The book is devoted to the subject of Venezuela's politics and the different dimensions of its longstanding crisis, with various researchers exchanging ideas on the current problems affecting the country. It is the first comprehensive overview on the dimensions of Venezuela’s current crisis written in English, thus filling an important research gap. Especially the participation of international, well-known scholars make it a global enterprise.The book covers historical and theoretical facts surrounding the case of Venezuela and also focuses on the parties and actors that play decisive...

This book analyzes major contemporary political and security problems in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Presenting case studies on various CEE countries, it highlights the persistence of non-democratic political trends in the region, with particular emphasis on authoritarianism in Belarus and the illiberal shift in the politics of Hungary and Poland. Also, the book examines the growing geopolitical and military rivalry between the West and Russia in the CEE region, which led to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. After addressing the increasing involvement of external entities such as NATO, the...

This book presents an analysis of forest politics that employs a broader scope to include non-institutionalized actors. It offers a comparative perspective on various environmental social movements fighting to protect forests around the globe, including indigenous communities in the Amazon and eco-anarchists in Europe. By examining the political goals, motives, and tactics of these sometimes-radical environmentalists, it helps readers understand the commonalities and differences among these “grass-roots forest politicians.” In addition, the book highlights the importance of forest-related...

Introducing the institutional logics perspective to street-level analysis, this book examines how street-level workers deal with the institutional logics that guide their organization – whether they follow or challenge them. While doing so, the book develops a theoretical framework to study street-level workers’ institutional agency within organizations from different institutional backgrounds.The book conceptualizes street-level workers as institutional entrepreneurs and presents an original process model to capture deinstitutionalization efforts in street-level discourse. This ordinal...

The debate on governance originates in the OECD world. At the latest since the postcolonial debate, we know that we need to “test” our assumptions under radically different conditions. This book offers an extended perspective of local self-governance by examining cases from South Asia, Africa, and Latin America, together with a study of militias in the USA. The chapters present a wide variety of local actors who pursue different notions of order legitimized by local traditions based on hierarchy or deeply rooted communalism, Islamic theology, or grassroots democracy. Some local actors...

This book examines radical Jihad terrorism in contemporary France and sheds light on the vicious circle of violence, based on reciprocity. Building upon the theoretical heritage of Pierre Bourdieu, the book develops a methodology and a concept of the vicious circle of violence in France, based on three pillars: actors, dynamics, and effects.Discussing the development of global terrorism between the 9/11 attacks and the launch of the European front against global terror in Spain and Great Britain, the book goes on to analyze why France has not been attacked during the 2000s and why it, in...

This book explores how identities, public spheres and collective memories are being transformed in cross-border areas, contributing to the broad sociological context of Europeanization. Offering case studies on the German-Czech-Austrian, and Czech-Polish-German borderlands, the book introduces original primary data on cross-border cooperation. This data is interpreted using the concept ofactive borders, which approaches borders as a source of multicultural competence and cognitive capacity. In turn, the authors argue that Europeans need to treat borders, both territorial and symbolic, as...

This book presents solutions to problems that are total and based on thinking about how and why humans have organized themselves. It discusses how to avoid the now well-documented Holocene Extinction, propelled by climate change, wars, resource depletion, desertification, degrading knowledge quality, famine, and deterioration of societies overall. It explains why we cannot respond effectively with hedonistic, incompetent, corrupt, and anarchistic "liberal democracy" and why neither personality cult regimes can suffice.The book offers a model of an organic social structure embodying a...

This book analyzes the social legitimacy deficit of the European Parliament (EP) in the United Kingdom and Greece. It does so by considering it, partially, a communication deficit, and by addressing the relevant inadequacies of its communication and media relations performance. Following this approach, the book identifies and critically analyzes the problems that the European Parliament is facing in communicating and portraying itself to news websites in the United Kingdom and Greece, and offers potential solutions to the issues presented.The book provides an initial comparison of the scale...

This book presents a comprehensive analysis of the alterations and problems caused by new technologies in all fields of politics. It further examines the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the nexus between politics, economics, and law.The book raises and answers several important questions: What is the role of AI in politics? Are people prepared for the challenges presented by technical developments? How will Al affect future politics and human society?  How can politics and law deal with Al's disruptive technologies? What impact will AI and technology have on law? How can efficient...