Issue published: 30 June 2022

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Patterns of the Parliamentary Debates: How Deliberative are Turkish Democratic Opening Debates?

Çiğdem Görgün Akgül and Musa Akgül, p. 175–199

Abstract: This study attempts to measure the deliberation quality of the Democratic Opening Debates in the Turkish Parliament through the Discourse Quality Index(DQI). The majority of studies have been conducted on the deliberation quality of relatively homogenised and developed Western societies and on less conflictual or contentious topics. In these countries, democratic culture has been institutionalised. On the contrary, Turkey is a developing country and has been going through an ethnic conflict involving violence for many decades. Thus, this case study aims to make an original contribution to empirical deliberation studies. Researchers have examined the 88-page stenographic records of the Democratic Opening Debates and put forwarda DQI score. According to the findings, the controversial debates fulfill only 40% ofhigh-level deliberative discourse ethics. This result demonstrates that the ideal deliberation process does not exist in Turkey even though a convenient atmosphere is created for deliberations by means of official procedures. Ethnic division in the society has a profoundly negative impact on the quality of deliberations.

Keywords: deliberation, discourse ethics, discourse Quality Index, Turkish Parliament, democratic opening, divided societies

Local and Regional Politics at the EU level: who is actually represented in the Committee of the Regions?

Paweł Bącal, p. 201–224

Abstract: One of the main reasons for the establishment of the Committee of the Regions was to provide the subnational level with the representation within the institutional system of the European Union. As the body advising the EU institutions, the Committee can influence the decision‑making process. Since it consists of members of the local and regional authorities, one may ask if it does offer the opportunity for the peculiar territorial self‑government units to be represented at the EU level. And in the broader terms – what does the relation between the general and particular interests look like in that regard? The article tries to determine if the Committee of the Regions is a suitable place for the individual territorial self‑government unit to promote its interests. The findings of the paper are based on the author’s own empirical research conducted among the Polish members of the Committee. The results entitle the author to state that the territorial self‑government units are represented in the Committee of the Regions and they have some benefits from being represented within this body.

Keywords: Committee of the Regions, European Union, subnational level, representation, local government, regional government

Hungarian Nationalism and Hungarian Pan-Turanism until the Beginning of the Second World War

Attila Gökhun Dayıoğlu, p. 225–249

Abstract: After the Napoleonic Wars in the 19^th century, the development and spread of nationalism in Europe began to accelerate. The development of the national consciousness of the peoples living under the domination of the empires in Europe damaged the legitimacy of the empires in Europe and started to threaten the existence ofthe empires in Europe. These nationalist movements especially affected the Habsburg Empire, the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Tsardom, and these regions became areas of nationalist conflict. The word ‘Turan’, which is used to describe the Central Asian lands where Turkish tribes live, gained its ideological meaning in the 19^th and 20^th centuries. ‘Turanism’, which started to gain its ideological meaning in the second half of the 19^th century in Hungary, which can be defined as an Asian country in the middle of Europe, has become an ideology identified with Hungarians, Hungarian nationalism and the Hungarian awakening. ‘Hungarian Turanism’, which has undergone many changes in its ideological depiction, was born and strengthened from the search for national identity among economic and social problems in Hungary, which is considered an ‘insecure’ society in Europe due to the threats of Slavic and Germanic elements. Hungarian nationalism and Hungarian identity, which were shaped in an ethnocultural context, evolved from a liberal/political basis to an ethnocultural and pan‑nationalist practice. Especially at the beginning ofthe 20^th century, the ‘Hungarian Turanism’ ideology, which started to strengthen with the Hungarian elites and intellectuals focusing on Hungarian national interests, cultureand expansionist policies against external threats, led to the emergence of a new nationalism movement, Pan‑Turanism. Hungarian nationalism and ‘Hungarian Turanism’ ideology, which started to develop and transform on different grounds, especially after the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, became stronger in the interwar period after the First World War and became an important part of the fascist Hungarian parties supported by Nazi Germany during the Second World War.

Keywords: Hungarian nationalism, Turanism, Hungarian Turanism, Pan‑Turanism

When Ideology Matters More – Science and Vaccine Scepticism in Light of Political Ideologies and Partisanship during the Third COVID-19 Wave in Hungary

Eszter Farkas, Balázs Böcskei and Andrea Szabó, p. 251–269

Abstract: As for the mitigation of the negative consequences of the coronavirus pandemicand the related crisis, governments should inter alia facilitate the willingness to vaccinate. However, related discussions became politicised, especially in countries with an extremely high level of partisan polarisation in opinions and media discourses, like in Hungary, which is the selected case of our study. As previous research about the United States shows, general trust in science is also influenced by the ideological alignment of individuals – people with conservative identification are more likely to question scientific results and recommendations, considering global warming, or the characteristics of the pandemic and the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines. In our study we examine two main questions: first, whether the ideological orientation and partisan alignment of Hungarian citizens influence their general trust in science, and second, whether the same factors influence their opinion on scientists’ ability to develop effective vaccines against the coronavirus. Furthermore, we also investigate whether media consumption habits might influence these interrelations. According to the results of the representative online survey, the more conservative someone in Hungary identifies, the more likely they will be sceptical in terms of both questions. However, support of government or opposition parties does not determine whether they believe in the ability of scientists to develop effective vaccines, and it is influenced by their media consumption habits. We showed that (1) opposition supporters are much more different along their preferred media source than government supporters, (2) television watchers are of the same opinion independent of their party preference and (3) social media consumers are generally more likely to reject scientific results. The phenomenon that supporters are generally more likely to reject scientific results. The phenomenon that supporters of the conservative government and of the alliance of opposition parties are different in terms of their media consumption is a surprising finding in the polarised Hungarian context. We provide two main explanations for this. First, it is most probably the consequence of the government’s intensive campaign that encouraged vaccination. Second, the government used the issue of vaccination as a source of legitimacy regarding the effectiveness of their crisis management.

Keywords: science scepticism, vaccine scepticism, public opinion, political ideology, partisan polarisation

(Im)Perfect Descriptive Representation: Slovenia in the Spotlight

Lars Johannsen, Alenka Krašovec and Gregor Čehovin, p. 271–294

Abstract: The failure to ensure descriptive representation is one of the challenges facing democracy. In the literature, it is suggested that, among others, imperfect descriptive representation is connected to insufficient legitimacy as well as low trust in political institutions. This paper analyses the link between descriptive representation and both people’s satisfaction with the way democracy is working in practice and trust in political institutions in Slovenia which, despite 30 years of democratic rule, are characterised by persistent low trust and satisfaction levels. Considering longitudinal public opinion data and a database on the composition ofthe Slovenian parliament (eight terms) in terms of gender, age groups and education, we find that also in Slovenia especially women, the young, the elderly and those with a basic education are underrepresented, with this being reflected in trust in the parliamentand people’s perception of the way in which democracy is working. Still, the fact such underrepresentation has continued for some time (regardless of certain changes) means these findings are only part of the explanation.

Keywords: representation, parliament, trust, democracy, Slovenia

Impacts of Renewable Energy on CO₂ Emission: Evidence from the Visegrad Group Countries

Erginbay Uğurlu, p. 295–315

Abstract: EU policies aim to develop renewable energy share in both production and consumption of total energy and increase the efforts to mitigate climate change. As relatively new EU members, the Visegrad countries aimed to adopt these targets. Therefore, climate change mitigation and CO₂ emissions reduction are important issues in Visegrad countries. In this paper, we examine the renewable energy consumption and CO₂ emissions relationship in the Visegrad countries. We use the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS) model to estimate the long‑run relationship between the variables using annual data from the period of 2000–2018. The variables used are CO₂ emissions, GDP per capita, renewable energy consumption and urban population. The results show that there is cointegration among the variables. The estimated FMOLS model shows that GDP and population increase CO₂ consumption, and renewable energy consumption decreases CO₂ emissions. Results show that renewable energy consumption has a decreasing effect on CO₂ emissions.

Keywords: Visegrad Group (V4), Panel Cointegration, renewable energy, Carbondioxide emissions