In the second lecture delivered at the University of Chicago in 1949, political philosopher Leo Strauss postulated reductio ad Hitlerum as a variant version of reductio ad absurdum. The inherent assumption of the argument is that the use of reductio ad Hitlerum as a justification procedure is a substitute maneuver for not having sound and...
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The degree of enforcement of political accountability at all levels of government affects the level of corruption. Active civil society shaping public opinion puts pressure on politicians to act responsibly and thus reduces the risk of corrupt practices. Increasing political responsibility is possible through the activities of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as external actors in public...
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The main aim of the paper is to identify important socio-economic factors affecting the consolidation of democracies in post-socialist economies. The level of democratic environment is evaluated by the Electoral Democracy Index (the V-Dem Project). The influence of socio-economic factors is analyzed from the perspective of Modernization theory, which is compared with the other four...
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This paper analyses the relationship between demand-driven clientelism, economic disparities, and public expenditures at the county level in Romania. Using several economic and social indicators we realize an in-depth analysis of economic development disparities in Romania concerning the clientelistic incidence of the Romanian parties. The latter was based on an extensive original survey developed in...
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The paper proposes a contextualized approach to local government transparency and its determinants. It starts by briefly discussing the distinction between local government compliance with transparency regulations and broader/more substantial local government transparency. A context-dependent measure of local government compliance with transparency regulation is built for the Romanian case and used to showcase significant variation...
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