The Long Road from Neoliberalism to Neopopulism in ECE: The social paradox of neopopulism and decline of the Left

[full article and abstract in English] We live in a “post-neoliberal world”, as it has been discussed in the mainstream literature, but the vital link between neoliberalism and neopopulism has been rarely discussed. Nowadays in international political science it is very fashionable to criticise the long neoliberal period of the last decades, still its effect on the rise of neopopulism has not yet been properly elaborated. To dig deeper into social background of neopopulism, this paper describes the system of neoliberalism in its three major social subsystems, in the socio-economic, legal-political and cultural-civilizational fields. The historical context situates the dominant period of neoliberalism between the 1970s in the Old World Order (OWO) and in the 2010s in the New World Order (NWO). In general, neoliberalism’s cumulative effects of increasing inequality has produced the current global wave of neopopulism that will be analysed in this paper in its ECE regional version. The neopopulist social paradox is that not only the privileged strata, but also the poorest part of ECE’s societies supports the hard populist elites. Due to the general desecuritization in ECE, the poor have become state dependent for social security, yet paradoxically they vote for their oppressors, widening the social base of this competitive authoritarianism. Thus, the twins of neoliberalism and neopopulism, in their close connections—the main topic of this paper—have produced a “cultural backlash” in ECE along with identity politics, which is high on the political agenda.[straipsnis ir santrauka anglų kalba

Measurement Distortion Analysis of Repetitive and Isolated Track Geometry Irregularities

Track geometry measurements are essential for day-to-day activities of railway maintenance and play an important role in vehicle-track simulations. The generally applied forms of longitudinal level and alignment recordings do not reflect the real shape of the track. Both the versine measurement method and the band-pass filters according to European regulation cause significant amplitude modification and pattern change. In addition, the distortion behavior of repetitive and isolated defects is fundamentally different. In this contribution, simulated measurements of various reference shapes, which represent repetitive and isolated track deformations, were investigated. Comprehensive functions for amplitude change and for other distortion factors were developed with analytical and numerical methods. For chord measurements, rules were found for zero points and distortion-free ranges. Regarding the standardized filters, a significant amplitude reduction of isolated defects was observed in all wavelength ranges. Since derailment and track degradation depend not only on the amplitude of the defect, also the derivatives of the original and filtered forms of reference shapes were investigated and, as a new approach, the defect features called 'hypothetical additional force', 'speed of hypothetical wheel lift-off', 'hypothetical deterioration impulse' and 'hypothetical deterioration energy' were introduced

Stranputice mađarskih upravnih reformi: od pretjerane političke centralizacije do neuspjeha javnih politika

The paper focuses on the Hungarian administrative reforms in the East-Central European context in order to show that the Hungarian developments have been the worst-case scenario in the process of Europeanization. CEE states have been reluctant to open up towards the Western type of participatory democracy.Therefore, they have not yet reached the stage of good governance, which has eroded their international competitiveness. In this respect, the paper has described the Hungarian developments as the bumpy road with its ups and downs that appeared in the first twenty years. This volatile feature of administrative reforms has been reinforced by the latest developments in the second Orbán government (2010-2014) when the former patronage system in public administration has been turned into a complete merger, i.e. the whole public administration has been over-politicized. This invasion of politics into all levels of public administration with the appointments of loyal party soldiers to the top administrative positions has led to a drastic decline in governance capacity and effectiveness. The recent story of the “colonization of state” by politics in Hungary can be described in the terms of transition from political over-centralization to publicpolicy failures. Furthermore, this failure has to be considered as a sharp divergence from the Europeanization process.Rad je usredotočen na mađarske upravne reforme u kontekstu Središnje i Istočne Europe kako bi se pokazalo da je razvoj događaja u Mađarskoj zapravo najgori mogući scenarij u procesu europeizacije. Do sada su države Središnje i Istočne Europe bile nesklone otvoriti se prema participativnoj demokraciji zapadnoga tipa. Zato još nisu dosegle razinu dobrog upravljanja, što im umanjuje međunarodnu kompetitivnost. Mađarske se okolnosti u radu nazivaju stranputicama da bi se označilo teškoće u prvih dvadeset godina tranzicije. Labilnost upravnih reformi dodatno je ojačana novijim razvojem za vrijeme druge Orbanove vlade (2010.-2014.) kada je prijašnji sustav političkog plijena zamijenjen potpunim spajanjem politike i uprave. Invazija politike na svim razinama javne uprave s imenovanjem lojalnih partijskih vojnika na ključne rukovodeće upravne položaje vodi k drastičnom padu upravljačkog kapaciteta i učinkovitosti. Tako se sadašnja priča o „kolonizaciji države“ od strane politike u Mađarskoj može najbolje opisati u terminima prijelaza s pretjerane političke centralizacije prema neuspjehu javnih politika. Nadalje, taj neuspjeh valja smatrati oštrim otklonom od procesa europeizacije

A globális demokratizálás válsága : Az amerikai demokráciakutatás fősodrának konceptuális kudarca

A demokráciakutatás uralkodó paradigmáját évtizedekre Samuel Huntington műve alakította ki, amely szerint a demokratizálás folyamata elérkezett a harmadik – immár globális– hullámához, ezért a demokratikus átmenet és a konszolidáció voltak a demokrácia elméletének kulcsfogalmai. A demokratizálás nagy eufóriájában azonban felejtésbe merült vagy marginalizálódott az, hogy Huntington elmélete az egyes hullámok között visszaesést, ellenhullámot is diagnosztizált, és utalást tett arra, hogy egy ilyen ellenhullám az általa leírt harmadik hullámot is követheti majd. A kétezres évek végéig a demokratizálás pozitív forgatókönyve érvényben maradt, sőt még a visszaesés kérdésköre sem került érdemi megvitatásra, mintha a globális demokratizálás visszafordíthatatlanná vált volna. A 2010-es években azonban a globális válsággal éles fordulat történt a demokrácia elméletében, és központi témává vált a globális ellenhullám a demokratizálásban. Ez egyben a korábban domináns amerikai demokráciaelmélet kudarcát is meghozta, s ezzel a 2010-es évek második felében a globális demokrácia válsága „hazatért” az Egyesült Államokba. Ez a tanulmány a demokráciakutatás rendkívül széles szakirodalmából csak az amerikainak az európai demokráciaelmélet fővonulata koncepciójának ütközésével, és annak a kelet-közép-európai régióra való hatásával foglalkozik