On the New-Old Political Concepts: Re-Conceptualizing and Expanding the Views in Studying Politics Following the Impact of Globalization

The article deals with the differences of pre-global and post-global conceptualizations in political sciences. It investigates the functions of political concepts under the changes globalization caused to political systems, culture and ideology. The paper does not engage with the methodological debates on political concepts, or question the undeniable importance of certain political concepts, but rather it addresses some of the principal concepts for which globalization may be a useful concept with regard to their similarities and differences with the Cold War era

The International Humanitarian Response to the Refugee Crisis Along the Balkan Route in the View of Strategies of International Organizations

Being one of the largest movements of displaced people through European borders since World War Two, the Syrian refugee crisis of 2015 and 2016, tested the coordination of the states and international organizations, and as well as the strategies for response of the latter to such enormous fluxes of displaced people along the Balkan corridor. The quick on-time reaction of the specialized humanitarian international organizations made significant achievements by the international organizations in terms of humanitarian assistance for the refugees and support for the governments of the region. Their approach mainly sought to create a partnership with the governments of the Balkan route in handling the serious humanitarian challenges (with a different strategy compared to other experiences, mainly this time through providing assistance and protection to the refugees throughout the corridor of the refugee crisis), it showed how important is such coordination at the end, with an aim to avoid further human catastrophes along refugee routes, and to avoid major security repercussions for the countries of the region

Paradoxes and Principles of Functioning of the Contemporary Political Democracies: Democracies in Transition in the Balkans

The theoretical debate on democracy for a longer period is one of the most dynamic debates within the political sciences, associated with plenty of controversies and paradoxes in terms of lack of consistent principles of functions of contemporary democracies. Various authors continue to disagree regarding the exact foundations of democratic systems, their ideal principles and optimal outcomes for these systems as a result of functioning and failures of the democracy. The situation then is not a source of paradoxes, but rather it brings in visible the paradoxes of functioning of the contemporary political democracies often associated with camouflages under the flag of democracy and abuses under the umbrella of democratic rhetoric in many political processes around the world. The paradoxes of the frontier line what is allowed and what not in a democracy often serves as a starting point for justification of the abuses and misinterpretation of democratic values by the authorities?! The paper is interested in exploring how closely these various conceptualizations of democracy are related to our intuitive sense of what democracy means, or should mean?! In the second part of the paper, using the methods of case study and functional analyses the paradoxes are considered on the practices of the contemporary democracies for the countries in transition of the Balkans, especially discussing the manifestations of the illiberal democratic tendencies

The transition paradigm versus integration in the context of political transformation of the Balkan countries

Three decades since the end of the Cold War and the fall of communism, some of the Balkan nations are not following yet the lessons for building sustainable peace and functioning democracies according to their aspirations (at least in a declarative way) for association with the liberal democracies of the European Union (EU). Rather, the Balkans’ history is transforming into a story of importing the habits and principles from the communism period in a paradoxical way of establishing the illiberal democracies followed by controversies and defects in the process of state-building. More than a decade, the Balkans, from one side, is transformed into a zone of periphery with a focus of the European determination for the support of the institutional reform through the process of integration, but in parallel, it is being self-formatted into a zone of self-isolation of the Balkan nations. This article will discuss the transition paradigm of the Balkans through functional analysis of aspects related to the rhetoric of Balkan countries in the discourse of the criteria of the European integration project; the dimension of the Balkan ancient myth with the new additional attribute of self-isolation; the insisting of the Balkan political elites for catapulting to the European project; and as well as the dynamics of the transition, internal and European integration of the Albanians and other nations of the Balkan region in the general.Po trzech dekadach od zakończenia zimnej wojny i upadku komunizmu niektóre kraje bałkańskie nie wyciągnęły jeszcze wniosków z budowania trwałego pokoju i funkcjonowania demokracji zgodnie z ich aspiracjami (przynajmniej deklaratywnych) do stowarzyszania się z liberalnymi demokracjami Unii Europejskiej (UE). Historia Bałkan przekształca się raczej w opowieść o przenoszeniu nawyków i zasad z okresu komunizmu i w paradoksalny sposób ustanowieniu nieliberalnych demokracji, a następnie kontrowersji i defektów w procesie tworzenia państw. Od ponad dziesięciu lat Bałkany, z jednej strony, przekształcają się w strefę peryferyjności, skupiającą się na europejskiej determinacji wspierania reformy instytucjonalnej poprzez proces integracji, z drugiej zaś strony – jednocześnie stają się strefą samoizolacji narodów bałkańskich. Niniejszy artykuł omawia paradygmat transformacji Bałkanów poprzez analizę funkcjonalną aspektów związanych z retoryką krajów bałkańskich w dyskursie kryteriów projektu integracji europejskiej; wymiar starożytnego mitu Bałkańskiego z nowym dodatkowym atrybutem samoizolacji; naleganie bałkańskich elit politycznych na włączanie się do projektu europejskiego; a także dynamikę transformacji, wewnętrznej i europejskiej integracji Albańczyków i innych narodów regionu bałkańskiego. Słowa kluczowe: Europeizacja, Bałkany, przemiany, transformacja ustrojowa, integracja europejska