Kevin Deegan-Krause & Tim Haughton
Kevin Deegan-Krause is Associate Professor of Political Science at Wayne State University. He is the author of Elected Affinities: Democracy and Party Competition in Slovakia and the Czech Republic (2006) and co-editor of The Structure of Political Competition in Western Europe (2010) and the Handbook of Political Change in Eastern Europe (forthcoming), and the co-editor of the European Journal of Political Research’s Political Data Yearbook
Tim Haughton is Senior Lecturer in the Politics of Central and Eastern Europe at the University of Birmingham and the 2011-12 Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation Fellow at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. He is the author of Constraints and Opportunities of Leadership in Post-Communist Europe (2005), the editor of Party Politics in Central and Eastern Europe: Does EU Membership Matter? (2011) and the co-editor of the Journal of Common Market Studies’ Annual Review of the European Union.
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Articles by Kevin Deegan-Krause & Tim Haughton
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The history and sociology of the telephone in Russian society have only slowly become the object of serious study. The scope of this essay is limited to the following two topics: first, the forms of use, in pre-revolutionary Russia and the Soviet Union, of the telephone as a means of communication, potentially universally available and “horizontal” but actually restricted by “vertical” forces; and second, the symbolism that accumulated around this means of communication in Russian and Soviet culture.
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Interviews from three communities in a Russian region illustrate that there are many new opportunities for potential women entrepreneurs, while there are also many at times unpredictable obstacles to overcome.
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It’s hard to say whether the revival of icons is the outcome of rising religiosity in general, a growing need to manifest one’s faith, or simply the search for some kind of salvation in a time of political and economic uncertainty. Nancy Westman went to St. Petersburg for a closer study of modern iconography; she also spoke to a couple of Swedish iconographers.
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Though once very controversial in the context of the Cold War, Fitzpatrick’s view of totalitarianism in the Soviet Union as something complex, full of contradictions and of different kinds of agency, has now become a commonplace in Russian studies.
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There can be no doubt that Russia has again surprised Western commentators; there had been a good consensus that there would not be major political opposition in Russia,that civil society is weak and there were no alternatives around. Now we have to develop a much more sophisticated analysis. In this article I will concentrate on two issues: legitimacy and interests.
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Croatia is finally at the doorstep of the EU. Now the door is open and there is no need to knock and wait to get in. Croatia will be part of Eu and be able to participate and be active in social, economic and political projects of common interest.
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The author has been following the protest against Putin through Facebook and a number of internet portals and claims that "even through the distance that any media technology always creates, one could not help feeling deeply affected by the joyous festivities during the protest events – tens of thousands strong manifestations, marches, flash mobs, and car rallies".
"The idea that a political change must precede an economic discussion prevails. In the absence of a social program, the carnival feature of the protest movement becomes the uniting principle pulling together people who otherwise would have never ever acted together.".
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Next Sunday, on March 4, presidential elections are held in Russia. The likely winner of the elections, Vladimir Putin, has been known already for five months but during these five months Russian political climate has changed significantly.
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On February 18, Latvia held a referendum on amendments to the Constitution (Satversme) that would make Russian a second official language. Discussions about this referendum have been very emotional. The sensitivity of the question resulted in the second-highest turnout of voters (71.12% ) for a referendum, just slightly lower than in the 2003 referendum on joining the European Union (71.49%). The proposal was rejected, so Russian did not become the second official language of Latvia and therefore an EU language.
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Sauli Niinistö, a former finance minister and speaker of the parliament from the conservative National Coalition party received 62,7 per cent of the votes, a result which came as no surprise. Sauli Niinistö has throughout the entire presidential campaign been clear on how the role of the new president is to be played. Since the president has a direct mandate from the people he is entitled to engage also in other policy domains than those prescribed in the Finnish constitution.
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