Logos Universality Mentality Education Novelty: Political Sciences & European Studies

Outcomes of Democratic Innovations: Horizontalism as Inclusive Participation Spillover, but Fragile under Hierarchical Attacks

Oana Olariu — 2022-08-25

Anti-austerity protests revived anti- and post-hegemonic sociopolitical imaginary, around the word. In Spain, 15M movement built the premises for political projects based on direct democracy and horizontal models of social organization, as defining features of the new muncipalists who won 2015 elections in several cities. The case of Madrid has revelatory value in the debate regarding outcomes of participatory innovations, as the alliance which pioneered digital democracy and multi-actor multi-level local governance lost elections of 2019. Although a relatively large body of research investigated the feasibility of democratic innovations by contrasting their designs and implementation processes onto the matrix of their objectives and underlying ideological principles, the literature explaining their outcomes is scarce. Few studies focus on factors modeling the sustainability of participatory democracy as city regime, and the most common approach stresses out neoliberal inhibitors, as structural breaks which limit the depth and quality of participation. The present study aims to contribute to filling this gap by extending the analytical framework to encompass factors related to horizontalism, as enablers of democracy innovations. It is concluded that while horizontal governance works as a spillover of inclusive participation, it is highly vulnerable to attacks designed to vertically restructure its working processes.

Public Administration and the Current Socio-Political Environment in Romania

Loredana Terec-Vlad — 2022-08-25

Before talking about the structure of the public administration in Romania, we must consider the social and political environment of our country. Romania is a country with a democratic regime for more than 30 years, but which has been under the umbrella of communism for several decades. Communism meant a centralized, closed administrative and economic system.

The Role of Ideology in Nation Building

Loredana Terec-Vlad — 2022-08-25

The society we live in is a complex one, and is called in the specialized literature the "postmodern society", based on knowledge, technological development and other such traits, a society that emerges from Modernity. Modernity is based on a series of "founding myths" or "legitimizing structures", such as: "the myth of reason", "the myth of progress" or "the myth of the superhuman". In the modern era, an important place is occupied by the "myth of nations", because this legitimating structure was the reason why the biggest revolutions and wars fought throughout history took place.

Framing Food Security in the EU

Lucian Balanuta — 2022-08-25

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has drastically disrupted food chains, threatened global population well-being and raised the prospect of a collapse in agri-food-related realms across the world. Food security has once again become a major source of worry and a top priority on the European public agenda. The public sphere has experienced a revival of this notion and relevant actors are calibrating their communication strategy around this concept. Despite being recognized as having one of the most effective systems for ensuring the quantity and the quality of food, the European Union has started to communicate constantly on issues of food security. Pan-European press, such as Euractiv, has begun to devote particular attention to this subject. The objective of this paper is to identify European media patterns of the concept of food security and to classify useful interpretation grids that meet newsworthiness criteria, using framing theory, in order to observe how they functions in relation to communication purposes. It uses an exploratory approach with quantitative and qualitative methods for a fruitful understanding of the concept within broader notions of the mass communication process.

The European Dream – The International Authority for Ruhr and the emergence of the European Coal and Steel Community

Miroslav Tascu-Stavre — 2022-08-25

The present essay seeks to emphasize the importance that the Intarnational Authority for Ruhr, along with the European Coal and Steel Community, had the maintenance of peace on the European continent, but also in shaping the ideal of European unity.

The International Authority for Ruhr was one of the institutions designed to ensure the disarment and demilitarization of Germany. At the same time, albeit indirectly, the organization had a substantial role in the recovery and reconstruction of the European countries, including Democratic Germany, by promoting the cooperation of each of their economic sectors. Today's peaceful and prosperous Europe would not have been possible without the establishment of the International Authority, that made sure that the resourses of the Ruhr will not be used in destructive purposes.

On the 9th of May, 1950, the Schuman-Monet Plan will provide solutions for the challenges that the International Authority oh Ruhr has been confronting – in particular, for the representation of Western Germany in the organization`s structure.

The remarkable French proposal to pool the French and German resources of coal and steel not only solves the democratization of the organization, but also opens the horizon of participation to other desirable countries, while allowing the gradual withdrawal of the U.S.A. from the European cooperation and construction.

Book Review Susskind, J. (2019). Politica viitorului. Tehnologia digitală şi societatea [Future Politics: Living Together in a World Transformed by Tech]. Bucureşti: Corint Books

Ana-Cristina Costea — 2022-08-25

This book includes analysis to help understand how digital technologies will influence our political system. “Future Politics: Living Together in a World Transformed by Tech” [Politica viitorului. Tehnologia digitală şi societatea] covers the theoretical methodology for addressing the future of political ideas, the concepts of power, freedom, democracy, justice, transparency, and postpolitics. The book presents the impact of digital technologies on the relationship between the individual and the state. We strongly recommend the book to anyone interested in political science.

The Principle of Respecting the Rights of the Suspect/Accused, the Principle of Equality of Arms and the Principle of Immediacy - Basic Principles of the Criminal Trial

Nicolae Silviu Pană — 2022-08-25

By the basic principles of the criminal trial, we understand those rules of a general nature based on which the entire development of the criminal trial is regulated. The fundamental principles of the criminal trial are written as basic rules in the Criminal Procedure Code. Apart from these principles, procedural doctrine, judicial practice and other legal provisions enshrine other fundamental ideas that can be considered principles. Among these, the principle of equality of arms and the principle of immediacy are among the most important, because along with the presumption of innocence, they are the guarantors of the rights of the suspect or the accused.

Review of Mobile Application Studies in Special Education: A Systematic Domain Scan

Zohre Serttas — 2022-08-25

The general purpose of this research is to conduct systematic field writing screening to determine the use of mobile application studies in special education. The research was conducted in the spring of 2019-2020. The universe of research is the articles in the field of technology and special education in the field of mobile application. The sample of the study consists of 26 articles published in the Google Academic database in the field of mobile applications in private education between 2015 and 2020. First of all, journals with articles were identified by researchers as part of the use of special education technology and mobile applications and articles were examined. More qualitative and mixed research methods have been preferred as data collection tools in the researched research. It is thought that the results will shed light on future studies.

Investigation of the Relationship between Organizational Learning and Job Satisfaction

Burak Demir — 2022-08-25

Those who work in a learning organization are more satisfied with their lives. Individuals in an organization who experience job satisfaction serve organizational goals more strongly. Therefore, it is possible to say that learning organizations make a positive contribution to the job satisfaction of employees. In this study, it is aimed to test the relationship between organizational learning and job satisfaction. In this context, by using the scales developed by previous researchers, it was investigated whether there is a relationship between organizational learning and job satisfaction, and if there is a relationship, to what extent organizational learning, which is an independent variable, predicts job satisfaction, which is the dependent variable. As a result of the correlation analysis applied to the data, a statistically significant relationship was found between the "Organizational Learning" variable and the "Job Satisfaction" variable. The strength of the relationship between these two variables is moderate. In addition, a statistically significant relationship was found between a total of 7 factors belonging to the organizational learning variable and job satisfaction at medium strength. As a result of the simple linear regression analysis conducted to examine the extent to which organizational learning predicts job satisfaction, it was seen that the variance of 38.6% in job satisfaction varied depending on organizational learning. The findings of this research are consistent with previous research that emphasizes that job satisfaction is an important predictor of employees' individual performance.