- Author:
Joanna Rak
- E-mail:
joanna.rak@amu.edu.pl
- Institution:
Adam Mickiewicz University (Poland)
- ORCID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0505-3684
- Published online:
21 June 2021
- Final submission:
2 June 2021
- Printed issue:
December 2021
- Source:
Show
- Page no:
11
- Pages:
51-61
- DOI Address:
https://doi.org/10.15804/ppsy202109
- PDF:
ppsy/50/ppsy202109.pdf
Embedded in scholarship on militant democracy, this research aims to explain how Italian legislation was positioned to militant democratic measures and how this changed over time. Drawing on the qualitative source analysis and the explanatory frameworks of democratic vulnerability tests two competing theory-grounded assumptions. While the first one assumes that Italian democracy became vulnerable when traditional militant democracy instruments were outmoded, the second considers the misuse or abandonment of those means with social consent as the source of vulnerability. The crisis-induced socioeconomic inequality and uncertainty weakened the Italian political nation. As a result, the latter supported populists in return for a promise of political change. The anti-democratic legal means employed to extend power competencies and prevent the exchange of ruling parties were the way to and the costs of the expected political change. At the same time, the political nation became unable to self-organize to strengthen democracy self-defense. As a result, Italians co-produced a quasi-militant democracy that turned vulnerable because militant democracy measures were misused or not used with the consent of Italians that relinquished their political subjectivity in favor of the Northern League and the Five Star Movement.
- Author:
Joanna Rak
- E-mail:
joanna.rak@amu.edu.pl
- Institution:
Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
- ORCID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0505-3684
- Author:
Kamila Rezmer-Płotka
- E-mail:
kamrezmer@doktorant.umk.pl
- Institution:
Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland
- ORCID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1458-5076
- Year of publication:
2022
- Source:
Show
- Pages:
82-94
- DOI Address:
https://doi.org/10.15804/tner.2022.69.3.06
- PDF:
tner/202203/tner6906.pdf
Informed by a research problem of explaining the relationships between the specificity of civic education and public support for authoritarian politicians, this paper aims to propose and test an analytical tool for measuring media engagement in civic education. It contributes methodologically to studies on civic education by delivering a tool that applies to identify and trace state media’s efforts to shape either democratic or autocratic citizenship models. Thereby, it allows monitoring current challenges to civic education for democracy in individual countries. The test contributes empirically to the studies on state-orchestrated civic education by revealing civic education for autocracy in pandemic-driven Poland. It enriches the knowledge of the use of Polish state media by the anti-democratic ruling actors to maintain the status quo.
- Author:
Kamila Rezmer-Płotka
- E-mail:
kamila.rezmer@onet.pl
- Institution:
Nicolaus Copernicus University
- ORCID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1458-5076
- Year of publication:
2022
- Source:
Show
- Pages:
521-528
- DOI Address:
https://doi.org/10.15804/ppk.2022.06.39
- PDF:
ppk/70/ppk7039.pdf
In this paper the main assumption is that Portugal becomes a neo-militant democracy since the first major finance crisis in the European Union, which occurred in 2008– 2009 years. This process has also accelerated significantly at the time of the so-called refugee crisis and the coronavirus pandemic. The clue of the assumption is the introduction of restrictions on the rights and freedoms of citizens, especially visible during crises, as well as the demobilization of social movements which began in connection with the beginning of anti-democratic tendencies. Based on the analysis, it can be observed that Portugal becomes a neo-militant democracy to an increasing extent. This may be indicated by introduced and existing legal regulations limiting the rights and freedoms of citizens.
- Author:
Kamila Rezmer-Płotka
- Institution:
Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
- Year of publication:
2022
- Source:
Show
- Pages:
195-207
- DOI Address:
https://doi.org/10.15804/athena.2022.75.11
- PDF:
apsp/75/apsp7511.pdf
The freedom of the press is one of the basic guarantees of a democratic state and, at the same time, a guarantee of political rights. After 2008, when the great financial crisis occurred, the Member States of the European Union began to significantly limit the rights and freedoms of citizens, including freedom of the press. The introduced restrictions are characteristic of a neo-militant democracy. However, they sometimes become a tool in the hands of antidemocrats. The aim of the article is to check how and why over the years, between successive crises, i.e., financial crisis, the so-called refugee crisis, the coronavirus pandemic, freedom of the press was restricted in Ireland and Great Britain. These are the countries in which initially the political and social effects of the economic crisis were not felt, but later rapid regression was observed. By using content analysis based on reports from the Reporters without Borders and Freedom House organizations, the study uncovers how and why the restrictions of freedom of the press changed. It locates the political structures of Ireland and Great Britain between the ideal types of neo- and quasi-militant democracy, depending on the goal of the restrictions. The research hypothesis is as follows: The restriction of freedom of the press in Ireland and the United Kingdom after 2008 shows that states are using the media system to pursue their particular interests by introducing solutions characteristic of quasi-militant democracies.