Issue published: 30 June 2021

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Novel Technologies and Geopolitical Strategies: Disinformation Narratives in the Countries of the Visegrád Group

Lilla Sarolta Bánkuty-Balogh, p. 165–195

Abstract: In the current media environment of growing information disorder and social media platforms emerging as primary news sources, the creation and spread of disinformation is becoming increasingly easy and cost‑effective.The projection of strategic narratives through disinformation campaigns is an important geopolitical tool in the global competition for power and status. We have analysed close to 1,000 individual news pieces from more than 60 different online sources containing disinformation, which originally appeared in one of the V4 languages, using a natural language processing algorithm. We have assessed the frequency of recurring themes within the articles and their relationship structure, to see whether consistent disinformation narratives were to be found among them. Through frequency analysis and relationship charting, we have been able to uncover individual story lines connected to more than ten overarching disinformation narratives. We have also exposed five key meta‑narratives present in all Visegrád Countries, which fed into a coherent system of beliefs, such as the envisioned collapse of the European Union or the establishment of a system of Neo‑Atlantism, which would permanently divide the continent.

Keywords: novel technologies, geopolitics, disinformation, strategic narratives, Visegrád Group

Riders on the Storm: the Role of Populism in the Global Crisis of Democracy and in the Functioning of Electoral Autocracies

István Benedek, p. 197–225

Abstract: It is my contention that populism could be an appropriate framework to describe, explain and connect the phenomena of global crisis of democracy and functioning of electoral autocracies. In order to substantiate this claim, with the method of literature review, I examine first the characteristics of these phenomena. Then I focuson the nature of the relationship between them, in particular on the complex system of new types of autocracies’ stability, in which populism could play a crucial role. Populism, understood as an autocratic (re-)interpretation of democracy and representation, could be a particularly dangerous Trojan Horse for democracy. First and foremost, because its idea of a single, homogeneous and authentic people that can be legitimately represented only by the populist leader is a moralised form of antipluralism which is contrary tothe pluralist approach of democracy (i.e. polyarchy). For precisely this reason, populism could play a key role in autocracies, especial in electoral autocracies which may use its core elements. Namely, the Manichean worldview, the image of a homogeneous people,  people‑centrism and the autocratic notion of representation are very compatible with electoral autocracies, since these regimes hold general elections and their poweris built largely upon the alleged will of the people. By using populism, it is possible for these regimes to camouflage and even legitimise their autocratic trends and exercise of power behind the formally multi‑party but not fair elections and democratic façade. As a radical turn towards closed autocracies (without de facto multiparty elections) would be too expensive, electoral autocrats need manipulated multi‑party elections and other plebiscite techniques that could serve as quasi‑democratic legitimation. Because of this, they tend to use the political logic of populism which could transform political contestation to a life‑and‑death struggle and provides quasi‑democratic legitimation and other important cognitive functions. Therefore, populist electoral autocracies, as a paradigmatic type of electoral autocracies, could remain with us for a long time, giving more and more tasks to researchers, especially in the Central and Eastern European region.

Keywords: democracy, autocracy, populism, representation, legitimacy

Who Spends More? Party Ideology and Public Spending in 16 Post-Socialist Countries

Dejan Bursać, p. 227–250

Abstract: The article is revisiting a never‑concluded debate about the partisan effect on public spending. It explores the impact of the ruling parties’ ideological orientation, operationalised in a single‑dimensional left‑right scale, on budget expenditures in Central and Eastern Europe. The research is conducted within an expanded time series covering the complete period since the fall of one‑party regimes in sixteen former socialist countries, where the issue has remained under‑studied, especially in comparison with a number of similar studies focusing mostly on developed Western democracies. The findings moderately support the main hypothesis demonstrating that, although an ideology matters, there are also other more significant predictors of the spending among political, economic or other contextual variables related to a specific transitional framework of the countries in question. The same conclusion applies to the total consumption, as well as to the examined budget segments of social transfers and education, while the environmental spending seems to be completely unrelated to the partisan variable.

Keywords: party ideology, public spending, left‑right scale, economic policy, Centraland Eastern Europe

The Disintegration of Czech Parliamentary Parties: The Network Analysis of Co-Voting Strategies of the Parliamentary Party ‘Renegades’

Dušan Brabec, p. 251–271

Abstract: The main objective of this study is to capture and analyse the dynamics of the co‑votingties among the members of the parliamentary political party groups in two specific Czech cases, where some members of these parliamentary groups left their former party and joined new political entities. The study is of a quantitative nature, but the main findings are connected to qualitative insights as well. Network approach and methods were used for the analysis. The emphasis was put on the detection of possible rivalling communities in the constructed network of co‑voting between deputies belonging to the analysed parliamentary party groups in respective periods. The co‑voting was treated as a proxy indicator of possible relationship indicating either co‑operation or rivalry between the deputies belonging to the political party suffering from an internal crisis. The primary outcome of the study was the identification of the co‑voting strategies and dynamics of the co‑voting between deputies who stayed in their former party, and renegades who switched.

Keywords: legislative networks, the internal crisis of political party, Czech political parties, exit, voice, loyalty, neglect, co‑voting

Parties and Linkages in the Slovak Party System: An Overview

Peter Učeň and Oľga Gyárfášová, p. 273–295

Abstract: This study acknowledges Kitschelt’s inspiration by understanding party linkage as a mechanism closely pertaining to the relationships of accountability and responsiveness between political parties and voters. Three key linkages – programmatic, charismatic and clientelistic – are scrutinized. The authors identify the “linkage profiles” of relevant political parties in the history of Slovak party competition and use the results of an experts’ survey (from the DALP project) as a (limited) test ofthe authors’ expert judgement. The study then reflects on the latest developments in political linkages in a period when anti‑establishment and anti‑system political parties are gaining strength. The paper concludes that clientelism as a linkage played a significantly smaller role than predicted in the 1990s, while charisma – even though we define it differently from some mainstream approaches – manifested a stronger than expected influence on party competition. Also, combinations of charismatic and programmatic linkages seem to be attractive for a number of relevant Slovak parties. Finally, programmatic competition informed Slovak politics for longer and more successfully than Kitschelt’s model would suggest.

Keywords: linkages, party competition, Kitschelt, Slovakia

Participation of the Czech Republic in NATO Peace Support Operations: Analysis of Necessary and Sufficient Conditions

Lucie Konečná, p. 297–316

Abstract: NATO, as one of the most important security organisations, has been involved in a large number of operations of all kinds since its establishment. Peace Support Operations are the most common type, as they include conflict prevention, peacemaking, peacebuilding, peacekeeping, peace enforcement and humanitarian operations. Some states participate in these operations very often, others only rarely.This study aims to examine the participation of the Czech Republic, a small state that has a small but well‑trained and specialised army. The research aims to determine the most common reasons for Czech participation in NATO’s Peace Support Operations.The work uses qualitative comparative analysis to determine the necessary reasons or sufficient conditions for the participation of this state. Five types of reasons – political reasons, security reasons, economic reasons, institutional reasons and normative reasons are tested. The analysis points to the fact that security reasons are the most important reasons.

Keywords: Czech Republic, NATO, participation, peace support operations, security

Experts and Questions: Exploring Perceptions of Corruption

Aneta Pinková and Jakub Jusko, p. 317–345

Abstract: This article is a contribution to the ‘know your data’ approach to the issue of measuring corruption, in two specific areas: the impact of the way questions are formulated on the results of surveys on corruption perception; and the potential pitfalls of using business people as expert respondents in surveys measuring corruption. The article first presents and analyses the sources of two most frequently used indicators to measure corruption perceptions – the Corruption Perception Index and the Control of Corruption, one of the Worldwide Governance Indicators. Based on this analysis, hypotheses are posed on how the formulation of the questions will influence the outcomes of surveys, and what differences there will be between studies conducted on the general public and business people. These are tested using data obtained from two original survey experiments conducted concurrently, one on a representative sample of the public and another on business people.

Keywords: measuring corruption perceptions, bribery, corruption, experts, survey experiment

Relations between Turkey and Hungary in the Democratic Party Period (1950–1960)

Bilal Tunç and Orsolya Falus, p. 347–366

Abstract: The decennium historical process in Turkish political history between 1950 and 1960 is called the Democratic Party (DP) era. During this period, important issues took place in Turkish foreign policy. Our aim is to reveal the political, commercial and social relations between Turkey and Hungary in the light of archive documents within the scope of important events in Turkish foreign policy. The aim of this article is to emphasise how the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 affected the relations between the two countries and to prove with documents that Turkey supported Hungary during the revolution. This study has been created by benefiting from archive documents, national newspapers and copyrights from both target countries. The study also commemorates the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, which erupted 65 years ago this year. Finally, this article entitled Relations between Turkey and Hungary during the Democratic Party Period (1950–1960) is a qualitative study prepared using the document analysis technique.

Keywords: Democratic Party, diplomacy, Hungary, commerce, 1956, Turkey

Bush's ‘Beyond Containment’ strategy toward the Eastern Bloc in 1989 within the US Foreign Policy Context

David Mareček, p. 367–392

Abstract: This paper explores the foreign policy of US President George H. W. Bush and his administration towards the Soviet Union and the other countries of the Warsaw Pact. The article also focuses on two historically significant American foreign policy strategies that were implemented during the earlier years of the Cold War: containment and détente. The rapidly changing international environment and Bush’s Beyond Containment policy which, aimed to respond to these changes, became the basis for the following research questions: 1) How did American conception of foreign policy approach to Eastern Bloc countries such as Hungary or Poland change under the Bush administration in 1989 in comparison to the period of implementation of the containment or détente? 2) How did the American perception of the retreating Soviet power within the bipolar international structure affect American diplomatic relations with the Eastern European governments? The aim of the paper is to put Bush’s foreign policy in his first year in office in the American ‘Cold War’ foreign policy context and to compare the classical American political strategies with Bush’s foreign policy in 1989.

Keywords: George H. W. Bush, U.S. Foreign Policy, Eastern Bloc, beyond containment, containment, détente

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Kaspars Zellis: Europe Thirty Years after 1989