Political perspectives: journal for political research

On improbable carrots: Serbian citizens between Kosovo* and the elusive EU membership

Bojan Todosijević — 2023-12-25

Potential membership in the EU is sometimes presented as a reward for Serbia's eventual acknowledgement of Kosovo's independence. Although membership in the EU has been a strategic goal of Serbian foreign policy, the EU is often perceived as working against Serbian national interests regarding Kosovo's status. Relying on the cognitive dissonance theory, we hypothesize that in addition to a direct negative association between the support for Serbia's territorial integrity and the EU membership, there is also an interactive effect: the association should be moderated by one's opinion on when and whether Serbia will become a member of the EU. These hypotheses are examined using public opinion data based on a large national sample of adult Serbian citizens. The results support the interaction hypothesis: the attitude that Kosovo should remain part of Serbia is a stronger predictor of the (negative) evaluation of the EU among those respondents who do not believe that Serbia will become an EU member in the future.

Basic Analytical Assumptions of empowering the periphery

Jelena Vidojević — 2024-02-19

Against the background of the global crises and the urgency it created, the authors attempt to problematise the pathways to empowering the peripheries of the world – the victimised, excluded, humiliated and entangled. As assumptions relevant for the empowerment of the peripheries they discuss: the need to re-read one’s own history; “accurate reconnaissance” of the current local circumstances; understanding the “workings of the global neoliberal capitalism”; focusing on integrating, making use of new scientific insights, reinvigorating fundamental values and generating internal actors of change; establishing new transformative alliances of the peripheries. The assumptions are contextualized in relation to the process of transition taking place in post-apartheid South Africa and post-socialist Serbia.

Odnos identiteta i uloga u međunarodnim odnosima i spoljnoj politici: ontologija, epistemologija i metodologija

Marko Kovačević — 2024-02-19

Abstract: The aim of this article is to enable a comprehensive insight into key theoretical debates on the relationship between identities and roles in International Relations (IR) and Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA), with a particular focus on theoretical approaches of social constructivism and foreign policy role theory. Given the lack of interest in this research approach the post-Yugoslav IR literature, I systematize ontological, epistemological and methodological dimensions of studying foreign policy and security roles of states. In this research path-breaking effort, a special emphasis is on the role of small states in world politics between structural imperatives and possibilities of agency. Role theory is reviewed in its relationship toward constructivist FPA, whereas the key notions of role theory, interpretive methodology and some examples of research on discursive construction of state identity and roles are presented. In the conclusion, I reflect on some further questions and a research agenda of identity and roles in IR.

Keywords: International Relations Theory, Foreign Policy Analysis, Constructivism, Role Theory, Small States

TRANSFORMATION OF PUBLIC POLICIES IN CONTEMPORARY CONTEXT

Ana Petek — 2024-02-19

The aim of this paper is to set foundation for a grounded assessment of the transformation of contemporary policy-making under the influence of current crises by detecting the dimensions in which the context of policy-making has changed in the late 20^th and early 21^stcentury. The paper is based on a literature review from the political science policy studies, but also from related disciplines of public administration and social policy studies, which with their specific concepts likewise try to discern the transformation of contemporary policy-making. First, an attempt is made to roughly systematize the basic elements of contextual change within society, markets and the state; and then research focus is placed on the state types and its functions manifested through diverse public policies, the types of governance and the multiple variants through which it operates today, and the transformation of the welfare state towards the welfare mix. The main finding of the paper is that new functions, new structures, new goals, new instruments and new actors that were detected in policy-making at the turn of the century do not replace the old ones, but are added to them as additional layers. The so-called layering seems to be a key feature of the modern policy-making, although it cannot yet be determined whether it will facilitate or aggravate the overcoming of current crises.

POLITICAL STABILITY IN DEEPLY DIVIDED SOCIETIES: EVIDENCE FROM POST-DAYTON BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Stefan Vukojević — 2024-02-19

This article explores the causes of political stability in deeply divided societies. Building upon literature on consociationalism and post-conflict management, in the case of post-Dayton Bosnia and Herzegovina, we determine periods of political stability and explain their causes. According to the widespread arguments on BiH, consociational institutional design has replicated and cemented deep ethnic cleavages and bolstered centrifugal and nationalistic politics, while external actors tried simultaneously to make the state stabile and functional through their interventionist involvement. When the external actors mitigated ther interventionalist approach in early 2006, the political situation began to deteriorate. The aim of this article is to identify and assess periods of political stability through tracing of causal mechanisms in the interplay between external actors and local elites in the context of the unfavorable structural and institutional conditions. It argues that, alongside external actors, the political stability depends on the type of governing parties i.e. whether they are moderate or hardlines.

KEYWORDS: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dayton Peace Agreement, Consociation, Political stability, International administration

prikaz knjige Slaviša Orlović "Nadziranje demokratije"

Despot Kovacevic — 2024-02-19