@book{Dahlmann2005, author = {Dahlmann, Olaf}, title = {Government stability in Estonia: Wishful Thinking or Reality? : An evaluation of Estonia's governments from the 1992 elections up to 2003 [including a comment of the cabinet of Juhan Parts up to February 2005]}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-3613}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2005}, abstract = {This article examines the multiple governments of independent Estonia since 1992 referring to their stability. Confronted with the immense problems of democratic transition, the multi-party governments of Estonia change comparatively often. Following the elections of March 2003 the ninth government since 1992 was formed. A detailed examination of government stability and the example of Estonia is accordingly warranted, given that the country is seen as the most successful Central Eastern European transition country in spite of its frequent changes of government. Furthermore, this article questions whether or not internal government stability can exist within a situation where the government changes frequently. What does stability of government mean and what are the varying multi-faceted depths of the term? Before analysing the term, it has to be clarified and defined. It is presumed that government stability is composed of multiple variables influencing one another. Data about the average tenure of a government is not very conclusive. Rather, the deeper political causes for governmental change need to be examined. Therefore, this article discusses the conceptual and theoretical basics of governmental stability first. Secondly, it discusses the Estonian situation in detail up to the elections of 2003, including a short review of the 9th government since independence. In the conclusion, the author explains whether or not the governments of Estonia are stable. In the appendix, the reader finds all election results and also a list of all previous ministers of Estonian governments (all data are as of July 2002).}, language = {en} } @book{Koss2011, author = {Koss, Michael}, title = {The politics of party funding}, series = {Comparative politics}, journal = {Comparative politics}, publisher = {Oxford University Press}, address = {Oxford}, isbn = {978-0-19-957275-5}, pages = {XIII, 261}, year = {2011}, abstract = {'The Politics of Party Funding' analyses an increasingly popular institutional choice - the introduction of state funding to political parties - and represents a first step towards a theory which explains differences and similarities in party funding regimes.}, language = {en} } @book{Huber2011, author = {Huber, Stefan}, title = {Citizens participation in Latvia : still a long road to go?}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-49715}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2011}, abstract = {On the 20.01.1991 the Latvian people defended the Latvian political elite from the Soviet OMON troops in order to achieve independence. After this impressive sign of civil society the people fell asleep, the level of mobility and the satisfaction with the functioning of democracy therefore is rather weak. The referendum (2008), to gain the right to dissolve the Parliament by the people, initiated by the Trade Unions can be assessed as a sign that there is something on the move. This paper is trying to give an impression of the situation of the civil society in terms of participation in the decision- making process. Hereby the focus lays on NGOs: What is the legal base and which problems do they face. To learn more about the situation interviews were organized with representatives of NGOs from different sectors like community development; Social inclusion; advocating gender issues as well as environment and sustainable development. As a result of the research it can be said that the civil society made some steps forward but it is still struggling with a high level of corruption, lack of interested from the elite and the ordinary people and the insecure financial state.}, language = {en} } @book{Schumacher2012, author = {Schumacher, Reinhard}, title = {Free trade and absolute and comparative advantage : a critical comparison of two major theories of international trade}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, isbn = {978-3-86956-195-0}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-60237}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {108}, year = {2012}, abstract = {This thesis deals with two theories of international trade: the theory of comparative advantage, which is connected to the name David Ricardo and is dominating current trade theory, and Adam Smith's theory of absolute advantage. Both theories are compared and their assumptions are scrutinised. The former theory is rejected on theoretical and empirical grounds in favour of the latter. On the basis of the theory of absolute advantage, developments of free international trade are examined, whereby the focus is on trade between industrial and underdeveloped countries. The main conclusions are that trade patterns are determined by absolute production cost advantages and that the gap between developed and poor countries is not reduced but rather increased by free trade.}, language = {en} } @book{OPUS4-42120, title = {The anthropocene debate and political science}, series = {Routledge research in global environmental governance}, journal = {Routledge research in global environmental governance}, editor = {Hickmann, Thomas and Partzsch, Lena and Pattberg, Philipp H. and Weiland, Sabine}, publisher = {Routledge}, address = {London}, isbn = {978-0-8153-8614-8}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {260}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Anthropocene has become an environmental buzzword. It denotes a new geological epoch that is human?dominated. As mounting scientific evidence reveals, humankind has fundamentally altered atmospheric, geological, hydrological, biospheric, and other Earth system processes to an extent that the risk of an irreversible system change emerges. Human societies must therefore change direction and navigate away from critical tipping points in the various ecosystems of our planet. This hypothesis has kicked off a debate not only on the geoscientific definition of the Anthropocene era, but increasingly also in the social sciences. However, the specific contribution of the social sciences disciplines and in particular that of political science still needs to be fully established. This edited volume analyzes, from a political science perspective, the wider social dynamics underlying the ecological and geological changes, as well as their implications for governance and politics in the Anthropocene. The focus is on two questions: (1) What is the contribution of political science to the Anthropocene debate, e.g. in terms of identified problems, answers, and solutions? (2) What are the conceptual and practical implications of the Anthropocene debate for the discipline of political science? Overall, this book contributes to the Anthropocene debate by providing novel theoretical and conceptual accounts of the Anthropocene, engaging with contemporary politics and policy-making in the Anthropocene, and offering a critical reflection on the Anthropocene debate as such. The volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of political science, global environmental politics and governance, and sustainable development.}, language = {en} } @book{OPUS4-52932, title = {Postcolonial and settler colonial contexts}, series = {The condition of democracy}, volume = {3}, journal = {The condition of democracy}, editor = {Mackert, J{\"u}rgen and Wolf, Hannah and Turner, Bryan S.}, publisher = {Routledge}, address = {London}, isbn = {978-0-367-74538-7}, doi = {10.4324/9781003158387}, pages = {ix, 205}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Classical liberal democratic theory has provided crucial ideas for a still dominant and hegemonic discourse that rests on ideological conceptions of freedom, equality, peacefulness, inclusive democratic participation, and tolerance. While this may have held some truth for citizens in Western liberal-capitalist societies, such liberal ideals have never been realized in colonial, postcolonial and settler colonial contexts. Liberal democracies are not simply forms of rule in domestic national contexts but also geo-political actors. As such, they have been the drivers of processes of global oppression, colonizing and occupying countries and people, appropriating indigenous land, annihilating people with eliminatory politics right up to genocides. There can be no doubt that the West - with its civilizational Judeo-Christian idea and divine mission 'to subdue the world' - has destroyed other civilizations, countries, trading systems, and traditional ways of life and is responsible for the death of hundreds of millions of human beings in the course of colonizing the world from its Empires of trade through colonialism to settler colonialism and today's politics of regime change. The book discusses the settler colonial regime that Israel has established in Palestine while still claiming to be a democracy. It discusses the failures of liberal democracy to overcome the structural and racist inequalities in post-Apartheid South Africa, and it presents hopeful outlooks on new ideas and forms of democracy in social movements in the MENA region.}, language = {en} } @book{OPUS4-52931, title = {Contesting citizenship}, series = {The condition of democracy}, volume = {2}, journal = {The condition of democracy}, editor = {Mackert, J{\"u}rgen and Wolf, Hannah and Turner, Bryan S.}, publisher = {Routledge}, address = {London}, isbn = {978-0-367-74536-3}, doi = {10.4324/9781003158370}, pages = {viii, 190}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Democracy and citizenship are conceptually and empirically contested. Against the backdrop of recent and current profound transformations in and of democratic societies, this volume presents and discusses acute contestations, within and beyond national borders and boundaries. Democracy's crucial relationships, between state and citizenry as well as amongst citizens, are rearranged and re-ordered in various spheres and arenas, impacting on core democratic principles such as accountability, legitimacy, participation and trust. This volume addresses these refigurations by bringing together empirical analyses and conceptual considerations regarding the access to and exclusion from citizenship rights in the face of migration regulation and institutional transformation, and the role of violence in maintaining or undermining social order. With its critical reflection on the consequences and repercussions of such processes for citizens' everyday lives and for the meaning of citizenship altogether, this book transgresses disciplinary boundaries and puts into dialogue the perspectives of political theory and sociology.}, language = {en} } @book{Ganghof2021, author = {Ganghof, Steffen}, title = {Beyond Presidentialism and Parliamentarism}, publisher = {Oxford University Press}, address = {Oxford}, isbn = {978-0-19-289714-5}, doi = {10.1093/oso/9780192897145.001.0001}, pages = {1 -- 199}, year = {2021}, abstract = {In a democracy, a constitutional separation of powers between the executive and the assembly may be desirable, but the constitutional concentration of executive power in a single human being is not. The book defends this thesis and explores 'semi-parliamentary government' as an alternative to presidential government. Semi-parliamentarism avoids power concentration in one person by shifting the separation of powers into the democratic assembly. The executive becomes fused with only one part of the assembly, even though the other part has at least equal democratic legitimacy and robust veto power on ordinary legislation. The book identifies the Australian Commonwealth and Japan, as well as the Australian states of New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia, as semi-parliamentary systems. Using data from 23 countries and 6 Australian states, it maps how parliamentary and semi-parliamentary systems balance competing visions of democracy; it analyzes patterns of electoral and party systems, cabinet formation, legislative coalition-building, and constitutional reforms; it systematically compares the semi-parliamentary and presidential separation of powers; and it develops new and innovative semi-parliamentary designs, some of which do not require two separate chambers.}, language = {en} } @book{Iro2009, author = {Iro, Andrea}, title = {The UN Peacebuilding Commission : lessons from Sierra Leone}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, isbn = {978-3-940793-77-5}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-29599}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {109}, year = {2009}, abstract = {"The UN Peacebuilding Commission - Lessons from Sierra Leone" by political scientist Andrea Iro is an assessment of the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) and the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) by analysing their performance over the last two years in Sierra Leone, one of the first PBC focus countries. The paper explores the key question of how the PBC/PBF's mandate has been translated into operational practice in the field. It concludes that though the overall impact has been mainly positive and welcomed by the country, translating the general mandate into concrete activities remains a real challenge at the country level.}, language = {en} } @book{OPUS4-62304, title = {Tracing value change in the international legal order}, editor = {Krieger, Heike and Liese, Andrea}, publisher = {Oxford University Press}, address = {Oxford}, isbn = {978-0-19-285583-1}, doi = {10.1093/oso/9780192855831.001.0001}, pages = {xiv, 353}, year = {2023}, abstract = {International law is constantly navigating the tension between preserving the status quo and adapting to new exigencies. But when and how do such adaptation processes give way to a more profound transformation, if not a crisis of international law? To address the question of how attacks on the international legal order are changing the value orientation of international law, this book brings together scholars of international law and international relations. By combining theoretical and methodological analyses with individual case studies, this book offers readers conceptualizations and tools to systematically examine value change and explore the drivers and mechanisms of these processes. These case studies scrutinize value change in the foundational norms of the post-1945 order and in norms representing the rise of the international legal order post-1990. They cover diverse issues: the prohibition of torture, the protection of women's rights, the prohibition of the use of force, the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, sustainability norms, and accountability for core international crimes. The challenges to each norm, the reactions by norm defenders, and the fate of each norm are also studied. Combined, the analyses show that while a few norms have remained surprisingly robust, several are changing, either in substance or in legal or social validity. The book concludes by integrating the conceptual and empirical insights from this interdisciplinary exchange to assess and explain the ambiguous nature of value change in international law beyond the extremes of mere progress or decline.}, language = {en} }