Dissecting political landscape of post-war Armenia

This paper explores the political landscape of post-war Armenia, focusing on both domestic and foreign policy implications of the devastating war of 2020. More specifically, it aims at explaining the aftermath of the 2020 war, with a special emphasis on Armenia's growing dependence on Russia. Since September 2020, Armenia has plunged into a deep crisis. The Nagorno-Karabakh war had a series of implications, both for conflicting parties and a wider region. The ceasefire agreement which entailed huge territorial concessions took many by surprise and raised questions as to the transparency and accountability of the government. Although the Russian-brokered ceasefire ended the hostilities, yet it left many fundamental matters unanswered. Furthermore, the war has exacerbated the pre-existing divisions amongst the foremost political actors and the general public. Combined with the war and its aftermath, the COVID-19 pandemic has also invited challenges, which resulted in an increased human toll, slowdown of economy, and deepened public anger and mistrust of the authorities. The situation is compounded by Armenia's deepening dependence on Russia, which has been largely treated as war-torn Armenia's irreplaceable ally by the Armenian leadership.

Coronavirus Pandemic Response and Voter Choice: Evidence from Serbia and Croatia

Does the public perception of governments’ coronavirus pandemic responses actually make a difference to their electoral fortunes? In this research note, we answer that question by presenting the preliminary results of a survey of more than 3,000 voters in Croatia and Serbia conducted on a dedicated mobile app and web platform directly preceding parliamentary elections that took place in these two countries during the summer of 2020. This survey was part of our larger project tracking political competition, public discourse, and conspiracy theories in Southeast Europe during the coronavirus pandemic. The preliminary findings presented in this research note demonstrate Croatian and Serbian voters were rationally retrospective and rewarded parties in power based on evaluations of their crisis management performance. We also find evidence of voters who have personally witnessed the health consequences of the coronavirus being more likely to support the parties in power. We believe this is evidence of the coronavirus pandemic increasing affected citizens’ expectations of and trust in national governments where those governments respond strongly to the pandemic’s first wave, as was the case in both Croatia and Serbia.

Electing the Mayors in Romania's Big Cities in 2020: Voter Turnout, Legislative Changes, and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Local elections have been theorized by many scholars as lower rank or second-order national elections: they are less important, less relevant, and just not as interesting as national elections. In Romania, turnout in local elections was, until the mid-2000s, quite high, even if lower than in parliamentary elections. Since 2008, however, turnout in local elections has been consistently higher than in parliamentary elections. The electoral reform that started in 2011 had, over time, a negative influence on the electoral process in the local elections. In this paper, we argue that the transition from the election of mayors using a majority electoral system in two rounds to a single round has contributed to the decline of citizens' interest in local elections, exerting a detrimental influence on the quality of political representation in general. Despite the arguments used by many of the supporters of this electoral reform, that electing the mayors in just one round will generate an increase in turnout because the competition will be fiercer, the effect was the opposite. The year 2020 marked a historic low in terms of turnout in local elections in Romania. Analyzing the official electoral data at county level and for each county capital, we will show that the health crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic had a minor influence on voting turnout. Instead, the specifics of the electoral law meant that, in the vast majority of county capitals, the turnout was significantly lower that the county average and the mayor was elected without reaching 50% of the votes (in many cases, the winning candidate failed to obtain more than 30% of the valid votes cast), which poses a major problem regarding the representativeness of elected mayors, as well as the stability and political balance within local political institutions.

INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE: TRUTH vs. POST TRUTH: „IT IS NOT TRUE, BUT IT COULD BE"

The COVID- 19 pandemic has brought many changes to the ways scientific conferences are being run. After an exhausting period, the relaxation of the COVID-19 restrictions finally arrives in 2022, and with it also a maneuvering space for the organizing committees of a conference. It is thanks to the gradual mitigation of the pandemic that the conference in Kosice was able to be organized in a physical format after a long hiatus. In the second half of May 2022, the Department of Political Science of the Faculty of Arts of the Pavol Jozef Safárik University in Kosice held a scientific conference for students and young researchers entitled Truth vs. Post-Truth: "It's not true, but it could be". Moreover, on May 20, 2022, a conference was opened in the Platón building at the UPJS campus. Due to the presentational format of the conference, the audience could ask questions to the panelists in person or via the Sli.do application.

Scotland’s Independence and the Poetry of Hugh MacDiarmid

In the recent parliamentary elections (2021), the Scottish National Party (SNP) won by far the largest number of seats (64), with the Scottish Labour Party, once the dominant political force in Scotland, reduced to 22. In Ireland, the pro-independence republican Sinn Fein, the second biggest party in the country, is calling for a vote on Ulster’s split from the United Kingdom and reunification with Southern Ireland. Independence is in the air and there is now a real prospect of the break-up of imperial Britain. At the same time, the Left in Scotland is still divided over the issue of independence. The clash of opinion in Scotland is certainly understandable given the deep-seated scepticism about the radical credentials of the SNP who have previously promoted neoliberal policies, not least with regard to Scotland’s rich North Sea oil and gas reserves. The ongoing crisis in relation to Brexit and the COVID pandemic has also deepened this process of political, social and economic fragmentation. I want therefore to situate this debate about national self-determination in the context of some classic Marxist interventions on the question. The discussion will also be linked to the figure of Hugh MacDiarmid (1892–1978), Scotland’s most controversial modernist poet, whose combination of communist and nationalist engagement will hopefully help throw a clearer literary and political light on the troubled relationship between Scotland and England. While European Marxism has been generally sensitive to the rights of small nations, it still seems necessary to clarify some of the important ideological distinctions between bourgeois and working-class national liberation. Taken together, these different threads provide a sustained argument about the need to support Scottish independence, much in the same way as the cause of Irish independence has been part of the left political agenda in Britain and elsewhere since the time of Marx.

POLITYKA W CIENIU KORONAWIRUSA WYBORY PARLAMENTARNE W KRÓLESTWIE NIDERLANDÓW

On March 15-17, 2021, the first parliamentary elections in the European Union during the pandemic took place in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The political authorities of the Kingdom of the Netherlands decided to hold the elections despite severe sanitary restrictions and curfew. On January 15, 2021, the outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte, chairman of the People s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), handed over the resignation of the entire government to the King. The immediate cause was the report of the parliamentary investigative commission announced in December 2020 on the extremely restrictive operation oflocal tax offices in connection with government child benefits. Mark Rutte has been running the country efficiently since 2010 and was also a favorite in the upcoming parliamentary elections. The elections were conducted without any disturbances. 37 parties were admitted to elections, the largest number in the post-war history of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The election winners were ruling party VVD party and progressive liberals from D 66. The discussion on the formation of the new government has already started and is accompanied by great emotions. It is going to be a long period of negotiations and their results are difficult to be predicted. The article presents the main actors of this

WYBORY PARLAMENTARNE W SERBII W 2020 ROKU - SZCZYT DOMINACJI POLITYCZNEJ SERBSKIEJ PARTII POSTĘPOWEJ?

The Serbian parliamentary elections in 2020 were not groundbreaking in political terms, but their results directly determine the immediate future of Serbs. Taking into account the current geopolitical situation in Serbia, it should be emphasized that the next four years may prove critical for the international position of this country. The elections on June 21 were special due to the circumstances in which they were held. Among them, the global problem should be mentioned - the coronavirus pandemic, which paralyzed the functioning of many countries, including Serbia. The second important factor relates to the largest anti-government protests since 2000, which began in late 2018 and lasted until the state of emergency declaration due to the threat of COVID-19. The results of the parliamentary elections in 2020 should be interpreted as the strengthening of the Serbian Progressive Party and its leader Aleksandar Vučić. Moreover, it is a clear signal that the opposition still do not have adequate public support to compete effectively with the ruling party. Nowadays, there are no political conditions for an alternation of power in Serbia. Following the impressive victory in the parliamentary elections, the Serbian Progressive Party may continue the process of increasing influence in the most important state organs.

WHO ARE BELGRADE'S MOST DESIRED ALLIES?: NARRATIVE ON THE EUROPEAN UNION, CHINA AND RUSSIA DURING SERBIAN PARLIAMENTARY CAMPAIGN OF 2020

Serbia presents itself as a country skillfully balancing between the European Union (EU), Russia, and Asia, trying to maintain good political and economic relations with the biggest players on the international arena. The Covid-19 pandemic and China's media-publicized assistance to Serbia has affected the perception of which countries are seen as Belgrade's true allies. At the same time, Serbia remains a EU candidate country (membership negotiations officially started in 2014) and the European Union is not only Serbian biggest trading partner, but also the biggest donor. The main aim of the article is to compare the distinctive meaning that EU membership and cooperation with non-EU countries (mainly China and Russia) has for Serbian political parties, taking into account that the Covid-19 pandemic and the 'vaccine diplomacy' influenced the Serbian public discourse and perception on who is the Belgrade's most trustful partner.