LITMIR.BIZ

Englische Sprachausgabe des Titels «Für ein anderes Europa» (ISBN 978-3-80152-7002-5): In the face of the «euro crisis» the question arises: how does the European Union look in terms of the fundamental values and goals of the political left – democracy, self-determination, freedom and prosperity for as many people as possible? Is the EU an emancipatory instrument for the citizens of Europe? Or is it an agent of their creeping disenfranchisement? Do we need more Europe – or less? Is the EU eroding the political and welfare achievements of the twentieth century? In what direction must the European Union develop in order to solve the manifold problems of the integration process? Leading intellectuals from 10 EU member states have set out their visions of a more progressive Europe, with no holds barred or conventional formulae. They are united by the insight that Europe can do better.

Подробнее

The politico-economic reforms launched during the late twentieth century in post-Soviet Russia have led to contradictory and ambiguous results. The new economic environment and mode of governance that emerged have been subjected to serious criticism. What were the causes of these developments? Were they unavoidable for Russia due to specific factors grounded in the country’s previous experiences? Or were they an intended result of actions taken by the leaders of the country during the last few decades?
The authors of this book share neither a deterministic approach, which implies that Russia is bound to fail because of the nature of its economic and political evolution, nor a voluntarist approach, which implies that these failures were caused only by the incompetence and/or malicious intentions of its leaders. Instead, this study offers a different framework for the analysis of political and economic developments in present-day Russia. It is based on four ‘i’s—ideas, interests, institutions, and illusions.

Подробнее

Brussels’s idea of a “wider Europe” implies that Europeanisation is not limited to EU member states. The EU can, so it claims, also exert impact beyond its borders. One of the channels of external EU influence is cooperation between Europarties and parties outside the Union. Through mutual visits and joint activities, non-EU parties become internationally socialised, i.e., are exposed to the Europarties’ norms as well as values, and experience the rules as well as practices that shape European party-building.
What are the incentives for Europarties and non-EU parties to cooperate with each other? What kind of, and how much, impact did cooperation have on party development in post-Soviet Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine? Based on eighty interviews with party officials, international donors and academics, Maria Shagina outlines the set of motivations that trigger cooperation between Europarties and non-EU parties, analyses the impact of cooperation on party ideology, organisational structure, and inter-party behaviour in Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine, and explores the implications of this cooperation on the standardisation, consolidation, and democratisation of the non-EU party systems.
Her findings shed light on how prestige and domestic factors impede the penetration of EU norms and values in the non-EU party structures, and point to the failures of Europarties to adequately address problems of party-development in Eastern Europe. The book reveals the ways in which cooperation with Europarties has paradoxically contributed to the ossification of the status quo and impaired the development as well as the consolidation of democracy in the three Eastern Partnership states.

Подробнее

The present volume by İhsan Gümüş, an author who, in a situation of persecution and oppression, writes under a pseudonym, is a collection of articles which were published on the website Platform for Peace and Justice in 2017 and 2018. They focus on the political development in Turkey following the military action, or attempted coup, on 15 July 2016 and the corruption as well as the human rights abuses against different groups.
No democracy, no constitutional system that is orientated towards the protection of human rights can work ‘without the support of a strong, popular culture of liberty’. The book by İhsan Gümüş has the potential to motivate people who want to live in freedom and want to see others live in freedom to overcome moral obtuseness.

Подробнее

This is a book about the crisis of the European integration project as seen from the vantage point of people’s movements across and to the European continent. But why should the issue of refugees or of migration have anything to do with the dynamics of the integration or disintegration of the European Union? If anything, the existing global refugee protection regime was conceived in Europe at about the time when Europe began to integrate: It was seen as a moral imperative in the context of European solidarity and in the face of crisis. How did refugee protection become so controversial as to usher in a crisis of its own? Why do European governments and their peoples see refugees and migrants as the cause of a crisis in and of Europe? Solidarity, legitimacy, democracy, welfare, rights: How has refugee migration undermined European positions on all that has defined EU integration so far?
This collection engages with these questions by focusing on the construction of the crisis narrative, offering an insight into distinctly European perspectives on and analyses of political responses to refugees, migration, and economic challenges. The aim of the volume is to provide an empirical and thematic context for understanding the link between refugee migration and the overpowering perception of Europe in crisis.

Подробнее

In post-Soviet Russian politics, Boris Nemtsov is one of the most tragic figures—and not only because he was shot dead, at the age of 56, in close vicinity to the Kremlin, the locus of Russia’s power. The “transparency of evil” in this specific case was shocking: Nemtsov’s murder was filmed by a surveillance camera. The video tape confirms the demonstrative and insolent character of the assassination. His death illuminated a core feature of the current regime that tolerates, if not incites, extra-legal actions against those it considers to be “foes,” “traitors,” or members of “the Fifth Column.”
In this volume Boris Nemtsov is commemorated from different perspectives. In addition to academic papers, it includes personal notes and reflections. The articles represent a range of assessments of Nemtsov’s personality by people for whom he was one of the leading figures in post-Soviet politics and a major protagonist in Russia’s transformation. Some authors had direct experiences of either living in, or travelling to, Nizhny Novgorod when Nemtsov was governor there. The plurality of opinions collected in this volume matches the diversity and multiplicity of Nemtsov’s political legacy.
The volume’s contributors include: David J. Kramer, Senior Director at the McCain Institute for International Leadership in Washington, DC; Miguel Vázquez Liñán, Associate Professor at Seville University; Yulia Kurnyshova, Research Fellow at the National Institute for Strategic Studies in Kyiv; Ekaterina Smagly, Director of the Kennan Institute in Kyiv; Henry E. Hale, Professor at The George Washington University in Washington, DC; Howard J. Wiarda (2015), Professor at the University of Georgia; Sharon Werning Rivera, Associate Professor at Hamilton College; Tomila Lankina, Associate Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science; Andre Mommen (2017), Professor at the University of Amsterdam; Stefan Meister, Director at the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin; Vladimir Gel’man, Professor at the University of Helsinki; Vladimir V. Kara-Murza, coordinator of the Open Russia movement and deputy leader of the People’s Freedom Party of Russia.

Подробнее

Rolando Dromundo presents a political and historical analysis of the state-building processes in Ukraine, Moldova, and the unrecognized Republic of Pridnestrovia from the Soviet fall until 2015, starting with a sketch of the main geopolitical trend that surrounds these polities and its influences on them, and paying special attention to the vicissitudes of the Ukrainian political crisis of 2013–14 and its immediate consequences in Crimea and the Donbass.
This book is a must for scholars with an interest in the Post-Soviet Space and to anyone curious about an international conflict from a realist perspective. It offers an original insight on the understanding of the oligarch’s role in the Ukrainian political life and presents a different perspective of the unrecognized Republic of Pridnestrovia.
Dromundo writes neither pro-Russian nor pro-Western. He sheds light on the problems from different angles and illustrates how the local inhabitants turned out to become the biggest losers in the game because they have fallen prey to local elites allied with different foreign powers disregarding local identities and needs.


Altogether, the book helps to better understand the complexity of local state-building processes in a multiethnic society.

Подробнее

What are the reasons behind, and trajectories of, the rapid cultural changes in Ukraine since 2013?
This volume highlights: the role of the Revolution of Dignity and the Russian-Ukrainian war in the formation of Ukrainian civil society; the forms of warfare waged by Moscow against Kyiv, including information and religious wars; Ukrainian and Russian identities and cultural realignment; sources of destabilization in Ukraine and beyond; memory politics and Russian foreign policies; the Kremlin’s geopolitical goals in its 'near abroad'; and factors determining Ukraine’s future and survival in a state of war.
The studies included in this collection illuminate the growing gap between the political and social systems of Ukraine and Russia. The anthology illustrates how the Ukrainian revolution of 2013–2014, Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula, and its invasion of eastern Ukraine have altered the post-Cold War political landscape and, with it, the regional and global power and security dynamics.

Подробнее

This volume compares different regional perspectives on the national and democracy-building aims of individual states. It confronts discourses about national states to regional perspectives on the past as well as the current political and social landscape. Why are we observing calls for national identity right now? What are the roots of this development? How can a Central European identity be shaped when national perspectives are prevalent?
The book’s first part analyses social and political processes that shaped nation-states in the Central European region and shows divergent trends of individual states when it comes to defining a regional approach of the Visegrád Group (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary = V4). The second part focuses on key personalities of the 20th century history of individual V4 countries in the light of their perception in the neighbouring states and how they shaped national states as well as identities after the end of World War II. Similar aims and approaches implemented by individual countries often led to anything but raising regional understanding. The book’s third part reflects upon activities of various initiatives aiming to approach this challenge from the perspective of civil society, and Central Europe’s young generation.
The collection brings together leading historians of Central Europe from the V4 countries. It also offers external perspectives on historical developments in Central Europe from the perspective of the 21st century and on political cooperation as well as its roots. Lastly, it includes practitioners of Central European cooperation from both academia and civil society, and their reflection on their countries’ political cooperation after 1989.

Подробнее

Natalya Ryabinska calls into question the commonly held opinion that the problems with media reform and press freedom in former Soviet states merely stem from the cultural heritage of their communist (and pre-communist) past. Focusing on Ukraine, she argues that, in the period after the fall of communism, peculiar new obstacles to media independence have arisen. They include the telltale structure of media ownership, with news reporting being concentrated in the hands of politically engaged business tycoons, the fuzzy and contradictory legislation of the media realm, and the informal institutions of political interference in mass media.
The book analyzes interrelationships between politics, the economy, and media in Ukraine, especially their shadowy sides guided by private interests and informal institutions. Being embedded in comparative politics and post-communist media studies, it helps to understand the nature and workings of the Ukrainian media system situated in-between democracy and authoritarianism. It offers insights into the inner logic of Ukraine’s political system and institutional arrangement in the post-Soviet period. Based on empirical data of 1994–2013, this study also highlights many of the barriers to democratic reforms that have been persisting in Ukraine since the Revolution of Dignity of 2013–2014.

Подробнее