形势迅速恶化.国际金融危机对中东欧国家经济的冲击和影响与这些国家转型后形成的制度基础和经济发展模式有关.本文就国际金融危机对这些国家经济的冲击,从多个侧面分析相关原因,并对未来发展趋势进行了预测.     

Cultural Identities of Adolescent Immigrants: A Three-Year Longitudinal Study Including the Pre-Migration Period

This article investigates the cultural identities of adolescent immigrants in the pre-migration period and during the first 3 years after immigration. The target population consists of high-school Jewish adolescents from Russia and Ukraine participating in an Israeli immigration program. In this program, Jewish adolescents immigrate to Israel without their parents, live in kibbutzim and boarding schools, and study in Israeli schools. Participants filled out questionnaires four times: half a year before their departure from the homeland and once a year for three consecutive years after their arrival to Israel. Changes in the cultural identities during immigration were curvilinear. Three stages were distinguished: devaluation of the homeland and idealization of the country of immigration in the pre-migration period, disillusionment with the receiving country and strengthening of the homeland cultural identity in the first year after immigration, and the formation of an inconsistent bi-cultural identity in the later post-migration period. Throughout the entire post-migration period, immigrants’ attitude towards the receiving country was more positive than their attitude towards their homeland; however, immigrants’ sense of belonging to the homeland was stronger than their sense of belonging to the receiving country. Pre-migration cultural identities and perceived discrimination in the receiving country predicted post-migration cultural identities of immigrants. Immigrant adolescents from ethnically homogenous Jewish families had a less positive attitude towards Russia/Ukraine, a more positive attitude towards Israel, and a weaker sense of belonging to Russia/Ukraine as compared to immigrants from ethnically mixed families.

Hyperaccountability: Economic voting in Central and Eastern Europe

Are citizens in the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe able to hold politicians accountable at elections? The inheritance of communism—disengaged citizens, economic flux, and inchoate party systems—might be expected to weaken accountability. Looking at the results of 34 elections in 10 Central and Eastern European countries, this paper finds instead a phenomenon that it calls hyperaccountability. Incumbents are held accountable for economic performance—particularly for unemployment—but this accountability distinguishes not between vote losses and gains, but between large and small losses. This result is significant in several respects. The evidence for economic voting restores some faith in the ability of voters to control their representatives in new democracies. The consistency of punishment in the region, however, may mitigate some of the benefits of economic voting. If incumbents know they will lose, then they may decide to enrich themselves when in power rather than produce good policies.     

Foreign Policy Activism in Saudi Arabia and Oman. Diverging Narratives and Stances towards the Syrian and Yemeni Conflicts

Abstract

Amid growing animosity and security concerns in the Middle East, the Gulf region appears to be on the way to becoming the new centre of gravity of regional equilibria. The increasingly active foreign policy postures of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries is a key aspect of the new regional order in the making. Saudi Arabia and Oman are two examples of this trend. Their involvement in the Syrian and Yemeni conflicts reveals important differences regarding the aims, narratives, political and military postures, strategies and alliances pursued by Riyadh and Muscat and casts a shadow over the future of GCC cooperation and integration.     

Sexual violence issues in eastern DRC: processes of global and local co-constitution

According to Séverine Autesserre, there is a dominant culture within the field of international peacebuilding in the Democratic Republic of Congo that excludes any action at the local level. This dichotomy between the local and the global is also noticeable in terms of women's rights, where international human rights law and local customs are opposed. But in order to grasp the complexity of the emancipation movements of the female victims of violence in North Kivu, we must consider the multiplicity of the semi-autonomous social fields that regulate the lives of individuals on the local and global spheres, as well as the social actors’ interactions within these spaces. Using the results of an ethnography study carried out in North Kivu between 2011 and 2012, we will see that these actors not only construct law, but they also inhabit normative systems built and maintained by them.     

Depolitization of Bureaucracy: The Case of Central and Eastern European Countries

Political parties worldwide seek to work with bureaucrats who are close to their programs, willing to cooperate, and concerted. On the other hand, there is a huge body of literature which argues that bureaucracy should be separate from politics and that it has to consist of public servants who are technically knowledgeable, expert, and also politically neutral. The countries of Central and Eastern Europe suffered from highly politicized public administrations under one-party regimes, and have struggled to separate their bureaucracies from politics since early 1990s. In view of the relation between politics and bureaucracy from the perspective of (de)politization, this paper looks into the changes that Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) have gone through after the institutionalization of multi-party regimes and tries to provide some generalizations.     

全球金融危机下东亚货币金融合作的路径选择

当前的"美元体制"在今后相当长时期内具有可持续性.正是在布雷顿森林体制和"美元体制"下,东亚各经济体的工业化和经济发展取得了巨大成功,成为"美元体制"的主要受益者和支撑者,也自然成为全球金融危机的主要受害者.现阶段的东亚货币金融合作巴经取得了一定进展,但东亚各经济体尚不具备推进国际货币体系改革的能力;同时,东亚货币金融合作应改变应对危机的实用主义哲学,以促进区域经济的持续、稳定增长为目标进行更加长远的路径设计,在区域整体层面和局部层面两个层次上加快货币金融合作的深化发展.在此过程中,人民币国际化战略的实施将使中国在区域货币金融合作中占据较为有利的地位,但其能否成功一方面取决于中国经济结构能否进行顺利的调整,使中国成为能够替代美国的区域内最终产品市场的提供者,另一方面也取决于中日两国能否比较顺利地开展汇率政策的协调与合作.东亚地区复杂的历史、文化、政治和社会背景等因素,决定了该地区难以出现"一家独大"式的货币合作模式.因此,中日两目的协调与合作在很大程度上决定着东亚货币金融合作的未来.